out-source

max is a boy after my own heart. he is VERY excited about his upcoming fifth birthday, and just now told me a way to 'make it come faster'... which involves making the cake, 'or buying one from the shops then decorating it' (whistle....)...

busy saturday for us... royal show in the morning, home for a quick pit-stop (aka dropping off show bags!), then onto a grand final party at friends'... left the house at 830am, home by 7pm - yawn... we all slept in until 6am on sunday, ha!

aaron installed a new piece of flywire on the front screen door yesterday - my ears! the swear words!

photos

cleo only just fits into the laundry basin these days... sigh... she's growing up too fast!



baby + porridge + wants to feed herself = MESS!



i swear we won't be buying ANY toys for max this christmas... this kid is always beyond thrilled with a cardboard box! cleo was less than thrilled, i think...



max & cleo in their flannel pyjamas, watching some morning tv together...

spoon

already feeling 'overwhelmed' with wedding planning thrown into the 'life' mix... as some of you will know, i tend to sleep-walk when stressed... and did a LOT of s/walking when max was born. this time around, none (aside from in the mat ward in hosp *blush* ) until friday night, after i'd spent a few hours working on a guest list and googling 'bali weddings'... sigh...

cleo knows what to do with a spoon - - and sometimes even manages to get the spoon into her mouth, lol. she cries if she drops the spoon too, very cute! she also cries when her change table toy drops...

i am smarter this time around, and have attached a toy to her high chair, using a link... spent HOURS retrieving toys for max, when he was this age. never again!!!!!

better get off the comp and into bed... the nights are still not great around here, and not helped with cleo and i in the middle of colds at the mo'.

airbags

so here i was thinking that cleo is a complete buddha baby, with her michelin-style legs and belly... but no! she's actually UNDER the 50% mark for her age :o i'm shocked!

on the walk home from kindy today, max told me that his nipples hurt - how weird! i am quite certain he was hoping for some kind of reaction from me. i did not oblige :)

and another recent gem: "why don't older cars have airbags?"

why indeed?

hives

packed day here, starting with all four of us leaving the house at 630am (not a typo), headed for the karrinyup swap meet! in addition to finding some clothes for the kids, my bestest and most favourite find in ages was a cane rocking horse - $15, can you believe it? it's utterly gorgeous! the seller said that her youngest was now 21, so no longer needed this lovely old thing.

we stopped by a new, very casual cafe for breaky; it's called 'yelo', a 'takeaway only' place (with chairs, he he... only licenced for t/a) that is in the spot where another cool cafe (bennion st) closed a few months back. yummo egg & bacon wrap & iced coffee for meeeee.... while breast-feeding cleo, an older woman stopped by to tell me i was very discreet. ooookay... i told her that babies need breaky too!

next stop: to a bali import place, where we chose a pair of bali doors to erect at the end of a pathway in our backyard. yay, the 'finishing touch'! also bought three funky & beautiful old wooden bird cages to suspend from our pergola.

spent the afternoon with my parents... visited their new place in yanchep - nearly finished, and they'll be moving in in around a month - and then ate lunch at their current abode / rental. hung out all afternoon on their couches, talking wedding stuff, in amongst other chit-chat :)

so... wedding stuff! seriously thinking a 'bali' wedding, and maybe even a "very-small-immediate-family-plus-handful-of-friends-bali-wedding"... contemplating a massive shin-dig has me break out in hives!

theology v evolution 101

yawwwwwwwwwwn: cleo was a little tricky last night. she nodded off easily enough, but once she heard the shower pipes cranking through the wall, she was awake and in her mind, hungry! still, when she did eventually settle down (again) by 10pm, she didn't wake again until 2am - yayyyyyyyyyyy! early start today, though... 430am is not 'morning', okay cleo?

yesterday i thought i'd engage max in some 'spring has sprung' conversation, and it was going nicely, with me pointing out an intricate spider's web, talking about baby animals on farms & noticing some blossoms on our fruit tree... but then max threw me - completely - wanting to know how the FIRST human was born, and the FIRST animals. well... i must confess to not being up for 'theology v evolution 101' so gave a rather piss-poor response at the time... and rekindled the conversation later, for aaron to answer (lol) which he did well... until max wanted to know more about God. at this point, aaron suggested max ask nanny (his mum) :)

haywire

gorgeously sunny spring day today!
i gardened a bit!
i dried a load of washing on the same day i washed it!
i lost at a game of memory with max! (he had the upper hand, as we were using 'vehicular' cards)
i sourced two quotes for timber blinds for three windows!
mum gave me a bunch of irises!
i made beef bourgignon (sp) for dinner!
max bathed & changed into pyjamas at 230pm! <- painting went a little haywire, resulting in a verrrry early bath...
and last but not least... cleo down for the night without a whimper!

barbie's ski stocks

when mum & dad moved from the 'family home' in padbury, late last year, i was donated carly's extensive collection of barbies and dolls, for our 'future daughter'. cleo is of course now 'here' and wow, hasn't SHE scored?!

on saturday, i finally looked through the six plastic crates' worth of the barbies & dolls, and their associated clothes, retro furniture including an awesome bathroom set-up, 'accessories' (think teeny tiny hair brushes & clips, and ski stocks and medical bags and cowgirl hats, etc etc etc) and even a barbie sized set of metal golf clubs! what can i say, but oh how i love space bags (heart)! those six crates are now three, with two seriously compacted and squished up bags holding the difference.

from the dolls collection, i have hand-washed a 'baby blue' knitted bonnet, with ribbon ties, and a pale pink knitted jacket, very 1980's in style: both pieces will star with cleo in a photo session later in the week :)

fathers day, dad's birthday, happy days...

Happy birthday, DAD!
MWAH x

Mum with Cleo, who was more than a little mesmerised by the gazillion (joke) birthday candles!
























Cleo in her 'snuggle bed' within her cot - you'd think she'd be sleeping like the proverbial baby with such a cosy set-up, right?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... no.
Not that I want this blog to be a diary of Cleo's crapola sleep patterns... but my-god-i-am-tired-this-baby-wants-to-feed-allllll-night-long-and-i'm-over-having-a-sore-back-through-holding-her-through-the-night-while-balancing-on-the-sofa-waahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......
























A few snaps taken on Fathers Day 2009... please pay special attention to Aaron's tie :) and be kind... that photo was taken at 530am :o

phase of the moon?

newsflash!

cleo slept REALLY.WELL last night, yayyyyy!

mum suggested i add a piece of clothing i'd worn through the day into cleo's cot... apparently it's something recommended by WA's ngala. anyhoo, whether it was the t-shirt or the fact that she's getting the hang of solids or the phase of the moon - whatever! - cleo slept from 7 - midnight - quick feed - then slept until 430am! this is amazing progress & a definite improvement on 3, 4, 5 feeds through the night (ick).

speaking of solids; cleo today ate - and loved! - oats with figs and dates! it actually is as delicious as it sounds; i taste tested!

oooh and have i mentioned that my gorgeous girl now gives kisses???!

cleaner coming today... all is great in my world (happy sigh)...