Emma snr bday, dad's first solid pooh nappy and a few bits n bobs

Big Emma, in age only, turned 20.
We had ourselves a lil party to celebrate - Cath baked a cake.... mmmm, cake..... and then we ate it. The following photos are as much of the cake as of Emma.



In case you're wondering, the 18 on the cake makes sense cos it's flanked by two other candles - 20 candls would have just made a mess!

Emma considers her cake, no doubt "tidying it up" as they do in the Heany house. Cath steals a piece.

That night we headed out for supper at.... I forget.


Uncle Terry and Jane.

The fam.

And Cath and I with Renate darling. What the hell is that on your lip Alan, you ask? Perhaps you need a closer look...

Have you seen this man? He is armed and very funny (to look at).

Okay, long story short: it was Mo-vember. Mo being short for moustache. One month, no shaving your mo. For charity supposedly. You shave, you pay up.

I hated it, couldn't wait for 1 december.


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A few interesting articles....
I've put these ones in as top quality pics so you can click on em and see em much better.
The middle one isn't an article actually, it's just a pic of the world record attempt at my local beach, Muizenberg, for most surfers on a wave at the same time.

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Bathing at the V house. At thi stage we weren't living there so bathing Emma was a real event. Granny helps out. The facecloth isn't to preserve Emma's dignity, Emma just loves a warm, wet facecloth over her.

Grannies ensure they get their hug quota.

This was my first (solid) pooh nappy.
And it was not pleasant. Cath captured the moment on camera but you can't capture that smell.
You see, you get used to nappies - nice milk nappies which, quite frankly, smell like the milk that goes in to the top end.
Then your baby starts eating solids and everything changes. Dear God!

Trevor turns 21, Emma and the bloody cat

The little rat that used to crawl around my ankles has turned 21.
Can you bloody believe it?

He did a me and had his 21st in the church hall. Everybody who is anybody was there.

Here he is with Aimee, his shwing...

Speaking of shwing....

Cath was there too.

MC Emma: Wot u got der? Something to eat? Gimmie.

I put this one in for my mom mainly. She gets freaked out at the dog licking Emma on the face. It's good to get a clean every now and again though.

Cute, man. That is: sho, she's cute (not she's a cute man).

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Having a ton of animals around the house is cool, but the cat seems to like baby smell, and thus tries to lie on anything that the baby has used, leaving cat hair all over the place.

Apparently in the first few months babies can pick up allergies pretty easily so I'm not so keen for cat to get into Emma's cot, etc and I shoo her out whenever I see her on a blanket, etc.

The cat has got sneaky though...
look at this photo below...



Can't see her, neither could we until she tweaked an ear.

Look again...

Right in the carry cot, snuggling away.

Bloody cat!

springfield reunion and a bunny in the garden

Cath headed to the Springfield reunion to catch up with all her old (young, i meant young - stop the abuse) classmates. Emma was still too young (in our minds anyway) to be left with someone else so Cath took Emma along... which was a handful I was told.

When the baby becomes too demanding, pass her on.
Natalie got passed the buck, as it were,

and so did Rob. B and Rob are such naturals with Emma - they have mom and dad written all over them. I can't wait for them to have one.... no rush though guys huh - behave! ;)



Back at home, Emma learnt to reach up and grab.

Right now, non-parents are reading this and going... "Really, that's big news is it Alan?" Well, yes it is dammit.

Up until now she was just whacking the dangly things in front of her, now she was reaching for them and trying to... well, eat them normally.



But trust me, there are like a squillion stages of development... and each one reached makes us soooo proud.



She must have known she was making us proud... so she threw up just to try calm us down. Nothing says 'don't get carried away' like baby puke on the bedroom carpets.

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On another note, we found a bunny in the garden. Geese and dogs, baboons even, but seldom do we find bunnies....

... until now.

Then the bunny headed inside.

and Cath read to it...

it was a scary story...

but it ended happily.

sadfdfasdf

Kanga pouch and another bath

I've said it before and I'll say it again... (Anyone that reads my newspaper column will recognise those words), I have the cutest baby in the world.

We have two baby pouches... this one, which I tend to use and the other white one, which Cath uses. They're handy for taking her to church, etc - she can just fall asleep if she wants and can hear mom or dad's soothing heartbeat.

Because she's so bloody quizzy, we have to turn her to face the world most of the time, but when she's knackered, we turn her in and within a few days, she's fast asleep. Okay, not that long but it sometimes seems so.

Then there's bath time.

Notice how she looks up at dad so adoringly. Yep, that's my girl.

And mom's quite proud too (despite Emma tongue-ing the towel).