Anzac day fell on the Wednesday just gone, so everyone was home for the day. Matthews Grandad had a new tap to install in the laundry so Matthew spent a good portion of the time under the laundry sink as well, learning how to fit a tap together. He also got to play with a real screwdriver and real wrench, but those got pretty quickly taken off him. He was incredibly intrigued by what was happening, how it all worked, but Matthew totally got why you would want to hang out under a sink. So much fun!

Matthew has taken to walking around in big peoples shoes. And for how large they are compared to his feet, he’s pretty good at it. This does mean that shoes end up in random places, due to the fact that he has walked around in them, then ditched them in random places. But he can put on two big peoples shoes and walk around for a while. And yes, this next line will embarrass him in the future, but some of his favourite shoes at the moment are his Grandma’s shoes, due to their ease of slipping on and off. Matthew doesn’t quite have the walking in heels part going for him yet, I think that may take a few more years to master.

Wordless Wednesday

Despite being the second week of school holidays, Matthew and I ended up having a very busy week. We went off to the chiropractor, caught up with friends, played at the playground. It was a real summers week which made for lots of time in the sun and outdoor activites. We didn’t get to the beach as Matthew still isn’t that keen on sand, but got to the playground next to the beach, that counts right? It’s good to keep busy with Matthew, he is a very active little boy, as I’ve mentioned before, so when there are lots of things to do it makes for one happy family all around.

Matthews become incredibly obsessebewitch light switches recently (future electrican maybe?). He will stand beneath the lightswithch, point at it and give a little squeal to be picked up. Once you have picked him up, he then takes a lot of joy in turning the light on, squirming around to see the light that he’s turned on, giving massive big grins, then turning back around to turn the light off. Apparently he takes after his father in this regard, Rob used to do the same thing when he was Matthews age. So if this is the trend, I guess the nextthing I have to look forward to is Matthew taking everything apart to figure out how it works.

Over all it was a quiet week. Matthew was still removing from being sick, bounced back pretty well but we kept it primarily quiet anyway. Matthew spent a few hours with his Nana while I had some time to myself (caught up on a bit of work) which went well. It’s good for Matthew to have these relationships with other people, he does still get a bit upset when I leave places and he doesn’t go with me, but calms down very quickly and gives me big cuddles when I get back. Cuddles make it all ok.

I took Matthew back off to our GP on Monday as it had been over 48 hours since we had left Starship and I couldn’t tell if Matthew was getting better or worse and I was also worried about his lack of eating. He hadn’t thrown up during the day, only at night, but every night, which I thought was quite strange as gastro is not a time of day thing. The doctor checked a few things (pretty much the same things as A&E and Starship had checked) and then sent off some samples to the lab so they could check him for a couple of illness’s like Rotavirus or other things which can look like gastro but aren’t.
The tests came back all clear though a couple of days later, so all we needed to do was wait out the gastro. They weren’t so worried about him not taking in solids, as long as he was nursing regularly and had so many wet diapers a day then he was doing pretty well.

Luckily towards the end of the week, which was Easter weekend, his spirits started to pick up a little bit and he was in a bit of a better mood. We had made plans a few weeks back to go up and stay with Jacqui and Jason at Snell’s Beach for a couple of days. Rob and I decided to keep those plans as Matthew and Rob were both doing better and there weren’t going to be any other kids up there. We drove up on Thursday night so we wouldn’t hit the Good Friday traffic that can happen and stayed until Saturday afternoon. Matthews appatite started to come back a bit, but he was happy for the most part. He wasn’t overly chatty though which meant that Jacqui didn’t believe me that he could say anything, but I’m putting that down to him still recovering.

Easter Sunday was fun though. Even though Matthews appitatie wasn’t back to usual, we decided to give him his easter egg. I just brought a box of 15 Cadbury Hollow EasterEggs, so that it wasn’t too big, but also we could share them around. Matthew ate about half of the easter egg outside, then tried to give the rest to Jock. Obviously it was good but not that good. He had some easter egg in the evening as well, which resulted in him shoving so much into his mouth that he couldn’t chew and eventually it came out as brown drool. We do have a few more Easter Eggs hanging around which will get eaten over the next month or so I guess. It’s good Matthew not quite realising they are there, I can distribute in small batches over a long amount of time :)

We had made plans a few weeks before hand to head up to Snells Beach and visit Jacqui (Matthews aunt) and Jason for a night, just to catch up and say hi. Rob and I came very close to cancelling due to the illness’s that had been going around, but decided as it was only an hour out of Auckland that we could come home at any time if needed. We headed up late on the Thursday night to miss the traffic on Good Friday and stayed until Saturday afternoon. Weather was nice, we lounged about, sat on the deck in the sun, went down to the playground next to the beach and just caught up in general.

