The latest news...

I must admit, I'm getting a bit slack with keeping the blog up to date. The weeks are just flying & I can't believe it's June already. Most of our days are fairly routine, it's easier that way. We have a nice little network of Mum's & bub's that we meet up with reasonably regularly. I'm back at work a few days a week now, so I'm going to blame the extra workload for my slackness at keeping the blog up to date.



Maeghan is getting big. I don't mean to repeat myself every blog, but there's a reoccurring theme here. It is inevitable that each week, growth is her biggest achievement. Vocally she's starting to develop a bit more. I'd like to say that she's starting to say 'Mum' now, but I think it's just a bit of a coincidence. She's getting her "mmm's" going and then it's usually followed by a whinge, which sort of sounds like she's saying 'Muuummmm'. I keep trying to teach her to say 'dadadada' when she's whinging and 'mum-mum-mum' when she's happy. It's all quite theoretical though - she's not really saying anything decipherable - it's all just a bit of noise at this stage.

In the photo above, she's enjoying the staple Australian breakfast of choice, Vegemite on toast. This is usually quite messy, but delicious all the same. As much of a pain that it is, I have started to let her have some finger food from time to time. The dogs are very good at coming in and cleaning up the mess afterwards.


She's got the waving thing happening now as well. It's not quite on cue, but in the right mood, she does know what it means when we ask her to wave. We're teaching her some Irish as well. Along with the wave, we've been saying 'Hiya, Hiya'. Maybe that will be her first real words. The actions used for waving also doubles up for splashing in the bath, just a different context.

We had a swimming lesson last week, which she loved, but there was lots of splashing involved there as well. It's pretty cool actually, by the end of the class, Maeghan was happy to do an assisted jump off the side of the pool & dunk her head almost fully under the water. I'll probably try to keep getting to the local pool every few weeks, just to keep the water confidence up so that when summer comes around she's ready to start enjoying our backyard pool again.

There's no crawling yet. Maeghan has just started to move from the sitting position & reach forward to the crawl position, but she's not actually mobile yet. I'm happy with that, at least I don't have to start chasing her around or keep the floors too clean yet.

That's about all the news for this week. We have a long weekend next weekend, so we're going to head down to Canberra for the weekend. I'm sure there'll be some more exciting news to write about then.

Go the Swannies

Last Sunday we took Maeghan along to her first ever Swannies game. AFL and Cricket are the only two common sports that both Derrick and myself both enjoy & the AFL is the only sport that we both support the same team. Usually, it's me cheering on the Aussies & Derrick will go for anyone but Australia. The only exception is when Australia are playing the English in the cricket & then he is stuck because he won't go for either team.

After a fairly average start to the season, the swans have finally had a decent win. Maeghan was more interested in chewing my scarf than what was going on in the game, but I'm sure that if we subject her to enough football in the early years, she'll get into it eventually. She has no choice really.

Daddy's Little Girl

No matter how grizzly the afternoon has been, seems that when Derrick walks in the door home from work, Maeghan turns into a happy giggling little baby. She is physically getting much stronger & loves to be thrown around a little bit, as long as there's an empty tummy, we don't mind either.

New tricks since last time? Ummm... she's really trying to move about now. Maeghan will quite happily throw herself off your lap to reach for something on the floor or the coffee table. Maeghan is just starting to get up on all fours. It's a slightly assisted move, but once there, she's now strong enough to hold the position. Another assisted move is the push along the floor to get something. If I push my hands against the feet, she's now learnt to push back and make a bit of distance.

Maeghan now has two teeth! On the bottom. The first one turned up about 2 weeks ago & the second one came a week later. We had a few rough nights while they were breaking through, but once they were through she was grand.

I'm told by others that Maeghan looks like she has had a growth spurt. Apparently she's really looking older as well. I guess she feels bigger, but I can't tell. I weighed her last week & she was about 9kg, so she's certainly not going hungry.

This sunday is our first Mother's Day. Derrick needed a gentle prod to remind him & then a few not so subtle hints to point him in the right direction for what Maeghan might be able to get me.

By the way, Happy 30th Pamela!!!

ANZAC day weekend

We're now on the other side of the Anzac day long weekend. Every year we have a public holiday to commemorate those that have served for Australia. Since being united with his old Army unit several years ago, Dad has become an active participant in the Vietnam Veterans association and as such had decided this year to march in the Anzac Day Parade.

Dad was very excited. He's a proud veteran & Anzac Day is good opportunity for all the boys to get back together for a chat and a beer after the parade.

Although the weather has been a bit dodgy lately, we all made the trip into the city to cheer on Dad. The parade goes on for hours. I don't think there are any WWI veterans left, but there are still a few WWII diggers around, with plenty of other wars fought between then & now. Although the parade started at 9am, Dad didn't march past until after 12pm. As such, we had to find ways to amuse the kids. With Isaac, this means drip feeding him treats in between chasing him up & down the footpath.














Eventually Dad's Battalion marched past. We all waved our flags, cheered and then high-tailed it to Pitt St for lunch and a spot of shopping. It's not a great photo, but he is tucked in there on the side.


By the way, Happy 14th Birthday Shauna for last week & Martin for the 5th this week.

Pictures for Granny

This is just a really quick post - just thought we'd put a few cute pictures of Maeghan up for her Granny. Now that the weather has cooled down a bit, she's finally been able to wear the cute little green dress that she was given at Christmas.

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.