Any-who.

We still wanted to do something spesh and fun for his birthday and there are a couple of movies out in Oz at the moment that he is excited about so we decided to make Owen’s birthday an excuse for a movie outing with a few of his buddies.  You know, because you need an excuse sometimes… :)

Is there something even more exciting than going to the movies with a bunch of friends to catch a screening of Cars 2?  Yes!  It was Reuben’s very first cinema experience!  He has been super excited all week about going to the movies, about seeing Cars 2 and about hanging out with his big brother and his mates.

Reuben was so good!  He was getting a bit tired by half way through the very long movie, but he did really well.  I’m sure all the sneaky snacks kept him going…!

We wouldn’t hesitate to take him again.  And he wants to go again too – always a plus when you aren’t a huge fan of trying something new!  Go Reuben!

So.  The movie?  Owen loved it.  Really loooooved it.  Marc and I enjoyed it, but I want to see it again sometime becuase I think I missed parts while taking care of Reuben.  Speaking of the two year old, he liked it too!  I did think it was a tiny bit too long for a kids movie, but in saying that, our bunch ranging from 2.5 through to 12 didn’t complain at all.  The original Cars movie is one of The Harvey’s favourite, so we had high hopes for the sequal and it didn’t disappoint!

The stats on Ella:

• born at 9:55pm.
• weight: 7lb 10oz, or 3465 grams
• length: 52cm
• head circumference: 35cm

With two boys that made their way into the world very quickly, we were pretty much on standby, suitcase packed and in the car at all times and the birth suite numbers not quite memorised, but always close at hand!  Ella didn’t disappoint – we arrived at the hospital at 8:06pm…  In time to walk straight into a birthing suite!  All I can say about the next hour and a bit – the gas is good!  :)

While uneventful for the most part, in the last half an hour before she was born, her heart rate was dropping quite a bit, getting as low as 92 and the midwives were giving her only a limited time to continue along as she was.  Oh, and they confiscated my gas thingy…  This I was not happy about at all!  Thankfully, she arrived quickly and we just missed out on going down the path of alternative birth plans…  Much like what we went through with Owen.  Watching more people come into the birthing suite was an all too familiar situation, even though Owen is now 4 and a half!

Ella didn’t cry but looked around the room at all the faces with those huge eyes – I’m assuming she was in shock over what she had just been through!  I’m sure there is a very good reason none of us can remember being born…!  She was checked over by the pediatrician and given the all clear but for a small amount of fluid on her lungs.  As to the heart rate dropping, the pediatrician put it down to her speedy entry into the world, so nothing to worry about.

Her first night was spent in the nursery, with the nurses keeping a watch over her while she continued to get rid of the excess fluid in her lungs, and I was supposedly having a decent night of rest without the responsibility of a newborn right beside my bed.  That didn’t happen, of course.  I spent the night just waiting for sleep to come my way… and it did not!  Probably because I was waiting all night for them to bring her back to me for a feed.  This also did not happen, until 6am!  I guess all the excitement wore her out :)

I had initially thought that I would stay as long as possible in hospital, you know, to have a holiday of sorts before going home to the reality of three kids under 5, but all the hospital noises and other babies crying (and some new mothers) left us both sleep deprived and sick of living in the hospital – after only 24 hours!  Since we both got the approval to be discharged, and seeing as though Ella wasn’t a first child, we were allowed to go home on Wednesday afternoon.

first sleep at home

Needless to say, Wednesday night was a peaceful (and sleep filled) one for all of us.  There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed.  And there is nothing like a newborn who is very good to her parents, only waking twice a night for a short feed, nappy update and then back to the business of sleeping!

And how are the Big Brothers dealing with having a little sister?  They think she is hilarious, and Owen wants her to be awake constantly so he can talk to her.  Try explaining to an impatient four year old that a sleeping baby is a good thing!!!  Reuben continues to “pat” her, like any one year old would – hard!  We have had to separate their car seats and put Owen in the middle so as Ella doesn’t end up with “pat marks” all over her head!  All in all, she is fitting in easily and well with the rest of the Harvey’s.

