Jac Wabbit goes to Texas

The shortcut from hell...

2011-08-03T08:18:00.000+10:00

Well hello y'all. I'm in New Zealand. This is very much not where I want to be right now. I left Texas and the grand plan was to try the new Qantas flight that goes from Dallas to Australia. I was reveling in the fact that this new flight path was going to shave hours off my trip home (compared with flying up to LA then out) but fate had a different plan.

Sabn Antonio to Dallas was fine, a bit bumpy from the heat but nothing major. Dallas airport is pretty nice and had a wine bar overlooking a candy store - double temptation. The awesome Qantas guy at the desk moved my seat assignment up from the back of economy to one of the premium seats (but with basic economy service)... And then two hours into the flight we had a medical emergency (and it probably isn't my place to go into the details but I think and hope the lady is ok) and had to turn around and head to LA. So, four hours or so flight time and we're in LA. An hour or so on the ground for refueling and paramedics and we were off again, but this time to NZ because the crew had clocked up way too many hours to go further (and the poor buggers were not only exhausted but had to deal with a whole plane full of grumpy, smelly people).

Now we're in Auckland eating free brek (thanks Qantas) and working out what happens next. It looks like I'm going to be stuck doing a tour of Australian airports... Bris next then Sydney then Melbourne then Hobart! Lucky I'm not terrified of flying right? Oh wait...

Anyhow, wish me luck.

Back in the US of A

2011-07-25T13:02:00.003+10:00

Howdy y'all. Before I get onto this post I should let you know that my Aussie phone doesn't work while I'm here in the US so I'm missing any calls or texts. However, both our old US mobile numbers still work. Email me if you need them.

Ok, back to your regular programming...

A quick post with a few notes I threw together on re-entering America. I had a great trip over mostly because it wasn't a full flight and I got my upgrade.

Premium economy was awesome (Qantas). Not a whole lot more room but room in all the right places and it reduced the whole press of humanity feeling that you get in economy. Of course that was helped by the fact that I was in a row of two and had no one sitting next to me :) I ate dinner, drank more whisky than was good for me thanks to the awesome Jules (my new flight attendant friend) and watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader which was so-so but filled in the time. Then I popped a melatonin (around 9pm destination time) and snuffled round to find a comfy sleeping spot in the hope of at least dozing for a few hour. I surfaced a few times but figured I'd only been out an hour or so. The next thing I know there's a PA call asking for a doctor and I checked the flight path to see 2.5 hours remaining! I was positive it had to be wrong, I've never slept that well on a flight! There was just enough time left to eat breakfast, fill out my customs forms and watch an episode of Big Bang Theory before we were packing up for landing.

Some notes on re-entering the US:

Why is it that Immigration always makes me forget which is my right hand?? Also, apparently I have sucky hands for fingerprinting.
I should stop ticking the customs box for food when I only have candy but I just can't, it doesn't feel right...
LA smells faintly of poo. This is always my quickly forgotten impression on walking out those doors.
Iced tea is as good as I remember. Why can't we make good iced tea in Oz? And i remembered to ask for unsweet which makes me proud of myself even after forgetting which hand was which.
A 6 hour layover in LA is waaay overkill.
Sorry to harp on but iced tea really is something Australia should get the hang of. For me iced tea should be unsweet and black with a wedge of lemon, not that fruity sugary stuff. It is wonderful!
I like shrimp. I like coconut. I do not like coconut shrimp.
I really shouldn't go to chain seafood 'restaurants' for breakfast, especially not in airports!
Toilet bowls full of water...seriously? Does the tide really need to be that high? And how come I never manage to remember that little quirk until I go and stick my bally hand in there?

Americans are generally really nice people. There is a noticeable difference between sitting around among my fellow humans in the crowded backend of LAX compared with, say, the crowded backend of Melbourne airport. Australians go to a lot of effort to ignore their fellow man whereas Americans will strike up a conversation, and usually it isn't is a creepy way, just friendly. There's a huge difference between the two behaviors and to me, Australians just seem so suspicious; which is odd when we pride ourselves on our 'g'day mate' attitude... but I think you only get that after you prove yourself to be a mate.

Border protection/customs/immigration don't count under the above but that's ok, they have an important job to do and as a nervous flyer anyway I totally appreciate what they do. Some of them even manage to smile. Never the ones I get mind you...

The other odd thing I've realised is that I have lost my ability to clearly distinguish American from Australian in almost all aspects (other than building and car construction which are both uniquely different). I used to be able to scan faces while we boarded the flight to LA and pick out who was an Aussie and who was from the US just by facial structures and gestures. Now both are so normal to me that I have totally lost that ability. The faces, the language, the brands... Everything from both worlds feels so normal to me now. I'm even having trouble picking accents, well at least I thought I was until I chatted to my beloved on skype and realized how broad her Aussie accent has become. Mine must have too because people here who used to understand me just fine are now cocking their heads and looking puzzled whenever I talk.

Anyhow, I'm in Texas now after a week in Portland. I can't post pics until I find some way to get them off the card. Tomorrow is my first day back at my old workplace AND my birthday so a good combo really.

It has just been pointed out to me that it is officially my birthday in Oz so happy birthday to me...

"Happy Me Birthday!"

2011-07-16T20:35:00.003+10:00

We did it, we survived hosting a birthday party for our two year old. TWO! Can you believe it?? It seems like almost no time has passed since we were driving to the hospital in San Antonio with a bag full of sugary snacks and tiny clothes and that moment when we finally met our purple eyed boy.

I'll keep this short and sweet but a huge thank you to everyone who sent cards, packages, messages and love, and to everyone who managed to swing by and join in the chaos today. Marty has had an awesome birthday!

Jo and I spent last night baking slab cakes and cup cakes and since baking has never been our forte I don't think we did too badly on the cake front! We had to make up the design... When we were working out what to make Marty for his 'two cake' and both of us quickly realised that is had to be a cockatoo. He has been obsessed with cockatoos every since a horde of 16 or more black cockatoos descended into out garden and completely stripped all the nuts off the hakea. Marty was entranced and kept wanting to rush out and help them by picking up the ones they dropped in case they missed some. He hasn't stopped talking about the even and since he calls them "tooos" we figured it was a good match for the cake. Black not such a good match so we went for the good old white cockatoo.

Not to bad for a design that came from an internet line drawing and my head. The beloved made a practice cake during the week because she could and I also think because she wasn't entirely convinced that I could cut the shape we needed out of a cake! Pffft... I has knife skills (although I do not want to see another banana lolly for a LONG time).

We also made slightly odd looking mini cockatoo cupcakes so the kids could have some cake without us having to hack into the main one which would a) either upset Roo or b) mean that those coming late would miss seeing it. We probably should have thought more about the construction of these rather than winging it 5 minutes before people arrived...

Of course we over-catered a little on party food but not too badly. The Roo had an awesome day even thought he started it at 5am (his choice) and managed to fall off a chair and smack his head on the table leg just before people arrived. Poor little mite. He was so exhausted by the afternoon that he went down for a nap in the middle of the chaos.

This was by far the most unusual gift he received, but given his well known love of cheese (a story for another time perhaps) it was totally appropriate and very well received.

He's been a bit train obsessed of late (thanks Papa) so I'm glad we somehow didn't managed to give him his Christmas present last year because today was really the perfect time for it. A Brio starter trainset with its own tunnel (tunnels are another obsession, as are train crashes).

One more day of crazy packing, hair cutting and leg waxing tomorrow then I'm off to the States at sparrowfart on Monday. I'm going to miss my family (not to mention all those new toys...)

In the bleak midwinter

2011-07-08T21:55:00.004+10:00

Winter kind on snuck up on us this year, on account of it having started in early May instead of around now. Now, however... now we really know it is winter! The mountain is covered in snow, down to 200m for those of you who care about these things, and the temps for the weekend are staying in the single digits (Celsius that is). Those two things would be fine on their own, but when you combine them with 50km/h winds of pure icy nastiness it is just darned unpleasant! I have spent this week sitting at my work desk in thermals, my windbreaker AND my big wool coat just trying to thaw.

I won't spend any time dwelling on the many germs and ills that have been lurking amongst us because this blog is starting to read like some try-hard Grey's Anatomy script. Let's just say Jo's lungs are clean as a whistle, mine suck and are going to be internally redecorated by yet another foul poison and our friend giardia has finally departed from his unwelcome visit. Yay winter

I have lots of random bits of news and such so here's the skinny...

Not the best family photo but we're reading Mog and Me

Marty is awesome. I know you already know this but at the moment I find myself caught unaware by this fact over and over again every day now. His language is developing at lightning speed. He has taken to calling me Pogga (with a hard ah at the end) and it has well and truly stuck. He constructs the most beautiful and economic sentences like "Pogga open? Is hard for me" or "No sick in bucket. Sad" (a memory of the unwelcome visit from giardia...) Hard to believe he'll be two next week. Looking back over old posts it seems like both a short and looong time ago that we were packing our hospital bag!

Marty building himself a house :)

My brother's TV show starts next week, on Marty's birthday so that has to be auspicious timing! I'm really looking forward to seeing him play a main character over a whole season! Keep an eye out for Crownies starting on ABC (Australian ABC that is) on July 14 or watch it on iView. There's some great promo footage of his character at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/crownies/ (You're looking for Richard Stirling)

While I may be suffering through midwinter I am about to get a little ray of sunshine. On the 18th I'm heading to the States for two weeks - one in Portland and one in Texas! It is a guilty ray of sunshine though because I'm leaving the family behind :( Too short and too much work to do. In some kind of weird planets aligning kind of timing it so happens that I'll be spending my birthday with our Texas family, which is a pretty darn neat present AND it means I get a second birthday with my family here.. (er right?)

Writing a whole blog post on the ipad is much harder than it first appears. This deficit is made up for by the pure awesome that is Infinity Blade. For those who know these things I have finally finished grinding my way through BG10, back to NG and am about to start climbing NG+ in the hope of being able to get the black gear in my store AND get to shard. For the rest of you I now return you to your regular programming.

Oh and did I mention Marty?

He's a well respected man about town

2011-06-09T20:43:00.007+10:00

And he's oh so healthy in his body and his mind (to continue the Kinks theme...)

As it turns out we are very thankful that he is so healthy because the beloved and I are not! Somehow we both have pneumonia! (psst, she gave it to me...We have to tone down this whole sharing and caring thing) Actually it really sucks. We both feel absolutely shocking and we're barking like a seal colony. To top it off it looks like some kind of atypical pneumonia and we won't know what is the cause until next week because it is a public holiday Monday (and it took 4 tries to get any blood out of this little needlephobe). Thanks goodness for the Bears, especially Jeannie, for taking Roo off for adventures every day. Anyhow, so far Marty seems healthy so here's hoping he stays that way. The alternative is that the little bugger brought the bug home in the first place!

Yes folks, that is a seersucker suit with a matching peach tie.

But enough of that, onto these super cute photos of Mr Roo. I can't believe our little man will be two next month! He is awesome fun to be around at the moment, aside from the small moments of terrible-twodom that he drops into occasionally. These photos were taken on Easter Sunday when we went to a big Catholic church for baby Frankie's Christening.

The white sneakers do make him look like he was styled by Ellen...

The ironic thing is that we bought this suit in Texas for the previous Easter! (Suits for Easter Sunday are a big deal in San Antonio - probably America in general) We knew Marty wouldn't fit it that Easter but we were hoping he's be able to wear it to the wedding we were going to just after we arrived home. But of course the Roo turned out to be a skinny little elf so it was awesome that he ended up wearing it to an Easter service after all.

Waiting for the audience to go quiet before making his sales pitch...

He was, of course, entirely overdressed for an Australian Easter service but he seemed to make a lot of people happy just by looking so dashing so we didn't care :)

Spotty wot?

2011-05-10T15:05:00.003+10:00

I am spotty. I am itchy. I am cranky. And I am tired. Because every-time I try and fall asleep the itching drives me mad and wakes me up again. I have some non-contagious viral rash that can take weeks to go away and only causes drive-you-mad type itching in some cases. Yay me. I can see why the first part of its name is pity...

Rashes aside we had a lovely Mothers' day and to celebrate such I thought I'd leave you with this awesome little comic Miss B sent us from the New Yorker.

Dusting off the blog

2011-03-07T20:49:00.006+11:00

Eek, it sure has been a long time between posts. I'm here to blow the cobwebs off this here blog and hopefully get a few posts in before anyone realises I'm back.

I'm going to break all of those blog rules about posting in chronological order and all that and just get down to some good stuff for now. Many of my loyal blog followers have been writing to me and demanding Marty updates so let me get started on them since that is sure to be far more entertaining than any other news at this point (and if you want more then jolly well leave a comment below!)

Last time I posted about the Roo was early October and he was 14 months old and really getting the walking sorted. Now he's nearly 20 months and running, climbing and talking!

This was the little ruffian last time you saw him...

And a few months later...

And a few months after that!

Here seen getting his own breakfast - not entirely successfully but amusing nonetheless!

I won't put too many updates in one post - This one is just a teaser, plus it is helping to get back on the blog horse. The biggest nightmare behind this has been trying to organise my photo library which is now spread across three computers and one back up drive. Not the smartest thing I ever did!

Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, some Tassie wildlife (and me!!)

2011-01-23T20:53:00.012+11:00

I know I have heaps to catch you all up on but for now bear with me. This past Wednesday was the BEST HUMP DAY EVER! Through a wondrous twist of fate and the good graces of my friends at the Bookend Trust I spent last Wednesday night with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer on a private night tour of the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary! Whoo. I'm still recovering.

Forget vegemite - this is my ultimate sandwich.

I know there are a few philistines among you who won't know who I'm talking about. Actually, I think I was included in the group because I have consumed the majority of the creative works each have produced. Neil is the awe-inspiring author of (amongst many other things) American Gods, the Graveyard Book, Stardust, Coraline and of course Sandman. If you haven't read any of his work you should first punish yourself and then get hold of one of his books. The libraries here have huge waiting lists for most of his work, which is wonderful, but you won't regret buying them. And if you tell me you don't need to read them because you've seen the films then I'm sorry but we can't be friends anymore.

Me and Neil Gaiman. This photograph will always make me smile.

Amanda Palmer is another kettle of fish entirely - goddess of punk cabaret, street performer, and allround queen of awesome. She's a big fan of Australia and her new album, a tribute to this land down-under, came out this week and you should buy it (download for a donation of 69 cents or more) at least for the Vegemite song. Not to mention "Map of Tasmania" which has been stuck in my head all week and which has a film-clip that everyone should watch at least twice because you will never find a more wondorous collection of merkins in one place. That being said it may not be safe for work for fear of being misconstrued if viewed from a distance. Thus I shall link it rather than embed it. Watch the video already!. And while you're there, pick up a copy of her acoustic, ukulele driven Radiohead covers which, though bizarre in concept are somehow even more beautiful and powerful than the originals.

Me doing my best not to explode with excitement all over Amanda Palmer. And failing.

Oh yeah, also, the two of them were recently married!

Anyhow, that should be enough back story to catch up the un(pop)cultured few. We went to Bonorong. It was the evening, the Sanctuary was closed and the animals (being Australian and nocturnal) were just waking up and getting ready to be fed. It was a gorgeous night - still and dry but not hot. There were only about 12 of us all up, between their party and the Bookend group, including Amanda's super cool tour manager who I bonded with over a mutual love of Portland, Oregon. Our guide from Bonorong for the night was Greg Irons, the devil-whisperer himself.

Gorgeous evening!

There was much petting of the super friendly forester kangaroos.

And if you catch them just right under the chin they roll back in kangaroo ecstasy. The poor little fellas can't reach that spot with their paws - a bit like the t-rex in Toy Story who needs someone else to cover his eyes when he gets scared.

Neil and Amanda were brave enough to feed Eric 1 and Eric 2 the sexually ambiguous but very friendly echidnas. I say brave not because of their spikes but because their food is a mix of condensed milk, minced meat and I was too grossed out to hear the rest, which they eat by lapping it from your gloved hand with their 15cm tongues!

