Another update in July

Well, what to tell you all first.... David had a fun weekend. We stayed at the Sebel on the Pier in the Rocks area of Sydney for the weekend, to celebrate Dad's birthday. We had a marvelous time and could have been thousands of kilometres away. David really enjoyed Sydney and celebrated himself by clapping his hands for the first time on Saturday 22 July - and has continued to do so, so it wasn't a fluke. He also climbed down stairs for the first time - 5 shallow wide steps in the hotel foyer, so he could make a break for the street. David went front / face first (after all the times I have told him to go down backwards, he completely ignored me) and did it beautifully and safely. There is of course no guarantee that he will be able to do it again, but it is a start.

David also went to his first Sydney Biennale exhibition, at the Pier in Walsh Bay. Interesting - some more accessible than others. We liked the one that was aboriginal art, with sand, totem poles and bark paintings about the crocodile and her nest. The stand out though was the installation called "Asian Field" by Antony Gormley (2003) consisting of 180,000 hand made hand-sized clay figurines. The figurines were made by 350 people of all ages from Xianshan village in China (their photos were all on the wall next to the installation) and the installation took (I think) a week to set up. Truly stunning to see all the figurines, arranged in waves of different colours of clay and in the pier confines - it really gives you a true idea of numbers, and just how many 180k is - let alone the massive population of 2 billion or more in China.

A dreadful photo is attached, which doesn't do it justice.

We also went to the Rocks markets, and the Aroma coffee festival - which wasn't very big, but was enjoyable in the sunshine at Circular Quay.

Monday was wet and we kept David very quiet - but he still didn't go to sleep until 10.30pm. Tuesday I had hime weighed and measured. Despite the fact he wasn't eating, he has gained weight and is now 10.56kgs, head circ 47.5cms and length of 74cms.

Gran arrived for a visit on Tuesday and David was very glad to see her. Gran will sort him out! She already thinks that he is a very messy eater. I have attached a photo of the first time David ate Weetbix to support her opinion, but in David's defence, he doesn't often look like this.

More to follow!