"Oh no"

Charlotte's newest phrase is "Oh no". It applies to just about everything. No more strawberries at breakfast? "Oh no". Can't find dolly's bottle? "Oh no". Time to change her diaper? "Ohhhhhhhhhhh nooooooooooooo" (she is still quite defiant when it comes to diaper changes). Can't reach the books at the back of the cupboard? "Oh no".Getting ready to go for a walk? You guessed it, "Oh no". See? Many varied uses for this expressive phrase.

We're hoping to get to meet Jen and Rod's new baby this weekend. They will likely be home from the hospital sometime in the next day or two.

Charlotte is slowly getting over her cold (Neale and I are also both slower to recover than we'd like), but has been in mostly good spirits and has been sleeping quite well, despite her congestion. We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home, even though it appears the weather is not going to be great. As Charlotte would say, oh no.

Cheerios and acrobatics

This morning I've found myself laughing a lot. Not a bad way to start a morning that had me awake at 6 am to the sounds of Charlotte coughing and hacking away in the room next to me. From the second she woke up today, she was in a silly mood. When I went in to get her from her room she greeted me with a big, goofy, snotty smile and said "Mama!" then she proceeded to run down the hall to the front room, pull the curtains apart and giggle. At what, I'm not sure, but obviously she was happy to be awake, which made it easier for me to be up, too. After a few little impromptu dances, she was ready for breakfast. Cherrios, banana and orange juice. She was determined to feed herself the cereal today, as you can see. Most of the milk ended up on her legs or the floor, and she never really got more than 1 or 2 Cherrios in her mouth per spoonful. It took about 40 minutes for her to eat, and that was before she even got to the banana.

After breakfast, she was ready for play time. Lately this has included a lot of acrobatic and/or climbing activities. Today she had located her pink Ikea stool (last night I tried to hide it to avoid this type of thing) and placed it carefully on top of her Dora the Explorer mini-couch. She then proceeded to climb onto the couch and then got on top of the stool, soon standing upright. She looked so proud. From here she tried to carry her stool, which isn't heavy but is awkward, to Mom & Dad's room. Once there she put the stool on the bed (our bed is quite low to the ground and she can easily climb on to it) and then, once again, climbed on to the stool. Soon enough, she was standing on the stool, very pleased with herself.

Despite her cheery mood and all of these enjoyable moments this morning, we had to skip going to Montessori. Her cough is still quite bad, her nose is runny and she still has a bit of a fever. She's sleeping now, and my hope is that when she wakes up, she'll be just as happy as she was when she went down.

Thanks Kate, this blog is a great idea!

Hi All, Neale here.

I think this blog is a terrific idea, thanks for getting it rolling Kate.

It has been a difficult stretch spending so much time on the road, especially with Kate and Charlotte both being bit hit by a cold. I think we are all looking forward to the upcoming summer months and getting to spend a lot more time together exploring Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. We have already experienced some of the things that Adelaide has to offer: the zoo, an AFL grand final party, a nature reserve, a weird little german town up in the hills and the endless beaches that are right out our front door. The aparment we live in is quite nice, has a beautiful view and is very central to everything we need.

I have not really had an opportunity to explore Sydney or Melbourne as I have been quite busy, and quite frankly I want to share it with my girls. Although, I did do the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb, as I knew Kate would not becasue of the heights. I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I did - Greg and I did it together and I would recommend to anyone who visits Sydney. Kate got a T-shirt - she was happy with that.

I now have the cold and have it passed it on to my work colleagues - they are thrilled with their recent acquisition.

Thanks Kate, I miss you and Charlotte all the time.

I look forward to seeing you at all at xmas.

Wondering . . .

So, day two of blogging.

I'm wondering how long it is going to take my sweet little girl to get back on her regular sleep schedule after having it up-ended while being sick. She should be soundly sleeping for her regular 3 hour nap right now, but I can hear her rattling around and talking to herself (and occsionally coughing and sputtering through the phlegm that is ever-accumulating) in her crib as I type. Neale and I have never been very good at letting her "cry it out", so I suspect that I'll be heading in to her room shortly to console her and likely take her out of her crib to play a while longer before she REALLY goes down for a nap. Sure enough, the rattling and talking has turned in to cries for "mama", so I better go check on her. . .

Life in Adelaide, part I

After some encouragement from friends and family, I have decided to start a blog to document our family adventures while living in Adelaide, Australia. . . Here goes!

Today is October 27, 2008. After a weekend spent taking care of a sick little baby (and trying to get in as much rest as possible to get over the cold that I had also come down with), Charlotte and I are having a very quiet Monday. She's still quite sick - very congested in her chest and nose - not really a pretty sight, but my hope is that she will get better as quickly as she got sick. Unlikely, but I'll still keep my fingers crossed. Normally we'd have gone to Kindergym today, but that will have to wait until next week. In fact, I suspect we will miss a lot of our regular activities this week, unless the aforementioned quick recovery actually does take place.

Just as we were gearing up for the hot weather here, things have regressed back to cool temperatures (at least for today). It was 37C on Saturday, and today the high is 16C. It's now 3:30pm and I don't think it's reached the high yet . . . Oh well. The forecast is for mid-30s for the rest of the week. Sounds nice, but it's hard to do much outside with a toddler when the weather is that hot. I'd be happy with 25C day after day, but it's not likely that there is any chance of that happening.

Halloween is just around the corner, and it will be interesting to see how differently it is celebrated (or not) here. I've heard that it's not a big deal at all, and so it seems, as there are only a few shops that have anything even resembling Halloween in stock. Trick or treating is DEFINITELY not done here, but a few people have mentioned that kids will, on occasion, dress up. We were sent a costume for Charlotte from her Grandma back home, so at least we'll have some pictures of her all dressed up. Our neighbors across the hall are half Canadian (by that I mean one half of the couple is Canadian), so perhaps we can do some sort of Halloween activity with them and their little boy who is 3.

That's it for my inaugural blog. Hope I did ok . . .