Look at my tongue

Came home Monday night from work and Logan had discovered he had a tongue and spent a few hours showing us, so had to capture it on video!

As the MasterCard ads would say - priceless :)

Australia day weekend

Back home after our "the boy meets the world" tour! It was amazing to see everyone again and of course for everyone to meet little Logan, even if he's isn't so little anymore.

After a few weeks back in the reality of the sun we were happy to have the long weekend with Australia day falling on a Saturday we got the Monday off. Actually got going early for a change to the beach before the 35+ day got to us and was blowing an easterly so we headed to Mettams pool for some calm water for Logan and me to test out my new dive mask.

And Logan was busy making new friends while being much happier splashing in the water than last time.

Celebrating with my "Australia Day" hat

Sunday morning I headed back down to the beach, Trigg this time, to catch up with the crew to play in the waves. Was a good morning to also drag out the surfboard and I was surprised that I could actually get up a few times after about 6 months.

Then out to the Taylor household later that afternoon for a play in the pool and for some reason we decided to create some weird and wonderful cocktails to finish the evening off.

Monday was a day to catch up with Kath and Dave and see the new baby Felix. He is only just a month old, so was tiny, especially compared to the huge crawling Logan monster... And Janice just about managed to restrain from wanting a new little baby (or that's what I told her!).

My first play in the sea

We had done many walks by the sea with Logan and wandered along the beach but hadn't had a really hot day to make us all feel like going in the water and chilling out at the beach for a bit.

So last weekend we had one of those days and took down the new beach shelter (Surprise! It's yellow and crazy looking) to provide some handy shade from the sun to jig around it, as that's what he does right now.

What is this Dad, its tastes much saltier than my bath

 

Then I took for him for his first "paddle" in the sea, which went from bemusing to being cold and really not sure in only a few minutes. But as he was sporting his very stylish rashy-suit we went for a wander along the beach without having to slather him in tons of sunscreen.

Nice hats boys

Then he had a play with Janice while I went for a snorkel, although had been blowing a lot so was pretty silted up.

My First Camping Trip - by Logan

A couple of weeks ago Mum and Dad took me for my first camping trip to a place called Guilderton, about 1.5 hours north of Perth. It was a great campsite (in my vast experience of one) as it was right by the sea and the Moore River.

Dad took the friday off as and he said something about "how much extra gear do we need for one little guy" and spent hours packing it into our new roofcage on the car!

OK, so a lot of this is Dads play gear too....

 

We got up there and got setup before the rest of the crew arrived but were all in for Friday night and had a good evening. Then Dad decided to test out the Dualis on some 4WD sand tracks as he had wanted to do that for a while but wanted to make sure someone else was there to tow him out if he got stuck. I didn't really want to miss out on anything that morning and so wasn't going to sleep until I got in the car and realised that 4WDing is actually a great way to sleep, must have been Dad's great driving - here's a video of the one point that the Dualis couldn't make it though (and Yes I still slept through all of this), something Dad said about the CVT gearbox and lack of power and clearance (he must really know his stuff!). We did find a way around that hill and actually did well on the soft sand generally.

And then we had a fun afternoon in the river and Dad went off to play with Ollie in the waves in the sea for a bit too, can't wait until I'm big enough to do that!

More photos on the picasa site.

Christmas come early

For two reasons.

1. Janice has been desperate to expand upon our Christmas JibJab "tradition", so been waiting for the round of Christmas e-cards to become available. With of course the main reason being to get Logan in one!

And I think you can all agree it has been worth the wait http://www.jibjab.com/view/4len0yza95Q47UzanrJ6

2. Logan is treating us to an early Christmas present of "sleeping like a baby". Going 12 hours without waking up more than once for the last few nights AND to match that I'm actually sleeping right through too. Hence this upbeat post before I even head to work :)

The Confusing Concierto

For something different J and I had booked to see a Guitar quartet playing music composed by Joaquín Rodrigo at the Perth Concert Hall last night.

All sounds good so far as we both like some classical music. Not "Oh darling I loved the allegro in the 3rd symphony, where the clarinet matched perfectly with the harp" kind of classical buffs, but like it all the same. And for reasons only my Dad can explain he got me into listening to Rodrigo years ago and always have had several different CD's of his concierto, not concierto's!

So we asked Sue to come over to look after Logan and proceeded to get properly attired for the occasion, which presented the first problem. As I went to put on my suit jacket (wool blend) I noticed some holes in the back of it and this is my newest and best suit (not massively expensive but still) and the bloody moths must have had a go at it, just like my one and only wool jumper!

Hey ho! Wasn't intending on wearing the jacket much and at least they didn't eat holes in the pants as well...

It was raining quite hard at the time so we decided to go into the underground parking to make it easier, but guess who had just put the mesh cage on the roofbars that day, ready for camping and all the extra gear the boy is going to need. And hadn't thought of that until I saw how low the roof of the parking place was as we are driving in. We did manage to literally squeeze underneath the height bar with only some minor scraping sounds, all the time with me hoping they do design those places with a few extra inches of clearance for the rest of the parking spaces.

