a jar of jam

i always used to make jokes about having a third baby so i could complete my neapolitan ice cream tub. i'd say that i had my strawberry and my vanilla and that i just needed a chocolate baby to round it out. obviously i am well aware that the chances were slim to none, but i held fast with my comments, saying that if doug came out red as a throw back, why couldn't we have throw back to a previous darker generation haha.

but here he is - and he's in no way a chocolate baby. i've given up on my neo dream, because i got a jar of jam!
joseph alex and madeline,
two strawberries with a dash of vanilla. they are perfect and i couldn't love them more if i tried! ♥

baby alexanders birth announcement (+ what's in a name...)

here we are, with baby alexanders birth announcement finally ready to go... not late at all, who am i kidding? things have been a little crazy around here!

so... where did we get the name from - is a question we have been asked a lot over the past few weeks.

well. we threw around sooo many names and there was always either one of us that wasn't happy with the choice we would be discussing. i was convinced this baby was going to end up with a "h" name, as they were the ones being discussed the most.

i liked:

henry and hayden

doug suggested hudson, which joseph jumped at, can you imagine his baby brother being named after the fabulous hudson hornet? haha. then in came madeline who decided she was set on hunter.

plus i still loved:

leon and lennox 

which are both names we planned to call joseph...

one night while were laying in bed, almost asleep i said, "what about alexander?" doug replied with mmmmm, which led me to believe he liked it, only to find the next day he'd been more or less asleep, hadn't really heard me and didn't seem to be a fan. back to square one. 

from the day we knew we were having a boy, baby was always going to be something james, after dougs (childhood and still very much) best friend who lives in brisbane. he and doug are still firm friends after all these years and i adore him too. so that bit was easy.

a few weeks passed and doug was like, what about alexander? me: pffft. really? but i still did love it. dougs mum was super keen as well, as it had a samoan option - aleki. (he is now getting aleki and leki a lot) plus there were so many other nickname options: alex, xander, lex (i think this is what may have gotten doug on board. lex like lex luthor the villain from superman haha). but, it was still a toss up between some names and we just couldn't decide. all the h names seemed to go by the wayside and we were down to alexander and lennox. 

when he was born, everything happened so fast, there were people everywhere and we just didn't get time to talk about it or really decide. so the next day we sat down, looked at him, talked about it more... and he just wasn't a lennox. we both associated that name with much darker features and it just didn't seem right. alex seems like a red head name to me and it just worked. so alex it was. this time around was for sure the hardest to pick the name, but he suits it and we love it. and him. he is simply the best and we are obsessed ♥

baby alexander: one month old

look at this little chunkster! he was one month old two days ago, but with our trip to rottnest and sam leaving i haven't had a chance to get to this post, so here we are...

baby alexander has just fitted perfectly into our family. he is warm and cuddly and oh so cute. i am in love, the kids are in love, doug is great with him and it's been so easy to have him join our family. we are all just a little bit obsessed.

i have covered everything that happened at the hospital within the first week in previous posts, but here is what has happened since:
- alex had a pucker mark at the bottom of his spine, kind of like a dimple, which the hospital decided to check just to be sure. they did an ultrasound and it all came back a-ok. so okay in fact, that he was so relaxed and cozy that he fell asleep and the ultrasound tech asked us if she could have one of the girls in training come in and look because it was such a perfect still view of a babys spine, as most of them cry and won't stay still. what a good boy!
- in just two weeks, he put on almost 500g. that is phenomenal.
- a few times overnight he has slept for almost 5 hours. keep it up kid!
- he has already begun to turn his head when he hears voices he knows
- miss madeline loooooves to carry him about and show him off. a few of the mums at school have been horrified thinking she had a doll and then realised it was actually a baby!
- he just loooooves his food. just before a month old, he ate 6 times (like proper feeds, not just a little suck) between 4-9am. what a guts, no wonder he's putting on so much weight!

baby alex, you are so beautiful and we are so happy to have you in our lives! ♥

a trip to rottnest

sam swears that her main draw card to want to visit perth was to see a quokka. i distinctly remember when she told me she was obsessed with quokkas and seeing one and i responded with, "what? they are eveywhere at rottnest. but i have lived in perth more or less my entire life and have never been there." and then it was decided. we would go to rottnest!

issue: new born baby. cannot swim, or cycle with said baby.

resolution: bus tour. no swimming, no cycling - this time around. another rottnest trip will need to be made at some stage in the future. 

so. we booked our rottnest day, for sam's last full day in perth. i practiced tying the baby carrier, got a big hat and lots of suncream ready - and prayed that alex would make it through a long day without any major issues.

murphys law. things with a newborn will never go smoothly. we are literally about to walk out of the house and alex hurls all over the place. we drive as fast as is legally possible, but we can see there is no way we will make our ferry. i called them on the way there and it was no issue at all, we were just moved to the next ferry. easy! so we had a poke around in fremantle for a few minutes, bought some vanilla slice (i don't know what the hell this girl has been up to on previous visits to australia, but seriously, what the hell kind of person hasn't tried vanilla slice?!) visited elizabeths bookstore (best bookstore ever!) and then headed on down to the ferry terminal. right on time. day is back on track. 

by the way. how cute are the cranes at the port. i love that they look like dinosaurs.

