The meeting of the Moms

Got to meet some of the Austprem moms and kids today at Tuggerah!
Things didn't go quite to plan. I had anticipated taking lots of photos and then a trip to the beach and lots more photos. As it was I took 2 photos and those I didn't like.
Alex had a great time at the Chipmunks play centre. He was running all over the place. There was so much to for him to see there. We'll have to see if there is a place like that here and maybe go on a school day so there's less big kids to bowl him over :)
He kept me busy fetching him away from the older play areas which unfortunately meant I didn't get much of a chance to sit and chat to the other moms. I could have just left him in the toddler play pen but I didn't feel comfortable doing that without watching him and I couldn't see him from where we were sitting. I could had got Mom and Dad to take him shopping with them but then he would have missed all the fun.
Hopefully there'll be more meetups with the Austprem moms and next time I'll make sure Alex has a nap first.
Alex was up early this morning for the trip and of course didn't have a morning nap so he was half asleep all the way there. Then after running riot for a while he was well and truly ready for nap but he just wont stop of his own accord, he just gets more hyper when he is tired so we get a mix of extreme excitement and crankiness. So we didn't stick around all day and didn't even get to go to the beach. It was very hot though so the beach wasn't a good idea anyway.
He stayed awake all the way home. He was really fighting it but as soon as his Grandparents left he went straight to bed and slept for 2 hours.

So no photos from today but here's some of him enjoying himself at his Grandparents a few weeks ago.

Someone fed Alex a chocolate biscuit.

And here's photos of his uncle Jim when he fell victim to the same chocy biscuit pusher, many, many years ago (sorry Jim).

No he's not scared of the camera, he's sucking the water off his hands.


and finally here's my cheeky monkey. I know his Grandma hates this photo but I love it. It shows his personality. He was in the bath and licking water off his face.

Anniversary with Bogans

I'm still working through a back log of photos so I think it's about time I covered our wedding anniversary from 2 weeks ago.
It was Friday the 29th Sept and I booked a night away for us at the same place we got married 4 years ago. I couldn't get the same chalet but I did get the one next to it.
We went out for dinner first with Mom and Dad in Windsor. We had a really nice meal but Alex was tired out and got a bit excitable. He was also a bit weird about cars after driving over in Grahams car so we had a few tears. Alex sat in a high chair (when he wasn't running around) and played at putting food into a paper cup and spooning it back out. It kept him amused enough for us to get a chance to eat. The food was beautiful. I ended up feeling so full!

Graham surprised me at dinner with a ring! OK so it was a ring I've been waiting for but I wasn't expecting it then. It's in exchange for some photos I took for a friend who's a jeweler. I provided the stones and he made a beautiful yellow and white gold setting for them. I bought the stones years ago, pre Alex, so I've been waiting a long time to be able to wear them. I originally bought the matching 1ct side stones for a pair of earrings but I was persuaded to go flash and set them all in a ring. It is very flash and I love it! The center stone is a light yellow Asscher cut. The yellow gold sets off the colour of the stone beautifully. Of course I have a lot less occasions to wear something this fancy now but I'm sure I'll find some :)



Then we (sort of) settled Alex in at Mom and Dad's and headed off to Loxley


I couldn't help worrying about Alex and how Mom and Dad would cope but he did settle eventually and slept well.
We had roses, chocolates and champagne waiting in our chalet.
So we did what everyone does (don't they) on a romantic anniversary weekend. We ate the chocolates, put the bathrobes on (over our clothes cause it was freezing outside) and went out to the balcony to take photos :)

We had planned on taking photos of the stars, thinking we would be far enough away from the city to avoid light pollution but Loxley is well lit at night. It's very pretty but plays havoc with night shots so we had to content ourselves with photos of the Bogan moths diving into the flood light.

I liked the way the statue looked in front of the pool lights.

 
Check out those Bogans!


I took photos of our shadows on the wall (see there is a use for flood lights). I call this a blueprint for love (corny I know).




 
Then we had a nice long soak in the spa while moaning about how full we were. We didn't even get to open the champagne because we were so stuffed. We slept with the curtains open and the sunrise was beautiful, early but beautiful. I lay in bed thinking I should really get up and take photos of this but it was very early and I couldn't be bothered moving.
We had a beautiful breakfast delivered to us, no coffee though other than the instant stuff in the room. Mom bought Alex up to us and we showed him where Mom and Dad got married.











