It's MOvember!

Hi blog watchers,

My top lip has seen a razor for the last time in a while because during Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'll be growin a Mo (slang for Moustache). That's right I'm bringing the Mo back to raise funds for The Prostate Cancer Charity because I'm passionate about men's health and the fight against prostate cancer. Why...

Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer diagnosed in men in the U.K. with at least one man dying every hour from the disease.

Every year about 35,000 men in the U.K. are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 10,000 men die from the disease.
One man in 11 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime in the U.K.
To sponsor my Mo (moustache) and fight against prostate cancer please go to http://www.movember.com/uk/donate, enter my registration number which is 118444 and your credit card details, the charity get £1.24 for every £1 donation! Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to "The Prostate Cancer Charity" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 118444. Please mail cheques to: The Prostate Cancer Charity, ATT: Movember, First Floor, Cambridge House, 100 Cambridge Grove, Hammersmith, London W6 0LE. I decided to register for the UK Movember so that payments could be made easier.

All donations are made directly to The Prostate Cancer Charity which will use the money to fund high quality research into the causes, treatment and impact of prostate cancer and to provide support and information to men and their families.

Thanks for your support

More info is available at www.movember.com

Might be going for the Borat unless there are better suggestions ....

Yoghurt...

Alfie's experiment with solids continued today with his first yoghurt.

So far thats:

Rice Cereal - Yum
Rice Cereal and Apple - Yum Yum
Pumpkin - Mmmmmmmm!
Yoghurt - Yum

Sit up and take notice

Alfie is starting to be able to sit up on his own without any support, although we do need to be there for the inevitable wobble, tumble and roll!

Bar Progress

The shed has been a hive of activity as the work on the bar continues. With the frame complete it was time to make the shelves and cover the sides. Ikea proved to be something of an unexpected source of materials as I managed to buy the wheels (...we need to be able to move the bar outside!)and the wood. The wood for the covering and the shelves cost me about £2 as they were shelves, doors and backing from damaged stuff.

With the shelves fitted and the sides covered it was time to start covering the outside for the tropical look. Today I worked on the central section covering it with a cut open wicker bag and a table mat... also from Ikea.

Spring Forward into Summer...

I'm not going to make a lot of the fact that we are very much looking forward to Summer but its worth noting that as your clocks went back we went forward. As a result we are now eleven hours ahead of you guys in the UK.

Beach Baby

Today we went to the beach for an hour or so. As we are just entering Spring the water is still pretty cold, some people are even wearing wetsuits!!! However the big surf and tide had created a warm sandy pool for babies and their dads to swim in.

Alfie stripped down to his smalls which became large as the water soaked in! He seemed to enjoy it as he got used to the water. He had a splash and watched the big kids very carefully... he really is quite nosey! Back on dry land Alfie seemed quite happy to supplement his solids diet with some grains of sand, washed down with some water sucked from Liam's bottle. It was all obviously all too much for him as he crashed out on the way home with sandy toes twitching!

Pumpkin Suprise...

Alfie tried some Pumpkin today and we're not sure of what he made of it! Yes the skin went orange the hands were orange, the face was orange as was the bib... but we're just not sure he enjoyed it! If fact after some after dinner jiggling Daddy's T_Shirt went Orange too!!!! We're going to put him back on the rice cereal which he LOVES and slowly mix in the odd suprise like Pumpkin! Look out for more solid related updates soon!

Introducing Murphy...

Murphy is now officially Alfie's best friend! We picked him up in Sydney Ikea and he's been everywhere since! He has a nasty habit of nibbling Alfie's toes but then when you consider the treatment he is subjected to you can't blame him!

The face of fear...

He's behind you...

OUCH!

Ahhhh they kiss and make up!...

Changing Rooms ... just very slowly!

We have been decorating the living room for the last six months. To be fair nothing has happened since Alfie came into the world with a bang and the Husband and Wife decorating team walked out on us! ;0)



Today we threw ourselves into it painting all the walls with a primer to cover the "dark brown", "bright red", "lime green" and the "looks white until you put white next to it" that we were faced with. The colour we painted allows us now to choose something a little lighter to paint over the top, its amazing the room feels so much bigger tonight.

