A baby boy and four baby guineapigs

Shani had her baby boy! Here are his vital statistics above.

That's 5.5 lbs and 18.5 inches long.

We went to the hospital straight after school and met Malikai when he was one day old (Max has a black eye from being hit by a flying matchbox car at school a few days ago).

The kids were supposed to stay quiet in the hospital and not run around, which got old pretty quick. We will visit baby Malikai at home in the next few days.

Afterwards, it was the Cub's day to swim in the pool. 

Some of the Cubs were going for their "Swimmer Badge". The tasks were: 

1) Explain the "buddy" system and the basic rules of safe swimming

2) Jump feet first into water over your head, swim 25m then turn and swim 25m back.

3) Swim on your back for 25m

4)Tread water for one minute

5) Float on your back for 30 seconds

Max and some of the other younger Cubs played in the pool while this was going on.George played with them too.

Recently the Primary School and Preschool kids all met up at the local park for a fun run and healthy lunch event.

Today it was out of uniform day so Max dressed himself. 

We looked out the window this morning and our pregnant guineapig, Milo, was seen nibbling grass and looking suspiciously slim. Sure enough, four sweet and perfect little baby guineas were hiding in the hay.

Goodbye Lizard, hello bicycle

Last seen in this Agapanthus, our blue tongue lizard has been accidentally released back into the wild. Being a slow moving creature who likes to hide, his tendency was to stay in one place if he felt safe. But this time, our Blue Tongue wandered off. He is probably still lurking in the bushes somewhere.

Of course, it happened after we had just made him enough food to last him until we got back from Canada. His favorite: watermelon and mashed potato with cooked chicken, mixed with Repti-Cal powder.

Max has been rediscovering the joys of bike riding. Some mornings he gets up early before school to ride in circles in the court. Even better is when he can ride in a big circle around the footy oval. 

We bought some "Hundreds and Thousands". They are used to decorate cakes or sprinkled on buttered bread to make Fairy Bread. The bag exploded while we were opening it but luckily George was nearby and helped with the cleanup.

Another thing we do for fun around here is massacre flies, lots and lots of them.

Step 1: Stun the fly by whacking it with a teatowel. Be careful not to use it for drying dishes later.

Step 2: Pick the fly up with toilet paper 

We then flush them down the toilet. Our record in one session is 27 flies. 

Milo STILL hasn't had her baby guinea pigs. We leave for Canada in 8 days. Please have your babies before we go, Milo!

George likes to put Choo-Choo down his top (he's not allowed to hold Milo at the moment as she is huge and fragile and she nips). Choo-Choo's little claws leave red scratches on George, but he doesn't seem to mind. 

We have agreed to rent a small house in Flaggy Creek. We can move in at the end of April. We took Nanny and Gramps to show them the place. It is very near to where we are now, but out of town a bit. Max will take the bus to school. There is a bus stop just down the road.

There is fine black dirt in the area around the house. It's going to be a challenge keeping that dirt out of the house. 

Max and George went straight into the bath after that.

School, Camping at Willung South, Witchetty Grub, Horses

George goes to "school" every Wednesday from 9am to 1pm. Sometimes we go up to Max's school (a block away) for lunch hour between 1 and 2. George plays with all the kids. He wants to go in to class with them after lunch time is over.

Here are some recent works by George, done at preschool.

Lindenow Primary School has a very small population and the kids all play together across age groups. Max was playing a game called "Spot-o". It's like hide and seek. A group of kids run and hide, and the spotter looks for them. When found, the spotter yells "Spot-o" and points at them. The kids are then supposed to do either pushups or jumping jacks. In reality they do neither, they just run away.

Just realised Max's grade only has 3 girls, or maybe 4. 

Also found some Canadiana at the school:

Max the reptile / amphibian enthusiast chose this book as his library book this week.

Meanwhile, the pregnant guineapig just gets bigger. Milo - please have your babies before we go to Canada.

We are also hoping that Aunty Shani has her baby before we go. The actual due date is mid April but Aunty Shani says she has a feeling it might be early.

We had Connor as our guest on Friday night, and a fine young man he is.

One day the kids tried some Milk Bottles and Teeth.

Our lizard has a new name. Phil. Phil is starting to "brumate". That's like hibernate only they don't sleep totally, they just go off their food and hide all the time. Phil is a baby and doesn't have the reserves to brumate properly, so we will keep him indoors over winter and feed him as much as possible and give him his UV rays.

On the weekend we went camping at Kate's place. 

 

The property has areas of rainforest. The first we've seen since British Columbia. But less rainy.

 

These cows were our neighbours. In the morning Max got up and started banging on our metal fireplace, and all the cows came over to see what all the fuss was about.

In the hollow of a huge tree we saw a tiny dead Sugar Glider. They are a flying squirrel. Adults are 20cm long but this one was half that. The tail looks like a feather. Living Sugar Gliders were heard in the middle of the night. Their chatter sounds like the barking of a faraway terrier. Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap!

Two Wedge-tailed Eagles (affectionately known as Wedgies) graced us with their presence. Their wingspan would have been 2 x George.

Jumping Jacks. You do NOT want to be bitten by one of these. And they jump when they are angry, so they can leap up and bite you. You are not necessarily safe at a distance. They are a medium size ant, with yellow legs, feelers and pincers.

And then we found what we think was a Witchetty Grub.

No, Max didn't eat him.

We found him under a log.

He was covered in fine red hairs and had a funny face.

After dinner (sausages in bread) and dessert (chocolate chunks in bananas wrapped in foil and heated) we had marshmallows.

We had gone for such a long walk that day - and been up late with Connor the night before - that both kids were ready for bed early and even ASKED to go to bed. That's a first.

In the morning,after jumping off logs and finding snails, and spiders, there was a bit of horsey riding.

Examining the corpse of the poor Witchetty Grub or whatever it was; George killed it after Max released it back in the wild last night.

 

A good time was had by all.

 

Both kids had a nap on the way home.

We got home just in time to talk on Skype with Zia Frizzi and cousins Annabella and Luca. Look at that naughty guinea pig eating the roses!

Taking Max to school.

 After school, Max came home with something new and special.Yay Max!