Once again this year I was bestowed the honour of attending dawn service and marching with my Grandfather, in the annual Anzac Day parade. Gramps served in New Guinea in World War II as part of the 13th Field Battalion. This photo shows my Gramps, My Dad, My Brother Andrew and myself just after the march.




My dad also participates in the March, having completed army service as a surveyor in New Guinea in the late 60's.

I've already said plenty about this experience in previous years, so I don't really have that much too add this year, with the exception of a little note I received on the day from the RSL. I won't expand on it here, its a topic for another day on Waxing Cynical.

Completely changing the subject, William can now crawl at an alarmingly quick rate, and can also climb and stand up against almost any vertical surface. After weeks of crawling backwards,he got on a bit of a development roll so to speak, learning to crawl forwards and climb up on things the same day. It certainly adds a different dimension to parenting, when your baby doesn't stay where you put them.


The thing is, it sneaks up on you. I know that once, when I dressed William, it was a case of delicately maneuvering his arms into the tiny sleeves of his shirt. Now it is a game of Greco-Roman wrestling, requiring all my adult strength to hold him still to get clothes on the little guy, and I honestly can't remember when the transition was. It seems like one minute I'm in the hospital gently changing his little nappy while he lays there and cries, and the next I am trying to change his nappy quickly before he rolls over and crawls away at 100 miles and hour.