Archive for the ‘Matthew & Angela’ Category

Godfather


18 Aug

Last Saturday was Angela’s christening. Andrew, as godfather, was a big part of the ceremony. Andrew had worried about being Angela’s godfather because he’s not religious, but Gabe and Julie had assured him that they thought it was more about the relationship that Andrew has with Angela rather than him providing a spiritual role model for her. So he had accepted, but in the ceremony he had to read some passages that said he believed in God, so I’ve been picking on him ever since and asking what sort of a godfather he’ll make since he’s lied from the start!!

It was a lovely ceremony that I found rather interesting, having never been to a christening before. I’d been asked to take photos of the event, but I was really nervous about walking around and using a flash until the priest/father indicated that I could, which was very nice of him.

After the ceremony we all went back to a hall near Gabe and Julie’s place that had been set up for the gathering, to celebrate her christening and first birthday. In fact, Andrew and I had been around at their house all morning so that they had time do what needed to be done. Angela had a rather extended birthday celebration, with a BBQ with just Gabe, Julie, Andrew, the kids and I on her actual birthday, a birthday celebration at Carol’s house the following weekend, and then the big birthday/christening some 3 weeks later.

Angela was a bit hot in her christening gown, and although Gabe tried to get me to take photos of everyone with Angela, he had to give up because she was very grumpy. After a change of clothes, however, she was fine and spent most of the evening being passed around and sitting on people’s laps.

Babysitting


15 Jul

 Matthew washing his bikes while dad washes the real cars

Babysitting a 3.5 year old and a 1 year old is hard work!! Andrew and I spent yesterday afternoon and evening babysitting Matthew and Angela. It wasn’t really non-stop, because Gabe and Julie came home after the wedding ceremony to give the kids a bath and get things sorted before going back for the reception.

I got there early because Andrew had to play hockey, so he dropped me off and I played a bit with Matthew.  The photo above is of Matthew washing all his bikes and truck (only two vehicles are in the photo) while his dad washed the real cars.  🙂

The babysitting went pretty well really, with just a couple of more difficult times.  Matthew had a couple of tantrums throughout the day, one when we were trying to feed him dinner. He doesn’t eat much at the best of times, and because he wouldn’t leave the TV to have his dinner, Andrew decided to turn the TV off. That set off a tantrum where Matthew stood at the glass front door and cried while he called for his dad. I was feeding Angela at the time and Andrew was cooking us some dinner, so we left him there for a while but kept asking him to come and eat his dinner. Finally (after maybe 10 minutes) when Angela’s dinner was finished I picked him and and sat down with him and tried to give him some comfort. He was tense in my arms, but his crying did slow down and finally stopped. I then asked him to eat some dinner, and while he wouldn’t feed himself he didn’t seem to mind me shovelling the food into his mouth. And after dinner he started playing with his blocks again and was as happy as before. When I told Julie about his tantrum, she told me not to worry because he does that to her as well…stands crying at the front door calling for his dad. That sort of made me feel a bit better about it.

Angela didn’t cause us any grief, except that she had a short grissle at one stage while she was in her cot, so I went to investigate and found she had spew in her hair. There was a little torch that Gabe and Julie use to see what’s going on without having to turn on the main light, but I couldn’t see where the spew was. I could smell it though! I felt all around her and she seemed dry, so I just left her. Gabe and Julie sorted it out when they got back, and also put our minds to rest in that we wouldn’t have known where the spare bedding was anyway, so there wasn’t much we could have done about it.

Andrew and I fell asleep on the couch after both kids were in bed. After playing with the kids, walking Angela around the house about a million times (she just loves grabbing your hands and walking and gets grumpy when you stop), trying to get them to eat dinner and go to bed, we were both knackered!!!

