12 Month Check July 29, 2009
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Took Evie for her 12 month check this morning. All is fine and she’s developing well.
Latest stats are…
- Height : 73cm
- Weight : 8.4kg
- Head Circumference : 44.5cm
She’s quite petite between 10th and 25th percentile but perfectly formed.
So all’s well in Evie land 
The only thing we need to change now is the milk. The family nurse said that Evie should now have normal milk rather than formula and to start training her to get off the bottles and onto cups. As I’m allergic to cow’s milk and hubby drinks soya too, I asked whether it was OK to have soya instead. Nurse said that was fine as long as it has plenty of calcium in it. Tried Evie on 200ml of soya in her bottle when we got back from the clinic and she downed the lot. No probs at all with changing her milk (I was reading up on how you start to mix the formula with soy until it’s all soy, but Evie didn’t seem to mind just going straight to soy).
Ouch Poor Evie July 27, 2009
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Evie went for her 12 month immunisations. She had 3 jabs in total. Not impressed with the new GP. A friend from church recommended them but I found him a little too old-school. First he has no digital records – no computer at all. His desk is covered in files and apparatus. He prepares the 3 needles on his desk (no tray or anything) and after giving her the first two he lost the last one amongst all the paperwork and folders on his desk (yikes and the needles was exposed it’s amazing he didn’t prick himself). So poor Evie got 2 jabs and screamed, I managed to settle her and then she got the 3rd jab 5 mins later and screamed again. Then she was measured with a tape measure. Just held up against her while she was standing on my lap. Then they weighed her and I asked whether I should take her clothes off (she was wearing massive trainers) and he said no. She was 8.5kg and the doctor said she’s too light for her age and that she should be at least 9.3kg as he said it had to be 3x the birth weight. Later looking at her growth charts at her current weight she’s following the same growth curve she always had – he didn’t even bother looking. Also he forgot to fill in any of her blue book! Don’t think I’ll be going back to him again!
It’s Been a Wonderful Year July 25, 2009
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I can’t believe it has been 1 whole year already. Today our darling daughter, Evie turned 1. In some ways it seems like she only arrived a short time ago, yet in other ways it feels like she’s always been there. She’s grown up so quickly and can do so much now. Going from helpless baby who can’t move properly to toddler.
Last night we snuck into her playroom (which is next to her bedroom) and put up her new table and chair set (it has legs that look like giant pencils) and tied a big ribbon on it. We also wrapped all her presents (both from us and from various friends and relatives from the UK) and put them in a big pile in the middle. Then spattered a few balloons around the floor. In the morning we went in to get her up and she was wide awake and smiling. We helped her to walk into her playroom and she was just standing there looking confused pointing at things (sort of like “that wasn’t there yesterday” and “what’s that”) before she sat down and crawled over to everything. Hubby helped her open the pressies (which took 30 mins to do as she was more interested in chasing balloons around). In the afternoon we had a little tea party with some little baby friends of hers and played pass the parcel. Also had the obligatory jelly and ice cream too. The kids were manic after the sugar high! All in all a lovely day.
The Birthday Girl
So happy birthday our darling, precious baby. We hope that you had a lovely day and will enjoy all those presents you got. May you have many many more blessed years to come.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince July 22, 2009
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It was our 3rd wedding anniversary today. Wow – 3 whole years. I’m ashamed to say I don’t actually remember what we did on the other 2 anniversaries. I’m pretty sure in 2007 we probably went out for dinner and last year I was the size of a balloon awaiting the arrival of Evie 3 days later. We decided that we’d drag my brother in to babysit the squeakface (Evie) whilst we went out for dinner and a cinema date. It was boiling today (well for a Winter’s day it was 23deg) and we decided rather than go out for a meal it would be lovely to have a BBQ at home. Went out to get some food for the barbie and when we got home it was grey outside. By the time we BBQd it was actually raining so hubby was doing it on the veranda!
We pre-booked our tickets online for the Greater Union at Hurstville. A few weeks ago we got a flyer to join the Cinebuzz Club in the post and it included a code to get all movies for $10 (apart from Fri/Sat nights) so we utilised our cards and also got to pick our seats for a $1 booking fee online. We went to see the latest Harry Potter installment. It was really dark in tone and although I had read the book I kept wondering what was going to happen. In my mind the last 2 books pretty much seemed to blur into one story and I kept thinking things were going to happen that didn’t. Also Slughorn was nothing like I had imagined him to be – I had thought he was older and more rotund for some reason. It seemed rather depressing and everything was in either sepia or a greyish-blue tone. I wasn’t sure if I enjoyed the teenage romance bits or not. They were awfully bleurghsome, but they did provide relief from the doom and gloom – likewise the dark parts of the story provided relief from all the Won Won, dodgy looking at the floor parts. The other thing I was surprised with is Emma Watson (Hermione) she was far less hammy than in the previous movies (they showed them in order on telly over the last 2 weeks). Considering the book and movie is called Half Blood Prince, there was actually very little about it in the movie other than the inscription in the book and the bit at the end with Snape. I can’t quite remember, but I thought that this book had more about Tom Riddle’s beginnings (i.e. his parents, Gaunts etc). Malfoy’s character was much better too, less Dick Dastardly snarling/grimacing and more to him. Even Gollum and his relatives appeared for a cameo (ha ha). Overall I enjoyed the film and would recommend it.
