Cathartic crying can be a good thing. I'm sure they will be thrilled to see you (though there may be some initial "hiding under the bed" time due to my recent repeated absences.

I made hummus soup tonight -- and the chick peas where cooked part in water part in veggie broth

I miss hummus.

I'm sure they will be thrilled to see you (though there may be some initial "hiding under the bed" time due to my recent repeated absences.

They probably won't care much but they are super sweet and will probably come out and it'll be awesome because I'll scratch their ears and stuff.

Weekend update: we took Ryan to the Zoo on Saturday. I love watching how much more he gets out of these visits every time we go. He told us his favourite animal is the tiger, and we got a great look at them - one of them was pacing around right in front of the glass. He was also a big fan of the fur seals. They have a new enclosure, with lots of flat-topped rocks for basking, plenty of swimming room, and underwater viewing windows (which they seem to enjoy too). This is also where they keep the little penguins, which sad to say weren't out and about when we were there, and the pelicans, which never fail to cath our little boy's attention.

Before lunch, we also saw a Syrian brown bear, a snow leopard (chillin', of course), lions and African painted dogs (African painted dogs!). This time, too, I made sure we saw the amphibian and reptile house. Ryan's bedtime comforter is a green frog called Bubby, so he enjoyed the frogs. (We've been assured several times since that Bubby is bigger than the Zoo frogs.) It was the reptile house that was the big hit, though. Ryan's favourite book of the moment is entitled "Is Your Grandmother a Goanna?" (Spoiler alert: No.) As it happened, the reptile house had a pair of goannas. One was stretched out on a log and catching some rays; the other one was hopped up and sharing high-fives with every kid with hands against the glass. He was pretty thrilled, and that was the one time during the day that we had trouble getting him to move on from an exhibit.

We had lunch on a park bench just outside the reptile house, the setting for DRAMA! A flock of seagulls and moorhens decided to come by and scavenge for our scraps. All well and good, until one of the moorhens decided that it wanted the fresh stuff, and jumped onto Ryan's chest in order to reach his sandwich, freaking him out. Biyi tells me that she's never seen me move so quickly as when I lunged at the offending avian. I spent the rest of lunchtime ensuring Ryan remained bird-free. (And tossing scraps to the seagulls, who were admirably civilised by comparison).

After lunch we headed for the elephants. Ryan loves them. The elephants at Melbourne Zoo are surprisingly hairy. On the way over there, we were privileged to witness a golden pheasant displaying to his female. (IMO, golden pheasants are the most visually stunning birds on earth, bar none. Better than birds of paradise, parrots, hummingbirds and other pheasants. This was a real treat for me.) On the way back from the elephants, we stopped by the orangutans. They have a new enclosure, with lots of climbing structures and platforms and play areas and such. While we were there, two of them were engaged in ripping out some vegetation from the riverbank and hauling it up to one of ttheir platforms. Biyi thinks they wanted to eat it. I reckon they were turning it into bedding. Either way, lots of excellent behaviour.

By then it was time to go home, and really just as well; we're in the grip of winter here. Saturday morning gave us a few hours of decent weather, but it wasn't long after we left that the raid started.

My favourite part of the visit was the golden pheasant. It's not the first time I've seen one engaged in courtship ritual, but it's still a gorgeous treat. I asked Ryan what his favourite thing was, and he said the tigers (though I think it was really the goannas). I asked Biyi what she liked best too. She said "When you protected Ryan".

So we had a very enjoyable outing. But that's not the big news from this weekend. The big news is that on Sunday, Ryan read his first word! I wrote "NO" on his blackboard, asked him what the letters were, asked him what it spelled and he said "No!". It's memory work, not phonetics or spelling it out or anything, but still. I'm very proud of him. (Next up: "HIPPOPOTAMUS".)

Go Ryan with the reading!

I never heard of Is Your Grandmother a Goanna? I assume it's related to Is Your Mama a Llama?

Condo update. We are funded. W00t! Although my bank account does not reflect any money transferred or a loan added. The transaction will record tomorrow. So no keys until tomorrow. I hope.

Yay, omnis!!!

YAY omnis!

Congrats, omnis! But I won't say it too loud lest I jinx something.

I wrote "NO" on his blackboard, asked him what the letters were, asked him what it spelled and he said "No!". It's memory work, not phonetics or spelling it out or anything, but still. I'm very proud of him. (Next up: "HIPPOPOTAMUS".)

That's how I learned to read, at age 3, according to my mom. I learned what all the words in my favorite book were, and went from there. Understanding the spelling and phonetics came after, sort of breaking the words down instead of building them up.

I HAVE POWER AGAIN. I'm hugging everything I usually take for granted. AC, TV, Internet, lights, washer, dryer, not dying of heatstroke...