ARGH the computer the computer!

Blogger is baffling me. I'm not an Html whiz, but can muddle my way through some simple stuff. However, something seems to have gone haywire with our posting and, at our end anyway, I can't turn on the 'Posted by' function. Blogger says it's on, all systems go, but at the end of each post where it's supposed to be it's no where to be seen. Travis wrote the last post, and if we're both going to be posting it would be nice for our faithful readers to know whose voice they're hearing! Until I figure out a solution, which may be eons, I'll have Travis sign his posts somehow. Any suggestions appreciated!

Just so you know, spell checker has been on the blink, too, so there may have been more spelling errors than normal. I do know that's an overall Blogger issue and that they're working on it. Not just something silly me did mucking about in the moore cyberspace.

Heavy Frost

No, not in Brisbane - in Colorado. While we have been slowly steaming in the subtropical climes of eastern Australia, Colorado has been getting whacked with heaps of snow. Here's my Mom's house in Silverton. The snow in the front yard is at least 6-feet deep, and it has undoubtedly settled since it was fresh. I think Silverton has gotten over 10 feet of snow so far in 2008.

This photo is of a house one street away from my Mom's house. The snow piles look a bit bigger because the snow is just piled up by plows on this street, rather than being hauled away.

If you're in the mood for some expert skiing or snowboarding in epic conditions, Silverton Mountain would be the place. Check out http://www.silvertonmountain.com/ for photos and current conditions.

Cricket Party!

We're trying to learn about cricket! The game they say Americans will never understand. Last weekend we went to a cricket party hosted by some new friends of ours. As you can see the house was overrun by BABIES! These two munchkins are FFM's new friends, Ceanne and Stephen. Ceanne is 9 months, Stephen is 4 months.

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.