Our first Christmas as a family of 4!

Our gorgeous kids!

Welcome to the world James Benjamin George!!

Well after a long 9 mth wait and then being 2 weeks late, James was finally born via caesarian section on the 18th October at 12:14pm weighing a VERY healthy 10 pounds and measuring 54cms!!

We are so happy to finally have our little boy in our arms and are so glad he is healthy and there were no complications with the surgery!! Isabelle just loves her little brother too which is so nice to see!

Waiting!

Our little man is one week overdue today.... it's so hard to wait and be patient when we just want to meet this little one....

I had a scan yesteday and saw him waving his little hands near his face like his sister did and his mouth swallowing which was just amazing!

Isabelle is just a gorgeous treasure - growing so fast. She managed to draw all over a cream coloured chair the other day with a purple biro...My fault for leaving the pen out. She has loved having Al home early each day because they play and go for nice long walks to the park! I love my gorgeous family - they are keeping me sane til 3 become 4!!

Things are a movin'.....!!!!!

Well I had acupuncture on Thursday and then my stretch class on Thursday night. This was followed by period like cramps and pain in my back all night long and during Friday it was stll pretty bad so I had to get Al to give me a massage! It eased right off by last night but then last night and this morning I lost my plug!

I know it could still be a few weeks but I am just so happy that my body is doing something and having had no pre-labour with Isabelle it is really exciting!

Can't wait to meet you little guy!!

On the swing!

Isabelle loved being on the swing and giggled the whole time but was easily distracted by birds flying past! Our girl just loves animals and being outside is her favorite thing! I can't wait to move so that we have a nice kid friendly yard that she can run around in, ride her bike, play on her swing and in her cubby etc... Until then the search for the perfect playground is on!

The search for the perfect playground!

At Hays Paddock in Kew!

Lovely kisses with Daddy at Hays Paddock!

Al, Isabelle and I have been exploring lots of great playgrounds in the area lately. The weather has been gorgeous and our yard isn't very Izzy friendly so parks it is!!

Hays Paddock in Kew was fanastic - a little far for a quick pop in but just wonderful! We also have a few great wones just nearby here at East Burwood reserve.

Loving the swim!

Iz was quite happy to just play with the tan bark really - easily pleased child!

On the BIG slide with daddy!

Broccoli!

MMMMmmmmmmmm I LOVE broccoli - especially when it is organic and freshly grown by Nana!

Daddy's birthday and my first Baby Cino!!...

Happy 32nd Birthday Al!!!!


We had a great day at Caldermeade Farm, with Ian, Aiko, Dan and Bianca!! Isabelle had her first baby cino and you will see from the pics that she thought the froth was amazing! She also got to pat and play with some baby calves, goats and sheep! I think Isabelle and Al both had a fantastic time! As well as the rest of us of course!

Terrific Toddler!!!

We have been very focussed on Toddler Tactics this week! Isabelle is certainly asserting her independence, personality and let's us know when she isn't happy about something.

She is going through a phase of hitting, herself, toys and us, and this has been our first major discipline challenge as parents...... I have been doing lots of reading and we are taking the approach of telling her that it's not nice to hit, and then mainly ignoring her or distracting her. Distract distract distract seems to work best at this tender age of 14 mths where she doesn't realy understand an explaination and nothing else really works.

She does understand what she is doing wrong though - she will look at us in the eye and deliberately hit if we take something from her, or she will stomp her feet to express her disapproval of whatever we have taken from her. We try to keep the room as kid friendly as possible so we don't have to constantly take things away that she isn't meant to have but things like the remote and phone etc sometimes get left in reach!

Funny story... the other night I was on all four's trying to encourage our little man to change possie to head down as he has been lying transverse. Anyway Al decided to give my backside a bit of a tap, Izzy saw him do it and decided to go up to my not-so-little backside and slap it herself! Needless to say Al thought it was THE funniest thing ever and keeps talking about it now. Am I taming one toddler or 2?? Mmmmmmmm!

I am looking at the positives of this age because it would be so easy to focus on how difficult having an active, headstrong toddler can be, especially while pregnant.

There will be no Wicked Ones, Terrible Twos etc in this house! We have a Wonderful One! and will have a Terrific Two and Three!!! The joy and blessing of seeing our little girl grow, learn and explore is just too much of a privilege to focus on the negative!

Food Glorious Food.... or not so glorious!

Happy Lil' Vegemite!

Izzy is honestly the pickiest eater EVER! Why is it that I will all afternoon thinking about what to make her, will put it all together, be creative, add lovely ingrediants, only to have her refuse to eat it. It really does drive me CRAZY. Oh, I should mention that she will eat a jar of Heinz crap quite happily and will eat most of a jar if that is what is on offer when we go out etc......

