John's Blog!

4 weeks old

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:34:21 GMT

Mitchell turned 4 weeks old on Friday.
He's doing really well, he had a weigh-in on Friday he'd put on half a kilogram in the last 10 days. He's settled into a routine quite well, and he generally goes down and sleeps when he is supposed to without too much fuss. He has a feed about 11:30 each night and again at 3:30 but he goes down straight after those never cries at night.

He's a very placid baby, and he doesn't even cry when he has a bath any more - even when I get him out and he gets cold while I'm drying him.

Abby and Lachie love him to bits and generally want to show it by getting right in his face and making loud silly noises, which Mitchell doesn't really like. Lachie has been a bit naughty recently, possibly because he's not getting the same attention now. On Friday he destroyed the keyboard on Shelli's laptop - he pulled off every single key. The little ratbag...

Most of the time they are very good kids though, Abby is becoming quite independent and wants to get her own breakfast and get herself dressed which is great for us. Abby is reading extremely well, she can read most one and two syllable words and she's starting to write as well!

In other news they have just started construction on our new house! I had a look at the block yesterday and they have started work on the slab.
Shelli's foot is pretty much all better too, so thats great. Things are settling into a nice routine again. Its a busy routine at the moment, but that won't last forever.

Eyes open for a change

Sleeping again

We haven't forgotten about
these two, honest!

I took this photo just now. Hopefully his
eyes weren't damaged by the flash.

New arrival!

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:25:47 GMT

On Friday 4th September 2009 at 1:04 am Mitchell David Sinclair arrived!

Things all went relatively smoothly, Shelli's labour was only 2 1/2 hours and Shelli gave birth just under half an hour after we got to the hospital!
Mitchell weighed in at 4.2kg (9lb 6) and immediately demonstrated a decent set of pipes.

Although the hospital staff were very good we decided to go home as soon as possible and after the doctors arrived at 9:00 and gave Mitchell a clean bill of health we checked out and went home.

The first 4 days have been good, but very busy. The first couple of nights were a bit rough and Mitchell was a bit sleepy and jaundiced and it was hard to get a proper feed into him but now he's really into the swing of it and drinking very well, sleeping lots and is very awake and alert during his wake times.

Shelli is now wearing a ski-boot type thing on her foot which lets her walk around the house nearly normally. She'll be out of that in another couple of weeks. (She fell over and broke a bone in her foot 3 weeks ago...)

Sooo... Its just dawned on me that we have 3 kids under 5. It sounds scary when you say it like that. Abby is 4 now, and she is good little girl most of the time, she is very responsible and quite advanced for her age - she is reading quite well now, she reads stories to Lachie. By the time Mitchell is mobile and getting into mischief she'll be a very handy little helper - I hope.

Our house will hopefully start construction this month, and will be ready in may-june next year. So far away! We can't wait to move in, it will be fantastic to have all that space.

It certainly seems like this blog has fallen into disuse, like so many blogs on the internet. But it is an excellent way to publish updates of what we are doing, and I find it facinating looking back at entries and comments from a few years ago (which is normally only 4 or 5 posts back...)
I really need to do some work on it to make it a bit more useable, then hopefully we'll actually use it more...

Please feel free to add your comments to this blog post by clicking on the "comments" link below these pictures and entering your comment.
Your comment will then become a permanent part of this blog for us.

Thanks
John

5 minutes old (surprisingly
he didn't mind this)

Resting after the big event

Abby and Mitchell

Surprise! (he didn't like
the flash)

Awww

Who are you??

Planning for world
domination already

First bath

Actually this is alright

Part 1 - pre Christmas stuff

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:20:48 GMT

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.

Sea monkey project begins

Step 1 - purifying the water

Step 2 - adding the eggs

Checking for signs of life

We have sea monkeys

Mum and her brood

Staining their new house

Maree and Sean

Lunching after the markets

Peet and Lachlan

Abby

How good is the jolly jumper

In my new bed

Me and mum

My first solids experience

On my mat

Say cheese

In the pits

Kelly in action

Steve loitering around Larry

Todd Kelly's car

Part 2 - Christmas etc

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:19:02 GMT

Hope you all had a great Christmas and new year. Ours was mixed bag weather wise. Only got to about 20 on Christmas day but from boxing day onwards, it was in the mid to high 30’s and has so far climaxed over NYE and NY day to reach 42 and 41. So we had to can our plans to go to Mooroopna for the NYE mardi gras and have been holed up at home in the air conditioned house. Although seeing as it only got down to 27 outside overnight, the house didn’t really get a chance to cool down so it feels hotter inside today than it did yesterday. We are just waiting for the cool change to arrive that has been forecast for the early afternoon.

Abby was interested in Christmas this year and Santa. She had a photo taken with Santa and while we thought she might get frightened, she was chomping at the bit to see him. All she wanted from Santa was chocolate as she doesn’t get it very much.

A few days before Santa’s arrival we got the kids out of bed and took them to the Boulevard in Ivanhoe which is a residential street in Melbourne and is regarded as the best display of Christmas lights in the city. The residents put a lot of effort in and have thousands of people pass through on foot and by car every night to see them during the 10 days leading up to Christmas. They even have to change traffic conditions for the period and by foot you can spend a couple of hours walking up and down both sides of the road.

Mum and dad arrived Christmas eve and we got into the spirit with the televised carols by candlelight from the city. The next morning Abby had a ball. It was very sweet when after she had a opened a couple of small things from her stocking, she was concerned Lachie hadn’t opened anything yet and wanted to give him one of her presents to open. She was also so intent on playing with each toy after she opened it that when we told her she had other presents to open she said ‘No – no presents”, and would get upset if we passed her one to open. As it’s mandatory on Christmas day, we ate too much felt rather full so we all had a rest after lunch and then mum and dad had to go home.

The next day was my birthday so some friends came round and we ate and drank until we could eat and drink no more. My body is regretting that I can tell you. So the usual New Year’s resolution of eating better and moving more has been bandied about but no promises have been made........

Meeting Santa

Patting Rudolph

Ready to go see the lights

Buskers on the Boulevard

Decorated front yard

Another front yard

Christmas day

Present for Lachlan

Abby loved her train set

All tuckered out

Enjoying a rest

Chilling with dad

At the end of a long Christmas day

Yes we are still alive...

