Mixed Bag

Alright. I have lots of photos to share. Been busy over last few days so I will just start at the beginning.

Friday morning Zali and I visited Janene and Amy (and Angus and Kadey the spoodles). I didn't get fantastic shots, here I was holding Amy with one hand and balancing the camera with the other. My shakey hands need two hands for stability - oops. She is still so little, I keep expecting to see her bigger. I have no idea why, but it is fine that she stays little. It is so lovely to hold and cuddle her!



We went to Caleb's Little School for lunch. They had a Cultural Day and families were invited. They had decorations and entertainment and kids. It was enclosed and vibrated off the walls! They had heaps of food from other countries. Sushi, lasagne, hot dogs, a greek spinach pie thing, meat pies, croissants, asian food, curries, and things I wouldn't know the name of. It was great! And don't forget sweeties . . . pavlova, an assortment of sweets from other countries that, again, I wouldn't know the name of, and a totally to-die-for greek vanilla slice thing. Oh my gawd! I could have dived into a vat of that dish and died happy. It was made my Caleb's teacher's mother. Will have to include her on the Christmas card list!

With people everywhere, no where handy to park the pram and two lumps (kids) perched on my lap as I sat on the concrete, it was not an ideal situation for me to take photos. Damn. Caleb enjoyed himself, Zali enjoyed herself, it was great seeing everyone and it was a lovely function. The food was great and we were all very looked after. All good. Zali and I left and Caleb came home on the bus as normal.

This is him when he got home, since I can't share anything from Cultural Day.

I enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea with Mel. Hanging and chatting is great, isn't it? She even helped me feed my little hungry monsters. Thank you Mel!

Saturday morning bright and early we were in the car and heading to Toowoomba. We visited to celebrate Teagan and Alex's birthdays. They don't *exactly* like having their photo taken, but here they are. I believe Alex described it like this . . . 'it looks like I am going to eat her'. . .

We had a nice weekend. Caleb had lots of people to play with (so he was in heaven), Zali played and got dirty, Adrian slept and I got to read some of my magazine. Debbie did a great job with dinner, Teagan helped too, and the boys cooked the meat on the BBQ. I ate spring rolls. I am sure Teagan said I only ate two. I am sure. Zali ate her first spring roll. She was quite taken.

The cake was yummy. An icecream cake from Cold Rock. White chocolate and Ferrero Rocher icecream with Tim Tam mixed through. Every bit of it was edible, except the black line around the outside, that was the dish!

To check if indeed it was all edible, Teagan touched it. Because she did, Caleb had to as well, and stuck his finger in the cake. Well . . . if you can do it!

Little Miss Fast Fingers was somehow allowed near the cake. Here is the evidence of her fast handy work.

Last one is just for fun. Pop was also taking photos of the cake proceedings, and Caleb thinks if he sticks his face right in your camera and says cheese, he is helping you to get a great photo! He had just done that, thought of himself as funny, and was moving on to his next bit of mischief. At least he makes himself laugh.


There are more photos from when we visited Sheree, David, Campbell and Finn. I will do them tomorrow, see you then!

Carrot Sticks?

Haven't been taking a great deal of photos lately, feel a little disappointed in my photography. I should pick up my act though, it is better to have the memory even if it isn't perfectly recorded. I will take the trusty camera to Little School tomorrow for Cultural Day. Hopefully I will have something of interest to show you from there.

Have I said before how much my kids love icey-creams? They do. Very much. A couple of weeks ago we bought some cones when we did the groceries, a little tub of neapolitan (you know, for some variety!) and every couple of nights I serve out an icey-cream. Their eyes nearly pop out of their heads.

Of course I don't want them to have one every night, a bad habit that would be hard to break. If Caleb asks for an icey-cream when I hadn't planned on having one, I say 'no, not tonight'.
He replies 'On Saturday, Mummy?'
'Sure' I say.
Because to Caleb, everything happens on Saturday or Wednesday. Not sure why he likes these days, but his seven day week only consists of Saturdays and Wednesdays.



Do you think Zali looks excited to eat carrot sticks? Hmm, I wonder if I should have put up photos that go from icey-creams to carrot sticks - varied meals is the spice of life, people!

Thanks very much for your suggestions for snacks. I will try some of them for sure.

Well, that has sucked out any type of brain activity I had left in me. I will leave you know, and move on to nothing. Nothing at all. How wonderful. Enjoy your Friday.

A Very Special Day

Happy 21st Birthday to my sister-in-law Teagan!

She was married in January this year, and looked mighty fine all dolled up. I really hope you enjoy your special day Teagan, our love and best wishes are sent to you.

