Christmas cards - a labour of love

Outtakes and the whole sorry tale can be seen on Facebook. This link will take you there, even if you are still stubbornly holding out.

The Crab

Apparently a baby will typically crawl for 500 hours before they walk, so Alice may get on her pods by age 3. One of the usual triggers - wanting to carry something - is not going to work. Alice has found a way to get from A to B with a shapey thing in her hands.

The Big Day Out

Alice had her daycare orientation session this morning. It started at 9am, so we all got up and ready as a practice run. Everything went quite well - our human alarm clock woke us at 6.30am (after a false start at 3am - someone must have set her incorrectly) and we were out of the house, fed, clean and with packed lunches by 8am. The packed lunches won't be a feature of the usual routine, so I think that - with some practice - we'll get into a good rhythm. My plan is for Stu to park the car and drop her off and for me to get to work by 8am, so things will need to get started a just little earlier.

The orientation went well. Alice went off and explored the room and made a couple of little friends, with appropriately trendy names of Grace and Oscar, to the constant echo of "Gently" from the staff. We gave details of her sleeping and eating routine and how much milk she needs and at what time and received a backpack and a sun hat in return.

That done, Alice was completely worn out and napped in her stroller for 90 odd minutes while I visited one of the last remaining Starbucks in Sydney and had my first GBL of the season, while relaxing with the newspaper in the sunshine. I did well to stock up on both energy and vitamin D, as the rest of the day was fairly hectic and overcast.

We set off for David Jones, to seek our fortune in the only known parents room (to me) in the CBD. Quel horreur - it is on 6th floor and can only be reached by the same lifts that every parent west of Anzac Parade seemed to be using that day, to visit Santa. The queues for Santa snaked around the floor and it seemed that every parent and child in the store was crying. It was a bun fight to get to a change station, but we made it through, heated up lunch and escaped within about 45 minutes. My plans to visit the Aquarium scuppered, but my smugness in having seen Santa in the Bondi David Jones (where there were no tears, tantrums or indeed other children to be seen) not abated, we vainly sought a high chair and ended up dining in a shopping mall somewhere. I dined, Alice spat her food all over everything in sight, as is her current wont.

It was drawing close to the highlight of the day and so in my usual cursed state of being first to arrive everywhere I go, (except when meeting my grandparents where we all turn up 2 hours early and everyone - except Stu and Nanna - is happy) we set off to the Opera House. Alice and I have made some fab friends this year and amongst them is Little Friend Linnea's Mum, Natalie, who was performing in Opera Australia's "Christmas at the House", alongside David Hobson and Yvonne Kenny. We were so early that we were able to take full advantage of the disabled access (around the maze that is the bowels of the opera house, past the kitchens and the stage door), check the stroller into the cloakroom, have a look at the view of the bridge and still have at least 25 minutes for Mummy to wish she could have a glass of champers or at least to book an interval drink.

Alice enjoyed the performance greatly - entering the theatre felt a little like entering a 747, with everyone around us sighing, avoiding our eyes and then remarking loudly that, "Oh God, there's a baby next to us" - and behaved impeccably. She was a little chatty during a poem and a solo, but perked up in joyful voice to join Auntie Natalie in "Angels we have heard on high" during the chorus, "Gloor-or-or-or-or-oor-or-or-or-or-oor-or-or-or-or-oooooor-ia" and was spellbound during the 'Twelve days of Christmas' when all four soloists were on the stage and there was much ado and operative noise for the five gold rings. She nodded off happily in my arms during the interval and snoozed through a couple of orchestral pieces, a poem and right through some ditties to Ave Maria when the tumultuous applause woke her up.

Top three moments are reserved for the bouncing during 'Six white boomers' which had Alice giggling and jumping (link to song included for the brits http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=hlSsffF2xhA), the lady next to me who remarked, "Ooh, wasn't she good. In fact, you made more noise than her when you dropped her bottle in that quiet moment" (grind that knife, sista!) and Alice's loud belch during the 'Little Drummer Boy', "par-rum-pah-pum-burrrrrrp".

All in all, it was terribly exciting and very festive. After weeks of debating with one of the Auntie Kates which carol service to go to, I'm confident that we over-delivered in our usual fashion. And if all the local churches choose to do their carol services after bedtime, then what is a baby to do?

Not very many photos of our exploits due to Alice being asleep, spitting or in an auditorium for most of the day, but here she is enjoying a "run around" before the show with a couple of icons in the background.

Refusing to crawl about and just looking at books

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Oh goodie, there they are.

We were both shattered when we got back - not a good sign since Alice spent only 30 minutes at daycare and I spent 0 minutes at work - but it was such fun.

Match the photos to the post

I interrupt this day with a slight hangover, but which I am forced to spend making my Xmas hampers because I have left it until the last minute, to bring you some photos, now that the computer and the camera are on speaking terms again.

Discarding all other toys to get to her books:



She's going on a bear hunt...



Enjoying swimming lessons:



Must go, off back to the homemade hampers for the motley crew of all Alice's minders (the pilates studio receptionist, Russian beauticians' mother, the Wadsworths and the Satchwells) containing Chrissie choccie biccies, Cranberry sauce, Christmas ketchup (great with prawns!) and Peanut (un)Brittle. Bet the rest of you all wish you had been more helpful now, eh?!

Paul Hardcastle meets 2Unlimited

A self confessed child of the 80s and early 90s, with much of the trash left lying around my CD collection to prove it, I was most pleased to hear Alice trundling around the house singing, "No, No, No, Nuh, Nuh, Nuh". She really could break into song with "No Limit" or "N-n-n-n-nineteen" any time now. If my Mum were here, she would be hearing "Nanna". Who is to say which is right?!

