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Thursday, January 07, 2010
Aurora dancing
Here's some awesome video Steph took a few days ago of Aurora spontaneously dancing to Glenn Miller with Clive, the inflatable dinosaur. I've watched it a few times over the past few days... every time it brings me great joy :) Hope it does for you too.
Mostly everyday (sometimes I forget) I ask Aurora at the end of the day what her favourite part of the day was, and she in turn asks me. It's a lovely way to finish the day with her, and her answers always warm my heart. Today I didn't get to ask her, but I can tell you unequivocally what my favourite part was. I was taking out the bins for rubbish night, and I heard Aurora yelling to me from the house "Dad! ... Dad!". It just made my heart explode with happiness and pride to hear her call out to me. It's the simple things in life :)
Today, I truly got to witness Aurora's character and experience a conversation that I'll never forget. We were driving back from a shopping trip this morning, all of us in the car, when out of the blue, a conversation transpired along the lines of the following. From the back of the car, after a few rare moments of quiet;
Aurora: "Daddy... I know that when you were a boy, Nanna was your Mummy, but who was your Daddy?" Me; "Well, when I was about Laura's age (Laura being the 12 year old sister of a friend of hers), my Daddy died in a car accident" Aurora; "Was it an accident?" Me; "Yes, it was an accident" Aurora; "What happened?" Me; "Well, he was driving along, and something happened, and he hit a tree. And he died" Aurora; "Were you sad?" Me; "Yes, very" Aurora; "Did you cry?" Me; "Yes" Aurora; "How did you cry?" Me; "Like you normally cry - when you're very sad about something" Aurora; "Was Nanna sad?" Me; "Yes" Aurora; "Did she cry?" Me; "Yes" Aurora; "What did she say?" Me; "I don't remember"
And then there was a pause... for probably about 10 seconds or so. Silence filled the air. It was a very sombre mood (obviously). And then Aurora said;
"Daddy, I'm very sorry that your Daddy died"
Aurora - you are an incredible, empathetic, wonderful human soul. I love you more than words could ever do justice.
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play a gig at Aurora's kinder. It was a blast - having a bunch of 4 year olds captivated as I got them involved in some songs. The setlist consisted of;
Jingle Bells (a good opener)
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Alice The Camel
Hokey Pokey
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
... plus a little bit of SRV's Mary Had A Little Lamb
It was a lot of fun, and the best part about it, as pointed out by Steph last night, is that hopefully Aurora will remember this for a while to come. She looked so proud yesterday morning :)
I genuinely think there's a lot of similarities between management and parenting - and I'm not looking to demean, belittle or disrespect either practice by the way. Parenting lately, particularly with Aurora who is almost 4 years old, is dominated by bartering and negotiating. "We can read stories after you clean the play room". "You can watch something after you've had a sleep". And quickly becoming my favourite seasonal saying... "You don't want me to have to call Santa, do you?". Whilst these exact phrases don't exactly work for the office, there's often a lot of negotiating in my day to day activities and I find the lessons that I learn from Aurora are also in use in the office everyday - patience, clear communication, concise reasoning, and quickly determining what the "real" driver is.
Thought I'd better take a minute to jot down some of the fabulous sayings Aurora has at the moment. No doubt they'll be lost in time as her language skills further develop, so here's some of my favourites words and phrases of hers right now;
When Steph and I are having a laugh about something, she'll often start laughing madly as well and ask "What are you banana guys talking about?"
"Daddy, I have a really <> question for you... ". Lately she's been using "good", "odd" and "interesting"
Bah-que-tah for computer. "Daddy, your bah-que-tah is still on"
"The Tank". She calls the ice cream container "the tank". When asking for a spoonful; "Daddy, can I please have some from the tank?"
Guh-spect for "expect". Her favourite joke is told as follows; "Knock Knock", "Who's There?", "Zoo", "Zoo Who?" "Zoo'd you guspect?!"
Guh-suhn-ya for lasagne. She loves her guh-suhn-ya
Funnings for Bunnings. An old favourite that hasn't changed much.
That's about it for now (or at least that immediately spring to mind). Aurora's totally awesome.
It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting in the children's ward of Box Hill hospital next to Aurora, who is sitting in bed, watching Bee Movie on my laptop (update, she's now onto Tinkerbell). I'm on Steph's laptop writing this. The nurses have already given us a few weird looks (Them; "How many computers do you have?". Me; "Here, or in total?"). Anyway, it's the first chance I've had to sit back and recap the past week's events. Here's what happened...
