Thursday, March 31, 2011

Mossy Point

Off we went down to Mossy Point for our 'goodbye summer' beach long weekend. I think it can be called a tradition as it was our 4th consecutive year of going to the coast with friends. This year we were joined by Belinda, Jase, Abby & Zoe and Al, Rob, Max & Mira. My colleague's house was not available to hire so we rented a 4 bedroom place on the headland at Mossy Point. A fantastic house - lots of room for noisy kids to run around in as well as being toddler walking distance to the beach and muffin shop.

Walking to the beach

The kids were fantastic. Of course there was the occasional tantrum, sharing issue and tiredness all par for being a toddler really but on a whole the adults felt as though there was a glimpse of what life will be like in the not too distant future where the kids will be entertaining themselves :) In particular Abby and Max were hilarious - copying each other and laughing while Ella is now Mira's second mother.

Abby, Max, Katy & Ella in the bath with Mira looking in.

One for the 21st - What are you up to Abby and Max??

For Andy and I the mornings started early with little Katy ready to play around 6ish. So to prevent the whole house being woken up we would head off for a walk to the newsagents for the papers watching the sunrise.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Spring loaded

Last night was one of those occasional evenings where Nat leaves me to fend by myself with the girls. This one started well -- we caught the bus home from childcare (actually two buses) without losing either of them (either girl that is, not either bus), and made it home just in time for dinner on the back patio.

Dinner was just beginning to unravel -- they were taking turns feeding their forks through the umbrella hole in the outdoor table -- when I decided to grab them more food to keep them entertained. As I was walking inside, Ella found a spring (a bit like the spring in a retractable pen, only a little large) which had mysteriously disappeared by the time I returned. It was then that Ella remarked: "Daddy, the spring hurts."
"Well, where is it, dear?"
"Here" Ella says, pointing to her neck.
I couldn't see any spring, so I fairly quickly figured out that the spring has half-way down her throat. After a few unsuccessful attempts to cough it up, we discovered that it now hurt her in the chest, and she looked distinctly uncomfortable.

I had visions of the sharp end of a spring tearing a great hole in Ella's oesophagus. There was nothing left for it; time to panic. I checked the phone book, but there was no spring-swallowing advice hotline, so I rang Nana instead. After some deliberation we decided that it was worthwhile taking her to the hospital, which meant Nana had to come over and take Katy, while I borrowed her car.

It wasn't a long trip. The nurse on the desk said the best they could do was observe her and take action if anything drastic happened, and that we could just as easily observe her at home. So, we came straight home, and since then have been assiduously pooh-sifting to see if a spring emerges. No luck yet, but it's likely to be another day or so until we find it ....

Sunday, March 20, 2011


As part of Canberra's 98th birthday, the Canberra Festival celebrates Canberra's sense of community spirit and vibrancy through concerts, sporting events, exhibitions, dance, art, culture and heritage, film and music. A regular feature in this festival is the Ballooning Spectacular where giant hot air balloons are launched from the lawns of Old Parliament House. As we are normally woken up by 6ish we thought it was a good opportunity to do something different. So on Thursday morning we were up in the dark piled the kids in their pj's into the car and headed off to Old Parliament House. Meeting up with Cathy, Makhaya and Luca we were treated to watching the kookaburra and strawberry balloons inflate. However due to the low cloud and wind direction there were no actual balloons flying - a real pity. As we walked back to the car, we passed the Royal Australian Air Force who were inviting people to walk inside the their balloon while it was inflating. We ventured inside - Katy wasn't too sure but Ella thought it was cool.

Unfortunately the weather this year has been pretty crappy for flying hot air balloons. Although yesterday we were treated to about 10 balloons flying over our house!!




Saturday, March 19, 2011

Miss Independence

Ella is surprising us with becoming more independent. Getting dressed in the morning is becoming quite a regular thing. Then the other afternoon disappearing only to be found pouring a cup of milk for herself! However during the week Ella emerged from the bathroom after 'doing' her hair. The result as seen below involved putting 16 clips into ones hair! Nice one!




More on the Weekend

The rest of the weekend turned into a bit of a struggle. Andy had been sick for nearly 10 days with a mancold which he thought was getting better and decided to go running only to relapse and feel even worse. Therefore there was no orienteering for him. I entered the middle distance at Bruce Ridge/CIT - my first run in a long while and no injuries so that was good. The girls had fun running around, picking flowers and playing with Aoife and all the other little people. We finished the morning with an ice cream and headed home.

Back at home was really when the fun began. Andy was feeling terrible so he took himself off to bed. Katy went down for her normal 1.5hr post lunch nap. Ella and I watched some tv, hung out the washing, read a book or two then Ella started complaining of a sore tummy. A little while later Ella ran off to the toilet and heaved up everything thankfully it all landing in the toilet bowl! She was a little flat but felt much better. What was left of the afternoon was very low key.

As Aoife, Cath and Eoin were having dinner at Nadine's place, we got into our normal eat, bath and bed routine. Katy was asleep in no time and while I hung out more washing Ella fell asleep on Andy's chest. Both girls asleep by 7.15pm - unbelievable! Cath and Eoin returned just before 8pm with a sleepy Aoife. This night was a stark contrast to the previous one!

Sunday's orienteering event was a long distance on one of the local hills. As I'd not entered and Andy being sick we stayed at home. A good call - Andy spent all morning in bed, Ella was still a little off colour and I was beginning to struggle. Thankfully after lunch, Andy miraculously perked up and I started going downhill. Sleeping for 3 hours (which felt like 30mins) didn't feel like it made much difference. I was beginning to worry too as I had agreed to work at our Queanbeyan site the next day. It was Canberra Day (a public holiday) in ACT but Canberra Imaging Group has two sites in NSW - Goulburn and Queanbeyan and requested for volunteers to work on the public holiday. Great opportunity to earn 3 days pay in one! I shouldn't have worried - woke up the next morning feeling fine and went off to work to find the list hadn't filled up :) Always a bonus as then you don't have to squeeze urgent scans into non existent spots.




Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Live and Learn

Last weekend was Canberra Day so yesterday was a public holiday (for some!). It just so happened that there was a mini orienteering carnival on in Canberra which meant a visit from our great friends Aoife, Cath & Eoin from Sydney.

After dinner on Friday night, Ella and Aoife got straight down to business - playing fairy princess dress ups! Then it was into a fun bubble bath and even Katy joined in on the action. Bedtime ended up being a saga! Andy and I made the fatal mistake of thinking all three girls could sleep in the one room seeing though Ella and Katy now share a room. The evening emerged something like this - Katy goes to bed and to sleep. Aoife and Ella read books in the loungeroom. On completing the books Ella exclaims "Aoife and I can go to bed by ourselves." We naively reply "Ok but remember to be quiet as Katy is asleep." We relax back on the couch looking at each other in amazement and thinking wow life is great now....needless to say that didn't last very long.

Ella and Aoife were soon giggling and carrying on waking Katy in the process. Big girls were shepherded out of the room and Katy settled back to sleep. Try 2 involves me in the room - all is quite so I headed out to the toilet only to return with Katy standing up in the cot saying poo! Try 3 involves changing Katy and settling her again however Ella insists on banging her feet on to bed head and is banished from the room. Aoife is lying there wondering what is going on!!! Katy is still crying so Aoife comes out too - a little upset that Katy is crying! Meanwhile Ella has lost the plot and is having a tantrum in our room with Andy trying to calm her down. Eventually Ella goes back to her bed with her residual sobs and Katy has fallen asleep once again. Now it's Aoife's turn - she is overtired and now doesn't want to go to bed! I think it was after 9.30 before all three girls were sleep. Next time Aoife stays I think we will have Katy in our room and the two big girls can create chaos and noise in the other room!




Go Figure

On the way to swimming the other day Ella starting counting all the way to 30 (minus 15 and 26). I was impressed as I hadn't heard her count over twenty and even then numbers between 13 - 20 were sometimes missing and definitely not sequential. Ella's attention turned to arrows and so she started telling me - this one means go that way, that one goes straight...Then as we were waiting a the traffic lights, the van in front of us started to slowly creep forward. Ella exclaimed 'You've got to move forward mummy!' Great just what I need a backseat driver!

Katy loves to watching and copying anyone and everyone. She repeats words in her own language. Baby has become a favourite pastime - eating breakfast with her, pushing her in the pram, climbing with baby in and out of katy's cot (that's when the side is half down) and bathing her. Recently she has started counting - 1 & 2 are commonly used with 3 & 4 becoming more frequent. Ella and Katy are seen in the short clip below taking turns jumping on to the mattress we had out for Cath and Eoin.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

A change is as good as a holiday

One of the consequences stemming from our large, snoring visitor last week has been a revision to sleeping arrangements in our house. Since Grandad needed Ella's bed to sleep in we took Ella's trundle into Katy's bedroom for the week. Of course, we've had to do similar rearrangements in the past, and it's always been a nightmare -- Ella wakes Katy and Katy wakes Ella at various stages of the night, leaving nobody with any sleep. But this time around Ella was so excited with the new arrangement that ... we've taken the plunge and made it permanent.

