The life-travels of Ashlinn Audrey Lee-Pullen

Hand Foot and Mouth

2007-06-22T00:12:00.000+08:00

OK, as has been recently pointed out to me, we weren't back from oblivion at all so I'm going to stop making promises I can't keep and just try and get in here as often as I can an update things.

Ashlinn has picked up hand foot and mouth disease from daycare so we've had a really hard week as the poor little thing really isn't very well. She hasn't slept for more than 30 minutes at a time so far tonight, so I think we're in for a long haul tonight. Plus, I have to take a day off work tomorrow as she can't go to daycare. Oh well, hopefully she'll be better by the weekend.

Here are a couple of recent pics which I have been playing with in Photoshop. I am desperate for a new digital SLR camera and am hoping that the birthday fairy may be smiling on me in August. For now I just have to keep working on my photoshop skills to make something half decent out of some average shots. Luckily I have such a cute subject so it's not an impossible task!

These were taken at the animal farm in Margaret River where Ashlinn ran around shoutning 'Duck' at everything. She had no interest in anything cute and cuddly, only her feathered friends the ducks and chickens. Still I had great fun reliving my childhood memories of Godstone farm and feeding all the animals.

I've got a whole load of photos to sort out so I'll try and get a few more uploaded to some flickr albums this weekend if I can.

We're back from oblivion

2007-04-15T14:38:00.000+08:00

Well, it seems I've been neglecting my blogging duties for a while now, so I'll try to make amends.

Things have been very busy and very hectic in the Lee-Pullen household. Easter crept up on us and ran away, but we had a nice weekend and Rich was off for the Friday and Sunday so we did have some time together as a family.

Ashlinn will be 18 months tomorrow and is changing every day. She gets cuter and cuter and is learning a new word a day. She feeds herself, loves bread, has muesli and banana in the mornings like her Daddy, but her favourite food has to be watermelon - she can't get enough of the stuff. Not sure how she's going to like Winter when we can't get it any more, I guess she'll have to find something else!

A couple of photos taken within the last few weeks to show you how much she has changed. She is quite the little lady now.

Today she told me she'd done a poo for the first time, when I went in to her room and she announced 'Poo' and waves her hand in front of her nose! I think it'll be a little while yet before we even think about Toilet training, but it's a start on the road ahead.

My work is going really well. I went up to 4 days a week from last week and things are very busy. I am loving my new job and the people I work with are fab. We have had 2 new instruments installed in the last fortnight so it is a big learning curve with all the new product training. No chance of getting bored!

I am getting into my new hobby of scrapbooking quite well now and really enjoying the chance to be creative and make something that Ashlinn will be able to treasure in years to come. I am going to start a new blog just with pictures of my scrapbooking, and will post a link in the sidebar of this blog when I do.

I'm going to leave this post here and try and make sure I'm a bit better at updating more regularly. My problem is that I always want the posts to be perfect and have all the photos etc, but I just don't have the time. I will endeavour to do better.

T
x

How to eat sultanas when your hands are full

2007-01-02T21:59:00.000+09:00

Ashlinn gave me a good laugh today when she showed a real spark of ingenuity! It seems you don't actually need to let go of the things in your hands in order to eat Sultanas. I've stitched a couple of video clips together below, so sorry for my repeated narration.

As from yesterday I think I can confidently say that Ashlinn is a walker. She's finally gained enough confidence to try getting from A to B on her legs instead of her knees. She's still a little wobbly, but I think she's made the breakthrough. I'll try and get some video soon.

Happy New Year to you all, I hope you had a great night celebrating and wish you lots of success and happiness for 2007.

Ashlinn's New Trolley

2006-12-30T12:15:00.001+09:00

OK, it's been a long while since my last post and lots has happened for us so I'll try and get on here as much as I can over the next few days to update you all with what we've been up to and a few pics.

Firstly I just thought I'd share this video clip of Ashlinn discovering her new wooden trolley which was lovingly made for her by Grandad Dave. It even has her own personalised number plated - how cool is that?! Ashlinn promptly tested all the blocks for chewability before taking the trolley for a spin. Thanks Dave, she loves it!

