Babies galore

Rose and Andrew had a little boy (Harrison Luke) on November 14. He was 10 pounds 5 oz, so not so little! That makes 4 boys for them. Rose got Harry into a good sleep routine very quickly, and seems to be doing very well.

Greg and Barb had a baby girl (Zara - just under 9 pounds) on Tuesday, which makes them a family of 5. Both families did renovations prior to the births - seems like we're hard wired to want to do these things when we're pregnant. After being quite happy renting here, and keeping our Brisbane house rented out, Simon and I are suddenly talking about buying a "renovator's delight" in Perth, even though it would be very stressful at this stage in our lives, and we're leaving for Canada in a few months. We seem compelled to put down roots.

We're looking forward to catching up with both families and their new babies when we're back in Qld on the Australia Day long weekend for Mum and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. It will also be the first time we see Denis and Tracey's little one.

Stella and John had their second baby - Annabel (6lb 4 oz) on 29 December also.

Return of the intrepid traveller

Simon had a week off to do some solo driving and camping (his favourite type of holiday). After to-ing and fro-ing about whether to drive north to Kalbarri and Exmouth to seek out good spots for us to holiday in July, or to escape the heat and go south, he decided Exmouth was too hot, and he would go south. He covered a good chunk of the south west – Margaret River, Pemberton, Augusta, Walpole, Denmark, Albany and the Stirling Ranges.

He did a very long driving day on Friday to get back early (he was expected on Saturday), stopping in at Bunbury to buy me a teeny tiny camera to thank me for letting him have this time off. I absolutely love it. It’s a Panasonic (like our other digital camera) except that whereas the other one looks and feels like a “real” camera and has a 10x optical zoom, this one will slip into a pocket or a small handbag and is easy to take out and about.

We went to Hillarys on Sunday morning for a swim (it was HOT!). We also went to Mel and Tim’s to meet their new puppy Coco on Sunday afternoon. H just LOVED the puppy. I think he totally exhausted her, as she’s only 6 weeks old and chasing a 3 year old around is hard work for her.

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Simon has another 2 days leave up his sleeve, so is thinking of taking a 4 day weekend. I’m wondering what kind of gadget I can wrangle out of him for that trip…. Better put my thinking cap on!

Liam

Simon’s nephew Liam arrived yesterday and is staying for almost 2 weeks.  He’s just finished his year 12 exams, so this is schoolies week for him, I guess.  He seems quite keen on taking himself off to see the sights of Perth and surrounds.  Simon and I are both working (I have barely any leave accrued yet, and Simon is doing the final proofs of his native title book before his exam marking comes in next week), so we only have the weekends to spend with him.  We are in a good location for a solo holiday though – a stroll to the beach, and a short walk in the other direction to the bus to the city, or to a little block of shops.  

 

Liam is very tall and very, very thin, and dyes his lovely blonde hair black, plus refuses to wash it, so when he turned up with Simon yesterday at day care, Harrison was quite frightened and wouldn’t go near him.  It only took a few minutes for him to get over the initial shock, and they are getting on very well now.  Liam is very good with him.  Harrison took a little bit of persuading this morning that, unlike grandma, Liam was not likely to want a 3 year old crawling into bed with him at 7am, and that he wasn’t likely to be up before we’d all left the house.

Christmas plans

Our travel plans changed slightly and we’re now flying direct to and from Brisbane, rather than driving.  I was a bit tentative about attempting to visit Brisbane for just 5 days at Christmas time and coming away sane…  So we’ll now be there for about 12 days, and staying in one place the whole time, which hopefully will make it easier to see everyone, and to also take some time out for ourselves as a family.  It will be nice to plan some excursions that just the three of us can enjoy, like ferry trips and picnics, or a visit to Australia Zoo.  I’m quite looking forward to it. 

