After the past few days being a bit full-on emotionally, today was pretty perfect! Laurent woke up at 7:30 and I was still tired, so Nic decided to take him on a nice long walk to give me extra time to sleep in. I got up after the Pointy Red Dog decided to burrow under the covers and goosed me in the process. I wandered out to the kitchen, flicked on the water for tea and found Nic and Bunny already back and playing. I tip toed through quickly before Bunny saw me to the bathroom and when I came back out I was directed to go sit down. So I did and this is what I found... my boys hadn't just been out for a walk, they decided to buy me flowers, a cherry tart and put it with a little message...
Awww... *gushes* How sweet is THAT?!?

The rest of the day was pretty good as well. Bunny is in a much better mood from the previous few weeks and was cheerful and chattering all day. We went back to the Gardens today and spent more time wandering around. Bunny slept most of the time but we'd brought the dogs and I decided to snap a few quick photos. Most of them turned out pretty icky, the camera was refusing to meter the light right and a lot of them came out noisy. (This is a well known issue with FZ30's!) Nevertheless here are the ones that I liked...
This one of Sierra standing on a tree-base... not the greatest shot but okay I guess. These were shot in fairly low light (no flash, so it's all natural and unedited aside from resizing) which I'm finding really challenging.
A slightly better one of Cade. This one did have some editing, I had to retouch the area where Cade's lead was dangling next to the right front leg. Not a bad job if I do say so myself!
And a close-up of Sierra and her pretty blue eyes. :-)

My beautiful bubby, earlier photo that the park. Just because he's so gosh darn gorgeous! ;-) (No, not prejudiced at all here!) I got all gooshy about him pulling himself up on objects and wrote this as journaling for a scrapbook page.

Since the moment you were born I've been struck by the desperate feeling that time is simply passing too fast. I remember looking at you, only a few minutes old and thinking those minutes had simply passed too quickly as I sat and held you watchfully. I wanted to grab each moment, hold each one and force it to slow down, to linger gently for awhile so I could enjoy those first few hours and stay in each one for at least a few days or a week or a month.

You would never again be one minute old, one hour old, one day old, one week old. Slowly you would loose the special look of a newborn, your downy hair would be replaced with silky fine baby hair, your eyes wouldn't squench in quite the same way as they grew used to the light of the outside world. I suppose every mother feels a bit like this but I wasn't prepared for how keenly I felt the minutes and even seconds rushing by. I felt such an intense need to savor each moment to the fullest, commit it to my heart and never ever forget. In the wee hours of the night when I was so exhausted my eyes stubronly refused to focus and all I wanted was to sleep just ten more minutes, I reminded myself that this time would pass all too quickly as well and I would miss it later and it made me treasure it as well.

I treasure the changes in you, I love the sparkling eyes and gummy smile and chubby kissable cheeks of your 9 month old self that have replaced my newborn and then my infant. I still bury my nose in your hair, no longer downy but now a lovely wispy golden brown and inhail the wonderful scent of you. I adore the way you look when you reach out your baby-soft arms to me or babble a response to me, the way your crawling speeds up when there is something you really want to see, your sweet laugh and the way you wrap your arms around my neck and cuddle close. I know that you will keep growing and I will treasure the next set of changes even as I treasure the ones that have come thus far but I know I will miss the 9 month old you as well.

Soppy much? But true. I have to wonder where the time has gone and I miss that sweet newborn even as I adore the toddler he seems to be rushing pell mell into becoming!

Now for some other cool news... we got into the tracking day tomorrow! Yippie!!! I wasn't sure there would be enough openings but we got a phone call today and were told to come along. So tomorrow at the crack of dawn we're heading out to Keilor to take the dogs Tracking! :-)