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:38:10 GMT

Hi all. Well a lot has happened since the last couple of months since the last entry.

Lachlan was 11 weeks on Sunday and is growing at a great rate of knots. Each week we had him weighed he had put on 250g and in 6 weeks had grown 3cm. In the 2 weeks after that he put on a whole 1kg and grew 3.5cm!! The nurse kept re-measuring him just to make sure. Although he has very chubby cheeks the rest of his body isn’t too Buddha like so the nurse wasn’t concerned with the weight gain. He also started sleeping through the night last week which John and I are VERY grateful for. He is smiling all the time now and has started ‘talking’ which is very cute to watch as he has such a focussed look on his face when he does.

About 3-4 weeks ago Lachy got pretty sick. Started out with a bit of a cough but ended up becoming bronchiolitis. This usually only occurs in babies and those usually under 6 months. So we had to take him to the doctors every day so his breathing / lungs could be monitored. We didn’t have to take him to hospital but were under instructions to watch him closely so if his conditioned worsened we would call an ambulance. It also meant he was very tired and instead of feeding normally we had to feed him small amounts at half hour intervals so feeds would take an hour and a half.

At the same time Abby and I were pretty sick too so once Lachlan had the all clear from the doctor, I packed up the car and went up to Shepp to visit the folks for 8 days. Mum was a star, helping out with both the kids and looking after me too :-). John got to have uninterrupted sleep and get a lot of things done he had wanted to do for ages.

Abby attended her first big birthday party in August - the 5th birthday of her friend Genevieve. It was held at the golden arches of McDonalds and was a princess theme as it seems most girls of 5 love being princesses. Abby was the youngest by far and it was a struggle to find a costume to fit her. In the end we found one for a 3 y/o and the length was ok. Apart from the crash tackle she got from the excited birthday girl on arrival, Abby had a great time and decided she loves McNuggets. I even ran into a couple of people I used to work with over 10 years ago!!

Abby is loving her 2 mornings of crèche a week. The only problem I have with them is they decided to teach the kids how to take the lids off jars. Why would they do that? The whole time we were at mums, she was in the pantry, taking the lids off the Vegemite and jam. Unfortunately this newly acquired skill has been turned to door handles. She can now leave her room at will which is a bugger. This has meant 6.00 – 6.30am wake up calls for John and myself – usually caused by our light being turned on. She used to just lie in bed quietly until we got her at about 7.30am. We have put some toys up in her room and asked her not to come out until one of us goes up to get her but she ‘forgets’. Abby is also Wiggles MAD at the moment. She can recite the lines of her Wiggles movie as she watches it which is a bit scary, but very useful when you need to distract her for a while.

Saturday we went on a family outing to the Melbourne show and the weather was just spectacular. Abby got to ride on the train, pat some goats, sheep, calves and chickens as well as see some rabbits, puppies and some dog trials. She also went on a few rides and knocked back a few chocolate koalas. We were all a bit exhausted and considering how tired she was, she wasn’t too bad on the train ride home. Lachlan was the model child thank god.

Well we have a couple of weddings to go to over the next 6 weeks and one of them is in Dunedin so we are taking the opportunity to visit Wellington for a few days. We are hoping to plan a very informal get together at Anne’s place so will get out the details to you Wellingtonians when we have made some plans. I am really looking forward to the trip and catching up with John’s family down south. Only 11 sleeps to go!!!!!

Lachy at nearly 3 weeks

Lachy at 10 weeks

How long will the love last

Save me from the cazy girl mum

And so the damage is done

What

Woops

Chillin' with bear on the train

Brrrrmmm I

Brrrrmmm II

Hullo little chicken

This is Hilda

Tell me all about it Hilda

Goose

Helping with dads birthday cake

Zzzzzz

Zzzzzzz

Settling in

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:33:50 GMT

As we expected baby #2 is a completely different experience for us.

With the benefit of experience and confidence its all hugely less stressful. So far Lachy has been pretty chilled. The pattern he's falling into so far is a cluster of feeds between 9 and 1, then sleeping well through till 4, then through till 7 or 8 so thats pretty good for us.

Having a newborn in the house makes us realise how grown up Abby is getting - she's a real little girl now, and not a baby. She loves Lachlan, she pats his head very gently and always wants cuddles. We've had no issues with jelousy or anything... yet...

You forget how fragile and helpless newborns are, and how fast they change at this age. He already seems much stronger and more alert compared to when he came home on Monday. He's had a little trouble with gas tonight - He cries and thrashes and is obviously in discomfort and then he farts and calms down. We try and hold his knees up to his chest to help him pass it but there isn't a lot else we can do. Just like Abby we are finding it hard to burp him after a feed, but he doesn't seem to have problems with wind - or spilling.

Shelli's mum came down on Friday to help out and look after Abby while the baby was born, and she left yesterday so we're on our own now. Maree came over on Monday night and cooked us a yummy dinner and left a huge dish of lasagne so we haven't been too busy yet.

Next week when I'm back at work things will be a bit tougher Abby goes to creche on Thursday and Friday from 9 till 1 so getting ready to get out the door on time will be interesting.

New arrival!

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:03:18 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Lachlan James Sinclair was born on Sunday morning. Sorry for the delayed notice, but we have been busy...

We knew he was on the way but labour didn't really get cracking until
Saturday night. At 1:00 am on Sunday we packed up and went into the hospital, and our 9lb 5 (4.2 kg) not so little boy was born at 11:00 am. Thats a whole pound heavier than Abby was!

Shelli and Lachlan came home on Monday afternoon, and he slept his first night at home last night. He is feeding very well, he wanted a feed every couple of hours until 3:00 this morning which was quite tiring for us but then he slept through until 7:00 this morning which was great for us.

2 minutes old

The big weigh-in

Everyone has a break

The next day

Lachlan and his big sis

Abby pics

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:12:10 GMT

Finger Painting.jpg

Racing Driver.jpg

Finally...an update

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 04:40:36 GMT

Hi all,

Well I am sorry this has been such a long time coming. Abby has just started at a crèche for 7 hours a week and she is really enjoying it. She goes 9am-12pm Thursday mornings and 9am-1pm Friday mornings so I have some time get things done in the morning which has freed up my ‘lunch breaks’ when Abby is asleep.

