Baby Batkin

The Best Big Brother

2011-10-14T15:01:00.005+10:00

Max has been so very excited along this whole journey. Before we were even expecting Grace he wanted a baby pretty badly after seeing most of his friends have babies join their families. Last year during his prayers he said " Dear Jesus, if you could send a baby to our family they would have the best time"

We waited a few weeks to tell him that there would be some one joining our family. From day dot he said it would be a little sister because about 80% of his friends have had little sisters. He has been very helpful in suggesting names he really liked Isabella which happens to be the name of Ethan's little sister.

With permission of the hospital I was able to take him up yesterday morning to visit Grace for the first time. He was very quiet and behaved so well on the way into the hospital. He whispered to Grace pretty much the whole time introducing himself and giving a running commentary.

He checked her out and made comments constantly about how cute and beautiful she is. Grace opened her eyes and appeared to check him out for a while.

Max was able to help give Grace a bath with the midwife which he thought was the best thing ever.

After daycare Max and I went and bought Grace and Mum some presents. We got a really lovely purple orchid and Max picked out a Hello Kitty as Grace's first teddy bear.

Welcome to Grace!

2011-10-13T02:00:00.006+10:00

Tonight at 6.37pm we welcomed Grace Elizabeth Batkin to the family. She was born after a very quick delivery of around 15-20 minutes.

After dropping Max off and a pretty quick trip to the hospital we landed at the emergency department looking for a wheelchair as we didn't think Jo would make the delivery room because of the distance. I left the car outside at emergency possibly with the motor running. Once we got the attention of the triage nurse who initially just looked at us strangely while I kept saying we need to get to maternity and grabbing a wheelchair for myself.

We had a nurse grab the chair and run Jo to the birthing suite. After a couple of pushes Grace entered the world. She came out face up and was quite purple but after a bit of rubbing let out a lovely little baa sheep cry.

The midwives then cut the cord and was then that they saw that Grace had somehow put a natural knot in the cord. This can be very dangerous if she had tightened the cord at some point.

She weighed in at 3805gm or 8lb 6oz which is 300gms lighter than her brother. She is 52cm long which is 1cm shorter than her brother.

On the way to the hospital during a contraction Max said " It's ok baby this is your time to come out" he also kept asking Jo during contractions what was the baby saying to her. We said that the baby was telling her that it was on the way.

He was very excited at the news and kept saying to anyone who would listen that he was a big brother of a little sister.

After quite a lot of cuddles Grace had a feed and that seemed to come very naturally and settled her nicely. She also spent a bit of time in the first hours sucking her hand and thumb. After being very clumsily dressed by her dad she and Mum ended up in their room for some much needed rest.

Car Club Christmas Party

2009-12-24T08:40:00.003+10:00

Every year in December Nanny and Poppy's car club has their Christmas party at the miniature train park in Nambour.

Max loves it because he gets to ride on the trains, eat yummy picnic food, see Nanny and Poppy, and get a present from Santa - what more could you want from a day out?

With 4 adults there to ride the trains with him, he could keep riding again and again without wearing any particular person out and have lots of fun. He was very excited to see Santa come riding in on the train, and I don't even think he noticed Santa's resemblance to Poppy as he received his present so everything went well.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-11T20:46:00.005+10:00

This year we thought it was about time that the Batkin family acquired a Christmas tree, since last year we thought it was too risky as Max may have destroyed and then eaten it.

Cam managed to find a great deal on one, so $30 and one Spotlight VIP membership later, we were the proud owners of our first tree including decorations!

Max has been getting very excited about Christmas this year. At Daycare they have been making decorations and he's seen the Santa and tree there, and always spots any Santas in the shops and Christmas trees at friends places. He is also getting better at waiting for things, and very patiently asks me just about every day - 'Santa coming today Mum?' to which I have to say 'No not yet mate, but pretty soon!'. We are also trying to teach him the real reason for Christmas and the presents, but there certainly aren't as many baby Jesus pictures around the place as there are Santas.

He was very excited to see our very own Christmas tree in its box, and took great pride in helping me assemble it and then place all of the decorations around and on top. We've placed it in the lounge room close to his high chair so he often looks at it while he's eating, and the first few days after we put it up he would come out in the mornings and say 'wow!' when he saw it still there from yesterday.

Entertaining Visitors

2009-11-15T15:19:00.014+10:00

Last month we were fortunate to host Dan and Janet Reinhart at our place for a few days while they were visiting Australia from the US. Dan is an expert in Bible quizzing and was visiting Australia and NZ to share from the wealth of his experience and give us some tips on how to start up a similar program in our local churches.

We had a great time meeting them and getting to know them. Janet loves to knit and brought Max a hand-knitted blanket all the way over here, which he loves to have on his bed at night even when the weather is a little too warm for blankets. After the Bible quizzing workshop we thought it would be a good idea to give them a mini holiday by going up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy so they could see the beach and the beautiful spots around the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

On the way up we stopped at Humble Pie to give the Reinharts the essential Aussie meat pie experience, which Max thought was pretty awesome as well.

Once at the coast we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have fresh fish and chips at the beach, so we went down to Mooloolaba. Max also loved the chance to play in the sand before dinner.

The next day we headed back down to the beach again, to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather while it lasted. This time Max got to get all of himself wet instead of just his feet, and we had fun burying him in the sand too, while Dan and Janet got to relax and take a walk.

The next day was a little less full of sunshine so we went for a drive and saw some local attractions instead. We went to the Ginger Factory at Yandina to buy some souvenirs, sample the tasty ginger products, ride the train and take the tour, which everyone really enjoyed.

Next we went for a beautiful drive around Mapleton, Maleny and Montville, and stopped for a picnic lunch at Mary Cairncross Park while admiring the view of the Glasshouse Mountains.

After a quick stop at Kenilworth for some ice-cream, we went back to Nanny and Poppy's house for a relaxed evening meal and then drove home so that the Reinharts could catch their plane early the next morning.

We all felt very fortunate to meet and spend time with such a lovely couple and hope that we can keep in touch in the future.

Face Painting

2009-11-08T15:14:00.004+10:00

Yesterday we all went along to a fundraising event that our church had organised to raise money for victims of the tsunami in Samoa, called Touch 4 Samoa.

Even though none of us actually played football, we all had a great day after helping to organise it and it was great to see all of the support that was given to such a worthy cause.

Of course Max was a bit oblivious to that side of things and was much more interested in seeing all of his friends, eating some yummy food from the BBQ and cake stall, playing on the jumping castle and also having his first face painting experience. He behaved very well for this by staying nice and still the whole time and not immediately trying to wipe it all off.

These photos were taken several hours after the painting was done so hopefully you can still see the Spiderman resemblance, but what's more important is the fun after all!

Children's Day

2009-10-18T16:53:00.003+10:00

As many of you may know the church we attend is made up mostly of People from the Pacific Islands and of those mostly from Samoa.

Traditionally the second Sunday in October is known as 'White Sunday' it is basically the children's day to celebrate and be the centre of attention. Each Sunday School class does a small song or skit from what they have been learning for the whole year. Afterwards is a massive lunch with lots of kids friendly food and then dessert and lolly necklaces.

This year we even had a jumping castle for all of the kids which was very popular. During the week a long list of food was provided so parents knew what food to bring here is briefly what was involved to feed everyone. 8 x pots of Chop Suey and Fried Rice, 147 pieces of KFC, 8 x XL bowls of Potato salad, 20 pizzas of various flavours, over 30litres of ice cream, 150 ice cream cones, 5 large fruit platters, punch and a large chocolate cake. Other food that was not on the list also magically appeared like donuts and mussels. All of the food was packed into individual lunch boxes and labelled for each class. For Max's class all we had to do was pick up the 12 lunch boxes for the kids his age. A count was also done of the parents and special parent packs were also done. It was such a good lunch. After lunch the kids had a small break before cake and ice cream. Then class by class was presented and Jo and I gave Max his lolly necklaces. He thought this was the coolest thing ever, he has seen Jo and I get these at Mother's and Father's day.

For the item of the Playgroup kids which Max is a aprt of they stood on the stage and said Jesus Loves Me. There was also a video with each of the kids name and birth date and some pictures and some video of them. Max joined in with some of the big group songs for the whole Sunday School. He loved being in the limelight and was so excited he kept jumping up and down which is a real sign he is having a good time.

The pictures below are a glimpse of his day. Enjoy!

Max Da Playa

2009-10-09T20:36:00.003+10:00

We knew the time would come when a young lady caught Max's eye we just didn't think that it would only be when he just two. But twice this week I have had encounters with Max and his "friend".

I went to Baby Jail (Day Care) on Monday to pick Max up and saw him sitting on a retaining wall near the garden with a girl who had his most beloved blue teddy. I asked him to introduce me and he just smiled and giggled. It was almost like "Dad you're embarrassing me" I told her that she was very lucky to be cuddling his teddy because he is normal pretty protective of him. She smiled and said "Max's teddy". As we were leaving he went over and asked for his teddy by saying "Max Teddy pease". She gave up the bear pretty easily. On the way out I asked Max what his new friend's name was he said Jenny. It turns out that is not actually her name but for anonymity we will keep at that.

Today I go pick Max up and they had lost his shoes but as we left he had to go say goodbye to Jenny. So after saying goodbye to her we continued to walk down the path with the playground beside it. Jenny ran up and said "Bye Max" and tilted her head to her shoulder very cutely. Max slipped his hand gently out of mine and went to say goodbye again.

They then spent the next couple of minutes whispering to each other and giggling gently on either side of the fence. I said to Max "C'mon mate we need to go" he would take one step and then go back to saying goodbye to Jenny. I let them talk to each other for another minute and told Max we have to go. He turned to me and said "Say bye to Jenny". I told Max we have to go. Jenny then smiled at me and reached down and picked up a leaf and handed it to Max. I said Max we really need to go. He then moved in to give her a peck but his head would not fit through the bars. He then started to walk towards me but kept looking at her.

He then ran up to me quite happily and kept saying bye Jenny all the way to the car and I could hear her calling out "Bye Max" it was very cute.

It was so very cute and I wish I had video because I know no one would probably believe what I have just described. All we can say is that obviously the fruit does not fall far from the tree and he has his fathers way of attracting the ladies attention. I fear that he will loose that ability soon for a very long time just like his dear Dad.

How to Torment a Two Year Old In Three Easy Lessons

2009-10-06T00:24:00.004+10:00

As you can see from the pictures in the other post we had a pretty bad dust storm. This was followed by 2 more days of dusty badness a couple of days after. In the paper on Saturday the local B.P servo had a voucher for a free car wash in one of a couple of car washes around town. We had one less than 10 minutes away. So we thought that Saturday and Sunday were a bad choice because of the impending second storm.

Monday is Max's day care day so that was out too. The voucher ran out on Wednesday and had to be redeemed before then. We thought every man and his aardvark would be using it on Wednesday so it had to be Tuesday. So we get Max mentally prepared and head off for a family outing. It was to be just Max and I for father - son binding purposes over a blokey thing like a car wash. Max got a bit upset and wanted Mum to come which was cool. We get there and guess what the machine was broken and getting serviced! We went in and asked how long would it take to fix seeing we had a 2yr old we had promised a car wash to. It would be at least another 2hrs. We decided that would really try his patience so we went over and showed him the man fixing the machine and he was upset and wanted to see the bushes (brushes) in action. The good people of B.P however told us we could redeem a voucher then and we had a month to use the voucher.

After Max's afternoon nap he and I headed off for the father - son bonding session. It was now just after school time and there was a line of 10 cars in front of me! I did the maths pretty quickly and realised that at 5 minutes a car that was almost an hour and he would tear me limb from limb if we tried to do that plus I had to be in Ipswich for a meeting shortly after that as well.

We gave up on Wednesday because we knew that everyone would try and redeem the voucher on the last day.

On Thursday we pulled in and had only 3 cars in front of us. We decided we had sultanas and water and toys on board and we could wait it out. Max is pretty understanding for a 2yr old if you talk him through something but 3 visits to the car wash and not getting the car washed was doing our heads in as well. We read some books and sang some songs and tried to tell him what to expect so he would not freak out. I have heard that it can be a bit too much at that age.

It was finally our turn and we talked Max through each of the processes and he saw the water go across the front window and his window and then he saw bubbles which are one of his favourite things in the whole wide world. When the car shook from the brushes he got a little apprehensive but was so happy he saw bubbles he settled down. We went through all of the processes including the dryer and then as we drove out he wanted more.

On the first two trips we had our camera to capture his reaction but on the third trip we forgot the camera so you will just have to paint a picture with your mind.

So if you need to kill some time with a 2yr old and don't want to get out of the car go to a carwash!

Playing Outside

2009-09-29T14:39:00.010+10:00

Max has always loved to play outside, and well, who doesn't really?

Now that the dust storms all appear to be over we have again been spending a bit of time outside, either going for walks or just playing in the backyard.

the dust storm ... taken around 1pm last Wednesday

Some of his favourite outside activities include riding his bike, playing in the sandpit, throwing and catching balls (he also loves when we throw them on the roof) and generally running around like crazy.

One thing he has started to do recently is to get an empty flower pot, put it on his head and call it a 'fire hat' and ride his bike around. I guess he is pretending to be a fireman? It looks pretty cute anyway ...

I have no idea where he got the idea for this but it keeps him quite happy, even though it is a bit dirty.

The other thing he has been enjoying lately is picking and eating from our strawberry plants. This season he is much better at realising that you can only eat the red ones, and have to leave the green ones on the plant to get bigger and turn red so you can eat them. The plants have grown a lot since last season as well, expanding into other pots and putting on much more fruit. Here's a sample of what we picked in about 5 minutes one afternoon.

However fast we pick them, Max seems to be able to eat them faster. He loves strawberries and simply can't get enough!

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2009-09-24T13:51:00.007+10:00

The new movie based on the books in CS Lewis' Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is being filmed currently. One of the main locations for filming is actually in Brisbane, over in Cleveland. The ship is very big and looks quite impressive, while being right beside a playground, so we thought we would go over for a family outing (a little while ago now) and get some photos.

It's a little hard to see since we weren't allowed past the fence, but you get some idea of what it looks like. The boat could also be lifted up and rocked to simulate being at sea, or swivelled around if they needed to change direction. Quite impressive!

We also saw some of the cast all dressed up in between scenes. Couldn't make out anyone famous, but then I don't think there are too many big names in the movie.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the playground since Max tired of the 'dragon boat' fairly quickly since we could only watch it from a distance. We listened to the director shouting out things like '... aaand Action!' while we played which was a nice touch. Hopefully one day we will let him watch the movie and show him these photos and he will be more impressed with it then.

Big Boy Bed

2009-09-22T21:01:00.005+10:00

Max has been growing up so fast lately, and with him becoming more independent with his toilet training we thought it was about time for him to move out of his cot and into a big-boy bed. We've raised the topic over the last few weeks by reading stories about other boys moving into their big boy beds and discussing some of his friends who also have them, and he has been very enthusiastic about the idea.

So this morning Max helped me to take his cot apart and stow it in the garage and to bring in and assemble a single bed frame that Grandpa very kindly brought up with him in the ute on one of his recent visits.

Once it was together he was a little unsure about the idea, but we managed to reassure him by placing his Diego pillow and all of his toys on the bed, as well as some of the cot blankets even though they don't quite fit. He was also reassured that everything else in his room is still more or less the same.

