Where have we been?!

I haven't been on this site for almost 3 years, so this blog is not exactly up to date. But that's ok, because I now hope to post regularly on what's going on in the lives of the Hendersons!

Since my last entry, a few things have happened!

In 2008, Alan's mum Joycie was diagnosed with cancer. To show support and to help raise money for the Cancer Council, Caitlin, Robbie and I all shaved our heads. We collectively raised around $1500. As it turned out, Joycie didn't loose all of her hair from her Chemo treatment, but we didn't mind that we had! Joyice responded really well to her treatment, and her cancer has gone into remission.

Caitlin and I with our shaved heads

Our business Minibeast Wildlife was growing in leaps and bounds. We had begun to breed minibeasts to sell online as pets, and they were very popular. We also had a lot of school bookings coming in, so by the middle of 2009, we had 3 casual staff working for us.

In February of 2009, we had a new baby daughter! Saige Jessie was born at around 12:40pm, and about 14 hours after her cousin Fynn in Alice Springs. Saige completed our family of four girls, and did her part to give Alan his own little team of CATS (Caitlin, Annie, Tayen and Saige). This 'phenomenon' was discovered by my sister Sonia after Tayen was born, and knowing that Alan had yet another girl on the way, we just had to complete the puzzle!

Saige at only a few hours old

At the end of 2009, we sold our house in Bacchus Marsh. We decided not to buy a new house straight away, but had trouble finding a rental until 3 days before we had to be out of our house! We moved into a lovely place in Bacchus Marsh in March 2010 after 7 years in our previous house. It was a little emotional closing the door for the last time, with so many memories that had been created there.

Our old house at 8 Jones Court

After a few months of looking to buy the perfect house in Bacchus Marsh, we decided on a whim to have a look at houses in far north Queensland. One thing led to another, and we purchased a house in Kuranda, in the rainforests north of Cairns. We intended to put our house up for rent for at least 6 months before we would consider moving into it, but opportunity knocked on our door, and we found ourselves with work in Kuranda. Our business Minibeast Wildlife secured 3 months of animal wrangling for a Discovery Science documentary called Monster Bug Wars. Alan had worked with them previously last year with the museum and Beyond Productions contacted him again about shooting 6 more episodes. This meant that we would leave behind our jobs, family and friends. After 11 years at the Museum for Alan, and 10 years for me, it was a tough decision to leave. It also meant that we would be leaving Caitlin and Annie behind. Caitlin is in the middle of her screenwriting course, and had moved in with her boyfriend Adam, so she is quite settled in Victoria, and we were confident that she could survive without us! (not that we can cope very well without her!) Annie is nearing the end of year 12, the crucial final year of high school, and wouldn't be able to join us either (another fact that made our moving very difficult) so it was Alan, myself, Tayen and Saige that made the journey into the unknown. We figured that sometimes you just have to give it a go, so we packed up our lives, and moved to the Forest House!

Family ties

Tayen is growing in leaps and bounds - she has been crawling for a month, and is getting into all sorts of things that she shouldn't be. She had lots of fun 'playing' with Joachim when we went to Lake Daylesford recently, and loved her first camping trip to Blanket Bay, and seeing the ocean and beach for the first time.
I'm due back and work part-time in a months time, and it's sad thinking about leaving Tayen in someone elses care at creche. But I'm sure she'll be fine, and make lots of new friends.


Tayen also met her Beppe for the first time (her great-grandmother). She is visiting from the Netherlands.




Our book 'Bugs Alive' is finally out at a bookstore near you. Already almost 1000 copies have been sold in 2 weeks, so that's a great sign. Already thinking about changes to make to the second round print job.
Caitlin is full swing into year 12, and already stuggling to keep her study schedule, but that's Caitlin for you! She's enjoying most of her subjects, but her teachers aren't what she'd hoped for.


Annie is in year 10, but doing year 11 Studio Arts, which she seems to really enjoy. She's into all things arty, so she's found her niche.

How time flies!

