Matter of Fact

Today was the last day of February. The last day of summer (if that's what you call the season we've just had)…where does the time go? Just a rambling thought. Rather pointless.

Moving on.

Have I already mentioned how well Byron is doing this year at Kindy? I think I have, but if you missed it – he is doing splendidly. His teachers are so impressed with him. He's working hard, trying hard and behaving for the most part. Plus, he is the ‘leader’ in the class.

Today he had to do a presentation on a little project he did – such project took his mother (with his help of course) 4 weeks to complete due to poor time management and alternate engagements. What matters is it got done *cough cough*. The project included sheets of paper with photos and stories about his family.

He explained, in front of his class; how I swam with dolphins, how he loves Lily; how he plays cricket with his dad; and how much he loves chocolate paddle pops. After his talk he opened up the floor to his peers and answered some questions, which, so I’m told is when the fun began.

Apparently, he was asked a couple of questions, which he so adeptly answered. Next, one of his little classmates piped up and started talking about the piklets he had eaten the day before. Byron’s response to this was to tell the little boy that “I didn’t eat piklets. That has nothing to do with my talk so I’m not going to answer it”.

OK.

It didn’t end there. He was asked another question, which he so promptly answered however, when another classmate piped up, this time asking exactly the same question as one of his peers Byron responded with “I have already answered that question – I’m not going to waste my time answering it again”. Following which, he went on to answer another question.

His teacher advised that they could barely hold back the laughter it was a site to see. It was so matter of fact and well beyond his years to even contemplate such responses.

That’s the thing with Byron, he is (and has) constantly come out with words, sayings and ‘stuff’ beyond his years.

It was funny to read the end of summary report of the class' day – “Byron did his talk today and provided a very interesting question time”.

Love it!

One and a half already.

I warned you she was nearly there. I knew it was coming but still I can’t believe it. My toddler (there I said it again) is eighteen months old today. I can scarcely believe it has been one whole year plus half of another since she entered my world; a world that will never ever be the same without her in it.

Lily is ‘our’ world (along with Byron of course). She lights up ‘our’ life a million times a day.

Her persona is oh so cheeky.

Her nature is endearing.

Her voice is delightful.

Her smile is gorgeous.

Her eyes are enchanting.

Her skin is perfection.

Her hair is golden.

Her lips are so kissable.

Her bottom is eatable.

Her ‘tuddles’ are unsurpassed.

She is Lily, my daughter – my very own daughter!

According to Bryon, “she is my best friend” (melt my heart kinda stuff that is).

She is so much apart of this family it’s scary. Is it possible to love someone so much, as much as I love my Lily (and my Byron too)? I never knew my heart could feel as full as it does.

Eighteen months is such a delightful age. It is full of never ending discovery for her and for us. My Pilly Pie continues to astound us with her language skills. She is learning oh so much and at a rate of knots. Her new words include: door, monkey, car, truck, cup, water, chair, book, story, night night, please and my favourite ‘naughty Lily’. There are more words but my mind draws a blank (I should write them down as I hear her say them).

She loves to play with the ball outside, often standing there, at the door, ball in hand waiting to escape. I’m told (because we don’t do it at home) that she is at her happiest at kindy with a paint brush in her hand – perhaps an artist?

She loves her ‘blankie’ and dummy ever so much (I think that will be a painful separation for all). She loves her ‘bottle’ for bed which is full of toddler formula – we can not get this child to drink cows’ milk although she has it fine on her cereal in the morning. She loves shoes. She is at her happiest with shoes on her feet – it doesn’t matter whose they are.

Lily has a determined personality. If she wants it she will try her best to get it. She can chuck a great tantrum whilst lying face down on the floor. Her worst trait of late is clenching her fist as if to punch you when she doesn’t get her own way (and some times she tries…yes she IS capable of nastiness).

My favourite thing of all is when she stands at my legs, arms outstretched whilst saying ‘Tuddles. Tuddles’. It melts my heart (and her daddy’s) every time!

