This Boy

Is getting teeth so fast i can't keep up! I think number 10 popped through last night - maybe number 11?? And it feels like two more are on their way. His teeth are really big and I think they give him a lot more pain than I remember Kelsea having. He is pretty good though - just needs medicine, bonjela and a little bit of milk to settle him. He is such a lovable little boy. Really affectionate and cuddly. He kisses and pats on the back and ducks and tilts his head to the side when he tries to get our attention. I also LOVE that he has spent more time in his own bed than in ours (apart from a horrendous 2 months where he literally was feeding every single hour through the night- you get THAT hey Aimee!!) He sleeps through the night now for the most part and has at least one goodish day sleep. He is loud and aggressive and such a BOY. We LOVE him so much.

Argh!!

I am so SICK of these!!!
WE have tiny brown ants that materialise in SECONDS! I got up this morning and looked at a cake I'd made last night - it was moving - I was SO annoyed - as it was really nice and my oven usually burns everything - plus I had run out of butter for the icing :( SO today we went to Jared's Folks to Pilfer some MINT from Lorraines lovely Herb garden....she gave us some to plant - which is just awesome as I love the smell of fresh mint. OH the mint is for the ants - my mum told me she used to use it in her cupboards when we were little....

Ants are amazing creatures. A few months ago I caught sight of a teeny ant pulling a spider which was MASSIVE in comparison - not sure what his plans for it were - didn't know that ants were carnivores!! (sorry its not that clear!!)

YAY

Never Thought I'd get excited by a couple of THESE!


Now I can use my car again! My thinking-outside-the box husband found two chunky tread tyres at the TIP for $0 !! BARGAIN!!!

SICK

So its been a yucky half week in our home! Both Children have been ill with a mixture of viruses/ infections/ asthma/ teething and temperatures. Its been pretty full on during the night especially sponging down hot little heads and trying to get the little ones to settle. Kelsea so good in the night - although she is also sick she will say to him "oh its all right darlin, mummy and Kelsea are here" etc. -very cute. It is such a pain as Eamon was starting to SLEEP through the night - no small thing for one of OUR kiddies!! Hopefully he will sleep again now that the temps have gone!

Kelsea is on a preventative puffer now. Which I actually think is working - as she isn't wheezing nearly as much. She has it three times a day. So glad it isn't Eamon who has to take it - it would be impossible!

Kelsea has become SO bad at sleeping. She doesn't sleep in her bed at all at the moment. Falling asleep on the couch where we often leave her then she comes in when she wakes to us.

Jared also has had one of the worst weeks health - wise that he's ever had. Lots of pain and illness.....going to see a specialist this week hoping to finally get some answers!

Sorry no pics (would have just been of tired looking people in a GROSSLY messy house!!)

Eamon can say a FEW words now
- Mum
- Dad
- Hi
- Ta
- Boo
- Lots of screaming and yelling :)

OH he also is DANCING so cute - wish i had a video camera to show you!

Uncle Chrish

Kelsea is such a bubbly excitable LOUD little girl who loves to SING and DANCE and ACT ( kinda like Jalen !!). But get her around ANY adult (bar mum, dad, and grandparents) and she clams right up. She won't even make eye contact with adults when they speak to her let alone speak to them. The occasional aunt may get a nod or whispered "please" and Uncle Stan used to get a lot of attention when she was very small, and for a little bit we thought Uncle Eden was going to get spoken to more than once!! We have often said 'oh she is shy' to explain her to people. But I now wish we hadn't as I have had her say to me "I a bit shy aren't I mum!" So its not a word i like to use anymore!

BUT give her half an hour with Christian and she is chatting and sitting with him. Playing chasings or tickling him. He is a natural with kids, and all his nephews and nieces adore him - i reckon if you asked each of them they'd all say HE was their FAVOURITE! Sorry we didn't see you much Chrish the week went too fast - you really should just move over here ; ) (are you sick of everyone saying that yet....well just do it and we will all be quiet!!!)

Liffey Falls

Today Eamon, Kelsea and I met up with Lorraine, Christian, Lisa, Kobe, Nicki, Maddi, Alex and Lincoln and went up to Liffey Falls. Its a lovely drive and not nearly as far as I remembered. When we got there we were a little early so the kids, Lorraine, Chrish and I went for the 1 minute walk to the "Big Tree" . It certainly was big - especially for where it was. Eamon and Kelsea played chasings around the tree with Grandma.


