When I was young, one of my favourite times of year was back to school. Yes, I know. FREAK. But the start of school meant virgin notebooks. I loved those pristine, lined pages and unscuffed notebook covers. Those first few days of school, my note-taking would be meticulously neat with the pen selection being paramount – the ink had to run smoothly without smudging or transferring through the paper to the other side. Hm. If Hamish turns out to be a weird kid… you know who to blame.

Now for my past birthday, Duncan bought me a Moleskine. Moleskine are not cheap notebooks. And as such they cannot be used for such mundane tasks as beside-the-phone-scribble-paper. And therein lies the problem. What to use it for? Whatever I decide, the purpose needs to be worthy. It needs to be something I can do in an artistic and attractive manner. (Think Jamie Oliver’s notebook in his series “Jamie at Home”.) And once the topic has been decided, then comes the decision of the pen or pens to be used to achieve the desired effect, while not running and leaving blotches everywhere. (In case that is actually the effect I’m after.)

Well my birthday was over 3 weeks ago now and I’m still no closer to deciding…

This one is for you Alison. He has hands! He can grab things! Soon he will learn he has a mouth! And the things he grabs can go in his mouth!

OK so apparently the 24th of May I was really bored. Cuz here is yet another video of Hamish. I think this must have been the first time he showed any interest in the mobile above his cot. This is exciting because it allowed me 10 to 15 minutes to do what I wanted to do. As long as I kept rushing back to his bedroom to re-wind the mobile…

One day we went a little overboard with the video-ing. I can’t remember if it’s because all of a sudden he was doing all these new things, or if all of a sudden we decided we should be documenting things, or maybe I was just looking for something to do. Anyway, after a feed, Hamish’s arms would take on a life of their own. I’m not sure he was aware of what he was doing. When he was really little, it was very much like he was conducting an orchestra. That evolved into a form of martial arts. Watch this with the song “Kung Fu Fighting” running in your head. (I was too lazy to add the track to the video.)

At about 12 seconds, look out for the stretch. He loves a good stretch.

A cinematographer, I am not. But with the grandparents (and aunts/uncles/cousins) 000s of kilometres away in either direction, these amateurish videos are a way of me keeping them up to date with Hamish’s progress. Expect more to come.

Before Hamish (henceforth known as BH), I swore I’d never turn my blog into a place where I recounted his every move from first smile to poop stories that are humourous only to his parents. Well after 8 weeks I have come to the realisation that I need some sort of creative outlet or I will go mad. And as I am doing little else but looking after Hamish, you will have to put up with more than expected posts about him.

Yesterday was the first day that we were alone – Duncan was working in the city. The day didn’t start wonderfully, with Hamish waking at 4:30. And when I went and picked him up, he puked down my cleavage. Most of the day was spent trying to get him to sleep and stop crying. Though we had a few successes – taking the dog for a walk, getting the laundry of the line (small things…) – the day was trying enough to require a small glass of wine. And yes I am breastfeeding.

As trying as yesterday was though, all is forgiven today as he slept through the night to 5:15 and is currently sleeping soundly in my arms. (This was typed one-handed – something I’m becoming increasingly proficient at.)

I have learned an awful lot from my son these last 5 weeks. (Still feels odd to call someone “my son”…) Unfortunately I don’t know if these learnings are transferable to another baby, if they are relevant only to boys, or specific only to Hamish:

• Do not trust a quiet baby on a change table. Urine to the face or faeces all over the change table cloth is forthcoming.
• A baby is never happier than when they have just farted or burped. Upon reflection, that’s probably a boy thing, and not even limited to baby boys.
• You think babies don’t know what you are saying. But they do. As soon as you profess out loud that yours is an angel, they will become the devil incarnate.
• As tired or cranky as you are, all it takes is a smile from your baby and the sun will shine once more.
• I had plans for my maternity leave. Lots of items on my to do list that have been sitting there for a while, waiting for attention. Hamish doesn’t seem to care. “Plans? You have plans? Well let me just change them for you.” If I get one thing done a day, it’s been a good day.
• Following on the last, babies are not predictable or logical. Give in to the natural chaos or go down in flames.
• Hamish is always the cutest baby.
• No matter how hard I am finding it, there is always another horror story to let me know how lucky I really am.
• Wake a sleeping baby if they are not feeding enough. If they have been screaming all morning and they are now sleeping when it is time to feed, ignore the nurse’s advice and let him sleep.

At birth

1 week old

2 weeks old

3 weeks old

4 weeks old

This past Christmas, Duncan and I made the trip back to Canada. I was there for a total of a month, and Duncan for the last 2 weeks. This was the first time that we had all been together as a family for Christmas since 2003 – even before Sam, Katy, Brooke and Autumn were on the scene. Sam decided it was therefore a good opportunity to get some family photos taken. She arranged it with her photographer friend Jenn Best. And so it happened, that a cool and blustery day, on the sea wall near my parent’s condo, we had our photoshoot.

I think you’ll agree that the photos are fantastic! The full set are password-protected, but Jenn very kindly put together a slideshow of some of the best.

Her: http://www.smh.com.au/world/exotic-pets-advocate-mauled-to-death-by-tiger-20100112-m3qc.html
this is called irony

Me: haha
no kidding
someone should give the article to alanis [morisette for those that are perhaps of a different generation]

Her: why?
does she keep tigers?
oh
irony
haahhaha
oh dear, that one deserves a blog post

Me: wow – could hear the wheels turning on that one

Friday, @urbanfoodmarket tweeted that he was conducting a blind tasting of grass-fed wagyu beef at his offices. They had three cuts – scotch fillet, sirloin and rump. He asked the twitterverse what we thought the ranking of each cut was. I replied with 1. rump, 2. sirloin and 3. scotch fillet – and I was correct! As a prize, @urbanfoodmarket offered me a free cut of each, which he delivered to my work today – in an esky I might add, which was much appreciated as I neglected to bring anything of my own.

So as to enjoy it at it’s freshest, we cooked up the rump tonight for dinner. We served it with organic zucchini from David Ross and organic corn from Jo Cremona – both delivered by Lettuce Deliver today. It was fan-tas-tic. The steak was bbq’d simply in some Montreal Steak seasoning, worcestershire and olive oil and had fabulous flavour. The corn and zucchini were very nice accompaniments.

Thanks @urbanfoodmarket!