I love the way she sleeps
This is the way that Chloe sleeps and Eden and I just love it. She has slept on her tummy since she was about three months old. I used to feel guilty but I have come to accept that it is the way she likes to sleep and her sensor mat allows me to sleep at night (even if Chloe doesn't). A few of the babies at mothers group also have preferred to sleep like this since they were young, it must be comfy. Chloe always scrunches her knees up and I think that it is part of he reason that he always ends up squished at the top corner of her cot (that's why we have the bumper in).
Why is it that parents have an added appreciation for pictures of children sleeping? Is it because they understand that it is a rare treasure or because they know what a feat it is to get little cherubs off to this peaceful state?
Sleep tight my angel!
Birthdays, bonfires, friends and embarrassing stories.
My littlest brother Max turned eleven last week and Mum surprised him with a
camp out party complete with bonfire, firecrackers,
marshmallows, ghost stories, lots of laughs and his closest buddies (plus the rest of the family who tagged along.....for the marshmallows!).
What a spunk!!
As with all little boys (and most big ones) the fire was a great source of
interest and I'm sure that all of them went
home with sooty hands from playing with the fire in a way that only little boys can.
Max and his buddies.
One of the games they played required them to pick a
challenge (lucky dip style) and complete it. The
challenges, including rain dancing,
ghost stories and freestyle dancing, were the source of many laughs. Poor Max drew the
challenge that required him to talk about a crush he has had on a girl. I think it was one of the only time he didn't have anything to say. Dad then stepped in to help him as no party is complete without parents sharing
embarrassing stories.
The little monkey up a tree,
probably still
embarrassed from Dad's story.
While the boys played in the fire my niece, Katie, thought is was great fun to play in the dirt. Doesn't she have a lucky Mummy:)
Eden with my niece
Adalia. The poor thing was tiered and looked like a possum caught in a spotlight. She woke up a bit more when we brought the sparklers out.
Another little possum that was overdue for a sleep!
Happy Birthday Maccy!!
Off to Another Party
Yesterday Chloe went to her friend Jalen's 1st Birthday Party. She spent most of the time following the grown ups around saying ta while pointing to their soft drinks, cakes, chips etc. I gave her some celery which was wasn't to impressed with and swapped it for some corn chips when I wasn't looking. Oh well, I guess it is a party.
When she wasn't begging the other guests for junk food, Chloe had fun playing in the jumping castle. She was a bit apprehensive at first but then took to it like a duck to water. She spend lots of time climbing through the hole. She hadn't masted the art of getting out the other side of the hole so she kept falling face first but loved it all the same.
Peek-a-boo
Coming through
How do I get down again?Jalen had some beautiful birthday cupcakes made by two clever friends of his Mummy. They looked gorgeous as did the ones that they made for another birthday party we attended a few weeks ago. I may have to pinch some of their creative ideas.
The very cute and colourful cupcakes- the kids got to them before I got to take a photo.
Another One of Those Parent Experinces
It the last post I was talking about the events you have experience to know what it means to be a parent. Well we had another one of those experiences this afternoon with Chloe getting her first fat lip
:(
Chloe was toddling and feel face first on her lip while on concrete. When I picked her up, the poor little bubba's lip was bleeding. We put a cold can on it straight away and my sister Vienna got her a cupcake. "Why a cupcake?" you ask. A lady at church told Vienna that if your child is ever bleeding in the mouth you give them sugar and it stops the bleeding and strange as it sounds it worked. It also stopped the crying! Well I'm off to put some sugary icy poles in the freezer for the next inevitable fat lip.
'Bubba Gump'
Get Ready To Wiggle
I believe that there are many experiences and events that must occur for one to truly know what it means to be a parent and one of those things is having your baby/child want to be a groupie for their favorite 'band'. This is happening in our house now with the chosen band being The Wiggles. Mummy helped chose that band- I didn't want to leave that band choice to chance, as I know that I would have to spend the next few years listening to them, and there is just something about Hi5 that I'm not to fond of, so Wiggles it is.
Chloe loves them and would happily sit through all three of her DVDs given the chance but 'Mean Mummy' only lets her watch one a day (tempting as it is on those days when I'm snowed under;). She is mesmerised by them and switches between motionless starring and excited dancing. Her first two are older ones so that I would know the words from watching them with my now 15 and 11 year old brothers. As Chloe is fascinated with animals last week we got her Wiggly Safari which she loves, Wiggles + Animal = One Happy Grooving Bubba.
Yesterday I tried to get her some tickets for their show coming up in December and I was amazed to find out that all the tickets for the seats close to the stage are already sold out and the only ones left were at the top of the Entertainment Center, boy do I have lessons to learn about being the mother of a Wiggles Groupie!
Hats, hats, hats are very useful things...
