Update

Deborah is working out at Ayres Rock now and wants the blog to be updated. What about her blog? That's what I want to know.

Anyways...

Not a lot is actually happening here. Noah is doing well. He feeds fairly regularly during the day but at night he gets fed about 9 o'clock, then at about 3am, then at about 7am. It isn't too bad. He's already wearing 000 clothes, which Bayli wasn't wearing until she was three months old. Nan and Pop reckon he'll be crawling any day now-- apparently he pretty much got up on his hands and knees the other day but neither Kel or I witnessed it.

Bayli helped decorate the xmas tree the other day. Then she spent about an hour playing with this book thing that has a 3D scene inside and plays music when you open it. She loves it. She is starting to read now as well. She recognises about half the alphabet most of the time and can tell you a word or two that the letters stand for. She even works some out herself. We normally say window starts with W but the other day, out of the blue, she told us that water also starts with W.

And Bayli also had her first hair cut the other day. She took it pretty well. She was a bit unsure at first then she was great. She got a certificate.

Kel has been reading my Brighest Light novel. As soon as she finishes I'll be going through it as well and then I'll be sending it to Stephanie Smith at Harper Collins, who currently has the updated version of Singing Other Worlds.

Christmas presents are getting organised. Kel and I lashed out last week and spent $5 on a little TV cabinet type thing that we are going to turn into a kitchen for Bayli. She also has lots of kitchen stuff to go with it. We'll post pictures when it's finished.

And, most important of all... I scored 31 runs in cricket yesterday. 31 may not sound like a lot, but for me it is.

Finally

It is finally done.

At about 5am today, Noah Robinson decided to make an appearance. He weighed 9 pounds 7 ounces apparently, which is about 4.5kg' apparently. I really don't care about those sort of details. He has all the bits he's supposed to have and is in good health as far as everyone knows. Kel is in pretty good health as well. There were complications, again, but they've been sorted and everything should be fine.

Kel has already had two more visitors in hospital than she did with Bayli, which demonstrates one of the reasons we are moving back to Brisbane.

All the grand parents have been there, of course, but an Aunt and Uncle came up from Ipswich.

That all for now. I need sleep.

The Waiting Game

Well, I'm officially due to have the baby today...and don't feel anywhere close to going into labour. I'm considering heading down to the hospital anyway. Surely if I explain that they told me I'm due today they'll arrange everything accordingly?

In all seriousness though, at my appointment this week they've told me that if I'm still going for my appt. next week they'll book me in for an induction on Mon 2nd Nov at the latest. That feels like a really long way away. After having Bayli three weeks early I already feel overdue!

So I guess it's out of my hands, it's either up to the baby or the doctors. Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Life is traveling much the same in other areas. Living in the shed is still cosy and going pretty good. Did Scott mention the fabulous 'window' he made us? It's basically a frame that we've screwed in front of one of the garage doors. The top half is covered in shadecloth which lets in all the air and light without all the flies and mozzies, and the bottom has some colourbond type sheeting covering it. We just open it by raising the garage door from the inside. Did I mention that it's FABULOUS? We don't need the lights on during the day now, and it's much cooler too. My husband is a good man.

Bayli is great too, of course. Scott dressed her this morning and she headed straight outside. 15 secs later she comes back in saying 'Hat. Hat.' and went to get her hat before going back out again. 15 secs after that she came back in saying 'Sun-cream. Sun-cream.' So we put her suncream on and out she went again. 5 mins later she came in saying 'Nappy. Nappy. Poo-wee.' And yes, it did smell an awfull lot like her description. What made it even cuter is that Scott was the one who changed her.

That reminds me of some other exciting news. (That's a bit of a worry isn't it?) Bayli did her first wee on the toilet last weekend!! She's been asking to sit on the toilet for a couple of weeks now so we started sitting her on it at bath time, when we change her nappy etc (we haven't been full on toilet training because I'm so close to having the baby). So on Sunday we took her down for a bath and sat her on the toilet and she peed! Very exciting. She hasn't done another one yet, but that's okay, you've got to start somewhere.

Scott has just sent the restructured version of his troll novel (minus the troll) to a publisher who's seen the old version. So fingers crossed. He's nearly finished working on his Skylands novel and the same publisher has said that she'd like to see that one too.

I can't think of anything else newsworthy for now so I'll sign off.

