Knitting news

I finished a couple of projects. One needs to go in the mail, the other has already gotten some good use on a couple chilly nights around here!

The wrap for myself from super yummy Biggan Australian merino purchased while we were in Brisbane. Very simple knit but it took ages. Skinny stripes are seed stitch, wide stripes stockinette.

Baby dress. I adapted this pattern, it was a simple pattern but I made it a little longer and changed the straps from super wide garter stitch to nice (but still tough) i-cord. Made from mystery yarn from the clearance bin at my local craft shop, it's some sort of cotton blend (poly I think). It's super soft and as it's recipient grows the ties will adjust and the dress can become a tunic.

Pool Party

To celebrate the Big #2 in Perth, what better than a pool party?
OK, so it's the dead of winter here, but that's actually one of the reasons why I picked it. Parties in a park are popular, and very fun, but we're in the thick of rainy season here and I didn't want to stress about the weather (and it poured on party day). We also have extremely limited parking at our house, and FFM loves the pool (he has started hollering if we are driving and don't make the turn to the pool) so it sounded like a plan to me. Plus, they cater and clean up!
I did the cupcakes, a vehicle theme. I made the chocolate ones in a blender and it was so easy I don't think I'll ever buy a box mix again.Do you know it's really hard to take a group shot of all your guests when they are busy having a good time swimming around a giant pool? Anyway, here are a few of them... Ryan and his parents and Jacob and his mom...Ava and her mom...Cormac and Delaney with their dad, Ryan with his parents...FFM and his dad, Lexi on the slide with her dad ready to catch her, Amy and Jacob and their moms enjoying the really shallow end...I have a whole bunch of pictures (that I'm not going to post) of kids splashing around so much if you aren't me (who took the picture) or their parent you'll have no idea who they are :) I'll take that as a sign that they were having a good time.

After swimming the sandwiches and mini pizzas were delivered, and those kids were HUNGRY.Yes, that's a giant basket of chips/french fries (free with the party). After eating his sandwich the birthday boy got busy stuffing his face.Singing commenced, cupcakes were consumed, and FFM wanted to go back for more. The blue cupcakes turned everyone's lips and tongues blue and turned out to be the most popular with the kids. I'm not sure how the parents felt about them...I'm hoping there aren't too many stains...(Mom and Dad, I've had enough of pictures now and I'd really like to get back to my cupcake!)

Overheard today while packing

We have a tiny travel scale used to weigh our bags so we don't go overweight. It looks a little like a clock and FFM was quietly playing with it today while I was packing for our trip and as he was turning it's knob I heard (it was in rough, toddler speak but you could understand exactly what he was saying):

"One, two, three, four, five, seven, six, seven, eight, nine."

I nearly fainted dead away with pride and I'm sure my heart burst a little. They're definitely here now, but FFM's words were slow to come and to hear that many all in a row, and to have him put them in context all on his own was amazing.

Word of the Day

MINE!

(and strangely it was about the water running the sink, he didn't want to share with Dad)

Narrowers

Perth is the only city I know where they work to make their streets SMALLER. Yes, that's not a typo. Since we've lived here they have steadfastly made many four-lane streets into two lane streets. And I see it's about to happen again (Oxford Street in Mt. Hawthorn for you locals).
Look for the vague white marks on the street to see the future median. And yes, cars can park in traffic lanes here (like that black car in the opposite lane). They did in Brisbane, too. It's an Aussie thing. It can make for very tricky driving when you are new to a city.

The medians remind me of Phoenix and all their left-turn blocking medians, but at least Phoenix streets are all on a perfectly square grid so it's really easy to drive around the block. Anyway, it's not too much bother for me, but it's so amazing to me that most of the cities I've lived in go through huge and expensive construction feats to make their streets able to accommodate more traffic, and this city is able to subtract traffic lanes with little impact. Crazy.

Adelaide

Hey wait, we went to Adelaide and I forgot to tell you about it!

Adelaide's a pretty city, and quite mellow. It's surrounded by parks and certainly is full of churches, just like everyone told us it would be. Travis went for business, and FFM and I tagged along for a few days to see our last Australian state (South Australia). We'd hoped to get out to Kangaroo Island, but some poor health nixed that VERY long day trip for both of us.

