Quail Moods

Sophie Dance Class, for Elaine

2011-03-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

Felix's 8th Birthday in the Snow

2010-01-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

We surprised Felix with his first trip to the snow on his 8th birthday. Just 2.5 hours north east of where we are, Idyllwild is a pretty little village with lots of secret places to sled, build snowmen/women and have snowball fights. After his initial disappointment at the compacted, icy roadside snow (!), he had a wonderful time.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

FIRST SLED RIDE:

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

GRACE'S SNOW BABY (apologies for bad quality):

WORLD'S BIGGEST SNOWBALL:

GRACE SNOWBALLING:

SNOW ANGEL:

MORE SLEDDING:

Christmas Day

2009-12-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

Champagne on Christmas Day #1

Champagne on Christmas Day #2

So many presents to chose from, which one first....?

Pogo Stick...he actually was much more excited than he shows in this video...he bounced a lot just after this, just didn't catch it on camera!

Present from Granny for Grace

Grand Annie Present for Felix

Present from Granny for Felix #1

Present from Granny for Felix #2

Present from Grandannie for Grace

The New Children's Museum, San Diego

2009-12-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

Felix and Izaya at the New Children's Museum in San Diego. Too much fun.

Spinning up a Storm

Chariot Racing

Monster Bash

Ballerina

2009-12-01T22:56:00.001-08:00

Horribly fuzzy and dull to begin with but soon Grace's ballerina skills come to the fore..

Balloon Girl

2009-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Grace's Birthday Celebrations

2009-10-01T12:15:00.001-07:00

This is the girl who will know how to string out a birthday...

October 1, the first in a series (no doubt) of celebrations for Grace's 2nd birthday which is tomorrow, October 2.

Vivian, Grace's nanny organized this one and the whole Brazilian Nanny Mafia turned out in force with their charges. This was my first experience of Grace's secret life and all the secret friends that she has. At last I've met Max ("Maaa") and Piper ("P-p") and all the rest of them. Grace stood serene in her etheral party dress (thanks Yasmin...it's got a lot of life in it yet!) as everyone sung happy birthday to her, first in English and then in Brazilian.

Here's a video of the singing, followed by more assorted shots:

Starlets

2009-09-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

Gracie & Sophie enjoying one of the highlights of their trip to Scripps Birch Aquarium...a photo booth.

Leaving the aquarium

Life taken over by real estate

2009-07-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm feeling a little sad that it's been so long between blogs. But my life has been consumed by real estate and is showing no signs of let up.

I notice my last post was mid-March. Just 2 weeks after we put in an offer on a short-sale house. And it's been crazy ever since.

We closed on the house mid-May, started renovations almost immediately and we're still thickly embedded in them.

We moved out of our old house at the beginning of June but we've been unable to move into the new place and have since lived in three different houses and will probably add one, two or even three more to that list before we're finally able to move into our new home. Which will likely still be a bit of a building site. *sigh* as the following photos start to show:

Felix and Izaya get their own construction to renovate.

This pile of dirt has grown to three times its size. Don't ask, just don't ask...

SeaWorld

2009-03-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

We've lived here for nearly 7 years and in all that time I've never been to SeaWorld. Indeed Felix only went for the first time last year with my mother when she was visiting.

Why? Well, I guess we're a bit theme-parked out down here. There's Legoland (10 minutes away); the Zoo; Wild Animal Park and of course Disneyland just over an hour away. And I thought SeaWorld would just be more of the same...lots of amusements with a few token sea mammals thrown in.

So, OK I was wrong. It's really very impressive. So to is the rollercoaster, which was really the only amusement, beyond the Sesame St play area, that had nothing to do with fish. Although it does have a lot of water.

AdmittedlyI did still feel a bit uncomfortable when I saw these huge whales in these relatively small pools. Ditto the dolphins and sea lions. I know though that they have an amazing breeding program, which they remind you about constantly when you're there. A handy guilt assuager I'm guessing.

