Baby Chloe

My sweet friend Kerry, Damo and 4 year old Riley (Caleb's mate) welcomed

Baby Chloe Grace

in the early evening of Thursday 16 October 2008 weighing 6lb 2oz. It was lovely to meet her and have a wee snuggle. Even though Kerry was a bit crook, she still looked fantastic for giving birth less than 24 hours prior.



I remember having breakfast with Kerry at a little cafe at Cannon Hill in January, discussing the possibility of babies. I wanted an October baby and she agreed it would be a good thing.

Add a month onto that and we were both pregnant - wonder if it was the breakfast? That was pretty exciting. Our first babies (Caleb and Riley) were born under the care of the same obstetrician, Dr Yared, before we even knew each other. Once again we pottered off to him and it was cool for us to be able to discuss our pregnancies and differences and similarities. Although babies can't be predicted, we thought it would be cool to be in hospital at the same time! Sheesh, as if *that* was likely.

Our little snuggle-bunnies were born 33 hours apart. We were in hospital together. However it wasn't as social as perhaps it would have been laying on a deck chair on a glistening beach sipping cocktails.

Congrats and we look forward to many playdates!

Baby Griff!

Welcome to the world Griffin!

Baby Griffin was born Wednesday 15 October 2008 at 9.03am weighing 3570 grams. After a sketchy start to life, he is blooming now and settling into a sleepy routine at home. His mother is *totally* in love with him.

His big brother Caleb and big sister Zali love to cuddle their baby brother and think he is lovely. They also like to sit in his 'square', offer him yoghurt (eek!) and help Mummy burp him.

More photos and stories to come, preferably when my eyes are open and it is not so close to the midnight feed.

Can you hear . . .

Can you hear that . . .

the sound of bliss . . .

the sound of absolute quiet.

Sigh. What a wonderful sound.

School holidays are over and it is back to a normal week. Caleb was in his seat on the bus faster than you could blink and Zali left for kindy with Daddy when he headed off for the train. By 8am I had two eggs boiling for my breakfast (which I didn't have to share) and was on the phone singing my happiness to Sheree. She told her son that it was some crazy lady singing on the phone. Hmpf! Who was she calling lady!?!

I am supposed to be resting. Which I am, just eating some lunch and checking my pooter at the moment. I had a sleep this morning, didn't really have a choice when 9am came around and I was falling asleep reading a blog. Took myself upstairs and spent the morning cuddling my bed - noice!

The plan for the rest of the day: cut and eat my green apple (ok, I do have four pieces of white chocolate left and they are calling my name also), head over to get my hair cut at New Farm, zoom past kindy and pick up the little miss on the way home and then cook a creamy tomato chicken pasta for dinner (plus chicken tortillas for Daddy). If the light is still good when I get home I will set up the tripod for some photos of the 'belly' (it needs ' ' cause it is a being of its own). Not sure how much longer I will last before the little alien opens its zip and greets the world. Enjoy your Monday.

Holy!

Holy Toledo, back for another post already? Cripes! And pictures? Holy! Wanted to share some colour . . .

The delightful Miss Amy sent me some flowers on Tuesday (thanks Mummy and Daddy!) to say thank you for the last few months. Mondays and Tuesdays were our play days. She has grown so much since the beginning, turned into a little girl with confidence and character. My two ratbags are going to miss the play days, they are used to her hanging around. I think Zali will miss having Amy's snack bag to ransack also. Come to think of it, me too - Janene always had new and exciting packed snacks. Oh well, I will just adapt and go and sift through her pantry. Aren't the flowers b.e.a.utiful!



The two ratbags and I out the backyard playing. I, attempting to put my camera to use and shake off the cobwebs, took a few odd photos. Like our shoes. Caleb's adored red shoes (which he keeps asking about cause he left them at Aunty Sheree's house), Zali and her yellow boots cause she can put them on herself. My black mary-jane crocs, cause I thought I really wanted them, but once I had them they aren't that fantastic and are now my backyard shoes. I even used my first Gail's daycare pay to purchase them.

Awwww, how cute! I have started washing baby clothes. They are so small on the line, especially next to the adult clothes. Since a lot of them are from Caleb they have lots of memories attached to them. The load in the machine now ready to start at 5am tomorrow contains a few new items just for Baby G to give some memories to.

