Milestones

Last week Jade turned one month old. It feels as if we have had her a lot longer, so much has happened and we have learnt so much about being parents to a newborn baby. And just as we are getting used to having our new play-thing she continues to change and grow every day… I imagine we will continue to learn how to be parents for the next twenty or so years.

This is the birthday bun I bought in celebration… of course it was completely for my own benefit.

Last Monday was also Jade’s 4-week check up. She continues to grow at a healthy rate, weighing 3.985kg and measuring 54.5cm tall. I feel very blessed to have a healthy little girl (that is, when she’s not crying).

Helping Daddy with the washing.

Hmmm… maybe washing is not so interesting.

Yes, some of the singers on X Factor really are that bad.

L: Favourite sleeping position – The Running Man

R: @ Bath time

Hanging out with Poh-poh.

Little Squeaker a.k.a. Jade

After months of being asked “Do you have a name yet?”, culminating in some intense cajoling from eager family and friends in the last month, we finally got off our arses and made a decision!

I had gotten used to using all sorts of pet names in lieu of a proper name and that is probably going to be a hard habit to break.  So our Baby Girl, Little Squeaker, Pumpkin, Sweetie, Little Munchkin, Cheeky Monkey, Rainbow, Snorkler, Little Piggy shall henceforth be called:

Jade Arwyn Meiyu Rann

 

Of the long list of names we had, we narrowed it down to a few favourites and Jade seemed to suit our little lady the most.  Arwyn is a nod to Gideon’s Welsh heritage.  Meiyu is her Chinese name, and literally means beautiful jade.

Other than that, not much other news to report.  Time is going fast, and Jade is nearly a month old already.  Every day she seems to have grown and even her looks have changed slightly as her face fills out a little. 

Here are some shots from playtime.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Spring has sprung, and so have the babies!

Spring is my favourite time of year.  Most likely it is due to the occurrence of my birthday, but also the appearance of blossoms and the pleasant temperatures (questionable in Melbourne) make for a lovely time of year.

Spring is also known as the time of year for babies, whether they be animals or human.  To prove the point, my Congratulations and love go out to Katherine & Andrew who gave birth to Penelope (Poppy) last week, and Lisa & Ben who also welcomed Dylan to the world (on Lisa’s birthday no less!).

 

Beautiful spring blossoms on our visit to the Maternal & Child Health Nurse

 

Also worth mentioning from the last week or so… the Pies won the grand final on that special last weekend of September…hmmm… make that the first weekend of October (and earned the AFL, Channel 7 and MCG a heap of extra money!).  And we had a special visit from our proud paternal grandparents from up north.

 

 

Anne-Marie has cuddle with her first grandchild.

 

Grandpa David has a chat with his grand daughter

 

 

Family photo, out for a walk at the lakes

 

All the grandparents

 

And with regards to our own little cherry blossom, she is growing quickly (above average at 350g between visits with the nurse).  For everyone who has been asking, we still have not finalised a name, although we are very close now.

 

Play time with Daddy

 

Looking all rock ‘n’ roll for the camera.  Thanks to for all from Credit Risk for the gorgeous hamper-box (including cute t-shirt and socks) and Lynn for the stripy pants!

10 Days of Parenthood

It has only been 10 days so far, but it feels like months.  So much has happened in the last fortnight.

Pregnancy was a very gradual experience, but becoming a parent has been a bit of a leap into the unknown.  As our baby grows, so do we.  A very steep learning curve.

The labour itself was very long and somewhat painful… but as I have often heard from mothers who have done it more than once, memories of it are already beginning to fade.  The C-section came as a huge relief in the end.

I spent the first night with the tiny munchkin sleeping on my chest -  precious first hours.  The few nights were not so good, the hungry little thing seemed to want to feed all night.

Breast feeding has been the most challenging aspect. Am I doing it right?  Is she getting enough?  Sore breasts and nipples… and a very unsettled non-sleeping young lass for the first few nights when the milk was yet to come in.

Since then life has been on a hour by hour basis, revolving around her sleeping and feeding times.  But so far we seemed to have been blessed with a beautiful, healthy and mostly good sleeper. Knock on wood.

Here are a few photos of our adventures so far:

Favourite past times – resting/napping/sleeping.

Thank you Geordie and Sophie for the Wrap Me Up swaddle, it makes her look like a little angel!

 

 

Hanging out with some visitors.  Aunty Lynn & Cousin James (left), Daniella (below left) and Geoff (Below right).

 

 

 

 

Stepping out with Daddy for some furniture shopping. 

It’s all about who you know

 

The Expendables: 2.5/5

Cast: Sylvester Stallone (Rocky 1-6), Jason Statham (Transporter 1-3), Jet Li (Once Upon a Time in China 1-3) + other miscellaneous ageing former cult action stars.

In a nutshell: Laughable, but strangely entertaining

Synopsis: A highly skilled band of mercenaries are hired to assassinate the dictator of a small South American Island.

The acting, the plot, the action, the editing, the script and the directing are suspect all round.  And yet, with the cast that Sly has managed to gather and the tongue-in-cheek tact he has taken, you can’t help but enjoy yourself.

Mmm… Jake’s abs

Prince of Persia: 3.25/5

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain), Gemma Arterton (Quantam of Solace), Ben Kingsley (Ghandi), Alfred Molina (Frida, Spiderman 2)

In a nutshell: More action packed than the original platform game

Synopsis: We follow the quest of Dastan, resourceful and hunky street urchin –come- adopted Prince of Persia as he fights to prove his innocence following the death of the King, find the culprit, protect an ancient dagger, woo the girl and of course save the world.

