Adventures of Austy & Maddy

Eating like a lady

2009-11-09T20:55:00.002+10:30

At a recent trip to Child Youth Health (to check on Madelyn's recent weight loss), the health nurse suggested that I should be letting Madelyn feed herself. I knew that I should be, in fact always let Austin have a spoon himself when we spoon fed him even younger than Maddy is now, but with an almost 4yr old and an almost 1yr old I have plenty of mess to keep me busy as it is, so have so far tried to keep it down to a manageable level.

Tonight I decided to give her a baby fork with her pasta. Just look how well that went down:

Okay, so Mum says that ladies use cutlery to eat there meals. Something like this. Hmmm...

Nope. Cutlery is SOOOO overrated. Fingers work much better. Glad I threw that fork thing on the floor.

And while we're at it, who needs a bowl?

Hang on, that bowl thing might come in handy. If I tip it like this I can POUR the food in. Yum!
Cheesy avocado pasta down the hatch!

Okay, maybe not. I was right from the very beginning - fingers work best. I can shovel it in by the fistfull!

10 months and counting...

2009-11-07T15:21:00.003+10:30

A little overdue, but here's Maddy's 10 month update:

Dear Madelyn,

You are growing into such a beautiful little girl each and every day. You are loving your newfound independence, being VERY proficient at crawling even though at 10m old you have only been doing it for just over a week. It seems you like to perfect each skill before you show us!

Austin is still, of course, your idol, even though he does get a bit rough sometimes now that you can crawl up and take his toys (or yours, which he is often stealing from you first!). You're so very cute when you crawl around corners looking for him and calling "Bwuvaaaah?, Bwuvaaaah?!" when you want to play.

You are an amazing little eater - we are always surprised at how much food you can hide in that little chubby body of yours, often eating more than your big brother at dinner time! You have gone off your milk a bit now though since sleep training means I feed you after you wake up rather than when you go down to sleep, and you are far too busy to stop for a drink when you aren't tired - you just want to keep on moving so you don't miss anything! You are certainly an active little girl now you are crawling. With Austin he wasn't ever in such a hurry, so it was a bit of a shock to us to have you getting around so quickly. We have to shut all the doors or you'd be in the bathroom all the time waiting for some water to be turned on.

You are certainly a water baby and love to swim, and the evening bathtime which is your new routine (rather than the morning shower you used to have with Daddy). At swimming lessons your favourite activity is doing "humpty dumpties" where we sing the song and you jump in. So at home in the bath (also known as the laundry sink - the perfect size and height to bath you in!) you like to get the towelling finger puppets and bounce them on the edge, and sing "Dumdudahdumdumdada" until I sing "Humpty Dumpty" for you and you splash them into the water. So very cute.

I am missing the feeding to sleep as we teach you to fall asleep all on your own. I have always loved watching as your eyes closed, you snuggled in and became suddenly heavy and I'd gaze at you for a few minutes before I put you in your cot. You are not too keen on going into the cot awake, so I need to sit with you for a little while before you decide to go to sleep, but we are getting there (I hope). You blessed us with about a week of sleeping through and I felt amazing as it was the most sleep I had had in months, but unfortunately it didn't last so we are still working hard at getting you to feel safe and happy to fall asleep and stay asleep on your own.

Love as always,

Mum xxx

The sleep saga continues... hopefully the worst is over

2009-10-15T11:15:00.002+10:30

Last night I got brave and decided that I won't wait to implement teh controlled comforting, just do a slightly gentler version of it to help Maddy learn to sleep on her own without making her more afraid of me leaving her.

I read a couple of chapters out of a few of the books to get a broader knowledge and then had a think about my own situation since I wanted to tailor a routine to suit us rather than just follow the books and feel stuck to the rigid instructions. I realised that Madelyn's best sleep is usually the morning one, straight after her shower with Dad (if I can get her down and don't have anywhere to run off to with Austin) so I thought perhaps the water play is one of her sleep cues at present and I should work with it.

We have always showered the kids with us in the mornings - me with Austy and Andrew with Maddy (she's too heavy for me and I'm always scared I'll drop her with the soap and water). Most do baths in the evening and I know that is the "normal" way of doing things, but with Andrew at work in the evenings it's always a mad rush to get dinner on the table with tired children who need extra attention at that time, and to get them both changed into PJ's and read stories and into bed by their respective bed times so they aren't over tired. Austin especially needs to go to bed at 7:30 on the dot as his behaviour gets out of hand if he's up later, and he never sleeps in longer the next day so it has a flow on effect when he's late to bed. So a bath in the evening was just another thing to make me run around in a panic watching the clock. We also figured that after a whole night in the same nappy, a shower in the mornings cleans the nappy area, and it's easy - since we are having showers anyway the kids just play on the shower floor while we wash (being careful not to get soap or shampoo from us onto their faces).

But since I want Maddy's best sleep to be at night, not after her morning shower, I decided to give just her a bath in the evening. She's in nappies all day and all night so the nappy thing really isn't an issue like it is with Austin who only wears them at night and quite often soaks through it and gets his PJ top wet and needs a thorough wash. The only trick was to make it fit into what is already a rushed and busy time, and keep Austy happy at the same time. I can't bath her in the big bath or he'd want to hop in too and he takes a LOT of coaxing to get out knowing bed is not far away which often makes him late to bed with all the mucking around a night time bath causes. So I decided that she can have her bath in the laundry trough - it's a perfect size for her, and Austy can stand on his step and help. We did that last night - just a quick bath, a little play and then I got to give her a proper massage, something I used to do nightly for Austin as a baby but never have time to do for her as Austy is usually up to mischief at that time. Austy loved it as he got to play in her bath water while I massaged her and we sang songs together to make it even more relaxing for everyone. I kept the bath short so it didn't really add a lot of time into the night time routine, and hopefully I will still be able to keep it up when I am back at work and have to start dinner etc. a bit later. Austin was very pleased with the new routine and wanted to call Andrew straight away to tell him about it and how he's going to help me bath Maddy each night. It was really nice to see how much he enjoyed helping.

Then, after I let both kids pick a book and read them to both of them tucked into Austy's bed, I said goodnight to Austy and took Maddy out for her feed. I managed to get away with a quick 20min feed instead of the 1-2hr one she has been having, as I took her off the breast every time she stopped sucking and closed her eyes. My first step is to not let her fall asleep at the breast anymore! Then I popped her in her cot awake and the controlled comforting began, but I stayed with her for the first 5 minutes rather than just leaving her immediately and then didn't leave her crying longer than the 6 minute mark rather than letting it build up to 10mins. She was asleep within 45 minutes which was better than how long the breatsfeed to sleep has been taking but she had quite a protest and each time I went back to her she was clinging to the bars of her cot screaming "Mumumumum!" - quite heartbreaking to hear since I've never really left her to cry like that in her life.

I thought we'd had success since she was asleep so quickly but she woke every 40-60mins the whole night through. One to Maddy. None to Mum! The good thing was that the crying sessions got shorter as the night went on and for her morning nap today she was asleep in that first 5 minutes while I stayed in her room (hands on, patting or stroking while she cried, hands off when she was calm so she can learn to sleep without me patting her).

The other thing I have introduced is a snuggle toy - she has always had a little bear in her cot while she slept but since she's now going to be left in there awake more (I have always gone to her moments after she has awoken so there has been no danger in the past) I decided that the bear really isn't safe as it has beans that could come out if she bites it, and she has already chewed off half his nose! She likes to hold my thumb when she falls asleep on the breast so I am now switching the thumb for the bunny blankie's ear or paw. I think I might make her a few simple, washable, identical snuggle toys (quite soon so she doesn't get too attached to the bunny one that I can't replace so easily). With three identical toys, we can have one for the nappy bag to use in the car or pram when out, one for her cot, and one to rotate through the wash.

Hoping for a better night tonight.

It's time for sleep

2009-10-14T15:06:00.004+10:30

You can never win. Every baby is different, and what works for one doesn't neccessarily work for another. I've learned that the hard way, and after having between 2 and 5 wake ups EVERY night with Madelyn since she was 5 months old, I think it's time for a change.

I am showing every sign of sleep deprivation, especially since she can take anywhere from 20mins to 3hrs to resettle at night. My body aches, I get dizzy spells, headaches, can't remember something I did five minutes ago let alone what on earth it was I was trying to say... getting stuck midsentence plenty of times. I don't like the person I am becoming, I don't like the way I talk to Andrew, I don't like the way I deal with Austy's temper tantrums on a particularly bad day when I am literally a walking zombie. My patience is wearing VERY thin (and when you've got two little ones patience is the most important thing in the world!), my body aches and I feel like the biggest failure of all. Many days I'm on the verge of tears, other days I hear myself yelling at Austin and cringe, especially as parents that take their frustrations out on their kids is something I really hate, and he is, afterall, only 3. There will be times when he does crazy things like bringing the hose inside and squirting water all over the floor. There will be times when he wants to pour his own milk and his own cereal and doesn't seem to understand what my issues are with the mess he creates. There will be times he wants to do things his own way. There is nothing wrong with him - perhaps he is a little more head strong than most and his clever little brain is always ticking away so he always knows exactly how to push my buttons and answer back. I just have to deal with it better. And believe me I try. We don't smack in this house, we TRY not to yell, and always apologise if we loose our cool, and practice positive parenting as much as possible. But on little sleep, those things take oh so much effort and it's very easy to let out frustrations with a short temper.

Even though I am usually the one to get up in the night, I sometimes lose sight of the fact Andrew is waking up too. It frustrates me when he complains of exhaustion when I have been up ten times the night before while he stayed warm in bed or when I let him sleep in after such a night and I deal with the kids on my own and Austy is being particularly challenging. I envy his time out - his 4hr golf sessions (or the whole weekend away a couple of times) when I have always had at least one of the children with me and hardly even get time to eat let alone have some relaxation time. I don't want to stop him having his time out - he is right, my time out is sewing and I get to do that when the kids are in bed at night (but often get interrupted with Madelyn's bad sleep habits), and his time out is golf. We promised when we got married that we'd make sure we kept our hobbies and not hold each other back. So what needs to change is sleep. We all need more.

With Austin we had a particularly good night sleeper but hardly a good nap during the day. He never slept anywhere but his own cot (not even the car on a rather harrowing trip to the snow and back when he was 18m old and slept all of 20mins for the whole 12hr drive!). He'd lose the plot quite easily in the daytime once he was overtired, and it wasn't until he was 6m old that I started to go with the flow a bit more and feed him when he wanted it (even if it was straight before a sleep) and stop with the rigid feed, play, sleep thing that had been drummed into me from books, advice givers, child and youth health nurses. I threw out the "no closer than 2hrly feeds" rule CYH had told me, and if he wanted a feed sooner, I gave it to him. He was a big baby and seemed to need the extra milk. As a result we got a happier baby who slept at least one good nap in the day and all night long.

So when we had Madelyn, I decided right from the start I would feed her whenever and however long she wanted. This worked fabulously for the first 5 months. She was the happiest baby I had ever known, never cried (except those early weeks with colic), and was very content and easy going which worked in so well with all the running around I had to do with Austy. She slept in the car, in the pram, in the baby carrier (and still does if she needs to when we are out) and slept for a miraculous 12hrs straight at night, from 8pm till 8am. What changed at 5m was that we had just got back from America, with us all feeling the heavy effects of jetlag, including her, and from then on she hasn't been clear of some illness or another (or teething) for longer than a week or two. She still fed to sleep as she always had done and I never thought feeding to sleep would be a problem for us as it was clear that she could resettle since she was sleeping so well at night before then. When Austin was this age, I'd feed him directly before bed, a half an hour rocking in the rocking chair by his cot and he'd finish the feed awake and I'd pop him into his cot and wouldn't hear a peep until morning. With Madelyn - she ALWAYS falls asleep during the feed and when I try to take her off before she falls asleep, the walls almost crumble with her screams.

They say the sleep cycle changes at 5m and separation anxiety comes in at around 8m which may be why for us, the issue has been getting progressively worse not better. We tried leaving her for 10mins before going to her, and when I go in at night I now try to sing, pat her chest or stroke her head back to sleep in the cot but she gets histerical and then I pick her up. I hold her and walk around for a bit but she struggles with all her might. I try to rock her in the chair but the screaming continues and I worry that she'll wake Austin too so I eventually give in and feed her. She's not really hungry, just looking for comfort, and after a quick 10 minute feed, and tiny little sucks, she's back to sleep in my arms. Or is she? I put her in the cot and the screaming starts all over again and we are right back where we started.

In the day time, she generally has two good naps of at least an hour long, but is fed to sleep for both of those too, in her room though rather than in front of the TV where I do her ultra-long feed for bed (I'd go crazy sitting in her room for up to two hours staring at the walls waiting for her to go to sleep at night). But there's another mistake - letting her fall asleep where I don't want her to spend her whole sleep. When she wakes up she is histerical and so hard to resettle.

Last night was one of those particularly bad ones. I have been dreading going to bed at night as it's the start of another torture session for me, so I have been staying up later than my body really can cope with. Then when I get into bed, I just can't settle down to sleep so I toss and turn until her next wake up, or worse, just nod off in time for her to wake me up. Last night the next wake up was at 1:28am (after I went to bed, far too late at 12:30am). I was still trying to resettle her at 3am having been in and out what seemed a hundred times. Now, remember this isn't just one bad night I am talking about, but several... for months... with no outlook of improvement and my return to work date fast approaching. At 3:30am I was back in bed but she was still screaming her little head off and I knew I had to go in there again as it was certainly not just a grizzle. I rolled over and in a plea for help sighed with an exghasperated voice to Andrew "What else can I try? I really DON'T know what else to do?". He said the wrong thing in reply. "You can turn the monitor off and let me get some sleep!" So in my sleep deprived, exhausted, frustrated state, as I threw back the covers and got out of bed I grabbed the @#%$% monitor and threw it at him (intended to hit the quilt in the bed next to him - not him) and then I stormed off to resettle the terrified and screaming baby.

See what I mean? Not a nice wife. Not a nice Mum. Not a nice person. It's time I did something about it.

So today after Austin's storytime and craft session at the library, I sat him at the computer to play his favourite "chicken game" I wandered over to the Family Information Zone (just a few metres away where I could still see Austy) and picked up 4 different books on baby sleeping in the hope that one of them would have something valuable to offer. Of course who has time to read though when you are so tired? I thought perhaps that I'd get some reading time during Madelyn's feeds today, but then I saw that one of the books had a DVD. So I went straight for that one. The book it came with was quite small, not a huge marathon reading session at all, and the DVD was fabulous at showing me how much crying is okay. The book and DVD set is called Time to Sleep by Maree Viotto for anyone out there with babies in similar situations who is interested.

I nearly skipped over the birth to 6m part since Madelyn is almost 10m now, but I thought it might have some insight for me and watched it too. I was surprised at how short the DVD was, and how easy it looked to follow. As Madelyn has been so upset by the fact I had left her crying for 10 minutes at night each time between comforting, I decided not to go straight to the "controlled comforting" the DVD suggests for her age, but try the settling techniques that I should have used in the first 6m. Remember this baby has always been fed to sleep and has no idea how to fall asleep on her own unless she's in the motion of a car, pram or baby carrier. I also know how distressed she gets when I leave the room so I knew I'd probably pack it in before it worked if I did the older baby techniques. I will quickly move onto the older baby techniques - just not sure I'm quite ready for that yet since I think she needs to know I will be there for her to get over her super clinginess of late.

I decided to get to work on it straight away since Austy was out of the house (and part of the reason I've fed her to sleep is that it's easier with another one to worry about, since I don't have the time to go back and forth in the day time when I'm also watching him, but lately the feed is taking far too long and poor Austin is left to stare at the TV, or get up to mischief only to be told off when it's my fault for not having time for him). Also I figured it would be easier during the day when I'm not trying to sleep too and I could put everything else aside for her. She was due for a feed though... so we had to do that first rather than going back to the whole feed,play, sleep thing the DVD recommends, that I used strictly with Austin. This time though, as soon as she stopped sucking strongly and started her little comfort sucks (allbeit closing her eyes and no doubt ready to nod off at any second) I took her off the breast, took her to her room and tried the settling techniques recommended for under 6m olds. I expected that she would scream for the whole 15mins as she was beside herself the moment I extracted the human dummy from her mouth! Surprise, surprise she was quiet within 8 mins and fell asleep by herself. Instead of her good two hour nap though that she normally has at this time of the day, she woke after 40 mins - exactly one sleep cycle just as the book said. So I went in and resettled - this time it took almost 15 minutes of her struggling and screaming but I persisted and she slept another 40 mins.

She is now happily playing in her playpen, something she hasn't done for a couple of weeks without grizzling and wanting to cling to me. I know this is just the beginning but I'm going to give it a good shot and see what happens. I decided to write it all down here, get it all off my chest and also have it to refer back to when things got tough to remind myself why I am doing this. Hopefully she is one to respond quickly to the change rather than one of those that can take up to a month - especially since I now have to switch her feed routine so that she feeds when she wakes and not when she sleeps. It's going to be a challenge but it needs to happen. Lets see how I go. Tonight is going to be a tough one!

Playgroup photos

2009-09-27T12:40:00.003+09:30

Unfortunately Andrew was away for golf when the shots were taken so the family shot is missing him. Dad, one of these is on it's way to you now.

9 months update

2009-09-27T11:35:00.004+09:30

Each night as I have laid in bed before drifting off to sleep I have thought "I must do Maddy's 9 month blog post" and even thought out what to write, but now with the blank screen in front of me I have writers block! But seeing as I missed the 8m one I must push forward!

At 8 months old, our darling girl was really starting to show her personality: cheeky, adventurous, snuggly, and sociable. Of course we already knew how placid and happy she has always been since the colic left her months ago. Her newest trick at 8 months was giving people "high fives" and the more tired she was, the funnier this trick became. She started waving and even adding sounds similar to "Hi" and "Bye" when she did it. She got around pretty well by rolling and then from her tummy, walking her hands up into a sitting position. She was also sort of crawling but doing it backwards, which lead to frustration when she found herself "trapped" into the corner of the room and not knowing how to uncrumple herself from the walls. She started putting ehr arms up for me to pick her up, and enjoying being wrapped for sleep, knowing that cuddles and milk were to follow. We still wrap her and tuck her into her covers as opposed to the sleeping bags we used for Austin as she sleeps like me - she doesn't move until she wakes! A snug wrap and firm covers are a comfort to her just as I like to be tucked in tight to sleep. Austy has been a wriggler since the moment he learned to roll and will toss and turn several times, losing covers and quite a hot sleeper, the carbon copy of his Dad!

At 9 months she has started clapping using her "princess clap" as we call it, tapping the back of one hand with the other. It's quite cute, and she is quite pleased with herself doing it. Of course her biggest love in the world (other than Mummy milk!) is her older brother and we even think she has attempted the word "brother" a few times, although it's not completely clear. We are quite impressed with her language skills and her urge to communicate with words. Austy was pretty advanced too, saying Mum and Dad from very early on (5 months) and using themfor the right person, and then "dieda" (tiger) and "durdoo" (turtle) at 10 months. While we can't be sure yet with Maddy, we think she tries to say Princess whenever she wakes up and we see her. It is a habit of ours that when we pick her up from her cot we say "Hello Princess" (Princess was the first thing we ever called her, the moment she was born). So now, before we get in with that, she says "Zez zes!" and giggles. So cute.

