Posts
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Momentary sense of disconnect
My mobile phone is sick. And it's making me feel a little strange. I don't get that many calls/texts that I can't live without it for a couple of days, but we don't have a landline and I feel a little trepidation at letting it go to the hospital tomorrow. Walking out the door without a cell phone is like walking out without my keys, forgetting to put on wedding rings, or getting in the car and not buckling my seat belt. It's just such habit that it feels, well, like I'm forgetting something. I was halfway tempted to just buy a new one at the shop today, but my rational brain got the better of me and said, no, you can easily survive without a phone for two days. Let's just hope the nice folks next door let you use theirs if there's a life threatening emergency.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
2.5
That's the number of steps FFM took the first time he walked on his own. Ten minutes later and he's up to 5. It's bedtime for him now so we'll leave it for the day, but here's a shot of one of the final passes. First pass wasn't to anyone or anything, he and Travis were meandering through the living room and Travis let go. FFM must have been too tired to notice - he just kept going. He's been walking around for two weeks holding on to just one of my fingers, he doesn't need the help but he *likes* it. It just took Dad's magic touch to get him to release.
He turned 13 months old yesterday. Note at the end of the video he still makes a beeline for the camera. Some things never change.
He turned 13 months old yesterday. Note at the end of the video he still makes a beeline for the camera. Some things never change.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
I Love to Cook
In my current state of domestic bliss (yeah, OK ignore the dust) at least ONE thing is blissful. Cooking. While I am rushed, the Australian ingredients for what my American brain is used to cooking aren't always quite right, and I work with a one year old permanently attached to my kneecap, the end result is SO appreciated it makes my day each and every day.
While we were on vacation I didn't pack FFM's toothpaste, thinking we could just brush his teeth with water for a week. Apparently Travis missed this family memo and finding no Buzz Lightyear toothpaste brushed FFM's teeth with grownup style minty Crest. Kids aren't supposed to like mint, it tastes HOT to them. Now I can't get FFM to use his fruity kid toothpaste, he likes Travis' MINTY one!
What makes me really smile about all of this is that I was a picky kid. I read something in some parenting book or magazine that said to introduce your child to as many different foods as possible. That way when they start getting choosy about what they eat if they are already eating 20 different things then maybe they'll drop to 15. I figure I'm set and even if the picky curse hits FFM there will still be a few things left he'll be willing to eat. We had yummy grilled cheese and avocado sandwiches for lunch today, those ought to be popular at least for a little while :)
Travis happily eats anything, and FFM is turning out to be a VERY adventurous eater. Actually more adventurous that I think either of us is quite prepared for. He's always been excited about more interesting foods than your simple single veg (recall his first favorite was pureed spinach with basil and parsnip back when we were supposed to be doing 'single' purees). Prior to birthday #1 we haven't held back on much. We've fed FFM every kind of meat, fish, tofu, veg, fruit (except those bananas and watermelon that he's not excited about), that's been available to us. This included wacky items like mushrooms, passionfruit, lamb, and lovely things like homemade salmon and sweet potato cakes.
About two months ago we started doing family dinners as often as we could. FFM's table manners weren't the greatest but I'd noticed that when I ate breakfast or lunch with him he was better behaved (not neater, but calmer). With family dinners came shared plates, FFM was SO interested in what we were eating and his chewing and manipulating skills were good enough that we just all started eating the same thing. We're not interested in bland things, and turns out neither is he. No salt (any salt we need we add at the table), but bring on the spices! Crazy kid, it's amazing what he'll chow on. We also feed him the same thing we eat when we go out to dinner.
FFM's surprising dinner out favorites: gyoza, bean sprouts, thai lemon grass/chili/mushroom soup, veggie sushi (I have to pull out the nori), steak, pizza, hamburgers, edamame, and garlic bread. We have a Japanese restaurant across the street that some of our neighbors own. It's quite tasty and I like to go there for a quick lunch. I'll order a veggie soba soup and share it with FFM. He munches on half of the sprouts, carrots, baby corn, mushrooms out of my soup and then we share a side of veggie sushi.
Photo below - Travis sharing his Thai Tom Yum soup. FFM was angrily 'requesting' soup, this wasn't our idea. It was a bit hit, though, and FFM had several spoonfuls before I said maybe we should wait to see how lemon grass chili soup comes out.