After having followed both Neil and Amanda on twitter and their blogs (they are prolific sharers) their physical selves were pretty close to my imaginary versions of them (except that I'm actually able to hold a conversation with the imaginary ones without turning into a shy mute or blubbering fool). They were both wonderfully down to earth and exuded a kind of calm enthusiasm - Neil's tinged with unending patience and the sense that he was stockpiling every sensation for later examination and Amanda's with a restless energy and wonder. (For Sandman fans - Amanda is a wonderful mix of Death and Delight with a fierce intelligence thrown in the mix).

At the end of the night I finally plucked up the courage to ask Neil to sign the two books I'd spent the day lugging around; the beloved's copy of Odd and my copy of the collected Sandman vol 1. Josie had the right idea suggesting Odd which was at least 10 times lighter than Sandman!

Neil signing Sandman. Me holding my breath.

Not only did he sign my book, he freaking drew Morpheus! I have no words, only happy grins.

PS. Today Josie made me wash the t-shirt I was wearing that night...

Finger painting for grown ups

2010-11-09T11:57:00.004+11:00

Well I'm back. There are a bunch of things I want to post about but I've been slack since posting requires photos and I've been too tired/busy since I got back from the US to pop them on the lappy let alone get a post out.

However, since I'm at work waiting for a 6gb file to transfer across the planet I thought I'd let you in on what has been getting me through the work days, or at least the meeting component of those days. I have always been a fan of sketching while listening. Somehow drawing helps me focus on what people are saying in a way that watching them just doesn't. Now that I have the 'new trinket' aka the ipad, I can do this in full colour while looking like I'm taking notes! Awesomesauce no?

I haven't spent a lot of time fooling around with the shiny thing yet but I can tall you that the Sketchbook Pro app is totally worth whatever measly price tag it has. It it intuitive, stable and lets you layer and stuff. The following pic is only my second attempt at using the program (Josie say's the first attempt was too dark - probably something to do with how I was feeling about the meeting I was in!) This little guy is far from perfect but he was fun to create and took maybe a couple of hours all up. And yeah, it's all done with my fingers, I don't have a stylus and I don't really think I want one now.

Anyhow, just thought I'd share to get the blog rolling again!

Howdy y'all

2010-10-22T13:58:00.004+11:00

Not only am I posting this from the lounge room of one of my best friends, in Texas, I'm also posting it from my new trinket, the iPad! Fun stuff all round.

I arrived in the US on Tuesday after an epic but smooth set of flights from Tassie, through Melbourne and LA and then on to Boston! Definitely the most epic all in one trip I've done so far. Had basically a whole row free on the flight to LA so I got some really good sleep, which always helps!

I was in Boston, well Cambridge actually, for the Genetics Analysis Workshop 17, which is an intense semi conference semi workshop that runs for 4 days and covers enough stats to make your brain melt. It is designed to test and extend the methods we use for analysis of genetic data by getting everyone to work on the same dataset based on whatever is cutting edge in the field at the time. I got lucky this time and attended as a data provider, which took the pressure off me on the workshop side but somehow left me just as exhausted as I bounced around a bunch of the workshops. The focus was mostly rare variants and exome seq so for the few genetics folk who read this I learned that collapsing signal with noise gives you noise (der), families are beter than individuals (again, nothing new there) and that no matter how thorough the simulation, the data providers will always be blamed for something. I am now even more skeptical about association but it was still a great meeting and gave me a bunch of ideas about what (not) to do. The thing I had forgotten about GAW is that there's never time to leave the hotel and see the city!

On Saturday arvo I hopped a flight back to my other home, good old San Antonio. Being here has been awesome. It feels very weird, almost like I've just been away at a conference and I'm back now - except that I don't have my family here with me! The main reason I'm not staying until Halloween is I can't bear to be away from them for much longer.

I won't bore you with too many details and others I'll post later once I get pics off my camera. Mostly I've been split between working hard (weird but normal to be back in my old workplace) and playing hard, mostly trying to hit all my fave restaurant and catch up with people before I go! I've also been trying to fit a bunch of shopping in there, especially with the dollar :) Joanne was kind enough to take vacation yesterday and we hit the San Marcos outlets. The weather has been gorgeous, sunny but not hideously hot. I spent most of Sunday with out dear friend Lizzy (sadly Anna was out of town for the entire time I'm here!) and made it to Spirit of Peace to catch up with our church friends - another kind of coming home.

Anyhow, since most of the other news I have relates to food I'll save it for another post. Tonight I made chili (I didn't really expect to get away with not making some this trip) and an extra pot of vegan chili which is surprisingly tasty. Might post the recipes when I'm at a real keyboard. Somehow being here and making chili, watching trashy reality tv and drinking wine just felt so danged normal that it really kicked the homesickness in. Bah, being split between two places is bloody hard!

The main thing is that I'm making the absolute most of being here and having an awesome time catching up with friends and family here. I only wish Marty and the beloved could be here too - next time!

The year of two Springs

2010-10-06T20:44:00.010+11:00

I could probably focus on the fact that we have weathered two Winters this year, but since it has been in the 20s (70s) the last few days and everything is green and luscious, I'm going to focus on the good instead.

When we left San Antonio, Spring was just breaking and it was looking like an awesome one for wildflowers. San Antonio may only have a few different kinds of trees (mainly live oak and mountain cedar both of which I am, of course, allergic to) but it sure does have the most insane collection of wildflowers. Below are a few of the pics we took in our last few days.

These bluebonnets (a kind of tiny lupin) are the State flower of Texas (and another *%$# allergy risk) but when you see the whole side of the highway covered in them they are truly amazing. Mind you, that also means you see families with their kids dressed up in their Easter finery posing for pics next to six lanes of traffic roaring past at 70 miles/hour!

Hard to believe this little boy was only 9 months old and not racing around like a blue bottomed fly in a pickle bottle!

Well, that's a little snapshot of San Antonio in April. Now we're smack in the middle of another stunning Spring, half a world away. The flowers are less wild, since most of them are in our garden, but they are just as gorgeous. It may not be as warm as the Texas Spring but there's also a heck of a lot less pollen in the air! Those of you who haven't experienced live oaks in all their yellow glory are surely thinking that I'm a drama queen but the rest of you know better.

These pics are all from our garden, which is filled with about 15 different kinds of camellias, more bulbs that you can poke a stick at as well of all sorts of other lovely things that just keep popping up and surprising us.

Many layered daffs that get so heavy they fall over!

Part of the front garden - bulb central and there's more coming.

And yep, we even have orchids...

Two kinds!

Then of course there is that little boy, now nearly 15 months (although still wearing some of the clothes from his first Spring...) He's walking confidently, has a mouth full of teeth and the absolute inability to keep his pants up! I'm hoping he grows out of that last one...

It's a hat with a small boy attached to it!

Shown here clapping his hands after finally having ditched the hat...

Or so he thought!

Walking footage!

2010-09-09T21:07:00.006+10:00

In a shameless attempt to placate you all for the fact that I haven't posted in ages!

First here's the baby-cakes walking at 12 months. At this point (a few days after his birthday) he'd been walking for a few weeks and cruising round taking steps here and there for much longer.

Now here's some footage from a few days ago (14 months) with 'crawdad' his fabulous wooden crayfish that Papa Bear found him in the US. Much sturdier on his pegs!

I kind of miss when you could pop him down on his lambie or his play-mat and leave him there! Mind you, even then he could usually manage to roll himself off to somewhere he shouldn't have been.

Animal wisdom

2010-08-12T21:29:00.003+10:00

My cat and I are share similar views about all things apple...

Birthday aftermath

2010-08-03T21:22:00.016+10:00

Can you believe the Roo-ster is one already?

July is birthday season in our house with Marty and I less than 2 weeks apart. This year we managed to spread the celebrating over several weeks, culminating with a joint celebration (which I predict I'll have to get used to in the future). We also decided that since we'd be opening our house to the ravaging hordes we might as well make it a house-warming as well!

We tried to explain about blowing out the candles but he tried to wave goodbye to this one instead.

Marty has sped past a number of major milestones in the past few weeks. He's walking now, he's pointing, he's responding to a wide range of words (a lot of them either food or cat related) but the biggie has to be his voracious present opening skills! This boy has mad unwrapping skills. He strips tape and shreds paper like a pro. We had to keep my presents out of his reach!

First present was from us. Yes, it is a vacuum cleaner. Yes it talks ("Is that a rabbit? No, it's a dust bunny! Mwahaha") and no it is never switched on to 'talky mode'.

Please don't judge! The boy is vacuum cleaner obsessed ok. Who needs a baby sitter, we could just leave him in a room with someone's vac and he'd be happy for hours.

Not only does he unwrap, he does it in colour coordinated style!

Purry are you in there?

Master technique - shake the booty out!

Our dear friends sure kept the postie busy! Thank you to everyone who sent packages and cards and good wishes (and we will do our best to reply soon!!)

Occasionally there was some confusion about just which bits were exiting to whom. Prime example - Hamish and I are busy constructing the toy. Marty and Clare on the other hand are much more interested in the sample box of medicine!

Some of Marty's other toys are also fun for adults. Of course the first thing I made with these block was a giant robot and of course the first thing Marty did was pull it down on his head!

I know I've talked a lot about Marty's birthday but that's because turning 1 is way more impressive than turning 33, and because he looks better in pics than his Poggie. I had a wonderful birthday lead-up and party. I got some brilliant presents (my beloved gave me superpowers...or at least the next best thing in the form of gorgeous bird-watching binoculars) and one really sucky one (4 days of gastro) that landed me in bed on the actual birthday day. Thanks goodness only Jose and I got sick, Marty seemed to escape. Maybe it was that magic birthday cupcake we let him eat at the end of his party...

I can't tell if the sombre look is exhaustion or fear that we might remove the delectable sweet and sticky thing from his little death gripped paw at any given moment. We didn't of course and he loved it!

Family pics of the Birthday Boy

2010-07-13T20:43:00.005+10:00

I can't really believe that tomorrow is Marty's first birthday. Somehow it all seems to have gone by so quickly, even the bits that went really slowly (like the long nights of crying - his and mine).

I thought I'd post a whole bunch of recent 'family life' type pics as a precursor to what will probably be a week or two of birthday related blog posts.

Marty at the shack supervising Jamie in the garden

Marty and cousin CW playing with the playhouse. This is right before Marty decided to give CW a big old sloppy kiss right on the noggin, drenching his poor head in drool!

Brush your teeth, round and round...

He has five teeth now!

New trick, climb into the toybox to play!

Love drawing on those frosty morning windows

Mama reading to tired boy before bed

The poor cauliflower never saw it coming!

The NW Coast of Tassie (and a Marty fest)

2010-07-10T10:47:00.008+10:00

My outlaws, the fabulous Traveling Bears, have a house at Boat Harbour on the North-West coast of Tassie and it is one of my favourite places on earth. Granted the water is cold but it is crystal clear with white sandy beaches, gorgeous rock formations, birds, dolphins and fish! We were lucky enough to make it up there for a few days about a month ago and while it was too cold and splashy for fishing it still managed to show off plenty of winter charm.

This post will be pretty light on text but I've been wanting to get these photos up for ages so here goes! (remember you can click on any of the pics to see a bigger version)

First off some scenic shots to set the mood. These are either from Boat Harbour proper or nearby Sisters Beach.

And now that we've established that it truly is one of the most beautiful places on earth, it is time for the Marty Fest! We went out for a long beach walk and Marty was all bundled up in his womblesuit but he desperately wanted to get down and hoon around so we finally caved. He didn't eat too much sand...

That's all for now folks!

Our new house

2010-06-29T17:45:00.003+10:00

The view from our house at 7am. Yes, I get up early now!

Our new house is lovely. It is definitely winter here now but we're feeling pretty darn cosy. The house has good heating and gets lots of sun, and did I mention the view?!

Our quiet little cul-de-sac looking down towards Kingston beach

Our furniture is still pretty nana, since our Texas gear hasn't arrived yet, but it's all good. Great for Marty-cakes to crawl all over. He's not quite walking but cruising around all the furniture and taking the odd unassisted step when he's not paying attention. He's also taken to climbing on top of the coffee 'table' and kneeling up on top of it like the king of the world! Thank goodness he's now grasped the concept of 'backwards' for getting down off things. Well, backwards or the quick way (plonk)

One of the best discoveries (for Marty at least) about the new place is the bath. Not only is it luxuriously large but the tap has what amounts to a tiny shower head on it. What that boils down to is a lot of pressure which means bubbles! Marty had never really had a true bubble bath before but he loves it! If only we could convince him to drink less of it...

Marty-puddle is definitely a water boy

We're finally settling in, starting to invite people over and feeling generally more 'at home'. Marty is loving the space and basically thriving, even though he's still a teeny tiny little thing (he's built like a greyhound, all lean muscle and never stops moving!) Our cat Purry has finally returned to live with us after 3+ years with the Bears. He's a darling and so tolerant of Marty, who just adores him and wants to show it by ripping out his fur at every opportunity! Purry is a saint. We've been keeping him inside until he gets more settled but I'm pretty sure that if he isn't enjoying the attention, he's enjoying all the sun.

Tiddles darling

I know I'm going on about the view, but after living in the 7th largest city in America and having a view of houses and trees (which I loved, especially at this time of year with the storms rolling across...) well anyway, it makes a refreshing change to look out over water!

More of the early morning. Waking to this sure helps with the whole getting up thing.

Lots more to tell you soon! We're coming up for birthdays for both Marty and I. Sure, his first birthday is way more significant than my 33rd but I can't help but feel a tiny bit jealous! Not that I want to be 1 again. And yes, I know I need to attend to the title of the blog now. I'm getting there :)

Finally getting started?

2010-06-07T08:56:00.004+10:00

Last night was our first night in our new house...

Wait, I can't start a post there because there is so much that goes before it that I need to fill you all in on! Lets try a quick and dirty news brief:

We gave up on the idea of buying a house, at least for a while. Winter is not the idea time for this sort of activity not to mention that it was stressing the hell out of us! Instead we decided to look for a rental where we could ride out the winter, rest for a while and enjoy Tassie and sort through the ridiculous number of possessions we have.
We found a lovely little house just round the corner from Jo's parents (who we have been living with for the past 2 months, bless them!) It is a bit of a Nana house but it has amazing views (pics to come), a lovely garden, LOTS of storage and it is fairly safe for Marty the Destroyer.
We picked up the keys last week but since the house had just been painted we decided to let it air before moving in (ha - you'll see why I now laugh at this) and we organised to have the stuff we had in storage here in Tassie delivered so we could at least start sorting through it. Our Texas household goods aren't due until at least the end of July, maybe longer depending on clearing Customs.
I won't go into the details but the Tassie storage was a huge disappointment (there'd been a water leak into the container at some point so some water damage and lots of mould). So much for airing the house, since now most things we own smell seriously musty! Gah. Anyhow, I'm over the worst of the drama-queening about it and the only sad thing that was destroyed was the day bed Jo's mum had restored for her. The books were ok, the good china survived and most of the rest of our stuff is crappy student gear that we were planning to replace at some point. Hakuna matata.
Last night was our first night in our new house (see I told you we'd get there) and it was also the coldest night we've had so far (3 degrees - eek!). The beloved was a bit chilly but I was toasty warm on the new mattress under a massive feather doona :)
I'm looking forward to finishing the pantry restock (no small task from scratch) and getting the front living room in order (the room with the amazing view). I think the beloved is looking forward to being free of the smell of new paint, varnish and mildew - hehe.
Marty-puzzle is a little out of sorts but he'll settle in. He's mostly missing grandma and papa I think, plus he's also been fobbed off a lot lately while we unpack and clean. He did have his first real bubble bath last night and loved it.

Anyhow, that'll do for now. So much more to come! Sorry about the lack of pics, I'm on the wrong computer. If anyone wants our new address fling me an email.

