This blog has moved to www.aaronandsheri.wordpress.com

Hi Everyone,

I have moved the blog to www.aaronandsheri.wordpress.com
please go there to view updates on this blog.

Thanks :)

Salmon patties?

Grandma: "I'm going to make some Salmon patties for when Trish comes."
Me: "Oh, what's in them? I bet Hannah could eat some."
Grandma: "Mostly just potatoes and tuna."
Me: "Tuna? So um... is there any salmon in the "salmon" patties?"
Grandma: "No."
Grandma doesn't know it, but she is a comedian.

On another note, I figured out how to get a photo of Hannah that doesn't consist of her running towards me with her arms out in hopes of stealing the camera. I just sit her down with a container of raisins. Next time I'll get out the digital SLR instead of the little hand held. Maybe I'll even get out the light tent, and dress her up. Oh the possibilities.....

P.S. Hannah loves eating lemons. As in scoop out the innards, and feed them straight to her. No "Oh Mommy, this is so sour, why are you giving this to me!" face, just happiness that she gets to eat lemons. Still can't find a fruit she doesn't like. Maybe I should try durian.

Why so much noise?

I've always liked getting the ads/circulars in the mail. I look forward to them every week. Last week, Aldi's ads showed they were having a huge toy sale. This of course, led me to arrive at Aldi's just before 9am on sale day, with Hannah and Grandma in tow, in a quest for birthday presents. Who would have thought that sale day at Aldi's is like a pride of lions who have been starved for a week, ravenous for their next meal. People were lined up in no real order, more like mobbed up, outside the door, waiting for pole position when the automatic glass doors were turned on. People tried to get in front of each other and made a mad scramble for the toys (and tools, tools were there too). Luckily, I made a wise choice and left Hannah outside with Grandma while I joined the mad dash in search for a toy I wanted. For those of you reading this from the U.S., let me explain a little about Aldi's. Aldi's is no ordinary shop. It's a German grocery store giant that has started the quest to take over Australia by offering good food of their own brand (and some name brands every so often) at basement prices. They don't always have the same things, but there are some staple items that they do always carry. The rest of it, mostly the non food items, are only there for a week at a time, sometimes not coming back for over a year. Sometimes they have massive toy sales, sometimes they have no toys at all. Sometimes they have gardening things, sometimes they have none. When they run out of their special items, that's it, no more. We did get the desired presents for Hannah, and escaped without any bruises or confrontations. I did bend my nail back while trying to pick up a big box though. That kinda hurt.

It's very cold here at the moment, 0-1 degree in the morning (Celsius, not Fahrenheit). Even so, Hannah loves nothing more then running down the hall way sans clothing, giggling and squealing to anyone who happens to be around. Every time I get her ready for her bath, I put her down for just a moment while I put her dirty nappy in the nappy bucket and no sooner then I've put her down, she's off. I'll have to let her run around for longer when it's a bit warmer, but for now, I just chase after her, snatch her up and get her in the bath, giggling and bouncing the whole way.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a red coloured mole on on my chest, sometimes visible to anyone depending on what kind of shirt I wear and how high it is. Don't worry, I've had it checked out, and there is nothing wrong with it. I tried telling that to Hannah, but she won't listen. She seems to feel that said mole needs to be removed asap. This of course involves her flinging my hair out of the way, pulling down my shirt, and then trying to scratch and pull the mole off.

"WAAAAAAAA!!!!" I looked at the clock. 5am. I grabbed the baby monitor and turned on the sleepy music. Hopefully Hannah would fall asleep again by the end of the music. She didn't. I got up to go and pat her. And pat her and pat her and pat her. I'm trying to wean her. It's not going so well. I patted her for 2 hours, then it was time to get up for the day. She didn't relent and sleep, I didn't relent and give her boob (until 7am, as it was time to get up for the day). We've been down to 2 feeds in 24 hours for quite a while now, but I thought it was time to get down to 1, in hopes of then having none just after she turns 1. I, of course, wanted to get rid of the overnight feed first. Hannah, of course, had other ideas. Seems she's quite fond of the overnight feed and has no problem crying for 2 hours straight to get it. After 2 nights of our battle of wills, Hannah won. I gave in and fed her. New plan: get rid of her dream feed (when I go in her room at 9:45pm, and without fully waking her, feed her, and put her back to bed). She hasn't missed that feed one bit, and sometimes she is sleeping right through without waking up for her overnight feed. It would help if she ate her dinner, I'm sure, but she doesn't seem to like dinner for some reason.

Why is it that microwaves, washing machines, etc. always make obnoxiously loud beeping noises when you push their buttons? Seriously, I'm pushing buttons on the microwave to make it heat for one minute. I can see my button pushing is working from the screen that now says 1:00. Why the need for the beep? Do manufacturers have a joint mission to wake up sleeping babies and annoy everyone? Why is there no off switch for obnoxiously loud beeps? Or at least a volume button or something. Then if I leave the food I just heated in the microwave for a longer then the microwave deems acceptable after it's finished heating, it will beep at me more. And then more and more, until I take it out. Does the microwave think I'm senile? I've forgotten that I put something in there?

