Update

This is where my girls are at at the moment:

Mackenzie is 15 weeks old today. She smiles constantly, but will only give up a small giggle after a vigorous rendition of Pop Goes the Weasel. She can grab at any object of her desire with only a little concentration (I love watching her face as she thinks about what she has to do to get something). She is trying desperately to roll over, and will any day now (if she can get her arm in the right position!). She sleeps through most nights (though is currently having a bit of a feeding frenzy!). Not much upsets her... so if she cries you know she means business! I was blown away when I measured her the other day and discovered she is 67.5 cm long! This is about 3.5 cms longer than Delilah was at the same age... and Delilah has always been very tall for her age! She also talks constantly and you can easily enage her in a conversation... she uses her whole body to get the words out! Basically the best way to describe her is absolutely delightful!

Delilah will be 2 in two and a half weeks time and has become an amazing little person. She now has full sentences and communicates with Luke and I very easily... she adds to her vocabulary daily! I'd been thinking recently that it was strange that she'd never said "Ilove you", because I say it to her about 100 times a day, however Luke told her to say "mummy I love you" the other day and she turned to me and said "I oo Mummy", and I realised that she'd been telling me she loves me for ages, I had just mistaken it as her saying hi! Since then I've noticed she says it just as much as I do, I especially love it when she says out of the blue "I oo Kenzie!" and today was a real cracker when she was calling out to her friend Isaac "I oo Isaac!"

Delilah is also reaching the terrible twos and we do cop some amazing tantrums! She is a real character and I marvel at her strong little personality all the time. She has names for all of her Wiggles DVDs and she will tell you exactly which one she wants on and if you get it wrong watch out! This morning I was told most sternly "No Strong mummy! Sword!". Most of all she makes me laugh!

Present Wrapping and Babushkas

I absolutely love a well wrapped present, and I can still remember my delight at realising that my sister Lauren felt this way too at my baby shower for Delilah. I opened a gift box to find several carefully and artfully wrapped gifts inside and I squealed, "That's exactly what I would have done!" and we grinned ( in what was probably a very silly and similar manner) at each other.

This weekend was mini-cronie Grace's birthday party, and it was my turn to buy the Kris Kringle syle birthday present of a book. Because we are very limited in what we can buy I like to carefully wrap the present and add a hand made card or gift tag. I was very pleased with the way this one turned out:

For the gift tag I used some old Cosmo Cricket papers and some sparkly Bella chip board letters. I loved the over all effect, and Grace loved the present.

For sometime now Luke and I have been wanting to get a little table and chairs for the girls to sit at for various activities, however table and chair sets for little people can be notoriously expensive. We came up with this set for $15:

Luke found the table by the side of the road with hard rubbish and gave it a coat of white paint. He picked the chairs up at the Brighton car boot sale for $5 total and I found these awesome wall stickers at Cotton On Kids for $10. Can't wait to see Miss D's face when she gets up tomorrow morning and sees them for the first time!

Before I go I just wanted to write about a little gem of Lilah's that occured tonight. She hurt her finger this morning (it got a little squished in a door and there is a small cut on it) but totally forgot about it until she got in the bath tonight when it must have stung a little. Well for the next hour she kept on going on about how her finger was "Sore" and "ouchies" she even held it in front of Mackenzie's face for about 5 minutes telling her about her "ouchie finger". Luke finally told her that he thought she was "bunging it on", to which Miss D replied "Yeah bunging on! Finger sore, bunging on!" She was still mumbling about "bunging on" as she fell asleep tonight. Love it!

My Beach

I was driving home from Lauren's along the esplanade tho other day and had to jump out of the car and snap this:

I loved the way the sky and the ocean were melting into one at the horizon. It was so tranquil, and unfortunately my little nappy bag camera did not do it justice. I have, just now, come back from walking my dogs along the esplanade and it was quite different out there tonight. It's a beautiful balmy Autumn evening, but there is also quite a breeze, so the ocean was not still. I love how everything changes out there, not just from day to day, but from hour to hour, minute to minute even. I feel so lucky to be able to live so close to the beach. I love where I live:)

Sewing

Today I did something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but have been too scared to do... I made Delilah a skirt. I have never really used a sewing machine since high school. They scare me. The jam up or break and I don't know how to fix them and it frustrates me, however, recently I decided it was high time I got over this fear, and I asked Luke's mum if I could borrow her sewing machine. She most generously gave it to me, and it has been sitting on our kitchen table for a couple of weeks now. Ofcourse, I couldn't do it all on my own. I called Lauren over to teach me how to use the machine:-) After 2.5 hours, including a break to feed Miss M and a tricky bobbin changing delay I produced this:

It is far from perfect but I was very proud of myself! I got the instructions for this Lazy days Skirt free from http://www.oliverands.com/, I used gorgeous Bubblegum Pink Skipping Girl fabric from sprout design http://www.sproutdesign.net.au/ and some brown ribbon that I got from Lincraft. Delilah loves it, she put it on immediately, I'll get some pics of her wearing it on the weekend.

