It has been a good, busy week.  Carmen has spent more time with her Nema and Nepa, and also spent her two days and one night with Grandma and Grandaddy.  This leaves much less Carmen and Mummy time, and I miss her but am enjoying my time off.  Carmie got a rocking horse this week which she loves.  She likes to have her toys ride it and watch them fall off.  She also loves to dance and does so at every opportunity.  I have also caught her practising standing on her own, so I don't think it will be too long now.

On Saturday Jeffrey and I went up to Huskison for the afternoon - Carmen stayed at the farm with her grandparents.  Who knew Huskison was so beautiful?  It was great to get away, even though we missed the little munchkin.  

Here is a short video of Carmen dancing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0pOX9WRfWg&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

47 weeks

At Huskison

Afterwards, on the farm

46 Weeks

Well, we have had a good week.  Every night when I put Carmen down for her sleep, and she goes down without even a mumble, I am so thankful!  I read these posts online from these mothers who have babies the same age as Carmen, and so many of them are rocking their babies to sleep for 15 minutes up to 2 hours!  I can't believe the insanity!  And then of course the babies are waking up in the night and need to be rocked back to sleep.  We have had night peace for four months now, and it really makes you feel normal again!  Anyway, no big milestones met this week.  Carmen's balance is getting better and I think it won't be long before she can stand on her own.  I am trying to teach her to clap, but all she can manage is clapping her hands together once but then she can't get them apart.  It seems like the simplest thing, but apparently it's not!

Carmen has spent lots of time with her American grandparents, Nema and Nepa, which means I have had lots of free time to paint and get ready for my show which opens in two and a half weeks.  Carmen also had a play-date here with her friend Hannah on Sunday.  Hannah is 17 months old, so there is almost a 7 month age gap, but they still had a good time, even though Carmen doesn't know how to share very well.  She kept pushing poor Hannah out of the way to get to the toys Hannah was playing with.  I am hoping this is an age thing and not a lifelong habit!

Here are three videos from this week.  The first one is Hannah feeding Carmen sultanas, and is very cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAQGgZO-qlo&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=3&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKC19CKhX70&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=2&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEvyt9GoPOw&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

45 Weeks & Mother's Day

Ok, I have to say it: how cute is my baby???  I know I am totally biased, but looking at these photos from this week, I have to say it.  She is crazy cute!  And big still.  She got weighed and measured today: 9 kg and 75cm long.  It seems my vegetarian baby has outgrown all her meat-eating comrades.  The health nurse today was very impressed with Carmen's diet and couldn't believe how much good food I get into her on a daily basis.  So bah to the naysayers!

On Saturday Jeffrey and I took Carmen out to Porters Creek Lookout.  She was not fazed at all by the height and the sheer drop below her.  The views are amazing up there, and well worth the visit if anyone is down in this direction.

It was my first Mother's Day on Sunday as well.  Georgia had an afternoon tea for all of us, and Carmen had two sets of grandparents together for the celebration.  I have never seen a more spoiled baby than Carmen with four doting grandparents.

Carmen's swimming lessons are going very well.  As soon as she gets into the water she sticks her face under.  And her favourite thing to do now is to walk while someone is holding her hands.  She is sleeping like a dream baby, and all is good.

45 Weeks:

Apparently Dad's guitar is great to ride on

Porters Creek Lookout

Mother's Day

10 Months & 44 Weeks!

So, little Carmen is now 10 months old!  How quickly the time seems to be going now.  The first six months seemed interminably long, but not now!  I guess that is the difference between having a baby who sleeps through the night and one who doesn't.  Sleep deprivation makes time drag!  Anyway, Carmen is doing very well.  She has been having a lovely time with her visiting grandparents and her great grandfather.  Yesterday we went on a picnic to beautiful Lake Conjola.  The weather has been absolutely perfect.  We spent Saturday afternoon at Merry Beach, which is a local beach that we had never even been to - that's how many beaches there are around here!  Carmen's favourite toy at present is her walker.  She is very proud of herself when she is up and 'walking'.  Other than that, nothing new to report.

A very cute 9 second video of Carmen and her walker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ2k73Ni8xg&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

10 Months old

44 Weeks, at Merry Beach

Carmen and Great Grandpa Dale, Lake Conjola

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