She is small; she likes to check that the mailman has been and can even manipulate the dodgy padlock on our letterbox; she likes puzzles, babies and biscuits; sometimes I wonder what sort of passed life she had, she knows things she shouldn’t; she has rhythm and the best victory dance I’ve ever seen; her laugh delights me; she loves one of our cats like he is the best thing since sliced bread; she loves “duddles”, she likes to snuggle in bed with us as long as there is the correct “blillows” on the bed; she can go down the big slide by herself; she loves to ride with me on my bike; she makes up her own signs; she loves books and to be read to; she likes porridge and beans, though not together; she waves to ants; she cleans up after herself; in the shopping centre she’ll say hello and goodbye to everyone she meets; she likes to share; she sleeps beautifully; she is gentle and caring; she loves to sing and we’ll hear “e, i, e, i, e” from the back seat in the car; she’s everything I dreamed of in child.

I know one day she’ll change the rest of the world the same way she has changed ours.

Grunge turned two on Saturday and we’re pretty sure she’s only just come down on from the fairy bread fueled sugar high

We had a full house with Uncle Sparky, Aunty Sar and Baby Dash testing out our new and improved spare room and festivities started after lunch on Saturday. The bouncy castle man came while Grunge was asleep and the surprise on her face when she saw the castle in the backyard was priceless. Thankfully Em and Sparky took the kids out for a walk while Sar tried to finish the cake and I tried to make magic in the backyard…. A frantic SMS to our awesome neighbour gave us an extra set of hands with the prep and slowly our friends and family arrived and all pitched in; I swear within about 30 minutes we went from a bouncy castle in the backyard to a fully decorated, chaired, tabled, catered backyard! Have I told you how awesome the people in our life are?

The party was a big hit with and Grunge ate her weight in Fairy Bread and stayed up until 9:30 when the last of our friends said good night Turning two was definitely a very memorable day for all of us

Last week at swimming Grunge got her certificate for being able to swim by herself. We are pretty stoked She has been able to swim without us for a few months however we had to wait until her swimming instructor was able to witness it.

Hooray for Grunge!

This week we had the pleasure of a visit from our 2 1/2 year old neighbour Nate. Grunge thinks Nate is pretty awesome and the kids spent most of the evening running up and down the house swapping between pushing a baby in a stroller and Peter Rabbit in a dump truck. Eventually the kids wound down enough to do some drawing, eat some dinner and Grunge headed to bed.

Tomorrow is Nate’s Mums birthday - Happy Birthday Theresa!

Lots has been happening here - it’s late so I’ll update later. Quickly tho - house painting done, rangehood up in kitchen, back yard update planned, new doors on way, new fence and gate in pipeline, new couch and flannelet sheets on bed *brrr*.

Can you believe almost half the year is gone already? Grunge’s 2nd Birthday is fast approaching!

We headed off to the Gold Coast in Queensland for a family holiday last week. We got a awesome flights when Tiger announced their new route to Coolangatta from Adelaide and were pleased with their service.

The apartment at the resort was great, it had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry, full kitchen and a lounge room with a dining table. There was a pool with a spa just outside the door too

Monday was a public holiday and a quick trip to Pacific Fair netted Grunge a bunch of Pumpkin Patch clothes; we also visited my Aunt and Uncle for an awesome lunch.

The next day we drove in to Brisbane to check in with some peeps and Grunge slept on the drive back to the coast.

Wednesday was shopping - we hit the Oakley store and both built new sunnies and stopped at Hooters for lunch.

Thursday was the best day of our trip! We started the day with me opening my birthday present (it was my 30th) which was a book from Planet Cake and a receipt for internet access at the convenience store in the resort. My card had a URL in it and I was stoked to find Em and Cody had arranged for me to head to Sydney for a combined 100th birthday with my brothers. Yay! Emsie got to open her unBirthday presents before we left home.

After breakfast we headed out to Sea World for the day which was unreal. Grunge seems really drawn to animals and sat for ages watching the sting rays, fish and sharks in the aquariums. We spent lots of time at Sesame Street Beach and I rode the new jetski rollercoaster (very fast and fun!). We had a helicopter flight down to near the NSW border and Grunge nearly fell asleep; it was such a smooth flight. Our last stop was the Sesame Street Beach stage show where we had front row center seats. I’m not ashamed to say this was the best part of the holiday! I had our camera and every one of the characters came over and did something quirky in to it - 8ft high Big Bird stretched off the stage and towered right us; the footage is very cool Grunge had a quick nap after we got back to the resort and we got dressed and headed out for a dinner with my Aunt and Uncle complete with a surprise birthday cake and the whole restaurant singing happy birthday.

