The Story of How 'The Baby' Got a Name

I've been back at work part-time since December just 2 days a week but as of next week it will be 3 days a week.  This week went really fast because one of my 2 work days was a public holiday - Australia Day.  It's now the weekend already.

Last weekend we went away for for a couple of days to a farmstay up near Bendigo.  I thought it would be nice for Emma to be on a farm and see the animals.  The owners were really nice and showed us their farm all for Emma's benefit.  The best thing we did was to go out in the paddock in our 4wd's and round up the sheep - all for Emma's benefit.  It was also the first time Emma had been in the front of the car and  got really excited about the buttons on the dashboard and no amount of us going 'look look' pointing at the sheep, could stop her from starring at the buttons.

I mentioned on my first post for the year that it took six months to decide on a name for our baby.  Patrick and I had very different ideas about names and really struggled to find one we both could agree on.  When she turned exactly six months old we had to have a name or we would miss out on the baby bonus. We were up until 3:00 am thrashing it through until we picked Emma Sarina Frances.  Emma being the only name we both had in common on our short lists.   Sarina was my maternal Granmother's name and Frances came from both sides of Patrick's family.  Unforturnately in the rush to get the registration in, we forgot to put Emma on the form and I only found out in the process of getting a passport for her.  So it took another 2 months to get that all sorted out.

Funnily enough we did get her medicare card and a bank account in the name of Emma before the mistake was discovered and almost also got the passport done but had it rejected not because of the name error but because the referee's details on the passport form was in blue ink instead of black.  Had that not been the case, it is likely the passport would have been accepted with the worng name on it as the interviewer at the post office didn't seem to notice either.  A scenario most criminals could only dream of.

Anyway it was a great relief to be able to call her by a name.  Within my family I was calling her Eliana which was the name I originally liked best (Hebrew name meaning G-d has answered me) but between Patrick and myself we referred to her as 'the baby'.  'Hey did you see what the baby did today'   Yes it was a huge relief to finally call her Emma and now I can't imagine her being called anything else.

Choochie Passed Away.

 Another thing that happened while I was away from blogging was that my beautiful dog Choochie passed away.   I used to have a slide show on the right side bar with photos of Choochie and Patrick - my two boys.  I just replaced it now with photos of the three of us.

After Emma was born Keith - an ex who also was a big part in Choochie's life, looked after him because I found it was too much with getting up to feed Emma umpteen times during the night and giving Choochie his insulin shots every 8 hours.  Choochie became a diabetic as a consequence of pancreatitis and then as a consequence of that he became blind.  Chasing balls was his life.  He lived for it and when he slept it was clear from his movements that he dreamed about it.

When Emma was born, Choochie was almost completely blind - it happened fast toward the end.  So he was to old to know Emma and Emma too young to know him.  Just before we put him down he had a seizure and could no longer walk.   Keith and I were there at the vet to put him down and it was heartbreaking.  The next week Keith rang to see how I was doing but I couldn't talk long because Emma was sick and I had to attend to her.   She just started daycare and so started to pick up all the bugs that she could.  The following week Keith rang to ask how Emma was and I couldn't speak because I was at sleep school with Emma.  I said to Keith, 'I'm at the South Eastern Hospital and we are just about to put Emma down.  Keith screamed back 'what do you mean put her down'.

So here is to Choochie who brought me so much joy and had such a beautiful nature.  While I was sick he helped to put a smile on my face.   I miss him dearly.

New Years Resolution

OK it's the first day of the year - 2010. So one of my new year resolutions is to start blogging again. I'll just post this quick one to get the ball rolling. I won't even start here to say what has been happening in the last however long its been because I think that is what has bogged me down from starting blogging again - where to start.

So, we'll see how long I can keep up this resolution. If I broke it I'd have to break another resolution which is not to break my resolutions this time. So thank you to my readership who I'm sure have been logging on each day to see if I have blogged :-) Or maybe you have just subscribed to the rss feeds in the past.

One thing I regret about not blogging much over the past year is that Emma (yes we did find a name for her at the 6 month mark) reached so many milestones that I would have had documented. Oh well never too late to start doing that.