We see a few advantages in the new regime. Our main hope is that they will help each other to sleep better, but that may just be wishful thinking. A side-effect is that we now have a play-room, which everyone is excited about, while we can also use it as a spare room. But for now, we'll just see how long it lasts...

Friday, March 4, 2011

Big Last Day

Grandad departed very early this morning (6.20am flight meant 5am wake up). Why is it when you have to get up early everyone else 'chooses' to sleep in and when you think you can have a sleep in other smaller people want to get up ridiculously early??

Grandad's last day (yesterday) was a tiring one. First there were swimming lessons. We decided to go early and have a splash before lessons. I got confused with our start time so we were at the pool an hour early rather than 30mins - nevermind lots of time for splashing, jumping off the edge and dragging grandad around by his feet. Both girls are progressing well in their swimming. Ella was rolling from floating on her back then onto her front and then on to her back again by herself. She also loves to 'dive' into the water which turns out to be more of a belly flop. Katy has gained lots of confidence and now jumps in from standing position on the edge of the pool by herself. In fact she is getting to the stage where she 'thinks' she can swim!

Then it was off to the botanical gardens. Ella zoomed around on her bike while Katy was walking or riding in the pram. The gardens are such a great place to go with young children. We climbed rocks, spotted lizards, climbed trees, played in the stream, fell in the stream...



Ella decided to take some photos. The self timer worked fairly well but not fantastically focussed. Dad and I had a good chuckle when Ella who was taking a photo of us suddenly exclaimed (on the verge of a meltdown) but I'm not in it!!


It was all a bit much for grandad who had to have a nanna nap. We timed lunch perfectly - meeting at the cafe with Stacey who is now on maternity leave awaiting for pebbles to arrive.


The afternoon involved a quick shop at Bunnings followed by the fruit and vegie shop at the markets. What was left of the afternoon was spent at home - Ella downloading princess pictures on the computer with grandad while Katy played with her baby. Everyone was exhausted and as Katy had only a 20min sleep the whole day it was earlyish dinner then off to bed.

Grandad has 6 weeks to recover before the next granchildren invasion as we fly to Perth for the Easter orienteering carnival staying for 2 weeks!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Grandad Visits

Grandad arrived last Thursday and we've been busy.

Saturday
Had to keep up the tradition of visiting a nursery every time dad is over. So while Andy was running we visited Yarralumla Nursery bought some more (mainly) natives and planted them in the garden. Stopped off at the Brasserie for a strawberry milkshake and fruit smoothie. The Brasserie has done loads of outdoor landscaping making it a really nice spot for coffee.


The afternoon saw us ride down to the Belconnen markets to pick up a few supplies, have a play and a coffee. I think this was the first time in 10+ years that Grandad has been on a bike. I am pleased to say he didn't fall off just ended up with a sore bum. We couldn't let him go back to Perth without something hurting!


Sunday
Hazel's 4th birthday party at Lollipops (one of Ella's childcare friends). Lollipops is an indoor play centre at Brand Depot. Lots of climbing and sliding for the girls. Grandad and I also took the opportunity to shop at Toys'r'us getting the girls a couple of gifts. Ella was happy to be given a tinkerbell fairy, while Katy who has been showing off her maternal skills received a pram for her doll (yah - no more fights!!).

The weekend was ended with Nana, Grandpa and Uncle Richie came over for a beautifully cooked roast lamb dinner (thanks Andy!)


Monday and Tuesday
Pretty quite days as the girls were at childcare and we had to go to work. It was Pippa's turn to be spoilt - long walks on both days. Grandad also showed off his culinary skills by cooking dinner for us - pizza and baked beef risotto.

Of course there is always spare time to play. Here Grandad is playing the monkey game and pull funny faces on the computer!


Today
Grandad and Ella watched Katy excel at Tiny tots. Katy showed off her jumping skills as well as her monkey ability by swinging on the single bar.

We had a birthday lunch at Nana's house for Auntie Cathy's 35th b'day. It is also cousin Josh's 6th b'day but he was at school and is having a party this weekend.