Or, she will eat all of something that I do lovingly prepare and when we try again the next day or so - that's when she will decide that she wants something else!

She is such a little titch that I don't like doing what the child health nurse said to do, and that is to put away whatever we have offered her, and try again half an hour later, and if she won't eat it - then bad luck.... She will quite easily then go to bed without having eaten a thing.

She still has 2 formula bottles a day - might be time to change to cows milk I guess.

The joys! Oh and when she does eat - the photos above show the beautiful mess she makes! She really is quite proud of herself - Happy Little Vegemite!

Ditching the dummy!

Well this is a bit of a ramble.... kind of like the rest of my blog really, but we have made the tough decision to ban the dummy! Yep, that little bit of plastic that was oh so sweet and bought us some lovely sleeps turned evil and deteriorated our little girls sleep so much that we have had to reverse the affects before she gets so far dependant on it. So far it has been pretty pain free - for us and her! One night of some grizzling and lots of cuddles, and today we hit the jackpot with a nap with NO grizzles or whimpers.

We have our great sleeper back! What a little champ! Let's just hope that this little man turns out to be the contented little bub that his big sister is!

Our woodland fairy.....

I love bubbles mummy!!!
Cutie!

We went to Xavier's First birthday party today and Isabelle was all dressed up and ready to party! She had a ball playing with all the toys, kids, bubbles and drew her first picture!

Ramblings of a mummy.....

In light of recent news events etc.... I have come to appreciate my family even more so and have realised what an absolute privilege it is to be a parent. The news recently has affected me in so many ways and my heart breaks for those children who don't hear their own laughter or their parents joy and laughter and feel any love from their parents.

I have loved every stage of Isabelle's life. From tiny baby with flailing arms and dinosaur croaky voice who fed every 2 hours, to a 3 mth old roly poly smiley happy bub, to 6mth old crawling bubby to the 13 mth old toddler who explores everything and anything with such joy and perserverence. I love you my baby girl and I love you my little boy who is already such a huge part of our lives. You are both my life and I adore you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLE!!

I love my Dora couch!!!
Mummy made my cake!!

We just can't believe our baby girl has turned ONE!!!! Isabelle, it has been so amazing to see you grow, learn and have so much fun over the last year! You are our absolute joy and blessing my sweetheart and we wish you a very HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Isabelle had a party for her birthday and was completely spoiled! She had an absolute ball playing with all her little and big friends and loved her fairy cake that mummy made!!

We also had a brief dedication service for Isabelle, that her uncle Anthony organised which was great. Overall it was a lovely day and one that we will all remember for a long time!!

My First Mothers Day!

My first mothers day was great, just to be able to spend time with my gorgeous family!

We went to the Cranbourne Royal Botanical Gardens with Isabelle's nana and pa, and with her uncle Ben as well. She has loved being able to hang out with him recently while he was in Melbourne.

IT'S A BOY!!!!

It's a BOY!!! It's a BOY!! Whoo hoo!

We are very excited that Isabelle's new sibling is happy and healthy and growing so beautifully but also that he is a healthy little boy!!

Enjoy the pics of our spunky little man!

We had a sad day today. Isabelle's Great-Grandfather, Ron passed away after a long illness. We will miss him very much.

Fun at the play centre!

I went to mother's group on Monday at Rare Bears play centre and Isabelle had an abosolute ball!! Literally! She loved the ball pit and like to pick them up and throw them out of the pit, she bounced on the jumping castle, pushed little cars around, rode on the rollercoaster, slid on the slide but her absolutely favorite thing was the little cubby house!
She squealed at all the kids going in and out and giggled at them when they peeked through the windows at her, and when there was nobody else in there she loved just going in and out and opening and shutting the door!!

I think we will definately go on a regular basis because she loved it so much!

She is also finally better after having a bad cold that turned into an ear infection, but she really is the bravest and happiest baby I have even seen! Everyone warned me that babies that get ear infections are inconsolable, we didn't really have any grizzles and had one night where she slept with us to keep warm and cozy but that is it! Fingers crossed her little brother or sister take after her! Only 6 days until we find out if gumnut is a boy or girl! I can't wait to see the little arms and legs waving hello! I had my first check up at the Mercy and all is great and I got to hear the heartbeat again which was great!

I think that is is for now! Will try to post a bit more regularly! Our little girl is nearly ONE!!! Only 19 days to go!

And she's off!!!.......

Our girl took her first steps yesterday!! She is nearly 11 months old and took 3 steps with me at home, but then when Al got home she was toddling all around the lounge room! The look on her face was priceless when you could see she had worked out that she was actually walking but not holding on to our hands! We both just can't believe that our little tiny baby is now nearly a toddler! It was so exciting to see her smiling proud face and we were both in hysterics watching her!
Now the fun begins!!!!!..... I want to try and load some video of her first steps this week when I work out how to do it!!!

