Halloween Day ABCs and Carvery

Halloween day and Logan decided to recite all his ABCs alphabet letters
from beginning to end! Even better was that Grams and Mom heard it and
managed to get it on video. Could this be a good or bad
omen?
It was Grams last full day with us and so we took a leisurely stroll
outside, primarily for the purpose of getting the U.S. mail from the
demountable a couple blocks away. With us was an excited Logan on his
bike. Part of the reason Logan thoroughly enjoys going to get the mail
is because it sometimes includes us going in a big loop around a gas
station. And at the gas station we have occasionally stopped in to grab
a little ice cream bar, a severely sought after treat that Logan can
barely hold himself back from.

That afternoon some friends stopped by: Joanne and her Son, Aidan, and
Daughter, Chevonne, came by to get some Halloween candy we'd wanted to
pass on to them from our good friend Mary (who mailed us candy from
afar). While visiting, Daddy invited all the kids to join in helping
him carve the pumpkin. We made triangle eyes and a triangle nose.
Aidan wanted a buck tooth grimace face and so we did that too.
Everyone helped pull out the seeds and yucky gooey 'entrails' of the
pumpkin, much to their delight. Logan, being his shy and quieter self
when around less familiar folk, was a bit standoff-ish with the whole
pumpkin thing, but you could see he still enjoyed it. We then put the
candle in and watched it go all aglow and become spooky! At the
twilight hour we had the pumpkin out in addition to all the other
halloween decorations that Mom and Grams had put up, but all to no
avail. We didn't get any trick-or-treaters that night. Probably
because we were the only ones in the area that had a light on indicating
that we were willing participants to pass out candy. A good amount of
Aussie's don't tend to celebrate Halloween as much as in the U.S. and so
many kids go over to certain parts of town with more American based
families to get candy there.
Because of Logan having had experienced two days straight of Halloween
festivities, we figured he could skip the trick-or-treating this year
and not feel as if he'd been left out of anything. Anyway, sugar and
Logan don't mix too well... and a third night of misadventures was not
desired. Besides, it was Grams last night and so we thought it'd be
best to enjoy the evening as best we could.

Which one is the jack-o-lantern? Chevonne and Aidan are in there somewhere?

Chevonne enjoys checking out the little one with Mom.

Delenn attempts her scariest howl to welcome in all-hallows eve

Logan prefers his baby Sister to the jack-o-lantern

Dad checks out his handiwork and decides it wasn't quite scary enough.

Daddy gets a chance to cuddle with his little princess

Someone is convinced there are spiders and other monsters on the ceiling above us

Chevonne and Aidan get in on the family action of removing the pumpkin's entrails... bleecchhhhyyyy!

Logan and Dad start a new tradition of carving a jack-o-lantern with rotting teeth so as to teach the benefits of proper brushing :-)

Grams gets a few last minute cuddles before getting to fly out the next day back home.

Delenn starts to fade as Grams actually gets more wide-eyed.

BIG Delenn Welcoming and another fun Halloween Party

Sunday morning was the BIG 'Delenn welcoming' bash (yes, we know, there
have already been two previous smaller 'Delenn Welcoming' parties with
various other friends as well). At this one there were over 50
well-wishers gathered together from 9 AM to 12 noon at the Telegraph
Station picnic grounds! All the kids had a blast as they explored the
area for cicada shells on the trees. They even found a couple that were
still in the process of climbing out. Logan was a bit less shy around
the cicadas and has this bad habit of wanting to either touch them or
stick his nose or tongue on them.
Another reason for the fun was the fact that it was a beautiful day (not
scorching hot) and there was still enough water in the Todd river for
the kids to get wet up to their knees (well, of course Logan was one of
the few that got pretty much his entire body covered and had 'massive
diaper syndrome') There were scores of tadpoles swimming around and the
kids loved spending most of the Welcoming party chasing and catching
them. They also got wet playing with a water fountain that was low
enough to be an easy target for them.
So mucho thanks to Liesl's friends Melissa, Kristin, and Rachel, for
setting up and holding the event for us! It was a great time and very
thoughtful that everyone would come out for it.

In the afternoon we had another Halloween party to go to, this time at
Elizabeth's house, yet another one of Logan's many friends. On this
occasion Logan put on his wizard's outfit, complete with hat, as made by
our great friend Mary. The party had all sorts of decked out
decorations and theme-based treats. Logan had fun decorating a treat
bag and playing various games. Mom got all the boys to gather together
in a circle and play a variation of 'duck duck goose', only this one was
called 'monsters and ghosts'. One boy would go around tapping the
boys' heads while growling. Then that boy would choose a boy to chase
them around the circle by tapping his head and saying 'Boo!' It was
quite interesting to watch many of these boys not be able to quite grasp
the concept of the game. However, Logan got right up and walked around
groaning a monster sound as he tapped each boy's head. Then at one of
the boys he said 'Boo' and ran around back to the now-open boy's spot.
He did it like a champ on the first try! Even more funny than that was
the fact that he was by far the youngest boy there at a little over 2
years old. Everyone else was 3-5 years old. Of course it might've
been because he was listening to his Momma for once.

Mom happily accepts good friend Ellen to hold Delenn for her for awhile while Dad is just as happy to take photos.

Logan is about to tap Chase's head and say 'Boo' so that Chase will run around the circle and try to get Logan.

Mom comes up with variation of 'duck duck goose' called 'monsters and ghosts'

Some of the boys gather around for a potentially 'frightening' game.

Mixing the frog's breath and hog's tongue together is quite a tasking chore.

Logan and Bradon gather the necessary ingredients for a hideous spell, a new and improved complexion stabilizer so adults can also have that oh so desired 'toddler look'.

Even a little wizard needs to have a refreshment and cool off at a summer-time halloween party.

Bradon and Melissa join in on the trick-or-treat bag decorating action

Getting the hang of it himself, Logan continues to decorate his trick-or-treat bag at his friend Elizabeth's halloween party.

Mom and Delenn help Logan out with decorating his trick-or-treat bag.

Grams gets an affectionate look from Delenn

Bellowing out his most heinous spell ever, Logan shows his glee in wearing the wizard's outfit that our great friend Mary made for him.

Logan prepares an incantation after donning his wizard's halloween costume.

Grams yaps on the phone while cuddling her grand-daughter

There are never enough pics of Delenn and her radiant admiring Momma.

Delenn was eventually found at the party underneath Mom's armpit.

Guests join in on a Delenn scavenger hunt. Somehow the guest of honor lost herself in the shuffle and needed finding.

Logan contemplates life as he enters a hypnotic state watching the water droplets splatter upon the flat rock below.

As if the water from the Todd river wasn't enough, the drinking fountain provided even more opportunities to transform oneself from a state of being soaked to a new level; that of becoming utterly drenched.

The Rat Pack of the next generation.

Finally, Grams gets to be in a picture and join the rest of the family celebrating Delenn's welcoming

Dad, Logan, Mom, and Delenn pretend to pose professionally

Mom enjoys the Delenn Welcoming party more than Delenn herself, who just thinks the whole thing is a bit ho-hum.

