January and a tiny bit of Feb

This is a delicious lemon pie I made. It was from one of the Annette Sym's books. It was VERY yummy and suprisingly low in fat (a little high in sugar, but what the hey)


More grown up tummy time. He was enjoying himself this time. In a Peter Rabbit outfit.


Just hanging out on his mat. I think was getting a bit sick of the camera at this stage. I took a couple of videos (which ended up being 118Mb) and lots of photos. Taken 2nd February 2010.


First day of Year 6 at Mayfield West DS. Mark has started his career as a "bus kid." After a nervous start, he is very confident and polite - he always thanks the driver.


After the bath!




At Merewether Beach with Aunty Jo. Remind me not to wear that hat in photos, but it was a windy and sunny day.

Enough said!

Making Faces

I was taking photos of Ryan smiling, but took too long to get the camera.

So now its just making silly faces, oh and the dummy!

More of scenic Sydney

Top Left: Circular Quay / The Rocks
Top Centre: Well duh... The Opera House
Top Right: A Ferry
Middle Left: The same ferry.
Middle Centre: That ferry cruising off (I think ferries look cool)
Middle Right: Opera House again.
Bottom Left: the underside of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Bottom Centre: Anzac Bridge, I'd never even seen it before.
Bottom Right: View out of the car whilst on Anzac Bridge on the way to Ikea.

Cool Dude

Some oversized sunglasses. He was very unimpressed by them.
He is looking decidedly FAT in this photo, and where oh where has my baby's hair gone.

Trip to Sydney

Ryan and Christy on the ferry from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour (yes we are total tourists. I have no idea where to go in Sydney other than those places. Might put a bit more effort in next time. Dear little boy was a little bit sleepy at this time.


One of the the other ferries.


First attempt of a photo. Decided this one wasn't very good, so took the one above as well.



The iconic Sydney Opera House.

Sorting the washing.

Can you see the new pile I have had to create?
Yes its not just the Ryan pile of clothes, but Ryan himself. Makes sorting the washing more fun if you have to keep an eye on a little one.
Oh and yes Mum, they are all put away now (uhem maybe)

Nobby's

This was our trip to Nobbys. We walked along the breakwall expecting it to have a nice cooling breeze, but alas there was no wind at all. It was very hot, I got a little sunburned. Ryan slept in his pram. There is a photo of a coal ship, these are HUGE ships and they come right into the harbour being pulled by a tug boat, but they are silent. You are casually walking along and the next moment there is a giant ship next to you. Very weird. Just before we returned to the car, we sat on the grass (ok I sat, he lay down) next to a beautiful man made pond. He wasn't very happy about this, hence the poor photos.

Just so you are aware, my plan is to upload a new photo on most days. They won't always be of Ryan, might be of Mark or God forbid, Jamie or me. Or it just might be something I have cooked, a place we've been to. Very much looking forward to tomorrow, when we are travelling to Sydney for the day. Hopefully will have lots of nice shots of us around the traps in Sydney.

Christmas Day 2009

A
This is the kids opening their presents on Christmas Day. As you can see Mark is right into it, Ryan is fast asleep.

Photos from the past 6 weeks.

Mark and Toby playing on the floor.

Ryan with Sputnik. Sputnik was my chew toy when I was a baby, Mark played with it and I must admit, he looks like he needs to retire, but it is Sputnik.

Father and son in coordinating outfits, and I thought they said mother and daughters dress the same!

For a better look at what Ryan is wearing... yes its an AC/DC outfit. Might have to put it on again, for a better photo.

Gorgeous cousins, Mark and Toby!

Other gorgeous cousins, Toby and Ryan. This always needed close supervision as Toby was a little unpredictable. Such a shame I didn't get a better angle, looks good in real life from above, not so good in photos.

Dad and Ryan, how proud does Jamie look?

Cool shot (if you ask me) of my two boys. Mark and Ryan.

On a very hot day with his new North Melbourne Kangaroos dummy!!

On the floor - still quite new possibly 2 weeks old with "Lambie", this outfit was from the OOSH girls.

Looking adorable in the bath!

Hanging out with Pop.

A self portrait of me and Ryan in the bathroom. Yes I do have the NYE glowsticks around my head... please don't ask, cos I don't have the answer.

Jamie giving Ryan his first bottle of formula. He's only had the one, we've gone back to BF. Please note the cute little outfit, its a pirate tshirt and skull and crossbones pants.

Introducing Ryan Joseph Storer

Born on the 4th December at 9.50am.
It was a doozy of a labour, but I'm trying now to focus on the outcome. His first hours on land were pretty tough, had to go into a humidicrib for the first six hours due to respiratory distress caused by a KNOT in the umbilical cord. It was such a good knot that the doctors took photos of it! The photo above is at 2 days old on the ward at the John Hunter Hospital

Excuse my nudity, but we were having the "skin to skin" time that we missed out on at his birth. So this is me with my two sons. Gee I like the sound of that. Always wanted to be a mother of multiple children and its finally happened.

