Toby Ulysses Element Vale

Mathilda and Patrick's Toby has arrived - and again we are not impressed with the maternity ward one bit - but in the end Toby is home and the world is right again.

Many photos follow because if I was to leave anyone out I would not hear the end of it.

(Note the Mary Poppins 1903 pram and the Horton Hears a Who mural in progress in Toby's room.)

All sorts

We have had a Lily visit - which makes Louisa happy. Louisa has caught up in height and now they look practically identical.

Here is the very gorgeous camera case Louisa made for my birthday - it's on the table at Restaurant 2 where Petie took Joan, Lee, Louisa and I for our collective birthdays. Louisa's birthday isn't till October but Petie invited her anyway - she was beyond excited. Restaurant 2 is seriously flash - Louisa is probably the only child they have had there all year. The waiters adored her - how could they not - and congratulated her on finishing the degustation menu. They should have congratulated me too - 9 courses of unbelievably rich and delicious food.

Louisa tells me that they had a lock down drill at school. She was in Maths with Mr Ruge - 'who should be teaching drama' if you ask Louisa. There were some rattled nerves because the bell rang for longer than usual and the should-be-drama-teacher was doing army crawls around the room. Unfortunately he forgot to lock the door.

Chocolate has been sick ever since Gertie died. There have been some anxious moments. Max discovered that she loves lettuce and fed her all our lettuce which seemed to help.

Lee wormed her which helped too. Lucy Parry prayed hard. And Louisa has spent lots of time sitting and patting.

Finally she seems to be on the mend. Now she craves company and stands at the back door begging to come in. She is perfectly behaved and never eats the garden -until my back is turned then she eats the lettuce. Which I suppose is fair enough.

Max tells me that of all the things he saw and did in Sydney his favourite thing of all was .... the architecture. 'It's the old stuff that is so clever to build and the patterns are just amazing and then there is new stuff with lots of glass and really amazing.'

Thomas has started doing casual labouring until he can go back to Uni next year to complete his Honours year. Admittedly he looks more model than labourer - but he likes the work. (Terrible blurry photo - but it was early in the morning.)

Roger has had quite a bit of night shift lately - he swaps off his Sundays which usually results in a night shift - it would be more circumspect for Louisa and Max to pretend they were sad but they love sleeping with me. Jesse's birthday fell on a night shift and for a special treat Max offered to sleep on the floor in my room so that Jesse could sleep in the bed - with Louisa and I!

Peet is known far and wide for being willing to cut off his nose to spite his face. He's been doing it since he was a tiny tot whose first word was 'No'. Lately he has been dropping his bundle with tuba performance and practice and rather than admit it was fun he begged to drop it altogether. After some weeping and wailing (by Peet) and some gnashing of teeth (that was me) we reached an agreement. Peet would attend every lesson and every rehearsal and practice at home three times a week till the end of term, when he would present a short talk on the merits of studying music. And if at the end of all that he still wanted to quit I would OK it. That was two weeks ago - and he said just a day or so ago that he had already made his decision 'I'm sticking with tuba - I love it.' (I never doubted.)

Sydney

On his first night home from Sydney, Max moved his mattress into Jesse and Louisa's room to tell Jesse all about the trip. After mentioning the highlights - which follow - he told her that 'In Sydney they are obsessed with convicts and the holocaust.' Here's why:

Lee & Joan flew to Sydney and Roger and I drove with Peet, Louisa and Max. (Tom had work and Jesse was on her big swag camping adventure - we didn't leave them at home on purpose.)

Funny thing - it used to take us exactly 12 hours to drive to Sydney to go the temple - this time it took 14 hours. We think the extra time was taken up with stopping to see lambs, calves, the Standing Stones at Glen Innes and so on - when we had lots of little kids in the car there was no way anyone was getting out of the car unnecessarily - it was too hard to get them all back in the car.

The first day was Old Government House at Parramatta - loved it and would really like a warming oven but neither Lee nor Roger seem all that willing to build me one.

We might have some geraniums cuttings from the grounds too.

Lunch was on the side of the road while the boys admired the motorbikes at Deuc (?) Motorbikes.

Then on to the Jewish Museum. We've all been before but Max was a bit young last time. Sadly there were no holocaust survivors as guides this time. Max did get to ask one of the volunteers his burning question. We read Erica's Story recently and it left Max wondering why Jews still wear the Star of David when it has such an awful history. Max told us that 'she said it is because she is proud to be a Jew - but in a lot more words than that.'

Roger and Peet bought me a Shabbat knife for my birthday (Peet put money in from his magic money pants.) Louisa bought a sweet little figurine of a cellist. And I may have bought a book or two.

Then Glebe Books and chocolate coated fruit from the David Jones Food Hall because they are both addictions - I may have bought another book or two - Bill and Tony's for dinner - and home to bed.

