Another milestone

Today goes down, in the history of our family, as the first time Elliott's been sick. The poor little guy woke up with a rattly chest... and lots of chesty coughing. His nose has been a bit runny but not too bad and he started to sound a little stuffy by bedtime tonight. On top of that he's just seemed generally uncomfortable. Despite all this, Elliott has been a real little trooper! He's still been smiling away, laughing and playing with us.

It's probably just a bug that Kel or I brought home with us... we're both feeling a little run down tonight but it seems to have gotten on top of him first. Elliott also had his 4 month immunization on Friday (no link I'm sure), this is noteworthy because he was a real brave little boy! Unlike the first round of needles (cried and pretty distressed for about 5 minutes), this time he would have only cried for about 10 seconds and was alright once he got in his mummy's arms!

Anyway, he's had a couple of doses of baby Panadol today (lucky I raced down and got it from the Pharmacist about 3 1/2 months ago) and fingers crossed he'll feel a bit better in the morning, although we are bracing ourselves for an up and down night ;o)

You've gotta laugh

Like all new parents, we've been playing games with Elliott since he came home... but for most of the time they have been more fun for us than him i think. Last night we were playing a variation of peek'a'boo, where we drape his wrap over his face and then pull it off, basically it is peek'a'boo without the peek'a'boo (there's a weeeeee instead). Anyway, he found it most amusing and we took some video of it. He's really starting to get a chuckle going these days, it's so cute.



For any of my friends watching this, please disregard my high pitch weeeee'ing, Elliott seems to like it when my voice goes up an octave or two (perhaps he was just laughing at how silly his Dad sounded).

Must have missed the memo

The last couple of nights (and days for that matter) Elliott has been a little out of sorts. Through the day he's been a bit whingy and unsure what he wants... then at night he's been unable to get to sleep on his own at bedtime (~7pm). He's gotten himself into an inconsolable crying state very quickly and we've ended up having to nurse him to sleep. 15 minutes of full bore, full volume baby crying can sure be a harrowing experience (especially when he's looking straight into your eyes and weeping). On the positive side, it is extremely uplifting to weather that storm and then have him fall to sleep in your arms.


It feels like we missed a memo that said he was going on strike... and we don't even no why...
- apparently it's not uncommon for babies to get a little unsettled at about 4 months.
- perhaps he's striking because of the cold snap we've been experiencing
- or maybe it is a belated protest about John Howard's work choices legislation

Anyhow, tonight Kel and I are sitting here, with a glass of wine each, Elliott having gone to sleep with a minimum of fuss... so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Elliott's abs of steel

We've noticed that in the last couple of weeks Elliott likes to take a posture that sees him laying on his back and holding his legs in the air (much like an abdominal crunch exercise). He likes doing this so much that it is taking time away from his bath swimming routine, he now just lays there with his legs in the air and his hands in his mouth. Oh well, as his swimming career goes to the back-burner we reckon he must be working on a fantastic six pack. Check the photos below for examples of his strict training regimen and potential outcome!




In reality, we think he probably just likes looking at his feet... much like his hand fascination in more recent times.

Sleep news flash...

We've always maintained that we are very lucky with Elliott that he settled quickly into a good sleep pattern, but last night was the first time he officially slept through!!!! He went to bed at about 7pm and didn't get us up until a little after 6am. It may be hair splitting because he's had runs of sleeping till about 4am for some time now... and two nights ago he slept through till 5am... not withstanding how grateful we've been for these super feats 6am is the first almost civilized morning wakeup call he has given us. Interestingly, the night before (Friday) was the fist time in memory that he has gotten us up twice in the early hours (12am & 3am), so we figure we are still in for a mixed bag for some time to come.

The sleep doctor at work

The Adventures of Wonderboy

One of my many dreams as a young boy was to be a comic book artist. During the week I stumbled onto some freeware for Macs that makes comics easy. So I've had a little play and this is my first release.