My Stepdad's a Winner!

2006-11-04T14:47:00.000+08:00

Just wanted to do a quick post to share some good news.

My stepdad Dave has just won IPP Payroll Manager of the Year! I am so proud of him! He has worked so hard over the last few years and really deserves this recognition - well done Dave.

Here's a couple of pics he sent me after the gala dinner where they announce the winners (he'll probably kill me for posting this, but I think good news needs to be shared)!

A nice shiny award

Dave at his desk which his colleagues decorated for him

Oh, and one more of Mum and Dave in their party frocks cause they both look rather dashing! Think my Mum looks great in her gorgeous dress - proud of you too Mama. xxx

Well done Dave - we're so pleased for your acheivement.

Ashlinn is ONE year old!

2006-10-16T11:06:00.000+08:00

Well, our little girl turned one today, she's no longer a baby. I can't believe how fast the year has gone, she's changed so much and is learning so fast. I took these couple of photos this morning of Ashlinn in her new dress that Granny bought her and I'll try and get time to upload some video later of her playing with her new toys (which she loves!). Thank you for all the fantastic cards and presents we've received, Ashlinn is a lucky girl to have such wonderful friends and family.

Better get back to writing this PhD now, unfortunately it doesn't seemt o want to write itself!

Becoming a little lady

2006-10-08T22:34:00.000+08:00

Well it's been a while since my last post - I keep seeing the same old page appear each time I open Internet Explorer, so I thought it was time I updated with a few pics!

Spring has sprung in Perth and the weather has been glorious. We've had some beautiful days in the park and it wont be too long until we're hanging out at the beach a bit more. We've just come back from a few days down south visiting Rich's sister in Margaret River and our good friends Matt and Clea at their winery in Mount Barker. I've got lots of photos to upload later, but for now I just want to post and run a couple of pics of our gorgeous girl!

Ashlinn enjoyed her bath at the Busselton house, although she wasn't too keen on actually sitting down!

The playground at Kings Park has become one of our favourite haunts, Ashlinn challenges herself to try and climb the slide and each week she makes it a little further!

Ashlinn and Ryan are good buddies!

Today we went to Niamhs house to play in her paddling pool and had a great day in the sunshine. Ashlinn thought it was great fun being pushed around by Niamh!

Will post more pics soon.

Scrap booking fun!

2006-08-27T21:59:00.000+08:00

I have discovered a new hobby - scrapbooking! Today a couple of girlfriends and I got together, gave the little ones to their daddys for the day (well we kept Georgia but she's an angel and we loved giving her cuddles anyway!) and sat down to learn scrap booking! What fun! I've discovered another new hobby to consume all my precious spare time! For those of you not familiar with this new craze it involves creating pages with photos, stickers and embelishments to create lasting memories. In other words a lovely book to look through with pics and things. I've included pictured of my first few pages I created today, what do you think?

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my first effort, now I just need to find the time to get a while album done!

Andrea and I spent a lovely few hours with Ashlinn in Kings Park yesterday and took a few nice shots which I've been playing with in photoshop, I've posted a couple below. Ashlinn had her first taste of sand but I think she preferred Aunty Anj's hot chocolate! We took a couple of video snippets but I haven't put them on google video yet so watch this space...

Subscription

2006-08-25T23:34:00.000+08:00

OK, I've found a way to make sure I'm not sending any more unwanted or junk emails to you all... there is now an option to subscribe to the blog so that each time I put up a new post you will be sent an email with the contents. If you look to the bottom right of the page you will see a little box which you can enter your email address into and a little button that says 'subscribe me'! This way if you're interested you can subscribe and if not then I'll stop pestering you all with my 'blog updated' emails! Hope this all makes sense, any problems just let me know...

