What a cutie!

This is such a cute little photo I had to post it. Mitch is looking at the bookshelf trying to find himself some reading material.

Swimming boy

Mitch just loves swimming in the pool/spa. We took some photos of him yesterday.





Thanks for reading about us in what has been a wonderful year for us. Meeks and I have been so happy to be blessed with such a wonderful little boy. He's just the cutest little boy and we love him so much.

Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Mitch on his jolly jumper

Sometimes Mitch just loves his Jolly Jumper other times he's not so thrilled with it and we couldn't really work out why. This afternoon we lowered it a bit and put some foam under his feet and he had a hoot playing on it for ages. Here are some photos:
"Thank you Lord for my Jolly Jumper it's great fun"

"Here we go! Jumpy, jump, jumpy"

"I wonder if I can jump all the way up there"

"Sheesh, this jumping sure is tiring"

After his jumping fun he was exhausted and barely made it through dinner before falling asleep.

In other news the bathroom is finally finished. Yay! the shower screen was install on Friday afternoon and we painted the final bits so it's all finished in time for Christmas.

Mitch's first Christmas starts early

Meeks and Mitch had their Mother's group Christmas Party this morning. Mitch got to unwrap his Christmas present. I'm sure from here he went on to play with the paper for a while, but he'll enjoy the toy too eventually!

Wave to Daddy

Mitch is learning new things so fast. This morning he waved to me by holding his arm out and opening and closing his hand. I called Meeks to see, but he stopped. What a cutie!

Things are happening so quickly

A couple of weeks ago Mitch was what you might call a "blobby" baby. He pretty much lay there and did nothing - well, he could roll over and wriggle around, but not much else. Then last weekend he was getting up onto his knees, then a few days later he was crawling. Towards the end of last week he worked out how to go from lying down to sitting up by himself (which he was very proud of) and then yesterday he worked out how to pull himself up to standing on something (which just happened to be the coffee table at Phil and Shaz's - there were cookies on it - not that he knows what cookies are).

I'm sure that means it's only a few more weeks and he'll be asking for the car keys and telling us old folk not to wait up. Sigh ... I guess I should change the insurance on the car and then get my slippers and blanket.

Little crawler

Meeks and I were standing in the kitchen this morning and Mitch was playing on the carpet. He decided it was time to come and join Mummy and Daddy in the kitchen so with lots of encouragement from us he slowly with intense concentration crawled over to the kitchen. He was so proud of himself and had this huge smile on his face. What a cutie.

The result of his new found mobility is that Meeks has spent the day fishing him out from under the Christmas tree as he crawls over to "explore" the presents.

Going mobile

He'd been threatening to do it over the weekend, but Mitch started crawling today. I guess the rules change now. We can't afford to take our eyes off him. Time to make sure those things which were out of his reach are now tied down!

Beautiful boy

Hi readers.

We've had a weekend of gearing up for Christmas. We've done most of the Christmas shopping including buying Mitch's Christmas present, we've set up the Christmas tree and we've begun setting up the back deck with Christmas lights etc. It's a very festive time.

This morning Mitch got up before 7 which wasn't very nice, but after Daddy had got up and given him some breakfast Mitch went back to bed and slept for 2 hours. Mummy didn't get up until after 10am! It's the longest sleep in she has had since Mitchy was born!

He's very close to crawling at the moment. He gets up on his hands and knees and sort of rocks back and forth, but can't quite get the arms going forward and the legs don't seem to get any purchase on the ground. He's very close though, who knows how long before he's off into the Christmas tree!

Anyway here's a photo of the gorgeous little boy.

Weekly news

No new pictures I'm afraid.

Mitch was going through a beautiful phase last week. He was smiling at everybody and was happy and playful. Unfortunately on Friday and Saturday he wasn't feeling the best. We're not quite sure what's wrong, but he was grizzling all Friday afternoon which is very uncharacteristic and was off his food. He woke up quite a few times on Friday night which is also quite uncharacteristic. Saturday night he was a bit better but still woke up a couple of times, but was looking and feeling better Sunday morning.

