One of those days...

Yesterday we had one of those frustrating days ... Beth was being annoying/cranky/whingy/not sleeping/giving me a lot of attitude.... It was one of those days where you think "I'm sure I didn't sign up for this in the 'motherhood' job description... I wanna resign..."

But you can't... so you just keep on going...

Hoping today is a better day...

In keeping with avoiding nekkid posts... here's a photo from back in October...



I'm experimenting with some different pp-ing at the moment... this one looked ok last night, but now I'm awake with fresh eyes this morning I'm not sure I like it anymore... Anyway... it's a cute capture...

A Very Active Day...

This mummy is really tired tonight...

Today we:

- went to the park on the trike in the morning and spent 45 minutes at the park.
- did a load of laundry (and Beth "helped" to hang it out... she has some old fashioned pegs which she puts on the clotheshorse (but she just pegs it straight on without any clothes...)... she feels like she's helping and it's so cute watching her...
- read a heap of books and then played under a big sheet, pretending to be sausages, ghosts and a new years lion (from the chinese lion dance) for ages...
- went to the pool in the afternoon and spent 1.5 hours in the water. Beth spent the first half an hour doing the "Santa" face, which is her shy, not-wanting-to-look at anyone face... but after that she got over the fact that there were other people around and was happy to swim and splash.
- did a spot of grocery shopping for some things for dinner
- put a butterflied leg of lamb on the bbq for dinner... it was easy and delicious!
- did another load of laundry (had to put our bathers in the wash and threw in some sheets while we were at it)
- went for a bike ride when Phan got home... we went to Beth's favourite new park with a curly slide...

And that's it... and now I'm ready to go to bed... although I am tempted to play another round of World Tour with Phan on Rock Band. For the uninitiated, Rock Band is a console game with a drum kit, guitar and microphone... you play/sing songs in time to some coloured flashing lights that appear on the screen... We first played it when we went back home to Adelaide in September (spent a good part of my birthday party playing it)... and Phan and I really enjoyed playing the drums... Phan bought it on Friday night for our Xbox 360 and now we're a bit addicted... We played 1.5 hours on Saturday night and I woke up with sore thumbs from playing the guitar (RSI... Don't ask, I have weird technique! I am so soft, it's pathetic!) and then last night we played for another hour, but I only played the drums to give my thumbs a rest... (hehe, plus, I really like playing the drums and I think I'm better than Phan... :p)

Just so this post isn't naked, I'll leave you with this photo of Beth from January last year... she looks like such a baby in this shot -

See No Evil, Speak No Evil

I've decided to go back through some photos... It's almost ridiculous the number of photos I've taken and how many I actually get around to sharing on my blog... I'm sure I only get around to posting about 1% of the photos I actually take... (however, I do tend to only share the best photos I have taken - quality over quantity... :)). Anyway - here's a photo taken mid-December... Beth decided to decorate Phan... and I must mention, she did it totally unassisted... she managed to pick matching stickers to put over his eyes... She also stuck stickers over my eyes and lips that day too...

Squeezing Into Her Favourite Shoes

We have a routine where Beth has to find some shoes and put them on before she is allowed to go outside. On Boxing Day, she was hovering around the back door and asking to go outside... When Phan and I weren't responding to her needs quick enough, she went and found her own shoes and put them on. It's been 6 months since Beth has been able to wear these shoes, but she found them in the wardrobe (and even as a matching pair!) and decided to try and squeeze her little feet into these teeny tiny little shoes...

What could be cuter than a red polka dot swimsuit?

Putting some of the stuff I learnt from Evolve into practise... It's been a while since I consciously set up a shoot with Beth... I've been lacking time, motivation and the right head space... but I think I'm hitting my groove again... I'm really pleased with how this storyboard turned out... It's the most photos I've ever tried to put together at a time and I'm happy with how consistent the pping turned out across the photos... Hope you enjoy this series... I hope to do more in the future...

Some Kids Are Just Naturally Cool...

Beth has all of sudden started becoming a bit of an "accessories" kind of girl... 6 months ago... well, even one month ago, I would never have had a chance to get a photo of her like this with as she'd have lasted 10 seconds with the helmet and sunglasses before ripping them off. After spending most of this year tugging on her hat to pull it off, pulling off her sunglasses 5 seconds after she'd put it on, not liking the fairy wings she wore to Emily's bday party in Feb last year... Suddenly overnight, she loves wearing her hat (and loves wearing her "helmie" when she's riding her bike), she will wear sunglasses for extended periods of time (like for the entire duration of mass last Sunday!) and even wear her sunglasses upside down. Yesterday she rediscovered her fairy wings and thought she was very "pretty" and refused to take them off. She also loves her shoes (but she's always loved shooes)... and has particularly taken a fancy to the two new pairs of shoes she for Christmas.

Happy New Year.

Seek the light... See the light... Be the light.

This was the main theme for Advent at our church this year and one that I hope to carry with me during this bright, shiny new year of 2009.

Hope everyone enjoyed their festivities last night... Phan and I didn't even last until midnight... we were asleep by 11:30pm... and although our little girl didn't go to bed 'til 9:30am, she was up and ready to go at 7am this morning... no sleep in for us!

Off to get ready for a fun day of cycling today... Have a great day everyone!