Celebrating

It seems little Miss Lily is celebrating in style (her 3 month old birthday that is).

There are plenty of drinks 'on tap' and no sleep. She doesn't want to miss a thing .

Normally she is dead to world by now...but nope, there is too much going on. Well not really; just a bit of TV action, some EB and well that's it.

Lily my darling...lets call it a night!

3 months tomorrow!

Oh my; Lily is 3 months tomorrow!

Oh where does the time go???

She gave me a present last night three months in the making - a decent sleep. She rose at 6.00am after going to bed at 7.00pm. She sure knows how to make her mummy proud .

Til tomorrow...

Santa, all I want for Christmas is...

Santa, all I want for Christmas is...

Chocolate Balls

Yes, you read right - chocolate balls...that’s all Byron wants for Christmas and he made sure Santa knew it! No bikes, cars, dinosaurs or toys in general. He just wants Chocolate. If truth be told, this doesn’t surprise me at all. I might have mentioned previously that Byron is not really a ‘toy’ kid. Sure he plays with them (and he has many), but there is nothing he is truly taken by. He likes playing in the sandpit, reading books and playing with money (his money box full of change - he empties it out, puts the money everywhere and then puts it back…well not always). Many of the little boys I know love matchbox cars; Byron couldn’t care less if he didn’t have any (he has about 20 of them which never get touched). He is a kid that likes simple things.

You would think I learnt my lesson last year at Christmas when I got him lots of different toys that I thought he would love and guess what - he didn’t really care! Admittedly he was only 2 and a bit and in reality probably didn’t understand, but I didn’t care - I cried when he really showed no interest in what he got...I was so upset (although I was only just pregnant and didn’t know it so I am putting that down to hormones).

Given my previous years experience with Christmas, you would think I would have learnt, but not so. I’m afraid to say that I have still bought him lots of presents that admittedly I probably got more enjoyment out of purchasing and wrapping then he will get out of opening and playing with. That’s Christmas I guess. I could always take everything back and buy chocolate - that would be a sure fire hit and much cheaper.

We had a Santa shot taken today, Lily’s first!

Finally...

Byron has hopped on his bike for more then 1 minute and consequently learnt to peddle without getting frustrated (although the frustration did eventuate in probably about 4 minutes). I’ll admit I was somewhat concerned with his lack of enthusiasm for the bike. He just wasn’t interested (and really still isn’t all that fussed) on the bike. We have tried many tack ticks to get him on there, but nothing really works. He is just more interested in the sand pit and other stuff (sometimes I can't work out what). He gets very frustrated with the whole pedal thing and as a result just hops off. Today was a turning point...he peddled on his own!!!

Lily might be getting into some sort of routine; albeit night time only (but that’s a start!). She has slept quite well the last few nights, especially last night when she slept from 6.45pm until 5.45am. I know I have said it before, but man I hope she does that again tonight!!!

The time has arrived and we have put up our Christmas tree - I know it’s early i.e. not the 1st of December but I don’t care!!!

Now all it needs are some presents!!!

12 weeks old...

My little chubba guts is 12 weeks old today...

The smiles keep on coming (although not always on demand) as does the goohing and garring. I can’t say enough how much I am in love with her language; the way she chats to the little bears on her mobile makes my heart melt. Not to mention the little birdie on her play gym for which she seems to have developed a close bond to. The way she puckers her little lips when talking and moves her little fists about - I am in love with it - could watch and listen to it all day long.

So:

She has just found her fists the last couple of days. She loves to suck on them. I'll be driving when I suddenly hear loud ‘slurps’ synonymous with the fists in mouth.

She had her first shower last night with daddy and she loved it. She loves to have baths with Mummy - but probably not as much as I love to have them with her. I love the closeness it brings.

She is sleeping much better at night, although not always through the night. She keeps teasing me…giving me the taste of a good long (well long in baby world) sleep and taking it back (Indian giver!). The longest she has slept is from 7.30pm until 5.45am - so far she hasn’t delivered on that again. I can only dream!

She is feeding better although we are not in any routine at all. Sometimes she feeds 2 hourly, 3 hourly, 4 hourly and so on (you get the picture?).

Byron loves her head. I would have to say it is his favourite part of her body. He loves to touch it, kiss it, bang it, pat it, hug it - you name it, he's done it. No matter how many times we try to tell him not to, he always finds a way to do it. He refers to her as 'Lil' which is rather cute.

We have such a busy life at the moment, what with the Gym, mother’s group, baby massage and shopping; it's no wonder time is just flying by .

I can’t imagine what changes will happen over the next 12 weeks. To be honest I am happy for her to stay 12 weeks for a little while longer.

I don’t want her to keep growing up this fast!

