Food, glorious food

Elliot has started to watch every mouthful of food we eat with an unblinking intensity and hands reaching out to grab hold of whatever is being consumed. So I decided to offer him some solids for the first time on the weekend.

He knew exactly what to do from the first mouthful, even grabbing the spoon and trying to shovel in the rice cereal himself.

The day I locked my baby in the car

Yes, it’s true. I locked my baby in the car with the keys and the mobile and I have no spare set!

We bought the car second-hand with only one set but that was nearly three years ago and we’ve been playing with fire ever since. Today we got burned. Well Elliot did anyway.

You can imagine the expletives that come spewing from my mouth when I realised my mistake. And I’m sure you can picture the two-year-old following me screaming “Jesus, sh*t, *****” as the neighbours looked on curiously.

Thank goodness it happened at home and someone was able to let me in to call the NRMA. The woman on the other end was fabulous, telling me to stay calm and assuring me it would be treated as an emergency.

A very long 10 minutes later a most wonderful NRMA RoadSide Assist guy turned up and had the car open in minutes. He very generously told me this sort of thing happens a lot but I have a sneaky suspision he was just being nice.

For the rest of the day Lenny told people that “mummy left Elliot in the car” and “the man had to come and save my brother”.

Of course the first person he got to tell was the locksmith who came to cut me a spare key!

All I can say is I’m glad it wasn’t mid-summer. Oh and I will never look at down at people who lock their babies in the car ever again!

Second time slackness

Well Elliot is definitely going to be accusing me of favouring son number one the way I’m going with updates on his progress.

It’s not that I don’t have time. In fact I probably have more free time this time. Simply because when Elliot is happy, quiet or asleep I let him be and get on with doing my own thing rather than thinking about what happens when he does wake or fuss. And this time round my own thing means sewing or reading or getting out rather than sitting down and posting. I really should try harder – that’s the problem when you set a bar for something…

So here goes – the last two months in a paragraph or two.

Elliot has settled down a lot in the last few weeks. He’s now sleeping quite well (during the day) and going off without too much drama which is a change from the 45 minutes of crying that used to precede sleep. He’s smiling and laughing that silent, gummy, wide-mouth grin that babies do as well as making lots of extremely cute “ooh” and “ahh” sounds.

He loves watching his big brother although he has learnt to get a bit tense when he approaches with that look in his eye. Lucky for him he’s a much bigger build than Lenny so he’ll be able to stand up for himself if things get a bit rough. Despite the occassional bop on the head with a bit of lego we’re mostly seeing lots of brotherly love and scenes like these.

First smiles

Elliot gave me a big gummy grin for the first time this morning on his four week birthday. It was a great way to start the day and luckily he repeated the performance for Dad and Nana in the afternoon so I could prove it was the real thing.

Of course it was impossible to capture it on camera so you’ll have to wait a little longer to see how cute it is.

Four weeks old today.

On the sleeping front, Elliot is turning into a real little Lenny clone. He had one long three hour sleep this morning but then didn’t go back to sleep – except for a couple of ten minute catnaps – until 9pm. With Nath heading back to work next week, I can sense some very long days coming up!

Trip to Brisvegas

Our first plane trip with two kids went off without a hitch despite our scheduled flight being cancelled and the alternate one being delayed for nearly an hour. Both boys were perfectly behaved – Elliot slept and Lenny watched cartoons on the inflight entertainment system. You’re supposed to pay for but it seems someone forgot to turn it off or maybe they were just desperate to keep us quiet!

Elliots was pretty cool about taking his first flight at three weeks old.

We headed up to Brisbane to introduce the newest grandson to Grandma and Grandad and they wasted no time putting the eldest one to work as soon as we arrived.

Keen to earn his keep Lenny gets straight to it with his new gloves and rake that Grandma and Grandad presented him.

One of the many activities designed to stop Lenny chasing Grandma's poor old dog relentlessly.

Introducing Elliot James

Three hours old and sleeping peacefully

Our second beautiful boy entered the world at 6am on January 6, weighing in at 3.720kg and measuring 50cm. He was 10 days late just like his big brother – I’m very pleased I won’t be having to apologise for a Christmas or new year birthday for the next 20 years!

So far he’s been very chilled indeed and already showing more tendency to sleep than big brother!! I guess I better stop with the comparisons but before I do I’ll let you decide yourself whether you think they look alike.

Big brother, little brother at home - one day old.

Lenny is very proud, announcing several times today that “Elliot is MY baby brother” but he’s also a little cautious, telling his cousins in no uncertain terms that I am HIS mummy.

Family portrait on first day at home.

Five minutes after birth - it's true about second time being easier!

p.s. I’m pleased to let all my pregnant friends know that this birth was much faster and much less traumatic than Lenny’s was but having said that I won’t be rushing to do it again anytime soon!

Twirly skirt project

My latest project is complete – and no it’s not a baby. We’re still waiting for the little guy who is now 8 days “overdue”. My latest project is this cure twirly skirt for my four-year-old niece.

I completed it in two days and again using off-cuts that have been lying around in mum’s cupboard for so long that we’ve no idea what was originally made with the fabrics. I did have to buy the ribbon (at a huge cost of 65 cents) but I could have made a fabric tie if I wasn’t worried about running out of time!

Thanks to Erin @ House on Hill Road for the free twirly skirt how-to.

And as for my other project – I have a strong feeling that Lenny will have a little brother before the 5th of Jan is over…

Christmas and new year

Lenny is loving the trike he got for Christmas. This year was a completely different scenario to last year when all he was interested in was the wrapping paper. This year he loved opening and giving presents.

And new years was a hoot. He had an awesome time playing with his little friend C. They are really little boys now playing with each other rather than along side each other as in the past. They even climbed up and started dancing on the table. While it was clearly a bit dangerous, it looked like too much fun to forbid!

Christmas stocking

Lenny’s stocking is ready just in time! This is made totally from old fabric, binding and buttons found lying dormant in mum’s cupboards. I know the felt has been there at least 30 years so it’s great to see it finally being turned into something useful.

Because I’m crap – I mean really crap – at drawing freehand, I simply found a Christmas stocking pic online, saved it, blew it up and printed it out over two A4 sheets. I then stuck these together and used them as my pattern for cutting the felt. I did the same thing for the Christmas tree outline and then simply sewed on a few old gold and silver buttons as decorations.

I’m going to give this to Lenny before he goes to bed tonight and tell him it will have some pressies for him inside when he wakes up in the morning – hopefully a little incentive to go to bed and not come wandering back out half a dozen times the way he likes to do now.

I’m going to fill it with bubbles, two lollipops (lollicups as he calls them), stickers, little gardening gloves and an Incredibles DVD. I picked up the DVD at Vinnies and it looks good so I’m hoping it works, otherwise it will be off to the shops on Boxing Day for a new one!

Other than that there will be a shiny new trike under the tree when he stumbles out tomorrow morning – oh and no doubt lots of other things from doting grandparents and aunts.

Oh and don’t get me wrong but…as excited as I am about our impending new arrival, I hope Lenny doesn’t get his new baby brother for Christmas!

Baby bib

I’ve been making the most of my time off before bub arrives rummaging through my mother’s linen cupboard in search of recyclable materials. Her “vintage” tea towel collection offers the most promise and my first project was this little bib for baby made out of a cute cat tea towel. I used this pattern, the tea towel and a standard cloth nappy on the back and it only took a few hours. My next project is a Christmas stocking for Lenny…