Archive for the ‘Andrew’ Category

Bike ride with Daddy


07 Jan

Posted in Andrew, At the park, Nathan the preschooler | 2 Comments »

Last Import-1

Nathan and Andrew went for a bike ride today to a nearby park. It was too far for Toby, and I needed a few things from a supermarket, so Toby and I drove to the playground. The playground is pretty new, and is fabulous. Andrew measured the distance by bike to be around 4.2 km, so that means Nathan rode about 8.5 km today!

I took a couple of photos in the playground, but I missed the heart-in-the-throat ones where Toby climbed a vertical wall where the holes and hand supports were almost too far for him to reach and he was too high for me to help him, and Nathan climbed over a rope structure also in spots where he could barely reach the next rope.

Last Import-6

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Andrew Used a Fancy iPhone app to track the ride.

And a time-lapse movie.

Moving…probably


22 Aug

Posted in Andrew | 2 Comments »

Well, it looks like we will be heading back to Victoria in a few weeks. Andrew has been trying to get relocated through his work for quite a long time now. There was talk of him moving to Adelaide a couple of years ago and again last year, which really excited me. We thought that Adelaide would be a nice place to bring up kids, and we thought we should be able to afford a house with a big back yard. Sadly it never eventuated.

Recently Andrew applied for a job in Melbourne within the same workplace and even the same group he currently works in. Before the job was advertised Andrew was told that it was his if he wanted it, but it still didn’t stop him getting stressed about the interview, and also trying to decide if moving is the best thing we can do for our family. The process of filling the position took a lot longer than anticipated, but he finally (last Monday) was told that the job was his and that he was to start in Melbourne on September 20. We decided that moving would be a positive step for us.

Now our problem was that we need to give my tenant 60 days notice to vacate my house, which Andrew had informed his boss many times. So then he had to negotiate some financial help for our relocation and temporary accommodation while we wait for the house to be vacated. That has now been promised.

So, we are currently in the situation where the job has been promised to Andrew, they have decided on a start date just 4 weeks away, his workplace has promised a sum of money to help us financially during the move, but he still don’t have any letter of offer for the job. I have had to give my tenant notice to move out already, and we have spoken to a couple of real estate agents regarding the sale of our flat, and are in then process of getting quotes from removal companies, and are trying to find reasonably priced short term furnished accommodation in Melbourne, but we don’t have written proof that Andrew is being employed in Melbourne. Hopefully it will come on Monday.

Update:  The letter of offer came today (Monday), and Andrew has accepted. Full steam ahead on organising the move to Melbourne.

New Bikes


22 Nov

Posted in Andrew, Bugalugs, Mascot Living | 2 Comments »

My (old) bicycle is 18 years old, has done tens of thousands of kilometres, the gears don’t work well and the handlebars give me shoulder cramps when I ride a long distance.  I have tried to fix many of her age-related problems and the shoulder cramp problem, but I came to the conclusion long ago that my best option would be to buy a new bike.  Then I moved to Sydney and stopped riding so much.

A few months ago Andrew’s bike was stolen from outside our cage (it was locked to our cage at the time, my bike was apparently not good enough to be stolen since it was locked by the same chain that was cut).  Since then we have talked about buying ourselves a new bike each, so last Saturday found us bicycle shopping at Woolys Wheels in Paddington.  We took a bicycle for a test ride (road bike with flat handlebars) and we both liked it, so we were fitted out for new bikes, a bike rack that goes on the tow bar of the car, and a baby seat.  Today we picked up the bikes, got a helmet for Nathan, and lashed out on bicycle shoes and cleat pedals because I wanted to try them instead of getting toe clips (I can’t possibly ride without something like that these days, it feels like something is missing if I don’t have my feet attached to the pedals). The handy thing about the pedals is that they are normal pedals on one side and cleats on the other, so you don’t need to wear the special bicycle shoes to ride the bike.

Anyway, I’m very excited to have a bicycle that is quite light, and a baby seat so that Nathan and I can pop to the park or the shops without having to get out the car.  My old bicycle is going to be donated to some place that does up old bikes for a good cause.  I’ll be sad to see the end of Ten Tonne Tessy because I’ve had a lot of fun on her even though I also suffered through terribly painful shoulders as a result of bicycle touring on her.  I’m going to have to come up with a nickname for my new bike….I don’t have any ideas yet, but maybe something will become obvious as I get to know her better.  🙂

Floriade


30 Sep

Posted in Andrew, Nathan's first year, Travel | 2 Comments »

I took a couple of days off work last week and went to Canberra for an extended weekend.  We left Thursday morning when Nathan had his first nap of the day (around 9 am) and after a couple of stops we got to Collector around 12:20 pm, which was just in time for our 12:30 pm booking for lunch at the Lynwood Cafe.  It’s very fancy there, and we had a very tasty lunch.  Unfortunately for me, though, Nathan also thought it was tasty and so I left feeling a bit hungry still because he had eaten half my lunch!