It wasn't long before kids began to polarize themselves en masse towards the tadpole infested remnants of the quickly drying Todd river.

Unsurprisingly, Logan submerges himself into the water in a valiant attempt to capture one of the tadpoles that Bradon has just spotted. Alex has already snapped herself up one, managing to do so without needing to resort to Logan's tactics.

Danny kicks back as Anna sits and enjoys watching her Mom, Ellen, hold Delenn for a goodly while. Delenn sure enjoyed being held by Ellen and did so for a good portion of the Welcoming Party. Thanks Ellen!

Guests start to arrive at Delenn's Welcoming. The weather was just right and in the end there were at least 50 folks who turned out for it.

Alex tries to explain to Bradon that touching a cicada is a bit yucky.

Bradon and Logan check out a cicada bursting out of its shell.

Enjoying the Welcoming Party with us was Logan's pal Holly and her great parents Tom and Rachel.

The party also celebrated the fond farewell of our good friends the Lynch Family, who will be going back to Texas mid-November.

Thanks to the wonderfully artistic Kristin, we had a grand cake to admire at the Welcoming.

Hunting for tadpoles is serious and risky business

Grams watches Bradon and Logan as Holly scavenges off with a truck as we wait for the guests to arrive at Delenn's big welcoming at the Telegraph Station

Swimming lessons begin and fun at the Base Halloween Party

After several more days of rainy and cloudy weather, we went off to the start of this year's swimming classes. Logan likes the 'idea' of 'school' (even though he doesn't quite
understand what it really is yet) and so by telling him that we're going
to swim school then he really gets into it. Dad prepared him by asking
him to listen to the teacher and to Daddy while in the class.
Suprisingly enough, Logan did exactly as Dad asked and did really well,
to the point that he even remembered quite a few things from last year's
classes. He reached and kicked, and blew bubbles on queue. Only the
toy time gives us a problem as Logan's sharing ability is somewhat
lacking and his need for anything other than what he has (e.g. anything
any other kid has) also causes much frustration and inner warfare within
his growing mind. Hope it doesn't have something to do with the
capitalistic and materialistic society we all live in this day and
age... and that somehow we aren't rubbing off on to him a competitive
and 'decimate all in one's path' nature. Anywho, the water was
refreshing and even warmish on the breezy day. We even spent another
couple hours swimming in the baby pool with Logan's other pals afterwards.

In the afternoon Logan got decked out in a clown outfit Grams had
brought for him. Mom then used face paints to really bring out the
little rapscallion his parents see every day. Delenn got to wear her
'little pumpkin' outfit, complete with full body onesie, hat, and bib;
all shades of orange. She was so cute and adorable that she was
practically edible, like pumpkin pie. Only what with the diaper changes
she goes through it would've probably been more like pumpkin soup.
Daddy wore his "Base Escapee" outfit, made to be like a trapped crazy
convict, much like Hannibal Lecter. On a side note, Dad had won a "best
halloween costume" award a few years ago with that outfit. The award
was a beautiful opal pendant, appraised at a few thousand dollars!
Grams wore a black cat outfit and Mom had a funny ladybug hat on.

Whew, once we were all decked out, we headed out to the Annual Base
Halloween Party at the U.S. military detachment building in town. There
they had a 'naughty' witch (as Logan calls them) who was stuck in a box
with her head sticking out. This was a bit daunting for Logan and he
pretty much stayed within several body lengths away. This was amazing
because there was candy all around her head on the box, and NOTHING
stops Logan from candy. So based upon Logan's fear of the 'naughty
witch', Daddy should've known better than to take Logan into their
haunted house! However, there were two options, the Pope tour or the
Devil tour. Needless to say, Grams and Daddy took Logan on the Pope
(tame for the little ones) tour. Yet still simply being in the dark
with strange glowing creatures lurking around was a bit much for him and
halfway through he was practically clawing his way to get off of Daddy's
arms and out of there. Afterwards we took it easy and grabbed some of
their burgers and hot dogs. Logan devoured his foot-long hot dog faster
than Daddy could bat an eye, yet he continued to maintain a death grip
on his uneaten ketchup laden foot-long bun for most of the remaining
party... except of course when candy was presented to him (and that
night it was difficult to get him down to bed as it seems the sugar high
has expectedly negative effects on his reasoning and listening
ability). Logan had fun at the party and won a cupcake with Grams when
they played in the cakewalk. And luckily Logan wasn't picked on by some
older kids that were evidently upsetting other younger tykes who were
pulling off the poor little ones' costumes. What a day, and yet it was
nothing compared to the following one...

The collapse of the party goers after the big event.

A view of Mt. Gillen (looking towards Western Alice Springs), part of the MacDonnell mountain range, As taken from the top of Anzac Hill in the evening. We live in there, about an inch or so left of the peak and down where the dark patch stops. If you look hard, you can see Mom waving :-)

A family of ignorant, yet happy wackos.

One cute ladybug and her li'l pumpkin.

Delenn tries to figure out how she woke up into this nightmare of freaks suddenly surrounding her.

Logan holds Grams hand with complete trust. More often than not he generally was irreverant to his poor Grams, but there were definitely times where he cared strongly for her.

Logan bites off more than he can chew from that hot dog bun as Grams wonders if winning the cake walk would be a good thing for the kid.

Logan still can't let go of his foot long hot dog bun, even after holding it for over a half-hour. The hot dog was devoured long ago in mere moments.

Melissa with Bradon, and Grams with Logan, all participate in the Halloween cake walk. It took quite a while before Grams and Logan finally won, but poor Melissa and Bradon never did.

To properly worship the hot dog bun of life, we sent in the clown.

Mom flaps her ladybug wings in an attempt to fly away, or maybe she was just shooing some flies away.

One of Logan's little girlfriend's, Paige the Ladybug, dares him to make her laugh.

Getting ready for our line-up.

Hanging around at the Halloween Party.

Logan, Daddy, and Grams prepare to enter the haunted house with the scary Pope in the background as our guide.

Grams, Daddy, and Logan enjoy some scary moments at the Base Halloween Party.

Our little pumpkin.

Grams gives Delenn a purr-fectly good cuddle.

Grams, the Black kitty cat, takes a hold of her prey.

Juvenile delinquents are getting younger and younger these days.

Logan shares his strategy for getting the best candy with Delenn.

MMMeeeeeooooooowwwwwww... the black cat strikes.

Delenn had to get all fired up over the Halloween Party as well.

Mom spruces Logan up in to the true clown that he is in preparation for the Base Halloween Party.

Dad gets in on the cuddle time action with Delenn

Delenn and Logan meet head-to-head on the playing field

The gentle touch Logan has learned to do quite well.

Sibling rivalry meets head on

Logan and Delenn do their ABBA pose.

