bubbanoble: December Happenings, Daddy's birthday, Oscar's birthday

Another month has gone buy and it has had a lot of happenings. Again, I have fallen behind on blogging. This might become a monthly thing I think (when I get around to sitting down and catching up).

After a lovely time with Malcolm and Julie staying with us for Eliza's dedication, the kids said bye to them before they headed back home. It is nice knowing that it's only a month before we see them again.

I love this photo!

Auntie Jenny was a great help again, looking after the kids while I had an appointment. I love how much they love her and enjoy having cute photos with her. After all, she is the one who taught them about selfies.

After Eliza's nap times, Daniel loves going in to say hi to her. He also enjoys taking photos of her at the moment on his pretend camera.

Eliza obediently doing 'Cheese'

I just love these 2 crazy kiddies. They really make me smile (most of the time)

I have mentioned before that Daniel is the one who have make Eliza have a great giggle. Most of the time it's not with much effort. I thought this moment was pretty cute with the giggles.

One of the mornings when we were heading out, I put Eliza on the ground so I could organise Daniel. The plan was for her to fall asleep in the car. Eliza was so tired, she had different plans. After a little grizzle, she closed her eyes and fell asleep on the floor. I have heard of other babies doing this, but have never experienced it before. Pretty cute. She must have been so tired!

She didn't even wake up when I picked her up! I just love sleepy cuddles!

One night while the kids were having dinner, a storm started and this brought on a blackout. Fortunately we still had a bit of light so I got out all my candles and put them on the table. The kids had their first candlelit dinner. Daniel quite enjoyed himself. They were also pretty good with having their baths (thank goodness for a skylight!) and at going to bed without the lights on, etc.

On Thursday night we had dinner at Mum and Dad's place. Because it was James' birthday that weekend Mum made him prawns stirfry for dinner and then a tasty fruit flan for his cake. Daniel enjoyed helping blow out the candles.

Eliza has started to move about, but it is pretty accidental. She tries to push up but because we don't have carpet she just slides backwards. She can travel from the playroom to the kitchen which is pretty impressive.

Eliza has also now started to roll over properly at 8.5 months.

On the 5th December, Eliza had another first - she started to clap. She would even clap when you asked her to! She's pretty proud of her efforts.

On Sunday 7th we celebrated James' Birthday. We gave him presents in bed (even though he had already been up). Daniel made Daddy a card all on his own. He was pretty creative with drawing lines and sticking down stickers on them. Unfortunately he didn't want to part with it so took a lot of convincing to give the card to Daddy.

Eventually he did give Daddy the card and he loved seeing it. I gave James his birthday card and present and he was pretty excited to receive a Skydiving voucher for in Hervey Bay!

And then it was a squishy cuddle time

Love this photo and love these 3!

I just love the friendship that is between Daniel and Eliza. When I've woken Daniel up from his nap, I have sometimes had Eliza in my arms so place her next to him. He loves hanging out in his bed with her and she just adores him.

Kisses for Eliza

Daniel came up to me while I was organising dinner one evening saying "Lisa has numbers on her cheeks". I thought this was an odd thing to say but sure enough, when I looked over at her, her was telling me the truth - she had numbers on her cheeks. Someone had fun with his stickers.

It is so lovely to see Oscar with Eliza. He just loves his little cousin(s) and loves making her laugh. He decided to have a go at carrying her. Not the most comfortable way to carry her, but she liked it anyway.

I am loving watching Eliza's personality start to shine. She is just the cutest! Here she is having a giggle at me.

James seems to be keen to help Eliza start standing up and walking. I'm not so keen for this to happen as it will mean more work for me, but still, that's ok. She's pretty clever.

Standing on her own

Standing with her walker, but not ready to move her feet

Eliza has also started to get from her tummy onto her hands and knees and rock. She still hasn't really starting to move by crawling, but she is close to giving it a go and enjoys going from sitting or lying down to getting up on all fours.

She has gotten good at moving backwards though. I think it's mainly because of not being able to grip on the ground as we don't have carpet, but she is happy to be able to move.

Daniel just loves using his keyboard to play songs and sing. At times when he hears certain songs on the stereo he gets up and plays it. He has started to just go to it and play and sing some familiar songs. Here he started to sing a song we sing at church. So cute playing and singing like Daddy does!

On Christmas Eve we headed around to Oscar's house to celebrate his birthday with a small morning tea. Daniel had a lovely time playing while Eliza had a great time sleeping. I can't believe that Oscar is now 6! Jenny was very clever in making a cake for him in the number 6. The kids enjoyed singing Happy Birthday and then blowing out the candles. Daniel loved eating it too! Good job Jens.