Train for the ages

Ella's expedition to the Weston Park train (see one of yesterday's stories) jogged a childhood memory of being excited by the train myself. So I dug through the old photo albums and uncovered documentary evidence to support my claim that this train must be almost as old as me.

The evidence is shown on the above -- compare with the snap below. It seems that the train "carriages" have changed colour in the intervening years, and perhaps the seats have been re-covered. But the styling is unmistakable.

You'll see from the photo that, despite this being my party, I was a shy lad and did my best to avoid the glare of the camera. Nothing's changed there. In contrast, Susie (at the back, obviously being egged on by Raymond King) wasn't shy about showing off. Meanwhile, uber-dork Cathy steals the show with her four-eyed death stare.

Tummy Time

Little Katy is getting more active on her gym mat.  Her neck muscles are much stronger as she is able to lift and turn her head while on her tummy. She really enjoys watching things move whether that be the trees outside or the toys hanging from her gym mat. 

  

And Ella still loves her...

Choo Choo

Mother's group ventured out in the 4C misty day to Weston Park to have a train ride and play. The kids absolutely loved going on the mini train.  The sun did eventually come out, while the kids all played and explored the playground.  The double width slide was also a great hit.

  

 

Good Memory

After being out for most of the day firstly to swimming lessons, then to watch daddy get his whooping cough booster (and watch him faint!), to the cafe to help daddy recover :), drop daddy off at work, drive out to Queanbeyan (including a snooze on the way) where we investigated options for paving of Pippa's path through the lawn, then home via coles and jammo playground, Ella was very particular as to her plans for the rest of the arvo - watching Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and Igglepiggle, which are characters from her favourite show In The Night Garden, in her pink suit :) When I told Andy about our day that night, he revealed that he had promised Ella if she got dressed she could watch In The Night Garden in her pink suit after swimming ... seems like her long term memory is beginning to function. BTW do you like my first attempt at plaits?

 

10 Random Things

1. Everyone in the house including Pippa and minus Ella has had a needle (or 2 in Katy's case) in the last week.
2. Why does Pippa chase birds flying in the sky and dust dancing in the sunlight when she catches neither?
3. I predict Katy is going to be a thumb sucker.
4. We just planted an apricot and a pear tree in the back garden.
5. Today I saw 2 Sulphur crested cockatoos having fun hanging upside down on a powerline.
6. Ella's can now sing her own version of 'Old MacDonald had a Farm.'
7. Andy may feature in an article in the Higher Education section of wednesday's Australian after he gave a lecture on the Southern Ocean at a forum on Climate Change yesterday.
8. I survived feeding, bathing and putting to bed the 2 girls by myself last night while Andy was out having drinks with the big wigs from the forum.
9. Katy is in the 90th percentile for height and her granuloma on her belly button has almost healed.
10. Trying out a new recipe tonight - coconut chicken curry risotto.

Beautiful Brindabellas

Today was an absolutely beautiful day - clear blue skies, light breeze and a top temp of 16C. What better way to spend such a fantastic day other than going for a walk. Katy, Pippa and I strolled up Mt Painter, the little hill at the back of our suburb and we were rewarded with stunning views of the distant hills - the Brindabellas. It make you appreciate what a fantastic place we live in.

Look on the Bright Side

Lunchtime naps are a thing of the past or have been replaced sometimes with a 20min catnap at about 4ish.  At first we (especially me) thought this was terrible but slowly we have got used to this change in routine.  Actually we now really like it as we no longer have to plan our day around getting home for lunch and a nap.  

With our new found freedom, we ventured out on Saturday to watch Andy run a cross country race that started at 1pm. We didn't get to see him all that much - only at the start and finish - and seeing though it was an 8km race we had a little time to kill.  What can one get up to while waiting ... well ...

• balancing on logs
  

 

• playing with rocks and sticks
  

 

• a new hat (course marker!)
  