In that classic baby tradition of wanting to practice new skills all day and all night, she replies "No" to any question by day and last night was up for an hour between 2am and 3pm for no (geddit?!) other reason other than to say, "No". I eventually got her back to sleep (well, I didn't actually get her off - over the course of the hour, I threw all my tricks at her: changed her nappy in case it was dirty, gave her some milk in case she was hungry or thirsty, gave her a dribble of medicine in case her smokers cough had been bothering her, changed her under-sweaty-head muslin in case she was hot and added a blanket in case she was cold, but then realised that she wasn't actually crying, she was just along for the ride), tucked her up, closed our door and put an earplug in and hoped she would "No" herself to sleep. The next thing I heard was next door's baby crying at 6.30am while Alice snored on, so presumably she did just that.

The little sounds are very entertaining as is the propensity to copy words that you say. Apparently babies have to hear a word at least 300 times before they register it and another 300 to learn to say it. While finalising the Christmas shopping and specifying to the cashier which account I wanted the payment to come from, Alice took a break from her favourite word of the day to repeat a word that must have fulfilled the requisite repetitions in her hearing, "Savings". On a roll for five minutes, she then held her hand out for a rusk "Tusk", a feat of which I am slightly more proud. Neither have been repeated since nor allowed to interrupt the flow of "No".

Get thee to Toys R Us

The lack of photos is a trial and dedicated blog fans will just have to listen to my ramblings a little longer, without the hope of pictorial relief. Having retreated to the sofa in a curious state of Victorian ennui (curtains closed, fan buzzing and mopping my fevered brow) to recover from the exertion of buying, wrapping and posting all the Christmas presents for the UK contingent, I sought to gather some strength to shop for Stu and Alice and other Australians, this week. As previously noted, I have been laid low with a head cold and so I wasn't getting very far with it all. My love of online shopping had been curtailed with no fewer than three retailers losing parcels or promising gleefully that they would deliver goods in January and a feeling of bah-humbug permeated the air.

With the school holidays and the end of parking spaces at retail malls looming, I had to pull myself together and get to Toys R Us yesterday to see the latest Mothers Group cult toy, the Bruin Musical Activity Table, which was allegedly on special. I stopped at Finks, the most expensive cafe in the East, for caffeine and then we were away.

There's something of a novelty in being able to take the recipient of the Christmas gifts with you, see if they like something and know that they won't remember anything of the expedition nor nag you to buy things that they have particularly enjoyed. Alice and I spent a merry hour looking at lots of brightly coloured plastic and listening to Essex Dad in the next aisle, "Yeah, it's pretty n everyfink but what abaaat vair development like?". I hate to be coarse, but to name numbers, I spent $100 and bought Alice such a huge pile of toys that I will have to save some for her birthday. It's a crazy bargain place, even more so than all the other shops in Sydney at the moment. I'm not paying full price for anything ever again.

Building her immunity

So, we clocked up another cold last week. This means that I have a cold this week, but at least I know how it will progress from watching Alice's sniffles. This one doesn't seem too bad - if I follow her lead, I will have a blocked up nose for about ten days, a cough for just two and will be completely off my food for three or four, with a propensity to blow any food that is put into my mouth across the kitchen in a giant raspberry. I might lose a couple of kilos, which would be nice.

We went to a Mothers Group festive lunch yesterday, which was very pleasant. All the babies had a different cold and one had even purportedly just got over chicken pox. She had only had three spots and her mother was sure that they were mosquito bites, but the Clinic were insistent that babies present with very mild symptoms. Anyway, it was very reassuring to hear that all the other babies were being extremely annoying with their food during periods of blocked up noses and that most of the Mums were suffering greater sleep deprivation. Mothers Groups are great places to discover that you are not alone in the dark places. Unfortunately they also bring you crashing down to earth, when you think that your child is surely a musical/literary/sporting genius, since you can guarantee that Little Tarquin will be crawling just as well if not better than your own little Angel and that all babies like books and balls (especially if they have bells inside).

We were all very relaxed about the sharing of germs (apart from the chicken pox, but no one was very convinced about that one, including the mother of said patient) and are pretty confident that come January, they will all be catching all kinds of undesirable infections from daycare, if they haven't already started. Last week, Alice apparently transmitted an infection with a nasty fever to Stu without having any symptoms of her own to show for it. He was laid up for 3 days (and I was forced to apologise for accusing him of a hangover for the first day).

Fortunately if she should catch things, we have a procession of grandparents coming to stay who will hopefully like looking after sick girl. And perhaps even Alice too.

Bookworm

Having found the gift of motion, Alice has wasted no time in using her crawling skills to her advantage. She is now able to select the toys she would most like to play with/put in her mouth. and to get herself into favourite nooks and crannies where babies have no business.

I've spent the past week training her to come to heel and although she won't necessarily obey a vocal call to follow, she has now got lay of the land and is able to seek me out if she has, for example, been plonked in the lounge and I am washing up her mealtime debris in the kitchen.

We are having some camera/computer connection issues at the moment, so as soon as I can, I will post some photos of her pathways of destruction - all other toys disgarded so as to get to her pile of board books. She can often be found "reading" Bear Hunt and Peepo to herself - turning the pages and making the "Hooo Wooo" noise from the snowstorm in the story, as well as bouncing along to the rhythm of the remembered words.

In other news, her father went to Adelaide for lunch with work yesterday. Global Financial Crisis, anyone?

Scott and Amanda's wedding

Mummy and Daddy managed to escape for an evening to go to Scott and Amanda's wedding. And here is the evidence...

Alice apparently behaved beautifully, which is good to know. I'm not planning on leaving her every Friday night, but it's good to know that someone else can put her to bed and she will sleep until....get ready for it...7.45AM!!!! Hurrah.

It's life Jim, but not as we know it...

...at least not as we used to know it. Speedy Gon-yardley-z has picked up her pace and is now into everything. Who would have thought that wine racks, ironing boards and Daddy's shoes would hold so much interest?! Our tiny little appartment with my cunning under furniture storage tricks is now a place of much intrigue with too few high shelves.

Now, making dinner, showering or getting dressed are trickier as there is a little person who can't wait to see what lies beneath the nearest chair/bed/fridge (she did manage to unearth one of her favourite spoons which had gone missing the day before, so has her uses). She still loves the newspaper and although she is stubbornly refusing to follow me in the canine manner suggested by Vanessa in her comment on our last post, the rustling did get her to demonstrate her (lack of) speed for the camera...



