We hand in the keys to the old house on Friday.

FINALLY! It is done - well almost. The place is almost completely finished with now. We spent the day out there packing and cleaning yesterday. The kids were so good while we were out there. Wandering around the trees and listening to the birds I felt a little wistfull, but the move is a good one. The thistles and prickles I had to pull out of Erin were testament to that.

Erin:
is growing up so fast! Today she helped me in the garden and was an actual help. Yesterday she did SUCH a good job helping me pack up around the old house. While she is still deffinately a two year old with all the accompanying tanties and boundary pushing behavior, I have been so proud of her lately. The way she is with Billy is just beautiful to watch. Last week she brought out a hat (knitted red hat with ear flaps) and put it on Billy and said "Oooohhhh gorgeous!! Gorgeous boy, gorgeous Billy boy! Gorgeous Billy boy in a gorgeous hat..." She has been hugging him and playing with him so much lately. She mothers him and her toys. One morning last week she ran up to me with her toy monkey and said "Look Mummy, baby monkey!" then pulled up her pyjama top and 'fed' the monkey LOL. She was in shoe heaven when 5 pairs of shoes that I bought on e-bay arrived. She has tried every pair on at least five times. She did stop my heart a few days ago thought when she wandered out the front gate and accross the busy road after the dog. My back was turned for about a minute and they both took off. The gate is now kept closed at ALL TIMES.

Billy:
ROLLS! From his back to his front. He usually has a go at doing this during nappy changes - the troublesome tike! He is just so precious. I am having difficulty trying to get him into a routine even now at four and a half months. He is a shocking catnapper. He also still wakes up at least twice overnight - but can I tell you a secret?? I love getting up to him overnight. In those quiet moments I get to just focus completely on him. He is in his cot now but because he is still waking him overnight so much I have put him in my study rather than putting him in with Erin. Today he was sitting on my knee while I ate and he kept grabbing at my food. he will grab anything now. I have to give him something to play with while I read to him or he tries to eat the book! He belly laughs at Erin heaps now, especially in the bath when he is on his belly laying on my arm. He and Grizzabella spend a lot of time gazing at each other. There are some new photos in the photo album and some of them have Billy with Grizz. Some of my favourites that I have taken recently are of Billy on his belly with Grizz on hers looking into his eyes :) I have some great ones of his grins too - check this out!



His eyes are still so blue. His dedication is going to be on 2nd of December at 4:30pm.

The house:
well, it's a mess - again. I just can't seem to get myself organised without my computer. Hopefully once the keys are handed in for the old house Jon can fix up my computer. Infact, now Jon will be more available I have a great big list of jobs for him - mwahahahaha! But don't tell him that. I am hanging out for my kitchen cupboards now it looks like Billy will be on the move soon. Crawling babies and stuff in boxes just doesn't mix.

The garden:
is starting to look a little overgrown, but once the lawns are cut it should be OK. The mild detergent doesn't do anything. I think the bugs put out a call to their mates to say there were free showers! So I got some white oil today and sprayed the little buggers. Hopefully that does the trick. I also used it on some scale on a few of the camelias. I got a compost bin that I put up this weekend. I filled it within a few minutes putting it up. Hopefully we will get some great compost which we need here. The soil is very sandy here so it needs lots of organic matter. We have planted 3 types of potatoes in tyres. As they grow, I will stack up more tyres and fill them up with mulch. Where the mulch is against the plants they will grow more spuds so we will end up with lots of yummy spuds! We have also planted some sweet peas and sunflowers in boxes outside Erin's window and in the garden. The sweet peas are dwarf variety that don't need to be trained up on trellis or stakes and have big flowers.

Craft:
has taken a bit of a back seat at the moment because I have been doing a bit more work as a moderator for my online Mum's group. I have done a bit more on my lovely jacket though. I am knitting it out of a yarn that is part tencil and is so soft to work with, but still very easy to knit. It is a purple, plummy type colour and is beautiful. Of course, it will take me a year to knit it!!

Jess