This is my two boys together. Mark is still very unsure of holding Ryan. He is a wriggly worm that is for sure.

Well its actually late on Christmas Eve. Ryan will be awake soon for a feed, so I guess I should head off to bed. I'll share the gory details soon.

Happy Wednesday.

I've noticed on lots of blogs that it is often "Wordless Wednesday" well stuff that. As if I haven't got anything to say.

But to be truthful, I'm still just waiting. We got some renovations done on the weekend, my mini cupboard was made, its so cute, its gonna be for glad wrap etc. We had another dust storm so couldn't paint the doors (again) but its ok. The major problem with the renovations now is that it brings all the tools back inside and I hate having all of the tools lying around.

Mum is arriving today. She'll be here about 1.30pm which is pretty exciting. I'm so looking forward to seeing her. Haven't seen her since my birthday 3 months ago. So much has happened since then, sort of weird actually. Still feel a little bit guilty about not having family at our wedding as we are really a family orientated family. But I can show her the pictures.

Gotta tidy up a bit, but last night I had *period pains* for most of the night, making it quite difficult to sleep, the heartburn was pretty horrific too.

Marky is doing his speech for House Captain today. Fingers crossed. He's quite nervous.

Still not taking photos yet, waiting for the bub.

Sleep

Wikipedia says:

Sleep is a naturally recurring state of relatively suspended sensory and motor activity, characterized by total or partial unconsciousness and the inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles.^[1] It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and it is more easily reversible than hibernation or coma. It is observed in all mammals, all birds, and many reptiles, amphibians, and fish. In humans, other mammals, and a substantial majority of other animals that have been studied (such as some species of fish, birds, ants, and fruit flies), regular sleep is essential for survival.

The purposes and mechanisms of sleep are only partially clear and are the subject of intense research.


I say:
I need more of it. Every single night for a couple of months now, I go to bed just a little bit nervous. Will it happen tonight, or am I desitined to walk the passage saying 'just go to sleep.'

Once again, I'm extremely tired, I can relax in bed by myself, but when my dearest husband arrives to go to sleep that is when I start "playing up", it is not deliberate, but can't get comfy, legs start to twitch, become EXTREMELY restless and then just give up and get up. I think I'll go to the spare room soon. Just finish this post first. I just adore 4am... from then to 8am I tend to sleep the best, unfortunately 5ish is when Jamie;s alarm goes off, he usually has some drama at that time (can't find his wallet/shoes/keys/laptop), so I'm disturbed.

On a lighter note, got a whole heaps done in the reno today, Jamie cut out the surrounds to the island bench, made the tops for the cupboards, fixed a few issues that have been bothering him. A bit issue is the scratches on the bench top, its essentially brand new, well taken care of, but alas there are some pretty obvious scratches.

Shit.. the dogs just howled, its 11:44pm and usually there is no one walking past at this time. Might send Jamie out to investigate. But they have stopped should someone be breaking into our car.

Marko is a happy kid, we informed him of our new plan. He can catch the bus to school next year and then does not have to go to a new school. It will be so much better for him to remain at Mayfield West for year 6. Hopefully he will become house sport captain(makes sense, he is into all sorts of sports, goes to every zone event). He has made a list of promises - what he will do to remain at MWDS.

• Not being so bossy!
• Not arguing when asked to do chores (room/feeding dogs/having showers etc)
• Reading more (plan to read Treasure Island before Christmas)
• Doing all of his homework WELL.
• Trying out for the Aim High program next year
• Doing the selection school academic tests
• Joining clubs and extracurricular activities at school (Star Stuck/Tournament of Minds/choir)
• there were a couple of others, but the list is in his cricket pants and its late and I can't remember.

It made for a nice weekend having him so happy. He keeps coming up to me, saying thank you and giving me a kiss. The kiss part isn't unusual, but thank you is!

Quick Trip to Hospital

It was very unexciting.

I was the only one in the Antenatal Day Stay Unit.

Toni was the midwife on duty, she took my blood pressure (143/84) a little bit elevated.
Popped me on the fetal heart rate monitor and I got visions of giving birth to Mark... hooked up to a machine, not being able to get off the bed. Junior Mr Storer's heart rate bounced between 120 and 155 beats per minute and there were several times he got quite active, I had to press a button whenever I felt him move.

Another blood pressure, getting better, still a tiny bit elevated, but that appears to be quite normal for me... my wee (despite Toni telling me was fine) I heard her tell the doc had a "trace of protein" in it.

