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To get to the other side,of course. A minor traffic jam while we were touring the Dandenongs...
http://youtu.be/5g20H_aM8Q8
Monday, September 26, 2011
Melbourne #1
We spent three weeks in Melbourne, chilling out, being super touristy, and riding trams around the city while Travis worked away on his project. Day 1, as requested by the youngest member of our family, we hit the beach.
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| FFM at St. Kilda beach |
Day 2, we hit the famous Queen Victoria Market where we lunched on sausage rolls, meat pies, and lamingtons for dessert.
The historic City Circle tram, our friend for getting around city centre/center.
Melbourne always has something interesting on, festivals and the like. You never know just what you'll see when you are roaming the streets...like a flock of rainbow body suited teenagers running around. They were leaping from benches, scrambling up stairs, and jumping over people (kneeling, etc).
Play with some kangaroos! FFM LOVED petting and playing with the kangaroos. We were the only ones around so he got lots of attention from his new mates.
Then, once sunset arrives hundred of people gather on bleachers to watch the penguins come ashore. The come in large groups called rafts, and you can see the large dark patches in the waves just before they land on the beach.
Sunday was Aussie Father's Day, Travis picked a decadant pancake house for breakfast and he got lamington pancakes and FFM had strawberry with ice cream.
After breakfast, we headed out of the city for a drive in the nearby Dandenongs (a low mountain range) for some scenery, tea, and yes, a park with a whole lot of trains.
Friday, September 23, 2011
On Our Way...
As always things are generally interesting around here. Many faithful readers will know that we've been on holiday for a while, a nice LONG while, I've been enjoying myself and actually relaxing and doing very little of anything other than reading, walking, eating, and riding lots of trams.
About 6.5 weeks ago Travis got a call from offices around the globe for HELP HELP HELP! He got word on a Wednesday, final OK on a Thursday, then flew out on Monday - first to Canada to check on some equipment and then to Melbourne, Australia to supervise some work on the same project.
His flights were a nightmare. Getting to London, Ontario from Denver wasn't too bad (fyi London is about 2 hours driving from Toronto for anyone who needs a brush up on Canadian geography). London to Melbourne, that was tricky. Monday Travis flew from Denver-Chicago-London. Wednesday he turned around and flew London-Toronto-Chicago-Los Angeles-Melbourne. Needless to say his bags did not arrive in Melbourne and he made it by the skin of his teeth.
Travis was scheduled to stay in Melbourne for "about a month." Seeing as things have been relatively quiet at our house for oh, about five days, FFM and I knew, of course, we had to join him so two weeks after Travis left home FFM and I hopped a plane and headed down under ourselves. Our trip was less eventful, however a late night thunderstorm in Denver delayed our departure making our connection tight in LA and we literally ran onto the plane to Melbourne. We made it, so did our bags, but the car seat did not come until the plane the next day. No worries, mate, Qantas gave us a loaner until they could deliver ours.
Poor Travis slaved away during the week while FFM and I slept in (8 on the left side of the dots Mommy!) meandered through the city, and rode a lot of trams. Our hotel was near a large park with a lake, within walking distance of a beach (it is wintery here still so it's not a warm beach yet) and on a major tram line that got us into the heart of the city in less than ten minutes. On the weekends Travis took us on grand adventures outside of the city with the car. Don't fret too much about Travis, we rearranged our plans at home and scrapped one vacation in favor/favour of a week off here to visit with friends in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
I never thought I'd get to come back to visit so soon, it's been such a special treat.
About 6.5 weeks ago Travis got a call from offices around the globe for HELP HELP HELP! He got word on a Wednesday, final OK on a Thursday, then flew out on Monday - first to Canada to check on some equipment and then to Melbourne, Australia to supervise some work on the same project.