We were not so sick that we couldn't get in some easy sight seeing, just as long as we were back to the hotel each day in time for naps. We walked the city with Travis one day, and then rented a car and did a self-drive tour of the Barossa Valley wineries the next day. What nice wine country! We headed up into the hills to Mt. Lofty to watch the sun set over the city and had a lovely dinner in a firelit dining room.

After Travis went on his way to work for the week FFM and I did some more kid-centric touring, like to the zoo and the local pool complex. We had one very rainy day which also happened to be the day I was the most sick, and that day we only managed a quick trip out to yet another park and the pharmacy.

The trip home was nearly very eventful, we booked F as a lap child banking on the fact that Qantas always keeps a few seats open. I arrived at the airport to fly back to Perth (3 hours and 5 min) to find out that the flight was totally full. There were 2 seats left that were available to purchase at full price - $597. I'm thinking, my poor upset stomach is going to be a wreck after three hours, I really should have bought that extra ticket... the really really nice Qantas ladies are all very sympathetic, and wish me the best as they tell me our flight is now delayed by nearly an hour due to fog in Perth (which is where the plane was coming from).

Luckily FFM and I found the PLAYGROUND at the Adelaide airport. EVERY AIRPORT NEEDS TO HAVE A PLAYGROUND. What an awesome thing! It was no bigger than a small fast-food restaurant playground, but it was amazing. What a great way to kill all that extra time on our hands. And they'd stocked it with three big cushy and clean chairs for grownups to sit in. It was tucked in to it's own little glassed in room so the kids could listen to the DVD that looped through several kid shows, and we adults got a break from the general airport bustle.

Anyway, it turned out that one of those empty seats did get sold, but the other one just happened to end up in the middle seat across the aisle from FFM and I. We had another delay in taking off due to some new fuel de-icing procedure and the gentleman in the aisle seat fell asleep, but as soon as the lunch carts started banging about he woke up and was more than happy to swap seats with me which gave FFM the empty middle seat. What a nice guy :) After lunch he promptly fell asleep again. So, all in all what could have been a really adventurous trip home ended up being really easy. All we needed was that playground and the kind gentleman across the aisle.

Word of the Day

For my 200th post (doing three posts in one day will rack up those numbers fast), today's new word. Pronounced the local way. My neighbor cracked up.

(If you can't quite understand because you aren't fluent in toddler speak, it's Peeerrrth. He said it on the way home from daycare today and has been practicing all night.)

Denver vs. Perth

Hmmmm.....winter in Perth vs. summer in Denver.
Hello all you Colorado people, you need to get rid of the rain before we arrive.
And those 'cold' summer temps, too. I'm looking for some nice 80F+ days please.
You have two weeks.

Well traveled

When FFM and I picked up Travis at the airport last week we met him at baggage claim. F always gets excited waiting to collect our bags. With the rash of back to back plane rides recently it's become obvious he can spot our bags faster than we can. Then it dawned on me. Our less than two year old can do what a lot of adults have trouble doing - locate our specific bags on a belt carrying hundreds of bags. And this is 100% on his own. He'll watch all the bags coming along the belt and make a dash for OUR bag. And he's ALWAYS right. Whoa.

So that freaked me out a little bit, I mean, our luggage isn't your standard black rolling suitcase but it's pretty basic duffel bags. I do have some homemade luggage tags but FFM has made a bag ID before I've been able to spot our lucky star tags. Just how many miles around the world have we dragged this little guy, anyway?

Travis and I sat down and did the sums. It's been 26 distinct plane trips so far, with 6 more legs coming up in less than three weeks. Our best estimate of miles to date for FFM is, 51,150. And if you add in the trip to Colorado he'll have traveled 61,417 miles by the time he's 2 and 71,802 miles if you add in our return to Perth just after he's 2. It's about 2500 miles from LA to NYC,

so it's like making that flight 29 times, or about once every three weeks or so, in about two years.

