happenings

Our trampoline

2010-01-14T21:05:00.001+10:30

My fantastic parents got me the kids a trampoline for Christmas. It is one of those awesome spring free ones. It was assembled late on Christmas night with mum and dad, my sister and Raff and I. And some eggnog. And Baileys. It wasn't too bad as far as the assembly of these things go. I had hold of the instruction book, so we knew we were in good hands.

The kids LOVE it. The one-kid-at-a-time rule lasted about 27 seconds. They use it for so many things in so many different ways. It is great for laying on and reading, fantastic for rough housing, brilliant for tea parties and picnics, ideal for secret meetings. Lucy, at just 2 years old, would be on there 24/7. This morning she was on it, naked, at 7am.
Charlotte can do somersaults on it and Ella is getting it together enough to be able to bounce herself well.

They play a game where two of them curl up in a ball laying on the tramp mat and the other one jumps up and down yelling something like 'crack the egg, crack the egg!' the first one to 'uncurl' loses.
I managed to catch a semi decent shot of them all with static hair. Then Lucy touched me - ouch!

I have enjoyed jumping on it in the evenings. It is much fun looking over all the neighbours fences!

Skype

2010-01-06T23:01:00.000+10:30

A Skype moment between Charlotte in South Australia and her Nana (my mum) in Manchester, UK.

How lucky are the children of this generation!? Mum and dad won't be home until mid-February, but the kids get to see and hear them still.

My business

2010-01-04T22:02:00.000+10:30

Today I registered a business name. The OCBA tells me that The Office of Consumer and Business Affairs recommends that you DO NOT use or outlay any further expense in relation to the business name (advertising, printing or signage etc.) until your registration is confirmed by receipt of your Registration Certificate, so I don't want to jinx anything by telling y'all the name just yet. It has been a very very long process, choosing this name. Every name I liked was taken, and then I found one that wasn't and it was refused on some technicality ('sounds like ...')

Officially I 'teach basic computer skills to seniors'. What does that mean? Well, anything from 'This is a mouse' to 'Let's set up your brand new laptop' to chatting to my students via MSN to setting up Skype with them. I visit people's houses as well, because all the explaining in the world on my computer, won't show them how to scan a document on their computer.
I am helping an 81 year old student set up Coles online shopping, as soon her husband will be forfeiting his license.
I see a man twice a week that has a brand new laptop that he purchased after only two sessions with me and he is now inseparable from his computer.
In two short weeks I will be doing a group training session to some Mallala residents. I will be specifically running through the useage of a wiki site that has been developed. I have been teaching 3 wonderful, industrious, funny, clever, diligent, and dare I say, a touch stubborn women to find their way around that website - to upload photos, to edit and create pages, to insert relevant hyperlinks and all the other bits and pieces. We have been working together for about 9 months now, firstly on a totally volunteer basis, but in the last couple of months on a paid basis.

This is a really flexible 'job' for me. I enjoy starting my mornings with some light chit chat, a few laughs and the transfer of information. Currently, with school holidays, we are doing okay having the children around while I am teaching. It is not ideal and I will find it more relaxing when they are back at school, but for now, it works.

To teach is to learn twice. ~ Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842

Holidays!

2010-01-03T21:45:00.002+10:30

Just before Christmas we received the terribly exciting news that Raff would have holidays from Christmas Eve until the 4th of January. The added bonus, after the previous 5 years spent running his own businees, was paid annual leave! How exciting to not have to weigh up the need for rest time for him versus the ability to pay bills etc for the family.

Right from the moment we found out we ummed and aahed about what to do with the time off. An offer from his aunt (the awesome, the great, the Meg!) to spend some time with her down at Port Noarlunga could not be overlooked, so we spent two hot summery days and one fairly sleepless night with Meg. It was lovely to hang out and feel very relaxed while spending pleasant adult time with one of my favourite people. The kids really enjoyed their time at her house and at the beach. We drove home from there on New Years Eve (everybody slept the whole drive home, except me :)) We refreshed ourselves and then headed out to a NYE/30th birthday do. We stayed for a while and had the kids home and in bed at 10pm, so we had a couple of drinks and saw in the New Year together.

The next morning we were off to Barmera. Best laid plans went a touch awry and we didn't hit the road until 10:40am, as everyone was quite irritable (including me!) and there were still bags to be packed. Our original plan was to leave early and travel most of the way through in one hit, but that wasn't to be. I think we stopped about a dozen times on the 200 or so km trip. There were side of the road toilet stops for stubborn children that wouldn't go when everyone else went 10kms ago, there was a stop near the fruit fly exclusion zone where we could all sit and eat two days worth of fruit rather than throw it all out, there were a couple of 'I-am-stopping-this-car-right-now-young-lady' pauses. And coffee stops and lunch stops and 'Where's my Bear?' stops. Lucky we are all just such patient people, right?

We drove in to Barmera at 2pm exactly, which was check in time
The caravan park was great, right on Lake Bonney, with plenty to do. It was very very hot when we arrived, so it was straight to the cabin to get bathers and sunscreen on so we could head down to the lake. Unfortunately, the previous three days of sunscreen use had seen me break out in a nasty rash. I was

covered from toe to hip and from fingers to shoulders in a red blotchy puffy tight itchy rash. I made the rather stupid decision to not apply sunscreen 'just yet' as I was really quite uncomfortable. Of course, at 3pm on a 40 something degree day with lots of lake water to reflect sun rays, the chance of coming away from even 10-15 minutes unprotected sun exposure without burns was pretty minimal. So yeah, I got a bit sunburn too. Only a bit though, as I spent most of the time that the kids were in the lake perched underneath a bit of shade. The kids had so much fun and the back bubble floatie that mum and dad got Lucy for Christmas was used a lot.
The caravan park did kayak hire and we vowed to come back the next day for that, but the next day was a lot cooler, so we never did get a chance to do that.

We headed over to the swimming pool and spent a couple of hours just floating about in the shade. It was just divine. The pool was packed, but the kids were having fun and it was low stress. After a while my grumbly tummy let me know it was heading on to dinner time, so I headed back to the cabin to create a gourmet dinner of baked beans and tinned spaghetti with grilled cheese rolls. Even though the kids had had such little sleep the two preceding nights and had done little more than occassionally doze on the drive, I knew no one was going to sleep early in the bright hot cabin. So we settled in to play Uno with our cups of cold milo and chocolate biscuits. Very soon we could hear the distant rumble of thunder, so we all sat outside in our PJs and watched the great electrical storm. The kids have never really seen lightning before, so it was met with much excitement.

Watching the lightning - that's Lake Bonney ahead through the trees.

Very cheeky monkey, opening the sliding door for the 785th time.

The next morning dawned very cold. The air conditioner had been on all night and everyone woke up freeeeeeeeezing. A breakfast spent deflecting the many scowls at the chief clothes packer, who failed to pack warm enough clothes, and constant glares at the chief packer who didn't pack honey. Or pancakes. Or Any Nice Food!

First stop - the IGA for honey. And pancake mix.
Second stop - bakery for coffee and The Best Fresh Wagon Wheels in the Universe.

Third stop - the Big Orange: Unfortunately closed.
The fourth? Monash Playground! Now we're talking! It was pleasantly cool and there was only a couple of other families there. It is a long way from how I remember it, but the kids had a lot of fun.

Lots of running and climbing and giggling until the Time for Torture aka Sunscreen Application (And no, it wasn't me that threw the tantrum!) so a quick and noisy exit was made. Lucy fell asleep on our way to get lunch, so we detoured for a bit around Loxton to wait for her to wake. I was intrigued by signs leading us to the Tree of Knowledge, and was interested by what we saw. The tree had all the years of the rising flood levels on it, with 1956 being the one right up the top. The river is just behind that bank of trees, so it meant there was a LOT of water. I'm glad we ventured off the track, as a kangaroo hopped past our car which cheered up Miss Middle Child immensely.

We also visited the Loxton Historical Village This killed a few hours and was quite informative. Though Ella was 'scared' of the stuffed birds, the live sheep in cages, the automated voice-overs, the sheds with machinery in, I think she learned quite a lot, too. A lot of the stuff around the place reminded me of either Grandpa's house or our old homestead at Stebonheath, so I had lots of stories to tell the kids.

On the way back to the caravan park another sign for Thiele's Sandbar caught my eye. I followed it along a corrugated dirt road, with all my chickens in the back squawking 'go back, mum! this is scary!' I ended up listening to them when the sand started getting a bit squishy under the tyres. :( Though, we slowed down to look at some cactus on the side of the road and as I started to speed up again a snake slithered across our path - that was exciting :)

I dropped the kids and Raff at the pool and went back to the cabin to read my book aka starting dinner prep. Ah, the joys of holiday cooking - bacon fried in a burnt warped pan, eggs 'scrambled' in a tiny saucepan. Another relaxed bedtime with no clock to look at.

The next morning was pack up time. It brought back so many memories - the kids all checking the cupboards, doing the dishes, sweeping the floors and one last stop by the park playground as Raff handed in the keys.

Ella stepping out of her comfort zone and breaking the rules,

sitting in the middle of the seesaw

This caravan park also had a jumping pillow which looked like so much fun! I really wanted to go on it, but it was covered in kids each time we went by.

One last photo of the Lake and we were on our way! It was 9:30am, and we didn't get home until 4:30pm! We had choclolate fondue in Waikerie, caught the ferry across the river and drove to Morgan for lunch. We then stopped at Eudunda to see the Colin Thiele statue and play in the beautiful grounds there. After another toilet stop we headed home, to the sounds of two happy children playing with paper dolls in the back row and the melodic sounds of a two year olds rendition of Taylor Swift's Love Story ad nauseum. Only pausing mid song to demand 'green ice cream. PLEASE'

One last stop at the Willaston deli for green icecream :) and all asleep by 6:45pm. A lovely weekend.

Okay, it's a blog post!

2009-09-07T20:15:00.020+09:30

Um, well, that year went by pretty quick! The reason I originally started this blog was to keep my brother and SIL up to date with what was happening while they travelled for a couple of years. They returned late last September and since then I got slack on the blog front. I think that the ease and interactiveness of Facebook has seen me using that as an alternate photo catch up place.

Anyway, Melissa is forcing me to blog, so blog I will!
My brother and SIL got to meet a 15 month old Lucy in the flesh for the first time, she was suprisingly receptive to these perfect strangers and applied a lovely embrace to them both at the airport.

A short time later 7 kids + 5 adults took a two week trip to sunny Queensland. As all parents that holiday with kids can attest to, a holiday with children is ... interesting. The days started very early and were very very tiring, but the most important thing is that all the kids brought home such great memories.

Charlotte and I in Queensland

Lucy
My middling turned 4 and had an awesome birthday and great Christmas. Four is definitely her age. I didn't really realise until we left 3 behind just how crap the Year of Three was. She is a fantastic kid, clever and caring and deliciously different. She started kindy at the beginning of the year and took to it like a duck to water. She fit right in and is as happy doing crafty work as she is rolling in the sandpit. She is a mixed bag, you can never really tell which Charlotte you are going to encounter on waking each day. The snuggly buggly lovey one, or the ... other one.

She also started ballet this year, like her sister before her, she is not a natural, but what she lacks in grace she makes up for in enthusiasm and I look forward to seeing her perform onstage in a few short months. Charlotte also became an unofficial Girl Guide, alongside Ella. They are not meant to start until they are 5, but her behaviour and her listening skills are exemplerary at Guides apparently, so each week my two big girls go along and do all kinds of Girl Guide things together.

First fireworks

My baby powered through some big milestones. Toilet training at the ridiculously early age of 20 months has meant that she has just seemed so grown up for such a long time. Her cot is gone now, the cot I remember sanding back to raw wood and painting it purple whilst pregnant with Ella over 7 years ago. Raff slept in in when he was a baby. There are few remnants left of us having had babies in this house - no highchair, no baby toys. I'm just surrounded by big girls. Lucy, I sewar she thinks she is 10 years old. She is smart and sassy and bossy and funny and wise. And cute. Cannot forget The Cute.

My eldest and my youngest with birthdays only 11 days apart, saw the middle of the year pass us by very quickly. Ella turning seven was very cool. I look at her and see all the little girlness has melted away. She tall and lithe and lean, growing into the young lady she will be. She has astounded me by powering her way through the first 6 Harry Potter books. I remember myself devouring them all such a short time ago, so I am just rapt to be able to engage her in some really interesting discussions about the characters. She is a third of the way through the final book and is already in that dither that only heavy duty readers understand - to read through the book as fast as possible to reveal the story, or to meander through it, with long pauses to soak it in, knowing that you will never be new to these pages ever again.

I put this one in of Ella, because I think she looks so much like my (favourite) cousin Lee.
Her party inspired me to do something cool for their parties each year. It was such a magical day, with such great kids and a truly appreciative daughter. We had a Pirate theme and it was just so much fun. It took a lot of planning and organising, but the end result rocked.

So, that brings me to me. What have I been doing this year? Well, in March I bit the bullet and replied to an ad in the local paper requesting volunteers to assist seniors with some basic computer skills. I was nervous beyond anything you could ever imagine. I am not a natural born speaker, I am more of an observer, so I really trod out of my comfort zone. I now put in 7 or so hours each week helping people demystify computers. We start with 'This is a mouse, this is how you click' It is that basic. So to sit back and watch 3-4 people at a time wandering through the www on their own steam, Googling whatver they want and shooting emails off to children and grandchilden has been fan-freakin-tastic. It feels good and I love the things I have been involved in.

I highly recommend this sort of volunteering to anyone that feels like they need to be doing something a bit more fulfilling than the daily housework grind. The things I have taught, the things I have learnt, the laughs we have had, the generations we have crossed. To see the joy of success, the conquering of fear, the successful wrangling of new terminology for all.

Raff is heading for some change also, some of that change may require me starting to help with this money earning thang and I am seriously thinking of starting up a little business on the side teaching skills. It seems I have patience and a way with words that can cut through the complications for people. I would love to spread this far and wide.

Assorted things

2008-09-16T21:22:00.009+09:30

Ella at the Gawler Show

Charlotte at the Gawler Show

Lucy at the Gawler Show

Puddles!

Charlotte at Ella's school disco

Trying to get a nice photo for Real Nappy Week

A rather gratuitous breastfeeding photo of my nearly 15 month old toddler! It was Breastfeeding awareness week back in August, so just a plug for sustained breastfeeding

Moon Lantern Parade

2008-09-16T21:07:00.006+09:30

Ella has been busy at this school during Indonesian lessons creating wire and tissue paper lanterns. It all came to fruition on Sunday night with the lovely Moon Lantern Festival, as part of OzAsia at the Festival Centre.
After a wet and windy start to the day, it was clear and calm when it was time to walk. There were hundreds of very excited children, with about 10 from Ella's class. She had a lot of fun, and was goggly eyed at everything. Our kids very very rarely get to see nighttime, so just being out after 7pm was excitement itself, let alone the added buzz of the Parade. Lucy had obliged us with a 4 hour (!) sleep during the day, so I was relaxed and content that the late night wasn't going to kill anyone :)

The lantern by the light of day

It's dark now!

Full moon

2 x 3

2008-09-16T20:45:00.003+09:30

It has been such an experience witnessing Sophie and Charlotte growing up together (for those not aware, Sophie is Charlotte's youngest cousin 6 months younger than herself) They are both extremely 'old' children with the wisdom of 4 older siblings overlaying all that they do. Watching the games they play and the way they interact is pure gold.
It is common for me to have Sophie here for a day, as Rachel gallivants around the place, doing lunch and revelling in massages. Today she made her eldest wag school. Those poor children :p
Charlotte, before we headed off to school this morning, had collected about 8 sticks of assorted lengths, that had blown down in yesterdays winds. She had them all laid out ready to play the 'stick game' with Sophie. Sounds like fun, huh? Two 3 year olds and enough sticks for everyone to lose an eye!

So, we all agreed on a few ground rules - sticks must stay below our elbows, sticks must always point at the ground and no hurting each other! Of course, within minutes of the 'stick game' starting, Sophie had a scratch right near her eye. Unintentional on Charlotte's behalf, so a cautious hug rectified the tears. (hugs are always cautious between these two, as it is fairly common for the wounded one to turn on the other one and lash right back at them, even if the incident was accidental, and the attcker was genuinely remorseful)

So, I was lsitening for them, as I was doing housework, and they were chatting away ion the driveway, then I here them running to the back door and they both invited me out to watch the show. The sticks were now balancing beams, as an intricate winding pattern was laid out all over the driveway. The started with the obligatory 'Ladies and Gentlemen' and then they giggled their way ofrom start to finish, with much cheering on completion.

