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"Ok Bubba, time for a nappy change." I put her on her back on the change mat. I took her nappy off, deflected wandering hands, and turned to get a new nappy. I turned back to find Bubba crawling away. She then sat just out of reach on her bare little bottom. That's right, she can now crawl, and go from crawling to sitting and sitting to crawling. Today she followed me in to the kitchen a few times and then sat on the floor and watched me do the dishes. Sometimes when she cries after I put her to bed, I go in there to pat her only to find her sitting up in her cot. Lay her back down and she just sits up again. Ok, in all fairness, that was only one day, and she was teething and in pain. After I gave her some baby panadol, and a cuddle, she went to sleep. She won't let me look at them, but I caught a glimpse once when I opened her mouth with my finger and then pushed her tongue back with my other hand, and saw her little tooth. Next to it was a crooked little tooth about to come through. I'm just glad that she (so far...) doesn't bite me. I really don't want a bloodied nipple. I read that some babies go off their food when they're teething. I'm glad there is a reason why she hasn't been eating her food properly. Hopefully she will return to her eager eating glory asap.
The three of us went away for the Australia day long weekend (which actually wasn't a long weekend as the day off was Tuesday, but we made it one anyway). We went to the Abercrombie caves with friends. We went for a couple of long bush walks (3 hours) which Hannah absolutely loved. She was attached to Daddy by the baby bjorn, kicking her little legs, babbling away. The second day, we went to see the caves. I brought my camera to snap away, and hopefully get some good pics of the caves. As soon as we got to the entrance, the battery died. Unfortunately I didn't bring the spare batteries on the hike, so I had to rely on the point and shoot and hope that Friend 2 got some good photos with his film SLR. As it turned out, he forgot to bring spare batteries for his flash, so I guess we all had to rely on the point and shoot. Clearly we are all awesome.
When we arrived, it was dark out, so we didn't really see any of our surroundings. I heard some rustling when I woke up and went to the kitchen. I looked out the window and was surprised to see a huge hill right outside. I could have touched the hill if I could pry the screen off the window. There on the hill was a herd of wild goats, having their morning graze. The next morning we saw a family of Kangaroos on the hill, including a joey. Even the little joey was sticking his little head out of his mothers pouch grazing with his mum. We even saw a wombat run across the road in front of us (we were on foot) one night.
I bought a bottle of fake baileys (I was going to get the small $10 bottle of baileys but then saw the fake baileys large bottle for $10 and thought it was a no brainer) to have a couple of nice tasting drinks after Bubba went to bed, only to find it tasted horrible. I thought maybe my tastes changed after not drinking for so long. I took a sip, made a face, waited a while, thought I must be imagining it, took a sip, made a face. The others looked at me funny. Friend 1 tried it. "No, it's not just you, this if off." Friend 2 tried it. "yeah, this is off." Glad to know it wasn't just me. I only bought it the day before, so don't you worry, that bottle-o will be hearing from me.
"As soon as her nappy comes off, she grabs herself. Is that normal?"
The baby nurse laughed. "Yes, they all like to do that. Boys like to try to pull their bits off."
"I'm afraid she is going to hurt herself, she's not gentle or anything." Not to mention I now have to contain a hand as well as two legs whilst I change a nappy. Otherwise she gets a fist full of poo.
"She'll be fine."
Hannah had her 6 month well baby check up at the early childhood centre. I forgot the list of questions I made, but I seemed to remember most of them.
"She steals all of the other babies toys. Not just one toy, she doesn't stop until she has all the toys and they have none."
The baby nurse laughed. "She's very assertive and determined. She's too young to know that it's not acceptable to take all the toys though. You'll just have to watch her carefully if the other mums think it's a problem."
"How much food should she be eating?" I really had no idea.
"Half a cup to a cup per meal. When they start eating protein, their main food source should be food, not breast milk. Still breastfeed her 4-5 times in a 24 hour period, but she should start dropping a night feed once you up her quantities and give her protein at lunch and dinner." Awesome.