This doesn't take into account road or ocean trips where he's also been given a good chance to learn how to ID our luggage :) I know there are a lot of kids who have traveled more, but it still seems like a lot of flying to me.

We marked our 3 year expat-iversary a few weeks ago. How's that for signing up for a 8-12 month quick trip to Ireland? I'm starting to dream of a non-nomadic life where I don't have to throw away/give away/sell half my worldly goods every 9-18 months... maybe the next move...

Help help help help

OK, so this is getting serious.

FFM has been slow with his words. But now they are here. In a torrent. Gushing, wild, tumbling, erupting, spewing, pouring forth like so much jumbled vocal NOISE. Some are easily understandable, many are not unless you are one the few of us who hear them nearly every day.
Like Red. BLLEEEEH = red. It's very definitely red. Consistently and ALWAYS it's red. We had a Red Ford Focus as a rental car in Adelaide (whoa, flashback to our faithful Dublin ride) and EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we approached said vehicle FFM announced, "BBLLEEEHH CAAARRR! BBLLEEEHH CAAARRR! BBLLEEEHH CAAARRR!" Our friend today had a red train toy, "BBLLEEEHH choo choo!" (yes, some words are always loud- like car and red, while choo choo is usually not so loud. go figure).

One word that is absolutely crystal clear is Help. Help and Please used to be nearly interchangeable, but FFM's learned that Please is more of a request and Help demands more immediate attention. Help comes out as a very urgent "Helphelphelphelp" and a big blue eyed look straight up at you that's really hard to refuse. Travis and I were joking around that he's going to do it in public one day and someone's going to think he's really in trouble and that we're bad parents doing terrible things to our child.

Fast forward to FFM and I traveling by ourselves in the airport yesterday. I'm not feeling well. This is one of the few times we didn't buy a seat for F and unfortunately our flight is full so that extra empty seat I was hoping for for FFM isn't going to happen so I'm going to have him on my lap for the next 3 hours. I've also just learned our flight is delayed by nearly an hour. Everyone is grumpy, it's past naptime. We're in the security line (which for domestic Australian flights is actually very humane). NOW is the time my child-who looks nothing like me and I'm dragging through an airport- decides he wants to be picked up and carried and starts to SHOUT in a very distressed manner: "HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!"

Yes. This is one of the few words other people can actually understand. Why can't he choose now to comment on that lady's nice BLLEEEEH sweater?

People stare. Security perks up.

I manage to pull out all the items that need to be scanned separately, get our two carryons onto the belt, snag FFM, and pick him up for some cuddles. Equilibrium is reestablished in FFM's universe and he is happy again. "MA! MA!"

OK, I'm not going to have to dig out our passports and prove this is really my kid. Phew.

Seriously.

(I've said it before, when you fly by yourself the hardest part is getting onto the plane. After that, it's not so bad! And I've now earned my stripes as a solo traveler with sick kiddo where it's the kind of sick where you run out of diapers and spare clothes...THAT was an adventure!)

Disappearing Kiddo

We're back from Adelaide, and both F and I are recovering from various bugs that we picked up along the way. F's been sick since Brisbane, and I got something in Adelaide that's made my stomach feel like it's been in knots for days.

While in Brisbane I got a call from the Public Health Nurse regarding an outbreak of whooping cough at our gym's daycare. Since F's was a bit out of sorts I took him to the doctor during our brief layover in Perth between trips, and he was diagnosed with adenovirus (totally unrelated to whooping cough) which is pretty common here this time of year. The bad news is he's still not quite himself and hasn't been eating much for the past two weeks. He's literally disappearing before my eyes. I'm going to have to reclaim some of the hand-me-downs I gave away, his pants are starting to fall off. Even those famous cheeks are starting to look smaller :(

Curious, I stuck F on the scale this morning. I think he's lost about 2.5-3lbs. That seems like a lot for someone so small... The good news is that this morning he finally ate an entire bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and then asked for more so I made him a piece of toast. Here's hoping he'll get back into the swing of things soon. Now all we need is for Daddy to come home from his business trip so we can return to regular programming for a few weeks before we head to Colorado (3 weeks and counting) in time for birthday #2!