A Houseful!

Yesterday evening was just amazing.
6 children and me for dinner and so wonderful.
Other peoples children are just so handy. They are always well-behaved, never talk back and they do what you say all the time.
Everyone helped with setting tables, pouring drinks, blowing on food for littler ones, clearing the tables.
It really makes you appreciate just how important siblings are. Everytime we discuss having another baby, the pure horror of my pregnancy with Charlotte and the subsequent horrific birth just flashes in to my head. But after seeing how much being a sibling in a larger family improves a childs character so much, it makes me want to reconsider for the greater good.
Hannah and Charlotte just had each other in stitches all the way through dinner - they sat at the little drawing table on the Ikea chairs together - Charlotte was putting cups on her head and spearing her pasta with the wrong end of her fork. Hannah was chattering away at a 100 words a minute. They both had a shower together and I kept peeking in on them and catching Hannah wiping Charlotte's hair out of her eyes so gently. Charlotte was soaping up Hannah's back. They were sharing toothpaste and laughing, laughing, laughing.

Ella and Bethany were in their PJs in about 2 seconds flat and then hid underneath the quilt in Ella's room with torches chattering and giggling. Sophie just wandered about happily.......

Oooh, and I just had to include the photo of Ella during her girly rite of passage! Going to sleep with a head full of wet plaits and waking up with poodle hair :)
She was so precious walking around with her head so still so the 'curls won't fall out'.
Gold.

And - tah dah - I finished a sequin leaf last night, eleven more to go....

Mum and Dad you will get to see Ella's concert video live as her concert is the Saturday before you come home (2/12) and I don't think they will have the DVDs available immediately. But we will certainly work on it for Adam and Eva to see.

So Much Time

It seems like weekends are these big empty vacant holes of time waiting to be filled with a phonecall from mum, a coffee down the street with mum and dad, a pre-planned 'outing' of some sort or a spur of the moment visit to such and such. We get to Friday night and we have nothing on for the next two days. I hadn't realised just how much we do with mum and dad. No wonder we are missing them so much!

I picked up Ella's ballet concert costume last week and have included some lovely photos. She is going to be a pumpkin, we are just waiting on the Stem Cap to finsih off the outfit. Oh, and did I mention the TWELVE LEAVES of sequins I need to do? See in the close up shot the outlines of the leaves? Well, there are twelve of them and they all need to be filled with sequins. Not just the outlines. Mumble, mumble, bah.

We were talking about what we are going to do with Charlotte on concert day (Ella has two concerts on the same day, only 5 minutes in each) I am not taking Charlotte to sit in the audience with us, it will just be too hard. She couldn't even sit and enjoy a 40 minute Playschool concert that we went to without rummaging through other mums' bags looking for food. Ella piped up with 'I know, Nana and Papa can have Charlotte' We explained that Nana and Papa won't be back from overseas by then, and she said 'They might be, we won't really know until the time gets here'

Raff managed to lose his license for excessive amounts of speeding tickets (again!) Thank Goodness for the good behaviour bond. Now he just has to go 12 months with no traffic infringements at all, and he can live to drive another day.

We have all been yuckily sick over here. Raff actually had to cut a few days of work short to come home and look after us, as I was too ill to get out of bed really for a few days there. It seems like a real wasted week, we just did nothing. Though on the bright side! I have managed to lose 3 of those last 5 pesky kilos that have been hanging around my butt for the last 2 years. I found it very hard to eat much as I can't taste nor smell a single thing. Plus even my teeth hurt with this stupid sinus infection, that it just hasn't been worth the hassle of chewing.

I had a chat to Alexis and she has passed on her good wishes to all of my family spread across the globe. Her little boy has just turned 6 months - it goes by so very quick. Only 13 weeks until Charlotte is 2!

The quality of the last video link was really, really crappy. So I am going to try again!
Try this one....

Summer weather

It has been very warm this week. 30 degrees today apparently.
I hope you are avoiding the Dreaded Hayfever over there Dad, because it is nearly killing me over here. Stupid sinus infection.....
Just thought I would chuck in a picture of what our crazy Charlotte chose to wear during this weather.

trying video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyYsUMgFJOo

and click went the braincells

Well this week has seen a huge leap in Charlotte's vocab. You know how it goes..."Gosh, she's nearly 21 months old and still not joining two words together"....and then voila!

So far we have had 'Nana, plane, up, vroom' and 'Rufus, woof, sit, down'(complete with stern face and little hand patting the ground) also 'Ella, cry, loud, ears' and after this evenings efforts 'Charlotte, fingers, sore, door' Yep, in the kerfuffle of an Ella Tantrum, Charlotte's fingers got totally slammed in the hinge edge of Ella's bedroom door. She had a dark blue indent running across all four fingers on her right hand. It really must have hurt, but I swear that girl has no sense of pain. Besides the initial crocodile tears she was over and done with it in seconds.

