Day 181 - Get Thee to Benedict House

This is Benedict House in Queanbeyan. Former girls boarding school and convent, it was also owned by Paul Keating in the 80s apparently! Anyway we had afternoon tea here today as a bit of an end of term social gathering, after our athletics carnival. One more day of term - wow I need holidays ASAP!

Day 180 - Old Habit

Don't look too closely at Dale's book - yes it is Stephen King...

Did I mention that Henry is sleeping through from 7.30pm til 7? It has been about 2 weeks straight now and now that he doesn't wake for an 11.00pm feed anymore, we can actually have a little time to read in bed of a night. It's an old habit that is back!

Day 179 - A Visit with Cassie and Maddie

Well it has been a while since Henry saw his little friend Maddie (who was born to Cassie on the same day as Henry was born) but we dropped by today to pick up some cloth nappies that Cassie had ordered online for us. It was so hard to get the two of them in a picture together and I really didn't get a good one, but I love the look of surprise on Henry's face in this one!

Day 178 - Henry's Perfect Pet

I love Fiona Robertson's picture book - Wanted: The Perfect Pet and it arrived from Book Depository finally! The book has gorgeous little cartoon drawings and lots of the pages have so much extra detail for kids to read. Anyway I had to get it - the boy in the book is called Henry!

Day 177 - Back to Ikea

Well part of this weekend in Sydney was to be spent at Ikea, finalising our wall unit purchase. Thankfully this wasn't as awful as the last time we came here on the long weekend. The crowds were slightly less thick and we were able to fairly easily work out what we needed and go and pick all 37 components in the warehouse!

Day 176 - Happy Birthday Dani!

In Sydney for the weekend, for Dani's birthday! Here is Dani with a delicious cake that Mum made right before we sang Happy Birthday. We had a great dinner cooked by David - an entree with scallops and mains was pork on parsnip mash with caramelised apples. I have to say that I am glad he cooked using his backup plan, because I had heard a rumour earlier in the day that he would be doing a dish with rabbit. Being someone who used to have a pet rabbit, I couldn't do that one! Happy Birthday Dani!

Day 175 - Delivery!

I love getting things in the mail, especially something I have ordered online, such as these gorgeous new red boots. On the way to Sydney for the weekend, but I made sure that I stopped in at the post office to pick these up on my way home from work. It's funny, I don't really like the woman who works down at the post office; most recently she got a bit shirty with me for asking about a parcel that Dale had already picked up. But she must have been happy that it was Friday today, striking up a conversation with Henry and being fairly friendly! Looks like I am welcome back! :P

Day 174 - Haircut Day

Another blissful couple of hours, relaxing while having my hair done! If only it was more often! This is my favourite hair product and it actually does let my hair dry straight without frizz. I love it!

Day 173 - Patience is the Key!

I have not made risotto for a long time (besides the baked cheats versions) because I have never been successful. However the above is my second successful risotto in the last few weeks and I have discovered the key! Accept that it will take 20 mins of stirring and adding stock... don't have the heat so high that the liquid evaporates and then you will find that it actually does work after all! This was a mushroom one that I made, which had a variety of as many different mushrooms I could find at our local Woolies (not many) plus I used some dried shitakes as well.

Day 172 - Found!

Yes - it was in bed... phew!

Day 171 - Lost!

This is one half of my favourite pair of earrings, that Dale gave me a few years ago... Looking for its partner probably lost at school or hopefully in my car! Dale has really good taste in jewellery; from memory these were for no reason, but when he does give me jewellery it is always the kind of thing I would choose myself, all the way down to my engagement ring which he had some part in designing :-)

Day 170 - New Shoes to Celebrate Day 170!

Do I really need a reason to buy new purple suede shoes? No... I really don't!

Day 169 - Pantry Corner to Be!

When we moved into our place about 3 years ago, I had the brilliant idea (yes I think I shall take credit) to build a walk in pantry in the corner of the family room, which is opposite the kitchen. Although we have a great modern kitchen, it is pretty low on storage and actually has no pantry. Anyway, the other week we finally bought all the materials. I am slightly disappointed because it was supposed to be started this weekend, but Dan (Dale's brother who is building it) and his wife have decided to fit in a trip away with their new bub before Dan goes back to work. I shall continue to organise it in my mind, meanwhile!

Day 168 - Dinner In

For the last few months a group of us from work, past and present, have made a point to have dinner out, but on this night (being the middle of Winter in Canberra) we decided on a night in! We had a few homemade soups and a delicious dessert made by Sarah at Bev's house. Bev's house really is a good pick for a venue considering she has her very own home cinema downstairs. After dinner we enjoyed The King's Speech which I hadn't seen yet. What a great movie. Geoffrey Rush was fantastic as was Colin Firth. I also loved Helena Bonham Carter - she looked exactly like the Queen Mother in her younger days. I am not up on all the royal story from that long ago, but figured out who everyone was, as soon as I saw her with her hair done Queen mum style.

Day 167 - Nothing Beats Dinner!

I know, I know... it's another photo of Henry eating! At least I am not posting the one where he had fruit and custard all over his chin. You should also know that dessert was followed by just one more carrot. Any time is a good time for extra vegies!

Day 166 - Sleep Anyone?

