Steam coming from my ears!

We've been having a few 'concerns' with the day care centre recently.  Just found out that they have never been putting any nappy barrier cream on Mia when they change her nappy!  They said that if we didn't leave any cream in the draw with the nappies then they didn't put any on. I could not believe it.  They never once communicated that with me.  My understanding was that if we wanted any 'different' cream putting on, then we should be leaving it in the draw with the nappies.  

I'm so annoyed with them.  I wonder how many other children at the nursery don't have any cream put on either.  I have never heard of such a thing.  All babies have barrier cream put on, I have never spoken to anyone who doesn't put it on.  So we have been leaving cream for them to use on Mia for the past week, but Mia came home in a boys nappy the other day - so obviously they weren't using her cream or her nappies at that time!

I am having a chat with the centre director tonight.  I have other concerns as well because there seems to be a lot of casual staff recently.  We don't get introduced to them, they don't speak to us and more importantly they don't know Mia.  So I am worried that the standard of care has gone down.  We both went to pick Mia up early last week.  We could hear her crying from outside and she was still crying by the time we got to the gate.  She was sat on the floor with her arms outstretched wanting to be picked up.  I'm not sure what had happened, maybe she had fallen over or had been pushed.  But anyway, one of the 'new casuals' only started to make a move to pick Mia up once she noticed that there were parents (us) trying to get in through the gate.  It was heartbreaking to see Mia on the floor and no one doing anything about it.  I just picked her up and left as quickly as we had arrived.  I was fuming and felt too emotional to say anything calmly to them.  Mia cried all the way home.

They still can't get her nap times right either.  She only had 45 mins sleep in the morning yesterday, so consequently Mia was extremely tired again.   

Anyway, hopefully we'll sort it all out.  I'll probably start to look for somewhere else for Mia to go unless they can get staff who are more permanent.

Mia's vocabulary is really coming on.  She was saying 'paint' yesterday.  And loves 'juice', she says it all the time.  We've had to put a lock on the fridge door as she was starting to pull out the milk and orange cartons, as well as a myriad of food items.

At the weekend, we bought her a little "Dora the Explorer" sofa.  She loves it and sits on it with her teddies and dolls.  She is really interacting with them a lot.   She gives them cuddles, feeds them food, tries to put a dummy in their mouth and gives them her drinks as well.  It's hilarious.

All good manners

Mia can now say 'tissue,' 'thank  you' and 'please'.   She says tissue very clearly, the other two words are not quite so clear but it's definitely a please and thank you.

I've uploaded the photos from when Grandma and Grandad came to visit us on Picasa, so click on the link on the right of the page.

Mia news from the last month

Sorry for the lack of any updates!  I have been so busy recently I just have not had time to update you with the adventures of Mia.

Right, well I’ll start at the beginning and try and bring you all up to date with everything.

Well, no doubt you all ready know about the febrile seizure incident that happened on 22^nd June.  Basically she had a bit of temperature the day before whilst we were at Balmoral Beach with Grandma and Grandad but it only seemed to last about an hour. We took her to the doctors anyway as we were a bit worried.  But whilst she was there, see seemed to go back to her normal happy self, playing with the toys in the doctors waiting room.  The doctor checked her over, and said her temperature was fine.  I mentioned to her about the recent ear infection she had had and that she might be getting an eye infection (there had just been a bout of conjunctivitis at daycare in the week), so the doctor gave me a prescription for some eye drops, but told me not to get them yet – only when and if an eye infection develops.

Then the next day, 22^nd June, we were having a late lunch in Kirribilli and she started to shiver.  I had never seen her shiver before, so we were a bit worried and tried to warm her up.  She just didn’t seem right though.  I thought her lips looked slightly purplish – but I suppose you get that when you are cold.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home and seemed quite lethargic, so I put her down in her cot when we got home.  She went off to sleep for a little while but then didn’t seem to settle, so I brought her into our room and lay down with her on our bed.  I put the heating on meanwhile as I thought it was a bit cold. She went back off to sleep. 

About 10 or 15 minutes later, I sat up and moved some of the quilt next to her back to prop her up, and to make sure she didn’t roll off the bed.  I was just staring at her when all of a sudden she started fitting.  I screamed for Damien and picked Mia up and tried to sort of stop her as I didn’t realise she was fitting at the time.  Her eyes were rolling around the top of her head and suddenly her lips went blue.   I think Sue came in at this point.  Mia seemed to be losing consciousness and I really thought she was dying.  It was horrific.  I felt for her heart to see if it was beating and by this time, Damien had called for an ambulance and was getting advice from the person in the call centre.  I think I even tried to give her CPR at some point, but somewhere in the back of my head I think I remember reading that you aren’t supposed to press too hard on a babies chest and to only use two fingers. 

We were told to cool Mia down, so I took off her socks and her top and I put her in the recovery position as by this point, she had stopped fitting and had started to moan a bit.  She was really sleepy and I think she must have been very frightened.  We all calmed down a bit and the ambulance arrived quite shortly after that.  They gave Mia a little oxygen mask and we were taken out to the ambulance and taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital. All in all it was a very frightening experience.

Mia started to come back to her normal self when we had been at the hospital for a few hours.  The nurses in the A&E ward took her temperature constantly and Mia was put on an intravenous drip but it took four attempts to get the canula in.  So poor little Mia had bruises from the needle attempts on both her hands and on the inside of her elbows.  She was falling asleep by this point as it was about 10 or 11pm.  So she didn’t cry too much.  They also did an x-ray of her lungs and then it was discovered that she had quite a bad chest infection.  So they admitted her to hospital overnight.

We didn’t get up to the children’s ward until gone midnight.  It was dark and everything was very quiet.  We were led to a dark room at the end of a corridor where a little cot was in the room in place of a hospital bed.  We had the room to ourselves thank god.  The nurse gave Mia some antibiotics and we were left to it.  Only one parent was allowed to stay the night with Mia, so I slept on a squeaky sofa bed next to her and Damien had to go home.  I don’t think either Damien or I slept that night.

Monday 23^rd June

Mia woke up early the next day and seemed really hungry, so I called for the nurse and asked her for some weetbix for Mia.  Mia wolfed it down.  Then the hospital breakfast came and Mia had that as well but obviously they only provide food for the patient, so I had nothing to eat, actually I think I had a few bites of Mia’s bread roll with jam – I’m sure she didn’t mind!!

I was due to start work that day, so I had to call up and explain to them what had happened and that I wouldn’t be coming in today.  They were very understanding about it all.

Damien arrived at the hospital quite early bringing some food and drinks with him.  We still needed to get a urine sample from Mia, so she had to be nappyless whilst we waited for her to have a wee (and me catch it in a pot!!) but at about 9am “In the Night Garden” came on the television and Mia was soo excited she rushed to the end of the cot and had a poo all over the bed!  Great. 

We waited for the doctor to come and see us.  He checked Mia over and said that we would have to stay in for another night and that they were just waiting on a few test results etc.  In the meantime, she was to be given antibiotics every 5 hours.  They didn’t know if Mia was contagious so some woman brought Mia some toys as I don’t think we were allowed out of the room.  So we stayed in there all day. 

Then I think they must have decided that Mia wasn’t contagious as some little boy and his mum was put in the same room as us at just before 7pm.  I was trying to get Mia to sleep and it was extremely difficult as there was all this noise going on.  She eventually went to sleep and I went to bed too.

