The last month in pictures

Other than the big event of Anna's birthday recently, I haven't posted much about what we've been up to over the last month. I decided to update with pictures and the stories behind them...

This picture was taken just after Anna turned 11 months old. Brady is lately all about holding, hugging, and kissing on Anna. Unfortunately Brady doesn't realise that 33 pounds of solid muscle is a little much for his 19 pound sister... his sweet loving usually ends with Anna in tears and her face in the floor! You can see how happy she is in this picture...

Like most babies her age, Anna is all about seeing how much of a mess she can make at mealtimes... in this case we were still feeding her baby food (no teeth still) and she was happily grabbing it out of the bowl with her hands in between bites! We have since discovered there is a lot she can feed herself without teeth and have embraced that... this is new territory for us since Brady had teeth at 7 months.

We were lucky enough to have Wags the Dog and Dorothy the Dinosaur visit St. Leonards Park on Sunday the 16th of March. We couldn't believe the number of people who came out to see them and felt so lucky to literally be able to walk across the street to get there! It was still super hot that day and thankfully we were covered in sunscreen. For those without small children, "Wag Dog" and "Doty" as Brady calls them are friends of the Wiggles...

Not quite sure what he's thinking here... maybe "Why are all these people out here in my park and where are the freakin' Wiggles?"

Oh, there they are... I get it, sort of... tell me again how they exist outside of our TV?

As usual, Anna loves seeing live shows and was dancing and clapping up a storm. She's become quite the character lately and makes friends with both children and adults wherever she goes with her quirky little smile and friendly personality.

Alas, our little angel must sleep sometimes. Unfortunately,one of those times ISN'T during the wee hours of the morning... if only she'd sleep in her pram this way at home, I'd happily leave it in her bedroom. In other news, Anna has decided to start her own chapter of "DA" or "Dummies Anonymous"...(dummies are pacifiers here but if you say "pacifier" people have no CLUE what you are talking about)... Anna has a very serious addiction, so we figure meeting with other babies who have the same problem may help them all without needing family intervention =)

Our friends around the corner, Kara and her 2 year old son Morgan, were sweet enough to invite us over for an Easter egg hunt in their back yard. There was no need for Easter baskets, as each egg had lollies in it, so the kids were happy to partake upon finding an egg! Kara has become a dear friend of mine (and Morgan of both Brady and Anna) and is also American. She and her husband (who is from New Zealand) have lived in Sydney for a year and a half and are expecting a baby girl in late May.

Brady found an egg! He's giving me that look like "stop taking the stupid picture and get the candy out, please!"

Anna Paige isn't too keen on the egg hunting. For one thing I wouldn't let her eat the lollies and for another there are just way too many cool acorns on the ground that are much more mouth-worthy than a plastic egg.

A week before Anna's birthday we went shopping at the mall for her birthday presents (ahhh, the joys of shopping for a 1-year-old... you can take them with you!)... Anna proved us wrong on that one... we picked up her very first dolly to give her on her birthday and handed it to her to see if she liked dolls... she wouldn't put it down and screamed when we had to hand it to the cashier to pay for it! Here she is at home with her first dolly and her first hair clip... baby girl finally has just enough hair for me to put a clip in it!

Here are Kara and Anna on Monday at our house when Morgan came over for a play (and, admittedly, us Mommies need time for adult conversation as well!) Anna is always ready for a cuddle and before I could run to get the camera she tucked her little head right into Kara's shoulder and gave her a huge hug! Brady is so funny, he's always asking where "Mo-nee" is (Morgan) and Morgan tells Kara "more Brady!" I'm so glad that we have all made such great friends and that we live so close to each other!

This kid just cracks me up! Oh, and she's finally gotten one top tooth (first one) to break through and a bottom one has barely cut the gums... not handling this as well as Brady did, unfortunately. I'm just happy that she's going to have teeth... I was starting to wonder if she'd be on a liquid/mush diet her whole life and didn't know how to plan a gourmet wedding dinner of pureed steak.

When you have 2 kids 19 months apart it's inevitable that they are going to share (OK, that's a strong word) and like the same toys, regardless of what was designed for whom... Uncle David, Aunt Gina and cousins Rachel, Sarah, and Ashley sent Anna a pair of newborn boy/girl twin dollies for Anna's birthday. Yep, you guessed it, Brady has adopted the boy and Anna the girl. They both enjoy pretending to drink the babies' bottles as well, as pictured!

