Lovin' Kobe

Harri hasn't really shown much interest in Kobe at all since he was born - he asks about him from time to time ('why is he awake Mum?', 'Kobe is crying and wants a cuddle Mum' - like I don't hear it!! etc) but the good thing is that he also isn't jealous at all of him.

Last week I was taking the four boys out to the van after school and it was raining. A teacher saw me and came and asked if she could hold Kobe for me while I took Noah out. I left Kobe with her and took the other three out to the van and Harri bursts into tears saying 'I want Kobe back!!'. It was the first time I had really showed that he does love him and care about him. Last night he saw Kobe wide awake and said 'I want to cuddle Kobe, Mum'. It was so cute seeing how much he loved holding him.

Sometimes I will be busy doing something and have had to leave Kobe crying. I have come back into the lounge room and Jay has gone and picked him up and is trying to settle him down for me. He loves it if he picks him and he stops crying or he does a big burp - he is so proud that he can help him. Jay wasn't really interested in Noah or Harri very much when they were babies, and was just a bit too young to really be able to help out, so its really nice for him this time to feel like the really big brother.

June Birthday's

In our family there are a lot of birthday's in June - even more now that Kobe was born in June. Dad's birthday is the same day as Noah's and today was Chrish's birthday. We all went out to Mum and Dad's for lunch today to celebrate all the of the June birthdays and to get together one last time before Chrish goes back to Sydney on Monday. Before we went to Mum and Dad's we called in to see the progress on Eden and Steph's house. It looks great and should only be a couple of weeks before they move in - hopefully before their baby arrives.

Its been nice to see Chrish, but sad to see him feeling so unwell.


I love this photo of Nicki with Kobe. Kobe was an angel the whole time we were out there, but is having his usual unsettled time at night right now.

Lunch was a yummy roast lamb requested by Chrish and lots of yummy desserts. Mum decided it was easier to sit with all the kids at the kids table as she is always jumping up and down to help everyone. I'm sure she will need a rest now we are all gone!

All the kids were so cute watching The Wiggles DVD together after lunch. I think Jay thought that he was a bit too old for that, and decided to go on the computer instead. Aaron and I were saying how Jalen just seems to be so much older than all the other grandkids, because Noah is the next oldest but like a baby himself, so it seems like Jay is on his own. He doesn't mind though - he loves hanging out with his cousins and Aunty's and Uncles.

Sleeping, Screaming and Smiling

Since saying I can't wait for Kobe to be a little older, it seems like he has grown up overnight! The last three nights he has been a champion at sleeping - the first night for 9 hours, the second night was 6 1/2 hours and last night was 9 hours again! I don't want to jinx myself like Chelsea, but hopefully this is the start of him being in a little bit of a routine. Now we just have to get Noah to sleep better and we will all be happy :)

This morning he had on his little suit that Mum and Dad bought him and the saying on it matched him perfectly, so I just had to take a photo even though he was miserable.

At the end of last week I thought he was starting to smile, and now he is definitely smiling. These were taken two minutes after he was screaming in the photo above, so I'm sure he wasn't too traumatised, by me taking his photo while he was screaming.

Noah's 7th Birthday

Today is Noah's 7th birthday. The last 7 years have gone very fast. Last night when Jay was giving Noah a kiss goodnight he asked him if he was excited for his birthday. Noah broke out in a big smile which was cute.

The day started off early with Noah waking me up at 2am with a dirty nappy. I got up and changed him and while I was out of the room he decided to have another dirty nappy and then another one! I ended up having to change his bed and finally we got back to sleep. Lucky Kobe was a good boy and slept for 6 1/2 hours and didn't wake up till 4.45am.

Harri was keen to open presents for Noah as soon as he woke up at 6.30am, but we made him at least wait till Noah woke up.

Noah got the usual presents - new clothes, things for his 'little room' for him to hear and a new spa mat for the bath. He had one that split and he hasn't been able to use it for a while.


After school we all went to watch Jalen play basketball. Kobe was really settled which was nice and he attracted quite the crowd of ladies all saying how tiny and cute he was.

Harri on the other hand attracted attention in other ways! In the foyer at the YMCA they now have a flat screen TV. They always have ABC Kids on for the kids to watch TV, so he stays out there and plays with the other kids and watches TV. Half way through Jalen's game Harri comes in with his jeans and undies pulled right down, saying 'I'm sorry Mummy - I'm all wet!'. He had wet his pants (too busy watching TV!).

Everyone was cracking up laughing and Jalen says 'I didn't know we had streakers at basketball!'. Aaron took him over to Coles with his wet pants on to buy some new undies and lucky we had a change of clothes for Noah in the van, so he wore Noah's pants. When he came back in I asked him what he had on (expecting him to tell me he had Noah's pants on), but he pulls them right down to show us his new undies!! Everyone was cracking up again!

