Update

Ok so the dress is IN AUSTRALIA!  It cleared customs this morning at 8:27am.  Now who knows where it is?  Where do parcels go once they clear customs?  These are the Big Questions of my day today!  Will it arrive tomorrow (WOOOOOHOOO)?  Or will it arrive Monday (BOOOOOO)?  The Daddy very kindly went to the local post office and checked it if is there, which it is not, however they have promised to call him if it arrives tomorrow morning.  What suspense!  What a great start to a blog haha!

In other update news, I went to a florist in Camberwell, which is open Sundays, to ask them to make a small circlet of roses for the cake on Sunday.  The cake is 15cm across, tiny.  They quoted over $100!  I think that's ridiculous, so we found a less chi-chi florist who we trust and who quoted less than half that.  I just unwrapped the cake so that I can begin the re-icing process, and shaved a sliver off the top.  WOW delicious!  Despite (or perhaps because of) two years' storage.  Can't wait to have a proper slice on Sunday!  At our wedding, the bottom two tiers were chocolate mud and caramel mud, so this is the first time I've actually tried the fruitcake.

We had lunch with my mum and sister Q today.  Tabitha will call my mother Moosie, which I called her for a few years when I was younger (no one can recall why!).  My dad is Gra (short for Graham, and also a bit of a nudge wink at the fact that Grandpas are often Grey).  Lunch was lovely, Tabitha tried some chicken from my sandwich, a tiny taste of hash brown potatoes (which she really just mushed up in her fist, then wiped all over my pale pink silk Gorman skirt!).

Tabitha and I both had the chiropractor this afternoon, which was a great relief for me, since I have been wearing this little chubby butt of a baby around 8 hours a day lately!  So my back is a little wonky.  I love my Ergo baby carrier, it is awesome (and of course so much better than those 'crotch dangler' contraptions like the Baby Bjorn, see also LINK), but even the Ergo starts to dig in a little in parts after hour upon hour.  So, while I love it for quickly throwing on, I have ordered a woven wrap (a Vatanai, but other excellent ones include Storchenwiege, Didymos and Girasol), which, while more fiddly to put on, is easily the most supportive and versatile carrier around. And beautiful!

For dinner, Tabitha had a nice rare Frenched lamb cutlet.  She thoroughly enjoyed it, chewing and sucking on the meat while she held the 'handle'.  She also enjoyed using the cutlet as a percussion instrument, covering the table, chair and herself with lamb grease.  I suppose I had better go and clean up - and give the bone to the cats to fight over!  For dinner for The Daddy and I, I am going to make some Carbonara with lovely Fernleigh Farms freerange bacon, Parmigiano Reggiano, Martelli penne and local organic eggs.  No cream, of course!

Baptism Countdown...

With Tabitha's baptism this Sunday 12th December looming, preparations are in full swing.  We're keeping it very casual - the actual baptism is part of the regular Sunday service at St Michael's Uniting Church on Collins St in Melbourne with the incredible Dr Francis Macnab, where we were married in October 2008.  I think quite a few babies are being baptised on Sunday.  After the service, we are wandering over to the Fitzroy Gardens to the gorgeous Fairies Tree for some sandwiches, mini bagels (thanks Amy and Shalini!) and cakes.

We saved the top tier of fruitcake from our wedding, and stored it to use for the christening cake for our first baby, so I've unwrapped it and tomorrow I will re-cover it in fresh white fondant icing.  I've ordered a little wreath of fresh roses for it as well.  Here is the cake on our wedding day:

So overall, things are going well.  Tabitha's godfather (my incredibly lovely and talented godson Noah!) is flying over for the ceremony with his parents from Adelaide on Saturday morning.  Tabitha's godmother Sophie is also appropriately excited, and hopefully won't sustain any terrible roller derby injuries between today and Sunday!

However...  the beautiful handmade silk dupion baptism gown, bonnet, bib and blanket, hand embroidered with Tabitha's monogram, has managed to get LOST between New York and Melbourne!  It was supposed to arrive by Tuesday, however no one has any tracking record of it since it left the States last week.  Hmm.  So I am not feeling very optimistic about it showing up in time.  USPS are 'fairly confident' that it 'may' show up within the next few business days.  So, by Monday.  Not very helpful.  Of course I am upset about all this - the poor woman who spent hours working on the dress is beside herself too.  Thankfully, I have a gorgeous 'contingency dress' hanging in Tabitha's wardrobe - not a full length gown, but a perfectly sweet little cream French lace Collette Dinnigan Enfant dress.  It's super cute, with little lace puffed sleeves and a cream silk slip underneath.  So if the gown doesn't show up in time we'll go with the lace frock.  And probably The Daddy will be terribly thrilled because he's not that keen on a bonnet anyway!

Here is the chest yoke detail from the contingency frock:

I managed to find a dress I can breastfeed in yet which doesn't scream 'breastfeeding dress' (e.g. no concealed flaps!).  A gorgeous blue/purple/brown silk chiffon dress from Scanlan & Theodore which, for some reason, was designed with a button to secure (and undo) the front draped cowl neckline.  Even found a pair of wedges in the exact same shade of blue suede, with a brown wood base that matches the dress perfectly.  Quite happy with those finds!

Thankfully The Daddy is staying home from work tomorrow because we have the Safe Sleep Space woman coming out to our house for a few hours to talk about some gentle strategies to help Tabitha sleep better at night.  At 6 months, Tabitha wakes up quite a lot through the night (still every couple of hours) and she doesn't generally want to feed, so I know she's not waking up because she's hungry.  As much as I love listening to her chatter to herself in the dark, I think she's still a little tired in the mornings, so hopefully we can get her sleeping for some longer stretches.  I'm not interested in letting her cry or following harsh 'sleep training' routines, which I explained to the SSS woman, and she is confident that there are plenty of gentle things that we can try to help with Tabby's sleeps.  I'll report back with any helpful suggestions!

I should say though - she does sleep pretty well, and I don't mind waking for her too much, since she sleeps right beside me.  And more importantly, she looks damn cute while she IS asleep!