Bridge to Brisbane

Well... I did it!! I ran a 10k race, the Bridge to Brisbane. It was so exciting too - just being part of something like that was a pretty incredible. It was also awesome to be sharing the day/experience with someone. Particularly as we had to get up so damn early! We caught the train at about 5.30am to Murrarie station and walked with the masses up to the starting point... or, as close as we could get to it given that there were 30,000 other people trying to get close to it too! Everything was extremely well organised, bag drop-off containers were easy to find and even when I realised I'd left my ipod and phone in my bag it was easy to go back and retrieve them. We even had one of the baggage guys take our photo...



So then we parted company and Maria went to the green zone so she could get in a good pack of runners and beat her time and I went and met the girls from the gym who were at the start of the yellow zone. The starting gun went off at 6.45 - it was ages though until we shuffled towards the starting line, eventually starting at about 7.20 - 7.30am. The first part of the race was up the gateway bridge - a big hill... but it seemed my training paid off and I scaled it with no problems, cleared the top and enjoyed the descent. Shortly after the end of the bridge and close to the first water and toilet station I saw the first distance marker - 3km - already!! The k's were flying by. I was in a good groove, had a good pace and felt really comfortable throughout the whole race. It was hot and sunny as I ran down Kingsford-Smith drive but I don't remember, at any point in the race, a time when I wanted to stop and walk, I just kept running!

The 8k marker was a big milestone for me as 8k had been my previous longest distance - which I'd only run 4 days prior, the first and only time. Once I'd passed that stage I was in un-chartered territory. Apart from the small hill (on-ramp) around the 8k mark which was an unexpected obstacle, I still felt great and knew the end was pretty close (doh - only 2k away!). Getting to the 9k mark was pretty exciting, by this stage there was a pretty consistent pack of people together and there was a buzz around us, a few people commenting on how far we'd come - I remarked that I'd never gone 9k before so even that was an accomplishment!

It wasn't long after that marker that we entered the showgrounds, and practically just as I stepped over the entrance, Robbie came on my ipod - c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon... and I just got a huge grin on my face and kept running... 900, 800, 700, these figures were in my head but there was a 200m marker and by this stage people were picking up the pace, whoooting and the crowd was getting louder ....

Unfinished... but it's been two days and I'll lose this post all together if I don't get it up!

My baby girl is Rolling!

It seems like a microsecond since she was born but Georgia Grace is rolling over!

She'd been getting onto her side for about a week now but today she went the whole way over - back to tummy. I missed her first time - heard her protesting and went out to the playmat and she was on her belly!! So clever. She did it a few more times (4 I think) and then was over it and tired, we had a bath and she slept for over 3 hours. After she woke up she had a little play and then started rolling again - I caught one on vid finally.



A mobile girl now - life won't be the same (again!)

Awwwww

Had to just blog this quickly - it was Hayden's kindy Christmas party last Friday (Hey - I'm only a week out!) and I couldn't find any nice Santa/Christmas shirts for them to wear so I made some! They turned out great I think and they both looked adorable for the party. Here is the shot just before we left.



Busy week with lots of Christmassy stuff going on - more to come... will try to update as we go...

Welcome back!

Thanks Bettina for the kick up the butt and reminder that I'm a pretty slack blogger :-)

Yes - it has been a busy eight weeks since Miss Georgia came into our lives, but what an amazing time! She's 8 weeks today in fact and family life is marvelous. She's now sleeping through the night and is mostly settled, happy and content during the day. She smiles all the time! She's such a happy girl. She copies our facial movements (tongue out, scrunching up eyes etc) and is now making cooing/baby noises and little shrieks when she's happy. The time has gone so quickly, I'm trying to savour as much of it as I can. There are lots of photos - for the sake of my limited uploads I'll only put a couple here but here is an album of Georgia week to week and here are some family shots we had done when she was 5 days old.

Georgia at 7 weeks


The Cole family


Now the silly season is amongst us - busy busy busy as usual - or perhaps a touch moreso. We've started decorating the house, the decorations are out... the tree is up... they have yet to meet each other! Hayden loves to wear the Santa hats around the house though, I snapped these this morning...







He's loving be a big brother - very helpful, adores his sister, calls her 'My girl' and lights up when he sees her, it's amazing.

Time to run, have to get ready to leave the house for the day - list as long as my arm! I'll be back... sometime!

Georgia Grace Cole

Our Daughter has arrived!



Hi Everyone!

Georgia Grace Cole was born naturally yesterday morning - 9 October, 5.10am after my waters broke just after midnight. I started contractions at 12.50am, so 4 hr 20 min total - not too bad for a first labour (Hayden born c-sect due to being breech). Stats - 8lb 7oz (3850g), 51cm long, head 33.5cm circumference.