And her latest achievement, at 9 months and 3 days she started CRAWLING! No commando crawling for this little princess (of course not, that's not how princesses do it!), but perfect crawling from the very first day she did it. What made her motivated to crawl? None other than her big brother Austin! She looked like she was close for a week or three up to the day as she would get on her knees but then flop to her tummy. Last week she looked particularly energetic and enthused so I asked Austy to sit at one edge of the rug and sat her at the other. She had been watching everything he had been doing and he had just been having a ball crawling in circles around her. I asked him to call her over and sure enough she got up on those knees and made tiny little knee shuffles over to him. When she got there Austy and I clapped and cheered and she squeeled with delight, very proud of what she had done. I tried to get her to crawl to me, but she just put her arms in the air and grizzled - she knows I can pick her up if I want her!

Less than a week later, the world is a huge adventure playground! She is crawling everywhere, into everything and quite frustrated when she can see something but can't touch it. Apparently now she can crawl everything should be there for her to play with! We have already had her tip Austy's playdough toys on top of herself from his little play table in the family room, and therefore start eating the tiny dried up playdough bits that were in the tub. And Austy's coulouring in things are fun to tear up apparently! I think it's time to dust off the playpen and bring it in from the shed to keep her occupied in moments when I have to turn my head. Hopefully she takes well to it, otherwise we will have to put it around Austy's table and put the toys in there that she can't have. When Austy was little we used it to cordon off the TV area and anything we didn't want him to have ended up in there as he didn't like being penned in. We'll see how she goes.

9 month stats

Weight: 11kgs

Length: 76cm

Wearing: Size 1 (12-18m)!

Number of teeth : 8

Newest trick: Crawling!

To finish off, here's a photo that a passerby took of me and the kidlets when we were walking at Waterfall Gully on a lovely sunny day last week. Austy had a fabulous time and it was nice to feel some sunshine agaion before the rain (and hail!) returned to Adelaide.

And here's a couple more cute shots from our walk:

Goodbye Gryffin

2009-09-15T23:38:00.003+09:30

Just under 4 weeks ago I noticed Gryffin had lost a little weight. I picked him up and weighed him, and sure enough half a kilo of him was not where it should be. I figured I'd better get him checked since he wasn't a big cat and the news was not good.

An ultrasound showed an unknown mass in his liver. The cost for operating was in the $2-3K range, and even then, it was highly probable that the surgery would be too complicated and he'd not be woken up. If by chance they did remove the lump, the average cat with liver cancer will only live for another year after the initial cancer is removed. We decided that the cost was too high for the low survival rate, and thought it best to keep him home and say goodbye our own way rather than take hm in for surgery and possibly not take him home. Especially since Austin was quite distressed about a year ago when Gryffin had to stay at the vet's for the day to hace teeth pulled (the result of picky eating that meant he wouldn't eat biscuits or hard food and therefore had tooth decay).

Sadly the disease turned him from healthy to emaciated at a very rapid rate and after he started using the whole house as a litter tay and didn't seem to realise he was doing anything wrong, we decided that perhaps his time was up. I took him in, and the vet had a lot of trouble finding a vein since he was just skin and bone with a very low blood pressure. She agreed that we really couldn't let him suffer any longer. So I said my goodbyes and brought home an empty cage, giving Austin his collar on a little toy siamese kitten which he is now snuggling in bed. "Goodbye Mog" is on order at the book shop to read to him. He's taking it pretty well for a not quite 4yr old.

We'll miss you Gryffy. Even Maddy who doesn't know you're gone will miss squealing with delight when she sees you and trying to pull your ears. Austin will miss chasing you for cuddles. Andrew will miss you curling up on his lap in the evenings when he's not at work. I'm not so sure he'll miss you climbing on him to lick his desert bowl clean when we have apple crisp or chocolate self saucing pudding, but he will miss spoiling you with the cream at the end. I will be cold tonight without you to cuddle as I dream.

Look who's rolling now!

2009-08-10T20:42:00.004+09:30

Finally, last Wednesday Madelyn decided it was time to roll completely over from her tummy to her back. She has often rolled onto her side but not gone all the way until now. However, not being too fond of tummy time lately unless I'm giving her my arm to kick off from to help her get the idea of crawling, she worked out that rolling was the best way to get out of it. And then straight after, she flipped back onto her tum again. This girl has it sussed!

Two more teeth joined us on the weekend too - she is no longer our vampire baby as the top middle ones are filling in the gap between the other two top teeth, with bottom ones teasing us with a white mark in her gums some days, and non-existant the next. They are on the move so should be there soon too. Isn't she just beautiful?! Of course I am biased, but she is such a doll.

7 month old Maddy

2009-08-04T22:36:00.004+09:30

Oh my, I am not doing too well with the Maddy updates am I? Two weeks late for this one as well, but I promise, I have an excuse!!!

You may have read in my last post that our adorable boy was under the weather. We thought he was getting better, but then he got worse again and was falling asleep on the couch, and lucky Andrew got a rare afternoon with him snuggled up on his lap at the computer for a few hours while Austy lay there sleeping as he used to do as a baby. It turned out the poor kid had developed a chest infection, and I had too, having caught his bug off him and having "severe asthma" while I am breastfeeding (something to do with the hormones) it quickly developed into an infection. Just as we were both at our worst and awaiting the doctors appointment (it seems so hard to get in to see a GP these days, and especially with it being winter ad all manner of colds and flus going around), I was feeling rather exhausted one night when Maddy awoke quite upset and burning up. We thought perhaps she had the same bug that gave Austy and I our chest infections as that's how ours started, but when I managed to squeeze her into our appointment with the doctor the next day (after we had several failed attempts to keep panadol in her which we promised her we would never do to her again!) we discovered she had quite a nasty ear infection. It took two weeks to clear up, with some antibiotics, an just as I ditched the bottle, the temp came back this weekend. She was liek a glow worm, you know those cuddly toys that you squeeze and their head lights up? Yep, that was her, poor chicken. Not even teh dymadon that had worked miracles withher fever before, could bring the temp down so off to the GP again. We were told it is just viral and tehy took a wee sample to test to make sure as she was also starting to break out in a horrid rash, that is now blothcy all over her very puffy eyes and nose and can be seen under her fine blonde hair. She can't keep food down so has gone back to just breastmilk for a couple of days and is super clingy and not sleeping well at all. It's not nice to have a sick baby, she never cries normally, so to see her this upset is heartbreaking and Ireally don't quite know what to do with her twhen not even an offering of her favourite boobie juice will calm her down. It took ages to get her to sleep tonight despite her rubbing her eyes all afternoon. I just want her to get better again quickly and I think we've had our fair share of lurgies!

So that's why there hasn't been a 7 month update until now.

Weight: 9.3kg
Length ??
Teeth: 4 - two bootom ones and two "vampire fangs" (no top middle ones yet!)
Mobillity: Launching to tummy from a sitting position to reach things

Dear Madelyn, at 7 months you sit up sooooo well, you have a beautiful posture and love to be on your bottom 99% of your wake time. You are starting to want to move as you have discovered that not everything will automatically be handed to you by your big brother, and quite often he will play with his toys just out of reach and if you do manage to launch yourself forward from sitting to your tummy and grab something of his, he quickly removes it from your grasp. This results in you pushing up on your hands and kicking your legs, as if you are about to crawl, but alas just kicking those legs does nothingto propell you forwards. Sorry darling, that only works in the pool as you have perfected so well as you paddle and kick frantically in your swim ring or in my arms and zoom forwards.

You really enjoy solids and have taken to them much better than your brother did, and Daddy and I are secretly hoping some of your good eating habits will rub off on him someday. So far, we have had no luck with the "Look Austy, Maddy likes [insert vegetable here]" comments. One of your new favourites is parsnip, peas and potato puree. And we are so glad we havefound something vegetable that you will eat happily that doesn't contain any apple or pair. I am steering clear of commercial baby foods just as I did withAusty, mainly because it's cheaper and I know exactly what's in the food I make, but also because so many of them have fruit in everything and I am afraid if we don't ween you off fruit sweeteners you will take after Austy with the eating habits. (Austy has only JUST started eating cereal for breakfast, starting with the milo cereal I wasn't too keen on but bought because he picked it, it was a cereal, and he promised he would eat it, and now moving onto miniwheats that I am MUCH happier with!)

Blocks, stacking cups/boxes and shakers and things that you can have an obvious effect on (especially things that you can crash down when I stack them for you!) are the toys of the moment and you are really taking notice of toys that you can make noises with by yourself. I caught you picking up different rattles and shaking them by your ear just the other day.

You still don't say anything but "Dadadad", much to your Daddy's delight although with all this illness, you have made some cross faces and some unique sounds as if you are trying to tell us something in yur frustration for being tired and sick. Don't worry sweetheart, we're tired too and doing everything we can to get you better. Your sleeping has been attrocious - a real shock as Austy didn't warm us up to bad sleeping patterns and it s a completely new thing to us. We understand though- that ear has been bothering you and you need lots of cuddles when you feel this rotten. The worst night was this past Saturday night when you had us taking turns in the rocking chair as you'd only sleep in our arms.... yawn!

You're still very cute though and when we are shopping and I am carrying you in your homemade sling, you always fall asleep and we get so many comments about how precious you are (we know!). You have started to imitate kissing sounds in addition to your little sniffy trick where you scrunch up your face and breathe quickly in and out through your nose just for a laugh. As you were copying my kissing sounds I thought it was time to teach you how to give kisses. You give me and Austy kisses (normal open mouth baby ones - the kissy lips are reserved for showing off) and even Grandpa scored one the otehr day but poor Daddy has been missing out (well I guess we're even since you still won't say Mum!). You had us in fits of laughter the first few times he asked fro a kiss and you leaned for his face with open mouth, got within about 2cm then flicked your head away and giggled your cute little chuckle. Funny girl. We have a feeling you are going to be a cheeky one like your big brother!

Love Mummy

Now what is Austy up to? He is so glad that school holidays are over as kindermusik, playgroup and storytime/crafting have all resumed to keep hi busy during the weekdays. We have had a lot of rain here lately, so activities like these break up the housebound boredom that sets in when you have a tired Mummy who doesn't want to take the baby out in the rain. He has taken to the new music songs quickly and tonight sat there with his guitar for about an hour singing them as he strumed away. Then he asked me to sing them too and told me off every time I got the words wrong - looks like I have some homework to do to learn them all myself! He's been asking me to teach him to read as he'll often pick up a book and tell a story with it's pictures. That works fine when he's heard teh story a thousand times (he doesn't skimp on detail either!) but I think he knows he's just making it up when the book is one he's never seen before like one he's just plucked from a libray shelf. So I made up some letter cue cards and then some simple word cards for words that are in his everyday life or appeal to him in some way (like "monkey" since his best friend is a stuffed monkey named Montgomery who has to do everything with him lately, including have his own bowl of cereal for breakfast). after just a few days Austy was getting about 90% of the letters correct when shown in random order, and quite often can tell me what sound they make and a few words that start with that letter. He loves it and always reminds me to cuddle and kiss him if e gets it right and I just move onto the next one. When I show him the words, he looks at the first letter and if he remembers the words on the cards that start with that lettter he will take a guess. Otherwise he looks at the other letters on the card, so he seems to be getting that letters make up words, and when we read books he seems to understand that the words are what make up the story, so I think he's more than ready for kindy now. He likes to trac the letters with his fingers and sometimes will attemt to draw a letter by copying, but I am just happy when he tries to copy a shape or scribble that I draw as it is the start to learning to write. Prekindy starts next term, and I think he is looking forward to it.

No pics tonight - too tired, but I may come back and pop some in later.

Halfway through

2009-07-11T20:34:00.005+09:30

As I was holding onto Madelyn tonight after she fell asleep and stopped feeding, I gazed at her perfect little face; her perfectly plump little lips, adorable long eyelashes (just like Austy’s), cute little button nose, and rosy cheeks. She seems so big now, such a little person instead of the tiny helpless baby she once was. I gazed lovingly at her and just as it does every night before I kiss those precious cheeks and tuck her into her cot, a smile took over my face as I wondered how she had grown so quickly before my eyes. Since she is our second baby and planned to be our last, I know how this year will feel like just a moment in her hopefully long and happy life so I try to soak up every second and capture it forever in my heart.

Madelyn is nearly seven months old now, a perfect, happy and placid little girl who loves to laugh and watch the world around her as everything seems to be entertainment to her. Andrew and I can clearly see the contrasts between our two beautiful children, who at times look so similar, as if they were twins born three years apart. Austin, at the same age was a real little joker. He’d try to do anything to get our attention, and when he got it (how could we not look at him when he did funny things like poking out his tongue or chatted nonsensically to himself for hours) he’d giggle and beam with pride at his own cleverness. Madelyn, just fits in perfectly to our little family by adoring everything her big brother does, and just happy to sit and watch and enjoy the smiles we all give her. She doesn’t “chat” as much as Austin did at this age, in fact the only sounds she makes are cute attempts at raspberries, squeals of delight and the usual “dadadadad” baby chatter, that really only just started a few weeks ago. I remember Austy saying all sorts of sounds by now. It’s almost as if Austy was the sort of baby who wanted to make everything happen for him, just the way he wanted it, whereas Maddy is the type to just be amused by what everyone else is doing that she doesn’t need to try and get our attention, we have hers instead! Their personalities compliment each other so well, Austy dotes on her, she adores him, and we know that they will grow up with the best friend they could possibly have in each other. And for that we feel lucky. Our two perfect kids.

I never did get to give you Maddy’s 6 month update, things are always so busy here, and without the laptop working I am spending much less time on the net because I don’t like to be in a separate room when Austy is playing (he doesn’t like it much either – very much a Mummy’s boy, which I am soaking up while I can!). So here are her 6 month stats:

Weight: 8.5kg (90th percentile)
Length: 76cm (90th percentile)
Teeth: Two (bottom middle)
Latest trick: Sitting up unaided
Mobility: Still no rolling, crawling or walking (thank goodness!) but she can squirm around in a 360 on the floor and hold herself up well on her tummy.

Madelyn really loves her solids, however she is taking some time to get used to opening her mouth for the spoon. She tends to try and slurp it off the spoon like a soup rather than open her mouth and take the whole spoon in. So far she has mainly had fruits and vegetables, with her first taste of red meat tonight, which she loved (homemade veal with vegetables and a little apple for sweetness). Her favourite foods are banana, and apple & mango purees. She quite likes the pear and sweet potato combo too.

Today, a third tooth cut, much to our surprise, the top eye tooth on her right. I can see a little hole where it’s matching left tooth is trying to pop out, but she has no sign of those two middle top teeth, so we joked that she is a little vampire. The tooth is well and truly out of the gum, which caught me quite off guard when I spotted it as I was trying to settle her for her morning nap and she was crying. She had a cold over last weekend and was very unsettled by it, waking 2hrly and sometimes 1hrly (lucky bleary eyed me). We suspected the 6 month immunisations had a role to play in that too, as the rotavirus vaccine is meant to hit its peak reaction at 7-10 days post dose. Her cheeks had glowed on the odd occasion but other than that, the teething signs were pretty minimal. She had been a bit grumpy this morning, trying to chew her toys, which is what made me think to look while she was crying in her cot as I patted her tummy. I expected to see a slight redness, not the sharp little tooth that sparkled at me in all its white glory! We are very pleased that she doesn’t get as upset about teeth emerging as Austy used to.

Austy is really blossoming now too. We had been having some difficulty teaching him that no means no, and in dealing with his constant need for my attention when Maddy needs me too. I borrowed a book from the toy library called “1-2-3 Magic” and followed it precisely, and like magic the monster side of our boy has vanished, and we can enjoy Austin for the bright and affectionate little boy he is. He loves to tell stories, and have them told to him, an extension of his love for books, and his way of interpreting the world around him. His favourite thing to say at the moment is “tell me a story about this day Mummy/Daddy” and then we are expected to recite with detail, everything that has happened up to that point of the day, and then continue on with what is going to happen to the little boy called Austin that is the main character of our story. If we miss a detail, we have to go back and slot it in… there’s no skipping bits! And he thinks I’m a bit silly when I try to encourage imagination, as he’s very much a tell it like it is kind of boy, and imagination only gets to come into play when he chooses it to. For example, the other day I was taking the kids to the zoo and he wanted Daddy’s binoculars. I told him that it didn’t matter as we could pretend we had binoculars. I circled my fingers over my eyes and said “See, look at my fantastic red binoculars! What colour are yours?” He looked at me as if I was silly and said “Mine are the same colour like my skin mummy”, duh!

I have been teaching him to write his name and he loves how I tell him a little sentence to help with each one, like A is “up and down and across the middle” and he recites it every time he tries to draw an A or sees an A on a sign. I am encouraging him to draw using the blackboard as he never has been much of a colour in or scribble type of kid. At the 2.5yr check up CYH said his pencil grip was “immature” and had to be corrected by kindy, so I am glad I have found something that he likes to do with drawing. I draw a snail on the blackboard and he will draw over it and decorate the shell, and he loves to draw over the letters and numbers I draw on the board for him. He loves craft at the library after story time, and is now starting to colour in chunks rather than just scribbles all over the page.

Yesterday Austy came down with a virus of some kind and spiked a fever, but he is the best patient, as long as I sit and cuddle him. Just a little tricky today with Maddy wanting cuddles today too with her 4th tooth on the way. It seems the worst of it is over though and he’ll be back to his normal energetic self in no time.

4 & 5 months

2009-06-08T21:39:00.004+09:30

Before Maddy reaches that 6 month messy solids eating milestone, I'd better just fill you in on the monthly milestones we missed with the preparation for and return hom from that big US trip. Madelyn has now been on 7 plane flights, two more than she is months old. So what has been happening in Maddy's little world?

{Pics to add - they are on the other computer}

At four months old Madelyn weighed a hefty 8.3kgs. We didn't get a chance to weigh her properly at the CYH centre as we normally do, so I don't have a height measurement, but believe me when I say she's also quite tall. She started teething symptoms like mad, but for the whole month had no teeth to show - just lots of dribble and a few more upchucks than normal. The patchy dry skin on her forehead that she'd had since she was born dissapeared and now is as smooth an luscious as every other patch of her squishy soft baby skin. She discovered a love for chewy toys she can put in her mouth, and became even more obsessed with her older brother, only he can make her laugh just by saying "Madelyn, laugh!". It's a delight to see her cackling at him as he chats away. She loves library time and has been going with just me on Mondays for a few weeks now, having special Mummy & Maddy time. She also had her first stint in the baby bouncer (similar to the jolly jumper) just before we left for the US.

At 5 months, we're not sure what she weighed (second baby syndrome coupled with jetlag....) as we didn't get a chance to weigh and measure her. No real concern though as she certainly isn't underweight and is absolutely thriving on Mummy milk. Her newest trick is to pull her socks off with her teeth, and she can roll onto her side but not all the way over to her tummy yet. Most of the month was spent being carried around in the baby carrier, spending alot of time sleeping, so not much really to report on new developments, but she has discovered leaves and is fascinated by them. And still fascinated by her big brother, evben though he gets a bit too close and smothery at times. She's such an easy going little girl, quite happy to go with the flow, loves to squeal and giggle, and only started crying more this month due to not being able to be fed whenever she wanted it (the US isn't as breastfeeding friendly as Australia and it wasn't easy to find somewhere discreet to feed), and perhaps teething added to her unsettledness. But still an absolute delight. Oh and she's started to grow some hair, although noone believes us, and it's so blonde it's hard to see in photographs. Trust us - the bald patch is gone and a heathy littl blonde swirl has sprouted on the back of her darling little head.

That's all for now, as it's not too long before the 6 month update.

Holiday highlights

2009-05-29T00:00:00.006+09:30

Okay, so we've been back a little while now and it has taken me this long to let you all know how our big trip went. I do have a littel excuse - a couple of them actually. A little girl cutting teeth and a little boy settling back into normal family life. Both of them had much worse jetlag on the way back than they did on the way there, with many early mornings and trying to convince them both it was still night because it was dark outside.

