Welcome Baby Ethan

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On the 20th of April 2010. My friend Dez gave birth to her beautiful and healthy baby boy Ethan.

He is so absolutely, one hundred percent gorgeous! Have a look for yourself...

Agree?

I was amazed at how quickly I had forgot how small a newborn baby really is. Ethan is a bit bigger than Max was and I still can't get over how small he looks and how when you pick him up he weighs next to nothing!

Dez and Dave are doing really well and are going to be amazing parents. Ethan is definitely one lucky boy to have parents like them!

Now, I'm off to go and convince my husband that I need another baby :)


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Picnik - Photo Editing

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I don't have photoshop {oh how I wish I had photoshop!}, I can't really afford to buy it right now.

In the meantime I still take plenty of photos and find that a good portion of them need editing. Nothing major, a touch up here, some colour correction there...

I'm sure there are probably heaps of programs out there that you can use, but I'm currently only using one and that's Picnik. I like it because it is really easy to use, but still offers quite a lot of functions.

I choose to pay the $29.95 a year to have access to the premium features, but you can also use it for free if you just want to use the basic features {colour correction, frames etc}.

The photo on the left was taken by my gorgeous friend Cat when I was 22 weeks pregnant. The photo on the right is after I have done a little bit of work on it. Big improvement I think!


So other point and shoot peeps out there... Do you use any kind of image editing software? Which ones do you like best?

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{This is not a paid post, I just really like Picnik!}


A Weekend with Friends

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For the long weekend the Big Man and I headed up to Hervey Bay. We always have such a good time up there and this time was no exception.

We spent plenty of time with family...


Celebrated a friends 30th Birthday...


Watched the Anzac Parade and Ceremony...

Had breakfast with friends...


Went to a costume party...


And played with babies...


All in all a lovely long weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend too xx

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Anzac Day

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This year was Max's first Anzac Day. He might be too small to remember, but we still wanted to take him down to the Anzac March and Ceremony.


It was a gorgeous day in Hervey Bay and we caught up with quite a few friends as we followed the end of the parade through to the memorial.

{My friend Ange's gorgeous Son Tristan}

I hope that Max will grow up with pride in his country and I think that remembering our Anzacs is an important part of that.

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Happy Saturday

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Things that are making me happy on this beautiful day...
  • Knowing that my long weekend it going to be filled with lots of family and friends time
  • The in-laws looking after Max this morning so that the Big Man and I could have a sleep in
  • The way that Coopers little claws click as he runs across the polished floors at the Big Man's parents place
  • Hearing my gorgeous baby giggle when I kiss his belly
  • Knowing that my Mum and Mother-in-Law both love reading this blog and getting updates on Max
  • Spending the day with my wonderful Sister

What's making you happy today?

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Image from here

Dining Room Makeover

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About five years ago my Dad gave us his old dining room table and chairs, he'd only had the set for a couple of years and it's still in great condition.

It's really nice, but isn't really the right style for our new house. However replacing it is not a priority right now {it's pretty much at the bottom of the list}, so I decided to have a go at recovering the cushions.

I had another reason for doing so as well... a couple of years ago I was resting the iron on one of the chairs and it tipped over and burnt a whole right through one of the covers. I've used chair covers on the chairs for a few years to hide it, but I'm tired of how they look.

I bought the fabric from spotlight along with a cheap staple gun and set about recovering them.

It was really simple. I just unscrewed the cushions from the base.


Measured out how much fabric I would need.


and folded and stapled.


Once the covering was done I just screwed the cushions back on and sprayed them with a waterproofing spray to try and give them some protection from dirt, food and cat fur.

I'm reasonably happy with how the turned out. They're not perfect, but they'll do for now. I'm kind of thinking that I might like to paint the chairs white and then recover them {again} with a fabric that has some colour in it. {Like this, from here}


But I want to wait until we have tiles down first so that I have a better idea of what the dining room is going to look like.

Ta-da, my first major DIY!


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My Brown Eyed Boy

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I always thought that babies kept their blues eyes for ages and that they changed to their true colour between one to two years of age...

Not Max. He was born with grey eyes {they were never really blue} and by the time he was two months old we could tell that they were turning brown.

Now at four and a half months he most definitely has brown eyes.


We never thought he had much of a chance at keeping his blue/grey eye colour seeing as the Big Man has brown eyes and I have green. But I did think he would have baby blues for a bit longer than this...


Not that I don't love his brown eyes. I think they are gorgeous {of course!}.

