Small steps

Hi everyone

well, like always, we have been flat out! Excitingly, Eli's Foundation is getting closer and closer...we now have a company, and the trust deed has been executed which is great...we are just in the middle of applying for an ABN which will hopefully come soon. We are also looking to trademark Eli's Foundation so the paperwork is in for that as well...hopefully, we are not too much longer off all the paperwork being sorted...all i can say is thank goodness for Shoba, Dianne and Anton from MinterEllison who have helped us through this maze...we would have never been able to do it without them...

We get the carpet laid for the house tomorrow which is kinda exciting...we are not looking to do a full on move all at once, i suspect it will be over 1-2 weeks when we can fit it in! Just small steps at a time i guess! It looks like the cottage will hopefully be open for business early next year...geez, nearly 2 years late but we WILL get there...lol.

We are all going ok...touch wood we have only picked up a cold here and there this winter...for that, we are definitely grateful...pete is still busy with work. Archie and i are just hanging out and taking advantage of the gorgeous weather by going for a few walks...im guessing that the next couple of days will be filled with a bit of painting on the outside...we only have one coat to go on the front eaves...and we still have the balcony to do...we will get there though!

Archie is going really well. He recently met up with all the relatives on the Brown side of the family...he was covered with kisses and cuddles and was pretty good all up...i think there might be another tooth on its way as he has had the grizzles for the past couple of days...

We had our visit with Dr Goss on Thursday and got the all clear which was great...we have a maternal health nurse check up this Thursday and i suspect that he will pass with flying colours...he is a very big boy! Fully clothed last thu, he weighed a nice 9.6kgs! little poombah! Very different from his brother...will try and get some pics of the last couple of weeks up soon.

Thats really all the news we have from the simpsons at this stage...will write again soon...

luv and sunshine

the simpsons

xoxoxox

BIG MONTH

Hi everyone

its been a huge month with the house going gangbusters and most importantly, eli's birthday. He would have been 4 this year. I think i have said it before, birthdays we remember as what should have been...the anniversary of his passing is a reflection of what was for those 13 and a half months. I havent really found the words this year for melon's birthday, apart from the fact that we still miss him terribly every single day. People say it gets easier with time, and that we should be 'ok' now that we have archie. Archie is not a replacement for eli and it staggers me that people think that. It takes all we have not to say anything, and all we can do is blame it on ignorance. It takes an almighty strength to stay dignified when this is said to us because believe me, we would give our lives to have our beautiful son back fit and healthy. It doesnt matter how much time passes, he was and is our son and we still grieve for him even after so long.

Big melon...

we miss you every single day. We had our packet of twisties for arvo tea, as well as our pancakes for brekkie like we do to celebrate our birthdays and this will never change. We spent some time in your garden and archie sent some pretty decent raspberries your way to help you celebrate. We would give anything to have you and archie together, but i know you are there in spirit watching over him every day. I personally find that every birthday just gets harder and harder. We only had one birthday with you, and its one we will never forget little man. All we can do is reflect on the photos of you and remember the times you made us laugh so loud and hard that our sides hurt. Wonder what sort of little person you would have grown into. Thats what we miss most of all...just wondering what you would have been like as a little boy, free of hospitals and pain.

Love you so much big melon, we all do. Miss you more each day

melons cottage is going well. We have finally got our company up and running, and the trust paperwork should be lodged within the week. Once thats done, we just need to apply for a special tax status and abns and we should be right to roll. I think our insurances and utilities are going to be our major costs so any fundraising and or donations will be geared toward that.

We are still waiting to move in...only blinds and carpet remaining...then it will be the outside! we will need to do the driveway first before we get too much more rain!

Archie is going well...growing madly. 5 months now. I cant believe how quickly the time has gone! Archie is now the proud owner of two bottom teeth and he has also started rolling! Something we never really saw melon do. it was amazing to watch. He is still having two solid meals a day - lunch and tea and the rest is still boobs! thank goodness they have lasted so long!