A post for Aunty Joanne (and the few other Marty fans...)

2010-05-10T08:07:00.003+10:00

Because there's no way a post like this can possibly make you sad!

Mmm.... and to top it off the little tyke is a total virus factory right now!

Josie's Birthday and a quick update

2010-05-05T08:21:00.006+10:00

The University Rose Garden and view of 'the mountain' on my walk to work. Yep, I did say walk!

This may be a bit of a scatty post because I'm at work before 8am, I'm supposed to be working on a fellowship application and I could do with about 3 days of extra sleep! Today is a gorgeous day - the sky is crystal clear, there isn't a breath of wind and it's the beloved's birthday! I have to admit that I am 'the suck' as far as partners go, since I didn't say happy birthday until we stumbled upstairs for breakfast to find a table decked out with cards and packages! Bad Jac! I will make it up to her tonight (I hope) since we are going out for our very first dinner together, alone, since Marty was born! I'm taking her to Piccolo in North Hobart which I was very impressed with last March, so here's hoping they're still on fire. Of course I will blog the entire meal later :D

I was going to write a post about my new workplace with lots of pics but like i said, there's a fellowship application calling so for now you'll have to settle with a news brief and some photos from our last few weeks in Texas.

News Brief:
I'm about to finish my 3rd week of work and it is all going well. Looks like there's plenty of project that my input may be at least partially useful on. I'm fired up to get some grants in and get some funding so that's all good. I don't have a computer yet and it looks like that may still be 3 or 4 weeks off so thankfully I have my laptop! Only downside is it means another 4 weeks on the unpredictable wireless network.

We're still house hunting - both to rent or buy. It turns out we're quite fussy... who would have guessed?!

We're starting to get out and about a bit more although we still haven't got into the swing of really catching up with people (we're getting there though!) Marty is finally settling down sleep wise, which is making a big difference, but again he has a way to go yet.

We miss everyone from Texas horribly. I had a bad moment on Saturday where some of the reality came crashing down and I turned into quite the beast. I guess it is a form of grief and it sure does come sneaking up on you when you don't expect it! Thank goodness for the internets! Chatting online and skype help make the distance feel less vast. If anyone wants to find me I'm almost always on gtalk (http://www.google.com/talk/)

Hi ho hi ho off to work I go. Here's some pics to tide you over until I get a more interesting post up!

Mr Happy having a lovely time on John and Jo's lawn. This was about a week before we left Texas, in the middle of an absolutely stunning spring! (well, apart from the insane clouds of oak pollen)

It's amazing what you'll do to keep a little one happy while the movers spend six hours packing up the house around you. Marty is water obsessed - he crawled fully clothed into the bottom of Josie's shower the other day and was having a lovely time! He was probably due for a wash ;)

All we needed was a sink, and old apple and a giant grapefruit to keep him happy. If only he were still amused by simple things! Now he's more interested in attempting to dismantle a TV remote, work out how a heating panel works or dismantle Papa's newspaper!

Derwent River panorama

2010-04-30T08:27:00.004+10:00

I'm about to give my first talk at the new workplace and I'm excited about it in a geeky kind of way - basically I love the data :)

But I thought I'd quickly share with y'all another love of mine, and that is the view from this part of Tassie. Click on the photo to make it bigger. I stitched together a panorama of shots taken from a little hill (called the battery because they used to have some kind of cannon defence system there!) about 5 mins from the middle of town. To the left are the foothills of 'the mountain' aka Mt Wellington. I couldn't fit the mountain in but you'll see better shots of that later. It is our compass and companion here - you always know where you are based on where the mountain is. Heading to the right you can see the city (tiny little Hobart) and the bridge over to the Eastern Shore (the dry looking landmass you can see over the water) and to the right you're heading down the Derwent River (which is exceptionally deep so all sorts of ships port just near downtown) and out towards the sea at the far right.

Remember to click on it and make it big!

Enjoy!

Home...where to start?

2010-04-25T16:14:00.011+10:00

Well, we've been in Tassie for two weeks now. I'm not really sure where to start this post! It feels like so much and yet so little has happened in that time.

The exhausting hours spent in LAX seem like years ago!

Travelling with a child means travelling with lots of stuff! The stroller is super useful for hauling it all around though. And for those of you who asked, we got the stroller back the same night we arrived! Go Qantas :D

It has taken Marty a full two weeks to recover from the jet lag, move, new foods etc and I'm still not entirely convinced that he's fully settled, but he is doing really well. Not so good at the whole sleep caper yet but then again, he never was! He's crawling like a mad thing, pulling himself up on anything he can find, and actually crawling into anything he can get his paws around, like suitcases, or the fire place! All this activity of course results in bonked heads but he's tough. He's also loving the garden and hooning round under the clothes line - a unique Australian experience! I'll have to remember to take the camera out there next time. He's met Purry our cat and they seem to get on pretty well. Purry has even let Marty pull his fur, tail and ears without complaint and he still hangs around! It has been wonderful to have him back.

I spent the first day in Tassie (a Saturday) sitting in front of a computer finishing off a grant that was due the next day. Not at all fun with the ground going up and down under my feet - at least that's what it felt like! The rest of the week was spent talking to banks, medicare, looking for somewhere to live and chilling out with the Roo getting him settled. We still haven't really caught up with many people, and those we have seen have been flying visits. We'll get there though. For the first week we were all in bed by 7pm at the latest! Which of course meant Roo was ready to roll at 6am.

I started work on Monday and have been there for a week. I'll write a separate post about that later. Short story: all is going well. The new building it pretty awesome although going from my lovely office in Texas to a cubicle sucks, no matter how nice the cubicle may be.

I can't say too much about how it feels to be back in Tassie yet because we're taking it pretty slowly but it sure is beautiful here! It isn't like I forgot how stunning this place is but it still takes my breath away whenever I look out the window. We are staying with Jo's folks until we work out where we're going to live (rent or buy? argh!) and the view from their place across the mouth of the Derwent river is just sublime!

The view from the front doorstep

Same view, stunningly different evening!

A very foggy day and some good old Aussie telegraph wires

Moving here is totally different to visiting... Usually we try to pack all our favourite activities, people and food into a week or two. Now that we know we don't have that kind of time limit we're letting ourselves take it really slow. We're working on finding our feet, getting into the rhythm of work, beginning to socialise and slowly working out a longer term plan. We've been pretty stressed about the whole house thing but I think we just need to relax a bit more and really enjoy Tasmania! We both have phones now so if you want the numbers please email me (jac dot wabbit @ gmail dot com) - we'd love to hear from you!

We've arrived

2010-04-09T16:17:00.002+10:00

Mostly intact, temporarily missing a stroller but we're here! The ground still feels like it is going up and down and my head it too full to even start with how we're feeling but the important thing right now is that our phones don't work! Anyone who called or texted us from about 10pm last night, sorry but we didn't get them and we won't now. I'll let y'all know by email when we have new numbers set up but for now stick with email etc.

Marty was an absolute trooper and took the whole trip, delays, lost bags and all, so much better than his poor tired mummies. We've done little more than shower, eat, and walk down to the ocean but that's plenty for now. My heart is still a little on the broken side but we'll find a way to make Tassie home again - and that doesn't change that fact that Texas will always be home too. We're danged lucky to have such amazing friends over the globe.

Up in the air

2010-04-08T09:47:00.003+10:00

Nope, not the film but us! We're currently in the air somewhere between Dallas and LAX. Yup, my first ever mid air blog post, neat eh?

Our flight out of San Antonio was delayed but thankfully so was the one out of Dallas so we made it with moments to spare (why is there always a bottom to change in Dallas airport?) Marty is currently sleeping in his Mama's arms and we're feeling sad but on track.

Not sure if I'l be able to keep you posted from LA but at this point we're looking good to make our flight to Melbourne - then it is just a matter of getting our insane collection of bags and three very tired people through customs, immigration and on to the domestic side of things - Jetstar that is.

I'd like to send a huge thank you out to our wonderful Texan family for not only putting yourselves through the pain of an airport goodbye, but for helping us with all our gear and the general logistics. We will miss every one of our San Antonio friends - I can't even write about it properly yet. Just know that we love and miss you all.

(oh crap I just made Josie cry again...)

This was taken in the afternoon after the movers had almost finished packing up our apartment. I only wish I could lay down like this right about now!

Trying to be on our way!

2010-04-08T05:59:00.003+10:00

We've done the teary goodbyes. We've dropped off our gazillion bags and made it through TSA... But now we're stuck doing laps of San Antonio terminal 2 waiting for a flight to Dallas which is currently surrounded by a belt of thunderstorms which is causing the usual US travel dramas! At the moment it looks like we might make it to LA... We'll do our best to keep you updated on here!

For now, here's a photo from a couple of days ago when life was so much more simple!

Straddling the line between hanging in there and not...

2010-03-24T15:10:00.004+11:00

I'm terribly embarrassed by my own blog at the moment but please forgive me - I haven't had time to get even half the things done that need to be done between a never-ending stream of visitors (all wonderful but still time consuming), getting ready to move, writing grants, finishing up at work, worrying about the health of family members, missing friends, getting ready to miss even more friends and the list goes on and on...

I have heaps of news but you're just going to have to wait a little longer!

In the meantime, here's a cute distraction.

Tim's Oriental and Seafood Market in San Antonio

2010-02-28T04:30:00.007+11:00

The latest haul of goodies from Tim's

I took another trip to Tim's the other day and Oh Boy! Not sure whether I arrived on the right day (Friday afternoon) or because Chinese New Year celebrations are still happening but the fresh produce section was brimming over with goodness!

For those who need a reminder, Tim's Oriental and Seafood Market is an exceptionally good Asian grocer in San Antonio (7015 Bandera Road near the Huebner intersection) and I've already blogged about the bounty of previous visits.

For a little under fifty bucks, the latest visit netted me (roughly clockwise from the top left): shrimp dumplings (yum cha style), chicken and vegetable gyoza (potsticker dumplings, best snack), Frozen udon (the truly wonderful chewy, springy kind), coconut milk (snore), fresh shiitake mushrooms (the really puffy ones, not those boring flat kind), garlic chives (great for Korean pancakes), a bag of fresh snow pea leaves, four packs of enoki mushrooms, two packs of the most delicious, meaty oyster mushrooms (so good!!), a bag of my favourite dried shiitake and in the middle is a bag of fresh water chestnuts.

We have enjoyed all kinds of wonderful meals off this bounty, from Maangchi's buchujeon (Korean garlic chive pancake), to sticky pulled pork noodle bowls, basic mushroom pasta, cooked breakfast with egg foo young and stir fried mixed mushrooms - through to one of our favourites, a form of yosenabe shown below.

Yosenabe is roughly Japanese for thrown together pot, a one pot quick soup full of deliciousness. We make a terribly corrupted version where the components are mostly cooked separately so they have a variety of flavours, then combined at the end. It is fast and wonderful! This one has udon noodles, chicken broth, sautéed oyster mushrooms, fresh shiitakes poached in saké, soy and star anise, snows pea leaf sautéed with garlic, fresh enoki mushrooms and egg with spicy sesame oil - topped with spring onion shreds and togarashi.

Beef noodle soup

2010-02-21T15:09:00.007+11:00

I have a bunch of stuff I want to post but in honour of Chinese New Year I'll star with a recipe I've recently been working on perfecting. There's a Chinese restaurant here in San Antonio (Gin) that does the most awesome beef noodle soup! We have been back to try it over and over again and I think I'm finally close enough to a version that I am at least satisfied with. For the sake of transparency, this recipe is also derived from two Gourmet magazine recipes found here and here (God bless you Gourmet...I miss you so).

In a heavy based soup pot or dutch oven combine 6 cups of water, half a cup of soy sauce, half a cup of sweet sherry and a tablespoon or two of sugar and bring to a low boil. Then add the following...

Sliced ginger (about 3-4cm of a root), 3 garlic cloves sliced, 3-4 spring onions, 3 whole star anise, a cinnamon stick, a few pinches (~1tsp) of five spice and some red pepper flakes. Also add 8 to 10 of those big, fat, dried shiitake mushrooms.

Allow the spice mix to infuse at a low boil for about ten minutes then add about 2 pounds (1kg) of boneless beef short ribs (on the bone is also fine but add a few more).

(sorry vegetarians)

Don't don't chop the meat up at this point. Marbling is good but trim off any large fatty bits on the outsides.

Add the meat and put the lid on, letting the whole thing sit at a low boil/high simmer for two and a half to three hours or until the meat is very soft but not falling apart. Don't have the boil so hard that it shreds everything up and clouds the broth with too much protein. When the meat is done, take it off the heat and allow the meat to cool in the broth for at least an hour but preferably overnight in the fridge.

About half an hour before you're ready to serve, skim off any fat, strain the whole thing (keep the broth!! Dear heavens it is all lost if you throw out the broth!!) Allow the broth to settle and while that is happening rescue the short ribs and the shiitakes from the mess of stewed aromatics. Strip any obvious membranes and or stringy bits from the short ribs and cut the meat into roughly 1 inch cubes. Cut the shiitakes into thick strips. Gently pour the broth back into your soup pan leaving most of the sediment behind (some is good for flavour but not too much), add the meat and mushrooms and bring back to a simmer. At this point you'll probably want to dilute out the broth with either water or chicken stock, depending on how strong the final poaching liquid turned out.

Meanwhile you need to prepare the greens for the soup - Chinese cabbage (wombok) cut into strips and sugar snap peas works well. Also cook some noodles. For this soup wheat based noodles are better than rice so I used a pack of Japanese dried somen noodles. When the noodles are ready, add the greens to the soup until the are just wilted. Serve the soup over the noodles, adding some toasted sesame oil, fresh coriander leaf, sliced spring onion and red pepper flakes at the end.

Enjoy!

Chinese New Year

2010-02-14T14:26:00.011+11:00

Well it's the year of the Tiger... Sorry, I had to go there! We just got home after celebrating Chinese New Year at our favourite local Chinese restaurant here in San Antonio, Kim Wah!

Kim Wah is a gem of a restaurant hidden in a typically ugly San Antonio strip mall. A group of us from work try to visit at least every two weeks and order an insane amount of really good food for about the same price as some horrid chain eatery lunch would set us back - Our favourites are peking duck with soup, salt toasted pork rib, snow pea leaves with garlic, beef flat noodles and of course the deliciously wonderful eggplant with sticky, sweet sauce! We were invited to last year's banquet but couldn't get a group together in time so I was determined not to miss out this year, even if New Year's Eve fell on the valentine's day weekend.

This year we did make it, along with our food savy friends Matt and Claire and of course Mr Roo (a fave of the restaurant staff). In my 'stupid white people' attempt to wear red for the evening I managed to dress Marty and myself in matching t-shirts (threadless of course) and didn't realise until we were on our way. The beloved thought it was intentional!

The restaurant was packed with a great mixed croud of people who knew the traditions and those of us who were just having a lovely time learning it all. I have to say they did a really good job of making it inclusive - of making sure we knew what was happening and why.

First course out was the Peking duck which is always a delight. They serve it sliced with fluffy steamed rice buns, spring onion slivers and hoisin sauce and you make little tasty duck rolls. Marty loves the sauce! Usually this is served with a broth made from the bones and either watercress or wombok, but there was no room for the soup at this banquet (Marty loves the soup too).

Next up was shrimp skewers served with a delicious dipping sauce that was more curry paste than sauce (poor Jose, there was lots of seafood but we made sure she had plenty to eat too)

Then came sticky, fall off the bone tender braised pork ribs with sweet 'special sauce' (like a rice wine based Texas BBQ sauce only Chinese... yummy!)

After that we had the most divine dish - braised abalone with shiitake mushrooms and snow pea leaves in garlic sauce. It was incredibly simple but sooo good. The sauce didn't overpower the very subtle abalone and the mixture of textures was a real treat.