He was very keen to go to bed for his daytime nap today and started asking for it at about 11am (he normally goes down at about 1.30pm). We compromised on 12.30pm, when he very willingly got into his bed and enjoyed a story (finally I don't have to sit on the floor and read them anymore!) before going to sleep without any complaints at all.

I had to sneak in and get a photo of him sleeping, but didn't want to use the flash so apologies about the dimness.

Tonight Max was also excited about sleeping in his big-boy bed and once again went to sleep with no complaints at all (SUCH a good sleeper these days!).

Cam and I were just relaxing after dinner and discussing if we should invest in some bed rails to stop him falling out. My opinion was to wait and see if it happens and then do something about it if we need to. About half an hour later I heard a thump! and went to check on Max. He was fast asleep on the floor, still cuddling his teddy. This time we definitely had to get a photo with the flash even at the risk of waking him, but we needn't have worried. Neither the fall, nor the flash, nor me picking him up and putting him back into bed woke him in the slightest!

Daddy's Birthday!

2009-09-19T14:00:00.007+10:00

Max gets so excited when it's someone's birthday. Birthdays are right up there on his list of favourite things ever. When we pray at night and ask him what to pray for, he usually gives the names of a few of his friends, plus the inevitable 'birthday' - whether that means he wants it to be his birthday again or just that he would get to be involved in someone else's, who knows.

This year he was able to help me plan for Daddy's birthday a bit, which is tricky because then I have to get him to a) realise that the birthday isn't right now and b) not then go and tell Daddy about the surprises we have been working on. But it all worked out quite well. Max helped me make a joint Father's Day and Birthday card by putting his hands and feet into some paint to make hand/foot prints, something of a yearly tradition. He also helped me make and decorate the birthday cake (chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake) which he had heaps of fun with. He often helps me bake and is very funny when he wants to taste test - he will pick up a bit of mixture/ingredients in his fingers and hold in front of his wide open mouth while he looks at me for approval. Mostly I say 'In the tin/bowl please Max!' and he is very obedient, and then most times I let him eat a bit when we get to the end. He loved sampling the peanut butter M&Ms when we decorated the top.

This year Daddy scored quite well with 2 presents from America. One was a Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt, which came in a cool box with other assorted goodies, and the other was the latest CD from the Dave Matthews Band, both of which he is a big fan. Max also enjoyed helping Daddy unwrap the presents.

We also had to get an obligatory photo of Cam wearing the birthday hat. He is also wearing his new birthday t-shirt (and looking very handsome!).

Visiting with Grandparents

2009-09-11T21:34:00.006+10:00

Max always loves to see his grandparents, and gets really excited when I tell him either that we are going to visit them ('sleeping in car?!') or that they are coming to visit us ('Pa here now?!').

When we do the visiting we usually leave just before Max's bedtime, and tell him that tonight we are going somewhere special so he gets to sleep in the car. He must love this because every other night these days he asks me if he's sleeping in the car tonight.

Anyway, last visit to Nanny and Poppy's place was just Max and I, while Cam was on our church's Men's Retreat. We had a great time visiting them and did all of Max's favourite things while there, such as playing with the balls on the pool table downstairs, riding his car, going for early morning walks with Nanny and Poppy while I sleep in, and of course playing at the beach on the riverbank across from their house.

We even have a Wiggles DVD that we leave at their house which comes in handy when Max's energy outstrips ours. He loves to watch them play their guitars while playing along.

Recently Pa was in Brisbane and came over to our place for a visit, which Max was delighted with. We deliberately didn't tell him that Pa was coming because then getting him to wait patiently is impossible, so he got a nice surprise when Pa walked in the door. He was able to show off his new potty training skills very well, which is cute because he is so proud of himself. We also had fun making hills, tunnels and bridges in Max's new sandpit, running around outside, reading stories and catching up on some cuddles.

Belated Birthday Presents

2009-09-07T21:49:00.009+10:00

Max scored very well for presents this year on his 2nd birthday, but as if that weren't enough, he got a couple of extra ones just after his actual birthday as well.

The first of these was actually a present for his first birthday that was a bit advanced for a one year old - a Thomas the Tank Engine train and rail set with a plane and runway in it as well. We thought he was about old enough to enjoy it properly now, and he loves it! Particularly he loves to push Thomas over the bridge, down the hill and watch him go around the corner, as well as to pretend to fly the plane around the room. Here's us assembling the track as a family activity ...

The other favourite (of both Max and his parents) is a laptop computer designed to help Max learn his numbers and letters as well as basic words. He loves to use it, especially when Mummy or Daddy is using their computer, and has already learnt a few extra letters as a result of using it. He already knew 'M' and 'X' fairly reliably, since they form most of his name and are easily recognisable, but has now added 'A', 'O', 'W' and 'K' to his repertoire. Listening to him say 'double-you' is very cute, and we're impressed with how quickly he is learning his alphabet.

Such a Big Boy these days! And Happy Father's Day

2009-09-06T14:15:00.004+10:00

Yes I know it's been ages since we posted - sorry about that, if there's still anyone who reads this :)

Planning on posting a few updates in the next few days to catch up with some recent photos we've taken, but thought I'd start with the most recent news which is quite exciting - and also wanted to wish Cam a Happy Father's Day. Max had fun this year helping me make a card by using paint to make handprints and footprints, and also making a lolly necklace in the tradition of our church. He was also good at helping me make Eggs Benedict as a special breakfast.

Max has started toilet training! He's been wearing undies and using the potty for over a week now and is very good at doing his business when we get him to sit down on it, and is learning to tell us when he needs to go as well. Today on the way home from church he said 'wee in potty!' so we stopped on the side of the road to see if it was really urgent, but that was a bit too strange and he managed to hold on until we got home before using the potty, so well done Max!

I've made up a chart which we've got on the fridge, showing each time Max successfully uses the potty with a sticker beside it and it's now almost full. He also goes to daycare wearing undies and so far has always come home without accidents so we are very proud of him! :)

It's also really cute to see his expression when he knows he has done it right - he usually says something along the lines of 'I did wee!' and looks so surprised, excited and proud of himself. He then gets to flush the toilet himself and choose the colour of his sticker which is also exciting stuff.

Max's Second Birthday !!

2009-07-26T16:03:00.010+10:00

Max celebrated his second birthday last weekend. On the Saturday he had a small party with family at home with lots of food, presents and an awesome wiggles guitar cake. He even got to wear the special Batkin family birthday hat that you must wear on your birthday. He had lots of fun playing with his new presents and his cousins.

He enjoyed this years birthday so much more than his first birthday. He has been to several birthday parties for other people so he knew all the usual good things included in a party, like cake, presents, the birthday song, lollies, chocolate, chips, games, etc. He was so excited to see so many of his favourite family people at his party, and to share the excitement of the day with them. He loves to blow out any candles, especially on a cake, even more especially on his very own birthday cake, and he loves hearing and singing the birthday song afterwards, so I'm sure he loved that part. He had a great time unwrapping his presents and he is still enjoying playing with all of them. He also doesn't get party food very often and I know he loved the freedom of being able to eat as many jelly beans, maltesers, lollies, chips and cake as he could fit in.

All up I think his second birthday was a big success and that he enjoyed it immensely. I hope you all enjoy these photos from the day!

"How Long Have You Been Living Here?"

2009-07-23T22:00:00.002+10:00

This is an excerpt from a conversation that Max and I had the other day. He loves to shut the screen door behind him and then knock on the day and say"helllloooo". I respond with "no thank you I already gave last week" and then walk away from the door. Being my son he does not get upset but chuckles his head off. Mostly because he knows I will run towards the door and open it and then tickle him. The other day when we played this game I changed it with "Oh, you say you live here?" "Oh you say it has been 2 years" What made it extra funny was that it was on Sunday on Max's birthday when he came into this world 2 years ago.

In the last year his character is becoming so apparent. The things that you hope he gets from his mother and the things that he develops from you so that he has the best of both worlds.

I am not sure if this is the same with all 2yr olds but Max seems to really value people and friendships. This has come out time and time again. Today we visited a dear friend of the family Marg Watson in Ipswich. Max has only seen Marg a handful of times but he so wanted to hold her hand in the park and when she went and got a cup of tea he got all upset and wanted to see Aunty Mark. After we got home from Ipswich and he had a sleep he got all upset that Marg was nowhere to be seen.

Tonight we were watching tv and an actors name Zoe came on the screen. I said to Jo when we have twins we could have Chloe and Zoe. Max then got excited and said "Zoe Party!" Jo then said "Wow, Max that's awesome". It had to be explained to me that Zoe was the name of the one year old girl whose party we went to at Boracay!

My favourite was when Max was around 20 months he and Jo went to the Park when Max got really excited and was dragging Jo over to another family and kept saying "Aiieee". Jo had no idea but it became clearly evident that he knew the toddler with the other family. It turns out that Aiieeee means Ali and they go to Daycare together.

Max has a cool sense of humour. When he was 18months old he was learning body parts and we would use his favourite soft toy leo the leo-pard as an example for eyes and ears. It is much safer than let an 18 moth old poke your eyes out. We would also point out Leo's tail. Max would say daddy tail? and the go and look for my tail and when he looks he then chuckles Daddy no tail. He has started doing this publicly. He has also done it most members of the family checking if they have a tail or not.

He also has a sense of slapstick he likes to run up and tackle people and then head butt them in the groin with his head. He loves to do it at weddings or church or somewhere else where there are crowds. The best was when he got confused and hit the wrong groin thinking it was mine but it belonged to the head of our church in Queensland. Max's face was priceless when I said Max daddy is over here. I think even at his age he realised that he had done something pretty funny.

He has developed a real palette for good food. He also loves to cook. He loves to help in the kitchen. He and Jo make biscuits together every couple of weeks. He enjoys cooking pasta with Jo. He can now clearly tell us what he wants to eat. This made dining in the Philipines pretty easy. He very rarely baulks at food. The last couple of nights he has been eating spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a tomato and white bean sauce. He has tried everything we feed him: olives, salt and peper calamari, fetta, hommus, blue cheese and raw capsicum. I once saw him favour raw capsicum over dessert. While in the Philippines he was very cultural sensitive and kept asking for rice. He pretty much stopped till we went to the local Asian supermarket and he then started to ask for rice it was quite strange.

Max loves music! Max has always settled him since he was very little. If he was tired and grumpy we would play the Living End and he would be asleep within a song or two. Max loves all sorts of intruments and his a great mimic. After seeing a violin on a wiggles dvd he grabbed his drum stick and started to use it across his guitar like it was a violin even resting it on his shoulder. But I think he had his pick he would pick the drums he loves watching the drums at church and plays his drum at home with great vigour. He plays along to drum solos on his knees when in the car. When he and I see a drum kit at a concert or after church he can point out the cymbals and the kick drum which i think is pretty good for a 2yr old.

I could write on and on about some great aspects of Max's personality but even the most ardent fan must be getting weary. We must thank you all that read this blog for your impact on our family and your prayers and generosity over the years are ver much welcomed and appreciated.

And to Max who will hopefully read this one day. Your Mum and I love you very much and hope that you will continue to develop into a strong, gracious, caring and respectful individual.

Manila - Boracay

2009-07-17T10:10:00.004+10:00

I thought I better update you all as to what happened in our second week in the Philippines.

After the slowest commute of my life that was scheduled to take around 3hrs took 4.5hrs. It was just congestion and there is just so very little to get around it. I have never seen anything like it in my life and I have been to Tokyo, Sydney and even driven in Chicago in peak hour traffic. Manila won hands down. They have this interesting system where they have taken a lot of traffic lights out because they only slow things down. To replace them they have this little zones where you can do u-turns into oncoming traffic. The first time you do one you are petrified but as usual the speed is quite low and everyone is used to it anyway.

We got to our hotel which had run out of the room type we booked with a separate bedroom so Max could sleep and we could stay awake. So they downgraded us!! We eventually convinced them that we should in fact get an upgrade and then he expected us to pay for it! So that was not the start in Manila by ourselves that we needed. Once it was sorted we went to the nearby Mall of Asia (MOA) and got some nappies for the rest of the week and ate at a beautiful little Japanese restaurant. Max enjoyed his ripe mango shake and ate gyoza and his own rice and off our plates as well. He also enjoyed watching the fish in the tank and watching the Chef make sushi.

Early the next day we went to the Domestic airport for our flight to Boracay. It is a very basic airport but the new airport has been built for a couple of years but due to some legal wrangling and corruption accusations is not in use. The domestic airport did have a newstand/christian bookstore which is handy really. They also have bakeries so you can take pasulubong (small gifts) to where ever you are going. These range from small wrapped biscuits to like 3 ft long swiss rolls. They even had a cinnabon stand but seeing we had a packed breakfast from the hotel I resisted the urge. Max played in the playground and we also watched the local cartoons together. Some were Japanese dubbed in english or Japanese and dubbed in Tagalog. We also watched Jollitown together. Jollibee is a fast food outlet that is everywhere and there version of Ronald McDonald is a bee. He has friends and they have a bunch of adventures with kids. Sorta like Barney and all of the ads funnily enough are for Jollibee or Chowking which happens to be owned by you guessed it Jollibee. The other ad we saw a lot for was the Nestle milk drink called Chuckie. Which with our australian sense of humour thought it was strange to drink something called Chuckie.

We were on a 32 seater for our 35 minute flight which had been delayed 45 minutes. But Max did really well considering he was sitting on our laps the whole time. He also got given extra peanuts and juice from the cabin crew. He really got a taste for the peanuts with like a biscuit coating.

Once we got to the small rural airport we found that there was no one to pick us up. Thankfully our airline had free transfers to the island. Which basically meant they drove us the 500m to the ferry. We caught a trike up to the hotel which was to be our home for the next week.

They saw that we want you to be like Family. Not only did they upgrade us to the executive suite which had 4 beds and 2.5 bedrooms but they also sat us down and explained the outline of the island and briefed us on how to get breakfast delivered to our balcony every morning and how to get a free shuttle to where all the action happens.

There was a 1yr old having her birthday party which we got invited to with a great cake and a whole pig. Max had a wonderful time with the kids. We felt bad that we had no gifts and remembered we had brought about 30 of those small clip on koalas to give out if such a occasion arose. They went down so well.

that night we went down to Station 2 where a lot of the shops and restaurants are checked things out. We ended up at a small greek restaurant. It was here that Max decided to fill his nappy with the bad stuff. Of course we didn't think we would neep a nappy while ducking out for dinner. You can buy 2 nappies for under a buck at the pharmacy which are plentiful and some wipes for about 3 bucks so we got out of that mess nicely and they fitted in my camera bag so we had no more surprises.

Home again!

2009-07-07T13:24:00.002+10:00

All 3 Batkins arrived home safe and sound a couple of days ago. We are still having issues with our home internet, so will post more details and photos later when we get that sorted.

We had an amazing holiday full of wonderful memories and are pleased to report that Max is quite a good little traveller. More info to come!

Good times so far

2009-06-25T16:30:00.003+10:00

Hello from the Philippines! :)

We are having an amazing time here and really loving the chance to experience such a wonderful country and meet so many new friends from all over the world.
Big thanks to Brian and Julie Woolery (check out their Woolery Wanderings blog on the right hand side for more info on what we're all up to) for letting us stay with them for the first couple of nights we were in Manila. It made a huge difference being able to stay with friends and be welcomed immediately, and it gave Max and Justin a chance to meet and make friends before leaving for the conference out at Rizal.
They get on ok, although Justin is a little nervous of Max since he is a bit bigger and very enthusiastic in his greetings (hugging and high-fiving). They mimic each other and do have fun being around each other though, and are cute to watch for all of the delegates.