I was thinking I might change my blog to a more normal blog, that is one that is updated every couple of days, but not so long each time. What does everyone think about that, do you prefer the once per week long blog, or would you rather a every couple of days not as long blog (and each entry would probably be more well written as I wouldn't get distracted by tv or something while writing it)?

Hannah the great

Time since birth: 11.5 months (she's almost 1!!!)

Stopped at a stoplight on the way to drop Aaron off at the station, something on the vehicle in front of us caught my eye. I did a double take. The truck in front of us had testicles. That's right, testicles. Why on earth someone would attach a pair of testicles to a vehicle is beyond me. Not only that, but why would someone design, manufacture, and sell such an item? Wouldn't you be embarrassed to drive around with plastic testicles on your truck? When the light changed to green, the truck was off. The testicles started swaying back and forth at an alarming rate. Just like staring at a fire, I couldn't take my eyes off them. Surely they are some sort of driving hazard as well as being super bogan-y. How could someone not look at a pair of plastic testicles vigorously swaying back and forth on a truck? Only in Penrith.

A couple of days later, stopped at the very same set of lights, but on the other side of the road, I saw something else one would only see in Penrith: there on the car in front of us was a sticker. "Vaginatarian." Seriously, someone actually put that on their car? I bet the occupant of that car gets no dates. Maybe he gets dates, but then he brings them to his car to transport them to date spot, they see the sticker, think "wanker!" to themselves and then pretend to be sick and not go out with him.

There was so much work to be done when we moved in here. That was to be expected since we were moving in with a hoarder. Not like the I have to much trash I can't find my pet cat kind of hoarder, but a hoarder none the less. I started with the kitchen. Looking in the cupboards, I found 2 toasters. Not to mention the one that was out and being used. I also found no less then 6 dinner sets, 2 different sandwich presses, and oh the list goes on. Grandma told me that her Mum always said "If you keep something for long enough, you'll always find a use for it." I guess that motto stuck with Grandma. Lucky for me, I coaxed her into getting rid of some of it. Otherwise there is no way our stuff would have fit in the cupboards at all. I found a cupboard full of platters, none of which I'd ever seen being used (and I used to live across the road from Grandma, so I was over a lot).
"Can I give this away Grandma?" I could see her mind working. "How long have you had it?"
"20 years."
"how long since you've used it?"
"20 years. Ok, you can give it away."

Next I started on the pantry. The pantry was choc-a-bloc full of stuff, most of which I thought rather questionable. I went through every single item in that pantry and checked every single expiration date. I actually found food that expired in 1992. That's right, it was EIGHTEEN years out of date. I'm not sure which is more shocking, that there was food in there 18 years expired, or the fact the 1992 was 18 years ago. I'm getting old!

I can hear you screaming inside, "what about Hannah?!?! How is Hannah going, what is she doing?" She is GREAT! My little wonderful baby has been walking for a month now, and she is getting cheekier every single day. She has a little hand puppet with a duck on each finger that she loves to carry around and tell everyone that it is "DUCK!" We often ask her where duck is and she'll stop what she is doing, look all around, locate it, yell "DUCK!" and then trot over and pick it up. I bought her a little (well, compared to her size, it's big) purse to put some toys in and take with us when we go out. She loves to carry it around even when we're at home. In fact, she doesn't just like to walk around, she prefers to walk around while carrying something. Preferable something big and heavy like my purse or Aaron's 1 litre water bottle full of water. Sometimes even the washing basket.

Everywhere we go, she wants all eyes on her. Hannah will squeal loudly until some random person in the supermarket looks at her, and then she will smile and bounce and giggle at them. One day a lady was talking on the phone when Hannah started her cheekiness, and the lady got so distracted by Hannah that she told the person on the other end of the phone that she would have to call them back as "this really cute baby keeps smiling and giggling at me and I just can't think at the moment." We went to a newcomers dinner at church the other night (we're not really newcomers as we went to the same church for a long time last time we lived in this area, but I suppose we were away for 3 years), and once again Hannah was up the her mischief. Right when the minister was addressing everyone, telling people about the church, etc. Hannah decided that she wanted the spotlight instead. She kept walking up to people, getting them to look at her, and when they did, doing a really funny, loud, fake laugh while smiling. Of course everyone then looked at her, which only egged her on more. She is so cute though, how can you not laugh and smile when she does such things?

Now that this is the length of a novel, I'll stop writing. But don't worry, we have the internet now, so you will hear about the antics of Hannah every week.

Quest for the internet

Yay, finally the blog is back!! The only reason I didn't (couldn't) write it sooner was lack of the Internet. We moved in the middle of April, and have had the worst time getting the Internet since then. You'd think it would be easy to give someone your money in exchange for a service, but, as we have found, it is not.

