Back Again

It has surely been a while between posts, but I realise I still want to keep track of the crazy, funny, cute things that often happen with my girlies. Today is camp day, PJ is headed off to school camp today for 3 days to Sovereign Hill. She started organising and packing her camp stuff on Sunday and when I say packing, I mean making a pile of the things she needed to take on the lounge room floor. She couldn't start packing her back as her camp bag was still being used as her school bag. Monday night she went through the list and made sure that she had the minimum of everything and made a list of the things we still needed to get. Last night we went off to Kmart and got her some singlets, new underwear and socks as well as a travel toothpaste, deodorant and body wash. She went through her list about 57 times to make sure that she had everything she needed and we had to convince her that it was ok to take more socks and underwear than was listed. At one point there was a conversation about how she would not be refused entry to the bus if she had 5 pairs of underpants rather than the required minimum of 2. 

Paige went to bed quite late after getting everything organised and showering so she was all clean for camp. I talked her into putting her pyjamas on instead of going to bed in her clothes and we were all done. When I got up this morning and went to wake her up she was dressed in her clothes. Apparently she had woken in the middle of the night with "camp nerves" and decided to get dressed as it would save time in the morning and she would get ready quicker. We left the house at 8.36am and were halfway to school when she mentioned that they were supposed to be there by 8.30am, whoops. After that I couldn't resist teasing her that the bus had left without her when we saw it driving laps around the school waiting to get a park, such a mean Mum.

When I left, she was with her friends being sorted onto buses and extremely eager to get going. She will have so much fun and I look forward to hearing about it when she gets back on Friday afternoon. In the meantime, I am sure Charli will take advantage of the fact that she has Mum and Dad all to herself. Although, as she said this morning, she will miss loving Paige while she is gone.

It's a Snail's Life

Last weekend, Paige found a snail in the front yard and decided that she wanted to keep it as a pet. She brought it around the back, got a shoe box, gave it a jar lid of water, some leaves, called it Delancy and left it in the backyard.

A few days later after some very warm weather, I checked of the snail and found it rather dried out. She saw me throw it in the garden and was not impressed. She was even less impressed when Daddy informed her that it was dead and she couldn't get it out of the garden.

Today when I was brining the shopping in from the car, I saw a snail on the pathway and called Paige out to see it.

 "Delancey" she cried. "I've found you!"

 She then promptly marched inside and declared to her Daddy "See! I told you she wasn't dead!"

There is now another snail in the shoebox.

Folded Up

Tonight after making a super awesome dinner for the boy and the little girls, I crashed on the couch while they "tidied up" in the kitchen. When I stopped resting my eyes and came back, the girls were in bed. Judd was telling me that while I was sleeping, Charli decided to hide from him.

She hid in the cupboard under the laundry sink. Not a good hiding spot if you ask me, cold and hard and very tiny. But Charli had a plan, she took a cushion so it wasn't so uncomfortable. Once she was found, the boy asked her to get out, apparently she was taking a very long time and when he told her to hurry up the response was:

"I'm trying Daddy but I my muscles are all tight because I've been folded up"

Falling Apart

Charli started school this year. For her it was really exciting, for me, not so much. I am happy that she is going to school as she was so ready for it and I am happy that she loves school, but I am sad that she is not here anymore. I am sad that they are both not here anymore. That year of 1 day a week of childcare and the the following year of 3 half days of kinder still didn't prepare me for the total and complete silence when she is not here. She sings, ALL THE TIME, she talks, she plays, she watches TV or bounces on the trampoline. When she is here, there is the noise of another person in the house. When she is gone, there is silence. I don't have to constantly help her with stuff or watch her do stuff or make her stuff....I just have to look after me. She is not here.

I think now, more than ever, I will look forward to the school holidays and yes, after 4 days they may be making me insane with their constant needs or fighting, but they will be here with me. Charli is home today and it is the second last Wednesday that she gets off of school. She is tired and resting, barely making any noise at all, but every now and again, she will ask for something or tell me that she loves me and that is what I miss the most. I have work to keep me busy, but it is not the same as having a gorgeous, adorable, annoying, crazy person around all the time.

