First part of 2010...

It was quite a year, in March I went to a client site for a project I was managing. It was the first (and only still a year later) time I have left Sebastian, I was gone for 5 days and it was hard... but I have to confess to loving only having to get myself ready, finishing work - eating in the hotel restaurant, with a glass of wine, a book and then a bath in the room and bed... with no wake ups! But when I got home I was so happy to see my wee man - Sebastian and my husband and family. It did, unfortunately, create a period of time where Sebastian would not allow me out of his sight to even pee...

We spent memorial day at Alex's parents and Nani and Lisa and Nan were there also...

My mum continued to look after Sebastian at her house for the first part of the year - with our friend Mai having him at our house on Wednesday's for his Spanish day...

Sebastian is close to many members of his family - his Tia Jackie, both his Grandmothers - Granny (my mum) and Gaga - Alex's mum - he calls his Grandpa - JIM - just like we do... he loves his Nani (Alex's grandmother nancy) and his cousin James is the bees knees...

Here are a few shots from the early part of 2010!

Sebastian turns ONE!

It happened, a year passed and we made it alive! :) Sebastian turned one on the Friday and I took a day off work to get ready for the party and get my hair all chopped off! It was very long and had not been cut since before Sebastian was born and I went all the way up to my ears - it was TIME!

By Sebastian's first birthday he had all teeth except his molars... had been walking for close to 2 months and was saying quite a few words...

For his first birthday we had a bbq for our family and friends over at Arlington park playground/bbq area. Great as the children could play in the playground and us oldies could eat/visit on the picnic tables. We had lots of help from Nancy and Lisa who came to Sam's with me- helped with food prep, set up and Nancy bbqd! :)

The theme was WonderPets as Sebastian is in love with them and loves that show... Granny Reid got a lovely cake with Sebastian's picture on it as the decoration - FAB!

Sebastian's First Christmas

Sebastian’s first Christmas was fun, of course he was more interested in the bags and tissue than any presents – and knowing this we actually were sensible and didn’t go mad – he got a Sesame Street remote control and some clothes and bits we wanted him to have, more than things he would care about! Mum, Alex, Sebastian and I spent Christmas Eve at Nani's house having dinner.

Then on Crimbo day,after Sebastian and I went to church with my Mum (he slept the whole way through), we had a lovely lunch at my mum’s house cooked by Mum and myself… attending were mum, alex, myself, Sebastian, alex’s parents – Carola and Jim and his Nani (Nancy)… also joining us were Alex girl and her mom Cathy – which was FAB!

Dear blog... I have missed you...

Dear blog, I’ve been missing you…

Quite often over the last year I have been thinking of updating you, but somehow, something else comes up… I couldn’t believe it when I went back and read my last post – NOVEMBER 2009 – holy moly! Where has the time gone!?

A lot has happened in this past year and a half… Sebastian’s first Christmas holiday, his first birthday, a trip to Disney, many happy times with family and friends, Sophie turned 21, James turned 3 and 4 and Sebastian turned 2…

In that time my job has changed at work – I am now in the deployment team helping them and managing migration of our existing clients onto the new platform… it was a shock at first, but settling in.

We have been pregnant and, sadly, lost that baby – a very hard and sad time… but part of our history of life as a family now therefore in the blog…

We currently are having to re-home our beloved beagle, Chiron, as he bit Sebastian last year… he just did not adjust to life with a toddler and the constant harassment Sebastian heaped on him – truck chases and pushing things into him finally took their toll.

Anyhow – I am going to do some highlight blogs to catch up with some pictures and then hope to keep you updated, not that I am even sure if anyone reads you… but I like to go back and re-read them and see the pics and will, I think, print them up and put them in a book for future family reading and hilarity!

Xo

Oh yay for Turkey...

Happy thanksgiving eve everyone... we are heading down to Alex's Tia Holly and Tio Jimmy in Fort Myers - we go every year. Alex's parents, Nani and Hap, sis Barb and bro Marc and the cousins with their other halves will all be there - this will be the first time the cousins meet Seb... exciting. Barbie is riding down with us so Seb has some company - as this will be his longest car ride yet!

Mmmmm... i LOVE turkey - got my organic cranberries and making some sauce and cookes and banana bread tonight... fun fun!

Some pics of Sebastian at Halloween, the first one was taken when we finally had some cool weather... I LOVE babies in jeans... and am a cow collector - of interesting ornaments/figurines of cows. So, before Sebastian was even born I got him this cow hoodie and he finally got to wear it.. see it has ears!



Seb in his hand me down costume from Skylar... too cute....



However it was hot on Halloween so he wore the one we got from Carter (son of the Studio B photographer - see side link)... a cute lion... and Jamie wore his Liverpool strip as you saw in pics below.

Seb's first jack o'lantern

Seb's first Jack O'Lantern...



Day outfit - 3-d pumpkins and candy corn - courtesy of granny Fleener



pulling up and cruising...



crawling.. and can you see the start of his first cold in those eyes? i can...



Jamie dressed up as a Liverpool player - ready for tick or tweat...

Made some strides...

Well, blog - here we are and Seb is 8 months and 2 weeks - how did that happen? He is crawling now - as fast as a formula one car - had 4 teeth with more on the way (OUCH) and is pulling himself up and beginning to cruise (NOT in the George Michael way - thank you).

He is babbling lots and now sleeping with us pretty much all the time... he settles in his bed for MAYBE 2/3 hours on a good night and then will not go longer than 20/30 mins - after getting up a few times every 20 mins we just decided to go with the co-sleeping plan... although our bed is not very big - Seb is a snuggler - he lays with a leg and arm draped over me and if i even try to move he wakes and scoots over and into me again... I am now used to it and enjoy it.. actually the couple of times he actually stayed in his own bed I woke up in horror to not find him there and assumed he had somehow flung himself over one of us and fallen...

Anyhow - we have to be secretive as my mother in law would have a heart attack and originally even i was against it... but Seb has decided where he sleeps on his own.. i have to say this is a more recent development... he always slept well - in his bed by 9 and through til 2.30 - sometimes til 4 - up for a 15 min boobie break and then back to sleep until 6.30 - then this happened...we tried cry it out - we tried soothing - we tried all sorts - and nothing worked... other than snuggling with us... he will nap in his cot during the day, but won't stay there all night. And now he is so big that we don't squish him or anything...he holds his own... and usually he is in the crook of my arm anyhow - so i can't roll and it keeps alex at bay!

He is saying some more words - and he is now doing a little song and dance mum taught him - he LOVES to sing and dance - always has from a few weeks old - but now his shoulders roll, he sways and one of his legs goes with the beat... this is hardly a surprise considering who is parents are... I mean i went a clubbing a couple of times while he was in utero... dancing with a big old belly was odd and created a bizarre swing... i.e. my body following wherever my belly swung... haha...

Marc was here from the UK this month with 2 friends - Mark and David... was lovely to see him as always... I adore my Marcie Marc... and his friends are fab... we had some meals out and i got some quality beach/pool time with them - one day on my own as Mum had Seb - was great to have some me time...

This past Saturday a group of us from work did the making strides breast cancer walk... i started this a few years ago and the group has grown - we got double the $1k we wanted to raise - so it was a good event - we then had a yummy breakfast at the broken egg.... num!

here are some pics:

Sebastian and Skylar - ahh - young love...

showing support for his team tropics:

F - Skylar, Claire, Kelly, Seb, Lorna, Amy and Jamie

B - Joe, Elaine and Joanne

The End: