Levi's latest tricks, the birth of Gabby, home improvements, and news on the job front

It's just stunning how many new things The Boy comes up with, if not on a daily basis then certainly every week. Since I last posted on the blog about him beginning to coo at us, his vocalisations have *really* progressed. Right now he's able to give a cute, gurgling "aah-googhhh" sound while smiling, make whale/dolphin style wails and screeches, and give full-bore ground-shaking both-lungs-at-full-volume sustained cries. We're mostly loving the "aah-googhhh" ones....

We recently came across a technique of picking him up in a kind of lotus position, and swinging him like a pendulum (thanks Mike and Al).


He really loves it - and (coincidentally....?) since we started doing that, he's begun holding onto his feet. As soon as you put him on his back, up come his feet and he'll be gripping onto his toes and gurgling away in no time - very, very sweet. And also helpful when changing his nappy :) And as if that wasn't a fancy enough new trick, within just a couple of days he's started holding onto his toes while sitting up too.

And his very latest trick is helping daddy turn the pages of books that we read together. He loves grabbing the pages of the soft cloth books (and stuffing them in his gob), and he tries to do the same with normal paper pages, but there's one book we have that has stiff cardboard pages that he can grip and turn well. Seeing him sitting there holding onto a page and turning it back and forth to see what's on each side is pretty amazing.

I've posted some recent very very cute photos of The Boy here on facebook.

A big announcement is that Levi has a new cousin - Gabriella Grace Wade was born on Weds 28th November, mum and bub doing fine.


Summer's getting into full swing now, with daily temperatures at or over the 30 degree mark, and nighttime temperatures staying well above 20 degrees. We've just started to leave the ceiling fans on all night now. Our new house is much, much better in the heat than the old place, but it's still pretty bloody warm indoors through the heat of the day. With mosquitos about in the evenings, we're wary about leaving the windows open, but we just have to. We've got some fancy retractable flyscreens on the way at the start of January that should take care of that worry, and in the meantime we're just slapping and squishing the little buggers.

I've been working on another little home improvement, which I managed to turn around in a reasonable period (which is pretty unusual). We now have a shiny new paved path to the back gate, wide enough to easily roll the pram over on the way to and from the cycleway. It took me a couple of weekend days, but would have been much, much more difficult without the rain. I woke up on saturday morning to find that the overnight storm was still drizzling, and the ground was nice and soft. Thinking it would only be 2 hour's worth of work to finish the job, and seeing as it was overcast, I just got stuck into it. But 4 hours later when it was all finished, and despite Skye slip slop slapping some suncream on me halfway through, I was well and truly sunburnt. As I write this 3 days later, the sunburn on the back of my left shoulder still looks fresh...


We took a family trip to Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and had the interesting experience of travelling with a 3 month old baby. Overall, it was pretty good going - we just scaled back our expectations of how much we could do, and tried to get people to come to us rather than us trying to get around Sydney too much. We spent a lovely couple of days with Mike, Al and Talia in Manly, enoying snorkelling at Shelley Beach, body surfing at the southern end of Manly beach, and hooking up with friends for a beachside barbie. I headed back to Brissy on the Monday morning commuter flight, while Skye stayed a few more days to spend time with family and friends in Sydney and the Southern Highlands. When I picked her up on the Thursday evening back in Brisbane, even though it had only been a few days it felt like much, much longer - and Levi had grown *and* learnt a couple of new tricks!

I did have great pleasure on my return to find that my beer fridge had been restocked with homebrew while I was away. A crispy cold beer on a hot evening (especially after laying all those pavers!!) is such a simple pleasure, but multiplying it by a fridge-full makes it even better :)


I have news from work too (will this blog post never end?!?!) - I'm leaving the contracting game behind, and turning permanent. I'm just waiting on the paperwork, which I am assured will be in my possession very shortly, and then a signature should bring an end to the matter. It's been an interesting but relatively painless negotiation, and although we won't have anywhere near the same amount of monthly income, I will have paid annual leave and sick leave, and I'll be earning TOIL for my out of hours work. It's all swings and roundabouts, but we both know that I come home with a smile on my face most days, which is an unquantifiable benefit that we've been enjoying since I started working here.

I'm also very pleased to say that I've been for my first surf as a dad, and that somehow leaving the house at 6am on a Sunday not only suited me, but also suited my wife and son! Crack of dawn is the best time for surfing, as the surface of the ocean is usually smooth, and the daily onshore winds haven't kicked up yet. Turns out that it's also a good time to take a baby in a pram for a long walk, as it's neither too hot nor too windy. So we all cruised up to Caloundra, where I caught a couple of waves (left-handers!) and Skye and Levi had a nice walk up and down the esplanade. We then swapped jobs, with me cuddling The Boy while Skye had a swim, then we just hung out in the shade and had a late breakfast before heading back home. Lovely. However, that was weeks ago and we've yet to repeat the feat :)

Chanukah is already here, and Christmas is on the way - love and seasons greetings from the Byers in Oz to you all!