First Day of School

I've finally broken down and enrolled Alex in a preschool/daycare here. There is no such thing as mother's day out or any dedicated 2-year old preschool here so a daycare program is my only option. Alex will attend on Mondays and Wednesdays (the same days as Ben) so I'll get some free hours to take care of things like groceries and doctor appointments without all my usual "help". I think the socialization, independence, and new experiences will be really good for Alex as well, but I'm still sad about the thought of sending my baby out of the house two days a week. We've been together nearly nonstop for the entire year we've lived in Australia so it's time to teach my little guy some more independence. He had two trials this week for 1-2 hours and did great so I'm really hoping it will be an easy transition. Here's a picture of Alex on his first morning...he was so excited and kept saying "Alex school!" all the way until he was in the classroom and I started to say goodbye. Luckily the tears only lasted a few minutes and he was happy to see me when I returned.

We've had a rainy few days and have been especially bored in the afternoons. Nothing some mousse can't fix! Alex didn't know what to think about his crazy hair.

Yep, it was worth it!

Ben totally loved it.

Good laughs, good fun. These boys definitely have the thin hair I inherited from my dad. The good news for them (hopefully) is that my dad still has almost all that hair so maybe they'll keep theirs.

Our most exciting moment last weekend was on our walk home from lunch at a cafe a few blocks away. Matt was (of course) watching all the surfers and kept yelling at me to look. I kept walking, assuming it was just more surfing he wanted me to see, but it turns out this was one opportunity when it was worth stopping!

Here's a little closer view of the whale we were lucky enough to watch for a good 20 minutes or so but unable to get a better picture. He was surprisingly close to the surfers and just casually swam around by himself.
This was in view from our house and has made me redouble my efforts looking out the window to spot more whales migrating through! I'm not sure what this one was but know the humpbacks are sighted regularly through November or so. Hope to see more of these amazing creatures.