Here we are at the same spot 4 years ago.







We were going to take Alex out for coffee with us but he started crying as soon as we got near Grahams car so Mom took him home with her and we went out to enjoy a final hour to ourselves :)
Was a really nice break even if it was just for one night.
We still have the champagne in the fridge to enjoy later.

Playtime photos

Some playtime photos from today. Actually with Alex pretty much all day is playtime because he never stops.
I took the camera outside with us today and wanted to get photos of Alex enjoying his new garden but I had to keep fetching him from the back door. Each time I put him on the grass he made his way back to the concrete, up the stairs and tried to get in the back door. The only way to keep him our was to let him dig in my pot plant (soon to be planted out) and pull leaves of the other grevillea.
If he looks a bit red in the photos it's because he was. He goes red as soon as he gets warm, just like his Mom.

I gave up after 5 mins and let him back inside, he went straight for the TV remotes, then went and smacked the TV screen saying 'dada'. He is so his fathers son.

Then he found his crayons and started drawing again. He want's to draw on everything though. I had to clean brown crayon off the TV tonight. Notice he uses his left hand and he fetches my slippers for me :)

Holely photos

Well we still have a hole in the front yard but no more sewerage problems.
Yesterday they ran the camera down the pipes and found the there were tree roots in the inspection opening which is cemented under the driveway and footpath. OK so it's council land and councils tree but we have no hope of getting them to cover the repair bill, which will be expensive. Luckily the guys with the camera were able to clear it using their water jet cutter thing (technical term that) and they also ran it back up the other way and cleared out some minor roots from the fig tree which could have become a problem in the future.
Paul installed a new upright pipe with a properly sealed lid and left it overnight to set. He was to come around tonight on his way home and fill the hole but he didn't make it so hopefully he'll be 'round tomorrow.
I grabbed some photos to document our latest property upgrade :) These were taken as the sun was setting. I'm sure Mom will be pleased to see that her favourite tree on the corner has survived the excavation :P

Alex has been his usual very active self today and his eating picked up a little which is a relief. Today he was enjoying playing with his wooden puzzle board. He is very good at getting the shapes in the correct holes but I have to play with him and clap when he does each one :) He was enjoying it so much he took to walking around carrying his puzzle. He showed off how strong he is too by picking up a whole box of nappies I'd left on a chair and carrying it to me. I was impressed!

I started getting the itch to get started on the next camera club topic today. I've been feeling cheesed off since last weeks show and wasn't in the mood to do it all again but the light in the stairwell at sunset inspired me. This is what I saw. I'm not sure if I'm happy with it yet or if I want to try again. I liked the golden light and the patterns in the screen and the shadow but theres a shadow on the screen from the metal scrolls that actually looks like motion blur. It certainly fits the 'doors and windows' topic though. Here's another photo I thought might be good for 'doors and windows'. I took a few versions of this shot when I was out shooting with Dad, not sure yet which I prefer. Some of them are very dark and moody.

