Victoria State Rose Garden

On Good Friday, some friends and I picnicked in the Victoria State Rose Garden at Werribee Park. I hadn't been there before and it was bigger and more beautiful than I had imagined. I don't know whether it was just the time of year, but the pictures on the Parks website don't do them justice. Apparently the gardens are maintained by volunteers, which is pretty amazing, so I guess that's why it's free to get in.

A lovely place to catch up with even lovelier people.

Gastro Boy

My son looks like a mini replica of his father. The moment he was presented to me I just looked at him and saw his dad. Minus hair. Even his personality has some familiar elements.

But there is something about my precious little guy that he most definitely, undoubtedly inherited from yours truly.

Boy, does he like his food.

This became clear from the outset of his life when he rapidly put on weight until he was starting to look like a cross between the Michelin Man and Bert Newton, if you squinted. If I'd been in a bowling alley I may have accidentally bowled him down the lane instead of a ball.

When the time came for him to move on to solid food, I offered him a finger dipped in rice cereal to chew on. He was bemused, intrigued, filled with wonderment, and by day three of rice cerealed fingers he was clumsily grabbing the finger and pulling it towards his gaping gob.

He quickly moved on to other foodstuffs, and after a couple of months of eating is yet to refuse anything. Although he did shudder cartoon-like the first time he tasted broccoli.

Thankfully, he is also growing upwards at a rate of knots and has now shed at least six of his chins, allowing a neck to emerge.

Perhaps he'll settle into the eating habits of regular human beings. Who knows. Until then he remains my own little gastronomical force of nature.