Nelson is THREE!

Nelson is irrepressible, incorrigible, passionate, loving, stubborn, affectionate, hilarious, sociable, vivacious, capricious, naughty, cheeky, heedless to caution.
He loves his big brother and adores his little brother; but doesn't let either push him around (more the other way around).
He's the quintessential Wiggles fan; Wiggles from sunrise to sunset and often between dusk and dawn.
He's not afraid of liking pink, Dora, flowers and girls.
He's Mr. Bump (if there is anything to bump into, Mr. Bump would bump into it indeed), loves rough and tumble, can throw his voice with authority.
Nelson is instinctive about making people laugh and feel good.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NELLY BELLY xoxo

Nelson Turns Two!

Our Nelly Belly Turned Two!! He's a cheeky monkey this one- so lovable and just edible. What's more amazing than feeling the lurve for one child? Having TWO- the repetition of the gooey, super-elative feelings for the second time doesn't at all take the shine off it, in fact it makes it more shiny!

Nelson had a wonderful time, eating everything in reach- the rest of the day he was coming down hard off the sugar high.

Rainbow party food:

Party time in the mud

The adventure playground

Pinata for under-3's (no chance of head injuries)

Head, Toes, Nose nose nose

Nelson's nasally orientated version....

My Child Prodigy

He takes requests and improvises with the best of them. (thanks again to Ingrid for taking care of his musical career!)

The house is poxed!

First Kaemon got it (1 day after coming back from Barcelona thank goodness) but it was mild, not even worth a photo! He then passed it on to Nelson who was covered from head to toe and more than a week later is still offcially contagious (blisters on his fingertips!). Poor miserable baby...

He's a little better now, scabs dropping all over the place like confetti...

It was cake-making time again, Akemi's birthday- with three boys in the house, I like any excuse to make something girly.

Laundry, Nelson style.

Nelson is starting to get too wriggly, won't sit still, wears the toes of his shoes, and knees crawling; this keeps him where we want him for a while.

I love feeding people, my boys included. I love pics of them eating. We love picnics.

Visit to Nelson's Fiance

We paid a quick visit to nelson's betrothed, Sanne. Nelson likes to wear her clothes, pink pants to be exact. A rather unconventional relationship.



While her mum was out shopping, we tore the place to bits!

For the record, this week was when Kaemon entered the wonderful world of tantrums. The screaming and stamping foot kind. Now I know that rumpelstiltskin was a toddler. Only they can stamp their feet in rage so hard that the ground would split to the core of the earth.

Nelson's B. Day!

We had fantastic party!! Good company, lots of food, sunshine and outdoors. The birthday boy enjoyed the attention and the good vibes,

Not a chair in sight (not possible for circles to be formed!)

The park had a little farm and lots of space to let the kids run the excess sugar off

Mingling, mixing and chilling

Kids under control

Nelson had enough attention all day long

The cake kind of survived long enough to be eaten

Big TA to all the attendees and for all the presents, we had such a good day!! And big pat on the back to Ingrid, the only acceptee of the open invitation offer!! You doubled the size of the Australian delegation!

The sad story of nelson's cake.

The pandas represent Kaemon and Nelson, and they were supposed to be tug-of-warring and Nelson wins (as usual) but the low-lying lid of the cake box didn't allow for pandas to be frolicking on top of the cake. And having an letter 'H' left over at the end of the cake making had me wondering why I made and extra one... So, happy birtday to you Nelson! (Thanks Ingrid :)



So, Kaemon ended up hanging on the side of the cake...

Nelson 'helping' him up.

A technical mistake with the foundations of the cake caused the downfall of this cake, after 2 days in the fridge, the icing was melting something Bad like Michael Jackson's face.

General Things

Laundry, Kaemon style

Cupcakes, my style (quick and dirty) for playgroup's second birthday

One for my husband

Nelson is officially eating with the pot. (Translation from dutch- means he's eating grown up food)!

