Missing the cousins

We miss you Erica, Chris, Jake, Ryan, Nathan, Isaac, Amanda! Daniel regularly prays for "all my friends and cousins", and with the time it takes to make new kid-friends (we do finally have a couple close by!), we just miss the ease of a quick flight to Oregon to play with cousins...

girlfriends

2 nights. 3 days. no kids. no agenda. lots of food. lots of talking. lots of listening. :) both charlie's angels movies. sunshine. quiet mornings. mud masks (please no comments!). only a couple pictures. gotta love girls weekends.

Skater boy

This picture makes me want to sing, "he was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy..." i think it's the beanie on him and the black boots on her...

Daniel the author

Daniel wrote me a 'book' the other day. I love the sudden interest in all things "lettered", and how the brain seems to suddenly develop in a certain area. A month ago he wouldn't have wanted to write more than his name, and only then with prompting, but now he spends ages filling up a page with his name and all the letters from the first letter in everyone's name, and sometimes venturing to try "the hard letters" like G, S, R, apparently. For awhile he wouldn't try them because he couldn't get them just right... Gotta love the double "O" for Oma and Opa - he knows he's not here, but still includes him with "all the people who live in this house".

Happy Birthday Jenn

Today (in the U.S. anyway) is my older sister's birthday. I used to bag her out about whatever age she was turning, but I think that stopped about 10 years ago when I realized that since she was less than 2 years older than me, it was slightly short-sighted to think that her age was much different than mine! Happy birthday to my sister who has become a great friend over the years, and is a fabulous mother of FOUR beautiful children :). Thank you for pursuing me over the years. It is the reason we have the friendship we have. - just an old favourite picture...

Little glimpses

I 'love' the little glimpses kids give us into what they might be like in the future. Now, this will not have quite the impact without you being able to hear it verbally, but just try to imagine... A casual conversation between D and L about what their full names are. D says, "Yeah, your name is Laura Sypkes." L says, "Yeah, Laura Anne Sypkes. And I'm in charge!" Oh my, where did that come from? As my cousin Shelby says it: 'Good times'.

Activities and other news

I love doing 'activities' with the kids. Daniel thrives on structured time, and about 6 months ago it was a routine thing that we did. But it's been awhile. So today, really for the first time since being in Australia, I planted my bum on the ground with a variety of things we might need (so I wouldn't have to get up of course!), and we had a great couple hours... Admittedly, I have not really enjoyed the time I have had with them lately - it's mostly just been about surviving. But today was great. Here's a couple little videos - Daniel made up a song, and then Laura was talking to me about doing wees and poos on the potty. So obviously this is riveting stuff...

In other news, we're learning about Tassie devils (real and animated),

loving "chocolate" sandwiches (gotta love Nutella),

waiting to move into our rental house (which will be a lovely 3 weeks before I'm due!),

and I've also hit the 7 month mark, so I've obliged with a photo (you're welcome Laurie!).

Overheard

Laura: "That was very not nice, I'm going to tell mommy." Daniel: "Sorry Laura...... now you don't have to go tell!" L: "Thank you for saying sorry to me." D: "Now are you not going to go tell?" (apparently not) --- Laura, last night in the car: "I think I'm very funny."

"Goodbye 3, hello 4!"

This has been Daniel's little phrase to reassure himself that he is indeed 4. I guess with a 3.75 BD party at preschool, a BD party in Oregon before we left, and then one in Australia on the actual day, he has reason to not be quite sure of the fact that he actually has turned 4! I'm missing the photos of the BD in Oregon (put my photos on my dad's computer and stupidly deleted my camera disk before putting the photos on my own computer), and then of course the pictures on the actual birthday were blurry, go figure. Ah well, the boy's 4 and life goes on!! :)

A hard goodbye

2 years of being in the same country as my family was something I guess I didn't ever think would happen, and now it's finished. A hard 2 years to be here for many reasons, but so so hard to see it end. We said goodbye a week ago. Miss them already...