Mummy and Ari

I love the swings...and the slide

Five great things no one ever tells you about having a baby

1. You learn the art of patience, patience, patience.
2. Babies really do have such distinct personalities. They are just little people.
3. Little arms reaching up to hug your neck.
4. That smile. It really does light up the world.
5. The look your baby gives you that is just for you.

Who do I look like I wonder?

Five crap things no one tells you about having a baby

1. You may not sleep through the night for years. And sleeping in is a thing of the past. I long for the day I wake up before Ari does.
2. You won't recognise your breasts after breastfeeding. This may come as a severe shock!
3. Again, if you've breastfed, your hair may fall out in great wads. Half my hair is now half the length of the rest.
4. While some people are supportive, many people treat parents with virtual contempt. I knew it was an under-recognised job, but I had no idea how badly so.
5. Friends DO drop off the planet, never to be seen again.

Extreme close-up...13 months

More museum

At the museum

The Music Man

Ari has suddenly revealed his musical side.
Play any sort of music and more often than not, he'll do a little bounce (bending knees) or a little dance. I've even seen him sway from side to side and clap hands to music.
As a parent who would LOVE her child to be, at the very least, passionate about music and, at best, a famous rock star, this is good news.
But how to harness and encourage our little music man?
Adopt a Motown-like intensive program to produce our own Little Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson (the ABC one, not the freaky white-faced one)?
Succumb to the commercial lure of The Wiggles or Hi-5?
I'm exploring classes such as Kindermusik and Mini Maestros to see if Ari will like them. But I'd welcome any suggestions...

How the other half live

You wouldn't believe it. I've jinxed myself by blogging about sleep.
Ari has been an amazing sleeper - so much so that I reckon we've had about three sleep-interrupted nights since he was about 8 weeks old. Other parents usually seethe when we tell them this.
In the past week, we've had two awful nights of not much sleep. It's taken us days to recover. We are just not used to this.
The first time we put down to teething, the second to a cold. Our poor little boy has a nose like a dripping tap and has been downright miserable all day.
So no more blogging about sleep - I need my 8 hours!

Ten things you may not know about Ari

1. His middle name is Murdoch, named for Rob's beloved Uncle Murdoch Flavell.
2. He can say "yucky" and "yum".
3. He can dance - he does little "running on the spot" dance steps and claps his hands.
4. He loves to play chasey, peek-a-boo and hide and seek.
5. He is obsessed with dogs.
6. He hates loud noises - he hides from the vacuum cleaner and is terrified of the blender.
7. He can throw a ball incredibly well for a kid his age.
8. He has the cutest little curls - we're trying to model his hairstyle on Doc Emmett Brown for now (pictured above left) but we're ultimately aiming for Omar Rodriguez from the bands At The Drive In and Mars Volta (above right).
9. He hates wearing a hat (as most kids do, I guess).
10. He loves to carry a stick when he walks and tap it on things.

Everything changes...again

Of all the topics you'd think would appear and reappear in a blog about a baby, it's sleep.
Fortunately (and touching lotsa wood here), Ari has been a fantastic sleeper. Apart from the early days when he wouldn't sleep for 12 hours during the day, we have had a charmed life compared to many a bleary eyed parent.
But there has been the odd stressful time when the boy's sleep patterns have changed and suddenly our routine is thrown completely out of whack.
Like the last two weeks or so, when he suddenly hasn't wanted his afternoon sleep. This can happen anywhere between the ages of 9 and 18 months, so Baby Love tells me.
Adjusting from two to one sleep a day hasn't been easy. It's made for a very cranky, tired baby and a fraught mother who suddenly doesn't know her baby.
But after a few days in a row of one sleep, it seems to be coming together. For the past three days, Ari has stayed up all morning and had one big sleep in the afternoon, lasting anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. It makes for a completely different life. Instead of planning to go out of the house around lunchtime, we now plan stuff for mornings. It also makes for a loooong stretch keeping an active little boy entertained. In the middle of suburbia with no car, that's a tough task, let me tell you.