His flights were a nightmare. Getting to London, Ontario from Denver wasn't too bad (fyi London is about 2 hours driving from Toronto for anyone who needs a brush up on Canadian geography). London to Melbourne, that was tricky. Monday Travis flew from Denver-Chicago-London. Wednesday he turned around and flew London-Toronto-Chicago-Los Angeles-Melbourne. Needless to say his bags did not arrive in Melbourne and he made it by the skin of his teeth.
Travis was scheduled to stay in Melbourne for "about a month." Seeing as things have been relatively quiet at our house for oh, about five days, FFM and I knew, of course, we had to join him so two weeks after Travis left home FFM and I hopped a plane and headed down under ourselves. Our trip was less eventful, however a late night thunderstorm in Denver delayed our departure making our connection tight in LA and we literally ran onto the plane to Melbourne. We made it, so did our bags, but the car seat did not come until the plane the next day. No worries, mate, Qantas gave us a loaner until they could deliver ours.
Poor Travis slaved away during the week while FFM and I slept in (8 on the left side of the dots Mommy!) meandered through the city, and rode a lot of trams. Our hotel was near a large park with a lake, within walking distance of a beach (it is wintery here still so it's not a warm beach yet) and on a major tram line that got us into the heart of the city in less than ten minutes. On the weekends Travis took us on grand adventures outside of the city with the car. Don't fret too much about Travis, we rearranged our plans at home and scrapped one vacation in favor/favour of a week off here to visit with friends in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
I never thought I'd get to come back to visit so soon, it's been such a special treat.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Our Own Little Solar System
I've been bombarded with questions about the sun setting, rising, moon, etc lately and this morning it was worse than normal FFM was being extra inquisitive. I went for the fruit approach. By golly, it worked. He TOTALLY gets it now!
It was even better when I made the mandarin orange sun 'shine' with the LED flashlight.
Things went downhill when FFM ate the grape tomato moon, though. Then the apple Earth. Our solar system kind of fell apart and was just a flashlight sitting on a mandarin.
Things went downhill when FFM ate the grape tomato moon, though. Then the apple Earth. Our solar system kind of fell apart and was just a flashlight sitting on a mandarin.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Surviving the First Weeks of School
Ah, holiday weekends. Labor Day was full of work around here. All kinds of work. Housework, construction work, parenting work.
FFM is on a sleep strike and it's taxing our parenting skills to the max. Is he stressed about school? Is he strung out about piano lessons? Did Dad being out of town the first week of school throw him for a loop? Is the new routine messing him up? Our analysis leads us to believe he is testing boundaries, and pushing HARD to see how far he can go.
The end result is that FFM looks like the walking dead. He's got dark circles under his eyes that rival black holes from Deep Space Nine with lovely violet accents. After a long weekend of trying multiple strategies we're having the most luck with super duper early bedtime. This gives him enough time to mess around in bed before going to sleep that he actually a reasonable amount of sleeping done. It's still not enough, though, as the circles are only getting worse. Top it off with the season's first cough/cold he just caught and I fear disaster before too long.
After getting enough sleep that he was finally lucid we chatted. He's not worried about school. He missed Dad last week but that wasn't it either. Piano made him a little worried (he moved up to the next level several months early) but a good day of practice and he's feeling much better about that now. Why no sleep? The very blunt answer I finally got from him- it's boring and he doesn't want to do it anymore.
Ugh. Annoying. It's not fun to toe the line with your kid. We did it, a kids got to sleep after all, but I want to make him understand WHY he needs sleep. I want him to WANT to go to sleep. He makes all kinds of good choices on his own, so I thought about ways to align sleeping with those choices he already makes.
Lately he's been on a anti-artificial color kick. He doesn't choose a lot of snacks with artificial colors because they are bad for his brain (totally over simplified explanation, but it works for a 5 year old). By no means is this hard and fast, we/he have not eliminated artifical colors from his diet, but he ate a super bright sno-cone one day and wondered where the colors came from. He didn't like the answer. He likes doing "healthy" things and avoiding "not-healthy" things. *bling* little tiny bulb goes on over my head.
