baby wayne

otis recently journeyed to apollo bay (on victoria's south-western coastline) to take his part in a family tradition. otis' paternal grandmother's family have been making an annual summer holiday to apollo bay since the late 1950s. of course, the exact beginning of this holiday tradition has become muddled over time, but my last participation was in 1987 after which time the power of disgruntled adolescence was too much.

we stayed for a week in an extremely odd house (the oven did not work and the fridge was more like a deep freeze) where the the three of us occupied a small bungalow. yuki was very happy to patrol a large yard but was very concerned by the presence of the friendly horse next door.

otis and the friendly horse

over the course of the week otis relaxed with his grandfather, the wife of his grandfather (reality grandmother), his great aunt kathie, his great grandmother and his great aunt robin. this involved the telling of many stories, the playing of many games and the rejection of a number of spoonfuls of yoghurt.

due to some hitherto mysterious weather pattern apollo bay is not subject to the warmth normally associated with summer so there was not a lot of time spent on the beach. we did make a couple of trips to fly the kite and to let yuki run around like an idiot. the beach itself was beautiful and we also happened upon some freak seaweed formations that we thought remarkable.

three of us on the beach

look up to see the kite high in the sky

mysterious seaweed formation

we did manage a couple of excursions out of apollo bay. we had a day trip with reality grandmother and otis' great grandmother to visit the otway fly treetop walk. set amongst the roof of the otway forest the walk features amazing views of the beauty of the trees. as a fan of the outdoors and the trees otis was very happy (and not just because we had the camera).

the three of us amongst the trees

our second day trip was to the twelve apostles - although we couldn't work out exactly how many apostles there are are now - which was quite breathtaking. there were a huge numbers of flies and our mocking laughter at the european tourists wearing mosquito nets on their heads was somewhat hasty. after admiring the geology we retreated from the heat and the flies to port campbell. we enjoyed a tasty lunch whilst otis had his first turn in a high chair - it has been a long time since we have been out for a meal and both been able to eat at the same time.

kimberley, otis and two of the apostles

the three of us obscuring the view of the apostles

unaccompanied apostles

we left apollo bay on the day of the apollo bay show and the front of the house afforded us a view of the equestrian events taking place on the apollo bay recreation reserve.

otis had a lovely time by the sea and is looking forward to returning next year.

When Otis was 5 months old we took him to his regular visit with the Maternal Child Health Nurse, and she suggested trying him on some baby food. He is such an enthusiastic breastfeeder, and big for his age, so we all thought he would love this new way of eating. How wrong we were.

The first few times he was a bit bemused, but went along with it happily enough. But after a week or so he started clamping his mouth shut and refusing to eat. I say eat, but he wasn’t really swallowing, merely tolerating having the food in his mouth. We had been giving him rice cereal, a common first food for babies, but thought perhaps he didn’t like the bland, cardboardy taste, so we tried some other foods. Apples, sweetpotatoes, apples mixed with sweet potatoes, commercial baby food – all rejected. We decided that perhaps it was a bit early (most babies start eating around 6 months) so we waited a week or so and tried again.

At six months we dusted off the baby spoons and tried again, only to have all our attempts rebuffed. Many of the times we tried to feed him he would turn his head away, but if we did manage to get any food in his mouth, he would screw his face up like we were feeding him poison. We went away for Christmas, and decided to give it another go when we got back.

At 7 months of age we try again. All of my friends from mothers group are discussing baby recipes, bringing huge containers of food that their babies practically inhale, and Otis is still refusing to eat anything. Again, we try different things. Peaches, pears, pumpkin, mashed banana, avocado; not even organic rice cereal with apple and banana can tempt him.

Our trusty baby bible, Baby Love, has this to say:

“A number of very healthy thriving breastfed babies have mothers with such an abundant milk supply that they see no need to eat anything and end up exclusively breastfed for a very long time. They often refuse most food until they are nine to twelve months old”

Eek. As Otis is no longer taking a bottle, I am his sole source of food. This has been ok up until now, but its been almost 8 months and I am starting to need to do things on my own, to be able to be out for more than a few hours at a time, or at times when he usually has a feed. Most babies of Otis’ age are having 3, maybe 4 breastfeeds a day; Otis is still having 7 and I have to say, its getting a bit exhausting.

