Tuesday, July 31, 2007

About time for another update...

I suppose the biggest news is that we have a new car! Well, new to us anyway. After much waiting and saving and scratching heads over budgets we have a car that is possibly the most fuel efficient that we have ever owned and it has three anchor points in the back! The best bit is we managed to do it without taking out a loan :D

Erin:
is eagerly looking forward to her birthday after the year long count down! She has requested a pink train cake which I suppose is fitting after last year's purple rocket cake LOL She is playing with Billy more and more these days, although there is sometimes a fine line between 'playing with' and 'bossing around'. She is still thrilled about the new baby and I am sure she will love being a big sister to two.

Billy:
is the one who really stole the show last weekend. We have just had a load of wood delivered - a LARGE load at that - and it is sitting in a heap waiting to be stacked. On Sunday Billy had watched a bit of it being stacked. Many hours later, we were standing in the back yard and he picks up a piece of wood then starts wandering accross the drive way. We laughed and pointed him toward the wood stack where he placed his piece of wood. He then toddled as fast as his rainbow boots would carry him BACK to the wood heap and collected ANOTHER piece. He kept at it for half an hour before I finally pried the wood out of his hands and carried him off to bed before he fell asleep on his feet! If I tried to give him small, kindling sized pieces to carry he would throw them down on the ground and stomp and yell as if to say "Don't INSULT me woman!!" (yes, we are trying to address the issue of his temper, but it is jolly hard not to laugh!!!). He was carrying pieces of wood up to a tenth in his body weight from the wood heap to the wood pile then giving them to Daddy or Uncle Andrew to stack. He is my real, hard working boy. The focus he showed was what surprised me the most. His sister would carry a couple of pieces then get distracted and go and play (like a normal kid!) he just kept at it, even when people tried to distract him.

The Newest Bubba:
is eagerly anticipated by all! I am still predicting a quieter spirit than Billy as this baby doesn't move quite as much or as violently, but you never know who you'll meet coming out of your uterus! I am convinced that one of the secrets to limiting stressful parenting is to try and understand who your kids are, rather than trying to force them to be who you expected. We can shape and mould what is there, but they are people created by the Lord for his purposes, not blank slates for us to write on.

The house:
was doing really well, dispite the fact that I pulled my abdominal muscles Friday a week ago! But it has slipped again as some important work in other areas cropped up and I have been getting a little tired. I have finished my new household management book though so once I get those routines implemented and habitual, we'll be flying!

The Garden:
has bulbs popping up everywhere. I am full of plans and have to pry myself away from seed catalogues. Dreaming of a summer full of fresh tomatoes and sweet smelling flowers, digging in the garden with two muddy kids and a baby on a rug, fresh, crunchy salad all from our own garden.

Big Projects:
before other paperwork cropped up, I managed to finish knitting a pink, fluffy hat for the new baby (in case we have a girl!) which I designed myself with NO pattern whatsoever. I am quite pleased with the result with cable and a turned up rib brim and a beautifully shaped crown (if I do say so myself!). I am starting on the matching booties. I have also done a bit of digital scrapbooking which I haven't done for AGES. I will upload at a later date :)

Jess




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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Anticipation

A poem I wrote last night about the expected arrival :)

Sweet stranger
What tales yet to be written will reside within your eyes?

Will the scent of your soul
be sweet?
have the fragrance of a cut lawn
on a summer's day?

or crisp?
with the sharpness of a
frost bitten morning?

Or some other flavour
yet to be discovered
and savored?

Who will you be
sweet stranger?

What will you bring?

Where will you go?

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Conversation with Billy

I am laying on the couch and Billy comes in carrying Red Bear (his comfort toy which usually lives in his cot) lies down on the floor beside me and stuffs a paw in him mouth. He lays there staring up at me. I lean over and say "Do you need to go to bed?". He nods with a very serious face LOL He went to bed and had a quick cat nap after that. Not bad for a 13 month old ;)

Friday, July 20, 2007

Well, I think I have earned a little on-line time after baking 3 pies, 24 muffins, a loaf of bread and a meatloaf PLUS vacuuming the house, bringing in 4 loads of washing, hanging 1 load on the clothes horse, digging in about 2 square meters of the greenhouse and spending quality time with both of the children. Gosh I'm tired now though!

Erin:
is delightful as always. Her imaginary world is so vivid, she was playing with a monkey and a kangaroo the other day while I hung out the washing! She has taken to trying to carry Billy around sometimes which he thinks is hysterical (until she falls over on top of him!). She has been playing the keyboard a fair bit since we got the adapter to plug into it. She sat with me for 45 minutes this morning while I practiced and counted time for me. She still has a great sense of musicality and I really must get her into some type of structured lessons once the new bubba is settled. She is constantly singing, both known songs and 'original compositions'. The other day I left the room and came back in to her serenading her Dad with a lovely rendition of "Jesus Loves Me"

Billy:
is perfecting the art of putting things away. Consequently I have found a few interesting items in the bin! He pulled down Erin 's pencil box onto the floor today and by the time I got there he had put nearly half back in! He is such a clever kid. Jon and I were watching a doco on the ABC called Brat Camp last night and quite a few parents of these out of control teens indicated that they had been "full on" since birth. I said to Jon that if handled incorrectly, that would be our son!! He has the potential to be anything he wants, but I daresay whatever he is will be extreme. Therefore we have to be sure to bend the branch the way we want the tree to grow - so to speak! I have gotten better at not spoiling him, the big blue eyes aren't working on me now. Well, not quite as often.

