One year ago today (at 7:10pm to be exact, 10 minutes after we arrived at the hospital) we welcomed this little man into our lives. It is amazing how he has found his own place in our family and how it is hard to remember what our family was like without him. From the day he was born he has always had a placid temperament adding another dynamic to our little family. However due to my slackness in relation to taking photos last night at a family dinner to celebrate his birthday we were not able to capture that side of him.
{the story behind this photo} Eden was on photo duty, I was on Lachie duty. Eden was worried that I wouldn't be happy with the photos so we decided to swap jobs and as the camera changed hands and we changed positions Lachie decided to put the candle out with his finger. We relit the candle for the 'happy birthday' song but the damage was done. {we now have no good photos of Lachie and his cake}
{the story behind this photo} Before everyone went home we decided to bath the children. Six in the bath is fun for awhile (the sixth little head is behind Lachie) but when you have had enough you have had enough. So even though we don't have the photos to prove it Lachie did have a good time last night.
This afternoon to celebrate we hung out as a family. We tried to fly a kite that Lachie got for his birthday but it was unseasonably still for Tassie and I could not run far or fast enough to make the kite stay in the air for very long (though I am sure I looked amusing running down the road with the kite and Chloe chasing me).
The kids love it when Daddy is home because it means we play by his rules which are always more fun. He suggested that we go to the gravel pits behind our house where we played 'Kings and Queens of the Castle' and just enjoyed being outside (something that does not happen enough in winter).
We spent the rest of the afternoon jumping on the bed, making music with new instruments and eating soup from a can (bad Mum, I know) to make more time to just be together.
What better way to spend your birthday then hanging out with your family?
Yes we do. (This one is for you Mum) Most people out there would not get excited about about milk mustaches on their children as it is a common everyday occurrence in their house. That is not the case here or at least it wasn't up until recently. Chloe has never been a big milk drinker since I stopped feeding her (my milk that is, we do feed her, no need to call child services). Often the little bit she had on her cereal was all I could get into her. I myself don't drink plain milk (don't worry Mum, I do have my one to two serves of chocolate milk a day) and I don't eat cereal because I don't like milk (fussy, I know). However I understand the importance of milk and dairy in a persons diet especially as osteoporosis runs in my family. So you can imagine the enormous applause I have been doing on the inside over the last few weeks as Chloe has developed a thing for milk. She has been asking for it a few times a day and she drinks the whole cupful, not just the token sip that I am used to with her. Mostly she asks for it plain, well that was until yesterday when she discovered pink Quick!
Isn't it funny the things you suddenly get excited about, like children drinking milk, once you become a parent!
The other day Chloe saw me sewing up some knitting and asked if she could do some sewing as well, so I gave her her first sewing lesson. After raiding my sewing cupboard I found the necessary equipment - an embroidery hop, a piece of hessian, some cotton knitting yarn and a large blunt needle (the ones used to sew up knitting). All over sized for regular sewing but perfect for a tiny two year old. I doubled the yarn up and knotted the end (to save constant requests to rethread) and she was off. I didn't really need to show her what to do and was impressed at how she managed to keep her thread untangled.
Every time she got to the end of her yarn I would 'unsew' it for her and then she would sit happily doing her sewing. She loved it and was very proud of her accomplishments (though I don't know who was prouder).
A while ago while I was blog surfing I stumbled across this music clip on this blog. I like the songs Love Story and Viva La Vida but I think I like it like this better (and watching the two musicians have fun while playing the piece just adds to the smile effect of this clip). I am not really a music person and Eden says that everything that I listen to is boring elevator music but arrangements like this make me want to be a music person. They make me want to buy a piano and then somehow overnight learn to play (wouldn't it be great if it worked like that) so that I could create some beautiful music too. But as I don't think that is a very realistic option, instead of creating I will do some sharing. The pianist, Jon Schmidt has a website where you can listen to lots of his music for free. You can also also buy it (which I will do when I can figure out how). Hope you enjoy.
Lachie and I do not get much one on one time (the middle of the night feeds don't count). So today when Chloe decided to break routine and have a nap I thought I would ditch the washing and dinner preparation and have some quality time with my little man. He loved the focused attention (of late there has been a little jealousy from both poppets for parents attention). He loves to play chasing at the moment and gets himself so excited that he ends up cornered. He has a good strategy for when this happens; it is the lunge at the chaser, give them a cuddle to distract them and then head off in the opposite direction as fast as your little legs will carry you tactic. So far it has a 100% success rate.
