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.

7/12/2007 10:33:50 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [0]  Baby

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 :)

7/12/2007 10:02:37 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [2]  Beer

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

7/10/2007 12:03:18 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [7]  Baby

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.

IMG_3540.jpg	IMG_3541.jpg	IMG_3542.jpg	IMG_3543.jpg	IMG_3545.jpg
IMG_3547.jpg	IMG_3548.jpg	IMG_3549.jpg	IMG_3550.jpg	IMG_3551.jpg
IMG_3553.jpg	IMG_3554 (Large).jpg	IMG_3555 (Large).jpg	IMG_3556 (Large).jpg	IMG_3557 (Large).jpg
IMG_3558 (Large).jpg	IMG_3559 (Large).jpg	IMG_3560 (Large).jpg	IMG_3563 (Large).jpg

7/6/2007 12:22:28 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [0]  

Abby pics

Finger Painting.jpg	Racing Driver.jpg

6/19/2007 1:12:10 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [0]  Baby

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
Ouch.jpg	Playing at Eltham park.jpg	Rudies.jpg	Sharing ice blocks.jpg	Trains are fun.jpg

6/2/2007 2:40:36 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [0]  Baby

Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Whew... Its been a hectic two and a bit weeks.

Unfortunately we've arrived in Melbourne in the middle of a severe drought - which we knew about - and also while there is a pretty bad shortage of rental properties. Oops.

The first day of looking at houses didn't go very well, but then on the 2nd day we struck it lucky and managed to grab a nice house in the suburb (eltham) where we want to settle in. Its a 3 bedroom house with a double garage and a nice fully fenced section. Unfortnately the house is kinda split level and has two sets of stairs but they are only 5 steps high. The house wasn't available immediately, we only moved in on Saturday.

We've also brought a car, a 2002 Camry Altise. Its a nice car, the nicest (and most expensive) car I've ever owned but we'll be doing a lot of trips to Shelli's parents in Shepparton (a bit over 2 hours away) so we wanted a nice car that was easy to travel in.

I've had a couple of interviews at a small IT company here in Melbourne, and they sound interested so hopefully I hear some good news from them soon.

Apparently our container has just arrived at the port, but no idea how long customs clearance will take - probably 2-4 weeks.

In the meantime we're living in an empty house, with just our suitcases, a bed and a tv, fridge and washing machine we hired. I brought a Nintendo Wii to help pass the time, and its great - the controller is like a remote, and it senses motion. With games like baseball you swing the remote just like its the bat, or for golf swing it like a golf club etc etc. Very clever and loads of fun.

Abby has coped with all the moving around very well, she's been a little more clingy and keeps saying "daddy!" or "mummy!" when one of us leaves the room - she is a bit worried that we're leaving her, but otherwise she's very happy. She loved spending time with her Nana and Granddad in Shepparton

Just tonight I picked the cats up from the Airport. They managed the trip very well and are exploring the house right now.

Other things I've noticed about Aussie so far...

1) Its hot. Very hot. I expected this, but apparently melbourne is having its hottest feb for 40 years. Saturday was 38, Yesterday was 39 and today was a bit cooler but at 7:30 tonight it was still 29. We have air con in the house, which is good. very good

2) Drive throught bottle stores. A Marvelous invention. You drive in, wind down your window and tell the guy what you want. True genius.

3) personal cheques aren't worth the paper they are written on. no-one takes them.

4) whenever you pay for something by eft-pos, they ask you if thats cheque or savings account. Then they press the button for you, so you only have to enter your pin. How polite.

So far things are going very well. We still feel a bit displaced, but thats to be expected. Once our stuff arrives this place will start to feel like home.

Over and out.

2/19/2007 10:04:11 PM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00)      Comments [0]