Squeaky McGrunty Pants

January 1, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

For such a little human being, Darby sure can make some noise. I’m getting used to the squeaks and snorts and grunts but I’m still amused by it all. My little man seems to be either completely content and sound asleep, or building up to get rid of gas. At either end.

After a feed, he starts with the grunting, then there’s the whinging, and then he builds up to some yelping and screaming. And then after an explosion at either end (or both!) He relaxes again, although often he’ll throw in a case of hiccups to finish things off. And considering how often he feeds, this process can occur every 2 or 3 hours! As Mum says, it’s really quite exhausting for everyone involved!

Hubs is on his last night shift for this block and we really should do some organising for our move in his few days off. What will most likely happen however, is going out for coffee. But I’m okay with that…

Happy new year

December 31, 2014 / Renae / 2 Comments

It’s nearly midnight and we’re still awake. And on purpose! Hubs left for work an hour ago and the kids have been asleep since 8. And now it’s time for Mama bear to bid 2014 farewell, thank it for the experiences and the life lessons, and for my darling little boy, and say hello to the new year. A year full of promise for our growing family.

See you on the flip side.

Sometimes 1 decision is enough

December 31, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

As I mentioned in my last post I’ve been going round in circles trying to decide on an action plan for us leaving the Isa and getting to Rocky. The problem was that there were too many options and too many variables in each option. I was going to give you some examples but honestly my brain is fried from thinking about it. So I’ll just tell you that Mum and the kids and I are flying to Brisbane next Wednesday and Hubs is staying here another week after that to finish his shifts and supervise the packing and uplift of our stuff.

After that, I don’t know. Like I said, sometimes 1 decision is enough. Hubs starts work on the 21st so as long as we’re in Rocky a couple of days before that, we’ll be right. I have a feeling I might be arriving in a new town on my birthday again, just the way we arrived in Mount Isa. Happy birthday to me 🙂

So for the next week, I’m going to be culling and selling and giving away as much as I can part with. I’m trying to be ruthless, and comforting myself with the knowledge that there are op shops in Rockhampton if I need to replace things when we arrive.

Right now, Mum has taken Chanbe and Quindy to the library, and Darby and Hubs are both sleeping off their night shifts. I should also have a little nap but I’m feeling motivated so I’m going to do some squats (day 1 of a squat challenge) and then take some photos of stuff to sell.

Oh and I can’t believe it’s new years eve! I’ll probably make it to midnight but not intentionally. It will be because of this little man 🙂 Totally worth it.

Feeling the festive love

December 29, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

Sorry that I’ve been missing since Christmas. I’ve been in a cycle of broken sleep, girly in-home movie nights with my friend, baking, constantly checking realestate.com for houses in Rocky, checking flights every day to see if they are going up in price as I’m yet to book anything and we might be leaving as early as next week, all the while thinking “I should blog”.

Our Christmas day was lovely. It didn’t exactly feel like Christmas but our little orphans Christmas was very nice and included a swimming pool so that was a bonus.

This is the love I’m feeling at the moment:

To be honest I didn’t really expect to get many Christmas or “new baby boy” cards and I really appreciate all the love that has been sent. It makes us feel closer than the nearly 2000 km away from Brisbane that we are.

Hubs is back at work after almost 3 weeks paternity leave and he finishes up here in 2 weeks. He then starts in Rocky on the 21st Jan – a bit earlier than we initially planned but we’re happy about that. I’ve been going around in circles trying to decide the best plan of action for us to get to Rocky and still haven’t come up with anything concrete. There are just too many options and they all have their good and bad points. One thing that’s making life easier is that the weather has been rather lovely since Christmas day. Lovely cool breezes during the day and very comfortable temps over night. I haven’t put the air con on since Christmas eve!

The kids are doing well. Darby is feeding nicely and packing on the weight and is even sleeping in 3 hour blocks over night! Chance keeps asking if we’re “moving to Rockhampton today” and Quinn is learning to use the potty! Is all happening here!

Now all we need is a house 🙂

Another different Christmas eve

December 24, 2014 / Renae / 1 Comment

I’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic about Christmas eve evenings at Nanny’s all day. The thought was with me this morning when I realised only a few short years ago I’d be getting excited already about the evening’s festivities. Nanny made Christmas special. She was the ultimate gift giver. The gifts weren’t necessarily useful or practical but there were always plenty, and the look on her face as she would give them out was pure joy.

“You like?” She would ask as I’d unwrap yet another nightie/quilt cover/towel/set of sheets/platter or any combination of those.

Of course I liked.

No matter the gift, present opening on Christmas eve at Nanny and Grandpa’s was a flurry of wrapping paper and lots of ooohs and aaahs, a few giggles, and some secret looks of whaaaaaaaaaat is this!?

Tonight we will feast on Hubs’ twice cooked lamb and some kind of yummy dessert with our good friend Sonia. I had contemplated making pierogi in Nanny’s honour but my tiny kitchen and 38 degree days defeated me.

It will be a different Christmas this year but no doubt just as wonderful as always 🙂

Our “little” 2 week old

December 21, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

Our little Darby is 2 weeks old today. Except he’s not that little. He is our biggest baby, and the way he is feeding, he’s going to be off the charts just like Chanbe was in his first 12 months. But he’s still our little guy for the time being.

