Seriously, What Did We Do?

I had to ask mom what we did on this Friday because it was a blur. I'm looking at her pictures and our pictures and our dates aren't the same for the time stamp. So I was mega-confused!

Turns out we went to the Docklands. There is a small shopping center that may or may not be an outlet mall.

The first store we went into we looked for hats for Adlai. We checked them all out and took them all off the rack. Unfortunately our model had fallen asleep so we couldn't try them on to see if they would fit. In the end we didn't purchase any. However, 20 minutes later, Lilly picked up one of the hats from in the stroller and said to my mom "I thought mom didn't buy a hat for Adlai." Mom said that I didn't. And Lilly says "weeelll, maybe she did." Of course I took the hat back to the store and I handed it to a clerk who assumed that one of the children had set the hat in the stroller. I could have just agreed but I sheepishly hung my head and told them it must have been one of us. Oops!

They had a petting farm at the shopping area so we looked around for that. When we got there I was a little disappointed in the amount of animals that were touchable. However, they did have a small crocodile and turtles to pet. Lilly got to pet a wombat. And then there were birds but Lilly just looked at them funny. She didn't seem too upset that there weren't a lot of animals.


After we checked out the animals we took a quick run to Costco. Last time mom was here we were able to get a sneak peak inside and buy our membership. I needed to take the moment to check and see if they had some items we couldn't find on our last trip.

I thought we didn't do anything so I put some pictures for this post. But since my mom told me what we really did, I was able to give some different info. BUT instead of deleting the pictures, I'll just keep them so you can see all the fun that goes on in our house.

Mom spent her time playing Chirpy Chicks with Lilly. I think she wanted to hide the game by day 3. Lilly finally took a break to play Pretty Pretty Princess. Awesome game! Lilly must have won (but don't ask why she looks funny, I didn't take the picture).


Cuddles!


Sibling love (aka Grandma posing her Grandchildren):


Photography by Lilly:

Have You Had Your Shots?

Time for some exciting immunizations! I am able to take Adlai to the 'Council' to get his immunizations. This is quite convenient and sometimes you have to wait but it's not very long and more importantly, you don't have to pay for the doctor's visit.

There is a list of things that Adlai's getting now but I don't know what they all are off the top of my head. He had to have one oral liquid - which caused some chaos. As well as a shot in each leg. He was a trooper. Just cried out for each shot. I was able to feed him while we waited for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have a severe reactions and he was calm as a cucumber.


Apparently whooping cough has made a comeback in these parts so the council is encouraging all family members to get a booster shot. We went ahead and took mom for hers.


We had to do a little shopping and I get a kick out of our supermarket's latest technology - self-serve check out. Every time I use it, something still gets messed up and it makes me wait for assistance.

Quick Run Around Town

Some days it is really difficult to get out of the house. You have to time everything between feedings. You have to pack changes of clothes for a baby plus yourself (I learned from experience). You have to pack enough snacks to feed an army (or an older sibling which is practically the same thing).

**In case I didn't mention it before, mom took a lot of pictures on this trip so I'm using some of hers for the blog. And as usual, I haven't edited any of them.**

And on mom's first day, we jumped on the tram to the immigration museum.


Because it is school holidays, the museum has a bunch of crafty things to do. Lilly was able to make a mask, a head-dress, and a tambourine. There was also story time. This museum has the best things to do, mostly because Lilly loves to color, cut and glue.

Mom singing Pat-a-cake with Adlai - notice she should have brought a second shirt as well. This isn't the best picture of either of them but it showed the spit-up the best.


Lilly with one of her creations.


Me working on Lilly's creation - not sure how I got suckered into that one. If you look carefully you can see Lilly running off in the background.


I didn't want to take a picture of Lilly while she was listening to story time because of the possibility that another kid would be in the picture. However, I should have because at the end, she was the only one left. She could have listened to stories all day (and then had me take home all the arts and craft stuff).

In the end, we did have to get a second head-dress because her first one met an untimely death in the bathroom. I'll let you use your imagination as to what might have happened.