Hopefully we'll have some more exciting news anyday now...

All's Well

Bayli has been going to day care for a few weeks now, two days a week. When we get there in the mornings she generally rushes up to the door, but just as she steps through she realises that we'll be leaving her there on her own. So then she starts to cry or clings to someones leg. She isn't all that happy when we leave, but apparently does pretty good during the day. The first few times we picked her up before nap time. Then we waited until after she'd woken up and she was lying in bed saying, "Mummy, daddy, mummy, daddy..." and started crying when we arrived. Last time she was eating afternoon tea though and smiled. Soon we'll be dragging her away.

She is now officially a big girl in a big girl's bed at home. When she's tired she says, "Sleepy," and goes in and climbs on the bed. And a couple of times she's climbed back out and knocked on the door (which is very cute). And once she fell out as well-- there was screaming and blood from a split lip. Books are still one of her favourite things and now Kel and I can actually stay on one page long enough to read the words. It's very exciting.

Bayli still loves going for walks around the yard at home and is always asking to go on the swing. And she can repeat just about any word she hears, which is great until someone swears. She also loves knocking on doors. All we need to do now is get her to say who it is when someone says, "Who's there."

I still haven't found work. Had a few interviews. Got to the final five with one job and may have another but it all seems very dodgy. (Unroadworthy motorbike for delivering mail, among other things.)

Unfortunately I haven't been using my spare time to do writing as often as I should. I've been doing a bit on The Brighest Light but not a lot. Would like to get it done by mid october to enter it in a competition but I don't like the odds.

I've signed up to play cricket with Stafford again. I checked out the local Woodford team but it was going to cost more money to play on concrete pitches. It'll be a fifty minute drive to home games at Stafford but I can get a lift with Ash (about half an hour away) if I want. It should all be fine. First game is this coming Sunday. That will be interesting.

Kel and I had our second anniversary last month and my parents and sister treated us to a night on Bribie Island (and looked after Bayli while we were gone). We had a cabin ovorlooking the water and a picnic hamper and Kel's parents paid for dinner and the petrol to get there. So thank you very much to everyone involved there. Especially Kel. It was great-- very relaxing and just what we need with another baby arriving shortly.

Speaking of which... Kel is doing well. She is doing lots of card making and is generally pretty busy with that and running around after Bayli. This pregnancy seems to be effecting her much less than the last one. Still no sign of the IC or the low blood pressure, which is great. There's only six weeks to go so it is all starting to get very real. Again. We've done a tour of the maternity ward at Caboolture hospital and it seems much better than Kingaroy. There will be two midwives with us this time, so they can read New Idea and Womans Day in shifts. It'll be great.

We have a double pram already, the trouble is, it takes up about 7/8ths of the boot. When we put a second baby seat in the back seat there won't be a lot of room for other stuff, like luggage or shopping or dogs or cricket gear, or whatever. We've been looking at buying something bigger than a Pulsar but can't really afford it at the moment.

Thats all for now.

Kel here.

Apparently I'm way overdue to add something to the blog, so here I am.

Well, we've settled very nicely into what Scott calls the "Bungalow". I refer to it as the "Cottage" so keep that in mind as you continue reading or things may start to get very confusing. It's actually working really well. In fact Scott's folks may be very thankful that there's no running water in the kitchen and the middle of the night (pregnant) toilet breaks are a pain in the butt, otherwise we might've decided to settle in permanently. Although I won't be pregnant forever... but that may just lead to a whole new set of inconveniences.

We've all had colds this last week. It started with Bayli, who seems to have escaped with the mildest dose, but didn't take long for me, Scott and Nan to succum. Scott's mum and I have had it the worst, every time we think we've kicked it, BANG, back it comes full-force again. I seem to be improving again today so hopefully I'm finally seeing the last of it.

I took Bayli to Playgroup Thursday week ago. Hmm... where to start? I don't think we'll be going back in a hurry. There was HEAPS of equipment but everything seemed really dirty. Morning tea wasn't too bad until I realised that the bowl of biscuits that the kids had been generously helping themselves to (and parents had been returning handfuls to the bowl deemed too excessive) were tipped into a container ready to be brought out again for the next group of children. And don't even get me started on the art experience, I'm getting worked up just remembering.

