The Bell Family

Hi Everyone!

Laura had her first little adventure to daycare yesterday and she loved it!

Jason and I took her along in the morning and spent about an hour settling her in and getting to know the routine at the centre. About mid morning, I headed home and Jason headed off to work (he was really late, but he figured her first day at daycare was something he just couldn’t miss).

When I got home, I just balled my eyes out (the house was empty and I was so lonely)! I hadn’t been away from Laura on more than a handful of occasions since she was born and never any more than 2 or 3 hours at a time, so I took it pretty hard! So I decided to make myself busy – I was super efficient and cleaned the house from top to bottom, stained and varnished a pair of old kids rocking chairs I’ve been meaning to do for the last 6 months, washed and even did a bit of reading for work (the first half had taken me 4 days during Laura nap times, but the second half took me about an hour and was much less painful)!!!

After all that, I finally couldn’t bear it any longer, so Jason and I headed back to the centre and picked her up mid afternoon! She’d had a fabulous day – hadn’t slept a wink (well maybe 20 here or there, but no real nap), but had drank two bottles of formula and eaten the whole can of custard that I had sent with her (yes, she gets the sweet tooth from me)!!! Laura loved all the bright colours, fancy toys and of course, new little people to play with! She’d also had some time in the swing and played in the sandpit and garden for a while – all in all, she appeared to have been a fairly happy camper! Although the grin on her face when she saw Jason and I arrive to pick her up was absolutely priceless and I just couldn’t wait to get her back home again!!!

Only a couple more weeks until I head back to work, so we’re just easing Laura in at daycare and she’ll go a day a week until I start back.

We’re all having a great time together though and life is great!

Cheers to all,
Chrissy

Wow – what an eventful couple of weeks we’ve had since our last update!!!

Laura’s two top teeth have just cut through – they’ve caused her to become a little grizzly of late, but if you’ve ever experienced your wisdom teeth whilst they are on the move, you’d understand why!!! However, I’m sure the discomfort will be short lived (until the next set of teeth anyway)!!! So, Laura’s beaming grin now boasts four little pearly whites! Very cute – but watch where you put your hands or she’s likely to test out your fingers with one swift ‘chomp’!!!

On the topic of ‘chomping’, Laura’s daily menu has rapidly expanded over the last few weeks – from sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin and zucchini to pear, apple and banana, she reckons fruit and veges are great (best feed her up on the good stuff before Dad starts teaching her bad habits)! Of all the different types of food though, her new favourite is vegetable rusks!!! Leave her with one and it will keep her occupied for up to an hour, sucking and chewing away until there’s nothing left except the part of the little mushy stick which was clasped tightly in her hand!!!

She’s also developing a fairly large vocabulary for a little tacker – ‘hi there’, ‘hello’, ‘mum mum’, ‘bub bub’, and ‘dad dad’ have been known to slip out recently, in no particular order or context of course, however she reckons she’s pretty clever (and we have to agree)!!! We’re so proud of how she’s progressing and the way her little personality is beginning to shine through!!! She’s just gorgeous!

Anyway, all the best to everyone! We hope you had a great Easter and that you have a great week.

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jason

She sings, she dances, she rocks and she rolls!!! Well… that might take some explaining… after all, she’s still only a baby, but we reckon she’s a pretty clever one and we can’t believe she is already 6 months old!!!

The singing refers to her new found lungs and variety of vocals – she just loves squealing, giggling and babbling to anyone who’s willing to listen!
Dancing refers to her love of ‘boogeying’ with her Mum and Dad which is always greeted with squeals of delight! While the ‘rock and roll’ refers to her keen desire to get moving by rocking back and forward and rolling from side to side!

Laura’s latest stats are as follows:
Weight – 6.9kg (40th percentile, so a little lighter than average for her age)
Length – 68cm (70th percentile for her age, so a little taller than average for her age)
General Health: Excellent (although starting to develop a little eczema)
Milestones: Teeth for having some fun with real food!!!

Laura’s chomping on everything in sight with her two sharp bottom teeth (including your fingers if you’re silly enough to ‘lend’ them to her for a moment)! Given that she’s 6 months now, we’ve just started her on vegetables! As you can see from the photo, the fun and games have begun!!! At least I may have some hope in getting Laura to actually like her vege’s – it’s her father I need to worry about!!!

Jason and I have been having so much fun with Laura – she’s a great little person to have around and never fails to bring a smile to your face!

