Havin' fun for breakfast

I snaffled Phil before he could get started on the renovations this morning and asked him to take these photos of breakfast:

Giggle. He always looks like a stunned mullet - the flash surprises him every time.

Who knew breakfast could be such fun?

Kathie

A quizz and a tag

Yes, I am indeed grateful that time moves on and things do get better. Life is rosy now. And, I would like to report in - J slept for two hours this morning! And for an hour and a half this afternoon! Yeeehaa! I think the solids is workin'.

I weighed him this morning. Poor little guy has only put on 30g in the last two weeks. Gulp! Wicked mommy should have been feeding him solids way before now, me thinks. Oh well. I'll see how he goes now. He's certainly loving his cereal. And this afternoon I bought some veggies... guess what I'm making tomorrow? Puree!

Thanks anonymous! :) All my maternity layouts are really special to me. So happy that you got some inspiration from them. (And, no, it wasn't me logging in anonymously to comment on my own pages, lol!).

Mel posted this lovely little quiz and so I had to try it. I'm Kermit, lol!

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

And Michelle has tagged me. Some of the questions were in an earlier tag, so I left them out for fear of being boring and repetitive ;)

Born: I’m a gemini child of the mid-sixties

First Job: Medical researcher investigating growth of cancer cells.

Fondest Memory: Of my Grandfather sitting on the bench seat outside the back door of his house, saying hi as we arrived to visit.

Last thing purchased: Fresh veggies to puree for Jamie to eat next week. His first veggies!!

Fish, Chicken or Beef: chicken

Movie: I don’t know that I have a favourite. The Bourne Supremacy perhaps?

Retreat: An isolated beach

Flower: Moth orchid

Day of the week: Lazy Sundays. Hmmm... what are they again?

Indulgence: As I’m breastfeeding at the moment, I can actually eat dessert. Yummo. Anything except chocolate. Chocolate unfortunately doesn’t agree with J.

What scrapbook lines/products, etc. do you dislike? I’m not really into retro patterned papers. Vintage I love. But retro just doesn’t speak to me.

What technique do you use more than anything else? Writing, lol!

Who or What are your biggest influences on your style? At the moment Jennifer Johner and Ali Edwards. And baby clothes/toys seem to be giving me heaps of inspiration at the moment.

Have you ever had any scrapbook related tiffs with your Husband? Yes. And that’s all I’m going to say on that one.

If there is one person you have met through blogging that you know will be a life time friend who would it be?: I’ve gotten to know so many lovely ladies through my blog and deepened my friendships with those I already knew. I would be reluctant to name just one person.

What music do you listen to while you scrap? Fresh FM, which is an Adelaide Dance Music radio station. If I am listening to a CD it would probably be Faithless, Garbage, Massive Attack, Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas, Mobi, Paul Mac.

Obsessions: Getting all the food into J's mouth without it going all over the house, lol!

Out of the box, (well on it ) who do you lust after on TV… I don’t really watch that much TV at the moment. But I do quite like Sawyer on Lost. Yes. Mmmm.

One quote that defines you: “I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.” Fred Allen

It's too late to think of someone to tag.
Have a good weekend people!
Kathie

Grateful

LOL, reading through my journal from when Jamie was born, I realise how lucky I am that my life is still not like this:

2.30–3.00am: express
3.00–4.30am: sleep for an hour and a half
4.30-5.30am: feed Jamie and settle him back to bed
5.30–7.15am: sleep for an hour and three quarters
7.15–7.45am: express
7.45–8.30am: feed Jamie
8.30–9.00am: eat breakfast
9.00–11.00am: both of us go back to bed for two hours
11.00–11.30am: express while Phil feeds Jamie
11.30–12.30pm: playtime on the loungeroom floor
12.30–1.00pm: settle Jamie while talking to Shel on the telephone
1.00–2.00pm: make lunch and eat while reading through baby paraphernalia
2.00–2.30pm: try to breastfeed, it hurts, switch to the bottle
2.30–3.00pm: express
3.00–3.30pm: clean and sterilize equipment; do dishes
3.30–4.15pm: shower and wash/dry hair
4.15–4.20pm: put on a load of clothes to wash; start to bring in yesterday’s wash; Jamie wakes up crying
4.20–4.30pm: Jamie won’t settle, so I give him a bath
4.30–5.15pm: feed Jamie; Grandma and Grandad pop in for a visit
5.15–6.30pm: settle Jamie back to bed; fold washing; hang out washing; clean up bathroom
6.30–7.00pm: express
7.00–7.30pm: Phil has cooked tea, eat tea, do dishes and tidy kitchen
7.30–8.30pm : Read the newspaper and catch some TV
8.30–9.15pm: Feed Jamie
9.15–9.30pm: Try to settle him back to bed
9.30–10.15pm: Get Jamie out of bed and let him play on the floor as he won’t settle.
10.15–10.45pm: Give Jamie another feed
10.45–11.00pm: Settle Jamie
11.00–11.30pm: Look at photos Mum took the other day; quickly read emails
11.30pm: Sleep!

Whew! That was my day on 18 December 2005. Jamie was one month old. 2 hours sleep in a row was as much as I could snatch. Breastfeeding had become too painful so I was expressing and feeding him by bottle. The next day we were admitted to a clinic for feeding difficulties ;). And a week later colic kicked in for 7 weeks. I don't know how I survived those early weeks. I remember thinking that I was getting absolutely nothing done. And I was right, lol! A shower by 3.30pm! And that was a good day - I actually had a shower. And I got the washing done, even if it was in instalments.

Life now is good :)
Kathie

Solids

Thank you for your emails and posts. I don't have some of your email addies, otherwise I would have written back to you and thanked you personally. Because I'm delighted when each and every one of you takes time to say hello. And especially when you go out of your way to support a new mum, who's having a bad day.

Well, I have bounced back. Amazing what sleep can do, hey? I also made some changes to Jamie and my routines. First, I decided to stop fighting with him about the daytime sleep thing. If he doesn't want to sleep, then I'm not going to wear myself out listening to him crying.

Also, I've started giving him a top-up feed an hour after his main feed. When I sat down and analysed it, I realised that I was putting him to bed with an empty tummy. You see, he has always fed every two-and-a-quarter to two-and-a-half hours during the day. Which worked OK when he was only awake for an hour and a half (and when I consoled myself that at least he was sleeping through the night!). But now that he's awake for two hours at a stretch, I've been trying to put him back to sleep when his tummy is starting to feel empty. Already, just giving him the top-up has worked wonders. He even slept for two hours yesterday lunch-time. Unheard of!

And the other thing that we've started is feeding him solids. Now, this started quite unintentionally. I had it in my mind that he needed to start on solids, but I was putting it off. Then, on Monday night we were at Mum and Dad's for tea. Phil was eating some stewed apples and custard for dessert, and because J was being a bit of a grizzley-bear, he was on Phil's lap. Well! He was watching his Daddy's every move! His little mouth was half open and he looked like he was ready to pounce on one of those spoonfuls as it passed by him. So, Phil, being the kind hearted daddy that he is, went to give J a bit of custard. At which I freaked. Dairy!!!??? But, I figured that apple would be OK. And it was. He loved it. He gobbled it up. Phil gave him teaspoonful after teaspoonful. And he just kept coming back for more, his little mouth opening up like a little baby bird, waiting for a juicy morsel.

We were enjoying the spectacle so much that not one of us thought to grab the camera!

So now J is on baby cereal for breakfast. Not so yummy as stewed apples, it would seem. But still good enough. (Thanks Mel, for the hint about adding the apples into the cereal - we might try that when I get some apples to stew.) So, we've started solids. And we're all happy.



And... dahdah!.... I got started on the mini-album I had been trying to make for our friend who's moving back to Paris to live (sniff!). I had been trying to get this album done for, like, the last three weeks. I will take some photos and post when it's finished. Although, it's just using up scraps so nothing earth shattering, but still, it's something.

