He's here! Introducing Newbie

He's here!  Well, actually he's been here for 3 weeks now.  I just hadn't gotten around to blogging about it (or anything else for a while).

Introducing 'Newbie'.

He looked just like his big brother at birth but a day or two later he started to look a lot like me as a baby, whereas Geekling looked just like his daddy.

Geekling is so very sweet with him, and so excited to be a big brother.  He loves to help burp his little brother, wet cloth wipes with the squirt bottle for nappy changes, read and sing to Newbie, kiss cuddle and hold him.  We haven't yet seen any jealousy or negative emotion towards his new sibling at all.

Hubby and I are a lot more relaxed as second-time parents, and I think that's helped relax Newbie a bit too.  I'm getting a reasonable amount of sleep, my boobs are doing fine and I am generally feeling much brighter and happier than I was after Geekling's arrival.

Slip cover for my glider chair

In getting the nursery ready, I had to decide what to do with my old glider.  While it works just fine, the vinyl was worn and flaky, and it looked pretty awful.

Before photo

Getting it reupholstered was going to be hideously expensive.  We considered selling and buying a cheaper feeding chair but we likely wouldn't get much money selling it given how bad it looked.

I stumbled across this glider makeover on Pinterest.  Its a much neater job than mine as the blogger has reshaped her glider beautifully to allow a nice, boxy designed cover to fit.

I bought a cheap single bed sheet in a nice dark colour and got chopping.  I made a fitted-sheet style cushion cover for the seat as it does not detatch but flips up, them sewed two larger pieces for the backrest and a fiddlier piece for the arm rests and front-skirt.

Here it is - Its not as neat as the other blogger's but its a grand improvement!

Queenslander!

Geekling is a proud Queenslander, particularly around this time of year in the middle of State of Origin football season.  For those not familiar with the game, Queensland players wear maroon and for every year Geekling has been alive and several before it, Queensland have dominated their New South Wales opponents who wear light blue.  

Geekling knows his maroon football jersey is a Queensland jersey.  But he also seems to think that the colour maroon is called "Queensland"!

These are last year's photos.  I must get a photo of Geekling in his jersey next Wednesday for the final and tie-breaking match of this year.

Its a BOY!

7 weeks ago we were told during a routine 20 week scan that our Newbie is a girl.  The sonographer was certain.  But just last week I had to have a further scan as I had been experiencing some pains, and our little she is actually a he!  We're having another little BOY! There was no doubt about it, the new sonographer showing me some very explicit images during the scan!

Luckily, we hadn't gotten rid of Geeklings old clothes and hadn't spent much on girls clothes and decorations.  I've packed away the girls items and am unpacking Geekling's old things.

Telling Geekling he was getting a little brother rather than a sister wasn't too bad.  At first he thought we meant he was getting one of each, but he now understands he's getting a little brother - a boy just like him.  He is no more or less excited than he was to be having a sister, I think he's just thrilled to have a baby.

Learning about... Germany!

Geekling got given a felt world map for Christmas the year before last.  I had also collected a number of cultural exchange packages from penpals around the world and put them aside until he was of an age that he was interested.

I remembered them a couple of weeks ago while Geekling was home sick and I was racking my brain for things to do.  I hung his map on the blank wall by his bed and we opened our first exchange package - it was from Germany!

Waiting patiently to open it!

Look at what I got!

What a pack it was!  It included a lovely letter from a family in Germany, a map showing where Germany was in Europe which helped Geekling to find it on his map, postcards, a flag to colour in, some tourism fliers, a puzzle, stickers, Euro coins, a miniature flag, foam soccer ball shapes and soccer ball balloons, german flag bandaid and some chocolates.

Geekling was super excited about the chocolates.  He was also fascinated by the coins and really enjoyed colouring the flag by reference to the miniature flag.  He also loved the balloons.

As luck would have it, days later we met a young German lady on the train!  Geekling proudly told her he had learned about Germany, knew their flag colours and liked German chocolate.

Home made change mat cover

The baby-sewing has begun!

I'm not into pastels, or pink.  I couldn't find a nice, bright change mat cover in a colour I liked, so I decided to sew my own.  I had planned to use minky, but it was $23 a meter! This gorgeous purple crushed velvet was only $4 a meter, though it was very slippery and difficult to sew with.

I used 1 meter of material and 1 meter of elastic ($1/m) per mat.  So they cost $5 each!  I made two as I know they'll need to be washed pretty often, so a spare will be handy.

I followed this tutorial, but rather than folding the material and cutting one corner out, I lay my material flat on the loungeroom floor, traced my change mat, then cut away the corners.  From there it went pretty well as per the tutorial.

Here's the finished product - I love the colour, the lustre and its sooooo soft that I wish I had something like this under my bare bum regularly!

I might make more in future as baby shower gifts, but will definitely use a different fabric that is easier to work with!