The weather has been really nice the last few days so I have been sending the girls outside to play quite a bit. So today all I heard was 'El-la ou-side' as she tugged on Ella's arm to drag her outside constantly. She is such a sweet little bundle. Coming up to me all the time for a 'squeeze, cuddle, kiss'

I wish I had the camera close by to get a shot of Ella sitting on a stool with two metal skewers 'knitting' her skirt. Still no luck on the next row of knitting for me.....

Rufus stole an apple out of Charlotte's hands today. I don't know if he thought it was a ball or what, but it frightened all involved. Hmmm.

I don't have any new photos to add. We are going out to Clonlea Park tomorrow with Mothers Group. (Well, Mothers Pair anyway.....only two of us free this week) So have already packed the camera as I hope to get some nice photos.

Oh and have you all checked out Pauls blog? Link -----> thataway

What a week!

I'm guessing that everyone has heard about Steve Irwin dying, but did you hear that Peter Brock died this week also? And Colin Thiele.... Very sad news all around, really.

Rufus has settled in really well, can't say the same for our poor cat Harry. We barely see her during the day and she will only enter the house through the front door. She is on constant alert when she is in the back room as she can hear Rufus snoring at the backdoor. Charlotte is of course just loving having Rufus here. And Ella is getting confident with him and today I watched her trying to unchain him and she was doing really well - actually touching him :)

I spoke to Tanya and she is doing pretty well. She is out of hospital, but still unable to do much at all. It doesn't look like breastfeeding is going to work out for them, though. She has 3 more scans they have to do that include th die injection that she can't breastfeed with. She sounded quite upbeat and glad to be home. She has a long list of volunteers to help out with baby care and home duties.

We had a very quiet Sunday today. It seems like ages since we spent a whole day at home. Charlotte slept for 3 1/2 hours!
We went to two of Ella's childcare friends birthday parties yesterday. I bumped in to a mum I used to work with years ago, two mums that I went to school with, 2 ballet mums, and one of the mums from Mother's Group. Small world.....


Just testing out a video link to see how it works. Ella and Raff on a camel ride at the Gawler Show.

She's famous!

Just a quick one to put up Ella's Bunyip photo. I have put in the colour version that I purchased from the Bunyip. She is on the far left in the bottom row.
And this is the entry that won it for her. What a genius!

And speaking of genius-ness... I finished my first 'row' of knitting. It is going to be a headband for Ella. Pity that for the life of me I cannot figure out how to add a second row (garter stitch)


Pretty skinny headband, hey?

Farewell again

Mum and Dads turn today.
The kids were great, Mum was teary.
I just got a text from mum saying that they have arrived in Auckland :)

We got a second chance at farewells once mum and dad were behind Customs, albeit through sound proof glass. Lots of charades to get ourselves understood, except of course for the universal language of Goodbyes.

Have included a photo of the girls keeping themselves busy being 'dolls in a toyshop'

Happy birthday!! Oh, and Father's Day

I turned thirty today, so of course Mum gave me knitting needles, some wool and a how-to-knit book. I can't wait to get in to it, maybe I will have a scarf ready for next Winter. I also was lucky enough to get lots of chocolates and a new mixer. Ella made me a picnic basket which I have included a photo of.

It was probably one of the better birthdays that I have had in recent years, but part of that is the luck of it falling on a weekend and also Father's Day + the kick up the pants that Raff received after the debacle that was Mother's Day this May. He took the girls shopping on Saturday, which was just fantastic of him, especially as they were all pretty cranky from spending Friday night sleeping (or not!) at mum's place. Backed up on Saturday morning with the everlasting tantrum that Ella was in the midst of when mum and dad dropped the girls of here on Saturday morning. It was a real doozy! I don't think mum and dad quite knew what hit them - though it probably flashed them back 20-odd years to that damn middle child of theirs.

Ella has been a real handful lately with tantrums and the constant talking back. It has really been testing the old parenting skills. In the last 4 years I don't think Raff and I have ever had to discuss parenting/discipline methods in any way, it all just kind of evolved naturally as each issue peaked and waned. But lately it seems like we are conversing on it non-stop.

Today in the car on the way to Nanna's for some strange reason she decided she had pepper up her nose and proceeded to sneeze repeatedly in her sister's face at about 200 decibels. Raff and I were having a mini debate in the front seat about how to get her to stop, as each reasonable request to 'sneeze a bit quieter, please' was met with the response of 'But, I have so much pepper inside my nose I have to sneeze as loud as I can to get it out' Perfectly reasonable answer.......if it were TRUE!! My ears were ringing, and my knee jerk reaction really was that I wanted to turn around and yell at her, but I could just see that escalating in to a huge issue.

