Mother's Day

It is Mother's Day here in Australia today, my third with a child on the outside (Rowan was 5 weeks old on my first one). As he lay in my arms feeding to sleep during naptime this afternoon, I realised how lucky I am, and the journey that it took to conceive him.

It’s beginning to hit me again that even though we have a terrific toddler and my body carried him well as a foetus, deep down I doubt that my infertility is something that has gone away. Hearing lots of baby news from other people I know personally lately (not online) has left me feeling jaded and envious, rather than genuinely happy for my friends. And this is something venomous that I want to stop the spread of, before it overwhelms me and my way of thinking. The interesting part is that I can understand how some people are happy with one child, their one and only. I completely get it, Rowan is the centre of my world and part of me is reluctant to change that. To go through everything again and perhaps not be so lucky (in conception, pregnancy or a child’s development). But I know that we won’t know until it happens, that so many other people (myself included) falter on the precipice of change.

Reading this back in a year’s time, will I nod and stand by my thoughts? 

Will I smile and remember how it felt to be trying to balance my mind?

Or will I laugh and simply consider myself silly for being afraid to take the plunge?

Rowan Turns 2!

Happy 2nd birthday to our big TWO year-old boy. He was so excited for his party and said "After sleep it Rowie birthday. Eat a cake at party! . Sure enough, there was cake and plenty of festivities. :)

Here are some pictures of the birthday boy:

Rowan playing with his birthday present from us, a wooden stove/food set.

Singing Happy Birthday and getting excited about "Hip hip hooray!"

My first attempt ever at making a shaped cake (I was really pleased with it too!).

Receiving a present from one of his friends (my Mum is the blonde-haired woman in the background, Dad to the right of her)

Being doted on by my parents.

It was a great day (lots of organisation required, but a successful one)

Pretty much the only picture of Rowan playing all day, he was so fast!

Rowan at 23 Months Old

Just a quick few notes about Rowan at 23 months, next month will most likely be the last of the monthly developmental posts (as I originally started noting things down here for his baby book... which turned into the second year album also).

Rowan started rote-counting 1-10 this month, which surprised us as it happened out of nowhere (childcare, maybe?).

He is starting to incorporate more verbs and is getting more consistent with sentence syntax, eg:

"Mummy come go see Daddy"

"Rowie look at digger"

"Mummy stay home"

"Lay down milk on the bed" (a breastfeed)

Rowan likes to point out happy and sad faces on pictures in books, and is beginning to recognise these on people too.

The discovery of emotions is upon us, and not just happy and sad, but scared too. If something happens in a book or on TV, Rowan can often be heard saying "oh dear, oh dear!", "uh oh!" or having a cry (which was the case while reading the book Belinda, by Pamela Allen, recently).

There are more angry tantrums too, and more excitement. Emotions are up and down, with big extremes. He will get really excited when anticipating an event (sometimes meaning no nap!), and will tell you first thing in the morning about what is happening that day.

Current favourite foods: Rice Bubbles, sour cream, chocolate, hardboiled eggs (whites only), watermelon.

Rowan likes to have a say on the clothing and shoes he is wearing, and quite often packs a bag (without prompting) to take out and about. It usually contains a drink, a toy or two, and something random like a piece of paper from the floor). He'll put it around his neck or over one shoulder, very cute!

Water play is still a favourite pasttime.

I am so glad that most nap times since Rowan's birth have been taken
with him having a breastfeed to sleep. 23 months strong!

Pretend play and serving food with a toy library party set.

Feeding Daddy while out at lunch.

Kisses for Mummy on her birthday. :)

Next stop.... TWO!

Rowan at 22 Months Old

Typing "22 months" suddenly seems like a huge number (maybe it's all those 2s?), as if to say that Rowan's second year of life is rapidly coming to an end and soon he'll be in his THIRD year! Holy cow! :O

I'll be continuing these monthly developmental-type entries up until he turns 24 months (these entries form his second year scrapbook, and are really a record-keeping device for me, much like this blog was during my pregnancy). After that, I'm not sure what? I most likely won't be pregnant for a bit -- I fear that this blog has become a little too public for my liking, as I've shared its URL with family and friends during the course of pregnancy and Rowan's infant months, and am not sure who reads. Do I want friends and family to know of our next IVF journey if/when the time comes? (it would be so nice to have the opportunity to be private and secretive) I express myself through words (okay... and pictures) and always have, as a blogger for over 12 years it's just in my blood now, I can't imagine not leaving a legacy online.

Anyway... this blog is evolving again and who knows what this will become. Now onwards and upwards to Rowan's 22 month entry!

