Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Gorgeous baptism photos below ...

Thought we'd better recognise the photographer who took all of the gorgeous photos below, our friend Madeleine. I've know Maddles for about 13 years now, and in the past couple of years, she's been completing a Masters in Photojournalism (think I got that right). She took some lovely shots of JR and me when Matilda was BunRabbit, and she kindly came along to the baptism and got some lovely shots - Fr. Phil even commented that she looked like a real professional! :)
Email me if you're in Brisvegas and are interested in getting Madeleine to take photos of your family or special event ... I'll help you get in touch with her.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Baptism Photos

Some photos from Matilda's big day (and it was ... she was ready to go to sleep before the service, and didn't end up sleeping 'til the very end!):

At the baptismal font with her parents and god parents

With her Mum and Dad ... I think we're trying to straighten out her dress a bit

Getting a wet head is not fun ... even though M looks rather upset, she didn't cry at all! Her dummy was out the whole time, and Fr Phil wouldn't let us put it back in until she was in our arms. He wanted to show the congregation that any crying did not happen while he was holding M. ;)
Asleep in the hall at morning tea, and against Dr Fred's very earnest suggestions, we wouldn't wake her to help cut her cake ... yes, Matilda will only be baptised once (or that's our plan anyway!!), but we hate waking her, especially when she's so overtired.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Really rolling now

Matilda has seriously started rolling now. She rolls from her back to her tummy quite frequently, particulary in the cot (those slats at the side are great for leverage). She's also rolling onto her tummy while on the play mat in the TV room. I think getting onto her tummy is pretty unintentional right now, as she can get a bit upset by it. Occasionally, M is also propelling herself forwards a bit with her legs. I hesitate to think she's starting to crawl, more like getting cranky, kicking her legs, and getting a side-effect because she's on her tummy! :)
Other than that, everything's still going into M's mouth, slobber is going everywhere, and dresses and T-shirts are tricky clothing because they can be grabbed and shoved into her mouth ... I think M's growth is going well, she surprised me by sleeping through til at least 5am for three nights in a row ... and then hasn't for the last two nights. I never thought I would want to be telling so many people about how much sleep I'm getting (or not getting, as the case may be).
Mum's made a christening gown for M to wear on Sunday. It's very long and traditional, and has some french lace on it. We'll probably have M in that at the church, and then change her into a party dress at home afterwards.
Should have some new and interesting photos to put up next week!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

First swim, first surf - what a week!

On Sunday, 4th Feb, M had her first swim ever in the Hooker's pool. She's been trying out her very stylish rash shirt and boardies from Grandma Richie, and they are working wonderfully well.

On Friday 9th, M went to the beach for the first time - and she started with the best beach in the world, Rainbow Beach. We had a lovely long weekend with Great Gran Caroline, who enjoyed lots of cuddles with M, as well as showing her off to a few a friends. ;) M doesn't really like the beach yet, the surf was a touch cold, and the water kept on moving in surprising ways. All a bit much for a little girl. We're spending a week up at Rainbow in a few months, and although it'll probably be too cool for swimming, I'm sure by that stage, there'll be much more playing in the sand and other beach fun. We also introduced M to the owner of the local store, as M's the start of the next Taylor generation who'll be running down to her store to buy lollies ...

Matilda's Baptism

The date has been set. Matilda is being baptised at St Mark's on Sunday, 25 February at the 9:30 service. Megan and Brett have both accepted our request to be Matilda's godparents, and my challenge for the day is going to be making sure Matilda doesn't suck on her outfit too much ... at least before photos are taken! :)

Blog Comments

I just realised last week that all comments on the blog need to be moderated. I think this is because I've allowed anyone to post a comment. So I released a bunch of comments last week - apologies to those who posted comments and didn't see them! Still getting the hang of this blog stuff ...

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Matilda's Eyes

On Thursday, Matilda and I went to see the paedeatric opthamologist about her crossed eyes. We were there for ages, as he had to dilate her pupils to get a good look in them (had to wait for 30 mins for the drops to take effect). He had some pretty nifty kids toys/instruments (like an Elmo shaped tool for shining a light into her eyes to look at them) and was very kind. After examining her, the Doctor has diagnosed Matilda with infantile esotropia (aka congenital esotropia, squint or both eyes turning in to the middle). He's recommended surgery to correct how her muscles are working, and to do the surgery before she turns 2. We have another checkup in about 6 weeks time to see if M is preferring one eye over the other. We've always thought her left eye turns in more than her right, but the Doctor didn't notice any preferences in the session on Thursday. If she is showing a preference for one eye, then she'll have to do some patching before surgery.
Gory details on the surgery: it is under general, but is only day surgery. M won't be able to swim for 6 weeks after the surgery, so we wouldn't have it in the middle of summer! Both eyes are operated on in the same surgery. On average, children with this condition have 2.6 surgeries to correct it, so there's a potential for M to have 3, maybe more, surgeries to correct this. There are some experimental treatments involving botox, but to have that you're already pretty much having half an operation anyway. M's eyes will look really gross afterwards, very very red, beyond bloodshot.
From my research on the web, the big concern if this isn't corrected is that M won't develop binocular vision correctly and her eyes won't work together. Not only does this have an impact on her vision, but also would have an impact on her brain development. We're not particularly keen on M having surgery (what parent is??), and are waiting for the next appointment before anything is seriously planned. Our friend, Dr Fred the paedeatric surgeon has assuaged my fears that operations and general anaesthetic for a little one are much less risky than driving around in the car.