Click to enlarge

Before & After

While Kate and I were pregnant (especially once we started maternity leave) we often had morning teas, lunches, shopping trips together. One of those times we had a photo taken at Lime (The Junction) ... we returned to the scene recently with our antenatal class Mums and couldn't resist a repeat photo opportunity ... with the boys on the outside!

Antenatal Mum's Group

Kate & Ben, Nicole and Darcy, Maz and Jacob.

On Thursday Kel and Elliott had a really great morning tea and catch up at Lime (The Junction) with some of the Mums and bubs from our antenatal class. It's quite amazing that all five of us have had boys! It was great to finally meet Darcy and Jacob (and to see Nicole and Maz again). It was also really nice to see Beth and Alfie, and Kate and Ben, who also came along.

Beth and Alfie, Kate and Ben.

It was a really nice morning and we all had lots to talk about - we're planning to do it again in a couple of weeks. Our social calendar is growing!! So far we have regular walks with the Stockton Mother's Group, lunches and outings with friends and their babies quite often (such as Kate and Ben, Beth and Alfie, Amanda and Sam, Mel and Luca, Anj and Maddy... the list goes on!) and now we have another Mum's group! This is great! We've never been so social.

Lunch with Samuel and Ben

On Tuesday we had a lovely visit from Samuel (and Mum Amanda) and Ben (and Kate). We had a lovely lunch with yummy biscuits and choccy cake afterwards. We also learnt a great trick with a huggies box! Amanda showed us how much Sam loves sitting in his box ... it's also great for sitting him in to feed him (Sam is 7 months old)! She says she takes it with her whenever they go away instead of having to lug around a high chair and other bulky things! Great idea!



Elliott tried his out later in the day ...
















... not quite sure what he thought of it, but I think he liked it!













Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of the three boys together (Elliott was busy sleeping in his sling) ... hopefully next time.

Visits from Aunties...

Elliott and I (Kel) had a wonderful day on Monday with visits from both Aunty Bub (Kimberley) and Aunty Nicole. It was so lovely to see them both and just hang out for the day. It was really great to see Bub, who we don't get to see much because we are all so busy and she is especially busy with Uni ... speaking of which, we are very excited about her finishing in a few years time so that we have our own private chiropractor!














Elliott loved seeing his Aunties (as you can see from the photos ... hopefully we'll see thm again soon, along with his other Aunties, Lisa and Alison.

Updates

Well, we're running a little behind with all our updates and goings on. We've had a pretty busy week ... Elliott has had some more 'no nappy time' (above), with few disasters (of the no-nappy variety)! By the look on Elliott's face we are more excited by 'no nappy time' than he is! No, he really does like it.

Photo Albums updated

We finally updated Elliott's photo album and the slide show of Elliott "mug shots" at the bottom of the blog. We never get sick of looking at our little man... but be warned there are now heaps of photos in each. It's been some time since we've put new pictures in these albums and there are some real gems. A tip for the bottom album, if you haven't realised, the controller in the bottom left corner allows you to speed up the scroll (use +).

While I'm here, I might as well write a little update too! We've had quite a big last 24 hrs really. Yesterday evening we attended two parties. First was for our friend Liz from the USA, who has been in Australia for the last 2 years working in my lab. Sadly she's heading back to the States to go to Med School... and we wish her all the best! We hope that our paths will cross again someday. The second party was a birthday party for our good friend Kate. As you can imagine it was a big ask for Elliott and he did have a couple of "meltdowns" before the end of the night. It raised an interesting question for us because Elliott has been doing real well in the evening, due largely to a very consistent routine (bath, feed, & bed by about 6:30-7pm). Lots of what we've heard and read says routine is great for babies... but it goes a bit pear-shaped when you break their routine! So could routine be preventing adaptability??? We still think it is the way to go... but far out, it is easy to over-analyse everything!

Finally, we are still working on getting Elliott to take a bottle, so that he doesn't necessarily need to be within reach of Kel 24/7. Today we made progress (a pleasing change). He didn't take a real lot... and still spat the dummy after a couple of minutes, but it did work for a brief moment and we have a photo (below) to prove it.

Happy Birthday Nan!

What! It's Nan's Birthday?