A bit of a countdown now until I return to work (albeit part-time), so I’m just enjoying every moment with her!!!

Cheers and lots of toothy grins,
From the Bell’s!

Hi Everyone!

Time for another update! Laura’s just had her 5 month checkup at the clinic and all is going well.

Her new stats are:
Weight – 6.9kg
Length – 66cm
Change – She’s already grown over 3kg in weight and 11cm in length, since birth!
Milestones – Teeth, solid food and a wriggly backwards crawl!

Since my last update, Laura’s two bottom teeth have decided to make their presence known, so she now has two cute little pearly whites to show off as part of her gummy grin! She’s still chewing everything in sight and her gums still seem to be pretty irritated, so we figure it won’t be long before another couple of teeth cut through.

Laura’s also developed an interest in ‘big people’s food’ and simply wouldn’t take her eyes off my dinner the other day, so we’ve started her on some baby rice cereal – she loves the stuff! She opens her mouth wide, licks her lips and is even attempting to hold the spoon as I’m obviously not shovelling it in fast enough for her liking! The advice on solid foods seems to change almost as quickly as the month, however the current medical thinking suggests that babies shouldn’t be given solid food until 6 months now (to reduce the chance of developing allergies and to ensure their digestive system is sufficiently developed). So we’ll probably just stick with the cereal for a few weeks before getting into the exciting stuff like fruits and vegetables – if she’s anything like her Dad, I can’t wait for Laura’s new facial expressions when she tries the stuff – should make for some great piccies!

The other point of note is that not only can she turn 360 degrees when on her tummy, she has also worked out how to wriggle backwards now and can make ground fairly quickly!!! Time for me to start developing those eyes in the back of my head I think!

Most of all though, her little personality is developing so quickly now and she’s such great fun to be around… always babbling away to herself and handing out lots of smiles and giggles – she’s a real cutie!!! Here’s a new piccie…

Cheers and have a great week,
Chrissy

Laura’s 4 ½ months old now and has just learned to roll! It’s amazing how they just wake up one morning and suddenly something clicks! Whilst having some early morning tummy time, Laura rolled from her tummy onto her back. I figured it was probably just a fluke and that it could be a few days or even weeks before she’d do it again, but incredibly she did it another 10 or 20 times before the day was out!!! Jason and I were so proud!!! Given our reaction to a simple ‘roll’, I can only begin to imagine what we’ll be like when she says her first words and takes her first steps!!!

She’s still teething and the little critters seem to keep going up and down (along with the volume of dribble)!!! Anything and everything that will fit in her mouth makes it there somehow (even her feet – see photo)!!! She’s been a little irritable (I think), but unless they bring out a new version of babies with subtitles, I guess we’ll never really know!!! But I’m sure her new little teeth will appear soon enough….

She’s become a real Mummy’s girl lately – has to have me in her sights (and preferably be in my arms) – if anyone else picks her up, she generally cries (but we think that might be something to do with the teething) – she just wants her Mummy!!!

Daddy is still her favourite when it comes to playing games though. It must be a great relief for her after hanging out with Mummy all day – I guess that could get boring after a while, but I’ve been having a great time!

Laura reckons that Nanna, Ma and Pa are pretty good as well and even the Uncle’s get a look in occasionally! She has good eye contact and has a great time blowing raspberries to them all! She’s even giving her vocals a pretty good workout these days – maybe I’m imagining it, but I’m sure there’s a ‘Mum’ and funny sounding ‘hello’ in there somewhere. Who needs entertainment when you’ve got Laura!!!

Anyway, all the best to you all and until the next instalment, take care and be well!!!

Cheers,
Chrissy

Wow – isn’t time flying! Laura has just turned 4 months! She has just been for her 2nd round of immunisations and was a brave little girl despite the three needles and icky tasting medicine!

The latest stats have her as follows:
• Weight: 6.2kg
• Height: 63cm

She’s growing really quickly and is still a little above average, however she only put on 200 grams during the last month in comparison to the 740 grams the month before!!! Thankfully things are slowing down a little there, because she was starting to become quite a chubby little thing! Nothing wrong with having a bit of meat on her though I reckon, means she’s nice and healthy! She’s finishing up in ‘000’ clothes now and moving into ‘00’s, and she has so many lovely outfits from all over the place!

