Two months!

Would you believe it?! Just like that Lucy has made it to 8 weeks. She's losing that newborness and is starting to smile. And she has grown, boy how she has grown! We went to the doc today for her 8 week check up and first lot of jabs. The scales came out, Lucy went on and the magic number today was 5.96kg and 61.5cm long! Abbey by contrast at 9 weeks was 5.65 and 58cm. So Lucy Little ain't so little!

Life is going well in the world of mum dad and two kids. We have good days and not so good of course but we get there. Ryan is the star husband and this week has already cooked 5 meals. Lucky for me he enjoys cooking and so doesn't see it as too much of a task after a full day at work. Anyway his meals are often much nicer than what i serve up so it's all good. Sometimes it's just easier for me to do the bedtime routine with the girls but often we tag team. I find if i don't start organising dinner late arvo though it just gets a little busy and my head can't cope. We've started to push Abbey's dinner a little later and she's had some meals with us eating the same as us which makes life easier too. She eats a little better also when we're all sitting down doing the same thing.

Abbey is learning more words each day. I've been meaning to keep track of Abbey's vocal development but like all good intending parents it's been one of those things that sadly I have thought of often - even purchased the little notebook to write them down in - but not actioned.

Abbey's words are still few but we get by quite well. She certainly understands a heck of a lot more than she can communicate obviously. Now when I say that she can 'say' these words I mean she either says it clearly and Joe Blogs would understand her or that she makes a good attempt and enough that we understand her. Just recently she's also started signing 'bird' and 'finished' which were two of the baby sign words i have taught her. Now I'm kicking myself for not teaching her more!

The latest on the list are:
She comprehends full complex sentences on many occasions. I remember the day i said to her "can you put that in the rubbish please" - indicating to the item on the ground and she picked it up and took it to the bin and put it in. I didn't even know she knew what a rubbish bin was!!

Understands:
chin
elbow
Lucy
potty
shoe


Says:
Amen
kiss
fart (bet daddy taught her that one!)
it's ok (to Lucy when she's crying)
Mum
Dad
Bottle - 'Bo'
More Please! - 'Mor ... and then a word for 'please' I can't work out how to write!
Thank you - 'Tank koo'
Dog
bird
pool
teeth - 'teh' when she wants to brush her teeth
spoon
plane - there's an action for this too! She waves one arm up and down. No idea where she got it from but she's consistent.
car - 'Ca ca'
poo - 'poooooooooooooooo!' although she says this every time we change her nappy no matter what the contents!

Oh and on that note... Abbey has now on two separate occasions used the potty of her own accord!! I take her nappy off sometimes in the day so she can air out the nether regions and i said to her if she needed to do poo that she needed to sit on the potty. We were in the lounge and then she left and i heard her in the bathroom and went to investigate thinking she was probably getting into the cupboards. There I find her holding the potty having just emptied the contents into the toilet! The next morning prior to a shower she sat on the potty and deposited without being told to and later in the day weed! She did on that occasion proceed to tip it on the floor but i praised her for doing it in the potty first. Wee in the potty was a moment to be celebrated!! I am such a mum!! The pride! The joy! These are important achievements no matter how dirty the subject. I was ready to shout it from the roof tops! So I shall continue to give her nappy free time and hope we have more positive results.


As I mentioned Lucy has just started to smile which is great. So need that positive feedback some days! She's in a good routine now and is feeding well and at night from 1030pm we're getting through t0 4am before the next feed. Hopefully that will start stretching out little by little. during the day there's about an hour of overlap with their sleeps. Some days Lucy sees it as her chance to have me all to herself and wakes up 20mins after Abbey has gone to sleep. Today though I've had an hour and 15mins as Abbey was exhausted and went for her nap earlier. Hence the opportunity to chuck some pics on here and update you all.


This weekend just past we went on our first family adventure. Real adventure! We got in the car and drove for about 2hrs south to a place called Mission Beach. Now it wasn't the type of day for going to the beach as it was raining so we decided to go for a walk. There's a place called Clump Mountain National Park which had a circular track. So we donned our jackets and had Abbey in the backpack with rain cover and Lucy in front pack under Ryan's jacket and off we went into the rain forest! Great thing about the rain forest canopy is that it's a fabulous shelter so although we got wet we weren't getting pelted with rain. And it was great fun. All the motion must have got Lucy's bowel a moving though as Ryan got wafts of a certain package as we walked. When we got back to the car we discovered the mighty deposit that it was all the way up her back but thankfully and miraculously well contained with none escaping down the legs or through her top too much so the front pack didn't get too dirty. I tell you what I should carry Abbye more often to walk off this post baby weight that lingers. 10kg extra makes a big difference. Ryan normally carries her but he had a bigger jacket which we needed to cover Lucy and he doesn't fit mine. I think I did pretty well actually.
Now that the calender has flipped to February we're pretty much in count down mode. Our packers arrive one the 20th Feb and we're out of here that weekend bunking in with Mikaela and John and John. It will be a squeeze but we'll look at it as a great time for family bonding and a true blessing to have somewhere to stay before we leave. Ryan finishes up at work that last week of Feb so we have the first week of march to tie up loose ends and enjoy family before flying out on the 6th March. It's a bit surreal some days to think we're heading back to NZ for good. It will probably just feel like a trip home for a few weeks. Really looking forward to seeing those familiar faces and all the not so familiar little faces, the kiddies, who have joined the lives of our friends and family since we left. Well that, my friends, will have to be it for today. I've uploaded all the decent photos we have. Lucy has loads less by far than Abbey. Second child, less time. But hopefully we're capturing enough to keep you interested.