Austin Family Adventures!

Do you know that it's there?

2011-11-19T13:31:00.001+11:00

Mikie's been very cute of late. The other day he was having a real tantrum. I thought he was probably hungry so I offered him a cruskit. He stopped mid-wail and said perkily "Oh yeah I can eat that!"
He was playing with me this morning; crashing into me and toppling over with me, then "helping" to pick me up. I thanked him, and he said in the cutest tones "you're welcome mummy". I can't get over how completely adorable he is sometimes!

Jamie's been showing signs of a curious and rapidly developing mind recently. Yesterday he had his hand out the car window and asked me interestedly, "why does it feel like that? Is it because we're moving past the air?". Well. That's actually correct, but I never expected a 4 year old to come up with it!
I have been known to - ahem, you know...manipulate...him sometimes when I need to fob him off for a bit. This morning he was looking for his glove. When I said he should look for it on the playmat he gave me a slightly suspicious look and asked "do you know that it's there?" I actually had seen it there, but I guess I wont be able to fob him off any more!!

This pic is from Tilley's this morning. Such a glorious Canberra spring day today, it's nice to be able to eat outside again :-)

anywhere and anything

2011-11-13T13:07:00.002+11:00

Today Mikie's been using "anywhere" and "anything" correctly in context.
Surely that's not usual for a 2 year old?? :-)

Awesome aeroplanes

2011-11-10T18:09:00.003+11:00

Me: Mikie can you draw a man?
Mikie: I don't think so
Me: ok
Mikie: I have a great idea
Me: what?
Mikie: I draw a circle!
Me: speechless at his language, at 28 months.

Mikie: I draw an aeroplane
Me: good idea
Mikie: Look mummy, that aeroplane is awesome
(his drawing skills don't match his language skills, but he admired his scribble for quite a while and told me several times that it was awesome).

Evolve photography

2011-11-02T22:02:00.000+11:00

So a friend of mine, let's call her Melita, has a photograpy business. I asked her to take a family photo for us. A casual one. At the park. She came, she photographed, she took AMAZING shots of us, and I'm so happy with the results. Very very hard to choose just some to put up here, but I'll try.

Click on the photos for a larger (beautifully clear) version to pop up. And check out Melita's work at www.evolvephotography.com.au

Bermagui October 2011

2011-11-02T19:40:00.001+11:00

Octopus's privates...

2011-11-02T19:33:00.002+11:00

Jamie mentioned his nuts the other day. The genital kind, not the edible kind. I thought perhaps I should sieze the moment and initiate a discussion about the correct name for them as I'd been reading lately about how important it is for kids to know the correct names for genitals. So I said "hey, did you know they have a proper name - they're actually called testicles". He thought for a moment, then this look of sheer comprehension crossed his face and I thought a-ha, he's really got it. Cue proud parent moment. That is until he pipes up with "yeah, octopuses have testicles!". He said this so proudly and I writhed in the agony of unspent mirth. He also came up with a cute one when discussing a hidden frog with my mum, that he could hear but not see - that the frog was "camelflaged". He's getting so big now - he's up to 110cm - having grown 2 cm in the last 2 months.

I love the photos of the boys in their dragon/dinosaur outfits below. Jamie is trying to be very scary, whereas Mikie is just the cutest little dino you ever saw! They very much enjoyed their visit from "Un-Chris" as Mikie called him. I tried to put Mikie to bed while Chris read Jamie a book, but Mikie wasn't having a bar of that, so he ended up in Jamie's bed too, having stories with Un-Chris.

The photo of me with the boys is us making ice cream in my new ice cream machine. It's awesome - I made the best chocolate ice cream the other night.

Mikie's language continues to come on in leaps and bounds. He is saying very long and complex sentences. For instance the other day he saw a snail on the window and said "Look Mum, there's a snail on the window" and "I want to go outside and touch it please mummy". He understands so much, and always finds ways to express himself. Just tonight he ate a very strong salt & vinegar chip. He looked pained, then said "mummy I want clean my mouth". He had a drink of milk and then said "aah, that's better". Toooo cute! The other day he randomly patted me on the back and said "good mummy". Aww! He has also said his first unprompted I love yous ("I lub you") which is heart-meltingly cute. As well as being very articulate, he's also very coordinated. I had him checked out by a physio because of a turning-in foot (all ok) and she said he belied his 2 yrs 2 months age and was basically at 3 year old coordination level. He's very tall too - on the 95th percentile for height. If he keeps this up he'll be 6'3" and I just can't imagine that no matter how hard I try!!

not the tv!

2011-09-17T16:11:00.002+10:00

Overheard from Jamie's room, whilst Mikie was trying to nap next door -

David: Jamie, if you can't be quiet we'll have to go and watch TV
Jamie: Aww, no TV!

*quiet clinking of Lego continues...*

Australian bush

2011-09-02T07:40:00.003+10:00

How beautiful are these photos? Photographer Lincoln Harrison creates these amazing star trail photos using long exposures over 15 hours in the Australian bush. Just magical!

Mikie vs the world

2011-08-28T17:32:00.002+10:00

I took the boys to a new park this morning (Fadden Pines) and the boys had a great time climbing onto a small hillock (reminiscent of a dinosaur's back - causing MUCH roaring, especially from Mikie). Once up the top Mikie decided it would be fun to push his brother/cousins off it. They enjoyed it, so a game was invented. Mikie got such a surprise though when he turned around, arms outstretched ready to push, to be confronted by a boy at least twice his size and probably 4 times his age. Undeterred, Mikie ploughed in and pushed the big kid off, much to the boy's complete shock. I think we could be in for some interesting times with Mikie as he grows up!!

compliments and sad celebrations

2011-08-26T20:38:00.005+10:00

I just had the loveliest compliement from Mikie. We we reading a picture book together. One of those "spot what" books where there's heaps of pictures jumbled onto a page. We were looking at musical instruments and he was pointing out "trumpet, 'nother trumpet, guitar". He then pointed to a violin and said "what's that mum? I don't know". I told him it was a violin and said "it plays music", then la-la-la-ed a little tune. He turned to me and said "that's good singing mum". So achingly cute.
:-)

Jamie was sweet too - David was getting him ready for bed and I said "goodnight beautiful". Jamie said to David "mum called me beautiful!". He then turned back to me and said "goodnight beautiful mummy". Happy sigh. He was also very sweet to his friend Gracie today. I was just leaving child care and Jamie had gone off to play with his friends. Gracie had just been dropped off and was standing by herself looking a bit shy and lost. Jamie noticed, ran over and took her hand and said "come on Gracie, let's play together". I'm so proud of my kid - to have such empathy so young.

Celebrated a life amazingly well lived today when the band farewelled Bill Hoffman at his memorial service. I sniffled and snuffled throughout (yes, even in the middle of my 15 bars rest in the hymn we played - earning me a sympathetic look from our MD). He was such an accomplished man who gave so much of himself to his family and the community. His grandson (around my age) declared Bill his hero. Wow. I hope I'm someone's hero one day. The lessons I learned after hearing about his life were to allow your kids to develop their own passions (and support them) even if they're not the same as yours, to always have a weekly meal together, and to always be true to your own ethics and standards. What a glorious man (a French horn player, naturally) who did so much for Canberra City Band. I'm very proud to have helped his family celebrate his life.

Tasmanian pirates

2011-08-24T21:21:00.006+10:00

Jamie and I had a discussion today about what he could be when he grew up:

Me: You could be a chef
J: yeah!
Me: Or you could be a teacher or a doctor
J: I want to be a pirate! But there's no pirates in Canberra. Are there any pirates in Tasmania?

Mikie and I were reading a book last night with lots of random pictures in it. He pointed to the comdey/tragedy theatrical masks and said "Look, happy... tantrum".

I love the photo of the boys watching tv wearing their new safety goggles. As you do. Right?

I had a great day today. For the first time since taking on my new role at work, I actually did more work for that than my previous role. I was so chuffed about this I bought flowers on the way home to give to my replacement tomorrow.

A million pigs snoring

2011-08-19T20:31:00.010+10:00

Jamie was heart-meltingly cute when I put him to bed this evening, telling me "I love you more than a million pigs snoring". He then spoiled it all by saying cheerily "nigh nigh stinking goat head". Nice! Poor thing's had gastro, but it did create one of my all-time favourite moment recently. Jamie was sitting on the couch howling as his stomach was hurting. I went in to see if I could help and found Mikie standing up on the couch next to him, patting him ever so gently on the head and saying "it's alright Jamie" over and over. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking about how loving and empathetic he was. It seems to be a theme - Mikie wakes up earlier than Jamie (about 90 mins) and is quite desperate to see Jamie. We make him wait as long as possible, to give Jamie a bit more sleep and allow him to wake naturally. This morning Mikie came in with me and curled up next to me as I sat on the bed trying to wake Jamie slowly. Mikie kept repeating in the lovingest soft tones "good morning Jamie". Aww!

Jamie impressed me when we took him to have his 4yo immunisation. I was expecting fairly good behaviour, as he'd recently been with Brian (grandfather) while he had a blood test, and had seen Mikie have his immunisation. We'd primed Jamie, telling him that the needle might hurt Mikie for just a moment, and arranged for Jamie to give Mikie the precious (and never shared) Woofy to cuddle post-needle. Mikie didn't even notice the needle, soJamie was needlessly and solicitously thrusting Woofy at Mikie, who was most confused by all the attention. Anyway, when Jamie and I were walking in he made an odd motion. I asked what he was doing and he replied "I'm putting on my superhero gloves so the needle wont hurt. They're green". And true to his imagination/word, he didn't flinch at all and didn't cry. The nurse was quite flabergasted when he thanked her for giving him a needle!

Cute sayings by Jamie in the 6 months since I've blogged:

A scab is the lid that holds the blood in
(after using his swimming goggles for the first time) I did water under looking
Hey, my ant bite is gone. It floated up into my eyebrows
Woofy can't sleep cos he doesn't have moving eyes
David asked Jamie if he was being naughty. He replied "not now, but I will be later"
I'm really hungry for milk. I'm gurgling for it.
David: do you know what patience means? Jamie: patience is when you have coffee and I have to wait
Me: where are your manners? Jamie: they're broken

Some of Mikie's achievements in the last 6 months include his first haircut, his first bandaid (he hammered his finger), his 2nd birthday, and the development of some quite amazing language skills. After his first deliberate wee (with his pants off, outside) he kept patting his crotch and saying "Mikie wee!" in the proudest tones. That was back in February and he's still nowhere near toilet trained, but we're not in a hurry.

I've been really slack with this blog of late, but am keen to resurrect it. We'll see how I go! The biggest factor in my lack of blogging was facebook, but now that I'm drastically reducing my FB time, I'm ready to re-embrace the blog!

Suspicious strawberries

2011-02-27T16:05:00.004+11:00

November 2010

Jamie comes out with the most amazing things sometimes. We were sitting having lunch and he plucked a strawberry off his plate - looked at it most suspiciously, then pronounced "these strawberries are suspicious". We didn't even know he knew that word! He's also taken to telling us "you're the best mum/dad in the world", which is just heart-melting.

Mikie's still coming along in leaps and bounds. He is now saying flower, cheese, mess peas (yes please), mummy and daddy, and will often say "please mummy" or "please daddy". So cute!

It's funny the differences you notice in them as Mikie grows up. When Jamie was little and just learning to eat solids he always wanted to have something in both hands, and would get quite upset if he didnt have it that way. Mikie, however, spits out whatever is in his mouth and drops what's in his hand if you pass him something for his other hand. Definitely one at a time for him!

Because they love me

2011-02-27T15:39:00.011+11:00

October 2010

Jamie didn't want to go to school. When I asked why he said he was scared of the girls in his room. When I asked him why he was scared of them he told me they shouted at him. I went into mother-bear mode, ready to defend my poor little boy against the mean girls. However when I asked why they shouted at him he replied "because they love me. That's the problem".