But yes, it was fun. And I'm glad I left it that long as well. There's no danger of us becoming jaded. The shows, as I said, were incredible. Very sophisticated production and well scripted. The two trainers in the water at the same time with their respective whales then pushing them out of the water so they could turn somersaults in the air...well, pretty incredible. And the exhibits were very impressive too. My favourite? The penguins. I went back about three times! Top tip, discovered by accident: go visit them right at the end of the day, they're much livelier.

Thanks to my aunt, cousin and her brood for coming to visit San Diego so we could enjoy such a great day. Here are some highlights below:

Pauline, Gerod, Connor and PamLiam & Felix
This doesn't show what I wanted it to, but if you click on it and look very closely above the whales, you'll see the two trainers, camouflaged by the crowd, turning somersaults in the air. Amazing.

Felix and 2 beluga whales.

Whilst we were getting soaked on the rollercoaster, Grace had her own soggy fun.

Solo Parenting

2009-03-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

I've been single parenting now for 12 days. And frankly I'm over it! Mike's not back for 4 more days, so I need to keep slogging through it. We've all been sick in one form or another. Mine just a dripping, persistent head cold that has gone through various iterations, Felix with strep that saw him out for the count for 24 hours and off school for 2 days, last week, and Grace streaming with her hair often glued to her nose!

I definitely have a deeper admiration for all the women and men who raise children single-handedly. It's very tough work.

What I have found the hardest is being able to be present for them 100% of the time. And this doesn't mean I'm trying to engineer every minute or aspect of their day, but just when they need me, I need to be there present, still, focused only on them (even if just for a few minutes). It's usually pretty hard to do at the best of times, but now going into day 13 of solo-parenting it's nigh on impossible. I'm trying to get my things done, trying to keep the house ticking over, get them fed, take them out once a day, etc etc...you know the drill. Anyway, when it overtakes me I find it much more challenging to keep still and calm and they certainly don't get the best of me in those moments.

Added to this, Grace has also become very vociferous in her displeasure when Felix and I are having quiet snuggle time. She marches up, yells, tries to pull Felix's arm/leg/head away from me and quickly replace it with hers! For the most part Felix takes this in his stride, because he's such a trooper, but it's still a HUGE challenge.

Ah well. I just hope Mike doesn't come back jet-lagged because I NEED MY SLEEP!

But then on the flip side, Grace this morning was in such a happy sweet mood that I found all my tiredness and frustration melted away and in an instant I was regenerated. And then Vivian arrived to take her out for the morning (and yes, I'm very well aware that most single parents don't have the luxury of a Vivian in their lives and that yes indeed I am EXTREMELY fortunate and have very little to complain about...but I still need to decompress sometimes).

Anyway, here she is, heading out for a morning's play with her secret life friends.

Felix's 007th Birthday Party

2009-03-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Give it to me now!

2009-03-04T10:39:00.001-08:00

I love this face Grace makes. It says...I know what I want and I'm going to keep on demanding it until I get it (of course I'm completely at a loss to know where she gets this character trait from...).
But really, I'm amazed at her incredible communication skills....it doesn't matter that what she says is all a garble, I always understand her.

Lately she's taken to coming up to me and pulling on my jeans, my sweater, my hand...whatever's in reach really, and then dragging me off whilst jabbering happily away. And quite often now it's to take over to her change table to have a new nappy/diaper (I'm now conflicted as to what to call them!).

Clever girl.

LA-la-la-la-LA

2009-03-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

The last time I saw Amanda was when she was living and working in Hong Kong and I was still in Sydney. She used to come over for her birthday and all her friends would happily drink her hard earned Hong Kong dollars in terribly fashionable venues around town.

That was probably about 9 years ago. And it was certainly a different life...a time before we had lives as wives and working mothers in Southern California.

Facebook (and Cass O’Connor) finally brought us back together again and wouldn’t you know it, Amanda’s been living and working in LA for the last few years with hubbie Justin and beautiful daughter Charlotte. Just a hundred miles away.

So us beach-burbian hicks all went up to the big smoke a few weekends ago, in February.

Amanda hasn't changed a bit. What I love about her is that she’s a spunky, energetic, stridently opinionated, very funny, smart woman who has a wonderful ability to laugh at herself and the occasional snobbery that pops out of her. Yet for all her self proclaimed pretensions she refreshingly has very few.