I do have to mention a couple of funny things that happened on the trip over here in February:

- As Abby had had only half her usual amount of sleep and at a lot earlier than usua,l she got cranky early – even before we made it to the departure lounge. We tried to calm Abby into sleeping on the flight but no go. Even once we were in mum’s car on the way to Shepparton she didn’t sleep. She lost her mind but didn’t sleep. She didn’t scream, just performed the 3 Stooges on herself – whacking her head, pulling out her hair and messing it up so it was 3 times the usual volume and playing with her lips. By the time we got to Shepp and got her to bed it was 11pm NZ time.
- When the attendant asked us to board before the announcement went over the PA, we grabbed all our stuff quickly and boarded. Just before we took off one of the attendants handed me my hand bag which I had left in the departure lounge.
- When our dinners arrived (I thought they might have sorted Abby’s first), before I could blink, Abby, standing in front of me, had grabbed my crumbed, fried chicken breast and had started chomping on it. Luckily we were first served as we were up the front and I managed to get another dinner.

Her birthday came and went on the 12th May – I can’t believe she’s 2. She’s now in a big girl’s bed and hasn’t fallen out yet. After last years debacle with the number 1 birthday cake I decided to make something a little less time consuming and made her a butterfly cake which was the easiest out of all her obsessions at the moment. I was icing it late in the afternoon, feeling very tired and exhausted, almost like a donkey on the edge, as it felt like my day had revolved around this bloody cake again, when Abby came into the kitchen to investigate. In slow motion I saw her grab the bottle of blue food dye, and saw it go all over her, the white cupboards and the terracotta tiles. Bugger.

I told her to not to move while I worked my way in towards her with the cloth and paper towels. At one point without thinking I sat up and sighed quietly ‘fuck’. Guess what I heard the little parrot do next – yep you guessed it and even with the sigh. Finally I got her clothes off (she looked a bit like a smurf as it has stained her skin) and had everything as clean as I could get it and I told John via the computer what had happened. He asked if I had gotten any pics. I explained I was actually more concerned about staining of the tiles etc. I said I thought he was taking it all very well and he said ‘at least nothing was broken’. I replied ‘No…just my spirit….I’m going to lay down on the couch to mend’. When John bathed her, Abby pointed to the blue stains on her arm and said ‘Naughty’ which I found funny seeing as I never actually said she was naughty, or even yelled.

The gathering for her birthday was nice – mum and dad came down and we also had a few friends over. She got a bit freaked when everyone started singing Happy Birthday and needed a cuddle. She ate some cake but didn’t want any icing which left John and I wondering – whose child is she?? It has definitely been great being over here so Abby can develop a relationship with some extended family. When mum and dad walked in on her birthday, she ran up to them and gave them a big hug which reminded me why I really wanted to come here in the first place.

She is a pro on the computer. John has given her her own log in so she doesn’t play with our settings any more and it’s amazing to watch her at it. She uses the mouse to click on her log in picture (which was a butterfly but she has managed since then to change to a ball), and clicks on one of 2 icons on her desktop to start Reader Rabbit Baby or Toddler. She manages to double click on it to start it running and then navigates her way around the game, jumping in and out of whatever puzzles she wants to play. To see if it was just random or not I asked her to play ‘I’m a little teapot’ for me. So she went into the song section and clicked on the button to start the song - there is a choice of 10 songs. Fathers daughter there.

Her counting is also pretty good as we count up and down the stairs all the time, although sometimes poor 7 & 8 get left out for some reason. She thinks by doing something naughty and then saying with a big smile on her face ‘Cheeky girl” she can get away with it. She has recently shown she has developed some compassion / empathy which was quite touching. I must have had a drop in the corner of my eye and she came up and wiped it with her finger. She then put her arm around my shoulder, patted my back, gave me a cuddle and then rubbed my head.

John has bought a motorbike so he can get to and from work quicker. It also means that he doesn’t have to pay tolls if he goes on the citilink part of the freeway around town so that’s a bonus too. It’s a worry having him in peak hour traffic on it but it cuts down his travel time by half so I can’t argue with that. John has also picked an AFL team and surprisingly he has really gotten into it. He is supporting the Richmond Tigers who are a very frustrating team to support (and share Wellington’s colours coincidentally). I told him they would break his heart and they have already managed to do so on a number of occasions. There was an absolute cracker of a game between them and my team Essendon on Saturday night, which my team stole in the dying minutes of the match due to a controversial umpiring decision. John just sat there with his hands behind his head and I quietly left the room. Richmond are now 0-9 for the season….d’oh. I have even managed to attend a match with a mate for his birthday at the MCG about a month ago. I was so glad I managed to squeeze one in before the baby arrived. I even took along a nanna pillow for my back :-).

This pregnancy is going well but slooooowly. Where Abby was a kickboxer, this one is more into Tai Chi but it never seems to have a rest, always going at it. I feel like I have run out of room but still have just over 5 weeks to go. Even that sounds so much better than 6 though!! I am counting down time by the hour. We still haven’t been able to get a consensus on the name for this one yet.

Ps. In the rental house we were in, for some reason the birds loved hurtling into our windows a bit more often than usual. One night John found this perfect print of a bird on the window - right down to the, beak and feather tips and squished up eye. Gee it must have felt that hit.

Almost 33 weeks.jpg

Bath fun with birthday presents.jpg

Beach babe.jpg

Busted wearing mums socks.jpg

Can I have a hug.jpg

Cheeky girl.jpg

Computer whizz.jpg

Elmo was a hit.jpg

Happy birthday.jpg

House looked like this for a bit.jpg

Johns bike.jpg

Kicking back with bear.jpg

Meerkats were a hit.jpg

My first ride on a train.jpg

New friend at the zoo.jpg

Ouch.jpg

Playing at Eltham park.jpg

Rudies.jpg

Sharing ice blocks.jpg

Trains are fun.jpg

So long NZ, and thanks for all the fish.

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:48:44 GMT

Well hello there... 4 months since the last update - wow a new record :-) In our defence, we've been busy. And slack.

So much has happened... where to start. I'll keep it brief, so you don't drift off.

