Success!

I don't want to speak too soon, but it appears that we have finally convinced our 3 1/2 year old to use the potty. We've been pretty much homebound for 2 weeks with various ailments (virus for the kids, flu for me, conjunctivitis for both of them) so I figured it was as good a time as any to seriously get Ben out of diapers. The good news is that he caught on really quickly and within two days was going regularly, although we've still had some accidents here and there (thankfully all #1!). So I hope we're finally only buying diapers for one here.

Q: what can two little boys accomplish in the time it takes me to start one load of laundry?

A: a LOT, especially when it has just rained and there is plenty of dirt available

This is how I found my two culprits...

Shovels, muddy water, dirty clothes...

A bumper full of dirt...

And a cooler with fresh mudpies.
Wow, these guys keep me on my toes, especially now that they've figured out how to work together! It's twice the madness.

But after I'd stripped off their dirty clothes (and stopped the washer to add them to my load) I had to get a picture of the cute little bottoms. They are such different people! Ben just gets taller and never gets wider and Alex still has his sweet little baby rolls. Without a diaper I have no idea how Ben is going to keep his pants up!

It was a great week for mail here! We got Christmas gifts from the Dulaneys, Thanksgiving cards from Grammy and Grumpy, and a birth announcement and dryer sheets from the O'Neills (which was a terrific surprise because Emily remembered we can't buy them here!) Thank you everyone for making it fun the check the mailbox!

Tearing into the gifts was fun for everyone!

Ben got out his scissors to cut the ribbon.

All the gifts were so exciting! And greatly appreciated during a week we were dying for new entertainment around the house.

And some other random pictures:
Sweet little Alex sleeping with a spare paci in his hand

Ben using windex to make a "carwash" for his cars



I've been waiting for grapes to come in season because we haven't had any since we left Singapore and we finally saw them at the store last week. Ben spotted them immediately and didn't understand that $30/kilo is really steep, so I caved and bought a small bunch. But I took a picture to remember that I paid $10.25 for this little bunch of grapes. Welcome to Western Australia!

More Pictures

Here are some more of my favorites from our recent photo shoot. I'm so glad to have these to remember the boys at this age! We took all these at Cottesloe Beach, almost right in front of our house, so it will be fun to look back on the location one day and remember living here. I'm saving my favorite family shot for our Christmas cards.

By far my favorite picture!

And my next favorite...




Sweet brother kisses!



A little fun with the background and Ben's beautiful eyes.

Another fun thing I'll look back on and laugh - we met at 7am for these photos. The sun was already way up in the sky because it had been light for hours!

New Look

I thought it was time to update the blog since the boys grow so fast and pictures get outdated quickly. We had family pictures done over the weekend by our very talented friend Liz. Stay tuned for more of the beautiful pictures, but in the meantime you can check out her website here for her landscapes. She has gotten some amazing pictures around Perth.

Our Second Road Trip

These little guys had shared enough germs and spent plenty of time at home over the past week, so we decided it was time to get out a bit.

On Thursday we met some moms at a great outdoor playground and I literally had to tear Ben away from these steering wheels. Both boys were happy to be out of the house and seemed to be healthy and rebounding from whatever virus had been bothering them.

We even had a quick picnic and managed to keep Ben's sandwich away from these enormous, hungry ravens.

Then just a few hours later, Ben's eye was swollen and gooey (eww) so we made a last-minute trip to the doctor just before they closed. Turns out he had an eye infection, probably from the same virus, but we're treating it with antibiotics just in case. Poor guy. But the treatment (or at least the saline drops) seem to be helping and he's already looking back to normal today. Good timing because we had family pictures scheduled today!

Cute guys on the carousel Friday...


Then Saturday we hit the road bright and early to head up to Lancelin again and enjoy the beach. This little guy was ready!

Between driving and watching a movie, Ben was busy the entire trip.

Our trip took us through a big sand-dune recreation area and we couldn't believe this vehicle. We didn't hang around to see it hit the dunes but I bet it's pretty cool to watch.

We were ready to find the perfect beach to spend the day and that we did! We drove on dirt tracks for about half an hour until we could drive down the beach and found this amazing stretch without another soul in sight.

The boys were so excited.

Ready to hit the water!

It was an absolutely beautiful place and perfect for the kids.

The waves rolled in gently and got really shallow so they both played in for hours.



The water was crystal clear and beginning to warm up.

On the other side was nothing but sand dunes and vegetation. It felt like we were the only people in the world (aside from the occasional car or dirt bike that would pass).

Driving back, we happened upon this lovely sight - a pretty old dead humpback whale. I wouldn't share such an ugly picture but this was my first whale sighting, dead or alive, so it was worth remembering! It was about the size of the car so it must have been a juvenile.

On our way back through the recreation area, we had to take a spin through the big dunes.

Lots of fun going anywhere we wanted! That's Matt new long board on top of the car. Ben got to take a few rides on it in the baby waves and I think enjoyed it a lot.

It was a terrific Saturday together and we can't wait to go back. It's only about 2 hours from our house and I can't think of a better place to spend a day. The weather was still just a little too chilly to make a full day of it but hopefully next time it will be warm and beautiful all day!

The Aquarium

Yesterday was gorgeous! The weather was really perfect - low in the 50's, high in the 70's, low humidity. I know it will get hot soon so we're really enjoying this lovely weather while it lasts. We drove up the coast a bit to check out the Aquarium of Western Australia, but stopped first when we saw an ice cream truck. The best part - they had dipped cones ala dairy queen!

Yum!! And check out his new (short!) haircut. A bit shorter than I would have liked but I think he looks pretty handsome.

It was a really well-done aquarium with great animals that are all over the western coast here. Just last week a humpback whale was hit by a ship (sad, I know, but it made the papers otherwise I wouldn't have had any idea. it must have been okay though) just a few miles off the beach in front of our house. I can't believe they're so close to us! I stare out the windows all day just hoping to get lucky enough to see one. This underwater walkway was terrific because we saw loggerhead turtles, several sharks, eels, tuna, and enormous rays.

The kids, however, saw a moving sidewalk which means moving playground! Alex was fascinated by the big rays when they glided overhead but was more interested in the challenge of walking on and off a moving surface.

One of the big sharks.

Their touch pool was fantastic and the kids felt everything within reach and even some things a little too deep. Ben was wet for a while!

Such fun!

Back home we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from our porch. It's setting late enough now that we can get the kids to bed and enjoy a nice, quiet moment before all the colors disappear.

My sweet ones waking up and watching Mickey in their little chairs. Notice each one has a play light...Ben loves when he and Alex are playing with the same toys and often gives his little brother a matching toy. I let Ben choose their wardrobe most days and he likes their shirts to match as well.

Alex loves to find the lemons in the backyard and drop them in random places around the house and car. I found one in our bathtub this morning with a big bite taken out of it. ewww. I'm not sure how to teach Alex that we don't eat produce with the peel because he'll grab anything at the grocery store and try to eat it, like oranges, eggplant, or zucchini. I guess I should be glad it's not candy yet.

Look at his beautiful eyes! Not as blue as they used to be, but still a pretty blue/brown hazel.

Our church has a fun little sing and dance class for the preschoolers and both boys absolutely love it. Here's Ben at the end of one of the cute little songs. Even Alex loves to dance along to a lot of the music and imitates the motions pretty well.

Speaking of imitation, Alex is picking up all kinds of things. Here is one of his early phone conversations.