He continues to come out with adorable sayings and ideas, like "That car just went past singing a song for us" (when he head the doof doof coming out of a bogan-mobile) and "I'm a big boy and I can do it for myself".

Mikie had his first haircut in October. He enjoyed it so much he fell asleep during it and had to have his head held up! He also had his first bandaid (hammered his finger). New words for October included seeya, uh oh, fish, dropped it, more, no, nudie rudie, ta ta, bye bye, hello, miaow, moo and neigh.

Mikie and Michelle turn 41

2010-09-15T14:56:00.018+10:00

What a busy time it's been since the last post. Mostly with illness. And a couple of birthdays. But mostly buckets and buckets of snot. Between the 4 of us we've managed to have tonsilitis x 2, sinusitis x 2, chicken pox, conjunctivitis x 3, and too many colds and viruses to count. We should buy shares in Kleenex. I've had a ridiculous amount of time off work, and Mikie's barely been at child care all winter. Jamie's come out of it the best so far. It's really very exhausting having one or more of us always sick. David and I can't wait for the end of winter and hopefully less illness and more sleep for all of us.

Mikie's first birthday was a low-key family affair, but he had fun having his family over and my bear cake turned out just like the picture. Then it was my turn - had a great 40th! Relaxed gathering at Tilley's complete with surprise guests (mum and Simonne turned up - sneaky things). Fathers' day was another low-key affair, but the boys had fun helping David unwrap stuff. We had a family gathering at the Austins - a triple celebration for my birthday, fathers' day, and Brian's retirement. The 5 kids had a ball together. We got 4 of them in the bath together, which was very cute, and we were impressed at how all 5 of them watched Shaun the Sheep while the adults had dinner. Even Mikie - who isn't normally interested in tv - sat with the others, which was great.

Mikie's had some really fast developments. The biggest is that he's walking. He prefers to walk, but still crawls when he had to go really fast, or if he's fallen down. He seemed to cruise around the furniture or take one or two independent steps for a really long time, then all of a sudden over the course of about 2 days just started walking. He loves it! He's also now able to clap, point with one finger, and is trying so hard to talk. He now says miaow, moo, woof, yay, mummy, daddy, Jajie (for Jamie), ta-ta (goodbye), more, ta, no, up (which also means down to him), and can make the tongue-clicking noise for a rabbit sound. Mikie also rides the red car around the house - it's great that he can self-propel now! Mikie's also started climbing a lot. He loves to climb on and off the coffee table, and very cutely sits himself at the small table. I'm waiting for a big tumble - but none so far! He now has 3 teeth on the bottom and 4 on the top. He's also understanding simple instructions, and getting very stroppy when he doesn't get his own way - like the time recently when I tried some shoes on him. The second they were on he wriggled down out of my arms, took my hands, walked me to the door, pushed it & looked beseechingly at me to take him outside. Then had a tantrum when I said no!

Jamie's been saying and doing cute things of course. Like recently when I asked him to hop on 1 foot, so he jumped onto my foot! And the time recently when he said "We'll have to take you to the doctor mum". When I asked why he replied "because you're so old". Hmph! Recently David told Jamie that instead of saying please over & over he could say pretty please. Jamie then said "please beauty" several times! I love his manners, and his word choices. A couple of days ago when David was describing how the new welding curtain would protect Jamie in the workshop Jamie said "wow, I appreciate that!" He loves his workshop swing - a safe vantage point from which to guide operations and ask a million questions (David's so patient!). Jamie's also started swimming lessons at the AIS. His first one was pretty traumatic - he cried a fair bit, clung to the teacher (a most lovely woman) like a limpet, and told me over and over in the week afterwards that he was scared. Bless his heart he went back though, and barely cried the 2nd week. The photo above is from the 4th week. What a change! He smiles and laughs and has fun, and willingly climbs into the pool. It helps that a boy from his room at child care is in the class. The only downside is that Jamie gets really cold, and is shivering quite violently by the end of the lesson. I love the "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth" photo above - he's a delightful boy with a gorgeous sense of humour.

good things come from Bunnings

2010-07-01T20:45:00.010+10:00

Well it's been 2 months since I've updated this blog - things have been too hectic by far!
Since my last entry we've had Jamie's 3rd birthday, Mikie's 1st birthday, chicken pox (Mikie), conjunctivitis (Jamie), tonisilitis (me), and immunisation (Mikie), not to mention family visits and of course all the minutae of life. David's been hard at work on house projects. His parents sold their house - meaning all of his big machines had to come out of their basement and to our place. We didn't really have anywhere to put them, so David had to build a workshop against the side of our house (you know, lay the concrete slab, put up roof/walls etc). This was a big enough job in itself, and is still ongoing, but before the workshop could go up David rendered the wall behind it, we chose the colours we want to paint the house when the rest of the rendering is done, and he painted the wall/guttering etc. It looks great! We've chosen a food-themed look (coincidentally): soft coffee for the walls and merlot for the trim. David's also hauled over half of his parents wood pile from their old place as they dont have a wood fire at the new place. That was a big job. The wood pile in the front of our house is enormous! Now that his parents are ensconced in their place in Ainslie the family visits have been really easy and a bit more frequent, which is lovely.

JAMIE STUFF...

As of the 7th of July, at just 3 years old, Jamie woke up himself in the middle of the night and asked to go to the toilet. Since then he either wakes once in the night and asks to be taken to the toilet, or he goes through the night without a wee and wakes up dry. For the last 3 weeks we've taken off totally dry nappies in the morning. Unreal! He's also pretty much given up his daytime sleep. Not so unreal! For about the last month or so he's only had about 1 daytime sleep each week. Noooo!

Jamie's birthday went really really well. My mum, dad, sister and BIL came over, which was such a treat for Jamie. He was thoroughly spoilt with some great presents, and had so much attention he had a ball. He had an outing with Nonno (my dad) to the War Memorial, and one with GrandDawn (my mum) to the zoo. He loved them both. He had two birthday parties! There was so much family here that we then had a separate play date with friends the next day. There's a little girl at his child care - Gracie - who is his best friend. They're completely inseperable at school. Jamie was very pleased to have Gracie over to his place to play. A couple of weeks later he went to Gracie's 3rd birthday party at her place. He's often a bit shy in new places, but not with Gracie - he disappeared off with her to play, leaving me to drink champagne with the grown ups! He had such a good time with Gracie that he had a complete meltdown about leaving her!

Jamie's cute sayings of late:

Whilst changing his nappy, David's mum had the following exchange with Jamie -
J: Ow Grandma you squashed my doodle
W: well I mustn't do that as it's a very special doodle
J: yes, we didn't buy it at Bunnings

You see - great things come from Bunnings (like 2 of his favourite birthday presents - a camping shovel and a hoe) so if something doesn't come from Bunnings it must be extra special!
J to me: you're the coolest mum in the whole wide world (I must remind him of that when he's 15!)

J: I want the green cup
Me: why?
J: Because I just do

Heaven help us - he's acting like a teenager already!

Upon seeing a maxi-taxi recently Jamie asked -
J: is than an ambulance?
Me: No, that's a taxi
J, after pondering a moment: do taxis nee-naw?

After a short ride in the trailer as David hitched it to the car -
J: that was an awesome ride, thank you Daddy

He's also said recently "that was an awesome dinner, thank you for making it daddy", and when asked if he wanted to wash his hands he said "no thank you, I'm fine". Such lovely manners!

Whilst playing with me in his room recently -
J: I'm going to lie down here and sleep cos I'm very tired. I'll just get my bed organised. Then you can read to me cos you're a good reader.

Thanks for the compliment kid!

MIKIE STUFF...
Mikie's been developing at a great rate. His birthday was lovely. We haven't taken the photos out of the camera yet so I'll post a couple when we do. We had a low-key afternoon tea with just David's family here. Luckily the weather was gorgeous so we got to play outside for all of it.

Mikie loves being outside. We can't wait until he can walk - that will make the outside play a lot easier on all of us. He enjoys the sandpit, but his favourite thing at the moment seems to be climbing up the slide and sliding down on his own. He's getting much more coordinated. He can sort of feed himself with a spoon. It's very messy - but he loves doing it. He holds his own bottle for most of his feeds, which is cute/nice, and is getting very good at standing without holding on to anything. He's confident cruising around the furniture, and the unassisted standing makes us think he can't be too far off walking.

He's also reducing his sleeps - quite a lot of the time now he only has one daytime sleep rather than 2. They're growing up so fast! Mikie just loves playing with Jamie. Jamie's finally learning not to be quite so rough with his love, so Mikie really enjoys their interactions. Mikie loves climbing up the ladder onto Jamie's bed, then they crawl around on there. Jamie jumps and Mikie bounces on his knees and waves his arms enthusiastically - it's really cute!

Mikie also seems to love dancing. He got a couple of really good toys for his birthday that play tunes. He presses the buttons repeatedly, then when the music plays he swings from side to side and grins his head off. Too cute!

Mikie really wants to talk! The only words he reliably says (properly articulated) are mum, dad, and yay. He has a go at Jamie - it usually turns out as Jajie. But he does say things that sound astonishingly like real words. The other day in the car I sneezed, and I swear he said "bless you"! And David is sure that when he asked Mikie if he wanted his bottle, Mikie said "yes please". A few days ago Mikie and I were playing on the couch and David was outside hauling wood. I am sure Mikie said "where's daddy?" and when I said "outside" he looked out the window, his face lit up, and he said "daddy's outside" and then "there he is". Wow! I wonder if when he starts talking for real he'll just launch straight into complete sentences?!

They're amazing boys. I am blessed to have the most wonderful family :)

spit bubbles and poo

2010-05-30T15:20:00.012+10:00

Mikie has discovered how to blow spit bubbles. Big ones. With lots of drooling. It's delightful... Actually it's pretty funny - he takes great delight in it. He's really into speaking into things at the moment - we have a toy microphone that creates reverb, and he just loves hooting into it. He will happily babble into any tube or even box - he just loves the sound he makes. He often babbles, laughs, then babbles again.

I weighed and measured Mikie yesterday. So at 10 months he weighs 11kgs. This is the 90th percentile for weight. Jamie didn't weigh 11kg until he was 16 months old! Mikie is now 75cm tall which is the 75th percentile. When Jamie was 9 months old he was 70cm, whereas Mikie hit 70cm at 6 months. He's going to be a big boy!

Jamie has of course said some cute things lately. A couple of weeks ago he said out of the blue "let's get you a present mum". I asked why I should have a present and he replied "cos you're a good mum". Nice!

Then last week we were driving in the car and we had this gorgeous exchange. I love his explanation for why he could see the moon throughout our drive.
J: can you see that moon?
Me: yes I can. It's called a crescent moon. Can you say crescent?
J: crescent
Me: when we get home, let's tell dad about the crescent moon
J: we don't need to tell him, it's coming home with us. The other cars are bringing it.

Recently we also had a cute discussion about hair colour -
Me: what colour is my hair?
J: red
Me: what colour is your hair?
J: blonde
Me: what colour is daddy's hair (thinking this would be a trick question - but of course in that way that kids do he came up with the perfect answer)?
J: Spiky! But then he shaves all the spikies off

We've also had a momentous development here - Jamie has finally started doing his poo in the toilet! Very exciting - and he was very proud of himself and told all and sundry all about it!

I love the photo of the boys above, playing recorder. Mikie's learned to blow it, and he loves it so much!

new teeth

2010-05-29T19:22:00.006+10:00

Mikie's growing up so much! He's now 10 months old, has 2 new teeth through (total of 6 now) and weighs 11kgs! He's very vocal - babbles away all the time, although there's no real words yet. He's learned to give high 5's, has become much more cooperative in getting his clothes on, and is a real little character. He still loves Jamie passionately and is a gorgeous, affectionate, boy - just so cute! He's slowly improving on his solid eating, and really loves to eat!

dark in my eyes

2010-05-12T21:45:00.004+10:00

When I tucked Jamie into bed tonight he said "don't close the door mum, I'll get dark in my eyes". Awww!