The abalone came out with one of my absolute favourite dishes and one that I would be training myself to make if only I could find the lotus leaves - sticky rice with Chinese sausage and bbq pork in lotus leaves. This wonderfully chewy rice dish is sweet and salty and has a rich, smoky tea flavour from the leaves. I'm glad it came out last or I would have totally filled up on it! We also scored a serving of the wonderful eggplant in garlic sauce thanks to the chef who was worried there weren't enough non-seafood dishes for Jose and knew it was a favourite of our table.

Somehow our dinner was timed perfectly so that just as all the food was all served the entertainment began. Marty was sleeping peacefully on the beloved's chest at this point but we decided to wake him and let him watch rather than have him woken and risk the wrath of a frightened babe! Lucky for us he loved the whole show - I think he thought the whole thing was purely for his entertainment!

There were ribbon dancers, plate dancers, a martial arts demonstration from an award winning 9 year old (who reminded me an awful lot of Aang) and of course the lions! Silly me thought the lion dance for the blessing of the restaurant would involved just one lion, but there were LOTS of them! The lion dance was very noisy with lots of drumming and cymbals but Marty loved it - we all did. I felt like I was in a room full of Wild Things and I think Marty thought his toys had come to life, it was brilliant!

Josie feeding a lion a money filled red envelope for good luck

This was the lucky lion that ate the food offering from the restaurant. No mean feat considering it involved one of the puppet masters jumping onto the shoulders of the other while still manipulating the costume!

All up it was a really fun night - good friends, great food and giant lions!! Oh and dessert was pretty tasty too... Mango with tapioca and pomelo

A simple little thing like a passport photo...

2010-02-09T15:59:00.004+11:00

You'd think that getting a passport photo for a 6 month old baby wouldn't be too tricky, right? Ha! Not only do Australia and the USA use a completely different set of dimensions (which rules out getting one done 'professionally') but the rules for the Australian photos say this:

Photos of children and babies should:
-Show the child or baby awake, looking straight at the camera with mouth closed and no pacifier
-Show the child or baby's face clearly without any other objects (including a parent's supporting hand) visible

Along with the usual stuff like white background, no shadows around the head, head not tilted etc etc.

Well let me tell you, getting Marty to look at the camera with his head straight AND his mouth closed was basically impossible! We even resorted to dripping apple sauce into his mouth in the hope that he'd close it, even for a fraction of a second! (Jo poo-pooed the idea of peanut butter on the roof of his mouth, no clue why!)

Here is a tiny selection of the 'failure' photos...

We did get three that we though might pass muster, so we sent all three and figured they could pick the one that passed!

All this does, however, mean that we have his citizenship paperwork in the works (hurrah!). Here's hoping that will only take a few weeks and then it's off to Washington DC to file his passport paperwork. Craziest thing is that the beloved has to appear in person to file it, but Marty doesn't have to be there! Go figure.

One word

2010-02-06T14:50:00.003+11:00

Dinner...

Random foodstuffs

2010-02-03T09:47:00.004+11:00

Just finished the latest lineup of Marty foods. First up was stewed apple with finely chopped prunes. I just rough mashed it so there's plenty of texture but chopped the prunes finely enough to avoid large skins running loose in there (speaking of loose, hopefully not too loose...) Next up was baby carrots, boiled until tender but not soggy with a chunk of fresh ginger and pureed with a few slivers of said ginger and the juice of a mandarin (because we didn't have an orange on hand). And finally spinach wilted in a tiny bit of ham stock and pureed with butter. Holy crabcakes batman, I have never seen anything quite so green!! Tasty though.

Carrot with ginger and citrus, buttered spinach and (icky looking but tasty) stewed apple and prunes

Speaking of tasty, we came across this strange fruit while Ruthie was visiting and couldn't resist trying it out. It was a pomelo and turned out to be like a giant pink grapefruit only without the bitterness. It was wonderful!!

Our pomelo next to quite a large granny smith apple

Lots of pith but golly that flesh was delicious and it was so much fun to dig your fingers in and rip the flesh out...

Neglect

2010-02-02T13:50:00.006+11:00

Well I can hardly post less this month than I did in January, sorry about that!

Pop!

Let's start over. We celebrated a very quiet New Year's eve with a bottle of champagne. It is already gearing up to be a huge and exiting year. We've had several visitors in the last month alone, including dear Aunty Ruth, the Wurfs and our dear friend Brandon from Chicago (our friend Chris' brother). We have another lot of visitors queued up including Jo's cousins from Leeds and Marty's Godparents Hamish and Clare. Crazy times!

Uncle Brandon! (Marty is a big fan)

In between visits we're trying to arrange for Marty's Australian citizenship by descent (which requires getting Jo's birth certificate from Oz) and then his Australian passport (which requires us to go to the embassy in Washington DC in person) not to mention all the other fun logistics like quotes from shipping companies, working out what to do with our stuff (what needs to come to Oz immediately and what can wait 6 months etc), selling the car... well you get the idea! Our rough time-frame is to be back in Oz around the first week of April but we're still keeping it flexible until we get more of this worked out.

There has been a little time to breathe though. For example we went for a lovely drive through one of the gated neighbourhoods here in San Antonio after visiting a friend. It was just hitting dusk, the cakes was asleep in his seat (for a change) so we figured we'd just cruise around for a while. We were having a lovely time watching a huge number of deer frolicking around all over the place, and then we came upon these two lovebirds playing hide and seek around a bush...

(click to make it bigger remember)

Gorgeous much?

And so I shall end a random post with a random picture!

I would like to point out that this is the aftermath of just one night of Ruthie's visit! Ok, it looks much worse than it is... really.

Making baby food

2010-02-01T13:08:00.006+11:00

The cakes had his 6 month paediatrics visit the other day and the poor thing is still suffering post immunisation. Nothing major, just out of sorts. Captain crankypants in fact. Aside from the 4 booster shots, they also measured his height (26.5 inches or 67cm) and weight (15.5 pounds or 7kg) which puts him a little below the 50th percentile, so all good. His curve had dropped a little so the paediatrician suggested getting him on some slightly higher calorie solids by adding some butter or olive oil (this kid is go go go most of the time so it makes sense).

Those of you who have been paying attention will know that he's been eating some pretty tasty food ever since we got him started on solids (5 months), such as roast sweet potato with ginger, but this last trip inspired me to up the ante. We're still breastfeeding on demand (well not we) and are not planning to stop that anytime soon, but he's still eating solids three times a day, probably more soon. They say babies can only eat something that is about the size of their fist because that's all their tummies can hold. I think they gave Marty some other baby's fists! He can eat half a banana in one sitting and still be looking for more. Speaking of bananas (food of the devil as far as I'm concerned - they stink, they're slimy and they stain like some kind of toxic waste) our paediatrician also warned us of something else food related that we'd never heard but seems to be true, at least in our case. C.A.B.S. Carrot, apple, banana and squash (which seems to cover both pumpkin and zucchini here) are all foods that can block a baby up, or a least solidify their poop. Guess what we'd mostly been feeding him? No wonder he was doing mini adult poos - lucky for us he never blocked up entirely!

I dunno, do you think he wants it?

But anyhow, back to baby food making. In order to up the calories and drop back the CABS I made up a few fresh jars of food for the little tike. I usually make him 3 or 4 different things, store them in jars and we rotate them for 3 or 4 days before I make another batch. This week I made chicken stock mashed potato (simmer peeled/chopped spuds in chicken stock until soft and puree spuds with some stock and a little olive oil until creamy but not runny), asparagus and ham jelly (simmer asparagus until tender and blend with some ham stock/jelly that I had in the freezer from baking the Christmas ham) and since apple is still his favourite, poached apple with rasberry and rhubarb (hoping the others would help add some fibre etc). The end result was that Jo and I now want to eat Marty's food!

Chicken stock potato, asparagus with ham jelly and poached apple, raspberry and rhubarb. Four days of food; 20 minutes tops to make.

Next lot of food in the works - poached apple with prunes, poached pears and cardamom, more asparagus because it is really good and carrots poached in orange juice... He's also eating mashed peaches (delicious at the moment), mangos and avocado (his first food).

A quick catchup Marty-fest

2010-01-23T11:56:00.011+11:00

Since I don't have time to actually write a real post I'm going to see if prestidigitation works. Pay no attention to the chick behind the blog, instead behold - Photos!

(How many of you were geeky enough to look up prestidigitation before going on? And how many of you are super nerds and already knew what it meant??)

This is what happens when you get carried away taking photos and forget where you left the lens cap!

We were lucky enough to have Jo's Aunty Ruth visit us from the UK for two weeks. She's Jeannie's little sister and I'm pretty sure Marty could see the resemblance. We had a lovely time just hanging out and it was perfect timing for Jo to have someone at home with her now that she's finished work (we played tag with 'stay at home mum' so I'm now shuffling off to work each morning). Poor Ruthie saw all sides of a San Antonio winter - from lows of -8 C (which killed half our plants) to gorgeously sunny 20 degree days. She flew back to chilly London on Thursday and our dear friends the Wurfs arrived Friday (last night) so you can see why I haven't really had time to post!!

"Hey mum, look what I found! Can we keep it?" Marty and Aunty Ruth (or little Roo and big Roo)

Marty has become a box obsessive. Thanks to Amazon for sending one that fits him perfectly!

It's not a box - it's my comfort machine!

Marty loves his box so much he drooled all over himself with excitement! (he blames the rabbit)

Whose toes are those?

Dog gone cute

Like I said, this isn't much of an update, but I'll leave you with some video of mr talky talky chattering away to his toys :)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T14:01:00.002+11:00

Happy New Year everyone! Tonight is a blue moon, the start of a new decade AND our ninth anniversary (I know, New Year's Eve... how corny).

As for New Year wishes, I'm going to quote someone who can say it much better than I can!

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
- Neil Gaiman

The post-Christmas post

2010-01-01T04:33:00.002+11:00

We had a truly wonderful Christmas! It was spiked with pangs over it being our 'last' in San Antonio but it was such an enjoyable day with most of our dear friends here that those little moments of sadness couldn't stick around very long.

As I mentioned previously, we did most of our present opening as a family on Christmas eve, mostly so that we could call/skype/text folks back in Australia on what was their Christmas day. Christmas morning dawned like any other... cold and somewhat sleep deprived but we soon remembered that it was 'our first Christmas as a family' and all that jazz. There were a few presents for Marty that we hadn't opened (because he fell asleep before we got to them) so we spent some time in bed waking up and shredding paper, with Marty in his Christmas hat from his Auntie Frances!

Then we had about an hour to get showered and packed up before heading to John and Jo's for the day. It is amazing how much extra gear you have when you have a baby, and we're not really 'gear' people, so we really only had essentials. For a full day out those 'essentials' included the porta-cot (crib) so we didn't have to keep checking him to see if he'd crawled off the bed, his high chair so he could sit up with everyone and have Christmas dinner, his bedding (sheepie, magic blanket etc) so sleep felt like home and then the usual nappy-bag extravaganza. We also had a santa-sack full of gifts for our friends and a bunch of half-prepped food for dinner.

The big group Christmas dinner was planned for around 4pm, with pre-dinner nibbles and gift sharing at 2pm. We arrived at around 10am for breakfast, pre-pre-dinner gift swapping and half a day of cooking (my idea of bliss). I'm afraid I didn't take too many photos, but that is a good sign that we were all enjoying the moment instead of spending it all behind the camera!

Poggie in the kitchen prepping scalloped potatoes

The dinner menu was somewhat eclectic, and complicated by the fact that we had one vegetarian, one vegan, one gluten intolerant person and one person allergic to onions! I had premade a gluten free, onion free vegan stock and while not all dishes were edible by everyone I think there was enough variety to keep everyone happy, and stuffed! We had baked ham, roast pork with crackling, bacon stuffing (sans chestnuts because I apparently ate them all!)... so it was a bit of a pigfest! We also had scalloped potatoes, roast root veggies, grilled asparagus, lemon and garlic haricot vert beans, vegan moussaka and some other bits that I can't recall right now. The crackling on the pork came up perfectly for once and had to be guarded and dished out evenly to prevent an all out mid-kitchen brawl. Marty sat us with us and had sweet potato and ginger, pumpkin with nutmeg AND apple sauce! It was probably the longest he's ever spent in his highchair and he was just loving grinning at everyone round the table. We all wore our cracker hats and he managed to keep his blue Christmas hat on the whole time.

The dinner table beautifully laid out by Joanne

Speaking of the Roo, he had such a wonderful day. He almost got the knack of unwrapping presents but given the option he would always opt for chewing or drooling his way in. He coped really well with all the attention, had three long naps and one long walk and didn't make a single grumpy noise all day! Ah if only we could have Christmas every day, or perhaps we just need ten other adults to come and live with us...

The Christmas elf

Present swapping was a lot of fun. I won't bore you with the details however I do have to mention that I was totally spoiled by J&J and am now the proud owner of an 8" Shun chef's knife. She is gorgeous, 32 layers of stainless surrounding a VG-10 stainless core and sharp as a razor... Sharp enough to strip my half fingernail down to the nail-bed without shedding blood! Close call and a solid lesson in respect - but you should have seen that baby slicing through the pork!!

The rest of the day involved stuffing ourselves with yet more food including pavs and Christmas milk made according to my family's secret recipe (although mine tends to be heavy on the whisky).

I know it sounds trite but it was a brilliant day full of happiness and good friends and will definitely go down as one of those truly great memories.

Merry Christmas to all...

2009-12-26T14:21:00.005+11:00

And to all a good night!

We had a wonderful Christmas day and details will be forthcoming... after a long sleep and a serious digest! For now let's just say that Marty had a brilliant day and was totally chipper - considering we left home at 9am and returned at 9pm! Much love to all <3

Christmas eve

2009-12-25T13:41:00.008+11:00

It is Christmas eve here and we've had a relaxing day cooking and just chilling out (literally chilling since a huge wind storm hit last night, but at least we're doing better than most of the US). We made Christmas milk, ate a cheese plate and listened to carols streamed from Salisbury Cathedral. It is beginning to feel a LOT like Christmas... there's a happy buzz running through the house (or maybe that's just too much Christmas milk!) We're planning to really enjoy our last Christmas here in Texas and not get down about being far from family and some of our friends. Next year it'll be the reverse.

Our tree in all its glory. Not all of those prezzies are for us, some are to take to Christmas dinner tomorrow!!

Our very eclectic tree. We love our ornament collection which ranges from birds to dragons to day of the dead carollers and toys made by friends with everything in between.

Marty begged to be allowed to open some presents early (ok, one of his mums was busting and it wasn't this one! Well, ok, I was too...) He loved the paper!

We have only let him open a few so far (stimulation overload!) but Marty wants to let you all know that his new toys are friends (and to say a huge thankyou) and that you're welcome to come and play with them and him.

Happy Christmas everyone!

'Operation: Learn to Crawl' is in progress

2009-12-24T12:25:00.005+11:00

Our dearest babycakes is experiencing extreme frustration this week. He's so close to crawling but hasn't quite got it, but he's close enough that it has become his obsession. Every waking moment where his body is in the vicinity of a solid surface he's practising, practising, practising. Getting him to go to sleep now involves a good 10 minutes of waiting for him to stop sticking his booty in the air!

At this point he's progressed to the point where his hands and knees are down and ready to go (he's strong!) but he's not entirely sure what to do from there. So far he's inching himself forward by doing this:

Hilarious yes, but it is 50:50 whether the final splat sends him forward or backwards!

Adventures of a budding gourmet

2009-12-23T03:32:00.005+11:00

Busted! That's the wrong milk Mr.

I had all these grand plans about being a stay at home mum and having time to blog every day. Kind of like those plans I have for cleaning the ceiling fan in our bedroom before the weight of the gunk attached to it brings it crashing to the ground! But really, who has time for these things?

Marty and I have been having a lovely time establishing a daily routine. The first week wasn't so crash hot, given that the poor little tike was teething (one back molar is through, the other side is well on its way...no sign of much front tooth action though) and had a cold (or that could have been the teething - either way lots of snot was involved) not to mention missing his grandparents! We topped that week off with a tonne of shopping and a couple of big social engagements ('tis the season and all) which meant that he spent most of Sunday and Monday catching up on sleep! We probably should have done the same thing come to think of it...

