just because

Dear Olive,
Just because I want to put these somewhere, so I may as well put them here: a collection of random images from the last month or two.
The seasons have shifted, as they do. The kids are growing, as they do. Shane and I are keeping on, as we do. Sometimes I wonder why I'm hanging onto this space, where there's so many other things that need to do done. (One of them being the study I've started, I'll save that story for another post.) But somehow I keep coming back.
Next weekend we'll be celebrating one full trip around the sun of our little man. Can you believe it?

december

Dear Olive,
There's so very much to catch up on. And seeing as I can barely remember what I did last weekend, let alone last year, I'll let these photos do the talking.

CC learnt to crawl. (Although that would have been back in November? He was only six months old. This past week he's been taking a few steps!) 

Apropos the crawling, his knees got a lot dirtier.

You "graduated" preschool. It was pretty emotional - for both of us. (CC learnt to clap just in time, each time about two minutes after everyone else had stopped.)

We put a Christmas tree up - our first ever. It was so exciting for you - you were at bursting point for days. The day after we put it up, you and Shane and I were in the bedroom and heard the sound of hundreds of baubles bouncing and smashing, and the sound of crying ... we ran out to find CC stuck in a tangled mess of branches, ornaments and christmas lights. He'd pulled the entire tree down on top of himself. It was a Christmas disaster scene! He was fine, although he got such a fright he learnt his lesson and didn't do it again. Plus, Shane got to dress the tree again and it looked better the second time round, so really the whole thing worked out for everyone.

We travelled up to my Dads for Christmas with my family. It was the first Christmas that you've been really and truly into it - you could barely get to sleep on christmas eve and then you were up before the crack of dawn on christmas morning to see if Santa had been. He had!

Papa, and all his Grandkids.

Our first Christmas as a family of four. The kids just love it when we get our photo taken and Mum and Dad kiss.

I would love to be able to include photos from a super fun getaway with a bunch of mates over New Years, but both Shane and I got sick and we had to stay on at my Dads for an extra week. It was the most miserable way to welcome in a new year; with matching fevers. (And I most sincerely hope it is not at all indicative of our year to come.)

And that's about it, I think .... hopefully that brings us back to regular programming from now on, folks!

busy

Dear Olive,
It could just be the culmination of two weeks of rain, but spring is here and this mornings sunshine has filled my heart with possibilities. After a pretty quiet winter (what a great time autumn is to have a baby), September is shaping up to be really busy. My next few weekends are jam packed with kids and adults parties, a friends art show opening (check it out here - AMAZE), and it's also my birthday this month. I'm thinking of leaving the kids at home with Shane and celebrating with a ladies dinner. The only time I've left Clancy was to go to the dentist; hardly a rejuvenating - or enjoyable - break.
Shane started on a new job yesterday, that will take him up to Christmas. (He's working on a movie starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford - so cool!) 
Life's taken on a few different incarnations this year, but it feels as if we're about to embark on another new normal. Hopefully an enjoyable one!

melbourne

Dear Olive,
Oh Melbourne, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. There's Smith and Daughters, Collingwood childrens farm, the NGV, the trams, my unreal friends there (who I miss!), Shane's family (wow, do they know how to cook a curry!), all the cafes, all the shopping, and all the food. The food! Even the weather was warm and sunny (it was basically exactly like Sydney). We rented a cute little apartment* in Fitzroy through airbnb, and it was non stop action for five days. And a super time was had by all.
(Clancy was sitting pretty in his new iBelieve pram - at times, so were you! We're loving having such an unreal pram to push around, amazingly it goes from stroller to bassinet in just a few clicks, so it's perfect for travelling with a young baby.)
*you've been bugging me for MONTHS to be allowed to try a donut ... imagine your delight when you discovered a bowl of them left for us by our host. Imagine my delight when, after a few bites, you declared it too sweet and horrible!

road tripping

Dear Olive,
Shane and I and you and Clancy, strapped into the car; 1,738 kilometres of Hume highway stretching out between here and there and here again. Featuring an old crappy yet charming motel (small beds, awesome carpet) where you discovered the terrible joy of sugary cereal! in a box!, lots of stopping by the side of the road (a couple of bush poo's), lots of great music, tons of laughs, and (as expected), a fair share of whinging and crying. 
It was so much more enjoyable than I expected. I'd do it all again tomorrow, in a snap.

back

Dear Olive,
I've been absent from this space (physically, and even more so, emotionally) for so long, that I barely know how to re-enter it. Do I recap the past couple of months? Or do I creep back in, acting like I never left it at all? I think I'll opt to creep back in, at least for now. (In part because, as lovely as they've been, the last few months have actually been rather boring in their repetitiveness.) 
We've just returned from a trip to Coffs to visit my Dad and my sister and her family. It was Clancys first trip away from home - it was funny to think that at the same age, you'd already been to Coffs twice, Melbourne and Byron. I was relieved to discover that Clancy's a pretty great traveller and it was a really wonderful week and a half for us all. The wifi reception at my Dads was kind of sketchy, and I used the time to switch off from most of my social media - it felt like an important break. I didn't have an iphone when you were born and having time away from it at Dads made me realise how much time I spend holding the phone, whilst also holding Clancy.
Unfortunately, we arrived home with some kind of lergy in tow, which we've all had to varying degrees over the past week. The worst hit was Shane, he's still down the poor fellow! (Even Clancy caught a slight sniffle *sob*. ) Is it just me, or are there some truly nasty bugs going round this season? (As an aside, I heard a discussion on the radio suggesting that coughing into the palms of our hands isn't a good way to prevent spreading infection because the virus can still be passed on to somebody who touches something you've touched. A better way is to cough into the crook of your arm. Interesting, no?)
Photos from a late afternoon spent wandering at jetty beach, barefooted and barelegged ... winter, what winter?