Well we survived our first two days without Martin around although she was pretty unsettled late on the second day, I am pretty sure she was feeling that things weren’t quite right. We were very happy when he came home.

The most exciting thing though is that she has started having little swims in the new pool and she really likes. We get very big smiles. She has also discovered her feet. When we take her nappy off they go straight into the mouth and she plays around with them for awhile. I don’t think they are quite as exciting as the hands but pretty good. She sits and stands with help and spends time on her tummy.

It is all so exciting watching her grow.

I wouldn’t say I am feeling very Christmasy today. I guess nothing feels as Christmas should. I am not with my extended family (and I am missing them all), I am not at the beach, I haven’t sung any Christmas carols and Martin has left with his mum. We had a great party last night though. Heaps of food and kids and chaos and a good mix of Alice Springs’s multicultural community and we are relaxing with a quiet one at home today (well as much as that is possible with a newborn).

I feel like I should say something profound about Nina’s first Christmas and all that but I don’t really have anything and anyway to her it’s just like any other day. So Happy Christmas everyone and all the best for the new year.

On Friday Martin and I were in Kmart and we found a pool in the discount section. It was a metre deep with a 450 diametre which is big enough for us to cool down in and will be great for Nina to learn to swim in. We had been thinking about getting one for a few weeks since we saw one at our friend’s place. Anyway, it was discounted to $260 from $380 just for damaged packaging. We thought that was alright so we snapped it up. When we arrived at the counter the woman scanned it and then she said it was $11. I said, “that would be great but it’s not really $11”. So she called her superviser and he came over. He tried to fix but couldn’t so we were told to wait while he called someone. We were waiting and waiting and Nina started crying so I went and asked if it would be much longer. He assured me it wouldn’t. About a minute later he came over and said I could have it for $11. I looked at him and said, “are you serious?” And he said. “well that’s what it is scanning at”. “Okay”, I said. So we paid the $11 and rushed out before they could change their mind. I thought perhaps there was going to be something wrong with but there’s not. We set it up and it’s perfect. The girls are playing in it right now.

My dear, dear friend Carney, who has been living on this block left today. I feel very sad. Carney is truly a one in a million person and her support over this year with Nina has been so great. I’m going to miss her heaps.

Nina has become quite the little chatterbox (just like her mum hey). She truly makes the cutest little sounds ever. Her favourite words include:

a goo
a oo
iiii
ay

Monday 37 degrees, Tuesday 38 degrees, Wednesday 38 degrees.

Today Nina and I lay on the couch for a bit. We listened to music, looked into each others eyes and gave lots and lots of smiles. We studied our hands, played boo and gave lots of kisses (well I gave kisses and Nina opened her mouth on my cheek). We had lots of fun.