that one day in september

Yesterday happened to be the re-match of the AFL Grand Final, but that's not what I'm blogging about. While the Grand Final is synonymous with the phrase "...that one day in September", for me it was different. Yesterday also coincided with what happened a month ago, on a day in September. 3rd September, to be more precise.

The start of September usually heralds a few things - the start of spring, goodbye to coldness (although you wouldn't have known much difference in the weeks that followed) and my beloved late Nanna's birthday. This particular year, it was also the day I found out I was expecting our second child. It's something I'm still grappling with, not so much the shock, but the realisation settling in. This pregnancy was planned, or rather, in the words of my husband, "We should get onto that", as if it was yet another task that had to be done, like mowing the lawns.

A test was conducted, me musing, "hmm, what if" and there it was, 2 pink lines on a stick. I said a quiet "Happy Birthday Nanna" to myself, knowing she'd be tickled pink to know - or perhaps she already did on same other level. I kept the stick, showed my husband and we kept quiet for a good month. It felt good to have a nice little secret all to ourselves, but when we started telling people (at 10 weeks), the excitement and happiness was infectious which made it seem all the more real.

In the meanwhile, it's business as usual with the daily grind. I'm not stopping myself going to the gym, I'm determined to not blow out of proportion, though I'm a bit dismayed to see the middle "tyre" returning. I'm thankful now that I'll be moderately "with child" during the summer period, instead of heavily pregnant, it ought to make the summer a bit more bearable. That, and maxi dresses.

So happy birthday Nanna, you're not here to share this news with us but it made your birthday a little more special, even if I was the only to know it.

capabilities vs complacency

I sometime think that Rory was sent as a challenge, both physically AND mentally. My endeavours at the gym - to lose weight, keep fit and be able to chase after a small tornado - have clearly paid off. The mental challenges are ongoing and the goal posts are always changing with no abatement in sight. It's interesting to note that none of the other kids in my Mothers Group appear to challenge their parents in the way Rory does. He, perhaps, sets the trend at times.

Every so often, we appear to reach a point where boundaries and capabilities are met, silently acknowledged and respected. And then, predictably, a sense of complacency sets in and we (both mother and son) know what we are capable of and life is good. That is, until another skill or ability is discovered.

As was discovered this morning.

Since Rory transitioned to a 'big boy bed' in the past month and a half, he's now able to get himself up and out of his room when he wakes in the morning. Usually, he'll run down to our room and snuggle in bed before his father reluctantly gets up and organises his (Rory's) breakfast. In the past week, he's started taking himself off to play nicely with his toys in the loungeroom.

Until this morning.

I awoke sometime after 6am to hear noises in the kitchen. I was sure I'd shut the kitchen baby gate, which is secured from the wall to the bench. My ingenious son had pushed his high chair to the bench and clambered over (no doubt thanking his skills he'd picked up from Gymbaroo in the process). By the time I'd dragged myself to the kitchen, I'd caught him standing in front of the fridge, with the door wide open, plastic bowl in hand, filled with 'bix' (Weet-bix). It was hard to tell him off for showing such initiative.

Unfortunately, this now means more baby proofing is required in the kitchen, as one of the last few 'gated' areas of the house is now accessible to a small inquisitive tornado. But on the flipside, now that Rory is becoming more self-reliant (by showing that he's able to entertain himself and get his own breakfast), it's a comfort to know that he able to carry out 'routine' activities without a lot of parental help.

Still doesn't mean we get a sleep in though!

home again

Well, we got home from the QLD trip on Wednesday night and it's pretty much the middle of October already. The wedding of Aaron and Zoe was interesting, somewhat of a blur ...with cold weather. We visited Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, spent lots of time with Murray and Brenda. Nana (Vicki) had a ball with Rory, and we celebrated Troy's 29th birthday with lots of yummy cake and pizza. Rory cut two teeth (1 top, 1 bottom) and charmed all.

Now we're back to normalcy - life in Hastings didn't stop (although it always feel like it should when you're on holidays). Back to the gym, back to the baby routine. Baby swimming on Thursday was fun, good to catch up with the girls from Mothers Group. The shed is nearly finished, Corey put the remaining guttering out and the downpipes now need to be connected (to something, I think!).

My 30th birthday is next week, need to get my head around that - getting organised and whatnot. Ordered the meat for the spits, now need to figure out the rest! :)

countdown to queensland

It's countdown time for the Queensland trip next week, for the wedding of Aaron & Zoe. Although you could say we've been in countdown mode since October last year, when the wedding planning [freaking out] started happening.

