I just can't stop....

...loving them more and more each and every day!

Genevieve has a friend over for dinner

We often catch up with Michele and Harry for a Friday afternoon drink or dog walk. It also gives Genevieve and Harry some playtime together. Today Michele's husband Tim was with them so I messaged Cory to meet us at the park.

Cory had in fact already met Michele and Tim en route on his ride home, so he was already waiting in the park with them when I arrived. Ben and their dog, Mac, had a good run, although Mac did find a muddy puddle to play in.

We stayed longer than usual so the kids were getting a bit hungry and the boys were getting a bit thirsty so we all went back to our place and gave the kids their dinner while we all had a relaxing drink in the back yard. Lucky I swept that morning!!

It appears that my baby food concoctions please more than just Genevieve, with Harry downing his in record time!

Genevieve's First Christmas

We'd purposely made sure that this Christmas was going to be pretty low-key, but that didn't mean we weren't busy!

I had my department break-up at work on Friday afternoon, and then rode home from Elwood into a very strong head-wind (with a few too many VBs under my belt and heavy bottles of wine in my pack). We waited for Nanna to come by, as we were headed off to see Even, who each year do their Christmas Even gig. They're always great and this year was no exception. Last year Naomi missed out (with the bump in her belly) so it was great that we had the proud babysitter to fill in.

On Saturday we headed up to Ballarat for lunch with Nana and John's family. A few weeks ago, we put a little rear-view mirror in the car, so from the driver's seat you can see little Vievey. It's enough to see if she's happy, or asleep or with the sun on her face. Here you can see the view from the driver's rear-view mirror.

Ballarat is in the grip of a water crisis (yes, I know we all are, but Ballarat is particularly bad). Here you can see "Lake" Wendouree, which as you can see, is more like the Wendouree mud flats. The lake was the host to the rowing events from the Melbourne 1956 Olympics. We saw a rowing meet there just two years ago. Here, you can see Nai and Genevieve walking where they would normally have been up to the necks in it.

When it came time to the giving of gifts, no guesses who received the most ! She received HEAPS. Honestly, we should've brought a ute! After Nana's on Saturday, we were then off to Pop's on Sunday. We thought this was to be a small(ish) lunch, however there were probably about forty there. I was happy though, as I think I ate about a whole month's worth of dead animal (pork, turkey and ham!) Genevieve had a slice of turkey, and it disappeared very quickly. And of course, more presents for Vievey.

Then, on Christmas Day we had the close family over for coffee and fruit-toast, as well as yet again, more gifts for little Genevieve.

It was great to get a shot of Genevieve with Nanna and Nana. She's seen quite a lot of both of them in the past few days, and she's loving it.

So now it looks like some other kid's toys are here, there's so many new ones. She's already chosen a few favourites... but there's plenty there for variation.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Getting excited!

...actually, probably us more than her. She doesn't really know what's going on. She's loving all the visitors though.

Thanks everyone for the cards, emails and best wishes for Christmas, and to Nanna for babysitting last night so we could go out.

We're seeing Nana for lunch today, and Genevieve will be meeting her step-cousins for the first time today - one of which is only 8 weeks younger than she is, so hopefully they'll get along.

It puts a rose in ev-ry cheek!

Genevieve is a happy little vegemite, especially when she gets a vegemite sandwich for a snack. Although, it is a very messy process. She enjoys pulling the sandwich apart and eating the vegemite directly. The result of which is reminiscent of Daddy's attempts for MOvember.

(This photo was the cutest, but others showed the full vege-mo.)

Bah..... humbug!

Last year we drove to Adelaide for the big family Christmas.

This year, we're doing as little as possible. No tree (if you ignore the 30cm one on the mantlepiece). A few little family things, with people stopping by our place on the big day to watch Genevieve open her presents (of course, that'll mean scrunching and chewing some wrapping paper).

About the only thing we did do is ask our friend Jenn to post us another stocking from the US of A, to match the ones she gave us a few years back (which it does - it's just the camera flash making it look a different colour).

Not number ones... but...

The following has been hidden, just so it doesn't offend any delicate sensibilities. If you choose to read it, just highlight the intentionally difficult to read text below with your mouse. But a warning - it contains poo! (No photos, thankfully!)

The little girl is a poo machine! It is astounding, but it appears what comes out is of far greater volume that what goes in. Thankfully, they are all rather well formed and easy to deal with. In fact, with our FuzziBunz nappies they just slide straight off and into the toilet. But that's when she's wearing the nappy.

We've had the one in the bath. (Just once so far, thankfully).

We've had the one in the bathers (well... it is a swimming nappy).

But recently, she's taken to slicing one off during her regular naked time of an evening. No worries, Naomi thinks, the perfect chance for some potty training. So Naomi bought a potty and the naked time now starts with a bit of 'sit and think' time. It seems to be working pretty well. Last night, she did a whopper. So we thought we were safe. (We thought...)

