Merry Christmas

Lets start with an update on Owen - He's now a regular 2 year old who says, "no!" a lot and likes to negotiate everything eg. Us: "Do you want a biscuit?", Owen: "TWO biscuits". Us: "Would you like some sultanas?", Owen: "FIVE sultanas" (with a grin and an affirming nod) or Us: "Let's take your temperature", Owen: "Owen do it. Owen's turn!". It's "Owen's turn" very often. He speaks reasonable well (says speech pathologist mummy) but he's discovered that other children his age don't respond much to "bike/(or other toy) please" and just tug it away or don't give it to him. He is now quite efficient at swiping a toy from someone else or just prying it from their fingers. He's also very smooth at wedging his body in between someone else and a toy in order to play with it. Unfortunately, he's such an easy going kid that more aggressive children do pick on him.

Now a couple of videos. First is Owen dancing to the wiggles again - this time as a ballet dancer! And here is a sample of what Owen sounds like in the morning when he wakes up - Nathan was trying very hard to tiptoe to the door, but Owen has very sharp hearing!

So what's been happening the past month?

It was pretty exciting for us that Jo's brother Richard made a brief visit to Sydney at the end of November. It was a surprise for the rest of the family that we had kept secret for a few months. Owen loved it - he gets to "see" Rich every now and then on Skype (once he even bossed him around - "Come back Richard... hurry up Richard" he shouted, when Richard had to leave the computer for a couple of minutes), but it's not the same as seeing him person. Here they are at the airport. People still say that Owen looks alot like Rich - what do you think now?

Richard got Owen a football top (Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles), and Owen thinks it makes him stronger!

The rest of the time (which has been very cool and wet by Sydney standards) has been dominated by the Christmas season.

Nathan's work had their Christmas party at an Indian restaurant - with a Bollywood theme! Two of his colleagues had recently had babies, and they both decided to bring them along to the party. How did they go? Well, they survived the loud Bollywood music and even managed a short sleep or two!

There have been a few Christmas Carols. First was the joint West Ryde community Carols at the local public school. Our church was one of several who organised it, and unfortunately it was absolutely pouring with rain throughout the entire evening. The following week was our church's "Carols on the Corner", where Jo played the keyboard. Jo is playing again for tonight's 11pm Christmas eve service, and for the 9am Christmas service tomorrow. Needless to say, we are a bit 'carolled-out'.

Then there's the traditional family gatherings on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (that means 2nd Christmas day if you are German). These were all organised - lunch with Jo's family on Christmas day at our house, and a clan gathering at Nathan's parents place the day after. We were really looking forward to it all, when disaster struck (ok, a small hiccough). On Christmas eve, the doctor diagnosed Owen with "hand, foot and mouth disease". In case you are wondering, this is not at all related to the animal "foot and mouth disease" that can be fatal. It's a very common viral infection in little kids - fever, rash and mouth ulcers. As a result, Owen is to be quarantined in the family residence for the next week. So no big Christmas gatherings for us this year :(

We'd like to wish everyone a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus.

Matthew 1:23 - The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel --which means, "God with us."

Floriade (Canberra)

In September we visited the capital of Australia - Canberra. It takes about 3 hours to drive there from Sydney, and on the way there, we stopped at a cafe in Mittagong. We happened to sit next to some very friendly people with a very friendly dog. Owen loved the dog, but what was really funny was that Owen would obey the commands the dog owner was giving to the dog. This is a photo of Owen obeying the "sit" command. He also responded to "stay", and "lie down"!

One of the main tourist attractions in Canberra is the annual Floriade. Thousands of flower bulbs, mainly tulips, are planted in intricate designs that only become visible when they flower. The theme this year was "aussie icons", such as the iced vovo (a type of biscuit) and the hills hoist (a rotating clothes line). Here are a couple of photos of us all enjoying the the sights and smells.

