Feeding, Mothers' Day, Nana's Birthday, craft and more...

These past few weeks have been jam packed and very busy but also a lot of fun. Eliza is growing well. She still seems to be feeding well and is sleeping pretty well too. She has started to feed every 2 hours in the afternoons which is pretty tiring for me, but she then will sleep for a decent chunk in the night which is nice. Daniel has been developing a lot. His speech has continued to increase - repeating a lot of what we say, and his personality is just shining. I really do love watching him grow. I can't wait for Eliza to be more interactive with us too. So here is a glimpse of what has been going on for us.

I just love having Thursday night dinners at Mum and Dad's place. It is nice to not have to worry about a meal each week (thanks Mum for being willing to cook for all of us) but it is also lovely to hang out with my family. I really love watching Daniel and Oscar interact and play together. They just come up with the funniest things. Daniel absolutely looks up to Oscar and will often copy things he does. It is very sweet. I also love how my family will 'fight' over having cuddles with Eliza. It is pretty special to be loved that much. I think it is pretty crazy that my sister and I are both mums now. I still get shocked at times when I think about it. Surely we're too young!

The girls

Mums and bubs

 Daniel has continued to be great with feeding times. He is happy to sit and read next to me (sometimes he wants to sit on my lap too which is a bit tricky but we work it out), 

Sitting on my lap while I feed Eliza.

drive his cars on my legs, ride his bike around the place, play with some of his toys. A couple of weeks ago he did the sweetest thing. He picked up Christopher (my cabbage patch doll, his baby), lifted up his shirt and tried to breastfeed him. When I asked him if he was giving Christopher milk he said yes and told me 'this side'. After stopping and pulling down his shirt, he then lifted it up again and said 'more'. It was very adorable! And such a valuable thing to learn and understand.

Daniel feeding Christopher

Both of us feeding our babies

Precious times

Daniel just loves giving Eliza hugs. After a feed he will get her mat and put it on the ground, he will ask for her to go on it, he will ask to give 'La ug' (Eliza hugs). It is very precious to see and really does melt my heart.

 After his naps too he has been very cuddly. I am enjoying this snugly boy.

To prepare Daniel for going into his big boy bed we have been trying to have him sleep under a sheet. When he goes into his bed he won't be in sleeping bags anymore as it isn't very safe so I'm trying to have him adjust to needing to stay under sheets to stay warm. He's pretty good at staying under is for nap times, but night times he crawls out of it. We will keep working on it.

Still under the sheet after his nap - winner!

Malcolm and Julie came back from their Europe holiday (still very jealous and the Facebook photos didn't help as it looked like an amazing time) and stayed with us for a couple of nights. It was lovely for Eliza and Daniel to be able to hang out with them for a bit more and we are looking forward to heading to Hervey Bay in a couple of weeks. It was also great to have an extra few sets of hands to help out with the kids and lovely to get some fun presents.

I had my first Mothers' Day with 2 kiddies. James said that I could sleep in while he got up and looked after Daniel. Unfortunately Eliza missed that memo and woke up just before 7 so I was up before the boys, but that was ok. After giving Eliza a feed Daniel and James came and gave me some lovely presents and a sweet card where Daniel had drawn a love heart for me.

 Daniel then 'helped' me open the presents. The first one was a lovely surprise of Daryn Cresswell's book. I do enjoy reading books about sporting stars, particularly the Sydney Swans and their players. I find that they are easy reads and interesting to get an insight into the club and teams. It has been a couple of weeks and I am enjoying reading it when I get the chance. Good pick Daniel and Eliza! 

My 2nd present was a Willow Tree figurine which I had seen in the shops before Eliza was born and thought looked very sweet and suitable for this stage in my life. It is very precious having 2 kiddies.

Me with my kiddies (Daniel's cheese face)

James was on band at night and was playing bass. He set it up and went to run through some of the songs. Daniel saw the 'tar' and ran off to get his own 'tar' and started to play it with James. It was very cute to see!

