Fun Week

We had lots of animal adventures this week. Our Friday playgroup met at a little aquarium discovery center and the kids got to feel the creatures in the exploration pool. Ben liked the starfish and sea urchins but had nothing to do with the little shark.

Alex, on the other hand, would have gone head first into the pool after that shark and pretty much anything else. He's at such a fearless age right now so I have to watch him like a hawk.

The aquarium was smaller and not quite as entertaining for little ones as we'd hoped (but a great deal at $7) so we took all the kids out to the playground next door. Ben and Becca, the little girl right in front of him, had a great time getting sand all over each other. It's fun to watch Ben talking and interacting with other kids after so many years of playing next to them.

Yesterday we decided to spend the day at a nearby wildlife park and had a great time with all the animals. First we went to the farm show and learned about sheep shearing and milking cows. A few of the little kids from the crowd were chosen to bottle feed the lambs that came running out...so precious! Maybe next time Ben can do it. Their sweet little tails were wagging like puppies.

Ben tried his hand at milking the cow.

Alex just went up front to say hello.

We pet some goats, sheep, and deer and Alex of course wanted to chase the chickens. Something about him and birds.

We met Big Bub the wombat and got to pet him a little as well.

Then it was on to the kangaroo and wallaby field to make some new friends. (the real irony about this place was that we saw a bunch of wild kangaroos just outside the entrance but paid to go inside and feed the ones in the park...ha!)


This albino kangaroo had not a care in the world! Kangaroos are perfect Aussies....they kick back during the day and know how to relax.

This guy was tugging on my shirt to let me know I wasn't handing out the goods fast enough.

Alex figured out the process quickly and only tried one piece of food himself. Once he decided it didn't taste good enough to eat personally, he'd very insistently feed the roo of his choosing, whether that one wanted it or not.

Ben spent a lot of time talking and petting all of them he could reach.

They even fed this guy together.

This little mama had a joey in her pouch. I didn't get to see him but could tell that he was crawling around in there.

And this joey looked a bit large to still be in there. And I'm wondering how he could breathe with his head in the pouch?

Ben's friendly reputation spread and he had a line of friends waiting for a snack and a cuddle.

This one got several hugs...although this resembles more of a loving choke hold.

We met some of the koalas and got to pet this little guy while he was snoozing.



I thought this was interesting - the eucalyptus leaves provide so little nutrition that the koalas have to sleep about 20 hours a day to conserve energy. It would be like humans subsisting on lettuce.

One of the tasmanian devils. Ugly little buggers!

We had a little picnic lunch and the kids made some friends with the other little ones running around.

Back at home we had a fun morning with slippers. Never know what they're going to bring out of their rooms when they wake up!

We've also had some fun with the play-doh. It's great that Alex is old enough now to enjoy a lot of the same things with Ben.

All in a Day's Work

Two little men were very busy today. Alex figured out how to open his bedroom door so he happily let himself out, quietly slipped right past Daddy, and came banging on my door to wake me up first thing this morning. That was quite a surprise to me because in my 3+ years of motherhood that's the first time a child has come to my door...Ben still waits to be let free in the mornings, either by one of us or his clock radio turning on. During naptime (or rest time for Ben) I heard a door handle but thought it was Ben going to the bathroom, but it turns out it was the little man again waking up from his nap and coming to say hello. That would be heart attack #2 for the day! I guess tomorrow I'll be more prepared for the sudden arrival of my tiny buddy.

And Ben's great discovery was that he can open the car doors. He had shut his puppy inside and apparently decided to rescue him at some point while I was making lunch. The garage is entirely closed off to the street but open to the back of the house so I'm used to the kids playing around my car, dumping dirt on it, and generally making it as dirty as possible. I am not used to kids wandering around inside unattended. Only it wasn't Ben that got inside...he must have left the door open and Alex crawled in and one of them closed the door. A few minutes later I called them in for lunch but of course couldn't find Alex. Not to worry because he can't escape the two gates but I did get concerned that I didn't hear anything. Then I started to hear a muffled "hi mama!" and looked in the store room and laundry room, then finally noticed the little hand waving from the car. He had climbed up into his carseat and was relaxing by himself, so proud of his huge feat. Guess I'll be locking the doors from now on!

