Eva

One month has past! We can't believe our little girl has been in the world for almost 5 weeks now and is rapidly growing and changing.  She is developing her own lovely little personality - a little bit cheeky and a little bit stubborn, but mostly she has been very gentle and affectionate and generally quite happy in her own company, or socialising with others.  We have yet to figure out what her hair is going to be like.....there is a high possibility that some curls will make an appearance but we're not quite sure.  Her eyes are still blue so not sure whether they will turn green like her mum or a weird collection of blue with brown specks like her dad.  She is gaining weight, reaching 4.5kg at her last weigh in and she is now 57cm long, which means we have outgrown a lot of newborn clothing already!  Eva is starting to smile a lot now and can recognise us which is nice.  There is also the bonus of her sleeping reasonably well at night so long may that continue!

We have joined a new mum's group with another 15 girls, so we meet every Thursday afternoon for a couple of hours to swap our stories, give advice and get some encouragement from each other.  We have a really lovely bunch of girls so hopefully we will continue to meet once the initial organised 5 week period comes to an end.   Our partners are invited to a pizza night next week so they can get to meet other dads too.  An excellent idea!

As for outings,  she was a little angel at my work christmas party two weeks ago - stayed up for 15 minutes of cuddles with my work mates before going to sleep for 4 hours.  Perfect!  We also managed a trip to Melbourne which was fantastic as she slept most of the car journey and looked out the window for the remainder.  We have yet to leave her with a friend so that Bob and I can go out just the two of us (I'm still feeling quite apprehensive!!) although I'm sure this is normal, especially when we don't have our mums/sisters etc to call on for first time babysitting!  This Saturday, our friend Vicki Glen (who has two grown up children, hurrah) is popping round to look after Eva so we can pop into town for a coffee and go for a walk.  I'm sure I'll be rushing back before the hour is up but Bob will probably encourage me to stay out longer!

The weather here is hotting up - today it is 32C - so we have to time our daily outings in the pram to early morning or early evening otherwise Eva is stripped off to just her nappy as the pram turns into a rather uncomfortable sauna.  Not particularly pleasant.  Bob has been out walking with her in the Baby Bjorn sling which she quite likes  and today, I had her in the sling while I was hoovering to try and get her to sleep - it worked!  Hurrah for 'white noise'.

I can't say I'm missing work at all at the moment.  I know Bob is finding it quite hard being back at work as he would like to be at home with us rather than at his desk.  I'm still hoping to return to work in February/March for a couple of mornings each week and gradually build up my hours depending on what we can arrange for childcare. We only have a couple of weeks before we fly home though and we are so excited to see everyone.  Let's just hope this passport makes an appearance in the next week or so!!

Not feeling festive at all - it's far too hot and sunny for Christmas trees here!

Here are some pics xxxx