More food

BB is eating real food now, not just bland cereal. He eats it pretty well, even though sometimes his face suggests otherwise. Almost every time he eats, he has to pretend that the first bite is extremely disgusting.

What in the hell are you feeding me?

 Apparently the dad thinks it's disgusting as well...

Catching flies

My mum was playing with BB so I took some photos. He was also doing some more sitting up practice. My mum pointed out afterwards that he has a habit of opening his mouth a lot. I never noticed before but she seems to be correct:

6 month old Bad Baby!

Half a year already! It has been interesting and wonderful and sad and frustrating and funny and pretty much any other adjective you can think of. These pictures sure are getting harder to take, seeing as how he JUST WANTS THE PAPER ALL THE TIME.

We managed to get an okay one eventually. Now we just need to crop me out of it somehow. And also, I don't mean to brag or anything, but that sweater he's wearing was made by ME! Yep, my first attempt at knitting. I'd say it came out alright. The dad is jealous and wants a hat for himself. I won't make any jokes about big heads and taking years and costing so much for the wool. 

Surfing again

We went back to Manly today for the dad to try his hand at surfing again. The first attempt didn't last too long, and he came back for a rest.

Maybe a model instead of a surfer?

Man, is that hard work. 

Then he went back out for another little while. We sat in the park next to the beach with our sweaters on wondering why anybody would choose to go into that freezing cold water.

And BB did a great job practicing his sitting up! He's getting really good at it. I don't feel like I have to be RIGHT there all the time.

Then back came the dad, looking like a real surfer this time. Although that may be more the skill of the photographer than anything else...

Kiama

Grandma and I went to visit the cousins (and Aunty) today. They live in a town called Kiama, south of Sydney but north of the southern house. We got some sandwiches for lunch and ate them in the park. They enjoyed BB's stroller.

Mum? I don't know what these things are,
but they don't look so friendly.

Next we had to get the obligatory coffee. Grandma can't really survive without one. And obviously, she starts training the children pretty young:

And for old times' sake, here's a picture of Picey when he was exactly one day older than Loo in the last photo (3 days after his 2nd birthday, Loo was 2 days after). Such concentration. We can only hope that BB will be as dextrous as the other two. Although with my genes, that may be wishful thinking.

We finished up the day with a (very) short attempt at some fun on the trampoline. Just for future reference, taking a baby on a trampoline with a 2 year old boy and a 4 year old boy is probably not the safest idea.

*Note - the kids are not actually drinking coffee. It's a drink known as a babycino - just steamed milk.

A walk around the harbour

 Today we went for a short walk around Sydney harbour. There are so many little paths and places to walk. This is a walk we've done many times before, but it's still great. I've started a map of all the places we go walking. This was the Bad Baby's first time in the Ergo. It can go on the front or the back, but the dad prefers the back. To me it looks a bit scary, and BB's head did flop back and forth a little, but he seemed to like it anyway.

We tried for a while to balance the camera on a rock or tree limb to take a photo of all of us, but it just wasn't right. Maybe I need to learn how to photoshop us all into the same one. Or I could use my skills in Paint to draw myself in there. I would upload a sample of my excellent work, but unfortunately it's all on our old computer which is a) not here yet, and b) not working. 

Birthday Boy

No, BB isn't one yet. His cousin Loo turned 2 today! He had a wonderful party complete with an Aussie barbie. And no, there weren't any shrimp, just sausages. They're mostly called prawns here anyway. Getting back to the story...

The cousins have a park right near there house so all the kids brought their scooters (or strollers) for some scooting fun. BB couldn't have any cake, but he did get a delicious cup!

One of Loo's favorite presents (from Aunty Ash, his second favorite Aunty, of course) was a 'kateboard'. He did not want to put it down ever. In fact his mother told us later that he even wanted to sleep with it. He can't really ride it so well yet, so he just carries it around.

And makes everyone else jealous...

His present from his most favorite Aunty (i.e. me) was a Spiderman costume, complete with muscles. It was quite amusing.

