Perth Visit for the Birthday Boy, June 2011

It would seem that our Perth visits (to date) aren't without incident!! Last time, it was Mark having emergency gall bladder surgery smack in the middle of our holiday. This time, he was struck down with a gastro bug two days before we were due to fly... luckily, that sorted itself out just in time. But then we were delayed because if the Chilean ash cloud!!! It was a bit of a debarcle, watching the QANTAS website and Facebook page (each with conflicting info, of course). Hold time on the phone... well we got up to over 4 hours before giving up. Our 8.10am flight wasn't leaving on Wednesday morning and that was that! We went to bed and woke up to an SMS saying our flight was rescheduled to 7.25pm that night. Oki doki then! Not such a big delay in the end, and QANTAS came through with the goods, without us having to sit on hold to reschedule flights. Job well done, I thought - it would have been a logistical nightmare for QF staff I'm sure!

I'm pleased to report that from there, the trip was smooth sailing and without incident! Hurray! The time goes far too quickly though. Five days just isn't long enough; still, it's better than no time at all!

Nana and Pop were so happy to see their gorgeous little granddaughter again!

Despite a hiccup with our table not being ready on time and eating very VERY late, Mark's birthday dinner was a great night. Liv organised a cake... which was SOOOooo yummy - even at 11pm!!

Hannah loved spending time with her big sister :-)

I loved watching Hannah interacting with the other kids, now she's a little older. We caught up with Alison and her little girl Caitlin... Alison pointed out that we've been friends for 21 years now!! Here is Caitling reading to Hannah - so sweet!

We stayed with Sam & Ryan, and their boys were fantastic with Hannah! Particularly Jonah, who bonded with Hannah one day doing his "watermellon dance" (jigging around in front of her, holding a piece of watermellon above his head!) and making her laugh. So sweet! 

No photos unfortunately, but it was fantastic to catch up with Tracey - kiddie free! We went out on Sunday night, enjoyed a glass of wine, nice food and great conversation for a couple of hours without interruption!

My trip into Shenton Park with Hannah to see my old bosses and work colleagues will become a regular part of any trip back to Perth, I think! It's always so great to see them all and catch up, albeit briefly.

Special thanks to Sam and Ryan for having us to stay with them, and for Mark and Kaz for lending Mark their car so he could go and see his mates while I was off seeing mine! (It was also great to finally catch up with them properly and for Kaz to meet Hannah this time!).

Finally I'll wrap this up with some photos of Hannah on the plane, and a little brag at how well she travelled - both ways! Going over from Sydney to Perth at night, she slept in the bassinet straight after take-off and we got her up when it was time to land. Angel! Coming back to Sydney during the day, she had a 1.5 hour sleep and then had a feed and sat back in the bassinet to play, until it was time to land. So proud of her!

Dadadada!

I don't think I've ever heard anything so sweet as Hannah's little voice saying "dadadada" for the first time. She wasn't babbling anything in particular for ages, and then suddenly, dadadada! Over and over and over again! It is soooo adorable! On the same day, she experimented with bababa, but then must have decided to shelve that one for later, and stick with dadada for now. Hehe!

Poor Hannah... now she can't get away from us, we're constantly saying "dadadada?!" to her!!

Sunday Lunch in Windsor

It's a bit of an oxymoron when Mark's soccer game is cancelled due to ground closure from "bad weather", when it's stunning blue sky. But it seems that is what Sydney councils do. Rain on Friday meant no soccer on Sunday. Oh well - no complaints from me!

We headed into Windsor, had a walk around the markets and then decided on pizza for lunch! Naughty but nice!

Mark patiently waiting for our pizza to be brought out!

Hannah being an angel in the pram with a rusk.

Our very very naughty but VERY nice pizza!

While we were eating lunch, the Cyldesdales Restaurant came past and parked just nearby. The idea is you dine on board in the carriage while the horses take you on a tour around historic Windsor!

The horses were beautiful and smelt so... HORSEY!! Ahhhh memories of my horsey gal days!

By this stage of our outing, Hannah had fallen asleep in the pram (I am LOVING how she just nods off with no fuss in the pram now!!) so we strolled around and walked the pizza off for half an hour before heading home!!

Such a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

My Little Water Baby

We've been going to swimming lessons for the past month or so; I was really keen to get Hannah into the water as soon as possible, so that she never really knows any different and is always going to be confident and capable in the pool. For now the lessons are quick and basic, 20 minutes with lots of nursery rhymes and fun.