The flowers can get boring after a while, but there's nothing like a Magnum ice cream to spice things up. Owen also used some of the chill time to share a drink with his friend Alysha.

This trip Owen discovered that he was big enough to climb out of his travel cot! Good fun for him, but bad news for us. How were we going to get him to go to sleep? In the end we had to post a "guard" in Owen's field of view. That was enough to keep him in his cot long enough for him to succumb to his tiredness.

Another feature of Canberra is the Cockington Green Gardens. It's a garden that features miniature buildings from around the world. Owen was most attracted to the things that moved - like this miniature train.

Two Years Old

Wow, 2 months without a post. A bit embarrasing, really. Well, we can't pass Owen's 2 year milestone without a few photos and videos.

Lets start the weekend before his birthday. We had been umming and aahing about whether to baptise Owen, or simply have a dedication service (Christians have long argued about whether or not to baptise infants). Finally we decided, and on the Sunday before his birthday, Owen got baptised. He wasn't at all bothered by the water (hooray for swimming lessons!), or the attention. As soon as it was over, he ran straight off the to the back room to play with the other kids.

On Owen's actual birthday (mid week), Nathan was sick with a tummy bug and stayed in bed all day. It wasn't such a loss, as he would have otherwise been at work anyway. Owen shared a dinosaur cake with his friends at playgroup. He really loves dinosaurs, courtesy of Dorothy the (rose eating) dinosaur, one of the wiggles' ensemble characters; and the "Stomp Dino, Stomp" Play School song.

Owen joined in with gusto to sing happy birthday to himself. Happy Birthday is one of the many songs in his repertoire, and he usually follows with a slightly incorrect, but very cute "hiccup hooray".

By Saturday, Nathan was better, and the whole family went to ride on the miniature steam trains. Click here to watch. This train club is only 10 minutes walk from us, and has rides once a month. It's very popular, especially for birthday parties. No wonder - at $1 per ride, it's a bargain!


To top it off, on Sunday we took Owen on a bike ride to Eastwood. Eastwood has lots of asian grocery shops and restaurants. Here is Owen relishing a Dan (egg) Tart. MMMMmmm... a perfect end to a perfect birthday week!

A few videos to enjoy

We've been putting a few videos on youtube over the past two months http://www.youtube.com/naithjo, but nothing on our blog. Here are a few links to the videos to give you a bit of on update on what's been happening with Owen recently.

First is a video of owen eating one of his new favourite foods - corn. Other recent additions to the list of motivational tools include Kiwi fruit, and his first favourite meat - chicken. For some reason he has never been a meat man until the past two weeks. Probably because he's now got a full complement of teeth.

Physically, Owen has launched himself (literally) into a new league. Here is Owen's first jump. He has also started to use some of his well practiced dance moves to charm the ladies.

Here is a taste of what Owen sounds like - including one of his not infrequent tantrums.

Western Plains Zoo (Dubbo)

While we were in Germany it was interesting to note that alot of people have travelled around the world as tourists, but have hardly seen their "back yard" of local destinations. For example when we visited Prague, a very popular tourist destination in the Czech Republic, about 5 hours by train from where we were living, we were suprised that hardly any of the locals had been there. Typical comment: "Never been there, but I've heard it's nice". But it's also the same for us. When Germans told us that they've been to Australia, they talk about all these places we've never been to!

Now that we've got Owen, we'll probably do a lot more local travel than we did before, and in May we did just that. So where could we go that is 5 hours away from Sydney? We chose Dubbo.

On our way there, we stopped at a few towns. At one of them, Owen discovered Autumn leaves. Since this time, whenever he sees a leaf on the ground, he'll want to bend down, pick it up, show it to you, and tell you "LEAF!".


You get stiff sitting in the car for so long, so while we were at this particular park, Nathan decided to get some exercise. Owen was delighted!