This morning he saw my bra hanging on the dining chair (a fairly "moulded" one that holds its shape) and said "Mum, get your boobs out of the way". Ha ha ha!

Cool and awesome

2010-05-08T15:25:00.011+10:00

More cute Jamie sayings from recent times:

"I don't need my hood on cos I'm not getting windied on"

After tasting David's ginger beer he looked incredibly pained, then said he needed to drink some cordial to wash the bubbles down!

After seeing a crocheted coat-hanger - "What's this pretty hang coat?"

David's MG was desperately in need of a service recently and Jamie had been in it quite a bit over the weekend when I was in Melbourne. When I came back and he went in my car he said "It's nice driving in the red car. The green car doesn't drive fast so well".

We went to the zoo recently with our friends Kirsten (with Tyler & Chloe) and Sian (with Finn). Jamie had such a good time. He especially loved the exciting new animal - the yellow digger! He's pictured above playing with Finn near it. He also was very cute when we went into the walk-in enclosure and he was disappointed that the kangaroos were all lying down - so he showed them how to bounce!

We were following David to Tilley's the other day. David was ahead of us in the MG and Jamie was telling me "go faster - push the button and pull the choke", then yelled to David over and over "Pull the choke Dad"!

After watching some Buggs Bunny cartoons he said "I want to watch more Bunny Bug". Aww!

His latest word seems to be "awesome". He said "I like my new goggles, they're pretty awesome" and "those new shelves are cool and awesome" recently.

Mikie and I had a lovely trip to Melbourne to hang out with Simonne and Chris, only marred by Mikie getting sick and not sleeping well. It was lovely to spend time with them. The photo above is of Mikie lying on Chris's tummy (and getting a good ride as Chris laughed at something!) and Auntie Simonne with Mikie in the laundry tub. The forklift photo is to show off David's lego skills, and the cake one is from David's birthday. If you look closely you'll see Jamie is trying to blow out candles through a cheezel! The picnic shot is the boys at the park recently with Chloe Byrne.

Mikie's now reliably getting down again after standing up, and is starting to cruise around the furniture. He's still making lots of noises but the only discernible word is Daddy.

See, I do like it!

2010-04-24T06:49:00.004+10:00

There's been many cute sayings by Jamie recently. Here's a sample:

While encouaging him to eat his peas, I sang "let's give peas a chance" to the tune of "lets give peace a chance". He responded with "no mum, let's give peas a chomp". Fair enough!
I informed Jamie, while looking at a picture of a giraffe, that giraffe's can't talk (meaning they don't make any sounds). He looked at me as though I was very silly and said "they can, they use their mouth".
Whilst driving past road works Jamie asked why the digger had stopped. I flippantly said "it's time for his morning tea". He indignantly replied, "diggers don't have morning tea, they don't have a mouth or arms and legs, only teeth".
Jamie's been amazingly good at trying new foods recently (he's discovered hoi sin sauce, polpetti, broccoli, goat casserole etc) and his new dinner mantra seems to be "I think I'll try it and see if I like it", then after he tries it he often says "see, I do like it!". This failed recently when he tried beetroot - it caused him to shudder all over. He actually tried it twice and it happened twice. It was very cute!
Jamie told me the other day that a Bob the Builder character had a "talkie walkie", and instead of saying "ready set go", confused me for a moment with "setty red go"!

The other day Jamie was meant to be having a nap at lunchtime and he was resisting (although he was in bed). At one point I heard him calling out "I need help mum". I went in to his room and he was lying with his legs on his bed, but his hands on his ride-on toy car, that had moved sufficiently back from the bed so that he was well and truly stuck. Very funny! He's getting to be such a grown up boy - some of the things he comes out with and the things he's capable of just amaze us. He's moving rooms at child care - going up from the toddler room (18mo-3yrs) to the junior preschool room (3-4yrs) in May. They still have a nap in jnr preschool, but they have a much more structured day, with definite learning events scheduled in.

Mikie's definitely growing up too. He's now very reliable at pulling himself up to standing and can sometimes get himself down again, although it's a slow torturous affair. A week or 2 ago I took him shopping and he was meant to be having a nap in the pram. It was all covered up, and I was wandering around the Canberra Centre hoping he was falling asleep, but I was confused by all the "aww" looks I was getting from people I went past. I wondered why they would think a covered up pram was cute. After about the 8th "aww" look from a stranger I checked the front of the pram. There was Mikie with the cover raised up above his head, and peering out at the world. He must have gathered it in with his feet, then held it above his head for quite a while. It was totally cute! He's enjoying eating a few more solids now, which is fun and messy for everyone, and he's making a lot more sounds too.

fashionista

2010-04-10T07:58:00.003+10:00

Yesterday Jamie studied me in my work clothes, then asked "why are you wearing that necklace with that beautiful shirt?". I said "don't you like this necklace?" and he replied "with that beautiful shirt you need a big necklace". Fashion advice from a toddler! (I thought I looked nice, but I guess the critics think otherwise!!)

Daylight savings confused poor Mikie - he woke at 5:30 for the 3 mornings following the change, but we seem to be back on the 6:30 wake ups now. Never thought I'd be happy about getting up at 6:30 every morning, but compared to 5:30, it's great! Poor thing's still trying to get those 2 top teeth through. They're ever so close, and he's ever so grumpy!

Photo is Jamie and David on the roof of the house fixing the shade sail (Jamie knows that he's holding vice grips - that boy knows way more about tools than I do. I didn't even know they were vice grips until he told me...). Jamie was thrilled to go up on the roof - they went up 3 or 4 times that weekend.

Sore nose & other snippets

2010-03-29T20:01:00.007+11:00

Jamie bumped his nose today. He was somewhat distraught so David said to him "would you like me to get you the ice pack, or would you like a chocolate?" Now I know what most kids would reply, but not Jamie. He said "chocolate wont help my sore nose"!!

He also said to me tonight, while hugging me, "you're the most wonderful mum in the whole world". Wow! (that's a lot to live up to, but I'm doing my best!).

When I open the curtains in the morning I often say "hello world". Jamie told me this morning "the world doesn't have eyes, or a mouth, just trees". Right.

Poor Mikie's struggling. Both top teeth are trying their best to come through, and he's really suffering. He has a terrible cold on top of it all. I love the photo above of them playing in the coffee table. They're amazing together. They played chasey (crawling) around Mikie's room tonight. Too cute.

Woofy

2010-03-29T19:59:00.002+11:00

Jamie went to his great grandmother's 101st birthday party this week. He enjoyed it very much, as did she. I think it's cute that he can't say Ruthie very well, so it sounds like he's calling her Woofy.

Woofy is actually Jamie's favourite stuffed animal toy. I said to him recently "is Woofy your favourite toy?" He replied most indignantly "Woofy isn't a toy, he's my DOG. He's Woofy".

I stand corrected!

Jamie is pictured above with Woofy.

Super baby

2010-03-29T16:04:00.005+11:00

Mikie's had a recent spurt of development in his abilities. Today he managed to get himself into a sitting position from lying on his stomach, and this afternoon he pulled himself up using the coffee table, into a standing position (the table is curved - no hand holds!). He's astonishingly strong. He was sooooo pleased with himself both times. He's also making a lot more recognisable babbles. Not words yet, but the sounds he's making are more realistic. What a clever boy!

Hoppy's miracle

2010-03-21T17:13:00.001+11:00

We have a pet magpie with one leg. He's a lovely bird - very tame, and sings for his supper. The photo above is our friend Tim feeding Hoppy. This morning Jamie was sitting on the bench watching Hoppy out the window, when Hoppy suddenly flew away. A moment later another magpie flew in on the exact same trajectory and landed right where Hoppy had been. A look of awe came over Jamie's face as he exclamed "look mum, look, Hoppy's got 2 legs now!"

4 kids smiling

2010-03-04T11:18:00.007+11:00

Well Mikie's 2nd tooth is well and truly through. He's also finally crawling! Commando style only so far, but he can get wherever he wants this way. He's getting a lot better at sitting too - he doesn't topple over for quite a while now. He really loves physical things - rolling around with us on the bed is a favourite activity, but his all-time favourite thing is climbing up us. We hold his hands and he walks up our bodies until he can sit on our head. You should see the huge grin when he does this! Poor little boy is just getting over gastro at the moment, meaning he and I missed our trip to Melbourne tomorrow. Sigh.

Jamie's going fabulously. He is basically toilet trained, with incredibly few accidents. He's still refusing to do a poo in the toilet, but will always ask for a nappy to do it in. He reliably asks for the toilet, and we're lucky in that he seems to have a prodigious bladder and only needs to go a few times a day. We've also taken the guard rail off his bed. We thought he'd adjusted perfectly as he'd been sleeping in there since Monday lunch time without incident. That was until the early hours of this morning when he fell out twice in two hours! The first time he was crying and said "I can't find my bed" most confusedly.

I love these 2 photos from a recent Austin family coast trip. Jamie and Caroline are studying a bug with much interest, and I just love the one of him in the bath with his cousins. Do you know how hard it is to get 4 kids that age to all smile for the camera?!

mine's bigger than yours...

2010-02-28T18:42:00.002+11:00

Overheard from Jamie this evening when Jamie and Mikie were in the bath together: "my doodle's much more bigger!" Poor Mikie - suffering by comparison at this tender age!

what a difference a day makes

2010-02-19T13:34:00.002+11:00

Jamie had his first outing outside of the house in underpants when he went off to school on Wednesday. He had an ok day - 3 accidents for the day at school (2 wees, 1 poo), and another poo when he got home (yes, in his undies - urgh). Then yesterday what an improvement - no wee accidents and only 1 poo in his pants. What a step up! I am dying to see how he went today. We've bribed him with the promise of a new crane when he does his first poo in the toilet - I wonder how well the bribe will work?!

the joys of underpants part 2

2010-02-16T10:50:00.003+11:00

The joys continue. After being in undies Saturday morning Jamie also spent time in them on Sunday morning and Monday afternoon, still with no accidents. He's also getting a lot better at weeing on command (rather than sitting there for 10 minutes, which is what it used to take). He's getting better at holding it in too as there's been some dry nappies over the last few days while all this was going on. I'm so pleased with the progress. He's still asking for a nappy to do a poo, but we'll get there!

Mikie's still doing really well - sleeping and eating well and being happy all of the time really. He's hilarious when he gets really tired - he finds absolutely anything funny. It's fun! He's still desperate to crawl and still can't do it, but he does manage to squirm his way around a lot.

The photo is Mikie destroying the play mat after squirming to the edge from the blue tunnel you can see in the background.

the joys of underpants

2010-02-13T16:33:00.001+11:00

Yesterday at school Jamie did 3 wees in the toilet! (and one at home the night before) So this morning we put him in underpants. He loved it! He was great - was in them for about 3 hours, no accidents, and in the middle of that time I asked him to come and do a wee in the toilet and he did!

Unfortunately he lost the plot when we tried to get a nappy on him for his lunchtime sleep, but still, it's a huge step forward. He's going to be 3 in 4 months - I thought we'd never get him toilet trained! This is a very positive sign. Phew!

Some adorable "Jamie-isms" & more photos

2010-02-05T18:58:00.010+11:00

Jamie's been saying some very cute things lately. We often get him to go somewhere (like to the bathroom or his bedroom) by saying "I'm going to win" - then racing him - with us in slo-mo - to get there. He loves the competition, and runs as fast as he can, usually shouting "no, I'm going to win" and giggling madly. This morning we were in his room changing his nappy. When we finished he shouted "let's win", and raced from the room!

Now that he's a bit older we don't mind leaving him unattended in the bath for a minute or two. Usually when I'm going to do this I tell him that I need to go for a minute and ask if he'll be ok in there by himself. He always says yes. The other night he was in the bath and I said I needed to get his towel. He replied "yes mum, I'll be ok in there by myself"!

