My baby Baloo

I’ve just named #2, Baloo. I’m not sure why – I have no real attachment to The Jungle Book, but it just felt right when it popped into my head today. We call Chanbe “Boo” a lot, so now I have a Boo and a Baloo.

Some things just feel right, you know?

See you soon little one.

We must be doing something right

The only food that Chanbe ever really asks us for is good stuff.

Agogo (avocado)
Jrrbrr (strawberries)
Ap (apple)
Brit (bread – that he helps himself to from the freezer, and eats it frozen)
Banana (banana) (duh)

My friend gave him a Malteser the other day (she asked if she could which I appreciated, but I really don’t mind since he never gets to eat that sort of thing normally.) He bit half of it off, ate that bit, and gave the other half to me. That felt pretty good actually. If only I had the same willpower 🙂

I don’t mean to sound self-righteous, or as if I’m a brilliant parent, I just like the fact that our son likes good food. It also really motivates me to eat healthy foods in front of him, to set a good example. There’s plenty of time for him to get stuck into the sweeter things in the cupboard!

The week that was

Today is Sunday, the start of a new week. Thank goodness. We’ve had a bit of a rough time with Chanbe this week, with 8 sleepless nights in a row, a trip to emergency on Tuesday, and a general out-of-routine feeling for all. Each night from Thursday week ago, I kept thinking “this has to be the worst of it. Tomorrow he’ll feel better and tomorrow night we will sleep.” This didn’t happen until the following Thursday – his (and our) first full night sleep in a week. Every other night, he spent a solid 3 hours coughing, and the rest of the night thrashing around in our bed. It’s so hard to see your child unwell and not be able to do anything about it. I had taken him to the doctor twice, and was told that it was just “post-viral”. I’m not doubting the diagnosis, but that cough was just so horrible, and by Tuesday, I felt like something needed to be done, so we went off to the hospital in the hopes of seeing a pediatrician.

We were given some medication to hopefully help, and sent home with a bit of hope. The next 2 days and nights were still no good, but by Thursday afternoon, he had started to settle down a bit (which probably would have happened without the meds, really). Thursday night was bliss, and Friday he had a great day at childcare while I raced around to appointments I had postponed from Tuesday, including my 20week scan for baby number 2. I know, a really original name. Any suggestions? Hubs just suggested “second Chance” 🙂 Anyway, that scan went wonderfully well and (insert cute baby nick-name here) is growing beautifully. I’m glad I didn’t wear mascara as I got rather teary watching this little person on the screen for an hour. So amazing how much you can see in those scans. (And no, we are not finding out the sex.)

And yesterday ended our rough week beautifully, as we had a dozen people over for a BBQ and it was fantastic. The weather was BRILLIANT!!!!!! Friday? 13 degrees max, windy, overcast and miserable? Today? Overcast but warm. But yesterday? Absolute bliss – up to 22 degrees and sunny with no clouds and no wind. T-shirts and boardies weather my friends. Hubs gave me a big sleep in today (he’s the best) and a cooked brekky when I dragged myself out of bed at 9am (again, the best) and we are now just lazing around, doing a bit of tidying up, and just enjoying a quiet Sunday at home.

I feel it’s going to be a gooooood week!

Holding on too tight

It took quite a while for us to get Chanbe into some semblance of a routine around his sleeping habits. As I’ve mentioned before, the first year of Chanbe’s life was filled with constant battles around bedtime, and 2-3 hourly wake-ups every night until he was just over 1 year old. We worked very hard to make his bedtime a more enjoyable experience, and by March this year, we were at the stage where we could say “ni-night” or “nap time”, give him a kiss and cuddle, put him in his cot, and walk out of the room. We would hear noises sometimes but they were joyful noises of our son being content, talking himself to sleep.

It was bliss. Correction. It is bliss. For the last week, the little guy has not been 100%, with temperatures and general crankiness around the clock. And the last 3 nights, he has not wanted to go to sleep in his own bed. No matter what we did, no amount of encouragement would persuade him otherwise. So he has been sleeping with us. And I use the term “sleeping” very loosely. He’s been sleeping okay, but we haven’t. And I don’t want this to continue. I don’t want this to become a habit. I don’t want all of our hard work to go down the drain. I don’t want to go back to the nightly battles.

I know that when he is unwell, we have to make some allowances, but when you’re in the moment – when he’s been crying screaming for half an hour every time you leave him in his cot; when I’m in tears because I feel like he’s never going to sleep again; when Hubs has to take him for an hour long walk to get him to sleep just a little bit (which we haven’t done in I don’t know how long) – it’s hard to get perspective. I know that he’s out of his routine, but I also know that it’s not the end of the world. I know that once he starts to feel better, he’ll be happier in his own cot. I just don’t know how long that will take him. And I have to be okay with that. I need to let go just a little bit. Deeeeeeep breaths Wifey, deep breaths.

Chanbe in a happier mood. Actually, this was at lunch time today. It’s not all bad 🙂

Woah Mama!

Hubs and Chanbe and I are on our way to becoming a family of 4 🙂 I’m not quite 14 weeks pregnant, and check out this belly!!

Here I am wearing the same top in my first pregnancy. Except that in this photo, I was 20 weeks pregnant…

I heard that in subsequent pregnancies, you show a lot earlier, but this is ridiculous! Ha ha. Anyway, everything is going very well. The first trimester coincided with some of the hardest weeks/months of my life, but I’m feeling much better now. Chanbe and I have all but recovered from our nasty colds, and we are enjoying the gorgeous sunshine that Brisbane has to offer. My diary is filling up nicely with catch-ups, and the grandparents are loving having us (Chanbe) around.

