I've finished the second coat of oil on the deck and we set up the new furniture and BBQ which means I can now get to the top step of the deck to seal that. Have to do the railing too but that will have to wait until it's not raining.
Setting up the new furniture and BBQ took us 3 hours. It mostly came flat packed/self assemble. The table took a few goes to stop it wobbling and one of the chairs has to go back because it's broken (came like it). I was quite paranoid about the glass table top breaking. I didn't want a glass table but it was quite a bit more affordable than a wooden setting. It survived the installation process though which included me dropping a handful of spanners on it and Alex stepping on it (that was scary). The BBQ took the longest to set up. Lots and lots of fiddly bits and pieces. Luckily I make a habit of reading the instructions that come with everything so I was able to work out what went where and we got everything in the right place first go. Would you believe even the 4 legs are all different? Actually we haven't attached the gas yet so we don't know if it works. I suppose we should check it soon.
Alex was into everything. He tested all the buttons, screws and bolts for us and hid in the box.
Installation chaos and Alex helping.
Furniture and BBQ.
Alex found a beetle to play with and then he let it go on the plants.
Alex had his visit to the plastic surgeon yesterday at the children's hospital to have a look at his hand. The conclusion is that we will wait another 12 months to see if it corrects itself. The Dr said that a lot of children he puts on the waiting list for surgery end up not needing it by the time their turn comes up (shows how long the wait is). The Dr wants to see us again in 12 months and meanwhile if it gets worse we are to go back sooner and if it gets better we don't need to go back. The Dr added that if Alex has to have any surgery for anything else he can do the hand surgery at the same time which would make it a bit easier on Alex. Fingers crossed (bad pun) it never happens!
Alex was very well behaved at the hospital. He got a bit restless towards the end of the hours wait, when he had finished all the books, but you can't expect a toddler to sit still that long.
After the hospital Graham dropped his car off to get the aircon fixed and we got it back today so we finally have aircon in the big car. Didn't need it today but it's going to make so much difference this summer.
Tonight Graham's work had a staff sale night at DSE. They had some good discounts plus the staff got 10% extra off. We've been to these nights before but never bothered buying anything 'cause the check out queues have been so long they filled the store. Tonight though wasn't too busy so we did a bit of Christmas shopping, got a new game each, some new salt and pepper grinders (Alex smashed the old salt grinder), a security camera system and I got a little point and shoot camera. I've been thinking for the last few years that a little point and shoot camera would be handy to keep in the nappy bag for when I'm out and don't want to miss any cute Alex moments but don't want to have to lug around my heavy camera gear. I wasn't prepared to pay the price of a decent quality camera though and the cheap no-name models were crappy quality. Well tonight we scored a bargain Olympus FE-210. It's small, 7.1Mpix and does movies too. It's slow, especially compared to the SLRs I'm used, to but the image quality is OK so it will do just fine as a nappy bag camera. It was the display model (locked up in a glass case) so it was being sold hugely reduced without box, software, cables or manuals. We didn't need the box, software or cables and I've downloaded the manuals from the Olympus web site. Haven't read them yet cause it's pretty easy to use and has a built in help system. I might have to have a read to work out the panoramic setting cause the batteries went flat while I was checking that out. It takes 2 AA batteries but for some reason none of our vast collection of rechargeable batteries will work. We'll have to recharge them tonight and try again. Oh yeh on top of the reduced price we also got the 15% off they were doing on discontinued cameras tonight and then we got the 10% for staff. Not bad at all!
I was not expecting Graham to buy a security system. My first reaction was 'NO' but it was 50% off plus the 10% for staff so not too bad and whilst I didn't think we had any need for it, it is nice to sit here watching Alex on the monitor, sleeping with his pillow on his back. The system came with a monitor and 2 infrared cameras. So we can have one in Alex's room to watch him at night. Not because we have some obsession about spying on our son but because it's nice to know if he is OK without having to open his door and risk waking him to check. Mainly we always wonder if he is warm/cool enough when we go to bed at night. He plays around in bed for a while before he goes to sleep so we never know where the sheets end up. Looking at the monitor now I can see that he is not under the sheets so his legs and feet will get cold in the early hours and the pillow is on his back covering his head so the back on his neck will be sweaty. So before we go to bed one of us can tiptoe in and cover his legs and take the pillow off his head. It was interesting to see just how much he was moving around before he went to sleep. Last night I kept hearing him cry out in the night and bang the bars but I didn't know if he was awake or asleep and dreaming. I lay in bed listening for ages trying to decide if I should go in and settle him or risk waking him if he was asleep. In the end I decided he was asleep but now with this camera I'll be able to see. It will also be interesting to see if he makes any attempt to climb out of his cot when he thinks we aren't looking. Once he moves to a big bed we'll be able to use this camera to check that he stays in bed at night.
Right now I can see Alex is awake and staring towards the window. He keeps putting his hands over his ears and I just heard him say 'rain go way'. It's raining quite heavily and he obviously doesn't like the noise. I know the rain has woken him before I until I saw this I didn't realise the noise was something he disliked. Doesn't look or sound like he is going back to sleep anytime soon.
Here's some photos from the weekend.
I got new door mats.
Graham worked hard in the garden.
I painted an old seat. I should have taken a before shot. This was white and rusty. I cleaned it up and spray painted it. I wanted to paint it grey to match the new table and chairs but couldn't find the right colour so went with silver. Now I just need some cushions for it, back and base. I'm thinking maybe blue.
It's to go on the deck.
The birds have been enjoying the recent rain. These tiny little blue wrens come out and dance in the rain.
and this big beauty visits every morning and evening. Usually while I'm looking out the kitchen window and then he disappears as soon as I get outside with the camera. I think he's a Red Wattlebird. I'm guessing a young one despite his size.
It's raining on my deck again!
and here's a recent digiscrap.
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