We've been working on introducing some different foods. Not as a replacement for milk but just as tastes and to see how he'd go. He's been trying to take food off our plates for a while now. We were kind of torn between the advice of our fabulous paediatrician (start at 4 months) and the Australian Breastfeeding Association (start after 6 months) but the more recent medical literature I read the more starting before 6 months seemed like the best plan, and he was clearly ready.

Chomping at the... wrist-rest? This thing is perfect for protecting him from his own head-banging tendencies, plus it apparently makes a good chew toy!

Lucky for us he likes the highchair ($15 Ikea - these things are the bomb) AND he has very good spoon control (ie. eye gouging is a rarity)

Poggie feeding him zucchini.

We've been reading some other good stuff about starting with bitter green veggies and moving through to the sweeter stuff which seems to make sense. So far he's had avocado (his starter - no sign of the avocado baby yet tho), zucchini, apple, persimmon (!!), banana and sweet potato (with ginger and he loved it!) I think that's all... I've made some pumpkin soup that's basically just roasted butternut and nutmeg so he can probably have some of that for Christmas.

At this point we're only doing one lot of solid food per day, around lunch time after we've been for a big walk AND had some milk. He gets set up in his chair, we put on the Best of Play School and sing along, and chow down on some goodies. He's a pretty good eater though and will take anywhere from 1 to 3 tablespoons in a sitting (that's what goes down - he doesn't actually get too much all over him as he's so keen to get that spoon in the mouth!)

Texas BBQ at its best - the Salt Lick

2009-12-22T14:46:00.005+11:00

One of the by-lines of the Salt Lick is 'you can smell our pits from miles away' and it's a darn good thing too, otherwise you might never find the best BBQ I've ever had! The Salt Lick is tucked out the back of whoop whoop kind of near Austin... (but only kind of as we discovered last time when we had a flat tire in the rain and had to navigate the back roads from the Salt Lick to Austin on the stupid 'donut' wheel that passes for a spare tire in this country!) We've been a few times before but I wanted to post again since we visited again recently with the Bears and our friends Gene and April (major food lovers). The day was perfect for it, cold and drizzly, so sitting inside a wood hut not to far from a delicious BBQ pit was wonderful.

This be the pit! Amongst other delights there's beef brisket, sausage links and the best sticky ribs EVER. The ribs are basted with the secret sweet sauce in the tin pot. I love the way the snags hang in the hood to catch the smoke!

We eat family style. It's about $18 per person but basically amounts to a constant topping up of the delights you see before you! The meat is brisket, ribs and sausage. Then there's a gorgeous potato salad and pretty good beans - but it is the slaw that I just can't get enough of! It doesn't have a creamy sauce, more light and vinegary but with toasted sesame seeds and gah...so good. Oh and of course the necessities - pickles, bread and secret sauce (not shown)

Marty loved watching all the people. We should have given him a rib to munch on!

And to finish, for those brave (and amazing) souls with room, I hear they do a great pecan pie. I can't attest to its greatness myself because I never have room!

Our last Thanksgiving in San Antonio

2009-12-16T08:09:00.005+11:00

It just shows how far behind I am when it is nearly Christmas and I'm only just getting a Thanksgiving post written!

Today marks day 2 of my 'stay-at-home-mumming' and I'm still feeling mostly sane. It is a horribly cold and windy day, although thankfully not wet so we still went out walking; Rooey all bundled up in his stroller with the wind/rain shield on and me freezing my booty off. He's a good shopper though :D

Back to Thanksgiving... This year was a lot of fun because we had the Bears with us, but it was also sad since we knew it was our last real Thanksgiving with the wonderful friends we've made here in Texas. This year is was a slightly more intimate crowd, with 16 people as opposed to last year's 26+.

We did the usual thing, headed to John and Jo's in the morning to start cooking for a ~4pm feast, caught the rerun of the Macy's parade and watched the National Dog Show (go Sadie the Scottie, best in show again!) The menu was pretty close to the usual, turkey, baked ham, chicken on the BBQ rotisserie and a huge spread of vegies.

Most of the dinner menu. Roughly clockwise from the turkey centrepiece: Mashed red-skinned spuds, assorted roasted root veggies, two batches of Lorena's green bean casserole (one spicy and one not), grilled asparagus, steamed green beans with lemon and crispy garlic, potato bake (x2), turkey, chicken, ham and a huge batch of chestnut and bacon stuffing! There was also gravy and Brad made some exceptional fresh cranberry salsa.

What kind of Thanksgiving would it be without a great bar? We had some good champagne with dinner too ;)

There was a huge spread of desserts including lemon meringue pie and chocolate meringue pie, but I only had eyes for these beauties.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving! We are super thankful for all our wonderful friends here, whether they were at the table or not!

What you been up to Mr Roo?

2009-12-15T02:40:00.014+11:00

Marty is sleeping and I'm sitting here at the computer having breakfast, the world is good...until I remember that this is Day 1 of 'Jac the (far from amazing) stay at home mum' and the panic sets in once more!

A boy and his Poggie

Experienced readers will notice that I am giving up my precious baby free minutes for you all. I thought I'd take this opportunity for a mega catch-up post since one is well and truly due. The Travelling Bears headed for home on Saturday, after spending 10 weeks with us helping to look after Marty so that Jo could keep working. She finishes as Research Coordinator of the Genomics Computing Center (the kind of job she's unlikely to have again) at the end of the year, hence my foray into the world of stay at home parenting (I have a collection of vacation time).

Marty and the Bears

Saying goodbye to the Bears was doubly hard because it very quickly became clear that while their flight from San Antonio to Dallas was fine, their flight out of Dallas (to LA to make their international flight) was delayed coming into Dallas! Jo went to bed because she was exhausted but I stayed up until nearly 2am watching the blessed flight tracker, knowing that Jo would want an update in the night. It is a horribly helpless feeling watching the progress of a flight, willing it to move faster, but knowing there's no way it'll land in time to make the connection. Only falls short of actually being on the flight and knowing that. Anyhow, they eventually made it back to Australian soil via Sydney so thankfully no bonus night in LAX!

I don't really believe in the idea of milestones but for the sake of blog news Marty has passed a bunch lately. Today he has his first cold, poor little thing, but he's being a trooper about it. We think he's popped his first tooth. I say think because it is a back molar and I can't see it, but it certainly feels like it is through (especially when he clamps down hard on my knuckle). It didn't seem to upset him much, just lots of drool and attempting to stick things back there to chew on; tricky at the best of times!

I just can't see back there!

He's also had his first few tastes of solid food,starting with avocado and then zucchini. I'm stewing some apple for him as I type this. We've been reading a lot about introducing the bitter greens before the sweet stuff, so trying to work down those lines. He wasn't sure about the first lot of avocado but has been getting better and better and he practically fed himself some of the zucchini. Definitely tending towards right-handedness too. He's pretty good at holding the spoon already (we have a lovely soft boon one) and only occasionally tries to stick the long end down his throat (I think so he can bite on that back tooth). His Poggie has a phobia about babies covered in food, but I'm getting over it!

First taste. I have more food pics but they're trapped on my camera until I get a new card reader (mine died)

What else can I tell you about Mr Roo?

He loves to go walking in his front pack. All new parents should be given a baby bjorn along with their 'bundle of joy'. Like the baby bonus - Government issue, absolutely essential! The white dribble cloths that attach to it are just an added bonus (or in his case just as necessary, since he likes to chew that edge, and anything else that comes within range...)

He's a smiley boy and has a laugh like a squeaky screen door! Seen here sporting his gorgeous cardi made by his GA Kate.

He's not showing any sign of losing those bright blue eyes yet! Still looks deliciously chunky in the arms and legs but they mustn't be very dense since he's bang on the 50th percentile.

He absolutely loves tummy time and if you dare lie him on his back he'll be on his tummy again within about 5 seconds.

Roo is very engaged and will systematically seek out everyone in the room until he has managed to get direct attention from everyone! He loves different faces and will charm the pants off complete strangers by grinning at them :)

Ok, so I started this post while he was napping at 9am - it is now 2.30pm and he's napping again (sleepy from the cold) but I'm not doing too badly. We've done 2 loads of washing, some cooking, played 'which toy can we drown in drool' AND been out for a walk to do some christmas shopping and get Poggie a coffee!

I hear a squeak, got to go!

Coming home!

2009-11-30T05:51:00.008+11:00

Forgive me for the terrible lack of posts. I have no excuse except that Lord of the Rings online is just that good! (yes, I have been lured back to the world of online gaming)

Anyhow, back to the important stuff. I have attempted to get this little fragment of news out to most people but I'm now at that point where I have no clue who knows and who doesn't so if you're finding out for the first time via the blog, my apologies... We are coming home!

Before I jump too far ahead let me backtrack for a second. For those of you new to the blog, Jo and I are both Australians, Tasmanians to be precise. Yes, we are from the little island state at the bottom of Australia that gets left off most maps. Tasmania is more beautiful than any one place really has a right to be! See for yourself...

About 5 minutes from the middle of Hobart, the capital city.

Yep it gets cold, but doesn't tend to snow in town. This is Mt Wellington, again only a stone's throw from the city center. The grocer on the corner (the Salad Bowl) is also one of my favourite corner stores and a great spot for finding local cheese bargains!

Oops how did this get in here? Local Tasmanian sheep/goat cheese, sausage, wine and pinot paste from Grandvewe.

Ahh, the view from my outlaws' beach house in Boat Harbour, one of my favourite places of all time.

Boat Harbour again...sigh

We ended up in Texas because when I finished my PhD (statistical genetics) I was offered the kind of job you just can't refuse, even if it does mean moving to San Antonio! So I moved here in March 2006 and had to wait nine horribly long months before Jo could join me here (she also had a PhD to finish but hers in is something much more conversation friendly - literature! See, you can even say it without swallowing your tongue). We always planned to return to Australia but it was dependent on me getting a job (not a whole lot of places for me to work in Oz) and the 'where?' was very much up in the air. We thought maybe Melbourne or Adelaide and were resigned to the idea of being a short flight from home, but by some fortuitous twist of fate I have been offered a job in Tasmania! It starts in April so we'll be leaving here around the end of March, which will be exactly 4 years for me!

The whole thing is bitter sweet because of course we are busting to go home and we want Marty to be closer to family and dear old friends, but it means leaving behind all our fabulous friends here, my incredible job and all the fun that comes with living in another country. I plan on keeping the blog but of course it is going to need a new title so I might open up a suggestion box. Jac Wabbit went to Texas and came home again is a little cumbersome but I could always go with 'there and back again' ;)

Días de los Muertos - Days of the dead

2009-11-11T07:29:00.012+11:00

Over the last week or two we've been celebrating the days of the dead in their various forms. San Antonio is brilliant; not only do we get the usual American Halloween fun including work celebrations, dressing up, lots of sugar and trick or treating but we also get the Mexican / Catholic celebrations of El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is both a memorial and celebration of those who have passed on.

First off there was the work Halloween party which included a hallway decorating contest, costume contest (I was a judge, ha!), mummy wrapping game and dessert contest! The photo below is our friend Katy's 3rd place dessert entry (I think it should have won).

Katy's jelly brain dessert with berry sauce

Then there was the actual night of Halloween. I made a big pot of my Tassie Devil chilli (and a vegetarian version - neither of which actually include devils) and we headed on down to John and Jo's since their house is in a better neighbourhood for the festivities (you don't really get trick or treaters at apartments unless organised by the complex). There were a bunch of us going, some to trick or treat and some to man the door and hand out candy, but the deal was we all had to dress up. We thought we were all organised with Marty's costume since we had this fabulous chilli-pepper outfit we bought before he even existed... but at the last minute we discovered a wardrobe malfunction! Every time he moved his legs it popped open! It was too small!! (Actually, I think it was designed by someone who had never seen a real baby...maybe one of those people who design costumes for dogs) We did manage to get a few pics before retiring the chilli.

Awww

He was remarkably chipper all through the dressing up process!

Hot stuff (aww come on, someone had to say it!)

RAWR!

Luckily his mama did some fancy footwork and secured him a replacement outfit at the 11th hour... even if I did have to drive to the back of whoop whoop to pick it up!

It's a rainbow glow bug, I think. We'll it's cute whatever it is! (Poggie not in costume at this point)

Rainbow bug and his Papa Bear - make sure you check the Bears for more pics and news

Halloween loot for just one child o_0

Our church also does a lovely and very moving day of the dead celebration where members bring photos and stories of people they want to remember.

Altar of remembrance

Finally, to wrap up all this celebrating death/life we popped down to First Friday, which is a arts/beer festival in Southtown, the San Antonio arts district. This particular first Friday included a day of the dead parade as well as a Muertitos Fest!

We started First Friday with drinks, fried mushrooms and jalapeno poppers at our favourite Texan icehouse, La Tuna. We met up with friends and their little girl Camille and then headed down to Muertitos Fest at Say Si, arguably our favorite gallery in San Antonio. Say Si is a student art program but the quality of the work is excellent, as you will see in a moment.

Some of the incredible altars at Say Si

More altars. Call it my Catholic roots but I love these!

Some of the artwork. Hard to tell from the pic but these were gorgeous.

This was our favourite piece by far and we would definitely have bought it if it hadn't already sold! It is a combo of found paper, block printing, woodwork and resin.

After we'd checkout out the artwork we popped outside to catch some of the traditional dancing, including this incredible routine where they danced with real candles on their heads!

After that we did catch the parade, but my photos suck so if you want to see better ones check out the Bears.

Day of the dead parade at Say Si

And of course we dressed Rooey for the occasion so that everybody stopped to goo over him!

Foster Botanical Gardens - Honolulu (or an excuse to post pictures)

2009-11-04T13:23:00.010+11:00

We visited the Foster Botanical Gardens while in Honolulu - totally worth the short cab from the hotel. I have no idea what most of these plants are (other than pretty) and frankly I'm too lazy to work it out. This post is just an excuse to post lots of photos.

(Remember that, as always, you can click on any of the pics to see the big version)

A tiny bit smaller than coconuts but waaay more plentiful, I was pretty nervous of standing anywhere near this tree!

See, not just one or two cannonballs but enough to scone you several times over!

And wicked thorns to boot (this is still the cannonball tree) but I did risk getting close because the flowers were so pretty... Ahh, tricksy!

See!! Look at that flower. It looks as thought it could just eat you up... wait... aaaghh!

Jo and Roo at the gardens

Some kind of large, toothy palm

Jac messing with the camera

Still messing with the camera...

Nuts! Big as grapefruit!

Jo by one of the trees she's had photos taken with at 3 and 14 years old

Giant squid monster tree?

Looks like fireworks to me

This one reminded me of a cylon resurrection ship... clearly due for that holiday!

We'll eat you up we love you so!

This tree rebelled by flowering from its trunk

A lunch fit for for a lizard

A huge and glorious painted gum

Munch crunch lunched

Josie, Roo and the Bears - proof that we all survived unsconed

Where to eat in Waikiki if you're trapped at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

2009-11-03T04:13:00.009+11:00

Apologies that it has taken me longer than I hoped to get this post out. I came down with the dreaded lurgie, no doubts contracted from Mr-lack-of-personal-hygiene who was sitting across the aisle from me on the plane, coughing willy-nilly into the communal airspace and flossing his teeth in his seat. Blergh. Anyhow, I've been feeling rotten but doing my best not to pass it onto small boy (so far so good).

Back to the important stuff. When we first arrived in Hawaii and settled into the cruise ship like mega-plex that was the Hilton Hawaiian Village we suddenly realised that we needed to find 3 squares a day for the next week and the room service menu was not only dismally small but looked like the budget sheet of a small country... Not a good start. The Hilton has 20 something restaurants within its bounds, some of which are half decent and I'll cover them, but we also wanted to get outside the plastic-fantastic security blanket and eat what the locals eat. Our restrictions were price, exhaustion (within a short walking distance), small-boy friendliness (although he is such a champion restaurant baby now) and also the food had to be good! Here's how we survived.