 

 

Holiday plans

We’re once again planning a trip east, and juggling the logistics of how to get there.  The current plan is to drive to Adelaide straight after Christmas, leave the car at the airport and fly to Brisbane.  Then Harrison and I would fly back to Perth, and Simon would fly to Adelaide and drive the car back to Perth.  I have almost no leave, whereas Simon has heaps, so it makes sense for me to get back for the re-opening of Uni on January 7^th, whereas he can take another week. Because of my limited leave, we only get about 6 days in Brisbane, which is not ideal, but can’t be helped.   The advantages of this are that

¨      we put some kilometres on the car for FBT purposes (but not too many for greenhouse purposes),

¨      we have some semblance of a family holiday (driving 2700 km in the middle of summer and camping on the Nullarbor – some would disagree about the holiday tag!),

¨      we get to visit family and friends in Brisbane, and   

¨      Simon also loves the long drive and the time to himself.

Denis and Tracey

I just spent 4 days in Qld for Denis and Tracey's wedding. The weekend included a cooking class for VJ, Trish and me at the Spirit House, Yandina. It was a fabulous day, and the food (of course) was sumptuous. So Kate and Karen had better prepare themselves for some "from scratch" Thai food when they come to dinner at our new City Beach house! Paul and Anna were having lunch at the Spirit House that day, too - though luckily for them they didn't have to eat our cooking.

The wedding was beautiful. Weather was warm, many guests stayed at the Kenilworth pub or camped at the showgrounds (where the reception was), so it was a very social extended event. I think they bought 25 dozen eggs, and about $900 worth of meat, and that was just for the before and after barbeques. Tracey's sense of style was very evident, as was her attention to detail. The bridesmaids and flower girls (4 of each!) had a different dresses designed by Tracey. There were buses organised from Nambour (where a lot of guests were staying), and past various B&Bs where other guests were staying. It's a good thing Tracey is studying event management I think!

Health houses and handbags

Mum and Dad have both been keeping the Toowoomba medical fraternity busy lately. Dad with his diabetes (he's now on insulin), and Mum getting tested for a hereditary thyroid condition that it seems most of her family has. Dad also has to go back to the sleep specialist as his sleep study showed up some issues.

Paul and Anna have moved into their house, but their blog doesn't yet show the updated photos (see the link on the side bar). Madonna and Peter are also in their new house, which apparently is beautiful (they raised an art deco home and built under it).

Simon's marking exam papers at the moment, as well as looking at final proofs of his admin lawbook, and doing the update on his native title book. Plus he's going to Brisbane in mid July to teach an intensive Masters class at QUT. The good news is that he has a fairly light teaching load next semester, and those books should be finished once and for all in the next month. So we look forward to seeing him at dinner and on the weekends. Harrison is starting to think Daddy is just someone who visits occasionally!

I bought two dresses for Denis and Tracey's wedding (a girl needs choice, after all!), and I'm going to try my hand at making a handbag for them. Might have to ring Rosie for advice.

Winter begins

It's the first day of winter, and very chilly in Perth. It is a beautiful sunny day (as it was on the weekend, too), but there's a definite winter chill.

Simon's mum left yesterday after her 3 week visit. It was sad to see her go, and her visit seemed to be over very fast. VJ was talking about visiting sometime soon (health permitting), and Mum and Dad are considering a visit in September, so I'm sure it won't be long before that spare bed is in use again.

Mothers Day

Had a nice Mothers Day - Simon has been working very long hours including all day on Mother's day, but he did manage to buy some exquisite orchids for me on Saturday evening. Marg also bought over some tulips when she came for dinner on Sunday. Harrison made a card at daycare. He drew pictures of each of his grandparents in the respective mothers day cards for Grand-mum and Grandma. He's getting quite good at drawing people - he does eyes with pupils, hair, smiles, and very long arms and legs. He takes it all very seriously.

Simon's mum arrived on Sunday afternoon, and I cooked roast pork, as it's her favourite dish. My first time at cooking roast pork (being vegetarian and all), but it seemed to work out well. Marg brought dessert over via Herdsman - the most delicious summer berry crumble and Connesieur icecream.

