Runny Noses & Family Celebrations

Well it's been hectic the last week or two. Though on the mend now, Maeghan has been dosed with a cold, getting tummy aches from the expanding diet and to top that off - teething as well. Amongst all of these complaints, we've had various family social activities to attend. The first of those was the wedding of my cousin Daniel.


Being a Chinese wedding the ceremony started earlier in the day to allow time for all of the rituals that needed to occur throughout the day. Thankfully we didn't have to attend all of them, but it did involve several outfits for the day. Here is Maeghan dressed for the morning, her cheeks are all rosy from the teething & her nose is all red from the cold.

My Grandmother loves the opportunity to cuddle with the great-grandkids.
This photo was taken at the reception. Maeghan was only awake for the first hour or so, but it was long enough to show her off in her cute little Chinese dress that was given to her at her Christening.

The second big family event was the annual celebration of Chinese Easter at Rookwood cemetry. It's Chinese tradition where the whole family pays their respects to our ancestors. All the graves are cleaned up and decorated with flowers & food. We all sit around folding up gold paper into little bullion shaped bundles, which then get burnt to provide our relatives with their yearly allowance. These days, they also get cardboard mobile phones, shoes & a new suit or two. We all take turns to 'chin chin' and pour wine as a drink offering. Here is Dad is taking Maeghan through the routine. Afterwards, we have a great feast of roast duck, suckling pig and dumplings. It's really a great day. I'd love to think that in years to come, my decendants would celebrate my life in the same way.

Sydney Royal Easter Show

Every year at Easter, Sydney plays host to the Sydney Royal Easter show. It started years ago as a way of bringing the country to the city. They run all sorts of "Best in Show" competitions ranging from cows, pigs, fruit cakes etc... They also have loads of rides, concerts, exhibitions and show bags. It's a massive event.

This year we took the kids in for the day. I also went on a separate day with Podger where we were competing in the Agility Dog trials.





The nursery farm is always packed with kids and not just the animal kind (he he he), so we started there first. Elissa enjoyed chasing after anything fluffy & wanted to know if was okay to touch it. I'm pretty sure that most of the animals in there had to go through some sort of temperament test to check it's tolerance at being poked, prodded, pulled & yanked from the thousands of toddlers over the two week period. I have no idea what Isaac was up to... Susanne had her hands full chasing after him. Maeghan was happy on my Mum's lap. With a little cup of food, all the animals were happy to do the drive through option with Mum & Maeghan sitting on the hay bale.

After a painful 1/2 hour sitting through the Dora the Explorer show (I'm sure that we're not the only ones in the world exposed to this rubbish) we then attempted to bribe the kids with a bag of fairy floss while we had a look through the arts & craft pavilion. I think we managed about 30 minutes before they got bored.

I think one of my favourite displays every year is the District Exhibits, showcasing the farming efforts of the different regions around NSW. My explanation to Elissa, as a way of getting her excited about what we were about to see was that we would see giant pictures made out of fruit & vegies. Well, it's more impressive in real life. Anyway, this was my favourite display this year.

It's hard to describe how major this show is every year, though as a kid, I remember as being much bigger than is probably is. We managed to get through the day and hopefully, won't need to take the kids back for another few years.

Then it was Podgers turn. The dog agility trials were being run a few days later so with Maeghan spending the day at Nanny & Poppy's house, myself & Podger made the trek back into the show to exhibit our 'skills'. It certainly wasn't best run we've ever had, but it was a great day. Unfortunately for us, the show dogs had been in that ring all week so there was loads of food & other interesting doggy smells going around. I think there were people in the crowd that actually laughed at us when Podger stopped for a sniff. Well, if you can't win, you might as well get a few laughs along the way.

Professional photos

You might recall that we had a photo shoot with Maeghan a few weeks ago. Well, here is a selection photos that were taken. They are really beautiful shots.

Is this the end of Summer?

We've had a busy week. Derrick has had a touch of the flu & to prevent passing it on to the baby & myself has kept his distance from all baby duties this week. Thanks I think? I haven't gotten sick yet, but am exhausted from caring for two kids. Now I have a quiet night at home with a glass of wine. The baby is in bed, Derrick is at the pub making up for lost time over Lent & I am actually really enjoying myself at home on the couch. Is that wrong?

Well, Easter might be early this year, but in true form the weather has also changed and the wet weather has come just in time for the long weekend. From memory, it was just as wet last Easter as well. The weather in the last week has been hot. Low 30's and we've been in the pool just about everyday. Maeghan is loving the water. The little pair of swimmers that I got for her at the start of summer are well & truly too small for her. I've been hesitant to get a new pair thinking that at the rate she is growing, there wasn't enough swimming weather yet to justify it. As a result, we've had a little nudie baby in the backyard. She doesn't seem to mind.