#1 Chiba-Ken Japanese restaurant. This place was my favourite hands down! Not even a whole block from the hotel (but down an unassuming side street) we thankfully stumbled over this little gem. One look at the menu showed me no cream cheese in any of the sushi and I was sold. I ate here three times but I could happily have come back every night. The chirashi special was really good, so was the tsukemono and the slow cooked, sticky pork belly (melt in your mouth goodness). I am not usually a miso fan but the miso was the best (and freshest) that I've had in a long time! Definitely worth a visit (or 3) if you're in the area.

Edamame, tsukemono and unfiltered sake at Chiba-Ken

Gorgeously fresh chirashi special (with uni and fresh wasabi) plus tasty-tasty miso at Chiba-Ken

#2 The Wailana Coffee House. This diner is right across the street from the hotel, open 24 hours and had the (I wish I could say faint) odor of urine, but the breakfasts were fast, filling, cheap and pretty darn tasty - plus the menu was big enough that you could breakfast for a week and not get bored. Great omelettes (I can recommend the Chinese style), good pancakes and Jo liked the muesli (cup not bowl people).

#3 The ubiquitous ABC stores. While not exactly a restaurant, these places were a lifesaver in terms of foraging. From yoghurt and juice for the early morning jetlag munchies through to a bottle of wine and some plastic glasses (plus a Hawaii themed bottle opener) at way less than room service prices. They also have all your trashy (and not so trashy) souvenir requirements covered.

#4 Pho Minh Thu>. This little Vietnamese place was hidden away about a block from the hotel and like most pho houses it looked pretty Spartan, but the food was delicious and so fresh and cheap too. Good pho, vermicelli bowls and great summer rolls. We ate in and grabbed take out several times, since this was the perfect food for hungry travellers craving something fresh.

#5 Two honourable mentions from within the Hilton complex. Round Table Pizza which is a US West Coast pizza chain (and it doesn't get more West Coast than Hawaii, sorry California...) The Guinevere's Garden (vege) and King Arthur's Supreme were both very good and even better with a bottle of red from the ABC store! Also within the Hilton complex was Hatsuhana, a sushi place that opened early for breakfast. I was on my own here but I loved the toridori udon (chicken udon soup) - it was exactly what I felt like for brek!

Flight 22 is off to Honolulu

2009-10-28T02:25:00.020+11:00

(It's an Avalanches reference that's been stuck in my head for weeks - we weren't really on flight 22)
We are home, back from a week in Hawaii with Jo, Marty and the traveling bears (Jo's folks). I was there to give a paper at the ASHG conference and to catch as much R&R as possible (defined, in my book, as good food), but also get into the swing of traveling with my family! Speaking of which, Marty did an incredible job on the flights. Saying he was well behaved implies he could have behaved badly and I think he's still too young for that (mostly) but he was very chilled out about the whole traveling thing. We had a one hour flight to Dallas, then a very quick dash through the airport to make our connection which was an ~8 hour flight straight to Honolulu. The flight over was the trickiest because it basically ran through the entire 'awake' part of his day. Combine that with the fact that he usually likes to be held and walked, not held sitting down - he did remarkably well! He slept, fed, chilled out and only cried briefly a few times. On the return flight he slept for the entire 7 hours!

The traveling Roo

We also managed to work out why Marty hates his car seat... We always thought it was simply that he didn't like the reclined position but now we discover that it is because we've been attaching it to the wrong sort of car! How silly of us. While trying to get a taxi for 5 people plus baby/car seat from the airport to the hotel they eventually gave up on minivans and sent us off in a limo! So my first trip through Honolulu was riding in style (and at taxi rates!) When the driver offered to pick us up for the return we jumped at the chance - and it seems that two trips in a limo was all it took to cure him of his seat-hating 0_o

We were staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village - an all encompassing fake plastic shiny shiny mega-plex of vacationy goodness. It provided the impression of a whole Hawaiian experience without you really having to have a Hawaiian experience at all! Five towers, various pools and waterparks, an artificial lagoon filled with fresh seawater about 50m from the beautifully clean Pacific Ocean (I guess so you can virtually swim in the Pacific?)

On arrival at the huge indoor/outdoor central reception you're greeted by incredibly well manicured tropical gardens, fountains, pools and a vista out to the palm-tree studded Waikiki beach and sparklingly clean Pacific Ocean. Plastic fantastic and non-native as it was, it was impossible not to be impressed.

Josie with the Roo in his carrier* at reception, looking out over koi filled ponds, the main pool and the beach.

*Every new parent should be given one of these, they are the most useful baby thing ever.

The hotel complex was set up so that you never really had to step foot outside into Honolulu proper. There were more restaurants and shops than you could poke a stick at, some of them even half decent! The gardens were incredibly well tended and an absolute delight for us San Antonians whose daily dose of botanicals consists of live oaks and more live oaks.

The many ponds were full of water lilies, stripy blue fish, massive koi and even turtles!

The hotel complex was also filled with an incredible array of wildlife (although I'm not sure any of it was Hawaiian per se) including stinky African penguins!

There were randomly placed giant parrots all over the place and I spent an amusing few minutes watching one particularly bad tempered one refusing to come to its handler to be put away by hopping to the absolute top if its climbing frame! There was nothing more between us and them than a warning sign, although those beaks were warning enough not to get too close.

The complex was also filled with all sorts of other bird life including these wonderful flamingos!

Marty also adjusted really well to the 5 hour time difference...better than we did in lots of ways. The conference started at 7am each morning (argh!) but the time difference was in my favour there. My talk was Thursday morning (we arrived the Saturday before) and it went pretty well. The conference was huge with 6000+ attendees, but the exhibit (read freebie) section wasn't so hot this year...I guess the companies didn't want to have to take too much stuff with them. Aside from the conference we spent most of our time working around Marty and his sleep/eat/play schedule, which allowed us to do quite a lot including a trip to the Foster Botanical Gardens (more about that later), a wander through China Town, shopping at the Ala Moana shopping mall (best food court ever...again more on that later), swims in the pool and the ocean as well as lots of yummy food experiences!

Mama and Roo getting ready for a swim

Our room was perfect for the three of us - quite big with a separate kitchenette area (great for handwashing) and the bed was ENORMOUS! Marty loved it, as you can see.

The room was big enough that we didn't feel like we were going mad when we were forced to spend time there, by our own jetlag/exhaustion or Marty needing to nap. We even had people 'over for dinner' a few times.

Me and my boy reading the comics on our huge couch

Our room was on the 28th floor of one of the towers so it had some pretty specky views, although I had to be careful taking Marty on the deck (lanai) since Jo developed some pathological fear that I would somehow manage to drop him over the side.

Evening view out over the Hilton lagoon and the ocean

View towards Honolulu City from our deck

Sunset over the Pacific from the deck

Yes I know there's a shot like this already but I liked them both and couldn't decide!

The pools were nice but the ocean was simply delicious, aside from the sharp bits of dead coral underfoot.

The breakers were a fair swim away so the beach itself was very calm. The water wasn't hot like the Texas Gulf Coast, but it didn't bite like Tassie either!

Looking out across our little patch of beach down to Waikiki proper and across to Diamond Head (volcano crater)

Jo wanted photos of palm trees and there were plenty! The don't offer quite enough shade though...

I could have done a lot of lying down and looking up at this, well, if it wasn't hot and I was entirely burn resistant!

Literally meters from this gorgeous beach was the equally gorgeous if entirely artificial Hilton lagoon (which was public access at least, unlike the rest of the pools)

The Hilton lagoon early in the morning before it was swarming with people - it looks like a deserted island but it is an illusion!

I'm guessing this s why lots of people opted to swim in the lagoon, although we didn't really have any trouble in the ocean (maybe a few tiny stings but nothing worse than Oz)

These signs seemed to suggest that the ocean was incredibly dangerous - Lions and tigers and bears oh my!

Anyhow, this post is way too long so lets just say it was a great trip, we all had a fab time and I'd love to go back one day. There are two more Hawaii posts coming, one quick one about food (of course) and one for the bot gardens (simply for the pics). Aloha!

One last shot of the lagoon looking back towards the entire Hilton complex

Visited by 'escapees from the bathroom'!!

2009-10-17T10:34:00.007+11:00

A present arrived in the mail today that made me laugh so hard I had to share it with you all immediately! My sister and her partner ordered these little beauties from Sweden for Marty and he is going to love them (we sure do!)

Pee and Poo! Although I think we might call them Pipi and Popo (which I think is the Spanish version?)

We're off to Hawaii bright and early tomorrow for the American Society of Human Genetics meeting, and some much looked forward to R&R! I probably won't be able to post any photos until we return (not taking the camera transfer cable) but I will be sure to take LOTS. For now though, here's a vid of Marty practicing his pool swimming (from September)

Honolulu here we come!

Gnocchi (or my latest obsession)

2009-10-15T11:31:00.004+11:00

I always thought I hated gnocchi. Tough, chewy, tasteless lumps of potato dough masquerading as pasta. That is, until Tre. Tre Trattoria is a restaurant here in San Antonio. We first visited for two reasons - it was Josie's birthday and we needed somewhere new to take 'the group' and it looked (from the online menu) more like the places we ate at in Italy (ok make it 3 reasons, they had linguini with clams on the menu...my favorite!) That night 90% of our party ordered the wild mushroom tagliatelle and the rest went with the clams (best I've ever had outside Italy) and we were all smitten and there was much rejoicing and the people were happy. The point is, it wasn't until a later visit when a generous friend ordered an extra plate of gnocchi to share with the table that my obsession began...

This gnocchi was panfried and crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and tasted absolutely delicious! I was in love. Not only did I want to never stop eating it, I wanted to make it, to master it, to own it! I obsessed about this gnocchi for days. I read recipes online, watched videos, I even got in touch with Jason Dady, the head chef and one of the owners of Tre for tips. The other night I had the ingredients and some time on my hands so I took the plunge. I won't post the recipe here, not until I practice a few more times, but as a starting point I used this one from Gourmet (side note - I still can't believe Gourmet is over). I'm not sure if you can get to the recipe without registering but it is from Urban Italian.

The big difference between this recipe and lots of others I read was baking the potatoes, and adding the egg/oil/seasoning mix to the sieved potato flesh while it was still hot enough to bind the egg protein somewhat. Also minimal dough manipulation to keep it fluffy. Here's my dough ready to go (black flecks are pepper, probably leave it out next time).

Then I immediately cut it into 6 pieces and gently (but quickly) rolled out dough strings and cut them into diagonal slices.

I kept the cut ones covered in cling wrap while I worked to stop them drying, although the whole process was so quick they'd probably be fine.

The trick Chef Dady told me was to poach them (about 2 mins, till they float to the surface) them (gently) plunge them into ice water. From here I let them drain on paper towel, dry out a little, and them pan fried them in butter until they browned on each side.

Bit of fresh grated Parmesan and some pepper and we have dinner!

Oh and if you're looking for updates on the Roo, make sure to check out the Traveling Bears.

Visitors

2009-10-04T04:54:00.006+11:00

Marty has shown himself to be a real social animal of late since we've been lucky enough to have a steady stream of visitors. Our friend Julie came to visit for a week as part of her 'North America 09' tour. She didn't get to see a whole lot on San Antonio, although she did spend a day exploring downtown and the river walk on her own, but she slotted in well with the daily Marty and Mama routine. We did make it out a few times, including a trip to our new favorite restaurant Tre Trattoria (more about that another time).

Jules and a somewhat floppy Roo

Our dear friend Brandon has also come to visit us twice in the past few weeks! He's a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines but San Antonio is still well out of his normal route. Brandon is such a lovely boy - we'll be incredibly lucky if Martyn turns out to be half the man Brandon is (pr half as good looking). Marty definitely enjoys his visits, lots of big grins! This last trip Brandon came for breakfast (a good Aussie cook-up but healthy too!) then, since it was such a perfect day, we went out for a walk and some shopping. Brandon carried the Roo in the front pack and had fun pretending to be the handsome daddy :D

Marty helping Brandon with his stomach crunches

Also, in between Jules and Brandon, our friend Lara dropped in for dinner and brought her absolutely adorable 4 month old girl, Lynnea to visit Marty. He was a gentleman and shared his 'lucky Claire blanket' with her!

Lynnea and Marty getting to know each other

And to top off visitor season, the traveling bears (aka Jo's parents/my outlaws) arrived last night looking not too shabby for 30+ hours in transit! To herald their arrival San Antonio turned on the weather with stormy skies and 100% chance of precipitation, typical!

These visits are bittersweet, however, since we know there are so many other people who wish they could meet Marty (some of whom are even foaming at the mouth -yes I'm looking at you Rennie). Not too much longer to wait.

Marty Roo - sucking people in like satellites since 2009...

A special treat from the Roo to his fans

2009-10-02T01:21:00.003+10:00

One of the best things about having your own child is being able to ~~torture them~~ dress them up in their fancy duds. These particularly awesome duds came from Katy and Jennifer (she made the hat!)

See my dimple? I'm flashing it for you!

The post immunisation post (and a griffin)

2009-09-30T12:46:00.002+10:00

After crossing the 2 month barrier Marty was rewarded by the Texas government with a bath of immunisations...in 5 separate injections! The little trooper did remarkably well and put his mums to shame (I held him down and tried not to faint while Josie huddled in the corner!) Prior to the shots the nurse gave him some infant tylenol (panadol) in cherry flavour!! The poor bugger, the first thing he tastes other than breast milk is nasty cherry flavouring - blergh. Anyway, he did me proud by sicking most of it back up; a discerning palate already.

He's 11 weeks today (how did that happen?!) but he was 9 weeks when we went in for the shots, which means he also had his 2 month measures taken. At 9 weeks he weighed in at 12 pounds 4oz or 5.56kg (50th percentile) and 23 inches or 58.4cm long (also 50th percentile) so it seems he is entirely normal! The doctor didn't believe the figures (because he still looks chunky) so measured him again, but nope, still normal as anything. I guess he just isn't dense ;)

Here's a family photo we manage to shoot just before walking out the door to go to the doctor.

In other news we've managed to get the Roo not only sleeping for solid 6 hour blocks in the night but also sleeping in his cot! Ok, so his Poggie still wakes up every half an hour to make sure he's breathing but I'm sure I'll get over that soon, right?

Also, I bought a griffin... Not just any griffin either, but a giant griffin puppet! It was there, I was there, it was on sale and I'm a total sucker not only for puppets but also for animals whose existence is denied by some ignorant folks. I'm guessing he was on sale because your average punter here doesn't know what a griffin is unless it has a Harry Potter label on it.

Taking suggestions on a name for him...other than Grif!

Got milk?

2009-09-19T12:01:00.004+10:00

Because we sure do! Mama Boo the milking cow has slowed down somewhat but she could probably go to Vegas for a week before Roo would start getting hungry.

Just a sample of out milk bank!

And of course I doubt I could get away with posting without there being a photo of Mr Roo so here's one of his big marsupial eyes. Ignore the naked mole rat! Oh wait, that's my beloved...

Whatchoo lookin at people?

Finally, a food post!!

2009-09-16T07:42:00.010+10:00

Ah my blog, how I've missed you. Let me break the chain of fawning Marty posts with a food post! Actually, not just one but three food posts all neatly wrapped into one like a blog-lasagna.