Max is fitting in really well, as Cam has posted. I was a little worried about how he would handle sleeping in so many different places and beds, but he is so good at going to bed and even asks for it when he is tired, and is happy to lie still until he falls asleep and then sleeps very soundly both for his daytime naps (sleeping roughly 3 hours each afternoon, which is better than at home!) and 11 or 12 hours at night as well.
This gives me a great chance to join in on the activities in the evenings after he has gone to bed. I've been very encouraged and inspired to see the vision and energy and passion that the people here and worldwide have for Jesus and for the youth in their churches - it's a real privilege to participate. There are some photos up on Facebook that others have posted - see here to have a look.

Not surprigingly, Max is loving the food and always surprises us with his appetite, especially for rice which is served at every meal. I am also really enjoying the food, which is tasty and healthy and really excellent at the campsite. It's a great way to try some of the Philippino food without having to guess at what to order from a restaurant.

Today we went into one of the neighbouring towns called Lipiw which is famous for its shoes. We soon saw why - every second shop in the main street sells, you guessed it, shoes! Unfortunately both Cam and I have feet that are too big and so couldn't find anything to fit us. Hopefully we will have more luck in some other markets or in Boracay, which is where we head off to on Sunday after the assembly finishes.

Highlights - Days 3 &4

2009-06-23T23:30:00.002+10:00

The weather has been hot and steamy but Max and Jo have been having big swims and using the waterslide.
The food continues to be excellent. I was speaking to the lady who runs the kitchen and they bake the bread from scratch every day. She gave me a tour of the kitchen and it was compact but well run.
We saw today why they called it the wet season. We have had a couple of tropical down pours. Just like home, I even saw something that looked like a canetoad tonight.

We are meeting lots of new friends and spending time catching up with some old friends.
Tomorrow is the megalongday where the schedule runs for 20hrs straight as we start video conferencing with the states.

We will update in a couple of days again.

Cam, Jo and Max

Highlights - Day 2 & 3

2009-06-21T22:31:00.002+10:00

We survived the 3 hr trip to the conference venue. Driving is very different here.
We stopped at a lookout and approached by some children selling quail's eggs
Max has had lots of attention from our group and other groups at the conference venue.
Max is swimming lots and even enjoyed the water slide.
The food is very yummy we are growing in our appreciation for their cuisine.
Max asks at every meal if he can eat more rice. He is fitting in nicely.
Cam has caught up with friends from all over Asia-Pacific
We have a family tradition on going to the snack bar on campus for a ice cream before Max's shower and bed. 2 ice creams for under a buck!
Cam was asked by a local Filipino delegate if all Australians were as huge as him. The same day he was told by another delegate that he was physically intimidating in a good way because he was so muscular. I am not sure how positive that is.

The conference starts tomorrow so the updates may be a few days in coming. We will see how we go.

Highlights - Day 1

2009-06-20T23:05:00.002+10:00

Some highlights from our first full day include:

Dinner at restaurant called Max's. Very good chicken!

We all had a ride on a motortrike to get to the Seminary. Max had so much fun he cried when he got off.
Cam rode in a Jeepney with the locals and nearly hit a local when it stopped really quick and Cam could could not stop.
Max rode on a small kiddy ride for 10 cents and had a blast and got lots of attention from the locals.
Cam rocked up to Dunkin Donuts and the clerk looked at me and said " Are you having the 15 pack of donuts sir?" I must admit I did buy 15 Dunkin Donuts for $5.

Whilst at a suburban ATM I had a gent pull out a bowie knife with built in flash light and tried to sell me the knife and a machete and meat cleaver as well. I politely declined.

That's enough of for now we will update when we can.

Cam. Jo and Max

Safe and Sound

2009-06-19T10:11:00.002+10:00

Just a really quick update to et you all know we arrived in Manila safe and sound. Max did really well on the plane. He cried on and off for the last 10 minutes or so as he was frustrated from being on the lane for 7 hours.

We got to our digs after an hour or so and it was a little amazing race at times but Max settled quickly.

We will update ore when we can.

Yo Gabba Gabba!

2009-05-23T23:08:00.011+10:00

This morning Max and I (through a very well-connected Daddy) scored good seats at the first live show of Yo Gabba Gabba, which is a kid's TV show. Although neither of us was really looking forward to going (me because, well, watch some of their clips :)) and Max because he is a bit too young to explain that that's what we were about to see. He was excited about going in to visit Daddy at work and going to a concert, even though he didn't really know what that was!

I think we were both pleasantly surprised when the show started. They had a live band who played well, and the show was bright and colourful and had a good pace so that Max never got bored. For the first 10 or 15 minutes he just sat still on my lap and watched both the stage and the audience spellbound, since it was like nothing he had ever seen before, plus he recognised the characters from the TV show.

At intermission Daddy came in to check how Max was liking it, and we went for a walk down to the stage and the drumkit, which Max was very impressed by. During the next part of the show we went down in front of the stage for a while again, but this only made Max upset because he wasn't allowed actually onto the stage with the 'teddies'. He did enjoy the rest of the show from our seats though.

I DON'T want a cuddle Daddy! I want to play the drums!

Special guest Darren from Powderfinger doing the 'Roo-bot' dancy-dance

As a special bonus, due to Daddy's good connections with the event organisers, after the show we were allowed backstage to meet the characters from the show. We thought Max may have been scared by the big characters in their colourful suits, but he loved them instantly and had to be dragged away from them so that others could get their photos taken with them. He had no hesitations about going right up to the show characters ('cuddles!', 'teddies!'), but was quite shy and hesitant about meeting Daddy's other work friends in their uniforms.

Great timing from Daddy meant that he could be in the photos as well. Thanks to everyone who helped us get there and make it a fun time for Max!

A new cousin has arrived!

2009-05-19T21:16:00.009+10:00

On Thursday last week (14th May) I got a wonderful phone call from my sister Amy to say that she had just given birth to a new daughter - Ingrid Leah Mutzelburg! She was born at about 6.30pm and weighed about 3.4kgs, or roughly 7.5 pounds, and has many very excited relatives!

On Saturday, after a busy morning buying fruit and veggies from the markets, cleaning the church, and going to a birthday party for some of Max's friends from church, Max and I dropped in to the hospital to visit baby Ingrid. We managed to arrive at the same time as my parents, which worked out great since Max not only got to see his new cousin but Grandma and Pa as well. Max was a bit shy at first but when he saw us all cuddling the baby he definitely wanted a turn too, and he was so gentle at holding her, patting her and kissing her. The inevitable pointing out of her features (eyes! nose! ears! hair!) wasn't quite as gentle as I'd have liked but he was really trying and did a great job of welcoming his new cousin the only way he knows how.

Grandma and Pa also showed great foresight by buying not only Ingrid some presents, but Max and the twins some stickers as well, so he had a great time helping Pa put them into the book in the right places, and also playing outside with Pa on the playground while I got a nice cuddle of my little niece.

We got some good photos of Ingrid being cuddled by various relatives, including Max, so here they are.

Congratulations to the Mutzelburgs and welcome to little Ingrid!

Mummy's Birthday

2009-05-07T22:41:00.009+10:00

Last Saturday was my birthday, yay! :)

My two boys helped me to celebrate it in lots of lovely ways, starting with homemade pancakes with raspberry sauce for breakfast in bed. Max helped Daddy make them by telling him when there were bubbles in the pancakes and they were ready to flip over, and by sitting next to me in bed eating every other mouthful. After breakfast Max and Cam went to the markets and left me at home to sleep in and relax in bed which was lovely.

Later in the afternoon when we had all had a nap, we headed in to Southbank for a family afternoon out. We browsed through the Saturday markets that they hold there and I found a gorgeous necklace that I instantly loved (this happens very rarely), and so my lovely husband bought it as a birthday present! What a nice guy.

Max enjoyed the playgrounds and just watching all of the people. It was busier than usual, being Buddha's birthday, with lots of Chinese lanterns strung up and many different displays and food.

The best thing about the event as far as he was concerned, however, was not the food (for once!) but the free drum workshop for children. He thought it was brilliant that they gave him so many different noisy toys and let him go crazy with them, although Cam didn't think it was quite so great being hit with the clapping sticks.

We picked up a delicious birthday cake on the way home and got Chinese for dinner for a nice finish to a really lovely day. Thanks Cam and Max!

Easter Adventures

2009-04-30T08:26:00.009+10:00

Every year at Easter our church all go off to Mapleton for the annual church camp. Last year we all went and managed to have a good time even though Max chose that weekend to push out 3 teeth and was more than a little grumpy because of it.

Unfortunately this year was not any better. We arrived at camp on the Thursday evening and had a good car trip since Max slept for most of it. When we arrived, however, he decided that he had enough sleep and didn't need any more. I stayed in our room with him and every 10 minutes, had to go over to his portacot, lie him down and tell him to go to sleep, while attempting to do the same myself. After at least an hour of this, Cam came back to the room to find me attempting to put Max to sleep in the bed beside me, and rescued both of us by taking Max for a midnight walk in the pram to try and soothe him to sleep. This attempt also failed, since Max was still wide awake and would every now and again say 'moon!' or 'stars!' or 'trees!' or something. Cam gave up on the pram and tried to tire Max out by hanging out with some of the other men who were still awake and chatting, but once again Max foiled these plans by enjoying every minute of it and high-fiving everyone around. At about 1.30am Cam decided that was enough and came back to the room to try and put Max down again, which he eventually managed by 2am by lots of patting on the back.

Friday was a fun day at camp, despite our lack of sleep. In the afternoon we had lots of fun sports activities out on the very wet field, where Max decided to show off his forward-rolling skills and got so very muddy in the process. While Cam was showering him he noticed a bad rash that Max had been developing for the last few days. I originally thought it was just nappy rash, so put some cream on it and waited for it to go away. It had gradually been growing worse and spreading to other areas, so we thought we should go and get it checked out. So Friday afternoon we all drove down to Nambour hospital, only to find that Max actually had 'school sores', which is a type of staff infection that often goes around in schools or daycare centres, and which is highly infectious to children. We didn't want to risk him infecting the other small children on camp, and so decided to pull the plug on camp and head to Bli Bli to Nanny and Poppy's place instead.

It was probably just as well that we didn't stay, since Cam caught a tummy bug that apparently a few other people on camp also came down with, and was stuck in bed for much of Easter.

But it turned out ok, since Max loves visiting Nanny and Poppy and had a great time. He loved the chance to eat lots of 'chockit' as well! Bronwyn and Lance even came down from Hervey Bay to visit, and Max loved playing with his uncle Lance.

Max's First Sleepover

2009-04-07T13:55:00.011+10:00

Last Saturday was the wedding of Shona and Aaron, two good friends of Cam and I (congratulations guys!). And although we took Max along with us to the ceremony at the church, we knew he wouldn't handle being kept up so late and expected to stay still and quiet at the reception while his Daddy was busy being the MC, so we had to try and think of who we could ask to babysit for us.

All of our relatives who live in Brisbane are over on the north/west/east sides of town and it's a major effort for them to come over to our house to stay here and put Max to bed, so we thought a better plan would be to drop him off at the twins' house to sleep over with them. It was on the way over that Max surprised us by saying 'cousins!' when we told him that we were going to visit Gabbie and Elke.

By all accounts the three of them enjoyed the visit a lot, especially Max. He wasn't at all upset about Mummy and Daddy leaving him at their house since he was having too much fun riding their bikes and playing with their toys. Shortly after we left they piled all three kids into the car and went to the park, which was another huge hit. Sounds like even the car ride was fun since they were all giggling away in the backseat.

When they got home it was time for dinner and a bath, which was yet another fun experience since usually Max has to bathe alone, and he definitely had more fun being able to share it.

After bathtime the three of them had fun building some block towers, and had even more fun sending them crashing down. Max and Elke thought this was a great idea so they also decided to crash on the floor!

Another great way to have fun with your cousins is to race them around the room. Apparently the three of them just kept running laps from the living area into the kitchen and back again. This was fine except when they decided to do it with a bucket over their heads so they couldn't see where they were going!

After so much fun it was finally time for bed, but not before Max gave Elke a goodnight kiss.

(That's right mate, hold them down so they can't get away!)

After a nice drink of milo, all three were happy to go to sleep and didn't make a peep until morning. Cam and I also slept over at the Mutzelburg house, so we were there to get Max out of bed in the morning (much too early!) and head back over to our side of town in time for church.

Many thanks to the Mutzelburgs for giving Max such a good time so that Cam and I could enjoy the wedding, and congratulations to Aaron and Shona!

How Cool Are You?

2009-04-05T20:33:00.002+10:00

Max is generally going through a very cool phase at the moment. He is at that precious age where he just does stuff that makes you laugh or go wow I didn't know he could do that.

Here are some cool things he does from time to time:
Max likes to race Jo up and down the drive way and then he gets to hit the metal garage door to prove he has finished. The whole time he is running he giggles and says go go go...

Yesterday in the car on the way to see his cousins we told Max that we were going to see Gabi and Elke he replied with a joyful "Cousins"!. We had no idea he could say cousins let alone know who they are.

He has started to walk around the house backwards and then when he hits something slides to the ground with lots of chuckling.

He has started imaginary play so he feeds his toys or yesterday he told us Leo had done a poo. Unfortunately when you ask Max if he has done a poo which he clearly has from the smell and his strained facial expressions give us a joyful "Noooooo".

He loves to spin around on the spot and then fall down.

At the fruit and veg shop last week he gave the lady his compulsory hi-five and then pointed to his hand repeatedly saying "dicker, dicker, dicker" I then said no mate they only give you stickers at Woolworths. I am glad we get given spares from Woolies which we keep in the car for such occasions.

While enjoying our family pastime of reading junkmail Max has ability to point out every time a wiggles dvd is featured. He can now say all of there names. Murray is his favourite we think because he likes to play air guitar.

Somehow he knows what chocolates are when he saw ferrero rochers in the coles catalogue he said "yum, chocolate". Jo denies sneaking him chocolate when I am not around.

He does lots of other quite cute thing which I shall not bore you all with now. But we really love Max and the adventures he shares with us.

How to Get A Gumnut Out of a Small Child's Nose and Other Adventures!

2009-03-26T18:54:00.002+10:00

Yesterday the 25th of March is Jo's mum's birthday. In honor of the occasion we got the clan together for dinner at the Everton Hills Tavern in Brisbane to celebrate as Jo's dad was already down and staying at Jo's sister's place. I got picked up straight from work and the kids were playing when Elke started to point to her nose and said "nut" it took her to say this a couple of times to realise she had a gumnut up her nose. Amy went to grab the tweezers and in this time the gumnut had gone further up!

So after a call to Kurt's sister who is a GP who didn't really know what she was working with because she couldn't see it. They also consulted several other medical types that suggested they go to the big hospital. To be honest we all thought they would miss out on dinner completely. They got to the hospital and when they got to see a doctor they had a look and got Amy to close the unblocked nostril and blow through Elke's mouth real hard and the offending gumnut popped out!!!

They were able to join us for dinner and a good time was had by all. The pub was no ordinary pub it was designed specifically in mind. When you walk in you see heaps of high chairs and a a massive playground for kids from 1- 12 and a computer games room. The computer games room had a camera and if you sat in front of one of the plasma screens you could watch your kids play in the computer game room. To really push it's kid friendly credentials they had their own permanent carousel. Max had 2 rides through out the night and had an absolute blast.

We left at 9 which is very late for Max and he was tired but not a little bit grumpy which is a win win situation for all concerned!

