Going to work

Mitch is still sick, but he's battling through. He has a runny nose and a nasty cough, but he still manages to say goodbye to Daddy in the morning with a big smile on his face.

Uncle Mike's Birthday

Uncle Mike had his birthday on the weekend so it was another chance for Mitch to play with cousin Lilly.


Mitch also got spend a bit of time with Grandad.
"I don't know what I feel like eating Grandad"

"Perhaps a cheese stick"


In other news Mitch has learnt to point which very cute, unfortunately it means pointing in people's eyes and noses which isn't so much fun. We have borrowed a walker from Aly and James which Mitch has been having fun with. He doesn't quite have control of it though, so he pretty much follows it around in a prolonged almost falling motion. He can't steer it either so goes in a straight line until he hits a wall, then he looks at you expecting you turn it around for him to go somewhere else. It's all very cute!


Unfortunately Mitch has developed a bit of a cold at the moment so he's not a happy little boy. He has the sniffles and a nasty cough. Poor little sausage :(

Busy weekend ...

Mitch and Daddy were at home alone (aside from Nana and Poppy popping in briefly) because Mummy went to a Women's Retreat with our church for the day. We had a fun day of male bonding and playing.
Mitch after his lunch complete with smeared vegemite.

Mitch shortly before going to bed. He had an afternoon sleep so was still full of energy before bedtime. (A prize for someone who can work out what time this photo was taken based on the background - leave your guess in the comments section)


On Sunday we had a Mother's Group picnic down at Bobbin Head. It was a chance for the men to all meet each other and was a lovely day. The children were mostly well behaved, although now that they can all pretty much crawl, even a "play area" of about 8 blankets couldn't hold them. Fortunately there were plenty of adults to keep our eyes on the 8 of them. I don't have any photos of that with me ... maybe later in the week.

New photos

Just a few new photos to look at.

First Mitch and his Nana:


We went to Catriona's 30th on the weekend and there was a little trike there which Mitch liked the look of. First he sized it up and thought, "Yeah I can ride this thing."

"But perhaps with a little help from daddy"


"But this is the best way to travel":


In other news he has grown another tooth so now he has eight. Four at the bottom and four at the top. He's also mastered "ma-ma-ma-ma" and now it's poor daddy who is the forgotten one. Oh well, so long as mummy is happy :)

Going to work in the morning

It's hard to go to work when Mitchy is standing at the window saying goodbye. He is just so cute and watches all the way down the street until he can't see you any more.


In other news Mitch's vocabulary is improving all the time. This morning he definitely said "ma-ma-ma" although again it wasn't really directed anywhere. Meeks is obviously pleased about that after hearing nothing but "da-da-da" for the last couple of weeks. He also likes to say 'ssssssss' and makes this very cute "pop-pop-pop" sound with his lips, like blowing a kiss.

For those of you who like photos we have set up a Flickr site here. It's not so much a newsy site it's just somewhere to put photos I really like of Mitch or anything else that comes up. There's not much on there now, just a couple of older photos, but if I find any other ones that are worthy I'll put them on.

Learning new tricks

Mitch is learning new games all the time. He plays Peek-a-Boo with you by holding up a towel in front of his face and then pulling it down and he loves to knock down towers you build for him like in the pictures below.
First from across the room he sees the tower. It calls to him saying "Knock me down!"

The approach begins!

And after the fall, in the distance a boy crawls away, his work done, leaving boxes strewn in his wake


Sorry about the crappy quality of the photos. I'm a bit frustrated at the moment at the quality of the photos we can produce. The photos from the camera phone and video camera used to be good enough, but I have been wooed by what is possible using one of these or one of these. Oh well, keep dreaming with prices around the $1000 mark! Still it would be nice :) I have been using a new free image processing program which is just super and really powerful. It has most of the capabilities of ones like Photoshop, but it's free. It's called Paint.Net and you can download it from here. It uses Microsoft .Net, so you will need Windows XP (or Vista) and the download is 50Mb if you don't already have .Net installed or 5Mb if you do. It runs on our 6 and a half year old PC (P3 800 with 768Mb RAM), but not very well. Some of the effects are amazing, and you can do a lot to improve photos, although it obviously depends on the quality you start off with.

What else is news? Well Mitchy now has 7 teeth which he uses to eat all sorts of food. His favourite is still yoghurt, but he has added a number of things to his gastronomic repertoire. He has porridge with pureed apple and sultanas for breakfast along with a slice of bread with butter and vegemite. If you help him he eats it, if you don't he picks up the little squares puts them in his mouth, sucks all the vegemite off, and then spits them out. He also quite often has portions of what mummy and daddy have been eating - generally somewhat more chopped of course. He's had a couple of tasty pieces of steak recently, which he enjoyed a great deal. He even had some moussaka!

