Just a quick blog to say I have had a really lovely mother's day today. Last night Doug and Jack went out shopping and surprised me with a big bunch of flowers when they came home. It was beautiful to hear them come through the door and Jack yell 'Mum, are you up the stairs? We have flowers for you mum!' When I came down he was holding the bunch (which was nearly as big as him) with a beaming smile on his face.

Jack has slept through the last 3 nights in a row by himself (a rare thing to date) so that put my day off to a great start. Jack then gave me two presents he had made at his childcare centers - a cardboard jewellery box with painted handprint and plastic necklace from one, and a painting and picture of him on a key ring from the other. I also received some new shoes and a book. Doug then made us all bacon and eggs for breakfast, and afterwards we had a lovely drive through the Dandenongs (with all the autumn colours) to visit the William Ricketts Sanctuary. It has lots of sculptures set in beautiful gardens, which Jack had great excitement in finding.

He was running a slight temperature, so he had a long sleep in the afternoon which allowed me to leisurely and completely read the Sunday paper (sometimes it takes me all week to get through), catch up on emails, and phone my own mum. He seemed to feel much better after his nap and was in a cheerful mood for the remainder of the day. I am now going to finish my day by reading a book in bed. All in all a very enjoyable, relaxed and peaceful mother's day (not quite perfect since Jack not fully well, but close enough!)

Posted by Al at 9:58 PM

Our visit to the William Ricketts Sanctuary

Posted by Doug at 7:40 PM

Tonight while Jack slept soundly, Al and I poured over news reports on the 2008 Budget. It was comforting to see that we were part of the nations hated wealthy.

The budget leaves us $2,800 a year worse off – the tax cuts swallowed up by the loss of childcare rebates. Or to put it another way, Al and I will need to earn around $5,000 more next financial year to stay at the same position we were this year. Double those figures when we have a second child, and you realise the budget cost us some serious money.

The sanctimonious government however indicated we did not need or deserve that money – so we should find moral comfort in its loss.

Speaking of a second child – the $5,000 baby bonus will require some creativeness to get. As we did with Jack, Al has been saving up her annual leave so that - in conjunction with her company’s generous maternity leave, she can use it while she is off work. It seems liked a responsible way of ensuring our budget wasn’t stretched too badly. Tonight it is apparent that we will be better off taking periods of unpaid leave in the 6 months after a birth.

And that is what gets me about all this – you are rewarded for earning less. All my life my father has wanted his children to do better than him, earn more money, have more options and be more financially comfortable. Al and I went to Uni, managed our careers and experiences, worked hard and in relatively stressful jobs, and got ourselves into a reasonable house, with reasonable cars, and a reasonably comfortable budget. What will I be telling Jack in the future? “Be careful with how much you earn. You are often better off earning less, so don’t stretch yourself too far. If you want to earn good money, make sure it is REALLY good. Oh – and if you do, keep quiet about it. Australian’s don’t like people who try to do well in life.”

Posted by Doug at 11:02 PM

One of the first articles we read last night on the budget stated “All of the Family Tax Benefit Part B payments - that includes the baby bonus and child-care benefits - will be means tested and capped at $150,000 a year. “

Today some of the articles we read had disappeared or been modified, and it now appears that the child-care tax rebates will not be means tested as first reported. It is thought of as workforce participation incentive – and not welfare. (Then again, the Baby bonus was considered a baby creating incentive initially, and is now suddenly classified as welfare.) Anyway – that obviously makes quite a difference, and instead of being thousands out of pocket, we should end up being about $1,000 better off next year.

That is a relief – not financially, but morally. It had seemed bizarre that you would in effect be punished for having a family while on a good income.

I remember my own Dad on budget nights when I was young – and how he would demand we keep quiet, and then how he would often be grumbling and in a very bad mood afterwards. I understand now. I hope Jack enjoys the blissful ignorance of youth for a lot longer.

Aunty Melissa stayed with us last night and through much of today, spending some quality time with Jack and attending his ready steady go class this morning. Jack was rather taken with her, calling her Aunty Liza and enthusiastically involved her in his play. I am really pleased with the efforts Jack’s Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles make when they are around him – he really seems to associate family with fun and good times, which I think is fantastic.