Last Sunday, Aurora and I went to the footy. It was a lovely afternoon, and when we got home, she had a bit of a croaky voice, which I figured was down to yelling / shouting at the footy. Otherwise, she seemed fine. Off to bed she went, when later that night she started to have a horrible, seal-like cough. She started to have trouble swallowing and talking, so Steph rushed her off to the hospital (Knox). Four hours later they were home again, with a diagnosis of croup and having undergone a treatment of steroids and a nebuliser, it seemed as though although knocked around, she was going to be OK. Steph kept her home for the next few days, just in case.
On Thursday, Aurora was scheduled in for a minor operation. When she was born, she had a tiny hernia (a tear in the stomach muscle) under her belly button.`They attempted to fix it last year, but apparently the operation last year didn't work... so, we went in for a second try. After having had the croup earlier in the week, we made the hospital very aware of that - they said it wouldn't be a problem, only if Aurora had a fever (which she didn't)
The operation went pretty well - the hardest part was probably waiting for the operation and Aurora not being able to eat anything. She ended up having the operation around 11am on Thursday, came out of it OK, but complained of a sore tummy (which was to be expected!). The hospital did say however that when they took the tubes out from the anaesthetic, there was a fair bit of mucus on them. We took Aurora home and she went down for a sleep. About 30 minutes into her sleep she yelled out very upset, and we went in to find her (and her bed) absolutely covered in vomit. All through her hair, her pillow, pyjamas, sheets, etc. It wasn't pleasant (and Steph, the trooper, sorted it out - including having to wash Aurora's hair, without letting her get in the bath - as we need to keep her tummy dry until next week). An exhausted and zombie-like Aurora went back to sleep and a few hours later we woke her up for some dinner. She had a bit of a temperature at that point, but we figured that might just be a flow on effect from the operation. She went off to bed again and we checked on her at 10:30ish to give her some more pain meds. That's when it got a little bit hairy.
Aurora was really hot. Her fever was around 39, but she felt much hotter. Steph called the hospital while I lay down with her in bed. The biggest concern was that her breathing sounded quite shallow and really laboured. She was still knocked about from the anaesthetic as well, so she was drifting in and out of sleep at the drop of a hat. Steph and I decided that the breathing was too much of a concern, so for the second time in a week, Aurora was bundled up in her pyjamas and taken to the hospital (Box Hill this time). I stayed at home with Atticus who was sleeping.
Steph and Aurora were at the hospital for a bunch of time - I'm not sure exactly what happened - but at some stage in the middle of Thursday night they thought that Aurora had pneumonia and put her on oxygen. A few hours later (still the middle of the night), they took an x-ray of Aurora's chest and found that part of one of her lungs had collapsed. She was kept on oxygen and given ventolin as well to see if that would fix it. She still had a really high fever as well which was thought to be being caused by an underlying viral / bacterial infection, so a course of anti-biotics were started. She was also put on a drip to keep her fluids up.
Meanwhile, I was home, in bed, tossing and turning, having a fairly shit sleep stressing about what was happening. Steph SMS'd me to let me know that her and Aurora would be staying at the hospital for a while. Upon Atticus waking up on Friday morning, I gave him a bottle and then joined Aurora and Steph at the hospital. Poor Steph had only had about 40 minutes sleep for the night. Aurora had not much more than that. They both looked exhausted... and then Steph had the joy of having to breastfeed Atticus as well! Suffice to say, Friday (yesterday) was challenging.
Aurora was not at all herself yesterday. She had a hard time breathing and was really, really exhausted. No doubt she was still feeling the effects of the operation plus she'd barely slept for a day. The doctors wanted her to cough, as they thought that would help sort out her lung, but of course, having just had an operation on her stomach, it was really painful to cough. She didn't have the normal "Aurora spark" to her, and that in itself was heartbreaking for me to see. A few times when I was there, she'd just look at me, half in a daze and quietly utter "I love you Daddy". It was hard. She had the antibiotics in one of her hands, numbing agent on the other, so she couldn't really hold drink bottles, etc.
Steph went back to the house in the afternoon and I stayed with Aurora and Atticus at the hospital. We went for a little walk (literally probably about 15 metres) and that exhausted her. She had a rest, we read some stories, had a few chats, watched Dora on the portable DVD player (which after about 90 minutes the sound cut out, a puff of grey smoke emitted from the speakers and started to smell like burning plastic. Awesome). Her breathing wasn't too bad, so the doctors took her off oxygen to see how that went - and she's been off since (around 24 hours since then as I write this). More ventolin, more antibiotics, Steph came back and I went home with Atticus (and watched the company LiveMeeting). I did one more visit that night (for another breastfeed for Atticus) and then departed home to have dinner myself.
Overnight (Friday night/Saturday morning), Aurora's been poked and prodded a few more times, and her temperature has been up (only once) and down (mostly, thankfully). Her breathing is now good and her appetite seems to be coming back. She's starting to exhibit that "Aurora spark" again, and the doctors say she might even be able to head home tonight (she has another round of antibiotics at 3:30pm), but we're planning that she/we may very well be here again tonight.
Overall, this has been one of the more terrifying experiences of my life - particularly Thursday night and Friday morning. It's just devastating to see your child in pain, fighting to breathe. I certainly felt helpless and impotent. As I sit next to Aurora now watching her, she's probably back to about 60% of her "normal self". I feel so thankful and blessed that she's OK and feel completely overwhelmed in my love for her. Here's hoping that we're all back home soon and that this is the last emergency hospital trip we have for a while. Thank you to all who have offered help, support and thoughts over the last few days - each and every one has been appreciated.
Last Sunday saw a very special occasion; Aurora's first trip to the football. Now, I'm not a regular attendee of the football like some of my friends - I probably get along once a year to a game - but it really is such an incredible feeling to go along to a "BIG" game, especially at the MCG, and get swept up in the action. So, Aurora and I went along (with Aunty B and a friend) to see a "blockbuster" game; Carlton vs. Collingwood, at the MCG.
Even though I was struggling with a bad cold, we both rugged up for some expected bad weather (which didn't eventuate - instead, it was actually a little warm and sunny!) and jumped in the car to head to the 'G. I figured the car could come in handy later on, should things turn sour, and provide an easy early escape home if needed. We got a park no problem at Yarra Park, and even though it no doubt seemed like a suburb away to Aurora's poor little legs, she managed to make the trek all the way to the stadium (asking all the way "Is this the football, Daddy?"). Once she saw the MCG and all the people, her little face registered a minor sense of awe I think at the size of it - particularly as we headed into the crowd to attempt to find Aunty B.
The seats were fantastic - we could see all the action easily. Upon arrival, we got settled and then after being asked by Aurora "Daddy, where is the puppet?", thought it might be fun to introduce Aurora to the Collingwood mascot (bearing in mind it is a giant, quite menacing looking Magpie). That didn't go so well - she wasn't necessarily traumatised, but you could say she's definitely not a fan. I guess on TV, he's much smaller :) We had some hot chips, we did some colouring in while waiting for the game to start, it was fun.
The game was pretty ordinary. Collingwood played terribly, and deserved to get the absolute caning they did by Carlton (in fact, they probably got off a bit lightly). Without Aurora there, I probably would've been a bit more upset / dismayed by proceedings, but honestly, I had a ball of a time with her, watching her get into the game with such passion. When Carlton scored and the crowd applauded, she applauded. When the Pies managed to do something remotely positive, she clapped / yelled along. She asked pertinent questions such as "Why don't the men kick more goals?" and "Where are all the magpies?". I guess she was looking for the actual birds (which makes sense if you think about it).
She got a little tired during the third quarter and had to have a lie down, and we left just after the end of the third. We listened to MMM on the way home in the car, and Aurora pointed out "The man just said 'football'. Daddy, we were at the football!". I did a poor job of trying to explain the football was still going and the man in the stereo was talking about that game.