The next day was the point of the trip - the Museum of Sydney was hosting Skint - an exhibit about the Depression years in Sydney. It was worth the trip. (Possibly another book!)

You will note that Roger has no coat and is wearing shorts while the rest of us are rugged up - that's because he is very tough - and also he left his warm clothes at home.

Next stop was Hyde Park Barracks Museum - a theme is developing. I love this museum and it was on Louisa's list of things she wanted to do again in Sydney.

Joan took Louisa and Max back up to these hammocks for a lie down. As they walked out the staff asked if they enjoyed the hammocks - horrified looks all round followed by relief and laughter when the staff said it is allowed and they just enjoy teasing people who think it is contraband.

Then home for lunch - we missed the bus so Lee & Joan took the monorail and we walked. Our bus stop was outside the Australian Museum - which we were never going to but Lee headed up the steps anyway - it seemed reasonable - just one more museum.

May Gibbs house was next - it was the one thing that Peet said he would really like to see again - and I figure when a 15 year old boy wants to see May Gibbs house again you make it happen. It is a lovely place.

Roger and Lee flew home - and made it safely in spite of the crazy man on the flight who was trying to send text messages mid flight!!

Since there was no way I was driving in peak hour traffic we spent the next morning on the harbour and eating chocolate bananas. It was also my birthday - Peet presented the knife on behalf of Roger, Max gave me a drawing he worked on during the drive down, Joan and Le gave me the kookaburra napkin ring I have been pining for since I saw it an antique shop and Louisa crocheted the most gorgeous camera cover. She worked on it during the drive too - and I kept commenting that the colours were great - and each time I did Max would turn to Louisa and silently mouth 'YES'. (Jesse and Thomas had fruit teas waiting for me at home too and Anne presented a great necklace.)

But I braved the traffic at midday and - bless the GPS - it was all fine. We drove out to the temple and then on to Wisemans Ferry and Windsor. We were actually looking for a pet shop that was there years ago and sold exotic pets. Louisa assured Roger that we wouldn't buy anything unless it was 'absolutely irresistible' - this did not really reassure Roger. But he needn't have worried because we couldn't find the pet shop. We did find St Matthews church where Roger's first fleet ancestors are buried (more convicts).

Finally it was a long drive home via Kempsey to see the museum designed by Glenn Murcutt then Coffs Harbour.

Lovely trip - even if they are obsessed with convicts and the holocaust.

Sewing savant

I think Jesse may be a sewing savant - she made this for the medieval ball - it was her first time ever sewing with a pattern - there is lining and it's a stretchy velvety fabric - no way in the world would I have attempted such a procedure. But Jesse charged in and I can hardly believe she did it.

This sewing talent does not come from me. But she said the best costume of the night was actually on Gav and Michelle Stevenson who went as St George and the Dragon.

(I am not a photography savant - it was better in real life.)

Max is 10

Max had the perfect birthday. He told me a few weeks earlier that he had no real wants for his birthday because 'as you get older you have less wants and more needs - like a scientific calculator when you go to high school.' So with no real wants - and no unmet needs - presents were a bit hit and miss - luckily they were all hits.

Roger and I gave him a compass, a beanie I crocheted since Lisha's beanies were so appealing, and a new book by Isobel Carmody. Louisa and Peet presented light sabers to go with the Lego Star Wars wii game and Jesse and Tom presented a boxed set of hot wheels - Max is always keen on boxed sets of anything.

He loved them all and proudly took them to school since Jesse was working on his birthday and could mind his treasures when they weren't being shown off.

Max's friend Declan - a Pine kid who lives just down the road - had a sleep over. There was an afternoon tea with the cousins and a birthday menu of Chicken Spaghetti salad and vinegar cake with cream cheese icing.

Peet made a treasure hunt using the compass for Max to find Lee & Joan's present - a telescope he had his eye on when we were in Sydney. And Anne and Caroline sent cash. Robert and Samuel brought a carefully wrapped nerf gun - Samuel assured Max that if I wouldn't let him have the nerf gun Samuel would be happy to have it.

Roger made it home in time for cake then left for meetings at church and Max and Declan settled in for a happy night watching movies and laughing.

It was beyond sweet to watch him being so happy and proud of his presents, and so thankful. He is a delight for all of us.

We started a new birthday tradition - who knows if it will take. I bought a book for everyone at the birthday dinner to write in - the idea being that we will keep adding to it - so this years entries were from Kim, Roger, Tom, Jesse, Peet, Louisa, Declan and Lee. My original idea was to buy one book for the whole family but Louisa and Max said we should get one each so that they can take it when they leave home. Roger was immediately in favour of individual books - anything that comes with an implied promise of leaving home one day is a good thing in his opinion.

Nathan

Nathan left for the MTC, farewelled by all and sundry.

Kites

On an especially windy Saturday Louisa and Max remembered that buried underneath Max's cupboard they had kites!

It was a success.

And Louisa didn't even have to change out of her pyjamas.