20 December 2010

Home, with No House

20101220 Demolished!

I've had a few requests for a photo of our demolished house.  How does one photograph something that's not there?  Here is a shot of the cleared land -- we've visited it a few times to marvel at the emptiness.  David took some photos while it was disappearing in the week of demolition, but I was out of town and missed the whole thing.

On a different note, I created something recently -- a crocheted slipcover for my Sony Reader, combining my two latest interests.  It's fantastic that it's exactly what I want, in colors that I chose, and was so fast to make. (I can attest that crochet is way faster than knitting!)

Reader case

Half on Holiday

This weekend we had holiday fever mixed with Christmas colds (three of us have sore throats and coughs to varying degrees, with more to succumb, I'm sure).  I also made an absurd attempt to finish off some project work before Monday, futile since not much time is left in the working year.  Anya and Callum were hanging around me while I worked, so I now have a piece of scratch paper with a mixture of work annotations and kiddie drawings.  It was surprisingly not too hard to work and play at the same time, probably because my project involves tweaking a computer model that goes very slowly.

In the afternoon, I tried to teach Anya to crochet, but realised she's still too young.  Left with a half-started project, I amused myself in the late evening by making it into a finger puppet.  No pattern, I just experimented with shaping it using different stitches, making loops for the ears, and finishing with a tuft on top.  It looks vaguely like a Fraggle to me.  I sewed buttons on for the nose & eyes this morning, and Callum has named it "Fa-fa."  Anya naturally has requested one for herself, so a blue cat puppet is in the works.

We've started some new games lately -- Spin the Bottle (at dinnertime), great for getting lots of kisses -- and Treasure Hunt, where we take turns being the treasure hider.  Callum absolutely loves finding the items, and Anya loves giving us extremely specific hints on where to look for her hides.  As with Hide and Seek, they both have yet to learn how to really hide and find things, but I prefer it that way -- less likely to lose them when we're out and about!

Some sweet moments from this weekend:

Callum sidled up to me, hooked his arm around my neck to help himself onto my lap, and said, "We're best friends, aren't we, Mum?"  (My heart melts and sizzles like butter on a griddle...)

Anya wrote "I love you Mum and Dad and Grama and Callum" on our fridge's whiteboard, right behind me, then delightedly pointed out the surprise message to me.  (Later, she got cross with me about something, and erased "Mum" from the message.  But this morning I noticed I was reinstated.)

I invited Anya to sit with me on the bed for movie time because Callum was pestering her too much on the couch.  The next thing I knew, both kids were nestled on either side of me, and I got a great 45 minute snuggle.  David also joined us for part of the movie viewing, but unfortunately, he mostly got Callum rolling restlessly around over him -- lots of bottom and feet action.  I had to threaten Callum with banishment so he would settle down.  Meanwhile, by movie's end, Anya had fallen asleep in her cosy position.

16 December 2010

School's Out, Summer's In

This week is the first week of holidays -- Anya has finished her first year of school.  Anya and Callum have still been going off each day, Anya to vacation care (a whole day at the pool! another day at the movies!) and Callum to his daycare (same old same old, but with tinsel on top).  This being Thursday, it's "Grandma Day," when my mother-in-law looks after Callum.  It's been a long time since Anya has stayed home for a Grandma Day, so both kids have been looking forward to it a lot.

This morning I heard Callum running down the hall, yelling joyfully, "Yay!  It's Grandma Day!"

Yes, Grandma Day is celebrated with as much enthusiasm as birthdays and Easter and Christmas, round these parts.  Meanwhile, here are some exciting bits that happened from an adult viewpoint:

  • Our old house was knocked down in early November.  It was sad to see it go, but we'll have a bigger house in a great location as a result (and custom designed by yours truly!)  We had hoped to see construction start before Christmas, but apparently the plans have still not been approved by council.
  • We had our first summery beach weekend a while ago, and our friends Wayne & Jacqui came up to join in.  Finally, sun and sand!  The weather has stayed unusually cool for this time of year until recently.
  • Bronwyn & I won Runner-up in the Overall Winner category, at the Annual Artforce Awards for the traffic signal box we painted this year.  I made sure to acknowledge Anya's contribution to the TSB design (the little creatures by the dreaming woman's head).  She was quite pleased that I got her to stand up for the audience, I think.
  • I attended a conference dinner by the dolphin enclosure at Sea World -- not only did we have dolphins swimming next to us all through dinner, they performed before and after the meal!  It was magical...  I was rapt for days afterward.
  • My company's tenth anniversary luncheon was held at the Sydney Opera House -- our global HQ is in Denmark, the Opera House was designed by a Dane, and the Danish ambassador came to the luncheon to celebrate with us.  I believe even Oprah (who apparently is now in Australia) didn't stage her event at the Opera House, but at a nearby location.  However, she did have Russell Crowe swing in... as well as Hugh Jackman... (I would have liked that!)