Just had a great night out with some girls from my mothers group - a lovely meal at Funtastico in Subi. Lots of wine and a cocktail later and I'm feeling fairly tipsy which is a nice way to be after so many months of not drinking and not having much of a social life. I think I'm more social now that before I had Ashlinn! Out of the 8 of us there tonight 3 are currently pregnant with the next bub so there will be a few new little ones for me to have cuddles with around the end of the year/early next year! I feel like the odd one out wanting to wait until Ashlinn is 3 before we have number 2, I wonder if my willpower will last that long or if the cluckiness with take over before then?! Today I got to cuddle Sarah's gorgeous little man Tom who is now 3 months old and felt quite flattered that he fell asleep on me - not sure I'd be quite so flattered if Rich fell asleep on me! :) I also got to have cuddles with the gorgeous Georgia who has now reached her real birthday (she was due 21/8/06 but arrived 6 weeks early on 10/7/06)! I guess with all these babies around me I can afford to wait until Ashlinn is a little older, it's not as if I'm not going to get my fair quota of cuddles!

Last night was Eurobeat and we had a fab time! What fun to watch gorgeous spandex clad boys jumping around stage to very bad euro-spoof music! It was a great show and definitely captured the spirit of what Eurovision is all about, allbeit with a little more gratuitous flesh on show, but I'm not complaining! Rich was concerned about getting too dressed up with his suit on, but I was more embarrassed when I pointed out that as long as he wasn't wearing a fur coat like another gentleman in the audience then all was OK. To which he then informed me that the said gentleman was a good friend of his brothers! I thought Gay men were supposed to have taste?!

Off to bed now, have some sympathy for me tomorrow morning when I'm nursing a hangover and a teething baby!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2006-08-24T17:59:00.000+08:00

Today is my 27th birthday and I feel great! Who cares about getting older when there are presents?! I feel pretty darned lucky to be entering my 28th year married to such a wonderful man, settled in such a great city and blessed with such a beautiful daughter. All together now - aaahhhh!!! :)

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed, sent cards and presents, I've been thouroughly spoilt and it's lovel to know you all care. I have received some lovely gifts including a beautiful necklace from my sister (very me!), a fab skirt and top from my mum (which I'm wearing at the moment!), a gorgeous pendant from Anj, a great keyring from my lil sis Amber, which Ashlinn promptly claimed as her own (I think I'll retrieve it later and give it a quick wash to remove all the baby goober before I attach it to my keys)! Rich excelled himself with a gift voucher to a beauty salon, a photo frame so we can finally print some pics of Ashlinn and put them up, and a child seat for my bike so I can take Ashlinn for big long rides in Kings park - how cool will that be!

Tonight Kylie is kindly babysitting for Ashlinn as Rich is taking me to see Eurobeat the musical. It's a spoof of Eurovision and it's supposed to be hilarious, will give you a review soon.

So all in all I've had a hectic, but nice day and tonight should top it all off. I'm off to pamper myself with a face mask and actually blow dry my hair in my last 30 mins before Grandma brings Ashlinn home - it's the small luxuries that make life better!

Speak to you all soon - with love from the old fart!

xxx

Ashlinn Swimming at Beatty Park aged 10 months

2006-08-18T09:21:00.000+08:00

Anj and I took some video of Ashlinn swimming at Beatty park on Wednesday using an underwater case for her digital camera. Ashlinn just loves being in the water, she's a real water baby. We're off to another lesson now, we're starting her training for the Cottesloe to Rottnest swim early! Rich reckon's they'll be doing it together when she's 14 (around 2020), I think she'll be fine, but I'm not sure if Rich's make it - he can be shark bait! :)

Ashlinn turned 10 months yesterday - where does the time go? Only 2 months to go until the big one.

Cheese and Vegemite Sandwiches.

2006-08-11T21:15:00.000+08:00

We finally have a sickness-free household!! After 3 weeks of colds, gastro and ear infections we now have our happy giggly daughter back again! Today was our first swimming lesson for over 4 weeks and she loved it! We sang, we played and we went under water lots - I don't think she stopped smiling for the whole 30 minute lesson. I've posted a couple of video clips below (tried to embed them but the computer didn't want to play!). The first is at one of her swimming lessons when she was about 5 months old. Just click on the play button, the resolution is low as it was only taken on my digital camera, but we're currently saving for a camcorder so hopefully we'll be directing our own All About Ashlinn movie soon.