The quest began when we first moved. Aaron signed up to get Internet with TPG, a provider that for some reason has twice the download limit for half the price, just what we wanted. After a while, they notified Aaron that they could not provide us with the Internet unless we switched our phone line to Telstra. Seemed like a bit of a hassle, so we decided instead to do some research and find someone else to provide us with the Internet. Unfortunately there are not very many providers in this area, so after much thinking, we decided we would in fact switch to Telstra and then get TPG.

I called Telstra, went through all the hoopla needed to sign up to switch to their company, and was told it would be done on or before 2 weeks, and we would get a letter in the mail when it was done letting us know so. So we waited. And waited...and waited.... After 2.5 weeks (I would have called sooner, but was laid up with food poisoning which saw me puking more in 1 day then I have in all my life combined, followed by an injection to stop the puking, and my refusal to ever eat chicken from Chicken Man ever again), I was sufficiently annoyed and phoned Telcrap (I mean Telstra) to find out what was wrong.
"Your application was denied," I was told.
"Ok, why is that?" I asked them.
"I'm not sure. Do you want me to put the application through again for you?"
"Um, I would like to know why we were denied first. What if we put an application through, wait another 2 weeks, and then find out I was denied again?"
"Oh."
He gave me another number to call to find out why our application was denied.
"The sales person filled out the wrong form. She filled out the form for a new number, not the form for transferring a number from another provider." I was told by huffy customer relations officer.
"So why didn't someone call me and tell me that rather then just letting us wait and wait and wait, thinking the whole time that a phone line will be installed?"
"Sorry, but that was not my department, it was sales. Do you want to put another application through?"
"Would I have to wait another 2 weeks?"
"Yes. It would be like filling out a whole new application, the whole process would start again."
"So let me get this straight, because your company stuffed up and filled out the wrong form, and then failed to notify me, I have to go through the whole process again even though I should already have a phone line."
"Um...yeah."
"That's ridiculous." Click. I could feel myself getting flustered, and I really didn't want to yell at random unsympathetic customer relations dude, especially in front of Hannah, so I just had to hang up. Of course there was no way we were going to switch from Telcrap after that. Seriously, if they said something like "we're really sorry that happened, if you put in a new application, we will have someone connect your line tomorrow (or even the day after that would have been fine)." But no, that would have been too hard.

The quest began again. Aaron called another Internet supplier only to be told that we'd have to switch to Telcrap. This company, however, actually told us why (if only someone would have told us sooner!!): we have the privilege of having a fibre optic telephone wire. We thought all this time the reason we had to switch to Telcrap was because we had some geriatric decrepit phone line that was incapable of providing broadband/ADSL/ADSL2 Internet. Oh how that changes things! That really only left us with one choice as most companies don't provide for such high speed fibre optic cables. We had to go with Optus, the provider of said high speed phone line. Yeah, they are more expensive, but you know what? They have wonderful customer service (when I signed up for their Internet, they sent someone 2 days later to connect it and give us the little box thing, and they even told me beforehand what time and day they were sending someone, and they were super friendly and obliging), and the fastest Internet in Australia, so it's worth it.

Finally, we have the Internet. Insert sigh of relief here.

