bubbanoble: Catch up again

So sorry that I'm (again!!) falling behind on blogging. Time just doesn't seem to be on my side. James went away for 2 weeks (with 1 week home inbetween) and while the kids were pretty great, I was exhausted come the end of it. Each week it took me until Wednesday to feel energised again. It really made me appreciate having a husband who helps out with the kids at night times (I know that I'm very blessed with that!).

I've also started a project of making a quiet book for the kids which is also taking up time (I will do a different post of that as it progresses). I'm quite excited about this project and can't wait to see the end product, but again I would love to have more time to be able to sit and do it as I just want to see the end product. So yeah, sorry for falling behind on blogging again. Hopefully I will be able to get on top of it all.

As a result, this post will be a lot of photos and videos (which I think tell more than my words do a lot of the time) with a little bit of writing. Also, apologies if any videos double up. I don't really know how to keep track of what videos I have written about and which ones I haven't yet so yeah, I might double up. Lucky my kids are cute! ;-)

I just love having sleepy cuddles with Eliza. I know that I have mentioned it before but they are just so precious. I love that she feels comfortable enough to fall asleep in my arms. I love that she feels secure enough to stay asleep in my arms. I love the warm fuzzies that it gives me to have that precious time.

It amazes me how Daniel learns and picks up different skills. He is definitely a visual learner but can also follow instructions pretty well. After going to the Swans and watching some AFL on tv, Daniel started to spin the ball in his hands, just like some of the players do before they take a kick. He isn't confident yet to do a drop kick though. He always has to place it on the ground first.

Daniel's sporting skills are going pretty well. He is often very accurate with his direction in throwing, kicking and hitting. I do hope that he enjoys playing sport as he grows up.

I am loving seeing Eliza's personality come out more and more each day. She is such a cutie. Here we are playing 'peek-a-boo'. I think she enjoyed playing it.

Eliza has been doing well with drinking ebm from a bottle. It took a while but I'm so glad that we persisted. While I love breastfeeding, it is nice to have the option of a bit of freedom and to have times without the kids. Daniel decided to help James feed Eliza the bottle one night at Nana and Poppy's place.

Eliza is doing well with her eating. She happily opens her mouth to get the food. She hasn't really shown a dislike towards any food at the moment which is good. She is also pretty clear when she has had enough as she won't open her mouth for more food.

I'm good at eating, what's it to you?

James has introduced me to 'Pandora Radio' on the iPhone. I am loving listening to the music and choosing different stations to listen to based upon the artists that I enjoy. One that I've really enjoyed (as daggy as it is) is Beach Boys. I feel like I'm in an 80s diner listening to it, it's great! One of the songs that came up is 'Let's Twist Again'. I taught Daniel how to do the twist, it's pretty cute! I love his different dance moves.

James has had a couple of weeks away with work. One week was Fiji, another was up north to Armidale area. I love that technology has come so far that Daniel and Eliza are able to chat with James over FaceTime. It makes it so much easier for Daniel to chat and for Eliza to respond in some way.

Hi Daddy!

One of Daniel's favourite FaceTime games is 'Where's Daddy?'. James covers the camera for a few seconds, then takes his finger away and says 'boo!'. It always makes Daniel burst out in laughter. Eliza doesn't seem so sure about it though.

Daniel just loves reading. When we put him to bed, he gets up and lies in bed reading until he goes to sleep, most nights. After he wakes in the morning or after nap time he gets some books, climbs back into bed and reads. Often in the mornings if we walk in, this is how we find him.

Reading time

It is pretty sweet that 7 months since giving birth to Eliza, Daniel still pretends to breastfeed Christopher.

Time is busy but it is always nice to fit in a time of hanging out with Auntie Jenny and Oscar. We had a lovely time at the park, playing, rumbling, running around.

Daniel's eating is still going well. I don't think there's a food that he's said no to regularly (he does have some nights where he decides he doesn't like some things, even though he had it the night before fine). He does however, make a lovely mess when he eats, often on his face. After eating spaghetti bollegnaise one night, I told him that he looked like he had a beard like Daddy.

Bedtimes is still one of my favourite times of the day. While it takes a very long time some nights and Daniel is very good at procrastination, I do love reading stories with him, reading the Bible and saying prayers. It is a special time.

James has always loved to scare Daniel. Ever since he was little he has enjoyed sneaking up on him, saying boo, tickling him out of the blue, etc. Here is a video of one of the times scaring Daniel and as you can see, he loves it!

Eliza is starting to find her voice. She is making lots of sequels and sounds. I can't wait for her to start to say words and hear her speaking voice.

Daniel has found a love of puzzles, which I am very happy about as I love doing puzzles too. He has enjoyed playing with the puzzles that Nan gave him for his birthday and also enjoys the puzzles that Nana found and gave to us. I can't wait for him to get older and to be able to sit down and do a puzzle together. He is so proud of himself when he fits a piece in by himself.

Daniel was pretty excited to wear his thongs for the first time. Yay for Summer coming. It makes going to swimming a lot easier too as he can walk in and out on his own instead of carrying him.

Eliza might not roll over very much (really, at all) and she can't crawl yet, but she is good at wriggling down her mat. Cheeky girl.

As I mentioned before, Daniel loves to read. When he wakes up in the morning, if we're still in bed he will run back to his room, get his stool and some books and climb into bed with us to read...

Or read in the back room...

Or read to Eliza...

Or just reading to himself...

Here is a video of Daniel reading his Play School book with James while we were away at the Blue Mountains. He is so proud when he reads 'on his own'.

