Pre-Christmas Update

Yeah - I know, it's been a while since I've added anything new to the blog. Mostly it's been the busy routine of work, house stuff, Christmas parties etc etc... It was only when a friend asked for a recent photo of Maeghan that I realised it had been a few weeks since I had even had the camera out.

So.. I've made a special effort this month to take a few photos and put together a blog entry.

This month has seen the emergence of an even cheekier little girl. She's really comprehending what we are saying to her... and really deliberating NOT doing what we ask her!! One of her latest tricks is to stand at the Christmas tree until I notice her... wait till I tell her 'no touching'... and then grab a decoration and make a run for it! Squealing the whole time.

We also have a little princess on our hands. Talk about girly girl... headbands, hair clips, brushing her hair, pretending to put creams on her face... and oh my goodness... her obsession with shoes!!! If she's not bringing you her shoes to put on her, she's carrying around someone else's. This morning she was getting so cranky when she was putting her foot into one of Derrick's shoes and trying to walk, it kept falling off. Sometimes I'm sure I see elements of Derrick's short fuse coming through.

She's really started to get into the Wiggles. I assume that they've infiltrated Ireland as well. She pulls out her little lounge and sits down, mesmerised by the TV. Not sure if this is a good thing, but it does give me the 20 minutes I need to get dinner started. Thanks to the influence of Isaac, she also loves Thomas the Tank Engine and shrieks with excitement when she sees it on TV. The two of them fight constantly over the little trains. At this stage Isaac is a bit bigger so he usually wins, but Maeghan is getting quite tough so give her a bit of time & I'm sure she'll be giving it back to him as well.

It's a tough life Maeghan has. Chilling out, kicking back in the deck chairs. It's one of her favourite spots. Must take after her father. A little bit too young to chill out with a beer in hand as well.

Derrick has been busy around the house. The pool filter blew it a few weeks ago, so the pool has turned a lovely shade of dark green. In the process of digging out the old filter to install the new one, he's come across a red belly black snake in the backyard. Not known to be an aggressive snake, but still, I wouldn't want to step on one. I don't think it would tickle.

The mini has also been blowing serious puff's of black smoke out the exhaust and back firing all over the shop. As a result, Derrick has been on peddle power for the last month. I suppose amongst all of the other jobs around the house, it might get looked at over the Christmas break. He did try to work on it for a few evenings, but when the noise of it woke up the baby next door, there was no choice but to leave it till there is time on weekend.

Walking and getting into stuff!

Well Maeghan is now walking. Although she had been taking steps for a little while, I would say that she really starting walking about a week or so after her birthday. Now, there's no stopping her. She's a very busy little beaver these days. Lots of things to pick up and move to somewhere else. The magnets on the fridge are a popular attraction. She's quite partial to the dog food in the laundry as well. Now that she's worked out how to get the lid off the bucket, it's not uncommon for me to catch her in the laundry playing with the dog food. I must get better at shutting doors behind me.

We are getting very excited about heading back to Ireland next year. We booked our flights on the weekend so it's official, we can start counting down the days till we get back.

We had a few uninvited guests in our pool last week. I found a few ducks swimming around back there. They were lucky that the dogs aren't big water fans otherwise they might have had a pretty short swim. I thought it was really cute until the next morning when I found a few deposits they left on the side of the pool.

One year on... already!!!

One year old already. Where do I start with a review of the last week. It's been one long week of celebrations that started with the return of Derrick from Ireland. With Derrick's return came a massive bag of presents, just for Maeghan. There were so many cute clothes to put away for Winter next year. She will probably be big enough to wear some of them for our trip back in July next year.



The day of Maeghan's birthday started with the shredding of paper. The paper and the box got a little bit more interest than the toys inside. Besides all the clothes that were brought home from Ireland, she got a Little People stable set, a couple kiddie lounge chairs, dolls, musical instruments... more toys... more clothes... we need a bigger house!!!

We did have a bit of a birthday party for her. It was a "Bee's & Butterfly" party. There were a dozen or so kids there, most of them with wings or antennae on. I have to say... Maeghan looked adorable in her little butterfly outfit. There were a lot of snaps taken, so I'll just put a heap on them on the end of this blog.

