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 ).

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 wanted to share some of the little things Grunge does that make me smile:

She insists on getting out her own bowl

She tries to open the fridge to get the milk carton; when you open it for her she pulls out the milk and hands it to you and waits until she can put it back

She loves to read books to other people

When she eats, she’ll name the patterns on the bowl or plate… “bunny, bowl, dog, bone”

She’ll eat pretty much anything and is a big fan of sultanas (tanas!) and bananas (nanas!)

She called Em Mama or Mina… one day she’ll get Mia

Her favourite words are dog, duck, more, bubbles, diddy, wow, yeah, cheese, please, ta, cat, yellow, hello, bye, mwah

She likes to help putting away the shopping and names everything as we do so

She can count and knows that Two Socks is in Arizona

When we get to the car park at day care she gets very excited

She copies everything we do from rubbing her eyes, winking, making faces, star jumps, sneezing – you name it

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

We left Athens for Zaharos (Sugar Town) on the west coast on Tuesday. Em’s father grew up in a small village a little way from Zaharos and we’re here for their “final trip back” which was meant to be last year however we couldn’t justify leaving me and a new Grunge home alone while Em came along.

The train trip down was great, we were in a first class cabin on the train and got to see a lot of the small places along the way. The seats reclined to almost lying down and there were two foot rests on the chair in front, very nice! People live pretty much on the train line, in places you could have reached out and touched their houses. The train chugged through Petras where all the international ferries and liners pull in and we were about 30 metres from those boats, very cool.

We scrambled off the train at Zaharos station – station is a bit of a misnomer… a phone booth a metre wide concrete path and an old rusty caboose does not make a station; our new Merc taxis arrived and took us a few kms to out hotel.

The hotel is nice, pretty clean and the people are very friendly. They are all especially taken with Grunge which is cool. Our room is very small, it has a double bed, a single bed, a small fridge and a vanity unit so there is about a 40cm walkway around to the bathroom which has a hand held shower head at knee level and about a 50cm x 50cm cubicle for showering in. Apparently you aren’t meant to flush your toilet paper either, whoops.

We had a real hard time getting Grunge to sleep so we made her her own Gypsy retreat, two sheets hung from washing line around her bed to keep her sectioned off, so far it is working really well and she’s back to having a lunch sleep and a big ninighs sleep. She slept in the pram yesterday while we were heading back from the beach and tried to sleep in the pusher today coming back from the markets.

In the mornings I walk up to the bakery up the street and buy a loaf of bread for lunch and Em and I sit on the balcony with our tomatoes, cheese, oj and bread like real wogs

Dinners have been good too. We found a local place that makes great food and they are really proud of what they do cook. Last night the owner was kind enough to let me bumble my way through our dinner order (a yiros without meat with chips and 3 soulvlaki and two kokojeros) and makes the tastiest yiros

We’re in Greece and all doing well – both girls are napping so I thought I’d add a bit of information on what we have been up to.

We flew from Adelaide to Changi Airport in Singapore on Sunday the 31st; the flight wasn’t bad at all and Em tested out her new no motion sickness bands which worked a treat. Grunge slept well in her car seat; we were really surpried. The flight attendents were lovely and gave Grunge some toys, nappies and wipes. We arrived at Changi around bed time and checked in to our Transit Hotel inside the airport for our 6 hour lay over. The hotel was lovely and gave us a cot for Grunge to sleep in so she jumped in the shower with me and then went to bed. The hotel is next to the movie cinema and butterfly garden inside the airport and upstairs from lots of shopping including a Giordano Junior store We caught the skytrain to the next terminal for boarding and set off for Athens with Singapore Airlines.

During the flight I was playing with the onboard entertainment system and found an old Japanese puzzle game and worked out how to play it – both Em and I got addicted to it and played on and off for the rest of the 11 hour flight. The interactive system is built on Windows 3.11 and I got to watch our rows system reboot as the overhead lights and call buttons didn’t work. Watching DOS boot on an aircraft is a little daunting

It was pretty cool to know we were flying over places like Dubai, Mumbai and pats of Iran and we landed in Athens on Monday morning after about 24 hours travel. We got whisked through immigration, found our bags and went to find Em’s parents. There was no security at all! We trained it to the hotel in Omonia and all went to bed.

We had a quick tour of Athens seeing an awesome red sunset, the flea markets and the acropolis from a distance. Overall it was a bit of a hole however an interesting place; we’ll be heading back for a few days next week.

Have I introduced you about our neighbours? For the purpose of my own amusement and the prosperity of the tradition of giving important people superhero names.. they shall hence forth be known as Rogue and Wolverine (yes, I’m slightly addicted to X-Men ).

Rogue and Wolverine have a gorgeous son, Wonderboy, who is 12 7th of awesome. Yesterday Rogue and I were outside playing Wonderboy Pong while Ickle happily practiced gardening in Em’s non prize winning rose moving dirt one handful at a time and relocating it to the grass or her mouth. Even Rogue’s airplane rides could not break the habit so I suggested Ickle jump in the bath.

Ickle is a big fan of baths, she tries to climb in full clothed and has started to undress herself thinking she’ll get in quicker. Yesterday she’d played with so much dirt there was even dirt in her nappy… and she was wearing a onesie!

We’re down to a week and a bit until we go away. We’re so excited and seem to have everything under control at the moment; random. We still need a few things and I’m hoping Ickle will be interested in coming shopping with me today to pick them up. I managed to find the only shop that was selling shorts in Winter in Adelaide and picked up two pairs of shorts that actually fit – within the week every store must have heard I needed shorts as they all started selling them. I need to call all the airlines we’re traveling on to ask about car seats on the plane – I guess I should do that now while grunge is asleep