Some calm, patient and imaginative discussion on the merits of muffled sneezing and instruction on how to pick the pepper out of her nose ensued, along with some super human effort on our part that included at lot of teeth clenching, deep breathing and tongue biting, and we were riding in silence. Until the ride home....but that's another Blog entry altogether :)

I have also included our effort for a Father's Day/birthday family photo. Charlotte really, really, really didn't want to leave the playground, and that is her mid-tantrum.

I'll Remember

Comment of the day from Ella :)
We were driving home from childcare this evening, when totally out of the blue she piped up with "You don't need to worry, Mum, because if you or Dad or anyone ever forget your brother's name you can just ask me, because I will always remember about Adam and his wife Eva"

And the bronze goes to.......

Ella! 3rd place in a colouring-in competition. Very exciting over here, especially as the competion was for school age children :) She came third out of the Reception-Year 1 group. She won a free ticket to get in to the Gawler Show, 2 tickets for show rides and a $2 coin, and of course the obligatory photograph in The Bunyip.
You'd be happy with that, right? Well, Ella was devastated that the two dollar coin wasn't made of chocolate, and that I didn't get to go in the photo with her. Also it is a sad fact that $2 doesn't buy much at all. She wanted to head straight for the toy shop once we had determined that real money is a good thing. Hopefully we will find something at the Show to spend it on.

I love watching her from afar. Watching her getting organised for the photo was divine. She was very overwhelmed with the sheer size of the other children I think. There were 12 children in total, and 3 of them were eleven years old. They looked freakishly tall to me! But to see the utter concentration on her face and the intensity of her listening to the photographer was fantastic. Even though she was scared (as she angrily informed me later) you really wouldn't have known it. She was perfect.
Next Wednesday when the paper comes out I will upload the photo, and of course the Winning Entry which for now has gone to be put up on display at the Show. So keep your eyes peeled for that.

Today mum has taken my girls for the day. I think she may have saved Ella's life. We are drowning in insolence over here at the moment. Very frustrating to think that this is just a taste of what the next decade or two holds for us.

Good news, as of the 1st September we will be handing over all the invoicing etc of the business to Geeks On Call Admin. A small cut in pay is well worth the absolute headache of chasing clients for money and juggling payments to suppliers. We have earned more than a few grey hairs and sleepless nights over the last 2 and a half years.

Where did that baby go?

Day 13 with no nappies, and an 'accident' count of about 2? What a clever cookie Charlotte is, not even 20 months old yet. She never ceases to amaze me, this gorgeous second child of ours. She is such a joy, always happy to just 'get on with it' Very rarely unhappy.
And bugger that I didn't have the camera to catch her all dressed up in her big sisters ballet clothes....

And I enrolled Ella in school today. School.
We got a sneak peak at the costumes that she will be wearing on Stage for her end of year ballet productions. Orange and green pumpkins with stem hats. Aaagh, and they want us to sew flippin' sequins on. Bah.

Kids and Time

I wonder when as a child you really 'get' time. I mean, even as an adult it is hard to grasp at times. Like the 'OMG, I am going to be 3o' moments, and 'What sort of weird time warp occurred in those photos to the left in less than 1500 days?'Poor Ella is really struggling with Adam and Eva being gone 'for a long time' and Nana and Papa going 'until it's nearly Christmas - that's aaaaaaages way'I had a conversation with her while grocery shopping, just after we bumped in to mum, that started with 'How do you make yourself cry?' and ended with 'I am really, really sad that Nana and Papa are going on holidays'To be honest I gave up trying to put a positive spin on it, as there just isn't a positive to it in her little world. She loves her grandparents so much, in so many ways that it will be really tough for her to not be able to ring Nana for a coffee and a chat.In the grand scheme of things 3 months is but a blink, but to a 4 year old? It's eternal.

farewell and bon voyage

So that's that.
Two years (though we all put in our bets on how long Adam and Eva will really be gone for!) without our little brother and his beautiful wife. It was a lovely day with a leisurely build up to their departure. Brunch at a well chosen cafe - complete with couches for the kidlets to lay all over - was the start. Many gorgeous photos, 20 degree sunshine and a chance to check out Adelaide's huge new airport.

We had tears from the mums of course and Grandchild#2 Bethany had a huge tearfest. We sat and watched the final take-off. I hope they saw us waving madly!

Funnily enough after all that it was the text message to say they were in Sydney that got me in the end......
I am just so glad that we live in the technological era that we do, and they are really only ever an email/blog entry/SMS away. Our children will always 'know' their Aunt and Uncle.

hospitals etc

Worn out today.
I ended up with a mad dash up to hospital last night for Charlotte, nothing serious. This is a bit of the story, written 17/7.....