We drink more tea these days than we do fancy cocktails, had a lovely home cooked dinner on the Saturday and spent Sunday morning mooching around the Farmer’s Markets and the afternoon at the really stinky but lots of fun LaBrea tar pits.

Snaps from our weekend below, where I proved myself to be a terrible photographer. I forgot to take photos most of the time, managed to lose a load of them somewhere on my laptop and didn't even manage to get a photo of our hosts. I mostly framed very dull shots and even borrowing a lens made no difference...in fact just seemed to make them even more blurry...but hey ho...be prepared to be bored below:
Hollywood sign from outside Amanda's apartment. (It's that white line just below the centre of the photo!)Charlotte. Blurry but gorgeous.Poor Charlotte! I'm expecting the chiropractor's bills any day!
Amanda and Justin far far far away at the top of the hill.The rear view of Felix and Amanda. Great coat Amanda. What's a hill for if not for rolling down??

Just plant and add water…

2009-03-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wish it was that easy growing kids. For starters it’s hard enough to even get Felix to drink water now that his juice box obsession has firmly taken root.

I’m sure lots of mothers go through this: guilt for what’s going inside and fueling their kids.

I guess I’m additionally sensitive because I find that a lot of American products just have so much unnecessary c-r-a-p added. The long list of ingredients in so many kids foods makes me shudder. I sometimes feel like I'm playing some kind of 'spot the real food ingredient' game.

But what’s worse is Grace, of course, loves to copy everything Felix does. Including wanting these bloody juice packs and boxes. Currently Felix likes these soft packs and it’s impossible to dilute the contents for either him or for Grace. At the moment Grace only gets to play with unopened or completely drained packs. But it’s not going to be long until she works out how to open it.

It’s lovely that she has a big brother to look up to and copy. But I really worry that we’re just so much more relaxed with her than we were with Felix about food etc, that maybe we’re too relaxed? She regularly has bites of cakes and cookies that Felix has, loves a little bit of chocolate and particularly enjoys the diluted juice that we do give her. I don’t think Felix ever had any juice before he was 2 years old. Certainly not on a regular basis.

They do say the second kid is much easier, because the parents are more easygoing. But I just worry about at what cost. So I'll just make myself feel better by repeating the much-often quoted refrain "a little of what you fancy"...

Ah well. They’re still the most beautiful and perfect children in the world. And on reflection, I'm always forgetting to water my plants, so maybe it is better than I’ve been given 2 children to grow instead.

Miniscule catch up

2009-03-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

Life continues to be busy and keeps me away from this space. Mike's off in Australia for two weeks, we're trying to buy a house, I've had a head cold followed by bout of gastro-yuk and I'm still recovering from Felix's 7th birthday celebrations when over 30 kids turned up and swarmed over our garden and tree house in suitably crazed fashion.

Meanwhile this post party (it had a Spy theme) photo makes me chuckle.

Rev-head Arnold

2009-02-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

And no, I'm not talking about Felix here...

For the last few months, I've noticed Grace's increasing interest in a certain type of toy car. I have to be honest, I've never really liked them. To me it’s just one big piece of brightly coloured moulded plastic. But everytime she saw one she'd run over to it, climb in and beam with joyous delight. So when I spotted one for sale very cheaply on Craigslist, I gave in..

She was just finishing lunch when I got it home and I left it at the top of the driveway. I didn't show her it was there, but as she stepped out onto the front porch, she caught a flash of the red and yellow out of the corner of her eye....and she was off with squeals of yabbering delight, clambering down the front steps and running down the path. I have NEVER seen her run that fast. Look at her go:
It didn't take long for her to figure out which side the door opened:
Then she elegantly stepped in...looking for all the world like she'd done a series of deportment lessons already:And then she was in and ready to go:I then spent the next 15 minutes pushing her around the garden until she tired of it (thank goodness for short attention spans at this age) and moved on to something else.

I still hate large pieces of brightly coloured moulded plastic for all kinds of aesthetic and environmental reasons. But when I see Grace bubble over like this, I'm become a conflicted push-over.

