Birthday aftermath

Can you believe the Roo-ster is one already?

July is birthday season in our house with Marty and I less than 2 weeks apart. This year we managed to spread the celebrating over several weeks, culminating with a joint celebration (which I predict I'll have to get used to in the future). We also decided that since we'd be opening our house to the ravaging hordes we might as well make it a house-warming as well!

We tried to explain about blowing out the candles but he tried to wave goodbye to this one instead.

Marty has sped past a number of major milestones in the past few weeks. He's walking now, he's pointing, he's responding to a wide range of words (a lot of them either food or cat related) but the biggie has to be his voracious present opening skills! This boy has mad unwrapping skills. He strips tape and shreds paper like a pro. We had to keep my presents out of his reach!

First present was from us. Yes, it is a vacuum cleaner. Yes it talks ("Is that a rabbit? No, it's a dust bunny! Mwahaha") and no it is never switched on to 'talky mode'.

Please don't judge! The boy is vacuum cleaner obsessed ok. Who needs a baby sitter, we could just leave him in a room with someone's vac and he'd be happy for hours.

Not only does he unwrap, he does it in colour coordinated style!

Purry are you in there?

Master technique - shake the booty out!

Our dear friends sure kept the postie busy! Thank you to everyone who sent packages and cards and good wishes (and we will do our best to reply soon!!)

Occasionally there was some confusion about just which bits were exiting to whom. Prime example - Hamish and I are busy constructing the toy. Marty and Clare on the other hand are much more interested in the sample box of medicine!


Some of Marty's other toys are also fun for adults. Of course the first thing I made with these block was a giant robot and of course the first thing Marty did was pull it down on his head!

I know I've talked a lot about Marty's birthday but that's because turning 1 is way more impressive than turning 33, and because he looks better in pics than his Poggie. I had a wonderful birthday lead-up and party. I got some brilliant presents (my beloved gave me superpowers...or at least the next best thing in the form of gorgeous bird-watching binoculars) and one really sucky one (4 days of gastro) that landed me in bed on the actual birthday day. Thanks goodness only Jose and I got sick, Marty seemed to escape. Maybe it was that magic birthday cupcake we let him eat at the end of his party...

I can't tell if the sombre look is exhaustion or fear that we might remove the delectable sweet and sticky thing from his little death gripped paw at any given moment. We didn't of course and he loved it!

Family pics of the Birthday Boy

I can't really believe that tomorrow is Marty's first birthday. Somehow it all seems to have gone by so quickly, even the bits that went really slowly (like the long nights of crying - his and mine).

I thought I'd post a whole bunch of recent 'family life' type pics as a precursor to what will probably be a week or two of birthday related blog posts.

Marty at the shack supervising Jamie in the garden

Marty and cousin CW playing with the playhouse. This is right before Marty decided to give CW a big old sloppy kiss right on the noggin, drenching his poor head in drool!

Brush your teeth, round and round...

He has five teeth now!

New trick, climb into the toybox to play!

Love drawing on those frosty morning windows

Mama reading to tired boy before bed

The poor cauliflower never saw it coming!

The NW Coast of Tassie (and a Marty fest)

My outlaws, the fabulous Traveling Bears, have a house at Boat Harbour on the North-West coast of Tassie and it is one of my favourite places on earth. Granted the water is cold but it is crystal clear with white sandy beaches, gorgeous rock formations, birds, dolphins and fish! We were lucky enough to make it up there for a few days about a month ago and while it was too cold and splashy for fishing it still managed to show off plenty of winter charm.

This post will be pretty light on text but I've been wanting to get these photos up for ages so here goes! (remember you can click on any of the pics to see a bigger version)

First off some scenic shots to set the mood. These are either from Boat Harbour proper or nearby Sisters Beach.

And now that we've established that it truly is one of the most beautiful places on earth, it is time for the Marty Fest! We went out for a long beach walk and Marty was all bundled up in his womblesuit but he desperately wanted to get down and hoon around so we finally caved. He didn't eat too much sand...

That's all for now folks!

