Totally Random

Liam turned two recently and he had a birthday party. Some of his friends from childcare came and we all had lots of fun. I was a bit worried about what it would be like having 10-15 2 year olds at our house, but nothing major was broken and we had lots of time to play and to talk with the adults too!

Liam is fully into sentences now. His first sentence (about August last year) was on one of my Fridays off, I was lying in bed and he came in and asked "Chase pigeons in park today?" (still one of his favourite hobbies). How could I say no? He has five very good friends that he has met at childcarre. His first girlfriend (Molly) moved away to Brighton, but she was able to come to his party and they instantly fell into their old play and trashed the back yard and their clothes. Isabella and Hamish are high-energy twins, Lola is Liams new girlfriend at childcare and Mac is his big friend (he weighs about 50% more than Liam…)

It isn't long until we have a new baby and we have been trying to prepare Liam for it. He knows that "mummy has a baby in there", but he doesn't really grasp that it is going to come out and wreck his life. I feel sorry for him, not realising the huge changes that are coming. It has been a great 2 years though.

Here are some photos from when we were in japan recently and from his birthday party on the weekend.

Well, it turned out to be remarkably simple to switch my not very technically adept parents from Windows XP to Ubuntu (Breezy Badger). We did this on the basis that it was getting increasingly difficult to manage their computer difficulties from Melbourne, and their Windows XP installation was incredibly spamware and adware ridden.

So at the moment I have put Ubuntu on as a second boot option, just in case they ABSOLUTELY NEED TO use windows. But they tell me that they are only using Ubuntu.  In Linux, I have given their user accounts the standard (low) level of access, and I have made sure that I can get ssh access externally. Now I just need to set up VNC and dynamic domain registration so that I don't have to keep getting dad to lookup his modems external IP address.

Mark that one up as another successful switch to Linux. It was a lot easier than I thought. Their main applications that they used are Firefox, Outlook and some Microsoft Word. 

Liam spent some time with Grandma in Canberra at Easter

We love being parents to Liam more and more each day. He continues to surprise and delight us with his ever emerging personality. Gone is the redness of his newborn skin; his skin is now a pale chickeny colour, so I have started to call him chicken chop.Overall, I still think he's pretty laid back, and is happy most of the time. In the past couple of weeks, his development seems to have surged: all of a sudden he has become quite a talker, starting out cooing, and now actively gurgling with me every day. In the evening he talks earnestly of his big day, his back resting on Jon's legs and looking into Jon's face. I have attached a toy, which contains a mirror, among other things, to one side of his cot. Encouraged by the smiling face staring back at him, he sometimes wakes me in the mornings by talking to himself in the cot until I get up. And another recent observation is during 'tummy time' on the rug (to build his neck and back muscles). He now manages easily to hold his head up in the prone position, and can, just, commando crawl toward my voice and a toy. By the end of 5 minutes, though, he's pretty exhausted and a frustrated grizzle tells me that he's had enough. Recently, Liam's helped us to realise just how much he enjoys his evening bath. Observing him beforehand as we undress him on the change table, he gives us wide, eager eyes; sticks his tongue out, and waves his arms and legs madly as if splashing in the bath. And he has also discovered the thrill of new textures in his mouth. His fist is frequently in his mouth, making loud sucking noises, and he'll try to suck on my hand when I hold him upright to burp after a feed. But he hasn't quite got the hang of holding on to toys and bringing them up to his mouth. The saga of managing his food intolerances continues. I've been keeping a food diary with the aim of identifying – and then avoiding – foods to which he is sensitive. I'm pretty sure one of the culprits is one or more of the additives in chocolate, so regrettably have had to eliminate chocolate from my diet for the foreseeable future. At its worst, he's had a couple of bouts of bright red blood specks in his poo, which we suspect may be caused by anal fissures (tears) as he strains, due to a severely irritated gut. Poor love – I have planned to return to the paediatrician, who I think might refer me to a paediatric allergist. At 6 months of age, if it hasn't resolved, it may require some skin prick tests to identify the food/s he is allergic to. We are all very well. At this stage, we plan to drive to Canberra for Easter; not quite sure where we'll stay yet, but will let you know. Finally, here are some photos. There are so many I want to include – I might do it over two emails. Lots of love Jon, Tam and Liam xxx

A couple of months ago (9/Jan/2009) we had a baby. These three months have been a lot of fun and a lot of work, and as I think every new and old parent says "I can't imagine what it was like without him". I can't. He is sitting next to me playing with toys on his A-frame right now and making lots of happy noises. He is possibly the best baby in the world. We took him to a wedding last week, and he slept right through all the conversation and speeches and girls cooing over him. We are very lucky. Here are some photos of Liam and my wife Tam. Looking through our photos, it seems like the only times that we take many photos of Liam is when he is asleep! (Tam and Liam outside) (All of us watching TV)