The Life of Us

Jack at 16 Months

2010-12-14T10:05:00.004+11:00

Well, I must say, this last month has been so much fun with Jack. Every week he gets more and more interactive with us. We're always amazed by how much he understands and processes. It's fantastic. He is such a lovely little boy.

Signing
These last few days Jack's signing for "food" and "finished" has really improved. I was quite surprised when I asked him if he'd like some food and he signed "please" and then "food", and yesterday he signed "food" without my having to say the word at all (although, I'm not sure that he wanted any food as when I offered it to him, he didn't want it!).

Talking
Yesterday we went to the park. Jack loves going down the slide, and he giggles and laughs every time we went down. Before we went down I'd say, "One, two, three - yay!". After a while of doing this, I heard Jack saying "di, da, dee - yay!". I wasn't really sure what he was saying at first, but I eventually figured it out and I was so surprised that he had picked it up so quickly. I guess they say things all the time, but because their words don't sound exactly like "real" words, we don't realise. I think he also says, "Oh, dear", but I'm not too sure.

Jack's other new word has been "goggy". He says it when he says our sheep or chickens. Actually, I think he says it when he sees any animal. We've been showing him pictures of animals and saying their name, but he'll still say, "goggy".

Mobility
Jack is a super walker now. He is always on the move and walks around everywhere exploring. He's also started to run. This has posed a few problems, especially when his feet can't keep up him his desire to run and he ends up doing a face-plant on the ground, usually biting into his lip and bleeding everywhere. What's also been great to watch is that Jack has been trying to jump. I think this has come from jumping on the trampoline with his cousins. I never thought about how hard it is to learn to do this until I watched Jack try to do it. He has worked out the action and he tries so hard, but he just hasn't worked out how to get his feet off the ground. He loves doing it, though. We often say to him, "jump!", and he'll stop what he's doing and jump, and say "ump" while he does it. He loves it when we jump with him and cracks up when he sees us do it.

Sleeping
Things have been relatively settled with Jack's sleeping. His night sleeping is still going so well. He goes down at 7pm and wakes up between 6am and 7am. When I go to bed I pop some toys in his cot so that when he wakes up in the morning he'll play with his toys (well, usually!) so we don't have to get him up straight away.

I'm still giving him 2 day naps. There are some days where he will only have one nap. On Fridays he won't sleep in the morning at mothers group. I keep trying each week, but he just refuses to. Luckily, I've been able to get him down at bible study on Thursday mornings, which I didn't expect. There are some days when he'll have a morning nap but won't want an afternoon nap. His naps are never longer than 1 1/2 hours, usually only 1 hour. I thought he'd start to have a really long nap at some point in the day, but he doesn't. Even if he only has one nap, it still isn't that long. I think I'll just keep giving him 2 naps and just see what happens.. He's been happy when he's awake, so he's getting enough sleep.

Discipline
This is typically up and down. With some things, Jack is really good and does what we ask him to do. When he has something he shouldn't have, we'll say, "ta" and he'll give it to us - sometimes! When it's something he really likes, he'll run away. He is obsessed with running on to the road at the moment and will ignore us when we tell him to stop or come back. Luckily for us, we're quicker and stronger than he is!

I'm trying to teach him to finish eating one thing before he starts one something else. This comes down to the battle of the wills, as is often the case with parenting. There are some things I'm determined to win and my will needs to be stronger than his, and this is one of them. Sometimes, Jack will understand and finish what he's got, but other times he refuses. One time he wanted to eat my muesli, but I wanted him to finish his toast first. He refused and threw his toast on the floor (how do you stop them from throwing their food and drink on the floor?!). I was determined to win this battle so I kept explaining the situation. Eventually, I took him out of his high chair and moved him away from the situation. A while later, I offered him his toast again and he ate it, and then he got to eat his muesli. What a morning!

We're still using time-out and, at times, he'll get a smack on the hand. At the moment, time-out is more effective than the smacking. Sometimes he "gets" the whole discpline thing, but most of the time, he doesn't quite understand it. He does understand "no", though, and he knows when to throw a tantrum and cry when he doesn't get his own way. Luckily, those tantrums never last long and they're usually pretty half-hearted.

Thumb Sucking
Jack is still an avid thumb-sucker. Over the last couple of months he's been sucking his thumb more during the day when he's awake. We're trying to teach him that sucking his thumb is only for sleeping. So, when we see his thumb in his mouth, we say, "thumb out". Up until the last week or so, he didn't really respond to our instruction and we'd have to take it out ourselves, which usually resulted in him having a bit of a whinge and putting it straight back in. Now, he understands what we're saying and takes it out straight away, which is so good. But, he does, at times, put it straight back in, like he's taunting us! What's been good is that his grandparents and aunts and uncles have been saying "thumb out" to him as well, so he can't escape, there's always somebody harassing him!

Eating
This last month Jack has been eating so well. What he eats has really expanded. At dinner, we'll give him some steamed vegies to eat before his meat, and he'll happily eat his broccoli, zucchini, carrot, etc., although he's still a bit suspicious of some food! He's still obsessed with cheese and he's rather fond of grapes, too. These are great to have on hand when I'm out and I need to keep him entertained.

He absolutely loves plums at the moment. The other morning he kept point at the fruit bowl, saying "this" and signing "please". I kept picking up various fruit and offering it to him, but he kept shaking his head, until I got to the plum and then he giggled and signed "please" and subsequently ate two plums! I have no idea how he knew what a plum was and that he knew that he liked it, but he was so determined to have it and I'm certainly not going to say no to him wanting to eat fruit. Now, every morning he'll ask for a plum before he eats anything else. I just hand the fruit whole to him and he'll eat it all, minus the stone.

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

6:30/7:00am - Wake, breakfast, play
10:00am - Nap
11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
2.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Jack at 15 Months

2010-11-17T12:20:00.003+11:00

Ok, I admit, it's been a while since I lost posted. Things have been super busy and I've been caught up sewing, sewing, sewing! This week is a more quiet week. I've just had a friend over, with her 2 1/2 year old twins, for morning tea. Jack's asleep, so I thought now would be a good time to sit down and post something.

So, how is Jack going? He's going really well. He's at a really adorable age right now. Since he started walking, he's changed quite a bit. He's very active and wants to be Mr. Independent. So, we've had to adjust our parenting with these new changes. He's talking more, too. Most of the day we hear "this", "gone", "this", "pease", "this", "cheese", "this". It's great that he can communicate more clearly with us.

Signing
This is just fantastic. I'm so glad I taught Jack to sign "please". He is really good at it and he'll do it for everything, making it so much easier to know what he wants. When he points to something he'll also say "pease", so it's obvious to us he's seen something he'd like. It's so good that he's saying please now. He's also signing "finished". It's not consistent, but occasionally when we ask him if he's finished, he'll sign "finished" and say "gone". We think that he says gone because his grandparents would say "all gone" when he's finished eating something. Very occasionally he'll sign "food", but this one hasn't been all that successful. When I ask him if he wants some food and I'll sign "food" as I say it, he'll either sign "please" (which is most of the time) or he'll sign "food".

I think teaching Jack to sign has been one of the best things we've done so far. Even though he can understand verbal language, he can't do it himself, so being able to sign what he wants allows him to communicate with us, preventing him from having to cry or whine when he wants something.

Talking
Jack is talking more now. He hasn't necessarily learnt any more words, but the frequency of his talking has increased. Every time he drops something he says, "gone". When he wants something he'll say "pease". I've just realised that when he sees cheese (which he LOVES), he'll say "cheese". I thought he was saying "pease", but he was actually saying "cheese". When he gives me something, he'll say "ta". He's always saying "daddy". One time we'll in the car and he said, "daddy gone". I'm trying to get him to say "mummy", but he just won't. Even though he sees me the most, he won't even utter a "mum", let alone "mummy". Typical, isn't it?

Walking
Jack's walking was really impressive. Once he started, he didn't stop. Even though he kept falling over, he'd get back up and keep going. We were really surprised by how quickly his walking developed. After about 2 weeks, he was walking really well. Now, he's walking all the time. Gone are the days where he would sit and play in the ONE spot for ages! He barely will spend 2 minutes playing with something before he's off doing something else. It's funny. I thought I knew what Jack was like, now he's changed and is totally different.

Going out has changed dramatically. My child is now "that" child who walks around the coffee shop and won't sit still. We went to the Carrington for High Tea for a friend's birthday. Jack sat on my lap for the first little while and then we spent the rest of the time following him around and stopping him from walking out the door. Food would only occupy him for so long. Every time we picked him up, he'd arch his back and cry, or we'd try to hold his hand and he'd through his arms about and collapse on the floor and cry. A couple of times Dave had to take him outside and let him roam around on the grass. So, going out in public, especially to nice places, is going to be very difficult. I suspect that this is very normal, though. Please tell me it's normal!

Sleeping
Well, sleeping has been up and down. A month or so ago, things were really settled. Jack was having two sleeps - at 9am and 1pm - every day. It was pretty regular for his afternoon sleep to be nice and long. Since he's been walking, and since Daylight Savings kicked in, his day sleeps have been all over the place. For a couple of weeks he started to refuse to sleep. He would stand up in his cot and scream out to us, a real tantrum type of cry and really persistent. This was such a change in his behaviour that we didn't really know what to do. Whenever we left the room, he'd cry, so we'd stand next to his cot until he'd fall asleep. Eventually, I got sick of doing this, so I'd just leave and let him cry. From then on, we decided to just leave him to cry and eventually, he settled back down and he's now back to normal (as I'm typing this, Jack's just woken up after 60 mins sleep - grrrr.). I wish he'd go back to having longer sleeps during the day though!

I've been thinking for a while that I should transition him to one sleep a day since he often only has one sleep and the morning sleep isn't very long. But, I've been really uncertain about it. When he's with his grandparents, he'll sleep in the morning and afternoon (usually) and they'll be decent sleeps. At home, though he doesn't sleep for very long. I thought that if he only had the one nap, he'd have a longer nap. But, no. He barley sleeps for longer than 60 mins at home. What do I do?? I'm finding this really frustrating.

Discipline
This is still really hard as Jack can understand more now and I can tell when he's deliberately choosing not to do what I say, but I feel that he's not really at an age where he totally understands what's going on. We've been using the "time out" method. This seems to be working reasonably well. When Jack throws things on the floor, usually his food, I try to get him to pick it up. This is really difficult. He really doesn't want to and when I insist that he does it, he throws a tantrum. So, here I am, grabbing his hand, forcing him to pick up his food while he's throwing himself on the floor and crying. The joys of motherhood :-) His food throwing is a real issue for me. I really hate it when he throws his food, but I really don't know how to stop him from doing it.

Teeth
I thought I might mention that Jack's got his 4 front top teeth and 4 front bottom teeth now. He hasn't been bothered all that much by his teeth, well, not that I could tell.

Routine
Well, I'm not going to put our routine down this time as it's all over the place at the moment. I'm hoping that things will settle down soon...

Jack Starts Walking

2010-10-19T21:46:00.003+11:00

Last Tuesday afternoon, Jack decided that he wanted to walk. He walked to and from his Grandma and myself a couple of times. For the first time he stood up from sitting, all by himself. He spent the next hour and a half walking, falling over and getting up, over and over and over again! I was really impressed with his persistence.

Jack's First Steps!!

2010-10-06T19:14:00.001+11:00

Little Cutie

2010-09-25T14:36:00.002+10:00

I've finally done a blog for my handmade baby merchandise. Please click here and have a look at my products.

Jack's First Word

2010-09-23T08:06:00.002+10:00

We think Jack said his first word yesterday, "gone". He was in the bath and he wanted Dave to remove something from the bath that he didn't like. Dave took it away and said, "it's gone now." Jack replied, "gone" with a little hand twist. We couldn't believe it so we kept removing toys from his bath and saying "gone" and Jack kept replying "gone". It was very cool and totally unexpected.

He's been saying "go" (sounds like the "go" in "gone") when his food (or a toy) would fall off his high chair. He'd look down at it and say "go". When he's finished eating we'd say "all gone". His grandparents particularly say that to him while they rotate their hands. So, it seems like he's been building on that. Amazing.

Jack's Jig

2010-09-23T07:52:00.002+10:00

Jack's started to shake his tale feather. See if you can spot it...

Hold Your Horses!

2010-09-18T08:34:00.002+10:00

My very clever and creative friend, Erin, is opening her very own shop, Hold Your Horses. Erin will be selling vintage ladies, mens and children's clothes as well as new and vintage home wares with a particular emphasis on handmade, local children's products. What's really exciting is that she wants to buys some of my handmade bibs and baby shoes. That's very cool.

Her shop will be opening on November 6.

Check out her blog for more details.

Jack at 13months

2010-09-13T14:59:00.005+10:00

Jack is getting more and more communicative and engaged in the world around him. It feels like he's doing something new each day. It's so special watching him grow up.

Signing
Jack is really good at signing "please" now. He does it for everything; when he wants me to pick him up, to help him move something, to give him food, to give him a toy, to read him a book, and so on. Often, if he starts to cry or whine, I'll say, "Stop. Would you like Mummy to help you?" and then he'll sign "please". We often don't have to prompt him, he just does it. It's just so good that he does it and I'm so glad I've taught it to him. It just makes things easier that he can communicate with us and we're able to understand what he wants. Although sometimes he'll avidly sign please and we have no idea what he wants :-)

He's also started to point, which is really cute. A couple of Jack's friends, Daisy & Sophie, have been ferocious "pointers" for ages, but Jack didn't shown any interest in it, until now. He now points to what he wants and then signs please. This makes it a bit easier to understand what he wants. Usually, he points at his books and signs please just before bed time, prolonging the inevitable. Yesterday, one of our friend's children, Chloe (age 8), whom Jack adores, walked through the front door. As soon as Jack saw her, he started pointing at her and signing please, over and over. He really wanted her to pick him up and play with him. It was really cute and amazing that his communication is transferring from one thing to another.

I've been trying to teach him "finished" and "food", but he hasn't quite picked these ones up as quickly as "please".

Talking
Jack's always been a babbler and hearing his little babbles is an absolute delight. He often says "ths", "adada", "dis", "broom", "ticka", etc. when he's playing. He tries to say shoe and he says "sh" and sometimes it sounds like he says "ta" and "peas". There are times when he looks like he's trying to say something to us and he'll say, "ca, cul, cul...". He looks like he's concentrating intently on telling you something very important.

Mobility
Jack is still a fervent believer that crawling is quicker and easier, so why walk? Every now and then he stands up by himself and I think once or twice he's taken a step, but as soon as he realises he's standing up, he sits back down. Even though he can stand up quite well, he still sits down. It's like he doesn't quite know what he should do next. He'll walk holding onto my finger now, which he wouldn't do previously.

We finally bought Jack a walker for his birthday and he LOVES it. He walks around with it for ages. He walks out the back door on to the deck, turns around and walks back in side, and turns around again to go back outside. Dave takes him up to the basketball courts with his walker and lets him walk around there, uninhibited, which is great for Jack. It's also a great Daddy & Jack time.

Sleeping
This is going well. He's settled back down into his usual routine. More often than not he'll have his morning nap (usually about 1 hour) and he'll definitely have an afternoon nap, which is still around 2 hours. His night sleeps are great, although he is waking a little earlier in the morning as the sun is now rising earlier. Bring on day-light savings, I say!

Playing
Jack has been playing really well by himself lately. He has a few favourite toys: wooden rings, colourful shapes, his "Little People", his soccer balls and Daddy's basketball. He particularly likes playing with balls and he especially loves to crawl around, hitting a ball with his hand and then chasing it. He'll often "hug" Dave's basketball, hold his mini soccer ball and try to crawl to take them to his play area. Eventually he realises that he can't do it and he'll bat them back with his hand. He's just learnt to throw the ball and to throw it to us, well, sometimes.

Eating
Jack eats really well. He has two weet-bix and a piece of toast for breakfast! He doesn't eat as much for the rest of the day, but he still eats pretty well. Sometimes he won't eat his dinner. I'm not sure if he's too tired to eat or he's being fussy. Either way, we try a few times and if he won't eat it, we leave it. Unfortunately, Jack's getting into the habit of spitting his food out, particularly if it's lumpy, or he doesn't like it, or he's not hungry. It's not a subtle spit either, it's loud and offensive. It's almost like he's blowing a raspberry; very hard to go unnoticed! I hate it, but there's not much I can do about it. I'm hoping it's a phase and he'll grow out of it soon.

