Some Livia' luvin

Livia just loves to play with Aidan - sometimes we have to try to curb her enthusiasm a little, as her games can be a little rough. My blood pressure rises every time I have to nip out of the room for even a second - since she still seems to want to poke out an eye, or give what appears to be infant CPR. But here are a few sibling shots, after I was brave enough to put the two together on the couch.

Kisses...


Cuddles...
Showing Aidan where his mouth is

And where her toes are!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Aidan

• Age: 13 weeks
• Weight: 5.1 kgs (11 lbs 5 oz)
• Length: 59 cm (23.23 inches)
• Average hours of sleep: Up to an 8 hour stretch at night - getting there! The trick is which 8 hours.... Three fairly predictable daytime naps.
  
• Latest tricks: Miles and miles of smiles! First trip to the emergency room at Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital. Narrowly escaping needing a lumbar puncture. Lots of thumb-sucking. Quite a bit of cooing.

Livia

• Age: 2 years old !
• Weight: 11.5 kg (25 lbs 6 oz)
• Height: 83 cm (32.7 inches)
• Average hours of sleep: 11 at night (although it can be less since it gets light now at 4.30am!), a single 2 or sometimes 3 hour nap at lunchtime
• Latest tricks: Collage! Lots of interaction with Aidan - turns out he's a good partner for Row Row Row Your Boat

Poor old Aidan has had a tough couple of weeks. He caught a cold 2 weeks ago, which really put him off his food - one night he even went 12 hours between feeds! Bliss you might think, except that instead of us sleeping, we tried several times to get him to feed. He rallied though, and didn't seem too bothered by the snotty nose and phlegmy cough that hung around for several days afterwards. He had nearly recovered from that, when last Friday, he came down with a high temperature. It stayed high on Saturday, and when it got above 39, we took him to the after hours medical centre, who sent us on to the hospital after a temperature measurement of 39.7. Despite the fever, he seemed pretty perky, and was feeding well, so he managed to avoid the lumbar puncture to rule out meningitis. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to avoid two attempts at a suprapubic aspirate (translation: a needle stuck into his lower abdomen to obtain a clean urine sample). Since neither worked, we ended up sitting him on Chris without a nappy, while I held the specimen cup. Within a minute or so, he produced the goods, and when the results of that and the blood tests all came back negative, we were permitted to go home (having been told earlier in the evening we'd definitely be admitted). By the morning, he was fever-free, and passed his hospital review with ease. So now we are just trying to catch up on missed sleep (it was 1am by the time we got home from the hospital, and someone forgot to send Liv the memo to let us sleep in).

Speaking of our little lass, Livia's birthday was this last week (although we will hold her party at the end of the month, when her Nana and Poppa are in town to help celebrate). We had a pretty quiet day - we went to a TinyTots gym class, followed by a trip to see Daddy at work for a Babycino (foamy milk with cocoa on top) and a carrot cupcake as a treat. She loved opening her presents and really got into the Hip Hip Hooray part of the Happy Birthday song. She was a bit freaked out by candles at first, but after a few times was able to give a halfway decent puff towards blowing them out. Here are a few highlights, but more photos can be found on the November Facebook or Picasa pages (see right).

Babycino bliss

Hip Hip Hooray! (With Great Granpa's Teddy Bear card)

Admiring the homemade T-shirts from Aunty Celia

Is this how I put it on?

Right before opening Aunty Bryna's prezzie

She's really getting into art, and now craft as well - she brought home her first collage from daycare recently.


She also really loves to use Aidan as a prop in her action rhymes, as you can see from the movie. He's pretty laid back about it, but I do have to intervene when she wants to sit on his knee. Nearly 12 kg versus just over 5 kg does not a fair match make!

Our little thumb-sucker

Aidan has now found his thumb! And is quite happy seek comfort with it, especially following some sibling lovin' (bordering on baby-bashing).

He's also quite the chip off the old Chris.