ladies in waiting

enroute to the movies!

Every Wednesday the Greater Union theatre near us offers a Babe in Arms movie session. Oh boy is it good! I love love love going to the movies and thought visits would be scarce now we have a kiddo so when I heard about these I jumped for joy! I've been several times with a few of my baby mama friends and its grande! There is usually a few other mamas in the session and they turn the volume up a little so you can hear over the baby cries- hilarious! Sometimes its like a domino effect one babe starts crying then they all cry, but really they are all so well behaved! Oh, did I mention its only $8.50?

This week we went and saw Bridesmaids...um SO funny! I had to put my hand over my mouth to stop cracking up so I wouldn't wake Tallulah who slept through the whole movie (hurrah!) Kristen Wiig is one funny lady. Its a good one!

Hope everyone is having a super weekend!

scaredy-cat

Um, I'm not whats happened to our tough-nut of a daughter but she has got all sensitive on us! She used to go down for her naps and I could make as much noise as possible- vacuum, bang around in the kitchen and what-not. But recently she has been bursting into tears (when she is awake) if I use the vacuum cleaner, the blender or my hair dryer! Eeeeeeek I really need my hairdryer! I have been turning the music up really loud and then sneaking off to dry my hair...haha! What is going on? I hope she grows out of this stage, though if there is an excuse not to vacuum I'll take that...HAHA!

liquid diet

playing with her Ikea felt food toys!

no I won't eat real food face...

We've been doing (hahaha failing) the solid food thing for almost 2 months and Tallulah doesn't want a bar of it. We've tried all different types of fruit and vegetables as well as chicken, beef and rice cereal. She has like the smallest spoonful then refuses to open her mouth for any more. She is partial to sucking on pieces of finger food but I am dead scared of choking! She is loving the boob though and still won't have a bar of the bottle, however does enjoy drinking water out of a sippy cup! Crazy kiddo!

I've done some research and talked to my health nurse and doctor and they all say don't worry. So I'm trying not too. The only thing is I want to wean her at 12 months and I am worried that she is almost 8 months and it doesn't look like she is going to give the boob up easily, then I worry if she keeps this no food thing up is she going to lose weight which she can't because she is already small. Oh yeah and I've tried formula in the sippy cup and she looks at me like I'm stupid. haha

I am trying really hard not to stress, I am sure she will eat food when she is good and ready. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: So, isn't this always the way...you put something out there that you were worrying/stressing about and then KAPOW its all changes and you wonder why you were loosing sleep over it. Today and tonight Tallulah decided to chow down on vegetable soup, that twice and not just a teaspoon it was a small bowl. HURRAH! I think the food thing is on like Donkey Kong! Babies are hilarious!

likeminded

Tallulah and some of her buddies! (this was REALLY hard to capture as T is the squirmy one of the group!)

Do you have a mum's group? I do and I love love them and not actually sure what I would do without them! I mentioned in a previous post that I actually haven't met as many great new people than I have in the last 6 months! We even have a stay-at-home dad in our group! We meet weekly in our suburb and you can find us at pub or one of our houses or a cafe. I look forward to Tuesdays as I know I going to spend the day hanging out with lovely ladies (and man) and gossip. We all tend to get a little hypo as we drink copulas amounts of coffee and talk non-stop. Its kinda funny! Our little babes LOVE it! I think they enjoy hearing their mamas converse and actually focus on something other than them!

Its really nice to have a bunch of friends who you can bounce baby ideas/problems/experiences with and won't get too bored with you rambling on about sleeping/breastfeeding/milestones. Its also really cute to see the babes together and how different and individual each baby is. Tallulah is the oldest by 4 days but she is the most active/handful/hypo of the bunch! haha everyone just thinks she is just getting me back for ignoring her for 9 months...

The other day we were out at a local bar/cafe and this random lady came up to our group and congratulated us for all being out with our babies and she said it was so nice to see. Really? I wouldn't have thought it was that odd to see 6 ladies with babies enjoying lunch out at a bar in 2011. How boring to think that there was a generation that thought if you had a baby you had to stay at home. It also made me realise I am super lucky to have this great group of mums. I hope our little babies are friends for life!

sunday (more like rainday!)

 playground!

haha 

 awesome swing (well I think its super!)

Rad Library in Hyde Park

Yesterday we braved the grey skies and went on a stroll to Hyde Park to check out this swing that I have been dying to put Tallulah on. Boy, it is one popular swing I tell you as I have tried two different times to try it out and there is always a kiddo on it and some waiting! We got some take-away asian bakery goodies (yum!) and sat on a bench to eat them and waited till the swing was free. 1/2 an hour later we got our turn and Tallulah was like 'Meh, whatevs' haha hilarious!

It was nice to get out and about! On our way home we discovered this random 'Rad Library' set up in the park. Basically its there every Sunday and you can borrow hard-to-come by books and return them the following week! Such a super cute idea and I loved the randomness of it all! Yay for weekends!

