Spike pulling faces

More photos

New Arrival

Et Voila!!!

The saga of Kelly's pregancy is finally over, and the result is a 3 kilo bub called Spike, born on the 4th December, 5pm Aussie time. He is tops.
And has quite a head of hair too!!




We've finally managed to get out of the hospital (and it's associated interuptions) and are back home trying to get Kelly some well earned R&R.

What a trouper.

Due Date

No labour signs yet, so a lovely day at the beach was had; hopping across the rocks and ducking under waves.

Kelly is looking terrific! It seems as natural as anything for her to be this shape now and she carrys it remarkably well. Despite her extra 15 kilos and weighing the same as me now, she is often found to have more stamina than I have... ahem.

Jazushi

Well this is what they say you should do a lot of before having a baby, and great fun it was too. Last night Mali accompanied us to this sweet little restaurant in Surry Hills that combines the delights of live jazz music with japanese tapas style dining. Dont let the introductory popcorn put you off either, the food here is excellent. Cheers to Amita and Magali for footing the bill!

Fully cooked

double click on this image to see a gif animation of kelly's belly at 37 weeks.

Third best friend

Today I joined the 7s club with the purchase of this sexy two tone 6 foot fish.


Damn, why didn't I get this five years earlier? I could have actually raised my game and enjoyed the surf rather than practicing falling off and holding my breath. Still, like most things in life I guess, it's never too late to make good choices. And this is one fine choice indeed.

Maybe, just maybe, it also has the capacity to reduce my child to be's future shame of his pop and allow me to stay on the same beach as him/her.

If Im not Taj Burrows within a week I'll want my money back.

First Wedding Anniversary

Our first wedding anniversary was supposed to be spent doing some fine dining at Tetsuyas legindary restaurant, but seeing as Kelly isn't 100% back into her food yet, and the delights of raw fish are off limits, we decided to postpone that delight until early next year.

Relatively speakinng, however, she has been feeling much better of late, so we did manage to head up to the trusty Vanguard in Newtown to see an excellent live band called Circle of Rhythm.

Gong Ride

Fate decided that I should start our wedding anniversary celebrations with a 90 kilometre bike ride as this was the date of the Sydney to Woolongong annual bike ride which I've been wanting to do for ages.

This year it was back better than ever now that the coast road was finally reopened to allow the ride to pass smoothly through the Royal National Park. Seeing as I was busy being distracted with baby preperations, surfing and doing all sorts of other fun stuff, I only managed 2 training rides.





Fortunately one of these rides was with Nigel, a friend from work, whose bang into cycling and generally knowing a lot about what he's into. He taught me alsorts of really interesting and useful info about endurance such as being diligent not to overexert yourself and be very careful to refuel regularly along the way. Did you know that your body requires 500ml of water every hour, and 30g of carbohydrate every half an hour in order to sustain consistent excercise?


Well, I didn't until I was sitting exhausted on the train back from this ride after only half listening to this sound advice.

Would be great to take Trogdor sometime, as its a really family event with all sorts of interesting characters on tandems or pulling various members of their family up the hills. For more info check out this link...

http://www.gongride.org.au/


Here's a happy snappy of the view from stanwell tops at the top of the most major climb.

Trogdor goes to Brunswick

A wonderful week was had in Brunswick. The tinnie is fantastic. Below is Jim's debut fishing trip with master fishermen Pat and Geoff. Pat got a whopper whiting, Geoff got a little lucky with a little fish. Jim's first fish was a baby flounder who got a quick kiss before going back in the river. The next day we ventured further up river to Mullumbimby with Tara and Rupert.



Sunset on our favourite bridge.

A rare moment of laughing during my pregnancy! There's nothing funny about being pregnant.

The Book of Kells

can you tell what it is yet?

Neilson Park

Looks like Jim has his hands full of baby here. A perfect day at Neilson Park. Sydney Harbour is just stunning. We were, however, upset to discover our favourite tree right next to the sand has had an extreme make over. Many of its beautiful extending branches have been cut off. We used to hang the hammock in this happily accomodating tree, but now we have to join the commoners and picnic on the grass. It is still a gorgeous place to spend a sunny arvo.

More Good times in Brunswick Heads

A very surly sky over Brunswick today. Jim managed to run along the beach from Bruns all the way to Byron without the rain getting him. However it was not to be a completely dry run. It was high tide so Belongil Creek was up to chest height. Then further along the beach the tide had come up to the breaker and Jim had to swim out into the surf and do a bit of ducking and diving. He managed not to be dashed against the rocks and is ready now to take on Heart Break Hill in the City to Surf.

20 week scan

Half way there. It is amazing to be able to see our shapely baby dragon. My sister thinks he looks like a ghoul in this skeletor portrait. I'm sure he will flesh out a bit over the next few months. Our baby has some lovely bones and a great kicking leg.

O'Meara Clan

It was a special evening with the family. We had a huge meal at a lovely restaurant at The Pocket. It felt like we were in the middle of a rainforest. Mum and I sat cosy with the fireplace warming our backs. Lisa also had her back warmed by meaty leftovers as the waitress bit off more than she could chew and dropped some plates. I'm still trying to digest those lamb shanks.

Kelly's Work

Well it's been a difficult job so far but at last I'm growing some hips and womanly bumps and bits. Sadly I've had to replace the kung fu and pole dancing classes with pre natal yoga and physiotherapy sessions. Not so much fun. During meditation I have to free my mind of the urge to let loose with a roundhouse to the yoga teacher.

Jim's work

Jim takes his work very seriously. Preparation for a day at the office is very demanding. I can now see why so much overtime is required...and where my hairspray is going.

Baby Dodd (Trogdor the Burninator)

J - Here's a couple of pictures from the 12 week scan. We were a little nervous going into this seeing as Kelly has had such a bad ride during the pregnancy so far. As her 'morning' sickness was so extreme, we were a little concerned as to what else might be so unusual. However, we were very pleased to realise that everything was okay. So we sat back and rejoyced in the pixels. Quite surprised to see so much movement at such an early stage - his arms and legs were flying everywhere. It was a wonderful day (as everyone had foretold) not least because it was the first time we could actually forget about the traumas of the all day sickness and jump up and down because we will soon be allowed to act like kids again all day long!!

J - The working title of this baby project thing is Trogdor. S/he named himself pretty quickly since he was giving Kelly so much grief in the vomit inducing department. As such the only sensible name for such a beast was trogdor. Half man, half dragon. Burninating the placenta...

check this link for the backstory:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html