Christmas eve

Imogen with Santa

Caught in the act! opening christmas toys under the tree the week before christmas

My happy baby girl

Time really does fly by when you are looking after a little one. It's Imogens first Christmas tomorrow and I am so excited, I cannot believe it is here already! Tomorrow is not just Christmas, Imogen will be six months old tomorrow, so there will be a few changes. She will be moved to her own room on boxing day (which has airconditioning as of yesterday!), her car seat will be turned around, solids will be introduced on a daily basis, the midday breastfeed will be replaced with a formula feed. The beginning of our weaning process.
Those are the external changes, Imogen herself has been changing a bit this week, with the development of her backwards shuffle that she does on her tummy now, so that she can get to places. I have seen her turn around so that an object is behind her so she can reverse up on it. She is getting chattier every day. I have heard /w/, /m/, /b/, and /p/. Accidental 'words' have included 'mum', 'wah' and 'boob'. I know that they do not count as words yet as they have no meaning to her yet, but its pretty cute when she cries she sometimes says "mum!" between sobs. The beginning of CVCV babbling I suppose.

She had her shots on Monday and was weighed and measured. She is in the 95th percentille for height and weight and the 97th for head size. AND I'm a vegetarian (pesco vegetarian). Some people have been surprized that a veggie has been able to grow such a big bubba!

Right now Imogen is in the kitchen with her daddy, helping with the Christmas menu which is as follows:

Christmas Menu

Snacky foods

-        Cheese

-        Olives

-        Biscuits

-        Pear/quince paste

-        Olive bread (SIL)

Meats /mains

-        Chicken

-        Pork

-        Prawns

-        Vegie Shepard’s pie (MIL)

Salads and sides

-        Pumpkin salad (Mum)

-        Onion tart (SIL)

-        Brown rice salad (SIL)

-        Twice cooked potatos

-        Roast vegies

-        Prawn dips (a thousand island, wasabi)

Desserts

-        Hot chocolate mousse

-        Pudding (mum)

-        Icecream

  I will let you know how Imogens first Christmas goes!

Strawberry Kisses

When my bubba was about 2 or 3 weeks old I noticed that she had a small red mark on the left side of her face. I remember asking at her birth if she had any birthmarks. I did not know that they actually develope later on! It's slowly been growing since it was first noticed. The only thing that drives me nuts about it is peoples reaction. No she has not hit or head. Nor does she have brain cancer. It's just a little birthmark.

I plan to tell her it's her own personal Harry Potter mark! And it's not the lightning shape because her parents didn't die!

Another saying I have heard is that they are called Stork kisses, love from the stork at delivery! Which is pretty cute!

Our weekend away

Henri, continues his adventures within Australia

 My dear cousin got married last weekend, down in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. Rhys and I were so excited to receive an invite! However the venue did not allow for paediatric guests. So after a couple of months of umming and ahhing, should we go? yes. Can we take Imogen to Melbourne? How will we travel? Who will babysit? Will we take time off work? We ended up deciding on leaving Imogen in Brisbane in the care of my mum in our house, and only going down for one night, leaving just enough time to go to the wedding and come home again!

A chance to relax and chill out

 On the way to the airport I honestly felt sick, anyone who knows us or followed our travel blog (travellingwithhenari@blogspot.com) knows that we love to travel, we spent days in the air last year and I never felt ill once. Getting on the plane heading away from Imogen I felt sick. I had to stare up at the ceiling for a while, in an effort to prevent throwing up. And in the end I didn't throw up. I think I only started to relax when we were in the hire car heading from the airport to the yarra valley, via Resevoir (because it turns out that the western freeway, northern freeway and metropolitan freeway are all the same bloody freeway).

At the wedding

We stayed at a local vineyard with a lovely view (top photo). It was just so nice and quiet. I had a nice long soak in the tub and went to the wedding with NO vomit or dribble or poopies on my dress! We had a lovely time at the wedding and managed to phone Imogen at the perfect time to say good night.
The next morning we had a massive breakfast at the hotel, had another soak in the massive tub, went on a scenic drive and stopped at a winery for some wine tasting (at 11am!)

I'm glad we went. My husband is my best friend and it was nice to have an opportunity to say hello and to discuss some things in detail without having our thoughts interrupted by little Miss. Our next trip? Adelaide! Next month!! And this time, Imogen will be coming too...