Tuesday 24^th June

After another night of hardly any sleep for me, Mia woke up at about 7am.  I took her out of the room and up to the playroom at the end of the corridor so as not to disturb the little boy in our room.  I chatted to the other mums in there about what had happened to their kids whilst we waited for breakfast to be delivered. There seemed to be a lot of kids who had had febrile seizures and I overheard a doctor saying something about last year loads of kids had flu but this year loads of kids had had really high temperatures.  It appears that febrile seizures are quite common and there is no long term lasting damage from them.

Breakfast arrived and so did the doctors a little while later.  He told us we could go home at 5pm that day.  So for the rest of the day we just played with the other children in the playroom and in the outside area.  They had little wendy houses for the kids to play in and Mia absolutely loved them.  So when we have the outdoor space we will get her a little house to play in.  I went out of the children’s ward for the first time today and went to get me and Damien something to eat and drink.  I had no clue where I was though, as I had not been out of the ward since Sunday, let alone outside.

Since then, things have settled down.  Mia has been fine and is back at day care and I have started my new job.

The girls at the day care centre were really worried about Mia and had missed her.  One of them even told me that Mia was her favourite and had been a bit upset about hearing of her being in hospital.

We enjoyed the rest of the time that Grandma and Grandad were over visiting us.  We spent a couple of nights in the Hunter Valley whilst they were here and Mia enjoyed playing with some ducks at one winery.  We did all the usual tourist things, although I had to work for most of the time they were here, so Damien was the hostess with the mostess.

I noticed last week, whilst I was tickling Mia, that she now has another tooth.  So that makes 13, only seven more to go.  Mia has also just had an eye infection that she picked up from the day care!  So we’ve had to try and attempt to administer eye drops.  Not an easy task with a wriggling toddler who doesn’t want the eye drops anywhere near her!

Mia is also talking a lot more and a lot clearer.  She shouts for Daddy when she wants him to see something.  She said woof woof yesterday when she saw a dog.  She is just learning new words all the time and constantly amazes us with how much she actually understands.  She can say Granny, Grandma and Grandad - although not always very clear but I understand what she is trying to say.  When I asked her "Where's Mia?" the other day in the bath, she pointed to herself.  She even managed to put her own shoe on yesterday.  Also she knows where her nose, mouth, ears, eyes, knees, toes, head, belly, elbow and feet are!  She points to them all when you ask her where they are.  She is becoming more prolific in throwing her spoons on the floor though when she is eating.  We just can't get her to stop this.  I can't think of anything else new that she has done recently but I'm sure I'll let you know when I do!!

Mia getting better

Mia is back at day care today after having a day off yesterday.  She had developed a rash on Sunday that appeared on her chest, back and a little bit on her face.  We were worried and I took her to the doctors yesterday morning.  The doctor seemed to think that the rash was a side effect of the medication she was taking and told me to keep her off day care just to keep an eye on her. Mia actually said bye bye to the doctor today.  It's so funny hearing her little voice. 

Mia seemed her normal self but a bit more of a handful today.  Maybe she was bored and wanted to play with all the other kids at day care??  I gave her a proper kids meal today, fish shapes (bit like fish fingers) and beans.  She loves beans.  Oh and she has developed a new sign herself for the word 'please'.  When me or Damien say "say please" she puts her fist up to her chin.  Not sure where that has come from, but her little signs are always a variation on something I have done in the past.  It doesn't matter what the sign is, as long as she understands it and can communicate with Mummy and Daddy.

I start work on 23rd June!!  I can't believe I have had 17 months off on maternity leave - it will be such a shock to me to go back to work.  I will be working shifts, mainly day and really early morning shifts, so hopefully it will work out with Mia.  We will just have to see how it all goes and how we all adapt to it.  

We're getting excited this week as Gran and Grandad are coming over to visit us!  Can't believe we haven't seen them since October.  It doesn't feel that long because we see them quite regularly on Skype but of course it's not the same as in person is it?  They will be getting lots and lots of sloppy kisses from Mia and plenty of hugs and cuddles.  Mia is getting into hugs I think.  She came up to me yesterday and sort of fell into my arms - I think she was trying to give me a big cuddle.

Bye bye

Mia said Bye Bye for the first time today.  She is also getting over her ear infection that had been troubling her last week.  Her temperature at one stage was 38.9, which is extremely high for a toddler and very worrying.  She felt really hot and all she wanted to do was flop her head onto my shoulder and try and sleep.  Thankfully it was nothing more serious than an ear infection and should be completely gone within a few days.  Her medicine is apparently raspberry flavoured and she absolutely loves it - always asking for more!!

Pass the salt!

We have now bought Mia a little table and chair for her to sit at instead of putting her in the highchair.  She doesn't sit at a highchair at nursery so we thought we would try a table and chair at home as well and see how we get on.  So far she seems to really like it and she hasn't thrown as much food or as many spoons over the side onto the floor.  So at least for me, it is a lot less mess to clean up after mealtimes.  She does get up and wander around the kitchen sometimes though in between courses, but that's fine as she only wanders over to the fridge or cupboard to point at the food that she wants!!  Usually yoghurts, grapes or cookies.

At nursery they are learning more about animals and noises and sing songs every day.  The current favourite is 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' but they do like to sing 'The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round' as well.  

Mia has started to say the word "shoe" and see can say her name as well. She understands far more words though - here's a little list of them:

Elephant; Giraffe; Monkey; Puppy; Shoes; Coat; wipe your nose/mouth/hands; nappy change; brush your teeth; sit down; drink your water/milk; give to mummy/daddy; can mummy/daddy have a kiss; spoon in (makes her eat); more; eat; breakfast; dinner; pushchair; dog; bird; cat; iggle piggle & upsy daisy; mouse; 

When asked what noise does a sheep make - she answers Baa!  And does various signs for different words.

Maracas Heaven

Tooth number 11 has made an appearance

Mia now has her third molar coming through. It must have been causing her a bit of pain last night as she just wouldn't settle and again it was like someone had left the tap on in her mouth! Her top AND vest underneath were soaking and she just point blank refuses to let us change her nappy.  

Mia has had her last day at the nursery that we didn't like, they said they were sorry to see her go because she has been wonderful to look after. There was a little boy at that nursery who just wouldn't leave Mia alone, everywhere she went he followed her apparently.  They cuddled a few times but the carers told me that most of the time Mia just tried to swipe him away!!?  Would loved to have seen all that going on.  

A couple of times this past week, we've gone in to check on Mia whilst she is sleeping and she has managed to get one of her arms out of her pyjamas and then gone back to sleep!  Very odd.  I think she likes undressing but sometimes not so keen on dressing again.  But she loves to put on her coat and shoes.  She really helps me to dress her - well... when she is in the mood for it!

It's mother's day this sunday, so will wait and see what Mia has planned for me!

Five days at one nursery

The good news is that we have been offered that vital fifth day at the day care centre that we prefer so from the start of 12th May, Mia will be going to one nursery for five days a week.  What a relief.  We are pretty happy about that because now she can just get used to the carers and children at one place and stay settled.  

The other place is really beginning to get on our nerves now.  Mia comes home smelling of the place - it's awful.  They still can't get her to eat her lunch and she always seems to come home tired because she has not had much of a sleep there.  They don't fill in the report sheets in Mia's book either, so I never know exactly when she has slept and what she has ate.  I do ask them when I pick her up, but I would like it written down so I can remember as they don't always verbally tell me the times she has slept or ate.  So sometimes she is not hungry for her tea at 5pm, which is frustrating or she is really really tired and we have to put her to bed early, which invariably means, she wakes up early and is really hungry, thereby messing the next day up again!  Anyway, that experience will soon be over. 

