New Beginnings to Our Blog

 

As we come to the end of our training in cross-cultural mission at St Andrews Hall, we thought it was time to get our blog all ready for the new adventures ahead of us. In case you haven’t heard, CMS has accepted us to serve in Butare, Rwanda. Tim will be lecturing in the National University and treating patients at the University Teaching Hospital. Catherine will initially be at home with the kids, but has plans to get involved in the local Diocesan primary schools. We plan to leave for Rwanda in January 2011. Oh yeah, and for those who’ve been out of touch for a while… we have a daughter! Hannah is 4 months old, and the apple of her parents’ and brother’s eye, as depicted below:  

An extra pair of ears

Will's been walking for over a month now. Just realised I hadn't posted about it. He's grown up so much recently - at 13 months there's not really any 'baby' left!

The other day he was in trouble, and I put him in his room for less than a minute. He made such a fuss for about 5 minutes after coming back out - crying and wanting lots of hugs. Then as soon as he cheered up he did the naughty thing again (I forget but I think it might have been hitting me). So he went back in his room. Again, he came out wailing and needing copious amounts of hugs. Tim said quietly behind me, "You know what he's doing, don't you? He's trying to get you to change your punishment". Instantly Will went quiet, gave Tim an impressive dirty look, then looked back at me and started wailing again. Hmmm. He seems to understand almost everything! Tim is doing a fabulous job of parenting him though - he seems to really understand Will and how to discipline him.

Will and Tim at Jo's Wedding

Will's Birthday

One year old today!

Thankyou to all who helped:
My brother Mike looked after William for hours on Wednesday while I cleaned the house.
My sister Steph came on the train a whole day early to help with party preperations and Will.
My sister Jo made lots of food, including the amazing Noah's Ark cake, and came with her husband Dom to help before and during the party, including orchestrating the clean-up (she's a whirlwind that one).
My Nanna cooked desserts and helped before and during the party with my grandpa.

Right, much deserved credits over, here are the pics...
(I put them up fast Mum so you could see them in Holland ASAP. xx)

Steep Learning Curve William

Will seems to be on a steep learning curve this week. So far he's learnt:

- to blow a goodbye kiss
- the Auslan sign for more
- the Auslan sign for enough
- to 'play cars' making vrrrrooom noises
- to rush over and tickle my belly button when I'm getting changed because he gets such a good reaction (This one is followed by his giggles and my 'Will! Stop it!!'.)
- that you put things IN the bin rather than take them out (although the next step is 'only adults put things in the bin', to save his puzzle pieces)
- he's also cut his 5th and 6th teeth

Will's also recently started...

- sitting through quite long board books, sometimes three times over (He loves We're Going On A Bear Hunt)
- trying to impress Olivia with all his might (She's nearly two and I often hear 'Go away Will' because he's trying to join in everything she does and just getting in the way, the poor girl)
- having regular babysitting at Liz's house (Olivia's Mum) as well as Fi's (Amelia's Mum), and a weekly time when Olivia and Amelia come and play at our house
- being awake for four hours between his day time sleeps

Here he is sporting his new dressing gown from Aunty Mim, Uncle Mason, Lily and Bindi

Today's Bike Ride etc.

The house was very peaceful while I cooked, and this was why;
(Will found my special sticky note pen that I use at uni.)
















































































Here is a video of Will going down the slide at Run M Ragged (which is free until he can walk, after which it will cost $8.50!)

New and Exciting

Will took his first three steps on Sunday, launching himself from an armchair to the coffee table. He's certainly not 'walking' yet but he's close.

Will imitates us so much now - we're having to be careful about what we do and say! The first time I noticed this was about a month ago when Will found one of our combs on the floor and despite never having had his hair brushed, promptly started to comb his hair himself. I suppose he watches us comb ours every morning. I had to laugh the next evening when, while having a bath, he picked up the plastic soap holder (which has spiky bits to hold the soap in the air), looked at it carefully, and then started to brush his hair with it.

I sweep the floor most days because we have incredible dirt-collecting floorboards throughout the house on which Will crawls all day. While I was using the broom two days ago, Will decided to 'help' me with the dustpan brush (although he had the brush bristles pointing in the air and the plastic scraping on the ground :-). Sweeping the floor with the dustpan and brush has since become his favourite activity. This morning he was happily sweeping away when he stopped, thought, and started to brush his hair with it. I'm glad he quickly gave up on the idea! Ewww.

Because it was so cold and quite wet the last couple of days, I've taken Will to play in the indoor playground at the shopping centre rather than the park. He absolutely loves the car with a steering wheel, and darts straight for it when put on the ground. I was really proud of him today when, although the youngest of the five kids playing, he coped really well. He moved over and shared his precious steering wheel without being asked when others wanted to join in and still shared happily when shoved roughly across the car seat by one big boy. He smiled at the other kids who joined him and loved their company. I'm sure he'll go through the 'it's mine' phase but at the moment he shares beautifully! (Although sometimes he imitates Tim's game of "You want it? Here you go...No, you can't have it. Giggle. You want it? Here you go... No, not this time.")

Yesterday I was sitting at the desk when Will called to me. I turned towards the (rather tall) kitchen bench to see him peering at me from the other side. I had no idea what he could be standing on to make him so tall! When I went around the other side I found he'd opened the oven door and climbed onto it! Hmmmm. We started oven safety lessons that day. (Now he mostly just touches the handle and says "Uh! Uh!"; our sharp word for no.)

It's now less than a month until his first birthday! Wow. A wondrous thing.

(The wig shot below is from his grandad's 1960's themed 60th birthday party.)