We have ways of making you talk

We've been waiting for that "magic moment" where Eleanor spontaneously sprouts a fully formed sentence from left field. Chalk it up to being a naive parent but I actually thought it would be a distinct and easily recognisable milestone, though I'm beginning to realise that drawing a line in the sand on the beginning of speech is rather subjective. It might also have something to do with my high expetation that it's not good enough until we hear a full sentence with subject-verb-object out of her mouth.

The thing is, even with the impartial assessment of a doting parent, I am comfortable categorising our interactions with Eleanor over the last couple of months as valid bi-directional conversation. We aren't discussing the finer points of life quite yet but we aren't certainly enjoying little chats with our baby girl.

If pressed to admit what I think her first sentence was, it would be "Daddy do work". A little sad but indicative I suppose of what I have to look forward to being self employed. Here are a few choice quotes that we have saved for posterity. I may share a few more from time to time.

Eleanor staring at Blub Blub, a fighting fish we were looking after for some friends

Eleanor: Bah-lub bah-lub. Nummy nummy! (Nelly's current word for hungry or food)
Daddy: Yes, mummy is getting Blub Blub's food
Eleanor: No! Nummy nummy! (Pointing frantically at the fish bowl)
Daddy: What... do you want to eat Blub Blub?
Eleanor: *pause* (Smiles slowly) Yes...

Eleanor was being grizzly one evening and kept asking for a snack

Eleanor: Ga ga! (Eleanor's word for sultana) Gaaaaa gaaaaa!
Mummy: Your'e not behaving yourself Nelly. Only happy girls get sultanas
Eleanor: Hap-pee! Hap-pee! (Tries to smile) Gaaaaa gaaaaa!

Eleanor playing on the computer keyboard on the weekend while Daddy is checking email on the laptop

Daddy: You having fun? Are you doing work?
Eleanor: Yes. Work! (Continues to type away)
Daddy: That's good. (Finishes checking email and goes to pick up the guitar to play)
Eleanor: No! No! (Shakes finger angrily at Daddy) Do work!

While on the subject on language oriented exchanges, we've been delighted to see Eleanor really take to music and songs. She's fond of the guitar and often wants to play along or dance with Daddy and Mummy as we go through her favourites (my finger muscle memory have Old McDonald burned into them for life now). It's particularly gratifying to see her anticipate and preempt parts of the song that she knows. So cute. One day I'll have to actually tune that ukulele.

Tea and Family in Malaysia

We're back from two weeks in Malaysia and Singapore where we spent heaps of time with family. So much that we didn't manage to fit in our usual catch ups with friends this time around, though I guess we did just see most of them in February during our last visit. After all, our main purpose for this trip was to be there for Francois and Sam's tea ceremony, which also served as the first mostly full Chua gathering I can remember in over 10 years. It was good to see the UK contingent though a few absent cousins kept it from being a truly complete meet up.

I didn't end up taking that many photos of the event itself but what I did manage to snap can be seen here. Eleanor was dressed in the same Chinese outfit we had her in for CNY earlier in the year though I think she's fitting into it a lot better. Very cute and it's nice that we got another wear out of it.

Coming over from Brisbane with Nelly was a little more tiring than our last flight as now that she's grown to big we didn't have a basinet for respite. I usually get at least a few hours of sleep on the flight but I don't think either of us managed much rest this time. At least we had a bulk head row and two lovely old Italian grand mothers next two us that offered to look after the little girl for a while. The trip back to Brisbane was far worse with no sleep until we arrived home at 3AM so here's hoping that our next international flight with Eleanor in her own seat will be a little easier. I'm sure we still have it easy as far as crying babies on airplanes go.

Eleanor has always been a good eater and chowed down on heaps of local faire on her first visit to Malaysia. This trip she took it to a new level as she inhaled dish after dish, often unassisted. With so many aunties around she had lots of people putting food in her mouth as well and they were only encouraged when Nelly happily consumed a stream of tiny morsels. All of her Lau Ma (elder aunties) were particularly impressed with her ability to tolerate spicy food for someone her age. My favourite photo was one we snapped of her shovelling in a mouthful of fish head noodles. That girl sure loves noodles.

