Here’s what the little guy is up to these days…

After scooting around, skipping crawling altogether and starting walking around Christmas, Oscar is now running around at every opportunity. We had a long spell of trips, falls, bleeding and trips to Smart Clinics but he now seems quite steady. Thank goodness.

Oscar’s vocab is coming along famously, and we love hearing him try to enunciate new words. It’s still only one word at a time (“more” or “please” but never “more please”), but that doesn’t stop him from making his wishes known. All this gives us some insight into what he’s thinking: monkey noises from the backseat of the car show that he’s using his imagination to daydream about favourite animals. When we pass those giant pylon things at Brendale that support power lines he thinks they’re cranes, so you can see him trying to understand the world through the paradigm of familiar books.

Conversation with Oscar sometimes seems like an exercise in word association. If I tell him we’re going to my parents’ house he says: “Mia? Pa? Up? Down? Round round? Ding dong?” This means, “will I see my grandparents, who have that cool electric door, a ceiling fan and a chiming clock?” Similarly, Gerrod’s folks’ get: “Nonni? Poppa? Bow wow? Tom? Cuckoo?” I now completely understand that weird phenomenon where you think children are babbling nonsense but their parents insist they are speaking. With enough context and repetition the babble makes complete sense to Mums and Dads!

When we’re driving, he’ll sometimes call out the colours of the traffic lights, and when they turn green shout, “Green Green! Go Go!” Speed bumps and pot holes: “Bump! Bump!”, but diggers get the most enthusiastic response.

He LOVES books, and some current favourites are Where is the Green Sheep? and The Very Busy Spider. Plus whatever is new in from the library. His favourite song seems to be the Westminster Chime. His pitch is improving so it’s almost recognisable now. We sing this about 40 times a day (not by my choice!).

He loves eating sultanas and pikelets. He’s starting to count. He enthusiastically reminds everyone to wash their hands after going to the bathroom (he doesn’t get the irony that he only knows it’s important since we did it every time even without the helpful prompts). He begs for bubbles to be blown. He loves being followed and chased. He does the hand gestures for Incy Wincy Spider and applauds his efforts when he finishes. He loves experimenting with the ideas of empty and full, on and off. He has developed a guilty face, that’s often used when he’s caught pressing buttons. He closes doors he finds open, and is especially helpful with the dishwasher and coffee machine.

Oscar is the sweetest little boy we’ve ever had. Happy 18 months Moo Bear!

When Oscar was born, the phrase we heard most often (and hence got most sick of) was that “You forget how small they are”; yet oddly enough, that’s the only thing I could think of when we met Natalie. She’s so little! Actually I don’t think it’s the size of a newborn that surprises me – it’s their weight. It’s almost as if when lifting a child, my muscles brace for Oscar’s weight, and so they get quite a surprise when a baby weighs a lot less – like when you went to the science museum as a kid, and they had a brick which for all intents and purposes looks exactly like a brick, but it’s actually made out of cardboard so you almost fall over when you lift it up.

Yes, newborn babies are very light indeed.

Anyway – congratulations Glen and Anita, and big brother Caleb…

… on the new, non-cardboard addition to your family!

The birthday girl seemed to lap up all the extra attention that she deserved for being the birthday girl, and at one point, she even exercised her right to cry – and why not? It was her party! There were no tears to be seen once the tower of birthday cupcakes were presented, though…

Yum! And with two different choices for frosting – butter (traditional, my favourite) and meringue (Kristy’s favourite) – did I mention, yum?!

Fast forward a few months to today – my birthday – when I get home from work and come upstairs. Kristy takes me by the hand and says, “Come and look at this before you see it by accident”. And there in front of me was the greatest birthday cake I can ever remember seeing, ever. Ever.

What an amazing woman I’m married to!

The fest started with a girls’ night out on Friday. It’s something that a good friend started a little while ago, to keep us new Mums in touch with our friends and the outside world in general. A London buddy of mine joined in this time, and I was very proud of myself for talking about things other than babies and relieved to find that it’s getting easier to do so. We dined at the Crosstown near the Gabba, and had after dinner drinks across the road at Canvas. I really enjoyed trying out two new venues in what turns out to be a pretty cool neighbourhood!

On Saturday, I enjoyed an early gift: a 3 hour package of beauty treatments at MummaBubba Windsor. They weren’t all that I had hoped for, but just lying down in silence for 3 hours was wonderful! Gerrod then cooked me the now famous Beef Wellington, which was ah-mazing. Thanks to Jason and Susan for their help and their company!

On Sunday, my actual birthday, we went out for breakfast at Cafe des Alpes, Mitchelton. The breakfast was way too heavy, but had we not gone there we wouldn’t have discovered the awesome farmers’ markets on Blackwood Street. I’ll definitely be heading back there to wander and snack!

