This afternoon we visited my favourite place in the world. This little seaside town holds some very precious memories for Brian and I. I will elaborate on this in another post, but one special memory is that we had our wedding portraits on this pier and beach. Now our children play here :).
I was feeling a little un-inspired today. I hadn’t taken any photos and was losing daylight fast. Then Blake fell asleep in my arms and I remembered how delightful that is and inspiration came flooding back.
I should have turned him around the other way when I placed him down but I didn’t even think of it at the time! Gah, I am so ridiculously in love with my babies… they are so sweet to each other. Hannah started lightly tapping Blake of her own accord and luckily I had the camera in my hand.
You love using your cash register to play ‘shop’ but your old one is broken. We saw this one in an op-shop yesterday for a $1.50. Brian mentioned that he used to have one exactly the same when he was small. I love op-shop treasures and so do you :).
This morning we went ot visit a friend and you fell asleep like this in my arms. Normally I would put you down in the bedroom but as we were out I just held you while you were sleeping. Later in the afternoon you fell asleep again and I asked your Daddy to capture the moment. I have similar photo of me holding you when you were just 5 months old and I can’t believe that much time has flown by already…
(And yes, you do sleep with your eyes half open!)
Today we were invited to spend the afternoon with Georgia from Gregarious Peach and her lovely family. So.Much.Fun! They have a pool in their complex and the kids had a ball!
The 3 most important people in my world. They were swimming, laughing, splashing while I stood in the shallow end, in my shorts, with my camera in my hand trying to get some good photos….
I had to add both of these photos of you today Hannah because it shows just how proud you are of wanting to put your face under the water and blow bubbles. You are still a little hesitant of the water but your confidence is slowly building as you try new things with our constant encouragement and support.
Well, what can I say about you Blake! You are absolutely crazy in the water! You wanted to be completely independent, noone holding onto you as you walked out into the deeper water or climbed down the stairs into the pool. You put your head under constantly and tried to copy everyone else. You were laughing with glee. I love you baby boy but gosh your fearlessness makes my heart beat a million times faster!
It was another lovely morning at mother’s group and the kids had a ball playing and laughing and I had such a fun time talking that I forgot to take any photos! So on our way home I saw Blake was fast asleep in my rearview mirror and I decided to sneak in a photo.
Hannah loves to sing along to music in the car and I managed to capture a photo of her doing it even though she saw me take a photo of Blake and said, “No mummy, I don’t wanna a picha please!” and covered her face like I was some sort of papparazzi…. I mean seriously…. ;)!
I am so incredibly grateful to have the view that I do.
(Please ignore the reflection of Brian’s hat in the mirror, I didn’t realise until after I had taken the photo and I couldn’t stop to move it out of shot).
You were generously given a mixed music CD in a party bag from an adorable little friend about 6 months ago and the CD is pretty much on constant repeat in the car. Your favourite song is Dog Days are Over by Florence + The Machine. You could listen to that song all day. And you do.
Baby boy, this is a new view that I have of you. Up until a few weeks ago when your sister and you both recieved new seat,s you had been rear-facing. Our old car seat had the old (only just changed this year) standards of accepting children up to 12kg rear facing. You are now 11.8kg but you are very tall and you were definately starting to grow out of it. I desperately wish that I could keep you rear-facing for longer, it is so much safer for you but unfortunately Australia’s standards are very low compared to some other countries in the world and this restricts the type of car seat I am able to buy for you. I am happy that we were able to keep you rear-facing for 15 months though. It’s better than the measely 8 months that your sister was rear-facing for :(, I know better now.
This morning the kids shared a fruit salad for brunch in the courtyard. Yummy Yummy!
Today we missed Daddy. It was a bit of a tough morning with my little ones and after a cry on the phone with Brian, I had a shower and resolved to have a good day with Hannah and Blake. We got off to a good start with the following series of photos but like all days where the other part of the team isn’t available, I did lose it in the afternoon. I was going to write a whole heap of reasons why it was such a crappy afternoon and blame it on teething, seperation anxiety, sad toddlers etc but I won’t bore you with the details. Instead, I want to focus on what was positive in my day and what made it special. Enjoy…
Hannah and Blake just loooooove helping out with chores around the house. Because we are staying at my mums this weekend, the kiddies helped her get the garden spick and span.
And when they were bored of that, mum came up with the ingenious idea of setting up two buckets full of water and we let them go for it!
Hannah took the following photos on my camera. I really like them :).
This morning, Brian and I were desperately trying to get the kiddies to have a nap before Brian had to leave for his boys weekend away (some people have all the luck!) and as you may have probably guessed, they weren’t playing along. We have a rule when it comes to sleep time that if they don’t fall asleep within 20 minutes then they probably aren’t going to so just get them up and try again later. We opened the shutters, I grabbed my camera and we waited to see what would happen.
We are staying in the granny-flat that my parents have and my 15 year old sister has made it into a teenage-retreat so a lot of her stuff is in the room. Hannah began opening drawers and soon found something interesting for her and Blake to play with…
We stayed overnight at my parents house last night and my mum kindly took the morning off to take care of the kiddies so I could rest and recover. I love my parents, they are a huge source of support for us and are here when we need them.
I walked outside this morning to find this scene. Hannah and Blake had decided to play a game of throwing pegs down on the floor and they were laughing and having so much fun. It was nice to see them playing with mum, this is what memories are made from.
I asked to take a photo of your new bracelet today and you refused to let me, moving, laughing and jumping away from my camera. I managed to sneak this photo of you holding the bracelet that you found in Grandma’s drawer, you have been wearing it all day. You said you now look like Grandma, like a ‘big girl’ :).
We have been fans of the Montessori method since Hannah was small and one of the things that is highly recommended is promoting age-appropriate independence. You have been using an open cup for drinking since you were about 10 months and you are pretty good at it now. Montessori says to encourage you to use actual untensils such as real glasses which we do as much as possible but yesterday you dropped my glass on the floor and it smashed into a million little pieces. Safe to say, you were using a plastic cup today!
I was unwell again today so my lovely husband ended up taking the photos for the day. One of Hannah posing for a photo and one of Blake chomping on a biscuit.
Thank you hubby xx
Brian bought an inflatable boat through our credit card points in preperation for our camping trip next month and today we took it out for the first time.
You were both a little hesitant to jump in but loved it when we got going. It was nice to spend some time out in the sunshine after all the rain we have had over the last week.
The last time you were on a boat was when we went whale watching. Unfortunately you and I spent most of our time huddled over a paper bag because of the rough weather. So I understood when you were a little unsure about getting into the boat. After a quick chat and a confirmation that we would go slowly you jumped in and enjoyed the ride.
You wouldn’t move from your position in Daddy’s lap – even though it was hard for Daddy to row – and you loved watching the pelicans and seagulls fly around the water. I think you will get more and more confident about being in the boat the more we use it so I am glad today was a rather sedate ride :).
I also couldn’t resist sharing the following series of photos with you even though they were taken through the dirty glass sliding door!
hippyhappymama 