"She often needs to lay in her cot and cry for 5 minutes before she will have her before bedtime booby. Is that normal and ok?"
"Some babies just need to wind down like that. They get so stimulated during that day that they need some wind down time. Some babies are ok after you read to them quietly, others need to scream it out. Screaming is not the way the majority of babies go, but it's not harmful." Phew.
Darn, I forgot to ask about napping. Little Miss Hannah isn't so fond of the naps. Sometimes she won't sleep at all, others she will sleep once for 2 hours, other times half an hour each (2 naps per day is what we aim for). It's so unpredictable. Oops, should have remembered my list!
She also told me I can start making her food lumpier and introduce more meats, cheese, yoghurt (Hmmm..spell checker is telling me that yoghurt is spelled yogurt, but I swear it has an h. It is telling me it has an h if it's plural though. Strange), and even toast fingers. We're in for some fun, I think!
I gave her some cheese that very same day. I grated it (as I was told to) and put it in her broccoli, sweet potato, and potato mix, and gave it a stir. She took an unsuspecting bite and made the "what the heck is this terrible stuff" face. Then she gave me a food shower. She blew every last it out of her mouth and continued to do so if I got the spoon anywhere near her. She grabbed for the container and held it. She grabbed for the spoon. 'Why not,' I thought. She wasn't eating it, so at least she could play with it. To my surprise, she actually ate it. As long as she was holding the spoon (with me also holding it, although she clearly thought she was doing all the work) and the container, she ate it. After a couple of days, she ate it just fine.
Next, we tried yoghurt. I got some of the natural kind as I thought it would be the least offensive taste wise, the most mild. I got the 'what the heck are you feeding me' face again. I tried some myself and found it was quite tart tasting. No wonder she didn't like it. I didn't even like it. Guess I'll have to find a different kind of yoghurt to give her. Or maybe some cottage cheese, she might like that. Next on the list though, is tuna. I made a nice batch of really soft pasta, tuna, broccoli, and sweet corn, whizzed it up in the blender, and put it in an ice cube tray in the freezer. Tomorrow, she will try her very first portion of fish.
Tuesday:
Hannah hasn't been interested in her afternoon naps, so I decided that today would be the day to cut her day time naps down to 2. I kept her up for 2 hours before her first half (rather then the usual 1.5), and she fed and went down great. I gave her some banana for breakfast for the first time. I really thought she'd like it, but she made funny faces and then refused to eat anything else after (hmmm...sounds a little like me when I was little). I guess I'll try again tomorrow. She went down for her second nap just fine, after being awake for 3 hours (instead of the usual 2), but then woke up after half an hour and proceeded to scream the house down when I tried to get her back to sleep.
Maybe all the irritation is teething though. She has been pulling at her ear to the point where she has actually scratched the inside of her ear 3 times and has dried blood all over it. I would just wet a cotton bud (Q-tip) and get it off, but she would flip about and then I'd probably end up bursting her eardrum or something equally horrible, so I just let it clean itself.
We went for a walk this afternoon to the supermarket (it's about 20 minutes away by foot). The lady in front of us in the line to the self checkout kept staring at Hannah. I know she's cute, but I thought that this lady must just think she's super cute. I went around the front of the pram to talk to Hannah and saw the dried blood in her ear. No wonder the lady was staring. I don't want to know what she was thinking, but I'm sure it wasn't good (OK, so that happened last week, but I forgot to write about it then).
I went through Hannah's closet today to organise the mountain of clothing. I can't believe how many clothes she has! I found an entire bag of size 00 and 0, which she is in right now, that I forgot was even there. I had to reorganise her dresser just to make everything fit, and the bottom of her closet is absolutely full of garbage bags now labelled with the size of clothing they contain.
