A year in reflection

On this day one year ago, Gabriella chose Marty and I to be her parents.  We have been blessed with the most amazing little girl! The past year has been an amazing one, with lots of ups and down (mainly ups!) as we learned how to be parents for the first time.

I must admit that for the first 6-8 weeks I didn’t know how on earth I was going to make it to the 1^st year mark…but here we are…and we survived!

Personally, I feel like I have learned a million lessons this year, especially  on how to be a more patient, and flexible person and not get so caught up with sleep routines (still working on this one)

I wanted to write this post to reflect on the year that has past but more importantly acknowledge the amazing women who have made my year a better one.

The boot camp mum’s group:  Well I remember being so nervous about starting our mother’s group: “am I going to get on with them?, what if they are horrible women who look down on me for not breast feeding?….what if Gabriella cries?, what am I going to do?”…… I still remember that hot January day when we all met for the first time while Brenda the maternal and health child nurse gave us some talk on settling babies or something that I can’t even remember.  All I remember was bonding over similar prams and feeling like there were 12 women in the room who were, or had gone through similar tough times during those first few weeks. 

Over the next few months, as we got to know one another over many, many walks around the park and copious amounts of coffee at the local café, I realized how much I had learned from each of them and will forever be grateful for their advice and support throughout the year. We are so lucky to have formed such a great support network. We have cried to one another, spoken endlessly about our baby’s poos, shared our birthing stories, supported one another through day care drop off debacles and of course celebrated all of our baby’s milestones.  Thank you girls for an amazing year, I will miss our regular coffee chats or random dates to coles! I hope that we continue to meet over the years and I am really looking forward to watching our kids’ grow.

Tiffany; I still remember during some point around week 2 when Marty came home from work and said “ Tiffany came in to work today and she mentioned she has gone through some of the things we are going through now…..you should really give her a call,  I think she will be able to share some good advice”. 

Well, you have been an amazing support throughout my first year as a mum. That first conversation we had about when to “implement” save our sleep and that when I got to week 6 or 8 things will start looking up. You were right! I have enjoyed our endless chats via texts about poos, sleep routines, settling techniques , how many blankets we use on our babies etc. Thank you for “checking in” on me during those early weeks when I thought I wouldn’t know how the hell I was going to get through another day without crying. I will never forget your comment about the fact that when you become a mum its like you form a sisterhood with other mums as you pass on your learnings with one another…how true that is!

Lise: THANK YOU THANK YOU for introducing me to save our sleep! Its been a hard slog at times but it has been worth it. Gabriella is a great sleeper and its all down to you telling me how well it had gone with Remy.  I still remember ringing you various times and saying “ Lise, Gabriella has woken up after only 40 mins..should I try and resettle?” …. I look back at those conversations and if someone was listening they would have thought I was crazy, haha!

You are an amazing friend (nearly 20 years can you believe!!), and I hope that somehow we can live in the same city one day so that Remy and Gabriella can become good friends.

My neighbours….Jess and Sophie. I don’t even know WHERE to start! You girls are like family and I am so grateful for all your help, support ,and our many dinner dates to “kill time” between 5pm and 7pm when it seemed to be the witching hour for our girls. But above all, thank you for loving Gabriella like she is one of your own.

Jess; If it wasn’t for that beautiful card in the post congratulating us on the birth of Gabriella, who knows if we would have become friends haha! Thank you for all your help and support throughout the year. You are an amazing mum and you have taught me how to be a more relaxed mother and not get so caught up with routines .  I love that I can text and ask if I can borrow an egg, or the fact that I can turn up to your house in my pyjamas.  Gabriella adores you, and Marty and I look forward to watching Amy grow. Bring on more back yard dinners and play dates!

Sophie; Mrs Mangle #2…Well….where should I start? Thank you for the many laughs (at ourselves, and our girls!), pool parties in your backyard, babysitting duties, cake making activities, Kardashian wedding frenzy, and for making me realize that I am not the only person going crazy when my baby would wake up when she wasn’t “supposed”to. We have become great friends in just a short space of time and you are an amazing mum too and I look forward to plenty more backyard dinners with the girls and hopefully many play dates on our days off! Gabriella loves hanging out at your place (we will have to work on her thieving ways) and one of the other things that I love is watching her face brighten up when we get to your place or Jess’.

Now lets begin life with a toddler!!

x

First steps!

Bubba G today you took your first steps just before going to bed! We were playing the "walk to daddy game" and you walked about three steps!! So very proud of you my angel. Video to come soon
X

Standing

Ladies and gentlemen .... I present you Gabriella standing up!!

It won't be long now (we are saying Xmas) before she takes her first steps.

Kisses

Kisses for Mami and daddy.... Priceless x

Gabriella loves spurs!

Beautiful friendship.... Nuff said!

Gabriella dancing

Well.... As of yesterday our little girl decided to start dancing! I have been laughing as I watch her !!

Xx

Sunnies

We borrowed Anthony's cool sunnies yesterday at mothers group, not sure she enjoyed having them on.

Lunch at our house

Gabriella is becoming very vocal and spends most days chatting to herself, pointing at Mami, daddy, Gomez and spurs and has now learned to wave and we are working on giving Mami and daddy kisses!!

Enjoy xx

Clap your hands everybody!

Bubba G is learning how to clap and point... I am proud mama!!

First trip

So while daddy slept his hang over, we decided to go and do the weekly grocery shop.

This afternoon as I was in the kitchen cooking, I turned around to find this! Bubba G.... Life as we know it is about to change, you are obsessed with Spurs and Gomez!

Chatter box

My beautiful girl you are already eight months and time seems to be flying! You have just learned to crawl (chasing those animals are a great motivation for you!) and you have begun to say daaa daaa and mmmaaammm! You don't say them in context of course but we love hearing you chat away to yourself....

Love you my angel xx

Getting amongst it

8.5 months and this little one can't get enough of Gomez and Spurs!

Finally a successful birthday party!

We have been to a couple of parties but Clea's first birthday party was by far the best! Bubba G looked like a little doll in her party dress, as did the birthday girl in her little fairy dress which was just ADORABLE!

Food bowl

Well well.... Someone has just discovered the dog's food bowl!

Lunch

We are off to have lunch in the park with friends. Bubba G is wearing the cutest shorts... We are ready for summer!

Lalo

My gorgeous girl, we have come on holidays to Brisbane this week and despite you waking up a lot during the night you have had a ball with your Abuelitos who have been spoiling you with affection and you have loved every minute of it!

Priceless watching you interact with them and laughing all the time.

Our first of many

Babycinnos!!

Rhyme and story time

Well... After 7 months I have discovered that my local kids shop (about a 3 minute walk from my house) has rhyme and story time every Thursday at 11am. Today was our first time and Bubba G loved it.

Dadda

I think she is nearly saying dadda...!!! Haha how desperate am I for her to speak!!!

Crawling?

Well not quite yet, but she is getting there! You can see she is really trying :)

Beautiful day at the park!

Today we decided to have lunch at the park with some of the other mums and their bub's. A gorgeous Melbourne winter day :)

And the beautiful friendship continues to develop between Bubba G and the crazy pets

Happily chatting while playing with sophie :)

A small wave

Wow its been a while...and our Bubba G is seven months old. We think we are getting close to getting a wave..check this video out!

Sitting in the garden

Last week I posted about the fact that Bubba G is pretty much sitting up. Well in just one week she is PRETTY much sitting on her own un-aided (although still need to put pillows around her just in case). But next thing to teach her is to sit up whilst lying on the floor.....Our little girl is growing up :(

Sitting Up!

I have not blogged in ages....no excuses.

Little Bubba G is six months old, wow the last 6 months have flown by! (didn't think I would EVER say that about 6 months ago). We have seeing some massive developments and the latest one is that she can sit on her own. Well she still sways a bit from side to side but generally she is pretty good!

She sat up on her own while on Daddy's chest while we were staying in a hotel in Perth (Monday 13th June to be exact).

First of many falls

It was bound to happen....Bubba G had her first fall at 5 months! 

On the weekend, Daddy had her sitting up and then she accidentally fell forward and hit the corner of her eye.  Poor bubba....she screamed for about 5 minutes before Mami comforted her with a bottle and held her tight and told her that this was going to be the first of many falls and that she was going to be ok.

We had to take a photo (the injury looks worse in this picture!)

The things I can't live without (right now)

The other day whilst I was vacuuming the house with baby in the bjorn I was thinking about how awesome the bjorn was and then it got me thinking....what are the things that I can't live without right now?

Well.....

• My baby bjorn of course...we go everywhere together.  This kid is on that bjorn most of the day...we walk to the shops, or the coffee shop, we vacuum and mop the floor and recently we have washed the dishes and prepared the purees for .
• Cup of nescafe coffee first thing in the morning.  When Bubba G wakes up, I go into her room unwrap her give her a massive kiss hello and then go and boil the kettle (priorities people!) I then make my coffee have a sip or two and then make her bottle.
• My local coffee shop across the road.  The woman who owns it sees me up to twice a day some days.  Nothing more to say about this.
• My Save our Sleep Book. The book is my bible...I am constantly checking up on things and reading up on how I can problem solve any sleeping issues that I may be having with Bubba G
• My iphone. For a couple of reasons: I am taking videos and photos of Bubba G all day long and sending them through to Daddy, and I check my facebook account about 15 times a day and sometimes can spend about half an hour reading the save our sleep facebook page and reading up on what other mums are going through and what advice they give (I have gained lots of tips from those mothers who post on their all day long).
• The mother's group.  I look forward to meeting up with the girls every Thursday at the local coffee shop. We spend up to 2 hours chatting and brainstorming any issues we may be having with our babies, and just generally having a good old gossip (and sometimes whinging about our husbands! haha)

What are the things you can't live without?

New Tastes

Ladies and Gentlemen...I present you....Bubba G eating SOLIDS!

Well we have just started with the baby cereal and on day three she has started to work out what all the fuss is about.

More videos and pictures to come :)

A little bit of everything

Dear Bubba G

Its been a while since I have posted on the blog, and so much has happened in the last couple of weeks that I don't even know where to begin. 

You are four months now and boy or boy have you developed loads! Daddy and I are super proud of you, you are rolling a few times whilst on the floor and you are doing some awesome bum shuffling that we think you will be crawling in no time (which means the fun will really begin!). You have started to babble and say a few things (well just "agoo and gaaaa") and Daddy says that you will be a talker just like me.  I can't wait to have some great conversations with you when you are older. 

Your nanny Mary and Grandad David are here from England and they have fallen in love with your cute personality and the little smiles you give them all the time.  You have been on top form in the last few weeks so well done!

We took you in the pool for the first time whilst on holiday at the Gold Coast a couple of weeks ago and while you weren't sure what to make of it at first, by the second and third time you were enjoying yourself quite a bit.  I think you thought it was a giant bath. We tried to take you in the sea but you weren't too happy so we will try next summer.

Lots of love
Mama
xxx

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Its Daddy's 36th Birthday today! 

Bubba G and I love you very much Daddy and we can't wait to celebrate loads more birthdays with you.  Bubba G hopes you like the mug she got you with her picture on it :)

Love you lots xx your girls xxxx

Perfect Weekend

Bubba G and I love our weekends...we get to hang out with Daddy all day long for two whole days!

This is a typical Sunday....

 We go for a walk around the park with Spurs

 Daddy helps me with feeding and reading to Bubba G

And we have a little fun playing dress ups :)

A few milestones

So Bubba G is now 14 weeks and we are starting to have LOADS of fun! Am absolutely loving seeing her grow into a beautiful (chubby) baby each day, and we spend our days walking around Yarraville (so I can have my coffee) and playing on the mat so that she can practice some tummy time.  In the last couple of weeks she has become much stronger and can hold her head so well and absolutely still loving her bath time....Oh and she can JUST about grab her toys and a laugh is nearly here... watch this space!

Jet Setter - to Brisbane

Bubba G and I survived our first plane trip together as Mother and Daughter to visit Abuelita and Tata in Brisbane.  Here's how it went...

As I am a massive follower of Tizzy and her Save Our Sleep routine, I made sure that I booked our flights at a time that Bubba G was due her sleep.  The bags were packed from the night before and the following morning was a carefully orchestrated chain of events. I woke up before Bubba G and had a shower, made my coffee and made sure I was 90% ready so that when it was time for Bubba G to wake up I would feed her and then Daddy would put all the stuff in the car and then we would set of to the airport.  The Carry on luggage was not only full of nappies/wipes and all the normal things I take when heading out with Bubba G, but I had two extra bottles in case the plane was delayed, plus I had made a bottle to give to her once we took off.  I also bought a dummy (not a fan of them myself but needed to have extra things on hand for the take off) and had packed panadol and a thermometer (not sure why I packed the thermometer but as a first time traveller with a baby I didn't want to take any chances).  Just before we boarded the plane Bubba G fell asleep in my arms and looked absolutely adorable and peaceful as I boarded the plane and took my seat.  I took the blanket I had also packed and tried to do a semi-wrap job so that she would feel cozy.  AS WE WERE ABOUT TO TAKE OFF, she wakes up....a bit of panic set in as I thought she was going to start crying so with a bit of signing from me and the bottle, she happily sucked away as the plane took off.  She was now fully awake and working the room with the stewardess and fellow passengers who were admiring my beautiful child (whilst I was loving all the attention bubba G was getting, in the back of my mind I was thinking that these people were over stimulating her and it would be a nightmare to get her back to sleep). But I gave her the dummy (I hope Daddy isn't reading this as we agreed NO DUMMIES as a sleeping aid...but I figured it was a special occasion).  and she fell asleep for at least 20 minutes and by the time she woke up we were on our way down, and before I knew it we had landed. 