The boys decided that Noah would like cocoa pops for breakfast (pity he can't eat any himself!) and McDonalds for tea. The boys thought it was a great birthday!

Tonight we tried it out the spa mat and Noah was very relaxed.

All Night!!!

Kobe has been having really unsettled evenings from around tea time till he goes to bed - until last night. He was really settled for most of the night and Aaron kept asking where the real Kobe was! He had slept really well during the day, so I was expecting him to have a really bad night, but he sure surprised us!


I put him into bed at 10.30pm with hardly any fuss and was expecting him to wake around 2am. At 3.30am I woke up and realised he was sleeping really well. I was a terrible Mum and didn't go to check him as I just knew he was okay and sleeping well.
At 4.30 I woke again and he still hadn't woken! I went to check him and he was sound asleep. I then slept very lightly on and off as I was expecting him to wake up at anytime. At 6.30am I got up and he finally woke up at 7am!!! I couldn't believe he had slept all night - almost 9 hours! He is 3 weeks old today and Harri slept through the night from the same age, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm not really expecting him to do it again so soon, but boy was it nice to not have to get up to feed.

Being Impatient

This morning Bec and Annie came around to visit. I keep telling myself to be patient, but I can't wait for Kobe to be out of the newborn stage. I keep reminding myself that its only been three weeks and this is the last time I will have a newborn and I should 'enjoy' it, but I really can't wait for Kobe to be the same age as Annie. Hopefully then he will sit or lay for more than 1 minute at a time and be happy and can play with his toys more, and smile and look around at things and do things other than feed, cry or sleep.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not hating it either, I'm just being very impatient and looking forward to the time when he is more settled, (especially at night), in a bit of a routine and more interactive.

Kobe wasn't took keen on a photo shoot. Actually for 30 seconds or so he was, then he thought it was very boring and then things went downhill very fast with both Annie and Kobe deciding they had enough and it was time for a sleep. If only I could cry when I was tired and be put to bed too ;)

Tea at the Kings

A picture says a thousand words!

Kobe's blessing

Today was Kobe's blessing day. It was the first time the whole family has been together for a very long time, and the first time that Christian had met little Alex (hiding behind Nicki!).

The blessing went really well with Kobe being a very good boy and sleeping all the way through it. Noah has been really unsettled today, but was also quiet for the whole blessing which was good.


It is nice to have every home at once.


Thanks Jess, Steph and Becky for the great photos. You could have done a little bit better and made me look a little bit thinner ;)

Phenomena Factory

For weeks the boys have been begging us to take them to the Phenomena Factory at the museum (an interactive science exhibit). They went there the day after Kobe was born as a Primary activity and loved it. Today we went and it was great!

The best thing was the bridge that felt like it was moving (and made us feel VERY sick!), but it was really just the walls around it moving. I kept grabbing onto the sides thinking I was going to fall over!

The boys had a great time playing with all the interactive exhibits.



Jay loved the 'whisper dishes' the best. You could hear someone talking into them from about 50 m away.

We also went to see the train, art work and dinosaur exhibits but the boys were a lot more interested in the science part.

My Big Boys

My big boys hanging out this morning watching cartoons on TV.

Speakers Box

In Jay's class at school each child gets a turn at "Speakers Box". It is like "Show and Tell" except that they have to be very prepared, and have topics to choose from which they can't do more than once in the term (e.g exciting happenings, my news, personal possession etc). They are also judged by two of their classmates on five different areas such as eye contact, voice projection, how interesting it was and how prepared they were. It is to help them become more confident with public speaking.

Today was Jay's turn and he decided to talk about an exciting happening and got me to bring Kobe in. As soon as we walked in the kids were all over him, touching and rubbing his face and hands. Jay's teacher said they have now had it all for Speakers Box - they have had pets come in, a car door and now a baby!

Jay was very confident and told them all about me having contractions at home and how he had to rub my back for me. He took in the newspaper announcement, his hospital I.D. bracelet and some photos from the day he was born. The kids were all very interested and excited to hear all about it.

The whole time Harri just wanted to tell Jay's teacher something, and at the end she asked him what he wanted to tell her and he says 'we have the Mario Olympic Games game for the Wii!'. We all thought he was going to tell her something about Kobe, but he is more excited about playing Chrish's game at the moment! Ms B. then told the kids a funny story about how she was looking after her godson and how he was talking to his friend in the car about the Wii they had just played at Kids Paradise. She said she thought they were saying they needed to do a wee, and was telling them how they should have gone at Kids Paradise, as she had never heard of a Wii before. The kids thought it was hilarious.

Kobe was very well behaved during it all, and I suggested that I could leave him there for the day so the kids could learn more about babies, but Ms B. wasn't so keen!

Crazy Days

Life sure has been turned upside down since Kobe arrived! Life was pretty crazy in the King house before he arrived, but even more so now. I don't get anytime to even blog anymore!! I knew it would be crazy, and just keep reminding myself it will get easier.