A Celebration of Universal Children's Week

Friday was another hot, toasty day in Outback Australia. After breakfast, Grams, Liesl, Logan and Delenn headed out for their morning walk. By 8:15am it was already warm enough to bring a shiny glow to our faces! After a 40 minute walk we all piled into the car and headed to the Todd Mall for the “Universal Children’s Week celebration.” Logan was a bit shy at first, but warmed up to the festivities when he saw his friend, Holly. Together they went up to some of the Outback characters they know and love such as Booka (a raccoon who loves reading) and Yamba, the honey ant (http://www.yambasplaytime.com.au/honeyant.shtml). Logan, Holly and other children were encouraged to gather together to have their pictures taken for an afternoon television show that features Yamba! Other fun activities included putting an apple on a crank and creating a spiral-cut apple to eat and using an ink pad and stamps to create a picture. We headed home for naps after the sausage sizzle.

Meanwhile, Mom and Delenn headed to the health clinic for the weekly newborn weigh-in (we’ll do this for the first 8 weeks). Delenn is obviously nursing well. The minimum weight gain they look for is 140grams/week. Delenn packed on a healthy 250 grams this week—bringing her to just over 8 lbs (she was just under 7lbs at birth 2 ½ weeks ago). And—she’s grown 3 centimeters since birth as well. She’s a glowing picture of health so far!

On the home front, Logan’s play has changed quite a bit in the past month or so. He plays independently almost daily (rather than insisting “Mommy (or Daddy) come play!!!” He’s been using his imagination lining up his cars, little people, dinosaurs and animals. He talks to himself as he moves the toys about. He’s also shown more interest in the alphabet and he begged to put “D” “E” and “F” (window clings) up on the window. He’s also just begun showing a bit more interest in puzzles.

This afternoon Logan was in heaven as Grams brought out a new set of 12 (6 inch long) trucks to play with—featuring a garbage truck, cement truck, crane, tow truck, and so forth. Logan is in truck-Heaven!!

Finally, Grams is continuing to spoil us all. Not only will we have homemade stew, but she’s busy making us a lemon meringue pie for dessert tonight!!

Thanks Grams. Now Logan loves you and hates his Momma and Poppa.

Grams got Logan yet another fabulous toy that he absolutely loves.

A promotional stunt is setup for the Yamba television show as part of the Youth Week Festivities as all the kids are asked to gather around Yamba.

Holly and Logan provide part of the frontal assault as the children begin their advance upon Yamba

Logan figures his two arms can still out maneuver those extra ones on Yamba, the Playtime HoneyAnt.

Booka tries to instill the love of book reading to Baby Delenn. He's already convinced Logan.

Logan tries to re-establish domination of his balloon from Booka, the 'lover of book reading' Raccoon, during Youth Week.

The prim and proper Delenn poses while fighting the growing need for more of Momma's milk.

Logan gets the stiff upper lip from Delenn as she poo poos his attempts at garnering her attention.

Mommy enjoys a break with the two Bubs Logan and Delenn while Grams takes all these pics.

Delenn gives a serious eye-ful to the over zealous Grams.

Logan starts to enjoy his life on the mobile throne

Grams, Delenn, Logan, and Daddy all entertain eachother on the changing table

Grams prepares for a sneak kiss attack.

The doting Grams gives Mom and Dad a break from the little wiggler.

Grams gets a little cuddle time with her grand-daughter as Delenn takes the opportunity for a big yawn.

All the friends are gathered around... from left to right: Holly with Mom Rachel, Kristin's Son Nicholas, Melissa, Her Sons Seth and Bradon, Logan and Mommy with Baby Delenn, and Kristin with her other Son Steven.

Mommy takes the little one in for a drip, er, dip

Seth and Delenn share a few bonding moments together

Praying to the cloud gods for some shelter from the sun

Logan looks a bit funky and unlike his normal self as he chills out in the town pool.

Delenn facial fun

This afternoon during Delenn's awake and alert period, she was really
concentrating on Mom's face. She would look so intensely at Mom that
her eyes would go cross-eyed. Evidently a book has indicated that
babies can process what they see, but it takes them 7-10 seconds to
react. So in the past several days Mom has been sticking her tongue out
(for about 5-10 seconds), then smiling (for about 5-10 seconds) and back
and forth to see if she'd react. Well today she actually responded by
sticking out her tongue and smiling a couple times! That's tough work
on a babe and it took everything out of her to do so. Afterwards she
slept pretty much the entire day, except for when she and Mom went to
get Delenn's passport photos taken.

Logan often goes up to Delenn these days, whenever Mom or Dad or Grams
are busy doing something else, and keeps her somewhat entertained by
calmly telling Delenn, "Hello sweetie" and "It's okay sweetie pie"

At dinner time we all went out for Sammy's Pizza and so Logan, Bradon,
and Seth could play in their indoor playground. Logan and Bradon were a
hoot because they kept asking all the other kids what their names were
and then they'd proceed in shouting the names out when they weren't
around, as in "Where's Kayl!a" "Kayla!" "Kayla!"

Grams gives Logan a nice pat on the head for being a good boy and coming over to heat dinner

Bradon teeters very carefully on the medicine ball

Seth cracks a wide smile in his frantic attempt to crawl away from the old fogeys

Logan takes a breather from all the climbing activity

Seth, Bradon, and Logan scream scary roars at the top of their lungs from within the playground where the parents can't so easily get to them

Logan attempts his 'Pavarotti' maneuver

Logan thought he could hide-out from Mom at Sammy's Pizza's indoor playground

Events from 22 thru 25 Oct

Friday Mom, Grams, Logan and Delenn went to Playgroup, where they played
with Holly and Bradon. Evidently the next morning we found out that
Holly got sick and threw up last night. Melissa and Bradon had also
been sick with the rotavirus a few days prior. Seems sickness is
circling around us like vultures... but we haven't been hit with it
yet... yet. With Delenn being only a little over one week old we can
only hope it doesn't get us!

Saturday Mom, Dad, Logan and Delenn went on our normal walking route.
It was scorching hot, but we were quite delighted with the huge
permanent shade 'metal mushroom umbrella' that was installed at the
little playground park. Only problem was that they installed it about
ten feet away from any of the playground equipment. So Logan and Dad
got burnt touching the metal playground equipment and had to wince in
the sun on the swings. Hmm, strange they put it up over plain open
grass where no one generally plays. At least Delenn and Mom caught a
break from the heat.

