Yes, that's a safety gate on the wine rack

Sorry to spoil the fun son – I’ll be spoiling the fun for many years to come so you may as well get used to it now.

Wipe that smirk off your face boy

At least I got her to finish off on the potty because the remainder would not have come off the floor quite so easily!

Lucky for you, there are no photos to accompany this post.

Abby and her cousins riding the blanket

The kids got a real treat with chocolate, Twisties, cake and bubbles And they each got a giant ball to take home. Thanks to the lovely Omas and Aunty Alice!

Magical bubbles

Ta-da!

Abby is already 18 months old – that’s a year and a half. She’s turning into a real little girl and mummy just loves dressing her up. She’s getting back into allowing us to tie her hair up, which I love because she looks so much prettier and people won’t think she’s a boy.

My pretty little girl

She loves to read and can say and identify a lot of things in her books. She’s beginning to string words together more often, like “Baby cry” when Cameron is crying.

Story time

Six weeks have flown by so quickly. Cameron can smile and coo, and can lift his head and shoulders up during tummy time.

Me and my big little man

Cameron at five weeks old was 59cm and 5.7kg. The paediatrician’s response was “Holy moly!”. He also asked if I had taken home the right baby because I’m so little, lol! At 6 weeks Cameron weighed in at 5.97kg. He really is a growing boy!

Cameron getting chubby

Cameron slept for 7 hours straight last night, the longest uninterrupted sleep so far. He’s been doing 5 hour stretches in the last week, so I’m hoping this is progress and he’ll soon be sleeping through (as in at least 8 hours) by 8 weeks which is what Abby did. Fingers crossed!

And because sleeping babies are so cute, I have to share the below video with you. So cute!

Abby with her baby brother

Her vocab is forever extending. I’m losing track of all the words she knows because she picks up new ones so easily. She can recognise a lot of the things in her picture book and can understand many everyday things like “nappy change”, “bath time”, “bed time”, “pull your pants up” – lol.

She’s slowly learning the alphabet and numbers. She can recognise and say “A” (and sometimes will say “B” afterwards) and can say “2″ when you say “1″ but that’s about it. Still pretty good for a 17-month old.

Snuggly robe

Abby is growing up so fast. She’s becoming a real little girl. She loves to pretend to put on moisturiser, nail polish and lipstick, but still won’t keep her hair in pigtails or wear any hair accessories. It’s a shame because she looks so pretty with her hair done – oh well, we’ll have to settle for the 60s mop look instead – much more practical for a busy little monkey!

My little girl

For five days you stayed in hospital with mummy. Mummy went into labour four days overdue, and the assessment confirmed you were a big baby – probably too big for mummy to do it on her own, so we went ahead with a caesarian.

Happy family

You were born on Thursday 21 April 2011 at 1:55am, weighing 3.87kg (8lb 5oz). You had a high bilirubin count so had to be under phototherapy at the neonatal unit so you wouldn’t get jaundice.

Sunbathing

It was hard seeing you on your own under those harsh blue lights, and having blood tests taken several times a day. Thank goodness for the lovely staff who took good care of you.

Cameron at two days old

I was so happy when the levels became normal and I was able to spend the last two nights with you close by – even though you kept me up for hours wanting to feed. Little boys can be such piggies!

Cameron looking like Abby when she was younger

You look so much like your big sister Abby when she was your age. She loves you lots, even though she can’t express it properly (that’s why she does things like trying to feed you luncheon). I can’t wait for you two to become best of friends.

I think these two are related

All the pain and discomfort of pregnancy, labour and surgery has been worth it – even the vomiting from the drugs as I was feeding you after your birth! I love you Cameron.

The new man in my life

I have a terrible cold at the moment so it’s been even harder to accept that soon I will be awake every three hours to feed a screaming baby as well as look after an active toddler (as well as running a household and keeping myself sanitary!).

As for the pregnancy, I’m over it! I want this baby out as soon as possible, but hopefully after this cold’s subsided. My joints ache, my stretch marks have stretch marks, I can’t breathe properly even more so because of congestion, I have indigestion, and am literally sick and tired!

In saying all that, I’m so excited to meet the boy (we have yet to decide on a name) and love him as we love Abby. I know it’s going to be very hard for a little while, but we will have two little darlings who will grow up as best friends and practically look after themselves. Hooray for optimism! (And the labour will be quick and easy no doubt, lol.)

38 weeks and two to go

Just chilling and watching some tv

The other day she managed to get her head stuck through the deck rails – in fact she was more off than on the deck and that scared the bejesus out of me. I couldn’t get her unstuck and back onto the deck, so ran around the other side and pulled her out from the high end. I’ve been saying we need to trellis our deck because I know her head still fits through the gaps. Might have to be a little project in the next couple of weeks.

Loving the slide

I try and take her to the park every few days. It’s nice for her to explore and use up some energy without being told off all the time! We really do need to make our house more child-proof, especially as she’s an expert climber now, and getting tall enough to reach things she couldn’t before.

