Waxing Philosophic

I've thought a lot today. While I hung laundry in the backyard this evening, listening to strains of Irish music from our backyard neighbor JB O'Reilly's Eating and Drinking Emporium (it was a bit surreal), I thought about the generosity in our world.

I found out today, in a rather roundabout way, that a distant and quite removed cousin just lost her newborn (less than 3 month old) daughter to SIDS. It wrenched out my heart and left me gasping. I still check every night, and probably will for years and years to come, to make sure my son is well in his sleep. Even trying to imagine the grief overwhelms me, living through it would be unbearable. But already the outpouring of love and assistance to my 'cousin' and her family from the rest of my family is trickling through my email inbox...and I'm so far removed from the situation that I'm still not sure how I ended up getting the news so quickly anyway. It warms me to see the love.

I also can't stop thinking about the bushfires in Victoria. I hate the thought of fire. Utter. Destruction. Losing. Everything. I lived in the mountains of Colorado through several hot and dry summers and wondered what I'd do if I ever saw fire. It happened a few years later, my night owl brother was living in the same house and saw flames over the ridge and packed himself and my grandparents into the car and took off. The fires in Victoria are still burning, more than 130 people are dead, and I can tell you it's all over the news, radio, and minds of everyone here. The one bright spot, it seems donations and cash are already rolling in. And people are already out donating blood. One guy had already evacuated, had taken his soon to deliver pregnant wife to the hospital, and decided to stop in and donate blood himself. It's wonderful to see the good. To read some more about what's happening, please click through to the CNN story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/australia.wildfires/index.html

It's not all doom and gloom. This afternoon I prepared an extra dinner to take over to a friend who just had a baby AND anticipates moving away from Australia in less than two months. The baby is tiny and precious, and her big sister is a kick in the pants. The friends are from the UK and after I dropped off the meal (there are several of us doing meals over the next few weeks) I was questioned about the tradition of taking meals to new moms, "Is this an American tradition?" Well, I had to think about that for a second, previously I hadn't thought it was limited to Americans, but I responded that in times of need (birth, death, illness) that yes, Americans take each other meals. It's too bad this tradition isn't universal, but I'm sure glad we were able to provide for our friend and her family during this busy time in their lives.

So, after my brief philosophic moment, I hung the last pair of socks and now will move on with my evening. Travis put F to bed just as I started this post and as soon as I publish I'll pop in and check to make sure all is well :)

Toddler Moment

Having a teething toddler who's pretty sure he knows what's best for him (even though he's not two yet) can often lead to long, frustrating days for both of us. But the days are full of hilarious episodes, too, and I'm putting this one down for posterity because it will make me smile on those days when it's harder to remember...

We're both in the kitchen loading lunch dishes into the dishwasher and I hand FFM some spoons to put into the silverware basket. He likes to put them in handle down, I prefer them bowl down. I take a moment to show him how to turn them around, while saying "See, let's turn it around, F."

He looks at me with total love and understanding in his eyes, smiles at me, gently takes the next spoon from my hand, does two beautiful 360 pirouettes, and places the spoon handle down in the basket.

I fall down on the kitchen floor laughing hysterically at our totally literal son who just turned around and put the spoon in the basket. He responds with kisses and hugs. I love being a mom.

AC

Travis: You've got to see this, F figured out where all that cold air is coming from. Bring the camera.
Me: Really? But he's known about that (portable) AC unit for a while?

Warm fuzzies

I'm taking the day off today, thanks to my most excellent husband, and am catching up on some projects. The fun kind, not the clean the hair out of the vacuum cleaner kind. I started my most recent knitting project back in Colorado when it was cold and snowy, and as I'm sitting here in the heat of summer I feel a little silly knitting along on what will soon be a felted scarf... But the yarn is quite yummy and I adore the colors, and it's such mindless and easy knitting that it should be easy to wrap it up soon. Then I can pack it away until the next time I'm somewhere where temperatures dip below freezing.

Don't read this if you're tired of the travelogue

I realized I haven't had much normal stuff to blog about lately. Our suitcases are (seriously) put away until at least April. Well...I'm SO tempted to fly out to Brissy to meet Ms. Scarlet, but I think I can wait...

As of yesterday Penny is on her two week trek across country by train, and we are a little family of three once again. F celebrated by going to his 2nd day of creche/daycare and having a major meltdown. So major it merited a phone call to mom and dad for a rescue just after lunch. However, today we tried out our new gym and he spent about an hour and a half at the creche there and I literally had to drag him out of the Little Tykes plastic car. So glad he's happy there! Who knew Little Tykes plastic cars would make a great incentive to go work out?

While Penny was here we did a few trips to explore our newest home state. North of Perth a few hundred km is a nifty rock outcrop called The Pinnacles, along with some spiffy beaches. We also did some touristy stuff around the city and a boat trip out to Rottnest Island. A few of you have asked about this island, it's just west off the coast and is the one without any cars where everyone rides bikes. The first Dutch settlers thought the many small marsupials on the island were giant rats and so named it 'Rats Nest' (Rottnest). They are, in fact, Quokkas and are way cuter and cuddlier than rats.


We also did a whirlwind trip to the southwest portion of our current home state of Western Australia. This part of the state is known for it's wineries, in fact if you're a wine drinker and have sampled Aussie wine you've probably had some from the area we were in called Margaret River. The southern hemisphere's longest wooden jetty is nearby, with an underwater observatory at the end of it. We continued on south and east from there to check out the Great Southern Forests and the Great Southern Ocean (that's a whole lot of greats). You'll see a lighthouse in the slide show, this is where the Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean meet. Just like the Arctic Circle, Travis was a little disappointed there wasn't a dotted line to mark the spot.

Travis' birthday fell during the trip and to celebrate the rare occurrence of his birthday in the summer (we sort of missed it last year since we'd just landed in Brisbane) we did a beach day. I also managed to whip up an ice cream bombe cake that was so so so good that it may get resurrected for winter birthdays, too.

Travis also climbed a fire watch tree during the trip. Insane - 61m up on rebar pegs hammered into the trunk. You'd never be allowed to do this in the US boys and girls. When asked if anyone ever fell off the guide at the bottom said, 'Yes, but they usually manage to grab something on the way down and no one has been seriously injured.' Comforting to those of us afraid of falling. My most daring adventure was the Tree Top walk which was a swaying walking 40m up in the trees. Travis planned this trip all on his own while I was back in the US, which I think may have had something to do with all the longest, highest, southernmost, things that were included ;) It was a lovely lovely trip.


I also whipped up some homemade popsicles about the time I made the bombe. They were a big hit, too.