It has been a big month in terms of Rowan's language development. He has been exploring the concepts of "come" (ie, "Mummy come", "Rowie come Dada") and "in" ("in da car", "in da road", "in Rowie bed").We're hearing some pretty long sentences too, as Rowan learns more about using syntax correctly; a recent one was "Rowie door walk see Dada" (he wanted to go out the front door and walk outside to wait for Matt to come home from work). Another recent one was "Uh oh. Rowie flick yoghurt. Mummy clean up", which pretty much blew everything else out of the water.

With an explosion in language comes adult slip-ups, more than once we've said something inappropriate and Rowan's tried to imitate it and repeat it on occasion...oops!

Rowan's pretend play is coming along a bit too, he's beginning to use objects and toys for different purposes (such as sitting a giraffe on a ride-on toy and pushing it around), anything with buttons becomes a phone and a favourite game at the moment is pretending to talk to various family members on these 'phones'. Rowan will make eating sounds while pretending to eat his felt foods, and feeds them to us too! Anything involving throwing/kicking balls is always a winner too.

"Rowie sore foot" :(

This month Rowan had his first proper injury, he fell off our pedal bin onto the tiled kitchen floor and twisted/sprained his ankle. We ended up taking him to the doctor because he wasn't weight-bearing on it the day after the accident happened. It was strapped up for a couple of days while the swelling went down and it helped Rowan feel confident about walking on that foot again (he called that bandage a "sock"). Just thankful that he didn't do more damage, really!

Ready for his first day in the toddler room at childcare

Rowan started attending childcare two days per week this month (up from one day) and so far so good. He has transitioned into the toddler room and apparently he sleeps there... on a stretcher-type bed, and not a cot! How the carers manage to get him to do that is beyond me, but admittedly Rowan has been getting himself to sleep better these past couple of months - in fact, it's rare that he wakes during the night anymore, except for the occasional bad dream or if he is unwell or teething. Fingers crossed that this continues, as it's making for a better night's sleep for us all.

Happy as a pig in mud, dirt/sand/food face on a park playdate.

Rowan and I at the zoo earlier this month (I didn't realise how many
doors there were at the zoo until we took a toddler there...!)

Helping me bake cake. I gave Rowan the option of apple or chocolate, and he surprised me
by choosing apple)

Doing a dance for us!

Be still, my heart.

My Pregnancy Scrapbook [in Full]

I've made this post public for two reasons: 

1. To share with my family and friends who have listened to me talk about this project for a long time now; and

2. To inspire anyone who happens to find this post through search engines that there are many ways to document a pregnancy, and digital scrapbooking is one of them. :)

Just after Christmas, I finished working on my pregnancy scrapbook which had been over two years in the making. I taught myself digital scrapbooking when I was pregnant with Rowan so that I could undertake this project, and when I look back over my earlier layouts to the more recent ones in the book, I can really tell the difference. I thought about remaking a few of them before printing, but resisted the urge because I have memories associated with these earlier pages. So instead I tweaked the shadows and fixed up any glaring mistakes, and sent it all off for printing.

I printed with an Australian company called 123Cheese, as I had a coupon I'd bought earlier during 2012 with this purpose in mind. Basically, I got a $100+ project printed for $30, including postage/shipping. I was impressed with that, and had printed with the company before (photobooks, not digital scrapbooking projects) so I could vouch for their printing quality. Blurb are another printing company that I recommend, their quality is phenomenal but they are more expensive (you can search out coupons online pretty easily though, there are generally 15% coupons floating around; even up to 25% off before Christmas).

Anyway, back to the book... it was quite literally a labour of love and although I've shared pages here and there from it before, I've never posted it in its entirety before now. So without further ado, here are some pictures of the printed book itself and all week-by-week layouts. Lots of text (mainly for me to look back on, plenty of belly pictures and all the things I deemed important to tell at the time. I've had people ask me if I'd go to this much "effort" for subsequent pregnancies and I've said no, though I'd probably do a more abridged version if time allowed.

Some of the text/pictures might be difficult to make out, but that's due to the compression and resizing. In the printed book, everything looks crystal clear - even the thin journalling fonts. :)

The book itself; hardcover and linen-bound, printed in 12x12".
Hand for size comparision!

An example of layouts in the book (weeks 16-17)

The printing quality is exceptional, though a stitch-bound album would have been lovely,
glue-bound was only available from this company.

Following the week-by-week pages, I have his (lengthy) birth story, and a spread of 10 photographs of Rowan's first week in the world

ONTO THE ALBUM!

To view all pictures at a better size, click on one of them and it will take you to a full-windowed gallery (displaying bigger than in this post)

Inside front cover

Rowan at 21 Months

Rowan has been going through big changes since I last wrote a 'developmental' entry. Here's a little of what has been happening:

He was initially becoming frustrated with communication. It was obvious to us that Rowan was wanting to tell us more but he didn't really seem to know how. Perhaps this meant his speech wasn't keeping up with his brain. It resulted in a lot of toddler meltdowns up until just before Christmas, when he suddenly woke up one morning and was able to string 2-3 word sentences together (yes, it literally happened that fast...!). Our extended family commented on how his vocabulary suddenly expanded, and we were amazed too. We're hearing phrases such as "door open Mummy", "key door Rowie" and "food hot blow".

Rowan refers to himself as "Rowie" (it must be easier for him to say?) and goes between calling us Mama/Dada and Mummy/Daddy. He's learning new words every day (or so it seems at the moment).

A phrase we're hearing a lot is "Rowie do it!", and that means EVERYTHING. Rowan is wanting to be fiercely independent at the moment and we're trying to encourage safety and boundaries (as in gentle discipline) a lot more than in previous months. We know that he understands, there are plenty of toddler tantrums involved, and last night when he refused to settle down for milk or books before bed and instead wanted to open the door to the loungeroom, he was put to bed without the regular comforts. He howled/screamed for about two minutes before passing out cold and sleeping for 12 hours straight (and here I thought I'd traumatised the poor boy; it was me who was more affected!)

Rowan is interacting with books and television more lately, telling us "uh oh" when objects/people crash or fall over (for example). When the closing credits to a show are on, he tells you "buh bye" while waving. His sense of recognising brands is a little frightening to me - we don't shop a lot (as in non-grocery shopping), and I didn't think I had commercial TV stations on much in our house, but Rowan recognises ads for Target, Hungry Jacks and Big W.


Some of his recent favourites are:

Books - Too Many Pears (Jackie French) / There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Having a Birthday Party (Hazel Edwards) / anything from the Hairy Maclary series (Lynley Dodd).

TV - Peppa Pig, Giggle and Hoot.

Foods - Rice Bubbles, blackberries, strawberries, canned peaches and pears (but won't touch fresh peaches this year!), toast, hard-boiled egg (only the white, egg yolk is the only food he physically gags himself with).

Phrases - "Rowie do it" / "Ohhhh yeah!" / "Mama car beep beep".


After Rowan managed to do a small poo on the toilet by himself the other day (!!!), I decided a teachable moment might be upon us and purchased a seat insert for our toilet. Proudly Rowan walked with the seat around the shops (it has a carry handle) and told the cashier “Rowie poo poo”, which was just as hilarious as it was sweet! :D

We haven’t started the real learning yet, but Rowan’s definitely making the connection between the toilet and how you use it. I don’t want to make a big deal of it, as I’m guessing he’s still a bit young yet and though he has more control over his bladder/bowels than what he used to a couple of months ago, I’m not expecting anything. Since the toilet seat purchase, he’s been getting into the novelty of the seat, and is watching us both very intently when we use the toilet, commenting a lot on what he sees (ie, “paper dry dry” and “Ohhhh.... Mama poo. BIG!”). Alas, life with a toddler. Check in your privacy forever. ;)

Our Christmases

We celebrated Christmas with my husband's family interstate this year (we do alternate years in Melbourne and Hobart, especially important now given that grandchildren are involved!), and it was a busy, whirlwind of an adventure filled with family, food and time spent in the inflatable pool that Rowan received. He was a tad overstimulated on the day, not thinking much of opening presents (though exclaiming with joy about clothing with tags on it!) and taking a couple of bites of Christmas lunch before turning it away and asking for strawberries. Very typical Rowan. 

Here are some pictures from our Christmases (the week before we celebrated with my family, who live in Melbourne)

Rowan with my Mum (his Nana)

He served himself up Christmas dinner with my family and was ever so proud!
(biscuits and dip) Needless to say, a plate of 'proper' dinner was also added to his tray.

He was absolutely ecstatic about getting his very own police car
(Rowan had been trying out the buttons on one for several weeks at a shop apparently)

Playing peekaboo games with my Dad.

This picture (and the ones following) were from our Hobart Christmas.
Rowan received an electric car which he had fun 'driving' all around the decking.

Bath time adventures (we don't have a bath at home, so this was a novelty)

Fun in the sun, in the pool. :)

Walking with Daddy on Christmas Eve in Richmond.

Drinking water out of a goblet on Christmas Day (before abandoning his dinner in favour of strawberries).

A family picture, also taken on Christmas Day.

Plane-spotting before it was time to leave Hobart.