The boys' first weigh-in...Lincoln V Carter...

 Lincoln V Carter vital stats:

39.5 weeks V 38.5 weeks gestation

3.07kg V 3.53kg

6lb 12oz V 7lb 12oz

48cm V 50cm long

35.5cm V 36cm head circumference
2.5hr V 5hr labour!

Introducing...Carter Aston born 9/9/10

On September 9, at 2.46pm, after a 5 hour labour (twice as long as Lincoln), the family welcomed Carter Aston into the world weighing in at a pound (460 g) heavier than Lincoln at 7lb 12oz / 3.53 kg. Carter is 50 cm long with a head circumference of 36 cm.

He looks more like Mum than Dad, and appears to have Mum's long pointed fingers with thin fingernails. He's been a fantastic baby and, while not giving us much sleep (which is to be expected!) has taken to feeding quite well.

Mum is very much looking forward to coming home today to spend some time with Lincoln as she misses him terribly! The baby capsule is in the Focus (thanks to Dad working till 11pm last night [do you know how hard it is to find a washer that drops down under the rear seats?!!] and we're all looking forward to kicking off the next chapter in our lives with the latest member of our family! Welcome Carter, love Mum, Dad and Lincoln.

Stay tuned for an updated blog header, and a full rundown of the events leading up to the birth!

12.8 kg 31 August

Linc continues to grow well and, just like his Dad, is built more like a greyhound than a bulldog. 31 August weigh-in was 12.8 kg, with a near miss as Linc would not lay down and almost slid right off the scales (see above photo!)...

He continues to have nights where he has difficulty dropping off to sleep without someone stroking his cheek with his wrap (see below photo - one for each ear!). It's definitely down to the fact that at this age, toddlers have trouble switching off at the end of the day. This was evidenced tonight by Linc reliving some of the events of today - like when he was sneezing in the car on the way back from the shops. He found it funny and so was doing pretend sneezes. But he never did it again all day, until tonight when he relived the event as he was trying to 'switch off'. Pretty amazing. Another thing that isn't helping is that his molars are STILL coming down, as well as teeth either side of his bottom teeth - that's why he has his dummy more often than we would like - without it he just sucks on his fingers until they are a bleeding mess.

Dad's second fathers day with Linc today - he was lucky enough to get a DVD boxset which Mum and Dad can watch in the 5 weeks Dad has off on leave for the birth of 2.0. Linc also got Dad a 'Wheels' subscription, 3 new ties and a shirt...very lucky Dad!

Almost spring...John Knight Memorial Park

Today the family got out into the sunshine (14 degrees!) at John Knight Memorial park to meet up with Clare, Steve and Fiona and their kiddies. Linc had a great time, but kept trying to run into the water as he doesn't understand that he will fall into the water and he won't actually be able to walk across it! No major injuries, although he did walk under a slide and hit his head as he was looking down - bet that smarted!

It was the ADFA open day also, so the RAAF Roulettes flew over the park a few times in tight formation which Linc was fascinated with.

And tonight we thought Linc might like to have a shower with Mum (as he did last night), but he got way too excited and ran into the shower before anybody was ready for him and slipped and fell flat on his bot bot. He also hit his cheek on the shower door, which is the most obvious injury... but I'm reminded of the famous quote by the father of the notorious Bruce Wayne ..."why do we fall over...? so we can pick ourselves up"... think about it. Hmmmmmm.

Sleeping back to normal (almost)...

Just a quick note to write that Linc is now back to falling asleep at night on his own. After almost two weeks of having to be with him as he fell asleep he's now back to 'normal'. Although his sleeps during the day can sometimes be a bit of a struggle. Queue, 'the Gruffalo'. A great story, and it works a treat by sending him off to sleep! Whatever works, hey?!...

A taste of the other side...

Linc chowing down on some yummy gourmet peas and corn...(what a weirdo!). Then suddenly, only seconds later, he grabbed a handful of peas and corn and chucked them all over the floor. Cool!

It's not that we didn't know that we had it good... I mean, we put Linc to bed at around 8pm, and he doesn't wake until about 7.30am...so we got some grown-up time in the evening, and a great sleep at night.

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

For the past week Linc has decided that he can't fall asleep unless someone is in the room with him and, if he wakes up during the night (which is happening more often than ever), can't go back to sleep unless someone comes in to reassure him that everything is okay. Great. Fantastic. Doesn't that make for fun times.

We have no idea what has occurred to make him like this, but we would love to be able to reverse whatever it was... Possibilities include the fact that he is cutting a number of teeth at once (as his molars are coming through as well as more teeth down the bottom), and also that at this age, when he starts talking and being more aware of the world than ever, that he has trouble switching off at night.

So, given those theories, we have tried bonjela for his teeth, then bonjela in combination with neurofen...to no avail, so based on the other theory we tried reading to him so he was more relaxed at bedtime. No good either. The only thing that seems to work is stroking his cheek with his wrap that he hands to you saying 'ta, ta, ta, ta' until you take it and start stroking his cheek. Eventually he falls asleep allowing you to sneak out of the room with a sigh of relief...

As far as words go, he's now saying 'truck' (actually it's 'gruck' but close enough), bahs like a sheep, snaps like a crocodile and whispers 'star' (not sure why he whispers it - just like he whispers 'ta'!!!). He's also learning Incy, wincy spider which is cute to see him try to do the hand movements.

He's definitely going to be an active kid. He just can't sit still. He's always doing something, or playing with something etc. - and he loves his music where he bobs his head and squats up and down in time with the music (okay, not really in time!).

Only 5 weeks (or maybe 4!) to go until Linc is forced to share Mum and Dad's attention with a little baby brother (yep, boy - everyone knows now!)...not long now.

Sydney - Aquarium

This weekend the family drove to Sydney to visit the Sydney Aquarium. It was also great to catch up with Linc's best mate Anthony!

The weekend was a mixed bag of successes and failures - the successes being today at a park at 'Kissing Point Bay' where Linc was loving playing on the slides and watching all the planes and helicopters flying over from nearby Sydney Airport - the failures being the aquarium...where he didn't appear very interested in the fish at all. Thankfully he got in for free...! I'm surprised the aquarium didn't turf us out at one stage as Lincoln spat the proverbial, lost the plot, was knighted Sir Throwyourself-upon-defleur of the Tantrum Table and basically had a catastrophic melt-down. Apart from that, the aquarium really isn't as good as it thinks it is, but is worth going if you're in the area.

It was also Linc's first long outing wearing his dog lead (not a dog lead, but a lead that has a puppy dog on it - see the above photo).

As always, Linc is just fantastic in the car - and we even took a portable DVD player so he could watch some shows. I only put that on at the end of the trip home just to see how it went - it also took Lincoln's mind off the massive storm that we drove through just as we were leaving Marulan. And as always, the mighty Calais got us there and back safely, and in supreme comfort.