Whine time

Five Things that annoy me right now:
1. The slow plot revelations on Lost. It's like Chinese water torture...but it's utterly compelling and I can't stop watching.
2. That Simon (Andrew Lincoln) isn't on Teachers anymore.
3. Psychotic Melbourne weather. One minute it's 40C at midnight, the next it's 15C and we're in jeans and jumpers. Insane.
4. That Ari has been waking at 6am. Damn that's early.
5. That I see Rage more in the mornings than late at night these days (see above).


Five Things I love right now:
1. Elegant rabbits in the shops. I'm one down already...many more to go.
2. Ari's curious little mumblings - he's starting to string sounds together and it's very cute.
3. Degrassi Junior High Series 3 - the Zit Remedy make a demo.
4. Love My Way is back on - and it's as good as the first series.
5. Little Fish on DVD and Brokeback Mountain at the movies - both bloody fantastic.

Big Day Blah?

There are times when I feel really young. Like when I'm at swimming lessons with Ari and realise I'm just about the youngest Mum there.
And then there is the annual trek to the Big Day Out, which always leaves me feeling about 100.
This year's BDO was all about change for me.
For starters, it wasn't at the usual venue, the Showgrounds, but in lovely Carlton parklands.
There was new stages, more food options, abundantly more viral advertising and a rolling text message ticker above the big screen where 16 year olds with mobile phones could shout out to their mates or make rude remarks.
And it was the first BDO I could remember that I left feeling, well, a little unfulfilled.
Apart from a blistering set by Melbourne rock stalwarts the Beasts of Bourbon, some twee loveliness from The Magic Numbers and a rather good performance by Iggy and the Stooges, the lineup was not much chop.
In the past, Big Days Out have always delivered a defining moment, an overriding memory that magically blocks out the crap food, drunken dickheads, dehydration and sunburn.
Like watching Wilco on the RRR stage in 2003 with what seemed like about 20 other people. It felt like Jeff Tweedy was singing Calfornia Stars to me.
Dancing to Underworld the same year in the Boiler Room. Fulfilling a lifetime ambition by seeing New Order in 2002, watching Jane's Addiction with a handful of others in 2003 while teenagers next to us booed because they were waiting for the Foo Fighters to come on. Batting a balloon around the crowd to The Flaming Lips in 2004. There are too many more to list here.
This year, I'd seen most of the acts before, so there was no magic moment.
Has the event passed this oldie by, or was it a particularly tired BDO?
Asking a few friends, it seems it wasn't the best BDO ever. As usual, the ridiculous scheduling of acts had something to do with it. I would have loved to have seem The Grates and Airbourne - who were both scheduled at 11.30am. The same thing happened to The Darkness a few years ago.
Then there was the disappointment of seeing hype bands like Wolfmother - I just don't see what all the fuss is about.
Still, there's always next year. This rock dog ain't dead yet...

The next Becks?

Not that we're boastful parents (yeah, right), but our little lad is already developing some fantastic skills.
He can dribble a ball around a room - I kid you not. This morning he dribbled a shoe box across our bedroom like a mini Ronaldo before GOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLing said box between our bed and bedside table.
He can also throw a ball quite well - as in, not in any random direction, but it seems to go where he wants it to go.
His hand/eye coordination already seems really focused. And he's an expert walker.
I read somewhere that Tiger Woods' dad had him out swinging a club around when he was two or three or some ludicrously young age.
Maybe we need to set up a soccer net in the backyard and teach Ari to bend it like Beckham?

At Uncle Dean's house

On the shoulders of giants...

Party like it's 2006

How to celebrate our little boy's birthday?
After tossing around the idea of a huge picnic in a park, we settled on a small party at home with a few friends and family.
We're not quite sure how, but the "few friends and family" ultimately blew out to more than 30 people, who crammed into our house last Saturday for a feast of sausages, salad and cupcakes.
It was supposed to be held outside, of course, but the gods of precipitation were against us and it poured (and I mean bucketed) with rain for hours. In the end our little house resembled a nightclub.
But everyone had a great time, especially Ari, who skipped his afternoon nap to be passed around and doted on.
When it came time to sing happy birthday, we stuck a candle in a cupcake and presented it to our boy. After Daddy blew out the candle, he proceeded to tuck in and had pink icing all over him for the rest of the day. (I must clarify here that we wanted red icing, but it came out pink)
Every guest left with a polaroid of themselves with the birthday boy - thanks Aunty Lou for the nifty camera.