Hello world!

As the title suggests! I’m getting the feel of the place and enjoying looking at all the different things you can do. Took me ages to get my flickr widget to work, but I finally did it! I love the theme I’ve got going on, browns and greens and turquoise are so lovely. Not sure if I’ll do anything else with the theme… for now it’s enough of a change and I’ve STILL not decided or got my hands on a photo shop program. In time.

Hot!

It’s hot! We are spending the day sitting under the air conditioning vents watching TV and eating and drinking anything that is cold! Matthew’s on an ABC Kids marathon and Gabriel had a 4 hour!!! nap today (with boob resettles). I reckon he had the best idea to lay in bed under the aircon and sleep. No point in using energy in this heat!

Spit first, then shake

This is what came out of Matthew’s mouth!

He and Alex were making a “deal” about something, and Matthew says, “Deal?” putting his hand out to shake with Alex. At the last minute, he pulled his hand away and says, “Oh wait, spit first, then shake…” He tries to do a little spit, which ends up as drool dribbling down his chin and then shakes.

Where did he get that?! LOL Boys are fun!

Last one.

January 8, 2008
the last documented breastfeed

It occurred to me the other day. Matthew woke up and asked for milk, and as Gabriel had just gone back to sleep and I had plenty of milk, I said ok. After two sucks, he said, “It’s empty.” I thought it was strange he said that, so I offered the other, and again, “It’s empty.”

And then I realised. It had been so long since his last real breastfeed, he’d forgotten how to get the milk out and naturally, thought it was empty.

After all our struggles to even start breastfeeding, I can’t even remember when we stopped. We’ve been struggling to understand each other over the past few weeks and I guess that’s a part of it. I’m a little bit sad, mostly that I don’t remember exactly when the last feed was. In a moment of panic, I found the above which is our last breastfeeding photo.

Don’t know what else to say, except that I love that boy.

Starting now…

I was thinking I could go back and catch the blog up on all the stuff that’s happened since I last blogged, but I think I’ll just pick up from now.

Today, Matthew had kinder. He goes Mondays in the morning and Thursdays in the afternoon. Mondays aren’t too bad because he doesn’t wake up too early and is fresh for the day. When we arrived this morning, the teacher had all the kids outside before it got too hot and was organising some water play. The kids are very lucky at our kinder. Last year they received a grant for a water tank to collect water for use in the toilets, to make up for the fact they are using fresh water for play.

I am really loving his kinder. We did start the year in 4yo kinder, but changed over to 3yo after a full week of kinder and swimming… that first full week ended with the most feral Friday! He was exhausted and I knew it was only going to get worse when they started staying for four hours at a time. A chat with his teacher told us he is doing well emotionally and socially and had the routine down pat, but it was the aftermath that was concerning me… the leftovers, if you will. His teacher did wonder how he was coping physically.

So, with a little bit of confusion, but overall success, Matthew is well settled. We have a working bee next weekend and then a teddy bears picnic a few days after that. We’re getting to know the other families and building our community.

Gabriel… my sweet, sweet angel… I don’t know where to start. Some things I’m noticing lately are that he is getting really good at getting up on hands and feet – who needs knees? When he does get on hands and knees he is reaching for everything, including the TV cabinet, sofa, dresser drawers, etc. I am wondering how long it will be before he starts walking the furniture.

On Saturday he had a nibble of his first vegetable – some steamed broccoli. We were at a friends house and he was doing the whole eye off mama’s plate and grab at it, so I thought I’d let him have a little suck and boy did he love it! I tried to take it out of his mouth and he nearly gummed my finger off. He had the green bits off an average sized floret. Other than that, he’s sucked on an apple and had a lick of a plum. I’m not at all excited about starting solids, am more stressed and not looking forward to the work involved. Just need to keep reminding myself that up until 12 months it’s all about tastes and experimenting with flavours and textures, NOT nutrition. We’ll see how we go in the weeks to come.

Pictures another day, but thought I’d post an update.