Those handsome boys

I am so lucky that my awesome friend Kate not only is now living in Brisbane, but also has kids roughly the same age as Bronte and Zach. AND the kids get on really well.

1st Haircut!

We have learnt from the X man not to let the hair get too out of hand, so off we went for Zachs first hair cut. He coped very well, thanks in large part to his sister entertaining him.

Before


After - all the curls cut away.

Straddie beach play

The gorge walk

The Gorge walk - stunning at any time, and particularly beautiful at 6am as we allowed the rest of the guests their sleep.

Stuff it, we will go

We cancelled our last trip to Straddie because of a severe weather event. We re-booked, and once again, a severe weather event was forecast. But we decided to head over anyway. Though the afternoon was spent watching the rain sheets flood the bowls club, it was still fun. Below is on the ferry on the way over.

Bronte can ride!

After Bronte demonstrated her mastery of the balance bike, we headed off to the Salvos to purchase an awesome, and size-appropriate purple bike. After practicing getting on and off the bike, we headed to the Gap Creek reserve. While dad was off playing on his new mountain bike, Bronte was making her mother teary proud - riding her bike with no stabilisers. One of those moments you don't forget - when you push your kid and let go of the bike for the first time (and they don't fall off).


The face of a girl who can ride


And the boy who so desperately wants to

Afternoon

Morning paddles

The fun and convenience of Southbank. Everyone in the water at 8am on a Saturday was either under 5, or a parent of an under 5.

Walking!!!!

First steps by Zach! Captured better on video than photo, but our boy has taken his first few steps. So far, 10 is his max, but he is very proud of himself (as we are of him).

Hair Brushing

Hat stealing

Zach loves wearing his sisters' hat - putting it on his head and crawling blindly and rapidly around the house. He knows it cracks us up - funny boy.

Our baby boy is 1!!!

At 14:08 12 months ago, this black haired, olive skin, meconium covered, wrinkly baby was delivered to us. In 12 months, he has become a funny, strong-willed, loving, communicative, cheeky, loud, active, gorgeous boy who loves his big sister more than anything else. He loves music, cars, and anything his sister is doing. He gets jealous, demands to be the centre of attention, and protests loudly when he doesn't get his way. He sleeps about 1 hour during the day, and 6:30pm-6:00am at night (with about 4 interruptions on average). He weighs 9kg and is 76cm long, and will climb anything without fear. His mother has heard him say "mum, dad, bubble, car, out, more, dog, grandma, granddad, nanna, narna (banana), and ball". We love him to bits.

Celebrations at school

We left the camera at child care to help capture Zach's special day. Fortunately, it also coincided with him having his best day at child care so far - it seems that he now gets what it is about, and his carers get what he is about.



Bronte got to come down and share his banana cupcakes with him - though both of them do not look very impressed.

The price of having a big sister - a strong love, and recognition of Dora

Matilda

This is Matilda - Bronte's bilingual (Spanish) kindy friend.

3 years 9 months

Bronte is a kindy girl now, and we have noticed the big jump in maturity, language, and co-ordination. She can now bat the softball when it is thrown to her, has mastered her balance bike, and can skip beautifully (as her ballet teacher says). At kindy they are learning about Penguins and Inuits, and north and south poles, as well as how to drink from bubblers. She has grown about 3 cm in the last 5 weeks, and is now truly a size 4 with new shoes needed. At night she has started to want chapter books / longer stories to be continued the next night. And thank goodness for Bronte in the morning, helping me to get Zach ready for school, and myself ready for work.

Party time!

Zach didn't get to invite any of his friends to his 1st birthday party - only the 30 or so immediate relatives he has... He was the star of the party, as it should be, with the crowd waiting in eager anticipation as he stood and nearly, nearly took that first step. Again and again. He got lots of lovely blocks and trucks and a sean the sheep to play with, as well as some great clothes. Thanks everyone for an awesome day.

Cousins

Photo by Meg
Jewelry by Orange Sherbet

Practicing, practicing...

The washing basket at Nannas is very wobbly, and offers minimal support, so I am thinking that walking is just around the corner...

GNX - this is for you - progress on the lemon tree

Lone pine fun

First visit back to Lone pine in a long while - Zach is now old enough to chase kangaroos.

I always have kangaroo shots - time for a koala.


They also have a new attraction where you can mine for "jewels". Unfortunately, we may have tipped all our loot into the rushing stream on the first attempt, but with some digging around the drain, we managed to salvage enough previous metal.

Morning moments

Bronte loves practicing her letters, particularly with her rainbow multicoloured pen. Zach is currently into putting things into things, or opening and getting out things. Such as cupboards. This morning, they were doing their favourite things simultaneously.

Put that foot down!

Nanna has a saying "put that foot down!" and when Zach is being cheeky, he lifts his foot up and waits for us to put on our best Nanna voice.

Revisiting ballet class

A year ago we tried Bronte at ballet class, but she was too shy. Not so today! We took her back to the same class, and she performed all the moves with a grace her mother has never had. I was so super proud of her.

Matching stripes

Life wasn't quite right until Zach got to sit on Nanna's lap while she sang Humpty Dumpty.

The two of us