The hardest thing at the moment: Getting three kids in and out of their car seats in under 20 minutes!

The most frequent question I have been asked since we have been home:  What’s it like having three?  Great, actually!   However, Owen being that little bit older is really good.  He can help out quite a bit and isn’t too old to not want to – yet!  Reuben dealing with not being the baby anymore was our main concern before Ella was born, but he has taken Ella in his stride and other than the “patting” and a little bit of whining (which could have something to do with two pesky teeth that are trying to push through) he’s doing great too. Ella is an easy baby (so far) which has really helped to keep things pretty normal around our house and I think that has helped the boys out a lot.

Reuben pointing out her eyes

So we think we will keep her.  She’s a little bit cute and I can’t wait until she shows us her smile.  In the meantime, I am trying to adsorb all that baby-ness while I can!

Better let the removalist people know now…

So. Marc is starting his new job on Monday. With Sanofi-Aventis.

He’s doing 2 weeks down here as handover and then is having a week off to get to Brisbane (and to fit in a long weekend at the V8s in Sydney!!!).   He starts again at their new Consumer Division head office in Virginia on the 14th of December.

And then it will be no time at all before Christmas comes around and he has a few days off over the festive period!

It’s a tough life, isn’t it?!

Christmas 2008 is a great example of this present overload – in all the excitement of the present frenzy at Marc’s parents house we didn’t even see what Owen received and from whom it came (I just hope he thanked people)!  And that stash of wonderful things and stuff didn’t include any of the gifts we had bought for him, they were all still waiting under the tree, for when we made the trip back home from Brisbane.

And then once we were home and had time to open what was left under the tree, it just wasn’t as exciting, for anyone…

I think we were all a little gifted out by then!

So basically, instead of going crazy at Christmas time with the gift thing (like  most parents tend to do, and we are definitely guilty of  this in Christmas’ past), there are four gifts per child from the parents.  Yep, just four.  Sounds too easy, right?!  I’ll use Owen as the guinea pig  for our Christmas ’09 example (with his permission, of course!):

One gift the child wants – For Owen this one is super easy, he trawls through the toy sale catalogues until I throw them out, sometimes taking them to bed with him as his night time reading!!!

One thing the child needs – This year for Owen I am thinking that might be a new pair of Crocs or Havaianas for his ever growing feet, but something else might crop up between now and Christmas.  This is probably the only one out of the four that I will buy much closer to Christmas.

One gift to wear – Growth spurts for both boys make this again an easy task.  Our wear gift will be an outfit (shorts and a T-shirt, or a set of PJs).

One something to read – too easy (maybe)!  We love love love books here at the Harvey’s, and the hardest part for this one will be sticking to only one book per child!!

Plus a surprise from Santa (you can’t leave him out of all the fun!).

AND THAT’S IT!

How much simpler could Christmas be?!

Marc had been talking about taking Owen to Cockington Green Gardens for ages.  Pretty much since we have been living in NSW.  So that was really the only thing that was on our Canberra To Do List.  Not that it really mattered, I’d never been to the ACT and Marc really couldn’t remember much of the place as he was very young the last time he visited.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza which is right next to Glebe Park and very close to pretty much everything.  The Wotif deal that we took included a hot buffet breakfast for the four of us on the Sunday morning which was really lovely.

On the way down to breakfast:

Marc:  Owen, what do you think you might have for breaky today?  You know there will be lots of things to choose from.

Owen: Hmmmmmm…  (very, very seriously) Just Weetbix this morning I think Dad.

That’s one way to waste a full buffet breakfast!!!!

Anyway, after a walk around the city on Saturday afternoon, we were freezing and getting hungry, so headed back to the hotel to thaw out, bath the boys and think about dinner.