Beep beep.

What's going on?

2009-02-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

So I guess this was always the danger in me starting a blog. Write enough to garner some interest and then get too busy to update it and end up disappointing. Ooops.

We've had a full couple of weeks of various play dates, a weekend in LA, me flying off to Chicago for most of last week and now I'm deeply immersed in organizing Felix's belated 7th birthday party (Spy Training Academy).

Here's a quick picture to get you back in that quirky, sunny Encinitas/SoCal mood, and I'll be updating with our adventures of the last couple of weeks very soon....promise.
And yes, people do live here. And I expect they fall behind on updating their blogs too.

Grace & Kyson

2009-02-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

Last March Grace met her first boy chum. Kyson, who is just a few days older than she is. I'm not sure whether it was love at first sight or just a certain kinship that comes from being an off-the-charts 97% percentile kinda kid. But they were all over one another, grunting and thumping and drooling together.

Meg, Kyson's mother, and I shared a common bond straight away - our backs know what it is to haul around a hefty child.

Anyway, here they are on one of their first playdates together:
And a few weeks later Grace had a chance to start getting to know him a little better:And copy his gummy expression:
Then in July as temperatures soared, they bared their naked rolls and splashed awhile:
And I'm not sure why but I don't have any more photos of them together until today...
...their happy reunion where Grace graciously allowed him to play with her pram. He climbed in of course.
Not great photos I'm afraid, although I like the one of them foraging for toys.
Kyson obviously so abuzz at the reunion, that he overdid it and collapsed with the excitement of it all...
Hopefully Grace will learn how to keep her boyfriends entertained and awake for a little longer as she gets older.

Out of the Mouths...

2009-02-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...this one is from my always curious and eternally fascinating husband.

Overhearing Mike reading Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Grace the other night, Mike gets to the end of the story and says

"and then SHE turns into a beautiful butterfly...because he was a she after all".

I questioned him about why he changed the gender of the caterpillar/butterfly. And this was his response, verbatim...I asked him to repeat it and I typed it straight into my laptop because I didn't want to lose any of the essence of his message:

"Because it's a unconscious choice on the part of the writer, who is just reflecting society which tends to put the man first, so I am changing it by making it explicitly about a woman so she [Grace] is cut free from this pressure, and so she realizes that she is not second class as a woman."

Burn your booties I say!

Meanwhile, a little musical interlude:

Shaolin Monks visit Felix's Karate Studio

2009-02-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

I guess this entry would fall under the 'more things I love about living here' category.

About this time last year Felix started doing karate. His first visit wasn't very promising. They offered a week's free trial, which was a great deal. But he didn't have a uniform for that very first lesson. And he decided to sit in the corner of the studio and just watch. My heart sunk. He's quite a shy little boy who is also battling with massive perfectionist tendencies. Which means that if he can't do something right first time he'd rather not try. Which can be very frustrating at times.

Anyway, for most of the class he sat and watched. The teacher - Sifu - was patient and would occasionally come over and try and coax him to join in. And finally in the last 15 minutes he did join in. Kind of. Whilst they were all kicking and punching and shouting, he would flick an ankle lightly, wave a hand weakly and mutely open his mouth ... about half an inch.

After his first class Sifu took us into his office and he told a little story whilst doing a trick with elastic bands. The story was about tension and flexibility. And somehow Sifu worked his magic and Felix wanted to come back for another lesson. Either that or it was the uniform I bought for him.

So now, one year on, he can't walk out of his bedroom or down the street without several high kicks and punches interspersed in his walking. He's on his 5th or 6th belt. He yells loud in class. He's focused and strong in his moves. And he manages to remember all the complicated combinations, even after our long sojourn in Australia.

It's lovely to see his commitment. It's also fantastic that he's at this school. Sifu/Guiseppe is a young (mid-30s) Italian New Yorker (or is it New York Italian?) 6th degree black belt who has being studying karate since he was 5 years old. He's travelled and worked with a great number of different masters. He's well respected nationally and wins all kinds of awards. What a fluke. I only chose the school because it was at the bottom of our street!

