Back to the same old same old, after a fantastic family holiday. I will have to add pictures later because I'm on the laptop at the moment and they are all stored on the PC.
On the first day of our holiday, we got into Brisbane quite early and hired a car to drive down to Broadbeach (just south of Surfers Paradise). We stopped off at Dreamworld for the day on the way, and Austy was super pleased to see a helicopter taking off for a joy flight the second we got out of the car. Very quickly "Coptaaaaa" became his favourite word as they are just everywhere on the Goldcoast. He was pretty exhausted at Dreamworld as he'd been so excited on the plane and then only managed a 20min nap in the car. But he still had a great time in Wiggles World (did the big red car ride with Daddy and the Dorothy Teacup ride with Mummy) and watched both of us go on the white water ride (one at a time). He loved the tigers, wasn't so sure about the cougar that was doing fantastic leaps to get it's chicken for dinner. We went to watch the bush animals show while Andrew went to watch a wavemaker demo, and he was thrilled when they handed out fresh damper at the end of the show - he couldn't get enough. He liked the chickens, sheep and dogs too.
The next day was a day of getting our bearings and wandering around, so we stayed close to the apartment and let Austy have a good sleep to catch up on what he'd missed the day before. Was a good thing too because we ventured out to Sea World the next morning, which had lots of exciting things for Austy to see and do. They have a wonderful area of kids rides, and Austy absolutely loved the "merri merri" (merry go round) and had two goes on it. He also had a truck ride with me and went on a pretend coptaaa with Andrew. He was smiling all day, except for the 30 seconds of crying before he fell asleep in his pram in the afternoon. We were amazed as he has hardly ever slept in his pram since about the 6 month mark, and even when we were in Sydney at 10m old we had to sling him to get him to hgo to sleep as he'd just scream and scream in the pram. The pram sleep of about 45 mins gave him a recharge so he could go in the water park there, and had his first go on a water slide ( a baby one). It was very tiring for us as he just wanted to keep going up the ladder, down the slide and round again. We thought he'd never have enough. It was a great way to keep himn occupied so we could go on water slides too. One of us would stay with him while the other went off on our own adventures and then we'd swap. He liked watching the bears in the omni theatre, but unfortunately we only got a short glimpse of the polar bears as it was so hot. The dolphins put on a fantasic show as per usual and the penguins were very cute.
A big morning sleep was on the agenda the next day, and after he'd had that, we were off to the beach. We were hoping to go and watch some of the Quicksilver Pro but the surfers were having a lay day because the surf wasn't good. So we just went to the local beach and Austy had a good play in the sand as he preferred that to playing in the waves where the current was quite strong. He still got to have a bit of fun in the water but he liked it better on the sand, digging with the beach toys he got for his birthday (he got three sets so we combined them all in the bag one of them came in and took them with us to QLD.
Our last day was spent at wet'n'wild, which was a fantastic day out as the weather was perfect for it and Austy was quite happy to swim and splash about all day long except for yet another hour nap in the pram. We took turns in minding him and going on waterslides, and went in the wave pool and on a gentle tube ride all together.
Got back to Adelaide last weekend (Saturday) and back to work on Monday. On Tuesday we went to look at Childcare places and have now booked Austy in to a place four afternoons a week as Zarny's timetable has changed with the new uni semester and things were getting a little difficult to juggle. We decided that Austy needed to spend more time with kids anyway as he hasn't been able to see other kids much since I went back to work full time and stopped taking him to mothers group and fitness classes in the park. He was thrilled with seeing kids again while we were away, and even went up to a few kids he didn't know just to give them cuddles and kisses. That was the clincher for us as was the excited tremble, pointing finger and exclamation "Kiiiiiiids!!" whenever he saw some at the theme parks. He will be going for just a few hours each afternoon, and although my first attempt at leaving him there for 15mins while I went into another room to fill out forms didn't go so well (he was still clinging to the carer when I got back), I am sure he will settle in soon enough and love playing with the other kids once he gets used to us not being there and comes to know his main carer.
His favourite activity at the moment is drawing so we bought his firts colouring in book while we were away and a little pencil case to fill with crayons. It keeps him amused for ages and when he's had enough drawing, he likes to put the crayons in and out of the case. Great thing to calm him down with some quiet time at the end of the day.
We also went to a Baby Rave on Staurday (me and Austy) as a part of the fringe festival here in Adelaide. The first 10 mins he was excitedly running around the place and venturing off on his own with me running along behind trying to keep up. But then suddenly he couldn't see me, did his sad mouth and started bawling, so the rest of the hour was spent clinging to me. The music was a little loud I thought (as did the other Mums of my mothers group who were there with their little ones too) and we were a bit dissapointed as we thought there would be musical instruments like drums and marracas and tamborines for them to play with. The kids seemed to like it though (and Austy was happier once we all sat down in a circle and put the kids in the middle as he seemed more secure in teh fact that he knew where I was). They also had parachutes that they were flicking in the air and letting the kids run under and Austy loved that as long as I was under there with him.
Austy is at such an adorable age now, chatting away to himself and amusing himself quite a bit. His giggles are infectous and he is brilliant at grabbing attention with his cute and clever ways. Anyway must go and help him put his crayons away as he has suddenly got quite frustrated that the case won't open by itself...
