Eating progress

Boxing day brought mango and banana puree for lunch. As you can see, most  of it now ends up where it supposed to go, rather than everywhere else...especially when it's mango and banana

Christmas day

Rosie's first Christmas day was lovely. She did better than either of us in the present department, and gifts arrived from all over the place for her.Some she clearly approved of, but seemed less than impressed by others.

Watching up unwrap her first present (or fiddle with the paper to be more accurate) was great. I think she was more interested in the wrapping than what was inside though.

Hybrid socks

Is it a shoe? Is it a sock? These delightful new (well, second hand actually-thanks Heather!) additions to Rosie's wardrobe are a shoe wannabe. Stylish or what? She has four different colours, so prepare to see them being sported in many an upcoming posing session.This was the other day in the local Jusco Mall, doing a last minute Christmas shop.

We wish you a merry Christmas

Christmas is around the corner, and Rosie had her indoctrination into the spirit of Christmas by visiting Harrods KL last weekend. She learnt what Christmas is all about; twinkling lights, expensive gift items and food.

 She especially liked the Harrods teddy bears. Unfortunately they cost more than a month's salary, and she was unwilling to go without milk for a month (or even a few hours) so the bear will have to wait until I make country director next year.

We have our tree set up at home now, and Rosie is delighted to watch it blink and flash before sitting down to her first breakfast at 7am (second breakfast - in the manner of hobbits and their love of second breakfast takes place at 10.30am)

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is round the corner, and Rosie has been getting into the spirit by wearing her new Santa headband as much as possible. In the meantime, the usual Christmas battle is taking place with me wanting to make the house look like a grotto, and Katrin wanting something more tasteful. I nearly bought two musical santas (one playing the saxophone and one playing the piano) in Sungai Wang yesterday, but opted for two sets of flashing lights and a jewel incrusted boot with attached Santa instead.I just know Rosie will love them.
We are going to KLCC this afternoon, to show Rosie the Gingerbread house display in the concourse, and take some Christmas photos, so I will post those later.

Water baby!

Although Doctor Patrick advised us to wait until Rosie is 21 until she goes in the water, and we have followed all of his other recommendations to the letter, we went with the midwife on this one, and headed for the pool last Sunday. I think the doctor is worried about germs. The sheer volume of other tiny babies that frolic in our pool made it irresistible. The midwife saying that Rosie is ‘slightly over her ideal weight’ and may lose some plumpness in the pool sealed the deal.

As for Rosie, she loved it. From the first moment she looked utterly relaxed in her floating armchair. I’m not sure if it could be considered exercise however. Her fat little legs were motionless, and she seemed quite content to be pushed around the pool and admire the view.

First meal

A historic day. The first meal. Puree of Banana and baby rice. It didn't taste too bad actually. Rosie seemed a bit unsure about what to do with it though. She ended up wearing most of the three teaspoons she was given. I suppose that when you don't have any concept of anything but drinking liquids, it must seem extremely odd to have strange tasting stuff in your mouth.

The first spoon actually went down eventually, but this picture, taken as the second was being offered, clearly shows less than delight at the prospect of more.

Hip-hip horray. Another year older.

November 24th seems to come round remarkably quickly these days. The years are flying by, and pretty soon I will be 40!
Here are me and Rosie trying to put a brave face on it. (It was only 7.45 in the morning by the way!)
Rosie bought me a delightful cheese cake, with her own money. And Katrin bought me a pipe. Lovely. Cake and pipe.

A big week ahead!

Mousedeer has a big week ahead. Doctor Partrick will be giving her a fever again on Thursday, in the next round of injections. This will mean that by the weekend, she will be able to leap into the swimming pool and develop a love for Scuba (so she can dive with her dad)

Actually, she will be placed gently in a special rubber ring with feet holes in it, and visit the water for the first time...I will have to save the scuba dreams for later. She is also due to start solids in the next week, which should certainly be an interesting experience after six months of milk. I would like to start her off with a burger, but Katrin insits that her first meal will be two grains of rice, and her second meal will be three grains of rice. Burgers next week then.

