Felix The Forgotten Second Child

One of the reasons why I combined Jarvis and Felix's blogs, was because poor wee Felix's blog was never getting updated. A good friend gave me some stick and called Felix 'The Forgotten Second Child', which was true when It came to blogging.

With this in mind, over the last few months I have made a big effort to ensure that I do all the things with Felix, that I did with Jarvis. For instance, the music class that we do each week is such fun and Felix really enjoys it. I also make sure that we have at least one 'Dah and Felix' trip out per week, as we did on Friday, when the boys set off to The Royal Botanical Gardens for a picnic.

I timed it so that Felix would sleep in the car as we drove from dropping Jarvis off. He did not wake until 40-minutes later when we jumped off the train at St James station. From there it was a short walk to the Botanics, where the wee guy jumped out of the stroller and spent the next couple of hours roaming the park.

I think it's not allowed, but on the quiet and with an eye out for the park wardens, Felix and I feed the ducks. Felix was not at all worried to have ducks, seagulls, ibis and various other birds clamber all over him, as they scrambled to eat the pieces of bread. As you can see from the picture below, he loved it so much, that he was full of claps.

I even splashed out the $10, as we took a ride on the train that drives around the park. Felix must have waved at everyone we passed, and just like his older Brother, is certainly not shy.

From the park, we walked to The Sydney Opera House and just went where Felix wanted to go. It's so nice to let him roam free and not see a little person like him stuck in a stroller. He must have walked around that area for a good 50-minutes, climbing, jumping and exploring. Then as we neared Circular Quay, I could see he was getting a little drowsy from the heat and playing, so we jumped back on the train, to be back in time to pick Jarvis up from school.

Developmentally, Felix is coming along very well. He has great balance and confidence and is starting to form words. The word he uses most is "Watch", as he raises his finger and expects you to watch whatever he's doing. Sometimes he just says it, without actually having something to show you and then spends a few moments scrambling around to pick something up.

Felix is also keen on pretending to be a pussy cat and meows lots, when I wrap him up in a pussy cat bed after his bath.

So yeah, all is very good with young Felix and we think that at 18-months old, he's coming on nicely. In fact, we think we might even keep him, when the hire-purchase arrangement we have him on comes to an end!

Lee

Music Class

Since we moved over to The Inner West of Sydney, I've had little luck trying to establish a group of friends to hang with, who have little people the same age as Felix. Jarvis was blessed with the most wonderful coffee group in Auckland and some cool mates in Paddington, however, as we didn't do the post-natal coffee group thing with Felix, it hasn't quite happened. However, the wonderful Belinda, whose little people also go to Jarvis school, has hooked me up with her group on a Wednesday at music class. Unlike Jarvis who did something similar in Bondi way back, and hated it, Felix has embraced the class and after only two-classes is having a wonderful time. So yeah, a massive thank you to Belinda for making it happen :o)

These are the Yummy Mummies that we do Music class with on Wednesday. From left to right are Emma, Belinda and Rachael. Music class was great fun to take part with them and their little people, but going for coffee and cake beforehand was AMAZING!



Just like Jarvis who also went to this play group when we lived In Paddington, Felix has a thing for the back wall, that is covered in heaps of pieces of ceramic. It's truly funky and we spend ages looking at and naming the various animals and things.

See, I knew buying a drum kit for Felix and Christmas would pay off. He really has the two-handed playing style down, doesn't he.

Cissy employed the on-handed technique, but also bought the tongue into play. Very cute.

And Jude, as cool as ever, went for the banging the sticks together style.

So yeah, that's music class, which we do each week with our buddies - It Rocks.

Lee

Fush 'n' Chups On Waitangi Day

I have to say that I'm quite enjoying not blogging each day now, meaning, that for me, when I do, it's quite a buzz. However, I've not too much to report this week, as we've taken it fairly easy, as we get back into the routine of Jarvis going back at school.

We did have an interesting day at Little Dynamo's though, and strangely, it was because it was so very quiet. Normally there would be hundreds of little people running around, but on Monday morning, we shared the place with about six other little people. You are probably thinking that is a great thing, but the boys really enjoy interacting with other little people, so when it's so quiet, they get a little frustrated. Oh well, we had a fun time.

