Apartment Living & Official "Soccer" Mom

We lived in an apartment in the City for the first two months we were back in Perth. I didn't realize until updating the blog that I took no photos of us there - must have been subconscious since we hated it! The only thing good was the view of the beautiful Swan River (really should have taken a photo of that). We could see the Aussie Flag flying proudly along the River and the kids would give me constant wind reports based on how the flag was or wasn't flying.

We were on an 8th floor apartment with a balcony that had glass railings. Talk about a mother's nightmare. Luckily I'm blessed with fantastic listeners and at no time did they attempt to go on the balcony without one of us, even when we had the door open to get some breeze through. We made a point of getting out of the apartment every day, even if just to take our bread scraps across the road to feed the ducks.

Now that I write this, there are a few cute memories I can think of, so maybe it wasn't all bad:

- The kids named the HUGE pelican that also resided at the pond "Pom-Pom Cookie Monster", I kid not. Every time we drove home and had to do a U-turn they'd ask if Pom-Pom Cookie Monster was awake or asleep. They still talk about him.

- We didn't have a lot of toys in the apartment, so we became very creative and resourceful with the materials around us. I invented the Animal Rescue Game and would hide all their stuffed animals and they'd have to go find them and "rescue" them. They would also scour the apartment for anything and everything they could use to make music. One day they had the entire living room area covered with "drums".

- I don't know what started it, but they would give Rich and I a concert each night, taking turns standing up and singing songs into their microphones (we had two microphones from the Xbox) and doing dances. It was a lot of fun; we really should do that here.
I officially became a "Soccer Mom" in September when I enrolled John in his first soccer class. Its a great program that teaches early-learning skills (listening, following directions, participation, etc) as well as soccer skills. He loved practicing his "tick-tock" kicking around the apartment, up and down the hallway.

Sydney really wanted to try ballet, so she joined her friend's ballet class (which was great since she knew someone). We decided early on that she wouldn't participate in the Christmas Concert, which put her mind at ease as she didn't like the thought of going on stage with everyone. But this year she will be doing the Concert, and she's actually excited about it.

The last lesson of each Term the parents are allowed in to watch, so I was able to get a few 'action' shots. I'll admit, the first 8-10 weeks she was in she was a bit uncoordinated, but she's come a very long way in a short amount of time and dances around the house all. the. time.