I’m a lucky girl! Today five of my grandparents came to visit. Nanna Luba and Asher, Grandpa Jeff and Bianca, and Nanna Sandra all pampered me like you’d expect of grandparents. Only Poppy Kerry and Vicki were missing, though he did call to say hello, and they sent me one of my favourite toys.

 

I’ve been out to cafes a few times, but today we tried out something new: I was packed snugly into the baby carrier, and we walked down to Carlisle St for a coffee and pide at The Wall. My parents look pretty tired in this picture, and I think my dad looks better in this one.

My auntie Julie and my three cousins Ruby, Leah and Hannah were away when I was born, and they couldn’t wait to come home so they could meet me. Today they came over and I played with them. Well … I really just slept in their arms, but that is as close to playing as I get at the moment. I liked both Ruby and Leah a lot, but I think Hannah liked me the best.

This week my mum took me along to my first academic conference: Toward a History of Women’s Political Thought, 1400 - 1800. I sat in on a few talks, and made friends with lots of the (very famous) speakers, who were very friendly to me and didn’t seem to mind that I kept distracting my mum. My mum wouldn’t let me listen to her talk, and made me go out to a cafe with my dad instead. Luckily she had rehearsed the presentation in front of me the day before, so I didn’t miss out, though I didn’t get a chance to ask any of my difficult questions.

This picture was taken outside the Almazett restaurant, where the conference dinner was held.

Uncle Glenn came to visit from Victor Harbor today. We played for a while, and I threw up on his hand.

Today Jill, Callan and Luca came to visit from Tasmania. Callan was particularly sweet with me, and I at one stage I thought his mum was going to whisk me off to Costa Rica with them.

Yesterday we went down to the local maternal health centre for the second meeting of the parents group. This week we learnt about infant massage (there is also a good guide here).

I made a new friend this week. Her name is Mila, and we had a lot of fun looking and laughing at each other. I hadn’t really met another baby before - the only baby I had ever spent time looking at before this was the one I can see in the mirror when I have a bath!

When the massage session began all of us babies were placed on a rug in the center of the room. Our parents then asked us whether we wanted a massage, just to make sure it was ok with us. Of course, I didn’t really understand the question, but it all seemed like a lot of fun so I didn’t complain. The other babies were already naked and being massaged, and seemed to be enjoying it a lot. (That’s me in the green wondersuit and the bright pink crocheted cardigan).

Then my mum took all of my clothes off and rubbed my legs with warm almond oil. Following the instructions of the massage teacher Lisa, she then rubbed my tummy clockwise with a “sun set-moon rise” stroke, which is supposed to help tone the digestive track and deal with wind and colic. I enjoyed it so much and became so relaxed that I emptied my bladder all over my mum! She then rubbed my arms, and turned me over to rub my bottom and back.

But by that stage I had had enough for one day, and was also pretty hungry again, although I could see that Mila was really enjoying having her back rubbed. After a good feed I was also pretty relaxed, and fell into a very deep sleep.

I now look forward to a massage every day. It makes me smile!

This evening I went to the cinema for the first time. We went to see War of the Worlds, which probably wasn’t the top of my list of films to see (I would have preferred staying home and watching Spongebob), but I think my parents enjoyed it. I actually slept through a lot of it, though I did wake up and watch one of the scariest scenes of the tripods wreaking devastation.

I had brunch at my Great-grandmother’s place today. I’m so lucky to have such a fun bubba. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time, and I was so happy to see her. We laughed and laughed.

After brunch we went to a shop full of old books, and then to lunch with Jess, Jill, Rob and Deb. Such a busy, social day!