Part I: Outdoors in Brisbane

Storms - you can hear the thunder rumbling from far away, and you can see the dark clouds rolling in, swallowing up any blueness with thick and billowing variable shades of gray. Amazing!

What's more - the rain. It pelts down streams, not droplets. The drains outside are enormous, but not big enough to cater for these types of extreme downpours. There were floods reported on Friday, not at Justine's, thank goodness.

We took the kids to Justine's mum's place for a swim/paddle prior to the storm. Man, these two love the water.

Kien hasn't really been swimming so he was apprehensive. But he enjoyed it for the most part.

But 22 month old Sarah was not phased at all. She really loves to splash around in the water. Even when she slipped and went under she came up and was all smiles!

The wind picked up and it was way too cold to be in the pool. I took a quick snap and we all dashed inside to put the kids under the warm shower.

Kien had a reaction to the chlorine, and his eyes started really bothering him. We drove through peak hour traffic home - good thing traffic in Brisbane is not the same as Auckland. Twenty minutes later we were home, and 15 minutes later the antihistamine started kicking in. 30 minutes later Jessica was making him laugh.

Wynnum, Queensland

This coastal village is 15km from Brisbane CBD, and it was a perfect afternoon outing for us on Saturday (after the rain in the morning). We were going to let the kids loose in the water-park, but seeing as all other parents had the same idea we went to the playground instead.

Kids love slides! I remember really loving slides when I was little. I guess it feels like a small roller coaster on the way down and the thrill makes you want more.

There was a small children's playground not far away on the same strip, so we strolled over there. Kien saw the bouncy seesaw thing and wanted me to go on the other side. Good thing there was Jessica who wanted to go on it too.

And then there were three.

This is such an awesome playground. The view is fantastic. The facilities are mostly equally good.

They had the metal slides, which actually don't slide. Sarah learnt about it the hard way.

Check out the giant red patch on Sarah's forehead.

It didn't stop her coming back for more though.

This starfish sculpture is pretty cool. Kien was very careful getting up and standing on the uneven surface.

Swings are always a hit. Little sister helped to push her big sister.

Snack time was on the picnic table with what seemed like gail force winds ripping through the area.

Kien lost his chips a number of times.

Sarah and Kien were standing next to each other, and I asked them to both hold hands. Without even looking for her hand he reached out and went by touch.

Sarah was very compliant.

OK, one more pic just for good measure, because that's what a gushy mum does.

More to come.

We left on a jet plane

With our bags packed and an early morning wake-up (which was actually normal wake-up for Kien anyway) we got to the airport in plenty of time. Jef dropped us at the loading bay, and after we checked in I as able to hang out with Kien in the staffroom as we waited for our upgrade confirmation.

He did not want to take off his bag! He didn't even know what I had packed in there for him, but the mere fact that I put the bag on him was enough.

We were finally confirmed with an upgrade, so the flight over to Brisbane was a lot more pleasant. Right in front of my seat was a padded area where the crew put things like newspapers and spare blankets/pillows etc. It made a brilliant play pen! The travelers in the cabin were so friendly. Kien went and introduced himself to a nice lady in the other aisle, and she loved that he wanted to hold her hand.

There was another toddler sitting on the other side of us, so Kien and Blake shared played with each others toys. Kien was by far the more boisterous of the two, climbing from one seat to the other, up and down using the side drink stand as a step. He also ran from one end of the plane to the other. When we were at the back of the plane I was so thankful we were at the front of the plane. It was absolutely packed.

So all up I would say the experience from the moment we left home till when we arrived in Brisbane was relatively easy, all things considered. That's also counting his screaming at being constrained in the infant safety belt for both take-off and landing, then falling asleep as we were taxi-ing to the gate just after landing, then having to wait for an hour in the terminal with him hot, sweaty and asleep on my shoulder because the baggage handlers were on strike!

We went grocery shopping to pick up some supplies, and had lunch at Bianca's place (Justine's sister). When we got back to Justine's place the kids had an absolute blast with the water table outside.

We ended up with all three kids running around naked, and we made an executive decision to give them a bath outside - in the baby bath, one at a time.

There is a 3 hour time difference between here and NZ, and I wasn't sure how Kien was going to cope. But he was great last night. All 3 kids went to bed at 6pm, and he slept in the port-a-cot all night with only one wake-up at 2:30am for milk. Our start to the day was 5am (8am NZ time), and I felt great!

I am able to write this post because he is currently having a nap. It was just to easy. I went downstairs to pack our bag for going out, and he asked for milk and to go into the cot. So I pulled the blinds, put his noise on, and he was asleep within minutes. When he wakes up we will go and get some lunch before heading over the Justine's mum's place for a swim.

Lazy Sunday

We cleaned the apartment like our life depended on it, and for what purpose other than the fact that our child has a dust mite allergy and we really do need to clean more often than we do. I want to get a cleaner in, Jef doesn't - there's the rub. So now I have a semi spotless home (it can NEVER be spotless with a child in tow, especially one who is obsessed about asking for raisins, putting raisins in mouth, chewing raisins, spitting raisins out on the floor, stamping on chewed up raisins, whinging because raisins are stuck to feet).

Come the afternoon I told Jef I needed to go somewhere wild, like a west coast beach or something of the like. As it was late and the sun was already well into its decent in the sky we went to Takapuna to a little beach at the end of St Leonards Road. After walking down the fairly step stairs we were at a fabulous beach as the tide was coming in - not too wild (it's east coast after all) but wild enough.

The peninsula like rock was perfect for us to enjoy the still warm surface for sitting on, as well as venturing out there to feel as though we are amidst the water and cliffs without actually getting wet.

Rangitoto island seemed a stone throw away.

Kien kept collecting raisin-like seaweed from puddles and throwing them into the sea, over and over again.

He was so serious about it too!

But less than serious when Jef tied a giant discarded rope around our tiny boy.

He posed for this photo too. I said "Hey, Kien - look over here" and he froze and smiled for almost 5 seconds before running off.

At the end of the day we dipped our feet in the cool high tide before making our climb back up to our vehicle.

Our car was parked at the end of the street surrounded by spectacular houses with breathtaking sections and no doubt amazing views from the cliff. Kien wanted to see diggers. There were no diggers here.

I'm looking forward to going to Brisbane on Thursday for an extended weekend to visit a friend. It will just be Kien and I so I'm a little apprehensive about him missing his favourite person in the whole wide world, so thank goodness for Skype and FaceTime. This will be his first stamp in his brand new passport. I want it to fill up with lots of stamps!