Anyway, just to reaffirm how really fabulous this school is and the great networks Sifu has, last week he was bursting at the seams with excitement because he'd invited 4 Shaolin Monks from China to visit for a week. They were to put on a performance at the school on Friday night (just past), and he was trying to get them on some tv shows. He was asking us all for a donation for the night so that they could go DisneyLand for a couple of days!!

And so we went.

And it was amazing.

No, it was incredible.

Scratch that, it was - in my own dear son's words - AWESOME!

We're cramped into this tiny studio, all of Sifu's students are there, as well as students and masters from other complementary schools, some even made the 100 mile trip down from LA.

And then there are these calm, unflustered, young Shaolin Monks who don't speak a word of English, about to perform some incredible displays of what you can do if you know how to harness energy in your body. And practice for about 3/4 of your life.

Here are some photos, which barely do the experience justice.
Every time they were about to do a demonstration they would meditate and then do some Chi Gong to pull the Chi (energy) into their bodies.
And then they were off and away.

They danced with swords.
Tore phone directories.Leant on a spear with their neck. (missed that shot, but this was taken 5 seconds beforehand)Had someone smash some bricks on their back with a mallet.Threw a blunt needle through a pane of glass to burst a balloon the other side. Yes you read that correctly. Through a pane of glass. A needle. Not even sharp. And yes, it went through. We saw the hole and slight shatter of the glass. And the balloon popped. BANG. Wow.
Smashed steel over heads. Look carefully in the 2nd photo and you may see the broken pieces. eg. angled in front of the photographer's knee is a piece plus bits on the floor from a previous smashing.
Broke bricks with bare hand.
Obviously too easy...so here's 5 bricks!
Broke a pole against arm.
And did some amazing acrobatics.
To get an idea of what we saw, check out these two youtube offerings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qHL2PSpecI&feature=related

or this long, but engrossing series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs9R74BQVBs&feature=related

Felix has been glued to youtube ever since that night. I asked him whether he'd like to learn to do any of this. He made a face of 'you gotta be kidding me', and I heaved a sigh of relief.

Surviving Winter in Encinitas

2009-02-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

This winter. How long will it last? Just 2 weeks ago I was basking in the Sydney sunshine. And now this.

This? Well, we wake up at 4am each morning and find the room feels like it's dropped to below zero, so we dash out of bed and turn up the space heater. Back into bed for more defrosting sleep, then we linger and laze in bed as long as the kids will let us. We throw on as many sweaters and layers as possible, socks, Ugg boots etc. We whizz around each room turning on the utility-guzzling heaters throughout this drafty old house. We shiver and complain. We eat hot porridge. I huddle over my big mug of steaming hot coffee, pretty much sitting on the space heater for extra warmth, gritting my teeth.

Then an hour or so later, we step out the front door and within a minute we're rapidly peeling off the layers and we're down to t-shirts and sandals again!

So today, we decided to try and survive these winter hardships by skipping off to the beach.
I left them all there whilst I went and did a yoga class (heated room, for the extra warmth so necessary for these deep winter days...), joining them when I returned.

Grace thinks winter would be better if she could just take off all her clothes.
Felix secretly (well, actually quite vociferously) hankers after the snow he hasn't seen since he was 2 years old, and today we struggled to persuade him to take off his long sleeved t-shirt (which has a image of a snowboarder on it). So he found his own snowless mountain to climb (spot the blue t-shirt in the middle of the photo), and cooled down with a juice later on.
Mike generally wears not much more than this all year round. Even if we were in the much dreamed of snow...I'm promising Felix a trip to the snow this year. It's only 2-3 hours drive away to Big Bear, almost a day trip. He's desperate for a snow ball fight. I dunno...all this sun and he wants snow. And to those of you on the East Coast/mid-West up to your armpits in the stuff, apologies. But these are the gruelling realities of our life in SoCal!

Oh yes, for the curious, it was about 72F/22C today. Rough eh?

Hmmm, will you speak to me again?

Chuckered out

2009-01-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

I went to Chuck E Cheese's today so Felix could attend a birthday party. My first visit. Anyone who has been before will understand why I'm incapable of writing anything more tonight.