Cutting my boys' hair

I had decided that I'd learn to cut hubby and Geekling's hair as part of my '30 before 30' list.  I figured this would save us a little bit of money, and I remember my mum cutting our hair as a kid.

A $20 pair of hairdressing scissors and some common sense is all it took to cut hubby's hair.

Geekling had been getting his hair shaved to a #3 with clippers at the last couple of hairdresser visits, so I figured I'd do the same.  I thought we had clippers.  But we didn't.  So I used hubby's beard trimmer...

It took far too long and he got quite upset.  Nothing a cuddle and a lollipop couldn't fix, but we didn't try clippers again.  Next time I cut his hair just as I would hubby's and he was fine.

A much better result and a much happier boy.

So by now I've given hubby 3 or 4 haircuts now and Geekling 2 or 3, plus the disastrous first try in which I shaved him.  I don't think we'll be headed back to the hairdresser any time soon.

30 Pins before I turn 30

I've compiled a Pinterest board of things to make, try, buy or do before I turn 30.   There are over 30 pins, but I might cull some or just might aim for 30.

Some are free, or dead easy.  Some involve making, spending etc.  Most are pretty frugal.  A good mix of recipes, kids stuff, home organisation and gardening.

Making way for baby

I have posted on another of my blogs about a year ago about the state of our study/craft room/junk room.  I'm sad to say it only got worse while we renovated our bathroom.  Here's some more "before" pics:

Yep, pretty out of control.

With the news that Geekling is going to be a big brother, we have had to clear it out to become the baby's room.  We've given away some of the furniture, donated a lot of useful items to the Salvation Army, thrown out a lot of junk and finally the only things that are left in the room are those things that will be staying there for the baby:

When we get new drawers for Geekling, we'll move the old white drawers and wardrobe into bub's room and can start packing away the clothes that fill the two pink nappy boxes and the large cardboard box that is between the change table and the basinette.

I plan to make a cover for the glider as the fake leather has flaked terribly.  We also need to put up a curtain rail and curtains.  The cot will go where that box is, with the box providing some storage for unseasonable or larger clothes.

Will tidy the bookshelf when I work out where exactly it will go in the room.

There is still some ways to go and lots of little craft projects I've got planned.  Here's my Pinterest Nursery Board, if you're interested to see some of my planned prjects and inspirations

Its a GIRL!

When we set out to try for another baby, we tried a lot of weird and wonderful things suggested by various sites and forums to sway the odds in our favour for a little girl.  Another little boy would be a blessing too, of course, but girls are something of a rarity on both sides of our family.

A couple of weeks ago we found out we are indeed having a little GIRL.  Geekling has already promised his daddy to scare away all her boyfriends.  He is so excited to have a sister, although a little disappointed that he won't get to teach her to do 'big boy wee' (standing up).

We've nicknamed our growing bub 'Newbie'.  She's due to arrive in 4 months today :)

Geekling's bedroom - 3 years old

We've made a number of changes to Geekling's room around his 3rd birthday.  The biggest change was moving to a single left bed.  His toddler bed was getting too small, especially when he'd occasionally want one of us to lay with him for a cuddle.  We worried the new bed would be a bit high up but he had no problem climbing in and out, and manages to do so on his own at any hour of the day or night.

 View from the doorway - the loft bed.  Lots of storage.  There is a pull out desk part but at the moment that is in the far left corner, with the tubs stacked by it, as Geekling loves to use the cubby hole as a reading nook.  We bought a cheap LED touch light from IKEA that is a magnet and it sticks to the underside of the bed which is a metal frame.

New 'big boy bookshelves' - we previously used the bookshelves in our loungeroom but replaced them.  The bottom shelf holds his trains and balls, the next two shelves house his books.  Above is his basket of finger puppets, his money box, a photo or picture of his choice and his bug catcher.  Above is things that he needs supervision with.

The small table works wonderfully for a small train set up, matching games, using his zen garden and all manner of work.  We must replace the rocking octopus with a proper chair but right now he enjoys it as is. 

The white wardrobe and drawers will soon be replaced with a woodgrain color to match the rest of the furniture, and the white furniture will be transferred to the new baby's room.  

The room is starting to look quite cramped in photos due to the size of the bigger furniture and angle of the door but it has plenty of floor space, especially for a little person.

Previous posts about Geekling's room:
Geekling's newborn nursery
Geekling's new bed
Geekling's bedroom - 2 years old

In the garden...

Sometimes I curse having such a large yard.  We haven't gotten around to much of the landscaping we'd planned when we first bought the house 5 years ago, and often it just looks like a weedy mess.  But it never ceases to provide things to explore, explain and play with.

Geekling talking to a praying mantis we caught and kept for a 'sleep over'.  Any bugs we catch have a maximum one night stay.

