Water Tank

Water Tank
Originally uploaded by jaguarish

This 7000 liter water tank was delivered this morning. We will install it when we renovate, but we needed to order it now to qualify for the government rebates.

Frangipani Tree

Originally uploaded by jaguarish

It's harder than I thought to find a good photo each day, especially with a little girl dogging my every move...

Pawpaw (Papaya) Flowers

Pawpaw (Papaya) Flowers 8-Sep-07
Originally uploaded by jaguarish
This is David's red pawpaw tree. This variety is able to self-pollinate (yellow pawpaws require male trees to pollinate the female trees!)

I rather liked the idea of the Yahoo! Daily Photo Widget so I hope to take an interesting photo each day to post, but considering that I have a newborn and a two-year-old, I'm not sure I'll make it. But hopefully this photo will be the first of many...

Story of the Day

I went into Anya's room this afternoon after she'd been napping for about 2 hours. I thought she'd probably wake up, but I really needed to get something. Sure enough, after I'd taken a few steps into the room, she opened her eyes as if she'd been awake all along, and looked at me steadily.

"Hi sweetie," I greeted her. "Did you have a nice sleep?"

She took the dummy out of her mouth and proclaimed, "Steve really likes crocodiles!" while waving her index finger at me.

I don't know how she'll take it when she learns that Steve Irwin isn't with us any more... he's a favorite of hers from Wiggles videos and Bindi Irwin's afternoon show!

The Birth Story

Read on... this is not a gruesome tale. I just thought the highlights might be of interest.

Friday (10 Aug) I went to bed at my usual time but after a vigorous sorting out of clothing for donation. (the so called nesting instinct?) I spent most of the night asleep but woke occasionally thinking, "Gee this position really hurts!"

Saturday (11 Aug) I woke around 5 am without knowing why. As insomnia has been the order of the day, I didn't think much of it. Then a few minutes later I experienced a really strong cramp. "Ooh, could this be labor?" I wondered idly, without really meaning it. (I'm thick aren't I?) I did glance at the clock though, so with my next pain, I knew it had been seven minutes. I started watching the clock. I was reluctant to wake David up without being sure.

After one or two more contractions at around the same timing, I woke David up and we got the ball rolling. We had to call his mum to come over to look after Anya. I kept timing everything, then when we were ready to go we called the hospital and let them know we were coming. My obstetrician had told me that things were probably going to happen fairly quickly this time, but I was afraid the hospital would insist that I wasn't really ready yet. They did seem a little doubtful that I was "really" laboring. The midwife said that my timing was a bit irregular and they might even send me home, depending on what the on-call obstetrician thought.

My obstetrician wasn't on duty, so a completely different doctor came and looked at me at about 8:15. By this time I was experiencing strong contractions and was up to sitting under a hot shower and sucking on gas.
I did not like having to get out of the shower and wait around for him to examine me! They said he was on his way but I must have been waiting at least fifteen minutes before he arrived. It certainly showed me how effectively the hot water was easing my pain. The gas on its own wasn't nearly as good.

The doctor convinced me to let him break my waters, saying that otherwise I would be laboring that much longer and getting tired. He predicted that the baby would arrive by lunchtime. After this I went back into the shower. David ran a bath as he thought someone should get the benefit of the spa bath. The midwife laughed when she saw this and took several photos for us.

In the end, Callum was born at 10:19 -- morning tea time rather than lunchtime!

He's Here! Callum Taliesin Ree!

Anya's Words of the Week

As Anya talks less and less like a baby, in complete sentences with adult turns of phrase, I'm beginning to forget that she's only two and a bit... but here are a few slip-ups that are oh-so-cute:

"Bumpy Dumpy" for Humpty Dumpty
"Lellow" and "Lillow" instead of yellow and pillow
"Me, me, me do it!"

And here are some adult phrases which make me laugh to hear her say:

"I'm busy at the moment."
"You wait here. I'll be back in a minute." (pointing her finger at me)
"Let's go to London-town!" (thanks, Wiggles, for that one...)

My Latest Shape

Here is my birthday photo... /laugh














We went out to Tukka on the night of my birthday, a restaurant that specialises in "bush tucker" -- food prepared with native ingredients. David had wallaby and I had possum. Neither of us were greatly impressed by the main meals (the service was quite slow, as well). I did like my appetiser of mussels with native herbs & spices, and the palate cleanser of mandarin and lemon sorbet.