Here are just a few snaps of our whirlwind US holiday:

Our first stop was Hollywood, where we stayed a walk away from the main drag, and decided to just explore the first day. We did the walk of fame twice - in daylight on our way to Scoobies Hot Dogs for lunch, where the dogs were delish and again after a busy day sightseeing on a moviestars homes bus tour. We went to one of the oldest Hollywood restaurants for a good bite to eat, before dragging our very tired children back to the hotel for a good sleep. Madelyn had woken us every hour that first night, so we were all pretty exhausted by the end of a full day in Hollywood.

Next on the agenda was a long but fun day at Disneyland where Austy's first ride had to be the Dumbo ride just because there was a water fountain underneath. We wished we'd hired a car as we didn't realise how long the bus trip would be - "Disneyland Express" stopped about thirty times, so not very express at all and we didn't get there until 1pm, which chewed up some good ride time. But then again there was so much to see, and as it was Austy fell asleep in Andrew's arms as they lined up for the Toy Story ride, so who knows if he could have handled more anyway.

But he'll tell you his favourite ride was the Buz Lightyear ride where he even got to meet Buzz as we came out.

We stayed until the parks both closed, seeing the Pixar parade in one, then getting our last glimpses of disneyland via the disneyland train while the tradtional parade was on. Austy really wanted to do the train and had no idea who Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse really were anyhow so he was happy just to see Mickey as we exited the train and the parade ended. We didn't get back to the hotel until quite late, and poor Austy had been dragged from stroller to bus, to train, to stroller, to bed in a very sleepy state!

Then it was off to Michigan where I had my graduation and became a Master of Engineering in Global Automotive Manufacturing Engineering (a mouthful I know!) We enjoyed a pre-graduation reception with the Deans and Heads of Schools in the robing room, where Austy nibbled chocolate chip cookies and attacked the fruit platter that noone else seemed to be interested in. They also took some family photos of us, and some shots of me with one of my professors, Jack Hu and the Dean of Engineering, so I will post those when they arrive. For now these dodgy shots will have to do - poor Andrew had his hands full with a 3yr old who wasn't keen on sitting still and a baby who needed to sleep. The ceremony for the Engineering school was held in the Chrysler Arena. Afterwards we went out into the Michigan stadium and had a looksie while Austy safely ran and ran - it's huuuuuge! We'd skipped the earlier graduation ceremony as it was just going to make it too long a day and there was no way Maddy would take a bottle (we tried, but she spat out my hard pumped milk thinking we were trying to trick her or something!). The stadium was left open for clean up after the event which is why there is rubbish strewn everywhere, but we had to get a pic or two. Excuse my messy hair and the bunched up hat - the hat would NOT stay on despite it being a "surefit" (yeah right, they weren't expecting a pin head like mine to graduate I guess) and it was super windy.

We had a fantastic dinner with Dianne (GM TEP manager) and her husband Fred the night before graduation which was a highlight for Austy, as he grabbed her son's guitar (he apparently brings them home when a string breaks and goes and gets another so she had a few lying around) and made up his first song. He called it "In my mind" and entertained us with his musical talents at 3.5! Diane had suggested we go to the hands on museum in Ann Arbor, which we did the day after graduation. Another highlight for our boy. He wanted to go back there every day for the rest of the trip!

On our last night in Ann Arbor we met up with one of the guys that I met at the TeamCenter training when I took the trip over last year and had dinner with him and his wife and their adorable blue eyed baby girl Sophie.

Next up was a busy and drizzly couple of days in New York (we actually stayed in New Jersey as it was cheaper and only a short bus ride away). By this stage the hotel hopping and late nights were starting to take their toll on Austin and at times we thought we were absolutely CRAZY taking a 3yr old on a trip like this, while Madelyn was easily pleased keeping snuggled up to me in the baby carrier form dawn until dusk. We took Austy to the ToysRus store in New York for a ride on the ferris wheel, and also did the Empire State Building, going up all those floors in a superfast lift that you could hardly feel moving. I don't think Austy fully appreciated how high up we were as the little daredevil kept climbing the wall to look over, raising the eyebrows of the people that look after security up there. Andrew and I listened to most of the recording set that we hired to learn about each of the points around the lookout balcony before Austy got bored and it was time to come down.

One night we stayed out just a little too late, and realised just how difficult it is to stay together with a stroller to push along after 6pm on Broadway. We couldn't believe how busy the footpaths got and it was like a human-car gridlock at just about every street crossing.

After all that we were more than ready to slow the pace down a bit with a trip over to Chicopee by car, where Marty & Leslie were kind enough to let us displace them from their condo so we could have a bit more space than the hotels had offered. We were so grateful of having two separate bedrooms and a living area (the hotel rooms had all been a single shared room with two beds in them), as we were able to put both kids to bed in their separate rooms and shut the doors so we could sit up and have some time together ourselves rather than laying in the dark and silence waiting forever for Austy to nod off. Madelyn loved the floor space too, where she could be laid on her rug and have some kicking time after all that time being carried. She learned her new trick while we were there, which was to pull her toes up to her mouth and bite her socks off. Luckily it was warm enough for no socks most of the time we were there so we just let her lick her toes to her heart's content.

We met Andrew's cousin John and his family, and Austy had a ball with Spencer and Allie, even having a good long turn on their 4-wheeler. We watched Allie's softball game... well Andrew did, I played with Austin and Spencer in the plaground there as well as a few other kids that Austy was calling his best friends by the end of the game. We also explored the Dr Suess gardens in Springfield - how cute was Austy playing amongst the statues?!

And went on the Merry-go-round in Holyoke a few times.

Then it was back to LA to stop over for a couple of nights before the long haul flight home. This time we stayed in Long Beach, a really nice area, we wished we'd stayed there longer. At that stage Andrew was quite comfortable with driving on the wrong side of the road and worked out how to read which exit to take from highway to highway without going around in circles, so we drove out to Santa Monica and Malibu for a bit of a looksie.

All in all we had a great time, and enjoyed having some family time together. It was great to meet everyone in Chicopee, John, Kym, Allie, Spencer, Marty, Krystal, and the adorable Lily (Austy's age) and hope to maybe see some of you again over here one day.

*NOTE* More photos to come... sorry, it just takes too long, and blogger adds in a gazillion lines between every paragraph everytime I load a pic.

Just a pic to tide you over...

2009-05-26T12:47:00.002+09:30

I have yet to tell you about our trip to the US for my graduation, but while we get settled back in, here's a pic taken today of our 5 month old princess. She's just growing up sooooo fast!

No longer classed as a "Newborn"

2009-03-22T10:21:00.003+10:30

Well all too quickly, Madelyn reached that 12w milestone and progressed from newborn to infant and could almost pass as a 6m old going by the size of her. Until she tries to put a toy in her mouth and drops it, or misses, or until she is plonked down on her bottom and rapidly slides to the horizontal position that is. People are constantly gasping in disbelief when I tell them that she had only been in the world for 3 months last Thursday.

Madelyn continues to be the model baby, adored and loved by all who see her, with her happy and easy going nature, she is just perfect. She really "sings" now and loves to chat and gives us a real cackle when we chat back. She especially loves to be told she is cute (she gets a huge giggle out of that!) and makes everyone laugh with her. She still loves her milk (as can be seen by the ten rolls of fat on her legs - don't worry darling, while you're this young it's cute to be chubby and if yo're anything like your big brother those leg rolls will disappear by your 3rd birthday). She has been a tiny bit unsettled this past few days, possibly from a sore throat that Austy gave to me and maybe we gave her, or perhaps even teeth on the way (Austy got his first two at 4 months and she has been saturating her clothes with dribble and chewing on those fingers alot this week, so who knows). But her unsettledness isn't bad at all, and for any other baby you'd just think it's normal baby behaviour, as hardly any baby I have ever met cries as little as she does. She got all her tears out in those first few weeks by the looks of things.

Developmentally, the grasping is getting so much better now, and she loves her playmat or the rocker where she can grab onto dangly toys, or better still when I pick her up and there is all that hair to pull out - her favourite! She is still far from rolling (but I am happy with that, Austy took 7 months to roll and I kind of prefer it when you know that the baby will be where you left it when you have to duck out of the room to help a three year old go to the toilet!), but she is really strong in her back and neck. She can push up well on her tummy, and tries to sit up sometimes when laid on her back in a semi reclined position (like on our bed, propped against pillows). I have been too slack to take her down to CYH for her monthly weigh and measure yet, but I assure you she isn't fading away, but starting to really fill out those 00's and it won't be long before a wardrobe switch is required again. I'm still squeezing her into the size small nappies I made her, but really should get to the sewing machine and make her some roomier mediums so those chubby legs of hers have room to move.

Austy still loves her to bits, but has been heard telling me to put her down, or telling her to shhh sometimes when he's watching TV. He is really getting into his singing, and at music last week we had to bring a "statue" that he had made. Of course we had to make a monster (he has a serious addiction to the Disney movie Monsters Inc.), which in the end I had to finish with the paper mache part since he thought the flour water glue I had made was delicious. However he throughly enjoyed the painting part and got right into sticking on the spikes and glitter! He's not much of an outdoorsy type as yet, we try to encourage him to get out and play in the sand pit or kick a ball around, or even ride his bike, but he still prefers "Cutting and sticking", listening to music in his room (often bundled up under the quilt I made him, singing along), playing on the computer or acting out scenes with his little people. This last activity is one of my favourites, it's an insight into how he sees the world, and wonderful hearing all the different voices he puts on as he acts out things we have done or things he has seen.

He watched some swimming on TV last week too, and told us that he wanted those people to teach him, so they could show him how to swim fast and he could get a medal. His poor swimming teacher was devastated when we told her, but watching the swimming did give him the courage to jump into the pool without holding her finger (albeit with a tiny push from me *blush*).

Photography

2009-03-09T23:37:00.003+10:30

I know I should have put them here, but as photography is a secret hobby of mine (I really need to get myself a DSLR one day but until then I am just a secret hobbyist!!) I put the photos I took of the kids today on my hobbies blog. I couldn't decide where best to put them, here or there... You can see them here. Be warned, there are a few!

I really should do an update here too but am having too much fun with photoshop (thanks Dad) and the photos I took today (thanks to Astrid giving me a bit more confidence after she had me photograph her wedding on Saturday).

Just a quick few lines on Maddy - she is now over her delayed grizzle reaction from the needles and back to her super happy, giggly and contented self. We are all in awe of how she can just go with the flow, hardly cries and is super snuggly. She was dragged around on a hen's day bus tour of some wineries in Maclaren Vale one weekend, then dragged along while I shot the wedding the next. Poor girl got dumped in the corner while I snapped away playing paparazzi, and since she doesn't really demand her feeds (just shows me in other ways that she's hungry) I managed to spread them out a little more while I took photos and to fit them in around the wedding ceremony. The little girl was an angel! She fits in so beautifully, and we are constantly wondering how on earth we got so lucky! She's even a better sleeper at night than Austy was, which we thought would be hard to beat as he was pretty good, but she delights us with a full night of sleep every night from about 9:30pm until 8am. Darling girl!

Two months young

2009-02-25T21:19:00.003+10:30

That's right, our little girl is two months old... already! And of course, she's growing like a little weed. Her two month statistics have her at 61cm and 6.72kg. Our little hephalump girl. But she is healthy, and happy. So very happy. She has been delighting us with the most gorgeous smiles, little giggles and quite a converstaion. She's just the most beautiful little girl, such a pleasure to have in our lives and you can tell we are just enjoying every moment, and wishing that time would just slow down a smidge so we can take it all in.

I don't remember the last time she had colic now, it is just a distant memory, and as long as I give her the two hour feed she wants at night (yes, TWO HOURS!), the gorgeous Madelyn gives me a wonderful sleep, every night. She is even starting to stretch that out past the 7am mark and waking with her brother at 8am or 8:30am some days. So nice to feel normal again. It just makes it a little hard to have kid free time since I spend the evenings feeding after putting Austin to bed.

She has discovered that her swing is actually a good thing - thank goodness as Andrew was worried we had wasted our money when she would only last five minutes before screaming her little lungs out to be picked up again. I think since she has been able to focus on things alot better she really enjoys watching the butterflies spin around which eventually lulls her off into sleepy land. She like Austy's rocker too - the one he never liked until he was at leats 6 months old, and that was only because I'd sit him outside in it. That was actually why we bought a swing, because the rocker was useless as a settling technique. She likes to play in it though, and loves to bat at the brightly coloured toys we hang on the toy bar.

Austy has been delightful too. Of course we still get normal 3yr old mischievious behaviour at times, but lately he has been so good, and also great to chat with. Today I sat down at a local shopping centre with him for a coffee and a babychino, and he told me out of the blue: "When I get bigger I am going to be a dontist and fix people's teeth". I looked at him puzzled and asked "You mean a dentist?" He said "No, a dontist - they are really good dentists" "Oh, you mean an orthodontist!" he giggled, and agreed. "When I'm bigger, and I'm going to work in THAT orthadontist shop and make him go somewhere else" he said, pointing to the balcony of the Orthodontist upstairs.

We recently rewarded his wonderful behaviour and good listening ears with a family trip to the beach, where he went on the bumper boats, the carousel, water slides and swam in the ocean, while I carried a sleeping Madelyn in the sling I made when Austy was a baby. She wasn't so impressed with the wind, so snuggled in and dozed off. So cute, I wish I'd made Andrew take a photo...

He had a great time with his Dad with me watching on, and I decided that my sling worked much better than the bought ones I used with Austy and vowed to make a new one, this time in pretty girly colours. I'm not sure if it's just because she is younger than he was when I started wearing him in a sling, or if it's just that my preferences have changed, but I love the stability the mei tai type carriers offer when I am bending down to kiss a little bump on Austy's head or crouching down to hear what he is saying.

He loves role playing at the moment, and the little people he happily threw out of their trucks and cars when he was younger are now his favourite toys. He wanders around the house talking to them and making them talk to each other, acting out everyday things like going to the shops to buy a cheesy roll. It's amusing to watch, but also quite enjoyable because he will do this for hours, keeping himself occupied and content, leaving us free to do other things (which for me is either feeding Madelyn or sorting the never ending washing piles). And today he delighted us by making them all jump back into their box at the end of the game. Bliss!

Unbelievable - just three takes!

2009-02-03T23:14:00.008+10:30

Austy hardly ever sits still, and many of the photographs we take of him have him blurry as he runs out of the shot, or else his eyes are shut or wide as that's how he puts on his phot smile - a blink, then open wide eyes and a little cheesy grin. It's hilarious to watch... but frustrating!

So when I had to take photographs for the children's passports (getting ready for our trip to America at the end of April for my Masters graduation) I was surprised today that I only had to click the shutter three times. It's amazing what you can do with a few carefully thought out sentences. I told him that he wouldn't be allowed into America without this photo because they needed to know what he looks like in case we lose him in disneyland and we need to find him again. If he didn't stand still for the photo, I'd have to leave him with a babysitter while we took Maddy to America without him.

Okay, so it's a bit mean, but hey, how else are you supposed to get kids to pose for a passport photo with all their rules and regulations (certain size, mouth closed, looking straight at camera, etc.). It's hard enough just getting a photo of a 3 yr old at all sometimes.

Now Madelyn... I think I'll have to try again tomorrow. She has to look straight at the camera too and have the plain white/cream background and nothing obscuring her face. It would be alright if she looked straight up at the camera when I laid her on a white sheet on the floor, but there's always something more interesting to look at on the side. Or she closes her eyes and goes to sleep. Or puts her fist in her mouth. Or she opens her mouth and cries. Unfortunately 6w olds don't take instructions well.

An update on the kindermusik - today was Austin's first proper class and again he had a great time, although there was more "acting out" and imagining things thamn musical activities today, but all of the activities had music background and singing involved. Austy was his normal confident self and got straight into it, despite me sitting at the back of the room today, and not joining in. I really had to restrain myself from jumping in there and helping him with things, so this is probably going to be great thing to teach me to pull back a bit more and just let him go and learn for himself. The other mums were suprised at how confident he was, especially for a firts timer, as their children had been going for several terms and still didn't participate in all the activities or sing along. As we left, I overheard the teacher telling her husband who had joined her for their lunch break: "That boy has only just started, and you should have seen him - he was singing ALL the songs!" And they aren't songs I have taught him either - all brand new to us both. We have ordered the home materials to do it at home together too so no doubt he'll know all the words in just a few weeks.

Surviving the heatwave

2009-02-01T22:46:00.006+10:30

The past two weeks have been super warm with every day above 35, and the past 6 above 40 degrees celicuis. Not nice, especially with a newborn, even worse when they cut the power two days in a row to conserve energy... Maddy had a cool off in the hand basin, then I found Austy there minutes later.

And poor Austy is feeling a little penned in too we think as he has been getting a bit naughty on the days we stay at home to avoid the heat. It looks like it won't cool down until around Sunday - a whole week away, but I have found when we do manage to get out, Austin gets a bit of a break from the same four walls and he is happy to sit quietly and play with his toys or watch a DVD when we get home. Here he is at the Museum of South Australia, his first ever museum visit and at a great time, as they had a dinosaur babies exhibit on and some school holiday activities. Despite the lady at information telling me I wouldn't want to go out to the activities with a new baby, and Austin was too young for them anyway, we ventured out for a look. I'm glad we did as he had a ball with the older kids, "breaking a dinosaur egg" to find a dinosaur baby (which I had to help him finish or we'd still be there), and then taking a little brush to uncover some bones in the sandpit.

There were other activities there that he would have enjoyed but it was quite warm in the outdoor tent and Madelyn was starting to stir so I stopped him there and we went inside to the exhibit. I think he probably would have been happy with just the activities (and it also would have been cheaper since I had to pay for me to take him in!) but I thought I'd show him the dinosaurs anyway. I don't think he's quite old enough to understand the whole concept of dinosaurs and their being extinct but he did enjoy uncovering the different types of dinosaur eggs in their "nests". Madelyn was an angel and slept through most of it so I really got to spend some quality time with our boy and it really made his day. We walked back to the car and she decided to wake for a feed, so we sat in the park and he played with the dinosaur puzzle I bought him as a souvenier for being so good, while I did my motherly duties for Madelyn.

The Tour Down Under was also on in Adelaide, and Austin went with Andrew to see the start of the first day, and then to the park with all of us for the start of the last day. Unfortunately I forgot the camera for our day at the park, but it was hilarious watching Austy's face as he sat on Andrew's shoulders watching the bikes go past. Preceeding the cyclist were police motorbikes with lights flashing and sirens wailing, which I think was the highlight for the boy. The cycles were over pretty quickly in a blur of bright colours but the council had put on a free community event with activities specifically for the little ones, including story telling, pony rides, jumping castle, face painting and a craft station. We invited Austy's friend James (and his mum Emma, and sister Eleanor) to join us and the two boys had some great fun together while Emma and I got to chat. Maybe Emma will send me her pics so I can blog them later. The boys were the lucky last to get their face painted before they packed it up, and both were easy to guess what they would choose to be. James was a pink butterfly of course, and Austin (who we managed to convince to be a tiger at James' birthday party instead of the pink cat he always asked to be at childcare) saw someone with sparkles and asked to be a sparkly cat. You can sort of see him here in a blur (he hardly ever sits still!) while I captured Maddy's smile on camera. He'd had a sausage sizzle after the face painting though so all the paint around his mouth was most likely swallowed! The pic in front of his favourite DVD "Monsters Inc." is a bit easier to see.

This week saw the start of the school term so I started some weekly activities which should help keep Austin amused and keep me busy so I don't keep getting to the end of the week and wondering what on earth we did and where that week went. Keeping busy seems to help me get moving in the mornings, and actually achieve something. So Fridays are now playgroup days, where Austin will become familiar with the kindy he will be attending at the end of the year and I can meet other young families. The playgroup teacher is fantastic and really enthusiastic with the children, and Austin enjoyed having lunch at the kindy tables, and songs on the rug before home-time. They had so many fun workstations set up too and Austin loved exploring them all, including building toys, waterplay, glueing and playdough.