Fortunately I've found a lovely alternative. On Friday mornings the Caboolture Shire Community Somethingorother holds a Community Cuppa at the Library in Woodford. The kids have morning tea provided and then play in the library and then they have storey time etc. Much nicer. The other parents seem very friendly and there's a child health nurse there too if you want to check anything with them. The same group have also started their own playgroup in their building next to the Library. This is held on Tuesdays and is apparently very clean and free (the other playgroup made you pay $3 plus bring a plate of food to share) so we will be checking this out too.

That's really all the exciting (?) happenings from the Cottage lately. Bayli will be graduating to a single bed in the next couple of weeks which I'm sure will make life interesting for us. We'll let you know the results.

Chapter 3: The Bungalow

So, apparently it's been too long between posts. And it isn't as if nothing has happened.

We are now living in my parent's garage-- or as we like to call it, the bungalow. (well, not really, but anyway.)

The move was absolutely horrible. The were a thousand trailer loads of stuff, and there would have been one more if not for the deal we struck with our new tenants. The guy who took over my job at Storey wanted the house but couldn't get out of his old lease. So we said we would let them start renting on the 8th of this month if we could leave some stuff behind and skip the last bit of the cleaning. Thank god the agreed. We didn't get back to the bungalow until about 9pm (after leaving there at 7am). If we'd had to do the rest... And realistically it cost us a weeks rent at most.

Living in the Bungalow actually isn't all that bad. It's basically a triple garage, which is plenty of room for the three of us. When number 4 arrives in a couple of months (oh my god, is it that close?) it will get interesting. Both Bayli and Pip love it here. They both love wandering around the yard (together, quite often), and are always wandering in and out. I'm not sure which of them has the most energy, though Pip is quicker, just. Pop made a sand pit about two days after we moved in.

It took a while to get the TV going, and longer for the internet. The xbox was pretty quick. And we are slowly whittling down the boxes in my parent's other shed.

No work for me yet, though I have applied for heaps.

So, the Nanango chapter is finished. And we move on.

Getting Closer

Like the title says.

Tomorrow is my last day at Storey. Another two weeks at Australia Post though. And then... moving. Ha;f of our crap is alrady in Woodford. More will be going this weekend (though not much-- just a boot full.)

The garage is getting lined this weekend. My parents have found some cheap, second hand (or something like that) carpet. So it is all coming together.

Kel went to the hospital at Caboolture yesterday. Two hour there and two hours back-- they made the appointment without consulting us and then said the next available one (if we wanted to postpone) was not for another 2 months. Which is strange, seeing they would only have gotten the referal from the doctor out her at Nanango two weeks ago. They had a rush of bookings after that, apparently. She has to go back in another three weeks to actually see a doctor. It was supposed to be two weeks but she managed, just, to convince them otherwise. The baby (the new one) is doing well, apparently. Bayli is doing great. Kel is doing tired.

The wardrobe has been constructed. Woo hoo. Needs to be painted then have the doors added (which are going to cost us $380.) Then the floor needs to be sanded. Concrete under the A/C. And a lot of little jobs. Hopefully it will all be done. We'll be having a garage sale, if anyone wants to buy some bnooks or a stove or a TV or... stuff.

It's Official

It is now official.

It's twins.

No, just kidding. Unless one of the babies was very good at hiding during teh ultra-sound.

What is official is that we are moving. I've handed in notice at both of my jobs. My last day at Storey will be May 29 and at Australia Post it will be June 12. So, hopefully we will be moving pretty soon after that. I have put my name down on the Asutralia Post website for work at Caboolture and told them I was available from the 19th so...

Kel has been getting migranes pretty bad. She had to call my mother the other day to ask her to come up and look after Bayli. Dad came as well, with the trailer, and they took back a load of boxes and other stuff. Thankfully a lot is still packed up from when we moved last time. There's still a lot of crap though.

And a fair bit of work to do on the house before we can rent it out. Concreting to do, wardrobes to build, bedrooms to plaster and paint and floors to sand (which will actually complete the renovations we started three days before Bayli was born). Okay the plurals weren't necessary-- it's actually only one of each of those things.

What else? Bayli walks nonstop now. It's go, go, go all day long. Except when she's eating or sleeping.

I think that's all for now.

More updates when something happens.

Breaking News

We have some big news...

It's twins.

