Sprung!

It seems that Genevieve is pretty popular with the boys already!

Here she is with Declan (Dex) who is a good 8 weeks younger than her. Dex is Tania and Mark's son.

They look a bit startled so maybe she is already corrupting him or else she is hoping that Harry doesn't find out.... and then of course there's the other boys at playgroup....

Genevieve's got a boyyyyy-friend

All of Genevieve's fashionable wardrobe is paying some dividends.

Today at playgroup when Harry and Genevieve were next to each other there was a 'hand holding' incident observed (all Genevieve's instigation) as can be seen here, later holding on to Harry's jacket. Harry wasn't complaining!

So it looks as though she's chasing the younger men already. (This one by a good 6 days or so!)

Garble-arble

Garble-arble

Watch the video

So what has Genevieve been up to recently? Let her explain it herself...

1.2MB - Quicktime

"Dad"

Not to be outdone, this evening during her 'naked time' on her mat, she uttered a quite discernable 'dad'. I was pretty chuffed!

Finding my feet

Genevieve used to just lie under her play-gym and look at things, but in the last couple of days she's been lifting her feet up and kicking at things. This appears to be deliberate as she is looking at Tigger and kicking him to make a sound. She then chuckles and kicks again and again.

She has also started grabbing at things on the play-gym, and some of them even end up in her mouth. So we loaded the arms of the play-gym with as many of her toys as we can, just to see what happens.

Why is she howling?

Genevieve and I were playing when suddenly she began to SCREAM! She was inconsolable and turned purple. I couldn't work out why (but I managed to take a photo of it)... until I looked on her face. There was a huge, nasty, red scratch down the side of her cheek.

She had somehow managed to scratch herself with her constantly growing fingernails (thanks for those genes Daddy) and obviously gave herself a bit of a fright with how much it hurt. Needless to say, the nails have now been trimmed (again!)

So now the little girl's beautiful face is temporarily blemished, although it appears to be healing quickly, which is a good thing for all concerned.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Friday was my birthday. But (thankfully), it became one of those birthdays that comprised of quite a number of happy events over a few days.

I did go to work on Friday, but the girls came in to town and had lunch with me. There was then a trip to Mountain Goat Brewery (just for a change) that evening, people back at our place, my Mother on Sat morning, catching up with others on Sat arvo and a dinner party in the evening.

Sunday morning was Naomi's first ride on her road bike in almost a year, kicking off her training for the 210km Around the Bay in a Day. It was good seeing the team members I rode with last year. We visited the neighbours and did the stupor-market shopping.

Throughout all of this, Genevieve was with me - and that's the best birthday present of all. She cried from time to time, but was generally incredibly well behaved even though she was out and about so much. And sleeping for 10 hours straight two nights in a row (and a fair bit during the day as well) is always going to be welcomed.

She speaks!

Last night I was playing with Genevieve on the floor and talking to her - I am taking Melanie's advice and trying to teach her how to say "dad dad dad" and telling her that her daddy loves her, so that when she wakes up screaming in the middle of the night she yells for daddy and not mummy.

Anyway I was doing my usual "dad dad dad" to her and she was gurgling and burbling back in her usual manner. Then suddenly she came out with something that sounded exactly like she said "mum". Obviously it was a fluke but I think that Cory has been undermining me and teaching her "mum mum mum" behind my back!

Happy (first) Mother's Day

This is now our third year in a row we've participated in the 'Mother's Day Classic'. So, unfortunately, Genevieve was the only one to get breakfast in bed.The first year, we did the 4km walk and last year we managed the 8km run.

This year, Naomi again had the goal to be able to run the 8km, but this time only 13 weeks and around 11 hours after Genevieve arriving on the scene.

We finished in just more than 1 hour, which was a bit quicker than what Naomi thought she would have, with me driving the pram (and struggling with a bit of knee pain, unfortunately) and Genevieve sleeping for the whole event. Bludger!

Then it was home for a Cory-special-cooked-breakfast, off to Sunbury to pick up my mum and then to Ballarat for afternoon tea with Naomi's. All in all, a pretty big day!

Cow wrestling

Genevieve has not really shown much interest in her toys up until now. This week she has started grabbing them and trying to taste them.

This is her cow that Nanna gave her before she was born. I'm not sure she really liked the taste [Perhaps she takes after her Mummy? : Cory] but she seemed to enjoy the wrestling side of things.

She's also been wrestling with our patience a little, with the lack of sleep again taking it's toll. Really, we don't have much to complain about compared with some - but lack of sleep is never easy, even when it is only occasional.

Not Happy Gen

Last week Genevieve was a miserable little girl. She was unsettled and screaming (see picture) a lot. She wouldn't sleep during the day and wanted only Mummy and Daddy.

As the week progressed I got more tired and frustrated. We didn't know what to do and by Friday I was at the end of my tether. So Cory came home from work with dummies (which we'd been trying to avoid) and gripe water (as suggested by Kellie's fella, Erich who is an expert with 2 boys of his own).

Anyway the dummy failed as Genevieve spat it - literally. No substitute for the real thing I suppose. So we then tried the gripe water which went down badly but produced some wind and Genevieve then slept for 10 hours straight. So it looks like the gripe water did the trick and that Genevieve was grumpy from the wind building up in her belly.

I'm sure that some would say that Genevieve is 'colicy', but after Cory spoke with some people whose kids had had colic, we think she's just a bit grumpy from lack of sleep.

12 week check

It was Genevieve's 12 week check with Wendy this week and we had the usual weighing, measuring and development tasks to do. Even though it's a short walk to Wendy's, it has now become quite cold here in Melbourne so her little eskimo jacket has come in handy.

Genevieve is still growing according to the 50th percentile and is 59 cm long. This means that 50% of girl babies her age are shorter than her and 50% are longer than her so she is right in the middle. Her head is also at the 50th percentile so she is very average there. Hopefully this means that she will be taller than her mother (at the same age I was 57cm).

However Genevieve didn't put on as much weight as we would have liked and weighed in at 4.9kg, or 10lb12, which puts her only at the 20th percentile. (80% are heavier than her). Wendy wasn't worried as Genevieve had grown and she demonstrated all the signs of a healthy baby. Some reasons why she might not have gained as much weight are that sometimes breastfed babies have a lull in their weight gain. Probably more likely though is that the week before last Cory and I had a gastro bug and were sick for a couple of days. This can affect milk production (it may also explain Genevieve's grumpiness last week as she may have been a bit hungry).

All the things that Genevieve should be doing as as a 12 week old she is doing so Wendy was very pleased. Over the next month we expect her to start grabbing things such as toys and putting them in her mouth. Soon after that, we can expect her to be doing this year's tax returns for us.

Just a whole lot of cuteness

Just a whole lot of cuteness

Watch the video

If you want to see Genevieve looking at the camera for around a minute, then check this out.

Quicktime 1.4MB

About face

If the little girl's early morning timing is OK, and she can get a feed in before normal dog-walking time, then she will sometimes come along. Generally, that doesn't happen mid-week, but on weekends it's much easier.

This morning, we thought we'd try her facing outwards in the sling. Her neck muscles are quite strong now and she can hold her head up very well. So on this very cold morning she faced the world head on - and loved it!

(Click on the image to zoom in)