Tomorrow Ickle turns 5 months old, I’m yet to decide what culinary creation I’ll whip up in the 5/12 birthday honour – maybe 5 cookies?

The last weekend was a big one, we had swimming lessons on Saturday morning with Wonder Woman and her Mum after we went and voted and then went shopping in the city after lunch. We caught up with friends and their daughter and went to visit Santa Claus at “the” place to see him The Magic Cave in DJs Rundle Mall. The set up was really clever, they had about half a dozen small caves each with it’s own photographer, elf and (kids cover your eyes) Santy. Our Santy was a little young however he was very nice and didn’t mind that Cody became infatuated with his beard and tried to take it home with us (not a good look with a 6 year old looking on). That night we had a games night with the same friends and played Wii till the wii hours of 10pm.

Sunday was the Feast Picnic and we were lined up to meet up with about a dozen different people however Ickle became grungy and we decided to take her shopping for red Converse sneakers for some photos I’ve got planned instead of being out in the sun. We had no luck finding the Cons however Ickle slept in the stroller! We usually throw her in the Baby Bjorn and carry her around with us because she complains about the stroller.

Sunday night was family roast night and we had some poppets over for dinner and more Wii games.

Today was an interesting day, Em went to the Dr this morning as she has pharyngitis and isn’t feeling well. She got home just in time to watch Ickle roll over for the first time (well, the first time she actually wanted to!) . Ickle is quite funny to watch play, she’ll climb onto whatever toy she is keen on and proceed to climb over it leaving a thick layer of drool not unlike a slug. She can sit up long enough for me to take a photo (or 20 as the Christmas shoot turned out) and loves being in her Tigger bouncer and bouncing away. She’s still sleeping 12 hours overnight which is awesome.

Wonder Woman has lent me her precious DSLR so I’ve been taking some shots with it. I got some cute photos for Christmas cards with my old point and click however I’m not sure if they are good quality enough for Christmas cards.

Cody started swimming on the weekend, she was the youngest baby in the “Waterbabies” class and seemed to love her lesson. She started to kick and flap when she got in to the pool and spent most of the lesson reclined in Em’s arms floating along.

She spent a few hours entertaining her Yiayia and Papou on Sunday while we went shopping for Christmas presents and some summer clothes – the weather here is already up into the mid 30s and the little kid had no summer clothes. Em and I both agreed that we loved being out shopping however it would have been better with Ickle.

Today we had an appointment with our pediatric orthopedic surgeon, he was fantastic and very non invasive like we had hoped. He commented on Cody’s features and said she looks like a DDH kid, they have thinner faces and finer features. We asked for a full explanation of the ultrasounds, he showed them all to and during explaining to us he decided to wait until the new year and give Ickle an xray to see how the hips are, she is 2% in the “normal” range and he is confident nature will heal the issue. We got to she the bones starting to form on her femur, this should be formed and show up on the xray in the new year. We are over the moon!

The weather had been threatening all week; “It never rains in Adelaide!” Forecasts predicted rain every hour for all Saturday and we were left to scramble to find an alternate venue – rain is not a good guest at a Ladybug’s Picnic. An 11th hour breakthrough from Mia landed us a Community Hall just around the corner from the park – the custodian was leaving for holidays so we raced around and got the hall keys – site unseen I was a little apprehensive. My Dad, sister and niece arrived from Sydney while Em and I were racing around having to pick up Super Doops from the vet after she lost the 2007 Grass Seed Battle Round 1 (her Kryptonite!) and finalising our picnic lunch. We bundled in to the car with a well rested Little Kid and slightly frazzled Mum and Mia.

Driving to the hall through localised flooding, we commented on how blue the sky was and there didn’t seem to be any sign of rain for the moment, maybe we could still have the Naming Ceremony outdoors at the park as planned however we didn’t let our hopes get too high.

The grassy area of the Community Hall was flooded, thankfully we weren’t planning to picnic there, after big hugs to my family we scoped out the Hall, it was going to be perfect! It had a large room with tables and chairs, a kitchen and bathroom and a verandah area – Mia had struck gold! We urshered in what we were happy to leave, chatted for a while and made our way around the corner to The Old Gum Tree where a lady in a hula skirt was already in the spot we were hoping to use. Thankfully, on closer inspection it turned out to be our celebrant, all ready to go, sans hula skirt I might add. Our Nouna’s were running late after some car trouble so we got a chance to greet most of the guests personally while we waited – most of them had only seen the Little Kid at the hospital when she was born.

The Nouna’s arrived and we dressed the fading Little Kid in the car (much to her displeasure) and when I picked her up I was struck by how absolutely gorgeous she looked. She and our goddaughter Laylah had matching ladybug wings made by their Oma (we’ve got Laylah’s Oma on permanent loan) and each had tiny antennas. I carried the Little Kid back into the park and gave her to Mia to coo over. Mia’s mum (Yiayia) pinned on a brooch Mia had bought for her when she was a little kid herself, it was a ladybug and it was really touching.

The ceremony went really well, our readers were beautiful, Yiayia and Papou read from “Oh, The Place’s You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss, Wonderwoman read an adaptation from a Bryce Courtenay novel and Unki Baa and Aunty Mish read a very cool poem about a little cowgirl that they had put together, it captured the Little Kid really well. The Little Kid lasted the whole ceremony with only a few threats of tears and a few Window Passes onto her Nouna Jeff (that’s our little trumpet bum!).

I’m not sure how long the ceremony was, how late it started, if our guests were bored – things I usually would have brooded over – there seriously could have been only the 13 of us under The Old Gum Tree and it would have been just as special. The Little Kid was named – Ickle Bug (aka as Ickle Monster).

We headed back around to the Hall where Ickle promptly fell asleep in my arms (awww) and was offered to her Aunty Juls for a hold while I got some lunch ready. Everyone helped themselves to a table and chairs or a picnic place on the floor and we almost got around to seeing everyone

By the time my family had to leave to catch their flight home everyone had left and the hall was all packed away – we hugged goodbye and started to head home. Ickle fell asleep in the car and stayed almost asleep while we changed her and put her to bed where she slept almost all afternoon; a big day for a little kid!

The day could not have been better, the sun shone the whole time, the threatened rain must have had another appointment and formally introducing our daughter to our family and friends was a great honour.