My Holidays - Part 1

[More photos to follow when I get home. Also sorry for the bad formatting - mum got fed up trying to format properly so decided to give up & just post]

Well if I am not one of the most travelled 5 1/2 month olds around, I don't know who is. I've been on holiday now for nearly 2 weeks and I'm loving every minute of it. My favourite activity is smiling, followed a close 2nd by laughing and screaching. And as for all the attention I'm getting I'm loving it. I suspect Mum is dreading getting home because it will be just her and me and I'll be scourging her for attention. So details so far are as follows:

Flew Dublin-London; London-Shanghai - I played for a while on the 2nd flight and then slept for 5 or 6 hours

Arrived in Shanghai to be welcomed at the airport by Steve, Grace & Mr Hu. We were just in time to celebrate Max's birthday (although I'm too young for cake) .

6 great days in Shanghai - after a shaky start on the first night when mum & dad tried to make me sleep even though I wasn't tired, I was a great baby. We did lots of walking around and the Chinese people loved me. Dad & I felt like movie stars with all the attention we were getting. They even took my photo. I was able to play with all Max's toys and Sapphire looked after me.

Flew Shanghai - Sydney which was a great flight as we left at 20:30 and I was alseep by 21:00 and slept until just before landing

We had a great weekend in Sydney meeting the Francforts, Douglas, Barbs & Nick (Barbs nearly ate me she loved me so much). On Sunday we had a picnic on the beach with the Weilings, Francforts, Simmons, Squires, Mussareds - I had a great time and was on best behaviour
Up to Queensland (it barely counts as a flight, it was so short) and I met my boy cousins. Had a great couple of days there except we couldn't swim in their pool as it wasn't warm enough. Again I had lots of toys to play with - Liam even lent his bouncer to me. Lots more love & attention here

Up to Tewantin to stay in Nanna & Pa's house for just over a week. I'm really enjoying it here - again lots of attention as well as some lovely swims in the pool.

My Christening

I was christened a few weeks ago. We had a great day. It started off a bit stressful for mum because I was in the early stages of my new reduced feeding phase. The christening started at 12:45 and I had my first feed of the day at 12! Luckily it was enough to keep me going throughout the ceremony.
There were 4 babies altogether and all of us were very good. I got a little 'antsy' towards the end, but dad just walked me around for a couple of minutes and I settled down.

All the Dunphy family were in attendance. They are well experienced in christening attendances thanks to Ella and Ríodhna. We're all in this photo except Uncle Paul who was the designated photographer.

We had a lovely lunch in Avoca afterwards and everyone was on their best behaviour. Then we went back to our house for christening cake. All-in-all a very successful day.

[As usual the photos link through to more photos]

On the go...

Its been a busy few weeks. The weather has been way better since I last blogged on the snow, although there were a few snow showers out of the blue today. Dad nearly froze on the golf course (we don't really have much sympathy for him as he gets to play golf every week).

I haven't been that well over the last few weeks. I was sick for the first time with a temperature over 38. Dad was in charge that night because mum was out at a fancy work dinner in the Four Seasons . Her old project was nominated for an eGovernment award but they were beaten by the Livestock Marts Online project (I don't understand how that could possibly be better than Car Dealers Change of Vehicle Ownership!). Anyway, Dad administered the Calpol (for the first time) and gave me lots of love and attention and I was fine.

I haven't been feeding that well. Mum was pretty worried about me but I think she now understands that I just don't need to feed for as long as I used to. However I have started to wake up during the night (something mum & dad are not used to) because I've had a bad cold and I'm also teething quite badly. Mum has started to give me a little bit of food because she thinks I'm nearly old enough. She's worked out the secret is to mix the fruit & veggies with baby rice to get me used to the new tastes.

As you can see I'm loving my new 'Jumperoo' and also the ring that I borrowed from Carrie who is too big to use it now. However, I'll be taking a break from it for a while because I'm going on holidays. Mum & Dad have the suit cases down from the attic and they've started to pack. All the summer clothes are out. I can't believe we're going to Australia where the sun is shining all the time. I've never really been somewhere warm. I can't wait, especially as I'm going to me all my Rickard relations...yay !

Snow Snow Everywhere

While the Australians are experiencing record temperatures, bushfires and floods its been snowing here in Ireland. According to our neighbour John, the last time the snow was this bad was 1982. Obviously I have to take his word for it because this is my first winter. All I know is that it was very cold and we spent a lot of last week at home (instead of out gallivanting like we usually do).
The snow lasted over a week but we did manage a nice walk in Marley Park last Saturday. Dad did a good job not to fall over while pushing me over the icy path. Marley looked like a winter wonderland, but mum forgot to bring the camera (she was too busy worrying about getting to the farmers market to get her Saturday treat of a caramel slice) so we've no photographic evidence.

We went down to our cousins to watch the Ireland v. France rugby game. Apparently Ireland beat France for the first time in 8 encounters, but as you can see I wasn't too bothered, I was just happy to hang out with Jill, Mark, Ella and Ríodhna.

This week has been pretty busy especially because we had to catch up on so many activities that we didn't manage to do last week.

