7 month update

FFM turned 7 months last week, and while this isn't a checkup month we did our own height and weight (so not totally accurate, but pretty close). Height/length 29.5", weight ~25lbs.

His hair is getting blonder and blonder and thicker and thicker. The dark patch in the back is totally gone. When Travis and I take him out together people ask us where he got his coloring from. He does look like us - in the eyes, the skin - but the hair and eye color, which are usually the first things people notice, really throw them off.

He kicks and wiggles SO much (arms and legs flapping all the time) when we go for walks that people who are walking towards us glance, and then look back, for a longer look and smile and sometimes laugh. He's been especially popular with Asian visitors; I'm sure some of them have been sneaking photos. They love the cheeks. He found his voice, and while it's sometimes a bit screechy he also babbles the coolest conversations to me, especially in the mornings after breakfast. Naps have stabilized as long as we are home, still rough when we are out and about as he's too interested in his environment and whatever is going on around him.

(lots of background noise on video, it's not really that noisy on our balcony. It's the fan on the bubble machine that I'm sitting right next to.)

Baby food is all new here, the third time FFM's learned to adjust to new food in a new country. After about a week of spitting out everything we fed him he finally adjusted. His new foods are mostly homemade yummy veg purees which are getting lumpier and lumpier since he's pretty much chewing now. He's SO interested in real food when we're eating that I started giving him finger foods, even though he's still working on the pincer grip. Grated cheese is a huge hit, and really ripe fruit is a favorite for snacks. Cheerios here are sweetened (a lot) so for cereal finger food we do unsweetened puffed brown rice cereal. It's actually pretty good, but probably a little harder to pick up. Since he's just manhandling fistfuls right now it's OK. Yogurt is his favorite food, and if I can't get him to eat his dinner I'll often cheat and alternate bites of homemade chicken and veg with baby yogurt (milder for baby's tastes! also no bits). mmm....more cheese please...

Bedtime is about 7pm, wake up about 7-8am, and nap for appx 2 hours twice a day. SWEET! I've been waiting for this :) Naps are great! He does wake up every once in a while in the middle of the night, he's got this bad habit of rolling all around his new big boy crib (no more pack and play) and once he rolls onto his stomach he gets upset when he wakes up. It's an easy fix, just roll him over and go back to bed. If I'm the one that hears him I don't think I even wake up all the way.

Where in the world is February a nice month?

It turns out February isn't the nicest month in Brisbane. It's the rainy season, which we knew, and it's really pretty rainy. We aren't having the floods that a lot of Queensland is having, but it's really pretty damp around here. Just so all of you northern hemisphere people know, it's not all sunshine and butterflies around here :) True, it's still warm and there are still palm trees, but it's durn DAMP. Locals tell me this is the crummiest month, it's the hottest and the wettest month of the year.

Moving to Dublin I grooved around the city sights for hours on end and met a lot of people really pretty quickly. Still slow to do that here, between naps and snacks and rain it's a different scene - it's starting to come along. Plus Brisbane isn't the tourist trap that Dublin is, one of the biggest draws is the park that's across the street (way cool park) so sightseeing is definitely different. We started a Kindermusik class, it's really small and so far the only people in it are another B&V wife I got to drive me and the music school owner's granddaughter. I went to playgroup at the library and there were a million kids there, most were considerably older than FFM. I was meeting another B&V wife there and while I was waiting for her I thought I'd just go up and randomly introduce myself to someone. So I picked one of the few people with a younger aged baby. Turned out not only were they American they were a fellow B&V wife, too (not the one I was meeting, a new one!). Small world.

One truly great thing is that the 15% rule does not apply here. Those of you that came to visit us in Dublin learned Travis' 15% theory, that everything in Ireland is 15% smaller than in the US. Houses, beds, rooms, restaurants, etc. Thus those of us who are normal (or slightly taller than normal) sized Americans felt about 15% too big for our space most of the time. Not so here! Here everything feels NICE AND SPACIOUS. We can stretch out and stand tall and drive without snagging a side mirror on a wall or oncoming traffic. Oh, and lanes are actually wide enough for big cars, which there are a lot of here, SUVs and everything. I enjoy Brisbane's blend of big enough for us to fit comfortably but still being a pedestrian city so I can walk places easily and get around with public transportation.

Shopping is almost like home here. Instead of thinking of that item you 'need' and then discovering it's 1)not available or 2)so amazingly expensive you'd never ever actually consider buying it, it's just slightly more expensive than home here. Baby items are LOTS more expensive, but we're pretty well equipped (thanks Uncle Q for the jumperoo, you wouldn't believe what that costs here!). IKEA is a wonderful place. Cheap things for your temporary home! And nice things that we look at and think, wouldn't that be nice to have if we didn't have to move it...