Because we got into Dubbo so late, the easiest thing to do was get a takeaway dinner. As a result, Owen had his first taste of pizza and lasagna. Country towns are not renowned for their food. This was the worst Italian food we have ever tasted!


The main attraction at Dubbo is the Western Plains Zoo. It's quite a large zoo, and they've made an effort to avoid obtrusive fences.


Instead, they use water, hills and low fences to keep the people away from the animals (or is it to keep the animals from the people?).



They had a few life sized animal sculptures around, which made for some good photos.



There is the real thing...



But actually, Owen wasn't that interested in the live animals. He'd take notice for a few seconds, and then be much more amused by the other kids running around.



One of the really close encounters was feeding a Giraffe from a high platform. As you can see HERE, Owen was a bit scared, and was pretty keen to eat the carrot himself!

Finally, another video. We stayed in a motel in Dubbo, and because it was a strange place, Owen kept crying in the night. To avoid complaints from our neighbours (the walls are very thin), we let Owen sleep in our bed. Owen must have liked the idea of using the "big" things, and so when he got this chance, he couldn't resist.

Playland

Yesterday, Nathan took Owen to Playland to meet up with the other mums and kids from our church playgroup. Playland is a cafe with lots of play equipment, where mums (and a few dads) take their bubs for an outing. It's a great idea, because full time parents can go there, let their kids wander, and meet up with their friends over coffee to have adult conversations for once.

Owen loved it! We were there for 2 hours, and Owen didn't stop the whole time.

Owen loves slides, and he spent most of his time on this slide. The main advantage of this one compared to others he's used, is that he can climb up easily without assistance. The stairs are sloped, and well sized for his little legs. That meant he could keep going without boring mum or dad, and that's exactly what he did. He must have done it more than 30 times.

There was this HUGE climbing maze in one corner. It's great for kids older than Owen, however with dad's help (a bit squashy!), Owen was able to navigate it. Here's Owen on a kind of tight rope quite high up. He's not scared at all - well, there IS a net on each side!

And finally, the highlight of the day - the BIG SLIDE. The entrance was at the top of the climbing maze, and as you can see, Owen thought it was great! Dad thought it was not bad, either.

It's a flat entry fee for the whole day, but by the end of the 2 hours, Owen decided to have a lie down in the middle of the play area. That was a sure sign he'd had enough. Into the stroller, and a few minutes later he was asleep!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We had our first comment on our blog today (thanks Peter and Martina), which spurred us on to finish this blog entry. It's been slow recently, as we've had a spate of illness. First Nathan had the flu, which he promptly passed to both Jo and Owen. To add insult to injury, Owen ended up with an ear infection. We're now pretty much better, with just a few sniffles here and there. The weather here in Sydney has been very wet and windy, which doesn't help things.

Owen is 19 months old now, and you can see more and more of his personality coming through. We wonder if what we see now can give a clue as to what Owen will want to do when he gets older.

Like father, like son? Nathan is an Engineer, and Owen might have leanings this way as well. A few months ago, Jo found that the DVD RCA cables were plugged in incorrectly. She was a bit puzzled, until a few days later she found Owen trying to "fix" the cabling. What about a handyman? Owen wanted to work on his high chair after Dad had a go, as you can see here.

They say you should do something you love. If that's the case, Owen should consider being a chef. As we've mentioned previously, food has been a great motivator for Owen to learn how to speak. Even now, the majority of his words are associated with food! Food has also motivated Owen to advance physically. An incentive for Owen to learn to climb the cupboards was to be able to reach the fruit bowl! Here's Owen after a successful raid, and then a look at what's leftover. As they say, waste not, want not! Owen's not always so efficient with his food. If he doesn't like it, or if he's full, it's thrown on the floor!

Even though we haven't intentionally taught him, Owen loves to count to ten, and his favourite number seems to be "8", which he always says with gusto. Maybe his interest in numbers means he will want to be a mathemetician? He's got a way to go, through. He tends to skip "5" - maybe he wants to get to "8" more quickly.