Mia has got some lovely new clothes sent to her by her Great Auntie Jan - they are gorgeous.  A lovely pink and brown tracksuit, so here's a little picture of her in it.  

Catching up

Sorry, I've just not had the time to update this for a little while. 

Mia is now quite settled into her nursery routine.  She settled quicker into nursery #2 (the one I originally liked) so we have decided to concentrate on getting her into this place full time.  We have been offered another two days there, so she is now going to go to this one on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  I told the other nursery we would no longer be requiring Mia to attend on a Wednesday anymore, just need the Tuesday, for now.  So fingers crossed a free Tuesday will come up at nursery #2 and she will be able to go there full time.  

We both agreed that this nursery is the nicest, there is more room, feels bright and airy, they do many more stimulating and developmental activities with the children as well.  Also the outdoor area is just for the children under 2, unlike the other place where the older kids who were running around kept knocking the younger kids over.  It's not fair on all of them as the older kids were getting told off and all they wanted to do was play and run around.

The carers seem to have 'got' Mia a lot quicker as well.  Mia won't sit in a highchair at nursery so they let her sit on a small chair at a small table with the older kids to have her lunch!  They think she is quite advanced for her age.  Of course she is!  She was actually eating at this place a lot sooner, she is still not really eating her lunch at the other nursery, so not sure what they are doing with her there.  Also at the other place they don't have any tables and chairs for her age, so she has to go in a highchair.

Mia doesn't really cry that much when I drop her off now and they tell me that she really enjoys herself when she is there.  The carers seem to really like her.  

So I have just been job hunting whilst she has been at nursery.  I've seen a few things that have interested me, so keep your fingers crossed.  At least I have managed to update my CV now and finally have a hair cut.  I've had it all chopped off and my hair is very short now.  Loving it.

We also finally have tenants in our place in London.  They moved in on 16th April and from all accounts it all went quite smoothly.  About time too. 

Oh and Mia now has 10 teeth!  Another molar appeared last week and has grown quite big really quickly.

Oh so quiet

My mum and brother have now left Sydney and have arrived back home in the UK.  When we got back from dropping them off at the airport it felt so quiet at home.  Even getting up the next day, it was really quiet.  Little Mia wasn't able to jump on Uncle Dan's bed in the morning.

Here is a selection of photos of when they were over there.  Click on link below.

Family visit to Sydney

Damien came with me this morning to drop Mia off at nursery no.2.  She started to get a bit upset as soon as we went into the place.  She is getting better though.  When I went to pick her up last week from nursery no.1, they said she had eaten some food and even seemed to enjoy it.  She wasn't as upset and kept pointing to go and play outside.  So hopefully she will soon settle down.

Here's a little video of Mia messing around in the bath and putting on silly smiles for Granny who was filming her.

First day at Nursery #2

Took Mia to nursery #2 today and she burst into tears as soon as I tried to leave.  It was heartbreaking but by the time I had dropped the pushchair off upstairs near the office and had come back down, she wasn't really crying.  One of the carers had taken her off to change her nappy and was singing to Mia to distract her. 

I rang the nursery at just after noon to see how she was getting on and apparently she had only eaten 4 spoonfuls of lunch, had only a 10 minute sleep in the morning (she normally has at least an hour) and wasn't really drinking her milk.  They didn't seem worried though, telling me that it is all normal etc.  I picked up her at 2.30pm and they said she had done really well and had not really cried but obviously was upset most of the day on and off, in between playing with new toys and the other kids.  

When I got there, she was having her nappy changed again and it took a couple of seconds before she realised it was her mummy coming to collect her and then when she did, her bottom lip went and she got a little bit upset.  Poor thing seemed quite relieved I had come for her.  

Mia was perfectly happy on the way home though, playing peek-a-boo with me from the pushchair as we walked home and seemed her normal self when we got home.  Not the clingy Mia we had had last week.  She went straight off to sleep tonight wearing her new pyjamas.

Photos of Mia aged 12 months

Pictures of Mia aged 12 months

Please click on link above to see photos.  I have added link to the list on the right hand side column with the rest of the pictures.

Second day at Nursery #1

I dropped Mia off at 9am again.  I had a chat with the director and she just said it is quite common for toddlers to refuse to eat in a new environment, as it's so different to what they are used to.  

Mia was fine all the way to the nursery, we were singing on the way there. Even when we got inside, she was fine.  She went off to play with some of the toys and point at the other children quite happily whilst I signed her in and got her nappies, cup and hat out ready for the carers.

There was a new carer today who I'd not seen before, she seemed nice enough and paid special attention to Mia because it was her second day.  I left a note with the carers with a list of things about Mia to help them, to help her, to settle her in.  Just things such as nap times, what she understands, notes telling them she can feed herself etc etc.  Just in case they forget this time.  These are all the things that should probably have been discussed at the orientation day but they didn't ask me anything like that.

Anyway, when it came for me to say bye to Mia, she started crying and trying to grab me so that I would pick her up.  The other carer held her and tried to distract her with some toys as I left.  It was tough.  I obviously wanted to go back in and comfort her but once you have said goodbye it is best to go, as it gets confusing for them later on when they don't know if you are going or staying. 

I've just rang them to see how Mia is getting on and apparently, she has only taken a few sips of her milk, didn't really eat her fruit this morning - in fact she spat it out and has not really eaten her lunch again.  They said not to worry but I said that I'll come down at 2pm again to collect her.  I don't think she should be having long days there at first, not until she is feeling more settled I suppose.

Mia's first day at Nursery #1

Well, it was a tough day for us all today.  I dropped Mia off at the nursery at 9am and she seemed fine at first.  I got a bit emotional as I was leaving but Mia didn't cry.  She was stood in the middle of the room, with the other kids stood looking at her.  

I got myself a coffee and came home and tried to relax.  The nursery called me at about 11:30 am to say that Mia was doing really well, had had an hour sleep in the morning and had not really cried much.  But she had refused her milk, refused her plate of fruit and was now refusing to eat her lunch.  I gave them a few tips on what to do but they called me back about 20 minutes later to say that I should come down as they were worried because she had not eaten anything and not really had much to drink either.  

I got there and Mia had her dummy in and was being held by one of the carers outside, waiting for me and looking at the trees.  We went inside and I put her in the highchair and started to feed her.  She was fine, I fed her a couple of spoonfuls then gave her the spoon and she fed herself the rest, in fact she had two meals, the pureed stuff and the proper food.  Then I couldn't find her water cup and realised the carers had left it in the bag.  So not sure what they had been giving her her water in.  

Then the carer said to Mia "Oh I didn't realise you could feed yourself." So maybe she had been trying to feed Mia and of course, Mia wouldn't have liked this and probably would have refused the food.  It's also because it is all new to her and I suppose refusing to eat is the only thing she is in control of at the moment.  The carer kept going on about Mia not having her milk either and she asked if she had it warm.  Mia just drinks milk in her cup straight from the fridge, she's not fussy.  Then I realised that I think they had been trying to give her milk from a bottle.  I had told them she drinks from a cup but they had obviously forgotten.  

Mia ate her banana and then it was decided that I would leave again and come back at 2pm.  This time Mia cried when I left.  I just went to the top of the road and grabbed a coffee and a slice of banana bread to wait the 45 minutes before it was time for me to collect her again.