Discipline
This is really hard! I feel like Jack deliberately ignores us when we say "no". He often smiles and thinks I'm being really funny, which I find infuriating. We've started to put some consequences in place if he doesn't listen to us. I tried smacking his hand, but he didn't really seem all that disturbed by it, so I started giving him time out. I put him on the floor next to the bookshelf and hold him there for 1 minute. This seems to be more effective than the smacking. I'm not sure if it's having any major affect on Jack and his behaviour, but I feel like we should be doing something to teach him to listen to us.

There are times when Jack will shake his head when he sees something he's not allowed to touch, but I'm still not sure if he completely understands. Other times I think that he deliberately goes to where he knows he's not supposed to in order to get our attention. Children are smart little cookies, aren't they?

Working
I feel very ambivalent about being back at work. I've managed to get a great job-share arrangement where I only go into to work on Mondays and Tuesdays. I'm really enjoying being at work only two days. I have a very small work load and I'm not getting involved in all the unpleasant things at work. It's really manageable. Though, sometimes I have to pull myself back from getting too involved and doing too much. On the other hand, I'm missing being at home those two days and I'm noticing that I don't have as much time - surprise, surprise. I do like being at work when I'm there, but I love being at home, spending time with Jack and having the time to do the things that need to be done, as well as the things I enjoy.

We're so lucky that we have both of Jack's grandparents very close by and they look after Jack one day a week. They have a great time with Jack and I know that Jack really enjoys seeing them. He's developing really good relationships with his grandparents, which is so good. I have noticed that on Wednesday, after he's been looked after on Monday and Tuesday by his grandparents, Jack is a little more unsettled. Hopefully he won't be like that for much longer as he gets used to it.

Routine
Here's what our days when I'm at home are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

On the days I work:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast (sometimes) go to Granny's or Grandma and Grandpa's
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
4.00/5.00pm - Get picked up by mum and go home (or stay for dinner)
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Jack's First Birthday Party

2010-09-13T08:43:00.011+10:00

Jack had an absolute blast on his birthday. He really enjoyed his party. We had a morning tea at our place where we invited our family and friends to help us celebrate his first birthday.

Here are some photos (thanks to our friends Christie & Glenn). A bit late...but better late than never.

Granny & Jack

According to Granny, Jack snatched the chocolate cake out of her hands and ate it himself...hmmm

Uncle Chris & Jack

Dave made coffees for everyone.

Jack's birthday cake made by Granny.

Jack's Aunty Sarah made a cupcake tower for the children.

Jack's friend, Sophie (daughter of Christie & Glenn).

Sophie and Jazmin (daughter of Elvira & Jason, from MG).

Another friend of Jack's, Geordie (son of Lauren & Geoff, from MG).

Jack with Uncle Phil.

My Mothers Group friends - Geoff (married to Lauren), Lauren, Geordie & Christie.

Nina (daughter of Dom & Aud, from Brisbane) sussing out one of our sheep, Lolly.

Caleb, Rob & Isaac with our other sheep, Harry.

More Mothers Group friends: Machi, Lana (daughter of Machi & Lachlan), Erin and me.

Lana.

Friends from church: Rachel, Daniel, Jack & Uncle Paul.

Elvira & Sophie.

Claire, Daniel, Rachel & Lauren.

Uncle Paul with his daughter, Yu-Jen.

Jack & me as we're singing 'Happy Birthday'.

Dave bringing out the cupcakes for the kids. Isaac is in the foreground.

Caleb, Chloe & Isaac.

Sam with Sophie
(one of my good friends from MG. I play netball with Sam and we see each other throughout the week. Sam's daughter, Daisy couldn't be at the party).

Christie with her daughter, Sophie
(another of my good friends from MG. Christie & I do some personal training together every week).

Erin, Lana and Thea. This photo encapsulates my Mothers Group.

Yummy chocolate crackles, made by Grandma (Noelene). What would a children's party be without chocolate crackles?

Jack with Granny & Grandpa.

The birthday boy himself.

Elijah. We put a box of toys and balls in the backyard, in the same area as the swing set and some children's tables, just next to the sheep pen. It was like a little playground for the children, which worked really well.

Jack with his friend, Chloe, whom he absolutely adores.

Erin & Jack (another good friend from MG).

Thea's little boy, Harper.

Me, Jack & Erin. I love this photo.

Me & Jack.

Granny, Me and Grandpa.

Grandma & Jack.

Jack's First Birthday Party - Invitations

2010-09-13T08:31:00.001+10:00

We had a first birthday party for Jack. Here are the invites I designed. I couldn't decide which one to use, so I sent a different one to different people.

Do you like my elephant? I drew it from scratch. It's a bit dorky, but I think that's part of its charm (well, that's what I tell myself, anyway!).

This on took me the least amount of time to make and it was very popular (typical!).
I think it's simple, but very effective.

Much to Dave's dismay and my excitement, I've now discovered a love for designing things on the computer. So far I've designed a friend's daughter's birthday invitations and my in-law's anniversary/birthday invitations. I really LOVE it. The last thing I need is another hobby!

Jack at 12 months

2010-08-16T20:20:00.004+10:00

Well, it's been a while! I've struggled to get myself organised and inspired to write a new post, especially since returning to work. It's definitely a challenge managing my time!

Jack has changed and grown a lot in the last month. I feel that since he's turned 1, he's started to do a lot more.

Mobility
I thought that Jack would be walking by now, but, no, he's quite happy with crawling. He's not that confident with standing up, let alone walking. The other day he did stand up for 2 seconds, until he realised that he was standing up and then he very quickly sat down.

Having said that, he has grown more in his confidence in using walkers. He was a bit wary of them, especially the one at his grandparents, which moved too quickly and he couldn't keep up with it. But, he's happily moving around with a walker and will find anything to use as a walker.

Sleeping
This has been going well most of the time. Jack has been sick for the last few weeks and in the last few days he's developed a cough, which has affected his sleeping at night. He's been coughing quite a lot at night and so we've not been having very good sleeps. We're all pretty tired at the moment.

There have been some days where Jack has not had his morning nap. Sometimes he has taken too long to go to sleep and we've had to go out in the morning, so I've gotten him up without him sleeping. There have been some mornings where he's slept for 2 hours, so it seems that he does need his morning nap. I'll keep persisting with his morning nap and see what happens.

Signing
In my last post I commented that I was starting to teach Jack to sign 'please'. About 2 weeks ago, I started to get more consistent with it and within a couple of days he signed please! I was very excited. It took about 5-6 days of "intensive" practice before he started to do it consistently. Now he does it every time we say, "please" or when I offer him food and I wait for him to sign please. He even signs please when he wants something, without being prompted. I was so impressed that he learnt to sign pretty quickly. I didn't expect it to be that quick. It's so nice to be able to teach him something and then see him do it.

Playing
As I said last post, Jack has moments when he plays really well by himself and other times he wants to be with one of us. The other day we were on the deck and he was really content playing with a truck. He happily played with it for ages while I did various things around the house. I've noticed that he's starting to play with cars and trucks properly now by pushing them along the floor.

Fine Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Co-ordination
A couple of months ago I gave Jack some wooden rings which all pile onto a wooden rod. He loved tipping the rod upside down so that the rings would fall off, and then he'd play with the rings. He had no interest in putting the rings back onto the rod. But, on the day he turned one, he started to try to put the rings onto the rod and he will often try to do it.

Jack loves to move around the house closing doors (he's inherited his Grandfather's obsession with having doors closed!). He'll play for ages opening and closing the back door. He also has a thing with putting things in and out of other things.

Eating
I've stopped breastfeeding totally now. When I returned to work, I dropped his morning feed and then, when he turned 1, I dropped his late afternoon feed. He has coped really well with this. Now that I'm not breastfeeding, he's eating a lot more at meal time. He'll have 2 wheat-bix for breakfast, which I think is pretty impressive. I've been giving him cows milk at breakfast, but he doesn't seem to be all that interested in it. He's very happy drinking water and he can now lift up his sippy cup and drink from it by himself, which is so much easier. He just has a drink whenever he wants to.

Babbling
His babble sounds are expanding more and more. He's experimenting with the 's' sound at the moment. He'll often shout out, "dad!", for no apparent reason. I think he just likes making sounds.

Cuddles
Another thing that Jack has started to do is give cuddles. He's giving us proper hugs now when he wraps his arms around our neck and shoulders and squeezes tight. He's a pretty affectionate little boy. You know when he's comfortable with someone when he gives them a cuddle. When I picked him up from my parents tonight Jack gave mum a hug and then leaned over for my dad to take him and he gave my dad a hug too. It was really sweet.

Routine
Here's what our days when I'm at home are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

On the days I work:

7:00am - Wake, breakfast (sometimes) go to Granny's or Grandma and Grandpa's
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
4.00/5.00pm - Get picked up by mum and go home (or stay for dinner)
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Jack is 11 Months!

2010-07-09T16:14:00.003+10:00

Here are a few photos of our gorgeous boy at 11 months.

Reflections of Weeks 45-48

2010-07-09T14:40:00.006+10:00

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote a reflection! Things have been busy. I feel like Jack has developed quite a bit since I last blogged. Jack is 11 months now.

Is is Teething?
In my last reflection I wrote, "I thought he was getting sick as he was really temperamental and crying a lot, he wasn't eating very much, he was having longer sleeps...". Well, it turned out it was teething after all. So, to answer my own question, "Is it Teething?". Yes, it most certainly was. After what felt like a very long week and a very bad day, I couldn't tolerate his delicate state so I went to the chemist and bought some bonjela to see if that helped. It seemed to settle him. So, now, any time he seems out of sorts and upset for no apparent reason (like at 2am), I whip out the Bonjela! Jack opens his mouth ready to receive the Bonjela every time he sees it in my hands. He has 3 teeth now. The top two came down first, followed by one of his bottom ones. I think the second bottom one is close to coming through.

Mobility
Nothing much has changed. He seems to becoming more and more active and more and more mobile. He's forever crawling around, chasing balls, exploring, and going where we don't want him to go! He's very good at cruising the furniture and he seems to be more confident with it. He loves to hold our hands and walk. He's getting really good at this. Occasionally, he'll walk holding only one hand, but he's usually not confident enough to do it.

He's now worked out how to stand up along the kitchen cupboards, which has meant that he's learnt how to open the cupboards. But, luckily (for us!), he hasn't figured out how to move out of the way so that the cupboard can open properly. I don't think I'll be encouraging that little development.

Sleeping
This is going well and things are pretty settled, except for last night when he woke up a few times. His day naps have gone back to being quite long after a period of having short naps.

Playing
During his wake time, Jack has moments where he's really good at playing by himself and he'll happily play with his toys on his play mat. But there are also other times when he just won't stay on his play mat and he'll constantly crawl over to areas where's he's not allowed to go. I get so tired having to chase him around all the time.

Jack has some little wooden cars that he loves to play with. He enjoys putting them in his mouth, looking at them, holding them in his hands, fiddling with them, crawling around with them, dropping them and even using them on their car track.

Fine Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Co-ordination
This has been a big development recently. Jack loves to drop things, especially off his high chair! Usually when he doesn't want to eat something he'll pick it up and deliberately drop it and then look for it. This can be very frustrating. I'm trying to encourage him to put it in my hand rather than on the floor. He'll also spend a lot of time dropping his toys: into a box or a container or just drop them for the sake or dropping them! When he's standing on the edge of the bath I'll give him his bath toys and he'll happily drop his toys into the water (he'll also do this when he's not having a bath and there is no water!).

Jack also spends a lot of time playing with things that have lids. He's fascinated with putting lids on things. His co-ordination isn't yet good enough for him to put most lids on properly, but he still enjoys putting them on and taking them off. If he sees his water bottle and its lid, he'll put the lid on and take it off, again and again.

We thought that Jack was a prodigy the other day. We have a shapes box. Dave gave Jack a shape to put in its hole. Each time Jack was given a shape he chose the correct hole. We were amazed! We thought he was so clever. Until the next time we did it. This time, Jack was choosing the wrong holes. Ha ha! We realised the first time was a big fluke.

One thing that Jack does enjoy doing that hasn't been, funnily enough, encouraged by us is kicking a ball. One day he was watching his Grandad (Dave's father) kick a ball and then when we stood him up he started to kick the ball too. He really likes walking along (holding onto our hands, of course!) and kicking a ball. He's quite good at it too.

Eating
Jack has gone back to eating well again (must have been the teeth). At the moment he's not eating much for breakfast. He'll eat about half of what we give him (and if it's toast, he'll attempt to throw the rest of it on to the floor!). But he eats really well for the rest of the day, especially at dinner.

Babbling
Jack is a real babbler now. I could listen to his babbles all day; they're delightful. He's making so many sounds now. Our favourite is when he says "a-book-a-book-a-book-a". He must be my child! It's really nice when he says "dadda", even though he doesn't really know what it means, and he usually says it when he's playing or talking with us. He says "mumma" a lot as well, but usually when he's upset, tired or hungry.

Signing
I'm trying to teach him some sign language. I'm starting with 'please'. But I keep forgetting to do it. He just looks at my like I'm a mad woman. But, I have to keep persevering with it and be more consistent. I'm also signing 'finished', but I have no idea if the sign is correct. He seems to understand it when we say 'finished' to him when he's finished a bowl of food. Over the last month or so he's been good at letting us know when he's had enough of something or doesn't want it anymore. Usually, it involves pushing our hands away or moving his head away. Pretty clear communication there! He's now started to shake his head when he pushes our hands away. I thought this was interesting as he has only ever shaken his head previously as a game, but now he's connected it with 'no'.

Bath Time
I keep forgetting to mention this, so I'm going to do it now. As I've mentioned before, Jack loves his bath time. He is always really happy and content when he's having a bath. He sits (well, most of the time!) and plays really well. As soon as he sees Dave go into the bathroom to run his bath, he doesn't want anymore food or drink. He wants to hop down and get into the bathroom. As soon as I take him out of his high chair and put him onto the floor, he's off! Crawling as quickly as he can to get into the bathroom. It's really cute. He'll then stand at the edge of the bath and watch it fill up with water, very keen to get in.

He has a few favourite toys. He'll usually have a small green ball in one hand and a washer in the other. He tries to grab other things but then he realises that he has to let go of the ball or the washer, so he goes back to holding his ball and washer. After a while he remembers his little "friend" and that will take preference over the ball :-)

Routine
I've dropped the midday feed, so now Jack's only having two milk feeds. He coped really well when I dropped that feed. I didn't notice any response from him at all. I'll be dropping the morning feed soon. Hopefully that will go as well as the last one.

Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, breakfast, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, morning tea, play
12.00pm - Lunch
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, afternoon tea, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Making My Own BIBS

2010-06-17T09:13:00.001+10:00

My friend, Sam, and I have decided to make our own bibs. I was needing to buy more as a lot of the ones we were given are too small for Jack now. After perusing the shops and seeing how expensive bibs can be (especially the descent ones), I decided that I could make my own. I figured I'd save a lot of money making my own, and I'd have bibs that I would actually be happy with and would fit Jack better.

So, here's one attempt. This is my second design (I'll post my first one soon). I bought some fabric from Ikea (3m for $15) and I used a white towel that I bought from Lyncraft ($3) that I never used. The bib was really easy to make. I've made about 4 now and I've got 8 more to sew. I haven't decided which fastner I like better. I made a press stud one for most of the bibs (as seen in these photos) but I've also made some bibs with buttons. The buttons are cheaper than the press studs and they seem to be a bit more sturdy. The press studs are a little bit more effort to make but they may be less fiddly to use. I'm going to keep experimenting and see what I like best.

Reflections of Weeks 43-44

2010-06-16T08:28:00.006+10:00

Jack is 10 months now. Although adorable, Jack is becoming more of a handful, which is to be expected. These last 2 weeks have been a bit up and down. I thought he was getting sick as he was really temperamental and crying a lot, he wasn't eating very much, he was having longer sleeps and he was feeling warm. But, no actual signs of sickness have eventuated. We just have a very "delicate" baby on our hands.

