New baby photos

I'm still working on neatening up the immediately post-birth photos (a little too much of my bare flesh in most of them!). Here is Ginger Ninja having his first hold straight after we arrived home from the birth centre. Ginger Ninja bought the beautiful booties because he wanted to get something "practical" for the new baby, while the other children bought soft toys.

Unfortunately, we had a scare. Later in the afternoon the baby wasn't able to dislodge some mucous and turned blue and choked. It was very scary. He's been possetting and throwing up a lot, so we've taken it in shifts to stay up with him - well, by staying up, I mean he sleeps and we stay up!

Special thanks to Auntie C who must have anticipated our needs - I thought we'd only need a couple of 000 outfits, but with all the vomitting we've already exhausted my supplies of 000 gear and bunny rugs!

Possum having his first hold. Usually the children are nursing their babies a little earlier, but with the choking episode we've been a little cautious.

Grandma E has been wonderful. She drove down Friday night just in time to be here to help out while I was in labour Saturday morning, then she followed us to the birth centre an hour later to bring the children to meet the baby!

Meeting baby brother Andrew!

Sorry I don't have a clearer shot of Andrew (we think!), but here he is being "discovered" by his big brothers and sisters. He's now 5 hours old, home and nursing like a champ!

How big can it get?!

It just keeps growing! I keep reassuring myself that what goes up must come down, but I'm hoping it'll stop going up quite so fast! I think I'm about 40w now, but the official due date isn't for 3 days yet. I just FEEL overdue!

Ironbark pumpkin

Fresh from the garden is this speciman of ironbark pumpkin, lovingly watered and nurtured. Of course, it took me a while to realise that "ironbark" would have implications for cooking...next season, I'm growing butternuts!

To use this monster, I had to bake it in a slow oven for an hour until it was soft enough to cut open, deseed, and peel. We used it in a vegetarian lasagne, several batches of soup, and I froze several serves of pumpkin for roasting.

Trying not to be superstitious...

But look at the size of the egg Ginger Ninja found in the henhouse today! I'm trying hard not to compare it to my enormous belly and the fact that I'm fast approaching my longest gestation time with no real signs of any impending labour...

It weighs in at 107gm on my Tupperware digital scales.

Chef or washerwoman?

You decide! For some reason, Ginger Rose decided to get dressed up in Briar Rose's shower cap. Bizarrely appropriate for baking, I thought ;).

Pop star!

Briar Rose was invited to a "Come as your favourite pop star" party. As we don't have favourite popstars (well, not ones that we'd dress an 8yo up as!) we chose a generic model!

Knitting for baby

I like to knit something new for each baby, and here is this baby's addition to the collection! It's a simple garter stitch but I just couldn't resist the softness of the wool. I have just enough wool left over to knit a simple jumper in blue with green contrast for next winter.

I wasn't able to get enough of the neutral colour to continue the stripes as suggested by the pattern, so switched to a bolder stripe, which I think I prefer.

Ginger Rose turns 3!

We held a surprise family birthday party for Ginger Rose - she LOVES balloons and party hats, and with 3 siblings to celebrate with her we had exactly the recommended number of party participants (child's age + 1).

She had been practicing singing happy birthday and blowing out candles, and was very excited to get to try it out for real!

The other children made a throne for her to open presents on. She LOVED all her presents, especially the books and clothes from her cousin in the UK! Mr Pusskins has been a favourite bedtime story!