I'm not minding the night feeds too much as he is only waking once usually and settles pretty well. We are getting at least 4 hours of sleep in a row which I can handle. I am really missing my normal routine though - especially going to the gym each morning. We did manage to get there yesterday and Kobe was an angel and slept in the childcare the entire hour. It was nice to catch up with all my gym buddies who I don't get to see very much at the moment - Simone, Jacquie, Emma and Tammy. It was a pity that Anna and Bonnie weren't also there to catch also.

Noah has become a little unsettled again over the past week or so which is making things extra crazy as we have a newborn crying, plus Noah yelling a lot again. We are onto it though and our friend Marlo is trying lots of different things to help settle him down again. Hopefully it will happen very soon.

Today we had a visit from Pip and Oliver. Oliver was more interested in Noah than Kobe, until Pip picked up Kobe. He then wasn't too sure about what he thought about his Mum with a baby!

Both boys are calling so its time to run. It will get easier - I just have to keep reminding myself.

One In A Million

Kobe in his cute little suit from Jared and Jacquie. He looks pretty pleased with it :)

Chef Harri

Harri absolutely loves cooking toys. He has a huge big box full of cooking toys and pretend food. This morning he was making 'juice' in his little blender and he very cleverly adapted a white bag into a chef's hat. If only he could really cook for us for real already!

Thirty Four

Today is my 34th birthday. I still consider myself young - not like Aaron the oldie who I consider to already be into middle age as he is going to be 36 in December ;) 34 sounds really old, but as everyone says - I really don't feel like I'm 34. Some days I feel like I'm 44 ;)

Chrish flew down for his favourite sister's birthday - well actually, he was coming anyway - but it just ended up being on my birthday. This morning I dragged him to see our friend Marlo (a naturopath) hoping that she may be able to help him feel a lot better. He is seeing her 5 times in the 2 weeks he is down, so most of his holiday will be spent coming into town. I'm sure it will help him though and will be worth all the trips in. It was great to see him again - it never really sees like we have been apart as he is always the same. It is nice that he gets to meet Kobe while he is still tiny.

The boys were very excited to see Chrish - especially as he said he was bringing down his Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Wii game for them to play while he is down. Harri was hanging out all morning for it and when he saw Chrish his first question was where was the game, and his second question was 'what happened to your hair!?' as Chrish has had his hair cut really short. Chrish asked if he talks all the time like he was, as he couldn't remember him talking so much when we were in Sydney in February. The boys have been playing the game all afternoon.

They were also excited (but not as much as Aaron!) about the Krispy Kreme donuts he got at the airport.

After seeing Marlo, I got to have a little break and left Harri and Kobe with Mum and Dad while I went to have a massage that Aaron booked in for me. It was so nice to just relax for half an hour and be pampered.

Mum and Dad bought KFC for tea which was great as it meant I didn't have to cook. Aaron made me a yummy chocolate cake last night, which Harri was dying to get into all day.

Harri also had to have his turn of blowing out the candles.

At the moment after 4 o'clock is a very unsettled time for Kobe (and also Noah tonight), so it was a bit of a mad house. I think Mum, Dad and Chrish were looking forward to leaving to have some peace! Last night he slept for 5 hours in a row and only had one night feed, so as long as he does from now on I don't really mind an unsettled time (for a little while at least!). I just keep reminding myself that this stage only lasts for a little while and things will settle right down.

Ready for Church

Kobe ready for church this morning in his cute little shirt and vest Mum and Dad bought him.

The Kobester

The boys have come up with a nickname for Kobe already. Supposedly it is 'The Kobester'. Harri thinks it is so funny when he calls him it.

A lot of people have been asking about his name and how we came up with it. For those people we haven't seen or spoken to, it is pronounced with the long E on the end. I have been getting a few people not sure how it is pronounced.

Back in December I was just suggesting names randomly - didn't necessarily love particular names, but I would say 'what about ....?' to just see what Aaron would think of certain names. I thought of the name 'Toby' and realised that my friend Naomi (who is also a King) has a son named Toby, so I knew that wouldn't work. From there I just said 'what about the name Kobe?'. I remember the day clearly as it was when we were going to Grindelwald to play mini golf with the boys.

As soon as I said 'Kobe', Aaron and Jay both straight away said 'yes!', and were really happy with the name from the start. I wasn't really serious about it, but when I saw how much they loved it I thought about it more and it grew on me. Not long after Aaron said he thought that the middle name 'James' sounded good with it, and I agreed. We wanted a name that was a little different, but not too different. The only Kobe I knew of was Kobe Bryant (NBA basketball player) and Aaron hates him, but liked the name, so it stuck.

Unfortunately for Jim and Kristen it turned out to be the exact same name (including middle name!) that they were going to give Nyah if she were a boy, and it was going to be their first son's name. Sorry guys! What do they say - first in best dressed. Goes to show they have great taste :)