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Well! Yes! Xmas holiday time on the Gold Coast. It should have been sun, surf and sand… but, no…

For those of you how follow the (world) news… half of Queensland is under water. There has been severe flooding in north-eastern Australia. The floods have resulted in the evacuation of thousands of people from the affected towns and cities; at least 22 towns and over 200,000 people have been affected. Damage has been initially estimated at around AU$1bn (£650m).

Vast areas of southern and Central QLD have been affected by the flood. Around 300 roads were closed including nine major highways. The QLD floods were a result of heavy precipitation caused by Tropical cyclone Tasha combined with a trough during the peak of a La Nina event….Isn’t it amazing that we now know these things nowadays and that we actually talk like this.

The 2010 La Nina weather pattern, brought torrential rain that fell in a broad swath from the Gulf of Carpentaria all the way to the Gold Coast. Those of you who have travelled Oz know how vast that region is. To put it in perspective – an area the size of France and Germany combined is now under about 8 meters of water.

Of our 10 day holiday, we went to the beach – on the day we flew back home to Melbourne. Lots of time was spent at mum’s and in shopping centres.

Nonetheless, we spent time with family and friends. The boys certainly enjoyed themselves.

Well! Summer is nearly here!

Both boys enjoy lying on the grass, ‘swimming’ in the pool and Josh especially loves running around with his friends.

In fact, I can’t keep up with all the new friends Josh wants to invite to ‘his home to play’. I was very pleased with myself and told Josh that I had arranged for him to meet up with Matthew from Kinder on the weekend. His response was ‘did you also invite Scarlett?’ Well! No… but I’ll get on to that right away, Master Smith.

Josh has worked out that if he says Brody wants something it is harder for parents to refuse.

Josh recently told us that “I asked Brody if he wanted to watch Cars and he nodded his head- so we can watch Cars!” How can mum and dad possibly refuse.

The picture below was taken at our local Playgroup (weekly meeting). Playgroup is an informal session where mums, dads, grand parents, caregivers, children and babies meet together in a relaxed environment. Playgroups all over Victoria (where we live) are set up and run by parents and caregivers, with children choosing from a range of activities set up to meet their varying needs. Our Playgroup can is held in a community and neighbourhood centre. Joshua has been attending the same Playgroup since he was 6 weeks old.

Included in the  picture is the infamous green scooter, which for a 3 year old boy is the ultimate accessory.  Incidently, there are only 2 green scooters at Playgroup and about 6 boys in Joshua’s group. They all want to play with the green scooters. We actually got to playgroup early this day – just so that Josh could be sure to get the green menace.

He does love his little bro…

Brody is a nice big chubba now! He weighs in excess of 6.7kg’s. We are very proud of him.

Joshua and Brody are getting to know each other. Joshua loves kissing ‘his Brody’, he calles him ‘Boomboom’.

Brody is nearly 3 months old and is still in mummy and daddy’s room. Joshua would like Brody to sleep in his room.

Joshua is not always happy to go to Kinder as mummy and Brody are at home, but mummy explained that it was very boring being at home with Brody all day… all Brody does is eat and sleep.

Joshua is now happy to go to kinder school.

He spends the weekend with his Brody.

The boys are getting alone nicely… too nicely. Joshua insists on gettting up at 2am/3am/4am to ‘kiss his Brody’ (really meaning … ‘I don’t want to sleep any more and waking Brody with a big sloppy kiss and a cuddle is something my parent are not likely to discourage’). They are sleep deprived anyway!!!!

This month it became apparent that we have a master manipulator (Josh) is in the house. I am so proud of him.

Mum “If you tidy up your room I’ll give you a piece of chocolate!”

Joshua “Five pieces of chocolate and a chocolate drink” … and so it goes. We really don’t stand a chance.

At least he loves his brother.

Welcome to the world, Brody Neil Cooper Smith!

You were born on 10th July  2010 at 13:54pm at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton, Melbourne, Australia. Brody weighed in at 3656g and was 50cm long at birth.

Here are some early photo’s of the very young one. By the way, Brody, you have been very gracious about letting your brother hold you and kiss you umpteen times a day… not to mention mummy and daddy. We are very happy to have you here.

Well! The unthinkable has occurred – just prior to his 3rd birthday and the boy is driving a car. OK! Granted, it was a girl’s, pink, motorised car, but the thrill of driving has not subsided. OH DEAR! He met his friend, Bella, at our nearest Subway store (the local cookie and milkshake place) and was delighted to spend almost an hour either as a passenger or as the driver of said vehicle. NO! WE WILL NOT BE BUYING YOU A CAR, JOSHUA!

Joshua and mummy decided to go to the Gold Coast (GC) to visit Family Oz. Joshua and I flew out of Melbourne, one Friday morning, directly to Coolangatta Airport (this photo above was taken while we waited to get on our flight). When we arrived in QLD, we hopped on a bus to the Southport Transit Centre. Granny picked us in her trusty car.  What an adventure we had just getting there. I was the boy’s world until he saw Granny. From that moment on I was relegated to second spot.

When we got back to Granny’s home, Uncle Wayne was waiting to play with the boy and I was bumped back to third spot….. not that I minded! Uncle Wayne, my brother, has had so much experience with little children. He is such a good uncle to his other nephew and his niece. Thanks to Wayne and Granny, mum actually had time to have a hot cup of tea – something that is unheard of at home.

On Saturday, Uncle Roger and cousin Erik arrived. Then Granny and Uncle Wayne knew what if felt like to be second-best! Josh was in Erik-world. Erik-this and Erik-that and we would only have a shower if Erik was having a shower as well! How wonderful it was to see! The photo below demonstrates a boy’s ability to multi-task (an ability they sadly lose when they reach adulthood). It is possible to play football and eat an ice-cream at the same time.  On Sunday, we went to the beach with Uncle Roger and Erik (who went surfing), but, naughty mummy, forgot to bring our boards. To this day, the boy reminds me of this. We did have a play on the beach and had a dog try to eat our breakfast. That afternoon we went to Brisbane with Roger and Erik to visit more family members. What a wonderful weekend the boy had. We even took an express train (like Gordon- of Thomas, the Tank Engine, fame) back to the GC.

By Monday, however, Erik was back at school in Brisbane and Josh had to make do with Mummy and Granny! Oh the indignity! (something Gordon would say). We walked to the bus stop, took a bus to the train station, took the train to Robina, then hopped on another bus to Robina Shopping Centre for a play and lunch. We walked a lot, played a lot and got hopelessly lost! Nevermind! We then reversed the process and by 4pm we were back at Granny’s. But, someone was so exhausted he had to be carried the last few metres.

On Tuesday, we flew back home to Melbourne. Josh must have missed his daddy because the moment we saw Dadda waiting for us at the airport, he ran to him as fast as he could and jumped into his arms.

All in all, a good time was had by all.

Joshua loves anything with wheels – they can be pushed and pulled in so many directions.

This photo is now one of my favourites. He looks so cute in his jeans and Beach Fun top (with his Wiggles bike and pram (i.e., wheels) not far away).

Joshua loves his Victoria Markets Koala backpack – he can carry lots of toys in it; he often comments that he has a backpack – just like Dora (The Explorer).

He has announced that he is now: ‘The Red Spiderman’ (as opposed to the Black, Green or Grey Spiderman). It seems as if Spiderman is the superhero of choice among the boys in his Kinder group and that they have all chosen their colours. It makes perfect sense to us that boy is the ‘The Red Spiderman’, as his favourite colour is red.