Wednesday:
Hannah got up twice to feed during the night. That's what she's been doing for a while now. There was a point where she was getting up 4 times, so I'm grateful for 2. Most of the other babies in my group are also getting up twice. I wonder why they do that now? I mean they used to get up once or not at all, and now they routinely get up twice. Oh well, it's certainly better then 4 times! Unfortunately the racket outside also woke me up. Just as I was getting back to sleep from her second feed at 5am, I heard a noise which sounded remarkably like someone heavily sweeping a tarp right inside my bedroom. I'm pretty sure it was a street sweeper, but who knows. I wonder why noise ordinances don't cover garbage trucks and street sweepers. I like to be sleeping at 5am, not lying in bed awake and annoyed at all the noise outside. That of course, was followed by the kookaburra's "laughing" at 5:30 like they always do, in some tree right near our unit, which was then followed by Hannah waking up from all the noise. She put herself back to sleep though, and eventually, I went to sleep too.
I tried to give Hannah some banana again. I learned from my mistake last time, and gave her the apple (which she likes) first. She still doesn't like the banana. I will keep trying though. They say it takes babies up to 10 times of trying something before they might like it. After that if they reject it, you know it's because they actually don't like it, not because it's unfamiliar.
I put Hannah down for her nap at 9:30. She went out like a light, so I got in the shower. 10 minutes later I heard her grizzling through the baby monitor. I finished my shower just in time for the screaming to start. 1 hour and 1 boob later, she was finally back asleep. She slept for nearly 2 hours which made me late for lunch with the girls. Why is it that the only time they have a really good nap it's when you're supposed to be somewhere?
We have our tv set up to start recording a chosen show 10 minutes before it starts and continue recording for 10 minutes after it's supposed to finish. So you'd think we would definitely be able to catch the end and start of our programs, right? Well, it seems that the Australian networks are a lot special and even though the shows are not even remotely live, they can't seem to stick with the times they are supposed to be on. Is it really that hard to start and end a program on time? We only just found out who was voted out in Survivor. Just as Probst held up the very last vote, the recording cut out. And that was 10 minutes after it was supposed to end. Seriously, why do you have to annoy everyone stupid tv networks?? And it's not just that one program, this is a regular thing. That is why we have it set to record 10 minutes before and 10 after. We used to have it set for 5, but that just didn't cut it anymore. I think we may have to go to 15 soon. I should write channel 9 a complaint letter....
Thursday:
I put Hannah in her highchair with some reservation. She has been crying and arching her back in attempt to escape every time I put her there to feed her. I didn't know anything about high chairs when we bought it and therefore didn't realise what a ridiculous design it is. The back is not sturdy, but rather is held in place by the straps that secure baby in. So baby can't sit up properly and is instead swallowed up by the chair with just a little head poking out. No wonder she doesn't like it. I ended up feeding her her new big girl multigrain rice cereal in my lap on the floor. I think I may need to visit ikea for the simple wooden highchair, the kind she likes so much.
A mortgage broker was supposed to come and talk to us today, but he cancelled at the last minute. When he called to cancel he said he was sick and that he would leave it up to me what I wanted to do. That was basically saying he can't really be bothered, so the option to not see him is on the table. I took it. Just because we are not buying a really expensive house around here, and instead are going to move west where things are actually affordable, doesn't mean that we are a waste of anyone's time. I'll find someone who actually cares.
Friday:
Hannah slept really well this morning. She napped for 1 hour and 45 minutes. But then this afternoon she wouldn't sleep at all. Then she had to have her 6 month injections. She didn't even cry for the first one. She even smiled at the girl who was holding down her chubby little leg. She had to have another injection in her other leg and I think she screamed for both after the second one. Then she looked at me with the sad "how could you hold me down while they hurt me like that Mommy?" look on her face and then stuck out her bottom lip. I felt HORRIBLE!!
Saturday:
Wow, she slept right through to 3:50am and then wanted a feed. At 5:30 she woke again. "I don't know why she is awake again," I said to Aaron crankily. I went in her room and picked her up. She could have easily been mistaken for a furnace, she was burning up. I took her bubba bag off and gave her some baby panadol, some comfort booby to stop the screaming, and then put her back to bed. Sometimes when they get immunised, they get a fever. She never has before, but I guess there's a first for everything. Poor baby.
