We heart books

It fills my heart with such joy that Ollie loves books more than pretty much everything else. This has been made pretty clear to me this week when:

- he refused to leave daycare because he hadn't finished 'reading' a book

- we caught him reading books in bed when he was meant to be going to have a nap

- he took great delight in following along at just the right pages to a Toy Story book on CD that Aunty Hayley and Uncle Simon gave him

- he continued to try to negotiate for an extra book each night at bedtime.

O continues to exert his two year old influence around the place. This week has seen a little bit of tantrum throwing. I really thought we were immune to this since every other two year old we know has been doing it for quite some time. But alas, I was wrong. Perhaps O is just a late bloomer in the tantrum stakes? The finest example of this was when I went along to a morning tea at daycare on a non-Ollie daycare day. Which meant that when the morning tea was over it was time for Ollie to leave along with me. He was not a fan of this idea at all and stacked on a massive turn, laying on the floor and squealing and then repeating the same in the carpark. I'm sure I must have looked like quite a sight with my giant pregnant belly and carting a a wriggling and crying toddler under my arm out to the car. The sooking continued all the way home and was only quelled with some quiet time flicking through some of his favourite books.

The morning tea was in honour of Red Nose Day, which explains the cute little red nose and cheeks that O is sporting in these photos. I think he looked more like a sad little reindeer to be honest. We went to the morning tea after our dancing lesson, which if I'm to be critical, involves more of Ollie just running around the dance studio than anything that vaguely resembles dancing. The parent participate side of things is wearing a little thin with me too. I'm sure under normal circumstances I'd be up for it but I have to admit that I'm hardly at my most graceful at the moment and when Ollie and I have to gallop up and down the length of the studio like a pony I'm pretty sure I look more like some kind hippo or baby elephant. Perhaps it might be time to shelve the dance class until after the baby?

Saturday saw us at Nanna Carmel's house with the family as Grandpa Rob is back in the country. Ollie was more than happy to monopolise his time insisting that he read almost all of the books to him at least once. The only reprieve he gave Rob was when he got him to change the batteries in the Puss in Boots toy so that it now not only wolf whistles at you, but it also makes lewd and suggestive comments. Got to love that Puss in Boots - well at least Ollie does.

And just to round out the week, Ollie and I went to a parenting expo - not because I necessarily think I need to brush up on my skills but because we needed to buy a big boy booster seat and there was heaps of free entertainment on offer. We had a great time watching Dorothy the Dinosaur, although Ollie was terrified of the Fairy who came walking through the crowd and he hid behind his hands until she went away. We followed this up with some playing on some gym equipment and computers, but the best bit for sure was the petting zoo. There were way way too many tiny little goats, chickens, ducks and the fluffiest afro haired alpaca you have ever seen, crammed into a tiny little enclosure. I actually thought Ollie would freak out but he seemed to love it, chasing all the poor terrified little animals around and patting them ever so gently.
And here is a pic of some early morning duplo building going on. It has definitely become something of a Sunday tradition around here. I never know exactly what type of construction I am going to find when I wake up.

Apologies for the late blog this week. I've been pretty busy getting up and running my little project on the side. Since I'm now a stay at home mum and have nothing better to do (except look after a toddler and soon a newborn) I've set up a creative little venture to keep myself occupied. Check it out for yourselves at madeit.com.au/MiniMayhem. I'm in the process of putting a facebook page together for it as well so for those of you who inhabit the world of fakebook, please stop by sometime and "like" the page for me. Hope you all enjoy.