I have my study!

Well, it is that time of week again! Time to update the blog properly.

Erin:
is all better now with the snot monster making only limited appearances. She has mastered the art of saying "May I have some ....... please Mummy?" which makes me melt and give her whatever her heart desires! She is very happy at the moment as Billy is sharing her room. She thinks this is a great treat and I woke up this morning to them giggling at each other. She does have a habit of climbing in there with him, but he is big enough now that this isn't so dangerous. That was the main thing that made me hesitate about putting them in together. I wanted Billy to be big enough to defend himself a bit! But the kids are happy about it and sleep fine and I am completely stoked because I have my study! Back to Erin though. She had Bekah come to visit earlier in the week (who she now calls "Bah-bekah", very cute!) and loved the attention. She wants visitors all the time now. Yesterday she told me that "Nana Julie will be here soon!" then later in the day "Nanny and Poppy are coming to stay!" then still later "Aunty Lisa and Uncle Chris and Bekah and MARCUS are coming for tea tonight!". I think she has the gift of hospitality!

Billy:
is huge and happy. Life is a barrel of laughs at the moment. Yesterday, even when completely sleep deprived after playgroup, he got passed around at the op shop and gave every one of the ladies a big grin and a belly laugh - I was so proud! He is working on this crawling thing and is definitely mobile now. I have to start keeping things up off the floor! He is really into the food. Solids three times a day plus 4 hourly breast feeds day and night! A growing boy. He isn't overly fat either, just the usual covering for a baby his age. That tooth is still edging it's way out oh so slowly and painfully! I had forgotten how long it takes for them to come through.

The house:
is now a 2 bedroom, two study house - YAY! Extravagant? Perhaps. But being able to close the door on my sewing and leave it out without the kids getting into it or it being in the way means I can actually get some done now. And it is fantastic not to have the computer(s) in the lounge room. The set up is still not complete, and I can't wait to have bookshelves in here, but it is great non-the-less! The laundry hamper is not empty - but only because I put all the dedicates and woollens that were on the floor and put them in the hamper. I am on top of the washing still, I just have to tackle the ironing! I also have some food in the freezer, minimal amounts of 'stuff' on the lounge room floor and significantly less boxes in the hallway.

The garden:
is covered in lady bugs - much to Erin's delight! It is almost worth putting up with the aphids seeing as they attracted them (ladybug larvae eat aphids). The tomatoes are needing to be tied up to their stakes a very 2 or 3 day. I have got an infestation of pear slug though, apparently soapy water works on THEM but I am yet to try it (Sunday if not before!). We will also be getting a nice crop of blackberries off the old chook shed, if I can stop Erin eating them all before they are ripe!

Craft:
I am up to the shaping on the front left panel of Erin's jacket. I want to have the knitting on the jacket finished by mid January - ooooohhhh, look at that, a goal! That may motivate me to get off my backside! I have been sewing a bit this week too. What I am sewing may shock, even gross you out, but bear with me! Mum, you may not want to read this out to everyone - please don't, they can read it themselves if they are curious! I am sewing...... menstrual pads. Before you go ewwwwwwwww (OK, after, 'cause you have already done it :P ) the kids use cloth nappies - why should I be in disposables? :P I am sewing them out of old flannel PJ 's and old nappies at the moment and they are seriously the most comfortable thing I have ever used. Not hard to clean either, I just throw them in a nappy bucket with some water and vinegar then throw them in the normal wash - and voila! I am going to get some waterproof fabric to back them with then I will be using them full time. Imagine the money I will be saving! :D

Jess



Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker" border="0" height="80" width="400">

Lilypie 3rd Birthday Ticker" border="0" height="80" width="400">

Damn you're a good mother!

I wish I could justify the cost of one of these t-shirts! We all have days when we need a little pick me up LOL

Interesting website!

http://www.instructables.com/

This is so cool! Where else can you get instructions for making absynthe! LOL

It is too hot to do anything but play online today!

Dedication photos

Billy's dedication cake, chosen by his Poppy and made by his Nanny!

The kids at the start of the day

I will be adding more to the photo album through the day :)

Hello again

Things have slowed down to their usual hectic pace now so I thought I had better update the blog LOL

Erin:
Has a sinus infection and conjunctivitis at the moment and is not well at all :( She had a great time over the weekend though and loved having her Nana Julie to stay. Considering just how awful she feels, she has been SO good! She loved Billy's dedication BBQ too. We have solved the bath phobia with SPACE BUBBLES! Bubble bath with stars and planets on the outside. The bubbles cover up any hairs or specks of dust floating in the bath making for a calm bathtime for all concerned - YAY!

Erin Quote of the Week: Nana Julie (re some food Erin was eating): Is that yummy in your tummy? Erin: Nooooooo, it's yummy in my mouth!!"

Billy:
Tired, cranky, teething and (today) power-chucking!! And still, somehow, managing to be beautiful! That kid does Belly Laughs to die for. Photos of his dedication are on the way. He is up on his hands and knees rocking ready to crawl and progresses in his own way great distance such as halfway across the lounge room. He can also swim the length of the bath LOL

The house:
looks fantastic thanks to the kitchen pantry that my Gran bought us for Christmas!! Finally, I am getting rid of the boxes in the kitchen!!! I need to sew curtains for under the bench and put up a shelf under there, and we have been talking about getting a small set of drawers, but we are making progress :D The laundry hamper is very empty because Mum has been here for a while LOL and we have a Christmas Tree that is about a foot tall growing in a pot. The poor thing is SO loaded down with decorations LOL

The garden:
is growing like nothing else! There is an explosion in the population of ladybugs and a subsequent reduction in the aphid population. I have had to tie the tomato plants up again this week. I have planted some flowers up the side of the driveway and all the other veg is just taking off.

Craft:
is getting organised. I am rearranging my study at the moment and Billy is still sleeping in there all the time so that limits what I can do in there. Once we work out how to get the cot into Erin's room and buy a new matress for it, I will be able to use it more. I have done some more on Erin's little jacket.

Jess

Scrapping

I have done some more scrapbooking, so if you want to have a look at the photobucket album there are new things to see! For example:



So click here and go to the 'crafts' album to look at the digital scrapping

Oh, I forgot to add

Erin is dry all day now in her big girl knickers! Yay!
Now to work on 'the other'.......

And I just had to share this picture!
We went swimming in the river earlier in the week, she loved it.

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