Before leaving I must say a big congratulations to my dear BDer friend Ness who gave birth to beautiful Harrison James today exactly 11 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes after I did. Good work babe.

Addicted

addicted:
1. Dependent on it (especially a drug).
2. Unable to give it up, eg a habit.

It's official I am habituated, given to, disposed to, hooked on, accustomed, inclined, obsessed with, in the habit of, under the influence of, attached to...

Chocolate

Yes Chocolate is the drug of my choice and its driving me nuts.

I will say it out loud…My name is Nicole and I am a chocoholic! (this is supported by the fact that as I write this, I am ingesting Chiccos and many of them )

However, some would beg to differ with me in this regard. According to Trevor, chocolate doesn’t contain any addictive properties so you can’t be ‘addicted’. Therefore, in his eyes my situation purely arises due to some ‘mental’ aspect; I can and should stop!

Therefore, according to Trevor’s theory it is my mental aptitude to eat more junk that is causing me to sway past the chocolate aisle in Kmart, just to pick up my freckles; or to drop into Wendys just to get my mega choc shake; or to pick up that chocolate bar up at the supermarket to get my much needed hit.

OK I probably agree with Trevor...maybe I'm addicted to the habit of eating it; not the chocolate it self. Can 'habits' be addictive?

Whilst I enjoy chocolate and occasionally lollies I really don’t want to be eating them all day every day as its really impacting upon the waist line ? A LOT! The thing is, I just don’t know what to do...I need a wake up call (you would think my waistline would be enough).

At least I have realised I have a problem...now I just have to overcome my ‘desire’ and break the habit (easier said then done I would say).

Stay tuned to see how I go. I’m off to the gym to work off those, now obsolete Chicos.

Edited to Add: I worked off half the chiccos at the gym before Lily decided to crack it in the childcare and wouldn’t stop crying, which according to them ‘was so unlike her’ (I think she might have been hungry ). Grrr to only getting to do half of my step class!

Oh and for the record...after having seen myself in the mirror whilst doing the class, I have decided that I really need to curb my naughty habit. Today is the beginning (shhh lets forget about the chiccos)

Further addition...OMG I just stepped on the scales and I weigh 73kgs WTF am I doing to myself??? That is the wake-up call I need...no more junk (well only a little bit).

Getaway slideshow...

We arrived home today from our mini holiday/getaway (I say mini because lets face it, 2 nights isn’t exactly a holiday - a getaway yes, but not really a holiday) at the Gold Coast.

Although short, it was still fun. This was Byron’s first holiday as a little boy (opps getaway ) which is really quite sad on our part. The last time he went to a hotel with a pool was when he was about 9 months (we 'neglected' to take him to Fiji). Needless to say, he absolutely adored it. He particularly liked the sand at the beach and the pool.

We went to Seaworld on Sunday to kill some time before we could check in to the hotel. I am pleased to say we didn’t have any of the ‘shark’ dramas that we faced on our first visit. He was happy to look at the sharks, although still cautious.

I also took him on his first big boy ride which was so much fun. For the life of me, I can’t remember what it was called…It was one of those boat rides that took you through a tour of a volcano complete with fire, which featured scary aliens, loud noises and funny smells. He was such a brave little chap, gripping my hand for dear life...wide eyed in utter amazement (while the 11 year old behind us screamed and snuggled in soooo tight to his mum - scared sh*tless).


The next day we ventured to the beach. Before we headed off on our little excursion Byron mentioned *and continued to mention* how excited he was to build sandcastles with his bucket and spade (mental note...remember to ALWAYS bring buckets and spades for little people when going to the beach…lucky for us the souvenir shops were selling them at dirt cheap prices - thank god!). We did remember to bring his 'surfboard' (ie...kick board)so that counts for something!

The beach was a hit...as was the pool. Byron is absolutely not afraid of water - he could have been a fish in a past life. Oh my; he is not afraid. He just took it upon himself to just jump in much to the dismay of Trevor and I. See we ordinarily wouldn’t have a problem with him jumping in except for the fact HE CANNOT SWIM!!!! We are working on the not being able to swim issue with good old fashioned swimming lessons. In the meantime though, we have to keep the keenest of eyes on him when ever he is around a pool.

Lily on the other hand...well that’s a whole other story. She wasn’t to keen on the beach which is understandable (the water is somewhat cool) and absolutely hated the pool, for which she screamed for 10 mins afterwards. On the other hand...she absolutely loved her laundry tub experience (grrr to there being no bath in the room - definite draw back).

And that concludes my slideshow for this evening.

Chubba guts!

I was having a bath with Lily last night - something I love to do - when I noticed that she really is my ‘chubba guts’. I know I have said she is a ‘chubba guts’ before but I didn’t realise just how chubby she was! She has baby boobs, thunder thighs, rolls and a big tummy to boot and I love it!!!

