News

Mitch is getting better and better at standing. He can't quite stand up by himself, but almost. Once he's up though he's getting better at standing up for longer like in this photo

He got some very cute pyjamas for his birthday which fit okay on the top, but they're a bit long in the leg.


We had some left over bubbles from Mitch's party so we had a bit of a play on the deck.





Meeks goes back to work next Wednesday which is going to be a tough day for all of us. I have the rest of this week and up until Wednesday next week off work so we can have a bit of family time together before Meeks goes back to work.

Mitch's 1st Birthday Party

We were blessed with wonderful weather for Mitch's 1st Birthday Party today. A blue sky, the park next door, family, and good friends made for a wonderful day.

Cupcakes (made by Meeks)

The Rocket Cake (made by Meeks)

Friends and Family



The Birthday Boy


The Rocket Takes Off

Some birthday pictures

Mitchy had a bit of a sleep in (any time after 7am is a sleep in!) and then opened his present.

Then he proceeded to push it around with a big smile on his face.


Later on in the day we went to our favourite park at Waroongah and had a bit of a play

Happy Birthday Mitchy!

This time a year ago Mitch had just been born. Meeks was still groggy and feeling sick after the anaesthetic and would be sore for the next few days. Mitch was a beautiful, chunky little boy with big cheeks and dark hair. He was born a month early so was always sleepy and had trouble feeding. In short he was an amazing blessing from God.

The past year has been wonderful seeing him grow, watching as he learned to interact with the world and seeing his personality develop. The next year is going to be just as wonderful I'm sure, as he reaches so many more milestones.

Don't worry there will be pictures coming as soon as I get around to it!

Needles

Mitch had his 1 year immunisation needles this morning, poor little boy. He had three needles for various things including meningococcal which is a new one. It's nice to know that he wont ever get at least that strain of it now. He had two needles in one leg and one in the other. He was very brave and only cried a little bit while he was actually being injected. By the time we had left the doctor's office he had stopped crying, what a good boy! Hopefully, his legs wont hurt to much tomorrow on his birthday. I have the day off and it it's fine we're going to go to our favourite park.

The doctor also confirmed that he appears to have a skin allergy to vegemite which is not very Australian, but of all the things to be allergic to, vegemite is probably fairly easy to avoid. You don't accidentally put vegemite in something. Also, all that happens is that he gets a skin rash, so it wont mean racing off to the hospital or Epipens or anything like that.

In other news yesterday he drank his water through a straw for the first time yesterday. Funny how the most menial of tasks can be seen as a milestone!

Swing fun

I've always wanted to take some pictures of Mitchy on his swing but have lacked the technology to capture those action shots satisfactorily. He loves being on his swing out on the back deck. The ability to increase the ISO and therefore being able to increase the shutter speed means you can take great action shots. For those who care these were taken at 400 ASA and a shutter speed of 1/750 sec, for everyone else here are a couple of photos!



And finally, one other cute one. How could you refuse anything to this little one?

Another busy weekend

I got a chance to play with the new toy over the weekend and take a few pictures of Mitch. It's hard to believe he's almost a one year old. This time last year Meeks was in hospital with high blood pressure, obstetric cholestasis and with her diabetes almost uncontrollable. Back then we certainly didn't know what joy the next year would bring us.

Anyway, here's a few photos taken using the new camera. They are taken on the play gym in the park next door in some afternoon sunlight.






Also Auntie Krissy and Glen came and had breakfast with us on Sunday before Glen returns to the UK. Auntie Krissy will be going to live with Glen in the UK in June so Mitch will miss her.



I'm enjoying playing with the new camera. I have a long way to go in understanding all it's capabilities, but it will be fun to find out. It's Mitch's 1st birthday on Thursday and I have the day off work so hopefully it will be a lovely day and we have lots of fun. Meeks and I went shopping yesterday and bought him his birthday present. Hopefully he likes it! His party is next Saturday. We hope it will be a nice day so we can have it in the park next door. At the moment they are forecasting rain, but 7 day weather forecasts aren't known for their accuracy! Anyway, it will be a chance to get lots of nice photos and have some fun.

New toy

Due to a price reduction ($100 off at Ted's Cameras) and a few other factors we were finally able to get the new camera we were hoping for. It is a Pentax K100D. Here is a link for a review. It's a 6 megapixel Digital SLR (DSLR). 6 megapixel doesn't sound like a lot, but when it's paired with a DSLR the jump in quality from even a 10Mp point and shoot is quite noticeable. 6Mp is enough for A3 sized shots, providing the camera is good enough.

Now the only excuse we have for bad photos is the photographer. There is a bit of a learning curve for getting the most out of it although it does have a very basic automatic everything mode. After that there are a number of picture specific automatic modes (like portrait, landscape, macro, etc) and then you get into the more manual modes. I think initially we care more about the picture quality. It's a pain to take a beautiful picture of Mitch and then realise there is heaps of noise and it's out of focus etc. We'll learn to use and appreciate the more manual modes as we become more familiar with the camera.

The timing is great because it's Mitch's 1st birthday next week!