This evening I couldn't resist taking a little video of her eating cheese and vegemite sandwiches for tea. She just loves her food and her success rate of getting it into her mouth is improving everyday - although peas are still proving a little challenging. The clip of her eating is below the swimming clip.

Ashlinn swimming lesson

2006-08-11T21:10:00.000+08:00


These video clips were taken at one of Ashlinn's swimming lessons. I think she was about 5 months old. She doesn't look like such a stunned mullet anymore!!

Cheese and Vegemite Sandwiches 11-8-06

2006-08-11T21:04:00.000+08:00


Ashlinn aged 10 months eating her dinner of cheese and vegemite sandwhiches

New link for UK photo album...

2006-07-31T18:49:00.000+08:00

OK, sorry for the problem with the old link, try clicking this link here to see the kodak gallery photo album.

Let me know if there are any more problems.

The England Post

2006-07-29T12:20:00.000+08:00

OK, this might be a fairly long post while I update you on our travels. I've put a few pics into the blog and have tried out a new trick so the big photos should open into a new window when you click on them, rather than in this window. Give it a go. There's also a link at the bottom of the blog to a slideshow of lots more photos - just click on the highlighted link in the bottom paragraph.

As you know, we arrived in one piece after a tiring journery over with Ashlinn being quite sick. We all spent our first few days recovering from various illnesses before setting off for Jersey to see my uncle.

When we got back we went to Suffolk to my Dad's house to celebrate Amber's 10th birthday. We had a lovely day at the village meadowlark (a summer fete) and it was the day England played their first game in the world cup against paraquay so there were plenty of flags and England shirts around. Needless to say the beer tent with it's huge plasma screen was the most popular attraction for the boys.

My Dad's thatched cottage in Suffolk (built 1749)

My Dad's house in Suffolk (built 1749). Dad, Amber and I playing croquet.

After a lovely sunny weekend celebrating all things English (and a win over Paraquay) we drove down to the West Country to spend a few days with my sister at Centre Parcs, a great family-orientated holiday park. They had a fabulous pool there and we had a great few days mucking around on the water slides, chilling out in the luxury spa and climbing up a big wall. Another footy game was watched avidly by millions of English, but Mum and I chilled out in a lovely quiet pool instead!

Ashlinn the water baby.

Ashlinn the water baby. English footy hooligans!.

Freya the beauty (my gorgeous niece).
Ashlinn celebrating with Grandad!

On the way home from Centre Parcs we stopped off at one of my favourite woodlands - Banstead woods. We used to walk the dogs there with my Dad and Grandad and I have lots of treasured memories of exploring the trees and meadows. It was really nice to take Rich and Ashlinn there and show them somewhere special from my childhood. Living in Perth you forget how green everything is in England - stuff just grows everywhere! Unfortunately for Rich this includes stinging nettles, which he had not previously heard of - now her knows first hand how much the little buggers hurt!

Taking a stroll through dappled woods.

Ashlinn loved exploring in the buttercups and daisies.

Telling Ashlinn stories of fairy pools and bogey monsters in Banstead woods.
Enjoying a beer with Daddy.

When we arrived back at Mum's house in Surrey, our good friends Dave and Anastasia joined us for the weekend. It was great catching up with them again as we hadn't seen them since they left Perth early in the year and went galavanting around South America. We set off with John for one of my favourite spots on the south coast - Birling Gap. It was a glorious summer's day and I don't think I've ever seen so many people on the beach! Rich, Dave and Anastasia discovered that walking on a pebble beach is a challenge, but hats off to the Aussie's for braving the English channel and going for a swim! John, Ashlinn and I provided moral support amid snorts of laughter!

Dave and Anastasia chilling on the beach.

Rich, Dave and Anastasia chilling in the water!

Grandad John, Ashlinn and I enjoying a day in the sun.

