BobbyRobin: January 2010

Showing newest 20 of 23 posts from January 2010. Show older posts

Happy Bubba...

>> Sunday, January 31, 2010 – baby, smiles, zoe

Who could resist that smile :-)

A Creation a Week for a Year: No.4

>> Friday, January 29, 2010 – craft, more softies, soft toys, softies, toys, weekly creation

Another Softie! fun fun! (he is the giraffe from the More Softies book).

Links: No.3, No.2, No.1, A Creation a Week for a Year Goal

I had loads of ideas come through for names for No.3 Softie (now called 'Pink-nosey-the-bear' thanks to little Hazel) what should I call this little guy?

Zoe with her Dad

>> Thursday, January 28, 2010 – joel, photo, zoe

Just a photo today: my two favourite peeps!

Boot Love: Converse All Star Ankle Boots

>> Wednesday, January 27, 2010 – boots, Chucks, shoes, shopping

Yikes, I am seriously foaming at the mouth over these boots I saw on the weekend. Only problem is I don't work anymore and have no pulling power over the husband for a frivolous buy! Hehe I'll get my mitts on them next month after HIS pay day. Thanks Joel! Aren't they delicious? they are like my ultimate footwear. I like sneakers, I like boots, I don't like leather boots so much as my clothes are too casual for them (and somehow they always make me feel overdressed even if they are flats?) so these ultra casual boots are perfect. Practically made for me.. can you tell I seriously can't wait?! I've got it bad! *drool*

Tinkerbell Towel

>> Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – fairy, me, presents, tinkerbell, zoe

Zoe was given this cute Tinkerbell towel from Aunty Libby on the weekend. As you can see - we are both stoked about it! Thanks Lib!!

New Maternity Photography series at Pacing the Panic Room

>> Monday, January 25, 2010 – baby, maternity series, pacing the panic room, photography, photos, pregnancy

I love Pacing the Panic Room. I just can't get enough of this gorgeous blog. I posted a while back about Ryan's maternity series where he took photos of his pregnant wife each week and wrote a little letter to his unborn child. The series went right up to 40 weeks and it was just awesome going along for the ride, especially since I was pregnant through some of it too.

He has now started a new series for his friends Trish & Peter. What makes this new series extra special is it's format using a horizontal scroll bar. Every Monday Ryan posts a new image of Trish walking along a street and each week the picture is in front of the next house along that street -you have to scroll to the right to see the next image in line. Come week 40 and I'll be scrolling for ages! It's a brilliant idea and I love it! Check it out here.

Underwater Smiler

>> Sunday, January 24, 2010 – me, photo, swimming, The Water Babies, Underwater

After posting about the beautiful Water Babies underwater photography, my Mum sent me this pic. It's 3 year old me, learning to swim. It was in the local paper - it's one of my favourite pics in the family album. eeeee!

Grandma's two cents worth: Swaddling

>> Saturday, January 23, 2010 – baby, grandma, guest blogger grandma, marby, me, sleep, swaddle, zoe

The need to continue swaddling your baby after 3 months is a whole new thing to those of us who had babies in the 80s or previous. When this problem came up with Zoe I searched and searched my memory to try and remember how I solved this problem with my four babies and then I realized that I just didn’t really have it. In the 80s we swaddled our newborns in exactly the same way as today, but we slept them on their sides. That was the “rule” then. We were told that a baby should not sleep on their back as they could choke easier, and sleeping on the side meant that any spit up ran out easily. As baby grew and was able to wriggle out of the swaddle, the arms were still not that free in the side position. Try it yourself, it’s not that easy to fling both your arms about when you are lying on your side.

Today, a baby lying on its back has so much more freedom and can fling their arms right up over their head and wake themselves up. I’ve even found myself doing it! It was also not unusual once they were at this age to sleep them on their tummies, and I did that with Sarah. Here is a picture of her on her tummy at 4 months. She was a thumb sucker so the head was always turned to the side to find her thumb, and arms were pretty much unable to go anywhere.

I’m certainly not advocating the tummy position today, as I know that mothers are told they must sleep baby on their backs now, but if sleeping your baby on its side can be made safe I think it would save a lot of headaches regarding this swaddling problem.

A Creation a Week for a Year: No.3

>> Friday, January 22, 2010 – craft, pink, soft toys, softies, toys, weekly creation

No.3 : Mamma Bear Softie. Now she just needs a name...