Godfather


26 Jun

Gabe dropped in to visit last night. He told us about Angela’s christening, which is booked for August 11. It’s in the orthodox church and, according to the rules of the church, one of her godparents has to also be of the orthodox religion. That leaves the other person to essentially be whoever they want. Gabe has chosen his sister to be Angela’s godmother, as she is also of the orthodox religion, and he asked Andrew if he would be Angela’s godfather!! Andrew said it was an honour, but he wasn’t religious in any way. Gabe’s reply was that they aren’t a particularly religious family, they don’t go to church often, and the godfather’s role is to help Angela with her spiritial learning, but he said he and Julie interpret that in a modern way which could mean almost anything.  He said he would still like Andrew to be her godfather. So Andrew accepted!  I spoke to Julie today, and her opinion was that it’s more about Andrew’s relationship with Angela and their family more than anything religious.  Either way, I think it’s lovely. 🙂

Babysitting


13 May

Matthew and Andrew playing with blocks and trucks

Lastnight Andrew and I babysat Angela and Matthew.  The good thing is that since we’ve spent quite a bit of time at Gabe and Julie’s house, we were reasonably familiar with their routines.  Mind you, observing and doing are two completely different things.

Angela is 10 months old and is an adorable baby.  Whenever we’ve been around to visit she’s eaten well, never vomited, and basically is pretty happy if she’s being held.  One thing I’ve never taken any notice of is how often nappies are changed.  Matthew, at 3.5 years, seems to like to try to squash Angela when she’s crawling around.  Of course she doesn’t like that much and starts wailing.  So the trick of the night was to try to make sure that Angela and Matthew maintained a little separation.

Andrew was supposed to have played hockey that afternoon (he didn’t, but that’s another story).  He dropped me off at Gabe and Julie’s house and then went to the hockey ground which, luckily, wasn’t far from their place.  He left a spare set of clothes with me so that he had something to change into after the game.  As the night progressed, we discovered that it was quite fortuitous!  Andrew got back to Gabe and Julie’s even before they had left….they were running very late for their dinner.  When they had gone we finished watching Shrek 2 with Matthew and watched Angela playing in the loungeroom.  She had recently woken up from a short sleep and I’d given her some formula  already.  Andrew did a great job of keeping the two kids apart, basically by distracting Matthew so much that he mostly forgot to harass Angela.  Every time I see Andrew around kids I am reminded that I think he’d make a great father. 

For some reason Angela didn’t really want to eat her dinner.  But she was fussy so I changed her nappy (first one since my 22ish year old cousin was a baby…and when do you know it’s time to change a nappy anyway???) which turned out to be very wet, let her play a bit more and still she didn’t really want her dinner.  She was getting grissly, didn’t want the rest of her milk, didn’t want water and didn’t want food.  In the end she did eat her dinner, and soon after we put her to bed.  By this time it was also Matthew’s bed time, so while Andrew was putting Angela to bed I read Matthew some bedtime stories.  He has 2 books, then cleans his teeth and changes into his PJs, has one final book and goes to sleep.  I finished reading the second book and had just finished brushing his teeth when Angela was being quite vocal.  I went to see what was going on just as Andrew was coming out of her room with her.  He said she’d been sick and right then she gave a huge projectile vomit.  It must have emptied her stomach, there was so much vomitus.  Andrew was covered in it, literally covered!!

I took Angela and removed her outfit that was also covered in vomit while Andrew took off his t-shirt and washed his arms.  Then Andrew changed Matthew into his PJs, read him his last book (a present from us, so it was a new one for him) and turned out the light.  I had put Angela into a new outfit and she’d fallen asleep in my arms.  So I put her into the cot, said goodnight to Matthew, and we reveled in the silence! 

Andrew had a shower and changed into his other set of clothes.  Matthew came out once looking for something to take to bed with him.  He was undecided about what he wanted, so I gave him his stuffed monkey and he went back to bed.  A bit later on he was crying.  I went in to see what was wrong and he said he wanted his dad.  I told him that his dad wasn’t home yet and he kept asking, finally changing it to ask for his mum.  I told him she wasn’t home yet either, told him to go back to sleep and rubbed his back for a few minutes until he went back to sleep. 

I sat on the couch with Andrew, feeling a tad exhausted.  When Gabe and Julie got home at midnight they were absolutely amazed that both kids were in bed and asleep.  We chatted for a while, told them of our night’s adventures, and then Andrew and I went home for a well deserved sleep ourselves.

After being at Gabe and Julie’s for 7.5 hours I came to one conclusion.  Kids really are hard work! (But then again, I knew that already. :-D)

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