While we were on vacation I didn't pack FFM's toothpaste, thinking we could just brush his teeth with water for a week. Apparently Travis missed this family memo and finding no Buzz Lightyear toothpaste brushed FFM's teeth with grownup style minty Crest. Kids aren't supposed to like mint, it tastes HOT to them. Now I can't get FFM to use his fruity kid toothpaste, he likes Travis' MINTY one!What makes me really smile about all of this is that I was a picky kid. I read something in some parenting book or magazine that said to introduce your child to as many different foods as possible. That way when they start getting choosy about what they eat if they are already eating 20 different things then maybe they'll drop to 15. I figure I'm set and even if the picky curse hits FFM there will still be a few things left he'll be willing to eat. We had yummy grilled cheese and avocado sandwiches for lunch today, those ought to be popular at least for a little while :)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Great Barrier Reef
Wow. If you can ever go, GO. Yes, this was one of the best. vacations. ever. I know it's a long way, but if you're wondering if it's really worth it, I'm here to tell you it certainly is.
To get to our holiday destination we flew north to a group of islands called the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are an archipelago of 74 islands all located within the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. 66 of the islands are uninhabited and several of the islands have a single lodge/resort on them. We stayed on Hamilton Island, which has a 'town' and some private residences in addition to a couple hotels. Since there were 5 of us we got a townhouse to stay in which came with a 'buggy', aka golf cart, to get us around the little island.
The trip started out with a bang when we were overwhelmed by the fancy place we ended up staying. I'd taken a shot in the dark and called the resort lodging (sort of like calling say Vail resorts) and worked with them on when to come and where to stay. We had a little bit of play with timing since our guests from the US were here for nearly three weeks. Great accommodation, great views, high chair and crib included. We were greeted on our living room balcony by two sulphur crested cockatoos, which were the first of many interesting wildlife sightings. The other animals that came to visit included blue winged kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets (little parrots), giant and very noisy bats, and some very hungry possums.
Our first adventure was a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. The GBR stretches 1,250 miles along the coast of Australia, so obviously it's enormous. It's actually made up of nearly 3,000 separate reefs of three different kinds. Fringing reefs are the ones right around the edges of islands, platform reefs form in shallow water and grow up and then out to form a platform, and ribbon reefs are narrow strips right on the edge of the continental shelf, found mainly at the north end of the GBR.
Our trip went out to a platform reef. The group we went with practices eco-tourism and what they've done is permanently moor a pontoon out at the reef. The boat parks out at the pontoon and all the scuba, snorkeling, submarine rides, and all other activities take place from the pontoon. Food, bathrooms, trash, are all done on the boat so everything gets packed home. They even provide FREE childcare. WHOA.
Travis, Mom, and Eric all signed up for the morning scuba trip. My mom is certified (but no paperwork with her), Travis has done a resort dive before, and this was Eric's first time ever. They all did really well and after some thorough lessons they all took the plunge and got to do some crazy things like hold a giant clam. The ship videographer caught the dive on camera and we bought a copy so you can see Travis floating away, my mom's hair going crazy, and Eric working hard to breathe calmly :)
While they were all off having fun on their dive FFM and I took a submarine ride to see the reef without getting wet. That was great fun and perfect for wee ones too small for scuba or snorkeling (next time FFM, I promise). We even spotted a rare ridgeback sea turtle, so cool! Later in the day we took advantage of the free childcare and dumped off our kid (as all good parents do. pretty sure he wasn't infecting the other kids) and all went for a snorkel. I've got a underwater camera that I need to get developed, hopefully some turn out. The day we were on reef was an extra low tide day so the reef was,unusually, actually fully exposed to the air. Normally we would have been swimming around on top of the reef but the water was so low that the reef was poking up and we just swam along the edge. Reefs need to be underwater or they will die, but they can survive a few hours of extra low tide.
We also went for a hike during our stay on Hamilton Island. The flora of the Whitsundays is really interesting to me. From a distance they look a lot like islands in the Pacific Northwest, say the San Juans or islands in Alaska. But you look closer and realize the trees are all wrong! And then you spot a palm tree and know it's really different. Our hike took us through palms, mangroves, evergreens, eucalyptus, and many other trees and shrubs I can't begin to identify. We hiked to a secluded beach, only one beach on our island was accessible by buggy, all others you needed to hike in to.
Our last big adventure was a trip to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. This beach is famous for it's 9km of white white sand. The sand is minute powder-size grains of quartz and is 99.89% pure, well above the minimum requirement for glass-making, and suitable for the finest glass for optical lenses for binoculars etc. Have no fear, the beach is protected and no mining companies are going to start digging away anytime soon. This was my favorite part of the whole trip, the crystal clear water, the soft white sand, lots of space for all of us to roam around in... definitely (one of my) idea of paradise.
I put a selection of the 100s of photos I took into a slideshow, this one is not automatic you'll need to click to make it go. It seems to go a bit fast, feel free to use the pause button so you can read the captions. I've got some video clips from Whitehaven I'm working on that (hopefully) I'll get posted later this week. Our internet connection has been the speed of dial up so uploading items is taking me a really long time. The very first picture of the slide show is from an outing we took to Coolangatta the week before we went up to the Whitsundays, FFM's fever had finally broken and we needed a day out of the house. We stayed FAR away from people but the fresh air definitely did good things for him.