Jack is learning more skills and interacting with us and his environment in a whole new way, which has been really fun. He's imitating us more and more now. When I'm rubbing cream into my hands, he'll copy me and rub his hands. When we clap, he'll clap. He's just starting to wave "bye-bye" now (although it's still very much hit and miss). When I was leaving mum and dad's I was saying good-bye and Jack waved good-bye to them (they were thrilled by that!), as if he does it all the time. I was very surprised. But he hasn't done it since! When I'm holding him and say, "kisses", he bends his head and leans his forehead towards me so I can kiss it (Dave thinks he bends his head down to protect himself from being kissed, but I think otherwise!). He's still shaking his head, which we still find absolutely adorable.

Jack has become really chatty over the last couple of days. He seems to have developed his own language, "gargle-gargle-ga ga-ga-gargle-ga...". When we give him something (a toy, food, etc.), he'll look at it and say, usually very quietly, "gargle-gargle-ga". He also makes other sounds, which seem to mean something as he usually says them to you or in reaction to something that's happened.

Mobility
I've now combined 'crawling' and 'standing' into the one category, to stream-line things somewhat. Jack is VERY mobile now. He can crawl quite quickly and he lifts himself up really easily now. Everything on the lounge chairs, coffee tables, floor have to be picked up and moved out of his reach. All the doors have to be closed so he can't go exploring into things we don't want him to. Jack can also walk assisted. He's pretty wobbly, but he'll happily walk whilst we hold his hands.

As a result of Jack's mobility, he is getting lots of bumps and bruises. He's often falling over and hitting his head on the ground. Usually when he falls, we suck in our breath and wait to see how bad his fall was by how loudly he'll cry. The longer the pause, the bigger the cry. He smashed his mouth on the coffee table the other day. His bottom lip had a nice mark on it and it was all swollen.

Sleeping
Last week, his day naps became shorter, but over the last few days, he's been having huge naps in the afternoon (2 1/2- 3 hours!). He's still having relatively short naps in the morning (he's just woken up now after only sleeping for 30 mins - gotta go!).

Jack's night sleeping is going well. We've had the odd night when he's woken up, but he's still sleeping well on the whole.

Playing
Jack plays really well by himself, but he does like us to play with him more now. He loves to chase a ball (or any other toy that can roll) around the living room. He hits it away and then chases it, gets it and hits it again. He also really loves books. He enjoys playing with them by himself. He particularly likes to turn the pages and lift the flaps on the books with flaps. He still loves being outside (we're outside at the moment). He enjoys crawling around, exploring, and putting things in his mouth. EVERYTHING goes into his mouth! He gets frustrated sometimes when he can't do something that he wants to do. He'll also have a whinged when we thwart him from doing something he was enjoying (i.e. playing with the phone).

Jack still loves bath time. But he tries to stand up in the bath quite a bit, which means that we have to be more 'active' in our supervision!

Eating
Jack's not eating very well at the moment. He will hardly eat any breakfast and he may eat a bit more for lunch and dinner, but it fluctuates. It's a battle to get him to eat more than a few mouthfuls and drink enough water. He'll often cry/whinge whilst he's eating and then refuse to have any more. I'm not sure what's going on. He's usually a very good eater. So, I'm not sure if he's going through a phase or if he's sick. I'm trying to offer him one thing to eat and if he doesn't eat it, I finish the meal, rather than offering him lots of things. He has no problem eating prunes, sultanas, cheese, yoghurt and crackers, and he'll eat them all the time if he had his way! For lunch, he had a few mouthfuls and then had a meltdown. I gave him a breastfeed and then he was instantly happy.

Jack is now at the stage where he'll look down after he's dropped something. Previously, he was oblivious of when he dropped something - totally unaware - but now he looks for the object (or food!) that he's dropped. He'll hang his head over the high chair and say, "ga-ga-gargle". This morning he deliberately threw his food from his high chair. Very annoying. I would have been more cranky if I wasn't already exasperated by his fussing and whingeing.

Is It Teething?
I'm sure this question has popped into your minds, as it has mine. I have often asked this over the last few days. I don't know the answer. His two front teeth are definitely ready to come through. They are bulging and you can see the bottom of the teeth, which look like faint white lines poking through. I noticed a small white fleck on the the right hand side of the lower gum, but I have no idea if it's a tooth or not. I'm hesitate to attribute his unsettle behaviour to teeth as teething seems to be blamed for a myriad of baby-related issues. But, who knows?

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, solids, play
12.00pm - Feed
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Our Little Baby Boy - He's nearly 10 months

2010-06-13T13:52:00.003+10:00

Sometimes we find it hard to believe that Jack is our little boy. He is such an adorable little baby boy and we often find ourselves asking, "is he really ours?". After one of his afternoon naps, he was very happy and content playing in his cot. I couldn't resist taking some photos (what a surprise!).

Life is Short. Have an Affair

2010-05-31T15:13:00.005+10:00

While we were watching 'Underbelly' last night (we keep hoping that it will get better...) there was an advertisement that shocked me totally, so much so I couldn't believe what I saw. I found myself watching scenes of a couple (the woman very scantily clad in lingerie) being very intimate while the voice-over said something like, '...but this couple isn't married.' Then the voice-over continued by saying, 'Life is short. Have an affair'. It turns out that this advertisement was advertising Ashley Madison, "The World's Premier Discreet Dating Service".

I find it very frightening indeed. Have we reached a new low? I just can't get over a company advertising and encouraging so blatantly to people that they should have an affair. It's all so alluring with its anonymity and secrecy. The website holds such promise, "join free & change your life today." Your life will certainly change, alright. But, not in the way that Ashley Madison is promising. This is what they really should be saying: Life is short. Ruin your marriage. Life is short. Destroy your family. Life is short. Damage your relationships. And so forth...

Life is short. But, is this what we should be endeavoring to be doing with our lives? What we should be told is this: Life is short. Get right with God.

The VHCC Book Club

2010-05-29T08:15:00.003+10:00

I've started up a book club at church, the VHCC Book Club. I'm really exciting about it and I hope that it will be really beneficial. I've got the blog up and running. You can check it out here.

What Has Challenged Me Today - How We Criticise Women...

2010-05-28T17:01:00.006+10:00

I just read this blog post, "Sticks and Stones", by Dannielle Miller, and it raised some very pertinent points about how women are criticised. I'd like to share some extracts from the post that stood out to me:

"...Then I realised that the comment had drawn my attention away from the real issue: too often, when women raise their voices, they are criticised not for what they say but how they look.

Even now, in 2010, is that the currency of a woman or a girl — her looks? Is a female’s Achilles heel still her appearance? If you strike her there, do you take away her only power?

It isn’t the first time I’ve spoken out about sexual harassment or a women’s issue and been criticised not for my arguments but for the way I look. I have been helpfully informed that I seemed to have put on weight. I was sent an e-mail telling me that I couldn’t be a feminist because I have blonde hair. During the 2009 scandal involving Matthew Johns and teammates having sex with a 19-year-old girl, I wrote an article in defence of the young woman, who was being blamed and insulted in the media and on the internet. A reader commented that I was just jealous because I was wasn’t desirable enough to get a football player of my own.

...Comments that target a woman for how she looks, rather than her ideas, are designed to do one thing and one thing only: to shut her up.

Yet it only spurs me on. The same can be said for other Australian writers and commentators I spoke to who also regularly receive such criticism. When I discussed this phenomenon with Emily Maguire, author of Princesses & Porn Stars and a regular writer on gender and culture, she told me:

There’s no way you can present yourself that won’t attract criticism from the kind of people who think that criticism of a woman’s looks will hurt more than criticism of her ideas . . . It only makes me more sure that this stuff is worth speaking out about. — Emily Maguire

...Old, saggy, mutton dressed as lamb — age is a common theme to this type of criticism. Rather than seeming to gain wisdom, experience and authority — as is virtually expected of men — women are often deemed of decreasing value with each year they move beyond their 30s. We see it throughout our culture. How many good roles are there for actresses over 40? How many women newsreaders have career longevity without resorting to Botox? It is as if once women have passed a certain age, it is time for them to step off the stage. It’s no wonder that many women are angsting and trying to achieve the body of a 20-year-old — an impossible and time-wasting task. Zoe Krupka put it perfectly in a post on the website New Matilda:

How are we meant to do our work in the world and develop wisdom if we are still focused on the size of our butts? — Zoe Krupka

One would hope that the situation was improving, but in fact, it seems to be getting worse. And it is often women who use the strategy of attacking a woman’s looks. Dr Karen Brooks, social commentator and author of Consuming Innocence: Popular Culture and Our Children, told me:

I have had my appearance criticised ALL the time . . . This has been happening to me for 13 years and it’s getting worse . . . I should add that most of the negative comments are from women. — Karen Brooks

...Imagine the change we all — women and men — could make in the world if we took personal attacks out of public debate. Imagine if we all engaged in the debate, made respectful counterarguments, added our own ideas into the mix. Imagine if we all pledged to stop trying to silence one another. I have the greatest respect for the women thinkers and activists I have mentioned here. Do I agree with them on every single issue? Of course not. But I pledge to always argue my case while according them the respect they deserve. It will always be their ideas that I engage with, because ideas — not physical appearances — live on forever.

A comment I received from another woman sums it all up:

Common sense, dignity, rights, respect, responsibility — these basic human values should be blind to looks, age, gender. — Paola Yevenes"

Reflections of Week 42

2010-05-28T08:14:00.003+10:00

Things have changed quite a bit in the last week. Remember how I said previously that Jack wasn't really getting all the adventurous with his crawling? Well, that has completely gone out the window! He is getting VERY adventurous and he liked to explore. He's also pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING. So, nothing's safe now (all the well-seasoned parents can laugh at me now!). We're constantly having to move things out of his reach. He's also been sick this week, too, which has made it a harder week than usual.

Crawling
Like I said, he's going everywhere and getting into everything. Things have definitely changed. When I feed him in the mornings in bed, he no longer sits and plays with me. Once his feed is over (he sits up by himself when he's had enough or when he wants to have a look around) he spots Dave's bedside table and he's off, crawling over to it. I put up some pillows in front of the bedside table, but he's worked out how to crawl over them. I pull him back and then he whinges. This goes on for a while before I decide it's time to get up. So, gone are the lovely ly-ins with Jack.

Jack is often on the move. We used to put him on his play mat and he'd sit there and play for ages. Now, he's barely there for a couple of minutes (no matter how many fantastic toys he has) before he's crawling towards the coffee table or the speakers (and, yes, they're still on the floor!). While I've been writing this post, I've already had to put him back on his mat from playing with the speakers several times. He's now sitting on his play mat playing with his books. Not sure how long that will last!

Standing
He's gotten really good at pulling himself up on things now. He's doing all the time and with such ease (it's happened so quickly!). He hasn't quite worked out how to get down after he's standing, but he's getting there. He stood by himself for about two seconds yesterday. That was a bit of a surprise, for both Jack and myself.

Sleeping
Jack's day naps have settled back down. His morning naps are short, but he'll have a longer nap in the afternoon (if we're at home). His night sleeping has been slightly unsettled as he's been sick, but it's not been too bad.

Wake Time
Nothing's changed.

Playing
I think that I need to be playing with him more now. Seeing that he's crawling around so much, I suspect that I should spend more time interacting with him, rather than expecting him to entertain himself so much. It's good for him to play by himself, but I think I need to play him him more as well.

Eating
Still going really well. Being sick, he lost his appetite a bit, but he is eating better today.

Discipline
This has become harder. It seems like he doesn't listen to us at all when we say 'no'. When he's playing with the speakers, I say 'no' and he looks at me, but keeps doing it. I go over and pull his hands away and say 'no' again and then he just giggles. Very annoying, but to be expected, I guess.

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, solids, play
12.00pm - Feed
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

The HICCUPotamus - Cracks Jack Up

2010-05-25T20:36:00.005+10:00

Jack was given a new book by his Aunty Helen called "The HICCUPotamus". I think it's a really fun book to read to children. The concept is quite humourous - a hiccuping hippopotamus. It has colourful and expressive images to connect to the clever and creative text. The text is full of entertaining wordplay, which makes the book a joy to read. The opening pages start like this:

"Hic!
Hic!
There was a hippopotamus
Who hiccupped quite-a-lotamus.
And every time he got'emus...
He'd fall upon his bottomus..."

Doesn't that sound like fun? Well, Jack certainly thinks so. Dave says to Jack, "Hic! Hic! Hiccupotamus!" and Jack bursts out laughing. Here's what I mean:

What Has Challenged Me Today...

2010-05-24T20:25:00.005+10:00

I just read this blog post about Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) wanting his portable computer devices to NOT sell or stock pomography. I find it encouraging that there are some people (wealthy and influential) who have made a conscious decision to uphold morality over wealth. This is really interesting. I challenge you to read this post by Tim Chester.

Reflections of Weeks 40-41

2010-05-23T13:46:00.005+10:00

Things have been going well. Jack has been happy and content over the last couple of weeks. He has been loving his new found freedom in his crawling and he seems to have so much energy.

Crawling
This is going really well. Jack is really good at crawling now and he can move quite quickly now. Unfortunately, he has become a lot more aware of the world around him and he now loves to explore on a whole new level. He is a lot more determined to get to things now. He loves crawling to the coffee table, the DVD player and speakers (we really need to get them off the floor!), the heater, under the dining table and the bathroom. He plays on his mat for a bit and then he's off, crawling around the living room. He really enjoys following a ball around the living room. He enthusiastically chases it around (lucky for him or lounge room floor has a slope, so the ball always moves on its own accord ;-)).

Standing
Jack's been pretty good with getting on his knees to reach things. He does this so easily now. Recently he has worked out how to pull up onto his feet. He figure out how to do it while he was in the bath and now he loves to do it in the bath all the time (as well as crawling around in the bath). It was very exciting to see, but we didn't necessarily want to encourage it! He has also just started to stand up in his cot, but he doesn't always do it.

Sleeping
Jack's night sleeping is still going well - nothing's really changed there. But, his day naps have changed in the last week. In the mornings he's been taking about half an hour or more to get to sleep. He plays quite happily and energetically in his cot and I have to go in every now and then to lie him back down again. He is often kneeling or standing up and whacking his hands up and down on the cot or the wall. Or, he's sitting down with his legs between the cot slats, swinging them about. I often find his socks on the floor and they're usually wet (he likes to suck on them). Eventually he goes to sleep, but he hasn't been sleeping for very long. Yesterday he slept for 20 minutes and today he slept for 30 minutes. I've tried keeping him up for longer but it hasn't made much of a difference. I'm wondering if he is going to drop this nap soon. But, surely it's too early? I'm going to monitor it more closely this week and see if keeping him up longer works or if I should just keep persisting with the 9am nap. His afternoon naps are better and he has been sleeping longer, but he still likes to play around before he goes to sleep.

Wake Time
Nothing much has changed...I'm not too sure how long I should be keeping him up. I try to keep his afternoon nap time consistent, so usually if he wakes up at 10am or later, I put him down again at 1pm. This morning he was awake at 9.30am and he managed really well being awake until 1pm.

Playing
I've noticed that Jack (and his other baby friends) are at an age now where they need more interactive toys. There are a couple of favourite toys at mothers group to which the babies seem to gravitate. They are the play centre type toys where things move and make music. We have borrowed a toy from my friend Sam, which has been great as it can be expensive having to buy toys all the time and we don't have the space for lots of toys. Jack really enjoys playing with it as well as some interactive stacker blocks that his grandparents bought him. I'm going to investigate the toy library this week.

Solids
Jack is eating really well. He is a great eater and he'll eat pretty much anything. I gave him half a juiced lemon the other day. I was expecting him to make a face and not like it, but he didn't; he happily sucked on it and he rather enjoyed it. I made a chicken tagine with cayenne pepper in it. It was too hot for Jack. He kept opening his mouth so we thought he was enjoying it, until his crying got worse. Poor thing.

I'm still feeding him 3 times a day, although there have been a couple of days where I've forgotten to give him his midday feed. Some days he's not too fussed about having a breastfeed and other days he really wants it.

He's drinking from a cup pretty well now. He still gets all wet down his front, but I think he's doing a good job of drinking. I try to give him water with each meal. He enjoys drinking his water, which is great. I gave up giving him the sippy cups as he was pretty hopeless at using them and I could never work out how much water he was actually drinking. We have one sippy cup that he can hold himself (seen in the photo above), but I think he spends most of his time chewing on the end rather than drinking the water. When I give it to him to use by himself he ends up getting drenched.