No. Just kidding. Though when Kel said that to our parents on saturday night she got a great reaction from her mother.

Actually, we're moving to Melbourne.

Sorry, just kidding about that too. But Kel got an even better reaction from her mother when she said that about 10 seconds after she said about the twins.

We are moving though. Back to Brisbane. It may be a two stage process involving a garage at my parent's place, depending on stuff like home loan fine print and house prices. Neither of us absolutely hate it out here, but the are just little things that helped make up our minds. What ever happens, it will probably be happening in about july or something like that.

What else is happening?

Bayli had her first Easter. She got an Easter book (which I've been getting since I was a kid) and I think she may have received a couple of eggs as well, which she hasn't eaten yet. We spent the four days at my parents' place (Marty and Sharon also came up on Saturday night) and Bayli was going wild with all the walking. She still gets very excited about it. She's still very cute.

She obviously get hot (warm) food and it is often a bit too hot, so we have to blow on it. Bayli has started blowing (sometimes) as soon as we sit down with food. She also drank a tiny dribble of ginger beer today, the taste of which was a bit of a surprise for her.

It's her birthday on Wednesday (and mine on Sunday) so we are heading to Brisbane fo the big party on the weekend. Hopefully the weather improves. And on Tues/Wenesday after that I have the Aus Post motor cycle training. Hopefully the weather improves.

I have also finished the major re-edit of my novel. Just some polishing to go.

Kel hasn't been feeling the best today so it's great news that tomorrow is school holiday and she has no kids (other than Bayli) to look after.

By the way, twins haven't actually, officially, been ruled out yet...

That's all for now.

Hope everyone (all five people who read this) had a great easter.

Walkies

In case you haven't already guessed from the last post, Bayli finally started to walk unassisted. Woo hoo. I did have to stand her upright and let go. The first time she stood on her own for about 10 seconds. The second time she took about 2 steps. And the third time it was about four. She can stand for ages and has reached about six steps now. She gets very excited but still needs encouragement to let go of something she holding on to. Still pretty cool. And she's getting steadier all the time.

Tonight we're heading for Woodford then up to Moolooabah tomorrow to take Bayli to the beach for the first time. Nan and Pop are already up there staying in a caravan park. They've bought a bucket and spade for her. A triathlon has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works-- ie there will be roads closed off and parking will be a bitch, but you get that.

What else?

Oh yeah, it has been mentioned on facebook and stuff, but Kel may be a little bit pregnant. The official due date is October 23 (I think), so it isn't far along yet. But that's all a bit exciting too. Because of the ICP situation last time we're getting an appointment with a obstetrician in Brisbane. The end result will probably be inducement at 36 weeks, but we'll have to see.

Bayli Video

Like the title says, here is a video of Bayli, just because we can.

Books and Bikes

I think I said in one of the previous posts about how two people rang about job interviews in the couple of days after I started working at Storey Electrical. Well, I forgot about it the other day, but the first day I was at Aus Post, madly sorting letters, someone rang and asked if I was still looking for work. Seriously. I hate it when that happens. Oh well. Speaking of work though, I have to go to Brisbane next month for some motor cycle training. Then soon after that I will be riding around Kingaroy learning some mail runs so if someone's sick I can fill in. That should be pretty cool.

Now, according to the experts the best way to get kids interested in reading is to have books around and be seen reading books. Kel, Bayli and I have proven this to be correct. We've always wanted to read to Bayli. We did it occasionally when she was little (littler than she is now) but it's a lot of work when they have an attention span of about 2 seconds then just start squirming and crying and tearing pages or... whatever. So we never did it all that much. But now... When Bayli goes to her toy box, more often than not a book is the first thing she pulls out. And she's started holding books out and whining until someone reads it for her. We were visiting Josh and Leanne the other day and they had some toys out for her. So of course, Bayli grabbed the only book and took it to Leanne (who she's seen about 3 times in her entire life) for her to read. Leanne started reading several times before getting caught up in the adult conversation... And each time Bayli took the book off her and gave it back so she could start again. It was great.

Of course it sucks that if Kel or I sit down with a book to read for five minutes, Bayli has to immediately forget what she was doing and come read with us... Arghhh... Oh well, shouldn't complain. I think I'd be devestated if she didn't like books and reading.

For Deborah

Scott here.

