9 month (belated) update

Here we are, nearly two weeks after turning 9 months and still without an update!
Wednesday we were off to the doc for a developmental check, and good news. Apparently we're developing just fine and are hale and hearty.

But guess what the new doctor discovered! FFM's BIG! Whoa, never would have guessed that. If I had a dollar for every doctor I've gone through this with...well, not quite college tuition yet but getting there. So the doc plotted some growth charts, as I expected, FFM's not really on them. I came home and pulled up some old numbers, including some months where we guessed, and while he's way above the percentile curves his curve still follows their shape. Since he's beyond percentiles on both weight and height the doc says his weight and height are OK and he's healthy. It's when they are out of whack with each other that the doc says to be concerned. Although I did get the reminder not to feed him sweets (again). The twist this time was that the doc added in that chips (french fries) should be avoided, too. I just laughed, (FFM gets crazy healthy food) and decided from now on Travis needs to go with me to checkups so I don't have to keep trying to explain why our baby is so big and tall.

So the stats this month are: 28lbs and just over 31".

It's fall, or autumn as the Aussies say, here. I got fooled into thinking that maybe we'd start to have some cooler weather. It's been glorious all week, about 70-72 during the day. Silly me, forecast this weekend is for a spectacular, clear weekend with temps in the 80s. I'm actually considering a spray tan to cover up my glowing white legs that are constantly blinding passersby.

I'm not complaining about the weather at all, it's so lovely here, I'm just adjusting to life in the southern hemisphere with the seasons flipped. And,so far, in Brisbane it seems the seasons are pretty mild. Weather in Colorado is still so cold and snowy, but everyone there I hear from is in that anxious-for-spring mode. Where at the first hint of any breath of warmth the shorts and sunscreen come out and everyone goes for a hike or bike ride and drives around with the windows down (and the heat on). I want to box up a pint of this weather and mail it to everyone I know who is dealing with another snowy day in CO. Or wherever you are where you are anxiously awaiting the end of winter.

The Day We Were Glad We Childproofed

First - a recap of recent adventures. We toured the world famous Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter, Steve 'Crikey!' Irwin. It's a really nice zoo, full of native animals. We've been to several places now that do a great job of getting you up close to the native fauna, but this was the first time we got to see the elusive echinida! Below, with someones feet for scale. They are prickly like a porcupine and move really fast. And one of my favorites, the wombat. They're just so durn cute! This one had just come back from a walk around the zoo, with harness and leash and everything. Still reluctant to let FFM pet (ie pull all the fur off) the koalas, we let him get a little closer this time. And the Tasmanian Devil getting afternoon tea. We asked, they really only are found on the little island of Tasmania off the south east coast of mainland Australia. Their pink ears turn bright red when they get angry/agitated.
At the zoo Travis gave FFM some licks of his lemon popsicle...which was of course a huge hit. Not being excited about giving our 9 month old frozen sugar on a stick but still reluctant to deny him what was obviously a big treat, I tried a healthier alternative. Yogurt on a spoon! I froze blobs of yogurt in ice cube trays and stuck spoons into them. After the initial - uh, Mom, exactly WHAT do you want me to eat? it was just as popular as the sugary one.
Today...the day I'm glad we spent a couple of bucks on the little plastic plugs for the outlets. Power here is 240v - a bit more juice than the 110v out of the wall in the US. Today FFM crawled over to the wall to inspect those nifty little sockets to see what they are all about. Note the footstool in front of the bookcase, also a childproofing measure 1) to keep him from pulling all the books out and 2) to keep him from pulling the bookcase down since we can't screw it to the rental apt wall.

A little video of some crawling. Not true crawling yet, but for about two weeks now we've had army style commando crawling. I haven't been able to get a good video, whenever I pull out the camera he stops to check out what I'm doing. He's much faster than this shot, but it's about the best I can get. He's crawling toward the stroller, he's got a total obsession with the stroller wheels.

And another video, this one is actually about a month old (oops!) and is swimming. There's a dunk, after which you'll see a funny face. This is simply annoyance that Dad's interrupted splashing time. FFM's great underwater, although only remembers to close his mouth about half the time so sometimes we have a pretty waterlogged little guy at the end of swimming. We do swim lessons once a week, Aussies are superb about water safety and getting kids of all ages into the pool.

Moores Go to Sydney

Last weekend was a 4 day weekend for the Moores. So what did we do? Go on a trip of course! FFM is a great traveler, he treks along so well, we couldn't be happier. Travis chalks it up to all the prenatal (ante-natal for you Irish) travel he did.