Then early last night he woke up and I was trying to cuddle him to settle him, but he was crying and squirming and looked really unhappy. I was a bit worried about him, so put him in his cot to go and speak to Meeks. As soon as I put him in his cot, he rolled over and went to sleep! It was me he didn't like! I suppose I should get used to it, one day he's going to be embarrassed by his Mum and Dad and not want to associate with them. Hopefully that will be a long time off yet.

After that incident he again didn't sleep very well, and we had to get up a few times to settle him. He's just not himself at the moment compared to the happy boy last week. Perhaps he's teething again or going through a bit of a growth spurt or something. I'm sure he'll come out of it soon. Until then we just have to give him cuddles ... if that is what he wants!

In other news, the bathroom saga continues. Last week we got a call from the shower screen people saying they were having a problem with the shower screen. Apparently the bit that goes around the bath was too thin and it kept breaking. The result was we had to pick a new frame for the screen. It's a step down from the one we wanted, but right now we'll be happy just to see it finished. The shower screen people have been excellent. Really professional and friendly even with this problem. Free plug to Betta Shower Screens.

Finally, congratulations to our friends Phil and Shaz who had a baby boy on Friday. His name is Owen Thomas and he's very cute.

New video and some pictures

Well another busy weekend, and fortunately we have pretty much done everything we can do in the bathroom. Just the shower screen to go, hooray!

A few weeks ago we bought Mitch a Jolly Jumper. He was a bit apprehensive about it at first, but now he loves it.



Here is a video (it's working now hooray) of Mitch at his swimming lessons. This one is a couple of weeks old, but he is very cute.

Here is a direct link.

In other news Mitch is pretty much sitting up by himself now. He tips over occasionally, mostly on to his face which unfortunately results in lots of tears and needs a cuddle from mummy or daddy. Like his parents he also loves advertising material (some people have the temerity to call it "junk mail" - sheesh!). His appreciation is not so much for the bargains, rather he loves crushing them up and chewing on them. There is hours of fun in one Ezi-Buy catalogue!

A H"U2"ge weekend

What a busy weekend!

On Friday night Meeks and I went and saw U2 at Telstra Stadium. It was an awesome concert. Our tickets were only B Reserve but the view was pretty good anyway.


Many thanks to Phil and Shaz for baby sitting Mitch so we could go.

On Saturday Mitch had his third swimming lesson. He was such a good boy and so very cute.


It's not like it's a lot of exercise, but going swimming just exhausts him. When we got home he slept for 2 hours straight! Normally he doesn't sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time.

The bathroom saga continues. It's almost finished, aside from the shower screen. We're quite happy with the way it turned out, it will be great when it is finally finished though.

Home Again and many thanks

Well we moved home again on Saturday morning. The bathroom is still not quite finished, but it is good enough. We have a working toilet and I had my first shower this morning (incidentally we did shower elsewhere between Saturday morning and this morning in case you were wondering). There is no shower screen yet so water went everywhere, but that will come in time. Brett (Shazzy's brother) the plumber (free plug for Brett Taylor Plumbing) is installing the vanity today and taps for the bath. After that there is just finishing off.

We have to thank a lot of people for their help. Thanks to Lorraine, Michael and Krissy for putting up with us while we were staying at their house and their help with minding Mitch and Michael for his tools and help jack hammering . A huge thank you to Aly for showing Meeks the ropes in tiling and giving her the confidence to do the job. Thanks to Andrew Gore for his building knowledge, trailer and tools. Thanks to Ann C for minding Mitch Saturday morning - sorry he was a nightmare, he was happier the next day.

Hopefully by the end of the week our house will no longer look like a construction site and be safe to walk around without tripping over cut tiles, saws, power cables, buckets, crates, ladders and the dust ... oh the dust!

Mitch's other, other home

Since we've been renovating the bathroom we've been living at Meeks' Mum's house (thank you so much Lorraine, Michael and Krissy). So Mitch's other home has been their place. Mitch has had a third home though and that is:

Bunnings!

Isn't he a grown up!

We should be moving back home on Saturday morning (Yay!).

Weekly news

Well the bathroom renovation continues. We finally got the toilet put back in today. Most of the floor is tiled and part of the walls. There is still a vanity to go in and the tiling around the bath, but we're getting there. Meeks is such a trooper. We'll hopefully be back in on the weekend.


Mitch had his 6 months immunisation on Wednesday. He was such a good boy. He hardly cried at all. Unfortunately he's now got conjunctivitis, poor little guy. Meeks has been to the doctor and got drops for him, but he doesn't really like them, as you might expect.

Mitch had another swimming lesson on the weekend. It was such fun for the three of us. Again he was such a good boy, he didn't cry at all, despite the fact some of the other babies bawled their eyes out the whole time. I'll upload some photos when I get the chance, they're on the video camera. He is so cute in his little swimming costume.

Here's some pictures to keep Mum happy. This is Mitch with Uncle Mike at Uncle Rob's 21st:

And a cute one of him asleep in his car seat:

Half birthday

On the 19th last week was Mitch's half birthday so we went to the park and had a picnic at Coonanbarra Park under our favourite tree. It's funny we have been having picnics in that park under that same tree since Mitch was only 10 days old.
The first time we went Mitch pretty much slept the whole time. Now he is so much more interactive. Not quite crawling but happy to be on his belly looking around ...

Or on his back having a laugh ...

He's such a little delight! We can't believe he's 6 months old!

In other news the bathroom reno is coming along, mostly on track. There have been a number of hurdles to get over which have increased the scope of the job and increased the stress on Meeks and I, but I wont bore you with the details. Needless to say it's amazing what you learn when you have to. Thanks to Aly, Michael and Lorraine, Andrew G (not the TV/Radio "Host" with the girly hair), Ann and Peter for their help. Do we wish we hadn't started? Well the concrete we found which was falling apart and the shonky job that had been done before said we had no choice. Would we do it again by ourselves? Only if we couldn't afford it, I think every part of me hurts.

Weekly news

Well it's offically all go on the bathroom renovation front. Here is the hopeful schedule:
10th - Vanity and bath arrive
19th - Skip bin arrives
20th - 22nd Move out, demolish bathroom & prepare floor
23rd - Waterproofing
26th - Bath installed & painting
27th - 28th Painting & tiling
30th - Toilet and vanity installed
31st - Move back in

Of course that might all go horribly wrong if we pull up the existing tiles and find something has gone wrong underneath, or for any manner of other problems. Whatever happens we'll take progress photos to remember it all by. On Saturday we went and looked at tiles, tiles and more tiles and vanities and baths and toilets and taps and mixers. We've decided on tiles and paint colours and we have bought a vanity and bath (Meeks had already picked the vanity and bath). We have to do some more measurements before we can buy a toilet. Taps and stuff we will do either this week or next weekend. It's all a big adventure!

In other news Mitch has reached the point where we were happy to turn the car seat around so he can face the front and see where he is going. He was pretty pleased with the change as you can see:


Weekends are fun, especially playing with Mitch on the big bed. Here's a slightly blurry but very cute picture - you can even see his little teeth although they're a bit blurry. He's wearing his little French outfit from the Norringtons:

As you can see he is lifting up his head well when he's on his belly. Sometimes he tries to to get into a crawling position by pulling his legs up and sticking his bum in the air. Unfortunately that pitches his face down into the ground. He hasn't quite got the arms and the legs working in tandem. He's doing reasonably well at his sitting as well, he still easily over balances, mostly forward. As he's falling forward he sticks one hand out to balance himself, so he can play with whatever is in front of him, then he tips over to the side. It all kind of happens in slow motion though, so it's funny to watch.

The only other bit of news is that he was a bit sooky and dribbly and had ruddy cheeks and was sick a few times on the weekend, which apparently all all signs of further teething - either that or he's a bit sick. Nothing bad though so I'm sure it will settle down soon or we'll see some new teeth poking through.

Assorted photos

Just few more photos!

This is Mitch playing on his change table in the sun with his ted. Very cute!


When Meeks and I went to Tim and Chelsea's wedding Mitch and his cousin Lilly got to play together. Lilly is a few months older than Mitch so she can sit up by herself. Mitch is beginning to be able to sit up, but he tips over in one direction or another sooner or later especially if he reaches for anything.


Mitch is starting to eat solids, although he doesn't love them as this photo shows! He eats "yoghurt and fruit" which has yoghurt, apple and pear and "orange vege mix" which has carrot, pumpkin and sweet potato and "green vege mix" which has peas, brocolli and zucchini. He's not mad about the veges, but eats them and he likes the yoghurt and fruit.

