Arden's first birthday.

And just like that, our baby girl turned one.

I can't believe it's been a year since Arden was born, and we became a family of three. I wouldn't say the year flew by - it was a long year! But it's amazing how much she's grown into her own person - from an intense and hungry newborn; to a cuddly and joyful 6-month old; to a happy, playful and always on-the-go one-year old. 

Arden is now a pro at crawling, loves to pull herself up on things, and always wants to be in the company of her mama and dada. She's pretty cautious about other people (and sometimes gets very clingy and upset when meeting/re-meeting some of our friends, unfortunately!) but loves to watch other babies and children. She likes babbling and singing to herself, clapping and trying to snap, and smiling - a lot. She's finally enjoying solids, like baby puff snacks and mashed banana. Unfortunately sleep is still an issue (long story short, we need to sleep train her again - we can't carry her for naps forever..!), but we'll get there when we get there. And she still prefers being carried to riding in her stroller. 

We spent Arden's birthday enjoying the sunshine, playing at a park and chatting with some family on FaceTime. We dressed her in red, as per the Chinese custom (and because she looks so cute in it!). I felt pretty emotional all day, looking back on our year with her, trying to recall what she was like during her first few days and weeks of life. It's been quite the journey so far.

Happy birthday, Arden. You are amazing, precious, and so very loved.

CK

Arden: Year One from Candice Kortlever on Vimeo.

a weekend in adelaide.

A few months ago when I had a 3-day weekend, we decided to take a little trip to visit Adelaide. Adelaide is a small city of about 1.3 million people located a short 1-hour flight from Melbourne. The perfect stopover for a long weekend.

One of Candice’s friends from college lives in Adelaide, so we met up with him for lunch shortly after we arrived. It was great to meet a local who could take us to the best coffee shop and show us Adelaide’s shining jewels – the Malls Balls.

the "Malls Balls"

The rest of our first day was spent wandering around the city in the rain, exploring Chinatown and the Adelaide Central Market. The next day the sun came out, so we decided to explore the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. When we travel to a new city in Australia, we always love to check out the botanic gardens. They offer a beautiful place to take an afternoon stroll, and occasionally glimpse some unique wildlife. Melbourne has an excellent botanic garden, but I think the Adelaide Botanic Garden is my favourite. From the unique buildings, lush gardens and beautiful lavender arches, we would highly recommend a visit to the gardens if you are ever in Adelaide.

The rest of our time in Adelaide we spent walking along the river, visiting the Adelaide Oval and exploring North Terrace. We had a great time on our visit and hope we have another opportunity to visit Adelaide again.

 -BK Adelaide - September 2016 from Candice Kortlever on Vimeo.

spring 2016 updates.

It's finally Spring in Australia! It's so lovely when it starts getting warmer. We've had some beautiful sun-filled days, and then some very rainy ones recently. But we're from Seattle - we can take it!

a beautiful warm day by the river.

Even though we had an amazing time, our trip to the U.S. was actually pretty traumatising for Arden, and it took about an entire month for her to recover and return to any semblance of a routine. The first few weeks back in Melbourne were pretty rough - but I'm happy to report that she's finally back to her happy, inquisitive self. Just in time for some pretty fun milestones - clapping, waving, dancing... and finally crawling, as of a week ago!

It's been two months since we've posted updates (!), so here's what we've been up to recently:

I've been training for a 10k in October and a 5k in November. Last year when I was pregnant I really missed my favourite city races, so I'm happy to be back on the running bandwagon this year! My sister-in-law Saralyn gave us her old B.O.B. jogging stroller, which Arden and I use a few times a week for morning jogs around the neighbourhood.

Arden thinks mommy is sweaty.

The Rio Olympics were fun to watch and follow. It's always kind of refreshing to watch the Olympics from not-America, as it's a different experience (more coverage on Australian-dominated sports, like sailing and pentathlon-ing!). Arden and I even attended a welcome home parade for the Australian Olympic Team. We got to see some medals up close, hear some inspiring speeches from athletes, and we even made a cameo on the news while the people in front of us got interviewed!

Ben took this photo of us on the afternoon news!

Ben celebrated his first Australian Father's Day this month! It's pretty funny that Mother's Day is the same date in the U.S. and Australia, but Father's Day is different. I believe it's because of the plethora of Australian holidays in mid-June, so the country decided to pick a less-celebrated time of the year to devote to Aussie Dads. We celebrated by going out for brunch, and Arden and I gave Ben a few little presents - like this onesie I made.

