43 Weeks and More Grandparents!

Well, after a huge amount of drama, Carmen's grandparents and her great grandfather finally arrived!  They had  given us money to buy them a second hand car for their trip, and Jeffrey has been driving it for a couple of months, with no problems (except for an AWESOME Michael Jackson cd stuck in the stereo).  Well, on Jeff's way up to Sydney to pick them up, the car broke down.  He was stranded on the highway until he was rescued by my lovely stepfather.  But the grandparents were on the plane and we had no way of telling them Jeff wouldn't be at the airport.  And did you know that it is against airport security to page anyone at the airport?  So there was no way of letting them know once they got off the plane either!  Talk about stressful!  But they finally made it down here on the train, but now they have no car!  We are making do sharing cars for now.  It is wonderful to see them.  It is lovely to see Carmen with them, and we realise how lucky she is to get to meet her great grandfather Dale, who is 90 years old.  The next few weeks are going to be busy ones!

Carmen and her Nema

Carmen and her Great Grandpa Dale

Great Grandpa Dale at Dolphin Point

Nema and Grandpa Clark

42 Weeks

Well, we have had a good week.  Carmen is still waking up too early in the morning (I think she refuses to believe that we had a time change, and is no doubt in denial that summer is over!).  She is keeping me on my toes.  She also hurts herself a lot less, which I guess means that her balance is getting better.  Every time she spends a night at her grandparents, she seems so much older when I get her home!  It's amazing the difference a day makes.  Carmen got a lovely surprise from her Oma and Opa - a (very early!) birthday package.  We all felt that because she is a jumbo baby, it was safer to open the package up early (two and a half months early!), and she is growing so fast Oma and Opa were afraid the clothes wouldn't fit for long.  So below are some pictures of Carmen opening her presents, but don't be fooled by the bib, it is not her birthday yet!

In two days Carmen gets to meet her grandmother Karen (we are calling her Nema) for the first time.  Jeffrey's mum and her husband Clark, as well as Jeff's 90 year old grandfather, are arriving for a visit on Wednesday.  You can't get enough wonderful grandparents!

41 Weeks

All is good in the Willbanks household.  Carmen has been a little bit of a fussmonster - enough to convince me that she is teething again, even though I can't feel any new teeth.  She takes great pleasure in biting my finger with her two bottom teeth when I do try to feel!  She has been waking up a little too early for my liking, but that's not too much to complain about!  The weather has been perfect, so we took Carmen on a couple of picnics this week-end.  It is very difficult to tell her that she is not allowed to put things in her mouth that we have not given her.  I spent a lot of time getting leaves, twigs and pebbles out of her mouth.  What made it worse is that she kept throwing her sandwich pieces on the ground, and she knows she can eat those, but how to tell her she can't when they're covered in all kinds of dirt?  At the second picnic Carmen crawled off and I saw her put something in her mouth.  I ran over just as it fell out, and it was a big white grub the size of my finger!  I was almost sick looking at it lying on the ground twitching.  Ugghh.  But it was a lovely picnic with her friend Hannah who is 15 months old and also growing up very fast.  Where does the time go?

Two videos that I forgot to post last week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLv0OqBR__M&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=2&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTp-aYDQi8w&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

40 Weeks & Easter

Well, we have had a lovely Easter break.  Jeffrey had four days off work, and the weather was perfect.  We  had Easter breakfast at Auntie Georgia's house.  Carmen did not get any eggs because she is not allowed chocolate, but she did get two toy monkeys, a swing, three activity toys, a toy bunny and some Ugg boots, so not bad for a first Easter!  We had some friends down from Sydney so they came for over for a visit.  Bianca, it was lovely to see you and your family again, and I can't believe I didn't take any photos!  Shame on me!  Anyway, we also visited the harbour at Ulladulla, spent some time at Narrawallee, and had a lovely afternoon Easter dinner at our good friend Paul's house.  But now Jeffrey is back at work and Carmen is fussing fussing fussing!  Her cheeks are very very rosy, so I think she might be teething again.  She is going to Grandma and Grandpa's house again tomorrow, and I can't wait for the break!  I miss her when she's gone, but it sure is nice :)

Ulladulla Harbour

At Mollymook (practising her new trick - sticking out her tongue)

Easter morning in her new Uggies (thanks Auntie Georgia!)

This is the reason I always put Carmen's hair up in a bow!

At Narrawallee Inlet

Paul and LIzzi

39 Weeks & 9 Months

Well, Carmen has had a busy week, learning to pull up on anything and everything.  She has quite a few more bruises too, because she is yet to master getting down from a standing position.  She is now crawling at the speed of light and then pulling herself up at her destination.  If I'm not right on top of her, it ends in tears and a bruise, so now I have accepted the fact that I have absolutely no time to do anything but watch Carmie like a hawk.  Tonight I was putting her clothes away in her room, and she was with me.  I turned around to find her gone.  I found her in our en-suite bathroom standing up looking into the bath tub.  It must have been 10 seconds!  Her little tooth is poking through and her hair is getting thicker, longer and somehow curlier.  Carmen is making new sounds and loves to blow raspberries, and for a couple of days this week she practised screaming an ear-rattling high pitched scream that forced us to put in ear plugs.  She took the time change this week-end very well and only fussed for about an hour.  On Saturday we took her to the park at Mollymook Beach, and today we took her up to the park at Milton where the horses are.  The weather has been amazing, so we are making the most of it!

39 Weeks

9 Months today!

38 Weeks, and finally a tooth!

Well, it finally has happened!  Carmen has been grumpy for days, yelling and fussing and refusing to be appeased, and we were getting a little worried that our lovely daughter had turned into a naughty shouting baby.  But yesterday, in a brief moment of laughter, she opened her mouth wide enough for me to see a tooth pushing through!  I thought it might never happen.  It completely explains her grumpiness and her extremely rosy cheeks.  She seems fine right now as she is crawling (properly!) over the floor playing with her toys, but either way, she is going to Grandma and Grandaddy's this morning to stay until tomorrow afternoon, so I won't know if she's fussing or not :)  But I will miss her.  She has learned a new trick just this morning - she can now wave.  I've just taken a video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viz-UH1oejo&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp 

On Saturday we took her to Dolphin Point, which is a nearby beach and inlet.  It is so beautiful there!!  I hope all of our friends and family who haven't seen it get extremely jealous and start planning trips here - we miss you!

37 Weeks

Little Carmen is now 8.5 months, and I can't quite believe it!  She is so much fun now, always super jolly and in a good mood.  She does get around quickly (sometimes even crawling properly!), but she does like to get under my feet when I'm in the kitchen.  When I'm at the stove she'll shuffle up to me and press her head between my ankles.  I'm not the most graceful of women, so I'm doing my best not to step on her.  This morning I left her in the living room with her toys, and a minute later she was gone.  I went looking for her only to find her on the other side of the house in my studio - not a baby-safe place to be!  So, I have to start watching her like a hawk.  She has a couple of tricks up her sleeve - she can high-five, and she can give kisses (by keeping her head very still - she seems to like the open mouth variety).  I am also teaching her to find my nose, and to wave, but both of those seem a long way off.  However, I will persist!  She is still sleeping wonderfully and eating outrageously.  She went to the doctor's last week and got weighed and measured - she is now in the 50th percentile for weight at 8.4kg, and in the 95th percentile for height at 73.5cm!  She can't possibly be my baby!

Playing her very own guitar:

 With her new shoes on:

Getting a kiss from Dad:

With her beloved monkey at the Golf Club:

Grandaddy: