the best brothers

Brayden's vocabulary is increasing every single day. It's actually quite unbelievable how quickly he is picking up new words - my favourite of which is...LIAM!
It's been a few days now. We were in the hardware store and they hubby had taken Liam to use the bathroom when Brayden started looking for him. I told him to call out to him (purely in an effort to distract him and prevent him from getting upset) and he actually did! He said it so clearly... "LIAM". I couldn't believe it and forgot all about the fact that we were in a very busy hardware store at the time. I made him repeat it over and over and laughed out loud each and every time. Liam was soooo excited to hear him and gets an enormous grin on his face whenever Brayden says it. It's so heartwarming to watch them interacting and playing together. Here is a picture of them taken on the weekend.

So, as at today's date Brayden is saying...

Mum, Dad, Liam, Nan, Pop, Peese (please), Eese (Reese), NO, yeah, more, ee ee (monkey), choc,

lololol (lolly), bread, dub (dummy), toast (usually 'more toast'), uv yoooou (love you), hi, bye.

He has the sweetest tiniest little voice too, it sure doesn't suit his personality ha ha.

I'm looking forward to the next word.

our lounge room

After many many many many changes, I think I may finally be happy with the lounge room. Here are some pics...

I still need to find something for the big blank wall above the three seater lounge, but I will wait until something jumps out at me. For now I can live with the blank-ness.

For so long i've been adding, removing and changing things in this room but for now my mind is at rest. (Until one day when I suddenly look at it and immediately think 'that looks terrible' - which I know I will do eventually).

Now I can get stuck in to the next room on my list - the big boys room for Liam and Brayden.

Brayden the little monkey

There's nothing we can do. If Brayden doesn't want to go to sleep he aint going to sleep. Check him out...

And here he goes...

and then...

almost there...

and finally...

and he's off. It's too funny to get annoyed. We're planning to put him in a big(ger) toddler bed in a couple of months. In to the big boy's room with his big brother.

Geez he's entertainer.

yet ANOTHER wall decal

I finally got around to putting up the wall decal in the main bedroom and i'm really loving it. Even more than the one in the entry way that I blogged about a week or so ago. 

Here it is...

And here it is from further back, just inside the room...

It says

'Loved you yesterday,

love you still,

always have,

always will'.

Kind of fits us since the first time we ever got together was when I was just 13 years old!

I was tossing up the idea of ditching the blue and painting some white and pearl-finish horizontal stripes on this wall, and so didn't know whether to order the decal in white or black, but decided the stripes would look better as multi-coloured ones in the kids' big boys room (which is coming sooooon). 

Once again, you guys at http://www.wallquotes.com/ are great.

Liam's going to preschool!

I think all of my friends and family thought i'd never do it. I kept on saying 'I haven't sent him yet because...'. It's surprising how many excuses I was able to come up with. BUT, Liam has been going to preschool one day each week for the past month and he's finally saying he likes it. Here's a pic on his very first day.

When I first dropped him off he was beside himself. I stayed for about 10 minutes and he was reaching out for me, screaming 'don't leave me mummy'. I phoned when I got home and they told me was fine. Then they phoned me after lunch to tell me he'd had them in stitches laughing, had eaten all of his lunch and was fast asleep at the time. When I arrived to pick him up he seemed fine but then when he spotted me he ran to me and started crying again - the owner of the centre assured me this was normal. This photo was taken as we were leaving - he had cheered up after showing me his AWARD (!!) for being a very good talker! 

The second week was pretty much a carbon copy of the first, but on the third week he was a little better. He cried a little when I dropped him off and said, 'just one more hug mummy'. Then didn't cry at all when I arrived to pick him up. Infact he didn't even stop what he was doing when he saw me, he just kept working on his penguin drawing.

This week just passed he just had a little sob when I was leaving and when I arrived to pick him up he was so excited he ran straight to his school bag and gave me a drawing of a love heart that he'd done especially for me. I've framed it and it now sits proudly on a shelf in my bedroom.

He's been coming out with some really funny things since he's been going. Like last week we saw a picture of a shark and he said, 'Mum if you see a shark you should poke it in the eyes'. When we were driving home this week he said to me 'Mummy do you want to do the monster mash with me when we get home'.

I'm really looking forward to next week because I have a feeling he's going to be fine. He really loves 'Miss Kirsty' and 'Miss Sue'. 'Miss Mary' even got a mention this week.

I'm so proud of him I could burst. My little boy is really growing up. sob.

Shelving makeover

We had a bit of a makeover weekend (ie we cracked open the white paint) at our house and it was so much fun. I'd had these cheap and nasty shelves for such a long time that I can't even remember why I bought this colour since I've never been a fan. Up until recently it was in the wardrobe of the kids' toy room, but I decided that instead of buying a new chest of drawers for the main bedroom, I would give this one a make over.
So here is what it looked like in the beginning -

It actually had a back on it but I decided I preferred it open as it made it appear less dark. So we wiped it down thoroughly, gave it a light sand and then applied an undercoat. We were intending to use the hubby's new air spray gun but since the undercoat was so thick it kept on clogging it up. So we had to use rollers.

So the next day we gave it another light sand and then gave the air spray gun another shot. Thankfully this time it worked and was sooo much faster. It also has a much nicer finish than a roller. Here it is drying out in the lovely winter sun after the second coat.

It was a very looong and painful wait to allow it to dry, but I was very patient and waited 4 days before I put anything on it. Now it's sitting in the main bedroom all dressed up with a few of my favourite things.

It will eventually move to the adjacent wall (when my son moves to his big boy room) and will have a gorgeous new flat screen tele on top, but for now I am so happy with how it turned out. It was well worth the effort.

My new 'wall quote'

Well I umm'd and aahh'd about it for so long I was even driving myself crazy with my indecisiveness. I knew straight away which quotes I wanted, but just couldn't decide on the size or colour. But, I'm happy to say I finally ordered my decals from www.wallquotes.com and I couldn't be happier. 

Here is the quote in the entry way...

I look at it each and every time I walk past (which is about a thousand times a day considering my bedroom is to the left hand side and the rest of the house is behind this area - excuse the mess).

Take a look at the site, they have some great ideas. You'll have trouble choosing just a few.

I also one for the main bedroom but I haven't put that one up yet as I have a few little projects going on in there which I will post soon.

By the way, if you join their facebook page you can receive updates and notifications on sales etc.

Hope you like them.