Painting complete

They finished painting our house today. It’s all done…both the outside and in.

*YAY*

The front door has been painted the same colour (or it was supposed to be the same colour) as the garage door – Jasper – but it's a little dark for my liking. Oh well. It’s just a door I suppose – I can paint it if I don’t learn to love it!

Speaking of love…the kids feature walls came up a treat as did the feature in the media room. I’m pretty happy with the colour of the walls.

In fact, aside from how dark the front door is, I’m pretty happy with all *my* ( I say ‘my’ because lets face it, Trevor had no real input despite my requests for his opinion) choices.

I took Byron to check out his green wall tonight. He loved it. I sneakly have a plan to take the kids down there for a few photos on the wall (i.e backdrops) this weekend. Stay tuned for those.

(Front door jasper)

(Lily's purple mystery)

(Byron's garden party)

(Media's gohanna)

(The rest - ibis white)

The Big 2-0

Yep..she’s hit the big 2-0. Lily is twenty months today. Where has the time gone?

In keeping with my promise, there'll be no more photos for today. I mean, it’s not like you haven’t seen any in a while. I promise, she still looks the same as she did yesterday.

For her big milestone I thought I would concentrate on her communication. If truth be told, I was rather nervous about Lily’s speech or lack there of. Most of my nervousness stems from the fact that I was rather spoilt with Byron and his very adept ability at vocally communicating at such a young age. He was chatting away in 2 word sentences at 12/13 months…and full conversations by two.

Anyway I digress – this entry isn’t about him it’s about Lily.

After a slow start, can I just say, Lily is developing into a right little chatter box. It seems someone flicked a switch in her little ol’ soul and from that moment she was off. Over the last month her speech has developed in leaps and bounds it's mind boggling really. She is a parrot, forever copying everything you say.

She is now talking in 2-3 word sentences. She uses sentences she has learned - i.e parroted - in the right context which goes to show she has some grasp of what she is saying. Her favourites at the moment are:

• “Off we go!”
• “Let’s go”
• “teeth time”
• “Night night”
• “Wub you mummy/daddy” (melts my heart every single time!)
• “Mummy do”
• “Mummy help”
• “Go away!” (What the?)
• “Beep Beep” (When she wants you to move out of her way)

She has well and truly learned how to say Byron or “Bi-won”. She loves running after him calling his name.

She can say so many other words now too. You say them and she tries her hardest to repeat them all. Some newies include plane, helicopter, truck – anyone would think I had a boy – milk, please, car, dress, jacket, socks, clip, yeah, don’t, yoghurt, move and camera (wonder where she picked that one up?).

I also love how she says "pretty" as she daintily pats her tummy when you put a nice dress (or lets face it, any clothes) on her. That stems from me constantly telling how gorgeous and pretty she looks when I dress her all up. I just can't help it!

She went through a stage a little while ago where she just responded NOOOOOO to everything. You asked her a question or to do something and she would say "NOOOO". Just the other day she moved away from that and onto “Yeaahhhh” - yeah this and yeah that. Not YES but YEAH – the kids of today! Go figure.

Like Byron at the same age, she loves nursery rhymes with her favourites being “twinkle, twinkle”, “ba ba” and “row row”. She tries her dandiest to get the hand actions happening in ‘twinkle, twinkle’. She doesn’t usually succeed with forming the diamond in the sky but man she tries which is just so darn cute I can’t help but smile. She nods her little head off in ‘ba ba black sheep’ which is exactly what Byron did too and loves to rock back and forth in‘row, row, row your boat’. I have lots of baths with her and when we do she insists I sing those songs over and over again. She never does tire of them (pity I can’t say the same).

I look at her and think there is no way my baby is 20 months. There is just no way. She can’t be that old. It was only yesterday she was born; just yesterday I was pregnant. Sigh.

This age is seriously priceless though. I’m totally and utterly in love with practically everything she does (except those tantrums – they have got to go!). She has her father wrapped completely around her fingers and her big brother is not far behind him. Whom I kidding? I'm practically wrapped around not just her fingers but those darn cute toes as well.

What’s not to love about Lily?!

Promise...no more of Lily!

You would never think Lily was difficult to photograph given the amount of photos I have taken the last few days. Alas, don't be deceived! She is the most difficult of all subjects. I figure I always get such good ones of Byron it was about time I put some real effort in to trying to get some of Lily. I think I've done ok. I'm pretty happy with the stuff I have captured of her this weekend.

