Future career perhaps?

Linc on a NSW Police Yamaha FJR1300A

Narooma holiday

With such a long time between public holidays it was decided that a coast trip was in order, especially with the ridiculously cold weather we've been having (try -8 deg which is the coldest temp in 17 years - the apparent temp was -10.5 deg!)... And we jagged an absolutely lovely weekend down at Narooma with temps between 18 and 19 degrees on each day (although the nights were still a bit chilly at 3 to 5 degrees).

Coast house at Narooma

While the four days went very quickly, we still managed to do a great deal and take in all the regular sights. We saw stingrays and seals, a sea eagle, kangaroos and a wallaby and of course, the noisy Lorikeets which have become very friendly!

Linc talking to the Lorikeets

Smelly hairy animals on the bar at Narooma (and seals in the background too!)

Linc thought the beach was fantastic and didn't want to leave; which is a completely different scenario compared to when we went at christmas time! Hopefully next time the weather is warmer so we can go for a swim.

Linc at the park at Narooma - Dad has started call him Daquan (as in chew that one) Makmi (as in smack me)

And as Carter (sounds weird - we usually call him Squidge now) had been so good, we gave him Linc's Lion this evening to walk around with. Amazingly he picked it up straight away and walked all over the house with it, and didn't even fall over once!

Daquan Makmi showing Squidge some advanced Lion driving techniques...

Some funny quotes from Linc to finish this post off...:

Dad: "Linc, you're a bit mental"
Linc: "No, wittle mental"

Linc: "crashmashem" as he runs his cars into your foot (or into each other)
Linc: "crazy driver" just in general, but usually after he's been out for a drive with Mum.
Linc: "finishing off various verses from Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat (who this man could be I just don't know.....JOE! or Phantom of the Opera "let your soul take you where you long to...BEEEEEEE!"
Linc: "Mum/Dad....doin'?"

With a big head comes a BIG tongue

It's difficult to find out how Carter's tongue compares to the rest of the population at the equivalent age as there is no 'tongue length' graph in the blue book...

You put that tongue away...

Carter crawls!

On Thursday Carter finally sorted out his gross motor skills enough to successfully undertake the relatively complex art of crawling. Two days later and we are discovering the added problems that crawling brings... Like Linc's toys are now within reach, and go straight into the gob...and Linc's possessiveness resulting in a lot of snatching and not much sharing... Oh there is going to be fun times ahead.

Carter's 9 month check up - 9485g 9 September

Carter is growing well and still has a big head! I've also included Linc's 9 1/2 month stats.

Weight: 9485g (50th to 75th percentile) / 9265g
Length: 74cm (75th to 90th percentile) / 74cm
Head circumference: 48cm (above the 97th percentile) / 47cm

Interestingly, Linc's blue book shows different percentile ratings than Carter's...e.g. Carter's head circumference is 90 to 97 percentile in Linc's book...?!

And we are going for our 7th night in a row of the boys sleeping through the night!

Linc is also starting to become more aware of his 1s and 2s. Now when he does 2s, he'll go find a quiet corner and temporarily cease the endless rambling to concentrate on matters at hand. We've sat him on the toilet a couple of times, but it's still just a game and he hasn't produced the goods as yet.

All growing well...

...but going through a tough time! We have finally had our first bout of conjunctivitis which was introduced to the family by poor old Carter who got a cold and rubbed yucky stuff into his eyes. Of course Linc then got both the cold, and the conjunctivitis, with it bouncing between eyes before finally disappearing after about four days. Linc is now on antibiotics (it's been a year since he was on them) but Carter, who appears to be worse than Linc (although his boogers aren't green like Linc's were) just has to battle through. As keeping them warm has also been a struggle (-6.9 degrees celcius COME ON!) we are dreading the next gas bill...!

On the face of it the above wouldn't sound too bad - but add the fact that Dad disappeared O/S and neither kid slept through the entire night while Dad was away, robbing Mum of precious sleep time, and it's much worse. And these fun times continued on Dad's return, but Mum had a tired and grumpy Dad also to deal with for a couple of days due to jetlag! We're so proud of you Mum, you did really well. 

Carter is quite a bit more mobile these days, although he still hasn't started crawling. He kind of squidges around on his bottom, but manages to travel fairly far before getting into something he shouldn't (like one of Linc's millions of toy cars)...the worst is when he is reaching forward to grab something and gets to the point where he tips forward onto his belly - a couple of times there has been a sharp toy underneath him which results in a bout of tears. He is still full of smiles and, in four days, will be NINE MONTHS old...hard to believe, it's gone so quick. He had another specialist appointment about his umbilical hernia which is unfortunately still there - we have to take him back for another checkup in six months. He continues to do this really strange thing every now and then where he tucks his chin down to the right and looks up at you - it is SO cute. However, what's NOT cute is that he is absolutely rubbish at drinking his bottle before bed at night. We have gone back to the greatest gadget ever made - the iPhone - to play Chuggington, Taylor Swift, and Bob the Builder just to get him through the horrible ordeal of having a bottle!

Linc is proving to be a handful (i've probably mentioned that before!). He is very strong willed and doesn't take NO for an answer. And if he's told off he just throws himself on the floor to have a tantrum. For some reason he has (again) taken to getting out of bed when we put him to bed - so it now takes an hour to get him to stay in his room and sleep. Then we're lucky enough to get a visit a couple of times during the night (last night was 2am and 4.30am) before being woken for the day at around 7am.

And the older the kids get, the smaller this house becomes.

Carter 8 months old!

The time has flown by and, while life is easier than it has been over the past 8 months, we do miss the snuggles with little baby Carter... just like Linc, Carter doesn't like being held like a baby anymore...how quickly they grow up! But hopefully he won't forget his poor ol' Dad, who has to go away for 12 whole days...Good luck Mum...!