Adventures Down Under

Backyard Living

2012-01-28T09:37:00.001+11:00

We've been working on making our backyard into an enjoyable outdoor living space. We've put up a gazebo with mosquito netting and a rain tarp and scored a free outdoor table and chairs setting on Freecycle. We've stocked the gazebo with a selection of kid toys, a stroller for rocking Ari to sleep and a kid sized table and chairs. Next to our gazebo, we've got a plastic kid swing that we got for next to nothing at Tiny's Green Shed, an LPG fired outdoor oven and our awesome Mexican hammock with full mosquito netting and tarp..

We've been enjoying meals outdoors in the evenings when it's too hot to be in the house and it's great to have a space to escape to with a fussy baby when the other baby is trying to sleep.

Our outdoor living space is also doubling as a workshop area for Brian and he has two major projects in the works at the moment. One is an adsorption chiller which will use heat to ultimately make ice. An engineer at heart, he's been tinkering with this idea in his head for some time and is now getting ready to build it.

The other big project has been his first attempt at all grain beer brewing. He cut the top off of an old keg and fitted a spout to it so that he can boil water. This is then transferred to the mash tun (an old esky) where the sugar is extracted from the grains. Then it's back to the keg/pot where it's boiled with the hops before going into glass and plastic carboys to ferment for two weeks before bottling. He's done two batches so we've got a Smoked Porter and an India Pale Ale in our garage. One of the interesting outcomes of going through this process from scratch is that Brian has found that he actually prefers good beer without carbonation. Truth be told, given the warm weather and the tastiness of the brew, I'm not sure much of it will make it to the bottling stage!

One view of our outdoor living area - the gazebo with brewing supplies out front.

Boy Loves Red

2012-01-26T22:10:00.000+11:00

Riker has a favorite color and it is most definitively red. You may have noticed that almost all of his clothes in recent posts have been red. He will wear other colors but midway through the day I'll find him stripping down and pulling something red out of the drawer to wear (or to deposit on the floor once he realizes he'd rather be sans clothes). He adores his little red stroller that he can push around himself and our new (secondhand) double stroller is (fortuitously) red as well. In this photo he's wearing his old school red terry cloth underwear which he LOVES. Only problem - we just have the one pair in red!

Kaleidoscope

2012-01-25T22:10:00.002+11:00

Nearly every time Coral comes to visit, she brings presents. The last time we saw her she brought wooden blocks, a toy car, a number puzzle and a kaleidoscope for Riker. While he doesn't yet appreciate the kaleidoscope as much as the blocks, I've been having fun tinkering with the settings on my camera and trying to get some good shots through the viewfinder.

Box Guitar

2012-01-24T21:53:00.000+11:00

After Riker and I finished talking about our activities for the day as part of his bedtime routine, he popped up and said he had to use the potty. I considered the possibility that he was already using this as an excuse to get out of bed, but since he's just learned to use the potty, I got up and headed for the bathroom with him. As he was sitting on the toilet, he grabbed an empty toilet paper roll and kept say "neep" over and over while touching the edge of the roll. Searching my brain for what in the world he could be talking about, I realized that he was asking me to snip the edges of the roll so that they could be folded out and taped to a box to make a box guitar like he'd seen on an episode of Play School. Some days I am so proud of my translation skills. When asked what came next he said "tape", "box" and then "strings". What a good memory! I was so pleased we'd had this bit of communication that I helped him make the box guitar and then Brian found the segment online so we could watch them make it again.

Here's the Play School version:

And here's our box guitar:

I'm not sure what time he finally fell asleep tonight but he'd had a late nap and we all enjoyed our bedtime craft session!

Playdates with Isabella

2012-01-24T09:48:00.001+11:00

We had a fun playdate yesterday morning at Isabella's house. They played in the sandbox, pushed each other around in cars and splashed in the wading pool. Here, a break from the fun for morning tea.

Riker and Isabella have been having playdates since they were just itty bitties. Here they are at about eight months old when they had just learned to crawl.

And here's a photo from the post Riker's First Girlfriend when they were about four months old.

Of course, one of the most important things about playdates is that the mothers get a chance to have some adult conversation (albeit frequently interrupted and mostly about babies). Angela has had a second baby as well and our two kids are almost exactly the same ages. I was hoping to get a photo of all four together but there was so little time when they were all awake and clothed! Ah well, next time!

Potty Learning

2012-01-23T21:12:00.002+11:00

I'm very pleased to report that Riker has taken it upon himself to do away with diapers (though the true blue Aussie baby in him refers to them as nappies). I use the term "potty learning" quite deliberately as there was little "training" of any sort involved. I'm not sure we can take much credit at all for this new development, but I suspect a confluence of factors have led to this exciting new stage:

There were our early and sporadic attempts at elimination communication, a system which uses timing and cues to anticipate the baby's need to relieve himself and to help him become aware of his bodily functions. This probably wasn't a major contributing factor, but it may have helped him get accustomed to sitting on a little potty from an early age.

From about eighteen months we started having him sit on the potty more and more while we'd sing silly songs. We'd talk about using the potty a lot and of course, he'd see us using the toilet as well. Anyone with any experience with toddlers knows that private moments in the bathroom are few and far between!

Riker has always worn cloth diapers (love my Green Mountain cotton prefolds and Thirsties covers) and since they don't wick away moisture like disposables, he's possibly more sensitive to what it feels like to be wet.

Perhaps most importantly was the fact that summer rolled around just when he was ready to give up diapers. As soon as it was warm enough to be naked, he ditched all clothes and started using the potty (or just peeing outside) pretty reliably from day one.

Whatever the reasons, we're thrilled to spend less time chasing him around to get a diaper on him. He's still wearing a diaper overnight even though he usually wakes up dry and our outing to the playground was the first time he left the house in only underwear. We figured accidents there wouldn't be inconvenient, but he used the potty there too. Hooray!

A day at the park

2012-01-23T10:03:00.000+11:00

On Saturday we had a great visit to Black Mountain park - a romp in the playground, snags on the barbie, sailing a toy boat on the lake, seeing some giant black swans, a visit from the ice cream truck and lots of watermelon.

While Riker and Brian were pottering around by the lake, I stayed in the shade with a sleeping Ari and as usual, passed the time by photographing him.

Did I mention I adore baby fingers and toes?

And when he woke, he was in such a good mood!

Despite the abuse inflicted by the hands of his big brother!

First Haircut

2012-01-21T22:31:00.000+11:00

I know, it's hard to believe. Riker is almost twenty seven months old and he's never had a proper haircut. He's had a little bit trimmed off the back by Brian but other than that, I'd been vetoing any mention of a haircut. I adore his gorgeous baby curls and I couldn't bear to think of cutting them off.

But with the hot weather, all that hair seemed to make him hot and sweaty all the time. And it was getting pretty long!

So, scissors in hand, I went to work while he splashed in the bath. Watching a video on the laptop held by Brian bought me the last few minutes needed to get the job done :)

And here is the big brother with his new big boy haircut:

Now I can only hope that the curls aren't gone forever!

Smiles

2012-01-07T20:57:00.000+11:00

Know what I love about going out with a baby? He makes people smile. They stop in their tracks while shopping or pause while eating their lunches and I see their eyes light up and their lips move with a phrase like "oh, look how cute!" And as Brian noted while carrying Ari in a sling today, a sleeping baby elicits even more oohs and ahhs. It warms my heart to see him bring a small moment of joy to others as well.

Master Ari flashes a smile for his fans.

Fingers and Toes

2011-12-13T20:35:00.000+11:00

There is just something absolutely delectable about tiny baby fingers and chubby baby toes...

...and babies in general for that matter!

Big Brother

2011-12-12T23:00:00.000+11:00

When I was pregnant with Ari I wondered how in the world I could ever love another baby as much as I love Riker. He's such an awesome child - curious, engaging and clever and we are delighted by him every day.

What is it about sunnies that kids love so much?

At the fountain in front of the National Library. Note mom's sunglasses in hand :)

When Ari came along I found that I somewhat miraculously had the ability to feel the same depth of emotion once again. I read a nice analogy recently to explain to children how there can always be enough love to go around. Love is like the sunshine – sharing the sun doesn't mean you get any less of it.

Sharing the sun

It's still difficult to know how Riker feels about Ari, however, and it can change from minute to minute. Sometimes he starts calling out for him as soon as he wakes from a nap. "Baba!" When Ari cries, Riker has been known to point to my chest and then to Ari to let me know he needs milk. He shows him things and pulls at his arms and legs as if to say "play with me!" But that soon turns into frustration as of course Ari just lies there (often looking at Riker with something resembling fascination or adoration). There are also plenty of angsty moments where he seems to feel jealousy and resentment and these can lead to hitting or scratching at the drop of a hat. Fair enough. Who wouldn't feel upset if the most important person in their world brought home a new someone special?

Two special someones

Despite the hitting episodes, I can see affection developing and it's my greatest hope that they grow up to be playmates, confidants and friends.

We turned our backs for a split second yesterday and found this scene!

Any outbursts of hitting or scratching are usually promptly followed by a make-up kiss and while I don't want to send the message that anything goes as long as you atone for it afterward, it's very sweet!

Smothered

In general, Riker is mostly affectionate with Ari, kissing him all the time and not just after he's hit him! Sometime it's all a bit much for the little guy and while he's having a totally different babyhood to the calm and quiet life that Riker knew at this age, I think it'll be a good life. And as for the mama, I've got my hands full, but I remind myself that full is better than empty!

Wrapped in Love

2011-12-11T16:16:00.000+11:00

Ari's great aunt Nancy in Cleveland sent him this gorgeous afghan and I just know it will be a favorite for years to come as it's so big and soft and cozy!

And just for fun, here's Riker at about five months old with his coordinating afghan from aunt Nancy:

Big hugs and thanks to Nancy for sending hand crafted love to keep the wee ones warm and snug!

Puppy Feet

2011-12-10T21:56:00.000+11:00

Riker was given an adorable sleeper with monkey feet as a gift and now Ari has one with puppy feet from Grandma Betty. I couldn't pick just one photo to share!

Australian Rainbow Gathering

2011-12-09T22:26:00.000+11:00

We recently returned from a somewhat epic camping adventure to the Australian Rainbow Gathering in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. We had to travel to Sydney to get documentation of Ari's American citizenship and to apply for his passport (both of which involve lots of paperwork and an incredibly annoying trip to downtown Sydney) so we decided to drive the two hours north out of Sydney to get to our first Gathering in about six years! The site was on private land and about 130 people came together to camp, eat, swim, workshop, converse, make music, relax, retreat and rejuvenate. It was good fun as usual and we ended up camping for nine days, in part because the road out became impassable in a two wheel drive vehicle for the last few days of our stay due to heavy rains! I didn't take very many photos but here are a few of the best:

A camp chair makes a great improv bassinet!

It was a beautiful site and we spent lots of time by the river to keep cool and splash with the other kids in camp. Brian and Ari enjoy a swing in our hammock.

Our little mimic washes his shirt in the river.

Wirunga, an aboriginal elder, kindly led a children's ritual similar to one he experienced as a small boy. The children all sat together on a blanket while parents daubed dots of red, yellow and white ochre on their faces representing earth, sun and spirit. When he finished he gave a gift to each child, boomerangs for the boys and small paintings for the girls. Very special!

The youngest child at the Gathering, Ari slept through the ritual but was painted just the same.

Dad has a cuddle while mama has a swim

Sleepy smiles in mama's lap

All tuckered out in the tent. Thanks to Beth for loaning us a family sized tent and toddler gear for our first family camping experience!

Going to a Gathering with children was a very different experience to what I've known previously. Normally I'd get out and about a lot more (working in the kitchen, drumming, socializing and dancing after the evening meal circle) but I spent a lot of time at our camp nursing babies and getting them to sleep. There were good things about that too though in that we really connected with the other families and enjoyed making new friends. It wasn't an easy nine days though - some extreme heat (for my Minnesota blood anyway) and some rainy days stuck in the tent proved difficult for me. Not to mention the fact that I had two little people glued to me almost nonstop including a toddler who was ultra clingy, presumably from being in a new environment and still adjusting to life with a sibling. People keep commenting on how brave we are to have taken a newborn backcountry camping but at least at a Gathering, all necessities are taken care of - yummy food twice a day and filtered water for example, so it wasn't as difficult as going it alone would be. Nonetheless, it's good to be home!