About the time of the last post we really got stuck into the renovations for the bathroom, and other bits and pieces around the house. We did most of the work ourselves, and only got the professionals in for jobs like plumbing, tiling and sanding the floors. It was hell, but its all paid off - the house came up looking great and I'm particuarly proud of the bathroom :-)

We put the house on the market in November, and it sold just before Xmas while we were on the way down to Queenstown for a family Christmas before we moved over the ditch.

We were away for nearly two weeks, and it felt like we spent half of that time driving. We spent most of our time in Queenstown at Dad's new place, but we caught up with Jo in Christchurch, Peter & Karen & kids on holiday near Dunedin, and Liz & Tom & kids in Twisel. All up it was a great holiday though, and it was great to see everyone and we had a great time.

Abby is doing great, she's a real little girl now and not just a baby. Its so cool seeing her develop and get better at stuff every day. She can say loads of words, and understands a lot of what you say. She's not quite putting words together into sentances yet, but she's not far off.

And other news (which you have probably already heard...) Number 2 is on the way... Due in July. Life will be a whole lot more hectic with two little gremlins to keep out of trouble, thats for sure.

So now our time in NZ is drawing to a close... We are quite sad to leave, but we are looking foward to living in Australia. Its going to be a couple of months of hell living out of suitcases until all our stuff arrives and we get kinda set up. We're hoping to build a house in Melbourne, so if that pans out we'll have another 6 months or so until we get a chance to get really settled into our own house.

01. Yummy dirt.jpg

02 Bathroom before.jpg

03 Bathroom after.jpg

04 Check out my gloves.jpg

05 Wot - I dont need a spoon.jpg

06 Oh there is my nose.jpg

07 Dads pad in Queenstown.jpg

08 Walkin with autie sue.jpg

09 Asleep in the car.jpg

10 Lunch with cousins.jpg

11 Beach with Cousin Sophie.jpg

Huston, we have confirmed walkage!

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:23:05 GMT

Well as of today, walking is now a preferred method of movement for Abby, instead of a scary novelty.

She's been taking a few steps, and even walking a metre or two with some serious prompting, but today something must have gone click in her brain and suddenly she actually *enjoys* walking, and she's very proud of herself

Abby has been walkiing (quite quickly) around the house, and loving it. When she falls over she just laughs and gets up again. When I put her in the bath tonight she got upset and cried - normally she just loves bathtime, but tonight she just wanted to walk!

Go Abby!! :-D :-D

For Irina .....

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 03:01:20 GMT

Hi all,

Thought it was time for another update – as did Irina :-) For those who do not know yet we have decided to move to Melbourne. Reasons for this are warmer climate, to be closer to family and further away from Helen bloody Clarke & Michael bloody Cullen. We’ll be looking to head off at the end of summer next year.

Abby is getting so big so quick. She experienced her first haircut on Friday and handled it very well. Eventually she gave in and just sucked her fingers while she watched in the mirror. She is able to walk but chooses not to as crawling is still her preferred mode of transport. We figure this is because it’s a habit and confidence thing, plus she’s lightening fast on all fours compared to walking. She’s always very pleased with herself when she walks anywhere and she claps herself to show it.

Oh hello.jpg

Heeeeee.jpg

Abby & the magic stick.jpg

Another vegemite sanga bites the dust.jpg

God, what's she serving me up today.jpg

Here I am.jpg

Hmmm chewy.jpg

I like to sit IN my bookcase while reading.jpg

Mum actually took me out in public in this .jpg

Sleeping beauty.jpg

Still love bath time.jpg

What a smorgasboard .jpg

She’s developed a few new things which are very cute - she says ‘ta’ and holds out her hand if she wants what you have or wants you to take something from her. If you give her something she says ta if she has asked for it or not.
She has also become extremely affectionate too which just rocks. When she gives you a cuddle she rubs and pats your back like we do to her – she does it with both hands a lot too. She has also started giving us kisses, and if we ask for a kiss she presses her lips against ours. Afterwards she breaks out in a huge grin and says ‘Taaaa’. A couple of times she has done it without being asked, which really melts your heart.

Just chilling.jpg

The monster stirs.jpg

to read a book.jpg

While we were away last week she was trying to climb onto the couch I was laying on while reading. She made it up, climbed on me and gave be a big hug with all the patting and rubbing then gave me a kiss and said ‘Taaa’. Spontaneous displays affection like that are just the most amazing thing and you can never ever get enough of them.

Other not so cute things she has developed are, a pretty convincing vil eye if you’ve pissed her off, and if you are doing something she doesn’t want you to do she starts to shake her head, waves her arms and make a blahlur blahlur blahlur blahlur blahlur blahlur noise with her tongue. We have begun the time-out thing with her which is very effective, even at this age. As long as she is aware of why she is put into time-out, the bad behaviour stops – for the time being :-)

> >

I love my chair.jpg

Lots .jpg

Early morning world cup watching.jpg

Feeding the ducks with Dad.jpg

Hi.jpg

Checking out the ducks with Mum.jpg

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As I mentioned we went away for a break last week – just a couple of nights in Taupo in a bach (pronounced ‘batch’ and means a holiday home for all you non-kiwis. Apparently in the deep south of the South Island they are called cribs, John informs me) owned by Chris’ parents. It was just magic to get away as it was our first holiday away as a family which is pretty tragic considering Abby is 15 months old. The house is right on the lake front with a wood fire which meant we were nice and warm. We were lucky as we must have just missed the snow which closed the Desert Road or we would have had to turn back otherwise. The trip was a winter wonderland. Places like Waiouru were covered in snow and it doesn’t fall that low very often at all I’ve been told. We looked like tourists as we stopped on the side of the road to take some amazing pics of Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe (ski fields / active volcanoes) covered in perfect white snow.

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View of Lake Taupo from lounge.jpg

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Well this winter has been pretty rough on us health wise – lots of bad germs have been floating around Wellington and we got all of them. I started off with a pretty bad cold which turned into a sinus infection – ouch! I passed my cold on to Abby while she was teething. The snot!! I’ve never seen so much. She would wake up with crusty snot plugs in each nostril and have crusted snot all over her face – including eyebrows - and her hair would be stuck to her face. It was all over the sheets too.