I took Hannah grocery shopping at lunch time. Some crazy woman almost backed right into us when I was pushing Bubba in the shopping trolley in the parking lot. The car wasn't moving and there was no room for us to get by in front, so we looked both ways and walked behind her. All of a sudden, she started backing up. Then as she was backing, looked in the rear view mirror and slammed on her breaks missing us (well, me, I started running as soon as she started backing, so Hannah was in the clear) by only a couple inches. Seriously, who starts backing BEFORE looking to see if there is anything behind them. Especially in a parking lot, where there are lots of small children who don't look where they are going? That's actually not the first time that that's happened to us either. Once a couple weeks ago, we were walking on the sidewalk next to the street and someone started backing up out of their driveway when we were already half way through their driveway when they started backing. Another case of not looking before backing. It's amazing what amuses babies. Hannah played with a tube of Lucas' paw paw ointment for 25 minutes. I suppose it is rather versatile, she can chew it, pass it from hand to hand, examine it, try to pull the writing off of it, run it along the bed as if it were a toy car, and of course, her favorite, hit Mommy with it.
Sunday:
I gave her some pureed chicken and sweetcorn to try this morning, and she loved it. Huh, she doesn't like banana, but loves broccoli, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, avocado, chicken, and sweetcorn. I haven't offered the zucchini again since the um...incident. I'm still a little scared.
It was hard leaving Hannah by herself with someone other then immediate family, but we bucked up and did it. She had her very first time in creche while we were at church. It was a little strange being in church without her. We could actually focus on the sermon rather then trying to keep her quiet and entertained. We picked her up straight away rather then milling about like we usually do. We peeked in and saw that she was happily playing on the floor with one of the ladies. They said she was very well behaved the whole time and didn't even cry once. What a good girl!
Monday:
I know I usually do my blog on Monday's, but Hannah and I went to Parramatta to meet The Jess and Romana and baby Violet. Hannah squealed and got excited when she saw Violet even though she has only met her once before. I guess she likes Violet.
In the evening, Hannah and I had dinner with Aaron in the city. Walking back to the bus stop, a gust of wind came and I had a horrifying Marilyn Monroe moment. But not just for a second. This was like the wind had a vendetta against me. My entire dress was up past my butt long enough for me to try to get it down, fail, then say to Aaron "I'm having a little bit of a problem here!" and it was still up. I could hear people laughing. "What underwear are you wearing?" Aaron asked. I thought about it and then told him "Black ones." Phew, I wasn't wearing ugly embarrassing granny panties. When I got home, I realised I wasn't wearing the black ones at all, I wore those yesterday. I was in fact, wearing ugly embarrassing white, half see through granny panties. Not half see through because that is the way the came, but half see through due to wear. I think it's time to buy new underwear....
Time since birth: 6 months
"Bub-ba."
"What did you say?" Surely I was hearing things. Maybe she babbled something that kind of sounded like Bubba and then my brain deciphered it as "Bubba" without me even realising.
"Bubba."
Wow, she really did say it. "Boo, Bubba just said Bubba!!!!" I was so excited. It was so cute. I never thought she could get cuter then she already is, but I was very wrong. Her cute little face speaking cute little words makes her way cuter.
Everyone's heads were bowed, some people folded their hands (I am a hand folder, it just doesn't seem right if I do it without folding my hands), the church was silent apart from a member of the congregation who was up front, praying into the microphone.
"BUBBA BUBBA BUBBA BUBBA!!!!!!" Apparently Bubba wanted everyone to know that she can now say her nickname. We laughed. It was a good way to end her very last time staying in church with Mommy and Daddy. Next week she is going to creche for the very first time.
Aaron had last week off work, so we decided to have a nice day out. We were going to visit the aquarium, as I haven't seen it, and thought that Bubba might like it. Aaron looked up prices on the internet and found it was $30-something each. Ok, we're too cheap to pay that. We will go when Hannah is older and can actually appreciate it (yes, I'm cheap). I swear when my parents were here it didn't cost near that much to go there.