After naptime was the 'Crusty Demon' show. At least 5500 people
attended this big motorcycle stunt show, in which crazy guys with
suicidal tendencies jump off of ramps and do flips and other deranged
stunts with their motorcycles, quads, and even a snowmobile. Dad,
Logan, Jesse, and Bradon went to witness the shenanigans in person
(after all, isn't that what men do?) At the front entrance, after
shelling out $60 per adult, Dad was unallowed to bring him umbrellas in
and had to return them to the car. Once in the arena at the open-air
park, we all started to feel the extreme heat and humidity (it had just
rained a bit earlier but now the sun was fully blaring with barely a
cloud in the sky). While baking in the sun waiting for the stunt ramps
to dry, and noticing the fact that others had umbrellas and could shade
themselves with them, we witnessed a rock group play a few songs for
us. It was super loud, but the boys still managed to get down and shake
their booty without the need for our prodding. About a half-hour
later, and with constant liquid nourishment being squeezed into us, the
event started in force. Only they kept interspersing the event with
little interviews with the stunt riders and how they were riding with a
broken neck, or a broken this or that, but they were there for us and
wouldn't stop the show from happening for anything. Again, it was all
very loud and a bit draining on the ears just from the sheer volume.
Dad and Jesse were coping well, but after about 2 hours of being there,
the little boys had pretty much had enough and were overwhelmed. It was
time to go home.
At night Dad and Logan took a bath together to try and get the sweat off
from those Crusty Demons. While in the bath, Logan did his usual
thing and said things haphazardly and abruptly that make Dad laugh, like
"Where's my willy?" and "I got Daddy's nipple wet in the bath."

Sunday Dad took Logan to the town pool, where they played with Bradon
and Jesse for about 2.5 hours. They even went on the 'Atlantis' blow-up
15-20 meter long water obstacle course again just to see if the little
boys would like it better this time. Logan seemed to like it more, but
Bradon chimed, "Daddy, let's not ever do that again." On the way home
from the pool, Dad started feeling ill. It seemed Dad would not escape
the rotavirus that had been going around everywhere. For the rest of
the day Dad stayed in bed and remained close to the porcelain throne.
Amazing that Logan, Mom, and Delenn have not received it, especially
when Dad and Logan had been sharing the same food over the past couple
days. Heck, even Grams was in bed all morning and a bit into the
afternoon, albeit she doesn't believe she was really sick, as she
believed it was because she hadn't been able to sleep the past couple of
nights (awake from 2 AM onwards).

On Monday Logan and Grams went to the town pool again and Grams pulled
the boys Nicholas, Bradon, and Logan around on a flat flotation device,
which they all seemed to get a big kick out of. Grams was also able to
convince Bradon that his fear of drains was unfounded.
When putting Logan down for a nap, Mom read stories to Logan and
suddenly Delenn had a serious problem with a low fluttery noise
emanating from her nether regions. Perhaps because of this Logan
proceeded to purge himself as well. Maybe both kids have gotten in sync
with eachother already and have created a loving bond of some strange
sort (we can only hope right? :-). Mom then asked Logan if he wanted
to be changed first or after Delenn. Surprisingly enough, he did indeed
wish to be changed first. This was a surprise because Logan generally
doesn't want to be changed at all.
In the afternoon Logan helped make halloween decorations and they all
put them up around the front door. Dad arrived home from work to see
the decorating in action and was very pleased to see Logan being so
helpful, communicative, and friendly. Throughout the evening he mostly
listened to the 'adults' and was well-behaved. What a treat! He even
asked Grams to read him bedtime stories, a shock considering his bias
towards Mom and Dad when they are around.

Tuesday Grams took Logan to Kindermusik and Kindergym. Thanks Grams!
Just before nap time Logan walked into the bathroom, closed the door,
and proclaimed out loud "I'm going to school!" Guess that was today's
daily excuse for 'how to try and avoid nap time'.

And we thought Logan was small! Compare that noggin to his little Sister.

A moment of sweetness and a hint of innocence

Mom is all smiles getting to hobnob with her pals at Delenn's Welcoming Party

Sitting around the table while Delenn sleeps in Mom's arms at her own party. It was simply too much for the little one to take.

Some of Mom and Dad's friends held a 'Welcome to the World' party for baby Delenn.

This is the little squirmer in action... the camera had to increase it's shutter speed just to keep up with the flailing arms and legs.

Mom's still got smiles for her baby girl even when it's 11:20 PM at night

Conferring over which of them is hotter

Just one of the crazy stunts performed by a Crusty Demon rider

Waiting in the blistering heat and humidity for the Crusty Demons motorcycle stunt show

Jesse, Bradon, and Logan made it through the entrance into the Crusty Demons show

Sleep little ones... sleep.

Cuddling up for an evening of snuggles

Clapping her hands to show appreciation for the great songs Mommy sings

Delenn takes a peek to see if it's worth coming out for a play

Singing songs at the end of Playgroup

Logan decides that he needs a baby to feed as well.

Grams takes some morning tea from Bradon at Playgroup while Logan and Holly play. Rachel just takes it all in stride.

Delenn squeals "Don't touch me" as Logan teases her with the poking game.

Holding hands, Logan shows his gentle side

Logan and Delenn share a moment

Open wide, I'm comin' in. Delenn starts making the motions...

Delenn beams to Momma a look of happiness, knowing it's feeding time yet again

In this position I can't tell Mom from Delenn apart?

Events from 17 thru 20 Oct

There is one thing of note about Delenn that we may have neglected to
mention earlier, but in so many ways makes her birthdate all that much
more meaningful and magical to us as well. Delenn was born on the 12th
of October at 3:29 AM, which is the same day that Dad's Aunt Karen was
born. Aunt Karen died when she was only 16 years old after growing up
with heart problems (Unfortunately Dad never got to know her).
Additionally, Mom's Mother, Virginia, died on 11 October, which is the
date it still was in the U.S.A. when Delenn was born. So in a sense
we've got a formidable spirit within Delenn that is a glowing re-birth
of life of sorts.

Monday morning Dad and Logan went out to hike up Anzac Hill. Logan was
keen to do it and for the first time ever he made it all the way up and
down without needing to be picked up and carried (just hand held). At
the summit we spent time looking around and having a nice relaxing bite
to eat on a bench. Once we were back down, Logan still had plenty of
energy in reserve and so he decided to use it to explore another trail
for a while. Yikes this kid is gaining in energy levels!
In the evening Logan, Grams, and Dad went out to see the normally dry
Todd river. Only this time it actually had water in it! It's been 2-3
years since the last time it flowed and Logan has never gotten to
witness such a thing. The concept of water in a river was up until now
more of a fantasy from a book. It's strange and interesting that ever
since Delenn was born we have been getting daily rainstorms. Quite
unusual, but we are so happy to have it. The environment is so much
greener and 'livelier'. The flies are also giving us a break as is the
blast furnace sun. Let's hope it continues a while longer.
While looking at the Todd river flowing, Dad obviously did his usual
thing and took a few pictures. Soon thereafter Dad got chewed out by an
aboriginal man accusing him of taking the man's photo since he was
further down the river in the direction of the pointed camera.
Aborigines tend to not like their photos taken (at least not without
prior permission and/or some money) as it is thought to take their
spirit away. Of course it was dark by this time and the flash from the
camera had no hopes of picking up the man on film when he was at least
20 meters away. But it was difficult to convince him of this.