An evening at home

Tonight Grandma gave the Bad Baby a bath in the sink.

 I tried to get some nice photos to commemorate the occasion, but unfortunately he wasn't cooperating. He is a big fan of the bath (as long as it's warm enough) and he likes to splash all the time everywhere. Which is why the photo is so blurry. Basically the only time he is still is when he is mesmerized by something. For example, the fire:

He luuuuurves the fire. 

Time for FOOD!

Today was a much anticipated day. The Bad Baby tried (sort of) real people food for the FIRST TIME. It was just rice cereal, which hardly counts as people food since no people I know eat rice cereal. Here's a picture montage of the event:

What was that? Did you say I'm allowed to eat things today?

Alrighty then, don't mind if I do!

Hmm, I think I'd prefer to stick with my toys.

Just kidding, I want to eat it all, right now.

He ate it rather well for a first-timer. My parents kept saying how impressed they were with his eating ability, but they may be a little biased.

Moving South

We have finally moved to our 'own' house down south of Sydney. It's a little out of the way/in the country, but it does have this view:

so I guess that makes up for it. We'll be staying there until the dad gets a job and we move into a house that actually is ours. 

As you can see, there's lots of construction going on around the house and it gets pretty muddy. We decided that we needed some (what we in Australia call) gumboots. We're real fancy.

That's the driveway going off to the right. It's a little scary to drive over the edge. This is what it looks like from down below:

Since it's still winter and a little chilly, we had a delicious fire in the fireplace. Aaaand of course we had to christen the new house, right?

Bad Dad?

As well as beer and wine, BB's dad also likes to rot his brain with... 

video games! 

I'm sure in the future I'll have to deal with many, many requests for Playstations or Nintendos or whatever new-fangled contraption they will have come up with by then, but I had thought that I was safe for at least a little while!

Funny story: Picey was at Grandma's house and BB's dad (Picey's uncle) was playing some kind of car racing game. Picey wanted to play so the dad taught him how. They were occupied for a while until Picey's mum said it was time for bed. He whined and stalled for a while until she meant business, at which time he went over and punched her in the leg. 

See, video games are BAD. And we all know BB doesn't need any help in that department. 

The Park!

We had a nice day with the family today. We (me, dad, BB, Grandma) looked after the cousins while their mum was doing some teaching. It was BB's first time in a park. 

Liking the swing

Can loo turn it up?*

Is it just me or does the sea monster/dragon look as scared as BB?

Maybe not liking the tunnel so much

After the park we had a delicious lunch at Diggies, complete with coffee (for everyone else) and hot chocolate (for me).

We're not related are we?

Cutie

*Translation - Can you open it for me?

Aarrrgh!! Driving on the left!!!

We'll have to practice our left side driving, because we finally got our first Aussie car!! I'm not driving it quite yet, due to my extreme wussiness. If that's how you spell it. There are roundabouts and cars parked everywhere and all sorts of other scary things. I'll let you know if there are any wrong-way incidents.

And also, BB can sit up by himself for a couple of seconds. I think this is the only picture I got without my blurry hand reaching out to steady him. He's really working hard at it. A good thing too, because he's spent the last 2 months looking like he's trying to do a sit-up whenever he's lying down.

A Fancy Wine Festival

This afternoon BB and the dad and I went to a fancy wine festival by the beach. Cause we're fancy and stuff. As you can see here:

Surprisingly enough, BB was enthralled with the glasses of wine. I'm really starting to get a little worried about him. 

We drank some wine and went for a walk. BB got his first ride on his dad's shoulders. I think he enjoyed it. It's a pity his head is too big for his hood though. I hope he didn't get sunburnt.

A Tooth!

A tooth has popped out! After a good night's sleep (well, relatively) we woke up to a teeny tiny tooth. I really wanted to take a photo of it but BB was not participating at all. So the dad tried to help me. It really wasn't as bad as it looks...

Uhh, Dahh... wha are you doing to me?

No I'm not coming closer to you... I'm not playing these childish games of yours!

Ok fine, here it is. 

What a grown-up boy. Sniff, sniff.