Lily is sugar and spice and all things nice – pure joy!

You guessed it...more photos!

Miss S is the last of my photos from the session I had last weekend.

She is delightful. Check out her smile and that dimple! Let’s not forget her eyes…she has the most amazing eyes. Just beautiful.

Miss E loves sharing the love (again)...

Snap Happy

And so it continues...This is Master C. He’s such a darling little man. So cute! I was really happy with the end result of his pictures. They captured so much of his personality which, at the end of the day, is all I hope to achieve (aside from a technically correct ‘exposure’).

So for some more pictures (I hope you don't tire of seeing them...there are plenty more to come).

This is my absolute favourite...It makes me smile everytime I see it.

And just because it's the sweetest little capture...

Productive Day

I think I might have neglected to mention that I’m having a week off this week, as is Trevor.

We’re not going anywhere special (we wouldn’t be so lucky as to get away). It’s basically time off to get things for the house in order because lets face it, dragging the kids out and about to tile and carpet shops is joy fun. On the contrary it really is a painful experience... Muuuuuuuummmm, can we go now?"; "Muuuuuuuuum, can we have lunch"; "Muuuuuuuum...". In addition, we are flat out trying to find the time when we both work fulltime, have swimming one day and bla bla bla (you get the drift).

Today was a very successful day. We managed to sort the blinds, pick out the tiles and carpet, organise the driveway and rendering, pick out one lounge suite and our bedroom setting all in the one day. It was a dream day...and all because it was childless (does that make me a mean mummy?).

First up for the day was my hair – the most important thing of course…I had my roots done and a bit of trim.

Next, I organised the blinds. A lady came out to the house, measured up and we discussed designs, styles and the colours we wanted. On the front windows (the six at the front) we are getting wooden shutters built into the windows. In the three bedrooms we are getting venitians (birch for Byron, white for Lily and timber for the spare room). For the laundry and garage we are getting verticals. The main living area and our bedroom are having roller blinds that sit above the sliding doors. I’m really happy with the colour selections, especially for the main bedroom - but if you asked me now what type of colour it was I couldn’t describe it – will save it for pictures).

Following windows, we did the floors. We have picked ‘Shima white’ 45x45cm tiles for the living areas of the house. They are a flatter white tile with a tiny black/dark fleck (barely noticeable) and in some lights it looks a tiny bit glittery –hmmm they sound rather strange huh? Really they are quite nice. For the alfresco, we decided on a brownie coloured external tile (40x40cm). We are having that same tile on the front portico and then, using the internal version, we are going to do a feature in the entrance way. Fingers crossed it all works and flows well. Time will tell I guess.

For carpet we are going a capstone carpet called Millflower with a check square patten – not too busy though…less pattern and more plain carpet if that makes sense. The colour is of the latte family – not dark but not too light.

It’s so hard to describe all these colours…it probably sounds like my house will be a rainbow. I can assure you that isn’t our desired effect.

After we had sorted all the floor coverings, we thought we would have a look at some furniture shops knowing that it takes a fair while for stock to generally come in (something we have a little bit of at the moment). How excitied were we when we found the perfect lounge for the family area on clearance - just one left!!! The lounge was perfect because it wasn’t too big – we were after something on the smaller side for the family room. It’s chocolate brown with a chaise on the right. We also managed to order our bedroom set. A king bed (I can only dream of my first night sleep in that), two side tables and two tall boys and a mirror. They are called the Kimino (although the bed is an 'Andrea') and are very dark brown - again I'm hopeless with colour description...sorry 'bout that.

So as you can see, today was a very productive day.

Now all we need do is pull our little ‘butts’ into gear and get this current place ready for sale – I wish this damn rain would stop so we could get out into the yard where our attention is so desperately needed.

My Aspirations

If you hadn’t already noticed I love taking pictures at the moment. More so, I love taking pictures of other kids…it’s so much fun – a lot of work and effort; but fun all the same. I’m relishing all the practice I’m getting, because obviously, it goes without saying really the more practice I get the better I become.

I like to think I’m improving. I have only had my camera for around 7 weeks but I look back on photos I took at the beginning and think I have improved so much. I’m getting better. I’m learning new things everyday. Today I learned something in photoshop about colour profiles, how my photos appear on screen and on web (a little flat I have noticed on the web). That was a big discovery and a discovery that I’m glad I made now! There are discoveries every day. It really is an exciting journey.

I have been rather blasé about my goals and hopes for my photography. I do have hopes its just I’ve kept them rather close to my chest. If truth be told, I have decided that when the time is right, I would really like to start my own business. It’s funny really…starting one's on business is a scary proposition but yet it’s not one that I'm afraid of. I’m not afraid of failure. I’m not afraid that I won't have what it takes. It’s a journey I really want to take. In some ways, it’s a journey I have to take. Its an insticnt; a feeling...call it what you will. I *know* I will get there one day in the not to distant future!

So, there you have it…my hopes, dreams and aspirations out there for all to see.

Just for my dad (who think I post way to many photos)…here are some more from Miss E. She is such a stunning little toddler I just had to post some more.

Old World Charm

It’s far too late.

I have spent far too long on the computer proofing all the gorgeous photos I had the opportunity to take today - too many hours to note.

I just couldn’t go to bed without popping my most favourite photos of Miss E in my blog. She is a gorgeous little thing (19 months) with hair more beautiful then Shirley Temples. It was fitting then, that some of the pictures I took of her were screaming for the old world feel and that is exactly what they got. A little bit of vintage and texture!

I just love them (can I say that without having ‘tickets on myself’?).

(She is walking on air in this one - I caught her mid flight!)

(This one would have been my favourite but for the focus falling on the bear and not her eyes - I still think it's gorgeous though)

(This is my favourite!)

I have a ton more photos of her! She was just so photogenic. I will save those for another day (not to mention the photos of Miss S and Master C – photos coming out everywhere!)

Summer Days

It was hot today. 36 degrees I’m led to believe. It’s about bloody time we had a hot day it being summer in Queensland and all (albeit the last week of summer). It seems like years since we have had any days like today. I had forgotten what it’s like to feel the heat. It felt good.

We did lots of summer things aside from just sitting in the air-conditioning. I filled up the kids wading pool and they had a blast playing in that for a while. Lily decided to mow the grass in the nude following which she tried to put the mower in the pool – I have pictures but she’s a nudey rudey so might leave those for her 21st.

This afternoon we took the kids and the wagon and headed out for some ice cream. In my hast to get out the door I forgot to bring a bib for Lily and some baby wipes! Kids, ice cream and summer don’t go to well together. Lucky for me Lily was in an ‘old’ dress (size 0). Their chocolate paddle pops went every where. Lily persisted in holding the ice cream itself and not the stick. Needless to say, that accompanied with the heat sent the ice-cream running everywhere.

I though Byron could handle the paddle pop a bit better then Lily but alas he was just as bad. He couldn’t lick it quickly enough.

Oh well…nothing the washing won’t fix. Guess I better go and put a load on *groan*.

Proud as Punch!

Back in January we headed to a birthday party for one of Byron’s little kindy friends. I wrapped the present and as usual got Byron to draw in the card. This time though, I asked him to write his name. It was a mission – there were tantrums and performances over the fact we wouldn’t write his name for him. We offered to help but that wasn’t good enough. It was “I can’t this” and “I can’t that”. It was a most frustrating experience. In the end I think we gave up and wrote most of it ourselves.

Similarly, last year at kindy Byron started off a treat with his Montessori activities – he was keen as could be. However, that keenness soon waned and Byron lost interest. He wouldn’t practice his letters. His attention span was terrible and I started to worry that Byron, who is naturally quite intelligent, would waste his abilities. The year went on and he didn’t really improve much.

This year however is a whole other story. We changed kindy rooms (because he and his little girl friend with whom he has a love hate relationship were causing many distractions for each other and other children and needed to be separated) and it seems to have made the world of difference.

Today when I got home from work, there Byron was on the floor practicing his letters and words. Trevor said he had been doing it since he got home.

“Te Te Te”…”Aa Aa Aa”…”Da Da Da” (LeapFrog character if you didn’t know)

He was sounding out all the letters to heaps of words like 'cat', 'top', 'tad' and even 'Lily'. He was concentrating just so.

It seems to have clicked – the phonics aspect of learning words. I’m so proud of him.

Best of all though, he has learnt to write his own name. My little guy can spell and write his own name.

I’m so chuffed!

My Blue Eyed Wonder

I just wanted to share a picture (yes more pictures - better get used to it!) of Byron. It's a picture that I'm really happy with, although it might not be everyone's cup of tea. I love the processing on this shot (which was intentional). I love that you get a sense of his soul. Byron has eyes that are breath taking…amazing! I think this picture captured them perfectly.

My blue eyed wonder…that’s Byron!

What's happening with the house?

There's not a lot happening with the house this week – typically huh!? They did the plastering and cornices early this week but that’s it I’m afraid. It looks like that's all they'll do for the next week or so. Next is lock up stage…attaching the garage and putting a lock on the front door. The supervisor advised that they’ll do that next week some time…probably late next week! So the house will sit for a while now before the next stage (which is frustrating to say the least).

It will suck a little though when it gets ‘locked up’ because we won’t be able to access the house unless someone is there, which means I will hardly get to see the progress seeing as how I work every day! Trevor will be able to catch them most days though which is good – at least he can take photos (so I have something to look at) and check that things are on track.

So for this week all I have to show is finished plastering!

TA-TA Babyhood!

It’s official! My little baby is no longer a baby. She has moved out of the babies’ room at kindy and made her self right at home in the toddlers’ room. In fact, you would never know she just left the sanctuary of the babies room, the transition was so easy. No more cot to sleep in…it’s the mat on the floor like the big kids!

*sob* *sob*

The last bit of babyhood is fading fast. To top it all off, and to seal the deal to toddler hood, Lily reaches that big 18 month mile stone next week – read: ONE and a HALF! I know I have said it a million times already but, where does the time go? It’s as if one blinks and a year has passed.

I get all melancholy as my babies move out of babyhood. I remember having the same feelings when Byron graduated. Don’t get me wrong, I embrace the next stage but it’s sad to say good bye to such a special time – number three won’t be moving from babyhood to toddler hood until its three...I don't know how I will manage knowing it's the last time!

Speaking of embracing the next stage, I’m so in love with my ‘toddler’ (there, I said it!). She is magical. She is adorable. She is sweet. She is endearing. She is loveable and best of all…she is mine! What more could a mother ask for!?

(She persists in wearing EVERYONES' shoes...these are daddy's know defunct thongs on back the front!)

Pondering ones luck...

I am home alone tonight; was last night and today, Trevor, being the Roar fanatic that he is, headed via bus with all the supporters in toe to watch the Roar play in Newcastle this afternoon. Well, they lost. Lucky he has 12 hours to ponder the loss on his trip home and lucky I will be at work when he returns.

Moving on…

Today I headed to a Christening and roped my sister into coming along for support - I was a little bit frightened at the prospect of managing the two kids in Church without an extra pair of hands. As it turns out the kids weren’t too bad at all and I could have managed on my own but never the less it was nice to have some company.

As always, when the opportunity arises, the camera was to hand. There was a beautiful tree outside the Church and I took the opportunity to snap a few shots around it.

These pictures of my children are tantamount to their relationship – they capture the beauty that is Bryon and Lily; brother and sister. Byron is an affectionate child – he loves Lily with all his heart and it shows. He has many terms of endearment for her including, darlin’, Lil and sweetie. He cares for her just so, and it is evident in the way he pats her hair affectionately as he walks past (often knocking out the clips in her hair – Argh!) or pulls her in for cuddles when he can or the way he helps her with her toys when she just can’t get it. He reads stories to her; protects her and generally watches out for her safety.

