rocking

where i sit at the computer right now, i can see cleo getting stuck into mucking up the fisher price nativity scene, he he... and she's having a ball with it, too! no max telling her 'noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!' and no playpen to spoil her fun & exploration... until tomorrow, when i relieve a kindy mum of her old wooden playpen for ten bucks!

we tried a different morning routine today. instead of cleo's nap starting at 730am (the joys of an early riser), i held her out until 8am, when we set off to kindy extra-early, walking/riding the long way, via the deli to pick up an iced coffee for me (yes, still addicted). max LOVED the fact that he arrived at kindy early enough to spend some play time with his mate matthew (in fact, max declared today to be 'the best day ever!')... and through most of this time, cleo slept. it worked well!

aaron's quit campaign is going strong; onto 7+ weeks now!

cleo is rocking back / forth on her hands and knees (sometimes toes) and squealing with frustration - how delightful! proper crawling won't be far off... and until then, wow, i'm amazed at how much ground she can cover with rolls and shimmies!

the tree is up. i repeat, the tree is up.

one of the girls in my 'cleo' online buddy group is completely obsessed and OTT with christmas decorations... she has six or seven trees, all decorated, in her house her talk in the thread today inspired me to pull out our (solitary, lone, solo) tree and max was UTTERLY THRILLED with my suggestion that we set the thing up!

we decorated up a storm this afternoon, and i was VERY good, letting him add half the ornaments, and decorate the bottom half of the tree. i didn't even reposition one ornament or string of balls! although *cough* i did reposition the reindeer, but that was for 'general aesthetics' *cough*

mum phoned midway through the fiesta in our front room, and i relayed that max was eating one of last year's candy canes and cleo was eating the (fisher price) manger

definitely need a playpen for the tree, though... cleo's eyes lit up; our little magpie was fascinated with the twinkly lights and 'shiny things'

will post photos later!

i heart sarah

i needlessly wasted hours yesterday, fretting over heavy spells of rain, reports of thunder storms, and the outdoor concert i was to attend that night.

the night worked out perfectly!

the rains did not venture near the quarry ampi-theatre. sarah blasko was amazing brilliant gorgeous heart-breakingly wonderful - swoon... i am in love with her! cleo was a gem... she picknicked with lara, donna and i during the support act, then slept during sarah's performance!

what a venue!!! wow! i have emailed for details of their wedding packages! not that i think that the venue will fit into our (rather scant) budget, but i simply 'need to know' and then can move on and be happy. in fact, i'd rather the venue be completely OTT in terms of costs, so that i can say 'in another, rich, life, i will marry at the quarry', he he!

lotsa photos!

aaron on sausage sizzle duty at max's 5th party...

goodie bags!

happy birthday to you, beautiful max xxx

max's 5th birthday party... chaos in the pool!

can't you feel the love?!

shake those maraccas!

the 'family & friends party' birthday cake!

big buddah baby sitting up.

aaron had to wake max at 6am on max's actual birthday (unheard of!) so that we could open presents before aaron left for work at 630am. max was stoked with the 'cars' race track, and he and aaron set it up and played a few rounds before aaron headed to the office ;)

i am not sure who gave max this birthday present (shaving foam, razor, etc) but it is a hit! so cute!

small scale cake for max's actual 5th birthday... yum! note new ben10 pjs!

although he looks very worse for wear, i am pretty certain it's just 'tiredness'. max on his actualy birthday, after a very full-on day of swimming, and playing, and opening presents, and eating cake... and more playing!

max and aaron, on max's birthday... testing the new water squirters!

our beautiful girl x

nanna with max and cleo... max calls nanna 'grandma'.

my dad with his three grandchildren :) taken in mum&dad's gorgeous new home in yanchep.

a very special photo. taken on our last visit with grandpa, who died last tuesday. RIP pa xxx

yeah, love a grubby bub!

max working on some complex castle lego... and not wanting to be interupted with requests to 'smile', thanks mum...

someone is pretty pleased with herself :)

oops, should've rotated this shot. pic of wil, milla and cleo :)

this photo is for all of those people who think my house is always.without.fail.neat.and.tidy.

this is the rocker i bought from the swap-meet for five bucks!



max: very stoked to be gifted some lego from aaron's apprentice, josh!

syl with her new bubba (my new niece milla!), carly, max & cleo

my little wheat-bix grub... and pretty happy to relax in that state, too! (i can't get enough of these photos, obviously! love a grubby bub!)

on our back deck... max & cleo.

cleo, way too cool for school...

rather large hole

max & i have today played trouble, built a lego crane, assembled another crane, changed batteries over from old toys to the new ones, bought storage boxes for the new toys, rejigged the old toys and sent some out to the cubby - ha! stuffed the bin full of packaging and wrapping paper, which is a bugger as the bin was only emptied this morning. aren't birthday party hang-overs fun?!

and on a related note... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH to the over-packaging of some toys!!! what the hell is up with toys being BOLTED onto the packaging??!! i needed to use a leatherman, dammit, to get a truck out of a box today!!!!! rant over...!

cleo is being tricky at the moment... the many weeks (months?) of settling her off to sleep with hand-holding through the bars of the cot have begun to wear thin (for me)... i was hoping she'd grow out of this habit, but of course: no. in fact, the screams tonight were VERY indignant... i have dug myself into a rather large hole!