Trying to enjoy some tummy time

Here's Aston trying to enjoy some tummy time - he lasts about 3.2 minutes then starts screaming for food again. Doesn't matter if we try before a feed, in the middle of a feed (our preferred timing for changing the diaper) or just after a feed. We still only last long enough to realise there's no food in the immediate vicinity - and then we scream the house down.

Lucky he gets lots of neck exercise fereting around our shoulders and chest for a meal.

A visit from Heather & Dave

We were thrilled to be able to catch up with Heather and Dave on their way back to the UK. Heather bought Aston a very cute all-in-one with Kanga's on the front - most excellent.

We caught up in the indian restaurant at the Chelsea Hotel as it's only a five minute walk away - normally doesn't get busy with locals until after 9pm (We're usually gone by then these days) and most importantly the lovely Indian waiters turn the air conditioner down a little so Aston does't turn into an ice block boy and they also very generously turn the background music into Indian Elevator music - played at just the right decible. So if Aston grows up to love the Bollywood theme songs of old - we know where he got it from.

Here's a not so flattering picture of our little porker getting a cuddle from Heather.

Stump-less

Aston's stump finally fell out a few days ago - which pleases me enormously as it was a bit hard on my weak stomach to clean each day.

He's now got a very cute innie!

Perservering with the bottle

After Aston's relative success with the dummy we are now trying to perserver with the bottle - so that Rob can also feed Aston some expressed milk on occassion.

Aston was fine with the bottle in the first week but since we've discovered more and more success with the breastfeeding he's less inclined to use the bottle - which is a bugger as it makes it harder for us to go out for longer than 2 hours given it's not so cool to breastfeed in public in a Muslim country - and especially during Ramadan.

We've already had to give two feeds in the back seat of the car, once during a grocery shopping trip and once when we went to collect his final stamps on the birth certificate.

Even that is a bit dodgy here and we have to drape the back seat with the muslin wraps over the windows so no one can accidently see in - I'm sure the punishment for breast feeding in public during Ramadan is a combination of lashings and jail time ... actually it would probably just result in a severe slap on the wrist from the authorities but we don't want to risk it.

You can see from the above photo he's not particularly keen - still we keep trying.

Dummy Trouble

We've perserved with the Dummy in the past few days as Aston has an unbelieve need to suckle himself to sleep after each feed. Though you can tell by the look on his face that he's not overly thrilled at the substitute he now grudgingly accepts it. And the dummy has made feeding him so much less painful as we are not spending forever sucking - even when he's emptied me of all milk.

He has a ferocious latch so even after feeding and sometimes successful burping he will still bang his head around in a frenzy trying to latch onto something suckable. When lying back his little face looks like a right porker but when he's holding his head up and banging around for food he looks like a wee feret on the hunt for food.

His hair is also starting to lighten a little - he now has a distinctly ginger/honey colour to it ... I'm hoping it continues on the honey side - with a little less of the ginger and I fear he has a bit of a beanhead happening ... his skull is absolutely enormous so there'd better be loads of brains in there.

Part 2 - Aston's Birth Certificate

Well, the exercise is finally completed. We have Aston's approved, attested (By 2 Government bodies) and translated Birth Certificates and can now apply for a passport for the wee one.

Hopefully the Australian Embassy does not require that we visit 17 desks, speak to numerous security guards for directions to desk 3 then 6 then 4 then 2 - they're not all located next to each other and obtain no less than 13 different stamps and signatures on the documents before proceeding to the next step - Sponsoring him as a resident.

The passport is required urgently as we need it to be able to book the tickets back to UK at Xmas so we are no doubt going to visit the embassy before the end of this week.

And for those that don't believe we required 13 different stamps and signatures - check out the pictures above.

To celebrate the momentous occassion we also put Aston in his first real boy clothes for his outing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The clothes were a gift from Kath and Dom and he looks less like a baby and more like a mini-me person in his cargo's and t-shirt.

And the little porker still has room to grow in the outfit so you shall be seeing much more of him in his gorgeous get-up.

Hugs from Aunt Jenny

Here's Aston getting a hug from Aunt Jenny who was also able to put him to sleep on Saturday afternoon - we REALLY love anyone that can help put him to sleep as he's being a bit of a monkey about the sleep thing - frankly he's just not getting it!

I wonder if Jenny would mind coming over about 2am tomorrow morning to work her magic again????