A visit from Nanny

Last week Max turned 4 months old - hip hip hooray! Unfortunately as a result of this we had to take him back to the doctor for more needles. Understandably, Max does not enjoy getting poked with sharp things and the experience is a bit rough on both of us since I have to hold him still and hear his betrayed and hurt sounding cries and he has to put up with the actual needles.

To make things a bit easier, Nanny (Cam's mum) came down to visit for a couple of days to give us some moral support and extra cuddles, as well as spend more time with her newest grandson.


As you can see, Max had a great time playing with his Nanny and showing off all of his latest skills, such as sitting up, biting fingers with his tooth and chuckling and smiling more frequently. With so much attention he soon got over the needles and was back to his usual (mostly) happy self.

To help him to learn to sit, friends of ours have lent us a wonderful invention called a Bumbo, which is a moulded seat designed to keep young babies stable while sitting, once they can hold their heads up without support. Max had a great time sitting in the Bumbo on a chair at the table smiling and talking to Nanny and I and playing with a trauma teddy made for him by Nanny.

Since the teddy is easy to grab onto Max loves to chew on it. A couple of times he lost his grip and let it fall, but his position in the seat meant that Max's legs were a perfect resting place for the teddy's arms on the way down, and so he could pick it straight back up again!

All of us enjoyed having Nanny come to stay so much that she is now planning on coming down on the train once a month.

Christmas Party!!

Max went to his first Christmas party today. You think as his father and one of the organisers of the social club that I would have more baby specific things organised. I tried to but the teacups ride that was kinda baby friendly had a short last night and was a smoking mess. They gave us the mini ferris wheel instead. But the lady would not let me ride because I am too big and Max is too small to ride alone.

But Max did have his first encounter with Santa which did not end in crying from either side which is a good thing. It was kinda good as Max was in a slightly grumpy mood due to his second tooth being a big white bump that is about to break through any moment.

Max scored some Winnie the Pooh blocks which are kinda cool. He did seem much more interested in the wrapping paper however. So if you want to get Max a good cheap present this year a couple of rolls of wrapping paper will do the trick.

Max had the pleasure of having every man and his dog checking him out as he hasn't been at the Centre in a month or two.

Jo and I managed to have a pretty good time due to being able to have Max getting cuddles from friends whilst we enjoyed some hamburgers, chips and ice creams. I know some of you would be disappointed if I did not mention food in this blog somewhere.

I will endeavour to post a small video of him getting his gift in the next day or two.

Triple Trouble III

The last cousins visit took place about a week and a half ago, but things have been busy and it's taken a while to blog about it. All three babies are getting a lot bigger and have learnt new tricks, but each of them is different.

Gabbie (in the darker pink) is very accomplished at rolling over and manages to wriggle her way all around the playmat. Elke (lighter pink) likes to play with her rings and is better at starting to crawl by bringing her knees up when having tummy time. Max is better than both of the girls at sitting up by himself, but doesn't show much interest in rolling over.

All of them are super cute though, and seemed to quite enjoy looking, grabbing and occasionally eating each other while hanging out on the playmat. I think that means they're all still friends.

Teeth already ??!?

That's right folks, Max has cracked his first tooth - and not even 4 months old yet!
It started coming through at the beginning of last week and made him a bit grumpy, but I thought there's no way he could be teething yet so I didn't even consider that it may have been the cause of his discontent. But by about Tuesday last week you could actually feel the bump and see the beginnings of it, so after that there was no denying it! Thankfully he seems to know that feeding time is just for sucking and not biting though.

Since then his tooth has continued its journey out of his gums and can be seen fairly easily these days so I took the chance to try and get a photo of it for you, which only took 8 goes so thank goodness for digital cameras.

He loves to bite any fingers that come near his mouth, but isn't too interested in actual teething rings or toys.

I think the second one is on it's way from Max's general grumpiness the last day or so, but it hasn't emerged yet. Once it's out and both teeth are of a good size we shall let you all know!

Shpeedboat!

Max has only just started to chuckle and laugh, and it still only happens fairly rarely. We just don't know what will trigger his chuckles. As you will see it can be anything!! Luckily we caught one of these occasions on video while up at the Coplands on holiday - enjoy!

Weekend road trip

After working 10 days straight last week, last weekend we took advantage of Cam's 4 days off from work to take a short family holiday up to Maryborough to visit the Coplands.

We decided to do the drive up on Friday night after Max's last feed in the hope that he would stay asleep the whole way. Unfortunately he must not have been aware of this plan because he stayed awake most of the way until we hit the Sunshine Coast and I got in the back with him. This worked out wonderfully for the both of us because we then slept pretty much until we arrived, leaving Cam to drive and keep himself awake in the front, which he handled very well considering how much he'd been working.

On Saturday after Max decided that 5.30 was a good time to get up, the Coplands informed us that our choice of activities for the day included the Torbanlea camel races. I don't think they actually got much further in the list of things to do since Cam and Andrew were both keen to go along to this much hyped event. So we sunscreened up and left our nicely air conditioned cars to watch 6 camels in bright colours walk and then turn around and gallop past us. Unlike most other races, camels apparently don't want or need someone to tell them when to start running - one of them just goes for it and the others try to keep up. Also since camels are in a shorter supply than horses there was only the 6 of them, and so they just had several races against each other.

We couldn't let the opportunity to introduce Max to the camels go past, so after the first race we went around to their holding area to take some photos.

In between the camel races we had time to have a look around and see the other entertainment. Fortunately the good camel race organisers had decided to also hold some woodchopping events, so we wandered over to the woodchop arena, which was signposted and named in the honour of the local husband and wife woodchopping champions. Cam took one look at the names on the sign and had to call his mum to verify that he was in fact related to them! (no matter where we go, Cam will always manage to find someone he knows.) May and Theo Stutz, the champion woodchopping duo, were seated in a place of honour overlooking the action, so in a lull we went over to say hi and introduce them to Max.


After so much excitement and one more camel race, we headed out of the heat and back to the Coplands place for a yummy fish and chips lunch and some afternoon naps.

On Sunday morning we all went along to Andrew's church and caught up with the Maryborough Nazarenes after the service. Max was much admired but a little grumpy, so we headed home again and tried to interest him in some of Nate's toys. One that he really liked was the jolly jumper, since it lets him stand up and have a bit more control over his movement. Although he wasn't jumping on his own, he had fun dancing around and bouncing with some help.

Monday was another relaxing day with not a lot happening. Theresa had to go to work and Nate went to play with his friend Harry, so Max got some more jolly jumping time and Cam and I relaxed and hung out with Andrew. In the evening we headed over to Hervey Bay to catch up with Cam's parents and nephews for dinner at the Boat Club, which was very tasty. Max wasn't happy just sitting in his pram while the rest of us ate so we took it in turns to walk around with him and amuse him. Nanny and Max had fun watching the water feature.
After dinner Cam and his dad went to pick up his sister and her husband from the airport while Max had a feed and went to sleep and I played canasta with his mum. We said a quick hello to Bron and Lance when they got back and then headed back to the Coplands to get some sleep before making the journey home to Brisbane on Tuesday morning, which we thankfully made without problems despite some car hassles.

So thank you to Andrew Theresa and Nate for your hospitality and helping us to have a great weekend away!