Funny thing happened on Sunday morning. Simon spoke to his mother before she got on the plane in Brisbane, and afterwards said to me that she seemed a bit disappointed that he was going to be working long hours during her visit. I asked if he remembered to say happy mothers day to her, and he hadn't - so he called her back. He had a 5 minute conversation, during which she said she didn't think he'd forgotten to wish her a happy mothers day. At the end of the conversation she said "bye Dan". Simon pointed out that he was her OTHER son - so she said "well in that case you did forget mothers day!". Simon calls me back to report this conversation, and gets off the phone. 5 minutes later he calls back sheepishly and says... "I might have kind of forgotten to say happy mothers day to you as well..."

And to continue the saga of Youngs working far too hard. Marg has also been working until 1am and all weekend in her new job (which is supposed to be less onerous than her old one!). I had arranged that I'd pick her mum up from the airport and drop into Marg's house for afternoon tea on the way home. We arrived at 3:30ish, and Marg comes to the door still in her pyjamas. She'd been working all weekend, and hadn't showered or eaten at all that day... After a while at her house, Mum whispers to me - "do you think we're getting a cup of tea?", so I make one. We take one mouthful of tea, and realise the milk is off! It's a week past it's used by date. But she did bring a fabulous dessert and wine that night, which more than makes up for the tea... And she gave me wonderful flowers and said beautiful things about my mothering.

New baby for Pip

Pip and Kane had their third child on the 27th of April - a little boy called Ben. Laura and Tom seem delighted by their new brother. It took a while for blogger to decide it was going to show the text of this post, and in the meantime I had a chat to Pip. She is doing fabulously (such a calm, capable mother!), and baby Ben is an exceptionally good baby.

I'm really looking forward to seeing their expanded family when I visit Brisbane in August for Denis and Tracey's wedding.

Qantas does it again

Unbelievably, Marg had the same dramas with Qantas on Sunday as I did in January (see Day from Hell). She was a minute late at the check-in-kiosk and they wouldn't let her on the flight - she had to wait 8 hours for the next flight. Flying business class made no difference either. They are vicious!

Clean bill of health

Dad's angiogram last week went well - he didn't need any stents, nor a bypass. He doesn't yet have his sleep study results, and it sounds like his diabetes is worsening, but at least the heart is pretty good.

Dad's angiogram

Dad is booked in for a sleep study and then a day later an angiogram (in late April).  Mum sounds a bit worried about it all, especially since both Dad's parents died fairly early with heart problems...  Hopefully the fact that he hasn't yet had a heart attack bodes well and means they will be able to take corrective action such as putting in a stent.  Dad would have a pretty good diet already since he's diabetic, and he has exercised frequently for the past decade or so since moving off the farm.

 

I had a sleep study last year (my dear husband complained that I kept him awake at night).  It was really interesting, and quite a holiday for me - I was given dinner, read a magazine, and the nurses fussed around wiring me up for monitoring before I settled down for the night.  The room was really dark and silent.  Best of all, I knew there would be no little person calling out "good morning mum" at 6am, and no stressed out person tossing and turning beside me.  The nurses said I slept like a princess and I had to be woken at 7am so I could go to work.  When the results came back, they showed that while I did snore, it was well within normal range.  The specialist facetiously said that sometimes it's the sensitivity or sleeping habits of the partner that's the problem....

Marg's move

Marg and Neil are visiting this weekend - looking for places to live. Marg has given up on the law firm lifestyle (or lack there of), and taken a job as general counsel for a company over here. (Good on her!) She and Neil will be long distance lovers for a while until Neil is able to sort our his business and move over. She's looking at living in Leederville if she can find somewhere nice. As a consequence we're going to dinner perhaps to Anna's Vietnamese tonight... it's to be negotiated as we have to bring Harrison and we're not sure how well he'll go to sleep in his stroller. Simon's voting for Hillarys because there's lots of space, but I'm a bit over the food there. Nothing very interesting and the couple of "real" restaurants are really noisy and expensive. Plus it's very overcast and drizzly today, so walking around the beach and boardwalk isn't very appealing. And of course, it's not in Leederville!