We went to the Coast today to pick up the lights for the house - yippee...one less thing to worry about. While we were down there, we took the kids to the park for a bit of a play. I captured some more of Lily...I promise I'll give it a rest for a while - you're probably getting so sick of seeing them. You can't deny how cute she is though...totally gorgeous and worth all the 'screen time'.

Ok. Ok. I promise I'll lighten up for the week with my Lily pictures.

(Vintage Lily by the water)

Field of Weeds

We went for a trip in the wagon this afternoon. Stupid me took some bubbles along for the ride. It made for a very painful trip. Byron wanted a turn. Lily refused to let them go; spilled them all over the place; and chucked a mighty tantrum to boot.

Speaking of tantrums, Lily really is getting into the habit of throwing a few lately. She is 20 months in a few days. Can you believe it? Only four months until she turns 2 *gasp*. Many of her tantrums stem from the fact she just wants me. She wants me to “tuddle” her all day long…pick her up…carry her around and well, she just hangs off me. It’s getting a bit tiring. Today at swimming she hardly partook in the activities because she wouldn’t let go of me to do so. Yesterday she went with Trevor and she had the prefect lesson!

This afternoon she refused to sit in the wagon, walk or let daddy carry her. I attempted to put her down on the ground but she did that thing with her legs – you know where they just sit them up in mid air, refusing to put them on the ground, and kinda hang there? I just sat her on the cement. Meanwhile, she was screaming the park down. I proceeded to walk off – ok I was at my whits end – she just refused to let go of me and I couldn’t physically carry her anymore. I said “seeya latter Lily…you’ll have to walk”…well…Byron just chucked a fit! He ran up to her and proceeded to say “don’t leave her…it’s ok Lily…I’ll look after you…don’t you ever do that again mummy!”. Well, I could hardly leave her after Bryon’s protective little performance. Alas, I gave in and picked her up and carried her a little bit further.

After a play in the park and some distraction with my water bottle, she managed it sit in the wagon for much of the trip home or at least until we got to the field of weeds.

(Slippery fun)

It’s funny the things I look at nowadays and think “wow that’s so cool’ – like the vacant lot near us that is overgrown with weeds…weeds with flowers (or at least that’s what I like to think). I thought it would be the prefect spot to get myself some shots…of Lily because I could hardly have Byron prancing around in a field of flowers could I? (Well according to all the male influences in his life. Cough. Cough.).

I asked her to smell the flowers…she attempted to eat them. I think she had confusion of the senses.

Here’s Lily in the field of flowers – a.k.a weeds!

(she sorted her senses...so sweet!)

Anzac Day 2008

We didn’t do a lot today. Trevor, Lily and I stayed home but Byron did the Australian thing and went along to the dawn service. He’s been going with Grandma and Poppy now for 3 years. He really looks forward to it. He stayed over at Grandma’s house last night and got up very early with no dramas at all. She dropped him home just after 9am and he talked all about his morning adventure. I really love the tradition he's sharing with his grandparents. I’m sure it’s something he’ll look fondly back on in years to come.

Today I took the opportunity to try my hand at getting some more shots of Lily.

This is what I was confronted with…

(Mummy! NO MORE PHOTOS!)

I managed to get a few others but that had more to do with her distraction on account of her shoe lace and the smarties that Nanna kindly provided, then her willingness to co-operate. Speaking of smarties, I could devote a whole entry to Lily’s obsession with chocolate. Since Easter she’s become rather obsessed. She can spot the ol’ chocolate a mile away… “chocate…chocate” or “egg…egg” (from the Easter days). It’s a battle to try and convince her she wasn’t seeing any chocolate…a banana usually does the trick!

(Note the Smarties)

(She was eating her smarties here too!)

And some of her and Nanna...

About Me

I mentioned a little while back that I have a website. It’s not live – just a work in progress. There really is so much to do with it – all up, by the time I go live, it would have taken months to prepare. Anyway, I had to come up with a spiel ‘about ME’ – something that will tell a prospective client what I’m all about.

Some would say I’m adept with writing. That may be the case to a large extent but when it comes to writing about me I’m hopeless. I knew what I wanted to say but really had no idea how to word it to get the desired feel I was after.

My lovliest friend Karen offered to write it for me. She has such a way with words. Anyway, 10 minutes later she was done and this is what she came up with…

“I'm happy. I'm funky. I'm a wife. I'm a Mum. I'm a sister and daughter. I'm a friend. I like popcorn and ice cream and lollipops, and dancing in the rain. I love lady bugs. I love hangin' with the girls, and I love romantic nights out with my Husband. I love playing dress-ups with my kids. I love fresh, clean sheets and a warm doonah on a cold night. I like sleeping-in...but I love early morning cuddles with my kids even better. I wake up and smell the roses every day. I work, I play, I dream, I love.