And finally, I have to keep in mind that we've been house-hunting, and now we're heavily into finishing this place off so we can sell it and move, and deciding on renovations to the new place before we move in. So, I have to factor in helping with the renovations, choosing paint colours, trips to look at furniture, paint charts etc etc etc. It all adds up.

So, if you get bored with reading my drivel about Jamie, I apologise in advance. It's my way of keeping my memories while we're so flat out.

See ya
Kathie

busy busy busy

I'm so wrapt to receive so many comments to my entries in my blog. A big thanks to everyone who drops by and leaves me a word. I treasure each and every one of them. I'm so flat out with Jamie at the moment, he's been very demanding in the last two weeks and I've been feeling quite lonely and like I never get anything done. The time I spend reading my comments is one of the highlights in my day. Now, ain't that sad?

Jamie has made some terrific leaps forward in the last two days. I'd like to think that's why I haven't had a moment to myself.

When I left work to go on mat leave, one of my colleagues gave me a little plastic book called “Who Loves Baby?”. It has plastic sleeves, in which you slip photographs. (She knew I was a scrapbooker and thought it was the perfect gift, as indeed it was.) Until now J has shown very little interest in the photographs. He prefers the brightly coloured patterns around the edge of the pages and would rather suck on the plastic than look at the photos. Until yesterday. Yesterday, to my surprise a huge smile lit up his face and he reached out to the photos of Daddy with a gurgle of excitement. He recognizes us! Well, Daddy at least. (I must be honest here. While I was hugely excited at this step in his development, I was just a weeny bit miffed that it wasn’t my photograph that elicited such a sweet reaction. Ah well, best get used to that, I suppose.)

And last night, as we were passing by the chiffonier in the corner of J's room, he caught sight of all the teddy bears and let out a squeal of delight. We’ve passed those teddy bears so many times and he's never paid them any attention. Suddenly he has become so much more observant.

Then, in the bath tonight, I was showing him his feet and he was playing with his toes. He's never done that before. Examining his toes, feeling between his toes, clutching at his soles. Captivated and inquisitive. It's so lovely to watch this discovery.

Even Phil noticed it today. Said that J's much more talkative. And now that he mentions it, he is. Of course, the fact that he only had a half an hour sleep at 10.30am and then refused to sleep again until 5.30pm did leave him rather more time than usual for talking. *wry grimace*

I'm beat. The last two nights, I have been trying 11pm rollover feeds to see if he'll sleep through the night, to no avail. All that's happened is I've been going to bed really late, and I still have to get up during the night and do a feed. I think my little man is nearly ready for solids.

I think I'd better drag myself to bed. Groan. I really wanted to do a mini album this weekend for a friend who's leaving to go back to Paris to live. I think that he's going to have to go back without it. I'm never going to get to do scrapbooking again, the way I'm going. I'm so envious of you girls who keep churning out pages. I try to console myself by taking photos and keeping this journal, but sometimes I feel so down that I don't get time to create anymore. I keep telling myself that it's better to be creating memories than to be recording them. And I really love my little man and I love spending time with him. And with Phil. But, I really miss that time playing with a design and revelling in the feeling and memories a photograph evokes. OK, enough of feeling sorry for myself. I think I need a good night's sleep.

'Night!
Kathie

More crying

Jamie has been so out of sorts for the last week or more. Yesterday he cried all day. I suspect the chocolate the Easter Bunny brought me for Easter hasn’t helped with his discomfort :o. Chocolate is well known for causing colic in babies. Anyway, whenever I put him down, he cried. So I had to occupy him all day. I got so frustrated and tired. Listening to him crying all day just tears at my heart and I get so tired. And grumpy. Oh, so grumpy.

When I put him in his bed at his normal bed-time last night and he just cried and cried and cried. Phil couldn’t bear to listen to him cry and got him back out Unfortunately, and unexpectedly, that made him cry even harder! In the end we had to give him a dose of Gripe Water (which makes him cry even harder again, if that’s possible – he hates that stuff, he tries to spit it out, he screws up his little face, he just hates, hates, hates it!). Finally I cuddled him in his bedroom and sang him lullabies until he fell asleep on my shoulder.

