The Well Travelled Child

Duncan has already seen more of Australia in his year here than most Australian born adults have in their life. He (and I too) have officially been in every state of Australia except Tasmania and we hope to rectify that next year if time and money allows for it.

The thing that I like the most about Duncan and travelling is that he is such a good kid about it. I think he was born to travel because even on the plane ride from Indiana to Australia (which was about 18 hours all up not including waiting time during layovers) he only got fussy for about 10 minutes of it and that was towards the end. We had a couple people that came up to us and said what a great baby he was on the plane and they didn’t even hear him once. I think it does help that we went over prepared and he’s just an easy going guy.

Now, in the car it’s the same thing and sometimes the hours are long, especially now in the summer here, sometimes we are in the car for what seems like hours and hours. Sure, we have all his cars and books with him so he has stuff to do but sometimes I even get cranky sitting in the car for long periods. This boy just really likes travelling. I would make a list on what to do to help your kid travel but, I think some of it is planning and a lot of it is individual child and if they don’t mind travelling.

We got lucky with this one.

Getting in the pictures

When Duncan was first born I hated my pictures being taken. Sure there’s a few of them from when he was itty bitty that I was in but seldom did I even want to post them or put them on our Flickr account. I read post after post of why it’s so important to be in the photos with your kids and I knew it was important, heck I know that it is important. So, for the last year I have made it a bit more of a priority to get myself into pictures with Duncan.

Even if I don’t think I look the greatest, my shirt is too baggy, I think my butt looks big, my hair is a mess. I want to look back on these pictures and have Duncan look back on them as well and see that I wasn’t just behind the camera, that I was in front of it, loving life with this great little guy. Sometimes it’s hard for me to have my picture taken and I know that a lot of people have the same difficulty but I want Duncan to have pictures of us so when he’s older he can see that we always are there. This is a lot of the reason that I take pictures of Jamie and Duncan so often as well. That and of course, they’re adorable!

It really is true though, your kids won’t care that you felt fat, your hair was a mess, your clothes didn’t fit quite right in the photos. They’ll care about the memories and love that is in them.

If you’re a person that hides from the camera and you realize that you don’t have too many pictures of yourself and the kids or just of yourself…get out there and take some. You deserve it, your kids deserve it, and your family deserves it. You are your own worst critic.

Painted nails

The other night I was painting my nails and Duncan was sitting there watching Yo Gabba Gabba when he saw what I was doing and wanted his nails painted also. So, we did all his fingernails and he couldn’t have been more thrilled.

I don’t think it’s a huge deal to paint his fingernails because he isn’t at an age to know it’s been decided that it’s gender specific. I try to keep him away from knowing things are boys or girls only. In fact, I don’t think half of what “the public” thinks is for girls or boys only should be that way. I know I’m not the only one who believes this but, there are a lot of people who for instance, believes baby dolls are for girls and trucks are for boys.

So, anyway, he had his first painted nails and loved it because they were green! Naturally the paint didn’t last long. After he got done with digging in the dirt and washing his hands a bunch of times it was all gone.

It’s the little things that makes kids happy. If I can do something small to put a huge grin on his face then, I’m gonna do it.

I do have updates

For some reason when I think of blogging here I just don’t know what to say and so I end up neglecting this blog and I don’t want to do that.

There are things that I could post about, pictures that haven’t been uploaded or even edited once they are put onto my computer and that makes me a little bit sad. I keep this website mostly for family to keep tabs on Duncan and us, as a way of them feeling like they’re not missing a single thing that is going on. Well, I’m sure there are some things that they miss out on but you can’t share it all, can you?

I have pictures from two months (or maybe three) ago of this really gorgeous Rainbow Lorikeet that let me get really close to him/her and the photos are stunning, not to toot my own horn. Okay, I’m tooting a little. I need to get those up and on the Flickr. In fact, I think I am going to do that really soon.

We’re waiting to leave on a very little job. Just taking pictures of a route so that they can get a game plan. The little job is good though, we’re not ready for a big one until the car gets her bugs ironed out.

Walking Trails in Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia

I’ve been a bit slack with the Australia posts haven’t I? I hadn’t realized how long it’s been until I was looking at the pictures on our Flickr account! Holy moly I’m going to get on that right now.

This is from two months ago when we stopped at Gunnedah, New South Wales for a few days. We didn’t know it was going to be a few days but it ended up being it. We figured we’d make the most of it and try to find a live wild koala since Gunnedah is “the koala capital of the world”.

We went up to the walking trails that they have because there is a part where supposedly a lot of koalas live and there’s been koalas spotted.

We started out strong and full of excitement to see a koala.

Spoiler, we didn’t see a koala.

The walk was awesome and the views from the mountain we were on was breathtaking. Duncan had a blast walking the trail because they had made steps out of wood for easy climbing.

Every time we would go up or down or near a step he would yell out “there’s a step!” It was adorable and I was beat from the steps, I don’t see how he lasted so long.