Happy birthday grandma!!

In the Kitchen with Max

2009-03-18T15:13:00.007+10:00

Our internet has returned, finally! So here are some photos from a while ago now, but still worth putting up.

On Valentine's Day we decided to make some gingerbread biscuits and take them over to Cam's sister's place for a visit. Cam had recently worked during the Tupperware conference at the BCEC and so had some gift Tupperware such as a mixing bowl, cookie cutters, spatula, food containers and this gorgeous little kids chef's outfit, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to use them and to get Max helping out in the kitchen.

He loved it, but just made so much mess that I had to end up taking over. He didn't mind too much, and then enjoyed helping us to eat them afterwards.

When Will We Return To Our Normally Scheduled Programming?

2009-03-14T19:55:00.002+10:00

Just to keep everyone up to date. We are continuing issues with our internet/phone and have been for the last 2 weeks. We are doing well and once we get back to normal we will update with some new pics etc.

Thanks for your patience.

Cam, Jo and Max

Down On The Farm!

2009-02-13T00:59:00.004+10:00

A bit of a Batkin family update for you all. In the upcoming weeks Jo will be going back to work from home two days a week. Jo will work on Monday and Friday. Mr Max will go to a small daycare within walking distance. We have decided to do this for a couple of reasons including keeping Jo's skills up and her brain engaged and allow Max to interact with other kids and will improve his social skills.

To allow this all to happen Jo had to duck into her work at the Valley in Brisbane and update the files on her work laptop and catch up with what she will be working on. Max and I dropped Jo off and then proceeded down Brunswick St to New Farm. Cam Watt with whom I once worked was a former resident and always reffered to it as "The Farm". Jo had packed Max and I some morning tea but we went to the New Farm Village Bakery to grab some extra treats. It is a great little bakery and does not look like it has changed much in about 30yrs. The cabinets and trays look like they have been used for that long. The food looks the same as when I was a kid. They have old school match sticks, cup cakes, hedgehog slice, gingerbread men, lamingtons and vanilla slices etc.

We went with the hedgehog slice (chocolate) they have caramel hedgehog and chocolate and Max scored a gingerbread. These were exactly how a gingerbread man should be freshly baked and not in a pre sealed plastic bag, chewy, tangy and sweet with ginger. They also had only 2 smarties for buttons and the eyes were currants.

Being a Thursday we were able to get a great park right in front of the playground of New Farm park which is a large park with beautiful jacaranda's and rose gardens down by the river. The playground was huge with a massive fort at the back which had several levels and slides and 4 or 5 kinds of bridges. Max and I had great fun climbing all over it and going down the slide. The problem with the slide was that there was no way to the ground near by excpet for the slide itself. So Max would slide with me behind so he could climb up the bridges which suspended and had gaps in it so he could ride the slide again. He really enjoyed me riding on the slide behind him and catching up and hitting him. He thought was so funny and would giggle and say moah (more) over and over again. Here are some pics:

We stopped twice for morning tea to get some fluids in him. He really like the gingerbread man and ate most of it all himself. He also wolfed down the grapes and nectarine as well.

After nearly two hours of playground fun we packed up and went and picked Jo up. Max managed to stay awake with the helps of some of his favourite music so he could sleep at home which he did for ages.

New Years Celebrations

2009-02-04T11:40:00.003+10:00

We spent about a week out at the farm with my family, and it was wonderful to celebrate New Years with them and catch up with everyone in the same place for once. With everyone so busy the time together didn't last long and so we celebrated New Years a few days early so that we could all be together.

Instead of the traditional BBQ, my Dad likes to prepare a hangi where you wrap the meat and vegetables in alfoil and bury them in the ground with heated rocks and coals. Although it takes a bit more preparation the food comes out wonderfully tender and delicious and it's easy to cook a lot of food at once. Throughout the day we could feel the storm building, with high temperatures and humidity and the wind starting to pick up. We could tell it was about to hit just when we needed to take the food out of the pit, and so Dad called in his best mate Charlie to help him get everything out before the storm. Here's what it looked like ...

Thanks to the extra help we just managed to get all the food out before the rain started, and then we had a great communal dinner with Charlie and his family there as well to share all of the delicious food from the hangi that they had helped to rescue.

How much fun are backyard wading pools?

2009-01-22T20:48:00.011+10:00

After a very long trip from Bli Bli we eventually arrived at the farm near Millmerran. We left in the evening in the hopes of Max sleeping all or most of the way there, but unfortunately the weather was against us. It started to rain near Kilcoy and continued on and off for the rest of the way to Toowoomba, which cooled the air down quite a lot. We were both concentrating on the extremely thick fog that stayed with us the whole way from Esk through Highfields and into Toowoomba and didn't realise that Max was getting a bit too cold in the backseat until he woke up and started complaining right in the thickest part of the fog. We did make it through thanks to Cam's good concentration and driving and stopped at a 7-11 in Toowoomba for a pitstop. I took Max into the toilet since he also needed a nappy change, and thankfully found an emergency hoodie for him in the nappy bag. He was then wandering around a 7-11 in Toowoomba at about 10.30pm wearing his pjs, the hoodie with the hood over his head, and no shoes, while eating a muesli bar. He looked so funny that Cam and I couldn't help giggle every time we looked at him. Thankfully the stop fixed most of his issues and he was good for the rest of the trip.

When we arrived at the farm, Amy, Kurt and the twins were already there and the next day Tammy and Cam arrived as well. We then opened all of the Pfeffer Christmas presents and it was good to see how much more the kids enjoyed it this year than last year. After presents and lunch it was time for a swim in the wading pool that Grandma and Pa had set up.

They all had fun splashing around in their togs for a while before wanting to get out. Elke was happy to swim so long as Max wasn't in the pool at the same time, since he is a bit more boisterous than she is used to and she didn't like it so much.

Later on Gabbie and Max wanted to go for another swim so we just took off their clothes and let them go. They were very happy and cute playing in the water and getting in and out of the pool with little naked bums and we all had fun watching them. Once again Elke was a bit scared by noisy splashy Max and instead went to play in the twins' Christmas present from their parents - an inflatable fort/jumping castle.

Max and Gabbie also had fun taking the inflatable stars from the fort to the pool and back again, doing lots of splashing and running around in the process.

Eating Out

2009-01-18T14:00:00.006+10:00

On our last night in Hervey Bay we all went out to dinner, thanks to Uncle Lance, to one of his favourite restaurants The Drover's Dog (highly recommended!). Usually if Cam and I go out to eat in the evening we try and plan to leave Max at home, but this time we wanted to all eat together so we planned his daytime naps and our restaurant booking so that he could come along too.

Max loved the experience and had great fun making friends with our waitress and several of the other diners. He did have a few upset moments, however, such as when our drinks orders arrived and his cousin Rhys received a chocolate milkshake in a big tall glass. Max watched it intently as it was set down in front of Rhys and then let everyone know that he was being robbed if he couldn't have some.
We thought he may as well be let in on the fun, so the nice waitress went and prepared Max a strawberry milkshake of his very own.

Max watched her every move while she was preparing it and then didn't take his eyes off it until we'd poured some into a smaller glass and he was drinking it out of his very own straw. He must have thought we were going to take it away again, because he completely drained his first glass without taking a breath and then wanted a refill! Everyone at the table was amazed at the speed at which he drank the entire milkshake throughout the meal.

One of the excellent things about the Drover's Dog (other than their delicious filet mignon which is what I ordered) is that they provide free mashed vegies for kids under 3, and our very understanding waitress gave Max an oyster fork which was the perfect size for him. After feeding him a few mouthfuls my own meal arrived, so I decided just to not watch Max too closely (to avoid cringing at the mess he made) and let him go nuts with the fork while I paid proper attention to my perfectly cooked steak. Here are the results ...

vegies you say? hmm, tastes better with fingers

actually this fork thing isn't so bad after all if you open your mouth wide enough

who says I can't eat the garnish? it looks like the best bit!

get that camera away! I LIKE being messy!

Bundaberg Day Trip

2009-01-13T11:50:00.009+10:00

Another outing we took while staying at Hervey Bay was up to visit the town of Bundaberg. Usually this is a town with much to offer the day tripper, such as the Ginger Beer and Rum factories, the famous Sunshine Kebabs, and the free zoo in the botanical gardens. Unfortunately we chose to go on Boxing Day, which meant that Sunshine Kebabs (and most other dining establishments) were closed, and the star attraction of the zoo, the emu, had been killed only a few days previously.

Still, we had a fun day visiting the zoo's other inhabitants and playing on the playground.

After quite a bit of driving around and finding that most places are closed on Boxing Day in Bundaberg, we eventually discovered that the RSL still opens for lunch, so we went there and had a lovely feed while overlooking the boats on the river.

On the way home we decided to visit Woodgate Beach again since we had such a good time there on the last visit. This time we were more prepared with swimming togs so Max, Cam and I all had a wonderful swim before returning home.

Woodgate Beach

2009-01-11T21:05:00.002+10:00

For the first week of our three week Christmas break, we headed up to Hervey Bay to stay with Cam's sister Bronwyn and her family for Christmas Day. We tried to make the most of our stay in such a beautiful part of the country by seeing the area and taking lots of day trips. The first of these was up to Woodgate to visit Cam's great-aunt Maisie, who is visually impaired but still lives alone and is quite independent. While Maisie and Joy (Cam's mum) were chatting and catching up, Cam and I took Max to the beach. It is a gorgeous spot with gentle waves and crystal clear water with lots of golden sand - perfect for Max to play in and explore. He just loves the water so much, especially the beach!

Just about the only negative for Max at the beach is that his eyes get so red from all of the salt, so when they got too bad we left the beach and headed for the playground instead. I don't think Max minded too much, since they had all his favourites such as swings, slides and even a cool tunnel with windows!

When he had had enough we hosed Max down in the outdoor shower and went back to Auntie Maisie's house for lunch. She shares her backyard with some very friendly kangaroos.

After a nice chat and lunch we took a quick group photo of the four generations before heading back home to Hervey Bay.

Underwater World

2008-12-31T11:44:00.007+10:00

Even though I have done very little work from home for my company this year, my boss was still kind enough to invite me to the work Christmas Party. This year we all drove up to Mooloolaba to visit Underwater World before going on a short cruise around the canals, rivers and ocean in the area and then enjoying lunch at the local Surf Club.

Max was quite good on the long car ride up to Mooloolaba but was a little tired by the time we met up with everyone and went into Underwater World. We were lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour before seeing the rest of the marine park, which Max thought was pretty cool because we got to see lots of turtles up close as well as see the sharks from the main tanks swimming past with their fins out of the water.
His favourite thing about the underwater tunnel was not the big scary sharks, or huge flying rays, or tiny little brightly coloured tropical fish, however. Max was much more interested in the moving walkway that takes you through the tunnel. He had lots of fun getting onto it, and then off again, and then trying one leg on each which of course made him fall over.

Once he had had enough of that we went exploring to see what else we could find. Max liked the seals because they kept jumping in and out of the water and making splashes and being playful.

By then it was almost time to leave for the cruise, but not before trying to take the obligatory tourist photos in front of the big shark's mouth. Max coped better with this than I thought he would and we got some pretty decent shots.

By the time the cruise started Max was a very tired boy indeed, but there was enough to keep him entertained for a little while. His favourite people on the boat were my boss's 3 daughters. He had lots of fun with them - giving high-fives, pointing out their various facial features, and especially giving them lots of kisses. But even that started to get a bit too much by the end of the boat ride and he fell asleep on my lap for the last 15 mins.

The short nap recharged his batteries enough to stay happy during lunch, especially since he got to eat grown up food and share my orange juice and spend more time playing with the girls. But after that it was time to head back to Nanny and Poppy's place for a proper nap at the end of an exhausting but happy day.

Choo choo trains

2008-12-30T11:58:00.009+10:00

Nanny and Poppy are members of a car club which has an annual Christmas party where Poppy traditionally plays Santa Claus. So they were keen for us, and especially Max, to come along to have fun at the party and see Poppy as Santa, but the main reason is that the party is held at the miniature steam train park in Nambour. We knew Max would love seeing and riding on the fully working steam train models, along with all of the other car club members and their families.
We all had a fun day riding on the trains and eating lunch together, and Max loved seeing Poppy as Santa and receiving a great little truck as a present.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-29T13:53:00.007+10:00

Sorry once again for the lack of recent blogging. We have been travelling lots this Christmas season and haven't had computer access for much of it to do things like download photos and post them up here. But now we are at Pfeffer's for new years I can do both of these things so expect a bit of a flood from the backlog.

First things first - Christmas! This year was Batkin Christmas, which we spent up at Hervey Bay with Cameron's sister Bronwyn and her family. Max was a little grumpy the morning of Christmas Day since we had to wait until everyone arrived before letting him near the tree and the presents. By the time everyone had arrived he was having a nap, so we decided to eat our delicious Christmas lunch before opening presents. We had the usual cold meats and tasty salads, which Cam organised and prepared, as well as perfectly cooked meat from the barbeque care of chefs Cam and Sam.

After we had all eaten plenty we gathered around the tree and cousin Liam was selected for the vital role of Santa Claus.

Max was much more interested in everything this year, especially when it came to opening and receiving his own presents!

Thanks to all the Batkins for an excellent Christmas Day. Max enjoyed it so much, and will continue to enjoy playing with all of his shiny new toys!

The twins come to visit!

2008-12-09T11:45:00.010+10:00

It's been a while since the twins have come over to our house to play so it was wonderful to see them and their parents last Thursday. It was one of those really hot and steamy Brisbane days before a storm so we were trying to keep the little ones as happy as possible by removing their hot clothes, so we got some cute topless photos to show you!

All three of them are doing quite well at the moment. All are healthy and growing well, and also are continuing to learn more words and be more active, so they enjoyed having extra playmates. Max doesn't quite know what to do with other kids his age and tends to be a bit rough with them, so he got into trouble a bit for pushing the girls out of the way of his toys. They got some respite while he went and had a nap and then really had fun exploring a new house and lots of new toys with no fear of Max wreaking his vengeance.
After Max woke up and we all had some lunch he was in a better mood and decided to make up for his earlier behaviour by trying to kiss the girls, especially Elke.

He thought this was such a fun game and Elke wasn't too scared of him either, even though he still gives kisses with a wide open mouth, so we had fun just watching them and taking photos.

Elke has also learnt that there will soon be a third little person in their family, and she pushes up Amy's shirt to point at her tummy and say 'bubba'. What a nice way to begin welcoming their new little person - congratulations Mutzelburgs!

Fun at the Beach

2008-12-03T12:23:00.008+10:00

After the BCEC Christmas Party we headed up the coast to Bli Bli since Cam had a couple of days off. Max was so tired out that he slept the whole way so it was a nice easy drive up.
On the Monday we drove out to Kenilworth to visit Nanny and Poppy who were on their annual caravan club holiday. Max slept in the car for a little while but then woke up and we all had a wonderful time eating yummy burgers and fish and chips for lunch, playing in the park and eating delicious Kenilworth icecreams afterwards.

On Tuesday Nanny and Poppy came home but had to go up to Maryborough to attend a funeral for Poppy's uncle, so while Cam was driving them up there Max and I went to the beach at Cottontree. There's a great playground there and it's right next to the beach. Last time we went I didn't take spare clothes for Max and had to try and keep him dry, but this time I was prepared and I let him go crazy. He had so much fun splashing in the water and exploring the wet sand and playing with the beach toys from Nanny.