Instead, we opted for miniature golf. We thought Hannah would like watching the ball be putted around the course, but she was a bit bored. Maybe it was just the ridiculous humidity of the day that was making her cranky. It was making all of us uncomfortable and sticky.
Hannah had her very first shopping trolley (cart for you yanks) ride today. Since she sits up now, she would be able to sit in the baby seat in the trolley. I put her in and fastened the belt. She grabbed the front of the trolley, kicked her little chubby legs joyfully, and had a good look around. She absolutely loved it!! I was wondering how I would do the shopping on my own now that she is getting so heavy. I used to either wear her in the baby bjorn, or have her in the pram (stroller for the yanks) with someone (Aaron, Grandma, or The Jess) pushing her while I pushed the shopping trolley.
I think we're going to need a playpen in the very near future. Hannah can now put herself in the proper crawling position, with her knees on the floor, her arms straight, and her back flat. She gets herself all flustered and cranky because she can't quite figure out what to do next. She has mastered going backwards, but the elusive forward steps are still evading her. She did sort of inchworm herself a little forward the other day, and looked very pleased with herself. It's only a matter of time until our little baby is properly mobile. Lucky our lease runs out in April so we can get a place that is a bit more baby friendly. In other words, isn't the size of a sardine can so the play area isn't in the same space as the folded up home weights bench, the wall of awesome (board game shelves), and the tv entertainment unit. Lots of stuff for tiny hands to grab, ruin, put in her mouth, hurt herself with, etc.
Aaron made a video of Hannah, but I can't figure out how to put it on this blog from youtube (I'm a little special), so here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0USKlB8wb1o
My hair was slicked back, wet with purple hair dye that was dripping on to my back. I was wearing only my nursing bra and bikini bottoms while cooking pancakes on Christmas morning. I hope none of the neighbors could see me through the windows, it must have looked like a crazy house! Usually when I dye my hair, I wear old ugly t-shirts and put old ugly towels around myself. I was not at home though, and I didn't have any old ugly shirts, and the only towels were nice hotel bright white ones. I don't think my Mother in Law would have appreciated her nice towels suddenly turning purple. The Sister in Law wanted to live vicariously through me and suggested I dye my hair. I thought it would be fun to have purple hair (that goes away after 8 washes...) for Christmas, so I thought, why not? We had a good Christmas, lots of good presents, good food (prawns on the BBQ, chicken skewers, pasta salad, fruit salad, gelato, fruit flan), and a nice lazy day.
Hannah loves opening presents. She does, of course, want to eat the wrapping paper. I think she likes the paper better then the actual present inside. She's no longer allowed to chew on paper or cardboard as she has learned how to take bits off with her gums and then tries to eat them. After fishing a few bits of paper out of her mouth, I banned paper and cardboard from her list of toys. I was actually able to get some smiling photos of Hannah. We were out to lunch one day when she went a bit hyper and started squealing, yelling, jumping, and giggling. I got out the camera, and to my amazement, the hyper activity didn't stop, she didn't stop and stare at the camera like she normally does. I was able to get lots of smiling photos, and since that day, she smiles for the camera like she's been doing it her whole life.
I hope no one looked at me through the window of the car on the drive home. They would have been in for a very big shock. I'm sure it's not everyday that you see someone in the passenger seat of a car using a manual breast pump while going down the freeway. I didn't really have a choice, Hannah was refusing to nurse (too much to look at, it was very hot and sticky, who knows really), and I am not really a fan of exploding boobies, so I pumped. Yes, I could have done it in the bathroom at a rest stop or something, but 1, that would have added extra time to the already long journey, and 2, is pumping in the filthy bathroom at Macca's any less weird then pumping while in a moving vehicle? I think not. I was very worried about the drive home from Byron Bay. Hannah has never really been a fan of car rides, and we were going to drive from Byron Bay to Tamworth the first day, then Tamworth to Sydney (via Penrith) the second day. She never fails to surprise and delight us though. She was wonderful the first day. Even though she didn't have much sleep in the car (she can't sleep very long in the car seat, I think because she usually sleeps on her tummy and obviously can't do that in her seat), she was happy, didn't cry, and was quite content. We stopped frequently to let her out of her seat, and to give her some food. By the last couple of hours of the journey on the second day, she had had enough. She pretty much screamed for an hour straight, until we stopped in Windsor for some lunch. Poor Bubba.