And, as we sat there in the dark, all cuddled up together, I stopped and discovered that I was so content. There in the dark. With him all warm and tiny in my arms. I savoured the warmth of his little head against my cheek. I savoured the smell of him – all peppermint-y and aniseed-y because of the Gripe Water. I savoured the sound of him sucking on his fingers as he started to fall asleep. I just drank him all up. And I felt guilty for feeling frustrated and grumpy earlier. And I wished that we could just stay like this, he and I. I want to be able to hold him in my arms and feel his little warm head against my cheek forever.

Kathie

The Easter Bunny

I promised photos of Mr Easter Bunny once he'd settled in at his new home. Here he is, feeling very comfortable amongst what he knows. This photo was taken early on Sunday morning. Obviously. If I were to take the same photo now it would not be quite the same. 9 empty, crinkled foil wrappers :).

And here he is getting to know his new friends. Mr Bee, Mr Fish, Mr Horsey, Mr Yellow (what else!) and Mr Penguin (an Easter present from Grandma and Grandad). Unfortunately, Mr Duck, Mr Goose and Mr Snowman (from an earlier post) are on assignment in Sydney and can't be here at the moment. But, they'll meet him when they get home.

There will be no picture with Jamie for, oh, say, another ten years.... Anyone want to see a rabbit covered in spit?

However, I did get this one the other night. My three boys. Aaaah.

Kathie

A year ago today

Dear Bunnyrabbit,
A year ago today, I discovered that I was pregnant with you. It was Easter Saturday and your Dad and I were in Darwin. I’d had my suspicions all week but didn’t dare hope. Your Dad had been in Darwin that week and I didn’t want to find out until I was there with him. I still remember waiting for the pregnancy test to change colour. I still remember holding my breath. I still remember that I almost felt pain, waiting for that colour to change. Pain of anticipation. Pain of what might be bitter, crushing disappointment. But I wasn’t disappointed. Because you had decided that you wanted us to be your Mummy and Daddy and you were already on the way to us. I loved you so much from the moment I saw that stick change colour. And I love you even more now.
Love you …………thiiiiiis much ………………….
Mummy xxxxx

Thursday already...

Where does the week go? It used to zip past when I was working, but now, with Jamie, it just speeeeeds past. The minutes evaporate between breastfeeds, playing, cuddling, rocking the basinette, pacing the floorboards, pacifying... Ok, he's been grizzly the last five days. Dunno what's wrong. Colic? Teething? Who knows. All I know is he's grizzly. Won't sit longer than five minutes without wanting to be picked up and held. But he's still adorable :)

The art of putting something in your mouth

I showed him the Bunny that arrived from Julie yesterday. His eyes got as big as saucers and his arms and legs waggled around excitedly as he tried to put it in his mouth. I explained, however, that it was a special present from his Auntie Julie and is much to cute to be a teething toy. He's on our mantle at the moment. Expect some photos once he's settled into his new home :) Thanks so much Julie!

We're hoping to hear news today about our finance for the new house. Expect many tears and much gnashing of teeth if it's not good news. In the meantime, Phil has renovated the laundry:

Lookin' good! I painted those walls :). I love bathing Jamie in the laundry now. Its so clean-looking and has such a spacious bench-top. We will have such a beeewtiful house by the time we move. I mean, it's lovely already. But our plans for it are just beeewtiful. I hope we can pull it all off.

Have a safe long weekend!
Kathie

My three goals

I did this layout in mid 2004. My three goals. Check it out:














Ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good, if it doesn't it is of no use. Carlos Castaneda

The journaling is mostly hidden, but goes like this:

1. Family.
I would like to have children. I never intended to leave it this late to start a family. It’s just how life worked out. I’m nearly 40 and don’t want to wait much longer. Philip and I married six months ago, and I’d dearly love to have a family. I’ve always loved children, but haven’t found myself in the situation to have my own until now. About five years ago I was in a car accident and, after running numerous tests, the doctor told me that I may find it difficult to have children and “not to leave it too late”. Well, here I am, nearly forty, and I pray that it will still be possible. I try not to think about it too much. I try not to imagine my life with children, just in case we can’t have them. But, by the same token, I can’t imagine my life without them.

