Wow, 2 years since my last blog post! As someone who blogged prolifically in life BC (before children) I've really slipped in recent years.

Michael is now 6 years old and has started school. Emma will soon be 4 and is going to "kindy". She starts school in 2013. Brendan is still working for XStrata and I am just about to start uni. I wrote my second exam for the "tertiary preparartion course" to start a degree in psychology this morning. As exams energize me I then needed to go for a long bike ride to get rid of the adrenalin... No, my energy levels haven't fallen in my 30's, despite now having two children to keep me busy.

Although this weekend is supposed to be bringing the coldest morning on the year on Sunday we are planning on going camping, so hopefully the next time I post here it will be with some interesting (but not too interesting!) stories.

See you on the flip side :)

Today I had a toddler apprentice along for the ride as I sought to take photo's on Straddie. Here are some thoughts on the experience:

The 25 min ferry trips are very exciting. There are bubbles everywhere. Also, instead of relaxing and taking in the views I got to spend my time wiping french onion dip off everything and anything my little apprentice (AKA "MLA") came into contact with. Bad choice for morning tea!


MLA's love going on long walks and even insist on helping by carrying their own waterbottles. However, they do prefer to render this help whilst being carried and cuddled. While lovely, it doesn't do much to lighten the load.

On walks with MLA's you learn to appreciate the little things - climbing steps is important and exciting business. Offer help at your peril! But rely on the fact it will requested just as you're starting to run out of puff. Each step also holds many interesting specimens and MLA's appreciate genuine interest in each of them. Yes - each of them. Soon little pockets are overflowing with stones, flowers and leaves and suddenly your own are being invaded too. Stones turn into "blankies" for water bottles and little imaginative worlds spring up. If only they could be photographed!



MLA's get confused easily. You tell them excitedly that there are dolphins below and they shout "Durtle!" After having this occur repeatedly you may give in and admit the possibility of seeing a turtle at some stage. Upon spotting a "durtle" today I excitedly pointed it out to my MLA who responded with appropriate excitement "Ooooooh.... more, more! STONES!!!!! More stones!!!"



Once an interesting marine creature is spotted it's impossible to go anywhere near the edge of the cliff in order to capture it well. MLA's seem to take their stone gathering and exploring responsibilities very seriously and are keen to follow any dropped stones to their watery ends. On such excursions MLA's should always be dressed in overalls - the straps over the shoulders are perfect for hauling them away from precipices.


Another interesting challenge on a photographic trip with an MLA is choosing which lens to mount on your camera. Once selected there can be no change. MLA's are determine to find out exactly what sort of sound your cracking mirror will make as they throw small stones into your lens-less camera body. I suspect my particular MLA also has a high interest in gravity and would like to see how quickly one of my lenses could race down a cliff face into the Pacific. The only landscapes I could shoot on the trip were dodgy ones taken with my telephoto lens. At least the camera lives to see another day.


Bus trips with MLA's are awesome. They snuggle in and (if you're lucky) take a nap. Today I was lucky twice. Enough reward to even consider taking her again sometime :)

The first day of my kayak lifeguard course has gone well. My stomach, back and legs are all slightly stiff, rather than just my arms and shoulders, evidence that I'm mastering the new strokes we practised correctly.

It was the first time I'd left Emma (awake) for more than 2 hours since her birth - it felt really odd! Despite Mikey being quite unwell Brendan coped brilliantly! Probably too well - I won't feel too nervous about leaving them again in the future :)

Right now I should be practising various knots for towing people and stuff like that. Instead I've been Googling the Blue Blubber Jellyfish and am relieved to find it's harmless. There were thousands of them all around us today with either our paddles bouncing off them or them bouncing off our kayaks. A big thing on tomorrow's timetable is practising "wet exits" (where you roll your kayak upside down and then exit from there by doing a forward roll under water) and rescues. Apparently we need to keep practising the rescues until the rescuer is good at them - as the others have even less experience than me I'm expecting to spend a fair amount of time floundering about in Cabbage Tree Creek mouth in a panic. At least now I know I only have to worry about the bull sharks...

Should I survive I'll report back tomorrow! In the meantime I'm off to rest my aching body

This afternoon I left Brend with the kids at a park on the Wynnum Esplanade and headed for home in my kayak.

Approaching Manly Yacht Club I noticed some fins and splashing in the distance. Fortunately I could see from quite a way off that they were dolphins - but as dolphins feed off the same bait fish as sharks this isn't necessarily encouraging, according to the guys at the canoe club!

Anyway, curiosity got the better of me and I was rewarded by 20 minutes or so of front row seats to wild dolphin behaviour - awesome!

