Tuesday, May 16, 2006

All is Quiet on the Eastern Front

The Koussers have left town for Depot Beach (home of the lethargic kangaroo enclave) this morning, heading down the coast a few hours before hanging a right towards the capitol city of Canberra the next day. The last few days have been a fantastic menagerie of baby-related activities that even us nimble-minded adults could enjoy. We'll have a bit of a lull here in Bronte, an excellent opportunity for us to re-group and prepare for their return.

On Sunday, the family went to the Olympic Swim Centre, where Will and Kate waded around the various kiddie pools while Thad and I were able to seize the bronze medal in the synchronized waterslide competition. Will was purportedly the happiest he's ever been in his young life splashing around the swim centre. The centre itself is a combination of athletic and recreational facility. One half of the building is the diving platform / regulation lanes of a massive scale that one expect from a venue meant international competition, the other half being a scaled-down version of a children's water park. Sydneysiders take great joy in bringing their family there for swim lessons and exercise, as the large numbers attested to. Afterwards, we watched Peggy's field hockey team battle heroically at the Olympic Hockey Centre.

We're starting to realize that schedules mean nothing when one has children. Baby-time operates in a three-hour window between naps and breast feeding, and typically never after 7pm. Sleeping schedules (or lack thereof) also function in accordance to the baby-time mantra, given that if you're able to string together five or six hours uninterrupted. Whereas once we had envisioned a precise schedule of activities laid out for our guests to relish over our insightful planning; now there is happiness in the chaos that surrounds. Life seems to make itself up as it goes along.

posted by ncawthon at 1:17 PM

Sunday, May 14, 2006

A Whole New You

We're into day three of the Kousser occupancy and have turned the corner. Grumpy Will was taken back to the airport in the middle of the night and exchanged for Happy Will. Can't say how much of a difference a bit of sleep makes in a baby's demeanor. Regardless of what they're saying over at Child Protective Services, Kate and Thad are excellent parents.

I'm going to pass the intangible microphone over to Thad for some occasional spots on the guest blogging podium. I'll not go into too much detail about the past few days, leaving that to my better grammatical and punctational (is one punctual if they're good at punctuation?) brother-in-law. All I can say is, we're in a much better place than we were on Friday and Saturday.

posted by ncawthon at 6:19 PM