Cute isn't she? I'm making more of a foray into the world of handmade toys for Beth... (as if I didn't have enough hobbies and interests already!)... I have always wished I was a better sew-er (I think I'd generously describe my skills at best as being a "basic & minimal"), so I guess the only way to get better is to practise... and so Chirpy was born... :) She's very small (fits in the palm of my hand) and I made her based on a tutorial found at Molly Chicken... I'm pretty pleased for a first attempt... It took me about an hour (including time rummaging through my fabric box looking for some scraps of fabric to use). I learnt some new techniques (french knots for the eyes, using ladder stitch to sew close an opening, sewing on lining), and the workmanship is still dodgy and it didn't help I didn't follow the instructions at the end that said to put the gap at the bottom near the birds legs (I ended up with an opening on the left side of the head... which explains the mis-shapen head)... but all in all, she's cute... and what's better, Beth loves her and likes to hold her and make her fly... :) I might have to put wings on the next one I attempt to make...
Meet Chirpy
What could be more perfect...
than a refreshing homemade mango and yoghurt iceblock after some splashing in the wading pool on a hot summer's day?
I do believe I have Kryptonite hands...
This afternoon has been all about *mess* ... Beth did some painting this afternoon... and this is what happened... then I had to position her where there was some decent light so I could take a photo (flash had run out of batteries), so I was trying to stop her from swiping the walls/kitchen counter/floor with her very messy, paint covered, green hands! Then we had some water play in the backyard with the wading pool... lots of splashing... and she poured water all over me, but the mess that takes the cake for the day came after that...
I was making dinner, Beth was watching TV... I come into the lounge room to check on her and smell something whiffy... and then realise she's done a poo, has taken off her nappy, has sat on a cream coloured cushion (so there are now nice brown poo smear stained on it) and is standing in the middle of the lounge room watching TV, with her hands on her bottom... perfectly charming... messy... and so not what I wanted to be cleaning up... luckily, Phan was home at the time and he managed to clean up the slight poo stains on the rug... I chucked the cushion cover in the laundry to soak... finished off cooking dinner and then hauled my most disagreeable child into the bathroom to have shower to clean the poo-ey smell off her...(I'm sure she managed to get poo in her hair or something, 'cos she didn't smell that great)... she was all fresh as a daisy (although still disagreeable) after her shower...
So the moral of the story... put pants on child to stop them from ripping off the nappy. I'm about to recommence toilet training in a couple of weeks... we're off for a flying visit to Adelaide next week, so once we come back from that trip, I'm going to start it again... We've had bad ongoing constipation issues for about 2.5 months, which is why I put off the toilet training in the first place... but in the last 2.5 weeks it's been a lot better, and I think I can safely say, we have sorted them out now (it was related to hydration... Beth needs *a lot* of fluids to prevent constipation).
A Daily Ritual
Journalling Reads -
Oh my, you are little miss independent... You step up to the bathroom basin and think you can brush your teeth all by yourself now... (but I still have to give you a hand to make sure you do a proper job of cleaning your teeth!)
On a separate note, Sheye Rosemeyer created a special Christmas tree in memory of her beautiful Ava during the Christmas season and asked if people wanted to, they could send a little decoration in for the tree. Today she did a post on her blog with lots of photos of just some of the beautiful decorations she received in Ava's memory... (see here) there are just so many beautiful things there. I sent Sheye a little handmade pink felt star, beaded with little pink seed beads (rather dodgily, but with much love and thought)... and you can see it in her post today... it's the 9th row down... the pink star on the right... It's a bit funny, but I feel rather privileged to be able to have given something so small and simple in memory of a very special girl who I have never met, but who has changed my life profoundly. I also made a matching pink star for our Christmas tree, which we proudly hung on our tree at Christmas, so that we could also have a little bit of Ava's memory in our house... I have my own sentimental attachment to that star too... it will always have a special place in my heart...
My Little Gardening Fairy...
This afternoon, I finally got around to making Beth a tutu for dressing up in... (I'm sure it's only taken me about 9 or so months to get around to it!) I whipped it up in about 30 minutes... and it is possibly *the* dodgiest tutu around... I had no idea how annoying and hard it is to work with tulle! I couldn't sew a straight line to save myself! Not to mention, it doesn't really help having a 2 year old jumping and rolling around on the fabric whilst you're trying to cut it. Anyway... the result was a tutu, that Beth does enjoy wearing ("TUTU!" She says when I ask her what it is). She loved it so much she wanted to traipse around the garden in it and water her plants...
The Axis of Awesome
Phan has been listening to the radio station 97.3FM and last week they played a snippet of "The Axis of Awesome" which he found on the web tonight and got me to listen to... It's based on the premise that a lot of the hit songs on the charts are based on the same four chords... It's fascinating and quite amusing too... Check it out below -
Happy Valentines Day
Yes.. it's that mushy, soppy time of year again... We don't really do much for Valentine's anymore... we keep it low key... we're too old middle-aging... :)
Phan did get me these gorgeous potted orchids - 
And I did make us a lovely homemade dinner on Friday night (bbq-ed MSA grade steaks) and I got a piece of the best vanilla slice for us to share for dessert... yummy.
This morning, we had Valentine's Pancakes for breakfast - 
And I made Beth mini hearts (note the little hand at the top of the photo... she's diving in the help herself to them... :))
Beth and I also gave Phan these homemade flowers for Valentine's Day (Beth's contribution are the paddle pop sticks with orange squiggles on them) - 
And that second photo would be my husband who is a hottie... :) Tonight Phan went to a friend's wedding, being held at Q1 on the Gold Coast... I would have gone, but we had no babysitter, so Phan had to go by himself. Our friend Koh lent Phan a tux for the black tie event, and it was a perfect fit... I do think tuxes suit him... he looks so dapper... :)
Mummy, I Shy...
My goodness... is it only Wednesday?! By the number of activities and things we've done this week already, it feels like it should be Friday!
Monday, we had KindyROO in the morning (which didn't go that well, because Beth was a bit tired (had a 5 min catnap in the car on the way there, which was out of character for her) and as a result was very stubborn and unwilling during the group session part of the class... not a huge drama... but hopefully she'll be better next week. Monday afternoon, Sharon, Em & Isaac came over for a short little play date...
Yesterday morning, Julie & Veronica came around... We made carrot cake as a morning activity together with the girls (and also 'cos Julie wanted to learn how to bake)... and the girls were getting along famously... they were being silly and laughing, jumping and *SQUEALING* (as only 2 year old girls can do) around in the lounge room at one point... it was loud, but oh so joyful watching them playing together... In the afternoon, we nipped out to the shops to get a few little things for dinner ... whilst we were at the shops, a lady came up to me and asked if I was interested in entering some competition to win something at PixiFoto... I politely declined (I wanted to say, "Sorry lady, but I can take much better photos than PixiFoto!", but I managed to hold back)... anyway, she left and then Beth holds onto my arm and then says to me "Mummy, I Shy... I Shy"... because she was shy of the lady.... but she said this in a *HUGE* voice in the most *unshy* manner possible! Totally made me laugh...
Today, we had swimming in the morning... followed by a dip in the kiddy pool... Beth has always loved the water... but in the last week or so she has developed a *FANATICAL* love of the water... to the extent that she cries her eyes out if you make her get out of the water before she's ready... (this happened last Friday while we were at Julie & Veronica's house... we'd been in the water over an hour and she bawled her eyes out at having to go home) This is why we had to have a swim in the kiddy pool after the swimming lesson... I really didn't want to have to deal with a crying child... we spent about 20 minutes extra in the kiddy pool... and even though her lips were bright blue and purple and she was chattering she wasn't completely convinced about going home... she still wanted to swim! However, she didn't protest too much and I managed to distract her with some food and get us home.
Despite the huge amount of energy she must have burnt at the pool, it took her 2hours to fall asleep this afternoon... I put her in her cot at 12pm and at 1pm, I heard her talking to herself (loudly!). At 1:30pm, I could heard her jumping up and down in her cot... so I went in there and stopped that funny business and told her to go to sleep... 15 minutes later, I hear her holding one her soft toys and going "jump jump jump" in the cot... I guess she figured if even if she wasn't allowed to jump in her cot, it wasn't against the rules for her toys to jump in the cot! Another 15 minutes later, she finally dozed off... My goodness, that was a struggle! Lucky she's wasn't cranky or anything... just being funny and cheeky... it was only slightly beginning to do my head in because I was worried she was trying to drop her afternoon nap! My goodness, I am going to be so upset when that afternoon nap disappears!
This afternoon, we have Vinnie & Koh coming around for dinner (and to watch the Japan vs Australia soccer game)... so that will be fun...
And can you believe, after all that activity, that just brings us to Wednesday afternoon... man I really need to have a down day when we do nothing at all... Might have some luck on Sunday, 'cos the next couple of days look busy too...
My thoughts and prayers are with those in Victoria...
The devastating bushfires in Victoria are all over the news at the moment... I have been following the updates and I am so saddened by the destruction and loss of life that has occurred... I had tears in my eyes when I saw the footage of Sam on Sunrise, who was trying to find out what had happened to his wife and three children... And those tears kept flowing as I read various stories from survivors and people who had lost everything... but I think the thing that really made my heart weep was hearing of the 38 week pregnant woman who had died in the fires... so sad... These fires are just so senseless. Keeping those who have lost their lives and those who have lost their houses and family and friends in my prayers...
