Guest Post from Rob

We have been having internet issues this week, something to do with a deep sea cable being damaged, so no post this week.........

Here's a few photos, the first, Aston is looking amazingly cute and giving his trademark smile as he enjoys his nightly bath.

The second is a rare moment of the little fella actually enjoying being in his car seat.....this did'nt last long

The last two where taken at a visit to a kid playcentre at a shopping centre. Aston is enjoying playing in a pen of balls............please note the balls are carefully cleaned every day just in case your where wondering ( Mel checked )

Two weeks today we will be preparing to leave Dubai on our flight to New York....not that we are counting the days

So hard to stop him rolling now

It's so hard to stop Aston rolling now whenever he is horizontal oops, and away he goes again. Mid nappy change or not. Very funny.

As the Dubai Shopping Festival has just started, the poor bugger has been dragged from pillar to post around the shops of Dubai as Rob and I stock up on stuff we need and stuff we won't be able to afford to buy when we move back to Sydney ... that is of course until I get back into the work thing. Urgh, did someone say WORK?

Here's a few shots I've taken in the past few days, none of them Gerber baby standard but funny none the less, his little bottom looks SO big in these shots and he just LOVES Poo Bear now, whenever you give it to him to chew on he lights up with an all out laugh.

As an aside I think we were stopped I kid you not over 12 times while out shopping today by different people wanting to google at Aston and telling us how cute he is. He has the most lovely smile which he gives away for free and it lights up his whole face, he smiles with his eyes as well as his mouth. Part of this is the phenomenon of a western baby who is cute as well so all credit can't go to his winning personality and some to his genetics in a region where western isn't par for the course .....

How quickly Aston Turns

Now that Aston know's how to turn here's his latest trick, doing it in the flash of an eye. So much so that I put him on the change table (Come cheap ikea coffee table) and bent down to retrive a nappy from the shelf below and low and behold, he was on his tummy and eating yet another book. All in what less than 8 seconds.

He's also getting lot closer to having those feet in his mouth, just millimeters away today.

Reading and Eating - Aston devours the books

Grandad Brian have Aston some beautiful books for Christmas, one in particular which is good to read him now is a book on nursery rhymes - as Rob and I know NONE and Brian was concerned that Aston may be getting sick of hearing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer over and over again.

Aston couldn't decide if he enjoyed listening to the rhymes or eating the book .... I suspect eating the book was probably top of his list.

That was of course until he barfed on the book and yes that's vomit on my hand in the last photo. Lucky the pages can be wiped down.

Q. How much does Aston now enjoy his tummy time?

A. Alot!

Guest Post from Rob - In our family there is a famous photograph with five generations of the Dales\Cooksley family. This photo has me ( as a young baby ), my mum, my Nan and my Great Nan and my Great Great Nan.

Here with have our version of this photo for 2007. We have only four generations, but all proud of little fella.

4 Months Old

Aston turns 4 months old today which conveniently coincides with a visit from high ranking US citizen (see your local news station for details of who's in town today) and a last minute public holiday announcement made yesterday means Rob has the day off to celebrate with us.

Public Holiday was announced at 4.30pm yesterday afternoon (nothing like a bit of advance notice for the businesses out there) and all major arterial roads are closed all day today meaning we can't really go anywhere. Plus it's been raining this week and with no storm water systems, all the roads are flooded anyway making it hard to take the stroller anywhere AND with all the wind and rain our Showtime connection is on the blink so no TV and plenty of time to give you details of what Aston's been up to this past month.

Firstly and most importantly Aston started sleeping through the night (and I mean 8pm to 5am) I felt like a new woman. He did this three nights in a row and then we flew to the UK where he promptly forgot his new found skill and began waking once or twice a night for feeds again.

Since we've been back he has done 2 nights sleeping all the way through but is generally waking for a feed around 1am as he was back in Nov and Dec. This feed is wedged between 2 5-6 hour sleeping sessions.

We're hoping to encourage the sleeping through thing to reappear as soon as possible but it will no doubt be messed around by the trip to the US in February anyway.

Aston now knows he is wearing clothes and tries to grap at them every chance he gets. He also also found his feet - see previous post. And is desperate and I mean desperate to get them into his mouth - he can't quite make it yet.

He started to throw a leg over just before we left for the Xmas break and while in the UK made his first full roll but needed some help to release his traped arm and hand. Well he now rolls like a pro and in the flash of an eye as well. Can't leave him anywhere now as he's away. He is also wiggling himself around on the mat to new positions and I can see those legs going nineteen to the dozen as he no doubt slowly grasps the concept of the crawl in the coming months.

Hands in mouth is a constant, the dribble is excessive and he has also been rubbing his lower gums a lot in the past week making us wonder if he's starting to get some movement under his gums. Or has just found his gums and likes the sensation of rubbing them.

He has been on his first aeroplane to the UK, a train to Bournemouth and a bus in Cardiff in Wales. One of the highlights of the month was meeting his Great Nana Mae (see separate blog) in the UK and he spent hours cramming his fist and anything else he could find into his mouth while bouncing around on her lap.

He can hold his head up very well now, and sits while supported. He loves to weight bear on his legs and has very strong Rugby thigh's to help him do this. He has grown in length quite a lot, the 3-6 month all in ones that were a little long just before xmas are now the right length for him - I reckon by 5 months he'll be stretching these out for size and we'll need to cut the feet out of those ones as well.