Yvonne acquired a dog since the last time we were back in Kajang in February. A cute little tea cup poodle named Elmo who resides in her room upstairs most of the day. Nelly seems to be developing an affinity for dogs and she particularly enjoyed saying hello to Elmo every day. It was particularly adorable at breakfast each morning, watching her struggle at the top of the stairs about whether to stay and play with Elmo some more or to descend slowly down the steps yelling "Nummy nummy nummy" (which is her word for food) at the top of her lungs. Most of the time food won out but I think it was a tough decision.

The second leg of our trip involved a drive down to Johor to stay at my cousin Ivan's house for the Moon Festival. I haven't had a mooncake in Malaysia for some time and this was Nelly's first chance to play with a lantern, not that she really seemed all that fussed about it. Not even the big bear lantern than played music and blinked lights when you turned it on, shame. We deflated the bear and brought it back to Australia on the off chance she might like it as much as we did one day.

Ivan's house had a fleet of toy cars that Eleanor became enamoured with. "Car" seems to be a new favourite word now as well and she loved driving the house around with a little assistance. I blame the Giggle Mobile for this fascination as she was certainly fond of tooting the horn and turning the wheel.

Our stay in Malaysia seemed to fly by pretty quickly and it was quite sad to leave Ah Ma and Ah Kong at the airport. At least they'll be in out with Mak Long next April for Eleanor's second birthday (yikes that's approaching quickly!). Ah Kong couldn't resist buying Nelly a toy she wanted before getting on the plane.

Next stop was a short stay in Singapore for a few nights to see James, Dora and little Thomas. We had seen Thomas just a while ago when he came to Toowoomba but James and Dora did not get a chance to see Eleanor then, so this was the first time the six of us have been together since Christmas at Coolum. It was really nice to see the kids play together and how they've changed in such a short time.

My most recent trip to Singapore had me staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which is right across from the new Gardens by the Bay but I didn't get a chance to check it out. Not wanting to miss it again we woke up early on Saturday to spend the morning walking around the trees. The Cloud Forest and Flower Dome looked interesting but we didn't feel like coughing up $28 each to go in, maybe next time when Nelly is a little older. The $5 for the elevated walkway was fine and well worth it for the view of the gardens and the surrounding area. 

For lunch that day we stuffed ourselves silly at the Regent high tea buffet. We'd been looking forward to this for a while and there were certainly a great selection of dishes to sample. Perhaps the only disappointment was the absence of the chilli crab sauce which was a previously available item. The kids were very well behaved and won a few admirers by the end of the day, including the head chef.

It was wonderful to have such a long uninterrupted break to spend time with Nelly and Alison. I really feel like she's grown up during our little trip overseas. I still wouldn't say that she's talking conversationally yet, but she's certainly speaking with new words and a vocabulary that grows by the week. In the back of my mind throughout the holiday I was thinking about how different life will be now that I'm home all the time with the new business. Given that I'll be able to spend more time with this little angel I'm so pleased that we decided to try a change in our lives.

Taking a Chance

I wouldn't necessarily consider us "lottery people", but over the past few years we've established a bit of a tradition to buy one ticket on birthdays. It makes for a simple add-on to slip into a card and because we buy the cheapest ticket with the least numbers possible (which I'm sure doesn't affect our chances of not winning in the slightest) it just serves to provide a little extra excitement on the day. We are rational people and understand that there's no real chance in making our fortune through a single ticket, but that doesn't stop us from dreaming of how our lives could change. Putting aside the cliche of blowing a responsible portion of our imagined new found wealth on a new house, new toys and a luxurious round the world trip, we would eventually turn our fictitious life planning towards what to do vocationally for the rest of our lives.

Software Development was something that I took to very quickly once I was introduced to programming in high school. It's something that I enjoy far beyond a means to put food on the table, so in my newly found fictitious state of financial independence I naturally choose to retain this aspect of my work. I dream of working out of a home office with flexible hours and building software and products that I'm interested in and enjoy using. I dream of having the luxury to decide what I think is important to work on and when, so that I can be around to appreciate the early years of my little girl and growing family. I dream of owning something that I can point to and say I've built with my own hands, rather than an organisation that I have a transient relationship with.

At this point I should clarify that we haven't won the lottery. In fact, it's quite the opposite of that. I did however find that following a thought experiment of what I would do if I had won the lottery helped to frame what may seem like a reckless leap in my career. Last week I put my resignation in at Flight Centre with the intention to start a new business in partnership with my long-suffering colleague and frequent supervisor, Chris Perry. Rather than waiting to cash in that winning ticket, we've decided that it's worth acting as if we've already won and to see where that may take us.

