melvania

Well, first off, the most obvious thing is breastfeeding. Washing, sterilising, mixing, and heating bottles of baby formula just sounds like too much work, especially in the middle of the night.

And on to solid food. I said I don't like the idea of buying mashed food for Caleb, and I still don't. I said I was going to prepare all his food myself. Well, I started that, and then I got sick of running the blender or food processor and having to wash the bits. Not to mention the fact Caleb likes to grab anything that comes toward his face, including the spoon, so the food gets thrown just about everywhere. Just really a lot of hassle I don't want to deal with.

So he's definitely interested in food now; he tries to grab stuff off our plates, mimics us chewing when we're eating, all that stuff. And he's eaten newspaper, so he understands what you're supposed to do with food. He's just an independent little one and wants to feed himself.

Fair enough. So I'm letting him feed himself. I give him a chunk of banana, he bites on one end and mashes the rest into the high chair tray/his fingers/his hair. I give him a (cooked) carrot stick, he bites on the end and mashes the rest, same as the banana. He seems to like both.

Next up is either broccoli, watermelon, or avocado (all of which are in the fridge at the moment). Got a sweet potato too, but I don't want to roast it when it's hot, so that can wait a while. Besides, can I really offer my baby something I can't remember if I've ever eaten myself?

The official name for this practice is Baby-led weaning. More about it here.

We're in another heat wave. It's supposed to last through the weekend.

So anyway, Caleb & I went shopping this morning. First we went to the RAA office to hand in some paperwork, then off to Parabanks to Big W to get cat food & cat litter. Oh, and Darrin says there's a bunch of redbacks in the shed, so I got a 3-pack of insect bombs too. And on my way out to the checkout, I passed the wallets, and I decided I'd finally better get a new one (since I've had to put tape on the coin section of mine so they don't fall out). And...um, yeah, that was it. There was a huge queue at the post office so I didn't go in there to get the stamp to send off my overseas voter registration papers.

And then off to Hollywood. Went into Woolworths, got a bunch of food. Went to the greengrocer, got a bunch of food. Went past the post office, they had a huge queue too, so we went to the car and came home.

If I hadn't had a baby with me, I would've also gone to the Meat on the run truck. But until he's walking I don't think I can manage taking him in there and carrying him AND his weight in meat out of the trailer and down the steps.

Days like this, I wish I knew someone who lived 5 minutes away who could come over and watch him while I do the shopping (or I could drop him off there). Problem is, everyone I know who fits that description is from Darrin's school, and guess what? They're all at work. And I'm definitely not putting him in a daycare centre (no offense to people who do, but it's just not my thing).

So till I work out a solution, he either goes with me during the week, or I wait till the weekend and go by myself when Darrin's home with him.

And I thought it would be HARD to make sure I blogged every day. But there's only two days left in November now, and it's really not been that difficult.

So I'm thinking of making it a permanent thing. Even if I just post a couple words like "I'm busy" if, like, I'm busy one day.

What do you guys all think?

Now that he's crawling and moving around a lot, sometimes when he wants you to pick him up, he'll crawl up to you, rock on hands & knees, and bash his head into your leg repeatedly. And he's not exactly gentle!

Yup, that's what I've done. I finally had enough procrastinating and making excuses and actually planted stuff in my dirt patch.

We have carrots, cauliflower, butternut pumpkin (squash), rockmelon (canteloupe), and spring onions (umm...shallots? The thin ones that aren't as oniony as most onions). Now I just have to remember to water them. Which is a pain at the moment since we're on water restrictions, and only allowed to use the garden hose for 3 hours one day a week. So it's a water from a jug for the rest of the week.

So it looks like most of Australia decided John Howard has been in government long enough (four terms as prime minister, uh, yeah, I think that's a bit long for anyone), because not only has the Liberal party lost their majority, Howard himself has lost his seat.

Now I'm off to cook some French toast...mmmm....

Three weeks after starting to officially crawl, he's now climbing. Up on the bed, down from the bed (we just have a mattress on the floor, so it's easy), up and down the step between the kitchen & dining room. And he's working really really hard on climbing up onto the couch too, having already climbed down from it once yesterday.

Today furniture, tomorrow the apricot tree....

And I miss out on voting in it by about six months....

This page explains Australia's preferential voting system. It's a bit different but it seems to work.

Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans.

It was a year ago today, at about 2:00 in the afternoon, that I first set foot in this house, and took a bunch of pictures, and went back to the school to show them to Darrin. And he basically said "If you like it, I'm happy" even though he hadn't seen it up close yet. So we met with the agent the next day and made our offer, and, well, you know the rest.

Yeah, it's been a good year.