milestone

sorry to have been so slack with the updates of late.

just a quick note to mark the milestone that htis week (finally) Antony has started walking unassisted.

a very happy moment for us all.

the extended family

there have been two new additions to the family in the last week and a half. on 8 December Arlo Dolan Jarman made an unexpected early arrival (due 31 Dec). he is very cute and has a head of dark hair. despite being early he is coming along nicely and other than a spot of jaundice is fine. Otto is a very proud big brother as you can see in the photos.

(click for bigness)

the other addition is the furry black beast known as Hank – a schnauzer poodle cross that i have adopted. i have been hankering (ha ha) for a dog for a while now and i think that he is a most excellent member of the family. he was very hairy when we bought him – now i have sheared him as he was getting prickles and poo and wee in his hair. my grooming skills are somewhat amatuer but i am not going to get him professionally groomed and have him looking even sillier as a result.

(click for bigness)

Its mildly amusing listening to M attempting to discipline Hank when he nips at heels and ankles as all pups do. it starts out with a ‘no’ which is then repeated with an escalating degree of consternated hysteria in the voice as Hank continues. Ant likes him and giggles when Hank runs around like a psycho puppy.

today Ant and i went to visit his Babcia at Semaphore and we went down to the beach and played in the sand under the jetty.

(click for bigness)

Consequently, Ant has flaked out and is now snoozing away (hopefully until morning). yesterday Ant skipped childcare and went to the zoo with his cousins Otto and Arlo. the Siamangs sang, and tapirs wandered – it was all very exciting and caused a great deal of pointing and saying that! that! that!

(click for bigness)

whilst Ant is still not walking (which is doing no end of havoc to my back) he is starting to speak. his vocabulary is as follows:

1. that
2. there
3. Ant
4.hello
5. mum
6. dad
7. cat
8. glasses (only once so far but he was pointing at glasses at the time)
9. Zebra (I think – he was pointing to a picture of one and I am sure that he copied me when I said it)

He also visited his Baba the other day to look at the ducks in her yard.

(click for bigness)

He is also mastering a spoon and corn cobs.

(click for bigness)

a busy weekend

this weekend has seen Ant out and about being the beautiful social butterfly that he is…

On Firday night he went to his first gig – Andy’s (ATEI’s) farewell to 26 years at the Centre for Aboriginal Music (CASM). Andy dedicated his first song with Trochus (his island ska band) to Ant and we had a bit of a boogy to it. Babcia got into the groove too! we lasted until about 11pm and then went home and Ant konked it in the car on the way back. As his father says it was a mighty fine effort to last that long (there was a wee bit of snoozing during the first band – won’t sleep through the night but will through a live rock band!).

He recovered yesterday with a visit from Babcia and today we went out to the Elders HR Xmas picnic where he did some fine flirting with the ladies and stole a sausage and a lot of fried onion (!!!) from his dad’s plate. this was on top of about a kilo of cheese, biscuits, dip, an experiment with a kalamata olive which has been revealed about the first thing that he doesn’t like, although he did give it a second attempt after dunking it in the cheese and chive dip – but no good! he also had semolina, peach and apricot and 2 boobs of milk. i think that he’s having a growing spurt.

a busy weekend

As it was our 3 year anniversary last week, Ant was babysat by Grandma on Saturday night so that we could go out for dinner. we enjoyed the time but i think that Ant would have liked to come too… nothing about Grandma, all about the clinginess.

today the weather was fabulous so we spent some time in the backyard and went to a local park to feed the ducks. The photos say it all. Click for bigness.

watching the ducks with dad

enjoying a book in the park

mmm stick, tasty

camera inspection

escaping into the laundry

Atei came for a visit this afternoon to see our new house. and he had some excellent gifts for Ant from a recent trip to Melb. including some cool animal figurines (iguana style cool) and a book that impressed everyone. Ant is book obsessed and was keen to get straight into it.

Atei

And this is a cute photo of Ant and his Dad’s hands

A new home for all of us

Some exciting news – we have purchased a house – well gotten ourselves into debt. Its a lovely 1966 Mt Gambier stone (or Freestone) fronted house with 3 bedrooms, a study/ store room, an ensuit for us, a rumpus room and dining and family room and wait for it….. a DISHWASHER!!! I would put the link up for you to see but there are too many wierdos in cyberland and idon’t want to disclose my address. Suffice to say – we are happy and we’re moving in on 3 October. And a little bit after that. We promise to put up pictures on the blog once we are in.

A new addition to the household

No i am not pregnant.

But we have adopted another cat – from the RSPCA – he was found after his previous owner attempted to desex him themselves. After two months they couldn’t find the owners to prosecute for animal cruelty – so he want up for adoption and we took him in. He is called Liam and he has the most lovely temperament. Nina is adjusting . See the photo below – can tell which one is Liam and which one is Nina?

one life ends and another begins

some sadness and some happiness in the family this week.

yesterday saw the passing of Antony’s great-grandfather Roy Henry Elsegood.

Papa is now at rest.

and today saw the arrival of Ant’s newest cousin Lily.

Congrats to Daniel and Amanda on the new arrival.

and so the cycle of life continues.

word up!

what are the most common words on this blog (excluding common words like ‘the’ and ‘and’ and ‘of’ etc), well let’s just check the word cloud (thanks to wordle)

Don’t read this post if you find photos of Ant feeding “unecessary”

We took some lovely photos of Ant on the boob the other day and so I thought that I would stick a couple on here to share. As per the warning above – log off now if you don’t like it or forever hold your peace!

This photo was taken by my mum. Only feet visible…

Michael took the following photos.

And this is what Ant had to say after the meal…

Weight Update

Pleased to report that Ant has put on about 200g and now weighs 4kg. Woo hoo!