Kelsea is really protective of Eamon and wouldn't let him wander around - i told her to let him be for a bit then of course he went to the one spot he could fall and he fell and whacked his head on a bit of wood. (so glad Kelsea isn't old enough to say 'i told you so'!)

After everyone arrived we started down the track.

Nicki was really kind to lend me her backpack to carry Eamon in. It was a little uncomfortable on the way down and he felt really heavy - but I adjusted the strap on the way back up and though it was uphill it was MUCH easier.

It's so good to go to the rainforest again. I really miss going to places like Liffey and I'm not really sure why we haven't been doing more of it. I love the Myrtle and Sassafras trees and the MASSIVE Manferns. There are so many different little ferns also. I think that temperate rainforests would have to be my FAVOURITE type of vegetation - that and the Cusihion plants (they are so awesome).

The Falls were full of water and were glorious. Eamon got quite excited by all the water - and played spot - uncle - Chrish a couple of times ( he was darting everywhere - getting in the falls and all!)

Kelsea and Maddi had a fantastic time looking for fairies in the undergrowth. They were excited to find some purple Fairy jellybeans and collected them to put in the fairies cave.

All of the kids were soooo good. I was especially impressed with the three little boys. Kobe stayed in the stroller almost the entire time and was so good, Eamon was in the backpack and the only naughty thing he did was to throw his shoe in the river (he throws EVERYTHING at the moment - he has a strong arm too!) And Alex walked down and back up all on his own - no small feat for a two year old!

Thanks everyone for a FANTASTIC day :) (Check out lisa and chrish's blogs for AWESOME pics coming up)

OH Kelsea mastered the art of doing up her buttons on her pajamas tonight. Very proud mum and daughter :)

(how tired does she look - our resident NIGHT OWL!)

Risotto

So this is the FIRST ever risotto that I have made or even eaten. It was a chicken, mushroom and roasted tomato one. It was very time consuming and as I was making it I was wondering if all i was doing was a drawn out fried rice - it just looked like gluggy over cooked rice! HOWEVER I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome - the aborio rice is really nice and though it looked like it would be gluggy it wasn't at all. It was creamy and firm. Go figure. SO are there any Risotto making masters out there with tips on better flavour or technique (not sure HOW it should look or taste!).

A Trip To Glen Huon

On Friday afternoon about 2-ish we decided to go to Glen Huon for the long weekend. So while Jared was finishing at work I washed and dried all the clothes and got us ready as quickly as possible. I was so glad I'd done the house work that morning and the dishes were all done!
So about half past 3 we got away - only to be stopped at the very same police check as LISA! ONLY our car - unlike Nans - wasn't quite up to scratch - got in trouble for the muffler having a hole and a slightly smooth outer tyre (Jared was CRANKY!) ANYWHO! We luckily didn't get a fine - just a defect notice telling us to repair the problems in two weeks or our rego could be cancelled. There were HEAPS of Police and transport officers there -we even saw Simon Triffitt ( he had on some lovely blue gloves!)

SO we finally got going again (with a pretty cranky husband and Children who had WOKEN grrr and only went to sleep at Hobart!) We got out at Campbell town for them to run around and have some dinner. Then we stopped again at St Peters Pass so by the time we got to mums it was after 9 PM!! nearly 6 hours in the car! The kids were really good as usual though!

On Saturday we went to Salamanca Market - it was Soooooooooooooo HOT and Kels was really quiet and scared the whole time.(No wonder she was scared - this is the view she had most the day!!)

Eamon loved all the people but got sick of being confined to the pram. I found a ten dollar neclace that I loved but may alter - and Jared got some rock candy. That was about all our ourchases though i could have spent hours on my own and hundreds on goodies!



On Sunday we headed after church to Emma and Joels place at sandfly. They have a 20 acre secluded bush block. Their house is right on the edge of a 50m cliff over looking some river.

Emma and Joel

We all went down (Aunty Wendy, Uncle Rob, Zach, Seb, Annie, Em, Joel Tess and Hazel and US) the cliff to the river it has an AMAZING water hole one of the calmest and best i've seen. Emmas girls are so confident and natural in the water.

Our water baby!

Saturday night we all had tea at mums. She made her fabulous Lasagne (sorry all you fab cooks im sure yours is nice but it would never be this good!!!!) I'm slowly trying to do it the same...not there yet!! Lisa and Stan Halle and Archie came as did Jess Tyler James and Amy.

Eamon (13 months) Nana (56!!!) and Archie (7 Months)

Unfortunatley Jarod Liam and Ella were at their nans so Kels was fairly disappointed! Lisa made a choc cake to celebrate mums birthday and the girls loved it singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles!

