Baby Group

Thank goodness for Aloni and Lorelei, besides being a huge help to us with advice and support, they have now introduced us to a whole new world of babies and Mummies! Aloni has started a baby group for people in the area with newish babies.  We went for our first time yesterday and it was great, four baby girls for me and Sebastian to get to know.  Sebastian was so over whelmed at first, I think he was not really sure if there were more in the world besides him and Lorelei.  The babies ranged from 3 weeks to 5 months and all had varying backgrounds.  I cannot wait to host our day!

 Sebastian wanted to show that he was into swimming and the sea, so chose this t-shirt (closest one).

 He had quite the sleep during the meet up, I really do think he was truly shocked to see four other babies and it just tired him out :)

 These are the gals, we had to go and prepare for tutoring before the pictures really started.  Next time we will get a great picture of all of them.

The Sweetest Thing

This is hands down the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Since we have been back from holiday Sebastian has been pretty great at going to sleep but much earlier than us.  This has caused a lot of angst for poor Lola as she wants to be in the bedroom with him but also outside with us.  She goes in the room, I shut the door and she scratches to come out.  I keep her outside and she scratches the door to get inside.  So tonight I just left the door open and have kept things quiet so that she can go in between.  But this was not good enough for her, she took her bed from inside of the bedroom and with her teeth dragged it out to the doorway so she could watch him and watch me at the same time.  I have never seen her do anything like this in her almost 14 years!

#(seems appropriate here, if I understand these things at all)bestbigsisterever

Swimming Sebastian

Sebastian is becoming quite the little swimmer.  It is by far his favourite activity and he has even persuaded his reluctant baby bestie to join in the fun.  Friday, baby Lorelei, and her peeps came over for our signature (if not only) dish, yep you guessed it...Mexican.  We had a lovely afternoon with food and swimming. Lorelei loved the swimming neck thing and Sebastian went under water, a day of firsts for all the babies!

 Lorelei getting ready 

Sebastian giving some coaching tips.

 The both of them just chilling out swimming together.

 We never ever use our pool but suspect this will change now, what a lovely afternoon.

Lola and Sebastian were super tired after the days activities, so they had a little lie down before dinner.

And well these two shots are just because he is super cute and I know most of my readers now (all two of you) only look at this blog to see pictures of Sebastian.  And really who could blame you!

Three Months

I cannot believe Sebastian is three months old!! The time has certainly gone by quickly and I can see why everyone tells me not to wish away the baby time.  He is still sweet as ever, growing like a weed and now my favourite thing is he is full of laughter.  I am not going to gush every month of how proud we are of him.  Well actually I might!  I think you get to do that until they are a year old (based on friends facebook posts!).

 He had a great morning swimming with his best buddy, Lorelei and family.

And moved to his big baby bed!  I thought there might be some resistance, but he seemed to love it (to be fair he is not in it all night!).

End of Holiday

The last couple of days we have been slowly making our way back from Nusa Lembongan.  We had a night back in Sanur with the Wyncolls and then stopped in Singapore for a night with Jodi and Dylan.  It was a great two weeks but I am happy to be home again, always miss Lola when away.
Soooo.... what have I learnt about traveling with a three month old...  As all the baby traveling blogs told me before we went on our adventure it is totally possible to travel with a baby.  After two weeks away I kind of came to the conclusion, why would you?  Well not that you have to sit at home doing nothing but that probably staying much closer to home (especially as we went to a tropical island and live on one) or some horrid all inclusive resort might be the better option.  Don't get me wrong, we had a great time and it was nice to be together but I honestly put my foot in the sea twice the whole time I was away.  Although Sebastian was super content, and having a great time he is a bit young to appreciate all the great places we saw and to be honest we spent a lot of time in the room.   I sound a bit like a spoilt brat, as it was great and I just loved discovering the Nusa's but also trying to be honest.  In fact, I might start an honest Mum's blog next, as I can tell you there are far too many 'everything is easy and wonderful' Mum blogs out there!

 We also got to meet up with an old friend, Lia, from my Basel days who is also working in Bail.

 Jackie getting some big laughs out of Sebastian.

 Watching a little rugby.

 Sonic the fox has been everywhere with us.  Sebastian's favourite on the go toy.

 Can't think of a better way to end our holiday than seeing this family.  And in one short month all the kiddies have grown so much!  We had a last great night with them before heading back to Phuket early this morning.

Under Rated Nusa's

I was not overly excited about the Nusa islands, I thought they would be nice but nothing that I found online really caught my attention.  What I have learnt is they need a new marketing manager, I might even write to the tourist board and ask for employment.  I thought they were just amazing.  Nusa Lembongan is tiny and yet every beach is dramatically different, Luis saw dolphins snorkeling (very special), the food was great and the people fabulous.  And we did not even make it the mangroves! But the thing I loved most about this place was their love for babies, especially the men.  Every waiter, taxi driver, man randomly in the street, crew of the boat were desperate to hold him and asked a million questions.  Every meal someone wanted to whisk him away while we ate.  I have never experienced anything like it, the love of children and in particular babies was super special.

 Secret beach, tide out early in the morning.

 Team t-shirt pictures

 Sandy Beach

  Dream Beach

 View from our favourite spot in mushroom bay

 One of the waiters that just loved Sebastian.

We had a lovely time and a place I would love to return to when Sebastian is a bit older.  That is probably why I will not apply for a marketing job, I would hate for it to get super busy and ruin what it is now!

Nusa Ceningan

Today we went across the yellow bridge to the smallest of the three Nusa islands, Nusa Ceningan.  The yellow bridge is a short bridge connecting Lembongan and Ceningan, you can only take a scooter across or walk it.  It has a sad history, in 2016 it collapsed and killed nine people but has been rebuilt and I was assured is now very safe.  It is a tiny tiny island I think you can walk around it in an hour or two and there is not loads written about it.  So we were up and down about going as we just need to be so careful with sun and Sebastian but made the decision to go super early in the morning.  Thank goodness we did, it is so crazy beautiful, definitely worth the short trip.

 The yellow bridge

 We made it!

 Low tide

 High tide

 I just cannot believe people did not say how beautiful this place is.  It might just be a secret they are trying to keep as totally underrated.  I just wish we had stayed here our entire vacation, I love it!