Grand Final Weekend

Given that it was the weekend of both the AFL and NRL Grand Finals Mitch decided it was time he learn how to master the TV remote control.

Hmmm ... it doesn't seem to work this way ...

... I'm pretty sure the batteries are okay ...

It soon became clear, it wasn't quite as easy to master as Daddy made it seem.
... maybe if I use my mouth ...

As Mitch sank into the cushions on the couch he cursed the new fangled technology. The irony of course being that in a few years he'll be the one showing Mummy and Daddy how to do it.


We just had a three day weekend, which was a great time to spend together as a little family. It just made going back to work today that much harder. Fortunately I have the whole week off, the week after next.

Mitch performed his first roll from back to belly yesterday. Only Meeks saw it. I was replacing a lightbulb and Meeks just happened to be walking past when he did it. Apparently it wasn't very graceful or coordinated. He sort of bent his back and swung his legs over and momentum carried him over. Of course we clapped and congratulated him. He wandered what all the fuss was about, and after realising that he couldn't reach whatever he was looking for on his belly, rolled back onto his back!

In other news, some of the tiles in the shower recess are cracked and the grout is falling out and there is some leakage through the hob onto the floor of the bathroom (and goodness knows where else), so we have the fun and no doubt expensive decision of what to do about that. As with many of the "jobs" done by the previous owners, some of the work is fairly shoddy so we might have to go with a more complete job than a quick repair effort. Also being our only bathroom, it will mean temporarily relocating while it is done.

First pair of jeans

Everyone has a favourite pair of jeans. Some people like them when they are new and stiff or just out of the wash and other's like them when they are old and comfy and ripped and faded. Phil and Shaz gave Mitch a pair of jeans and he can finally fit them, so here is Mitch in his first pair of jeans, and isn't he happy!

Our little Family

We went to Tim and Chelsea's wedding on Saturday (Yay for Tim and Chels!) and we got a bit dressed up so Dad took a photo of the three of us. There aren't many photos of all three of us and this one is a nice one so I thought I would put it up.

I did have a tie on at the wedding, but this was after the wedding and before the reception and it was a stinking hot day so the tie came off.

New pictures

We bought Mitch a high chair last week so he can sit up and eat his food better. Over the weekend he had some more yoghurt and apple and pear and he also tried some sweet potato. He loves the yoghurt, but wasn't so sure about the sweet potato. We took some highly amusing video footage which hopefully I'll get up onto the blog soon - the facial expressions are priceless. In the mean time here's a picture of our refined little eater:


We think Mitch is always cute but there are still special moments, like this one:

News for the week

Well, it finally happened this morning. I know that every time I pick up Mitch to give him a cuddle and say goodbye in the morning, there is a risk he will express his displeasure at my leaving by using the most potent of his four "How to make Daddy stay at home" weapons. This morning, after 5 months and one day (can you believe he's 5 months old now!) of waiting for it, as I was saying goodbye, he vomited all over my shirt. Fortunately he didn't get my pants. Satisfied he had delayed me, and smiling a lot because it's funny, he went off to sleep like a good boy while I got another shirt and went to work.

In other news Mitch's two bottom teeth are through and very cute. You have to be a bit careful with him now because anything he can grab he puts in his mouth and sucks on it, dribbles on it and if you're lucky he bites as well. My finger tells me his little teeth are quite sharp.

We're gradually trying him on a few solids. So far he's tried avocado (which he liked), plain rice cereal (which he wasn't mad about - no surprise there), rice cereal with pureed peach mixed in (which he liked better), potato (again, fairly dull) and today yoghurt which he was quite keen on as you can see below. In fact when he had finished the bit Meeks had given him (most of which ended up smeared around his mouth) he cried until Meeks gave him some more!



The only other piece of news is that last week he was off his food and we were a bit concerned about him losing weight (not that he's at risk of being too thin), but this week he's back into it which is great.

PS: For those of you who are wondering, his other three weapons are smiling, crying and pooing.

Smiley boy

After the last week when Mitch hasn't been the happiest of boys, what with being sick and getting teeth and having injections, it's nice to see he can still smile. Isn't he beautiful!

Not the greatest quality of photo (what can you expect with a phone camera), but the subject is the cutest! He's on his playmat looking up at mummy. This is what daddy misses when he goes to work.

Another chopper

Mitch actually slept in until 7:30 this morning which was great for mummy and daddy. I was checking his bottom gum this morning to see how his tooth was going and well, now one tooth has become two teeth and he's a much happier little boy. Yesterday he was still not feeding properly though, only drinking half his formula for most feeds which is a bit of a worry. Hopefully that improves today now that both teeth are through. The doctor yesterday suggested making sure he drinks water to keep his fluids up and we have started trying him a few "solids" like rice cereal. He's not thrilled by them and most of it gets pushed out again by his tongue. One of the things the doctor suggested was trying a different brand of formula just for a different taste. I guess if you had to eat the same thing 5 times a day every day for 5 months, you'd probably get sick of it too!

Mitch had more shots yesterday and his second lot of immunisation for rotovirus with is taken orally. So he has bruises on his chunky little legs, poor little boy. Apparently he looked surprised and then bawled with the doctor injected him. Then he was just recovering and they had to do the other leg and he bawled all over again. As Meeks was walking out he did manage to give the doctor a smile though to say, "I forgive you"

Little Chopper

Mitch has been a bit funny recently. He's been waking up at 5am and has been generally a bit disgruntled. He's been a bit off his food and spending a lot of time with his hands in his mouth (which perhaps is not unusual). We thought it was carry over from his cold last week but then Meeks was looking in his mouth this morning and there was the problem. A little tooth was poking through! No wonder the poor little guy was unhappy!

So here we are at less than 5 months and he's already got his first little chopper! Hopefully we'll get a picture of it soon.

Father's Day and a sick little boy

Poor little Mitch is sick again. He was off colour on Saturday morning and ratty all day yesterday and then by last night it had developed into a cold. Fortunately he slept okay last night, but woke up this morning all stuffed up. He is such a trooper though, when I came in to pick him up this morning he was all smiley and happy to say good morning even though he was feeling crappy. Hopefully he'll sleep lots today and be feeling better soon. Meeks was feeling sick, but is feeling mostly better now which is great.

So my first Father's Day was fun, even if Mitch and Meeks weren't feeling great. Mitch and I sat on the couch and watched the Swans win in the AFL on the TV. Add to that I picked the round in the NRL tipping comp!

Unfortunately no pictures today, but there may be some when Dad sends some through.

Rolling and grabbing

It feels like Mitch hasn't done anything "new" for a while and then last night and this morning he did two new things. Firstly he was lying on his tummy on the change table as I put some cream on him and all by himself he rolled from his belly on to his back. I wouldn't say it was a controlled roll ... more of a case of tipping himself over and then wondering what happened. Meeks and I were jumping around and praising him and he just wondered what had happened. Then we put him back on his belly and he did it again. So we put him on a blanket on the ground and he did it again, still not quite knowing what was going on. Meeks ran off to get the video camera. When she came back we put him on his belly again and for about 2 minutes he lay there with his arms propping himself up and head up looking around and his little feet waggling, but no rolling over. Very sute though as dribble came out of his mouth. It was by far the longest he's managed to keep his head up during tummy time so we were still happy even though we didn't catch the rolling on the video camera.

Then this morning, while I was in the shower and Meeks was playing with him, he was lying on his play mat looking up at his friend Mr Lion and instead of reaching up with fists closed or batting Mr Lion about, he reached up and grabbed his little leg and pulled it down .. and put it into his mouth. Clever boy!

It is such a delight to see him learning to do new things and interacting with the world around him a bit more.

We entered a few pictures of him into a Harvey Norman competition for cute kids. We used the Cheeky Monkey photo, a photo of him in the basket and of im on the chaneg table which have all been on this blog. We may be biased but he can't possibly lose! Ah, the blindness of parents! If we win, the prize is $12,000 towards his education. That would be awesome, even if high school is 12 or so years away. The scary thing is that if we send him to a private school, it would cover less than 1 year at somewhere like Barker!

More boy in a basket

Here's a couple more pictures of Mitch playing in the basket with his toys on a different days.

Boy in a basket

Amazing the different uses for a washing basket!