I love life.

I'm your normal, everyday girl, who thinks that even the most normal and everyday things can be the most beautiful. Don't-ever-forget the simple things and the memories they create.

Photography is something that gives me so much joy. It enables me to capture life as it happens, and turn it into forever. I love my job, and it's part of why I love my life.

Go on. Love your life...and let me help you remember it...there's so much that should never be forgotten!”

I simple adore what she has written. It was up on my site within minutes.

I really have some special friends. Karen, thanks so much mate. You’ll never know how much your words meant to me. xx

Awwwhhhh...

Byron just told me he loves me “twenty years and back” and “through Heaven and space and back”.

Shucks!

I just love that kid so much. He really knows how to brighten a day that was otherwise glum.

One from a month or so ago that I'm sure will make you smile...

(...love the undone fly - such a boy thing! He's just like his dad.)

And just because I can post as many photos as I want...

(I loved his pose in these photos that I thought I had to make one black and white...he is such a cherub. What will I do when he grows big?!)

I just can't bloody well help myself, so here's another. I just love him 100 years and back...

Colour My Walls

The painters are at the house as we speak painting their little hearts out - or at least they better be - they were this morning when I dropped by on my way to work. If all goes to plan, the house should be painted by Monday/Tuesday next week which is rather exciting. After they’re done, the tiler will come in and do the main floor areas. After that – it’s a chain of events – the sparky will do his thing following which they’ll finish off the house and well…we should be in. They really only have 5 weeks to complete the house with contract date being 22 May (have I mentioned that's the day before my 30th birthday?). I’m crossing my fingers that they’ll take no longer then 3 weeks but that’s probably wishful thinking huh?!

While I remember, we selected ‘Ibis White’ as the wall colour, ‘Gohanna’ (taupey colour) as a feature in the media room and for the kids I have selected ‘Garden Party’ (green/lime) for Byron and ‘Purple Mystery’ (i.e purple) for Lily’s room (as feature walls). Fingers crossed it all flows nicely. Hopefully I’ll be able to update with some pictures next week.

Look what happens…

…when you give your four year old your very expensive camera in the hope that he might get a snap of you and your husband together...

You get, a million (ok not exactly) shots of the same 'frame'...terrible focus issues and not to mention in camera crops that are all wrong!

Somehow though, it all worked and I LOVE the end result!

Trevor and I were cracking up at the site of Byron with the big 30D to his face (it was as big as his head - wish I had a camera to take a pic of that - should have whipped out the Fisher Price camera), strap round his neck and snapping away like he was some pro - priceless. These photos will always be precious because of the memory behind the laughter. I’m going to get it on canvas and put it above the bed !

And a couple of others from today (it was all about me - I was trying so hard to get a good shot for my invitations but alas out of the 100 Trevor took I hate them all! Arggh! What to do?).

Anyway, Lily hasn't been the best the last few days. She has had some high temps so I'll be watching closely to make sure she doesn't have a UTI. Poor little mite!

Doesn't he just look so angelic? If only the camera could capture the truth. Angelic he is not!

Toilet, Taps & Dolphin (for good measure).

The plumbers were in force today. I dropped by on my way to (and on my way home from) Seaworld (for a team building day) to see whether anything was being done and to get a better look at the house render paint. There was someone there…I could hear the music….but I couldn’t see them. I helped myself to a looksie but thought I better not be rude and introduce myself. From under the kitchen bench popped a plumber and a gorgeous one at that. I swear though he would have been no older then 22 but geepers he was a hottie (he he he I told Trevor that too)!

Enough about the plumber and more about the taps. Well, we have taps and toilets now. I’m not sure if there is much more I can add. Oh…we have down pipes too. We didn’t get anything fancy tap wise – except for our ‘rain head’ for the shower which we are yet to purchase, other then that, everything is pretty much stock standard or there abouts.







Moving on…Today would have had to be the worst day to visit a fun park. It was windy and rainy and damn cold. I shouldn’t really complain though – ummm going to work in city or seeing pretty dolphins swim around. Hmm it’s not rocket science to figure out which one I preferred. Seaworld wasn’t my first choice – I picked Movieworld but alas was out numbered. You might recall we had a season past when I was pregnant with Lily. I thought I had seen it all. Funny thing is though; we never really saw any of the shows when we went along with Byron. Looking back now I don’t know why – I guess we just got side tracked with the rides and generally wandered around. There was never any pressure to see it all in the one day because we could go back when we wanted…it’s a pity we never got back there to see the shows.

Today though, I saw plenty of shows - the dolphins, the seals and the 4D spectacular. They were enjoyable to watch and best of all – undercover from the rain. In between showers I managed a couple of rides!

(I was proud of this snap shot - that water is so divine!)

Dolphins are just the sweetest, most serene creatures ever. Seeing them rekindled the joy of my little swim with them last year – it was so lovely. Sigh. I wish I could do it again.

Not a bad choice

When I rounded the corner to see the verdict on my colour selection a few days prior I was rather nervous at what it might look like seeing as though it was a spur of the moment decision – not a lot of foresight. Well, I nearly died when I saw the house - It looked pink. My first thought was “what the hell have I done!”. Even though I knew it was the effect of the late evening sun reflecting off the paint work, I still couldn’t get past it – After all, I was standing in front of a salmon coloured house.

After walking around the back and sides (that weren’t as pink) I decided it looked ok. Trevor was happy. I mean, we weren’t jumping out of our skin with our superb colour choice but we weren’t crying either.

I went back today for a better look (evening light isn't the best for first impressions). Overall I’m pretty happy with the choice. They have a few finishes touches to do on the front but they’ll do that later. Once the door get's painted (the same colour as the roof and garage door) it will look more 'complete' I'm sure.

So how did I go? (Admittedly a photograph just doesn’t do it justice).

It's as light as we desired so I'm happy about that.

Decisions Decisions

The painter rang this afternoon, spare of the moment actually. Apparently they can squeeze us in tomorrow and the next day to paint the render finish. Trouble is, we hadn’t yet decided what colour we wanted to paint it. Trevor told him to call back this evening because he wasn’t sure what colour I had in mind – he he he I wear the colour pants in this house.

Anyway, I spent close to two hours going over the colour charts deciding what colour we should go. That’s one mean feat when you’re just looking at tiny little samples. I know, I know, we should have gotten onto it earlier and ordered some sample pots – taken our time. Unfortunately, there were other things consuming my time – like idiot and the kitchen.

The render finish is really light and it suits the house so I wanted something like that. I posted a while back on a building forum and the regular interior decorator suggested a colour called “Light Glaze”. It was nice but I thought it may have been too dark after seeing how good the light render finish looked. I looked at a few others which seemed ok but again, being such small samples, it was hard to tell.

The painter dude rang me back at 7.00pm as promised and of course I had yet to decide what colour I wanted. I was tooing over the ‘light glaze’, ‘eggshell pink’ and ‘raw cashew nut’. The poor guy didn’t know what to think with me talking myself through each colour as if to get him to pick a colour for me. Anyway, I bit the bullet and went with ‘light glaze’ (apparently – according to the decorator, it compliments Jasper very well and it was her favourite).

I still don’t know. What if it’s too dark? What if I’ve made the wrong decision? What if I ruin a good thing? I guess I’ll know in a few days.

'Light Glaze'

'Colourbond - Jasper'

ETA - Oh My God! I think I've possibly made a mistake with the colour choice. Sigh. My colour choices had been alright to date. Double Sigh.

Please tell me it will look ok - Lie if you have to!

The Kitchen Fiasco

It was meant to be in around seven weeks ago now but no such luck for us. With the kitchen dramas have come delays. The house slowed to a stand still for weeks.

What’s with the dramas you say? Well...

1. We hated the kitchen that came ‘standard’ with the house so we opted to get our own.

2. We went with a recommendation and selected 'our' kitchen, which was a time consuming decision.

3. The guy who was handling our kitchen request was a…well…let’s just say - IDIOT.

4. We requested funds to pay for the kitchen after we received the tax invoice.

5. The kitchen couldn’t be ordered until payment was received.

6. Four weeks later, after a million requests, the bank finally decided to advise us they won’t release the funds until the final drawdown of the building contract. Meanwhile, said kitchen was supposed to be installed already.

7. Ummm problem – how does one find large sum of money to pay for kitchen – the tree in the back yard…NOT!

8. Delays occurring due to lack of kitchen.

9. The builder, being the nice guy he is, offers to pay for the kitchen and take funds at the end of the contract BUT only after he received his ‘lock up’ instalment.

10. Bank stuffs around with lock up instalment – nearly two weeks after receiving the tax invoice they pay the bill.

11. Builder releases funds for kitchen.

12. We pay for kitchen.

13. Idiot guy says it will be another two weeks until we get the kitchen after he said “I’ve got the ball rolling…it will only be a week max” (and that was before we paid for the kitchen).