Caleb, the nutbag, going for a run so I could photograph him. He would run like a nutter then come check himself out on the viewfinder. Sheesh. I am *positive* the nutbag side comes from his father.

Honestly, the nutbag gene runs deep, again, *positive* it has leaked down from their father. This little nutbag, fresh home from a day of kindy (her kindy shirt being a good advertiser) was asked to give a *nice* smile. Looking at her cheeky face now, I am not sure I should even show this, she looks like a nutter.

Hmm, wonder if it will be third time lucky this month, the new baby *not* being a nutter!

Sick of sick

Waaaaay to warm today! Sleeps weren't entirely pleasant as our upstairs gets v. warm. I think I am going to go digging and find some fans in hidden places. Here comes a fresh toy for the little terrors to play with . . .

Was very sick over the weekend. Wanted a bullet to put me out of my misery. Sore and achey and flu-type feelings, was freezing and then boiling hot, just miserable. I think I was talking to myself (or maybe moaning) to give myself some company. I do that when I am sick. You know, since no one cares (everyone: ). But alas! It is true! I am still the dill making everyone teas and coffees and dinners and I am the one wanting to sit in the corner and die! If Caleb could have expressed himself clearly I am *sure* he would have said 'yeah yeah, get over it'.

Caleb has one week left of school holidays. I am sure we will *all* be yahooing with excitement when his bus pulls up out the front. The husband has two weeks left of work before he starts his holidays. This is when I am hoping my holidays will start too, hmmm. A girl can only dream!

Alrighty, off to take more of my daily pile of assorted medication and read some mag and play sudoku before I fall asleep in a heap. Oh, I washed some baby clothes this afternoon - the clothes line looks funny filled with tiny clothes. Cute though.

Foolish?

Cripes. I am moaning all the time about how there are such loooonnnngggggg weeks ahead waiting for this baby, and the last week has flown by.

We hit the road on Friday and headed up to Toowoomba. Visiting the Telfer family, meeting up with Sheree for a wee shop and a lovely lunch and chat, having a nice birthday dinner for both Teagan and Alex (I am sure there was more dessert and cake than dinner foods) and having an afternoon play with Campbell and Finn at Crows Nest. David made me laugh too much and I was coughing way hard, and Sheree bribed me with another Sudoku book - how could I refuse? There was hail amongst all the thunder and lightning at their place - you know, just before my entire family gets into the car to drive home! It didn't really hail much while driving, but at times the rain was so heavy the road was hard to see. And don't even mention my (devil possessed) daughter screaming like a banshee for 40 minutes cause she was horribly tired but kept waking throughout the drive. She went to sleep mighty fast once she was safely tucked into her own bed.

With the school holidays now upon us, I had Caleb, Zali and Amy at home today. They had a pretty good day I must say, especially the part where they slept up to 2.5 hours! This morning we had a trip to the Royal Children's Hospital for some reviews for Caleb's last lot of Botox and chatting regarding his future appointments - which took up the majority of the morning by the time we dropped Daddy off to work and checked the post box and got nearly a full tank of fuel . . . before realising I had left my credit card at home .... arrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhh.

I walked in like an idiot to alert them to my stupidity (great!) and made arrangements to call in my payment details when I got home - thank the stars we were going straight home. Fool doesn't begin to describe how I felt!

Please, did anyone else to anything foolish lately? C'mon, share your pain to help me feel better!

Thinking of You!

I have nothing interesting to say, like a normal entry I suppose, but felt I had to touch base. I have no idea where the time is going, obviously my creativity and output load is very low. No photography, no scrapping, no keeping in touch with my beautiful family and friends (to let them know I always think of them and want to talk, but don't get organised enough) and generally I am keeping out of trouble.

Belated birthday wishes to my sis-in-law Teagan. We are visiting her and the rest of the family this weekend. Looking forward to it. Note to self: remember to ask Nan to make her deliciously good spring rolls.

Crikey it has warmed up quick. We are all dressing short sleeves and pants now, funny seeing 'skin' again - Caleb's little legs and Zali's chubby knees - v. cute.

This morning I took Zali and Amy in to little school to have morning tea with Caleb's class. The kids and teachers walk over to Stones Corner on Mondays and visit the fruit shop and bakery and bring back food to eat. Caleb was more interested in his vegemite sanger and popper, but Zali and Amy loved their half-sausage roll accompanied by mini blocks of cheese. We got some party pies also, mmm. Caleb was very excited to have us there, he was bouncing off the walls.