Eliza is growing up all too quickly. I can't believe it. I am loving her wearing cute little dresses though and it will continue as she grows up. :-)

Eliza is pretty cheeky. She is learning about table manners

but then smiles and gets away with it.

Bathurst weekend has been and gone. Daniel missed the opportunity to wear the v8 suit that we have, however, Eliza just fit into it on the most important weekend for car racers. Daddy was pretty impressed.

She then joined the boys in watching the car race. Daniel decided to go get his couch so he could sit on it and watch.

Daniel has learnt to bounce and catch a ball and he's pretty happy about it too.

I just love Eliza's giggles and laughs. Often they come up when she is sitting in her highchair. It is pretty contageous.

She is often laughing at Daniel for different reasons and he loves her laughing at him. It is such a special bond that these 2 have.

Eliza is now having big baths. Again, she is growing up too quickly. She is fortunately enjoying having baths.

Daniel is doing pretty well with sharing his toys with Eliza and playing with her. He doesn't take her toys as much as he used to and often he will sit and play with her. It's pretty sweet to watch them interact together.

I enjoy going for a morning walk each Tuesday with Anne her daughter Emily. It is a very special friendship for me. I love that our kids are similar ages and also enjoy playing together. It's very sweet.

The girls holding hands. So sweet!

These 2 have a great time together

Sure, you can fit 2 people on it. Cheeky boys

I was chatting with some mums at Mothers' Group about how we prepared ourselves for the older sibling to be jealous and angry at the new baby when they came along, however, we never prepared ourselves for the older sibling to be angry at mum. I found this with Daniel, not too badly but he definitely wanted Daddy any time there was an option between the 2 of us. At nights when he'd wake, if I went into him he would continue to cry and ask for Daddy to come and for Mummy to go out. When he was upset, he wanted Daddy to give him a hug, not Mummy. It made me sad that I couldn't help fix the problem, that he didn't want me. Fortunately over the last couple of months this has started to change again. One morning while having breakfast, my darling boy asked to hold my hand while he ate his banana. Why not?

He also loves holding Eliza's hand when she's in the high chair.

Eliza has started to find more of her voice, at times making different sounds. Here she started to say 'Dadada'. She is similar to Daniel where she won't perform for the camera, but I got a little bit of her chatter.

Daniel has started to play a form of hockey, again being imaginative. He uses our toy flowers as the stick and the little bowling ball and runs around hitting it. He enjoys asking me to play with him and its a lot of fun.

As Daniel grows he is able to reach the pedals on his bike and is now starting to learn how to push the pedals to ride on his own. He is pretty pleased with himself here.

I had forgotten how flexible babies are and how strong they are as well. I love watching Eliza bend over to get toys, yet keeps her balance.

Daniel just loves playing in the bouncer. He found that he can actually move around the place while in it. Pretty cute to see.

We had the joy of Grayma visiting. While Daniel and I were playing outside in the garden, we decided to pick some flowers to give to her when she came.

After James came back from a week away we decided to go for a family trip to the Reptile Park. Daniel had fun sitting on the crocodiles again...

But then the poor little guy slipped when he was getting off and hit his head on the gutter. He got a good bump/graze on his head and nose and also had his nose bleed. Fortunately a hug and some ice made him feel better and enjoy the rest of the day.

He got to touch a snake with Daddy.

And he and Eliza were eaten by Elvis the crocodile!

Not a bad feed

Again, Eliza's chatting has increased. She is at times saying baa baa baa. I can't wait for more words to develop.

Daniel just loves to help out around the place. Just today he was enjoying weeding with me, pushing the lawnmower (when off) with Daddy, hanging out the clothes, etc. I do enjoy him helping me, it is very sweet. I will enjoy it while it lasts. I do have a chuckle when he helps hang out the clothes as he just loves his pegs! So many pegs to hang up 1 top.

He also loves running into Eliza when she wakes up as I say to him 'I'm just going to go and get Eliza up'. He loves running in saying 'Hi Liza'.

Last week I was singing 'If you're happy and you know it' to Eliza and with some actions she had her very sweet giggle come out. I thought it was pretty cute. Enjoy he response to me singing.

Last weekend James organised for us to have a family weekend away at the Blue Mountains. He booked a gorgeous cottage for us to stay at which had a balcony the overlooked Leura. It was so lovely.

Daniel was lucky enough to have a double bed all to himself. He looked so little sleeping in it!

On Saturday we headed to Blackheath for the Rhododendron Festival. We wandered around the markets looking at different things and then headed over to the town center. The street was closed for the parade that was going to happen later in the day (it would have been lovely to stay for it, however, it was too close to nap times). We saw a couple of people dressed as flowers and a bee riding on bikes which kept Daniel amused. We then headed over to Govetts Leap for a short bushwalk.

Daniel enjoyed leading the way, however, we felt it was too many stairs for him to walk back up and the ground was getting muddy, we called it quits and headed back to our place. We had some lunch and then it was nap time for all 4 of us.

I just love Eliza's tired eye rubs!

The next day we packed up our things and headed to Leura for a morning of going with the flow. We went to Leura Cascades for another bushwalk with the kids. Eliza was bundled into the ergo to have a nap on the walk and Daniel enjoyed walking - holding our hands, holding the rail, walking on his own. It was lovely listening to his running commentary or what he could see and hear. The main focus were spiderwebs but he was also learning about how God created all the we could see which lead to him telling us 'God created that leaf, God created that leaf, and that one, and that one.' It was a much slower walk than what we normally do, however, it was nice to go at Daniel's pace.