Byron Bay

After a visit to Brisbane to meet Grandad Ken and his fancy new bike, we were off to the beach for the final leg of our journey. This time we went to Byron Bay in NSW. Fiona's Aunt Ju, Uncle Ben, and cousins Charlotte, Ollie, and Annie-Rose came along and we met up with Nanna Jane and Uncle Alex too. Fiona was thrilled to have three cousins to play with, or to be played with, and a good time was had by all. Why couldn't the ocean in Santa Cruz be the same temperature as in Byron Bay??
Building sand castles on the beach.
The back deck of the beach house, place of much relaxing.
Fiona being cool with her big cousins.
Home in time to eat her 1st Birthday cake!!

We have been busy getting fiona back on pacific daylight time, difficult to explain the concept of jet lag to a one year old at midnight but we're doing well and happy to be home. Thanks for reading.
Love
Louise, Devon, and Fiona

ps, lots more pics of the fam in Bryon are HERE

Kapunda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After New Zealand we were off to Kapunda to see the rellies there, and of course do some work on Nanna Jane's house too. While there we took advantage of having Jane to babysit, and we parents went wine tasting by bicycle in the Barossa Valley. Other than that little tourist trip, we spent most of our time relaxing with family, throwing horseshoes, and eating meat pies.Fiona getting to know Nanna Jane and Buddah.
Cycling through the vineyards.
Fiona's favorite passtime--playing at the park!
Nanna Jane and Great-Grandma Beryl getting serious about the horseshoes.

New Zealand!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi All, Sorry for the delay in the trip report, we have been distracted with re-entry into our life this week and we were just having too much fun to blog while we were travelling.

We started out our trip with a wonderful holiday in New Zealand to recuperate after our first plane flight with Fiona. (We don't recommend getting on a plane with an baby in your care but the trip made it all worthwhile) Camper van, sheep, surf and sand, bungee (just for devon) plenty of parks and slides and swings, one waveski competition, a few meat pies, and a good dose of volcanic activity made it a great time for all

Louise and fiona lounging at the beach
Fiona and Devon looking at the national symbol
Fiona having her quotient of sand

short but scenic hikes are our new specialty with Fiona along. Notice devon contemplating the Kayaking that could have been done.

hello from kapunda

Hi all, we have arrived in kapunda SA and doing well....will post more tomorrow. Louise is hammered now, now allowed to type. more later. Love, Devon.

Good Fortune

Sorry for the delay in posting there has been far too much work going on here and not enough play. We are all doing well and looking forward to a rapidly approaching trip to the southern hemisphere. We still are wondering what we were tinking paying good money for the pooprtunity to be on a plane with an 11 month old for upwards of 14 hours at a stretch but I guess our idea of fun has become a little warped.

ANyway, Fiona is wonderful of course, still has just the two teeth. she spends a lot of time playing with them.

Fiona went with us on a date to the chinese place, she had her first fortune cookie, our three fortunes that night were:
1: You are a traveler at heart. there will be many journeys
2: Pain is not a bad thing; it is simply something one attempts to avoid.
3: You are a bundle of energy, always on the go.

I think that they were picked especially for her.

She continues to make attempts at being bipedal though if she needs to get somewhere fast she crawls. I will miss the crawling, Watching her little bum go off down the hall is priceless.

ANd just to brag, Fiona has slept through the night 10+ hours for more than a week now. We continue to make offerings to the gods in this regard.

Louise and fiona on the cliffs

Fiona's first fortune cookie

Teething

Looking at fish at the chinese place with her dad.

Single Parenting

HI All, Devon has been away since Saturday and I honestly cannot figure out how single parenting would work. I need a break more than I have ever needed a break, of course Fiona is sick and teething and in the limbo of switching between three and two naps a day so it has been, let us say, "interesting." Last night I put her to bed a full 30 minutes earlier than usual because she made the grave mistake of rubbing her eyes while I was looking for any excuse to put her to bed early. I just needed a bit of a rest too. Devon gets back at noonish today, thank goodness!

She is still wonderful, even if she has driven me mad this week. Here are a couple of pictures to share, the top on is just to display how marvelously round she is-look at that tummy, the second is one of me around the same age from a slide that Beryl gave to me. It seems that we both enjoyed swinging well enough.

Hope that you are all well,
Love
Louise

One month and counting!

That is one month until our trip to Australia and New Zealand. Fiona has her passport and she even has a monogrammed bag that is her's for the plane. We have been having a hectic but lovely time since our last post. Devon keeping busy with grants and papers and preparing a talk. Fiona has takrn her first few steps, that was about a week ago but since has decided that crawling is more efficient. that's fine as we aren't quite ready to see her growing up so quickly.
Fiona is getting quite good at waving hello and good bye and does so often. She still gets up in the night for milk and companionship and we are hoping to break her of this little habit ASAP, but we are both helpless to avoid her charms. Here are a few pictures of her recent escapades at the park and in the livingroom. Love
Louise

Snowboarding

Last weekend Devon, Fiona, and I went snowboarding up in the sierras, Fiona had her first babysitting with Terry as Devon and I went on a few runs together. What a wonderful break for us and Fiona had a lovely time too it seems.