Couple of other funnies I don't want to forget:
Alex has learned the timeless male gesture of leaning to the side to let out a poot and laughs like crazy when he's done. *sigh* Men.
Ben said he couldn't get a time-out while we were at the beach one day because "there aren't any corners".
Alex has learned to clean off an entire ear of corn faster than anyone I've seen. Last night he ate his and part of mine as well.
Ben doesn't ask "why" all the time but loves to ask "Why'd you say ____??" over and over, especially when I'm on the phone.
Now that Alex can get in bed himself, as soon as we finish a book he drops his blankies, slides off my lap with the book, and runs into bed so he can flip the pages before he goes to sleep.
Ben has started the stalling techniques at bedtime of calling me back into his room for anything he can think of and I do my best to discourage it, but when he tells me he just wants one more kiss my heart melts a little.

First Week of School (Again)

After a very long hiatus from school (over 6 months), Ben is finally starting back to preschool this week! The school situation here has been incredibly frustrating to me because there is very little offered for preschoolers and virtually nothing besides daycare for under-3's. There are some good schools and people put their kids on the waiting lists as soon as they're born so there isn't much chance of a newly relocated family to get in to any of those places. I tried several montessori places and anything that looked like it may offer fun and education for Ben and finally, after checking into about 30 places, I found this school that had space available since it was still under construction. Thank goodness it was completed on time, but their license has been delayed and Ben didn't start today as planned. He'll go a half-day on Wednesday (I hope) and then start full days on Mondays and Wednesdays next week. I can't wait for him to get some socialization with kids his age again and have some fun without me around...two things he's been severely lacking since we moved here and it shows.

The facilities are very nice and look terrific since they're all brand new! We went for an orientation and meet-the-teacher day last week.

It's officially a 4-year kindy class (as in the kids will all turn 4 over the year) and Ben is in the Emu group. It will follow the local school calendar so he'll attend 4 terms and then hopefully start full-time kindy at the local primary school next year. It's optional for kids as well so he isn't guaranteed a spot.

Cute little classroom with some great new toys. I would have loved to be the one shopping with all the money for new stuff!

And what did Ben do the entire time? Play in the car, of course. At least he's excited to go back to the "car school". I hope he realizes his time there will encompass more than pretend driving.

Back home we never seem to run short of entertainment ourselves and somehow it always entails a lengthy clean-up. I didn't bother with much paper this time and let them paint all over the windows. The crayola paint is easy to wash off....the finger paints, not so much. Live and learn. I have learned to strip them down first thing since washable doesn't apply to all fabrics.

Good thing it all washes straight off skin, though!

There was a trail of tiny handprints all the way around the house.

And oddly enough on little backs, too. (see above picture if you have any doubt as to where that come from)

Luckily they have just as much fun at the faucet rinsing off. We spent a fun afternoon a couple of days later washing the windows and they loved it, too.

For cleaner fun, we've enjoyed the latest toy from the library - a huge kitchen. They've been cooking up a storm.

This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous weather-wise (highs in the 80's, lows in the 60's) but actually a little chilly for the beach. Instead we hit the lotterywest playground for some afternoon fun.

All the little boys loved this airplane because it made some kind of noise and there were kids all over it the entire time.

Today we got a box of treats and books from Grandma Kirkham and Alex determinedly worked at getting every last Pez out of his dispenser. It kept him quiet and completely occupied for at least 10 minutes so I'm looking forward to giving him more tomorrow!

Ben's were gone before I could even get the package completely opened...no surprise there! He was proud of his pink tongue, though. Thanks, Grandma, for the treats!!

And then back to the dirty fun again....looks like we'll have to paint these windows and wash them again.