Rory's now 7 months old and I can't believe we're in October now. He hasn't displayed any new tricks since the last couple of weeks (rolling to the right etc) except that now he enjoys sticking his feet in his mouth.

Corey's shed has a concrete floor now, and only needs the guttering put on to be complete. Once that's done, then the final permit inspection can be carried out and hopefully have all that done and dusted.

Mum & Dad left for their Sth American trip extravaganza on Wednesday, I miss them already. 6 + weeks. I wonder how much Rory will have changed by then.

Finished the quilt, finished the sewing for mum, nearly finished the annual report (all that's needed is a proofing, cover complete, printing and binding). The ticks are getting in the boxes... Next week's task is to start packing...

roly rory

Rereading my last point - there's one thing quite clear. No sooner had I written that not much happens, Rory starts rolling! Well, rolling to the right from his belly to his back. Still babbling quite a bit and using his talent of blowing raspberries to make it quite clear when he's bored, when he's had enough of *that* food thankyou, or when he's tired.

He had a food-related tantrum today - trying to get to eat some swede (on the last day of the new-food-3-day-trial routine) which he refused to. So I mixed in some pumpkin. Wasn't having any of that. Finally ended up feeding him leftover apple/mango combination and banana and he was satisfied. I'm not surprised he's not keen on swede, we don't eat it now and I'm still not a fan of it, even as an adult. I wonder how he'll go with the parsnip?

Booked him in for swimming lessons with the rest of the mother's group yesterday, that starts on 9th Oct - the day we fly to Qld. But we'll rejoin them after we get back. Should be good, considering how much fun Rory has in the bath at the moment.

In other baby news, heard from Corey that Daniel & Kylie had their baby, a girl, this morning. No news on name or weight, but should hear more about it soon.

the week that was ... not very exciting

Not a great deal has happened over the last week. So here's a quick wrap of happenings and thoughts from the previous week and the first half of this week:

• Rory's new 'tricks' include grabbing his feet and rolling to the right (not to the left, as yet), blowing rasperries, chatting a lot when he's tired and (today) sticking his tongue out all the time. He had a checkup with the maternal health nurse - he now weighs 10.5kg!
• Progress on the shed has stopped momentarily, given Corey's workload (he barely got much of a weekend at all), but I think the concrete will be happening on Saturday, whilst I'm at a brigade shopping tour.
• Mother's Group was at our place the previous Tuesday, and at Carter's place this Monday gone, as a couple of the mums (+ babies) are going to a sleep/settling class down in Rosebud. Jake and his Mum have now moved back to Tasmania, so it'll just be the four mums-and-babies at mothers group from now on.
• In baby news: Received a thankyou card from Michelle and her bubby Kiara - thanks very much, it's quite pretty! Mark & Lisa had a baby boy - Cody, and Donna and her hubby had a little girl named Molly. Still waiting to hear from Philippa, who's baby is due any day now.
• Trying to get a few odd jobs done - finish off the brigade annual report, do some sewing for mum, finish off that "cheats" quilt... would be nice to have time to do it in more than 2-hour blocks, but considering, I'm more than lucky to be able to get Rory down for that amount of time anyway. So I guess I shouldn't complain too much.
• Gym is still going well - had a weigh-and-measure done - since I've started, I've lost 11 kg! Given Rory's weight now, I've practically lost a baby! :)

tuesday mothers group

It's midday, the boy is asleep and I've just finished lunch (dinner leftovers). Mother's Group is on today, and I'll be leaving in about an hour. It's at Tyler's Mum's house, which conveniently is quite close to home - as is Carter's Mum's place. Taking some homemade double choc (dairy and white) biscuits which I hope will be appreciated - means there'll be less at home to tempt me!

Yesterday we visited an old high school friend, Sally and her little boy Max, who is nearly 1 and a half. Rory was very well behaved, and went for his nap without a peep. It was nice to chat with Sally about motherhood and stuff, and catch up with her since she's been interstate for many years.

Tomorrow is a big day for Rory - he'll be 0.5 years old (the big 6 MONTHS!). He also has his 6 month vaccinations and a baby reading session at the library. He's fast growing out of his size 00 clothing, and I've just gone through his size 0 clothing and put it in the drawers. Size 00 clothing now gets relegated to the storage tubs.

Still thinking of what to do for my 30th birthday in October, and who to invite. I want it relaxed and easy going - no stress, no food for me to organise and no dishes for me to clean...

busy wednesday

Yesterday was quite busy, so did not have much time to blog.

