Shows (May 19-25)

We started the week with a much-anticipated trip to the Sydney Opera House for "Swing, Baby, Swing", a children's show.  And we ended the week with the Vivid Festival Saturday night in the Sydney CBD (Central Business District).  With lots of fun to be had in between.

May 19:  We coerced Liam into washing his hair, face and body this morning because we told him you were not allowed to go to the Sydney Opera House with dirty hair.  It totally worked.

Liam may have been the most excited to go see a show at the Opera House.  We saw a children's show called "Swing, Baby, Swing!"  Both kids loved it, for different reasons.  Brenna loved dancing and clapping with all the other kids on the carpet in front of the stage.  Liam preferred sitting in a seat behind the carpet and thought the mime that opened the show was hilarious (though the mime scared about 20% of the kids in attendance).

After the show, we walked around the botanic gardens, had a snack at the cafe, and rode the Choo Choo Express train through the park. 

Liam wore his "Opera House Jacket" for the event.  He had such a great day, I even managed to get an unstaged smile.

Brenna had to miss her morning nap to join in the excitement.  She didn't mind, though she was awfully tired by the time we grabbed lunch and headed home.

That night, Brenna got her bath in - her first bubble bath.  She was fascinated by the bubbles.

May 20:  Brenna and I are typically up 30-45 minutes before Liam and Brian.  She's very happy and fun in the morning and always so cute in her pajamas.

Liam really likes playing in Brenna's bed and with her bunny pillow.  He was playing hide and seek (with me and Brenna) among the pillows before I went to work.

May 21:  As I was about to head to work, Liam and I set up some train tracks.  The trick is getting the tracks down before Brenna can grab them.  We usually set her up a little track of her own, but it is relatively futile.

Luckily, Brenna was distracted for a few minutes with a game of peek-a-book with Liam's conductor hat.  She just loves peek-a-boo.

Brian took the kids to our local neighborhood taqueria for lunch (a common occurrence).  What's better than eating your burrito bowl with a fork?  Eating it with two forks!

May 22:  I caught a pretty good picture of our new walker today.  As you can see, she's pretty proud of herself.

She's also learned to blow kisses.  A little boy - her age - on the Choo Choo Express - was blowing kisses at her, so a couple days later she decided to try out that skill herself.

Some clothes I ordered for myself arrived today.  When I got home, I tried them on.  And so did Liam.  He cannot resist a good sequined cardigan.

May 23:  More trains this morning.  Pushed back on the couch to keep out of reach of Brenna.  But she's still very intent on what Liam is doing, of course.

May 24:  Brenna was doing laps around the living room area of our apartment tonight.  She's practicing her turns while walking.  And playing while standing up.

Liam was ignoring her and protecting his ice cream bar, while watching Pingu on my tablet.  He's suddenly very into ice cream on a stick, perhaps because he likes this Australian variety, called a "Gaytime".

May 25:  Ok, more peek-a-boo.  This time standing.  I just love this game and so does she.

After breakfast, we headed to Paddington to check out their Saturday market and Centennial Park.  The market was quite nice.  We picked up a little toy van for Liam with a surfboard on top and food for a picnic.  We had our picnic in Centennial Park and then spent some time at the playground there.

After naps, we got some take away (takeout) and took a bus to Circular Quay for the Vivid Festival.  The festival basically is light and sound installations all over Sydney Harbour.

We found a seat on the side of the Customs House, which had a light show set to music.  Liam went crazy dancing and running around.  But we did manage to get a little food into him and the rest of us.

The most impressive display, however, was at the Opera House.  It was also set to music.  

There were also installations on other buildings - and boats - around Circular Quay.  It was a fun Saturday night out.  And a rare night out for us.  The kids were up late but did great and really enjoyed it.

Firsts (May 12-18)

This week we had a number of firsts.  First Mother's Day in Sydney and as a family of four, first steps, and first outing by car where we didn't get hopelessly lost.

May 12:  We headed to the train station with Grandma after Brenna's nap.  Grandma headed to the airport and the rest of us headed to Circular Quay.

We headed towards The Rocks, one of the oldest parts of Sydney.  There are lots of old buildings with lots of interesting history and also a Sunday market.

On the walk, we passed a cool fountain and Liam, of course, wanted to pet all the animals on it.

It was the last day to see the windmill that was on display at The Rocks.  Liam enjoyed going into it.

We're both used to doing a lot of this with Brenna (not an insignificant task since she's 30ish lbs.).

But now we're doing a whole lot of this.  She always wants to be on the go when we're out.  And she nearly stole the money out of the street performer's guitar case!

While Brenna was busy walking around, Liam was enjoying some chocolate gelato and the street musician.   

As we walked back to the train at Circular Quay, Liam took a break to chase birds, one of his new favorite past times.  Brenna was happy in her stroller taking in the scene (thankfully).

April 13:  We started out Monday morning with some of the new books Liam got last week from a friend back in the U.S.  

Brenna wanted to do a bit of reading, too.

And while I was at work, Liam and Brenna had some nice moments playing together.  These are becoming less rare, which is awesome.

May 14:  My office welcome balloon is officially out of helium, so I brought the gummy candies that were holding it down home. They're a month old (hard to believe we've been in Sydney that long already), but still passed the Liam taste test (except for the green ones).

Brenna likes macaroni and cheese.  The after-lunch clean up she is not as happy about.

May 15:  As I headed to work, the kids were busy playing trains.   We usually give Brenna some tracks of her own.

But then playing trains quickly turns into Brenna destroying Liam's tracks and grabbing his train cars.  Not a popular move with Liam.

Luckily, the whole day didn't go like that.

And there were moments of comedic relief, like when Liam told Brian he was "being Daddy".

Don't let this sweet smile fool you.  There was been a lot of sleeping in Brenna's room this week. 

May 16:  Why no sleep this week?  Because Brenna took her first steps on Tuesday night and she's been practicing nonstop since!

Another post of Liam with some sort of sweet.  This kid is doing a candy tour of Sydney.

May 16:  Another first:  Brenna said "ba"!  For ball, and she meant it.  She she passed the ball back and forth to me while saying it.  

She was quite proud of herself.  In fact, whenever you cheer around her, she claps now.

Liam was not very impressed.  He came down with a bit of a cold, so that made him subdued.

May 18:  For my birthday, we decided to spend the day at the beach. 

We headed to Balmoral beach, an inner north shore harbour beach.  It was beautiful, with a great sandy beach to play on and a shaded playground just above the beach.

Brenna pre-sand eating.  She's still likes to taste the sand at a new beach.

Liam was really into scooping, pouring and dumping when we first got there.  He also wanted to take his pants off to better enjoy the beach.

Brenna got some more walking practice in, of course. 

Liam was also really into the water this time.  Each time we go to the beach he gets a little more interested in it.  He was sad that I didn't bring his swim suit and rash guard, but it was pretty cold for swimming. 

Luckily, he was pretty satisfied walking around in the water and making footprints in the sand.  After a romp on the playground and lunch (complete with very agressive seagulls) at the beach, we headed home with very very tired kids.  A happy birthday for all!