Octriplets

2011-12-08T22:58:00.000+11:00

Riker turned two on October 29th and he shares his birth date with his two little friends Jago and Imogen. This year we once again marked the occasion with a joint fiesta for the three toddlers. Here are the highlights:

Jago, Riker and Imogen are TWO!

Opening a gift with Coral and Ariella

Helping Imogen with her new bicycle

Contemplation

Jumping castle fun!

Mmm ball pit

A little bit of rain and a stunning double rainbow to end the day

Perfect for puddle jumping!

Quick Update

2011-12-06T21:38:00.000+11:00

My friend and colleague Su stopped by the other day and snapped this photo of the boys and I on her phone. Thought I'd post it as a quick update and let you know that there are several new blog posts in the works to tell you what we've been up to for the last month. Stay tuned!

It's All a Blur

2011-10-28T14:09:00.000+11:00

I can hardly believe that Ari was one month old on Wednesday and that Riker turns two tomorrow! Parenthood has somehow accelerated the overall passage of time yet strangely, some groggy days can seem to drag on for eternity. I've been frequently reminding myself of a mantra I heard recently that sums it all up pretty well:

The days are long, but the years are short.

That always reminds me that in no time at all I'll be looking back longingly at these sleep deprived days with a newborn. The photo below captures well the blur that is life at the moment Messy house. Me on a comfy chair with my trusty nursing pillow. Baby in arms. Toddler trying to get in on the action. Cuddles. Sleepy haze. Moments that make it all worthwhile.

Babies Don't Keep

2011-10-27T22:42:00.000+11:00

Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Coral

2011-10-25T21:15:00.000+11:00

Riker adores his nanny, Coral, and I just recently realized that I didn't have any photos of them together! Here they are sharing a laugh:

Coral joined us in November of 2010 when I went back to work part time and Riker was about thirteen months old. I'd never been a fan of group child care and having been a nanny myself to the fabulous Oscar and Zuzu when I was in college (uni), I knew the benefits of the arrangement and thought it would suit our family well. Add to that the difficulties of getting a place in an inner north child care center here in Canberra (on five waiting lists for a year and a half with no offers!) and hiring a nanny became even more appealing.

While a nanny does cost more than group care, the benefits of having one on one loving care make up for it many times over. Not to mention the fact that I never had to wake the baby if he was sleeping or force him to eat breakfast and get dressed in order to get to work on time. No getting him into the bike trailer or car, making an extra stop on the way to work or having to deal with separation anxiety issues. And perhaps the best part was sparing him (and us) from the seemingly constant illness that comes with group care - which of course translates to fewer days of missed work. Knowing he was well cared for in his own home made my return to work a really great experience for me. When a spot in a child care center did open up a month or two after we'd hired Coral, we turned it down.

It's meant the world to us to have someone so reliable looking after our dear little boy and we are all sad to see her looking for a new family now that I'm on maternity leave. Many thanks for everything Coral and we hope you won't be a stranger - Riker talks about you all the time and clearly misses you already!

McMunchkins

2011-10-21T16:36:00.000+11:00

A few photos from week three:

Asleep in the capsule after a visit to ANUgreen

Riker loves to hold his brother, until he doesn't :)

Trying out the new bike seat on a ride with daddy

What is cuter than a sleeping baby?

Two sleeping babies of course!

Mums Again

2011-10-20T16:21:00.000+11:00

I adore my mother's group. It's been great getting to know a group of really awesome women and watching our chubby cherubs grow into adventurous toddlers together. It's also been really wonderful that a few of us are sharing the experience of expanding our families once again. Here's a photo of my friend Jess and I, both about seven months pregnant.

And here we are with Baby Ari and Baby Gideon, born two weeks apart.

It's also somewhat helpful to know that someone else is up feeding and rocking a wakeful baby at all hours of the night! Ah, camaraderie!

The Birth Story of Ari Jaden McMillin

2011-10-18T21:43:00.001+11:00

I've just finished writing the complete birth story and while I've decided not to make it publicly available for the world to see, I'm more than happy to share it with any readers who'd like to read beyond the quick version from my original announcement. Just leave a comment here or on facebook or send me an email and I'll forward on the pdf.

I didn't manage to get a photo of the entire birth team together on the night, but have since got photos with both our midwife and doula. Can't rave about them enough!

Our midwife Helen

Our doula Janette

I might also mention that I put lots of time and research into writing a birth plan when I was pregnant with Riker and I only made a few minor modifications this time around. I'm happy to share it as well if any of you would find it useful at some point. Some people think birth plans are useless as of course things often don't go to plan, but I think it's extremely useful to have considered all possible outcomes and to let one's carers know your expectations and desires in relation to pain management, interventions, breastfeeding, etc.

HELLO MY NAME IS

2011-10-17T17:22:00.004+11:00

Ari Jaden McMillin

Whew! After much deliberation we've finally settled on a name for our sweet little man. We ended up going with Ari, which is a common male name in many languages. Some of its meanings include "lion" in Hebrew, "brave" in Armenian, "eagle" in Old Norse, "gorgeous" in Kurdish and "visible and clear" in Maori. Grandma Betty suggested the name Jaden and I really liked it so it became the middle name. Clearly we take this baby naming thing seriously as it took seventeen days to select Riker's name and now twenty one days for baby Ari! Okay we might just be indecisive, but we've found that we really need some time with the baby before we can select a name that fits.

Some of you may have heard another name tossed around as the probable winner but after hearing that particular name at the playground about a hundred times yesterday, it fell out of favor along with all the others on the short list. I, for one, will be very happy to think about something other than names for a change!

Happy three weeks little Ari!

Postscript: We just learned from our friends at the Turkish restaurant in Lyneham that Ari means "bee" in Turkish. Fitting for a family of mead makers!

We've since been told that Ari means "cute" in Hungarian. Also fitting!

Daddy and His Boys

2011-10-08T10:41:00.000+11:00

BIG thanks to Brian for being such an awesome guy! Not only was he (once again) amazingly calm and supportive through the whole labor and delivery, he is now doing all the dishes and cleaning around the house and is cooking and baking up a storm! We've had pumpkin pie, apple pie and apple crisp, quiches, banana bread and more! Add to that most of the Riker care duties and you've got one appreciative mama!

Love you!

Introducing Baby McMillin

2011-10-07T22:12:00.000+11:00

This post is long overdue but it's been a busy time and I kept hoping that we would have a name to accompany the official announcement! Alas, you'll have to stay tuned for that bit of news while we reach a consensus.

We are very excited to announce the birth of our second son at 12:30 am on Monday 26th September (AEST). He weighed in at 3.64 kg (8 lbs) and is 53 cm (20.8 inches) tall.

Here's the quick version of the birth story. On Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk and returned home at about 6pm to cook dinner. As I was cooking, I realized that I was having fairly regular contractions, about five minutes apart from the beginning. We ate dinner and cleaned up and I put Riker down to bed. By the time I left the room, I was having contractions every three minutes or so and we called our midwife and doula to let them know what was happening. Our doula (the friend who was away all of last week and thankfully back in time) came over and found that I was 4 cm dilated at 11pm. She thought we'd better get to the Birth Centre so we called Riker's nanny to come over and spend the night at our house and then got in the car for the twenty minute drive to the hospital. We arrived just before midnight and I was ready to push almost as soon as we arrived. The midwife had drawn a warm bath and about half an hour later, the baby was born in the bath. It was an amazing and empowering experience and I am extremely grateful to the baby, my body and my support team for the quick and efficient birth!

We have had a wonderful first week at home and we LOVE being a family of four. Riker is adapting well and loves to kiss the baby though he has clocked him in the head a few times too! When he's had enough baby time, he asks that we put him back in his bassinet - I think he thinks that's where he goes when he's finished with him :)

Here are a few photos from week one:

Just arrived!

The boys meet for the first time

A mama in love

Happy to finally meet

Proud big brother

Sweet slumber

Still slumbering

Kisses

Cuddles

Squeezes

Snoozing in the bassinet Riker slept in

Too cute!

Thanks to everyone for all of your kind words and warm wishes. I can't respond to all of you personally but we appreciate your thoughts!

Floriade 2011

2011-09-25T13:33:00.001+10:00

A number of months ago when I heard that Floriade was happening in late September, I remember thinking that when it finally rolled around, I'd know that I'd be having a baby any day. Well Floriade is here and baby doesn't seem quite ready to join us yet so we thought we'd take Riker to see the flowers and the petting zoo yesterday. Here are the highlights:

Meeting a very fluffy bunny:

Bunny gets a kiss (while a greedy goat kid tries to steal its veggies):

Petting the goat:

Feeding the goat:

Snuggling (I think) with a calf:

Floriade is always a great place for family photos:

Chickenomics

2011-09-21T22:35:00.000+10:00

We've now had our family of chickens for 365 days and as Brian has been keeping stats on costs and egg production, I thought I'd share our cost benefit analysis on keeping backyard chickens. Here's the summary:

We originally bought six chickens and after the first season, we reduced (ate) that number to three, then bought ten chickens (three of which we eventually learned were roosters and who have now all been eaten) and then hatched and raised three chicks from eggs in our makeshift incubation experiment (two of which we strongly suspect are roosters).

Total number of eggs laid in 365 days: 1784

In the graph you can see a major drop in production when the original six chickens started molting and then an increase when we purchased more chickens and then used a light in the beginning of winter to boost laying.

Costs:
Pen              0.00
Feed        311.16
Straw         92.50
Chickens 238.00
------------------
Total:       641.66

The pen was made entirely of scavenged/found materials so with all other costs accounted for, the price of each egg is $.36 or $4.32 per dozen. The lowest cost was at the end of the first season at day 175 where each egg was at $.31 and a dozen was $3.70. For reference, the cost of comparable store bought free range eggs that we would normally buy is around $5-6 per dozen.

We've learned many, many things along the way including how to:

- build a coop
- generally keep chickens healthy and happy
- distinguish roosters from hens before the obvious signs of crowing and egg laying
- know if an egg is fertilized
- incubate and hatch eggs
- determine an egg's stage of development by candling
- raise chicks and gauge the approximate age of a chicken
- keep chickens from eating their eggs
- kill and process a chicken for eating

It's been quite the adventure in urban agriculture. Brian has loved learning all of the above and Riker adores the chickens and every day helps to feed them and collect the eggs. I love that he's able to have some exposure to where food comes from at such an early age.

Tick Tick Tick

2011-09-20T18:43:00.000+10:00

See the little ticker on the right hand side of my blog? It says EIGHT days left! Single digits! And if that weren't crazy enough, just yesterday I thought to review the information from our ultrasound scan and realized that according to its estimates based on the size of the baby at 21 weeks, TODAY is the due date! I'm still pretty confident with our original date of September 28th though and baby has strict instructions to stay inside until at least next Monday for two reasons. First, tomorrow is our anniversary (nine years!) and I don't really want to share the date. Second, our dear friend Janette, a midwife who is planning to be our doula and labor assistant, has had to leave town for the week since her boyfriend's father passed away. So, I'm hoping that like Riker, this little one makes his grand entrance sometime right around the original due date. Oh, and I also hope that the entrance isn't all that grand. Let's go with quicker and easier this time!

I've really been enjoying maternity leave and have tried to keep the nesting instincts in low gear. In the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Riker, I power cleaned the house and had everything in perfect order. This time around, I have no illusions of the possibility of that actually happening what with a toddler hurricane always steps behind me. I've reread my two favorite birthing books, the baby's clothes and diapers are all clean, the carseat is installed and the house is generally in a tolerable state of disorder let's say. Mostly, I've been enjoying my time alone with Riker and letting him guide what we do with our days. Today we spent the whole morning on a walk with him in his Little Tikes red Cozy Coupe car watching the yellow diggers at the wetland construction site down the street. I am constantly in awe of him, both for his curiosity, persistence and sheer cleverness, but also for the things that he fixates on. He adores chickens, eggs, wheelie bins and the number eight for example. He's always pointing out the number eight on clocks and signs and can't go to bed without a good look at the eights on the digital clock. Odd, yet endearing.

These days are certainly full of mixed emotions, from excitement (a new baby, a sibling for Riker) to fear (how to manage two small children, whether this labor will be as difficult as the last, how to love them both equally) to sadness (I won't be able to spend as much time with Riker, I won't be able to focus on this baby as much as I did with Riker, my "little" baby is going to be a "big" person all too soon).

