Missing in Action

We finally made it out to Melbourne despite all the false starts and the kids not being well. And now we're back. We're well rested but this time there wasn't a bath tub in sight for milk baths so there was a lot of dumping of milk which cause the VERY pro-breastfeeding mother community there to bug their eyes while I nonchanlantly poured milk away into the sinks of nursing rooms. As with all trips when there is finally time for reflection and the mind isn't running on auto-pilot, some revelations crystallize. One of those revelations was that I have a threshold of about a week before I start being whiny about missing the kids and being irrationally paranoid that the kids would punish me for being away. Another revelation, well, it's not a new one but it's one that slaps me right in the fact every time we're in a country with a cooler climate is that Packrat metamorphoses into a different person, a happier and cheerier person. And since the kids take after him favouring cooler temperatures, well, me too (though my moods are not as extreme),the question is SHOULD WE MOVE?

But that ability to ponder and possibly turn it into reality remains a flight of fancy because, well, it's taken me 5 days to find time to sit down and write this, much less think about things that are potentially logistical nightmares! Maybe it's part guilt, maybe it's because I'm more rested and up to the challenge of the kids but I've been more busy with them than ever. In part, it's also to do with all the high jinks they manage to get up to now and marvelling at how much they've grown in the last 10 days.

They now are able to communicate better and their personalities come through quite clearly. Even though Packrat laments that they're not rational beings yet, they are beginning to understand more and it is infuriating and amusing at the same time.

Both children now understand what NO means. "No touching the fan", "No pulling the wire" etc. It elicits a loud cry of displeasure and often is followed by the stamping of their little feet.

Jordan knows how to point and grunt imploringly, steering whoever is carrying her to where she wants to head.

Evan is able to fling balls forward, spending a great amount of his time, squatting down to pick up his plastic balls and fling them one by one or two by two out of his playpen.

But the biggest achievement of all and possibly the most liberating for them is their new found freedom to walk unassisted. Of course, my impetuous daughter always ends up in a run, propels herself forward faster than her balance allows, causing her to trip and fall. That ends up in tears of complaint to everyone around before she picks up where she left off. Her little brother is more cautious and uses his arms for balance. His walking reminds me of how I used to mark out ballet steps in the studio. The feet were always more complicated and the arms always got in the way so marking out steps often involved me holding my arms over my head while working out the feet. The boy does the exact same thing. Arms raised high, as if surrendering and tottering around at full speed with a big grin on his face.

We're very proud of them though. At 11 months, wings on their feet. It's that or talking and I guess since they've started with the walking, the talking will come later. Right now, there are some consonant and vowel sounds and a whole lot of grunting. Communicative imperious grunting but grunting nonetheless.

















































They seem to also like the both of us a whole lot better now that we've been away and we're back. My only concern is that it is getting progressively harder to leave them because they're more cognizant and more able to emotionally blackmail us. We think what might happen is we'll still vacation on our own but we'll vacation with them too. Progressively, our getaways will become shorter and holidays with them longer but that'll be when they stop with the grunting and start with the speaking. We agreed that the first place we take them to should be Perth where the weather is mild and there are open spaces for them to run around.

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