11 Months Yesterday

It's going to sound trite, but it's hard to believe we're the parents of a nearly one year old.

Here are the stats - weighed on the produce scale again
29lbs and 31"
13.3kg and 78/79cm

Needless to say he's still a big kid.

5/31 I finally checked this against our last measurements which were the 'offical' ones back at 9 months. He's roughly the same height (it's really hard for us to measure him) and he's only gained a lb. So pretty much he's the same size. I think crawling is good for him :) Might keep us in the same size clothes for a little while.

Pattycake pattycake make me a bridge as fast as you can

For some reason EVERY time we walk over a bridge FFM does pattycake. He doesn't do it often any other time, but like clockwork every time we walk over the Victoria Bridge he's off. Almost makes me want to walk the bridge just so he'll do pattycake. It's a decent size bridge for those of you not in Brisbane and can get crowded during rush hour (it's one of the main pedestrian/bus/car routes in and out of city center). Strange but true FFM-ism.

He Just Smiled and Gave Me A Vegemite Sandwich

From the great book Food Lover's Companion: Vegemite

[VEJ-uh-mite]The brand name of a Kraft Foods yeast extract product, which is wildly popular in Australia. Vegemite was the brainchild of a young Australian named Fred Walker that was created in 1922 by his company's chief scientist, Dr. Cyril Callister. This thick, dark brown, intensely salty paste is flavored with a variety of ingredients including celery and onions. It's used as a bread spread and is a favorite on breakfast toast. Australians are weaned on it but, for all but the initiated, it's definitely an acquired taste. Vegemite can be found in some specialty gourmet stores and is available through mail order.


FFM had his first Vegemite sandwich for lunch today. Chopped into little bite size pieces of course. It's a classic childhood meal for Aussie kids, it's on every kids menu, like grilled cheese or chicken nuggets in the USA. Both T and I have tried it, too. I had an Aussie friend back in my ski bum days who tried to convert me but I'll admit I'm not ready to give up my Extra Crunchy Jif just yet. FFM, however, gobbled it up (although with it's high salt content it's probably not going to be a regular on our menu).

And just 'cause you've got that song in your head now :)

Giggly Elmo

Big day! Elmo's been in town and we dropped in for a visit. A big Australian department store is running a 3 week long promotion called "3 Weeks in New York" and has filled their shops with American stuff. This includes goodies like American food and visits from Sesame Street stars like Elmo. It's only at the city center store in each city, so lucky us we're just across the river and can pop over anytime to see what's going on.

Friday FFM and I went over to see Elmo. Now, FFM has ONE Elmo toy that he only got because it literally fell into his lap one day when we were shopping. It cracked us both up so much that I decided he had to come home with us. It's now one of FFM's favorite toys, he lights up whenever the Giggly Elmo comes out.

Giggle Elmo works by shaking him. He's got some sort of sensor in him and when his mouth flops open he giggles, talks, sings, it's SO funny. Especially since it catches like a DJ scratching a record for as long as you shake it. El-el-el-el-mo's SO giggly! Now FFM tries to shake any Elmo that he comes across, to see if he can make it talk and is always a bit puzzled at the ones that don't.

So I with this in mind I wondered how he would react to a life size fuzzy red guy. Turns out just fine. He LOVED it. This kid positively vibrated with joy and excitement. He was so excited he forgot to kick and flap at first...and then got into the groove and kicked and flapped like mad. Which made Elmo all excited, too :) I can't even begin to describe the noises FFM was making, but I guess it was sort of a low pitched oooooohhhh and aahhhhhhh.

Travis had to see it for himself, so we went back again today. Just a quick visit this time, since it's Saturday the crowd was much bigger. Yesterday we pretty much had Elmo to ourselves, just one other family. Zoe was there, too, she's another Sesame Street character, but FFM really wasn't interested in her at all. She came over to say hello and FFM kept lunging for Elmo. Kid's got a single track mind at the moment.On a totally separate note the Brisbane auditions for Australian Idol are today and tomorrow literally across the street from us. There are scruffy guys and scantily clad young ladies humming and singing all over the place. We only get to hear them practicing, they are staging them in the amphitheater across the street but the actual tryouts must be in a room inside the amphitheater somewhere, we didn't get to see any of the judges or anything. Lots of milling about but none of the hoopla you would expect. Ho hum, oh well.

GIVE ME THE CAMERA

First let me explain why there haven't been as many pictures of FFM as I'd like.

What you see below is a bizarre obsession with the camera. The camera comes out and no matter what's going on FFM drops everything and makes a beeline for it. When mean mommy won't hand it over to chew/slobber on he gets frustrated. Thus the capture of many many faces of utter frustration.