Beth's short arms were initially a problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's at it again...

While in the supermarket last week I picked up a magazine and found Alfie and myself looking back at me! So another $50 and we have been promoted from the last page to page three! ... maybe the Japanese tourists in the previous post had recognised us! ;0)

We really need to negotiate a cut of these profits!

Role Reversal

It's been a case of role reversal since Thursday as we traveled to Sydney so that Beth could do the course that I completed last month. Beth will now spend two weeks in school while I do the house husband thing at home. It's been great to spend some extended time with Alfie and take on the number one care giver role. It has certainly made me realise all that Beth does, not that I wasn't aware but there is so much to remember, carry and do!

I think that Beth enjoyed the adult company and is very much looking forward to life back in the classroom. She is going back to the school where I have been working for the last month and so she already knows some of the teachers socially which will help. After that she will be able to teach too and so there will be two of us waiting to see who gets the long straw and gets to stay with Alfie. Even though a six month old is hard work, it's great to spend time with him.

Down in Sydney Alfie and I spent time in Ikea, the local shopping center and the Olympic Park to pass the time as we waited for mummy to finish her course each day. I was having to learn quickly as I tried to read Alfie's signs and was taking all the advice I could get. We spent some time in the parents room and chatted to the mums, we also chatted to any other "dads n bubs" particularly if they were wearing the same weary puzzled expression as us! I did realise that Alfie's cute factor was very useful as people seemed only too willing to go the extra mile, help out or stop to coo! We even had to stop for a photograph with some Japanese tourists.... very strange!

We spent the Friday walking the Olympic Park which really was fantastic. Its a wonderful site which had a nasty industrial past. We really enjoyed seeing the different venues, the Olympic Torch, the parks and the coffee shops! We spent a few hours walking around with Alfie leading the way with his map...


Telstra Stadium - Think Jonny Wilkinson in the Rugby World Cup Final we won!

These poles have the names of all the thousands of volunteers that worked during the 2000 Olympic Games...


Alfie was clearly not impressed with the Olympic Torch... now an Olympic Fountain!


On the way back from the Park to pick up Beth we passed through the most frightening thunder storm, forked lightening all around with marble sized hail stones. We we're on the motorway which came to a complete standstill in all lanes due to the lack of visibility. Most tried to shelter under the bridges to shelter from the stones, there wasn't space for us and so we had to sit it out - luckily the car wasn't damaged.

Growing Up...

Today has been a day of firsts as Alfie continues to grow up. He is starting to roll more often and so is keeping us on our toes, rolling off things or him wriggling out of where we left him is a real concern!

Today we turned the car seat to make it forward facing which means Alfie gets to see more of Newcastle rather than the back seat of the car which he has been faced with!

He also had his first taste of solids. We've held off as long as could to give him the best chance of not developing allergies which do run in the family. We've started him on plain rice cereal and he seemed to love it, we recorded the moment to share with you...

Growing up so quick...

More proof that Alfie is growing fast. Every week some clothes get packed away in boxes (just in case they are needed again in the future!!!!) and today we noticed some facial hair...

The "tash" was actually left behind by one of the superheroes after the party, you want it back Brett?

Water Baby...

We decided that Alfie needed to start swimming early and that as he approaches six months he needed to start now! So it was off to the local outdoor pool for his first swimming lesson. On arriving we decided that the paddling pool wasn't enough of a challenge and so it was into the 25m...

Alfie wearing his sun swim suit clung to Beth and I for dear life before slowly relaxing to almost think about enjoying himself. As his confidence grew we decided that he needed to go "under." With a short dunk from mum a spluttering Alfie surfaced without tears, we repeated this (cruel to be kind!!!) capturing the third and final one on camera. Here's a short film of the swim...

Foot in Mouth

We really have had the perfect week with Alfie. Having recovered from his cold and rash he has been a dream. It made us realise how under the weather he has been for the last month or so. ... He's been every bit the happy smiling little boy that we love!

This week his love affair with his own feet continued, to the point where he now gets them fully into his mouth to suck them... we're putting him on solids next week before he tries to eat them...

Dragon Boating...

