Countdown and One Word

This is what I am cooking for tea tonight. It is called Chinese Sticky Rice and the recipe can be found here. One time we were in Perth we went out for yum cha. Caitlin was great and tried a heap of new foods. The one thing that she absolutely loved and still talks about is sticky rice. One day she even cried because we couldn't find any sticky rice for her to eat!

I am on a countdown now until I have my tonsils out. It is only 6 days now (I have them out monday the 11th) and I am slightly nervous, but can rationalise that it is going to be heaps better with the big suckers out!

I am taking Ali Edwards one word challenge this year. All the details can be found here. Ali chose the word "story" and I think this is a great word with so many openings. It isn't the word that chose me though.

My word is "nurture". I think this is the word with meaning for me for so many reasons on the simple, obvious level, about to go into surgery and also with a house full of sick kids! I also know it is the word I would like to focus on in a deeper, more profound or abstract level. I want to nurture positive friendships/relationships. I want to nurture my creativity, not just my paper crafting. I also want to nurture some new roles and new skills during the year.

I will attempt to post some of my progress on my "one word" journey on a monthly basis (see how we go!).

Pool Time

Summer has really hit here! We have had a run for the past week of super humid weather and hot to go with it. I am so ready for some "normal" weather!

We have had the paddle pool out for the kids and they had so much fun in it. I have taken a video of them, but after two attempts to upload it, it just isn't happening. I will post some photos instead.







I was at Cindy's on the weekend and she had some water pumper things that I might get for the kids to use in the paddle pool. Caitlin had heaps of fun sucking up water from their pool and squirting it out.

Our fridge has broken down and has been out of action for a week now. It started with it making a terrible loud noise, but deteriorated into it keeping a temperature of between 16 and 21 degrees! We have moved everything into the bar fridge and has been very interresting to say the least! Samsung and also Harvey Norman have not been as helpful as they could have been. There seems to be no service person in town, so that has made it extremely difficult. The last lady I spoke to on Friday told me that she would have it sorted first thing on Monday morning. Needless to say, we haven't heard a thing from them yet!

It has been reconfirmed over the weekend that there are some people in this world that are not as nice as they could be. It always disappoints me when people are mis-informed and will not listen to another point of view. Those who think they are "right" seen always to be "righteous" (unfortunately there is a really good reason for this gem of wisdom!).

I just did a dash to the clothes line because there is a thunder storm brewing. While I was out there Caitlin was jumping on the trampoline with her umbrella so she didn't get wet! She is such a funny little bunny!

I have been having some fun with my scrapping recently. I have been making some Christmas decorations out of paper and also some altered glass ones. I am so happy with how they have come up. I will post a photo when I have some.

I have found some cool web sites recently.

Wednesday's Wishes is a new online shop by Maxine Hazebroek and Audrey Underwood. They make the most divine off the page items and sell kits for them on their site. I love drooling over their great works of art!

Tammy's Recipes is a cooking site that I came across when following some links from someone else's blog. I love the look of her apple brownies.

Empire Beads is a bead shop (obviously!) and it has great beads for craft work. I love their huge range of pearls. You can get a bag of about 20 8mm pearls for 88c. Wow, that is great value!

Caitlin is itching for me to play and paint and draw (she just won naughts and crosses), so I had better get moving!

Caitlinisms

I thought I would have a catch up of photos of Caitlin. She is changing at the moment. She is losing all that baby look and becoming so much more like a little girl. She is getting pretty cheeky too, so school is having an impact already!



This picture is from easter morning. We had an easter egg hunt and Caitlin, as usual, didn't stop talking! I love capturing photos of her in action!



Caitlin was posing for this shot, and she thought she looked just so gorgeous, like a model, so she asked me to take a photo! Love it!

My gorgeous girl has been so funny lately. She just loves singing and she is great at making up her own songs. Today she was singing a song about me to the tune of Bob the Builder! It went something like this:

I love my mummy
She's so much fun
We scrapbook together
And get our jobs done!

It just cracked me up! When I made comment to her, she had the biggest grin on her face - she was pretty proud of what she had made up!