Our tiny gumnut baby!

Well we had our 12 week scan today, and I can't believe how relieved I was to hear that beautiful heartbeat! 167 beats per minute and it was just great seeing those tiny legs and arms wving about as if to say "hello mummy here I am!!" I've posted a pic too, little cutie, we just can't wait to see if Isabelle will have a little baby brother or sister!!

HAPPY FIRST EASTER ISABELLE!!!

Well Isabelle has had her first Easter and not one skerrick of chocolate for her - well maybe second hand through my breastmilk! Poor deprived child!
We have had a lovely time, we visited Nana, Pa and big Pa in Leongatha, and Isabelle had a great time riding on a trolley with Nana in the nursery!!! It was lovely to catch up with family and on Easter Sunday we visited Aunty Maria's house and saw Baba, Deda, Auntry Vron and Uncle Anthony and Izzy's cousins Ashleigh and Grace!
Lots of choccie all round for everyone except Iz!!!
It has been great having Al home for more than 1-2 days over the weekend as well - 4 days together is just bliss and Iz has loved having her daddy around!

I've still been feeling pretty sick with morning sickness - it really is much worse in the morning - ugh. Now that I am over 12 weeks I am hoping it will pass soon like it did with Isabelle! We have our 12 week scan on Wednesday so I am looking forward to hearing our gorgeous bubbies heartbeat again and seeing it blissfully floating around in there!

Our little fish girl....

I took Iz swimming for fun today at Nunawading and she was like a leech! She jsut didn't want to let go of me the whole time in the deep end and in the shallows just sat there like a stunned mullet! Cheeky girl! I think it is just an unfamiliar environment so I am going to take her once a week from now on to get her used to it!

10 months and growing!!

Well how much faster can our gorgeous poppet grow! She is nearly 10 mths old, crawling into every nook and cranny and pulling herself up to stand on everything. She LOVES eating anything she can find on the floor - mmm tasty! Makes life very interesting! I know I have said it at every stage of her life but this is just such a gorgeous time with her! She is such a happy contented girl, and we have great fun playing games together! Her favorite book right now is a big picture counting book that has life-sized photos of animals in it! She loves the pussy cats much to her father's disgust.

We went swimming at a big public pool a few weeks ago! That was interesting, our lessons have always been in a tiny indoor private pool with no more that 7 mums and bubs so she was pretty overwhelmed but we will keep going and getting her nice and familiar with the water.

We also have had some great news on the 12th February! Isabelle is going to be a BIG SISTER!! We are due to have another gorgeous bubby on the 4th October, Isabelle's cousin Gracie's 13th birthday. It will be busy busy having 2 under 2 but I think they will be great friends growing up! Well I think that is most of the news for now!

Back to work!

I went back to work today. Isabelle had a great day with her Aunty Vron, and cousins Ash and Grace! She is such a happy girl, and so content! I missed her so much, but she just looked at me after 9 hours apart and smiled and went back to chewing on her cruskit!!

She had a massive feed when she got home and we had a nice bath and play time together too!

Isabelle is standing and pulling herself up onto everything right now and we have great fun playing crawling games, peek-a-boo and her favorite song right now is Old MacDonald Had a Farm! She giggles so much when I do the chicken "Took Took Took" and also the snorting piggy! It is such a fun age, so I am a bit sad to go back to work, but it is only 2.5 days, and she will have lots of fun with mum and dad, plus with nana too occasionally.

We have success!!

Isabelle drank from a sippy cup for the first time today!! Seems like such a minor achievement but in 8mths time, no-body except me has been able to feed her and that has been a bit draining. It also means that I can go back to work confident that she will not starve without me! What a clever girl! She is eating solids so well now too! We love our standing, crawling, sippy cup drinking monkey!

It's a GIRL!!!

Close friends of ours had their baby girl today!!!
Welcome to the world little Haydn!!! I know that Izzy can't wait to play with you and we know you will have many years of joy and laughter ahead!! Whoo hooo!!!!

January 2008

First Beach Holiday!

After the excitement and rush of Christmas, Al had time off so we went away to see Isabelle's Nana and Pa, and then to Cape Paterson for a few days. What a water baby!! She has always loved water, her bath being her favorite time of day I think, but being at the beach was a new experience! Isabelle sat in her own little rockpool for ages, playing with the sand between her toes and trying to grab hold of it - her little face so confused as she tried to pick up handfuls of it - you could see her thinking "Where did it all go?"

It was around the time of this holiday that she started cuddles too - resting her head on our chests, the carpet or toys! Sooo adorable!