After getting in at 10pm on Saturday I had a message asking if I wanted to go dragon boating on Sunday, I decided to give it a go rowing in a team of accountants via a friend of a friend. It was quite a corporate affair (Bloomin accountants eh Sparkes!) with dry fit t-shirts, caps, food and beer!

It was a lovely if exhausting day of frenzied rowing from 8am until about 2:30pm. We had some good finishes 2x1st 2x2nd and a 3rd, cheered on by Beth and Alfie! Unfortunately one of the seconds came in our final so no trophy. Still its all about the taking part yeah?

Swinging Low...

Alfie and I were up at 5am to watch the rugby this morning and were glad that we did. Amazingly Alfie sat glued to the TV pausing only to laugh at my top of my voice at 6am renditions of Swing Low and that guy who blows his trumpet every five minutes!

... we had similar scenes here. Just less people and no berets!

I still remain unconvinced of our ability to beat the South Africans (as I did Australia/France) still we're enjoying it down under. The TV ad that ran all this week was "The dream is over for the Wallabies... there's only one thing to say... GO FRANCE!" You gotta love them Aussies!

I see sea shells...

Beth's love of shells was taken to extremes on a recent visit to the beach when she came home with a nappy bag full! Still she's put them to good use by making a shell mobile, chime thing to hang from a tree. Very creative...

On Friday the shell collection had been replaced by a collection of drift wood so look out for more creative crafts soon!

Bar Progress...

... the frame is ready. Now for the shelves and sides etc!

In the pic I'm offering up (technical woodworkers term!) a piece of wood to the wrong side or the bar. It was later screwed into place, unscrewed and re-screwed into the right place!

Daddy and the boy...

My turn today... here's my current favourite of me and Alfonso! :0)

Mummy and the boy

Not a lot to say about this other than it's a really nice picture of Mum and Son taken out in the garden this week...

Bar Building...

The image of the Aussie male cracking open a tin of ice cold Fosters to satisfy a raging thirst in the dry heat is an incorrect stereotype, because we don't drink Fosters and people only seem to drink outta bottles! (the rest is pretty much true!) Our neighbour found out that we didn't have a "beer fridge" in our shed (insert Garage here!) and promptly turned up the next day with one! A beer fridge is basically a large domestic fridge filled with beer! We are slowly adapting to the Australian way of life...

Having been to a few social gatherings we thought that we'd like to have a small bar at home, so we had a good look around but couldn't find anything like we had in mind.... basically a bamboo tropical thing! So I've decided to dust off my woodworking skills not required since I made a spice rack for mum when I was about thirteen!

I've made a start out in the garage and built the base, it'll be interesting to see how it goes over the coming weeks (months/years), it is worth noting that the spice rack ended up not fit for purpose! To Beth's Dad - John I can report no blisters yet!

Makin Movies...

With things so busy finding time to make Alfie's monthly movies has been hard, not helped also by some technical problems with making them at my end.

Still I know its October but here are the two that you may or may not have been waiting for. Sorry that neither are that flash but at least you can see what we've been up to and how much Alfie has changed in such a short space of time.

Film for September



Film for August



In case you missed them, here are the links to the other three... the May film is the best one by far, I've given up trying to even get close to it! It's worth another look just to see how far the little chap has come!

July

June

May

Peanut Hugging

Never been the greatest fan of the odd shaped ball, goes back to the antics of the Peanut Hugging Rugger Buggers at University! Still with a sporting confrontation between England and Australia looming large on the horizon we'd stocked up on food so that we could stay in for a month without leaving the house in the event of a humiliating defeat! :0)

Still I stayed up to watch (11pm local time!) the game hoping that England could keep it to at least a 20 point loss! In the end England played out of their skins and pulled off the win! I managed to stay fairly quiet although Beth says that she heard some muffled cheering at the end!

Strangely our neighbours were not available for comment today! The news channels did their usual thing with Aussie sport talking it up all week "Revenge is a dish best served cold" etc adverts, but hardly mentioning it when they loose! Interestingly they are still playing their "I believe the Wallabies can win the World Cup!" adverts... oh how we laugh!

Alfie Update...

The good news is that Alfie is feeling much better and today we felt as if we got our smiling, affectionate little boy that we know and love back. He's really not been himself for about five weeks. His course of penicillin seems to be doing the trick and we've had a fantastic family weekend together.