His hair has started growing as well. It's still staying on the darker side, but he does have some lighter highlights as well. His eyes have not turned brown yet, making us wonder if they actually will. They are an interesting colour actually, a dark grey on the outside and greenish colour on the inside ... they still look royal blue in some lights but are more obviously grey/green so I hope they stay like this as they're just beautiful.

In fact Aston's just beautiful, he's inquisitive, alert, attentive, very good with people, loves to smile and laughs out loud with his mouth open.

He is still getting frustrated when he can't get stuff in his mouth, but we're giving him the soft books to suck on at the moment as they are easier, as well as poo bear which he face dives into with much laughter and enjoyment.

He is showing a little more interest in the bottle but this is in line with his general interest in putting all moving objects into his mouth and is still not latching or sucking very well. He's not so traumatised by us trying the bottle every day now, as he was a month ago so we are keeping on with it at least once a day.

He's not so good at putting himself to sleep when we are out and about (too much going on) making for one very tired boy. The Ergo baby has made this easier. We are back to him putting himself to sleep in the cot each night now we're home and this is again slowing improving.

And finally his range of noises and coos and a'hh's has increased a lot in the past month, he has so much to say.

I've got feet

Aston's found his feet .. yah ... resulting in extra minutes of self absorbed entertainment for him as he now tries out how to get them into his mouth.

What do you mean I've got to get a job?

So where's the parade then huh?

Check out the gorgeous overall outfit that Rich and Larry sent over for Aston. I had in my mind that it was huge, probably because when it arrived Aston was so small, but after Larry's email I got it out and guess what - it's the perfect fit for Aston.

So out we went in the most brilliant little gay overall set today. Though I had to put an all in one under it as it's frickin freezing in Dubai at the moment - how do people live in such a cold country we ask?

How gorgeous does he look!!!

The full ensemble

Aston on the move again

Aston on the move

Well now that he know's how to roll, and has worked out how to get his last arm out and around, you can't stop him. Any flat surface he is on, change table, bed, he's off within seconds - so one needs to be quick.

No more leaving him in one place. Yesterday I woke at 5am to here him grizzling and as it's winter, it was still dark in the bedroom. So I leant into the cot and tried to pick him up from his usual position and he wasn't there. Not only had he rolled onto his tummy, he had wiggled himself all the way to the end of the cot at a right angle to where he'd been left the night before - So funny. He also has a new preferred sleeping position in the half roll phase.

Enjoying his Rattle from Great Nan

Aston is starting to get into a right strop when he can''t fit the whole of whatever is in his hand - in his mouth.

The Rattle which Great Nana Mae gave us is the perfect size and his frustration is noticably reduced when he's sucking on this.... Thanks Mae!

Our beautiful boy

Aston on the move

Aston spent loads of time on the soft carpeted floor in the UK and as a consequence has started to roll over ... he sometimes needs a little help getting his last arm unjammed ... but turning he is.

Here's a few shots of the little man on the move .... can't we hold back this progress somehow!

The best baby on the plane

Aston shared the plane ride and front row cots with 2 other babies of a similar age and we are proud to annouce that Aston was the BEST baby on the plane.

He slept 2 x 1.5 hours, had 3 feeds, 3 nappy changes, 1 spectacular projectile vomit and did not cry at all.

It was however a different story when we returned home with a very over tired little boy who took 2 hours to get off to sleep, meaning Rob and I got to bed at 7am - up again at noon. Aston kindly slept till noon as well. Then slept 10 hours overnight causing me to wake up in a panic on several occassions to check he was ok.

Grandpop Brian's cool gift

Aston is not even four months old yet and he is the proud owner of one COOL leather jacket thanks to Grandpop Brian who just couldn't resist it when he saw it in a shop in Reading.

It's a little large for him still but Aston really enjoyed sucking on the zipper and we got a big laugh out of how cute he looks in it.

It will be great to cut out the wind in NYC when we are there and too cool for the Sydney winter.

Our boy rocks!

Ergo Baby Rocks

Great Nana May bought us the amazing, stylish and ultra useful Ergo Baby for Xmas and for our little boy who has so much trouble shutting out the world to go to sleep during the day when we are out and about - making for one tired and cranky little boy - the Ergo Baby is like the sleeping pill of babyland - we put him in it - put a dummy in his mouth - and 9.5 times out of 10 he is alseep within - I kid you not - 2 minutes.

Ahhh the improvements to our lives and his because a well rested baby is a happy baby at the end of the day.

Aston goes to Cardiff (Wales)

Aston enjoyed two days in Cardiff with a visit to Pat, Jenny and Brian, a trip to the Welsh Castle and we bought him a Welsh love spoon with a horseshoe symboling good luck - which we hope he has loads of in this life.

It was, needless to say, freezing and drizzly but we rugged him up in the buggy to rival all buggy's and as far as the castle went, he wasn't even aware he was there - see picture above with the dummy.

It was great for Aston to meet Pat in person and thank her for all the gorgeous gifts she has sent him and he was in fine form with loads of smiles and laughs for everyone. It was also Aston's first ever bus ride - and while it looks like it's midnight outside it was only around 3.30pm