Anniversaries and Solids

We haven't been up to Toowoomba together in a while to see the family, so Mary and Peter's 60th wedding anniversary was a great chance to catch up with everyone. All the Snow cousins have just grown up so much since the last time we saw them at Christmas. I'm starting to develop a bit of a height complex from having to look up at all the kids, who haven't even finished growing.

I haven't used my camera to take photos of anyone aside from close ups of Eleanor for such a long time, it was refreshing to have the opportunity to take candids and group photos on the day. I love taking photos of Alison's grandparents not just because they tolerate me clicking away constantly, but also because they are really great to photograph. Mary and Peter are such beautiful people and I don't feel like I have to work especially hard to get an interesting photo out of them.

With so many other shutterbugs there it was also a great chance to get a family photo of the three of us. Uncle David was happy to oblige. Shame that Eleanor felt a little too tired to accommodate by this point.

Even though I tried to focus on the Snows on the day, I still found my view finding gravitating towards our beautiful daughter. She was looking pretty cute on the day so I just couldn't resist taking the occasional shot.

It was a really fun day for everyone. The rest of the photos in the album can be seen here.

Nelly's been busy with more than just modeling patiently for her dad. Mobility isn't quite there but she's advanced to rolling onto her back occasionally, a milestone that was very exciting for her parents.

Then there's the topic of nutrition. Books and doctors seem to differ in opinion on when parents should be introducing solid food to their babies, varying from three to six months of age for the first spoonful. Of course solid is a relative term as the consistency of the rice cereal doesn't appear to be that different from the milk that Eleanor devours daily. Common advice suggests that once your baby is old enough to have proper head control and begins to show interest in the food that you are eating then it's a good time to start them on the mushy stuff. Consistent and reliable head control has been a recent development in the last month, but I'd comfortably say that our little one has been fixated on our meals since her first few weeks in the world. Certainly one clear indication that she's my daughter.

Now that Eleanor is a little over four months old, her doctor has given us the green light to start broadening her diet. Today we successfully shoveled two meals of cereal into the little one and got most of it to stay down. The first few mouthfuls were strange but by the end of the first bowl she got the hang of things.

We'll have to see how she goes over the next few days before adding more interesting food groups to the mix, but early signs suggest that she's going to be a tolerant if messy eater. By the time she's six months we expect to have her trying everything that she'd eat as an adult (aside from honey as that apparently can cause botulism in the first year), including the usual scary items like peanuts, seafood, wheat and other potential allergy inducing food stuffs. Looking forward to adding dad's favourite sea urchin roe to her porridge.

Kitchen Refresh

One of the problems with buying a house from owners that were DIY enthusiasts is that every now and again you have to deal with a project that wasn't built to last. Our kitchen was one such project, though we didn't know it when we first moved in of course. Over the last couple of years the cupboards next to the stove have slowly listed clockwise, to the point that our microwave door would actually close itself due to the angle. There's also the cupboard doors that no longer lined up straight and drawers that refused to close properly. We put up with this for quite a while, until mum suggested that the cupboards were in danger of collapsing soon if we didn't do something about it. Reason enough to pull our finger out and call an expert.



The kitchen company that we got in to quote pretty much agreed with mum's assessment (why wouldn't he?) so we booked in a date to fix this up. Our initial fear that the entire cabinet would have to be replaced was quickly put to rest. Apparently all it needed was to be propped up properly and adjusted which would just take about half a day. Even so this meant that we would have to clear out everything in the pantry and drawers. Amazing how much stuff you can hide away and forget about.



We even had to dump things in the second bed room.



The kitchen had always been one renovation project that we were going to leave to the next owner to deal with (along with the bathroom), but since we were already doing some work on it we couldn't pass up the chance to give the appliances a little refresh. Especially when they were already going to be calling in a sparky to remove the oven, why not put a new one back in afterwards? In fact a new stove top wouldn't go amiss either.



It's surprising what a big difference this makes to the room. Even the new metallic kick boards seem to make the space seem larger. Very happy with the results I must say. Hrmm, now how about that bathroom?

Fingers are Fascinating

Eleanor is growing up so quickly. The pile of clothes that she can't fit into any more is getting bigger which means lots of sorting into stuff to keep for the "next one" or to pass on to other expecting parents. On the plus side, this also means that the choice of clothes available for daily wear is changing over time. We've now entered a size window with a few garments we love, including this gorgeous rainbow hoodie that was given to us by Nelly's aunty Dora. We dress her in this every chance we get.



Speaking of aunty Dora, we got some pretty exciting news this week from the family in Singapore. On Tuesday afternoon on the 19th of July 2011, we were blessed with a nephew (and Eleanor a cousin) when James and Dora welcomed Thomas Liley into the world. Mum and bub are healthy and are now home and being looked after. One set of grandparents already flew over with another pair to join them by the end of next week, but thanks to the wonders of technology we have all been enjoying photos and video calls with the new family. Young Thomas is a beautiful baby and we're sure that he and Eleanor will soon become the best of friends.

Nelly has also hit a few development milestones in the past few weeks. One of which is a growing fixation on her digits. It's become commonplace for her hands to be covered in slobber as she tries to decide if the left or right one has superior flavour. It makes her happy and it makes for some cute photos so we permit it for now.



It can however be a little annoying when you're trying to take some nicer photos of her that don't all involve shovelling fists into her face. Even when they are out of her mouth the hands aren't very far away. My other theory of this seemingly defensive posture is that she's attempting to prevent us from applying moisturiser to her face. The doctors gave us a few things to deal with her eczema so we are now following a strict regiment of QV cream through the day and judicial use of cortisone in affected areas. This was a prescription that Eleanor was less than pleased with and she reminds us of that at each opportunity. Can't argue with results however, her skin is starting to look a lot healthier.



We spent some time this afternoon going through another photo shoot, which you can check out here. Bit of an alternative chick look this time to celebrate our girl hitting 14 weeks. It's actually hard for me to believe that she'll get bigger than this. Wish we could keep her like this forever.