Well, there you have our last month! I know this was a long one, but hopefully family and friends are fully up-to-date on the kids and their latest interests! As for Blake and I, we are doing very well. We've spent the last few weekends painting the iron fence in front of our house which needed it badly. I'll share some pictures when I get a moment to take some of the house. I do have some "before" shots, just need to get some "after" photos. Our garden still hasn't been touched. In speaking with several people in the area we are now of the opinion that after putting in a new kitchen floor and spending many hours painting the ironwork out front that the owner should contribute fully to re-vamping the garden. It really is awful and a makeover would make our house look as great as it should. Plus, it's hard to let the kids outside when they are literally covered in dirt from head to toe and need to be hosed down just to re-enter the house!

We are all heading on our first family trip since arriving in Australia on Saturday... off to Melbourne, Victoria. It's only an hour and 15 minute flight, which will be quite refreshing after our last plane ride! Blake has to travel there once a month for business, so we're tagging along this time. Melbourne and Sydney have long since been huge rivals and Sydneysiders dislike Melbourne and vice-versa. I've heard amazing things about the city from Blake and many others, so I can't wait to visit. Blake has arranged a babysitter for 2 of the nights we're there, so we're also looking forward to a couple of dates while we're there!! I'll post more on that when we return... have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna Paige celebrated her birthday this weekend... we can't believe she's already a year old! March 29th is a special day not only for Anna but also for my mother who was born on the same day, 60 years earlier. We spent the day at Sydney's Royal Easter Show which runs for 2 weeks time. It's basically a huge "County Fair" and had lots of livestock, carnival rides, and carnival food treats. Brady really liked the cows and we all had fun dodging their "leftovers" as we walked through the staging areas...

Don't mind my expression, I was trying to get him to look at the camera

There actually are pigs in this cage, but we appreciated their houses most of all!!

Anna really enjoyed her first birthday treat (part of an ice cream sundae) at the fair

After a full day of fun, we came home to have dinner and celebrate Anna's birthday together as a family. Anna decided that the legal drinking age of 18 here in Australia was a little steep... she thought 1 would be fine. She grabbed my glass of wine and dumped it on her pretty dress (she didn't have a sip, don't worry!) but the pictures show a half naked baby...so now you know why

Anna opening presents with Daddy

Yay Daddy!

Look at my baby doll (in my backpack) and my sweater!

Oooh, opening my big present (with Brady's help)

I love my dolly!!

Brady liked pushing the dolly around in the stroller too!

Not too sure what I'm supposed to do here...

Oh, OK, after you put the fire out I'm supposed to EAT it!

Obviously, Brady had no trouble figuring it out!

Thanks for looking at all our birthday pictures! We have so many more other pics to share and more updates. It's so hard getting on the computer these days! We've been busy meeting new friends, going to playgroup, and enjoying our time here.

We are sad to report that Mattie had deserted the premises without saying goodbye. Her web was nearly impossible to get down... I now know why she got so fat and probably exploded without leaving a note... There were an amazing amount of bugs and tree limbs in her web (no lie).

Finally, but not least, I want to give lots of love to one of my best friends Whitney, who is going through so much...I miss you. 22 hours doesn't feel like so far away at times like this and I wish so badly I were so much closer to home right now.

Lots of love to everyone, and please send updates our way as well!

Around town

We have finally taken some pictures from our 'hood! Blake and I were really craving a good cheeseburger and you'll be shocked to know that the best place we've found for a burger in Sydney is..... ahhhmmmm.... McDonalds (lovingly called Mackers by the locals). We took a walk from our house in North Sydney into Neutral Bay for our delicious treat, and on the way took some photos of where we live.

A view of North Sydney's central business district

Thought the Americans would enjoy seeing a view of a right-hand turn in Sydney

Same intersection, just a cool picture Blake took

Some views of the Harbour Bridge from our "neck of the woods"

I'm sure you've noticed the new sign at the top of our blog; this is a block away from our house... we live on the suburb line of North Sydney and Crows Nest and are just a couple blocks from Neutral Bay. I know this doesn't mean much to most of you, but we couldn't be happier with the area of town we chose and with Sydney's Lower North Shore area overall. We still haven't bought a car! Can you imagine? I went from driving EVERYWHERE to hardly needing one at all. We rent one when we need it for now, but do plan on buying one in the next month or so for big shopping trips and days when it rains a lot.

Now, onto my next overdue blog!

A few more pictures

I think we have finally settled into a bit of a routine around here, for the most part. Blake is getting settled into his new role and is hoping to find a new central office that will be conveniently nearby (not planned, but lucky for us!). The kids and I are meeting new people and enjoying the Aussie lifestyle more and more each day... all is well here in Sydney!

