38/52

"a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2014"

Jimmy: Sound asleep after a short walk.

We went for a walk, really it was only very short, just to get out of the house because it was getting to that time of day and as Jimmy is moving to one nap a day, he was pretty cranky and in need of distraction. He did a little walking but then Michael helped me get him into the Manduca and by the time we were almost home, our little boy was sound asleep, using his hand to help secure his big head. Doesn't he have a big head? He's almost big enough for the Manduca to be unzipped, but I think he prefers having his arms free. He's also almost done with the Manduca, but I think we have a few more months until he's able to walk everywhere.

It almost goes without saying, but Michael took this lovely photo.

37/52

"a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2014"

Jimmy: taking it all in, taking it in his stride.

Doesn't he look so grown up? He keeps growing and changing - he's very good at his job.

It was a lovely cool morning, we were heading out to the Discovery Center, and decided to let Jimmy do some walking before catching the bus. Ok, so he actually wasn't interested in walking, but he was happy to stand around, take a few steps, and pose for me while I gushed over how good he looked in the jumper I knitted him for his first birthday. And when I say "we", I mean Jimmy, Dadee, me, and Uncle James.

I know I've missed a few weeks, so I thought I'd sneak in 37/52 before 38/52 comes around. I don't know if I'll catch the other weeks, let's see what happens.

Missing/Enjoying: Family

Somewhere just north of Omaha, possibly an outer suburb.

We've just had a lovely 3+ weeks of family and friends, which only ended on Monday, but we're missing everyone already and we're coming down from the high of our holiday and full apartment. It sucks. Michael and I have been reminded that Jimmy is missing out on lots of time with his grandparents, that we're missing out on time with our parents, that we're missing out on time with friends back in Australia, and that being away from Australia kinda sucks.

Walking with Pop in Winnipeg

Checking out the fossils with Daddee, Granny, and cousin A.

We'll get through it. We're just trying to find our groove again, which is hard because sciencing can be frustrating and a little soul destroying when it's not going well and because Jimmy is constantly changing.

More time with cousin A. 

What are we enjoying?

We're enjoying our little family and the changing season, even though it means going to KSU for Swimmy-Jimmy times. We're also enjoying that warm fuzzy feeling that our visitors and visiting have left us with. Thanks guys!

In addition to this, we found a bicycle for Michael at a yard sale (garage sale) for $20, so YAY! And we bought a waffle iron there too... We've wanted one since we arrived but didn't want to buy a new one, so we're pretty happy about that.

Jimmy and I are enjoying some one on one time, as we've hardly had any in the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong, it was great having other people look after him and play with him, I just like hanging out with my son - he's a pretty cool kid. Takes after his Dadee.

Look at my boys! Cool, right?

So, instead of heading to playgroup on Tuesday (and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday), Jimmy and I have been hanging out at home, catching up on housework, taking the bus to go to a secondhand store for some jumpers and long sleeved tops, hanging out with Michael at uni during his lunch breaks and after work, doing a little grocery shopping, and reading plenty of books (or the same book, four times in a row).

Woollen jumpers, long sleeve tops - preparing for winter.

Life goes on but it has a different feel, knowing that we were able to share our lives with family and friends, and visiting relatives, makes this town, this country, and this continent, all seem a little less strange and a little less lonely. The change in season, the start of a new university year, and football season are contributing to this feeling of change, because Manhattan is buzzing and yet the sun is setting earlier and rising later... but more on that later. Oh and have I mentioned that Jimmy is well and truly walking? Yeah... We're finding our groove again and a new balance as life finds a new normal.

Distractions...

It's not what you think! I've been a little distracted by knitting a vest for Michael and reading William Powers' Twelve by Twelve... I'm excited to be knitting the front of this vest - the cables look like DNA... And Twelve by Twelve is speaking to me on a few levels and making me think about how I'd like us to live. More on both sometime soonish.

Plus we've been entertaining guests for the past 3 weeks or more and have a few more wonderful days of entertaining to go. We've also been doing some sightseeing and road tripping and visiting family. Actually, it's all rather fun and busy.