Today we discussed how sleep is healthy for you. How missing out on sleep is just like putting unhealthy things into your body. It's not punishment to go to bed, it's just like eating fruits and vegetables. Then we put him in charge. We told him how many hours of sleep his body required and we told him to figure out his own bedtime. Voila, 7pm it is, and this time it's HIS choice, which apparently makes all the difference in the world. No more bedtime dramas. Shazam!
FFM is on a sleep strike and it's taxing our parenting skills to the max. Is he stressed about school? Is he strung out about piano lessons? Did Dad being out of town the first week of school throw him for a loop? Is the new routine messing him up? Our analysis leads us to believe he is testing boundaries, and pushing HARD to see how far he can go.
The end result is that FFM looks like the walking dead. He's got dark circles under his eyes that rival black holes from Deep Space Nine with lovely violet accents. After a long weekend of trying multiple strategies we're having the most luck with super duper early bedtime. This gives him enough time to mess around in bed before going to sleep that he actually a reasonable amount of sleeping done. It's still not enough, though, as the circles are only getting worse. Top it off with the season's first cough/cold he just caught and I fear disaster before too long.
After getting enough sleep that he was finally lucid we chatted. He's not worried about school. He missed Dad last week but that wasn't it either. Piano made him a little worried (he moved up to the next level several months early) but a good day of practice and he's feeling much better about that now. Why no sleep? The very blunt answer I finally got from him- it's boring and he doesn't want to do it anymore.
Ugh. Annoying. It's not fun to toe the line with your kid. We did it, a kids got to sleep after all, but I want to make him understand WHY he needs sleep. I want him to WANT to go to sleep. He makes all kinds of good choices on his own, so I thought about ways to align sleeping with those choices he already makes.
Lately he's been on a anti-artificial color kick. He doesn't choose a lot of snacks with artificial colors because they are bad for his brain (totally over simplified explanation, but it works for a 5 year old). By no means is this hard and fast, we/he have not eliminated artifical colors from his diet, but he ate a super bright sno-cone one day and wondered where the colors came from. He didn't like the answer. He likes doing "healthy" things and avoiding "not-healthy" things. *bling* little tiny bulb goes on over my head.
Today we discussed how sleep is healthy for you. How missing out on sleep is just like putting unhealthy things into your body. It's not punishment to go to bed, it's just like eating fruits and vegetables. Then we put him in charge. We told him how many hours of sleep his body required and we told him to figure out his own bedtime. Voila, 7pm it is, and this time it's HIS choice, which apparently makes all the difference in the world. No more bedtime dramas. Shazam!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
WIP
I purchased a sewing machine from a friend this summer. She's an avid quilter and has snazzy machines. My mother taught me to sew the last time leggings were in style, say mid to late 80s, and I haven't sewn much since. I did sew well enough then to make simple clothing items, but like I said, it's been a while since I've sewed anything more complicated than a ruffle or a hem.
So I launched into what seemed like a pretty simple project, armed with my snazzy new-to-me machine and a free off the internet 'pattern.' After some frustrating attempts, and swearing off free internet patterns, I finally finished my new e-reader case. Complete with double layers of padding and a contrasting lining.
After my sewing project I decided to return to my regular craft and am knitting that sweater FFM has been asking for. Voila, one set of sweater arms, he's thrilled! I catch him wearing them as they are in short hibernation while I knit the yoke.
So I launched into what seemed like a pretty simple project, armed with my snazzy new-to-me machine and a free off the internet 'pattern.' After some frustrating attempts, and swearing off free internet patterns, I finally finished my new e-reader case. Complete with double layers of padding and a contrasting lining.
After my sewing project I decided to return to my regular craft and am knitting that sweater FFM has been asking for. Voila, one set of sweater arms, he's thrilled! I catch him wearing them as they are in short hibernation while I knit the yoke.