I have three weeks left at the company, with Chris and me finishing up on the 20th of September. I'm certainly finding it hard to leave a place where I've invested as much as I have over the last four years. It's particularly difficult with all the things happening at work right now and I will regret leaving a great group of people that are on the cusp of making some very exciting changes to the business. Alison and I already had two weeks of holidays booked for Francois and Sam's wedding so that will be a nice break before we kick into real work. It might just be the last long holiday we have for a while so I'm keen to unwind and relax as much as possible.

The name of the new business is Socket Software and we aim to focus on a combination of developing software products for the market, custom development and consulting. We have a couple of existing products already that have been soft launched and a register of new ideas that we can market test to see what to do next. Unlike the beginning of most Cinderella start up stories that I've read, we don't have a specific idea that we feel is going to change the world. Our intentions are a little more modest. We believe that we might just have enough capability and chutzpah to make a career choice that is going to change our lives.

Here's hoping we have a winning ticket.

Nelly and Betty

I like soft toys. They're so cute and cuddly and were great company as an only child growing up (yeah I was the odd ball on the street). With a glut of left over bunnies, teddies and assorted stuffed animals from both our childhoods along with a menagerie of presents from family and frields, we felt sure that Eleanor would find a little play companion easily enough. We even tried to encourage a bond by keeping particular toys with her all the time. Pat the Cat appeared to be an early favourite until a rogue diaper incident left her with a persistent scent of urine.

Funny thing was, even after parades of potential candidates our daughter refused to show anything more than a passing interest in any toys other than books and Fisher Price gadgets with flashing lights. I rationalised it by explaining that she was obviously on a road to becoming an engineer and geek extraordinaire like her father, but really I thought it would be kind of cute for Nelly to have a best friend to carry around.

We were walking through a toy sale in June and as we passed through one of the aisles I grabbed a baby doll off the shelf to show Eleanor. I hadn't expected a reaction, certainly not the expression of joy that passed across her face as she reached and kicked to try and grab the doll. Of course we would have to buy it, which was how Betty Giggles came to the Chua household.

Upon arriving home we were assaulted by an unrelenting wail until mum could rip the packaging off the doll to give her to Eleanor. Betty treats anyone who hugs her to a stream of prerecorded laughter, something that Nelly thought was great fun.

Since then we've been waiting to see if Betty would be cast aside like so many before her. Nelly has been caring for her like her own baby and it's so cute to see her going through the motions of pushing her baby around in a pram, changing a diaper and feeding time.

I wouldn't say that they are inseperable yet, but it does seem like Betty's presence is at the very least being tolerated with most of Nelly's activities. It's always good to have a friend to play with when your parents are busy checking Facebook after all.

It's amazing to see Eleanor grow more each day. She seems to gain a few inches every time you turn around which has lead to a new level of baby proofing and vigilance. Her language skills continue to expand with new sounds, although nothing that I would officially classify as a word beyond those learnt by rote. She is able to understand far more sophisticated instructions and her repertoire of parlour tricks for pointing to various bits of anatomy when asked continues to entertain family and friends. That's assuming she's willing to play along of course. All this maturity comes with a trend that suggests that our daughter will fight tooth and nail if forced to do something that she doesn't want to.

So after a month with Betty we figure it's safe to say that it's not just a passing craze. Who knows how much longer the friendship will last, girls at this age seem so fickle. For now we're happy to encourage it as they look adorable together and we've discovered that Eleanor is a great mummy. I guess it helps when you have a fabulous role model.

Global Gathering Singapore 2012

When I first accepted a position at Flight Centre, someone gave me the book Family Village Tribe to provide a little insight into the sort of company I was about to join. This was actually with the intention to deter me from joining the company, but I was blown away by what I read and was truly impressed by the way that staff were rewarded for their contributions. One particular section mentioned the Global Ball, where the top consultants around the world are flown to a country for what was described as an incredible, no-expense-spared extravaganza to celebrate the best performers of the year. Past years included locations like Las Vegas, Paris, Hawaii and Barcelona with world class bands and phenomenal guest speakers like Richard Branson, Michael J Fox and Lance Armstrong.

The first awards night I attended with the company was only a few weeks after I joined in June 2008. This was also where I got my first exposure to how Technology in Flight Centre qualified for the Global Gathering. I remember it being Hawaii that year and the developers that qualified to go on account of their commitment to their customers and the quality of their craft. Leaving that night inspired I hoped that being nominated and qualifying for a Global Gathering would be something that I could perhaps achieve in my tenure at Flight Centre.