Other scenes from this week depart still further from our usual daily life - almost a case of Alice through the Looking Glass. I am going out three times, which is very exciting, and Stu is going out only once. As a practice run for the evening where we will both be out living it up (me)/ making polite conversation at their boss's wedding (Stu), the babysitter came to look after Alice for a few hours yesterday afternoon. Safe in the knowledge that they "needed" to bond and that Alice "should" learn how to take her food from someone else, (Pater can't be doing with the mess and hides under the bed during mealtimes - no doubt this is what Alice is looking for when she gets everything out from there) I swanned off for a few hours and had a haircut and a pedicure, bought a case of wine and queued in the post office without a running, sung commentary from a small person whose stroller takes up most of the floor space.

All went well - when I got back she had "annihilated" an avocado sandwich and was tucking into a yoghurt with her usual gusto. I wonder whether they should practice spending time together again so that I can have a spray tan and a manicure...?!

And finally, Clovelly, one of the sleepiest Eastern suburbs was last night the target of the ATM gang who are blowing up cashpoints. I'd like to say that it was very exciting, but I think that 2.45am was about the time that we all went back to sleep after Alice had kept us up for a couple of hours for no good reason at all. Alice and I popped up the road to see the scene of the crime this afternoon, all that we could see were a few rubberneckers creating traffic chaos as the poor little Bendigo Bank got boarded up. Alice was hoping to see a couple of police dogs, but was sadly disappointed.

Must go - it's very quiet and from my limited vantage point I can only see two little feet...

Teeth, Tupperware, Trundling and Talking

Alice has been busy growing teeth in the last few weeks. Now that the top two are through, the process of additional bottom ones does not seem to be bothering her so much, although the dribble still pours out. Nelsons teething powder and magi-dry bibs are Alice and my new best friends.


We kind of miss the gummy smile

I've been busy preparing for our Tupperware party, which went off with much noise, plastic and cries of "Lila, come back", "No, Maddy, not on the balcony", "Makayla, don't bite the snack pots" and "Oh, Jack, have you been sick again?!" The adorable Alice was very well behaved, although the other babies brought out her competitive streak and she decided to perfect her long awaited crawling manoeuvres. Her version of crawling is still very entertaining and very slow and so we are not completely baby-proofed yet. I have been too busy cleaning! The faster and less placid babies kindly showed me the potential pitfalls around the lounge/kitchen/bathroom/dining room table/bookcase that I had missed. I hasten to add that no injuries were sustained and no Tupperware was harmed while holding this party.



Alice loves her shape sorter - just AUD$35.45 from your friendly resident blogger if you order before Tuesday 25th November.


Now fully mobile, we need to work on technique. Alice hasn't quite worked out that crawling is best achieved using opposite limbs. She understands that hands go one front of the other, but then tends to bring only one leg along with her and just drags her right leg as though she has been shot in the bottom. She is up on all fours, so we don't quite have a wounded commando situation here. Still, she can trundle across a room and if she should happen to collapse onto her tummy, she can now push herself back up into a seated position for a more comfortable repose. After she has done this, she waits for applause before moving on about her business.

Vocally, we continue apace. This week's words are a very clear "Hello" (which has not been repeated but was very exciting), attempts to say "Alice" ("Ay-yah") when looking at her picture on my phone and a stream of gibberish which could, quite frankly, be anything. As usual, I would like to freeze her at the age she is at - still so good natured, she now needs supervising rather than entertaining, and just wants to trundle, talk and sticking her new teeth into her (Tupperware) toys.

Lunch with the girls

Big Terry would be proud. Alice and I went out for a delightful lunch out with her chums Marley, Izzie, Lila and Makayla on Thursday.

Instructions for lunch with five babies.

1. All mothers to walk the floor while babies who would usually fall asleep in five minutes take at least twenty to settle. If there are five of you, choose a big and accommodating restaurant who don't mind if you take over the whole floor space to do this.

1a) Realise that if you are having lunch at Sydney's longest beach, then it would have made more sense to walk a couple of lengths of the promenade at Bondi (although the lifeguards won't pass you glasses of wine as readily as the staff at Nick's)

2. Mothers to decide to enjoy the strolling time despite lack of lifeguards to look at.

3. Babies to enjoy their lunch out. They come first after all. Here they are having a lovely time.


4. Mothers to eat and drink as fast as possible during the twenty minutes where the scene above is visible.

5. Resume full attention on the babies and let them run riot on picnic blanket with toys that you have prepared earlier while you enjoy your coffee.

6. Go home. You are exhausted but at least you won't need dinner.

High five!

By George, I think she's got it. Thankfully Alice can take her place in Australian baby society and will now limply stroke a proffered hand when required. She thinks it's hilarious and is exceedingly pleased with herself. Best results come from using an overly comical American accent in the manner of Willis from Different Strokes, followed by the request to "Give me a hug", which is also achieved. This said, Stu informs me that all my accents sound Welsh or Pakistani. Alice is very amiable and just does what she is told.


We're working on more universal gestures such as clapping and emulating Little Friend Cecilia's hilarious royal wave (which would surely just be an enhancement of the Bollywood hand). I'm also force bonding Alice and her new cult toy, Sophie la Girafe. All her fashionable young pals love the giraffe, but Alice is just not interested and will go our of her way to pick it up and drop it in a heap on the floor.


And finally, sad news. The long loved jumperoo has become a stand-with-bent-knees-eroo and so it is time for the giant living room ornament to hit eBay. We are keeping it just long enough to entertain the babies at our Tupperware party next week (the auction ends the next day so hopefully no one vomits on it). Anyone interested in plastic storage sets or a giant plastic baby toy should contact me at the address below. I'm an environmental warrior, me.

"doGGGGGGGGGGG"

And so we have the long awaited first word. By this, I mean word as in related to an object rather than a cute sound that we take as an indication that she recognises her parentage.

