James

While the oldest one’s away…

Angus has daycare on Fridays, and while I do miss him, I also cherish the time with just Pete and Jamie. It’s been so interesting watching Pete come into his own as an older brother. He runs into Jamie’s room to chat to him in his cot. He sits down next to Jamie in the living room to watch Play School with him. He brings Jamie toys. He doesn’t take Jamie’s toys away. And he picks up the food that Jamie drops from the high chair and hands it back to him. He is simply the sweetest.

Here’s us having lunch on a Friday. Yup, we’re a Vegemite family. Except for me. My theory is, if you’re not exposed to it by the time you’re six, it’s too late. But I’m glad the boys are Happy Little Vegemites as bright as bright can be. (Had to resist adding rosy cheeks to these photos.)

Happy Friday, everyone! May we all get some sleep…

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Blue eyed baby

I’m not imagining things right – Jamie really does seem to have somewhat blue eyes. Or at the very least, they’re not brown.

Which is strange, because I always thought that if an asian marries a caucasian, any offspring would only have brown eyes.

But maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I just heard wrong in Science class (it wouldn’t be the first time).

Either way, I’m not complaining because I’d always thought it would be kind of cool to have a blue-eyed baby. Plus, whatever colour they are, I think Jamie’s eyes are just absolutely beautiful.

Anyway, the little guy turned three months yesterday and to mark the occasion, he finally pulled a two-hour daytime nap for mummy. Boy was I impressed. If only I’d known in advance, I would’ve tried to lie down for a nap myself!

It’s strange to think that he’s only been ‘on the outside’ for some twelve weeks, because honestly, I almost can’t remember what life was like before him. I feel like I’ve always known his face, and that he’s always been around. I remember feeling the same way about Angus and Pete.

Motherhood is a funny and beautiful thing. It makes you want to cry, and it makes you want to laugh. It makes you want to explode sometimes, and other times it makes you want to sing and dance.

Mostly, it’s taught me how precious life is and how blessed we are to have been given our little boys. All four of them.

To my blue eyed baby: Happy three months little man! I love you more than you know.

(And thanks for not peeing on me anymore like you used to…)

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Asian habits die hard

It’s back to faceless photos of me on this lovely Friday.

Although technically it’s not actually Friday anymore here in Sydney. It’s 12.30am, which means I should’ve been in bed at least an hour ago. But my Asian upbringing tells me this is okay. It is okay to stay up past 1am or even 2am, much less midnight. It’s okay as long as one is doing something productive like:

1) watching television
2) singing karaoke
3) playing cards
4) playing mahjong
5) reading comics, or
6) updating one’s blog.

I’m pretty sure that if I rang up my parents right now, they would also still be awake (most likely engaging in option 1 – watching television).

Today I made Jamie laugh. Not once. Not twice. But five times! You guys, my heart almost melted. It was without doubt the highlight of my day – a truly precious moment that I will cherish forever.

And on that note, I wish you all a happy weekend filled with precious moments with family and friends.

(Mum/dad, if you’re reading this, turn that television off now and go to sleep!)

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The songwriter in me…

This is what I sang to James last night to the tune of Hey Jude:

Hey you, your mummy’s here.
Don’t you worry, I’m going to feed you.
Remember to drink up all of your milk!
Then you will feel a whole lot better…

Music by The Beatles; lyrics by yours truly.

Who would’ve known I had it in me?

Not I.

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It’s all coming back to me now

It’s funny how quickly you forget certain things about newborn babies and how quickly it all comes back in a mad rush.

For example, I’d forgotten about the spraying poo phenomenon – until one afternoon when I had my hand in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it all came back to me. Yes it did, Celine Dion. (If you don’t get that reference, then you are probably too young to be reading my blog…).

I’d also forgotten about how often newborns actually poo. Is there anything crueller than having cleaned, wiped, dried and sudo-creamed your baby’s bottom, only to then have more poo come out just as you’re about to ‘close up’ and put on a cup of tea?