Had our last library session yesterday - they now will be monthly occurrences. Rory spends most of the time watching the other babies, mums and presenter than paying any attention to me, especially when I'm trying to sing and do hand gestures! The rest of the other Mums & bubs from Mothers Group were there - except for Jake's mum, who had prior committments. We don't see Lexie and her Mum anymore at Mother's Group (she doesn't seem to bother contacting us at all now), so I think we'll probably stop letting her know when it's on and where.

Afterwards, we went to Mum & Dad's for the weekly Weds dinner. Tried feeding Rory pumpkin for the first time - went better than our experiement with the pureed apple. At least he only upchucked a little this time. He was very entertaining at dinner, and had us all in stitches with his raspberry-blowing, which seems to be his new favourite past time.

Today's going to be quite busy too: we're off to CFA HQ in Burwood to visit work colleagues. If we have time, I might try to drop in at Region 8 HQ, but I'll see how Rory and I go.

the fourth month

This week Rory turns 4 months old. We've had some real highlights so far:

• We attended a sleep clinic in Koo Wee Rup a couple of weeks ago. Though Rory slept during the night well - but haphazardly during the day - I wanted to get his sleep practices in order. And aside from falling asleep in the car and in the stroller, he's never really had to fall asleep by himself. We've always rocked him to sleep. The most sleep I could get out of him during the day was in 45 - 1 and a half hour stints. The sleep clinic worked a treat - we spent one day there (which I was sceptical of - how can you get results in one day?!) and put him to bed a couple of times, and had to resettle him once he woke up after 45 mins. The resettling was hard, but towards the end of last week and this week, I've not needed to resettle him at all. Now I'm getting one-and-a-half and 2 hour sleep stints out of him! Yesterday, he did so well I had to wake him each time after his 2-hour sleeps! As a result, the amount of bottles consumed and the amount of nappies changed has reduced. And his Dad and I can actually spend some time together, without baby!
• Today's achievement was his 4-month old vaccinations. Again, like those he had at 2 months, he had one oral and 2 injections. No crying, just a small squawk and that was it. So proud!

In other news, we've finally got the permit for hubby's shed (although have had to move the location due to stupid council laws and council fees) and the airline tickets for QLD in October have been booked. Now I need to organise the hire car, car storage (at tullamarine), book the dog into a kennel and so on...

3 months

Rory is now 3 months old. He's currently asleep in his stroller - a walk round the streets and a quick visit to the vet to pick up some dog worming tablets did the trick. He's growing, growing, growing. Now he's into size 00 clothing (usually for 6 month olds).

Yesterday we had our last Mothers Group meeting at Crib Point, and now we have to work out where and when we want to meet on our own, as a playgroup. Because there were only 5 mums present (out of the usual 10), we'll meet same place, same time next week - hopefully we can decide then.


Corey is possibly working next week away at Sale on a big job, so that will prove to be an interesting week without him.

My efforts at the gym are also going well, and I'm starting to reap the rewards there.

An old friend from High School contacted me last week - she's moved back with her family to Vic from WA. She visited last Monday with her little boy - it was good to see how much she had changed, and also, how much she hadn't changed. If that makes any sense.

As the year progresses, the months are flying by.

Baby Update: Rory is nearly 11 weeks old and is a real joy. We've finally nailed down the feed-play-sleep practice without even meaning to. While he doesn't like sleeping a lot during the day (too many things to see!), he sleeps well during the night, only waking for meals and then falling asleep straight after. Touch wood. I keep saying that so I don't jinx myself!I'm getting more confident with taking him out by myself, knowing that I can handle him now that he's older and a little more manageable.

In Other News:

• Corey had his 30th recently and we had a kiwi hangi, which went very well.
• We attended our antenatal class reunion, which was good to meet up with all the other new parents and their babies and exchange war stories.
• Saw The Other Boleyn Girl and Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, the latter being a neat movies - recommend it to anyone.
• My first Mothers Day went ok, despite being incredibly tired.
• The DVD player packed it in, so we had to get a new one (boo JB HIFI for dodgy service!)

...more later (baby has awoke!)

easter and all that

Easter's here (how did that creep up so fast?), it's nearly April and Rory is now just over three weeks old. Time is flying - days go so fast and nothing's getting done except for that which concerns Rory, which is okay for me!

The last couple of days have been full of visits - first to my old workplace yesterday in Burwood East (I don't miss the drive to and from AT ALL!) where Rory was introduced to workmates - and the recently purchased babysling worked a treat. This morning we visited fire brigade friends Rob and Jo and this afternoon we visited the girls in Balnarring.

Now I'm paying bills online and am exhausted. Time for a nap.