We've discovered a new skill of Jamie's. Last night we were playing cricket (he hits a large ball back to me using his plastic cricket bat). He's deadly accurate and can hit it very hard. He can also hit it when it's moving a bit. His striking skills with a bat are really amazing for his age - he understands about not standing too close to the ball, holds the bat properly etc (all without being taught). Anyway, I had the ball, ready to roll back to him when he suddenly adopts a baseball batting pose - beautifully side on, bat up over his shoulder - it was spot on. I asked him if he'd like me to throw the ball to him so he could hit it like that. He said yes, I did, and he did! It's amazing for a child under 3 to be able to strike a moving object like that. He was very accurate, and could hit it quite hard. He absoultely loved it, and we must have played baseball for half an hour or more. At one point he'd had a bit of a cry, then recovered and was almost ready to go again. He wiped his eyes, and said "wait, I just get my eyes open, they got drips".

He's also discovered a love of Dr Seuss - David's been reading The Cat in the Hat to him at night and he just loves it.

Mikie's doing ok after his 6 month immunisation. He has a mild cold (can't complain - only his 2nd one. Jamie had had so many by the same age) so is a bit unsettled. But his first tooth is through! A milestone! He's working on the 2nd one at the moment - what a dribble factory!

I've heaps more great photos - will put them on facebook soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-01-31T06:29:00.011+11:00

Well it has been a while since my last blog entry - busy time of year and all that.

So we went to Perth for Christmas. Our fears about the plane flight were somewhat unfounded. Yes, it was long, and yes it was hard work, but both the boys behaved beautifully and even managed an hour's sleep each on the way there. Jamie played with new toys and watched Futurama on the laptop, and was a complete angel. It was lovely being in Perth and seeing family and friends. Particularly friends for me, as I had seen family in Canberra in recent times, but hadn't seen my close friends in Perth for a few years. Jamie had fun staying at Nonno and Nonna's house. He was interested in but wary of Marlene's dog Casey - having never spent any time around dogs. He was highly amused one day when Casey shook his head vigourously, as dogs do, and his floppy ears flopped about. Jamie remarked very excitedly "look, he went all wobbly"!

Jamie also had some "firsts" in Perth - his first boat trip (South Perth ferry), his first real train ride, and the first plane trip that he'd remember. He really enjoyed Perth zoo, although we made the mistake of going straight to the elephant, as there is a little show, and we had arrived in perfect time to see it. The keeper put the elephant through its paces. Jamie was enchanted when the elephant squirted water from his trunk. I didn't anticipate that we may have set the bar a little high by starting with the show though, as when we left Jamie asked "what do the lions do?"! Poor thing - the animal he was most desperate to see was a lion. So we went there next, only to have him catch a small glimpse of them before they disappeared! It was lovely for me to spend the day at the zoo with my boys and my mum and dad. It was also lovely for my Grandma to have some time with Mikie.

Jamie's always had good manners - particularly when saying "please" to ask for things, but we reached new heights recently when he started spontaneously saying "no please" when he didn't want something. uite taken aback the first time he did at as it was completely unpromted by us! Poor boy though - we were so used to hearing "yes please" that we got a bit confused for a while. However a week or two of gentle corrections and he is now saying "no thanks" all the time.

Jamie's always had great language and we've always really enjoyed the development of his language. Some recent cute sayings:

Me: Do you like those beans?
J: Yes, they're very beany.

Me: how's your lollipop?
J: not bad (his grandfather says "not bad" all the time...).

While J was hugging me after the bath, I said "brrr you're making me all cold and wet".
Jamie replied very seriously "I'm colding you".

David: Caro squashed Toby like a pancake.
J (after some serious thinking, and said with some alarm): "I don't want to be squashed by a pancake. Or a cake".

However one thing we're not happy that he's saying is "oh my god" as his exclamation of surprise or delight, or just about anything. Of course he gets it from me (and I blame my mum as I got it from her!) and it just sounds awful coming out of the mouth of a 2 year old. I have gone on a campaign not to say it anymore and I have to say I'm proud of how well I'm doing! Jamie's still saying it, but I think (hope) it's a bit less frequently.

Mikie's now going to child care! Or school as we call it. He started out gradually, but is now up to full days. He seems to really enjoy it - he loves watching other kids, and the room staff lovely him. So far Jamie's been a complete angel about carrying his own backpack in etc, cos taking 2 of them in through the gates and doors is a bit more tricky! Mikie's doing really well on the sleeping front now - apart from his teeth bothering him at the moment, he's sleeping well, and mostly wakes around 6:30 most mornings. What a little champion! He's finally off his laxatives and prescription formula and is on normal formula. We've even just started giving him some of the stockpiled breast milk out of the freezer. He's going well with food - enjoying his first solids (or goop, as we call it) and growing at an alarming rate. I can't believe he's 6 months old already!
He's getting very verabl - making all manner of cute sounds. His latest one is a bit hard on the ears - a really high-pitched squeal. He's teething at the moment - working on his 2 front bottom teeth. They look really sore. Hopefully they come through soon as it's awful to see him so uncomfortable.

Will attach a random assortment of recent photos - and will put more on facebook soon if you follow me there...

It's official

2009-12-22T07:31:00.002+11:00

It's official, Mikie's rolling over. He's been close for ages - and had done one (in the swing!) but last night when David put him in bed he had to go back in SEVEN times to turn Mikie over onto his back. He seems to forget that he's been able to roll from his front to his back (the easy one) for a while, but has only just mastered the harder back to front roll. He's also apparently trying to crawl, using his head as an extra limb, but isn't making more than millimeters of progress so far.

Last night we went to David's parents' Christmas party. The boys were very well behaved, and it was the latest we've all been out as a family (drumroll please.... 7pm!!!!). When we got home Mikie was asleep in the car so we unloaded everything first. As Jamie walked towards the door with us he said very concernedly, "Mikie's still in the car". What a lovely big brother!

December 09 update

2009-12-15T21:57:00.010+11:00

I can't believe it's nearly Christmas! David and I have been canvassing opinions and shopping, in a bid to find things to amuse Jamie on the plane on the way to and from Perth. We think we have enough things now. Fingers crossed! He's very excited about "going on a big plane up in the sky".

Jamie's finally over his cold and ear infection and is back to his chirpy self. David and I still have the cold, but it's getting much better. I went out with Wynne, Brian, Nicole, Caroline and Jamie Monday night to see some Xmas lights. Apart from 2 houses they were pretty lame compared to the ones in Perth, but Jamie had a ball. He loved going in the van with us all, and sitting next to Caroline. He's been doing a bit of swimming at the pool with Wynne, and has been twice with me. He's getting a bit more confident but is still a bit limpet-like! His new words are Christmas, hilarious and cockatoo.

Mikie's growing so fast! He's up to 6.83kg (15lb 5), is grasping things really well, is a lot more vocal, and prefers to sit or stand (both assisted of course) than lie down. He's working on rolling (can sometimes roll from front to back, and can get onto either side witout help), and he's enchantingly cute. He laughs a lot and is a real people-lover. Such a flirt! We took him to the GP yesterday. He recommended 8-10 more weeks of the laxative and special formula. Sigh! We're also seeing a new pediatrician this week as our previous one can't fit us in. Like, ever! We're still struggling with his bowel-works, but his sleeping is improving. He still wakes up way too early (around 5am) but I can often get him back to sleep in his swing or by taking him for a walk in the pram. I'm disappointed to report there's nowhere within walking distance that I can get a hot chocolate before 7am!

We have heaps of great photos at the moment - if you follow me on facebook look soon and I'll update the album!

I love you

2009-11-22T20:28:00.003+11:00

I had my first spontaneous I love you from Jamie today. I nearly cried!

In other milestones, Mikie did his first unassisted roll over on the weekend (front to back).

2yo empathy

2009-11-19T20:24:00.004+11:00

I know Jamie's language is very advanced, but it seems perhaps his emotional intelligence is too. Last night I was reading him his bedtime story, and feeling a bit ill. He was mucking around and I wearily lay my head in my hand for a minute to gather myself to persevere. He saw me, stopped leaping about his bed, came over to me and asked in the caringest little voice "you ok mum?" I very nearly cried. I dont remember much of the developmental psych I studied at uni, but I'm sure he's very young to have such empathy! He's really lovely with Mikie, often taking it upon himself to entertain or reassure Mikie if he's crying.

Jamie said something else delightful last night. He asked if we could read the rest of his book in the tent (ie under the covers). He was grinning his head off under there and I asked if he was having fun. He replied with "I like it in here, it makes me happy".

Mikie is also developing well (cant wait until he can talk too!) - he's getting really good at grasping things and getting them to his mouth. I love the photo above. You can't see it from the shot, but David and Mikie are looking at photos together on the computer monitor above their heads. Mikie is enthralled! (you can click on the photo for a larger view)

Sleeping through

2009-11-17T20:14:00.009+11:00

When I asked Jamie what he wanted to watch on tv tonight he replied "the chainsaw man". You see, we had tree loppers come today and perform some surgery on a huge gum tree in our yard that had split. Jamie was in little boy heaven. He watched them (and talked at and about them) for SIX hours! He forwent his afternoon nap (much to the chagrin of his parents) and kept right on watching - and talking. He had such a good time! The photo above is of him in prime watching possie. We're doing a lot of work on the back yard at the moment (we meaning David, of course!). We've demolished the sun room, are extending the paving, have bought a lovely new outdoor table and chairs, and are generally getting ready for summer. I can't wait until it's all finished, it's going to look so different, and actually be useable out there!

My sister and her husband Chris came over last weekend -it was lovely to see them. Jamie had a great time having 2 more adults to pay attention to him, and Mikie... well, he's oblivious to a lot of things! He did enjoy going in the jolly jumper the other day though - pic above. Mikie's really developing. He's very strong. He loves to stand and sit (with much assistance of course), he's getting very good at reaching out and grasping things, and getting them to his mouth, and he's laughing and smiling a lot. When he smiles, his whole face lights up and he has this amazing thing happen with his eyes - they go so bright, it's stunning. Mikie also really enjoys conversations - he loves cooing back to you when you talk to him - especially first thing in the morning. It's enchanting. He is also SLEEPING TRHOUGH THE NIGHT!! He's done it for about a week now - he goes to sleep around 7pm, we wake him for a quick feed around 11:30pm, then he sleeps through until a bit after 6am. What a little trooper! He managed it at 15 weeks - not bad at all! His digestive issues still aren't sorted - we're still having to give him a daily laxative, but he's improving on all other counts, which is just wonderful.

having coffee on my own

2009-11-04T18:25:00.004+11:00

Fair time between posts - mostly because life has been quite hard. Mikie is nearly 15 weeks old now. He's smiling up a storm, and is very strong and alert. He's taking quite an interest in the world. He's been plauged by digestive issues and is now on prescription only lactose- soy- and dairy-free formula and a daily laxative. He is starting to settle a little more easily after feeds, but is still upset for fair amounts of time each day, especially before doing a poo. There are heaps of photos on the website (http://www.d-austin.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3232). I had too many to put on here - takes too long. It's hard when they struggle - you really grab onto the nice moments, so smiles and interested looks are gratefully received whenever he doles them out. I was getting Mikie ready for bed the other day and he had a bit of a cold, so I grabbed the Vicks Vapo-rub to put on his chest. He was studying me solemnly as I changed his nappy etc (was very sleepy) but when I rubbed the Vicks gently onto his chest I was rewarded with a beautiful sleepy smile. Heart-melting!