Other than the camera he's been quite funny lately. He sticks his tongue out all the time and is not shy about grabbing other people's tongues. The squealing has tapered off (knock on wood) and has been replaced with cool babble that seems to sort of go with stuff/objects. Current most popular word - mama. I love it :)

Cheerios and Mother's Day and More Oh My

It's been nearly a week, but it's never to late to blog about Mother's Day. My card was a little soggy when it was delivered. And it might of had a few teeth marks in it, too... We got in calls in to our moms and grandmas with FFM merrily squawking in the background. And some squealing. And some of those high pitched glass breaking screeches that have caused me much grief this past week. By the end of the day my ears are literally ringing. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. So far the best solution, which works about 20% of the time, has been to say UH OH! and then distract FFM with some other noise that you hope he'll mimic. If not, it's back to the shattering shriek. I shall repeat the mantra that gets me by in times like this ...this too shall pass...

Other than the decibel levels everything's been hunky dory. The crawling has reached near mach speeds and anything interesting within 3' of the floor has now been moved higher or latched shut with some handy dandy plastic contraption that we hope we remember how to work. Luckily our kitchen cabinets are a style that doesn't have any hardware so to date they are OK. Kitchen drawers are a treasure trove, but I don't mind FFM digging through them, I've inventoried the contents and removed all the knives :)

Due to various circumstances we've had some good ole American food around here lately, including a giant box of Cheerios. We can get Cheerios here but for some strange reason they are sweetened. They're pretty sweet, sort of like candy to FFM, so up until now he's been denied the pleasures of pinching tiny O's with his developing grip. Here he is sharing his nearly sugar-free American Cheerios with friend Cooper. It was like shark week on the Discovery Channel when we put the bowl out, I swear these two could smell Cheerios miles away and as soon as the bowl was suction cupped to the table the feeding frenzy began.
Today we had a decent thunderstorm right around sunset which made for some really strange light conditions. The whole city turned a strange orange color, it looked really eerie. This morning we had dense fog over the river between us and the city, must be nearly winter around here. The temperature has dropped all the way down to the mid-60s this evening. Don't get me started on the scarves and winter coats. It's hilarious. Of course you still see shorts and flip flops everywhere so I think the scarves and coats are more a fashion statement than anything else. T and I are still waiting for this winter thing...locals tell us it's coming.

FFM's favorite video

He's watched this five times this morning since I recorded it.
Go kid go.

Bula!

We're back!
Last Friday we went to a festival in the parklands across the street to celebrate Buddha's Birthday with some friends. I was interested in the food and the show, Travis was interested in the details like how old Buddha is. Buddha is 2,552 years old this year. And when you give Buddha a bath it's three scoops of water on the shoulder. The festival was great fun and enjoyed by all.

Saturday we flew east, nearly to the date line, to Fiji. Fiji's a nation of islands, we stayed on one of the main islands and took a day trip out to some of the other islands. This included spending half a day on one of the cutest little islands you've ever seen. Travis snorkeled, FFM napped, and I just relaxed. Afterwards FFM tested out the beach chair.
View of the island, South Sea Island, on our way to sail to other islands. May is the beginning of the dry season and it stayed dry all but one day of our trip, but the skies were partly cloudy to overcast quite a bit of the time.
On the boat, FFM enjoying playing. He really wanted to crawl around but the sides were open all the way down to the water! Sunscreen is a great distractor.
Ahhhhhh.....relaxing on our balcony wasn't so bad, either.
We also ventured inland to see some of the land and meet some of the people. Fijian's are communal family oriented people who live in self sufficient villages. These kids were totally hamming it up, posing like warriors with their sticks, until we came to talk to them and they suddenly got shy and tongue tied. The stuff in the background is kava which the villagers were drying in preparation to make a drink for an upcoming funeral ceremony.We did manage to spend a little time taking advantage of all the fun stuff at our hotel. These guys beat the drum and RAN around the resort every night with all the kids lighting all the torches. The hour before the kids would make grass skirts and paint their faces, it was really cute.
Fiji was fun and we learned an important lesson. If you go with your chubby blond baby you'll get attention wherever you go. You will also have your baby pinched, poked, hugged, plucked out of your arms, and once even unbuckled from his stroller for a quick cuddle. Fijians are SO friendly and all the places we were we felt SO safe that this was never really an issue, but it did take a little getting used to. FFM mostly loved it, but a couple times he got passed around one too many times and started fussing. At the end of every day he smelled like a dozen different kinds of perfume and half a dozen different kinds of cologne (the men were just as excited as the women).

I missed our ten month update, but even without an update FFM still turned ten months old about a week and a half ago. He's definitely grown but I have no idea how much. On our last full day in Fiji he stunned us and gave up commando crawling and started crawling on all fours without dragging his 'dead leg' along the floor. Yes, full fledged crawling! We were so surprised we squealed, surprising him and he promptly dropped back down onto the floor. No fear, he's decided it's better on all fours and has continued to crawl since then. No more grunting either, crawling seems to come with giggling which is so cool!

PS: Bula = Hello/Welcome in Fijian :-)