Teagan is a kind and thoughtful person. She is a great aunty, a little timid perhaps, but mostly when the kiddies cry. And she appreciates that Super Rooster chips totally rock! I remember when she was a nine year old little girl. She would wear dresses. She giggled. It is really nice seeing her grow up and a lovely thing to have her in our lives.

I really hope you enjoy your special day, Teagan. Our love and best wishes are sent to you. Huge wet butterfly kisses from Caleb and Zali too! Looking forward to seeing you!

Snack?

I need your help. What are good nutritious snacks? Anything that is quick, travels well, isn't too messy . . . .

Since Zali is getting a lot less breastmilk now, she is eating more. This comes to a shock to me! I know, and I am responsible for children, oops. I think that I wasn't really thinking that the milk was nourishing her as much as comforting her. Obviously it was.

So I want to try different things to see how the kids like them, and I would really love some fresh ideas. Would you help me please? Did I mention minimal preparation time? You see, if they can eat it faster than I can make it, it won't last long cause Mummy will get grumpy!

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you!

Went Well

Yesterday was kindy day. This was make or break day. I put off cancelling Zali's enrolment because I was unsure, wanting to do the right thing for all of us, and consider all the options. As Thursday approached the best option was to try another day. If it was a repeat of last week, I was cancelling straight away.

It wasn't. Hooray!

She did cry at times. She had a tiny sleep (just like at home). She ate well and drank her water. She played. I didn't get one phone call. I didn't ring either. I didn't want to her things were going bad, cause I would have gone straight in to get her. I wanted to persevere and see how they handled her, and how she handed them. We picked her up about 3pm, at which time she was ready for another tiny sleep so was a little upset. She improved after some food.

The rest of the afternoon she was quite good, but mostly importantly, she went to bed without too much drama. She slept through the night and woke up a happy little girl.

It was all good. Isn't that promising!

Me and Zali having a girl day today, Caleb at Little School. Looking forward to that book coming home to read about his day. I think I will warm up tiny zucchini muffins for their afternoon tea, something nice and warm for their belly.

When we got home yesterday Caleb slammed his thumb when he shut the car door. Uh-oh. I knew it would have to happen one day, but it isn't nice. He wouldn't let us touch it, and just wanted to sit and hug. I don't think it was a bad slam, you know on the car-door-slamming-scale, his thumb looked ok later in the night. Will have to see how much bruising there is. It scares and upsets me (probably him too!) when he does anything to his left hand, cause he doesn't really have back up and/or the option to use his other hand.

Okey, Miss Z has finished her tiny sleep already, must be off.

Party Pics Part II

Alrighty, the second instalment of birthday party photos. What a lovely bunch!

Party Pics

Here is the first instalment of photos from Zali's first birthday party. I will post the next instalment tomorrow, cause there were heaps. No particular order. Remember to click on a photo if you want to see it bigger.

Newsletter

Caleb's Little School sends home a newsletter every week. They normally have a segment about a certain class and this week it was our turn.


"The kindy kids, Caleb, Kai, Lachlan and Zac are little boys who charm us all. It is delightful to see the excitement on their faces when they arrive at school on Wednesdays and Fridays. Caleb, "our new boy", has settled in really well. He travels to and from school in the bus with his favourite toy monkey and is happy to accept the many compliments he receives about his beautiful curls. Kai is the proud owner of some squeaky shoes so he has no chance whatsoever of creeping up on us. We generally hear Kai before we see him. He is walking confidently with support. Lachlan loves to show off the contents of his lunch box on his arrival each morning. He makes a great vegemite sandwich with very little help. Lachlan has mastered all our computer programs and shares the use of the computer with Caleb and Zac. Kai prefers to play on the Braille machine. Zac's vocabulary is rapidly increasing and there are very few words he does not attempt to imitate. He is very predictable and always chooses his favourite song during our morning greeting. He loves singing and looking at himself in the mirror, one of the many activities he really enjoys. Zac's shoes have flashing lights so it is easy to spot him in a crowd.


During our ball program, Caleb and Lachlan always insist that we do at least fifty bounces on the fitballs. Kai and Zac are far more considerate and expect us to do either five or ten bounces. The kindy kids love to play "boy games" with the big boys from St Lawrence's College every Wednesday and to visit the Hilton Hen House at Buranda School after our music session on Fridays.


In term 4 our group will expand. Instead of simply the boys, it will become Sophie and the boys, Caleb, Jack, Kai, Lachlan and Zac."


Doesn't that rock? I loved it. We also have a communication book that travels with him to school. I write stuff in about his week at home and how things are going. They write what he did that day and how he went. I love it. Love it. I am so excited to read it when he gets home, and then we talk about his day. It is great.

