Been a while!

Gosh, life is busy!
After our QLD holiday we were home for just a week where i madly finished off an assignment for school then we went to Hobart for a week. Quite a contrasting holiday to our QLD one!
We've been home for a bit but I am madly doing my last assignment so promise to write after that! Just a few more weeks.
Lots going on, our little man is eating lots of food, he's sitting up and he's rolling over from front to back!! Excitement all round!!
Can't wait to finish school so i can relax a bit more, but right now, gotta get back to it. He's a recent pic - he's just sooo cute.
I think we need a new video soon - i'll work on getting one up next post!

Family Holiday

We've just come home from our first family holiday. We spent 11 days in Caloundra and Brisbane and had a great time! It's quite a different holiday with a baby in tow, but i've come to terms with the much more sedate style of holiday and accepted that i won't be diving and trekking and kayaking etc etc on holidays anytime soon!

We did get to go surfing once though, which was great!! Staying with family and friends was good as we got a few opportunities to venture out and about for a few hours here and there without the little one. He really coped just fine with being somewhere different and we tried to stick with our little routines and make sure he had lots of sleeps as he normally would. Overall, a resounding success!

We even found a $75 surfboard at Trash and Treasure market and we bought it - for Spence of course!! His first surfboard. He's a pic of him on it!!!

Home Alone

Ky and Spence have gone away for the weekend and I am here all alone!

It's quite weird. It's the first time i've been away from Spencer since he was born, so that's a little hard - I doing ok at the moment - though they did only go about 5 hours ago! Ky wanted to go to the country to see her parents given that we are going away and then she'll be working weekends for a while so won't be able to get down there. I have lots of work to do on the Masters before we go away as i have an assignment due mid Sept and another mid Oct. So anyway, Ky suggested that she and Spence go away by themselves. At first I was horrified, but then Ky pointed out all of the positive benefits....a good nights sleep, a sleep in, being able to make loud noises, getting lots of work done...did i mention sleeping in???

So, I'm really looking forward to having a big sleep in, going to the gym and spending as long as i want to and then getting stuck into more school work tomorrow. Of course, if i get it done early enough I could always drive down to see them.....?!

Home Renovations and Expansions

So many things going on here.....!

On the weight loss front, despite a small plateau at the moment, i've lost 6.5kg since starting the WW thing, i'm still 9kg off my pre-baby weight of 65kg, so sticking at it.

I'm working working working - still mostly from home, thank goodness. Study has started back about a month ago, i've got just two subjects to go till i finish my Masters, so working hard at that right now. In a mad rush to finish the third assignment before we go on holiday.

Something exciting - we're getting one half of our massive garage converted to a home office and storage room. That's a bit exciting as it will free up our other bedroom (which is currently an office/study) for the next child!! Isn't it funny how as soon as you have a baby, everyone is already asking you when you'll have the next one! It has made us think about it much more than we would have. I'm still just wanting to get used to the first one - and get my body back to normal - before i start on the second!

Our holiday to the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane is coming up in just two weeks, goodness, that is soon - i'd better get back to my assignment instead of blogging away!!

Baby Rice and Peer Group Pressure

I wonder if babies actually like baby rice? For the last five days we've tried to give Spencer baby rice - he's just 5 months old and although the WHO recommend not starting solids until 6 months, we were feeling the pressure. All except two babies at mother's group have already started with solids. So we caved and went to the shop and got some baby rice for 4 months +. The big moment came and we got our little concoction of rice and formula and the special little pink rubbery spoon that i accidently stole from Big W (that's another story!) and we gave it a shot. He loved it!! Nahh, just kidding - he hated it! See for yourself in the vid below!!

We've persevered though, much to his horror, so now he is actually trying to 'eat'. I was wondering how long I have to keep giving him this horrible stuff before we can give him something nicer. Books and websites say stick with the rice for a few weeks - but i'm not so sure, we may just pull out the big guns - sweet potato and banana (not together though!) - they seem to be popular with the mums.

Spencer's Letter

Spencer is now a political activist! Here's a copy of the letter he sent to all of the state MPs:



Hello!

My name is Spencer and I am five months old. My mummies are helping me to write this letter because there is some legislation that you have to vote on soon that impacts our family greatly. It is legislation to do with same sex parented families, access to assisted reproductive technology, adoption and surrogacy. This legislation will decide whether my family should be called a family and whether both of my mummies should be recognized by the law as my parents.

I don't really know what legislation is and I don't know much about the law - (hey, I'm only five months old) - but I do know about my family.

