Never leave home without.......cheese!

Lachlan has not really enjoyed being in his pram for any huge amounts of time (probably because he is so used to his mum and dad's arms :) ). So, going shopping or for walks has always taken a little bit of planning. Is Lachlan hungry, tired, will there be something we can stop to do etc.
BUT I have found a secret to leaving home and staying out.......cheese. Lachlan loves it! It will keep him busy through every isle of Woolworths.

So, we are off for a walk now....with some cheese.

ANZAC Day

Yesterday we had our church picnic. It was beautiful weather, and a nice relaxing time. Here is a picture of Lachlan feeding the swans with Grandma....

A Lovely Day

Today was a nice quiet day at home. I made some pyjamas for Lachlan (see below....I'm very excited!) and Lachlan had a lovely play outside (not while I was sewing....I was outside with him :) )

In the evening Lachlan and I went in to Woden with Gran and Pop. Gran found these gorgeous mittens for Lachlan. I thought he would just pull them off, but when we put them on in the shops, he loved them and kept them on all the way home and until he had his bath!

Pyjamas!

Here are Lachlan's new pyjamas, made for him just today!

Just For The Record

Lachlan said 'mum-mum-mum' for the first time on Monday! So beautiful!

Thanks Joel!!!!

Joel bought these shoes for Lachlan when he was first born....they looked HUGE then!

Sweet

Ok, so I know Lachlan didn't pick the card, or write the message himself, but it still make me cry. (I don't have time to figure out how to crop the picture :( )

Australia Day Buddy

Just got sent these photos - Luke and Lachlan on Australia Day.

Imagine the mischief these two will get up to!

Lachlan's Room

I had quite a long time to prepare for Lachlan. During that time I would dream of what his baby room would look like. Michelle got me onto Wendy Bellissimo - she had GORGEOUS nursery stuff.


Although Lachlan's room isn't quite a Wendy Bellissimo nursery, I'm happy with it. Here are some pictures at the moment.



When I am putting Lachlan to sleep and I look around, I can remember everyone who gave us the things in Lachlan's room. It makes me grateful for such wonderful friends. THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!

Emergency

We took lachlan into Emergency on Saturday morning. He was really struggling to breathe. Throughout that night we had taken him into the bathroom with the hot water running, and that seemed to help. At about 5:30am he woke and was trying to cough, making him quite distressed.He had croup. The nurses said this is just the beginning of 'the season' and that Lachlan was the first of many more to come. They gave him some medicine and we went home to bed. Saturday night wasn't very nice, but by Sunday afternoon his breathing was almost back to normal.

Through the whole weekend, Lachlan was his normal happy self - what a champ!

Holidays......1

There are holidays where you arrive home feeling refreshed, rejuvinated, and ready to take on the world. Then there are holidays where you feel like a holiday to recover. The past week was the second sort of holiday.

This will be a long post.

Lachlan's First Youth Camp - Wow! What an amazing time. There were well in excess of 100 youth at the camp (not including day trippers). The day time teaching was awesome, and the night services were powerful. It was so great to see our younger youth being inspired, re-filled with the Holy Spirit and it has been even better hearing about their determination to make a difference in this world.

LACHLAN AND LUKE BEING VERY INTELLECTUAL

Lachlan slept for most services - he was very good. I got a bit of a cold, then Lachlan followed. Jonathan did a great job organising the camp. He was given a fantastic book called 'speeches that changed the world'. It includes a CD of the speeches.

We left camp at about 2pm on Monday and headed into Bowral. We stayed at a place called Briars. It was nice with doors opeining up onto a grassed area. Unfortunately it rained, so we couldn't let Lachlan crawl around out there. We all had an early night after a hectic weekend.

LACHLAN AT BRIARS IN BOWRAL

In the morning we drove to Homebush to go to DFO. We went late last year and saw heaps of bargains. I wanted to get Lachlan some new clothes for winter, but at the Pumpkin Patch shop there was just a little rack of boys clothes - the rest of the shop was pink!