So, that's the current quick and dirty low down on our daily life around here at the start of week four of life down under.

Rainy Day

It rained today, and so we stayed inside. While checking online to see what it's supposed to do tomorrow (forecast is better weather) I thought I'd check up on some of our friends. Holy smokes it's STILL cold in Colorado! And still snowy from the sounds of things. And chilly other places, too... I'm telling you I forget what month is it and what season it is in most of the rest of the world. I keep thinking you all should be in summer, too.

Koalas and Kermit the Car

First, Travis asked if I'd show him how to do posts, too. I agreed, but after his great success at Christmas letter writing now I'm wondering if I was a little quick on the draw. What if no one comes back to read what I wrote? Faithful readers please continue to slog through my posts even if Travis' turn out to be, well, funnier :)

Monday of the holiday weekend we toured the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Basically a little zoo with local fauna. The sanctuary is mostly koalas but they also have kangaroos, wallaby, dingos, echindas, and all kinds of birds. A bunch of snakes, too, but I skipped that part. One of the features of the Sanctuary is that there are select animals that you are allowed to touch. How cool is that?!?!

The Sanctuary keeps all the koalas in different social groups, and names them accordingly. This was naptime in Kindergarten (the young ones). Other groups included "The Boys" (bachelors), "Mums", and the "Retirement Home." The Sanctuary has some of the longest lived koalas on record, they are really well cared for. Travis and FFM hanging out in front of the kindergarten koalas (who were all napping, it was REALLY pretty warm on Monday).
We caught one of the shows, the Birds of Prey flight show. Afterwards the birds pose for photos. This is a Sea Eagle. It's gorgeous and not one we see in Colorado! Travis scooted a little bit to his left right before I took the photo. It made for a less balanced photo but a safer one, those grabby little baby hands were very interested in putting Sea Eagle wing feathers into his mouth (to check their consistency).Then on to pet some animals. The kangaroos run free in a big field, you are encouraged to roam around among them and pet them. Of course for a small fee you can buy a bag of kangaroo food at the gift shop but we found them all to be relaxed and friendly even without the temptation of food. And soft! I didn't expect that, I thought they'd be more like a rough dog or perhaps a horse's coat, but it's more like soft fuzz.
A wallaby hiding out in a tree trunk.
Nice and thoughtful feature, at every exit to anywhere you pet animals are big, well stocked handwashing stations.

Cuddling a koala! This is Fitzroy. He was smelly. Boy koalas have a scent gland on their chest and his was working. He weighed about what FFM weighs, perhaps a bit less, but was easier to hold as he was almost asleep and totally relaxed!
On the way home we remembered to take a picture of our car. Toyota Camry. Nice upgrade from the Ford Focus in Dublin. It's pretty snazzy (I'm serious, it really is, we like it a lot). And we're even OK with the crazy color, it cracks us up and Travis never loses it in a parking lot (it's WAY more vibrant in person and when it's clean, it's a little dusty in this photo). Travis has dubbed it Kermit the Car. Back at home, long day for all of us...

Happy Australia Day

It's Australia Day! January 26th is the day Australians celebrate being Australian (and some say the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent of Australia but that's a little controversial and not actually on the official website). We discovered the celebration aspect of it is most like our 4th of July. Festivities include lots of BBQ, beer, gatherings of friends, and culminate with fireworks. Music, especially live, also plays a large part. Monday is a holiday in Queensland (our state) so Travis gets a nice three day weekend for his birthday (which was Friday).

Today the young man of the house woke up from his nap all giggles. Every time he looked at me he howled with laughter. After I pulled the camera out he took it down a couple notches, but you still catch the drift.

And a still photo showing off the big grin.

View of the fireworks from our balcony. They were set off at South Bank park, literally in the river across the street from us."Sorting" the shapes from Aunt Suzie. Right now this pretty much means mixing them all up with both hands and then dumping them onto the floor :) Oh, this was so funny, this is the pool float that you may remember from Thanksgiving. It was sitting on the floor drying off and happened to be within arms reach. I was cooking dinner and it suddenly got suspiciously quiet. I turned around and this is what I saw:
then I scooted around to get a view from underneath. What a funny little guy, he was SO content!One of our expeditions this week was to the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Here's FFM in his stroller, complete with UV sun shade, in the mangrove trees. UV exposure is a big deal here, as the ozone layer is very thin over Australia. What this means is that there is less atmosphere to protect your skin and you will burn a lot more quickly. Being from Colorado we're used to this, we have the same effect being at high altitude. We just returned to our old habits of always, always putting on sunscreen, wearing hats and sunglasses, and FFM has a swim body suit that's sort of like a mini wet suit.