I love watching their relationship grow. It was the thing I most looked forward to seeing when I found out I was pregnant with number two. It is truly one of the greatest blessings in having more then one child – watching the way they interact with each other. Sure there are not so nice times like when Byron refuses to let her play with the ball SHE got for Christmas or when she wrecks some master piece he has made with the blocks. Overall though, there is far more affection then not – though for how long I don’t know.

I am truly lucky to have been blessed with the children I have…I truly am! I was pondering that as I processed the picture of Byron kissing Lily's head. I didn't need to ponder for long to realise just how lucky I am. I am the luckiest girl living!

For a laugh (because I know you all will)…here is an outtake of a picture of me trying to get a nice photo with the kids! As you can see, it just wasn’t happening. Oh well…one day!?

Why does my sister always get the good shots with the kids?! I must be doing something wrong.

The story behind the bricks...

Who would have thought that one week would bring so much change to our house? Who would have thought our house would have been bricked and walled in one week when the previous week was looking so glum? I certainly did not!

As of today we have plastered walls and a fully bricked house – yes, a FULLY BRICKED HOUSE! There is a little story behind the bricks that is worth mentioning. A dear friend’s husband from my mothers’ group is a brick layer. He isn’t sub-contracted to our builder but he does do a lot of work for other big builders. Anyway, I was mentioning to her less then two weeks ago that with all this rain it was not looking as though our house would be bricked anytime soon. I advised her that the brick layers were way behind. She mentioned that her husband was 2-3 houses behind too.

Anyway, the next night she rang me and she said that she had been telling her husband, Dan, about our house, and well, he offered to brick our house. I wasn’t sure how that would work because obviously our builder had lined up a sub contractor to do our house. I thought it would be worth a shot though, to maybe see if we could get Dan to do our house. So with some gusto, the next day I telephoned our builder and put it to him. At first he wasn’t to keen saying that he had sub-contractors lined up who were relying on the work. I spun the whole argument that if it were true, as he had noted previously, that his brickies were as far behind as he was alleging then I was in affect reducing his work load – freeing some room for another house. It took a little while but he finally came around and I said I would have Dan give him a call.

Dan agreed to the builder's terms of payment even though the money wasn’t the best. He was doing it because it was us (which is very sweet) and within two days he and his boys were at our site and had bricked the base of our house. That was last Saturday and one week later, they had finished. In all I think it took only two and half days (Saturday, Thursday and Friday) to brick. Not bad. Admittedly, the job wasn’t as tricky as other brick jobs because it was double height bricks and a brick job for a rendered finish (so no raking the mortar or anything like that).

The house has really transformed over the last week – so much so it feels like ages since we had a frame and a roof. It is some what deceptive really. That is, the speed of noticeable change is not really relative to when we might move in. I mean…even though it looks like it is sailing by at the rate of knots there is still so much left to do, or so I have been told.

They are supposed to sand the plaster back next week and pop up the cornices. I imagine that the garage door will go on in the next week or so and the house will reach lock up stage. I am really looking forward to that but it also means no visits by us. We can’t access the house at any time when it reaches lock up stage - only when the builders are there. We won’t have the keys until hand over.

Speaking of handover, the scheduled contract date for completion is 22 May 2008 (the day before my 30th birthday). I can’t get my head around the fact that they allege it will take some 14 weeks to finish the house off but unfortunately the builders are so vague in this department that all they say is that we should rely on the contract date. Surely, it won't take that long?! Trevor and I have set a little bet (although there is no prize) as to when the house will be finished (hand over). He says April 13 and I say Anzac Day – what do you reckon? I guess we will see.

Saturday, 9 February 2008

Thursday, 14 February 2008

Friday, 15 February 2008