2008 Year of the Bug

We’ve had an infestation of fuzzy caterpillars earlier in the year, something dying in an inaccessible part of the roof attracting maggots which had to run it’s course (ugh), waaay too many cockroaches, I almost swallowed a fly in my hot chocolate at a restaurant one night, we’ve dealt with head lice and most recently an attack of a mystery bug leaving both kids with a swollen eye and Sienna with a horrible rash. When will it end?! Roll on the new year! this one is crawling by…

Email

I love finding things like this on my desktop…

The birds and the bees, as told by Chelsea

So. What happens is, when you’re a really tiny baby, first you choose who you want for your Daddy, from a picture, then you go down a slippery slide, then you choose who you want your Mummy to be, from a picture, then you go down another slippery slide. BUT! You have to make sure the door isn’t locked. Then you land in your Mummy’s tummy and grow and grow until you’re ready to come out.

Apparently my door isn’t locked yet (hmmm). And although Chelsea already has babies in her tummy (she talks about them a lot – sometimes they light fires, they roll around, they kick her, they eat all the food she gives them…) her door is locked until she’s a grown up.

Now where did I put that key…

29 STEPS!!

I think she’s crossed that threshold – she is now walking more than crawling. Wow. It seemed to take forever from standing up not holding on, to the first tiny step, and now there’s no stopping her it seems!

24 September 2008

Sienna turned ONE! and to make the day extra special... she took EIGHT steps!

Chelsea and Granners

The Barnard Cousins

We stayed for nearly a week with Helen and David, Nicholas and Daniel. It was lovely, relaxing and fun and Chelsea and Nicholas got on like a house on fire! They kind of started up again from where they left off nearly four years earlier.
Here they are being industrious with some play-doh Helen made.

The girls

Chelsea and Sienna love each other’s company. It is wonderful to watch them together especially when they don’t know they’re being watched! This was in a hotel at Bristol, both of them playing with a new book from Auntie Sara.

5yr Anniversary

I know this is all about the kids, but they wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for us… here’s us on our 5th Wedding Anniversary at Carluccio’s in London.

3 steps!

Sienna’s first step was in the UK, a bit of a stumble really. On Friday 19 September she took 3 small steps! She is gaining confidence and very stable on her legs.

Sienna in hospital

We got off the plane from the UK and virtually went straight into hospital with Sienna. It turned out she had a urinary tract infection – we stayed at the Wesley for 3 nights until she was better. The huge bandage/splint on her arm was just to hold the drip in… holding her down with two other nurses while the doctor put the drip in was one of the worst things I’ve had to experience as a mother. But I loved them for their care, knowledge and understanding; before long we had our happy smiley girl back in perfect health!

Fathers Day

It was Fathers Day and I was telling Chelsea why we celebrate this day.
“It’s a day to thank Daddy for all the good things he does. What’s a good thing Daddy does?”
Chelsea thought for a while, then said
“Doing what he’s told?”
Out of the mouths of babes…

The Witch in the Cupboard

Also known as The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. But this is Chelsea’s version.

Unfused

When Andy asked Chelsea if she wanted butter or peanut butter on her toast she said “I’m unfused!”
Huh?
Confused. We know how she feels.

A big day out with Chelsea - 1 June

In the morning Chelsea and I went to the DVD shop and had lunch at the Blue Grotto. In the evening Sienna was babysat while Andy, Chelsea and I went to the AFL (Brisbane Lions) via train and taxi. It rained a bit but not enough to ruin our pie and chips with sauce.
The best part of the whole adventure was “getting my flag” which she waved like a loyal supporter.

26 May - 8 months old

Sienna standing up!

Yesterday Sue was here and when she got Sienna up from bed she found her standing in her cot holding onto the side. Another milestone!
And this morning there she was again standing at the side – grinning away looking very proud of herself!

House hospital

Driving to daycare, we went past a house jacked up on pallets, about to be taken away on a truck to be relocated.

Chelsea informed me that when houses get something wrong with them they have to be taken away to ‘house hospital’ where they fix the problem, then they bring it back when it’s all better.

Sleeping position #1

Jellyfish class - Sienna’s first lesson

Sienna’s second tooth

There it is! Popped up today.