We have had a few visits this month with nana and grandad from bacchus marsh, great nan olive from sale and great aunt leonie from WA meeting us for lunch and great aunts chell and jenn and uncles harold and wool. This month we are trekking to melbs to attend great nan and poppa's 60th wedding anniversary which should be good. Archie will meet all the rele's on the brown side wfhuch will be great!

anyways...best scoot. Thoughts and love to our dear friends Tan and Kylie who will be also remembering their kids birthdays this month...life just sucks sometimes.

luv and sunshine

the simpsons

xoxox

Melon on his first birthday

time flies!

hi everyone

just a quick update...cant believe a month has passed since we last posted...amazing.

I have had an up and down month, especially when archie hit 15 weeks old. Thats the time when melon was diagnosed and it was a pretty tough time. Logically i know that absolutely nothing is wrong with archie, but when i reflect on just how tiny melon was when diagnosed, it is so bloody sad. 15 weeks is just so little. I guess we have now passed that milestone and the days have been looking much brighter again. As every week passes, we do not study archie and look for things that might possibly be wrong. Is he bruising? How does his belly look...all the tell tale signs we saw in melon...but this little man is completely fine...all in proportion and growing so well. Its just so sad to me that melon is not here to cover archie with kisses and hugs.

Melon has definitely been around us last week...i was walking archie to one of his appointments and a beautiful sea eagle circled us really closely. The sea eagles here are something we always associate with melon...we dont see them often, but when we do, we always say hello melon. Anyways, so we saw an eagle which made me smile...i was also listening to my ipod on the same walk - something i havent done for nearly 3 months i reckon...and just before we got to the dr's, melons song came on...out of nearly 500 songs...his song came on...so we saw the sea eagle and heard the song...just a beautiful little reminder our boy is still with us every day...i must admit it did bring tears to my eyes...these moments are just so precious to us...

anyways...as always...we love you heaps melon...

pete and i have been flat out painting the house...hopefully we will have it all finished by the end of this month, then we can get the contractors to finish everything else off. I still dont have an official move in date, we are just taking it as it comes which has taken the pressure right off us...we will get there :-)

archie has just ticked over 4 months and we have started solids which he has taken too really well. At his 4 month checkup, his stats were:

8.110kg

66cm in length

44.5cm head

basically he is sitting on the 97th percentile for everything...im just so proud that my boobs have contributed so much to this little man...

he is still breastfeeding well and is on 2 meals a day - lunch and tea. Extremely funny to watch pete feed archie...there is food EVERYWHERE as archie quite likes to follow the spoon with his hand. Lots of fun...

Archie is happy on home cooked a mixture of home cooked potato, sweet potato and carrots with some apples and pears as 'sweets'...

all going really well.

anyhoos...bugsy (archie) is starting to become a bit animated, so will fly for now...

i will try and get some more pic's up soon

luv and sunshine

the simpsons

xox

hi everyone

cant believe how quickly the time is flying by...Archie had his 3 month weigh in...stats are:

7.350kg in weight and 62.5cm in length...he is officially in size 00 for most things now. Its kind of sad as i have been packing away all the little 0000 and 000 that he didnt get too much of an opportunity to wear because he has grown so quickly...he is still doing all the same things...and is liking 4am feed calls which is great because we are getting a good solid sleep from 7 til 4am...cant complain about that!

Archie is getting big enough to wear alot more of Eli's old clothes...we always said that baby number 2 was going to wear baby number 1's clothes, and im glad we were strong enough to keep the 'recycling' going...its lovely to bring eli's clothes to 'life' again on archie...we just were not expecting archie to grow into them so quickly...im assuming his growth will slow down a little soon LOL....archie is lots like his brother, especially around his eyes...they seem to tell a story...i guess we will just have to wait to see how it all unfolds...

Pete had archie the whole afternoon (thankfully archie takes a bottle)...so i have been very lucky because its allowed me to get a whole bunch of little stuff done that i dont get a chance to do...like the blog!

no real news on anything else, we are still waiting for the undercoat to be sprayed on the house, but we now have a balcony, and we have the capacity to hold 17,000litres of water with our tanks being plumbed up which is great...

So we are really just waiting on the painting, then we can get a wriggle on to getting the rest fitted out...

soon, soon we are hoping!

Pete is going well...he is busy with work and travelling around gippsland a fair bit but really enjoying the new challenges that come with a new job...

i guess we cant wait until things quieten down for us so we can start enjoying life a bit more...as right now, things are bloody hectic!