Jamie's sick at the moment. Shouldn't complain really as he hasn't been sick in ages, but it's been a very tough 24 hours. He's finally a bit more cheerful the last half hour or so - but prior to this has been pretty much held & rocked for 24 hours while he cried and had a fever. Turns out to be another ear infection. He's cursed by them! He's on antibiotics now, so hopefully he'll be better quickly. Jamie's said some cute things lately. Yesterday he sneezed heartily, then said "oh, I got bless you on my arm"! And a few nights ago he told me "when I grow up and I'm a big man I'm going to be a truck driver and go to a cafe and have coffee on my own". Very cute! The moment that I loved the most though was last weekend when I was making cup cakes. Jamie was playing and Mikie was in the bouncer. Just as I was taking them out of the oven to check them, Mikie started crying. Jamie said "mum, Mikie's crying, pick him up". I told Jamie I had to check the cakes, and then I could help Mikie. Jamie then took it upon himself to go over to the table, pull out a chair, climb up and lean in to Mikie and say "Mikie, muum's checking the cake". It was so lovely! He's been really good with Mikie lately - more interested in him and more likely to interact. They've had some smile-a-thons between them which is really cute.

David and I went out a couple of weekends ago to a friend's house-warming party. This was the first time we'd been out together in the evening since Mikie's been born, and the first time anyone babysat both of them (the room leader from Jamie's child care - what a legend). It was weird to be out like a grown up. Mind you, we're both so tired we were ready to come home and go to bed by 8:30!!

The extra "ing"

2009-10-05T20:22:00.006+11:00

Jamie's been saying some very cute things lately - adding an exta "ing" to things. We've had Thomas the tanking engine, the taping measure, and the dishing washer.

We had a great conversation the other day when there was a very loud thunderstorm. He was looking a bit scared so I wanted to make it matter of fact. I said that the clouds were wandering around in the sky and bumping into each other. I demonstrated this by saying "do do do do do" (very casually/sing-song) and then bumping Jamie and saying "bang". He thought this was great, and wasn't scared of the storms afterwards. But now it's really cute - when you ask him what noise the clouds make he says "do do do do do, BANG"!

He also came up with a great one the other day. David did a pretty toxic fart. I said to Jamie "phew, can you smell that?". He made a great show of sniffing the air, then said emphatically "change your nappy dad!". David and I were in stitches!

Yet more photos

2009-09-05T22:34:00.008+10:00

I really like having an iPhone. The quality of the photos is good enough, so I always have a camera close at hand. It's fun. Jamie often knows he's doing something cute and completely unprompted tells me to get the camera. He loves seeing the photo after you've taken it too. Funny that he'll never know the anticipation we used to go through waiting for the films to get developed at the chemist...

Photos:

1st real play time on the mat (liked it)
Helping dad cook
Jamie & Mikie
"I got a stick"
Couch time with mum
Pre-bath work-out
The Austin boys

Some recent photos

2009-08-29T18:28:00.007+10:00

Some recent photos. I love the one of the 5 cousins - it took so many attempts to get one where they were all sort of looking in the right direction and had their eyes open! The mouth-open photo of Mikie is yawning, not yelling!

It's a deal

2009-08-25T20:47:00.005+10:00

I was trying to convince Jamie this morning to go to his room for a nappy change before going outside to play. He considered that idea for a moment before declaring "it's a deal" and heading to his room!

The other delightful development is Jamie's increased interest and confidence in singing. He started singing the "ADC" song yesterday and with a little prompting can make it most of the way through the alphabet. I guess they must have taught him that at child care. Early this afternoon he was playing with some toys and quietly singing "poh poh poh" to himself (part of the chorus of Cecelia, one of his favourite songs), so much in tune that I recognised it straight away.

Jamie's showing a lot more interest in Mikie. He spontaneously kisses him on the head or gently strokes Mikie's head when he's within reach, which is just gorgeous.

Mikie's incredibly cute. He actually smiles quite a lot - mostly as he's falling asleep, which is really cute. His sleeping is improving a little - he's recently proved himself capable of going 4+ hours between feeds. Now we need to get him to do it at night time!

I don't want a baby brother, take it back

2009-08-06T09:45:00.006+10:00

Well, we're home, and in spite of Jamie's protestation (above) when they first met, Michael Ian Austin is installed in the family. He arrived in somewhat dramatic fashion 4 weeks early, on July 24th at 10:36pm. He weighed 2.74kg and was 49.5cm long. I had to have a general anaesthetic and emergency cesarian after hemorraghing at home. Told you it was dramatic! Thank goodness my mum happened to be over visiting and we could leave her home with Jamie to do a frantic (David called it "expeditious") drive to the hospital. Anyway, everything worked out fine. I've recovered well, and Mikie only spent 11 days in the special care nursery before being declared strong enough to come home. Jamie has shown sporadic interest in Mikie. The interest usually lasts a few seconds, then in typical 2 year old fashion he's onto the next thing. Mikie's eating and sleeping isn't going as well at home as it did in the nursery - hopefully things will improve over the next few days as I'm already past tired and into zombie status.
Cheers
Michelle

that's really bad

2009-07-18T08:15:00.002+10:00

More cute talking from the little blonde one: Thursday I asked Jamie how his day at school was. He said "got sand in my mouth". There was this little pause, then he emphatically declared "that's really bad". Yes. Yes it is! Then yesterday we were driving to David's parents' place for dinner and a sleepover for Jamie. In the midst of some other, completely unrelated discussion (about diggers or some such) Jamie comes out with "Grando has boobs!" Okaaaaay.... (he doesn't!).

The sleepover (well, the beginning of it - he's probably only just waking up there as I type) was a huge success. Jamie sat with us and ate dinner - he was happy to try our curry, decided he liked it but liked the rice more and ate a lot of that, didn't need any entertainment during dinner (almost unheard of), and then coped admirably with the fact that the DVD player was broken and there was nothing for him to watch before bed. He went to bed without a peep. Our little angel!

David walked right into that one!

2009-07-13T11:56:00.002+10:00

This morning Jamie pointed out a picture of a helicopter and said "heh-cor", which is how he says helicopter. Given how good his language is, David and I thought he should be able to say helicopter a bit better than that, so David said to him "Jamie, can you say helicopter properly"? To which Jamie promptly replied "heh-cor properly". Too smart! Not long after he managed to say "helcopter", which we thought was pretty good!

Some birthday photos

2009-07-09T20:22:00.004+10:00

The first photo is on his actual birthday - he loved having us sing Happy Birthday.
2nd photo is breakfast on his birthday - he would not let go of his new truck to eat breakfast!
3rd photo is at his party - he used his new tongs to open every present!

finally the teeth are done!

2009-07-09T20:10:00.002+10:00

I can't tell you how relieved I am that Jamie has finally finished getting his last 2yo molar. We have our good eater back! Its been a long time since he was ok about eating anything and everything, and it's sooooo nice to have it back. Last night he had crumbed lamb cutlet and pesto pasta for dinner and tonight it was chinese chicken drumsticks and fried rice. He tried everything, liked it all, ate copious amounts, fed himself, and tonight, even ate at least a third of his dinner without watching a movie at the same time. Breakthrough!! It's wonderful!

Jamie said something very cute yesterday. He was telling us that his drill needed new batteries as it was fairly flat. He said "needs new batteries. Is tired and grumpy"!

David and I have gone into mega baby-is-coming-soon mode and have been trying to get things ready. His version of this is home renovations (poor thing has a LOT to do) and mine is sorting and organising. There's a lot we want to accomplish and 5 weeks to do it in... Of course it wont matter if it doesn't all get done - we have everything we need, but it would be so nice to start out ready, you know?!

Photo is David's computer set-up at home (how he works now) - he's loving it. Jamie was sick that day and enjoyed lying in David's arm watching a movie with him. Aww!

head dancing

2009-06-30T06:49:00.003+10:00

I still delight in Jamie's language. Yesterday he said to me "take jacket off, I'm too hot". You don't get much clearer than that. At 2! It's weird hearing my sayings come out of his mouth though. The other day he was playing with his truck and was trying to do something. He was quiet and concentrating, and suddenly said "hang on a second" to himself. I often say this to him when I'm trying to get him to be patient! Kids say the cutest things too. He's sick at the moment so we've spent a lot of time watching movies. When the credits music came up at the end of the movie he started nodding his head erratically. When I asked what he was doing he said "my head's dancing". Awww!

how do you explain "thinking" to a 2 year old?

2009-06-25T09:55:00.003+10:00

Jamie and I were driving this morning on a bumpy road. He piped up with "bumpy" from the back seat and I replied "that's what I was thinking". His response? "What's thinking?"........ !!! How do you explain thinking to a 2 year old?!

His birthday was last week, and his party went really well - photos soon. Jamie seemed a bit overwhelmed with all the people, and got a bit stressed about sharing his new toys, but he loved his presents and had a good time. He was blissfully happy about being able to eat as many cheezels as he wanted - takes after his parents there!

Last night Jamie was playing with an ornamental birdcage and disoriented it. He turned it around, then told David "I turn it around, see it better". I just love hearing him talk, and the conceptual things he comes out with are quite remarkable at times.

At a more scatalogical level, he's now done 2 wees in the toilet at child care (in a week) and seems to be getting more aware of toileting.... do we dare go down that path?!

too slow!

2009-06-18T03:02:00.002+10:00

Jamie's sense of humour just delights us. He really enjoys a good joke. Recently we exchanged a high five. He then asked me for a "down low", which I didn't know he knew about - he must have learned it at child care. Anyway, we exchanged a couple of fun "high five, down low" moments before David did the "down low, too slow" and pulled his hand away. Jamie absolutely cacked himself. He thought it was hilarious! We kept doing it with him and he kept finding it consistently funny - it was great!

Jamie's growing up so fast - I can't believe he'll be 2 on Friday. He's adapted really well to his big bed, and has also recently ditched his sleeping bag and is managing to mostly stay under his quilt all night.

I love the photo above, it's Jamie's first "lick the beater" experience and he loved it (cheesecake)!

Memory and pretense

2009-06-01T10:12:00.002+10:00

It is fascinating watching Jamie develop. His memory astounds David and I. We said to him yesterday that we had to go to the shop (OfficeWorks - yeah!) and he immediately said "buy milk and chips", which was the last thing we bought when he was with me at the shop, over a week ago. He remembers things for a very long time - he's still talking about riding Henry - the donkey at the markets, which he did months ago. But the amazing one happened on the way to the markets on the fateful ride Henry day. The markets are near where we used to take Jamie to swimming lessons when he was about 4-6 months old. We hadn't driven that way since, but when we were driving to the markets he was looking out the window and he suddenly said "swimming". There's no sign, you can't see the pool, if you didn't know it was there you'd never know there was a swimming pool anywhere nearby. How on earth did he remember?!

We're also really enjoying the development of Jamie's imagination. He's really starting to understand pretending. We played a great game yesterday with the "bulldozer" (Jamie wielding the spaghetti claw), the "dirt" (a container of now-broken corn chips) and the "truck" (my hands), which I got sick of loooong before he did. Yesterday when I went out to the back yard he was sitting at his table and holding a little play cup full of dirt. When I asked what he was doing he said he was eating morning tea. Then this morning with David apparently he was eating pasta (grass) and meat (dirt) using the play crockery and cutlery. He's also been play-acting with Baby Stevie - an excellent doll Ara gave Jamie for his first birthday. Stevie gets fed milk, burped, cuddled, has his nappy changed and gets tucked into bed. Totally cute!

The elbow and the possum

2009-05-31T10:41:00.005+10:00

Jamie said one of those cute kid things this morning - we were trying to work out what he wanted - he kept talking about needing the elbow... turns out he wanted to sit on the arm of the couch!

A few cute pics - Jamie and Caroline having fun at the park a couple of weeks ago; the infamous possum that lives at Grandma and Grando's house (and about which Jamie talks incessantly - so much so that he made the child care newsletter about it!); Jamie and Caroline "sleeping" in Jamie's big bed; and a recent trip to Bunnings. Jamie loves Bunnings - just like his dad!

Have hit 28 weeks now with Wriggly and all going well - woo hoo!

some recent photos

2009-05-24T22:09:00.006+10:00

Nothing much to report. Jamie has a slight cold so he's a bit grumpy. David finished the built-in floor to ceiling bookshelves in the dining/family room and they look wonderful. I made chocolate cheesecake brownies tonight to take to a work morning tea tomorrow and they turned out great! I'm just over 27 weeks now and feeling faaaaaat! Some cute recent pics attached.
Cheers
Michelle

Too much!