So there you have it! The next lot of big news I’ll be sharing will be the location of Hubs’ internship next year, which we will find out in the next 2 weeks. Let the fun begin!

A photo break

I just noticed that most of my blog posts lately have been very texty (yes, that’s a word…) so here’s a bit of a break from that…

Getting ready for a walk and trying to keep warm

Eating the world’s biggest freckle.
(Not my idea of a great Playgroup activity, but you get that. 
You should have seen the tantrum when I took it off him after only 2 bites!!)

Yes I love the “sitting in the stroller wearing a cute hat” photo…
Hopefully that will keep you going for a while…

Gastro Boy

We are all currently recovering from a bout of gastro that Chanbe may or may not have brought home from mothers group or day care. Oh, and we also shared it with the rellies we stayed with in Melbourne (sorry AA & Co!) before Chanbe and I flew to Brisbane on Tuesday. Oh, and now my Dad is feeling unwell. Did I mention we are up here for his retirement party on Saturday?

Yeah, I’m feeling pretty bad, and not in the “funny in the tummy” way. I’ve got the guilts, big time. I know that these sorts of illnesses happen a lot with kids, and we have been very lucky not to have had too many bugs go through the family (so to speak). It’s the “passing the sickness on to others” that I’m feeling bad about. I know people understand but I hate being the one to pass it around.

Sorry everyone! Will a cute baby-cino photo help? Feel better soon!!

babycino

 

Happy Friday!

Here are a couple of videos to give you a giggle on your Friday afternoon.

First of all, introducing the one. The only. Chandini!

And next we have Chanbe telling us about all the animal noises he has been learning lately.

Have a great weekend, and if you’re in the Brisvegas region next week, I might see you round.

Haircuts: 2 for the price of 1!

Both of my boys recently had haircuts, and boy do they look dapper. Yes, dapper.

First, it was Chanbe’s turn. My friend from mother’s group is a (damn fine) hairdresser, and cuts all of the kids hair in our group which is very nice of her. Chanbe didn’t think so, but he got through it a bit better than the first time. He had this gorgeous little curl at the back of his hair that I just couldn’t part with, so we put in a little piggy tail and snipped it off for safe keeping!

Before: 
(starting to look like a bevan)

This little piggy went to market:
(and this little piggy didn’t make it home!)
After:
See? Dapper.
(This photo was actually taken this morning, after an overnight low of -1 and frost)
Then it was Hubs’ turn for his 6-monthly haircut, courtesy of yours truly.
Here he is before:
And after: (dapper)
Don’t I have 2 of the most handsome boys around?

A day for mums

Today is Mothers Day (in Australia), and what a day it has been so far. Last year, I got very spoilt with a beautiful Kenwood mixer, and since that was my first mothers day, I figured things would be a bit more low-key this year. But then, I remembered who I’m married to…

I woke up to the sounds of our little man, who is the reason we celebrate mothers day in our house, and went in to bring him to our bed for some cuddles. He wasn’t in a particularly cuddly mood, so Hubs got up with him around 6:45am (neither of us are morning people) while I turned over and promptly went back to sleep. At 9am I awoke to the smells of another delicious breakfast being cooked for me (Hubs actually cooks me breakfast at least once a week anyway!) and a hot cup of tea sitting on my bedside table.

I came out to the living area and was greeted with cuddles and presents!! What better way to start the day?!

Even though we are on a pretty tight budget at the moment, Hubs kind of ignored that for the greater good (my extreme excitement and happiness!) and surprised me with:

Oh yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh….
I can’t even begin to tell you how much this excites me! Now when I’m pretending to host my own cooking show as I’m making dinner, I have the right equipment! 🙂 I have wanted a Chasseur pot for a little while now, but could never justify the expense in our current financial situation. But Hubs could! YAY! I was ready to get up for breakfast, when I saw these notes in the bottom of the pot:

There’s a trainer at our gym who looks SO much like Luke Wilson it’s ridiculous! I’ve been struggling a bit these last few months with my broken foot, and have been feeling pretty down about my body etc, and I told Hubs a couple of weeks that I really would love some personal training sessions. So that was present number 2! I’m so excited about this, and have already booked in 2 sessions for this week.
Surely that was everything?? But no. As I was walking to the breakfast table, I saw these:
The one on the right (remember it?) is almost life-size! And our wedding shot is just gorgeous. I may not have a wedding album yet, but this is a great substitute for the time being!
I was exhausted with excitement even before sitting down for my favourite breakfast (poached eggs, bacon, spinach, tomatoes and toast). After said delicious breakfast, Hubs and Uncle Ben (down for a visit this weekend) took Chanbe outside to do some more manly work, and here I am lazing about, reading blogs, listening to Adele and Paul Simon, and loving the fact that the house is a mess but I don’t have to clean it up! (That will be a job for Tuesday 🙂
Happy Mothers Day, to all the mothers out there reading this, and particularly to my Mum, who has not only been indescribably helpful these past few months, but who has taught me so much about how to be a great mum to our little guy. And to Hubs’ Mum, who is such a great role model and inspiration to us. We wish we could see you more, Ma, but we know that it’s all about quality, not quantity. We can’t wait to catch up with you both next week.
Thank you Chanbe and Hubs for another beautiful Mothers Day. You sure do spoil me rotten and I love you both so much.