Somewhat bizarrely, since we don't own one, see many or even much like them, it is "Dog". Alice has long loved her "Babies" book, but now that it has completely disintegrated through affection, we have moved onto "Dogs". Although she has been saying Da-da for an annoying long time (even before Dada joined us on our holiday and when she hadn't seen him for three weeks), she seems to have temporarily misplaced the "d" sound. I took her to the beach yesterday and although dogs aren't allowed on the sand, some walked past on the footpath. Although she was supposed to be enjoying a picnic of meatballs and sweet potato chips - I have decided it is far less dispiriting when she refuses food if Stu and I get a meal out of my cooking too, rather than her eating a lovely fillet of fish in cheese sauce and us having Chicken Tonight - she spent the whole time pointing at the "Ggggg"s.

I've been concertedly avoiding baby talk and enunciating (too) beautifully. It would seem that the final letter of the word is what sticks in her mind. However, there was no mistaking the objects of her affections. Our next Baby Einstein book is "Birds". Or "those bloody birds" if you listen to her mother at 5.30am each morning. I wonder if it will be the word or the phrase which will catch on.

Making her way in the world (2)

Since sinking her teeth into me some weeks back, Alice's days of breastfeeding have been numbered. I have finally weaned her and am now hoping for some lie-ins at weekends.


I had planned to go until Christmas, but I just couldn't get her to concentrate on feeding and besides, I need to get my wine drinking skills back up to par before Aunty Michelle arrives on Boxing Day.


So, now Alice is on her own, with "just" the three milk feeds, three lovingly crafted, organic meals and water drunk through a straw or from her doidy cup, each day. We have had a bit more sulking with her eating recently, but then a blocked nose will never produce a great appetite. Poor thing is still streaming and I'm still suctioning it out before each sleep. Eeeewww. Not a post for the faint hearted, this one. Here's a picture of Alice sleeping off another fight with Monkey and Softy Rabbit to make up for it.

Platinum Baby

Sadly, my favourite gym did not have a place for my favourite daughter, so I have been forced to relinquish my membership and to sign up at the bright lights of Fitness First, which has a creche. I got a good deal on the fees, which is immediately cancelled out by its location within Westfiend Bondi Junction, meaning that I never simply go to the gym, but always seem to need to stop and "pick up a few things" at the shops.

Alice is adapting nicely to the creche - she will sleep in her pram in the little sleep room if it is sleep time and this morning she sat and watched the bigger children cavort about the place. I am just next door and apparently the carers come and get you if the shrieking gets too desperate.

This gym is a funny place though. Stu used to swear that he saw Nicole Kidman coming out of yoga classes each time he went and it has a beautiful panoramic view over Sydney Harbour. Sound idyllic? They call it platinum to make you think that it will be. However, the Spin class participants who whoop with joy during the really hard bits and body beautiful obsessives who stand around naked and texting in the changing rooms? That'll drag you down to earth.

Still, the Munchkin is happy at the creche (where everyone is fuly clothed at all times and there is considerably less shouting than in the cycle room) and I think it's good preparation for daycare for her to be left for a short while from time to time. I think she prefers the pilates classes where she gets to come along and chew on my feet during leg raises.

Making her way in the world

Our Alice is showing real signs of her own little character. She now has a special camera smile (which is not actually that attractive)...



...and her latest trick is to try to amuse us by playing peek-a-boo. She's been on the receiving end of this game for quite some months, but she is now instigating the fun; she will hide behind anything she can find and then appear, giggling wildly.


She first discovered the joy to be found in being a player, rather than a mere participant, in her hippy party dress (above). This has acres of skirt for her to hide behind. However, she now hides behind anything she can find. Her bath towel, Daddy's shoulder etc, etc.

If nothing comes to hand, she'll lift up her hands, close her eyes and then open them. Fully convinced that she has disappeared during the time when her eyes were closed, she thinks that this is hilarious. It is, of course, but I am usually laughing at her, rather than with her.

In my last post, I promised birthday photos. Here is Alice helping me to celebrate mine. Like all babies, she prefers the wrapping, although I'm not sure if she tied the headband all on her own...

You can take the baby out of Essex...

And here, she celebrates with Little Friend Charlie. You see, Aunty Deborah, it's great to encourage them to be willing to wear hats for so many reasons...

She's a bottom shuffler

I seem to have missed a few weeks in posting, during which time I have also missed some other things. Sleep would be the first. Young Alice is spouting her two top front teeth, as well as having had a cold/projectile vomiting lurgy. This has added up to a week of broken nights, among them a couple where sleep of anything more than 1 hour was at a premium. On Sunday/Monday, Alice actually settled around 4am, I managed to drop off some time later and then her Dad's alarm clock for boot camp went off. (If it's not one of those pesky Yardleys, it's another). Alice seems to be on the mend now and we have discovered Baby Nurofen for the gum issues.

Other things I have been missing are a name for her preferred mode of transport. From all to whom I describe her creeping movements, whereby she can cross a room using her hands to pull her forward while half sitting, half kneeling, I hear "Oh, she's a bottom shuffler". This must be an accepted phrase that I have missed out on (neither Gina Ford nor the patronising northern Baby Whisperer must mention it), yet it seems common parlance in our circles. So Alice is a bottom shuffler and may well miss crawling. She can cross a room to pull books out of the bookcase and to attempt to get to the nice and brightly coloured broadband cable already, so sees no reason to get onto all fours. She does attempt it a few times a day, but usually face plants in the process.

The other thing that everyone seems to expect Alice to do (apart from to desist calling out at the top of her voice at all times) is to perform "high fives". Twice today she has had an adult palm proffered at her, by a waitress and her swimming instructor, demanding that she "give them five". Alice just looks at them and dribbles. We need to get practising. Two of the other babies in the swimming class exchanged high fives with each other. Yes, they were older, but we need to get in on that action - it was very cute.

She did gain a gold star today at swimming for being the only baby to blow bubbles under water. Finally is a purpose behind all that dribbling and raspberry blowing.

