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.

10/4/2009 10:34:21 AM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [1]  Baby

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

9/8/2009 10:25:47 AM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [3]  Baby

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

1/1/2008 10:20:48 PM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00)      Comments [1]  Baby

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

1/1/2008 10:19:02 PM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00)      Comments [0]  Baby

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

10/31/2007 3:27:37 PM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00)      Comments [0]  

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

10/31/2007 3:26:05 PM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00)      Comments [0]  

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'

10/31/2007 3:22:19 PM (AUS Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00)      Comments [0]