Just One Of Many 'Firsts'

After promising me a full night of uninterupted sleep, MB did the hard yards during the hard hours last night. Angus was particuarly unsettled but I slept for 9 hours straight. MB was up every hour. This morning I noticed AB's cheeks a little rosier than usual and looked for a tooth and...there it was.

At The End Of The Day

It's just me and the little boy home tonight as the big boy is out at a work dinner. How do the sole parents do it? I was thinking about them all last night at 3am when I thought I was hard done by in the sleep department. MB does all he possibly can to make my nights and mornings bearable which means I can often wake up late some mornings after the big nights. I then feel ready for another day and sometimes without any groaning at all.

So tonight I've done it all on my own and it's just 9.33pm!! It's an effort and I don't need to detail my evening for all you out there to understand it's so much harder when the ratio of parent to child is 1:1. Suffice to say showering with the little one seemed a lot easier than holding a 9.5kg kick boxer over a bathtub while kneeling on tiles.

Had a nice cuddle with little Stella today finding it hard to remember Angus ever being that small. She's petite and gorgeous and will give Angus many giggles in the days to come. I took a bunch of photos of mum and bub on the weekend and here they are.

Another Day, Another Photo Shoot!

Sweet as pie.

Advance Australia There

On the news tonight it was reported that a reward is offered to catch the dumb dude who kick-boxed a kangaroo to death. Footage of the crime ended up in the hands of the RSPCA who is partly contributing to a reward. The other part contributor is a member of the public.

I love that we live in Australia where a guy called Mohammed Hussein is posting $10,000 of his own money to help catch the boxer of our national emblem.

Hard Day's Night

This is me putting my son through a Sleeping-In Training Program. After the 7am feed it's back to bed with mummy. I'm not caring too much about the professional advice against co-sleeping at that point of the morning.

Little Marching Soldier

It seems the Angus' kidney situation has not improved since birth and so we are booked into hospital on October 15th for a little operation. It's a very routine procedure with a 98% success rate. In the 2% of cases that fail they redo the procedure in a different way and that is 80% successful. So we're not anxious about it.

Angus is a real kicker - he LOVES kicking his legs. He'll kick the whole time on the change table, he'll kick himself to sleep, he kicks with excitement on his mat and he kicks when he's so tired he needs to go to bed. Now he's got more awareness of his hands/arms they are perpetually moving too and his kicking style is a little more like a horizontal marching soldier. (Run Forrest, Run is echoing in my head.)

The other most gorgeous thing he's up to these day is singing. He's being 'talking' for a while but as soon as you start singing to him he stops, face changes to serious expression and he lifts his chin up and starts mimicking the melody. It's hilarious! He'll even stop kicking while he's singing.
So his marching and singing habits may be painfully augmented for a little while after the operation. We'll be in St John's for 2 nights and at home recovering after that.

Welcome to our world...

Stella Rose Bain

born this morning at 6.30am after 36 hours of contractions. Carms is exhausted, John is besotted and we are all over the moon. Here are the figures - 53cm, 3.7kg or 8lb 3oz. Good girl Carms.

Who's Your Daddy?

Sometimes you observe people in their working environment and can be impressed by their aptitude or commitment to their vocation. As employees they are priceless, as wait staff they compel you to tip heavily and as sales assistants they call you to buy, buy, buy simply because they’ve conveyed their love for the item. In their work they have found their bliss.

Even before Angus joined us on the outside, I had a suspicion Michael was designed for fatherhood. The last four months have been delightful in seeing my two boys get to know each other. When Michael walks through the door after work he starts exuding patience, commitment, joy, perseverance, effort, energy, delight and everything else required to be an outstanding father. He is tender hearted and ever-thoughtful. In the early hours of the morning Michael scrambles to the nursery if Angus needs his comfort – I scramble but groan all the way. Many discussions have been had concerning how we want Angus to learn everything from compassion to guitar chords (thanks Uncle Cam).

So, I’m sharing a house at the moment with two boys who give me great joy. I’ve found my bliss watching Michael enjoy his.

Twice In One Week

I don't like to brag but we enjoyed another night out on the town last night. Michael got an invite through work to attend the kick off of Perth Fashion Festival and I was quick to say 'yes please'. I feel out of my depth in these situations but not enough to stay home and wonder what it's all about.

We turned up and I helped myself to a funky cocktail with an orchid floating on the top. Michael felt more comfortable with a beer. The music was loud and near-impossible to talk over. We were offered delicious canapés and spent some time looking cool amongst an interesting crowd. We brushed shoulders with a platinum blond siren that appeared WAY overdressed even for a fashion event. Then there were the bare-chested male crowd controllers with feathered wings strapped to their backs. But even more eye catching was the guy standing behind me wearing his stonewash denim jeans and Kmart jumper. I don't mean to sound like a snob but cheap, oversized jumpers have their place at parties celebrating things other than artistic design in fashion.

The actual catwalk event was short and wowee. The lights, music and burlesque dancers mesmerised me but better than that was the grab bag of goodies to take home.

Following the show we were taken out for dinner and served the best Salt and Pepper Squid ever to pass my palette.

So that’s it. Don’t have another social outing booked for the rest of my life and happy to stay home for a while. Even though we had some curiosity satisfied and discovered a fantastic Chinese restaurant after the show, the whole night I was nervy and anxious to return to Angus. I love him.

Three Hour Getaway

On Saturday night Michael and Rachel excitedly snuck out of the house for a few hours to have uninterrupted conversation and fabulous food. Rachel made amendments to the Milk Barr contract and was able to drink 2 large glasses of red wine and a cup of caffeinated coffee. In our private booth we leisurely devoured 8 degustation courses and rambled through 8 pre-prepared topics of conversation ... about us! I wore a new dress, ate things I’ve never eaten before and talked through the joys and hurdles of our life over the last 3 months.

I LOVED it.