Aivry & Grace

2009-01-29T21:02:00.000-08:00

Aww, Grace had her first play date today since her return (excluding her 'secret-life' friends - yesterday's blog). Aussie-Yank hybrid (!) Kirsten and her sweet daughter Aivry came over to play.

She soon discovered the pram and pushed it for a while:
Then started eying up the possibilities and must have picked up on the Princess energy (see Jan 26 blog):
Which Grace took in her stride very well I have to say:
Then Grace decided that she'd had enough hard work for the day, and could someone please push her:
Kirsten left with a pack of Tim Tams to remind her of home and I'm now too exhausted from a day of pummeling pizza dough and baking choc chip cookies to write anything more intelligible or thoughtful. A day of mothering (albeit with the amazing Vivian in tow, so really my grumbles are no more than feint mumbles) - with a bit of yoga thrown in on the side. But thank God for the yoga.

Like one big Aussie Boomerang

2009-01-28T20:56:00.000-08:00

Curiously, one of the benefits of being away is coming back home again. Whilst it's always hard to leave Australia and dear wonderful friends and family, it's just such a pleasure to have all the familiar things around us again. And to know where everything is kept. I like it when I know exactly where the toilet paper is for example! And of course it always feels good to see familiar faces, particularly in the first few days transitioning back when I'm still mourning/pining for Sydney. A familiar face makes me feel like I belong somehow.

Felix has a great need to feel like he belongs. All that back and forth across the Pacific, whilst he loves it, I can see that he just comes alive when he feels anchored. That's why I was just so delighted yesterday when he went back to school. I walked him to the classroom and even before he got there a boy in his class spotted him and his face lit up and he ran into the classroom saying "Felix is here...". He was greeted warmly by his very wonderful, caring, incredible teacher, Mrs Ventzke (yes I like her!), and very quickly the rest of the class was abuzz with "Felix is back, Felix is back...". Felix, of course, was coy as he tried to take in all this touching display of friendship and camaraderie. But I could see in his eyes just how much it all meant to him.

And today Grace was reunited with her very fabulous nanny, Vivian, who had just got back herself from a month in Brazil visiting her family. Grace was a little uncertain to begin with, but Vivian has a special way (which makes her so fabulous) and within a very short time they were playing and laughing on the floor. And then it was off to the park so she could pick up her secret life once more. Secret because Vivian has a large network of other nannies that she hangs out with at various parks around town, and so Grace has her secret network of other babies that she hangs out with. Suits her social personality down to the ground.

Felix then got to spend time with Vivian this afternoon as well, throwing giant discs and playing games and chomping down on Brazilian raspberry chews. Here he is throwing that disc (which avoided the tree this time, although Vivian managed to land one on the roof!)
Not to be left out, Grace said she'd like a go please. She just needs to learn there's a little more to it than just standing there looking terribly cute...Yes, it is lovely to be home again. Even if it is freeezzzzing right now. OK, I'm talking in relative terms here, it was 35F first thing this morning, but it did soon crept up to somewhere around 60 or 70F. In Toronto today a colleague was saying they were expecting 25cms of snow. But the problem with living here is there's no central heating, no insulation, and it's a very leaky, draughty old house that we live in.

Alright, that's all the complaining I'm going to be doing about living here. After all if this family boomerang is going to keep on flying, then it could do far worse than keep on setting its course for CA 92024. So long as we don't get wedged in any trees...

More Please...

2009-01-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

What is it about kids with baseball caps turned around that makes them so endearingly cute? (or is it just me?) Grace did this tonight with Felix's cap and took on a new persona:

And then - apparently - it was my turn:Actually I'm beginning to think it's wishful thinking that she has a new persona in that first photograph. The transformation these days isn't so much little girl into occasional little grub, it seems to be the other way around. As I mentioned before, she's a bit of a dirt magnet. And whilst we mothers love to dress our girls up in a little bit of frou-frou from time to time:it seems all they really want to do is drive cars:
and roll around in the dirt, exploring their new world with all senses blazing. When we were camping in the bush a few weeks ago, within seconds of a wash she would be filthy and so we renamed her 'bush urchin':

I was just waiting for her to hold out her bowl and say 'more please'!