Just For The Record

Not only does this blog let distant family and friends see what we are up to and watch our girls grow but it also serves as a diary for us. So seeing though we started this blog around Ella's first b'day we missed out on recording lots of little things that she progressed through in that first year. Of course we remember those major milestone - when she first slept though the night (6 weeks ish), first steps (early march 08) but it's all the small details that you seem to forget which shows what life really was like.  Hence the purpose of this entry.

A Day in the Life of Katy and Nat with guest appearances from Ella and Andy (Friday 17th July)

• Day began fairly early with Katy waking up at 12.50am and Andy on duty for bottle feed.
• Andy's back in bed by 2am after watching the end of the tour.
• Katy wakes up at 6.15am for breastfeed and is back in bed semi asleep with Andy by 7am.
• Ella wakes up at 6.30am plays around until Nat gets her milk at 7am.
• Nat packs Ella's lunch and feeds her breakfast.
• Katy wakes up Andy at 7.30am and both finally get out of bed.
• Dress both girls.
• Andy and Ella out of the door by 8.15am to catch the bus.
• Nat has a shower.
• Katy wants another feed at 8.30am.
• Nat calls Yarralumla Nursery to see if anyone handed in her car keys and HOORAY they had.
• 9.15am Katy, Pippa and Nat head out for a walk (Extended Henry Half)
• Drop past the Cook IGA for supplies - milk, bread, paper and chocolate mud cake (packet mix)
• Back home by 10.15am make cake and while that's cooking unpack dishwasher, put on load of washing and do a general tidy up.
• 11.30am still waiting for Katy to wake up so check email, surf net and read some of the paper.
• 12.15pm Katy finally stirs and feeds.
• Head off to nursery at 1.15pm and on way home stop at Yarralumla Bakery to buy a steak and mushroom pie and lemon tart - YUM.
• Arrive home by 2pm, eat lunch while doing the sudoku and focus.
• Katy wakes for a feed at 2.30pm.
• 3ish put out washing, fold some washing up, ice cake and prep dinner.
• Nan (Andy's mum) drops in on her bike at 3.30pm for afternoon tea.  Katy impresses her with her smiles and cooing.
• 4ish leave for Jase's. Have some more afternoon tea as well as play time with Abby and Zoe.
• Katy is hungry again just before 5pm.
• Leave at 5.30pm to pick up Ella and Andy.
• Decide to have a quick beer and some chips with Andy's colleagues at the uni shop.
• Back home by 6.30pm to heat up some macaroni cheese for Ella.
• Bathtime for both girls at 7ish.
• Milk, story and both girls in bed by 7.45pm.
• Eat our dinner at 8.15pm.
• Katy wakes at 8.45pm so Andy bottle feeds while watching a recorded episode of Miss Marple.
• Katy back in bed at 9.45pm.
• Nat expresses then goes to bed at 10.30pm and Andy joins her at 11.30pm after doing some work.
• Ella wakes up in hysterics (bad dream about mummy?) at 11.45pm.
• All quiet by 12.20am.
• Katy is up again for more milk at 2.20am and another day begins :)

Sleeping troubles

Everyone has been telling us that 2-year-olds become difficult, but I never really believed that our angel Ella could become so bad. But battles are slowly growing into wars, and to be honest I don't think we're winning.

Take today for example. Ella went to sleep at her normal-ish time, but there was no chance we could get her to sleep. Even the time-honoured tactic of closing her door, waiting until she cries herself to sleep in solitude, failed. (I was met with cries of "go away, Dadddy" from inside the bedroom.) In the end I lost the battle, and Ella galloped around the house for the next 10 minutes in triumphant celebration (see photo).

Meanwhile, it turns out that Katy doesn't really sleep during the day either. I guess we can console ourselves with the likelihood that both will sleep well tonight.

6 Week Check Up

Katy is 6 weeks old today and went to the health clinic for a routine check up. Her stats were 4.3kg, 57cm long and head circumference 37cm. Comparing these to her birth stats of  3.6kg, 51cm and 34cm demonstrates she is growing at a fairly normal rate - something we're not used to as Ella went from 3.6kg to 5.2kg in the same timeframe.