In one of the previous post I wondered what a baby would do with a tracksuit with pockets. Well, how about this...

I'm not sure exactly what age group Dora the Explorer is aimed at. 4 year olds? 5 year olds? Six year olds? What ever age it is, I'm pretty sure they don't need address books. With spots to put down phone numbers and email addresses as well as the actual address. Now, Bayli sends emails all the time, obviously, but the address book is so tiny that she can't write small enough to fit all her friends' details in the areas provided. Oh well, she'll just have to learn how to use the address book on the computer.

Speaking of addresses (see how I did that) I started my new job on monday. I didn't finish my old one, which means I'm working two jobs to support my family. And the link to addresses is (if you remember my beautiful segue) that the job is at the Australia Post delivery centre in Kingaroy. So, from 7:30 til about 10:30 I sort mail. Then I have about two hours for lunch then go to my other job. If people are sick I may also deliver mail in the mornings.

Kel and Bayli are both doing great. Bayli still isn't walking on her own, but she's thinking about it. Kel walks all the time...

She actually spent all her spare time recently making cards (I may have mentioned this in a previous post, I can't remember) to sell at the markets. Well, on Saturday morning we got up at 4am to go to the said markets. We set up the stall-- two tiny tables in about 25 square meters of allotted space. It looked like a car parked in the middle of a soccer field-- but it was a good looking car. The we waited for a while. Then I went off to get hot chocolate. We I got back, Kel was completing our first sale-- to a woman she knows from Family Day Care. Apparently she felt sorry for us. We sat around for a while longer and made another couple of sales-- to complete strangers this time. Then I went to get some food. And we made another couple of sales. Lots of people were saying how wonderful the cards were, but most were then continuing on without parting with any money. Most people actually walked past without really looking. Just like they walked past most other stalls without really looking.

At the end of the day (if only when we left the markets was the end of the day) after you take out the food and drinks, I think we made a profit of about $12. Though that doesn't count the cost of materials and the 5000 man hours that went into making the cards. And Kel got two enquiries about card making classes, which was the real point of the whole exercise. So, overall, not what we were hoping for.

We would like to thank our parents for help with Bayli minding (I'm sure it was a chore for them) and my mother for making cards. And Deborah for cutting stuff out for cards.

After the markets we drove to Toowoomba for Andy and Katrina's engagement party. That was nice. Good food. Nice people. Long drive home. We got back about 9:45 and fell into bed. Thank god for grand parents-- we were able to sleep in this morning.

That's all for now.

Rejected

Scott here.

I sent my novel away to a publisher last year and have been waiting to hear. I sent an email to them nea the end of october and the editor/reader person said, "Give me until the end of the month". The end of october came and went. The end of november came and went. I sent another email. The book had passed the first round of reading (woo hoo) and could i please give them until the end of the week...

Yes I could.

The week came and went. I sent another email. The original editor person was leaving and had passed it on. A week later I sent an email to the new editor person asking about her time frame. Leave it with her.

Argh.

Anyway, last week I finally got a rejection. They sent through the readers' comments and some of them were really positive. Strong characterisation. Well written. Just too slow, basically.

Would they be interested in seeing a rewrite? Yes they would.

So since then I've cut about 70k words... Easier than it sounds-- I just decided I'd cut two of the characters (one of them is the best one in the book, unfortunately) and move their introduction to the second book. Of course, that makes book two, currently, about 220k words long. Hmmm.. maybe I now have a four book series. Damn it. I did also do some other trimming.

I am also adding a bit more action into the parts of book 1 that remain. Moving the introduction of an alien character to earlier, which will actually strengthen the story in what is currently book 2. So all in all it might just work, if I can only get someone to buy it.

I also wrote a picture book story the other day. Megan, (brother-in-law's girlfriend) might be doing the pictures. She is willing to have a look at any rate. I did ask Renee, who was looking at doing some stuff from som text I wrote earlier but she has a six week old daughter so is kinda busy. That's her excuse anyway. (Hey Renee)

Okay, what else?

Kel and I think Bayli is going to start walking at any moment. She's been pulling herself up on stuff for a while but is now eyeing off nearby furniture as if she wants to make a dash. I imagine there will be more falling than walking for a while.

Kel is looking at doing card making classes a earn a bit of extra money. I might be doing some typing or something, if I get around to making little flyer things.

That's all, I think.