Our new house

The view from our house at 7am. Yes, I get up early now!

Our new house is lovely. It is definitely winter here now but we're feeling pretty darn cosy. The house has good heating and gets lots of sun, and did I mention the view?!

Our quiet little cul-de-sac looking down towards Kingston beach

Our furniture is still pretty nana, since our Texas gear hasn't arrived yet, but it's all good. Great for Marty-cakes to crawl all over. He's not quite walking but cruising around all the furniture and taking the odd unassisted step when he's not paying attention. He's also taken to climbing on top of the coffee 'table' and kneeling up on top of it like the king of the world! Thank goodness he's now grasped the concept of 'backwards' for getting down off things. Well, backwards or the quick way (plonk)


One of the best discoveries (for Marty at least) about the new place is the bath. Not only is it luxuriously large but the tap has what amounts to a tiny shower head on it. What that boils down to is a lot of pressure which means bubbles! Marty had never really had a true bubble bath before but he loves it! If only we could convince him to drink less of it...

Marty-puddle is definitely a water boy

We're finally settling in, starting to invite people over and feeling generally more 'at home'. Marty is loving the space and basically thriving, even though he's still a teeny tiny little thing (he's built like a greyhound, all lean muscle and never stops moving!) Our cat Purry has finally returned to live with us after 3+ years with the Bears. He's a darling and so tolerant of Marty, who just adores him and wants to show it by ripping out his fur at every opportunity! Purry is a saint. We've been keeping him inside until he gets more settled but I'm pretty sure that if he isn't enjoying the attention, he's enjoying all the sun.

Tiddles darling

I know I'm going on about the view, but after living in the 7th largest city in America and having a view of houses and trees (which I loved, especially at this time of year with the storms rolling across...) well anyway, it makes a refreshing change to look out over water!

More of the early morning. Waking to this sure helps with the whole getting up thing.

Lots more to tell you soon! We're coming up for birthdays for both Marty and I. Sure, his first birthday is way more significant than my 33rd but I can't help but feel a tiny bit jealous! Not that I want to be 1 again. And yes, I know I need to attend to the title of the blog now. I'm getting there :)

Finally getting started?

Last night was our first night in our new house...

Wait, I can't start a post there because there is so much that goes before it that I need to fill you all in on! Lets try a quick and dirty news brief:

• We gave up on the idea of buying a house, at least for a while. Winter is not the idea time for this sort of activity not to mention that it was stressing the hell out of us! Instead we decided to look for a rental where we could ride out the winter, rest for a while and enjoy Tassie and sort through the ridiculous number of possessions we have.
• We found a lovely little house just round the corner from Jo's parents (who we have been living with for the past 2 months, bless them!) It is a bit of a Nana house but it has amazing views (pics to come), a lovely garden, LOTS of storage and it is fairly safe for Marty the Destroyer.
• We picked up the keys last week but since the house had just been painted we decided to let it air before moving in (ha - you'll see why I now laugh at this) and we organised to have the stuff we had in storage here in Tassie delivered so we could at least start sorting through it. Our Texas household goods aren't due until at least the end of July, maybe longer depending on clearing Customs.
• I won't go into the details but the Tassie storage was a huge disappointment (there'd been a water leak into the container at some point so some water damage and lots of mould). So much for airing the house, since now most things we own smell seriously musty! Gah. Anyhow, I'm over the worst of the drama-queening about it and the only sad thing that was destroyed was the day bed Jo's mum had restored for her. The books were ok, the good china survived and most of the rest of our stuff is crappy student gear that we were planning to replace at some point. Hakuna matata.
• Last night was our first night in our new house (see I told you we'd get there) and it was also the coldest night we've had so far (3 degrees - eek!). The beloved was a bit chilly but I was toasty warm on the new mattress under a massive feather doona :)
• I'm looking forward to finishing the pantry restock (no small task from scratch) and getting the front living room in order (the room with the amazing view). I think the beloved is looking forward to being free of the smell of new paint, varnish and mildew - hehe.
• Marty-puzzle is a little out of sorts but he'll settle in. He's mostly missing grandma and papa I think, plus he's also been fobbed off a lot lately while we unpack and clean. He did have his first real bubble bath last night and loved it.

