Half a year ...

The big signal that my baby is growing is that I now no longer provide every skerrick of nutrition. We introduced pumpkin to her this week and I think her anticipation of the food thing was far greater than the actual experience. She has been watching our every spoonful over the last few weeks, complete with mouth opening at the correct time, followed by chewing movements.
So she was absolutely ecstatic to be put in the high chair and then to have a bib around her neck with a bowl and a spoon in reach!!
And then the pumpkin approached the wide open mouth ...

and ...





Tonight we went out for dinner, to the Gawler Arms, and they had roast pumpkin, so she got her first go at finger foods to and enjoyed that greatly. Mushing it between her fingers and such. Only time will tell whether any was ingested or not ...

And she has also started verbalising consonants


She is on the move, too. Not much and not far, but edging around a bit like a little caterpillar!

Merry Christmas and happy birthday

A perfect day. All the girls got about 12 hours sleep and woke at the perfectly reasonable hour of 6:45. They woke up happy and thrilled and proceeded to demolish the load of presents that Santa brought.
Much fun was had by all, including Lucy who managed a bite or two of wrapping paper.
We were at Rosalie's today with a quick stop off at Grandpa Y's on the way.
The day was a glorious 26 degrees. Exactly how you want it. The kids mingeld well and the adults relaxed. It really was perfect.
Santa paid a fleeting visit and Charlotte got to have another cake.
People came and went as they do, too much food was consumed and too much wasn't ...

Christmas morning mayhem

Icecream cake

Ella

Charlotte

Lucy

Everyone!!



Adam and Eva - Can't wait to share a Christmas with you again :) Then maybe Rachel will stopp calling me the 'yucky one'. Hard to believe from when you guys saw her last, but next Christmas Charlotte will be four - ready to start kindy in the new year :-0

And a touch of video to catch an earful of Charlotte's raucous laugh. She had all the adults to herself for quite a while in the afternoon and certainly enjoyed it!


Happy 3rd birthday my Charlotte.

Charlotte's party

This year we decided to give Charlotte a proper party. It was all about her and she loved it. We had the usual suspects, plus we were lucky enough to have my good friend Jacki and her children Jarra and Arusha time their visit back to Adelaide just right. Raff's nana and uncle Jim and my close friend Rhiannon and her two girls (who both go to childcare with Charlotte and Sophie) saw us with 11 kids and 10 adults. It was a great day - really cold for a DEcember day with stacks of rain in the morning so our park plans were cancelled. The kids all did their thing and the only concession to a kiddies party was a game of pass the parcel (I don't do 'treats' inside each layer!) and the birthday cake. I won't do lolly bags either :) Charlotte had a good day that very quickly descended into night. All her presents were received that day and it really was all about her.
The Alien Cake

Birthday girl on bike

More photos!

An online friend of mine took some photos of us while we were in Sydney. I have 'known' her for quite a few years now, so it was lovely to finally meet her. Her photography business is called Cupcakes Photography, with her blog here.

The weather wasn't the greatest, so we were a bit wet and windblown, but the results are lovely.


A couple of natural shots of mum with the girls.

Lucy. Couldn't you just eat her? Yum.

Charlotte


Ella

My family!


Lucy in her favourite place

She managed to get all of us :)

So much colour!

Elfish

Oh dear.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1353315631

Father Christmas

Only 17 more sleeps until Christmas! On Friday after school we went to have the obligatory Santa photo and it was a roaring success. We went to the Myer at Elizabeth and there was no one waiting at all. Charlotte ran straight up to him and leapt on to his lap and asked him 'Can you say ho ho ho?' which of course he did :)
He was a lovely Santa and the girls got to have a nice long chat with him. They both requested 'umm, presents?' when he asked what they would like for Christmas.

I have managed to track down the last 5 years Santa shots, so will post them in order. I couldn't find the 2002 one. Ella would have been 5ish months old and I think we went with Rachel and kids. Do you have a copy Rach?



2003


2004



2005


2006


2007

Ballet Concert

We didn't have quite the same enthsiastic build up this year. I think missing the first rehearsal and the photo shoot meant that she wasn't revved up for the concert enough in the earlier weeks. She was extremely nervous, but pulled up bravely on the day. Her on stage presence could o with a polish up ;) but she is gorgeous.




It is a great show they put on, and I hope to be able to sit and watch the whole show one day in the future. Ella wants to do tap next year, and Charlotte wants to start ballet too. Should be fun!