A name chosen!

We’ve finally settled on a name for our baby boy:

JETHRO ARCHER FUNK

Well, we can’t get away from our J names for boys! Just the way of it. Jethro emerged as a possibility, and we had a serendipitous moment when we discovered that the name means ‘abundance,’ a concept that has resonated a lot for us lately. And who knows, he might develop great organisational skills and live up to one of his namesakes!

And we had to get another ‘-er’ name in there somewhere! (Nah, just kidding, that was a fluke…) Beyond the obvious (meaning ‘bowman’), Archer means ‘geniune, bold, brave,’ concepts that seem to fit with Jethro’s direct stare and calm nature (as much as we can tell at one week old!). We certainly hope they’re values he can grow into. Ironically, Dad has been calling him Archibald while we were taking our time coming up with a name, which is, of course, a variation of the same root word.

We’ve lost the musical theme of Piper & Jas’s (Jazz’s) names, unless you count an oblique reference to the British blues rock band Jethro Tull. Instead we’ve picked up a pastoral theme: Jethro Tull, who the band was named after, was an 18th century English inventor and agriculturist, and the seven Archer brothers were well-known pastoralists and explorers in 19th century Queensland. One of the brothers was called Archibald, if you can believe that! Archibald Archer…

The combination of names lends itself to a number of different nicknames: Jet, Archie or, running with initials, Jaffa, and no doubt many more. This feels good, given we live in the land of abbreviated appellations!

So there you have it, probably our last attempt at naming a child, unless someone else wants us to do the honours for their child! Hope our kids can appreciate our choices once they’re old enough to have an opinion…

So now we are:

Gordon Funk

Rebecca Kate Funk

Piper Phoenix Funk

Jasper Sage Funk

Jethro Archer Funk

Piper turns 5!

Piper turned five on the 6th of March, and in the midst of our baby-space, we tried to make it a special day.

Mum and Dad came round for morning tea, and Piper was able to open her presents, wearing her new favourite dressing gown from Savers that she bought with Dad.  She'd wear it everywhere, if she could!  Anyway, present number 1, a ballerina thingy from Pippa...

Some horse stuff from Gord and I...

Pink Barbie gumboots and Pink Barbie slippers from Pippa and Poppa.  (My Mum took Piper shopping earlier in the week and this is what she chose.  No surprises there!)

A ballerina t-shirt from Gramma & Opa in Canada.

And posing in it later on - man, she's getting to be a big girl!  (The hat's still in use, Michelle!  So are the skirt and coat!)

The other present Piper got (from her dad!) was getting to eat whatever she wanted all day! About two minutes after Gord announced the concept over breakfast, she says, I'm gonna eat some chocolate!  And so she did!  And goodness, by the end of the day, was she hyper!  Hopefully it was empowering for her, and a reminder for me why we try and eat healthily, on the whole!

Lovely shots of Dad and Jas.


Later on, a movie night, watching one of Piper's favourites from the library: Spirit.

Meanwhile, Jethro had his first bath...

Cuddles on the couch.

The next day, Olivia, our neighbour, made Piper a cake, and the whole family came over to see the baby and sing Piper Happy Birthday - lovely!

New addition

One day old...



Three kids together...

Getting some sun to ease the jaundice...



Gord and his boys, one sick (Jasper) and one sleeping...

New addition coming soon!

Well, not yet, but I will, sometime around end of Feb/early March. Should be fun!

Weighing up

Visited the Maternal and Child Health Nurse today. Jasper's put on another whole stack of weight, so I thought I'd compare his & Piper's records.

Jasper birth weight: 3600g
3 weeks: 4600g
6 weeks: 5380g
Total: almost 1.8kg!

Piper birth weight: 3395g
3 weeks: 4200g
6 weeks: 4610g
Total: about 1.2kg

Doesn't really matter either way - both these kids are healthy. However, I have to say it's very satisfying having a heavier kid, and knowing that my body has provided the fuel for their incredible growth.

Other than that, we are well. Gord's working from home today. Jasper's a bit windy, which is a bummer - he's sleeping on my lap while I type one-handed! Piper had fun at childcare this morning. She looked so grown up with her backpack on and her little Nemo suitcase lunchbox, wearing the new clothes (my) Auntie Jan got her. I wanted to take a photo but she wouldn't let me...

I'm going to Dancejam tonight with some friends, so that should be fun (first time, so we'll see what it's like...).

Anyway, ciao for now...

Us and the kid

Lunch with Uncle John

Today we had lunch with my uncle John on the way home from Gembrook (we even got to see Sarah Joy, my cousin, before she had to catch the train). Had yummy soup for lunch, enjoyed talking about our lives, and even had a little jam session with Gord on guitar and John on the darbuka (drum)! I LOVE listening to Uncle John drum - watching his hands move is mesmerising... I also loved looking at all the photos on the wall (see background of photo below, and that's
only a few of them!). I'd love to something like that at our place!

I actually had heaps of fun playing with a bunch of lego John pulled out for Piper to play with - I haven't had that much fun with lego since I was growing up! Nice to be a bit of a kid for a while.

In the photos above, Piper is holding a little boxed cake to celebrate Jasper's birth - as John pointed out, you don't need to put a candle on a birth cake =)

And now it's 10.30pm on Sunday night, and I should be heading to bed, especially as I have a bit of a sore throat. Jasper's sleeping cozily on Gord's lap - he really loves sleeping in arms, which is entirely understandable. Gord's chatting to DJ, who came round after church, so yeah, nice vibe here... But betta sign off... love to all...

A few more snaps...