I thought this was a picture worth sharing. On Australia Day last week I wandered down to the beach with the boys for a play and some lunch. I have never seen so many people there before! And such a diverse crowd...a few people there made me wonder if I was seeing a People of Wal-Mart image. Like the one old lady who didn't bother with a swimsuit but didn't need a shirt over her stained bra. Eww. The cool part was that Havianas was selling inflatable flip flops and they made a chain of over 1,300 people in the water. I don't think it's exactly a Guinness record or anything but it looked pretty neat that day.

Update on the toddler bed: Alex has done great! We've only had one terrible naptime where he cried and cried and kept coming to the door, but otherwise he's going to sleep just as well as usual. And the nice thing now is that when he wakes up he goes to his bookshelves for entertainment and then starts banging at the door when he's ready for some company. No more screaming for a rescue from the crib! But now I can't believe that we're really done with cribs in this house. He's growing up so fast.

What Have I Done?

Alex has been trying to crawl out of his crib already and is about a centimeter away from getting his foot over the edge, so I decided it was a good time to try the toddler bed. Didn't want a repeat of Ben jumping out of his crib onto wood floors and ending up with a broken arm...especially since it's been over a year since any males in this family have had radial fractures. Unfortunately, the process of removing the front of the crib appears to be the most exciting thing these kids have seen all month and they have been in, out, on, over, and through every possible thing they can reach. Hopefully the novelty will wear off before bedtime! Alex did show Ben who still owns the bed, though.

Aussie Lingo

Since it's Australia Day here, I thought I'd pass along a little lesson on how to speak Australian. The list could go on forever but these are words I encounter frequently or see in the paper.

Step #1 - the best thing to do is shorten any word, add an -ie or -y to the end, or just stick an o on it.
Rotto - Rottnest Island
Cott - Cottesloe, our neighborhood
Mozzie - mosquito
Footy - Australian rules football
Barbie - barbeque (and they don't throw shrimp on it, they say prawn here)
Ta - thank you
Lippie - lipstick

Step #2 - If in doubt, use British English
Nappy - diaper
Loo - toilet, restroom
Lift - elevator
Flat - apartment

Step #3 - Shorten every occupation
Leckie - electrician
Garbo - garbage collector
Journo - journalist

Step #4 - Don't be afraid to get creative!
Mackers - McDonald's
Cuppa - cup of coffee (and you need to know if it's tall or short, dark or white, and long or flat)
Station - farm or ranch
Bathers - swimsuit
Manchester - household linens
Doona - comforter
Nipper - little kid or young lifesaver/lifeguard
Jaffle - toasted sandwich
Lollies - candy
Nick off - to leave
Chook - chicken
Peckish - hungry
Ute - 4wd or sport utility vehicle
Bush - the outback or anywhere that isn't town
Creche - nursery
Mum - mom
Bub - baby

And my favorite of the week is to "chuck a sickie", or call in sick when you're perfectly healthy. Apparently half a million people did it yesterday to make a 4-day weekend. You can't accuse Australians of working too hard, that's for sure, but they know how to have a good time.

I do love how people talk here and I'm slowly learning a lot of the terminology. You wouldn't think an English-speaking country would have so many differences, and a lot of terms we'd already learned in Singapore thanks to the British influence, but there are still times when I have to ask people what they're talking about. That's what makes living abroad an adventure in the most unexpected places.

Tickets to Paradise

It's a holiday weekend down under for people willing to take today off because tomorrow is Australia Day, like 4th of July in the US. Matt took the day off and we headed out of town to enjoy our long weekend. We decided to head southeast this time to check out Esperance, which we'd heard had amazing beaches and an archipelago of islands. Here's a map of Western Australia to give you an idea of where we were going. Keep in mind the state is about 3 times as big as Texas so this was a 7-8 hour trip (thankfully a little shorter than we thought).

We headed out of town Friday evening and caught a beautiful sunset somewhere near Katanning.

Looking south we caught a glimpse of the Stirling Range outside Albany.