Friday was… umm… more shopping. Grunge got a hair cut too

Saturday we got a visit from Fletcher and his mums and Darcy and her mums. It was great to catch up with everyone and we were very amused at how the same Grunge and Fletcher are Afterward Grunge and I went for a swim and Em and I watched Burn After Reading.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. After we got back from Second Breakfast Grunge and I walked up to a funky shop I’d been eying off and let Em have a sleep. I got some great juggling balls for me and for Grunge and contemplated getting some new poi or upgrading to fire poi (oh, me and fire… danger :P).

When we got back I found out that someone had keyed all the rental cards parked around mine in the resort carpark - hooray for having an incognito rental car (it was a 60th anniversary Astra) - seeing marks on the shmick Hummer was a bit sad.

The flight home was uneventful, it was a little too late for Grunge however she was awesome as long as I kept reciting The Magic Hat by Mem Fox… “Oh the magic hat, the magic hat!”

When the cab dropped us at home, the first thing Grunge did was run over to her book box and start pulling them out - we only took 2 books away with us and she may have felt deprived.

Since we’ve been home we’ve both been back at work, Grunge back at daycare and us doing a lot around the house. I found a property I really loved online last month and noticed it had been relisted with an agent so we checked it out on the weekend. Unfortunately it wasn’t as awesome as we’d hoped (small things like the walls hadn’t been repaired or prepared before painting) - the three bathrooms had been redone and the rest of the house was great. There wasn’t any heating, cooling or storage… all things we’ve already done to our place! It looks like we’re staying put for now

A few of our awesome friends came out for dinner with us when we got back; our unreal neighbour looked after Grunge and it was so nice to be adults for the night - my present from my besties were stuffed toys from Super Mario Bros We enjoyed tapas and Moet and had a great night - have I told you how great the people in my life are?

We headed to Bunnings this weekend and got some prep for our next home job, hopefully Em’ll have it finished when I get back from Sydney on Sunday night

It’s late and I should be in bed - I’ve got a meeting tomorrow with my company’s accountant and would also like to try out the new bike seat I’ve got for Grunge.

See Kylie - I update my blog There’s no photos… I haven’t downloaded the three cams from the trip yet.

Holiday goodness too!  We left Good Friday morning on a 1 hour flight from Adelaide to Melbourne with Grunge sleeping on Emsie; the flight was asked to keep up speed so we only slowed down upon last minute decent in to Melbourne and it was the smoothest trip we’d ever been on.  Melbourne was a bit of a bust with our Rex flight being delayed so we hung out at the airport playing with the emergency play things we had and eating lunch  - I had an unreal roast vegie bagel.

Rex took us on our 33 seater to Wagga (17 minutes) via Albury (50 minutes) and again Grunge was great on the flight - we arrived at Wagga airport just before 6.  I saw my Mum and sister waving before we’d even unbuckled our seatbelts!  Gosh it was good to see them!  Grunge played with her Nanna Kez while we waited for our luggage.

Saturday we hung out with my family, both brothers, my sister-in-law and neice and nephew.  Sunday the chocolate fest began early with an egg hunt in the rose garden in the front yard, there was Nina (going on 25 at least), Maddi (5), Sam (almost 4), Ben (3) and Grunge (getting close to 2).  The kids had a ball and shared and kept to their own egg colours.  The adults started the breakfast BBQ where we made Bacon, Egg, Cheese and Hash Brown Borritos - probably my favourite breakfast (sans bacon).

We left Wagga on Moday and flew directly back to Melbourne, grabbed our luggage; dumped our luggage and bought some lunch and boarded our plane to Adelaide.  As hard as it was saying goodbye to my Mum, it was nice to be home!

Ok this deserves more than a byline however I wanted to congratulate Andrew and Theresa on the arrival of their beautiful little boy Isaac :)  Baby Zac is a little brother for our favourite neighbour Nate and I got to have a hold tonight and I’m totally clucky

Also congratulations to Stacey and Angele on Jackson’s safe arrival, Matt and Karen welcoming Hayden (who fell asleep in my arms AWWWW), Mandy and Jason on Max and Brad and Brooke on the arrival (FINALLY) of Jacob Trent - that’s 5 baby boys in 2 weeks

Hooray for baby boys

School: Last week Grunge started in the 2-3 room at daycare last week, she’s 20 months We got her a new pillow and blanket especially for school and she’s been napping two sleep cycles which is awesome.  I love picking her up from school as she’s usually off doing something fun.  Today she was following the other kids on their way to the library at the school - complete with a fist full of chalk and last week I caught them just as they were leaving the music room.  Some days I would like to go to school

Language: Grunge talks, sometimes in full two word sentences ;)  We were away in Sydney last week and I was putting her to bed and she looked at me and signed “Mia gone” - total heart breaker as it was just Grunge and I on a whirl wind visit.  When we arrived at the airport and she saw Em she got so very excited.