Laura’s latest milestones are:
• reaching for and holding onto toys;
• grabbing and holding onto her feet;
• longer tummy time (holding her head up really well and often being seen with her bum up in the air);
• lots of sounds including uhuh, ugug, oh’s and happy squeals; and
• a general interest in being involved in everything that’s going on around her.

Here is a picture of Laura and I. She is a cutie isn’t she!?!

Hope you enjoy the update.

Cheers,
Chrissy

Well, as you can imagine, one of the major things we had to complete as part of the renovations was the refurbishment of the nursery.

If you were un-aware, every bedroom and living room walls were made up of a lami-panel type timber. The unfortunately thing was that every bedroom’s timber was a different colour and shade. Below is what the nursery use to look like before we started the renovations.

The bedroom was once desigenated as my study, which housed things like books and of course computers. Though, as soon as the news that we were expecting our first child, it of course became the nursery.

Like the master bedroom, when we decided to renovate the back bedrooms, we decided to replace the lami-panel with gyprock as well. The timing for the renovation was quite crucial, as Christine was currently 3 months pregnant and we wanted everything to be completed before bubsy came along. If you are unaware, they recommend that new carpet and paint be allowed to air for three months before a new-born is allowed into the room.

It was then decided that to speed up the process, you would employ a carpenter to fix up and improve upon the storage of each of the bedrooms, as well as get plasters to gyprock and plaster the walls. The main reason for this was the speed up the process.

The nursery use to have timber shutter opening doors for the cupboard. This was one of the things the carpenter improved upon, which he installed sliding mirrors, new hanging spaced and sliding drawers.

Once the new cupboards were installed, new door hanged and the walls covered in gyprock, it was time of course to paint. Like the master bedroom, I did do a lot of the timber work myself (door jam, window sills, architraves, skirting boards and various other timber work) which saved us a lot of money.

Other additions to the room include:

• Carpet to replace the lino;
• Timber bind for the window (I also installed and trimmed the blinds to fit the window, the new drop saw which I purchase has already payed for itself many times over); and
• New fan and adjustable down lights (Which have be great for late night feeding).

The only thing that we have recently done is place a nice “Teddy bear pattern” valance over the window.

As you can see, we selected fairly netural colours, as we didn’t like the idea of painting the room blue or pink. As we felt we could decorated the room to the sex of our first child, which you all know is a girl.

Anyway, I hope you like the looks of Laura’s room and the changes we made to it. Remember to keep those comments coming.

Cheers,
Jason.

G’day all

For those who have visited our house recently, you will have noticed some changes to the look of the house inside compared to when we first bought it.

One of the first major renovations we completed inside our house was the refurbishment of the master bedroom. For those who haven’t visited our house, the walls were made out of that lami-panel timber and were accompanied by lino on the floor.

As can be seen from the above picture, the room was quite dark and felt cramped.

I started the renovation firstly, by sanding back the lami-panel to remove all of the bumps in the hope that I could paint directly over it. Unfortunately, due to the think thickness of the lami-panel, as soon as anyone lent on the walls, the paint would crack across the seams. It was then decided that I would remove all of the timber and plasterboard the room.

It was quite funny, that during the master bedroom renovation, the first installment of the TV show ‘The Block’ was on and it was ironic that I could relate to the show in some parts. Though it did give me some inspiration to complete the reno and to have it all looking great.

As with all renovations, I must admit that I learnt a lot of things about how to do things properly. With some help from my Mum and Christine’s Parents, I was able to do most of it myself, this included gyprocking, cornices, plastering and painting.

Because the old lami-panel was about 3mm think and the plasterboard was 10mm thick, I had to replace the door jam, window sills, architraves skirting boards and various other timber work. We bought Meranti timber and stained it ourselves.

Like all renovations, one thing it did enable me to do, was to buy tools I was able to purchase a drop saw which has proved invaluable, as it enabled me to cut the timber at various angles to suit each job.

The only things that we brought in outside help for were the laying of new carpet and installation of down-lights (though I did help with these).

As you can see from the above photo, the light colours, downlights and new timber give the bedroom some warmth and have really improved the look and feel of the room, not only adding value to the house, but modernising the look.

Well, as you can imagine, more renovations have been conducted and completed throughout the house and I hope to show off some more of the work we have done around the house soon.

Until then, keep visiting and let me know what you think of the changes.

Cheers,
Jason.

G’day Everyone

I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great new year’s!!!!