Saturdays are still swimming day, and Austy's favourite teacher Tabitha was back last week (this is the teacher he wanted to name our baby after whether it was a boy or a girl!) so he was very excited and had his listening ears on all lesson, earning a certificate for "Free swim with floats". This week he scored another one, "15m swim with floats". It won't be long before he'll be swimming unaided either, we have let down the second chamber in each of his floaties for swimming at home and with the daily swims, he'll be a fish in no time!

And Tuesdays are probably going to be Austy's most favourite day of all. We start his first class of kindermusik on Tuesday after our introductory class before swimming yesterday. We were in their "Our time" class this week as an introduction because that class (which is for 18m - 3y) involves the parents as well and a softer approach to getting him to start since I had to do the activities with him. He couldn't stop smiling the whole time, and has been looking forward to these classes ever since I told him we would start this year while I was on maternity leave. It was his choice - music lessons (kindermusik) or "acrobatics" classes (kindergym) and he didn't have to think for very long to decide he wanted to go to music. He has always loved music in every form or style so I think he will be in his element with the kindermusik. He didn't want to leave on Saturday, and had fun chasing the littlies around at the end of the class, hugging and playing with them. His class (Imagine That) is for 3-5y so he will be the youngest there rather than the oldest but it will also involve some drama type activities which I am sure he will enjoy. I will only need to be involved at the end of the class which is probably just enough involvement for Austy, and also leaves me to look after Maddy for most of the class and get her settled in time for me to sit down with Austy at the end.

Now, what has Madelyn been up to? Other than growing and growing and growing (her 6w weigh and measure showed her at 59.5cm and 5.98kg), she has become alot more alert and settled. We are happy to announce that night times aren't so scary for me anymore (although Andrew goes back to work next week so it might be a different story then!). A few times Madelyn has actually self-settled in her cot once fed, wrapped and content. Other times I still need to hold and rock her, but not until midnight anymore, and she is feeding better and not getting so much wind pain in the evenings. Add to that the enjoyment of 7hrs of unbroken sleep for most of last week (except last night but I think that was due to the heat and our light dressing and just a sheet on her which meant she woke once because she was thirsty and twice because the room got cool and she didn't have a blanket on). She is becoming much more enjoyable (not that we haven't adored her from the start) and I am coping a bit better now too as a result.

She faired the heat better than expected, and has also started to laugh and chatter to us. It's so cute, and we love how interactive she has become. She is fascinated by the world around her, lifting her head up all the time to have a good look. She has started to really "cuddle" when she's held, wrapping her arms tight around our shoulders as we pat her back. The only dissappointing thing to report this week is that those blasted mozzies have attacked her! She has a couple of bites on her cheek, a few on her head and about six on the arm that escaped her wrap the other night. We have hardly seen a mozzie in the house but they have been in her room when we've seen them and only one or two. Luckily they don't seem to bother her much, and she hasn't broken out in huge welts like Austin used to. I feel bad for her anyway as I'm her mum and am meant to protect her from these things...

Next week we have some 6 week appointments so more on Maddy's development then.

1 month already

2009-01-20T12:40:00.004+10:30

Little Maddy isn't so little... she's already off the charts for length and weight and almost out of her 0-3m clothes. Not surprising really since her favourite pastime is feeding! She's rewarded my efforts with a few little smiles this past week although there's still a lot of crying happening as well.

Here are her stats for the month.

Weight: 5.64kgs (whoa!) up from 4.1kgs

Length: 58cm up from 51cm

Head circumference: 36cm up from 34cm

I'm obviously not starving her!! And as you can se she gets plenty of love!

Lizzie and Austy cuddle Maddy

2009-01-09T15:49:00.001+10:30

... although she wasn't quite as pleased as they were!

Almost human...

2009-01-08T06:47:00.003+10:30

I can't believe it - our little girl gave me a decent sleep last night, going down at 10:00pm (eventually, after several hours of crying and feeding) and not demanding another feed until 6:00am. Good thing Andrew convinced me that everything else can wait and we went to bed at 10:40pm. I'm amazed - she's not quite 3w old, too!

She's a bit of a chubby chops, and obviously loves her milk. I'm a bit of a jersey cow too so when I make milk, I make it in bucket loads. As a result she is stacking on the weight and at an outpatient clinic check on Tuesday (we went to ask why she is soooooo unsettled every night and see if they could help) we were told she'd almost gained a kilo since birth, weighing in at 4.8kgs (up from 4.1), which averaged out to a 57g/day gain since she left the hospital. They expect 20g/day and she's almost tripled it! So I daresay she will continue to top the charts like her brother did.

Unfortunately we've been hearing a lot of this... every evening for hours on end...

...which was the reason for her check-up. But apparently it's quite normal, we were just spoilt that Austy wasn't like this.

Talking of Austy, he continues to adore her and ask for cuddles one hundred times a day.

Luckily Madelyn sleeps well in the mornings, which gives Austin some Mummy time. Here he is on Tuesday having a marvelous time painting in one of his Daddy's yard tees. A smock is on order as soon as we can start getting Maddy to bed at a decent hour on a regular basis so I can find the sewing machine again. He asked me to make him one on Christmas day when he opened the easel from us. We managed to convince him that using the chalk and duster that Santa gave him would be just as much fun until I came up with the idea of adjusting Andrew's tee-shirt with a few pegs!!

And more news on the Austy front, the poor boy had his first sting yesterday... For some unknown reason our car battery went flat and while standing on the front porch chattting away to the roadside assistance man, he grabbed at his ear, pulled something off and threw it on the ground. About 30 seconds later he started to grizzle, which quickly worked up into a pained scream. I took him inside and put ice on his ear lobe which was already bright red and blowing up like a balloon, while Andrew and the roadside assist man were on the hunt for the culprit. I managed to get out of Austy that it was black, and big and had wings, but mostly he was upset about why it bit him, and for that my only answer was because it was being naughty. All this happened while Maddy was having an unsettled period so between the two of them it was quite loud in our house with me flitting between the two of them and cuddling both simultaneously while trying to hold ice to Austy's ear which looked quite painful with two stinger holes.

Andrew quickly found the source of the problem - a wasp nest under the window ledge to Maddy's room. Right where Austin was standing at the edge of the porch and just centimetres from Austin's head height. We don't know if he had touched the nest, or just had bad luck being the height he is, which might have threatened the wasps. Andrew removedd and sprayed the nest and went to the chemist for more panadol and cream. Austy was afraid to go outside again so when Andrew was sure the wasps were all gone he got Austy to come and tread on the nest and he squirted it away with the hose so now he knows they can't get him any more.

I got my belliance back!

2009-01-05T09:57:00.003+10:30

Those were the words Austy used this morning while talking about swimming with Daddy yesterday afternoon. We are sure he means "confidence" but hey, I think his word for it is cute, just like when he couldn't remember the word for radio at about 20months and asked to "turn Daddy's moment on". What's more, he told me that his "belliance is here to stay and it's not going to go away again!"

So what was he on about? Well ever since he went to the toddler class at swimming and not the baby classes where I was allowed in the water with him, he has clung to the instructor, terrified to swim by himself. He had been swimming without holding on from about 12-18m but then his "bellience" dissapeared somewhere when I was no longer in the pool too.

But look at this....

His belliance is certainly back...

He swam to the edge all by himself!

Miss Madelyn is here!

2009-01-05T09:08:00.004+10:30

Our darling daughter was just as stubborn as our mischievious son when it came to evacuating the womb! She was due on the 14th December but when I had my last check up at the obstetrician's office a few days later, we discovered she was nowhere near ready to pack her bags and get out of there. The ob feared she was going to be bigger than her brother who we had some dramas in getting out so the evacuation orders were in place for Friday the 19th.

I went in on the Thursday night to have gel tape applied and get things happening. Andrew went home at 11pm to get some sleep and I tried to sleep as well. Of course, I couldn't. Knowing my baby would be there the next day, and wondering if anything was going to happen overnight, worrying whether the labour would be as long, hard and as scary as last time were all factors that got in the way of the much needed zzz's. Then just as I did drift off, someone would press a buzzer or a baby would cry and I'd be awake again. I tried to tire my eyes a bit by handstitching the binding down on the baby quilt I'd brought in for that very purpose, but even that didn't work. I think I got maybe 2hrs of broken sleep all night, giving up when I woke at 5:30am and the midwife came in to do my obs.

My obstetrician came in and broke my waters at 8:15am and Andrew returned at about 8:45am and we wandered the grounds of the hospital for a bit, enjoying the beautiful day and waiting for contractions to start. They did, and got nice and regular quite quickly and a "show" an hour later gave me hope that my body knew what it was doing this time (none of that happened last time until massive doses of syntocin were given!). I wanted to avoid the syntocin at all costs as I knew that meant ultra pain and contractions on top of each other for several hours (going from past experience). So I was quite pleased that the contractions were good enough for the obstetrician to leave me alone for a while. She then got caught up delivering another baby so I was silently cheering as while she was busy, she couldn't hook me up to a syntocin drip!

Unfortunately she did eventually get to me though at around 2:30pm, and decided my contractions weren't close enough together to do much in the way of getting that baby out. So the syntocin came. And so did my tears... until I got a grip and decided just because I needed the syntocin again it didn't have to turn out the same way, and who cared if I needed drugs, all I wanted was for this baby to be healthy enough to room in with me. The ob started the drip on the lowest dose just like last time and left me to see if contractions would get closer. About an hour after she left, I started being sick, feeling like I could cope no longer and got teary again ordering an epidural (I figured nothing else worked with Austy so why bother!). The midwife I had was wonderful and positive throughout the whole labour, perhaps realising how scared I was the second time around, knowing what I was in for, and having had a bit of a hard time of it last time. She told me it was likely to be "transition" and got the baby stuff ready to encourage me. I told her it wasn't transition as it got to that point last time and nothing had happened - it was just the synto doing it - and I still had hours to go. She wasn't convinced, so told me to wait for the obstetrician before we made the epidural call!

My ob arrived and checked to find I had dilated 5cm in just an hour and it wouldn't be long before I was ready to push. She suggested I use the gas and since the anesthetist was nowhere in sight I gave it a shot. I couldn't believe what it did to me - the midwife told me it was on a low dosage just like I had asked for with Austin, but a few deep breaths and I almost passed out, scaring the life out of Andrew, and I couldn't move or talk for a few minutes, easing his anguish by responding to his frantic "Joy! Joy! Are you okay?!" calls with a very slow and slurred "I'm gooo-ooone..." That was it for the gas - the ob told them to take it off me as I was too relaxed!

She went off for her hairdresser appointment with her three kids in tow, and then as soon as she got out of the car, her phone rang to tell her to come back to the hospital as I was ready to push. She didn't muck around as she knew the pushing stage was super fast with Austin. She just had to get her husband there to take over with the kids and then she could come back to deliver my baby. Luckily, having not had an epi, I was much more exhausted than I was at that stage with Austy, so the pushing took a little longer giving her time to get there.

Our beautiful little princess, Madelyn Anneliese arrived at 5:05pm, weighing exactly the same as Austy (9lb,1oz) and measuring 51cm (1cm shorter than Austy) and having a head circumference of 34cm (1.5cm less than Austy). She seemed a bit smaller than him so I don't know where she put that weight. Instead of back fat like he had, hers was deposited on her rolly little thighs. So cute! She had also had the cord around her neck, although not twice around like Austin's so she didn't have to have it cut before she was out like he did.

As they took her to the table to be rubbed and wrapped, we both just stared in silence with our jaws dropped waiting for the cry that never came with our son until he had been whisked off to the SCN and out of my sight. And then suddenly she became nice and pink, and there it was. "Waaaaahhhhh aaaaaahhhh aaaaaaahhh!!" I can't tell you how wonderful it was to hear that sound! They handed her to me and I asked if she was going to be okay to stay with me. They told me she was, and I beamed at Andrew, realising that not only did I get my healthy little baby, but I managed the birth relatively drug free (except for the syntocin and those few puffs of gas), just as I had hoped for with Austy.

My recovery was quite quick too, I felt more like I had done a few push ups (thanks to holding onto the bed too tightly while I pushed) rather than had a baby. It was a huge difference to last time. She fed straight away (and for most of the first night until the midwives dragged her out of my grasp at 12:30am so I could have a couple of hours sleep until I rang the buzzer at 3am and demanded her back!). She loves her milk as much as her big brother does, and is certainly thriving on it!

Madelyn's personality is a lot different to Austy's at the same age (except for the milk guzzling and needing milk NOW!!!). She sleeps a lot during the day, but still wants to feed all night. With him, he was brilliant at night but awake most of the day staring at everything going on around him, taking everything in. She couldn't care less - give her a full tummy and a nice snuggly wrap and she'd much rather be in dreamland! She does get a fair bit of wind pain at the moment which upsets her a bit, but it's probably from the way she guzzles at the breast like she's never been fed and will do it again just 2hrs later.

Austy is thrilled to bits (as are we) and tells us often that he is glad she came out of Mummy's tummy, always asking for cuddles. He just adores her, which is wonderful to see. While the tantrums have stepped up a notch and the "listening ears" seem to spend more time switched off these days, he is always very gentle with her. We feel so very lucky to have two beautiful children, and one of each at that!

Oh and just look at how similar they look - it's unbelievable. Both photos were taken on their first car trip, on te way home from hospital. Austy is on the left, Maddy on the right.

Austy is THREE!!

2008-12-14T12:23:00.005+10:30

How fast does time fly when you have kids?! It still seems like only yesterday that I held my boy for the very first time and am now about to do it all again, so I thought I had better get around to updating his blog before he shares it with his new baby brother or sister.

In the lead up to his own birthday Austy had a couple of other 3rd birthday parties to attend, one for his best friend James:

and on the same day we headed to anbother party in the afternoon, this time for Lizzie:

He had a great time at both parties and although exhausted and on the verge of a tummy bug that showed itself all over our rug that night (yeuckkk!), he was very much looking forward to being a big three year old himself.

He had already toilet trained himself about a month before he turned 3, as Andrew and I had a couple of weeks off work with teh October shutdown, and he decided on the first day of holidays that he didn't want to wear nappies anymore. We were silently cheering as we'd pretty much had him toilet trained during the day not long after his second birthday but with the news of a new baby on the way he went backwards and decided to wear nappies and be a baby, perhaps realising that the limelight wouldn't be all his in a few months time. But as the due date drew nearer, Austy has embraced the "Big Brother" gig and just can't wait.

So for his third birthday, we decided to throw him a real kids party rather than the standard family gathering, hiring a jumping castle and making kiddie cupcakes with butterflies and caterpillars on them (he chose them) and playing a couple of party games. The jumping castle was a big hit with everyone, and it was gorgeous to see his litle face light up and break into a ginormous smile as the man set it up out the back. Unfortunately though, since we'd decided to save our gifts for his actual birthday, the tears came when the man came back to take it down - Austy thought we had given him the jumping castle for his birthday!! He told the man he couldn't take it because it was his and kept yelling out "Stop, I don't like it - it's MINE!!" So we had a little chat and I asked Austy if the letters on the front of the castle were Austin's name. He looked at it and sadly said to me, "No, that doesn't say Austin". I told him it was the man's name because it was his castle and we were very lucky that the man let us borrow it for the party. So Austy politely went up and said "Thankyou man, for letting me borrow your castle, I had lots of fun!" then walked inside to play with his new toys. He is such a beautiful natured little boy (when he's not throwing tantrums!) and I am so proud of the child he has grown into.

For his birthday from us, his main present was a bike. His first ever bike as we had no room to ride anything at the old house. He was so excited when he firts got it, but since then the novelty has well worn off... he won't give it a chance to learn how to ride and wants to be pushed everywhere which is a little hard at the moment with my bump in the way.

So what can Austy do now he's 3?

* Counts to 20

* Goes to the toilet all by himself (although sometimes he puts his jocks on with two legs in one hole...)

* Dresses himself
* Builds great castles with his duplo

* Amuses himself for hours with his playdough

* Plays some educational computer games by himself

* Chats constantly to everyone he sees

* Remembers his manners

* Says "Gday" to guys, and "Hello" to girls (no idea why?)

* Really good at reasoning and will develop his own theories based on little things he's heard

Happy birthday gorgeous boy - we hope that the next year brings you lots of fun and new experiences, and we just know that you will make the best big brother ever!

Splish splash

2008-10-10T20:57:00.004+10:30

Today we had some lovely spring weather, so Austy delighted in "dangling" in the pool. We asked if he wanted to dangle his legs, and a split second later all the clothes were off!

Here are a couple of pics from this week's dog sitting stint - we "borrowed" Jane and Norm's beuatiful girl for a few days while they all went on a road trip. Honestly we'd take her at every chance we got, she's got such a lovely personality, and as you can see there's a little boy here that loves her to bits. When she went home, he came home and started calling her, upset that she had left before he could say goodbye :( Fortunately they don't live far away so he went up for a visit today.

We are also very proud of him as he decided 2 weeks ago that he wanted to wear jocks. No more nappies for our boy, pull-ups included. We were a bit apprehensive about those first few trips out, but surprisingly we can count the number of accidents in that time on one hand, and part of that was because of a tummy upset. So in Austy's words he is a "Grand Champion!", a title he learned from playing Pyjama Sam on the computer. Yes, that's right. Computer games. If we don't get up straight away when we hear his door open, the computer is on, logged in as Austin, and a disc put in, game loaded and boy playing quite competently on his own! Where did our baby go?

And on the topic of babies, my belly is rather huge however much to my relief, bub is spot on for dates (unlike Austy who always measured 2-3w ahead). The pregnancy is going smoothly, not much to complain about other than tiredness (bound to happen with a nearly 3yr old to chase) and Austy is very much looking forward to being a big brother. Fascinated with babies, today he couldn't stop cuddling and kissing my friend's 8 week old son, more interested in him than the equipment at the park. So far, it looks promising!

Austyisms...

2008-08-26T19:11:00.006+09:30

I know it has been like forever since I have been in here, and I really need to get down some of the cute things Austy is saying and doing lately. He is very excited about becoming a big brother in December, and today when an ambulance drove past as we drove home, the topic came up. He was telling me that someone needs to go to hospital and then we got onto the fact that I will have to go to hospital when the baby is big enough so the doctors can help the baby come out. He added "...and I will get some lovely flowers with Daddy to give to you in hospital and help you get better!" Isn't he a darling!?

Oh and he is just sooo funny sometimes. When I called the Chinese shop for takeaway on Saturday night (yep, the tiredness is getting to me lately with the housework, full days at work, chasing Austy around and trying to finish my Masters before the bub comes) I took 5 minutes to go and put some freshly folded washing away in Austy's room. He followed me, and then went to the bathroom, telling me he wanted to brush his teeth. No harm in that, I thought so I put the clothes away and then went to the bathroom to see how he was going. He got a bit of a surprise as I walked in the door, jumped, smeared something all over his face in the surprise and exclaimed "I'm getting ready to go to the Chinese shop!". Here is what he was REALLY up to... not brushing his teeth at all!

His favourite things at the moment are sewing and baking with me, or using his toy mower while his Dad mows the lawn with the real one. He likes to do anything where he can be our "special helper". He also likes playing on the computer after discovering the sesame street PC game at childcare in the kindy room one day. He came home super keen to play so we set up his "My first computer" that I got him in America that he had hardly used. After a few short sessions at it he had already mastered mouse navigation and knows most of the letters on the keyboard. I couldn't believe it when he started playing the alphabet game and instead of asking for single letters it was asking for short words, meaning he'd gone up a few levels all by himself!

