Home again, home again

We're back! In Australia. Have found a new place to live, and whilst small, is fine for what we need it for - shelter, warmth, a place to put a bed etc. It's all a bit crap, what with being used to living in the Howard Street Palace, with two bathrooms, three toilets, 4 bedrooms and a new kitchen - but it will serve our purposes nicely. It's a bit like being back in studentville though - we really have been spoiled by Sheila and Gerard, who let us live at Howard St for years - our skylight leaks, our bathroom has inconveniently placed washing machine taps (right in front of the toilet, so that if you hook up the washer you can't use the toilet), the carpet used to be cream, and the kitchen is really just a room for the sink (not much else fits). And there's a cat from somewhere down the street who thinks HE owns the joint. I was startled to wake up the other night to the sound of him head butting the bedroom window trying to get in (he has his special custom cat hole in the flyscreen, but the window was sadly closed), and he stared at me for a good half hour today through the kitchen door, and when I opened up to say hello he hissed at me and tried to smack me with his paw.


Manny is doing really well and we are starting to get him into some semblence of a routine. He has grown - as you can see from the photos. He now weighs somewhere around 5.6kgs and has outgrown nearly all of his socks and bootees - save the ones that Joey and Baerin gave us, which are cute little ug boots and perfect for this chilly weather (ta guys!). Have discovered (much to the chagrin of the anti-dummy brigade - of which, I must admit, I used to be part of) that Manny quite likes a dummy, which is great for us all - he is happy and we don't have to listen to a crying baby. Also, if I wrap him so tightly that he can't move, it's like anaesthesia. Thanks, Tans (who told me that I HAD to wrap the baby).





We have just received a new pram from Matt's ma and pa and aunty Fiona, for which we are very grateful. Prior to this, we had been using a pram that Dad had found on the side of the road, and while perfectly good (aside from a spot of dirt, non - swivel turning, a wayward wheel and a turning circle the size of a semi-trailer), it is nice to have a new one. Up the street from where we live, people had not seen a pram like the old one since about 1984. All things in fashion being cyclical, we are probably due for a bit of 1984 pram fashion-action, so I am keeping it just in case (Dad would only find it again if I put it out on the road - other things are cyclical too).



Well, there isn't too much to say. Even though a lot has happened for us in the past 3 weeks, much of it is hardly noteworthy, mostly about getting back into the groove. We are starting to look for a house to buy... all very grown up.