The Ringlet

Time since birth: 9 months Yeah, I didn't write last week. We're moving next week, and I've been flat out packing, organising, etc. Not to mention it takes twice the time to pack when you have to clean every single thing you pack to make sure that no mold/mildew comes with us. Dirty, dirty apartment (I won't miss you). I don't really have time to write proper stories and things this time either, so I'm just going to tell a little of what's been happening: Hannah figured out a few weeks ago how to pick up very small objects and accurately get them into her mouth (she could pick them up for a while, but getting them in her mouth when the little object was in her fist rather then between her fingers was proving difficult for her), which is good when she is feeding herself peas and corn (both of which she loves, and loves to feed herself), but very bad when she's attempting to feed herself dust bunnies, and random bits of who knows what that she finds anywhere and everywhere. Who knew there could be so many tiny pieces of string all over the floor? Where do they come from? Even after I just vacuum, she finds things. I'm sure she's eaten her fair share of random stuff, I often see her chewing but can't pry her little mouth open to remove whatever it is she had before she swallows it. Or maybe she didn't actually get anything into her mouth but thinks she did, so she makes chewing motions. Or maybe she is punking me. Hannah's fourth tooth is now free of her gums (much to her delight), and she now enjoys biting even more then she used to. Especially Daddy's nose. She has been biting Daddy's nose since the day she was born (there is photographic evidence of this), but now she does it and then gives a cheeky little "ha ha Daddy, I got you!" grin when she's done. Often she will crawl over to me for cuddles and then bite my shoulder. Or try to eat my hair. She goes in for the cuddle, then when she pulls back again, she has a mouth full of my hair and a very accomplished look on her face. I bought Hannah her first little pair of shoes. It's getting cold and she refuses to keep socks on (or if she does, she eats them while they are on, so then they are all wet and I'm sure her feet are then colder then they would have been without any socks at all). I know it's crazy to pay $50 for a pair of baby shoes, but that is exactly what I did. They had cheaper ones, but wouldn't you know it, she got my wide duck feet and couldn't fit in any of the cheaper ones. She also had to have the T-bar style ones as her also fat feet stuck out of the other ones too much (again, just like me when I was a baby. I've heard stories about my fat little feet not fitting into the baby shoes. Plus I looked like I ate other babies for breakfast). The T-bar ones only came in gold, so now she has bling feet. On the plus side, she can now wear socks and she can't get them off because there are shoes over them. Booyah. Oh, and she can stand by herself for up to 10 seconds at a time. When she realises, she can't stand anymore. I took some photos of Hannah's ringlet. Yes, just the one. Well, I guess there could be more, but all of her long hair just goes into one giant ringlet down the middle of her head. It kinda looks like a ringlet mohawk. Anyway, I put some photos of it in this post for viewing pleasure. She sure doesn't get that from my side of the family (if you've seen photos of me, my mom, or my dad with curls, it's only because at some point in our lives, we have all had perms. Yes, even my Dad (haha, your secret is out!). If only I had those photos...). Ok, so I didn't mean to write so much, but, stuff happens. Might not hear from me next week, still so much packing and stuff to do!! At least I won't be also running around getting the car inspected for rego (um...that is short for "registration" for you non Aussie's), finding the cheapest CTP greenslip (Compulsory Third Party insurance that you must have before you can actually register or renew your car's registration), and transfer of title papers. On an annoying note, you'd think that "comprehensive" car insurance would cover everything, right? Well, not here. Here, you have to have your CTP greenslip, which ONLY covers you for third party injury liability, then if you want any other kind of insurance, that is separate. "Comprehensive" does not include compulsory third party liability insurance. Highway robbery? I think so. And how much does a CTP greenslip cost (I know you are wondering)? Well, for us and our car, it's $639 for a year. How much does comprehensive cost on top of that (if we want it)? Another $600 something dollars. How much does third party property damage (like if we hit another car and their car was damaged) cost? $100 something. How can they call it "comprehensive" when clearly, it's not. RUDE!!! Ok, going now, really, I am.

The poo incident

Hannah:
Mommy has been trying to teach me to clap. Ok, I should say trying to get me to clap because I learned how to a while ago. I just haven't had anything so good that I needed to pull out my new clapping trick for. Until today that is.

Sheri:
I have been trying to find a good pair of black shoes for a while now. Well, I found lots of them, but finding them in my size is another story. Needless to say, Hannah has been bored out of her mind in the stroller for a couple of shopping trips now. Today I finally found a good cute little pair of black flats that actually fit me. They even have some sparkles on them! Just as I picked them up after trying them on, Hannah clapped! I got so excited that I dropped everything right there in the middle of the aisle and loudly said "Yay!!!" while wildly clapping myself. I'm sure I looked a little looney to everyone around, but I don't care, my baby clapped and I was going to encourage her no matter what.

Hannah:
Mommy had been trying on shoe after shoe while I sat there, watching, bored bored bored in my pram. "This is the one Bubba, it's cute and it actually fits!" Hallelujah to that Mommy, let the boredom end! Now that was a reason to clap!
"oh, these ones are cute too," Mommy reached for another shoe. NOOOOOO!! In my disgust, I cried. And you know what? Mommy didn't try on any more shoes.


Sheri:
Every Saturday I get to sleep in. Aaron gets up at 7ish when Hannah wakes up, changes her nappy, gets her dressed, and then plays with her until 8, when I get up and feed her. I love my Saturday morning sleep ins, and look forward to them every week as only a sleep deprived first time mom can. Then on Sundays, Aaron gets to sleep in while I get up at 7ish when Hannah wakes up. Good deal I think. This Saturday, however, something disrupted my little much needed sleep in.
"Boo!!!" I heard Aaron calling me from Hannah's room. Hmmm...Should I pretend to be asleep? It is my sleep in morning after all.
"Boo!!!"
"What?" It must be urgent, he knows I love my sleep in. I got up.
It was the smell that hit me first. I always know when Hannah has done a poo, but usually the smell seems to be a little contained at least. This time it seemed to be everywhere, seeping into my nostrils from all directions.
"I need some help." Aaron said. I looked down. There she was, stark naked, Aaron holding her armpits so she could stand up. I looked down further. I wonder if my face gave away my surprise, horror, bewilderment, and ultimately the sense of ewwwww that I felt right at that moment. She was wearing a nappy when I put her to bed. Unfortunately, she seems to have found a way to take it off. I have no idea how, she was wearing a sleeping bag after all. I guess she wanted both Daddy and Mommy to pay her some attention that morning. Did I mention she always does a poo when she wakes up? Hannah's feet were COVERED in poo. Aaron called her "Poo Shoes." Next to her little cheeky feet was the nappy, freely sitting at the bottom of her sleeping bag. All over her sleeping bag...poo. Everywhere. Yes, this was definitely a 2 person clean up job. I had a look at her bed and sure enough, a little turd and it's poopstreak friend sat there, patiently waiting to be cleaned up. I had only put those sheets on the day before! When we got her new pink soft sleeping bag for $20 at Target, I thought the slit in the front and back so you could put them in their sleeping bag and then strap them into the pram or car seat or what have you, was a fantastic idea. Now, not so sure. Safety belt slits are apparently good de-nappying and poo escaping holes.