Open invitation

Our littlest is turning one! Betting on good weather, we're organising a picnic in the park. We're reluctant to send out personal invitations as many live far away and may feel under pressure to turn up to a 3 hour dig; therefore we're posting an open invitation to all: you are welcome!

Please let us know if you can come!

Nelson GET TO WORK!!

The glassy look in their eyes is not due to drugs but the TV. Well, that's the drug of a nation.

Long Weekend!

The recent long weekend was the opportunity to catch up on the lost holiday moments: (clockwise from top left) so we did some crafty egg decorating, ate (more) good food (sushi, lamb and lentils, green tea cake with red bean cream filling) and finally, after I walked into a closed door this morning at 5am to stifle a Crying Nelson and Screaming Kaemon I was in need for feeling-sorry-for-myself food so 2 kg of roast pork with crackling did the trick nicely (if you see my black eye, it really was a walk-into-a-door). Unfortunately, kaemon also has discovered crackling. Previously I cut it off, reasoning that it was just too hard for his little teeth, and instead of wasting it, I'd have to eat it. He stole some from my plate and polished the rest off. As I said, pity.
Kaemon loves hats, posing naturally with Nelson, hand-modelling easter eggs, and the ladies with Cars.


Love love love living near the beach: we (I) threw a salad and quiche together for a afternoon/dinner at the strand. Instant holiday feeling, just add water!
FEED ME!

Nelson Obsession with Putting Things in his Mouth

Holiday week...

Not so much a holiday rather than the week my day care lady took a holiday and I faced a week home with the Kids. My initial trepidation gave way to relief when it seemed really not so bad as I expected...we filled the week with a visit to the kids farm

Shopping malls of varying sorts (still too cold to wander out for hours)

Battling colds (no one was spared, and this week seemed to be the peak of the mucal congestion) and nelson cut TWO teeth!

Fingerpainting (again, initial trepidation but it was really not as bad as I thought). Still, on my first day back at 'work' I slept the first 2.5 hours away recovering.

And experimental kitchenry
Kaemon discovered the deliciousness of Scallops(St Jacobsschelpen) and while I'm happy he's shaping up to be a foodie, in reality it means I have to share the crispy skin, the juicy chicken leg, the prawns, in general, less for the rest of us...

In short, it was an intense week (intenser than the regular intensity) but filled with more sweetness and joy of the everyday variety.

nelson's first crawl

Nelson bumped forward in his first crawl last Saturday- we cheered and clapped ...and then he refused to perform for the camera! However today, Kaemon put a freshly baked cookie down on the floor for a second it kicked Nelson into gear: a leap and one bound forward and he had the cookie in his reach! Kaemon has been warned: Nelson will show no mercy.

If you have any doubt what kaemon's interests are...at 22 months, his word repertoire includes: baby, booby (the difference is a tricky one!), is mama, is papa, is ne-ne, is ke-ke, nay nay, big car, small car, big truck (evolved from 'truck-truck': very pidgin english-inspired, our little linguist!), small truck, (you get the picture), more juice please, noodle, sushi, auto, mack, (lightning Mc)Queen, shhh shh ne-ne (nelson), sorry, kongkong home. List not exhaustive. Parents very proud.

Nelson singing along. And little N has cut his first two teeth (at the same time)! He files down the teething rusks to a sharp point suitable for hunting, good thig because at 6 months and 8 days old...his food repertoire includes fish, tuna, salmon, as well as zucchini, rice, carrots, avocado, apple, pear and bread. He still likes to torture me by guzzling gallons of milk in the middle of the night, stealing my beauty sleep. He's like a rolling pilgrim, rolling from one end of the living room to the other, then waits for repositioning to roll back from whence he came. He and Kaemon look at each other and burst out laughing- bliss!

nelson bites!

It seems that the only one suffering from Jetlag is Nelson *and me since he squeals me awake between 4-6) so here we are blogging at 5 in the morning... THis one's for you Nelson. This month, Nelson truly joined the family- he ate his first bites. Amazing talent shown already in the chewing and swallowing steaks (pun INtended).