Sunday we gave Matthew his first Easter Egg to eat. Last Easter he was just on three months old so wasn’t really ready for any chocolate, but this year he was pretty keen on it. We just brought him some small hollow eggs, but he was also gifted a chocolate bunny, a melamine egg cup and spoon, and a melamine bunnykins bowl and cup. Pretty uneventful day, but nice and relaxed.

On Easter Monday we caught up with Matthews Nana and one of his other aunts. We walked around Western Springs, had a bit of food at the playground, Matthew had a good play on the playground, then wandered back. Was a gorgeous day out and lots of families around.

So all in all a good Easter weekend. I even took some photos to document it, so have shared some of my favourites below

First, a couple of more mundane life things. Matthew had his MMR injection at the beginning of the week. We decided to do it a bit earlier than scheduled because of the recent outbreak of measles thats randomly been going around if you’re unlucky. So while the MMR is usually given at 15 months along with two other injections, we chose to do it at 14 months instead. I was pretty impressed at how well Matthew handled the injection, he was nosy (as usual) so he watched the injection go in, but after a few seconds crying and a couple of minutes cuddling, he was back to his normal nosy self, so much s that we went back into the waiting room to play with the toys until the 20 minutes they need to stay was up. We’ve booked in for the rest of the 15 month injections in a months time.

I also took Matthew off swimming on Wednesday, which was something we hadn’t done in a while. Being the stubborn little boy that he is, he really wanted to go off exploring by himself in the water, which involved a number of tumbles face forward that I needed to pull him out of in a spilt second (luckily for him I was within 3 steps at all times so could get to him incredibly quickly when needed). It’s an absolute mission taking him to the pools, but it’s all about building the water confidence I’m investing in his future, even if it is only half an hour at a time :)

So we ended up in hospital with Matthew on Friday night. You can read the long version here It ended up just being a precaution luckily, we initially went because it was a potential head concussion, but it ended up being gastro. Was a long night, I ended up being awake for most of the night but it’s fine for there to be nothing seriously wrong with him. So because of the gastro we’ve had a very long weekend, I guess all babies get sick just sucks when they do.

We grabbed a few things and headed to A&E at 10.30pm. Knowing it was a Friday night and they do get a little busier on Friday nights, but thats fine, he needed to be checked out. On arrival we were told there would be approx 2 hour wait but as it was a head injury on a child the receptionist would put us a bit higher on the list. About 1am we finally got to see the doctor. Matthew had been asleep on me the whole time aside from a few minutes when he threw up. The doctor checked him out, he was responding well to all the inital tests, so she gave us some pamol for him as well as some bubblegum flavoured liquid stuff which he needed to take 5ml of every 10 minutes without throwing it up. Getting the pamol into him was a pretty big mission, but once it had kicked it, getting the bubblegum liquid in wasn’t that bad. It also made Matthew feel better, so Matthew and I wandered around the A&E for about an hour while Rob napped. About 2.30am, Matthew started getting tired again so we had a cuddle, in which he threw up the liquid then went off to sleep on the floor. Poor thing.

Rob and Matthew napped (it was the middle of the night) while I read magazines. About 4am I got about half an hours sleep before the nurse came back in to see us. It had been pretty quiet, we hadn’t seen the nurse or doctor for most of the night, I think they had been hidden away in a room with someone. The doctor then checked up on Matthew again and decided that it didn’t seem normal that it had taken him an hour before throwing up, so decided to send us off to Starship, which is the children’s hospital at Auckland. She sent us in an ambulance, which I thought was a bit overkill but she called it for us anyway.

I went with Matthew up to the hospital in the ambulance while Rob went home to check on the dog and get a couple of hours of solid sleep. We sat in the back (they didn’t put the sirens on for us) and they lady in the ambulance and me went over Matthews symptoms and similar checks again. It was all pretty relaxed and also my first time in an ambulance, Matthew was pretty lethargic but I figured he’s not going to remember the ambulance ride anyway.