Maeghan seriously stood at the table and ate 3 or 4 cupcakes in a row. They were only mini-cupcakes... but still! I think she enjoyed herself. I was quite proud of my first ever birthday cake effort. We didn't stay up too late the night before getting everything ready for the party. Derrick was on balloon duty, Susanne & myself were on the cupcakes.

This used to be a white top. This is the sight of a child that has had a great time at her own birthday party. I've been a bit slack with the blog lately. I will make sure I get another one up soon enough, there are lots of new photos to put up. Derrick is threatening to do a blog on his trip home... might happen. The local news these days... well Maeghan is on the verge of really walking. She's been taking a few steps for a few weeks, but she's now getting a lot more confident. Today she walked about 4 metres. Her preferred mode of transport is still crawling, but I would say within the week she could be really walking. She's actually launching herself into a walk and then when she falls, she just continues in a crawl.

We have a few 'words', if you know what she is trying to say. She will sort of say 'hello'... which sort of sounds like 'woe'. She says this as she holds the phone to her chest? She will say 'bye' and 'ta' and 'dat?'... I'm sure in her mind, she is saying a lot more... we just haven't quite translated them yet.

We're really excited about the trip back to Ireland next year. Have been looking at all the flight details. We will hopefully be over for about a month, so it should be plenty of time to catch up with everyone. BTW... Congratulations to Jenny & Paul, we're very excited for you!

Thanks to everyone that sent gifts home to Maeghan.

Sydney Marathon 2008

Well, the weeks of lonely sunday mornings home alone with Maeghan while Derrick put a few miles into the legs have all been leading up to today... the Sydney Marathon. The weather yesterday was 30+, which is hot. The forecast for today was supposed to be cooler, which it was, but still hot when you're running on a black tarmac road. I think the air temperature hit about 26 degrees. The result of this polite weather chit chat was that it made for fairly hard going running in the race today.


After 3 years of spectating the marathon, I've got the routine down pat. The only difference this year was that I had a little tag-along in the name of Maeghan. After an early start, we dropped Derrick at the start line at 6.30am for a 7.15 start. Then it's off across town to the 10km mark to wait for the runners. The good thing about the point that I camp at, is the runners go past about 3 times as they work through the course.


At the first sighting, we were camped just near the drinks station. Maeghan was having a great time crawling around & exploring. The only problem was, she was also interested in chasing all the empty drinks cups being thrown around. A strong chance of being trodden on if you crawl onto the track. At the 10km, 15km and then 20km mark, Derrick was still looking fit and on track for a sub 3.30hr time. After the 3rd sighting, we high-tailed it across to the finish line with Maeghan catching a quick nap in the car on the way.

Expecting around a 3.30hr time, we were there at about the 3.15hr mark to cheer Derrick on. 3.30 came and went. Then 3.40... then I'm thinking that maybe I missed him run past, which I have done before. We decide to wander around to the recovery area to see if we could find him. We did, though he hadn't been cooling down for about 10mins as I thought, he had only just crossed the finish line seconds after we turned our backs. Seems that the downside of marathons is that on a bad day, the legs can also cramp up pretty badly and you have push through the pain and hope that you can recover enough to finish the race. Well he did it, with a time of 3 hours & 44 minutes. Well done Derrick, we're proud of you.

Maeghan was so proud of her Daddy that she volunteered to help with the recovery session by giving Derrick a free back massage.

Well that's the marathon for another year. I think there's some crazy talk starting already... something to do with the Canberra marathon in March, but I'm sure there's a lot more work to be done before we get to that.

Our 1st Father's Day

Well, today is Derrick's first father's day. Maeghan "helped" me write on a card and cook a nice breakfast. We also gave Derrick the day off his weekend chores while I cleaned his car for him... but more on that later. Maeghan was chuffed at getting to play in the mini, it's only marginally bigger than her toy cars inside the house.

Then we were all over at Mum & Dad's for dinner to celebrate Father's day. These day's Maeghan is following and copying everything that Isaac and Elissa do. Isaac is not too keen to share his things just yet, but that doesn't stop Maeghan, the two of them are continuously snatching things back off each other. One of Elissa's favourite games is getting us to 'make' her little people talk. It's insanely hardwork for us, but I figure that I'm also helping to develop her negotiation skills by making her work for my co-operation.