So we’ve started trying the food thing again, this time with yoghurt, baby jellies, and pureed vegetables. I never thought we’d give him much bought baby food, but after lovingly cooking a variety of organic vegetables only to have them stubbornly refused we decided to do it this way until the eating gets going. And it will, eventually, (hopefully!).

not that he's fading away or anything

After enjoying some fun in the sun in Coffs Harbour, Otis made his way to Sydney, and saw in the New Year with some champagne and beautiful fireworks.

Pic via abc.net.au

Any plans we might have had for new years day were scuttled by the scorchingly hot 40 degree weather, so we stayed in and enjoyed a visit with Aunty Alex, a swim on the roof, some pancakes and the airconditioning.

Later in our visit we took in some shows at the MCA with Aunty Vicki and Uncle Dave; Otis particularly enjoyed the psychodelic 60’s art and the carnivale sensibility of the merry-go-round.

One day Otis and I drove ourselves out to Nanna’s house for some lunch, after which we sat in the back garden and enjoyed scrumpling up some newspaper.

Hours before we flew home, Otis was thrilled to finally meet his newest friend Zoe, and her mummy, Aunty Vivien.

See you next time!

Love Kimberley xx

ever been stuck at work and thought that otis might help? ever been invited to an engagement party and wanted to know whether you need to take a gift? ever wanted to know the difference, if any, between the vibrational frequency and the wavelength of colours? you have? well, even if you haven't you can now have a way to answer those previously unanswerable questions - ask otis. that's right, now you can ask otis anything you like.

otis will be happy to share his thoughts, feelings and advice with you on any subject. otis will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible with his response.

on christmas eve otis, kimberley and i flew to coffs harbour. tom kindly drove us to the airport. otis is now a relatively seasoned flyer and, despite the smallness of the seats, enjoyed the journey.

as we stepped onto the tarmac at coffs harbour we were hit by a wave of heat that seemed - apart from one stormy evening - not to dissipate for the entire week.

this heat lent itself to doing not particularly much (i must point that at the time of writing this entry i am beseiged by the sound of a terrible covers band belting out khe sanh at some house party around the corner) so we spent a lot of time doing sudoku puzzles, nibbling on christmas cake and going to and from the beach.

otis' paw paw (grandmother) came down from nerang to visit and we had christmas lunch with otis' tai tai (great grandmother) and otis great-uncle ken. tai tai was up at the crack of dawn to make sure the enormous chicken was roasted and that was enough food for at least fifteen people. lunch was pretty much ready to go by 11.30 am but somehow we managed to prolong the commencement of the meal to a time vaguely resembling the lunching hour.

otis enjoys time at lunch with paw paw.

otis was quite taken with the beach and one afternoon enjoyed a sleep while his parents took turns to swim in the beautiful ocean.

otis on the sands ...

of course, otis apparent enjoyment of the beach may be an illusion caused by the presence of the camera which is guaranteed to cause smiling and squawks of delight.

tai tai was quite taken with otis and much time was spent engaging him in conversation, snuggles and other forms of entertainment.

from coffs harbour we made our way to sydney on an extremely small plane - again, this did not seem to bother otis who celebrated by spilling water and barbeque shapes as widely as possible.

stay tuned for the adventures of otis in sydney ...

hello again. otis would like to wish everyone a happy new year, and thank everyone for the kind christmas wished and gifts that he received.

otis has recently returned to melbourne from a trip to coffs harbour and sydney where he enjoyed visiting with family. there will be more detail and a range of action shots of otis on holidays coming soon ...

but first, we take this opportunity to announce that the reality grandmother poll will be closing. on january 31 the voting will close and the outcome announced. we are yet to decide what form the official naming ceremony will take, but it is sure to be one of the events of the first quarter of 2006.

in an up to the minute update booga has received 139 of 275 votes cast (50.5%) with vice-principal (human resources) coming second with 68 votes (24.7%).

there are only 24 days to go for an important decision for otis to be made so voting is both encouraged and recommended.