Jumping in

Today Elissa decided that it was fun to jump into the pool, feet first. She's been pretty conservative up until this point, only jumping in from one of the steps when already half way in.

Once she'd done it once, she wanted to do it again and again, slowly increasing her height and distance. She's doesn't like the water getting into her eyes, but still refuses to wear goggles. Two of her friends visited recently, Chelsea (~8) and Abbey (~6), both of whom were perfectly happy to put them on. I thought having bigger kids wear them might inspire her, but it hasn't so far.


Below is a 10 second video clip, including a live laugh track courtesy of the studio audience, Susanne and Isaac.



Isaac still isn't quite as keen on the water as Elissa, but he's much more comfortable floating around for a while than he used to be. His favourite activities are chasing the "noodle noodle noodle" or floating thermometer, which has a plastic frog on top.

Most of the time, however, he'd rather be outside the pool, running laps while giggling madly, perhaps because it ensures we have to chase or follow him closely in case he cuts a corner a little too closely. He also likes to throw in any pool toys or floats that aren't already in the water.


This is Isaac "flying" the little people toy plane. Susanne has a much smaller one nearby, almost out of shot. It would probably be safer to swap the two, as Isaac will often discard toys with extreme prejudice when something else takes his fancy.

Opto picnic on Brisbane Water

That's actually a pretty cryptic title for the uninitiated. The "opto" refers to an old moniker for the university crowd, although it's changed significantly since our University days all those years ago. It's well over a decade ago as I write this, yikes.

Brisbane Water is also nowhere near Brisbane, it's actually Paul & Kate's back yard on the central coast. There may be a more specific name for the bay/lake than that, but neither google maps nor whereis could provide it for me.

Everyone who attended is in the picture, sans the ugly mug holding the camera. From left to right are Paul, Jamie, Hamish, Tom, Stephanie, Jasmine, Elissa, Susanne, Isaac, Kate and Will. (Click on the pic to embiggen)


This is Doogie and his newest offspring, Hamish. I won't say he looks like his father, as he's still too young to defend himself. The beer that looks to be almost in reach may or may not have had a rubber teat on it earlier. Genetics can be such a curse.


Paul supervising the playground.


Yes, there was cake. amongst many other goodies. As usual, we have the ladies to thank for all of the food. The men did at least cook, if not catch, some meat on the BBQ, as suits their levels of expertise. Jamie showed off his Y chromosomes in true style, forgetting to bring the meat, but remembering the beer.


A good day was had by all, adults and kids alike. This was a bit of a last minute thing as I was on leave and we were at Umina for a few days, but we'll have to organise a larger function with all the usual suspects before new year in 2009. If we get our act together, we might be able to do a lazy day by the pool before Summer leaves us. Thanks to Paul and Kate for putting up with us and whatever carnage the young'uns inflicted.

I've made all of the pics (there are only 9) publically available at this URL. I'll revert them back to private in a few weeks, after everyone who's wanted to see or download them will have had plenty of time. If you have a flickr/yahoo account, drop me a line and I'll give you permission to see all our pics. Clicking on most of these images won't necessarily get you any larger, or higher resolution images, as most of them are cropped and/or resized versions of those available at the link above.

Holidays and more

I'm ridiculously behind on these posts. I've just recently posted a couple for events after this date, so that it doesn't get worse.

I'll probably post any new ones by the posting date (the date I put them up here), rather than the date of the events themselves, which will mean the posts won't be in chronological order for a little while. This may be a little confusing, I'm hoping that it will at least be reasonably obvious which one's you've read, and which you haven't. If you go backwards through the posts, you can stop as soon as you see one you've already read, and know you've seen them all.

Feel free to let me know if you think this is a particularly bad idea, and especially if you have a better one.

Still to come:
* Christmas
* Our Lithgow trip
* Our Umina Trip
* A whole bunch of posts I half wrote in late 2007.

Wacky things

It's 8:30 (in the evening), and both the kids are in bed. I've had dinner and Susanne's out at the gym. It seems quiet, and strange to have the place to myself this early. Isaac's always in bed by this time of course, but Elissa often only starts getting ready for bed about now, and by the time we've gone through the tooth brushing, books and stories it's closer to 9:00.

Elissa's bedtime routine goes something like this:

After she brushes her teeth we go to her bedroom, where she picks a book or two to read. Then we have to prop up her pillows, and select one of her soft "friends" to sit in bed and read with us. Lately it's usually been Gerald, the Giraffe (shown to the left). We read the book and then fix her pillows flat for sleeping.

I then duck outside her room and set her lights to fade out over 5 minutes while I "tell her a story". While I'm out for all of 5 to 10 seconds, she hides. Under the covers. Always. I then come back in and have to pretend to look for and find her. I have to be careful not to "Squish her" or keep the sheet/quilt too tight, or I get a lecture on how she couldn't get out.

The it's time to "tell her a story". This is a made-up story of her choosing, although for the last several weeks, it's always been "one where Dora sees wacky things". This involves me having to make up a story where Dora (yes, the explorer) sees, surprise surprise, "wacky things". The wackiness is inspired by the book "Wacky Wednesday", which I had to read every night for several weeks.


After I've finished with the made up story, her room is already dark and I say goodnight to her and get ready to leave. It doesn't matter that I do it the same way almost every night, she still has to tell me:
1. "Put on my yellow light" . This is a small night light.
2. "Put on my coloured light" This is a small lava lamp thing which cycles through various colours for a minutes or two and then goes out.
3. "Leave the door open." I normally leave the door open about 15 cm. Often she "sneaks" out of bed again to open it wider. When I ask her why she wants it open, her response is "So I can see". Of course. If I suggest that she doesn't need to see when she's asleep, she responds "No! I sleep with my eyes open."




Isaac's reading routine is also fairly predictable, apart from which books he'll like, and in what order he'll want them in on any given evening, but I think that's a topic that ought to get it's own post.


The picture to the right is an older one of Elissa reading in bed (notice the winter pyjamas), but it's not that old, and seemed to fit.

Maeghan's Party

Maeghan was guest of honour at two ceremonies today. The first was her christening, the second was a naming.

I'm not entirely sure whether this is a puzzled or stern look, nor what I did to deserve it, but I thought it was pretty cute.

The only pictures I took at the church were with other people's cameras, although I actually spent most of the time trying to amuse Isaac so that he didn't start giving a speech of his own. Even without amplification, he would've given the priest a run for his money on the volume scale, had we not resorted to letting him have as many sultanas and rice crackers as he could fit into his mouth at once.

Needless to say, it all went well, and then it was back to Lisa & Derrick's place for the naming.


I didn't take a lot of pictures at the party, but I've put a few snaps below. I've made higher resolution versions temporarily available here.

Lisa, Derrick and Maeghan.


(Great) Uncle George does the honours. Maeghan's chinese name is Oi Mai. The "oi" refers to "love", the "mai" to beautiful. I apologise if I've spelt "mai" incorrectly, it may be "may".


A wide show of the yard. Hopefully it shows a little of the work Derrick and Norm put in to getting things ready. They were ready for rain, even if it never showed up.


Cutting the cake.