just plodding along

he sits

today we took oscar up to our room to see whether he was up to sitting unaided yet. we'd had him up there two weeks ago, but he flopped all over the place. but it was ok coz the doona is fun to flop on.

straight away today he sat by himself for over a minute! what a big boy at 22 weeks and 4 days. he seemed pretty proud of himself.

here are just four of the seventeen photos that i, the crazy photo taking mother, took.

nice work son.

mammo

just saw this ad for breastscreen NSW.

the beginning of it made me giggle. i like that they put it in the ad.

rahhhhh

anthems

i discovered the other day that i can remember all the words to our school song, but kept forgetting bits of the national anthem. whoops.

the things you think about at 3am whilst feeding a baby.

warming up

well we're up to day 6 of the cold. yesterday was a much better day. i could breathe through 1.5 nostrils, and my head didn't feel so congested. i had also slept a bit better, which i'm sure makes a tonne of difference. the day before was awful. so i'm glad that things improved overnight! today i'm feeling better still, i think. no sore throat at all. still snotty. and probably will have some chunky coughing later, but doing pretty good. i won't go to mothers group though - just in case i could still pass it on.

so far oscar hasn't caught it. i don't want to think we've dodged the bullet yet. because who knows. but hopefully the antibodies are doing their jobs. or they are for the moment, and they'll wait til i'm fully better for me to be able to look after a sick him better. i hope that's not the case.

dessert

how good is vanilla icecream with ice magic.

it's magic!

five months

oscar is five months old today. and to celebrate i got me a cold. how wonderful.

not only do i get to enjoy all the lovely facets to a cold (the very sore throat, the sore nose/sinus), i get to enjoy interrupted sleep, no real chance to rest during the day and the knowledge that i'm breathing germs all over my baby boy every time i feed him, play with him, change his nappy etc etc.

i am very excited about the knowledge that he is most probably going to experience his first cold within the next few days, and that i get to experience it with him.

yessss

in other news he just rolled again just this moment - belly to back. and it seemed to be on purpose this time. he is now eating the bottom of my trackies. even though i'm telling him it's not for him.

backwards

sometimes there are these flashbacks. like at the moment. oscar has been awake for almost four hours for some reason (normally he's up for 1.5-2 hrs max) and he is going mental with overtiredness and non-sleeping. very much how things were for the first couple of months of his life. oh the joy of reliving it.

sexy rexy

After breaking our last one, Howie recently got a new Rex golf umbrella (although it has other associated companies on it as well).

It's typhoon proof!

"Come rain or shine or even strong winds! This light-weight golf umbrella is fortified with special typhoon-proof ribs that will keep the strongest of winds at bay and keep you absolutely dry and sheltered -- perfect for a golfing weekend or just a day out on the beach or in the park."

It's a pretty kick ass umbrella and serves Howie well when carrying his backpack.

Only problem is it's so big there isn't anywhere to put it after a rainy day to dry off. At the moment it's in our bathroom, and it takes up virtually all the floor space.

music

i always forget how much i like different bands. howie just put on some barenaked ladies. i've never bought their albums, but really enjoy them, thanks to howie's purchasing. it's just good fun music.

i am waiting for howie to burn me the no-longer-new waifs and john butler trio from itunes so i can listen to them in the car. i keep forgetting that i bought their albums, but have barely listened to them. and i like them! so i should!

i'm so out of the current music loop though. i'm quite happy to stick to the people i know and like. i never listen to the radio.

dedicated

just some pics from yesterday.

we got a couple of "generational" ones during the afternoon.

oscar and his dad, and his dad

oscar and his mum, and her dad, and his mum

and then a couple from the service

howie and i making our commitment

neil praying for oscar

oscar took it all in, and grunted his agreement at the end

as we all know, i hate image tricks. the difficulty of photographing in a dark auditorium at distance is magnified.

his timing

I rarely read my hotmail emails (unless from a real person). But I randomly just opened the daily Bible verse that I get sent. You know when you sign up for something a hundred years ago, but then never regularly check that email address so you just delete everything mailing list looking.

