Our Little Tornado

What happened to the blog?   Well a lot happened to make it significantly harder to post on this blog!    Spencer started moving.   Really moving.  He's like a hyper little Neanderthal.  No more typing on the computer while he relaxes and plays on his mat.  He crawls, stands, and shuffles along furniture.  He opens drawers, cupboards and doors.  He eats everything except what we feed him.  He can take vents out of the floor and dig dirt out of plants.  He's everywhere.  At the end of the day when he finally goes to bed, I collapse in exhaustion and have a hard time watching a whole tv show without falling asleep.  Brett is also working hard to finish his masters degree, which means that the computer is always in use.  And the final factor that makes it hard to post on this blog is Spencer's obsession with the computer.  As soon as he sees the magical computer his eyes light up and he starts making happy squealing sounds.  He is desperate to pound it to pieces.  He just loves to hit the keyboard as hard as possible.  If it is in the room, he just will not stop devising evil plans to get it.  It eventually leads to an all out meltdown of sorts (either by Spencer or me).  

Anyway, let's catch you up from August!   Clearly we made it home safely from Australia.  It was not as easy coming back.  Our newly mobile little man was also very alert and insisted he needed to touch and see everything.  He was awake for nearly the whole 32 hours.  But it worked out well because it led to a huge sleep for everyone when we got home, and that put us right on track with the time difference in Canada. 

We have been attending swimming lessons.  Spencer hates them.  He cries in the changeroom and then does absolutely nothing at all in the pool.....except have a meltdown when it is time to put his toy back (the toy that he was doing nothing with because, seriously, he does nothing at all but sit like a lump).

We have also been going to baby sign language classes.  Spencer loves this.  Not because of the sign language, or the songs, or the many other babies, or the fun instructor.  Nope.  He loves the toys in the room.  And he is off to play with them before I even get my shoes off (or his, but I had given up on that a long time ago). He is famous in this class.  Everyone knew his name on the first day.

Spencer is now 10.5 months old.  He's a beautiful, clever, alert ball of energy that we are just so in love with.

 

The Elusive Kookaburra

Since arriving here a few weeks ago, I have been taunted by the elusive Kookaburra.  I could hear it laughing at me from the trees as we went for a walk.  I could hear it laughing at me as I lay in bed in the morning.  I could hear it laughing at me while we picnicked by the ocean.  But, never could I see it.  I had seen many kookaburras during my year living here, but during this visit I just couldn't see any.  Then a few days ago we stopped at a small park by the ocean and there were THREE kookaburras!  The kookaburra is one of my favourite birds.  Its sound is hilarious.  The first time I heard its signature laugh I wondered where the monkey sounds were coming from (I knew monkeys didn't live here).  Finding three in one place was so exciting.  They even let me snap some pics!   Just in case you Canadians haven't heard one before, I've included a clip of one from YouTube.  The pictures are mine! Can you believe how close they let me get?

Our Adventures in Photos

We went for a drive and had a coffee at a brewery.  This was the view.  No colours were altered!

Again, no colours were altered in this photo!

Spencer's first time standing on sand.  He wasn't too sure he liked it at first.

Crawling through a tunnel at Ava's birthday party.

Ava getting some help blowing out her candles.

The birthday girl enjoyed her cake.

We went to Perth's Aquarium with Brett, Sarah and Ava.  This is Spencer's first look at fish.

The aquarium wore him out!