2009-05-20T17:10:00.002+10:00

Jamie's been into quantifiers lately. He will load up his spoon with cereal, study it and say "too much" before tipping some off; he'll put David's ugg boot on, look at it and say "too big"; he'll shriek (ear-piercingly), look at me with my hands over my ears and say "too loud".... then last night after we put him in the bath David asked him how his bath was. Jamie studied it for a moment, then said "too wet"!

The joys of teething

2009-05-13T10:16:00.002+10:00

Well I am ecstatic to say that three out of Jamie's four 2-year-old molars are now through! He's been having such a tough time of it, poor boy. Three of them basically came all together, so he was really suffering. We did hit on a good technique to help him though - we bought one of those early toothbrushes that are nubbly (no bristles), dipped it in the teething gel, and then taught him to chew it on the sore spot. It seemed to help a huge amount, as he was always wanting to chew a cloth or toy back there, but couldn't seem to get to the sore gum. With any luck the last one will come through before Wriggly arrives!

Jamie's still doing quite well in his big bed. His night time sleeps are fantastic, but we're still working on the day time naps. At the moment he has about a 50% success rate - one out of two weekend daytime sleeps seem to fail, which is annoying, but we'll persevere. We're actually moving the cot out of his room this weekend, so he's all officially big-bedded!

My sister was here for the weekend just gone, which was lovely. Jamie couldn't manage to say Simonne at first, so she was endearingly called Sinamon for most of the weekend.

Where's Jamie?

2009-05-05T07:39:00.002+10:00

So Jamies' successfully made the transition into a big bed! He's been sleeping in the single bed since his nap on Saturday. Well.... almost successfully transitioned. Sat nap and night sleep were exemplary. Sunday he refused a nap... but we're going with the theory that he was too hot, and at least he didn't get out of the bed in spite of not sleeping. Sunday night was fabulous again. Last night however, I woke at midnight to the sound of sleepy wails coming from the next bedroom. I stumbled in there, and didn't turn the dimmer switch up much at all - hoping not to wake Jamie too much. I had a moment of panic when I felt the bed... and he wasn't there! Then I registered that the wailing was coming from the clothes hamper which was up against the side of the bed, in line with the pillow. We had only put the side guard rail of the bed as far up as the pillow, thinking he wouldn't go through that gap on purpose, especially with the washing hamper there..... but somehow there he was, sitting in the clothes hamper in the middle of the night, somewhat put out about this. I have no idea if he was awake and exploring or had genuinely got himself turned around and fell out! He snuggled into my shoulder as soon as I fished him out, and went straight back to sleep as soon as he was in the bed, which makes me think it was an accident. I however, didn't go straight back to sleep. I kept lying there listening for sounds and wondering if he was headed back for the hamper!

In other moments of cuteness, we had a morning tea with David's family on Sunday morning. One of the twins, Sacha, was sitting on the floor near me and she started crying. Jamie came over, gave her a very concened look, then turned to me and said very earnestly "cuddle the baby". I did as I was bid, and he leaned in and cuddled the both of us. Awwwwwwww!

Bus, star, sheep, drip....

2009-04-30T11:28:00.001+10:00

In a very cute morning event David came to have coffee with me here at work and we went up and visited Kisten and baby Chloe in the maternity ward. David held Chloe in one big hand, and she went straight to sleep - she must have felt so secure! It was totally adorable and made me all clucky and remembering when JJ was that small.

Jamie was asking for songs this morning. He asked for horn (the horn on the bus goes beep beep beep), twinkle star (twinkle little star - very hard to work out what he was talking about as he can't say twinkle very well), baa sheep (black sheep), and drip...... drip? What on earth is drip? I asked him to sing it for me and he wouldn't. I asked at child care. Turns out it was a song they sing about watermelons and how they drip down your arm. New one on me! He then pointed out a bird in a tree and it made me think of Rockin Robin. When I sang one verse he said "more" and I managed the 2nd verse... then got stuck! However he loved it, and it seemed to then result in our second consecutive tear-free drop off (we sang yesterday too). Bliss!

the perils of toddler help

2009-04-27T08:53:00.002+10:00

I just had to laugh this morning. A lot. Jamie was in sore need of some nurofen (literally - poor little thing is working on 4 molars at once it seems) but wanted to help with the loading and dispensing of the syringe. For those not in the know, toddler nurofen is a very sticky, viscous liquid. So Jamie interestedly helped with the inserting the wide-bore syringe into the special bottle, turning it upside down, drawing up the goo, turning the bottle over, taking out the syringe, inserting it into his mouth, and pushing in a controlled first little bit. Then I got distracted, Jamie removed the syringe from his mouth, and very interestedly pushed the easily-moved plunger all the way in.........

Who knew it would shoot all the way across the kitchen?! After my hysterics had subsided (Jamie laughed along in a fairly bewildered way) I cleaned approx 4 ml of very sticky white goo out of the unfortunately open white appliance cupboard full of white appliances..... not the end result I wanted, but damn funny!

Sleeping in

2009-04-20T08:16:00.002+10:00

In a rare move, David had to actually wake Jamie up this morning at 8:15. When we walked into his room a sleepy, grumpy little voice said "Jamie's sleeping now". How completely adorable! In other little kid-isms, in responses to finishing his milk last night Jamie told us "I drinked it all". Is he meant to be able to work out past tenses yet?

Meet Wriggly

2009-04-07T20:18:00.002+10:00

We had the 20-week ultrasound today. Very happy to report all fingers, toes etc present and accounted for, and everything within normal range. The measurements indicated the baby was possibly a bit older than the actual age - meaning it's a bit big. I really hope that doesn't mean I have gestational diabetes again!

Of course the vital question was what sex is the baby. It took a very long time to find out, but finally we got to see what we were looking for - it's a BOY! David and I are very excited and pleased with ourselves.

Jamie finally responds with "baby" when we ask what's in mum's tummy. Much better than his first answer some time ago ("forklift")!

donkey rides & family visits

2009-04-06T13:19:00.006+10:00

I took Jamie to the Hall markets yesterday. Unlike most of the other, admittedly older, children in the queue, he was happy to ride on Henry the donkey, instead of a cute little white pony. This helped us queue-jump a little so I was pleased! Unfortunately he didn't enjoy it as much as he might have, given the 2nd ear infection he has, and some teeting issues. Poor boy!

My mum (GrandDawn) and my sister Simonne spent last weekend with us. It was so lovely to have them here and Jamie relished all the extra attention. I was a little worried he would be confused and looking for them the morning after they left as their plane departed in the middle of the night (don't get me started on Tiger Airlines...) but he seemed to understand that we had said goodbye and that they had gone home. My dad and Marlene arrive this week for a few days, which will be great.

The photos above are from the visit, and from Jamie's Tumbling Tots class that he goes to on Saturday mornings at the YMCA. He loves it, and constantly surprises the teacher about how strong he is.

In other family news David's grandmother, Ruthie, turned 100 last Tuesday. WOW!

Yet another ear infection

2009-03-24T17:03:00.006+11:00

Well, it seems Jamie's recent grumpiness and poor behaviour aren't entirely due to teething (although he's STILL working on that molar), but are also due to the ear infection he has. Poor boy is really very unhappy, and having trouble sleeping during the day. Still - he hasn't been sick in ages, so we can't complain too much.

Jamie had another highly successful sleepover at his grandparents' place last Friday. David and I got to go out to dinner and do some late night shopping - we felt like real grown-ups!

The 2 photos above are recent favourites. Jamie loves playing with his cousin Caroline, and this is a great shot of them playing "u-down" as Jamie calls it.

Sorry the mum

2009-03-18T11:13:00.002+11:00

I'm pretty sure Jamie learned a new concept recently. He hit me with a book yesterday. He was of course told off for this, and I then said "that hurt mum, I'm leaving", and promptly departed the couch for the kitchen. I heard David say to Jamie "go and say sorry to mum" but I didn't think Jamie would have any clue why or what that meant. I underestimated my smart little boy - almost immediately there was the pounding of little running feet and a small blonde missile threw himself into my arms with a cry of "sorry the mum"! He actually looked contrite. It was so completely adorable! I said thank you and he ran off again, and then for the next 5 minutes or so there were repeated "sorry mum" calls from the loungeroom to the kitchen. Aww!

Just don't tell him you can put money it it!

2009-03-02T16:51:00.002+11:00

Jamie loves this car. It's outside our local shops. Of course we don't put any money in it - and he's still perfectly happy to play on it. In fact, he loves it so much there's almost always a tantrum when we stop. Having said that, the tantrums have become less and less these days, which is such a relief. We've gone cold-turkey on no TV (read: Shrek, Nemo or Shaun the Sheep) except while Jamie's having his supper, and he's still having the occasional morning gripe about that, but generally has accepted the new world order very well, and happily plays in the dining room. His favourite game at the moment is to run from across the room and throw himself onto his little fold-out couch, and crash tackle the teddy bear. It's very cute!

We had an OB appointment this morning. Nothing to report except that we're 15 weeks and all is well.

helicopters, trucks and sheep

2009-02-23T19:55:00.005+11:00

We took Jamie on the weekend to the Snowy Hydro Southcare Open Day, where they open the base for the day and offer helicopter joy rides and much more. Jamie was in little boy heaven, watching helicopters take off (we decided the price was too steep to justify taking him up just yet), climbing in the fire truck and watching the ladder go up and down, climbing in a helicopter, and patting the animals in the patting paddock. What bliss!

His talking continues to improve and impress. He asked me to "kiss it mum" - referring to his allegedly sore finger today, and babbles - mostly coherently - at us all the time. He's been a bit petulant lately in his demands, so we've been asking him to ask nicely. He then says "nicely". Fair call! Everyone is quite astonished at how clear his diction and articulation is at his tender age. I must say, it makes interpretation a lot easier! He certainly impresses people when he can accurately distinguish between a truck, bus, crane, digger and forklift; not to mention hammer, saw, pliers, level, screwdriver, and tape measure! Oh - and he knows what actions/uses go with the appropriate tool. Yup, he's a total boy. He's still quite keen on bugs, and spent quite a bit of time poking at a snail with a stick yesterday and saying "snail, poke it stick"!

The big news is the fact that we're expecting another baby. Wriggly 2, as it has been dubbed, is due early-mid August. We're very excited, and pleased about the age gap we'll have (approx 2 years, 1 month). Everything's going very well so far.

The photo is from a trip to Tilley's (of course) on the weekend.

Big screen TV

2009-01-29T20:14:00.008+11:00

We've recently returned from a long long weekend at the coast (took an extra day off). David installed a very large computer monitor for Jamie (on the back of the passenger seat) and we played movies for him on the drive, from our little tiny laptop (an eeep, for those in the know) from the front seat. What an innovation - the trip both ways was soooo much better for all of us. Jamie was a lot less bored and hence a lot easier to manage! We had a lovely time at the coast and I definitely didn't want to come home. Top 2 photos are story time with Grandma Wynne (and cousin Caroline), next is an amazing cloud we saw in Cooma, and bottom is Alexander entertaining all of the kids at once (what a hero) - Jamie and Caroline at the back, Sacha on the left and Toby on the right.

Jamie's language continues to astonish us - he is combining words into rudimentary sentences much more often now. Today he said "mum more grapes" which I thought was pretty good. Apparently we saw a monkey in a boat on the way home today, so his imagination is also developing nicely!

Scissors, hair!

2009-01-22T15:35:00.003+11:00

Jamie had his first hair cut this morning. I can't believe the change it's made to his appearance, he looks so much more grown up! He handled it quite well. He refused to sit on the chair on his own so he sat on my lap, and he was a bit scared at first but the magic cure-all (milk) calmed him down and then he was an angel - managing smiles by the end of it. Once he was done and was allowed to get down he proceeded to perk right up and kept exclaiming "scissors, hair, scissors, hair!" over and over. The photo isn't great as it was taken with my phone in the car when we left, but hopefully you can see just how much the haircut changed his look - what a big boy!