Then to make matters more interesting she developed conjunctivitis so on top of everything else, so she was waking up with her eye lashes stuck together. She was pretty brave through it all though. One morning she must have been able to open an eye just enough to spot a cat so she started doing the sign for cat and then said 'Hiiieeee' to me so that was pretty funny in a weird sort of way. We would spend the first half an hour of the morning cleaning her up, not really knowing where to start. The most heart wrenching bit was cleaning her eyes. The cry she made when John was holding her head / body / arms so I could clean them was a horrible “Why are you doing this to me’ cry. I’m glad that’s over :-( Then of course John was at the end of the chain, and he got the cold too, but we are all good now thanks to lots of drugs.

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See you forgot to reconfigure the lilo partition before you reformatted the hard drive causing the ram to take megabytes out of the CPU .jpg

The 20th August was John’s birthday and he had a great day. I made him whatever breakfast and dinner he wanted and also a carrot cake. Liz emailed me a super duper carrot cake recipe from the UK which has ½ kilo of sugar, nearly a kilo of carrots and 5 eggs in it, as well as half a kilo of cream cheese, lots of icing sugar and butter in the icing. Sooooooo decadent and yummy. Thanks Liz! We had to give some away though as it was so rich.

From Abby he got a DVD and from me he got a TV blanket. It has pockets on the front for your hands and your remotes and down the bottom underneath it has a pocket for your feet. John is in heaven!! I couldn’t pry him out of the beanbag. Saves us having to steal blankets from the airlines now to :-)

We have started work on the bathroom and it is going to be a long, hard slog. You really feel it when your bathroom is in pieces. But I totally trust John in his DIY endeavours and he has definitely proved himself capable in the other rooms he has done.

Well I better go as this is already long enough! Take care everyone

PS - For all those who made encouraging comments re pics of Abby playing with the Xbox, I have included a nice little montage of Abby getting stuck right into with John. John would like to add that while playing GTA, Abby has managed to hijack a police motorcycle and go cruising. Those of you who have played the game understand that this is a pretty big accomplishment for anyone to do and not get caught.

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la la laaa la dee da, Happy birthday to you,...

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 10:05:27 GMT

Wow – 2 entries in 5 weeks – I better be careful not to injure myself.

Well Abby in now the big ‘1’. Her actual birthday is on 12th May. We had a joint birthday party with our antenatal friends on 6th which was fun. We did a Secret Santa type thing with presents and Abby received a framed picture of all the mums and babies from when they were about 3 months old which was very cool but very strange to look at and think back to those times. We even played pass the parcel and Abby won one of the parcels.

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On the actual day of her birthday, John came home at lunch time so we could all hang out and help her play with her presents from us. She must have felt pretty special getting packages in the mail too! Thanks for the pressies Jo, Irina, the Sinclair’s and Nanna & Granddad Smith. She had so many new things around her she didn’t know what to play with. We bought her some giant Lego like blocks which she always seems to ferret out in a toy box whenever we go to a doctor’s surgery etc. We also got her a Buzzy Bee which is an iconic Kiwi toy. It’s a bee on the end of some string that makes a noise as its being pulled along.

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Me and Dot hangin.jpg

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My haul.jpg

My jigaw rocks Aunty Irina!.jpg

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Ta for Dot, Nan & Grandad.jpg

We had a birthday party on Sunday for her. In a moment of madness I decided to make her a cake. So most of Saturday was consumed by the cake making. It turned out all right in the end (John put in as much effort as I did ) but I am definitely thinking I would rather pay someone $40 to make one for me next time and have my Saturday free.

We had lots of guests turn up and had the present opening which Abby wasn’t too interested in once she had a book from Nis to read. After the 2 hours she was all tuckered out and ready for bed.

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At long last - another update

Thu, 11 May 2006 09:09:41 GMT

Hi all,

Sorry it has been sooooo long since we have updated this. It’s always on our to-do list but as you know, time just flies. We hate leaving it so long because then you end up with a novel to read.

Abby is just going from strength to strength in her development and her personality is really shining through now. She has started playing peek-a-boo with her hands over her eyes and also using bibs, blankets etc to pull over her face. It’s the cutest thing. She has even shown a very mischievous side – John and I were sitting in the lounge room while Abby was playing behind the chair. She decided to crawl up to the side of the couch and pop up with a loud ‘roar’ sound followed by a big grin. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear she was trying to give us a fright. She is very helpful though – she sticks her feet up in the air so we can put pants and socks on her. She has learnt the sign for pussy cat so she can always let us know when she sees a cat. But I have been a bit slack and haven't pushed on with other signs.

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She has taken a real shine to John’s phone. Whenever she is in bed with us she scoots straight over to his bedside table. John puts on a movie he has taken of her and when it stops she puts it back in has hand so he can start it again or if his hand isn’t in reach she pulls his arm over to get at it . She must have been watching him because we have seen her try to turn it back on herself. She likes to turn the pages of books and for entertainment if she’s on your knee she pulls your hand over to the page to make you turn the page. It cracks her up.

She’s become very good at imitating us. Any sound we make with our lips or tongue like clicking she will sit there and copy or try to. John used this to get her to clean her teeth – he started to clean his teeth in front of her while she was in the bath so she started cleaning hers. Clever dad ;) She has also become very cuddly which I just love. She will stop playing to come over and climb all over me and she doesn’t pull her head back if you try to kiss her anymore. If we are out at playgroup or visiting she comes over to see me every so often for a cuddle and that just rocks :-) :-)

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While she has been walking around furniture for nearly 4 months, she shows no real interest in standing on her own or trying to take her first unaided steps. I guess when you can motor around pretty quickly on all fours there is no real incentive to wobble around on your feet with no confidence. We do have a walker for her to push around but she gets bored of that pretty quickly. She’s so mobile though. She can climb off the side of the couch and off our bed all on her own.

Last week she got 2 new teeth – her top middle teeth, yay! She has a couple more on either side of those ready to push through at any moment as well. Her hair is getting so long so I have had to start using little clips which look so cute. We also think she has reached her first word milestone…..and the winner is…….hi. Yep, if you say hi she says hi back to you. It’s more like ‘iieee’ as it’s missing the ‘h’ but she works really hard to get her mouth the right shape hehe.

