Mitch's 3rd Birthday

It's hard to believe that three years ago we left home at 5am to go to the hospital for Meeks to have a caesarian and the result was Mitch coming to the world at 8:36am. Three years on our lives have been so enriched by him. Now we find ourselves on the edge (it can't come soon enough for Meeks) of bringing two more little people into our lives. We can only hope they are are as good-natured and happy and fun and beautiful as Mitch is.

Anyway today was all about Mitch. We woke up early and Mitch opened a bunch of presents. He was so excited that he was 3 and was so excited about opening presents. A bit later on, we had pancakes for breakfast and then in the afternoon Nana and Poppy and Grandad and Ganny and Uncle Robbie came over and we opened presents.

Puzzles are a current favourite and he is very good at them. He doesn't quite have the technique thing happening (start with the side and corners) but he is very good at matching pieces up and has an amazing memory once he has done a puzzle a few times.

Uncle Mike, Aunty Mandy, Cousin Lilly and Cousin Baby Will (who turned 1 yesterday so isn't really a baby any more) "dropped by" as well, direct from South Africa via Skype

There was a cake (obviously), but Mitchy obviously thought he was being kept waiting for it

After blowing out the candle

It was time to seriously chow down on some cake

Then it was time to share some cake with the toys and share some laughs





We didn't really have a proper party today, we'll have one in a few weeks when the babies have been born.

35 Week Ultrasound

We had another ultrasound today. The babies are both well, but are quite big at around 3kg each. That's about 7 kg of baby and placentae that Meeks is carting around. We're kind of going on a day to day thing at the moment. Meeks hits 35 weeks tomorrow (Friday) so we're approaching the same timeframe that Mitch was born in. We're hoping she (and the babies) can hang on for another week or three more. Meeks is very uncomfortable and has very swollen feet and legs and is having a lot of trouble sleeping. We're keeping a close eye on her blood pressure as well because it went up last time and we're hoping it wont happen this time.

Aside from that Mitch is approaching his 3rd birthday, which is this weekend. It's hard to believe it was three years ago we were last going through all this. He's being a good boy although Meeks finds it very hard because she's not very mobile at the moment and can't get down on the floor or anything to play with Mitch so she misses out on playing with him and he misses out on playing with her. The result is that when I'm at home all he wants to do is play chasings and hide and seek and a bunch of other active games non-stop!

CRASH!

Mike and Mandy (and Lilly and Will) have gone to South Africa and left us their car. It's a nice little VW Golf. I've been using it to drive to work, which is nice to be able to do for once. Anyway, it was parked out the front of our house and this evening it was run into by someone driving past. They smashed into the back corner. Both cars were undriveable, but not too badly damaged. Here is the damage:




Fortunately no one was hurt but now I have to get the car fixed. Grrr!

Playing at Fagan Park

Mitchy and I went to Fagan Park this morning ot give Mummy a bit of a chance to rest. Mitchy did the flying fox the first time ...
and slippery slide (he's done that before)...
And running along walls (which he enjoys a lot) ...
All in all a fun morning, though it was ridiculously hot given that it is almost the end of March. When we got back in the car the temperature gauge was saying 33 degrees!

Farewell

On Saturday we had a farewell for Mike, Mandy, Lilly and Will. They're moving to South Africa for 6 months for Mike's work. It was so wonderful watching Mitch and Lilly playing together. They don't understand that they're not going to see each other for ages and they just play together. Some photos from the day ...

Super Mitchy

Mitchy has a superhero kit which includes masks and a cape and stickers and bunch of other stuff. He occasionally likes to dress up as a superhero and on the weekend when he did I took a few snaps.

The lovely Meeks

Given that Meeks is at 30 weeks I though I'd take a couple of photos of her in the nursery so we could remember what she looked like at this stage. Here is one:

30 Week Ultrasound

We had our 30 week ultrasound today and everything is well. The babies are healthy which great news. The babies are a bit larger than normal and weigh about 1.9-2kg which is about the weight they should be at 32 or 33 weeks. Mitch was bigger than normal at the same stage but we don't know if he was as big as these two are. Either way, Meeks is carrying around a whole lot of baby, placentae and amniotic fluid. In fact she is carrying around about the same amount of baby as she was when Mitch was born and you have to add a second placentae and some amniotic fluid on top of that. No wonder she is tired and gets a sore back! She is continuing to have difficulty sleeping which is not helping.

The twins weren't being terribly cooperative so there are no cool 4D ultrasound pictures of them like last time.

So far there is no sign of the itchies which she had last time although the next two weeks will be key as that is when the problems started to kick in with Mitch.

A couple more pictures

Still going through the pictures from QLD and made up these two sets ...


They were taken on the last day as we sat around at the resort and had some lunch before we went off to catch the plane home. In a couple the colour is wrong and in the one with Meeks and Mitch it is all blurry, but I just love the photo. Sometimes a enjoyable and meaningful photo goes beyond technical accuracy and, for me anyway, it is a lovely shot.

More photos

I can't believe we've only been back from holidays for a week. It feel like forever that we were on holidays. Very sad. Anyway, here are a few more photos from our trip.

We took a few of Mitchy's toys with us on holidays and he took every opportunity to play with them.