2.Home
We would like to build a new house. The house we live in now is a gorgeous old Adelaide sandstone villa. The people who owned it before us had it professionally painted, so its impeccable right down to the ceiling roses adorned with painted flowers and vines. Trouble is, its a bit of a cave. It faces east and has an old verandah right across the front of the house, which is very picturesque from the outside. However, it makes the house incredibly dark inside. Every winter I feel miserable and depressed. Because its just so dark. I need sunlight. This year, Phil put in a skylight, which has helped. But, I long for a house where the light streams into the living areas and where I don’t have to turn the lights on during the day. I keep a scrapbook of my favourite interior design ideas. I dream of a house filled with light.

3.Work
For the last six years, my job has consumed me. I’m a human resources manager in a large organization that employs about four thousand people. It’s a busy job. I find it stressful. I can’t switch off. I worry over every employee that we counsel for performance. I get tied up in knots about staff grievances. I hate redundancies. At first, I didn’t do much of that sort of thing, but increasingly my job has encompassed more and more of the negative aspect of human resources management. And it doesn’t sit well with me. I feel like I’ve been drained emotionally. I want to stop. I want to do something that’s positive. Something that nourishes my spirit. At the moment I’m off work on leave. I know I don’t want to go back. The problem is, I feel so drained emotionally that I don’t feel capable of doing anything at all.

Check
Check
Check

All three of my goals have been met now. I only realised this, this morning. I have a baby. I have a new job, back in my old field of OHS, and now we have our new light-filled home. I must drag out my scrapbook of interior designs I like. Hmmm. I wonder where it is?

'Bout time to do another goals layout for my BOM maybe?

See ya
Kathie

The cutest toothy grin

Bathing my little man in the bath tonight and I just fell in love with his smile all over again. The biggest grins. With these two tiny little teeth. He just looks so darned cute. I must try to get some photos.

Thanks for the comments about the biting. I'm very vigilant for signs of it at the moment. I had to be very stern and put him down last night when he bit me again. Mummy was not happy. I don't think he noticed. *sigh*

:) Susan, I don't know that he's all that smart. I don't think he even realises what he's doing. He just liked the fact that he got a reaction.

Britta, I hope to continue to breastfeed him until he's at least a year old. Maybe until he's two? I know that's the World Health Organisation's recommendation. Providing he doesn't continue to munch instead of suckle....

And thanks for the comments on my layouts. I haven't posted much on galleries while I was exclusive to FK and I've sorta missed it. Then again, I saved a whole heap of time by not uploading everything ;)

G'night!

Oh, I nearly forgot. We bought a new house today. !!! I had to re-boot to tell you that. I'd completely forgotten our big news. Yay! And, ya know what I'm most excited about? An extra bedroom - er scraproom :). We won't be moving in for at least six months - too much to do on our place here first. But, no more house-hunting (for those who know us, DH has spent every weekend for the last 18 months searching out houses). Yay!!!

Now, I'm off to bed. J has taken to waking up with the birds since daylight saving ended.
Kathie

New friends, new tricks, new LOs

Jamie and I had such fun at Kate's place on Sunday. It was fantastic to meet some new scrappers. Nicole and Kate both had their cameras out and took photos of the babies. Check out their blogs for photos. Too cute :). Kate's sister, Jane, is due to have her baby any day now. Good luck Jane!

I didn't do much scrapping, mostly talking and looking after the baby. But I did get some strips of paper laid out on cardstock and was able to finish the LO on Monday. Yay! One down. A zillion to go. Honestly, I have so many ideas going around in my head, so many pages I want to do, and so little time.

I actually started a journal this week because I was getting so anxious that I wasn't scrapping enough to record it all and I didn't want to forget it. And, because, dear reader, even though you profess to love reading about Jamie, I really can't bore you with every detail of what I want to remember. That just would bore you senseless, lol!