They then went on to something else - creating an obstacle course - after watching them clamber over two chairs placed back to back on our concrete path, I suggested that they put the chairs on the lawn, as I could see what was coming, with all that excitement.
We had a lot of rain yesterday, so the chairs sunk nice and deep and tight into the back lawn, so they clambered over these back and forwards. Not long after, they came galloping inside to collect assorted dolls and books and back outside to set up this.

Theirs is a pretty fiery relationship. They always want to be at each others house, or in each others company, but gosh! they are volatile. It can be very very wearing having the two of them together. They are like a finely tuned slapstick routine at times, you can see that the sideways glare from one is enough to set up the domino effect for the rest of the day.

Thankfully, the planets were aligned today and there was only one short incident, that I only became aware of because I glanced out the window and saw them both sitting, with arms crossed and scowly faces, far away from each other. No pushing, no yelling. And a quick 'who wants some watermelon?' was enough to break it open.

Some of my favourite things

2008-08-29T21:53:00.003+09:30

A few online things that are keeping me interested at the moment are a friends website/forum called Celebreast It is a very positive pro breastfeeding site, with some lovely positive stories.

I am also having fun trawling around babblebaby Another friend of mine writes articles here and it always a bit exciting seeing her name up there!

Though, my biggest plug has to go to the most enlightening parenting book that I have come across (and I have read more than a few!) It is called Parent Effectiveness Training I have got a lot out of it and I do recommend it for anyone that is a parent! I actually think that it is extremely relevant to all relationships.

School photo time

2008-08-29T21:23:00.008+09:30

That year went very quick! Ella's second lot of school photos came back this week.
She looks rather unkempt, but delightful.

She is really happy at school and we can't go anywhere without hearing 'Hi Ella!' everywhere. She is such a friendly, happy, eager to please child. We have parent teacher interviews next week, which should be enjoyable.

Speaking of next week ... it is my birthday on Wednesday. 32 years. I have always been a bit gobsmacked about how quickly the last decade has passed, and have been quick to shoot down the passing years, but in a moment of acceptance this week, decided that 32 is pretty fine and dandy.

Ella is a very fluent reader now, and my most favourite sight is to see my two big girls snuggled up in bed together with the book light clipped to the novel of choice, with Ella reading out loud to her sister. Charlotte will sit and listen to Ella for hours. Ella has just taken a big leap in to just writing for the sake of writing, without continually asking how to spell words. So now I am continually stumbling across notes from her from "I love you" written in my diary, to intricate labelled pictures of all manner of things.
This morning I drove Raff's car to school and when I returned home rummaged around in the back seat for the kids' long lost drink bottle and found the following note.

The weather has become very Spring like this week, so we have now have a 'no computer or TV after school' rule. Lucy is now walking pretty confidently, she wears shoes and is extremely happy to potter around outside iwth the big girls. They have been BUSY, setting up tea parties, reorganising the cubby house, creating presents for me (rose petals wrapped up in leaves), playing fencing with broomsticks, swinging around on the clothesline, kicking balls around, wrestling each other, playing chasey, making mud pies.
Last night I took advantahe of the perfect light and caught some nice photos of them all. The kids all came in filthy and with a raging appetite. Tonight there was no mention of 'screen time' they were both outside instantly, picking up where they left off last night. I really really love Spring.

I have a series of photos that is pretty funny. Of Ella storming off, because she wanted to stand behind Lucy, and then one of Charlotte crying because she couldn't see Lucy if Ella was in the way and then of Charlotte dragging Lucy off the stump, cos it was her turn to sit on it.

My three

2008-08-08T21:42:00.006+09:30

Lucy is a wise little one, and now that she has done with cutting her seventh tooth, her mood has improved. We still are getting multiple wake ups a night, not sure what is with that. She is walking fulltime now, and really is just quite content to hang out by herself.
She loves books and shape sorters and pushing prams and riding the rocking horse. She has recently found her appetite and is eating a lot more, plus increasing her breastfeeds each day. I think she enjoys the novelty of being able to 'ask' for milk.

Just this week she has learned about 10 more 'words' and has formed a massive attachment to a stuffed bear. She calls him 'bah-bear' and really doesn't like to be far from his side. I am bidding on a replacement on ebay at the moment, as he is just getting filthy every day, so the earlier I can double up, the better, I reckon.

Ella was the same age when she formed an attachment to her 'Menna' and still sleeps with her every night and mooches around with her when she is feeling woeful. Poor old Menna is very very worse for wear. She had a big stitch up job done a few weeks ago, as her whole face was full of 'ladders'. Must organise a photo - I just went and looked and she is wrapped up so tightly in Ella's arms, I can't really unpeel her ...

Charlotte mastered writing her name this week, so many letters! so she still needs reminding about which order they go in, but pretty swish for a 3 and a half year old, I think :)

Our curly haired fairy

First piggy tails

Health Related

2008-08-05T17:13:00.003+09:30

Okay, so this is a bit of a cheat blog, but I am going to link to two blog entries made by a good friend. She will be a doctor by the end of the year, and she is extraordinarily clever and an always wonderful read. These two particular entries have just made me want to share how precious our bodies are, and how we really ought to look after them.

http://airfirewaterearth.blogspot.com/2008/08/diabetes.html

http://airfirewaterearth.blogspot.com/2008/06/lungs.html

Heart you Jenn xx

PHOTOS

2008-07-21T21:48:00.004+09:30

Baby + Sudocrem

Introducing the Cousins to The Sims

Lucy with her favourite boy cousin

Lucy with her first pair of shoes

Lucy enjoying some homemade pizza

Lucy is taking lots of steps, but still seems to be a fair way off 'walking' The video below is what she spends her whole day doing, taking 5 or so steps and the plonk on her bum, over and over :)

Belated Happy Birthday to Ella

2008-07-21T21:32:00.004+09:30

A bit behind over here, the school holidays were luxuriously lazy and I felt like doing nothing much :)

Well, a couple of weeks ago Ella turned six! We had a pretty low key day, with a visit to a different playcentre http://www.cccsalisbury.asn.au/playcafe.html with the cousins, which was pleasant enough. We also went out for dinner with everyone in the evening.

Ella received some very grown up presents. A watch, a music player, a silver charm bracelet and, her favourite from Nana and Papa, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe book. A read it aloud to her over the next few days and it was really lovely, she was captivated. We have just purchased The Adventures Of the Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton and are doing the same with that.

She said to me yesterday morning 'Heeey, I'm six now ... Adam and Eva said I'll be six next time they see me! Are they coming home this week?'

Back to school today - it is so lovely to see her bouncing in to her classroom so happy.

Charlotte started in the Kindy Room at childcare today, and Lucy has settled brilliantly in the Baby room at childcare. She eats and sleeps for them there!

Happy birthday to Lucy

2008-06-29T21:08:00.006+09:30

Oh, the quickest year of my life! My baby, my curly locks, my little Lu, all growing up.
It was a lovely day today, with just a handful of people. Lucy seemed to enjoy herself and all three kids were exhausted tonight.

Lucy is a marvellous creature, she is joyful and quick to laugh and adventurous and just delicious. She will be walking soon and we get to experience a whole new world then.

I just asked Raff to describe Lucy and he says interactive, cheeky, lively and fun. She is soaking up her world and roars like a tiger, woofs like a dog, moos like a cow and meows like a cat. She climbs and she rocks and she draws and she rips and she throws things and she plays peek-a-boo, and doesn't miss a thing. She will copy her sisters all day. And with a touch of gentle guidance over the last week or so, she now sleeps!

The cake

Her new wagon

The cousins

Walking!

2008-06-29T17:58:00.001+09:30

I will blog about her party later, but look what the birthday girl learned today!!

First day of winter

2008-06-01T22:10:00.003+09:30

so of course, thanks to global warming, we get to have a picnic in the back yard!
It was another warm sunny pleasant day, we have had a real run of them. You really appreciate it at this time of the year as you never know when it is going to get freezing suddenly. It was a lovely long day that included a walk/bike ride, coffee at the bakery, vacuumed and mopped floors, two loads of washing, yummy dinner, vacuumed and washed car, time at the park plus plenty of time for Ella and Charlotte to hang out playing paper dolls, Fairytopia, pretend-you're-the-big-sister-and-I'm-the-little-sister, teachers, playdough, bug catching and cloud watching.
Lucy played in the dirt most of the day ...

on the way to toddlerhood

2008-05-28T16:33:00.009+09:30

So, only 6 short weeks ago I had a baby that looked like this

Much like the older girls, really with straight brownish hair. Fast forward to today and check her out!

She is such a curly head. It is very very cute. I can't wait till she needs a haircut, so I can snip one of those ringlets off to keep forever.
She keeps us super busy, having mastered climbing over the last fortnight. Everything is fair game, as you will se by the pictures I will put up in a minute. And these are only the ones that I was game enough to step away from her to grab the camera. I haven't included the standing upright on the kids drawing table, or hanging on the breakfast bar, or standing on the top level of the girls dolls house.

Today was a pleasant day, so Lucy and Charlotte were playing outside, I came back to see that Charlotte had turned the outside tap on to fill up her watering can and had left the hose running. That made for one very wet (and happy!) baby, drenched to the core in quite cool water. I stripped her down, went inside to get some dry clothes, came back to her trying to jump on the inflatable trampoline.

This was closely followed by this, as she tried to disembark frontwards on wet slippery plastic ....

Just some photos

2008-05-05T19:57:00.010+09:30

Too tired and distracted to blog properly, so in dot point.
- My last baby turned 10 months old last week
- She is the cleverest baby that ever lived
- She is the cutest baby in the world
- I love that she looks so much like herself now
- She will start childcare on June 2nd ...Am I getting a job, or am I going to study?
- School's back and Ella loves it
- Charlotte is my bundle of fire and ice
- I love Autumn
- 10 days and Raff gets his license back
- Tickets are booked for our Queensland holiday. Taking booking for my clique peeps to meet up with me ;)
- This Saturday saw me finally break the 70kg mark, since Lucy was born. A total of 20kgs lost since June 29 2007
- My family is awesome. Love my in-laws, too.
- The Aust tax office is blergh
- I love my husband
- It's my baby brothers 30th birthday this month. That = me old

Two sleepy heads sunning on a rock

Charlotte with Feral Aunt Meg

Lucy and Raff's Nana (Great Nana)

Our three bookworms

Lucy touches the Mall's Balls for the first time

Scallywag, complete with texta drawn over her face!

Told ya. Cutest baby ever!

Lucy????

2008-04-18T22:12:00.007+09:30

Nope - they are all Charlotte. Everyone we come across says how much Lucy looks like Charlotte, so tonight I trawled through all the photos of Charlotte at 9-10 months old and I reckon they are right!

Charlotte had a bout 6 teeth in these photos, Lucy only has one that is about 3 days old, so more a point than a tooth.
Lucy has more hair than Charlotte did, but it seems to be about the same colour.
Charlotte was a fair bit smaller, though I would have to check their blue books to be certain of differences.

Ambitions

2008-04-12T22:07:00.004+09:30

Ella was telling us today that her and her cousins have decided what they want to do when they grow up.
Ella, Hannah and Bethany are going to be pilots. All three of them are going to learn to fly big planes and will sit up in the cockpit together every day. (could you imagine!?)
Ryan will be the door holder, apparently.

But, 'if learning to fly is, like, really hard, then we are all just going to work at Big W'

'I can read!! I can go to school next time'

2008-04-12T21:56:00.004+09:30

says charlotte, after getting 14 out of 14 names right on the fridge below!

She is doing great, haltingly writing her name. She has the C, L, O and (one) T down pat. Who gave this child such an unwieldy name?

I think for the first time ever she sat down to colour in, and did a great job, if I do say so myself!

Two funnies from Charlotte - "the doctor took out my tonsils and he gave me SUPER powers instead"
and, after a joke telling spree by her big sister -
"Listen! I've got a joke! - How many frogs were on the plant?

Only one! Cos all the other ones died!!" *insert raucous three year old laughter*

A lovely day out

2008-04-12T21:29:00.004+09:30

We had the Geek Meet today. A picnic at the helicopter playground in North Adelaide with assorted Geeks On Call staff and families. We are a growing bunch now and I got to meet some new faces, and there were more kids! Ella was really happy to see some kids close in age to her.
The kids played for about 5 hours straight, the adults ate for that long!

I didn't catch the big girls much - they kept running away - , but I have dozens of Lucy photos that I will put up in a tick.

Lucy is about 36 hours away from cutting her first tooth, I reckon. She is going against the norm and cutting out of sequence (cross cutting). Normally a child would cut bottom front two and then top front two, but she is cutting her top left second incisor instead. She is going to llok quite funny when it comes though - a bit like a half breed vampire or something.

She also has started vocalising A LOT. She now has very defined speech sounds for Charlotte, Ella, baby, daddy, cat and mama. Hard to explain, but they aren't really words. When she says the girls' names though, they turn around, they know she is talking to them so it is very close to words IMO.

Tonight at dinner, I said to Ella 'where has Charlotte gone?' and Ella said she was in the toilet. Well, when Charlotte came back from the toilet, Lucy was all "Charlotte Charlotte" excitedly (well, her version of, but you know what I mean!)

Adenotonsillectomy

2008-04-08T10:15:00.009+09:30

I typed this out the night after Charlotte had her tonsils and adenoids out and never got around to finishing the story!

*sigh*
Well, this is going to be long. I need to debrief!
Charlotte is a feisty kid, really unpredictable. I never quite know what her behaviour is going to be like. I have walked out of the dentist and various doctors appointments with her kicking and screaming, absolutely refusing to be looked at, so I was anxious about the whole thing. The operation itself, the recovery, everything.
So just her and I rock up to the hospital. Mum was at home with Lucy, and Raff was getting some work done first up. She was happy as, walking along with her roller bag Bob the Builder case. Waited at the admission desk happily with me, sat and watched TV with me, and then the man came out and called her name and she freaked dropped to the ground and crawled under the chair in the packed waiting room. Yay.

I had to half drag, half carry her in to the lift and in to her room and then back out in to the lounge area as she was upsetting the recuperating kids. The nurse came in to chat about stuff, take her temp, weigh her etc etc. It was horrible. She screamed and kicked and freaked out. I was in tears and I just wanted to go home :( The nurse left us alone and I put a video on and she sat on my lap and clung to me, with one hand clamped fast over her mouth, and her little shoulder squished up against her ear (to keep out marauding ear thermometers!)

So we sat and waited and the a lovely lady came in to tell us about the hospital routines etc and she just happened to have a grand daughter named Charlotte, and she had her tonsils out and got to eat jelly and honey sandwiches afterwards and she wears pink shoes just like my Charlotte. I could have kissed her! She was divine, and of course Charlotte relaxed and happily trotted off to the play room with her, and I layed on the couch and read my novel while Charlotte played for ages.

Now - we got there at 11am, Charlotte had been fasting since 7am. So there were intermittent claims of hunger - I was flipperin' starving, but I couldn't eat in front of her and I couldn't leave her ...
At 12:30 she got shown to her bed. Very exciting! So I ask if we have long to wait and the nurse says that the surgery list doesn't start until 2 :-o
I texted mum to let her know - she had waited for Lucy to wake from her nap and then caught a train in to the city - she was on her way to the hospital and proved to be a timely diversion. I snuck off to the TV room under the guise of needing somewhere silent to feed the ever distractable Lucy, but really I went in there and scoffed my face with banana and dried apricots and almonds!

Charlotte went from insisting to me that she was not going to wear her gown or see the doctor, to getting in her gown happily and letting the anaesthetist listen to her heart etc. in the space of about 10 minutes. And then it was on. My anxiety level was pretty amped by then. Mum took Charlotte to the play room while I breastfed Lucy again.

The doctor came in and got her up on the bed, into her gown, the beds brakes came off and my baby girl was eyes wide as she was cranked up high and wheeled down the hallway. That was a long walk. I was so nervous and cruelly it reminded me of being wheeled in to theatre to deliver Lucy, so I was pretty freaked.

The hospital was fantastic, the lift we went in had painting all over the walls and ceiling for the kids to look at. It was so lovely. The staff were amazing.

We got wheeled in to this cubicle bit where they gave her some colouring in to do (She asked for an extra one for Ella :)) and they gave her a balloon. My darling girl says 'Excuse me, can I pease have a blue balloon cos blue is my favourite colour' It was about then that I just wanted to scoop her out of there and run and live in a cave with her... The nurse brought her back her balloon and all was good.

They took a photo of us together - a Polaroid, so she could sit and watch it develop. It was lovely, really nice. The ENT surgeon came and had a chat to us and then we were wheeled in to theatre. Charlotte was soooo trusting. Her eyes were huge, watching everything and everyone and just listening to what they said. She snuggled right down under the blanket with her stuffed toy elephant.

Then the anaesthetist said that she would be best cradled in my lap to put her to sleep. Nice, I thought. And then he whispered 'hold her very firmly, mum' :( He put the mask over her face and told her to blow in to it like she was blowing in to a balloon, and she took two big breaths and blew. And then she freaked :( and panicked and kicked and tried to pull away and all I could do was whisper to her and kiss her and love her. Then she was out. Eyes rolled back and a gaspy sound in her chest. I was led out of there quick smart and I sobbed all the way down in the elevator.

Thank goodness my mum was there and knew how I felt. We ducked downstairs for a coffee and a half a sandwich. Raff arrived then, and mum took Lucy for a walk to try and get her to sleep.

The doctor had said she would be gone about an hour all up - 30 minutes or the operation and 30 minutes in recovery, so once she had been gone for 45 minutes, I needed to be up in her room waiting. In the end we aited one hour and 20 minutes and those twenty minutes were pretty gruelling. The little boy that was in the next bed came back, we could hear him screaming all the way from the lift, so I imagined that we would hear Charlotte coming too. Not so. She was wheeled silently into the room, as she had came out of the anaesthetic pretty dramatically and they had to give her some Pethadine to calm her down. She was totally zonked and besides sitting up a few times, looking extremely stoned, trying to vomit, we really didn't get much out of her for the next couple of hours.

At 5pm-ish, after my dad came to pick up mum, I decided that keeping an overtired 9 month old at the hospital was a really silly idea, so I left my sweetest middling in the hands of her dad, and drove home.

I felt horrible leaving her like that, so was extremely pleased when the phone rang about 8pm and Charlotte's squeaky little voice told me happily about the present that she unwrapped from her nana. I slept a lot easier knowing she was going to be okay. In the morning I spoke to her and Raff again and all seemed well. She wouldn't take Panadol, so had it put in her IV at one stage and had suppossitries at another time. The pain relief is crucial, as the most important thing that you can do after having tonsils removed is to return to a regular diet ASAP. The action of eating helps prevent infection.

When Ella, Lucy and I got to the hospital, we expected to see the happy smiling Charlotte that we had talked to on the phone a few hours earlier, but she was coming up to 4 hours since the last Panadol dose and they had just taken the needle out of her arm and was looking pretty damn cranky! I told thae nurse that I wanted her to have some Panadol for the drive home and so she held her down and squirted in down her throat. Big mistake, as she then vomited up her breakfast all over herself and then refused to get out of her pukey Dora PJs.

Anyway, we made it home and her recovery was astounding. Besides the first day home from hospital, she hasn't had a day sleep at all. Also, since the following morning when I managed to get her to eat her rice bubbles mixed with ground up Panadol, she has had no relief. She was straight back to eating foods as normal, and has faced the days really well.

The nights were a bit tougher with her waking and yelling and crying, but still it has been 11 days since she had the surgery and she has only woken 4 or 5 nights.
Considering that the reason she had the surgery done was because of lots of night wakings/irregular sleep/breathing/snoring (obstructive sleep apnea), we are pretty happy with that.

I have always checked on the girls as we go up to bed at night, to arrange their blankets and what not, and have been marvelling at the silent sleep coming from Charlotte's bed now. She has always snored and snorted in her sleep, and now no longer. I can already see a massive change in her behaviour. She is not so cranky and is a lot calmer.

She was very impressed with the table. The staff were wonderful and let her take her stuffed toy in to theatre with her.

Obligatory gappy gown.

Photo of a photo, so not the best quality.

:(

Recuperating at home

One week later, at Hannah's 5th birthday party.

Big kids

2008-03-23T10:24:00.003+10:30

Ella is a tree!

Lucy milestones

2008-03-22T21:26:00.007+10:30

Lucy has achieved a whole heap of firsts since I blogged last. She will be 9 months old next weekend and is so clever :)
Just tonight she clapped for the first time, and I happened to have the camera sitting next to me, so here we are!

She is also now pulling to standing on anything and everything, crawling properly ie on all fours all the time.

She has learnt to blow raspberries which provides hours of entertainment. She got to watch her first TV show and it really took her fancy.
The Wiggles - everyones favourites, no?

She can stand up in her cot, so we get this cute view each time we enter her room after a sleep.

And her first swing on the swing at the park near mums. I have a photo of each of the girls that looks very similar to this!

But possibly my most favourite 'first' of all time is the first time she 'spoke' to me. I love the idea of Baby Signing. We generally work on the important ones, which are more, milk and drink. Later on we add things here and there, but the other girls were verbal pretty early, so the need for signing passes pretty quickly.
So, pretty much since Lucy started solid food, just before and as we hand her food we say 'More? More? You want some more?' tapping our flat palm against our chest. All four of us do it to her each meal time, so it was fantastic this week to see her, eyeing off the food, just out of reach and signing 'more'. Lucky again, as I had the camera right there to capture it.

Pretty clever, huh? Since then she has used it in context many times, even signing 'more' to my dad when he was holding her this morning and he knew to let me know she neede something to snack on. Delightful! and I really recommend it to anyone out there with pre verbal babies. Let me know how it goes!

Earth Hour

2008-03-22T21:24:00.001+10:30

First things first. Go sign up for Earth Hour - right now. It is next weekend, so hurry!
EARTH HOUR

An environmental OMG

2008-03-06T11:17:00.002+10:30

I don't have the time to do a proper entry on this, but you have to click on this link and read in. You just have to.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

And I know that my blog is now being read by an assortment of people, so ....
go on - comment! Tell me what you are going to do to help reduce some of these horrific footprints.
Me? No more takeaway coffees or plastic cups or plates. Ever.

Lucy

2008-02-19T22:25:00.007+10:30

I had planned on doing a post all about Charlotte today, but Lucy stole the show, I am afraid!

She got very stuck, as she had her hand on some of the kids toys outside and refused to let them go. I ended up having to rush out the front door and run around the back and drag her through. It was very funny!

Also this one is a classic Lucy face.

She is a cheery little vegemite. She doesn't really cry that much. I mean, she is hurting herself all the time at the moment - banging her head, falling over things, flipping backwards, just your general run-of-the-mill learning to move type incidents, which always bring a wail of shock. She has caught the cat a few times which hasn't ended well, but overall she is just a happy kid. Loves to watch her sisters do their thing.
She has started venturing further away from us now and we really can't rely on her being on the general vicinity of where we left her nowadays. She is still commando crawling, but today she took 3 knee-steps (?) and she spends a huge amount of time on her hands and knees trying to get it all together.

I had a day yesterday with just Lucy from 9 am until 5pm. It was really lovely and hit me how much I like her. I mean, from the second I saw her (even before) I have been head over heels in love with her, which is no great surprise. But I really like her and like being with her, and we have so much fun! She is wild and cheeky and her personality is just shining. Such a fun age.

It's weird. Babies are just such time guzzlers, between breast feeds (6+ a day at this age), solids prep and cleaning up the highchair and floor (3 times a day), settling (patting, rocking, singing) to sleep for two naps a day plus bedtime, 6+ nappy changes each day etc etc, but I like it all. I really like breastfeeding her, I love watching her try new foods (tonight was squash - she loved it!) I love watching her drift off to sleep. I even like nappy changes! Well, with nappies like these or these or even nappy covers like these why wouldn't you?

Things I like about Lucy
She closes her eyes as I come to blow a raspberry on her belly - she knows my hair is going to get in her eyes.

She giggles till she snorts.

She sees my hand coming in for a tickle and she is in hysterics at the anticipation of it all. I don't even have to touch her.

She gives me a quick glance before she offers a smile to anyone new (or even mum and dad) just to check that I approve of this person.

Her whole body pumps with excitement when she sees the cat. The cat flirts with her too, just out of reach.

She has a funny little laugh when she sees us trying to teach her something new - like waving, or clapping or signing 'more'

The goosey look she gets on her face when both Raff and I are standing next to each other in front of her, her eyes flicking from one of us to the other and back again. She knows she is ours.

When she sleeps in our bed, in the morning when she wakes, she goes from a deep sleep to instantly awake and rolls straight over to Raff and starts patting him on the back 'hello'

The extra speed she gets in her legs when she sees that we have accidently left the big girls door opened, closely followed by the mini-tantrum thrown when I can still beat her to the door and shut it - too many little things to choke on in that room!

My most favourite thing this week is the cuddles she gives my mum :)

We take so much for granted

2008-02-18T15:12:00.003+10:30

I was all set to do a post each on all of my girls today, but got distracted online (as you do ...) and came across this site. http://www.goods4girls.org/

It is not something that gets talked about, near thought about anywhere often enough. So many women all over the world every month throwing away piles of plasticky non degradable items. Can you imagine the piles and piles of pads etc out there? Gross, huh?

We are so very lucky in so many ways here in Australia, that this or this just don't need to be thought about.

It seems like an odd thing to do in this day and age. Almost archaic, and dare I say it? Gross. But reuseable sanitary items are the way we need to go.
Do you know how to sew? Give it a go

Or wouldn't know a sewing machine if it hit you in the head? Try these

Make some, buy some, send them here and grab a handful for yourself.
You won't go back, I promise.

Ella

2008-02-18T14:07:00.004+10:30

As always, it has been too long between posts. At the end of each day it is surprisingly easy to tell myself that I will have more time tomorrow to blog. Funnily enough that extra time is yet to eventuate.

Today marks the first day of week 4 of Term one. The kids have all settled in to their daily routine. Each day has a fairly consistent outline to it, so we all find staying in the groove of it fairly easy. The one bonus that we have this year is that Ella wants to go to school, in fact she finds school 'fantastic'. So our mornings are very smooth running, as we are no longer fighting to get her in her uniform and out the door.

Her new teacher is lovely. Efficient and kind and available and nice. Ella is having a lot of trouble with the pronunciation of her teachers name, which I never would have imagined. Mrs Hudson - not so hard, right? Well, she was Mrs Hunstman for a while, then Mrs Hutson, which is close, but now it is Mrs Huntston. Oh well.

Ella has grown riduculously tall lately, sprouting a good couple of inches in the few months since she turned 5. She is a long lithe thing. She wants to be a singer, or a musician of some sort. Un-biased opinion of course, but she has a beautiful singing voice and can certainly hold a tune. She has signed up for piano lessons through the school this term and we all look forward to that being fun. She also harbours a secret desire to become a vet, but as a child that has never really voluntarily touched an animal of any sort,I think that may just be a pipe dream.

She is clever and reading up a storm now. She wanted me to take her reading a book the other day, so I have 5 minutes of footage that I will attempt to upload shortly.
She is thoughful and resposible and looks out for her sisters. She is really in tune with Lucy and could probably look after her perfectly well in my absence.

It is only in hindsight that I really 'get' how hard the last 7ish months have been for her, with starting school (with a less than nice teacher) on top of having an extra sibling added to the family. Her favourite book of all time is "I wish my mother was an octopus' and she likes to quote it to me often.

She thrives on one one one time, so her and I spent a lovely morning on Saturday with just the two of us. We went to the library and then hung out at a coffee shop, reading books on the couch. It was refreshing for both of us. Sometimes in the day to day of getting stuff cleaned and assorted people fed and clothed and washed, I forget to make time just for her. I mean, we read together, but usually while I am cooking dinner, or breastfeeding Lucy, or we start off alone, but end up with me jumping up to save the baby from choking on another small piece of plasticky something or other, or wiping a bottom, or getting some food for the starving masses or whatever.

Hmm, I just went to add in some recent phtos of her, but there are none of her since the beginning of the year, besides the 'back to school' ones that I already posted.
Must remedy that, hey?

I think she is amazing and it is just mind blowing that she will be six this year!

Here is that youtube of her reading. Like I said, it does go for just over 5 minutes, but I did promise her I would blog it for you all ;)

Photo as promised

2008-01-28T14:14:00.000+10:30

of our Lucy sitting up. She finds it so hilarious, as do her sisters. The world must look so different up right.

For Christmas Ella received a very cool Lego set.

Since Christmas she has been asking fairly regularly for us to build the Lego house, but it has always been at inopportune times, like at dinner time, or bed time, or while we are in the car to somewhere, or rushing out the door to an appointment, so my usual answer was 'Yep, sure, but not right now. We have the whole holidays to build it'
So of course, I realise on Thursday that the holidays are all but over, so when she asked me as I was walking around with a ridiculously overtired baby and two starving hungry children, contemplating what to cook for dinner at 5pm, I said yes. I strapped Lucy in to the Ergo (Have I mentioned the Ergo Lately? It's my favourite baby thing ever) I found some date scones in the freezer and declared them entree, cut up some apple and banana and started unpackaging the Lego.
It flashed me back to our childhood, constructing castles and spacecraft. I was trying to clue Ella in on the lingo '2by6thinwhite?'

It ended up being a few days effort as everyones patience wore thin after an hour or so at it, and I ended up finishing the last half of the roof all by myself (and loved it ;))

And it can be made in to two other models. I can only find one online. I look forward to demolishing the one we have done and attempting this next one. Maybe when Ella is back at school ;)

Oops, I came back in to plug the site that we bought the Lego from I had been unable to find any decent sets in the shops, but this site had the set for only $55 before Christmas.

Ella funnies

2008-01-18T14:36:00.000+10:30

Today the girls were playing outside in the cubby house and Ella came inside to ask me if I knew when Nana was getting the air conditioning put in to the cubby.

She just came up to me and asked me how come some food comes up as vomit and some food turns in to poo. So we chatted about that for a while, all of a sudden there was a 'click' in her eyes and she said 'Ahh! So that's why you put your hands there when you do a bow! 'cos it's called your bowel. I get it.'

From Ella - Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?

To get to the bottom!

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Waiter
Waiter who?
Waiter minute while I tie my shoes

boom boom

and she's off!

2008-01-16T22:39:00.000+10:30

How excitement! We have a crawler! Lucy has been moving around for ages, twisting on the spot, inching forward to grab things, but this week she has mastered it. She is still 'commando crawling', but practising up on her hands and knees too, so 'proper' crawling wont be that far away.

She also has learnt to sit unaided. Just like that. Yesterday she would fall backwards or sidewards instantly. Today she can sit and if she starts to tilt, then she puts a hand out to catch herself and can then right herself. I will have to take a photo of her doing it tomorrow.
For now here is a photo of all three of them.

How much longer have we got ...

2008-01-02T23:13:00.000+10:30

... before she is on the move?

And yes, you heard right, that was a 'mum' in there !! :)
She started saying dadadada a week or so ago and now it is mumumumum.

I love this age. Life is just sooo good for a 6 month old baby. They love their own company, are happy to concentrate for ages on trying to pick up the contrasting lines on the carpet, are happy with some milk and a few shovels of food over the course of the day, learning constantly. She learnt to get up on her hands and knees today, as Ella was laying next to her saying 'copy me, Lucy, this is how you do it'

The excitement the older two get from her achievements are adorable. They could watch her eat and chew all day long, or drink from her sipper cup, or roll over, or eat her feet.

Perfect.

Half a year ...

2007-12-30T23:21:00.002+10:30

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

2007-12-25T22:32:00.000+10:30

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

2007-12-25T22:08:00.000+10:30

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!

2007-12-14T21:13:00.000+10:30

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

2007-12-13T23:05:00.000+10:30

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

Father Christmas

2007-12-08T21:48:00.000+10:30

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

2007-12-08T21:28:00.000+10:30

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!

Some videos

2007-11-30T22:40:00.000+10:30

Lucy chatting to Ella

Ella and Charlotte on their very first plane trip

Sisters in love

I just took these last night in the bath here at home.
Lucy 5 months and glorious1

Sydney Part II

2007-11-30T22:05:00.000+10:30

All packed and ready to go. We cheated this time and Raff caught a taxi with all the luggage to our new accommodation. Ella and I walked, pushing Charlotte in the pram and Lucy strapped on my front in the Ergo. Oh the room! After sharing one little room for the best part of the week, to have separate bedrooms and a kitchen and a bathroom!

We were on the 14th floor with a gorgeous view across Sydney. We settled in and awaited mum and dads arrival. They were a bit delayed as there was a pretty fierce electrical storm, so they were not allowed to alight from the plane.

The next morning we climbed the Harbour Bridge. I was extremely nervous, but to be honest it was nowhere near as scary as I thought it might be and we really enjoyed it. I was more nervous leaving Lucy with mum and dad for the longest time of her life so far! She was fine. I was fine. That evening Raff and I went to meet some of my online friends - “the people from inside my computer” as Ella says. It was a blast, a quick hour zoomed in to 5, and we rocked up home at 11pm.

Bright and early the next morning, mum and dad went and climbed the bridge and Raff went off to a full day conference. The girls and I just hung out until mum and dad finished and we wandered down to Sydney city to check out all the Christmas displays. We visited the Magic Cave and had a look at the Nutcracker window display @ David Jones.