She is doing very well, she can stand by herself without holding on for about 15 seconds as of the last couple of days. Its amazing to see her changing so much. Walking can't be too far away now.

Love
Louise

Tooth number two

Tooth number two is here, tooth one is growing taller, Fiona spends a lot of time touching her teeth, picking at them with her fingernails, she looks for things to chew on. Here she is with a coaster and a sock.

Fiona getting the camera

I was trying to get a video of Fiona doing something else but this is what I got instead.

Still almost walking

Well a few days on (sorry for the hiatus) and we are still at the almost walking phase. It is trying on our nerves as we watch Fiona come close to whacking herself on all sorts of things from new and perilous heights. It's wonderful to watch her get the hang of it though, holding on less and less and balancing on her own more and more. Not too long from now she will have been out in the world longer than she was inside...sort of a strange milestone but meaningful to me.

She really likes being read to and has some favourite books already: "Time for Bed" (see picture) and "Chica Chica ABC's" The latter was from Devon's cousin Lisa and co, I imagine that particular rhyme is still in their heads too.

She still doesn't quite sleep through the night as regularly as we would like but I'm sure that those days will slip away too. Last night she woke up three times, not really hungry, but wanting comfort. Neither of us (me or Devon) has much in the way of parental will power at night so she seems to be ending up with us on the rough nights. Each night we steel ourselves to be strong about her cries and whimpers, we're pretty much suckers at this point but are OK with it.

Not much else going on here, just staying warm and looking forward to spring travels.

Love
Louise

Almost Walking

Fiona is walking along slowly holding the edge of the couch now. It's hard to believe that she's so "competent" when it seems, not so long ago we brought this little angry bundle home from the hospital. At the same time it is hard to imagine that we ever were without her....funny that.

Hot Tub!!

Even though this is not strictly a Fiona-related entry, I think some blog readers would like to know that today, January 6, 2007, at 2 in the afternoon, the solar heated hot tub reached 106 degrees F!!! We immediately commenced the inaugural soaking during Fiona’s afternoon nap, and it was worth all the effort already.

Some may remember that this project was conceived about the same time Fiona was born, when Nanna Jane was here, and construction actually began in July, but progress was slow (see other blog entries for possible reasons for delays).

Nice that it finally worked, even with the cold Santa Cruz January --below 40F at night!!! Brrrr!

Happy New Year

Hi Everyone,
I hope that you have all survived the holidays and are beginning to enjoy a wonderful new year. We had a quiet new year here that had Fiona in bed at her usual time and Devon and I passed out at 10:30 in advance of the witching hour. Fiona woke up at 12:30 for a feed and as I picked her up out of her crib I wished her her first happy new year.

She's lately figured out that she can pull herself up in just about anything , stable or not. This isn't really a problem except that she wakes up in the night and instead of staring at the ceiling and going back to sleep she remembers that she has this wonderful skill, climbs up and stands in her crib, she doesn't know how to climb back down yet so then she cries, nay screams for assistance which doesn't go over well between midnight and say 7AM. So if anyone has any advice please lend it now, we need it.

Love
Louise

PS the picture is of fiona helping her dad light the fire on new year's eve, notice the standing prowess.

First Tooth!

Just in time for the new year....Fiona has her first tooth poking through.
more later, love louise

That's gotta hurt!

Fiona learning to walk-- we don't need no fancy walker!

Fiona's 1st Christmas

Santa left a heap of prezzies here for Fiona, We had a wonderful day here with John and Vicki. Lots of good food, a warm fire, mimosas for breakfast. This is Fiona in her fancy strawberry hat from our good friend Dina (which came in equally lovely wrapping paper) and her "Santa Rocks" shirt from her grandad Ken. Well post a video shortly of Fiona figuring out the bipedal thing christmas day. She's been pulling herself up well for a week or so but moving forward is new again.

Hope everying is well,
Love
Louise

Where do you keep your giraffe?

As you can see Fiona is doing well, She's figured out how to bring her giraffe along wherever she goes. It's been cold and we have been avoiding lighting the fire beause the wood stove is too enticing for fiona but we invested in a "Fiona proof fence" so we can now leave the room for brief stretches and know that she can only marvel at the fireplace from a distance. We're looking forward to Fiona's first Christmas. John and Vicki will be up from Pacific Grove, we have a pear tree as a christmas tree this year, hopefully we'll be able to have a couple of pears from it next autumn. We hope all of you are warn and well, wherever you are and we'll post a christmas message on the day.
Love
Louise

Crawling Video

Dancing

Well we found the camera, These things can take a little while, so today as promised i will post the crawling video. We're as stoked as ever in Casa Pearse...Spent the morning, before nap-time, dancing in the living room. Fiona loves to dance!