House: We’ve been doing stuff, moving stuff, installing stuff, it’s getting there Last step will be painting

*thinks* That’ll do

Things happen so quickly;  Grunge is now 20 months old, talking up a storm and totally amazing me daily.

This weekend Em and I went away to celebrate Em’s 30th birthday (which was in Janurary).  We flew to Melbourne, went to a conference for my business (yes, I’m hopeless!), watched the Billy Elliot musical, shopped for Grunge and went to Jamie Olivers restaurant fifteen for dinner - talk about exhausting!  Grunge stayed with her Princess Mish, Unki Baa and their kids and had a ball.  Mish sent us photos through the day and we couldn’t help laughing and wondering who had the most fun

Dinner at fifteen was awesome.  A friend of ours had told us it sucked and we considered just going for dessert however dinner was at 8pm and we were pretty hungry by then.  We both started with bruschetta, Em had pork for secondi and I had rottolo which was maybe the most awesome thing I’ve ever eaten.  We chose the selection plate for dessert which was a taste of each of the desserts on the menu.  Again, it was awesome.  We had some great adult conversation, watched the kitchen preparing meals, I indulged in some very potent adult pink lemonade and we had a very lovely waiter.

Grunge got very excited when we got home and was keen to show us the new trolley she’d gotten from her Aunty Jo and started insisting on me reading her a book.  Nothing changes

This week Grunge starts in the Toddler room at day care.  It’s pretty bittersweet as she was the youngest kid when the centre opened and is moving up a few months early.  They have sent up two of her best friends in hope that they’ll keep their little click.  My kid actually prefers running with two of the boys her own age - does that surprise you?

On Fridays Grunge and I head to music class, she thinks it’s fantastic.  There is a rhyme that we do there that involves a hammer and a saw and it’s got actions.  2 weeks ago Em had an operation and said to Grunge “Be gentle with Mia, she is sore” and Grunge looked purposefully at Mia and said “Saw” while doing a sawing action. Close.

And me, if we’ve spoken in the last month you’ll know what I’m up to - and if I’ve roped you in to helping… thank you

This week my sister is having surgery with Dr Charlie Teo - it’s keyhole neurosurgery to remove two of the four tumors in her brain.  He is pretty up himself which is exactly the sort of neurosurgeon I want to be operating on my sister;  he took her case when the local neurosurgeons wouldn’t.

I’m thinking my blog needs an update - bring on some inspiration

I’ve been M.I.A for a while now, rest assured we returned home safely from our trip away… just ;)  Neither of us really wanted to leave Canada, it makes a big difference to be somewhere you love, where your own family is treated equally and where there are some of your favourite people.  Oh, and there is a Fluevog store close by

I guess I can sum up the trip in a few points:

• Highlight: Ziplining down Grouse Mountain
• Lowlight: Is that a real term?
• Something interesting: Um… when you herd ducks in to a backyard.. you have to remember they need to leave somehow.

I only needed to get terse with someone one time; we had had a very long wait at Athens airport and we got on the plane to Frankfurt to find we weren’t all seated together.  The stewardess watched as I struggled to strap the car seat in to Grunge’s seat and poor Grunge was screaming from a sore mouth.  When the seat was in the stewardess walked over and asked if the seat had been approved for airline use to which I said it had and then she said I would need to install the car seat in the other seat we were given.  It took all my strength not to vault the seat and start papercutting her with my boarding pass.  I calmly proclaimed, “That would have been nice to know BEFORE I installed it.”  and didn’t really mind when Grunge screamed for the duration of the flight.

Anyway, enough about the trip, one thing, if you want to take a toddler around the world, do it, it’s awesome fun :)  Oh, and spending 6 weeks straight with your partner rocks too

It was two years ago that we found out we were expecting Grunge, pretty cool if you ask me :)  She’s an awesome little kid.  This week she’s finally become brave enough to walk on her own and as my brother said she’s very “stable table”.  She loves dolls and to mimic whatever we do.  Grunge loves our animals and likes to stand at the back door and “bark” at the dogs and pat the cats, even offering them her cereal.

Since getting back, Em and I have been really busy, her with her new job and me with my “stuff” (that’ll all make sense in about 7 months). We’re also thinking about upgrading one of our cars.  The red car has been stalling at idle the last few months and the service centre hasn’t been able to find any issues and the car computer isn’t returning an error either.  Today they found a “known issue” with the ignition coils which are currently being replaced.  If the car still stalls we’re selling her as neither of us want to put Grunge in a car that has problems.

Oh, very exciting news, we were totally over the moon (moo) when Sar and Sparky welcomed Baby Elvis to the world on the 27th of September.  He’s a gorgeous little guy with two awesome parents. :)  Hooray for babies