Our plans to indulge in fish and chips on the waterfront were foiled by the weather, so instead we ate pizza, drank beer and watched Modern Family. Aaaah. Such a cruisy way to end the day!

Thanks to Gerrod for his thoughtfulness and birthday planning, and to all the beautiful friends and family who spoiled me and wished me well!

He woke up at his usual time of 5:30 AM on his birthday morning, so we took a leaf out of the Durham’s book and started his day with presents in bed. He doesn’t quite get the wrapping paper thing yet, but I’m sure he’ll get plenty of practice over the years. Also, he’s not very greedy – once the first present was open, he pretty much wasn’t interested in anything else!

Nonni and Poppi visited with more presents in tow, as did Mia and Pa a short time later with even more presents! It really was quite a good haul for a one-year old!

On Saturday afternoon, we hosted a little afternoon tea for a few of Oscar’s nearest and dearest. One of Oscar’s favourite things to spot are little bees, and as such we had a bee-themed party that Kristy had spent many hours preparing – not the least of which involved her and her Mum making the little bees for his cake!

Thankfully, he seemed quite pleased with the end result!

All in all it was a lovely first birthday for our lovely little boy! We’re looking forward to seeing the adventures that Year #2 brings us!

Some photos (many c/o Jason) in the Oscar’s 1st Birthday album.

The views were spectacular! We could see all the way down Tamborine mountain and out to the Gold Coast, sweeping from Coolangatta up to South Stradbroke Island. Oscar insisted we get up early each morning to appreciate the spectacular sunrises, and moonrise was just as impressive in the evenings.

Most of our time was spent exploring the national parks, hunting for geocaches, playing board/card games, and just relaxing around the fire. We drank loads of espresso (obviously!), and we exercised the well equipped kitchen at every meal. Best of all, we gave birth to a new society, whose sole purpose is to promote the appreciation of ham. Not ironically, we named it The Ham Appreciation Society, and we will be actively recruiting members wherever bad ham is sold!

Taking things up a notch on her actual birthday, Amy decided we should trolley along to the high-ropes course at Adventure Parc on Sunday. We arrived shortly after they opened, and we were rewarded with the whole park to ourselves for the first hour!

It was fantastic fun – extremely challenging in parts (especially on the red and black courses), but incredibly rewarding at the end. My muscles are still aching from some of the games!

We felt very privileged to be invited along to Amyfest 2011 and absolutely loved spending the weekend away with our friends!

More photos in the Amyfest 2011 photo album.

We enjoyed a four course afternoon-tea menu, consisting of two rounds of coffee (or tea, but why would you bother?), and two rounds of snacks. I opted for the pikelets with jam and cream for snack number one, and I would have it again in a heartbeat! The cream was so fresh and thick that it reminded me of clotted cream which I miss so dearly from England! Round two was something that had a very fancy name that I don’t remember; it definitely had the words “french”, “chocolate”, and “cake” in it, but in reality it was a chocolate cupcake with a malteaser on top. Also delicious, but it didn’t hold a candle (sparkler?) to the pikelets.

Being a cafe that also roasts their own coffee beans, I had very high expectations of their coffee. And, all the awards plastered on the wall suggested that I would not be disappointed, and indeed, I was not! It was excellent; I particularly enjoyed the affogato I had for coffee round number two.

It was also great to meet some of the characters from the Durham’s lives that we’ve heard so much about through the years! We were especially pleased to be seated next to Emily-Jane (Nelly’s neice, though you’d swear they were sisters) on one side, and Richard and Karen (David’s sister and her husband, who get mentioned in many a Durham tale) on the other side.

Our afternoon of dining finished with a very generous slice of the fairy-floss cake. Yes, fairy floss! Though it wasn’t made of fairy floss as I had hoped; probably a good thing, as it would have had to be pretty dense to hold all that icing up!

We hope you had an awesome birthday Nelly, and more importantly, we hope the next twenty-one (or so ) years are just as good as the first!

A few photos online in the Nelly’s Birthday photo gallery.

I bet uncle Nick won’t have any trouble remembering the little guy’s big day!

Thankfully we made it just in time for the second round of mini quiches to be served. Depending on who you’re talking to, they were either:

• “Disgustingly horrid!” (if Kristy is in earshot, since she wasn’t allowed to eat any); or
• “Absolutely smashing – I ate 5 of them!” (for anyone else. And no, I’m not apologising to anyone that missed out. They were gooooooood.)

We were also most impressed with the iPhone cake that was hand-crafted by Susan’s sister, Lauren. Sadly for her, the only person who didn’t recognize that it was an iPhone cake was the birthday girl! She’d better pull out something amazing when Lauren turns 30 to make up for it!

Apparently the party went until quite late in the evening, but with a sick wife and a tired baby, we kept our appearance to a courteous drop-in.

Hope you had a fantastic 30th Sister Susan!

More photos in Jason’s photo album.