14. Before delivery, idiot guy rings back and tells me we can’t have the granite colour we ordered because there isn’t enough available at short notice – WTF..short notice?!!! He has known about the kitchen for months.

15. Thursday 3 April, Kitchen is finally delivered but there is no sink or the extra cupboards and granite we ordered. Plus, a piece of the kitchen granite was chipped and had to go back. Idiot guy reckons we didn't pay for sink because there is no charge next to it on the invoice - WTF again. This guy is a dead set drongo. I demand a sink. He says he will get us one for free (fastly losing patience).

16. Friday, a week later, still no piece of granite or the sink (kitchen going in on Saturday; granite guy on Sunday - he needs sink and granite).

17. Told it would be delivered on Friday. No such luck. Delivered mid morning on Saturday four hours after the kitchen was started.

18. Still no sink so I had to run out and get one or there was no use paying the guy to cut the granite. Plus the plumbing was scheduled to start next week. We demaned refund from Idiot and received $150.00 refund which wasn't quite enough to pay for the sink which cost $230.00.

19. Kitchen installed by a good friend (thank gosh!).

20. However, on construction of kitchen it was established that more bits and pieces were missing – finishing panel and handles not to mention a cupboard door was damaged. Plus - yes it gets worse - it was determined that there wasn't room for a double oven and microwave as there was supposed to be. Idiot was about to cop a flogging until we decided to just go the normal oven and microwave which would fit perfectly - the only thing saving him was that we had yet to purchase the applicances.

21. Granite cutter finished his job today...paid him a motser to do it. Can't complain though - he was nice to do it on a Sunday morning.

22. Kitchen 95% complete aside from missing handles, finishing panel and one cupboard door. I'm lead to believe we should have these shortly – I’m so not holding my breath on the shortly bit!

Was it worth it? Judge for yourself…I’m still deciding.






OK, OK it looks great...it's lovely...beautiful. I suppose it was worth it!

P.S...I had the painful experience (which should have been pleasureable) of purchasing my applicances yesterday - It took over two hours to figure out thanks to idiot guy and the double oven saga. On a positive note, we will finally have a dishwasher; a double draw dishwasher. Woohoo!!! That's enough to make it all worth while.

Play date shoot...

I got to ‘shoot’ (he he he sounds so wrong huh?!) another little chap today. I haven't had an opportunity to take shots of many boys this age. The only one has been Byron. All my older ones have been girls. So this was refreshing.

He is a little boy from my original mother’s group with Byron. Master S and Byron share the same birthday, at the same hospital. I think there is half an hour age gap between them.

This little man is a delightful, and a very handsome little thing. I took Byron and Lily along for the ride so it was more a play date then a session. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon after what was a fun (sense the sarcasm) day with the kitchen (story to follow tomorrow).

I was so wrapped with the shots I got of Master S. I hope his mummy and daddy are too.

Running Tally

I’ve decided this winter season to keep a track record of my sicknesses. I‘d love to be able to tally it up come summer and see how bad I faired. I’m shocking in the winter months. Just ask Trevor, who constantly boasts about his infallible immune system.

You’d think I’d prepare for the onslaught during the summer months but alas that is never the case. Without fail, at least once every 6 weeks I contract a dreaded viral illness. At least once a year I get a bad case of laryngitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis or something similar.

Yesterday and today I’ve been suffering from the dreaded viral cold/chesty infection which I know doubt caught from Lily. Agghh!

Don’t mind me while I get a few things of my chest (aside from the wheeze)…

I hate blocked noses.
I hate chesty coughs.
I hate itchy eyes.
I hate sore throats.
I hate winter!!!

Tally winter season 2008 - 1

Tiling Finished!

So the tiling is now complete. Trevor and I went and had a look tonight (although he went earlier today as well). It really is hard to tell how it looks in fading light and when it is anything but clean and shiny. I'm not completely 'wowed' but then nothing really about the house 'wows' me at the moment. To be honest, I think I'm just over it all.

Anyway, for the most part I'm happy. There are some things I don't get - like the white grout on the shower step thingy in circumstances when the shower floor is cement grout as is the normal floor. I'm rather a perfectionist so that is bothering me some. Really bothering me actually! I'll have to take it up with the builder. Perhaps there is a reason why it was done that way. I don't particularly like the white grout on the toilet and laundy wall trim but as I understand it, they grout the walls white and the floors cement. I just like things to be even and nice and it just feels uneven. There are other little things that bother me too but I don't know if that's just me being picky or not - Trevor didn't seem to be bothered.

Oh well...I'll stop complaining now.

We have the main toilet...

The 'other' bathroom...

The laundry...

The ensuite...