Chloe is starting to get interested in clothes and dressing. She loves to pull her socks off (what baby doesn't) but after they are off she then places them on her feet like she is trying to put them on. The dressing interest expanded a couple of weeks ago when she was given a beaded necklace which she tries to put on whenever she finds it. Yesterday she continued to develop her dressing skills while playing with Daddy's hat.
The Queen Of The Castle
As I have mentioned before Chloe loves the outdoors but the problem has been that we didn't have any outdoor toys for her to play with. This resulted in her entertaining herself by eating rocks or grass (anyone would think we never fed the child). Well we have fixed the problem and now this little princess has a little castle to call her own.
It may be humble but it will have to do until Daddy builds her one at our Tassie house, after he builds our Tassie house (that may be a while). As humble as it is it comes with a little slide, stairs and a rod that you plug your hose into so Chloe can have her very own water feature, which will come in handy in the sticky Sydney summer.
Happy playing Clo!
Working at the car wash
Today when Eden was washing the car my sister, Vienna, sat my niece in the bucket to was her feet after playing in the sprinkler.
Adalia thought this was great fun and when Vienna took her out and went to grab the towel she got back in.
Who would have thought that a bucket of soapy car wash water could be so much fun?
Rub-a-dub-dub, Adalia in the tub.
Vienna's Baby Shower
My sister Vienna is the wonderful lady that we entrust with our daughter two days a week. Because she is pregnant and also as a thank you we threw her a surprise baby shower.
Surprisingly she had no idea that it was planned (I'm not sure how we go away with it) and as she was 45 minutes late all the guests were able to get here before she did. Vienna has not found out what the sex of the baby is so we decided on a pink and green theme complete with a nappy cake, pink and green baby clothes, flower cupcakes, jelly beans and too many other good things to eat.
We had a lovely afternoon eating, chatting, and celebrating the soon arrival of a precious new baby.
As a little treat I made (okay I only decorated) her a shirt that said "Push to eject," a comment very appropriate as she is thirty seven weeks.
"PUSH TO EJECT"
The pink and green nappy cake 
Lots and lots of pink and green flower cupcakes
I found Chloe hiding amongst the other children eating chips like they were going out of fashion. Naturally Daddy was sitting right beside her sharing the chips. I found out later that my well meaning nieces were also sharing their pink and green jelly beans with her. I think that the battle against the lollies is officially lost.
"Mum found me again!"
We had some bikes and trikes for the bigger children to play with. Chloe decided that she was one of the bigger kids and spent a long time walking around with one of them. The tongue out means she is concentrating.
"I'm a big kid now!"
The Pitter Patter of Little Feet
No Lisa, we are not pregnant. But we are hearing the
pitter patter of little feet, Chloe's feet.
On Sunday (this post is a bit late, I have been trying to upload a video but it isn't working) Chloe took her first steps while with my sisters in Relief Society (my sisters were obviously paying attention to the lesson). When I got out of primary we got her to do it again and videoed it. At that stage she was only taking about five wobbly steps to a person with their arms out stretched. Now she is up to about seventeen and she walks in whatever direction takes her fancy, whether there is someone there or not. Chloe has also become more steady throughout the week and she now stops to get her balance, and when she is done, she lowers herself down.
As I still can't get the video to upload I took some photos this morning. As you can see she was more interested in what was in her hand and watching
Sesame Street.
Hello Feet
And she's off
Spending Time With Mamar
On Saturday Eden was working so Chloe and I went to visit Mamar. Chloe likes visiting Mamar and Gramps because she gets treats and they have lots of pets. Chloe has always loved animals but the closest thing that we have to pets at our house is a Tickle Me Elmo which makes Marmas extra special.
Chloe is fascinated with Mamar's cat but unfortunately for its sake it isn't very clever. Whenever it is near Chloe power crawls to her and pulls her tail (we are still working on the word 'gentle') and the cat just sits there meowing. As a result the cat is locked away when we visit, something Chloe isn't very impressed with.
Lately Chloe has been interested in dogs but she has not had much experience with them so we let Prissy, Mamar's little fluffy dog, in to have a play with Chloe. To make it worth her while we got out some treats for Chloe was to feed her (a bit reluctantly at first because she wanted to eat them herself). Chloe was making a 'd' noise (for dog) and a 'oo' noise (for woof) before the play with Prissy but she is now saying it whenever she sees a dog (or horse).
"One for you, one for me." Chloe feeding Prissy
After feeding Prissy Mamar took Chloe out to feed the chickens. For this Chloe was more of a close observer but she was still very interested.
Today while I was at work my sister, who babysits Chloe for me, visited Mamar. I was told that they had more outside fun, Chloe was constantly saying dog and woof, and when she was shown a lady bug she tried to eat it.