Links: No.2, No.1, A Creation a Week for a Year Goal

Zoe's Room

>> Thursday, January 21, 2010 – interior, soft toys, style, toys, zoe

I was asked to take some photos for Maddie at Li'l Magoolie of Zoe's room, here they are below and here is the feature on her blog: lilmagoolie.wordpress.com I took some of the room but also some close ups of her pin-board that she loves looking at and some of her special toys and things around the place :-)

NB: the bird mobile has sparked lots of interest! It was lovingly made by my pixie pal Linzi (here blog here) for Zoe. She absolutely goes nuts for it, moving her arms and legs like crazy, as it's over her change table.

Too much information can be bad for me

>> Wednesday, January 20, 2010 – baby, zoe

This whole raising a child thing is pretty hard out and most of the time completely overwhelms me. I read a few books and countless websites before Zo came into the world and I continue to google almost every day about the current issue or unexplainable thing she is doing that day.

Won't stop crying, won't eat anything today, only wants one boob each feed this week, won't sleep through the night yet, her weight, her height, her skin, her eye-sight, her hearing, her nappy rash, the shape of her head, the toys she is playing with, if she is upright enough, if she is getting enough exercise, if she is eating too much, the size of her clothing, her birthmark issue (googled that a bajillion times) and the list goes on and on and on...

It seems like everyone has something to say about each and every issue or milestone in my babies life. And I know most people are out to help me but sometimes I have to sit back and say to myself... What? I should do what for my babies hand eye co-ordination? or what? she won't focus in class later on in life? mmm really? I mean REALLY? Did every single mum in the history of the world make sure she danced around the lounge lifting her baby up and down to make sure each and every one of us turned out ok? I DON'T THINK SO!

Ok so I will always worry about my child, but I'm sure she will turn out OK. I'm just saying that lately it seems that I can have too much information. It's my own fault half the time because I go looking for it and find more than I bargained for! I then get confused, worried and second guess all my decisions I have made so far and wind myself up and feel like I am a terrible mother. For example, just when I feel on top of things, I read or hear that I shouldn't prop by baby up in a sitting position because she will learn to sit first instead of crawl and apparently that is bad. Really? I mean REALLY? COME ON!?!

*holding hands up to ears shaking head and screaming*

Zoe, I'm just going to love you, care for you and just BE there for you because I know you need me. Everything else is just a game we can play along the way. I just need to remember that.

Magical Underwater Photography: Water Babies

>> Tuesday, January 19, 2010 – photography, The Water Babies

Wow, check out these absolutely gorgeous underwater photographs by Zena Holloway. I am in love! The added illustrations, the lighting, the colours, the dogs!, the children! Oh! Check out her website here for more amazing shots.

They bring back memories of learning to swim, discovering rock pools and the ocean floor when I was a kid. They also bring back memories of The Water Babies book by Charles Kingsley. OH MY GOODNESS HOW STUPID AM I? a quick google just now and I find this: www.thewaterbabies.com which is a retelling of the old story with the above photographs! OFFICIALLY IN LOVE NOW!

Ah the treasures you find when going through your old things!

>> Monday, January 18, 2010 – cross-stitch, sewing

Check out this cross-stitch I did a million years ago. I think it took me a million years to finish off too! Not sure how old I was but I remember it was heaps of fun, especially when I did the back-stitching and it all came to life. I found it while raiding Mum's old fabric box at home.

A Creation a Week for a Year: No.2

>> Saturday, January 16, 2010 – 2010, art, bobbyrobin, drawing, sketch, weekly creation

I'm not sure where this is headed but I've bought a sketch book and would like to do a few sketches and see where my drawings end up... I've got all year!

Links: No.1, A Creation a Week for a Year Goal

Giveaway: Secondhand The Lovely Bones Book

>> Thursday, January 14, 2010 – books, Free Stuff, Giveaway, The Lovely Bones

As much as it looks like I liked reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold in this picture, I had real issues with it and pretty much ended up hating it's guts. I know! I know! You can't believe it because it is just such a heartfelt story, the characters are so brilliant, you couldn't put it down... yeah yeah bla bla bla bla.

That's what others had told me, that I HAD to read this book. So I bought it, read it and didn't enjoy it at all. I think maybe others had drummed it up too much for me and I had expected to much of it. I couldn't relate to Susie, her sister or their father and her friend and crush just annoyed me. I hated the reincarnation, I hated the end and I really hated Susie's depiction of heaven.