Sleep-over success

2009-01-17T20:17:00.004+11:00

Well, the sleep-over was a huge success. We had dinner with Jamie's Grandparents and stayed for a while. Jamie went straight to sleep without a protest. He was happy as larry the next day, and wasn't returned home until 11:15! David and I got to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast at Tilley's, and install our new dining room shelves before JJ came home (putting in floor-ceiling bookshelves - have put the bottom half in - they look great!). We're really pleased with how well it went, and are planning another sleep-over soon!

There's been a few developments recently - first of all, Jamie did his first wee in the potty last night! Only a modest amount went on the floor, and much applauding was done by all. Toilet training has begun! Another development is that Jamie can now jump, and get both feet off the ground. He's understood the mechanics behind it for ages, but hasn't been able to get airborne. This morning he practised a lot on the spare bed - jumping up and landing on his bum (amidst fits of giggles), and then at Tilley's this morning he jumped several times, successfully. We've also had a development in his "please". For a long time it's been pronounced "psss", but in the last few days it's progressed to "pweeeease". Very cute.

Jamie has a cold at the moment, but is otherwise very chirpy. He's out in the back yard with David right now doing some hammering (David's been taking out a garden bed we don't like and there's a lot of rubble to break up).

The photo is from child care (date is wrong, it's from mid-Dec). I have finally put a selection of his child care photos onto Jamie's website. The 4 pages cover the whole of 2008. It's amazing to see how much he's changed. Cut and paste the link below into your web browser (sorry, can't work out how to hyperlink it!):
http://www.d-austin.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2793

I've also added 60 or so photos from recent times into the website, including some great Christmas photos. Go to:
http://www.d-austin.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=24&g2_page=17

Finally, I've uploaded a dozen or so videos to youtube. Go to:
http://au.youtube.com/user/nitsuadivad

Cheers,
Michelle

blue-lipped boy

2009-01-16T09:38:00.002+11:00

Let me begin this post by saying that Jamie hates cold water. He refused to go in the ocean at the coast, and cried when we hosed him off in the back yard the other day. It's been quite hot here in Canberra the last few days and seeing as it was 37C yesterday we decided to take Jamie to our local pool. He had such a good time! He particularly loved jumping from the edge of the baby pool and being swooshed through the water by David, and "swimming" - where David floated Jamie on his stomach and Jamie alternated kicking and paddling. Apparently he can't do both simultaneously. By about 7pm the temp had gone down and Jamie was shivering, his lips were blue and his teeth were chattering - but he really didn't want to get out of the pool!

We're attempting Jamie's 2nd sleep-over at his grandparents' place tonight. You may remember the first one was a failure as JJ refused to sleep. Fingers crossed for tonight. David and I are very excited because Tilley's is finally opening again rtomorrow after a long Christmas shut down, so we have plans to go on a breakfast date while Jamie's still with Wynne & Brian. Keep your fingers crossed!

I love to count...

2009-01-12T14:23:00.004+11:00

Well it seems Jamie has two new loves. The first is bugs. He is fascinated by bugs, and it's a useful trick to get him to walk when he wants to be carried - to suggest there might be bugs along the way. After discovering how slimy the slugs in his sandpit were the other day he's now more inclined to poke bugs with a stick, rather than his finger, which I have to say I'm pleased about! The second new love is counting. He will often count to himself - usually to four. When I ask how many of something he wants, he often says "two, three, four"! If we start by saying "one", he'll chime in with two, we say three, he says four, etc etc - he says all the even numbers up to 12. David and I have been counting things in books etc for a while, but he seems to have caught on to this effortlessly. Now we just have to get him saying the odd numbers as confidently and we'll be right!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-08T11:49:00.008+11:00

Happy New Year! We had a lovely 3 weeks away at the coast, first with my family, then with David's. The changes in Jamie have been astonishing in the last 3 weeks. He's gone from knowing a lot of words, to talking in complete / complex sentences. We can't make out every word in every sentence, but you can usually get the gist. The "I want" part is very clear, as is "my turn" (every time, he hasn't quite worked out the concept yet!). He has been saying things like "I want to get down and play" - which have just blown us away! We gave Jamie a trike for Christmas, which he loved, and his grandparents gave him a Black & Decker workbench which was a huge hit. He can name an amazing number of tools, and kept talking about his "screwer", meaning screwdriver. He loved the beach, although had an aversion to the cold water. David dug many huge holes and Jamie had a great time climbing in and out of them, or running and jumping into them, and of course he loved stomping on sandcastles.

Since getting home the staff at the child care have been amazed at the change in Jamie and the development in his language. He's been taken on supervised visits to the toddler room, as he moves there in a few weeks. He has now spent most of the day there (yesterday), including having lunch with the "big" kids and having his afternoon nap - where he slept in a bed instead of a cot. What a grown up boy!

I broke it

2008-12-16T15:12:00.005+11:00

Well, how things change since I last wrote here. Jamie is 18 months old and talking up a storm. He broke a small box this morning. After it happened he looked up at me and said "I broke it". I then sat him on a bigger box and he said "I on the box". I can't keep up! He's been to his playgroup and child care Christmas parties, as well as my Calvary Christmas party. He was quite funny at the child care one - wanting desperately to go on the ride they had, pushing his way to the front of the queue (of much bigger children), and then crying desperately once the ride was actually going! The photo is from a trip to Bunnings a little while ago. He takes after his dad, and loves Bunnings!

We have gone way overboard on Christmas presents for him of course, but it's too hard to resist. I'm very excited about giving him his first real bike. Well, it's a trike, and it has a handle so we can steer it, but I'm sure he's going to love it. Bring on the 25th!

I wont get a chance to update this until after the new year, so Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a relaxing time, and that Santa is good to you. See you in the new year! Michelle

the joys of poo

2008-11-24T21:06:00.002+11:00

A momentous occasion this afternoon. Jamie was playing, and twice he said to me "poo" and then went and sat on his potty, with no prompting from us. No poo resulted, but the 3rd time he said "poo" and went and sat on it there was some staring and strained expression. He then stood up and said "poo!" in much more certain tones, and clutched at the front of his nappy. Sure enough, there it was. David and I congratulated him with lots of "yay" and clapping, and he did the longest happy dance I've ever seen - it seemed quite clear to me he knew exactly why we were so pleased with him. Wow - will he toilet train himself?!

No sleep-over

2008-11-24T10:57:00.003+11:00

Well, we tried to have Jamie go on his first sleep over at his grandparents place on Friday night... but Jamie wasn't having a bar of it. Unfortunately he refused to go to sleep so we had to take him home again. Most disappointing! We shall try again soon I hope. Jamie's very keen on toilet training it seems - telling us repeatedly that he's done a poo and clutching at his nappy.... unfortunately he's almost always wrong, so he hasn't quite got the hang of it yet. But at least he's keen! He's hit another milestone (apparently) - now he not only helps get his clothes off, but also tries to put them on. He had a great time with a pair of David's undies yesterday that he'd fished out of the (clean!) washing basket - he managed to get them on properly and walked around clutching them at his waist to keep them up. He also managed to wear them most fetchingly as a shrug!! Unfortunately we didn't manage to get a photo of this. Poor thing has another cold, but it doesn't seem to be slowing him down too much.

Sleep over

2008-11-20T16:30:00.004+11:00

It's been a while between posts - no excuse other than busy at work. Jamie continues to develop words at the most amazing rate of knots. His latest efforts include bath, rain, wet, dinosaur (dine-saur), wheel etc. He now has over 50 words, and I've officially given up counting them! We went out in the rain the other day - something he's not done much at all so far in his life. He very comically looked up, screwed up his face, pointed upwards and said "wet" very indignantly. He's also started word combining, which is pretty exciting. When we asked this morning where he wanted his sultanas he pointed to his bowl and said "in there". We've also had "let's go upstairs" and he also knows to say please when he wants something - although it comes out as "psss".
We've started the rudiments of toilet training, which he's very interested in - but we're not rushing into this! Last weekend we went to the coast. We timed our driving so that hopefully Jamie would sleep in the car. He was wonderful - as the very cute pic will attest to. He really enjoyed the beach (henceforth known as "bubbles") for the giant sandpit aspect - he was horrified by the cold water and wouldn't go near it after he'd felt it once on his feet. The other photo is from a little while ago and is not an impromptu nap, but a full-blown tantrum, including feet kicking - hilarious. Jamie's having his first sleep-over at his grandparents' tomorrow night - so exciting! I bet I miss him like crazy...

Telling mum how it is

2008-11-05T21:56:00.002+11:00

I was worried Jamie was sick again today, but I think it was his teeth. I continuously marvel at his ability to communicate, in spite of not being able to say more than 40 words, and many of them animal sounds! He's only 16 months old, but tonight he managed to tell me he needed panadol. He carried on like crazy in the kitchen, pointing to something on the bench while he was having dinner, but I couldn't work out what he wanted as there was no food in the direction he was pointing. I let him crawl on the bench and he went straight to the bottle of panadol, picked it up and handed it to me. I ignored it - didn't think it could be right when he wasn't sick, but it turned out it was for his teeth. He didn't settle when he went to bed, in spite of being really tired. He then did something he's never done before - threw his cloth that he sleeps with out of the cot, then got really upset. When I went in there he strained for the change table (which normally he hates - hates having his nappy changed), but he knew that the other bottle of panadol was in the top drawer. I gave him some, and showed him the teething gel. When I asked if he wanted it he nodded and opened his mouth. I put some on, he waited a moment, then pointed to the gel and said "more". I put some more on, and he did a happy sigh and pointed to his bed!!!!!!!!! Genius baby!

Mite, mite!

2008-11-03T15:08:00.005+11:00

Ah, the blissful silence of a 16-month old happily eating vegemite sao biscuits and smearing vegemite all over his face... I think we've finally cracked the breakfast thing. So many tantrums, so many rejected breakfast foods, so many giving up and resorting to a bottle (and Shrek) ... But this morning I tried a new tactic (nicely timed with Jamie feeling better and being in a good mood). As I carried him to the kitchen I asked him several times "are you going to sit in your chair?", and "do you want yoghurt?". He nodded enthusiastically each time, and even said "chair" in response to one of those questions. Sure enough, when we got to the kitchen he sat in his chair with no fuss, and proceded to eat yoghurt, fruit, milk from his sipper cut, and the aforementioned saos with vegemite (which he cutely calls "mite"). Hurrah! What a breakthrough! It was so peaceful! He's become a menace with our dining chairs though - he's worked out how to pull them out from the table and climb onto them. Once the table was a secure haven free from exploratory little fingers, but no more. We've discovered we do not have anywhere near enough high repositories in our house!

New words this week: doodle, digger, neigh, baa, dog, bear, eye, I got, and he's learned that boogers are up your nose (sticks his finger right in and grins). Oh - and he also discovered completely unprompted about how different the world sounds when you stick your fingers in your ears. Clever boy!

The pic is from a visit to the walk-in aviary a little while ago - he had no idea the parrot was up there!

there is no "k"

2008-10-23T14:56:00.002+11:00

Jamie's language continues to progress at an amazing rate. It seems like every day there are new words he can say. He still says them sotto voce when he's not sure of them, which is very cute.
The latest words are apple, spoon, toy, spade ("pade"), book and milk. Only when he says book and milk he can't manage the k at the end so he is often heard saying "mil" and "boo, boo" when he wants to read a book. He knows many many more words as labels, but can't say them yet. He loves to "read" books. Previously he used to like turning the pages, but now he spends ages on each page and picks out all the things he knows. He's getting very good at pointing to objects on each page when we ask him to. He knows things like glasses, spade, dinosaur(!), purse, etc and is a real gun on animals. The other cute thing is that there's a photo of my Dad and Marlene near his door and if you point to my dad and ask Jamie who it is he very confidently says "Nonno". Awwww!