As penance for letting the dogs stay in the back of the mini during an Agility trial yesterday, I spent the morning vacuuming the dog fur out of the car. I might have gotten away with it, except that the dogs also made themselves comfortable on the front seats as well, so there was dog hair everywhere. Gemma's not old enough to trial yet, but Podger made up for it with a bit of success in the ring. He managed to win two of his events, but only after we had an incident on the first run of the day. It had been pouring all morning and when he got to the table, where he's supposed to sit & stay, he decided it was a nice dry spot to do a #2! How embarrassing!! He was disqualified of course.

10 Months and still growing...

Do you like my knee pads?

When did all the thousands of toys in this house suddenly become so uninteresting. When did the remote control, mobile phone, stereo... speck of fluff on the floor and anything that's not supposed to go in the mouth become so appealing. I caught Maeghan in the laundry this week eating the dog's food!!!



What are some of the things Maeghan can do these days? Well, she certainly has a much better understanding of what we say to her now. She loves her books and will go and choose one for us to read to her. There are definitely a few books have a preference over others... and if you are trying to read one to her that is not of interest, it is quickly pushed away with a flap of the arms. We're getting lots of kisses and cuddles now, the teddy gets kisses and cuddles and the dogs will happily lick Maeghan's open mouth as she tries to give them kisses as well... YUCK!



We're having a lot more bumps these days. That happens when the confidence outweighs one's physical ability. Maeghan has started to free stand a little bit as well. Mostly when she's distracted by something else. I think the record is about 20-30 seconds, but usually it's much less than that. The crawling has been getting much better and faster. My kitchen drawers are no longer safe, the dishwasher when I'm trying to unpack it, I've caught her in the bathroom getting into the bottom of the shower... the list goes on. I'll try not to be soooo slack with the blogs, but no promises.


Happy Birthday to Patrick.

Sunday sporting endeavours...

We had our own little prequel to the olympics today. This morning Derrick ran in the Sutherland to Surf race, which is 11km, mostly down hill. Easy... I've done it once, don't need to do it again. Maeghan and myself froze while we waited for him. After dropping Derrick at the start to warm up, we drove down to the finish line to cheer him on. We were expecting a finish time around the 44min mark. Somewhere in between saving Maeghan from launching herself off the barrier, saving the kids next to us from being grabbed at, saving the camera from being chewed on... we waiting around for nearly two hours at the finish & then missed him as he crossed the line. Hmmmm... maybe next time.
















From there we were on our way to Michelle & Ryans for a BBQ and the Chiew Family Wii play-offs. No-one told us we should warm up before getting stuck into the Wii, nor that you can throw a shoulder out playing that game. Though not particularly talented, fair to say we were enthusiastic. I won't be surprised if we're all a bit stiff and sore tomorrow. Doubles tennis is a very serious affair. Michelle & Ryan had the advantage of being the home team & beat all of us... just. Maybe next time...

I can get it...

Maeghan has a new nickname... "Wriggley". There's nothing safe anymore, nothing that is off limits and everything is get-able. If I want it, I'll just launch myself at it. Someone will catch me. See.. if I reach over, right on my tippy toes...

Nearly got it... just stretch a little bit more...
Got it!!!

Now you see me... Now you don't.

(don't worry, I did catch her... just)

ps... Happy Anniversary Mammy & Daddy

Maeghan at 9 months

There's not much news to speak of. It's winter, it's a bit cold and generally not our most active time of year. Maeghan has started to crawl a bit. She's not very good at it or particularly fast yet, but at least she's a bit happier these days. She's much less frustrated playing on the floor because at least she can get around a bit more. Given the choice of standing or crawling, she'll take standing anyday. In fact, she's far happier if I help her walk around than leave her on the floor. The only time she will actually actively work on her crawling skills is if I leave the room & let her fend for herself. If I'm in the room, she just wants me to help her stand and walk around. I'm kind-of her launching pad.

The little clip here includes two of Maeghan's favourite past-times at the moment - standing at the coffee table, grabbing at whatever is in reach and blowing raspberries. There's also a little video of her crawling efforts.

Since I've been pretty slack these days I've missed a few birthdays.