Before I go, I thought I'd share this pic I took during the week:

Mackenzie is getting way too big for the bassinet, but I am so reluctant to move her out of our room and into the cot. It's all just happening a bit too fast for my liking!

Bubbles:)

I love when we have mothers group at Jena's house. For some reason everything always ends up delightfully chaotic, and the kids just have so much fun. This week on Wednesday afternoon it was 35 degrees (probably the last of the heat till next summer) so we dragged out the paddle pool and added bubbles into the mix. The result was hilarious and the kids just had so much fun.

Mackenzie was having a lovely time sitting back and watching the action:

Until she was hit with a splash of water, and my poor mellow bubba started howling. I actually found it a bit funny because Miss M is always so chilled out that I was so suprised by her reaction I was a little unsure of what to do. It was nothing a good cuddle couldn't fix, but oh my gosh, she certainly gave her lungs a work out!

Speaking of which, Mackenzie seems to have discovered her voice this week, and currently when she is not sleeping or eating she is babbling away happily. She had previously only been talking if you engaged her attention, but now, it's as if she's realised she can talk whenever she wants, I LOVE IT!

Finally, I did something last night that I really should have done a couple of weeks ago.... I had a couple of hours off! Lynn and I headed over to Lisa's house after all our little ones were in bed and sat outside enjoying a beautiful balmy evening with a glass of wine, a magnum ego and some good conversation. I left me feeling very refreshed:)

Mini-Cronie Birthdays

When we hit March the Mini-Cronie birthdays begin. Last weekend was Cassie's 2nd birthday, This week it was Amy's. I've been having a little bit of a challange with Miss D this week, she's been a lot more cheeky and a lot more grumpy than usual. I suspect it's just an off week, we all have those, but when, for the seventh day in a row, Miss D kept up a constant soundtrack of grumbling this morning and then refused to have an afternoon sleep I thought we may have to cut our afternoon at Amy's short, and I was bracing myself for many temper tantrums. That didn't happen. She had a great time, filling up on the staple party food favourites of fairy bread, "little boys" and birthday cake.

I love the little one's birthdays, and it even more exciting this year as they get into the festivities, Delilah currently thinks that any cake means a party... which is really a good thing as she recognises cake as something special! We have Grace's birthday next week and then Isaacs the week after, followed by two weeks off and then it's Miss D's turn! Can't wait!

Big Girl Bed

Mackenzie is out growing the bassinet at a very rapid rate, causing me some head scratching as to what we were going to do about sleeping arangements. The idea was always to move Delilah into a proper bed, and Mackenzie into the cot with the girls sharing a room. However, every time we brought up the idea with Miss D she would say "Yiyah, seep cot!!!". She wouldn't even try out the bed. A couple of weekends ago we spent sometime at Ikea discussing the merits of buying another cot, or perhaps a toddler bed for Miss D or even a larger bassinet for Miss M. Our conclusion was that we were just going to bite the bullet and put Miss D in her bed the following weekend wether she liked it or not. I spent time during the week preparing the bed with new sheets, a toddler rail, a soft bumper and new cushions:

All week I tred to talk to Miss D about her bed, and she still wouldn't have a bar of it. The weekend came and went and we didn't make good on our promise, Delilah continued to sleep in her cot.

We often have trouble with Delilah having what we call "exploding nappies" during the middle of the night. Basically this means she wees so much her nappy leaks and she gets wet. This happened quiet badly at 11.30 on Monday night, so much so that her bed clothes got wet. So after changing her, Luke popped a sleepy Miss D into her "big girl bed" where she slept uninterrupted until 6.30 the following morning. She was so pleased with herself that se has slept in her "big girl bed" every night since, magically sleeping right through the night, something she hardly ever does. And if you ask her now about the cot: "Kenzie seep cot, Mummy!". So yes, the next step awaits:)

Just a little on Mackenzie before I go. This last week she has started getting control of her arms and grabbing her toys. It's a very delightful time, and I just love watching the amazement on her face when she grabs the things she is reaching for. Loving the last pic here, where my sleepy wombat has passed out mid-grab!

My poor little pumpkin has a cold, so I am taking her to the Doctor this morning, just to make sure it's nothing more serious.

Adelaide Cup Weekend

We crammed in an awful lot this weekend and I am now feeling absolutely knackered:

Saturday:

• Luke disappeared for 3 hours in the morning, and bought a brand new car.
• Grocery shopping for the week
• Cassie's birthday party.

Cassie's birthday party was a lovely way to end the day. Six toddlers on the loose with two babies added to the mix and 12 adoring parents. Chaos reigned supreme, but it was totally delightful.

Sunday:

• Cooked Spiced Carrot Soup and made rocky road all before 8am.
• Went to breakfast at the Edge at 9am with Lyn, Jess and Lauren (had the turkish bread with scrambled eggs and chilli jam, with a side of bacon, YUMMO!)
• Dropped past Mum and Jonny's
• Went to our nephew Travis' 2nd birthday party at Luke's brother's house at 11am.
• Had Fiona and her boyfriend Matt around at 2pm for a late lunch.

