Hello Darling,
You’re so beautiful 🙂
Enjoy the video. (more…)
Rooooarrrr. Ack Ack. – Movie Monday March 29, 2010
I wrote about your new efforts at communication last week. (more…)
I nearly cried today. March 11, 2010
I nearly cried today with happiness. Watching you at the State Library’s Kid’s Corner for Thursday’s sing-a-long rhyme and kids songs. You just LOVED IT and you had a look of pure joy on your face.
We’ve been before when you were younger but today was just amazing. A first for the level of your interaction and watchfulness and awareness of other kids and yourself as one of them, and of your ability to explore and enjoy in a self-directed way. It was just beautiful for me to watch. (more…)
Laugh your ass off Mark II (activities for children) – Movie Monday March 8, 2010
Hi Poogie,
You’ve taken the Laugh Your Ass Off Game to a whole new level. You are regaling us with fits of laughter daily. I managed to get this one on camera – it was just after you woke up from a nap.
This week it was laughing your ass off with dad…
Age-progressing software: you in 30+ years March 6, 2010
A digitally generated image of what you may look like in 30+ years…
Really? Well, you, your dad and I went to the Gallery of Modern Art down the road today to see the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition (or as much of it as we could in the about an hour we have between sleeps and eats with you). (more…)
Eating? Yes. Sand. March 4, 2010
Hi Poogie,
we went to the beach last weekend. And you got your first sand eating experience. It reminded me somewhat of G&K’s dog MoMo, who when you took her to the beach would eat sand and drink the water and then for the next while as you walked / ran along the beach the poor thing would wince and scrunch up her back as she pooed projectile-style salty water.
Sand-eating poogie. Yum Yum.
Thankfully you didn’t do that. Just a bit of simple sand eating. I didn’t notice sand-laden nappies, but I assume it was in there somewhere. I don’t like to look THAT closely.
love mum
Activities for children: The Laugh Your Ass Off (LYAO) Game February 4, 2010
Hello!
Yep, that is me using another one of those finnicky acronyms that usually piss me off. But my mood is up and it can’t be diquieted with simple annoyances for the enjoyable things in life win-out.
Today’s pleasure: the LYAO (Laugh your ass off) game.
Again, a developmental milestone that is talked about in the baby books and literature is babies learning to laugh. You’ve definitely nailed it.
There was no way before I had you that I could have imagined the immense pleasure and pure hilarity of just sitting there on the floor with you on the bed, playing our Laugh Your Ass Off Game.
The funniest thing is, I end up in huge fits of belly-shaking convulsive for-real laughter too. Good for the soul.
I love you punchy.
mum
excited. January 5, 2010
Hello Poogie,
FIRST SWIMMING LESSON tomorrow. I’m very excited for you. Yep, it’s for mums and dads isn’t it. It’s not really for you at all. For you it’ll just be like any other time we go swimming. For me and your dad I feel like it’s a big step. First ‘lesson’.
So. I’m going to go bed excited, looking forward to tomorrow morning.
love you
mum
Crawling up the hallway
Visiting the beach November 23, 2009
Hello Poogie,
Well. 5 months old last week! Congratulations. Time is flying by.
New things for the week:
- still eating more solids (banana, avocado, potato, zucchini, plain yoghurt, carrot, pumpkin, farex)
- still refusing the breast a little during the day (frustrating for everyone, but we’re working through it with some help from the australian breastfeeding association). You’re unfortunately making up for the lack of day-time feeds with more night waking, which is difficult for me (lack of sleep and tired mum’s are a bit more cranky than usual)
- you rolled over the other way a few times (i.e. front to back). Managed a good one this morning where you rolled clean off the mat and smacked your little head into the wooden floor. Ouch. You got a bit of a fright and cried. Overall still more stressful for me than you though, I think. I have many years of falls and spills to get used to the fact that you will hurt yourself sometimes.