• I got my 4 month injections today. I was meant to get them on Monday but my temperature was too high so the nurse wouldn't give them too me. And it turns out the reason it was so high was not because I was sick but because mum had me all bundled up in a snow suit, a woolly hat and blanket!
• We went to the Chinese embassy to apply for my holiday visa.
• I went to the gym creche again. This time I got a little upset because the nice girls didn't realise that I don't like lying down on the ground. I'm far to nosy for that. I like to sit (slouch) up so I can see what's going on
• I went to my playgroup and baby massage. I'm making lots of new friends.
  

We're off to Wexford for the weekend. Mum can't wait cause she knows Mammó will look after us, she'll have to do no cooking and she'll get a bit of a break while Mammó spends lots of time with me.
[Click on any of the photos and you'll link to all my 2009 photos]

My First Swim

I had another busy week. Besides sitting at home with mum, taking photos of ourselves (it was a wet week so mum didn't want to bring me out too much), we did all these activities

• went to babysensory class (its an organised playgroups)
• went to baby massage, although I missed out a bit on some of the massage because I wanted to sit up and watch all the other babies instead of lying down gazing at mum while she massaged me (like my mum & mammo I'm pretty nosey)
  
• had a check-up with the public health nurse - I'm now 6.5kg (over 1 stone) and 62 cm.
• got my Australian citizenship certificate. Dad's just filled out the Aussie passport application form & Paula has kindly validated my photo, so I should have 2 passports within a few weeks
  

We only had a couple of walks because we were either too busy or it was too wet. I also had a pretty big weekend. Mum & dad had 7 people over for dinner last night. I obliged by going to bed 10 mins before the first guests arrived and there wasn't a peak out of me all night.
Today was the highlight of the week - we went swimming this afternoon. Even though it wasn't the peak busy period in the gym, there were still a good few children in the pool. It was quite noisy but I didn't get upset at all. I did lots of splashing around (dad regretted putting his contact lens in as I kept splashing water in his eyes) and was very content. I've still to decide whether or not I'll swim for Australia or Ireland. I might have more chance of making the Irish swim team. I can't wait to go again. After all I need to get some practise in before swimming in Nanna & Pa and Lee & Renae's pools in Queensland.
As usual, I have a big week of activities ahead. However, there is snow forecast which may hamper us slightly, but on the positive side I'm looking forward to seeing snow. More photos next week (or so mum says).....

Zurich

This week has been pretty exciting, I took my first trip on an airplane. As you can see, I took to it like a duck to water. Thankfully I had my lovely tracksuit to wear, which was the perfect travelling attire. I even got my own boarding pass. I was very good, chilling out in the lounge before the flight. I was fine on take-off, but was a little upset on the descent because my ears were hurting me.


We spent a lot of time indoors just chilling out - I noticed that mum and dad seemed to be eating a lot - I think this always happen when they go to Zurich, because of the great food & wine they always have. Rory has 2 baby seats, so I was able to use one. The seats she has are called Tripp Trapp and mum couldn't believe that I could sit in it already. Luckily she's already ordered one for me, which I should be getting in the next couple of weeks.


I got to see my first snow in Zurich. The views from the plane of the snow covered Alps were great. It hadn't snowed in about 10 days but there was still plenty of snow in Wallisellen which is where Margo, Simon and my friend Rory live.
We went into Zurich on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday we had a lovely walk around Wallisellen and to the next village Opfikon (a pretty typical Swiss village) and stopped off for a Gluhwein.

I've got a pretty bad cold at the moment, but I'm still sleeping okay. I have a runny nose and am a little bit out of sorts. I'm sleeping lots and mum is keeping me well wrapped up, so hopefully I'll be better in the next couple of days.

Brown Eyed Girl

Well its finally happened...the public health nurse noticed last week that my eyes are brown. Given how much I look like dad, everyone predicted that my eyes would turn brown, so I guess they were right!

Mum and Dad sent out 'Thank You' cards for all the lovely presents that I got from friends and family. I'm pretty relieved that they finally got around to it, because I was a bit embarrassed meeting people in Wexford over Christmas knowing that they had given me a present but that we hadn't sent cards.
Other than that it was the usual busy week with lots of walks in Marley and we visitied Emma, Sophie and Christopher, as usual.
On Saturday we had a big outing to Katie Tilly's christening. She was very good the whole time, so I'm hoping that I'll be that good when it comes to my christening. We went and had some drinks and food afterwards and I was very good and even took a bottle in a really noisy room.
This week is very eventful. I had my first experience away from family today. Mum left me in the gym creche for half an hour today - it was just a familiarisation session. Next week she'll leave me for an hour so that she can go to a class. Mum spent the half an hour having a smoothie, worrying about me and stopping herself from collecting me early. I had a great time chilling out. I didn't cry and I even smiled at the nice girls minding me, so I don't mind going back there again. Mum's plan is for me to go to the gym creche for 1 hour a week until she goes back to work, which I think is a good idea.
We're off to Zurich on Friday. I'm pretty excited about my first flight and of course meeting my friend Rory. Hopefully I'll also meet Taj McKinnon - he was born 2 days before me and his parents are Australian so we're sure to have lots to talk about, especially as he's already been to Australia so he can tell me what to expect for my trip in March.