Here we are on the double decker tour bus. It's a great way to see and get around cities when you're only there for a few days. They stop at all the places YOU want to go, no messing around with trains or buses that go other places (like where commuters might want to go!). Do we look like we're having fun or what?

A family shot across from the Sydney Opera House. Later that day we walked all around the Opera House and toured the Botanic Gardens right next door (FFM handily napped during the gardens).

(is this sounding like a travelogue yet? just wait...it will...)

At the park at Darling Harbor. We enjoyed this park so much we went back the next day.
Sunday we took the tourist bus to Bondi Beach (pronounced Bond-eye, no tourist speak please!). Bondi is a super-popular-famous Australian beach. It's a nice beach, what makes it really special is that it's right in the city so it's easy access. I LOVE THE BEACH! (kick kick flap flap)After a morning at the beach we headed back to our new favorite hangout, the park at Darling Harbor. There's a traditional Chinese garden in the park that you can tour, complete with a tea house. Of course we stopped in for some tea.I'm still on the quest to teach FFM about textures other than carpet and tile. Here he is learning about some new textures! Hey mom, grass. This attempt went much better than previous attempts. Third time's a charm. We also played on the brick pathways (grout is apparently FASCINATING) and in several of the many kid friendly water features scattered throughout the park.Look at my TOOTH! I've got three more on the way! It's just peeking out, if you're not a parent you may have to use your imagination (it's his bottom left tooth).Another water feature/fountain we had fun playing in. Our last stop for the day was the Sydney Aquarium. Much enjoyed, but FFM wasn't so sure about sitting on the walkway that overlooked the fishes - that's a sting ray under him. I don't think he was upset about the water or the fish, just that we'd stopped carrying him :)
Oh...but this part was GOOD fun! This was a two story tall view into the big reef tank. FFM sat quietly for so long we finally pulled him away (it was waaaaaay past dinner time and WE were hungry!).

We really enjoyed Sydney, and can't wait to get back, even if it's just for a day or so. Oh, and the food was SO good! We've got a cruise coming up at the end of the year that departs from Sydney so we know we'll be back!

Earth Hour 2008

(from the Earth Hour page)
'On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.
With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities joined Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.'

I'm back. (FYI, CBD=Central Business District or what what Yanks might think of as 'downtown).
Brisbane was one of the cities to participate in Earth Hour 2008 and we looked off our balcony last night and saw all the darkened office buildings. I'll admit, it was a lovely sight. Not only were the floor lights turned off but the giant neon company names on top of the buildings were off, too. It's always seemed wasteful to me to see giant high rise office buildings that are totally empty with all their lights blazing. I'm all for having lights on when you're working, or the cleaners are in there, but really, all night? Couldn't they at least manage turning off half the lights like when you go to the grocery store in the middle of the night (don't ask why I know this, but I do).

Anyway, check out the website for Earth Hour, and watch for next March. Sorry I didn't get this up sooner, I really should have and you all could have participated this year.
Earth Hour website

Here's a link to an article on CNN, too:
CNN Earth Hour story

Bags of glee

Some days things just go right. And since it's always easy to write about the days when they don't, today it's all about things that DO.


Today I went grocery shopping. I found everything I needed. FFM was pretty well behaved, grocery shopping is hard for him, it's a long time to have to sit still, even with his nifty cart cover which has toys all over it. There was no line at the check out. My bill was slightly less than I expected. AND, the best part of all, the manager himself was checking me out and he bagged my groceries. I have NEVER EVER had my groceries bagged so well. This guy is my grocery bagging twin. It's like he took a look at my cabinets at home and KNEW exactly how I like my groceries sacked. Bags not too full, not too empty, like items together, it was brilliant. I've been home a while now and I'm still happy about it. It's the little things in life, really it is.

While at the store I discovered yet another way our darling son is just like his father. Travis' mom, Penny, tells the story of the day she took Travis to the store and he somehow got into the carton of eggs in the basket and quite deliberately dropped them one by one from his perch in the cart onto the store floor. FFM hasn't quite mastered that yet, perhaps because I haven't bought any eggs the last two trips, but every item I put into the cart within his reach gets pulled out and put into his seat. Nothing dropped out yet, but it's only a matter of time. He's dexterous enough that we have to go down the middle of the aisle now, he reaches for items on the shelves, too. EVERYTHING is SO COLORFUL at the store, and plainly FFM thinks we must need at least one of everything. The produce section is the most difficult!