First off I have to thank Gourmet magazine, to which we subscribe, for our latest dinner fabulousa. I don't often cook by following recipes but this one grabbed me by name alone - Figgy piggy Cornish hen! I've been bursting to find an excuse to cook Cornish hen for a while - they're not really Cornish, just young chickens. I won't repeat the recipe in detail here since it isn't mine (although I'm hoping it'll appear on their website soon) but the best thing about it is that it is incredibly quick, simple and delicious! Basically I took a bird, halved it and seasoned it (salt/pepper). Meanwhile I crisped up some bacon (or what passes for bacon in the US), then some garlic slivers in the bacon fat, then the bird halves skin side down in the bacon fat until the skin browned. Then I simply roasted the bird (450F) with some halved black figs (delicious and in season here right now) and some thyme sprigs. Served it with mash and a sauce made from the bird/fig juices and the frypan residue, along with some white wine and lemon juice - brilliant!

Little miss figgy piggy in all her faux-Cornish glory

Secondly, this is a shout out to everyone who lives in San Antonio to get out of your HEB monopoly on the supermarket routine and get yourself down to Tim's Oriental and Seafood Market on Bandera Road just past the Huebner intersection. This place is a gem, I just love it. Not only is it a really extensive Asian grocer (and I really do mean extensive) it also sells fresh seafood (including live crabs) as well as whole Peking duck for only $15.99 each and the most delicious sticky BBQ pork and crispy roast pork belly. The other amazing thing is this place is recession heaven - no matter what I purchase my bill always seems to be about $25 (well, except when I buy a duck and a slab of roast pork on top of everything else and then the beloved opens the shopping bags before I've had a chance to warn her of said purchases...but that's another story.)

Here are a couple of examples of recent expeditions:

Clockwise from the top - bamboo shoots, enoki mushrooms, lap chong sausages, huge and delicious dried shiitake, flat rice noodles made in Houston and so good for chow fun, fresh shiitake, spring onion, bitter greens whose name I forget... All up ~$16

Again, clockwise from the top - frozen udon noodles of the highest caliber (meaning chewy and bouncy and perfect, not those crap ones that break when you even point a chopstick in their direction), baby bok choy, magically mysterious but delicious little bags of preserved vegetable that I love snacking on at work, more dried shiitake, tiny hot peppers, more rice noodles, gyoza, tofu balls (silken in the middle, fried on the outside), more lap chong and more enoki. Total bill - $23

There are so many reasons I love Tim's. The fresh vegies are wonderful and you never know what will be there. We've bought delicious fresh water chestnuts, sweet coconuts, all manner of greens, and the shiitake and enoki are just wonderful! And so cheap. I love bamboo and Tim's keeps me supplied with about 15 different kinds, from fresh frozen to brined to dried to hot-pickled. The ingredients cover Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Filipino and so much more. Not only that but you can also find tins of milo and Cafe Du Monde coffee with chicory from New Orleans amongst many other gems.

And finally (because no post can be completely Marty-free) I have to say well done to Mum for guessing the profession!

Master Chef Marty Roo mixing it up in the house!

As much as his Poggie might like to dream, I doubt I could ever really handle it as a profession, but who knows, he might! I'd be happy if he became a carpenter but he's going to have to do some pretty fast talking to convince me he wants to do a PhD!

Guess the profession

2009-09-11T05:08:00.003+10:00

Marty is wearing a 'potential future profession' outfit - can you guess what might be on the front? Aunty Mona isn't allowed to answer since she bought the outfit!

Also, here's a super short and unedited clip of the Roo chilling out. He hasn't done a lot of that lately. Mr Grumpy pants has taken to being an insomniac and drama llama but I'm sure he'll calm down soon! (I have to believe that). Anyhow, here's his happy face :)

Fish is fish (live action!)

2009-09-04T12:19:00.003+10:00

As promised, video number 2 in the Marty Roo series - Marty Roo the incredible fish boy shows off his swim shorts and his new slimline body!

Check it out, you know you want to. And I promise the music isn't Playschool this time!

How cute? (aka stalling for time...)

2009-09-02T13:50:00.004+10:00

I know I'm long overdue for an update. I'm long overdue for all sorts of things! I have some very cute footage to post but I have to make it all pretty first so for now you're going to have to deal with this teaser shot of the incredible fish-boy.

Our little fish - and that swim diaper/nappy is brilliant!

Marty has changed so much the past few weeks. He's lost his hamster cheeks, he's sleeping 5 hours blocks during the night but his hair is still entirely untamable. He's totally got the hang of the smiling thing now and will smile away at anything, like the wall, for hours. Here he is helping me put his toys in his toy-box. Of course we had to try a few out...

Nom nom nom

What?

What am I, on parole? Get this bear off me!

So, footage coming as soon as I have time to throw it together. But for now, bottoms up!

A boy by any other name

2009-08-28T09:00:00.005+10:00

Jo and I are known for naming things. Our cars, our computers, even our fridge! In fact, almost everything in our house has a name. For example, at our place Morpheus is a sheep that speaks like the ocean, Fat Birdy is a rather large and random ornament only recently outdone by Fatter Birdie... well you get the idea. The point is, Mr Roo is no exception. He has a ridiculously long list of nicknames and it was only after I started jotting them down that I realised quite how out of control this nomenclature really is. Here are the ones I can remember, in no particular order.

Rooey
Roo
Marty Roo
Tuesday

(ok so the first few are obvious...bear with me)

Mardi
Fizzlecrank (corrupted World of Warcraft reference)
Sailor Jim
Bub
Squeaky monkey
Boy
Legend of the squeaker
Puddin/Pud/pudding bowl
Tigertron
Stank the Crank
Pygmy suckerfish
Blue eyes
Buggie
Screamer
Farty Marty
Spotty
Papi
Gaseous Maximus
Squirmy worm
Mr Wiggle
Fish
Snuffy puppy
Billy
Fussy lumpkins
Chubby chops
Glow bug
Squarker
Gar (Legend of the Seeker ref)
Baby starfish
Grumpelstiltskin
Snooks/snooky poops
Grunter
Roofus farty bird
Squeak
Captain Smiley

And those are just the ones I can remember!

In other news Marty continues to be a water boy, throwing himself into baths and showers with much gusto. A couple of days ago we had him in his bath and he was locking his head back as far as we'd let him and swishing his hair around in the water! He came out looking like Beaker from the muppets!

Like a fish in water

This boy sure loves a bath!

Feeling hot hot hot

2009-08-25T02:42:00.004+10:00

Thought you might like to read today's weather warning, give you a little sense of how insane this summer has been. 100 degrees F is roughly 38C, so a touch over body temperature meaning it is miserable! 96F on the other hand is lovely!

Special weather statement

National weather service Austin/San Antonio TX
1122 AM CDT Monday August 24 2009

...Hot afternoons highs will continue today...

More hot afternoon highs will come today...as highs rise to the 100 degree mark again in a long trend that has continued since June. Afternoon highs today will be between 5 and 10 degrees above average for late August...and will be near to slightly above the record daily high for august 24th. The heat index this afternoon to the early evening will rise to near 106. Overnight lows tonight will be in the 70s.

The last recorded high for San Antonio on August 24: 101 in 1988

As of August 23rd, 2009 the number of 100 degree days for this year was as follows:
54 at San Antonio International airport
65 at San Antonio Stinson field
63 at Austin Mabry
61 at Del Rio

Weather service recommendations:
Use of light weight and light colored clothing...using enough water to deal with the summer heat...and trying to avoid outdoor activity at the hottest time of the day will make it easier to deal with the hot afternoons. Also check on the children and elderly and make sure pets have shade and plenty of water.

Jacwabbit's recommendations:
Crank the A/C then take a watermelon and half a mint bush, blend and drink. Sadly I'm at work instead!

Spot update

2009-08-24T13:24:00.006+10:00

As we thought, the Roo's spots are nothing more than bothersome prickly heat, which you can apparently treat with diaper cream (who knew?). We'll settle for keeping him cool since it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. Still no sign of any major break in the weather although we did have a lovely mini-storm early Friday morning with lots of lightning and really loud thunder! Marty startled once and then was totally chilled about it - more interested in watching the flashes and listening to Mrs Bick while we changed his bottom. I say 'we' loosely because I was suffering somewhat less than silently in bed with a tummy bug. Nothing major, just one of those low grade ones that makes you feel like you constantly want to vomit without the satisfaction of ever reaching that full level of misery. Luckily Jo wasn't struck down until later that day, by which point I was much improved (and on a mission to buy a Peking duck - but that's another story)

We had a great weekend. The Roo slept well and played hard. On Saturday night I had a mini belated birthday party where we ate lots of good food and played the Aussie version of Trivial Pursuit (in teams, each team with a non-Australian 'handicap'). Our friend Joanne ordered the game online and luckily it arrived the day of the party or we would have been stuck with the American version which is close to impossible unless you know that habits of Fox news broadcasters from the mid 80s. Marty did so well at just hanging out with us all, even while intense political 'debates' raged overhead.

Here are some pics from today's playtime. Yep, he has mastered independent eyebrow control and often pulls a less than faintly skeptical face at his Poggie and her antics. I have never managed the eyebrow thing.

Playtime in his big boy diaper

'Can I eat it?'

'Ok Poggie, I get that one is a turtle but if this other one is a bug, how come it only has 4 legs?'

Yeah Boppy, what's with the 4 legged bugs??

Awwww

(and to all of you who skipped straight down to the photos...shame on you!)

I ain't no fatty!

2009-08-21T13:35:00.007+10:00

Well only a little. Jo did recently dream that she had to go and get him out of the hamster tank... But just to make sure that y'all don't think Marty is a fatty pudding based on that last (unfortunately angled) photo, here's some more recent pics that I was saving...

Hanging out with his sleep bunny

We've been practicing smiling but this is more likely wind. Still, he does have a terribly cute and disarming smile!

We're off to see the pediatrician tomorrow because he has a rash down his neck, shoulders and back. It is most likely heat rash given that it is still so bloody hot, but they want to be sure. We don't mind, his doctor rocks and it will be good to touch base with him and just reassure ourselves that all is well. Will keep you posted as usual!

The daily workout

Love me?

Skype

2009-08-19T09:56:00.004+10:00

Quick note to say that Jo, the Roo and I are back on Skype. Just look for jacwabbit or click on the button on the side of the blog (although not 100% sure that works, especially the 'status'. Best plan is try calling or send a chat first and if we have free hands we'll answer and if not we'll try to make a time to chat properly!

And just a reminder of who you might catch on the webcam - nope that's not Buddha!

Can't guarantee he won't be screaming tho...

The eyes have it

2009-08-18T13:29:00.004+10:00

Sorry for the posting delay. Long story short the card reader in my computer - the thing I rely on to strip images off my cameras - kicked the bucket in a blaze of 'device not recognised' errors which lead to me not simply fixing the problem by opening up the computer, unplugging it, spitting on the contacts and reconnecting it... nonono the minute I got in there and realised how dusty it was I had to take the whole bloody thing apart piece by piece and clean every last dust bunny out of there! Who knew the heat sink would be so hard to reseat and so central to the whole working computer thing...

Anyhow, we're all good now but I'm too tired to post properly so instead I'll respond to the question we keep getting asked which is 'what colour are Marty's eyes?'. The answer is deep navy blue around the outer iris fading to steel blue in the middle, but you have to be in the right light, so I hope you'll settle for this close up. The question I want answered is what colour will they eventually become!?

Oh yeah, and this is what happens when we try to take a family photo while rushing out the door on little to no sleep and another 40+ degree day...

Ahh familial bliss...

Wool lite

2009-08-12T11:11:00.004+10:00

Mr Handsome dressed up in one of his gorgeous knitted gifts against the draft of the A/C

Just a super quick post to get another couple of pics up. No real major news at this point. It is still stupidly hot - 40+ (100F) every day and over 30 at nights. It sure has been a crazy summer! The Roo is doing well and growing his way out of most of his wardrobe. He turned 1 month today and I'm sure he's hit the 10 pound mark but his weight gain is in the healthy rather than the 'supersize me' range. We had a horrible night Sunday (why is it always the night before I have to go to work) but a much better night last night (bliss!)

Friends of ours from New Zealand gave Marty a 'sleep sheep' which I was somewhat facetious about early on, mostly because it was a sheep (lame giggles). But now I take it all back - the sheep, who we have dubbed Morpheus, is a godsend! It plays different kinds of white noise that help baby sleep and he totally loves the ocean waves one. And the best thing is that they even sound good to us, so Morpheus is probably helping all three of us sleep better! It does have one option for 'mother's heartbeat' which sounds disturbingly like someone sloshing vast quantities of blood through plastic gutters... Not so soothing, at least not to me!

Morpheus the sleep sheep

Water baby

2009-08-10T02:36:00.007+10:00

A fine summer evening on our deck

Firstly, apologies for getting the wiggly woo stuck in everyone's head, even mine! I was going to use Feist's 1 2 3 4 but my video editor didn't like the mp4 format. I'll try to be more considerate next time, or not :D

One of the perks of being up at 4am. Josie spotted the tree outside our deck shaking and discovered there were two raccoons having a lovely time! She came in to see if I wanted to hop up and see them too and I was heard to mutter something along the lines of "it's probably better if I don't". Hehe, I was tired!

It has been pretty busy here, probably no great surprise. We took the Roofus Farty Bird to see the lactation consultant Friday and that went really well. Because of the high bilirubin in those first days and the need to pump him full of food to clear it from his system we've been both breastfeeding and expressing/bottle feeding (which is lovely because I get to help!) He's only having breast milk and he does feed well on the breast, we just wanted to make sure it was working consistently (sometimes you'd think we had him in thumbscrews from the hollering!) Jo got 100 gold stars for milk production (we will soon need a new freezer) and he has absolutely no problems with weight gain (he was 9 pounds 11, nearly a pound up from last week!) and of course he fed perfectly on the breast while being observed. It was helpful though, we got some good tips on positioning him (because he's %$#@ heavy now) and some new super slow bottle teats.

Last night we took Marty to his first party and he did so well! He was chipper, he fed and had lots of cuddles. We didn't get close to making it through the queue of people who would have liked a cuddle but there'll be a next time! Jo and I were both impressed by how well he did! He wore the stripy outfit with the crab on it that he was swimming in a few weeks back and it was nearly too small to get the poppers done up!!

But back to the title of this post. Master Martyn is certainly a water baby. He loves it! I'm pretty sure he'd stay in the bath all day if only we were strong enough to hold his puddin head aloft for that long!

This was the first bath of many...

And he just loved it and was so chilled out!

So we took him in the shower...

And he loved that so much he kept his eyes open the whole time!

Little water baby!

Let's all do the wiggly Roo

2009-08-05T06:34:00.001+10:00

Just a little something for all the patient Marty fans out there. I figured it was time for a little live Roo action!

You asked for it...

2009-08-03T05:57:00.005+10:00

Y'all keep asking for pics of us with Marty Roo, well here they are! In between work, eating, cleaning and looking after the Roo this is what we spend most of our time doing:

Yep, attempting to sleep!

Things I have recently learned:

I don't mind poop but I hate the smell of baby vomit.
It can take 3 hours to watch a 45 minute show.
Marty's fingernails grow insanely fast and they aren't soft!
He has supersonic hearing but only for the soft fall of a freshly dunked teabag into the sink and apparently this noise is incredibly painful as it invariably sets off the screaming.
The batteries in PT Cruisers are buried behind 90% of the engine> Random maybe but it died yesterday and if it weren't for the power of the internets I wouldn't have been able to find the bally battery let alone replace it. Who puts the battery under the air filter??

And since my blog was derailed by the masses screaming for pictures with the mummies (arrrr) you will all have to wait until tomorrow for the cute post. Oh and lesson number 43, tomorrow can be days away...

Oh ok you can have this one too - mostly because I forced poor Josie to get dressed so that I could take her photo for you all!

A quick postscript on the crying:
While I'm here. Of course, we're only letting him cry when we're absolutely sure there isn't a reason for it other than Mr Fussy Monkey wants to be awake and even then we only let him do it for about 5 minutes and we never let it go to the full scream. He has a different kind of cry for hunger, wet and wind and quite a different cry for pain (someone still needs to learn cause and effect - he pokes himself in the eye and then screams at us like we did it!) Actually, on the whole he doesn't cry much at all (yet) and not for long - but he does have his fussy moments where even he doesn't seem to know what he wants other than to tell you he's mad. We hear you boy.