- you went to the beach and in the ocean & you swam in a pool!
dad and poogie on the beach at Rainbow
The beach was fun. We went up to Rainbow Beach for the weekend to visit your Grandma E & Grandpa, and your cousins & aunt & uncle were there too. It’s a bit of a long journey for you – we left at 1:30pm on Friday and didn’t get there until 6pm, with a few breaks for you to play and tire yourself out as you can’t be in the car for that long.  It is beautiful there though – quiet and not too many people with lovely water temperature. You had a great time playing with your cousins and getting into all the noise and confusion.
poogie and grandpa on the beach
And you went in the water of the ocean (a bit too cold, you weren’t 100% keen) and the pool (loved it) for the first time. AND my boot is allowed to be OFF for spells now, so I got to SWIM too! (YAY YAY YAY). We will definitely be doing lots of swimming over the coming weeks, though as you have the fair hair and skin of our family, and we live in Australia, we stay indoors between 10am and 3pm and swim before or after that… The beach was best on Sunday morning at around 7am, when it was quiet and lovely. We had it all to ourselves until, lo and behold, your Dad looked up to see our friends K & kids F & F & J about 3 metres away. Who we didn’t even know were going to be in Rainbow. Good thing, as it meant I got to have a swim too as K helped me out of the water as your dad held you (still a bit unsteady on the old fixed-up ankle).
you on the beach
Love you
mum
you on the beach with me. Teething huh!
P.S. Not at all fun: the trip home. We had a big break for dinner having left at 5:30pm. But you still just got sick of the car and then got yourself into such a state you just couldn’t sleep. One and a half hours of screaming baby in a confined space with lots of breaks in random places where we pulled off the highway. Yerk. It’ll be a while before we attempt such a long drive with you again. Not worth it.
Taxes and the Library November 19, 2009
Hello!
So. Your Aunt Reegan has been busy looking for a job now that I’m all mobile again (boot is allowed to come off for a few hours to suit my level of discomfort a day now -WOO HOO!). And one of her primary complaints has been that moving back to Australia & looking for a job really isn’t great as the tax we pay here is so high compared to Japan. So even if she gets a job paying more than her salary in Japan, she gets to keep less. I keep telling her how wonderful the government here in Australia actually is (sarcasm). I then encourage her to write to her local MP, councillor, senator etc whenever something comes up that she feels strongly about. Email is the way to go. And it’s easy. I think I write to the government about something I care about at least once a week. Helps me vent and keeps me sane. Latest was the proposed changes to Youth Allowance (or whatever it’s called now – the money you get to help you live while you’re studying) – i.e. it’s not enough & we’re trying to be an educated nation yet don’t help students from non-priveleged backgrounds enough to keep them from the poverty line while they are trying to get a degree… Rant aside, what I do keep telling her is that the government here does provide some resources to the public, and since we live in the inner-city, it’s worthwhile taking advantage of whatever you can get hold of. She ums and ahs and then just grumbles at me. But, two weeks ago we went down to the new State Library building. Walking into it, with its lovely plush couches and air-conditioning, and free wi-fi and banks of computers, she said, “and this is why we pay taxes in Australia. Japan has NOTHING like this”. It’s great. And there is a kid’s corner just waiting for you to enjoy as you grow up. Just down the road from the free water-park for kiddies.
This morning, you and I again went in the car, and down to the State Library kid’s corner for “Rhyme Time”. A few shots which don’t quite capture the manic atmosphere: think about 50 children of all ages in a brightly decorated room about 4 x 10 m, all shrieking, squealing, talking and singing along to the rhymes done by the librarians. Crazy. And a pram convention just near the room.
Poogie rocking on to the rhyme time
You enjoyed yourself. The first time we took you two weeks ago I think it was all just a little too overwhelming. Today you did some singing on my lap, and were happy being up on some benches high above most of the other kids, so you could watch and be secure with me.  After a bit of singing we went and you laid on the carpet and did some rolling around. There are all sorts of exciting things hanging from the roof so you got distracted by that a bit. There were a few other kids who seemed interested in you and came over to give you some touches and a bit of a ‘hello’. You were pretty keen on the little boy who seemed to like rubbing his hair in your face. And you are astounded at the noise and interaction with so many other children. Crazy – I could almost see you thinking. What are they all doing, and why are they so loud??
a snapshot of the chaos. It just doesn’t quite translate in a photo.
After about an hour, you were starting to get tired and over-it. You enjoyed the stimulation, but it just got a bit much. So off we went, home again.
You’re getting so big so quickly, I look at the kids in the room and think you’ll be in school before I can blink. I’m pondering how if ever I’ll be able to balance you and work and study and life.
A good morning. You’re a cutie and I love you.
kisses
mum
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