I know my blog is a day late. Monday I didn't even realise it was Monday. Aaron has the week off, so it felt like it was Sunday. Then Tuesday I meant to do it but the camera was out of batteries so I couldn't get the photos on the computer to put on the blog (and I forgot to charge it until the evening). Then yesterday I was too busy. Oh well, I'm sure you'll live.
Hannah
I don't really know what's going on. It's 5:30 in the morning and Mommy and Daddy are getting things from my room trying to be quiet but not succeeding. I wake up of course, and to my surprise, they pick me up, change my nappy, and put me in the car. Grandma is here too. I'm really excited. I know they want me to go to sleep in the car, but how could I?
We went in a really big room with lots of windows with strange huge car type things (only very funny looking) outside. Mommy walks me around the building pointing to the strange cars. She tells me they are airplanes and that we are going to ride on one with Grandma. I'm a little confused though, I thought I was an airplane? Mommy and Daddy often lay on their backs and put me on their knees and move their legs around and say I'm an airplane (or aeroplane if it's Daddy) bubba. So if I'm an airplane, how can this giant car be one too?
Someone says that the airplane is delayed because it needs to do a "high powered engine run." Whatever that is. "Lucky I brought her food." Mommy says. We go in the mothers room and Mommy tries to give me some booby. I'm still so excited for whatever we are going to do, so there is no way I'm going to have booby. I eat the avocado and apple that Mommy brought for me though. I can eat that and still look out the window at all of the big giant cars (airplanes?) going up and down.
A loud voice comes on again and says that we can't ride the plane we were going to ride, but that we have to ride a new one, from a different gate, so Mommy packs up me and all my toys and off we go to a big room next to the one we were in before. They say our take off is going to be 3 hours late. Lots of people around us are very cranky and saying rude things and being mean to the people behind the desk. Mommy gets excited though because they give us all meal coupons to use while we wait. I'm even more excited because now I can get away with not taking a nap.
Mommy spreads out my blanket on the floor of the big building and puts my toys on it. I'm having heaps of fun, I get to play with all my toys, Mommy, and Grandma, all while getting to look out a giant window full of giant cars going from the ground to the sky and the sky to the ground (maybe we were in giantville? Am I going to turn into a giant?), and I get to look at all sorts of funny looking and interesting people who all tell me that I am cute and have such beautiful blue eyes. I finally get hungry enough to have some booby just before we get on the giant car/airplane, and when we sit down in the giant car/airplane.
Grandma tells Mommy to have the window seat so that I can look outside while we take off (I wonder what take off means?). "This seat belt is useless!" Mommy says. She attaches it to her seat belt and then fastens it around me. It's really uncomfortable, and I don't think it's really doing much. I wonder why I have to go in that special seat thingy when I ride in Mommy and Daddy's car, but in this giant car/airplane, I get to sit in Mommy's lap with a funny useless seatbelt? I have some more booby and fall asleep.
I wake up and smile at Mommy. I'm happy that I'm still in her lap. Usually when I fall asleep on Mommy, I wake up in my cot. Mommy holds me next to the little window and takes lots of pictures. She says she wants to document my first plane ride (is plane the same as airplane/giant car?). A loud voice comes on saying that we are about to start our decent (whatever that means). Ouch! My ears start to hurt and I cry. Mommy puts her finger in my mouth and I suck. Huh, all better. Mommy always knows what to do! I stop crying. I look out the window and all I see is white. It starts to get bouncy. Mommy says we are going through a cloud. Oh, I get it now, Mommy pretends I'm an airplane when we play airplane bubba, and we are going through clouds! What fun!!! So I'm not an airplane after all, this is an airplane, and Mommy and Daddy just pretend I'm an airplane for my amusement sometimes. Clever.
