the bright side

Duncan arrived home from work so I didn't finish yesterday's entry properly but that's probably a good thing.

Talking of good things. I always find it immensly useful to begin listing good things, (otherwise known as looking on the bright side) once I'm done with wallowing.

Much of my list is a bit boring for the blog or not for a cyberspace audience but mmm what is suitable to share...

Yesterday, or was it the day before.. I had just been considering taking Eden down to the library to play with their toys for the novelty except that he had a cold... when the courier arrived at the door. My dear long time friend Salena sent us a beaut package of goodies (including toys) all the way from London! Yay.

Our other London kiwi mates Nick and Hayley spoil us with gifts from abroad now and then too. I can't scoff the jaffa cakes like I used to on the way home from work but I can savour them! It is amazing how self controlled one can be when something is in incredibly short supply.

Actually, there was someone staying in our house recently, who helping themselves to our cupboards, may not have realised what sumptous chocolate golden treasure delicacy they were snacking on, and when I found a previously unopened packet...... I haven't hassled them about it yet, but they know who they are .... now!

How did I get on to that? blogging becomes blabbing very easily.

Anyway, today was not a blah day, (not going to bed too late helps) and supakids was good. Eden coped well with everything and he is breathing better. I'm very very tired though. Eden decided he needed attention at 3:30am this morning. My mouth ache subsided quite substantially during the afternoon so that was a great answer to prayer. I better sign off before babble turns to drivvle. Sayonara.

blah days

Every now and then one has a blah day.

We are very boom and bust around here. As I have talked about before, I am pretty even keeled personality-wise but my behaviour is not. I swing between raging productivity and oozing lack of energy.

Today I can blame it on a few significant things.

Eden has a cold. Babies with colds not fun. He tries to be happy but is unable to breathe properly - let alone sleep properly. He just wants to be on my lap all the time which is tiring. But hey - pretty soon he'll be off and I won't be talking about his dedication (which incidentally is happening next weekend) but his graduation so mmmm make the most of it I'm trying to say.

He is on my lap at the moment. We have this way of working where he has his own computer keyboard (not plugged in of course) and I lean on it (so he doesn't chuck it around) and stretch over to the real keyboard which he is very keen to use but his arms are just too short funnily enough. He now needs more than the keyboard to keep him amused so since I have started typing he has played with an old film cannister, a measuring tape, Duncan's nose spray, a glue stick and our spare house key. Wow the things Duncan has handy right here.

I also am not well. Please pray that we are up to the play tomorrow as I am helping out at Supakids club in Karori West which is starting up for the term tomorrow afternoon. At the moment I can't open my mouth two fingers wide without discomfort (mouth ache - wisdom teeth trying to come through) so ouch. Add to the play list ruler, dental floss box and back to the key which is definitely the favourite. Don't worry - it has a big fat plastic keyring attached to it so he is not going to swallow it!

It will be a sad day indeed when I can't send a "woe is me" email to my mother.

routine

NB - this says it has been posted by Duncan - it hasn't - it's Bronwyn so I don't know why it did that and I'll have to get the man to fix it...

Well I never. They say that babies thrive on routine. In fact some babies cannot cope when they are out of rountine. As I have said before, we are very very lucky to have a pretty flexible and adaptable baby as far as people and sleep go. Solids has been very up and down since the Granny Smith apple episode.

Now that we are back into routine, familiar everything, Eden is eating much better. He has been opening his mouth vountarily and even chasing the spoon today - yay! (I would too as lunch today was yummy homemade apricot chicken puree with vegetables). Thinking back, it was actually pretty bad last week compared to this - he obviously is not so flexy when it comes to food. I don't know if it was the strange surroundings that affected him or the actual food - probably a combination. Oh well, we're back in the swing of things now. After 5 days of apricot chicken with varying veges, tomorrow we'll try a little bit of beef puree and see how that goes. The concept of pureed meat makes Duncan a bit ill, "Can't he just be a vegetarian?" he says. I tell him that Plunket says he needs the iron so there.

Ooops. I also forgot another thing. Everything happens at once I tell yer! Eden is now sporting the beginnings of a tooth - bottom front right - and very sharp. I confirmed it this last Sunday after his father has been postering about it...

what a week

Bittersweet as they say. It is amazing how many situations in life are bittersweet. The two most common ones that everyone has some part in are birth and death.