As you all know, this was Laura’s first Christmas and I think she really enjoyed all of the attention (and especially all the fantastic gifts and new toys that will keep her busy for the next few months)! Of course she is still too young to really appreciate Christmas fully, but I think she still had fun as can be seen from the photo below.

Having Laura around sure made Christmas special for the whole family this year and we can only imagine that it will get even better in the years to come!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a great new year and will endeavor to keep you all posted with the latest information on Laura, house renovations and things in general. So keep on visiting this site and we will try to update it as much as possible.

Until then, stay safe and well,
Jason.

G’day Everyone

I would like take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. With everything that’s happened this year, the festive season has snuck up on us more quickly than we’d realised!

I would like to thank all of you visiting our website and look forward to updating you with the latest news and updates!!!

As usual I cannot help myself and have attached another photo of Laura going for her first swim. It took her a little while to get use to the pool, but once we started singing Laura her bath songs, she just thought it must have been a large bath and started to really enjoy it!

Anyway, wishing you all a safe and festive holiday,
Jason

Hi Everyone!

Laura is the luckiest little girl around – what other 3 month old could boast having been in a taxi, a bus, a plane, a train, a boat and a ‘skyrail gondola’ and all in the space of one week!!! We’ve just returned from a fantastic family holiday to Cairns! Laura behaved herself remarkably well – even started properly ‘sleeping through’ the night whilst we were away and just couldn’t get enough of the new sights and sounds during the day!!! So much so, that when we got home, she gave me the ‘I’m bored’ look and did everything but actually said to me ‘Mum can’t we go out again now’!!!

Here’s a little piccie of her out and about on the town.

Also, here are her latest stats:
Weight: 6.0kg
Height: 62cm
Milestones: Thumbsucking (left and right thumbs), lots more sounds, smiles all ’round, sleeping through the night and much more wakeful playtime

Anyway, thanks for checking out the blog and be sure to have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May you all have a safe and happy holiday!

Cheers,
Chrissy (Jason and Laura)

Not that I’m a biased person or anything like that, but isn’t she a cutie!!!!

I have attached another piccie of Laura.

It is amazing how interactive Laura is becoming at the moment, responding to us by smiling or, my favourite, where we take turns in blowing each other raspberries!

Unfortunately we don’t have any new stats at the moment with Laura’s weight and length, as Chrissy is now only going to the family centre once a month … but I will update the new stats as soon as we get them.

Until then, keep visiting and I will endeavor to update the site as much as possible.

Take it easy,
Jason.

Hi Everyone!!!

Thought it was about time I gave you all a little update on what Laura’s been upto!!! She’s now 10 weeks and time is really flying!

Laura’s been feeding every four hours or so during the day, and generally has one to two feeds at night (with about four hours sleep at a time). She’s starting to follow a much more regular pattern with things now, so the bedtime routine is paying off! During the day, Laura has a feed, gets changed and then we have playtime. Her favourite games at the moment are singing and talking with her Mummy and Daddy, and giving us lots of smiles, giggles and blowing bubbles! However she also loves toys, especially her orange giraffe and coloured rings, and trips in the car always go over a treat (especially if they involve a trip to see friends or family, or visit the shops, as she loves new sights, sounds and of course, faces)!!!

Laura and I have been attending a ‘New Babies’ group once a week, which has provided a great opportunity to get to know other Mums and their new little ones, as well as share stories and experiences. It’s good fun and I’ve learnt much more about being a good parent than I ever would have expected. As I’ve found out though, it’s all about trial and error and at the end of the day, you just stick with whatever works for you!!!

Jason is a wonderful Dad and I just love watching them play together (he even sings to her, which I think is pretty cute)! He’s just been awesome and together we make a very happy little family!

I’ve been enjoying all the challenges of having a family and bringing up a young ‘un!!! She can be a bit of a handful at times, but all the effort is well and truly worth it!!! I never thought I’d enjoy it half as much as I do, but I think I’ve mellowed lately and found it is the simple things in life that really matter!

Cheers,
Chrissy

Well, sorry we haven’t posted anything to the blog site for a little while, but as you can imagine, we have been kept very busy.

I have been busy with a number of things at work, but the most notable thing is an international supercomputing conference (see http://uninews.cqu.edu.au/op001-1.php?ra=1100092678&id=2024).

Well, gee hasn’t time flown – Laura is now 8 weeks old! She has been doing really well and has even managed to sleep right through the night on a couple of occasions (just enough to tease us).