Kresta Windows – que? July 21, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Musings.Tags: stupid company mottos
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There’s this advert on telly at the moment for Kresta Windows. It has a really annoying catchphrase jingle that goes “windows come alive”. Led me to thinking what does that actually mean. I think it would be pretty cool to have windows that do come alive – or perhaps pretty scary!
Imagine if your windows did really come alive – what would happen?
- Would your windows start telling all and sundry about all the secret activities it has witnessed within the rooms?
- Would the windows complain about their dressings (these curtains are so drab… in a sort of Marvin paranoid android fashion)
- Perhaps the windows jump out of their frames and run off somewhere
- When the panes of glass slide across each other when you open the window would lots of baby windows spring forth?
- Would they moan and complain about being too hot or getting wet when it rains?
What is Wrong with the SLC – rant!! July 20, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Money, WTF?.add a comment
Grr raaaa grrr. What is the major malfunction at the Student Loans Company (SLC)? OK, this is really a rant on behalf of hubby as I have no problems with my loan (which will thankfully be paid off next April). Before leaving the UK in December to live in Australia I contacted them and filled in the Overseas Income Assessment (OIA) form so that hubby’s payments could continue. Now I told them we weren’t moving to Australia until Christmas, so they rather helpfully wrote their reply on 10th December and sent it straight to Oz address!! Now due to Christmas we didn’t get this letter until the New Year. The letter says that we haven’t provided payment details (even though I completed the direct debit form when I sent off the OIA – how come they received the OIA but not the DD when they are actually on the same piece of paper?) and that we have to send them a cheque by 15th December. Yes – that’s right, they send you something and expect it to arrive in the post in Australia and somehow get a cheque to them and clear it within 5 days (I’d estimate that even if there was no lag time this would take 2.5 weeks). So hubby wrote a letter explaining that we’d only just received the letter and it would not be possible to send them a cheque 20 days in the past and again gave them the DD details. Thankfully this was processed correctly and the payments started coming out. 2 payments in and the SLC suddenly stop taking payments. We noticed in May that the payments had stopped and contacted them again – they have no idea why the payments have stopped and ask us if we have stopped them (WTF!! blaming us??? we did NOT stop any DD from them) and hubby asks them to reinstate the payment schedule again. They say no because our details from the OIA form have inexplicably dissappeared and we have to fill in the form again and send it to them. In the meantime to not fall behind with payments they agree to set up voluntary payments of the amount required until they have received and processed our 2nd OIA form. Hubby fills in the form AGAIN and faxes it to them. Beginning of May we get a letter from them confirming that we have set up the voluntary payments via DD and the amounts. Funny no payments taken in May. End of May we get another letter saying that they’ve increased our payments by the amount of the original payment and that the first payment would be taken 10 days in the past???, which of course it wasn’t). So still no payments, even though we have provided them with everything they need to get their money. This week we get a letter in the post that is so perplexing – it has a very accusatory tone and they’ve suddenly decided that they don’t know whether we are in the UK or not and that if we have left the UK they are going to fine us with maximum repayments if we do not fill in an OIA form for them. WTF again? This is now the third time we’ve filled in that bloody OIA form and the 4th time we’ve provided them with the details for payment. I am getting thoroughly cheesed off with this. It’s not like we’re some scumbags who are trying to skip the country without paying off the loan. We’re desperately trying to get them to take the money but they are being so useless. It’s even worse that each time we provide them with the info, they confirm in writing that it’s all sorted out and then nothing happens, a couple of months later they then send a letter accusing us of essentially trying to avoid paying. What IS wrong with them?
I have come to the conclusion that the SLC are either incompetent or they have some strange Dr Who wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey thing going on where they keep going back in time, claiming payments coming back to the present, going back in time, changing something which then changes the present time and the information previously provided dissappears because we are in a parallel universe!!!
