New photos

I’ve added some new photos to my flickr account. They tell the tale of our busy month:

Birthdays!

Rose and Tess both had hospital admissions this month

LOTS of craft

Granny Jo came to visit for a few days

Lots of work (Chris is trying to finish a book)

Fun with friends!

And a fair amount of weariness

A photo update

I managed to get some new photos uploaded to flickr. Head on over to find photos of:

Tess’s birthday and party

Halloween and Trick or Treating

and Thanksgiving dinner

Spotted

Two embarrased kids:

Happy Easter, everyone!

Celebrations

One of Rose’s best friends, Oliver, had a birthday on Saturday. We had such a lovely afternoon! There was face painting, a bounteous feast and lots of good conversation (for the adults) and running around (for the kids). Rose was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t her birthday. In fact, Oliver’s mum even re-lit his birthday cake so she could blow out the candle too. But to be fair she was a very good sport about it being his birthday.  When she handed him his present she said, “Happy Birthday Oliver! I hope you have a nice day.” (However, we did practice this speech at home first!) I took some photos at the party, here are two of my favourites:

You see so much of Rose's personality in this photo. She loves to have fun!

I love my beautiful happy family!

So Rose has been enjoying all the birthday parties that have been happening lately, but she was really excited to discover that there was another celebration coming up involving presents: Christmas. We’ve been talking about Santa coming down the fireplace (we have three fireplaces in our house!) and leaving presents for everyone. I went to the library last week and got a whole bunch of books about Christmas out. She knows that Granny Jo is coming over from New Zealand especially for Christmas. And on Sunday Rose and I went into the city to go see the David Jones’s Christmas display, and buy an ornament for the Christmas tree. It’s true that at moments of excitement she gets a bit muddled about the details (“Look! There’s Santa Christmas and his cow!”) and when I asked her the other day who was going to come down the chimney on Christmas Eve she said, “Granny Jo!”

The other interesting thing is that even though she loves opening presents, she doesn’t seem all that interested in the presents themselves. When I asked her the other day what she wanted Santa to bring her she said, “chocolate crackles.” Heh, heh, a girl after my own heart.

Socratic questioning

When Rose wants to tell you something she prefers to do it in the context of a question and answer. She’s developed this complicated way of asking you a question that she actually wants you to ask her. It goes something like this:

Rose: Is it yummy?

Me: Is it yummy?

Rose: Yes!

She also uses it to indicate what she wants to do. Such as:

Rose, obviously bored: What park do you want to go to Rosie?

[Pause]

Rose: ROSE! What park do you want to go to!

Me, sighing: Rose, what park do you want to go to?

Rose, grabbing her things: Camperdown Park!

It’s kinda cute. Very smart. And a little odd.

And speaking of cute, smart and odd, I got her all dressed up for her day care photo today. Here she is wearing the party dress I made her. Damn it if you don’t just want to reach out and grab her little cheeks.

New photos

I just uploaded some new photos to our online album. Here’s a few of my favourites:

Rose in her bumblebee costume for Halloween (I made the tutu). How funny that her friend Percy came dressed as the same thing!

We visited our friends Paul and Petra the other week in their new house. Rose found her way in to Percy's bed. You can see from their expressions what fun they were having!

Isn't she the most adorable baby EVER?

Beau, Julia and I working our way through an incredible spread in the Megalong Valley tea rooms

 

Down the back of the chair

Me: Rose, look what I just found down the back of the chair! Your soft toy echidna*!

Rose: Yay!

Me: What do you think he was doing back there? Taking a nap?

Rose: No, he was having a time out.

(*I know what you’re thinking. Who has a toy echidna? We got it when we signed up for a yearly pass to the Australian Museum and you know what it’s like – hard to throw stuff away, even free stuff. But now that I reflect on it we also have a soft toy skunk, soft toy turtle, a soft toy Jeremy Fisher, and a soft toy duck. So I guess we are actually soft toy echidna people.)

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I know you’re all dying to know about the Melbourne visit, but life will have to become a little less hectic in order for me to get some time at the computer. So yeah, maybe 2010? In the meantime, I’ve uploaded some photos. You can see how much fun we had!

First Day of Glasses

Fire Truck! Fire Truck! Fire Truck!

Rose and her mate Percy had a play date this morning. We had brunch then adjointed to the park over the road to play some more. But holy moly, there was a fire truck parked right near the park, and all the firefighters were sitting around outside having coffee. Percy and Rose got to sit in the drivers seat! Rose even fiddled with the radio, naughty monkey. Anyway, big thrills for the girls.

Also, Tess has been rolling for a few weeks. She obsessively rolls whenever you put her down, even when she doesn’t want to be on her tummy. I remember Rose going through the exact same phase! Here’s a little video of her rolling:

Kidpartied out

After two parties (parents group party, own birthday party), one birthday day, and one birthday day (0bserved) I formally declare Rose’s second birthday party season…. OVER.

I am kidpartied out. No more compiling party favours, no more hastily running to the shops for one last thing, no more blowing up balloons. Sure, it’s been fun. Lots of fun. We loved loved loved the trip to the zoo on Friday (birthday, observed). She discovered a whole new vocabulary – Kangaroos! Zebras! Monkeys! Brolgas! Best of all she loved the seal show (oww oww oww, she’s been mimicking ever since.)

Her party on Sunday, a joint party with her mate Joe, went very well. We set up camp at a local park and the kids loved running around playing on slides and swings as much as they loved blowing in little party trumpets and eating cake. She had such a good time that this morning when we set out for play group she said “Party?” hopefully. How will she cope with it not being her birthday any more?

(See that glazed expression on Rose’s face? Too much kidpartying.)

Oh, and in case I don’t get the time to blog about this later: we’ve just switched to go off daylight savings. Can I just say what a CRUEL joke switching times around is for families with young children. I know the world doesn’t revolve around me, but I gotta vent about the craptacular day I’ve had looking after two very tired chicklets who keep falling asleep at strange times yet not sleeping at others. We are all cranky!