General Catch Up

Well, I am so behind with the blogging that I thought I would cram lots of otherwise unrelated updates into one post and hope no-one notices that they are being short-changed...

First up - Phoebe is walking. Actually, she started walking when Nick was in the UK in March, and has honed her skills in the last two months to the extent that she now climbs stairs (and gets back down), pushes her dolly pram around, climbs the climbing frame at the park, and generally runs around causing mayhem and mischief.



She is also still to be found emptying kitchen cupboards on a regular basis - we can't attach locks in a rented property, and she worked out how to remove the elastic bands... - and recently we found her IN the kitchen drawer. Funnily enough I have a very similar picture of her big sister a couple of years ago!




Phoebe has never liked having her nappy changed, and now she just gets up and runs away... and she's really quick! I have added a flower to this picture for the sake of modesty, but you get the idea - she thought it was a great game!

She now starts tugging at her clothes as soon as the bath tap is turned on, brings you a bowl when she is hungry, her shoes when she wants to go out, and points to her eyes, ears, toes, tummy and nose on command....



She is turning into a very funny little girl indeed - usually to be found accessorised to the hilt with beads, bangles and hats. Was packing up some winter stuff the other day when I found hats and gloves - she wasn't sure about them at all - never had a pair of gloves on since she was about two months old...

For anyone who has been living in Outer Mongolia and hasn't heard, Nick has a consultant's job in Fife starting in August. These are very exciting times for us!! He went back to the UK for two and a half weeks in March - with Ella in tow as we got a free flight for her - and arrived 36 hours before the biggest interview of his life. Obviously, he got the job and we over the moon that the biggest hurdle of his career was cleared at the first attempt.


So we are coming home - and are really looking forward to having a short time back in Dunbar before relocating to Fife. Of course, that is very much dependent on selling our house in Sunny Dunny - the property market is not exactly in great shape right now! Our house is on the market, and generating plenty of interest, so we are cautiously optimistic. Nick could commute to Fife in the short term, but it would add about three hours to his day AND he would need to stay up there if on call, so not conducive to family life really...

So not only are we moving back close to where we met and married, but NHS Fife is also forging stronger links with the Bute Medical School in St Andrews and Nick is hoping to be able to be involved in undergraduate teaching there.

After achieving all he set out to in the first couple of days of the trip, Nick spent the rest of the time being sent across the country to look at houses (none of which we can afford!) and putting all our furniture back in the house. This will make a huge difference when we return home with four grumpy children after thirty hours of travel...


So while Nick was away, I amused myself with the children as follows:

Scienceworks in Melbourne - a bit like the kids' museums we visited in Boston and Sydney - full of hands on things for the children to do. There were three main areas - one about our human bodies and their capabilities, so they got to do things like run against Cathy Freeman (they lost!), climb, jump, test their grip strength, measure their reaction times, shoot netballs, paddle a canoe, compete in a wheelchair sprint... and make a skeleton pedal a bike!

Upstairs was a kind of city exploration centre with a construction zone - see pics above, recycling centre and a restaurant totally stocked with plastic food and all the children loved serving their mummy at the tables outside. I think Will is serving a whole chicken here...


There was also a whole floor dedicated to what goes on inside a house and how the items we use today were developed - so you could walk through a giant vacuum cleaner, see what goes on inside a tumble dryer, look inside a mattress (not recommended), see how a transparent toilet flushes, learn how food goes mouldy, see how an LP plays (or in James and Will's case, learn what an LP is...)and generally open drawers and cupboards and curtains.


There was even a section on what's down the back of the couch... James and Will were pretty interested in what was there, but Phoebe had free-range baby syndrome and just kept going back to the funny mirrors...




March also saw Crazy Hair Day at school - and having been informed by the boys that they wanted green and blue hair, I obliged accordingly. Was slightly worried that Will's hair might be permanently stained, but it washed out ok....











We have had (oh joy) nits (James, again) worms (Will, 1st time) and nits (Ella 1st time). I feel like some kind of plague house. Yes, I know that nits like clean hair, and worms don't really care who they inhabit, but I do feel somehow unclean. And don't even get me started on Swine Flu - at the moment I'm praying that the slow trickle of cases in Australia doesn't get any worse and we can fly home to Scotland unimpeded, though at the rate Victoria is closing schools and confirming cases, I'm getting a little twitchy!


Will has been student of the week for making friends in his class -ie not playing with his brother and his brother's friends all the time - though to be honest, I don't mind him playing with James and James is remarkably keen to play with Will - we're leaving in two weeks - it really doesn't matter if he doesn't make any new friends!!

Finally, the weather has started to turn cold recently and everywhere is looking green again - which is great cos I was sick of the dustbowl, but weird, as it seems wrong to have the green times in winter... This is eastern Beach with the outdoor pool just visible on the left. We are again freezing inside our little cardboard house and looking forward to coming back to a country with radiators..


Still get the occasional hot day though - here are the boys at Eastern Beach on a recent warm spell. I love the picture of them squatting by the rocks - they are watching a couple launch a fishing boat down the boat ramp.

In the other pic they are posing next to one of the Geelong bollards which line the shore in town - Old Mother Hubbard, in honour of Granny Jenny who was born a Hubbard...