Another short walk later, dinner was served – Nandos style.  We walked back to the hotel after dinner and watched Monsters v Aliens and had an early night.  Well, what did you think we would do?  We have two young children!  Owen got to stay up until past 9pm – that in itself was a treat for him.  Not to mention eating chocolates on the bed (this is where we apologise to Crowne for the chocolate on the white doona cover….)!

It would be great to go back another time without the kids though, there are heaps of great places to eat and lots of very cool kid un-friendly shops to browse!

On Saturday, after our reasonably leisurely and delicious breakfast, where Marc even got to flip through the newspaper almost in peace (a very rare treat!) we packed up, checked out and headed over to Cockington Green Gardens to check out the miniature villages.  Owen wasn’t so impressed to begin with, remarking that a drain in the walkway was exciting, but he warmed to the place very quickly…  As soon as he’d spotted the first model train to be exact!

We watched this particular train make it’s way round oh, about 20 times!

And there it is again…  Luckily there were more trains throughout the gardens.  Unluckily, Marc forgot to charge his camera battery the night before, and about half way round the park his battery died!  Really though, I think you get the drift of the place, lots of little houses and people and things, all surrounded by beautiful miniature gardens and of course a few model trains!

After nearly 3 hours of taking in all the little people, place and plants Marc and I were pretty much ready to go, but Owen wasn’t.  I think he could have stayed to play with the trains for at least a few hours more!  He has already asked to go back to Cockington Green on another day!

• catch the ferry to Manly (apparently this is THE thing to do on the weekend)
• see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the harbour
• eat fish and chips followed by and ice cream at Manly.

Done, done and done :)  And we got to do all of the above with a great bunch of family and friends!

Lauren and Owen outside the Opera House

Captain Feathersword’s ship.  Well that’s what Owen thought anyway.

We snagged a spot in the shade and watched some of the surf carnival.

Owen couldn’t resist the lure of the ocean.

Playing in more water while we ate the required fish and chips.

What else would you have for lunch when at Manly???

Michael and Owen on the ferry.

Having an ice cream on the ferry back to Circular Quay.

Michael and Owen

Anyway, this morning I met my new people – Katrina and Laura – at Tunz of Fun in Castle Towers for a play and a chat.  A fast two hours later, after much talking by the girls and lots of playing by the kids, it was time to leave.  But not without making another date to catch up in the near future.

My new people will fast become friends I think.  They are a great bunch (kids included) and fun to hang out with, not to mention easy to talk to and above all they are NORMAL!!!  Well, as normal as we Harvey’s get anyway!  I can’t wait to meet my new people again soon :o)

This is Reuben in my new favourite thing in the entire Baby World Of Stuff – my Bubba Moe sling!

It is so comfortable to wear and has made the arsenic hours (anywhere between 4 and 7pm) at our house almost non existent.  Today I even braved a trip to the shops wearing Reuben in the sling and it was great!  He slept while Owen and I were able to walk around and check out different things without having to pram it or kill my arms or back carrying the baby for 2 hours.

While I’m not going to go into any detail about QRDS, I know she’s very good at what she does so please go and check out the new web site for more information.

What she really needs is a good Google search result, so please click on the link, then go back and click again to help her climb the Google ladder :)

I’m so glad we did, for a few reasons.  The Castle Hill library has a much larger kids section than our local Rouse Hill library, they also have a over sized wooden sand castle that is filled with books on the outside of the castle walls and has room to play inside the castle.

While Owen was playing with the sand castle, I met two lovely youngish Mum’s and their daughters (who are both around two).  They were really friendly, and the first ladies I’ve spoken to, other than our neighbours and a few of the Mum’s from preschool, in what seems like a very long time.  We stood around and chatted easily for nearly half an hour, while their girls and Owen chased each other round the sand castle and generally had a ball together.  When it was time to go, we even swapped numbers and I got invited to come to their mother’s group and to meet up at our local shopping centre for a play and a chat!

It’s only taken me five months to meet some people.  You just can’t rush into these things!

So, thanks Marc for wanting to try somewhere new :o)