Tuesday Dad got to make his first ever visits to Kindermusik and
Kindergym, leaving Mom and Delenn at home to 'relax'. Grams tagged
along as well and we had to put a raincoat on Logan for the first time
(in Alice Springs). Others around us were amazed to even see a
raincoat. Logan did exceptional at Kindermusik and played and danced
along merrily. At Kindergym Logan had fun but wasn't quite as much of a
sharer as he could be. Hopefully sooner than later he'll get past that
phase and will be willing and accepting of sharing and trading toys
around. Until then, there will be little fits and tantrums that must be
dealt with. Oh well, just makes life all the more interesting. Enroute
between Kindermusik and Kindergym we stopped to take a look at the Todd
river flowing, only this time it was in the daylight. Yep, pretty funny
that we've got to make a special trip to see a river flow! Maybe
Delenn knew it was about to happen and didn't want to miss out on the
opportunity either. She and Mom got a chance the next day when they all
went to the Telegraph Station to go swimming in it (after the water
receded a bit and wasn't very deep).

Dad went off with Logan on his bike to get the mail. Logan did great in
pushing and 'directing' the bike along the path for part of the trip
rather than letting Dad do it. He indicated to Dad, "Don't you do it
Daddy, I'll push it in the proper direction" and sure enough that's just
what he did. While this was going on Mom took Delenn out on her first
'girls only' shopping trip. They went to K-mart. Grams stayed at home
and cooked us up another grand dinner meal of country fried steak,
mashed taters, veggies, and salad. Yum, thanks Grams!

Wednesday Logan went to Rosalie's for 2 hours of day care and did
surprisingly well with no sign of being upset when Mom dropped him
off. During the day with Delenn, both Mom and Delenn went through 4
shirts. This is in large part because Delenn tends to do a lot more
spitting up than Logan ever did. However, she's not much of a burper
like Logan... so we don't have to pick her up nearly so often and keep
her upright as we did with Logan, but she's still a great sleeper!
In the afternoon everyone got together to witness Delenn getting her
foot and handprints placed for all time on paper. It's always fun,
especially for Delenn, as she just loves acrylic paint getting gummed up
on her hands and feet. This followed by a bath and then a hard & fast
sleep.
In terms of Logan's behavior, he tends to do well with Grams when Dad
and Mom aren't around, but the second they come in to the picture,
suddenly Logan becomes negative towards poor Grams. He'll say "No
Grams!" or "Stop Grams!" at almost anything she does or says, from
singing to helping to simply looking at Logan. Yikes! Poor Grams.
Luckily this was a phase and Logan stopped some of this (except the
singing) a few days later.

Thursday Grams took Logan to the Desert Park. There Logan experienced
his first-ever time in a big screen theater (well, he was a baby asleep
when he saw a couple other movies a year or so ago). They watched the
last 20 minutes of the visitor center nature movie and evidently Logan
was enthralled and sat quietly and attentively during the time. After
the Desert Park and back at home, Logan got a little crabby and pushy
with Delenn while she was in Mom's arms... and apparently wanted to have
Mom more to himself. Again, this seemed to be a one-off event as Logan
hasn't really acted this way again. He does occasionally forget Delenn
is in a person's lap and will be a bit clumsy when sitting down next to
her, practically landing on her.
In the afternoon Mom took Logan and Delenn to the flowing Todd River at
the Telegraph Station. It only took 3 minutes upon arrival for Logan to
slip in and get drenched, HA!

Seth and dirt are like magnetic attractors

Taking a breather and a food break after all that manual labor of truckin' through the mighty Todd river

Logan and Bradon test the roadworthiness of 4 WD Tonka trucks for 'Consumer Reports'

Seth gets a little playtime action too

Delenn gets her first taste of the Todd with water, just a few days after birth!

Getting down and dirty in the mighty Todd river

Just wish we could harness all that kiddie 'energy' and 'excitement'. We'd never need nuclear power.

My word, I've discovered Fool's Gold! Eureka!

Yep, we're a bit wet behind the ears.

Mom will never be able to tell if I've got to use the potty or not.

Lemmings?

Lost on the island, how do we get off this thing!

Soaking in the rays on the Todd river at the Telegraph Station

Now this is the fun kind of time-out everyone loves... relaxing at the Desert Park cafe.

Taking the luxury tour at the Desert Park are Nicholas, Steven, Holly, and Logan

Who would've guessed that handprints are much more messy and difficult than footprints

Everyone gets in on the action

Logan isn't sure just what kind of animal makes these kind of tracks

What happened to my foot!

Delenn gets her foot immortalized with a foot print on paper.

Playing peek-a-boo with Delenn is a lot harder than Logan thought it'd be.

Logan compares the size of his brain with that of Delenn's

Grams acts funny with Holly by suctioning each other together.

Logan's buddies Holly and Nicholas play at Kindermusik while Kristen, Baby Steven, and Rachel watch closely to ensure harmony among all.

Dad tries to reassure Logan that just because there is now water in the Todd river, crocodiles haven't suddenly shown up as well.

Grams and Logan enjoy watching the Todd river flow after unusually heavy downpours.

Logan acts like he is really too hip and cool even though he's really enjoying Kindermusik. This is because his love, Holly, and Mom Rachel are next to him and he's gotta be 'the man'.

Banging the notes off in time to the music, Logan has found a niche.

Bunch of cuties.

Even Logan hasn't ever seen the Todd river flow before.

The normally dry Todd river begins to fill and flow... it's been 2-3 years since the last time it did this.

Logan eats lunch and decides on the daily special, presented spectacularly in front of him. Actually, as part of Australian social practices, we had another house-call visit from the mid-wives to check up on the babe and Mom. Everyone is still doing great and Delenn is regaining her weight.

A patriot of some kind, Logan appears reverent in front of the Northern Territory flag.

Logan chows down on some grub as he contemplates the vastness of open air and space in front of the MacDonnell Mountain Range.

Taking a breather at the top of Anzac Hill

Logan manages to walk up and down Anzac Hill for the first time without having to be carried.

Logan can't be jealous about his new baby sister. After all, he seems to have gotten more cool presents than she did!

Hold that thought, maybe we were wrong. Delenn is overwhelmed by the strong show of support she's received from loved ones. This is just a 'small' sample of what she received. We humbly thank everyone for the wonderful gifts. They really weren't necessary as Delenn knows she is well-loved from afar by so many.

Delenn's first few days on the outside

Delenn gets her first bath on Thursday (given by Mom), the day after she
was born. She also got her Hepatitis B shot and we found out she has
an A- blood type, which is the same as her Mom. Funny since Logan got
Daddy's O+ blood type. Delenn started sleeping, eating, and pooping
quite well. Knock on wood, but she certainly does seem to be an angel
baby, much easier than Logan was.

On the Thursday Logan went to Squiggles, the indoor playground, with
Grams. When they came by for a visit at the hospital, Logan tried to
give a grape to his new baby Sister Delenn. It was funny also when
changing Delenn's diaper as Daddy cleaned off some of the meconeum from
her rear end, but before he could put a new diaper on, more meconeum
kept cascading out. Luckily Dad used wipes to catch and dispose of it
all as it appeared. After about 5 minutes of seemingly endless
excretions, we had a very happy and cozy babe ready to feed off Momma
once again.
Back at home afterwards, Logan and Dad played a tunnel game. Dad had
plumber's crack and Logan noticed it. He pulled a bit on Dad's pants to
expose more of the crack, then he said "Daddy's Bottom" and began
laughing hard. At bedtime for stories Logan got an erection from his
penis after "Bambi" was pushed into it. This fascinated Logan as he was
very aware of it and began laughing as well about it and played a bit
with this interesting new scientific discovery, a new development of his
body. Dad quickly distracted him long enough to get him refocused on
the book, however.