West vs East

Source: thecolorsofmymind.tumblr.com via SarahAyars on Pinterest

Last year we had a plan. We were going to travel around Europe and the USA and our last destination on our itinerary was Melbourne. We were going to stay for 4 nights, visit friends, drink coffee & wine and seriously ask ourselves could we live here? Then we had a baby in Tokyo and of course our plans changed. We decided to return to Perth for the comfort of familiarity and the support of family and regroup. Its been a mix bag.

The downside to living in Perth is that in the last 12 months there was a mass exodus in our group of friends. We have a really great bunch of friends. Proper close friends you can talk crap and drink wine with but also call them in a crisis, people I love. They have scattered themselves all over the world from London to Singapore to Broome to Melbourne. So Perth for us at the moment is a little weird. Its the city that both Ross and I grew up in but it feels foreign and we both have the feeling that perhaps its time to move on. We both are feeling that there is maybe more out there both career and lifestyle wise and it might be time to pack up and explore.

On the flipside, since we got back from Tokyo we have met more new people than ever before. Mainly because we have a baby. These new friends are amazing. They are on the same page as us, not just the baby page but you know when you meet people who from your tribe? We also have our family here. They are also amazing. I never grew up with Grandparents or extended family as they live in NSW & Victoria, it was always just my Dad, Mum, brother and me. I never really got to know my Grandparents that much as we only ever saw them a handful of times before they passed away. Ross grew up with Grandparents who are still in our lives now and its fabulous. I look at Ross' family and they are all so close, they celebrate everyones birthdays with massive get-togethers, their Christmases are magic and its kind of something I want Tallulah to experience. Its the kind of family I always wanted when I was a kid.

But then we start to thinking if we don't go and live somewhere different now while Tallulah is still little we may never leave. This scares me. 18-year-old Renee was always going to move to Melbourne but I went to uni, then travelled, then started a jewellery label, then decided to study again, then I opened a shop in Perth and juggled an amazing job working for Perth Fashion Festival. Owning my own business meant Perth and I were in a committed relationship. But then last June my business partner and I decided to sell and we waved goodbye to our little shop. It was all types of sad and excitement. But suddenly Ross and I had no ties to Perth and the world became our oyster. 

We still feel the world is our oyster and we have always said that our dreams don't have to over since becoming parents. Its just certain things have become more important now we have a kiddo! Since we have been back in Perth we have had what seems a million conversations (mostly over wine, I swear I have wine on the brain!) about what our next step should be. It seems to change weekly, sometimes daily but what we are scheming at the moment feels pretty spot on. 

Our lease is up early next year and we are planning to pack up our house (again!) and go on a 6 week holiday to the USA. Then on our return to Perth move in with the Parentals (again!) and explore career options in both Perth and Melbourne and just see what is on offer and then go from there.

But you know what, we had grand plans before and the most unexpected (and amazing!) thing happened to us and everything changed so I guess I have learnt that planning is super fun but sometimes plans choose you which is why we are just going to see what happens! Good plan, I think! 

new faves

We have some new favourite toys in the house at the moment. I use the term 'toys' rather loosely haha! What is it with simple things like a piece of newspaper, a shoelace or sunglasses and babies?! We buy/get given a bunch of super cute toys and she wants to play with a shoelace? Crazy kiddo! These are currently her faves (there are a few actual toys she enjoys!)

Playing Baby Banger (she is obsessed with our laptop!) which is a game where she bangs the keyboard and coloured shapes appear with funny noises.

Pierre- My mum knitted Tallulah this hilarious large doll monster, Magnetic rainbow block set- she loves knocking them down and is fascinated with the little head which sits on top and her Alimrose Cat Squeaker

Our TV remote, haha cheeky baby isn't actually allowed to play with it but does anyways! I should just give her one with no batteries!

P.S; Thanks for all your lovely comments on my previous post! Mr Jerkface neighbour will not get to me, I promise!

everybody needs good neighbours

So, something happened this morning which really go my goat...it was about 9:30am and I was getting Tallulah dressed for the day which tends to be a struggle as she hates having tops put over her head. She was screaming a little as she does everyday when suddenly a heard thump, thump thump on our roof and someone shout Shut Up! ummmm.....thanks that really helped my situation. The neighbours upstairs obviously didn't like the baby noise.

We live in an apartment, its a 1930's one so its build really well and sturdy. We hear the guys upstairs all the time, its not that annoying but yeah sometimes their vacuuming and walking around in heeled boots wakes Tallulah up, but hey we live in Mount Lawley and in an apartment and thats kind of just what you'd expect when you live in a suburb like this!

We sometimes hear one of our other neighbours play some type of shoot-them-up computer games which is super loud till 2am, surely this is more annoying and controllable than a baby crying?

