Final Visit to Sydney

As with most of our favorite destinations in Australia, we re-visited Sydney a couple of final times before our move home. On these particular visits, we returned for High Coffee at the Intercontinental hotel and had several meals (and ice cream cones) at Darling Harbour. We went back to the Aquarium and Wildlife Centre (so that Matty could see them now that he is older), and we also strolled through the botanical gardens and ferried out to Manly for the day.

I think it's safe to say that we love Sydney. It's most certainly a tourist city, but if you can look beyond the tourists, you will see so much more that this city has to offer. Our most visited spots have continued to be Darling Harbour and Manly Beach, but we've also come to love so many other areas. We will miss the cafe atmosphere, the shopping, the beaches, the gardens, and the laid back vibe.

We will also truly miss the ability to drive there in only a few short hours. Instead, we will be faced with 25+ hours of flying if we wish to visit it in the future. That thought alone makes us want to dig our feet in and stay here forever...

 

Final trips to the Coast

When we first contemplated a move to Australia, we pictured ourselves visiting the beach as often as possible. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Quite frankly, we were too busy doing so many other fun and interesting things! Needless to say, as we see our time in Australia quickly fading away, we have decided to make as many trips to the coast as possible. Having Matty around is certainly a great motivator for us as he LOVES the beach! I'm not sure what we're going to do when we're back in Ontario where there really are no proper beaches around...

We will truly miss Australia and its beaches - they are some of the prettiest in the world! We will also miss the ritual of grabbing some fish and chips for dinner before hitting the road home after a full day at the beach.

Christmas

This year we were lucky enough to have Andrew and Stephen visit us for Christmas! It was a great visit and allowed Matty to spend lots of time with his uncles! The guys were here for almost a week before they left for the rest of their Aussie adventures, but we made sure to enjoy lots of relaxation, catching up, and sightseeing of a few of Canberra's highlights.

As with the past three Christmases we've experienced in Australia, the weather wasn't the best - 25C (at most) with overcast. We imagine the 'quintessential' hot and sunny Aussie Christmas does exist, but we've unfortunately not had the opportunity to experience one while posted here. Maybe someday... ;)

Christmas Party at Canadian High Commission

We were invited to the Canadian High Commission's Christmas party this year, hosted at the High Commissioner's home in Redhill. The home itself is located on Mugga Way, a street locally known as Canberra's Golden Mile. The area hosts palatial-style homes with selling prices starting at no lower than $3 million big ones. The Canadian HC's home is no exception. The home is located on a two-tired piece of land, with the home itself located on the bottom tier and the pool, pool house, and entertaining area located in the backyard on a top-tier overlooking the home.

Upon arrival, we were offered glasses of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. We were all told to bring our swimsuits for a pool party, but it was a bit cool (25C) for the adults to swim that day (though the children certainly took advantage of the large pool)! We mingled with our colleagues and some of the HC staff. The High Commissioner himself was only present towards the end of the evening, as it was the last evening of his post here in Canberra - so he was obviously pre-occupied with other things on his mind.

Following the champagne and hors d'oeuvres, we were invited inside the home for a Christmas buffet meal. The meal featured a mixture of traditional Canadian Christmas items (turkey, stuffing, cranberries, etc) mixed with Australian Christmas items (fish and seafood). It was a fantastic meal, and a beautiful home. Speaking of the home, it is quite clear that it was designed for entertaining. There was a whole section of the home dedicated directly for this purpose, including a staff kitchen and dining area. It was quite neat seeing the separation between the entertaining area and the actual area of the home where the HC and his family lived.

Following the Christmas meal, Santa arrived so we all headed back up to the pool area to meet with him and have him pass out presents to the kids. Unfortunately, Santa arrived ringing his bell loudly and shouting "HO, HO, HO" which did NOT impress Matty. He was scared of Santa from that moment forward. Nonetheless, we still got a photo or two of Matty sitting on his lap. Sure, Matty may be screaming his lungs out in fear while sitting on Santa's lap, but they're pictures we will treasure well into the future!

All in all, a great afternoon and evening hosted by the High Commission!

Swim lessons

Every Saturday morning since Matty was 10 months old, we have been taking him to swim lessons at a fantastic baby aquatics program in a nearby suburb. We were a bit hesitant to start him in swim lessons so young, but here in Australia 10 months is considered a late start - most babies start when they are 8 weeks old!

The program Matty is in is called Aquatots and it is an absolutely fantastic program. It is designed not only to teach him about safety and survival in the water, but it also incorporates many activities to help him develop core muscle strength in order to hit physical development milestones. For instance, classes typically run for a half hour each week. During this time, there is a set number of water skill activites that take place (such as splashing, kicking, back floating, jumping into the pool from the ledge and learning to quickly turn around and hold onto the ledge to save themselves from drowning, etc). All of these swim activities are spaced out with non-swimming activities in between them (because let's face it, infants have an attention span of about a minute).

To provide a bit of an overview of a typical half hour lesson, the babies and their parent will get in the pool and form a circle with the other parents/babies and the instructor. They will begin singing a song all while incorporating splashing, kicking, tossing baby in the air, and dunking the baby under the water. From this they will move on to a circuit of activities: back float from one end of the pool to the other; when they arrive at the end of the pool there will be a bucket with toys in it. The kids will be encouraged to grab a net and scoop a toy out of the bucket (which teaches them hand-eye coordination). From there, they will walk across a thick mat lying across the water to work on their core muscles and balancing, and then they will move on to do an underwater swim drill with the instructor. Each week there is a new theme, new swim skills to work on, and there is always new non-swimming activities included. To us, this is what makes these swim lessons so valuable. They keep Matty's attention the whole way through, all while teaching him some new skills.

But the big question is - how does Matty like it? Well, during the first handful of lessons, he was a bit hesitant. He was often found placing his finger in his mouth (a technique we believe to be a self-soothing one). But once he got used to the routine, he really got into it! Now, from the moment we arrive at the pool to the moment he is back in the car exhausted after his fun morning swim, he has a HUGE smile on his face.

If only we could find a similar program in Ottawa...We are definitely going to miss our weekly Saturday morning routine!