my folks proved that once a parent, always a parent and parents will do anything they can for their babies... getting to australia takes a long time, so when you come, you stay for awhile and try to tour the country as much as possible. mom and dad had wisely considered a trip to the tropics in northern queensland (a delightful change from chilly south australia and our poorly insulated home - you can't be a softie from colorado and expect to survive here; though colorado is in fact quite a bit farther away from the ol' equator than south aus). anyway, they very sweetly and readily deferred the adventure when i asked them to stay the entire time with us in adelaide. so, canon's grandma gardner was here for his first major milestone - birth! - and gran whitehurst fielded his first smiles and coos. success!
we did a lot of other stuff too, though...
first meeting
went to the "show" (i.e. fair) and checked out a lot of farm animals
had so much fun that we passed out on grandaddy's shoulder at the show - that's not the first (or last) time dad has had to carry one of his sleeping baby girls on his shoulder
most of you know that canon's middle name is heysen, after south australian painter and naturalist hans heysen. herr heysen's home, "the cedars", is in hahndorf - a small town in the adelaide hills that was settled by german immigrants. to commemorate canon's birth and middle-namesake, we went spent a night in hahndorf and toured the grounds at "the cedars". mom and dad gave canon (but we get to enjoy it for now) a heysen chalk and charcoal print of red gum trees and a beautiful book that portrays many of his paintings.
trying to learn something from the tour guide at the cedars (i look focused, but most of the talk was unable to penetrate my nursing-mom bubble of duh-dom) (for those of you who are parents and used to consider yourselves witty and intelligent, you'll like how i blamed mental dullness on nursing - as if it all comes back when you stop...)
we spent a long weekend in victor harbor, enjoying the beach, whale watching and visiting pertaringa vineyard in mclaren vale on the way home.
canon's first flight... although born here, canon does not get dual citizenship (although he does have a very cool birth certificate with kookaburras, kangaroos, emus, etc on it), so we flew to melbourne (for the day) to go to the US consulate (because there is no consulate in adelaide - a CAPITAL CITY. sheesh.) to apply for his passport and report "an american birth abroad". the upswing was that he slept for a REALLY long time in his car seat after we got home, and thus began his current tenure as a "baby-that-gets-put-down-for-the-night-in-his-car-seat". hope he doesn't grow out of it too soon...
a visit to cleland wildlife park - where one can get his/her australian fauna fix - to pet the koala and feed the kangaroos.
boy, did i dress him like a boy or what!? for memory's sake: this was at the south australian national footy league grand premier where the norwood redlegs lost (boo hoo!) to the central bulldogs (those bogans!). tough day.
mom and dad FINALLY got some nice weather - on their last day! spring can be so catty! - so we visited semaphore (an adelaide beach and suburb) and...
it was sad to see mom and dad go (and frightening as i am now responsible for BOTH kids ALONE for four days of the week. how is this legal?!) but as always, SO much fun. and happily, we will be - pay attention here! - in UT/CO/NM for six weeks over christmas holidays. those are going to be some seriously ugly tele turns, but seeing family and friends will be beautiful!
a few more pics... (because there's just not enough, are there?)
he looks as big as she does! (actually, at three months, he already weighs more than nova did at six months! that explains the back - and neck and shoulder - pain)
nice boots, cowgirl.
cheers all.