Like father, like daughter
The beginning of each season is a special time in our house because it means a brand new issue of Flylife (Eden's fav fly fishing magazine). This evening Eden made the bedtime story an educational experience by teaching Chloe the craft. Is this a glimpse into future Daddy-Daughter dates?
You haft to clean uq the weld
"
You haft to clean up the weld"I love my job as a teacher and I know that I am going to miss it when I finish after I complete my accreditation. Every grade has their good and bad aspects and with the littlies one of the good things is that they don't worry as much about being 'cool' in front of their friends and they more freely share their feelings, thoughts and ideas. Though this is not always a good thing, in the last couple of weeks I have had two separate children freely share their feelings with me. The first innocently told me that they liked the dress that I was wearing because "it makes it look like you have a baby in your tummy" and on the following day another child told me that they liked my skirt, shoes and top as they "make you look short." All the things that a five foot mummy with a soft tummy needs to hear :).
Anyway there is a point to my ramblings. When I was marking some of the children's work I stumbled across this little gem. It is from a lesson in health about how keeping our surroundings clean and tidy helps us stay safe and healthy. I love the illustration and I really love the sentence "you haft to clean uq the weld" (You have to clean up the world). I really enjoy reading young children's writing and seeing their spelling attempts, I think it is because they are so close to mine. We never talked about cleaning the world but this child was thinking big and got it in his head that was what he wanted his message to be. Lets hope that he continues to with his big ideas and that maybe he can get others to follow in his footsteps.
Father's Day Picnic
Yesterday the Tolputt extended family had a picnic for Father's Day at Pugh's Lagoon. We were lucky that my grandparents were able to make it even if Grandad spent most of the time snoozing in the chair.
The weather was a bit windy and Chloe's fly-away hair was sticking up Mohawk style but that didn't seem to bother her.
At the picnic I learnt what the phrase "a child is raised by the village" means. I am the first to admit that I am a bit (and only a bit) uppity about Chloe's food. I don't think she needs to know that things like juice, chips, cake and lolly-pops exist. Eden has other thoughts. So does Mamar (what we call my Mum) and Vienna and Adalia and Max (I think you get the point). Anyway one of them (I'm not sure who it was) thought it would be a good idea to give Chloe a lolly pop with their defence being she likes it, she won't eat very much and it has yogurt in. Well of course she likes it, it's sugar and as for not eating very much she has eight teeth and knew that if I got to it she wouldn't have it for long so she made sure she got her moneys worth. And yogurt, what yogurt, it's sugar. Well as a result we had one sticky fuzz ball who would make a ta noise and point at the little white poles sticking out of peoples mouths whenever I took the lolly pop off her. Needless to say I think that I lost the battle...this time.
Aside from allowing Chloe to consume more sugar is one sitting then the rest of her life combined the boys also entertaining themselves by playing with the Vortex. What started out as a harmless throw and catch game soon turned into pegging the ball with the intent of causing injury. I think Eden was largely behind this. He thinks it is so funny that most of my family is uncoordinated and I'm sure he is wishing that our children take after him in relation to ball skills. Luckily there were only a few good hits, no casualties and only near misses when it can to the other picnickers.
All up we had a relaxing afternoon with family, what more can you ask for.
Eden's First Fathers Day
Today was Eden's first fathers day and as a special present Chloe was extra cuddly and playful with him throughout the day (I think she must have known it was his special day). The day started with a cooked breakfast and presents. After church we had a picnic at Pugh's Lagoon with the extended family and this evening we had a special fathers day dinner. Eden got to pick the menu so we had roast pork with lots of gravy, apple sauce and potatoes, no surprises there.
It is amazing how much richer our lives are because of Chloe and it is only going to get better (that is until she reaches thirteen and develops the 'tween attitude'- can't wait). We are looking forward to many more fathers days (with more children) and the beginning of fun family traditions.
Some photo's of Eden's journey into fatherhood...
Eden's first cuddle with Chloe. He got to deliver her so he got first cuddles.
Having cuddles on the couch (probably watching football or cricket)
Off to the bath
This is a tie that Chloe and I tried to make for fathers day. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?
Chloe Goes To Her First Party
This weekend Chloe went to her first party (they grow up so quickly). It was a first birthday party for my bother-in-law's niece Logan. The party theme was princesses (and princes) complete with a fancy tower (clothes line decorated with pretty fabrics, ribbons and butterflies), crown making, sparkly play dough, horse and knight races (which Mummy joined in on) and kiss the frog on the lips to turn him into a prince (a clever take on pin the tail on the donkey I have never seen before).
Chloe loved playing (or eating) play dough with Daddy and dancing in front of the bubble blower . She also loved the sparkly necklace that she was given as a party favor. She would have loved the beautifully decorated cupcakes except mean Mummy would not let her have one. She did get a bag of pink and white marshmallows to take home and which Mummy enjoyed:)