We then had to visit the doctor, who was having a particularly bad day and was 1.5 hrs behind time, about the granuloma on Katy's belly button. What's that I hear you say...well officially known as an umbilical granuloma it is a piece of tissue that remains on the baby's belly button after the umbilical cord falls off. Rather than healing up and becoming covered with skin, a bright red stalk of tissue remains on the belly button. It has a grainy surface and produces sticky mucus. Nothing serious - just got to keep cleaning it once a day with metho - yes that's not a typo metho - until it dries up and heals properly.  According to Andy's mum, back in her day of raising kids it was standard practice to clean the babies belly buttons with metho.

Have You Tried?

While we had yummy lamb cutlets and some vegies for dinner Ella ate her favourite food - macaroni cheese. After devouring a bowl of pasta, Ella decided she wanted to have some toast with honey. On delivering 2 slices of toast and honey to her she changed her mind (as toddlers do) and said she wanted vegemite. Much to my digust, Andy's solution to this situation was not to make 2 more slices of toast but to spread some vegemite on top of the honey. The funniest part was Ella didn't bat an eyelid and ate it all up!

Smile :)

A Katy 'first' smile. Check out those dimples.

A Bed Anyone?

One of Ella's favourite pastimes and time waster is making a bed for her doll.  This involves taking a heap of wraps and cots sheets from Katy's drawers, shaking out flat, placing the doll in the middle, shaking another sheet (2 or 3 or 4) over the doll and then sitting next to the doll patting the lump to sleep.

Recently Ella decided to make numerous beds for her many soft toys (except for Tomoki) in the lounge room.  It reminded me of nap time at childcare where all the mats are lined up on the floor - perhaps that is where she got the idea from?

Clear Out Those Cobwebs

Today was a historic day as Pippa and I went for run. Managed the Cook Farmhouse loop with only a small walk at the top of the very steep hill. My base includes not running since last november, gaining 25kg with Katy's pregnancy, losing only half of it so far and having a nearly 6 weeks old. So no wonder why I felt awfully slow, fat and uncoordinated. Got to start somewhere I suppose.

I finished my run at Stacey's playground (named after being closely located to Stacey and Dave's house) where Ella, Katy and Andy were happily playing. It seems my arrival was perfectly timed as Katy had just cracked it in the pram so Andy was jiggling the pram at which point Ella decides to do a number 2 in her underpants - yes underpants.  She decided this morning to be a big girl. It must be noted as another Ella 'first' and I should add Ella was very proud of herself (rambling all the way home - in her own words - "Ella big poo at the park."

Also another Ella 'first' today was no midday sleep which made for an interesting* afternoon to an already trying morning.

* full of tears and tantrums......

Cuddles

Ella loves to give Katy cuddles and her technique as you can see is getting better (and so is Katy's head control!!)

Zzzz - Not in our House!

What's the saying one step forward and two steps back.....I'll say no more on the topic of sleep (or lack of)...just got to keep reminding myself Katy is only 5 weeks old...

Ahh Bliss

If it first you don't succeeded, try and try again. 6 hours of sleep = welcome back mummy  to the land of the living!

The Best Made Plans...

sometime don't work.  Last night we thought we were in for a winner - well I did anyway.  The plan was for Andy to give Katy a bottle feed when she woke up somewhere between 10.30 - midnight while I expressed before going to bed and theoretically could then have nearly a full nights sleep (well I was hoping for 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep). 

Hmmm so the first part was ok - expressing that is - went to bed excited by the prospect of lots of sleep.  Woke myself up just after midnight by coughing too much (been sick for 2 weeks now) and realised Andy was feeding Katy - he hadn't gone to bed. Woke again at 1am to Ella crying - went to investigate as Andy was still feeding/settling Katy.  Ella was unsettled until 4am and she finally fell back asleep after some milk.  Katy meanwhile decided she was hungry at 5.30am so up to feed her then back to sleep until 8am when Ella woke us up.  

Needless to say there were two grumpy adults in Aston Cres today. Lets hope tonight goes a little better....