Today Caitlin and I planted out some of the vegie patch. We bought some seeds and also a few punnets of seedlings yesterday, so today we had to do some digging. We planted Dutch carrot seeds, pea seeds, mixed lettuce seedlings, a couple of perennial silverbeet seeds, some onion seedlings and some snow pea seedlings. Now I have to get a punnet of red cabbage seedlings in and I will have finished that lot.

I want to plant red beet, broad beens and spinach next. Craig and I noticed that some potatoes from last year have self seeded, so I am going to leave it at that soon as I am not eating them at the moment. Then I will have to get some herbs in. My rocket and corriander were great last year, so I am hoping to have a great crop again. Yummy!

Callum's finger is looking much better. Alot of the swelling has gone and the grazes are healing. The nail and the end of his finger is really bruised, so I am waiting to see if he loses his nail. His pain is much better too, so he is healing really fast. I was going to get a photo of his little hand, but it looks no different through the camera lens, so it would be pointless.

Quick update

Just an update:

Caitlin's wrap is GONE! We managed to lose it on a trip to the "stupormarket" on monday the 9th of February. We had been talking heaps about her not having it any more and that big school girls don't have a wrap, so when it came to the crunch she was really fine about it! About 4 weeks later we found it wedged at the back of her car seat. She was thrilled and sucked and snuggled away for all she was worth! It was pretty funny really! As we were going away the next day, we told her that she could have it that night but she wasn't allowed to take it away with her. Since then she has only asked for it a couple of times and when we have said no she has let it alone and gone about her business again. Last week I washed Koala Lou (small pink teady) and Caitlin told me that Koala Lou is now her wrap, and she has slept with her every night since! I think that is really cute.

Callum took two steps by himself on the 15th of March and on the 18th he took 4 steps by himself! YAY - finally we are getting somewhere! Today Craig and I noticed that he often lets go as he is walking around things and takes a few steps unaided. He is getting really steady on his feet and he can walk along when he is holding onto only one of our hands. He can also walk when he is holding onto Caitlin (which is not as stable as if he were holding onto one of our hands). We also noticed that he doesn't often fall over now but lowers himself gently to the floor! Now that he is 18 months he is on a time line! Pushy parents aren't we!

Happy birthday to Neil for last week and Michael, Clare and Craig for this week. I know Craig had a great day and I also hope the remainder had a good time too.

Photo catch-up

I took Callum to be weighed today. He is 10.95kg and 83cm long. He is below average on the graph for weight but given they were made for American bottle fed babies, I am certainly not worried about that!

Cal is so active at the moment. He can spontaneously walk half a dozen steps now, so I think in a few weeks he will be off on his own! He also prefers to walk just holding one hand and doesn't look for support from walls etc now - he actually guides me so that he keeps away from the walls. My camera is on the blink, so if I can get a decent movie of Callum having a toddle, I will post it on the blog.

Caitlin has decided that she loves to get her face painted, so on market day we went to see Candy the Clown. I keps prompting Caitlin about what she might like tohave her face painted as - Princess, fairy, butterfly, flower - NO! she wanted to be a clown just like Candy! I have scrapped this photo with a new technique that I am working on that I cal distress and roll.


We had a lovely family of doves in a nest by the front door. Only 2 days after this photo they had flown the nest.


Mum and I have a new cook book called "Grub" by Jane Lawson. It is all about those old favourites that we used to love and make heaps - french onion dip, corn relish, apricot chicken and home made crumpets! Caitlin and I had a go at the crumpets and I must say that they were super easy. I was really impressed at how they turned out - heaps and heaps better than the bought ones. We will be making them again soon I think.


Last market day Caitlin came along to help with the market stall, which I absolutely love her doing - she is actually a great help. She drew on a heap of our paper bags to decorate them so that people who bought a balm on that day got an original piece of Caitlin's art! Just look at how grown up she looks here manning the stall.


Here is a pic of our little man who can be found anywhere within the perimeter of our fence at the moment. I am sure he would go even further if he could figure out how to get the gates open! He is certainly not afraid to explore! I found him down near the stable only a few days ago! He loves it in the laundry too and I have to check the washing machine before I put anything in there now - today there was a jewellery box in there! I also found him with one of the laundry buckets on his head - testing it out for size. He thought it was a great game.


Caitlin has speach therapy again this afternoon. She is going so well. Craig and I are so very proud of the progress she is making. We have been working on words that start with G and other words that end in S. We have noticed a huge improvement in those words, but also in many other words that she had been having problems with. I am trying to get her to say "the" in the right spot now too, because she has previously replaced it with "a" so breaking that pattern may be a trial.

It is card swap time again (I have only just finished mine - I am so slow with them at the moment). Margie has set the challenge as a baby card. I think it is a great one because we haven't done anything along those lines yet. Good thinking Marg. I may post some cards in a later post.

Turning 4!

We got back last night from a week in Perth. It was a bit of a mamoth trip. We were a bit disorganised in the morning, so didn't get packed up and ready to go until after 11am. Then we had to drop Mitchi's car back, call in to the Naked Butcher for some yummy nitrate free bacon and because it was late, we stopped for lunch in Mundaring. By the time we got home it was nearly 11pm! Needless to say, the kids weren't up until 8.30am.

We had a great time and got out and kept busy because we had a car to get around in. Craig's work colleague, Mitchi, is away at the moment, so the kids and I used his work car. One of the fun things we did was to go to the museum. Caitlin had requested a trip to see some dinosaurs, so off we trecked and had a look. The museum has been renovated since I was there last and it is fantastic - there is even a kids interactive zone! I would highly recommend it if you are passing through Perth.

I also bought myself a new wok. I was fed up with the old one (well, not really that old) and decided that instead of buying mid range pans and having them last 1-2 years, I was going to get a really good one with a guarantee of long life, which would in the end be cheaper. So, I saw a scan pan wok on sale (over $100 off) and got that. It came with a free lid and steamer basket, both of which I will use) so I feel as though I have gotten a great deal. Tonight we are having stirfry for tea!

Caitlin enjoyed her birthday with Nan and Pop Slater in Perth. Some friends and their children also joined us to help make Caitlins day special. We went bowling and then out for pizza and had such a fun time. Caitlin had put in this request weeks ago, so it was great to follow-through so that she felt special. Now my little girl is 4! I must say the cake was probably the worst I have ever made! I didn't have enough butter to make butter creme icing, then didn't have enough icing sugar to make enough icing to decorate it properly, then Caitlin got stuck into the smarties and I ended up with enough to go only 2/3 of the way around the cake, and with the help of a 4 year old to decorate it, the cake ended up looking rather unique! It tasted good though and a cake with candles makes a birthday complete.



Just to catch up on a few pictures, I have added some random ones here.

Caitlin and Callum love the swing set. Callum is enjoying going down the slide now with some assistance.



Callum has started doing what Caitlin used to do - hop into the dishwasher! I am surprised he hasn't broken the door because he is a heavy little thing!



Here is a pic of my gorgeous girl on her first day of school. She is loving school and can't wait to get back there each school day. She has a uniform of bright yellow t-shirt and black skort, which is far too big for her, but better than getting her day clothes stained.



Here is Caitlin in action putting on her name badge in class. Now that they have been going a few weeks, they no longer need them because the teacher has learned all their names.



I have far more photos and will update again soon!

Punch and Judy

It is cold here today, but Ulverstone is in for some hot (for Tassie) weather over the next few days, so I think I am going to be broken into the heat again gently!

We had a great day yesterday for Australia Day. We took Caitlin and Callum to the park for a Punch and Judy show. Caitlin was getting really involved and just loved it! Callum was unsure, I think because it was really bright and loud, but I gave him a cuddle and he put up with it alright.

Caitlin has been making mud cakes in the dirt and Callum somehow got into it - this is the result of his playing in the mud (no, it isn't chocolate)! I think it is the end of that gorgeous t-shirt!

Caitlin had a great time making lamingtons with her Nanny. She always says "let me, I can do it!" I suppose it can only be a good thing in the long term to let her have a go.

Look what I have been living on since I have been here... fresh raspberries out of the garden. They are absolutely deluxe! I love them so much and I miss them when I am in Kal and miss out for a season.

