John's Blog!

4 weeks old

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!

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

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

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

Part 1 - Before the trip & Wellington

Hi all. We’ve been away on holidays and I’ve got quite a few pics to put up so I’ve just added 4 entries so there isn't one huge novel. So here is the first instalment.

The weekend before we left for our trip to NZ for a wedding, it was the AFL Grand Final and mum and dad drove down from Mooroopna to watch it with us. John had the afternoon booked at a mates place from work. The right team won and we had lots of yummy food to eat so all in all it was a great day. Go the Cats!!

A few hours after Mum and Dad left, our friends Peet and Jess flew in from Holland. Peet had just got a contract in Melbourne which we were pretty stoked about as we haven’t lived in the same city as either of them for a very long time. It was also good timing as they could house sit for us while we were away.

The Monday morning we flew out we had to get up at 4.00am, pack the kids and our 25 bags (that’s what it felt like) in the car as well as squash Jess in the between the two car seats in the back. What a circus. But once we had checked in we were able to relax (as we weren’t overweight). Lachlan was great on the plane as he pretty much slept for most of the flight. Abby on the other hand protested immediately at having to put on her seatbelt. So we had a few fun and games there for a while but things settled eventually.

We arrived in Wellington and once I stepped outside the airport I remembered immediately one of the reasons I had wanted to leave in the first place. Wind. And once we got up to Anne’s place we were up in the clouds. It was great to see Anne and her little baby Amelia who was born 3 days before Lachlan. Although it did just emphasise what a monster Lachy is :-) While in Wellington we got to catch up with a lot of friends plus our old antenatal group. It was amazing to see how grown up everyone was. Thanks to Christina and Bernadette for the pics they sent through.

We decided not to drive past our old place as we knew it had been bought as an investment property. Seeing as we had put so much effort into the place, we didn’t want to see if any of our hard work had been torn out or was not being cared for.

We caught up with old work mates

and friends

The Cheritons

Cheeky girl

Squidge & Brittany

Abby catches up with old mates Logan & Jesica

as well as Samuel & Sasha

The whole gang

Part 2 - Queenstown & the farm

After a few days in Wellington it was time to move south to Queenstown to stay with John’s dad and his partner Jan. We love it there as it’s so relaxing and beautiful. This was my first time arriving in Queenstown by plane and it was just spectacular. Rows and rows of mountains capped with snow and the actual basin Queenstown is in is breathtaking with the Shotover River and Lake Wakatipu - quintessential NZ. The day after we arrived Abby had a ride on Jan’s horse Vinnie – Jan has been having dressage lessons (with an Australian dressage champion no less) and while he is usually quite feisty he was pretty buggered and docile by the time Abby jumped on. After that we drove up to Coronet Peak which has an amazing outlook over Queenstown. There is a photo below with John’s dad’s property marked on it. Although it was mid October, they had been having fresh dumps of snow - it even snowed a few nights we were there – so Abby had her first encounter with snow.

John must have felt like a country boy again, as rabbits were playing on the front lawn and he felt the need to shoot them (yes he still has a valid NZ licence). Thank goodness Abby was in bed is all I can say, so I didn’t have to explain what was happening to the cute little rabbits. Quite ironic, John’s sister Sue pointed out, seeing as his favourite story when he was little was Watership Down. I have to admit John has amazing eyesight. He can spot something ‘shootable’ a mile away.

Another bit of excitement we had - Queenstown had some pretty big earth quakes. The first hit at about 1.30am and measured 6.7. I slept through it unlike John and most other people. Shops and clubs all over Queesnstown had damaged goods. But I certainly felt one of the aftershocks at 10.30am the next morning which was 6.4. The whole house shook and Jan wasn't sure if it was the wind or not, but I didn't mistake the rumble that goes with the shaking wall units etc.

A week later we were on the move again, and stayed the night at John’s brother's farm at Te Houka, just out of Balclutha. Abby was reunited with her cousins Hamish, William, Sophie and Bridget and they all got to meet Lachlan. Abby had an absolute ball there, feeding lambs, chasing chickens, feeding pigs and splashing in puddles. It was hilarious watching her bounce at the knees while she fed the lamb and laugh hysterically while the lambs chased her. That night John and his brother got on the red wine until about 3.00 in the morning which John suffered for the whole of the next day……..