We all went home on friday from the hospital, but first earlier in the
morning she had to get her heal-prick tests for PKU, cystic fibrosis,
hypothyroidism, and lactose intolerance. Her new weight was lower from
3.16 kg, losing 210 grams which is well within normal, but with Liesl's
milk coming in that is sure to pick up again (in fact it did on Friday
morning when the Mid-wife came to the house for a normal checkup).
Delenn got her second bath, this time Daddy getting the honor of doing
it. The pediatrician came and checked her out in no time and gave her a
clean bill of health to go home. This compared to 6-8 doctors circling
around Logan on a daily basis when he was born, largely due to worries
about hip dysplasia.
At home we settled back in and so did Delenn, a great baby with little
to no issues so far... just crying when wanting to be fed or having
dirty diaper.
Grams made a fantastic dinner meal to welcome Delenn home with lasagna,
broccoli, salad, garlic bread, and hot dogs and jello fruit salad for
the boys because Melissa, Jesse, Bradon, and Seth came over to celebrate
too. The boys played a lot with the presents Grams and others gave
Logan, which included a 'Little People' construction factory set, and a
bouncy tilt-n-jump play 'thing'.
After dessert of brownies and ice cream, we sang Happy Birthday to
Delenn and then everyone turned in for an early night, as everyone was
exhausted.

Saturday was a laid back time, but Logan was a bit uptight and has
changed a bit of how he acts lately ever since his new Baby Sister has
entered the scene. He is throwing things and flailing his arms around
with potentially damaging objects in his grasp, causing a bit of worry.
His need for Grams or Mom or Dad to stay in his bedroom when being put
to sleep at night or during naptime has caused him to go into dramatic
fits of uncontrollable sobbing and wails. For now we are relenting and
giving in a bit, if only because his need for more attention is
self-evident and Logan is fighting for last vestiges of it. This won't
last long though, especially when Grams leaves, and sometime in the near
future Mom and Dad will need to stop this from occurring and we'll go
back to the days where we can leave the bedroom without rivers of tears
flowing.

Sunday morning at about 5 AM Delenn woke up bright and bushy-tailed.
Mom thought this would be a good opportunity to take her out on a little
walk around the block. Swooping Delenn into the sling they were off.
By the time Mom got to the mailboxes, about 50 feet away, Delenn curled
up her fingers into a ball together and subsequently put herself right
fast back asleep. Mom contemplated going back to get more sleep herself
but went for a little stroll anyway.
Delenn sure is a good sleeper, albeit she likes to sleep on her side and
she tends to squirm quite a bit. Her thumb has also become her newfound
best friend (after Ma of course). Logan sure never found his thumb.

Also on Sunday Grams, Dad, and Logan went out to the Town pool for Water
Safety Fun Day. There Logan got to have fun with 'Water Safety mascot'
Boof the Barra (a Barramundi is a yummy Australian Fish, but we didn't
tell Logan we eat him). Logan shook Boof's fin, but was too afraid to
shake one of the hands of Yamba, the Honey Ant (a favorite kid's
character here in central Australia). Our main purpose in going was to
see one of Logan's favorite objects in the world, a fire truck. The
firemen flashed the truck's lights and blared its siren while spraying
the kids with water from the waterhose. Logan loved having Dad carry
him and run back and forth across the lawn past the fire truck while
getting drenched. Logan's good pal Nicholas was there as well and
enjoyed playing and eating lunch together with Logan at the baby wading
pool. Dad also took Logan on a large aquatic blow-up obstacle course
that spans a good length of the large pool. They had to go through
holes, climb hills, slide down slides, up a rope ladder, and get wet
from a hose along the way. Logan was excited for about half of it, but
was a bit nervous and wanted down and out whenever he got splashed from
the hose. Dad managed to coax him along to the end, though.
At dinner time, Dad mentioned that Logan had been a little evil lately
to Mom and Grams. Logan shortly thereafter blurted out that "I am not
evil!" He continued to say this and with every successive repetition,
Logan's voice got deeper and more satanic sounding all the while. On a
bright and cheery note, Logan was being extremely nice and cute and
cuddly with his new little baby Sister. He got down on the baby activity
center mat with her, laying beside her, and gave her little touches here
and there. This made Mom and Dad very happy and proud, and it was quite
touching to watch.
There were still several instances of Logan being put in the 'naughty
spot' during the day and night for not listening, but Logan has had to
go through some sudden changes to his lifestyle and routine, so all in
all, he seems to be coming along okay and it's not altogether unexpected.

To summarize so far, Delenn sure is alert and aware of things around
her. She seems to follow faces quite well and Dad loves her little
gurgling noises. Delenn is a wiggly little thing that likes to sleep on
her side, suck on her fingers, and generally keeps herself entertained.
She only cries when wanting a feed or a diaper change. Feeding schedule
wise she seems to go in good spurts giving Mom time at night to get some
good periods of sleep (last few nights she fed at 11:00 PM or 11:30 PM
and then again at between 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM) We don't remember
Logan being this easy! What a great babe we have and we feel so
fortunate and lucky to have her!

Showing his silly side, Logan decides to put his bib up on his head and use it as a hat instead. Then he blurts out that he is the 'Naughty Fairy' as was read to him in the book 'Cinderella'.

Communicating with Delenn really requires that you get down to her level. Logan figured this out rather quickly.

Logan shows he truly can have a gentle side to himself

Brother and Sister share some playtime together

Oops, the bonding with Daddy has gone a little too far and Baby Delenn has taken control of his schnozzer. Daddy promises her that there is no milk in there.

Daddy gets a little bonding time with the new love of his life

Matching swimmers, just how far will this conformity within society go!

Eating with pal Nicholas is always fun.

Grams and Logan take a break and enjoy a little lunch.

Logan goes up to shake 'Boof the Barra's' fin.

Yep, should've taken the towel off first before running through the fire truck water hose spray.

Some truly devilish firemen spray the kids with water from the fire truck

Getting soaked from the water hose on the firetruck

Watch out Logan, you're about to get soaked.

It may not look it, but Logan is actually supremely excited by the fire truck.

Watching the fireman hook up the hose to spray the kids from the fire truck.

Part of the water obstacle course that Dad took Logan and Nicholas on.

Logan helps give Delenn a bath

Combined story and milk drinking time for all

Through sheer will and brute strength, Logan frees his big rig monster truck from the murky depths.

Logan decides to go four-wheel driving and manages to get bogged in some mud.

Logan likes to put Dad's badge up to the badge-reader to get into the secretive 'junk catalog mail' domain

Dad and Logan head in to the secure badged-access area to get the mail from the U.S.A.

