Claire, Hugo, Evie, Sterle and I went out for dinner tonight to Hogs Breath Cafe. Our intention was to go to Hogs Breath at the Logan Hyperdome, however they were booked out so we booked in at Hogs Breath on Seaworld Drive Main Beach near Marina Mirage on the Gold Coast.
The fact that we went out for dinner might not seem all that interesting, except it was the first time that we, as a family of four, have gone out for dinner since Evie was born in May. Hugo was on his absolute best behaviour, ate more food than I think I’ve ever seen him eat for dinner and helped put our empty glasses onto one of the waiters trays, which was followed up by a couple of high fives. Evie was happy resting in the pram for the first half and hour and was a little grizzly midway through but then had a power nap, which was great.
I remember when Claire and I took Hugo out for our first dinner after his birth, we were really nervous and weren’t sure how it’d turn out. It wasn’t a train smash by anyones standard but with a little more practice, it became easier. Of course, with two children I figured that’d be a completely different beast, however on this occasion it was a screaming success – metaphorically speaking.
Now we just need to find the next place we’re going to grab an early dinner at!
When arriving home from the hospital after Evie was born, the following weeks were fairly tumultuous. We witnessed all manner of outbursts from Hugo as he protested that we couldn’t provide him our absolute undivided attention.
It didn’t matter what we were doing, Hugo was determined he was going to make a statement – whether it was about going in the car, attending swimming lessons on a Saturday morning, picking up some groceries or going to the shops – there was bound to be an outburst.
In the last four to six weeks, that sort of behaviour has now stopped and in general terms our happy, easy going & tolerant son has returned from the post natal haze. That doesn’t mean that Hugo doesn’t throw a wobbly, he does – every toddler will but they are no where as frequent or severe which is great.
We’re now getting to a point where Hugo is genuinely interested in Evie. If Evie is on the her play mat for tummy time, Hugo will often come over and play beside her. If she is laying on the sofa for a few minutes, he will pop over and give her a kiss, poke her or lift up her shirt and say “belly button!”.
I think in the future, Hugo is going to make a great big brother.
Posted in Family, Photos
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Evie has now been mixing it with Claire, Hugo & I for a whopping two months.
It is a strange feeling in a way, sometimes I think to myself it feels as though it was only yesterday that Claire and I were in at Pindara Private Hospital for the birth and other times, it seems as though it is nearly a distant memory already. Putting a little thought behind why that might be, I think the latter is because we’ve done it before – there isn’t that first time parent panic or uneasiness with everything you do.
During the last six weeks since Evie was 2 weeks old, a lot has happened as you can imagine. Probably the most significant departure from our ‘plan’ is that while Claire had every intention to breast feed Evie for the forseeable future – her body just didn’t want to play ball. Claire battled through a few bouts of mastitis and after the last one we decided to call it a day. While I understand why it’s disappointing for women & mothers, however it can actually be a good thing in the long run as now the men can lend a hand. I love feeding Evie and it lets me get close to her, in a similar way as breast feeding does for a mum – so I think that is great. The other obvious advantage is that we can share the load and it takes a whole lot of pressure off of Claire – she can leave the house without the kids now and that isn’t actually an issue – though I wish that’d happen more often than it does.
| Date |
Weight |
Length |
Head Circ |
| 18/5/2010 |
3.60Kg |
49cm |
33.5cm |
| 21/5/2010 |
3.41Kg |
|
|
| 3/6/2010 |
4.04Kg |
|
|
| 2/7/2010 |
4.84Kg |
|
|
| 14/7/2010 |
5.22Kg |
57.5cm |
37.3cm |
| 21/7/2010 |
5.69Kg |
58.5cm |
38cm |
When Hugo was born, Claire and I thought ourselves very lucky because it didn’t take long before we had Hugo in a little routine that worked well for him. Before we knew it, I was waking him up for a dream feed, putting him back to bed and we wouldn’t hear a peep out of him until around 7AM. We figured with such an excellent run with Hugo, what’d be the chances that we’d have that sort of fortune with Evie – well it turns out very likely. By about the 4 week marker, we began moving the feeds around to match the schedule in Save Our Sleep that we used with Hugo and badda-bing badda-boom, happy baby that sleeps through the night! There are a bunch of different baby books around and after seeing what can be accomplished by following a schedule, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough to a new parent – you’d be punishing yourself for no reason by not reading one.
More to come, stay tuned.
Posted in Family, Photos
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After being involved in a car accident on the Gold Coast M1 in late June, my trusty 1989 Ford Telstar Ghia has been written off by my car insurance company.
I’ve been tottering around in the Telstar for the better part of 10 years and only now is the odometer finally approaching 200,000 kilometres.
George & Jude bought it for me as my first car while I was at university, which was a massive upgrade from the family Ford Falcon XM ute with distinctive blue cobra stripes. It was powered by a 2.2L 12 valve 4 cylinder engine, which even in its hay day probably wasn’t the most performant engine, nor particularly free revving – however I suspect that might have been part of its recipe for longevity. I still remember how excited I was, especially when I realised that it had a velour interior, power windows, power mirrors and wait for it, oscillating air conditioning vents in the front!
In that time, I really haven’t had any major problem with the vehicle either mechanically, in the interior or on the exterior of the car. It gets serviced once or twice a year, I put fuel in it and it just goes. On the mileage front, in my mix of highway and city driving to and from work, I get approximately 500km from a tank of fuel and over 550km if its strictly on the highway.
I’ll miss the Telstar, it has been a great little car and served myself and Claire really well over the years. Now I just need to find an adequate replacement and hope that I have a hassle free existence with it as the Telstar has provided.
Posted in General, Photos
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Not so long ago, Hugo realised that he could climb onto the coffee table.
Initially, he was just laying on it with his chest, which followed by him trying to lift a knee onto it in a climbing action.
Claire & I jumped on that behaviour as soon as he started it, however it hasn’t stopped it completely and Hugo will test the water again every so often.
While Claire & I were at the other end of the house recently, we returned to the kitchen to see Hugo laying or more precisely, lounging on top of the coffee table watching one of his favourite TV shows.
Hugo doesn’t watch a great deal of TV, however there are a few shows that he absolutely adores. I’m not sure what it is about any one given show at a time that captures his attention, but he clearly goes through phrases.
The flavour of the month at the moment are:
- Dirt Girl World
- Roary The Racing Car
- Chuggington
- Captain Mack
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