Anyhow, that'll do for now. So much more to come! Sorry about the lack of pics, I'm on the wrong computer. If anyone wants our new address fling me an email.

A post for Aunty Joanne (and the few other Marty fans...)

Because there's no way a post like this can possibly make you sad!

Mmm.... and to top it off the little tyke is a total virus factory right now!

Josie's Birthday and a quick update

The University Rose Garden and view of 'the mountain' on my walk to work. Yep, I did say walk!

This may be a bit of a scatty post because I'm at work before 8am, I'm supposed to be working on a fellowship application and I could do with about 3 days of extra sleep! Today is a gorgeous day - the sky is crystal clear, there isn't a breath of wind and it's the beloved's birthday! I have to admit that I am 'the suck' as far as partners go, since I didn't say happy birthday until we stumbled upstairs for breakfast to find a table decked out with cards and packages! Bad Jac! I will make it up to her tonight (I hope) since we are going out for our very first dinner together, alone, since Marty was born! I'm taking her to Piccolo in North Hobart which I was very impressed with last March, so here's hoping they're still on fire. Of course I will blog the entire meal later :D

I was going to write a post about my new workplace with lots of pics but like i said, there's a fellowship application calling so for now you'll have to settle with a news brief and some photos from our last few weeks in Texas.

News Brief:
I'm about to finish my 3rd week of work and it is all going well. Looks like there's plenty of project that my input may be at least partially useful on. I'm fired up to get some grants in and get some funding so that's all good. I don't have a computer yet and it looks like that may still be 3 or 4 weeks off so thankfully I have my laptop! Only downside is it means another 4 weeks on the unpredictable wireless network.

We're still house hunting - both to rent or buy. It turns out we're quite fussy... who would have guessed?!

We're starting to get out and about a bit more although we still haven't got into the swing of really catching up with people (we're getting there though!) Marty is finally settling down sleep wise, which is making a big difference, but again he has a way to go yet.

We miss everyone from Texas horribly. I had a bad moment on Saturday where some of the reality came crashing down and I turned into quite the beast. I guess it is a form of grief and it sure does come sneaking up on you when you don't expect it! Thank goodness for the internets! Chatting online and skype help make the distance feel less vast. If anyone wants to find me I'm almost always on gtalk (http://www.google.com/talk/)

Hi ho hi ho off to work I go. Here's some pics to tide you over until I get a more interesting post up!

Mr Happy having a lovely time on John and Jo's lawn. This was about a week before we left Texas, in the middle of an absolutely stunning spring! (well, apart from the insane clouds of oak pollen)

It's amazing what you'll do to keep a little one happy while the movers spend six hours packing up the house around you. Marty is water obsessed - he crawled fully clothed into the bottom of Josie's shower the other day and was having a lovely time! He was probably due for a wash ;)

All we needed was a sink, and old apple and a giant grapefruit to keep him happy. If only he were still amused by simple things! Now he's more interested in attempting to dismantle a TV remote, work out how a heating panel works or dismantle Papa's newspaper!

Derwent River panorama

I'm about to give my first talk at the new workplace and I'm excited about it in a geeky kind of way - basically I love the data :)

But I thought I'd quickly share with y'all another love of mine, and that is the view from this part of Tassie. Click on the photo to make it bigger. I stitched together a panorama of shots taken from a little hill (called the battery because they used to have some kind of cannon defence system there!) about 5 mins from the middle of town. To the left are the foothills of 'the mountain' aka Mt Wellington. I couldn't fit the mountain in but you'll see better shots of that later. It is our compass and companion here - you always know where you are based on where the mountain is. Heading to the right you can see the city (tiny little Hobart) and the bridge over to the Eastern Shore (the dry looking landmass you can see over the water) and to the right you're heading down the Derwent River (which is exceptionally deep so all sorts of ships port just near downtown) and out towards the sea at the far right.

Remember to click on it and make it big!

Enjoy!