Camera club last week was not much fun. The judge was disappointing and the whole thing seemed like a waste of time. I'm not saying that because I didn't do well, because I did, I got 2 honours, 2 merits and 1 acceptance. I'm just disappointed because I put a lot of work into the set subject of 'photojournalism' and was really excited about some of the shots I got. I had to step outside my usual controlled environment for these photos and actually had to go out and catch things that were happening around me and I thought I got some clever and even humorous shots that told a story. I was looking forward to hearing a judges opinion on these, whether the judge would be able to see the story, the humour or the emotion in the photos. What we got was a judge who didn't critic all the photos like judges usually do. Most judges start by telling us a bit about themselves and their photography and judging history and talk about the set subject and what they are looking for. This judge just looked at all the photos while we waited, placed the awards, then talked about a few of them (after promting from our president). He was very hard to understand (English was not his native language) which may have been why he didn't want to critic the photos but he shouldn't take on that role if he can't do it. He judged all the photos together which meant he didn't judge the set subject photos as photojournalism so he missed the point in most of the photos. He even talked about where I should have put the lights and reflector in one of my photos! I had to put up my hand and point out it was photojournalism not a posed shot, and he just repeated himself about the reflector. Now either I've got the whole idea of photojournalism wrong or the judge did. I thought photojournalism was meant to capture an event or emotion, a moment in time and not a posed or set up shot and I thought the story shown in the photo was important. The judge definitely preferred the posed portrait photos some people had entered in B&W.
I wasn't the only one disappointed with the judging, it seems everyone who entered photojournalistic shots was. Graham entered some photos this time for the first time and was really annoyed not to get any critic on them. The judge picked up Grahams photo of the Prime Minister and didn't seem to know who he was let alone think it was a clever capture.
Anyway here's one of my photojournalism photos. This one didn't place. This was taken in the bushfire a few weeks ago. We were driving around trying to get photos of the fire and this is as far as we got. The road was closed off here and there were still small flames at the side of the road from the fire passing through. The air was so think with smoke the sun could barely get through. The judge thought this was taken at night and suggested I lighten it up and fix the colour. I did point out that it was dark because of the smoke and the colour was an effect of the sun through the smoke but he either didn't understand what I said or didn't care.
I can't share my other photos, even though I have some stronger images, because most of them were taken of strangers and I wouldn't want them to come across their photos on the net, especially if I caught them in an emotional moment.Here's one I didn't enter but I thought it was funny. I call it 'Speed Kills'. It definitely is a hump but I don't think 25km/h would get you over it. Our friend Justin is back visiting from Singapore so we had dinner with him at the club before the comp. He stayed to see some of the judging but there wasn't anything to see so he didn't stick around. Was great to catch up with him though. Didn't take Alex long to relax around him :)
It was Justins birthday yesterday and he mentioned organising something for his birthday but we haven't heard from him yet.

Alex is way too active to sit through a night at camera club these days. We have a committee meeting next week and will have to let everyone know that we can't be part of the committee because we just don't know if we can keep going next year with Alex running around. The alternative is the join the Hawkesbury camera club so we can leave Alex with Mom and Dad during meetings but with Graham working late most nights our chances of getting over to Richmond in time for a 7:30 meeting is slim.
Who knows what will happen next year though.

