Checkups

Today Jamie had his checkup at the paediatrician and I had my final checkup with the obstetrician. So, we made a day of it... went for lunch in the middle of it... did a bit of scrapbook shopping... Both of us got a clean bill of health. And you know what? He was so good. He loves going out. There's so much to see. I think he was particularly entranced with the scrapbooking aisles. A good thing.

Well, I haven't scrapped for three weeks (or more!). But tonight I actually printed out a photo and I have an idea for a layout. I might get a chance to do something on Wednesday. Tomorrow (well, today really, seeing as its just after midnight) I am going for a full body massage. Sigh! Luxury... blurdy luxury... Its another gift voucher that I got for my birthday last year. A whole hour of massage. My wonderful Mum is coming to take Jamie for coffee and a little walk while I relax. Bliss!

Here's a layout that I forgot I haven't posted. There's actually a few of them. I never put them up on the boards, I don't know why. Prob'ly life just got in the way. Anyways, I won't put them all here at once. I'll spread them out a bit. Besides, I only have crappy photos of a couple of them, so I want to scan them, for which I have to visit Mum and Dad's and use their scanner. I really do need to buy a scanner.


















Hah! Little did I know that it was really only 2 weeks to go. I just played around on this - love doing that - some stamping, some pen work. It turned out completely different than I imagined, but I like the light, breezy, happy feel about it! The envelopes have little letters to Jamie in them.

Have a good Tuesday!
Kathie

A happy dog

Today Jak is happy. He is a white dog again. He has been bathed and brushed.

We knew that he was happy. Last night, he napped on the carpet upside down. You know, on his back with his legs sticking straight up in the air. His little orange squeaky bone was at his nose, where he could keep half an eye on it. Yes, he was a happy dog.

My sister was visiting from Perth last week, to see her nephew.

















I hadn't seen her for a couple of years, so it was wonderful to catch up and spend time with her. Her visit was probably not the best timing, as far as she was concerned, but it couldn't have come at a better time for me, as Jamie was in the middle of a bout of colic. Sonia arrived to find me frazzled and frustrated. She was a Godsend. She has the calming touch that converts a screaming baby into this...

















And while I had the opportunity, and the camera out...













Is that red hair? :0 I haven't been able to see one thing that Jamie has inherited from me, until the tint of his hair showed up here. Lol, that'd be right, of all my wonderful traits ;) I'd give him my red hair and skin that burns in the Aussie sun. Groan.

Today I have a list of tasks. My goal has been achieved - I have washed the car. Jamie is having a sleep. Now, what to do... vaccuum the bedroom, wash the dishes, or bring in and sort the washing... Gee I lead an exciting life!

Kathie

It's so noisy!

Funny, I only realise now I have a 10 week old baby, how noisy it is around our house. Especially today. Its garbage day. I mean, how many times to they come around to collect garbage? I know we have a plethora of bins that we have to sort our rubbish into. But really! I swear, without exagerating, there have been three garbage collections today. And the trucks sound humungous! And loud and noisy. And they wake my son every time.

And then, just to make matters worse, we have a church behind us. Oh how nice, you're probably thinking. Wrong! Its horrible. So much noise. Its like having a nightclub in the side street on Saturday nights. I've lost count of the times we've rung the police at 2am in the morning when the music is still blaring from the loud speakers that seem to run at metre intervals around the perimeter of the church grounds.

And today... well today... they have been tolling the bell, like, every five minutes. Ok, well I exagerate. Every half hour. Oh how nice, you're probably thinking. Wrong! Its one of those awful electronic bells. Grating. Not nice at all. Our previous dog, Bear (RIP beary), used to howl at the sound. Jak, our current fluffball, howls at the telephone. So that gives you an idea of how grating and piercing the noise is.

And speaking of Jak, my poor little fluffy baby has been sadly neglected over the last three months. He is desperately in need of a bath. Here's the evidence:

















There, somewhere, under all the grime is a little white dog. I kid you not. My poor neglected puppy dog. That's my goal for today. To give the dog a bath. Every day I set myself a goal. Just one. Any more than that is just setting myself up for failure, with a baby in the house. Today's is to spend a bit of time with the puppy and give him a long overdue bath. I'll let you know how I go.

Good news today! Jamie slept so well last night. What a little trooper. He slept from about 9pm until 3.30pm when he had his late night supper. That's gotten to be pretty regular over the last two weeks, although sometimes he still surprises me and decides he wants a feed at 1am instead. Just to throw me around a bit. But what has made me a happy mummy today is that, after that feed he went back to sleep and... wait for it... slept until 9am!!!!! OMG!!! Another five hour stint. I am so proud of my good little boy.

Of course, the down side is that he has been up all morning, and not sure whether to sleep or not. He's just grizzly. You know - he thinks he should be tired, but isn't really sure. So he just lies there complaining.

