5 Months!
Lily is 5 months old this week! She is such a happy little thing. She loves to roll over, and we love her rolls (fatty ones). She chats with us, lots of coos and squeaks. Her favorite toys are her toes. She has discovered her thumb and likes to suck on it. She has a tooth that can’t make up its mind if it wants to come out for good or not, so some days she gets a little cranky (can’t blame her!). She is sleeping all night most nights – down at 8:00 and up at 5:00. Most mornings Jay has to wake her up. Ty thinks she is so sweet, he likes to give her hugs and kisses. She thinks he is the best thing since warm milk.

Board shorts.
Dudes wear board shorts all the time in Australia. It is strange to see someone in “normal” shorts. I thought this was because everyone wants to be ready to go to the beach at any time. That may be true, but I think it is also due to the fact that regular shorts come out of the laundry with more wrinkles than a 90 year old woman. Jay will have fun ironing his shorts for the next 2 years. Or he will just wear board shorts.

Star.
Ty had a fantastic idea that we should make a star to put on top of our tree, so we did that this week. We cut out a star from a cardboard box, then wrapped aluminum foil around it. Ty used tape to make sure the foil stayed in place. Then we put a smiley face on it, just like Dora’s star. It turned out great – was just what the top of our tree needed!

That night, Ty’s elf Iceman made a special star for Ty. It was also Ty’s reward for coming off of Santa’s Naughty list. He had a hard time listening earlier in the week and wasn’t making good choices at school. After Iceman wrote him a letter, he changed his tune and quickly got back on the Nice list. Phew!

Thai.
I finally found a meal that I absolutely love. There is a Thai restaurant at the marina. Their fried rice is amazing and the cashew chicken is perfection in a plastic takeout container. And…we can pick it up in the buggy!

Drive thru.
We drove through Hungry Jacks (Burger King) for a quick lunch before Ty’s Christmas party. I was reminded that a) we are in a country founded by the Brits – don’t mess with the royalty and disgrace their name by putting “burger” in the front of their favorite male, and b) it was a really weird feeling to drive through the drive thru from the other direction…

Christmas Party.
Ty’s Christmas party was pretty cute. He did a great job, and somehow managed to not fall asleep on the stage (the program was right at nap time). The best part was that we were able to FaceTime with both Jay’s parents and my family, so they got to watch the program also!

Ty also got an award for “Managing Change and Participating in Social Groups.” To say that he has managed change is an understatement. He has really been a trooper throughout this whole adventure!

Swim Party.
Since we had the afternoon off, we decided to all go for a dip in the “cool”. We bought a play pen for Lily so she would be safe while we swam. It worked great! Kept her happy for about an hour. :). Success!