BCEC Kids Christmas Party

2008-11-28T11:58:00.010+10:00

Can you believe it's this close to Christmas already? This year has gone so quickly, and last weekend it was time once again for the Kids Christmas Party run by the social club at the BCEC where Cam works. Last year Max did go, although he was too small to appreciate all of the fun things on offer. This year he had a much better time!

When we first arrived his attention was occupied by all of the good things to eat. He isn't normally allowed goodies like jellybeans, chocolate and chips but since this was a Christmas Party we let him go crazy and eat what he wanted to. Jellybeans are his current favourite and he demolished most of those in the plate of lollies on our table. Once they were gone he started to look around and just had to go and explore Santa's throne.

He loved the christmas trees with their decorations, the snowmen beside the throne and of course he loved climbing up on the throne itself, along with lots of the other children there. Here he is with Sam McKee and Daddy.

Next stop were the rides!
Max and I rode on this huge slippery slide several times. It was about 6m tall and had several bumps on the way down and we just flew! Apparently Max had a huge grin on his face the whole way down, but we were going too fast to catch this in a photo. He loves even the small slides at the playground so this one was a huge hit, and I'm sure he would have gone on it more times if he could have done it all by himself.

Lucky for Max he was able to ride the merry-go-round this year. He is still too small to ride on the horses but had fun going around in the wagon with Sam anyway. We have lots of blurry shots of the ride in action but at least in this one you can tell it's Max.

After we all had some lunch it was time for Santa to arrive. Max was fairly tired by this point and wasn't very good at sitting down waiting patiently for his name to be called to go up and receive his present, but I managed to keep him happy by feeding him some chips until it was his turn. He didn't need too much encouragement to go up and get his present from Santa, especially since he got to give Santa a high-five.

Daddy also got to have some fun at the party as well as helping to organise it. Here he is driving Santa back home!

After all this excitement it was almost time to leave. We stopped by the giant jumping castle first, since Max just kept wandering over to look at it throughout the day and we could tell he wanted to have a go. Although he is still too little for it, the operator said she would let just small kids on to make it a bit safer, so he got to have a go after all! He had a lot of fun bouncing around but since he is still a little unsteady on his feet sometimes he ended up crawling to get around. We went down the jumping castle slide as well and then it really was time to go home, since I lost my balance getting off and Max got a little squashed!

We all had a fun day, and thanks so much to Cam and Matt and the BCEC and all who helped to organise it!

Fun at the Beach

2008-11-06T19:11:00.004+10:00

Last week headed up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy so that Cam could attend the funeral of a close family friend. While this was quite a sad occasion, we also found time to enjoy the break by going to the beach.

Max absolutely loves playing in the sand, and he had even more fun this time because Nanny bought him a bucket and spade set, which he thought was the best thing ever.

What a great smile! We all had fun watching Max enjoy himself so much, and Kenna also enjoyed being able to go to the beach while she's in Australia.
When Max was thoroughly covered in sand we took him to the water's edge, where he had a blast paddling in the shallow water, since it was low tide. His favourite game was to pick up wet sand and throw it into the water. Of course he lost his balance once or twice and ended up wet as well as sandy, but he was having so much fun that it didn't really matter.

We managed to time our visit so as to catch up with some other coastie friends, Anthony and Pauline and their two sons. Mason is our godson and is about 9 months older than Max, and Spencer is still a tiny bub at 4 months. Max and Mason had a good time playing in the sand together and running around with Anthony.

Playtime with Kenna

2008-11-01T12:38:00.006+10:00

It's been wonderful having Kenna stay with us during the past week. Max has really enjoyed the extra playmate and Cam and I have loved seeing an old friend again and getting to spend so much time with her, which we usually don't get to do since she lives in the USA.

The other day Max, Kenna and I went for a walk to the park and took some photos of us all having fun together.

Max loves this huge xylophone and always tries to walk off with the metal stick you use to hit the pipes and make noise. Luckily it is attached or he would have lost it many times over!

No doubt in anyone's minds that Max is a real boy! He loves to get dirty, and on this day he had fallen face-first into the bark chips, so that the dirt stuck to his sticky nose (he has a bit of a cold), and then he ate a mandarin for afternoon tea and added nice sticky juice to the mess!

Wheee!

Swimming lessons

2008-10-28T11:25:00.008+10:00

For the last 4 weeks Max has been going to swimming lessons on Tuesday mornings. I have been wanting to get him more used to the water, as well as learn for myself the best ways to teach a little person how to start to swim and be safer in the water.

Max has taken to it quite well, and improves every week in the way he moves around in the water, holds his breath while under the water, in the way he kicks his legs, and also just in general confidence.

This week we have Kenna from the States staying with us (an old friend of Cam's and one of our regular blog commenters) so she was able to take some photos while Max and I were in the water.

Nanny's Birthday

2008-10-23T11:18:00.008+10:00

Last weekend we ventured up the coast to Bli Bli to celebrate Nanny's 70th birthday. We arrived on the Saturday evening to get in early before everyone else got there the next morning before going out to lunch together.

Max is getting much better at travelling long distances in the car these days so that we don't have to plan on doing all our trips while he is asleep. We broke up the trip by stopping at Burpengary for a visit to the playground, which he really loved. Then it was time for afternoon tea and some listening to his favourite music and before you knew it we were there! Max was still glad to get out of the car and discover Nanny and Poppy's toy collection (most of which belonged to Cam when he was little). In fact he loved it so much that he had to get into the box with the toys!

The next morning we went out for breakfast at the local RSL where Nanny had a free birthday breakfast. Max loves the pancakes and also helped us eat our sausages, bacon and eggs. Yum! After a quick visit to the playground where he managed to get lots of sand in his nappy, we bought Nanny a delicious looking birthday cake and went back to their place to wait for everyone else to arrive. Max was very well behaved and managed to sleep through all of the exciting talking and noises from 5 of his cousins and 3 aunts/uncles arriving, and we had to wake him up so that we could leave in time for lunch. We all had a tasty meal and Max enjoyed playing with his relatives before heading back home to eat cake.

We also took the opportunity to take some Batkin family photos. Here are all of the grandsons, posing nicely for the camera.

Then we split into two teams for girls vs. boys photos. Unfortunately Uncle Lance couldn't be there, but everyone else looks quite happy.

Happy 70th Birthday Nanny! Hope you had a great day surrounded by family.

First haircut!

2008-10-17T13:28:00.006+10:00

I took Max to get his first haircut last week. His fringe was getting so long it was constantly in his eyes, and he also had a bit of a mullet forming at the back. We took some shots just before going to the hairdressers so that we could do a bit of 'before and after' for you all. So here are the many fringes of Max ...

long and emo

messy side part with grin

my attempt at a comb-over

big mess!

I was a bit worried about how it would go, considering that he doesn't like to sit still at the best of times and loves shiny new toys. I thought he would be running around the salon and grabbing the scissors and not letting anyone near his head, and that he would end up with half a haircut or none at all. Surprisingly it all went quite well! Max sat on my lap and the hairdresser was very good at choosing her moments so that I only had to hold him still once or twice for tricky bits like around his ears. Here's the result!

He looks even more like a little boy rather than a baby/toddler with his new short back'n'sides.

Outside Fun

2008-09-28T16:44:00.003+10:00

Max loves to go outside and play on the paved area and grass in our backyard. There are so many fun things to play with! For example the watering can, which I'm sure he thinks belongs to him. It fascinates him, particularly when there is water in it, and he loves to watch us fill it up and water the plants.
I started taking this video just to see what he would do and although it's nothing special, I still like to watch him wander around and find interesting things to do outside. He also makes a great exit!

Max on the farm

2008-09-25T13:43:00.009+10:00

Cam had three days off in a row this week, so we made the most of this unexpected blessing by going out to the farm to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They had had a full house on the weekend with Tammy and Cam and Amy and Kurt there as well, but we just missed Tammy, Cam and Kurt since they had to go back to Brisbane for work. We did manage to be there at the same time as Amy and the twins though, which was awesome since all of the little ones got to play together. The girls are more used to other little people being around, obviously, but Max is also getting to a better age where he interacts and plays with kids his age. Of the three Gabbie is kind of the ringleader, and will lead the other two into trouble if she can get away with it. Elke is starting to say all sorts of words really well and both of the girls love to climb up onto things. Max is still the biggest of the three and probably the biggest eater as well which makes sense!

On Monday afternoon we all went over to visit the Uebergangs, who are good family friends and who live on a property nearby. They have lots of animals, such as cows, chickens, a pet galah, dogs, cats and guinea pigs, so we thought the little ones would enjoy seeing them.

Max loves any animal with a tail who will let him come near it, so he made instant friends with their dog, Peaches.

Although she is a fairly big dog, especially compared to Max, he showed no fear and went straight over to grab her tail and was delighted when she started wagging it and hitting him.

He also thought the sprinkler on the lawn was pretty awesome and stood there staring at the water spraying out and getting wetter and wetter for ages!

Max, as always, is interested in food and loved watching the cow eat some lunch. Elke was very cute and showed her intelligence and skills off by saying 'moo' all the time while watching the cow with her poddy calf. All three of them were brave enough to give the cow a pat (no not that kind of cowpat) and stayed watching them for ages.

Probably the highlight of the trip to the Uebergang's farm for all three kids was this old trailer with some dirt and sticks in the bottom. No amount of funny noises and facial expressions from us could get all three to look at the camera when there was so much interesting dirt in the bottom of the trailer!

They all happily played here and got nice and dirty for ages, and would have stayed longer if we hadn't decided it was time to move on. They loved using the sticks to move the dirt around, and putting small sticks in the old icecream bucket, and sharing different interesting things they found there. It was great watching them interact so well together and enjoy themselves so much with such a simple toy!

While the girls were watching the chooks run around in their pen, Max spied this motorbike, and came straight for it with lots of big excited 'ooooooh!' noises. He had so much fun sitting on it and pressing the buttons, and also taking the key out and playing with it.

I'm sure he would have figured out how to make it go if he had long enough, and the girls had fun sitting up there as well!

Before we left to take the kids home for some dinner, we spent a few minutes saying hello to the guinea pig, which Max also thought was pretty cool.

It was great to see all the little ones enjoying the farm so much. I'm not sure if it was the being outside, or the animals, or the freedom to have space to explore, or a combination of all three, but they really did have a great time. Thanks to the Uebergangs for letting us explore your farm for the afternoon!

Visiting the twins

2008-09-15T08:43:00.008+10:00

Last week was mine and Max's turn to go and visit the twins again. They only saw each other for about an hour before the twins went to bed for their nap, but it was plenty of time for fun. They can all play together much more these days and are lots of fun to watch. Max and Elke were kissing each other through the glass door, and all three were riding on the scuttlebug trikes out on the deck.

The girls had lunch before going to bed, and of course Max wanted some food too, so I am feeding him some mandarin which he really enjoys. The prospect of food also attracted the girls, although they weren't too keen on actually eating it.

This big playbox is a birthday present for the girls from Grandma and Grandpa. All three of them had lots of fun pulling out toys to play with.

Fathers Day

2008-09-12T22:22:00.008+10:00

Sorry again for the big gap between blogs. Our phone company tells us that they have hopefully sorted out the issues now so we should have reliable internet and phone access once again, and hopefully that will mean more regular blogging. Thanks to all those who keep checking back here to see what's happening!

Anyway, for Fathers Day this year the Batkins held a family reunion, to celebrate Poppy's birthday as well as all the fathers. We went up to Bli Bli on the Friday evening and spent the weekend at the coast which was lovely, since Nanny and Poppy got to see lots of Max and we all got a chance to relax and spend time together.

On Saturday afternoon we took Max and Nanny to the beach since it was a beautiful day. Max wasn't too sure about the waves, since the water was a bit too cold and unpredictable for him, but he loved playing in the sand. We built and demolished sandcastles, dug holes, scooped sand and generally had fun watching Max enjoy himself while trying to stop him eating too much sand.

Sunday was of course Fathers Day. We began it once Max woke up and we took him into bed with Cam and I to open the card and present. Max and I had fun making a card earlier in the week. It's become a bit of a tradition to make a Fathers Day card with Max's handprints and footprints on it along with my words of appreciation. This year Max was much more cooperative in his participation and he had so much fun with the paint so it was a pleasure to do. As a gift Max got his Daddy a recipe book since Cam loves to plan and prepare food.

Later in the day the rest of the Batkin clan arrived and we shared a yummy lunch together before it was time to cut Poppy's birthday cake. It was great to see everyone together and we took the opportunity to take some family photos. A few people had requested an updated photo of the three generations of Batkin men (see here for the initial shot, taken over a year ago) so here you go.

Such a noticeable family resemblance! We also wanted to get one of all of the Batkin grandchildren with their Poppy, although Sam is missing since he was asleep.

Happy Fathers Day to Cam, Poppy and all the other fathers out there! Hope you all had a great day with your families.

Brrrrm Brrrrm

2008-08-25T19:14:00.002+10:00

Max was a very lucky boy on his birthday and received a few fun-looking things with wheels that he can ride. At the moment he is having the best luck with the trike from Grandpa and Grandma, since his legs touch the ground and he's figured out how to make it go. If we go out in the backyard and he sees it waiting to be ridden he points at it and goes 'oooooh!' which is very cute.
Once he gains more confidence on it I'm sure there'll be no stopping him and he will tear around the house and backyard on it, as well as the other rideable toys.

Playtime at the twins' house!

2008-08-09T14:22:00.011+10:00

Apologies for the long break between blogs, but we have been having massive problems with our internet over the last month or so. It is currently working again - yay! - but is very slow. At least it works though.

Anyway, Max and I went around to visit his cousins the twins the other day since it's been a while since they saw each other. The girls and their Mummy have both been quite sick for a while and we didn't want to risk catching it so thought it safer to stay away. In the meantime all of the little ones have made good progress.
Elke is quite good and steady at walking now and has been for a little while. She is the smallest of the three and looks very cute walking around. Gabbie has now started to walk as well, although still a bit unsteadily and just for short distances. Gabbie's talking and comprehension has been improving really well though, and she now can tell you what cows say ('mmmmm') and point at different colours and body parts. Max can say 'all gone' quite understandably, as well as 'dada', and his walking is also coming along very well.

The three toddlers all had fun playing together. Max and Gabbie chased each other up the many flights of stairs in the twins' house, since Max has just discovered the joys of climbing stairs and thinks it is great fun.

Once Elke woke up the three of them had lots of fun out on the deck playing with the pegs, the washing and the cats.

They all got along really well with each other and really enjoyed the playdate. Hopefully they continue to be good friends as they grow up.

More presents?!

2008-07-25T12:19:00.002+10:00

Yesterday the mailman knocked on our front door with an exciting looking package for one Max Batkin. When we opened it, to our delight it was filled with wonderful goodies for Max from America!

It contained many exciting things like a dinosaur sleepsuit, a batman outfit, several cool storybooks, some yummy cookies, a baseball shirt and a cool toy that buzzes when you pull the string. There were also lots of cool little notes explaining the significance of the goodies.

Max fits very well into the sleepsuit, and really loves the buzzing toy. He figured out how to make it work very quickly and it keeps him amused for ages. He is yet to enjoy the other exciting gifts but I'm sure they will be just as big a hit.

Thanks so much to our American friends for sending over such a wonderful birthday package!

Happy Birthday!

2008-07-20T21:00:00.000+10:00

After much anticipation on our parts (Max had no idea what was happening really), Max has now turned a very big 1 year old!! Congratulations son!!