They choose a toy, and the idea is for us to throw it and them to "swim" to get to it. Hannah spends most of the time just wanting to suck on hers and if I throw it too far away she loses interest immediately!! Cheeky little monkey.

They each have a turn with the instructor, floating while she sings a song and then they do a dolphin dive. So far Hannah is totally unperturbed by going under the water! I'm hoping it stays that way!!

We enjoy our swimming, it's good fun!

Happy 33rd Birthday to Me!

Ahhh, my first birthday as a Mummy! And I had a wonderful day :-) First of all, we opened pressies... a very nice Canterbury top and a lovely zip-up jumper/jacket. Perfect for a Mummy who "never has ANYthing to wear"!!! And of course, my very first "Mummy" birthday card, awww!

Being a Friday, we had our usual swimming lesson in the morning. We both enjoy it so much that I didn't want to miss it, so off we went! Afterwards, I was treated to a very yummy, leisurely and relaxing lunch at The Vault restaurant and wine bar by my gorgeous best friend Al :-)

We indulged!!

Hannah playing in her pram before nodding off for a little sleep! (Angel child on Mummy's birthday - what a good girl!)

That night, we had a nice quiet dinner at home while Hannah slept... tasty fillet steak with garlic veggies and chewy roast potatoes, followed by a disgustingly big white chocolate & macadamia cookie with a cuppa!! 

On Sunday, the celebrations continued. We headed up to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, for lunch at The Gardners Inn. Mark, Hannah and I, Al, Steve, Hunter and Tyler. We parked ourselves on the two couches right in front of the fire, nice and cosy!

We had a slight hiccup half way through where Hannah became increasingly discontent and ended up screaming the place down (we even managed to encourage one table to pick up their things and move!!!). Took me a while to realise she was hungry (way before she usually would be, I might add!), so once fed (immediately after a glass of wine - oops!) all was well!!

Hunter is just busting for Hannah to be big enough to play with her!!

But for now she's content being the "big girl" and so helped me rock the pram!!

Al and Steve got me a very cool Wireless Weather Station for my birthday. It tells me both the inside and outside temperature, as well as a weather forecast for the next 12-24 hours! It's extremely cool!

Just realised I need to set the correct time and date! Taken at 1.30 pm and it's 11 degrees outside!!

All in all, a really lovely weekend of celebrations :-)
 

Jolly Jumping!

I've bought Hunter's Jolly Jumper from Al. We are doing pretty well with all the hand-me-down clothes and bits & pieces!! Fun bouncy times ahead for Hannah! For now though, she just sort of... hangs there!!! I see it as a change of scenery for her and somewhere else for me to put her!!!!

It was so cute, Macey came up to check her out and Hannah put her hand out and was touching Macey on the head. I didn't have the camera handy though!

Hannah's Adventure with Solids

So far, a very unsuccessful adventure!! To begin with, she just wasn't interested. Still really isn't when it comes to puree from a spoon. She doesn't seem to like the taste of anything (healthy) that goes into her mouth!!

Here she is having her first taste of Farex rice cereal, at exactly five months old...

OOooo this is fun - what's this?!

OK I think I get the idea...

URGH! Mum! What the?!?!

Can't say I blame her really, the stuff is foul!! Since then we've tried it again several times, mixed with some pear and also mixed with pumpkin; a massive fail each time. Hmmmm.

She DID enjoy the taste of the lid to the icecube trays that I used to freeze the puree pumpkin!

We've also tried some of the Rafferty's all natural food sachets. She turned her nose up at those as well. She did swallow a TINY bit of one the other day, "sweet potato, carrot and sweetcorn". I was so excited!!

One afternoon we were having a cuppa, and Mark gave her a plain Arnotts biscuit. Whaddya know, that was a BIG HIT!

Baby rusks also seem to be a hit...

Considering the puree doesn't seem to be going down too well, but the biscuit and rusk that she held herself was a success, I thought OK, we'll try some finger food! Steamed a few pieces of broccoli and left her to it. Her intention is all there, she goes straight for it, picks it up, straight to the mouth, but then appears to be thoroughly disgusted at the taste!!! She tried several times but to her utter disappointment, it tasted the same every time!!

She seems to like the concept of picking things up and shoving them in her mouth, though, so I tried her with a steamed carrot and beans. The result was positive! Into the mouth, lots of sucking and very minimal disgusted facial expressions!

I think we'll just have to keep trying. She has to eat eventually... right?!?!?!

I've also just noticed that all my child seems to wear is a bright pink Wondersuit... not true! It's just they are her PJ's and I'm usually doing this on a morning, haha!