Natural Bridge

 A while back I talked to Lindsay about a free saturday that we had and how I would like to explore the region a bit more. So we headed south and went to a place call the Natural Bridge and also happens to have a glo worm cave. Since we went during the day we could not actually see the glo worms but it was so fun nonetheless.

 we got to go on a bit of bushwalk

 to keep Ej interested and moving along the path we told him that we should look for dragon's footprints and see if there were any traces of the dragon in the cave. He loves the movie, 'How to train your dragon' and so it was so fun for him to watch. In the end we found some 'prints' and had fun making up a story about where the dragon had flown off to and what he was doing.

 Ej using his pretend binoculars to look for the dragon.

 There was also a ginormous vine a la tarzan and we couldn't resist taking a swing on it. It was crazy but cool.

 Below is the top of the falls that starts the natural bridge. An actual bridge of stone (ou cant walk across it, just stay on the paths around it.

 and the falls

 me and my handsome little guy.

 Inside the cave. I am pretty sure that the reflection spots you see are the glo worms. It was not splash from the falls, so that is my guess. Pretty cool!

 we took the opporunity to take some casual family pics. I sure do love my little motor body boy. He keeps us in chuckles and always on our toes

 And what's a family portrait without someone making a silly face? EJ's personality to a T.

Mock 2012 Olympics

Back in July around the time that the Olympics started a friend of mine asked if EJ and I would want to join her and her kids for an olympic themed play date at a park. We said "oh Yeah." So she mostly got it all organized and we had a great day. We were trying to dress the kids in our home countrie's attire (They are from Canada) and her kids were dressed accordingly with shirts and some face paint. I realized EJ no longer has any american tees or anything that fit him and so he made do with his blue pants, red bandana and blue sunnies. It was chilly that day and so he wore a jumper for about half the day (too bad the colors werent right-oh well).

We started off with opening ceremonies and Jody did awesome creating torches for the kids to start out with!

 First up were some track and field events. Kids at the start line prepared to race. We used streamers held across the finish line so they could run through a ribbon!

 Preparing for the hurdles (boxes of cereal on their side). I love how they were all trying to do a starting position!

 Long jump was next. The kids loved the running races but didn't quite show as much interest in the long jump nor did they quite understand how to do it-so that makes sense. I think the longest jump was maybe a foot.

 Next up shooting. I brought our nerf shot gun and some small nerf pistols. We used blocks built up a bit as targets and the kids loved this. They had a bit of hard time getting how to load the guns and if I remember right the shot gun wasnt quite working properly....but still mighty fun!

Miss A with the big gun!

 M takes a turn with the pistol with help from mom.

 EJ took his turn very seriously. He was very focused on the task at hand....

 And after a few failed attempts he decided his best bet for hitting the targets was to get real close to knock over the blocks. I say good on ya mate-for being so clever :)

 Fencing with wrapping paper tubes was next.

 And sometimes if you get the right spot they kind of tickle!

 The sisters duke it out!

 And then they ganged up on Jody! It was quite funny! Jody has another little one that was home that morning with daddy and I am sure if she was there she would have been in on the action. She stayed home because she is old enough to toddle around but young enough to disrupt. I am sure she enjoyed getting some quality alone time with her daddy though!

 Last event was the discus with a lid from a tin container. This one was fun to watch as the kids all had their own versions of throwing the thing and there was more than once that Jody and I had to duck or catch it before it hit our faces or heads.

 And the closing ceremonies where they all received their medals.

 Wahoo!

I had one of the older kids take this photo of us hence the slightly off kilter image. But I think they did a pretty good job! We had a ton of fun and I am so glad that we have friends here to do these kinds of things with. Jody and I were running together for a while last year before the holidays and crazy humid heat striked for the summer. Unfortunately life happened and we didnt pick it up again but we try to get together with the kids. She and I are the only ones that live on our side of the river-the one that seperates the city and we have fun together. She has taught me many a things about motherhood and is someone I really admire. I wish I had as many little ones as she does but I give loves to hers all the same. Her youngest was born just after we moved here and so its been fun seeing her go through all the stages, and she is a mommy's girl but I have finally gotten her to start coming to me which has been lots of fun!