Jarvis has now started to wash his own hair, not because he wanted to, but because I have had  bit of dermatitis flair up on my fingers, so keeping it out of chemicals is a good idea. He's quite enjoying washing his own hair and creates the most unusual hair sculptures. Sadly, Felix still loathes having his hair washed, rinsed or even touched!

Felix and myself have been attending music classes on a Wednesday, with our buddies Belinda and Cissy, Emma and Jude. It's quite good and Felix is more into it than Jarvis was at his age. Felix claps along and is quite a bold wee guy. But then if you have Jarvis as a role model, I guess confidence would not be a problem.

Adrienne forgot to take her packed lunch to work on Friday, so it was the prefect excuse for Felix and myself to have a city day. It's the first time that it's just been Felix and me in the city and it was heaps of fun. The highlight for both of us though was to see Adrienne for 30-minutes. We even managed to grab a quick bite to eat and drink with our beautiful Mumma/Wife.

Friday was Waitangi Day and being so far from home, we needed to celebrate in some way. To be honest, we'd forgotten about it, so our planning was very last minute. The only thing I could think of doing was to have a fish and chip dinner. The reason for this is that here in Australia, they claim that Kiwi's don't say fish and chips, but fush un chups! So yeah, seeing as we are Kiwi's in Aussie, we had a fush n chup dinner to celebrate Waitangi Day.

Lee

The Megalong Massacre

Sunday was a big and exciting run for me, as I've been training for a race in March called The Six Foot Track. It's known as the toughest marathon in Australia, as it's over a very, very hilly section of the Blue Mountains. Over the 45-kilometres, the course climbs 1, 528-metres and drops 1, 788-metres. Believe me, as I've discovered, going down those gradients is as hard as going up them on the body. There's also the heat, rocks, fallen trees, river crossings and odd dangerous animal. But hell, I love it.

So yeah, I started my trail running back in November of last year, where I buddied up with a running friend called Leonor, who is the same ability as me. It really helps to buddy up with this type of running, as you need the encouragement from a fellow runner, plus it's a wise thing to do, as sometimes, as we found out this weekend, it can get pretty dangerous.

This is my trail running buddy Leonor, who speaks five-languages and is just the best running buddy to have, when out on the trails. We met up at the Megalong Valley just after 6am on Sunday morning. This road intersects the course about 8-kilometres from the start. It was nice an cool and we were so excited to be running some of the track, that has been our sole running focus of the last few months.



Here we are moments before setting off, looking very fresh and excited.



We started running at 6.33am (runners are VERY pedantic about getting start and finishing times right) and at about 7.00am the sun started to break in the valley. We stopped, as we did on lots of occasions to take pictures. It was all a very exciting for us.



This picture was taken at about Mini-mini saddle, which is about 780-metres up. It was starting to get very warm and I'm pointing back to where we started.



Finally, after about 2-hours and forty-five minutes of climbing up and up and up, we made it to the top of the Pluviometre. I think Leonor and I were disappointed about the sign, as I think we deserved something with flashing lights and fireworks after that bloody climb. But none the less, we were happy to get there. Come race day though on March 14, this will only be the 26-kilometre point, with another 19-kilometres and another 200-odd metres in altitude to climb straight up.



After getting to the top of the Pluviometre, we then turned around and had the tough down hill slog to do. On the way down, it was wonderful to see our other running buddies from our running club. Below is Karen and Paul, with whom we would have run with, if we'd left at 7.00am. Like us, they wisely paired up, which was smart, because as Leonor and myself were to discover, things were going to get very, very hard.



At about the 24-kilometre point and with the heat on the track in the high thirties, people were starting to drop like flies. There were ultra-runners, way more experienced than Leonor and I, laying on the track with cramp, heat exhaustion and even vomiting. I came down with heatstroke and for a few moments couldn't talk and couldn't even remember Leonor's name. It was pretty scary for lots of us, but all 150-odd runners made it back in various states of distress.

On reflection, Leonor and I had a great time and had a very safe and practical strategy, which saw us finish in 05:10-minutes, though I think on a cooler day and with less photo stops, we could go sub-four-hours. Oh and look at the big monitor lizard we saw on the track too - awesome.



Lee