More Water Fun
Today we headed out to the lagoon again, taking our friends Krishna, Kalyani & their 7 month old daughter Sanvi (who have recently moved to Brisbane) with us... We had a fab time... spent more than an hour in the water... then came out and had some lunch (that we had brought with us)... Beth loved the water so much she didn't want to get out! We recently bought a shockproof/waterproof Olympus 1050SW so I wouldn't have to worry about the camera getting wet and such... It's waterproof to 3m and is pretty nifty... I'm not crazy about the shutter lag (but, hey that's what you have to live with when you're using a P&S)... but this is a great camera for just chucking around and quickly grabbing snaps... Beth can even use it and drop it and it won't get damaged. Anyway, here's a cool photo Phan took (I'm holding Beth... you can see me in the photo... :)) -
Making Friends...
I can't begin to express how happy I am feeling that Beth is beginning to become more sociable... Today we had playgroup... when I first told her we were going to playgroup she said "Noooo"... but then when I mentioned to her that we would see Emmi there she perked up and was much more agreeable to the idea...
We got to playgroup... and initially she wanted a few cuddles from me at the start... but then Beth was quite happy to climb around on the indoor plastic slides by herself... when Emmi came along, she was really happy and gave her a big hug... and then they played together for a bit... then Veronica came along (we didn't know she was coming)... and Beth was happy to say hi (but no hug for her yet... we're still in the "getting-to-know-you" phase... :p). Beth was happy to play by herself or with Veronica and I had a couple of friends come up to me and ask "Where's Beth? OMG, she's not attached to your hip... you have arms!"... LOL... it was quite funny... and great at the same time... I actually got to have some great conversation with several friends (which may not sound very exciting, but to me having conversation with someone other than a little person who always wants to get her way is a big deal!)... Towards the end of playgroup, Beth was sharing the cubby house with a little girl called Skyla... she's a little cutie and a year older than Beth... Skyla was playing peekaboo with Beth and playing some funny games and had Elizabeth giggling and laughing so much, it was so sweet to see... and considering she didn't "know" Skyla, they were getting on amazingly! The nanny that looks after Skyla said that this was pretty new behaviour for Skyla, because she doesn't normally interact with other children either! At the end of playgroup, Skyla came up to say goodbye to Elizabeth and they even gave each other hugs (although Skyla's was a little bit over-exuberant with her hugging!)
Then as we were all walking up to our cars to go home , Elizabeth and this little boy David (who's a few months older than Beth) held hands (with his mum and me then also holding their other free hands)... it was really nice... and I am beginning to feel a lot better about her social development... The coming weeks are getting booked up with playdates inbetween all our structured classes like KindyRoo, swimming & playgroup... It's great because it's making the days pass quickly and I can see it's beneficial to Beth... it also means I'm having to be a lot more organised to fit in normal household chores and cooking dinner...
Well... that's it from me... I'm off to bed before another fun-filled day tomorrow!
Swimming Makes You Hungry...
We had a swimming lesson this morning... We were home by 10:15am... and since then this is what Beth has eaten in 2 hours -
A corn thin (this was a tide-me-over snack whilst I was trying to get her into the shower)
1 yellow nectarine
1/2 a ham sandwich
5 crackers with cheese (brie)
1/2 a handful of cheerios (the breakfast cereal)
1/2 a bowl of rice with 3 thin slices of pork chop
A cup of water/juice
Talk about being a hungry, hungry hippo...
On a couple of different notes... today Beth has started telling me to "STOP!" if I'm make her do something she doesn't want to do... (which is too bad for her really, because sometimes you gotta do things you don't want to do... like go home from swimming lessons!). She is also starting to string a couple of words together... Yesterday when were saying goodbye to Veronica, she said "Bye... See you Friday", which completely surprised me.
Since this post stemmed from Beth's swimming lesson, I'll leave you with this photo of Beth in the water on Australia Day @ Settlement Cove
Cuddles With Friends...
Apologies for the lack of posts... things have been a bit busy around here... Phan worked over the weekend and now we're well and truly back into the routine of the term... We had our first lesson back at KindyRoo on yesterday... Beth was really looking forward to going back and she even recognised the KindyRoo place whilst we were still in the car and I was trying to get a car park spot... We've moved up to the next class which is the Wallabies class... most things are still the same, but there are some new development techniques now that we are in the older age bracket. This morning we had a playdate with Veronica and her mum... they came over to our place and stayed for a few hours and had a nice amicable play together... it was really nice... In the afternoon we did a bit of crafty stuff and then I made a lasagne for dinner. Tomorrow we have swimming in the morning, Thursday morning we have playgroup and Friday morning we have another playdate with Veronica... so we have a busy week ahead. The weather here has been quite overcast and drizzly of late, but still humid... it does cool down pleasantly in the evenings... I love having the fresh air drift through the house at night... Hope all of you in Adelaide are still surviving the extreme heat... I'm thinking of you all and there's a spare room here if you want to fly up here to get relief from the heat! :)
