Christmas is coming!

We leave for England on the 23rd Dec and won't be back 'til the very end of Jan.

Yesterday we gave the pickle her electric car and her swing as we are not going to be here for Christmas. We figured she might as well get some use out of it. She loved the car and can hold the pedal down to make it go. Not long and she will be able to drive herself to playgroup! It does, however, play an annoying tinny tune when you press the horn. Might have to look into disconnecting that one!

As for the swing, she would happily sit in it for hours, even with no-one pushing her! This morning she really didn't want to get out so I left her there while I washed up the breakfast things, going out periodically to give her a push! Big smiles and a 'weeeeeeeeeeee' (I could see her through the window, she wasn't abandoned!)

She is very much a chatterbox lately, she just gabbles on making no sense whatsoever but it is very cute. Every day she comes up with a new word though. Latest would be 'ni night', while trying to make the weeble lie down in its bed, pretty funny because as you may or may not know weebles don't lie down!

I have spent 10 minutes trying to remember my password for this blog! Something tells me that yet again I have left it too long! Much has happened in the interim!

Pickle turned one and had a rubber duckie themed party, It was a lot of work and bit stressful but fun to organise! The venue was at a beachside park, the food was purely yellow and there was even duck wraps which some thought was a little sick, I just thought it was funny! The cake was the hardest to do, the icing was melting during photos and looked a little drippy! But hey, this is Australia, what can you expect!?

Tom is nearing the end of his four months with us, it has been fun! We didn't get to go to very many places but we had some good times and Tom took plenty of photos!

We saw glow worms at a place called natural bridge (what an imaginative name for a place) I have always wanted to see glowworms and they were pretty! Strange bluey green pricks of light like looking up at a starry sky!

Paul has finished his uni course and is now applying for the police force. In the meanwhile stair-building work has picked up so the pressure is off concerning the money side of things.

I have sisters to look after 2 days a week, 9 weeks old and 2 years. Very cute and well behaved kids! Good job really because it would be a bit stressful if they weren't with the three of them!

I have just spent a weekend looking after a friends baby, only 1 week younger than Amélie. The first day we had great fun but the second was a bit more whingy. I am worried she will never want to visit again due to fear of being left here!

Hopefully I will be more consistent about updating the blog but I am sure I have said that before so no promises!

9 months old and growing fast!

Pick was 9 months old on ANZAC day. We ate ANZAC biscuits, that was the extent of our observation of the day. I didn't realize til the next day that she was 9 months old - so no 9 month old piccies unfortunately!

My lil bro is coming to visit very soon. He's got a 'professional' camera, so P and I are excited to scrub up and have a nice family shot done.

Pickle is cruising the furniture, becoming very vocal and growing out of her clothes! She shouts NU (sounds a bit like no) and DAD, I don't think she knows what she's saying but it feels good to pretend she does. Although on 2nd thoughts I really don't want her first word to be no!

She eats loads of different stuff now, although boobs are still the main course, at the moment avo and kiwi are her favourite.

She had her first real 'sickness' this month, temp of 39.3. All OK now though, phew!

In other news (I do have other news you know) P has decided to try out for the police force. Uni starts in July for a couple of months and then he will apply. We're excited about the new direction!

Had another lady apply for family day care, with an 11 month old. She is interested but has no job as yet. One day it will all get going I'm sure!

Our computer was offline for a while (again!) who knew that you had to have virus protection AND spy ware protection? not me, that's for sure!

Pickle will be 9 months very soon, doesn't time fly? Racing to grab the DVD's from the TV unit is a new favourite game of ours! She usually wins.

Pulling up to stand on anything that stands still longer than 5 seconds is also the flavour of the day. So Mummy washing up is a good one. Can't get the rubber gloves off fast enough as she's pulling down my trousers.

Family Day Care is up and running, or will be as soon as I get customers. I think the pickle scared off the little boy who came to visit by using him to stand up on and then pulling his hair. Asserting herself early that one!

The 'sleep plan' mentioned in earlier post never came to fruition (as in it didn't work) ah well I just keep telling myself she loves me so much, she has to see me through the day AND the night.

She was slightly confused earlier when I went to get her from her nap, I had just had a shower and had my hair pulled back, she stared at me strangely. I usually get a big smile when I go in to get her. Then she caught sight of the back of my head, and there came the smile - she was missing my hair - ah there it is, gave ponytail a good yank just to make sure and tried to stuff it into her mouth. Try to picture my one inch ponytail, it's not going very far!

Miss pickle is still blowing rasberries at every opportunity, it's cute but less so when she has a mouthful of food! Lets just hope she grows out of it, P still does it and he's 32!

We had a swimming lesson, the princess now goes under the water (when dipped by the teacher) and 'jumps' off the side of the pool with her eyes closed! I tried to maximise the rasberry blowing by getting her to blow bubbles under water but she hasn't quite got the idea yet, although she watched me do it very closely.

I'm not going to mention sleeping because it's the same old same old, except to say we have a new plan and if it works I will be one happy Mummy.

We still have 3 and a half teeth, she fell off P and hit her face on the wood floor and her 4th tooth seems to have shrunk? I don't think she chipped it, but if she did I know who was looking after her when it happened!
(What can I really say at least he wasn't sleeping as she rolled off the bed!)

We found a lovely new playgroup, and I made a new friend, but I managed to wash her phone number, whoops! Hope she comes again next week?

P's Mum was here for the month of Feb. It was very useful, being able to go have a shower without waiting for nap-time! Thank's Grandma!

It made me realise how much I miss my Mum though, boo. I hope we manage to get back to the UK sometime in the new year.

Visited with a friend today and her Mum was there. We like to compare babies as they are only a week apart in age. It's all in fun, but the race is on to see who is first to learn to clap their hands!

Watch this space!

Pickle says mumumumumum when she is sad, dadadadadad when she is happy. bubububub and blubblubblub.

where have i been!?!

I'm just really bad at remembering to write! But I will try harder!

Today I did day one of a first-aid course, and boy it was boring! I will be starting family-day care (childminding) as soon as all the bits in the house and yard are finished. I would prefer not to work but that's not just me hey?! And at least this way I get to stay with Miss pickle and not miss one minute!
So Daddy was going to look after The pickle all by himself today and I even wrote him out a timetable so he would know what to do. But my friend ended up doing the morning and Paul took over at lunch-time. Next week he will have to do it all by himself though!
We got this dragging kind of crawling going on, and it's all very exciting, have to get some stairgates on pretty soon, and lower the cot base before we have another accident... that would be falling out of the big bed because Mummy fell back to sleep and baby didn't ! Big bump and I felt so sick! I couldn't even eat my brekkie!
Three teeth too! First one came at 6 months, 2nd at 7 months 3rd popped out this week and looks like a 4th and 5th in the next few days! Poor cherub is suffering a bit with it, snotty nose and the sneezes, but she's generally such a happy little soul!
Sleep not much better, usually a good night (2 wakes) alternated with a bad night (4-5 wakes)
So getting some repreive but not enough to make me a fully functioning human being! I try to look at it as a privelige (sp? it's late!) but sometimes thats hard at 2 in the morning, but still... I am honoured to be her Mother.

So here's to the new years (who am I kidding?) resolution to write on my blog! cheers!