Visitors and Kitchens

Over the past couple of weekends we have had some family visitors. Ness has been on uni holidays and came up and stayed with us two weekends in a row. She gave us a great offer to go on a date while she was with us, so we took her up on that and went to Anvers for breakfast. Linc tagged along too. We still haven't left him before. We were hoping he would just have a morning nap while Ness took the kids, but he woke up just before we left and wouldn't settle again. So it was much easier to take him with us.


Olan came and visited one weekend also, before she moved back to Melbourne. Olan has been living with Moppy and Poppy for the last couple of years. The kids often refer to her as one of the family, so she will be greatly missed.


The old kitchen below was very small, not practical and quite dangerous for the kids. The benches were very low, and not very wide, so there was barely any workspace. The kids could easily take the saucepans off the hotplates if they wanted to, and the hotpate dials were flimsy and could easily be turned on, as we found out from a bad experience which involved Maddi's birthday cake. The fridge space only fit a small fridge, so our fridge has been living in the laundry. There was this archway in between which took up a lot of workspace, and if I were cooking the kids would pull their chairs up right beside me to watch and get in the way of the very limited workspace. Little Alex loves to watch me cook and get involved with the process including chopping things, which I refuse to let him do. At times I would sneak away to the kitchen and start cooking without him as he was such a hazard in this kitchen. He could grab anything that he wanted off the benches. Often we would get a good indication that he was trying to get to something, with the noise of the chair being dragged across the floor.



The archway was the first to go. It was amazing how much bigger the kitchen was with this gone.

Poppy stayed to help with the kitchen renovations. This is the fourth kitchen renovation that he has been involved in. We have had tradies in and out the past couple of months. Little Alex has loved having them visit. He would stare and watch what they were up to and would follow them around like a shadow. I will be really surprised if he doesn't end up being a tradie himself. He is such a good little worker though, and will imitate everything. He was always at Poppy's side and was so proud of himself for working with Poppy, and would raid Poppy's tools. One day he picked up Poppy's saw and started sawing an onion! He loves to help me with the housework. He loves to sweep and put things in the rubbish bin and clean windows Sometimes he gets a bit carried away with cleaning things and usually there is soap smears all over the shower door as he has tried cleaning the door with a bar of soap.

He loved loading the trailer up with plaster pieces and would get so excited when it would make a loud bang. If you keep this boy busy, you keep him happy. Otherwise he gets up to mischief.

By the end of last Saturday the benches were gone and the lino was ripped up. It was very satisfying to pull all the lino up. There were 3 layers of lino, starting back with the original lino from the 60's. We found a coin from 1968 under there.

We were left with just the the sink area on Saturday night. Ness was very ambitious and made lolly style Rocky Road with the kids, which we all loved.


The kitchen was without a sink and ripped out, like this for three nights and we survived on freezer meals that were heated up in the microwave. It sort of felt like we were camping, so it was a bit of a novelty. It also reminded me of when we lived in the shed for 8 months as kids, while our house in Dunorlan was being built.

All ready for the new kitchen.

We spent the whole day out of the house visiting Mum and Dad while the kitchen was being put it, so it was exciting to come back to see it. The plumbing was complete, and the next day the elerctrical work was complete and we had a fully functioning kitchen.



There's so much more space now, and lots of drawers to put things away. It has become a novelty to cook in. We cooked pizzas in the oven today, I felt like the Masterchef contestants on the episode of cooking for the CWA. I'm not really that familiar with the oven yet and one pizza didn't turn out the best, but hopefully we'll have a good relationship soon.


The glass splashback is yet to be put in, the painting is to be done and the floor coverings need to be laid. Once that's done the dishwasher will go in and fridge will come out of the laundry.



This kitchen is so essential for our kids, who are so food orientated and love to eat! Linc is starting to get into his tucker and already we are seeing results with his weight gain.

BEFORE

AFTER

Little Linc

Last week we took Lincoln to the Paediatrician. Since that visit we have been seeing more of this......

and less of this..........


One Losec tablet a day for reflux has made Linc a much more settled baby. The evening WITCHING HOURS is no longer hours on end and is more like it should be for a baby. The first night we saw a huge improvement. Linc was playing happily while we were eating our tea, squealing with delight. Usually he would be on our laps at the dinner table and would be fussying around, until 9-10pm. Sometimes the crying would end with one big regurgitation.

The other good thing is we no longer have to settle him over and over for his night sleep. In the past we would put him down for his sleep and he would wake up screaming in pain with his reflux. Now we'll have to do more controlled crying with him as we know that reflux isn't disturbing his sleep.

Last week when he was weighed he wasn't even 6 kilograms. We started him on solids a little earlier than the other two (only two weeks!), to help him get a higher calorie intake. Hopefully with having some solids, being able to keep his feeds down and being a happy chucker, will help him be more content during feeds and he'll start to make some big gains.


Auntie Becky lent her Jolly Jumper to us. Linc has been having a great time bouncing around.