Headlining

So I am so far behind on our lives. I apologize. I feel like things are in constant motion and transition in our home. I am constantly trying to find a balance of it all. I am getting better but sitting at blogging doesnt seem to happen as much as I would like. I should just pick a specific time each week that doesnt change and then maybe I would be more regular in my postings. Erik recently quit doing his quiet times in his room on his own and it has left me with next to no time to myself during the day. Now I try to do quiet or calm activities in the afternoon for a bit just to get him to wind down but he is full speed ahead! And that my friends is why there have been less postings, trying to do it all...failing...and ultimately being ok with it...I can only do so much.

Back in July made it into a local newspaper...The Queensland Times. It was an article that came out on the fourth of July and it was quite fun. He got a bit of flack at work because we also made it on the news upon first arriving just by coincidence when we were walking downtown in one of the main shopping areas and the local news was asking people about cost of parking downtown and public transit type things.

 Hopefully these pictures are clear enough for everyone to read...they are from my phone.

 and yes this one is sideways. I thought I could switch it once on the post but I guessed wrong :(

Funny thing is a week or so later, Erik and I were downtown again at the state library where they always have some exhibit in the childrens corner that changes a few times a year. We hadnt been in a while and so went to check it out and there was a film crew there trying to interview parents about why they take their children there and the importance of literacy and such. I am not one for cameras so I wasnt thrilled to be interviewed but there were no other parents and children there when we went and got caught. I dont know yet if they are using any of my footage, it is to go up on the site soon. We shall see...

Our fourth was very uneventful. Lindsay was supposed to fly so we didnt make any plans, then he ended up being home for dinner afterall (he still went to work that day-it is a bit odd to work on our american holidays-even though its totally logical that we would while living here), then we had a bbq that weekend with another American family but it was without a bunch of fan fair. We did buy Root Beer for the special occassion and had floats-which are called spiders here. Random thought-I just had another Root Beer last week as a special treat. There is a shop in a mall close by that sells cans individually, and since I dont have it regularly it tasted a bit weird to me. I was starting to see how foreigners think it tastes like medicine. Call me crazy!

phone photo dump

All right so I thought I would put up a bunch of random photos that I have taken with my phone from the fall/mostly winter season. We are just about to head into spring and I want to make sure I have some of our random things here from the past season.

Picking up Daddy from a flight one night

GQ model, ok not GQ because they can be quite raunch but he's got the looks! This was waiting for a taxi one morning when we were picking up the old smobi car from the shop. Ej loves riding in taxi's-probably because it rarely happens. Funny thing-the car was stolen again that night....boo!

 The awesome jacuzi tub we had when we stayed down in Byron bay in May. We had quite a few family baths in this tub through that weekend. It was great. It was like having our own hot tub without worrying about sharing it. Absolutely wonderful!

 Such a little cutie. Cant find this hat now...which is sad. It actually fits the Mr. Moon (he bought it for himself a few years back) but it fits Ej as well...the hat just doesnt stretch around his head. And yes he was buckling into the car without a car seat. It was one of those moving the cars around and didnt want to switch the car seat because it was a block or something. You dont need to scold me, I know.

 Ej enjoying some sushi at the mall. He is lucky he is in a place where seafood is so prevalent and fresh and good. He loves shrimp and although he usually picks a chicken roll I am so glad that he likes sushi. Here this is a very cheap way to eat while out. Sushi rolls run around $2 or just over which is the cheapest "fast food" you can find and its healthy to boot!

 A friend offered me a ticket last minute to the Jabbawockeez when her husband couldnt attend with her and I had a blast. They were a great show!