Where's dad?

2008-10-16T21:18:00.002+11:00

I am very very happy to report that Jamie seems to be over his separation anxiety. The last week or 2 there's been no tears when I left him at child care, and the last 2 days he even waved me goodbye! We've made small progress on the tantrums - they're a lot less hysterical (and hence a lot quieter), which is lovely for all of us. He's still not fantastic with food, but he's putting on weight (up to 11kg now!) so he can't be doing too badly.

Jamie can now say over 30 words! His latest are bear, door, knee, and bubble. He was totally cute a couple of days ago. He really likes to sit on my knee on the bed in his room and read books when he gets up in the morning. We were sitting there reading a book and all of a sudden he looked around the room and then said "where's dad?". I replied that dad was in bed. Jamie then looked towards our bedroom. I asked "do you want to go and see dad?" Jamie nodded, practically leapt off the bed, and ran* into our bedroom shouting "da da". He went to the bed, put his arms up and said "u u" (can't manage the p yet!). When I lifted him up he shouted "da" so loudly, then as David said "can I have a hug?" Jamie launched himself across the bed and into David's arms. Heart melting!

*toddler running - very fast wobbly walking with his arms up in the air for balance. Quick, and hilarious!

web page & you tube updates

2008-10-11T21:37:00.006+11:00

Hi again
just letting you know that Jamie's web page and you tube videos have been updated with 11 new photos and 5 new videos....

I particularly love the video of Jamie going completely nuts with the takeaway containers!

This photo is Jamie's "nothing's too big to eat" attitude.

http://d-austin.net/gallery/main.php?g2_navId=x72cd0d46
http://au.youtube.com/user/nitsuadivad

Flirtations

2008-10-11T21:07:00.006+11:00

We went out for dinner on Thursday night with David's parents. Jamie coped quite well, considering it was a later than usual dinner and bedtime for him. He quite liked the chinese food (especially the prawn crackers), but after a while he got a bit bored - who can blame him? He soon fixed that though - by making serious eye contact with a 7 year old girl at the next table. After smiling coyly at her a bit he very exaggeratedly dropped his book on the floor and said "uh-oh". Sure enough she picked it up, and then it was on! I lost track of how many times he very flirtatiously waited until she'd sat down again before making eye contact, smiling at her and dropping the book again. He was completely charming and she was completely charmed! The first photo is Jamie having fun climbing the kitchen gate. He can open the gate, but for some wonderful reason, chooses not to! The second photo is Jamie pulling a "sour" face after drinking some undiluted OJ.

Nigh Nigh

2008-09-30T12:13:00.002+10:00

Life has become so much easier now that Jamie can communicate his desires very clearly. Case in point - while eating lunch today Jamie would point to the food (peas and rice) and say "more" if we were too slow in shovelling it in. Then I asked him "have you had a drink?" and he shook his head for "no". I then said "do you want a drink?" and he pointed to the sipper cup and said "more more". I was quite impressed with that little exchange! Later when I asked if he wanted more custard he politely shook his head, then rubbed his eyes, pointed towards the bedroom and said "nigh nigh"! So off to the bedroom we go, and the whole time I was changing his nappy and putting him in his sleeping bag he was saying "nigh nigh". He was asleep within minutes of hitting the mattress. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to be able to gauge his needs and desires so easily!

Flower munching

2008-09-27T21:50:00.005+10:00

Jamie is still developing so fast, it's hard to remember what skills are new to report them! He's recovering from his ear infection, which is great, but is suffering from extreme tantrum-itis!! We seem to be making progress to curb the tantrums, but I'm sure there's many more to come. He can run without having his arms above his head now (although "run" is a bit of a stretch) and I'm so disappointed I never got it on video or a photo!

Jamie has several new words, the cutest of which is "nonno" (Italian for grandfather), said with a delightful, and quite accurate, accent. He will confidently say "nana" for banana. The words he's working on he wont' say loudly, they're always sotto voce, which is really cute. He's currently working on chair, keys, fish, don't and "all gone", and is still working on tiger (comes out as tatar). He's starting to help more with getting undressed, and can now mostly do up his car seat belt. He also takes great delight in climbing into the car seat himself. He's also become quite obsessed with the MG - trying to open the door and climb into it every time we're out in the back yard. He's very partial to wheelbarrow rides too! He just loves being outside, and his favourite thing at the moment is picking flowers. He picks a handful and then carries the little posy around with him for ages, and eventually eats it. Hmm, we'd better make sure he's safely restrained in his pram when we take him to Floriade!

So polite!

2008-09-16T16:24:00.002+10:00

David and I were quite shocked when David handed Jamie some food yesterday and he quite clearly said "thanks"! We've been saying it to him for a while, but didn't realise it had sunk in. He repeated it twice today. What a clever boy! Poor thing tripped over this afternoon and put his top teeth into his bottom lip - it looks very sore. One of the hazards of his preference for walking around holding things - he trips over quite a lot. He's sick again with a cold, meaning we all have a cold. Yes, again. It's so incredibly annoying. None of us slept well last night - what with all the coughing and snuffling (and yes, some snoring) that was going on!

New words and skills

2008-09-12T16:58:00.003+10:00

This little boy just develops so quickly, it's hard for his old parents to keep up! The latest word is "roar" for lions (said in the cutest, least scary voice you could imagine), and the newest skill is playing chasey. He understands that one person chases the other and that you take turns doing it, and he thinks it's hilarious. It's very funny watching him try and run - he can only do it with his arms above his head! I will do my best to get a photo. He's definitely a walker now - I haven't seen him crawl in more than a week. He now walks into and out of child care, even when he's tired or grumpy, which is real progress. We didn't have tears this morning when I dropped him off (finally - yay!). Probably because they had out his favourite type of toys - ones designed to be climbed on. Jamie is taking great delight in following instructions now, and understands a huge number of words. To David and my great delight we've solved one of our more frustrating and long-term battles - the nappy change. He has been a real handful for this for quite a while. We found a good solution though - we filled the end of the change table (where the nappies etc used to go) with toys. Now we put him on the change table on his hands and knees and instruct him to choose a toy. He crawls to the end, selects his toy, then when we say "lie down" he will either lie down of his own volition (!!!!!!) or allow us to lie him down with no fuss. Hurrah! It's made for much more pleasant mornings!

Fathers Day

2008-09-07T13:54:00.003+10:00

My how things have changed since Fathers' Day 07 when Jamie was 2.5 months old! This morning Jamie helped David open his presents (and had an immensely fun time stuffing bits of wrapping paper into the carboard tube the bottle of port came in), then we all went to Tilley's for breakfast. It was chaos in there - when the doors opened there was practically a stampede to find a table. Not like our usual sedate experience! Jamie has a new word - he can say "tweet". Luckily there are a lot of birds around our place so he gets to use his new word a lot. We also practiced very hard on "daddy" this morning before David got up, and he delivered at the right time - what a clever boy!
The boys are out playing in the sand pit, I must go join them while the weather is nice. Happy Fathers' Day to all you dads out there (especially mine!).

mum is better than mum

2008-09-05T07:42:00.002+10:00

A while ago I wrote a post about guitars being better than mum. Now it appears mum is better than anything or anyone else and it's both wonderful and heartbreaking. Jamie has always been a daddy's boy. He's always preferred to be held by David and obviously just adored him. But in the last 2 weeks there's been a real shift, and now I'm the preferred parent. It's just lovely that he reaches for me and wants me... until it comes time to drop him off at child care. He's really struggling at the moment with separation anxiety (meaning I am too now!) and it's just awful to say goodbye to a little tear-stained face, little arms reaching up to me and that expression of "how could you?" It's horrible! Luckily he settles down within a few minutes after I've left - but I don't see that - I only see the look of reproach and the desperate struggle to get to mum. I hate mornings! Mind you, it's just delightful when I pick him up in the afternoon - the expression of delight on his face and his attempts to walk to me as fast as he possibly can are simply wonderful.

Where's Jamie's nose?

2008-08-25T22:19:00.002+10:00

I thought Jamie had mastered the "where's Jamie's nose?" question recently. When asked he would point to his nose. Well... actually he would stick his finger up his nose, but he was on the right track. When then asked "where is mum's nose?" he would happily stick his finger up my nose (note to self, cut Jamie's nails...). So I thought he had this one under control, until today. When I asked him "where's Jamie's nose?" he consistently, and quite painfully, poked himself in the eye! A bit more work required on this one, it seems!

video and web page updated

2008-08-24T19:21:00.004+10:00

Just letting you know that I have updated Jamie's YouTube site with 9 new videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nitsuadivad

and there are a few new photos on the last page of his website:
http://www.d-austin.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=24

this kid will eat anything... almost!

2008-08-24T12:18:00.007+10:00

Hmm, it appears Jamie will eat just about anything. Here he is munching on some raw corn cobs (with the kernels already cut off), and very happily eating some twiggy sticks. Recently he has also eaten curry paste straight off the spoon and raw crushed garlic... but he wont eat banana! His favourite food of all time is rice crackers, but he doesn't like rice cakes (who can blame him?!)

High 5

2008-08-24T09:05:00.005+10:00

Jamie's learned so many new things in the past week. First he learned a new word "ball". It's unreliable, but definitely in the lexicon, and we swear we heard him say "bear" today. He also learned to high five. He thinks it's great fun, and when he goes to slap your palm if you pull your hand away he cacks himself. I was pretty surprised that he got the joke. He's also learned to give kisses. Awwww! It's completely adorable, if a bit slobbery. Another thing he learned this week is to give hugs. David and I are really enjoying this as he's never been into hugs before, unless he's sick. The other major development is that he walked into child care last Thursday. He's been walking for a while but this was the first time he'd walked into the centre all the way from the car to his room. The carers gave him a round of applause, which made him beam. The photo is of recent vegemite-face eating

The Calvary Olympics

2008-08-24T07:14:00.002+10:00

To get on board with Olympic fever and raise morale at work I organised the Calvary Olympics last Friday. It was so much fun! We had about 10 teams competing in the crutches relay, syringe relay (fill a bucket with a syringe - nothing nefarious!), pillow throw (spin around twice like the hammer throw then let go - 2 teams managed to hit the only nun in the room but I refused to give them any extra points for that!), shot put (with a wheat bag heat pack), linen bag sack race, gowning (where 1 member of each team had to get dressed in full theatre gear by the other members of the team) and my personal favourite - synchronised bed-making to the tune of the Blue Danube. We had chocolate gold coins as gold medals, and cash prizes for the winning team and the best dressed team. It was hilarious, and well attended - what a great way to spend a few hours at work!

Guitars are better than mum

2008-08-13T22:31:00.005+10:00

I've been usurped by a guitar! Jamie is finally feeling better, and how wonderful it is to have our happy little boy back. He was not happy this morning when I tried to leave him at childcare though. Whether it was saying goodbye to his GrandDawn at the airport on the way, tiredness, or general 1-year-old clingyness, he was not impressed when I tried to leave. However the weekly music lesson was underway and apparently as soon as the teacher got the guitar out, I was swiftly forgotten. How fickle they are! He's been working a lot on a new word - "tiger". Only a parent would know that's what it is, but hey, we're not fussy, it's a new word! Pictured here from a week or so ago with his cousin Caroline having a ball dinking on his little toy car.

My first Blog - awww!

2008-08-10T16:02:00.005+10:00

This is my first attempt at creating a blog. I hope you like it! We've all been sick... again. The photo is Jamie attempting to chug the nurofen. Thankfully he likes it as he was having that plus antibiotics plus cough medicine plus eye drops for a few manic days. David and I caught various illnesses too, but we all seem to be on the mend, thank goodness. I've just been to Alice Springs for a conference. Mum met me there and played tourist, and is now here in Canberra visiting with Jamie (and us) for a few days. We went to Tilley's for breakfast this morning of course, and it was 1 degree when we left home. Brrr! We're off now to visit Jamie's cousins, Caroline and the twins - Sasha and Toby for afternoon tea.