Some random pics

Messy boy

I uploaded one of these earlier when I first grabbed them off the camera. At the time I was trying to chat on Austprem at the same time but I opened the first photo and loved it so much I uploaded it before I even went through the rest.
Well I have some more now. These were all just snapshots but they are of Alex so naturally I love them :) I did a storyboard too but photoshop crashed before I saved and I can't be bothered doing it again (yet).
OK an explanation. Alex has been difficult (impossible) to feed all day. He didn't want, food, milk or water. He had 4 spoons of cereal and 4 spoons of chicken and rice and chewed on a bit of bread while we had dinner. It's been driving me mad all day. I know toddlers go through stages and have days when they wont eat but I can't believe he wasn't hungry at some point today. He was just too busy to eat, all he wants to do is walk around and get into everything. Anyway tonight I just gave up and said 'feed yourself', plonked him in his highchair, parked him on some open floor against a beige wall and gave him some beige food. At first I held on to the bowl so he couldn't throw it but he didn't attempt to pick it up so I ducked for cover and let him feed himself. He got quite messy before I thought to take photos :)
I have a special shaped spoon for babies to feed themselves but Alex had a definite preference for using his left hand and the spoon is shaped for right handed eating so we didn't get to use it. Most of the time he didn't bother putting the spoon in his mouth because he really wasn't interested in eating. He licked it a few times but really he was just playing.
I didn't mind him getting messy because he'd already got food on his jammies from my attempts at feeding him and before his Grandmother asks why he didn't have a bib on, there wasn't any point getting a clean bib dirty when his suit already needed soaking.
Well that is I didn't mind him getting messy until I remembered that he couldn't have a bath because we have to use minimal water because WE STILL HAVE A SEWERAGE LEAK !
Yep that's right. Got up this morning and all looked dry out the front so I put the washing machine and the dishwasher on. Half an hour later the hole out the front had become a pond and water was running across the drive and down the footpath again.
So I called the plumber and he repeated that it was a Sydney Water problem because the blockage wasn't on our property. OK so we called Sydney Water again. Meanwhile the plumber came around anyway. He said he couldn't sit at home wondering what was going on. So he poked around again with his eel and Sydney Water agreed to come out again and this time run an eel down the street to our place rather than up from further down. Paul's eel couldn't get through, Sydney Waters could so back to the same scenario as last night. We have a sewerage blockage, not on our block but not in the mains so no solution.
Paul dug a big hole and checked the pipe, our sewerage pipe is underneath the stormwater pipe, just to make things more difficult. Without digging up the driveway and the footpath to check the length of the pipe there wasn't anything else Paul could do so he has left us with a sewer pit in the front lawn (roped off) and instructions not to use too much water, so no washing, dishwasher, bath or shower except for Graham who can have a very short shower for work tomorrow.
Paul will arrange for someone to come 'round tomorrow with a camera so we can have a look down the pipe and work out just where the problem is. Dunno what we are supposed to do if it is under the footpath considering the footpath is councils responsibility but they wont have anything to do with piping, Sydney Water wont touch anything except the mains and we certainly can't go around digging up and then resealing the councils footpath. Fun, fun, fun!
Alex enjoyed watching Paul at work though so it was fun for him and despite the costs I am interested to see this camera at work tomorrow. I might even take some photos :)
Alex also has discovered a joy of drawing. Not with the crayons I bought him but with a pen. I think it's easier for him because he doesn't have to apply pressure with a pen. He was having so much fun with the pen he even picked up a notepad and walked everywhere with them. He only tried to eat the pen once and didn't get too much ink on his face but I had to take the pen off him after he drew on the lounge.
I finally got the soup cooked today, after we had to get out the hacksaw and fix up the dodgy lamb shank (replacement for yesterdays green ones). I don't know what Woolworths is doing but for 'fresh food people', their food literally stinks sometimes.
Graham's tax returns are all finished now so that's us both done.
Now for my backwards catch up. What happened on Friday, ummm nothing really. Alex and I had a day in, trying to get him back into some sort of routine. We played outside with his new shoes and his new lawn but he wasn't interested in the lawn or the plants. He kept going back to play on the concrete.
Thursday was more interesting. We went to Castle Hill with Mom and Dad to get shoes for Alex. Now he is walking well he needed some shoes that fit properly and he has such wide feet there was no way we were getting out of it cheaply. We ended up with a pair of clarks sandals in 6E. He could do with a wider fitting but these have velcro across the toes so we can adjust them to fit him and we wont have to worry about a wider fitting until he needs enclosed toes. They were $70, that's more than I ever spend on shoes for myself! Let's hope he doesn't develop a thing for shoes like his Grandma or it will be an expensive habit. They are nice looking shoes, navy, red and green, and he walks well in them. He lifts his feet higher with them on and his left ankle doesn't turn in anymore. I must take photos of his shoes.
It was so busy at the shopping center (school holidays) that we couldn't find anywhere to get a coffee so we went to the Cumberland State Forest for lunch. I got a new Grevillea for the back garden. I chose a Grevillea Golden Lyre which should have similar growth to one of the other Grevilleas I have out the back and should fill the corner nicely.
Alex had fun walking around the nursery in his new shoes but he was tired and went to sleep as soon as we got home.
OK that will do for another nights typing. Tomorrow hopefully I'll have a solution to the sewerage problem and I'll flashback to Wednesday.