She went for her check up today and she is doing great guns.

Her latest details are:

Weight: 5240 grams
Length: 58cm
Milestones: reacting to various toys (particularly shiny stuff) and smiling at faces (family and Mr G the orange giraffe).

Like all girls, Laura has been fascinated by shiny stuff! She stares at lights, reflections and of course metallic, particularly golden, objects.

Like all updates, I have attached another photo of her… As you can see, she really enjoys the baby cradle that we use to carry her around.

Enjoy and as always, feedback and comments are welcome… It would be interesting to see who actually visits this site!

Take it easy,
Jason

To the Bell Family, October is a big thing… no I better rephrase that, it’s ‘huge’!!! In fact, most Bell Family birthdays appear in October, so traditionally, you don’t even start thinking about Christmas until October has passed!

Here’s a piccie of the entire Bell Family, taken on Jason’s birthday (lucky Laura came early, or we may have added another Bell to the October birthday list)!

Anyway, cheers to all and thanks for keeping an eye on our web site!

Well, we can’t believe it…. Laura is already 6 weeks old! Time is just flying by!

Laura had her 6 week checkup yesterday and was given a clean bill of health, which is a great relief! For those keeping track of Laura’s stats, here’s the latest…

Weight: 5000 grams
Length: 56cm
Milestones: Smiling at Mum and Dad and ‘cooing’ when she’s happy

She’s still feeding well, generally about four hourly, with a good sleep in between feeds. In the late evening she normally stocks up at the ‘milky bar’ with feeds every two hours, in preparation for bed time and hopefully a big sleep (we have been lucky lately as Laura’s been having a good 5 hours sleep at night which mightn’t sound like much, but to the initiated, you’d realise that just being able to get a few hours sleep in a row feels like heaven to us)!!!

Cheers,
Chrissy

Hi Everyone!

Just about all the photo’s we’ve posted, to this time, suggest that Laura sleeps ALL day! She’s a good little girl, but it’s not completely true that she sleep ALL the time!!! A few people have requested a photo of Laura with her eyes open, just to prove she does actually have plenty of awake time! So here it is… isn’t she gorgeous? She’s growing so quickly, we just can’t believe it!!!

Cheers,
Chrissy

Whilst we were tackling the front yard of the house, we also performed a face lift on our courtyard area (gee I feel like this post is part of a back yard blitz) !

As you can see, the courtyard area was in need of some major renovations. The bougainvillea was running riot and the garden was in disarray!

So we hacked into it and practically removed everything from the garden, hoping to start anew. Whilst removing everything, we did come across a few interesting things, including some old concrete edging (buried under the already existing edging).

With new soil, tropical palms and plants and a splash of paint, we have made some major changes to our courtyard area.

Well thats a brief look at the changes we have made to the yards of our house. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll add some pictures of some of the renovations we have made to the inside of our house.

Until next time,
Jason.

As we have had a lot of people visiting our website, especially those who haven’t been kept up to date with our house renovations, I thought I would begin showing some of the changes we have made to the house over the past few years (we have been here about 2 years).

Need not to worry though, as most of the posts to the website will be about Laura, I just thought it would be good to show off some of the changes we have been making to the house and yard since we bought the place.

As you can see from the top photo, the front yard looked okay, but it was fairly over crowded and the pine tree was a bit dangerous. So the first thing we did was remove the pine tree. We then removed the gardens from the front of the house so that we could keep the termites as far away from the house as we possibily could!

We also removed some grass and made a new garden with nice curbed edging and tropical palms and plants. I think the changes have really improved the look of our front yard!!! What do you all think????

Note, all of these posts to the website have been made under different Categories, so by clicking on any of the category links on your right, you can choose to view the category that you are interested in, for example, Princess Laura or House Renovation.

Take it easy,
Jason.

Can you believe it, Laura is 4 weeks old today…. Gee time has really flown by.

Laura went for her check up today and she is doing great!!!! She has been putting on the weight and growing in length. As of 4 weeks she is:

• 4.580 Kilo’s (or 10 pounds 1.5 in the old measurement)

• She is also now 55 cm’s in length (or 22 inches)

As usual, I have to posted another picture of her, as this is a piccie of Laura at 4 weeks.

Chrissy and I will endeavor to keep you all up to date with the latest news on Laura and the rest of the family.

Keep your comments coming!!!

Take it easy,
Jason.