Hairy Mountain Folk

We have just been out to Katoomba for lunch with Nina in tow. Bianca and I have decided that we can't go travelling to Asian countries for a few years as we will never get out of the hotel lobby with locals going crazy over Nina. We have been out and about with Nina a couple of times around the Blue Mountains and been mobbed with enamoured Asian tourists. This lunchtime I got it on camera. Also got a short video of Nina eating a straw while we wait for food.

Bianca: What this photo doesn't show is me flapping in the background like a nervous mother hen as all these complete strangers pass Nina around like the latest accessory!

Despite her parents' fondness for their tucker, Nina is far more interested in the world around her than she is in eating. We've been getting all sorts of grief from the childhood health nurses over her weight - she sits right on the bottom of the healthy weight curve and this week has actually dropped off the healthy weight curve. We've tried every trick in the book to cram more milk into her but we've come to the conclusion that she's such an active little thing that she just burns up way more calories than she eats.
So the latest solution is to start her on solids, seeing as she's nearly 6 months old. We're trying some baby cereal to try to get some more calories into her (but still breastfeeding as well), but it's easier said than done ... as these photos show. I think more of the cereal ended up on her face than in her mouth, and it was helped by the fact that she kept trying to grab the spoon and do it herself!

Labels: Nina baby feeding

Poor Nina spent the first couple of months of her life largely in her pyjamas while we tried to get the hang of juggling it all, but we have become a little bit more adventurous with her outfits and she has acquired some rather stylish little numbers, including this cute knit dress. It's a long way from the 'funky goth chick' look that Phil is hoping for, but they don't really make baby clothes in black.

I haven't blogged about my fabulous mothers' group yet, and I don't know why because as Phil will attest, I never stop talking about it!
All new mums are put in touch with other new mums and bubs in the area (of the same bub age), via the childhood health nurses up here, and it's a fantastic program. It started with four get-togethers organised by the nurses, but now we organise our own get-togethers, and it's a non-stop social whirl.
We have a regular Friday get-together at someone's house, which is always a fabulous frenzy of babies and women (and some men) chattering, but then there's also mums and bubs yoga, bushwalks, gallery visit, movie excursions, endless excuses for lunches and home visits ... there's barely time for Nina to get her daily naps in!
It's exactly what we both hoped would happen when Nina came along - that we would meet other parents and finally start to establish our own social network in the mountains.
And it's lovely to think that these are the kids Nina will grow up with, go to school with, get into trouble with ... no, of course she won't be getting into trouble. With her innocent angel expression, she'll be the one standing in the middle of it all saying "moi?"

Its cold in the mountains. By the look of Bianca and Nina we could be in the Arctic!
We have a big pile of wood that I need to carry up the stairs but really its too cold to carry wood. Please, I don't need to hear that if I carry it up it will warm me twice ;)

It's officially cold. In fact it is freezing...literally. It was zero which with a wind chill at 90kph makes it -10°C for a trip to Sydney at 7:30am. Luckily I have new motorbike gear and my beema has heated hand grips. I was missing a heated seat though as the frosted seat meant that I slid backwards and forwards on the seat for the first 3 mins of the trip until my butt thawed the seat. At home we have the log fire going 24/7 which is really nice for Bianca when she gets up at 3am to feed Nina milky chops.

Labels: BMW, Frost

... on arm at a time.