I know that this is all about Charli and you may say, what about Paige? The thing is, I went back to work full-time when Paige was just 5 months old. I worked full-time for a while, then part-time and then I had Charli. Paige is now in Grade 3 and is doing really well. All of this with her was exciting, she was ready, she is doing well at school and she was the oldest. When she went to school I still had a little one at home, someone to take care of and do things for. I missed Paige, but I was occupied. Not any more and work doesn't take the same energy as looking after a child.

So, Monday night I fell apart. It was messy, ugly crying and The Boy was not sure what it meant or what to do but we got there and I feel better now. I miss Charli and I miss Paige (not enough to keep them home with me forever) but enough that when I pick them up in the afternoon, I look forward to it. I push myself to get my work done so that I wont have to be working after I pick them up, I try to spend time with them, helping with homework or just talking. I yell less as I try to make the most of the time we have together and I try to be more organised so that we can do that. I may or may not buy them treats sometimes on the way home just so they know that I care and am happy to see them and I most definitely hug them A LOT!

I love both of my amazingly wonderful girls and I realise even more now just how much I love them as they get older and more independent.

The Great Waterfight of 2011

This morning after it raining for almost 2 days, we got up to sunn and a very warm day. We went out to breakfast and after deciding that we could have done better at home and that in future we just will, we went to the shops. On a spur of the moment decision we went to Toys-R-Us and obtained some water guns. A small one for Charli and myself, a bigger one for PJ and the biggest one for Dad. We then went to Good Guys and got me a brand new, super awesome food processor (totally fantastic).

We made our way home and the girls ran upstairs to get themselves changed into their swimmers and open their new water guns. Then followed a process of spray everyone, refill, run away screaming, squirt everyone some more, refill, repeat. By the end of it, everyone was dripping wet, the Boy had water dripping off his glasses, water all over the back yard. Hilarious.

The best part was Charli, she would walk up to you squirt and as soon as you started to squirt her back she would run away screaming - "dont squirt me, I don't want to be wet, don't get it on my face....." I think she missed the point of a water fight. Oh well, it turned out fun and everyone had a ball.

Must do that again some time.

Suicidal Cats

This starts out a bit sad so just bear with me, Our next door neighbour found a dead cat on their driveway last week. They door knocked the neighbourhood and failed to find the owners. I was chatting to her on Monday and she was unsure what to do with it and we finally decided that she should put it in the bin. We were both sad about the fact that they were unable to find the owner so that they could let them know what had happened, but there was not really anything more that could be done.

On the way to school this morning I was chatting to the boy about them not being able to find the owner and being sad that they wouldn't know what happened to their cat. From the backseat Paige piped up: Maybe the cat jumped out of the window of a car that was driving by. The boys response: Yeah, cos that's what cats do.

Everytime we have spoken today, the conversation starts with "watch out for suicidal cats".....

Hilarous, or maybe we just have a dark sense of humour?

Loving - At the Moment

Not just this song in particular, but Ingrid Michaelson in general. She makes me feel happy :)

She pulled it off

BEFORE

AFTER

So today we took Charli to the hairdresser so she could get her hair cut "just like Emma Watson". I was a little bit stressed about her hair all being cut off, but she was so sure that it was what she wanted that we just went with it. When she explained to the hairdresser what it was that she wanted, I think the poor hairdresser had a bit of a panic. She kept asking if we were sure and it is really short and are we sure. She ended up going for it and just about everyone in the hairdressers was stressed about a little girl with lovely long blonde hair getting it all chopped off. None more so than the woman sitting opposite us who obviously thought we were the worst parents she had ever seen judging by the look on her face. Charli didn't stop grinning the whole time her hair was getting cut and as soon as it was done yelled "that is so AWESOME!"

We went straight to drop her off at one of her friends birthday party and she was very happy to show off her new awesome hair to all he friends, even getting them to feel it as it is so soft where it has been shave at the back. Everyone thought she looked great. I can tell she like it as not only has she been bouncing around since it was cut, but every now and then she rubs her hair and smiles to herself.

