Category Archives: Family

Grace Ivy Lattimore

Family, Photos

Grace Ivy Lattimore, born 1:48PM Saturday 12/3/2011 weighing 5lb 15oz & 46cm longI’m absolutely delighted to announce that we have a new baby girl to add to the greater Lattimore family, Grace Ivy Lattimore.

After a long wait and a lot of heartache, my oldest brother Phil & his wife Tammi welcomed Grace into the world 10 days early at 1:48PM on Saturday 12th March 2011 – weighing in at 5lb 15oz and 46cm long!

Claire, Hugo, Evie and I dropped into St. Vincents Hospital in Toowoomba on the way back to the Gold Coast to meet our newest niece/cousin and it was such a happy meeting.

Grace is a gorgeous little girl and I’m now looking forward to Evie having another cousin a similar age to play with in the near future. There is just something completely amazing about meeting a fresh baby, it is the miracle of birth realised in the flesh so to speak.

30th Birthday

Family, Life

Like sands through the hour glass, err what was I thinking – I’m now officially 30!

The day kicked off by Claire, Hugo & Evie waking me up – which is always good fun. Hugo enjoys waking me up in the morning I think, he knows how to say ‘wake up’ and knows that if my eyes are shut that he should say it and I get a big smile from him when he succeeds and I open my eyes.

Claire loves presents and can’t wait & I obliged when she whipped out a couple of presents and sat them on the bed. Of course, at this stage I’m still bleary eyed and have the cognitive capacity of a well fed gnat but lets not get into that! I was completely spoiled for gifts and received:

  • Two new Nintendo Wii games
  • Season 3 and Season 4 of Heroes
  • Gift voucher to go tandem parasailing!
  • Samsung 40″ Full HD 100Hz LCD television

The new LCD TV in the list was my ‘big’ present this year and it was absolutely worth it. I can’t believe we’ve, and I’ll use this word loosely, suffered with an old 45cm CRT television we’ve had for at least the last six years but probably closer to eight! You don’t realise how poor something is until you replace it and then get the ‘wow’ kind of moment. We’ve now had that and I’m definitely never going back!

After presents were dealt with, standard morning things ensued. For breakfast, Hugo and I popped out to the local McDonald’s get to get some pancakes – which he loves.

As a bit of a tradition, we’d normally head to Hogs Breath for lunch however this year we decided to break that tradition as the traffic to get into Sea World or Marina Mirage is typically bonkers at this time of year due to school holidays, which was going to be compounded by today being the first sunny day in quite a while.

In lieu of Hogs Breath for lunch, we grabbed a couple of sausage rolls from Brumbies – which are always delicious. The remainder of the morning and lunch were spent organising for the afternoon when we were having a few family over for afternoon tea and an early dinner.

Everyone arrived nearly at the same time which was fantastic, so we ended up with:

  • Sterle, Lorraine & Jean
  • Anita & Lucy
  • Andrew, Belinda & Ben
  • George & Jude

Hugo and Ben spent quite a bit of time playing in a new outdoor water toy that Hugo received for Christmas. Water went everywhere, they both got wet & had a great time doing it. We snacked on a variety of things for afternoon tea, ate a little pizza for an early dinner and attempted to put a dint in a completely evil chocolate cake from the Cheese Cake Shop – I failed miserably!

I’d just like to thank everyone for driving up this afternoon, it works out to be nearly a neat hours drive for everyone. Its great to be with family and friends on your birthday and it means a lot of me to have you all here, especially since my birthday falls on the back of Christmas festivities & madness.

Next up, 31 – look out!

Changing Expectations

Family

For as long as Hugo has been able to walk, we’ve been telling him not to put things into the bath and more recently into the baby bath for Evie. Despite that, from time to time, he still gives it a go to see if the rules have changed.

For Christmas, Hugo received a fantastic set of foam stacking blocks for use in the bath. Claire and I were excited to give them ago, as he loves his normal stacking blocks and are not water friendly.

We gave the mesh bag to Hugo to carry up to the bath, which he was more than happy to assist with. I then took the bag and put it into the bath and then there were a whole lot of tears. Initially, I thought he was crying because I’d taken his new stacking blocks off him, as it turns out he was crying because I was getting them wet which he thought was going to break them.

Across the course of the bath, I tried a few different times to put the stacking blocks into the bath and each time I was met with more tears. In the end, it was easier to leave them out of the water on the side of the bath & try again next bath.

After I realised what he was upset about, it makes complete sense – we’ve been telling him for a year not to put things into the bath. Then all of a sudden, we go and put a brand new present into the bath – we were breaking our own rules!

Dinner For Four

Family

Claire, Hugo, Evie, Sterle and I went out for dinner tonight to Hogs Breath Cafe. Our intention was to go to Hogs Breath at the Logan Hyperdome, however they were booked out so we booked in at Hogs Breath on Seaworld Drive Main Beach near Marina Mirage on the Gold Coast.

The fact that we went out for dinner might not seem all that interesting, except it was the first time that we, as a family of four, have gone out for dinner since Evie was born in May. Hugo was on his absolute best behaviour, ate more food than I think I’ve ever seen him eat for dinner and helped put our empty glasses onto one of the waiters trays, which was followed up by a couple of high fives. Evie was happy resting in the pram for the first half an hour and was a little grizzly midway through but then had a power nap, which was great.

I remember when Claire and I took Hugo out for our first dinner after his birth, we were really nervous and weren’t sure how it’d turn out. It wasn’t a train smash by anyones standard but with a little more practice, it became easier. Of course, with two children I figured that’d be a completely different beast, however on this occasion it was a screaming success – metaphorically speaking.

Now we just need to find the next place we’re going to grab an early dinner at!

Double Trouble

Family

Claire and I experienced for the first time, how things can go wrong when you’ve got two small children to look after.

It started at about 10:30AM with Evie and her mid-morning feed. She didn’t seem that interested in it, which was odd as she normally guzzles it down, when she unleashed a nappy buster that the designers for Huggies clearly hadn’t accounted for. I don’t know where Evie was storing it all, but with so much volume, it leaked out everywhere – all over Evie, Claire & the sofa!

While we were cleaning up that mess, Hugo was picking up a little cane chair, moving it around the room and playing on it – which he has done countless times before. Unfortunately this time, while standing on the little chair, he overbalanced and banged his head into the side of the cot. I initially thought he might have just given himself a big fright, as there wasn’t any crying immediately afterwards – as it turns out, he was just drawing his breath in! In the second or two before I picked him up, the tears and blood were flowing. The by product, a nice line bruise above his right eye and a big, fat lip.

Within about two or three minutes of me soaking up the bulk of the blood with a tea towel and Hugo sucking on a nice cold, wet washer – he was calm again. This is the second time this year that Hugo has drawn blood and has managed to calm himself down quite quickly. It surprised me last time it happened and I thought he was as tough as old boots, but seeing it happen a second time as confirmed it.

I’m sure it won’t be the last time he’ll do it either!