I thought I was on a winner a moment ago. I had put him down in his basinette, wrapped him up, and put on a classical CD. And he was just lying there gurgling to himself, feasting on his fist, listening. I thought for a wild moment he was going to gurgle himself off to sleep. No such luck unfortunately. So, I'd better finish gobbling down my lunch and go help him get to sleep.

But before I go (after all, he needs to learn how to put himself to sleep, right?... so why do I feel like a bad mummy leaving him crying?), here's a photo I took this morning when I was photographing the dirty dog:



















Hi favourite past time at the moment is seeing how much of his fist will fit in his mouth. Keeps him quite occupied. ..... and, well, how good is that.... While I was waiting for the photo to upload he's put himself to sleep. What a good boy. OK, off to wash the dog.

See ya!
Kathie

Happy Australia Day!

Its Australia Day today. A day for acknowledging this great country we live in. I am so grateful that we can bring up our son in a country like this, where we have a fantastic lifestyle. When I look a what is happening around the world, I do feel blessed that I was born here.

I had a few layouts published this month. A couple of them were really old. I did this one a year ago... errrr.. that would be two years ago.... yes, 2004... my goodness where does the time go?... for the Scrapbooking Memories Masters competition. I just love the photograph of my nephew, Thomas, years ago. Actually, I quite like the layout too, even after all this time. It was published in Scrapbook Creations this month. Wow, isn't this mag just improving out of sight at the moment?




















The next two are of my other nephew, William. Isn't this photo too cute? This one was in My Reflections (sad, that they're not publishing it anymore).




















And then, there's this one, also in Scrapbook Creations. These photos were taken at William's 2nd birthday party, where he was fixated on the balloons. He had seen Thomas's balloon fly off into the sky when he had let go of it earlier, and was determined to not lose his. His Mum wrapped it around his arm, over his head and around the other arm, to be sure. The photo of him looking pouty was taken after his Dad tied the balloon in his hair - see the little tuft sticking out of the top of his head? William was not amused. His Dad was though :)











And, finally, here's one of our cutest little puppy, Jak, that was published in this month's For Keeps. I had to create this layout one day, after I came home to find Jak waiting for me behind the fence in the front garden. Normally he's not allowed out the front (too dangerous, as he loves to run off), but Phil was out there doing some painting and it was just sooo nice to come home to a little puppy welcome.




















Awww... isn't he special?

Well, they're pretty much the final layouts I have published before my stint on the For Keeps Design Team. So, I won't be able to show you many more layouts for a while. Unless I start scrapping up a storm and actually complete more layouts than I need to for For Keeps every month. Maybe... Now that Jamie seems to be settling down, I might actually get a bit more scrapping time.

Well, its the middle of the night and I should be getting back to bed. Geez, its a trap starting up the 'puter after I've done my night feed. I'd rather do something for a while, to make sure Jamie's going to go back to sleep. Nothing worse than going back to bed and falling half to sleep only to have to get up again when Jamie starts crying! Each time, though, I tell myself that I'll only be 10 minutes. Yeah right!!

See ya
Kathie

Well, I had some time on my hands... finally...

Yay, I have finally done it! Found the time to start a blog. After reading other people's blogs for the last couple of months and feeling totally out of the loop (for more reasons than just that), I have finally gotten a couple of minutes to suss out how this all works.

So, all my family and friends interstate and overseas... hello!!!! Here we are. Now you can keep track of what we're up to. And to all my scrapping friends, you betta drop by! OK?

So, what am I up to? Well, at the moment, Jamie's hanging in front of me at a precarious angle in the baby sling. Strange baby, the worse the angle, the more comfortable he seems to be. He has breadcrumbs all down his neck (evidence of my lunch ;) and I am grabbing a few minutes before he wakes up to do this. So, its going to be pretty rudimentary (like only this post) if he wakes up, which he appears to be doing.

Actually life hasn't been to bad this week. Jamie is nearly ten weeks old and seems to be growing out of the colic and crying. Yesterday I actually went and had a facial! Luxury! It was a gift voucher friends gave me for my fortieth birthday last year when I was already pregnant and I had been saving it for now. Mum offered to come along and take Jamie out of the salon if he started crying. (I didn't think people would be too impressed with a crying baby cutting through the peaceful ambience of the beauticians and completely wrecking their bliss.) But he was a little trooper and only uttered one word (if you can call "ga" a word?).

And my little baby is growing up. Already! He's graduated into "infant" nappies (we had a couple of unfortunate accidents with the "newborn" size that resulted in both of us having two changes of clothes in the space of several hours, and decided a bigger size was necessary). And today he's moved into 000 clothes. I'm not sure I like him getting bigger. Part of me wishes to keep him a newborn forever.

Here's a pic of my little man:















Today we're off out to visit a girlfriend from my uni days who now lives in England and is out here for two weeks. Yay, I'm getting out of the house!

Oops! hungry baby... lata!
Kathie