Discipline
This is getting hard. He's moving around so much and touching things he's not supposed to. It gets a bit draining after a while. Sometimes he listens when we say 'no' and stops what he's doing, but sometimes he completely ignores what we're saying. But that's alright, we just have to keep persisting and being consistent.

Babysitting
This is still going well. Jack is really good with other people. He doesn't seem phased by being with others. His Grandmother, Noelene, looked after him Yesterday while I played netball (we lost). We had to go out to a BBQ that night and we were planning taking Jack with us, but after Dave's father offered to look after Jack, we decided to leave him with them. He was with them anyway and he seemed so happy. So, on the way to the BBQ we dropped in so I could feed him and then we were on our way.

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, solids, play
12.00pm - Feed
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

What Has Encouraged Me Today - Be Content

2010-05-21T22:28:00.005+10:00

Be content. Most of the time this is easier said than done. It is particularly hard to be content when we're constantly encouraged not to be content. I read this verse last night and I find encouragement in these words:

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Phillipians 4:12

Doesn't that sound wonderful - "the secret of being content"? Well, what is the secret of being content? I will have to think more about this...but for now, I think that it's having God's perspective and realising that EVERYTHING we have comes from God. We need to be thankful for what he has given us. It's helpful, then, to focus on the good things; what we have instead of what we don't have. Let's get into the habit of telling God daily what we're thankful for.

What Has Challenged Me Today...

2010-05-20T09:58:00.005+10:00

I found this blog post by Sarie King really interesting and challenging. I encourage you to read it.

Why was it challenging? I was struck by how pertinent it is for us to teach girls and young women that the way they conduct themselves in a relationship does matter. They need to have older women model Christ-like behaviour to them. They need to have demonstrated to them an alternate way to live. But, how do we do this?

I was shocked to read that there are some young women who are auctioning off their virginity to the highest bidder. Why have women changed their attitude and views of their bodies and sexuality so dramatically?

I was brought up in a Christian family and I was taught that you should wait until AFTER marriage to have sex. I was taught that sex between a husband and a wife was SPECIAL and unique, something that the two of you shared together. So, I waited until I was married and I have only ever had one sexual partner. My sexuality is not up for grabs and it isn't a commodity. It is something that I lovingly give to my husband and no one else. I guess that I am in the minority when it comes to this. But, this should not be so.

We should be modeling and teaching the following:
"As I follow Christ, I’m to know that my body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord (1Cor 6:14), not only must I refrain from committing sexual immorality, nor is there to be any hint of it (1Cor 10:8, Eph 5:3). Rather, I must seek to honour HIM in all I think, in all I say, and all I do, to be a woman who is “reverent and worthy of respect” (Titus 2:2)." Sarie King (May 19, 2010).

What Has Encouraged Me Today...

2010-05-18T10:08:00.004+10:00

I read a blog post this morning, "Busyness, Burnout and the Grace of God (4) Identity", and some comments that Jean made really struck me:

"My significance doesn't come from what I do, or even what God does through me. My significance comes from the fact that I'm a child of God."
"But life isn't about my renown: it's about making God's name known."
"The world tells me that work defines my identity. It tells me that I'm nothing if I'm not using my degree, using my skills, and pursuing a career, preferably one which fulfills and energises me. But God tells me to use all my energies to love and serve others. I find myself in him, not in my work."
"I can be faithful to God in the situation he's put me in, serve the people he's given me to love, and trust him to help them grow in his own timing and his own way."

This has challenged me to reconsider how I view my life. It has given me perspective. I need to be more content in my circumstances and remember to praise God for all that he has done for me. I need to remember to do all things that will please him and glorify his name.

Jack's Learning Quickly

2010-05-17T10:12:00.005+10:00

Dave was showing Jack how to use one of his toys (handed down from his cousins) today. Dave showed Jack how to do it a couple of times and then Jack grabbed a car and did it himself. We were surprised at how quickly he was able to copy Dave and know what to do.

He soon grew tired of doing that and decided that sucking on the cars was a lot more fun!

Being Outdoors

2010-05-16T13:18:00.006+10:00

One thing I've noticed with Jack is that he LOVES being outside. It has a real calming affect on him. He can be really unsettled and whingey inside, but as soon as he's outside, sitting on some grass and playing with some leaves, he calms right down and is very content.

Jack enjoys crawling around and finding grass, leaves, sticks, insects or bark to stick in his mouth. Everything goes on his mouth!

He particularly likes to put leaves in his mouth.

He could do this for hours.

Did I mention that he likes leaves?

...he's also a fan of grass!

(we really need to do something about his hair!)

Jack Goes Exploring

2010-05-12T21:37:00.006+10:00

With the joys of seeing Jack develop and start to crawl comes the challenge of keeping up with his exploring. I try to encourage Jack to play on his mat, but it's not long before he's off crawling somewhere.

Jack will often head to the coffee table where there are fun things to play with - things that we don't want him to touch!He's found some books which are one of his favourite things to play with.

Once he's finished playing with the books, he'll try to get whatever is on the coffee table, which inevitably is the remote controls
But, he's not allowed to play with those, so we usually give him something else that he can play with.

It's just out of his reach...

which he doesn't like one bit.

Mummy helps him out...

which makes him one little happy chappy.

Jack is 9 Months!

2010-05-12T21:29:00.005+10:00

I can't believe it. Jack is 9 months. What a great 9 months it has been.

Jack's New Skill

2010-05-10T17:10:00.004+10:00

Here's a clip of Jack's new skill: shaking his head. I think he looks adorable doing it.

Reflections of Week 39

2010-05-10T08:36:00.005+10:00

This week has been a great week. Things have seemed more settled and Jack has been really fun. Jack has learnt a few new skills. He deliberately coughs to be funny (he's always put one a cough, but it's only been recently that he seems to do it to make us laugh) and sometimes he'll do it on cue. He claps (but only when he wants to) and he shakes his head, which is VERY cute.

Crawling
Jack's crawling is coming along well. He is a little bit more adventurous now, but he doesn't seem to want to get into everything (yet!). But he does like to explore. He loves going under the dining table and into the bathroom (to get to the bin!). I'm thankful that he hasn't discovered the heater or the DVD player that's sitting on the floor (we're yet to do something about that. It's on our "to do" list).

Jack's moving with a lot more co-ordination (fewer floor face-plants) and speed. He also moves into a crawling/sitting/crawling position really easily now. Jack likes to do the "tripod", where he moves from his hands and knees to his is hands and feet. Not really sure why he does it, but he's very fascinated with it, especially balancing on his head to look through his legs.

As well as this, Jack gets up on his knees from a crawling or sitting position. A few times now, he's been on his knees, holding on to the edge of his cot, when he's woken up from his nap. He's just started to do it before his nap.

Sleeping

Things are going along well in this department. He's sleeping from 7pm to 6.30am. He seems to be stuck at the 6.30am mark, but there's nothing I can do about it. He's good at playing in his cot until I come and get him. His naps are going really well, too. He seems to be so much more consistent with his naps now. A couple times he's slept for 3 hours in the afternoon, which has been great (I got to catch up on my TV viewing in one afternoon). There were a few times this week where his naps have been short. This seems to be mainly due to him sleeping in a different environment or due to somebody else looking after him (other than me). We'll keep working on that. He doesn't seem to sleep very well in his pram anymore. I think it's mainly due to the fact that he doesn't do it very often.

Wake Time
Pretty much the same. Jack seems to be staying up longer in the morning. He definitely handles being up longer than he used to. We definitely need to get a play pen and some toys that are more age-appropriate.

Solids
I dropped a feed this week. It sort of evolved. I was thinking about it and I noticed that there was one feed during the day where Jack wasn't drinking much. So, one day I decided to drop a feed and see what happened. It all went well. Jack adjusted to the change and so now we've stuck with it. After his morning nap we give Jack some solids and then at 12pm I'll feed him. We do the same thing after his afternoon nap. I try to hold off to about 5pm to feed him. It's a bit tricky at that time of the day as he just seems to want to eat all afternoon. So, for solids, Jack has breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.

Discipline
Jack does know 'no' as he stops what he's doing when he hears us say it. Sometimes he'll stop completely and other times he'll go back and do it again. It depends on how much he wants to keep doing what he's doing (like playing with the bin in the bathroom. Saying 'no' doesn't work at all. Very hard when I'm in the shower!!).

Babysitting
This has been fantastic!! We are so lucky to have two sets of grandparents close-by. I've been fully exploiting this factor :-). Granny looked after Jack for two afternoons this week while I painted our back door. Since I dropped a feed it has been so much easier to have someone look after Jack. I can drop him off at 12.30pm and I won't need to see him again until 5pm. But I do miss him. Though, it's been good for Jack to spend more time with his grandparents, too.

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, solids, play
12.00pm - Feed
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Reflections of Weeks 34-38

2010-05-02T14:06:00.007+10:00

Jack is a real delight. I love him so much and I really enjoy spending my days with him. A lot has happened in these last few weeks, but the most exciting thing of all is that Jack started to crawl!! He's babbling more and more. He now says, "babba", "mumma", "dadda" and "gurggle". He seems to babble in a conversational sort of way, which is very cute.

Crawling
Jack's been crawling for 2 weeks now. At the beginning of April he was able to get up on his knees and rock back and forth, but he didn't really know what to do with his hands. He was also pushing himself backwards, getting further and further away from what he wanted. After a week of getting up on his knees, he started to move his hands. He'd take a few steps at first, then he'd do more and more each day. Now he can crawl from one end of the house to the other. When he's hungry he'll crawl to me and follow me around. The other night when Dave came home from work Jack was really excited to see him. Dave went to have a shower and Jack crawled to the bathroom and sat outside the door. It's interesting to see that he's now made the connection that he can move to get to what he wants. He has pulled himself up once.

So far (holding my breath!), Jack hasn't been too adventurous with his crawling. He's not been too interested in getting in to things. He just discovered the bookshelf, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

The only problem we've been having is that he's been putting anything and everything in his mouth. Whatever he finds on the floor/ground, he'll put in his mouth. I got a big surprise the other day when I retrieved a brown, furry caterpillar from his mouth. It gave me such a shock that I flung it across the room. I suspected that he had something in his mouth, but I didn't think for one minute it would be a caterpillar! He was in the lounge room, so that was the last thing I was expected to pull out of his mouth.

Sleeping
Jack's sleeping has been going really well, once we got over that rough patch. He's generally been sleeping solidly at night. Before daylight savings changed he was sleeping to 7am, but now I'm lucky if he sleeps to 6.30am. I leave him in his cot until 7am. I'm hoping that he'll gradually get back to 7am. Occasionally he's been waking up and crying at night. I've had to go in and settle him a few times. Sometimes he's woken up because he's sick, other times I'm not sure why, but he gets pretty upset.

Jack's down to 2 naps now. In the morning he'll sleep for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours and in the afternoon he'll sleep for 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours. Every now and then his naps are short, but usually they're a pretty good length.

Waketime
Nothing really has changed here. He's usually awake for 2 hours, although he can handle being awake for 2 1/2 hours, depending on what happens. When he's ready for a nap, he'll snuggle his head on to my chest, under my chin, and suck his thumb.

Solids
Jack's eating has been going so well. He'll pretty much eat anything. He has definitely made the connection between hunger and food. Not long after his breastfeed he's ready for some solids. He's having four regular meals a day. From about 3pm to dinner time he seems to want to eat more. He gets really whingey between his last feed and dinner. It gets really hectic when I'm trying to make dinner and he's crawling over to me wanting food. Sometimes I put him in his high chair with a finger food so that I can get some space to get dinner finished. It's not too bad when Dave's home to entertain him, but it gets quite tricky when I'm on my own.

I suspect that he's less breast milk now. His feeds are shorter and he doesn't seem to be having as much. I'm going to try to drop a feed soon. I think I'll start to offer him solids before his feeds soon, too.

Discilpine
This has been tricky! We've been trying to teach Jack 'no'. A couple of weeks ago, this was proving to be futile (as seen when he was eating our basil plant). He just didn't understand. But, over the last couple of days, he has been listening at times when we've said 'no' to him. If he's going to touch something we don't want him to touch we say, 'Jack, no'. He stops. But then he'll go for it again :-) We'll say, 'Jack, no' again and he'll stop. But he'll try to touch it again. This usually goes on for a bit, until he gets bored and moves on to something else. I try to give him some positive reinforcement when he does listen and stops what he's doing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I am surprised that it has worked at all.

Babysitting
Over the last few weeks, Jack's been getting looked after more often. It seems much easier to do this now. On Friday afternoon I had to go to a funeral and on Saturday afternoon I played netball. Noelene (Dave's mum), came over while Jack was asleep to look after him for both days. When he woke up Noelene just gave him solids (I'm not bothering with the bottle as he's never been interested in it and rarely drinks much, so I don't see the point). Then Jack and Noelene had a lovely time playing, reading, or going for a walk, until I got home. When I got home I gave Jack a breast feed. I'm so glad that he has been really good for other people - he really is a happy and content baby, a real answer to prayer.

Routine
Nothing much has changed with his routine. I'm trying to make his feed times more consistent so that they're at the same time each day. He's better at waiting for a feed now. He doesn't seem to need a feed straight after he's woken up.

Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
1.00pm - Nap
2.30pm /3.00pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Housework Should Always Appear to be Done

2010-04-26T20:10:00.002+10:00

My mother-in-law showed me an article from The Australian Women's Weekly (1 Janruary, 1975), enlightening women on how to be more effective with their housework, which Noelene has dutifully kept all these years in her 'Helpful Hints' folder. I'm always on the look out for ways to make cleaning the house and getting organised easier. I was surprisingly impressed with what the article said, so much so that I thought it worth sharing. The advice in this article is only for those who don't really mind a bit of mess, but are embarrassed by being caught out by visitors (and that would be me!).

Here are some snippets from the article...

First things first...

Housework Should Always Appear to be Done

A housewife's maxim, "It is not necessary that housework should be done, but only that it should appear to be done."
The house, or some other house, would be there all your life, but the baby won't be a baby for long. If you're going to be a stickler for dusting your dusters and polishing your polishers, you're likely to miss a lot of the fun children provide, no matter what age they are.

Next...

What You Need Mostly is Lots of Cunning

Lower your sights and develop a lot of cunning.
Housework should be divided into cunning and cleaning. You always ought to do the cunning bits first, and fit the cleaning bits in when you've a bit of spare time.
If you're caught out by unexpected visitors, don't scuttle, don't apologise, and don't start pushing things out of sight. Say nothing at all, or just say airily, "Sorry about the mess. It's been one of those days."
More importantly, don't go into competition with any of your friends whose floors are so clean you could eat off them, and then lick them clean! Most people prefer food and some good conversation, anyway.

Let's get to it...

But You Can Have the House Tidy in 40 1/2 Minutes
This 40 1/2-min plan is geared to the one-baby family (add an extra 10 minutes per child's bedroom).

As soon as breakkie's over and the mob has gone, fill the kitchen sink with hot water, dump in everything that needs washing, throw out the rubbish, wipe down the benches and sweep the floor (10 mins).
While the dishes are soaking, open the lounge room windows, pick up any papers, books, toys, bits and pieces, etc. (5 mins).
If the floor looks really dirty, run the vacuum cleaner over it (2 mins) and rush around the edges with a mop (1 1/2 mins).
Next, the bathroom. Hang out the towels, wipe the basin, brush the toilet bowl, wipe up any floor puddles and open the window wide (5 mins).
In your bedroom, make the bed, hang up any clothes, put dirty ones in the wash, flick a duster over the dressing-table (10 mins, if you hurry)**.
Go back to the kitchen and finish the washing up (7 mins).

That's 40 1/2 minutes, and you have done no housework that a good housekeeper would approve of, but all the parts of your house that visitors are likely to see are fit to be looked at.

If you've still got an hour in hand, that's an hour for cleaning, so use it to vacuum one day, mop the floors another, or any other horrible thing that has to be done once a week. If you haven't got an hour in hand, forget it. The house looks alright, anyway. The absolutely essential thing, for your peace of mind, is never to start a major cleaning job until you've done that cunning clean-up.

There are some important DON'TS:

Never decide to clean out all the kitchen cupboards (that's asking for unexpected visitors!). Do one shelf tonight while the vegetables are cooking, another tomorrow.
Don't hoard things with the idea they'll be useful some other time. They won't.
Don't aim at perfection. Spotless houses are very unwelcoming.
Above all, don't feel guilty. Housework's not the be-all and end-all of any woman's life.

