Pop goes the balloon

I taught Asher a new word today, pop. He loves balloons, especially after seeing me make balloon animals for Church in the Park. This morning I inflated a thick sausage shaped balloon and put a pom-pom inside to make noise. Asher shook carried it around and shook it, calling it his ball. It slowly deflated over the course of the day until all he was carrying around was a sad little string of green balloon with a pompom in it. But he still liked it.

So I decided to be creative and stuffed the next balloon with the closest thing I had on hand, dried macaroni. It lasted all the way from the bedroom to the front door before it popped. He wasn't startled at all. I told him it popped, and he said pop and handed me the macaroni and wandered back to the bedroom with the balloon. I followed him, and he was typing to figure out how to use my balloon pump to re-inflate the balloon.

The third balloon had two dried chickpeas in it, and popped pretty much straight away. (And he said, "Pop.") I took those pieces from him as well and managed to find something else to play with.

On a related note, we've been counting the number of words he says, and today we remembered 44. I know there is more, they are just hard to remember!

Assorted Beach Photos

Yeah, living next to the beach means lots of beach photos. I've picked some of the highlights...

 

Walking to the beach...

Busy Toddler...

A Busy Toddler...

 His new big boy room has shelves for his toys (and he puts them away... sometimes. Still working on that!). We rotate through his toys to keep things interesting.

Back to the Beach

It has been a while since we have been to the beach. Now that he is walking he's exploring in a whole new way and seeing things in a whole new way. We've been to the beach every afternoon since we have been back, picking up shells, rock and coral, poking sea anemones, poking sea cucumbers, poking starfish...

Back in Exmouth

Well, after all that, we are back in Exmouth.

In brief, Dave's visa to move to the US was going to take longer than expected and Dave was looking for work. He was offered his old job back temporarily, so he moved up and I flew up a few weeks later. It is odd being in the same house with different furniture (we sold all of ours, and the farm is now furnishing the house for us). When Dave receives his visa, we will move to the US. Asher and I will be returning in early to mid December, so hopefully Dave will get his visa before then!

Ian and Evelyn with Asher in Perth Airport