I got there at 2pm and she was in the office with one of the carers with a dummy in and away from the other children.  She'd been a bit upset again. We left and she slept in the pushchair all the way home and stayed asleep until 3:30pm.

I had been told by other people that some children refuse to eat in their first few days at nursery, but I hadn't thought that Mia would do that, as she loves her food so much!

Orientation day at Nursery #1

Well, today was Mia's orientation day at the nursery that she will be going to on a Tuesday and a Wednesday.  She seemed to be absolutely fine, playing with the other kids in the play area for a bit, whilst I was talked through the things I have to sign when I drop her off and where to put her drink cup, nappies, fruit etc.  I've had to label her clothes, her cot sheet and I even have to write her name on the front of the nappies that I will leave at the nursery for her!

The carers there thought she was a lovely, happy little girl and seemed to take to her.  Mia took to them as well and let them pick her up.  She played with the toys and even shared one of them with another little girl who was about the same age as Mia but who can't walk yet.  The carers seemed impressed with her sharing toys.  

I tried to stay in the background as much as I could, but ended up playing with the other kids as well.  The children there all seemed quite nice, one little boy tried to hug her but Mia wasn't interested.  In fact another little boy actually pushed her over, but Mia was fine.  She didn't cry, just looked at me for a second then got herself up and carried on.  So that makes me feel better about how she'll cope on her own.  In fact when it was time to go inside, the other kids piled up the stairs and Mia just followed, well slowly climbed up the stairs.  She didn't seem fazed by anything.  Just confidently got stuck in!  She seemed quite vocal as well, compared to the other children her age.  

The carers thought Mia was very good around other children, and seemed to think we had spent a lot of time at playgroups but I haven't really been part of any playgroups.  I did do a baby sing and sign class with her and I've tried to let her play with as many kids as I can.  Which is one of the reasons why I wanted her to go to nursery, so that she would learn the social skills that she'll get from playing with other kids.

We spent about an hour and a half there and she fell asleep in the pushchair on the walk home.  She didn't have her usual morning nap as we had had to get there at 10am, so she was tired out.  I met my mum for a coffee and some lunch and we went to the kids playground, around the corner from our flat, when Mia woke up.  

Catch the pigeon

We went for a little drive yesterday through Woolloomooloo, Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutter's Bay, past Darling Point, Double Bay and finally we stopped off at Rose Bay for a look around.  The seaplanes are based at Rose Bay, so we saw a few land and take off in the harbour whilst we were there.  

It was a glorious day and there was a kids playground right near the water's edge, so we let Mia have a little play around.  She chased the seagulls and pigeons and started pointing at the older children, especially the older boys!!  She's quite confident in playgrounds now, and only looks for us every now and again to make sure we are still there but she has no qualms about going over to things she wants to play with.

Today we decided to have a picnic on the beach at Balmoral.  It was more like 'do you want cheese with your sand and crackers?' but still an enjoyable afternoon, relaxing on the beach by the sea.  Balmoral Beach is our local beach and doesn't usually get too busy.   

Believe it or not but this was the first time me and Damien had actually gone sunbathing on a beach since we arrived here in December!!  We just have not had the time as we've been exploring around the Sydney area as much as we can.  

We took Mia into the sea, she was a bit hesitant at first but she soon got round to splashing us.  The sea was a bit cold so she held on tightly and didn't want to be floating too much.  

She is getting used to the sand as well, especially since I taught her how to brush her hands clean, so she wipes the sand off of them all on her own now.  

In fact, she has learned quite a few little tricks now.  She can do a monkey impression when you say the word 'monkey'.  She does the baby sign for 'lights' when the lights are switched on, I think she has also just learnt the sign for 'finished, all gone'.  She knows who Granny is, she does loads of things on command, i.e. give the book to daddy, or drink your milk/water.  

She still loves to help me with the washing and constantly puts all the clothes on her head.  The other day she was wondering around the lounge with her pink knickers on her head which looked like she was wearing a pink beret.  It was hilarious.

Tooth number 9 has arrived

Just spotted another tooth in Mia's increasingly sharp mouth. She was in a particularly giddy mood in the car on the way back from Manly and our walk around to Shelly Beach today. So when she was laughing I could see a little tooth iceberg popping through on her bottom jaw.

My brother has now left Sydney and is in Melbourne with his friends. We've had a busy week so far, showing both him and my mum around the sights of Sydney and the Blue Mountains. We walked around Circular Quay on Saturday and took loads of pictures in front of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Had a coffee at the Opera Bar, walked around The Rocks, had a great lunch in a bar called The Argyle where Mia wanted to get down and explore everywhere. 

On the Sunday we walked around just as much and went over to Woolloomooloo and had pie, mash, peas and gravy at Harry's Cafe de Wheels. We took them to Darling Harbour because it was Easter weekend, and there is always stuff going on over there. They had some sort of Hoopla festival with circus acts dotted around. Mia was more interested in the playground, and a five-year-old girl called Dorothy. Little Dorothy thought Mia was cute!!

The Blue Mountains trip was great. We stayed in a cottage in Katoomba, very close to Echo Point, which is where you get a great view of the Three Sisters. Obviously we took the obligatory thousand pictures of us all there.  

The cottage had a fire, which Damien kept going for us throughout the three days.  There's not much to do in Katoomba or Leura (the next village along) so we just had takeaways and stayed in drinking wine!

The views at Govetts Leap Falls near Blackheath were particularly amazing, well worth a look.  Mia had a great time in the cottage, she even learned how to climb up the stairs!  

Here's a little video of her being silly at the cottage.  

Mia and the vacuum cleaner

Mia's first enrolment

We went to enrol Mia at the child care centre today, the one where she will be going on a Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had a quick tour round, as Damien had not been there before and then we left Mia to play with the other kids in the play area whilst we went off to do the paperwork.  For some stupid reason this is where I decided to get upset!!  Even though we weren't actually going to leave her there today.  Mia was fine, just looking at the other kids and starting to play with the toys they had out on the floor.  To be honest, the toys at this place aren't that great, they were all a bit damaged and old and not very inspiring to me.  

Anyway, whilst we were in the office, apparently all the other kids came over to Mia and a few of them tried to kiss her!!  The woman looking after her said that Mia just stared at them and didn't seem bothered.  

When we came back, Mia looked visibly happy to see us and started to show us the toys she had been playing with and then she clambered over to us.  We carried on playing with her and the others kids to help ease her into her new environment and a little girl came over and gave Mia a little plastic boat.  So all in all I think it went well, Mia just seemed to take it all in her stride, didn't seem that bothered but not totally at ease with it all either.  I suppose we'll just wait and see what happens at her orientation day.  Mia won't be starting there until 1st April now, so that's a bit of relief for us both as we now have time to get used to the whole idea of Mia not being looked after by us during the day.  We didn't realise how hard it would be for us to put Mia into nursery.  I'm sure it'll all be fine after she's been there for a couple of weeks.

I took Mia to the playground round the corner in the afternoon and she enjoyed herself playing with the different apparatus, slides and swings.  She loves the slide, it's a bit steep for her to go down it on her own, so I hold onto her and slide her down.  She laughs all the way down.

