ianandgarb.com

Yes there is one, only one!  I’ve got hay fever again!  Mother nature decided while pregnant that I should not suffer from hay fever for both my pregnancies - she obviously realised I had enough going on without suffering that as well.  Needless to say summer is here and the grasses are in full greenery and I’ve got puffy eyes and a runny nose again.  Sigh .. as I go searching for my drugs again

Well we arrived on the 13 June 2008 and have now been here just over a year .. a recap on things:

- Discovered I was pregnant two weeks after arriving!

- Ian had the summer off before starting work at CCL

- Survived the worst summer in years

- Went to France for a summer holiday and it rained the entire time we were there - worst holiday!

- Only just survived the coldest winter since 1960 something

- Little J born on 17 Feb

- Ian got made redundant on the second day back from paternity leave!

- Ian got new job at ReachLocal two weeks later

- We moved house to something bigger and still unpacking boxes..

- Still got the dogs even with my many attempts to give them away!

- A number of friends visited us during the year - that was lovely

I’m quite sure the next 12 months will be just as busy ..

Its hard to believe my little girl’s hair is now long enough that it falls like ringlets around her face .. she’s so cute

Went to take a photo and the battery was dead!  Will get a pic and put one up soon.

Unlike his sister who at 21 months still isn’t sleeping through the night, Jonny has slept the last 4 nights from 8-30ish pm until 6-7ish am 

The first couple of nights I still got up twice to ‘check’ on him and give him a poke but since then I haven’t worried about him.  Now all I have to do is get Charlie to do the same!

He is such a smiley and chatting little man.  Charlie was a very easy baby, but I think Jonny is actually more laid back than she was .. he is mummy’s little man

Charlie has had ANOTHER ear infection and is now on the 2nd antibotics as the first lot were not working as she continued to spike a temp of 39.5 for 3 days and wasn’t getting any better.  Poor little curly girly felt very poorly for a number of days - however she is well on the mend and back to creating havoc in the house once again.

Her latest trick is to push the poof over to the computer, climb on it and start playing with the mouse and bashing the keyboard until some pictures come up on the screen!  Now when she eats something she likes, she rubs her tummy and says ‘mmmm…’

Although not really talking at the moment, her ability to understand what we are asking her to do is excellant and she often surprises me by understanding what I am asking of her - the only time she pretends not to understand is when she is being told off for something naughty!

The month of May zoomed past us as we were occupied mostly with packing, moving and then unpacking!  After much stress and for Ian lots of pain in discovering those muscles which never get used, when he had to lug large boxes down three levels!

After a couple of weeks of having lots of boxes around we are mostly unpacked and sorted and now ready to get ‘all those boxes’ out of storage and start again!! Ugh!

So we are in and its great, the house (its more like Derry Hill) suits us better with 4 bedrooms on one level which are all a really good size, a few cuboards and a really good size area in the loft for storage.  It also has a really good backyard for the kids to run around in and Ian has put up a dog run so they have their own area as well - which means I’m not yelling at them so much any more

Charlie has grown in her development in leaps in bounds in the last few weeks.  She now insists on feeding herself and she ‘generally’ does a pretty good job :)   She now communicates more and very clearly tells us ‘no’ or ‘yes’ to anything we may ask her.  She understands and follows when we ask her to do things, however of course, there are moments where her ears are definitely ‘painted on’.  Jonny is growing very quickly and at his last check up at 14 weeks he weighted just under 8kgs (Charlie weights 13kgs) and is 66 cms long, so it won’t be long before he is out of his 3-6 months clothes - yikes!  He has had two lots of jabs and he didn’t cry at either (unlike his mother), so he’s not only devilishly handsome but incredible brave as well

Anyway, we did manage to record a few other things during the month of May and early June as you will see below.

To give you some commentary around the below photos and remember if you click on the photos they will enlarge.

-  Ian and Megs did some baking in May using the baking set we gave her for her birthday.  I have to say, the biscuits were very yum scrum and she very much looked the part with her hat and apron

-  After a Sunday arvo round of golf for Ian, Charlie decided she liked the look of her fathers blue cap and decided it was now ‘HERS’.  She very quickly learned the ‘what is mine is mine and what is yours is also mine’ rule.  Thats my girl

-  Assorted photos of little J, looking oh so very cute and handsome

-  We caught up with Ian’s family at Easter and thought it a good opportunity to get a photos of J with his Grampy Barrs

-  Charlie has discovered what a sprinkler is and its not just for watering the lawn .. see below video footage

-  Charlie got given this bunny mask at Easter time and she actually put it on long enough for me to take a photo!

Megan and Charlie playing with the sprinkler last weekend

Little J chatting while hanging around outside

Charlie has discovered what fun it is to play with water …

Charlie playing on her slide which Megs gave her .. shes got very good about going up and down it

Charlie and Meg on the see-saw singing row row the boat.. so cute

Quite literally!  Jonny wee’d on me today! We were getting ready for his bath and he had his nappy off and I had put a cloth under him ‘just in case’!  I figure I must still be suffering baby brain as its pretty obvious that little boys wee upwards, not downwards ..  That will teach me!

Last weekend we took Charlie and Jonny on our first family picnic to a small local village who have a playground designed for toddlers.  Although Ian dragged out his 3/4 trousers, I didn’t think it was quite warm enough for those so kept to my jeans Its also the beginning of the local cricket season now, so we set up on the cricket park under the trees and ran around after Charlie who was determined to pull out the boundary pegs!

Jonny enjoying another family outing ..

Ian took Charlie down the park to give me an opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep!  She loves being out and about and just loves running wild in wide open spaces.  Although if you don’t watch her she is very quickly trying to climb the wrong way up the slide!

hut one, hut two ….

Missy moo on a mission..

These ’shoes’ were meant for walking….

At 9 weeks and 3 days old little Jonny had his first official check up and his first shots - 2 of them!  So growth to date:

Birth weight = 4.240kg or 9lbs 6.5 oz.  He now weights 6.65kgs or 14lbs 10oz

Birth length = 55cms.  He now measures 64cms and only just barely on the growth chart by .2%!

While I stood off to one side (to some it may have looked like I was hiding behind Ian) Ian held on to him and I was bracing myself for his first real tears of pain.  He didn’t even make a sound with the first shot and he let out a little yelp with the 2nd shot - but no tears, he left those up to me

He was given a big tick of approval for his health and all going well .. the Dr asked if the breastfeeding was going well … Mate, you don’t get a kid this size by starving him!

Most peoples Easter Sunday involved tucking into lots of Easter eggs .. well not us!  We went out for a couple of hours only to come home to learn Noodle had broken out of her dog area and consumed Ian’s and mine eggs on our BED and leaving behind lots of little melted chocolate bits and than she ate Charlies in the lounge!!!!!

Although chocolate is supposed to be toxic to dogs, she doesn’t have enough brains to know its harmful and looks quite happy with herself.

Anyone want a chocolate eating Labradoodle?  No, I’m serious…. anyone…