Love, bubs and life on our little farm

What a year! Its been such a wonderful year with lots of eventful happenings. I tried to think of some lows and the best I could come up with was Spech's saga with his foot. And really that isn't such a big deal - he is healing up and I am still riding him and getting ready for competitions in early 2009 so all is well :)

As for the highs - well to experience my first pregnancy, that was pretty amazing. To have a huge baby bump with a little one kicking around and hiccuping was an emotional and thrilling time. I will always look back on the memory of Jase and I and the bump with lots of love, we were so excited and scared and amazed. Its an amazing time in a couple's relationship and I hope with all my heart that the lovely ladies that I know, that are finding this road much longer and bumpier than they ever should have to, get this experience in 2009.

I also had the full on experience of going through labour. It was definitely memorable and emotional - I couldnt have done it without Jase by my side. And the best part is the wonderful ending - that feeling of seeing Elka for the first time and having her placed so warm and tiny on my chest is like being on top of the world.

Of course, 2008 is most memorable for being the first 6 months of Elka's life and of Jase and I being parents. I thought it would be the hardest thing I would ever do but its been the easiest and most natural. I feel just like myself still - like nothing has changed but so much has..

2008 also involved a number of promotions for both Jase and I in our careers. We are both doing fantastically and we have gone from poor students to being very comfortable with money in a short couple of years. I have been awarded my second research grant which was quite an acheivement and I have enjoyed experiencing materity leave. I have kept a good balance of work/life by maintaining contact and meetings with my work, as I love my career and the nature of science is that time away is very bad for your career prospects. Writing a grant whilst caring full time for a three month old was certainaly memorable!

I am so proud of Jase - he has made some amazing career advancements and his abilities and performance in interviews continues to astound me!

We have had a good year of rain on the property and have enjoyed having full tanks and dams. We have worked on hard on the drainage and landscaping and are slowly but surely improving the place. The gardens are looking great considering there was barely a plant here when we moved in two years ago.

I was very pleased to get back into my horseriding and competing. Even juggling a newborn, I managed to get fit enough to get back to competitions and we even won some!

We have been reminded of how blessed we are with lovely friends and family. So many made the effort to visit and share our joy in Elka. Our house has been filled with love and laughs with all the visitors. My aunt and cousins visited from Canada which was lots of fun. We enjoyed a lovely trip to the Sunshine coast as a big crazy family.

I am excited what 2009 will bring - me going back to work part time, Elka turning one and learning to walk and talk. We are hoping to get away on a holiday, possible start extending the house and I am looking forward to further competing Spech in dressage. Whats more we are most likely going to have some more exciting news to share in 2009 ;) I cant wait!

Pregnant and ready to pop


Our little 2008 arrival


Back competing in dressage, 11 weeks after giving birth.. and we won!!


Being a mum!


6 months old and a beautiful happy bub!

On the 27th of Dec, so at 6.5 months, Elka's first tooth appeared. It is the bottom right and its so sharp! She was quite sooky and grabbing at her head a lot the days before. It is just a little tiny bit sticking out at the momement but I could tell this morning that it had increased in height since the day before so it seems to be well and truly on its way!

She is almost crawling too. She scrambles with her legs and arms and tends to get places. She is also lifting her bottom off the ground and rocking a little on her hands and knees.

We have had a gorgeous holiday down at Caba at the beach house. It was bliss to just spend time with Elka and Jase. We hit the sales in a big way and all got lots of lovely clothes. I stocked up on work outfits so at least I can feel more professional even though I have a theory that my brain has turned to mush! Its only 8 weeks or so until I go back to work - gulp!

Now its back at the farm to work on more landscaping and enjoy having Jase home for the rest of the week. We have nothing planned for New Years which is a first for me and I am really pleased. I would love a quiet one for once!

What a beautiful Christmas it was. Both our families seemed to meld together well and shared Elka nicely. Elka was a star. She unwrapped her endless presents and played with every single one. She loved the attention and the love from the enamoured Grandparents. The food was delicious, the drinks flowing, the lights sparkly, the carols playing on the CD player and the weather cool.

I felt so lucky to have our families there in good health. I felt so blessed to have my beautiful little daughter. And as always I realised just how wonderful my darling husband is.

And on the totally materialistic front, did I get spoiled! I cant even start listing how many beautiful gifts I was given but the stand outs were definitely the little blue bag from Tiffany's, containing a lovely bracelet from my gorgeous hubby



Some new Gucci perfume


A Oroton wallet


Two spa pamper packages (mmm facials, massages and even a spa day) and the list goes on... More importantly I was so pleased at the presents I had bought everyone else - they all seemed to love their gifts. A good day for all of us. We are a very lucky family.

