Life's a beach!

It's definitely summer and the weather has been fantastic. After our day in the sun on Sunday, Justin and I had a relaxing lazy day at home on Monday with just a quick trip to the supermarket and then to the playground. But today we were out the house by 8am as I had to drop Row off at work so I decided to take Justin to the beach. He was kitted out in his boardies, white t-shirt, camo hat and lots and lots of sunblock. Justin doesn't have any toys to play with in the sand so I thought I'd be able to buy some at the beach...but alas, no toys for sale. Justin, however found a set of twins, 1 boy and 1 girl, about 2.5 years old, to play with and they were nice enough to share their toys with him. We were at the beach for about 45mins and Justin thoroughly enjoyed himself. I thought he'd be grumpy as he missed his morning nap and I was bracing myself but he was so good. We got home and I fed him an early lunch and he was playing on the balcony and when he started getting tired he grabbed his dummy and blankey and snuggled up to me. I quickly took this cue and put him down for a nap which lasted an hour and a half which is really quite something! After his nap and on our way to pick Row up, I stopped off at Toys R Us to buy Justin some toys and we're going to try them out tomorrow.

Life's a beach but hey, someone's got to enjoy it :)

A good start to summer

The weather this week has been fabulous and I decided to take advantage. I had read somewhere that there was going to be a Wine and Food Festival at the Entertainment Quarter which happens to be within walking distance from our house. So I organised to meet up with two friends, Lisa and Frits, while Row studied. Ordinarily, the Entertainment Quarter has a village market every Wednesday and Saturday and a craft market every Sunday with various food stalls, the chorizo rolls being our favourite. On arrival, we eagerly checked out the various tents and were quite disappointed to find that most of the tents were for the wine tasting and that they only had four extra tents for food which wasn't raising much of an interest. But since we were there and the weather was so good and Justin was dying to get out of his pram, we bought lunch from the regular food stalls and proceeded to find a table. The day turned out to be a glorious relaxing day in the sun, enjoying the company of friends. Justin had a ball running around the vast grass lawns, checking out the petting farm, watching the older children playing inside huge balls on the water and jumping on the castle and playing in the playground. The lawn became quite full with people eventually just sitting on the grass or on picnic blankets when all the tables and chairs were taken. Looking around, I realised that if this is how Sydneysiders spend their days during the summer, I'm all for it and looking even more forward to summer.

Sitting at a table on the lawn enjoying the music and good weather

To summer...cheers!

I love football!

A short clip on Justin practicing his dribbling (football not drooling) skills.

Day trip to Palm Beach

The weather here in Sydney has improved somewhat, it feels like spring is here to stay. The sun has been shining, the skies are blue but there is still a nip in the air in the mornings and late afternoons. Yesterday we took advantage of this beautiful weather and decided to take a drive out to Palm Beach, an hour north of Sydney. BG and Louise invited us to go out with them as Row is studying very hard, only 3 more weeks till the big exam. I tried to keep Justin up till we left and hoped he would have his nap in the car but he couldn't hold out so he had his nap at home and was awake and refreshed and full of beans for the drive out. The drive wasn't too bad, we drove through some nice neighbourhoods, saw some stunning houses and boats anchored in the marina and Justin was fine...except for the last 20 mins or so. I think he'd decided he'd had enough and wanted out of this car seat. Luckily, as soon as we got to our destination and he was set free, he was much better. We decided to share oysters, risotto and gnocchi for starters and duck and ocean trout in a phyllo pastry for mains....delicious! While we ate lunch, Justin was exploring the restaurant and deck while we played tag-team as to who would run after him. Thankfully the restaurant was not busy, we had arrived before the rush. After lunch we stopped off at Avalon town to browse the little shops while we ate gelato. To end off the outing, I took Justin onto the beach which he thoroughly enjoyed except when I miscalculated how near the water would come in and we got wet. I think it's more the fact that the water is cold which is what Justin doesn't like rather than him being afraid of the water. We got back into the car, gave him a bottle and he was out for the count. 

Bg and Louise with Justin

Enjoying the beach

Out for the count

Happy Father's Day!

The Australians celebrate Father's Day on the first Sunday of September which would be today. This is Row's second Father's Day and there will be plenty more to celebrate. Row is and has been studying towards his last actuarial exam which is a really big one so he's been studying at night and weekends but today he took the afternoon off to spend with Justin. Father and son went to the playground to enjoy the warm weather and then we went to a coffee shop called The Sweet Spot which sells the most delicious cakes and pastries. It was a relaxing day and very low key but special nonetheless. 

You are an amazing dad to Justin and I can see how he loves you and loves spending time with you. It melts my heart every time I see you playing together, reading books together, singing and dancing together. You are really a good dad!

Father's Day 2009

Daddy and son walking to the playground

 Coffee and cake at the Sweet Spot

Happy Father's Day!