We had a great visit with Uncle Larry and Aunt Claudia although it was unfortunate that Larry was quite ill the entire time they were in Sydney. Fortunately we were still able to visit with them for a couple of days during their stay and unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the family! We really enjoyed spending time with them and can't say enough about how great it is to have a family visit so soon after moving to Australia.

Larry and Claudia also got to meet the latest addition to our family, our friendly Golden Orb Weaver spider we named Matilda (Mattie for short) who lives between our roof and tree in front of our house:

Don't worry, she's totally harmless.

And here are a couple of Annakin, being silly around the house

Finally, we spent last Saturday taking the ferry up to Manly beach again... this time just for some sights and a little family relaxation.

Here is one of Brady playing in the "spider web" in the centre of the play park there in the Corso:

And a funny one Blake took of Anna while I was looking after Brady.. she was NOT happy she couldn't play with the big kids...

And one of the 3 of us on the beachwalk:

We miss everyone so much and love getting news from home!!

She took steps today!!!

I promise more pictures soon, but I have to share in my excitement from today... Anna took her first steps on her own!!!

It started this morning when we went to our first developmental check-up at the Crows Nest Child Health Care Centre. A free service to all local residents, they do regular checkups for all babies and children and I'd been advised by several friends to take the kids in for registry. While speaking to the nurse about our relocation and how the children were adapting, Brady and Anna were playing with all the toys in the room. I glanced down and looked up at Yvonne (our nurse) and said, "Did she just take a step??" and Yvonne exclaimed, "Yes, she did, I saw it too!"

I was so happy and gave Anna a big kiss, but continued on with our conversation about the childrens' development. After a very thorough and impressive 2 hour conversation, weigh-in, measurements and immunisation check (they are on track with Australian shots, so we will continue on our same path, yay!) we finally came home. (On another note, I was very impressed with all of the nurses and the thick development books I was given for each child with their names on them... not to mention that I can drop in and weigh and measure them whenever I'd like.)

So now we're home and are expecting Uncle Larry and Aunt Claudia from Atlanta any minute. Out of nowhere Anna gets up from the middle of the floor and walks over to me! I couldn't believe it...

She hasn't performed for Daddy yet (was too excited to take an afternoon nap, so she was worn out when he got home) but I know that soon my excitement will wear off and I'll be wishing for the days when she stayed in one spot and I only had to chase Brady around... ahhh, times they are a changin'!!!

Some everyday pictures

Here are some photos of the kids from the last month since I haven't been able to download pictures until now...

Brady is worn out from running up and down this ramp at a play park in Darling Harbour. About 100 kids were around him (this is also from Australia Day) but he didn't care, he just needed a break!

A couple days later Naomi and I went to one of our usual parks nearby with the kids. As we were sitting on our blankets with the little ones I looked up to see where Brady had gone (he had been right next to me and had run towards the slide... this is a fully fenced park with no way out unless you are an adult). After looking frantically around the small area I found him in the climb through with an older woman, just chilling out... so here are a couple pictures of Brady's first date (he even took his hat off for her...what a gentleman.)

He seriously sat like this with this girl for 15 minutes, and anyone who knows Brady is SHOCKED to hear that he sat still this long!!

When Mommy cleaned the kitchen in the old townhome in St Leonards the kids liked to have fun in the living room...I heard Anna fussing and looked around the corner to find this...Brady had buried her in toys...she was pretty happy overall while she ate his toy screwdriver.

Last but not least, we love getting packages from home! Patty and Boo Watermeier sent some Hot Wheels to both kids, and Brady wasn't too sure about Anna getting her own... but now when he sees her cars he says "Eeya" which means Anna in Bradyspeak!

Much more to come on our house and getting settled in very soon!

Australia Day... 26 January

We had a wonderful Australia Day! We spent the holiday with our friends from Canada, Naomi, Berrill and their son Ryan who is the same age as Anna. We all headed down to Darling Harbour and then on to downtown Sydney and Hyde Park for the day. We enjoyed lots of food, some beer, and beautiful weather. Here are some pictures:

Blake and Brady (wearing my sunglasses) on the ferris wheel at Darling Harbour:

Allison and Anna on the ferris wheel:

The Watermeier family on the wheel (Brady wasn't too cooperative):

And finally we got to see Brady's favourite, Dorothy the Dinosaur...

Dorothy was just too exciting, so he settled in for a nice sleep in Hyde Park...

It was nice to celebrate a great holiday in a new country and to live as the Australians do in the middle of the summer! (Yeah, I know all of you suffering in the cold are jealous!)