Saturday I had organised for a photographer friend Cupcakes Photography to take photos of my family in Hyde Park. Unfortunately the day dawned wet and cold, so we only managed a few in the park. The rest were taken in our (thankfully well-lit) apartment. After that was done with we went to have a coffee and work out what to do with the afternoon. Mum and dad ended up taking the girls to Glebe and Jubilee Park (apparently where Pearlie the Park Fairy lives) Raff and I and Lucy wandered around trying to work out what we were hungry for. After eating out for every lunch and dinner for the last 9 or so days we were a bit over food really. Finally I decided that a nice platter of antipasto stuff to be picked at would hit the spot. We were just about to give up looking at around 2pm when we found a Greek restaurant. Mmm, haloumi, fetta, anchovies, olives, calamari - the 5 food groups!

For the gazillionth time we were told how content and beautiful Lucy was. Baby wearing is very very cool. In theory Lucy should be our cleverest, most sociable, most securely attached, most physically agile child, as she has spent a huge percentage of her little life in the sling and now the Ergo (big plug to Babes in arms, who had my new Ergo on my doorstep all the way from Tasmania 20 hours after I ordered it online, and a huge thanks to my friend Rhiannon for lending us hers for the trip!)

That evening we sat in and watched the election results. We have a new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. All very exciting after 11 years of John Howard. I look forward to sitting back and observing how it all pans out. I am lucky enough to have some great communication with some very intelligent and politically savvy women that can decipher all the info that is out there in this regard.

Sunday we visited Taronga Zoo. What a lovely place! I dread to think how many km’s we walked that day, but it was really worth it (Credit to Ella here – the owner of the draggiest feet in Gawler, really pulled her socks up in Sydney and walked everywhere – begging for the pram, the Ergo, anything intermittently, but overall putting in a sterling effort) We caught a train, then a ferry, then the skyrail in to the zoo. What a magnificent entry! There was plenty to see.

Our accommodation had a rooftop pool, so the wonderful men took the girls up for a final swim and spa. We packed up and were ready to go. The final of Australian Idol was on that night. Never watched the show in my life, but it was pretty exciting to hear fireworks in stereo! We dashed up to the roof top to see if we could see the. Waiting, waiting for the lift, me in my bright orange Crocs, pink PJ bottoms with bumble bees on and a white tshirt declaring me a Breastfeeding Goddess. Imagine the shades of red my face turned when that lift door opened, filled to the brim with people (men!). And bugger it all, we got up on the roof to hear the very last firework and saw none.

Oooh, I must make mention of the bats in Sydney. Every night on sunset thousands and thousands of bats fly across the city. It was a very very freaky sight, and one that I am very glad that I was behind glass to witness. Bats sit up next to huntsmen spiders and mice on my fear-o-meter.

A lovely plane trip and then we were home, planning our next trip or two. It looks like Melbourne in March-ish and Brisbane later in the year. Can’t wait!!

Our Lucy

View from the 14th floor

Skyrail

Elephant girls @ Taronga

Sydney Photos

2007-11-29T15:06:00.000+10:30

Photo taken by Ella

Our gorgeous Lucy in her new stroller

Bridge by night

Picnic with a view

Lovely place for a swim

Our room for 6 days!

Lovely time for Lucy, surrounded by her sisters 24/7

Charlotte at Manly

Chubby sleeping baby

Sydney Part 1 - Kirribilli

2007-11-29T14:49:00.000+10:30

As written 6 days into our stay, hunched over a laptop in the dark, while everyone else slept

On the plane Ella was quite nervous and overexcited. Charlotte had been on the plane for about 20 minutes and she then asked ‘When we going on the plane?’ I learnt the hard way that airplanes have very small change tables!

2 hectic train rides later and we find ourselves ‘a short walk’ from our accommodation. I didn’t time it, but I am guessing that it was maybe 20 minutes. All well and good normally, but me with an exhausted grumpy feral 2 year old on my back, pushing a baby gradually working herself up to a dull roar, holding hands with a foot dragging 5 year old plus a husband carrying a large back pack on his front, a larger backpack on his back and tugging a suitcase behind him. Thank goodness for the lovely lady who was happy for all five of us to hop in her car for a ride. In the end she ended up taking our luggage along to our accommodation for us.

Kirribilli is gorgeous. Hilly and picturesque and right next door to John Howard (former Prime Minister!!)! From our street we can see the bridge and the Opera House. It never fails to take my breath away. Ella on the other hand - ‘Mum, stop showing me the bridge. It’s the same every time’

The first afternoon saw us wandering around our immediate vicinity to purchase some drinking water and laundry powder. Then back to our room – all five of us in a room the size of our bedroom a home :) The first night was interesting to say the least, but this being night 6, we are in a bit more of a groove and Lucy is learning to sleep through a bit of noise and the girls are learning to keep themselves to a dull roar.

On our first full day here we negotiated the ferry system and searched for a playground. That was all Charlotte wanted to do with her day. As it turns out, the playground we were recommended was right beside a pretty stretch of beach (Watsons Bay), so an impromptu strip down saw the kid’s mood lift measurably.

On our way home through Circular Quay we happened upon a street performance. He wasn’t the greatest we had ever seen, but it was keeping the kids happy and everyone had a chance to rest and snack before the next leg. As it happens Ella was picked to assist him in the show. He asked the crowd to cheer if they thought her helping was worth $10, of course the crowd roared so she ended up with $10 for handing him a sword made from a balloon that he proceeded to shove down his throat.
Ella was excited to put the $10 back in his hat at the end of the performance. She hasn’t stopped talking about it yet.

Saturday we visited the Sydney Aquarium. This chewed up quite a few hours. It is a great set up and I highly recommend a visit. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Darling Harbour. We are living on holiday time, so are quite often shocked when we see the real time. All of a sudden we saw it was six o’clock, so we meandered back to the ferry which arrived at Circular Quay with enough time for us to just miss our connection out to Kirribilli. So we dragged 3 very hungry tired filthy wet children in to the closest food place, gobbled it down in 20 minutes so we could make the next ferry. We got to see the harbour by night, but were horribly under dressed for the sudden drop in temperature and the sharp increase in the wind factor.

Time for a quieter day – no ferries today. A short walk takes us under the bridge and almost to Luna Park. A huge swimming pool awaits us and kills most of the afternoon. All that is left for us to do is find an ice-cream shop and head home for a much needed nap. All except Ella who has spent the majority of the trip with her head inside her Where’ Wally? book.

Our first night saw me out on our balcony trying to get Lucy to sleep in the Ergo. I was staring at something moving in the tree positive that I was going to see a possum, but nope – it was a bat! So every day and night has been punctuated with various bat stories as told by Charlotte.

Raff had an all day conference on Monday, so we stuck close to home. We visited a playground and had a $58 lunch out! Sandwiches and milkshakes ...

Today we visited Manly beach. What a gorgeous beach, and really packed on a Tuesday, too. Not sure that I would have liked to be there on a hot weekend! The water was a glorious colour, though rather cold. The sand perfect for sandcastle making. Lots of beautiful bodies as far as the eye could see. I managed to get the top of my feet sunburnt even though it was pretty cool on the beach. Lucy had her first sea water dip, but she really wasn’t that fond of it – a bit too cold for her.

Tomorrow sees us moving to a different accommodation. I have enjoyed our stay here, everyone has been friendly, the food has been great and the kids have made themselves at home.

Watson's Bay

Lucy's first time in a swing

We were rather familiar with the expressions on the kids faces over the course of the first few days!

Ella as part of a street performance

Sydney Aquarium

Listening to a conch shell at Aquarium

So sweet

2007-11-02T22:07:00.000+10:30

This morning while packing Ella's recess, I tucked a little note in her lunchbox that said 'I love you, Ella'. When she got home from school, she was so excited about it and thanked me, and said that it made her feel good. I had picked her up from Rachel's on the way home from a day shopping, so it was a bit hectic when we wlaked in the door. Everyone was starving, Lucy was desperate for a feed, I had to change a load of washing over, so that Lucy would have a dry nappy to wear to bed, the phone was ringing, I needed to get the stuff out the car etc. So I was saying all this as I was trying to meet everyones needs at the same time. Then I said "and I need a cup of tea" Ella says "I'll make you a cup of tea", so she set about filling the kettle, turning it on, got a mug out, put a teabag in it (and a straw!) and got the milk out the fridge. I went over and poured the hot water in, and went off to do something else, came back to this ... Too sweet! It has rained a bit this week, and the kids are absolutely thrilled by it. This evening was a bit lazy, so the kids went out and played in the rain. They had an absolute ball and came in covered in mud :) I am going to try and upload the video of them ...

I'm on a roll tonight!

2007-10-26T23:23:00.000+09:30

Lucy will be 4 months old on Monday. She is a happy baby.
Today I managed to catch a photo of her smile. It is such a lovely age.
She is starting to grab for things that she wants. She can roll over, but not all the time. She is quite content to just gurgle to herself on the mat. She is sleeping through most nights. She really is glorious.

Story of Charlotte's birth

2007-10-26T22:56:00.000+09:30

...

Okay, 23rd December 2004. Last thing before bed I go to the toilet – again! And pass a big glob of mucous. Something’s happening! I silently hope for a Christmas Eve or Boxing Day birth.

I don’t sleep very well, which has been the way for the last month or so. I am humongous, in loads of pain with Symphisis Pubis Dysfunction, all swollen and puffy, and in the last week I had come up in the itchiest rash on my legs, hands and tummy. Plus Ella wakes up 3 times.

The next day (Christmas Eve) Ella and I have a list of things to do, and as the shops are going to be closed for 4 days we head to Coles (Madness!) I am feeling crampy, over it and so, so tired. So when we finally get out of the shops we head home and while Ella has a sleep I do too. We sleep for just over an hour, and by then I am pretty convinced that I am in labour. I keep thinking that when the next pain comes I will ring Raff to let him know what’s happening. But when the next pain comes I think – Oh, I don’t want to jinx it – so I wait till the next one. At 4 o’clock when they have been 7 minutes apart for an hour, I call him. He is on his way home anyway, but I tell him to finish running the errands that he has to do. He hasn’t even purchased his Secret Santa gift yet!

At home I am pottering around trying to think what needs to be done first. I pack bags, I tidy the house, I finish wrapping Christmas presents and I prepare food that I promised I would take to my Uncle’s for Christmas lunch. I talk to Mum on the phone a dozen times to work out the logistics of the evening. We try to decide whether to put Ella to bed here or at Mum and Dads.

Raff gets home, and he has bought us a digital camera! Cool!

It’s getting closer to Ella’s bedtime, and I don’t feel ready to go to hospital, so we decide to leave her here, and worry about it all later. Mum and Dad are at my sisters’ house constructing a swing-set for her kids. I am grateful that she only lives around the corner.

Around 9pm Raff decides to cook dinner, even though I keep saying that I am not hungry. While he is doing that I am making a Tiramisu for Christmas in between contractions. At 10pm and still not hungry, I have a nice long hot shower. When I get out I am so, so tired. I can barely keep my eyes open nor stand upright, let alone labour! I lay down in bed, and Raff brings in dinner. All of a sudden I am ravenous, but it sure is tricky eating Spaghetti Marinara lying down in bed!

Mum and Dad come around, and after watching me for awhile, they convince me to go to the hospital to see where I’m at. So after a lot of dithering about from me, with lots of lists and instructions and scenarios, off we go!

We get to the hospital and stand pushing the after hours entrance button for ages – no one answers! Eventually I looked through my bags and found the hospital phone number and Raff called them on his mobile to tell them we are waiting. Meanwhile, I am pacing, pacing, pacing.

The midwife arrives with a wheelchair, as she was watching me on the video monitor, and said I looked like I needed it. We arrive in the delivery room at 11pm, smack bang on change of shift. So we waited through handover and then met our midwife Cynthia, a familiar face as she assisted Ella and I with our breastfeeding attachment. In fact the whole situation is familiar. Same room and same bed as Ella’s birth brought back some vivid memories!

Cynthia does an internal and Bugger! Due to baby presenting posterior my cervix is high and tight! I so want to go home now, I am desperate for some sleep, and at least at home there is a semi chance of that happening. But Cynthia has other ideas.
Apparently she would ‘never send a lady home that was contracting that hard and fast’. Contractions are between 3 and 5 minutes apart, and even though the backache is severe I still feel like I am coping well. One half of me thinks that is great, the other half of me knows that I am in nowhere near enough pain to be doing anything constructive to my cervix…..

Its 11:45pm and the lady in the next room is screaming and moaning in the final stage of labour. I do not need this!! I am talking to Raff non-stop really, really loud to try and block her out. I want to go home.

At midnight my OB shows up, does an internal and pronounces me at between 3 and 4 cm’s. He offers to break my waters and I refuse. The news of the quick dilation plus the fact that the back pain is easing a lot, cheers me up as I now presume the baby has turned anterior. We ring Mum and invite her up. She managed to catch 2 hours sleep on the couch. Dad stays at home with Ella.

For the next few hours it’s just walking and talking. I reckon I must have walked 100 miles – the soles of my feet ached for days afterward! I asked very nicely, if at all possible could an episiotomy be avoided as I had months and months of pain with my last one. At some stage another internal says I am at 5 cm’s. Every time a contraction started I would go and lean against a bar in the bathroom. I was on and off the toilet constantly weeing and wiping off loads of mucous – nice! I felt that I was coping well on my own during this time. My sister, Rachel arrived around 3am, just as I was getting up on the bed for another internal. Oh – still 5 cm’s ? I agree to have my waters broken. Bugger, meconium staining. Oh sh*t – not progressing, in loads of pain and now my baby is in distress ? I was overwhelmed with panic – for 5 seconds – then, and I still don’t know how I did this, I managed to harness that panic into a positive energy. My baby needed me to be strong.

Cynthia wants me laying on the bed for constant foetal monitoring. No way! The pain is unbearable there. I need to be upright and moving. So she followed me around with the monitor My contractions are excruciating, I now need Raff’s strength and support to get through each one. In between contractions my poor husband is falling asleep, he looks so knackered. I almost feel bad for waking him every 2 minutes – then I remember that I’m the one in bloody labour!

I am getting to a not very nice place. I cannot believe that I came back for this a second time. Never again!! The midwife thinks that I am having trouble coping and really wants me to have some Pethidine. Whereas I feel that I am just so overwhelmed with tiredness, and therefore finding it hard to focus. But I know I don’t want Pethidine, and I believe I can get through it. Thank goodness that the baby’s heart rate is doing all the right things this whole time.

At 4:30am she talks me back up onto the bed and after quite a lot of effort I’m up there, and another internal puts me at 7 cm’s. She strongly, strongly, strongly recommends that I give the gas a whirl – which I do. (It’s funny, but up until now I hadn’t even thought about the gas at all) She then proceeds to manually stretch my cervix the last few centimetres hmm, I just crossed my legs thinking about it. Well, let me tell you, the bloody gas did jacksh*t to cover that pain. OMG!!! I’m screaming and screaming. The midwife turns around and says to Mum, Raff and Rachel ‘Oh, that may seem (SEEM!?) a little (LITTLE?!) barbaric, but it’s for the best’

And she had a point! Within half an hour I am feeling very ‘pushy’. So at 5:15am she calls the OB at home and tells him to come in (“Don, Nicole’s fully” then hangs up the phone LOL)

I was so hot, and so thirsty, I had a wet face washer covering my face, and just kept saying ‘Drink’. Then with Mum and Cynthia on a leg each (Interesting as there is about a foot difference in height, so their hips were in different places!) and Raff and Rachel at my side I’m ready to puuuush. What an awful, yet relieving feeling. 4 pushes and there’s a head – dark haired! The cord was wound tightly around the neck a few times, and I gather by everyone’s silence, and the midwife saying ‘It’s okay, the baby is still getting oxygen through the placenta for a few more minutes’, that all does not look well. But then with a very, very apologetic episiotomy (Quote from me when told – “Cut me, whatever, just get the f*cker out!”) and one more push it’s all over. 14 minutes after I started pushing.

And it’s a girl. A girl?! I was so positive that I was having a boy that all I could think was ‘A girl?’ I had to look from underneath the face washer still covering my eyes and I just couldn’t believe it. And she looked so, so small. I was expecting a really big baby. But, worst of all, she was very still and quiet, and as I was holding her someone else was holding the oxygen mask over her face. I placed my hand inside her blankets so that I could feel her heart beating. And waited. Then finally, she cried. Music to my ears! Then the OB showed up.

I deliver the placenta – easy. But then everyone starts to look worried (again!) I’m bleeding and bleeding. I get a drip inserted quick smart and I really don’t want to look down. Raff told me later that they had put a bucket under me, which seemed to fill up way to quick. No one is talking and they are all so busy, and serious.

Eventually, after some pretty painful uterine massage, they all seem happy that the bleeding has slowed down enough. The OB begins to stitch me up which hurts a fair bit, but OB keeps saying, ‘That shouldn’t hurt, you’ve had a local’. Maybe I should take a needle and thread to his genitals one day….

And then I begin to vague out. Raff took the baby from me, and I can hear her crying and I can’t do anything for her. It all seems so far away. I think we named her. Only that week we had decided on Charlotte Lily. I felt so awful, and everyone just kept talking at me to try and keep me awake. How annoying! I just want to sleep. All I can say is ‘I’m just tired, let me sleep’ and ‘I’m just hungry, that’s all’. But no one would get me food as the kitchen doesn’t open till 7….

And then my fantastic Mum appears beside me with a plate of buttered toast. I hadn’t even realised that she had left the room. She had driven home to get it for me! Cold and soggy, it was the best toast I have ever eaten. I heart my mum.

Eventually Charlotte was weighed 8po 2oz (3680gm) 50cm long and 33cm head circumference, so 2cm and 200gm less than her sister, plus a 4cm smaller head! I managed to breastfeed her. She latched on like a champion, and would have stayed attached for ages, but after 20 minutes I was nearly falling asleep. I just wanted a shower, some more food and a nice dry bed that wasn’t soaked through with my blood.
No one wanted me to take a shower. I was too weak, I had lost loads of blood and they were talking about a transfusion (I kept mumbling to Raff, ‘I’m A positive’) but I was covered in blood, it looked like I was wearing red knee-high socks. Plus I had Charlottes meconium smeared all up one leg and over my chest. They kept trying to talk me into a sponge bath. No thanks! I have no idea how I managed to walk to the shower, but thank goodness for the bench in there! Raff hosed me off, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. I was shivery and still very vague. I was carried to a wheelchair and wheeled through the hospital corridors with only a towel draped over me. The midwife and Raff helped me get dressed and then loaded me into bed. I fed Charlotte again while Raff handfed me bacon and eggs. Thank goodness Charlotte then slept for 5 hours, and Mum and Dad waited till 10ish to bring Ella in to see her baby sister.

Merry Christmas!

Though everything pretty much went as I wanted (no drugs etc) I was very, very down and traumatised by the whole experience, and took quite a few weeks to bond with Charlotte. I loved her, but………..

I handwrote this about 2 months after she was born. She will be 5 months old next week, and I have well and truly bonded with her, and absolutely love her to bits. I think that even though I honestly didn’t mind if I had a boy or a girl, because I was convinced that it was a boy, it kind of threw me for a while. (You know how people always ‘know’ what you’re having? Well, every single person that I came across in my pregnancy said BOY, the pregnancy was so different in so many ways, and at 38 weeks I did the wedding ring test – BOY. Bloody old wives tales)

Charlotte is under there somewhere :(

Story of Ella's Birth

2007-10-26T22:43:00.000+09:30

While I am feeling all nostalgic ...

Well, it’s Tuesday the 9th of July 2002, 2 days before our Due Date. I don’t notice anything particularly different, though in hindsight I felt a bit ‘off’ all day – slightly dizzy, nauseous, crampy & tired. I even gave up on shopping and went home.
We had a very large tea – Chicken Parmigiana with loads of vegetables – little did we know that it would be the last effortful meal cooked for a long time!!

We went to bed at around 10:30pm. I fell asleep I think, only to wake at 11pm to go to the toilet – strange, because I usually only got up the once around 4am. I got back into bed a bit restless, and then I felt it. My first contraction!! I didn’t realise that at the time though. It wasn’t until I had had an hour of these at 5 minutes apart that the possibility crossed my mind – you’re meant to go overdue with your first!!

Up until about 3am I went to the toilet about 20 times, and about then I noticed that it was now every 3 minutes. I remember rushing out of the bedroom and saying to a very sleepy Raff “Oh my God, they’re getting closer together!!” I probably gave him the quickest wake-up call he has ever had!

There was no chance of sleep for either of us from then on. I was up and down until around 5am when both of us migrated to the lounge room, turned on the heater and tried to decide what to do. At 6am Raff rang the hospital and they predictably said “Take your time, no hurry, have breakfast, take a shower, pack your bags and come in whenever you like.” So we had a shower and I don’t remember feeling panicky or scared at all, just curious at how dilated I would be after 8 hours of contractions.
Looking back at those early pains I can’t believe that I thought they were painful!!

We got dressed, packed everything and tried to eat (I couldn’t). I said to Raff in the car “I won’t be disappointed if I’m hardly dilated, we will just come home” We got to the hospital around 7am. It was freezing cold, but it was going to be a beautiful, clear, blue winter’s day.

We entered the hospital, and all the Orientation classes went straight out of our heads. I felt lost, and it all looked so alien in the dawn light. We found our way to the Maternity ward, only to be told that the two delivery rooms were both in use, so we went into a tiny little room where I was examined internally. Not much happening apparently!! I could tell that the midwife didn’t think that I was in anywhere near enough pain. They gave us the option of staying there or going home. Easy decision, especially with no spare Labour rooms to sit and wait in!!

So home again, to bed to try and rest – what a joke!! After an hour or so I kicked Raff out. I felt better able to handle the pain without him watching me. We were waiting for an Electrician to come (I remember when we booked him in for the day before our Due Date thinking ‘This will guarantee that we deliver early…’), he arrived around 9:30am, and this kept Raff busy for a couple of hours.

By the time he left at 11ish, the pain was major. I was pacing up and down the hallway, walking around in circles. I couldn’t sit, stand, lay down, anything. Raff suggested putting on a video to distract me. We didn’t even get through the opening credits, before I decided that it was a stupid idea! We had day-time TV on. Painful enough at the best of times!! I recall watching a woman on the News that had just had sextuplets – that really didn’t help!
I told myself that we would wait until 1pm, see how I felt and then make a decision about going back to the hospital. One o’clock on the dot we packed the car and off we went. This car ride was far more unpleasant – it’s a 6 minute drive, and I had 3 contractions on the way! This time I knew that I would be devastated if something wasn’t happening!

This time the same midwife said “This looks a lot more convincing”. She did an internal – only 1cm dilated, but fully effaced. She suggested a bath and that was great. For two hours I sat in there with Raff pouring water over my back. I actually felt quite serene in there. Not long after I had gotten in there Mum rocked up. (She had rang home earlier in the day, as she had every day that week to jokingly ask “Have you had the baby yet?” I don’t think she expected Raff to say “Nearly”) I reckon she said to us about 50 times “Just tell me if you don’t want me here, I don’t want to intrude”

All of a sudden I had had enough of the spa. I needed to go to the toilet, and the appeal of the water had worn off. I dried off and ventured into the Labour room. It must have been around 4pm now. My brother and his girlfriend (now wife) came in for quite a while, which was a lovely distraction. (I think Eva is still walking around with her legs crossed! ) I was pacing back and forward, still peeing every couple of minutes. The pains were getting much stronger, but I felt quite positive – if a particular contraction was very painful, I would say “That one has to have dilated me another centimetre!”

The best way to cope was to lean up against Raff, hold him tight, bob up and down and breathe deeply. Occasionally he had to leave to go to the toilet or get stuff out of the car. So thank goodness that Mum was there also. It felt like lots and lots (and lots!) of contractions before I thought that I might need some gas. It took a little while to work out the right way to use it, and it made me very, very light-headed – not less pain though!

At some stage I felt very weird and strange between my legs. A quick trip to the toilet showed a lot of mucous – things were starting to happen! I was so excited that all these signs that I had read about and memorised were actually happening to me!! I can’t believe how many times I went to the toilet, and also how much mucous there was (TMI, I know)

I decided that I now needed to use the gas during every contraction. It was getting pretty hard to bear. The midwife kept asking me if I wanted a shot of Pethidine over and over and over. I resisted for a long time. During each contraction I thought ‘Yes’, but in between I thought ‘No’. I thought about it as much as I could, and when I realised that I didn’t even know how to think anymore I said yes. I don’t know if it helped – everything still hurt! But I felt a bit calmer and ‘together’, more in control.

As the midwife was trying to convince me to get up on the bed, I looked around and realised that my brother and GF had left. The midwife had done an internal earlier and I was 3cm. This time I was 7cm, and she attempted to break my waters with no success, so when my Dr came in he broke my waters. That was sooo painful. I knew that I was screaming, and tensed up, and totally not relaxing which made it so much worse, but I couldn’t help it.

It’s starting to get a bit blurry now. Umm, more contractions, more gas, more pain and more of the midwife trying to talk me into an epidural. This I knew I did not want (I was a bit p*ss*d that I had the Peth to be honest. If she hadn’t mentioned it, I would have gone without) Raff, Mum and I managed to convince her to give me another internal, and with surprise she said that I was fully dilated and could start pushing whenever I felt the urge. I couldn’t believe it! I kept saying “Are you sure?!” It just felt too easy. I think I must have read too many horror stories, and had prepared myself for the worst. I was thinking that ‘transition’ would be horrendous, but besides being extraordinarily hot and thirsty, it was fairly non-eventful.

Now, when I got to ‘pushing’, even after everything that I had read, it just felt so unreal – not pushing in the way I thought it would be. It felt like only 8-10 pushes, but maybe it was more…. The first couple of pushes were non-events really, until they told me that I had to push constantly for the count of 20. Raff was counting for me; all I could think was “Count faster!!” I felt quite controlled between each push. And then I would say “Here comes another one, start counting” Raff was counting down from 20 to 1, when Mum took over she was counting from 1 to 20. Talk about confusing!

During all this someone got Raff a chair as he looked very washy. I thought that it was all getting too much for him, but then he said he was faint because he hadn’t eaten all day! (Neither had I, but my mind was otherwise occupied!) Lucky for that block of chocolate I had packed in the Labour bag! After half of that he felt a lot better.

Mum was down at my feet, watching and waiting. Quicker than I thought was possible; she said “I can see the head! About as big as a 50c piece and it looks like it’s covered in black hair!” Now that’s motivation to push properly! Push, push, push – lots of yelling, grunting and in between each push that horrible feeling that something was stuck and stretching me beyond belief. (Which of course it was!!!) But definitely not a pleasant sensation!

I put my hand down there, and I could feel the head. So soft and downy, and covered in hair. I was just blown way!! One push and the head was out. Mum was yelling ‘Its got dark hair” over and over. (All the other bubs in our family had been baldies!) One more push and it just flew out – those midwives sure need good reflexes!
IT’S A GIRL!!! (I knew it!) Raff went down to cut the cord – very tough apparently.

All I could say was “Is she alright?” over and over again. She was screaming her head off, and oh so beautiful. I was expecting a funny looking, ugly, mushed up baby, but she was gorgeous! After a cuddle they took her to get cleaned up, weighed and measured. Then I delivered the placenta – easy and interesting to look at. Then the Dr showed up, just in time to stitch me up – not very pleasant at all.

Ella Louise was born at 6:57pm on 10th July 2002, weighing 8po9oz (3880gm)
52cm long and a head circumference of 37.5cm. Big and healthy, with loads of gorgeous black hair.

No words can truly capture the moment. The things that stand out the most to me are touching her head as I was birthing her, and the rate that she just zoomed out of me on that second push. Oh and of course just how perfect she was! I didn’t cry at all, I just fell in love. 5hrs and 10mins was the official length of labour. Not bad for the first time!

Unfortunately our breastfeeding relationship was a bit bumpy. I didn’t get her latched on properly until Day 8, but we then went on to feed for 15 months.

The story of Lucy's birth

2007-10-25T21:22:00.000+09:30

Very long! Go make a cup of tea :)

Well, this is a hard one for me to write. I have had to do a lot of processing of events to get to the point where I can write it down. In fact, the only reason I am writing it down now is that I did birth stories for both my other girls and I think my third child deserves the same ‘voice’.

We had been umming and aahing about a third child since Charlotte was about 12 months old. Up until then I had been absolutely positive that she was our last. I just couldn’t do it again – the pregnancy, the birth, the newborn thing. I had always had ‘3 kids’ in my head; it is just a pity that to have three kids, you kind of have to go through the pregnancies!

There is almost exactly two and a half years between our first two, and I was always happy with that gap, so as Charlotte edged towards 21 months I felt like we had to make a decision. Two weeks later with about that much forethought the positive test came up. Charlotte was asleep and Ella was at kindy. I lost it. I couldn’t get hold of Raff, and I just panicked. I reckon I had a full on anxiety attack. I just couldn’t comprehend that I would have to go through childbirth again.

I finally got hold of Raff and his comment? ‘Did we even have sex this month?’ I spent the majority of my pregnancy in a fair amount of denial. I really couldn’t bring myself to think about it. I was absolutely petrified. I was totally convinced that ‘something’ was going to go wrong. I had some bleeding at 8 weeks, not much, barely anything, but enough to make me think that it was over. During this time no one knew we were pregnant. My parents were overseas and we were waiting until they got back to tell anyone. Very soon I was 12 weeks and then everyone knew!

The pregnancy zoomed past, with me still in denial. Every time I thought about the birth, I had a yukky feeling inside and couldn’t go ‘there’. I talked at length with Raff about it, and all the conversations ended with ‘I am scared!!’ and me crying... I knew it wasn’t helpful to be stuck thinking like that but I couldn’t help it. Whoever said that as soon as the baby is out you forget all the pain was just wrong. Sitting here now, I can still feel the pain of three labours.

At about 34 weeks I was at the library and on a whim borrowed a whole heap of positive birthing books. I devoured them. There was nothing in them that was new to me, but I was ready to be ready to birth. I printed out positive affirmations, I recited positive messages, I had Ella and Raff reminding me every day that my body was made to birth babies and that I had done it twice before, and that my body knows what to do etc. I felt good. I really did. I had started speaking more positively to the general public in passing conversations. I was ready.

Both my girls were born the day before their due dates, so I was all prepped to go. My due date though, was the day of Ella’s first full day of transition visits to school. She was starting school in three short weeks and I had a parent induction to go to that day. I managed to get through that afternoon, but sat through the meeting counting contractions on the clock. They were pretty regular at 10 minutes.

Something was happening! I felt confident and ready and I was certain that it was going to happen fast once it started. I got a reasonable amount of sleep that night, but I was contracting every time that I awoke. The next morning we had a man here to put a built in robe in our laundry. I’m sure he loved the sound effects he heard from my gazillion toilet visits. I talked Raff in to staying home, as I was certain it was all of a sudden going to roll.

Raff was on the phone or at the computer (or both!) for the whole day really. I don’t have a real conscious memory of where the other girls were. Ella would have had afternoon kindy, I presume Rachel took her there and back. I spent the day with strengthening contractions folding linen back in to our new laundry cupboard. It was very good busy work. I was very focused on my body, but was glad to be physically distracted with something to do. I am finding that a lot of details are a blur. I don’t remember eating. I don’t remember who came and went. I do remember having a shower with both the girls as they were getting ready for bed. Ella was reciting my affirmations at me during contractions. Once the kids were in bed, mum had some catering (?) work to do. Dad stayed here, but he and Raff just sat at the computer. I wandered aimlessly around wondering how much housework to worry about doing. I then retreated to my bedroom and was happy in my positive place there, just being.

Mum came over and then we started talking hospital. I think I had another shower while Raff packed up some last minute things. I all of a sudden said ‘That’s it. Let’s go.’ and went out to the car. Mum went up with us in her own car. It was only as we were waiting at the hospital entrance for them to let us in, that we realised that we hadn’t let the hospital know we were on our way. It is a smallish country hospital and they do like to have the warning. Oh well. It was about 8:30pm by now and I got Raff to call our student midwife, Kylie, and she was on her way. I was fairly certain that this baby was close. I was contracting every three minutes pretty hard, yet coping on my own really.

I had a moment where I realised that my panic and anxiety was actually a lot closer to the surface than I realised. I thought I was under control and had surrendered to the birthing process, but I had a glimpse of it as we walked around the corner to the birthing suites and the midwife asked which room I would prefer. I saw the room that both my girls were born in and I nearly turned around and ran out. I had such bittersweet memories of that room and I wasn’t ready to go there again. I really wasn’t. I fought the feeling and didn’t let on.

After a lot of small talk and observing, the midwives got me up on the bed for an internal. I was 4cm. That surprised me, but I also thought that all of a sudden it would happen, you know? My contractions were regular and close and painful. Our baby was on its way.

There was a whole lot of banter between everyone. It was a lovely environment. My sister came up for a while and everyone sat around eating lollies and making jokes. The midwife pretty much left us alone. She said to mum at some stage that she felt superfluous as Raff and I made such a good team. He always knew exactly what I needed at each contraction. That man never ceases to amaze me.