And with all the goings on and entertaining and planning and prep and traveling, it's been hard to set time aside for blogging. Actually, it was hard to do anything online, and I kept it to emails and fleeting glances at Facebook. Having time away from my computer (and the internet) was nice, but it's almost time to make up for my absence.

Stay tuned for photos and details of our entertaining and adventures :)

Missing/enjoying: drying clothes

Yep. I miss drying our clothes, towels, sheets, and nappies in the sun (or in the garage, when it was raining). There's a smell, a feel... oh there's just something about sundried clothes! And I miss it. We couldn't exactly turn the spare room into a drying room and fill it with clothes drying racks... it's just not the same... and yet...

And yet, I do enjoy using the dryer. It's fast, everything that can go in it is dry the same day they are washed, the towels are fluffy, the nappies are fluffy, and if I get the things out as soon as the dryer is finished, everything is lovely and warm...

I'm looking forward to having an outside clothes line again, but I'll enjoy the dryer while we're here.

And here's a quick history lesson on the clothes line, plus 2 (or 3) reasons to ditch the dryer.

Coffee, coffee, coffee!

Coffee, coffee, coffee! Yes, we found a place that does really good great coffee! To say that it's a relief just doesn't quite cut it...

We'd basically resigned ourselves to either never going out for coffee or putting up with mediocre coffee (at best), but then I thought "hey, there's that coffee shop near uni that we walk past all the time but haven't gone to, we really should check it out".

This coffee shop can't be seen from the road. The only thing that indicate that there is a coffee shop there at all is a little sign pointing in its direction. There's no overwhelming aroma of coffee wafting on the air or anything like that. Just a little sign, on a busy road, with a bank, pizza shop and a petrol (gas) station.

So, to avoid major disappointment I did a little snooping around on the internet. Urbanspoon rated it pretty highly, in fact it rated better than our *sigh* usual coffee shop. I should have done my homework sooner... Ah well, snooping done, it was time to go.

Oh we were not disappointed!! Walking up to it, we could see that there was a hipster vibe to the place (tick!), plenty of bicycles were parked out front (ok, not necessarily related, but still a good sign), and then we opened the door... Oh! It smelled like Melbourne or Brisbane!

Jimmy was pretty pleased with the blueberry muffin (so were we: it made the coffee even fruitier).

I could go on and on, but I wont. Visit or visit their facebook page. Arrow Coffee Co. They just celebrated their first year. Coffee, coffee, coffee!

33/52

"a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2014"

Jimmy: No longer sick, but still a snotty, drool monster with plenty of kisses for Mum.

Kisses! All of the kisses! All of the snotty, drooly kisses have been coming my way this week, because Jimmy and I have been under the weather, Jimmy more so than me. His runny nose has kept us away from playgroup and seen us walk to uni a fair few times, just for some sun and something to do. We've also read all of the books at least 3 times everyday, listened to the Wiggles so often that I know most of the words to most of the songs. We've also eaten a lot of chicken (asparagus, corn, noodle) soup and garlic. Two bulbs of garlic... Yep, I'm sure people could smell it coming from our pores. The funny thing is, that despite being sick, despite only having Jimmy for company during the day (unless we went out and found Michael, who had a bit of a virus too), I've had a lovely week. It's been slow, but it's been full of rest, lots of cuddles, lots of laughs (mostly when I went to wipe the snot from Jimmy's face and tried to get him to blow his nose), lots of learning (Jimmy is getting pretty good at this walking business), and lots of kisses! P.S. we're all well again.

Oh and I've been knuckling down and working out the return leg of our upcoming road trip to Canada. We're going with my parents who will be here in a week, then we'll go visit my Mum's brother and his family. I'm excited but I'm also a little nervous about so much car travel with Jimmy, who has a love-hate relationship with car travel.

I need to thank Michael for taking this lovely photo, and framing it so that the snotted on part of my top was out of the photo. And as Michael pointed out, the last lot of photos went up without any descriptions. That is now fixed. Michael does take lovely photos.