When Eden got home from work he took Chloe to help him at the hardware which meant more Mummy-Lachie time. This time we played blocks, another favorite activity. This involves him knocking down little towers faster than I can build them.
So tonight for dinner we had a throw together meal instead of the planned homemade meat pie (in preparation for the State of Origin game tonight) which we can have tomorrow and I just did the washing during my 'relaxing time' but I would do it all again tomorrow for another opportunity for precious one on one time with Lachie.
(For anyone out there who thing I am playing favorites, don't worry about little Clo, she gets her fair share of Mummy time when her little brother has his naps)
Last week I found some fabric in my cupboard that I forgot I had but I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I have been seeing lots of cute little girl dresses with circular yokes popping up all over the place and realised that Chloe 'needed' a cherry red one. I think it is a little big and after seeing it in photos I think the yoke needs to be smaller (that's what happens when you sew a dress without a pattern for a little girl while she is sleeping) but I still like it (and I have enough fabric to make another if I can find some time). The dress has a little pleated pocket on the front that I made following this tutorial.
I also made her some cute littlematching hair pins.
All she needs know is some cherry red shoes to match!
...today we moved into our house and up until yesterday we still didn't have any pictures up. A couple of months ago I set myself a goal of having photos on our walls before we hit the one year mark. I bought frames and it kind of stayed at that until two weeks ago when I realised that my deadline was rapidly approaching. So in a flurry I got photos printed and bought the hooks. With two days to go I noticed that I had the wrong hooks for the type of frames and got some more but then I hesitated when it came to actually putting up some pictures. I finally got my act together on Sunday afternoon, got six photos up only to discover that the hooks had been mixed up at the shop and I only had half as many hooks as I needed (and a whole heap that I can't use). But hey, it is a start and it is amazing how just having a few photos on one wall can make our house of all the sudden fell more homey and 'ours'.
Those who know me will know that I am no green thumb (though that doesn't stop me dreaming about having a productive garden). I have a knack for killing everything; something to do with not enough water. However the part of me that will do anything for my children was determined to sprout some alfalfa with Chloe and keep it alive long enough so that we could eat it (you have got to start somewhere). Before we started we watched some time lapse movies of alfalfa seeds sprouting. Though this confused Chloe, not because our seeds didn't grow as quickly but because we were not 'planting' in dirt. All you need is alfalfa seeds (from the local health food shop), a glass jar, some muslin and a rubber band.
Chloe put two tablespoons of seeds in the jar. She then covered them with water.
And then 'hey presto,' we got this....
Well not quite 'hey presto', but full instructions can be found here.
Today our seeds were ready to eat so we had them for lunch on freshly baked bread with Vegemite (weird combination I know but it is nice). Chloe's job was to put the alfalfa on which she said was putting the hair on.
Proof that she ate it (well as much as she eats anything).
Lachie first started working on his new trick a few weeks ago with a couple of steps but I wouldn't say he stay he started to walk until the beginning of this week.
...even the toys are sick. Chloe loves playing doctors and today she took it up a level and made a teddy hospital, complete with fluffy pillows, bandages, medicine and lots of tissues. I think she was drawing on personal experiences as the last two days have been a bit germy around here. Both of my poppets have turned into little balls of mucus each responsible for their own slimy snail trail, one around my hips and the other around my thighs. However they have been relatively happy in themselves throughout the day, especially considering the runny noses, gooey puffy eyes and barkey coughs responsible for their broken nights sleep.
Don't let be fooled by the poor quality photo, if you could see how crusty and slimy (I know, pretty impressive to be both at the same time) his face is you would be wiping your screen with antiseptic solution.
I was just about to say hopefully we are over the worst but Chloe has just woken up with a croupy cough so I am off to fill the vapouriser and have my turn at playing doctors.
From the day he was born he has always had a placid temperament adding another dynamic to our little family. However due to my slackness in relation to taking photos last night at a family dinner to celebrate his birthday we were not able to capture that side of him.
{the story behind this photo} Eden was on photo duty, I was on Lachie duty. Eden was worried that I wouldn't be happy with the photos so we decided to swap jobs and as the camera changed hands and we changed positions Lachie decided to put the candle out with his finger. We relit the candle for the 'happy birthday' song but the damage was done. {we now have no good photos of Lachie and his cake}
{the story behind this photo} Before everyone went home we decided to bath the children. Six in the bath is fun for awhile (the sixth little head is behind Lachie) but when you have had enough you have had enough.