We are finalising paperwork for melon's cottage (hopefully tomorrow)..it will be awesome to have that all finished and 'above board'...if anyone has any hints on where to find some good public liability insurance, we are open to suggestions...ive tried everywhere, but no one has got back to us, or not interested...its highly frustrating!

anyhoo...best fly

loads of love and sunshine

the simpsons

xoxoxo

a few pictures as promised

hi everyone

here are a few pics as promised of our last couple of months...

we got out in melon's garden this morning...archie was in the pram while pete and i did some much needed weeding and all round tlc...it was lovely to get out as a family while the weather was nice...well, it was bloody cold, but at least the sun was shining and archie found the kangaroo paw flowers quite facinating...it was lovely to watch!

anyways...enjoy the pics

love and hugs

the simpsons

xoxo

Archie, pete and poppa who travelled all the way from deniliquin to visit us back in June...


archie enjoying a bottle of boob milk with great nan from deni

archie and pop sharing a tender moment

archie with the beanie aunty hayley, uncle dale and cousins kyle blake and connor gave him...melon was the little boy who was known for his very groovy leg warmers, i think archie will be the one with all the funky beanies and hats!

archie at about 9 weeks old...

archie and his friend 'amelie harper' from trarlgon sharing a 'friends' moment...nawww...

archie and amelie...amelie is around 5 months now and just gorgeous!

archie playing "wheres archie"..he is clever enough to pull the blanket off his own eyes now and loves to play it...

another gorgeous beanie all the way from Tallangatta near Corryong...thanks so much Karyn...its is AWESOME and gets used all the time...

Archie captured on camera having a laugh...very cute

a pic of one of archies first smiles caught on camera...he was about 6 weeks when it came out!

Our wonderful mate Rae-lee meeting archie for the first time when we went to melb at the end of June...Rae was the wonderful nurse from the RCH who looked after Eli so beautifully...along with Great pa "Ray", Rae is also the inspiration for Archie's middle name...

dad and archie at maccas in moe while on our way to melb...Archie was fabulous

taking some much needed time out!

hmmm...not too sure what to say about this one!

Archie playing 'wheres the clock'...he loves to look around now and is just fixated on the clock when he gets to it...very funny to watch...

Thanks for having us kate and wayne!

our friend Wren who walked with us at the koala count...nice cute joey i reckon!

our great mate marnie and archie at our angel flight bbq a few weeks ago...we werent short of hands to give cuddles and hold archie when we were busy! Thanks marn!

11 weeks...

hi everyone

i cant believe we are nearly in the middle of july...its CRAZY how quickly time has flown...archie is almost 11 weeks old and we have had heaps of things going on since we last wrote...

the house is still coming along...the tiling has been done, the clickclack on the floor has been put in, and the balcony is about 2/3rds finished...we have started painting, with the cupboards now finished (apart from the doors), the toilet and bathroom almost done. We are just waiting on the plasterer to finish off a couple of things in the kitchen and the laundry, and the plumber to come to finish the rest off, like taps, and final fit out...

once all that is done, we are going to spraypaint the under coat and get really cracking on the painting to finish off...we still dont have an 'end date' in our minds, just when can get the time, we will get down there and do what we can...nothing like doing things in halves is there, pete with his new job, a new baby and a new house! Talk about timing...lol

i have been feeling like melon has been around us a fair bit over the past couple of weeks...we always say goodnight to him when archie goes to sleep, and we wonder how busy life would have been with both boys in it...alot more busier than at the moment i would imagine! We can see melon in archie, especially some of his 'looks'...and there is no disputing they are brothers.

Archie has been tripping around with us over the past month...we spent a night in traralgon, which was so-so (probably the cookies i ate!)...and we went to melbs for a couple of days last weekend and he was really good...slept really well at night, and thankfully was fairly cruisy through the day. We stayed at some apartments in Mont Albert - Archie ended up in the main bedroom in his portacot and pete and i ended up in the sofa bed! ahhhh...the things you do to keep the peace lol...