As if that wasn't enough, we hit the Myer Boxing Day sale and bought lots of nice work clothes - I got into the Tokito sale and got some great stuff for going back to work..

I am quite blissed out today as we have the house back to ourselves and we are preparing to head down to the beach house for a few relaxing days. It will be nice to rest after the hard landscaping work we have been doing (I will post the pics. And its nice to know that our yard is really starting to get there and that we can take a break with it looking so nice. Bring on the beach and shopping!

Happy holidays to everyone xoxoxo

Just a quick blog as I don't think I have mentioned that Elka has started saying "words" - well sounds but hey her first one was Mum, which is evolving into Mum-mum-mum and Mama. So cute and she says it to me which makes it so special.

The other morning, Jase was holding her and she looked over at me with a big smile and then said "Mum" straight to me. Made me tear up instantly - just beautiful!

We are still working on getting her to say Dad - currently if Jase says Dad-Dad to her, she just smiles and blows raspberries at him. Which is pretty cute too!

I love her little voice, I could listen to it forever.

We are back from a hectic eight day road trip covering about 2400 kms. Fun times with a 6 month old bub! Although I truly cant complain as Elka is a dream baby who endured up to 8 hours in the car a day and only really cried once. And that was our fault as we left her bunny comforter in the back of the car rather than with her in the car seat and we weren't too keen to stop in the middle of pouring rain on the Newcastle/Sydney freeway to retrieve it.

She didnt get thrown too much by the daylight savings, the long day drives, the port-a-cot, the bright light in peoples guests rooms and the endless faces and arms that wanted to coo at her and hold her. I think I found it far more trying than she she did ;)

We visited both of her Great-grandmothers which was lovely, we saw Jasons parents and we stayed with some of our best friends and met their new bub. We also visited lots of random friends and got to introduce Elka to everyone. It was an important trip - not a holiday for us as such but a trip that we needed to do :)

But its sweet to be home. We came home to evidence of a nasty storm - our driveway is ruined yet again at drain crossing and our verandah and study had evidence of flooding. The gardens were overgrown and the grass approaching knee high out the back - yes we were only away 8 days - crazy stuff! So after some hectic hours this afternoon in 35 degree heat (a far cry from the cold we endured in Canberra bbbrrr!, the grass has been tamed and the house and animals restored to their usual states.

Now onwards to Elka's 6 month needles tomorrow, the farrier coming to hot shoe Spech in the morning, we need to find a real xmas tree, complete the xmas shopping, host a xmas party, celebrate my brothers bday, the drains are in desperate need of finishing and did I mention we had 50 sleepers delivered today to continue work on our loooooong retaining wall!

Oh and we are hosting xmas for both our families in 7 days - arrghhh!!!

I couldnt resist blogging Elka's first Santa photo!

I have been very patient waiting for Jase to start holidays so he could be there too and it was worth the wait! I got a little teary waiting in line - especially as Elka was all excited by the other children and was squealing and hiding her head into my shoulder in pleasure. It was a lovely moment.

Bubs doesnt turn 6 months for another week but today we headed across Brisbane to the Wesley Hospital (grumble!) for her check-up. I was very pleasantly surprised that a lovely friend I made in my Mothers Group was the appointment ahead of us. Since they were running 45mins late, we had a lovely catch up and the bubs had a fun play!

Elka is now 7.7kg and 67.5cms long. The paeds kept saying over and over again that she is a very good baby and was very pleased with her. He had a quiet giggle at how orange her skin is from all her pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot that she eats. I have introduced non-orange foods but the orange ones are still the favourites.

She is so bubbly and happy at the moment - lots of smiles and squeals. She has started huffing and puffing instead of giggling. She screws up her nose and her top lip and huffs - its very funny. She loves to bury her head into my shoulder and be coy at people. She makes friends with everyone - staring and grinning at them until they acknowledge her. I cannot get into a lift without making a million friends thanks to her!

She had her first swim in a pool the other day - she wasnt too keen but she loves to splash in her bath so I am sure she will take to it. She sits really well now - can sit for a long time totally unassisted. She worms around quite effectively but doesn't seem to have any understanding of crawling yet (thankfully!). She rolls and worms all around her cot now and I never find her where I left her - quite frustrating when she is meant to be sleeping, sigh!

She is eating her solids really well and has a big appetite. She breastfeeds so quickly now - much more exciting things to be doing instead! She loves taking her water in her sippy cup now. She gets excited and all four limbs wiggle and trash around - she definitely smiles and laughs with her whole body. She is still fascinated by the cats - she loves to reach out to pat them and often screams at them in excitement.