He also had a fantastic day the other day at the concert of his favourite singer - Justine Clarke from playschool. He loves her music so much that he has to play it several times a day, and sings along to every song. We really must catch him on video soon, it's so cute watching him sing. Unfortunately he got shy as he neared the front of the photo queue, but his Dad grabbed a snap for me anyway as I had to be at work so missed the thrill on his face at the concert.

Thank goodness the weather is warming up as it has been so wet and cold, and there's only so much you can do inside with a very busy two and three quarters year old boy! I can't count how many batches of playdough I have made - it's been a LOT! But soon we will be spending more time out in the park, and the Adelaide zoo, wearing a certain little someone out!

It's nice to be home

2008-03-10T20:53:00.002+10:30

After being away in the US for 10 days with work, it's so nice to be back with this adorable boy. It seems in that short time he has learned so much more and is telling us stories like the best of them.

Ever since I got back I have been smothered in a gazillion kisses, squeezled to bits and loved every second (except maybe the tantrums in the carpark tonight at the end of a long hot day for him). We spent the weekend doing Austy and Mummy things - Saturday was the animal expo where he had a blast, feeding baby goats and lambs, watching bunnies jump a course and ferrets run through tunnels, had a pony ride and saw the dogs and cats. He also got to play in a jumping castle, do some gymnastics and jump on a trampoline, smiling all the while.

We came home in time for swimming and were told he's ready for the big boy class (where I won't be in the water with him any more - he's just growing up soooo fast!).

Yesterday we hung out at home, playing with toys and a massive big afternoon nap after Saturday's fun. Today we had a public holiday so went for a swim at Aunty Katy's... or should I say Zachary's pool as Austy has decided to call it, and then home to paint. At the end of the painting we had one very messy boy so I gave him a mop bucket to wash up in out the back. While I hung out the washing, he decided to jump in and I took a thousand photos while he stayed put for once, amused by the fact he just fits in the bucket still!

This cheeky grin...

2008-02-20T22:22:00.007+10:30

...was giggling at me, right there on the face of my nudey bum boy sitting on the front window sill right after he locked me out of the house!!!

He dragged out his dinner eating and then when it was jarmie time he asked me very nicely if he could "be nudey for a little bit please?" Obviously trying to put off going to bed, but he asked nicely instead of the usual screaming demands at me so I decided, why not? What's the harm in a little nudey run? I normally wrap up his nappy and dirty clothes in the nappy square I change him on and put it by the back door (on the tiles) to take out as soon as he's in bed, however this time I thought "He's happy, I'll just take this nappy out straight away". As soon as I was out the back I heard it. SLAM! The back door. For a second I thought it was fine, but then I remembered we had come straight inside when we got home from childcare, too hot to play outside, I didn't bother latching the back door so it wouldn't lock, thinking we'd be inside until after Austy went to bed. My reaction was to call out to Austy, bang on the back door (as if THAT was going to help!) and try to open a window thinking I had opened them only a day or two ago and that they might still be unlocked. No luck, so I ran to the back fence and called to the only neighbours I know in desperation, not wanting to leave the yard while Austy was locked in the house. We managed to get a hold of Austy's "Gwampaaa" and he said he'd be around with the spare key soon. Meanwhile, back in the house, what had our boy been doing?

His reaction to the realization that I couldn't get to him was to cry at first, making my heart pound even harder and my shaking in stress and worry get worse. Luckily that only lasted for a few moments before a flashlight went off in his head. I swear he thought, "Hey Mummy can't stop me, I can do what I like!" He opened the bib and facewasher drawer, climbed on it like a step, got up on the bench and took off with the roller door remote. The whole time I was making phonecalls with the neighbour, I could hear the roller door going up, down, up , down...

After a short button war with him trying to get the roller door to stay up for long enough to let me out the front where I could see him, I sat and talked to him out the front where he was sitting there in all his glory watching the door obey his pressing. Our neighbour came around to wait with me, as I was quite shaken by the whole thing thinking of all the awful things that might happen while I couldn't get to him. He suddenly got a worried look on his face and told me he needed to go to the toilet. I told him quick - you can go to the toilet on your own like abig boy. He started crying wanting me to take him, then it was too late and the carpet was wet. I think that's the only thing that upset him about the whole event - the door had already kept him amused for at least 15 minutes. At last Andrew's Mum arrived to save the day, telling me that his Dad didn't realise the urgency but she knew that when I said I was locked out that Austy would be inside and came straight over. The annoying thing is we used to keep a key hidden outside until recently - it was still out in the kennel from when we had our rottweiler, thinking he would guard it well for us. As soon as we stopped keeping the key outside, it finally happened.

Here are some pics of the day before, us both happily outside TOGETHER!

Couldn't resist

2008-02-13T20:05:00.004+10:30

I stumbled upon this cute kids music when blog surfing tonight, just as Austy was having a meltdown because the dry bickie he was eating broke and the cheese had fallen off. I did attempt to make him happy by telling him he now had three bickies which was perfect as he also had three pieces of cheese. I put one piece on each bit of broken biscuit but he just wouldn't have it, after already throwing a tantrum and breaking down into a bundle of tears and screams because I had cooked him chicken shaslik instead of sausages with his vegies. I decided to ignore him and blog surf for a minute or two to see if he would calm down on his own since my help with the bickie only made him worse. As soon as he heard this gorgeous music by renee and jeremy, he instantly stopped crying. I went to their website and found their online mp3 player and all the lyrics so he sat on my lap and happily ate his cheese and biscuit while we cuddled, smiled and sang together. He went to bed singing "Falling back to sleep". So I thought it only fitting to link it here and have it playing on his special blog.

Austin really loves music, one thing I think he's picked up from me. Every morning he starts the day with a tune or two, mostly Old MacDonald's Farm, Baa Baa Black Sheep or Open Shut Them, but he has quite a repertoir now! When he was a baby and was upset, singing was the best thing for him. Luckily for him, I enjoy singing a few notes here and there. I learned and remembered lots of kids songs but what I was really looking for was something like this music. I have found it now, so will be keeping my eye on these artists as their music is soothing not only for children but for their parents too. I recently bought Austy "I like to sing" on DVD by Justine Clarke which he absolutely loves and likes to hear over and over. Originally it was a nice change from the Baby Classics (after 2 yrs of him asking to watch Peepo Duck) until I realised the songs although bright, fun and happy, were also very catchy and at a whole day scrapbooking workshop I found myself humming them over and over! "Can you make a laughing face?" Lets see how long this music lasts before I'm sick of it... I have a feeling it will last longer than Justine!

I think I might have to keep it under my belt as a little settling tool for those end of the day tired toddler tantrums - I was totally impressed with how well it worked tonight and hope it works that well for a while. It's such a nice way to spend quiet time with him before he goes to bed. Having the lyrics available is just wonderful as it's so easy to sing along, making him think it all the more special, gazing into my eyes and trying to sing along with me. Aaaawwww....

Autsty's "Thought of the Day"

2008-02-11T21:12:00.000+10:30

Come ON Joy! I REEEEEALLLY must keep up. This little boy of ours is growing up at a frantic rate right before our very eyes and I just HAVE to write it all down so we can always remember these moments.

I realised today that while I had every intention of writing down what we have dubbed "Austy's Thought of the Day" comments, a few have slipped by without me doing so. I normally give Andrew a call as soon as the little guy comes up with one of his cute toddler brainwaves so that he gets to share in it too before I subsequently forget about it. I even bought a notebook for these things... but I packed it! So that's no good.

Andrew reminded me today when he rang ME to tell me one of these things Austy blurted out. His thought for today was "Austy cries, but Daddy doesn't cry". Insightful. And he's right. I've only seen a tear in Andrew's eyes a few times in our nearly 11yrs together, at times that I have been bawling my eyes out.

Austy has been asking for a baby sister for many months now (one night as I kissed him goodnight he asked for me to produce one in the morning and no, apparently a brother will NOT do) so it was no surprise tonight when he came out with "Mummy needs to have a baby sister for Austy. Mummy can have a baby, Daddy can have a baby. We can ALL have a baby sister for Austy. Then Austy will have a baby sister like James has a baby sister". James is his friend who you might spot over here at my good friend (and very talented friend) Emma's blog. Hmm... the pressure is ON!!

And the Thought of the day that started it all came out while we were packing up the kitchen goods into boxes over Christmas. "Cats don't open doors". No mate, they don't. Unless they are really strong and really clever. Not like Gryffin. I did have a cat like that once, who opened the door for his feline buddy, who kept miaowing at the door anyway. But that's another story.

And on the house front - we sold prior to auction with an offer too good to refuse. Austy seemed pretty excited about it. No more house opens means more family time, and soon we get to move into the new house he makes us drive past on a regular basis.

Austy in the river!

2008-01-03T23:51:00.000+10:30

Austy had his first trip to the river yesterday (apart from the time he was 4 weeks old and draped in muslin wraps to try and protect him from the blowing gale and 40 degree sun!). He had an absolute ball!! They have upgraded the reserve since we last went, with a little barbeque shelter, and Austy's favourite, a climbing frame. It's meant for much older kids, but that didn't stop the little guy from scaling it all the way to the top and hanging onto the little swing disc things like a little monkey.

It took him a little while to get used to the bouyancy vest that we had on him from the minute he got out of the car till the minute he went back in it to go home, and he was a little scared of the river (unlike him as he's such a water bug), but he absolutely loved riding in the boat and once we got him used to the river he wanted to paddle and kick all afternoon.

He was thrilled that Lulu puppy could come along with his big cousins, and had a good play with her. Then he noticed something sitting with another family and asked "Want to go play with the purple kitten". We had no idea at first then he took me by the hand and lead me to a tiny chocolate coloured labrador puppy, 12 weeks old, named Cocoa. The owners were kind enough to let him pat her and we were told to be careful as she is a bit of a nipper. Then Austy exclaimed "She won't bite!", quite sure of himself too.

In the end it became a bit much and he zonked it... in my arms in the back of the boat while it was running! He must have been exhausted since this was the same kid that slept only 20 mins in the long car trip between Adelaide and Falls Creek (and I think we only got that much on the way back too). The nap was short lived though as Austy's Dad kept flooding the boat with his sudden stops, and within minutes he had us both saturated and the poor boy awoke with a start!

Still, he can't wait to go back again soon.

Looking for Santa

2007-12-27T21:13:00.001+10:30

Looking for Santa
Originally uploaded by austysmum

Just look at this gorgeous boy! How can I resist smothering him in kisses every night when I send him off to bed when he looks so adorable?!

Austy has decided that far too much fun stuff is happening at the moment to let us put him to bed in the day time, and this was taken today, after another refused nap. So technically, he is not actually looking for Santa, although it does look a bit like that. The truth is that he was actually cross at me because I wouldn't let him out the front to sit in the boat while his Dad tried to start it since we told him he could sit in the boat IF he had a sleep and sadly had to follow through...mean mum I am!

So he watched from the window instead. I got a shocker of a photo just a second later though, as he suddenly realised what he was missing out on and bawled his little eyes out. I nearly caved... (broke my heart - he sure nows how to work those heart strings) but I didn't! We want this kid to listen to us when we ask him to have a nap, since he was still taking 3hr naps until Christmas day, so definitely needs them. Also we're not too keen on the moods he gives us in the afternoon when he's battling to keep those eyelids open with those beautiful long lashes of his!

Merry Christmas! From a TWO year old!

2007-12-17T21:05:00.001+10:30

Little Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by austysmum

I know I've been slack lately and not posted much in here, but it's mainly because I think noone reads it, so I focus on my crafty blog instead. Plus, with the study back on and full time work and life with a toddler doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging.

But I really should do it. Austy comes out with lots of little stories now and I should be writing them down.

Our boy is now two!!

He can:
Take his clothes off
Put his shoes on (he has been taking them off for ages)
Sing a few songs from start to finish, including ABC, Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa black sheep, Glump Glump went the little green frog, and some other favourites
Count to ten (and actually count objects)
Recognise letters of the alphabet, like "A sor Austin!"
Go to the big boy toilet (although not all the time yet)
Sleep in his junior bed instead of a cot and is VERY good and stays in bed all night
Tell you where he lives (although we have some teaching to do as that will soon be changing to our NEW house!!!)
Tell you how old he is
Tell you his whole name
Recite books - especially Slinki Malinki ones
Tell stories about what he did a few days ago (or in the case of the "Powder Incident" he tells me every day on the phone!)

What is the "Powder Incident"? One day before he hit two and we changed his cot into a bed, Andrew went to get him one morning to find Austy safely in his cot and nappies and powder EVERYWHERE!
He couldn't work it out and rang me at work to see if I had left the room like that. "Of course not" I told him. "Maybe Austy opened the drawer from the cot and pulled everything out that way?". He told me he must have a pretty strong arm then, and went to get the camera form the living room to send me a photo. As he returned, there was the scalliwag balancing precariously on the edge of the cot as he climbed onto the change table! The following week the cot was CONVERTED!

Austy loves our new house too! He kept telling us to buy the pool with that house (rather than the house with the pool), and after the auctionj, once I told him the house was ours, he squirmed out of my arms and ran to the pool "Swim in Austy's pool now!?" He semi asked - semi demanded! No mate, we can't just yet. On the way home he asked us "Did you have fun at Austy's house?"

Funny kid.

Anyway, we wish you all a happy Christmas and I hope to keep the blog updated in the new year as the cutest little stories keep coming out of his mouth!

New BIG BOY Shoes for Austy!

2007-05-25T12:37:00.001+09:30

So Austin is a big 18 months old today (oh crap, that means more needles now, right?). In celebration we decided it was high time we got him some real big boy shoes, as the robeez "botbot shoes" weren't supporting his feet enough anymore and he tends to walk on the insides of his feet. Plus with the wet and cold weather outside recently we wanted his feet to stay warm and dry.

So, out with the old...

In with the new... a pair of Clarke's first walker boots for our little man.

It was so funny watching him try them on in the shops. It was just like he was learning to walk all over again. Or like he was trying to balance on a pair of stilts! He has been grabbing on to my leg for balance since we put them on him and asking "hand, mummy, hand" as he reaches out his own chubby little fingers to me. So cute.

So what can he do now he is 18 months old? If you ask him how old he is, he smiles and giggles out "One!". If you ask him how big he is he reaches his hands up as high as he can and says "Big!". He can feed himself with a fork or spoon (just) but still prefers us to help him and if you hand him a spoon ful of food, instead of taking hold of it he reaches his mouth down to it. He can take off his sleeping bag and tosses it over the cot (time for a big boy quilt, I think - off to my quilting friends house this afternoon so she can help me make one for him), and horror of horrors, takes his nappy off and promptly falls asleep only to wake up with the cot saturated!

He chats away like a 2 year old, and when I get to childcare he happily shows me around telling me where the fan is, the door is, the toys are, the lights are etc. etc. Then tells me to "get Austy's bag" and then "name off" and he likes to take his own name off the board now - if I do it, he takes some other child's name off which I have to put back. He loves planes and helicopters, cars, trucks and buses, and PUPPY DOGS! He is very excited to help us look after Lulu for a little while while Lulu's family find a new house. We tell him about it often and he is really looking forward to it. He had a great time in the city today after buying the new shoes as the animal welfare league had a stand in the mall, with some very well behaved dogs waiting for cuddles and I let him put some money in the money box, which is another favourite activity of his. Looks like he will take after his Dad in the money saving department!

Here he is at Mum's group last Friday, cream cheese sandwich spread all over his face, sand toy in hand, mummy made'ems tracky top on and squealing with laughter at the dogs that live at his friend Viviene's house. I'll leave you with this picture for now, and come back with stats later on when I get a chance to measure and weigh him. My baby is growing up! Such a little boy now, and oh so much FUN!

Just for fun

2007-05-06T12:54:00.000+09:30

Austy still fits in "Gwibby's" basket... just!

Austy's Easter adventures

2007-04-09T15:17:00.000+09:30

Easter Bunny had a sleep in on Easter Sunday, he needed a rest after delivering all those eggs, and decided to deliver Austy's while he had his morning nap, that way he could eat lunch before stuffing his face with chocolate. When he was all washed down and free from his highchair, Austy's Easter hunt began:

Instead of leaving a gazzillion eggs, the Easter Bunny hid six little chicks in the back garden for Austy to find, and two of the chicks were guarding something very special:

Well, we thought they would be pretty special to a little boy who loves to eat his Daddy's chocolate covered gluten free bickies... but he wouldn't have a bar of them, pushing us away and shaking his head with his little lips tightly closed!

So we gave up on him trying out chocolate easter eggs, and today he munched down on hot cross buns instead, saying "Mmmm-mmm - yummy". He likes these better than chocolate, which probably isn't a bad thing.

HAPPY EASTER everyone!

Sentences!

2007-04-06T16:40:00.000+09:30

Austy is just amazing. There is no other word for it! Every day he treats us to a new surprise and this week it is sentences. Little ones, but sentences all the same. The first sentence was said last weekend and it was "Daddy gone bo-bye" when we were eating breakfast and I told him Daddy was at work. Since then, he has been stringing words together all week:

"Pa's here!", "Daddy's coming", "Mummy's home", "Hat on pease", "more bikkie", and the best one "I uv ooo!" As always with his talking, he has said more sentences than I can remember, so these aren't the only ones and I'm sure there were more with three words+ but I just can't recall them. And last night when I got home from work he ran over to me saying "Mummy, park puppy tunnel!" I had no idea what that was all about but then Andrew explained "We went to the park and he saw a puppy go under the play equipment which he calls a tunnel". I was just so surprised that instead of repeating something we have said or saying something in context with what we had said, he came up to me to tell me the story about what he saw. I am sure there will be plenty more now that he is happily experimenting with putting words together! He's growing up oh so fast!

Another two teeth kept him up last night from about 2-5am and he is only just down for a sleep now as he refused his morning sleep. But these are the last ones I think, so no more upset sleep due to teething!

Finally a photo!

2007-03-20T22:45:00.000+10:30

Sorry Austy blogreaders, I have been a bit slack with the photo posting of late. I am having a glitch in my photography taking which could be on account of Austy becomeing very quick on his feet and never still for a moment so I never get anything worth posting. But for your enjoyment, here is a photo from this afternoon while playing in the backyard. It rained last night and this morning and the lawn has already taken off... It's amazing what a bit of rain can do in the course of a day. Andrew has a job for the weekend now!

Our family getaway

2007-03-12T12:00:00.000+10:30

Back to the same old same old, after a fantastic family holiday. I will have to add pictures later because I'm on the laptop at the moment and they are all stored on the PC.

On the first day of our holiday, we got into Brisbane quite early and hired a car to drive down to Broadbeach (just south of Surfers Paradise). We stopped off at Dreamworld for the day on the way, and Austy was super pleased to see a helicopter taking off for a joy flight the second we got out of the car. Very quickly "Coptaaaaa" became his favourite word as they are just everywhere on the Goldcoast. He was pretty exhausted at Dreamworld as he'd been so excited on the plane and then only managed a 20min nap in the car. But he still had a great time in Wiggles World (did the big red car ride with Daddy and the Dorothy Teacup ride with Mummy) and watched both of us go on the white water ride (one at a time). He loved the tigers, wasn't so sure about the cougar that was doing fantastic leaps to get it's chicken for dinner. We went to watch the bush animals show while Andrew went to watch a wavemaker demo, and he was thrilled when they handed out fresh damper at the end of the show - he couldn't get enough. He liked the chickens, sheep and dogs too.