In other news, Alice has attended her first birthday party (one for a child in a garden rather than her real first one for Uncle Tom in the pub) and helped me to celebrate my own birthday, by spending a lot of time with Daddy. Photos to follow. We seem to be so busy at the moment! Plus, I have been using her sleep times to book exciting trips to New Zealand for Easter to use up expiring airmiles, to indulge my new love of Grazia and to catch up on some zeds myself. Can't miss too many of those.

Thorpedo in the making

Alice had her first swimming lesson today and had the best time. She splashed her little arms off and giggled and laughed through the whole class.


Swimming lessons tend to start later over here than they would in the UK, but once Australians have had all their innoculations, they seem to catch up somewhere along the line in terms of swimming prowess. I think Alice is well on her way. Although I have been reading enviously of Alice's british chums' exploits in the pool, today made up for the months of waiting.


Yesterday we tried on her various cossies to choose our favourite for the big day.

We panic-bought a couple of rashies to match, but didn't need them in the end. Alice was in a class with three boys, (one of whom had to be removed due to his hysteria) and was quite the belle of the pool in her turquoise number. I get to wear a big t-shirt (so that she would have something to hang onto) and am delighted since I've only been to one 6am spin class so far.

The lesson was based around songs, splashing, watching Mummy put her head under water (which Mummy hasn't done for about 20 years because she doesn't like the chlorine on her face), laughing at Mummy having to pretend to think going underwater was fun, looking around and laughing while she was supposed to be holding onto the side, looking around and laughing while she was supposed to be jumping off the wall like Humpty Dumpty and generally exhibiting extreme good humour. She has spent the rest of the day eating anything that is put in front of her and sleeping like a dormouse. I think we'll go every day.

Poetry in motion

After rolling a grand total of 8 times in her life, we thought that Alice might by-pass crawling. Perhaps she simply can't be bothered to get moving and would rather spend her life hanging around in her pants like her father?

Yesterday she woke up a little out of sorts. She remained the same after her morning nap and through the morning stroll to get Mummy's coffee. I cancelled our attendance at that afternoon's Mothers group, thinking I would give her a quiet half day. We made our way to "post-natal" pilates (post natal in that you are allowed to take the baby that natalled along with you) where, to be honest, I expected the worst. There were a few classes in Alice's younger days where we had to flee the room, such were the histrionics. Although the instructor and her lovely assistant will hold the babies if they should cry, this was never good enough for Alice - it always had to be me. I've completed many a core stability exercise with Alice propped up somewhere about my person.

While there are usually only two or three of us in the class, this week we were five. That meant five babies. Alice was in her element. Unphased by the fact that one of the others choked on a rusk and had to be Heimlich-manoeuvred, Alice sat up and bounced around the room, usually towards a boy baby. She was particularly enamoured with baby Phoenix, quite liked Ariel but was not at all interested in Cassidy. (I wonder if she will chastise us for choosing such a traditional name for her when she is older?!) But I digress...quite the star of her own show, young Alice cheered up immensely and amused herself by travelling around the room on her nappy clad bottom, paying her respects to each baby in turn.

The rest of the day passed in cheerfulness and much of the same. Our little appartment is so small that I began to worry that she might have been stifled. We have been planning to chuck out our coffee table for about six months, so I actually did that yesterday. Using the fine Australian tradition of leaving it out on the street and watching your downstairs neighbours requisition it ten minutes later, I created a good deal more space for our intrepid baby. Before long she was travelling the living room floor on her bottom, thinking about crawling positions more earnestly than in previous playtimes and even happily standing up against the "poufe".




Look, no hands (or hair), I just prop myself up with my tum


Thinking about crawling towards the TV remote which is off to the right...

The bouncing bottom manouvre (a few days before it started to take her places)


Note to the technologically savvy Grannies - I don't know if this video will work in the e-mail format; you might have to go to the actual blog to see it...either way, it works best with the sound ON.

Clovelly kids

"Lifestyle" is the answer we often give when asked why we moved here. True, we do have mothers groups in the park or on the beach, on a boat and an outdoor cafe culture. I think I shall have to be careful to make sure Alice gets more of the parks, boats and beaches than the cafes. Two faces of the Eastern beaches:


Alice concentrating hard on her banana bread



Little friend "CharlieCinoMummyCoffeeCake"

Mummy's little helper

Alice still gets a bit grumpy in the evenings from time to time. This can usually be resolved by keeping her with me. Yesterday she "helped" me to sort the washing. As mothers tend to say in these situations, I only turned my back for a minute...

aaa-eeeeee.....

This is the noise and below is the scene which greets me each time I walk into a room, where she has been playing happily until she remembers that I might offer more scintillating entertainment than the play gym.



The right hand is usually spinning and weaving in a Bollywood movement, indicating the owner's desire to be picked up. It was very cute at first.

Future calling?

Alice has patiently schlepped about Sydney with me on various errands this week (for essentials like blood tests, hair cuts, pedicures and visits into work). She has shown great interest in the various professionals whom we have encountered along the way: chatting to the nurses, staring at the hairdresser's scissors, insisting on attending the pedicure rather than playing in the creche at the nail salon. However, I think we found her true calling at work when she assisted Amie with some important typing.

Naughtiness

I must write more often - every day brings a new event. Recently, we've seen her reach for her water when some food has gone down the wrong way; take all her toys out of her aquarium and then, oh joy, put one back; and conquer her dislike of water on her face. Minor achievements, but our little girl is growing up.

The weekend, however, saw her first act of trickery. As per the previous post, she is now a dream to put to sleep and will simply put her head on one side. The other day, after her bath, she was in that nude stage between being dried and having her nappy put on. It doesn't last long - I've been burnt before. However, we were running a bit late, so as I hurriedly bent down to get her nappy, and returned my gaze to the naked baby, it seemed that she had already gone to sleep. Completely exposed and lying on the change table. Her head was on one side and her eyes were closed. She was still.

"Look, Pater", I exclaimed, "She's only gone and nodded orf". Or words to that effect, perhaps slightly less influenced by comedy english charachers on the wartime drama we are currently watching on DVD.

