sausage dogs

Gus' room.

Famous! Gus' little room appeared in the latest edition of Little One magazine (busted by Jess). I posted some photos of his room a while back (before his arrival), and miss Jodi asked if I'd like to go in the magazine. Why not. She did an excellent job of making me sound like not too much of a dill, and I love the photos by Louise Treacy. (But even more I love the magazine's graphic designer for cropping out my huge post-preggo thighs in our photo - bless him/her). 

I never did get around to getting a new handle for the drawers..

(He's obsessed with this car!)

The bed where he doesn't sleep very much in..

Thanks Jodi! We're also in good company with Lalie's beautiful room of One Claire Day.

Photos by Louise Treacy for Little One magazine.

6 months.

Half a year has gone by.. Still can't believe he's here and that he's ours! Little Gus is not so little, he's a fat jolly wee chap. Makes us so very happy (less so during the night!).

Thank you for all the sweet comments on my last post. The retrenchment thing is ok, it made the scary going back to work dilemma decision for me. The sleep thing is a different story.. Waaah!

recently.

It's all happening at the moment - except the blogging.

• We got possession of our new house
• We sold our unit (PHEW!)
• We've started restumping our new place
• I won a design award for one of my books
• I then got retrenched!
• My baby that always sleeps well has left and been replaced by one that wakes almost hourly.

So some good, some not so, but overall it's happy times.

handmade is most special.

Gus snuggled under this beautiful soft and warm blanket, knitted by my lovely aunt.

(I know he's not meant to sleep with toys in his bed - he likes to shmoosh that rabbit into his face which seems to send him to sleep then I creep in and remove it, haha)

two things...

(Blatant baby photo post)
He doesn't mind avocado:

And is styling in his new jumper. (Which I SO can't afford, but seriously, how could I not) (hi Tim!)

zara mini.

Does Zara in Melbourne stock the baby range? My parents are about to go to Europe for a while, they're on strict orders to check out Zara!

Too flipping cute. The girls' range kind of makes me wish Gus was a girl.

Spied these on the online UK site.

solidly confused.

The current official recommendation for starting solids is 6 months - apparently this is the best time to do it, in order to avoid food allergies later on. And then the nurse at the health centre said this hasn't been shown to be true, and said go for it from 5 months onwards. Then this article was on the front page in the Melbourne newspaper The Age on the weekend (I'm just referring to the info about earlier introduction of solids on the article, not the breastfeeding stuff) (though on that - I don't think introducing food would equal weaning off breastmilk sooner?). So it's all a bit up in the air really.

So, like most things with Gus, I'm going with my gut feeling, and what I think he would prefer. And Tim went with the novelty factor. So, 4 days short of his 5 month birthday, Gus tried his first food:

He was super enthusiastic, but not entirely convinced by the flavour I think. I don't blame him, apparently rice cereal tastes gross, but I'll give it a couple more goes until we move onto banana or avocado. I'm keen to try the Baby Led Weaning approach, and just keep it fun.

(It's silly, but this new development made me feel really really sad... I don't know why. Maybe because I'd got him this far all on my own or something. A bit of an end of an era. As Tim pointed out, I'll be hysterical at his first day of school!)

WA

Had an AWESOME time over in Western Aus. We spent 10 days over there - a couple of nights in Perth, a couple in Margaret River, and the rest down south visiting our dear friends and their 8 month old baby (by whom Gus was fascinated). In that time we:

• took Gus down a cave
• pretended we knew about wine at a winery
• ate corn fresh from the garden (a life changing experience)
• lived on freshly caught fish and homegrown vegetables for a week
• did a 1.6km ocean swim (Tim)
• surfed a bit (Tim again)
• tried not to think about sharks (me)
• watched some bands
• took Gus into the sea with us

And the plane trips were totally fine! Gus was a dream, not a peep from him (except once he got a bit shouty whilst landing, think his ears hurt). We got given a spare seat on the way over, and a bassinette on the way back. And I coped too (was only mildly terrified the whole time).

a new home.

We've finally found a new home. Let's just say I'm not a lover of the place we've been in for the past 5 years (an 80s unit next to a scary alchoholic woman), and I never thought this day would come. 

It's a completely new suburb - closer to Tim's new job in the leafy outer north (shall we say in case you're an internet stalker). A sweet 50's weatherboard in need of a lot of love. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to moving (as much as someone can look forward to the hideousness that is moving house!) some time mid-May.

In the meantime, we're in denial of our bank balance and off to WA this weekend! Should be an interesting flight given my extreme fear of flying and a 4 month old baby in tow! (any hot tips?)

4 months.

And looking angelic again whilst recovering from his shots. We were both braver this time.