Most importantly, Aurora had a great time and is keen to go to another game. It was a lovely afternoon out. See all the photo's here :)
Steph commented to me today that she was relieved that she had another pair of capable hands around with the kids for the day and that I'd done a great job helping out. Based on that, I thought it was a good point to think about fatherhood, round 2, with Atticus, and how I've been dealing with it. So, this is a post about being a Dad. No doubt, it won't be as eloquent, amusing or deep as a Black Hockey Jesus post, but I've seen him play guitar now, and I reckon I can play better than him, so I don't feel all that bad :)
In response to Steph's comment from today, it made me think two things; that I didn't feel today to be a "chore" or a "challenge", it was just something that had to be done, and for the large part was enjoyable, and the other thought; what the definition of "capable" from Steph was. I pointed out that her definition of "capable" probably rested on the fact that I listened to at least 50% of what she actually said and parented in a similar, though not exact replica, of how she would. God bless the in-laws, kinder, child care worker that Aurora stays with 2 days a week, and anyone else that looks after our kids, but they're usually parenting / teaching Aurora at a tangent (if not at odds) to our principles. And I guess one of the big things that I've realised over the past year or so is that I used to fight Steph a lot on the "Stop telling me how to parent my fucking child" front. I realise that a lot of that was my own frustration at wanting my brain to come up with the same actions, solutions, parenting approaches, whatever that Steph would do, rather than having to be told. That was strong at the start with Aurora, and these days, I think my brain does do it without instruction, and when instruction is given, I happily take it with the understanding that Steph parents to the same end goal that I do; happy, well-mannered, respectful, principled, intelligent children. And that's all that matters.
And with that in mind, the knowledge that it does get better (your kids start to interact, and demonstrate what you have taught them) and the confidence in seeing the brilliant young girl that Aurora has become (in part to parenting on my part), I am more relaxed, confident, hands-on and engaged with Atticus. I recall with Aurora at the start, I had an overwhelming sense of "WTF?" and bewilderment. And while I still have times, such as tonight, when I'm not sure what's going to help stop Atticus' tormented cries (probably from tummy wind), I'm taking it in my stride, and realise that being a parent certainly means not knowing everything... in fact, at times it means knowing almost nothing :)
That's the update for now, check back in a couple of weeks. All may have gone to hell by then :)
I thought it was worth spending a bit of time talking about "the concept behind naming children, according to the Neumanns" (or at least this part of the Neumanns - Steph has her own views, hopefully similar to what's laid out here, but she'd probably write it more eloquently :P)
Since Atticus was born, we've had a pretty polar reaction to his name. I've had a lot (the majority) of people tell me they love the name, it's the coolest name they've ever heard, they love the character from the novel, etc. And I've had a few (the minority) say "Oh... OK...", "Well, that's a bit different" and "Interesting..." (you know, where the word takes a good 10 seconds to say in separated syllables).
This post is not intended to be a reaction to the naysayers - far from it. I've been intending to write this post for many weeks now, to put it out there and beam proudly over the choice of name and the reasons behind it. I'm super excited and delighted to tell people what the names of our children are. It seems as though a byproduct of this post can be at least to give those who are a bit puzzled some more insight into the reasoning behind the names.
So, there are a few overarching principles for us when naming our kids. And if you're unfamiliar with the full names of our two children, they are Aurora Jupiter Neumann, and Atticus Justice Neumann. The principles behind naming them are;
They need to have strong, bold names
They need have a theme to the names
Their names shoudl represent both the masculine and the feminine
They need to have the initials AJN
Why each of these principles? We want to give our children bold, strong, unique, (hopefully) representative names. We want names that people either react with a "Wow!" or "What?".
In the case of Aurora, we want our daughter to be beautiful, a force of nature, out of this world, and the biggest thing in our universe. Steph came up with Aurora (typically a feminine name), me Jupiter (typically a masculine name). Aurora has 2 origins; the lights in the sky most people know, and Disney's Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty (that we didn't actually realise until someone told us after she was born - a happy coincidence in naming). Jupiter also has two origins; the planet which most people know (which ties into Aurora's theme), and the Roman mythological god, king of all gods and the sky. We thought Aurora had such an amazing imagery associated with the name and such a feminine beauty to it. And the word Jupiter also has a beauty to it and an "other-worldly" quality.
We want our son to be a moral compass, one who knows and speaks the truth, can show others, is a teacher and a strong, thoughtful man. Steph came up with Atticus (typically a masculine name), me Justice (typically a feminine name). Atticus comes from a single origin for us (although there are plenty of other origins as well); Atticus Finch, the central character in Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird". From Wikipedia; "The book's noblest character, Atticus represents the ideal of a lawyer, father and human being. He goes to great pains to instruct his children on the importance of being open-minded, judicious, generous neighbors and citizens. He is eventually revealed to be an expert marksman, but he had chosen to keep this fact hidden from his children so that they would not in any way think of him as a man of violence". The thought of this character almost brings tears to my eyes - he is everything I want a child of mine to grow up to be.