Melbourne with Michelle

Today Gord, Michelle, Piper, Jasper and I had lunch at Credo Cafe in the city. Credo is run by Urban Seed, "an ecumenical Christian, not for profit agency that is committed to engaging faith, community and culture. Urban Seed combines street work in the heart of Melbourne with education programs and a strong independent voice on urban, business, social and political issues including homelessness, drug addiction, problem gambling and poverty."

Anyone can come to lunch at Credo Cafe - it's an inspringly genuine mix of those who have a lot and those who don't. Not like a soup kitchen, in that regard. I thought it would be cool for Michelle to see a different side of Melbourne before she has to head back to Canada - which isn't all that long away! (Boo hoo!) Thanks to Samara for talking us through what she does with Urban Seed...

Anyway, on the way home we stopped to get these photos done, just for fun... =)

More pics...

Here's a bit more of the overall birth, and a few more of our boy the next day...

Still no name, but its on the way I'm sure.

Its a baby

Well, much to Piper's chagrin, its not just a baby, but a baby boy...

Its now the end of the day that this new wonder showed up. We've spent most of it alternatingly sleeping... tonight, Bec's parents have just left, and we are sitting a bit wearily in front of the footy.

The birth event itself was beautiful. My version is simple - Bec woke me up at 2:30 AM when everything was in full swing. I managed to get the birth pool filled up just in time for her to hop in...an hour later or so, at 4:34 AM, the little guy was born.

He's just under 8 pounds, no idea how long (he's got big feet though...) and as of yet, still unnamed. (Suggestions are welcome in the comments...) His coming to consciousness in this world was a wonder to behold... lifting out of the water, small and purply, then a few tentative breaths, a few squally cries, and then he opened his eyes for a look at us.

Our son looked intently at each of us, as if placing a face to the voices that he already knew. He was very peaceful in the water, and alternated between suckling/nesting in Bec's breasts, and floating in the water.

Piper hopped into the tub at this point, and for the next half hour she enjoyed being in the water. (Piper was there for the last hour of labour, and had no issues with any noises that Bec made... in fact, the first time Bec starting to vocalise, she looked at one of us and said, "Mommy's moaning now...". )

Tonight, we are relaxed, and feeling full of blessing.

The full story of the birth will show up at a future point, with some photos.

Birth Movie

Hello All,

No still no baby, though maybe soon...

Found out about this movie called Pregnant in America, while checking my emails this afternoon. It's supposed to be the Farenheit 9/11 & SuperSize Me of the birth sphere. I know America has an even more skewed health/birth system than the rest of the Western world, but it should make for interesting viewing.

Michelle, my cousin, and I were catching a bit of arvo TV (quality, mate, quality!) today and saw a pregnant woman reclining, getting ready to give birth. This ALWAYS irks me, cos for one thing, you're not supposed to lie on your back for long periods of time, especially in the third trimester, cos it makes it more difficult for blood to get through to the baby (not to mention it can get to feeling uncomfortable). But even more irksome is the idea that women should give birth in this position. What freaked me out this arvo was that Michelle commented that she didn't know you could give birth in any other position. This is no slur on Michelle, but crikey, it just highlights how generally brainwashed Western culture is when it comes to giving birth!

Anyway, that's all the sermonising I want to do right now! Want to clear my head so I can go and have a baby meself!

So, if you're interested in the movie, check out the website, or view the trailer here.

Love to all, and we'll pass on any news ASAP!

Love Bec

Waiting...with a new camera!

Hello all,

(Wrote this a couple of days ago but the slow internet connection made it veritably impossible to upload! Anyway, here it is...)

Have been meaning to communicate for at least week and upload some pics, but it's taken me this long to get the new camera
software onto my computer. Yes, so did we say we lashed out on a digital SLR?? (second hand of course- thanks ebay) We had planned (vaguely) to buy a video camera, but we came to the realisation that we both probably wouldn't use it that much - we both get off more on framing shots and stuff. So we've been relatively trigger happy this week - will put a
few up here (or in the next posts).

Anyway, the other news is that there's no news! On the baby that is... It's still wriggling around in me, despite the due date passing as on Wed 25th. But when I think about it, if I was the baby, I'd make the most of the cosy space it's in while I could! We haven't at all started stressing yet (I might in a week!), but it's a really wierd waiting space. Piper was a day early, and we'd been so busy before that, that waiting never entered into it. With this kiddo, there's been things to finish and get done, but they are largely done and it's all bonus time now... We've been doing lots of socialising - had something on almost every night last week...

Last weekend we were up at Gembrook - I was so
glad we went up, cos at first I didn't want to, in case I had to sit in the car for an hour all the way home if I went into labour. However, when the weekend came round, we just decided to go, and while I was there, it felt so good to be there, like there was nowhere else I'd rather be right then - a really lovely feeling. The main task for the working bee was to clear the fenceline along one of the boundary roads, so we can get a new fence put in. I love burning off, and did my bit while Jane looked after the kids, even if I was a bit slow and had to take a few rests! I remembered that two weeks before Piper was born, we were up at Gembrook too, cutting down a massive tree with John and Anne, Gord's parents, and stacking up a big woodpile. Felt good to be engaged with the land, and it doesn't seem to bring labour on! Anyway, I was proud of my blackberry scratches!

Anyway, will finish this post here and see it it will upload this time!

Love Bec

P.S. The first photo is of Jane and the kids with the very sick wombat who hangs around the property. For one thing, it wouldn't normally be out during the day, and you'd usually never get that close it it. It's almost blind, I think, and is very sick with mange.... But still, great to see one up close...