Archie met heaps of people for the first time and caught up with his nan from bacchus marsh. He also met Mary Canary (our neighbours from when we lived in Altona North)...mary already has him married to her yet to be born grandaughter (good luck kath)...we also caught up with our great mates the Corries, Lindorff's and Somers on Sunday morning, and then our most favourite nurse, Rae and her fiancee Shane...it was fantastic to see them both and Archie will always know how special rae is to our family...

we caught up with a few old work colleagues from box hill on monday, and we met up with our awesome mate Gaynor and her two boys Jack and Lachlan...i was able to hit the shops for some stuff - especially bonds...it was awesome! Thanks to Wayne and Kate for hosting us on monday night while we bathed and fed archie...then it was on the road and we were home by 11pm. We were a bit nervous to see if he would settle, but after a feed, he was fine and we were all able to get heaps of sleep...thank goodness for boobs! It gives us heaps of confidence for next time we travel...and thank goodness he is fairly flexible (and we had the baby bjorn!)...

Archie also had his needles. Its funny, after witnessing so many awful things being done to melon, i still couldnt hold archie for them. Lucky dad came and i offered boobs after it was all finished. I was exactly the same with eli's needles, but when it came to other stuff, i could do it no probs, just not the needles...so i have booked pete for archie's second lot of needles at 4 months which will no doubt come around really quickly...

At Archie's 2 month check up...he weighed a very healthy 6.280kg, was 60.5cm in length and his head reached 40cm (no surprise there!)...at 8 weeks, he was basically the size of a 3 month old! i expect him to start slowing down with the tucker soonish, but you never know...he is definitely in a great paddock!

It really is such a bittersweet feeling of knowing we should have 2 boys running around...well, i guess we do, we just cant see one...i wonder how they would have got along and when they got older, how they would have looked after each other...i wonder if they would have shared their toys, and how many times we would have sent them to their 'corners' to stop them bickering...

its hard not to think about the what if's...i guess its just a normal part of grieving. Its just being brave enough to share these thoughts so publicly. People who have not lost a child will find some of these thoughts confronting and probably hard to understand and perhaps think that its time we just 'got over it' now we have archie...you can never get over such a massive loss, and nor do we want to. People ask how archie is going...like any mum and dad, you have your days where its bloody tough...those days that i say its tough is not a complaint...and being reminded that we went through much worse with eli does not help. Its all relative and we are living our lives day to day, like any mum and dad would with a new born baby. The best thing about eli is that he has taught us to be much more patient parents. Patience really is a virtue and one of the best assets we have learned.

anyways...i will try and get some more pics up soon...there are some rippers amongst them...i just havent had the time today, but will try through the week when we will try and teach archie that his bed through the day really is a nice place to hang out and sleep! LOL...

lots of hugs and sunshine

the simpsons

xoxoxox

7 and a half weeks and counting!

Hi everyone

well, archie is a staggering 7 and a half weeks...time is seriously flying...the simpson house has been flat out with pete back at work and travelling around a bit, and archie and i spending some quality time together without dad...i dont know how mums who are on their own do it! The weather has been so-so, it has been difficult to get out and about for a walk in the pram, so archie has spent a fair bit of time in the baby bjorn and in our arms, just to make sure he gets some sleep, coz boy his nasty if he doesnt get his sleep! i have attached some updated pics below.

The house is coming along slowly...we have a kitchen now which is exciting...and are just awaiting the stone for the bench to be delivered before the floors can be put in...pete is busy bogging up the holes, and sanding in preparation for painting...the theory is that we will get archie's room finished first so we can fit out his room with the portacot and work in the house while he gets some sleep through the day...he is a real bugger through the day with his sleep, because of the pains in his belly so we are hoping that subsides soon and he feels a bit more comfy as it definitely wakes him up...

we are going on our first overnight outing next week which we are all excited about...to traralgon which will be great...see how we go!

anyways...hope all is well in your world, wherever you may be...and i will post again soon...i have to get down and take some pic's of the house to update the blog...maybe next time!

take care

luv and hugs

the simpsons

xoxoxox

Nawww...about 5 weeks here...

yes, learning attitude already!

playing with his dad

nice cuddles with mum

just archie!

a visit to great nan olive from sale for her 81st birthday...

our first trip to the campsite at buchan...yay!

great aunt julia and me...great aunt julia came across from jakata...very nice cuddles!

i know, i know its not reall kosher...but its the closest we could come to legalised 'planking'...lol

me, mum and dad...very proud we are!