Oh dear...MissE is saying the darndest things again! This time, though, she keeps repeating it! I wonder if she's doing it on purpose?
What's she getting at?
MissE likes to know how we are related. For example, after we spend time with her cousins, she asks who her cousins are. She then asks who Uncle R is, as in he is daddy's brother. We spend a few minutes going through all the people she can think of at the moment: Auntie C is daddy's sister. Yi-mah is mama's sister. Then she likes to confirm that she is Mr.E's sister and he is her brother. That's okay. BUT now she asks me repeatedly why she doesn't have a sister!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I posed this question to myself over a year ago and now it's a question we ask Eloise as she is learning professions.
MissE: When I get bigger I want to be... an OCTOPUS!
Mr.H: How come?
MissE: Because I have 8 arms/ legs
Mr.H: And?
MissE: So I can play with LOTS of things!
She's a bit of a chip off the 'ole block with wanting to multi-task!
The dog ate it.
Is this a sign of excuses to come? For her birthday, MissE received a few Hello Kitty play sets. She loves playing with them but one day she was very upset. She said she couldn't find her Dr. Hello Kitty. So I looked and looked and couldn't find it. I asked her where she was playing with it last (sometimes she moves her toys around to different rooms). MissE thought about it then said "Sabi ate it". Are you sure??? I am thinking in my head "Well, it is small enough for her to eat... but she doesn't usually go for Eloise's toys unless it is a ball..." I asked MissE what happened. She replied "It was on the floor, there (went and pointed to where it was). Sabi picked it up with her mouth and ate it". I wasn't sure but I kept my eye on Sabi at toilet time and nothing. It still hadn't turned up a few days later so I asked MissE again and again I got the same answer "Sabi ate it". After a few more days and a particularly rainy day producing a ransacked play room, I was helping her cleaning up her toys and what do we find? Dr. Hello Kitty! I asked her if Sabi ate it and she smiled very sweetly and said "no".
New Daddy
Mr.H took MissE to the hardware store on the weekend (a bit of a regular thing they do together). When they returned, Mr.H said that MissE wanted to go to the shops to buy something.
Me: What do you want to get at the shops?
MissE: A new daddy
Me: How come?
MissE: I want a new daddy that doesn't yell.
Me: And where do you get a new daddy?
MissE: At the shops with the fruit and veg.
I got onto Facebook right away to let my single friends know!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
It's was one of my favourite books growing up is also one of MissE's. She likes to "read" this book (read= remember the words). If she can't remember the words then she ad-libs. One day she was reading this when I was changing Mr.E. She couldn't remember the word "cocoon" so she said what it looked like:
"The caterpillar gets bigger and bigger until it turns into a croissant". Boy, she makes me laugh!
Mr.E is 7 months
Eden now weighs 19 lbs and 9 oz (or 9kg). I can no longer pin him down to measure his length. In fact, pinning him down to take a photo with his month is hard too! He rips it off immediately and eats it!
Time is seriously flying! I can't believe he's 7 months... and with that came the start of swim lessons!
MissE swims on Monday and I only decided to start Mr.E because during MissE's lesson, his eyes were glued to the pool! He's been in the pool a few times already and has submerged too so I wasn't concerned at all. He is in a class of all boys, and they are all older than him (approximately 1). He does what he can with no complaints and even kicked on his own a bit.
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| Ready for swimming |
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| Paddle kicks |
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| Submerge |
In the following swim lessons, he started to play with the water by splashing his hands, he reaches for a toy when we work on "paddle kicks" and tries to put his face in the water. He also loves "Ring Around the Rosie" and falling in from the mat. (I enjoy the 2 hour plus post-swim nap!)
Mr.E is now a master at sitting by himself (no more falling over as soon as he turns his head!). He loves being on his tummy. Mr.E thinks he can crawl! From sitting position, if he sees something he wants he goes for it, usually landing on his face. And while he kicks his legs to gain some momentum, it doesn't look like he will be crawling any time soon. But he is very good at turning circles. It's been so nice having Mr.E take his time to hit these milestones!
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| Playing cars together |
He still loves his solids, and is now gobbling up meat. He loves gumming on crackers, teething rusks and bread. We are still waiting for the arrival of Mr.E's teeth. They have been threatening to arrive for a few weeks now; he is often seen rubbing his teeth on the tray of his highchair. His nurse suggested he wear an amber teething necklace (back to eBay). The baltic amber is said to have analgesic properties and when warmed through body heat, it acts as a natural form of relief.
Mr.E favourite friend is Sabi. He loves watching Sabi, especially while he is eating. If she is outside, we have no chance of feeding him unless we turn the high chair to the window. Sabi, being a typical Labrador, is so gentle with him and doesn't mind his sometimes rough pats.
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| Sabi and Mr.E |
A very short update on the bottle refusal: he's still refusing it. At what point do I just give up???
Splish Splash We Were Taking a Bath
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| The Two E's first bath together |
A Bob for MissE
Time for another haircut...