View of Birling Gap from up on the cliff

Our next big adventure was a tour of the highlands in Scotland. Here our run of beautiful summer weather ended with a resounding thunderclap! Through 5 days of solidly miserable weather we got to enjoy the beauty of this rough and rugged country and loved it. The people were really welcoming, the scenery just stunning and the food was great. We had a good look for Nessie, we think Ashlinn spotted something, but she can't speak yet, so her secret is safe for the time being. Rich did a distillery tour in Oban, but after the 2 large whiskies he had at the end he couldn't tell me a thing about how the stuff is made! We caught up with Ali and Jock who are living in the West End of Glasgow and enjoyed a lovely home-made stew and bread which was perfect food for a wet, windy evening.

Getting a sun tan in the beatiful Glen Coe.
Taking in some views of Loch Ness whilst exploring Urquart Castle.

Then it was back to the sunshine again for a lovely few days relaxing and enjoying some lazy days. We caught up with John's family for a lovely afternoon in the back garden and on another day we explored Leeds Castle for a bit of culture. We spent our last days under the apple tree enjoying the company of my wonderful Grandad and best mate Amy.

Meeting another set of rellies.

Getting a history lesson with Grandad John at Leeds Castle.

Chewing pegs with Auntie Amy and cuddles with Great Grandad Tidy

And that's about it for our UK adventures. We has such a great time seeing everyone and we really enjoyed exploring England and Scotland. As always, there's never enough time to see everyone and do everything, but hopefully it won't be too long before we're able to come back over again. And we always have a spare room here for any intrepid travellers willing to make the big trip! I've put together a DVD slideshow of all of our photos which the English rellies should get by the end of next week, drop me a line if you'd like to see a copy - really easy to do as the DVD's only cost $1!). Otherwise a selection of the photos is available online at the kodak gallery website, just click here.

I passed!

2006-07-27T10:13:00.000+08:00

On a cold, wet and rainy Thursday morning I set out with my lovely driving examiner Steve and passed the practical stage of my driving test - woo hoo!! It was very nerve wracking, but now it's over I can get on with getting the experience for my full licence. I still have to do 25 hours of surpervised driving and then pass a hazard perception test, but then I'll be on the roads so lock up your kids! It's all very exciting.

Working on the photos to upload at the moment and the DVDs are going out to the family today so watch your mail boxes. More soon...

A very quick update!

2006-07-25T21:44:00.000+08:00

OK, OK, I'm sorry this has been so long, it seems we got lost in Jersey for a while there! We had such a full on month of adventures in the UK I just didn't get the time to sit down and keep you all updated. And now we're back I've been flat out with a million and one projects, not to mention a teething baby with a cold.

Needless to say we survived the flight home (much easier with a healthy baby!) and are now over the jetlag and getting back into the swing of things. Perth winter weather has been treating us kindly and we've had some glorious sunshine-filled days the past week. It seems the winter storms have arrived in force this week though, but we need the rain so we can't complain.

I have my driving test on Thursday morning (8.45am rush hour!), and I'm crapping myself (excuse my french)! My parallel parking sucks (I'm either miles away or bouncing into the curb) and don't mention reversing into a car park space. If I can get my licence before my 27th birthday I'll be over the moon - watch this space!

Anyway, I'll keep this short as I still don't have much time and I haven't yet got all the photos organised and uploaded onto flickr to put on the blog, so I promise the next project will be attending to a good post about our travels and what we got up to - it'll just have to be a little retrospective! I've also just finished putting a slideshow of all our photos onto DVDs for the folks back home, so I should be getting those into the post in the next few days (let me know if you want a copy).

Ciao for now.

Jersey

2006-06-09T16:48:00.000+08:00

We just spent the last 3 days visiting my Uncle and family in Jersey and had a fabulous time! The island is so picturesque and the weather couldn't have been better - we really should have gone longer. My uncle lives in a beautiful old house that used to house a forge with a view out over a field of cows, I don't think it gets any better! We had a lovely walk along a beach studded with rock-pools where I went back to my youth and caught a crab - I was queen crabber of studland bay in dorset where we used to spend our summer holidays. We explored the amazing Mont Orgeuil castle with it's warren of passageways and spiral staircases and enjoyed some breath-taking views of the coastline. Yesterday morning I got to enjoy a drive in my first ever convertible car - my Uncle's 1970 e-type Jaguar called 'Eric'! What a ride!

