As promised, here is a bit more of what we have been up to since I last blogged.


In November, we began receiving heavy rain. It rained a lot when little Bear was born, but since then it hasn't really rained much here until recently. The first time it rained heavily, was at night. We came down the next morning to shin deep water running through under our house. Little Bear was fascinated, but as we had to get straight in the car to go to work/school/kindy there wasn't much time for discovery. It rained a bit more on & off throughout the day & when we got home, there were still puddles under the house. This time I let Little Bear loose.


At first she was a bit scared to get too close (she tries to push us away in the pool, thinking she can swim by herself, but was too scared to step in a puddle that barely makes it up to her ankles - go figure). When I showed her how to splash & jump in the puddles (there's no need to picture that - no really...) she quickly got over her hesitation & had a wonderful time (as you can see by this video).

In December it was Grandad's (AKA Mr Sunshine) birthday. I don't have many photo's of that & the only two that are half decent are these two.

I just love this outfit. I think Little Bear looks so much nicer in the really dark colours, as compared to the light 'baby' colours. And she always has, even as a new born.


The boots are a hand me down from her 7 year old cousin & have a suede finish. The soles have been reglued, but apart from that no maintenance is necessary & they still look like new. Amazing!


All 4 grandchildren had a wonderful time running amok with each other, trying to outcompete each other in volume, antics & just general sillyness. I love the sign above Bear's head in the first photo - "Lead me not into temptation". The look on her face says butter wouldn't melt in her mouth doesn't it! Don't be deceived :-)


(When I was just typing that last sentance, my fingers started typing faster than my brain could keep up & I accidentally typed don't be DECEASED. As that is also equally good advice, I will leave it here).

The butterfly in this photo is a present from Cheetah's clarinet teacher for Little Bear. Little Bear was nothing but trouble at all those lessons, however the teacher still spoilt her.

OK, that will have to do for now, but stay posted for more photo's soon.

:-)

Update

Hey folks,

Hopefully I will be back here soon with photo's abundant for you to see of all the going on's in this household since October 25 (my last blog). I knew it had been a while, but even I was quite surprised at just how long.

Since my last blog, I have barely touched my computer, being far too busy with many other things.

Shortly after I last blogged, Cheetah caught headlice! Oh dread !!! Anyway, we ended up taking the whole day off work/school/kindy to get rid of them. This was the first time we have had headlice in this family (although I caught them a couple of times as a child, but that was my mothers problem). I had no treatments on hand & as I discovered them in the morning, so had to wait until the chemist opened to get the treatment, then come home & apply it to Cheetah & Little Bear. Had it of just been Cheetah, not a problem, but we had to do Little Bear too. Then all the laundry that accompanied that - Yuck.

So one week later, kids are back at school/kindy & I do the second treatment. Found more live ones (is that supposed to happen?). Anyway next day send the kids to school/kindy & get a call from kindy that afternoon saying Little Bear is not well. Turns out she had a tummy bug. I hadn't even finished washing all the sheets from the headlice saga (not to mention the sheets from the second onslaught) & now I am changing Little Bear's sheets daily & both hers and my own clothes several times a day (for reasons best left unsaid).

OK, we get through that tummy bug & lo & behold I find more live headlice when we are ready to do the third treatment. I was pretty sure they were meant to all be dead by now. It is at this point that when discussing the drama's with a workmate, she casually mentions that she has never gone to the trouble of changing all the sheets & linen & worrying about the cushions, etc & they have never had any trouble getting rid of them. I fought the urge to strangle her in a moment of temporary insanity & we are still friends. Anyway, we finally get rid of the headlice (keep in mind it is about a month later that I feel comfortable to say that we are finally headlice free) when Little Bear catches a second tummy bug.

This weekend just gone (yes, a couple of days before Christmas), I finally finish the last of the accumulated washing, that dreadful reminder of that unpleasant episode in our lives. I have threatened my son with death if he even thinks about sharing his hat with other kids at school or borrowing theirs. No hat, no play !!!

On top of all this, of course there was Christmas shopping, Christmas planning & the inevitable Christmas parties (or birthday parties) that make every weekend from the start of November to New Years Day to be filled to capacity with activities of some sort.

Today we took a drive up to Paluma which is a mountain rainforest area where mobiles do not work. We did this to have some quality family time before DH needs to go back to work, but also to ensure that we were off everyone elses radar for a short while (ie. no unexpected or last minute visitors for just one day).

It was a beautiful day - very cloudy though which made it very sweaty walking through the rainforest even though the air was cool. We took a 1.5km walk of which Little Bear walked at least a third of that by herself (and for those who know the area, they aren't really 'rugged' walking tracks, but they are a challange, especially for an 18 month old).

Oh well, I need to go cook dinner now. Hopefully later tonight or in the next few days sometime I will be able to get some photo's on here. Don't hold your breath though :-)