Logan hops in the car and heads off to work

Logan assists in the surgical strike procedure of changing Delenn's diaper

OOooo, time for a nice little nappy change

The two women in the DingoPack

Delenn, if you are paying attention, you'll see that the way to your big brother's heart is through his stomach

Everyone surround the Princess

Logan and Bradon play on the 'Tilt 'n Jump' thing that Grams gave Logan as a present. 

There it is... that half-baked smile we were desperately looking for

The mid-wives said Delenn appears to have been over-baked. There was much flaky skin and the pictures make her appear darker (tanned) than she really is. In a few days the dead skin cells will flake off and we'll see a shinier undercoating. 

Mom carries Delenn across the threshold into a new home and new life. 

Already lulled to sleep by the sound of the engine and the odorless effects of carbon monoxide. 

Delenn goes home from the hospital. 

Yummy, if I keep eating at this rate, I'll probably just have stubs left. Do I care? Nope, not one little bit. 

Yep, Momma is right here. Don't despair little one. 

The family enjoys a few minutes to take Delenn off on her first trip outside. Hopefully it wasn't a bad omen that we were only out for 2 minutes before a heavy rainstorm burst on to the scene. What are the chances?? It rains in Alice Springs maybe once or twice a year. We've got great timing. 

Grams shares some more bonding time with Delenn. Delenn takes advantage of it and spies Grams' nose, which looks rather appetizing right now. 

Logan tries to teach Delenn to cover her mouth when she coughs so that he won't get sick. 

I feel good and clean from my head to my toes... hold on a sec... what happened to my toes!? 

Hmm, I just got out of a bag of water and now they're putting me right back in. What's the deal here?

Delenn enjoys her first bath without any real fuss. 

Delenn sticks her five fingers out to indicate that she pleads the fifth amendment and won't tell anybody what she's thinking. Then she quickly goes back to sleep. 

Delenn uses sign language to indicate she's ready for another feed from Momma. 

Welcome Delenn!

Click on the picture above for an enlarged version of our Delenn impersonator. Below you'll see pics of the real thing, our newest little angel dingo girl. 

Delenn Ruth arrives!

Mom had a very quick delivery. She went into labor with her first contraction
at 12:55 AM on 12 October 2005. Dad timed them and they were all in 5
minute intervals. This concerned Dad and so he called the hospital
since he had been told to call if contractions start coming down to
about 10 minute intervals. The hospital indicated that we should come
on in, but we could take our time. We arrived at the hospital about one
hour past the beginning of the contractions, or about 2 AM. Enroute
Mom suddenly opened the truck door at an intersection, jumped out, and
grabbed a hold of a roadside post for her current contraction. By this
point the contractions were occurring in 4 minute intervals. At the
hospital, just inside, Mom got down on all fours (as she did for all her
contractions) just below the registrars desk. A security guard close by
indicated he'd go grab a wheelchair, but Mom yelled out "NO
Wheelchair!" Upstairs there was barely time to start the hot tub for
some warm relaxing water for Mom. Evidently Mom went from being 4 cm to 10 cm
dilated in mere minutes and there was no time to give her the 4-hour
pre-birth anti-biotics for anti-d strep. Mom's uterus sure was
efficient! At 3:05 AM her water broke and it was 3:23 AM that the head
popped on out. With a little more effort and a few more blood-curdling
screams the likes of which Dad had never in his life heard before, the
baby came on out at 3:29 AM. It was at this point that the water in
the hot tub was ready for use in helping Mom to relax during her labor
(great timing). Delenn Ruth is her name. Delenn comes from a beloved
sci-fi TV series called Babylon 5, in which a smart and powerful female ambassador from an alien race known as the Minbari has the name Delenn. It also sounds Irish or
Scottish like Logan. You can pronounce Delenn as (Duh-len). Ruth comes from Liesl's side of the family, or should we say all sides of the family, in which there is a Ruth
abounding every which way, from grandmothers to great-grandmothers.
On a side note, if you take her initials, DRM, and use a little poetic license, you get our little DREAM girl :-) !!

Delenn sneaks a peek at the world around her 

Logan and Dad are in awe of the life-making process. 

Logan has a go at holding his little Sister. 

Grams is lucky to be here and gets in on the action to bond with her new grand-daughter. 

The DingoDen is complete, welcome to the family Delenn. 

Proud parents try to take in what has just happened. 

Delenn takes offence to being measured and weighed. 

Delenn came out weighing 7 lbs, or 3.16 kg. She was 50 cm long, or about 19 3/4 inches. Everyone did just great and Delenn latched on for a nice feed right away. 

Delenn Ruth enters the world at 3:29 AM !

Liesl begins the labor in earnest 

Grams helps Logan and Holly at Kindergym

Holly gives Logan a cuddle as they climb the mat

Logan tries to take a pic back at Mom and Grams at Kindergym

Logan and Holly raise their arms in frustration, or was that just part of the song?

Logan speaks his mind into the echo microphone

Mom makes silly faces at Holly while Logan raises a point to the teacher during story reading time at Kindermusik

Kindermusik gets me so sweaty that I need a towel to dry off

Grams pulls Logan around the room as Logan attempts to look regal

This is heaps fun!

Now its Logan's turn to swing

Logan swings Holly back and forth in tune to the music

Logan dances with Momma at Kindermusik

Holly gets in on the action with the trucks while Seth looks on from afar

Getting flies in his eyes, poor Seth doesn't stand a chance against them.

Baby Seth and Holly prepare for a wagon ride

Forget about the trucks, we've got more important business, like shooing away all the flies.

Rachel and Logan's great gal pal friend Holly come along to the Telegraph Station to play with Logan and Bradon

Watch out beeeelllllloooooowwwwww!

Learning a new skill! Now Logan can push his own truck back up the hill to push back down without Mom or Dad having to fetch after it. Yay!

Surfing in the dry Todd river bed

Bradon and Logan do some more laughing and still manage to do some hard labor with a shovel and rake at the Telegraph Station