However, I will tell you that he has two new tricks. He is busy squealing and squawking at the moment. And he has also learnt to bite. He bit me! When I was feeding him the other day. I yelped with surprise and he thought it was a great joke. We will have to nip that little game in the bud! Anyone got a good suggestion on how to discipline a four and a half month old baby not to bite your nipple when you're feeding him? Yeeow!

Now for some scrapbooking stuff: I had three projects in this month's For Keeps. An Easter mini album for Phil's cousin Britta, who lives in Germany. Britta, the album is on its way to you at the moment, along with the For Keeps magazine. Britta's little girl, Mira, is too cute and I couldn't resist these Easter photos. I won't show you all the pages, it would be too much, but here's a few - you have to excuse the glare - these photos were taken on the day before Jamie was born, when I rushed home from the hospital after being told I had to come back in that evening and be induced. I raced home and finished off this album. And it was very sunny. And I could only find the gorgeous stripey towel to put it on in order to take the photo. Ah, it brings back memories. This little album holds very special memories. I hope Britta and Mira love it as much as I do.

A LOof my nephews, for the affordable layout section.



And a LO of my sister as a little girl, summertime in 1977. Sitting with the dog in the wheelbarrow in the back yard. Isn't the photo so 70s? Those brown tones. That paisley shirt.

Well that's enough for today.

Seeya

Kathie

Scrip scrappin'

I posted off my last two projects for the For Keeps Design Team this week. My six month stint is over. It's gone so quick! I've really enjoyed it. Can't wait to see who's on the new DT.

It's been a bit of a challenge for me, because I have had to work to a design brief. For those wondering, every month For Keeps issues us a brief, describing all the topics for that month and inviting us to propose pages to those topics. For instance, it might be the affordable pages topic, where they'll set us an amount, or the theme might be to use the colour pink, or to scrap using a particular item.

Now, I'm not a planner when it comes to scrapping. I just sit down with a photo, or some paper and my page evolves. It often involves pulling out all my stash to find the perfect embellishment, and I usually change my mind at least half a dozen times. Often the page turns out nothing like what I had in my head to start with. So, having to propose my layouts in advance, describing what colours or what papers I'll be using, how I'll do the title, etc etc has been a real challenge for me.

Sometimes, I swear, it has taken me longer to write up my proposal than to actually scrap the page. By the time I've gone through all my photos, looked through my stash, taken a run up to the LSS, scratched around through my inspiration sources etc. But it's all been good. A good discipline for me to try and imagine the page and then to have to stick to what has been in my head. To commit myself, argh!

Having said that though, I'm kinda looking forward to just scrapping for me again. Just whatever I feel like. No restrictions. I want to finish all my maternity layouts, and get to some of the photos of Jamie that I've been wanting to scrap. I have a whole page of layouts that I want to do. Speaking of which, I hope that you don't get too bored of seeing him in For Keeps over the next few months. I think LOs of him start in issue 43. I find it hard to scrap anything but him at the moment :).

Tomorrow I'm going to my first ever scrapping get-together, at Kate's. I have never scrapped with anyone. Ya know that? Wonder how I'll go? Well, actually, I can probably predict that now, seeing as I am taking Jamie with me. But, I would love to be proved wrong. And, just in case, I guess I'll end up packing everything but the kitchen sink. Because I have no idea how to pack my entire scrapping supply into a teeny bag.

Well, I'd better go make some lunch before the boy wakes up for a feed. I think Phil's coming with me to the shops after lunch so that I can go try on some jeans. Yay! I'm so excited. Mind you, I hate jeans shopping normally. They never fit. Even when I haven't had a baby four months ago. Well, actually, I have to admit feeling pretty pleased with myself - my jeans do fit me again, sort of. Which is quite exciting in itself. But they're hipsters and, while they may have been quite fine pre-Jamie, when all I did was sit or stand in them, now that I am down on the floor, bending over or reaching down to pick him up all the time, they are bordering on obscene. My butt ends up being more out of them than in, if you know what I mean. So I am on a quest for something more "suitable". Sigh. I fear I am becoming a mummy.

See ya
Kathie