John's Blog! - Part 1 - pre Christmas stuff

Random words and photos

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Part 1 - pre Christmas stuff

Since we got back from NZ, Abby and John have started a little project. John received a sea monkey kit for father’s day as something they could do together. Abby helped to purify the water, put in the eggs and keep an eye out for signs of life. As they are pretty fool proof I am happy to say we now have a family or 3 of sea monkeys, although it is a bit disconcerting cooking while you have sea monkeys shagging in front of you. We now have some little sea monkeys on the way.
John also decided to make a house for the possums outside the kitchen window (one has turned into 1 mum and 2 babies) and Abby helped stain it but I think the cats scared them off and they haven’t moved in yet.

We had Maree and Sean’s wedding in Leongatha a couple of weeks after we got back and although the weather wasn’t the best we had a great time. Maree looked beautiful and they had some fantastic speeches. Both dads and the groom had to compose themselves throughout their speeches and hold back the tears and the matron of honour had written a very funny, heartfelt poem which had us all in stitches. John had taken part in the stag party which had involved a mankini for the groom and horse riding – and yes, at the same time. All I can say is that Sean felt sorry for his mate who was holding the stirrup steady while he was getting on the horse haha.

A few days after the wedding, John’s sister Sue came over from Dunedin for a visit so we spent some time visiting places like the Vic markets and Southbank at night with her, while during the week she travelled into the city on her own and took in the sights. Abby was very excited to see her after she went back home she kept asking us where Sue was.

Lachie had a check up at 5 months and no surprises, it was confirmed that he is huge. His height was 70.7cm which was off the growth charts and his weight was 9kg which was just on the 97th percentile. Looking back at Abby’s book, she reached just over 8kg at 8months. Just before he turned 4 months, John and I wanted to drop the late evening feed at 10.30pm as he was on 6 three hourly feeds. Lachie had other ideas and wanted to go to a 4 hour routine so bless the little thing, he compromised, and in one day he dropped 2 feeds and went to 4 four hourly feeds at 250ml a pop. You should see him go – he can drink a full 250ml bottle down in 5-7 minutes no problem.

We are thinking that perhaps we should have stayed in NZ so he could play rugby as he’s got the thighs for it. In October at only 3 months he had grown out of his capsule which I returned to the local council, and put him in our car seat. In November he grew out of his bassinette so he went into the cot. As it was getting hot, we moved him from downstairs, which is the same level as our bedroom, to upstairs into his own room. Each bedroom upstairs has ducted air con and he has been much happier up there. And John has been loving having a permanent study. Aside from all that Lachlan is a VERY laid back boy who can lie on the floor for hours and you forget he’s even there. He hardly makes a peep, although now he has just started rolling over onto his tummy at will but gets upset when he can’t roll back to his tummy so we hear some very high pitched squeals.

Abby has been making leaps and bounds in her learning. She can count to 14 and can recognise numbers in the 20’s and she also knows all her big and small letters. Only thing is that she insists on spelling out everything she sees like number plates and words in books, magazines – even to the point of giving examples for each letter. She has her favourite place mat which has THYME printed on it and every meal time has to tell you “T – turtle, H – house, Y – lellow, M – milk, E- elephant”. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that. She is convinced that these letters don’t start any other words except for these. She is now talking more in sentences than fragments and is showing good comprehension, such as, if asked how did dad hurt his arm she replies ‘Daddy fell off motorbike’ hehe (John managed to stack our friends new adventure motorbike while playing off road somewhere). Abby and Lachlan get along really well. Abby spends all her time trying to make him laugh and he stares at her, watching her every move, barely containing a giggle.

John was invited by a friend to go see the V8 super cars at Phillip Island. They had been given 2 tickets and it was the last race of the season and this meet would decide who won the championship for the year. They didn’t realise how great the tickets were – in the grandstand right on the finish line and access to the pits. Steve wore his Ford t-shirt and felt a bit weird asking Larry Perkins for a pic while wearing it so he just loitered by him while John took a pic instead haha.

And finally I have been put in a mum’s group. I had my first catch up with them the week before Christmas. And although they have been meeting for 3 months they were very friendly and welcoming – even not minding the fact that Abby has to come along. I’m really looking forward to seeing them all again in a few weeks.