Back from holidays

We're both back from our eastern odessey... not without it's dramas. The drive over went reasonably well. Harrison was fabulous in the car for the 4500km trek. We camped all but 2 nights, and he loves the tent. It was a challenge keeping a toddler safe in dusty campsites in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a blade of grass in sight between Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill. At Broken Hill we had grass, and there was a pool at the van park, plus an excellent airconditioned campers kitchen, so we stayed 2 nights and made that our rest day. We arrived a day or two early in Toowoomba. As usual there was lots of running around trying to catch up with people. Harrison met all of his cousins and loved every one of them. Simon had only a week in Brisbane and then drove back, while I stayed on and flew back on Thursday. A day or so after we crossed the Nullarbor the cyclone aftermath brought several inches of rain to the area, and destruction to Esperance (where we had holidayed in December). And then as Simon was driving back, floods hit South Australia and western NSW. He was a day or so after the roads were cut, so the highways were all open again when he went through. Some of the roads around the national parks he wanted to visit were still closed, though.

Veronica's party was great. She fed the whole family (all 11 kids and all their children made it), and we got some family photos before the party. Her friends arrived a bit later. It was a "wake" - she thought she'd be dead by 40 so decided on the funeral theme. She had a coffin with ice in it for the beer, RIP signs and a wreath, and people gave her condolence cards. Dad did the eulogy. He got a bit preachy so Harrison was on hand to do a loud rendition of "Toot toot chugga chugga big red car" at his feet. Bridget and Jacqui (two nieces 8 and 10 years old) partied almost all night. I think Bridget went to bed just before me at 2:30 in the morning. They were being the fashion police and rating people's outfits (they weren't very harsh judges, because I got top marks)... They told one guy his belt was substandard and he needed to get a new one from Stockwhips for Stock Men (Dad's leather work business), and then they added that he could get a wallet as well. Dad would have been proud.

Harrison and I saw Paul and Anna's house - almost complete . Apparently in about 6 weeks the interior will be finished. It looks really impressive. It has fabulous entertaining areas, a 3 level proper home theatre, and wonderful curved upper deck with water views.

Christmas festivities

We've done a couple of nice pre-Christmas events with Sharon, Carson, Sam and Matty lately. We had a picnic and saw the carols by candlelight at Peppermint Grove on Sunday, and on Tuesday went to the live nativity play at St John's church in the centre of Fremantle. They actually had a petting zoo inside the church, which kept all the kids enthralled. They had a real donkey carrying "Mary" down the aisle, and the finale was allowing the kids to file past a very very young baby swaddled in the "stable" on the alter. Being raised in a religion free zone meant that Harrison had no idea of being quiet in the church, so when the hymns started he was up doing his best dance moves in front of everyone. Then he discovered he could see his shadow on the stable walls which were along the front of the alter, so he danced AND sang Wiggles songs AND did shadow puppets whenever the music started. Outside the church there were free camel rides for the kids, which Harrison also loved. We went to Little Creatures for dinner, then to Cottesloe for icecream on the beach. There was a low wooden platform (kind of a park bench / picnic table thing) which Harrison decided was a stage, so it was back to dancing and singing and watching his shadow on the grass. He is completely besotted by Sam (Sharon and Carson's 5 year old angel). She is just wonderful with him and very protective and big-sisterly.

Post - script - here's a pic of Harrison about to open his "real working" accordian from Marg and Neil on Christmas morning. Wags the Dog lies discarded to the side... 8 months of wishing for Santa to bring him a Wags, and 2 hours into the festivities he finds something better.... tsk tsk.