Jacob

We were privileged to have our friends from Stephen Baker Photography (find them on facebook) come to our home to take some gorgeous pictures of little Jacob. Here are some of our favourite ones:

Thank you to Stephen and his lovely wife and assistant Amanda for their creative genius. 

Jacob is 6 and a half months now. He's eagerly learning how to crawl. Which means he's on the floor more now. I'm trying not to get too obsessed over cleaning the floors too much (last week I mopped like 4 times, which is excessive for me). After all, he needs to build up his immunity, right?
He is adorable. I love every minute with him and his cute little sounds (especially his "ta ta's"). I love him from the top of his soft fuzzy head to bottom of those cute little toes.  I love you Jacob, through and through.

Jacob, 6 months

(MARCH 2013)
Louie and I recently escaped for 2 days to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. Nonna was kind enough to look after Sienna, Michael and Josh while Louie and I (plus little Jacob) were away. We stayed at this romantic place in Olinda called Loft in the Mill. Just decadent. It was so nice to get away, we don't do it much these days. Ten years. WOW. Time is a funny thing. It doesn't feel like ten years, but it must be ten years because we have four children, from 8 down to under 1 to prove that we have been very busy raising children and caring for each other. I love you Louie, and each of those four little beings we've helped create, forever and ever.

I baked today with my assistant: Baker Joshy, who NEVER misses an opportunity to help me bake a cake, cupcakes, or in this case, mini m&m cookies. He's so confident cracking the eggs in the batter and holding the mixer. All by "himthelf!" I love you Josh.

The Heaven Express Postal Service (In Spanish too)

Babies are express parcels sent from heaven. They have to be. Apart from my strong conviction that we all really truly lived in heaven before we came to earth, I have no doubt that babies are truly sent via the Heaven Express Postal Service. Newborns bring with them an aura of miraculous wonder, beauty and innocence. And as one friend of mine put it, they're vessels ready to be filled with love. Well, that's our little Jacob. Born Friday 31st August, 2012 (to usher spring I say) at 7:54pm and weighing 3040 grams, he's brought with him a piece of heaven into our home and into our lives. Welcome to our family, little Jacob Giuseppe Conte. And, as Sienna would put it, we love you from here to heaven and back infinity times.

Los bebes son paquetitos mandados del cielo. Lo tienen que ser. Aparte mi creencia que todos realmente vivimos en el cielo antes de venir a la tierra, no tengo duda que los bebes son verdaderamente mandados a traves del servicio postal express del cielo. Los bebes recien nacidos traen con sigo una aura de belleza, inocencia y asombro. Y como lo expresa una amiga, estan listos para ser llenos de amor. Asi es nuestro pequeno Jacob. Nacio el viernes 31 de Agosto, 2012 a las 7:54pm y peso 3040 gramos. Ha traido consigo un pedazito del cielo a nuestro hogar y a nuestras vidas. Bienvenido a nuestra familia, pequeno Jacob Giuseppe Conte. Y, como lo diria Sienna, te queremos desde aqui hasta el cielo y de regreso una infinidad de veces.  

Skilled doctors and nurses helped bring Jacob into this world
Doctores y enfermeras capacitadas ayudaron a traer a Jacob al mundo

Jacob spent an hour with Papi while mami recovered after the operation
Jacob paso una hora con Papi mientras Mami se recuperaba despues de la operacion

Sienna, Michael and Joshua meet their little brother for the first time
Sienna, Michael and Joshua ven a su hermanito por primera vez

At home/ En casa

Enjoying our little newborn son
Disfrutando nuestro hijito recien nacido

All in a day's work!

Every time Louie gets a chance to mow the lawn, he always has a very special little helper to lend him a hand. I couldn't help taking pics of Louie and Joshy mowing the lawn this morning. Too cute. Perfect morning and weather to do it.

Side by side working together

Joshy and last year's Christmas present from us. Papi chose it for him. He's so good at picking presents for the kids.

My handsome Louie.

My handsome Joshy.

He's so cute!

And back to finish the job!!

Joshy turns 3!

Here are some photos from Joshy's party. He is now 3! He wanted a dinosaur cake (but all i could manage was a cake with a dinosaur painted on it with icing). Abuelos brought him a triceratops pinata though and he was very happy with that. His lovely aunty Tanya baked some awesome cookie monster cupcakes which were just delicious. Lovely time was had with family!

Here's Josh enjoying his new toy: a glowing Buzz Lightyear action figure. Great pick from Papi. Michael looks a little down, probably thinking about when he'll have his turn with Buzz!

only about 2 weeks to go...

The kids under the newly blossoming apricot tree. 

I can't believe there's only about 2 weeks left until we meet our new little bub. My c-section has been booked for Tuesday 4th September. So, there's only 16 days left!!!

Since hitting the 37 week mark it has been increasingly difficult to move around. Leg cramps have been annoying, and general lethargy has also been around more this week. But all in all, i'm happy to say that everything is going well. 

Sienna especially is looking forward to baby's arrival. She loves touching my belly and sensing baby's movements. Michael is excited in his own little way... And Joshy (who only turned 3 last Sunday) knows that there's a "house inside Mummy". 