The drive out was largely uneventful with the exception of narrowly missing several kangaroos crossing the road and nearly running out of gas. We were only 2 hours away from Esperance but it was 9pm, we were on empty, and the gas stations in every town were already locked up for the night. 24-hour pay at the pump technology is not here! And considering we could drive hours and only see a couple of cars, there doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic on the roads after dark. And not much during the day, for that matter. There are just not many people on this side of the world. So we finally located a pump in the largest town (Ravensthorpe, population 450) that would accept certain credit cards (which, of course, we didn't have) and talked a local man into using his card so we could pay him cash. Our only other option was to stay in the little motel and wait for the gas station to open at 6:30am. Not in our travel plans. So he was kind enough to help us out and after a 30-minute delay, we were back on the road, topped up with gas, and ready for a great weekend.

We stayed at a little 2-bedroom apartment and woke up bright and early with our energetic guys. Ben loves staying at hotels and jumped right into his bed to go to sleep, but both boys' favorite thing is waking up in a room together and playing first thing in the morning. Sometimes it's really cute, sometimes at 5:30am I wish I could tell them to go back to sleep.

The upside of being up so early is that we had the car packed with our beach gear and we were out the door to explore first thing. On Saturday we checked out the Great Ocean Drive which had one beautiful beach after another, all with brilliant white sand and clear blue water. It faces the Southern Ocean and gets currents from Antarctica so the water was rather cold.

West Beach

Salmon Bay

Blue Haven

Twilight Cove

9 Mile Beach

At the end of the road was Pink Lake, which isn't so pink at the moment but still has a pretty hue. When the conditions are right, the algae apparently has a deep pink and makes the lake take on a magenta color. Regardless of the color, it's used a salt mine all the time.

This was the beach we chose for the day: Ten Mile Lagoon. The carpark was on the bluff above the beach but Matt found the sand track to drive right down onto the sand. One thing we enjoy about Australia (besides these amazing beaches with only a handful of people) is that everyone loves to take their 4wd's right onto the beach. Sure saves time hauling all our stuff and two kids!

It had a great shelf of rock that protected the inner pool from the pounding surf and made it a great place for the kids to play.







We had a terrific time playing, enjoyed our picnic lunch, and finally took two tired boys home to clean up for dinner.

We woke up to rain and clouds on Sunday and it looked to be a rather ugly day. We still didn't want to waste it so we decided to do some sightseeing and throw in our swimsuits just in case things cleared up. We drove past this lake, hit the brakes, and backed up for a better look. It was covered in wild black swans and ducks.

A little later we hit the brakes again for some wild emus.

And then again for some kangaroos. We saw several more kangaroos and emus during the day, and even an emu on the beach that ran before I could reach my camera.

We drove into Cape LeGrand National Park and the scenery itself wasn't that impressive but the beaches were gorgeous.



We passed by some huge granite boulders.

This was Lucky Bay, the beach I'd been wanting to see because I'd heard about kangaroos coming right up onto the sand. We didn't see any roos on the beach but the scenery was spectacular enough that I wasn't disappointed in the least.

The sand was as soft as powdered sugar and so fine that it squeaked under our feet. The waves were gentle and rolled slowly enough that the kids could run and play all the wanted.

Again, we drove right up on the sand and pitched our tent. We planned to have a picnic and watch the boys play while we waited to see if the sky would clear up.

They were SO busy!



A great view from the sand dunes as the sun began to peek out.

Finally the weather passed for good and we let the boys in the water. There was a stiff breeze so they would have been freezing without the sun to keep them warm in the water.

Two happy boys! Several hours later we literally had to drag them out of the water and into the car when we'd all had enough sand and sun, otherwise we'd probably still be there right now!

Beautiful Lucky Bay. Probably the best beach we've ever experienced. Too bad it's so far away or we'd be back for sure!

We loved Esperance. It only has about 9,500 people and it's 450 miles away from Perth, but it was a charming little town with friendly people, great restaurants, and unbelievable beaches. It still blows my mind that we could visit somewhere so beautiful on a holiday weekend and have entire beaches all to ourselves. A country with so much coastline and a small population doesn't have to worry about its beaches getting overrun on the holidays.

Happy Australia Day to everyone! We're glad to be home and still have a holiday to look forward to tomorrow.