Back up and catching up

Well now my computer is all up and running and stable (touch wood) I have a lot to catch up on here. There has been so much happening lately.
I'm going to work backwards but I suppose that will make sense cause the newer posts will have the older info and be up the top. That sounds confusing. Is it confusing or is it just the vodka and lime Graham made me having a effect. Graham hasn't learned yet that more is not better. There's a reason why there has to be a precise balance of vodka to lime and doubling or tripling both spoils the balance. Logically you'd think it wouldn't but it does. With a small perfectly balanced vodka and lime you drink it with a straw and don't stir and you get the two flavours working together and contrasting each other just perfectly. When Graham makes a glass full the ingredients mix too much and the whole layering with contrast effect is lost and as it's a big glass, and doesn't taste as good, it takes longer to drink and gets worse with time.
Hmmm well I'm not getting much catching up done talking about vodka (just don't get me started on coffee).
OK today...
Alex woke early. Don't know if it is the earlier sunrise or the neighbours dog waking him these days but I'm not enjoying it. In theory it would be better for him to wake earlier because it gives me a longer day to get more meals into him. In practice it just doesn't work. When he is woken up by something too early he wont eat, gets cranky and ends up back in bed an hour later and then sleeps past his usual breakfast time which puts all his meals behind.
So this morning he woke early, had half his breakfast, got cranky and went back to bed until midday. I did the washing and tried to put the crockpot on to make some lamb shank soup for Alex. When I opened the pack of meat and turned it over it was all green underneath and smelled odd. We bought it Thursday night and the use by was the 10th and it had been kept in the fridge so it shouldn't have been green. So no soup.
Alex woke up a 3 hours later, he had some food, a bath, threw up all over his clean clothes and we went out. We went to see our wonderful local accountant. My tax returns are all done, 4 of them plus a nil return for last yet. So I signed everything I had to and now we wait. He thinks I'll be getting money back. Either way I'm just so glad it's finally done.
Grahams tax returns are nearly finished too, he just wants to hunt for a few more receipts first, he knows he has them but doesn't know where. He should be getting money back too, especially for last year with me not working. The accountant also set me up with my very own ABN number! I don't know what I'll use it for, but it's the first step to becoming a pro photographer if I get organised (brave) enough to form my own business. It's good to know though that we've found an accountant who will be able to handle everything if I ever do go the business route.
Alex was very active and somewhat cranky while we were there, he was tired again, so we come home and he went to bed.
Then we called Paul the plumber. We've had water leaking across the bottom of the drive since Thursday and figured it was grey water from the shower because it only happened after a shower. It didn't happen with the washing machine or dishwasher so most of the time it was dry but today after Alex's bath the water trickle turned into a pile of sewerage. We had a toilet papiermache lawn.
So it was time to get the plumber out. Paul is local and always happy to stop in on his way home so he came over a few hours later. Just enough time for Graham to mow the front lawn (minus the paper patch).
Paul had a look and ran an eel down for 10-15m before hitting an obstacle hard enough to brake his blades. Not his problem though because 10-15ms put it well and truly beyond our boundary and made it a Sydney water problem.
So we called Sydney water, Alex woke up, I tried to feed him while Graham went and fetched Thai for dinner and Sydney Water arrived just as Graham got home. We ate our dinner while they played with eels from further down the street until they decided it wasn't their problem. They reckon they ran their eel up past our property and didn't hit anything so any obstruction has to be on our property and is our responsibility. Makes no sense at all considering the leak and the point where Paul inserted his eel is only about 6 feet from the road on our front corner so there's no way a blockage could be on our block considering how far Paul's eel traveled. Something really fishy going on and it's not the smell from the sewerage. We didn't see what the Sydney Water team did but we did see Paul's work so we know how far he went. The thing is if it was a Sydney Water problem it means we get to claim back out plumbers fee from them. As it is now I wouldn't be surprised if the problem has been fixed but because they say they didn't find a blockage we can't claim anything from them and are out over $100 and a few beers for a problem we didn't cause.
Anyway only time will tell, first we get to see if everything is dry tomorrow and then if it stays that way.
Hmmm now what else did we do today. Oh yet the lamb shanks were exchanged for non green meat and some of Alex's boxes of sultanas that were recalled due to metal fragments were returned. I pinched something in my back which has been very painful and makes picking Alex up difficult. Hopefully it will settle while I sleep and be OK tomorrow.
Alex practiced walking in his new shoes again today but his first few steps resulted in a grazed knee. It takes him a few steps to remember to lift his toes and his trousers rode up as he fell so he landed on bare knees. He didn't notice but I felt bad for him. I must remember to get him to take his first steps on carpet when he has his shoes on. Once he gets going he has no problems. He is showing signs of being able to stand, without pulling himself up on something, soon. He stumbled down into a crouch on his hands and pushed himself back up this afternoon. He did the same twice yesterday. He only does it with his shoes on though, almost like the shoes make it easier to go back up than to fall all the way to his knees.
Tonight he had his PJs on and his new (second hand) Pooh slippers. He had a great time running around in them. They rattle with each step. He didn't even look at them so I don't know if he noticed but something got him excited, he was having a great time.
Here's some photos of my funky little man in his Pooh shoes!
Oh and something else, Alex went in my car today for the first time since last weekends trip in Grahams car, and for the first time in over a week we didn't have any tears getting in or out of the car. So it's not his car seat or cars that has scared him, it's something to do with the MU and we've even had tears with Mom and Dad's car. On Wednesday night he started sobbing before we even got within 2 feet of Grahams car. No problems with my Sera though. Nice to know he has good taste in cars :)
Phew I don't think I can type anymore tonight.
So tomorrow I'll update with more backwards news and photos and anything that happens tomorrow.