Vertical is the New Horizontal

(Subtitle: You Can't Keep a Good Man Down)

What a difference a week makes! Last weekend Zach was mostly content to sit on the floor and play with toys or crawl around the living room to look for his books. When we offered, he would hold onto our fingers and stand or walk with varying amounts of enthusiasm, but otherwise had no interest in pulling himself up to standing. Then on the morning of Christmas Eve, Mom got quite a startle when she walked into Zach's room early in the morning to find this:



Zach standing up in his cot! We have no idea how he figured out how to do this, although Dad claims to have taught him the basic steps to accomplish it. The problem with this new skill is that he promptly crawls up the side of his cot every time he is put down for a nap or at bedtime and now refuses to go to sleep. He almost fell asleep standing up the other night!



Now he is pulling himself up to standing with every opportunity he gets.

Too easy, as they say down here.

With his vertical accomplishments, he's also discovering new places to play. (Our life has just gotten a whole lot more challenging!)

As you can see, he's quite pleased with himself.

Human development is absolutely amazing!

(Laura, thanks for the great title for this post!)

Christmas day

Wishing a very Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

Christmas day started with Santa leaving presents by the fire place since he couldn't find our tree. Pine trees are hard to come by in this part of the world.

Zach enjoyed opening his presents and playing with all his new books and the new toy Santa left for him. Even the wrapping paper was fun to play with for a while.

Then it was off to to join friends for a traditional turkey dinner outside on the patio.

Zach enjoyed the turkey and pumpkin (squash), but his favorites were the dinner rolls that dad made (a.k.a., Brett's buns) and the blueberries for dessert.

Like any Christmas meal we all ate way too much food and needed a good walk around the lake to make room for traditional English Christmas pudding.

It also gave us a chance to marvel at the spectacular sunset on our Christmas Down Under.

Night Before Christmas....

Christmas Eve arrived on a hot summer day. The only way to make it feel like Christmas was for Zach to wear his Santa hat, but it was mostly too hot for that. Actually Christmas Eve was a perfectly beautiful, warm evening, and we enjoyed sharing the experience of celebrating together. Rather than eating lutefisk, lefse, and Swedish meatballs this year for dinner, we had juicy hamburgers, potato salad fresh from the garden, and a cold home brew. After dinner, Zach went outside to pick tomatoes to leave for Santa Claus.

Then we headed out to the golf course so Dad could play a few holes.



As Dad's caddie, Zach tried giving a few pointers on his swing.

But he got a little distracted by his bright red Santa hat.

After watching the sunset on the golf course, we all headed inside so Zach could open up his first Christmas present.

Mom and Dad were easily entertained by their little Santa.

We then read "An Aussie Night Before Christmas" before bedtime which has Santa driving a rusty old ute pulled by eight kangaroos and ends with "Merry Christmas to all and good on ya mates!"

Lil' Santa

Zach has been busy with the Shepparton holiday party circuit this week. He did a fabulous job entertaining the grown-ups at the party hosted by our friend's Merry and Gary at their sheep station. Looks like Santa is a lot smaller and younger this year!

Zach loved Glenn's Christmas tie, especially when he pushed the button to make the lights on the tree light up.

And he tried his hardest to sample the local beer. (We told him it wasn't worth it.) As you can see, Zach certainly seems to be in the holiday spirit, even if there is no snow!

Beast Loves Blueberries and Baths

Zach's new found independence and increasing mobility keeps Dad on his toes all day long. Dad sometimes has to take drastic measures to tame the little beast!

But what a joyful (and charming) little beast he is!

Grrrr. He happens to love his blue basket......If only he could learn to put his toys in it when he is done playing with them!



He also loves blueberries. We can hardly keep enough stocked in our refrigerator. Fortunately blueberries are in season right now.

On several evenings this week, Zach crawled from the kitchen directly to the bathroom after dinner. He had decided that it was time for a bath and was very insistent that we turn on the bath water. The boy loves his baths!

Southern Summer Soltice

While those of you in the northern hemisphere celebrate this time of year by hibernating, we celebrated our first southern summer soltice with a barbecue with friends. It was a warm and balmy evening filled with lots of laughter, food, and fabulous wine.

We ended the night by singing Christmas carols around the piano. It felt very strange to be singing "Let it Snow" and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"! The words to an Aussie Jingle Bells are a little more appropriate: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way; Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer day! " We're looking forward to it!

Zach was the life of the party, singing along with the grown-ups. He even had his first go at tickling the ivories. We think he's a natural!

Wine Glass Bay

While in Tasmania last month we took a hike to beautiful Wine Glass Bay, a protected cove of deep turquoise water framed by a crescent of fine white sand that has been listed as one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world by people who rate these sorts of things. It was a cloudy day but the scenery was amazing and the rain held off until we finished the hike.

Grandpa led the way up the rocky path (and admired the stone work).



The boys stop to take in the views from the trail.

Wine Glass Bay from the overlook halfway up the trail. The view was motivation make it to the bottom!

And boy was the hike worth it!

Lunch on the beach....that's sand, not snow!



Zach made the views even nicer to look at.

Zach and Dad hamming it up on the beach. He loves hiking in his backpack.



But by mid-afternoon, he just couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

Meanwhile, the grown ups finished off an incredible day with a platter of fresh oysters and mussels, the freshest and tastiest we have ever eaten! Wow, what a day!

Great Ocean Road

One of the most spectacular drives in Australia is along the Great Ocean Road, which follows the southern coastline to the southwest of Melbourne. We have made the windy trek three times now. Once on our first trip Down Under three years ago and once with each set of grandparents. Zach loved the attention and the grandparents loved the vistas of the rugged coastline. The pictures speak for themselves. We hope to do the drive one more time before our time here is up. We just need more visitors to give us an excuse to go again....

A double rainbow to entice us at the start of our drive with Grandma and Grandpa Maki on October.

The scenery was breath-taking but the October weather was a little blustery.

Zach managed to stay warm with kisses from Mom.

The Maki clan enjoyed the beach and sandstone cliffs.



The weather on our trip in November with Grandma and Grandpa Loge was a little more mild.



The scenery was just as spectacular.

Grandma enjoyed the beach with Zach; he enjoyed the string on her rain coat.



Zach's perch from Grandpa's shoulders puts Grandma's hair within his reach!

Aussie (Animated) Animalia

Here are a few short clips of animals in action:

Run, wombat, run!

Hang on tight little koala!

It's so hard to sit still when there is oregano to pick and books to eat! Hang on tight Grandma or Zach might run away!

Aussie Animalia

Ask Zach's grandparents (both sets) what they enjoyed most about their travels Down Under and they'll probably tell you "the animals." Zach, of course, is included in the animal category.

The kangaroos were abundant but a little camera shy.

The koalas were a favorite, balancing in the gum trees with babies clinging to their mums.

The wombats were digging for golf balls, at least this one was.

The wallabies were curious about Zacharoo.

The joeys were too.



And the little penguins were exactly as advertised--little and cute.