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Good Morning

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I woke up this morning thinking that I started work at 9am. After checking my calendar I realised that I don't start until 10. Happy Days! I love lazy mornings, plenty of times for reading blogs and cuddling Max :)

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Image from here.

Surely Not

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This morning as I was eating my breakfast I felt a little flutter in my belly and then another little flutter and then another 6 or 7 seconds worth of flutters.

Cue Freakout...

It felt just like the early days of feeling Max move. I've counted back though and for me to be pregnant {which is incredibly unlikely} I could only be 10 weeks at the most. Far to early to feel a baby moving.

I'm sure it was just gas... Gas feels just like a baby moving, right? Right?

In my mind I am completely sure it was just gas {but I'm still freaking out a little bit}.

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A Serious Baby

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Now that Max is getting older {and more fun} I like to make a real effort to spend the day playing with him on my days off. I know that it's important for babies to have solo play time, but he gets enough of that when I'm at work and he spends the day in the office with the Big Man.

This morning at our first play session he seemed to be in a very serious mood. Which isn't normal for Max, he normally smiles and coo's all the way through playtime. But this morning he was concentrating really hard on the activities that we were doing and barely even cracked a smile.


Not necessarily a bad thing, just different I guess.


By the afternoon he was back to his usual cheerful self and I even heard him giggle* for the first time, whilst he was sitting up unaided** for the first time!! A day of firsts :)


I took a really cute video of him in his jungle bouncer as well today, but I don't want to spam you all with video after video of my baby doing normal baby things that you've all probably seen your owns kids do a million times. If you do want to check it out, it's over here.


I have the day off again tomorrow and I'm definitely looking forward to spending it with Max!


*He has giggled before, but this was the first time that I had heard him myself.
** I helped him into a sitting position and then he just sat there! Normally he topples straight over. After a little while he started to fall over and he actually reached out and balanced himself again. I was so proud!!

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Two Times Tooth Troubles

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Today has been filled with a whole lot of this.....


One very cranky baby.

We think that he might be teething. We can't see any teeth yet, but as soon as he gets anything into his mouth he chomps away like a demon!

We've been lucky so far, he doesn't really cry much. Just when he's hungry or tired. So we definitely weren't prepared for today. Max cried all day long and only stopped when he was feeding or napping.

To make matters worse, I have a horrible toothache.

Here's hoping he's a bit more cheery tomorrow.


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Cute Enough?

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Seriously.... how is it even possible to be this incredibly adorable?!

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Advice Needed....

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.... Not for me. For my friend Dez.

5 days past her due date and still no sign of the baby.

Seeing as I never actually went into labour I'm not much help, so I'm throwing it out to you guys in blog-land. What are your best tips for bringing on labour?


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Baby Monitor

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Before Max was born my sister lent me all of her baby things. One of the things we've found most valuable is the AngelCare baby monitor. We have it on whenever Max is asleep. It has a few different features and one of the main ones is the breathing sensor. If the baby stops breathing the alarm goes off and you also have the option to turn the ticker on so that every time the baby breaths you hear a tic. You can hear it in the video below {you may need to turn the volume right up}.



Friends have commented that it must be really annoying, but I actually find the noise really comforting. You kind of stop noticing it after awhile, but it's nice to be able to hear it when you want to.

For the last four months we have had the ticker turned on. I know it doesn't need to be on, the alarm still goes off if you don't use the ticker, but like I said I find it reassuring.

The other night we made the big {and scary... well for me anyway!} decision to stop using it. We still have the sensor on each time he sleeps, the only difference is that now we only hear noise if he cries or if the alarm was to go off.

It's nice to have a little bit less noise in the house, but it is taking a bit of getting used to. I find that I go in and check on him a lot more often now.

I know I probably sound like one of those paranoid Mum's that everyone hates, but I figure we have access to the technology, why not make the most of it...

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Rolling, Rolling

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I have proof! I posted the other day that Max had learnt to roll over, but everytime I tried to get it on video he would just cry and cry.

This morning I had him on his jungle mat for some tummy time, I turned around and he had rolled over! Sean quickly got his phone and he did it again twice. Clever baby!

{You might want to turn the volume down so that you don't have to listen to us talk to Max in our baby voices.... and please excuse my pj's it's still kind of early for me.}



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40 Weeks

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My friend Dez is very, very pregnant. Her due date has come and gone and her baby is still in her belly. I can't imagine that he's staying put for the comfort factor, he can't possibly have a millimeter to spare in there.

I had been a week since I last saw her and I couldn't believe how much more her belly had 'popped'.

Absolutely gorgeous! Definitely makes me what to get pregnant again!!


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