* The Australian Women's Weekly, 1 Janruary 1975, 'At Home...With Margaret Sydney.'
**Do the same in children's room/s.

Card - Happy Moments_Multi-Coloured Cake

2010-03-30T20:53:00.003+11:00

Here's another one I made today...

Card - Nursery Necessities_Pink Elephant

2010-03-30T20:48:00.003+11:00

I managed to find some time and inspiration today to make a couple of cards. I used my friend's, Christie's, stamp set "Nursery Necessities". I think the stamp set is absolutely adorable. I plan to make quite a few cards as there are always babies being born - especially at church!

The picture quality isn't very good as I took the photo on my phone.

Absolute Shocker

2010-03-27T07:27:00.002+11:00

After only a few hours of broken sleep, I feel like venting a bit. I had an absolute shocker with Jack last night. Dave was on a night shift last night so I was flying solo - it's much harder to cope with these things when you're alone. Here's how it went...
7.00pm - Jack put to bed, but was unsettled and crying.
7.30pmish - Jack finally went to sleep
9.30pmish - Jack woke up crying. I went in a few times to settle him. I tried picking him up and holding him for a while, I tried leaving him to cry, I tried to give him some water to see if he was thirsty, I tried giving him some food to see if he was hungry, I tried reading him a book, I tried giving him a feed (reluctantly, but at 11.30pm I was willing to give anything a go)...I tried everything I could think of, but nothing seemed to work. Sometimes, he would settle, but 15 mins or so later, he would start crying again.
12.30pm - Jack seemed upset and was whimpering even when I was holding him. I decided to give him some panadol as he may be in some sort of discomfort (sore throat? teething? he got his immunisations this week, so maybe something to do with that??). We then sat down together in his room and I read him some stories to help calm him down and to wait for the panadol to kick in. Jack calmed down and seemed happier. I put him to bed and rubbed his back, while he babbled happily. Now, I could finally go back to bed and get some sleep.
3.00am - Jack wakes up again. I go in to check on him. He's on his tummy (again!). I roll him over and leave. He makes noises on and off. I'm too tired to know what to do, so I just leave him and try to go back to sleep.
5.00am - I wake up. I must have fallen asleep at some stage, but Jack is still awake. I decide to give him more panadol. He seems to settle after this.
6.00am - Jack wakes up again. Now, at this point, I'm thinking, "Give me a break! Why are you awake?! You should be exhausted!" I decide to leave him and go back to sleep. He quietens down.
7.00am - Jack wakes up again or starts to make more noise and wakes me up. I decide to get up and feed him. He seems as happy as happy can be - go figure? I'm exhausted, but glad that he's happy.
So, that was our night. Dave just got home and I'll be telling him all about it. Interestingly, when Dave walked in the door, he saw that Jack had a huge snot string hanging from his nose and then he did a huge poo (no longer constipated!). Welcome home, daddy.

Reflections of Week 33

2010-03-26T20:32:00.004+11:00

This week started out well, but has gradually gone down hill. Over the last couple of days, I have noticed a change in Jack. He's started to have really short naps in the day and he has been more unsettled. I feel like we were in sunshine and now we're heading into some dark clouds.

On a positive note, he has been blowing raspberries quite a bit this week and his "talking" has increased. It's really nice to listen to his babbles.

Sleeping
His sleeping has been going well. But, the last two nights he has cried quite a bit before going to bed (which he hadn't been doing at all previously). Tonight he took over half an hour to settle down. Dave and I went in to settled him a few times before he settled and went to sleep.

Jack's been rolling on to his tummy again in his cot. A few times, he's fallen asleep on his tummy. On night, he'd fallen asleep with his head on his hands. He looked adorable. Sometimes he gets upset about being in his tummy, but he won't roll on to his back (even though I know he can). Not sure what's going on there...

As I said earlier, Jack's been having pretty bad naps over the last few days. He had a great 2 1/2 hour nap on Wednesday, but since then, they've been around 30 - 40 mins. His naps are usually this long if we're out, but they've been like this at home as well. I know for sure that he's not getting enough sleep as he's rubbing his eyes a lot and he's not as happy. He won;t go back to sleep once he's awake, so I'm not really sure what to do about it, if I can do anything at all.

Jack's had a few days this week where he's dropped his third nap. This has been working really well. But, once he starting having really short naps, he's needed the third nap.

Illness
Jack's got ANOTHER runny nose. :-(

Wake Time
Not much has changed here. I'm trying to give him more tummy time to encourage his crawling. Some days he doesn't mind being on his tummy, other days he doesn't really like it. I was told today that if babies are encouraged to sit before they can crawl, it inhibits their crawling. So, don't I feel great? I've stunted Jack's development. Anything else?....

Solids
...Ah, that's right, I've also made Jack constipated :-( I was researching what food causes constipation in babies and it turns out that it was all the food that I was giving Jack. Food like apple sauce, bananas, rice, toast, potatoes, lots of dairy, carrots. It's also caused by a lack of fluid. Jack doesn't drink much water. It's really hard to get him to drink much, but we're working on it. We ended up giving him some coloxyl as it wasn't sorting itself out. I think this has been effecting his sleep and mood as well. He's not completely sorted yet, but it's improving.

So, I've changed his diet a little bit. I've cooked up a lot of vegetable and fruit 'mashes' (I put the mashes in ice-cube trays, froze them and then put the frozen cubes into snap-lock bags. This makes it really easy to get food for Jack). I've tried to use fibre-friendly foods - peaches, apricots, prunes, broccoli, peas, etc. Jack's been eating his solids really well. He has about 3-4 meals a day. He eats a lot a dinner, but not as much for breakfast.

Discipline
This is continuing to be "interesting". This week the battle has been over Jack's hat. Jack has learnt how to take off his hat. A part of me thinks, "Yay!! Jack has learnt to take his hat off! Good boy, Jackie!", and the other part thinks, "Noooo!! Jack has learnt to take his hat of!! That's so annoying!." The encounter usually involves Jack taking his hat off and me putting it back on and saying, "No. Leave your hat on, Jack." Jack then tries to take it off again while I hold my hand down on his head, preventing him from taking it off. Jack then cries. I turn my back and Jack takes his hat off....and so it goes on...My friends from bible study tell me this is just a phase. I certainly hope so.

Swimming
I thought I'd give an update on how Jack's going with his swimming lessons. Jack has been going pretty well. Most of the time, he just floats around and stares at all the people and interesting things going on. He doesn't really 'love' it, but I think he enjoys it to some extent. He's not cried since his first couple of lessons, which has been an improvement. When the instructor puts him under the water, he doesn't seem to mind and he closes his mouth, so that's good. I don't think that I'll do it next term, though. I don't think he's getting enough out of it at the moment to justify going. I'd rather just go by myself (or with some friends) and let him play in the water, as I think I can do the same things that we do in the lesson at this stage.

Routine
Things have been pretty much the same, except a some days Jack has dropped his third nap and some days he's had pretty short naps.

Here's what a typical day looks like:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00am - Nap
10.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
12.00pm - Nap
1.30pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
3.30pm - Nap
4.30/5.00pm - Wake, feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Some days, I keep him awake until 9.30/10.00am if I'm going out to a friend's place or mothers group. If this happens, the routine looks more like this:

7:30am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.30am-10.00 - Nap
11.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
1.00pm - Nap
2.00-3.00pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

The times vary each day, but I do try to make sure that we eat dinner at 6pm and he's in bed by 7pm. I think the bedtime routine is pretty important so I stick to that as much as I can.

Playtime - with Oliver...

2010-03-20T12:49:00.002+11:00

Jack and I were hanging out with Erin and Oli yesterday at Erin's place. Jack and Oli were having a great playtime together. This is the first time that we've noticed our babies take an interest in another baby. They looked like they were talking to each other and really interested in each other. They both wanted to play with Oli's toy crocodile and it looked like they were 'negotiating' who would play with it.

Peek-a-Boo

2010-03-19T22:48:00.003+11:00

Jack's started to play Peek-a-Boo with us. It's so nice that he can do things himself and not just be on the receiving end. We were at my parent's place and he just started to do it with a towel. He was doing it over and over again. By the time we got our iPhone out to film it, his interest was waning (isn't that always the way?). But, you get to see him do it once before he got distracted with the tag on the towel (he LOVES tags!!) and the grass (he LOVES to eat grass!!).

Reflections of Weeks 31-32

2010-03-19T22:31:00.002+11:00

Well, I think the last couple of weeks have shown a big improvement in Jack's temperament and general well-being. Things were getting pretty hard for a while there, but then things just changed and Jack seemed to go back to his lovely, cute self. He has been an absolute treasure - happy and content. He is learning so much and developing so quickly. He's also growing. He's now just starting to fit into size '0' clothes.

Over the last couple of months Jack has been making this weird dolphin-like noise (like you're sucking in your breath). He does it when he's feeding (yes, that can be embarrassing) and he does it when he's excited. It's very cute, but very strange at the same time.

We've noticed that he has become very interactive. He responds to us really well. When he hears my voice or sees me, he flaps his arms, smiles, giggles or makes his dolphin noise. There are certain toys with which he particularly interacts. He has a cow which sings and he giggles or talks to it when he hears it make a noise. When we make his toys talk to him, he giggles at them. He also has started to play games with us. A couple of days ago he started to play Peek-a-Boo. It is absolutely gorgeous to watch.

Jack is also responding to his name now. When I want his attention, I just have to say his name and he'll turn his head towards me.

Sleeping
Jack's sleeping has gone back to normal - yay! He's sleeping really well and very rarely wakes up during the night. He doesn't cry that much before going to sleep anymore - that was getting hard to cope with. He may cry a little bit when we put him down, but once we leave the room, he's got his thumb in his mouth and he's fine. His day sleeps are still fairly erratic, but he is still having three naps (a couple of times he's had two naps). I've stopped wrapping him completely - the wrap is gone. I don't think he was that bothered by not having the wrap. In fact, I don't think he even noticed (it was all probably in my head - ah, well).

Illness
We are all over our colds now - yay!

Wake Time
Jack's wake time is usually 2 hours still, but every now and then, I have been stretching it. Sometimes he's up longer because he doesn't seem tired or I'm going out and I want to put him to bed when I arrive at my destination, rather than have to wake him up to go. He seems to cope quite well with being awake for 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 hours. He manages being awake longer than that, but he's pretty whingy.

Sitting Up

Jack's sitting up is so good now. He very rarely falls over and if he does, he manages to fall in a way that prevents him from hurting himself. He moves his legs around (kicks them, stretches them out, etc.) and he doesn't lose his balance. Jack sits up in the bath really well as well. This has made bath time a lot more enjoyable for him. He loves having baths. It doesn't matter how cranky he is, once he's in his bath, he's as happy as can be. He plays with his toys and sucks on the washer (not sure whether I should bother stopping that or not) and makes lots of happy noises.

Crawling
No real improvements here. He tolerates being put on his hands and knees, and he'll rock a little bit, but after a while, he'll just slide down on to his belly. I've tried moving his toys out of his reach to encourage him to move, but that doesn't work. He just gets frustrated or he'll find a crumb on the floor to play with instead. Once this week he moved from sitting up to his knees to get inside his toy bucket, but he fell over pretty quickly. I guess that's an improvement.

Solids
Well, this has changed dramatically. It was like something just "clicked". One day he was not interested in eating and then the next, he happily ate. It was weird. I was breastfeeding him and towards the end of the feed, he was crying a bit, but he didn't want any more milk. I thought that he may still be hungry and that my supply was getting low. So, I got him some porridge and he gobbled it up. He was opening his mouth and was very keen to eat. I suspect that he has figured out how to swallow properly now. The food doesn't move around his mouth as much as it used to. This was upsetting to him, but now he's figured out how to chew it up and swallow it.

From that day on, he's been a champ with eating purees and finger food. It has been great. Meals are no longer stressful. It's really nice now. The three of us will sit down and eat the same thing for breakfast - porridge with apple and cinnamon or scramble eggs on toast or just toast. During the day, I'll give him some pureed vegies (by themselves or mixed in with rice or cous cous) or fruit, and for dinner, he'll have the same thing that we're having. Sometimes he'll have rice with the sauce; other times I'll blend up a small portion of our dinner so it's easy for him to eat it, but still chunky; other times I'll just mash up the pasta so it's easier for him to eat it. We had a Moroccan lamb casserole the other day and he loved it.

Jack & Daddy Time
Over the last couple of weeks when I've had bible study Dave has been home. This has meant that I can leave Jack at home with Dave rather than take him along to bible study. This has been great. I can be a lot more focused at bible study, I don't have to wake Jack up to take him with me and Dave gets to have more one on one time with Jack. I was so excited when we first did it. Jack will take the bottle, well, sort of. He'll drink some milk, but he won't have much. Luckily, he's having solids, so if he doesn't have any milk, the solids will tie him over until I get home.

We've also arranged for another Jack and Daddy time. One morning I got up to feed Jack, but then I "tagged" Dave and he got up and I went back to bed. I've been hanging out to have a sleep in so I thought this would be a good way for me to get it. It was so nice snuggling up in bed knowing that Dave was looking after Jack - getting him his breakfast, cleaning up after breakfast, changing his nappy, getting him dressed, entertaining him, putting him down for a nap - and I didn't have to worry about a thing.

Discipline
Well, this is very interesting. There have been a couple of instances where we've had to say 'No' to Jack. We're pretty sure he hasn't worked out what that word means yet :-) For example, when he's having some solids, he lifts up his bib (which is a plastic one with a pouch that collects food) and tries to pull it up to his head. Obviously, I don't want him to do this and this is what happens:

Jack: pulls bib up
Me: puts hand on bib, stopping Jack from lifting it up, saying, "Jack, no."
Jack: looks at me and giggles
Jack: pulls bib up
Me: puts hand on bib, stopping Jack from lifting it up, saying, "Jack, no."
Jack: looks at me and giggles

And on it continues....until I get fed up and take the bib off.

Routine
Our routine has been fairly stable over the last few weeks. Here's what a typical day looks like:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00am - Nap
10.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
12.00pm - Nap
1.30pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
3.30pm - Nap
4.30/5.00pm - Wake, feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

The times vary each day, but I do try to make sure that we eat dinner at 6pm and he's in bed by 7pm. I think the bedtime routine is pretty important so I stick to that as much as I can.

Morning Lie-in

2010-03-13T13:51:00.000+11:00

Some mornings, when Dave leaves early in the morning for work, I get to enjoy hanging out with Jack in bed. When Jack wakes up (not long after Dave leaves, unfortunately) I very groggily stumble out of bed, get Jack, and return to my nice warm & inviting bed. After I feed him, we spend a good half hour or so playing (more Jack than me!) and lounging around (more me than Jack!) in bed. I love those mornings. It's as close to a sleep-in as I get.

Playtime - with Mummy!

2010-03-13T13:13:00.000+11:00

We have very few photos of Jack and me together, so I decided to remedy that!

Playtime - with Teddy

2010-03-13T12:38:00.000+11:00

Jack was being incredibly gorgeous, so I have uploaded a ridiculous amount of photos. I just couldn't decide which ones to include, so I have included them all!

This is my favourite one.

He got a bit excited at this point...

Adorable.

Playtime - with a ball...

2010-03-13T11:37:00.000+11:00

Jack is getting better and better at grabbing and holding onto his toys. He is a lot more interested in playing purposely with his toys and testing out what they can do.
Here he is playing with a ball.

Jack is 7 Months!

2010-03-13T09:46:00.001+11:00

Getting Inspired

2010-03-08T11:08:00.000+11:00

I went to Michelle's open craft night and I did find inspiration. I made a few cards and I was able to get lots of ideas. At first, I didn't KNOW where to begin, but it didn't take long for my creative juices to start flowing.

Thank You Cards

These thank cards are my favourite ones I've made so far. I used a stamp from the 'Pocket Silhouettes' set.

Here's some variations...

This is another stamp from the 'Pocket Silhouettes' set.

And another stamp.

Birthday Cards

Here are some more designs from the 'Pocket Silhouettes' set.

Here are some designs using the 'Happy Moments' set.