Until he got tired and almost fell asleep in Jamie’s arms. Like I said, we didn’t see any koalas after like two hours of walking buuuuut…

we saw wallabies! From the dang car! Didn’t even have to get out of it. I’m glad we did though, it was a lot of fun hiking and trying to find a koala.

Books & Shoes

The other day we were heading out to go look at a car and while Duncan was in his seat and we were all pulling out of the street to get going, he looked at me and said “I want to go to the store!” So, I asked him what he wanted at the store when he said “I want to go to the store and buy a book!” Adorable.

Yesterday, while we were going to go to the store to pick up things like milk and bread he said we were going to go shopping and buy shoes. Shoes and books is what this kid wants, at age 2.

I think we are going to have a bookworm with a fetish for shoes on our hands.

A summer haircut

My crazy haired little man is no more since yesterday. He was rocking some long locks and it was definitely time for a haircut. We were going to go to a barber to get his hair done but some circumstances (the van breaking down) and new decisions made money need to go somewhere else and so a home buzz job was in order. We used the longest guide that was in Jamie’s sisters buzzer kit and did away with Duncan’s hair.

I thought that I was going to hate it when Jamie first started and even before we did it I was kind of against the idea of just buzzing his hair. I didn’t think he had the right kind of hair for it and his hair was too thin. However I absolutely love his hair this short and I bet he is going to be a lot cooler during the summer and when we’re up in Queensland.

It is so weird for me to be in October and thinking about going into summer time. This is my winter months man, not summer! Australia is messing with me on seasons big time! Although having Christmas in the heat this year will remind me a lot of when we lived in Southern California.

Christmas Card Time!

So, this year has definitely flown by a lot quicker than I expected it to with being away from home and all. However, the holidays are coming whether I like it or not and that means that I have to start preparing for them. I’m not talking about Halloween since it isn’t that big of a deal here in Australia as it is in the states (sadly), and I’m sure not talking about Thanksgiving since I have to skip that this year. No, I’m talking about Christmas. Don’t groan! You know you’ve already thought about it a million and one times since October has rolled it’s pumpkin-y head into town.

The one thing about Christmas you want to get done fast is your cards, right? You don’t want to be that family or person that sends their Christmas cards out late and everyone gets them on the first of the new year! So, I have of course gone to my go to website for getting cards printed, Shutterfly to see what they have going on in their selection this year. Christmas Cards from Shutterfly have never disappointed me. The print job is great and I love the designs that they have and every single year there are new ones to pick from. My problem is picking one, naturally.

I also still have to get around to picking a picture of Duncan for the card. I’m thinking that this year it is going to be a more candid shot than a staged one. I might even use one of all three of us as opposed to just Duncan! Either one I choose, this will definitely be the first place I show it and also it will definitely be done by going to Shutterfly. It’s a fantastic place to get cards done, I’m telling you.

This post was sponsored by Shutterfly but all opinions are 100% my own!

Broke Down Again

Things are not looking good in the vehicle department for this bunch right here! Tomorrow will mark a month since our first hotel stay and in this month we have been in three different motels due to the van needing to be fixed. The fuel line keeps busting and it seems that it all stems from someone along the way forgetting to put a nut or something on the rod. Nice, right? I know that people make mistakes but this van has been looked at by multiple mechanics and we won’t even get into the last mechanic that looked at the van before this Ford dealership and sending the van without being able to start or have power. Not too impressed with them!

So, a motel has been our home for awhile and Duncan has been enjoying it. Kids see it as being an adventure and not to mention that he has been able to “plank” between the beds and between the bed and the mini fridge. I still have to get some pictures of it because it is hilarious.

We did get to webcam with my family yesterday which Duncan proceeded to show them all his cars and toys. Hey, when you are so far away and only “see” everyone once a month you take what you can get, right?

We might be out of the motel today or we might be staying here another night. I hope we are out on the road by tonight though. Figuring out meals to cook in the microwave is starting to get harder even though we’ve been doing really well to keep our grocery bill down here.

Duncan had noodles (Ramen type) last night for dinner because he didn’t like his meat pie. I didn’t blame him because microwaving them are not good at all. It seemed quite rubbery and I don’t care for them anyway. So, noodles for dinner and then he requested them for breakfast as well. I obliged. Breakfast of champions!

Hot, hot, hot!

These pictures were about the last time that Duncan needed a sweater. His Nana knitted that sweater for him too and he was only able to wear it about three times before we came up to Queensland so Jamie could do some work and well, it’s too damn hot hear for anything more than a shirt and shorts. I’m even contemplating buying a pair of shorts or two but I really hate wearing shorts and showing off my legs, being out in the sun all the time it might be necessary for me to just give it up and get some shorts though.

This past couple of days we’ve had some down time and we went to Target and bought Duncan a pair of sandals which have Thomas the train on it. He loves the things which is good because before my sister sent him a pair of monkey shoes, getting him into a new pair of shoes was like dropping a cat in water.

I think I would rather be in the heat than the cold sometimes and we didn’t really have to go through much of a winter here since we’ve been in Queensland for awhile now.

Jamie got a card reader for the laptop so we can pull pictures off of the camera while on the road also so I can keep the photos in check, hopefully.