New milestones this week. Maeghan hit the 5 month mark. I'm amazed at how quickly the time has gone, at the same time, I find it hard to remember what life was like before she came along. New tricks - well the rolling over has been happening for a couple of weeks now, but now it goes in both directions. Back to front & now front to back. As you can see from the photos, she is almost getting up on all fours. She is really trying to get the knees up, they are just not quite there yet. It's scary & exciting to see that it won't be long until she's actually mobile.

The other new trick, which has only really happened today it that she is now mostly sitting up. I wouldn't leave her alone, she still has a tendency to topple, especially when trying to reach for stuff, but there is a definite amount of stability there that wasn't there yesterday. Amazing how it all just clicks. They do say that all of the physical development starts from the head down. As the head & neck develop strength, it then moves down to their arms, stomach and legs. Ever since the rolling over has begun, she has certainly spent most of her time on her tummy, which has helped to built more strength. Everything else just seems to be taking care of itself.

With this all of this extra physical ability, I suppose it's natural to need a bit of extra energy. They say that solids should start around about 6 months & there are signs that the baby shows when they are ready to start. Well Maeghan has been keenly sucking on wedges of fruit, madly watching & reaching for food that's going into my mouth. So does that mean that she's ready for solids? Not sure, but we decided to test the waters. We tried some rice porridge tonight. I think that maybe 1 or 2 spoonfuls even made it into the mouth.

I think that's most of the news for this week. We're off to the Sydney Royal Easter Show next week, which is a massive event held at this time every year. I'm sure there will be plenty of news to come out of that.

Happy Easter to all.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Today we celebrated St Patrick's day in Sydney style. We all hopped on a train into the city, watched the parade and then chilled out in Hyde Park to the music of Damien Leith and U2 cover bands. Yes, there was also plenty of Irish Dancers. The parade was "interesting". Lots of counties were represented, even if they were just lads in jerseys walking down the street. We did enjoy the seeing Irish Wolfhounds. They are huge animals!

Maeghan and Derrick were both kitted out in their Irish Jerseys and really looked the part.


The parade started off with St Patrick waving at everyone from a felted green van. I believe they actually ran a competition leading up to the parade for Sydney's best St Patrick look alike. Well, you can make up your own minds on the quality of the competition.

Maeghan enjoyed the parade, but then it was her first ever & she doesn't really have anything to benchmark it against. It was a really good atmosphere and everyone seemed to be in pretty good form.

Giggles & Hissy fits

Lots of more little things happening these days. We're seeing some of the different emotions start to come through. We've always loved the happy moments, but let's face it, there are other emotions that are almost as much fun. It is cruel to think that these little hissy fits are kinda amusing? I'm sure the reasons are serious enough affairs for Maeghan, I mean, who else wouldn't get frustrated when the little toy won't fit in the mouth.



We do love the giggles though. Even I can be funny in the world of Maeghan. If only being funny was as easy as saying 'boo'. Although, Isaac laughs at that too. I guess I should be happy that at least the babies find me funny. I'm sure that won't last forever.



That's it for now. Though a quick note... Happy Birthday Peter. See, I don't need to rely on Derrick anymore.

A face lift for Umina

After a lifespan of approximately 20 years, the house at Umina has been getting some much needed repairs of the balcony. Dad, Derrick & John have spent a couple of weekends risking life & limb hanging under and over the balcony. It's a good thing that none of them are acrophobic. It's a fair drop from the balcony down to the ground.

I'm not sure who in the trio had taken on the role as OHS* officer, but there seemed to be a shortage of safety harnesses on the job. I suppose this is why they went up without us women, we would have only nagged them about silly things like... life preservation!
Their scaffolding efforts look like something you might find on the streets of a third world country. Though, in those countries, it would probably look a bit more stable.

Derrick contemplating life? Not sure, but it really is a very long way down.

Once the joists underneath had been replaced, the planks and the railing around the house could be replaced. It's not a pretty site, but with the growing number of little people in the family, we needed to fix it sooner rather than later. For a job that has needed to be done for quite some time now, nothing motivates Dad quite as much as his grandkids.

There's probably still another few weekends worth of work to be done, but now that it's started, it shouldn't be too hard to get the job finished.

* OHS - Occupational Health & Safety. (Am not sure what it's called elsewhere in the world, but I'm sure they have them everywhere. Who else would tell you that you need useless things like safety glasses that fog up & render you blind. As long as you don't lose an eye)