We've had some really nice cuddles, watched Alfie start thinking about crawling to get to stuff he wants, polish off his milk for the first time in a while and see him get to undisturbed sleep.

Dot to Dot...

In five short months we have quickly found out that the life of a parent is a troubling one and that we'll probably never stop worrying about Alfie! His first causes for concern are well documented... however in the following five months he has managed a stinky ear infection, a cold, cradle cap, croup and another cold amongst other false alarms. We are regulars at our local surgery but we're pleased that we get it right most times and that we catch things before they develop into something more serious!

Our latest visit to the Docs was on Thursday after the cold that seems to have been hanging around since his Sydney visit to A&E started to be causing him bother again. We had also developed a small rash around his belly button and under his arm! We were told not to worry about the rash as they were hives and would disappear on their own. She thought that maybe the rash was linked to a viral infection that has been hanging around. With a potentially infectious Alfie on the loose we decided that we better not go away for the weekend, however he was happy (as were the people we were going with)and so off we went.



As the weekend progressed the spots spread up his chest and down his legs, they became so numerous that it was hard to spot where the rash was and where his normal skin colour was. It got a whole lot worse than the picture shows and this morning his legs became very swollen, bright red (purple and blue!)and painful to the touch. It had also spread to his neck and face. As its a Bank Holiday here so we took him to the local hospital to see the after hours GP, and were promptly referred to A&E. We met the most fantastic doctor who was able to diagnose "Erythema Multiforme" which literally translates as "many red bumps of different shapes and sizes" He thinks that this is unlikely to be caused by an allergic reaction to anything (although this is something we need to watch when we start looking at solids next month!) but his body's way of dealing with the viral infection.

We'll keep you posted on how he goes but it was great to see him improve even in the three hours we were at the hospital. Alfie seems quite happy around Doctors and likes nothing better than a chance to show off, grab their stethoscope or attempt to eat their shirt cuffs!

Lake side paradise....

We have just returned from a weekend away on the Lake. We were invited to join ten other families by our friends Joal and Anna, who have stayed at the same place year on year for years. Despite only being about 20 minutes from our house we really felt like we'd traveled to somewhere quite different. The house is a lodge with individual rooms for each family as well as large communal areas. Only a stones throw from the lake it really felt like paradise.

It was really touch and go as to whether we were going to make it (see post above... that's another story!) but we were so glad that we did. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and found the inhabitants on Summerland Point out in the sunshine, however there was no sitting about for some as Matt, Joal, Foz and I shot across the lake to find a sheltered spot for some wake boarding. On our way back we checked the crab nets for some Blue Swimmers!

Back on dry land it was time to light the fire and get the BBQ lit, there were a lot of hungry mouths to feed. Then there was time for a little campfire singing, a few beers before heading out onto the lake again (with torches!) to collect more crabs.

Sunday started bright and early again with Beth taking the opportunity to walk the edge of the lake with Matt and Sharron and the boys. I stayed behind with Alfie who was developing a taste for morning sleeps of increasing lengths. In the afternoon it was back onto the lake again this time with Matt filling his boat with thrill seeking kids! They got more than they bargained for as a blown fuse caused Matt to seek the assistance of a passing boat to get back to shore. The towing went well and I found that I'm pretty effective as a fender so damage was minimal. We managed to get the boat out of the water and fixed when back at the lodge. There was time for a shower a call to Dominos Pizza and settle back to watch the Rugby League Grand Final. It was then something of an early night for us after Alfie started to become increasingly unsettled.

After the early night we were up and out of bed early, assisted by Alfie who decided that he didn't want some of the milk he had just gulped and so sprayed it rather impressively all over the bed sheets. We had a lovely walk together and it certainly made us realise that we need to be up and out more often to take in what where we live has to offer! Alfie slept most of the morning and so we stayed at the lodge with all three of us catching snoozes in the breeze, it was a warm day (30+ degrees!)Alfie managed to dip his toes in the pool. After that we headed back to get Alfie checked out... and we were glad that we did!

We had a fantastic weekend, thanks to Joal and Anna. It was our first weekend away as a family and despite Alfie's illness we loved being out in the great outdoors with some great people.