We started his birthday celebrations on Friday night by opening his presents from Cam and I. Cam had to work on Saturday morning and we wanted to do this as a family with just the three of us before his party. So we all sat on the floor in the lounge room and had a great time ripping off paper and showing Max his birthday presents.

Then on Saturday afternoon, after Max was very patient while I was busy icing the cake and getting party things ready, we all headed down to the park for the party. Max always loves being the centre of attention so he had a wonderful time seeing his relatives and playing on the playground and just being outside with lots of new things and friendly people to see.

As our regular blog readers will know, Max always likes his food, especially yummy party food that he isn't normally allowed to eat. I made him a special rocketship birthday cake and gave him one of the stars to eat by himself and as you can see he thought this was awesome!

His aunty Alison took advantage of the different colours of icing to turn Max into a cross between Braveheart and Humpty Dumpty. We tried to clean him up when he was done with the cake, but as the rest of the photos will show, this didn't entirely succeed and he spent the rest of the day looking a bit like an alien. But he was very happy and if you can't make a mess on your birthday then when can you?

One of Max's guests got a bit scared by this little alien when he came walking towards her with both hands in the air and grabbed on to her for support!

The next major event of the day was the opening of birthday presents. Thanks everyone for your amazing generosity - Max had a great time opening them and will really enjoy playing with his toys, reading his books and wearing his clothes in the year ahead!

After we all packed up and headed home (huge thanks to all who helped carry everything back to the cars and take stuff back to our place - so much appreciated!) we put Max straight into the shower with Daddy to try and clean up his blue facepaint. Cam did a great job of making him look like the Max we know and love, but Max must have decided that he did want a blue face after all. While we were busy talking and cleaning up, he wandered into the kitchen and found the blue food colouring bottle in the pantry. Although we noticed this we didn't think he could do himself much harm with the lid on. Silly thought! He must have managed to suck up the dye through the lid because he ended up with blue hands (again) and this time blue lipstick to match!

What a cute little goth.
After we cleaned Max up yet again Cam and I headed out for the evening and let Nanny stay home to put Max to bed and babysit. He was so exhausted that he went to bed with barely a whimper that it wasn't Mummy and slept straight through until morning. Cam and I had a great night out and everyone had a good nights sleep.

Birthday Beanie

2008-07-18T13:28:00.002+10:00

Last weekend Max's Nanny and Aunty Bronwyn came down to Brisbane for the 40th anniversary of the Inala church where they used to go. Max and I went along to the celebrations as well to represent Cam since he was working and was unable to make it, much to his disappointment. We had a really good afternoon and Max loved it because there were so many people there to supply him with junk food and toys like balloons and cake servers. Another reaon he enjoyed the day was of course seeing his Nanny and Aunty.

They bought him an early birthday present, which he loves to wear and thinks is hilarious to have on his head.

Unfortunately we didnt catch any of his smiles on camera, but he loves me to put the beanie on his head and then laugh at himself in the mirror.

Hopefully he enjoys his other birthday presents tomorrow as much as this one!

It Seems Like Just A Year Ago....

2008-07-13T23:47:00.003+10:00

A year ago yesterday on the 12th of July we were expecting the Peanut. We were all action stations. We had bags packed, cd's chosen, snacks ready to go, a special leaning mat thingy, a massager, togs and towel for me. We were committed to the mission and were ready for the long haul as you can see by the above list. We were ready for most eventualities. We had non gender specific clothing ready for the Peanut to come home in and everything. We did however forget to take newborn nappies as they don't supply them at the hospital.

But the Peanut was comfortable and as we know now the Peanut was not ready for another week. Jo was definitely ready for the arrival and started around this stage to actively encourage the baby into the world by drinking raspberry leaf tea and going on long walks around the suburb and I think was pretty much willing to try anything that would encourage the child into the world. The only thing that seem to end up encouraging the baby into the world was that the day after being born the baby was going to be induced ready or not.

It is amazing to think that the our world has changed so quickly in the last year. I am sure I will continue to reminisce during the week. If you can remember what we were like a year ago waiting for the birth please drop a comment. It will be interesting to see what you remember.

A week at Nanny and Poppy's house

2008-07-09T15:59:00.006+10:00

Last week Cam was feeling very rundown and sick and was advised to take the week off work to help him to recover and get back on track. So instead of me looking after two Batkin boys by myself, we decided to spend the week up at Nanny and Poppy's house so that everyone could have a bit of a break.
This worked out really well, since Nanny got to spend lots of time with her littlest grandson. She and Max had a good time going for a walk to get the paper in the mornings, playing with various toys, visiting friends and neighbours and getting wet in the bath (Max loves to splash so everyone ends up getting wet!).

It was also a good opportunity for Max to practice walking from me to Nanny and back again. Max also loved spending time with his Poppy, and by the end of our visit he was always happy to see him around the house and showed it by clapping his hands, smiling and stealing Poppy's beanie.

Nanny and I had lots of fun playing cards and chatting when we weren't busy keeping Max happy. If it was fine we also had fun taknig Max to a couple of different playgrounds near their house, and on rainy days we went driving around the area and took Max out for coffee and playtime at Bunnings while Nanny got some gardening supplies. Daddy stayed at home and caught some much needed rest, so everyone had a good time and enjoyed our break.

Thanks Nanny and Poppy!

Look at me go!

2008-06-25T21:23:00.007+10:00

Max is getting more and more mobile these days as he gets braver and starts to let go and step out by himself. I don't know who is more excited by this, Max or his parents! Sometimes Max just gets so excited by being able to walk that he promptly forgets how to do it properly.

On the latest visit from the twin cousins, we tried to take some footage of Max taking some steps to show off on the blog, but it took him a few attempts to get it right. However, these attempts are easily as entertaining as the walking itself, so I thought I'd let you see some of this as well.

(sorry about the sideways video - I couldn't fit in his head and his feet at the same time without turning the camera, and then I don't know how to rotate it later on)

Eventually he did remember how to put one foot in front of the other and make some progress, so here's the proof!

He is improving daily in his walking so we're hoping he can get around a bit more confidently by his birthday, when he can show off this latest skill to (hopefully) many family and friends.

All gone!

2008-06-24T09:20:00.002+10:00

It's always cute when little people start to mimic the things they see big people do.

One of the cute things Max has started to do lately is raise his hands and make appropriate noises to copy me when i say 'all gone, Max' and turn my palms upwards. He looks so adorable and the noises even sound like he is saying 'all gone'. Of course I can't help but laugh at him and then he thinks he is very clever and smiles and claps his hands, which makes it even cuter.

Max is enjoying his food a lot at the moment (we think he's having a growth spurt) and this is another reason to enjoy dinner time, so that we can delight in saying 'all gone' together at the end of the meal!

The twins turn 1!

2008-06-16T14:54:00.005+10:00

On Saturday Max's twin cousins celebrated their first birthday. It really doesn't seem like a whole year ago since we were telling our peanut that his/her cousins were here! It also means that Max's birthday isn't too far away, another very exciting event.

The twins had their birthday party at a park near their house. Max and I drove up and left Cam here to have a sleep and try to get better from his cold, and Max was very good by deciding to have his afternoon nap in the car on the way there, which meant that he was happy and excited to be at the park for the party. He especially had fun playing with his uncle Cam, who spent ages teaching Max to throw various toys and had him smiling and laughing the whole time.

It was also a good chance for Max to see both his Grandma and his great-grandma. His great-grandma hasn't seen him since he was about 5 months old so she enjoyed watching him play with uncle Cam, show off his walking skills while holding my hands, and having a cuddle.

As you can see, he also enjoyed eating the party food! It was his first introduction to twisties, which he likes very much, and another chance to wolf down some cheerios (tiny sausages, not cereal).

The twins also enjoyed their party and being the centre of attention. I think one of their highlights would be the awesome birthday cakes lovingly made by their mother. They each got to tackle a cake-shaped number 1 while sitting in their high chairs.

Elke (on the left) decided the best way to eat hers was not to bother picking it up, but just planting her face straight into the icing. Gabbie was a bit neater but still evidently enjoyed the icing lots.

All the little ones had a fun party and now we are looking forward to having Max's! (remember to keep the 19th of July free!)

What Makes You Think You Can Do That!!

2008-06-06T08:27:00.002+10:00

Last night while Jo was having a shower Max and I were in the lounge room spending some quality son & dad time together. This normally involves the reading of a story putting Max on the walker trolley thing and generally playing.

Last night Max was on the end of our Chaise lounge and was standing there and patting it and smiling when he turned and took a couple of steps towards the couch!! Just as he got to the couch he lost his balanced he face planted the couch. Ouch! But like the trooper he is he barely made a squeak.

When Jo was done we spent some time sitting opposite each other and Max taking a couple of steps between us. He then crawled over Jo and stood up on the walker trolley thing and then turned and took a couple of steps towards the coffee table when he decided to gently land.

Jo and I turned to each other and said do you think he knows he can't walk yet??

We are very excited and scared at the same time as the game has now completely changed that he can walk. We will attempt to catch some footage of this momentous occassion.

Max goes to Women's Retreat

2008-05-28T12:05:00.006+10:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently! No real excuses except that Max has been a bit sick with a cough and hasn't been sleeping much during the day, which makes it tricky for me to find time to blog.

Anyway, a weekend or two ago Max and Nanny came along with me to our church Women's Retreat up at Coolum. The ladies who organised the sleeping arrangements really looked after us and gave us our own room with a bathroom, which was really handy since it meant Max could have some decent sleeps without disturbing the other ladies and babies (or being disturbed by them!).

All three of us had a great weekend - me because I got to hang out with friends and take a bit of a break from full-time Max-care, Nanny because she got to spend time with her newest grandson (and me I guess) and Max because he got to see his Nanny, have a change of scenery from home and beat up the younger babies who were there (Nathaniel and Zephaniah in the photo - also there were Jesse and Talaini).

Over the weekend we got to spend lots of time relaxing and chatting, listening to speakers, singing praise and worship songs, eating good food, dressing up in fancy clothes and enjoying or providing a bit of pampering. Max was very well behaved for the weekend, but I'm looking forward to next year even more because he will then be weaned and can stay with Daddy instead!

Thanks to the ladies from Logan Church for organising an excellent weekend away - you did an awesome job!

First Mothers Day!

2008-05-15T15:51:00.004+10:00

The Batkins were out visiting Max's Grandma and Grandpa for the weekend of Mothers Day since Cam had a meeting in Toowoomba. Max had lots of fun playing out on the farm and getting to know his Pfeffer grandparents on the Saturday. One of his favourite activities was sliding down a piece of cardboard that Grandpa set up on top of a mound of crusher dust that he was using as a base for a new garden shed. Max got the idea of this really quickly and loved leaning forward with his arms out enough to give him some momentum to go sliding down into Grandpa's arms. He gave out lots of smiles and chuckles and everyone had a great time.

On Sunday morning for Mothers Day we all went into Grandma and Grandpa's room to open presents, in long-running Pfeffer tradition. After exchanging them (Max gave me a CD I've been wanting and some chocolates) Daddy and Grandpa took Max and went to make breakfast for us while Grandma and I stayed in bed and chatted. We had a nice time catching up and relaxing and then ate some delicious bacon and eggs in bed! That's definitely the latest I've stayed in bed since before Max came along.

In the afternoon before we headed back to Brisbane we went to visit Max's great-grandma, known to all as Ma. She has a couple of her daughters (Grandpa's sisters, my aunts) visiting her for Mothers Day so there were lots of my cousins for Max to play with, and although they were all quite a bit older than him he loved just watching them run around.

We then had a fairly uneventful trip back to Brisbane except for the last 20 mins or so, when Max was sick of driving and getting hungry. We managed to keep him happy by playing his favourite song ('Clap Your Hands' by They Might Be Giants) about 5 or 6 times in a row! A bit monotonous but it was worth it.

Mummy's Birthday

2008-05-02T11:42:00.002+10:00

Today is Max's Mum's birthday. The day started well with Max sleeping in till around 6.20 or so. I know that doesn't seem like much of a sleep in but when he was a bit younger he was up everyday at 5am !!

Max got out of bed and had a feed because their are priorities in life you know. Max then handed Jo the present he had selected which is a DVD of the movie Love Actually. I told Max to hand it to Jo which he did and then took back to play with. When I told Max it was a very important day as it was Mummy's birthday he gave Jo a huge smile some cute noises and lots of clapping. he just kept clapping and clapping.

He seems to be able to pick up on the tone in my voice so well.

I shall update later with some pics.

Happy Birthday Jo!!!

Long weekend away

2008-04-29T13:56:00.005+10:00

On the recent Anzac Day long weekend the Batkins decided to go up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy. Unfortunately Nanny and Poppy were away that weekend, to the disappointment of everyone. But we decided not to let that stand in the way of a chance to get away for the weekend and went up to their house in Bli Bli anyway.

Cam's sister Bronwyn and her family were also there on the Friday so we caught up with them after their recent trip to America and Disneyworld. They all had a great time and brought back many presents, including these matching family t-shirts!

They also bought Max his first pair of Chuck's, which are unfortunately a little too small for his feet. Although they are tiny feet they are quite big for his age and even after much trying we were unable to get the shoes on, to our great disappointment.
Still, we had fun dressing Max in his t-shirt, which has plenty of room in it yet!

We also managed to catch up with some other coastie friends while we were there, including Stacey and Steve and their newest addition to the family, little Timothy. It's hard to believe that Max was that size not so long ago - it seems like much longer! We also had a quick chat with Anthony and Pauline and Mason. It won't be long before they also have an addition to their family which is quite exciting.

Anyway after a nice relaxing couple of days, we headed home again early on the Sunday to beat the traffic rush. On the Sunday afternoon Grandpa called in since he was in Brisbane for the weekend, so he and Max played block towers and had fun on the swings in our local park. So Max got to see some of his grandparents after all, just not the ones we originally intended to see!

9 Months Already

2008-04-21T10:00:00.003+10:00

Yep, little Max has now been on the outside for as long as he was inside! He celebrated his 9 month birthday on Saturday, by going to the fruit and veg markets with us in the morning and then going to a friends 1st birthday party.
I thought it was about time for another checkup of his height and weight since it's been ages since we last went to the child health clicnic. So last Wednesday we went for a drive over there and put him on the scales. Max now weighs just over 10kgs and is 75cms tall. Both of these figures have him just above average for his age.
They also gave us a checklist of things that Max should be doing as a 9 month old, and fortunately he is doing pretty much of all of them. It includes things like

distinguishing between familiar people and strangers
recognising his own name
sitting without support
crawling/moving around and exploring surroundings
picking up things and putting them in his mouth (he's been doing that for a very long time now!)
using one finger to point or poke at items
drinking from a cup and eating solid food
playing peek-a-boo
looking for fallen objects (and then dropping them again when I pick them up)
speaking in babbling sounds.

He also loves to stand while holding onto people and furniture and loves to walk while I hold his hands. Noisy toys are his favourite, and if the toy doesn't make noise Max will often just bang on it with his hands, or bang it together with another toy, so that it does.

He is starting to seem more like a little boy than a baby, and is much more fun to hang out with during the day. He is also sleeping a lot less during the day and so I have to use my imagination a bit to think of activities to keep him happy and busy, so we've been going to the park in the pram or car much more often, which he really enjoys.

Anyway happy 9 month birthday Max! Congratulations on reaching this milestone and continuing to develop well.

Grandma and Grandpa

2008-04-18T10:07:00.004+10:00

Max was a lucky boy last weekend to see quite a bit of his Grandma, and visit Grandpa on his birthday.

