Holiday at the Sunshine Coast

Many months ago we decided to break up the end of the year (where there is minimal public holidays) with a driving holiday to the Sunshine Coast. So a few weeks back we set off, stopping overnight in Port Macquarie before spending two nights at the Gold Coast and visiting Seaworld. We then undertook the final leg to Mooloolaba (on the way picking up Aunty Suze) where we had booked five nights (but extended it to six!).

It was a fantastic trip, the weather was perfect, the car went beautifully, the kids were very well behaved (thank goodness for portable DVD players!) and there were no major incidents.

Port Macquarie - Breakwall Tourist Park (Big 4)

Watching the Seal Bay show at Seaworld, Gold Coast

Going for a ride on the mono-rail at Seaworld

Gold Coast

Gold Coast

Touching a Starfish - Underwater World, Mooloolaba

Feeding the elephants - Australia Zoo

Holding an alligator - Australia Zoo

 

  

Carter's new motorbike

The new motorbike is proving popular! Unfortunately Carter spends most of his time trying to get Linc away from it!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carter!

Over a month since the last post: slack! But we have a good excuse, having just returned from a 10 night holiday, where we drove(!) up to Mooloolaba. I'll post more about that later (with photos), but today is a very special day - Carter's second birthday. Two whole years since his birth; it's hard to believe as it has gone so very fast.

He is now talking amazingly well, easily stringing together at least six words. It is much easier to understand what he wants, and the result is he is less frustrated as we are more responsive to his needs (which is generally Mum, Mum and Mum).

We had a morning tea with family for his birthday and it was a huge success. Mum made a fantastic cake that looked like an archaeological dig with stegosaurus bones buried in chocolate cake - she is so clever! He got heaps of presents (not surprising!) and spent most of the time outside playing as we are having a beautiful spring day (currently 17 deg).

Australia's next MotoGP champion?!

Dinesaw - ROWR!

The two boys

Trash 'N' Treasure

Today I took my two boys to Trash 'N' Treasure, just like my Dad took his two boys over thirty years ago. They behaved really well, with Carter relaxing in the stroller and Linc never leaving Dad's side. We picked up a couple of new cars for the boys, with Carter lucky enough to get some 'new' dinosaurs for his collection!

Carter is recovering well from his operation, and hasn't had any pain killers today; can't wait until Wednesday when we can take the bandage off and give him a proper shower...!

Carter's operation



Waiting to be admitted (approx 13 kg and 87cm)

Everything went well. Apart from a drip that kept getting blocked, there were no hiccups. It's been a long, stressful day, but Carter is doing remarkably well. He has a bandage that goes around his whole body with gauze covering his belly button. That stays on for a week and he can't have baths or showers for the entire week! He's allowed to play as normal, but we have to keep Linc from jumping on top of him for a few days.



In first stage recovery



In second stage recovery (where he ate and ate and ate!)



Carter's amazing vocabulary

Carter is amazing everyone with his ever expanding vocabulary; he's now saying whole sentences; for example, he says "More cheese please Mummy" and it sounds perfect. He is also fantastic at repeating words, like 'triceratops' which is a mouthful for a kid who is not even two yet! At the moment he loves it when Grandad pretends to be a ghost - although it's a love/hate relationship as he can get a bit frightened if he can't run to Mum or Dad or Nan when the ghost pops his head around the corner! It's just so heartwarming when we put him to bed and he says "Goodnight Mum, love you". And even more touching when Linc goes into his bedroom in the morning and says "Hi Squidge; how you feeling?" to which Carter responds, "Good". It's so nice to see them talk to each other, and even nicer when they play together without fighting and whacking each other!

The year is going very fast, and (thankfully) so is winter; although we have had some beautiful sunny days this week where the kids get outside and do chalk drawings all over the concrete. At the moment we have a stegosaurus, a shark, an octopus, an elephant, fish and the entire alphabet on our patio!

Finally did a photoshopped pic of Carter (edit: added Linc too!), as I took a photo of him with a really interesting look on his face.