Whilst she was playing with some giant abacus thing, some little girl came over to her and hugged her twice!  Mia just stood there, not moving, with her arms by her side and then she pulled a little face as if to say "what are you doing?" and then attempted to push the girl away.  It was hilarious.  It made me think that Mia will probably stand up for herself with the older kids whilst she is at nursery.  Which in turn makes me feel a bit happier about her going to a nursery.

Trainer danger

The good news for me is that my knees are no longer painful, so I don't need to take painkillers everyday just to walk to the shops or sit on the floor with Mia.  So I have bought myself a new pair of running trainers, well the old ones were ten years old!!  

So this time instead of running full pelt to go as far as I can, I will take it steady and just do some fast walking to build up my knee muscles then gradually I can start running again and getting fit.  These new trainers give me great support as well as stopping me overpronating as much when I run, so that I do not injure my knee ligaments again.

I've ordered some name labels and tags for Mia, so that we can label her clothes and cups when she starts at day care.  So I'll take a picture of them for you when they are delivered.  She only had one nap again today, so I think we are going to be gradually losing the morning nap, which means I'm going to have to get up at 6.30am just to have a shower and get ready before she wakes up.

Three jabs for Mia

Mia had her immunisations today.  Three needles at once, poor thing.  She did cry a bit after but soon calmed down when she saw the raisins I had for her!!  She loves raisins.  I had to hold her two little arms and then three women came at her with their needles, one in each arm and one in her thigh.  Damien came with us and he saw her face just scrunch up with pain.  She had the MMR injection and also another Meningitec C and a Hib one as well.  No more injections now until she is 18 months old.

The place was packed with kids and parents.  There was a little play area in the middle and Mia just got stuck in, playing with the toys and interacting with the other kids, she seemed in her element, touching other children and actually sharing toys with them.  What a good girl!!  We could hardly drag her away when it came to actually having her jabs.

Damien also had injections today - his were at the doctors though and were for his trip to Beijing.  He's been complaining of an extremely sore arm, maybe I should give him some raisins too!

Need a shave??

One year check-up

Mia had her 12 month developmental check up today and everything was fine.  She is 73cm tall and now weighs 9.5 kg, so about average.  They were quite amazed with her walking abilities, they said she seemed very strong and stable on her legs.  Everything else with her development is fine, plenty of babbling and attempts to say words. 

I then went over to the childcare centre to get the enrolment forms and the atmosphere there was great.  There seemed to be lots of kids in there and they all seemed very happy.  They were having their lunch, so most of them were sat in highchairs.  So I put Mia down on the floor whilst I continued chatting to the director and she just stood and stared at all the children.  She kept pointing at them and looking up at me as if she was showing them to me.  She seemed quite excited by it all.  Everyone thought she was cute and couldn't believe she was walking, saying something like "She looks too small to be walking".  Then something must've spooked her as she tried to climb up my leg.  So I came out of there a bit happier at putting her in there for two days a week.  There were pictures hanging from the ceiling, so they must've just done some painting (well, scribbling or making a mess).  I love that, can't wait for Mia to start scribbling, playing in the sandpit and generally making a big mess whilst having fun with other kids.  It's just what she needs. I'm sure she'll love it, and I don't think it will take her that long to settle in.  

Day care for Mia

We've managed to get two days for Mia at the child care centre that I really liked and two days at the other child care centre.  So that means I now have to get onto the task of finding myself a job. 

It's going to be really hard leaving Mia in the care of someone else for 4 days a week, but I suppose it has to be done.  She'll love it, when she settles in.  There'll be other children to play with and other toys to 'sort' into piles!!  I hope she eats the food that they give her and that they help her use her spoon.  She will start on her first day on 18th March and then she'll just go for one or two days whilst her granny and uncle dan are visiting then she'll start at the other place.

The Stansfields are back online

Well as the title of this post suggests, we have finally got the internet in our home, so at last we can catch up with the world!  

I have added new photos to the links on the right, so have a look if you've got nothing better to do.  

We have managed to get Mia a place in nursery for one day a week.  Hopefully we will get more days but for the moment, we have just taken what we could get.  So we are going in next Thursday to enrol and for Mia to meet her carers and the other children and then she starts properly on the following Tuesday.  No doubt there will be tears when we leave her there for the day - mine not hers.  It's going to be so strange for me, having had her with me for 24 hours a day for a year to suddenly being on my own with all the time in the world.  I've actually got loads to do around the house, so unluckily for me, I won't be swanning off to look around the shops.  

I didn't think the nursery was that great too be honest, the room she will be playing in was quite small compared to another nursery that I went to look at but they don't have any vacancies.  I'll keep trying though.

Happy 1st Birthday Mia Rose

Mia seemed to have a wonderful 1st birthday.  She woke up a bit late and was a bit overwhelmed by seeing all her birthday presents all wrapped up in the lounge.  She didn't really know what to make of it all but once a few presents were ripped open she seemed to be enjoying herself.  Especially when the drum and drumsticks were opened.  She has had the drumsticks in her little clenched fists at every opportunity today and banging anything she can find.  She loved her little tricycle that her granny bought her as it has it has a flag that she can swish around and a bell to ring and the shop that her other gran bought for her she loves as well, as it makes lots of different noises and there are plenty of things on it that she can push and hit.  She is carrying around her little cuddly kangaroo that her great gran bought for her in the basket of her tricycle along with her new mobile phone and her new shoes.  What more could a little one-year-old girl ask for??

We got to Taronga Zoo about midday and the first animals we saw were the huge giraffes.  They have amazing views overlooking the harbour onto the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.  Mia was really taken with the giraffes - probably because they were so huge.  We felt like we were really close to them as well.  Then we saw the elephants, she liked them as well and kept pointing at them and trying to talk to us about what she was seeing.  She just seemed fascinated by all the animals, it was lovely to see.  We bought a year pass for the zoo, so over the next year as Mia grows and changes, she'll have different reactions to the animals and I'm sure a few will stand out as her favourites.  We watched the feeding of the gorillas. The alpha male was huge, he was a big Silverback Western Lowland gorilla. 

Nearly a toddler

Well, we have got everything ready for Mia's first birthday.  All the presents are bought and wrapped and are ready for two little hands to try and rip the wrapping paper off.

Neither of us can believe how fast this last year has gone.  She has changed so much, she hardly ever crawls now and is toddling around everywhere.  She is a proper little toddler now and is into everything.  We just put up the bookcase yesterday and all ready today, most of the books on the bottom shelves have ended up on the floor and then 'sorted' into piles and some of them piled back onto the bookcase.  So consequently we've ended up with a few tantrums today when I wouldn't let her eat some of the books or 'sort' some of them.  

She is now sound asleep in her cot, hopefully dreaming about the animals she will be meeting at Taronga Zoo tomorrow.

Run Rabbit Run!

Well today Damien and I have taken a momentous first step to us getting fit again as we have started running.  Damien gets up at 6am and does his run then and I go for my run at 6pm when he gets home.  Actually the first run wasn’t that bad, I thought I was going to be hopeless but I ran for 25 minutes and only walked a bit of the way.  I also ran nearly as far as Damien as well.  I think a bit of healthy competition between us will spur us both on to carry on getting fit. 

 

It’s just over a week to Mia’s first birthday and we’ve bought her a few presents already.  We’ve decided to take her to Taronga Zoo for her birthday instead of trying to organise a party for her, especially as we don’t have any family here and don’t know that many people with babies either.  Plus I’m sure she would find looking at animals far more interesting.  Damien is taking the day off work and coming with us. I’m going to try and get a Happy 1^st Birthday balloon to tie onto her pushchair so that everyone knows it is her birthday when we go to the zoo.