We would have had change of shift at 11pm and this is when Julie came on. She was just the right mix for a midwife – firm and calm and pleasant and knowledgeable. One of the things that the hospital had all but insisted on was that I had a cannula inserted in the back of my hand at the beginning of my labour so that they could get the syntocin in to me quick smart if I looked like haemorrhaging as I did with Charlotte. Julie was lovely enough to listen to me and my fears and said that it wasn’t necessary at this stage, but that I had to listen to her when she said it was time. Fair enough.

So I laboured. I showered. I guzzled litres of water. I sweated litres. I contracted. I moaned. I complained. I was doing it. And then it began to really hurt. I was in that yucky place and the midwife thought things were close to happening. I jumped up on the bed and the internal saw me at ..... 4cm :( It was midnight by now and I was so certain that the baby was going to be born on the Thursday. Oh well, up and at ‘em.

So I laboured. I showered. I guzzled litres of water. I sweated litres. I contracted. I moaned. I complained. I was doing it. And then it began to really, really, really hurt. It was 2am and I was wiped. The midwife checked me again. Oh, flip. 4cm. I lost it. I really did. I insisted on a caesarean. I carried on like a stereotypical labouring woman. I yelled at everyone. I cried. I freaked out. I really wanted to punch the midwife because she wouldn’t let me have a caesarean. I wanted everyone to just go away. I went in to the shower and regrouped. I wanted to be by myself. I had lost my groove. I had lost my mindset and I had lost my belief.
I stood in that shower for two hours and I found myself again. I talked to my body. I talked to the baby. I envisioned it happening. I strived for my belief. I nearly got there, too. It was just a tiny niggle of ... worry? Fear? Something I can’t put my finger on. More than fear or worry...

Raff was with me in the bathroom and I was rolling. I was ready. The baby was coming. I swear I was feeling ‘pushy’. I decided that the time was right; I was going to jump up on that bed and push that baby out. So I gear up for another internal. What the .... ? Still 4 cms. The show was over. That baby was coming out via a scalpel. I was going to trust my body. Yep, trust that it knows something I don’t know. That baby was not coming out naturally. I could not go on. It was not even exhaustion; it was just a simple knowledge that it wasn’t going to happen. Now to convince everyone else in the room.

All of a sudden the vibe had changed. It was no longer a happy positive place. It was me against them. Everyone was the enemy. I cannot believe that everyone was still insisting that I can do it. I can’t. I won’t. I hated the midwife. I hated the registrar that came in to talk me around. I hated her condescending way. I hated being spoken to while I was lying naked on my back with my legs spread. The whole situation was awful. I ranted and raved. I yelled and said intelligent things like “I’m the patient and you have to do what I tell you to” and “It’s my body, you can’t tell me what to do” Yep, crazy. They wanted to just try breaking my waters, as then it could all just happen, but I was freaked. I will never forget that feeling when I had my waters broken in labour with Charlotte and seeing the meconium stained waters. I thought she was going to die and I couldn’t let it happen to my third. There was absolutely no rational thought behind my ravings. It was pure and utter fear for my baby.

They ran through the risks to me and the baby if a caesarean was performed. I yelled at the registrar “I know all that. I have read everything I can about birthing babies. I know so much” It is so hard to put in to words, but I was doing it to save my baby. By now my labour had basically stopped. They were monitoring baby’s heart rate a lot, but the baby was fine. At some stage they agreed, though they told me it would take over an hour because it was 4am and there was no doctor at the hospital to perform the surgery. There was no anaesthetist and no theatre team. I didn’t believe them. I honestly thought they were lying to me. I remember hearing her on the phone and I said to Raff that I don’t reckon there is anyone on the other end. She is just a big faker.

So now I had to stay flat on my back with the CTG monitor on. I had to have a catheter inserted, my pubic hair shaved and I had to stop drinking water. I had to take all my hair clips out and wait. I was still contracting, but nothing like I was before. All of a sudden I felt calm. It was going to happen. My baby was going to be okay.

I remember the very rude anaesthetist coming in and saying ‘Why is she still here? Everyone is waiting for her in theatre.’ I was then wheeled in to theatre. At that stage mum could come no further. She had to wait. She was on the phone to my sister, my dad and my brother and sister-in-law in Scotland. I remember the mean anaesthetist making me shuffle over from my bed to the surgical table while attached to all kinds of tubes and wires. The OB arrived and did another internal. Still 4cm and baby still very high. This seemed to confirm to everyone that it was okay to go ahead. Though the anaesthetist did have a few choice words to say, but I won’t go in to the actual words and reasons. The CTG was on non-stop and the heart rate never faltered.

I then had to sit up on the edge of the bed, bent over my massive belly, still contracting, while this cranky anaesthetist attempted to insert a gigantic needle into my spine. He jabbed me with a local anaesthetic a few times and began. He tried once and failed. He tried again and failed. He then told me that his third try would be his last, as he would then be putting me under a general. Just as he was getting the needle in, I felt Raff’s hand slacken, he was muttering something and then down he went. The student midwife managed to break his fall a little bit, but he still hit the ground very hard. Dr L (so sick of writing anaesthetist!) cursed him and yelled at me not to move. I didn’t.

He told Raff he had to lay flat for five full minutes or else he would just go over again. Thank goodness for the student midwife, as at least I still had someone holding my hand. Dr L was a bit brusque, verging on rude, for most of the procedure, but he did say something lovely. As I was making vague excuses for Raff fainting (hadn’t eaten all night, hadn’t drunk enough water, had been standing with me all night) he said that ‘No, he fainted from caring’ which was true. The whole thing must be horrendous as an onlooker.

Okay. Spinal block in, husband upright. I was lying on my back and Dr L wanted to make sure the spinal took well, so he rotated the table so that I was head down on a slant. I could feel the baby shift upwards and unengage. Then he started with the ice. Oh my God, by the end of this I was ready to shove that ice up his jaxy, I tell ya! He kept touching the ice on my feet, thigh, tummy, boob, face, over and over again. ‘Cold?’ ‘Cold?’ Cold?’ over and over and over. I was so confused and felt so stupid, because I just couldn’t define between pressure and cold. Feeling pressure was fine; feeling cold was not. If I could feel cold, then the block wasn’t working fully. He needed it to be numb all the way up to my nipples. ‘Cold?’ ‘Cold?’ ‘Frikkin cold?’

I kept saying ‘Yes, no, I’m not sure’. Finally, after repeated threats of a general he was happy that I couldn’t feel the cold anymore. The operation was on. I had to wear an oxygen mask and keep my arms straight out to the side. He attempted to put a drip in my left hand and massacred my hand up, so then went over to my right hand, and thank goodness got it in first shot. I kept telling him to take the mask of my face, but he wouldn’t. I think I was on the verge of panicking and really had to concentrate on the babies heart beat to get myself through it. My whole body felt all pins and needles and not pleasant at all. They put the blue screen up and then it was GO. I had no idea that it had started, but gosh, it seemed to take a long time. So many serious faces had me worried, but then at 5:29am I heard it. Oh my, two previous births, but this cry really got me. I was so worried about this baby.

“It’s a girl!!!!” and far out, she was huge. She was fat roll upon fat roll, and absolutely perfect. I couldn’t get enough of her. Of course they had to whisk her away to the warming table. I said to Raff ‘Stay with her no matter what’
I could see her the whole time, but I could also hear the doctors at the other end suctioning and muttering about ‘too much blood’. Turns out I ended up losing just under a litre of blood. From then on it just got weird. I could feel everything they were doing, not pain just a god awful pressure. It felt like they jumping up and down on my tummy, up really high, too. I felt really nauseous with that and really wanted it to just be over. It was starting to freak me out, and yet again, I was on the verge of panicking and was barely holding myself together. I couldn’t hold the baby as I had the shakes. I was quivering nonstop and didn’t trust my arms to hold her. (I must say here, that I thank goodness for all the birth stories that I have read over the years, as I knew that this was a very normal Caesar reaction, so it didn’t upset me)

I kept asking Dr L if everything was okay as they sure were taking their sweet time. He constantly reassured me that all was good, they had 7 (?) layers to sew up and we didn’t want to rush these things. He was a changed man, now that everything was over and done with, and happily took himself out to talk to mum and tell her that the baby was fine.

We had decided on names only a few days previously, so Lucy Anne she was (Anne is my mum’s middle name). I was busting for them to weigh her as I could hear mutterings between the paed and the midwife of upper 9 pounds. She just looked so fat! She was glorious. Raff cut her cord closer to her body, as they had already done the main cut when she was born. Soon they took her out of theatre so that they could work on warming her up, Raff went with her and not long after that I was all stitched up and could join them. Raff called out her weight 9lb 13oz and 54cm. Lovely :) He then got her dressed in her little tiny cloth nappy and her 000 Bonds suit, both of which only just fit her. My clever man managed to do that with his arms through the holes of the humidicrib. We could all hear and see her trying to latch on everything near her and I was busting to get her to the breast.

I still had the shakes and the midwives put a warming blanket on me, but it wasn’t noticed until later that it was blowing freezing air on me instead of hot air. I still had tubes and stuff all over the place, but the midwife brought Lucy to me and laying down we had our first breastfeed. My nipples were still numb from the spinal, so I got Raff to get the nipple shields, as I really didn’t want any trauma to my nipples straight away. She latched on like a pro. Mum was in recovery with us. I feel so blessed that she got to be with us throughout this journey.

I just said to Raff, that I don’t recall leaving recovery, nor arriving in the hospital room, but I obviously did! There were people everywhere, setting up my bed unpacking stuff, moving stuff closer for me etc etc. All I wanted was a drink of water, my mobile phone and my baby. All of a sudden the room was empty. Everyone had gone. Mum had to go to work; Raff had to go home to relieve Dad, so that he could go to work. My student midwife had to rush home to score some sleep before she had to be back for another ladies appointments. I rang home around 7am to talk to Ella. I really wanted to be the one that told her. She had been desperate for a brother and I could sense her disappointment when I said that ‘Sprout’ was a girl. She just kind of went ‘Oh’ and then handed the phone to my dad.

I was busting for my girls to come in and meet their sister, but was also hanging for a sleep, as it turned out, so was Raff. He got home, put the TV on for the girls and crashed out on the couch. By the time he awoke and got everyone dressed it was about 10am. It was so good to see them all, unbrushed hair and mismatched clothes. Gosh, I’m clever – look at all these people I made!

My Caesar recovery was pretty text book; I showered the next morning but was very sore for a few days. I stayed in hospital for 4 nights and was glad to be back home. It was a slow but continual improvement that saw me driving at 3 weeks and resuming most normal duties by 6 weeks. Lucy was a dream baby, easily going 4 hours or more in a stretch at night. In fact at 4 weeks old she did a 7 hour stretch. She really is delightful, and after nearly stopping at one child, we keep tossing up about #4!!
Emotionally my recovery has been the best of my three births. I keep wondering if I will be hit with any ‘blues’ but nearly 4 months out, I think I am safe. I feel really comfortable with how it all panned out. I never would have thought that I would have been a candidate for a caesarean, in fact we had leaned towards a home birth before I fell pregnant with Lucy. I guess we will never know what would have been.

In hindsight, I probably should have allowed my waters to be broken, but at the time I just couldn’t. I really couldn’t. I was in such a state of anxiety; I doubt much would have eventuated from there anyway. My mind really did overtake my body.

I was lucky, in that on Lucy’s most unsettled night in hospital, the midwife that I laboured with was on night shift and it was a quiet night on the ward. We managed a lovely debrief, as I sobbed about Charlotte’s labour and birth and the trouble I had bonding with her. I feel like birthing Lucy has healed so much of that. A caesarean certainly didn’t take away from my feeling of powerful-ness. I still feel like superwoman.

Raff after fainting.

Fat baby!

Our lounge room - part two

2007-10-24T20:11:00.000+09:30

New floors, new paint and new furniture! We had the little windows replaced too.

Our lounge room

2007-10-24T19:39:00.000+09:30

I have been meaning to do this for ages. We rearranged our house back when Lucy was still Sprout, and the dining/office became a lounge room instead. Now, everything is not finished, but I got all the books on to the bookshelves last week, so it looks a bit better. We are still going to paint the door frames with a few coats and also rehang photos and the clock etc. The walls were in really bad condition, so they kind of have a textured pattern to them now. Any imperfec tions are due to be touched up buy the time Lucy starts school :)

We have the before photos, but trust me, we didn't live like this all the time - it was purely during the messy renovation period!

You can see that the carpet was awful and the room was so squishy with 2 desks, a dining table, 4 chairs and mountains of computer stuff.

Our poor damaged walls!

More photos by Phillippa

2007-10-11T20:18:00.000+09:30

I had some more photos taken of my girls last week. The disk arrived today and the phots are gorgeous. Phillippa is a mum that I have met through an online parenting forum. She is not a 'professional' photographer as such, but she aims to be. I have offered my children as guinea pigs along with a small fee to cover her expenses and time. The girls were wonderfully behaved. Lucy was in her happy awake period and it all came together really well. It was still really difficult to get the three of them together, as Charlotte just loves to lean over Lucy continually, so a lot of the photos have her covering (or is that smothering!?) Lucy.
These are a few of my favourites.

Okay, okay...

2007-10-08T19:21:00.000+09:30

Lucy isn't fat, she is just ....

3 months - 14 weeks !

2007-10-04T21:12:00.000+09:30

Time flies, hey?
Lucy rolled over for the first time this week, and as all good third borns should, she was watching TV, laying on her tummy. Obviously lifted her head up a little high and rolled right over on to her back!
She also has little giggles and is a nice fat roly poly thing. Do you think it is politically correct for me to call her 'fat baby' all day?
She loves her night sleep and happily sleeps 12ish hours each night. Her thick head of hair now has a bald spot! It freaks me out, as it is all prickly like 2 day old stubble.
She has really started grabbing at things and it is hours of fun for the older girls to watch her trying to grab at things that are just beyond her reach.

Our fat baby.

Watching the Cats thrash Port!!

Just had to add the photo of Raff's hot car :) They had a photo shoot done to get some pictures on their website.

The Nits

2007-09-18T21:20:00.000+09:30

Yep, after 5 years of close contact with all manner of children we hae had The Nits brought in to our household. It's funny because I knew Ella had them - she was scratching her head non-stop - but buggered if I could find anything. Turns out her head was crawling with them. I truly don't know how I missed them for so long! Anyway, Ella has been a trooper about them. She has always hated having her hair brushed or washed at the best of times, so having to sit still for hours while conditioner and other strange substances are combed through her hair must be pure torture for her.
Every now and then she would suddenly run out of the bathroom mid-combing screeching 'Ahhh, this is freaking me out!!!' and then calmly come and sit down to continue the combing. Occasionally she would say "I am so stressed about The Nits" Yep, that's what she calls them and I can hear the capitalisation in her voice.

Anyway a week or so after the first sighting it was 'Crazy Hair Day' at school. We were in a mad rush that morning, as instead of our usual 6:45am wake up call from Ella, we slept until 10 to 8 (we need to all be out the door at 8:30) Ella hadn't woken us up, as she had ot straight out of bed to create her 'crazy hair' Look at the photo. Can you guess?

Yep - a giant head lice.
And yes, I had them in my hair too. Revolting little things...

Gawler Show

2007-09-04T13:34:00.000+09:30

A whole year has passed without Adam and Eva around. You do realise that the kids outnumber us now at occasions such as the Show?! The weather was perfect and we all had a great day. Nothing has changed over the years, which is lovely, as Ella was remembering everything all over again.

The obligatory painted faces

Charlotte had a ball. She is a funny one. She will give anything a go, as bold as brass. She loves animals. Dad took both girls in to a farm animal enclosure. Ella managed to not touch a single animal, while Charlotte had to touch every single one, including having to chase down the ones that saw her coming! The fire brigade sprayed a whole heap of foam down that the kids went wild in, there was no holding Charlotte back!

And Lucy? Well, she slept a good chunk of the day. She seemed to have grown a few inches overnight. Lots of smiles from her nowadays.

Oh and I have to include the Ella-wants-to-go-home-cos-my-legs-are-tired photo(I hope you said that in your best 5 year old whiny voice!)

Monkey see, monkey do

2007-09-04T13:25:00.000+09:30

I had been having problems with the pram, so had sent it away to be fixed and also 're-upholstered' The problem with this was that The Pram Doctor is in Lonsdale, so a fair way out of the way! As luck would have it, Raff has a client very near there, so the computer Gods shined on us and he had to head down that way. He dropped our pram off, but the wait was too long so he left it there, and we hoped it would be a quick return. In the mean time, Lucy lived in the sling. We love our Jazsling. Two weeks of walking her everywhere in the sling, and it has become a way of life for us, so I guess it was no surprise to see Charlotte come out of her room one day with our spare sling around herself with her baby wrapped in it. A few adjustments and this was the result

And this is the real deal. Lucy as sung as a bug in her sling.

