A quick update

It's been a couple of weeks since I've added a post so I thought I'd just put a quick update on. There's no real news to speak of. We've been up to the usual stuff, playing, eating, sleeping, pooing & spewing. Lots of spewing! Usually on me.

It's hard to describe what sort of personality we can see developing in Maeghan. I suppose she's a reasonably tolerant and low maintenance baby. Fairly curious, but I'd say most babies are at this age. Not a real talker, but certainly will have a chat & a chuckle when she feels she has something to say. She doesn't cry very much, mostly shouts at us when she wants attention or food or anything. I didn't even know she could cry tears until she had one of her vaccinations. I would say at this stage that despite how much she looks like Derrick, she has not yet developed his short fuse. Give her time though, she is only 4 months old.

It is incredible how much she does take after Derrick though. The looks & facial expressions are all Derrick. She is still very long for her age, which I can only guess comes from the Curran's side, because the Chiew's do not have any height to brag of. We're yet to see if she gets the Irish freckles. The eye's are still a blue-ish grey. There's no sign of any brown in the eyes, so I assume they'll stay reasonably blue-ish.

Isaac loves to give Maeghan kisses and lays down on the floor next to her. Maeghan loves to watch the kids in whatever mischief they are up to. It won't be long until she is into it as well.

I almost forgot to mention what she can do now. She's found her feet now and is always grabbing them, everything is going into the mouth, but mostly it's her two fingers or whole fist in the mouth. This usually results in another spew. I try to discourage this. It's a bit early in life for her to be developing eating disorders. Maeghan has rolled over a couple of times, but I think she has now determined that it can be done & there's no need to keep repeating old tricks. Despite all of my encouragement she will not roll over again. If she ever has the motivation to do it on a regular basis I'll try to capture it on video for all to see.

Happy family...

Another week gone and more photos accumulate in my files. My amateurish photos are usually the ones that make it onto the blog, but last weekend we had professional photography session of Maeghan. This was thanks to the Resmed Christmas party last year where Derrick won a lucky door prize. The photos were supposed to be taken in a park somewhere around Balmain, but due to the ongoing rain we've had lately they were taken in the warehouse studio occupied by the photographer and bunch of other artists. The lights, camera & photographer were all a bit new for Maeghan so I'm not sure we got the relaxed, happy baby shots we were looking for, but I'm pretty sure there'll be some nice ones in there. I'll put a few up on the blog when we get them in a few weeks.

The dogs have well and truly accepted Maeghan as part of the family and generally behave themselves. Podger doesn't seem to mind that Maeghan gets all the attention that he used get. In fact I think he quite likes having the baby and myself around for the company. This quizical look from Podger is due to a little toy that 'meows'.

6-pack or Muffin Top?

Well, 16 weeks today and baby Maeghan is steadily growing bigger and stronger everyday. Okay, most people who have kids would be familar with the changes that babies go through as they develop, but we're really enjoying the learning experience and we get a real buzz everytime we see something new. This week's new thing is her learning that not only do her hands do stuff, she can actually control her legs too! She is very deliberately moving the legs, kicking toys and just generally putting a few more of the pieces together.




Here are just a few nice photos that we've taken over the last few days. As you can probably tell, there is no shortage of photos, the hard part is deciding which photos make the cut and make it onto the blog.

I've realised that there are very few photos of Maeghan & myself. I've spent most of my time behind the camera and not in front of it. The only way to fix it was to turn the camera on myself & take it myself. The legs are getting stronger and lot more of the daily activities need to be spent upright. We get a whole lot of attitude if Maeghan is not sitting up to see what is going on. This is especially a problem at dinner time. The struggle I go through getting her to turn her head away from the action to have her dinner!!! Despite this, as you can tell, she's not going hungry. Maeghan is now a healthy 7kg.