Abby had her skin prick test for allergies mid April. She tested positive for peanuts as expected but also tested positive for egg which was a surprise. Anyway the short story is that highly processed egg e.g. cakes etc should be fine but things like scrambled eggs will be a problem. We just test anything we are unsure of on the inside of her bottom lip to see if she reacts before feeding it to her. The specialist said that considering our family histories we are unlucky to have a child with these allergies and he gave us an 80% chance for her grow out of them both by age 4-5. She will be tested again at 4 ½ (before she starts school) so cross fingers.

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We felt bad after seeing this.jpg

so we made bunk beds.jpg

Abby’s relationship with the cats has not improved. Eric the grumpy black cat has been especially tolerant of her and we are worried that we came down too hard on him at the start (only because we know what he is capable of) and his is slowly winding up like a spring that is about to snap. He is finally showing signs of reaching the end of his tether and I can’t blame him. If he is facing the back of the couch, Abby tries to roll him back towards her by grabbing a handful of hair and yanking. She also grabs at his face and ears. I have seen him swat her a few times and it just goes right over her head. She thinks it’s hilarious. He has given her a minor graze on the back of her hand but nothing that had made her stop and think.

Easter weekend was a great project weekend for us we got all the things done around the place we had been meaning to do for ages. I finally finished the covers for photo albums I put together for my time in London and my travels. John even managed to build the cats some bunk beds because we didn’t have enough room on the laundry floor for two cat beds.

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I love beanbags as much as
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I love laundry (and
my beanbag) pt 2.jpg

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I received a letter in the mail a month ago saying that I had been selected for jury duty, and that they provided childcare facilities. It was then that I realised that Abby has never been in the care of anyone else without me or John around. This was not a conscious decision – it’s just been made a bit harder to get out without having family around. Also seeing as Abby goes to bed at 7.30pm and we don’t hear a peep from her til 7.00am John and I feel we do get plenty of quality time together. But apart from feeling like a sad (read pathetic) individual seeing I hadn’t hit the town for so long with John, I was not happy at putting Abby into the care of strangers at such a young age when she has not been in that situation before. I mean it’s not like they can grab me from court when she is upset. I asked for an exemption and they gave me one until May 2007 which I thought was pretty nice.

So I sprang into action on two fronts. I have her enrolled in gym crèche for two sessions a week. This means for two hours twice a week, I can work out while Abby is in the crèche run by the gym. So now she is used to being looked after by other people and not worried if I’m not around. The other thing I organised was to have a nice night out with John while our mate Dayna looked after Abby. We went to a fantastic little French place called Café Bastille which has the yummiest food on the planet and then walked to a place called Strawberry Fare, and all you Wellingtonians out there will know decadent their desserts are (its old name is Death by Chocolate which should give you an idea). John had to roll me to a taxi and through our front door.

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'Look at that pretend thing and laugh'
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We did our first 4wd trip together as a family on the weekend. We took lots of toys and food along for Abby and she was great. She slept in the car a couple of times during the trip. It was a bit wet and where we stopped for lunch there was no place to put down a picnic blanket so she could move around so John cleared a space in the back of the Surf and she had lunch in there and roamed around a bit. She had a great time. The photo of her asleep in the car shows her soft toy that Liz sent over from the UK. Liz it is one of her favourites and she sleeps with it all the time – nice pick! John decided it was a dog so its imaginative name is Doggy. If we say “Where’s Doggy?” she goes on the hunt through the house for it. Anyway the trip was great – lots of beautiful scenery that you would not normally get to see as you have to go on one of these organised trips to have access to the track. Lots of hard core 4wd’s and John is chomping at the bit to work on his Surf so he can have a go at the more difficult parts of the trips. They have alternative tracks you can go on if you don’t want to (or can’t) do the more hard parts. One guy even wrecked his trying to get up a steep rocky track. The photos never do justice to the roughness or slope of the road.

Ummm wet dirt track.jpg

John wished his truck
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Lunch break.jpg

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John has got a new hobby – he has decided he wants to take Eric for walks on a leash. Eric freaked out a bit to start off and he was trying to walk backwards and kept rolling over. But with kitty treats and lots of love John has him walking down the hall and thinks he’s ready for a venture outside. He’s persistent I’ll give him that.

Well I can’t believe it’s Abby’s birthday tomorrow. It’s been a whole year – just mind blowing. I was having a look through our pics and noticed we don’t actually have any pictures of the three of us together as a family so have a look at us mucking around and taking pics in front of the mirror. We are having a birthday party for her on Sunday and have quite a few friends coming over and we’ll post some photos up next week (hopefully).

PS - Thanks for the birthday present Irina!! We received it today...Abby loves it

She's changing so quickly...

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 05:00:57 GMT

Hi all, Shelli here. Well unforunately no more teeth have arrived although there has been alot of discomfort for Abby (and ourselves :-)). Although today we have noticed some swelling of her gum where her top middle left tooth should be arriving so cross fingers it makes an appearance soon. We had our Plunket visit last week and she is now 8.5kg and 71.7cm tall. She has started clapping, kind of waving, zooming around the furniture and does a mean raspberry which she will keep doing until she has foam all around her mouth. In a couple of days she learnt who Tigger is (her little stuffed toy) and if you ask her where Tigger is she'll stop what she's doing, look around for him and go get him. She even tries to say his name - duh-duh, or duh-duh-duh. Pretty cute it if I may say so myself. She has also reached that clingy stage, which frustrates alot of parents, but i'm enjoying it as she is not a cuddly baby so it's my chance to feel loved.

Abby is loving her solids (apparently we are supposed to be cleaning her teeth after her meals with a teeny tiny tooth brush with no toothpaste...oops). She has eaten everything we have put in front of her including prunes, raisins, olives, grapefruit, blueberries and every fruit combination you could think of. I thought I would be a good mum and get plenty of iron into her since she is not all that keen on her bottle so I made the steak and kidney stew recipe from a baby food recipe book I have. Now I have never prepared kidney or lambs fry or any of that totally disgusting stuff, and I had to simmer this concoction for an hour. The house smelt soooooooo bad I was running around spraying toilet spray and not knowing what smell I was gagging from. John was telling me I would never make a farmers wife, which is handy seeing as I didn't marry one. Anyway Abby loves her stew which is very gratifying. I would have been heartbroken going through all that trauma for nothing.