She still sleeps well - although th days sleeps can get cut a little short (ie 40-50 mins rather than 100-120mins) when she does her wiggling rather than sleeping thing. She however sleeps like a log at night - 7pm (with dreamfeed at 10pm) all the way to 7am (I do hear her wake at 5.30am-ish but she just chats away and then goes back to sleep.

I am loving this age - she is a little angel and I just love spending all day with her!

Its been pretty damn hot the last week. I have been putting both our main air conditioner and Elka's nursery air conditioner on most days, despite my moral and environmental objections to air conditioners (cant stand how wasteful people are locking themselves in hourses with air con blasting. Side note - yes we do have air con but our house came with the 5 air conditioners, we didnt install them and we rarely use them.)

But anyway its been stinking! And for those our us without air cons on this farm must resort to other methods to cool off - for example the water bowl ;)

Too good to not share and pretty healthy as a bonus!

1 cup of SR Flour
1 cup of chopped macadamias
1/3 cup of castor sugar
2 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of honey

mix flour, macadamias and sugar. Add water and hony and mix. Knead into dough and divide into two logs and press down a little to flatten. Bake 150 degrees fan-forced on a tray for 20 mins till golden and firm. Cool and reduce oven to 130 degrees. Cut logs into 1cm slices. Bake slices on tray again and bake for 15mins. Cool.

Yum!

We had to find a decoration that is unbreakable as my rotten cats knock our Christmas tree over every year and have smashed every nice glass ornament we owned!

So this fitted the description perfectly :)

Today I am grateful for my Mum. Its her birthday today and I am looking forward to having a nice family BBQ to celebrate this afternoon.

My mum is an incredibily strong yet vunerable person. She wears her heart on her sleeve and puts herself out there for things she believes in and people she loves. She is my inspiration as a mother myself - if I could be even half as selfless and loving as my mum has been, then I will be proud of myself as a mum.

My mum has cared and nursed people in our family that have needed support and love and I have seen her be almost consumed by the pain and grief of nursing her parents until they passed away. She is now a tireless koala rescuer and puts everything into saving these poor sick little animals.

She has gone without to make sure my brother and I have eveything we have ever wanted. She has given so much to help me achieve my dreams of owning a property and competing horses. She still drives two hours up to help me at competitions, which is gorgeous and reminds us both of the "old" days of my teenage pony club years.

And last but not least, she is now the proudest grandmother I have ever seen. And everyone else gets to see it too as she carries around her digital photo key chain displayer and makes everyone look at the 50 photos of ELka on there!

I am very grateful today that I get to take my beautiful daughter and my amazing husband to celebrate my mother with her and my family.

I always love the hot or not lists in magazines.. so I think I might start doing my own whenever the mood strikes :) Of course it is just for me - I am quite sure my "hots" are most definitely not everyone elses!

HOT
Being mistaken for quite a bit younger than 27 twice in 2 weeks
Elka making a noise that sounds just like "Mum" :)
Getting to spend my Mums bday with her
Myer at the moment - loving the discounts
Looking forward to getting my hair done


NOT
Elka wandering around the cot when she is meant to be sleeping, freaking me out with where she ends up!
Spech throwing two shoes in two days and destroying his newly reconstructed hoof - sigh
The heat at the moment, I hate having to have the air conditioning on, it feels so wasteful.
Thinking about all the stuff I have to pack for Elka to go on our road trip holiday -arrggh!

I have been a little unexcited about Christmas this year so far. Basically Jases holidays have had to be moved to December rather than January and we have to take our roadtrip now. Which means we are crazy busy and are barely concentrating on Christmassy stuff.. by the time we get back its already very advanced in the month and it will be very rushed to get ready for the huge family Christmas we are hosting (have a baby and family will flock to stay - hehe sort of like Joseph and Mary probably felt ;)

To add to this, my family tradition is to always have a real xmas tree.. and I dont think that putting up the tree now and then locking it in the house in the sweltering heat whilst we are away will result in a very pretty tree for all the visitors! So we are holding off on the tree :( (for now)

So to cheer myself up, I put up some other decorations and my little fake tree. Thankfully Elka is still not too mobile so I dont have to baby proof much. This year I have decided to go a little more subtle - its not very in your face but I love dressing the house up regardless :)

Inspired by the lovely Simone's blog :)

Highlight those things on the list that you have done..

