tim's birthday

we all went on an adventure to Bowen Island to celebrate Tim's birthday: me, mom, dad, Tim and Lissa. not everything went entirely to plan - after nothing but blue skies for months it was a bit cloudy. definitely not hot enough for Lissa to go swimming in the sea, although i did put my toes in for a few seconds. the beach was great though - covered in pebbles that looked just like the lumps of rice cake i have on my high chair tray. i did my best to bite into each one just to check there wasn't any rice cake hiding. tim threw rocks at a tree trunk, and then at some ducks which i didn't think was very kind. my mommy's taught me to treat ducks with the respect they deserve. maybe they don't have ducks in australia so timmy's mommy didn't teach him when he was little?

we went and had the traditional birthday fish and chips at the pub, even though it wasn't sunny on the deck. once we'd sent the food back to the kitchen to be reheated it was OK. the chowder was yummy anyway, and dad had a great looking nut pie, even though there wasn't any ice cream with it. the ferry home was a bit late, so we missed out on a sunset cruise. timmy was too tired anyway and fell asleep even quicker than me. birthday's must be very hard work. i'm not sure i'm looking forward to mine.

the moment many have been awaiting

well, they said i'd be crawling by the weekend, and they weren't wrong. all i really needed was the right "motivation for the scene". the gentle rocking back and forth on my knees had become unnecessarily frustrating, especially when the ball was rolling away from me.

then i was out on my rug on sunday afternoon, and mom brought dad a bowl of ice-cream. frankly it looked way more exciting than any of the toys around me. food has always been my favouritist of things, and other people's food tends to get me staring in envy and dribbling profusely. occasionally i accompany this with an endearing suck of the lips, a slight tilt of the head and those eyes that really say so much ("p-leeease", "aren't i cute?", and "oh go on you know you want to share").

this time, forget the act. i went for the bowl at the speed of ... light? sound? a train? a plane? ... well, amazingly fast, and the fastest i've ever moved. as dad gently pulled the bowl away, i just kept following, and he had me crawling around REALLY fast for ages, trying to get at the cool frozen looking yumminess.

he gave in after an hour or two (baby hours that is), with the smallest of hints of a taste. i think i'm going to like ice cream. uncle greg missed the momentous occasion as he was on the phone. the video camera also missed it, but as is a well known fact, video cameras are excellent at capturing static footage of babies that have just said/done something really cool. we have enough to bore you for days of me just sitting there staring at the camera with the background voices of mom and dad going "come on joel, what was it you were doing/saying? are you going all silent on me now?"

keep em wanting kids :)

a day off is a day to doolittle .. very little

Dad had a different day off today, cos mom went to work. needless to say we couldn't resist visiting her after I awoke from nap #1, and annoncing good news about breakfast - rice cereal and blueberries. she's helping out at church to give our very hard working administrator some holiday.

so we hung out there for a while, then went for a walk to discover they've finished shooting in our neighbourhood for the latest hollywood blockbuster. the movie is "john tucker must die" and comes out next year .. so i could see our locality on the big screen.

at lunchtime, we listened to an excellent radio story of the pixies .. what a band. if you have musical taste, you should check it out

which one's Caesar?

you're never too young for a little culture, so mom and dad took me to Young Shakespearians at Bard on the Beach. We saw an abridged version of Julius Caesar - without a set or costumes, and with actors swapping the principal roles amongst themselves during the performance - it was all rather confusing, so i went to sleep.

Celebration of Light

it's kind of weird waking up in the middle of the night and finding yourself in your stroller down by the beach. even more curious were the flashing lights in the sky. a bit loud, but very pretty. mom and dad could have told me what they had planned though, and i'd have stayed awake all evening to experience the build up and enjoy the crowds as well.

i can crawl.....

....although so far i've only found reverse gear. the more crawling i do, the further i get from the object of my attention. it's very frustrating. being the persistent sort though, i keep going until i'm wedged under the sofa or have backed myself into the corner.

in my attempts to refine this process i've learned to lift both my tummy AND my knees off the ground. other than doing half a dozen press ups, this has served no useful purpose, although it looks quite impressive, so i'm told. if only i can work out how to get my hands off the ground too, i'll be walking. maybe i should learn how to sit up on my own first?

amazing discovery

after much research, not to mention practice, i am pleased to announce my amazing discovery: if i pick something up and then let it go (that's the bit that took the practise) it drops back down again. every time. isn't that great?

it makes me laugh - especially when dad or i drop things into the bath, or when whatever i drop bounces back up again.

bunnies and blackberries

i discovered today that blackberry picking isn't much of a spectator sport. dad did his best to amuse me by climbing a tree and pretending to be a monkey, but he didn't do anything truly spectacular like falling into the brambles or anything. after a while we boys sneaked off and left mom to it.

sitting in the park was much more exciting. dad read his book (why is it work when he reads and play when i do?) and i watched the canada geese amble past. which leads me to a question for you. does anyone know if goose poo is poisonous? purely a hypothetical question you understand.

when mom found us again we went to see the bunnies. around about 6 o'clock in the evening all the bunny rabbits come out from under the blackberry bushes and have a little forage on the grass for something tasty to eat. tonight one of them found my toes. it was so exciting i almost forgot to breathe.

being out so late did mean i missed my bath, but i think it was worth it.