Being Cheeky climbing Uncles James' fence

Kelsea (3 1/2) and Halle (2)

After The dinner we left the children (one sleeping the other hyper) with their nan and headed to Andrew's and Donna's where Andrew gave Jared a "practice" massage - he was really good and we had a great night! Was so good to go down - and I am slowly warming Jared up to the idea of living there ( it used to be a flat out NEVER!) Would LOVE my kids to grow up in Glen Huon.

Mum can we make a FAIRY cake?

This is a common request from Kelsea. I always say - "oh i need to clean the kitchen first" But she usually persists in asking til during Eamon's sleep we sometimes make one.


HOWEVER our oven is temperamental at the moment - and a cake that takes 50 mins usually in an ordinary oven BURNS after 15 mins.... the bottom was black and some of the top and sides so I had to "trim" it a little to make sure it didn't taste of charcoal.


Kelsea has taken after her mum in that the ICING is her favourite part (it tasted pretty yummy this time round - butter icing is the BEST).


Of course after our attempt tp use the tupperware piping concertina ball to decorate (the icing was too runny) we needed to put in a sparkly candle and light it and sing happy birthday to Kelsea!


Kelsea LOVES to help cook - she even cracked the eggs - saying she wouldn't drop them - and she didn't - hopefully she will end up a better cook than her less-than-gifted mum!!

(Oh by the way can you see the dryer in the back round? WE paid $10 for it at the op shop - almost NEW it had a missing clip on the lint filter - one mans trash is another mans treasure - at least this winter we will have DRY laundry for once!)

He Slept All Night

You good boy Eamon - think we'll keep you now!!

Of course Kelsea still made her regular midnite trip to our room - but by some strange stoke of luck spent the entire night on Jared's arm (usually she wants me) so poor Jared had a rubbish sleep (sorry Jazzy!!) But I was surprised as I still didn't sleep well - going to blame the bed for that!


k

Apple Pies and playing with "Mad"

They call each other "Mad" and "Kels" and they both call him "bhud" .

Today Maddi Came to play - Kelsea has been asking everyday to see her cousins - "mum when is Chloe and Maddi coming - they coming today" as soon as she opens he eyes its one of the first things she says - along with Good morning and where's daddy?? (the confusion that comes from having a daddy home for two weeks sick!) the girls got on really well and Eamon wasn't told off by them TOO much :) he just doesn't get the finer art of playing mums, dads and kids.

They ate and played and had a trip to chickenfeed and eventually crashed in front of the TV.


"Mad"

"Kels"

"Bhuddy"

In between all this wonderful play i baked two apple pies. Even macerating the apples before baking (sounds like I'm an accomplished baker hey!!) Wasn't happy with the pastry - rolled it too thin so hope the kids don't mind tonight!! (no pics of these as i don't want to embarrass myself ;)

Thanks for coming to play Maddi hope you guys are still such good friends when your 13!

A Hospital trip and ALMOST sleeping the night through!

Last night about 8 I rang the after hours Doctor as Kelsea's breathing was really fast like she'd been running flat out and she was wheezing aswell. The doc on the phone said to take her into emergency as it could be anything and to hard to tell over the phone. She threw the word Pneumonia in so I was immediately a little worried!! We waited a little while - which was ok for me as BONES was on :) SO after being assessed we waited for over an hour ( she had a temp at this stage too) in the ER when a doctor finally saw us and said she most likely had an infection (Chest or something why is it they never clarify anything at hospital?!?!) that had brought on asthma. SO they gave her ventolin - which she freaked at at first and then by the third time she was a pro! And also some prednisolone (not sure of spelling) to open her airways also antibiotic to take home!! so she is all drugged up! She was so good and actually happy playing lots of make believe games with me - even using the heart monitor clip as a "beeper" for library books and singing (when the nurse wasn't with us). Kels with all her drugs

The other news - put Eamon to bed at bout 7 last night - he slept through til about 3:30 am when I went into him and got him up - i gave him a drink of water - which he turned his nose up at and tried to rock him - but he was blowing raspberries on my arm. I wasn't in the mood after 2 hours of sleep to put up with another hour of that so i said good night put him in bed and shut all the doors. He screamed for i don't know how long as I fell asleep! THis morning I heard him wake just before 8am. Happy and excited to see me. HOWEVER he was BLUE with being COLD!! and his lips are still blue an hour later - even though he is rugged up. Need one of those all over sleeper suits I think!