I'm back

Yes, I know I haven't done this in a while, it kept slipping down the 'to do' list! But here we go.

Erin:
is terrified of the bath and shower here! It all started with that fly that landed in the bath a fortnight ago. She was OK at first, but now if we put her in the bath she stands with the least amount of her body in the water that she can and cries hysterically! In the shower she cries and yells "I'm all wet!!! Erin is getting all wet!!! I'm getting all WET!!!". Thinking she had developed a phobia of the water, we took her down to the river to show her water in a different setting. We were bairly stopped before she was climbing out of the pram and stripping off to get in the water! I had to keep reminding her not to go in over her head! Explain that one if you can! She is also funny about flies. This is a kid who used to play with the wood cockroaches with me. Very strange.

She is very clever though. Last week when we were making muffins she cracked an egg into the mix while I wasn't looking and got it all in the bowl with no shell - ONE HANDED!! How clever is that? She has seen me do it a million times so it mustn't have occurred to her to use two hands. She is just precious at the moment.

Billy:
Rolls both ways as of today and I suspect he is commando crawling while I am not looking from the amount of ground he is covering in the lounge room. He is also on solids after I got sick of him clawing off my arm to get at my food. Erin I had to get laughing to put food in her mouth, this one you count the fingers to make sure you get them all back. Even after a full feed of boobie juice in the mornings he will go on to eat about 1/4 cup of mashed pumpkin or sweet potato. His tooth is finally through and it was a little rough for the last week or so with it comming through. The poor little man was so unsettled and unhappy. He is happy to have his little fang through now though and is enjoying making tooth marks on anything and everything that comes his way.

The house:
is looking much better after Jon bought me a super-duper vacuum cleaner on the weekend. It is a bagless vac that has a suck that is amazingly strong. It does a fantastic job. It was so handy to have the freezer stocked over the last week with Billy being unhappy, although that means I now have to restock it. I am slowly chipping away at things and it is looking much more like a home in here rather than a storage facility. I am feeling a little more prepared for having a crawler!

The garden:
is looking good. Nasturtium seeds have grown, as have the sunflowers, some sweet peas, the veg in the veggie patch and the potatoes. The little black insects (which I have found out are aphids) are still there and I am using white oil periodically to keep on top of the population.

Craft:
is still99% inspiration and 1% persperation at the moment but I have done a little more on Erin and my knitted jackets and tidied up my craft space a bit.

Check out my photo album
I have finally put up some more photos of the kids!

Jess

We had a very full on, very fun weekend. We saw Colin Buchanan in concert on Saturday morning which was great! We don't have any of his CD's yet but Erin really enjoyed it and Jon and I found it hilarious. We then drove through to Port Sorrel to visit friends which was fantastic. On Sunday Billy and I went to cater Ladies Time Out (a church thingy) while Erin had special Daddy time. We had fun!

Erin:
Is just beautiful of course. Still insanely overprotective of Billy and regularly smothering him with love, I am enjoying that until he is on the move and into her toys! She had a fairly huge freak out over a fly landing in the bath Saturday night which isn't like her. She is normally fine with creepy crawlies. She seems to be over it though. She is just growing so quickly. We made pineapple muffins last week and she did a lot of the cooking herself. She loves cooking with me.

Billy:
has a REAL tooth. It isn't the white bump that has been comming and going for 2 months, it is a real pointy little tooth! He had big cuddles with lots of different people over the weekend and just loved it. He won the heart of his Aunty Jen by grabbing her with both hands and hugging her to him. He just loves his cuddles. Laughs and grins are almost constant. He is a real joy at the moment. He loves his reflection in the wardrobe mirrors.

The house:
is lovely. A bit messy, but home :D I rearranged and sorted the main bedroom this week which was a relief. The freezer is sort of slowly filling with cooked stuff. I keep using it all up though! But I am hoping that I will eventually have a full freezer and by the time I am pregnant with our next bub I will be able to use it to fall back on when I am tired and blurgh.

The garden:
hasn't had much done since I last posted. However, things are growing without my attention! Seeds are sprouting, a rose bush is blooming and a tree out the front is blooming with a beautiful scent...I really must find out what it is called. Kester gave us some strawberry plants which are growing with small fruit on them already. It is wonderful that it can still manage to thrive with the neglect it has received this week.