I have absolutely no idea how much Riker understands about the arrival of this new baby but I do think he knows that changes are afoot. He's getting more and more needy and only I can meet those needs. Really, my biggest fear about it all is that it's going to be a trying time for Riker and that I am going to be exhausted from adjusting to a new baby and not able to help him through the changes as much or as patiently as I'd like. I'm really hoping that this will be a time for him to do more special things with Brian and that they'll grow closer as a result. While Riker has been the center of our world for some time now, he's going to have to learn to wait and to share. Of course, I also hope to reinforce that no matter what happens, I am still there to support, nurture, and love him. I suspect it will be a balancing act to say the least!

Big Beautiful Baby Belly

2011-09-13T22:25:00.001+10:00

I'd really been wanting to do some professional maternity shots for this pregnancy. With Riker we documented the growing belly every three weeks or so and that just didn't happen this time around so I thought at least one lot of nice photos was in order. Then I started researching Canberra maternity photographers and found that not only were the prices exorbitant, but that no one would give you the digital negatives for less than $80 each or $500 for all of them IF you spent $2000 on a print package! I could fly a professional photographer friend over from the US for that! Yes, Nancy, I did consider it briefly :)

Now I was willing to splurge on the endeavor, but, do-it-yourselfers that we are, we thought we'd give it a go first and then decide if we still wanted to get a professional. Brian, dear husband that he is, set about creating a "studio" of sheets hanging from the clothesline outside, charged the camera batteries and made a plan for entertaining the toddler during our photo shoot. The results, I'm sure you'll agree, are anything but amateur. I'm very pleased!

And because the photographer is also a software guru, I was transported to the Red Centre as well :) Just glad I didn't have to do the hike to get to this vista!

Babymoon

2011-08-30T20:27:00.018+10:00

A month before Riker was born, we took a holiday to the coast to have a babymoon and to celebrate our anniversary. As we haven't had a weekend getaway in quite some time, we thought an adventure to the coast was in order once again.

We stayed across the road from where we usually stay in a gorgeous beach house on Denham's Beach, south of Bateman's Bay. On Saturday morning we took Riker to Birdland Animal Park and had a great time.

Here's Riker meeting Bubbles, the baby wombat.

Feeding a friendly peacock.

Trying to steal a kiss in return for feeding this Fallow Deer.

Mama (35.5 weeks pregnant) and Riker.

The family - soon to be four!

Feeding a kangaroo. You get the idea of how we spent our morning! Photo opps galore!

That kangaroo had some serious competition from Riker's deer friend who wanted all the pellets for himself.

Mama and Riker on the beach (which by the way, he didn't love - he mostly just wanted the sand off of his little feet!)

In fact, we went all the way to the coast and what was Riker more interested in than the waves or the sand or the dolphins? His favorite things ever, of course - wheelie bins!

It was an absolutely fabulous weekend and we both agreed that while it was very different from the last Babymoon, we wouldn't change a thing.

For more awesome photos of the weekend, see the slideshow below or go directly to the web album if you prefer.

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs.....Chicks!

2011-07-03T13:47:00.001+10:00

We've been getting lots and lots of eggs from our awesome family of chickens (of varying sizes as you can see below). Occasionally we get one that is so big the carton won't even close!

A while back we added to our family of chickens with ten new additions, including (we thought) one rooster. He was a good looking fellow and he strutted around the place until he started crowing, at which point he went into the slow cooker. Yes, it's a cruel world on the McMillin urban farm but we decided that learning how to process a chicken was an important part of the whole experience. Well, turns out we were sold not one, but three roosters and we learned a lot about how to tell the roosters from the hens, which isn't as easy as it might seem when they're young.

The roosters began a new chapter in our adventures in animal husbandry because it meant we were starting to get fertilized eggs. We figured, if you have lemons, make lemonade - if you have roosters, make chicks. Below is the "highly specialized" cardboard box incubator that Brian created. You can see the heat lamp, a bowl of water to add humidity and a thermometer.

The eggs need to be kept at a fairly constant temperature of 99F or 37C. The humidity also has to be maintained at a certain level and the eggs must be rotated at least twice per day. Keeping all of the variables within range was not as easy as we had thought it would be especially given the temperature fluctuations throughout the day and night (-4 to 16C).

After precisely twenty one days (if all went well) you begin to hear peeping. Later that day the chicks begin to break out of the egg - very very slowly.

You're not supposed to help the chicks to get out of the egg at all as it can kill them. Because the humidity in our incubator wasn't perfect, we gave the chicks a bit of help to get out in the end and out of about a dozen lovingly incubated eggs, we got three chicks!

Sadly, we nearly had four chicks but one of them didn't make it in the end. Interestingly, just before the chick hatches, the yolk, which has provided all of the nutrients for the growing chick, gets sucked up into it's abdomen. In the photo below, you can see how it looks before the yolk is assimilated.

One day old, the chicks have just fluffed up.

Riker meets the chicks for the first time:

Kissing or licking, I'm not quite sure:

Riker LOVES the chicks!

We've been amazed at how fast they grow. Check out the wings after just two weeks! Even after one week, the wing feathers were mostly in place.

At two weeks, they've learned to perch and Papa Brian is very proud.

Parmesan Crusted Salmon

2011-07-02T21:02:00.000+10:00

We just ate the best meal I've prepared in some time. Probably the best fish dish I've ever made in fact. Since it was just so pretty and I happen to have this nifty 'cuisine' scene selector on my camera, I thought a photo was in order.

I skinned the salmon and salted it well, then put a handful of fresh breadcrumbs, a smaller handful of parmesan cheese, a few sprigs of parsley, some pinenuts, fresh lemon juice, a splash of olive oil and some pepper into my super blender (courtesy of Grandma Betty) and whizzed it all up. Then I coated all four sides of the salmon fillets with the breading and popped it into the oven on a baking sheet for twenty minutes at 200C. Meanwhile, I made roasted potatoes and red (capsicum) peppers with steamed broccoli. Yum.

Oh, and we learned that Riker will readily eat broccoli if the eating is accompanied by looking at a Baby Einstein picture book that has broccoli featured in amongst all the other foods. Yay.

Belly Love

2011-06-20T14:02:00.000+10:00

It's hard to know how much Riker understands about 'the baby in mama's belly' but from very early on he became very affectionate with the belly. When asked about the baby in mama's belly, he frequently comes over to me, lifts up my shirt and gives it a hug. This is adorable unless he wants to see the belly and point to the baby (unprompted) while he's in the shopping cart at the grocery store, which is just a little embarrassing :) When asked where the baby is, he points either to my belly (and sometimes to other people's bellies) or to himself. Too cute.

I finally just managed to go back to blog archives from 2009 to compare what my belly looked like then to how it looks now. For comparison, here's the post I did in 2009 from 25 weeks. Not surprisingly, I think I look a bit bigger this time around. Feeling pretty good all in all. Riker is sleeping well at night and it's making a world of difference to my levels of both patience and energy. Hooray!

Big Helper

2011-06-11T14:50:00.000+10:00

I recall our friend Majikfaerie once telling a story about how she never allowed her daughter to do the dishes. She always told her that washing the dishes was a very special task reserved only for grownups and that one day she'd be old enough to help. Then on her daughter's seventh birthday she told her that the day had finally arrived when she was big enough to the dishes and the seven year old proudly did all the washing up that day. I love this story, but as you can see in the following video, our current approach is more along the lines of, if he wants to help (or pretend to help as the case may be), let him! Some days excessive cuteness just isn't enough to earn one's keep :)

Baby #2 Ultrasound at 21 Weeks

2011-06-06T13:33:00.001+10:00

We've recently had our first (and probably only) ultrasound peek at this bubby and I thought you might like to see the images. Here are the favorites:

This is an image of the blood flow in the heart. I just liked that it was shaped like a heart :)

The other favorites, of course, are those showing the complete four chambered heart, skull and various important organs but those are somewhat less interesting to look at than the ones above.

And now for the plot spoiler warning. I will reveal the gender below for those of you who wish to know. If you'd like to be surprised, stop reading now!

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It's another boy! I'd post the ultrasound image that led the technician to say "if that's not a boy, you come back and tell me!" but I have a policy of not putting photos of my children's genitals online and these were pretty revealing :)

We're not terribly surprised that it's a boy. Brian, his brother and his male McMillin cousins only seem to produce male offspring. This baby makes the tally nine for nine. I kept saying that if anyone was going to break that mold, it would be Brian! Ah well, now we'll have to decide if it's important enough to us to try again for a girl! We're delighted either way and are very pleased that Riker will have a little brother.

Which of course leads us back to the name game again. If it had been a girl, she would have had a name for nearly six years now! As you might remember, poor Riker didn't have a name for nearly three weeks and it's not looking much better this time around. Suggestions welcome! You can find our criteria from last time HERE.

To Write or Not to Write

2011-06-04T16:37:00.001+10:00

I'm sure you've noticed that there are often large gaps of time without posts where I'm either too busy or too overwhelmed (or both) to write about life at that particular moment. Sometimes I write something and then, wondering if it's too personal or too depressing, I stare at the screen pondering whether to click PUBLISH or DELETE. Lately you may have noticed one of those long stretches of blog silence. I've been struggling with lots of things and while I've composed many posts in my head (mostly while lying awake in the middle of the night wishing I wasn't blogging) they all get the virtual DELETE in the morning.

But sometimes it seems worth sharing the fact that life isn't always as shiny as it might appear in the online edited version of my life. For example, much of this pregnancy has been challenging. Riker still wasn't sleeping very well at the beginning of it and I was exhausted with first trimester fatigue AND up multiple times a night with a wakeful lad. I thought I might crack. And I must have been close because just then we managed to night wean quite easily. He began to sleep longer stretches and is now sleeping quite well. Better than I am in fact. Having been up every couple hours for so many months has rewired my body clock thus making me, for the first time in my life, a serious insomniac at the very time I am most in need of rest. Thankfully, that's been getting a little better each week.

Then, just after we'd told our families that we were expecting our second child (and before I'd told any friends), I got the news about my sister in law. To say that cast a shadow over life would be an understatement. I still struggle to find compassion for her decision and whatever circumstances led to it and I am left with little but an empty kind of anger. Anger at what she did to my already small family, anger at leaving my brother to spend his life without his partner and anger at the black cloud over my pregnancy. To make matters worse, within the same two week period, we lost two other family members on Brian's side of the family who had both been fighting long battles with cancer. They would have given anything to have had one more day with their families, yet the loss I've been grieving had been a choice. More anger. You get the idea.

This pregnancy has been challenging for other reasons as well. With Riker I spent many beautiful hours thinking about his entrance into our lives and bonding with him in utero. Now, with the demands of toddler care, this baby has received little more than a few passing thoughts most days, making that bonding time difficult to find. I’ve also had to deal with the fact that, due to pregnancy hormones, my milk has now almost completely dried up, thus forcing Riker to wean. I had wanted him to wean only when he was ready, but by spacing these pregnancies somewhat closely, I have taken that away from him. While I knew this was a possibility, it was a risk we were willing to take for the big picture and I am actually somewhat less upset about the actuality of it happening than I would have expected. However, it still marks a major transition for he and I which sparks a variety of emotions in an already tumultuous and hormonal time.

I am coping. I feel as if the clouds are beginning to lift somewhat and things are looking a little brighter. But it's been a bumpy ride these past few months; hence the blog silence and the difficulty in deciding when to post and when to hide. And so the big question now arises. To PUBLISH or DELETE?

RikerCam: Extra Special Edition

2011-05-03T13:58:00.000+10:00

Anticipated date of big brotherhood: September 28

RikerCam

2011-03-21T13:41:00.001+11:00

A few of my favorites from the last couple months...

A Tribute

2011-03-14T16:18:00.000+11:00

Tragedy has struck my family. I knew the news wasn't going to be good when I saw the email from my mom appear on the screen. "Call me as soon as you can." But I never imagined I would hear the unthinkable when she picked up the phone. My sister-in-law, my brother's wife, my friend, has taken her own life. I've spent the past week battling a range of emotions. Any attempt at describing them will be a feeble representation of what I wish were not reality. Let's just say I've been struggling with sadness, confusion, grief, anger and a dizzying array of questions that all begin with WHY? Few of them will ever get any answers. She'd been happily married for twenty six years, was a keen outdoors-woman, an animal lover, an avid traveler and an all-around lovely, adventurous and interesting person. No one suspected a thing. She gave no indications of any troubles and the notes left not a single clue.