Grams and her tutelage of Logan among other things

This week Logan was needy of more attention from Dad and Mom, but Grams
did a great job in giving the decrepit old folks a break. She got up
with him in the mornings and slowly but surely has weened him into
accepting her for reading stories before nap time and bed time. Yay
Grams! Grams has been sleeping with Logan and she has indicated that
Logan has occasionally been talking in his sleep, first saying Mommy
Mommy then going back to sleep.... then a little later calling out Daddy
and Baby <the new baby's name which I won't repeat yet until her
birth>... then a little later calling out Grams! Lately Logan is
fixated on asking people "How old are you?" When we answer with our
age, we ask Logan "How old are you Logan?" to which he replies, "I am
two years old."
Logan is getting better at saying "please".
At the pool on Thursday he was doing really well in the water, kicking
well and swimming well, seemingly very comfortable and confident in the
water. His lips turned blue and he had to get out to snuggle with a
towel with Mom, but then he got right back in it.
Logan is starting to get into imagination play. Two weeks ago he made
up little tea parties and served us up little eggs. Then last week he
lined up his trucks and cars in a row. This week he's lined up
dinosaurs as well and sort them and arrange them around his train
table. So he is starting to be able to play better on his own, albeit
he still prefers attention and a playmate like Mom, Dad, or Grams, to
get down and dirty with him. Evidently Grams played hide-and-seek and
got stuck in the little play-hut house and tunnel and tent. Logan had
to pull her from the tunnel :-)
Logan has been always wanting to make his own eggs and banana milk in
the kitchen these days... whatever he can do he will.
This Saturday morning Logan woke up with Grams about 6 and they played
and let Mom and Dad sleep in until 9 AM! Actually Mom gave Dad a
haircut at 8:30 AM without Logan to distract us so that was great.
Evidently Grams did a lot of swinging of Logan on our backyard swing and
they counted each swing up until 60 during one series of swings.
Afterwards Dad took Logan on Logan's bike for a walk to the Connellan
Air Museum where there were a couple old vintage airplanes on display.
Anything that moves on its own has a great fascination for Logan so
that's always good. From there we headed towards the Strehlow Research
Centre. It is a museum with a number of stuffed animals, from birds to
bats to butterflies to various mammals like numbats and bilbies and
Tasmanian Devils. There were also a number of birds, some with skeletal
displays showing us the largest birds that ever existed (about twice the
size of an ostrich or emu). There were also rocks and meteorites.
Logan was scared off by a large lizard and a 'coyote' as he called it,
but it was really a dingo. He liked it for the most part, but enjoyed
going up and down the gangway and stairs more than anything else.
Outside we could hear a train in the distance and Logan proclaimed
'Train whistle!' and desperately wanted to sprint off on his bike in the
sound's direction. Back at home Logan had a bit of a meltdown after
Mom left to go get some bread, but a good hearty lunch of yoghurt,
chicken, noodles, veggie, strawberries, and blueberries perked him back
up in time for Dad to put him right back down for a nap. Just before
naptime Dad changed Logan and while doing so Logan took a little hold of
his nipple and said out loud, "My nipples hurt Daddy." Dad always
gets to hear humorous things out of his kid's mouth and so the day is
never boring. In fact, just after nap time, a groggy and completely
'dead-to-the-world' little boy was carried out to cuddle and slowly wake
up in the Lazy-Boy chair with Dad. This was at his normal wake-up time
of about 3 - 3:15 PM. He wouldn't bat an eye or make a movement of any
kind, at least that is until his barely visible eyeball honed in on
Momma's bag of Reese's peanut butter cups on the kitchen counter.
Suddenly, as if a lightning bolt had re-ignited life into Frankenstein's
Monster, Logan alighted with such force and belted out the words, "I
want chocolate!" Somehow the thought of Pavlov's Dogs came to Daddy's
mind after that. Anyway, this was good because Dad and Logan were
going out to play with their pals Jesse and Bradon. First we went to
see if the go-kart track was open for some fast race-car driving.
Unfortunately it'd closed down and was now a 'nut' factory according to
the beer-swilling men who were sitting in the shade on lawn chairs just
inside the go-kart track compound. So instead we went over to the
re-furbished bowling alley for some fast-action of a different kind.
This was the first time in close to a year since Logan had played
bowling. He still wasn't completely into it, but he was certainly much
better and more excited about pushing the bowling ball down the ramp
towards the pins. Plus, he absolutely loved pushing all the buttons
there were as well as playing around with all the video games.
At night while Grams was putting Logan down to bed, Mom and Dad went out
for a walk on an extremely pleasant, cool and crisp evening. The sky
was cloudless and the half-moon with venus below it was especially
pleasing to the eye. This was the third night in a row we've gotten a
walk in thanks to Grams and we've enjoyed it immensely. On this
particular occasion, Logan's soon-to-be baby Sister was pushing her foot
out of Momma's belly causing a bit of laughter for Mom. The baby tends
to stir especially because we have the 'Baby Plus' on. Poor Mom has
been having a few issues with her inner little one in that she continues
to keep Mom awake at night. Last night Mom was up from 1 AM until about
5 AM. Eeek, guess we'd better brace for a whole lot more sleepless
nights all over again!
Sunday morning Mom was up at 5 AM and she had hoped Logan would wake up
at his normal time of late at about 6 - 6:30 AM. This was because she
was going to take him out on a little breakfast picnic at the park.
However, Logan as usual decided to complicate matters by sleeping in
until about 7:40 AM! So instead, we all packed up in the car and
headed off to Simpsons Gap National Park for a nice breakfast picnic
instead (about a 20 minute drive). With fortune smiling, we had a nice
cool morning to eat with little in the way of flies. Following
breakfast we hiked into the gap and spied a few wallabies as well as a
dragonfly, much to Logan's delight. It was just resting above the
waterhole on a rock and Logan felt compelled to disturb its peace just
like any little boy would.
Dropping Mom off at home for some rest, Logan and Grams and Dad went on
to the bi-weekly Sunday Todd Mall Markets, in which various craft and
food sellers set out booths along the outdoor pedestrian mall to sell
their wares. While Grams did some touristy shopping, Dad bought Logan
a chicken satay stick. You wouldn't think he had had breakfast based on
how fast he devoured the thing. Dad then got a chilli and cheese
kranski sausage (a yummy delight for Daddy). Logan still helped eat it,
but just the bun and onions. Logan then had more than enough energy to
experiment with going down and up the escalator at the shoppiing
center. Then he helped Dad get groceries and some Thai food for Mom
from the little Thai food stall. Naptime and afterwards we had a grand
dinner with friends at their house, as always a really nice thing when
Logan can play with his pal Bradon. Logan still doesn't play very well
with Bradon's younger brother Seth, but he appears to be dealing better
in some regards with behavior issues. For example, Logan and Bradon
were jumping on the trampoline. Bradon gave Logan a little push and
Logan fell down. Instead of crying about it and pushing back, Logan got
up (very upset) and told Bradon to "Stop pushing!" He did say
more loudly than he should have, however. The fact that it was loud
and demanding towards Bradon caused Bradon to become quite upset
himself, but I believe it might've gotten the point across to him and
Logan did well in not reciprocating the pushing act. At dinner time, the adults were enjoying themselves when out of the background there was suddenly a large eruption of laughter. Logan and Bradon were going into fits of hysterics at their picnic table all because they were saying the words "Silly willy" over and over back and forth. It sure is great when something so simple can cause a couple little 'normal boys' to entertain themselves with such talk :-)

Logan and Bradon can't stop laughing after repeatedly saying the words "Silly Willy!"

Eating a great dinner meal with friends.

Mom and Logan scoff at the flies and still manage to have a good time

Sliding down rocks is better than climbing them.

Rock climbing is serious business.

Dad and Logan climb back into a small 'cave' and get caught between a rock and a hard place

Time for yet another photo

Wow, water at the waterhole in the gap! Logan tests to make sure it isn't a mirage.