 Our favorite cold weather drinks here. There is no swiss miss hot chocolate, but there is Cadbury and its wonderful! Milo is an aussie favorite and Ej prefers this to cocoa. Its a barley drink but flavored sweetly. The caramel flavoring is for my cocoa...mmm..mm.good for the couple of months cool enough for these drinks.

 One night Ej followed the example of his father and gave me a foot rub and leg rub. It was great. Hopefully he keeps that up!

 Not a great face for the little man but in June our friends had a sweet little girl and they named her Sommer-yep after me! I feel very honored and special that she is my namesake. She is a sweet little one and I grab her up as much as I can and take in all her baby goodness!

 One night our family went to Southbank and the friday night markets were up. There is always a booth on the end that sells corn on the cob, a favorite of my little man and mine. We each scooped one up that night, we didnt want to share.

 The night of the Jabbawockeez show-dont know how these pics got out of order

 Ej got a nasty cold. Because he tend to have asthma symptoms it usually goes into his chest. I thought we may have bypassed it this time, until the end and then it hit him hard. He actually had an asthma attack in the car on the way home from shopping one night, when it was just me and him. I was a bit panicked. I was trying to get home as quick as possible to get him on the nebulizer-meanwhile it was pouring rain and the windshield wiper (aka-windscreen here) busted off on my driving side. Luckily a light turned red and I was able to fix it well enough to get home. This was Ej the next morning getting another treatment. Luckily he is old enough now that he sits well for them and doesnt fight them, even asks for them sometimes when he is coughing a lot.

 For my birthday I bought tickets for the cirque du soliel show "Ovo". It was awesome and although you can not take any pictures inside I was able to take a few outside the big top as we waited to enter. This show was better than ka and Love in our opinion but I know everyone thinks differently on the cirque shows. Our favorite is still mystere of all the ones I have mentioned though.

 After the smobi being stolen a second time we finally ended up selling it for parts. We didnt want to put any more money into it to fix it up to make it road worthy to sell, we didnt want to risk parking it anywhere long for fear of our bad luck and it getting stolen a third time, and I would not even touch the cursed thing until the tow truck came to get it because every time I drove it, that night it would get stolen. Seriously the police were very suspicious of me the last time I reported it stolen. Here Ej is holding the plates (since we could not keep them as souveniers) as a memory of the experience before shipping them in to get proper paperwork finished.

 A beautiful but cool afternoon with Ej riding his scooter around the garden of our flat and me soaking up the beauty of where we live. I get caught up sometimes in the daunting duties of everyday life in a foreign country that I have to remind myself to stop taking things for granted. Seriously we live in such an amazing place.

 Mr. Moon and I waiting to head into Ovo

I have a plan to sit down and write a bit of my every day life living as an american in australia soon. You know the nitty gritty stuff that most people dont think about. Stay tuned...

Dinner Time Creativity

So dinner time is one of the hardest times of day. We are all a bit tired, and of course hungry. By that time I have to withhold food from a very hungry little guy whom fits the old saying..."the way to a mans heart is through his stomach" to a tee. All in the name of love.

Sometimes during cooking time Ej gets to watch tv, sometimes he will sit and do an activity I set up-like playdough, sometimes he constantly whines and tries to get things out of the pantry and sometimes he plays on his own and comes up with things like this..

He took the license plates from our old beater car that we finally sold to the wreckage yard and fixed them in the cracks of the benchtops. Then he lined up his cars on the stool and played happily. Those are my favorite evenings. My son entertaining himself and showing some innovative creativity. Funny thing was this night-he must have liked the look of the cars lined up because he left those and then flew his airplanes over the ramps of the plates. These are the moments I want to bottle up forever.

balcony play

So when I put up the little video where I had a conversation with EJ on the last blog we were sitting on the balcony of our flat. It was a gorgeous morning, and I know that when it warms up we will not be able to play on the balcony in the mornings anymore because we will just want to be in the shade. So we are enjoying it while it lasts.