It was a great day but I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it. The main highlights were breakfast, where Luke entertained Delilah with magic pencil tricks,

And of course the late lunch with my old friend. It was really lovely meeting Matt. Often when I meet new people in my own home I have trouble acting normally around them, I feel like I really need to impress them or something and probably end up coming across a bit strange. But Matt was very relaxed and easy to talk to and it just made for a really enjoyable afternoon.

Monday:

• Sleep in till 7.15am Woo hoo!
• Took the girls to mothers group at Jena's at 10am.
• Mum and Jonny popped around at about 3pm and
• I finally got to go for a run at about 5pm.

To be honest I've felt really flat today, and I've really been letting the negatives in. I'm finding this is happening lately when I feel at my most exhausted. Today I have let a lot of really little things get to me, thankfully tomorrow is a new day.

I will finish on a happy note though, this afternoon while reading Pamela Allen's "Who Sank the Boat?" Miss D insisted that the cow sank the boat:)

Frayed Flowers and Chocolate Chip Cookies

On Friday I had an unexpected delight, Lauren spent the whole day with me, and Jess joined us in the afternoon. It was a fantastic day starting with some chocolate chip cookie baking:)

Then Lauren and I headed to Spotlight to pick up some fabric for a little afternoon project I had been wanting to try.

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These frayed flowers were so much fun to make, and really simple too. I had to laugh though, as I started out following the rules making perfect little fabric rosettes, Lauren tweeked this process a little and came up with roses that were a little more free form, like the ones you see here. Jess however, completely made up her own rules! Loved every minute of it, and it was a little addictive too! This morning I quickly put together this hair clip for Lilah.

She wore it this afternoon to Cassie's 2nd birthday party. It was gorgeous, I'll have to take a pic, and definately make more!

Swimming, Playing and Milestones

On Wednesday I packed the girls up in the morning and we headed to the Marion pool to meet some of the cronies. The mini- cronies had a wonderful time splashing around in the toddler pool... so much fun infact that it wasn't until their lips had turned from blue to purple that they could be coaxed out.

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Delilah spent a good half an hour wrapped up in two towels, sitting in the sun and eating everything in sight before she insisted that she had to go back in the water! She passed out as soon as I put her in the car to go home:)

Something that I'm loving at the moment is that Delilah has started playing games. Currently Mackenzie is her favourite doll to play with. The other morning I snapped a couple of quick pics of Delilah "feeding" Mackenzie and putting "cream" on her.

The amazing thing about it is that Mackenzie seems to be enjoying it just as much as Delilah does. My favourite of these pictures is the one where Miss M is watching every move that Miss D is making. I really hope that the two of them grow up to be the best of friends. I am very close to my sisters and I certainly wish that for my girls.

Finally I've got a couple of pics I want to add. Firstly Miss M was trying her absolute hardest to roll from her belly to her back today, she didn't quite get there but she certainly enjoyed trying for a good 20 mins!

Secondly Miss D produced this picture tonight, totally unprompted:

She declared that it was "Mummy" and after Luke snapped this pic she added hair and ears. I'm a little blown away by it, and a little overwhelmed that she seems to be developing so fast. As I've said before though, that's the thing about your oldest child they are always going to be a mystery because every new thing they do is something you have not encountered before and you don't always know how to proceed.

Sleeping Beauties and Portrait Drawing

Miss M woke up unusually grumpy, and not so unusually hungry this morning continuing a trend for the last three days. My first thought was "uh oh!" but after cramming several feeds into four hours she promptly fell asleep on the way to the park this morning. We stayed at the park for a very blustery 20 mins but then decided to bring the cronies (Jena and Lynn) and the mini cronies (Isaac, Cassie and Angus) back to our house. When we got there I put a still-sleeping-in-her-capsule Mackenzie on top of the stove where she continued to sleep for the next 3. 5 hours.

Miss M often gets put here for safe keeping during a sleep (away from poking fingers) but today I just had to get a pic as it's really a bit comical and definitely something to show her in the future...poor bubba lol!

Delilah is often very difficult to get down for an afternoon sleep so today when the cronies left I got her to lie down on her couch for some quiet time before attempting to put her to sleep. I left her for about five minutes while I did some tidying and came back to this:

Poor Miss D was exhausted. I ended up popping her in bed as I was a little worried that our newly discovered rogue mouse might come out to feast on the mini cronie's abundance of crumbs on the floor and climb on her (eek!)!

Lauren and Jess popped around this afternoon bringing me some freshly baked banana bread (yummo!) and after a very slow and grumpy wake up Miss D brought out the charm. She did some drawing on the magnadoodle and showed off her newly aquired skill of drawing faces.

This according to Miss D is a drawing of Mackenzie, and not a fluke either as she proceeded to draw several more faces after this. Now I know I am her Mum and therefore biased but I was very proud of this...seriously she's not even two yet!

Now back to Miss M, after her four and a half hour sleep she woke up typically ravenous and continued her day in true Mackenzie style, feeding cuddling and sleeping:) I managed to get a few half giggles out of her this evening during a moment when I must have been particularly entertaining! Full blown giggles are just around the corner!