Midwife visit

The Midwife came yesterday (here we are in the cafe, celebrating another glowing report from her!)
Rosie has grown by 6 cms in the last month, and her weight is now a little over 8 kgs. The midwife also said that she feels Rosie is going to have an extremely strong character, and already decides who she likes and doesn't like. Aparently, this shouldn't happen for a few months yet, but she was very anti Nurse Jennifer when she turned up at our door. I am also told that the prediciton is that she will bend her father round her little finger, whilst her mother will be harder to manipulate. God knows what gave the Midwife that idea.

TV addict

Rosie caught watching Piglet Wilburn for the 900th time yesterday.

She never seems to get bored. A German-speaking Piglet is her number one fascination at the moment. The extended tummy time is excellent, and her neck muscles are really strong now, but she doesn't seem to want to watch anything else! As you can see, her mother is putting a brave face on for yet another screening!

Another month has flown by...

And Rosie has seemed to have developed some new method of communicating on an almost daily basis.

Several weeks ago, squeeking suddenly appeared as the favoured form of sharing her thoughts. That was replaced by an attempt at consanant clusters (whichI encouraged heartily) but that was dropped in ffavour of a more advanced style of squeeking a few days ago. I find it delightful. Katrin has to put up with it from 4am onwards, and is slightly less delighted.

All is well on the health front. The last trip to Doctor Partrick included half of the 6 in one follow up jabs she is due. (Only half due to fever last time) Unfortunately, this meant cancelling her appoinment with her boyfriend in Ampang until she gets the rest of her jabs. Oh well. She seems happy enough to sit and watch Piglet Wilburn with her Mother all day anyway.

First Holiday

It was all dependent on Rosie..would the holiday be a disaster or some sort of break for all of us....And she did us proud! Four hours in the car to Cherating (inclusive of a milk break half way) was no problem. The hotel was pretty good and we were both in agreement that it was a real break, which was a godsend. Depite the change of surroundings, Rosie was chilled and peaceful, and although we didn't exactly paint the town red, it was a lovely few days away.

The teaching begins

OK..so three months might seem early, but an appreciation of music is vital. I am sue we are going to have to tolerate some terrible music in the years to come, but an introduction to Jazz early on made sure it was in my blood and soul. Lets see if it works with Rosie. She seemed interested enough....

A recent visit to the Makan shop behind our apartments provided Rosie with a first opportunity to purchase a Nescafe panas. She declined however, prefering to wait for some milk a little later.

First party

Rosie recently went to her first party at the condo next door. It was a fourth birthday bash, and she looked a little bemused by it all. Not sure what she made of the entertainer either....

A growing girl! Her first visit to the doctor yesterday gained her a clean bill of health. She is piling on the weight. Currently 5.1 kgs. Judging by the size of her belly, most of it is there!

Each day she smiles a little more, gains more strength in her neck, holds her head upright for a little longer and grips a little tighter. Of course I am impatient for the day when we can discuss thye merits of one jazz pianist over another, and go diving together, but I fear these are still some way off. I will have to be content with her grinning when she does a poo for now. Oh well.

Rosie

Dazed and confused. In the makan shop in Ipoh, an hour after collecting Rosie, with our friends

Say Hello to Rosie Christa Olive Woodhead!

Welcome to the woodhead world Young Rosie!

Rosie was born on 4-06-2009 in Ipoh, Malaysia.

It's a long story, but an amazing one, which has unfolded in the last month.

At this point it is enought to say that our world has changed utterly, and we that were two are now three.

I would have liked to have updated this blog on the day she came into our lives, but it has just not been possible. So this is the start point to the family blog.

The picture above was taken the day after she arrived, aged one month and one day. Seriously tiny was she. It was also quite scary. Will she break?? Will she stop breathing?? How do I hold her??

Over the last month, things have started to get easier, and she has started to become a little person who smiles and poops her way through the day.