I can't believe its January 2008 already! Where did 2007 go? It seems as though it just disappeared behind babies and books and businesses! Ahh! Surrounded by B's!!
Tayen's first Christmas has just passed, and boy did she have fun with all that wrapping paper! I was so glad that she learned to sit on her own before Christmas, so she could at least try to open her own presents, and she did a pretty good job of it. We celebrated Christmas over 3 days so it was a very busy time, with lots of food, family and driving, but we all enjoyed every minute of it!
We were very excited by the arrival of little Joachim in November - finally, a new little Henderson boy to join all the girls. He managed to sleep through most of the festivities on Christmas!
Our book, Bugs Alive! is finally finished and off to the printers. It is due for release late February, so look out for it in all good bookstores near you!
Minibeast Wildlife, our business, is gearing up for the new year. In the near future we will have our van plastered with advertising and Alan's wonderful photos.
Caitlin is is Year 12 this year - can you believe it! She'll be turning 18 in May too! Annie meanwhile is a whiz at drawing. Check out her artwork at deviantart.com, search for creeps2002.
Caitlin, Alan and I have just finishing shooting, editing and submitting a short film called Boo into the Sony Tropfest short film festival. We'll keep you posted on the outcome!
Our next adventure is camping in Blanket Bay....stay tuned for how it goes with a baby!

So much to tell...

Note - I just found this blog entry waiting to be posted, so it's a little out of date, but I'll post it anyway! By the way, Caitlin's film came fourth - well done!

The Henderson family as usual is extraordinarily busy - Annie has just run in the state cross country, which is a big achievement! She has also just started a CFA course at school where she will get her first aid certificate and learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to fire fighting.
Last term Caitlin and a group of her friends made a short film for a competition explaining a scientific concept to non-scientific people. Her entry is one of four finalists across Australia, and the winner will be announced on the 21st August in Sydney. Caitlin and the rest of the group will be travelling up to Sydney to attend the presentation dinner. Alan and I are still working on our book - the text has come back from the editor, and we are in the process of reviewing it. Alan is still busy taking and editing photos to go in the book. It should be out in book stores in February next year.
And Tayen is growing way to fast! She will be 4 months old next week, and she rolled over for the first time last week!
We recently had the pleasure of a visit from Robbie, who got to meet his new niece for the first time. Tayen loved the Care Bear she received from Rob and Em – it is close to being her favourite toy!
Garry Henderson turned 60 last month, and we celebrated in style – fancy dress was the theme of the party, and most people joined in the fun.

Cute as a button!

3 weeks old!

Well, three weeks on from the birth of Tayen and what can I say? Has it been a breeze? I don't know... Do I love every minute of it? Absolutely!
Sure, some things haven't run smoothly - there have been some baby blue days where all I could do is cry my eyes out, and some breastfeeding issues with Tayen spitting up my blood (very scary, what a little vampire!) but other than that, motherhood suits me!
Tayen has been smiling since just before she was two weeks old. They say babies can't smile until they're at least 5 weeks old, but Tayen's smiles are definately not wind! When she's looking right at you, reacting to the silly things we say and the stupid faces we make, she knows what's she's doing!
She has put on 600 grams since birth, has grown 2cm in length and her head circumference is 1cm bigger.
My mum was staying with me last week, which was really nice, but Tayen was spoilt as Oma rocked and sang her to sleep! This week I'm on my own, and I'm more than a little tired, but I just can't find the time to sleep during the day - I still have a business to run, and a book to write for the Museum, so with looking after Tayen on top of that, I don't have time to scratch myself! I'm sure I'll have a meltdown in the next month, but it will be worth it!
I'm looking forward to the 6 week stage, when everyone says all the initial teething problems of being a new mother magically sort themselves out - hopefully my nipples can last that long (seriously, the things you can talk about when your body is a supermarket is amazing!)

Here comes another Henderson!

7:00 am on the first of May found me becoming groggily aware of two goofy adults standing in my doorway. I peeled back the layers of sleep from my eyes and began to wonder why the roof was yellow. The thought subsided, and the goofy adults smiled.

"It's happening!"

Indeed; since 5:30 that morning, Dee had been having contractions.

"And what? You're trying to send me to school?" I asked incredulously.

No matter, I stayed home, and the day was full of slowness, card games, slowness, contractions, slowness, the agonising movie Emma, slowness and not much else.

But yay! At six we toddled finally off to the hospital, and after hours and hours of excrutiating labour, little, squashy Tayen Kaylee Henderson slid into the world. It was 2:13 am on the second of May. (Oh, and by 'little', I mean 9 pounds ... O_o). Tayen is an American-Indian name meaning 'new moon', and Kaylee is a character from the show Firefly. She's the most gorgeous little monkey person I've ever met, and I can't wait to spend lots and lots of time with her and get thrown up on a lot.

So, today we brought her home for the first time, and set up the baby monitors and such. I'm writing this from my room, and every time I hear her cry it's an "Oh la vache, this will only get worse ... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo." But oh well, I'm sure the good will outweigh the loud, annoying noise :P

But I'm sure you will all want to hear the other points of view in this, so that's the way the cookie crumbles.

(And keep an eye out at your local video store for the second doco by the Henderson family - Here Comes another Henderson).