Family Lunch

We've had a very busy weekend visiting Horizon's with the Smart's and having family lunches. We had a lunch today today with Meeks' family and took a few cute photos of Mitch with the his Nana and Poppy and Auntie Krissy.
First with Nana


And with Poppy



And Auntie Krissy and Glen


An just one more because he's such a cutie:

Family BBQ

Mitch finally got to meet his Uncle Jamie last night and he got to play with his cousin Lilly again. We had a bit of a family BBQ on Sunday night because Jamie and Phaik are back from the UK. It was a lovely dinner prepared by Mike and Mandy.

What a cutie!

First Hair Cut

Mitch's hair was getting a bit long and he was beginning to look like a bit of a bogan (apologies to any legitimate bogans reading this blog - it is a term of affection. If you're unfamiliar what a bogan is, check out here or here). Admittedly he was a very cute bogan, but his hair was beginning to look suspiciously like a mullet. Anyway, we decided it was time for a hair cut. Here is the pre-hair cut look (Mitch is modelling his very cute Red Baron sleep-suit). As you can see, the hair is growing over the ears and though you can't see the back, it is quite bushy.


So we went over to the Blairs for dinner and the wonderful Shazzy whipped out the clippers. He wasn't very sure about it at first ...

... but was a very good boy and didn't cry or wriggle or squirm. He had a number 8 on the back and a number 12 on the top. Once Shazzy had done most of the work, Daddy had a go ...


Many thanks to Shaz, she did a great job and our little bogan has been turned back into a little boy! I can highly recommend Hair by Shaz for little ones :)

PS: Mitch had a bit of an allergic reaction to something earlier in the day and he had a bit of irritation and swelling around his lips. That's why he looks a bit like he has had collagen injections in his lips in the photos.

Meeks' Birthday

Wednesday was Meeks' Birthday. It was Meeks' first birthday as a mummy. Mitch doesn't get any pocket money yet, so he just gave her the best thing he could think of which was photos of him and lots of cuddles. Meeks opened her presents in bed and we had a reasonably relaxed breakfast before I had to run off to work.

Meeks' mum babysat Mitch in the evening and Meeks and I went out to dinner at a lovely restaurant called Cucina Sevardi in Beecroft. The food was delicious, I highly recommend it for a special occasion.

Overall a very nice day. Happy Birthday Meeks!

Mitch stands unsupported! (Updated)

I have some pictures of it at home, but not with me. Mitch was reaching into one of his toy boxes and pulled out a toy and then stood unsupported for about 20-30 seconds whilst playing with it. He did it a few times including one time where he pressed few buttons on his toy mobile phone and then sort of put it to his ear like he had seen mummy and daddy doing. It was very cute.

And some photos finally, they're not great quality as they're taken off the video camera and it was kind of dark:


Mitch adopts a nice wide base of support as he plays with his blocks.

So Mitch has passed another milestone. He still can't get up without help from something, but once he is up he can stand for a little while by himself. He'd done it before for a few seconds, but never for this long. What a clever boy!

This comes at the end of a very trying week for Meeks and I. For most of last week Mitch was a real handful. He was waking up crying during the night (at 11pm and 5am which he generally never does) and grizzling a lot and crying when we put him down for sleeps during the day and then he'd only have really short sleeps and generally wasn't a happy little boy. Then on Friday night he slept through the night, and woke up happy on Saturday morning and went down for his sleeps on time and even slept in on Sunday morning and also this morning. It's like he's a different boy! We don't know if he was teething last week (we can't see or feel any new teeth) or if he was going through a growth spurt, but either way he's returned to his normal happy self and we are very relieved!

Mitch at the Kindi-Farm

One of the local Primary Schools had a fete over the weekend so we walked over and decided to have a look. There were lots of rides and kids running everywhere. The high light for Mitch was a little kindi-farm with a few sheep, some goats, a piglet, and some ducks and things. Mitch was very quiet and tentative as you can see from the photos, but he spent a long time looking at all the animals.



Can you believe Mitch is 11 months old today? He is growing up so fast. He'll be a one year old soon. Our lives have changed so much in the last year, but it has been such a joy to have him as part of it.

More room to play

Now that Mitch is more mobile he needs more room to play. We quite often find him sitting at the back door looking outside or sitting at the front window looking outside. So we have explanded his play area to include the back deck. We would have done it earlier but were worried about him falling down the back stairs.

So after spending Saturday morning cleaning up the back deck including the mess from the accursed date palms (a piece of advice from someone who inherited a lot of them when we moved in - don't plant them. They just drop branches and crap everywhere and attract masses of bees when they are producing dates - and the "fruit" when it ripens falls on the ground and stinks up the place) we went and bought a little fence which is user adjustable to cover the stairs.

So now Mitch has room to crawl around and explore his new environment

Obviously the cover is over the spa and it is locked up!

Mitch went to the creche at church for the first time on Sunday morning. Normally Meeks and I go to the evening service and there is no creche, but this week we had to go to the morning service so took advantage of the creche. It was weird sitting in the service without him and being able to listen to the sermon properly without one of us having to go to the crying room or play room with him. Apparently he was a good boy, but it felt very strange leaving him in the hands of relative (although capable) strangers.

Mitch is thankfully over his cold which is great. After Mitch had it, Meeks got it and then I thought I was getting it. Fortunately it seems to have gone away and we are all mostly healthy again.

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 :(