This was me at around 33 weeks gestation

Me, blossoming at 37 weeks :) This is my biggest preggy belly!

Happily expecting

The excitement is building up in our household as we anticipate the arrival of our fourth child. I'm 27 weeks pregnant!!! My belly's showing nicely (the biggest one ever) and it's really a most lovely time.  Baby will be due at the end of August/start of September, ready for spring. How we love spring babies (all of our babies have always been 'ordered' for arrival around spring). We're busily trying to get things finished around the house, and making other needful preparations to go from a family of five to a family of SIX!! I truly feel blessed to be a mother, and to have the opportunity to help bring another little child of God to earth. It's most sacred. Sure, i also feel a little nervous about how to manage a bigger household, how to take care of a baby PLUS another 3 little ones. But the interesting thing is that the older ones are becoming more independent and helpful. So this will be a complete family affair. It's going to be wonderful to welcome baby number 4.

 

Sienna's reading

What Sienna's reading right now..

I think I've mentioned how much i LOVE reading to my kids. 

Well, now that Sienna can read (and does so quite well), she loves to 

read aloud to me. She's currently devouring this book, and it's the fourth one

she's read. She's so gorgeous. The series is all about Karen, a second grader (like Sienna) and the experiences she has. It's set in the early 90's and it's just so cute. 

Things worked out well tonight. Boys were in bed by 8. Sienna a little later (wanted to read more of the book). Grateful for the fact i made a wholesome dinner tonight (even my rice is getting closer to the way Mum cooks it). Happy that there were minimal squabbles between the kids. Just wish they'd eaten more of that meal :)

Hard, Happy Work

Mothering is hard, happy work. Sometimes it's more "hard" than "happy", and at other times, the "happy" part of it takes over immensely, and it doesn't even feel like work. Like around Mother's Day. Michael and Sienna have been spoiling me at their special Mother's Day morning and afternoon teas at school. Michael greeted me yesterday with the biggest hug and kiss - in PUBLIC (he's been cuddle-shy since he started school this year). He painted my nails a bright red, and did such a good job (even though he painted my nails sideways). He was so pleased with himself.
At Sienna's morning tea this morning she spoilt me with a handmade card, a handmade ornament and other bits and pieces. She gave me a nice shoulder massage and was soo attentive. All the kids are so grateful for their mothers at this time of the year. But i feel even more grateful to be a mother. It's the hardest job..really. Sleep is usually interrupted, sanity at times challenged, but the opportunity to guide these little children and teach them, like no other person can - not even at school, is the most important thing I've ever been able to do. And despite the challenges that arise from parenting three young children, i wouldn't change it for the world. So, to mothers everywhere, especially my own mother, happy mother's day. And may we all enjoy more hard, happy work.

It's autumn time!

I always have a "good" excuse for arriving a few minutes late to church. This time it had nothing to do with the unusually extreme circumstances that unfairly and unpredictably spring up on me in the last 15 minutes before we have to go.. this time it had everything to do with totally losing track of time. I took photos of the kids playing with the fallen leaves from our apricot tree. It's autumn time in Melbourne, and we love it!

  

It's autumn time, it's autumn time. The leaves are falling down.

It's autumn time, it's autumn time. It's all around the town. 

(Children's Songbook)

 We had a huge leaf fight afterwards. 

Yeah, we find the simplest things the most fun at times.

I took some of our fallen leaves into nursery and sang this song to the littlies as we threw the leaves up in the air. Of course, they loved it. But, uh, i won't be doing that inside anymore. Dry leaves disintegrate into tiny pieces which are way too hard to clean up! 

cute and adorable

When not running around the house chasing each other (and chasing away my sanity), our children actually get down and do some truly adorable things. Today they all got their favourite teddies and put them to bed. They created a teddy family, even Joshy knows about how a family is made up of a mummy, daddy and baby.  It's amazing how well they can play together sometimes, despite being different ages. It's a joy mothering little children. Now if you'll excuse me, i've been asked to go and find another teddy to add the existing teddy clan.

Growing things

Finally we're starting to see veggies in the veggie patch. And the sunflowers have bloomed too. Here's Joshy saying cheese for the camera. It's nice to grow things. Sometimes from the seed stage, sometimes from the seedling stage. In any case, it's so nice to responsible for creating something that wasn't there before. I love that the earth has so much to give.
It's been raining for almost three consecutive days here in Melbourne. I love the rain. Nature needed it badly after that extremely hot weekend. It's been raining so much that the branches of the trees are holding +++ water. So much so that when Louie came out of the car, he accidentally pushed a branch and got a little wet. He started giggling and so i started laughing. BUT IT WAS NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT HE DID NEXT: As i was coming inside, he pulled on a branch above me with all his might and   got me DRENCHED. He laughed at me of course (he's a professional trickster) but it took me a little while to see the fun in it. Must be the fiery latino in me, he said. And i reckon it was that there's nothing worse, than for someone who wears glasses, to not only get drenched, but also be made temporarily blind because you can't see past all the water on your glasses. GRRRR....
He's funny, my Louie. He looks serious on the outside, but he loves to have fun, often (very often) at my expense. Patience and stuff huh.