This is the view from Mum and Dad's new house. It is very serene and relaxing. It doesn't feel like living in town because you can't see any neighbours across the road, only this great view.

The Rest of My Week

Well, I seem to have posted in bits and pieces today! What else have I been doing this week? I will go through methodically to get it all down!

Tuesday:
I got my article and layout/card finalised for Scrapbooking Memories and posted them off. It was a real relief because in the end, I had lost the 800 word article that I had written for them 3 times! While in the post office I saw my cousin Hilda and had a little catch-up with her.

Wednesday:
Callum and I headed off to Smithton in the morning because I had two scrapbooking classes scheduled there in the afternoon. We got 10 people to participate and it was heaps of fun. I always love teaching a page and then seeing the end results, which are always so different to my own example. We stayed in Smithton with my sister Janice for the night and had a great time.

Caitlin had a mini-holiday with Nan and Pop while Cal and I went away. She had a special day at Wing's Farm Park in Guns Plains with Nan, Lynette and her grandson Kalan. Caitlin didn't really talk that much about her day out, but I gather from Mum that she had a good time!

Thursday:
Had a relaxing morning at Janice's house. We went to Montague to pick blueberries (Janice, Justice, Lauren and I) which was such a lovely thing to do. The owners are an older eccentric Canadian couple, but they grow the yummiest organic blueberries I have tasted. And they were so cheap at $7 per kilo!

We went scrapbook shopping, clothes looking and then out for lunch after our blueberry picking trip. I spent some time at Janice's packing up, helping Justice with some cards for the "animals" challenge for the card swap, and then headed back up the coast.

When Callum and I got back, I realised that he had cut two teeth over night (his bottom eye teeth R then L). No wonder he had been grumpy for a few weeks!

Friday:
We haded to Devonport to do some jobs - we called in to Pots and Pans and I saw a great stove top coffee pot that I think I will go back and get. It is an Avanti one and was $43 off. A friend at home makes this type of coffee and I just love it, so I would like to get rid of my coffee machine that I am not at all happy with and make it on the stove instead. We went to Mason and Mason for a yummy lunch and look around, then headed to Burnie to Jenerick and then Spotlight for decorator items for Mum and Dad's new home.

Saturday:
Went out for Chinese for tea - very interesting night - they had no high chair, so Cal had to be held, or watched like a hawk, Caitlin couldn't find much on the menu to eat (and they had no kids menu!), we asked for a bowl of ice cream for Caitlin and they came back to me to ask if I realised that a bowl of ice cream was $15!!!, so I politely said that we would give it a miss, then they came back and said they could do a kids serve for $5 and again I said no thanks ($5 for a kids ice cream???). They told us at the end that they were aiming to make it a high class establishment... don't rich people have kids? I wonder how long they will last...

Sunday:
Went up to the farm so the kids could have a ride on the motor bike. Then the kids and I went for a visit with Neil and Louise which was great. They are so relaxed and I enjoy their company. We are going there for tea on Tuesday night as a farewell.

Here are some pics of our blueberry picking expedition. It was such great therapy!

Janice and Justice:

Janice and I:

Lauren:

Look at the luscious little things! The plants were loaded.

Haylee and Justice move to Geelong this week - I think all of our family are really sad to see them move, but realise there are bigger things out there for those two! Justice has been accepted to a great all girls public school there and Haylee will have a new home and job in no time! Good luck. I now have a great reason to stop over in Melbourne for a holiday.

Farm Girl

Today Dad was carting in the last of the hay he had cut and baled. I love this photo of the huge round straw coloured bales of hay and the bluest of blue skies.





Mum and I sat the kids up on the bales because it is a great kid thing to do - playing in the hay. It really isn't the same as when I was a kid though because the bales used to be small and rectangular, which we could shift around to make cubby houses. And the chooks loved them too, often making a nest in amongst the bales. When you realised that the egg supply was getting low, they were already well ensconsed in their new nest!





Cal had his first ride on the motor bike yesterday, but of course I forgot to take the camera, so today I made sure I got it all on film! He is s o easy going that he just took it all in his stride.