One problem we have had with food is that we discovered she has a peanut allergy :-( :-(. I usually give her vegemite sandwiches but one day last week I thought we could branch out a bit, so I gave her peanut butter instead. Well, as I was cutting up some fruit for her I noticed her whole face was red with little white lumps. I have never seen hives before so wasn't sure what was going on but I put two and two together. She had them all over her face and wherever it had made skin contact, which was all over her head and ears as she likes to rub her hands all over them when she's eating. So a quick trip to the medical centre for some anithistamines and steriods and she was OK. Could have been worse - she could have stoppped breathing.
It was pretty funny tho (now)- the nurse on the phone kept saying "is she breathing, is she unhappy, hang up and call 111 if she stops breathing" etc and the whole time Abby was just looking at me with a big open mouth grin on her face, laughing and making lots of cute noises with hives all over the place. The nurse asked if her joints were swelling and I was looking at her fingers thinking "they're so chubby I don't know if I would be able to tell".

We will have to take her to the paediatrics ward in about 6 weeks to get her tested to confirm its a peanut allergy and hopefully they will test her for other allergies such as egg and fish. We have been doing some research and figures indicate that if the allergy is mild, she stays completely away from peanuts for the next 5 years and she doesn't have other allergies or suffer from asthma or eczma, then there is a reasonable chance she will "grow out" of it. Cross fingers. It just means no peanuts in the house (which will hurt John) or peanut butter ( which will hurt me) as the reactions will just get stonger each time she is exposed, until she reaches the anaphylactic shock stage. On the positive though, she is such a good eater that it shouldn't be too difficult to keep her away from nuts for a while anyway.

Well today John, Abby and myself took part in the annual Round the Bays 7km fun run/walk. Abby took part last year but as a foetus, so was totally oblivious to the fact. We had a great morning - apparantly a record 10,000 people took part on the course which winds through the waterfront in the city and the western bays of the harbour. We did it in 1hr 12mins which isn't bad considering how slow going it is at the start when you're all squashed together like sardines.

Abby has started Creepers and Jeepers which is the class up from Wiggles & Giggles for kids who can crawl. They have an obstacle course and all the babies are just let loose. Abby is usually just busy following other babies around. Although we have dicovered that if you give her a big ball and roll it to where you want her to go, she chases it, so we roll it through the tunnels etc and she has a great time.

She has also recommenced her swimming lessons although yesterday wasn't so flash. She was not happy at being dunked under water and didn't get over it for the rest of the class. Last year only Abby and 2 other babies did the course and they are also doing the course this semester, but we have about 4 babies doing the course for the first time. You could tell us Mums who were the old hands as we were the ones without the cameras, and when our babies were crying in the pool we either didn't notice cause we were too busy chatting to each other or looking at them saying "you'll be right" while the other mums were being talked out of taking their babies out of the pool by the instructor. We must have looked like heartless mothers :-) I keep telling Abby it's all character building.....

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Work it Abby, Work it!.jpg

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More progress

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:19:49 GMT

Its really hard to believe its been a month since Shelli and Abby got back from Aussie. Abby had changed a lot in the two weeks they were away, of course not seeing her for two weeks made the changes all the more apparent.

Abby came back home with two teeth, and she was very mobile too - she was not quite crawling, but she was wriggling her way around like a centipede very effectively.

Since then she has pretty much mastered crawling, and she can pull herself to standing on anything and she is walking around the furniture now.

She's almost 9 months old now, and she's having less milk - solids are her main food. She's a fantastic eater, she has eaten EVERYTHING we have put in front of her. She has 3 meals of solids, and 3 bottles of milk a day, although she doesn't often finish her milk. Solids is a different story though, she doesn't really know how to say when. Its quite funny, when you take her (empty) bowl away she always cries as if she is such a desperate starving baby, even though she's just munched down over a jar of baby food, and a whole tub of yoghurt.

We've semi baby-proofed parts of the house, and rather than remove anything she can get into we're trying to teach her to be good, which is working quite well. Our house is too small and we don't have enough storage space to completely baby-proof everything. We'd have to empty out the bottom shelves of our bookcases, and when we visited anyone she wouldn't know that there are things she is not allowed to touch.

We keep the bathroom, laundry, toilet and spare room doors shut and the kitchen is blocked off, and she roams around the rest of the house quite happily. One minute she'll be playing with toys down in her room, next minute there is a "thud-thud-thud-thud" as she motors down the hallway to chase with the cats around the dining room :-)

The cats have actually been very tolerant, particularly Eric, which is not what I expected.

She has just this weekend moved onto a routine with two sleeps a day as well, which is great. Three sleeps a day was starting to not work so well, she would cry when she went down because she wasn't tired then she would be grumpy for the next wake period. Two sleeps a day means she goes down for the night at 7:30-8:00 and we're enjoying a bit more time to ourselves too.

She's just started teething again, quite badly. She just now woke up (at 10:00pm) and cried, we gave her some crushed ice in a facecloth to chew for a while and that seems to have done the trick. Hopefully this is some top teeth coming through, there has been a lot of teething for very little action so far.

More photos soon, promise...

Butter wouldn't melt in my mouth.. (not!)

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:28:45 GMT

Wow Abby is changing so fast now. We've had a few minor ups and downs over the last month but we're in a good place right now. As you can see from the pic Abby can sit up very well now, and she can roll from her tummy to her back and then back onto her tummy with ease. She can't sit up from lying down though, which obviously frustrates her.

She's not far from crawling now. When she's on her tummy she can turn herself around with her hands, and she struggles to get her toys that are out of reach (of course, they are only out of reach because she threw them or pushed them there...). She's a really active baby, and she never sits still.

For a while there Abby was not taking her bottle very well which was incredibly frustrating. We had her down to 4 feeds a day but she suddenly started refusing to drink all of her bottle so we went back to 5 feeds to make sure she was having enough - but then she started drinking even less. Sometimes we would fight her for an hour to try and get her to drink and only get 30ml down her throat, then on the next feed you'd think she would be hungry... but no, she would take nothing.