Sorting overdrive

Mia’s little sorting phase has gone into overdrive.  Everything she gets her hands on has to be put somewhere and then it is moved to another place and then back again whether it be on the sofa or piles on the floor or in little baskets that we bought for her.  It’s constant. She just keeps repeating it all.  I had all the clean, dry laundry in piles on the sofa ready to be taken into the bedrooms and next thing I know, they are all in little separate piles on the floor and all over the place!  So I left her a few bibs to sort and that kept her happy for at least half an hour, whilst I had my lunch.  She just kept picking them up and then putting them down, it was hilarious.  All the time, she is babbling to herself and she looks deeply serious about it all as if there is some great method behind the sorting.  I just had to video it and couldn’t stop laughing.  I’ll try and post it on here when we get back on the internet.

 

She does it with all the wet washing as well.  I have to hang it all out as quick as I can before some tiny little hands start pulling the clothes off and throwing them on the floor, only for her to attempt to rehang them again!  She loves it.

Posing Mia

Had a great weekend again.  We met up with a few friends and had a barbeque at Bronte Park, just behind Bronte Beach.  It was a lovely day and there were a few other babies there as well.  I think Mia may have been the eldest but she didn’t seem to like it when all the babies were plonked down next to each other, she seemed to want to escape and kept looking at me to help her.  Well she was ok at first as she was having her picture taken and was the only one posing.   Then she got a little worried that I had left her there.  She didn’t mind them all playing with her toys though.

 

I’ve now had a chance to decorate Mia’s room.  I've found some stickers that you put on the walls but they are like transfers, so you can take them off and move them around as much as you want.  They won’t leave any mess on the walls when we have to move out.  So I got a few lantern shapes and patterns in pink and purple.  I’ve also put up some nice lights that I draped around her built-in wardrobe so that gives her room a lovely atmosphere.  It’s the first time I have had chance to actually decorate a nursery for her because in the flat in Finchley she didn’t have her own room and then when we got to the new place in Barnet, we weren't sure whether we would be moving to Australia or not so we didn't want to start painting the walls.

 

Mia is well and truly walking/toddling now.  She just toddles around our lounge, happy as anything.  Often I nip into the kitchen to make myself a coffee and I can hear her coming in following me, and I keep expecting her to be crawling on the floor but she is stood up and walks over to me.  She just seems to have aged overnight.  She is a proper little girl now, I can’t believe how fast this last year as gone. 

Almost bald!!!

We drove over to Sydney’s Olympic Park today.  We were going to take Mia on a bike ride as you can hire a trailer to put her in, but they didn’t have any available.  Her head was too small for the smallest helmet as well, so she couldn’t sit in a seat on the back of one of our bike’s either.  We were disappointed but will just have to take her on a bike ride when she is a little bit older.

 

So we just had a walk around the Olympic Park and its stadiums and then went through to the Bicentennial Park and found a nice little café.  I went to order for us and I was stood in the queue for ages as the staff seemed extremely harassed.  When I ordered the guy asked us where we were sat, so I told him in the corner where that man is sat with the baby.  So he started to write down on our order “Bald man with baby” so I laughed and said to him, “Bald man! Charming, I’ll let him know that!” He looked a bit worried then, but I was just joking with him and next thing I know he’s written down “Almost bald man with a baby”.  I just laughed and literally ran off to let Damien know what had happened.

What no internet

I’m sat in an internet café at the moment because we don’t have the internet at home. Apparently it takes 3 to 4 weeks for the internet to be installed – great. So not only can we only tune in our tv to get one channel, we don’t have the internet either. We do have a home phone at last, so at least we can communicate with the outside world. So I probably won’t be able to update this with Mia’s antics as often.

Damien also dropped his laptop a few days ago, which caused something called the Logic Board to go, which means it is too expensive to fix. He is gutted. The hard drive is saveable so at least we haven’t lost all our pictures of Mia, well we hope we haven’t. I’m sure we’ll found out soon enough. My voluntary redundancy has been agreed and I had promised Damien I would be buying him something, so maybe he dropped it on purpose (only kidding).

Plastic balls to you

Took Mia to a baby play area today round the corner. It’s a soft play area with those plastic ball pits. She loved it, in fact I think she just loved watching the boys playing boisterously in the pit, jumping around. I had to move her quickly out of the way, or else she would have got a foot in her face. She didn’t seem to mind though and hopefully she will be just as boisterous as them when she gets older.

What a walker!

Just took Mia to a nursery round the corner that I am interested in putting her in. I think we both really liked it but unfortunately they don’t have any places at the minute. Mia is on their waiting list, so I will just have to pester them to take her in, even if it’s for only one day at least she gets in there and I can start to look for a job.

The place and the people seem really nice. The room seemed larger and brighter than the other nursery I had a look at and at least with this one I got to see how the carers are with the babies they look after already. The toddlers were being fed at the time, and all seemed really quiet in their highchairs being fed. They won’t know what has hit them if Mia gets a place there, as she is extremely noisy when she eats, either screaming or blowing raspberries or just generally moaning at me to hurry up and get the next bit of food ready!

Mia started to cry when we were leaving as I think she was having fun with the musical bells she was playing with but that set off a little boy called George. He came running towards us crying as we went out through the doors. Maybe he will be a future little friend for Mia – he was only 7 months older than her so would be in the same school year.

Mia has been walking a lot further on her own today. I just have to place her on her feet and let go and she’ll just go off walking, stopping for a bit having a look around and then sets off walking again. So I am classing this as Mia is officially walking now.

I went off exploring the area and shops and found a great hidden little place full of great little shops. It’s great round here, you don’t really need to go into the city. There are plenty of restaurants, cafes, takeaways etc all on our doorstep. Perfect for visitors, so get yourselves over here quick!

We’re not moving again – well for another year at least

We have finally moved into our new place in Cremorne. We moved in yesterday and managed to unpack quite a lot of boxes. Still about a million to go though. The removals guys were brilliant, they unpacked and set up all the bigger pieces of furniture and then we had to do the rest.

Damien had to go back to work today, so I just set about trying to sort Mia’s room out and sort through all her clothes and pack the ones that don’t fit her into a box. Mia did a great job of helping me out, I gave her a pile of about 20 baby grows that are too small for her and just let her get on with creating little piles of her own. It’s a phase she is going through at the moment, everything she lays her hands on gets sorted in piles. She’ll put some things in one place, then others somewhere else. Then she’ll decide they are not right and move them all around again or just throw them all over the floor. So the lounge was full of white baby grows with a smiling Mia in the middle of them all!

Oh and tooth number eight has made an appearance.

Rubbish mummy day

Oh what a horrendous day for me today. For the first time in a long, long time I actually went out last night with my cousin and her friends and got completely paralytic on wine. I didn’t even have anything to eat as I didn’t have time. What an idiot. Had a really good night though. I haven’t been out properly since before I got pregnant I think, I can’t really remember.

I ended up getting the last ferry home to Manly. I have no idea how I managed to get to the ferry wharf, let alone even get on the ferry. Don’t even remember saying bye to everyone. I do remember staggering down George Street, trying to read a text that Damien had sent me, but I just couldn’t focus on it properly.

I’m rubbish with hangovers, so you can imagine what I was like having a baby to look after (well Damien did most of that in the morning, I think I was still drunk) and we had to go shopping for a fridge/freezer today – like I really wanted to be doing that. Oh well, never again.