Chelsea’s interpretation of road signs

Sienna’s first tooth

…appeared on April 15th (at nearly 7 months)… then disappeared… then appeared again. She’s now cutting some more and has ruddy cheeks, a runny nose and grizzles a lot. However, she loves her food, eats well (on solids since 6 months) and is interacting with us so much more.
Favourite toy: teddy - she shrieks with happiness when she sees him and sleeps with him near her.
So near crawling – the front end is up for it but the feet end just haven’t quite worked it out. Not long now.

Cheeky Monkey Gigglebox (CMG)

Plenty of brains in there...

This morning Chelsea put her head through the banisters at the top of the stairs and got stuck. I was envisaging sawing a banister into bits and having to replace it. Andy tried to help her ease her head back out - ow! ow! ears got hurt. We tried not to show our panic.

Always the lateral thinker, Chelsea simply wiggled her shoulders and body forward through the banisters to free herself!

Not until later did I realise her head is bigger than the rest of her body...

...and sitting up!

She’s worked this one out too - pudgy legs set frog-fashion on the floor, slight lean forward, arms ready to correct a shift in balance, head steady and… we’re sitting!
Surrounded by soft things ready to catch the face-plants of course, but Sienna has mastered the art of sitting up by herself. She is so much happier being upright. And sooo cute – she looks like a little person!

Rolling rolling rolling!

Sienna’s finally figured out how to roll over! Of course I wasn’t watching the first couple of times, but this morning she’s… well… ‘on a roll’. Can’t stop her! Hooray!


Photo: Chelsea Graves

Show and Tell

An exciting day today for Chelsea - she took her violin to daycare for Show and Tell.

When I asked her this afternoon if she showed the kids her violin her face lit up.
“Yes! And Chloe asked me a question.”
What did she ask you? (me thinking: Can you play it? What does it sound like? What’s that part?)
“She asked me where I keep it. I told her I keep it in my bedroom.”

The biting incident

Andy and Chelsea were having an argument, Andy kneeling down talking at her level when out of frustration Chelsea bit him!

After a good telling off and time spent in the naughty spot, things were calm again so I asked Chelsea why she bit Daddy.

The answer was simple.

“Because I was hungry.”

I love lettuce

A little while ago now, but thanks MariaRosa for reminding us about this one...

"I love lettuce!"
One leaf of lettuce was placed on her plate.
"I said I love lettuce, I didn't say I wanted any!"

Disclaimer

Should you ever receive an email from me that looks like this, please do not be alarmed. Chelsea will be happy to translate it for you.

Retail Therapy

Armed with $15 of her birthday money, Chelsea carefully selected a My Little Pony and a new wand (the magic left her other one when it broke the week before), went to the counter and paid for her items.
Later on we went for a cupcake with her remaining $1.
A very satisfying day’s shopping.

Sneaky Fluffers

Driving down the road with her dad, Chelsea and Andy went past a cop hiding in the bushes with a speed camera. Andy muttered “sneaky f*ers” which was picked up by Chelsea: “did you say sneaky fluffers Daddy?”
“Err... yes. That’s right. Sneaky fluffers.”
The next day I was driving to daycare with Chelsea and we passed a police car on the side of the road.
“Look Mummy! Sneaky Fluffers!”

The gate-crasher

This morning we went to Oliver’s party at a park in West End and Chelsea met up with Molly who was at another kid's party. I chatted to Molly’s mum and we were kind of tag-teaming, watching the kids and being sociable with our separate groups. Next minute the other party is all singing happy birthday to their child, Chelsea’s bang in the middle of them all (gate-crashing!) and strolls over 10 minutes later with blue icing all around her mouth.

Dear diary

So here’s the beginning of an attempt to keep track of all those magical moments, funny phrases and incidents which happen almost daily in our lives with our two gorgeous girls, Chelsea and Sienna.
Thank you to everyone who has inspired me to do this (Greer, Zoe, Sam). Please feel free to give me a kick in the butt if I get slack and don’t keep up... it’s so important to record what happens so that one day I can tell them what they were really like as a baby/toddler/child. Maybe even teenager, but lets not get carried away with ourselves.