That particular morning I decided to continue to push myself and do something a bit messy. NOt my cup of tea as far as parenting, my anxiety just sky rockets and then I turn into dictator and it ends up not being fun. So I am stretching myself and I told myself I would be ok with the outcome. I did set out guidelines for EJ to follow....try to keep it in the containers as best as possible and no throwing it. THat was it, then I had to just look the other way when it started getting around on the floor. It was the balcony which made that a little easier but this was a good experiment for both of us. Ej doesnt like to sit for any amount of time and I swear that little motor body of his revs more rpms each day. He is nonstop in motion....I really hope the saying of boys being easier when they get older is true because he completely wears me out all the time!

I even tried to let him play without me right at his side for a bit, to try to get him to play on his own without me coming up with the imaginative play. We were playing with "cloud dough" by the way. Just 8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil and its awesome! I could have sat and played with it forever, it crumbles and yet you can mold it. The missionaries came over that night and played with it some more too!

I sat Ej right in front of the glass fencing we have so that he could look at the veiw and birds and things. It was a great morning. I have recently come across a blog called 'Making Boys Men' at www.makingboysmen.blogspot.com.co.uk and seriously she is really inspiring to me. I love to get Ej outside and doing things and with living in a flat its not always easy because I have chores and things I need to get done. And while her family lives in a home with a yard it made me realize I can do so much inside stuff outside with him on the balcony on those days I can't get him out to the playground or wherever and she has loads of ideas. Great for girls or boys, she just happens to have boys and great ideas. So we have been working on spending time outdoors even more than our usual-which is quite a lot considering we walk to the shops multiple times a week and do an outdoor playgroup,etc.

And I love being out there with him and getting some fresh air and sunshine and listening to the birds. I absolutely love listening to the birds here, even the crazy kookaburras that sound like crazy monkeys in the trees. I never thought I would like listening to different bird calls, but I have fallen in love with it here and will sorely miss it here. I will have to try to find a cd with some of the local birds to take back to the states. The above picture Ej doesnt look enthused but I think I just caught his face wrong as the camera snapped. He loved playing with the dough! I am not sure what we will do when it warms up this spring and turns so quickly into the summer, we will have to change outside time to later and maybe do our water activities first thing. I cant wait to see how Ej does in the water this year after his amazing leaps he made last year. We just got him a wetty(wetsuit) on sale this weekend so that when we go to the ocean or wherever he wont have to take as many breaks to come on the beach and cool off which was so hard to do last year. We basically had to bribe him with food to come in so that he could warm up and head back in. This year will be nice to have the wetsuit for that reason.

neighbor friends

 Our next door neighbors are from India and they just had a baby girl. With the arrival of this precious baby, the mother's parents came to visit and help.

 I was so happy that a sweet little newborn would be next door so that I could love on her and get my baby fix in, but then they gave us news that they are moving into a larger flat in the other building in our complex...boo! While we still can get together, its just not as easy as walking 5 feet down the hall and ta da. But we are happy for them!

 We had then and their parents over for dinner one night and we cooked American fare and asked them to cook an indian dish but mild heat for our weak american taste buds. They just laugh at us in our intolerance for chili. It was a lot of fun and we cooked some bbq chicken, a gnochi dish, salad, and some baked sweet potato and pumpkin (ok so the pumpkin is aussie). They brought over a chicken and rice dish that I dont know how to say and a plain yogurt type salad to go with it to help with the heat if it was too strong. I loved their chicken and rice and it was mild enough I didnt need the yogurt salad. Yay!

While the grandparents were here, EJ actually took a huge and I mean HUGE liking to the new grandfather. He made him play soccer in both of our flats and catch and all manner of young boy, older man activities. He didnt mind the language barrier (the grandfather could speak a bit of English but his accent was very thick and hard to understand at times) and just liked having that attention that only a grandfather figure can provide. I was in heaven because EJ often misses out on any of that sort of interaction and so I didnt try to hinder it all.

Their new little baby is lovely and so gorgeous. SHe has an absolutely full head of thick glossy black hair and like I said I am glad she is around to let me love on.