Caitlin absolutely loves the bike and is on it as often as she can convince us to take her up to the farm. I think if she were here more often she would become a real farm girl. She isn't frightened, she wants to have a go and will be in anything. I love that!





She also had a couple of rides in the tractor with Pop, sitting up on his knee and taking it all in. I think with very little encouragement, she would be in there and driving the tractor for Pop!

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Happy Australia Day! We are having a barbie for tea, cooking lamingtons and being very good little Aussie citizens by watching the obligatory sport on our national day!

Since I have been updating the blog more often, I feel as though a week without blogging is almost an eon.

Callum loves getting around after his bath in the nudie rude. He also has a fascination with Mum and Dad's ensuite. He crawls so fast that it is hard to get a photo of him! Here is a shot of Cal crawling as fast as he possibly could (because he knew I was after him) into the ensuite to get into mischief. Very cute I think.




This week he has started to pull himself up to standing and the bath is just a good height for him to get leaverage to stand. Caitlin was in the bath when I took this shot and she had been feeding Cal bubbles to eat!




Since we have been here we have been talking to Craig on the phone every day. Caitlin (aka little miss chatterbox) spends as much time on the phone to her Daddy as I do I think! She has a routine on the phone and every time Mum and I hear her we just crack up because we know exactly how the conversation is going to go! I think she is looking out for her Daddy's welfare.

Here is how it goes:
1. "hello"
2. "what have you been doing?"
3. "what did you have for breakfast?"
4. "what did you have for lunch?"
5. "what did you have for tea?"
6. "oh, you haven't had tea? Well what did you have for morning tea?"

And so on it goes! Just hilarious.



We have been wearing her out too. She has been for long walks, trips to the park and the beach, running around, digging in the garden, meeting new people and generally staying out of bed heaps later than she should. Some days she goes suspiciously quiet and when I look at her she is sound asleep. Earlier in the week, she was trying on her new school uniform to see how much I need to alter the skort I got for her (size 4 and far too big) and she sat down for not even for a minute and this is how I found her!

I will post again to put up some more photos - I have been so busy this week!

First time at the Beach

We had a trip to the beach today. It was the first time that Cal had been to the beach. He had a great time, but got cold fairly quickly. He was loving the water and splashed heaps, played with the sand and of course tried to eat some too!

Caitlin was so excited too. She had only had a splash at the edge of the water and a dig in the sand since being here and today actually got her bathers on. She loves the rock pools, but we have to be so careful of blue ringed octopus here. She was fascinated with the sea snails we found in a pool.

I will post photos of our trip to the beach in my next post.

A quick update of Callum's progress: he is trying hard to pull himself up to standing at the moment, and actually succeded last night in the bath! It is really hard to sit him down on his bottom at all because he wants to stand and walk with you. I have been trying to give him as much practice as possible so that he gets stronger every day and improves his ballance.

Beach Life

We are having such a great time staying with my parents at the moment. They live across the road from the beach and is such a lovely location. Caitlin and Callum have been having great fun playing in the dirt where Mum and Dad and landscaping. Caitlin has had to have a wash in the laundry tub a few times because she gets covered from head to toe!





Callum has always been a real outdoors boy, but he has finally discovered dirt! He has a little spade and he tries to dig and scoop out the dirt like Caitlin does. A couple of days ago I went to check on him and all up his legs and half of his body was covered with what he had dug out! Looked very precious.

Yesterday was Dad's birthday and most of the family was here for lunch - I think 30 or so. Haylee hired a beach peddle buggy for the kids. Caitlin and Cal were on the front and Justice and Chloe peddled. Cal was just cracking himself up over it. Caitlin, the little dare devil was loving it when they went around corners a little too fast. Will and Zane hired a trailer for it and attached it to the back, so there was a train peddle buggy. OMG it was so funny.

Today we are off to Hobart until Thursday to stay with Steve and Kay and Erin and Riley. Caitlin is really looking forward to having other little kids to play with and I am looking forward to spending some time with great friends that I miss so much while I am away.

