Hot

A week in the forties, and then the hottest day ever recorded in Melbourne. What else to do but go for a swim with friends, and watch the plants die...


Will in Benalla...Me and Amelie taking a dip
Jo, Amelie, Will and James square up.
Lawn? What lawn?

Pittosporums not loving the heat either.

December events (and some from November and January)

A few things to catch up on since last time...

Steve turned 40 in November - happy birthday mate! It was our first night out with Amelie and she got pretty grumpy, and Jo ended up in the car feeding for half the night. It was at a winery out west, but it was hard to come across a glass of the stuff (or at least hard to catch a free waiter anyway, others apparently didn't have a problem). But he loved his present - a custom engraved Pullman tamper.

Bri and Cec's youngest son Tom had his second birthday on the 13th of December, giving us a glimpse into the future. Rule 1 from now is "No Wiggles. Ever."

Nick and Sarah had their fabulous wedding just before Christmas (20th), featuring a magician and a mariachi band. I was invited to do a reading, On Marriage from "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran. A couple of people said I read it well, so it can't have been too bad.

I did find out later (thanks to a copy of the book that Anne has) that one line goes: "let there be spaces in your togetherness". Which frankly makes a lot more sense than "let there be spades..." as it was printed in the order of service, and which I subsequently recited.




wait... a photo of me!!! (above, on the left)


Christmas was at our place - lunch for 16 in the family room, and a pile of presents that nearly buried the tree. Lot of generous gifts for me, lots of toys to play with! - video camera, Navman, and Amelie even bought me a home stereo. Not sure how a 2 month old baby afforded that... :o| It took a couple of trips to the electronics shops to get all the cables I needed, but it is all set up now. For starters, we just have a pair of speakers and a receiver, but the latter is a home theatre 5.1 unit, so we can add more speakers later as (or if?) the funds become available.

For our wedding anniversary (2 years on 30 December) we went shopping for an eternity ring. Please tell me there aren't any more to come... plus after Jo's fingers have swollen post-pregnancy, so the others needed resizing. Spent the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens where we were married, having a little picnic. Another (very small) wedding was happening across the lake, and while Jo was off in the loo, Amelie decided to cry the place down waiting for a feed... hehe.

New Years Eve/Jo's Birthday (32) was another home event, pretty relaxed and quiet with a few friends over for a BBQ and drinks. Jo even let herself have a glass of champagne at midnight! first drink in about a year for her!

We spent two nights at the King farm after New Year to catch up with (uncle) Tom and (auntie) Beck. They are going well. I had bought Tom a Presso (manual espresso maker) for Christmas, which we had some fun playing with and making a few shots. Meshy managed to fall into the dam, and ended up white on the top half and grey on the lower half. Otherwise it was a good getaway, though I'm pretty exhausted, and looking forward to getting back to the office for a rest.

More baby pics

Yes, I'm turning into one of those people... (We had a little DIY photo shoot on the weekend. Don't think I'm ready to make a living out of this just yet, but they're not atrocious...)

Farm

A family weekend at the King farm... just a few photos.

Amélie is becoming more responsive, smiling occasionally and giggle once in a while (mostly in her sleep). She is sleeping quite well through the night, but can be grizzly some days - wanting food every hour or so.

Usmeshka loved playing with Cody (knocking him over constantly), but Spud wasn't so happy to see her. She was also fascinated by (and a bit scared of) the cows.

Amelie

She's here!

Amelie Elizabeth King

Born 23 October 2008 at 16:42

3970 g, 49 cm

So far she is about 3 days old. Day 1 started with induction and the obstetrician breaking the waters, which was a good thing as there was some meconium in the amniotic fluid. About 8 hours of labour which was pretty tough on Jo - started OK but was pretty bad by the end as she hadn't used the epidural button enough. Nonetheless she did a wonderful job and we have a beautiful result. Only a little vacuum assistance was required to manipulate her head around, as Amelie was getting a bit tired by the end.

The first couple of night were sheer hell, though she was a little better last night after she started getting a little jaundiced (possibly a side-effect of the vacuuming), and we topped her up with some formula as she hasn't been sucking properly. All signs are indicating that breastfeeding should return to normal shortly.

Thanks to everyone for their kind messages, and thanks to all the visitors for coming to say hello. We should be home tomorrow if the jaundice has settled down.

Not long now!

39 weeks and counting down!

Not too much else happening, just some work around the house.

If you squint you can see the air-con units installed above the carport.
I also added a couple more sections of clear roofing to allow more light into the nursery.

Belly

How many weeks are we at now? 35 I think...