I've been thinking all week that perhaps writing something would help me explore the anger and the multitude of swirling questions. Yet when I finally found the first words, they got me out of bed and they came out as gentle and reflective. For this I am grateful. They were displayed at the memorial service and I share them here as a tribute.

I adored Bec from the moment I met her. At least that's how I remember it now, some twenty seven years later. Like any good girlfriend, she went out of her way to win the heart of her fiance's kid sister. And it didn't take long for her to have made a little friend for life.

Bec made a point of making any outings with her into special occasions. Whether it was a trip to the fair, an adventure to Disney World or our very memorable just-the-two-of-us-car-camping-in-a-Mustang week in Alaska, she always made the experience meaningful and fun.

When I was in elementary school, I remember being asked to write a paragraph about someone I admired. I wrote about Bec. I don't think I ever mentioned this to her but I remember writing that I admired her because she was kind, strong, confident, independent and not about to let anyone walk all over her. These are important lessons for a young girl and I thought of these traits often as I went about finding my way in the world.

But none of us can be strong and optimistic all of the time. And so we find ourselves mourning an unthinkable tragedy. But let's do something positive in the midst of it all. Let us remember to always lift one another up with our words and deeds, to lend a helping hand whenever possible and to treat all those we meet with compassion and love. Just as Bec would have done.

March 10, 2011

Chicken Love

2011-02-26T19:23:00.001+11:00

Riker adores our chickens. He goes over to the window where he can see them whenever he hears us say the word 'chicken.' He can now point to both real and cartoon chickens in books. He loves to visit them and feed them and chase them. It's very cute and I captured this great video the other day.

Rest assured, no chickens were harmed in the filming of this video :) They're all super tame because as you might remember, we were chicken sitters for a weekend and then acquired them from the Lyneham High School where they were doted on for the first weeks of their lives. Now they conveniently sit down whenever you go to grab one to return it to the pen. Hence Riker's ability to corner them so easily. Love the look on his face when he gets his hands on her, don't you?

The Big Lessons

2011-02-17T13:21:00.001+11:00

I've just had a post published as a guest blogger over at Code Name: Mama. It's called The Big Lessons and it summarizes the major things I've learned in my fifteen months of on-the-job parenting training. In a nutshell, the lessons are:

Don’t try to control.
Community matters.
Trust your gut.
Ignore baby wisdom.
Savor the moment.

You can read the post HERE. As usual, love to hear what you think. What are the big lessons you've learned in your parenting journey?

It Takes Two

2011-02-08T21:46:00.001+11:00

Welcome to the February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting Essentials
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared the parenting essentials that they could not live without. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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It Takes Two

The real reason it takes two people to make a baby has very little to do with biological facts regarding egg and sperm. It takes a man and a woman to make a baby because it’s bloody hard work to raise said baby. Perhaps my most frequent thought over the course of the last fifteen months has been “How in the world do single parents do it?” closely followed by “How in the world do parents of twins do it?” And if I go so far as to ponder single parents with twins, my brain really starts to short circuit. But I digress. The purpose of this post is to spell out why I cannot imagine parenting without my fabulous husband.

At our childbirth classes he knew the answer to every single question asked by the midwives.

He had no fear of the process of labor and delivery and so could convey absolute confidence in my ability to birth our son.

Before the subject of circumcision had even crossed my radar, he informed me that any son of ours would remain intact (Australian readers should note that this is still a disturbingly common practice in the US).

He supported the breastfeeding relationship wholeheartedly, delivering glasses of water, snacks and shoulder rubs while we navigated a difficult start to nursing.

When nothing could have been further from my mind, he was the one who put the effort into establishing our system for washing cloth diapers.

He frequently begins parenting conversations with “So I’ve been doing some research on (fill in the blank – attachment parenting, home schooling, discipline strategies, etc.).”

He never turns down an opportunity to wear the baby (and, good natured pack mule that he is, can often be seen lugging the diaper bag and the groceries as well).

With a hug and a bit of perspective, he keeps me from crossing the line to insanity on the days when it all seems like too much.

He already thinks about the ways he’ll foster a love of learning in our children when they’re older and how he’ll convey knowledge of science, finances, nature and more.

He doesn’t mind, and perhaps even enjoys, little feet that kick him in the head in the middle of the night.

Always one to think outside the box, he never does anything simply because it's how everyone else does it.

Like everything he does, he has committed himself completely and totally to the job of parenting (and has been dreaming about having more children from the day our son was born).

And finally, the joy in his eyes when he looks at his son is clearly visible and warms my heart each and every day.

So while I can think of a whole list of things ranging from websites to baby carriers that make this parenting journey a whole lot easier, it is my husband whom I cannot imagine parenting without.

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

Not Without Him — The love Starr at Taking Time shares with her husband is the foundation of her parenting.
I Cannot Imagine Parenting Without B(.)(.)bs — From an uneducated dreamer to a breastfeeding mother of a toddler, nursing has forever changed Kristy at Strings to Things's relationship with her daughter and her outlook on life.
Raising a Child in the Internet Village — When Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction has a question or concern about parenting, she turns to the Internet. What did parents do before Google?
Partner in Crime and Parenting — Bethy at Bounce Me to the Moon can't imagine parenting without her husband's sense of humor - he brings her laughter and love every day.)
I Make Milk — Patti at Jazzy Mama can't imagine trying to mother her babies without her breasts, but she could do it if she had to.
New Perspectives Bring New Beginnings — MJ at Wander Wonder Discover, who is a former authoritarian mamma, has gained perspective via parenting.
Time Out! — Mrs. Green at Little Green Blog explores how time apart can increase your capacity to give unconditionally.
Unimaginable Without Him — Kristina at heyred designs is celebrating her amazing partner, without whom none of her parenting experience would be possible.
My Parenting Necessity — Claire at The Adventures of Lactating Girl needs "me time" in order to be the Mama she wants to be.
Babywearing As a Way of Life — Darcel at The Mahogany Way talks about the benefits of babywearing in everyday life.
Parenting Partnership — Sometimes Abbie at Farmer's Daughter doesn't appreciate her husband enough, but she definitely couldn't imagine parenting without his help.
Parenting Essentials — Momma Jorje loves her parenting products, but she needs you even more.
My Parenting Must-Have: Support — Joella at Fine and Fair wrote a letter to her daughter about the role that support from friends and family plays in her mothering.
It's More Than Just Hair — Think doing hair is full of fluff? Too girly? Useless? Karli from Curly Hairdo Ideas used to think so too.
The Minimalist Parent — The parents at Living Peacefully with Children embrace a minimalist perspective when it comes to baby gear. A good sling is all they need.
Without My Breasts — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama can't imagine parenting without her breasts; here's why.
Loves Books, Loves People — Seonaid at the Practical Dilettante discovers that the library is a perfect fit for her family's needs.
An Ode to the Maya Wrap — RevMama's next child might be named Maya, because of her fondness for the sling.
Avoiding the Padded Room — Pecky at Benny and Bex is here to testify that it takes a village to raise a child.
My parenting essentials, from Tivo to battery-operated monstrosities — Lauren at Hobo Mama presents a list of parenting essentials you didn't even know you needed (and probably don't…).
Attachment Parenting Through Separation: It Makes It a Little Better — Jessica at This Is Worthwhile talks about how she couldn't survive her separation without attachment parenting and the bond it's afforded her with her 3 year old son.
Parenting Essentials — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares the principles she used to parent her children from infants to adults.
My Parenting Essentials — The things that are truly essential to Kim at In Desperate Need of Entertainment aren't things at all.
I'm No One Without My Sling — How baby carrying is essential to the parenting of Jessica Claire at Crunchy-Chewy Mama.
I Cannot Imagine Parenting Without... — Isil at Smiling Like Sunshine talks about what she needs to raise her children.
February Carnival of Natural Parenting — Through her experiences over the last five and a half years, Casey at Love What Is has discovered her most important tool for parenting is using her instincts.
CNP: I Cannot Imagine Parenting Without __________. — The Artsymama discloses the one thing that gave her back control of herself as a parent.
Laugh Until I Cry — Laughing with her sons keeps Acacia at Fingerpaint & Superheroes connected and grounded.
I Cannot Imagine Parenting Without — Luschka at Diary of a First Child realizes what the one thing she can't imagine parenting without is, and it turns out it's not a thing after all.
It Takes Two — Here are a few of the reasons why Jenn at Adventures Down Under cannot imagine parenting without her fabulous husband.
Stopping to Listen — Though it wasn't easy at first, Knocked Up - Knocked Over cannot imagine parenting her daughter without listening first to what she is telling her.
The Essence of Parenting — There are many wonderful resources that make life easier for Michelle at the Parent Vortex to parent, but the essence is the relationship between parent and child.
What I Cannot Live Without — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker considers her computer to be a parenting lifeline.
True Blessings: White Noise and Grandparents — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment can't live without her white noise machine and the support of her parents.
The Necessities! — What "stuff" does a natural parent like Lily, aka Witch Mom really need? Not much, it turns out.
Mama Showed Me — Mama Mo at Attached at the Nip writes about how parenting wisdom is passed on by example.
Ode to the Loo — For Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch, the bathroom is her safe place, where she can take a minute to calm down if she is feeling touched out.
Go, Mama. Go! — Andrea!!! at Ella-Bean & Co. has been able to integrate her many roles through her get-up-and-go parenting essential, exercise!
My Other Half — Becky at Old New Legacy realizes what a relief it is to have her husband parent alongside her.
Grace, Love, and Coffee — MrsH at Fleeting Moments realizes that lifelines can take the form of the profound, or the mundane. Both are ok.
Supportive Spouse, Check! — There are so many parenting tools and gadgets that are superfluous, but the one essential, for Danielle at born.in.japan, has been her supportive spouse.
Why I'm a Babywearer — Meredith at Becoming Mamas reflects on the ways babywearing has enhanced her mama baby relationship...and made life easier to boot.
It's Marvelous Out Here, Kiddo! — Rachael at The Variegated Life can't imagine parenting in the big city without the marvels of Prospect Park to share with her Critter.
Yes, Thank You — Amy at Anktangle offers tips on how to ask for and accept help, an essential for successful parenting.
Parenting Essentials Checklist: Mom’s Inner Rebel and Her Kids’ Voices — Olivia at Write About Birth reflects on raising global citizens and saying no to societal norms.
Eco-Mama Online! — An Eco-Mama living in the mountains of a nature island, Terri at Child of the Nature Isle finds it essential to connect to nature and to connect online.
Sorry, We Just Sold the Last One — Nev at The Adventures of Lime confesses she missed out the day they handed out patience.
Laugh — Tashmica at The Mother Flippin' Blog reveals her super power, her talisman agains mean mommy.
My Priceless Parenting Resource — What do books, a magazine community, my mother and the local playgroup have in common? Lucy at Dreaming Aloud tells us...
The Gift of Shared Time — Tree at Mom Grooves strives to experience the world from her daughter's perspective.
Follow the Giggles — Dionna at Code Name: Mama can’t live without the sound of her child’s giggles - come watch her video and you’ll agree!
Can I Mommy Without Boob? — Emily at Crunchy(ish) Mama shares her fears about weaning and losing part of that the mother/child bond.

Makeover!

2011-01-20T21:17:00.000+11:00

After five years with the same template design, I recently decided it was time for my blog to have a makeover. So after about three evenings of trying to choose between a whole slew of awesome background designs, templates and color schemes, I give you the new and improved Adventures Down Under! Besides the new look, other new features include an updated list of my favorite websites relating to parenting, environment, ANU and Rotary, along with an updated list of the blogs that I follow. I also added a feature that lists my most popular posts and you now have the ability to email and share posts on a variety of social media sites.

Now, since I have you here, why not become a follower? I really like to think that more than nine people read this blog....

So, what do you think of the new look?

Holiday Staycation

2011-01-03T14:24:00.003+11:00

Once upon a time, with a week of holidays on our hands, Brian and I would have planned a grand adventure. Call us lame if you will, but we have thoroughly enjoyed this year's staycation. I give you the week in pictures (and video):

Lots of walks outside and visits to local playgrounds:

Riker's first swim in Barry's pool:

The outdoor pool in Dickson provided lots of fun and relief on hot days:

General everyday cuteness:

A gorgeous flowering bush in our drive (lest you think I only photograph the baby anymore):

We've also reached some really important milestones this week and I was SO glad that Brian (and I) were home to see them! Most excitingly, Riker is now walking pretty confidently. It really started coming together on his fourteen month birthday, exactly when Grandma Betty predicted he would walk (based on when I started walking). Here he is in action:

As if walking weren't enough, he's also picked up eating with utensils:

He does have toddler silverware, but of course he prefers the grown-up versions. Here's the same trick with a fork:

And finally, Riker drinking from a glass. This isn't a new trick but we were on a roll getting good videos this morning so I thought I'd include it as well:

Whew! Now, back to relaxing while I enjoy the last afternoon of our staycation!

