Pat’s Point of View

It’s almost been a whole week since she was born and I have only just got around to posting some photos of Evie. I’ve picked out my favourites, above.

Thanks everyone who sent us messages of love and support, we really appreciate it. Evie is doing well, in fact she’s caught us off guard with how content and well behaved she is!

On this most joyous day I’d like to introduce you to Evangeline Kennedy!

Evie was born at 5:50am on the 31st of October, weighing 2.95kg and measuring 47cm. Mum and bubs are doing fine, and dad and big sister Grace are eager to get to know this little bundle of joy.

If the intra-mum activity is anything to go by then Evie is a ball of energy, so I’ll sure she’ll be ready to take on the world soon enough, but for now it’s time for a good sleep.

It’s been a long a frustrating lead-up, with about three weeks of pre-labour! Jenn coped very well, she’s a brave and tremendously strong woman and we are so lucky to have her in our lives.

So, another girl? Yep I’m well and truly outnumbered now. It’s going to be pink, dancing and gossip for the rest of my life. Oh gawd, and dating boys. Paying for weddings. But I love all my girls and wouldn’t change things at all. (But if you know any techniques for ensuring a boy, let me know)

After quite a while comparing models and features and hunting around for a good deal, we’re now the proud owners of a Ford Territory. It’s the best car for our growing family, with 7 seats and enough room for 3 baby seats.

Our particular model is a 2007 Territory TS AWD, an ex company car with low kilometers and an excellent service record. Rory, as we have already named him, is in great condition and should see us through quite a few years before we need to change cars again. He’ll be a suitable replacement for Annie, our little Subaru we bought a few years ago.

We’ve looked at plenty of vehicles over the last 6 months or so, both new and used. When we found this one at Titan Ford in Brookvale, we knew it was the one for us, well worth the trip to take a look. After a test drive—including a delightful scenic trip along the very Territory-esque Wakehurst Parkway and through Oxford Falls—we got to bargaining and didn’t leave until we’d made a deal.

Our first trip to test out the long distance comfort, 6 speed ZF gearbox, and all wheel drive road-holding will be a trip to Canberra for UX Australia, followed by a few days up in Thredbo country.

I’m once again delighted to announce there will soon be a little addition to my family! Jenn is pregnant and we’re expecting our second bundle of joy in October 2009. This fairly sketchy ultrasound picture is bubs number 2.

This has kept us pretty busy lately–planning upgrades to house, car, furniture, not to mention taking care of a young toddler whilst pregnant. But I’m sure it’s just a taste of what’s to come with two kids.

So everyone who even jokingly volunteered to baby sit the first time around, we’ll be in touch in a few months :)

It’s been far too long since I showed off my little girl, so besides the four you see here, I’ve posted a bunch of photos from the last 5 months. There’s also another gallery I created some time back covers the three to five month period. Enjoy.

Thanks to all of you who keep asking how she is. She’s a healthy, happy little girl who enjoyed her first Christmas. She’s pretty much sleeping through the night now, so mum and dad are happy about that. She’s about to sprout her first tooth and should be walking any day now. She’s such a quick learner I doubt there’ll be much space between ‘first step’ and ’sprinting’.

I’ve just returned from a week in Cairns, a trip which was meant to be partly for the OZCHI 2008 conference and partly for holiday. Not the best trip.

Last Sunday we flew up to Cairns. When we arrived the Qantas check-in staff didn’t provide an infant boarding pass for my daughter, and I didn’t such a thing even existed, so when we went to board there was a bit of dilemma. Thankfully the staff at the gate were very helpful and gave us an upgrade to business class! (Although I think this result had more to do with another family of four who were giving them a hard time about wanting to sit together so our two ’spare’ economy seats were a welcome relief). It was a great start to the holiday, and not a bad flight to get upgraded for: it’s 3 hours to Cairns.

Then we arrived in Cairns. Hot. Humid. Ouch. I’m not built for hot weather, but I soldiered on and tried to find the cab we had booked online the night before, with a special request for baby seat. A lot of cabs in Cairns are now based on the eco-friendly Toyota Prius, so I was thinking hey they are pretty high tech up here. Sadly no. After asking some people and having no luck I called the cab company. They told me two things: a) they don’t accept bookings from the airport and b) “in Queensland public transport vehicles are exempt from having to carry baby capsules” (a phrase we were to hear over and over again) so they can’t do that either. FAIL! Why does your website allow you to request both those things if you can’t deliver?

So now I know why you see so many baby seats/capsules on the luggage conveyors at the airport, it’s because you can’t rely on anyone you just have to bring your own. Seriously, I don’t give a crap if the Queensland government have deemed “it’s perfectly legal to just hold the baby on your lap”, it’s not safe! How can they feel it’s unnecessary for essential safety equipment for babies to be available? I would happily have waited and/or paid more to secure a safe mode of transport for Grace. We had few choices, the best of which seemed to be catching a cab with Grace on Jenn’s lap in the back seat. We discussed the lack of baby seats in Queensland cabs with the driver, as well as how using a hybrid vehicle for a taxi is really just a PR stunt and not yet economically viable (nor environmentally friendly at the end of the day).