Three weeks ago I found out I did, and would be flying to Singapore for the 2012 Global Gathering on the category of Leadership within Technology. It's a crazy and humbling experience on so many levels thinking back to that first awards night in 2008. I would never have believed that I had the ability to lead back then, let alone win an award for it.

Global would last over three days with no extension in my case, as we're already heading back to Singapore in September for my cousin's wedding. My flight flew out of Brisbane on Thursday night to get there bright and early on Friday morning for registration. The main venue for the conference as well as our accommodation was the newly built Marina Bay Sands, which is both opulent and large enough to serve the approximately 3000 Flight Centre staff that would descending on its door steps.

Arriving early in the morning meant that we could get registration and check in out of the way early even if our rooms wouldn't be ready for a while. Not keen to waste time sitting around, I headed out into the city with Russell and Si to find some breakfast and wander around the CBD. This included the mandatory visit to Takashimaya for a serving of takoyaki of course. Just what we need to wake us up after a sleepless flight.

Walking around the city was tiring work so we decided to treat our feet to a little fish foot spa. It was the same place that Alison and I went to last time, though it did seem like the shop had fallen into disrepair. The fish seemed hungry enough though and the boys had a good time.

By this point we decided to head back to the hotel to check into our rooms. It's the simple things that impress me, so when the curtains automatically opened after we put the key card in the room slot I was pretty stoked. Especially when it revealed a fantastic view of the Gardens by the Bay. That and we also had three phones in our small hotel room. As I said, it's the simple things.

As we had enough time for one more excursion before the official activities were due to start, Russell and I left Si to walk down to the Singapore Flyer. The ride was amazingly smooth with a fantastic unobstructed view of the city from the air conditioned capsules. Impressive engineering and we had a great vantage point to appreciate the size of our hotel and the SkyPark atop it.

After getting back to the hotel we changed into our beach gear with complimentary sarongs and headed down to the buses that would take us to the welcome party at Tanjong Beach on Sentosa island. It wouldn't be a trip to Singapore without a few Singapore Slings, in this case courtesy of Singapore Airlines.

I kicked off my thongs (a move that would result in me spending the better part of an hour trying to find them again later) and started moshing around the beach with handfuls of burgers and Tiger beer. It was great to see heaps of people from head office that I knew there, a lot of whom like me were experiencing a Global Gathering for the first time.

The crowd really started going off when they announced the head line act for the night (which bear in mind is usually supposed to be the big surprise for the Saturday night, not Friday). Who better to get a beach party going than Fatboy Slim himself? It was an awesome long set and we were dancing until well past midnight with wild gyrations punctuated only by a series of fireworks and frequent trips back to the tents to get more beer. It was one heck of a party.

The next morning we awoke unwillingly to our alarms and descended on the conference hall for breakfast, dressed in themed conference t-shirts. We all hoped that there would be sufficient grease and fat on the buffet table but the food turned out to be quite disappointing. What I would have done for a decent sausage roll that didn't taste like it had been kept warm in a steam bath. Ah well, smile and press on.

In fact the only saving grace at breakfast was the plate of Berocca that they had next to the juice table. Great idea and it allowed most of us to survive until we could find more sustenance at lunch.

Heading into the conference hall when it opened up was an experience that I'll not likely forget soon. Each country came prepared with banners and huge flags that they would wave with patriotic pride. The energy in the room was electric and all the noise from the crowd and stage made sure that the adrenalin levels continued to surge. It was so crowded and chaotic in fact that I was separated from the rest of the group and sat down in the first spare seat I found in our section.

The awards went on for a while and it was clear to see that the show was geared at the retail portion of the company. There were a few categories for head office and corporate but the consultants were the true focus of the day. After a few inspirational videos we were introduced to the guest speaker for the day, nobel peace price winner Muhammad Yunus. I'm afraid that I didn't recognise his name immediately, though once he started to talk I think I'd seen him speak in an online talk about microcredit. It was a great talk about the social responsibilities of business and what we can do to make a real impact on people, but to be honest it felt out of place in a conference meant to celebrate the commercial success of the company.

