FuShMuSh

Project 366: Photo Dump

Fri, 11 May 2012 05:39:41 +0000

Day091: Sad, sick bubba in a bouncer

Day092: Man and woman

Day093: My last day of Prac

Day094: Happy Eddy

Day095: Evie is finally big enough for a forward facing car seat

Day096: Good Friday feast

Day097: Sleeping beauty with bear

Day098: View of Goulburn from the War Memorial

Day099: Grandma and Evie

Day 116: Baby celebrities

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:33:18 +0000

I have to share the story about the photo from Day 116. On Thursday, Evie and I caught up with Caitlin and her twins Edward and Poppy. We wandered down to Woolloomooloo so I could try Caitlin's new favourite lamington, we hung out in Hyde Park for a bit and then we lunched in the Westfield food court.

On our wanderings around the city I noticed that Poppy and Edward are the baby version of celebrities. People would smile and wave at them whenever we walked past. Then when we got the babies out for a little bit of run / crawl around in Hyde Park we were completely mobbed by Asian tourists. The tourists were cooing at the babies and taking lots of pictures.

It was funny at first and then it got a bit unsettling. The tourists didn't speak any English so we weren't able to communicate that the babies were uncomfortable with all the attention. Eventually the tourists moved on. It was a little bit of a taste of how it feels to be stalked by paparazzi. Not my cup of tea.

Project 366: Photo Dump

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:19:26 +0000

Day082: Hot cross buns, hot cross buns

Day083: Elliot

Day084: Hunger Games at Gold Class... woop!

Day085: "farm fresh" cage eggs

Day086: TD's yummy lamb stew for dinner

Day087: My poor sick bubba is not so keen on sleeping atm

Day088: Green in Dully

Day089: This week requires chips

Day090: Ring-a-ring-a-rosy

Evie: 11 months

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:19:30 +0000

Evie is 11 months old.

Evie is officially crawling. It made it a little difficult to get this month's photo. I was on child wrangling duties. I'd put Evie down on the ground on one side of the living room. She'd immediately start crawling, Andrew would snap away and we kept our fingers crossed that she'd crawl across the play mat on her journey to muckle something. We did this a few times before we managed to get a photo we were happy with. Poor Evie was a little frustrated by the end of it because we kept on dragging her away from stuff that she wanted to play with.

Evie's new independence means that she is into everything! She's not interested in playing with her toys anymore but wants to explore every corner of the apartment. It goes a little bit like this: Look! A pile of shoes! Let me throw them around. Look! A rubber doorstop! I wonder what it tastes like... nom nom nom. Look! A cardboard box! Let me bang on it for a bit. It's been a very quick lesson in how to child proof a house. We follow Evie around and when we find her playing with something that she probably shouldn't play with we put it away.

For a giggle, here is one of the outtakes from this month's photo shoot.

See Evie's monthly photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

First Birthday Season

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:01:18 +0000

A great support network available when you have a baby is Mothers' Group. In the beginning, the only thing you have in common with the other mums is that you live in the area and have newborns. In time you bond over things such as lack of sleep and talk about the colour of your baby's poo. Eventually you even talk about things other than your beautiful babies. Mothers' group is still one of the places I turn to for advice. Although, we're all first time mums so it's bit of the blind leading the blind. At least we're supported while we stumble around in the dark.

Our babies are all born around the same time so that means that they all turn one at around the same time. At the moment we're in the middle of what Andrew and I have nicknamed "First Birthday Season". Over the past few weekends we've been to the first round of first birthday parties. We've celebrated Felix's, Euan C's and Euan S's birthdays.

Evie has a great time at the parties. She gets to crawl around and poke other babies in the face, to play with other kids' toys and most importantly parties involve caaaaake! (Evie loves cake. She has inherited her mother's sweet tooth.) I have fun too, and get to take lots of cute photos of all the kiddies.

There is one thing that Evie is not a fan of and that is the cheering that happens at the end of the singing of Happy Birthday. At both parties Evie started crying after everyone sung Happy Birthday. I was confused because I've been singing Happy Birthday to her at home in preparation for her own birthday and she has never cried. So we did a little experiement at home after the party. When Andrew and I cheered Hip Hip Hooray at home she cracked it big time. Poor bubba, I guess we won't be doing that at her birthday.