A smart person would have known that it was going to be a bad night by then and just gone home, but not me!

So we get into the hall and start to relax, thinking all is good now (except for Janice telling me I REALLY can't wear the jacket at all as I look like a hobbo). And order our interval drinks and do all those theatre like things and make our way to our seats.

We paid for the reasonable priced seats and even chose the location ourselves so was a bit annoying to get into the seats on the front row of the top tier to find out that I couldn't see about a third of the stage due to the "ridiculously wide" balcony. I'm sure it was designed that way by some expert architect for acoustic reasons or something, but that "expert" obviously didn't sit in my seat! Trying to relax and think it doesn't really matter as you don't need to see the whole orchestra as you're here for the music. Oh, and I forgot to mention that only a few hours before we left I looked up the full program and discovered that the guitar quartet (note quartet as this is important!) playing Rodrigo was only on for approx 30 mins of the 2 hours - "that's not what I thought I booked, but OK!".

So the first piece was by Ravel (mother goose) and was well performed (in my vast experience) but I was waiting for the guitar concierto AND I wanted to feel "immersed" and "transported" by the music, but it wasn't really loud enough or we were too high or something....so I half felt like it was like listening to some really good music that little bit too quiet because you don't want to disturb the neighbours! This is where Janice tells me to shut up (not at the time as she isn't like that) and that it was a great sound, but she has eagle hawk hearing and I compensate my OK hearing with good eyesight.... and you're thinking Phil, why didn't you go and see a film instead if you're more visual, well I'm right with you at this point :)

Moving on to the main event!!! And the quartet come out onto the stage at the head of the orchestra, so I can just about see them all and off it starts. Oh, that doesn't sound quite right I'm thinking. Go with it Phil it's a live performance and the "award winning" quartet are just putting their spin on it. But alas, none of the 25 minute performance was what I was expecting :(

And here's the biggest incorrect information piece of the night - IT WAS THE WRONG CONCIERTO!!!!

We were listening to "Concierto Andaluz (Spanish: Andalusian concerto) is a 1967 work by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo for four guitars and orchestra" and NOT "Concierto de Aranjuez is a composition for classical guitar and orchestra by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is far and away Rodrigo's best-known work".

So I had seen a Rodrigo concierto in the magazine and "crazily" assumed it would be the most famous and the one I have listened to all my life. It was similar music being the same composer and I can't fault the quality of the "players" but just wasn't what I was expecting or wanted to hear!

We then had the interval with me wandering round trying (badly) to pretend it's all good and I'm enjoying our lovely evening out - sorry Janice!

Then after the interval the one pleasant surprise was one piece the orchestra (because of course the guitars were only there for half an hour) played by Osvaldo Goliov which was a very uplifting and powerful piece. And the Stravinsky to finish was ok in stages but I was over it by then :)

So there's a lesson there for us all - to pay attention to detail (which I normally do), because it can make all the difference.

My first swimming session (by Logan)

It was a stormy Sunday afternoon and not a good day to go outside, so I told Mummy and Daddy that they should take me for my first swimming session. And thought it would make a change from my jigging around on my mat and seeing where I could be sick next (so bored with that!).

So we headed to the Terry Tyzack aquatic centre, which is a fancy name for a leisure centre with a few pools.

I wasn't quite sure if I liked it at first with all the people and noise, as you can see on the photos, but then I got into it and we had some fun.



Dad said he looked too bald in this photo, so styled it to fool you...

Chillin with Mum, still not sure what's going on

A funky under/over water shot

Unfortunately even though we were told it was OK to take the camera in, another life guard said it wasn't so stopped before you could see me enjoying myself.

I really enjoyed floating around especially as I seem to be good at it at the moment with my baby blubber :)

Then wondered what was going on when I was dunked under water, but was fun and looking forward to when I can go swimming underwater with Daddy!

Frog boy No More

Good news today, as Logan went in for his "near to" 6 month x-ray on his hips to check how they had formed, as that is the only way to tell properly.

We were pretty sure everything was OK with him but good to get it confirmed :)

And afterall he has been a crazy flipping jiggy baby showing no signs of problems....

Counting my press-ups......99, 100!

When the Mum came to town

After wanting to come over to see Logan (and maybe us a bit too) for the last few months, Mum booked a last minute flight over here for a quick 10 day visit.

Great to see her and introduce Logan to more of the family.

As she came over for a "working visit" we mostly did some things in and around the house.

Playing on the change table


And even though the weather was cooler and wetter than when Mum and David have usually been here we did get out for some good walks along the coast, including a visit to our favourite cafe Yelo.

Sporting my new Olympic 2012 cap in Yelo

And being the "wetter" part of the year we took a trip up into the hills to John Forest National Park (any of this sound familiar Louise!?) and there was actually some water in the waterfall and a lovely 23 degrees day, which made the walk through the old train tunnel a pleasant cooling experience.

 

 

 

And of course more photos on Picasa!



The 7 kg beastie

Logan went for a check-up on his reflux the other day and got weighed and measured. So has chunked and stretched well to weigh 7kg (approx 15lbs) and 64cm, so growing well!