Potatoes! July 19, 2009
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Well, it had to come to this… I’m almost at a loss to what to write in my blog as nothing much exciting has happened lately. Well, my back up is to do some random musing Whilst peeling potatoes this evening I was pondering on life, the universe and everything and almost on the cusp of discovering the question (hee hee HHGTTG ref for the uninformed) when I almost peeled my finger. This totally distracted me and my thoughts went back to potatoes (some may argue that my brain is totally potatoes too with a post like this). I’m never one for picking certain types of potato for different tasks (e.g. what potato to buy for mashing/roasting/frying etc) so I would usually buy whatever generic cheapest one per kg is (that we would be able to eat before they went off). I used to buy white potatoes in the UK and they always came washed. Now we live in Oz I noticed that a bag of unwashed/brushed potatoes is so much cheaper and thought, well I don’t mind having to wash them a bit so bought them for a while. This is a FALSE ECONOMY!! Not because they’re hard to wash, not because you get .01% of the weight as mud – but in fact those potatoes are the substandard ones that have been damaged or have mouldy bits running through. I’d estimate 20% of the potatoes had some kind of damage/squishy bits/green that after cutting off the substandard parts, you’ve whittled the potato down to the size of a crisp (potato chip in Oz). So although they’re $1 cheaper per lb, there’s almost 1 in 5 unusable. Because of all the mud on the skins of the potato you can’t see how many are crappy in the shop. So now I’m only buying washed potatoes as at least I can get a glimpse of whether they’re destined for my belly or the compost heap!
Christmas in July July 18, 2009
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We were kindly invited to my friend Flora for her annual Christmas in July. Cos it’s so hot in Australia in December they don’t tend to do the whole roast dinner then so some bright sparks (prob expats) decided to also celebrate Christmas in July (in mid winter) so we can enjoy eating a roast dinner without roasting ourselves! It’s not actually Christmas in terms of celebrating the birth of Jesus (although these days a lot of people don’t celebrate Christmas for that reason anyway) but more of a doing the traditional things that happen. Coming from a large extended family who all celebrate Christmas together, I know full well the nightmare of roasting a big meal (especially with only one oven) so I suggested that we could do the roast potatoes/winter veggies. Ended up roasting 5 trays of veggies over the course of 2.5hrs!! It was hot work as today was unseasonably warm (20 deg C).
The party was fabulous and there were so many families and all the kids running round and playing on toys. Evie thoroughly enjoyed crawling about all over the place and bullying the older kids… tsk tsk. She kept ousting them from whatever toys they were playing with – either that or randomly crawling off to eat leaves and grass surreptisciously from behind a beach ball. There was lots of stuff for the kids to do and Santa Claus even turned up and distributed pressies. Evie didn’t much like the look of Santa and in her picture with him she just pulled and upset face and tried to wriggle away. Poor Santa – snubbed on their first meeting. I think in a few years hubby and I will look forward to when Evie will be able to enjoy the excitement of Santa (prob between the ages of 2 and 7 before she sees through the fallasy).
10 Names/Nicknames for Evie July 16, 2009
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This week’s 10 things are 10 names we use to refer to our baby! She’s 1 next week and I’m amazed at just how many names we use. These are the 10 most commonly used
1. Evie
2. Squeakface (primarily because of all the squeaky noises she used to make when tiny, at one point she was squeakface and the dog was fluffface)
3. Kitten/kitty (when she’s angry she cries like an angry cat)
4. Squitty (a hybrid of squeaky and kitty!!)
5. It (commonly used whilst referring to her when something unpleasant has happened – i.e. “It needs a nappy change” or “It has been a really grumpy bugger today”)
6. Evangeline Kim (full name used when she is being very naughty on purpose – i.e. “don’t you pull that electrical wire, don’t touch it” to which Evie stops looks at you and then carries on and then hubby usually goes “EVANGELINE KIM” in his best scary teacher voice)
7. Humbug (no idea where that one came from)
8. Chipmunk (usually used when all her food has gone from her plate and is stuffed into her cheeks but with no sign of being swallowed)
9. Funny bunny (used when she’s doing something odd like randomly rolling about on the floor or rubbing her head on the floor)
10. Cheeky (used when she uses her cheeky smile to get out of being in trouble)
Of course there are plenty of other names that randomly come out including the smaltzy sickening lovey dovey ones as well as the more “blue” ones used when shouting at her whilst she tries to delve into the contents of her nappy!
New Toy July 14, 2009
Posted by graciek in Evie, Life in General.Tags: fisher price door toy
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At Evie’s playgroup they have the Fisher Price Laugh n Learn Learning Home (yes what a mouthful). It’s basically a 2-3ft high free standing plastic door with loads of activity stuff and music. All the kiddies love it and they all clamber over each other playing the different bits and crawling over each other to get through the door way. Poor Evie never seems to be able to get to play with anything other than something on the peripheral so I thought it would be cool to get one for her. They’re quite expensive ($120) so I thought I’d look on eBay – by gosh there are loads up for auction. Managed to get one (sans the little shapes and the letters) for $5 – brilliant. Got it home and gave it a good cleaning. It’s great – only thing is the doorbell is wired up a bit odd as it doesn’t chime, it speaks instead and the lightbulb has gone kaputt. But Evie doesn’t mind – she mostly loves playing the music and swinging on the door. Her Daddy picked it up last night and so far she’s spent probably about 75% of her day playing with it. Even the dog is joining in a going through the door. It’s so cute.
