Househunting

Vague whimsy about getting onto the Sydney property ladder have become concrete plans now that we know we will need to move from this place in June.  Stu has been crapping on  telling me for some time that we can't afford to buy around here but I had my head in the sand  couldn't believe that was the case.  After a useful exercise whereby we spent an evening looking at the 3 bedroomed properties that we could afford in Clovelly (horrible old sheds/deceased estates that possibly still had the deceased somewhere within), I have been persuaded that we need to leave the convenient East where everything we do and almost everyone we know is based and to investigate the North Shore and the Northern Beaches.  Stu's been waxing lyrical about such romantically named suburbs as Seaforth, Fairlight and Freshwater for some time, but I haven't been able to muster much enthusiasm for life in suburbia.

We had a family day out house hunting last Saturday, which went surprisingly well.  The tag team approach was very successful, aided by Juliet's sunny disposition (just 10 days into solid food, she happily slurped sweet potato puree for the first time on a grass verge outside one of the houses, after a bottle in the front seat of the car).  For our English readers, you should know that houses here are "open for inspection" - ie you are given a 45 minute window at an allotted time and any interested buyers, plus a lot of nosy neighbours all pop round for a look during that time.  We made it to 4 of the 5 inspections we'd had lined up at hourly intervals and everyone was fed, watered and had their sleeps and nappies changed as required during the long day in Freshwater.  I didn't manage another suckling pig sandwich, but we did find a lovely playground for future reference, plus the slowest cafe on the high street to know to avoid next time.

Juliet and I then had another day at it on Thursday, revisiting a place in Freshwater and seeing a new one in Fairlight, which is a bit more convenient than Freshie (outer Mongolia in Sydney terms, but great beach).  We then "hung out" at the local shopping centre (which is certainly no WBJ) and spent the afternoon investigating Seaforth.  So we were out all day from 9am - 5pm and bless her, she was angelic.  I even got stuck at the mall because she had a really long sleep at lunchtime, which is quite uncharacteristic in the pram.

After driving around Seaforth to find somewhere for the 2.30 b'feed, I have now written it off as a suburb, as it seems to be comprised only of big houses.  It'd take hours to walk to the end of the street because all the plots are so wide.  Juliet and I did a driveby of a house we'd wanted to see and then found a park and had a roll around on a picnic blanket (Juliet, not me) before setting back towards the city.

Juliet checks the latest auction results

I'd rather not be going through this process with an eviction deadline looming, but the pressure is at least helping me make my peace with the North shore and the future commute.  If we move to Fairlight, we may even take the ferry or jetcat to work.  Life could really be worse!

Some sisterly snaps

As usual, they couldn't both look at the camera at once

A big week for a little girl

Having read the latest scaremongery research, it seems that there is a very fine line on when babies should start on solid food.  It used to be 4 months.  Then it was 6 months, with the early start being held responsible for the rise in food intolerances.  Now, it's a kind of wishy washy 6 months is too late, 4 months is too early type of advice, as far as I can tell from various recently published articles.  Start them too early, they run the risk of being obese later in life; start them too late and they won't be getting essential vitamins and minerals.  Start them too early, they might get diabetes; start them too late and they might become fussy eaters etc.  I read one baby book last week that advised they must start at 4.5 months precisely, which we had just missed.  So it was panic stations.

Not really panic, but as previously mentioned, I am holding out great hopes of getting more sleep once Juliet is into the messy stuff.  Hearing someone actually name a precise date and time gave me focus.

And I should mention that the advice on timing seems to vary by country.  One thing "they" all agree on is the signs that a baby might be ready, at least externally, to think about food.  Juliet is fascinated by other people eating and always has her hands in her mouth.  She was starting to take bigger bottles, during her bottle feeds at least.  Another sign would be night waking, but wait.  She does that already.  So I bit the bullet and at 4 months and 3 weeks, we brought out the anti-climactical one spoonful of food that babies start out with.  She was very excited with the new plastic bib.  Something else to chew on:

But not really so excited with the baby rice (just revealed as bad for babies, as it will get them hooked on processed food apparently *sigh*):

We are up to Day 4 of Gina's weaning plan (hee hee I just typed weeny plan! - small things) and she was allowed a whole cube of pear for lunch.  She loved loved that and got quite good at opening her mouth for more and swallowing the contents of the spoon by the end of the portion.

In other news, last night was her first night in her own room (no pictures because she's currently asleep in there).  She was quite tired after a day out and having sleeps off track, but managed to sleep from 6.30pm - 3.45am and then until 7am which was really good.  If only the other baby that our baby monitor randomly picked up at 5.20am wasn't going through controlled crying.  (We turned off the monitor and left Juliet to tough it out, at that point). And if only Alice hadn't needed the toilet at 1am.  We are just not destined to get a night's sleep for a little while yet, I think.  But perhaps we're on our way...

Chickens

I seem to have missed a crucial update from preschool and they now seem to be keeping animals rather than "just" hatching dinosaurs out of eggs.  So with little explanation and no further ado, a cute photo of Alice petting a chick, which came with the caption, "We went to visit the chickens".

Pizza Making

They made pizza at preschool today and Alice obviously had fun doing it.  You can play a game of spotting her in each of the photos that they sent in the daily report.

Thanks to Uncle Andrew, she's now a big fan of pizza, so I thinkshe was loitering with intent.

First excursion

Alice's class went on an outing yesterday.  It wasn't quite the Natural History Museum or Prittlewell Priory of my childhood, but the Barramundi Cafe, situated approximately 100 metres from their classroom - about 5 metres from the entrance to the preschool building.

Apparently, "A visit to a café is an excellent opportunity for children to develop a sense of community. It also provides the context to practice manners."

We had to fill in a permission slip and everything.  They changed into outing clothes and had a great time by all accounts.  Alice is, of course, an old hand at going to cafes for babycinos (I'm such a great mother - she's already so advanced), but here's the "psychobabble" from the daily report, as Nanna Keefe calls it:

"This afternoon the children went on an excursion down to Barramundi café. Here the children had a baby chino and for dunking the finest Anzac bisects made by Kim. As the children and I got ready for the excursion we spoke of what we would need to do for this excursion. This discussion evolved around listening to our teachers and friends and being safe.


We spoke about being safe and what that meant for us. The children spoke of not running down the ramp, holding our friends ands and not running away from the group.

The children then organised themselves into a business meeting and discussed what was on the agenda for tomorrow. The children’s conversation centred around lots of play, more meetings at barramundis and lots of play that afternoon at the submarine."

(Alice at bottom right)

Juliet update

Juliet continues to grow like a weed.  She has now doubled her birth weight (most of it seeming to be on her thighs) and is a cheerful little soul.  She's still waking once at night, but in quite a manageable way, as now that we have dropped the dream feed, she sleeps from 6.30pm - 1.30am, necks a bottle and then goes straight back to sleep by about 1.45am, then going through until 6.30 or 7am or sometimes until she is woken.  The small dream feed that she used to take saw her waking at least once a night, regardless, with either Stu or myself having to stay up to give the late bottle.  Now I can go to bed at 9.30pm and we're all happy.

I've dropped the 10.30am breastfeed now, so she has bottles at 10.30am, 6.15pm and 1.30am.  I'm planning to start solids in the next few days and have already excitedly brewed up the organic apples, pears and courgette cubes for the freezer.  The carrots come tomorrow.  Baby rice, quite literally the great white hope, has been purchased and I'm determined that food and moving her into her own room (this weekend, now that we are visitor-free) will see her sleep longer. 

She's still in a cactus suit for sleeps and I'm starting to transition her to a sleeping bag, as we are now on the largest size of wrap, so it's really time.   

This morning she managed 20 minutes with her arms free, so it wasn't a very successful start, but she'll get there.  It seems contradictory to say this, but she's too good a sleeper not to get used to it fairly quickly, I'd say.

In other news, she's starting to get into her toys in a big way, with a special love for her Miss Emily doll.  She's had a good run with all the grandparental attention in her life, so is needing to rediscover her love for her playmat, but again, we'll get there.  The new regime (stuck at home with Mum and needing to fit in with my gym and nail appointments!) starts now.  Sort of.

And further down the pecking order...

...Grannie, Grandad, Auntie Deborah and Uncle Andrew also came to Sydney with Milly.  They stayed in Bondi for part of the time and Freshwater for the rest.

Here's an...ahem...lovely family shot

And a special mention to Uncle Andrew to whom Alice took a particular shine:

A great holiday was had by all, especially us, who only had to drive 45 minutes to our destination and got to sleep (or in my case be woken) in our own beds.  Thank you all for coming!

Cousin Milly

Cousin Milly came to stay for a couple of weeks as part of the Grand Yardley Family Holiday Extravaganza, to celebrate the Yardley Seniors' Golden Wedding.  Very Exciting and worthy of many capital letters.

Alice and Milly got on like a house on fire from the get go and had a brilliant two weeks together.

They played with the sand table,

Went out for lunch,

Sang songs with Grannie,

Amused Juliet,

Went to the beach,

Giggled,

Drank pink milk,

Played in the cubby house,

Ran rings around Grannie,

Put on a "show",

And giggled some more

Very happy times.  I think they will have cemented a strong bond for years to come.



Adjusting

I've come to realise that a good exercise session with my trainer or the group in the park actually makes me feel better than a nap.  Since neither of these were available to me this morning after a fun packed evening of Alice refusing to sleep and Juliet waking at 9.30, 12am and 1.30am, Juliet and I went off to the movies for a Mum and Bubs screening of The Adjustment Bureau.  They keep the lights up and the sound low and no one minds if your baby squeaks her Sophie la girafe too loudly.  Perfect entertainment.  Except that the cinema had forgotten all these points and had sold tickets to unsuspecting members of the public, poor things.  When the lights went down and the previews came on, Juliet jumped out of her skin and proceeded to scream in fright, poor thing.  The other babies joined in, a Mum went running to management and everything was fixed up pretty quickly.  I had been preparing to flee the scene.  Instead it was a couple of the "normal people" that did that.

Crisis averted, we had a lovely morning place-spotting New York neighbourhoods and enjoying a roller coaster ride of a film involving magic hats that wasn't spoiled by two massive nappies and quick exits stage left to change them.  Perhaps Juliet was trying to tell me something through her bottom, but she seemed fairly happy for the whole film, drinking her bottle, playing with toys and even having a quick 20 minute nap.

Ah.  This is the stuff that maternity leave is supposed to be made of.  If only Terence Stamp could press a button in real life and make Juliet sleep all night.