Happy

 We just went on a mini holiday to the beach. We are back and feeling happy!

Outside

Some days in parenting just seem so long. I have a hundred things on my mind. The to-do-list is growing and Artie has already had an early nap. The hours until Adam comes home seem to stretch on forever in front of us and I am sick of reading and playing. We have discovered on these days it is best just to pack up, forget the lists and head outside.  Lately, Queensland seems to have been either raining or boiling. But we found the Brisbane Botanical Gardens to be a good place to go even when it is super hot. There are lots of shady areas, water taps to fill up our bottles and, most importantly,  they even sell ice-cream! 

It feels so good to be outside and Artie loves it. I think all babies and young ones love being in the outdoors. The best way to get a baby to settle, in our experience, is to take him outside and show him some trees! I want to foster that love of the great outdoors in our young explorer. That means spending at least half our day outside. Even if it is just in the yard.  However the Botanical Gardens is quite close to where we live so we don't have an excuse to not visit more often and visit the ducks, water hens and lizards.

 I always feel less stressed and grumpy after we've spent a couple of hours outside too. So it's back to our  2008 resolution! 

Look at that little red face, it was definitely hot! 

Playdough

We made some playdough. It is so easy to do. There are lots of recipes online and a few of my books have recipes in them but they are all pretty similar. Artie helped me mix and cook the mixture. 

Artie wasn't so sure about playing with it at first. He held it and scrunched his nose up, it felt kind of strange. So we made the dough into balls and kicked them around. After a little while of this we tried squashing them again and it has been a success ever since. At first I would always sit with him at his little table and we'd make worms and snakes, squash shapes into the playdough, make footprints from our toys and model different animals and food for them. Now he is quite happy to have short stints playing with it himself. 

One night we even had family playdough time. Adam, Arthur and I all sat at his little table and played. Sometimes having kids gives us permission to be child-like ourselves again. And, boy, it can be fun! 

a little bit of art

I am often sharing what Artie has been up to but forget to put anything I have made/am making on the blog. I really like being able to look through the archives and remember some of the projects I have done (no matter how small).  So here are a few of my recent paintings. 

This is a watercolour painting I made for Ben and Corinne for Christmas to hang at their farm in the near future.

























Last year Mum and I ventured to Reverse Garbage. I came away with some wooden letter A's for 50 cents each. I intend to hang them in Artie's room. I have only painted one so far but it was lots of fun and hopefully will paint the other two this year!

And, because I can't help myself, here are some of Arthur's masterpieces. I did frame them though, so it kind of counts as one of my projects.

Saturday Afternoon

I love taking photos. But I often only remember to take my camera out on special occasions, for activities we have set up and holidays. So I am challenging myself to take more photos of the everyday. These moments are often even more special then those fancy and planned for occasions. I want to remember the little things that make me feel at peace and happy. 

So here are some pictures from our Saturday afternoon. Nothing special but it felt just right. After a morning of cleaning, Artie and I watched Adam mow the lawn; watched some old Sesame Street songs on the laptop; admired the light in the late afternoon; read some books; rearranged a shelf; had a quick dip in the pool; then headed out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Our little family walked the streets as it got dark and felt happy to be outside as it finally cooled down. 

Perfectly ordinary in every way. 

Running Painting

On a warm day (well hot, hot day!) outside, painting is a great art activity. We spread large pieces of paper on the ground in the shade. Then I let Artie go for it. After pouring the paint out of the containers and a bit of paintbrush action, he decided that running across the paper and making footprints was the most fun. I said ready...set...go, he yelled GO and off he went! We call this our running painting. 

Here is a little video I made from some photos to show you Artie's technique. Ignore the glitches. I am still working on movie making! 

Untitled from Denise Sweedman on Vimeo.