Vacate.
I had a bad feeling this was going to happen, and sure enough, it did. We received a notice to vacate our rental home when our 18 month contract is up in April. Apparently the owner wants to move back in (but he did offer to let us stay until December if we were willing to sacrifice our first-born son). So, we are now in the process of figuring out the process to relocate in Australia. It is going to be tough to find a place that will be willing to take a short lease, as we are thinking we will be moving home in December. But, as these things usually do, I am sure it will all work out just fine. I actually like the idea of a house hunt (I think I will be a realtor in another life – after I am a sea turtle marine biologist), but I am so not looking forward to packing and moving our things. Ugh.

2nd week.
The first day of the second week of big kid school proved to be quite eventful. Apparently Ty has been spending way too much time with the bigger boys and has taken his rough play a little too far. He got in trouble for punching & kicking a classmate. And then he completely ignored our rule about having to be 18 and he kissed some girl. 1 week in and he’s maccin’ on chics. Lord help me. I guess if I were to think about this scientifically I would say that he is trying to claim his place in the pecking order. The A dog is the toughest and attracts the best mates. Unfortunately I am trying to teach my son to be a gentleman, a respectable young man. We aren’t exactly making a great first impression at his new school. :(.

Fast forward.
Ty made it through the rest of the week without getting into trouble. Hooray!!!

Talent Show.
Every day has a different theme at vacation care. On Friday they had a talent show. Ty said that most of the kids danced. Ty has been practicing his talent – magic. Well, he practiced most of it. We haven’t had a chance to watch the entire video, so he brought a magic pen in without really knowing how to show the trick. He was prepared for a magic Oreo and magic rings. Oh, how I wish I had been a fly on the wall. We forgot to remind him that morning to not tell anyone the secret, so we wondered all day if he would cave. In the car on the way home from school, we asked him how it went. He said everyone was like, “wow! How did he do that!?!?” We asked him if he told them and he said, “NO!! It’s a secret!” Good boy, Ty!

Hulk.
Wednesday was crazy hair and face painting day. We had some green hairspray, so Ty wore his Hulk Smash shirt, and of course had his face painted green. He had a fun day, but he went straight to the shower when he got home. I shampooed his hair twice and his scalp was still green 2 days later. 🙂

Back.
Just as my back is feeling fairly strong, Jay’s gives him trouble. He has been trying to ignore the pain for a long time, but it finally got to the point where he decided he better go to the doctor. She figured he has a pinched nerve and made an appointment for him to get a CT scan the next day. He got some anti-inflammatories which seemed to be helping with the pain. He won’t find out results until this coming week.

Chain.
Have I mentioned how excited we are for our next round of visitors? So excited. Brooke comes first, then Jess, then Sundie. Ty keeps asking when everyone is coming, so we decided to make a paper chain. We made one to get us to Jess’s visit and will make one for Sundie in a couple weeks. SO excited!!

Hot.
I know, I know. Nobody back home wants to hear this next bit, but holy heck it was hot this weekend. What do Australians do on hot days? Find water. And swim. So that’s what we did. Saturday morning Ty swam at lessons (his last one at Gullivers), then we loaded up the car and went down to Snapper Rocks beach. It is such a great beach. It was low tide, so there was basically a natural swimming hole that was about mid-thigh deep, and then there was a huge area that had a foot or less of water that kept gently rolling in with the waves. It was perfect for the kids to splash around. Lily LOVED it. She looked like a drunken sailor as the little waves came and went. Ty brought his skipping ball and we all had good fun playing with that. It brought back memories of playing pickle in the crick. So fun. Lily wanted to go out near the bigger waves, so Jay held her hands and when the waves came in and splashed her chest, she just laughed and laughed. Ty got a kick out of jumping over the waves.
After a while I felt like I was getting sunburned. It was lunchtime, so we dusted off as much sand as we could and went to the surf club for lunch. The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home, giving them the energy they needed to spend the afternoon in the pool. The water was perfect.
Ty’s tummy was a little upset so we decided to come inside to the air conditioning and watch a movie. Apparently the sun sucked all of my energy, too, because I fell asleep on the couch.

Fish.
Ty wanted to go sit on the boat and fish with dad, so after dinner Saturday night, they thawed out some squid worms (stinky) and fished for about an hour. The only thing they caught were a few mozzies. Lily was exhausted, and it didn’t take her long to fall asleep snuggled up with me on the couch.

Freckles.
Whenever we FaceTime with my mom (Nana), she always has Ty come real close to the camera so she can count the freckles on his nose. He loves this little tradition. If she doesn’t ask right away, he will whisper to me, “ask her to count my freckles.” He has been stuck at “20” freckles for a while now, but since we were in the sun a bit, it looked to me like he grew a few more. We needed the professional freckle counter to confirm our suspicions, so we took a picture and sent it to Nana. “22” freckles!!

18 months.
Lily has been a part of our lives for 18 months now. I can barely remember what life was like before her. She is such a little pistol – full of spunk and vinegar. Her vocabulary is growing – she shouts “Ty” and “dad” quite often. She can make most animal sounds, can point to the major body parts (belly is her favorite), and her hair is long enough to put up in a little waterfall ponytail. She loves the water – ocean, pool, bath, shower. She also loves dogs. One cannot sneak by without her spying it and saying “woof woof”. She will do anything for a laugh, and she thinks her brother is hilarious.

Shopping.
I was reminded today why I hate shopping for swimsuits. Lily and I were due for a new suit or two, so we headed down the coast to see what we could find. The first place we went to had a huge selection – but you had to be a USA size 6 or smaller to squeeze into them. Ugh. I don’t think I am fat on a normal day – although I could stand to lose a few pounds – but Lordy. I felt like a beached whale trying to squeeze into some of that spandex. So we drove to another shop and had great luck. I got 4 new suits – yippee!! Lily got 2 new suits, and we couldn’t wait to jump in the pool when we got home. Because again it was smokin’ hot.

Medcall.
When we got home and were going to jump in the pool, we put Lily in her life jacket on and she was fussing. We were in the pool for a while and she was not loving it, whining a lot. Jay laid with her in the lounge chair for a while and noticed that she wasn’t using her left arm at all. We called a nurse’s hotline and she suggested that we have a doctor check her out. We called MedCall and a doctor was here in about 15 minutes (such an awesome service – Obama should implement that). She doesn’t have anything out of socket, but he figured she has a sprain. We will just give her Tylenol for the pain. He thought it could be painful for about 2-3 days. 😞. Poor baby.

Rest.
So the rest of Sunday was a lazy one – doctor’s orders. The heat sucks the energy, so I don’t think anyone was upset about having an excuse to lay in the air con and watch movies. Hope everyone has a great week! G’day mates!!