Art Opening

My friend Helen had her first ever gallery opening tonight:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/helenparlevliet/

About 18 months ago we started getting together and doing art at her place or mine. It got tricky to schedule so we didn't keep up a regular practice, but it certainly kick-started her art engine! I haven't been as productive, but it was good fun and got me back in touch with my arty self. I also learned screen printing from Helen (and she kindly loaned me some equipment).

When I get more spare time again (who knows when that will be!) I hope to get my watercolor painting skills back up to scratch. It was appalling how poorly my few painting attempts went when I tried. In the last decade or so I've barely painted at all, mostly honing my skills in sketching (in my journal). I do have some thoughts about doing some childrens' books. I've always loved them for their beautiful art (which I couldn't really compete with) but the vast majority seem really poorly written to me.

Also around the time of our art afternoons, I got really inspired about trying to do a graphic novel version of a C. S. Lewis novel (Out of the Silent Planet) and made up quite a few panels, but didn't finish the story because I had to return the book to the library (lame reason, I know...) At the time I was thinking it would be cool as a present for my nieces and nephews. Maybe someday I'll finish it.

Chipotle Corn Chowder Recipe

This is a fantastic recipe for a soup I served at yesterday's party. I made it up as a combination of the following two recipes which I found on the internet:
- Roasted Sweet Potato, Lime and Chipotle Soup (M.S. Milliken & S. Feniger)
- Sweet Potato Chowder (Jane Kirby)

*** Chipotle Corn Chowder Recipe ***

½ red capsicum, diced
½ green capsicum, diced
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp fresh sage, chopped
1.4 kg sweet potatoes
1¼ L chicken stock
3 canned chipotle chiles, minced
400 g canned corn, drained
500 ml cream
1 Tbs brown sugar
¼ tsp nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Garnish
1 bunch green onions, sliced thin
fresh herbs, chopped – coriander, sage, thyme
yogurt or creme fraiche
lime wedges

Toss diced capsicum, onion, oil, salt, thyme & sage together. Roast until softened and browned, about 30 minutes. Set aside. Roast sweet potatoes whole until soft and caramelised. Remove peel (flesh will have shrunk back from the peel).

Place the sweet potato flesh in a blender or food processor along with the chipotle chiles. Add sufficient chicken stock to blend the mixture to a smooth puree. Alternatively, place in your stockpot and apply a hand blender. Stir in the remaining chicken stock, cream, corn, capsicum mixture, brown sugar, nutmeg and pepper.

Garnish with chopped herbs and a dollop or yogurt or creme fraiche, and serve with lime wedges. Optional: serve with cheese quesadillas (tortillas folded around a mixture of cheddar & mozzarella, and toasted until the cheese is melted).

Serves 4

Baby Boy Welcoming Party

Here are all the shirts created at the Baby Boy Welcoming Party yesterday. (See my Yahoo! photo album for snaps of the creative artists at work.)

Credits (left to right)
Top row: Alexander, Jacqui, Kasia, Wenda
Middle row: Nick, Melissa, Jayden, Tom
Bottom row: Jessica, Maureen, Don, Wayne, Rob/Julie, Helen

My second last day of work…

Feeling very fatigued this week. I have no idea if it’s pregnancy, caring for Anya, the cold weather or what… but considering all that, I’m in pretty good shape if a bit of fatigue is all that’s worrying me. I hope over the next month to include some exercise on the days that Anya is at Kindercraft, perhaps swimming in a heated pool. (It’s just so boring!) Exercise hopefully will help my soreness as well as the insomnia.

Baby boy continues to amaze both David and me with his range of movement. He seems to move the most when I sit in the recliner in front of the TV. This week we were watching Dr Who and I was getting more entertainment out of watching my belly jump. Usually everything stops as soon as I try to get David to feel or have a look, but this time when I said to David, “Look!” he was able to see the movement from across the room.

Where did all this come from?

On Monday, I asked Stefan (my boss), “So how was your weekend?” and he replied, “Terrible! We had vomit all weekend!” and I said, “Me too!!!” Ah, the parental life… sounds like they had it worse than we did, with their daughter throwing up in four successive beds.