I don't have much time now as we're off to my Dad's house today to see my little sister and help celebrate her 10th birthday. I've uploaded just a few photos to flick if you want to have a look as it takes me too long to individually post them. I'm pretty new to using this album software so I've just inserted the url of what I see - not very tidy but I'll sort it later. Click on this link to see them.

We're having a great time (now that we have recovered from terrible colds, a bout of gastro (we all got it) and teething! We're off to Dad's today, then on to Centre Parcs with my sister on Monday for the week and then Scotland the following Sunday. The weather is gorgeous, 28 degrees today, we couldn't ask for anything better.

We made it!

2006-06-03T19:46:00.000+08:00

Well, we made it in one piece! I can't say the journey was a piece of cake and Ashlinn wasn't exactly an angel, but now we're here she is settling in well. On the Wednesday morning that we left Ashlinn woke up with a terrible cold and the start of her first tooth - what amazing timing!! She was really sick the whole way and was not a happy camper (poor little thing!). On the second flight she had the most amazing projectile vomit all over me, the seat and herself - fulfilling all my worst nightmares!! Still, it leaves me with hope that the next flight can only get better (or can it still be worse?). And, now we're here Rich and I are both sick with really bad colds (I haven't felt this bad for about 2 years I reckon) and Rich threw up this morning and is feeling very under the weather, so all in all a great start to our holiday.

Having said all this, it is great to be back in blighty, everything is very green and alive! Mum and I still managed to trawl around the shops yesterday picking up a few bargains for Ashlinn and some new underwear for me (gotta love M&S). I have to be a lot sicker than this to turn down a shopping trip!

My Sister Vikki, her husband Paul and their little one Freya arrived last night after a really long drive up from Exeter and it's great to see them. Freya has grown up so much and is such a little lady now. She's fascinated by Ashlinn and the feeling is reciprocal. Ashlinn is having lots of fun watching all the things Freya gets up to, it's really beautiful to watch them interacting together. I'll try and take some pics over the next couple of days but it will depend on whether I have the time to post them.

Tomorrow is our BBQ and the forecast is lovely, it should be a balmy 25 degrees and sunny. Richt now the sun is out and I'm sitting in front of a computer, so I'm going to rectify this situation and sign off. Until the next installment of the Lee-Pullen's family holiday......

Travel and flight details.

2006-05-30T11:57:00.000+08:00

As most of you know by now we will be spending the next month visiting family and friends in the UK. Just to keep you all in the loop I've listed our flight details and plans below...

Wed 31/5/05 Flight EK421 Perth to Dubai 10.30pm
Thur 1/6/06 Flight EK015 Dubai to London Gatwick, arrive 12:30pm.

Sat 1/7/06 Flight EK010 LGW to Dubai 9.15pm
Sun 2/7/06 Flight EK424 Dubai to Perth arriving 12.55am (3/7/06).

We're off to Jersey from the 6-8th June to see my Uncle and Aunt and then to Suffolk the following weekend to see my Dad, Gay and little sister Amber (who will be in double figures by then as she celebrates her 10th birthday on the 7th June - woo hoo!).

The following Monday we're going to Centre Parcs with my sister Vikki, Paul and Freya from the 12th to 16th June. On Sunday 18th June we fly to Inverness where we're hiring a car to take a small tour of Scotland. We fly back on Friday 23rd June. The last week we haven't made any major plans, apart from spending time with family. And then we'll be back in Perth and ready for another holiday!

Look forward to catching up with all the UK folk soon and we'll try and update the blog whilst we're away to keep the Aussie's updated.

Blogging is contagious!

2006-05-23T22:08:00.000+08:00

Blogging is the new black, or so it seems! Looks like I've inspired a few of you to try out this online journal lark - what fun! Now I can see what Amanda's getting up to in Michigan and how Michael's home reno's are going in Bris Vegas. And then there are the websites - these guys are just too cool for school! Here's my old uni mate Rich fulfilling his life-long dream of becoming a pilot, learning to fly in beautiful New Zealand - how did you land that one? And Helen - the blog master who's taught me everything I know and keeps us all updated with her fabulous travels around Europe - I'll be there next week!!!