Craig has had 2 weekends at home by himself now and I think he is trying to keep himself extra busy because he is missing us heaps. Well, guess what... we all miss him heaps too.

We have had a busy but lovely Christmas and New Year and now the kids and I are on holiday in Tassie.

We went to Perth for Christmas this year to spend time with Craig's family. We had a house full, but the kids all got on so well. I love that they are getting to know each other better, when we all live so far apart.

On the sunday after christmas we spent the day at the zoo with our kids, Steffan and their kids and Brian. Here are a couple of photos of us at the zoo. Callum was absolutely enthralled with the elephants. His little face showed complete shock when he saw one for the first time!

On the 29th of December the kids and I headed off on the plane to Tasmania. We are here for a whole month for a holiday with Mum and Dad. We are thoroughly enjoying it but I don't feel like I have really rested yet. Caitlin was so very sick only a couple of days after we got here. There has been a gastro type virus going around and of course we got it. Callum has managed to escape it, but Caitlin got it in full force. She vomited so hard that she had to lay down to do so. I was up in the middle of the night with a mild dose and had a day on the couch afterwards, but have generally been OK.

Cal is now very unsettled at night. I have no idea why - initially I thought it was teeth, but there have been none poke through, so I am at a loss. He has been up at least 3 times a night, so I am hoping that whatever it is resolves soon, because I am looking forward to a full night's sleep.

I got an email today from Scrapboxx saying that they have an opening once again for a design team member, so once again I am going to apply. They want 3 items of work and will make their decision from there. There are so many tallented scrappers out there that I am sure I will be one of many that apply.

My article that I had written for "For Keeps Creative Paper" magazine is out in the stores. The 2 page spread is on page 118. I had been so disheartened when I last had something published that I was reluctant to submit anything again. Well, this time my expectations have been blown away! The layout has been photographed brilliantly and apart from one typo in the text, it has come up better than I could have hoped! It encourages me t o get scrapping and sub some more!

Our Funny Kids

I thought it was about time that I updated the photos of the kids!

Caitlin just loves to scrapbook with me. Here is a gorgeous creation of hers! She loves to send some of her layouts to the scrapbooking shop with mine and Renaye is good enough to put them up in the shop, which I think is a crack up and Caitlin thinks is great!



Dad is regularly inundated by kids - good thing he loves them to bits!



Callum has been taking an interest in some more challenging toys lately. Caitlin and I got out a heap of jigsaws recently and he loved the easy ones too.



Just checking to see if it is gold...



Last but not least, Caitlin is having a little break from jewelery at the moment, so when she does play with it, she piles it on to get a fix!

Home Made Cordial

I have been trying so hard to finish off the oranges from our tree because the new leaves are just starting to grow and I thought it was time for the tree to put energy into growth rather than sustaining old oranges. I was reading a blog and got the idea of making some fresh cordial using citrus juice - perfect for my oranges.

Don't these bottles of cordial look great! We are not huge cordial drinkers and Caitlin actually won't dring commercial cordial, but she loves this one! I made 5 bottles altogether but have already given a lemon cordial away and one of the orange ones is earmarked for L and her family.



Here is the recipe if you are interested:

Citrus cordial (recipe from a sustainable living blog)

First, make a sugar syrup: * Combine 1 part sugar with 1 part water in a saucepan. * Heat mixture, boiling gently, stirring to dissolve sugar. Then, your basic cordial recipe is: * Combine 1 part fruit juice with 1 part sugar syrup. Chill. * To drink, dilute cordial about 1:10 with water, mineral water or soda water. * Keep refrigerated and drink within about a week. Citrus cordials: If you are making a citrus-based cordial, you can add 1 teaspoon of citric acid or tartaric acid (both are derivatives of fruit, found in the baking aisle of supermarkets) per litre (quart) of cordial as a preservative, which will mean it lasts about a month. I also suggest adding the finely grated zest of one of the fruit too, for added flavour.

I am off to bed - early nights for me for a while because Caitlin and I have school sores. We went to the doctor today, thinking Caitlin had chicken pox and came out with a highly contageous infection that requires us to be house bound for a while, so no scrapbooking classes either!