We then headed to Auntie Sue's place for Mothers' Day lunch and also birthday lunch for Mum. Eliza was good and slept for the whole time which meant that I could sit and eat and enjoy lunch (although I'm sure people would have loved to have had cuddles with her). Mum was given her presents and Daniel was very interested in her tulips from Auntie Sue and Grandma.

After lunch we had a tasty cake baked by Jens. Oscar helped carry it out and then the boys helped blow out the candles.

 We also managed to get a photo of Nana and her grandboys.

Daniel hasn't tried cake since his first birthday. Back then he didn't enjoy it at all - the flavour or texture. This time around he was more than happy to eat it, no questions asked.

We will need to see how he responds to his 2nd birthday cake.
When we got back home it was nap time for Daniel and feed time for Eliza. James headed to band and I got to hang out with the kiddies - happy Mothers' Day. It was pretty nice being with them though.

A week later Daniel started to play with his crayons, standing them up on the table. He then sang his version of 'Happy Birthday' and blew out the candles. He also would shout 'Horray' at times. Very cute.

Eliza has started to decide that I am not to have afternoon naps. Most afternoons she is feeding every 2 hours so by the time I put Daniel down to sleep I have around 30mins before she starts to cry. While this is a bit annoying as I'd like to have a nap, I am still resting in front of the tv or reading a book. This also means that Eliza and I get to have some girls only time which is nice for her. She is starting to be quite expressive with her face which is pretty awesome to watch.

She is also starting to chat a little bit making 'ohh' sounds.

As I mentioned before, Daniel is loving giving Eliza hugs and kisses.

Today, he was just so sweet - it melted my heart. After playing with Eliza on the ground with Daniel I got up to make his lunch and said to him 'Remember to be gentle with Eliza and watch where she is'. As I went into the kitchen I was keeping an eye on them. Daniel sat down next to Eliza, lent over and gave her a kiss on the lips. He then patted her and then stood up and went to play with something else. I really do love how much he loves Eliza. I hope he continues that as they grow up. 

After Daniel being so good with having the bottle, we wanted to try the bottle with Eliza. We waited until she was over 7 weeks old so that breastfeeding was well established. When James was working from home I fed Eliza but she seemed that she wanted more. I had expressed the night before so asked James to give her the bottle (there was 60mL in it). She did very well with drinking it. It took a little bit of convincing but she did drink the 60mL and then she had a pretty solid sleep after. I think her tummy was very happy. Winner! We will have to try it again a few more times, and also try giving her the bottle for the whole feed. I was glad though that she was happy to breastfeed at her next feed.

I think that James enjoyed giving her the bottle again too. :-)

Eliza has started to play with her mobile a little bit. It's only occasional, but she's slowly getting there.

Mum's birthday was kind enough to fall on a Thursday, which meant that we were all around at their place for a family dinner. Being her birthday, instead of needing to cook we got take away which meant that she was able to hang out with the grandkids. A pretty special time.

Daniel just loves wearing hats. Often when we're inside he will see a hat and ask to have it on. Eliza was given a gorgeous hat as a present and Daniel saw it so chose to put it on. He's so funny!

At the park today I was feeding Eliza so had taken the hat off so Daniel decided to swap hats. As you can see it's quite a feminine hat so was quite funny to watch him running around with it on. I do think it looks better on Eliza :-) It's great too because it is a wide brimmed hat which is great.

Hanging out on the grass with Eliza while Daniel runs around

Daniel and Eliza were given a hand-me-down cooking and cutlery set. For him to enjoy playing with it I decided to make an oven for him using one of our Aussie-Farmers boxes. I thought it would be good for Daniel to join in with helping so had him colour in the different dials and the hot plates. He is such a lefty!

I was pretty impressed with the finished product and Daniel has enjoyed using it. Winner!

I am looking forward to doing more craft with Daniel and hope that he enjoys being creative.