I love that she is so cuddly!

I love that she has cheeks that you could just eat!

I love the dimples in her calves!

I love it all!

I took her to the health clinic yesterday to get weighed. She weighs a good healthy 5850grams; is 59cms and now has a head circumference of 41.7cms. She is definitely doing well in the growing department (well she does love to eat ). Lately, when people ask how old she is and I tell them, they say to me ‘gee she is quite big’. As a result, I started to worry a little that maybe she was too big or that I was feeding her too much, but was quickly reassured by the child health nurse that she is most definitely not large, just healthy…which is perfect!

I compared her statistics with Byron. At exactly the same age (10 weeks 2 days), Byron weighed 6kgs and was 64cms long. He seemed so much leaner then Lily but I guess that goes without saying when you have an extra 5cms to spread the weight over.

At the moment she is still wearing 000s and I suspect she will do so for at least another month ? well that is what I am hoping ; we have to at least wear every outfit twice!!!!

For the record, over the last few days she has started to smile and coo a lot more then she has been doing. If you try hard enough, and she is not too tired, she will crack a smile for you - but sometimes you have to be quick or you’ll miss it!

U2

***I would have written this last night but seeing as how it took 1 and half hours to get home as opposed to the normal 10 minute trip I heartily decided against it...I needed to get some much needed and deserved rest***

Picture this...

Stage. Bono. Two metres...

Me - I could see the sweat beads on Bono's head

One word...

Absolutely Fantastic!!! - OK two words

Feet...

Painful, sore, throbbing, tender…I don’t think I have ever had such sore soles of my feet (from standing) then ever before.

The Life of Lily...

Sleep
Play
Eat

Attempt to play

Sleep
Eat
Sleep

Lie in swing

Sleep
Eat
Sleep

Eat
Sleep
Sleep

Lie in Swing

Sleep

Have a bath

Eat
Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

It is not hard to see there is a running theme happening here; sleep! Lily likes to sleep a lot ? a whole lot. She loves her sleep, which I can’t complain about. On the contrary, this is something I am excited about.

My excitement was compounded further when she slept for a whole 8 hours in a row on Friday night and then again last night (roughly 8pm until 4am). How exciting (to be getting 6 hours - because lets face it I don’t go to bed at 8pm - in a row is exhilarating, especially when it has been a good few months since it was experienced last).

The only drawback to her sleeping a whole lot is that she doesn’t have much time to play. She seems to be lacking in the smiling and cooing department. By that I mean she doesn’t seem to smile and goo much considering she is 10 weeks tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, she does smile and make some noises. Most of these are in the morning though, when she has just woken up from sleep (in between more food and sleep) and she is staring up at her cot mobile. Otherwise it is scant over the course of the day; and to get those smiles I have to work hard!

It seems my little Lily is going to be somewhat (and I mean somewhat) quieter then her brother, who I might add hardly slept during the day and was constantly playing, smiling and off course hardly shut up (and still doesn’t). If she was my first, I probably wouldn’t notice as much. I guess it’s because Byron set a precedent and an abnormal one at that, because from what I here little babies are meant to sleep; and sleep a lot.

I better head off now and get my 6 hours beauty sleep (this is of course based on the premise that Lily will sleep for 8 hours again? heres hoping!).

First Report Card

Didn’t think I would be seeing one of these anytime soon (well not for another 3 years at least) - Byron’s end of year report card! When Trevor informed me that Byron had a report card my first thought was "Oh my...I hope it’s good!"

I asked Trevor how he did. His response was, "ok…he got usually for most things". Was that good I wondered? It didn’t sound good. What happened to always and excellent and outstanding. Then I remembered...hang on we are talking about 2 and three year olds; always just doesn’t happen!

As it turns out his report card was graded as follows:

U = usually
S = sometimes
H = with help
S/H = seems to loose interest quite quickly (made up especially for Byron’s report card )

Ok, so this is how he went:

• I really enjoy:
• Dramatic play U
• Blocks U
• Puzzles S/H
• Sandpit U
• Climbing U
• Games U
• Books/stories U (to be read to)
• Collage S/H
• Painting S/H
• Drawing S/H
• Music U

I follow our rules U/H
I look after my belongings U
I listen when others speak S
I am happy at kindy U
I can share an idea with someone else U (very much so...! ) - That’s what it says.
I say please, thankyou and excuse me U
I am proud of my work U

I help:
• At tidy up time U
• My teacher S/H
• A friend S/H

I have made some friends U
I try hard to share things H
My concentration is improving H

Overall I would have to say his first report card isn’t too bad. Sure he needs to improve, especially on the concentration and listening front (which at the moment seems to be a bit wayward ) but I am happy to know he has most of the basics (i.e. manners, pride, friendship) under wrap.

Now there is next years to look forward to!