Mommy and Grandma keep telling me what a good girl I am. Grandma said that if I was older, she'd give me a treat for being so good. I can't wait until I'm older so I can get a treat! That sounds good!
Sheri
I put my feet on the edge of the platform and hold on to the side. "Now reach out and grab the bar," the man says. I know I have to extend my arm to do so, but it won't budge, it's stuck in the L position. The man assures me he has a hold of my special belt and once again prompts me to lean forward, extend my arm and grab the bar with my right hand. I look down. I'm about 2 stories high, standing on the platform. I'm not afraid of heights, but did I mention that I'm afraid of falling? When I was little, Grandma (not the one in Hannah's story, that is Aaron's grandma) used to take me to swimming lessons. When I passed all of the normal lessons after a number of years, I took diving lessons. Not like SCUBA diving, like diving board diving. I was fine with the normal diving board, but put me on the high dive and I would freak out a little. They had to give me a rubber ducky and tell me to throw it under the diving board onto the side of the pool just to get me to dive off it. I guess it distracted me from the falling part. It worked, but only when I had to throw the ducky.
When I was 18, I went to West Virginia with my Dad. We went white water rafting, but stopped for lunch at a spot where people jump off huge rocks into a deep pool of water below. Everyone did it. I went last. I ran in hopes that I wouldn't be able to stop and would just have to do it. Nope, I stopped dead just before the end of the rock. I stood up there for a good 5 minutes, trying to will myself to jump, but I just couldn't. I had to walk down the long way. How embarrassing....
Now I'm on a platform, 2 stories high, about to try out the flying trapeze. That's right, I'm at circus school, a Christmas present from The Jess. She is here too, as is Trish, Jimmy, and of course, my little girl is watching me to. I can't let her see me fail. The man assures me he has a hold of me, and against my better judgement, I lean forward and grab the bar. He says to reach out and grab it with both hands now. This is even harder. Now I'm completely at the mercy of a random man whose name I don't even know, to make sure I don't plummet face first into the net below. I know, there is a net, and I'm also attached to a rope on both sides of the special belt, but tell that to my fear of falling.
Ok, I have both hands on the bar. "Hup!" the man calls. That means I'm supposed to jump off the platform. I don't go anywhere. He reminds me the call means jump, and calls it again. I close my eyes, and my feet leave the platform. I'm flying through the air, a smile wide on my face, while hanging from the bar. "Hup," he calls again. That means I'm supposed to put my knees over the bar. I hesitate just a little and then find I can't put my knees up. It's too hard if you don't do it at the right time because then you don't have the momentum to do so. I keep trying and trying anyway, but can't do it. I'm really disappointed.
It's my turn again, and this time there is a woman at the top of the platform. Once again it takes me longer then it should to grab the bar, but when the man calls "Hup," she pushes my feet off at the same time. I like this method much better. No room for hesitation. "Hup," I don't hesitate and before I know it, my knees are over the bar. "Hup," I let go with my hands and arch my back. Now I'm hanging by only my knees, 2 stories up in the air, flying on a trapeze. I feel amazing.
It's my turn again, and now we get to try a catch. Everything is going smoothly. "Hup," I'm flying through the air, my knees holding me to the bar, my back arched, my hands reaching. I'm not even sure how it happens, but somehow, my knees leave the bar, my hands reach out, and then I'm hanging by a monkey grip by a man who is hanging upside down from another trapeze. Now there is no containing my smile. I think if it were possible, I could power an entire city with my smile right now.
