Catching up

Now that Ruby is crawling around, amusing herself somewhat, here are some photos that I wanted to put here but didn't have time.

Babies in Australia gets their hearing tested at 3 weeks of age. She passed.

One day I left Max at home with a sleeping baby. I told him if she woke up, to pick her up and jiggle her, and I would only be gone 5 minutes. When I got home, he was jiggling!

A mother cat and her kittens. We took one of these kittens and named him Hoppy.

Sadly, Hoppy disappeared in March, the day before he was to be taken to the vet's to be neutered. 

He was a great little cat. 

A handsome George in his tuxedo on one of the last days of Kindergarten last year. 

One day George and Ruby and I were stranded on the side of the road with a blown radiator hose. That's our car on the back of the tow truck there. 

While we waited, George found this enormous hairy spider in the bark of a tree. He took a stick and flicked it away but it landed in my handbag. It crawled into a side pocket of my handbag. It was fairly tricky to persuade it to come out of my handbag.

Ruby catching up with Nanny and Gramps.

George was so keen for school he did "homework" over the summer holidays.

George having lunch at the big kid school. 

Ruby having a relaxing bubble bath in the sink.

Nanny had just told the boys not to play with Ruby's new toy. Max picked it up and George is telling him off.

Max and friend out to dinner one night.

With some puppies at a friend's farm.

New swimwear at the start of summer.

Swimming at the river.

A frog we found in the back yard.

Max brought in a feisty lizard and it got away on the bed next to baby, you will see where I dropped the camera so I can grab Ruby.

Aussie Rules Footy.

We got back from Canada, and footy season was in full swing. Max is on the local under 11 team.

Photo: David Pollard

This was Max's very first game.

Photo: David Pollard

Photo: David Pollard

George was watching from the sidelines.

Photo: David Pollard

Ruby cried whenever I tried to cheer for the team.

Photo: David Pollard

After the game in the change rooms Max was given an award: a voucher for a free slurpee at the general store. 

Photo: David Pollard

Photo: David Pollard

Enjoying a pie after the game.

  

We had a visit from Aunty Shani and the cousins.

 Little Piama said that Ruby was "light". 

Here's Ruby playing ukulele with her daddy.

We had a month's worth of rain in one day recently. Bridges and roads are underwater and Max and Goerge were among only 11 kids who could get to school (usual number: 100). 

 Ruby and the guinea pigs enjoying some winter sunshine. 

   George does football training for 5-7 year olds called "Auskick".  It's nearly dark by the time it finishes.

Baby, bike, blue tongue, music

The school did a play called "Mergatroid's Adventures In Bananaland". The grades 4,5 and 6 had all the main roles, Max's grade 3 was part of the chorus.

Max is in the back row on the left of this picture. 

George had a fever. Here he is flaked out on the couch. On the plus side, he was allowed to watch TV all day when he was sick!

Max caught this beautiful blue tongued lizard at the Lindenow Bowls Club. We kept it for one day and he then released himself back into the wild. It was last seen under our house with a snail in its mouth. 

One day it hailed.

This is the inside of Nanny and Gramps' caravan. They parked it at a local caravan park on September 22nd in anticipation of the birth of their latest grandchild. We popped in on Nanny's birthday to sing "Happy Birthday" accompanied by Max on his ukelele.

Gramps took the kids to the swimming pool.

The cousins were there too.

George is an enthusiastic if slightly overconfident swimmer.

Due to Max's fascination with the ukelele, and his dedication to trying to play an adult-sized guitar Royce had in the shed, we bought him this kid-sized guitar.

George has a rubber drum practise mat. 

One fine day, weeks after the due date, Nanny and Gramps looked after the boys because we thought the baby might be on its way. Nanny and Gramps took them to the park, then swimming. They were well and truly tired when they got home!

She was born in the middle of the night and Max and George were so exhausted from the playing and swimming they had done that day, they could not be woken. In the morning Max said he did not expect to be "shaking with happiness" to meet his little baby sister. George really likes her fuzzy little head and suggests everyone "pat the baby". 

When Ruby was 3 days old George took her for "show and tell" at kindergarten.

Here we are at Oz Mex with Uncle Mike, Aunty Nat, Aunty Shani, and all the cousins.

Saskia is getting tall! She just turned 4. 

Max and Royce have started to get up super early and go fishing sometimes. This one was too small to keep.

Here's George, who was taken fishing separately later that day.

George hopped in bed with Ruby one morning and fell back to sleep. 

 Doing tricks on the trampoline.

The transition program for kindergarten (called preschool in Canada) to prep (called kindergarten in Canada) has begun. Max walked George to the big kid school and George met his teacher for next year and did activities with this year's "prep" kids.

The Lindenow Primary School prefers kids to have an insulated lunch box to keep things cool. We went on a picnic to the park across the road, to test out the new lunch boxes. George is wearing one of Max's school uniforms. On a Saturday.

Just in the last few weeks George has rediscovered his bike.  

George has also started to tie his shoelaces!