Why is it that nobody tells me anything around here...
I'm soooo embarrassed!

Well, Happy Birthday Nan
I can't wait to give you a big sloppy kiss!

To celebrate his Nan's Birthday, Elliott decided he'd show off and do some celebratory rolls! It's been a couple of weeks since he did two rolls at the Mother's and Babies exercise class, we started to wonder if he decided the whole thing was overrated. He rolled over 6 times this evening and feels he may have perfected the technique (though these rolls were performed without a nappy on... time will tell if he can also execute this maneuver with the safety-pants on! He also returned from a couple of weeks of hiatus to reignite his swimming career in the bath. In recent times he's been much more keen to just lay there, relax and hold his feet in the air.

He steadies...

He rocks...

... and He rolls!

Elliott and his Daddy

Elliott just loves his Daddy ... he gets up in the morning and sits in his rocker while his Daddy eats breakfast and then he pines all day long for him, waiting for him to get home from work. You can really tell that he loves his Daddy by the way he gets so excited to see him when he gets home from work. He also seems a little out of sorts sometimes on a Monday, after spending the weekend with him ... it's like he's wondering where he's gone!

Elliott still looks a lot like Brett, although I do think one of them is a little cuter ... what do you reckon?!

In case you missed it...

Well Elliott was 12 weeks old last Tuesday and he will be 3 (calendar) months old this Tuesday, so it seemed like a good time to look back on what has been an amazing time in our lives! We made this movie, using essentially all the photo's (of Elliott) that we've taken since he came into our lives.

Be warned... This is a 11.5 Mb file, I wish I knew how to make it a smaller file without ruining the image quality but I don't... so for all those dial-up bandits, go make yourself a cup of tea because it will take a while.



The movie contains:
- 1277 frames
- 921 are original photos of Elliott (that's 77 photo's/week, a testament to the age of digital photography)
- 52 are photos of an increasingly pregnant Kel (26 side profile, 26 front profile)
- the remaining frames are repeated photos throughout the film for dramatic effect... and to fill out the song.

The song, for anyone who didn't bond with the Aussie band Boom Crash Opera in the late 80's is "The Best Thing", off the album "These Here Are Crazy Times" released in 1989 (I had it on cassette).

Believe it or not, the band is still together, and they have a Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/boomcrashoperabco

New shoes for Brett

Those who've known me for long enough would realise that buying new shoes is pretty big! These are the first sports shoes I've actually purchased since my days working in a sports apparel/shoe store named SPORTSCO. By far and away the best part of that chapter was meeting Kel, the smelly feet and angry customer I'm happy to forget! Anyway, the way I figure it, the last time I paid full price for shoes would have to be 11 years ago!

First the shoes had to get Elliott's seal of approval

Then I got to Try them on

Not to be outdone, Elliott tried his shoes on too (present from Don, Kelly and Taryn)

For the record my shoes were Brooks Vapors (size 8.5 US). An excellent cushioning shoe with less motion control than the Brooks Beast or Adrenalin... perfect for my slightly supine gait.

Meeting some more new faces

This Saturday we had some nice visits from family, some planned and other spur of the moment. First we got to see Joe, Paul and Angela in the morning before they set off to the big smoke (Sydney) to see Lisa, James and the girls. Then Stephen, Clare, Vicki, Nicola, Casey & Lauchlan stopped in after checking out the Pasha Bulka before it is liberate back to see (????). It was great to see everyone and we had a nice time catching up over a cup of tea. Casey & Lauchlan were excellent with Elliott, and it was nice for him to get to meet his second cousins.

Elliott & Clare

Elliott & Stephen

Elliott & Nicola

Elliott & Vicky

Elliott with Casey & Lauchlan

Finally, Joe, Paul and Angela stopped in for dinner on the way home. I cooked chicken mushroom and asparagus risotto... which turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. It was the least gluggy of all the risotto's I've cook (just wish I knew what I'd done differently). It sounds like they had a great visit in Sydney, and Paul was extremely happy to have narrowly averted a trip to Ikea!