The next big announcement was the destination for next year's conference, which gives the people in the room something to aim for once they get back to work. It was a short video clip (once again chock full of testosterone and energy) which revealed that Global Gathering 2013 would be held in Cancun. We all agreed that if Singapore was a wild experience then the same gathering in Mexico would be off the charts. Suffice to say that more than a few consultants in the room roared when the words came up on the screen.

With the official conference activities over we retreated to our rooms to rest, get dressed and have a few more drinks before congregating once more for dinner. The theme for the evening was supposed to be "A touch of the orient" so I tried to comply with one of my old chinese shirts. Seems like almost everyone else opted to go for black tie instead.

Food at dinner was only marginally better than breakfast, but that was ok as we were too busy gawking at the return of the morning's flags, drums and other props. Energy levels had not dropped one bit and guests were kept entertained by lion dancers, acrobats and fire twirlers. Then to top it all off it was announced that our MC for the night would be ROVE McMANUS. Just a little gig for him no doubt.

It took the better part of three hours and lots of drinking to sit through more awards that night. Eventually they ran out of names to call out and we were all herded in the direction of Expo Bay 2. It was far from glamorous, in fact it's just a big hall with a concrete floor, but that's where the head line act would be playing and it was a wise move to keep us off carpet and breakable hotel furniture given the state of the crowd by this point. The opening act was Taio Cruz which was pretty darn awesome so I had my fingers crossed for a big main act (my vote was for Foo Fighters or Black Eyed Peas). Sad to say that one of the other rumours turned out to be true as we got a pretty big clue that the band would be the Scissor Sisters. Not really my kind of music but it was fun enough to dance to through the night.

I would have been more than happy to get lots of sleep the next morning but that would have been a waste of our last day in the city. Good thing that Russell isn't a heavy sleeper so it was easy for us to get out and head to the SkyPark for our recovery breakfast. Great view, but once again unforgivably bad food.

Russell, Si and I met up with Jason and HuaQi for a food day in the city. To start off we had some chinese sweet meat, herbal tea, bak kut teh, clay pot chicken rice, popiah, pregnant mullet and sugar cane juice. Made up for the disgusting hotel breakfast.

We then chilled out at the tea house in china town for a while before catching a beer at Brewerkz followed by a cab to East Coast to gorge on a Singaporean staple. Chilli crab! Well, to be precise we ordered Black Pepper crab and Friend Butter crab as well for variety. Served along side several deep fried buns for dipping and you get a magnificent feast to finish off a fantastic weekend in Singapore.

I still can't believe what a great weekend it was. This post is far too long for me to put more photos up so the rest of the pics from the weekend can be viewed on this album. Great times and certainly a highlight of my time at Flight Centre.

Milestones

I remember the weeks following the birth of our daughter moving at a languid pace. Perhaps it was because it seemed like she was changing with each breath, or maybe we were just a lot more attentive to shifts in her routine back then. As the months went by it felt like the passage of time accelerated, and it wasn't long before the series of firsts in a category of locomotive, gastronomic and verbal milestones faded into distant memory (although hopefully chronicled for posterity in some form). I imagine this is how fathers end up sneaking out of chapels on their daughter's wedding day to shed a tear as they struggle to understand where time, and their little girl, have gone.

We had a pretty big milestone this weekend. One that Alison and I have both been waiting for and dreading at the same time. By all accounts from experienced parents this is going to mark the start of an extremely challenging time for mummies and daddies.

Before we get to Eleanor I'd like to back track to a little miletsone of my own. This is supposed to be my blog after all.

Couple of weeks ago marked the 31st year of my life, and I was treated on the day to a fun day packed with food oriented activiites. Alison had found out about a new documentary called "Jiro dreams of sushi" that was playing in a limited release at the James Street Palace Cinemas. The name of the movie alone is awesome and reviews promised much entertainment for the epicurean, littered with "food porn" and interesting notes about the pursuit of becoming the best sushi chef in the world. The film follows Jiro Ono and his small ten seat sushi restaurant in the Tokyo subway below Ginza, the only sushi restaurant to ever win 3 stars in the Michelin guide. The story itself is fascinating and the stream of imagery featuring fresh, perfect nigiri sitting voluptuously on a plate was mouth watering. Highly worth watching for foodies.

After coming out of the cinema we headed to the Fresh Sushi Co. on James Street to pick up a smorgasbord of sushi for dinner. We arrived home later than expected with food in tow but thankfully Annie, who had kindly offered to babysit so we could see the movie, was happy to spend a little more time with a grizzly Nelly. Once we put our little girl to bed we sat down to enjoy dinner with some sake. The blue fin tuna and uni were great.

