It’s been over 2 months that I haven’t touched this blog. I think about it all the time and all the great things that I want to share but sometimes it’s so hard to have some spare time to do things that are not first thing in my priority list.
I’ll try to do a quick recap on the important things that happened.
November 2010 - We went on a lovely holiday to Thailand. Aside from the 9 hours flight with a baby sitting on our lap, the rest was fine. Tristan loved the place, he loves attention, and Thai people love white babies, so he was in the right place. The weather couldn’t be better. It was such a relaxing holiday in an amazing place with delicious food. I so wish I could go back right now…. Khao Lak is an awesome place for family with babies, very relaxing and beautiful, completely different from Phuket. I recommend Nang Thong Bay Resort 1. Best hotel in town. Beautiful views, new, great swimming pool , lovely staff, but you got to book in advance as beach front bungalows are booked out quickly.
We celebrated Tate’s birthday in a nice restaurant in Khao Lak and also went on a tour to James Bond Island, which was a bit too much for Tristan we reckon, after that he had a 3 day fever, over 39 degrees, we were quite worried and took him to the doctor but nothing much we could do then keep cooling him down. Not much longer after, we realised one of the possible causes, his tooth. Tristan’s first 2 bottom teeth came out at the same time the day we were leaving Thailand, he was 8months and 2weeks.
December 2010 – the highlight of this month was not only the birth of Jesus, but also having my youngest brother coming to visit us in Sydney. How wonderful it was having Arthur with us. Tristan freaked out at first when he found out that he was staying with us, but slowly he got to get used to our loud voices and crazy laughter. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve Dinner at our place, as our tradition back home and we had lunch at Tate’s parents on Christmas day. And what a lovely day, we even went out to Como lake to see the launch of Levi and Jade’s boat.
As Arthur had only 3 weeks with us, we had a tight schedule, too many things to see and do, including 3 very important requests, beach, Opera house and Kangaroos. I’m pretty sure he had an awesome time with us. And I would also like to thank Tate’s family for making Arthur feel so welcome, making his trip such a memorable moment.
For New Years Eve we went to Brighton-le-sands to see the fireworks, a more family oriented activity. We joined the Coombs and Leons and had a great time.
January 2011 – we started the year organising the place and getting set to leave the house in the afternoon for a road trip to the Gold Coast, Queensland. First stop, Phegans Bay for a quick dip, then Budgewoi, Central Coast, our stop over for the following 3 days. The weather wasn’t the best, but we still got to enjoy some beaches on the Central Coast, picnics and shopping (it seems Arthur loves shopping).
Next destination was Sawtell Caravan Park, which we just made minutes before dark, in time to put up our 2 tents. First time real camping for Tristan and Arthur. Tristan loved it, he thought we were playing with him, he was crawling all over us while we were sleeping. Arthur didn’t seem too impressed, afraid of bugs and sore from sleeping on the hard surface. The hardest thing for me was giving Tristan a shower on my own in those bathrooms, it was really hard.
From Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay, it was a very painful drive, lots of traffic, hot, Tristan crying all the time… not fun at all… we thought of going to the lighthouse in Byron, but the place was so crowded that we just did a quick stop for a bite and back on the road heading to our final destination, Shannon’s house.
We all had a lovely time there, Arthur enjoyed himself a lot, getting to do lots of new exciting things such as body-boarding, paddle-boarding, mountain biking and playing heaps with Harrison, Taylor and Cierra.
Tristan’s 3rd tooth came out when we were in Queensland.
We did a hard core way back, with Tate driving straight through the night and I taking over on sunrise. We stopped at Tanya’s and Kerry’s on the way back and got to see all the Ryan side of the family. We finally made home, Sunday late afternoon after 9 days on the road.
Arthur’s last week in Sydney was a bit more relaxed, with just a few activities. It was sad to drop him off at the airport. I really miss him… he’s my buddy, my helping-hand, my chatter-box, my ‘partner-in-crime’ eating junk food. Now, I just look forward to the next time we’ll get to meet again.
As this is Tristan’s blog let me talk a little bit about him. After our trip to Thailand, our routine went down the drain. Tristan just wants to sleep in our bed, I can get him in the cot for a few hours but then in the middle of the night he just wants to be with us, and this little intruder take most of the bed. He now can stand without holding on anything, for a few seconds so we think he’ll start walking soon.
He will start childcare two days a week tomorrow, only for half day to start with and after two weeks, when I’ll be back to work he’ll be going for a full day. I’m terrified about putting him into childcare, I was at orientation on Friday and seeing snotty kids, crying all over the place, asking for their mums, and only 2 girls looking after 10 children under 2’s made me cringe even more. Tate said we should try and evaluate in a couple of months. We’ll see…
Anyway, we’ve put together this slide show with special events of 2010, some of the photos you might have already seen on the blog, but I hope you enjoy it all….
HAPPY NEW YEAR
All the best wishes for 2011!!!