Here's a little more about our bug catcher and other bugs we've had visit

Feeling a snail crawling on the skin

 Dancing with a "ribbon leaf" (lemongrass) on the trampoline

Eggs from our very own chickens

Other garden delights include:

• blowing gently on a spider on his web to make him 'dance'
• finding the odd brightly coloured gum leaf in our mostly non-deciduous yard
• picking flowers and leaves and using them in crafts or in the bath
• smelling and tasting herbs and vegies from our vegie patch
• playing fetch with our dog
• weeding and feeding the weeds to the chickens
• watering plants
• painting the fence with water... the list goes on!

Geekling is going to be a big brother!

The news is out!  Geekling is going to have a baby brother or sister!

Baby #2 is due in early October, and so far Geekling is very excited.  He kisses and pats my stomach, and talks about all the things he'll help with and things he'll teach the baby.  He excitedly took our recent scan photo to daycare for show and tell and then begged to take it again the next day!  He actually came to the recent scan with us and tells everyone he saw his baby on the TV in the dark room.  Its all very sweet.

Bathroom renovation

Our bathroom was so gross I took pictures some time back with the intention of sending them to a Better Homes & Gardens renovation competition.  The previous owners had done a fast and nasty renovation prior to selling and to us newbies it looked fine.  For a while.

The rusty enameled metal bath had been painted with regular house paint.  Not only did it start flaking and peeling off really fast, but as there was some texture to the paint due to the brush strokes, it was impossible to keep clean - dead skin and soap scum got trapped in the ridges too easily.  The more we scrubbed, the more paint came off!  The cracked ceramic sink got the same house paint treatment, but the paint flaked off pretty fast leaving an unpainted (but still cracked) sink.  There was only one double towel rail and the towels hung so close together on it that they never dried.  Geekling's towel hung over the door.  The wall behind the towel rail began to grow massive mold stains, and most the grout above the bath was blackened or pink with mold.

I couldn't find proper before photos but here are some early demolition ones:

The floor was tiled with little ceramic mosaic tiles.  It was slow going getting them all lifted up!

You can see above how dirty the bath was.

And here is the finished product (minus a shower curtain and rail):

Need to wash our nice new towels before we hang them.

All work was done by my husband and myself and our wonderful father in law.  We had no idea what a massive job it was and were so lucky to have someone who has done his share of renovating before to guide us and do a lot of the early work.

Geekling's 3rd Birthday

We'd planned to have Geekling's 3rd birthday in a park nearby but the weather has been abysmal here in Brisbane.  It's been raining so long we're considering building an ark!  So we had the party at home.  After the party I remembered why I love birthdays in a park - 10 kids in a small house is soooo noisy!

The birthday boy requested a Thomas party as the blue tank engine is his favourite thing in the world right about now.  I grabbed a few cheap Thomas decorations and balloons from a nearby party shop and a nice blue tablecloth from Lifeline thrift shop.  My dear mother in law brought a fabulous fruit platter, we set out some chips and dips, vegie sticks, fairy bread and lollies, cheerio frankfurts and sausages in bread.

And of course the cake.  We'd decided on a cake in the shape of a 3, with train tracks and little train on it.  I made a 3 out of two round cakes (ALDI 75c vanilla cake mix is my go to cake 'recipe'), iced it in green icing followed by green tinted coconut.  Now what to use for the tracks?  I considered liqorice rope, but couldn't find any in any shop nearby.  I decided to pipe chocolate but burned both batches while I tried in vain to multi-task.  I finally did a last minute dash to the supermarket for black writing icing and it saved the day.  I used a train from Geekling's wooden train set and that was that.

Happy birthday, beautiful boy xxoo

Geekling's upcycled play kitchen

Firstly, apologies for the extended break.  I've got a mixture of excuses, most of which are pretty weak, and I won't bore you with them.

Those who follow me on Pinterest will see I've pinned a couple of TV-Cabinets turned into Play Kitchens, and I've been meaning to do it for Geekling for a while.  When I asked him what he'd like for his 3rd birthday he said "a green kitchen", so I knew it was time to get cracking!

Here's a before photo of the TV cabinet we picked up from Ebay for $10.  We've removed the glass cabinet door and cut the sink hole already.  Its less than glamourous surrounds is our storage/work area under the house.

We sanded, painted (with paint purchased from the tip recycling centre for $2), installed a new MDF 'fridge' door, installed an old metal bowl as a sink and old tap salvaged from my in laws shed, used paint and IKEA foam coasters for the hot plates.  We still need to put hotplate / oven knobs on but not sure how best to attach them.  We also plan to turn the cupboards below the sink into an oven and dishwasher down the track.

Here's the (mostly) finished product upstairs ready for use!

 

Geekling LOVES it.  His favourite thing to cook is "spicy chocolate balls" and cups of tea and coffee.  Its so sweet to watch him 'cooking'.  He stirs with a whisk or spoon then taps it on the side of the pot or bowl just like I tend to do and whispers to himself as he works.