There’s something fishy going on

Me and Mia went to Oceanworld in Manly today. The highlight there is the nurse sharks. You can walk through a tunnel that goes through the large tank full of sharks, stingrays, turtles and other kinds of fish. Mia just stared at the sharks as they swam towards her, she didn’t really react to them, just kept pointing at them as they swam overhead. One of the sharks was called Mia!!

Mia seemed to enjoy the smaller fish in the other tanks though. She even made a friend. This little friendly fellow kept squashing himself against the glass as Mia got closer and closer to the tank. These fish were more colourful and I think they caught her eye more.

We sat down in the arena bit upstairs and watched the reptile show, which was basically a guy telling us all about Australian reptiles. They got out a baby crocodile for us to touch, but Mia wouldn’t touch it. She kept pulling her hand away. We saw a funnel web spider and a few brown snakes. It was a nice day, just messing around watching the fish swimming about in their tanks.

Video of Mia in the bath

Nursery hunting

I went to have a look at a nursery in North Sydney today – well over here it is called Long Day Care Centre. I didn’t think it was that great. The people were nice enough but they only have two other babies the same age as Mia and I’m not even sure they would be attending on the same days, so she might be playing on her own, which defeats the object of her going to nursery in the first place. It felt a bit strange to be thinking about leaving Mia in the hands of complete strangers. She has never been looked after by anyone other than me or Damien, so not sure how she would take it all.

I was shown around, they even had cots so that the babies can have a sleep during the day. The woman said the carers can see the babies asleep through the window – it just made me feel sad thinking about Mia asleep all on her own in that room. I just wonder what they would do if she was crying and wouldn’t stop?? Does that ever happen and if so, are the parents ever told?

On my way out, I ended up putting my foot through some timber flooring that must have been rotten. It was on the main path on the way in and out!! Wasn’t impressed with that. I only slightly grazed my foot but can you imagine if it had been a child? I had already completely embarrassed myself my making a right dog’s ear of trying to get me and the pushchair through two gates! Don’t ask.

The bus back to Manly took 45 minutes but Mia kept the surfer dudes and dudettes sat opposite us amused with her tongue sticking out trick. They kept doing it back to her and she would stick her tongue out again. We were sat at the front, so the whole of the bus were looking at what was going on.

I meant to say yesterday, whilst we were walking along Manly beach there was a warning of a confirmed shark sighting and everyone was told to get out of the water! Not everyone did though, still plenty of surfers just carried on surfing. I think the shark sighting was just a little bit north from where we were.

Oh and guess what?? Mia has grown another little tooth! So now we are 7 and counting. This one joins the other two gnashers on the bottom. She’s not even 11 months yet.

We spent the late afternoon on the beach at Manly Cove as it wasn’t too sunny for Mia. She was more interested in trying to chase after the seagulls. I put her little shoes on and off she went, I hardly had hold of her. She seemed to enjoy the sound of her shoes scraping on the floor though.

We are going to Oceanworld tomorrow to see the nurse sharks, most of the kids are back at school, so hopefully it should be quiet.

Moving on....this time to Manly

We moved to Manly yesterday. We had to do it in two trips, I have no idea how on earth we have managed to accumulate so much stuff. Damien did drop off some things at the place in Cremorne as well though.

The Manly apartment is great, we are just opposite the Manly Ferry Wharf overlooking Manly Cove beach. So Mia and I have been exploring again today. We walked over to the main beach and sat in some shade and had our lunch. Mia loved the breeze blowing in her hair and pointing at all the seagulls.

Just found out that our furniture has cleared customs, so we will take delivery of it on 4th February, which means we get to move into our new place in Cremorne! Yay – at last we can sleep in our own bed and we don’t have to move for at least another year, thank god.

We are now in a rush to buy a fridge/freezer. We went over to the shopping mall in Bondi Junction at the weekend and some bloke in one of the shops attempted to try and hard sell us one, we managed to get a good price from him and then he found out he didn’t have any in stock, so he tried to sell us another one and his selling point was “yes, well this one will be better for you as it has a larger freezer section” ermm yes how on earth does he need know what we need?? We hardly use the freezer, so would probably only need a small freezer section. I think he could see his sale going, as he was getting desperate. Then he was trying to say, well pay today and on Tuesday you can come back in and find out whether we have anymore in stock. What planet was this guy on? Why would we pay now only to have to come back and possibly find out that there are no more in stock by the time we need it? Needless to say we walked away, only to go back to write down the name of the fridge/freezer we liked and he came running back over thinking we had changed our mind. Should have seen his face when he realized we were only there to write down the serial number.

It’s been a long weekend this weekend because of Australia Day on Saturday. It is their national day. It’s the day that 220 years ago the first European settlers arrived in Sydney Cove. There were lots of kids things going on in Darling Harbour, so we went to have a look and watched Spot the Dog singing and Fireman Sam on stage. Mia seemed to like it, we were waiting for Bananas in Pyjamas but Mia was getting a bit irritable and fell asleep so we missed them. We wandered over to the Opera House to see the end of the Tall Ships race; the finish line was the Harbour Bridge. I managed to get a few photos over the tops of people’s heads as it was really crowded with people watching the ships.

There was a fireworks display to finish off Australia Day in Darling Harbour. So whilst Damien babysat I went out to watch the fireworks. It was really packed; I just about managed to find a spot on Pyrmont Bridge to watch them. The Australians certainly know how to put on a good firework display!

New photos

I've added new photos to the list on the right. Have a look if you've got time.

Mia being nosey video

Mia crawling video

Last week living in the City

Me and Mia have done lots of things in the City this week. Whilst Damien flew to Melbourne overnight for meetings, we went to look around Chinatown and had a look at Paddy's Markets but it was shut. So we'll have to come back when it is open.

On Thursday we met some friends at Australian Museum to let the kids play in something called Kidspace. It is basically a play area for children under 5 and it has lots of different areas dedicated to different types of creatures, i.e. insects or marine animals. So there were plenty of rubber spiders, snakes, plastic sharks and crabs lying around. Mia seemed to enjoy herself, so much so that after we'd had lunch in the cafe and everyone went home, we went back up to play. She loved it. There were stuffed animals around as well, but she didn't want to touch the dingos and kookaburra's but she didn't seem to notice that she had been sat right next to a stuffed wombat!!!

We then had a good look around the rest of the museum and Mia was very well behaved as she didn't moan once! There was a skeleton section and some sort of exhibition on that featured just huge images of gorilla's faces. That was quite surreal. Mia pointed at one gorilla's face she seemed to like. We also had a look at the pictures from the Wildlife Photographer of the year competition. Some amazing pictures there.

We are picking up the keys for our place that we will be leasing for a year tomorrow and going around to remind ourselves of what it looks like. We will also need to measure up so that we buy the right size fridge/freezer. We'll probably leave some of our things there but until our furniture clears customs we can't do much there.

We've also heard that until our furniture arrives we will be living in serviced apartments in Manly. They look really nice and apparently it will have views of the harbour. So we are moving there on Monday.

Christmas & New Year in Sydney

Please click on the link above to see a few of our photos we took of Mia's first Christmas and of our New Year here in Sydney.

Mia cruising video

Just thought I'd share this small video with you.

For my next trick

Well look who's managed to stand up in her travel cot! I went to check on her as it had all gone quiet in her room, so I thought she had fallen asleep but no, she was just having a cheeky look around. I hope we can lower the mattress in her proper cot to a low enough height, so that she can't climb out.