Elbows on the table? How about legs?

Abby’s getting so good at feeding herself. She can manage almost her whole bowl of food or pottle of yoghurt by herself without making much mess. Quite often she doesn’t want us feeding her because she wants to do it herself. That’s fine by me!

Her favourite way to drink her milk or have a snack is sitting on her Abby Cadabby chair at the coffee table. God forbid if anyone else is sitting in her chair when she wants it! You will be pushed away.

What? I wanted an apricot, from up here.

She’s into climbing at the moment. Her latest feat has been climbing on to a chair, then on to the kitchen table, and then on to the set of storage drawers that I had left on the table!! OMG.

Whatcha doing...?

Abby’s also learnt to open drawers and cupboards so anything without a safety lock on it and within reach is fair game. She’s taken dishes out of the cupboards, tried to eat flour, stolen my keys from my handbag and proceeded to use them on the front door… The rubbish bin is also a point of interest, and she’s almost thrown my necklace away while I wasn’t looking. She pretty much wants to see, touch, taste and test everything. Quite often she’ll walk around pointing and going “OoOOohHH. OoOOOOhH!” to say “What’s that? Can I see it? Have it? Eat it? Please?”.

She’s been giving us a lot of trouble in regards to sleep lately. It’s almost every night that she will wake up (at varying times) and not go back to sleep. We have to go through the routine of changing her nappy, giving her some milk, and rubbing Bonjela on her gums because we don’t know the exact reason why she’s waking. It may be because she’s teething (she has two new teeth and at least another two coming through), or her appetite’s increased, or she’s hot and having nightmares. I really hope this doesn’t continue for too long because it’s starting to feel like a permanent hangover from the lack of a good night’s sleep.

Apart from that, she’s still my curious, cheeky, chuckling girl.

We had yum char with Grandma and Grandpa, and Abby got to open the presents that were sent from some family and friends (many thanks guys!). She’s already been playing with the present we got for her the other week. We also made a canvas painting of her hand and foot prints though that was a bit of a fail. (I’ll have to put photos up later as I am rushing this to get onto her cake…)

There have been a few firsts in this last couple of weeks.

• She face-planted the path and scraped some skin off her nose. Her first real owie. Gosh I felt like such a bad parent.
• She got her first chest infection and is on antibiotics. All seems to be good now – no temperature and she’s not grumpy anymore (unless it’s time for antibiotics).
• She had her first solo icecream in a cone.
• She’s found the first thing she can climb up onto by herself – the futon in her room. We have to sell that so we can give her a proper child’s room that’s child-proof and fun to play in. She loves to play on the futon though so it’s sad we’ll be getting rid of it.
• Abby was so excited about having a future brother that she pooed in her bath, first time ever. Just before I got her out (which I suppose is lucky..?). She farted and out come poop. That’s my classy girl.

Happy Birthday you little trouble-maker

Abby can go “baa”, “mmm” and “blop blop blop” when we ask her what a sheep, cow or fish does. She can put things on her head, and can put her necklaces on all by herself (eventually). She would rather “brush” her own teeth although it doesn’t get done very well.

She can play with lots of toys that didn’t make sense to her before. She loves things that make music and reacts to her actions. She loves reading and turning pages (often ripping them inadvertently).

She lets go and takes a few steps by herself at times. She interacts with Fez and tries to play fetch with him, pat him, and sometimes pokes him for a giggle (poor Fez!).

She copies you quite often – sounds and actions (though her sounds are quite limited).

Her first birthday party is this Sunday – I must go and work on her cake, now!

Abby at 9 weeks 6 days

She doesn’t just stare at her toys when she’s on the playmat, but whacks them and coos and gaas and laughs as she does it. Her face lights up when we come to say hello. She loves having ‘conversations’ with mummy and daddy, and also enjoys watching television which can be distracting when she’s feeding…

She may be going through another growth spurt at the moment. We’ve noticed that she’s drinking less but more often – having some now, a little nap, then the rest later.

Chub chub

Abby is now 6kg. She’s a rather chubby baby but a good chubby. And she’s long. I haven’t measured but she fits into some of the Pumpkin Patch clothes in the 3-6 month size. Definitely has daddy’s height unlike mummy who is only 5 ft tall. Abby will be reaching things for me in a few years!

Even though I sometimes still don’t get to shower until daddy comes home, I have more time to do things during the day. On most days she seems to be happy playing by herself if she’s not napping, and cries when she actually needs something.

Tummy time (before she started crying)

It might be because she’s older, or we may be used to what she wants, or we aren’t too worried about letting her play by herself, but she’s getting easier to handle and we’re enjoying her more.

Now she just has to have a reliable routine so I can plan my day and do things like bake cupcakes again!

(She also had a number 3 the other day – a poo explosion that went up her back and through her clothes. Another milestone, lol!)