Foetal monitor came off. Headed upstairs to the pathology for a blood test and another wee test.

Back downstairs for another blood pressure, then the doc came to see me. She was quite nice, said I had "spectacularly swollen feet" and they were quite impressive. My reflexes in my ankles suck because of the swelling. But to go home, rest up, and call is there are any changes in movements, headache, contractions (duh), or flashes in front of my eyes.

Dr Sam will call me with my blood results, if they are normal, back to the midwives on Friday, if they are abnormal... she will devise a plan!

Altogether an interesting day.

Hard to see ultrasound pictures

These are actually from the 30th October almost a month ago now. For some unknown reason we didn't have a "morphology scan" and didn't actually know where the placenta was lying.. now we do.

These are bubby's little arms...



I'm interpreting this to be the "thumbs up" sign.



Ummm... legs I guess, I hope they are not as problematic at his mothers. No RLS for this little chicken.



As it says - heart reate - I'm going with heart rate.




Coloured in picture of the chambers of the heart. I mentioned Roy's heart defect, and the ultrasonographer spent a lot of time looking at my baby's heart. If only it made sense, but I'm guessing its ok.





Other news from today:
Went out to lunch with Toni and Gai from work. Very nice, but Toni and getting home for kids pick up are not quite on the same wave length. The place we went to was ok, service actually sucked. Had to ask twice for coffee, really SLOW and the portion was much too big. I had a pumpkin and pancetta pasta which was lovely, it also had some feta cheese in it, which truth me known I have NEVER tried... well now I have, its bland and not something I'm very interested in. But I can now say I have actually tried it. Its one of those foods like olives or fresh beetroot that I'm just too scared to try! Weird eh?

Collected Mark from school, set out some new rules, had a huge help from a blog reader *Jo* and we have almost agreed to the rules. He managed to go for a bike ride and do it all (except for homework, which is a constant battle) without too much of a fuss.

Nicest sound from today - Mark laughing whilst watching Hamish and Andy today Those two guys have a similar sense of humour to Mark.

Jamie played cricket - they lost - more people from his outdoor team are unhappy with the way the team is being led. I wish they'd just oust the guy and then they can go back to having fun. I'm sick of every part of Jamie's life being difficult... makes all of our lives difficult.

Now for my baking part. I had lots of not so nice apples, so I carmelised them, had some puff pastry in the freezer so made an apple tart. It was very yummy, I just wish I'd made a bit more caramel sauce as the apples ended up a little dry, but a big scoop of ice cream did the trick.

Sunday

HOT HOT HOT.

I got my own way though.... turned the AC on at about 11am and left it on all day.

Mark and I had a bit of *Psych* fest, Jamie surpisingly enough spent most of the day at his computer and because of the extreme heat we had the dogs inside for most of the day.

My main issue at the moment is Mark. He is wanting to be on the internet 24/7. He is on Facebook all of the time, chatting to his school friends, playing Farmville and other varied games on the internet. I had (in my pathetic current state) let it slide, Jamie has been SO busy with work, MyNetHost and web designing that he has not really been very present for the past month. Last night we (J&I) discussed his internet usage and how to curtail it a bit. We came up with about 1 hour per day. Of course when I told Mark this was the new rule, he balked, he balks at everything. He was online quite a bit today, but when going outside is NOT an option and leaving the cool of the lounge room is NOT an option, I think we went quite well, he stopped and started. Did some minor changes to his farm, but not a huge one. Managed to help tidy up the lounge and kitchen and spent a bit more time engaging with the family. Plus I think he enjoyed having the dogs inside.

My challenge is going to be thru the week. As you may or may not be able to see, it is currently 1.10am on Sunday night/Monday morning, so I tend to sleep in. Mark still wakes up about 7am, and lately has not even come in to say good morning, but goes straight to the computer and logs on! When I get up about 8ish it a challenge to get him dressed, breakfasted, lunches made etc. Everything is a drama. I've tried saying OVER AND OVER to be completely ready for school before touching computer. Doesn't work. I know I'm a softie, a huge push over. But short of yelling all the time and threatening, how do I enforce the rules? To be totally honest, I get no help from Jamie. He'll just ban him from everything and then go to the computer and zone out. Its me that has to cope with the tears, the "OMG I hate him", life is so unfair and what can we do?

Jamie is always saying he'll take him over to the nets to practice cricket... but there is always some drama with the computer that takes his attention away. FRUSTRATING.

So my hope is tomorrow for it to be MUCH cooler, that way after school, Mark and I can walk the dogs and unleash some energy before he goes onto the computer.

Now don't get me started on cleaning his room, showering, cleaning teeth, picking up clothes, putting clothes away, going to be on time, feeding the dogs without being told (despite it being his main chore for the past two years), helping around the house in any way shape or form. But looking at his male role model... well I'm not surprised.