A winters day

2007-09-04T13:18:00.000+09:30

We spent a glorious day on Brighton beach a few weeks ago. It is just a short walk from Raff's nanna's house. It is such a beautiful beach and seems largely undiscovered by anyone other than the locals. It is a bit of a shame to see all the old character filled houses being knocked down and big ugly fortresses going up in their place. Charlotte had been unwell with a cold, but perked up for just long enough to enjoy the sand and sunshine.

Ella

Charlotte
They are both getting ridiculously grown up, hey?

Lucy spent the time sound asleep in her sling as per usual.

It's official

2007-08-28T21:19:00.000+09:30

Yep, she's a school girl.

Video of Lucy

2007-08-06T20:39:00.000+09:30

Not much happening over here. Same old, same old. Feed baby, drive eldest to school, feed baby, pick eldest up from school, feed baby, sleep, repeat.
Lucy has started smiling and I managed to catch a glimpse of it on video, so thought I would upload them.

I also finally got a half decent photo of the three girls!

Photos by Phillippa

2007-07-25T22:55:00.000+09:30

I received the disk of photos yesterday. Unfortunately on the day the photos were taken, Ella and Charlotte were unable to be in the same room as each other without kicking, biting, pinching, pushing and yelling at each other, let alone actually being photographed lovingly together. So only managed one photo of all 3 girls...

A perfect day

2007-07-25T22:20:00.000+09:30

It started with waking at 6:10 this morning and realising that Lucy had slept right through from 10pm, then when I got her up to feed she grinned at me for the first time - one of those beautiful whole face smiles with shiny eyes that only a newborn can do. She fed and went back to sleep and so did I, until 8:30 when Charlotte woke. Raff and Ella were already on their way to school.
My beautifully well-behaved helpful Charlotte was back after a fairly turbulent month, so we went for a walk down the street. It was one of those beautiful winter days with blue skies and just a touch of spring on the breeze. I was feeling very grateful for my bodies ability to heal and loved getting out and stretching the old muscles again.
Lucy slept most of our excursion except for a brief awakening to jump on the scales for a weigh in. She now weighs a beautifully chubby 5.3kg.
Charlotte and I sat on a step on Adelaide Road and watched the cars go by. Charlotte with her dried mango, me with my apple and Lucy with her breastmilk.
I achieved everything on my list today which always feels good.
I had a cup of tea with my mum.
I had my first night putting the girls all to bed by myself, as Raff had a meeting to go to, and it went swimmingly. Charlotte asleep at 6:30, Ella asleep at 7 and Lucy has slept most of the evening, which sure beats last nights screaming match...
My husband came home with a $900 phone that he won.
Life is good.

A rather spotty, yet still beautiful Lucy - she will be 4 weeks old in two days!

A step away

2007-07-23T23:06:00.000+09:30

Ella started school today. She loved it! She was super impressed that she learnt something new on her very first day, too (the Indonesian word for spider!)
She had a nervous start and the first photo that I have put up doesn't quite show the extent of the death grip that she had on Charlotte's hand.
She was so brave though, and didn't look back once she gave us all a super big squeezy hug (I didn't think she was going to let go of Charlotte, she held on for that tight for that long)
I got to her classroom early to pick her up this afternoon and her class was still over in the Indonseian room. I watched her walking back across the yard surrounded by her classmates and in that moment had a flash of me as an outsider peeking in on her world, rather than being the centre of it *waah* She still needs me, right?

Straight after school drop off I met a few of the mums from my Mother's Group so that we could all have a coffee, a chat and a cry about our babies starting school. Those women have been wonderful companions over the last five years. I think my journey into motherhood would have been just that little bit harder and a touch more lonely if I didn't have them all there to share the highs and lows. We have all learnt a little bit off each other here and there, but probably moreso we have all cemented our own way of parenting and been able to confidently do so without being judged.
We are an interesting mix, and I am unsure that we would have all gotten along so well in any other setting. It seems odd that the only link is that we all had our first children in mid 2002. Ella was 10 weeks old when we all met and it has been a privilege to share her and her nuances with these great women. (Miss you, Jacki!!!)
Our monthly child free dinners have always left me feeling reassured that most behavioural things with children are generally age appropriate and pass by so quickly in the grand scheme of things. I mean, really, now that she is five, can I even remember that crazy frustrating fight to get her to lay still to put a nappy on? Or the constant, constant breastfeeding? The thought that she would never sleep anywhere other than tucked up in my (rather sore!) arms? The horror that she was in the car - oh, the screaming! -? The pain of labour? The euphoria of birth? The hopelessness of non-stop crying?(mine, not hers) The emptied out Tupperware cupboards and bookshelves - again? The weaning? The mess of solids? The vomiting?

Will I ever forget the milky smell? The softness of her baby hair? The first successful breastfeed? The snuggles in bed? Her first steps? Her first giggles? The bliss of watching a sleeping baby?

Aah, thank goodness for little sisters! I get to do it all over again.

Our Lucy

2007-07-21T20:22:00.000+09:30

Yep, totally slack over here, but 3 weeks and one day ago our Lucy was born.
My mum has blogged brilliantly about it @ spendingyourinheritance.blogspot.com . One day I will get my head around it all and write it all down, for now it is enough that Lucy is with us safe and sound. She really is a glorious baby. I am totally unbiased in saying that she is gorgeously perfect in every way. From the Stomaci head of hair to the Stomaci love of sleep!
Our older girls are infatuated. The honeymoon is nowhere near over.
I had an online friend take some photos of my girls on Wednesday. She is mailing the disk out to me, so I hope to have some great photos to put up very soon.

This is just one of Charlotte and Lucy. It totally captures how enamoured Charlotte is with 'Little sister Lucy' as she calls her all day long.

We haven't been doing much other than existing. I can't wait until our loungeroom is finished so that I can put up photos. I love that room so much.

Ella had her 5th birthday and mum took her to see Cirque du Soleil. She really enjoyed the outing.

Our Lucy

Ella on her birthday

Ella at Cirque du soleil

First school visit

2007-06-07T19:52:00.000+09:30

Does she look happy?
I overheard her talking to our cat just before we had to leave. She was in her school clothes and was saying 'Harry, you probably don't recognise me now. Probably it is the school clothes, but it is also that I am different all over now. I am a school girl now. Even though it is only a very quick visit today, soon I will be going every day. I will miss you. You have been a good cat'

She was extremely nervous (so was I!) but she did great and is really happy with her classroom, her friends, her teachers and knowing where the toilets are and where to put her bag. I sat in the car and cried - damn hormones!

New room

2007-06-05T22:23:00.001+09:30

Inside the cupboards - look at all that space!!

Charlotte's bed

Ella's bed

0

THE room is done !!

2007-06-05T21:54:00.000+09:30

The girls room is finished !! It has been a long time coming, trying to steal bits and pieces of time here and there to finalise it, but it is so so worth it. All I want to do now is get a rug of some sort for the floor and the man from Hills robes has to give us our door back (he had to take one of the mirrored doors in lieu of payment :p - we had a bit of trouble getting the money through to them, over daily card limit etc)

When it was just Ella's bedroom.

I will make another entry with photos of the new look room in just a tick.

Now our next room to tackle is the dining room/office. It is going to become our lounge room. We had grand plans to paint over last weekend (Rachel had our girls all day Sunday - thanks again!) but the 'little' cracks that we needed to patch, kind of turned in to this

and this

The joys of an old house....

so now we wait for Raff to get the stuff to fill the gap and of course it is 10pm and he is still not home from work, so tonight is out of the question.
All the office/dining furniture is crammed in to what is to be the baby room, though the drawers have some baby clothes in, we have nappies and the bassinette is assembled - what more could a baby need?! (only 22 more sleeps until D day...)

Baby is growing wonderfully well and I am feeling great. My haemoglobin levels have actually increased, (105 to 107) which is a first for me. Body is holding out pretty well, considering the size of my bump - midwife says I am heading towards a 9 pound baby :) Anyone got any ideas for a name?!

She did it !!

2007-06-05T21:44:00.000+09:30

Ella that is. Passed up to the next swimming class. It has been a loooong time coming, but she looks great in the water and is very very happy. We now have to change to *sniff* after school lessons. She is now a Seahorse :D.

Speaking of school....we went and got her school uniform today and she has her first transition visit tomorrow. Her new teacher came to visit at the kindy yesterday and it turns out that her kindy teacher (Sandra) has managed to get Ella into an R-1 class. Very, very happy with that, as I wasn't really looking forward to six full terms of Reception alone. She will be in with only 3 other kindy kids and her closest friend Taylah won't be by her side, but I think it will be wonderful for her to be extended a little bit, both academically and socially.

Real concrete!!

2007-05-29T20:21:00.001+09:30

Oh, the excitement!!
Who would have thought concrete could bring such joy?!
On Sunday morning, Raff peeled back the carpet in Charlotte's old room (soon to be Sprout's room) and found some beautiful, fresh, non-sticky, non-deteriorated, perfect underlay. And under the beautiful, fresh, non-sticky, non-deteriorated, perfect underlay? Concrete! Smooth, clean, even, level concrete - happy dancing all around.
So from peeling back the carpet until laying the final plank, it took us about 5 hours in total - the girls were home with us helping, which possibly extended the time a touch.
Oh, and did I mention that particular room is perfectly square? With flat concrete? Wow! Soooo much easier than the girls room.

Almost finished product - still have to finish up the edges with some beading of some sort.

And this is what it looked like under the carpet in the first room we did - awful, hey?

Mmm, and did I mention that we still haven't actually received the money from the bank? 5 weeks today since we applied. Buggers. Tomorrow, apparently :)

A wedding.

2007-05-29T19:57:00.002+09:30

We went to a wedding on Saturday, a school friend of Raff's. It was an absolutely glorious day, around 22 degrees. I had frantically rushed around on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning looking for decent jackets for Ella and I to wear on the night, as the reception was aboard the Dolphin Explorer at Port Adelaide. Of course it was beautiful weather and I wore short sleeves the whole night and didn't even look at my jacket. Ella was too busy dancing with her 'groovy hips' see video to notice the cold. Charlotte hasn't been well since last Sunday, so I had her rugged up as she wanted to live up on the deck of course.

The bride and groom were crazily in love . They have a 22 month old daughter and it was only her and our girls at the wedding. Our girls were fantastic and we had many many comments on our 'obviously great parenting' which was lovely :)

The girls got to take ALL the balloons home from the reception, which was great. NOT! as we had taken Raff's car and there was just no room for all the balloons and no arguing with two very sleepy children.

Ella Charlotte and Rachel (flowergirl)

Some of the balloons

Sleepiest little girl in the world - zonked for nearly 14 hours straight about 10 minutes after this photo was taken.

School !!!

2007-05-29T19:50:00.000+09:30

I received a note at kindy this week saying that Ella's school transition visits start next week!! That has snuck up rather quickly...

The plants mum and dad dropped off for us to look after are going wonderfully. It has been a wet gusty wintery day here today so I went out to check the plants hadn't blown over and found the strawberries bitten off the plant...by Charlotte. I can just imagine her out there on her hands and knees. Crazy kid.

Belly shot

2007-05-20T22:02:00.001+09:30

Raff snapped this one last week. Pretty good, as the light covers up the stretch marks.

We have floor

2007-05-20T21:42:00.000+09:30

After a pretty intensive effort over Saturday night and all day Sunday we managed to get the floating floorboards down in the girls' bedroom.
It looks really good. It was just Raff and I working on it and we both deserve a pat on the back. We just have to work out how to get the skirting boards back on...

All that is left to do in their room now is put up the fairy border, affix skirting boards and find a little joiner thingamy for where the slate meets the floorboards at their doorway.

I will post a heap of before and after photos when we are done (furniture arrives 30/05) but in the meantime here is a corner of the room!

I have decided the only way to keep up blogging is to throw random bits of information out there. I decided today that I overthink most things way to much - it helps to come to a revelation like that when you spend 12+ hours cooped up in an empty room DIY-ing with a husband that doesn't really do forward thinking ;)

For those watching at home, we have taken the house off the market and the bank has been kind enough to throw a large some of money our way, with very little begging needed, which we are planning on spending all around the house. All the rooms will be getting painted, built in wardrobes will be going in the bedrooms and laundry, floating floorboards in the bedrooms and lounge room, new beds, new dining table and even a new couch. My shopping list is as long as my arm and I can't wait to get started on it!
Do you think we can get it all done in the next 5 weeks!?

Big thanks to Rachel for having our kids today, we really couldn't have got anywhere near as much done with them helping us. The kids looked like thay had a ball!

Hope your birthday was great, Adam, hope you could feel the birthday hugs and hear the random outbursts of 'Happy Birthday, Adam' from our girls.

Bugs

2007-04-01T19:24:00.000+09:30

Ella has been learning all about insects at kindy this term. She has loads and loads of odd information that she can relay to you about bugs.
Did you know spiders bodies are covered in an oily layer, so that they don't stick to their own webs?
Did you know that spiders legs are covered in tiny little hooks that mean they can't get blown off their webs on windy days?
Did you know that spiders can't chew like humans can? They have to squirt poison in to the flies body until all their insides turn to liquid and then they slurp their insides out.
Did you know butterfiles don't have mouths, they have a probiscus?
Ladybirds are great insects, because they eat aphids, which eat roses.
She is a fountain of knowledge, so I guess it should have come as no surprise tonight that while we were laying on her bed reading stories, and she had her hand on my stomach and suddenly felt the baby move, she said 'Wow, that's a big bump,it must be Sprout's thorax!'

Salee turns one

2007-03-20T21:49:00.000+10:30

We went to visit Alexis and her little boy, Salee, on Sunday. They are living at Tailem Bend for the moment, so we sat in the car for 2 hours to get there, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The girls are getting to a wonderful age and they sang songs happily most of the way.
Ella in particular was very impressed that we were 'in the distance' as we started driving up the freeway through the hills. She always gazes at the hills and calls them 'the distance'.

We had a lovely BBQ on the river side watching the ferry go over and back and over and back.... Charlotte was enthralled watching a young boy catching big carp on a handline. She is a child that looks at the world with total wonder. She loves animals so much. She loves bugs and has no real fear of anything (I say 'real' fear, as she loves to copy her big sisters' screams when she sees a bug, and insists that she is 'scared', but truthfully would just pick a huntsman up and tuck it in her pocket if I let her) She loves nature and is always filling her pockets with different types of rocks and leaves and sticks.
She really is unique, and makes me laugh out loud many times each day with her wackiness. She loved the trees that were full of screeching corellas and the giant cricket on the toilet floor that was losing it's fight amongst a gazillion ants.

Alexis kept commenting over and over how much Charlotte looks like me. The two girls are so different it is bizarre. Even odd things like their feet - Ella has Raff's lanky feet, complete with a second toe that is longer than her big toe. Charlotte has my stumpy little toes and odd toenails.

Alexis made a cake for her boy. I let her know that that was the first real rite of motherhood. What do you think? Blue jelly and chocolate cake?

I think Lex's mum didn't have 100% faith in her cake making ability, so this was the back up one ;)

It was great to see Lex again. She looks great and I was happy to see that her boy was in cloth nappies! We have known each other for 15 years! Crap, that makes me feel old....

Ella went wild with the camera and took about 50 odd close-up photos of all kinds of things. This is the family shot that she took. Thank goodness for digital cameras :p

All up it was a lovely day. I had forgotten how peaceful it is to be at the river. It was a well earned time-out for us all.

Odd child

2007-03-20T21:36:00.000+10:30

So last week I was in the toilet and I heard a little voice saying 'Help me. Stuck' I wandered outside to see this

I have no idea what she was thinking, but inside the pillowcase was a Charlotte, two blankets, 3 baby dolls and a partridege in a pear tree.

I took it off her head to find this gorgeous sight

May as well throw in a photo of the Big Sister while I am here
Oh, and this is the view that I get of my 26 week pregnant tummy

Songs for Adam and Eva

2007-02-19T13:34:00.000+10:30

I know I really need to do an update....but in the meantime here is my gorgeous grown up girl

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81wbhsPllw8

Meet Sprout

2007-02-01T23:12:00.000+10:30

We had our ultrasound today. You know what that means? We are at the halfway mark of this pregnancy. Quickest pregnancy in history, I say.
Ella came along with us and she did enjoy it, but I am glad I packed enough snack and drinks and books for her to look at during the boring moments.
For some reason the baby has been named Sprout, it has just kind of stuck. We have never been ones for cutesie names for foetuses, but Sprout it is.
And nope, we didn't find out the sex. I am always sooooo tempted to peek as the sonographer scans down the body, but always look away at the last minute.

All seems well, I have an appointment with the midwives on Tuesday, so I suppose we will find out for sure then.

I will leave you with this photo of what us Aussies have to do to keep cool in these times of droughts and water restrictions.