We stayed at our favourite accommodation in Canberra which is at ANU (Australian National University).  The rooms are old, but they are spacious and you have a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom.  Andrew can never stop talking about the heated floor in the bathroom, but I have to admit it is rather nice!

Floriade, as always, was beautiful.  The flowers were all looking great and we had a really warm and sunny day to explore.  Nathan wasn’t really keen on the pram that day, and so he spent most of it in the pouch being carried by me.  The pram did come in handy, though, in the late afternoon when I was feeling a bit tired and Nathan (for reasons unknown to us) decided that it was ok to sit in.

During the day Nathan got to sit on the back of a kangaroo (see photo below) and played on the ground a few times.  He is still sticking most things in his mouth, and so everything on the ground went in there….dry leaves, twigs, grass, etc.  We tried to stop him, but you can never catch it all.  This point was highlighted when Nathan started drooling excessively and sort of gagging in the afternoon.  This went on for a while, but Nathan wouldn’t let us feel in his mouth to see if there was anything in there.  Finally I was able to get a finger in to check, and found a dead leaf stuck to the roof of his mouth!

The rest of the weekend found us at the National Museum, the War Memorial to check out the new Vietnam section, and a visit to our friends Tracey and Rob.  Nathan didn’t sleep particularly well while we were away, and so we were all exhausted by the time we got home on Sunday afternoon.

7 Months Old


15 Sep

Posted in Andrew, Nathan's first year | 2 Comments »

I’m a few days late for Nathan’s 7 month entry, but going back to work has meant I have even less time to myself.  Nathan is exceptionally clingy to me at the moment, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve gone back to work or he’s getting a new tooth or he has a cold or it’s just what they do at this age.  Maybe it’s a combination of it all.  Whatever the cause, Nathan hates it when I walk out of his line of sight.  Andrew tells me that he cries in the pram and car more when I’m around than when I’m not, because he just wants me to hold him.

Andrew is still doing well during the day and I think that he and Nathan have an absolute ball together.  They go on lots of walks, meet up with lots of people and occasionally even visit Mummy or pick her up from work.

Development wise, Nathan is just getting better at everything.  He sits on his own now, his crawling is getting better, he loves standing up (to the point that he doesn’t want to bend at the waist when we put him in his chair for meals, he just wants to stand), can pull himself up to standing (though this doesn’t happen often yet), he is getting better at eating food out of his fist although a lot still goes on the ground and I love watching him try so very hard to pick up peas and eat them.  He doesn’t seem to be sucking his hands/fingers so much any more, though he’s started sucking his bottom lip again, I think it’s something to do with his second tooth that is making an appearance.  He is starting to show delight in what he does rather than only deriving enjoyment from what others do to him (he and Daddy were tickling me the other day and he thought it was a great joke, and Nathan was tickling me all by himself!).  He looks at things a lot now too, turning them over infront of his eyes before putting the item in his mouth.  He even looks at books again and isn’t always trying to get them in his mouth anymore.

Andrew finally found a teddy that he is happy with, so Nathan has a new mate.  We are going to try out letting Nathan sleep with the teddy, because he seems to want to cuddle something when he’s asleep and I’m hoping it will help him to sleep better if he has something specific to cuddle.

The elimination communication seems to be going relatively well at the moment too.  Andrew was finding it hard at the start, but Nathan went through a period of potty refusal which didn’t help matters.  He’s more than happy to sit on the potty now, and I think he is starting to try to communicate his needs to us.  Occasionally he will play with the potty and then do a wee when put on it, sometimes he complains suddenly and will wee when offered, and sometimes he goes still and just looks at me and smiles and will wee when I put him on the potty.   I’m trying to teach him to pat his tummy when he wants the potty, and I almost convinced myself that I saw him pat his tummy before weeing this morning (but it could be simply wishful thinking).  Anyway, I still get excited when I catch his wees and am very impressed when we go an entire day without a wet nappy.

Broccoli


08 Sep

Posted in Andrew, Nathan's first year, Sydney city | 1 Comment »

Yesterday was Andrew’s first official Father’s Day.  He did try to claim one last year, but at that stage Nathan was barely 4 months cooked and I told him he’d have to wait.  We had a lovely day in the city doing a little shopping and then sat in the sun in the botanic gardens for most of the afternoon.

For lunch Andrew and I ate salads and bread rolls that we bought from David Jones (very yummy), and Nathan ate his broccoli, carrots and pears that we brought with us (and had a taste of the salads as well).  Broccoli is a messy vegetable to eat, and because of that I don’t normally let him take a whole floret to eat by himself when we are at home.  In the park it was a different matter…easy to clean up afterwards, so I let him go for it.  The photo above shows the damage.

It was a little chilly when the sun disappeared behind a building in the late afternoon, so we decided it was time to go home.  A chilly end to what had been a beautiful spring day.

Knives, forks and spoons


05 Sep

Posted in Andrew, Shopping | 1 Comment »

Andrew’s work has a kind of point system where they can be given points for doing a good job on a project. Andrew got a lot of points given to him when he reached 10 years of service (they conveniently forget about another couple of years that Andrew worked for them but through an agency). Andrew cashed them in for some Myer vouchers and so we went shopping last week.

We bought a really nice set of sheets (we needed new sheets, and also a new doona cover but the one I liked wasn’t in the right size), a crockery set (6 setting of dinner plates, bread and butter plates and soup bowls) and a nice cutlery set which was very fancy…an 8 setting that had two sizes of almost everything! Two sizes of forks (entree and dinner), two sizes of knives (entree and dinner) and three sizes of spoons (soup, dessert and teaspoon). I’ve never had a cutlery set with soup spoons, and it’s the first time I’ve ever bought quality cutlery, but oh, it’s so devine! I love the weight of each item, and although they are stainless steel they somehow have a soft, silky feel to them.

We have discarded all our old, cheap cutlery and crockery, and the difference between them and our new sets was a bit like the difference between drinking wine from a plastic cup or a nice, fine wine glass. There was something special about using our new cutlery that made the meal just that bit nicer. It will certainly be nice to have a matching crockery set now, but I could rave about the cutlery for ages!

Back to work – day 1


03 Sep

Posted in Andrew, Nathan's first year | 3 Comments »

I started work again on Monday, though I took Monday off to drive back from Port Stephens where we’d caught up with my parents for the weekend. So yesterday was my first day away from Nathan, and Andrew’s first day of looking after Nathan.

I think the day went really well from Andrew’s point of view. He managed Nathan’s sleep very well, as well as I do, and feeding him the expressed milk seemed to work a charm too! The amazing thing that happened was that Nathan went to sleep in the pram!!!! It was a beautiful, sunny day, so Andrew took Nathan out for a walk in the pram and he fell asleep!! That has never happened before, though last time I took Nathan for a walk I thought he might go to sleep since he was so relaxed, and then he started figeting again. So I had hopes that the day he slept in his pram would not be far off.

On the other hand, my day wasn’t so good. I’d been woken about a million times in the night by Nathan, I cried when I left home, I had to wait ages for the bus since I’d just missed one, I got bombarded with all the crap that’s been going on while I’ve been gone, and expressing only went marginally well. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to express enough for Nathan for a single day and so we’ve had to take out a frozen container of milk each day to supplement the fresh milk. When those frozen stocks are gone, I guess the only option will be to buy a tin of formula. It just seems a shame to put so much effort into expressing, and still have to resort to formula, but if it has to be then it has to be.

People tell me that it’s easier to be at work than at home looking after a baby, but so far I think it’s the other way around! Mind you, maybe those people don’t have to wake up for a proper feed twice a night, feed back to sleep when he wakes inbetween, and express milk while at work to feed the baby for the next day.

Lost and Found


25 Feb

Posted in Andrew | 2 Comments »

Andrew and I have been together now for just over 3 years, in fact it’s now 3 years and 1 month.  During that time he has given me numerous gifts, ranging from flowers and little trinkets to much more substantial items.  The first gift he gave me (not counting flowers) was a little diamond necklace.  I dropped him off at the airport when he was flying down to Melbourne for a week, and when I said goodbye to him he told me that he’d left me something in the glove box of the car.  When I got back to the car (which is a story in itself, since I lost the car in the carpark and spent a long time wandering around trying to find it) I found a small box containing the necklace.  I’ve worn that necklace ever since, only taking it off when it was necessary.

When I was at the hospital two weeks ago, I was told to take off all my jewelry (just my watch and necklace) before going into surgery.  I took off my necklace, and then had to find somewhere to put it.  I think I gave it to the midwife and she put it in my handbag for me.  I had done up the clasp so that the diamond pendant didn’t get lost.   When I saw Andrew after surgery, he got the watch and necklace out of my bag and gave them to me.  But the diamond was missing!  I must have dropped it before doing up the clasp.  I was absolutely devistated that I had been so careless and had lost it.   Andrew asked me if I wanted him to go back to the Birth Suite to see if it was there, but I had little hope since it could have easily been caught up in the sheets of the bed, and I’d changed beds numerous times since being in the Birth Suite.  So I couldn’t believe it when he arrived back with the diamond wrapped up in a bit of paper.  Someone had found it and put it on a notice board.

It’s only a small thing, but my watch, engagement/wedding ring and diamond pendant are all precious to me because they were given to me with love at different times in our relationship, and they remind me of related events.   I’d hate to permanently lose any of them.

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