All Things Sunny

2010-12-07T16:16:00.005+11:00

As we move into summertime here in Australia I've realized that I need to seriously consider the precautions we'll take to protect Riker from the downright vicious sun we're exposed to on a daily basis. So with that in mind I set out to find the best hats, sunglasses and sunblocks out there for children. Hats and sunglasses were fairly easy. I was looking for a hat with a very wide brim and a chin strap and sunglasses with complete UV protection and a strap to keep them on a toddler's head. I ended up purchasing the Sunday Afternoon Kid's Play Hat available in Australia here. For sunglasses I went with Baby Banz Adventure Banz and here's the wee one kindly modeling them:

Now sunblock turned out to be a bit trickier. First of all I learned that octyl methoxycinnamate (the first ingredient in all of the sunblocks on my shelf) is fairly toxic stuff, possibly carcinogenic and a known endocrine disruptor. Great. So sunblocks that use chemical means of blocking sunlight could have some serious side effects which led me to consider what other types of sunblock are out there, other than the pure white zinc creams used on the noses of lifeguards. Turns out that there are sunscreens which use very tiny particles of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. These provide a physical barrier to the sun but don't leave your skin white. But don't run out to the store just yet because it turns out that these products often use nanoparticles which have been shown to produce free radicals and to damage DNA, especially when exposed to UV light! So the bottom line is that for both children and adults, it is best to use a non-nano zinc based sunscreen (which several sources suggest is safer than titanium). The good news is that there are lots to choose from; you just have to know what you want before you go to the store or order online because companies don't have to label the use of nanoparticles. So for those of you in Australia, see the very informative Friends of the Earth Safe Sunscreen Guide Summer 2010/11. You might also be interested in the Environmental Working Group's Sunscreen Guide, an excellent resource which gives each sunscreen a score and discusses safety concerns of every ingredient in a product. Not all of these sunscreens are available in Australia and they don't seem to list the use of nanoparticles so you need to compare with the ones on the Safe Sunscreen Guide.

So what did I end up buying you ask? I couldn't decide so I bought two different types. Natural Instinct for us and WotNot for Riker. I'd review them for you as well, but all of my sun related research has yielded nothing but rain, rain and more rain!

Almost walking....

2010-11-28T20:52:00.004+11:00

A few new photos from some outdoor playtime last week:

In just the past few days he's started to take some wobbly but independent steps. Today he stood up behind his toy push truck and just started walking around the house. Conveniently on my birthday so I can remember the occasion for years to come :) Last year on my birthday he slept for five hours straight for the first time. We ordered pizza and watched a movie. Today we ordered Indian and watched it rain. Below are two videos of him walking behind his truck and then his highchair. Watch for similar endings to both.

Grandma Betty's Grand Adventure

2010-11-04T20:55:00.005+11:00

I have always said that there was no way that my mom would ever come to Australia for a visit. She hates to travel and had never flown. A few months ago we were starting to think about a visit home but were dreading the twenty four hours of travel with a very active little one. Brian convinced me to ask one more time whether she'd like to come here and what it would take to get her here. To my surprise, she said that if she didn't have to travel alone she might consider it. Consider it she did and I think she even got a little excited about the prospect and before we knew it we were booking flights for her and her friend, Pat.

Here, Pat and my mom in the Botanic Gardens:

With grandma and her grandson atop Mt. Ainslie:

A weekend on the coast at Guerrilla Bay:

Plenty of time hanging out at home:

My favorite photo, just before saying farewell:

We did lots of shopping, went whale watching, saw the National Museum, baked cookies, went to my mother's group, saw kangaroos, ate kangaroo, had lunch at all my favorite cafes, visited my coworkers, went to our favorite winery and much more. Lots of firsts for Grandma Betty! I'm so proud of her for making the journey and we had such a wonderful time! More photos on my Facebook page here.

Floriade

2010-10-10T17:15:00.001+11:00

Adventures in Animal Husbandry

2010-09-27T09:37:00.004+10:00

Brian has been wanting chickens for ages. And rabbits and a cow. But, for the time being, he's acquired just the chickens. Six of them. You may remember reading about our weekend with an escapee chicken from the Lyneham High School some time ago. When he returned the chick they told him that at the end of each year the school sells off their chickens when they are just starting to lay. So when the end of the term came around they emailed Brian and gave him first dibs on buying the chickens before they put out the for-sale sign. The prospect of such an easy way to acquire chickens was just too tempting for Brian and last weekend he set to work building a pen for them. The result is the beautiful creation you see below, made (at zero cost) entirely from scavenged materials (including two broken down old wardrobes from the garage) and using only three tools, a Leatherman, a bike multi-tool and a screwdriver. Note the ramp up to the bedroom where the wardrobe doors open to the outside allowing easy access for egg collection. On the left side is the kitchen.

On Monday morning, we went over to the school to collect our chickens and introduce them to their new home.

The project for this weekend has been building a mobile pen for them so that we can let them out to nibble on juicy grass and scrounge for worms around the yard. (Kristi, you'll be pleased to know that this structure was built using only grapevines, bamboo, duct tape and chicken wire).

So far, we've collected 70 eggs in 15 days and have calculated that with the cost of straw, feed and chickens that we will break even after week 14 compared to store-bought free-range eggs.

It's so wonderful that spring is finally here and we're able to spend some time outdoors every day! Some blooms in our backyard:

The chickens and the arrival of spring have motivated us to get our worm farms back up and running and to start our veggie gardens again. Here are my boys looking adorable while hard at work preparing the beds:

RikerCam

2010-09-13T08:39:00.004+10:00

I've finally mustered the energy to get the few photos I've managed to take in the last month or so online. There are three public folders of Riker and friends on Facebook that you might like to see: Riker Month Nine, Riker Month Ten and Dickson Mum's Group (courtesy of Alison). Here are some highlights:

Sleep No, Photos Yes

2010-08-04T18:40:00.005+10:00

We're in a rough patch as far as sleep goes these days, presumably because Riker is experiencing a whole slew of developmental milestones and is, we noticed this morning, working on his third tooth. So I'm too tired to write much these days, but I'm trying to keep up with cute photos at the very least.

Here we are after a visit to Tilley's with my mother's group:

Looking like a little boy isn't he?

And at another mother's group outing, Riker crawled over and sat on Liam's lap, after which they proceeded to "love" this book of nursery rhymes together:

All together now....awwwwwwww.......

Thanks to Liz for the photos of Riker and Liam.

RikerCam

2010-07-20T21:19:00.000+10:00

RikerCam

2010-07-16T15:04:00.001+10:00

Leaps and Bounds

2010-07-13T16:49:00.007+10:00

I can hardly believe all of the things that have been happening in the last few weeks! All through month seven, Riker had been practicing getting up on all fours and then on his eight month birthday, he just took off crawling for a ball he saw across the room. That was two weeks ago and now he is easily pulling himself to standing using whatever happens to be available (the coffee table, my hair, etc.) Now he's starting to seem more like a toddler than a baby. And at 11.2 kilos (24 lbs 11 oz) he's the weight of an average 15 month old!

The downside to all of these awesome developmental milestones is that he can't seem to stop practicing his antics at all hours of the day and night. Riker had been sleeping through the night from eight weeks but for the last month and a half he's been waking himself up every couple hours by rolling over and getting up on his hands and knees. Last night we found him standing up in his crib, whimpering and nearly asleep. He doesn't really want to be awake but it means we're all up several times a night trying to settle him back to sleep. Yawn.

But the cuteness just keeps on going - thank goodness!

Rupert Tallulah McChicken

2010-06-20T12:12:00.007+10:00

The other day I returned home from a solo shopping mission to find Brian breathlessly entering the yard, wearing the baby in a sling, gingerly holding a cardboard box, saying "you'll never guess what happened!" Now what mischief could these two have gotten up to in the short time I was away, I wondered. Turns out that while out on a walk, Brian spotted a young chicken running free out behind our back gate. Being fairly certain that it was an escapee from the Lyneham High School, he thought he'd better try to catch it and care for it over the weekend, thus saving it from certain death at the paws of a four legged creature. Imagine if you will, Brian chasing a chick up and down a hedge while using a stick to attempt to direct the chicken out into the open where he eventually caught it with his hands, all while wearing a (probably somewhat amused) baby on his chest.

Now that the chicken was captured we faced the questions of where to keep it and what to feed it. Brian, clever chap that he is, found that a spare Pack'n'Play port-a-cot placed in the kitchen was an ideal temporary chicken coop. After a heater was set up near the pen to keep our feathered friend warm and a bowl of water and one of dry baby rice cereal placed inside, we turned to Google to determine how old our chick was, what we really should be feeding it and whether it was a boy or a girl. We decided it was somewhere around 4-6 weeks old and found that coarsely ground grains would be the best food. So we put some rice, lentils and polenta through the coffee grinder and added that to his bowl. Deciding whether it was male or female took quite a bit of research and in the meantime we covered our bases by giving it two names, Rupert Tallulah from the clan McChicken, of course. Turns out that it's really difficult to discern the gender of most chicks except that ours, an Isa Brown, is a sex linked chicken where the girls are brown and the boys are white. Tallulah it was.

Come Monday, Brian was having second thoughts about returning his new friend to the high school. He and the chick had become good buddies - it would chirp when he entered the room and continue to chirp until he held it, fly up out of the pen into his hands, fly or walk towards him whenever given the chance and fall asleep curled up in his arms. Very sweet. In the end however, we realized that Tallulah belonged with her flock as chickens are very social animals (and that the folks at the high school would probably notice one of their chickens living in our backyard - ha!).

RikerCam

2010-06-12T22:32:00.003+10:00

Now sitting up on his own for extended periods:

Getting himself into some interesting places by scooting and crawling backwards:

My little yogi:

A new trick - a few seconds of standing on his own!

Beans, Yum!

2010-06-12T20:58:00.005+10:00

Riker had his first taste of solid food at six months. So far the menu has included mashed sweet potatoes, pumpkin, rice cereal, banana, apple, pear and avocado, but he hasn't really embraced the concept of eating food. On a good day, he tolerates it for a bite or two, but never eagerly opens his mouth for more. On other days he make the funniest faces and spits it all out. I'm wondering if maybe he'll be one of those kids who only likes to eat if he can feed himself. He is certainly interested in what we are eating and drinking however. So the other night at dinner we handed him a green bean and he gummed it for ages - long enough to let us enjoy our entire meal! Brian captured this great face:

And in other exciting news, he now has two teeth, both of which came in on the same day. Ouch!

Cael is Two!

2010-06-04T12:29:00.004+10:00

Today my sweet nephew Cael is two! I wrote him this letter when he was born and since it took me a while to find it and since I still like the letter very much, I thought I'd re-post it here for posterity.

Dear BabyMoon,

You're here! Welcome to this crazy and beautiful world. We've all been waiting for you for a long time (well, relative to your time anyway) and here you are, arriving just when the time was right for you.

While you might not know it yet, lots and lots of people love you already. You're part of a pretty terrific group of people (they'll have you playing cards in no time, beware). They'll be there through thick and thin so remember that when you're twelve years old and they're embarrassing you in front of your friends.

A couple of important messages. You're mama is one the most beautiful and amazing women I know, so be good to her. You're big sister will probably try to take your toys and otherwise torture you at times. Don't worry about it too much, that's her job and she loves you.

Your family likes to travel. The world is an amazing place, full of kind and generous people (disregard what you might hear on the news). Go out and meet them, and be one of them.

We won't meet for a few months yet but when we do, you'll find that you have yet another auntie and uncle who will be a very special part of your life.

You have a big job ahead of you. You'll have to learn how to crawl, how to write, how to ride a bike, how to do your own laundry and how to be a kind and loving man. We're all here to do our best to help you get through the bumpy parts and celebrate the sweet parts.