Anyway, it said:

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18"

That is helpful for me this evening. Thanks God that you do that.

today

i am glad we are at the tail end of today.

oscar continued his new trend of waking up at 1am and 5:30am. yeh, woo. fortunately he slept through to 8am, rather than 7am. all seemed to be going well enough with feeding. until we hit the 11am feed. no deal. joy! tired, hungry and upset baby plus an tired and upset mum equals not heaps fun. so he had a sleep instead. the next feed was better but still not great. but he seemed happier. he had a lot of fun with tom.

the extended family started arriving at 4pm. we were having a little afternoon tea to celebrate Oscar's dedication. unfortunately the mix of tiredness, hunger and overwhelment was a bit much for the little guy. so we spent a bit of time in his room, or in our room. there were little smiles here and there. but it was a bit sad he couldn't spend some quality time with his family. particularly for those who had travelled and who he doesn't see much.

anyway, we got to church and he did very well with the loud drums. he also was very good for the up front part. i'm so glad. he only had a little grumble when neil handed him back to me! nice! so there he is, all dedicated.

we bailed pretty much straight after the that bit. once home, it took him a fair while and some quality crying to get to sleep. howie and i are knackered. so once i eat some chicken nuggets, it's probably bed time. i'm just gonna let oscar wake me up when he is next hungry, rather than give him his 7:30/8pm feed.

the gorge effect

what happens when you drive the gorge

looks comfortable doesn't it

my space

the shower is my solace. it's the one place where i can just be and not have to think or worry about anything or anyone. usually when i have my shower either the small one is asleep (and i have the monitor in the bathroom in case he wakes up and i have to madly get dry and dressed) or Howie is in charge. i like the times when Howie is in charge, because then it really doesn't matter how much Oscar does or doesn't fuss or cry. i am free. for those few minutes anyway.

UN ad

i thought i had already blogged this but i hadn't.

i think it's a very clever ad.

all the gruen stuff reminded me about it. (i haven't actually watched the ad that was on gruen, but heard some of the panel discussion after it.)

in da house

djsammyt, in my house!

yes, very excitedly sam in back! he visited us today.

oscar liked him even more than he likes tom

and i had a great time catching up with my great buddy

artist

Oscar did his first drawing today.

What do you think it is?

first mothers day

oscar is pretty skilled. he bought me a mothers day present off ebay. the turtles were slack and forgot.

anyway, oscar gave his present to me this morning

i opened it, and it was a Guido toy!

i'd long been searching for one. but i suspect it was a selfish present that he wants to play with. that's ok, we tend to do that in this family.

lunch was at auntie sue's with the usual gower/kidd/noble peoples.

i took the opportunity to get four generations of us in one photo. that's my grandma, me and osci, and mum.

we'll do some more generational pics next sunday i reckon with other parts of the family. oscar's getting dedicated, so there'll be a few family members around.

frozen

twitterrific has gone to the dogs.

so for all the world to read here instead:

"thanks for cooking diner @the_howie. tis yummy!"

Chased down

Our son seems to have been involved in some shady business dealings or maybe he's been a workers comp cheat. Somethings up!

Master Howie explain yourself!

i want more sleep

i am hoping tonight that rather than two wakings before 7am, that there is either zero or one. the last two nights oscar's woken at around 1am crying. no idea why. so i've fed him and he'd gone back to sleep until about 5am. i'd prefer just the 5am or 6am thanks.

you should be able to put orders in with your baby. "excuse me baby, i'd like just the one waking overnight, and i'd like it at 6:30am. thanks"

only child

what's your opinion? good thing? bad thing? why?

boys in blue

so this afternoon as oscar slept, howie and i were hanging out in our room when we heard a noise like something hitting the side of the house. i was like "what was that?". a few moments later there was the noise of smashing glass. i thought something suss was going on somewhere, so i had a look out our bathroom window.

sure enough there was some random man in the neighbour's side yard. now i don't know my neighbour's (naughty!) but i do know what they look like and he wasn't one of them. i went to get howie to check it out with me from the window. the guy then got up on a stepladder near the neighbours windows and was calling out something not in english. i thought something suss was definitely going on. i saw him disappear around the back of the house.

so i rang the police. before they arrived i took out the recycling so i could check that the window was in fact broken and that i wasn't going to be hugely embarrassed when the cops turned up. if they turned up. lo and behold, they arrived in about 5-10 minutes. we knew because they were frickin loud as they banged on the front door of next door - "police! open up!". we could hear them walking around the property. i thought i should go out and talk to them, since i called them.

so i did, and this police man asked us questions about what had happened. what we'd heard and seen (i'd heard and seen, howie had only heard). i had to give a description of the guy, but that was a bit sketchy since i'd been peeking out the bathroom window trying to not be seen. all the while i was thinking about how eye witnesses aren't really all that reliable. it's so true. i can't remember what kind of pants he had on. if his jumper was grey or green or something else. i felt a bit dodgy trying to remember and knowing i wasn't sure. but i conveyed that to the cop. i didn't just make stuff up for the sake of my pride.

all in all there were four cop cars that came. a couple stopped and the others just circled the block a few times.

but the guy was gone. and there wasn't much else they could do. i guess they'll contact our neighbours somehow and let them know.

so that added some excitement to our saturday afternoon! and oscar missed it all.

current events

(kiddies, beware the swearword ahead)