Abby & Vinnie

Going for a walk

First snow experience

The 'X' marks Johns dads house

Johns Arty Pics I - 'Track to the river'

Johns Arty Pics II - 'Boat in paddock near mountains'

Feel the serenity

Brrm Brrm

Abby and her biker bitch

To the lambs with cousin Sophie

Hamish and Sophie with their lambs

Looking like a local with William

Woolshed

Feeding Sophies lamb

Pigs

Puddles

Poor chickens

Bridget & Abby discuss 2 year old morning hair

Part 3 - Dunedin

…….Yes well the trip to Dunedin was only an hour but it feels like a lot longer than that when you have someone barfing into an ice cream container beside you while you’re driving.

We arrived at John’s sister’s house Thursday afternoon and John tried to sleep off the effects of the previous night. It was great catching up with the Naylors – especially as Sarah and Rosie are great at amusing the kids :-) Abby became acquainted with Sarah’s pet rats and the family dog Maggie which Abby decided was ‘Licky dog’.

Saturday was the day of Like & Leah’s wedding. When I reached the room for the ceremony John showed me the little pin Mike had made for all the groomsmen – it was tiny little spanner, each with their name engraved on it. Mike is a mechanic and he even had his wedding band made into the shape of a nut. That’s nice, different, it’s unusual as Kath and Kim would say. Well there is nothing like a wedding to make you feel all warm and fuzzy about being married. And everyone had a great time at the reception. We even thought we would let Mike get some practice in holding a baby just in case they finish ‘practising’ themselves :-) In fact Lachlan charmed everyone by not crying the whole time and giving them great big grins all night. He was passed around for a while which meant John and I got the opportunity to have a bit of a boogie on the dance floor.

The next day was a beautiful day in Dunedin and we had a morning tea with the Naylors and Sue. It was very hard to leave but we said our goodbyes and headed back to Queenstown. Now a lot of planes fly in and out of Queenstown and you can hear them from John’s dads place. It was while here at Christmas time that Abby took a liking to planes. She even has her own little toy matchbox plane she takes everywhere with her. We have now found out that she may understand what tomorrow means. She heard a plane overhead and as usual got quite excited. John said ‘We are going on a plane tomorrow’ and nothing more was mentioned by John or Abby. 6.30am we get a wake up call of Abby coming into our room and the first thing she said was ‘Going on a plane’. Obsessed I tell you.

So it was with great reluctance we said goodbye and boarded our plane………

One of Sarah's pet rats

Playing with aunty Sue

Sarah & Lachy

The nervous wait

The happy couple

John's pin

Mike & Lachy

Enjoying the Dunedin sun with Tom

Maggie 'Licky' dog

Liz & Abby

Kids with Sue, Rosie & Sarah

Not happy to say 'Cheese'

Causing mischief

'Helmet'

Part 4 - Home again

Our flight home was uneventful. For some time both the kids were asleep which was fantastic and for a change all 5 pieces of our checked luggage came out in the first few minutes – woohoo! Jess, who had been house sitting for us, picked us up and told us how it had been 33 degrees in Melbourne the day before. Even in driving back from the airport we noticed that already everything had begun to lose the green look. Both days on the weekend were 29 degrees – just magical weather. So summer PJ’s, sheets and clothes have been pulled out of the wardrobes.

Outside our kitchen window is a bird’s nest in which we have occasionally seen a possum. On the weekend we saw it again – a cute ring tail possum with a baby. John managed to get some pics before Sam, our cat, went up for look and got a claw to the nose before the possums ran further up the tree.

This weekend John and I have Maree and Sean’s wedding to go to in Leongatha which is about 2 hours east of Melbourne so we are looking forward to that.

Preferring colour now

Not happy at having to leave

The flight home

Possum

Digging for peg treasure

Abby 'helping'

Abby's favourite shoes

Yes we are still alive...