So not only does she love it, it looks great and as someone else accurately said "she has the balls to pull it off". Although she did have us in stitches when Daddy said "you can really pull it off" to which her response was to pull her hair and say, with a puzzled look on her face, "no you can't it's stuck on!"

Concerned

Charli is going with Daddy to get her hair cut tomorrow. She is going with him for 2 reasons, 1. it is their special day out which he does with each of the girls in turn, and 2. I can't go and watch while all her hair is chopped off.

Charli is adamant that she wants her hair cut "like Emma Watson" and just in case you have no idea about what that might be, here is a picture.


I will admit that I did try to talk her out of it yesterday, I just don't want to lose her lovely hair, but she is very determined that it is what she wants. Among the reasons she wants it cut off are; it wont get in her eyes any more, she wont have to have ponytails anymore, she wont get bugs in her hair as much and she likes the way it looks. Who can argue with all of those reasons.

So, tomorrow, Charli will be getting her hair cut short, I am sure it will look great as she looked good the last time she had short hair, but I am still a little concerned. Like the boy says though, it is just hair, it will grow back.

Birthday Girl

My Little Charli Bear turned 5 today. She had a fantastic birthday, lots of good presents that she "always wanted". It is so cute that every present she gets is exactly what she has always wanted whether it be My Little Pony Trouble, UNO, Hogwarts Castle Lego or LaLaLoospy dolls. Everything is exactly the present she wanted and was waiting for. She squeals and laughs and then plays with them for days without taking a break for any other toy. The best thing is that not only does she love her presents, but she is happy to share with her sister and they play together with them really well.

On the other hand, she is FIVE!!! It feels like just months ago we were moving to Melbourne with a 3.5 yr old and a 10 month old and now they are 7.5 and 5 years old. She will be starting school next year which is really only 6 months away. She seems so small, but she is so ready. She will have so much fun next year and I am positive that she is going to love the rest of this year at Kinder.

Charli is smart, loving, sweet, always happy, confident, outgoing, loves her "Puppy No-Eyes", sucks her thumb, cuddly and an all round ray of sunshine in our lives.

Happy Birthday Charli-Bear, we love you <3

School & Kinder

To be honest with you, I can't quite believe that it is almost the end of the first term of school already. Paige is doing well at school and loving her new teacher which is great. Charli is LOVING kinder and doing quite well. She is really into the routine of how it works and often corrects me when I get the order wrong of the way they do things like packing up from snack time, etc. Funny girl. If things continue at this rate, it will soon be the end of the year and Charli will be ready for school.

On a positive, I did fill out all of the required documents for Charli's school application and didn't forget any of the photocopies that needed to go with it, yay for me. I am pretty proud of myself on that one.

Things are pretty hectic with working and school and travel (to and from school and kinder) and everything else that goes along with it. Particularly the new out of school activity taken up by Paige. She is doing Martial Arts 2 times a week and absolutely loving it. I was not sure at first as she is quite uncoordinated and not very sporty, but she gets out there and runs and does push ups and start jumps and situps. They practice their stances, and punches, kicks, rolls and then play poison ball. Running for 45 minutes and she will come off the mat sweating and puffing and ask to do another class....straight away.

I have to say, although we are busy, we are happy and it is good.

The Beach

Yesterday we went to the beach. We took the girls down there with the expectation that after about an hour they will have had enough and we would be heading home.

Little did we realise that since the last time we were there they had both decided that the beach was AWESOME (and yes, it was in capitals). I think I may have written about it before, but Charli is not good with water in general. There was an incident when she was quite alot younger where she went under the water by mistake and couldn't get up again. When she did there was much coughing and spewing and never going in the water again without behaving like a terrified Koala Bear which often left my ears ringing and my neck strangled. This summer, however, we have made an effort to go to the pool and beach more often so that she can get used to the water. Over New Years we visited friends and spent an afternoon at the local country pool. They had a large kids pool which was 0.9 metres deep. Deep enough that Charli had water to her chest, but not too deep that she was afraid. She loved it and since has been much better.