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited The Great Barrier Reef.
5. Stood under the stars in the outback, the real outback – think Uluru.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to the Gold Coast’s theme parks – anyone, you take your pick.
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sung a solo.
11. Bungee jumped, jumped out of plane, been paragliding or hang-gliding, hot air ballooning – you get the idea, you’ve been hundreds of metres about earth in a seemingly flimsy contraption.
12. Visited Melbourne.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Had a child. Raised a child. Worked with children.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Been to the Snowy Mountains. (I’d say climbed Uluru, but the Aboriginal custodians would prefer you didn’t.)
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Visited the Brett Whitely studio in Surry Hills, Sydney.
20. Slept on an overnight train or bus.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Been packpacking.
23. Taken a mental health day.
24. Been buried in sand with just your head and toes sticking out.
25. Held a possum, kangaroo or koala – or any other native Australian animal.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Been in a fun run.
28. Been on the Blue Mountain cableway.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Played, or watched, summer cricket.
32. Sailed, kayaked or canoed our beautiful waterways.
33. Seen the Daintree.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Visited an Aboriginal settlement or mission.
36. Learned a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Toured the Sydney Opera House.
39. Tried rock climbing (indoor or outdoor), abseiling or just simple bushwalking.
40. Visit Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art.
41. Been to the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
42. Sunbaked at Bondi.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Broome.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone fishing.
49. Seen Tasmania’s old growth forests.
50. Been to the top of Q1, on the Gold Coast.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Driven the Great Ocean Road.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Norfolk Island.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Guide biscuits.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma.
65. Gone jet boating.
66. Visited Port Arthur.
67. Bounced a cheque.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Australian War Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Federation Square.
74. Been on the Murray River.
75. Been fired from a job. (well redundant)
76. Travelled, or climbed, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Three Sisters at Echo Point, Katoomba.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited St Mary’s Cathedral, in Sydney.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Been to Hermannsburg.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited Parliament House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life. - sort of
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Saved a pet.
95. Been to the site of the Eureka Stockade.
96. Swum in The Whitsundays.
97. Been involved in a lawsuit.
98. Owned a mobile phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Read an entire book in one day.

Time for an Elka update, she is now over 5 months and is a very happy little settled bub at the moment. She is now eating three meals of solids a day - rice cereal and pear or prunes for breakfast, and then three cubes of variations of pumpkin/sweet pot/carrot and two cubes of pear or apple for lunch and dinner. Her weight gain has slowed however - she was still only 7.4kg when I had her last weighed. I need to take her again..

She is still sleeping like a trooper - 2x 2hr and 1x 45min sleeps during the day and from 7pm - 7am (well she wakes about 6.30 but just talks to herself!) at nigth with a 10ishpm dreamfeed.. Next step is start moving the dreamfeed forward in an attempt to phase it out, but since her weight gain isn't the greatest I am not in a rush to drop a milk feed at this stage.

She can sit up quite well now, although she tends to lunge for toys and face plant quite easily so I prefer to be there to hold her up! She is also worming a little, pushing herself along on her tummy and is very good at doing 360's. She is very good at rolling from her back to her tummy and basically does it everytime you put her down to play on her back! She also does impressive push ups when she is on her tummy and is getting little biceps - very cute! I guess she is builing up her strength for the next step - arrgh crawling! I am in no rush to have her mobile, I must say!

She has discovered that her hands are very useful and loves to wave them in front of her face wiggling her fingers and looking amazed that they are hers. Cracks us up! She has also started grabbing at our faces when we are carrying her - touching and pulling at everything. Likewise, her feet are new playthings - she loves to hold them and pull them up to her face. Just today, she started putting them in her mouth. She also plays on the playmat by grabbing the toys with her feet.

She loves to sit on my lap and read her board books. She has learnt to turn the pages, which is just beautiful. We were impressed at how clever she was to learn that! The cats, particularly poor Ferdie are her favourite things - she watches them in preference to any of her toys. She loves to stroke their fur although it does somethimes end in her pulling it. She screams at them in high excitement which of course scares the cats right off!

She is starting to display some "stranger anxiety". I have noticed her burying her head into my chest at times when people try to give her eye contact and when I handed her to my mum the other day and dashed away for a few minutes, she was inconsolable. However, she is still flirting and smiling with people out at the shops - seems to be as long as I am with her it is OK.

Quite awhile ago now, we bought her an activity centre that has a little stool that rotates around the toy table. She loves it - particularly the little piano. She bashes away on the keys with a big wide mouthed grin. She is pretty wobbly but she can push herself around it to reach all the different toys.


She had her first paddle when we went to Cabarita to celebrate my Dad's 60th bday. It was a huge hit as you can see from her happy face.