Last night from about 2am, Charlotte was pretty unsettled. I went in to her 3 times, she settled easily, but by 5 am she was in our bed. I am kicking myself now, but I didn't think to change her nappy until I took her in to our bed at 5am. Usually she sleeps 13 hours straight.....Anyway, being dark at 5am I just changed her in bed and tried to get her back to sleep with no luck. She was unsettled, but not upset. Ended up breastfeeding her at 6:30 and we were all up before 7. She had a shower with DH and then when I went to put a nappy on to go to childcare I noticed a big welty rash, probably 10x5cm on her inner thigh. Bugger it looked sore. The only nappy cream I had in the house was Paw Paw lotion, so sent that along with her to childcare.I picked her up at 5pm and stripped off her nappy when we got home, and..........


that is what I was faced with!




Thank goodness we live in a smallish town and they haven't got rid of our ED (Yet!) so we got to see a doctor within half an hour.She was screaming hysterically when we left home, but of course was happy as larry at the hospital But the doctor said he reckons it is impetigo (staph) He took a swab (OMG, I can not believe how much fluid came out!) to confirm and started her on antibiotics.
Well, I only managed to get about 1ml of the 3ml dose in to her........Panadol for her pain and a gauze pad for protection. I have decided against putting anything on it tonight. I am breastfeeding her now, so hopefully she will sleep better. The doctor drew in pen a huge mark around the outside of the redness and tomorrow, first thing, I will go see our GP and depending on whether the redness has spread we will see what happens.I just cannot believe had bad it got in such a short time.I agree that it looked like a burn/blister - either from friction and/or ammonia, but the fluid that came out was yellow, so I guess that points to staph.


She totally zonked when I was breastfeeding her, and then woke about 40 minutes later, so I got her up again and fiddled with her dressing and nappy a little bit and breastfed her again. She has been asleep since, so I will be heading to bed now in case it doesn't last.

That was last night. This is today.

Well, she slept all night last night. I only heard a tiny peep out of her at 4am, I then lay awake until 6am listening for her When she stirred at 6:15 I went in and took her nappy off and she climbed in to bed with us. It was still pretty blistery, but by the time she had breakfast and a shower all the blisters had popped. I got in to see our GP at 9am, and she said to leave it 24 hours before torturing her with more antibiotics, as it had improved a lot since last night. I am just waiting for a photo to upload, but in the photo you can very faintly see the blue pen mark that the ED Dr drew on there last night, and it has quite obviously come down a lot from then. Betadine paint for the infection and a barrier cream for protection, lots of no nappy time and we should be right, I think.Here is the photo. Pretty gross looking.
She is quite happy, probably due a nice big nap today.

Phew. I always think about it so much when this sort of thing happens, and can only begin to imagine what it would be like if it was ever anything worse with my babies. We have been so lucky over the years. The worst would have had to have been when Ella broke her arm in March, but even that wasn't an emergency situation, as we didn't get it looked at until the next day :( Besides that we have really only had ear infections and chicken pox and tonsilitis. Pretty good run really.

Oh, and what is it with kids and doctors rooms? Both last night and today I just had wild, wild desperado children zooming around. They just get hit with the hyper-stick, it is unreal (and annoying!!) to watch.

My first blog

Okay. Let's see how I go with this.
My main aim of this blog was to have somewhere to write about stuff that is going on in our family as a way of keeping my brother and his wife (Adam and Eva) in touch with our lives, as in a month they are heading overseas for 2 years. :( We will miss them dearly, and at least this way they can access it whenever it suits the, photos and all.

Today was a blustery Winter day and I took Ella and Charlotte for a walk down the street. Charlotte snugged up in the pram and Ella on her bike. I am immensely proud of how well Ella is cycling now. She has training wheels on still, and I imagine she will for a fair while yet, but she is getting so strong in her legs that I very rarely have to give her a boost up a ramp or hill.

She looks very cute trundling along in her Barbie helmet, ankle length skirt and Mary Jane shoes. Being a Sunday the street was nice and empty - no sandwich boards, nor racks of merchandise to get in our way, so we could just chat as we walked/rode down the street. We had some lovely smiles and encouraging words from various people as we rode past, from teenagers to mums to seniors. It's an interesting slant on human nature though, the fact that we also had a few 'almost negative' comments, such as "Better you than me" or "Gosh, your game" or "Probably seemed like a good idea at the time, hey?" All said in good humour etc, but it's a shame that it seems to be easier for people to talk 'down' stuff instead of talking it up.
Oh well, their issue.

Raff and Ella are outside gardening at the moment, Charlotte is asleep, minimal housework awaiting me. This truly is the life.

May as well attempt to add in a photo while I am here.
This is Ella on a sunny day earlier this week. Too cute, hey? And Carlotte with the sunnies.
I think that has worked.

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