We are Australians!

On Thursday night we attended our citizenship ceremony at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was a really special night for Max b/c he got to stay up late and have an exclusive outing with M&D. Unfortunately, we didn't bring the camera. Such a shame! It would have been nice to document Max asleep on Tim's lap at the cafe after the ceremony.

The ceremony itself was nice if not a bit long. Max really enjoyed the aboriginal dancing, the children's choir and the Australian Army Band. It was strange to see a banner with a life-size photograph of the queen standing behind the official party. Tim's query: "Is that a cardboard cut-out of the queen up there?" Each speaker began his speech acknowledging the traditional inhabitants of the land on which the Convention and Exhibition Centre lies. They used the exact same words, verbatim. It is some sort of official requirement (I looked it up in the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code, p 36).

We wanted to get a photo of Max with the Lord Mayor but the Lord Mayor's robe and gold medallions put Max off. He looked a bit like a rapper Father Christmas.

This is the previous Lord Mayor: the current one is taller and gaunter, like Father Christmas. There aren't any pics of the new Lord Mayor in ceremonial garb b/c he had just been appointed the morning of the day of the ceremony.

Visiting Assisted Conception Australia

This week Wednesday we visited ACA for the first time since the beginning of my second trimester. I had seen a lot of the ACA staff during our last IVF cycle, especially since I hyper-stimulated (I was hospitalized for six days and had a belly like I was 7 months pregnant--my ovaries were the size of grapefruits and I had fluid in my "third spaces"). They played such a significant role in our early pregnancy--it seemed to strange that they did not see me at all after I hit fourteen weeks and they had not yet met the twins. I felt more connected to ACA than I did to the OBs and staff at Arrivals who monitored my pregnancy and delivered the twins.

It was great to show off the twins to the people who made them possible. I told the twins that they hadn't been in the ACA office since they were only eight cells (Dr Clare Boothroyd has a separate office from the main ACA office where she performs the embryo transfers) and Clare hadn't seen them since they were 10-week fetuses!

Visiting Clare in her office--she's such a good one! (I have Addie, Clare has Elsa...Tim has Max)

Margie holding Elsa and Claire (the other one) holding Addie in the ACA office. Margie is one of the IVF nurses and Claire is the ACA office manager. Margie has 18-year-old twin boys by IVF.

Steven Fleming (the embryologist who loaded 8-cell Addie and Elsa into the syringe for the embryo transfer) holding Addie and Claire holding Elsa

ACA has their 3 year anniversary celebration in July so we'll get to see them again at that time!

Max's First 1k Race

Games for the kids afterwards

First Time Rock Climbing Too

Max and Daddy Running the Race

All That Pink! March 18