i actually loved the ferry ride across to rottnest. a quick half hour ride... alex got comfortable in his carrier and went off to sleep straight away. i took that as a good sign that the day was going to go well.

and it did! what a beautiful place we have right on our doorstep! this is the view from the top point on the island where the cannons were set up. there is a tour of the tunnels that was included in our day long bus tour, but alex woke up right as it began, so feed number one for the day was at the top, as the rest of our group went exploring. 

i would absolutely recommend the tour we did. our bus drove around the entire island and our (very knowledgeable) tour guide told us everything cool there was to know about the island and even answered all the random questions people (including myself) had about other things we passed.

including the little rottnest island cemetery, which of course, i had questions about. fun fact: you can no longer be buried there, which i expected.

there was amazing, perfect beaches all the way around and i was just blown away by the beauty of it all. i absolutely want to go back and i can now see why everyone raves about it.

i mean, seriously. look at the views. 

and the colour of the water

it's all so pretty!

the lighthouse was gorgeous too, i will absolutely be climbing that next time.

we had such a good day. little alex slept the day away, only waking up one other time (he had another feed and went straight back to sleep) until we were just about back at fremantle. the day certainly got better, what an angel child!

and sam got to see her precious quokkas, so the day was absolutely worth it

unfortunately they weren't playing as nice as instagram claims they should be, but she did get a few pics with them and a lot of them.

they are super adorable. it certainly is tempting to scoop one up and sneak them home

our last pic before jumping on the ferry to go back home (in which you can see baby alex neatly tucked away and snoozing in)... what an incredible day it was! thanks for coming all the way to perth to drag me to rottnest sam. it was totally worth it! ♥

church in northam with a kangaroo

i think i could quite safely say that today was another highlight for sams time in australia, getting to cuddle a baby kangaroo at church!

we headed off for church in northam as a friend of mum and dads in their branch is raising a baby kangaroo that was separated from its mother. she (as you can see highlighted here) was chuffed beyond belief getting to have cuddles to her hearts content without the standard wildlife park staff hovering hahaha.

mads got in on the action too and was loving it

while doug did what i really wanted to do and had a snooze in the corner with baby. ♥

mundaring weir

after a lazy morning, we decided to do something different this afternoon and take sam to visit the mundaring weir and show off the awesome pipeline that takes fresh water to the goldfields. it's a really cool place to see... except not so much today... boo.

we discovered on arrival that the walk across the actual weir was being fixed up, so we were left having to look from the sides, which wasn't quite as cool as walking across the top of the actual dam, but it's still awesome to see. 

there is so much amazing history in wa, and the story of the kalgoorlie pipeline is one of my favourites, you can read more about it here 

plus, on the other side of this concrete...

there is a beautiful view! i'll have to make sure to take the kids back to look once the walk is open again, it's so awesome to see!

mundaring weir fail haha. thank goodness the drive is pretty. 

a day in freo

today we went off to one of my favourite places in the world - fremantle. i couldn't possibly have let sam come to perth and not shown off my precious freo! of course first stop was the prison. the tours have changed since i last went, so i found myself learning lots of new information on our way around, whilst trying to keep joseph in check and feeding baby a along the way. sam must think she's in a madhouse.

fun fact #1 fremantle prison only closed in 1991, basically coming down to the fact that the cells didn't have running water and it would have cost a fortune to fit it. 

inside the more modern block. this is the first time i've been on a tour that goes in here... all the others covered the older areas.

front view of the prison as the tour ends and you walk back to the front gates. the large piece on the right is the chapel. 

chapel view from the front

fun fact #2 the video clip for the acdc song jailbreak was shot in the chapel.

i love the prison and learning more about it. you can learn way more about it here. what a cool place to explore.

of course a visit to fremantle is not complete without visiting the markets. although they aren't nearly as fun these days as they seemed to me as a child (but really what is these days?!) they are still amazing, full of awesome food, colours, displays and just a cool atmosphere. i don't think they'll ever close.

we wandered down to the fishing boat harbour a bit later in the day, to get some fish and chips for lunch. (also a freo must!) we love this funky freo sign and decided to get some more pics with it (last set can be found here, along with the reason we love it haha)

me: joseph come and have a photo with this heart.

joseph: no

me: aunty dom will love it

joseph: (runs over) okay!

oh that kid. the cutest, but the actual worst.

one last walk back to the car past the bon scott statue and then out of freo we went

fun fact #3 in my early days working at the funeral home, i was rostered on to assist with a funeral at fremantle cemetery. i was wandering back to the main gate, when i was stopped by a couple who asked me where they might locate bon scott. before i continue yes, i had heard of acdc, but really only knew their music and definitely not the names of any members of the band. i said, "does he work here?" they lost it laughing and said, "noooo, he was the lead singer of acdc, he's dead and his ashes are buried here." me: ohhhhhhhhhhh. i have since learned the location of his ashes and where the bon scott memorial entrance to the fremantle cemetery is... but oh did doug and i have a laugh about that. he still brings it up occasionally and we'll have another giggle. 

we made one more stop on the way home up west coast highway... at cottesloe beach. it was the perfect afternoon, beautiful outside - and sam loved having a wander while joseph had a play and i fed alex yet again...

here's our pommy girl loving the late afternoon sunshine and the beach.

i hope she's loving her stay here. it's amazing finally getting to know her. ♥