So, as the water at the beach, being Dromana, was pretty calm and you could go out quite a way without getting deep, she had a ball. In and out of the water by herself, jumping around and even falling down while trying to pick up a shell. No screaming when the water got on her face and only a little bit of strangling. In fact, she was having so much fun, she didn't want to leave once we had had enough about 2.5 hours later.

Paige of course never wants to leave the water. She loves the water and always has. Normally the beach gets too much for her as she swallows alot and the salt stings her eyes. This time she took her goggles so the salt in her eyes was not an issue and she didn't swallow enough to throw up so she was also all for not going yet.

The Boy and I had enough and announced that it was time to leave, both girls got out of the water with much complaining and gnashing of teeth. They then rolled around in the sand so that they would have to go back in the water to wash of, oh dear! This happened about 3 or 4 times until Daddy called an end to the play and they were trundled off to the car to promptly fall asleep on the trip home.

Over all, a good day.

Just Like Daddy

It seems like it wasn't very long ago that Paige was this size and playing computer games. Now it is Charli's turn to be "just like Daddy". I asked her what she was doing when I took this photo and her response was "I am being like Daddy, watching a movie and playing a game." Imagine it said in a tone of "like DER, what do you think I am doing".

Too cute!

It Doesn't Really Matter

I keep finding myself worrying about whether or not my washing will dry, it has been on the line since Sunday and is just getting wetter. Will the rain ever stop. It has been raining constantly since Sunday night, not heavy rain, just constant rain. When I got up this morning and walked down stairs I thought to myself, gee it is damp in here, the railing feels wet and pretty much all the floors couch, etc feels damp. This humid weather is not fun.

Then I turn on the news......




Although it is raining, it is really not that wet at all.

My thoughts and prayers with those who are going through this disaster in Queensland. All our friends in Queensland are safe, but there are many who are not.

The Concert

For a long time Paige has loved Linkin Park, they are by far her most favourite band. She has always loved rock music and as a 2 year old could point out "David Grohler" as she called him from across the other side of the shops when Foo Fighters was playing on the Foxtel booth screens. When the Boy decided that we could take Paige to Linkin Park, she was SO excited it was amusing, the only downer was that she really didn't really want me to come with her, she only wanted to go with Daddy. Eventually she got over the fact that I was coming.

Last night she happily went to have a little sleep before we went out and for once went to sleep straight away. The whole way there in the car she was just about bouncing off the roof of the car and skipped from the MCG carpark over to the Rod Laver arena. She was so very excited. Once the first band went on she started to feel sick, possibly there was too much excitement. Luckily we brought ear plugs for her so we put them in and she was a bit happier.

Before Linkin Park came out, they were playing a video about their charity www.musicforrelief.org and Paige was absolutely fascinated by it. She is determined to get involved so we will see ohow that plays out. Once Linkin Park came out she was grinning from ear to ear. She stood for almost the whole show and sang along to just about every song. Once we left, her first statement was "that was AWESOME".

I am glad that she had such a great time and she now has her purple Linkin Park tour t-shirt to wear whenever she wants. What a great night.

School Holidays Again

Already, it is school holidays again. So far, it has been pretty busy.

On Saturday we had a "family" birthday party. Family in the sense of friends who are as close as family.

Sunday we went to the Memorial Tower in Kangaroo Ground as Charli asked really nicely if we could please go to the castle looking place and the girls stayed up late.

Monday we didn't really do anything as the girls were tired and I had washing to do.

Tuesday we went to a school holiday fashion workshop at Northland which Paige loved and Charli loved dressing up. The girls did a little catwalk which they enjoyed. Then we went to the movies to see Cats & Dogs in 3D. We also took Paige's bestie with us.

Wednesday night Paige had a sleepover at her friends and then stayed there today while I was at work, Charli, Daddy and I went out for dinner last night and then she went to childcare today. Tonight they are both EXTREMELY tired and are currently asleep, not a peep was heard after the lights went out.

Tomorrow they are going out with Grandma and Grandpa and are looking forward to it.

I just now realise this post is starting to sound a little like The Very Hungry Caterpillar minus the pickle. Hopefully tomorrow the girls turn into beautiful butterflys rather than grumpy caterpillars.