I understand that her heaven is the heaven of a young girl and so the fact that it had her school in it made sense... but maybe it's just that I believe that heaven is so so so so so so so much more awesome than that. And yes it is just an authors ideas, and everyone has their own personal thoughts about how heaven will be, it's just that my heaven isn't my school, or my work or my home.. it's so mind blowing that I can't even describe it here. It's beyond words!

So I'm afraid I'm not on the Lovely Bones band wagon and no longer need my copy of the book. It irks me just to see it on the shelf next to my beloved other novels. So if you would like to adopt my copy then leave a comment below telling me what you thought of the book and/or movie. I'd love to find out if anyone agrees with me, because so far I am very outnumbered! I'll check back in a week and draw someone randomly. (That's if anyone even wants a free preloved book that I hated! - where's the logic?!!!)

NB: MAddie from Li'l Maggolie is the lucky adoptee of this oh-so-wonderful prize! Congrats! haha

Thanks for the jewellery!

>> Wednesday, January 13, 2010 – christmas, jewellery

I got these lovely pieces of jewellery for Christmas and had to post some pics...

Mum & Dad gave me this Annie Blackberry necklace which I LOVE and when I found out that they had chosen the pendant and charms themselves to create the necklace - it made me love it even more. My favourite charm is the teeny weeny owl... eeeeeeeeee! Check out Annies stuff here.

My sis got me this rad bracelet from Melbourne, made from a 15cm steel ruler. I've been using the numbers on it to remind me what time I last fed Zoe. haha.

Swaddle me this... Vol.3 : Turbo Swaddle

>> Tuesday, January 12, 2010 – baby, swaddle, turbo swaddle, tutorial, zoe

This is the third installment in my Swaddle series. I wasn't intending on writing any sort of series but it is a big part of Zoe's life and since looking for a larger and functional swaddle blanket was such a mission I came up with my own Turbo Swaddle!

I call it 'Turbo' because it is a combination of other swaddle blankets I've seen (one in particular that wasn't made for over 6kg babies at the time) using 2 muslin wraps so that it's cooler for summer and pretty much a DIY straight jacket for my Houdini baby. Swaddling is really hard in summer as day time naps are just so sticky and hot, I would give anything to put Zoe down in just a nappy and singlet and no layers but she refuses to sleep without her tight little wrap up.

I've been using a Snug & Tug wrap but its just too hot and she always gets her arms out no matter how tight I wind that thing up. The muslin is much cooler and it's heaps tighter BUT! Zoe is slowly breaking free of even this magical swaddle lately and waking in the night even more than usual. So I've decided to start weaning her out of it and am currently using the Wrap Me Up Swaddle to transition her and it is working a treat so far. Will let you know how that goes in another post soon.

I decided to draw up some diagrams to show anyone who is interested, how to do the Turbo Swaddle. Let me know how it goes if you give it a go!

What you'll need: 2 Muslin Wraps. 1 with the top corner folded down (a) and one folded into thirds or quarters (b) OR cut one muslin wrap in half and fold so there isn't so much material.

1. Place (b) on top of (a) as above, giving (b) about 5cm room from the top of (a). Place bubba on top with her neck at (a)'s fold.

2. Take one side of (b) and tuck underneath bubba's body firmly over her arm so that her body weight holds the end of (b) down. Repeat for the other arm. (You can do this loose if you would like your bubba to be able to get out of the swaddle eventually if she sleeps better that way).

3. Now just wrap the left corner of (a) over bubba much like a usual swaddle except tuck the corner around and under her arm.

4. Do the same for the right side of (a) and pull tight. I have deliberately left bubba's legs free to kick about as its cooler and doesn't really affect the turbo.

Now there are 2 problems that I have found with this swaddle:

1. Husbands can't do it very well so you may find that you can't share the 'putting down' job.

2. It's difficult to pick bubba up and dream feed or change while asleep and keep the wrap intact because once their body weight isn't keeping (b) down the wrap slowly slips apart.

Swaddle me this... Vol. 1

Swaddle me this... Vol.2

Family trip to the Bird Gardens

>> Monday, January 11, 2010 – birds, family, joel, marby, me, zoe

Ok so, Katikati has these bird gardens that have been around for ages. Surely for centuries. Mum took us along to show Zoe the birds (although she wasn't too impressed or knows what a bird is) and to check out the recently renovated Cafe. We had a nice lunch and walked around the gardens. It was so hot, the weather was great. I think next on the list for the gardens should be renovating the actual bird enclosures as everything seemed to be falling apart... including this scary duck/goose/bird thing that looked like it had been put through the tumble dryer 10 times over!