He now says "dadada", although that is pretty much directed at anything, not me specifically. We think he also said "car" the other day in reference to his "That's not my car" book, but that could have been anything. It's a bit hard to know. Meeks is sad that he still hasn't said "mama", but I'm sure that is just around the corner. He also likes to make a 'ssssss' sound.

He pulls himself up on anything and everything, including the garbage bin and toilet seat, so we have had to move the bin into the cupboard and make sure we keep the bathroom door shut. Some mornings he stands at the front window and bangs on the glass as he watches Daddy walk down the front stairs and go off to work. It's so hard to leave with this little face at the window watching. He furniture surfs around the lounge room and stands happily with one hand casually resting on the couch, but hasn't stood up without touching anything yet. Meeks thinks he'll be walking before he's one, and I guess with the amount of progress he's made in the last two months, he should be able to master walking in the next 2 and a half months before he is one.

He just loves the dishwasher for some bizarre reason. He can be in his room and if you open the dishwasher he hears it and you hear the slap, slap, slap of his little hands as he races down the hallway so he can crawl into the dishwasher. If you let him, he will crawl up onto the door when it is open, and into the dishwasher if you let him, crazy little boy.

He's brought so much joy to us over the past 9 and a half months. It's bizarre to think in a couple of months he will be one!

A very hot weekend

It was indeed a very hot weekend in Sydney with the temperature at our place hitting 39 degrees on Sunday. Thank goodness for the pool/spa and air-conditioning. We had a fun weekend, but the heat meant it was mostly indoors. On Saturday morning we did get out and had morning tea with Nana and Mitch was at his cutest. He has just the most beautiful eyes, but then again I'm biased.

Weekends are fun

After being back at work for a week, I really enjoyed the weekend. Meeks went out with her Mum on Saturday morning so Mitch and I got some father-son play time together. Mitch is now quite happy pulling himself up on things and is beginning to furniture surf. Occassionally he forgets how to sit down and gets stranded on random surfaces. He loves to come up to the couch and say hello when you're sitting on it.


On Saturday night we went to a Global Music thing in Tumbalong Park at Darling Harbour with James and Aly and Maddie and Andrew. It was a little bit chilly so Mitch wore his little hoody and sat and played with the grass. He's so cute in his hoody.

Standing up in the cot

Okay, he's not standing up by himself yet, but yesterday evening after he had been put to bed and was meant to be asleep I walked into his room, because he'd been making "I'm not asleep noises" and found him standing up holding on to the bars of his cot looking at the door. He was so gorgeous, but given he was meant to be asleep I didn't want to make a big fuss and praise him. He did it again a bit later, still not really interested in going to sleep. Oh well, very cute but a little naughty!

Busy times

We'll as I've been on holidays there has been a lot happening and not a lot of posting so this one will be a big one.

Christmas was fun with numerous family events and lots of cuddles for Mitch. He was a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience. On Christmas morning when surrounded by presents and wrapping paper and ribbons Mitch crawled into the kitchen and down to the back door and started playing with the latch of the door. Perhaps he was just ensuring that the back door was secure so that all his new presents would be safe.

As you can see though, having lots of toys can be a hazard when you get trapped amongst them!


On New Year Eve's Mitch learnt to wave which was extremely cute and then delighted all the women at the New Year's party we went to by waving to them very cutely, which of course resulted in more cuddles.

After New Years we went up to Copacabana for a couple of days to spend with my family. Mitch got to play with his cousin Lilly whom he just loves. Everytime he saw her he would get this huge smile on his face. Here is a picture of Uncle Mike reading Mitch and Lilly a story.


While we were there Mitch and Lilly opened James and Phaik's present from the UK:


Afterwards Mitch played with his new bear and jacket.


Copacabana was the usual festival of food and wine we of course missed James, Phaik and Rob very much, but having James and Phaik's presents for Mitch and Lilly helped to make it feel like they were there. Having Mitch and Lilly there has brought a new dimension to things and they both enjoyed all the attention. Mitch seemed to have a little bond with Grandad happening which was very cute.

Today is Saturday and unfortunately I go back to work on Monday. I have been on holidays since just before Christmas and have loved seeing Mitch growing up and learning new things even in that short period. He is now an accomplished crawler and up at Copa was learning to climb stairs (with a little help from Grannie or Daddy) so that he could keep up with Lilly who is an accomplished stair climber (standing up and holding the railing no less!) and is just starting to take her first steps.

This morning when Mitch woke up he was making his first identifiable "Da-da-da" sounds although they are not directed to any one at this stage.

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.