Hannah - other stuff this week:
We went to Grandma's house on the weekend, and I got to play with the little walker thing that Grandma bought for me. It was so much fun! It has 4 wheels and a handle so I can stand up, hold on, and then walk, walk walk! Mommy sat at one end of the hallway, and Daddy on the other. I couldn't figure out how to turn the walker around, so I would walk down the hallway, then Mommy or Daddy would turn me around and I'd walk back the other way. I wish I had one of those at home!
One day I was in the bath, and I grabbed the side of the bath and stood up. "oh, there's a boat," I thought. I grabbed it, held it in both hands, and put it in my mouth. I always have to see if something is edible. Of course, Mommy tells me that lots of things I think taste perfectly fine aren't for eating. Like the other day. I found a nice looking hair ball under the tv stand and put it in my mouth. Mommy said it wasn't edible and pulled it out of my mouth, but I got to eat some of it. Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, so I had the boat and was trying to eat it when Mommy said "What a clever girl, you're standing all by yourself!!!" Oh, wow, I really was. But then I realised and couldn't balance anymore and sat down. I can stand for about 5 seconds now all by myself!! Mommy and Daddy get so excited when I do, so I'm going to try really hard to stand longer.
My mouth really hurts. I try to sleep like a good girl, but it's really hard because my gums are so sore. My top tooth is trying to grow, but it's being really mean to me and taking a long, painful time. I have a cold too, so I keep coughing and waking myself up. I don't like teeth.

Pigeons

Hannah:
"What's that?" I would ask my Mom Mom, but I'm little, I can't talk yet. I watched it move around and bobb it's silly little head up and down as it walked. I wonder why it does that? I don't do that when Mom Mom helps me walk. It doesn't seem to have any arms. I think I'll follow it and see what it does.
"Hannah, you are so cute, are you chasing the birdies?" Mom Mom said
Oh, so it's a birdy. I thought birdies flew. I haven't seen one walking around though, what a silly birdy. I wonder why it's walking in big circles instead of flying. I'll crawl faster and try to catch it so I can ask it. I wonder if it speaks Bubba? Birdy walks too fast for me, I can't catch it! Mom Mom is laughing. I guess she thinks the birdy and it's bobbing head is funny too. What's that?
"No Hannah, you can't eat leaves, you already tried that remember." Oh yeah. Oh, I forgot, I was chasing the birdy. Oh, he can fly! I don't think I can fly. No, I definitely can't fly. I guess he'll get away from me.

Other stuff this week:
Hannah enjoyed her first jumping castle and face painting experience yesterday. She actually stayed relatively still while getting her face painted. So cute! Daddy held her on the edge of the jumping castle and bounced her up and down. She loves bouncing! We couldn't let her crawl around inside as the bigger kids would have unintentionally trampled all over her. Guess she'll have to wait until she's bigger. There were colourful animal balloons that she kept trying to swan dive out of our arms to grab off other kids.

The countdown is on until moving day. Next month! Can't wait....

There was something else I wanted to write about, but I can't remember what it was. Maybe I'll remember next week.

Go Go Gadget Arms

Time since birth: 8 months

"Mum. Mum." I looked down to see Hannah standing, holding on to the chair I was sitting in with a funny look on her face.
"Blleeett." She threw up a little and gave me another funny look.
"BLLLEETT." This time it went all over my pants and the floor.
"What's wrong Sweat Pea." Some times she does little spit ups, but this was not normal behaviour for Hannah. Her little eyes were pleading with me, but I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. She still looked like something wasn't quite right. I patted her back.
Something caught my eye "What's this?" I asked as I reached in her mouth. I grabbed a hold of it and pulled. To my surprise and amazement, and entire unscathed leaf emerged from her mouth. This was no tiny leaf, it was about as long as my forefinger, and as wide as 1.5 of my fingers. Pretty big for a tiny baby mouth.
"Where did you get this from?" We were inside, and as far as we could tell, there was not a leaf in sight. She hadn't been playing outside either, and I hardly took my eyes off of her the whole morning. She hadn't been choking on it, just looked rather uncomfortable as it was in her mouth and down her throat. Cheeky baby.

