Going ons

Daniel just loves helping out at the moment with anything and everything. It is lovely to see but also challenging at times... It takes a lot of patience.

One way Daniel loves to help is doing the washing up. He grabs his stool, uses an old washing up brush and washes in the rinsing sink.

Washing the colander

Helping Daddy do the washing up

 He also loves helping cook in the kitchen. He is eating less while he is helping cook which is good. He absolutely loves peeling carrots.

Even though sickness has been around with all of our family (including the Howies and Mum and Dad) we have had a chance to see them at different times.

I just love seeing Oscar with Eliza. He's very sweet with her.

And I love how much Daniel adores his Auntie Jenny.

Daniel and Eliza have had a great time playing together. Daniel is pretty good with sharing but also has his moments. Here Daniel wanted to sit on the couch with Eliza. Eliza wasn't so keen on the idea.

When around at Mum and Dad's place for dinner Daniel had a wonderful time outside playing cricket/tennis/tee-ball. His co-ordination is pretty good. I can't wait for him to be old enough to get into different sports.

Playing cricket

Smashing it

Playing tennis

Eliza came to watch (and Daniel went back to cricket)

He then continued playing tennis at home and was getting pretty good at hitting the ball.

Eliza is also joining in on the fun of throwing and catching. She had fun throwing the ball to Daniel and Daddy one evening.

Sadly, James' Boompa passed away recently which saw Malcolm and Julie come to stay with us for a little bit for the funeral. It is always lovely to see them and the rest of the family, even if it was for a sad time. The day they arrived was Boompa's (Malcolm's) birthday so we made a cake for him. Daniel was pretty excited about having some cake.

Singing happy birthday

Helping blow out the candles

The next week it was Great-Grannie's birthday and it was lovely to have her come around with Malcolm for lunch. Even though it is a bit hard with her dementia getting worse, it is still creating lovely memories for us and the kids.

Great-Grannie opening her card and present

Eliza just loves necklaces

Chatting with Great-Grannie

 When Eliza wakes up from her naps Daniel loves to go in and say hello to her before I go in. Often I hear him telling Eliza 'I love you Eliza' which is so sweet. (even if he is pushing her head back down to continue sleeping).

Something that Eliza does a lot at the moment is a sniff. I can't help but laugh at her gorgeous face while she does it and I love that she mostly does it on cue.

She has also started to blow kisses. Here she is doing the kissing action but also noticing that her voice changes while she does it. The time she always blows a kiss is when she says night night to Daniel which I think is just beautiful!

This is also the sound that Eliza makes when giving kisses.

 
Eliza has continued to enjoy standing and is just starting to pull herself up on things when she wants something up high - crayons on Daniel's table, my keys on the coffee table, the remotes on the couch. I helped her stand here but she was very comfortable and sturdy on her legs on her own.

Today I finally got video of Eliza pulling herself up to standing. She's a very clever girl.

As Daniel loves riding his bike around, we have sometimes put Eliza on the little horse and pushed her around. She just loves it! Unfortunately it's a bit rough on our backs so we don't last long. Daniel has been a good help at pulling and pushing her around though which is very cute and Daniel seems to enjoy it. Eliza absolutely loves it for the meltdown we get at the end is anything to go by.

 When the horse doesn't work, we try brother piggybacks. They don't last very long though.

Daniel has stepped up his breastfeeding of Christopher. He has found my feeding cover a couple of times, put it on then pulled up his shirt and fed Christopher. I do love the things he is taking in and how they are done.

At the moment when Eliza wakes up, Daniel is often wanting me to feed her in his room. He also enjoys reading books in his bed with Eliza and I which is a pretty nice time. I really do love these 2 together.

Last week Daniel became quite sick (out of the blue) with a virus that gave him quite high fevers - highest was 39.9. He was very out of sorts and very clingy. While feeding Eliza he just wanted Mummy cuddles, so I had to adapt - feeding while hugging - much like the early days.

Fortunately the fever went down on its own but it was pretty full on. One night he woke up so distraught and disorientated he didn't know what he wanted. I went into him and he kept asking for his other Mummy. Hmmm... not too sure about that one. Poor poppet.

Eliza has started to be very animated in the bath. She is at that wriggly stage where she doesn't want to stay sitting. She's so cute!

Daniel has enjoyed copying the different things that Eliza does. When she gets grizzly while I'm making something in the kitchen, I stand her up holding onto the draw handles. Daniel then copies.

 Eliza was getting into different things so I put her into a cardboard box with some toys to try and contain her. Daniel then pulled toys out of another box so he could sit in it too.

The difficulty is that he like to copy things that she does wrong, even though he knows he shouldn't. The main thing at the moment is touching the oven. Ever since Daniel was little we have pulled him away, sat down with him and explained that we don't touch the oven because it can be hot and it can hurt you. He is very good with it. But Eliza has no idea and just loves looking at her reflection in it. She crawls over to it and pulls up on it. Daniel then copies. I'm not too sure what to do with it. I gave him thinking time today and I think that will be the process just so he has time to think about why it is wrong and he can then model to Eliza the right thing to do. Hopefully.

He does then melt my heart doing this though!

When Eliza turned 11 months old I decided to try putting her hair into a ponytail. It worked out ok. Very fiddly but so worth it! A couple of days later I tried again and still think it's adorable.

On my way home from dropping Daniel off with Auntie Jenny at a play date, driving home I saw a toy car on the road at council clean up. This car is one that Daniel absolutely loves yet I could never justify spending over $100 on it like most places do. I stopped the car and looked at it - all wheels were attached, steering wheel, horn, door that worked. I couldn't see anything wrong with it. I decided to pop it into the car (with great difficulty - it is a lot bigger than it seems!). I brought it home and hid it until after nap time. When Daniel woke up I told him to put on his shoes and hat and I'd have a surprise for him. Here is his reaction.

 He then spent 1hr 30mins driving around, going to the 'shops' to get some milk, heading home, etc. It was great because it gave me a good chance to garden while he played with the car and Eliza sat in her high chair.

Winner!!!

Each week Nana and Poppy come around, Daniel and Eliza get 50c to put into their money boxes. Grayma also gives them 5c coins when we see her. Daniel decided this week to see how much money he had (away from Eliza of course). He has a lot of coins!

Today I had some fun with Daniel after lunch time taking fun photos. Even when he drives me crazy, he does bring me so much joy.

He was interested in the dolls house in Eliza's room so I moved a few things around, got some of the little people toys and Daniel had fun playing with them in the dolls house. This is very special for me as my Grandpa made this dolls house for me. I look forward to the kids playing with them a lot like I did. I hope that it will be passed down to their kids too.

We also had a lot of fun playing chasings and crawling games in the hallway. It is amazing how much fun you can have doing the simple things!