Each time I felt I was getting quite close I'd back off out of respect for the dolphins. However, the one in the photo above left came and sought me out, interested to examine this strange creature floating on top of it's world. What a treat!

Unfortunately it was a little choppy and I needed my hands primarily to control the kayak, not to take photo's. Added to that, my waterproof camera is a little point and shoot, with a delay, getting decent photo's proved impossible. After attempting a few shots I simply sat back and enjoyed the experience. If I kept still in the water they'd lose interest, if I started paddling slowly in their general direction they'd come back for another nosy at me.

8 months ago when I got my first sea kayak (a sit-on-top, fortunately I was in the rather more stable sit-inside today, which did leave me feeling more secure with the whole experience) this was the sort of encounter I was dreaming of - hard to believe it's really happened so soon! Cold weather (relatively speaking) aside, I think I'll be going out more frequently again now.

Today was Emma's last day of babyhood, tomorrow we'll have two toddlers. When I think back to this time last year, experiencing early labour, wondering how on earth I'd continue to meet Mikey's needs while meeting those of our new baby, I feel so blessed. Emma's first year has been hard work, yet worth every bit of it. She's such a sunny little person, in fact some days as I watch them play I wonder if we have the happiest kids in the world.

As I type this I can hear her stirring through the baby monitor, letting me know that soon she'll want another breastfeed, perhaps letting me know that she too isn't quite ready to let go of her babyhood. As I cuddle her tight tonight all I can do is hope that my hold conveys my confidence to her - the amazing toddler years are ahead and bringing her through them to be happy, confident and independent, as her big brother is, will be our shared goal.

So I'm off to wrap presents, to reflect on past and future, and on how blessed we are that a year ago today our little Emma-Bear entered our lives.

Today was a brilliant wildlife day, but a photographic disaster. This morning at one of our local parks there was a herd of dugongs grazing on sea grass around the mouth of a canal, periodically coming up for air. I've never seen so many so close by before and found myself wishing the kids were old enough to appreciate what they were witnessing.

Sadly I only had my little pocket Oly with me, and despite being close by the dugongs were too far for its zoom to handle. When I got home I discovered that my pc no longer wanted to talk to the camera and with no time to fix it I left the camera behind when we headed out to a second park this afternoon.

For the first time there (Wellington Point) we saw dolphins, also incredibly close by! And no camera... Once again, the kids are simply too young to appreciate what they were seeing. Hopefully the local wildlife doesn't disappear before they are old enough to do so.

Our kids are growing up! Mikey turned 3 six weeks ago and in just 2 weeks we'll no longer have a baby in the home. It's hard to believe.

The kids are awesome together, the play and have such a good time. A sibling with a close age gap (2 years) was the best gift we could have given Mikey. Naturally they have their fair share of disagreements, but the good times far outweigh these.

Mikey had his first birthday party this year. The plan was for one in our garden, but the weather interfered and we ended up having it at a local indoor playcentre - the kids loved it. 3 is definitely a great age, the age of reason is being tentatively entered and words like "please" and "thank you" even get offered spontaneously on occasion.

Em is a rather different child from our sensible and cautious Mikey - we've nicknamed her "Kamikaze Baby". She'll nose-dive off anything, any height and if we don't catch her and she bumps she just sits up and giggles like a mad thing. I suspect her toddler years could be slightly more intense than Mikey's were (a thing I wouldn't have believed possible a year ago :) ).

Once again I'm returning to our blog with far too much news to get down - perhaps when my kids reach school age I'll finally have some spare moments to myself again. Not that I'd have it any other way, I love being busy!

Our new home in Thorneside has had its fair share of renovations since we moved in, but we've still got plenty to do. The new bathroom and playroom downstairs are both complete but not fully painted. The backyard is refenced, but we're still pulling glass and concrete out of the flower beds (??!!). This next week we hope to carpet the kids bedrooms, not because we don't find the timber flooring attractive but because it's rather cold on the feet in winter.

Unfortunately my Dad's 3 months with us are up so Brend and I are now project managers, a scary prospect considering our lack of renovation experience!

Life in Thorneside is pretty good. The parks are lovely and there are a couple with beach frontage onto the Bay. We've joined another nice playgroup and are living walking distance to both our church and Mikey and Em's best friends. We now get around the neighbourhood by bicycle with the kids in a bike trailer which we're all loving.

Koala's continue to come and visit our backyard and Aussie bird life is nothing short of spectacular.

Right now I'd better get on with placing masking tape around the playroom in order to continue painting... hopefully next time I blog we'll be a bit closer to completing the downstairs living area!