When we got to the hospital, which was about 6am, we were greeted by one of the pediatricians and wandered through to the childrens emergency ward. The admitted us right away and the same doctor sat with us to do the same tests we’d already had done in the night (which was fine, better to be safe). About half an hour later after I’d filled in a bunch of forms we had another doctor come to check out Matthew. By this stage Matthew was pretty over everything, he was crying and uncooperative and tired. He was probably hungry as well as he’d thrown up dinner and hadn’t eaten since. I asked the doctor if it was ok for me to give him breastmilk which the doctor was ok with, and after a feed Matthew fell asleep in my arms. I dozed on off for about 45 minutes (waking when someone would walk by the room we were in). One of the nurses brought me some breakfast which I attempted eating while Matthew was asleep on me, then they brought me a coffee. As I was holding it waiting for it to cool down, Matthew startled causing me to spill the coffee all over my shirt. Note to self: don’t hold hot drinks while holding a sleeping baby.

We had both the second doctor and a third doctor pop down to see us about 8am, who finally said that they don’t think the head injury and vomiting were related, which is what my gut had been telling me for a while. Rob came in to the hospital shortly after that, and Matthew was in slightly better spirits again. Matthew played with the toys for a while, including some big ride in toy cars which him and another little boy his age were playing in. The hospital wanted to get a urine sample before they discharged us, but as Matthew wasn’t drinking anything we had to force liquids into him. Luckily for us he wasn’t throwing the liquids back up. After about 2 hours of this (some liquid, some playtime, some liquid etc), Matthew did a huge big poo. Which went everywhere. Which meant we finally had a diagnosis, gastro.

We were discharged about midday so via a quick trip to get some food, headed on home for an afternoon of sleeping.

It was a very long night, but you know what, for the precaution and just making sure everything is good it was ok. Though next time I think we will skip A&E and just head straight to Starship. But hopefully that won’t happen very often.

Light switches have become a favourite. We need to hold him up to the light switch, but he will turn the switch on, turn around, point at the light he’s just turned on, grin, turn the light off and turn back again to look at the light which he has just turned off. It’s a fun game. Especially if people are in the kitchen making dinner. Or doing something else in the room which requires light. At least for now we can control when the game is played, soon enough he will be able to reach the light switch by himself then we will be in trouble!

Here’s a video to keep you amused for the mean time

Initially I wasn’t so keen on doing a theme for Matthews first birthday. But as the time got closer and I started seeing cool things on Pinterest (you can see my inspiration board here), I got more of an idea of what I wanted to do and the idea of doing a theme didn’t seem so silly. I pretty much wanted something that was suitable for a one year old, but also fun for adults because it’s not like the one year olds would remember it. So a few months out, I decided on the idea of doing milk and cookies, a simple but fun concept.
The hardest part was finding milk bottles to hold the milk. I tried finding some unique 1950′s style milk bottles, but I couldn’t find any in second hand shops and the ones online were all classed as antiques which put the price of them outside my budget. I eventually came across some bottles in The Warehouse which suited my needs, and at only $2 per bottle couldn’t resist.
I also tried to find mini milk bottles for the guests to drink their milk out of, but once again, they were out of my price range.

I created Matthews invite based off the subway art thats popular around the internet at the moment. Most people just got an e-invite (ok, via a facebook event), but I did print out a few copies for a couple of people.

Matthews cake was a giant cupcake, same mould as the one from his Cake Smash, but different cake and icing, The bottom half of the cake was a banana cake and the top half a carrot cake. I was also going to pipe a cream cheese icing onto it, but the icing didn’t set properly so just spread it on. Also added some hundreds and thousands at the last minutes to give it a bit of colour. the picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but you could see the groves of the cupcake top which gave it the swirl icing look.

I made all the cookies for the party. I could have just popped down to the shops and brought a bunch, but I thought it would be so much nicer to make some unique cookies. I must send out thanks to my mum and sisters who helped me to complete the cookies the morning of Matthews party. We made (going from left to right, top to bottom),

• Coconut Macaroons,
• Rasberry and White Chocolate Macroons – recipe adapted from here,
• Mixed Spice Cookies,
• Melting Moments with Orange Filling,
• Chocolate Oat Cookies.

I also had some basic raisin cookies, but forgot to get a picture of them.

We were also very lucky to have some extra yummy goodies made for us. Rob’s sisters made some gorgeous and so colourful cupcakes and Mel made us some Cake Pops (click for the recipe).

Set up the table all pretty like. In the bottles I had chocolate milk, strawberry milk and whole milk. I also put water and juice into the final two bottles, just so people had a bit of choice if they weren’t keen on milk. We also had some fruit out on the table, and brought out some savoury foods later on.

