Well – an almost nine month old.

Today I followed Ickle around for nine minutes, even though she is sick she hasn’t slowed down.

Check out my experiment on flickr

The Easter Bunny stumbled drowsily down the hall on Sunday morning, unfortunately her arms were not laden with brightly wrapped chocolate treats but with infant paracetamol, compounded antibiotics and a sick Ickle who was feeling miserable and not a happy camper.

Ickle came down with a cold on Thursday and by Sunday we were at the clinic as her cough sounded more like a bark, she’d stopped weeing and we’d taken to using a canoe to get around our house on the river o’ snot. The cold had turned nasty and Ickle had developed an infection and the doctor had noticed Ickle had some eczema on her face so we got some cream for that too. We’ve been having broken sleep at night, by we I mean Em – I seem to not be waking until I feel Em get out of bed and falling straight back to sleep again. All the disturbance has also upset one of our cats who has worked out “the squeaky wheel gets the oil” and cries at our bedroom door mercilessly.

Do you know I’m holding out on you….?

This weekend we were eggstatic to have our favourite VIPs staying with us. Uncle Sparky and Aunty Sar visited for Easter and shared with us some exciting news They move in to their new house this week, it has a pool so we’re very excited! Over the weekend we went out for dinner, did some shopping and stumbled across the kite festival at Semaphore. Ickle loves playing with Sparky and Sar and I think she’ll miss them as much as we do

And to maybe the coolest thing about this weekend, Ickle can now pull herself to a standing position. Last week she’d get up on her knees and get stuck – which I must admit was very amusing for me – however today she pulled herself in to a standing position, twice! The last month has been Ickle has started showing off lots of neat little tricks – she can wave, clap, blow decent raspberries, click her tongue, make Indian face noises with her hand and becomes so very excited when she sees a toy she wants, especially if its the teddy bear I’m using as a pillow!

There is this awesome bond between Ickle and Em – Ickle thinks Em is fantastic and giggles with glee when she chases us down the hall and breaks out the tickles.  Ickle bounces in my arms when she sees Em, it’s absolutely fantastic.  It has been really easy to slip in to believing that our family is just like everyone else’s and that love is all you need.

We’ve been trying to get Ickle a passport for the last month and a call from our lawyer today confirmed that we aren’t able to do this without consent from Ickle’s biological father.  Not that he isn’t one of the most wonderful people on the planet and would have no problem signing what we needed in a heartbeat , just, well… it sucks.  We made the decision to admit Ickle was conceived via a known donor artificial insemination to get Em a Parenting Order on the advice of our lawyer and our belief that “honest is the best policy”.  Now it seems had we been devious about the conception it may have been a much easier process and I don’t believe that should be the case.

While I understand legislation such as the one we are red taped in protects children from being removed from the country and hidden in remote villages in Lebanon; it’s really disappointing to know that getting an exemption is both very expensive and not guaranteed to work.  The passport office requires a very specific wording in a specific document that needs to be approved by a specific minister who I’ve decided must sit in a large office and stamp one document a day. If this magical person approves our application then we need to submit that document to the passport office and they still may not approve it.  We’ve spoken to two lawyers and the passport office and this is it and I don’t believe we have the time and resources to contest it.  Our original advice from the passport office was that same-sex parents could apply directly for via a senior official and then a court hearing however with changes to process (which I must admit is a positive for same-sex parents), we made it to a senior official who would not let the application go any further due to us having a document that Ickle’s biological father acknowledges paternity and is supportive of Em’s Parenting Order.  We’re in the mist of “what if”- what if we didn’t admit full disclosure, would this be easier?

I know I may sound petty however this is my family and it directly hurts one of the most important people in it, she is the reason we have a roof over our head and, if we had a table, she’d be the reason there would be food on it.  The excitement of getting a small piece of legal backing for her relationship with our daughter has halted another process only a few months down the line; another “Sorry, your relationship isn’t the same as everyone else’s and we’re going to make it difficult for you.”

That’s it, we’re moving to Canada…

Ickle has been afraid of getting in the bath for a little while now. She’s still happy to get in the shower or have a bath with me however if you try to put her in alone she clings to you and starts to cry. Poor Ickle. Tonight Em tried to give Ickle a bath and Ickle got upset. Em and Ickle played in the water for about 30 minutes and eventually Ickle was happy enough for Em to let go and splash about and play. Hopefully we can convince Ickle that the bath isn’t as bad a place as she thinks.

Ickle started day care this week, she loves it, the people and the other kids. Unfortunately being away from home for such a big stretch means that there needs to be some sleeping done. BZZZZT. I’ve told you Ickle doesn’t do sleep outside her cot right? So day care and sleeping have been a bit of a nightmare. They’ve called twice for me to come in and calm her down after she has started screaming. It’s been a pretty tough week for the three of us.

Tomorrow is 7 years since we were Mauied. Pretty cool huh?

Until Mum leaves

We’ve been really busy the passed few weeks.

Last week was a trip to visit the family for me and Ickle which totally made me realise how much I miss them. Our niece and nephew are growing up so fast and Ickle thought they were very cool. My step-dad has been sick so it was good to spend time with him after he got out of hospital the morning we arrived. The plane ride up was great, Ickle fell asleep in my arms (awwwww!) and she made no complaints about the very long decent in to Sydney. Having been lulled in to a false sense of security with the trip up, I confidently strolled on to the return flight – you can see where this is going can’t you? Thankfully she’s ultra cute and loved getting extra attention from the flight attendants; one took a shine to her and walked her up and down the plane with him, only coming back to ask questions to answer questions from other passengers. I was very relieved to hand Ickle over to her very excited Mia when we got off our plane!

The next day we had tickets to see The Grease Lightnin’ Drag Show at The Garden of Unearthly Delights and took some good friends out to dinner and the show while Ickle had a sleep over at her Yaya and Papou’s. The show was great and the company was equally as entertaining.

Saturday we went bowling with the Starlight Foundation and we were so stoked when Ickle fell asleep in the car again on the way home! We went out for dinner that night with Ickle’s Superheroes and I wore my glass of Coke straight after it was poured and looked a little like I was suffering incontinence

Sunday was a little quieter, we started the day with swimming and ended with a visit to two the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, they are two of the founders of ETEP and we’re doing some volunteer work with them this year. Afterwards Ickle had a restless sleep and we heard her playing in her cot around 10pm so decided to head in to the city to see the Northern Lights on North Terrace. As part of the Festival of Arts there is a digital canvas on some of Adelaide’s famous heritage buildings, they were awesome and I’ve put some of my favourite shots up on my flickr. We also ran in to some of our friends which was cool as we got to show off a very big Ickle.

Today was a public holiday which means almost everything in Adelaide is closed Ickle screamed for most of the morning however cheered up when we went out for breakfast with her Superheroes. She enjoyed her French Toast and Babycino and took pleasure in catching the attention of the other diners, waving to them and chatting away. Unfortunately our plans for tonight hit a snag with our host getting tonsillitis. Get well soon Nouna!

Ickle, Em and I would like to send our best wishes to Honest John for this week and can’t wait to see them perform with John Butler, The Waifs, Lior, Clair Bowdich and Goyte next weekend!

And, why the long nights? One of our dogs has decided one bark every 20 seconds all night is totally acceptable. Obviously she has not consulted June Dally Watkins on acceptable night time etiquette and we’re thinking she may need to attend some sessions. Does anyone have any advice?