New Hobby

2010-03-06T13:25:00.001+11:00

I was invited by friend Christie to a craft night, which was being run by her sister-in-law, Michelle. Michelle is a 'Stampin' Up!' demonstrator. Stampin' Up! make all sorts of paper craft goodies - stamps, ink pads, paper, etc. I had a great night making cards and chatting to friends. I was able to learn how to use stamps and create interesting designs. I made three things - two cards and a calendar display.

Calendar display (left), 'Happy Birthday' card (middle; I got the birdcage stamp - I thought it was just charming) and 'Hello' card (right).

I have been really inspired to get back into making cards and other paper craft. I bought some stamps and ink, so I'm hoping to put them to good use.

Here's my first attempt. I made a Birthday card for my niece, Vivienne. You can't see it very well, but the text under the cake says 'Happy Birthday' in pink ink. These two stamps came in a set (along with the birdcage). I stamped the cake in blue ink, then, with a cotton tip, I wiped the blue ink off the flowers. I used a pink and a green marker pen (which I also bought to go with the ink pads) to colour in the flowers. I then used the pink marker to fill in the flames of the candles. I really like the effect of colouring the stamp. I also like the simplicity.

I'm going out tonight to another craft night. I'm hoping to get some more ideas and inspiration.

Reflections of Week 30

2010-03-06T07:43:00.000+11:00

This week has been hard. We've all been sick and that has made life pretty exhausting. Jack has seemed like more work this week. He has been crying a lot more and I have felt very drained.

Sleeping
Jack's sleeping has generally been good. He has woken up a few times in the night, but he usually goes back to sleep. The other night he woke up crying (unusual). I suspected he was hungry and that he wouldn't go back to sleep (well, not for long, anyway), so I decided to feed him. His last feed the previous night was 5pm. I'm not sure if that feed was too early (I've fed him before at that time and he has slept fine) and that was why he woke up.

Other the last few days, I has been crying before going to sleep for both his naps and bed time. I'm not really sure why he has started to cry (the possibilities are endless). He has been crying for about 30 - 45 minutes and I have been finding this very draining. I was starting to not wrap his arms when I put him down. This was working well for a couple of days, but then he started crying so I started to wrap him again. I don't think not wrapping him has anything to do with his crying as he still cried this morning, and he was wrapped, but I'm trying to eliminate possibilities. I suspect that his nose is blocked and congested, which may be upsetting him as he tries to go to sleep. Who knows?

Illness
As you can see, Jack is still sick. He sneezed and then there was this huge snot bubble. I couldn't resist taking a photo :-)

He's been sick for a few weeks now. I thought he was getting over it, but then he got a runny nose, which runs and runs and runs...Every time I wipe his nose, he cries. He hates me doing it, but if I don't wipe it, he rubs his hands in it and then the snot gets EVERYWHERE! I think he may be getting better now. Today, his nose doesn't seem so bad.

Wake Time
Jack is still up for 2 hours. This has been going well. He is quite content when he's sitting up. He plays for ages on his mat, sitting up, with his toys surrounding him. He rarely falls over now. Maybe once per play time.

I put him on his tummy to encourage him to crawl, but he gets pretty sick of it after a short time. Sometimes, I put him on his hands and knees, but he doesn't really know what to do and eventually slides back down onto his tummy. He really has no interest in crawling at the moment - something that I'm sure I should be happy about, as most seasoned mothers tell me :-).

Solids
Well, things have pretty OK for solids. He doesn't really eat all that much and I have to accept when he's had enough and stop pestering him to eat more. He's been more fussy and whingy these last few days. Today he's been crying a lot when we sit down to eat. I'm assuming it's because he's sick, but I really don't know. I'm at the point of giving up as I'm getting sick of listening to him crying.

On a positive note, he has been eating a good range of food, though. He's tried Korma and he enjoys eating rice. Pumpkin is still very much one of his top foods. We were at a cafe when Jack saw some mixed lettuce on my plate and made a lunge for it. He seemed quite determined to try some, so I let him. He was quite happy sucking away on it, until he couldn't get it out of his mouth, then he wasn't too happy.

The draw back with this solid eating stuff is how it all comes out at the other end - or, doesn't come out. Poor Jacky Boy has been constipated :-( He's been straining quite a bit and been very unsettled. Finally, it all came out Yesterday. Unfortunately, most of it came out in the bath. I won't go into details. Let's just say a lot of bleach was used and I'm still trying to get the image out of my head. The joys of being a parent....

Routine
Generally, I'm feeding Jack 4 times a day. There has been some days where I've given him an extra feed before bed if his late afternoon feed was too early. I'm still trying to work out when I should give him his last feed...He has been pretty consistent with his morning wake up. Over the last few days, he has been waking up pretty close to 7am, which is great.

I Love Where We Live

2010-02-27T12:20:00.000+11:00

When I got up this morning, this is what I saw through our kitchen window. The sun was piercing through a slight mist. It was such a beautiful and peaceful image.

Character Frames for Jack's Room

2010-02-27T09:30:00.000+11:00

I made these character frames for Jack's room. I think they look great.
I found some gorgeous fabric in Ikea (I love Ikea!), which I chose for these really cute and interesting characters. I picked out three characters from the fabric (a hard decision) that would work well in the frames. I also bought these frames from Ikea. They're nice and deep, which is perfect for these designs.
There are about 3 layers to each character. Each layer of fabric has thick interfacing ironed onto it. The base was cut into a square shape (the size of the frame) with the character in the middle. The first layer, I cut around the character. The second and third layers, I cut out different parts of the characters to highlight their different parts and enhance their quirkiness.

For this one, the trailor has three layers to it, to give it a 3D effect. The character's body also has three layers. For the second layer, I cut out just his body (excluding his head, hands and left leg) and his hat. For the third layer, I just cut out his arm.

In between each layer there is thick mounting tape. This is what gives it the 3D effect.I think this one is particularly cute. His beak and feet have two layers. I did three layers of his shorts to enhance their grooviness.

For the bunch of flowers, I did two layers of the light brown paper and the flowers, but only one layer for the stems.

This character is very sweet. In only did two layers. For the second layer, I cut out the watering can, his jacket and his bucket.
Well, what do you think?

I often do this style when I make cards. Using wrapping paper is particularly effected as wrapping paper has the same pictures repeated numerous times, which is what you need for this.

Reflections of Weeks 26 - 29

2010-02-25T19:34:00.001+11:00

Ok, I know I've been slack with my weekly (or, not so weekly) reflections.

Jack's hit the 6 month mark - yay! The last few weeks have been a bit more tricky. Jack got his first illness, a cold :-( and then has passed it on to both of us. Jack's cold has been lingering. He seemed in pretty good spirits for the first couple of weeks with his cold, but the last week, he's been really unsettled. He has been crying a lot more than usual and has just seemed upset at times, but I'm not sure why (there are so many possibilities - teething, illness, tiredness, a wonder week, etc., etc.). But, having said that, he is giggling and laughing heaps. He has been really fun to play with.

Sleeping
Jack's been sleeping pretty well on the whole. We've had a few nights where he's woken up in the wee hours, but he goes back to sleep. In the last week, we've had a few shockers where his sleep has been unsettled. He's also started crying after he's been put down for a nap or put to bed. A few times he just wouldn't settle and I've had to feed him to settle him. I'm hoping that is just a phase. Nothing else has changed. He's still having 3 naps and we're still wrapping him.

This morning he slept in til 7.30am! I was excited about that, but it didn't stop me from waking and checking the time (and wondering, "is he still alive?"). I hope this continues...

Wake Time
His wake time is still 2 hours. Sometimes he can go longer than that. This has been going well. I find it much easier to do things during the day when Jack's awake for longer periods of time.

Rolling
Jack hasn't been rolling all that much. He's stopped rolling onto his tummy in his cot. Occasionally, he'll roll onto his tummy or his back while he's on his playmat. He spends most of his time sitting, so he's not really had much opportunity to roll around. Although, I don't really think he's that interested in rolling.

Sitting Up
Jack is really good at sitting up now. We can leave him on his own to sit and he only very occasionally falls over. He really likes sitting and he can sit and play for ages - very content little boy.

Solids
Well, this has been very interesting. I been giving Jack finger foods with some success. Over the last couple of weeks his coordination has improved greatly. He has gotten really skilled at picking up the food and putting it into his mouth. He's just started to work on his pincer grasp and I think that will keep getting better over the next couple of weeks. He's been eating a wide variety of food, which has been really good. For dinner he has what we're eating (meatballs, vegies, risotto, etc.). Sometimes, he eats really well and other times he's not really that interested. I've been concerned that he's been hungry during that night (one possible reason for his unsettled sleeping), so I've been trying to make sure he eats "enough" at dinner. But, he only eats however much he wants (little or lots) and I can't do anything about it (I have to back off and not get stressed about it - I'm a slow learner!).

Dave and I both really like that he can feed himself at dinner time. This means that we can eat our dinner and not have to worry too much about feeding him. Meals do take a long time now, though. I've gone from eating a meal in 10 mins to eating a meal in 30 - 45 mins. Another of the many ways that my life is changing with a baby :-)

Routine
I unintentionally dropped a feed, so now we're down to 4 feeds a day. His last feed is between 5pm and 6pm. Occasionally, I give Jack a feed just before bed if his last feed was before 5pm. I'm still uncertain as to whether I should give him his last feed before bed or not - any ideas?

Mothers Group
Since Jack's been 3 months, I've been going to a mothers group. It's been FANTASTIC. It's the highlight of my week and I've made some great friends. There are 3 girls, in particular, with whom I've connected really well - Erin (mother of Oliver), Sam (mother of Daisy) and Christie (mother of Sophie). I'm really lucky that I can meet up with these girls throughout the week. I am truly thankful to God for providing me with such great friends.

In this photo, you can see Oliver (in the background), Sophie (on the far right), Jack (on the right) and Lucy (left, daughter of Nicole). The babies were completely mesmerised by a toy that spun around and made music like a xylophone (you can sort of see it behind Lucy). It was very cute.

Mango Madness

2010-02-23T19:20:00.000+11:00

Jack is going really well with eating his finger food. His co-ordination is really improving. Today, he had half a mango for lunch. I couldn't resist taking some photos. You should have seen the mess afterwards!! But, it was worth it. It kept him entertained for 45 minutes and he was really happy.

Reflections of Weeks 18 - 25

2010-01-30T20:31:00.000+11:00

Ok, a lot has happened since my last reflection. I will try to remember as much as I can without writing too much. So, with this in mind, I'll just do some highlights of the last few weeks.

Sleeping
Jack's sleeping has been GREAT! Just before Christmas I dropped the dreamfeed. I did this by reducing the feed time by a couple of minutes each night. When it got to about 5 mins, I stopped the dreamfeed. This worked really well. When I took him off, he would grizzle a bit, but I put him back to bed and he would eventually go back to sleep. Since he's sucking his thumb, I think it's made it much easier dropping this feed. He now sleeps from 7pm to about 6am (some times earlier, sometimes later).

Jack is now only having 3 naps in the day. Over the last week he has stopped sleeping for his last nap. I'd put him to bed, but he would just have a good play in his cot. So, we're down to three naps. His naps are still various lengths. Usually he'll have one two-hour nap at some point in the day.

We're still wrapping Jack. I've decided to keep it going as it's working so well. We wrap the right arm up and leave the left out for thumb-sucking purposes. He settles so well since he's been sucking his thumb.

Wake Time
I've extended his wake time to two hours. This has happened gradually over the last few weeks. He has been handling this really well. In the afternoons, he's awake for much longer than that. It's so nice having him awake for a longer period of time now. I really enjoy going out and doing things with him.

Jack has enjoyed spending time with his cousins. Matthew shared his beloved "trucks" with Jack and showed him how to play with them.

Sophie and Bethany loved playing with Jack. He was given LOTS of hugs and kisses.

Rolling
Well, one of the big events has been that Jack started to roll over. He started doing this just before Christmas. He rolled from back to front first, then from front to back. But, after Christmas, he showed no desire at all to do any rolling. After a while, he started to roll on to his tummy in his cot, which meant that we had to keep going into his room to roll him back on to his back. But, he hasn't really rolled all that much any other time. There has been the odd occasion when he's rolled from his tummy on to his back, but he always looks so shocked afterwards. I don't think he knows what he's just done. I was hoping he'd be rolling around a lot more by now, but he's not. I have to keep reminding myself to be patient and that he'll do it in his own time - it's hard to keep thinking that.

Sitting Up
The second big event has been Jack being able to sit up. On our family holiday Dave, Jack and I were at the beach. Jack was sitting in front of me, between my legs. Jack started to sit by himself. I got pretty excited, so I yelled out to Dave and my sister-in-law, Katie, to look at Jack. Just as I said this, Jack leaned too far forward and did a face-plant in the sand. Poor Jack! His whole face was covered in sand. What a bad mother I am!

After Christmas, Jack was getting pretty good at sitting up for a few seconds by himself. As each day went by, he got better and better. At the moment, he is sitting up really well. He can sit for a while by himself, but he will still fall over every now and then (so we have to make sure we don't get distracted!).

Solids
The other big event has been starting Jack on solids. Jack started really well - AT FIRST. He took the food off the spoon quite eagerly and one time, he ate all of the rice cereal in his bowl. I was pretty excited. But, he really hasn't been liking eating solids for the last couple of days. He definitely doesn't like apple. I've given it to him 4 or 5 times now and he continues to spit it out. When I gave him some solids Yesterday and Today, he was making such a fuss - coughing, whinging, yelling, - that I decided to throw in the towel. It really looked like he was protesting and chucking a tantrum. He closed his mouth and wouldn't open it AT ALL. He was being so loud that I just couldn't put up with the noise anymore.

Dave and my mum both encouraged me to have a break from it and try again in a couple of days. This was good advice. It was pointless trying to force the food into his mouth. That's not what eating should be like. I want him to enjoy it. Jack wasn't getting anything out of it and I certainly wasn't either. So, we'll leave it for now. Every now and then I'll give him some food to try, but I won't worry too much about it.

Routine
Jack is having 5 feeds a day and we're on a three-to-four-hourly routine. So, nothing really has changed.

Bon Voyage

2010-01-29T21:30:00.000+11:00

We have, sadly, had to say goodbye to some family. A couple of weeks ago my brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Katie, together with their children, Harry, Miriam and Harry, left to go to Tanzania to serve there with CMS, at Munguishi Bible College (click here for more information). They will be there for three years, so it will be a while before we see them next.

On top of this, my sister, Rachael, and brother-in-law, Glen, along with their kids, Sophie, Bethany and Matthew, have returned to Vanuatu to continue their work at Talua Ministry Centre in Santo (click here for more information).

This has been a very sad time for me. It's hard having your family leave you and knowing that it will be a long time before you'll see them next. But, I know that they are passionate about building up God's kingdom, and so, they are stepping out in faith to do God's work. Thankfully, we have the internet, which brings us email, Facebook, and Skype. It is so easy to keep in touch now. I'm so glad that my parents and brother are close by, so we still have some family left!

Here's a photo of Jack with all his cousins.

Miriam, Sophie, Sammy, Harry, Matthew, Bethany & Jack.

This photo was taken while we were all away together before Christmas. It was great fun getting all the grandchildren together for this photo.

Swimming Lessons

2010-01-29T21:06:00.001+11:00

A friend of mine has done swimming lessons with her little girl, Nina, since she was 3 months. She absolutely loved doing something fun with Nina and she really encouraged me to do the same thing with Jack. So, I did. Today. Jack had his very first swimming lesson today.

Well, unfortunately, Jack was not a big fan of the pool. Our little Jacky boy pretty much cried for the first half of the lesson :( . We played all sorts of games, like, Ring A Ring A Rosy, Hokey Pokey, Humpty Dumpty, but nothing seemed to distract him for long enough and he kept crying. He jumped in and out of the water, kicked, played with toys, and lots of other fun things, but he still cried. He would be OK when I held him, but once we started moving around, he would cry again. It wasn't a big cry, it was his little whimpery cry, the one where his whole face crumples and his bottom lip sticks right out (which is SO cute, but it also breaks my heart!). I think he musn't have liked the cold. Even though we were in an indoor warmed pool, I think he still was cold. In hindsight, I probably should have taken him to the pool before today so that he was more used to it.