Maybe he'll work in a call centre (although his job opportunities are limited because he's not Indian). He loves talking on the phone. With some people he's actually more talkative on the phone than in person. Here he is talking to "Paw Paw" (the chinese way of saying Grandma).

Back to Germany

Nathan went back to Germany for a few weeks in April (for work). He stayed with friends from the Leipzig English Church - Jeff and Wendy. Here they are posing during a visit to a castle a few hours drive from Leipzig.


So what had changed in Leipzig? One of the first things that Nathan noticed was a new ice cream shop - "Australian Homemade Premium Ice Cream and Chocolate". Australian ice cream and chocolate? He was quite intrigued and had to find out more. The shopkeeper only spoke German, and all Nathan understood was that the founder of the chain (from the Netherlands) had an auntie who lived in "The Outback" and came up with the special ice cream recipe, whilst the chocolate comes from Belgium and has nothing to do with Australia. There is a website that doesn't explain any further. Nathan dutifully taste tested the ice cream (didn't taste particularly Australian!), and then bought a block of the chocolate. It was only on returning to Australia that he found out there is a branch of the chain in Pitt St Mall, Sydney!

Other than that, most things were the same. When not working, Nathan spent alot of time catching up with our old friends. Jo was quite jealous that she couldn't be there also.

It was "Raps" flowering season in Germany. Rapeseed oil (Canola oil is from the same family) is used in Germany to create Biodiesel. It's really taken off, and is commonly mixed with standard diesel or sold as pure biodiesel. In order to supply the oil, many of the fields around Germany have been growing Raps, and the yellow flowers are quite spectacular.

Wow, this was a completely Owen free post! Must be because he was stuck in Australia during the trip. Don't worry, the next post will make up for this. By the way, we've added the ability to post comments on our blog, as well as to have a "Feed". Not sure how well they are going to work, but please feel free to try them out.

Whistling while you work

How old were you when you first learnt how to whistle? Nathan's dad whistled alot, so Nathan learnt pretty early - sometime in primary school. Jo learnt in high school, but she can't whistle a tune - except for those consisting of one note.

Well, Owen whistled before he was 17 months old. We didn't teach him - he just accidentally did it one day... and kept doing it! Want proof? Click Here to see the video. He hasn't yet overtaken his mum - he too can only whistle one note...

We're very proud that our son has learnt this important life skill so early in life. Unfortunately this isn't a sign of universal genius or precociousness. Here's Owen trying to use a spoon at 15 months.

Maybe he's just a typical male. Low on manners, big on building things (and whistling while he works). Click here to see him stacking pretty well at 14 months... and then knocking them over again. Another male trait?

Do you remember the Bumbo? Owen doesn't need it to sit up anymore, but it's fun watching his method (learnt by trial and error) of getting into it. Have a look here. Again, his persistence is evident.

Finally, a trait most interesting. The stubborn insistence that he is right. We have been trying to teach Owen to call us mummy and daddy. He's happy to call Jo mum, but as far as he can tell, everyone calles Nathan "Naith". Because he often loses the last sylable when talking (final consonant deletion is the technical term), Nathan is simply "Nay". It doesn't matter how much we tell him, he refuses to call Nathan anything else! I guess this is quite an admirable characteristic in this case - since he is, in fact, right! We don't have a video of this yet, but we hope to put one in the next post.

Harbour Bridge Walk

A few weeks ago, one of the most famous icons of Sydney turned 75 years old - the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To celebrate, the bridge was closed to cars, and open to pedestrians. In order to avoid overcrowding, you had to register and book a time to cross.

We walked across with our friends Fu, Christine and Alysha.


Here's Owen at one of the few times when he was willing to wear his special (free) commemorative cap.


You never know. Maybe in 75 years, this will be Owen with his own sign.