In place of a traditional birthday cake, Alison baked me a monster sized creme caramel. Far better in my opinion and you can still stick a candle in it! I won't reveal how long it took us to finish this...

For a cheese course we picked up a soft blue and a ferociously stinky washed rind to consume with a spiced pear paste and lavosh bread. A little indulgent perhaps but I think pushing your arteries to the limit is a great way to celebrate a birthday.

Anyway, enough about me. Eleanor has been doing a fair bit of growing up since she turned one a little over a month ago. We made it to Olivia Rose's birthday party last weekend and it was great to see her interact with all the other kids there. She didn't seem to mind the bouncy castle but wouldn't stay still for long to let the face painter draw a butterfly. I'm sure she'll calm down a little more as she matures.

That's not to say that she hasn't learned any new tricks, as yesterday we witnessed the beginning of her ambulatory independence. She has been rushing around the house with assistance of her walker for a while, but up till now has been too cautious to take more than a couple of steps without support. I think we captured enough on video to suggest that she's ready to start making a habit of being bipedal.

It's a little premature but we also think that she's got a few definite words under her belt and is starting to understand what we're saying. Of course we now know that comprehension and compliance are not necessarily related. Hopefully she'll pay attention to us when we warn her about the new precarious positions that her new found freedom will put her in. Either way, we are so very proud of our daughter right now.

Well done Nelly!

Nelly Turns One

Hard to believe how quickly the last twelve months have flown by. In the last week we celebrated (twice!) our little girl surviving under our care for a whole year, which is a pretty credible milestone I would say.

Mum flew out on the Friday before Nelly's birthday for a short stay with her favourite grand daughter. As mentioned in a previous post, we have been Skyping with AhMah and AhKong pretty much every weekend so Eleanor recognized mum immediately as that energetic lady from the TV. Mum has made a great recovery from her back surgery and was game enough to pick our little girl up for short periods for cuddles and relocating babies from dangerous areas when necessary.

I took the Monday off work for Elenaor's actual birthday on the 16th as we planned to have a small family party. John and Sheena drove down with the great grandparents who were delighted to see how gorgeous Eleanor looked in tartan (a birthday dress from her AhKong in Malaysia). It was the first of several costume changes that day as it's very difficult to crawl and play with toys when one is not accustom to dresses.

A little Chinese tradition is to give the baby a few gifts on her first birthday to help her along in life. New clothes so that she will always have something to wear, new shoes to take her to interesting places in life and best yet a whole chicken drumstick to guarantee wealth and food to eat. It seems like she's going to need it as our little girl absolutely demolished that chicken leg (with a little help from the parents to cut the meat off the bone) along with everything else that was served up for lunch.

Mummy and Daddy woke up early to decorated the cake, which turned out pretty well I think. The Vienna cream was probably a little rich but that didn't stop us from eating most of it. I've also started to develop a hatred for lighting birthday candles on windy days.

The following Saturday we invited a bunch of Eleanor's friends over for another party. They insisted on bringing their parents along too and we obliged, which made it one of the larger parties that we have had at our home. In preparation of the large event we composed a lengthy list of food to feed everyone, including a medium sized boneless ham. I've been keen on baking a glazed ham ever since we watched a special episode on Good Eats years ago so it's an understatement to say that I was a little excited. We ended up selecting an orange and mustard glaze which produced rather scrumptious results I would say.

In the end I think we over catered by a fair amount, which goes to show that our estimates shouldn't be based on how much food I would eat. At least we would have left overs for a week and the kids could feel free to drop half their plates on the grass.

The birthday cake for the Saturday party was decorated by our friend Christina, who is ever so clever, and was adorned with a cute chicken for our little girl. Everyone was thoroughly impressed with her efforts and the cake tasted great.

I tried to take as many photos as I could on the day and have put together a little collage in iPhoto on the iPad to try that feature out. Quite impressed with how easy it was to compose and share something. You can find the link here.

So that's one year down. I mentioned to Alison a while ago that I had never really imagined what it would be like to have a toddler. All my preconceptions about children began with an infant and immediately skipped to a walking, talking child asking about the origin of rainbows. The last six months have been surprising and absolutely delightful so I cannot begin to imagine how I will feel when Eleanor reaches her next verbal and locomotive milestones.