I stayed home for a fortnight, although did manage to do some meetings and even a course. As Joshua was still fulltime in childcare, we had the time to settle Jakob in as much a routine as possible.
The Brothers Dorst
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2003- Part Two |
| Bookmarks: | January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
July was Lisa’s last month of pregnancy and work. In all quite busy for her to finish everything on time with her replacement only starting a week before maternity leave (and a court case to be settled after that).
After my travels to Sydney and Canberra, I could now focus again on working in Perth and towards the end of the month I had my first sales !
| August
was obviously dominated by the arrival of Jakob
Jan Dorst on the 14th. The days leading up were spent in
anticipation and afterward in familiarisation. Lisa stayed with Jakob
in the hospital for 5 days, during which Joshua and me ‘bloked’ it
out at home (with some help).
I stayed home for a fortnight, although did manage to do some meetings and even a course. As Joshua was still fulltime in childcare, we had the time to settle Jakob in as much a routine as possible. |
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September was back to work for me, including some travel to Brisbane (1 day) and Adelaide (2 days). This meant that Lisa had to look after both boys, which –especially with their irregular and incompatible sleep-patterns- was hard.
Fortunately Jakob is not too difficult a baby and unlike Joshua did he take to breastfeeding quite well, which was a plus for both mother and baby. Nights are tough though with Jakob waking up between 1 and 2 for a bottle, and then mostly again around 4-5AM. Joshua is an early riser and if he doesn’t wake in the middle of the night (for a quick cuddle) then he will be awake by 5-5:30AM. So lots of broken sleep and early morning for us !
Work-wise I made the first Perth-based profit in this month.
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Lisa had (another)
birthday and later in the month we welcomed my parents who came to stay with
us for 6 weeks. As they had been with us previously
they were not interested in the tourist sites of Perth, but could spend most
of their time with the grandchildren. We took them to the ZOO, went swimming
and my dad rode with Joshua and Lisa on the bike.
Jakob got shamelessly spoiled with attention. Something that we now have to train him out of, since normality has since returned. To allow Joshua to spend more time with his Opa and Oma, did we reduce his childcare to 4 days a week, also in line with Lisa’s part-time work (when she goes back in January). |
In November my home-theatre finally arrived, so now we can enjoy widescreen, DVD and surround sound (although Lisa doesn’t let me play it too loud out of fear Jakob will get emotionally scarred).
We also had some strange weather this month with temperatures soaring to over 40, but also some deluges, which are both uncommon for this month.
We managed to change Joshua’s bedtime routine. Rather than falling asleep on the couch we now actually are going to bed, aided by a show called ‘Fat Cat’ which is on every night at 7:30 (and also on the video, just in case …). We then read a book, sing some songs and mostly he will then go to sleep (although someone -me- still needs to remain in the bedroom until he is gone). No change to his wake-up time though (hopefully he will learn to play on his own soon).
After half-a-week rest and one week of training in Adelaide, our next visitors arrived: Mels & Josephien. They too had been in Perth before, but managed to visit Rottnest, Fremantle and the Pinnacles in their stay.
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No
sooner had they left or Christmas was around the corner. Joshua is now
getting in the spirit of things more-or-less knowing who Santa Claus is.
He had already been telling that Santa would bring him a bike in the shed
(little did he know this was actually true), as well as a lolly.
Christmas itself was spent as Lisa’s sister by the beach (and on the beach, and in the pool). Joshua was very excited about all his presents. We had hid the bike in the garage and he enthusiastically noted: ‘a bike for me, a ride-on for Jakob …. and a boat for me’. The latter was the surf-ski belonging to Lisa’s sister, so that took some talking to convince him otherwise. |
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Jakob went on trial to childcare for a day a week, which went fine. We also transitioned to bottle and formula milk, in view if Lisa’s impending return to work. New Years Eve we spent with friends in the pool (what better way …).
The New Year (2004):
So what is the New Year (2004) going to bring for us. After a short period of ‘rest’ with no visitors or holidays, will Lisa go back to work towards the end-of-January. If the boys do not sleep better by then (or at least through until 5), this will put extra stress on our sleep and teamwork. Lisa will work 4 days a week and both boys will be in childcare those days.
Jakob is getting stronger and has graduated from rolling around (on his back, back-to-front again, ..) to something we call ‘rupsing’ (‘rups’ is Dutch for caterpillar) whereby he pulls his knees underneath him and with his face still on the floor ‘slides’ forwards. He actually can get where he wants this way and can also hold his head up for longer and play more intensely with toys.
Speaking of Dutch: Joshua still understands it perfectly (especially after all our Dutch visitors) and knows about 2-3 dozen words. He most often will speak English, but when you ask ‘Nederlands ?’, he’ll say the word. Some of his translations are funny, for instance the other day I told him we would hose the plants (in Dutch), which he literally translated as that we were going to play with the ‘snake’.
February and March look like busy months for me work wise, obviously a good thing as it completes my first 12 months with Lucid IT, but it looks like it will include some trips to Sydney and Adelaide.
Beyond that … who knows. Hopefully more rested parents, a more independent Joshua (playing by himself), a more mobile Jakob (crawling, walking), maybe even a mid-winter holiday in August to somewhere sunny (Broome, Cairns, Bali) ???
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