Other things that happened this week:
I took Hannah to the beach a couple of times, and she loved playing in the sand, but for some reason, even though she loved the water before, she cried both times. The theory at the moment is that maybe her bottom hurts when the salt water touches it. She has nappy rash for the first time in her entire life, and it looks very sore. Poor baby.... She is trying with all her might to crawl, and can now put herself and push ups position, only her hands and the balls of her feet touching the ground. She can easily move herself backwards, but can't quite go forward yet. This morning I saw her go in the proper crawling position, knees under her, arms extended. It's only a matter of time now.... I gave Hannah a rusk this week as she just wants to chew on everything. I gave her paper or cardboard sometimes, but now she has figured out how to get chunks off in about 2 seconds flat and a few times I've had to fish them out of her mouth, so no more paper or cardboard for her. She loves rusk though. As soon as I gave it to her, she put it in her little mouth and chewed and chewed and chewed like she had been doing it her entire life.
Sorry there are no pictures, but we are on holiday and I'm writing this from a borrowed laptop. I will put photos up next week (when you will hear about our 12 hour road trip home. Fingers crossed that Hannah won't mind it too much. She isn't a huge fan of the car).
The UFC is finally coming to Australia. FINALLY!!! Aaron said he wanted to buy me tickets for Christmas (which I think is an awesome present by the way). SNAP!! They sold out the day they went on sale. How rude! Now most people wouldn't pick me as a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship for those of you who don't know) fan, but I love it! We even went to one in Las Vegas. We flew from Paris to Frankfurt to Los Angeles, then drove (ok, Aaron drove) straight to The Palms casino where it was being held. No hotel stop, no shower, only a quick trip to taco bell (why is there no Taco Bell here, it's very sad), then straight there. We were very late too, we only got there in time to see the main 2 fights and the tail end of the fight just before them. So when we found out the UFC was coming to Australia, we got very excited. I can't believe they sold out already! I think I'm going to scour e-bay, and if that doesn't work, then we might go on the day and keep the scalpers in business. At least with the success of ticket sales, maybe that means the UFC will be back here sometime.
After last weeks night out, I was keen to give it another go, hoping that getting away would be a bit easier this time. I fed Hannah early, The Jess got here on time, things were looking good. Unfortunately, Hannah didn't think she should go to bed half an hour early. She started bawling her eyes out as soon as I put her down. I thought she'd settle and sleep with a little patting, so I left The Jess to it and went on my merry way (after putting on my dress of course). I told her to message me when Hannah was asleep. 15 minutes later I still hadn't heard anything, so I texted The Jess. Still bawling. Oh Hannah was ripping my heart out. It was hard enough leaving her there bawling her eyes out, but to know that she still was.... I met Aaron at the posh seafood restaurant where his work Christmas party was. I thought a cocktail was in order, so I ordered a chocolaty one that was frozen like a thick shake. Mmmmm.... I was still worried about Bubba though. I kept checking my phone and texting The Jess for progress reports. She cried for 2 hours and then finally went to sleep. Poor little Bubba. I think next time, I will make sure she is sleeping before I leave, even if it means I will be late. I just didn't want to miss out on all the yummy seafood. There was way too much food by the way. I had an entree of king prawn which was so so so yummy (best part of the meal I think), followed by a GIANT piece of salmon with mashed potato that I couldn't even eat half of. Plus, there was a seafood platter for the table, and lobster mornay. Then, there was desert, and I had another cocktail. Hannah wouldn't be needing a feed until at least 12, so it was safe to have another one. I shouldn't have after all that food though, my tummy hurt, so we went home early. I'm such a light weight.
I know babies aren't supposed to sit up until they are a bit older, but Hannah has decided that it's time. One day she could sit up for a short period of time, then fall over, the next she could sit up like a pro. I timed her, she sat up for 10 minutes before reaching too far for something and going sideways (and I caught her of course). She is so clever. She can also roll in all directions, front to back and back to front, but prefers to go to her left. One day she was supposed to be napping but instead decided to roll around her cot, give me a cheeky smile, then giggle hysterically. I couldn't help but laugh, it was so cute. Then of course she did it more. So much for nap time.
The day after tomorrow, Hannah will experience her first airplane ride. I'm so excited, I think she will love it. There are lots of people to look and smile at, a window to look out, planes to watch at the airport. I can't wait (except I will miss Aaron until he joins me in a weeks time).