More photos from Felix's birthday (slideshow), Euan C's birthday (slideshow) and Euan S's birthday (slideshow) on Flickr.

Project 366: Photo Dump

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:16:17 +0000

Day073: Purple in Dulwich Hill

Day074: Happy Pi Day!

Day075: Audrey and Evie

Day076: Pretty delicious

Day077: Evie loves yoghurt

Day078: Pretty in Dully

Day079: Cupcakes

Day 80: Nan + Evie, Audrey + TD

Day081: My two favourite people

Paddy's special birthday project

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:34:49 +0000

Paddy had a milestone birthday this year. He turned the big "three-oh" in March. Happy birthday Paddy!

Since Paddy was going to be far away in Hong Kong, I wanted to organise something special for him so that he felt loved on his birthday.

A while ago I'd read about a birthday project on OhHappyDay.com. The project involves cutting up a poster into a number of pieces. Each piece is mailed to a friend of the birthday person along with a note asking the friend to write a message on the piece and mail it to the birthday person. During the week of the birthday, the birthday boy/girl receives all the pieces of the poster in the mail like a puzzle and feels the birthday love. I decided that this was the perfect project for Paddy's 30th birthday.

I picked a photo of ours that Paddy liked and got it blown up into a poster size.

When the poster arrived we cut it into postcard sized pieces and stuck a bit of cardboard on the back of it. Then we mailed the pieces out to Paddy's family and friends, asked them to write a special birthday message for Paddy on the back and then asked them to mail them to Paddy.

And it worked! Paddy received cards in the mail on his birthday and a few weeks after. He sent me some photos showing the progress on the puzzle as more cards arrived.

They almost all made it there too. I'm not disappointed that the puzzle isn't complete though. It just adds to the story of the project.

A big thank you to everyone who took part and a special thank you to Sue who was my secret helper in Hong Kong.

Happy 30th Birthday Paddy! You are loved!

Project 366: Photo Dump

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:51:08 +0000

Day064: I have some unusual companions in bed these days

Day065: I remember when we used to be able to climb in these

Day066: Mmm butts

Day067: My nights are about lesson planning atm

Day068: Someone turned a tap on

Day069: Water still around from yesterday's downpour

Day070: Cockatoos at Clareville

Day071: Pretty tree lined street in Dully

Day072: Anne makes the tastiest toasted sammiches

Evie: 10 Months

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 05:14:11 +0000

Evie is 10 months old. Evie is giving us the thumbs up this month. (She's actually 10 and a half months old. Uni work got on top of me. Same old excuse! Hopefully it won't be an excuse for very much longer.)

We finally have teeth! Yay! For about two weeks Evie was manically gumming all her toys and was just a tad grumpy. Then one morning when she was gnawing my finger I could feel a sharp little point. It was her first toothy peg. Evie is definitely not dentally gifted. Most of the other babies in Mothers' group have about eight teeth. Apparently the timing of teeth is hereditary and both Andrew and I were late to get them.

Evie's special trick this month is clapping. To teach Evie to clap Andrew and I would clap our hands and sing "Everybody's clapping". After a few repetitions of the song (ok, maybe more than a few) Evie started to clap along with us. She is now an excellent clapper. She claps when I sing to her (probably the only person in the world who likes my singing). She also claps when she thinks she's done something well. She gives herself a clap when she eats all her dinner. She also claps herself when she goes from being on her tummy to sitting. Evie recognises the power of positive thinking.

At 10 months old Evie is almost crawling. She can go from sitting into the crawling position but isn't quite sure how to move forwards yet. She loves walking though. We hold her hands and let her dictate the direction. When she reaches something interesting (Mummy's handbag, the nappy bag, a pile of shoes) she'll plonk herself down and refuse to keep moving until she's had a good rummage.

See Evie's monthly photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Project 366: Photo Dump

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 04:45:50 +0000

Day055: Euan likes splashing

Day056: Chicken katsu don for lunch at Menya

Day057: Cousins

Day058: Helping with the laundry

Day059: A pretty sunrise

Day060: Look who's excited about being big enough to sit in the trolley

Day061: Evie loves her loud cousin Leo

Day062: Red is best

Day063: Evie and Alby