Dancing Baby, and other Owen Antics

Time flies when you're having fun! Haven't gotten around to posting for over 1 month now, and what a difference a month makes! In our last post, you saw Owen taking his first tentative steps. Now, he's a speed demon!

Click here for a video of Owen pushing his German Lernlaufwagen (= learning to walk wagon).

Here's another one with Owen showing his eye-hand coordination - hitting balloons with a fly swatter. This is one of the things he learnt to do at Gymbaroo - a baby fitness centre. It's fun for the kids, but Jo says it's more like a mother fitness centre, with the (mostly) mums chasing and carrying their kids all over the place. Roger Federer watch out - we have the makings of a tennis champion here!

Owen has lots of fun at his swimming lessons. Here he is
doing an underwater torpedo or two.

Some of you will remember a craze a few years ago, where people would create computer animations of dancing babies . We don't need any animations - we've got the real thing every day! Owen loves to dance to music (he especially likes a CD of German music given to Nathan as a farewell gift by one of his German colleagues), to the movie Shall we Dance , and most of all, to the Wiggles ! Here's a sample.

His favourite pastime at the moment is climbing stairs . Up or down, it doesn't matter. Owen is showing a great deal of determination and stubborness - he'll go up and down steps continually, seemingly in an attempt to get it "just right".

With all this activity, it's no suprise that Owen occassionally falls asleep at the dinner table,






or on the floor!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Nathan had time off between Christmas and new year, which means a week and a half break from work!

We miss the winter Christmas, but at least this year it hasn't been a scorcher like previous years - it was quite pleasant most of the time, with a bit of rain here and there. Most of the Christmas traditions in Sydney are taken from Europe, however there's one that certainly didn't come from anywhere in Europe that has snow. It's decorating your house in Christmas lights. Some people go to quite elaborate lengths and spend thousands of dollars doing up their houses, and there is a spot not far from us where the whole street is decorated. In our street there are only two serious contendors, shown here.

We know the residents of one of these houses, and they are encouraging us to join the fun. No success so far, but they have managed to persuade another of our neighbours to make a start... Maybe next year.

For Christmas, we spent lunch with Nathan's family at his parents place, and dinner with Jo's family at our house. Here's a photo of some of the relatives on Nathan's side of the family. Nathan with three of his (male) cousins, with a total of 7 sons and 1 daughter!

At our place, we played with a homemade set of Kubb. What's Kubb? It's supposed to be a viking war game that Jeff (friend in Leipzig) introduced to us at our farewell picnic. It was a great hit at the picnic especially with the kids. You throw sticks at the wooden blocks (soldiers) to knock them down (kill them).

Jo wanted to buy a set for Nathan, but someone said that it was easy and cheaper to make a set yourself. Nathan (foolishly?) decided he would take the hard route and make a set. After a few weeks of trying to get the right sized wood pieces (which he never found), buying a new saw, relearning how to be a carpenter (3 years of wood work in high school finally came in handy!) he finally did it! It was Nathan, Jo, Nessy (Jo's sister) and hubby Jack verses Jo's parents and Jack's parents. Guess who won? We won't say, because we don't want anyone to get a big head. The photo is an action shot of Jo's dad making a throw.

Between Christmas and New Year, we were quite busy. We went to the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Taronga Park Zoo. We also had a German style board games evening, which was lots of fun! Oh yeah, we went to see a movie in a cinema (Happy Feet) - our first in over 18 months!

We didn't do anything special for new years. We watched the "kids" fireworks on TV at 21:00, and went to sleep before the main event. The Sydney fireworks are more spectacular than the ones in Leipzig, but in Leipzig everyone gets front row seats. We like the Leipzig version better!

Okay, here's your Owen fix. Another video of Owen walking, but a bit more confident than last time. Unfortunately he has a painful "donk" at the end!


PS: Actually, it was the oldies who won Kubb. It wasn't a fluke either - they beat us fair and square, two games to nil!