Our family has had an exciting past couple of weeks. Nicholas went on his first school camp, which was an overnight excursion to Birrigai, then Catherine turned five and later Phil received national recognition for his work. Phil and I went to Melbourne for his award and the kids had a sleepover at their grandparents’ place.
Lots of excitement on the morning of camp. Dropped Nicholas off at the school hall in time after frantically looking for lost car keys around the house. Of course, after having called my sister-in-law for help, I found them in my jacket pocket. I found myself feeling a bit sad after seeing the bus pull out of the school car park.
Our first night without Nicholas was a bit weird. All of us missed his presence. We had a very quiet night without him. Catherine enjoyed temporarily being an only child. She was less distracted and unusually quiet. I guess she did not have to compete with her brother for our attention.
Picked up a happy Nicholas the next afternoon. He talked about not enjoying some of the activities, one that found him momentarily hanging upside down. I think he enjoyed exerting his independence with some things and not so much with others. Not entirely sure if he will do it again next year. It was interesting to see that even after just one night away from the family, how he’s growing up.
Then it was Catherine’s turn to take the spotlight. We spent the weekend baking and decorating cupcakes and attending a few birthday celebrations including the shortest party ever (1.5 hours) because it was freezing at the park. We later heard that it was snowing in some parts of the ACT!
Catherine still had a great day despite the cold weather. She’s the extrovert in our family and she knows how to work her social skills. At the park, she introduced her preschool friends to her childcare friends, stood up proudly, announced to everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” after a few failed attempts at lighting the birthday candle, and then passed around cupcakes and drinks. It’s still hard to believe that she’s already five.
Finally, at the end of last week Phil and I flew to Melbourne where we stayed for about 24 hours. We apparently brought the cold and rain with us. The first day was a quick tour around the city visiting shops (Block Arcade, H&M, Uniqlo and Daiso) and the State Library of Victoria. Later that night we dressed up and spent nearly 4 hours with strangers at a special dinner for medical research week. We were at the same table with the Victorian Health Minister and others in the medical research field. We made lots of small talk and met quite a few friendly Melburnians. It was an interesting experience. After Phil was given the award, he was bombarded with well wishers and people interested in hearing about his work. I found myself more than happy to help the event coordinator with folding up raffle tickets while all of that was going on. It was a proud, awkward, exciting and surreal night for us.
The next day we arrived back in Canberra just in time to pick up the kids from school. Mum and Dad were at school too just in case our flight got delayed. As soon as Catherine came out she walked up to Grandma and said, "I want to go home with you." Turned out they had a great night away from home too.
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