So come on, what are the rest of you waiting for, get blogging and let us know what you're doing in your lives!

A night off

2006-05-21T00:37:00.000+08:00

Richard is a bit worried that the current picture at the top of this blog is not his 'boofy-haired' baby and that as the blog is 'allaboutashlinn' then this should be rectified. Easily done, I just give you a quick update of what we've been up to and little Tom will be shifted down the page.

So what are we up to then? It's Saturday night, late, way past my bedtime and Ashlinn is staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house. So here we have our 3rd night off since the 16th October and so we decided to drink a bottle of champagne (to celebrate our second 2nd anniversary, which isn't until next week but it's near enough), go to the movies to see The Davinci Code and chill out. After reading a few bad reviews for the movie I was a little worried as both Rich and I were big fans of the book. Luckily I was pleasantly suprised and enjoyed the film. Tom Hanks wasn't really right for the part and it did tend towards the melodramatic at the end, but it kept pretty true to the book and I enjoyed all the technical bits. Look forward to comments from others that have seen the film (just click the comments button at the bottom of this post).

Tomorrow we're off for a swim with the wee one and Grandma's coming too so she can see what a good swimmer Ashlinn is becoming. She's just loving her swimming lessons at the moment, she gets so excited and goes under the water lots now. She's going to love it when we go to Centre Parcs with Vikki and Paul as they have a great indoor pool.

I'd better get off to bed now, can hardly keep my eyes open and I'm hitting the delete key more than the letters!

Will write more soon...

It's a Boy!!

2006-05-12T23:16:00.000+08:00

Our good friends Sarah and Nick have become parents!! Welcome to the world

Thomas Johan Power

Thomas was born yesterday (11th May), only a day after his due date (pretty timely compare to Ashlinn) and weighed in at a healthy 8lb 8oz! Congratulations to Sarah and Nick, I'm sure they're going to have lots of fun together!

Sleeping like a baby (what a fallacy that is!) - cynic aren't I?

I have to say after the early weeks with Ashlinn I didn't think I'd be so clucky seeing a newborn but you forget how tiny and small they are, it just melts your heart! I very much enjoyed my cuddle this afternoon and I'll be sure to get a few more once they're home. I can just hand him back when he gets colic, screams uncontrollably for hours, wakes for a feed every two hours, the sore nipples, the sleep deprivation - nah, I'm sure it'll all be just peachy for these guys. I wouldn't change a thing about our gorgeous daughter, but I think we might wait a little while before we do it all over again!

On Sunday it's mother's day - my first, and Rich has figured out that as Ashlinn isn't yet able to walk down the road and spend her pocket money on me herself then it's probably up to him to arrange a card of some sort (only took a couple of hints). I probably shouldn't bag him too much as he'll be reading this, and besides, I know he's taken the hint as he's already told me there will be a 'surprise for me' - watch this space!

Hopefully we'll celebrate Sunday with all the family for a picnic in Kings Park, if the weather is anything as good as last weekend when we went for a BBQ in John Forrest National Park then it'll be lovely (see pics below).

Nothing like a good tin roof

Rich prepares as BBQ whilst Ashlinn watches on

Phil and Kirsten's Wedding

2006-05-08T13:00:00.000+08:00

On Saturday we attended the wedding of some good friends Phil and Kirsten. I think one word sums up the day very well - perfect!

The weather was just great, clear blue skies and about 24 degrees. The setting for the ceremony was stunning - a lovely little reserve in Mosman Park right on the banks of the Swan River. The bride looked like a Princess and the Groom, well he scrubbed up pretty good too! The beautiful ceremony was topped off by a lovely reception and meal at the boardwalk restaurant - all very yummy! Good luck Phil and Kirsten - have a very happy marriage!!

It was also a good chance for us to get a couple of family shots as Ashlinn looked pretty cute in her designer dress from Great Grandad Tidy!

I felt pretty lucky to be surrounded by my gorgeous hubby and pretty little girl.

