A couple of pre-Christmas shots

Further to our last blog, here are some more photo's. I will post seperately for seperate events, otherwise it just gets too messy.


Little Bear loves to be our "baby". Since our neice was born a few weeks ago, she has started pulling the towel around her after bath time & coming up to us saying "Baby. Baby" We then have to put it around her like she is a newborn & cradle her in our arms. Sometimes she will sit like that for ages. It is a lovely cuddle time.



This time, she found a large teatowel & I came into the loungeroom to find her like this. She was a bit tired & sat like this for quite a while before she finally decided to get up & play.




Here she got hold of our phone (possibly why it isn't working anymore???) and then got up to play some music while talking to imaginary grandma on the phone. Didn't phase her that the keyboard was turned off. I guess when multitasking you have to look for the easy options.



A couple of days before Christmas, I got some new glasses. Quite a big deal, as I usually wear contacts & don't bother updating my glasses. (I got my last pair Christmas of '99 & I could no longer see a difference with or without them so I figured it was high time to update).



Because I rarely wear glasses, but after spending money on them, I figure I should give them some use, Little Bear thought it was hilarious to see me wearing them. Only problem is that she thought they were toys. I humoured her for a little, but then they went away.



Cheetah will be getting some glasses very soon (any day now). It will be interesting to see what Little Bear thinks of that !!!

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 :-)

Daddy's little Helper

Whenever Daddy is home, he has a little shadow.

Little Bear loves her daddy to bits & loves to do anything that daddy is doing.

Daddy has recently bought himself a new computer chair & Little Bear helped him build it.

Daddy was very patient with her & let her help him screw bits in & find bits that had gone missing (she was actually very good at this, because she was the reason that they weren't where Daddy left them in the first place).



When Daddy was getting too frustrated, Little Bear knew how to calm him down.













I love this photo. Daddy was sitting on the coffee table fixing the media PC (our home TV is attached to a computer).

Little Bear saw him sitting there so she went & got her book & climbed up right beside him & sat there quietly chatting to him the whole time (it took a while).














And this photo was taken today. Little Bear loves my plastics drawers & every day (multiple times a day on weekends) I have to run around after her putting it all back in before it gets dirty.


And there we go, that is the big stuff that has been happening since I last blogged. I have more to add as I get the photo's, but for now this will do.

Cheetah's birthday

After the wedding, it was time to get ready for Cheetah's birthday. Man did he score this year.

Cheetah has wanted a Nintendo DS since they came out. We resisted for ages because we have 2 playstations (1 & 2), 2 computers (plus a bunch of various computer parts that fill about 3 x 64L plastic tubs (not including cases & monitors), and various little computer game type toys.



Anyway, the two cousins his age that live nearby, as well as most of his school/PCYC friends have one so we finally gave in & got him one for his birthday. (When I say most of his school friends, he has about 10 close friends who all have one). Because we go on car trips (short & long) with his cousins, as well as camping with them too, we felt a DS would be well worth it for those times including the looooooong drives to NSW & back to visit Nanna.

Here is Little Bear presenting Cheetah with his DS.



Cheetah is a very good big brother. Here is Little Bear helping him open his present.















And here is little bear after all the presents have been opened (for now) getting a little bit overexcited at the whole deal & throwing herself at Cheetah, his presents & the wrapping paper.












Cheetah wanted a roller-skating party this year. Note the birthday cake was made that morning in time for a party at 10:00am. I was impressed with my own efforts.

It doesn't show up very well, but there is a number 9 out of M&M's on top of the cake.












Here is Cheetah skating.



















Here is Cousin T skating.


















And here is Uncle J & Little Bear.

That night we had the extended family over for pizza.

All in All, Cheetah really enjoyed his birthday

The Wedding

OK. Brother R's wedding was on 6 September so I am running a bit behind.

Honestly since the wedding I have been completely run off my feet & have had very little time to blog. The spare time I have had, I have used to just wind down (there really has been very very little of it) and blogging was the last thing on my mind.

Anyway, the wedding was nice. Sister-in-Law J looked stunning in her dress. Unfortunately I don't have any photo's of the actual wedding on my camera. I got the photo's from Mum's camera to burn onto disks for family, however we used a removable USB drive to copy them onto from her computer to mine & this wrecked the quality of the copies (apparently these drives are renowned for this). I am hoping to get round there tomorrow & try something different. We'll see how it goes.




Here is Little Bear & DH early on at the reception. Little Bear was very good for a 1 year old, but a bit of a handful because she wouldn't sit at the table.

She made everyone oooh & aaaah in her beautiful dress & shoes & of course she felt like a princess & so she played like a princess, swishing around, dancing & prancing when people were paying her attention & not wanting to be relegated to the sidelines in a highchair.

The older children (like Cheetah) were relegated to a table at the back of the room. (What a great idea)! Therefore I have no photo's of Cheetah on my camera from the wedding, but other family got some so if there are any good ones I will post them later.



Here is Little Bear & Grandad with the ice sculpture. This is where Little Bear spent most of the night with one adult or another. She didn't grow tired of it (although the adults had to keep changing the guard).

She loved to touch it & then pull her hand away laughing as her hand got too cold. By the end of the night, the Swan on the left had a noticably smaller tail than the Swan on the right.

Dinner was beautiful, however they waited a long time between each course & by the time the speeches started, Little Bear was ready to sleep & so I spent the full time of the speeches outside walking backwards & forwards until she fell asleep on my shoulder. I did find $10 though & no-one around to claim it. Bonus.

I will post a bit more about the wedding when I get the other photo's.

Here's a sneak peek of Little Bear's dress for the wedding on Saturday. She isn't feeling very well at the moment & so she wasn't really at her most photogenic at the time, but I'm sure we will get much better photo's on Saturday.
















Similar to Kitcat, Little Bear's cot tends to become a meeting place for all the stuffed animals within stuffed animal calling distance (I think they are like giraffes - they can communicate with each other, sometimes over vast distances, but humans cannot hear the frequency they vocalise at).





Puppy was feeling a bit crowded & tried to escape (with some help from a Bear) but Puppy's head was too big.











This is Little Bear with the lip balm & the red spots on the ground are lumps of lip balm. As you can see, Little Bear thought that this was hilarious and also thought that I would appreciate the funny side.



Not this time Little Bear!










Little Bear is happiest when allowed to help. Here she is rearranging my pantry. The yellow wrist band is for daffodil day. The yellow handle in front of her is for her trolley, which she was piling up with goodies from the pantry & then walking around the house & depositing said goodies elsewhere. Like a chipmonk, she stores goodies for later, but then can't remember where she stored them which is great because when she finds them it's like Christmas all over!