I think we are living in the apartment of continual disappointment. First there was the mold (that keeps punking us no matter what we do), then the windows that the painters stupidly painted shut (and didn't put the screens back on when they were painting), and the bathroom taps that are so leaky you need super strength to turn them off, the crappy toilet seat that was growing mold under the clear top bit where it was sealed in there and I couldn't ever clean it, the oven that will only work if you set the timer (and I sometimes forget and think it's heating up only to find out it's cold when I go to put dinner in), the fan in the laundry room that sometimes works a tiny bit, but mostly just makes "I'm dying kill me now" noises, the cockroaches that won't go away and poop all over our dishes, the blinds that fell on my head because they weren't put up properly, snails eating all of our mail, noisy old windows that make creepy loud banging noises at the slightest hint of wind, a lawn under our bedroom windows that is supposed to be for our apartment only but other people do loud things like hammering on, and now, to top it all off, we went away for one night, only one night, only to find some sort of maggots crawling all over the ceiling in the kitchen. Not one or two or three, but heaps of them, and moths flying around in the cupboard (so maybe that type of moth comes from maggoty looking things?). It's not like I left food out or dirty dishes in the sink. I did every single dish before we left, and emptied the garbage. I really don't want to know where they came from or why they all of a sudden decided to take over the kitchen. Let's just say there were lots of scared girly noises with flailing arms made by me, and then Aaron walking on the kitchen benches in order to get and kill all of the disgusting little maggoty things. Can't wait to move!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that babies have go go gadget arms. Things that should be very much out of Hannah's reach seem to always make their way into her inquisitive little hands. She somehow managed to reach all the way up to the tray of her highchair to pull off a magazine. It's only a portable, goes on top of a normal chair high chair, so it's not as high as a normal one, but still, the tray is way above her little head.

Hannah has turned into quite the little chatter box, mostly when we're in the car. She usually says Mum repeatedly, but can also say: Dad, bum, bubba, and what sounds remarkably like hi, but isn't quite.

Mum Mum

"Achoo!" Aaron called me from the bedroom "Boo, you have to come see this!" I went in and looked at Hannah. A giant snot bubble was coming out of her nose. Poor baby. At the same time though, I had a little laugh, and got out the camera. I had to document her first grossly hilarious snot bubble. Hannah has been a bit sick since last Saturday. She got a cold, probably from one of the kids in creche. I took her to the doctor last Saturday just to make sure it wasn't an ear infection or anything (I can never be too careful with my little baby!), as she also had a fever. They said it was just a cold. She woke up numerous times every night since her poor little nose was blocked. Babies only breathe through their noses, so they get quite distressed when it's blocked. Needless to say, I'm in a state of zombie-ness. I didn't write last week, due to said zombie-ness, and well, I really couldn't be bothered. Hannah gave me, Aaron, Grandma, and The Jess her cold, so when she was sleeping, I was sleeping. Blogging just seemed like entirely too much effort. She still has her cold. I think it's getting better though. She doesn't seem to be coughing as much, and I haven't had to wipe her nose all the time. We borrowed a vapouriser from someone at Church (thank you Beth!!!!!!), which really really helped her night sleeping. The first night, she only woke to feed once, which was a vast improvement on the 5+ times she had been waking due to a blocked nose. I think I need to invest in one of those. So worth it!

I was supposed to take Hannah to Tresillian (place to get help with baby sleeping problems http://www.tresillian.net/) on my birthday (hey, I wasn't about to turn down the earliest appointment they had, even if it was for my birthday), but they called one morning and asked if I could come in. Sure I had to hurry and shower, get Hannah ready, get our lunches ready, nappy bag, toys, sleeping stuff, etc., but I wanted to nip this non napping crisis in the bud asap, so I said yes. I won't lie, it was really hard. The whole idea is controlled crying; teaching Hannah to put herself to bed. Sometimes she does the "I'm gonna die" cry (where it certainly sounds like if I don't come in right then, she will die), which rips my heart out. They told me that if that is what gets me in there, then that is what she has learned gets me in there. She isn't hungry, hot, cold, wet, etc when she does it, so it's not anything to worry about. The plan consisted of first waiting 15-20 minutes after I put her down for her nap to let her try to put herself to sleep (even if she is crying, I don't go in), then if she is crying, go in, lay her down (she is usually standing), pat her back (she sleeps on her tummy) and settle her down, and stay for a while, then go, and come back every 5 minutes or so. It took her 35 minutes to sleep the first time, and she slept for 1 hour. Much better then the 15 minutes she was doing before. Oh, and I can't feed her to sleep anymore. Ok, this time, I really won't give in, I will not feed her to sleep anymore. For her second nap of the day, she didn't nap at all. We tried for an hour and a half, but got nothing except ear piercing cries. Poor Bubba.
I also had to make a bedtime routine, and stick to it every single time. Our new routine is: put sleeping bag on, give her a cuddle, sit her in her cot, read her a story, lay her down, put the blinds down and turn the sleepy music on, stroke her hair and say "sleepy time," turn the light off and exit the room. The first couple of days were pretty hard, but they are supposed to be. Now for her naps, I'm happy to report that she goes to sleep within 5 minutes, but usually within 1, and if she cries, it's only a weak little protest cry, then she is out. Sigh of relief. Nights aren't going so well, but I'm pretty sure that is just because of her cold. It has been taking an hour or more to get her to sleep at night then she has been waking and waking (except for the last few nights when we borrowed the vapouriser). As I said though, I'm pretty sure that is just her nose giving her grief. Why is it that when you have a cold, the stuffy nose seems way worse at night??