Posted by Doug at 10:38 PM

It has been quite an extraordinary week on the Jack sleeping front. He has slept through the night by himself four times, and only transferred to his mum very late (after 4am) twice. The only night he stayed with his human mattress for the majority was when Al fell asleep.

You never know however if this is the start of a new phase, or just a tantalising taste of how most other people live, which is about to be dashed by Jack getting overly stubborn again.

Posted by Doug at 7:53 AM

Another good sleeping night, with Jack only transferred to his mum at 6am. I know he is waking up at times during the night, because he pulls blankets up over himself at times.

On the down side he had an afternoon nap the last couple days, and hasn’t been dropping off to sleep until well after 9pm. He is a sly little boy – and uses lots of tricks to extend his awake time.

“How bout Dad read Jack a book?”

“Ok, but only one book – Jack needs to go to sleep.”

“How bout 10?”

“No – just one book”

“How bout 10, alright?”

“No – Dad said just one book”

“How bout 2?”

“No – just one book”

“How bout Dad plays cars with Jack?”

“No, Dad is going to read just one book”

“How bout play with parachute man?”

“Jack, do you want Dad to read this book or do you want to go to bed?”

“How bout Dad read that book”

“No, I am going to read this book”

“How bout that one”

“How about you go to bed?”

“NOooo. Dad read book”

“Ok. There once was a….”

Posted by Doug at 9:07 PM

 

Walking in the rain yesterday.

Posted by Doug at 11:42 PM

Yesterday while Al was reversing her car out of the garage, the window next to Jack started to do down. What followed next was a comic minute where almost every window in the car went up and down as Al tried to find the right switches. After thinking it might have been a sticking switch or a fault with the car (a rather common one for Ford), it proved to have a far simpler explanation. One of us had mistakenly deactivated the window child lock – so Jack was putting the window up and down using his foot on the door switch.

Posted by Doug at 9:27 AM

Building Train Tracks

Posted by Doug at 8:30 PM

Out of the blue he came up and said "You take photos of Jack, ok?"

Posted by Doug at 3:48 PM

I learnt today that Jack has an imaginary friend called Alwyn. The friend came up in conversation regularly, and the question “Where’s Alwyn gone?” was invariably followed by circuits of the house loudly calling for them.

I asked my mum tonight, but she indicated I never had an imaginary friend as I was growing up.

Jack appears to understand Alwyn is imaginary. When we asked Jack to describe them, we were told ‘he looks like a girl”. Allison has immediately leaped upon it as a new distraction method. Jack’s crying about not getting his way could be diverted into two laps of the house calling for Alwyn. I indicated I wasn’t entirely sure we should be encouraging it so actively.

Another first today – while I was speaking with Grandma C, Jack asked to talk to her. I held the phone to his ear like I normally do, but he told me “I hold it all by self.” And he did – perfectly.

Posted by Doug at 10:14 PM

I taught Jack how to say Tryannosaurus Rex the other night – and was surprised at how quickly he picked it, and several other dinosaur names up.

This morning Jack told us that he had a bad dream, and that a “Tryannosaurus Rex ate my hand off”. I guess he was trying to pat it…

Posted by Doug at 10:56 AM

It was our 12 year wedding anniversary today – which means we have been together for over 16 years. How quickly the time has flown. We had hoped for a peaceful and relaxed day – but it wasn’t to be. Jack was very out of sorts for most of it.

Posted by Doug at 10:08 PM

I’ve noticed Jack can lack a little perseverance, and tends to give up quickly on things that might be a little difficult. He’ll remark - “that’s a bit hard for Jack”, or “Daddy do that”. He seems to suddenly get very self conscious, and backs away from whatever task we were completing. Instead of just allowing this (which is historically what we would do), I have been recently encouraging him to return to the task, even if just for a few more steps.

The human mattress seems to be getting overly tired of being the human mattress. Even though we have had a great month on Jack’s sleeping front, he will still often require a long period cuddled up with his mum before he drops off to sleep. This time is often filled with Jack tossing and turning, asking for water, and pulling on Al’s hair.

While in hindsight there were valid reasons for Jack initially having difficulties sleeping, we could not have envisioned just how long, tiring and drawn out this whole process would be to get him sleeping the night by himself – and we are still not there.

Posted by Doug at 12:09 AM