To get to our holiday destination we flew north to a group of islands called the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are an archipelago of 74 islands all located within the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. 66 of the islands are uninhabited and several of the islands have a single lodge/resort on them. We stayed on Hamilton Island, which has a 'town' and some private residences in addition to a couple hotels. Since there were 5 of us we got a townhouse to stay in which came with a 'buggy', aka golf cart, to get us around the little island.
The trip started out with a bang when we were overwhelmed by the fancy place we ended up staying. I'd taken a shot in the dark and called the resort lodging (sort of like calling say Vail resorts) and worked with them on when to come and where to stay. We had a little bit of play with timing since our guests from the US were here for nearly three weeks. Great accommodation, great views, high chair and crib included. We were greeted on our living room balcony by two sulphur crested cockatoos, which were the first of many interesting wildlife sightings. The other animals that came to visit included blue winged kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets (little parrots), giant and very noisy bats, and some very hungry possums.
Our first adventure was a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. The GBR stretches 1,250 miles along the coast of Australia, so obviously it's enormous. It's actually made up of nearly 3,000 separate reefs of three different kinds. Fringing reefs are the ones right around the edges of islands, platform reefs form in shallow water and grow up and then out to form a platform, and ribbon reefs are narrow strips right on the edge of the continental shelf, found mainly at the north end of the GBR.
Our trip went out to a platform reef. The group we went with practices eco-tourism and what they've done is permanently moor a pontoon out at the reef. The boat parks out at the pontoon and all the scuba, snorkeling, submarine rides, and all other activities take place from the pontoon. Food, bathrooms, trash, are all done on the boat so everything gets packed home. They even provide FREE childcare. WHOA.
Travis, Mom, and Eric all signed up for the morning scuba trip. My mom is certified (but no paperwork with her), Travis has done a resort dive before, and this was Eric's first time ever. They all did really well and after some thorough lessons they all took the plunge and got to do some crazy things like hold a giant clam. The ship videographer caught the dive on camera and we bought a copy so you can see Travis floating away, my mom's hair going crazy, and Eric working hard to breathe calmly :)
While they were all off having fun on their dive FFM and I took a submarine ride to see the reef without getting wet. That was great fun and perfect for wee ones too small for scuba or snorkeling (next time FFM, I promise). We even spotted a rare ridgeback sea turtle, so cool! Later in the day we took advantage of the free childcare and dumped off our kid (as all good parents do. pretty sure he wasn't infecting the other kids) and all went for a snorkel. I've got a underwater camera that I need to get developed, hopefully some turn out. The day we were on reef was an extra low tide day so the reef was,unusually, actually fully exposed to the air. Normally we would have been swimming around on top of the reef but the water was so low that the reef was poking up and we just swam along the edge. Reefs need to be underwater or they will die, but they can survive a few hours of extra low tide.
We also went for a hike during our stay on Hamilton Island. The flora of the Whitsundays is really interesting to me. From a distance they look a lot like islands in the Pacific Northwest, say the San Juans or islands in Alaska. But you look closer and realize the trees are all wrong! And then you spot a palm tree and know it's really different. Our hike took us through palms, mangroves, evergreens, eucalyptus, and many other trees and shrubs I can't begin to identify. We hiked to a secluded beach, only one beach on our island was accessible by buggy, all others you needed to hike in to.
Our last big adventure was a trip to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. This beach is famous for it's 9km of white white sand. The sand is minute powder-size grains of quartz and is 99.89% pure, well above the minimum requirement for glass-making, and suitable for the finest glass for optical lenses for binoculars etc. Have no fear, the beach is protected and no mining companies are going to start digging away anytime soon. This was my favorite part of the whole trip, the crystal clear water, the soft white sand, lots of space for all of us to roam around in... definitely (one of my) idea of paradise.
I put a selection of the 100s of photos I took into a slideshow, this one is not automatic you'll need to click to make it go. It seems to go a bit fast, feel free to use the pause button so you can read the captions. I've got some video clips from Whitehaven I'm working on that (hopefully) I'll get posted later this week. Our internet connection has been the speed of dial up so uploading items is taking me a really long time. The very first picture of the slide show is from an outing we took to Coolangatta the week before we went up to the Whitsundays, FFM's fever had finally broken and we needed a day out of the house. We stayed FAR away from people but the fresh air definitely did good things for him.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Couldn't Wait
The FFM and Maggie birthday celebration when my mom arrived (on my birthday, a few days after FFM's). Got this from Eric's camera and am working through his photos before I delve into ours.