We recently visited the Jurassic World exhibit at the Melbourne Museum. Saralyn actually recommended it to us from her visit in May, when she took her 6-year old son and then-6-month old Arden. It was a short exhibit, but super cool! The animatronic dinosaurs were very realistic. Arden thankfully slept through the entire thing (I'm pretty sure she slept through it the first time around - I guess she finds dinosaurs to be pretty boring!).

There's an actual street in the city called Arden Street (fun fact: Arden is actually about to become the name of a whole precinct in the near future!) and I wanted to take some nice photographs of the street signs. I plan on framing a few of them to decorate Arden's room, whenever we have a house. We spent a weekend afternoon walking along the street, and then back to our house via the beautiful Capital City Trail.

Last week was the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Mooncake Festival). We dressed Arden in her little Chinese outfit from her Ahma, and took some photos and videos of her playing with mini-mooncakes. How adorable is our little half-Chinese mooncake?

I recently took Arden to the aquarium for the first time, for a playgroup event. She got to see penguins, sting-rays, sharks, fish, seahorses, an enormous saltwater crocodile that glared menacingly at us, and a lot of rambunctious children running around. I think she was pretty impressed.

And finally, this past weekend we took a trip to Silvan, Victoria for "Dutch Weekend" at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival! Ben is half-Dutch, which makes Arden a quarter... and I lived nine of my years in Grand Rapids, Michigan which means I have a lot of respect for tulips, windmills, wooden shoes and very tall people. Which we saw plenty of, as well as awesome sculptures, fun entertainment, great food, and beautiful weather.  

this is apparently the largest clog in the Southern Hemisphere!

It's been a great season so far, and we're excited for a few more Spring adventures to look forward to. Stay tuned!

CK

Washington 2016 - Candice's Reflections

When Australians ask me where I'm from in the U.S.A., my answer is usually "Seattle".

It's kind of a lie.

Technically I've lived the most years of my life in South Brunswick, New Jersey (12 years) with Grand Rapids, Michigan as a runner up (9 years). I do consider both places where I "grew up", and yet I don't feel like I can honestly say that I hail from either, for various reasons.

I suppose Seattle feels more like home because it's where Ben and I met, and essentially grew up as partners. The state of Washington has always been a central part of our relationship, which began soon after I moved to Seattle in 2009. I dated him and explored the Pacific Northwest simultaneously - from the island he grew up on (Whidbey Island), to the various local neighbourhoods we lived in (Queen Anne, Ballard, Ravenna, Edmonds), to the nearby towns where we planned hikes, road trips and getaways. We ended our first date at the top of the Space Needle, where I had just gotten a job (serving Starbucks coffee - how cliche...)! Even Ben's proposal was pretty iconic - in a boat in the middle of Lake Union, to the backdrop of the city skyline on a beautiful August afternoon.

So, last month I finally got to return "home" to Seattle, for the first time since we moved to Melbourne in 2013. Even though I'm very happy with our current Australian city, I felt very re-energised and excited to be back in the Emerald City. I've always felt a pull towards Seattle - even before living there, and even after leaving.

the Seattle skyline still gives me chills.

Nine days was not enough time for everything we wanted to do and everyone we wanted to see. We have a lot of loved ones in the area, time was spread too thinly, and we had to schedule many of our plans at the last minute. But despite being busy and a little stressed about logistics (and Seattle traffic! oh how we don't miss that...), the visit was just what we needed - a chance to introduce Arden to the rest of Ben's family, and an opportunity to revisit our "roots" as our own little family.

After all, Seattle was the beginning of us, and therefore the beginning of her.

I loved seeing Arden interact with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - especially her youngest cousin, 18-month old Hudson, whom I got to meet for the first time too! And it was really special for Arden to meet both her paternal great-grandmothers as well.

As Ben mentioned in his reflective post, Arden took a while to warm up to all the people she met, and usually cried if someone new tried to hold her. 8-9 months is kind of a tradeoff for meeting new people. For many babies, this is the beginning of the "separation anxiety" phase, but it's also the beginning of a new interactive/playful phase, once the anxiety fades away. Fortunately, most of Ben's family got to experience a few smiles and giggles.