Craft:
Nothing, I've done nothing...yes, I am a lazy bum! I am THINKING very hard about some booties to go with the beenie for Katie and Jeremy's baby.

Jess

Believe it or not I did do a post last week but it seems to have disappeared! Oops.

Erin:
is going through a stage. Everytime anyone who is not Jon or me holds Billy all hell breaks loose! It kind of started mid last week but last Saturday when a friend joked that she was going to take him home....well! Even Nanny and Poppy got yelled at a bit when they held Billy! Strange child. She has been SO settled in comparison to before after a whole weekend of having Daddy home. Tantrums have halved and those that happen have halved in intensity. We all spent the day in the garden on Sunday and I have a brilliant photo of Erin curled up in a kitchen chair asleep after a hard days work. I will post it sometime soon. She is a real little girl now, a skinny mini! She seems to be loosing all her baby chub. She is still eating like a horse though. Her hair is getting thick although it is still very short.

Billy:
is growing hair too. Blond. He is going to be a blond, blue-eyed boy! He still only rolls from his back to his tummy but once on his tummy he is starting to move himself around. I am really not ready for that! I think he is about to go through a growth spurt because he is really hungry at the moment. I am trying to hold off solids, but he is definately looking like wanting them soon.

The house:
is SORT OF in order. We bought a big box of apples from the orchard across the river over the weekend so I am stewing and freezing apples and making apple pie. I am planning to make some apple jam too.

The garden:
is looking great. The white oil has seemed to make a big difference to the insect population on my peach tree (they are peaches, they're furry!) and it is starting to look like I will get some peaches. The potato plants are starting to peek through. Erin's sunflowers have started to sprout, Jon mowed the yard on the weekend, and we built a vege patch. We have planted 3 different tomato plants and 2 chilli plants (blurgh!). We also planted some lettuce seeds. There have been a few freak frosts, one of which has burned the ends off my camelias. I am hoping we have seen the end of those though.

Craft:
is still sadly on the back seat as I have been doing a lot of reading at the moment, but I have done some more of my jumper and thought hard about doing some bootiees for Katie and Jeremy's baby.

Jess

Dearest Daughter - link

Have a look at this link: Dearest Daughter

You will all be relieved to know...

the blue gell in ice packs is non toxic and after a very long soak in a bath your toddler WILL return to their original colour. Thankfully we have dark blue carpet. The jury is still out on her clothes.

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

Adult world...

Adult World Must Let Girls Be Girls

Please read this article, pass it on, discuss it with your friends and family - especially those with little girls. The content of this article is so important. Just my bit to get this subject into the public arena a bit more.

Oh, and is a music clip along the same lines to lighten the mood if you have broadband!

Date night!

We had our first 'date night' last week. I made a special tea for Jon and I, gave Erin some little party pies in the shape of animals, rice and veg and some apricots and custard for dessert and put her through the bath while I had a shower. Then I put my party dress on and put Erin to bed. After the kids were in bed, we had a romantic dinner just the two of us! We will be doing this regularly from now on and it was just lovely.

Erin:
is doing brilliantly. She did a somersault today. No prompting, nothing. She just did it! Then she walked over to a gardening book that I have and picked it up. She looked at the cover (which had a picture of chillies growing on a bush) and said "Chillies Mummy, look, chillies for Erin, mmmmm yum!" I promptly rang Jon and said "I may have carried her in my womb but she's your child!" I don't know how she even knew what they were! She is nuts about the food at the moment. Yesterday while I was cooking lunch I got a running commentary of "Poor Erin! Erin needs food, oh poor Erin. Some pasta please Mummy? Some Muffins please Mummy? Some peas please Mummy? Some cheese please Mummy? Oh poor Erin, Erin needs food!...." Her language is getting even clearer. She is now very fond of telling me that "It's not quite bed time Mummy, no, not quite bed time". Usually on her way to bed LOL The tantrums have abaited somewhat as she is getting better (although she is still a snot monster!) which is a relief all 'round! She still has the firey temper though, and always will in my opinion.