A visit from the Shields family

On Tuesday afternoon Becc, Brise and William made the 3 and a half hour trip from down south. William did so well in the car and slept the whole way up. He's laughing heaps now and seems like he's already lost his newborn stage. The kids love their new cousin. Little Alex would ask Becc (in his own way) where he was when he wasn't in sight.


It was great having them stay, they were great company and a great help. We headed to Lactos Cheese Factory one day.


We also visited to The Makers Centre in Burnie. Little Alex loved playing in the Cat machine. Luckily when it was time to leave, he didn't throw a tantrum like he did at the Cat Open Day.

Amongst the outfits made out of paper.


Becc and Brise got the kids some Jelly Barff. The kids were so keen to have a bath that night! Linc didn't join them in the bath as he still hates baths.

On Thursday they headed home. Maddi asked why they didn't stay lots of nights, but understood when we told her they had come on a little holiday.

Cradle Mountain

On the Queen's Birthday holiday we headed to Lake St Clair National Park. We all rugged up and we were hoping to see some snow. We were missing Eden, Aaron, Noah and Jared and Becky and their kids.


We dressed Little Alex in a snow suit. He looks so funny all padded up. Maddi named him 'Bubble boy". It was Big Alex's and the kids first trip to Cradle Mountain so it made it a bit of an adventure.

Little Alex walked most of the way and I was hoping it would make him sleep well. Unfortunately he didn't get to sleep till about 9pm that night.


Maddi has been asking for a long time to go to the snow. There was snow on the mountain peaks and patches up high but none close enough for us to touch. We all boarded the shuttle bus to go on the Dove Lake walk. It was a tight squeeze as we sat the kids on our laps to fit more people into the bus.

It was a gorgeous day with hardly any clouds.


Lincoln was very content being so close to his Dad. He could sit in the front pack all day quite contented if we let him.

The kids had such a wonderful time together, and all looked out for each other. They are such little explorers and would stop and look at different things. They all had a taste of ice. Jalen thought it was a race and raced ahead of us all.


We thought that perhaps we would make it right around Dove Lake, as it was supposed to take about two hours but made it about a quarter of the way. It was a good distance for the kids to make. This was the point where we got to.


Chloe and Maddi held hands most of the way. Chloe said that there were bears around and wanted to find some. Maddi got quite cross with her and said "there's no bears in Australa!"

The view from one of the rocks was amazing.

Packed in the bus on the way back to the carpark. Such a memorable day for us all.

Football Day

On Saturday we headed to the Hawks versus Crows game at Aurora Stadium. Maddi went to Chloe's house for the day and Alex went with Uncle Jared and Auntie Becky for the afternoon. Before we left Maddi asked if I was going to miss her, while I was at the game. She told me to take a photo and make up some sad music while they got their photo taken.

When we got to Aurora Stadium we saw the King' van. As we queing up to park we honked and reved the engine at them. The parking attendant got really worried and thought we were after the King's with roadrage!

It was Lincoln's first game at the football, and he absolutely loved it. I think he mainly enjoyed having one on one time with us and loved being held for 4 hours straight! Everyone seems to take a special interest in babies, so he loved all the attention from he got from all the other fans around us, he kept giving them smiles and grins.


For the first half of the game he slept peacefully.

At the start of the 3rd quarter he popped up all bright eyed.


We had the same seats as last year on the Gunns Stand. Usually it's good as you are covered by the roof when it rains. But this time I was wishing we were out in the warm sun. It was a beautiful winter's day, but quite cool in the sun.

The final score was the Hawks 124 and Adelaide 77.

A while ago we decided to all go out for tea while Chrish was down. We all thought the Casino Buffet would suit us all best, so we headed to Links Restarant, after the game. We had a booking for 21 people. I didn't realise there is so many of us! I don't think it will happen again as we'd perhaps have to book out most of the restarant next time with all the kids that there are.

Maddi had a great time at Eden and Steph's playing with Chloe and was inseparable from her the whole night.

Our kids got into the food, as they do. Little Alex enjoyed the fondue so much that Uncle Eden had to pin him to the chair to save him spreading any mess!

The kids had a great time playing together, but we had to keep reminding them that it was eating time and not playing time. They thought the restarant was a great place to play.

Afterwards we got some photos of course. The Papparazzi were out in force.

William's Blessing

On Sunday we were privlidged to be in attendance for William's baby blessing. He was blessed by Brise. It was such a lovely blessing with some wonderful blessings that are in store for William. All of Brise's family came as well, which made it special as all of William's family were there except Gina and Damien, who we all missed. It was so lovely to see Becc and Brise as parents. They are so calm and patient.



We met William about a month ago and in that time he has grown so much. He is catching up to Lincoln in size and is gaining weight very quickly. When we arrived in Hobart on Thursday night he even managed to give us a big smile and is interacting already. Lincoln and William were even having their own little 'conversation' at one stage. Babies just don't stay babies for long these days!