These Are a Few of Their Favourite Things...

I managed to snap this pic the other day, it's a perfect record of each of the girls current favourite things...

Delilah will sit for ages at the kitchen table playing with play dough. We have quite a collection of it through gifts and car boot sale purchases (bargain $1 never been used sets!). She loves it... and will spend quite some time making snakes and balls as well as facial appendages ("Eyebrows for you Mummy!") as well as the less encouraged doggy poos. My only problem with the play dough is her addiction to it in an oral sense, after the tenth time of "Stop eating it Delilah!" it usually gets packed away for another day.

Mackenzie however, loves the "Jolly Jumper". She would jump for hours on end if I let her. Delilah never really got the hang of it, it was more of a jolly dangle for her, but Miss M springs from flattened feet into the air as high as she can go over and over again, squealing with delight and really it puts a smile on my face, like nothing else, to see her enjoying it so much:)

What Have We Been Up To?

We took the girls on their first trip to the zoo on Sunday (well Miss D actually went the day before she was born, I was trying to walk her out) and while I'm sure Mackenzie was quite unfussed, Delilah thought it was fantastic.

When she wasn't riding on her Daddy's shoulders, she was running from animal to animal exclaiming over each. She will still quite happily tell you she saw emus and a tiger on the weekend. The funny thing is it was a cold and windy Autumn day and as an adult I know the animals really were not on form (in fact we barely saw a monkey all day and it was hard to tell if the lions and hippos were actually alive), but it reminded me just how easy it is to please a child.

In the afternoon Jess came over and practised her superb hairdressing skills on one very difficult customer.

Jessie will probably be cross with me for this picture lol! I love it though, it shows intense concentration and care for what she is doing.... despite the fact I had been considering taking to Miss D's mullet with a pair of kitchen scissors:) We finished of a lovely day with a big hot bowl of Potato, Leek and bacon soup from Donna Hay Modern Classics 1 and warm banana bread from Marie Claire Kitchen.

I've been feeling a little flat today. We have been really busy lately and I haven't had a moment just to stop and sit really. Right now I have two little ones taking a very rare tandem nap and I am enjoying a few moments of quiet to myself. These moments are few and far between lately... but I probably wouldn't have it any other way:)

Crash

Another little snippet...
I was sitting in bed feeding Miss M this morning at 5.45 when the was the unmistakable sound of Miss D waking up (read: a couple of yells) followed by several loud crashes...Luke and I exchanged a look which clearly said "Oh crap here we go! Wait for the crying!", only to find she appeared at our door moments later carrying the mountain of Ted, her pillow and her blanket. Needless to say I never got back to sleep, even after Mackenzie was safely back asleep in her cot and Delilah was tucked in in between us because I couldn't stop laughing. I think she must take after me......

A Special Drawing

Just a quick one...
I was a little distracted on the computer just before dinner the other night. I was trying to get out some e-mails concerning Verri Charmed sales. Delilah was behind me on the couch scratching my back in a quite pleasant fashion with what I thought was a fork.... nope, it turned out to be a biro, she was actually doing a very detailed drawing... doh!

A Superhero?

We are leading up to toilet training with Delilah at the moment, she has been going to the toilet for sometime in fits and spurts but we haven't been keen to push the subject with so much change going on in the last few months. However, last weekend we took Miss D to pick out some knickers to get her a little more excited about the idea. When we got home MIss D insisted on putting them on.... like this...

Got to love a toddler.... It reminded me of similar photos of my niece Lilli with her "jocks on the outside"!

One more before I go. Delilah has been saying thank you to most things lately, something that has made me very proud because I say it to her but I haven't pushed it because I know it's a difficult concept for a just two year old. Tonight Luke put some parmesean cheese on Delilah's dinner and he was rewarded with "Tank oo Dadda, cheese, your welcome!".

Quoting Jessica Watson

I heard an amazing quote this morning that I wanted to share, it came from Jessica Watson yesterday as she "corrected" the prime minister for calling her a hero:

"...I'm not a hero, I'm just a girl who believed in her dream."