Naturally we were quite concerned by this and took her to the doctor. Someone suggested she had silent reflux, but she seemed healthy and was perfectly happy and normal outside feeding times but she clearly wasn't getting enough to drink and we were starting to get concerned about her getting dehydrated. We would try and give her water from a sipper cup, but she would mainly play with the cup and not drink much.

But in the last week she's completely changed. We've changed the teats she was using but we don't know if that was what did it or not. Over a couple of days she started drinking her bottle without a fuss, and she is (mainly) very easy to burp now. (which was part of our problem). We've changed back to four feeds a day, and two meals of solids. She's now drinking more than ever, faster than ever which is great. She sleeps right through from 8:30 at night to 7:00 at morning with no problems, ever. (Ok, sometimes she works herself sideways in her cot at about 6:45 and starts kicking the side of her cot, but she never cries)

She's so funny with the solids, we're giving her all sorts of different things and she pulls the funniest faces when she first ties something new that she hasn't had before. Its hilarious! I gave her some apple a while back, and after each spoonfull she would screw her eyes shut because it was a bit tart, and she would eventually swallow it, then she'd hold her mouth open wanting more and more. So far she has eaten almost anything we've offered her except banana and advocado. Hopefully she won't be a fussy eater when she's older.

She's also started throwing little tantrums! We're being very careful not to play her little game, but sometimes when you put her down or take something off her she screams like she is having her eyes gouged or something! We get tears and everything!

But the last couple of days she hasn't been trying that as much, hopefully she's working out we won't fall for it. But it does spell trouble later on....

Shelli and Abby are going over to Australia on boxing day to see Shelli's family (for 2 weeks), and I'm staying back here to hang out with the cats. Actually the original plan was I was going to work through to save money and holidays, but that kinda fell through and I've just resigned from my job, and I'm going contracting. I've just signed a 6 month contract, starting on 9th Janurary, working for a company doing a project at the department of labour.

Its a bit scary, being self employed again but with a family this time, but I'm looking foward to it.

Shelli's entry

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:19:46 GMT

Hi everyone. Sorry its taken a while to update this but John has finally taught me how to do it so hopefully it'll be updated more often (no promises :-)).

Well so much has happened since September. John's dad and his partner Jan came for a visit and got to meet Abby and see the house for the first time as well as take in the sights. We ate lots, dranks lots, and John was in BBQ heaven.

Abby has started being a social little baby by starting swimming classes (she is still a little unsure of going under water but she gets a bit more confident each class) and attending Wiggles and Giggles where we sing lots of songs and play with balls, parachutes and bubbles. She goes there with her buddy Lily-Paige (pic below).

She has also become alot more mobile. We regularly have to go down and put her back in bed as she gets freee of her wrap and cruises around the cot and talks to herself. Yesterday I actually found her with her feet against the bed head and her head half under the blanket and she was having a great old time. She is the great Houdini and I wrap her tightly in a wrap but nothing contains her.

As you can see in one of the pics I heard her talking to herself whe she was supposed to be asleep, and went in to find her on her tummy across the bed - yes she was put in bed under the blanket and sheet. The sad thing was that this was the first time she had rolled from back to tummy and we missed it :-(. She's getting very strong in the body. She is almost able to sit on her own without us standing by in case she topples (or comes a cropper to use John's terminology).

Another little milestone is that she has started solids. I was very nervous about this but she loves everything we have given her - but a little too much. At this age milk is still the most important thing and she has decided to go on 'bottle strike' as they call it and only wants solids, so it hasn't been alot of fun trying to feed her at the mo. We have been told to stop solids and make her drink milk which can be a real trial. She is just not getting the minimum amount of milk. She is a little terror at times. She's also been teething quite a bit - it has been tough but still no chompers to show for it yet.

At Christmas time Abby and I are going home for Mum's 50th. I have had to get passports for both of us and unfortunately we missed the cut off for the old style passports by one day which means the cost more than doubled from $107 to $230 as New Zealand now has the information chips embedded in the passports. For those of you who were not aware I became a New Zealand citizen in September. I needed a new passoprt as I think I may have been cavity searched if I attempted to enter Australia on my current passport. I was pulled aside last time tried to enter and advised to get a new one as mine was water damaged about 6 1/2 years ago and doesn't read on the new 'anti-terrorist' scanners. Bloody Osama strikes again.

Things have calmed down here. Our room is finished which we are very happy with, I haven't been working in at the office and the work from home has settled down to only a few hours a fortnight. We have been taking it easy and John has been 4WDing. I even managed to organise a girls night out with 9 mates and go out for dinner and a boogie in town. It was nice to get out but I have to say that I am out of condition for partying.

Citizenship Ceremony

Swimming with dad

My mate Lily-Paige

Me and Jan

Me and Grandad

Kickin back in the pool

I should be sleeping...

Me, my mum and my tongue

Kumera rocks

Surfs up!

You can't see me - I'm hiding

I want that toy

I'm just too cute

My dad rocks

A few more photos

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 04:56:10 GMT

Sorry about the lack of updates, but Shelli and I have been busy.

We're redecorating our bedroom, and Shelli has also taken on some part-time work at her old job. She's working from 7am-10am, while I look after Abby, and then I come into town in the car with Abby and we swap over.

This means I'm spending heaps of quality time with Abby, which is pretty cool. (check out the smiles! :-) )

Unfortunately I work until about 6:30 to make up the time, and by the time I get home Shelli is going to bed in a couple of hours :-(

On top of all this Shelli is also doing some working part-time work (also for her old job) at home, and she is also making new curtains for our room.

We started stripping wallpaper about 3 weeks ago, and I've nearly finished plastering now. By the end of this weekend we should be finished undercoating the room, and the weekend after we can move back in, all going well. It will be VERY good to have that all done.
We're in the spare room at the moment, which is way to small. Our bed and other bedroom furniture (and our clothes!) are spread throughout the dining room and lounge.

Abby has continued to be a very good little girl, she sleeps right through the night 95% of the time. She's a happy little thing, and although she isn't really laughing yet she comes close. She makes lots of contented gurgles and sometimes squeals when she is really happy :-)

She will stand up for 30 seconds at a time or more with a little help with her balance. She loves standing up on your thighs while you are sitting down, as she's right at eye level.

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