Greetings from Down Under

For the past week I have been in Australia for work. I am leaving today and still screwy on time, but I am finally able to update. Sydney is extraordinary. It is amazingly clean and the people are extra friendly. Everyone thinks I am Canadian and when I tell them that I am American EVERY single person goes on a Bush rant.

This is the view from across the hotel. The entire lakefront is a park with gardens and all sorts of wild birds. Even from the hotel you can hear the parrots and other exotic animals.

I had some time the first couple of days to run around the city and do some sighseeing. The downtown area is super-touristy, but it has some amazing views. The following shots are from around the harbor.

The second shot is the Sydney Harbor bridge.

Almost tried a kangaroo steak last night, but decided not to at the last moment. That's about it for now. I have 24 hours of travel in front of me and I need to finish packing and so forth.

It has been hard leaving home. C told me that Maya was calling for me from the top of the stairs, it nearly broke my heart. I have not been away from home for this long and it has been pretty hard, but I will see them in about 27 hours.

OMG!! It's a new post

Yes, I have been ignoring the world with all the exciting details of our (so called) lives. You have missed out on amazing stories like the mice and spiders in the house, the Labor Day party and Maya's milkshake; not bringing all of the boys to the yard, but leaving a fecal pudding in her car seat in from of Blockbuster. (Yes, there is a reason why the pads are washable)

I also want to introduce my new Internet friend that is actually in China getting her daughter right now. I know, I know, weird Internet friends and so forth. She is probably some 400# Scandinavian dude with a fetish for mulch horror stories. But she is real. I swear. Her name is Lori and her husband John live in Colorado and they seem to be decent folk. In typical K&C fashion I forgot the web address of our blog and had to google it and came across her site. The discovery process was something like:

-Hey they use blogger too.
-Hey there is another Maya blog.
-Hey they are adopting from China also.

So I sent her a cease and desist E-mail to keep her from naming her girl Maya. As parents we like to think of our unique snowflakes as being such, but unless you are calling your kid Funkatronic or something like that (Hmm...Funkatronic... probably not worth checking with Court) you will not be unique. Just kidding, but I did send a warm and heartfelt congratulations and good wishes for their upcoming journey.

Please drop them a comment on how adorable their baby is and follow their story if you like: http://www.mayalives.blogspot.com/

Now with the cuteness:

Yes, that is out little Maya standing up on her own accord and yes that is our little Maya settling the debate that Hoosier is learned behavior. She was wrapped in a diaper soon after this picture took place. We are already teaching her that it is "OK" to have a couch on the front porch and to eat pork rinds for dinner.

She is really getting around now. Her crawling has been amazing and she has been pulling up on anything that she can get her hands on. I think she is going to be a rock climber; between her super kung-fu orphanage grip and her fearlessness from being swung arou....er....played with in an assertive manner she will be climbing like crazy in no time. Also, she is only happy feeding herself. We put chicken and veggies and blueberries on her trough..I mean tray and she dutifully shovels it in bite after bite. It is kind of nice to be able to eat ourselves.

Summer has been winding down; we hosted a party over Labor day weekend and invited the neighbors up and down the street to come and bring their kids.

We did not realize that there were going to be 24 kids swarming like a horde of undead locusts at our house. Thankfully the day was nice, it was outside and no one broke threir arm (like someone did two years ago). We did a Mexican theme, had tacos and provided the kids with two pinatas which they took to like LAPD to Rodney King.

I am trying to get back into the blogging thing, I just feel that my world is a little mundane to track. I go to work, I take care of the kid and I do dishes. (How come none of you told me that there would be this many dishes?) My goal is to write more often but I need YOU, my reader to leave me an anonymous or not comment on what you would like me to write.

Yes, this is a copout and shows that I am lazy, but I am not just here to amuse you, this is a particapatory exercise. No matter the content, I swear that the first five comments (I am assuming each reader will leave 1) will become a theme and I will write about it; no matter the embarrassment from my past or how boring I might think it is; this is your chance to make a selection.

Otherwise I will have to choose something from someone else's MEME or even resort to Maya's milkshake story. Hope all is well and thanks for checking in while I have been lazy. I am trying to get better.