I have to admit that my thoughts have turned to sleep of late, with a few unsettled nights with Henry. I tend to think that at his age, he most likely isn't hungry when he wakes, but is still learning to resettle himself (it only happens randomly). During the day he is settling himself to sleep now and he has been for a few weeks, however nights are a different story. After a long day everyone feels a little more fragile I guess. At any rate, cutting out either the 11pm or 3am feed would make a huge difference to the amount of sleep that I am getting, and I am sure that a smoother night of sleep would be good for Henry too!

Day 165 - Reading With Dad

We have just adjusted Henry's bed time routine to include a book and it is a bit hit and miss! Sometimes he is just too tired, sometimes he gets most of the pleasure out of opening and shutting the book, but also (as the photo shows) sometimes he sits still and enjoys! I know I was told at some professional learning course last year how important it was for boys to see their fathers read, so that they don't get the idea that reading is a girl thing, so I think it is great that this is who Henry is doing most of his reading with so far. I also read this week that it doesn't matter if baby is more interested in opening and closing the book than reading, it is all "reading behaviour"! :-D

Day 164 - Henry's Hats

When I finally get around to starting Henry's baby album (first birthday is soon!) there is sure to be a page dedicated to Henry's love of hats! From sunhats to beanies and even a pirate hat, hats amuse him quite a bit! In this picture he is wearing his Opa's hat while he eats his breakfast!

Day 163 - Ikea Here We Come

I really used to like shopping at Ikea when it was in Blacktown, but today we went to the new (well not really new) store at Homebush Bay. Now I love shopping, but this was unbelievable. A wet long weekend, everyone had decided to go shopping and the Rhodes Shopping Centre carpark was just the start. Dale was quite excited when we first arrived (can you tell from the picture?) but excitement soon turned to exhaustion. Now as it was all too hard to decide on which wall unit components to get, we will have to go back again with our prepared list in a few weeks!

Day 162 - Peek a Boo!

Queens Birthday weekend and another trip to Sydney so that Dale could do a track day at Eastern Creek on Monday. I sat in the back to give Henry a bottle after he woke up and then spent the last hour playing Peek a Boo with him and taking photos (another thing he likes) to pass the time. I imagine a car trip is pretty boring for a such a tiny little man!

Day 161 - Unfit for His Usual Occupation

Yes, another day home today with Henry, so I thought that I had better take him to the doctor and get a medical certificate since I had a day off before a long weekend! He seems to be fully in recovery mode luckily. Anyway, I just love that the medical certificate states that Henry is unfit for his usual occupation... no playing for you!

Day 160 - Looking After My Pearly Whites

Well as you can see me in the background of this photo, I have to admit that Dale is today's guest photographer! Henry has taken very well to his little toothbrush that my dentist gave me, and here he is after his bath "brushing" his teeth. Clever huh?

Day 159 - A Day Off

Well illness is going all around day care at the moment and although I think maybe they sent Henry home slightly over cautiously yesterday, I didn't really mind having to have a forced day at home today! Here is Henry eating his lunch, making me feel like a fraud since he didn't appear to be that unwell. I did think that I would get some time to do reports while he was sleeping, but no such luck as he decided to only have one 20 minute sleep today. Cheeky!

Day 158 - That Time of Year Again

Yes, the time of year that every teacher hates... school reports. I finally started writing my comments tonight. It is always such a huge extra workload added on top of all the usual stuff and I have been worried about being able to get it all done, since our evenings can be unpredictable. Now as long as Henry doesn't start teething again I should be able to get a lot of it done while he is asleep in the evenings. Everything else will have to be put on hold for now!

Day 157 - Must Read

I was pretty vague this week and picked up two copies of Donna Hay Magazine instead of grabbing a copy of Delicious. I have the biggest pile of magazines to read in the school holidays since I haven't had much time during term; quite a few cooking mags, as well as In Style and copies of Marie Claire still in their plastic wrappers since I have a subscription! I can't wait to get stuck into them and maybe even cook some of the more time consuming dishes in some of them.

Day 156 - Pantry Dream Begins to Take Shape!

Well we have been talking about it since we moved into this house, but finally today we bought the materials to build a walk in pantry. Dale's brother is pretty handy in this kind of stuff and so they are going to start it on a weekend soon. I can't wait to have all the extra storage and get our kitchen sorted!

Day 155 - Get Up, Stand Up!

It's hard to believe that Henry has only been crawling a few weeks and now he loves to get up onto his feet and just stand around! He is very pleased with himself when he does it and I had no idea how tall he actually is :)

Day 154 - Future's So Bright

Henry knew he looked good in Dale's glasses this morning! Fascinated by glasses, he is always trying to pull them off anyone's face if they are close enough!

Day 153 - Reminder - Stick 'em in Their Case!

Last week I lost my Maui Jim sunglasses and I was so happy to have them returned by Friday. Ironically on the weekend they broke while I was cleaning them and I had to buy some new ones! Anyway, when I found the exact same ones in Sunglass Hut, I was pretty amazed to find that they retailed for $400. This was pretty unexpected as they were a corporate gift from Dale's work when we flew to Borneo last January. Liking my new ones in the pic, but I will be sure to keep them in their case instead of on my head from now on, when I am not wearing them!

Day 152 - Royal Mail

Finally today my Will and Kate Paper Dolls arrived via Book Depository! I love cute things like these and no I won't be cutting up this book... it's a keepsake. I used to love paper dolls when I was little, so it is a real flashback to see these :-)