We let her crawl up our hallway, chasing the cat. A few minutes later, from the distance of our lounge, I saw something suspicious in our hallway in line with our bathroom. So I sprint up, and Genevieve excitedly crawls to meet me - straight through it.

Lots of laughter, gagging, cleaning and disinfecting.

A tomato is a fruit!

As mentioned previously, Genevieve has taken to getting things out of our fruit bowl and eating them. Today, however, it was a tomato.

Still, she tucked into it with the same gusto as she tucks in to all of her food. She ended up eating about a quarter of it before getting sick of it. That was a lot more than the tomato stalk, which only received a quick chew.

MESSopatamia

This is probably the first of many. Genevieve was in the kitchen with Cory and me and she seemed to be interested in our fruit bowl/stand. She was pulling herself up and trying to grab the apples, peaches and nectarines. So I gave her a nectarine.

After a moment's hesitation, she sunk the teeth in. She had a taste, her eyes lit up as she savoured the flavour and then she virtually devoured the whole thing.

Of course, nectarines are quite juicy so if you click on this image for the zoom, take a look at the juice on her belly, nappy, the floor and of course, her face. What you can't see is that she also managed to get nectarine on her back. We're not quite sure how!?

Not to be outdone...

Now that Naomi has finished her boot camp for the year, it was up to me to show that I could mix it in the exercise stakes, with the next of our Triathlon series.

But of course, I'm only doing the 'fun' series, (this time, 200m swim, 8km bike and 2 km run) and Nai is doing the 'sprint' series (500m/20km/5km) so I guess that counts me out again. I went pretty well - my knee held out longer but it still forced me to walk some of it. (But again, I beat my mates so that's the main thing.) It's just as well I can swim pretty well and the daily ride to work is transferable onto my road bike, which does get along a lot faster than my daily ride.

Genevieve was very good, although it was a pretty hot day so she didn't really want to go for a snooze in her stroller. However once she did she stayed asleep for quite a while - most of Nai's race in fact.

By the time Nai got to her run leg, it would've been early to mid thirties so she ended up walking a lot of it - probably a good idea as there were many people being treated by officials and medical staff for overdoing it in the heat.

Genevieve was happy though - lapping up all of the attention and catching all the sights, as she waited for her mummy to come in.

Afterwards, Nai took her in for a quick dip, to cool them both down, before heading home to air-conditioned comfort.

The end of boot camp

For the last 7 weeks I have been doing bootcamp 3 times a week and Genevieve has been enjoying time at the gym creche.

Thursday and Saturday were the culmination of 7 weeks of hard work as the 3 bootcamp teams were pitted against each other for the super challenge. Cory and Genevieve came along to lend their support on the Saturday in very hot and smoky conditions. I'm not sure if Genevieve preferred to cheer us on or go to creche as she loves it so much!

The "smurf" team (named for the colour of our tops) was mainly made up of mums. We competed in 7 events overall and the "Smurfs" were victorious in 6 proving them to be the fastest, strongest and best. Go MUMS!

Standing and screaming

Genevieve can now pull herself up to a standing position on furniture but can't get down and doesn't like falling onto her bottom.

So now when she wakes up (or doesn't want to go to sleep) she will stand up in her cot, hang onto the bars and scream until someone comes to rescue her.

I hope she learns how to get herself down soon!!

Christmas Shopping

We have a rule in our household - no Christmas stuff until after Naomi's birthday (Dec 5th).

It doesn't stop people looking, however!

A day in the sunshine

For my birthday this year I decided to have 2 parties - one for the adults and one with kiddies. We planned for the Sunday afternoon to have a picnic in the park however it forecast to be cool and showers. In true Melbourne form though the weather was perfect and sunny, about 20 degrees. We had about 10 babies and children turn up and they were all well behaved and had a great time spending the day outside in the playground.

Take 3 times daily

Now that Genevieve is eating 3 meals and sleeping through (mostly) she can reduce her milk feeds to 3 a day. This means 2 breastfeeds and 1 bottle. I will continue the morning and evening feeds and give her the bottle during the day. This will also prepare her well for childcare next year.

Genevieve's favourite time

We had a rough night with Genevieve last night. We think she's really starting to test her boundaries, and this includes at night time. At 2am, she was only happy when we were in her room with her. We're gonna try a few strategies to deal with this, however most of them will end up pretty noisy.

Consequently, we all slept in and that threw out the normal daily schedule. No real drama, although in the end we were running late for swimming (and managed to catch every red light - isn't that always the way)?

This week was Water Safety Awareness Week, so they had a few different things at the pool, including everyone receiving a special certificate. This, of course, means that there was again no chance of Genevieve earning one of her achievement stickers. Not sure what she has to do to earn them, as she seems to be as accomplished, or even more accomplished in water activities (eg: going underwater through the hoop) as the other kids. Perhaps its just that they don't want her graduating to the 3-year-old's class before she reaches 1?