Mitch does this thing at the moment where when he is lying on his play mat he reaches up to the little lion as if he wants to touch it, but just has his arms straight up and his little hands as fists. It's like he thinks the lion will come to him, as opposed to moving his hands and grabbing the lion. He's so close to being able to reach out and grab things, it's just so cute.

As much as I hate waking up in the morning, I love getting up to get Mitch out of his bed. He generally wakes up and chats to himself for a while and when you go in to get him he looks up at you and gets so excited and smiley and waves his little arms around and kicks his legs. It is gorgeous. The mornings are generally his best time, he is so happy and cuddly and playful and smiley. It makes it very hard to go to work.

Weekly news

Hello all you Monday updaters out there.

Not a whole lot of news. It looks like Mitch and Meeks are over there colds which is great. I'm mostly better except for a nasty cough which really only surfaces when I'm trying to go to sleep.

We had a fun weekend. Meeks had a massage on Saturday and then Meeks and I went out to dinner and a play at the Ensemble Theatre. It was our first real date since Mitch was born and was a really great night. We saw "They're Playing Our Song". It was really entertaining. It had Georgie Parker and Simon Burke and there was a lot of really great singing. It was sort of a two person musical. The Ensemble is such a small intimate theatre, it feels like it's just you and the actors.

Sunday we went and visited Mikey at his new place in Roselle and went to some markets and had a look around. They were the kind of second hand gear markets, as opposed to a fresh food type market. Not really my thing, but others (like Mikey) love them. It was good to catch up with Mikey though and Kris was there too.

Here are some new photos! Firstly Meeks and Mitch. I love this photo! It's my phone background.


Also another Mitch at the shops. He had these two grannies fawning over him while we were at the check out ("Isn't he cute! How adorable! I have three great grand children ..."), he wasn't too sure about them, but managed to look cute though.

Just a quick update

Just a quick update today.

Mitch is feeling better, but is still a bit stuffed up. He slept in until 8am this morning which is the latest he has ever slept in. Meeks is still feeling crappy with a cold and Dave is feeling okay, but still feels on the edge of having a cold which is no good.

Here is a picture of Mitch in his play mat/gym thing. You can see he's grasped onto one of the ring things. I'd like to say he did it on purpose but he's not quite there yet, he sort of waved his arm and latched on to it!


Mitch had a bit of play in the sunlight on the change table with mummy today. here are some pictures:

Isn't he adorable!

Grandad's birthday

We went out for dinner for Grandad's birthday last night. Unfortunately Meeks and Mitch could not make it because they are still sick. They sent their best wishes but were sad to miss it.


Cousin Lilly wished Meeks and Mitch had been there.


But a very tasty ribbon soon distracted Lilly.


Mitch slept through the night last night after the past couple of nights when he has woken up at 2-3am due to his cold. Meeks and I were quite relieved and hope he's mostly better. Meeks is still sick and I am just starting to get sick. Hopefully I can take care of myself and not cop the full brunt of it.

The birth video

Here is a video of what was happening just before and after Mitch was born. There are no gory bits to worry about!

Here is a link to the video if the control above doesn't work. It is 44Mb so again, you probably only want to check it out with a broadband connection.

A video!

No new pictures today, but instead an old video! This was taken just after Mitch was born. He was probably 2 or three days old at the time and we're still in the hospital. It was one of the first times he had opened his eyes and looked around, hence the title. I can't believe how chubby his little cheeks are! At least 1 pound of his 8 pounds 5 ounces must have been all cheek!

The video is 12Mb, so I would probably only view it if you were on a broadband connection


Here is a link to the video if the above control doesn't work.

In other news Mitch is still sick and Meeks is now sick as well. This is no good and I'm hoping I don't get it too! Please pray for Meeks and Mitch, they are quite unwell. Meeks has almost lost her voice and is pretty much only able to whisper.

I will post another video later. That one is of the events surrounding the birth and Mitch just after he came out. Don't worry there's no gory bits

New pictures!

Mitch looking over daddy's shoulder:


Mitch and daddy on the arm chair. Its on the weekend so daddy is looking a bit crusty



Mitch kicking back on the couch with his beer ... I mean his milk.

Who's a cheeky monkey?