Another water baby!

When I was pregnant with Astrid she used to love it when I swam or was in the bath. She didn't quite have the water birth we planned but she has always loved her baths and swimming! It's hard to keep her out of the water.......

It seems her brother is also a fan. Again he used to like it when I was swimming, snorkelling or in the bath and he made his entrance into the world in the bath and loved floating around in there once he was born.  We figured he'd probably be a fan of the bath too and his first bath when he was 3 days old was a hit. He immediately stretched out his legs and had a good float around.

Astrid thought helping bath Soren was the best thing ever! She loves to stand on the helper stool and gently tip water over him as he floats around.

You do forget how small they are though. At this age you can just hold them in one hand. It didn't take long for Astrid to outgrow the baby bath but for the newborn it's so easy and convenient. Baths have certainly been a hit with young Soren and here he is at 10 days old, totally relaxed and loving it!

...... and just for comparison here is Astrid at 1 week and 3 weeks loving her bath! I think they do look remarkably similar, although Soren looks more boyish. I have more comparison shots I can post later but I think Soren is going to look a lot like his big sister as he grows up!

Such a toddler......

Even before Soren was born, Astrid was seeming very grown-up!  She is very definitely a toddler these days.  Now, with a newborn in the house she appears to be enormous and so far from a baby that it's hard to remember her ever being that small.

I'm way behind on my photo editing this month, due to spending most of the day on the couch feeding a baby or expressing milk, but I'm trying to catch up when both kids are sleeping or the big one is playing.

I just found these photos from a few days before Soren was born.  Astrid's Grandparents were returning from their 7 week overseas trip, 2 days before I was due and Astrid was beside herself with excitement. She had regularly video chatted with them while they were away but had missed them. The day they were due to fly in she was beside herself with excitement.  She chose her own outfit that day - a long top over a skirt, with shell necklaces and cat ears!  She then proceeded to dance around the family room in her attire in preparation for her grandparents arrival.

Then the next day we had to demonstrate how cheeky we are, doing 'exercises' on my fitball and playing with my jewellery.

Definitely all grown up and  not a baby anymore!

Favourite Photo Friday - 25/10/13

I have even managed to post on Friday this week! A few photos I quickly edited yesterday. I have too many favourites, sigh :) So here are two of Søren at a week old!

D7000 with Tamron 90mm f2.8 

ISO 500, focal length 90mm 

Exposure: 1/640 @ f/3.5

....... and I love the smile in this one!

 

 D7000 with Nikon 85mm f1.8

ISO 500, focal length 85mm 

Exposure: 1/500 @ f/2.8

Introducing........

Yes, we have finally decided on a name! I know it took us awhile but we got there eventually.

Introducing............

SØREN AUGUSTUS W.... 

Little brother to Astrid Élodie.  In the end we decided to go Scandinavian again with the name.
Søren is the Norwegian and Danish version of Soren. The German and Swedish version is Sören. The pronunciation differs slightly between countries but here it will be Soh-ren (Soh, like in sock). Unfortunately we won't get diacritical marks on birth certificates here, so for the most part he will be known as Soren. Astrid's middle name suffered the same fate. Apparently our wild and crazy appropriation of European names isn't appreciated by our Territory law makers, so feel free to call him Soren!

Yes, we seem to like names that aren't common and are more popular in Europe, but Astrid suits her name to a tea and this little guy seem to look a lot like her already. I'm sure we will find that Søren Augustus is the perfect name for him.

Here are a few pictures of the little guy I took this week. We think he is pretty darn cute.  Plenty more pictures to come once I get 5 minutes to edit them, so stay tuned!

Just another excuse to post photos of Astrid......

I'm currently a little busy constantly feeding a newborn, so I haven't had much time to edit all the cute photos I have taken of him. Hopefully soon some will appear on the blog.  In the meantime here are some cute pics of Astrid and a post I wrote a month ago that I never got around to publishing!

This post has no point other than a shameless excuse to post photos of Astrid! Here are a few I took last month when I was taking photos of her with her teddy Ruby. I do think they are rather cute :)

I'm still deciding whether I like them in colour or black and white..... Any opinions?

 

Then there were a few of her sitting on her chair watching some Bananas in Pyjamas...... She is looking very grown up at 2 years and 3 months! The hair clip helps, although she rarely leaves them in for more than 5 minutes at a time and her hair is usually an uruly mess.

Favourite Photo Friday 18/10/13

Oops, it's Saturday! In my defence I'm severely sleep deprived and would be lucky to know what month it is.......

 Last week I said I hoped to post a photo of the new baby by this week, and he is here!!! So here we go, a photo of baby boy's first bath (yes, he STILL doesn't have a name but we are getting close). He loves the water, just like his sister......

D7000 with Nikon 35mm f1.8 

ISO 800, focal length 35mm 

Exposure: 1/100 @ f/3.2

The finished bump.......

I have posted some bump progression pics over the last couple of months. You can check out the evolution of the bump here and here.  Now that the baby is on the outside I can post the completion of the bump timeline.......

I made it all the way to 40 weeks.  The baby was born at 40 +2 after going into labour at 40 +1 so this is pretty much the finished size.  Weirdly I seemed to get smaller after 37 weeks. In reality I didn't but the baby was pretty low and my bump looked a little smaller.  The last few days before he was born it was definitely all out in front, my belly button was so far out it had almost left the building and my belly was almost square from the baby tucked up inside. The midwives were always impressed at how it was easy to feel and identify baby bits through my belly and had declared him 'robust' just days before his arrival.

.... and to finish off a few of the photos Anto took of the bump at 38 weeks!

What was in there? This cutie.....

The newest edition to The Camelid Castle

The Camelid Castle has a new resident...... the baby has finally arrived.  A couple of days late, but here at last!  Astrid has a younger brother (name still pending). I'll post more about his arrival later but for now a few quick pictures.

Holding my newest addition (I do look a little tired but it was only 2 hours post birth!):

Astrid meets her little brother:

Hanging with Dad and sleeping off the labour and birth:

Heading home that afternoon:

Meeting the family (Granny, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Mikl):