The next day was a day of getting our bearings and wandering around, so we stayed close to the apartment and let Austy have a good sleep to catch up on what he'd missed the day before. Was a good thing too because we ventured out to Sea World the next morning, which had lots of exciting things for Austy to see and do. They have a wonderful area of kids rides, and Austy absolutely loved the "merri merri" (merry go round) and had two goes on it. He also had a truck ride with me and went on a pretend coptaaa with Andrew. He was smiling all day, except for the 30 seconds of crying before he fell asleep in his pram in the afternoon. We were amazed as he has hardly ever slept in his pram since about the 6 month mark, and even when we were in Sydney at 10m old we had to sling him to get him to hgo to sleep as he'd just scream and scream in the pram. The pram sleep of about 45 mins gave him a recharge so he could go in the water park there, and had his first go on a water slide ( a baby one). It was very tiring for us as he just wanted to keep going up the ladder, down the slide and round again. We thought he'd never have enough. It was a great way to keep himn occupied so we could go on water slides too. One of us would stay with him while the other went off on our own adventures and then we'd swap. He liked watching the bears in the omni theatre, but unfortunately we only got a short glimpse of the polar bears as it was so hot. The dolphins put on a fantasic show as per usual and the penguins were very cute.

A big morning sleep was on the agenda the next day, and after he'd had that, we were off to the beach. We were hoping to go and watch some of the Quicksilver Pro but the surfers were having a lay day because the surf wasn't good. So we just went to the local beach and Austy had a good play in the sand as he preferred that to playing in the waves where the current was quite strong. He still got to have a bit of fun in the water but he liked it better on the sand, digging with the beach toys he got for his birthday (he got three sets so we combined them all in the bag one of them came in and took them with us to QLD.

Our last day was spent at wet'n'wild, which was a fantastic day out as the weather was perfect for it and Austy was quite happy to swim and splash about all day long except for yet another hour nap in the pram. We took turns in minding him and going on waterslides, and went in the wave pool and on a gentle tube ride all together.

Got back to Adelaide last weekend (Saturday) and back to work on Monday. On Tuesday we went to look at Childcare places and have now booked Austy in to a place four afternoons a week as Zarny's timetable has changed with the new uni semester and things were getting a little difficult to juggle. We decided that Austy needed to spend more time with kids anyway as he hasn't been able to see other kids much since I went back to work full time and stopped taking him to mothers group and fitness classes in the park. He was thrilled with seeing kids again while we were away, and even went up to a few kids he didn't know just to give them cuddles and kisses. That was the clincher for us as was the excited tremble, pointing finger and exclamation "Kiiiiiiids!!" whenever he saw some at the theme parks. He will be going for just a few hours each afternoon, and although my first attempt at leaving him there for 15mins while I went into another room to fill out forms didn't go so well (he was still clinging to the carer when I got back), I am sure he will settle in soon enough and love playing with the other kids once he gets used to us not being there and comes to know his main carer.

His favourite activity at the moment is drawing so we bought his firts colouring in book while we were away and a little pencil case to fill with crayons. It keeps him amused for ages and when he's had enough drawing, he likes to put the crayons in and out of the case. Great thing to calm him down with some quiet time at the end of the day.

We also went to a Baby Rave on Staurday (me and Austy) as a part of the fringe festival here in Adelaide. The first 10 mins he was excitedly running around the place and venturing off on his own with me running along behind trying to keep up. But then suddenly he couldn't see me, did his sad mouth and started bawling, so the rest of the hour was spent clinging to me. The music was a little loud I thought (as did the other Mums of my mothers group who were there with their little ones too) and we were a bit dissapointed as we thought there would be musical instruments like drums and marracas and tamborines for them to play with. The kids seemed to like it though (and Austy was happier once we all sat down in a circle and put the kids in the middle as he seemed more secure in teh fact that he knew where I was). They also had parachutes that they were flicking in the air and letting the kids run under and Austy loved that as long as I was under there with him.

Austy is at such an adorable age now, chatting away to himself and amusing himself quite a bit. His giggles are infectous and he is brilliant at grabbing attention with his cute and clever ways. Anyway must go and help him put his crayons away as he has suddenly got quite frustrated that the case won't open by itself...

We have a walkerand a talker! Our clever little boy...

2007-02-19T21:25:00.000+10:30

Yes that's right - he's finally walking FULL TIME!!!! And so many new words are added to his vocabulary every day. It's amazing watching him grow into this clever little man, who just soaks up EVERYTHING we throw at him.

Austin started walking for more than a few steps at a time last week, and when he falls down now, he gets up and walks again rather than quitting on the walking and crawling. He beams at us as he wobbles along, so proud of his achievement and we delight in his delight. He is growing more adorable every day and is starting to string two words together now. He has been saying "pat cat" for a while (his first phrase), but tonight surprised me with "more pleeeeeease" when he finished his vegemite crumpet (he is a vegemite kid and had already tossed his steak and veggies on the floor!!!). Two crumpets later he was shouting out "Botooool", so that was the end of dinner and time to get him ready for an early bed time. I don't think he will be breastfed much longer, he tells me he wants "mumum mook", then a few sucks later he is screaming "BOTOOOOOOOL!!!!" again. So I guess it will soon be all over and any hint of our baby will be replaced with our little boy.

The other thing that got us all by surprise last week was that when we say one, he will say two and sometimes three. He's notg even 15m yet and the boy can COUNT!!! And the other day he pointed to one of his shape sorter pieces and told me it was blue! He also loves chatting on the phone, well actually he does more listening than talking when it's a real phone - if he sees anyone on the phone he reaches out for it saying "talk, talk, talk" and then as soon as he grabs it he giggles, holds it to his ear and is silent, perhaps shaking his head every now and then. But last week he spoke to me on the phone at work for the first time, I was giggling myself it was so exciting! He was just giving me the baby jibber that he uses when he talks to "Nanna" or Papa" on the pretend phone (when we ask him who he's talking to that's who he says it is), but soon I will be able to have little conversations to him from work. Thrilled me to bits as I miss him soooo much!

He loves to go bike riding and the last few days when Andrew asked him what he wanted to do he pointed out the window saying "bikes" but there was no way we were going riding in the sweltering heat. We have been telling him about our holiday next week and he is getting very excited about going on a plane again. We are looking forward to some decent family time again too as we are heading to the goldcoast for a week away by the beach. We have a friend's wedding on Saturday, then if it's not too hot we'll ride down the Parade to the food and wine fair (Auty will love it - going by bike AND lots to see!) then firts thing Monday morning we fly , fly away. Wooo hooo! Now I had better get back to the study as I still have to get an assignment done and an exam on Friday before all that can happen...

The boy can stand up all on his own!

2007-01-25T20:39:00.000+10:30

Yep, for just over a week now Austin has been standing up without the aid of furniture, walls, toys etc. and is almost ready to become an official walker! He hadn't repeated his first steps since his birthday until I had him outside in his bathers on the really hot day we had a week ago, and he pulled himself up to a stand using the drawf agapanthus as a crutch. In his excitement he ripped off the flower heads and then stood there, holding the flowers in his hands witrh a bemused look on his face. I told him "Look baby! You're standing all by your self!" and he gave me a tremendous smile! Which in turn made him lose his balance and fall straight onto his bum.

He then struggled for 30 secs to stand up again, but the flowers were gone, so hje had to do it by himself, and he managed just fine, thankyou very much! But the moment he did he got excited, started giggling and lost his balance. This went on (up, giggle, fall) for about half an hour before he tired of it and he even made two tiny steps toward me, however cautiously. I am beginning to think he must have walked on his birthday without really realising as Andrew had been holding his hands when the excitement of his new car gripped him and I think all he was focusing on then was the new car, not how he managed to get there. But this time he is really comprehending that he can do it on his own, and once he does it, he tries again, entertained by his new abilities. So much fun to watch.

In the past week or so he has attempted to walk a few times, giving us a few steps here and there, and becoming more stable on his feet every day. He will be running around with Elizabeth in no time!

Now onto my photography challenge... It is getting hard to get a decent shot of Austy every day, especially now I am working full time (and studying part time), come home to a tired boy and have to just snap a couple of quick ones in between dinner and bed time. So far I have only missed one day, which I will make up for at the end of the month. I am impressed with some and horrified at the rubbish I have taken on other days, but I am certainly improving, even if it's one step forward, two steps back some days. I will attach the link to my challenge photos in the right hand column under LINKS on this page so you can feel free to have a browse. There is this thing they call EXPLORE on the photo website which shows the "most interesting" photos for the day. I have only seen really good professional looking shots in there (often taken by pros) and I have been surprised as three of my challenge pics made it in there, even if they only got to #226 (226th best photo) for the day... I know there are thousands of good photos put up every day, so getting into explore is an achievement for me, which I never thought would happen. This challenge is really helping me, and Austy will have some nice photos for later on.

Almost a walker...

2007-01-10T21:36:00.000+10:30

Not alot has been happening in our household this week, other than Austin trying to take a few more steps, and standing up on his own a few times (after pulling himself up on furniture he lets go). He has started saying so much more too, but has now started being very demanding saying "That That!" if he wants something he can't say the name of. He is quite strong both physically and in determination.

I have finally agreed to let Andrew take him to get his hair cut at our local hairdressers tomorrow so these will be the last pics you see of him with so much hair and curls (sob). I agree the fringe is a little messy at the moment, but I so don't want to lose those gorgeous blonde curls! Andrew tells me his hair is sooo long when it's wet, and I keep saying, but it curls up when it's dry and isn't long then... Hopefully the curls will grow back, thicker and curlier than ever - they are just so adorable on him. But the fringe really needs a tidy up as you can see.

I have been doing a 30 day photography challenge since Jan 1, which requires a new and original photo of Austy each day. The idea is that by taking photos of the same subject on a daily basis, you have to explore different angles etc. to keep it interesting. I am starting to feel that it IS a challenge now as it's hard getting good photos of an active toddler at the best of times, let alone trying to get a good one every day! Just thought I'd share a few with you here, please excuse the watermark - I am now saving the photo without it for printing, then a version with it for uploading to the web but the first few all have it except for the original unedited shots straight off the camera.

Happy 2007!!!

2007-01-03T22:55:00.000+10:30

Thought I'd better get my butt into gear and update this webpage with some Merry Christmas and Happy New Yeras wishes! A tad late, but you know what they say "Better late..."

Here are a few photo's from Austy's second Christmas. Not he best as he refused his morning nap and only slept for half an hour after lunch so wasn't the best subject for photographing, but we got him anyway. I tried to take a pic of him opening the present Michael and Debbie sent over, and then wearing the cute Quicksilver scuffs, but he wouldn't have it, the scuffs got kicked off his feet within seconds and a major tantrum errupted before we called it a day and took him home to bed.

I just love this outfit we bought for him for Christmas day (and the Christmas card photo). While the colour and star on the front make it super Christmassy, the back is just adorable - I will have to get a photo from behind him in it one day soon. The top says "Born to Rock" and the shorts have the words Rock Baby written in a star on the back pocket. Big cousin Jarryd would love it! It suits him perfectly too as he does like a good beat, and can often be found rocking away in the back of the car with Triple J turned up loud. Andrew was determined that he was going to be musically "cultured", and while he loves his Baby Classics music DVD's he will bop along to Veruca Salt, or Eskimo Joe and apparently loves to listen to things like Audioslave.

New Years was very quiet for us, we didn't even attempt to stay up for it this year after last years lame attempt and us falling asleep in front of a DVD. Maybe next year! I have been trying to cut out Austy's late night feed so we have had a few nights of him crying for a couple of hours at 2am (with me trying to resettle him without the milk bar!) so we need all the sleep we can get at this stage. Other than that, my New Years resolution is to improve my photography, which I think will be an ongoing challenge. Austy has already improved it tenfold, but I need to learn to be more creative and try new things (and settings on my camera - like going fully MANUAL - eek!). I got a great photography book for Christmas (thanks David and Rob!) so am churning my way through that, and spending every spare minute at the computer in photoshop.

Austin is still not walking, so I guess that will be his New Years Resolution, but I really don't care when he does start as he gets around fine by crawling, and no doubt walking will bring about more mischief making opportunities! His 4-5 steps on his birthday have not been repeated, but he is starting to get the hang of walking with his Fisher Price car in the walker mode (yelling "go go go" as he motors across the living room floor, then "cash" as in CRASH! - we definitely need more space!!!).

Okay, must get a move on, nappies to wash, dishes to clear and then bed!

Christmas Photo and 12 month stats

2006-12-16T11:30:00.000+10:30

Just a quick one today. I thought I'd share Austy's first Santa photo with you all - it isn't the best as the 1.25hr line up at DJ's (despite getting there early) meant Austy was overdue for his morning sleep by the time we got through, and then he was terrified of Santa, clinging to my neck with his feet digging into my ribs like one of those clip on koalas you find at souvenier shops! It was all we could do to spin him around and get him to look at the camera, so unfortunately you get to see my ugly mug too!

I thought this wouild be a great place to put Austy's 12m stats too, before I forget them...

Height: 82cm (98th percentile - one tall boyo)
Weight: 11.4kgs (gone down a bit - now he's just under 90th percentiel - must be all that movin' and groovin' he's been doing!)

Vocabulary: (all the words i can think of at the moment - there's probably more)
gongongong (gone)
diega (tiger)
burbees (birdies)
turtur or turdooo (turtle)
shoua (shower)
baa (bath)
bor (ball)
tuk (truck)
bus (bus)
car (car)
picka (peekaboo)
boo (boo)
growls like a tiger
oo oo ooh like a monkey
kookookook like a kookaburra
gurgle like a magpie
meows like a cat

Newest tricks:
Blowing raspberies on the back of his arm and giggling
Squishing his face up against every glass surface he sees and giigling
Actions to open shut them song (giggling!)
Walking really fast while pushing his car or holding our hands
Climbing stairs (Elizabeth showed him -aaaargh! Thanks Lizzie!)
Again - probably more but I can't think of them at the moment.

The birthday boy!

2006-12-08T13:11:00.000+10:30

I have to apologise for not getting in here earlier to update you all on Austy's first birthday, but with work, study, day to day stuff and looking after a sick and teething Austin, I just didn't have the time. So better late than never, eh?

Austin had a blast on his birthday, despite the ridiculous 38 degree weather (much like today). He had a difficult time trying to get to sleep the night before, much to my frustration as I had a cake to decorate and things to organise, but he must have been a wee bit excited as we had been telling him all week about this big party he was going to have and all of the wonderful surprises we had in store for him!

Luckily, he had a bit of a sleep in (which helped me to recouperate from the late night too!) and then after his shower with Dad and breakfast, we sat down to open some presents together before his morning nap. He had been excitedly doing laps around the present pile all morning waiting for Dad to come and help him open them, and then once the first present was open, he wasn't really interested in opening any more. When he came across clothing gifts, he was quite funny, picking them up and ditching them straight away and looking for the toys! And of course he got way too many of those, as he was thoroughly spoilt!

The big hit of the day was his Fisher Price Learning Car that we bought for him (I went to two separate toy sales hunting that one down and nearly had to rain check it - so I'm very glad he likes it!). He presses the buttons and dances on it and keeps pointing at it several hundred times a day and yelling "Car!"

We didn't manage to open all of his presents before nap time but we didn't want to push it as he needed to be rested up for his party. He had a great morning sleep which helped us to finish setting up and after his nap he came staright outside for his BBQ party. We sat on the lawn and opened some more presents and he decided it was more exciting watching his cousins opening the presents than actually doing it himself. Either that he was overwhelmed by having so many people he recognised in the one place.

He munched down some fruit chunks for the first time (he always just turned them to juice in his hands all the times I'd given them to him before) and filled up on a vegemite sandwich. It was the best he'd eaten in ages and we think it's because he saw so many people eating around him. He was quite good about the heat, and while it didn't really bother him we got the wading pool out for the kids to all crowd around and he got to try on his new swimmer set from Nanny and Grandpa.

After the splash about, it was cake time. He wasn't to happy about leaving the pool, but the cake soon distracted him and he ate all of the chocolate portion in his piece. I had made a tiger cake, which had tiger stripes inside as well, being a choc orange swirl flavour (something I made up by modifying the standard butter cake recipe a bit). It was yummier than I expected, and Austy agreed! The icing melted very quickly though so I think he wore more of that than he ate.

As the party slowed down, it was time to show everyone the VCD I made of Austin's first year. Austin loved it and just sat glued to the screen while the photos and music played for him. Once everyone had left we played with him and his new toys for a little bit and as Andrew walked him back into the loungeroom (holding his hands) he let go, thinking he would just plonk himself down on the ground like he always does. Instead, the little tacker saw his new car and just kept on walking at full pelt, falling after about four steps, once his legs got too far ahead of his body. Andrew and I were thrilled as we both thought that his first steps would be taken when one of us was at work, but luckily we were both home to see it! He hasn't repeated the incident since, however he loves to run while we hold one or both of his hands. He's super fast at his crawling and since he wants to get everywhere super fast I think that he's probably not that interested in walking just yet.

Thankyou to everyone who sent over gifts and cards for him, he was thoroughly spoilt and is getting into all of his new presents (and looking very cute in some of them!). Our little baby is a boy now, and growing up, oh so fast. While I miss some of the baby things, like being able to hold him while he sleeps in my arms, those early smiles and being able to leave him on a rug on the floor and know he will stay exactly where I put him, we are both so excited with all the new things he is doing now, and the fun we have ahead of us. Every day now he cracks us up with some new trick or cheeky moment, and we can only guess that the next year will be even better.

Dad's home, Mum's back at work....

2006-11-02T22:29:00.000+10:30

Yep, well the year has avnished before my very eyes and I'm back in the working world, starting to clear my way through the haze of the first year of motherhood...

Andrew came back from Japan last Friday, not soon enough for Austy who had been through yet another chest infection in his absence and also started getting his 9th tooth, showing up as a big snowy mountain on a very fat sore looking gum. He missed his Dad tremendously, and Andrew brought back Austy's smiles with his return. We had a nice relaxing weekend reaquainting ourselves as a family and now Austy is getting used to a whole new routine as I head off to work three days a week.

His affectionate nature is blossoming now though, he gives us the tightest squeezes on our arrival home and giggles infectiously. His speed crawling and leg climbing are sports he has mastered to almost olympic level, and he demands a lot more attention now, wanting to be with us the whole time, or else he's escaping and getting into mischief chasing poor Gryffin, turning off the computer (he LOVES pressing buttons... why oh why did I teach him that - I never thought he'd apply it to the computer!), opening and closing drawers and cupboards... you name it, and he'll be into it!

He's a keen botanist, always studying nature as closely as possible, especially leaves, plant clippings and seed pods, and he wants to spend 90% of his time outside no matter what the weather. Wheel technology is still a specialty for him though, I think he is yet to decide whether he wants to be involved with machinery or nature ;)

He frightens quite easily though, especially with noisy things like the front awnings going up or down, and dogs barking, and just wants cuddles from Mum to fix it. Other times though, he is full of confidence even reaching out to strangers in a queue.

I'm hating being away from him, not being there to make sure his every need is met every second of the day, but the new role I am filling at work as a simulation engineer is interesting and I feel comfortable with a much better supervisor to teach me how it's done.

Andrew on the other hand is getting the hang of rinsing nappies and finding tricks to make Austin have his meals and naps when he needs them. I think he loves the freedom of Austy all to himself three days a week!

Austy is in the wars

2006-10-14T22:38:00.000+09:30

Well, our boy is getting himself into more and more trouble each day. He was clinging onto the bookshelf in his room yesterday while I got his clothes ready and tried to dress him standing up to save myslef from a tantrum. He was happily talking to his books when he slippedand even though my hands were sooo close (I was slipping his shirt on his free arm) I didn't catch him quick enough and he came a cropper. We had a doctors appointment yesterday afternoon, and the doctor was going on about what a shiner he had, and how he had a black eye - made me feel awful and I thought it would only get worse overnight.