Apparently our furniture has now arrived in Sydney but it can take up to two weeks to clear customs. Damien's work is trying to fast track it for us.

We went to the Aquarium the other day. There is a walk through tunnel where sharks swim around you. Mia was fascinated by them. Well, she didn't really show much in her face as she was quite tired but she was staring at them and couldn't take her eyes off them. I'll probably take her back when it is not the school holidays as there were millions of kids there when we went, standing on your feet and generally pushing you out of the way so that they could squash their little noses against the tank windows to get a closer look at all the fish. It was a bit too hectic for a baby and a pushchair. Actually, I could have rammed a few of the kids and their pushy mothers out of the way with the pushchair!

We've got a place to live

The owners of the place we went to view last week have agreed to us renting it for below the asking price! It's in a place called Cremorne and we'll let you know the address when the lease is all signed.

I've spent the day over at another huge shopping mall in Bondi Junction. Mia and I got the train over there - it is only a few stops away from the centre of Sydney. We navigated our way through the minefield of concourses and platforms to find the lifts each time we needed to go up or down. I don't do escalators with a pushchair anymore after I nearly had a little accident in Woolworths. Needless to say I nearly ended up on my a*se with the pushchair on top of me. A bit stupid really. Mia was fine, she never noticed a thing, but it could have been sooo different.

I have managed to find myself a pair of shoes. They were in the sale and amazingly only cost $12, I'm sure Damien won't be happy that I've replaced my Jimmy Choo shoes that he bought with a pair that cost a hell of a lot less. Or actually maybe he will, considering I'm not earning at the minute.

He's just spent the last three nights in the Sheraton Hotel on Hyde Park as part of a team building exercise, so me and Mia haven't been able to see him, even though the hotel is not far from the apartment at all. He sounds like he is having a good time and is getting on with his new colleagues. They are all going to see Billy Elliott tonight, not sure that is right up his street, but I'll be asking him to demonstrate a few pirouettes and pliés.

Nothing interesting

We've been busy viewing possible places to rent. We saw quite a few this weekend and we think we've found one. We've put in an application for it and offered $50 below the asking price a week for it, so we just have to wait and see now whether the owners will agree to that price or whether they have had a better offer from someone else. So keep your fingers crossed.

Mia is definitely crawling now, I can put her down in the middle of the lounge and the next minute she is right by my feet over by the kitchen table. I can't take my eyes off of her for a single second now. She can even pull herself up to standing and attempts to walk on her own but of course she would fall down after a few steps if I wasn't there to catch her.

Broken shoes and crawling

Had an interesting shopping trip today. I had loads of food to get as my cousin is coming round for something to eat tonight so the bag on the handlebars of the pushchair kept pulling it backwards nearly toppling the pushchair over, so as you can imagine it was quite hard pushing it along – especially in the crowds and heat as well. AND THEN my damn shoe broke! I had to carry my shoes and walk barefoot home with the pushchair nearly toppling over, Mia moaning to get out, through crowds of people, on a very hot pavement with people staring at me as if I was some mad bag lady!

Another bit of news is that Mia is definitely crawling a little bit. When she really wants something she does actually get up on all fours and shuffle forwards. The juicy prize on offer this time was a dirty nappy bag! Not sure what was so great about that bag that she just had to have. She also crawled backwards a little bit and ended up in a sitting position. So she is really learning how to get around now, as well as the constant cruising around the furniture in the room. She’s getting really good at that as well.

Oh and one more Mia story for you – I put her down for a nap the other day but I could still hear her making noise so I went in to see what was the matter and she was sat up in the cot facing one of the meshed travel cot walls and she was rubbing her little nose on it quite vigorously! Have no idea what that was all about but it has left her with a little red nose now.

Not more teeth!

I’ve just noticed that Mia now has 6 teeth. Two more have just appeared on either side of her top two middle teeth. I’m not sure when they first popped through, but they are still quite small, so it can only have been in the last couple of days. Mia seems fine, so these ones didn’t seem to cause her as much pain or discomfort as the top two teeth did.

Look who’s sitting now…

Well today I went in to check on Mia after her nap and she was sat up in her cot. I have no idea how she managed that – clever girl. Then later on, whilst playing on the floor in the lounge, she managed to get to a sitting position from lying on the floor on her own a further three times. I’m very impressed.

More unit hunting

We have just spent most of the day unit hunting today. We were all over the place, Cremorne, Kirribilli, Neutral Bay, Wollstonecraft & Pyrmont but none of them were exactly right for us. Some were just downright tatty and then there was this fantastic apartment in Pyrmont with a pool and gym but the area, we thought, was more for younger people without kids. Also this place only had a balcony and no other outdoor space for Mia to run around in.

We spent the afternoon over at Balmoral beach relaxing and then went to Manly for a little look around as well. The waves were crashing down in Manly, they really looked quite dangerous. A bit like it was in Newcastle yesterday. No one was allowed to go in the sea there.

Damien needed to visit the John Hunter hospital in Newcastle as part of his job so Mia and I tagged along for the trip. We just went to Nobbys Beach, which was very beautiful and had some lunch at a gorgeous little café on Hunter Road then went into the town centre, which reminded us a bit of Stockport precinct.

We’ve been quite busy recently, trying to find ourselves somewhere to rent and just getting to know Sydney really. I’ve spent a few lunchtimes over in Darling Harbour, people watching and Mia spending her time seagull watching!

I’ve been into the Australian National Maritime Museum (mainly because it was free) and had a wander round. They have a new exhibition on called Iceman – the story of Otzi. It’s been in the newspapers and on the television. It’s basically all about the oldest wet mummy in the world. The iceman was discovered in 1991 in the Otzal Alps in Italy and is thought to have died over 5000 years ago. So I thought, oh I’ll just go and have a look at him (as you do). Well, I’ve seen Juanita, who is a 15th century Inca mummy of a young girl, whilst we were traveling in Peru, so I thought I’d go and look at Otzi as well.

Well, I didn’t realize but they don’t actually have him there, it is just a replica of the mummy! The exhibition is just about his story and how he lived, died and how he was found. More to help children learn about it really, so that was a bit disappointing. I must have been distracted when the news report mentioned it on the tv, or they did a good job of keeping that bit secret!

Happy New Year

Hope you all had a fantastic New Years Eve. Ours was amazing. We had the most fantastic views of the harbour from the unit we were staying in, and we didn't have to pay a penny for the privilege! What a way to see the Sydney New Years Eve fireworks for the first time.








We got there during the afternoon, and just let the kids play together whilst we took in the views of the harbour. There were bi-planes flying in formation over the crowds at the harbour, on the hour, every hour and we could see Circular Quay and the areas surrounding it filling up with people getting ready to watch the fireworks.

Mia didn't wake up at all throughout the fireworks, and they were really loud, so we were quite surprised she stayed snoring away. After the 9pm Family Fireworks, there was something called the Harbour of Light Parade, where basically 50 ships, boats and ferries sail around the harbour with illuminated emblems in red on their hulls. It looks fantastic all lit up at night.

The Midnight Fireworks lasted for about 12 minutes, it was just spectacular. The atmosphere was great, everyone seemed to be having house parties and all had their windows and doors open and were talking to each other or just soaking up the atmosphere, there was even some guy playing the bagpipes (badly) upstairs from us. I've never seen New Year's Eve celebrated quite like it.