On hearing my voice, Alice opened one eye, then another, waved her arms and legs about, gave me an enormous beaming smile and began to giggle and shout something I couldn't quite make out. She had tricked me and she was very pleased with herself.

As Aunty Deborah said in an e-mail yesterday, "...babies love to imitate and Alice has a head start with her genes". I read this quickly and thought that she said "...babies love to irritate and Alice has a head start with her genes". Perhaps she did mean that - I've heard the stories of Stu as a little brother and they sound bad enough from his side of the story. I'm sure I will soon have a little terror on my hands.

PS The upshot of writing more often might be that not all posts have photos. You make your choices in this life, Grannies.

Daily chitter chatter

Daring, tempting and luring the curse of print, I'm going to come out and say it. Alice has this sleeping thing down pat. She's now down to two day sleeps and, very conveniently, just puts her head onto one side to stare at her Monkey toy from Auntie Becca and drops off within minutes. She's able to be awake for 2.5 - 3 hours now between sleeps (according to the baby recommendation gurus) and not quite all of that time is spent eating or trying to get her to sleep anymore. Much of it is spent sitting on the floor waving her arms about to be picked up, but no matter. The rest of the day is spent squealing, chatting, laughing, shouting, cooing and singing.

Posing with new friend Monkey. Elmo, long since forgotten, looks on

Monkey sleeps on Alice's head after what looks like a minor scuffle

We are, however, getting woken up earlier and earlier as the seasons change. Alice's room is completely blacked out at night - we would have been model wartime citizens - but it's the blooming birds. When we first moved here, I thought they sounded very exotic, but now they just wake us all up. (I still love the sound of the crickets in the evening, but then they don't interfere with my lifestyle, so everything's conditional).

Our weeks have changed shape since we got back. We have one whole mothers group which has gone back to work (bad form on their part, I say) and a few activities which don't start up for a couple of weeks yet. However, our days still follow a remarkably similar pattern (all accompanied by a running commentary from Alice) and it's this:

6.10am (average up time at the mo): Big milk feed (Have decided I'm going to feed her until Christmas day, when she will be 11 months. After that, she's on her own, buster. Also her father can get up with her in the mornings sometimes. Hear that, darling?

7am: Breakfast (5 tbsps porridge mixed with formula and fruit)

9am: Sleep

9.45am: I wake her up. Drinks some water. Plays with playgym/jumperoo/we go out and she sings along to the radio in the car (There is one radio station which often plays "Don't leave me this way" and she gives Jimmy Somerville a run for his money in the aaaaaaa-aaaaaah) .

11.15am: Lunch - a serving of an Annabel Karmel thing - we are currently alternating the cauliflower/broccoli in cheese sauce and the one-pot chicken. Both are big hits. Also 1 baby yoghurt. Nothing baby about the size of these bad boys and Alice wolfs it down. She sucks/gums some cooked slices of apple, drinks tonnes of water and doesn't tend to make too much mess. Likes to hold cup herself which is very impressive and she will eat more if she has a swig between each mouthful for second half of main course.

12.30pm: Sleep. All going to plan, usually for 2-2.5 hours and, in the absence of Loose Women, I settle in to watch the second half of The View. I have decided from today to keep this time for myself rather than cooking up Karmels or ironing etc. I am justifying this by calling it a lunchbreak. I'd get one if I were working and my work day certainly wasn't 13 hours long with possible night calls. (Well, it was once upon a time, but when I go to see my boss later this week, it's not the terms and conditions I'll be seeking.)

2.30pm/3pm: 120 ml formula. Without a reminder from my chest area that a feed is due, I keep forgetting to make up this bottle and it's usually a bit later than this. She doesn't seem to notice or complain - this said, the other day at the playground, she did start to forage in my top in a most undignified manner - but wolfs it down when it comes and I then feel a little bad.

Afternoon: Plays/chats/we walk etc. Eats rusks/apple/plays with water cup some more. Lots of chat. When cuddled, will give big hug back and if I say "aah", she will repeat. Will also try to kiss me which is thoughtful but damp.

4.30pm-4.45pm: Tea. Chews on 2-3 rice cakes with pureed avo on them. Eats rest of avo. 3 cubes veggies although gets bored very quickly with tastes at this meal, so have been experimenting with serving 3 cubes of different veggies separately. More apple slices get sucked. Have tried her with other veggies as finger food, but is not yet interested. Big mess is usually made.

5.45-6pm: Another big milk feed

6.30pm: Bath - now sitting on her own in the bath so Mummy sits next to bath with glass of wine. We play with her bath toys, which are different farmyard animals, all of whom she calls "De"

7.00pm: 240ml formula feed

7.15pm Bed, usually passing out before I even have time to cross the room to put her down

She used to have a story before all her sleeps, but now that she is more alert, she gets too excited by books. Either revelling in their familiarity because we didn't have too many with us on our big trip and so we read them many times ("This is a Baby"; "We're going on a Bear Hunt"; "Miffy at the Gallery") or loving the novelty of a new one and squealing with excitement or trying to copy the sounds (Eg this morning's rendition of "Good night moon"- Me: 'Goodnight stars', Alice: 'Tars') It's very sweet, but stories now have to be part of playtime rather than bedtime because they are just not a calming influence.

I think that some of the talking may be a coincidence, but she's certainly got one lot of noises down pat. Quite often, if we are in a queue or have a terminally slow walker in front of us, she will give an exaggeratedly loud sigh. It would get me punched, but she just gains glances of admiration, giggles and right of passage. On waking, she has finally learned which side her rice cake is buttered on and yells, "Ma-ma".

The very hungry baby

We'd had a good innings with the food. Alice has been eating nicely for a few days and today it all went to pot. Or rather, stayed in the pot.

I've come to the conclusion that babies are like old people. They like to eat early and they have their funny little ways. Alice needs to have eaten breakfast by 8am, lunch by 11.30am and dinner by 5.15pm. Then she likes a hot bath and some warm milk.

The culmination of this schedule is that I am either preparing meals or washing up for most of the day and am just grateful that Stu is happy to take himself off to work with just a sachet of lemsip by way of sustenance.

