Ball skills

Grandma thinks I am getting so coordinated

and strong too! (This is a bowling ball, you know.)

Get ready for a lightning pass!

Aunty Allison - she works me so hard at practice, but then she lets me have a rest. Phew!

There's work to be done!

Great Grandpa and I had lots of work to do in the garden today.

Patches is a bit jealous of me 'cos I get all the attention now.

Great Grandma and I had to sit and rest after all the hard work picking corn and driving the tractor.

I'm in your chair, daddy!

I bounced back to life after 6 hours of sleep last night.

I can hear you daddy, but where are you?

Bath time in the kitchen sink is so much fun! I even let mum finally wipe my dirty nose.

Aunty Allison says I have great ball skills.

We played while mum slept all afternoon.

I made a real mess of your old high chair!

Mum gave me some yummy pasta and then I fed myself some cantaloupe (that's rockmelon I think) and zucchini from Grandma's garden.

Mmm, yum!

I miss you.

But that's OK, 'cos Zucchini rocks!!!

Yeah!

I got so filthy, I had to have another bath!

I thought I might help do the dishes while I was at it.

Grandma's embarrassed. She doesn't want this picture on the blog.

When I was all clean I got to have cuddle with Great Grandma to end the day.

Daddy, we made it!

It's 4:15am Saturday morning and we're at Perth Airport waiting for the ticket counter to open to get our new tickets. Because of delayed flights we're now going to Sydney and Los Angeles on the way to Chicago rather than through Tokyo.

We were one of the last onto our flight to Sydney because when they re-booked our tickets they sort of forgot about Elijah. He needed a ticket too! But we made it and the kind air hostesses let us move to the only three vacant seats on the flight and we had lots of room.

After a 3:30am start, it was great that Elijah got some sleep on that flight.

Now we're on the plane from Sydney to LA. We had a really bad seat to start with, but then they moved us to a bulkhead seat with a spare one for Elijah. The Qantas staff were fantastic!

This is not a great picture, but as you can see, Elijah is sprawled across the lap of a very kind farmer from New Zealand. We're on our way to Chicago and Elijah has had a bit of sleep on the plane after having had a mini-breakdown in the LA airport. (I found out that a tired, screaming baby attracts a lot of compassionate looks and offers of help from bystanders and ground staff. We got escorted to the front of the very, very long Immigration queue. Poor Elijah had just had enough by this stage.)

Here's Grandpa calling Dad to tell him we made it. We were warmly welcomed by family in Chicago and Elijah took to them straight away. He was a bit stunned and tired and just wanted to cuddle.

Grandma, please tell me it's all over and I can home to your place and sleep!

Our trip to Perth

Playing at Nana's

Emily and Jason

Thomas, Elijah and Campbell Bishop

Aunty Pip

Relaxing on the couch with Aunty Pip and ?

Thomas is reading and Elijah is cheering on the baby inside Aunty Pip. Come on baby cousin! Come join me in the world!

We're praying for you Pip. 41 weeks and counting!

Melinda

While in Perth we visited Melinda McKerney. We didn't get to see the rest of her family but it was fun seeing her anyway.

Tomato man

Jason and Emily

Elijah loves his cousins Jason and Emily. We stayed at Nana's for a few days and got to see them lots. It was great.

Boys

Elijah, Sam and Charlie

Cuddles

Our boy has become very cuddly. The lucky recipient here is Lyn Arthur who recently came to Dongara for a visit.

I made this!

I am feeling pretty pleased with myself after overcoming my fear of sewing machines and making this bag. It is my first big sewing project and I have to thank Pip for the inspiration and pattern (she made one for me) and Corinne and her mum Lyn for the pointers and the use of a sewing machine. (Sorry I broke the needle!) I'm giving it to my friend. I hope she likes it!