On the flip side, I’ve been quickly reminded of how tiny (and precious) newborns are – and how tiny (and cute!) their feet and toes are! I could seriously just stare at them forever.

And that beautiful newborn baby smell – it’s an aroma that’s almost powerful enough to make me forget about that last hour of labour exactly two weeks ago today.

I’ve also been enraptured by the long intent gazes that James has been giving me after a feed. It’s so easy to forget that these little people can actually think, recognise and process sounds, images, words and voices from day one. Absolutely amazing, it is.

But most of all, I am remembering every day how lucky I am to be able to watch James grow and change every moment of the day. When I look at our tiny little man, all I can think is –

“How is it that you are ours? We are so very, very blessed….”

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Two weeks – check!

Well, James has just completed his second week of life outside my big jelly belly – kudos to the little man.

Here is a photo that I took of him yesterday during some down time.

Out of all our boys, I think he resembles Rick the most so far.

His hair is brown instead of black (all the other boys had black hair when born) and my mum is quite sure that his nose is taller than the others’.

He’s actually being held by Rick here, and quite frankly, I reckon he looks like he’s right at home…

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Brand new

So here he is. Our brand new baby. Fourth child. Beloved little boy.

Our little James.

He arrived a week ago from today on Monday 21st of March at exactly 3.41pm, weighing exactly 3.41kg! (He has a sense of humour, this little guy.)

Labour was thankfully quick and smooth (though sadly no less painful than I last remembered it to be), and my new MacBook Air was put to good use in terms of making live Facebook updates (my idea) and recording video blogs throughout the labour (Rick’s idea).

The subsequent hotel hospital stay was fantastic, and in fact, I am certain I’m suffering withdrawal symptoms from not having tea and cake brought to me every two hours. I absolutely cherished the one-on-one time I got to spend with James and being able to just focus on him entirely for four whole days.

He is such a precious little man – I already can’t imagine life without him!

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for us.

Plan to write more later but for now, I sleep.

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So this is it

Only fourteen and a half hours to go before I once again enter the birthing suite to push another baby out.

I cannot believe the time has once again come upon me.

To say that I’m not anxious about labouring again would be a lie. A huge lie in fact.

You would think after you’ve done it a few times, you kind of get used to the concept.

But nooooo…..

My brain and I are both having a bit of a freak out. Something along the lines of: “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe….” And all this before contractions have even begun.

At least my hospital bag is all packed and ready to go though.

Yes, I say ‘bag’ because this time it’s singular.

That’s right, somehow I’ve managed to squeeze everything for both bub and me into one (albeit not tiny) luggage case. No small feat, considering the ridiculously long list of items I’d packed for my previous maternity hospital stays. (No, Rick, there’s no need for you to elaborate on this.)

For example, this time I’ve decided that I probably don’t need to pack my A4 folder full of parenting brochures and reference material about looking after a newborn. After all, I can easily just ask random people in the hospital corridors for hints and tips, and if worse comes to worst, I can always ‘Google it’ on my iPhone, e.g. “How do I look after my newborn?”

Another thing that I’ve ditched is the birth plan. I’ve finally come to realise that we never end up showing it to the mid wives anyway and if I had my way, my birth plan would just read: PAIN FREE.

But seeing as that’s not completely possible, I’ll just stick to the bare basics of: HAVE A BABY. I’m sure I can remember that without actually having to print it out on my laser printer and making five copies of it to distribute.

To help take my mind off James’ impending birth, I enjoyed a most lovely ‘pre birthing’ treat with my friend Cathie yesterday: our friend Alana from Little Rock Photography had us over at her gorgeous home and took beautiful shots of both our pregnant bellies and afterwards even served us muffins and coffee! How’s that for an uber wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning? (Especially the Saturday morning before D day.)

Anyway, here are a couple ‘sneak peeks’ of the photo shoot that Alana has shared with me – aren’t they just lovely?

The next time you see me, I should hopefully be a little smaller than this.

Hopefully.

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Five weeks


This is it.

Five more weeks.