Any suggestions out there on how to instill a sense of self and helpful attitude in an 11 year old boy whose life is about to change completely because of a baby brother arriving some time in the next three weeks????? Please help.

Puff the Magic Dragon.

Ok, maybe not....

More just *puffiness* and being totally OVER it. I have odema! My feet up to my mid shin level are filled with fluid and very uncomfortable. My original thoughts were this horrible heat, and it would go away. Heat went away temporarily, but feet remained swollen. I have called the delivery suite suggesting maybe a blood pressure issue (ummm, no), pre-eclampsia (ummm, no), just keep your feet up and keep on drinking water.

My weekly midwives appointments we have long discussions about the swelling and the fact that my blood pressure is slowly and incrimentally increasing.

My appointment on Friday showed a greater than normal increase in BP, some protein and glucose in my wee! OMG. Needed a blood test (has come back normal)

So on Tuesday, I have to go to the antenatal day stay unit for blood pressure checks over a 3 hour period... kinda hope its up so they might induce me.

I hate not being able to function properly, not being able to walk properly, having almost constant reflux and sleeping really poorly without having a baby to feed or change.

I know I'm a bit morose at the moment but it is how I feel.

TWILIGHT

I'm all for a bandwagon. I'm usually pretty late to jump on. If I think its cool, it probably was about 6 months ago.

But this time, my timing is right. I got the Twilight books about the middle of last year. I read the first one in about 2 days. Couldn't put it down, dreamed about Edward, wished for a vampire to bite me to have a romantic story. To be truthful, couldn't stop thinking about it. It took over my day and night for a period of time. Luckily all four books had been released, so on finishing one book, I could rush out to my trusty BigW and get the next one. Loved the first three, HATED the last one. I felt it was TOO long, the characters got so boring and the relationship between Jake and Renesmee was just too creepy. Its quite funny, my sister is currently reading them, and she's on book 4 and finds it very tedious.

Anyway, when the first movie came out late last year, Jamie and I dutifully went along to it. Found it pretty good, embarrassing in places but a good romantic, melodramatic story. Got it on DVD and have watched it a few more times. To be honest I would prefer to re-read them, rather than watch it.

Now the world is in the midst of New Moon fever, it was released at midnight last night. Quite a few I know went to see it at the midnight screening. I think I won't bother until next week. My self esteem issues won't allow me to see a movie on its opening week. Don't ask...

I'm not expecting much from it, but don't think I could see it with true blue Twi-hards.

Just Waiting.

Well I've been home on maternity leave for two almost three weeks now and I'm bored.

Baby is moving beautifully, room is all prepared.

Enthusiasm for life is at an all time low. Not sleeping well enough and that makes Christy a very cranky, uninteresting person.

Anyone up for some pregnancy news.

Well I'm almost 37 weeks preggers now. Although this is what I have wanted for ages, its bloody uncomfortable. My issues are: reflux, dizziness, heat, swelling of ankles, and huge RLS. Quite tired as I'm not sleeping.

The good parts are: feeling him move, the shape although huge is quite beautiful (my fellas don't think so though, "put that away Mum")

I have all the baby stuff I could possibly need, the most gorgeous outfits that I can't wait to put on my new son. He's got 5 towels especially for him. My lovely nappies from www.peapods.com.au that I just love (my goodness I hope we use them well, they are quite exxy but heaps cheaper than disposable).

The room is all set up - just need to move the trundle bed out, and the cupboard.... hmm maybe not quite set up.

My bags for the hospital are all packed.

Our list of phone numbers have been made, so Jamie knows who to call.

Babysitting for Mark is organised.

Health is supposedly good (except for the crap mentioned above)

So there we have it, I really want to meet this baby, and would like to give birth quite soon. Need to come up with a plan to bring it on sooner rather than later. All good though.

What I'd like to be able to do.

This is seriously a just for fun post... whilst waiting for my sunflowers to grow. Not sure what I'll get to, but I'll number them.

1. Wear high heels. I'm a flats girl, but love the look of heels, but I get the wobbles and its thoroughly embarrassing, so I choose not to be taller.



2. Write a book. Not a great literary feat, but just a book of some description. Maybe I'll do it one day, will have to attempt it first.


3. Be tidy. Well this one is a possibility, not a probability.

4. Be able to sing. I hate the sound of my voice, but really enjoy singing to myself. Even Mark tells me to be quiet when I sing. He will have to get used to it again when Junior arrives.

5. Be able to sew. I'd love to patchwork, make clothes, understand the mechanics of curtain making, knit and crochet. I'd love to be artistic.. but alas just not me.




So there you have, just for fun. Some stuff I'd like to do.