We're all doing well, she's doing all the right things, feeding, sleeping etc. She is a little squished in the face after her journey, but that will go down in due course. Her hair seems to have a slight wave to it - there's the gene kickback!

Hayden is besotted with his little sister - he predicted her gender all along, and is a proud and excited big brother.

Birth story later, but more importantly here - photos!


My first cuddle


Proud big brother


First family photo


With my two precious gifts

Bye Bye Kindy

On the 18th of July it was time for Hayden to say goodbye to the kindy he'd been at for almost two years - longer than half his life!

We were moving house two days later and he was going to start a new kindy.



Mum made cupcakes and took them into the class, they'd had a party for him there too and there were lots of balloons and some party games.

As well as missing his friends - the person he'd miss the most was his teacher, Brooke. She'd been with him from the start, firstly in the Starfish room when he was 16 months and she moved up to the Seahorse room when he did at the beginning of the year. They'd formed a pretty special bond.



Bye Brooke - bye Old Kindy!

Our visit to Paris, London and Dubai

From June 29 - July 15th we traveled overseas to Paris, London and Dubai - I don't have time to do the stories or photo's justice right now but wanted to reserve a spot in the succession of posts!

A quick visit to hospital - Happy Birthday Mum (28th June 07)

OMG - what a day!!

Firstly, it was my Mum's 60th. They'd been away for 11 days on a cruise and arriving back from Syd to Bris during the day. The 60th party had been planned, I'd taken RSVP's and was organising decorations, decorating and then going to pick them up.

After a busy morning of running around, Hayden and I set off to Bris, successfully collected them from the airport and drove home to being decorating. We had 100 helium balloons to inflate and other bits and pieces to hang.

Upon completion of the balloons I started to feel a bit out of it - pains in my upper abdomen. I lay down on the floor, trying to stretch out. Didn't help. I moved over the the couch and curled up. Still no relief. I went to the loo (you never know...!)... no help. Mum and Hayden had to go back to spotlight for more decorating supplies. I just lay there, trying not to moan. Eventually the pain got the better of me and I started to really feel it. Dad was now concerned and called my Obstetrician. He advised I be taken to the maternity ward asap.

We made it there, I hobbled into the ward, mostly in tears and doubled over in pain. I was assessed, the baby was monitored (and all signs were good) and the Dr arrived. Meanwhile Erin was being rushed back from a meeting in Brisbane to get to me. My OB said it could be one of two things (most likely) - severe reflux or a gall stone. He was going to order an ultrasound for the morning. I reminded him that the next evening (like in 27 hrs) our plane was LEAVING for 2 weeks overseas.

Oh.

Spanner.

He managed to convince a radiology staff member to return and do my scan that night. Phew. Erin arrived, Dad left, I had a pethadine shot, I had another severe attack of pain and was crying, screaming, writhing. May as well have been in labour!

Scan revealed a HUGE gall stone. OMG.

Blood tests done, Dr left and went to my Mum's party... me still in hosp. Erin with me, Hayden at party.

Lots of conversations backwards and forwards trying to work out if I was able to fly the next night. We didn't have travel insurance (yet), I'd been rushing around so much that morning, it was literally on my PC screen to click - 'accept quote' and pay and I just hadn't done it. So we would've lost everything had we canceled. Not a great thought but seemed to be the general consensus by the medical staff.

Pain died off and I eventually felt tired. Time to sleep. Erin left. I had a pretty good night's sleep considering I had an IV drip in and was in a hospital bed.

Next morning (day of flight). OB visited, said if we go on trip it's at a risk. Advised us to make the decision after speaking to the surgeon. Surgeon came - very relaxed, said he wasn't going to operate until at least bub born and weaned so he didn't see any urgency in it. I had no infection or inflammation. Good signs. He said it was a risk to go, however I would know what the pain was, would have adequate pain medication and would be in a countries with adequate medical care and good English speakers.

We were going!

Erin arrived - with Hayden - Yay!

I gave him the good news and we got the hell out of there! Time to pack, we had a plane to catch!!!

My boys on my hospital bed...

A visit with Flipper (21st June 07) and a bit of a trip....

What a lovely surprise! Flipper and Archie were out for a quick visit to Australia before returning to DC to pack up two houses and head of to Sarajevo... no mean feat!

Hayden and I drove down to Bris to visit for the morning. What a great time we had, Flip getting to know Hayden (and observe what it's like to parent a 3yo!!!) and I had lots of cuddles with Archie - awwwwww.

Me with Archie


Flipper with Hayden


Mum's with son's .... who would've thought?!?!