Today I missed Alice's windows for breakfast and lunch and they were both tough going. To compensate, we started dinner early. I should also note that things have moved on, from the position we were in two weeks ago, where she would only feed herself. For the last little while, she has been refusing such mundane tasks. She may suck on a piece of apple if I hold it for her but she is far more likely to throw any finger food straight onto the floor (as opposed to all toys, fingers, baby wipes, TV remotes, mobile phones etc, which go straight into the mouth).

It started badly. She wouldn't look at her mashed potato, so I relented and gave her a Raffertys Garden sachet of carrot, pumpkin and apple. She wolfed that down. Then a sachet of banana, mango and pear. She wolfed that down. By the end of the meal, she had consumed 3 sachets (organic), 1 portion of mashed potato (organic), 3 rice cakes (organic) with avocado (organic), 5 cooked apple slices (organic) and 1 Farleys rusk (not organic [gasp] and counterfeit to boot - smuggled in by Nanna Keefe, although perhaps I should not put that in writing or else Alice and I will end up on Border Security). I think she would have kept on eating but I thought it was time to draw a stop to such matters, since avocado was actually starting to come out of her nose.


After third rice cake...and she was still hungry

I'd like to credit her little friend Charlie (as well as hunger) for the improvement between lunch and dinner. We met them for coffee (or as Charlie likes to point out when he passes any cafe, to his mother's chagrin "CharlieCinoMummyCoffeeCake") and Alice enjoyed some banana bread before the chums ate pieces of apple together. Hmm, Alice's GI levels may not have been ideal today, all things considered. Still, as you can see, she's thriving.


But, I'll forgive her anything, since she is now saying ma-ma, waving her arms to be picked up, sings alone to the radio in the car and has refused the dummy since we arrived back in Australia. Self weaning - we'll take that!

(Physiological) Matters arising

The sequential cold has moved from Alice to me and now onto her Dad. In a way it's been good that it didn't really overlap for any of us. In another way, it's time to be rid of the lemsip and move on.

Spring or even summer has burst forth in Sydney on a rota of alternate days and we are ready to stride forth leaving our snot behind. Some news on the wee one:

1. First tooth has been through for 10 days or so. It isn't much more than a millimetre high as yet, but gee it hurts when she pretends that she will be innocently sucking your finger but instead chows down.
2. The worry of the "clicky hips" has now subsided. Prior to our trip, the 6 month check revealed some 19th century sounding ailment issues with her hip joints and one could hear distinct clicks and clunks when her legs moved. She had an ultra-sound last week and it seems to have gone away. Funny. She had to wear two nappies for the duration of our trip to try to spread her legs so that they were not too compressed in the hip sockets and apart from ensuring no leakages while we were travelling, this seems to have worked. I quite miss the two nappies in fact - you always had a spare, which alleviated one thing from the suitcase of equipment that I otherwise need to carry around.
3. Alice was last week fascinated by Little Friend Lila crawling around the lounge and has been thinking about copying. She still imitates a paraglider, for the most part, while lying on her tummy, but when her arms are down, they are straight. Just need to work on her leg muscles now.
4. Sitting is perfect and has been for a while. This is very handy for plonking her down, dressing her in outfits with buttons at the back, and keeping her entertained around the shops - she will just hang over the edge of the stroller and look around and to know when she wants to be picked up, as she will just wave her arms in the air until someone comes. The physio who runs our pilates class is most distressed that she is sitting before she can crawl but we live to dribble another day.
5. Thank goodness we had a good day of eating yesterday. All three meals consumed in the fancy highchair and all three home cooked. Cauliflower cheese went down a storm. Apparently her grandmother loves it too - not sure if she would be such a fan of the version made with formula and with broccoli secreted in there for extra iron, but perhaps we shall try out that recipe come their visit in January...

The hunger striker

And so endeth a very long two weeks. Both Alice and I have had colds, jetlag and one of us has been on hunger strike. Those who know me well and in fact, those who have seen me even once, will surmise correctly that it wasn't me.

In a latter day bid for the baby suffragette movement, Alice is asserting the right for little people everywhere not necessarily to eat orange mush if it is placed in front of them. Or green mush. Or any other colour of mush into which you may pour blood, sweat, tears and the precious few minutes you have while they are sleeping when you could otherwise be watching Oprah.

It started just before we left the US and the situation deteriorated on the plane when the stewardess luke-warmed a tin of something or other and Alice refused to have anything to do with it. Since then, mealtimes have been battlegrounds and I have had to resort to ever more desperate measures to get her to eat. Tantrums, food and money (at a new bells and whistles high chair) have been thrown but to little avail.

Some of the things which have worked have been:
1. Eating out at Clodeli while watching Little Friend Charlie throw banana cake about the place
2. Sitting in new high chair
3. Sitting in bumbo in front of Baby Beethoven DVD
4. Sitting on my lap
5. Me singing and dancing around the kitchen in between her mouthfuls
6. Sitting in front of open window watching the birdies and hoping the neighbours don't mistake me for Michael Jackson
7. Sitting on my hip while I sing "Hey, hey it's Baby Alice" to the tune of "Hey, hey it's the Monkeys"

Some of the tings which have not worked when tried for a second time have been:
1. Sitting in new high chair
2. Sitting in bumbo in front of Baby Beethoven DVD
3. Sitting on my lap
4. Me singing and dancing around the kitchen in between her mouthfuls
5. Sitting in front of open window etc etc
6. Sitting on my hip while I sing "Hey, hey it's Baby Alice" to the tune of "Hey, hey it's the Monkeys"

So the only reliable method has been a lunchtime trip to Clodeli - a local poncy caff where Lote Tuqiri takes his morning latte (extra froth with sprinkles). Lots to see there, to keep her entertained, whether Little Friend Charlie is there or not. Followed by a sprint down the hill to get home before she falls asleep.