I have two mummies who love me alot and look after me. One of my mummies is a Firefighter - I want to be just like her when I grow up. My other mummy works on the computer part time from home so she can look after me. We live in a nice house where I have my own bedroom, a nice backyard and lots of toys. My favourite toy is called Ziggy, he's blue and orange and he squeaks and makes me smile and laugh!

Both my mums have been there for me since I was just a little dot on the ultrasound screen. Everyone at the doctor's clinic knew I had two mums. When I was born the doctor took me from my mummy's tummy and both my mummies were there and everyone in the hospital knew I had two mums. Now that I'm here in the world both my mums change my nappies and give me a bottle and pick me up for a hug when I cry. We go to mother's group every Tuesday and basketball on a Wednesday morning and everyone there knows I have two mums. We even go to Rainbow Playgroup every month where all the kids have two mums - and some have two dads!!

I don't really know why the law doesn't understand that I have two mums - everyone else does and they don't seem to mind!

As well as my two mums, in my family I have four aunties and four uncles and eight cousins and three grandmas and two grandpas!! Boy, that's a lot of people that love me!! It's a bit long-winded for me to explain who's who and how everyone is related - but that's families for you isn't it? - they come in all shapes and sizes!

Anyway, I hope that you can think about us when you have your vote on the legislation and vote in favour of it. My mummies are very concerned that they don't both have a recognized legal relationship with me and I reckon that I deserve to have my two parents recognized as my parents, this makes me feel safe and secure. It would mean alot to all of us that the legal position of our family reflects reality.

I've attached a picture of us for you so you can see what we look like. We are just a family, like any other! If you want to ask us any questions about our family, we'd be happy to talk to you, just so you can understand how important it is to us all that we have the same rights as everyone else. My mummy Karen's mobile number is XXXX XXX XXX.

I better go now, mum says I need to go and have a nap.

Thank you for reading about my family!


From Spencer


P.S. I've attached a picture of me and Ziggy too!

Stuff

Well Spencer is almost back to eating properly and sleeping properly, thank goodness!! That night time waking thing is hard work! We went to the MCHN yesterday and he's 6.3kg now, the big boofer!! He's doing great and has started to giggle this week. The last few days he has been doing these funny high pitched squeals and we just worked out last night that they are the start of a giggle! How cute, give it a couple of weeks and i reckon he'll be really giggling - can't wait to get it on video!!

On the weight watchers front, it's been slow going, but i am losing weight. Have lost total of 2.7kg now. I've been pretty strict about it (apart from a gigantic popcorn at the movies!) and i have been cooking up some nice stuff - getting quite into it. I managed to wear a pair of pants the other day from my 'normal' wardrobe - rather than the maternity wear or tracksuit pants! I am determined to get to my 10% goal by my birthday in September. That's still another 5kg away.

Anyway, back to work for me! Will leave you with a pic of the little boofer!! He's getting so big!

The Weigh In

Last week i took drastic action. I joined Weight Watchers! I figured that it had been three months since Spencer was born and i immediately lost 6 kg at that point. And that was it. Three months later here i am still 15kg overweight!
It's hard to eat well around Kylie though, who just eats whatever she wants and doens't get fat. Don't you hate that.
So anyhow, i tried to stop eating junk and eat less. I started exercising. But with no results happening, i decided it was time to put some effort in. Not sure if you've ever been to weight watchers - i have - i think it's a great idea, because it's not pre-prepared meals it's about learning how to eat better in the real world. It's also motivating. A bit kitsch, sure, but motivating nevertheless. And it's really cool to see the same people each week and see them losing weight and feeling good about themselves, i'm all for it.
Tomorrow is my first weigh in. I've been really good all week and have been cooking up a storm of low fat, healthy, yummy meals all week long. So fingers crossed for tomorrow!

What's happening here??

It seems that we've already becomed accustomed to almost full nights sleep and a baby that just goes to bed and doesn't compain. This week, Spencer has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. He's decided to stop feeding properly and he now fusses and complains once you've burped him, so that he doens't take the bottle again once you've stopped. This has resulted in him not getting the same amounts of food that he was getting. He's now started waking overnight much earlier and has become harder to settle both during the day and at night.
It's taken me back to the early weeks when everything was much more difficult - feeding, sleeping, settling.
I really hope that it's just some sort of phase.....

New Developments

Little Spence did something new today. He has been moving his arms around for a while, but today, he was moving with alot more purpose, reaching toward things. I had this little bear thing and he was holding it (once i'd kind of propped it in the right spot!). It's really cool to see him do new things. Already throughout the day i've seen more and more instances of him reaching at things. It's like they learn a new skill all of a sudden and then they're off and running with it!