Five more weeks till we welcome James Edward into our lives and home. Five more weeks before I have to remember how to feed, burp and change a newborn’s nappy once again.

In true Mason form, this little guy likes to do backflips in my uterus whenever he hears daddy talking about cars and petrol. (Which is often.) In true Chan form, he doesn’t seem to like sleeping at night, even when it’s 2am in the morning.

Books always seem to encourage women to take it easy in their third trimester. Have the writers of these books actually been pregnant themselves?

I mean, seriously, the closer we get to James’ D day, the faster my to do list seems to grow. As Chandler says in The One With The Tiny T-Shirt: “Bullets have left guns slower.”

Let me see: There’s Pete’s baptism and 1st birthday party next Sunday.

Then we need to re-do Angus’ room to turn it into ‘the boys’ room.’ (This of course means trips to IKEA, which I have to say, is not the best place for a waddling and hormonal pregnant woman. It’s a true testament to how far Rick and I have come in our marriage that when we went yesterday, we managed to arrive amicably and depart amicably.)

Then there are the six design jobs that I have on. And Angus’ toilet training. (Or not.)

And of course there’s the photography course I enrolled myself into last November. No, I was not at all crazy to think that squeezing in a three hour weekly course would be an easy, breezy thing to do a month and a half out from giving birth.

Oh, and that’s right, I need to try and remember how to get a baby out of me. (It’s a good thing I have a ‘cheat sheet’ saved in Evernote somewhere.)

So yes, I’m all calm and everything. Really I am. The epitome of the relaxed, expectant mum.

How fast has this pregnancy flown by anyway? It feels like only a couple of months ago that I was freaking out about telling my parents that I was pregnant again.

And I still can’t believe that Pete is turning one next Sunday. I honestly can’t believe it. Where has my little newborn gone? I still remember bringing him home from hospital, putting him into his first Love Me Baby wrap and getting constantly peed on every time I had to change one of his dirty nappies.

I’m absolutely determined to make the most of these last five weeks with Pete being the littlest one in the house. He’s going to get kissed and cuddled and kissed some more, every single day, whether he likes it or not.

Oh, and remember the jeggings I couldn’t stop raving about? Well, they still fit me.

At 33 weeks.

As I said: Best. Pants. Ever.

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Big changes are at hand

Or – ‘At hand are big changes’?

I couldn’t work out which title would be more dramatic, so went with the one that came into my head first. I think Yoda would’ve preferred the second one.

Changes are indeed at hand here at Pink Ronnie headquarters. Picture a big glassy building with cool funky workstations, multiple cafes, ten thousand games rooms, a swimming pool, a gym, a rooftop meeting room and a colourful logo out the front. Oh wait, that’s the Google headquarters. Okay, well picture me in my 3m x 4m workspace with my trusty MacBook Pro, my IKEA swivel chair and lots of instant coffee.

Yes, changes are underway – hence the appalling lack of posting this past week (What’s that? You’re used to it? Ouuuuuuch!) – as I embark on my annual online makeover. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too radical. No tummy tucks going around here. Maybe just a bit of Botox and one of those IPL laser treatments that seem to be all the rage at the moment but sadly cost an arm and a leg (it’s been recommended to me at least twice now by beauty professionals – I mean, what does that say about my skin?).

I’m hoping to have it all finalised in the next couple of days and to reveal the new site – or sites plural (oooooh…. how’s that for creating suspense and intrigue) – next week so that I can get back to just writing posts about the joy of being a blogger who procrastinates.

In other news:

1) Rick is loving the second “big” car.

2) I am also surprisingly loving the second “big” car. In fact, I’ve even been driving it on my own this last week without my ever-attentive husband by my side. (By ‘ever-attentive’ I mean instructional, and by “instructional’ I mean side-seat driving. Yes Rick, I’m looking at you.)

3) Angus can now string three words together for the first time ever. And (surprise, surprise) those three words are: “daddy big car.”

4) Pete has two extra teeth, remains as cute as a hamburger and continues to get heavier everyday.

5) James now does karate moves in utero.

6) And I am no longer attempting art.

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