Funnily enough, her father was apparently a very fussy eater as a child (to the extent that Grannie Al recently asked me if he now ate pasta and was surprised at an affirmative). However, I don't think that Alice is being picky - she will screw up her face at the sight of a spoon without even trying it. Last week she seemed to want to feed herself. This week not. How one of my many friend Kates must now laugh (as Little Friend Charlie throws his risotto at her) - I remember telling her that Alice was going to be a great eater. I had decided as much. Breakfasts seem to go well - we eat our porridge together at the table and very little singing is needed. However, like all these baby phases, this too will pass (I remember the fortnight where she wouldn't sit in her pram was a very long two weeks too). Nanna Keefe's smuggled Farleys rusks are going down a storm, so at least I know that she is getting some sustenance.

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Next week, we ask..is Annabel Karmel sponsored by the leek industry?
And if not, why am I single handed propping up the Welsh economy in following her recipes...

We are a cousin

Such much news. Alice has a cousin, Emilia Kitty Grace Partington (Milly), who was born on Sunday 7th September. Milly weighed just the same as Alice (7lb 6oz/3.34 kg) but seems already to have more hair, so that will be adding a couple of grams to her body weight. Alice is very excited to meet her beautiful cousin - though goodness knows when that will be.

Milly shared her birthday with Alice's first Fathers Day. Unfortunately Alice's father was to be found dancing on the shoulders of some beefy men in Vietnam, to the tune of "I love you baby", (recreating the scene from "The Deerhunter" ) rather than celebrating with Alice. He also took the camera with him so I couldn't capture Alice's little face, alone on the day of paternal celebration, nor her joy at waking on Monday morning to hear the news of Milly.

Fortunately Father Stu made it back from 'Nam relatively unscathed and was a big help for the 60 minutes he spent in the house while Alice was awake before he jetted off to deepest WA to inspect a pipeline. Because he knows so much about them. Roll on the end to single parent family-dom at the weekend. It's been a tough couple of weeks (of which more later).

So Alice is on her way to catching up with my cousin tally of 20+. Auntie Deborah and Uncle Andrew, not to mention the Leigh-on-Sea Aunties will need to get busy if she wants to overtake me.

In other news, Alice's fairy god-sister Megan started school this week. It's been a momentous time indeed.

Taking our leave at Lake Arrowhead

As I type, the rain buckets down on Sydney and I can't believe that just 1 week ago we were sweating it out in California.

Our trip culminated in a weekend chez the Wagners senior, in the mountains above Lake Arrowhead. We stopped "for gas" at the foot of the mountain and it was a whopping 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees C). By the time we had got to the top (I, somewhat shamefully, forget Bruce's statistics as to the height of the mountain and the lake) the temperature at 5.30pm was "just" 31 degrees centigrade. Phew. We set to work throwing open windows, switching on ceiling fans and prepared to sweat it out. Alice as ever took it all in her stride and napped happily in another strange room. Here, she relaxes in front of her view before the blackout blind is racheted up in front of it


Happily the Wagner family boat was on hand and we enjoyed a spin around the lake. Alice certainly has her sea legs and coped beautifully. We were asked a few times if it was her first boat trip (as well as if we needed a sweater/food for the ducks or Baby James's shoes), but of course I was able to point to her previous excursion on her friend Luella's cruiser - we have schooled Alice well by attending very well connected mothers groups.

It was a wonderful conclusion to our trip and the intrepid world travellers enjoyed some R&R - I even managed to finish a book. Not bad for a 6 week period. What an epic adventure young Alice has had and how many new friends and family members she has met. Not to mention gaining her own body weight in new outfits, which I had to post back separately.

Here we are, relaxing on our last night away, looking forward to our own beds, our own car and, although we weren't to know it yet, the prospect of sharing a bassinette on the plane home due to another Qant-arse screw up. Ho hum. These things are sent to try us.

Whe-ere-ere-ere did my heart go?

"Down in Mexico" would definitely be the answer. Given the three youngsters' gruelling habit of waking each other up in the early hours, the fact that I didn't have a tan to come back with, as well as the proximity of the border, we set off to Rosarito, around ninety minutes away, for a couple of days.



We had a really lovely time. Stu and I took shifts in sunbathing and eagerly awaited the lunchtime naptime when we could guarantee a good couple of hours in the sun and the pool. It was only interrupted by popping back to the room every 10 minutes to see if she had woken up. If that all sounds a bit Kate and Gerry McCann, fear not - the room (ahem, suite) opened out onto the pool and one of us was always taking a shift on the veranda, blocking the entrance. So not that relaxing, really, but such is parenthood.

About to go for a sundowner with Dad


Getting ready to go out for the day

Reading by the pool

Swimming with Mum


It was great to have a resort holiday - it has been and will be a while, I think. Stu had also booked me in for massages at the spa, plus we had a dinner at the restaurant. The Tapas Two enjoyed fajitas overlooking the sunset. Ah - good times.

Chez WC Varones

Alice adjusted beautifully to the relaxed pace of life in San Diego. She acquired quite a penchant for glassed, cups and bottles, but they were kept at a distance from her, lest she inherited her father's childhood habit of biting into them. Hmm, responsible parents? She does seem pretty keen on this margarita and in joining in the wine tasting going on below.



We had a such great time, visiting the zoo, the Wild Animal Park, shopping, hanging out with the O'Connor-Wagners and generally relaxing. Stu managed to run every day, Alice enjoyed having little people to entertain and read to her, as well as sucking on their fingers and binkies and I sometimes managed to lie in until 8am. Stu and I had a night out alone and also with Sheila and Ed. I have learned that babysitters are OK and can put a baby back to sleep without either of them having a meltdown so I am planning my social calendar as we speak.

A quiet moment reading with Caroline - get started already or I'll kick you

Settling into a good story


Fun with Baby James - the finger incident

As Sheila pointed out, I will need to hire some two year olds on return to keep Alice entertained.

And finally, some before and after shots. How life has changed in less than 4 years.
New Year 2004

August 2008 (I think we got more sleep that New Years Eve than an average night on holiday with Alice)

Stu and Ed with James

Stu and Ed with another James - this one with an eye for the ladies