Justice on the other hand comes from 3 origins from my perspective; the concept of moral rightness (which ties into Atticus' theme), an album that had significant impact on my teenage years, Metallica's "... And Justice For All", and a TV show / comic book that had significant impact on my childhood years, DC's Justice League. I think the concept of superheroes and fantasy should be a foundation for any little boy, the discovery and love of music (especially political, controversial or critical) is key during teenage years, and the establishment, continued discovery and living of one's key principles (such as morality, ethics, integrity and equality) from early adulthood onwards sums up that progression from the dependent into the individual.
And the last principle? (AJN as their initials). I personally wanted something that the kids would share in their names, other than a surname. Something special that would tie them together, given their names are so uniquely theirs. And there's a little bit of ego in it as well, being an AJN myself, tying them back to me. Steph changed her name from an SJA to an SJN when we were married, so we have SJN (the captain, running the ship) and the three kids; AJN1 (me), AJN2 (Aurora) and AJN3 (Atticus)
:D
So, as you can see, we don't just use a random name generator, or pick wildly from a book when it comes to naming our children. It's the second thing we immediately give our children (behind life itself) and it will remain with them for we hope a very long time.
Long live Aurora Jupiter Neumann and Atticus Justice Neumann.
Aurora has been undergoing a study in toilet training for the past 3 days. I've been a bit concerned as to how it would all go, but there's only been a few accidents (and they were mainly on Saturday, the first day she started). According to Steph (who had to take the duties on solo today as I was back at work - onya Steph!), she really got the hang of it today. I'm hoping that she's over the hurdle now and in a few days we can chalk up toilet training as "mastered".
On the other hand however, just over the past few days, she's been putting up a fight going to bed. Getting out of bed and wandering into the lounge room, turning on her overhead light, singing, talking, etc. She's normally pretty good going to bed without too much fuss, but she's really causing some grief over the past few nights. I don't think it's related to the toilet training - more to the fact that she's moved from having a lamp on in her room while she sleeps and now has a night-light. Regardless, it's trying the patience of her mother and father...
I've put up some more photo's of Aurora, taken of her getting her first "real" haircut, a few weekends ago. Very cute. I was extremely annoyed at myself for having forgotten to take the camera, but luckily the camera on my phone, which I rarely use, came in quite handy (and I don't think they look too bad!)
Aurora is just at a golden age at the moment. Given Steph's energy levels with the pregnancy, I'm finding myself spending more and more time solo with Aurora on the weekends (and days off like today), which I'm really loving. Aurora and I have been going to parks, interactively playing a lot more and just generally "hanging out" more. She's talking all the time and very inquisitive. My favourite phrase of hers at the moment is "all my by self" (supposed to be "all by myself"). Another favourite is her responding to a question where she doesn't know the answer which is usually answered; "Umm... I don't really know" or "Umm... I don't actually know".
Took some photo's of Aurora and the decking on Saturday morning - as I had copped some flack from people for not putting photo's up of my sterling work on the decking :D
So, here's some images to keep you pictorially informed about the Neumann household;
We took a family outing to the Zoo on Tuesday. It was a gorgeous day weather-wise, and Aurora had a ball. I was so proud of her - she made it through the whole day without a nap and wasn't too ratty at all (although towards the end of the day she was a bit of a space cadet). All in all, it was a great adventure - check out some photos of Aurora here
I've updated Aurora's site with some photos from yesterday. We had a great day at Janet St and then went to the park to hang out for a bit. I'm really going to miss her during my trip (this time next week I'll be sitting at the Qantas terminal waiting for my flight to LA)
Aurora had her first operation today (hopefully she has very few in her life). When she was born, she had an umbilical hernia - essentially a small tear in her stomach muscle underneath her belly button. It isn't anything that gives/gave her pain, but something that cosmetically should be sorted out early on in life, and could have adverse effects later on in life (so suggested that it's taken care of around this age). Anyway, the worst parts of the day were that she couldn't eat from about 7:30am onwards this morning (and for our mobile food monster, this is an issue). So, she was STARVING while we were waiting - constantly crying for food, which was particularly hard to say no to. We turned up to the hospital at about midday (prime nap starting time) and after waiting... and waiting... and waiting for 3 hours, we finally got in to see the surgeon at about 3pm. Those 3 hours seemed like an eternity (also given that we were not able to eat anything since breakfast) with her being so tired and hungry, but she trooped on through like the little champion she is. Both Steph and I were present when she was anaesthetised - which was a bittersweet moment. Actually seeing her put to sleep was something I don't want to see again - her passing out in front of me and going limp - however the sweet moment came in the 10 seconds before it happened. For pretty much the whole day up until that point, Aurora wanted very little to do with me (it was all "Mummy, Mummy, Mummy" - understandably), but right before she went out, as Steph was holding her in her arms, she cried out "Daddy chuggle" (cuddle), so we all had a group cuddle while she went under. The surgery itself lasted about 20 minutes, and she was out of the anaesthetic about 20 minutes after that. We had to hang around the hospital for another hour to see if she was going to have any side effects (during which time she consumed water, an icy pole, a banana, a punnet of strawberries, 3 crackers and about 4 biscuits). During this time she was in pain, and in a fair bit of discomfort but some pain relief seemed to help a great deal. We got home around 5:30pm, had a little bit of dinner and then she completely crashed out. Tomorrow we'll be taking it easy I think... and hoping she's not feeling too bruised and battered in her tummy.
