Posts By Tegan

Anastasia at two and three quarters

Anastasia at 2 and three quartersWe are enjoying watching Anastasia grow and develop into a little girl.  We love seeing her personality emerge and her understanding of the world expand more and more.  She brings us so much joy!

A few of her favourite things…

  • People
  • Anastasia is a gregarious little soul who loves her people!  Anastasia loves going to creche at church on Sunday and during ladies Bible study, often asking to go during the week. The carers at childcare have told us that Anastasia is a happy, confident little girl who is very affectionate. She does seem to enjoy her time there, particularly ‘Music with Miss Jess’ on Mondays, and is invariably in a wonderful mood when we pick her up. She has formed consistent friendships with several of her classmates at childcare but she remains most closely attached to her family.  Anastasia loves seeing, playing with, talking to and praying for her family.  When looking at the family portraits taken over the years, Anastasia will excitedly announce, “That’s my family!”

  • Baby dolls
  • These have been a constant favourite since she was about 10 months old.  Where other toys have featured as favourites for a while and then been returned to the toy box, Anastasia has retained her delight in baby dolls.  She plays with them at home, at crèche and at childcare.  Isaac’s arrival has prompted an even greater range of activities, with baby dolls being tucked into bed, rocked to sleep and patted to calm their crying.

  • Acorns
  • After going through a phase of picking up sticks and rocks everywhere we went, Anastasia wholeheartedly transferred her affections to acorns.  The lovely oak trees across the road have provided a ready supply but familiarity in this instance has not bred contempt!  We find collections of acorns in the base of the pram, in Anastasia’s handbags, her pockets and jewellery box, in her toy sink and under the couch in her room.  We must have thrown out kilos of them!  Thank goodness the season won’t last for too much longer…

  • Toy trains
  • Tim and Anastasia playing with her (their?) train setTim was diligent in expanding Anastasia’s toy train collection in the months leading up to Isaac’s arrival and she now has quite an impressive collection.  Tim and Anastasia have spent a wonderful time creating an amazing variety of track designs and sending the trains around them – I’m not sure which of them has more fun!

  • Music
  • This has always been a favourite with her, only now she is much more vocal about what she’d like to listen to.  In the car we often hear comments on the music being played from the rear seat: “What’s this music called?”, “I don’t like this music.”, “I like this music – this song is cool!”.  The Peter, Paul and Mary we used to play for Anastasia has largely faded in popularity, although she is still intrigued by identifying songs that we played for her “when I was a baby”. Dora the Explorer songs are always popular, but the surprising favourite is Bjork’s ‘It’s oh so quiet’.  ‘Lah-Lah’s Big Live Band’ has been a recent and very popular addition to her collection and we have very much enjoyed dancing along in the living room with percussion instruments in hand! Yo-Yo Ma still provides the soundtrack for each evening’s descent into sleep with Bach’s Cello Suites; Anastasia described this to us the other day as ‘quiet’ music.

  • Books
  • Anastasia has always loved books and her love of them has only increased.  She loves looking at books and being read to and has recently begun pretending to read herself.  She delights in ‘reading’ to us by reciting one of her favourite books – “The Big Night-night Book” by Georgie Birkett – from memory.  Lately she has started ‘reading’ to Isaac, sitting next to his bouncer and telling familiar stories from her own books. She is starting to recognise numbers and letters and often gets frustrated when she cannot read for herself.

If I were a superhero


You Are Elektra


There’s really no superhero with more style than you.
Because who could beat being sexy assasin ninja?

George W. Bush

On Lateline tonight, he looked like a duck with no bill.

The second superhero in the family

Since Tim had done this little superhero test I thought I’d also give it a go. So – also Neo, with Lara Croft coming in second. Unfortunately in real life I don’t quite measure up – they’re both much taller than I!

You scored as Neo, the "One". Neo is the computer hacker-turned-Messiah of the Matrix. He leads a small group of human rebels against the technology that controls them. Neo doubts his ability to lead but doesn’t want to disappoint his friends. His goal is for a world where all men know the Truth and are free from the bonds of the Matrix.

Neo, the "One"

92%

Lara Croft

79%

El Zorro

75%

William Wallace

75%

Indiana Jones

67%

Batman, the Dark Knight

67%

James Bond, Agent 007

67%

Maximus

63%

Captain Jack Sparrow

63%

The Terminator

46%

The Amazing Spider-Man

38%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

More Tales from Hong Kong – a full week!

A whole week of my stay in Hong Kong has gone by undocumented on our blog, so I thought I’d catch up on what Greg, Ruth and I have been up to over the last few days.

HK at night