She was an absolute dream and I really can't complain...however for the rest of the day she was unsettled and the poor little thing didn't know what was going on....bunch of crazy Latinos all wanting a peace of her (usually its just one crazy Latino - me) but this time it was three more! poor thing didn't get ANY of her scheduled sleeps but hopefully her forty minute bath has set her for the night and she gets a good night's rest so that tomorrow we begin fresh and the routine continues once again.

Although she was whinging a bit this afternoon, we did get some great laughs and was able to catch it on camera.  Absolutely adorable with her uncle Danny.

LOL moment

We got our first proper laugh!

On Saturday 5th March Bubba G and I were at Borders (book shop) having coffee and looking at bridal magazines with some girlfriends and as we were about to leave, Bubba G was in the pram and I was making (stupid) faces at her to make her smile and out of NOWHERE she comes out with her first laugh!! I was so excited that I continued to try and make her laugh but about thirty seconds later she started crying and that was the end of that.

As soon as I can capture an LOL from Bubba G I will be posting it here pronto.

A bit of an update

So Bubba G is the big 10 weeks. Today as we were playing, I really started to realise that my baby girl is growing up! I know...only 10 weeks calm down, BUT so much has happened since the day she was born.  For example she has REALLY started to smile loads, and I love it when she gives a huge smile when we come to pick her up from the cot after she has had a massive sleep....she looks up at us with the most beautiful smile as if to say "wooohooo mum/dad thanks for coming to get me, I am ready to play now!". So cute I just want to squeeze those cheeks! And then there is story time.  Slowly (but surely) Bubba G can sit through "spot loves his mum" or "Panda's busy day" or "I love my family" without getting distracted (this is a rare occacion of course). 

She is starting to take a bit more notice of her toys and I think is even attempting to grab it.  And today....the cutest thing ever...she discovered her feet! I had to take a video of it as she was just adorable :)

When it comes to sleeping, my Bubba LOVES her bed.  We have a good routine going and when it comes to bed time the girl is ready and she is wrapped tightly with her little rabbit comforter next to her.
The bath....oh how we love bath time! We bought her a chair that she can sit on when she is in the bath tub and she loves it! Sits there as if she is the Queen on her thrown :)

Love

Bubba G I love you. Thats all.

Enjoying some afternoon fun by the window

We survived our first imunisation

Well, I survived anyway. 

Today was Bubba G's two month immunisation and everything went to plan.  I carefully crafted the entire appointment around Bubba G's feeding time so that I wouldn't interrupt her sleep and she would be in a good mood.  So what I did was feed her a bit at home then we played for a bit and then we walked to the medical centre for her immunisation.  My baby angel was great throughout the consultation with the doctor and then when she was getting immunised she let out the biggest cry I have ever seen from her to date.  It was horrible to see her just crying but with lots of words of encouragement from her mama and her little rabbit comforter by her side and she was back to her normal beautiful self in no less than 5 minutes. 

I finished the feed in the doctor's waiting room and she fell asleep on my shoulder which was just the cutest thing in the world. We got home and I swaddled her and she was asleep in no time.  Hopefully she is ok for the rest of the day but no doubt there will be plenty of cuddles from her mama and daddy today. 

First family trip

I've been living in Melbourne for nearly four years and I haven't really ventured outside of Melbourne. So I was telling Daddy just the other week that we should try and do something "touristy" every month.

This weekend we decided to go to Ballarat for the day and check out Sovereign Hill which back in the 1850's was a gold mining town. The place is now like a live in museum and Daddy, Bubba G and I spent a few hours walking around.  It was much better than we had expected and even learned a few things about how they melted gold back in the day and got an insight on what life was like for miners and their families in the 1850's.  Bubba G was on top form and managed to stay asleep in her pram for most of the day.

Then we went to Hepburn springs for some some afternoon tea before heading back home.  Bubba G was due her feed so we fed and played with her and it was one of the best afternoons ever! She was smiling loads and attracting the attention of onlookers.  The photo below is probably my favourite to date...identical to her daddy and I love it!