Walking!

It's official - Katy is now walking! We are very proud of our little chicken even if it's only 4 very wobbly steps!!

Trouble in Sleepyland

Sleep or lack of it is always a topic of conversation if you are a parent. So I thought I'd share a few recent funny sleep stories from our house.

One night last week Ella went to bed without any fuss only to cry out just before 10pm. I jumped up to go and give her a reassuring pat. However as I approached her door she stopped and so did I. As I stood still for a few seconds deciding whether to go in or not Ella began chewing and half sitting up. Pats were necessary so in I headed and as reached down to touch Ella, my hand brushed something wet and chunky...yep she had spewed in her bed. Luckily Ella stayed mostly asleep as we changed the bed and her pj top. Now the funny side to this story is that when she woke up in the morning she had no memory of being sick but nearly threw a wobbly over how her pj top didn't match her pj bottoms!!

Tonight revealed another story - Ella took awhile to get to sleep in fact her eyes didn't shut until after 9.20pm! Anyway as she was quietly lying there we had the following dialogue:

Ella - Mummy I'm hungry

Mum - It's sleep time Ella

Ella - Can I have lollies?

Mum - No Ella it's sleep time now

Ella - In the morning mummy can I have lollies?

Mum - Ella I don't have any lollies

Ella - What about the koala..

The koala she is referring to is a caramello koala out of Makhaya's pinata from his party 2 weekends ago. I had managed to 'hold' (hide) it while she was busy eating 2 pink fruit chew things. I thought out so sight out of mind...perhaps not..

Happy Birthday Makhaya

Makhaya turned 4 last week and decided to have his party at Weston Park on Saturday. Train rides, a treasure hunt, a pinata, sausage sizzle and a big red car birthday cake - fun, fun, fun!

Cousins Mia, Ella, Joshua, Luca, Makhaya & Katy

Swimming & Walking

We are (im)patiently waiting for Katy to start walking. On Sunday, she pushed herself up from the floor and took a stumbling step before falling. Is one step walking? Probably not; I would say you need at least 2 steps to claim a walk.

Move on to today, when we all went swimming. It was the final lesson of the term, which means they all get to go down the waterslide at the end (which, somewhat predictably, Ella loved while Katy freaked). Before the slide, we did our normal lesson which includes splashing, kicking, falling in off the edge and crawling the length of a wobbly mat, which floats on the water to slide in at the other end. Except Toree (the teacher) tried to stand Katy up on the mat, as though she expected her to walk! "Oh", I said, "she can't walk yet". But, undeterred, Katy stood and then took 2 steps before she crashed onto the mat and crawled the rest of the way.

So, my point in writing this story is that if 2 steps qualifies as walking, then our clever daughter can walk on water before she can walk on land ...

Magic Carpet Rides II

Further to last month's post on Magic Carpet rides, the analogies with the Aladdin story continues in this house. Over the last week, Ella has established that:

1. We live in a palace;
2. I am Aladdin, and she is Jasmine;
3. Mum is an all-powerful genie (not so far from the truth -- if only she would actually obey even one of my wishes we'd be home & hosed ;-)
4. Katy is Abu (Aladdin's monkey); and
   
5. Abu has to sit on Aladdin's shoulder.

Let's hope this is one of those passing phases...

One Step Closer

Katy's journey towards walking took a major leap today when she decided it was time to stand up unaided. Perhaps it was the fairy dancing music that inspired her? Should be only a matter of time before the over-balancing turns into tiny stumbles and then into steps!

Orienteering at Majura Pines

We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and crisp conditions on Sunday to go orienteering. While Andy ran around his course, Ella, Katy and I completed the blue course. Perhaps we could call it Ella's first MTBO course seeing though she rode 80% of the course only walking when her hands were too cold! The blue course was perfect with a great mix of fire trails and single track as well as being a good length.

After orienteering we were invited to a friend's birthday lunch. Nice food and lovely company. Our two cherubs were asleep within minutes of the starting the drive home.

House Full of Crocks

Yep it's official - our house if falling apart. Andy had a sore back, Katy had ear infections, Ella has a stomach bug, Nat had a cold and Pippa had an abscess. The only person (?) left standing is our visitor Fuji who may become sick if she continues on with her sock fettish. We've had numerous (>6) socks which have mysteriously had holes chewed in them as well as 2 pairs of Ella's undies! Fuji has managed to take them from off the floor (in Andy's case) off the clothes airer and even out of the washing basket.

New Camera

As alluded to during the week, we've once again managed to break our camera. Now, it's well known that, with small children, you can't go too long without a camera, lest your child alter and you lose any chance to record the development. So, we obviously had to get a replacement as soon as possible, and the good news is, it's now here. Just in time, too, because at lunch today, Katy invented a new trick (which would have been omitted from the archives without the camera). The trick involves putting ones Ikea plastic translucent plate in front of our face, and squashing our nose. Ella thought this was hysterical which, of course, only encouraged her. Aah, the things we get up to when Mum's not around ....

Dancing time

It was another cold & windy Canberra day, so this afternoon's daddy daycare involved indoor play (with the exception of a short walk to play trains with Max and drink a blueberry flavoured short black with Rob). So, I decided we would take a leaf out of real daycare's book, where the girls all dress up in frilly dresses and dance around. Katy only had a frilly skirt (not a dress) and she's not yet the world's most accomplished dancer but seemed to enjoy waving her arms around.

As you can see from the photo, Ella was running around like crazy. The effect is enhanced by my crappy phone camera -- standing for our broken canon (3rd one in 5 years). So don't expect too many spectacular pictures on these pages for the next week or so.

Developmental Updates

More teeth for Katy - her bottom molars are coming through! Standing without holding on is also a new trick.

One of my favourite images at the moment is seeing Ella take Katy by the hand and 'walking' (that is Katy crawling upright on her knees) down the corridor. Unfortunately Ella isn't always that patience with Katy's slow pace and it often ends up with Ella trying to pull Katy along.

Ella's thing currently is to cut up paper into as many little pieces as possible with her scissors!

Another Visit From Aoife

Aoife came down on Friday with Cath and Eoin for the weekend. It was exciting as the girls decided to sleep in Ella's room! Going to sleep on Friday night was interesting for not only the girls but the parents as well. It was very cute to hear the girls chatting and giggling away!

On Saturday following Cath's 25km running race, we lunched at the botanical gardens. After warming up (and recovering for Cath), the girls entertained themselves at the little stream playing stick races in the water.

The boys were on dad duty for the night while Cath joined in our regular girls night out - dinner at Lemongrass - a really nice Thai restaurant. Dinner at Aston Cres was made by Aoife and Ella - homemade tomato sauce, ham and cheese pizzas followed by jelly!

Sunday saw Cath and I go for a run as Andy, Eoin and the girls got ready and rode down to the markets. We caught them up to enjoy coffee at Knead bakery.

All in all it was a great weekend with the only downside being my camera died. We look forward to sleeping over at Aoife's house soon.