Standing & Playing

First and formost . . . our girl is now standing!! She decided to start yesterday with no warning, and managed to do it about 8 times in a row whilst Great-Nana was watching on Skype . . . what a show off. And just to reinforce she can do it, Nonna and Dad got to see it last night and she is still doing it today. We are so proud of her!

And while I am at it, here are some photos of the two of us playing this morning:

Hanging in the air:

Playing peek-a-boo in the tunnel:

"Where did it go?"

Blowing bubbles with Mummy:

She loves crawling through her tunnel, turning around and crawling back through it again:

"Hhhmmmm . . . I think my ball is under here somewhere":

Motorbikes

The other day Rob was cleaning his bike in order to sell it (any buyers out there . . . give us a call!). Poppy decided that she would do some tinkering on her bike as well just to be the same as Daddy.
Later they posed together so that Poppy has something to aspire to . . .

And because she was such a good girl and budding mechanic she got to have a ride on the big bike . . . YIPPPEE

Please excuse the blue clothing . . . she is still a girl underneath it all . . . although it looks a little deceiving!

Eating versus Drinking

Poppy had a play date today with her friend Sam. These guys are just three days apart. It was too cute watching them hang out.


Turns out though that it is apparently easier to drink dessert of banana and pear than it is to eat it.

Poppys' Dedication + more

Well I guess the big news of the last few weeks has been that Poppy is now dedicated. We had a lovely weekend, where she got to meet her Uncle Nick (aka Nuck) for the first time as he was in transit between Canada and Hayman Island, her Poppa came over from NZ for 24 hours and her Nonna stayed with us for just over a week.


The dress she wore at her dedication was made in Switzerland in about 1912 and comes down from Merilyn's Great Grandmother (I think I have that right!). Many of the Matthews clan have been dedicated in it over the years, including Rob. It is a beautiful dress and Poppy just looked adorable in it (as you can tell by the photos).



Despite a last minute venue change on the day everyone managed to arrive on time and witness the beautiful event. Ps Col Usher dedicated her, which was a really nice touch since he was also the one to marry Rob and I, 2.5 years ago. And then it was followed up by lunch and hanging out at our house. It was an ultra hot winter day, where the temperature got up to about 31°C I think.

It was also seemed to make sense that we made the dedication our last service at Brisbane City Church. So with everyone around us we sadly farewelled a church that we have called home for the past 14 years combined to move to a more local Baptist church. We are really looking forward to the times ahead, meeting new people and getting connected into our local area.

In developmental news, Poppy loves standing up, including watching the bath fill up with water each evening, is slowly taking her first steps and loves walking behind her bike I am currently hiring from the Toy Library for a month (photos to come), and the other morning I found her splashing in the left over shower water! Now every time I leave her unattended in the bathroom, she makes a beeline for the puddles.


Its' not going to be long till she is walking I don't think, but I have decided that she should first learn to clap and maybe crawl on her knees. We will see how that goes for me!

In Work news, there has been a whole lot happenning. To cut quite a long story short, (if you want the whole story ring us, we would love to hear from you!) Rob is now working 4 days a week and I have taken on a promotion at work, where I work 16hrs a week from home and 8 of those hours are on Friday when Rob and Poppy have Daddy Daughter day. Its been two weeks officially so far and its a three month trial (part of the long story that you don't know) but I'm really enjoying the mental challenge of it all.

I am learning (very quickly) how to be a Sales and Marketing Assitant for a company called Sitecore who sells Content Management Software for websites. There are only 5 of us in Australia and we all work from home, so very flexible hours which is exactly what I need.

That's all for now folks!

CRAWLING

Yup you heard it here first. Our 6.5 month old little girl is officially on the move . . . forwards!! For about 6 weeks she has been quite happily working her way backwards around the room as she so desires, finding it far simpler than rolling everywhere.

But as of two days ago the temptation to reach her spoon was far too great, that what would normally warrant heading in the opposite direction and twisting and turning until by some fluke she would end up where she wanted (if at all) she suddenly decided she wanted to take the most direct option. Good on her I say!

And here is the video to prove it . . .



That's all!

Here are my excuses . . .

For not updating you earlier on our antics:

Since we left you last Rob and Poppy had just had their first swimming lesson together. That was 2 months ago. We haven't had a swimming lesson again until Saturday just been. But none the less it was like she had never left the water. She loved it.


NEW ZEALAND

Mum decided that she missed her and hadn't seen her for a few weeks / months so Poppy and I flew to NZ for 5 days so that they could hang out together and have some quality time. It was lovely, because Mum got to babysit, we had a great lunch with Dad and checked out his renovations, saw a few friends and all in all just chilled out. Literally that is, considering the mornings were 2°C, but thankfully the beautiful blue skies through the day helped defrost us:

Poppy got to play with her friend Madeline:


We played at the park down in St Heliers:

Most mornings Nonna got to give Poppy a bottle in bed whilst watching TV:

Poppy made a new best friend:

Poppy and Poppa deep in conversation:


SOLIDS
Unfortunately for me Poppy was ready for solids while we were in NZ, and so she kept waking in the night. That meant they day after we got back to Australia she started on one meal a day. She LOVES them! Now we are on 3 meals a day, including porridge, chicken, avocado, banana, broccoli, apple, pear, pumpkin, kumera to name a few. Porridge is by far the messiest of them all!

The kitchen after my first attempt to puree pumpkin . . . I have got it down to a fine(r) art now!

Poppy loving her food:


HERVEY BAY
At very short notice Rob had to take a week off work to use up some leave he had accruing. We decided that this was our opportunity to head to Hervey Bay, somewhere we had been meaning to go for a long time, but had just never got around to it.

Also being on the cusp of the whale season meant that we were able to head out on a boat to have a go at whale watching. Turns out there weren't any whales and instead we had 80% of the boat vomiting around us. Poppy thought it was hilarious. Thankfully the skipper thought it best that we turned around and spent the next 1.5 hrs motoring back to shore. We were grateful for the free return tickets the company gave us for not seeing whales. I think we will use them during the middle of the season when things warm up, and the sea settles down!!

A family photo on the boat:

Poppy and Rob on her first ever boat trip:


We didn't see any whales but we did see a dingo heading up Fraser Island:


And that's a summary of it all. The next development is the most exciting of all though (so far!)

First Swimming Lesson

This morning Penelope and Rob had their first swimming lesson together. About a 10 minute from our house (directly opposite Bunnings) the council has just opened up a swimming complex with and indoor and an outdoor pool. The indoor pool is set up predominantly for kids swimming lessons which is very handy. They start the kids at 4 months, so now Poppy is 4 months and 4 days we decided to give a lesson a go and see how she went . . . turns out she LOVED it!!

We went with one of Robs work mates Mat and his daughter Sam, while Alison and I took photos from the sideline, wishing we were in the water with them.

They sang lots of songs, put their ears (not faces) under and tried to learn about blowing bubbles. The main skills they teach at this age is learning to grab the edge of the pool, or your clothing as well as confidence. Their were no tears, a few hand splashes and lots of leg kicking!!

Rob, Poppy, Mat & Sam getting ready to hop in the pool with the instructor:

Having fun whilst posing for the camera:

Learning to reach for the duck at the edge of the pool:

Of course the obligatory movie:



Poppy & Sam getting changed on the change table afterward (these guys are two days apart):


And for something totally unrelated, before we went to swimming this morning Rob and Poppy were reading a 4WD magazine in bed while Mum got up and had breakfast. I think they may even have the same facial expressions!


Too cute!