We are all going back on Thursday for Cultural Day - more food. Hmm, seems like we are always there for food! They provide different foods from different cultures and it is yummy. I can't wait for Koula's mums greek vanilla slice. Koula is one of Caleb's teachers, she is lovely. The vanilla slice is lovely too, it has a special name but it is hard to remember . . . but v. easy to eat!

Have a great week!

High or Low?

Firstly just a little advice. If you happen to enter a toilet facility in a public place, say a shopping centre, and someone next/near you may have produced something relatively nasty in their cubicle, please keep any comments/heavy breathing to yourself. They may be a little unwell and feeling a little sensitive about said 'nasty' and don't need to hear the public's opinion. Right.

After having a visit with a new doctor at my local medical centre, I booked another two appointments with the said doctor. One for Caleb to get some anti-biotic drops for his eyes and one for me. I have been sick for a while and I am struggling, but nothing is regular and reportable (yah, not making much sense, hence why I decided to cancel my appointment). To give them plenty of notice, I asked Mum to call while I was driving.

Now, in my defence, the lady over the back at home introduced herself a while back and her name is Hong. She said 'like Hong Kong'. I remembered the doctors name was similar. I had a feeling his last name was like Low or Lo or something with an 'o' or a 'w' or . . .

When the medical receptionist asked Mum which doctor I had the appointment with, she asked me and I, obviously feeling the pressure (!) said um, Low, Hung, Hung Low or something. So Mum piped up with 'Hung Low'.

As soon as she repeated it, I started laughing uncontrollably. OMG! How embarassment. You can imagine that we have still been laughing at this. When hubby came home from the airport Thursday evening and we gave him the story, I couldn't actually talk from laughing.

On Friday I managed to get another appointment, this time for hubby as he is unwell also, and he kept asking the real name cause all he was thinking is Dr Hung Low. Doh!

By the way, his name is Dr Kwong Chow. He is a lovely man and is very good dealing with the kids. I will remember his name forever, I think I will tattoo it inside my forehead.

These Days

Doing the normal Saturday morning groceries, I picked up a coffee and heard some chitter chatter amongst the staff. It is similar chat that I hear a lot of Saturdays.

What are you doing tonight? (otherwise, what did you do last night?)

That is when Grandma Gail emerged. My first thought was to get the kids to bed early, play on the computer for a while and head to bed to play sudoku/read before falling asleep with the light on, again. Remember to take some water to bed this time, oh and I think I need to rub cream on my hands and feet.

I am probably middle-aged to those little pip-squeaks, but, alas, I do remember a time when the weekends entertainment was important and a great talking point. These days, well, these days it is hard enough dragging my pudgy butt up the stairs for a rest after doing the normal Saturday groceries!

Green Eye

Cripes. It is the middle of the morning and I could very much appreciate a nap right now. My washing line is chockers cause I have been cleaning/organising/purging (and that feels might fine!) and found so many items of clothes that had been forgotten. Especially some kids stuff. I have storage containers piled high ready to be filled. I have six large green garbage bags filled with clothes to toss in a Lifeline bin, currently taking up my entire boot. There are numerous bags of rubbish and unnecessary stuff. I have a storage container collecting baby things to wash for Baby G's arrival. I want to wash them now cause they are tiny and cute, but still a long way off until he appears, so awaiting I will be.

I had to move our old queen size wooden bed into the spare room, heaps of boxes and bags and rot. My belly hurt *heaps* by the evening, the old muscles letting me know they didn't appreciate the strain. Doh! Don't think today's lot will be as heavy, but I will be taking it easy.

Congratulations JJ, I am *so* thrilled for you and Greg and Catie! That is going to be one lucky, loved and precious little soul.

This morning driving home from the train station I saw this 'dude' driving a car with his hat on sideways and hair sticking out. Gee he looks young, I thought. Number plate was personalised with 3 letters and 91. The car was pretty much brand new. Once I could get my fingers to cooperate and added up the years, I was not overly impressed that a child of 17 has scored a brand new car with personalised number plates. Not that personalised number plates thrill me much, but I have been grovelling for a car for a long time, a brand newie. I am a little older than 17, you know, a year or two. Hmpf. The green eyed monster will sign off here.