Update 14 - 30 Weeks Old

We have just reached another milestone......Charlotte has got her first teeth (two bottom center)! Yeah!!!!!!!! No dramas with them coming out, they just appeared. I would love to take a photo to show you however you can not get her to open her mouth. Each time you try and look at the tooth she pokes out her tounge. So when she is crying James and I sit looking at her going "there it is!" - I think she thinks we are mad.

James and his Dad have been busy recently building a deck outside, Charlotte has been a complete angel during the construction and has been sleeping sessions of 2 hours plus at a time, so I don't have much to do (which is very strange to me). We have had a fair bit of rain here so the mud everywhere is terrible. So have not been doing too much house work and with a sleeping baby I have finally found some time to send out an email update.

OK where do I start. I am back at work (part time) for at least the next 6 months. I received a phone call from my old boss at IBM who asked if I would be interested in some work - because they were desperate for someone with the knowledge and skill I could ask for whatever I wanted. I managed to get 4 days per week with 3 days working from home and 1 day in the office. James has arranged to work from home 1 day per week to look after Charlotte while I go into the office. So far it is working so will see how things continue. James and I agreed that if things get too tough I will just stop. I am actually enjoying the day out and feel a bit like a grown up again. But I must admit I do miss Charli while I am out.

Speaking of Charli, well our little girl is getting bigger every day. She has now officially moved from her baby capsule and is now in a front facing car seat. She was a little freaked out at first with the traveling forward position but now loves the fact that I can turn around and talk to her and she can see what we are doing in the front. She is now 8 kg and approx 70cm long so not such a little girl anymore - 7 months old. Can't believe how fast that time has gone, it feels like a blur.

She is now sitting up by herself and is eating solid food. She still has her good days and bad but I suppose that is to be expected. She does have a sweet tooth and much prefers the yogurt, fruit, custard and cereal to the vegetables and meat. I have just introduced her to cheese today but not sure if she was all that fussed. She does like the finger food sessions with Rockmelon and Watermelon. It is a very messy episode but highly entertaining. I just put her on a big mat, let her go for it and then take her into the bathroom and hose her off (well not literally). James has decided to do it differently. He actually sits her in the clothes basket on a towel then when she is finished just picks the whole thing up and takes it into the shower. That way he doesn't have to touch a sticky child (only a man would think of that).

Charli hasn't started crawling yet and is still not fussed about being on her stomach. She might be one of these children that just bypasses the crawling stage and goes straight to walking - will have to wait and see. She has however got her first teeth - I was very excited - but it is very hard to show anyone.

We have now been going to swimming lessons for 3 weeks.....she loves it and kicks like a mad man and gets excited when she knows she is going in. I have even heard the instructor saying "everyone do what Charlotte is doing" I think we might have a water baby on our hands and possibly another madame butterfly - 2020 Olympics here we come......

There has been a lot of activity around this place lately. We have made the decision to move - no date decided, maybe sometime in the next 12 months - so James is madly trying to finish all the jobs he has said he was going to do for the last 5 years (yes that is how long we have been in Lane Cove). We have been painting, building decks, tiling - you name it we have done it. In fact the place looks so good now we don't want to leave it. But we have too - we need the extra space now. Another bedroom would be great with possibly as move level yard that can be viewed from the house. We also need extra room for the Talkingstones business as we have out grown the space downstairs. We now have our first gift store order so we need to accommodate a bigger blaster and room for storing rocks. James would love a garage that he can convert into a blast room and office.

On the weekend we went to the Coast and stayed at James parents place - Charli got her first big bath and as you can see from the photos she loved it. She found sucking the face washer very interesting.


I hope you enjoy the new photos Will post another update soon.

Update 13 - 26 Weeks Old

Hi All, well another week has passed and there have been more changes in the Rae household.

Firstly I am back at work (part-time).......work called me last week to see if I would be interested in working for a couple of months. I will be working from home (expect for one day where James is going to work from home to mind Charli) and I will be taking Thursday off.

Thursdays will now be our learn to swim class day. They start next week and should be a lot of fun. They call them aqua play classes and involve getting babies used to the water. I don't believe there will be a problem for Charli as she already loves it. I actually brought her a blow up seat ring the other day and we went to the pool to try it out. She sits in it and I push her up and down the pool (while I get me exercise) and she loved it. When she is actually in the water she loves putting her face in the water and kicking her feet. We might end up with our own Madame Butterfly.

Secondly, Charli has had her first finger foods.....what a mess but lots of fun. I brought out a big mat, sat her in the middle and handed her a thick slice of Rockmelon. It is first time she has had Rockmelon and the first time she had had finger food and she loved it. She had it every where but I didn't care. When she was finished I just took her into the bathroom and hosed her off. Today she had her first piece of bread roll which resulted in the same situation however in this case Bonnie was left to clean up the mess (thank god for dogs).

I had mothers group at my place last week which was great. A little cozy but good fun. Charlotte was a little overwhelmed by having her play area over run but other babies but I think she still enjoyed it. At one stage a little boy called Ollie took one of her toys, she just let out a massive scream which made everyone stop (as she doesn't ever make much of a noise). I had to laugh. I will have to make sure I teach her to share.

We sit up very well now but no sign of crawling yet. She can hold herself up if you put her hands on the coffee table, so you never know she might walk before she crawls. The new sound is rasberries followed by lots of dribble, messy but adorable. I think I even caught sight of a little tooth earlier just under the skin. Will take a closer look later when she wakes up from her sleep.

Anyway enjoy the food fest photos.........update you again soon.

Sam

Update 12 - 25 weeks old

Visit from two Great Grandma's

Well today was an exciting day as we have James's family down. We had both the great Grandma's here as well. We had lunch and as is becoming a bit of a tradition we had Ribs and Chicken. Grandpa Rae had a go at making his own special BBQ ribs sauce and it was great.

Great Nanna Rae has got over her replacement hip really well and is getting around easily if not a little slower. Great Grandma Almo was also in good spirit and still continues to slip Bonnie treaties under the table when no one is looking. Needless to say that Bonnie like mummy and daddy love it when great Grandma Almo comes to visit.

Well the count down is on. Grandma Rae will be leaving for Auntie Sandra & Uncle Max's in Franken ferter land in a few weeks.

James