This has been a crazy week: David had two job applications due today, while battling a cold virus that he caught from Anya. He stayed home with her on Monday and Tuesday. I had to deliver a training course, so couldn’t stay home with her myself. She originally started with a light cough and restless sleep last week, and on Thursday Becca (Kindercraft) discussed her cough with me, but I really thought it was not going to get any worse. Then it did… she started vomiting a little upon coughing, but it seemed like she was just coughing too hard and throwing up a little saliva. Then her appetite diminished until she was refusing all food and taking only milk, or sometimes not even milk.

Saturday night she threw up when we tried to give her some cough syrup -- she got really upset and cried so hard that she started coughing and threw up. It went all down my front, while David jumped back out of the way. I was thinking, "Where did this all come from?" since she really hadn’t eaten anything all day. By Sunday we thought she was getting better because she ate a little bread and fruit. But while sitting on the potty before bathtime, out of the blue she vomited again. Luckily I had a bath drawn and we just wiped her up a bit and got her into her bath.

Supersize Me

The Countdown Begins

I’m starting maternity leave on July 13th. I think the time will go really quickly, because I’m delivering some training courses next week and the week after, then just have about a week and a half to wrap up loose ends with projects. I have to study up this weekend on the training course material… someone else prepared most of it. I don’t want to be standing there going, “Um, so the hydrodynamic theory is that, um…”

I do feel a little exposed because my studies in college didn’t really focus on this stuff (I only had 2 classes in fluid mechanics) and I’m only in the “water industry” due to the high demand for engineers to plan and design water and wastewater systems. Everything I know, I learned on the job by teaching myself!

The weather here is getting really cold. It’s a little warmer today, but a few days ago it was super chilly thanks to some stiff breezes. The cold made me dash out and buy myself a pile of clothing (some op shop stuff and some new maternity stuff). I am feeling anxious about breastfeeding in this weather! July is the coldest month, though, so hopefully I’ll only have about a month of this type of weather before things warm up again.

I still remember making myself a cave out of our spare room when Anya was still a tiny baby (guess she would have been 2 months old). I had the heater on in here at all times and then could breastfeed and sleep in comfort. I don’t know how that will work this time. Obviously I won’t simply be nesting in one room, with having to look after Anya as a toddler as well!

My latest Anya news is that she now weighs a whopping 15 kg. Plotted against World Health Organisation growth curves, this takes her into the stratosphere… see blue line below. I haven’t measured her height since April. I probably should do that to see if she’s had a growth spurt that way too, or if she’s just incredibly dense. Ha, ha.

Mothers Group 2nd Birthday Party

My mothers' group is still meeting -- apparently this is quite unusual! We had a group party for all the kids today. Susan organised the venue booking and made the birthday cakes while Terri and I made up the party bags (Chinese noodle boxes with pens, stickers, toys and small treats). Rather than one big cake, there was one decorated cupcake for each child, and they were all decorated differently. You can see them at the bottom of the photo.



The party was a great success. We had it at the Everton Park Hotel (for you non-Aussie readers out there, that's a pub!) It doesn't seem like a hotel would be a kid-friendly party venue, but it was fantastic. They have a large fenced playground, video gameroom (more fun for the dads than the kids at this stage), and musical carousel. (You can spot my reflection in the carousel's central post, upper left in the photo.) Anya's favourite spot was the pretend shop. That's her at the cash register and Terri sitting to the left, with Terri's daughter Sienna at the back table and Will as the customer at the right.

Cot Shenanigans

Today I rearranged Anya's room so that she could sleep on a futon on the floor, instead of in her cot (crib). She'd taken really easily to the floor futon while visiting Paul & Teresa so I thought it was a good opportunity to make the change. Besides I'd had the feeling for quite some time that it was the right time to change out of the cot. I actually had to take quite a few pieces of furniture out of the room to make enough room, so I was proud of myself for accomplishing it on my own (with Anya's supervision).

The funny part of the story is that when David came home, he tried to move the cot out of the room. I hadn't been able to do it, so I stranded it near the door. I couldn't figure it out until I remembered that we'd originally moved it in there by removing the door first. (Just that extra inch of squeeze space made all the difference.) David thought, though, that if he just tried hard enough, the cot would squeeze through. All that happened was that the cot got stuck halfway in and halfway out!