Finally not to be completely sidelined, Felix - that clean and fastidious one - handed over the camera and reclaimed his cap:

Rediscovering Her World

2009-01-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

Grace is just getting so big and bold and adventuresome these days. Her personality has really kicked in since she started walking. And it's a BIG personality. She's into everything, always pushing and poking, tasting and spitting, walking/tottering in the opposite direction we're headed, laughing and singing, and magnetizing every last bit of dirt to her and her constantly streaming nose. The complete opposite to Felix, who was always fastidious, peaceful, careful and cautious. Not our Grace. She hates being indoors too long...she'll batter on the front door begging to go outside. She's very vocal in making her demands and even though she can't speak yet, she has no trouble getting us to understand what it is she wants. And of course she knows exactly what she wants. And is pretty unwavering once her mind is made up.

Today she had a lot of fun exploring the house. I wonder what she must be thinking. It's been almost 2 months since she was here, so her brain wouldn't have retained a lot. But she is definitely comfortable here. Does she have some kind of distant memory of familiarity with the house, positive associations? Is she taking her cues from us, seeing us all comfortable here? Maybe there are things she distinctly remembers. She loved seeing her books. And look at her here delving gleefully into one of her toy boxes:

One lovely development I noticed in in her today. I bought her a little pram last year for her to push along when she was just learning to walk. She pulled the cushions out straight away and went to sit in it. And that was the only way she'd use it for the next 2 months. Look at the little princess back in October (happily indulged and encouraged in her royal ways by everyone of course, including her brother):So today I got it out for her and to my delight she she started pushing it straight away:She even worked up to a run:And then she figured it out again. Welcome back Princess Grace:I didn't give in and push her this time. I didn't want to start something I was going to regret (it's a real back breaker). So she climbed out after a few minutes of Princessing, and she was off and away again.
Meanwhile the boys slept on...And on....(Mike's hiding from the sun, under the covers)

Family Life

2009-01-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

What a full-on couple of days it's been. And already I've experienced non-blogging blogger's guilt. 2 days since the last entry. I'm wondering if it's normal to be writing paragraphs of a potential blog in my head whilst experiencing whatever it is I'm experiencing? I hope so. Because I've been doing an awful lot of it. Just not writing it down. And I'm happy to report that what I'm writing now is nothing I've thought about before. It just occurred to me...

Anyway, one thing I didn't do was take copious amounts of photographs of their first day back. I thought about it. Maybe a shot of their arrival at LAX. Or maybe wedging all the suitcases into the car. I had my camera with me. But I shied away. I obviously have something to learn about being a blogger.

However I did get a few. Here's Felix delighted at his birthday presents. Amazed that he's still awake. He slept 45 minutes on the flight. The rest of the time he watched movies. He stayed awake all the way through to 9pm, practically catatonic... and then slept until 11am this morning. Ooops, too late to go to school.

And here's Grace who's delighting in reconnecting with her books.

I haven't seen Felix so happy in weeks...running around the house, discovering long lost toys, delighting in the smallest thing. And then itching to see his best friend, Izaya and being demented with anticipation as he waited for him to arrive. And then, as soon as he heard he was coming up the driveway he retreated into a corner of the sofa and became very shy. Izaya was dragging his heels too, suddenly overcome with self consciousness. Ah 7 year old boys. And then after a few minutes of 'alright?' 'yeah, alright?'s they were back, thick as thiefs again.

Felix bought Izaya a 3-pronged high tech boomerang thing, which got stuck in a tree on its maiden voyage. Then then spent half an hour trying to figure out ways to get it down. It's still stuck up there. Here's Izaya trying to tell me what's going on. You'll see the orange boomerang a little before 12 o'clock in the photo. Not sure how that one's coming down.

Lots more photo opportunities missed. My apple crumble with birthday candles stuck in it (which Felix characteristically declined to eat/try...) The big roast chicken I cooked. Not bad for someone who hasn't eaten one in 19 years. I didn't start yesterday either. Great company in Izaya's parents, Violet and Travis who stayed for dinner. Felix and Izaya under the table trying to avoid eating their carrots. The small details of family life which make it so rich and so bloody exhausting!