Arden was actually quite the trooper during our entire trip, experiencing many new things all at once - like riding in a car seat, hanging out with a dog (Ben's dad's chihuahua Romeo, who was really great with Arden), and sleeping in a new location every few days. Fortunately she had gone through the worst of the adjustment process in Hawaii, so by the time we got to Washington she was no longer having epic meltdowns before bedtime - thank goodness!

Romeo is probably the first dog Arden has ever seen up-close. maybe someday we'll get a puppy..! maybe. someday.

We tried to see as many of our local friends as possible throughout our visit, including a few who also had babies around the same time we did. It was so much fun to see the next generation interacting with each other -  swatting at their new friends' faces and batting toys out of each others' hands, as babies do. July is a really busy month for everyone, and we were only in town for one weekend - so we were glad to be able to catch up with as many people as we did. My cousins even drove down from Vancouver, B.C. just to meet up for coffee in Edmonds!

It was a short and busy trip, but well worth the long journey. It felt surreal, bringing Arden to Seattle - a city that means so much to us - and seeing her in familiar neighbourhoods and houses. It sounds silly, but before this trip it was hard to think of Arden as part of our families. She's a Melbourne baby, and we're only used to seeing her in the context of our Australian life. But now that everyone has met her, it's almost as if her birth feels complete, at least to me. We have a daughter, and she is connected to our families in Washington and Michigan, linking everyone together by blood.

Arden loves her aunties!

It was hard to leave, knowing that the next time everyone sees Arden, she will be very very different - most likely walking, talking... and hopefully not bursting into tears every time someone laughs!

A huge thank-you to our families and friends who hosted us, squeezed us into busy schedules, and travelled long distances just to meet our baby girl. We miss and love everyone, and hope to visit again soon!

 CK

p.s. Here's a short video I made for our Washington trip. I also wrote/recorded the music - enjoy!
 
Washington - July 2016 from Candice Kortlever on Vimeo.

Washington 2016 - Ben's Reflections

Since moving to Australia, I’ve taken a trip home to Washington every summer to visit friends and family (and escape Melbourne in the winter).  This year, after a long 8.5 months (especially long for all the family that was waiting to meet her), we took another trip to Washington to introduce Arden to my family (and also so Candice could enjoy her first trip back to Washington since we moved).  It was a long journey, but it was worth it to see everyone light up when they first laid eyes on Arden.

We spent the first part of our trip on Whidbey Island, where I grew up, and enjoyed our time there settling in, relaxing with family, and enjoying some beautiful walks around Honeymoon Lake, South Whidbey State Park and Langley.  For the second part of our visit we stayed with my sister Lindsay in town, which made it easier to connect with friends and visit some of our favourite places likes Edmonds and Kerry Park.  We even walked by The Loft, the bar where Candice and I first met.

hanging out at Dad's house.

where it all began!

It was a surreal experience seeing my family interacting with Arden.  Other than my other sister Saralyn’s visit in May, all of my family’s relationship with Arden has been through FaceTime and pictures.  I was really excited to see how they would interact with her, how she would react to each of them, and how I would feel.  Unfortunately it took Arden quite a while to warm up to anyone, and sadly it was laughter that would make her the most upset, so my parents had to keep their distance at first otherwise Arden would burst into tears whenever they laughed.  It was the last thing I wanted for our visit, especially as Arden is at such a fun age where she smiles and laughs a lot, and I wanted my family to experience that side of Arden.  Fortunately her nervousness wore off eventually, and I was able to enjoy seeing my family bouncing her and kissing her chubby cheeks!

family photoshoot!

Arden and her cousins.

me and my sisters, being awesome as usual.

I think it was a pretty unique experience for my family to see me as a father for the first time too.  Like my Dad commenting on how strange it was to hear the fun voice I used when talking or reading to Arden, and having to remind myself that they hadn't seen me in this new role of parent before.  One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing Arden take naps on both my Mom and Dad during our visit, as it was something I hoped that they would get to experience. I also wanted the family to get a sense for who Arden is and experience her personality first hand, just as I wanted her to know about the rest of her family, and I felt throughout our trip the love that they all have for Arden, and it was a wonderful feeling.

four generations, part 1

four generations, part 2

Arden snuggling with her Mimi after a nap.

Our visit was over way too soon, but I’m so grateful for all the memories and fun times we had with everyone.  Whether it was taking time off work, driving long distances or being in hundreds of pictures, our family and friends made us feel special and showed Arden so much love.  I can’t wait until we are all together again.

-BK



Washington - July 2016 from Candice Kortlever on Vimeo.