Spots!

2009-07-31T08:45:00.004+10:00

I regret to inform you all that Master Martyn cannot possibly appear on the blog today due to a slight case of baby acne. I just don't have time to photoshop out all those spots!

As a consolation here is some news:

The poor Roo has had a sore tummy or stingy poo because he's been out of sorts the last 48 hours. Lots of grizzle grumps and some unusual crying. Not really sure whether it was something Jo ate or he got too hot (Tuesday was a scorcher and the AC had trouble keeping up) but he's much better now so whatever it was is out of his system. Lets just say that he didn't learn his formidable farting ability from me!

Self soothing was our friend last night. We'd been patting and pacing to soothe the little screamer to sleep but it was pretty hit and miss success wise and often left Jo sleeping with him in the other room, not daring to move unless he started up again. Last night we opted for putting him down in the crib next to us and trying to ignore the piteous cries for 5 mins, and hallelujah! It worked! It may never work again but last night was sleep punctuated by feeding rather than vice versa.

I've been slow roasting a sticky soy and five spice marinated hunk of pork all day so that we can have pulled sticky pork over noodles tonight. The entire house now smells edible!

Oh ok so I wasn't serious about no photos! But this will have to tide you over until tomorrow's mega-cute post...

Peace

Bye Bye Bili!

2009-07-29T08:00:00.004+10:00

We took Marty Roo to see our fabulous pediatrician today (he's a great guy, I'd recommend him to anyone!) Our instructions had been to keep him off the bili blanket from last Thursday (when we had the last blood draw) until today so that he could look for signs of worsening bili levels (colouring and lethargy mostly). The fabulous news is that he passed with flying colours (not yellow ones!) His nose still looks a little jaundiced but the rest of him is pink and delicious and there's hardly any sign on that sickening lethargy.

The other test he aced was the scales. Last time we visited (8 days ago) he was still 7 pounds 15 oz, 4oz off his birthweigh of 8 pounds 3 oz. Today he weighed in at a grand 8 pounds 12 ounces!! That's 9oz over his birthweight in 2 weeks!! Ladies and gents, we have a puddin... an alert, active and danged strong little puddin!

Someone to watch over him - The Roo with his friend Rubin the Bili-slaying dragon

We caught up on some much needed sleep today, well after Marty stopped screaming and the delivery guy returned the wallaby to its mother ship. It seems he has an innate sense to detect the moment his Mama sits down with a cup of tea and usually takes these opportunities to display his "I'm fussy you must comfort me" side. He has a similar sense for the second his Poggie's head hits the pillow.

Dude, this swing business in exhausting!

'Dis my squeaky monkey face

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-07-26T10:16:00.008+10:00

Chocolate mousse birthday cake and coffee - oh my!

Yup, today is Poggie's birthday. Somewhat overshadowed but a lovely day nonetheless and made even more so by being able to cuddle the Roo at will. At the moment he's on his sheepy basking in an evening sunbeam while his Mama naps in the other room - bliss!

Getting some natural light therapy and looking like a washed up deckhand...

Marty did his best to play nice for my birthday, sleeping really well last night and only waking up to feed (and not scream). He started to kick into the scream cycle early in the evening, but we decided to take a shot at swaddling him tight and laying him in the crib and it worked like a charm! Mind you, that doesn't mean it'll work tonight but one night of good sleep blocks was wonderful.

Ok, now for some more pics to keep y'all happy. Again, thanks for all the comments, we love hearing from you!!

Such trusting little hands

Mr big eyes!

Blissed out on a sunbeam

A little breath of good news

2009-07-25T09:36:00.006+10:00

Marty Roo and his Poggie

Today we took Marty Roo back to the baby sticker for his latest bilirubin test. Luckily we also manage to have it combined with his 2 week PKU screen which means one less trip out there and one less heel prick. He screamed to high heaven but calmed down the minute the poor nurse was done.

The "shark room" at our pediatrician's office is a tad scary!

Well the short of it is that his bili is down! Not a dramatic drop but at least a drop (from 9.8 to 8.3). The great news is that it is enough of a drop that our pediatrician has us off the light therapy until Tuesday. Then we'll take him back in and they'll have a look at him and see whether any of the jaundice is making it to the skin or if it looks like we're out of the water. Basically we just have to keep doing what we're doing, sans wallaby, and hope the antibodies have hit their peak and we're now on the downhill.

We've even been doing double light therapy in the evenings - and yes the window is open, I know UV doesn't make it through glass...

The best part of this news is that now he gets to be a real little baby! We can cuddle him whenever he needs it, we can dress him and we don't have to feel guilty whenever a feed takes a while and keeps him off that &%$@ wallaby. Last night he flat out refused to sleep anywhere but on one of our chests, and let me tell you this kid has a will of iron (his mama is just as stubborn).

He can finally wear clothes - Although now we need to work out the real sizing on all of them! Global clothes supply makes life confuzzling...

Postscript:
Almost forgot to mention the other good news. I found out yesterday that my abstract for the big genetics conference in Hawaii was accepted for a platform presentation! thought I had no chance this time since this meeting will be huge - there goes my stress free holiday but still, it's fab news. It will also be my third ASHG platform out of the four years I've gone!

Stichin' (without the bitchin')

2009-07-23T12:27:00.007+10:00

Just before the little Roo was born, when I still had insane amounts of time on my hands, I decided that I'd attempt to sew him some toys. I'm not the world's best sewer by far but I enjoy it, although I draw blood more often than Edward Cullen! Up until now the only toys I've made have been more adult...slightly mixed up rabbits etc. This time I wanted to make something more baby friendly, so soft, droolable fabrics, tight stitching and high contrast colours - plus something he could get his little mits around.

The first one was a bit of a flop in my opinion... ears too big, body a tad too round and the wrong fabric for his face, but he was a great learning curve and my beloved loves him so all good.

Clutch wabbit - the somewhat failed prototype

From there I decided to try something a little different. I'm getting the hand of this magical 'stitch something that looks sort of messy and turn it inside out to reveal something super cool' thing. I drew up a lot of parchment paper pattens for this one, but the &%$# fur was so slippery that it kept messing with my edges. The legs turned out to be way too large but the rest was ok, and he has such a soft underbelly!

The finished boodle bug

And since I have to keep the Roo fans happy here's a few more pics of sleeping beauty, who decided to sleep lots during the day so he is well rested to wreak havoc on his mummies ear drums later tonight... yay. I think that means he's feeling better though - he sure is strong when he wants to be!!

Out like a light...on his light

Fly catching

Baby Steps

2009-07-22T13:07:00.004+10:00

Our little glow bug

Today the little Roo turned one week old! I just wanted to post quickly to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been reading the blog and leaving comments here. It makes our day when we log in to read what y'all have been posting. It is just wonderful to know what Marty has such a huge (and global) extended family.

I physically went back to work today (mentally I'm not sure where I was) AND I hit up the supermarket, all in one fell swoop. It was hard being away from Jo and Marty. I had to print a photo of him to put on my desk to remind me he was real!

All is well here. We're continuing with hard core feeding plus phototherapy. He's much more alert and for longer periods of time. He has great muscle control and at day 5 managed to completely roll himself over! Going to have to watch out for this one.

The little Roo on his wallaby

Making progress

2009-07-21T14:22:00.004+10:00

A quick update on where we're at with Marty Roo and the villain-rubins.

We saw the pediatrician today and he was really pleased with his progress. He totally agreed with our decision to ditch the forumla and use a combination of breastfeeding and pumping. His poop output is now fabulous! Thanks for all the thoughts of plenty, they clearly worked! Marty is now only 4 ounces off his birthweight, so climbing from the drop he had in hospital (I think he dropped to 7 pounds 5 but now he's 7 pounds 15). Mind you, he did wait until they weighed him before releasing the mega wee (good boy). I think he thought we were seeing the pee-diatrician.

His temp was good and he was nice and alert, and he let loose with a fabulous seedy breast milk poop while our doc was checking him out. Again, good boy! I think our doc was slightly shocked by the detailed poop/pee/feed/temp logs I'd been taking but they helped to keep us on task and keep me sane!

We're going out? You mean I actually get to wear clothes??

He sent us off for another blood draw for a bilirubin check and the disappointing thing was that is was still too high. Around the same level as when we were in hospital, but at least not climbing. That means we need to keep up the light therapy until the next visit/blood draw Friday. The problem with the ABO stuff is that the antibodies that are doing the damage can stay in his serum for weeks, so he might not have hit his plateau yet. If he hasn't then it is a good sign that we are keeping him leveled out.

Back on the light pad

So now that we're home again we will just keep doing what we're doing (well, with less of the maniacal poop logging) and hope for a good bili number on Friday. Oh and I should just mention that I was the first of us to get pooped on because someone (who shall remain nameless) decided that it was a good idea to leave him wrapped in a towel with his bottom airing while I fed him! Set up much!!

The suckyness that is ABO incompatability and the incredible resilience of Marty Roo

2009-07-19T10:39:00.005+10:00

I realise that I tried to get the last post out too quickly and didn't really explain what the problem was with Marty or why we were stuck in hospital so long (and why we're having a hell of a time now that we're home).

ABO incompatibility is a problem that's restricted to mothers who have type O blood who give birth to children with A, B or AB. Marty is A+ (same as me, heh) and Jo is O+. The Rhesus factor isn't an issue here so the negatives or positives mean nothing. Basically, during pregnancy, Jo produced antibodies against Marty's blood. These antibodies produced by type O mothers are the only ones small enough to cross the placenta. So rather than just the usual jaundice you'd expect from your average baby breaking down their excess blood into bilirubin, he has the added bonus of a dose of these antibodies against his own blood in his system fervently attacking his blood and making even more bilirubin.

We're lucky they identified it early because the antibody response occurs in the serum, not the tissues, so the jaundice yellowing doesn't show until their levels are dangerously high. On his first test (24 hours I think) he was already in the red zone so from that point on we had to keep him under UV light and laying on a UV pad (called a wallaby for some reason that no one seems to know) 24 hour a day, only bringing him out for feeds. No cuddles, no clothes, just lot of screaming. The poor bugger had velcro taped to his head to hold a blindfold in place.

In the lightbox with his blindfold on

The problem with the high bilirubin levels, aside from the obvious risk of brain damage, is that they make him really sleepy. The problem with that is the way to clear the bilirubin is to break it down in the liver which is too young to cope with those levels, or with UV light. But to totally clear it from the system it binds to protein and is passed out with the poo. If there's no poo it get's reabsorbed. His levels are so high that it is almost impossible to wake him for a feed and if you do he's too tired to suck and loves the contact after being in the tank that he just snuggles in happily. We were so desperate for him to be well that we followed their advice and supplemented feeling with formula (from a syringe and only after a feed) which got his levels plateaued by day 3 and kept his weight up enough for us to be released.

Finally leaving our postpartum room

So they sent us home with a wallaby under strict instructions to keep him on it as often as possible, so still no cuddles and no clothes, but at least he wasn't stuck in the tank so we could interact with him more. It should have been a relief to be home, and at first it was wonderful, but last night was the worst night of all. Almost nothing we tried would wake him enough to feed. It was so awful to have to basically torture him awake, and horrible to see him lying limp like that. Even the formula, which he'd taken relatively easily in hospital, was a battle and he spat most of it back at me (kind of relieved he doesn't like formula to be honest). He was so hungry and so frustrated that he just screamed and fought and didn't poop!

Our light therapy setup at home

However, this morning we reassessed the whole situation. Clearly squirting formula down his throat wasn't working, neither was trying to force him onto the breast, especially when we needed output (yes, I mean poop, and lots of it). So now we've got Jo pumping (and doing really well) and mimicking the way we'd expect him to feed if he were healthy. Luckily she's a born dairy queen! Now we've ditched the formula entirely and have him drinking loads of breast milk about every 2-3 hours (slow-flo bottle, much kinder than the syringe and he at least learns to suck for food) and he's already much more alert and pooping!! I nearly cried with joy when we had an explosive non-meconium poo! I'm sure I'll start hating them but for now it was better than a Christmas present.

Now we just keep him feeding and when he's not feeding we keep him on his little glow worm pad and hope for the best. We see our pediatrician (who we love, luckily, because you can't meet them until you have a baby!) on Monday and he'll make then next call based on his weight (he went from 8-3 to 7-10 in the first 2 days but leveled out after that), his 'output' and a bilirubin test, which of course means more foot torture. I have no idea how soon we'll know the outcome but we'll keep you posted. For now, please bear with our slow response time and keep sending pooping thoughts!

Marty Roo feeling a bit better!

The news you've all been waiting for

2009-07-18T10:15:00.005+10:00

Marty Roo!

Sorry for the major delay on this one, it was out of my control.

First major piece of news, Tuesday has arrived! Martyn Andrew Richardson was born at 2.20pm on Tuesday (ha!) the 14th of July after roughly 6 hours of labor. He was 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 inches long (not taking into account the cone head - poor fellow). My beloved was just amazing, getting through the whole labor with no drugs, no swearing and hardly any complaint (she was heard to say 'it hurts a little' at one point!) More about labor et al. later, I will keep this post short and try to get more details up tomorrow.

The second major piece of news is that we are finally home from the hospital. There was no real way to let most of you know that there was a problem. We found out pretty soon after birth that he and Jo have different blood types so there was an ABO incompatibility issue, meaning he was at much higher risk of really dangerous bilirubin levels. I don't have the energy to really explain it but you can read about it here on wikipedia. Basically it meant a lot of stress, not much sleep and more than 48 hours for him under lamps with a blindfold on and no cuddles. Again, I'll post about it in more detail tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with some much demanded photos and the knowledge that he's home, he's ok and we're working hard to make sure he stays ok!

Minutes after birth and he was alert as anything

The first night after birth with a totally exhausted poggie

Tiny toes!

"Mama, take me away from this nasty hospital now ok?"

We will start getting onto answering emails and calling people but it is still going to be rough going for a few days so we might be a little on the slow side, sorry about that!

Very early on Tuesday's morning

2009-07-14T19:38:00.002+10:00

Well, since our 'bundle of joy' chose not to come during the night Operation Waiting for Tuesday has been forced into plan b. It is currently some horrible hour of the day (4.30am... some call it morning, I call it hell) and we are off to the hospital! Our doctor has scheduled us for a medical induction. There's no need to go into the why and how come - both mother and baby are healthy - but we really don't have a whole lot of choice. The down sides are less freedom to move around due to regular monitoring and a higher risk of C section, but we'll deal with those as we come to them. It wasn't exactly what we planned but there are a lot of good things about it:

Hopefully he'll be born on a Tuesday (we didn't get to pick the day so that's kind of freaky)
We get our doctor, who we really like and trust
We know roughly when it's all going to happen rather than waiting and waiting
It gets our friend Matt off the 'emergency driver Jo's waters will most likely break in your car bring towels' hook
A bunch of other stuff but it is too early to remember what that is right now...

So, I will post an update as soon as we get home, and I'll do my best to get messages out as soon as there's any major news, but please don't call us yet. We'll most likely have our phones off for most of the day and tomorrow. I will let you know as soon as we can. Keep us all in your thoughts and prayers but mostly pray that Jo doesn't get so hungry that she goes on a rampage and decimates a good chunk of the San Antonio healthcare system...

Captain cruisy kicking back with some relaxed beats

No news from mission 'waiting for Tuesday'

2009-07-13T14:49:00.004+10:00

...but he isn't due until tomorrow (which will be today in about 9 minutes - I should really go to bed)

Posers...

Jo has been sleeping for a few hours now but for some reason I've been bouncing around like a blue arsed fly in a pickle bottle doing last minute jobs like packing teabags and other supplies, and sewing toys (long story, will post on that later) We've had a lovely restful weekend. No sign on real labor but things are definitely moving along. Hopefully the next update is something more concrete! It's now 4 minutes off his due date and I'm done procrastinating, time for bed!