Sweetums Update # 3

--> WITH BONUS WIFEY & BEVIS UPDATE, AS REQUESTED! <--

Hello everyone. My last post was a bit lengthy, so I'll try to keep this one brief.

My parents, brother and brother's girlfriend have just touched down in Sydney after spending a three-day weekend here in Melbourne with us. We all had a lovely time, and it was great for Sweetums to spend some quality bonding time with his Sydney-based grandparents.

In my last Sweetums Update, I told you how he was already nearly crawling. Well, tomorrow marks Sweetums' four-month birthday (anniversary?), and he's done the following things in the past few weeks:

- Rolled all the way over when lying on his back;

- Nearly dragged himself along his playmat (the only thing holding him back is that he favours his left arm, forgetting that he has another to help pull himself along);

- Created a game with Daddy that involves him bouncing himself up and down in his bouncenette (pulling on Daddy's thumbs to bounce himself in his chair), laughing near-hysterically with Daddy as Daddy sings, "Doop-de-doop-de-doo!" over and over; and

- Kicked at his musical kick-toy (the thing plays music when he kicks it), which has resulted in him kicking like crazy whenever he hears any kind of music playing (presumably because he thinks he's creating the music!).

He's very precious - but I don't have to tell you that.

He has reached the stage where he recognises Mummy and Daddy (which is lovely), and therefore he also recognises that everyone else he sees is not Mummy or Daddy (which is not so great - because of the tears). He had his second injection the other day, and his immediate cries were suddenly silenced when he was put back into Mummy's arms.

He went through about two weeks where he was sleeping through the nights (from his 10:30pm feed to his 7am feed) ... but with the recent bout of heat and everything, he seems to have stopped this. At least for the moment.



--> BONUS WIFEY UPDATE! <--

Wifey has really been growing into motherhood in a very good way. I hope that doesn't sound condescending or anything, because I mean it quite fondly and respectfully. She has shown that her motherly instincts are spot-on and her care and love for Sweetums is developing daily into an unbreakable mother-son bond.

It makes me very proud to say that Wifey has demonstrated her giving nature each and every day when it comes to looking after Sweetums. If not for her, there is no doubt in my mind that I never would have survived these past four months as a new parent. Her way of soothing Sweetums when he's over-tired, troubled or hungry is amazing. Her ability to sense his moods and give him what he needs to calm him down is astounding. And her compassion when dealing with Sweetums' dunderhead father is nothing short of miraculous.

With each passing day, she gives me new reasons to love her more and more. She is a super woman.



--> EVEN BONUSER BEVIS UPDATE! <--

In addition to tomorrow being Sweetums' four-month birthday, Monday 5th February 2007 also marks the point that I'll officially be going full-time in my new job. It's been a blessing to work four days a week up until this point (largely due to getting an extra day at home with Wifey and Sweetums), but our cashflow has been limited of late - so having an extra fifth of my income for working five days a week is going to be very helpful. I've considered myself extremely fortunate to have had an extra day off each week over these past four months, enjoying my Fridays (which were later changed to Wednesdays) at home with Sweetums in addition to the weekend.

It's also a great sign that the people at work are happy with me. I breezed through my three-month review the other month, was promoted to the head of my area in December (as you may recall), and have now been 'upgraded' to five days a week. The people at my workplace are still great (no one's turned evil on me yet), and last week some of the longer-term tasks I was working on when I started there (back in September) began showing the fruits of our labour. It was really encouraging seeing them come to fruition like that, and hopefully things will continue to go strong there.

In other news, I recently won an iPod in an online competition and will be giving it to Wifey as a surprise when it gets here (so if you know her in person ... don't say anything!). I know she won't check this blog (she hasn't in quite a while, due to being somewhat busy at home!), but I also know Wifey's wanted an iPod for ages now. I won an iPod nano and know she's going to be thrilled. Our finances haven't stretched far enough for me to buy her one ... and now I don't have to!

I never win anything, either ... so when I got the email telling me I'd won, I wanted to burst with happiness! But I couldn't mention it to Wifey. I blurted out my good news on Ms Fits' Friday Q&A session instead.

But good on me, and stuff.


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