The thumping had happened before and I thought I was just paranoid but obviously not. So I wrote them an email (yeah I actually know one of them, I'm pretty sure it was his housemate though!) and just told him it wasn't really cool and kind of immature. Ballsy, I know!

Today was the first time I doubted living inner-city in an apartment. I love love love the lifestyle we have here and I love all the lovely people I've met in our suburb. I love living walking distance to everything a girl may need but I'm considering moving when our lease is up, to maybe a house/town house with a little courtyard. I've never wanted a little patch of green as much as now I have a kiddo. Though I refuse to live in 'the burbs', this lady needs good coffee nearby! However I kind of get now why parents want a little bit of space between them and their neighbours. Kids are noisy though its uncontrollable noise but still a type of noise people without kids don't really understand.

I guess we don't all get to live on Ramsay Street do we? Ok, rant over! haha

LOL

Has anyone read Tina Fey's new book Bossypants? I am half way through it and it is laugh out loud funny! This is the first book I've read since become a mama that means the first book I have read in 7 months. That is frightening! I probably would have finished it by now but someone called Ross stole it from me and hogged it for 4 days and finished it before me! Sneaky! Hopefully I will get a few hours to myself over the weekend to finish it! She is one funny lady!

granny nan pop gram nanna gramps

So, what does your mum and dad liked to be called by your babies? Have they already chosen names or are they going to let their grandbabies make the decision? Ross' parents were already grandparents so they were already Grandma and Grandpa. My mum couldn't really make up her mind what she wanted Tallulah to call her. First is was Nan as that is what we called her mum, then it was Gram but that didn't really feel right either. Then Ross and I were reading the Sunday paper a while back and there were all these stylish Perth grandmas who weren't called Grandma by their grandkids they were called things like Lala, Lola and Alannah MacTiernan was called Dema which is Nyoongah for Grandma which we thought was so super and it got us thinking.

My mums family call her Jo however this is not her real name. Legend has it that when she was born she looked like a boy and a neghbour called her Jo and it stuck. When I was little my brother and I used to get so confused when one of her sisters would call and ask for Jo, we would reply that Jo doesn't live here! haha so funny! So it was decided Tallulah would be in on it and call my mum Jo. I love it, its so perfect!

mini break

bakery treats and scratchies!

 mister peacock

my awesome letters in our scrabble game

climbing, exploring, falling

family fun

baileys on the verandah

ross & t

mister quokka

Over the weekend we took our first family mini-break (well, our first Australian mini-break!) for my Mum's birthday! We packed our bags and jumped on a ferry enroute to Rottnest! I hadn't been to Rottnest since in over 10 years- wowee! To those who aren't familiar with the island that is Rottnest, its a 25 minute ferry ride from Perth and its this super chilled island of cabins and camping with no cars, a great bakery, a crappy pub (well, we think its crap! haha) and these funny little rat-mini-kangaroo rodents called Quokkas! Its a fun place for kids, family oh and school leavers (this happens in October when its taken over by rowdy teens, please avoid its hideous!) It's usually chokkas in the summer months as its B-L-I-S-S with lots of swimming and lazying around on the beach. However, it is equally delighful in the cooler months cozied up near the fire and drinking red wine. Yay.

Well, Tallulah got a massive kick out of the ferry ride, it was super choppy so the boat was a-rocking and Tallulah was shrieking with glee- it was so darn cute! She actually was a super delight the whole weekend, she got lots of cuddles from her Jo (her grandma-I'll blog about this later!), she crawled, stood and fell over and even got a little souvenir a lovely bruise on her forehead!

We, adults also had a super great time, we played board games, drank Baileys on the verandah, took long walks and cooked delicious food. It was exactly what I needed just to chill with my favourite people in all the land. Yay.

hello tiny moving human

really dodge iphone video of crawling kiddo

Yes, that is my baby standing....

um, so I'm not sure what got into Tallulah this last week...she is hitting those milestone like they are going out of fashion. For about a month or so she has been getting up on her knees and rocking and a couple of weeks ago she started to take two crawling steps then belly flop so we decided to completely baby-proof our house. We did the whole she-bang- corners, baby-gates, removal of all my cute vintage knick-nacs and a bit of a rearrange of furniture! And, yes I am super glad we did this because she can now do the following;

- Stand up in her cot...
- Full-blown crawl
- Sit up by herself
- Pull herself up onto EVERYTHING (especially the TV cabinet!)

She is growing up too fast for my liking! This whole climbing up onto things and pulling herself up onto things means lots of falling, stacking and crying. Its really hard the first couple of times because I was so used to her being my little newborn fragile baby. I have now toughened up and stopped gasping every time she falls over! She is one tough nut.

There has been bets placed for when she will be walking! Ross says 81/2 months, I say 91/2 months and my mum says 10 months! Eeeeeek this is frightening! I need to press pause!

Hope everyone has a super weekend, we're off to Rottnest!