How awesome. I must admit I have rolled my eyes several times when hearing media coverage of Jessica Watson's plight. However, it really hit me this morning just how amazing this girl really is, I can't even fathom the courage she has shown in the pursuit of her dream. As a mother I can only hope that my girls grow up believing in themselves in the same way this girl has done.... though I can probably do with out them circum-navigating the globe in a little sail boat at age 16 because I may have a heart attack!

Buttons

I have a baby shower to go to on Sunday and I wanted to give the mum-to-be a Verri Charmed gift, so this got me thinking about neutral and boy products. I didn't really want to go the applique route because a) so many people are doing this and b) so many people are doing this really well and I am not very good with a sewing machine lol! (though I can hand sew up a storm!). However, I have really been enjoying making fabric covered buttons and I thought I could use some button detailing to come up with something appropriate.

I am so happy with the result! I hope others like them too:)

Aaaarrrgghhh!

With my heart racing I finally created my FB page for Verri Charmed today. I figured it was time to take the plunge.... what's the worst that can happen????

Yes ,I've been sewing up a storm, yoyos galore!!! I'm really enjoying it though, it's very therapeutic and it also proved to be an excellent way to get through watching the first season of Dexter on DVD (awesome show, but seriously creepy, the sewing was my version of watching from behind my hands lol!). Anyway, "head first" is my motto at the moment.... let's see how that works out!

Solids

Tonight Miss M had her first real introduction into solid foods. Luke and I have been talking for a while about when to start solids with Mackenzie as we started quiet early with Delilah, but had not felt Miss M was quite ready yet (though she has have a finger dip of avocado... and another of mashed potato!). Luke had come up with the idea of starting on her 5 month birthday, which will be next Sunday, however as she has been waking up twice a night for food for the last fortnight as has often been crying at the end of her final feed for the evening I decided that tonight was the night to start....

On the menu for this evening we had home cooked pureed pears... oh so tasty lol! The result was this:

Absolutely loved it! she ate at least a tablespoon worth before getting a bit over excited and grabbing my spoon hand and shoving it a bit too far into her mouth... she was a little more subdued after that lol!

It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference to Mackenzie's sleep tonight... but it was the first night for a while that she stopped short of completely draining me of milk and then crying for more! I do love introducing my babies to new food, however it is a little bitter sweet when you are no longer your bubba's sole source of food. Oh well, I guess we've jumped head first onto that food testing rollercoaster for a second time:)

Mothers

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh

Mothers Day

The orgions of Mother's Day began with the baking of cakes to say thank you to a group of mothers, hence I always like to bake a cake for Mothers Day. This year I tried out the caramel layer cake from Donna Hay Modern Classics 2.

Excellent recipe... very excellent cake:)

We shared this cake with my Mum and Luke's mum this morning, relaxing on a beautiful day in our backyard, while Miss M slept and Miss D ran around the yard finding rocks to give as presents:)

This morning began with a rendition of "Happy Birthday To You!" From Delilah. Luke had told her to come and say happy Mother's Day to me, and that was her interpretation I guess! I decided to forgo my Present for my photo shoot the previous week and a delightful 2nd Anniversary/Mother's Day dinner at Windy Point with the "Cronies" last night, so I was suprised to find a small gift waiting for me amongst Miss M's nappies when I went to change her, a Copy of "Flashdance"... yep aparently my girls have already cottoned on to my love of dance movies;)

Next came with the affore mentioned morning tea with the Mums. Then Lilah and Mackenzie had a nap and Luke and I managed a small rest ourselves. When both the girls were up we got out the pram and set off for a walk to Jetty Rd, Brighton, along the Esplanade on a mission for hot chips to take to the park. It was a beautiful walk, the day was just so mild for May and the water was so calm, there were so many families about... even some brave (read: crazy) people were swimming! Delilah and I had a great time running around the park, taking it in turns to catch one another while Luke and Miss M chilled on the grass.

We have just finished of the day with a hot bowl of Tomato and Basil soup, my own soon-not-to-be-so-secret-recipe:

• 2Kg Tomatoes diced
• 2L Vegetable stock
• 4 Red onions diced
• 1 cup Red lentils
• Basil
• 2Tbs Butter
• 2Tsp minced garlic

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add onions and garlic, cook till transparent. Add lentils and tomato and cook for a minute. Add stock and basil to taste. Bring to boil and then simmer until the tomato is tender. Blend until smooth. Serve with fresh basil leaves and cream to taste. Makes heaps!