Hannah would like everyone to know that she is a little Aussie (for those Americans reading this, that is pronounced Ozzy, like Ozzy Osbourne) girl. Aaron was eating vegemite toast one morning when, as usual, Hannah crawled over and looked at him with those "Daddy, you know you want to give me what ever it is that you are eating" eyes. I said she could try some vegemite toast. I thought for sure she'd absolutely hate it, but to my surprise (and bewilderment), she loved it. I think she would have eaten Daddy's entire toast if he let her.

There is one thing that all moms can't wait to hear - when your little one says Mum, Mama, Mum Mum, or the like, for the very first time. I was feeding Hannah her lunch when out of the blue, she said Mum. clear as day, not a "what did you just say" kind of thing, there was no question that she said Mum. I don't know if she knows what it means (I would like to delude myself to say that she does), but she certainly knows it gets my attention. If I'm in the kitchen and she is in the living room, she will crawl over to the makeshift barricade I made (two blown up thermarest mattresses across the doorway, one side held in place by the couch, the other with a vacuum cleaner, reinforced with a chair in the middle of the door way to prevent the bust ins that were happening), stand up, look at me, and yell "Mum!" How can I not give her a cuddle or a smile or play with her when she does that? Every time she says Mum I'm pretty sure my smile gets a little wider. I better watch out or I will end up looking like a demented clown or something. She also said bum this morning. I suppose that was bound to happen when she says Bubba and Mum all the time. Put them together, and what do you get? Bum. Hahahaha, bum is so much funnier when it's a baby saying it!

And yes, it is my birthday this week. Happy birthday to me. I'm getting old.

To finish off, here is a little rant, as it annoys me every time.
Dear newspaper publishers: Why must you put staples in your newspapers? Do you like to unnecessarily contribute to depleting the worlds steel supply? I can't figure out the purpose to using staples to bind together your newspapers which already stay together as they have a nice fold right down the centre. Do you like to spend money unnecessarily on staples? Pay for unnecessary machines to put said useless staples in your newspapers? "Can I read the sports section?" someone asked me. "Sure," I wasn't reading it, and sharing is caring. "Oh wait, sorry, I can't pull out the sports section because this silly newspaper is STAPLED TOGETHER." Why don't I just pull the section off? I would, but you use unnecessarily large staples which fail to free sections of paper when you pull at them. Instead, half of the page is torn away, the other half still sticking unnecessarily to the big stupid unnecessary staple. Why don't I just pull the staple off? Sounds easy enough, but we're not talking about normal easy to pull off normal sized staples, we are talking about unnecessarily large nail breaking, finger poking, don't want to unbend staples. "Hey, want to put some newspaper through the shredder to make some guinea pig bedding?" "Great idea. Oh wait, we can't, it will kill the shredder because it's STAPLED TOGETHER!" What were you thinking newspaper publishers?

Sticky Fingers

I was just being lazy, trying to get the job done in the shortest time possible. I sort of had to though as Bubba was getting into everything when she started crawling. I moved everything just out of her reach. Now she's started pulling herself up on anything and everything she can find (the coffee table, couch, shelves, tv unit, our knees, even the vacuum cleaner), which means everything I moved before is no in her reach again. We're running out of places to put things. Can't put anything on the coffee table or it will be pushed, pulled, or thrown off, then eaten, bashed or chewed on. I have to follow her around the house making sure she doesn't fall over when she attempts to "cruise" (pulling self up and then moving sideways along whatever furniture it was she pulled herself up on). She also seems to have this crazy notion in her head that she actually has balance and then lets go of whatever she is holding on to. FYI, she does not yet have balance. Luckily for her we are always there to catch her (hmm... maybe that is why she does it, she does love being scared, if peekaboo is anything to go by). I guess she can balance a little, she can hold on to stuff with just one hand and stay up just fine. She's just a little dare-devil!

How is it that babies wake up for garbage trucks, people who talk too loud, noisy kookaburra's, a loud fart, the front door opening, etc, but when there is a loud thunderstorm with cracking lighting overhead, nothing? Not even a little peep. I don't understand baby sleep even a little bit.