Holding Boys Hands

This year at school, we had a ball. Apparently they used to do this way back, the same as the concert which we had last year and the current principal decided to reintroduce the tradition. So, one year there is a concert and the next year we have a ball.

The kids all did dance lessons leading up to the ball and they had to perform 3 dances with their class mates for the parents to watch. In between in what would have been intermission, they got all the kids and parents to get up and dance. The littlies performed easy versions of the cha cha and mambo amongst others, they had sooo much fun.

Paige's best friend M didn't want to dance with her class, she gets EXTREMELY shy in large groups, so they danced together during the breaks. This was good for 2 reasons; 1 I didn't have to get up and dance and b M got to have fun dancing without lots of people looking at her. Paige of course relished the attention.

The thing that made it even better for her was the fact that she got a new dress for the dance and new shoes. The dress it turns out, was easy. I went to Myer to have a look at what they had and fell in love with a dress that was on the rack, last one there, in PJ's size and a gorgeous colour so I bought it straight away. The thing I love about Myer is that they have gorgeous girly clothing in sizes over 6. In most other stores like Target, Kmart, etc the older girls clothing can be a little, how shall I put this, too mature for her age. I guess that is the problem with having one quite tall, almost 7 year old.

The shoes were another story altogether. I think we went to 5 stores before we found a single pair that she liked. Every store had black sequinned flats but she didn't like any of them. She wanted pink shoes until I explained that they REALLY wouldn't go with her burgundy dress. Eventually she settled on black, but then didn't like any of the shoes we could find, to the point that she wouldn't even try them on. Eventually we found a gorgeous pair of black sequinned ballet flats with a little ankle strap with a buckle, she loved them straight away and we bought them straight away. The funniest thing about the whole shoe episode is that I was frustrated and about to get really cross with her when I realised that she is just like me. I love shoes, but I am really fussy, I wont buy them or try them on if I don't love them straight away. She is exactly the same. Finally, something she is like me in.....shoes :)

So, she had a wonderful time at the ball, she loved getting to hold the boy's hands during the dancing and we got to see how grown up and gorgeous she is, all dressed up. Now we shall do it all again in 2 years and this time Charli will be in Prep. Should be VERY interesting.

Pictures to come.

Oh No!

I feel bad now, I just got my traffic report and there have been some visitors to my site, none of them was me however. I have not updated in too long. I do have some posts that are half written and saved, but not finished and posted. Must get onto that!!

That time of the Term

It is the end of Term 2 and we are now half way through Paige being in Grade 1, it is really amazing to think about how much she has changed in the past 18 months. She has gone from being our little girl at kinder to this too grown up for her age girl. She is amazing and crazy and Paige.

On Thursday, it was report day. In the morning before school I mentioned that she would be getting her report. She was all "Oh No Mummy, you might not like it" when I asked her why she told me that it would say that she talks too much, cos, you know that is something I don't already know about her. She talks so much that it doesn't even stop when she is asleep.

What do you know, when she brought her report home, it didn't say that she talks too much, only that she is easily distracted and never gets her work finished in time even though she is very smart and can do it. Oh and the PE teacher confirmed our suspicions that even though she tries hard, she is not terribly coordinated, maybe she is just too lanky, all legs and arms. Maybe she will grow into it :) Lucky she is not terribly interested in sports otherwise there may be disappointment to deal with.

Over all, she is doing really well, her reading and spelling is at Grade 2 level and she is happy and enjoying school and has not been sent to the principal's office for anything since the infamous visit in the very first week of school in Prep so we shall call it all good.

Now to enjoy the next 2 weeks of school holidays.

Meh

Today I feel really cranky! I am not sure why, but I would guess that it has something to do with either not getting alot of sleep or PMS, or possibly a combination of both. The girls are making me cross for just being there, for saying Mummy all the time for asking me to help them with things, for breathing. The boy is making me cross by saying have a good day when he left, for calling to see how my day is going, for breathing.

I think I need to listen to some happy music and possibly eat some chocolate. Maybe I will bake a cake, that always makes me happy. Oh well, it will pass, I just hate feeling grumpy like a troll.