Bronte to Clovelly

Australia Day!

On Wednesday 26 January 2011, we celebrated our second Australia Day. We had plans to meet Lisa and Frits at Bronte Beach for a lunch barbie and enjoy the waves but those plans slowly fell away as the morning progressed. Row went into the office to do some studying in the morning and then Lisa and Frits were held up by some errands. To avoid tantrums due to hunger (me and Justin) and tiredness (Justin and Row) we decided to eat our boerewors rolls at home and then just meet Lisa and Frits at the beach for some fun in the surf. However, after lunch, Justin has his nap so we had to delay our meeting time (again) and then ended up not going to the beach after all. Lisa said the beach was packed full and poor Justin has had a cough since before Christmas which still has not cleared up and seems to have worsened after his last two swimming outings so we decided it wouldn't be good for him. We ended up taking a drive to the lower North Shore to meet some friends who just returned from a holiday back in SA. It turned out to be a very relaxing day.

Today was another lovely summer's day in Sydney and because of Justin's chesty cough, we decided to do something different...we decided to do the coastal walk from Bronte beach and aim for Coogee beach which is about a 3km walk. This coastal walk is a path along the coast from one beach to the next and it starts in Bondi beach and ends at Coogee beach. It was a hot sunny day with not a cloud in the blue sky but at least the ocean breeze made it a nice walk. We took the pram just in case but Justin actually walked most of it. Having said that, we only made it to Clovelly beach which is in the middle of Bronte and Coogee because of the amount of stairs we spied leading up to Coogee from Clovelly. Plus Justin was getting tired (and so was I) and we still had to walk back to Bronte. It was a nice day to be outside and to see the coastline. Because we didn't allow Justin onto the beach we took him to the playground so he could run off some excess energy.

Bronte Beach - notice how calm the water is closest to us,
so there were lots of children splashing about in there

Running on the path

Water break

Clovelly beach 

Being silly with dad

Admiring the view

Going down the curly slide

20 Months old

Time just seems to run away when you have a very busy and active toddler. I was supposed to take Justin for a health check at 18 months but the clinic was booked up until 23rd December and he was already 19 months and I kept thinking I need to update my blog but there always seems to be things that need to be done and now our little munchkin is 20 months. 

So, at 19 months, Justin was 84 cm tall and weighed 11,1kg. Prior to the check up, I was given a questionnaire to fill out. One of the questions: Can your child walk backwards? I was searching through memories which would allow me to answer this question. Stumped, I told the nurse I wasn't sure if Justin could do this. She asked me if he moves away from the TV or away from toys when asked to and if he walks backward, I was like yes! He does.....my baby can walk backwards!!!!!! Ah, the little things that you take for granted but which is supposed to be quite an important milestone. Another question: How many words can your child say? I sat there counting the amount of words Justin can say and thinking does it still count if I'm the only one that can understand and do animal sounds count too? The nurse looked at me and said, "Does Justin have a vocabulary of 4-10 words?" Yes, he can definitely say at least 4 words that everyone understands so that question was answered and so was the next question, can he make animal sounds? The nurse was very happy with Justin's growth and he's reached all his milestones. Woohoo!

In the past month, Justin has become quite the chatterbox! Most of his "words" are still gibberish but he does say a few words clearly and other words not so clearly. His most often spoken word of late is "shark" thanks to the Steve Irwin DVD from Lisa and Frits. He's also saying "please" which comes out as "pweas" and melts our hearts every time it's spoken. 

Another favourite word is "bubble" and after much umming and ahhing about which bubble bath to use (because I don't want his eczema to make an appearance), I finally just bought a generic brand and boy does Justin love it. 

It's bubble time!

Justin shows good fine motor skills and is able to use a fork and spoon to feed himself. He's  quite messy but at least he gets 70% of the food into his mouth. He even tries to use chopsticks when we have noodles which leads to some frustration as he can't get anything into his mouth. 

Yoghurt everywhere!

His gross motor skills are also quite good and he's now climbing up the climbing frame, sliding down the fireman's pole (with some assistance) and can balance on the wobbly bridge. Having said that, he can be quite clumsy too with one incident making me rush him to our GP after a tumble on our driveway. Justin was running down the driveway which is a little bumpy and as he got near me, I turned around to open the door and didn't see how he fell or where he bumped himself. Usually, Justin will cry for a few minutes and then stop, this time he didn't. I came upstairs to our apartment, gave him his dummy and blankey and some ice for his head but he didn't stop crying and kept rubbing his head and every time I touched his head, he would scream. My first thought was "fracture" so I called the doctor and she told me to bring Justin in. I was carrying Justin back downstairs to the garage and he just fell alseep, didn't even wake up when I put him into his car seat; now I was really panicked and had visions of calling Row to tell him to meet us at the hospital. Got to the doctor and Justin kept sleeping and sleeping and of course, with no appointment, we had to wait for the doctor and Justin kept sleeping. Finally he woke up and it was like nothing happened! He was laughing, running, jumping but the doctor checked him anyways and said he's fine, no fractures! My heart!!!!!!!

1 Year Anniversary and Happy 2011!

In the last week we've had many good reasons to celebrate and have fun, Christmas being one and new year being another. But the one that fell in between these two occasions is our one year anniversary of arriving in Sydney. Can you believe it's been a year already? It's been a good year, we had some rough patches but overall, a good year! We've really settled down into life as Sydney-siders and enjoying the Aussie lifestyle. Row and Justin both love and enjoy having the beach close by and we've made a point of going frequently. In the last few months, we've been exploring child-friendly venues and have had so much fun learning about the city through Justin's eyes. We also managed to furnish our apartment with a very comfortable (and well earned) couch as well as a dining table and four comfortable chairs to eat our meals on. We also bought a car which has definitely made life much easier. The cherry on top is the fact that we have family close by and it's been great having Bg and Louise around the corner and for them to get to know Justin and vice verse. In the last two months our family has grown with the addition of Row's cousin and her husband moving over to Sydney as well. 

To celebrate our one year anniversary, there was a huge fireworks display held on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and everyone in Sydney was invited! You might have caught it on TV as well as it was estimated that at least a billion people would be watching this spectacle.....heehee, it's great that our arrival coincided with New Year's Eve as we will be able to celebrate like this every year! Seriously, we saw 2010 out and waved 2011 in very quietly as I came down with tonsilitis and I was not feeling in any state to fight the crowds, sit in my spot for like 5 hours and then still deal with an over-tired Justin. So we stayed home where I could just lay on my couch in my pajamas and not worry about other people bumping me or blocking my view. Hopefully we'll be able to join the crowds for the next NYE's fireworks. 

New Year's Day was a hot, sunny day with not a cloud in the sky but at least there was a nice breeze. Our friends Lisa and Frits organised a picnic at Centennial Park and it was so nice to see and catch up with old, familiar faces from South Africa. Thanks to Li and Frits who went early to stake our spot, we had a huge tree that provided lots of shade. Needless to say, Justin had so much fun playing with the other children and going to the playground. 

Today was a very relaxing and chilled out day. We went over to Candice and Barry to utilise the pool in their complex and Justin took to the water like a fish. He had so much fun and spent a good hour in the pool before lunch. After a much needed nap and some lunch, he was good to go again but the good weather turned and he could only play in the pool for about 40mins.

We wish all our family and friends, wherever you are in the world, a very happy new year! May you all be blessed with love, happiness, good health and prosperity in 2011.