Over the Weekend

A barbecue Saturday evening.

A nap for Ben. He has a hard life.
My first walk down to the beach, post delivery. Felt good. Ben enjoyed a nap. I enjoyed a cup of coffee.
And poor Annmarie got sick.

Reenactment

We have had this picture of the three of us on our refrigerator forever. Taken when Annmarie was a little over a month old on Photo Booth for the Mac.

(Taken January 27, 2008 - with Annmarie)

We knew we had to try and re-create it and Jamie happen to be wearing the same shirt yesterday. Ha!

(Taken October 29, 20011 - with Benjamin)

Ben :: Two Months

TWO months! Our Bruiser weighs in at 6 kg or 13 pounds! He's huge. He drinks heaps of milk. Luckily, now in the morning and afternoon he can go 2.5 to 3 hours between feeds and then at night he wants them closer together. He is typically down for the night at 10:00 pm, wakes at 3 or 4 to eat, up at 6:30 am and then sleeps another hour or two. I spend that hour or two running around like a mad women getting AM ready, myself ready and any chores completed. We then start our day.

He has really changed in just the last week, he does a lot more 'talking' and there are more smiles. He's also easier to sooth.....meaning he just doesn't scream in your ear for no apparent reason. He was starting to worry us there for a bit. I even pulled out the baby books. And I think it just comes down to; that Annmarie was pretty much an Angel baby and went with the flow, whereas Ben is a little more touchy and needs a little more back patting. But, he has been a lot more easy to figure out the last week and hopefully this will continue. Those first six weeks where hit or miss. We are also getting into our own rhythm of things and that feels good. I can give myself a little pat on the back for being able to take care of two kids.

I joined a Mom's group this month. We started giving him a bottle, not a huge fan, but he'll drink it. His naps are becoming a little predicable - 3 to 4 a day. He still has awesome rock-star hair and has lost a lot of it on the sides.

By no means are we letting him cry it out right now. But there are have been instances wherein I am dealing with a Annmarie crisis and I'm unable to deal with her while trying to settle a crying baby. So Ben ends up in his cot - with a hang in there buddy, I'll be back as soon as I can, and when I go to check on him - he's out. So I have been giving him some time or what I like to call - time to work things out. Some times he can work it out, other times he needs my help to get to sleep. We'll go with it for now, but this kid will need some sleep training when he gets a bit older.

Annmarie is my little mama bear shadow and is actually quite helpful. We seem to be over the major adjustment issues we where having (I may need to do a post on that).

It's fun being a family of four. And even though some days are long, it's so special to have a baby in the house.

We love you Ben!

(pics taken over the last 2 days)

Random Pics

I like to call this collection - All the places Benjamin likes to nap other than his cot.
Outdoor cafe. Papoose. The Veranda. The Beach. The sofa (don't worry I was right next to him during this nap).

Silly Annmarie.
Ben just hours after his first shots. He did good - screamed for just a bit. We had lunch at the beach where he took a good nap listening to the ocean (seen above). Then was his normal grumpy self at night.

House

I took some pictures of the house we are in prior to Ben's arrival and a day when Annmarie was at preschool. I also just cleaned, the house never looks this good, especially now.

The living and table area.

Kitchen

Hallway to master bedroom and bathroom. We sleep upstairs.

Our room. There is always always laundry to be folded.

Front door.

Stairs and down below a door to the backyard. Which really isn't a backyard, but more just bush.

Clothes line. I wish I could say I use this, in summer we used it a lot for our beach towels.

A bit of grass. But I'm always afraid of bugs and spiders down there.

Looking up at the house.

Laundry room.

Downstairs area.

Annmarie's room.

Annmarie's view. She has no idea.

Guest room. Soon to be Ben's room.

View.

Guest bath.

Shelving in play area.

View from upstairs veranda.

We got extremely lucky with the location of this house. If it wasn't for Jamie's colleague, who knows where we would have ended up. There are a few a little things that drive us crazy about the house, such as - there is not a dyer vent that goes outside, so we have to open windows and doors then we run the dyer. Drafty windows - I guess this is a big problem in Sydney, everyone we talk to has the same problem. The downstairs gets freezing in the winter, it's great in the summer. And there are a lot of bugs. We didn't encounter too many this winter, but I'm not looking forward to them coming out this summer. Can't complain too much, too bad we'll have to give it up one day.

New Old Jammies

Ben is sporting Dad's jammies. Nana brought over some of Jamie's baby clothes and these jammies are pretty darn cute and comfy cozy. These may be Ben's new favorites.

Here is my little photo shot. I took some pictures below (what a difference), but Ben was not in the mood and the lighting wasn't as good. I also used my 50mm lens, it takes great portraits.