Update

We are well apart from the usual rounds of coughs and colds that come with babies. I had two in a fortnight including while we were away in Falls Creek. Our longest break away for ages! Yes, it was a long drive from Sydney but we stopped frequently, except when Ryan was asleep, and stayed overnight in Canberra.

The parents-in-law have both retired and are gallivanting all over the place. Before skiing with us they went to Queensland and have now gone to visit their other grandson in Indiana. The grandson, Murray is only 10 days older than Ryan. His parents are going to use up their US annual leave to travel with them. I'm envious of the travel. We'd like to go to NZ next year but we have to book it or it'll never happen.

My Mum retires at Christmas so my parents may spend more time with Ryan soon.
He's just stayed overnight with them for the first time so we could go out to dinner for my birthday.

He's very engaging at 18 months. New words and actions appear on a daily basis. It's very easy to get him to laugh and it's infectious.

Falls Creek

HPIM1212
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Ryan with JennyG's riding parka for waterproofing.

Skiing

We went away for a week with the in-laws to Falls Creek via Canberra, ostensibly to ski. The season was as bad as we've ever seen it so the four of us only skiied two half days each, taking it in turns to look after Ryan. We did a few walks with him in normal shoes - no snow boots necessary.

Walking and weaning

Ryan stopped breast feeding and started walking in the same week at the end of May. He is almost up to running. He loves swings (laughs delightedly) and went down the slippery slide backwards by himself several times today, very happy with himself. This despite me waking him up prematurely and having a cold.
We were all counted on the Australian census tonight. The online form worked very well.

Conversation all gone dry

My skills in this area were never the best but now they seem to have deserted me. Probably something to do with spending all my time in the company of a person who's verbal output consists of a parroting of animal noises. I say 'baa' he says 'baa'. My Dad claims he said 'out' the other day but he hasn't repeated it. Any suggestions for conversational enhancement accepted.
Ryan, said boy, is now one and is content to get about on all fours, especially with knees up bum in air. He's in no hurry to walk unaided, which is fine by me. He's fast enough already. And he's usually a very happy smiling companion.