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

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.

Beer!

And now for something completely non-baby related :)

I've always wanted to give making home brew beer a go, but we never had the space in Wellington. We've got heaps of room here (and also the beer is quite a bit more expensive) so I've taken the plunge and got a kit.

I never knew much about making beer, there is certainly a lot to learn - and everyone seems to give different, conflicting advice. So I guess its largely going to be a matter of try it and see....

I got a coopers kit that came with everything you need, including bottles - even a cheesy instructional video.
This page seems to have some good info, the author seems to know what he's doing. He basically says chuck the instructions that came with the kit, and follow his directions.
One of the main points of contention is the temperature you should ferment the beer at. The coopers kits say 21 to 27 deg, and most people say thats too high. The best thing to do is to record the temperature I use for each batch, and see what I end up with :)

I brewed my first batch last week, and I bottled it on Monday.

If anyone reading this has got any advice on brewing beer, please leave a comment or email me.

Wish me luck :)

New arrival!

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

Some unwanted monday night excitement...

Hi All,

On Monday night about 10:00 we were sitting in the lounge and watching TV, when we heard an approaching car. Not just a normal car driving past, this guy had the pedal to the metal on what sounded like a pretty well warmed-up V8, and he was going VERY fast. I should mention at this point that it had been raining earlier, and the road was wet. Our house isn't on a corner, the road outside is wide and fairly straight.

Bet you can see where this is going... The speed limit is 60 km/h, but quite a few people go quicker than that. I have no idea just how fast this clown was going, but it was certainly closer to 100 than 60 - maybe even over 100.

Anyway, suddenly the roar of his engine cut out. Closely followed by a crash. Then another crash, louder and closer. Then another, then a huge bang that shook the house.

I ran outside the front door, to see what you can see in the third pic below – a car on its side against the trees, well down off the road and unbetween our house and the neighbours. There was a strong smell of petrol coming from the car, which freaked me out quite a bit. I jumped on the phone, called emergency services and went out to describe the scene to them.

It initially looked much worse than it turned out. By the time I got outside there were probably a dozen people there, and surprisingly no-one still in the car.

Turns out it was just the one guy in the car, a 19 year old clown who was driving a tuned up gen 3 V8 commodore – I found out from the police later his dad was the registered owner. Oops.

He got a nasty cut on his hand and unbelievably that was it.   He had lost it on the wet road, fishtailed and then shot through the neighbours fence sideways. When he hit the ground the car dug in and flipped, bounced off their car and hit the trees between our house and their house.... ending up where you see.

So many other things could have gone wrong:
•   If the trees weren’t there he would have landed in our bedroom
•   If he had landed a couple of feet further down the bank he would have kept sliding down between our houses, and ended up in a MUCH worse position.
•   He picked the one house anong Karingal drive that had a carpad nearly level with the road. Most other places (including us) have big retaining walls then gardens.
•   If there were any pedestrians walking past at the time they would have probably have been killed
•   If he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt he would have probably been thrown from the car and killed
•   He only *just* missed the power lines going to the neighbours house. You can see them on the bottom left pic. If he collected them, I don’t know if that would have electrocuted him or not but with the leaking petrol it would have certainly made things more interesting
•   The neighbours were out at the time, they normally have another car parked beside the one that was hit. If that was there he would have totalled that as well, and who knows where the car would have ended up? Maybe through the trees into our house, maybe down into the neighbours house.

So, in short he’s a f*ckin dickhead, and he was incredibly lucky but he might not see it that way. No damage done to our house or property, apart from maybe one tree. The neighbours have lost a couple of fences, mailbox, parts of the garden and a car. I gave a statement to the police on Wednesday, they are gonna come down real hard on him. He’s lost his license for sure, his car is written off and he won’t get insurance on that or the damage he’s caused. Daddy may have to pick up that tab as well.
The cop said his dad came and had a look when they recovered the car the next day, and he wasn’t very impressed.

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Abby pics

Finally...an update

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

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Playing at Eltham park.jpg

Rudies.jpg

Sharing ice blocks.jpg

Trains are fun.jpg