I'm going to be sore tomorrow. I used muscles today that I forgot ever existed. That happens every time I start doing tae kwon do again. Ok, so I haven't done it much since I was a kid, but a few years ago The Jess and I went for a while at the uni. I could hardly walk the next day. I'm sure I had a bit of a swagger, and goodness, did my body feel a bit special! I know I'll be feeling exactly like that tomorrow. It was fun though, and a really good work out. I really miss doing tae kwon do. I did it from 4th to 9th grade when I was a kid, then stopped. Everyone thought it was because I lost interest, but really (sure, I'll set the record straight even though it's embarrassing) it was because I started my women troubles and was petrified that it would leak through to my white tae kwon do pants. I saw it happen to one of the other girls, and I did NOT want it to happen to me. What if after sitting on the mat stretching, I got up, only to find I had leaked all over myself and the mat? How would I ever show my face there again? I know, silly, but this is what a 14 year old girl thinks about. So, when aunt flow was paying me an unwelcome visit, I would tell my dad that I didn't want to go, but I didn't say why, he thought I wasn't interested anymore (after this happened for a week straight for a couple of months), I was too embarrassed to tell him the real reason (you don't really talk to your dad about such things), he didn't want to pay for something I wasn't interested in, and that was that, we didn't go anymore. I always missed it though. You're laughing aren't you Dad? There is a place within walking distance to us that even has a women's class on a weekday morning. Apparently you can even bring your baby/child as all the ladies do. Can't go every week though, it costs too much. I'm very excited to get back into it though, even if I do look like I swallowed a giant coat hanger tomorrow.

Uh-oh, I could hear Hannah stirring. She had only been alseep for 20 minutes. She grizzled for a while, then all was silent. Success, she put herself back to sleep. Or so I thought.... After another half an hour, she was making protests, so I went to her room. She hadn't gone back to sleep at all. Instead, she had been plotting how to grab anything and everything, pull it into her cot, and then play with it until she got bored. And to think I thought I moved everything far enough away from her sticky little grip. Clearly I underestimated my cheeky little monkey. When I opened her door, there she was, sitting in her cot surrounded by her loot. Cheeky little monkey!

Communication station

Time since birth: 7 months

I think I should be grape scented. I wear purple all the time (my favourite!), my hair is purple, my earrings are often purple. Someone actually asked me why I have purple the other day why my hair is purple. I said because I like purple. I think it looks nice, but I'm sure a little purple haired Mommy looks a little funny (except that I don't care, if other people want to judge me by my crazy hair then I don't want to know them anyway). Apart from that one question though, no one has said anything about my hair at all.

Hannah crawled over and sat near my feet (I was on the couch). She looked at my yogurt. "Eh!!"
I looked at Grandma "I think she wants some yogurt."
I got up to go get her a bubba spoon. "Eh!!!Eh!!" She didn't like me going away. I suppose she thinks I carry spoons around in my pockets. Or maybe that they are just part of me and I can just whip them out whenever needed.
I sat on the floor and gave her some of the yogurt. She ate half and then crawled away quite happy and pleased with herself. Wow, she is learning to communicate better. She is amazing.

Last week I took Hannah to the Early Childhood Health Clinic to address her napping problem. They gave me a referral to Tresillian (a place that helps with sleeping problems with day stays, home visits, and if it's really bad, week stays), and told me that I need to stop feeding her to sleep. Oh that will be hard. She has always REFUSED to have booby unless it's right before nap/sleep time. I have tried and tried and tried, but she always refuses the booby until right before a sleep. They told me that at this point, her napping is more important then that milk as she is eating solids and has an over night feed. I took her home and put her to bed - without booby. To my amazement, she slept. And slept. She slept for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Turns out it was a fluke though. Sometimes she takes 1.5 hours to get herself to sleep (I'm also supposed to not go in there for a pat before 20 minutes), then she only sleeps for 15 to 30 min. Crazy baby, you'd think she'd be absolutely buggered from all that crawling, and then conk out for like 2 hours. She just seems to be a little bundle of infinite energy. She still won't have any booby when she wakes up, except for in the afternoon, so I have been pumping and putting it in her breakfast and letting her drink it out of a sippy cup while she eats her solids. I'm still waiting for Tresillian to call me and let me know when I can come in for a day stay.

Since I had to change the nap time routine to not include booby, I now give her some quiet time (put her in her cot while I do my daily bible reading out loud to her), put her in her sleeping bag, give her a cuddle, tell her it's nap time, turn on the sleepy music, then leave the room. The other day I was reading to her when I looked up and got a bit of a shock. Giving me a cheeky "look what I can do" grin, Hannah was standing there in her cot, holding on to the rail. Now every time I read to her, she immediately stands up, and remains standing the entire time, looking very pleased with herself, and giving me the biggest whole face grin whenever I look at her. She's so cute!!!