When MissE needs to shake her head to see properly, it's time for a haircut! Again we went back to the Kidzone as MissE really enjoyed her last experience. She chose the "boy" motorcycle this time and talked Melanie's ear off. She made-up a story that she was riding her motorcycle to the shops to buy a new dress to wear to the beach and so on (I stopped listening).
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| Before |
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| After |
Again, she was rewarded with a lollipop, sticker and a balloon for sitting still.
Not so Terrific Three's
One month into 3 and boy have we had our hands full with MissE. I was just thinking that she hasn't had a timeout since before Christmas and this past week, it's nearly a daily occurrence. Mostly it's for not listening (we sound like a broken record) and a few times she just needed to go somewhere to calm down (she got very frustrated while doing a puzzle one day that she threw the puzzle pieces at me then herself on the ground).
Then the Contact Disaster of 2012. MissE was in my room. Sometimes she asks to nap in my room which I allow because heck, she's sleeping. I usually catch up on Facebook, emails and Pinterest at my desk located in our study nook near our bedroom door. I could hear her from my desk although she said nothing. I walked in and noticed the child-locked drawer on the bed stand open and MissE covered in a thin layer of grease. I asked her what she was doing and she said she her lips hurt but she put everything away. I walked closer and noticed that everything from our bed stands were moved into the drawer. As I took items out of the drawer I noticed she had gotten a hold of my boxes of spare contacts (I had just put a new order in the day before as I was running very low and put the boxes in the locked drawer). Then I see that the contacts had been opened and instead of the contact was a glob of Vaseline. This is the point where steam started to come out of my ears. Eloise was put straight in her room so I could take a few minutes to count backwards and think happy thoughts.
The end: MissE isn't allowed in our room without us and she probably won't touch my things without asking for a while. Contacts are on the way and in the meantime, I am getting use out of my glasses.
Putney Park
As I said before, this has not been a typical Australian summer for us Sydney-siders. We've had the coldest start to summer in 51 years, the longest February stretch below 25c since the 1950's, and recently went from the hottest summer night with a low of 25c in 18 years to 18c and raining the next day! So if the sun is out, we don't walk but run to the park and or beach.
After swimming one day, the sun was shining so we checked out Putney Park which a few of my mummy friends have been raving about. It definitely lived up to the hype!
It's in a gorgeous spot, overlooking Kissing Point Bay and a few sail boats. At the mid-level there is a huge tunnel slide (MissE was not brave enough) and a water play area which MissE enjoyed very much.
A few steps down towards the Bay is a large sand pit with a climbing structure, a toddler play area with a small slide, all surrounded by grassed picnic area. MissE made sand angels while Eden watched the birds (seagulls).
We watched the boats while we had a picnic lunch in which Eloise looked and me and very thoughtfully said "It sure is a beautiful day". Both were fast asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot!
Rouse Hill Town Centre
On another sunny day, we spent a few hours shopping at a nearby outdoor shopping centre. It has both a large gated play area and water fountains.
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| That's one way to cool off! |
* Note to self: Next time be prepared and put MissE in a swim suit!
Ikea
I love Ikea. And I love Ikea even more now. Each year we buy a 6 pack of drinking glasses for a few dollar and it never fails that within the year we only have 1-2 remaining and I know we are due for an Ikea trip. One rainy Thursday, I bit the bullet and put the Two E's in the car, hoping it wouldn't be too busy there. It wasn't! I dropped MissE into Smaland for the first time (another benefit of being potty trained) and she couldn't get rid of me soon enough. She ran straight in with barely a second glance at me and didn't even let me tell her I would be long. Ahh, no mommy guilt! Mr.E and I leisurely browsed Ikea in peace and quiet. I peeked on MissE once and she was happy as a clam.
After the fastest hour of my life, I picked up MissE and we all headed to the cafe for meatballs. Funnily, MissE picked our table and when I looked up I saw 2 of her daycare teachers waving at us!
Dee Why Beach
It was a beautiful Sunday morning so we spent a few hours at Dee Why Beach breaking in the beach tent MissE got for her birthday (first opportunity to use it!) The Two E's enjoyed playing in the sand (Mr.E eating it) and MissE went for a dip in the water.
We made it home just in time before thunderstorms hit.
Godparents (again!)
Mr.H and I had the pleasure of being named godparents to our nephew (C). We are also godparents to his big sister (H). We of course are delighted with the honour!
Eaton Photography
Today we had a photo shoot with Fiona of Eaton Photography. I didn't want to miss those gorgeous baby shots of Eden as a baby so as soon as he was sitting we made time for some photos. Fiona did Eloise's one year old photos and we loved them so it was an easy choice to ask her back again. We are looking forward to our sneak peek next week.
Here are some of the photos from MissE at 1:
Until next time...
P.S. Check out my February Photo a Day Challenge posts... My favourite: Day 11, 15, 21