Baby Names

2007-01-23T20:31:00.000+10:30

I really should be keeping you all updated on the baby names that Ella keeps coming up with.
If it is a boy she wants to name him Sprout or Yabbie.
If it is a girl then she wants to name her Ari or Billy

Time for an update

2007-01-23T19:16:00.000+10:30

I am always so tired in the evenings that my head and my hands can't compute, so it is way too hard to blog, but tonight the girls were sound asleep early and the place is tidy(ish)
Disappointing news is that the owners of the house in Willaston that we are hoping to buy have decided not to renew our contract. It's still possible that we can buy it, but it is back on the open market with a new real estate agent, so it could sell quickly now.
Fingers crossed that this week is the week that we will sell our house. We have had it on the market now for over 3 months. I really couldn't be stuffed house hunting again!

Ella got a globe of the world for Christmas. I didn't realise it when I bought it but it has a light in it, so it is now her nightlight. Each night before she goes to bed she checks that Scotland is turned around so that it faces her while she sleeps.

We have a comet http://www.news.ninemsn.com/article.aspx?id=101950 travelling through our skies at the moment, and have had fun reminiscing with the kids about the night that we snuck out of the house to see Halleys Comet - 21 years ago!!

Ella drew a photo of Eva today

Charlotte being tickled by fairies

Merry Christmas Message

2006-12-21T17:54:00.000+10:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X_b330odnA

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PipXF7we9II

December

2006-12-20T21:44:00.000+10:30

Ella and Raff went flying in a little 4 seater plane. The photos Raff took look great, but I'm not sure about a tiny little plane for myself. Hey, and they have ripped out the trees that spell PARAFIELD. Buggers.

We visited Father Christmas at Myer and had the girls photo taken. They were both very happy to sit on his lap, thank goodness, as after lining up for an hour and a half we were all pretty frayed.

I really just wanted to throw up a whole heap of photos. My brain is fried tonight. We went to the Gawler Pool this morning (37 degrees here today....) and that totally wore me out.

Ella on the noisy plane

Mall's balls

Sand sculpture in Rundle Mall

Ella gesturing rudely at her kindy concert

Father Christmas

Baby # 3

2006-12-08T18:16:00.000+10:30

So we had sat on this news for 7 long weeks, with me feeling like crap and Raff feeling like some kind of stud, no doubt.
I did the pregnancy test on a Wednesday afternoon - Charlotte was asleep and Ella was at kindy - I then proceeded to walk around in a daze for a couple of hours. Alternating between extreme happiness and mini panic attacks. My overwhelming thought was of the labour and delivery, yet I had totally forgotten about the first trimester....nausea, tiredness, food aversion, dizziness, vagueness, exhaustion, bloating, hunger, frustration and sleepiness.

My iron levels were already below normal at the beginning of the pregnancy, so straight onto iron supplements for me. Yay.

On the Monday night before mum and dad came home I had a chat to Ella about having another baby. We talked on and off in general terms and then just as I was about to leave the room she asked 'How do you know that a baby is in your tummy? Do you have to wait for it to start kicking you?' So I touched briefly on pregnancy tests etc.

Come 6:30am Tuesday morning, a little voice next to my pillow says 'Mum, you should come and do one of those wee tests' So I did. I gave Ella strict instructions not to look at the test until the timer beeped, and made sure that she understood that 2 pink lines meant 'baby!' and left her to it. She was sooooo rapt to be able to come and tell me that I had a baby in my tummy. ("I reeeaaalllly want a brother, but I know that you don't get to choose and if it is a sister then I will love her so, so much. But I reeeaallly want a brother....")

So that's it. A new baby for us due sometime around the end of June next year.
How exciting!

Official photo

2006-12-02T22:11:00.000+10:30

Thought I would add in the official photo that we had done. A bit blurry probably as I just scanned it.

Concert Day

2006-12-02T21:54:00.000+10:30

We made it through our first ballet concert.
Ella was a real trooper about it. It has been a pretty full on month, with a photo session one Saturday, a rehearsal the next Saturday, a full dress rehearsal the following Wednesday night and then two concerts today.

We have had fun and made some great friends with a handful of the ballet mums.
Today Raff and I took Ryan, Bethany and Hannah up to Tanunda to watch Ella in the 2pm concert. Rachel stayed home with the babies. We then came back to Gawler, met at Fasta Pasta for dinner and then Ella and I were back in Tanunda by 6:30.

The concert was very well done, quite professional. The pumpkins were hilarious. Considering that Ella admitted quite openly that she was very nervous, I think she did a great job. There was an awful lot of waiting around to do also.

I didn't watch the evening concert as I was backstage being a 'dresser' to a lot of the other pumpkins. I mastered a real ballet bun, fringe and all - finally. And I got all the sequins finished in plenty of time.

Thanks to Rachel lending me her camera, I managed to get quite a few photos of Ella tonight. One of the other mums insisted on re-doing her make-up, as my effort was 'too light'.......

And a close up of my perfect sequins!!

As we didn't leave Tanunda until 8:30 it was dark by the time we got back in to Gawler, so Ella and I drove around looking at all the Christmas lights. It was gorgeous. She was just so blown away by the beauty of it all. It was a lovely end to a hectic month, her all snugged up in her flannelette pyjamas watching the glorious displays that people put all that effort into. Followed by a 'Thankyou sooo much for showing me these lights, Mum. They make me think about Baby Jesus'

Approved!

2006-11-21T20:20:00.000+10:30

Yay! The bank approved our loan...finally. Only a week and a bit later than needed to fulfill the contract, so hopefully it will still be accepted by the vendors.

We put our Christmas tree up this week, so thought I would include the photos of the star-topping.

Ella was a bit of a hero today at kindy, apparently. A bookcase fell down on 2 other children and she rushed over and lifted the bookcase off them while calling the teachers. It was the day that childcare pick her up from kindy, so I didn't speak to the kindy teachers directly, but apparently she was quite shaken by the whole thing and needed a lot of comfort. She complained of a sore neck to her carers today, so I will have to see how she pulls up tomorrow.

Oh, and I forgot to mention a wonderful thing (not!) that happened to me last Friday.
I had just put Ella to bed and then chased Charlotte down the hallway, scooped her up, held her upside down, made her giggle and then sat her on my lap to finish getting her pyjamas on. She had one very meaty hiccup (still laughing), followed by.....projectile vomit. In my face. Boiled eggs, baked beans and yoghurt for dinner. Oh my. I actually vomited in the shower trying to clean it all up. *retch* Bloody kids.

Oh and these photos will be the last ones for a while, as my camera broke :(
I am going to do some research online tonight and hopefully get Raff to find me a nice one soon. I just banked my tax cheque today. :)

Cool things!

2006-11-16T22:34:00.000+10:30

One of Raff's companies that he does a lot of work with has a corporate box at the Entertainment Centre and we have been given 4 tickets to sit in the box, get fed free food and watch ............ The Wiggles!!!!
Very exciting.

Plus in a couple of weeks Lester is taking Ella and I up in a light aircraft to fly from Parafield to Gawler. He lectures on things to do with Physics and planes flying and what-have-you, so one of his students is taking us up.

And a not so cool thing...
the bank turned down our loan application for the house, though it looks to be only a slight glitch as Raff's car is leased under the business name it shouldn't count as an expense that we have to pay out of pocket, but rather it just affects our bottom line ie profit/loss. It seems like the bank got their wires crossed and the home loan guy is now talking directly with our accountant to get it sorted.

We had a lady come through to look at the house today (with 2 hours notice!! The house was a bomb-site! Thanks Rach, I manged to get everything done in time)
She loved, loved, loved the house. Exactly what she wanted apparently. So now we wait.

Ella went up a level in swimming classes. I actually got to sit and watch her, as she is now in the class (well, I use the term 'class' very lightly, as she is the only child at the mement) before Charlotte's (at 8:30am!)
She is doing so, so well. I really wasn't sure how she would take to swimming, but she is almost graceful in the water which is just brilliant.

The weather has been just freezing here, in fact Victoria got 20 cms of snow yesterday. Very strang with only two weeks until summer starts.

Still haven't sold the Corolla which is a bugger, as on top of the moving costs etc it looks like we are going to have a luuurvely 10 grand tax bill due in April. Oops, really should have utilised that PAYG.

Kangaroo Island

2006-11-16T22:11:00.000+10:30

Oh, it was perfect :)
The ferry trip there was hilarious, it was very, very rough so we got to watch Charlotte stumbling from one end of the boat to the other in absolute hysterics. She is just such a crack up.
The place we stayed in was just gorgeous, right on the beachfront at Penneshaw within walking distance of the ferries.
We did Remarkable Rocks, Admirals Arch, Seal Bay, Honey farm, Sheep milking farm, fed pelicans and even patted a kangaroo in the wild.

The girls had a ball.

she with the photos

2006-11-04T21:04:00.000+10:30

Check Rachel's blog for the story. I only have the photos!

Oh, and we have had Rufus for the last 8 ish weeks and we didn't lose him. Not even for a moment.

Rain!

2006-11-01T20:30:00.000+10:30

It rained this afternoon! Very exciting. I don't think it has rained since you left...
Oh, here you go September was pretty dismal, as was October
The girls sat out in the rain for ages. It was lovely steady summer smelling rain.

open inspection

2006-10-29T21:33:00.000+10:30

What a busy weekend!
Thanks to Rachel having our girls for the day we managed to get so much done around the house on Saturday.
Finally got the office all tidied up, painted the peeling window sill in the bathroom, scrubbed the inside of the bath (gratuitous plug for Chux Magic Eraser!), sugar soaped all the walls, doors and cupboards, cleaned windows inside and out, ripped in to the front yard, mowed evrything in sight, cleared everything out from under the pergola, dusted all the timber venetians, scrubbed oven and then swept, dusted, vacuumed, wiped anything else that was left!
The house looks great :)
We managed to sneak in for a Devonshire Tea on one of many jaunts to the hardware store, which was lovely. We also can now use a key to unlock the front door - only cost us $21 and about 12 minutes....what took us so long!?

Today was the moment of truth and we hung out at the park and spied on all the people coming to the open. There were 4 families all up, 2 of them were in and out within moments, one older couple stayed for the whole half hour.

The real estate agent mentioned that the two families said there was 'too much work' to be done, but the older couple were very, very keen. The real estate agent was very impressed with the effort we had put in to tidying the place up which was nice. The first time he saw our place it was a real mess, the office was chock a block full of crap and the outside was feral.....

Lester came to visit today. Ella has always adored him, but today was Charlotte's day for following her 'Gampa' around. Everything that happened she had to run and show or tell Lester. It was very cute, and Lester was chuffed.

Charlotte is going through an hilarious stage now where if either her or Ella hurts herself then she comes and gets us and shows us a slow motion re-enactment of how it happened accompanied by a running commentary 'Ella down cry ow' Very funny stuff. The total winner was last week there was a HUGE huntsman spider on the outside of the kitchen window. Thank goodness Raff was still home!
He sprayed it and of course it ran and dropped and then died.
Charlotte came dashing inside telling me 'Daddy spider down' and then she lay spread-eagled on her back with her legs in the air and her eyes closed. I was wetting myself laughing, she is such a crazy card.

Though, Rachel said they struggled to get a smile out of her on Saturday, she can be so serious. She told us all about her day, and seemed to be quite impressed with Paul. I think it had never occurred to her that her cousins had a Dad, too.

Mum - went in to the bakery today and everyone says "HI!"

thoughtful

2006-10-25T13:50:00.000+09:30

Rachel and I caught up for a coffee on Monday morning almost child-free (2 at school, one at kindy, 2 at childcare and one asleep in the pram)
When I left there I had to go straight to pick up Ella from kindy. As we are driving home Ella asks me what I did while she was at kindy, so I told her I went to the gym, hung up some washing and then met Rachel for a coffee. She asked why I met Rachel for a coffee, I explained that we just wanted to catch up for a chat blah blah.
She then comes out with 'Mum, you guys are doing so well keeping an eye on each other while your mum is away on holidays. I'm proud of you'

All together now, awwwwwww, ain't she sweet?

hello helloo...anyone out there?

2006-10-17T20:38:00.000+09:30

Very quiet out there in Blog-world.....
I'm sure everyone is just so busy having loads of fun.

Well, our exciting news this week is that we have put our house on the market.
Professionals
It was all kind of spur of the moment. Obviously it is something that we have talked about on and off over the last couple of years, but the opportunity arose so we just did it.
Our first open inspection is next Sunday - I feel like we have a million things to do before then!!

We have been checking out opens and this week I have seen inside about 15 houses. It is quite amazing the variance in what the same amount of money can buy .....
We have a fairly long list of 'things' that are important to us in a home, and today I found the house that had all those things!

Here it is!
The photos make it look far uglier than reality - think it must be their furniture ;)

Here is our 'must have' list!

- Fully fenced
- Low maintenance gardens
- Undercover parking
- Shed to store everyone elses worldy belongings!
- Built in robes to most bedrooms
- 3 bedrooms plus office
- As little carpet as possible
- Gas hot water/cooking
- No ugly cutains - prefer timber blinds
- Nice clean house - I have seen some absolute shockers!
- Decent heating and cooling
- Pleasant looking kitchen with cupboard space and walk in pantry
- Room for the piano
- Walking distance to street or school

So this house had it all plus a rainwater tank and some vegie garden beds and security roller shutters on all windows (that might stop the stupid 5:45am wake-ups!!)
Raff hasn't seen it yet, and it has only just gone on the market this week, so I am thinking we may have to be quick.
We did have a larger budget in mind, but Raff spoke to the bank and due to being self-employed our borrowing capacity is only 80% of purchase price, as opposed to 95% that the majority of people get.

Today I looked at 5 different properties. I cannot believe the state of one house in particular, it is empty and the previous owners didn't even vacuum it. Let alone repair the broken slate, torn flyscreens and filthy toilets. Really disgusting. It had a pool in the back yard that was just trashed. Unbelievable.

Exciting times.....

Hot.

2006-10-12T16:27:00.000+09:30

Very hot today.
We were at nanna's early, Rachel had to accompany Paul to his hearing at 9:30, so we met at Nanna's at 9am and she headed off, while Nanna, me and the 6 kids headed over to the playground.

The kids were perfect. Nanna and I just sat in the shade watching the kids play. Bethany and Ryan carried Sophie up, down and around. Sophie loved it of course. My heart was in my throat the whole time, as they look super confident doing it, but I am unsure what Rachel 'allows', so rained on their parade with constant 'Maybe you shouldn't be doing that, guys'

Charlotte was just zooming up the rope ladder and running across the chainbridge and flying down the slippery dip. She is wild.

Nanna is good. I didn't see Grandpa.

We then headed off to Ingle Farm for lunch and ended up just hanging around for a couple of hours. Wore the kids out totally, and me too. It was 35 odd degrees today and I just couldn't be stuffed cooking dinner.........again.

Pool today

2006-10-11T21:49:00.000+09:30

It was wonderfully hot today. Mid 30s and just a gorgeous day. We went to the Pool with Mother's Group and it was just perfect. The kids are all of the age now where we can sit on the edge of the pool and watch them without them clinging on to us the whole time.

Charlotte the thrillseeker had an absolute ball. I bought her some arm floaties yesterday, so she found it easy to get around both the small and the medium pool by herself. She is a real fish and was just so happy. Ella is just so wonderful to her sister. I am very lucky.

Jarra was there also, and he and Ella (and Charlotte) just hit it off so well. They just 'fit' together those two, they bring out the best in each other. We will miss him (and Jacki and Arusha!) dearly when they go. They have been a really big part of our life for the last 4+ years. Jarra will be going to swimming lessons with Ella for this term, which Ella is really looking forward to and Jacki is hoping that it will help Jarra settle in, having Ella to guide him.

Our first school holidays are nearly over and it has been great. I have loved being around the girls. Even though we have had something on every day, it has been nice to get away from the monotony of kindy drop offs/pick ups, and the exact same routine from Mondays through to Thursdays.

Ella has turned an amazing corner of late. She has always been really, really opposed to helping tidy up anything. A simple request for some assistance in putting her toys away would result in a meltdown of epic proportions. Late last week, she just started saying 'Sure' when asked. Maybe it was partly to do with the cousins being here so much, maybe she is feeling more relaxed without the kindy runaround, maybe the planets were aligned perfectly this week. Whichever way...I love it!

I really need to go to bed. We are going to visit my nanna tomorrow. Really should try to blog at the end of each day.....

Just quickly threw in a photo of my crazy girls. I managed to scrape Charlotte's wispy old ladies hair into 2 piggy tails that stayed up all day!

A Houseful!

2006-09-27T15:13:00.000+09:30

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

2006-09-24T20:45:00.000+09:30

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

2006-09-18T22:00:00.000+09:30

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.