Thankfully, he settled down and he seemed a lot more chilled out by the whole thing. He looked pretty happy floating around. I even got a smile out of him by the end of the lesson. So, it wasn't all bad. I'm looking forward to next week and I'm really hoping that he'll start to enjoy it.

Lots To Do...

2010-01-29T08:56:00.001+11:00

I am well aware of the fact that I have been VERY SLACK in my posting. As the days go by, more and more posts need to be added, and the more I realise how much I need to do, the less inclined I am to do them!! That's the human mind for you - well, my mind, anyway :)

I will endeavour to get cracking VERY SOON. I just need to get motivated. So, if you see that I haven't done any posting in the next couple of days FEEL FREE TO BUG ME (about that, not about anything else!!! ;) ).

5 Months

2010-01-07T20:17:00.000+11:00

Our lovely little boy is 5 months today. What a little treasure he is!

My Musing

2010-01-05T19:07:00.000+11:00

I submitted my musing on being a new mother to "This is Not a Baby Manual" (which I mentioned here). Check it out here if you're interested.

Starting on Solids

2009-12-14T12:21:00.000+11:00

I've been thinking about the "hows & whats" of starting solids. We talked about this at my new mum's group. I realised I didn't really know anything about it, other than you start your baby on solids at 6 months. I always thought you started your baby on pureed foods, but then I read about an interesting idea, 'baby led weaning', where you give your baby finger foods straight away. Now, I don't know what to think.

Any thoughts?

Daddy Love

2009-12-14T11:40:00.001+11:00

Playing With Daddy

2009-12-14T10:20:00.000+11:00

Fun With Daddy

2009-12-14T10:14:00.000+11:00

Dave & Jack have a lot of fun playing together. Here they are blowing raspberries at each other.

Jack Rolls!!

2009-12-14T10:08:00.000+11:00

This morning when I went to get Jack up after his morning nap, I found him laying on his tummy. He rolled over!! He looked like he couldn't figure out what he just did, but I was very excited!

Reflections of Week 17

2009-12-14T08:12:00.000+11:00

Things have been going pretty smoothly. There haven't really been any major changes or events. I feel like things have finally become "normal".

Sleeping
Jack has continued to sleep well and he has even been sleeping through til 7am, which has been good. During the week I have been cutting down on his dreamfeed. As the feed got shorter, he would wake up and want to keep feeding, but I would take him off and put him back to bed. He wasn't very happy about that, but once he found his thumb, he settled - I love the thumb! Last night, I dropped the dreamfeed completely and he slept through! I didn't hear him wake up at all. I think that having his thumb has been a real benefit (I may not be thinking that later!).

Jack's day naps are going well. Over the last few days, he has consistently had a 2 - 2 1/2 hour nap in the morning, but his other naps are shorter.

Wake Time
A few times I've extended his wake time to 2 hours and he's coped well with it. He's a real joy to play with. More and more when we play with him he giggles and makes lots of excited noises. He's going really well on his tummy. Every now and then he'll lift his bum off the floor. He's still rolling on to his side, but he hasn't rolled over completely yet. His coordination is getting better. He's grabbing toys (and hands) and putting them in his mouth.

Over the last couple of days, he's not been himself. He doesn't seem as happy when he's awake. He doesn't smile and laugh as much as he usually does. He just doesn't seem to be happy, which makes it harder to entertain him. I'm hoping this is just a phase and he'll return to normal soon. He had his 4 month immunisations last week, so maybe they're affecting him. Who knows?

He's stopped blowing his raspberries now. Instead, he's sucking his lips in. He looks really funny when he does it.

On his play mat he has a mirror attached to one of the arches. A couple of times we saw him talking to his reflection. He was having a very interesting conversation with this "other" baby in the mirror - very cute.

Routine
I've continued with the same routine, although I've had to adjust it slightly once Jack started having the 2 hour naps in the morning.

Outings
We've been out and about a lot. We've been to the shops a few times doing Christmas shopping and he has been great each time. I've gone out at night with him a couple of times. Sometimes he's been really settled, other times, not so settled. I think being in a familiar place helps.

My sister and her family are back in Australia, so it's been great for Jack to meet his cousins. I think he has been a bit overwhelmed by all the new faces, but he's slowly getting used to it. Sophie, Bethany and Matthew seem to really love him. He's getting lots of cuddles from the girls. I've enjoyed spending time with the kids as well.

Becoming a Best Friend in Marriage

2009-12-06T12:12:00.000+11:00

During the week I met up with my friend Claire. I had a great morning chatting with her & being able to spend time to share with each other. What was really valuable, though, was reading & reflecting on God's word together. We read Ephesians 4:1-16 and discussed the following questions:

1. How has God called me to walk in my marriage?
2. What gifts do I see that God has given my husband?
3. What gifts do I have that contribute to the marriage?
4. Today I will begin to thank God for one special quality He has given my husband. Each day continue with a different thanksgiving.

We spent a lot of time discussing question 2. I found this really helpful as it really forced me to think about the wonderful gifts that God has given my husband. It's so easy to focus on the negatives in people and get annoyed with people's failings, rather than focus on the good things. I was able to spend time appreciating the great qualities in Dave - he loves God, he is level-headed (which counteracts my irrationality), he is thoughtful, he is sensitive, he is loving, he has integrity, he has a great sense of humour, he is humble, he is so easy to get along with, he is committed to our relationship and he loves Jack and me so much. There are more qualities that I'm sure I've left out. In thinking about these qualities, it helped me to see how well suited Dave and I are. God certainly new what he was doing!

What gifts do you see that God has given your husband?

Reflections of Week 16

2009-12-05T16:09:00.000+11:00

This week has been a really good week. Jack has been really settled and his sleeping has been really good. He has been really happy and very cute.

Sleeping
Sleeping has been going well. He is still sleeping through the night after his dreamfeed. But, the 'dreamfeed' isn't really been a 'dreamfeed' at the moment as he seems to be waking up before I go in to feed him. I'm not sure why he's started to do this as I feed him at different times each day. I decided to feed him earlier than usual, but with a lot of things on this week, I haven't been able to do this consistently. It doesn't seem to be a big problem as he goes straight back to sleep after feeding. But, it does mean that if I'm out at night, I never know if he'll stay asleep, so I usually don't stay out for very long. I'm hoping to drop the dreamfeed soon, but I just haven't been able to do anything about it yet. I'm thinking of bringing the feed 15 mins early (as I mentioned last week) and then cutting down the length of the feed. I'll see how I go...

His day naps have been better. He seems to be sleeping better, but the length of the naps are still unpredictable. This morning he slept for 2 hours and this afternoon he's still asleep and it's nearly been two hours. It's been AGES since he's slept like that.

In the morning he has been waking up around 5 - 5.30ish (arghh!), but we haven't been getting up. We leave him and he just makes his talking noises and eventually goes back to sleep. Well, I assume he goes back to sleep as he's very quiet and if he were awake he couldn't be that quiet! This morning, he slept til 7am, which was really nice as most mornings he wakes up around 6am. I'm going to try to get him to get into the habit of waking at 7am, instead of 6am. Don't really know how I'll do it, but I'll figure something out.

Wake Time
Wake time is always fun. He is really interactive and I love playing with him. He's now giggling at when we play games or when I kiss him on the neck. One day, I played 'boo' with him and he giggled each time I popped my head over the pram. It was adorable. He really enjoys playing with Dave. He often makes his excited noise when he's playing with Dave, which sounds like half a hiccup - probably the 'hic'. He's going really well on his tummy and grabbing hold of his toys. He's still quite active and talkative.

New Things
Well, Jack's started a new thing this week - blowing raspberries. He's been doing it all the time and he looks so pleased with himself when he does it. If someone does it to him, he'll do it back to them, or it seems like he's doing it back to them. But, you've can't get too close as he drools heaps, and if you're not careful, you'll get some lovely Jack spit in your face!

The shrieking noise has continued. I still haven't figured out why he's doing it. Sometimes, he does it when he's playing, other times it seems like he does it when he's tried, and other times, it seems like he does when he's frustrated. He probably is like his mum and just likes the sound of his own voice. Here's a video of this noise. It's not as bad as it can get.

Thumb Sucking
This has continued. He's still sucking his thumb when he goes to sleep. He spends a lot of his wake time with his thumbs and hands in his mouth. He often sucks on both thumbs at once, which we call 'the double barrel'.

Wrapping
I'm still wrapping one arm and leaving the other arm out. This week, I'll try to leave both arms out. I've noticed that wrapping is a definite sleep cue for him, so I'll need to keep wrapping him in some form or another.

Routine
The routine has been working well and I feel like I can plan my day more now. This has made going out much easier.

Outings
We've been out nearly everyday this week. Monday I had coffee with a friend and then we met Dave for lunch. On Tuesday, Mum and I went Christmas shopping. It was so good having mum with me. It makes it much easier having someone willing to look after Jack or take the pram when I need to do things. I'm about half-way through the Christmas shopping - yay! We spent the day at home on Wednesday, which was really good for us. I was able to get cleaning and other little jobs done. Thursday was a social day where I spent the morning with a friend and the afternoon meeting up with friends from school. Friday was my mother's group and in the evening we had our Church's Christmas Carols service. Jack came with me for all the outings and he coped really well. He will sleep pretty much anywhere, which is really handy (except for when I met up with my friends from school, he wasn't interested in sleeping at all! Far too much excitement).

My Job as a Mother

2009-12-04T14:16:00.000+11:00

Today I left some dishes dirty,
The bed I made at 3.30.
The nappies soaked a little longer,
The odour grew a bit stronger.

The crumbs I spilt the day before,
Are staring at me from the floor.
The finger prints there on the wall,
Will likely be there next fall.

The dirty streaks on those window panes,
Will still be there next time it rains.
"Shame on you, old lazy bones," you say,
"And just what have you done today?"

I nursed a baby till he slept,
I held a baby while he wept.
I played a game of hide and seek,
I squeezed a toy so it would squeak.

I pulled a wagon, sang a song,
Taught a child right from wrong.
What did I do this whole day through?
Not much that shows, I guess it's true.

Unless you think that what I've done,
Might be important to someone,
With bright blue eyes and soft brown hair.
If that is true, I've done my share.

Anon

We were given this poem at my mother's group today. I found it really encouraging. I can get preoccupied with clothes washing, keeping the kitchen clean, vaccumming the floors, and keeping the house tidy. I especially want to keep the house clean so that when people drop by, the house isn't a complete mess (it's easy to feel like people are judging you). When I look back one my day, I realise that I haven't really spent much time playing with Jack and spending time just being with him. I have to remind myself that playing with Jack, talking with him, singing to him, or reading to him, is really important (and fun as well). The dishes can wait.

Has this been a challenge for you?

A Cracker Smile

2009-11-30T17:18:00.000+11:00

2009-11-30T17:16:00.000+11:00

Jack at 16 Weeks

2009-11-30T17:11:00.001+11:00

Reflections of Week 15

2009-11-30T07:04:00.000+11:00

Even though this week has been quite busy, Jack has coped well. He has been really settled and has adjusted into his routine a lot more now.

One new thing that Jack has discovered is a new noise. He is now making a shrieking-screeching type of noise. Initially, we didn't really know what on earth was going on with this noise. After a while, we realised that he's just playing with his voice and testing it to see what it can do. It's a pretty happy shriek. At Church he was making this noise quite a lot. This was my first 'feeling embarrassed by my children' experience.

Sleeping
Jack is sleeping really well. He's consistently sleeping through the night now. There were a few nights where he was waking up and crying out, but we didn't need to get up as the crying didn't last for long. He still wakes up at different times in the morning; sometimes 6.00am, sometimes 6.30am and sometimes 7.00am. Usually, I can leave him in his cot for half an hour before I get him up to feed him. He'll just talk to himself and make his happy noises.

His day naps have been better. They're still different each day. Some days he sleeps really well during the day and other days he just cat naps. But, the difference is that I'm dealing with it more effectively. If he has a short nap, I get him up and see if he'll play until his next feed. Usually, he'll play with Dave until feed time.

We finally put up the big cot. He's been sleeping in it for a week now. Initially, I didn't think that he was affected too much from moving to the bigger cot. But, when I look back, I realise that his sleeping was slightly affected. For the first few days he was moving around A LOT in his cot. I would go in to check up on him and he'd been totally upside down without any sheets or blanket on him. He's not moving around as much anymore. I think he's gotten used to the space now.

I'm still giving him the dreamfeed. I'm gradually feeding him earlier in the night. Every few days, I'm feeding him 15 mins earlier and I'll keep doing this until it's 2 hours since his last feed. But, I'm not going to rush it (as I usually do). Last night, as Jack was fast asleep in my arms, I realised that this won't last and I should treasure each moment. Giving Jack the dreamfeed is such a lovely experience. It's not often that I can sit in a quiet, dark place, and just relax while Jack feeds. When he finishes feeding, he's fast asleep and I sit there a few moments longer, cuddling into him and listening to his little breaths.

Thumb Sucking
Well, the big news for the week is that Jack's thumb sucking has taken off. For every sleep now he sucks his thumb (unless he's too upset). When he first started doing this, he favoured his left arm, so we would leave that arm out of his wrap. One night he wasn't settling, so I went in to check on him. I realised that his left arm was wrapped, instead of his right. I re-wrapped him and he settled down. Over the last few days, though, he has been sucking both thumbs, even if one is wrapped (he'll suck through the wrap). For some sleeps I've left both arms unwrapped and he seems to cope well with this. But, other times, I think he still likes to be wrapped. It's always trial and error working all this stuff out. I'm going to try to gradually phase the wrapping out.

Wake time
Jack's been lasting longer during wake time (I'm still doing 1 1/2hrs). Most of the time when I put him to bed now, he's happy, rather than being grizzly. He's doing pretty much the same stuff during wake time. He's rolling on to his side more and he's been staying on his tummy for a much longer time now. Sometimes, I forget that he's on his tummy as he's playing so quietly and contently.

Another new thing that Jack's starting to do is holding on to his toys and playing with them. He was taking random swipes at his toys before, and not really showing any real interest in holding them. Over the last few days, however, he has taken a lot more interest in his toys. He'll hold one toy and purposefully play with it, usually by shoving it in his mouth. Sometimes it looks like he's talking to his toys.

Routine
I've kept up with the 3 hourly routine and it has been working well. I feel like I've been able to stick to the routine pretty well now, which has been making things much easier.

Outings
We've been out and about nearly everyday this week. But, Jack has been coping well and it hasn't unsettled him too much.

On Tuesday, Jack and I visited Mike & Katie. We had a lovely time hanging out and chatting. I'm really going to miss not being able to pop down and visit them.

On Wednesday, I went to School for the Year 9 Graduation (which I've discussed here). Mum babysat Jack from about 7.30am to 11.30am. This was Jack's first babysitting experience. He went really well and I think my mum enjoyed it. Thankfully, he had two long sleeps, so mum didn't have to worry about dealing with his cat naps. I had to express some milk so that mum could give him a feed. I was a little worried that Jack may not take the bottle (since he's not taking the dummy anymore, I thought this may transfer to the bottle as well). It turned out that I was right. He didn't like the bottle at all (even though he's been quite happy with it before). Mum tried to get him to take as much as possible, but he didn't drink very much. Ah, well...

Friday night was Harry's birthday party. By the time we got there (we were running terribly late - another thing that I'm having to get used to now), Jack only had about an hour of wake time. He hadn't slept that well during the day and it was really hot, so I knew that he wouldn't settle well when it was time for bed. I think he must have been over-stimulated by all the new faces. He cried on and off for about an hour. It's very hard to enjoy yourself when you can hear your baby crying. Eventually he went to sleep and slept well.

Year 9 Graduation

2009-11-25T15:57:00.000+11:00

Before I went on maternity leave, I was the Dean of Year 9. Well, today there was a Graduation Ceremony celebrating their achievement and leadership of the Middle School. They will go into the Senior School next year. I was invited to be the "special guest" at the ceremony and speak to the students and parents. It was a real pleasure for me to speak at the ceremony. I really enjoyed it. I received some great feedback from the staff and parents as well. It's good to know that I haven't lost "it".

A Miscalculation

2009-11-22T15:43:00.001+11:00

I just realised that Jack is 15 weeks. For some reason, I was a week behind in working out his age. Don't know how that happened...I've never been good at maths.

Jack at 14 Weeks

2009-11-21T10:36:00.000+11:00

I could bottle his cuteness...