The trip home was much more eventful though, we stopped at McDonald's (Old McDonald's as far as Hayden is concerned!) for some lunch before the hour ride home, after lining up at the drive through only to discover I had no cash and they had no eftpos we went inside, waited in line for ages, were served by a very rude IDGARA style employee, then proceeded to head back downstairs to the car. Well... I was holding Hayden's hand and a bag of food and somehow lost my footing and fell down the stairs - pulling Hayden with me. He began shrieking - mostly due to the fact that his chips were now all over the stairs. I was stuck, shocked and sore, having fallen heavily on my ankle and twisted it. A gentleman saw us go down and went to get some help. In the mean time a young guy came and sat down next to Hayden, shared his fries with him (God bless him) and opened the Shrek toy to divert some attention from the disaster. I eventually felt okay enough to move. The rude waitress yelled down at me from the top of the stairs, asked if I needed ice - um... no thanks... and did I want new food... um.... of course.... I managed to keep it together and get us up the stairs to wait on our order (again!) and the stairs were cleaned, we then got our new food and left. It was quite the ordeal. B2 was fine though, the damage was to my backside and ankle and pride somewhat. When we got home it turned out the damage was also to my camera, the TFT screen was completely smashed... omg. We were due to fly out in one week for Paris, we couldn't go with NO camera.... my phone also sustained some impact damage. Less of a stress factor. In the end, I organised a replacement camera through insurance, they were fantastic and we had a new one in about 3 working days, plenty of time to spare!

Nana and Pop Pop from the USA (25 May - 11 June 07)

May/June was a busy time for us, the house had sold, uni semester was drawing to a close, my belly was growing, Hayden was turning three and Erin's Mum and Dad (Hayden's Nana and Pop Pop) came out for 2 1/2 weeks from the USA to visit.

Hayden was very spoilt and had some wonderful playtime with Nana and Pop Pop whilst they were here. Here is the visit - pictorially!

Yay - they came off the plane!!


Watching a movie (most likely Cars with Pop Pop


A walk with Nana and Pop Pop - first to the park for a swing...


And then to the beach - looking for crabs...


On my Birthday on the boat with Pop Pop


Another walk - different park, convincing Nana to slide after me!


Doing my "Eggcherzizes" at the park...


Awww... Kisses for Nana


Playing soccer with Nana in the back yard


At the zoo - watching the baby goats - how cute!


Feeding the hungry goats


Feeding the kangaroos - always our favourite part of the zoo visit


Riding on the 'Crocs Rule' boat with Nana


Riding on Steve's Land Cruiser


A sunset beach visit, being chased by Pop Pop


Getting darker - laughs in the sand with Pop Pop


A plane ride with Nana and Pop Pop - plane flown by B'Pa.


Time to go - goodbye kisses with Nana.

Hayden Turned Three! (27 & 31 May 07)

Now I realise it's been three months since my angel's Birthday - but none-the-less... I'm getting there!

We had a great party for him, the party was 4 days prior to his Birthday and we had it at home in the back yard - 22 kids - yikes! The saving grace was the jumping castle which was worth every penny and even though it rained practically the whole party, nobody cared and everyone had a great time.

He had to be a little bit persuaded to get on the jumping castle at first - but after Daddy showed him how much fun it could be, there were giggles and squeals all around







The cake was a huge hit - it took about 9 hours of work all up so I was pleased that it was so well received!



And considering Hayden's a non cake eater, he loved it.



He received some lovely gifts - including this awesome dragon's tail!



Soggy child! It absolutely poured down just before the castle was due to leave - oh well - kids dry!

We put the barbie on for the stragglers, parents and kids after 5ish and people hung around until 8ish which was lovely - we had a great day.

One of his gifts started something though - he had a Thomas train engine and Henry and his tender and he had other track that the trains didn't quite fit but he didn't mind - until he got a Thomas engine house, it didn't fit with the larger track so there were tears all'round! On Monday I had to (well... it was his Birthday!) go out and buy some compatible track - I think all in all I made 6 trips to toy stores that day, one of them with Gordon in tow. This is what we ended up with by the end of the day...



Then on Thursday was his actual Birthday. We started the day by showing him his new 'baby' Guinea Pig who remained nameless for a few days and then suddenly became 'Crystal'.



We then went out on the boat for lunch - and as usual, turn on a motor and Hayden is asleep!



And then there were more gifts and more cake after pizza dinner with both sets of Grandparents.



OMG - a whole stack of presents!




Obvious excitement at opening 'Mr The King' from the moviCARS



This cake was made by mum Mum.






So.... that was the Birthday! Hard to believe that he's three already - such an independent little person - it's been an amazing three years and I wouldn't change a thing!