Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Sparrow meets Oma and Grandad
(Maggie and Gordon, James' mum and dad)
13 - 20 June 2009

Grandad holding Sparrow's hand.

Oma and Grandad came to visit for a week. They were easily as smitten with her as we are! Sparrow doesn't quite get captured by photos right, so seeing her in person was a bit different. They could much more clearly see how much she resembles James -smile-.

Oma on the first morning, holding Sparrow (or Lorla as she calls her, which is German for "little Lorelei"). She's been singing "Die Lorelei", a German song about the siren of the Rhine.

This is a Grandad cuddle, both of them obviously have something on their mind.

On Monday we went for a walk at Newport Lakes. Grandad is carrying Sparrow in the Ergo baby carrier that they bought for us. First stop: the playground.

We walked to the first lookout, then right around both lakes, with a detour onto the stepping stones. It's always so amazing that this park is here, such a pretty bushland and park in the middle of an industrial suburbia.

Oma holding Sparrow early Monday morning. I loved the textures of the fabrics in this moment. The suit Sparrow is wearing is one that Oma knitted, and I love the colour. I'm like my own Grandma in that regard - Sparrow will probably dislike it when she's old enough to choose :-) The little purple, pink and turquoise blanket in the background is also one that Oma made. It's a clever no-sew design using polar fleece and a knotted fringe, and it's quite soft and comfy.

On Wednesday we went to Scienceworks. The four of us looked around House Secrets, Mathamazing and Sportsworks (can you find all of us in the photo?), had lunch at the cafe and then went to a planetarium show. James had been going to meet us for the plano show after he finished work but my car wouldn't start, so he stayed home. We saw Search for Life, a very beautiful and fascinating film narrated by Harrison Ford, followed by the regular What's In The Sky Tonight session led by the Scienceworks planetarium presenter. Grandad was very keen on the planetarium and we will definitely be going back there. I think he should also go on the collections tour and see the stuff that's in storage, but we didn't do that this time. Sparrow slept through the planetarium show, which is just as well as she's not supposed to be watching any kind of television yet and it's hard to turn her face away from it when the screen wraps around 360 degrees!

Family time. James is on a short break from work (he's working from home in the room across the hall), Gordon is stroking Sparrow's forehead with his thumbs. It works on a lot of animals to calm them down, he says, and it worked on Sparrow too.

Family time continues - Maggie has a turn holding her. Most of the week Sparrow was very good, not fretful at all. but every so often there were moments.

All this family time is wearing us out! Sparrow's fallen asleep and been laid down on Oma's blanket. The little dog next to her is a hand puppet that Maggie bought at the St Kilda Sunday arts and crafts market. Sparrow has only seen one dog so far, Leah's Ellie, so I don't think she'll make the connection for a while. But it's a thing that moves, which means I can distract her with it sometimes.

We all went out for dinner in Williamstown on Wednesday night. Lovely restaurant called Attitudes that James and I have been to a couple of times now, and the food is always very good and reasonably priced. But it was a bitterly cold night, so we put Sparrow in a jacket. This is the panda jacket we put her in when she first came home from the hospital, and it was way too big so I haven't used it since. Now it is almost too small - James couldn't do up the top button. She is growing more than we realise! We also had to move the car capsule straps as she is too long now for the first setting.

On Friday the four of us went to Altona for a walk. It was a balmy day with no icy wind for a change, so we went out on the pier. Then we walked into the townlet of Altona for a look around, and had cake and coffee at one of the cafes. Their cake selection was excellent and I'll have to go there again when I can eat cake - I couldn't that day, there's a limit to how much sweet stuff I can have at the moment. There are a lot of good restaurants in Altona. The pink suit Sparrow is wearing was a gift from Maggie and Gordon's friends, Carol and Nick. It is very large and fluffy.

More cuddles and play. What else are grandparents for? The little hat is a handmade one that Kath gave us, now too small for her Clara. I tried to avoid taking it home on the whole anti-pink-and-frilly principle but James thought it was too cute and insisted :-) And it is very cute on her.

Maggie and Gordon did a lot of cleaning and tidying up for us while they were here, which was gratefully appreciated. The sliding door now slides, the lounge has been vacuumed, the loose kitchen tiles have been stuck back down, the bathroom door doesn't stick, the toilet has been cleaned and endless rounds of dishes and teacups washed. Here Gordon is washing the windows facing the street. This is great - I spend a lot of time in this room, and having the clean windows to look out through and let the sun in through is just marvelous.

The last day, and time to leave - but not before we got a photo of all the Gwinnetts together. Maggie, Gordon, James and Sparrow. With an honorary Gwinnett behind the camera -smile-.