Until we meet....
Your loving Auntie Jenn and Uncle Brian down under
June 6, 2008

Here he is (on the right) with Riker's other cousins, Teagan and Gavin (who by the way is expecting a sibling in November!) YAY!

Wrapped in Love

2010-06-01T12:45:00.008+10:00

Riker has received so many beautiful blankets as gifts! Over the last several weeks, all of our photo sessions have been devoted to capturing a photo of him with each of them. I was just about to say that I'm sure he will treasure each of them forever, but I think the reality of the situation is more that I'LL treasure each of them forever and will try to prevent him from dragging them through puddles :)

This quilt was handmade from vintage fabrics by my friend and colleague, Dierdre Pearce:

This one was hand knit by Grammy Jan's friend, Carol Ramey:

The softest blanket ever is from Grandma Betty's friends, Judy and Dave Gabrielson:

This waterproof naked-time blanket was made by Grammy Jan:

This technicolor beauty was crocheted by Riker's Great Aunt Nancy:

This one is from my second cousin Angela and her family:

And finally, this matching knit set is from Joan and Ross (Joan married us and she is Riker's first cousin twice removed):

Thanks so much to all of you! PS. I promise to keep these blankets away from not only puddles, but from finger paints, peanut butter and jelly, mud pies and other messy boy exploits!

On Motherhood

2010-05-10T10:39:00.002+10:00

Being a mother is everything I dreamed about yet not quite like I imagined. The first weeks left me, normally a somewhat confident and competent woman, anything but. I looked, felt and smelled better in my fantasies of motherhood than I did in the realities of life with a newborn. I remember envisioning sitting around in the evenings with a tiny baby resting peacefully between us and having plenty of leisure time during the day to sip coffees with friends in a clean house while the baby napped. Yes, I'm chuckling now too at the absurdity of those visions but surely while pregnant we all imagine the glossy times and fail to realize that the laundry will pile up with frightening speed before our very eyes as the baby that should really be asleep spews on both of us yet another time.

While the first six weeks of motherhood were some of the most challenging of my life, the newborn period is gone all too quickly. Friends with children kept telling me to enjoy it as it would be over before I knew it. I remember trying to treasure those moments but being too consumed with various difficulties and the physical pain I was in to really enjoy it. Then, by the time I got somewhat on top of the whole parenting thing, I no longer had a froggy newborn on my chest, but a wriggling baby who would rather explore his new world than cuddle with his mama. Sigh.

Still, beyond the chaos, I look at Riker now and swell and with pride and joy. Often, I see not a helpless baby, but within him the man that he will become. I envision him as an adult and the kind of person I hope that he will grow up to be. I do this not because I want these early years to pass, but because in seeing the person he will become, I am better able to respect the person he is now. When I'm feeling frustrated with broken sleep and messy, well, everything, I remember that I have been entrusted with a great and honorable responsibility - to help this little being achieve his full potential.

So, for example, when I'm changing his diaper, I try to not look at it as a chore to be completed as quickly as possible. I like to explain to Riker what I'm doing, knowing that I would hate it if someone rudely thrust my legs up into the air without giving me any notice. He trusts me to meet all of his needs and I aim to do so both gently and respectfully. But, then, being human, I lose my patience, find it again, feel guilty and start all over. What a tough, yet amazing job I have. Which reminds of a great quote I heard years ago which now has real meaning for me:

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone

Six months old!

2010-05-03T14:08:00.002+10:00

Riker turned six months old (and 26 weeks) on Thursday of last week. I took this photo on Thursday after a nice morning tea with the girls from my Birth Centre mother's group and have been trying to get around to posting it ever since! Love that face!

Toothpaste Woes

2010-04-30T14:04:00.002+10:00

Brian hates mint. To the point where he will relocate to another room while I enjoy a cup of peppermint tea. This means that I am continually on the lookout for a toothpaste that is not mint flavored and not otherwise disgusting - a search that is more difficult than you might imagine. We've tried cherry, orange, herbal, fennel, baking soda and I can't remember how many other varieties of toothpaste in our never-ending quest. All of the above either left the mouth feeling like it had been smeared with pie filling or simply tasted awful.

So the other day when I was in the health food shop I did my usual quick perusal of the toothpaste section to see what I could find. After talking with the clerk, I ended up purchasing a brand called Ayurdent (which I expected to be nothing short of fabulous at nearly $10 a tube). Excited that perhaps this would be a lucky day, I returned home, opened the tube and squeezed this out onto my toothbrush:

Not so appetizing you say? I didn't think so either. But did the taste make amends for the appearance you ask? Nay. It nearly burnt my tongue and tasted STRONGLY of cloves with a bit of, you guessed it, mint.

One tube of toothpaste free to a good home. Or any home for that matter.

Canberra Organic Delivery

2010-04-29T15:12:00.002+10:00

I just received my first home delivery of organic fruits and vegetables from Canberra Organics. Isn't it pretty?

This seasonal box was $35 plus a delivery fee. I doubt I'll order this every week but since we haven't planted a garden this year it's a really nice option for when I can't get to the markets. And since Riker is about to start solids, I want his veggies to be organic.

Oh, and see that retro looking crock pot in the corner? We scored that for free last week and have been using it almost every day. Feel free to pass on any good slow cooker recipes!

Hero

2010-04-27T14:24:00.003+10:00

Thanks to Chris for nominating me for Hero of the World!

Pretty cool, eh? At the risk of sounding both old and dorky I have to say (insert Minnesota accent for greatest effect), "Oh my, technology these days!"

Blue Ribbon Mead!

2010-04-20T13:07:00.006+10:00

Most of my faithful readers will already know that we make mead and in fact, mead making is now a decade long tradition in the McMillin family. You might also remember reading about our mead making experience with Australian honeys (snow gum, leatherwood and red stringy bark).

Brian's father, Carl, started making mead when his sister, Heather, requested it for her Scottish themed wedding and it's just been getting better and better ever since. Carl has won numerous awards for his meads and they're always better than any commercial meads we try. (We think he should go into business but that's another story). We were excited to hear that he submitted, to two competitions, some of our mead that was started just before we left for Australia. For this particular mead, Carl and I picked out the honey from the beekeeper, Brian and I started it with Carl's yeast, Carl and Keith tended it while we've been here and Brian and Carl tweaked the acidity when we were last home. We've just heard the results....

First, the Mazer Cup International Mead Competition. Neither Carl's nor our meads won anything, but we received positive comments from the two judges on our sweet mead with local wildflower honey:

Aroma: Good honey aroma 8/10
Appearance: Short legs, color good, clarity good 4/6
Flavor: Sweet, slight alcohol taste, fast finish 16/24
Overall impression: Nice mead 8/10
Total 36/50 (top end of very good range)

Aroma: Pleasant honey bouquet 8/10
Appearance: Clear light amber - pretty! 5/6
Flavor: Sweetness appropriate for style - nice balance, good finish 19/24
Overall impression: Nice well balanced mead 7/10
Total 39/50 (low end of excellent range)

The really exciting news is that OUR MEAD WON FIRST PLACE in the American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition! It was submitted in the category for dry, semi-sweet, and sweet traditional meads in the East Regional competition (five states) and will now advance to the national competition! Here are the comments from the two certified judges:

Bouquet/Aroma: Honey and alcohol and acid in the initial aroma. Slight buckwheat honey aroma. 7/10
Appearance: Yellow-orange color. Very slight haze, noticeable legs. 5/6
Flavor: The initial flavor is very clean with a honey flavor and sweetness. The finish is slightly acidic with a honey sweetness and flavor. The aftertaste is sweet with a very slight acidity. Alcohol is standard. Body is medium-full. Slight buckwheat honey flavor. 20/24
Overall Impression: This is a very nice mead. It tastes and smells like a nice blend of wildflower and buckwheat honey. Nice job. 8/10
Total 40/50

Bouquet/Aroma: Gentle honey character - probably buckwheat. No flaws detected. 8/10
Appearance: Light amber. Clear with light suspended haze. Beautiful. 5/6
Flavor: Smooth, appropriate body. Warm finish is a bit harsh. Hard to characterize, probably a buckwheat. Pleasant overall. Alcohol is at high end of medium. 20/24
Overall Impression: Suspect a buckwheat addition, but not primary. The finish balance is very good. This is one of the two best (so far) on this flight. Thank you. 9/10
Total 42/50

How cool is that?

Cheers!

Jenn's Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting Reading List

2010-04-06T11:14:00.009+10:00

For some time now I've been meaning to compile a list of the books (and a few websites) that I found most helpful, informative, interesting and/or enjoyable in relation to pregnancy, birth and parenting. I hope that those of you who have yet to experience this privilege (or are experiencing the privilege for the second or third time) will find these resources to be useful.

FERTILITY

Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health by Toni Weschler
This book is one of the top five most influential books I have ever read. If you are a woman you should read this book. Whether you are trying to avoid pregnancy or are attempting to conceive, you should read this book. It outlines everything we should have been taught about how our bodies work and how to track monthly cycles in detail. This is one of the most empowering books I have ever read. Seriously, read it.

PREGNANCY AND BIRTH

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
I read many, many pregnancy books and this is THE ONE BOOK I WOULD RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE (whether or not you are particularly interested in natural childbirth as you probably know I am). It is written by one of the most famous and well loved midwives in America, Ina May, who has delivered thousands of babies at The Farm, a community in Tennessee. This book takes the fear out of birth and leaves you confident in your capabilities. It will make you think twice about the seemingly benign epidural once you learn that epidurals are known to slow the process of labor which then require drugs like Pitocin to be used to stimulate contractions that have slowed due to the epidural. Statistically then you are more likely to have a Cesarean birth because Pitocin stresses the baby by enhancing contractions and once a baby is stressed, it must be removed as soon as possible. Don't get me wrong, these things are all valuable tools but this book reaffirms your natural ability to birth your baby using the "drugs" produced by your own body! It's also contains many terrific positive birth stories. Highly recommended.

Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin
Again, whether or not you are hoping for a "natural" birth, this book is excellent. Birth stories often have an element of fear to them but this book is full of positive birth stories that will remind you that women have been doing this for eons and you can too! Perhaps most importantly, the women in the book share what they were feeling and thinking that got them past their fears, not just clinical descriptions of the birth experience. Written in the seventies, the language is often of the fluffy hippy variety but if you can get past that, you will love this book.

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: The Wisdom and Science of Gentle Choices in Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting by Dr. Sarah Buckley
A very informative book written by a physician and mother with loads of information on natural childbirth with a range of personal experiences mixed in for readability.

Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England and Rob Horowitz
I read this book in my last month of pregnancy after I'd read all of the other informational texts and I highly recommend this. This book tells your mind to take a backseat and to let your heart and body do the real work of birthing. Great information on natural methods of pain relief too.

The Birth Partner: Everything You Need to Know to Help a Woman Through Childbirth by Penny Simkin
I didn't read this book but Brian found it a really helpful tool for both preparing himself and for learning how to best support me through labor (and he did a great job by the way). As he's really picky about books and writing styles, you can bet this is a good one.

BREASTFEEDING

So That's What They're For: Breastfeeding Basics by Janet Tamaro
Read this book on the basics of breastfeeding BEFORE you have a baby! The author discusses nearly every possible issue relating to breastfeeding in a candid, warm and often humorous tone. Very helpful book when you realize that breastfeeding isn't as easy as it looks!

VACCINATIONS

The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child by Dr. Robert Sears
The decision whether or not to vaccinate is probably the most controversial of all decisions to be made in the early days of parenting. There is so much information out there on both sides of the debate that I put a lot of research into deciding where to begin the research and which book on the topic to read first. I settled on this one as it is pretty unbiased (slightly pro-vaccine if anything) and written by the son of the famous pediatricians Dr. William Sears and his RN wife, Martha Sears. Even if you have no qualms about the current vaccine schedule you should read this book as it discusses each disease and it's vaccine, the incidence of the disease, the likelihood of vaccine reactions and the ingredients of the vaccine. It discusses some of the problems with combination vaccines, how to boost the immune system before vaccinating and most importantly, how to choose the brand of vaccine with the least creepy ingredients. For example, some brands have significantly more aluminum in them than others, which like mercury, is a known neurotoxin. Bottom line: know what you are injecting into your children.

PARENTING STRATEGIES

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer by Dr. Harvey Karp
This is a great book for the first three months of your child's life. Karp recommends a series of five steps designed to imitate the uterus and help your baby adjust to life outside the womb. These steps include swaddling, side/stomach position, shhh sounds, swinging and sucking. These fives S's are the basis of the book and the techniques really work.

