The Green Family: Getting hotter

Yet another month almost at an end and our first year anniversary of arriving in Australia is just around the corner! The shops are telling us it is only eight weeks until Christmas and the weather is starting to warm up rather quickly.

Dave is doing well and has finally decided to move on from his current job. It has taken him a while to make the decision, but should all work out well in the end. It has been great for him to get into working life in Australia and hopefully his next role should keep him just as busy. His son continues to follow in his footsteps and already Sophie is throwing herself out of my arms to get to him. It's great and I know that Dave likes nothing better than walking through the door in the evening to Matthew running up the hall shouting "Daddy's home"!

Talking of Matthew, he has just come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of months. He was only saying a few words by his 2nd birthday but now he seems to be making up for the last two years of silence! He certainly has his moments but we are really lucky with him and he generally a really good, loving little boy. He is already very protective of his sister and continually checks up on her during the day. This weekend we have started on the great potty training attempt. We only started this morning (28th) and we've already been through a few pairs of pants and a number of wet patches on the floor (thank goodness for tiles!), but we'll hopefully get there. Matthew very proudly said to his sister "look Sophie, I did a big poopoo"!!

Sophie is growing at an astounding rate and is already standing herself up against the furniture. She is desperate to be running around with her brother and spends a large part of her day sitting with Matthew and his toys. It's so lovely to see them both together like that, certainly makes all the hard work well worth it. Sophie will be eight months in a couple of days, the same age that Leila was when Emilie came over for her visit earlier this year. Only seems like two minutes ago we were getting excited because Sophie was 4 weeks old. We haven't seen the arrival of any teeth yet, but judging by the amount of drool we're dealing with at the moment, I shouldn't think they will be too long in coming.

Matthew and Sophie are doing well with their swimming. Matthew is getting more confident in the water and Ron, the instructor, believes that he'll be swimming by himself by Christmas, which would be fantastic. Sophie is now more relaxed in the water and getting dipped more frequently. I'll have to get a piccie of them splashing about.

Abi, Sue and Julia are all doing well and the children are getting on great together. We generally don't need to do too much refereeing when we're together now which is great as it means we can sit and catch up on all the gossip! I also still meet up with the girls from Sophie's post natal group - Valerie, Judy, Ingrid, Debbie, Linda, Keren, and Janie with their children. All of the bubs are moving around now so we have to be a little more selective where we meet up. We can't leave them lying on a blanket anymore, so no leisurely drinks by the water! We all met for dinner last night and ended up at Mooloolaba surf club for a boogie. It was the first time we'd all been out together without the babies and the first time in a long while that we were all out in the evening. It was a lovely evening and one that will definitely be repeated.

Matthew with the dingoes