Action packed from start to finish with the occasional cheeky one-liner thrown in for good measure, this is simply a fun outing at the cinema.  The occasional Parkour moves, jumping from building to building, and the swinging from strategically placed rods of the hero, took me back to my teenage days of playing the game on the pc.  Gyllenhaal, the thinking woman’s piece of candy, is more buff than usual and quite charming to listen to with his passable British accent.  While Arterton makes a good antagonist and, I’m sure the guys will agree, is not bad to look at either.  Kingsley and Molina are good in their supporting roles as always, although perhaps Kingsley was a little subtle for my tastes.  It does not take rocket science to figure out the story line, but the action, humour and richness of Persia created make up for it.  I would definitely watch it again, if only to see Jake’s abs.

Cursed with ALDH deficiency

Firstly HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY CLARE!

Sitting at home on a Saturday night feeling sorry for myself and getting teary over Two Weeks Notice (sad sad case).

Tonight was all set to be a huge night… going out to celebrate the young and totally glamourous Clare’s 30th birthday.  Was all dressed up and looking hot (well, about as hot as Gayle can look). Instead I was stupid, had half a glass of champagne, ended up feeling dodgey and went home early leaving everyone else to party on.  Such a wuss. So disappointing.

 

I can’t drink.  Evidence item 1 – our trip to York a couple of years ago. According to foodreactions.org:

“The commonest abnormal reaction to alcohol is seen in persons from an oriental background, who get flushing, increased heart rate, and symptoms of reduced blood pressure. This is sometimes referred to as 'oriental flushing syndrome'. Approximately 50% of Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans are deficient in ALDH, and this has been reported to be protective against the development of alcoholism.”

Where Aldehyde Dehydrogenase (ALDH) is an enzyme that is needed to metabolise the alcohol into acetic acid (vinegar).

 

Turns out I must get hit by this a little more than the average Oriental.  When drinking I go ridiculously pink, my heart races abnormally, sometimes I feel like I’m going to faint, and on some occasions I have.  As a result I think I have developed some paranoia about fainting which makes me panic at any sign of fainting which makes it even more likely!

 

Feeling very left out of all the fun, and I have no one to blame but myself.  You think I would grow up and be more responsible after 33 years.  I guess you could say it is giving into peer pressure… sometimes it is just not fun to be the only sober person surrounded by drunk people.

 

Upside is I got home early, definitely feeling somewhat less nauseous, and have been entertained by some faraway friends on Skype.

 

I also have to admit to having had a gorgeous day with Clare and her beautiful friends on a day trip to Hepburn Springs.  Relaxing in mineral baths/spas followed up by Devonshire tea… what a perfect day.  Didn’t get any photos of the girls (my antiquated camera has been dropped one too many times), but I did get a  photo of the place.  Thanks for including me in the fun girls.  And Clare, hope you had a really special day and night.  Can’t wait to make it up to you with some partying in Melbourne some time soon. xoxo

 

So Hot Right Now…

Well, my promise to blog every day didn’t last  very long, did it.  But more than once in one week is a good start at least :)

Summer is finally here!  After getting up week after week at 6am in pitch black, doing exercise in the dark in a cold sweat with freezing cold hands and whinging continually about it, I’m now complaining about how hot it is.

Perhaps if I think cold thoughts….

Here are some photos from my sister’s Hen’s night at Chill On Ice Bar in Melbourne.

I remember we couldn’t wait to get out of the bar, it was too cold, counting down the seconds till the end of our allocated 30 minutes! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The start of a new regime

So glad summer is here.  Definitely makes getting up at 6am in the morning for exercise easier.  Gets me all excited to get back to doing stuff like waking up (only marginally more likely to happen), going out for a drink, catching up with friends, going for a bike ride… and maybe even updating the blog.

Going to attempt something unheard of here… will try to update each day, even if it is with just a random photo.  Afterall I have about 18 months worth of photos that I still haven’t blogged.

Here’s one now, a rememberance of Autumn now long past.

Little Rant

It's almost 2am in the morning, and I'm up procrastinating and trying to write a report for work. That's f%$&'d up. What am I doing??

It's times like these when any random thought is interesting. Pigging out on Cadbury Black Forest chocoloate...mmm... those chewy cherry bits are so yummy. Starting to feel a bit ill though.

Thinking that I should get over my aversion to jumping on the bandwagon, and start posting photos on Facebook. But then does that almost make this blog redundant? Barely write in it nowadays, no one might notice if I stopped writing it anyway. It's the need to blog well that prevents me from writing more often. Should just get over it and get into the habit of writing frequently.... even if half the time it is rubbish.

Work sucks a bit at the moment. Too much to do in too little time. Think I just need to take some holidays. Over the last 9 months, have taken 1 day of leave and 2 halves of an RDO... probably starting to take its toll now. Should use up some leave.

Bit over having long hair too. But it takes so long to grow, seems a shame to cut it all off. Just had it trimmed... so that should last me another 2-3 months. Then maybe I'll cut it for summer.

Looking forward to the snow. It has been too long since me and my sweet board have been on the powder. The thought of hitting the slopes always makes me both excited and scared. I know the risk of injury is not exactly small... sometimes I wonder why we enjoy it so much. $96 for a one day lift pass... ridiculous! Perhaps it's the beautiful scenery. Maybe it's the exercise. Don't like the speed so much.... wuss.

Hmmm... better get working... have to be up in 4 hours.....