Monday. A day of relaxing and acclimatisation in preparation for my OZCHI tutorial on Tuesday. Possibly even more hot and humid. Yuck. It’s not glamorous, but we spent most of the day in Smithfield shopping centre because we had to get some groceries for Grace and it was air conditioned! (not something there is a lot of in Palm Cove). In the spirit of the tropical theme I bought a lovely knock-off ‘Aloha shirt’. Cool in that absurd kind of way.

Tuesday. Went off to James Cook University for my tutorial. Still hot. Got into the room the tutorial would be in…urrgh not much cooler. Lovely. The tutorial went well, although almost everyone there was not exactly at the right level for an introductory course, but I got good feedback and I think we all got something out of the half day.

Wednesday. Can’t remember what we did in the morning, but I remember the heat hadn’t relented. We went for a late lunch at Pepper’s Beach Club on the esplanade at Palm Cove, we’d been there many times when we last stayed there and it was always nice. I had a ham focaccia and a light beer. Big mistake. I remember thinking our order arrived quite quickly, Jenn only got a salad so I was wondering if my sandwich was fresh. It turns out it probably wasn’t and given the hot and humid conditions something was off. To cut a long and painful story short I spent the next 8 hours witnessing my body performing a complete evacuation of its digestive system by any and all means possible. I’ve not been struck by any major illness in my life, and I’m sure this is nothing in comparison, but this bout of food poisoning was the worst such thing I’ve ever experienced.

By midnight I was completely wrecked, severely dehydrated and in need of medical assistance. I was worried, about me but also about my family, what if this was viral? At this point I was also pondering, in my barely lucid state, how vulnerable we are when on holiday. Without your normal support network, local knowledge and even transport, you kinda feel on your own. But we managed to get an ambulance to the resort which was harder than expected. The paramedics agreed it was food poisoning, possibly with a bit of heat stroke to boot. I opted not to take them up on the offer of hospitalisation because I had a wife and baby to consider. Besides, the mass evacuation seemed to have slowed by the time the paramedics arrived, so I thought I would ride it out and see how I was in the morning. It was a rough night.

After the ‘purge’ had finished the ‘reboot’ began, as my digestive system was rebuilt, a process that ultimately went on for about 60 hours. I was trying to rehydrate myself but Mr Stomach wasn’t playing nicely. I couldn’t digest anything for a while, so eating and drinking were very difficult.

Thursday. Why does it always seem to be overcast in Palm Cove? It makes is more humid and it’s depressing rather than a tropical paradise. But on this day I think the sun was out all day. It might have been hotter but at least not as humid, but I wouldn’t know since I spent the entire day in bed. Made a break for it at dinner time and chanced a trip to the restaurant. Saw OZCHI folks going off to the conference dinner, but I was in a daze. Didn’t last long, had to return to the room.

Friday. Started to get better, I even ventured out for breakfast and lunch. Arranged to meet James Breeze and some others for dinner, but as the sun started to set the humidity rose and as we couldn’t find any restaurants with air-conditioning I quickly wilted and had to make a very early exit. The heat, sweat and thought of food just made me ill. Why no restaurants in Palm Cove have A/C is beyond me.

Saturday. Feeling much better. Packing, breakfast then transfer to airport (and guess what? no baby seats available, because “in Queensland…” grrrr!). At the airport things were looking up, we managed to all get on the same flight (long story) and even got moved to a bulkhead row with a bassinet so we could put the baby down for a sleep during the flight. Back home in Sydney. Dry heat. Hmmmm.

Man, I need a holiday.

It’s so typical for usability professionals to point out the un-usability of everyday things they encounter, and I normally try to resist, but I just have to comment on the Bonds EasySuit.

You’ll no doubt have seen the ads on TV, cute lil buggers wearing stretchy one-piece numbers. They look good and feel good—no seams or buttons—but damned if they are decidedly not easy to put on!

It looks like it’s easy enough, you just open the hole on the lower back and slip it on. Yeah, good luck. You need to bend baby in half and then simultaneously insert arms and legs into the corresponding holes and somehow they’re supposed to spring back into shape, fully clothed.

Grace gives me a slightly perplexed look and emits a short ‘humpf’ as I bend her in half like a pretzel. The look on her face seems to say “you sure you know how to do this?”.

What’s needed is a suit fitting system like in Iron Man :)

Lucky I have a terabyte of storage, I’m going to need it if we keep taking this many photos of our kids! Here’s a sample from weeks 6-12.

I have a few nick names for my daughter, but one of the most apt is “Princess Grumbles” because she does get stroppy from time to time—common for Picean women I hear :)

Yet lately, she has taken her grumbliness to a new level. She has a cold, you see, and we believe she has also started teething. This is one more in a string of early bloomer events for young Grace, she was early entering this world, early to get into regular sleep patterns and now early to sprout teeth. It’s not unheard of but teething normally starts at about six months, not three.

So it was a decidedly un-relaxing weekend, hopefully she feels better soon.

My little girl is growing fast, so I’ve posted a few photos so you can see how well she is doing.

She’s very animated but sometimes hard to interpret. For instance, in this photo is she is practising her a) scary face for Halloween b) Ice-T gangster rap, or c) what-to-do-in-an-armed-robbery look? Perhaps she’s pretending to be a pirate, I don’t know.

There aren’t many photos of her sleeping, that’s because it’s a bit of a rarity at this stage. Her mum is doing so well, I don’t know how she copes. I have it lucky, I have to go off to work, so I get to sleep at night!