A very busy Aussie Christmas as a family

Our first Christmas as a family has been very busy. We've met up with loads of friends over the festive period and have found that Jacob has turned into a turkey monster, enjoyed playing with his friends' presents and has been snotting over anything and everything he's come across!

Jacob has been very fortunate and had a few presents to open on Christmas morning. We'd received money from family leading up to Christmas Day and was fortunate to chose some of his presents. Also, before we left the UK Auntie Vida kindly gave Jacob a present before we left and it's a very cute Tigger outfit with matching hat. I can't wait for him to be big enough to wear it. He got a interactive table, a ball popping machine, an alphabet catepillar, a press and go train, a lovely set of Winne the Pooh books (we are looking forward to sitting down and reading with him), an Aussie 12 days of Christmas book, a muscle vest and little tiger toy to suck and cuddle. So thank you to everyone for all his lovely gifts.

We're off to visit Dave's brother Darran, Vicki, Hollie and Grace in New Zealand tomorrow for a week, so they'll be plenty more photos and stories to tell from our holiday.

Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year.

A special visit

I couldn't let the lead up to Christmas go by without Jacob having his first photo with Father Christmas. After several attemps on various days, we managed to make it today. He sat nicely with Santa and smiled for the camera.

Busy lead up to Christmas Day

Dave, Jacob and I have been fortunate in having several invitations for coffees, meals and general get togethers over the next few days and have been nicely surprised by the amount of friends we have made here over the last 12 months. Christmas Day for example we are out for breakfast, lunch and early evening - not too sure when we're going to get time to open our presents!!!! But no worries, we'll make time and there will be photos of Jacob opening his first Christmas presents.

A surprise day off

Dave had Friday off and it was such a nice treat for me. I was pretty tired from looking after Jacob for the last few days and we also kept waking each other during the night, which didn't help. Dave was great. Friday morning Dave got up with Jacob and left me in bed for an extra hour. By the time I was up and showered, Dave had fed him, changed his nappy and got him ready to go out. All I needed to do was give him his extra 'special' feed.

We had decided to hit the shops for one last round of gift shopping and also thought we'd get Jacob weighed and measured too. 3 hours later we were returning back home! It wasn't as hectic and mad as it is in the UK but busy enough for us. We were happy to have finally finished the gift shopping but I now have the task of wrapping everything up - oh what fun!

Jacob got weighed and measured. He has grown 3 cms in two months and is now up to 72 cm long. 20 cms longer than when he was first born but has not put any weight on. He weighs 7.7 kg. We are now in the process of trying to wean him onto formula to try and help him to put some weight on. This is going to be a very long process as he seems to prefer his tried and tested milk of nearly 10 months. We know it's because he's so mobile but could do with a little weight going on now and again.

Coffs Harbour

Our trip to Coffs Harbour was great. Unfortunately Kate was struck by the "Coffs Curse" once again. On her previous trips there had been incidents of cut legs, colds, gastro (bad stomach bug) which hit the whole family and some ended up in hospital! and this time, an old neck injury resurfaced and she was in loads of pain. Three visits to the chiropractor and it seemed a whole lot better.

Jacob and I were made to feel very welcome by Kate's father and wife and even though Jacob didn't always want to sleep in the evening, they didn't seem too bothered by his screaming. I think all the smiling he did during the day helped win them over.

We managed a visit to the Big Banana! I caught a glimpse of the ocean from there, tried a frozen banana with chocolate and of course we had a group photo took in front of the Big Banana (photo to be posted when Kate comes back from her trip with the in laws).

Jacob and Ben got on really well, played nicely all of the time and shared mutual interests in the exercise ball, the door and the two steps from one level to the other. Jacob helped to teach Ben to crawl on his knees and hands, instead of pulling himself round commando style and on the last morning Ben also managed to pull himself up when no one was looking - well done Ben.

It was a long drive there and back but was made easier by the good company we were with. A huge thank you to Kate for inviting us along and hope we didn't annoy her too much!

Nelson Bay

Our dear friends Tracey, Ant & Ciara have taken off to Nelson Bay for their holidays, and with it being on our doorstep (1 hour drive) we thought we'd gatecrash! I booked us in to a hotel on the Saturday night and we drove up Saturday morning. Considering I came down with a cold, I thought we did well.

First of all it was a dip in the bay at Little Beach. We got told we missed out on the dolphins the day before but there was plenty of pelicans to make up for it and whilst swimming saw a jelly fish, several fish and Tracey kept saying something was touching her ankle - some seaweed! Dave had a go on Ant's surf ski and Jacob had a play in the water too. We had to give him a rinse afterwards and used their outside sink! Jacob loved it.

After getting provisions for the evening, we had a bbq round at the Martin's cabin and a nice evening overlooking Little Beach and watching various birds flying around.

Saturday night Jacob decided he didn't want to sleep in his Kindacot and preferred to snuggle up to his parents in their big bed. Dave got the feet end and I got the head end. It was a horrible night's sleep and hope that this doesn't happen too often as we would love to go away more often.

We met up with the Martin family again on Sunday for more time in the ocean (Ant saved me from getting dumped in a big wave by pulling me in - thank you Ant), playing on the sand and a fish and chip lunch. When they got the card game out, we knew it was getting close to returning back to Newcastle. I got beginner's luck and won 3 games!

Again a lovely weekend and a busy week ahead of us.

Stormy weather, a busy Friday and kind invitation

Over the last couple of weeks we've had quite changeable weather. It can hot and sunny one day and then muggy and stormy the next. We have been lucky in Newcastle as most of the storms have passed by with only a small dumping of rain and not too much damage. After one storm late afternoon, the sky looked great and I couldn't resist a photo.

On Friday Jacob and I met up with our friends Kate and Ben & Paul and Alfie at the canoe pool. The boys had a great time in the pool, splashing, playing with sand and Jacob wasn't too embarrassed that mummy put his swimmers on the wrong way round!

Alfie, Jacob and Ben having a great time



Jacob had fun splashing as usual but got cold pretty quickly. Kate also asked us if we would a few days in Coffs Harbour. After checking with Dave we said yes to the kind invitation and will be heading off to Coffs on Tuesday 17th December. Kate wants to visit her brother and father before Christmas Day and with it being in such a great location thought that I would like to join them. I'll update the blog on our return.


Also on Friday we went to the Carols by Candlelight concert in King Edward Park. It was pretty busy by the time we got there and met with friends Susanne, Darren and Oskar. It was more a concert than carols to join in to but the atmosphere was great and has made me feel a little more like Christmas. Jacob slept through the whole thing, including the fireworks at the end of the evening!

I decided to play around with taking the photos - hope it doesn't look too bad.

The Allen & Martin Family trip to Port Macquarie

Seaplane Quickie

At the weekend, we went to Port Macquarie with our good friends Tracey, Ant and Ciara. Jacob and I went on Thursday afternoon with them so I could babysit Ciara on Friday afternoon.

We had a great time, the children were really good and I went for a little walk with Ciara in her stroller and Jacob in a baby carrier. He had a great time, helped me to push Ciara and kept looking at her through the little window at the top. We even managed to have a little swing before returning to the apartment. Feeding them both at the same time was fun! Ciara likes her food quickly and is ready for each spoon full. Jacob likes to take his time and hardly opens his mouth for the next spoon. But it all went well in the end and both children were fed when Teaps and Ant returned back.

Dave joined us on the Friday evening and we had a lovely meal at the cafe joined to the apartment block.

Saturday was a great day, I couldn't ask for any more fun. First of all it was up for a walk and breakfast. We met the Martins in the town area and tucked into bacon and eggs. A little walk around the market and play on the swings and it was time to return for a swim in the ocean BUT first a little trip on the seaplane was required.

I've always wanted to go on a seaplane and it was great fun. I don't think a long trip would be so enjoyable as it was really noisy but I loved it.

After the trip we then headed back for our dip in the ocean, which was a little cold but quite enjoyable. In the afternoon we walked up to the only koala hospital in the world and walked round looking at the rescued koalas. Very cute as always and there was a kookaburra too. Walking back Dave saw a hole in the ground with a web in it - a funnel web spider was probably lurking inside ready to bite one of us!!!

Again, a good meal out in the evening followed by a walk in the morning that found us caught in some heavy rain and we all got rather wet. Great weekend and looking forward to the next time we go away.