Happy 5th Birthday Amber
Happy 2nd Birthday Molly
and Happy Birthday Jenny

Weekend projects.

What's going on these days... well, we've been quite busy with the usual weekend projects. It's 8.30pm on a Monday night and Derrick is currently up in the roof finishing off his weekend task of insulating the roof. We put up with a cold house last winter, but decided we were not going to go through the annoyance again this year. My little weekend project was completed at 4.30pm yesterday afternoon, thanks to the assistance of my Dad. I spent saturday afternoon digging up a corner of the garden to plant a vegie patch. As soon as Dad got a whiff of my efforts he turned up on Sunday with a load of dirt in the ute and thankfully helped me turn my patch of upturned lawn into a garden. So far I've planted various forms of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, red onion, broccolini, rocket and wombok(Chinese cabbage). The only thing left to plant is some rhubarb. Now the survival of the garden is purely based on my ability to keep the dogs at bay.

Maeghan is doing really well. She is getting quite mobile these days and is getting quite good at moving in every direction except forward. She's getting up on all fours, doing 360's on the floor, pushing backwards and getting incredibly frustrated that she just can't get everything that she wants to. The above photo is Maeghan's effort at crawling. The arms and legs are working hard, but she's just not going anywhere.

We had a real mother/daughter moment last friday with both of us at the hairdressers together. Maeghan had her first professional haircut. It was starting to look really scraggley as there were all the really long original bits sticking up all over the place. This was just a tidy up and now it can start to grow a little bit neater. This photo in the bath is pre-haircut.

A weekend in Canberra

Although the Queen's official birthday is actually in April, here in Australia, we
have just celebrated it with a long weekend in June. April is an inconvenient time to have another public holiday. We already have Anzac Day and the Easter holiday's in April. It's an awefully long winter if we don't have at least 1 public holiday. Truth is, no-one really cares the reason behind the holiday, we'll just take what we can get. Regardless of the reason, we decided to pack our bags and spend the weekend down in the Nation's capital, Canberra.

There were a few mandatory places of interest that we needed to visit. Parlament House and the War Memorial were among them. Surprisingly they were both pretty interesting.

There were theories behind how we planned our weekend. We left very early on Saturday morning so that Maeghan would sleep most of the way down there. Naturally she only slept 1/2 an hour of the 3 hour drive. Then we thought we would tuck her up in the pram to have a sleep while we took a tour around. Well, of course she cried and cried until we lifted her out of the pram. She didn't sleep at all on the drive back to Sydney either. Cheeky girl! Luckily she still slept well at night so at least we got a good night's sleep too.

And when Maeghan got bored with sitting in the pram, she hitched a ride up on Derrick's shoulders. The view was much better up there.


















There were a lot of really cool things down at Canberra that I didn't expect to find. The Old Depot Markets were a little bit like Sydney's upmarket Paddington markets, but a lot less crowded and a lot less pretentious. We tried to go to Questacon, which is a really interactive Science musuem, but it was mobbed with kids so we gave it a miss. Instead, we hired some bikes & went on a ride around Lake Burley Griffin. We had so much fun. Maeghan was really good. The bike helmet was too big & kept going down over her eyes & it was late in the day with not much sleep, but we managed to ride for the hour without too much drama.

As you can see from the photos, we're all reasonably rugged up. Canberra is in the depths of winter now & is generally a fair bit cooler than Sydney. Well, when I say that it's in the depths of Winter... obviously not an Irish Winter. The daytime temperature was probably around 13-15 degrees.



Of course, we had to do a drive by of the Embassy of Ireland. It wasn't the most exciting looking Embassy of the lot, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Though when we were driving around & saw some temporary fencing around a building, we expected the worst & thought that would be typical. Luckily it was the construction site next door.

The surprise highlight of the trip was a visit to a place called 'Cockington Green'. It's basically a display of minature villages. It was really well done. There were little scene's set up in each display, each with their own subtle humourous storylines. Football fields with streakers, working class villages in England, with dogs lifting their legs on unsuspecting farmers, sunken boats for sale. It was quite cute. I think when Maeghan is a bit older, Canberra will be a really great place to visit

Anyway, till our next exciting adventure...

PS. Happy Birthday Stephen for the 3rd & Happy Birthday Annette for the 15th June.