A week on Tioman

Our official favourite place is The Panuba Inn on Tioman. It is the best place to unwind and chill out that we have found, and we have made five trips there over the last few years.










Having last week off work was an opportunity to go away, and it had to be Panuba. Diving for me, on the doorstep, and beach and snorkelling for Kat.
Despite fairly horrible food, and the usual inability to understand the needs of tourists that seems to plague Malaysia, we had a fantastic time. Tioman is such a beautiful island, and the light in the evenings is spectacular.









The diving, as ever, was superb. Bali Hai (the dive shop) is my favourite, and it was good to see Sonia still there, running the show now. I managed to squeeze 12 dives (and a night dive) into the trip, and whilst the visability was not at its absolute best, it was still fantastic. I still think coral island, and especially Batu Layar are the best dive sites on the peninsular.
This photo was taken in the Coral garden off Coral Island, and I have uploaded it straight here, without any photoshop adjustments. Wonderful healthy coral. I could have stayed down there for hours...
Tioman should be a really convienient destination, being only a few hours away by car (at least, Mersing is only a few hours away) but we have just arrived home exhausted after a 12 hour journey. Bloody ridiculous. So much waiting around for ferries and buses. I HAVE to get a car!
We were woken on the bus in the way there at 4am, to be told that the bus no longer stops at mersing R&R, and we needed to transfer to a little mini van. In the confusion, I left my new specs on the bus...(RM1200 down the drain.) Extremely annoying. On the upside, I have been very impressed by my eyes without them! I can't read anything, but everything else has been fine. Perhaps I will use my old ones for reading, and try going without for a while.
So..another lovely trip to Tioman. Roll on the next visit!

Hells Angels

Some pre Christmas hells angels fun in Wakely road, courtesy of Clarkey.
Very cool bike, but not quite as cool as my chop was.....ahh those were the days, when winters were winters, the central heating was on full bore, and I wandered around in my underpants looking cool.

Off again!

The time has come for another holiday. Despite having just returned from Borneo, it is impossible to pass up the chance of being on an island again (and of course, dive)
So, we are off to Tioman on Friday night, for a week on our favourite island. This time we are staying in a 'luxury room' for the first time, after 4 years of opting for the 'budget' option. Being on Tioman is wonderful. It's just the getting there that hurts. I finish work at 9.30pm, we leave at 11.30pm from Pudaraya, and arrive in Mersing for the ferry at 4am....and the ferry leaves at 11am. Groan.
Will update with pics and news when we get back!
Hopefully we will have some adoption news by then!!!

Reefs and Monkeys

We recently returned from a two week trip to Borneo (Sabah) with Alison (my sister)
It was a tiring 13 hour trip for her to reach us, before we even set off for the holiday. We eventually made it, after a short flight from KL. I am sure I get more panicky with every flight I take. It's either age, or too much air crash investigation on Discovery.
The diving on Sipadan was stunning. The best diving I have ever done, and that says a lot after living in Asia for a number of years. Barracuda point offered some of the most exciting drift diving and glimpses of the true abyss that I have ever seen.
Alison was determined that I catch her on film with a turtle, and I was amazed how well the shot came out.
The wall diving was also incredible. In the end we just stopped signaling the arrival of yet another turtle.
The camera worked beautifully, which sort of made up for all the hassle involved in actually getting it to Malaysia via Amazon, Alison and Mum and Dad.
Diving over a 700 meter drop off was amazing, and it was a real privilege to be there. Sipadan is a place I would love to go back to one day.










The snorkelling was excellent too. Katrin had as many encounters with turtles as we did, and had her own run-ins with angry trigger fish.









Evenings spent comparing leech and sandfly bites in Sepilok. Of course, it was all worth it for the orang-utans.

Welcome to our blog!
It's taken years to get round to it, but we have finally found a way to keep those who care up to date more regularly. we may have been gone a long time, but we miss you all!
We hope to update at least once a week, work permitting.