Eating up a storm & 6 months

Nevlin has been expanding his food options for over a month now, but we had a few hiccups. Lets just say that "sweet potato revenge" hit the whole family with a vengeance.

So far, he eats RICE, PEAS, ZUCCHINI, APPLES, STRAWBERRIES, & PEARS.

We will be adding to this list slowly as I figure out what each food does to his little gut. I'm just trying to make sure he doesn't have any allergies.

Here's a sequence of shots of Nev playing with his spoon & licking it clean after a feed. He's wearing a hat knit by my Mom, which was so adorable that I took a bunch of photos. These shots don't exactly capture his best face, the one he first makes at the beginning of any feed. Maybe we will try to capture that this weekend.

NEVLIN has hit over 9kg or 20lbs and he turned 6 months today! To celebrate, we are getting his immunization shots later this afternoon and having a big sleep right now, hence the post.

Monarto Zoo - 150 posts!

This post marks our 150th one! That is quite a few, and I think Cam has authored only 1. I'm not complaining purely explaining we've hit a milestone. MaryEd, Tony, Cam, Nevlin & I all got to the Montaro Zoo & it was quite a fun time. The day was cold, so keeping to the bus was the perfect solution. Here's Nev checking out all the lions and their cubs.

The females and cubs were hanging right near the bus. The guys got to chill out in another fenced location. The women kept guard & just after this shot they saw something on the other side of the bus & pounced.

This shot was taken without either Tony or MaryEd without them knowing. I like how Tony always knows which is his hat.

Montaro Zoo is a really big zoo with very open areas full of one or more type of animals. This one had buffalo on it, making me think of Massachusetts where I used to pass a buffalo farm regularly while at university.

Finally, what trip to the zoo would be complete without a baby animal. This one was born about a year ago and we missed the birthday by about a week. I love that it was so cold that one monkey is under the tarp to the right and the baby is sitting between these two adults.

NEVLIN has hit over the 9kg mark, that makes him about 20lbs! Perfect, if he was a turkey.

Osteria Sanao in the Hills

MaryEd was here for a whole week and Tony joined us over a long weekend. MaryEd helped out a bit as I went back to work. We picked up Tony from the airport & Cam from work before heading into the Adelaide Hills. We stayed a great little Italian place with cottages out the back.

The first night, Nevlin went in his PJs and hung out in his stroller in the corner. He was a great sport, but soon figured out that mom & dad were sleeping in the same room and fussing resulted in a quick response.

On Sunday I arranged for us to have some beef bourguignon and red wine at a little winery that only opens up 2x a year for festivals. It was a great place, lots of space & so very relaxing. We each had the beef and red wine followed by a bit of desserts. Melt in your mouth heaven in the Adelaide Hills.

MaryEd's Birthday!!!

Cam's mom, MaryEd came to Adelaide to celebrate her birthday in style. She brought her very own cake, but ate half before I realized it was the only cake we had in the house! Here she is blowing out a match (we didn't even have any candles) with balloons & some sprinkles to top off the half a donut.

There are lots of shots with Nev and only one of his parents. This one has him in some awesome socks and reading a book with lift-up flaps. Perfect for little guys who love "peekaboo."

Two dudes in hoodies, need I say more!

Nev even got to hear about the hungry, hungry caterpillar from his Meme! He really gets into books most days, but others he isn't as interested. It all depends on when you catch him (in between naps & feeds).

Sparklers on the 4th of July

Nevlin is having an extra long sleep, so I get to do more blogs (here's me avoiding doing taxes!). Speaking of the little man, he weighs well over 8kg or 17lbs now and is about 4.5 months old. He loves eating and gets a bit frustrated when he can't do or reach something that he wants. He had about a week of not sleeping very well when Cam's parents were visiting and after, but is back to a great routine of 7pm bed and we get him out of his crib about 7am. He wakes up generally sometime in the 5am hour, but only kicks/thumps his feet in his bed until he gets so tired that he falls back asleep. Its so loud that it trips the baby monitor and then there is silence. Its quite the norm for the little guy and cracks us up.

So flashing back over a month ago to Michelle's 4th of July visit, we had sparklers. We drew in the back our names and crazy things, super fun. Here are the best shots from the evening. This one was by Michelle.

Here's CamU's signature in lights.

This one could have been better, but it was the best I did. Funny, but many of my "z"s looked more like "m"s.

Michelle was inspired by CamU's design and decided to give her hand at an M one. This was her first & last attempt, done & dusted!

We wrapped up the evening with just doing anything all at once & using up the rest of the sparklers. Michelle was responsible for the infinity sign on the left, I was in the middle just going silly, and Cam ran around on the right and bottom left doing large and small squiggles. I recommend trying this out if you have sparklers.

Michelle' visit!

Michelle and I spent overnight up in the Barossa Valley. We went to the Farmers market, which was pretty awesome. I got a cheese sandwich & ate the bacon from Michelle's sandwich. It was super tasty.

What trip of mine would be complete without a bit of industrial history. This train station at Tanunda now is a radio station. It really hasn't changed much, but the architecture is pretty typical with the stone and brick. A beautiful style, I think.

Michelle is obsessed over Coopers beer, brewed right here in South Australia. This large cask in the middle of one town was enough to make her giddy.

Michelle came for the 4th weekend & we spent it in true American style with TONS of condiments on our dogs, potato salad, "green stuff" from the midwest (don't ask what's in it), baked beans, water mellon and beer. Too bad Nev had to sleep through it, but it was wicked cool.

We realized that we didn't have a photo with the 4 of us, so I snapped this at the airport. It was a really good time. I'm going to post images of the sparklers we did on the 4th after dinner next. You're welcome any time cuz!

Barossa Valley with Michelle

 Our cousin from Sydney came for a visit around the fourth of July & her and I went up to the Barossa Valley for a girls' weekend. There's been lots of rain, so things were still quite green although the vines were completely bare of grapes.

 We went on an adventure to find a beautiful lookout, but instead hung out in a dirt and undeveloped parking lot where I snapped the following photo. I'm going to try to get it on the news under the weather. Just down the road from this view was the real lookout including its paved parking lot.

 Being a Sydney artist, Michelle is always on the lookout for beautiful expressions of creativity. We found this sculpture outside a winery that we didn't even bother to go in because we felt like we'd already seen the best part. Both of us are in the center of that ball.

And finally, what discussion of the Barossa Valley would be complete without a shot of wine cases. This vineyard, The Chateau was a renovated property complete with a croquet lawn and historic clubs. I highly recommend taste testing there as we tried an amazing few sips of reds and whites that were indescribably good. Up next, other shots from Michelle's weekend in SA.