I think the period where they’re under 2 months has the biggest “aaawwww” factor. You can still refer to their age in weeks without sounding pretentious, they still have that newborn look, and they don’t mind being handed around for cuddles. Which means I have another 6 or so weeks of this:

Aaaaawwww 🙂

No 2 days are the same

December 20, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

It’s tough being only days old, navigating life on the outside. Darby is doing his best to be a typical newborn, which means he’s sleeping most of the day and being awake, having nice long feeds during the night. Thankfully, with Mum here and Hubs still off work, I’m able to go back to bed once the kids get up, and generally manage to sleep til about 11 before Darby needs another feed. And by this time, Quindy is ready to go down for her sleep, and the house is quite peaceful for a couple of hours. I’ve been using this time to potter about, and have started culling clothes and kitchen stuff for the upcoming move.

I overheard Mum telling her friend on the phone tonight, every day is different, and at this stage, that is certainly true. Yesterday Darby had quite a bit of awake time during the day, so I got a two and a three hour block of sleep overnight. Today, however, he has pretty much been asleep since 9am, only waking here and there for feeds, so we could have a restless night coming up. It’s really hard to say.

Hubs has been pilfering mangoes off various public trees around town, so he has been making delicious mango lassi (basically a smoothie) at least once a day for us to enjoy. For those of you who know me very well, I know you’re thinking “but Renae hates mango!” and it’s true. I don’t like mango on its own, but I have come to appreciate it in certain things like smoothies and daiquiris!

Our very good friends, and Darby’s recently appointment Godparents, Sonia and Felix, come to visit most days which is just lovely. I really love having friends who just pop in and know they can help themselves to a drink and immediately engage with our kids. They have definitely made our time up here much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. We will certainly miss having them around next year.

Other than that, we are just trying to keep Chanbe and Quindy entertained during the hot days, and trying to make sure Mum doesn’t burn out from all the work of looking after them a lot of the time! We took Darby to Hubs’ Christmas party at the pub last night and of course he was a big hit. We don’t have a lot planned in the lead up to Christmas, but the countdown til we leave is on.

And of course now that I can hardly keep my eyes open, Darby is wide awake. Aaaah the joys.

There’s an aeroplane in my bed

December 19, 2014 / Renae / 1 Comment

It’s been a big few days around these here parts. On Thursday night – wait that was only last night – we hosted a Christmas and “welcome to the world Darby” party that was attended by 15 people including 6 kids under 5. Granted 3 of them are ours but still. We feasted on slow cooked pulled pork rolls with wombok salad, followed by profiteroles and mango daiquiris. I can’t wait to get stuck in to the leftovers.

Then tonight we headed to the pub with Darby for Hubs’ work Christmas drinks while Chanbe and Quindy stayed home and ~~tormented~~ behaved perfectly for Gran. After arriving home around 11, I fed Darby and collapsed into bed.

And sat right on a toy aeroplane.

Gotta love being a parent 🙂

The difference a few days can make

December 16, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

Darby Jacob. What a guy and what a name.

Hubs and I had settled on a girl’s name a few months ago, and it’s a corker. I’m going to infuriate you by not sharing it here, as it’s still number 1 on our list if we happen to have another girl. Boy’s names on the other hand don’t come so easily to us, and a week before Darby was born, ie his due date, we had settled on a name but it just didn’t pop for us the way the names “Chance” and “Quinn” did.

And we still hadn’t decided on a middle name. Hubs isn’t a fan of middle names in general – probably because he doesn’t have one – and wanted to leave this baby middlename-less. l was not convinced and in fact was quite adamant that I wanted to use another family name.

So I emailed my wonderful mother in law (I think this was 4 days before Darby was actually born) and asked her to share all of the male family names on her side.

Jacob immediately stood out to me and I had it semi approved by Hubs. Now. If you want me to tell you where the name Darby came from, I wouldn’t have an answer for you. It literally popped into my head on Friday the 5th of December and so I added it to my names list on my phone. And do you know when I suggested it to Hubs? About half an hour after our little man was born. While we were trying out other pre-discussed names on him.

Hubs is very hard to please when it comes to names, but he loved it. Well I think he liked it and it grew on him very quickly. It was just one of those names that popped for us and even though I’ve never much bought into a name “suiting” someone, it’s very easy to call him Darby and it just fits.

The point of this little story? If Darby was born on time or even just 4 days earlier, he would have a completely different name and that’s kinda weird for me.

Does he look like a Darby?

Not enough hours

December 15, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

Who ever thought it was a good idea to have a baby around Christmas time and a month before a big move must have had a very good sense of humour. Or, none at all.

There are so many jobs that I need to do right now and each of them would take between 15 minutes and an hour, yet I can’t seem to get them done. And that’s WITH mum here doing all of the washing and much of the child minding.

We embarked on Christmas cards again this year so that took priority over everything else. They will hopefully be finished tomorrow so I can get back to all the other things like organising the removalist and filing in baby paper work. Our good friend up here who is leaving town around the same time has started a count down. I think we’re down to 25 days. I’m so excited. It’s going to be a good end to the year with lots of fun things coming up!