The Newest Bubba:
is at the 'poking out' stage now which means I get to tickle tiny feet through my belly! I also get the shapes of various limbs poking out at random moments. It just becomes more and more real every day. I have been washing baby clothes and nearly sobbed into a few little items because they are so cute and hold such precious memories from my older two. Erin helped choose the baby's first outfits and she kept holding up items and crying "Oh, this one was my FAVOURITE when I was a little baby" LOL I love the sweet anticipation of preparing for a baby!

The House:
is in full nesting swing so it goes from piles of washing and banks of dishes to very tidy.

The Garden:
is getting a similar treatment with big plans for the green house. Wintersweet is blooking next to the clothes line and the scent is DIVINE.

Big Projects:
still working on everything with very little finished! Keeping the house ticking over is priority for me.

Jess




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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Conversation between Erin and Uncle Andrew

Uncle Andrew: I'm going now, but guess what? I will be through to visit again in a few weeks!

Erin: For my birthday?

Uncle Andrew: When's your birthday?

Erin: two weeks!

Uncle Andrew: I will see what I can do.

Erin: I'd appreciate that.

Hehehehe - she never fails to crack me up!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

A bit of a hectic week!

Nothing special that made it so I guess, I just feel like I have been flat out. We had our first rental inspection this morning that was a bit nerve racking. The house was fine, the children were abominable!! Just goes to show doesn't it?? Anyway,

Erin:
has discovered how to count. Rather than just pointing to something and saying "onetwothreefourfive.." she does one-to-one correspondence and actually counts what is there. She is still thrilled with her night light, although I haven't caught her reading stories to it for a while.

Billy:
has learned to say "tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle!!!" which is very amusing. Especially as he tries to tickle his plate or a chair. He moves like greased lightening, especially when there is mischief involved, and breaks out the cuddles and kisses with great regularity.


The Newest Bubba:
is now well and truely there. I have to wake up and rearrange 3 different pillows to roll over (one under the belly, one between the knees and the one under my head LOL). I am getting out the baby clothes tomorrow :D I restrained myself a few extra days because of the inspection.

The Garden:
has a freshly planted bed which will be spring flowers (hopefully!) and lots more pruning.

Projects:
I forgot to mention last week I am redoing my home management book which takes up a fair bit of time at the moment.

Jess



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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Another week has somehow slipped by and everything is chuffing along at a great pace!

Erin:
has decided she wants a pink train cake for her birthday (in August, but hey, plan ahead!). She has been having bouts of really poor behaviour lately and I have been putting a fair bit of effort into keeping her by me and productively engaged during the day as I think she was getting too much free choice. It is tricky for an almost-three-year-old to realise that after choosing which toys to play with, which room to play in and when to swap activities it is NOT optional to be well mannered, respectful and obedient! The results have been really good and I have found that we are enjoying each others company more and more. I am also tweaking the routine so we fit in more craft time etc. which is lots of fun. She has a night light now that we bought on Monday. It is just a plain one that plugs into the powerpoint and has a sensor to turn on when it is dark. She loves it, I found her reading to it the other day!

Billy:
has added "Yuck!" and "Nan-nan" to the vocab this week. The yuck was in reference to his sister's morning nappy this morning so it was very apt! He is such a little boy now. Today he was giving Millie, Erin's baby doll, cuddles and kisses which was adorable. It makes me look forward to seeing him with his younger sibling, although it was also a reminder of how closely I am going to have to supervise him because his kisses still involve teeth occassionally. On Monday he spent a few hours strapped into the hug-a-bub while I was running errands in Launceston and he did fabulously well snuggled in chest-to-chest perched on the baby bump! It was surprisingly comfortable actually. The main reason I don't use it more often is because it takes a bit of stuffing around to put on, but it is great for running around town.

The Littlest Bubba:
spent most of that time on Monday kicking Billy which was amusing! Definately head down from all the foot activity I am getting up top now. Six days until I can start sorting clothes! I had someone say today "Oh it will be tougher with three, you only have two hands". First reaction was "Duh" my second thought was "how many things with the other kids could I do one handed anyway?" and then I thought "I have Erin's set of hands now!" which is very, very useful :) I think we will cope somehow.

The Garden:
is still being pruned and weeded, although I am not getting enough time to do it for my liking! I am expecting some fabulous roses this summer with all the attention they have gotten. Nearly all the various car parts etc. are in the garage now so we look a lot less like a wrecker's yard now.

Jess


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