A little disappointing, but I came away with a couple of things :)

We drove to Parramatta where we stayed at the Waldorf. Our room was small, but nice. It had a washing/drying machine so we could get our clothes washed for the rest of the week. Lachlan loved exploring, and even mastered crawling under a chair (bending as far down as he could), having a little play under there, then crawling back out.

A little tip - our a/c broke a week ago. We were quoted $580 here in Canberra. Jonathan dropped the car off in Parramatta and it only cost $350. Which meant our next day at the show was more than free!

On Wednesday we were out of the hotel by 8:00am. We caught the train to the Royal Easter Show. Halfway there we realised we had left Lachlan's baby sling back in our room. I was VERY annoyed with myself, as I knew we would need it. I couldn't stop thinking about it for hours.

It was a nice day, not too hot or cold. Lachlan was pretty tired (as we knew he would be). After a quick look around we went into the arena and let him have a little sleep.

WALKING TO THE TRAIN

He loved the petting farm (as did mum and dad ;) ). All the little goats and fawns were very cute.



After looking through the home and lifestyle arena (HUGE) we had lunch and Lachlan was extremely tired. This was when the baby sling came to mind again......... I knew Lachlan would have been fine in there, and may even gone off to sleep as we walked around.

I ended up sitting on a bench with Lachlan asleep in the pram while Jonathan had a quick look at the horses.

After a little walk around we headed back to the hotel (via the car repair place) on the train.

It was an exhausting day, but a great one. Nichole Kidman and Keith Urban were at the show the very next day, just walking around like normal people :)

The next morning was another early start. We had to be in Darling Harbour, checked in to the Novotel by 8:15 so that Jonathan could make it to his conference by 8:30.

LACHLAN MAKING HIMSELF COMFORTABLE AT THE NOVOTEL

Well, we were only an hour late. We did get a little lost, but we are blaming the Novotel for that. Their sign was tiny, and once we passed it we had to do this huge loop so that we didn't end up on the cross city tunnel.

Whenever we drive in to Sydney we always comment on the time when we were in Pensylvania and we decided to drive into Philadelphia for the day. That city is HUGE!!!! It was kind of funny, these two Australian's looking into the horizon seeing these massive high rises. I am pretty impressed actually, as Jonathan did very well!

Such country bumpkins!

Anyway, Lachlan had a sleep as soon as his bed was set up and Jonathan headed off for the day. Lachlan and I went for a walk around Darling Harbour, and I bought him a cute little vest at Cotton On. We went back for another sleep, then after that we ducked into Paddy's Market. I bought Lachlan a colourful little recorder. He learnt how to blow into mine a week ago. He is so proud of himself when he makes a sound with it.

EXPLORING DARLING HARBOUR

That night we went to China town for dinner and walked and walked up and down George street, into the Queen Victoria Building. That place is amazing! They have this gorgeous toy shop on the top level. I can't think of anyone who would/could buy anything from there. The stuff they had was gorgeous though. We went into the ABC shop and Lachlan made a green dinosaur friend (Dorothy) I wanted to get Lachlan this Play School board book that has single words and rhymes that go with the words, but had no money left. When Jonathan got home on Friday night he had gone back to the shop the next day and bought it for Lachlan - so sweet.

On Friday Jonathan had his conference again and was to fly home that night. I headed off out of Sydney with Lachlan. Poor Lachlan only slept a little while, then was really upset. He had a bit of a cold and wasn't feeling himself. He cried on and off all the way from Parramatta to Bowral. I took the trip slowly - arriving home at about 4:30pm.

An exhausting week.
LACHLAN AT HOME FRIDAY NIGHT IN HIS COSY PJ'S

Broken Camera :(

Well....our camera is not working at the moment, so no new photos of Lachlan. We have borrowed one for our holiday and will have some photos to post in a weeks time.

Lachlan has been doing heaps of new stuff lately.....

- saying 'ta' all the time.

- getting things when we ask him to (his rubber duck, specific books)

- he has stood for about 2 seconds twice ;)

- pulling himself up onto things so his feet are off the floor

- has a new top tooth (the day after I told Pamela it wouldn't be here for a while!)

Can't think of anything else at the moment....just lots more communication type of things.

Another cousin on its way!

Congratulations Dan & Kylie!

Table Manners!

Ruth sent me this great website. I had read a bit of it and I like it!
BUT.....I remembered reading the following after I gave Lachlan some soup and bread......

Some folks believe in allowing their babies to experience different textures through food. I don't subscribe to that practice! If I wish my babies to experience different textures, I will use occasions apart from mealtimes to do that. Goop, playdough, water etc are all fun, and when experienced in a controlled way, can be beneficial (providing they don't eat it!). Mealtimes in our house, however, are for eating. I expect my older children to have good table manners. I would like to start going down that track, rather then have to go back and retrain later. A 9 month old is not going to have perfect table manners, nor understand why she would need to. However, I can start with a few basic rules, like no playing in our food and throwing it around!

Well Lachlan enjoyed his bread so much, after the first fistfull in the hair I just left him to have his fun!

Lachlan and Daddy

Jonathan was away for 5 days last week. It was the longest time Jonathan has been away since Lachlan was born. A couple of times......just to see what he would do.......I said 'Where's Daddy?'. Lachlan would look at doorways and peer around corners. It was very sweet!

When we picked Jonathan up from the airport, Lachlan just looked at Jonathan as if he hadn't been gone at all :)

Here are some pictures from the week before he left.

And one of me and Lachlan on the same day.

Chubby at 9 months

9 Months

Lachlan is 9 months old today!
My 9 months of pregnancy went so much slower than this past 9 months. I can't believe how much has happened/changed in the past 9 months. It just reminds us how amazingly grateful we are to God for blessing us with Lachlan.
I cannot begin to say how many times I cried to God to bless us with Lachlan. In Psalms David says that God put his tears in a bottle...well, if that's the case I think God must have a pretty big bottle with my name on it! I haven't talked a lot about this whole thing because I know I am still pretty emotional about it all.
I don't know why, but just recently it has kind of hit me that being a parent is something that is going to be permanent. I guess I am just reminded about how blessed I am and that absolutely nothing I could have done could have made a difference. It was a season we had to go through, and I am incredibly grateful for it all. When does the pain become a blessing? When does the thorn become a friend? Right now. Now I understand.
Anyway, here is a song to let you know exactly what God is for Jonathan and I.

What can Lachlan do at 9 months?

Pull himself up on anything
Crawl (outside only)
Clap & sing
Sit up on his knees and bounce
Say 'Dadda' and 'Bub' and 'Yah'..which I think might be mum!
Throw things off his high chair :(
Play peek-a-boo
Do this crazy nose scrunching/blowing thing.....I think it's becoming a bit cheeky!


I have been doing a layout that uses a photo of Lachlan taken on the first of every month. Jonathan has the camera in Perth at the moment, so March will have to be done on 4th. I wanted to put a picture of it here, but that will have to wait (until I get the camera, and maybe when I change the layout - not happy with some of it).

Recovery and Red Sock Celebration

FINALLY! Lachlan is well on the way to recovery. I thought yesterday was going to be it, but then Lachlan was just not himself. I ended up cancelling piano teaching and we had another quiet day. Today though, Lachlan woke up nice and happy and has been playing really well. He is a little bit clingy still and still has a bit of a rash (from a viral thing - the doctor said this is good!).
So, we celebrated with a picnic and play outside today......and some red socks! When else in life can you wear red socks with teddy bears and get away with it?!

A Quiet Couple of Days (And Interesting Nights)

Lachlan has been so sick lately. He started with a temperature on Saturday night, and this morning was the first morning he woke up without one. On Monday he was so tired, he just laid on my lap and we read book after book after book. He even fell asleep during our reading session. Anyone who knows how active Lachlan is will know how unlike him this is!
Today has been a turn around though. He is a little better, still been sleeping a lot and a little 'whingey'.
He has learnt a couple of new things while he has been sick though - he waved goodbye to Jonathan when we dropped him off at work this morning, and he now climbs up the side of the bath (not so good!).

Sewing

Lachlan's newly covered high chair!
Lachlan has been a bit unwell this past 24 hours (temperature, not himself), so we have had a quiet day. Last night while he was sleeping, I sewed up a new high chair cover - pretty happy with it actually. The fabric is really cute.