goodbye uncle ralph

tonight we said goodbye to ralph. i know i posted one of the first posts on here about how much he and soph have meant to each other. my heart is broken he is going, he is my brother, our brother and having him live with us for the last year was so amazing, such a surprise how much we all needed each other. we've travelled the continent together and he was one of the few who really listened to me talk about how much i wanted a baby before we had soph, and now here it is, time to go.

he is going to england to do the next thing he's supposed to do, and that's good and right, but we won't be the same without him, christmas won't be the same without him. in the photo above soph is wearing our buddy ben's hat. when ben left last year to go back to oz, it felt like this too, but i am consoled in that even after a year soph knows who uncle ben is, and she knows he flies planes in australia where the wiggles live, so i'm trusting she'll still know ralph in her way too.



ralph and soph have had a thing about reading stories ever since she really started noticing books. when she started to talk she would make the sign for 'book' and say, 'aa-boo, a-boo'. sunday night ralph came by for a last supper-for-a-while, beer and stories. here's a shot from then below.


we love you ralphie. mawa!

hallowe'en

so even though it's a bit late, we had such a good time getting dressed up for hallowe'en i thought i would post these anyway. sophia was a leopard and was really good at roaring and also saying 'trick or treat!'. she thought the bit about the candy was amazing. we stumbled into a pro who painted her face earlier in the day. if it had been up to me, it would have been eyeliner on the nose, and that's it...good fun in the end, though she found the grown ups dressing up a bit too scary - next year we may just hit the mall...we loved the candy too!