But today his bruised eye has settled down – I thought it would get worse… but now he has a big long scratch on his bum. He decided he should stand in the bath and as I told him to sit down he slipped. I caught him, but in my mad hurry to grab him before he hit his head on the bath, I scratched his bum… He cried at first but I think it was more the shock from slipping. Then I was in tears seeing the big red welt and scratch I had caused (felt so sad that I’d hurt my lil man) while he giggled away, continuing to play with his bath toys as if nothing had happened.

Still feel sick thinking about it. It’s quite a long scratch – and my nails are all short too. He just wants to stand ALL THE TIME!!! He has no fear. He pulled himself up against the hall stand today and then grabbed my keys off with his free hand (he only ever holds on with one hand now). Then, forgetting he was supporting himself he let go so he could hold the keys with two hands. I was behind him ready to catch him and grab the keys off him before he poked an eye out with them, but he stood for almost a minute! He keeps crawling over to me and climbing up my legs and clutching on in a stand position like you see lots of kids doing at supermarkets.

Oh, and he has decided he is scared of the vacuum cleaner again, I had to carry him and he clung on for dear life. Then later on he stumbled across the vacuum cleaner as I hadn’t had a chance to put it away, and started bawling. It wasn’t even on.

Oh well he got me back after the supermarket shopping today. I was trying to put him in his car seat and he wanted to stand in it (surprise surprise) so I let him snatch my keys off me so I could strap him in. Then I calmly proceeded to swap my keys for his toy phone, ignoring the tantrum that ensued, but before I could escape, he snatched the plastic phone and bashed my nose with it. OUCH! The tantrum stopped - I think he was shocked that Mum screams in pain too.

Were did he get these tantrums from, is waht I'd like to know! Still bloody gorgeous though, and gives me the bigest tightest squeezes. He misses his Dad though, and every time we come home from somewhere the DADADAD chorus starts.

His talking is getting really good now, he now says baby for baby instead of bubba, but now all buttons are "bubba"s. "Gone" is now said at the end of a solids feed as well as at the end of a milk feed, and he was watching finding nemo at the photo shop today and started yelling out turdool, turdool at the top of his lungs and sure enough there were a dozen baby turtles swimming across the screen. He will be chattering before we know it.

Austin tries to talk!

2006-09-29T20:29:00.000+09:30

It's been a little while since I have updated you all on Austy's adventures as I have started back at uni (continuing my GM Masters program) and Austy hasn't been the healthiest little kid on the block.

Firstly, I guess I'd better tell you that Austy is definitely much better than he was, after the locum prescribed too low a dose of prednisilone for his croup. Then, as the croup wasn't as bad anymore after the initial course, our GP said he was fine before we went to Sydney, and then in Sydney when he was still waking up in the middle of the night choking and coughing we gave him another course (on our GP's instruction). He still wasn't right so we saw a doctor there. The Sydney GP said he was fine too and just to prop up his bed and use a vapouriser. Andrew and I weren't so happy as we felt he was still not how he should be, but figured there was nothing more we could do if the doctors were saying he was healthy. The, last weekend he coughed so hard he lost all his morning feed on my PJ's after I picked him up to pat his back when he started choking and coughing, so I took him to another doctor (an after hours one) who said he was pretty sick with a chest infection, and should have been given a higher dose of prednisilone to start with as he also still had croup! The doctor was concerned that the other doctors had missed it and said he wasn't far off needing to be hospitalised... He was surprised at how well Austy was handling it all though - our little trooper! Anyway, he's finished his medicines now and is MUCH better, so I am greatful for the after hours clinic and the doctor we saw there.

Now onto the exciting stuff! Austy is getting so good at pulling himself up on things now that he hardly sits or lays down for us anymore. He used to be so easy when he loved to lie and watch the world go by, or even when he would sit peacefully, but since he learned to roll at 7 months he has developed pretty quickly from there! So now I'm glad he was a late roller - I didn't realise how easy it was to look after him knowing he couldn't move. He's very much on the go now, crawling properly on the odd occasion when he can be bothered (still prefers his caterpillar belly flop style though for it's speed, despite how much effort it takes!), pulls himself up on everything and walks around furniture, as well as trying to climb everything. If we don't shut doors, he quickly ends up in the bathroom trying to get into the "ouwa" (that's Austy for shower - just in case you didn't realise...)

This week has been an amazing one in terms of speech. He has always been a bit of a gabbler (think he takes after his Mum ;)) but now the words are starting to sound like things we say. He doesn't always use the same consonants but the rhythm, tone, and vowels match the way we say things and he uses the words in context so we know he is trying to communicate rather than just the usual baby babble. "Mum" and "Dad" are old hat - this kid says things like "baa" (bath), "ouwa" (shower), "Guh" (Gryffin) , "du" (duck), "lie" (light) and the latest one is "yiega" or "diega" (tiger - the stikarounds above his change table). Andrew didn't believe me until this morning when Austy was yelling "diega, iega, diega.." while I was dressing him and Andrew was tring to have a sleep in in the room next door! Last night straight after his dinner he had a bath as we had been playing in the dirt while I weeded the rose bush out the front. This morning after breakfast he looked at me and said "baa?" with a questioning look as I unstrapped him from the high chair. I told him "no, shower" (he normally has a morning shower instead of a bath in the evening). Then after lunch as I unstrappped him from the highchair, he was asking about the bath once again. So he is definitely making associations with things and is catching on pretty quickly. I guess I should just give the poor boy a bath as he obviously loves them so much! I am depriving him by taking him into the shower with me...

The study is more of a challenge than I thought it was as I can't do anything while Austin is awake since I can't see him playing in the lounge when I'm in the study, and the short blocks of time I get when he is asleep makes it more difficult than I ever thought. Just as I get my head around a problem, Austin is awake. So Andrew has just bought a laptop so I can at least watch the lectures in his awake time, sitting in the loungeroom watching Austy play with his toys and save his sleep times fro assignments. It has really driven home the fact that I have to complete my studies before we have another baby though. It's hard enough with just one.

Anyway, I'll have to call it quits for the night and catch some early shut eye - the boy is so exhausting now - keeps me on my toes! Just thought I'd leave you with a coulple of recent photos to check out how grown up he is now. I know it's a cliche but I can't believe my boy is almost 1! Only 2 months to go till Austy's first birthday...

We're BA-ACK!

2006-09-15T23:19:00.000+09:30

Our trip to Sydney went really well, and Austy travelled much better than we could have ever expected. He slept for half of the plane trip there and played for the other half. On the way home he slept at the airport while we waited for the plane, and was full of beans for the flight, even managing to sit in a seat of his own for part of the trip as the plane wasn't full.

We took Austin on many an adventure, his first ferry ride, bus ride, train ride, even his first cable car ride up to Taronga Zoo! He loved the zoo and was capttivated by all of the animals that he has seen many times in picture books and in his bedroom, especially the girraffes and meerkats. He also had a ball watching the young snow leopards at play, leaping and pouncing on each other, as he really does have a thing for cats, and I'm sure he was thinking how great it would be to pull tails that big and fluffy!

We also had a day at Bondi Beach, although it was too cold for a swim, but Austin was amazed at the waves all the same. We went through the Sydney Aquarium again, because I wanted to show Austin and see what new exhibits there were since the last time we went was 6 yrs ago. Needless to say Austin loved it, and has come home with an even keener interest in Siegfred the turtle who lives in our dining room.

Austin was great the whole time, despite still being a bit sick with the cough left over from his croup. He got a bit sick of the pram at times, but I think I would be too the amount of time he spent in it. Luckily I had the sling with me and he slept in that a few times while we were out walking. While we were at the apartment he learned to sit up on his own (ie. go from crawling to sitting by himself) and now claps for himself every time he does it! He still isn't crawling properly, but will crawl on his knees for the first few strides before flopping down to his tummy. He has also learned to pull himself up into a stand, and was becoming an expert at opening and closing the sliding doors that separated the rooms at our apartment.

He settled into sleeping in the portacot really well and the trip didn't seem to affect his sleeping habits at all, although he did go for about 4 days eating absolutely no solids whatsoever and then another 5 eating just a couple of spoons at each meal. He just doesn't seem interested in food at all at the moment, only milk, which he won't take from a bottle, so I'm not looking forward to a hungry boy waking several times at night when I go back to work in just over a month and take his milk jugs with me!

Anyway, after that successful and enjoyable break to Sydney (even if it did rain for the last 4 days of it!) we are already planning our next family holiday!

First scare for Mum!

2006-08-30T22:30:00.000+09:30

Not long after my post here on Friday night, Austy started coughing in his sleep. I thought nothing of it until he worked himself into a coughing fit, waking up and screaming in between trying to catch his breath! I was worried but most concerned that he got his much needed rest as he has had a cold and thought the cough was part of that. So I held him upright against my chest, rocked in our bedtime chair and patted his back, singing to him until he fell asleep. I held him for about half an hour just cuddling him and feeling sorry for him as he had worked himself into such as state whilst struggling to catch his breath and his breathing was quite rattley.

No sooner had I put him down and walked out of the room that the whole thing started again. He was more upset this time and so was I. I was trying to calm him down so he could breathe easier but nothing would work. Then Slinky Malinki (rapscallion cat) came to the rescue! For those not in the know Slinky Malinki is Austy's favourite book by Linley Dodd in the Hairy Mclary series. Sure enough the page with Slinki Malinki all tangled in yarn got him giggling again and his breathing slowed to a more normal rate. I was too scared to put him back to bed though and called Nanny Robyn around for a second opinion that he needed to see a doctor straighht away. We decided that it would ease my mind (and also didn't think he would get much sleep in his cot if we didn't) so we called the locum out. He came at 12:30am after a 2 hour wait during which Austy slept on my chest in the darkened loungeroom.

I was unimpressed with the doctor's manner as he seemed to hardly care at all except to tell me I was dressing him too warmly (he had a body suit and cotton PJ's on underneath his grobag as it was acool night and that's what the grobag recommendations say for a 16 degree room, which his was). I think he was a tad warm mainly because I'd been holding him and he had woken and fussed for a bit before the doctor arrived. I already felt awful that my precious boy was sick, and this doctor made me feel even worse. Anyway I realised that I should take what he said with a grain of salt once he diagnosed Austin with croup and told me to give him a dose of prednisolone (a broken down tablet from the bottle I had in the cupboard for my asthma) with a teaspoon of HONEY!!! Once the doctor left, I dutifullly crushed up the tablet portion and mixed it with my milk, and Austy took it just fine... no honey needed here to possibly set off an alergic reaction or give him some disease (you're not meant to give honey to an under 12m old for those reasons).

Anyway, the course of pred is now over and Austy seems to be on the mend thank goodness, ready for our trip to Sydney. We are getting him checked over tomorrow morning by our regular doctor just to make sure and then we are off for our big adventure - travelling with a baby for the first time!

Just to prove he is getting better, here's a photo taken last night when it seemed someone had changed his batteries and installed energiser max instead of the regular eveready ones. He escaped me whilst I was trying to get him dressed for bed after his bath and every effort at catching him and bringing him back for his evening massage failed, so I got the camera out instead!

9 months old today

2006-08-25T20:43:00.000+09:30

Here's our big 9 monther! He is loving water more and more now, so I must get Andrew to take the camera to a swimming lesson again soon, since we only have photos of our first one which wasn't his best as he tired too quickly. He jumps in off the side now and as a result qualified for his free fall certificate (we are told but yet to receive it). The bath turns into the new Splashmatic washing machine when Austy is in it, not interested in toys, just churning up the water.

His latest trick that he started doing today, is clicking his tongue as he has been watching me closely when I do it (sort of like a clock ticking). He thinks it's hilarious! Almost as funny as me twisting a dead leaf around in my fingers for him, which got many a giggle the other day. Gosh he's a giggler - and we love it!!

He hasn't been all that well this week, picked up a virus last week which hit him on Monday, but has coped pretty well with it and laughing almost as much as normal, just a lot more tired and a few more temper tantrums than normal. But that big chubby cheeked grin is still there whenever we look at him.

Austy had a big adventure last Sunday to his Mum and Dad's work, super fascinated by the robots in the Body Shop and fell asleep walking through General Assembly... hmm, does that mean only Daddy's work is interesting? He also had a great day last Saturday as I was babysitting his big cousins Jake and Alyssa. We went to the park for a picnic and then Austy was thrown in the sling so I could keep up with Jake (who's just turned 2) running 100 mile an hour through the playground. We haven't done much else this week as both Austy and Andrew haven't been feeling the best, but we are off on our trip to Sydney next weekend. Austy's first plane trip! I'm sure we'll have lots of news for you when we get back.

Austy finds his knees

2006-08-17T21:57:00.000+09:30

Really, just wanted an excuse to post this pic, as it's my newest favourite. But yes, Austy has finally found his knees and will occasionally rock on them, but crawling is still faster on his toes, so the knees are just for rocking.

He is a bit of a comedian too. The other day I was laying on the floor with him playing adn I was resting on my elbow, so my t-shirt rode up a little. He spotted it, raced over (toe crawling of course) and latched on to my... belly button! I couldn't help but laugh so he looked at me, cackled, and latched right back on. Sorry buddy, no milk there - belly button lint doesn't count!

Now back to the housework - my turn to host Mum's group this week. Eeeek, the place is a mess!

Austy's Crawling Tips

2006-08-08T20:56:00.000+09:30

Step One: Push up on hands and toes (and sometimes knees if you can find them)

Step Two : Push and flop... woooooopsy, flopped a bit too far!

You can check out Austin's crawling on video if you go to Austy's Album (see the link on the right) and select "Austin in motion" as the album which you would like to view. I have just uploaded the video footage of tonight's crawling, the first time he has started to think about using knees instead of toes. He still needs to work out that it's easier if he uses alternating legs though rather than two arms, two legs at the same time.

Our little explorer

2006-08-06T14:18:00.000+09:30

Well it has been a couple of weeks since I last gave you all an Austy update. I'm not sure where the time has gone exactly, but we have just been enjoying our little boy.

The teeth saga is finally over for a little while as the 8 chompers he now has are well out of the gyums and the blisters he got on the inside of his upper lip (as a result of teething) are now healed too. We're managing to get him to eat solids again (other than fruit gel or yoghurt!) so as a result he's back to his happy self and also sleeping better during the day. Yesterday his morning nap went for a record 2.5hrs! I cleaned all the floors, did some washing, sat down and relaxed then actually got to do my hair and put make up on and get ready for my treck into the city in the afternoon. And then he surprised me with another hour nap while I chatted and had coffee with some friends!

He's been well on the move for about 2 weeks and Andrew's parents keep asking us if he's crawling yet. I say he is, because he can get very quickly from one room to another, but they say he's not as he doesn't crawl properly. Hey, who says you have to use your knees to crawl? Austy does a pretty good job using his toes instead and going two arms, two feet rather than alternating between them. If he's not "crawling" until he uses his knees, I wonder if he ever will as he's getting quite good at his own unique version of it, and looks pretty happy with what he's doing. He's into everything! We shut him in the lounge room most of the time now as it's pretty baby proof. I tried to sit out on the back lawn with him today and have a picnic lunch with him, but the baby chair came out so I could strap him in and keep him still. He got to explore the grass (and eat the leaves and chase the cat) after he demolished his first sandwich of swiss cheese with a tiny scraping of vegemite and butter.

Our boy is also 8 months old now (and a whopping 11kgs), and such a social little being. He loves to smile and laugh with people and will go to anyone. He especailly loves watching children, which generally tires him out enough for a good kip! He has developed such an affectionate nature too, and while I get the most cuddles and kisses (he loves to squeeze my neck tightly as he plants a big wet dribbly one on my lips... or bites my nose!), he will willingly share them around when you ask him to ("Kisses for Aunty Katy?") except sometimes when it comes to Dad he thinks it's a great game to pretend he's going to kiss him then snap his head away at the last minute.

He has become a tummy sleeper in the last week too, which might be why we have seen extended sleeps now. He rolls straight over and tucks his arms under him and then nods off into a deep slumber. We know that when he's on his tum, he will generally sleep longer than when he falls asleep on his back.

More teeth...

2006-07-21T22:31:00.000+09:30

Argh... I don't know where the time has gone! Austin has been having some major grief with his teething, but I am now happy to report that he has 8 teeth (just the last one on the top gum keeps bobbing up and down, but I *think* it's finally properly through now) so he should get a break for a while. After being very grumpy and clingy for the past three weeks, he had a wonderful day yesterday. He was back to his normal happy self, and Andrew and I just didn't want to do anything but play with him and enjoy our happy boy! However today he was out of sorts again, but I'm sure this tooth is through now, so hopefully we'll get more days like yesterday soon.

We celebrated Andrew's 31st birthday on Wednesday, although it was one of Austy's worst days. Andrew was happy to get up and help me though so I could make him a special egg and bacon breakfast and banana cake (which went down well with our guests, but Andrew was happy to get a couple of pieces). Austy's Nanny and Grandpa got back from their overseas holiday last Sunday, so the day was spent at their place with Matt, Jazz and Elizabeth. That little girl is so clever - she is crawling really well now, clapping, waving the works. Austin is happy to sit and watch while he blows kisses, chats away to himself and rolls his tongue - he learns what HE wants to learn, so picks up the strangest little habits!

I managed to brave the toy sales on Thursday morning while Andrew looked after Austy, and stocked up on some pressies for his birthday and Christmas, and Elizabeth's too as I was looking at all the baby toys. Unfortunately I didn't see much for the older nieces/nephews but I'm sure there will be more toys on sale closer to Christmas. Austin was also lucky to get the Fisher Price laugh and learn activity table to play with now as I thought it was a great toy to help encourage him to pull himself up in the months ahead, and at half price, it was a bargain. He absolutely loves it!

Sadly I have packed away most of his size 0 clothes as he is now in size 1, so no more all in ones, as they don't make them in that size except for the PJ type. So I have invested in a few pairs of overalls to keep him warm, as they won't fall down like trousers will when he starts crawling, which isn't far off by the look of him - especially at nappy free time when he becomes the most mobile and wriggles off the mat to tempt fate with our carpet!

Austin and Harry

He has also had a few play dates lately, with Harry (9 months) who lives around the corner, Pip (9 months) from fitness group, Katarina (8 months) my old school friend's baby, and the babies from mother's group. Think that's about all I can think of to say about Austy for now. So until next week, time for a tired Mum to get some shuteye.

Katarina and Austin

Three new teeth and loves to swing

2006-07-09T13:56:00.000+09:30

This week Austy has sprouted not one, but three new teeth, all from three separate pairs! That would probably answer our question as to why he has been so unmsettled lately, why he will only eat jelly (and sometimes a bit of vegies if he lets me get away with the one spoon of vegies, one of jelly trick!) and why he hardly sleeps. The poor kid has red patches on his gums where the remaining three are waiting to cut, and finally seems to be settling back to a decent stint of sleep at night, although sometimes wakes before I go to bed for Panadol. We don't give it to him unless he wakes and won't take a feed, and cuddling won't settle him, so if he's really having trouble, he'll usually wake an hour after I've put him down for the night.

Another first this week, was Austin's first go in a swing at the park. After fitness class on Friday, I saw another mum giving her 16m old a swing in the baby swing, and thought, what the hell - Austy seems just as big as her. So in he went and he LOVED it. So I took him to the little park across the road today and got some photos. Yep he still thinks it's wonderful, closely followed by the fascinating bark chips underneath the swing!

I managed to get some pics of Elizabeth crawling, although they aren't the best - she never sat still BEFORE she was crawling, let alone now - but I thought I'd post one here for Andrew's side of the family, and anyone else who wants to see.

We also managed to get to the toy sales and start buying things for Austy's first bithday and for Christmas - man this boy is going to be spoilt! Andrew and I couldn't decide, and there's still a few things we want to get, so he won't be short of toys by the end of the year. He's really starting to have fun with the toys he got for Christmas last year, with them having a weekly rotation so he doesn't get bored.