Meanwhile, Anya was inside the room (she'd been "showing" David her new room arrangement) and we were outside it, and the wheels had fallen off two of the legs thanks to all the shoving and jiggling... and it was almost bedtime! We performed an emergency door removal and got it all sorted out in time, thank goodness.

Sydney-ho!

We went to Sydney this weekend (for 4 days) to visit Paul & Teresa. They have an apartment in a fantastic position on the water. Every morning I would open up the balcony door and immediately feel relaxed as the sounds of lapping water washed over me. Paul & Teresa also took such good care of us that I felt as if I didn't have a single worry (other than losing at Scrabble).

[for more photos, see my Yahoo! album]

The first morning we were there, we walked along the water to Lavender Bay, then Luna Park, passing through several parks on the way. The weather was beautiful -- sunny and temperate -- perfect for enjoying the harbour. We finished off the outing with lunch at Paul & Teresa's local yum cha restaurant (aka dim sum). When we got back, Paul amazed me by falling asleep with his head, arms and feet hanging over the edge of the bed. My arms would go dead and my head would be pounding from the pooled blood!

The second day (Anya's birthday!) was another beautiful day. We drove into the Blue Mountains to see the Three Sisters, followed by lunch at The Conservation Hut at Wentworth Falls and a quick visit to Mt Tomah Botanic Garden. The garden was definitely the highlight of the day. We got a bit stuck in traffic on the way out of the mountains and had a very stir-crazy Anya to soothe with Wiggles stories, songbooks, and renditions of "Happy Birthday to You!" She *loved* getting serenaded and kept asking for it again and again.

Our last day, we flew back to Brisbane at 2 pm, so Paul took us to Bondi Beach for the morning. I haven't seen a wide tame beach like this since LA. The water was clear bluey green and I regretted not wearing my togs. (I'd thought it would be too cold.) Anya and I played in the sand while the guys bodysurfed. (Teresa had to go to work.)

The plane trip itself went very well. I guess 18 months of taking the train every week had Anya quite used to waiting and sitting and travelling. The only issue was that she didn't like having to be buckled into our laps. This was Anya's first plane trip ever and we'd been telling her all week, "You're going on a plane soon!" She absorbed the story really quickly and was telling all and sundry, "I'm going on a plane! Up high!" She even told everyone she was going to Sydney.

We liked our Qantas flight a lot better than Virgin Airlines. There was more leg room (we were seated right behind business class) and were in a row of two, rather than three, seats. Also, we received a "Freddo Frog" activity pack for Anya and the staff made sure to give her as much service as the adults for food and drink.

Huggy Monster

This has been the week of “I want ____” and “Mine!” (even said while taking something clearly mine, that I was in the middle of using or eating). Also “I need some ice” for every little itch and bump. (Must admit, though, ice does have great powers.)

Last week saw the rise of the “huggy monster” who runs full pelt up to her victim and hugs their legs/arms/etc. She’s also greatly enjoyed going “boo!” and “rarrrr!” while menacing with curled fingers.

Anya's favorite book at the moment is a library book by Terry Pratchett, Where’s My Cow? The main character, Sam Vines (a DiscWorld character) comes home every night to read Where’s My Cow? to his son. Over the course of reading out the story, Sam starts to think how silly you’d have to be to confuse a chicken with a cow. He then alters the story to be Where’s My Daddy? and introduces a number of other DiscWorld characters such as Foul Ole Ron and Coffin’ Henry. Anya loves this idea so much that we play it all the time, even without the book.

Anya spent a day at home with David after the Easter break, because she was getting over a mystery illness (developed a fever with no other symptoms except for a loss of appetite). By the next day, she was back to her normal routine, although still not sleeping or eating completely normally. But I’ve noticed since then that she’s much more willing to do things with David and have him take care of her. It is amazing what one day can do!

She’s also really fond of Karen, the group leader at Kindercraft, and actually cried about not going with her, when I took her home last week. I was astonished, as it’s usually the other way around!

Bad Dream

Anya's been saying lately, "I had a bad dream," when she wakes up. I try to ask her what it was about, but she doesn't know. Then this week she said, "I had a bad dream -- on my arm." David thought this was a hoot...