No photos this time, I think the cameras have both packed up from excessive use over the last couple of days in particular. With the fear of speaking too early, things seem to be going quite well now since Saturday night. Little Tobias has decided that he actually quit likes sleep, preferably in extended sessions, and then likes to have a filling feed. So he has been sleeping about 6 hours through the night for the last 3 nights, which is about 40% of his life so far. Can't be all bad.

The rest of us are also doing pretty well as a result. More sleep is always conducive to better moods all round.

Autumn is definitely upon us now, shorter days and cooler evenings have descended. Eventually daylight savings has also ended. This time round some bright spark decided we had to have an extra few weeks of it. All sounded fine in theory, but the day before the clocks changed back the sun rose after 8am. But I won't step up to my soapbox on that topic for fear of boring anyone.

There will be some more photos of the now full family coming again soon.

I'm not that experienced with this blogger setup, so best you read the next post to get the gist of our most recent addition and what all these photos are all about!

For those of you that don't know yet, Tobias Alexander Dixon came in to the world at 23:51 on 31 March 2008 weighing 6lb 13oz.

All went well, albeit a rather quick labour of 1 hour 45 minutes, and the fact that his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck rather tightly. He popped out and eased into life quite sedately.

For the moment, savour the photos. More news will follow.

After we returned from Norma's funeral we decided that it would be a good idea to take the boys in to the 24 hour surgery in Dunedin. Luca was running a temperature and Oscar looked like someone had socked him in the eye, although we knew this wasn't exactly the case unless he had done it to himself during his sleep. Jo was more concerned with Luca's temperature and I with Oscar's eye.

Turned out Luca was on the tail end of a viral infection and there was nothing to be done. Poor little Oscar was pushed off to the emergency department at the hospital in the buggy. After quite a few hours of rigmarole and predictable bureaucracy he eventually saw the doctor that needed to see him an he was admitted for IV antibiotics. He had a periorbital cellulitis infection. This is an infection of the soft tissue surrounding the eye socket, but can go in to the eye or back along the nervous tissue to the brain apparently.

After being poked and prodded by quite a number of people, all the poor little thing wanted was his mummy and to sleep. He was not happy when they put the IV shunt in his arm (neither was his squeamish daddy) and his big brother and mummy were quite disturbed by it all too. All the same, he was a stoic little man and after spending 2 nights in the ward with mummy was allowed to come home and sleep in his own cot! By this time he had visited everyone in the ward a few times at least, whether they were happy to have him or not, and was getting to almost climb the walls from boredom.

He has made a great recovery and is right back to his normal self now.

Note the eye and the splint on his arm in the first photo. The splint was an attempt at keeping his arm straight with the shunt in it.

Luca was happy to see his brother and play with the hospital toys; as well as celebrating a decent team winning the rugby world cup!
Daddy was very happy to be able to take him away from the dastardly place.

Last weekend, labour weekend in New Zealand, we went up to Timaru for Jo's aunt Norma's funeral. We decided to spend the night up there after the funeral instead of doing a day trip. Good thing too, as we had some quality time with Keith and the Crawford boys after the funeral. The next day, Saturday, we all went to where Jo's mum was staying and had a great breakfast. All the Campbell siblings were there, the first time we've all been together since the latest addition, Emma, has arrived. This naturally necessitated the obligatory photos of grandchildren all together. I also managed to get a couple of our boys playing in the garden.

Hello there folks. Well, now that we have some photographic evidence and the prescribed period has elapsed, it is time for us to let you all know that the Dixon family will be getting another addition sometime in April. Current due date is Oscar's birthday - 11 April - but the first couple were early so we are predicting that this one may follow suite. We're going to stick with tradition and not find out the sex before it comes in to the world; Jo says the anticipation is a good way to help her cope with the whole birth thing.

It's going to be a very cool little thing anyway, it's already given us the thumbs up in the first picture!

Today we decided to get out about, despite Jo and I feeling decidedly miserable with colds and other ailments. Jo's headache let up long enough for us to head off on the 15 minute drive to Shag Point with a bit of a picnic lunch. Unfortunately when we got there and started walking around the wind caused her a bit of earache. At least there was a transference of pain, although not that far. 

Oscar is getting quite keen on this going for a walk lark and dons his wellies enthusiastically before waddling off on slightly unsteady feet. Having said that though, over the last few days his stability on uneven ground has improved markedly, although he still finds it a good idea to hold on to someones hand.

After the not so short walk we settled in to the back of the car for a picnic, as the rain started falling a little more heavily. Ah the pleasure of having a large enough vehicle to do this. It was great to be able to get out and still not get cold. We'd all started getting a bit of cabin fever after a couple of days here feeling sick, so a walk on the coast was just what the doctor ordered. Luca is probably feeling doubly frustrated because he got over being sick over a week ago but has been restrained by mum and dad.

At least summer has sort of arrived, and today daylight saving started as well. This year some politicians in Wellington have decided that we need 3 weeks extra daylight savings for some reason. But I won't go in to that here!

I have managed to get out on the bike a bit over the last couple of weeks, mainly commuting to work, but that is a great ride anyway; a road many bikers would kill to have as a commute. For those of you who have not yet seen a photo of my latest bike, voila!