The school holidays meant that Grandma had some free time, so she came up to Brisbane to visit her daughters and grandchildren. She visited Cam, Max and I on Thursday and we had a wonderful day together. In the morning we went shopping, since Max loves being in the trolley and is always interested in going to the shops, and I had to get something for Grandpa's birthday. It also ended up being a great shopping trip for me, since Grandma took the opportunity to buy me birthday presents too!

In the afternoon we all went down to the park to go for a walk and feed the ducks. Although Max ate some of the stale bread before we could throw it into the water we all had fun doing this. Then we found some swings and gave Max a go on these, which he really loves. He just laughs his head off when he swings towards me and really has an excellent time, so we all enjoyed it.
When we got home it was time for Max to have dinner and a bath, and just enough time for Grandma to read him a bedtime story before she headed home.

Then on Friday night we got a sleepy Max out of bed at about 8pm and headed out to the farm. We spent a nice quiet weekend out there, catching up with friends and family and just relaxing. Sunday was Grandpa's birthday so we enjoyed a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs and Max had fun with the wrapping paper from his presents.

Over the weekend Grandpa had been trying to get Max to say 'Grandpa' or even just 'Pa'. However, Max must have thought that 'Pa' sounded too much like a raspberry because whenever Grandpa said it, that's all Max would do!

Nambucca Holiday

2008-04-15T13:56:00.007+10:00

I had meant to update the blog before now, but I guess it's better late than never. If I don't do it soon I'll get too far behind and have to miss out on some of the interesting things that have been happening lately! But first I'd better catch you all up on our week away in Nambucca Heads.

We decided that the easiest way to travel the 5/6 hour journey with Max would be to do as much as possible while he was asleep. So on Saturday morning we woke up at 3am, packed the last few remaining things and put a very sleepy Max in the car and headed off. I don't think he had any idea of what was going on, and he stayed awake (but quiet) just trying to figure it out for a while before nodding back off to sleep. We managed to get most of the way to Grafton before he woke again, since at that time of morning the road was almost empty and we had a great run. After a couple of quick stops in Grafton for breakfast and Coffs Harbour for some sightseeing (and running into the Hovell family from church!) we were the first of the families to arrive in Nambucca.

The house we stayed in suited our large group pretty well for the week. Probably the best thing about it was the large second story, which was all open plan and combined a lounge room, kitchen, dining area and opened out onto a deck. It was roomy enough to fit everyone in with enough space that we weren't sitting in each other's laps (unless we wanted to!). It was also a short walk downhill to the beach, but since the walk back uphill was a bit of a struggle we mostly ended up driving there. The beach was perfect for little ones, being very flat with lots of little pools of water sheltered from the waves. Max loved it from the moment we got there. He couldn't get enough of walking around with me holding his hands, splashing in the water, eating the sand, and crawling around.

He also had fun splashing in the bath with the other kids once he got used to the concept of having a bath with other people.

Most evenings the little ones had a group bath since it saved lots of time and water. With up to 5 in the bath at once it made sure that everyone got very wet, including the adults supervising!

There was a fairly good mix of ages between the 5 families. Jaxon and Orlani, both two-and-a-bit, were good playmates for each other when they weren't fighting about something. Nate, who is about one and a half, was left out of their play a bit being a bit too young and not as strong-willed, but there were still enough toys to keep him happy most of the time. Keira, 11mths, and Max, 8 mths, were the next most active, with Kiera walking and Max crawling. We had to watch these ones from eating too many things that they shouldn't! Eli and Amelie, both 7mths old, were probably the easiest ones to look after since both were happy to sit or lie on the floor and play quietly with toys, until one of the older ones came and stole them or got a bit violent.

The adults all had lots of fun as well, as well as some very tasty food. I really enjoyed our evening meals, since with so many people there who like to cook and are good at it, the menu just kept on getting better! We had everything from barbeque to Mexican, and from Indian curries to a roast dinner - all of it thoroughly delicious.
The girls all took the opportunity to go out for lunch one day to the local tavern on the water, leaving the boys at home to look after the children. We all enjoyed and appreciated this rare chance and also visited the local bakery on the way home for some coffee and cake. The boys then had their turn and went out for an evening meal at the RSL.

On the last day of our holiday we went back down to the waterfront to commemorate our holiday by painting a rock, which seems to be the thing to do. Here are the Batkin family and our piece of the Nambucca wharf.

Overall the holiday was a big success. I think everyone came away refreshed and relaxed, and we all got a chance to catch up with what we've all been up to and spend time hanging out together and giving our kids the chance to become friends as well. I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime!

Did You Miss Us??

2008-04-07T08:54:00.002+10:00

Hi All,

We have just spent a week away with friends from all over Australia. It sounded a bit like a very bad reality show. Take one house and fill it with five families: 10 x adults, 1 x 9 yr old and 7 toddlers/babies under the age of 3!!

We will update with some more pics and what we got up to a bit later but this is just to let you know we are back and here is a small pic to show you what part of the world we spent the week.

Happy Wedding Anniversary!

2008-03-28T14:50:00.003+10:00

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to wish my Mummy and Daddy a happy wedding anniversary for Wednesday. They have been married for two whole years now! They were both feeling pretty sick so they didn't celebrate much on that day, but they did leave me with Nanny and go and see some nice paintings the other day. They took some silly pictures of themselves too!

Easter Camp

2008-03-27T21:12:00.003+10:00

For Max's first Easter, the Batkin family went up to Mapleton for Easter Camp, along with about 200 other Nazarenes from the church in Logan that we attend.
Easter Camp is always heaps of fun and involves great speakers, fun games, awesome worship, delicious food and of course a fantastic opportunity to spend time talking and having fun with everyone else. Max enjoyed most of these things, although he did sleep through some of the speaker's sessions or opt for the creche class instead. Cam and I enjoyed all of those things when not looking after Max, and Cam did a wonderful job as co-leader of our team Bling Bling!

Unfortunately, Max was a little (actually more than a little) grumpy over the weekend, since he chose this Easter as the time to break out not one, not two, but three new teeth! Once I discovered the first one I was a little more understanding of his attitude and made sure to give him plenty of paracetamol and bongella which cheered him up a little bit. So although Max did his share of screaming at me and various other kind hearted people wanting to hold him for a bit, we now know that he had good reason for this. And he did have some good times as well. He had his first go on a swing, which he thoroughly enjoyed and even gave out some very cute chuckles of delight. I think he mostly enjoyed watching and playing with the other kids. He loved to clap his hands, and encouraged them to join him. He also had fun dancing on the spot while they held his hands so he could stand, and had fun crawling around after them as well.

It is becoming a bit of a tradition of Easter Camp to have a surprise wedding on Easter Sunday, since this year is now the second in a row with Rachel and Charles surprising everyone by turning up in beautiful wedding outfits on Sunday afternoon. Here's Max and I at the ceremony, with Max exploring those new teeth of his.

Overall our Easter weekend was a great one and I think we all enjoyed it. We're looking forward to going back next year when Max will be able to have even more fun, since he should be running all over the place by then and getting into even more mischief.

Playmates and visitors

2008-03-19T16:19:00.007+10:00

After doing so much visiting of others lately, last weekend it was time for the visitors to come to us.
On Friday Aunty Amy and the twins came over for their fortnightly visit, and since Cam and I had tickets for the Andy Warhol exhibition that evening, Nanny also came down on the train to babysit for us.

So Max had lots of playmates and admirers, and we had a good ratio of adults to babies. The little ones had fun playing together and everyone was mostly cheerful.
One of Gabbie's favourite tricks is to come over and steal Max's dummy, so by way of revenge he decided to use her head as support while he stood up.

Poor Gabbie didn't like that much. Elke and Max got on quite well and I don't either managed to be too violent towards the other. They look like good friends here.

And here are the aunties and cousins all together, since I don't think we had any photos like this yet.

After Amy and the girls went home Max had lots of fun playing with his Nanna until Cam and I went out, and then Nanna put him to bed and he didn't stir again until morning. What a good boy!

The next day Max went for a short walk in the pram with his Nanna before she had to go back home on the train.

Vegemite on toast!

2008-03-17T10:49:00.002+10:00

Max LOVES to eat anything that he can feed himself. So now he has half a piece of vegemite toast for breakfast along with his fruit and cereal, which he evidently enjoys immensely.

Bed hair

2008-03-13T14:09:00.003+10:00

This morning when I got Max out of bed he had a very impressive mohawk. See?

Look out here I come!

2008-03-05T20:04:00.004+10:00

Max's crawling has improved so much in the last few days that I think we can now safely say that he can do it. He still doesn't go long distances but manages to get to things that interest him, get close enough so that he can pull himself up on furniture and stand, and he can follow me around the house while I'm in sight.

I'm sure he will only get more confident, and as he does we will need to baby-proof more and more of our house!

Congratulations Max!

More Visiting!

2008-03-04T20:51:00.010+10:00

Last weekend Max and I had originally planned to go out and visit his Grandma and Grandpa while Cam was on a youth camp. However, by Friday Cam was feeling too rundown, tired and sick to be of much use on camp and so we all headed out to the farm for a relaxing weekend.

Grandma and Grandpa were very excited to see Max since it had been a couple of months since our last visit. Those few months have seen Max grow and learn and make a lot of progress, so he was proud to show off his latest achievements and they enjoyed the chance for more interaction with him.

By coincidence, the Millmerran show was on last weekend as well, so on Saturday we went along for a look.
Max was a little tired when we got there, and quickly went to sleep in the pram while we wandered around and checked out the baking, vegetable growing and photography competitions, the hotted up utes, saw some snake handling and watched a bit of the sheepdog trials.
He woke up in time to say hello to some friends we met there, as well as these prize-winning sheep.

On Sunday morning we all went along to Yandilla church. Max was very well behaved for the service and barely made a peep. He slept soundly through the sermon on Harvest Thanksgiving which meant that I was able to stay inside and listen to it, which I enjoyed.
Afterwards during morning tea there was no shortage of people wanting to admire Max and give him a cuddle. Here he is with his great-grandma, known to everyone as Ma. He also had a good time eating little pieces of everyone else's morning tea and trying to eat various people's glasses and watches, which he loves to grab.

The rest of Sunday we spent just relaxing at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We continued to encourage Max to crawl, which he has been steadily improving at for the last couple of weeks. He is getting more and more confident and will now keep going for more than just a few steps. We think the larger carpeted areas at both Nanny and Poppy and Grandma and Grandpa's houses have helped his confidence.

Here's Max enjoying one last cuddle with Grandma and Grandpa before we packed up and headed back to Brisbane.
On the way back we stopped in Toowoomba to visit my Grandma, who was recently in hospital after being hit by a (slow-moving) car. She is doing fine except for a wound on her leg, and she and my Grandpa were very excited to see Max.
He obligingly showed off all of his new tricks, such as clapping his hands, giving high-fives, pretending to be an Indian, crawling short distances
and standing and walking while I hold his hands.
He also managed to eat a whole arrowroot biscuit, which he loved to eat since he was able to feed himself.

After a short visit we left Toowoomba and made our way back to Brisbane and had a relaxing Sunday evening to end our relaxing weekend out at the farm.

Visiting Nanny and Poppy

2008-02-28T12:51:00.006+10:00

It's been a while since our last trip up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy, so last weekend we made the most of our days off and took our newest member of the family for a spin up the coast. We left at night in the hope that Max would sleep most of the way there, and although he took a while to get bored of looking at the lights out of the window, he did indeed sleep soundly for most of the trip.

Nanny and Poppy were delighted to see their littlest grandson again (as well as Cam and I) and we think Max enjoyed seeing them again as well. He was proud to show off some of his new accomplishments, such as clapping his hands and pretending to be an Indian.

He also helped to continue the Batkin legacy by using the family heirloom high chair to sit in for his meals. Here he is enjoying a yummy snack of watermelon, which he managed to bite and chew fairly well although he did choke on some over-ambitious mouthfuls.

Nanny very kindly watched Max for us while Cam and I took the opportunity to do some shopping in the morning and go out for a yummy Indian dinner in the evening. I definitely recommend Hathi as an excellent restaurant if you're hungry on a Saturday night in Maroochydore.

We also took Max around to some friends and neighbours to show off what a clever grandson Nanny and Poppy have, and all agreed that he is indeed a clever little munchkin. They were particularly impressed with his sitting, clapping and walking while holding on. Max is still making progress towards crawling, and since he is getting better by the day I'm sure it won't be long.

We had a wonderful weekend up at the coast and it's hard to say who enjoyed it more - the visitors or the visitees.

Visiting the cousins

2008-02-27T16:03:00.006+10:00

Max and I took another trip over to the other side of town to visit his littlest cousins on Thursday last week.
All of them have new skills now and are getting increasingly mobile, so it was fun to watch them interact. Gabbie is now crawling like a pro and pulling herself up on furniture, and can even climb up stairs! Elke moves around on her tummy and is apparently eating solids faster than you can say 'where did all that food go?'. Max also loves to pull himself up onto people and furniture and is getting closer and closer to crawling.

Here's some photos of them, unfortunately taken when everyone was a bit tired and cranky.

In this one Gabbie is eyeing off Max's dummy and is about to go over and snatch it.

Here are the girls all set to crawl over to Mummy and Daddy.

And here's all three little ones. I like how Gabbie looks like she's consoling Max.

7 Months Old!

2008-02-19T19:42:00.004+10:00

That's right, the 19th of Feb means that little Max is 7 months old today.

We think he is quite smart for a 7-month-old, and his weight, height and teeth place him up the top in the physical development area as well. Max's latest achievements include giving enthusiastic high-fives, which he likes to do repeatedly and accompanies with big proud grins, and clapping his hands. He doesn't always clap on cue yet, but often does it independently when there is music playing and just because he feels like it. He is getting better at both of these by the day.

He is also slowly progressing towards crawling. Since he is so good at sitting up, this is the position he feels most confident in. So if he is on the floor sitting and wants a toy just out of reach, he will lean forward onto his hands as if to crawl, but still is hesitant to take his legs out of a sitting position to get both knees onto the floor, because once he does this he can't easily sit back down again. He often looks as if he is about to take off and crawl, but then gets a bit scared and decides its safer to just sit down, and then clap his hands. He is getting closer by the day though, so I'm expecting him to figure it out before he reaches the 8 month milestone. Lets see how that prediction goes!

Standing up has always been a good way to cheer up a grumpy Max, and this is still the case. These days he doesn't feel the need to hold on with both hands for support, which leaves him one hand free to grab at all of the new things within reach while standing. He loves to investigate everything on our coffee table, especially the box of tissues, which fascinates him. He is very good at pulling out tissues. He is also using the furniture to pull himself up more and more, but is quite unsteady so I really need to watch him in case he loses his balance.

Max is also progressing well into the adventure of eating solid food. On the weekends I cook and puree a variety of fruit, vegetables and some meat, and store it in the freezer in ice cube trays. Max has 4 of these cubes of fruit for breakfast with some baby cereal mixed in, 3 cubes of mixed vegetables for lunch, and 3 cubes of meat (either chicken or beef) and mixed vegetables for dinner. Although he loves to get his fingers in the container and mush the food around his high chair tray, he also usually loves to eat it and it doesn't take long before the container is empty.

One other fantastic achievement for me is that Max now regularly sleeps through the night, from 7pm until about 6am. It's so nice to be able to rely on getting a good solid night's sleep again, and means that Max is quite happy to be awake for about 3 hours in the morning until he goes back to bed for another nap.

Happy 7-month birthday Max, and congrats on all of your achievements!

New addition to the family!