Billy:
is just precious at the moment. The grins and belly laughs are just awesome! He has moved to his big boy cot because he kept hitting his head on the end of his bassinette. I probably could have (should have!) moved him sooner but that would mean admitting he is getting big *sniff*. His grasp is very confident now and he grabs toys in the bath to chew on. I am going to get a bath seat for him because he is just too heavy for me to hold up in the bath now the great lump! He has a devoted follower in Grizzabella the wonder hound. I have some great photos of her with him which I will share soon. Whenever he is out there she is laying near him or hovering around him. He thinks she is just brilliant (as does Erin, how many other dogs let you draw on them with chalk??!) and she is just besotted. Billy has been spending a fair bit of time outside with the warmer weather and is trying out some of his shorts and short sleeved rompers. He chats VERY LOUDLY a lot of the time to anyone or anything nearby.

The house:
has had an exciting addition! We have end tables to our couch! They match the bookshelves. We bought them from Chickenfeed. They are 4 cubes, 2 with shelves and 2 with cupboard doors. They stack one on top of the other and we have 2 each end, 1 cupboard and 1 shelf. The surround sound speakers are now at ear level and there is somewhere safe(er) to keep the remotes.

The garden:
is going great guns. I gave all the camelias a light haircut to get them back from the driveway and/or encourage bushier growth and more flowers for next season. Erin loved this because she would sit under where I was pruining while the leaves and flowers fell down around her. I have also started rescuing a peach/nectarine tree. It is a wonder the poor thing is even standing! If you ever had one of these, you'd know that they need a bit of TLC, pruining, feeding, pest and disease control. Well, this one has had NONE of that. It had garden rubbish piled up around the base to about half a foot up the trunk and was amongst long grass. I pulled all this back to find about a billion and one slaters infesting the wood in the trunk, I figure the birds will make a bit of a dent in that population now it is all exposed. Then on closer inspection I noticed quite a few pests on the actual tree. I put doublesided tape around the trunk and left it a couple of days to see if I could get and idea of what was going up and down the trunk. The simpler question would have been what ISN'T going up and down the trunk! Slaters, ants, aphids, mites, you name it. Because it is still early spring I didn't want to just kill them all because a small population of these types of things creates a food supply for the preditors. Preditory insects usually emerge later in the season when their prey is plentyful. So I have just sprayed a weak detergent solution to kill off the population a bit to get it to a maniagable level. I will do this a few more times and see if the population slows down a bit. It looks like we will still get a crop. There are small fruits all over the poor tree! It is just a matter of looking after it so it doesn't drop the fruit before it is ripe.

Craft:
I have finished a mock cable beenie for Katie and Jeremy's baby and need to start some matching booties. I have cast on the first few stitches of a jacket for ME! yay!

Jess

Free Hugs

This is awesome, although I wouldn't want a free hug 'cause I like my personal space thankyou! This may not work too well if you don't have broad band, but give it a go.

The story is, there was a guy in Sydney who was giving out free hugs. The 'officials' banned him, but he started a campaign and he's out there giving free hugs again. Very 'fight the man'!

Kids and I have colds

The kids and I have colds today and feel awful so this will be short!

Erin:
is beautiful as usual! She had been so good considering how awful she feels. She loved having her Nanny and Poppy here for the weekend. She didn't have one full blown tanty all weekend! There was one beauty last week after playgroup though! She got a funny rash last night that appeared and spread suddenly then disappeared within a few hours, very weird. She seems fine now though. I am bidding on some megabloks for Erin's Christmas Present on e-bay and she keeps wanting to look at the picture of them so I guess I have chosen the right gift for her!

Billy:
is growing like a weed! He slept for over 6 hours straight last night, even though he is sick. I have parked his bed in the hallway and like having it there. It is out of the way and I can get to it easily. I feed him overnight in the lounge which stops me falling asleep which means we both get a better night's sleep. I'm not too stressed about him still feeding overnight, he is growing at such a rate he needs the extra food I think! He has given up the dummy. He lost interest in it a bit and I figured, why push the issue!

The House:
is a mess, let's not go there.

The garden:
is growing almost as fast as Billy LOL. Having Kester here has been enlightening. She identified most of the plants. The plant that I love the smell of at the front door is called a Daphnie!

Craft:
It's all happening slowly!

I had better keep going.

Jess