With all our arts and craft stuff tucked in the stroller, we hopped back on the tram to head back home. I wish we would have taken a picture of us on the tram because it was an interesting time. The tram that goes close to our place is always rather busy so we needed to fold up the stroller and put Adlai's car seat on a seat. Folding up the stroller meant carrying all the stuff that usually gets thrown in the basket. It's a mess. Not something I would do if I didn't have a second pair of hands. [I do not count Lilly as that second pair. She is only good for carrying a granola bar.]

When we got to the end of the line I sent my mom home with Lilly leading the way. We only live five minutes from the tram line so I wasn't too worried about them making it home. I headed off to the Maternal and Child Health Centre. I had a little meeting with the Moms Group I belong to. Sometime I'll explain the group and how it all works.

Anyway, when the meeting was over, it was raining. Looking back, that seems like the understatement of the year. It was pouring buckets? I had at least worn my raincoat but more importantly, I had mom's poncho. I was able to throw it over the stroller and save Adlai from being soaked. I was a bit wet at the end of that walk.

Adlai's First Overseas Visitor!!

Talk about excitement at our house! I was thrilled to have an extra hand while Lilly was on school holiday. Lilly was ecstatic to play countless games. Adlai just saw the visitor as someone else to spit up on! And I think even Seth was happy to show off his growing kids. I would say he got to play a few extra video games but we were pretty busy.

So, Tuesday morning Seth took the morning off and I took Lilly to pick up my mom!!


Needless to say mom was excited to see Lilly.



See that black suitcase? It is clothes for the kids and candy for me!! I mean, for Seth and me.

The three of us drove back to our house where my mom (Do I call her Joyce for blog purposes? That sounds weird to me, I might have to just say my mom, sorry.) got to meet her grandson for the first time.


Ignore the cord coming out of mom's head.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing. Seth went to work and when he got home mom and I took Lilly to her swimming lesson. I always give Lilly free time before her lesson (when she behaves). This time she got lucky because someone did a poo in the kid pool (it was not Lilly) so she got to play in the big pool and then part of her lesson was in there as well.

The Melbourne Zoo

I took Lilly and a friend to the zoo for their first day of school holidays. I got one picture of the girls on the stone elephants. But Lilly's friend wasn't too thrilled because Lilly was in the front and she was in the back. Now she knows about the elephants and will hopefully jump ahead next time. Those two are competitive in the strangest things. But here's Adlai's trip to the zoo, all bundled up because it was rather cold:

The Australian International Auto Show

Let me think back to the last auto show I had been to. I think it was about 2008 in Detroit. It was packed. There were some places were you couldn't even move. You just let the flow of the crowd take you to the next display. All the announcers were pretty people and they knew what they were talking about. Some cars I wouldn't be able to see unless I elbowed my way through the crowd (which I was never so interested in one vehicle that I would deem this necessary). Finding some place to relax was pretty much impossible let alone sit and eat a snack/give a baby a bottle.

So I wasn't sure was to expect but I wasn't really expecting a leisurely walk around a convention center! But that was what I got. And it was nice. Ford had an interactive display so Lilly was entertained by different things.


We were even able to get a couple of prizes for her attempts at driving a car.


Oh, and of course, we saw the car that Seth has been working on since in came to Australia. And when he went to the states . . .





Lilly really wanted to model but it looks like she was getting ready to go for a run.


This guy must have been smitten with Lilly because he let her go through the fence to see this limo. Then everyone else wanted to do it too.


Looking a little irritated at sitting in the "pram" for so long.


But Papa saves the day!


Potential Mad Max cars:


And when we needed to give Adlai his bottle, we were the only ones in the snack area. Finding a seat was easy peasy.

Half a Year Down

Today was the last day of Term 2 for Lilly. She is now half way through her Prep year. To celebrate I took her to get some gelato. That seems to be our school treat for her. She was going to have a friend over but her friend wasn't feeling well at school.


Two days ago the parents of Lilly's class were called in after school. We were told Lilly's teacher would be moving away over the school holidays. I was saddened to hear this as Lilly really likes her teacher. The replacement is someone who has already been working in their class throughout the year. When I went to get Lilly from the playground after the meeting, Lilly already knew about her teacher leaving because one of the students was sitting in the meeting and she ran out onto the playground and told all the children! Lilly took it ok and she is excited for the other teacher to be the replacement.