Duncan's Grandma Babbage passed away last Friday, lingering what felt like a mammoth 5 days after a terminal stroke. She was a remarkable lady.

My family always remember the first time we met the Babbage seniors - at that stage they were in their late 70's. They came for a meal to my folk's place in the week before our wedding. "I'm Shirley" Grandma said - typically extroverted "and this is Neville" (typically much more quiet) "Easy to remember," she continued with that special twinkle in her eye, "Neville the Devil." How could you forget that. She was a very warm, funny and generous person who always took a special interest in her Grandchildren's lives. She is fully restored in heaven now, probably cracking jokes with her neighbours!

The grandchildren and their spouses took some special Grandma momentos away with them. I chose some brooches and was astounded when we got back to NZ that Duncan recognised one of them as being the brooch that she had worn to our wedding. How cool is that. It is a little gold flower with pearls on the stem and in the centre of the flower.

We had the best time camping out with and visiting the Sydney relis and Eden was adored by all insundry. Oh the bliss of having Aunty Lyndell and Grandparents take him for early morning walks in our newly aquired (just in time) TradeMe pencil stroller.

We had heard the original sad news 2 Saturdays ago just as we were spending time with bro Tim, Megan and Fin and also about to head off to Himatangi with the Heap Troughton whanau. We continued to travel to the beach and had what we knew would be an unmissable trip with dear friends. Whilst in Himatangi, poor old Duncan had to cope with just a humble pay phone for communication technology to book flights to Sydney and organize a passport for Eden.

I can't remember when I thought of it but having a cruskit for Eden to suck/bite on when he woke up early in the morning was great - kept him quiet for ages (we thought that when it was NZ 6am - even better on Aussy time at 4am!). In fact, the weekend at the bach was excellent preperation for Eden for the week ahead. He learned to settle himself in the portacot pretty well and he aint not got no stranger danger no more.

We just don't seem to be making enough progress with the whole eating real food thing and he was forced to try a few too many new flavours over the ditch which didn't help matters. Extending Eden's dietry repetoire is kinda hard. He still only eats about a maximum of 2 icecube sized knobs of puree/mashed food and often refuses to eat anything at all. Oh well, he's not wasting away of course. We'll get there eventually. If only he could survive on his favourites: pumpkin and carrot!

rolling newsflash

Eden can finally roll over! I say 'finally' because most of his wee contemporaries have been doing it for months. I certainly wasn't in any hurry for him to get more mobile!

He has been able to roll over from front to back for a week or so but that doesn't count - peer pressure has it that back to front is what counts. He thought it was so fun that for a while there we couldn't get him to stay on his tummy for more than a few seconds! Perhaps fun wasn't the factor.... tummy time is much harder work.

Eden rolled over proberly for the first time on Friday morning when I was on the phone to one of the CB ministers organising music for today's service. I was holding my keys and cell phone (about to zip out to a plunket lunch) and eden badly wanted to grab them. That was the kind of motivation he seemed to need to get his legs as well as his arms into gear (he usually leaves his legs behind) and make the move.

And by the way, Duncan has been working hard on the MMM website this weekend for my Ma and Pa - so have a look: mmm.org.nz.

sam the man

Another highlight to this huge week was meeting Sam.

Sam is my sister Carolyn's special man. Carolyn had not seen Eden since Christmas so we were all dying to catch up. She had been going to stay with us a few days during her school holidays but due to our unexpected trip to Australia we only got to see her a teeny bit.

However, we did get to meet Sam - just. We collected him from his flight, mucked around and were mucked around at the airport, eventually checked in for our own flight to Sydney, had an excellent lunch together at the very busy Chocolate Fish cafe at Scorching Bay (last second prayer request saw us with an outside table right next to our parked car with Eden asleep in it) and then back to the airport to fly off. Phew.

Sam is cool. They are very lucky to be in each other's lives. For those of you interested in some gory details... He is 23 years old I think, has sandy brown hair and is not taller than Mike or Duncan - thank goodness. He works part time as as assisant youth pastor and part time as a numbers man - you know - cooks the books for people so to speak. In his spare time he is studying at BCNZ (Bible college) and Edgecombes will appreciate that he is a rugby player.