The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two by Dr William and Martha Sears
In this book, the attachment parenting specialists William Sears and Martha Sears outline their approach to baby care basics, from newborns to toddlers. Attachment parenting is a gentle approach to parenting that stresses bonding with your baby, responding to his/her cues, breastfeeding, wearing your baby, and sharing sleep with your child. Bottom line: pay attention to your baby's cues and respond appropriately - trust your instincts and don't worry about spoiling your baby by attending to his needs when he cries. This book covers medical and health issues, child development, introducing solids and so much more.

CIRCUMCISION

This was one of the easy decisions for us as we are both very much against this practice. Still, I put a fair bit of research into the subject as I know it is still quite common in the US and I wanted to know why people choose to do it. Fortunately, here in Australia, the practice is rare and most hospitals will not even do it as they recognize that there is no medical reason whatsoever for circumcision - yet another reason I love this country and it's health care system! Bottom line: no one has the right to remove a part of another persons anatomy without their consent and little boys are not born needing improvements on their original design. If I were to blog in more detail on my opinions of the subject, it would read something like this.

The Case Against Circumcision by Paul M. Fleiss, MD, MPH (article and references available online).

ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION

Elimination Communication (EC) is a method of potty training from infancy where the parent uses timing and cues to anticipate a baby's needs to relieve himself thereby reducing dependency on diapers and helping a child to become aware of their bodily functions. EC is an ancient practice (as diapering is a fairly modern invention) and it is a gentle and sensible way to make toilet training easier as you shouldn't have to "unteach" your child that it is okay to wet themselves.

Elimination Communication at Wikipedia (great references at the end)

Diaper Free Baby - Lots of info and a network of EC support groups

NATURAL INFANT HYGIENE or ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION: A Gentle Alternative to Long-term Diapering by Ingrid Bauer

Tribal Baby - Nappy Free Down Under (lots of great tips on how to get started, written by a Canberra mum)

BABYWEARING

I own five slings: two wrap slings (a Hug-a-Bub and a handmade wrap), an Ergo Baby, a Baby Bjorn, and a pocket sling. All of them are useful for different occasions and I honestly couldn't recommend just one. Probably the best resource about baby wearing and choosing a carrier is TheBabyWearer.com

CLOTH DIAPERING

We love cloth diapers and find them easy to use and care for. I think of cloth diapering as a chance to do something great for the environment on a daily basis - you honestly feel great about yourself when you avoid that mountain of disposable diapers. Don't let anyone tell you that the environmental benefits of cloth are questionable because of water use either. When you consider the resources that go into the manufacture of disposables, the transport costs and the landfill space needed for the next million years, cloth is always a better choice. Finally, cloth is a good for your baby's bum as it is breathable and doesn't strip the oils from the skin and it is much more cost effective. To date, we've spent less than $200 and these will fit Riker until he's about thirty pounds. And of course they'll be used on future babies as well.

Cloth Diapers 101 - A great review of all of the different types out there and FAQs.

Adventures in Cloth Diapering - Tons of information including where to buy and sewing your own.

Diaper Pin - Cloth diapering tips, product reviews and secondhand sales.

Green Mountain Diapers - We like to use natural fibres for our diapering so we use organic cotton prefolds with covers from GMD.

BABY NAMING

I'm not sure if the fact that we took nearly three weeks to name our son makes you more or less likely to take my advice on baby name resources but here you go....

The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby by Laura Wattenberg
This is the best baby naming book I found and trust me, I've looked at lots of them! It categorizes names into styles and offers suggestions for other names you might like based on your preferences. There is also a Baby Name Wizard website with lots more info on specific names that you won't find in the book.

Baby Name Genie - This website will generate names for you - hours of fun!

Whew! That took almost a week to compile but there you have it. I'm more than happy to discuss any of these resources in more detail or to make more recommendations for further resources on specific topics that might interest you at the moment.

My thanks to many sisters and friends over the years who have suggested these resources to me. Big hugs especially to Katherine for putting me on this path years before I even began to plan for my own children; to Heather for inviting me into the room for the most tremendous of moments and for traveling round the world to support me during my most tremendous moment; to Liz for suggesting the breastfeeding and naming books; to my mother for promoting natural health and wellbeing and for listening as I rambled on and on about the tough decisions to be made; and to Riker for inspiring me to be the best (and most informed) mama that I can be. Here he is "helping" me to write this post:

Monkey Feet

2010-04-03T21:19:00.001+11:00

Five Months Old!

2010-03-31T15:48:00.004+11:00

On Monday Riker turned five months old and I had to pinch myself. Where did my little baby go?

Here's Riker with another of his baby friends, Niamh:

And here's a series I took today of Riker in his play-gym:

And here he is fast asleep after the play-gym and a snack and a change of clothes:

Resemblance?

2010-03-18T16:23:00.003+11:00

A few people are starting to say that Riker looks like me. Up until a couple weeks ago, EVERYONE said he looked like Brian. What do you think?

Here's a baby photo of yours truly for comparison:

Mother's Group

2010-03-18T16:10:00.004+11:00

Here are some photos from my lovely mother's group. There are sixteen of us and the babies range in age from about three to five months. Riker is now four and a half months and weighing in at 8.9 kilos or 19 lbs 10 oz. Everyone keeps asking me what I feed him and I'm starting to wonder if I should cut out the ice cream from his diet :)

Cuteness everywhere:

Tala and Riker (just missed the hand holding):

Mastering the toy holding:

Lunch with daddy:

In his monkey suit:

Farewell Clare

2010-03-12T17:08:00.002+11:00

Last week I was in the ANUgreen office for the farewell party of my friend and workmate Clare. Here's a great photo of some of my favorite people in all of Australia:

Warwick, retired director of Facilities and Services; John, ANUgreen office manager; Beth, biodiversity officer; Clare, staff outreach; Bart, associate director F&S; yours truly, student outreach; Riker, eco-warrier in training; Jan, HR; Teifi, student outreach; Steve, energy and water; Su, assistant office manager and risk/pollution officer; Adam, sustainable transport officer; Nicki, admin and all around super support person. Only missing Barry, waste and recycling officer extraordinaire, who works from home on Wednesdays.

All the best in your new adventures Clare!

#201

2010-03-04T11:36:00.005+11:00

I just realized that the last entry was my 200th post! So to celebrate....you guessed it...more photos!

Week 17

2010-02-26T16:28:00.002+11:00

Week 16

2010-02-26T16:22:00.002+11:00

Australian Geography Lesson and FAQs

2010-02-22T14:52:00.003+11:00

Q&A's About Australia That You Always Wanted to Know!

These were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a great sense of humour (not to mention a low tolerance threshold for cretins!)

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV; how do the plants grow? (UK).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around, watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia ? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Aus-tra-li-a is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not... Oh, forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia ? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is... Oh, forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Can I wear high-heels in Australia ? (UK)
A: You are a British politician, right?

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-mer-i-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia ? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first!

Thanks to Carl and Sue for this!

Week 15

2010-02-17T08:55:00.005+11:00

Riker (wearing his giraffe shirt from Grandma Betty) and his proud mama:

Riker playing Max from 'Where the Wild Things Are':

Showing off his strong standing legs:

Super baby with super daddy:

Just hanging out:

My loves:

Lulled to sleep after an evening walk in the Hug-a-Bub:

Love Me - Love My World

2010-02-12T13:05:00.003+11:00

Because I'm at my post on the couch and have the following key ingredients available to me...

1 free hand
1 laptop
1 camera
1 USB cable
1 cute baby

...more photos!

And now my glass of water is empty, my snacks have been eaten and the laundry needs to go out on the line. Parenting is clearly a two person job :)

Mums and Bubs

2010-02-11T14:16:00.003+11:00

I've just returned home from an outing with the mums and bubs who were part of our childbirth classes at the Birth Center. All of the babies were due in the month of November and it's been really fun to continue to meet up with them to see how the little ones are growing and changing and to share stories and advice.

Here we have Ellen and Violet, Sarina and Saskia, Amy and Emily, Alice and Jago, and myself and Riker all enjoying morning tea at Tilleys.

RikerCam

2010-02-11T14:12:00.003+11:00

Looking very grown up in an adorable outfit from Kate and Simon:

Riker's First Girlfriend

2010-02-09T17:13:00.004+11:00

From the day he met her at my mother's group, Riker has been fascinated by Isabella. No wonder, she's a gorgeous baby with giant brown eyes. Too cute!

Big Boy Bed

2010-02-09T15:00:00.010+11:00

Riker just keeps on growing! Last weeks visit to the clinic had him weighing in at 7.5 kilos or 16 lbs 8 oz. That's moving up into the 95th percentile for his age! He's grown out of many of his sweet little newborn clothes and I've sadly had to pack up the outfit he came home from the hospital in...sniffle sniffle. And perhaps most significantly, he has now outgrown his bassinet! The bassinet was lent to us by my friend Beth who slept in it as a baby, along with all of her siblings, her two babies and several of our friends babies. Now it's clearly time to give it back as you can see below. The first photo is from about two weeks old:

And this photos is from about 12 weeks old (I'm a little behind on my blogging :)
Notice he's wearing the same outfit too. It's about due to be packed away as well...

What a sweetie!

And here he is in his new bed:

Now we don't have to hear his hands and feet whacking the sides of the bassinet at night anymore! Strangely enough, that never seemed to wake him up though!

The Many Faces of Riker

2010-02-08T13:46:00.004+11:00

Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to get a good photo of a baby and if you want to capture a smile without the blur of arms and legs waving around you've got to be quick, lucky AND patient. In the meantime, you end up with hundreds of photos but when reviewing them find that they are all indeed rather cute.

I wanted to show off Riker in his new Nubunz cloth diapers but I couldn't pick just one:

For those of you who can't get enough of RikerCam, I've included a slideshow of many of the photos I've taken recently that capture his range of expressions.

Adventures in Canberra

2010-02-04T17:04:00.003+11:00

Grandpa and Grammy McMillin have gone home and we're settling somewhat back into our usual routine. We had a terrific time with Brian's parents during the three weeks that they were in Australia and we certainly kept ourselves busy. Here's a list of all of the sights we saw (that I can remember) and I won't even begin to list of all of the restaurants we patronized! We did all of this despite a lot of down time for napping and nursing!

National Botanic Gardens
Australian War Memorial
Murrumbateman Wineries
Telstra Tower
Old Bus Depot Markets
Canberra Glassworks
Gold Creek Village
CSIRO Discovery Center
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
Parliament House
National Film and Sound Archive
National Library of Australia
National Museum of Australia

Did I forget anything?

Here is a nice photo of Grammy Jan and Riker giggling at each other:

A brolga at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve:

Carl, Jan and Riker at CSIRO Discovery Centre:

Riker and I at Bondi Beach. His first trip to the ocean and he slept entirely through it! I was planning to at least dip his toes into the ocean but he just wouldn't wake up!

The whole little family at Bondi:

Carl and Jan, thanks for making the trip to Australia to meet Riker. We love you!

Week 11

2010-01-20T14:28:00.005+11:00

Carl and Jan (aka Grandpa and Grammy) are visiting from Ohio!

Grammy and Riker:

The view from atop Telstra Tower:

At a local winery:

Weeks 8-9

2010-01-20T14:17:00.003+11:00

Bundled up for an evening walk:

A nice sunset behind our house:

Trying to figure out the camera:

Getting good at holding his hands and keeping them in his mouth:

Cool cats:

And baby makes three!

2010-01-20T13:53:00.001+11:00

Finally, a nice family photo...thanks Beth!

Cloth Diapers and Paperwork

2009-12-28T04:19:00.009+11:00

Nearly every day Brian and I look at each other and comment on how much the baby has grown overnight. I suppose that's because he is literally growing overnight. At his eight week check up he was 12 lbs 5 oz (5.6 kilos) and 24 inches (61 cm) long. Now nearing the 90th percentile and outgrowing many of his clothes!

