What about this?

Should I touch this mum?

Crawling!

Mark is now crawling! He turns 7 1/2 months old this weekend. He is not crawling far yet, only about 1 1/2 meters to get to exciting things - like the heater, the rubbish bin, anything he is not allowed to have. I think in the weeks to come our house will look a bit different, with lots of things in new locations! Mark also really enjoys getting up on his hands and feet, and is starting to try to pull himself to stand at furniture.

I like to get up on my hands and feet

About to crawl

Our little one is so close to crawling now. Today he has crawled a few strides, but not yet crawling to get to something. Atleast he is starting to be able to go forwards!

I have woken up with a cold, so am feeling a bit miserable. I hope I don't give it to the little one or Stephen. Stephen is working long hours this week as he will be on holidays for the next 3 weeks. It will be lovely to have him at home and to go to the coast and Brisbane to visit family.

Mum picked this lemon from the tree outside and I just had to have it!

With my Oma

Growing up!

Mark has grown up so much this last week, he has had a real spurt! We went to visit Oma and Opa for the week - maybe they were very motivating. Mark can now get into sitting by himself, from lying on the floor by going backwards through the crawl position. He is really trying to crawl, but keeps going backwards, he is also trying to pull to stand. We really need to childproof our house this week. He is also eating really well now, and even eats his vegies (most of the time), therefore he is drinking much less from me during the day. May be time to start weaning him for those feeds. In the last day he has also really started to 'talk' much more than before. Now saying 'baba' 'maba' 'mama', and this morning also 'dada'!
It was fun to visit ma and pa for the week. Mum also came back to Toowoomba with me and stayed for the night. Then Papa came the next day.
Then we were off to Brisbane Saturday for Jo's birthday party.

Mark can now get into sitting by himself!

Would you believe that I actually shovelled this whole pile of deco into wheelbarrows yesterday? I am surprised myself - my arms must be getting strong!

7 months old today! Yay I am so happy I'm 7 months old today.

Autumn

Toowoomba is looking really pretty around where we live at the moment - all the Autumn leaves. This picture was taken from our front verandah of a tree opposite our house. Our trees are also all starting to drop their leaves - we have big piles of leaves everywhere!

Autumn Colour

Wow they grow fast!

A friend of ours from Melbourne who cisited us at new year sent us this photo today. I can't believe how much Mark has grown in this time! He looks so tiny and beautiful in this photo!

Mark aged 11 weeks.

Under the avocado tree - Almost finished!

More Backyard Blitz

Here is an update of how our backyard is looking now. The pavers and brick edge are laid (I laid the brick edge myself :-). This weekend we hope to fill the surrounding area with a yellowy coloured deco and compact it to finish it all off.

I have reached my goal

Before we left for overseas and before I knew I was pregnant, I bought this pair of stripe pants to take overseas with me. They were always a very tight fit! When I found out I was pregnant - I realised there was no point in taking them with me as they would not fit for more than a week or so. From then on they became my goal pants - It was my goal that after I had Mark to be able to fit into these pants again. And I can!!! Yay for me! I said to Stephen - Does this mean I can eat more now?

Me in my goal pants!

Mark now sits up in the bath a little bit - he loves to suck on his rubber duck

Petra's Back!

Today we got to see Petra again after about a month of her being away. It was good to catch up again. I now have a buddy back I can have coffee with every now and then as she also does not work every day. Yay!

It is getting quite cold in Toowoomba at the moment. I plugged our big gas heater in again today. I see tomorrow will be a maximum of 15 degrees!

Dad with his little boy!

Role Reversal

On the weekend Stephen and I swapped jobs - he was the house husband! I actually really enjoyed having a break from the little one (except to feed him of course!). Stephen looked after MArk while I did some paving in the yard and that sort of thing. The boys were boys though, I found Stephen cleaning the BBQ with Mark sitting on the pavers next to him - eating sand and with dirt from head to toe. Had to remind myself to that dads parent a bit differently to mums, but that does not mean mum's way is the right way! Mark had a great time being a real boy!

Our paving is finished now w, and stephen has put in the sleeper edge under the avocado, so hopefully after we get out deco and pebbles to spread this weekend it will all be done! We won't know what to do with ourselves - actually we will probably get into gardening all our new garden beds.

Eating Grass

What a cheeky boy!

Just look at the expression on Mark's face in this photo! I think we are going to run into trouble when this one gets bigger! He already thinks he is the king of the castle.

Cheeky Boy!

Better Late Than Never

Mark has finally decided that he can roll from his tummy to his back! We are so happy for him. We had a busy weekend. On Saturday Stephen did some paving, then we went to the shops to spend some of the vouchers Stephen got for his birthday. On Sunday Stephen left early as he had to sing at church. I was a bit late to church. Mark was so happy during the service that he let everyone know about it, and as I was sitting at the back, he smiled at everyone coming in the door.

Sharyn and her two children came to visit Sunday afternoon. We went to Queens Park and then had coffee back at our place. On Monday Stephen's parents came to visit, and Stephen's dad helped to lay some pavers. The men managed to finish laying all the big pavers!!!! Stephen is so happy - though he did almost take the top of his thumb off with a mallet! Had a quiet night last night.