Kung Fu Panda

I took Caitlin to see her first movie today!

My friend C and her son T wanted to go to see Kung Fu Panda, so we tagged along. The kids had so much fun. Towards the end of the movie they both got quite fidgety, but that was to be expected really. On the whole they were both great. Caitlin was frightened at one stage and sat on my knee, but was generally OK with the big screen and the dark. I thought the movie was great too!

Poor Cal and Craig stayed home! Callum slept pretty much the whole time that we were away and Craig pruned some more of that hideous vine (now dead) from a tree at the side (near the dove cote) that has suffered from it being so invasive. He got just about all if it trimmed out I think.

It is raining here. The bureau of meteorology says that we have only had about 5 mm, but I believe we have had quite a bit more. For about 3 days now we have had heavy rain at night and drizzle on and off during the day and the garden is looking great for it. Now the weeds will be even more out of control than they were before! My patch of spinach that I had to re-sow is up and looking good. The new patch of corn is still not up, but I think that takes a while.

CSI is about to be on TV, so I had better go and get my weekly fix of TV!

Ten Pin Bowling!

Can you imagine a group of 11 three year olds ten pin bowling - no? Well, we did it today. And it was the cutest thing ever! Caitlin LOVED it. "I can do it myself Mummy" was about all I heard this morning. She would get her own ball off the shoot thing, carry it over to a special stand they have for kids, get me to put the ball on because it was too heavy for her to lift up that far, then she would roll it down the stand (it was sort of like a ramp) and towards the pins. She did so well. I think we will make an endeavour to go as a family some time because we all had so much fun. Can you believe they even had shoes small enough for her? I wish I had taken my camera.

Child Health Visit

I took Caitlin for her 3 year old check up and Cal for his 8 months check on Tuesday.

Caitlin had a full audiology check because the speech therapist wanted to check that her hearing was OK to rule that out as a cause for her lagging speech. She heard every sound that was produced, so that is promising. On height and weight, she is going well too. She is 100cm tall, which is almost right on the 75th percentile, which means that only 25% of girls her age are taller. She weighs 15.8kg with clothes and shoes, which is between the 50th and 75th percentiles, which is also great. She is on track to be a bit taller than me. Maybe I will end up the shortie of the family like my Mum has!

Callum has lost a small amount of weight since I weighed him at 9 months - he is now 8.06kg (he was 8.14kg at 9 months). When he had the bad cold and tonsilitis he hardly ate or drank, so I can fully understand that he has lost some weight. The CHN was onto it and wants to make sure that he has put on some again by 10 months because of his weight loss when he was 3 or 4 months. I am sure that he is fine though. He is growing longer despite being sick - he is now 72.5cm long. He has suddenly decided food is OK too. His appetite has increased heaps and he is starting to tolerate lumps and loves rice rusks and toast crusts. I expect that he will be beefing up from now on!

Some Photos

Both of the kids just love us reading to them. I am so grateful that Craig loves reading as much as I do and is setting a great example for both Caitlin and Cal.



Caitlin is loving her babushka dolls at the moment. Every day I have to open the biggest one for her so she can stack and sort and line them all up. I think there are 15 in the set and goes down to the size of a grain of rice. I worry that we will lose the smallest one or two, but hey, if they go by the wayside it doesn't matter I suppose because they have had good use so far!



Our little acrobat has learned a new trick (trained monkey!). She loves to hang upside down. She is getting stronger too. Because she has always had weak shoulders I have been paying attention to getting her to pull herself up using her arms and try to get herself high enough to flick her legs over the bar. She perhaps gets about half way by herself, which is pretty cool.



Dad's earmuffs are also the flavour of the month. Doesn't she look cute?



I have just realised there is a distinct lack of photos of Callum in this post. I will have to make up for it in another one. This is just a classic photo - I get this frown all the time at the moment. He uses it to full effect. Whenever I do something that he doesn't like, I get this huge frown or scowl! I know I do it to Caitlin so that she knows that I don't like what she is doing so I don't need to discipline her in front of her friends, so I must unknowingly be giving the same look to Cal. Classic really! I must scrap this one!