Charlie on the Bounce

 Now that was a busy day.  The catering seemed to be measured just right as it covered both lunch and dinner without any leftovers.  Charlie was most impressed with all the goings on and Evie helped with the candle blowing.  There are now another huge range of toys to play with from a bouncy dinosaur, a bluey car, a new set of books and some crazy spinners to name a few.  We did not need a trip to the hospital with a ruptured ear problem but there were enough adults to cover for Asher and Kaia.  We finished off with a swing and slide session up the road and then the long kiddie cleanup where they were in the bath together. Phew!  No time for a cricket update during that lot.

Calm Kaia

note pie

Taylors

helping hand

mine, big sister

kids

Charlie's Big One

 We have done a cleanup and a shopup and a cookup with two cakes no less.  I am squeezing this in now as I think it will be busy later.  Evie has helped with drawing some birthday cards as well as decorating the cakes. The Sun is out as well now but not sure if there will be any beachtime.  Charlie has had a morning snooze so should be ready for the birthday song.  

Rick did the heavy work on this cake

birthday boy and horse

Charlie Presses On

When his big sister is not around Charlie can get some quiet thinking time to workout some of these pressing issues. This toy has been around so long I can't remember when it arrived and we still have the box. We are doing some relocation between bedrooms today for the extra arrivals tomorrow for Charlie's first birthday. James is bringing another cot type bed so we will have three of those to fit in, two will be upstairs.  I got this video with the phone in vertical but it seems I need to do horizontal.

Balcony action

LunchTime entertainment

Laura and Rick went to luncheon today, how civilised.  Our strategy for entertainment wasn't much different to any other time which is to divide and conquer.  Debbie got Evie to the park for a while which tuckered her out a bit and I got Charlie on a long walk in a pram that is.  Then there is the swapover but with luck there will also be a sleep period. Fortunately Evie slept solid for part of this lunch without the need to go for a drive in the car which has worked ok in the last few days.  Last night the sun came out around tea time so we setup in the front courtyard for an alfresco style meal.

lasagne with a view

tall Evie

new shelter not complete

Charlie gets boxed in

 I am testing out my machine after the motherboard was replaced and can already report that the problem with blackout monitors continues. This is now effectively a replaced laptop so the finger is now pointing at the Windows installation and will now have to be re-installed.  In between all this I have been Charlie sitting today and he does not like being manhandled for nappy or clothing changes.  We got him outside yesterday playing with the big blocks and Evie got him corraled into a pen.  I have much video of all these activities but getting to it takes time.

major replacement

Mountains of Mourning

 Had another delivery of books from the secondhand shop.  I have found three more from the Vorkosigan saga and while waiting for the Dell man to come today I read the 100 pages or so in this short novella. It also won the hugo in the novella section.  The hero has had issues with a deformity at birth and now he is sent to judge a similar case.  After reading at least 10 of these books the author has gone to great detail to recommend an order to read them in, at the back of this one. Now I find it. She must have had some pressure to do this as they are written at different times.

  

If in doubt swap it out

The long running screen flicker problem is still running.  The Dell guys have come to the end of software options for stopping this flicker so now they are coming tomorrow to change over the motherboard for a new one. It seems to me it was a new one in the first place.  You can't fault the service time they have put in to track this down.  Maybe this is the answer.