Just wanted to add a note to explain what this blogging business is all about... A weblog is like an online diary where people can write things that they have been doing, thoughts, ideas etc. Kind of like a journal, but you're sharing your thoughts with other people. I thought it would be a nice way to keep people updated of what we're up to as we're so far away from many people - better than the group email thing. I'll let you all know when I update the site and you can just save the url in your favourites and check the webpage. Also, I've inserted the pictures as small files so they wont take too long to download for those of you with dial-up connections, but if you click on the photo it should link to a bigger image.

Ciao for now!

Milestones

2006-05-05T09:16:00.000+08:00

As I'm going to use this post as a kind-of baby book record of Ashlinn's development I thought I should put in some of Ashlinn's milestones to date (those that I can remember anyway!).

First bath - 16th October 2005 (she loved it - a water baby from the start!)

First smile - 4 weeks (11th November 2005)

First swim - December 2005 (2.5 months) in Grandpa Lee's backyard pool.

Laughing - 15th January 2006 (3 months)

Rolling over from back to front - 27th January 2006 (3.5 months, but didn't really master it till nearly 5 months!)

First haircut - 4 months!! Mummy has learnt that she's not a very good hairdresser!

Rolling from front to back (around 5-6 months, can roll, but doesn't roll in this direction very much).

First wedding attended - Demelza and Greg's 12th March 2006. Demelza and I shared an office at uni whilst I was pregnant so I think Ashlinn knows her voice very well!

No crawling as yet and I'm quite happy with her still being immobile at the moment, it means she stays where I put her at the moment!

Thanks for all the positive comments so far, this is definitely a work in progress, but hopefully I'll get better at it the more I do!

Next blog will have some pics of Phil and Kirsten's wedding which we were lucky enough to be invited to - a perfect day and a beautiful wedding!

The First Post

2006-05-03T22:20:00.000+08:00

I've been thinking about this for the last 6 months, ever since Helen gave me the idea with her excellent blog! As we're so far away from so many of you I thought it might be nice to keep you updated with Ashlinn's development. It seems she's changing all the time and everyday there's something new to delight in! I must confess I never understood how devoted you can be to something and how much you can love them. Anyway, on with the blog. I guess I should start with a quick summary of Ashlinn's first 6 and a half months in the world.

Ashlinn Audrey Lee-Pullen arrived in the world at 3.22am on Sunday the 16th October 2006 after a relaxed and relatively pain-free labour (epidural's are fantastic!). At 7lb 15oz (3.6kg), with a full head of dark hair she was just perfect. The first 12 weeks were a huge learning curve of getting to know each other and getting over the dreaded colic but I think you need to experience some tough times to appreciate all the good even more!

I think one word describes our daughter very well - determined! She was determined to stay in her nice warm womb (had to be forcebly ejected 9 days after she was due), she's determined to take in every detail the world has to show her, and determined to let us know what she thinks! I know a few of you will be laughing now thinking that she's a bit like her mum, just have some sympathy for Rich if he has two stubborn women living in his house! :)

Ashlinn was lucky enough to meet her Grandpa Pullen within a few hours and spent some important hours snoozing in his arms!

We soon became locals at the walk cafe in Subi, where we're joined for Friday lunch by a few friends. It's great to compare notes and see how different our bubs are. These girls were a big support for me in the early days!

I love Ashlinn's amazement at the world, nothing seems too small to escape her interest, she can't seem to take enough in. I hope the world continues to astonish her!

Luckily she has a daddy who will always be there to show her the funny side of every situation!

Ashlinn now has a good group of friends and as the 'baby' of the group she gets to see all the new tricks she needs to learn like sitting up and not face planting! Niamh and Ryan seem to have mastered the art beautifully - Ryan can even sit and pull Ashlinn's hair at the same time (I'm sure Ashlinn will get him back when he grows some hair of his own!!).

Ashlinn is now enjoying solid food (well mushy stuff that isn't milk at least!) lovingly prepared by her mummy and so far she's eaten everything we've given her! We feel very lucky that she's taken to food so well, it makes life a lot easier for us!

So here she is at 6 month old, full of smiles, giggles and cuddles! We're off to the UK in 4 weeks time and we can't wait for her to meet all our friends and rellies on the other side of the world. Not long to go now!!