Today he brought home a Fathers Day gift that he made. The other boys did it Friday, but cause Caleb was unwell, they saved his for today. It was a little white takeaway box that was covered in silver and black stickers. There was a little gift tag with a photo of a smiley Caleb. It was filled with black tissue paper, a sprinkle of red hearts and filled with jaffas. It was fantastic! They do really nice things there, and it was so lovely that they saved Caleb's to do today. Really nice.

Zali and I had a nice day together. Playgroup this morning. She was tired. We left early when she fell asleep in my arms. We had lunch and watched Dr Phil and Oprah and played. Nice weather to be inside. She only had one tiny sleep today and was in bed asleep tonight at 6pm. Fingers crossed she sleeps all night.

Note to myself and Kerry: my goal is to upload some photos from Zali's birthday party tomorrow!

Enjoy your evening.

Normal

Just a normal Monday. At home. Hanging.

We play and eat and sleep and watch Hi-5 and Wiggles.

Can't think of much to say. Think I will go and scrapbook, I have done two pages in the last few days and that feels great. Catch ya.

Somewhat

This weekend has been somewhat good and somewhat bad.

Normal groceries thing Saturday morning while kiddies stay home with Daddy. Tried to have a nap in the arvo, between coughing and being woken up, that wasn't very successful.

Caleb and Zali had an early bath and we went to Adrian's work to watch Riverfire. They had organised a BBQ, hired seats and tables and took over the rooftop. The weather was marvellous. There were trains tooting past regularly, in front of the building is the bridge where they cross the river. Very, very nice for a little boy to watch. Four russian roulettes did some aerial acrobatics, helicopters flew around and a few other machines darted around in the sky. Again, very very nice for a little boy to watch. We enjoyed it too, it was fun.

We had sausages and steakettes and bacon, salad, rolls, cheese and sauce. Zali nuzzled on a snag, Caleb had his in a piece of bread with sauce. He was only eating the snag in the beginning, lifting his head to reveal a tomato sauce covered nose. My little Rudolph! Adrian and I had a lovely roll filled with tucker.

We watched the big digital clock in the city slowly tick over 7pm. Two F1-11's thundered past . . . right next to our building! It was very exciting, I didn't know they came so close. They crossed each other and then shot straight upwards leaving their fiery orange tails burning bright. Thirty minutes of fireworks spectacular followed, we didn't have the accompanying music cause no-one thought of bringing a radio. We were not close enough to the fireworks to hear the loud bangs which was probably good for the kids, but we saw all the lights. I love fireworks! They had some cool stuff going on, some of them turned into big red lovehearts! All the kids on the rooftop (and some of the adults) started getting a little over it and went back talking and/or playing.

Zali went to sleep on my lap shortly after the fireworks started. Caleb was a little unsure of the F1-11's and watched the fireworks for a while before getting a little bored. He wanted to go home now thanks. At 7.30pm the 'dump and burn' flying machines thundered past again. Again, I was stoked how close they came to us! The 'burn' bit lasted for ages the second time. Caleb was a bit scared now, he was unsure of the loudness and brightness and vibration. He was tired and wanted to go home.

A few people pitched in and packed up everything while I sat with one sleeping baby and one tired boy nestled into me. Really nice family night out, all over early and we were home just after 8pm. I was really tired too, and 8pm felt like the wee hours of the morning.

That one sleeping baby was woken on the way home. She did not like this and after changing into her jimmies, proceeded to scream for over an hour. Did I mention she did this in the middle of the day when her sleep was disturbed? Nothing we could do helped, she was in a right mood. Still hoping it is teeth, otherwise we have no explanation for her crankiness.

The fresh air of the evening freshened up everyone's cold. Zali has a slight runney nose, Caleb had a awful cough and runney nose that is hard to keep on top of, Adrian is getting the germs and I am still fighting a sore throat. Sheesh, so over the germs of this winter.

I have to sleep sitting upright, if I lay down I have huge coughing fits to the point where I nearly vomit. Sleeping upright is not comfortable and I have been getting small broken periods of sleep. Nasty. Mum woke me at 4.55am for the markets, I think I had actually been asleep then. Doh!

Happy Fathers Day! I made bacon and eggs while Zali spent most of the morning cranky. Because everyone was sick we had to cancel our attendance at a picnic lunch goodbye for Dana. She is leaving the country in a few weeks to live and work overseas for a while. She is a pretty cool chick, she will have a wonderful time. Hopefully we will get to see her before she leaves.

We all spent a quiet day at home trying to reduce and/or eliminate our germs. Thankfully Zali went to sleep both times today without the hour of screaming, insert a sigh of relief here! We had chicken kiev, salad and chips for dinner. An ice-cream cone for sweeties was the real winner!

I was very happy to have a sleep today when the kids went down. Still ready for sleep now, but will try and delay a little bit longer. Okey, this has turned out a little longer than expected. Oops.