Learning to do 'stuff'

The changes are happening before our eyes. Everyday Maeghan is getting bigger and stronger and learning how to do more and more. I think her cheeks are getting chubbier by the day and the rolls in her legs multiplying at an equally rapid rate. We're getting the occasional chuckle and her chatter noises are becoming more varied. Her eyes are still blue-ish grey colour and although the hair is still dark, the eyebrows seem to getting a bit lighter.

Here is a clip of Maeghan playing with her book, trying to get it up to her mouth and just learning how to use her hands. You can just see the concentration on her face. This is hard work.

As usual, the cricket is on in the background. She has no choice, she is being conditioned early in life to becoming a future cricket fan.

The Jolly Jumper gets the occasional work-out. She hasn't yet worked out that if she kicks her legs she can bounce, but she seems to enjoy just hanging there.

Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens

Way back on the 9th of January, the last day before the Grandparents returned to Ireland, Dad & myself took Peter & Annette up to the Blue Mountains for the day. After a fairly hectic holiday and the anticipation of a long flight home, we didn't want too big a day, just a nice relaxing drive to enjoy the scenery.

We started with a cruisy drive up through Windsor and Richmond, past the Defence Forces airport and up through Kurrajong where you can hear the Bell birds sing as you start the climb up into the mountains. We did make a quick stop along the way at a bakery in North Richmond to pick up morning tea. There were soooo many good looking cakes, that I had to remind Annette that there were only 4 of us and we really couldn't eat everything. Around about 10am, we found a little roadside park where we could stop for a cup of tea and a few cakes. There was a shop on either side of the road. From where we sat, they just looked like little roadside shops. From the time it took Annette to explore them, you would swear they were major shopping centres. Turns out they sold locally made pottery. Need I say more?

We made it to Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens. There were plenty of protea's and grevillias & the usual suspects you would expect to find around a botanical garden's. We enjoyed a lovely stroll through the garden's... oh yeah, except for the highly dangerous skink lizards that were basking precariously in the sun along the footpaths. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch up in the restaurant. After ordering our slightly modified steak sandwiches, each customised to our own personal preferences, we sat back to relax after a hard morning's walk. I hate to be high maintenance, but we couldn't help but to send our sandwiches back to the kitchen when they arrived minus the steaks. They got everything else right. Overall, we did have a great day out.

Cute photos

There's no real purpose to this entry apart from putting up a few nice photos of Maeghan and the family.

Maeghan and her Granny

Grandad making a somewhat unsuccessful attempt at waking Maeghan up for her 10pm feed. We put her 'I've got Irish roots' t-shirt on specifically for our web hook-up to Ireland. Not much point really, the resolution probably wasn't good enough to get the whole effect, but we had fun and we don't need much excuse to turn anything into a photo opportunity.
Podger looks on with great intent as Elissa eats her chocolate star on Christmas day. He's a great opportunist. Any crumb that hits the ground usually disappears within microseconds of landing.


I think this is a look of disapproval. I believe it had something to do with Isaac doing something she wasn't too happy about. Podger is still waiting for his opportunity.

Pool time

Well, you've seen the unhappy face from our first swimming experience. We've had a fair bit more success since then. The first swim was around mid-November & I reckon the water temperature was in the low 20's back then. Now, after a few weeks of fairly warm weather, today the thermometer in the pool was reading 30o. So it's not such a shock on the system when you get in now. The trick is to gradually splash the water down her back, so when I finally dunk her, she's already mostly wet. Today we had her floating on her back like she's having a bath. She actually starts to kick her legs and relaxes right back into the water. We'll have her doing laps in no time.


We took these photos not long after Christmas when Mum, Michelle, Susanne and her gang came over for a swim one day. It was sort of an impromptu pool party. For once Elissa had plenty of people to play with. The game on this particular day was to try and steal all the noodles from Michelle. As usual, bribery was required to get her out of the pool when the rest of us had had enough for the day.

Elissa sneaks a kiss from Gemma under the table. I could write a whole separate entry on cute kids and puppy moments.