We only took one of his books with us though which was a bit of a mistake because he wanted us to read it every night. He loves hearing the same story over and over again. Meeks and I found it tiring reading it over and over again. It got to the point where I had to make up a story about Wilbur the Dragon who had no front teeth. Mitch didn't seem to understand a story which didn't actually have a book to look at. He remembered it all though and wanted to know more about Wilbur.

When he wasn't playing he liked to read Daddy's book

On holidays

We got back yesterday from a lovely week in Queensland. The weather was a bit dicey the first couple of days but it did no more than a light rain and it was always warm enough to swim. The last couple of days were beautiful.

Mitchy had his first trip on an airplane which he was very excited about. Here he is as we taxied to the run way


We did lots of swimming.


Mitch loved jumping in



And climbing out

He got better and better at swimming as the week progressed. Later in the week he was down to three layers in his bubble (in these photos there are four) and today at Nanna's house he was even swimming around happily with only two.

After each swim he enjoyed being wrapped up like a cocoon



We also went to the beach:


And played soccer and basketball:


We also went bike riding and saw kangaroos and bush turkeys and various other creatures (Mitch was very excited whenever he saw a new creature). Mitch went to the kids club a couple of mornings and absolutely loved it. In fact he loved it so much he cried when we picked him up both days. The first day he wouldn't come out of the little play fort when it was time to leave! While he was at the kids club Meeks and I went to the Day Spa and had a swim and a massage. It was delightful.

We also ate lots of yummy food at the restaurants and from in-room dining and Mitch even ate some snakes!

(obviously those aren't real snakes and Mitch didn't actually eat them!)

Now we're home again which is a bit sad. We did have a lovely holiday and it was great to get away for a while prior to having the twins. Meeks was able to do most things including the (gentle) bike ride, but was glad we didn't try to postpone our Fiji trip and go in a few weeks. Even between the start of the week and the end of the week she was noticing differences. We're at 25 weeks now. I'll have to take some pictures of Meeks' belly to show everyone where she is up to. She has finished work, which she is relieved about and is looking forward to the next couple of months of not working before the twins arrive and change our lives! I'm back to work tomorrow. Boo hoo!

Holiday plans and family news

Ten months ago we were hoping to be going to London for Krissy and Glen's wedding and then traveling on to Italy for a long holiday. Then after we found out we were pregnant we reduced the holiday to just going to London. When we found out we were having twins we had to cancel the trip to London as it would be too late in the pregnancy. Instead we decided we would go on a holiday to Fiji in early February. Then the rains came to Fiji and we read stories of people stuck in hotels or stuck in the airport. So we canceled our holiday to Fiji and now we're going to spend a week in Noosa. We can't wait.

In baby news Meeks is doing well, she's having more success sleeping after having problems a couple of weeks ago. The babies are kicking lots. It's weird to think there are two of them wriggling around in there bumping in to each other. Mitchy is getting into the idea of having little brothers, but I'm sure doesn't really understand that they are in mummy's tummy.

Mitch is growing up fast. His speech has come along a lot recently. He used to be mute when the phone was presented to him. Now he understands that there is someone on the other end of the phone and that he can talk to them as if they were right there in the room. He has two new sayings. He likes to say, "Check it oooooouuuut!" and "Awwwww, come on!". In fact he talks a lot and asks questions, lots of questions. Neither Meeks or I are terribly verbose so I don't know where Mitch gets it from. He's also becoming really imaginative. The other day he was making imaginary snow men in imaginary snow and throwing imaginary snow balls ... it was 30+ degrees!

The reception

I'll let the pictures tell a story.


Bill is very animated when he speaks


Thanks for inviting me. I had a great time!

The Ceremony

Robyn and Bill's wedding was under a huge tree in the gardens. The rain mentioned in the previous post had stopped by the time of the wedding. There was a tiny bit of rain at the start, but nothing for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

The Happy Couple

Out of respect for the official photographer (who if you look carefully in the above photograph you can see her flash on the left side of Bill's head) I didn't get "the kiss" because I was trying to get out of her way.
Signing the Registry

The (now married) couple are presented to the gathered family and friends


To Robyn and Bill (and Anne Daisy) I have a lot more photos of the ceremony and the ones here are low quality shots for the web. I'll make up a contact sheet (which is just a picture with lots of little pictures) and put it on the web somewhere and you can look at it and tell me which ones you like and I can clean them up and send them to you on a CD.

Next post, the Reception!
Who knows what shots I'll put up?

Driving to Millthorpe

On the weekend I drove out to Millthorpe which is near Orange for cousin Robyn and Bill's wedding. I was by myself because Meeks was staying home with Mitch. As a result I made a few stops and took some photos that I might not otherwise have been able to make.
Firstly there was the Mt White lookout, looking out over the Megalong Valley

Next was a random farmstead on the road between Lithgow and Bathurst

Then it was up to the top of Mt Panorama at Bathurst. It such a weird experience to be able to just drive your normal car around the race track and stop and take photos along the way. The speed limit is a strictly enforced 60km/h even on the main straights where it feels slow, but on sections like the dipper, 60km/h feels quite quick. It must take some serious guts to do it at racing speed. Sitting in the car the track dips and twists and actually disappears from view as it goes down the hill.

As I was approaching Orange (where I was staying) the weather started to close in and shortly after this it started pouring. The rain didn't look good for the wedding, but that is a story for another post.

On the way home on Sunday I stopped at almost the same place and took this one.