Trip to Oz Continues Some More

The next day Craig started the day by playing with his Dad in the yard.


Craig wasn't very interested in Craig's Dad's new soccer ball. He seemed to prefer just walking around.


After lunch, Craig went back to the same park near Cooee Bay. He likes the jungle gym there.


This time there were no other children there so Craig could take his time and do whatever he liked without having to be concerned that he was getting in the way of some other child.


Craig's Dad took a video of Craig playing but he probably should have been more careful about keeping the microphone out of the wind.


In the afternoon, Craig was back at his grandparent's house.


Bailey wanted to organize a basketball game.


There was plenty of action!


Some of which was caught on video.





Craig's Mum's job was to keep Craig occupied so that he wouldn't run into the middle of the game while the older (ahem) kids played. She's very good at this type of thing and having a packet of Jumpy's close at hand was a big help.


Later in the day, just before a sunset, a kookaburra came and rested on the top balcony railing. He's probably the same one that almost drowned in the neighbour's swimming pool the last time Craig visited.

Trip to Oz Continues

The first full day in Yeppoon for Craig was a Sunday. In the morning, Craig went to a small park up the hill from Craig's Grandma's house where Craig's Mum tried to get Craig on to a swing without success.


Later in the morning, Craig went down to Cooee Bay where there was a festival to coincide with the World Cooee Competition. When Craig was hungry he sat down with the whole family on the grass to eat. He especially liked the chips and did a great job of making sure no-one needed to help him finish them.


It was a lovely day but you can see that the Canberra and Sydney people thought it was warm, and thus wore short sleeves and shorts. Meanwhile the Taipei people were wearing long-sleeves and jeans to stay warm.


Part of the fun at the festival was camel rides! Craig's Dad wishes he'd taken a better picture of the camels.


Craig really enjoyed playing with the sliding ball thing that was in the park. Lots of other kids, including Craig's cousin Bailey were there as well.


Eventually Craig's sleep debt caught up with him and an afternoon nap began while he was still supposed to be walking back to his grandparent's house.


He slept soundly there despite the quite bright sunshine outside.


One good thing about this trip to Yeppoon was that Bailey and Craig had plenty of time to play together.


Bailey seemed to like Craig's Mum and wrote a special letter for her.


He's really a very sweet boy.


One small accident happened later that night when Craig's Grandma's dog Mitch got hold of one of Craig's plastic balls.


It didn't last long........ Look at those evil eyes!!!

Trip to Oz Begins

Craig's second trip to Australia began on Aug. 22 with a 4-hour flight to Singapore. Those interested in having a look at Craig's first trip to Oz can look here.

Craig was extremely happy to get off the plane in Singapore and had great fun running through Changi Airport. His Mum fell so far behind that she's not even in this picture.


He amused many passers-by when he began dancing in time with some music coming out of a Johnnie Walker promotional stand. Craig's Dad thought it was very cute, too.


Craig became quite unhappy when he was being walked onto the flight from Singapore to Brisbane. He would probably have been even more unhappy if he'd known that it was going to be a 7 1/2 hour flight! :< After finally arriving in Brisbane Craig was once again happy to be off the airplane. Even though it was a quite chilly 15 degrees Celsius outside and a cold wind was blowing, Craig didn't stop smiling as he made his way out to the train between the international and domestic terminals.


Even though it was slightly warmer when standing out in the sun, Craig's Dad was surprised by the backpackers in the background of this photo who seemed to think sunshine = short-sleeves weather!


Over at the domestic terminal Craig continued to celebrate his happiness about not being on an airplane. He ran around as much as possible despite only having slept about five hours on the overnight flight from Singapore to Brisbane.


The tiredness finally caught up with him on the flight from Brisbane to Rockhampton. Craig crashed as soon as the plane took off and didn't wake up until he was carried off the plane in Rocky. Not long later, he was in Yeppoon when his parents took him to a local supermarket where his tiredness seemed to catch up with him again. Encouraging his son to not lie on the floor of a supermarket was not the way Craig's Dad had pictured the beginning of his holiday.


Back at Craig's Grandparent's house, Craig began playing the same type of games that he plays at home. That was a sign that he was getting back to normal.

He Needs a New Bathtub Soon

The little blue bathtub that sits in the bathroom waiting for Craig to play in every day is now starting to look a bit small.


Of course, it doesn't help when the footstool Craig's Mum sits on when she is cleaning him becomes just another bath toy.


Craig has a lot of fun in his tiny bath but Craig's Dad thinks that so much of Craig sticks out above the water that it must feel a bit cold for the boy. The only solution would be a new, bigger bath.

Flying Cow Ranch

Yes folks, that's the real name of a real place here in Taiwan, Flying Cow Ranch.

Craig's Mum and Dad rented a car for a trip to meet some of Craig's Mum's former university classmates. Craig's Mum tried to feed the boy breakfast before they left but he wasn't very accommodating.

Craig was pretty happy about getting out of the car and didn't mind the long uphill walk from the car park.

The first order of business was lunch. However, Craig spent more time playing than eating.

So, he was pretty happy about being allowed out of the highchair and being allowed to run around outside. Strangely, he soon began snacking on biscuits from his Mum's backpack.

Although it was a very hot day Craig had a good time running around in the shade provided by a nice long line of trees.

One of the other dads who Craig's Dad nicknamed The King of Kids had brought a little bottle of soapy water and two little doohickeys for blowing bubbles.

The little girls in attendance loved chasing the bubbles but Craig seemed a bit bewildered as to what to do.




Then, it was time to go and see some of the animals kept on the farm.

Craig liked the goats more than the rabbits.

But he seemed to like the sheep most of all. A few times he had to be pulled away because the sheep were eating leaves fed to them by lots of children and Craig's Dad doubted the sheep would know or care if one of Craig's fingers accidentally got in the way.

Craig's Mum helped Craig have a turn at feeding a sheep.

The group then went on a long walk that took them along a path through a forest with Craig leading the way. At one point, Craig looked back to see if everyone was keeping up.

Because the road ahead was still quite long.

But, along the way, there were a lot of lovely butterflies.

Eventually, they came to a little place where they could sit and rest but Craig was more interested in these small towers that were part of a cooling system for a greenhouse where butterflies were being bred. He even managed to pull a handful of green slime out of the water just for fun.

Then, the walk continued towards a lookout.


The view from the top was pretty good.

So a family picture was taken.

All that walking had worn out some of the other kids.



But, Craig and some of the girls were still going strong!



However, Craig had done an enormous amount of walking for such a tiny boy that day and it was no surprise when he slept most of the way home in the car. He awoke temporarily when they stopped at a rest area but they couldn't stay long because it was already after 8:30 and the rental car had to be back by 10:00.

Talking on the Intercom

Craig has become very good at talking .... unfortunately his parents are still unable to understand much of what he says. He will strike up a conversation with himself at almost any time but he especially likes to speak into the intercom next to the front door.

These two videos should give a better idea of what I'm talking about. Enjoy.