We're using cloth diapers on Riker and we're really happy with them. We used disposables for the first week so we wouldn't have to wash those tar-like first poos out of cloth but since then he's been in cloth. We decided to use a very simple cloth diaper system to start - prefolds and covers. There are some very fancy cloth diapers out there but we decided not to invest in any of those before he was born and we could find out what type would fit him best. Prefolds also fit a newborn better than some of the other styles out there. The set we are currently using was a gift from Heather and was purchased on ebay for only $55. That's a pretty good deal considering the price of disposables and the price of some modern cloth diapers! In the last couple of days we decided to use up the newborn disposables that were given to us before he out grows them and find them to leak more and not provide any additional convienence. Here's our stash including Chinese prefolds, Pro-wraps, Thirsties and Snappis:

With prefolds, you simply fold the absorbent cloth square and secure it with a Snappi fastener:

Then you cover that with a waterproof cover. This is my favorite style (Thirsties brand). They're very soft and come in lots of fun colors!

Once the diaper has been used, it goes into a dry bucket (no rinsing required) and then the whole bucket goes into the laundry once a day. Easy. We're also using cloth wipes and they just go into the same bucket as well.

We like the prefolds so much that we might just stick with them instead of getting the more expensive pocket diapers. I'll have to order a bigger size by the time he reaches fifteen pounds or so but that's still significantly cheaper than pockets which can be $20+ per diaper. I have ordered a few just to try them out though. I settled on a brand called Nubunz which appears to be a knockoff of some of the name brand varieties like BumGenius, but at $9.50 each, a much better deal.

There's quite a bit of paperwork to do when having a baby overseas. We have to travel to Sydney to get a Consular Report of Birth and then we have to get a Social Security number and a passport which is sizable stack of paper and requires amongst other information for both of us to list everywhere we've every been in our lives. We thought we'd take a shot at taking his passport photo ourselves and here are some of the cute ones:

Finally, a funny video of the little guy asleep in his rocking chair hitting himself in the face:

The Birth Story of Riker Donald McMillin

2009-12-16T12:58:00.004+11:00

Seven weeks old and I've just managed to finish writing the birth story from my perspective. Fortunately we have our midwife's notes from the event because I'm in no way claiming that my version of the story is temporally accurate :)

I had originally said that I would post the birth story here in its entirety once it was completed but it turns out to be seven pages long. So if would like to read the birth story, I'm happy to share the gory details...just leave a comment or send me an email and I'll forward it to you.

RikerCam

2009-12-15T13:31:00.004+11:00

A few images from week six:

So in love...

Oh those little toes!

In his Green Baby onesie from Auntie Liz and Uncle Keith. Appropriately, he wore this to a BBQ with my workmates this weekend :)

Almost a smile...

Six Weeks and Growing

2009-12-11T17:19:00.000+11:00

The tricky thing about breastfeeding, I find, is that you never really know how much milk you are producing and in turn, you never really know if what you are producing is sufficient for your baby. So I've spent a fair bit of time over the past six weeks worrying whether or not he's getting enough to eat. I was worried because he had a somewhat traumatic birth and then we had some difficulties establishing breastfeeding so I wasn't feeling very confident about the whole process. But all along he's had wet and pooey diapers and seemed happy and content. Today I took him to the local community clinic where you can drop in to weigh your baby and chat with a nurse. And I'm very pleased with the results! Here are his vital stats:

Birth weight: 3.9 kilos or 8 lbs 10 oz
Six week weight: 5.2 kilos or 11 lbs 8 oz
33% increase!

Birth length: 53 cm or 20.5 inches
Six week length: 57 cm or 22.4 inches
10% increase!

He's in the 75th percentile across the board. That's my boy - growing up before my very eyes....

Master Riker

2009-12-09T11:27:00.002+11:00

I just received new insurance policy cards since Riker was added to our plan and I quite like them :)

Wikipedia tells me that Master is an English title used for young and teenage or unmarried boys and that they are not to be called Mister until some undefined age, generally around thirteen. The title is mostly used for formal correspondence or invitations but feel free to call him Master Riker anytime :) You can also call him Number One as some of you have affectionately suggested :)

Photo of the day:

Master Riker is finally asleep and it's 12:30 so I can eat lunch at a reasonable time today. Maybe that will help to mend my clearly dysfunctional brain. Today I found my wallet in the refrigerator. I'd put it in the grocery bag yesterday and the whole thing just went into the fridge when I got home. Ah, that's a funny story too. Yesterday I had coffee with an American woman who lives two blocks away in Lyneham, has a twelve week old baby (girl) and a nearly identical birth story (posterior, brow, forceps), a husband who works at CSIRO (same organization as Brian) and she is from the Cleveland area. Funny eh?

Last random tidbit that shows I'm operating on auto pilot. Brian told me that in the middle of the night I was snoring loudly, awoke abruptly saying "sssshhhhhhhhh" to the baby and then went promptly back to snoring.

Sleep and Smiles

2009-12-07T11:31:00.002+11:00

The days continue to fly by and some semblance of order is emerging out of the chaos. I'm getting a bit more sleep as the baby has been sleeping pretty well at night for the last few days. He's been getting about 3-4 hours sleep and is then up for an hour before going back to sleep for about two hours. Who'd have thought I'd ever think that that qualified as good sleep? Everything is easier with some rest and I even cooked dinner the other night for the first time in five weeks!

Here is the first smile photo I've managed to capture:

In his bouncy seat in the sun:

Babywearing mamas. At the Birth Centre annual picnic with Amy from our birth classes and baby Emily. Riker and Emily both happily cocooned in wrap slings.

On the ANUgreen veranda for Mitchell and Ailis's farewell party before they move to Atlanta. Ailis and Riordan, Barry and Riker.

Barry and Riker. Having heard his voice next to me in the office for all those months, they're mates already.

Four Weeks Old Already!

2009-11-26T14:10:00.003+11:00

Today is Riker's four week birthday! The first three weeks are a total blur for me. Brian went back to work on Monday leaving us to fend for ourselves and while I was dreading the day, it's actually gone pretty well. Feeding is getting easier. Feeding the baby that is. Feeding me has gone down the priority list amongst the all-consuming tasks of nursing, settling and changing diapers. When I was pregnant I wondered how it could possibly be that a baby could take so much time. I mean really, there should be time for a shower and casual lunches with friends - or so I thought. Now the days pass and I realize I haven't changed my clothes in two days. It takes 2-3 hours to get ready to leave the house and I'm lucky if I get a load of laundry done in a day. So you'll forgive me if your emails remain unanswered and your phone calls unreturned. Is that a word? Spell check says no. On with the cuteness....

Note, lately I've been compressing images before posting them on my blog so if you ever want a high resolution image, just let me know and I can email it. Some of the images aren't the best quality to begin with as I take lots of them in the middle of the night when I'm trying to pass the time!

All this with one hand...

2009-11-23T23:35:00.003+11:00

I just re-read my first post about the baby and had a good laugh that I thought I would ever have two hands free again!

A few images to review the last month. This is probably the last photo of me while pregnant, just two days before the birth:

With Brian and Heather on her first day in Canberra:

Riker's first bath:

Deep in thought sleeping baby:

Daddy time:

Self portrait with a tired mama:

The moment you've all been waiting for...

2009-11-19T17:05:00.004+11:00

Some of you may have noticed that we've had just a wee bit of trouble in settling on a name for our newest family member. Therefore I'm pleased to announce that as of last weekend, we have made a decision!

Introducing Riker Donald McMillin:

In the end we decided that Brian could choose the first name and I would choose the middle name. Brian really liked the sound of Riker and chose it for its originality and Donald is in honor of my late father.

All is well and the last three weeks have flown by in a blur. We are still sorting out some breastfeeding challenges and dealing with a general lack of sleep but I think we're getting the hang of this parenting thing bit by bit.

The First Week

2009-11-07T18:51:00.002+11:00

A few more photos...the best I can do with one hand!

Going home from the hospital:

And a selection of sleeping cuteness:

Baby!

2009-10-30T13:20:00.003+11:00

Introducing baby McMillin! Our healthy and happy baby bundle arrived at 6:04 am on the 29th of October. That was 2:04 pm on Wednesday the 28th, Minnesota time. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and is 20.5 inches long. Birth was somewhat more difficult than imagined as bub was posterior and face up and therefore stuck in the birth canal - forceps assisted in the end so you'll notice the cone head in the front and some serious bruising. Going down already.

Here are some highlights...more to come after I get home and have my camera cable and both of my hands available :)

My incredible birth team: midwife Natasha, Brian and his sister Heather.

Very alert and content!

Name negotiations in progress :) Thanks for all your good wishes!

38 weeks

2009-10-20T15:08:00.004+11:00

I've been on maternity leave for just over two weeks now and I've managed to stay away from the office for all but about one full day. I had to go in on Monday to interview for my replacement. After three rounds of applications, we finally got several good candidates so that's encouraging.

I'm still feeling really good for the most part though I'm starting to understand the waddling that inevitably plagues pregnant women. Not only do your hips start to do something pretty uncomfortable, you actually lose the ability to use your abdominal muscles so movement in general becomes awkward at best.

Baby is moving around like crazy and clearly getting stronger and bigger every day. Brian is so excited for him to arrive that he keeps telling him to come out and play. I tell him not to listen to his daddy (just this once) and to stay in there for another couple weeks. I'm really enjoying the time to myself and Heather doesn't arrive for about a week.

I realize I haven't posted belly photos for a couple of weeks. Here I am at 38 weeks just before going out to dinner with all of my workmates and their partners at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. What a terrific evening! I so love my team and am already sad to not see all of them every day.

I've been keeping myself busy power cleaning the house, shopping, cooking nice food and doing loads of baby laundry. It's been raining off and on for weeks so today I finally had the chance to get everything out on the line. How cute are all of these little itty bitty things?

And now for the best part of being on maternity leave - afternoon napping!

Anniversary / Babymoon

2009-09-25T22:47:00.004+10:00

September 21st was our seventh wedding anniversary(!) and to celebrate we spent the weekend at a beach house on the coast. Below is the view from our verandah and just behind us is an enclosed full size hot tub with the same amazing view. Oh, and in case you're wondering, that's cherry juice in my wine glass :)

We had a really nice walk on the beach when we first arrived and were fascinated by this cuttlefish we found as we'd never seen one before. Some gentle prodding revealed that it was full of ink, lots of eggs and an undigested fish!

Unbelievably enough, we were up the next morning for sunrise and got these great shots before having our first breakfast of the day and then going back to bed.

I've always wanted to paint my nice round belly so Brian got to be the artist and created this cool design. The little red thing on what was once my belly button is the baby surrounded by us on either side. I really like this photo even though I look like somewhat of giantess :)

Not sure yet what the plant below is called but we'd never seen anything like it - it towered above our heads and nearly reached the second floor of the house.

And to top it all off, we saw dolphins in the bay on Monday when we were packing up to leave. Not the best photo but so nice to see, I just had to include it.

So, a lovely weekend was had by all. We'll celebrate again when the harvest moon appears on October 4th and roll out the Neil Young. Crazy to think that it's been just the two of us for over eight years now and in five weeks there will be three of us....

Birth Classes

2009-09-09T21:50:00.002+10:00

Last night was our second in a series of five childbirth and parenting classes at the Birth Centre and we continue to be incredibly grateful for being able to have our baby there. The midwives are just wonderful and we’re starting to meet the others in the north team who could be present at the birth should our midwife be on her weekend off or be up all night the night before. Apparently, though we have an 89% chance of having our midwife present.

Other things we love about it - the BC has a really low rate of interventions and Cesarean rates are way below the national average. The centre itself is very comfortable with couches and photos of babies born there all over the walls with notes from grateful parents. The rooms have huge baths, dimmable lights, oil burners (for aromatherapy), balls, mats and a button that brings emergency assistance within sixty seconds – all good things! The staff treat you as if you are the most important people in the whole process who are capable of making intelligent decisions and best of all, fully capable of birthing your baby in your own time. There is absolutely none of the fear you often find surrounding the issues of birth and no one will be saying "well you're not progressing according to 'schedule' so lets induce!"

The first birthing class was all about breastfeeding and we found it really informative. Last nights class was on managing the first stage of labor and we learned about all of the crazy things a woman’s pelvis can do! The midwife even had a hand knitted uterus as a prop :) I only expect you to appreciate that if you’re a knitter by the way. We also talked a lot about the support person’s role in labor, which is, of course, to do anything the woman asks and give lots of massages and positive reinforcement :) Brian is going to be a terrific support and the midwife even had to tell him (nicely) to shut up at one point because he’d been doing his homework and knew all of the answers to her many questions. I was glad he was with me :) Also very pleased to have my dear sister-in-law Heather coming over for support as well. I’m feeling very confident in my team and in my ability to do this rather miraculous act! But not for another eight weeks.