On a final note, Aurora's cutest moment of late; A few times in the past week she's stuck her hands up as high as they go, had a very pained expression on her face (one of absolute frustration and sheer exacerbation) and stated "Can't reach. Can't reach the sky!" Yes, she's trying to touch the sky. What a crazy idea - she's a wacky kid and I love her to bits...
I've had a great day today with Aurora - she's such a champion. And she is just cuteness on legs at the moment. Her hair is long enough to put into plaits (courtesy of Steph), which is pretty cool in itself, and she has some really happenin' clothes as well. We bought her a blackboard/whiteboard on the weekend, and she's loving it. Her vocabulary is coming along strong - a lot of talking, a lot of full sentences. Anyway, we went and saw Nanna (my mum) and Nanny (my grandmother) today, both very happy, fun visits that involved a lot of running around, tickling and chasing.
I'm really looking forward to the next few days. Have a great Easter everyone.
I renewed my licence on Friday (10 years since the last one). Was a relatively painless process, but it got me thinking about the next time I'll be doing it. More specifically, it got me thinking about Aurora the next time I'm renewing my licence, and if she'll come with me, and what she'll be like in 10 years time. Exciting stuff ahead :)
Aurora turned 2 years old today. What a fantastic day it was, and what a complete joy she is to be around. Highlights of the day included her + ice cream cake (she just LOVES ice cream cake), the enormous haul of presents she received and of course, the huge amount of love she received from those around her. Was a reasonably quiet affair in terms of her party, but she went to bed a very happy, satisfied, tired and loved baby girl.
Over the past month or so Aurora has really come into her own, and has grown in leaps and bounds. She now uses a lot of words, and although she's hitting a stage where she is very clingy (to Mummy in particular) and a little whiny as well, she is just amazing. She now uses her name in sentences, she asks for what she wants and starts to enjoy the simple joys in life; snuggling into a lap for a story, wandering in the sunshine looking at "things", and sleep, glorious sleep. I think my favourite thing is her voluntarily holding hands for a walk - it just melts my heart. I look forward to spending my weekends with her - and tomorrow I get to look after her for the day while Steph is out. The weather is going to be great, and it's going to be a fun day (I have a few things planned). Life is good.
Well, I'm taking matters into my own hands. Our boys in black and white have been, well, pretty woeful over the past month, so I'm putting Plan B into action. That's right, Aurora and I are in training. Now, most of you are probably thinking "Hmmm... I don't EVER recall seeing Andy kick a football", or "Hmmm.... I tend to recall Andy being considerably uncoordinated when it comes to sport". And you'd be right (with the exception of my coordination in pool and table tennis). But my 20 month old daughter is blissfully unaware of this, and to her, I reckon it appears that her Dad can kick a football about 40 kilometres in a single kick. We've been having a ball (awesome pun) on the oval across the road, and she is really "getting" the concept of kicking (especially the pronounciation part of it; "kick! kick!"). And it's a great way to spend the late afternoon when Andy and Steph are thinking "how can we completely tire our child out so that she goes out like a light at bedtime?". So, watch this space. You'll be seeing the first female AFL star soon, taking the number 5 jumper when Bucks retires (he's got to return first, and that's still about 14 seasons away).