Austin's tricks this week include saying "Meoooow" and rolling his tongue - I did it to him one night and the next morning he was doing it and giggling at himself! We have also lowered his cot as he takes Elleanor Elephant on tours around it while he waits to fall asleep, and tried to fall asleep with his arm over the rail the other day, so we were quick to drop the base, in case he tried to climb out as he likes to use the bars to help him move around.

Nothing else exciting to report. I took some photos of Katy's baby, little Zachary, on Thursday, so here's one of them for anyone who wants to check him out in detail.

Update on "the babies"

2006-07-03T16:48:00.000+09:30

I missed out on photo opportunities on Saturday night as the teething monster had certainly taken hold and byu the time I'd finished cooking and eating Austin had to go directly to bed! Do not pass go, do not collect $200...

However I do have news - Elizabeth is CRAWLING! She only does little stints at the moment before she falls on her tummy for a rest, but she's quite mobile and also pretty fast. Andrew was trying to get Austy to pick up tips from her, although I'm quite happy to wait to childproof the house, and I think that with crawling, there will be more temper tantrums (no, Austy, you can't have that!) unless I somehow become superwoman and keep everything he's not allowed to have completely out of sight. He's quite a determined little man, unlike Elizabeth's laid back demeanor. I guess with a determined Dad, and stubborn Mum, he was bound to pick it up! Besides, he will certainly need determination to be the next Tiger Woods in years to come...

So instead of a pic of Austy and Elizabeth, I thought I'd share this one of Pop and Austy instead from our Golf Club lunch the other day (using up the last of Andrew's vouchers).

Also, I have entered a pic of Austy into the Cyberbabe competition so that we might have the chance to win a family holiday. It's a bit of a popularity contest rather than a cutest baby thing, but all a bit of fun. So if you have some free time, it would be great if you could give him a vote (http://www.babyexpress.com.au/shop/photo_gallery/current.php). If not, don't worry, as I said, it's just a bit of fun.

Love and hugs to everyone!

We have a breakthrough!

2006-07-01T13:54:00.000+09:30

Well, another tooth, that is. Yes he FINALLY has cut one of his top front teeth, his right one came down last night and the left one doesn't look too far away. Austy has been rather unsettled of late, even being a shocking sleeper at night for the last few nights and for some silly reason Andrew thinks he has slept less than me, even though he doesn't get up to feed him three times at night and then again four times more when he won't go back to sleep... But as we have been waiting for these top teeth for three whole months, I was beginning to get skeptical about whether it was teething causing him to be unsettled or whether he was entering a sleepless, insomniac, cuddle-me-lots phase. He was crying last night while I was cooking dinner and I told Andrew to pick him up and hold him. He told me that he was, but he was still screaming, then I hear "Oh, Hun, I see a top tooth!" I responded, "Yeah, yeah, like the last time you thought you saw one..." (he has been telling me he can see them for over a month now). But sure enough as I layed Austy back in my arms and he opened his mouth to let out another wail, there, low and behold, was the elusive top tooth, well and truly cut through the gum, and a very pale gum right next to it where the other tooth of the pair should be any day now.

So, having worked out why he prefers his cold fruit over warm vegies, and why he has been screaming at night and refusing milk, we dosed him up with bonjella and panadol (which I am reluctant to use unless it's obvious that teething is bothering him) and he slept through till 7:30am! So when he wouldn't sleep all morning, I gave him some lunch, followed by another dose of panadol and the little angel is sound asleep catching up on lost z's right now. I am feeling a little guilty for giving controlled crying a go last week after he hadn't slept in the day for four days straight (I thought the lack of sleep was doing more harm than a few minutes of crying), but at least now I know that technique just isn't for me (we BOTH ended up in tears and NOONE slept!) so we won't be doing that again.

Another milestone we reached this week is that we turned the car seat around to face forward. I will add a photo when I get around to it. As much as he loved facing backwards, he has hit the 10kg mark (the seat must be turned anywhere after 8kgs and definitely before 12kgs) and is sitting up really well on his own now for extended periods of time. We could have reversed the seat moths ago when he hit 8kgs, but as he's heavy for his age we felt he wasn't ready developmentally until he could sit well. We really think that the carseat manual should say something like turn the car seat when the baby is over 8kgs AND over 6 months as he was definitely not ready when he hit 8kgs and would have flopped his head forward quite a bit if we turned it then. He hasn't squealed with delight as he did when the seat was facing backwards, but he is taking so much more in now, looking all around him as we drive, and loves it when we stop at traffic lights and I turn to look at him and play peek-a-boo!

Now I must get back to the housework as Matt, Jazz , Elizabeth and Zarny are coming over for our regular Saturday night meal together tonight and I still have to take Austy shopping for food when he wakes up. Andrew is busily painting the laundry after having ripped out the cupboard and retiled, and is getting it ready for our new massive clothes drier to match our massive washing machine, making life a hell of a lot easier for a stay everywhere but home Mum like me!

And a few messages:

Dad and Zona - Congratulations on becoming Grandparents again (wow, twice in one week!) with the birth of tiny little Clay Stewart... he is just gorgeous, thanks for the photos, and send my love to Grant and Wendy, I am so very happy for them especially knowing the difficult and long journey they have been through to parenthood. I will have a little parcel on the way for them soon!

Mum - Sorry I missed you the other day, I will be printing out some more photos for your album soon. Hope you are well.

David and Robyn - Hope you are still enjoying your overseas treck, thanks for the updates, you sound so very relaxed. I am keeping Zarny fully nutrished! She has a Joy cooked meal twice a week now, with our family get together with the babies on Saturdays and Zarny comes on her own on Wednesdays and helps with Austy while I cook her a nice meal. She's doing really well - you have nothing to worry about, there. The babies are both doing wonderfully (except for a few teething probs here with Austy as above) and Elizabeth seems to be hanging back on her crawling, waiting for you guys to get home - who knows, they may both start crawling at the same time! I'll try to get some pics of them together to add here tonight.

Deb and family - Glad that you are enjoying Austy's updates - thanks for reading!

Our boy is 7 months old

2006-06-26T20:35:00.000+09:30

With all this rolling practice, our little boy is becoming more and more mobile, making it difficult at nappy change and dressing times, but exciting knowing that he could be crawling anytime soon. Matt and Jas brought Elizabeth over for our weekend catch up and pasta bake on Saturday night, and it was so much fun watching the babies play together. They are becoming so interractive with each other now.

I think I have come to the conclusion that our daytime sleep issues will never be sorted, sometimes he will sleep and sometimes he won't so we just have to go with the flow. He was particularly tired after his swimming lesson today but just refused to sleep, so I got him out of bed after three hours of trying and these are the smiles he gave me when I did his 7 month photo shoot. I have a thing for black and white photos of Austin at the moment, can't you tell?!

Other than that, all is well here. Austin missed swimming lessons last week as he developed a bit of a cough on Monday and we wanted to keep him warm and dry. He's much better now though, loved his lesson today and will do a make-up lesson next Tuesday, so will go to swimming two days in a row. Zarn has said she will come and watch on Tuesday.

We are off to the golf club for lunch with Pop tomorrow, so hopefully Austy will behave and have a sleep beforehand.

Austin becomes a BIG cousin!

2006-06-20T10:18:00.000+09:30

On Saturday at 12:26pm Austy's newest little cousin Zachary John entered the world, weighing 8lb 1oz. Austy's Aunty Katy was fairing quite well when we visited her and Zac on Sunday morning, despite having a cold and an ear infection as well as having only just given birth less than 24hr earlier. Katy is a tough one, I'll give her that!

Katy was beaming from ear to ear and proudly proclaimed that she dilated all on her own this time without the need for syntocin (like she has had with each of the other three) and as her epidural had worn off by the pushing stage, she pushed without much pain relief after the midwife talked her out of an epidural top up, another thing she was quite proud of, this being her last child for her little family.

Zac was in the neonatal ward, but only as a precaution. He was being given a drip of antibiotics through his arm, just like Austy had as he was "a bit grunty" at birth and they were worried that he had Katy's cold and may also be prone to ear infection. When I saw her though, she was waiting to talk to the doctor, who was going to perhaps let her take him to her room and he could be given the antibiotics there.

Little Zac has a cute little chin, which I think is very similar to Austy's. Other than that he is Katy all over, with short, blonde eyelashes (clashing with his dark brown hair) and her frown!

When Ausy and I got to the hospital, Tom, Alyssa and Jake were there and both the kids rushed over to Austy's pram while I gave my lil sis a big hug, some chocholates and pressies for Zac. Jakey suprised us all saying "Austin!" for the first time, very loud and clear and he blew us both lots of big kisses when he went home with his Dad.

On Austy news, the poor little tacker has a bit of a colkd himself this week, with a nasty cough. Andrew thinks it's from going to two hospitals in one week (also visited Nanna Merit at the Lyall McEwin onThursday evening). So unfortunately we missed swimming yesterday in preference of keeping him home, warm and dry.

Austy on the move

2006-06-16T22:40:00.000+09:30

Well Austy has finally done it! He rolled from his back onto his tummy all by himself on Monday and has been doing it all week. He will not stay on his back now and prefers to play on his tummy, while he used to only put up with that position for just a minute or two. I think it helped that he had just learned how to "have a rest" (lay his head to the side) when he was on his tummy before he learned to roll, and every time we had helped him to roll we cheered him anyway, so now he rolls and pushes up on his hands looking for a cheer and thinks he's the bees knees.

However not only has he learned to roll, but he also seems to get from A to B seemingly easily with a bit of a commando crawl motion. He won't go up on both knees like Elizabeth does, but does one knee at a time. This morning I turned away for 30 secs to turn on the bath and when I came back to the lounge I found him lying a metre away from the rug I'd left him on! So we think he just didn't want to roll until he could use the new skill to motor around!

He's noticing EVERYTHING at the moment and tries to spin everything now that he knows how to do that. He has spinny things on his aquarium toy on his cot and on the bath seat, which have put the idea into his head along with that red FP key. But Mummy's har does not need spinning... it's also hard to read him books when he tries to spin the pages. Oh well.

This week has seriously flown by, but perhaps because Austy has been a little bit more difficult than usual. He's getting back to a full night's sleep (YAY!) but has been fighting us for day sleeps and being grumpier than normal as a result. I miss how happy he normally is, so hope to sort out those day sleeps again soon too. We managed to get three sleeps in today and I missed mother's group in preference for a sleeping baby, but he still wasn't his normal self this evening and acting very overtired. CYH would tell me it must be a "wonder week" where you wonder what the hell is wrong with them (actually supposed to be a week of lots of growth and mental development but I joke that they tell you it's a wonder week whenever things get a bit difficult). Although, he has been developing alot this week, and really taking an interest in things, and understanding what comes next. We can't keep him out of water, and he screams as soon as we remove him from the bath or take his wash down water away at the end of the night, so I am trying to prepare him for it by telling him "last splash" before he is taken away from water. Works for the bath, but not after wash down. Thought the house was going to collapse tonight with the tantrum he threw when I tipped out his water bucket! Oh well, he'll learn, there's more water again tomorrow.

I have also been a bit snap happy this week as a few of the mothers I know helped me to work out how to take better pictures with the digital camera. I have been practising heaps and Austy (of course) is my favourite and spunkiest subject (sorry Andrew!). So now we have so many photos of Austy at 6m. I have posted a few of my favourites in the album, but also a couple here for those who can't see the album.

Okay, time for bed, and time to get out of this baby spew jumper...

A week of whispers!

2006-06-10T12:10:00.000+09:30

Austin has developed his whispering skill after many a whisper in his ear that it's time for sleep! He started whispering on Thursday saying "Bababa" with and without sound and then finally working out the whisper. "Bababa" is by far his favourite word (make that sound, I can't find it in my dictionary!) and when I took him to buy some buttons for his new handknitted stripey jacket yesterday, he was whispering it over and over so I gave him a tube of buttons to shake as I carried him in the sling and told him "Yes buttons". This kid will be chatting away in no time!

He's also trying to learn a new sound at the moment. Currently every thing he says has an ah sound on it (Mamama, Bababa, Dadada, Vavava etc.) but he's been watching me very intently as I say "Ah Boo" He's got the "ah B" bit right but he's still working on the "oo". His favourite new game is peek a boo, and he now pulls his sheet (in his cot) or the rug he is lying on (on the floor) over his head and whips it down again with a huge smile waiting for me to say "Ah boo" or "There he is" after asking him "Where's Austy?" when he has his face covered.

He still watches everything we do, and after a trip to see Aunty Katy on Thursday, learned how to spin his red Fisher Price key after Jakey showed him. Before that I was blowing it around so he'd pout it to his mouth and blow a raspberry, but now Jake has showed him to hold it in one hand and flick it with the pointer on the other hand. He thinks he's ever so clever, and the red key has now taken over as his favoutite toy.

On the topic of Austy's Aunty Katy, his newest cousin is ready to enter the world any day now, as Katy is 37w pregnant. She has never lasted this long with any of her other babies, so is very excited that the babe is nearly here. She's looking very healthy, despite her illnesses and increased medication, and is definitely ALL baby! This one looks like it will be competing with Asuty as far as size goes, looking very healthy tucked up inside her belly. I had to remind Katy that Austy is almost as heavy as Jake (who is nearly 2 already!!) so if she can't pick up Jake, she shouldn't try to pick up Austy. She had to get her Austy fix though and gave him lots of cuddles.

More news: Austin has finally rolled on his own! At 6.5m he was found on his tummy at the top of his cot after Andrew popped him back to bed yesterday morning. We haven't seen him do it again, except for immediately after when I put him on the floor, and while he gets close, it seems like such an effort to haul those kgs over to get all the way onto his tummy. He often rolls to his side and then rolls back to his back again. We suspect he "cheated" and used the cot bars to pull himself the whole way yesterday, as he has rolled several times by pulling himself through the final bits of the roll by grabbing onto my fingers.

He's still a pro at eating, and his mouth has this solids bizzo worked out, but unfortunately his tummy isn't keeping up. Last week he was waking with tummy pains, and a tummy as hard as rock until I massaged it and settled him back to sleep. Against the helpline's advice we took the rice cereal out of his diet (they told me to just feed him the cereal but I was sure that was what was causing the problem) and have just fed him fruit and a little bit of veg this week, and his tummy problems have gone away. (1 point to Mum, 0 for the helpline!) I know he needs the rice cereal for iron, but I will introduce it very slowly as of next week, and no rice cereal after 10am - one of the lovely girls at my mothers group gave me this gem of advice after she had similar issues with her daughter. In the mean time, he tucks into his baby spinach mixed with sweet potato, so we know he's getting his iron there. Personally, I'm not a fan of powdered foods, and would rather feed him natural stuff like fruits and vegies which don't bloat him, but apparently all babies should have rice cereal...

On the sleep issue - now that we've resolved the waking with tummy pains, for some strange reason he has started waking hourly until midnight, crying until I pick him up then settling the instant he is close to my chest. I cuddle him for 5 minutes and then he goes back in the cot, but it has made it hard to get anything done as I'm constantly going back to his room, and then am exhausted in the morning because ther'es no point in going to bed until midnight and then he wakes again at 4am and 6:30am. I think I have kissed his beautiful 12-13hr sleeps goodbye with the onset of solids... I will be cheering when he sleeps through again.

Okay, time to go and grab the little tiger as he is again refusing his day sleep... I'll get this housework done one day, and maybe finish making Elizabeth's nappies, if I'm lucky.

Austy starts swimming lessons...

2006-06-06T12:34:00.000+09:30

Despite not having a morning nap prior to the lesson start time of 10am, Austin was keen to jump in, with arms and legs wriggling all over the place as we approached the "big blue bath". I had to hand him to the instructor while I got in myself for fear of him jumping out of my arms and diving in! He is definitely a water baby through and through... who knows, he could be the next Thorpedo... he definitely has big enough feet!

Unfortunately the camera lens was fogged for half the class, so Austy's Dad could only manage to get a few pics of him with a tired grumpy look on his face, when the novelty had worn off and the tiredness set in.

We passed a ball from baby to baby (it was a struggle to make Austy let go and pass it on, but the balls kept coming around the circle so saved us a tanty), snag songs, splashed lots and swam in a floaty ring through a tunnel. Austy also had a ride on a floating mat and we submerged him with the other babies who had been coming for a while. He didn't cry with the submerging but it seemed like forever that he was under and I scooped him through pretty quickly - the instructor said that I needed to slow down or I'd scare him. I tried, but it's hard not to automatically grab your baby when their head is under water. Better luck next time, eh?

Hopefully Austy will wake a little earlier next week so we have time for a morning nap and he will enjoy his swim alot more.

Austy's photo album

2006-06-04T14:28:00.000+09:30

You will now see Austy's album in the top right hand corner. Click it and type in the password to view. Contact us for the password (this album is only for family and friends).

In the Leaves

2006-06-04T07:31:00.000+09:30

By popular demand.... Austy's first Autumn experience taken 27th May 2006

Check out the toasty warm new boots! Austy won these with his gorgeous 4m old smile. Click the "Austy Wins!" link to check out his winning photo.

Austy In Print is born!

2006-06-03T10:20:00.000+09:30

Intro

Hi all, hope you are well. I am new to this blogging business but found it easier than starting a web page form scratch, hence the web page I started working on while Austin was waiting to arrive still being only half finished! Hopefully I'll work this all out soon enough and Austy In Print will grow to give you lots of news and photos about what's going on in the Austy Household.

Austy Log

Straight from Austy's chair...

This week has been a tough one, especially for me as sleep has been the last thing on the menu, and we hardly ever get that far down. Austin had his 6 month needles on Tuesday, and while he didn't cry at all for the first one and harldy let out a grizzle for the second one, they messed him up a bit and by Wednesday he was not a happy chappy. The baba sling and my home made mei tai became my best friends if I was to get anything done. At least he loves being carried in the sling - I wouldn't know what I'd do without one. He would only sleep in our arms and not in his cot and also was waking in a cold sweat when we did manage to get him into the cot. Thankfully, our happy boy is back again and we are getting lots of giggles. Now we just have to work on getting him to sleep through again!

Asleep on Dad's shoulder

Other big news on the Austy front is that he started solids on Monday and has been eating lunch all week. His appetite is just as big as it has been on my milk alone, and he gobbled 100mL of food in his first sitting. He loves his tucker (just as much as my milk!). So far he has tried apple and rice cereal, apple and banana (with rice cereal to thicken), pear and apricot (again with rice cereal), pear and carrot and potato, sweet potato and pumpkin. So far his favourite seems to be the pear and apricot - he couldn't get enough!

Austy eating his first solids (Apple and rice ceral) on Monday

Messages

Austy's Poppy and Zona:
Hope all is wonderful ovber there in sunny Perth, and that little Charlize is thriving as much as Austy is. Also send my best wishes to Grant and Wendy as the birth of their much awaited precious lil one is approaching. Thinking of you.

Austy's Grandma:
Hope you're feeling better soon. Thought you might like this as a great way to keep up with Austin's millions of photos! Will still send you the monthly ones in hard copy for your little Mother's Day album.

Austy's Nanny and Grandpa:
Still winning lots of money David? Hmm, that American dollar is sure to drop when you guys return from your holiday, as you'll be bringing all their money back to Oz with you! Missing you both. Zarny is doing fine.

Austy's Friends:
We hope you enjoy reading this at your leisure, this way we won't bombard you with photos, as you can come here and check them out when you need and Austy fix, rather than getting your email overloaded (sorry, we just think he's gorgeous!). Also, when I forget to call until it's far too late at night, you can still find out what's been happening by checking out this site. Hopefully I'll remember to update it :)

Now, off to the shower before the little tacker wakes again and prevents me from doing so! Woops too late. Sorry about the editing, I can't get it to work...