Very tasty if I do say so myself and Delilah LOVED it!

It has been a really nice day, though I can't believe that it is already my third Mother's Day!

The Amazing Danielle Quarmby

This is one of the amazing photos from our session with Danielle Quarmby http://blog.danielleq.com/. Truth be told, I didn't relax very well during the session, I am just so bad at having my photo taken, and while it was fun I was really curious to see how the photos turned out. Well I shouldn't have been suprised really, as I love all the work of Danielle's that I have seen, but the sneak peaks have just blown me away. It is lovely that a moment in time of the special relationship I have with my sisters has been captured... and I just can't wait to see the rest!

Chubba Bubba

I weighed the Divine Miss M yesterday...... 8 Kgs. Got to love a squishy bubba:)

Right Here, Right Now

Right now... Whenever anyone comes over, or we go some where, Delilah introduces us... "Mummy" (points) "Kenzie" (points) "Yiyah" (points) "Dadda work" (shrugs).

Right now... Mackenzie loves "flying". I hold her up above my head and she giggles.

Right now... Delilah is attached to her Ted, pillow, cot blanket and the quilt Tatum made for her 2nd birthday. When she gets up in the morning, at rest time and bedtime she MUST have "po, Ted, banket and big banket".

Right now.... Miss M loves to make eyes at her Daddy. She will stare at Luke until he looks at her and then she will grin and turn her head coyly to the side.

Right now... my girls adore one another, their Daddy and myself.

Right now... is a good place to be:)

One More for Today...

I got a little confused tonight when Miss D was mixing up her dinner in her drinking cup yelling "Hippie!" until Luke explained to her that it was "Yippie! not, Hippie!":) She continued to yell "Hippie!", followed closely by a couple of pop offs for which she declared "Yiyah farts!". Hmmmm.....

Delilahisms for Today

Some times I swear Delilah takes leaps and bounds in one day. Today has been one of those days....

This morning she wanted to play with her puzzles, but I told her she had to pick up her tea set and put it away first, thinking that I would have to do it for her.... but no, as soon as the words left my mouth she was running around collecting up the tea set and putting it away... amazing.

This afternoon we were reading stories... Mackenzie had gotten a bit sick of this so I had put her down on the floor to roll around... she was making quite a bit of noise, so Delilah grabbed her own precious Ted and wedged him in next to Mackenzie saying "Here Kenzie, play with Ted".

While Mackenzie was having a nap earlier Delilah and I spent about 45mins in the backyard. She found a frisby and made me stand back so she could throw it to me ("no Mummy, get back!"), I watched at my allocated distance for about 10mins while she tried to throw it, yelling "Oops!" everytime she threw it and it landed in a less than desired spot (read: everytime she threw it!).

She also spent a little bit of time looking at the books by herself while I was feeding Miss M. She had "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and was turning the pages saying things like "Friday, five Oranges" and " Monday, apples!" She made me giggle when she turned to the last page and yelled "A Caterpillar!". Lol as anyone who has ever read the book will know that on the last page the caterpillar has turned into a butterfly!

Delilah's language skills increase every day it absolutely amazes me. I can't believe I created these little Beings... and now watching them develope and grow constantly blows my mind.

What have I been up to?

I have been working on a new project over the last few weeks, hair accessories and embelished clothing for kids, and I've been having a lot of fun doing it. So much so, infact that I've booked a table at the Goodwood Mums and Bubs Market for June the 13th under the name Verri Charmed. I'm very excited and have been very busy sewing up a storm.Here are a few items that I've made for the girls along the way:

I am very scared about how this all might be recieved... but if it fails at least I'll have alot of cool presents for people!

Today I had a photo shoot with my sisters with Curiouser - Photography by Danielle Quarmby it was really fun, though I am so self consious in front of the camera and I be very curious to see how the photos turn out. Tatum, Lauren, Jess and I had a great time kicking water at each other, throwing streamers, drinking champagne and blowing bubbles though, and Danielle's work is just soooo delicious I'm sure at least one good photo has to be in there!