Hen's Teeth in Bondi

2009-01-24T20:18:00.001-08:00

Oh heck. I know this is supposed to be about life here. But I got a sudden pang of yearning for Oz. So here's a rare photo of the 4 of us on my last day there a week ago. Bondi Beach. Of course the kids aren't looking in the right direction. But at least it's all 4 of us. I can't tell you how rare that is. The whole family in the same photo. There are probably about 3 other in existence. Incredible. Amazing. Rare. Hen's teeth.

Reasons to be Cheerful

2009-01-24T17:01:00.001-08:00

One of the reasons I remembered that I thought it would be good to keep a blog is to remind myself of all the good things in my life, beyond the kids of course.

Usually my last days in Australia before heading back to the US are filled with sadness and a reluctance to return. I feel in such a comfortable groove there, friendships are so close, culture so easy to connect with etc. And yet I know that I have things really very good here. I love the house, our garden, Felix's school, the chums we've made here, being close to the ocean. Heck it's Southern California for goodness sake and the sun just keeps on shining, even in the depths of winter.

So, at least once a week I'll show the world (and me) just what I do love about this place. Because there are many many things.

Today, after a day and a half of rain (oh-so-rare and oh-so-welcome), the sun shone through again. I was busy on my errands getting the house ready for the family's return tomorrow. And I just thought STOP. In England they remind you to stop and smell the roses. Well, roses don't fair so well in this heat, so I stopped and smelled the ocean instead. Not bad for a winter's day.

Now I feel invigorated and ready to tackle the 6 months of filing we've been stepping over and trying to ignore. This also includes trying to haul a big black filing cabinet out of the back of my car. Without breaking my back in the process.

Oh yes, and the shot at the top of this entry, taken in front of our house. Wow, what an incredible plant this is. This massive shoot you see takes so much energy for the plant to create that it will die as a result. It takes about 4-6 months for the process to be completed. At the moment only one third of the shoot has blossoms on it. It will take another month until it's covered. Then all the bees and hummingbirds and butterflies get to enjoy the flowers. And then they fade. And then the whole plant dies. It's an agave variety (I think). Kinda sad and yet she goes out with such a very noteworthy bang that it's hardly a melancholy event. Kinda like a show-biz way to end, like many entertainers dream of...going out whilst doing what they love the most. Like English comedian Tommy Cooper. Hmmm. I've just likened my agave to Tommy Cooper...juss like that...

Finally, it's the end of the day. Watching the sunset from our front porch, the ocean just out of view beneath that treeline. On a clear day we can see it. Another reason to be cheerful about our life in SoCal.

Escape

2009-01-24T01:23:00.000-08:00

Oh, and this is what brings me the greatest peace. Just looking at this photo. For hours. Our place on the NSW/Victorian border. Where no-one can find us.

Entering into Blogosphere

2009-01-24T00:44:00.000-08:00

Right, that’s it, I’m doing it. I’m starting a blog. Here, you see, you’re reading it right now. I’m blogging. I’m a blogger. Blog blog blog blog blog. And all that blog.

Why? Hmmm. Well, because a friend told me to. Weak, I know.

Umm, because I can post pictures of the kids. Hmm, better. Perhaps.

Well, maybe just because it’s a bit of an interesting outlet for whatever might be going on in my head. But interesting mostly for me I guess.

Truth be known, I did start a blog once. It was a knitting blog. I called it At My Knit’s End. It was supposed to encourage me to keep up with the knitting. Which I did. For a short while and then I developed arthritis in my right middle finger. A pretty fundamental knitting finger actually. So I stopped. Which was a shame really as I quite enjoyed the knitting. All I have left from that passing passion is a carbonara of wool and just about enough needles to recreate a game of pick up sticks.

So, that was my first blogging attempt. This will be my second.

There. I’ve done it. I’d better add a photo. No kids around just now as they’re not back from Australia. So I’ll look around…hang on…OK. Here’s a photo of a photo of my brother and I when we were very young. We were usually fighting, so it’s unusual to find such a loving example of us together...