Around the townhouse

Daddy and the kids after work

Now that we're getting settled in a bit, the kids are getting adjusted to our life here. Brady has learned to share with Anna... especially when it comes to food. Since at 9 1/2 months old baby girl still doesn't even have 1 tooth, I have to be constantly watching what he tries to feed her. He tried BBQ pork when she was 3 months old, and lately he's been trying to feed her grapes (gulp) so I watch him like a hawk.

Brady discovered that Anna is quite fond of salt and vinegar potato chips...

Caught in the act...

Brady is also up to his usual silly antics, as shown here:

Anna's a little ticked about him having her pacifiers,

especially since he doesn't even like them and she's completely addicted.

As for what's new with us over here, we're still busy hunting for a place to live. The rental market is absolutely insane around here. We found several places we liked last Saturday and put in our applications on Monday, only to discover that the place we liked the best had been leased to an applicant who submitted their application immediately after inspection on Saturday! We now realize we'll need to apply more quickly to get what we want. We're finally going out with the relocation agent on Thursday, so maybe we'll find something on that hunt.

We went to the park today and it reminded me of something else that deserves mention in Australia. Flies. The best way for me to describe them is to quote American travel writer Bill Bryson in his book In A Sunburned Country : "Flies are of course always irksome, but the Australian variety distinguishes itself with its very particular persistence. If an Australian fly wants to be up your nose or in your ear, there is no discouraging him. Flick at him as you will and each time he will jump out of range and come straight back. It is simply not possible to deter him. An Australian fly will try to suck the moisture off your eyeball. He will, if not constantly turned back, go into parts of your ears that a Q-tip can only dream about. He will happily die for the glory of taking a tiny dump on your tongue." This is all quite true, and also note that if you've never read a Bill Bryson book, they are very worth reading! He's funny as heck! We've all been "attacked" by flies here and it's especially annoying when the fly is on one of the kids and WON'T LEAVE. Blake assures me that the flies in Melbourne are worse than in Sydney, and I believe him... they actually had a story on the news about it the other day.

More to come on Australian wildlife!