Rest of the party was pretty good. People sat around, talked, consumed food and drink. The babies and toddlers ran around, we put up Matthews tunnel and they played in that for a while. Matthew got some awesome presents and got to have a bit of cake. You can read a bit more about it here if you’re interested.

And one last one of this gorgeous little man with icing all over his face

Chilling out on the other side of the window, in the rain

Desert at our anniversary dinner

The mess my child makes

An all to common sight, reaching for what I’ve got

My sisters birthday cake, made by my other sister

The joys of cosleeping (but doesn’t he look so cute in the morning)

Playing in the table

We went along to a wedding ceremony last Saturday. The idea was Matthew would fall asleep in the car on the way there, transfer into his buggy and sleep through the ceremony. So we all know that didn’t happen. Matthew did fall asleep in the way, but didn’t stay asleep once moved. He was good sitting in his pram while we filed into the church and sat before the ceremony. But once it started he wiggled and got grumpy that he was in the pram. So Rob looked after him for the first half by walking him around and letting him run around outside, and then I looked after Matthew for the second half. Luckily there were a couple of other kids around Matthews age there, so I got to chatting with another mum there who had a boy the same age. It’s always reassuring to know that it’s not just your child who can’t sit still!

Climbing on the computer!

Climbing on the desk.. again!

Game for a baby shower, how many jelly babies are in the bottle? (Hint: more than 349 but less than 351)

Matthew playing

Breakfast time, Rob was home in the morning so he got to feed Matthew!

Mum cooking a BBQ for dinner (Dad was watching the rugby)

Selfie, Outfit for a wedding ceremony we attended

Matthew mucking around in bed at night

But I’m pretty in love with the colours from this image though.

Matthews been wandering around blowing raspberries this week. It’s not quite proper raspberries, but he goes “brrrr” as drool dribbles down his chin. And then bursts out into big giggles and smiles. He has been appreciating when we blow raspberries onto his tummy more, thinks its just the greatest thing in the world.

Matthew has worked out how to climb up onto my computer desk. Which is slightly annoying as it now means I need to keep the study door closed all the time. Matthew has got this crazy radar where he knows the door is open and will run down to the study to be able to climb. His likes to stand on the chair, use the mouse and hit the keyboard, then climb up onto the desk and sit on the keyboard. He then throws a tantrum when taken out of the study and I close the door behind him. We are truely raising a little geek.

We had dress up day at playgroup during the week. I dressed Matthew in his gorgeous superman outfit that he got for Christmas, but didn’t dress up myself. The kids all look so cute dressed up. Matthew then came home and got his outfit drenched by playing in the dogs water. But I did get a couple of cute as anything photos of him. Love the lifestyle images I get, but can’t beat when he grins at the camera.

(PS, I’ve been horribly slack with posts, I have a bunch half written and another bunch in my head, other things sneaking up on me)

Photo of Rob and I on our wedding day

And then, I discovered that kuler allows you to pull colours from images. I’ve used kuler in the past when doing design, but had never quite explored it. Kuler gave me a starting base for the colours in this image, then I adjusted to the colours for the look I was going for. The CoffeeShop Blog had a great free template for me to use as a starting point to put together a colour palette, though now that I have a better picture of how it works (really, it’s not that hard if you know basic photoshop, I just don’t think I was trying hard enough) I will try to be a bit more creative in putting a palette together.

88mm – ISO 400 – 1/160 – f/4

On my investigating of these palettes, I came across this site and linky, so sharing some blog love and linking up.

Buzzy Bee – Every kiwi kid should have one of these:

Trying to open the laundry door, luckily he hasn’t figured out the lock yet:

Attempt at making bread, with rosemary and cheese on top:

Matthew got into the dogs water bowl – litterally

This is what happens when he only has a 20 minute day sleep, falls asleep during dinner

Can now climb onto my computer desk

This is the first packet of gum I have brought in a long time

Matthew created his first painting last week. We were at playgroup and one of the activities was painting with sponge brushes. Matthew seemed to take a special interest in this, so I put a painting cape on him, gave him a piece of A3 and a brush. I did help guide his hand, mainly so he didn’t put the brush into his mouth, and Matthew decided that mixing red, orange and green paint together would be his colour of choice. The painting lasted no more than a couple of minutes before Matthews attention was side tracked, but I hung up the painting to dry and then brought it home to show Rob. Not quite sure what we are going to do with it (it’s currently sitting on the table), and while it’s not quite Da Vinci yet, it’s still pretty awesome.

Matthew at the beach