Reflections on Week 14

2009-11-20T14:16:00.000+11:00

Well, this week was certainly a bit crazy. Jack started off quite settled, but due to visitors and changes to his routine, he became quite unsettled. Also, Dave was sick with a virus for most of the week, which meant that he was to crook to do anything with Jack. I found this quite difficult. Luckily, David's parents were with us, so Dave's mum was able to help me and look after Dave. It was bad timing for Dave to get sick for their visit, but good timing for them to come when Dave was sick - does that make any sense?

Jack's becoming quite vocal. He seems to be talking a lot more and in "sentences", and at one point, it seemed like he was yelling at us! He also LOVES using his legs. He kicks all the time on his play mat and bouncer (and daddy gets lots of kicks in the stomach). He also really likes standing up. When you hold him, he can stand up for a while. He stands and looks around. His legs are really strong.

Sleeping
Initially, Jack had become more and more consistent in sleeping through the night. This was really good and things seemed really settled. But, things soon changed as we became busy. Dave's parents came and stayed with us last week, and they stayed for a week. Even though Dave was sick, it was good to have them stay and for them to spend time with Jack. It was so nice seeing them play, cuddle and talk to Jack.

Jack was getting more and more unsettled and I realised that every day since Peter and Noelene arrived, we had gone out. Most of the time, Jack's sleep was disrupted and there was no real routine. He coped well for the first few days, but then he started waking through the night and wasn't really happy when he was awake. There were a couple of days in a row when he just wouldn't settle for his bedtime. One night he was fed at 5.30pm, was supposed to go to bed at 7pm, but he was still awake at 9pm. He just wouldn't go to sleep. During this, he was trying to get to sleep and he had quietened down. After a bit of quiet grizzling, he started to cry again. By this stage, I was so fed up with his crying, I was trying to ignore it. It wouldn't let up, so I went to check on him. Poor Jack had his foot caught between the bars of his cradle. I felt terrible - what a bad mother I am!

At this point, I decided to take it easy and spend more time at home so that we could get our routine back. He seems to be sleeping better now and he's been settling really well, but his day sleeps are still erratic.

I was planning to move him into the cot this week (especially after the stuck foot incident), but we haven't had a chance to do it. We'll get to it one of these days...

I spontaneously decided to not give Jack his dreamfeed last night as I didn't feel like staying up. This didn't go down so well. He woke up at 12.30am. So, I fed him. He woke up again at 4.30am and grizzled intermittently until 7am. I don't think he's ready to skip his dreamfeed and I think, at the moment, sticking to that routine is working, so I'll leave it for now.

Wrapping
I tried putting Jack in a Grobag one night. This didn't really work. He couldn't get to sleep. After a while, I decided to just wrap him and see if he settled. Jack went to sleep quite easily and quickly after I wrapped him. It seems that he likes being wrapped. I won't worry about the Grobag until he's a bit older.

Hand Sucking
He seems to shove his hands and thumbs into his mouth most of the time. A few times while he's going to sleep, or is sleeping, he'll put his thumb in his mouth. But, he doesn't always do it. I leave one arm out of the wrap so that he can suck on his thumb if he wants to. This afternoon, during his nap, I heard him stirring. It was too early for him to wake, so I left him and he quietened down. When it was time for him to wake up, I went to get him and I found him fast asleep sucking his thumb. He looked adorable. He must be getting better at getting it in his mouth and leaving it there. When I was feeding him, he managed to slip his thumb in as well. That was quite funny.

Wake Time
I have not been very consistent with his wake time because the last few days he just didn't seem happy being awake. This made the day very unpredictable. I've realised I need to be more consistent and give him the same amount of wake time each time (unless he gets tired and needs to go to bed). Today, I've been keeping him up for 1 1/2 hours (like I used to) and this seems to be going really well. He has been settling well for his naps, so he's not overtired.

He does make some grizzly sounds, but I think it's because he's getting bored or restless rather than because he's tired. Initially, I thought it was a tired noise, so I'd put him to bed early, but that meant that he woke too early for his next feed. When he starts to make a grizzly noise, I just change the activity, or move him some where else, or just pick him up and talk to him. So far, this has been working well.

Jack seems to really enjoy having stories read to him. When someone reads him a story, he looks intently at the book and it looks like he's following the story. It's quite cute.

Routine
Well, our routine has been pretty non-existent lately and I've found this really frustrating. I think it's because he wake time and nap times are all over the place. There were times when he would only sleep for 30 - 45 minutes. I didn't bother trying to get him to sleep, so I would just feed him, even though it was only 2 hours since his last feed. I was trying to be more flexible with the routine, but it got to the point where I think I was being too flexible. So, Today, I'm trying to stick to my routine. I'm trying to get Jack to be awake for 1 1/2 hours and asleep for 1 1/2 hours. It's worked so far as he's had two good 1 1/2 hour naps. He's asleep now, so I hope he continues to sleep well. If he wakes early, I'm going to go back to getting him to go back to sleep so that he learns that this is sleep time. We'll see...The hard thing about being a new mum is that there are times when I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Sometimes something works, then the next time it doesn't.

Outings
As I've said before, we've been quite busy. Last Wednesday, we went to the airport to pick up Dave's parents, the next day we took Peter and Noelene out to a nice lunch at Kurrajong, then went for a drive along Bells Line of Road. On Friday we went down to the shops (and I got my hair cut - yay!), Saturday we had a picnic lunch with Dave's Aunt and cousins, Sunday we went to our friend's son's baptism, and then on Monday and Tuesday I had to take Jack down to Westmead Children's Hospital. So, as you can see, we've been quite busy. Jack didn't cope too well with being constantly put in and out of the car and having his sleep disrupted. But, I've enjoyed being out and about, and catching up with friends and family.

Jack went to Westmead to get his hips checked. He had to get an ultra sound (his third one) and the next day, he saw the specialist. His hips are fine. Initially, his hips had a minor dysplasia, but it went away. My mum came with me both times. This was really helpful - thanks mum!

This photo is of mum reading Jack a book in the waiting room at the hospital.

I had my first new mum's group today. This was great. I was a bit nervous about going as I didn't really know what it was going to be like and I didn't know if we'd get along. But, it was really good. The group is quite chatty, so this suites me quite well. There was a girl there who was in the year above me at school, another girl who was a student at one of the school's I taught at, and another girl who works at the same Hospital as Dave. Small world, hey? There were only 3 other boys in the group. I think there were about 6 baby girls (Phil and Megan, it looks like there's going to be some competition!) I enjoyed my time talking with the other mums and I look forward to next week. I'm hoping we can continue to meet up.

This is Not a Baby Manual

2009-11-20T09:39:00.000+11:00

I was given a very strange Orange Envelope with a mysterious package. This was what was written on the front of the envelope:

thisisnotababymanual.blogspot.com

I was rather curious, so I went straight away to the blog. I discovered that a friend of mine has created a project, 'This is Not a Baby Manual', where new mothers are asked to write their musings on their experience on being a new mother. The idea is to collect these stories in order to share them.

I think this is a great idea as I found that so much of what could have been shared about the reality of being a new mother wasn't. Maybe it's because we want to show that we are coping and are managing fine, thank you very much. I've read a couple of the musings on the blog and there was so much there to which I could relate. I encourage you to check it out and share your own musing.

Bean Served Webpage

2009-11-16T11:18:00.000+11:00

Check out the Bean Served webpage for more information on their ministry.

My Art

2009-11-12T20:50:00.000+11:00

I've featured my photography on a website, "Some Chance Happenings". Go here to check out my photos. If you feel inclined, you can buy some of my artwork!

Reflections of Week 13

2009-11-12T08:51:00.000+11:00

I've been encouraged to do some weekly reflections on our life with Jack. I thought this was a good way for me to record all the little things that are happening throughout the week, as it is very easy to forget things in the busyness of life. You may not be all that interested in this, so no need to read it.

Things seem to be a lot more stable at the moment. Jack is a gorgeous baby. He smiles and giggles quite a lot. He is also a loquacious little baby – love it when he talks. He's also very alert and stares around, taking everything in.

Sleeping
Jack has gone back to sleeping through the night (yay!). He goes to bed around 7pm and between 9.30 – 10.30pm I give him a dreamfeed. So, he's STTN about 7 hours from his dreamfeed. Once he's sleeping through the night consistently for 2 weeks, then I start to drop the dreamfeed. He is waking up early in the mornings, though. I usually get him up at 6am. Sometimes, he sleeps til 6.30 – 7am, but not consistently. I'm trying to think of how I can get him to sleep til 7am, but I can't really think of anything. I figure that he'll get there as he gets older.

His day naps are still short, although he seems to be sleeping better. Once I stopped stressing about it, I was able to see that he's getting enough sleep (around 4 – 5 hours) each day. He has longer sleeps in the mornings. The last few days, he's been sleeping 1 ½ hours in the mornings, followed by 60 – 30 minute naps for the rest of the day. Even though each day is different, things definitely seem more settled. I still get frustrated when he doesn't sleep for very long or for not as long as I expected (or wanted) him to. I'm getting better and less frustrated, but it's certainly something that I have to keep praying about.

He is so much better at settling himself to sleep now. For the first four weeks, we would pat him to sleep. After that, we starting using the dummy, but we ditched that (as I've already discussed). Since then, we've been putting him down and letting him CIO (cry it out). For our own sake, we'd put the oven timer on for 20 minutes. Usually, he'd fall asleep before the 20 minutes ended (unless he was overtired). Recently, he hasn't really been crying when he's been put to bed (finally! You get sick of hearing them cry after a while) and when he does cry, it's because he's very tired. Now, we don't even bother putting the timer on as we know that he'll fall asleep quickly and on his own.

I think we'll need to move him to the cot soon. We've got him in a cradle at the moment. He fits alright in the cradle, but he's putting his arm through the gaps and falling asleep with his little arms hanging out.

Wrapping
I'm still wrapping him, but I think I'll stop it soon. I'm still not sure about it. He likes to suck on his hands/thumb (when I get him after he's been sleeping, the wrap is soaked from his sucking on his hands), but I'm not sure if he'll wake up from moving his arms around. I'm thinking of using a grobag as sometimes he kicks his blankets off. We'll see...

Hand Sucking
As mentioned above, Jack's become a real hand sucker. There doesn't seem to be any consistent time that he does it. Although, he definitely does it after he's woken up and sometimes when he's going to sleep. But, he also does it when he's hungry and when he's playing. He manages to get his thumb in his mouth and either sucks or chews on it. It doesn't seem to be something that he has to do at the moment. I think once his coordination gets better (coordination is very important to Dave), he'll probably start sucking on his thumb more.

Wake Time
I've been giving Jack 1 ½ hours of wake time, although some days it's less than that. This seems to be working well. If he's up for too long, he usually want settle when it's sleep time. He just keeps crying. If this happens, we give him the dummy and that gets him to sleep.

He spends most of his wake time on the play mat or in his bouncer. He's a pretty active baby. He kicks around A LOT. He seems to really enjoy using his legs. He is much more confident in the bath - he kicks around like there's no tomorrow (if you're a fan of Seinfeld, then think of Elaine dancing and that's what Jack looks like in the bath). The other day he was on his side, which I think is one step closer to rolling.

He's getting better at being on his tummy. He can be quite content on his tummy for a few minutes now. He holds his head up and looks around.

He really enjoys it when you sing and talk to him. He will giggle and smile at you, and then talk back. I know when he's in a happy mood when he starts smiling and talking to me as he finishes feeding. This has got to be my favourite time of day. He just lays in my arms, looks up at me and chats away.

We've been reading to him as well. He seems to enjoy sitting on our laps and it looks like he's following the story.

Routine
I've gone back to putting him on a 3 hourly routine. This seems to work better with his shorter naps. I don't really have set times each day as he wakes up at different times (sometimes 6am, sometimes 6.30am and sometimes 7am). I've decided that time he wakes up in the morning will dictate the routine for the day. I've read that you should have the same wake time each morning, but I've found it difficult to get that to happen in reality. I was trying too hard to get Jack to have his “proper” wake time at 7am. This was making me frustrated, so I decided it wasn't worth the frustration. Whatever time he woke up, that will be the start of the day. I'm sure he'll get more consisten tas he gets older.

Outings
Jack goes really well when we're out. We went out to dinner for Dad's birthday last Saturday night and he slept in the pram the whole time. We went back to mum and dad's house after dinner for birthday cake and we put Jack in his little Phil & Teds portable cot (one that fits in his pram). He didn't really settle, so I gave him the dummy and he went back to sleep. Other times when I'm out, I put him in the Hug-A-Bub and he sleeps well in that.

Bean Served Baristas

2009-11-10T11:53:00.000+11:00

Dave and his friend, Phil, have started up a ministry where they make coffee for people. This is something that Dave has been really passionate about (its a great combination - he loves making good coffee, he loves serving people and he loves God - what more could you ask for?).

Last year, he made coffee for morning tea at church, but has struggled to find the time to do it this year. Throughout this year, Dave has been making coffee every now and then for our local playgroup. Dave's been really keen to get something more up and going. So, he's joined forces with his friend Phil (who's equally keen about coffee, serving and God). They bought a coffee machine together and have started up their ministry 'Bean Served Baristas.'

Their first big event was for a women's conference run by our church. From that event, they got another, and bigger, one that was for a fundraiser.

The boys make fantastic coffee (I'm really lucky to get great coffee at home all the time. I'm so spoilt that it's hard to appreciate the coffee that I drink elsewhere), so I hope that this ministry is really successful and effective. If you have an event, gathering, party or church event (or non-church event), you should definitely get Dave and Phil to make coffee for you.

Check out their blog.

3 Months

2009-11-08T17:37:00.001+11:00

Jack celebrated 3 months Yesterday. In these photos he certainly looks much older. He's become a real poser. What do you think he's thinking?

Jack's 12 Weeks

2009-10-31T20:34:00.000+11:00

I can't believe that Jack is 12 weeks now. He's just getting cuter and cuter. He smiles a lot now and does lots of talking (mostly 'a-boo' and 'goo').

Just recently, he has gotten better at holding his head up when he's having tummy time. He holds it up much higher and for longer now.

Two Blogs For Mums

2009-10-30T08:15:00.000+11:00

I've discovered two blogs on parenting. They look really useful. The first blog I found was when I was searching for help for Jack's napping issues. It's called Chronicles of a Babywise Mom and you can have a look at it here. The blog is basically a quick guide to finding answers to questions you may encounter while implementing Babywise, Toddlerwise, Preschoolwise, Childwise, etc. Even though its content is Babywise based, it has some practical and helpful advice about parenting issues. I found some interesting posts on problems with naps and found this helpful. I was reading about "The 45 minute Intruder", which discusses the issue of babies only sleeping for 45 minutes at a time. I'd be interested to find out what you think.

The other blog I discovered this morning and haven't really had much time to have a good look at it. It's called "Childhood 101" and you can have a look at it here. It's a blog written by Christie Burnett where she relays her own parenting ideas. Christie is an Early Childhood teacher so she seems to have lots of ideas for parenting, activities, advice, etc. It looks like it has lots of DYI craft ideas, which made me think that it was worth checking out Rachael. Let me know what you think of this one.

Any Ideas???

2009-10-28T14:32:00.000+11:00

Over the last week and a half, I've been getting more and more frustrated. Jack has not been sleeping very well during the day and I don't know why (he has gotten better at night. He's sleeping til about 6am, which is great!). I put him down to sleep and within 40 mins, he's awake, crying his little head off. I re-settle him (with the dummy usually) and it takes him about 30mins to go back to sleep. He was sleeping for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours previously, so I don't know why he keeps waking up. He goes to sleep by himself, so he's not waking up looking for a sleep prompt that's not there anymore. I thought that maybe he's overtired, so I put him to bed earlier, but he still wakes up. I thought that maybe it was because he wasn't wrapped, so I wrapped him, but he still wakes up. I thought that maybe he's hungry, so when he woke up, I fed him and then shortened the time between feeds, but he still wakes up. I'm running out of ideas and patience. Any ideas???

Time Together

2009-10-22T08:36:00.000+11:00

Do you think I may be a little obsessed?

Playtime

2009-10-18T20:21:00.000+11:00

Jack's New Bouncer

2009-10-17T21:56:00.000+11:00

I bought Jack this bouncinette today. I didn't think they still made them like this. He seems to really enjoy it.