2008-02-06T16:32:00.000+10:00

Yes that's right folks, we have a new addition to the Batkin family. We picked him up on Tuesday and he is fitting in just fine with the rest of the family members.

I know you'd all love to see what he looks like, so here's a photo:

What a beautiful boy!

Cam and I have sold both of our cars and sacrificed a little independence to upgrade to a more family-sized model. I really liked my Mazda and feel a bit too middle aged when driving the new Camry, but it's also very exciting and it really is a great car to drive.

As part of the changeover, we decided to switch Max's carseat from the rearward-facing baby position, which is designed for babies weighing 8kgs or less, to the front facing child position. Although he has met the weight requirements for this position for a few months now, the rear-facing style is much safer and they recommend leaving babies facing this way until about 6 months. We thought the change in cars was the perfect opportunity to change Max around as well, and while he is still getting used to it, we think he enjoys the more expansive view as well as being able to watch his parents drive.

(p.s. we usually do strap him in, but didn't bother just for taking this photo)

Mmmm... food!

2008-01-21T15:10:00.000+10:00

Part of the fun of reaching the 6-month milestone for Max is getting to finally eat some real food, instead of just watching everyone else eat.

We started Max on rice cereal just after Christmas, and he was very quick to catch on to the idea of eating and opening his mouth when the spoon gets close. To be fair, he opens his mouth no matter what comes near it, but still, he did very well eating rice cereal for a week or so before he started getting a bit sick of it and wanting something tastier. Very understandable, if you've ever tried to eat that stuff.

These days Max has upgraded to eating apple mixed with baby cereal for breakfast, and pumpkin for dinner. We've also moved him into his high chair so that hopefully it's only Max who ends up as a sticky mess, instead of it being both Mummy and Max who needed a bath after dinner.

Max loves to chew on the spoon, and letting him do this is a good way to cheer him up to get those last few mouthfuls in, even though he looks almost like a pumpkin himself by the time he's finished!

Happy Half Birthday

2008-01-19T13:12:00.000+10:00

Today is Max's half birthday!!! To celebrate he has been given some new outfits from Nanny who is down for his other present - vaccinations!!! Max has been rather grumpy this week because of teething we think. Before he got jabbed he was measured by the doc he is now 71 cm long! 9.5 kg and 44cm round the head. He has certainly grown in the last six months.

In the last week or so his new achievements include giving hi five's and starting to pull up on things to stand; mostly his parents. He has also started on stewed apple and cereal which is made lovingly by his personal chef mum and he wolfs it down with such gusto. He is up to 2 cubes of apple a day already and can't get enough. I think he has his parents love of food somehow.

We have had a great time getting to know and love our rapidly growing little boy. He has just changed so much since he was born. I had a look at the photos from July and I don't recognise that little helpless baby.

Save a date in your diary for Saturday July 19 as Max will have his first Birthday party!!

Max and Mummy go visiting

2008-01-16T14:47:00.000+10:00

My sister Amy and I usually take it in turns to visit each other every fortnight to give the babies a chance to play with each other and ourselves a chance to catch up and show off their latest achievements. The Christmas break put a bit of a halt to this and so last week it was definitely Max's and my turn to go visiting.

The twins have both been practising their sitting up and all three are now stable enough to line up so that we can take photos of them.

The twins were very generous in sharing the toys they got for Christmas and all three had a good time playing together, even though their favourite activity was grabbing each other. The adults also had a great time since our other sister Tammy came over as well and we had three adults for three babies, which is a great ratio.

Standing up by myself!

2008-01-08T13:16:00.000+10:00

Max has always loved to stand up. Lately when I hold both of his hands while he's sitting down he pushes off with both feet and stands up with the proudest expression on his face. I thought he might be able to do this without me holding his hands, so I put him in front of the bedhead and let him grab onto that instead, and he stood up!
Then he started to show off by letting go with one hand and turning around to look at me, so I quickly snapped some pictures to show off his new skill. Not bad for a boy who isn't 6 months old yet!

First Christmas - Part 2

2008-01-04T11:23:00.001+10:00

We weren't sure just how well Max would handle the long trip from Bli Bli to Millmerran and were prepared for a noisy ride with a few breaks. However, Max surprised us both with his excellent behaviour by sleeping all the way to Toowoomba, where we stopped for a quick feed, play, cuddle and stretch, and then being super good and even having another short nap on the rest of the drive to the farm.
When we got there Max had a quick bath and then it was time for more present opening!
Since he had so much sleep in the car, Max was able to enjoy more shiny wrapping paper, toys and books as well as saying hello to all of the Pfeffer clan before going off to bed, while the adults enjoyed Christmas lunch leftovers for dinner.

Over the next few days Max got to spend lots of time playing with his cousins the twins. They all love being free with nappies off before bathtime, even though it usually means some puddles to clean up!
Grandma and Grandpa were also delighted to be able to spend time playing with Max. Grandpa was very happy to show off his bumper sorghum crop growing around the house, which is the best in several years with the recent rains.
After a few nice relaxing days at the farm we headed back to Brisbane again. We made sure to take time to see Max's great-grandparents on the way home, since they don't get to see him very often. I'm sure Max enjoyed their cuddles as much as they enjoyed giving them.
After all that travelling it was nice to spend a few days at home as a family together to finish off Max's first Christmas.

First Christmas - Part 1

2008-01-04T10:41:00.001+10:00

Max's first Christmas was a very merry one, shared by lots of family and friends. We wanted Max to be able to see both sides of the family over Christmas, and of course they wanted to see him too, so we did quite a lot of travelling over the break.
We headed up to Bli Bli on the day before Christmas Eve to see the Batkin grandparents. Max was very well behaved in the car, and slept almost the whole way up, even through some slow patches of traffic.

His Poppy was especially happy to hold Max since it's been a while since they saw each other. Can you notice the family resemblance?

Max had a great time at Nanny and Poppy's place since some of their other grandchildren were also up there visiting for the holidays before Christmas Day. Cam had fun dropping Max in on cousin Liam at 5am in memory of having had the same done to him when he was a teenager. The cousins also had fun playing with Max and I'm sure he enjoyed all of the attention as well.

Christmas Day was a big one for Max, as your first Christmas should be! The rest of the Batkin clan arrived while Max was having a nap, so we started on the nibblies and waited to open presents until he was awake. Once he woke up cousin Caitlin dressed up in the Santa Claus costume and the present opening began.

Max could barely contain his excitement at all of the brightly coloured paper and exciting, noisy and shiny new toys and books, and wanted to play with everything at once. There was also no shortage of people wanting to cuddle and play with him, so he had a great time.
After a couple of hours of this Max was getting tired again, so we put him down for a nap and started on the magnificent Christmas lunch, with delicious contributions from everyone. As usual there was far to much to eat, but it just wouldn't be a proper Christmas lunch otherwise, and everything was just so tasty that you had to keep on going!
Unfortunately Max didn't want to miss out on the fun and woke up halfway through, but uncle Lance showed off his baby settling skills and quietened him down again for a while with a nice cuddle.

After dessert and the cleaning up, I took the chance to have a quick nap while Cam and Max spent time with the family. Then it was time to say goodbye and thank you for all the wonderful gifts, pack up and head out to the Pfeffer grandparents for Christmas part 2.

Yummy!

2007-12-22T17:04:00.000+10:00

We've started to get Max used to different tastes recently. Watermelon was his first go, which he took a liking to instantly by sucking on both the melon and my fingers. The other day we bought some mangoes and decided to give Max a taste of this wonderful fruit as well.

As all good Aussies know, the correct way to eat a mango is with your shirt off, while bending over the sink. To make things easier for Max, we took off all of his clothes and let him sit in the sink, and then gave him mango bits to suck on. He took an instant liking to this and had a wonderful time sucking the juice out of the mango. When he was done we put him straight into the bath to clean up the sticky orange mess, which he enjoyed almost as much.

Max and friends

2007-12-21T13:25:00.000+10:00

On Tuesdays Max and I often go to a mothers group, where we both get a chance to get out of the house and make friends. Last Tuesday was the Christmas break up of the group, so we enjoyed a delicious lunch while the little ones tried to distract us from eating, with varying degrees of success.

We all had a great time and thought it was a good opportunity to take some photos of the babies all together. I like this shot because no one is the slightest bit interested in looking at the camera, but all have better things to do.

Max is far more interested in the little girl sitting next to him, who looks like she is just trying to keep him away. The others are either sleeping, looking at their mothers or at random interesting things more within reach. All are very cute though and were mostly well behaved.
Merry Christmas to all of them and we will see you again in the new year!

Mum and Dad take the night off

2007-12-21T12:52:00.000+10:00

On Monday this week Max was a very lucky boy to have a visit from his Nanny. She came down on the train for her once-a-month visit, which this time we coincided with Cam's work Christmas party so that we could both go to that and let Nanny look after Max.

I was a bit worried about leaving him in the evening, since I am the one who usually baths him, feeds him and puts him to bed between 6 and 7pm, and the Christmas party started at 6.30. However, we managed to bring his routine forward by about an hour and have him in bed by about a quarter past 6. As soon as he was quiet, I quickly threw on some clothes and raced out the door with a few quick instructions to Nanny, to not get him out of bed unless as a last resort. Luckily I made it to the party before the entree was over and Cam saved me some food.

Max apparently woke twice after I left, but Nanny was able to settle him again just with a dummy and some soothing pats, and after that he slept through until 5am - what a trooper! And so Cam and I were able to enjoy a night out, and Nanny was able to relax and watch some TV and get some sleep. Way to go Max!

The following day Max got to play some more with his Nanny, and also to see his aunt Alison and cousins Sam and Caitlin and their newest addition to the family, the puppy Stella. We all enjoyed the visits and had a wonderful couple of days, especially our night off.

5 months old already!

2007-12-19T12:59:00.000+10:00

Today is Max's 5 month birthday, so many happy returns of the day to young Max. We think he is doing very well for a 5 month old baby, so I thought I'd show off some of his best achievements with some photos.

Here is Max sitting up. He has always preferred sitting to lying down, and now he can do it unaided for a fairly long period of time. He is good enough at it that I am even able to leave him sitting by himself and playing with some toys while I get the camera and take numerous photos.

He can also manage to reach out, lean down, pick things up and then sit back upright while chewing on them/playing with them. What a clever boy!

Here is Max on his playmat. When we first put him on it, he would have fun by first just looking at the dangling toys, then reaching out to hit them, then grabbing them to pull down and eat as he got older and more coordinated. Now he gets the most enjoyment out of sitting upright and grabbing at the toys, and pushing the arch over completely to play with the pink tongue of the frog which you can just see in this photo.

I guess the other big thing for Max as a 5 month old is that he has two fully fledged and very sharp teeth. Getting a photo of these is always tricky so excuse the blurriness of this one and take our word for it that the teeth are very much present!

Other achievements for 5 month old Max include rolling from his tummy to his back, from his back to his side, (sometimes) being able to pick up his dummy and put it back in his mouth, reaching out and grabbing anything within reach (and some things that I didn't think were), laughing when he's having fun and sleeping through the night.

We think he is a very smart and talented boy - happy birthday Max!

So Accurate!!!

2007-12-14T22:42:00.000+10:00

We recently went shopping and placed Max in the baby bit on top of the shopping trolley. The ones that look like a baby capsule in a car. We strapped Max in and he started eating the strap which was kinda gross. As we locked into the lock the strap in there was a sticker that said 9kg MAX. Going on his weight last week I would say that you could not get a shopping trolley that was better built for my son and his current weight and size!!

Good news!

2007-12-13T14:33:00.000+10:00

The last week or so has been fairly quiet for the Batkin family. There are a couple of reasons for this, all of which are good.

Firstly, Max has slept uninterrupted through the entire night, twice now! We usually put him to bed around 7pm, and twice so far he has slept until 5am, which counts as morning and is the earliest time I will let Max get out of bed. I've stopped feeding him during the night, so if he does wake before 5 it's usually not for long and he goes back to sleep fairly quickly sucking his dummy. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue to increase, and I can go back to those days (which seem so long ago) when I can rely on getting a good uninterrupted night's sleep myself.

The second reason for things being fairly quiet is that Cam has started a new job and is quite busy at work. He is still at the Convention Centre, but after a number of years working as a Floor Coordinator, he has now been promoted to Event Planning Manager! Congratulations Cam! This job involves Monday to Friday work and regular hours, which will make it much easier for us to plan things in advance and to get away for the weekend now and then. It's also a step up for Cam, although it involves new challenges and will take some time to settle into.

One more item of good news is that we took Max to get weighed last week, and he now comes in at a hefty 8.8kgs. He seems to be getting longer rather than rounder, and is even starting to look a bit stretched in some of his 00 size clothes. Mine and Cam's arms are both increasing in muscle as Max increases in weight, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Look out Mr Bug!

2007-12-06T14:45:00.000+10:00

Right from the time we brought him home from hospital, one of Max's favourite toys has been the bug that hangs above his change mat. This earlier post tells how he used to be screaming at us, and we'd go to change his nappy and he would start smiling at the bug.

We used to say 'One day you're gonna get that bug Max!' because of the way he looked at it so intently and focussed and smiled at it.
Well, that day is here! I was changing Max today and he looked at the bug just like he has always done, and then reached up and grabbed it, pulled it down off the curtains and started to eat it! What a clever boy.

Camping at the farm

2007-12-04T07:06:00.000+10:00

Last weekend was a big one for the Batkin family with lots of interesting things happening.
On Friday evening Max and I loaded up the car and drove out to the farm where my parents live (near Millmerran), taking with us most of the food for the church youth group who were going out there for a camping trip. Cam left earlier that evening with the rest of the youth group and stopped overnight in Toowoomba with them to visit the Toowoomba Nazarene youth group.

On the Saturday morning Cam and the youth arrived out at the farm as well, where Max was back in bed after having woken up at 5am and playing with his Grandma and Grandpa for a while. Max even helped Grandma practice the hymns for church, as you can see in the photo.

The youth then headed off to the retirement home in Millmerran to spend time with the residents there and sing them a few songs, which everyone enjoyed. The youth then drove out to a farm on the other side of Millmerran to see some animals, including cows, newborn puppies, sheep and even an alpaca! By the time they were finished at the animal farm Max had woken up, so he and I drove in to the pool in Millmerran where we met up with everyone else and had a wonderful time swimming and cooling off. Max seemed to really enjoy it and went in both the kiddies pool and the big pool with the big kids.

When we got back to Grandpa and Grandma's farm it was time for the youth to put up the tents and learn how to make damper in camp ovens, which some local experts had specially come out and set up for them. Those who weren't busy with these activities got to go for a ride around the farm in the back of the ute, and Cam and I also each got to drive a quad bike with a couple of youth on the back. We had fun roaring around on these for ages!

While all of this was going on Max was happily playing with his Grandma. He also had a bath in the big green bathtub and apparently did several laps up and down. I hope he didn't miss his parents too much, but he was glad of some dinner when we finished on the bikes.

The next day we dressed Max in one of his best outfits, given to him by his great-grandma, and went to Grandma and Grandpa's church. The youth showed off their singing talents once again, and Max was very well-behaved for the many people who wanted to give him a cuddle.

After the tents were taken down and some more rides around the farm, it was time to pack up and head back to Brisbane. Max, Cam and I stopped off in Ipswich to attend the Watson family Christmas, where it was great to catch up with old friends and give Max a chance for a decent sleep upstairs on a bed, before finally heading home again.

A visit from Nanny

2007-11-27T19:59:00.000+10:00

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.