Fairy Garden

In an effort to counteract some of the not-so-fun times Maysi Bird and I have been having lately, I am trying to invest some real quality time in her. Thing that are just about her and me, and things that she loves. I think some of her recent behaviour stems from her trying to adjust to her new role as big sister, and her now having to share Papa and I. So I’m looking for ways that we can make special memories and have some time out together.

Today, we made a fairy garden.

Yesterday, we ventured out in the rain and gathered our goods. Mayana chose plants and fairy stones from Bunnings, and we went to a little local garden-pot store who I knew sold little fairies. We found two fairies and a little glass clown, and some other little goodies that looked like they belonged in Fairyland. I think about spent about $20.00 all up, and we used a pot that we already had at home.

This afternoon, after her rest (during which no powder was distributed this time…) we went out to the veranda armed with garden gloves and spades and set to work.

Our fairies have a little bush of delicious smelling marjoram in one corner, a special fairy tree in the other, and six little fairy flower plants. I really hope they don’t all die! I gave Mayana the choice on plants, within a range of fairly low-maintenance varieties. They have a fairy footpath, lined with fairy stones and paved with silver glitter, and a special glass garden bed to sit in.

A fairy garden can never have too much glitter!

Mayana’s brilliant imagination kicked in straight away. I hope this can be a positive outlet for my over-imaginative little girl!

Our fairies also have some secret hidden treasure.

And I have one very happy little girl. I’m looking forward to adding bits and pieces to our little Fairyland, and watching our garden grow (fingers crossed!!).

And Reuben…? Well he was happy to be outside of the house, hanging out on the veranda in his cool highchair watching all the goings-on.

I love my kids.

Reuben // Two Months

My Darling Boy,

Two months! These days, these weeks.. they fly by. And you are growing, developing, showing us more of who you are.

1 day / 1 month / 2 months

We get lots of smiles now. You love your big sister, and she can always make you smile, except for when she touches your head with her freezing cold fingers in the mornings… that doesn’t make you so happy!

You always smile when I sing, “You are my Sunshine” to you. I love that precious little smile Reuben. You are trying so hard to get out a laugh, but I don’t think you’ve quite figured out how to make your voice work when you want it to. When you do manage to make a noise or a coo, you get such a surprised look on your face, and your mouth works hard trying to make it happen again.

You are still feeding well, gaining weight. I took you to your six week checkup, we tried a new GP, and she straight away started to badger me about your weight. When we went back to our lovely child health nurse she scoffed… you have been perfectly following the graph line on which you were born, and no one can expect any more than that. We took you to a community health clinic for a follow up check-up, and she agreed. You are meeting all of your current milestones, and then some. The nurse also commented on your beautifully perfect head. It’s true, your head is especially round and gorgeous… just like the rest of you is gorgeous.

You’ve had your first needles. You looked at me and asked, “What is happening to me!!!” and screamed your poor little heart out. But it was over quickly. When they fed you the Rotor Virus medicine, you scoffed it. The nurse commented that she had never before seen a baby who hadn’t spilled a drop! You coped well, one dose of panadol and plenty of sleep and you were right as rain!

I’m loving this time, where you are more awake, interacting more with us and showing us more of your personality. I still think you are fairly cruisy like your Papa, but you also like to let us know how you feel about things, so maybe there’s a bit of your Mama’s Dutch genes coming through yet.

You have found your hands, and they spend a lot of time in your mouth. It cracks me up, when you find a finger or thumb and suck for all you’re worth until it ends up popping out. Inevitably you then snap your fist shut, and when you move your hand back to your mouth you’re so shocked and confused as to where that handy little finger or thumb has gone to!

You are also playing with the toys on your baby gym now. You like to hit them and watch them sway, and you use both your hands and feet to make this happen.

You still sleep well. We are managing a least one good sleep every day, and a couple of shorter naps. The cold weather makes you more sleepy than usual. If only your sister felt the same way, maybe Mama could have a nap too! At night you go to bed anytime between 6pm and 8pm… depending on how your day has been and what we have been doing. You wake for a feed around 4am usually, though we have had a few days where you’ve gone through to 6.30am! After that feed you usually go back to sleep for another couple of hours. Your routine is not as structured as what Mayana’s was at this age, but people tell me that’s often the way with the second baby. Whatever we are doing it is working for you, and you seem to be happy and content so it works for me too.

Mr Reuben, your Papa and I love you so much. We are so blessed that God chose us to be your parents.

Love Mama

Footprints in the… powder

That my friends, is Mayana’s footprint. In powder. Powder that she sprinkled ALL OVER her room and mine. While I was preparing to have about 20 people over for Pete’s birthday dinner on Monday. Apparently she was making a beach. Of course she was.

This week she has also painted the front door and parts of the veranda with PVA glue, taken water into her playroom (which is strictly verboten) and wet a lot of toys and carpet. She has, in short, driven me to the brink of distraction.

I think Mayana and I are very similar in personality, sprinkled with a good dose of strong and stubborn Dutch genes. We are getting used to being together all of the time, and she is working out how to push my buttons. We’re muddling through, and I’m learning to be patient and to pick my battles. But boy some days are tough!

Hopefully when the sun comes out again, and we can be outside of the house, we’ll both be a lot happier. I love that kid, and her over-active imagination… but we need to train it to work for good!!

Week 9

This little man just keeps getting better and better.

I love him so much!

Show Season

You might remember last year that we took Mayana to our local show. This year, show weekend was cold, and rainy, and not conductive to a fun day out with a newborn and a three year old. We had totally planned to go though, and Mayana knew it. So we came up with a compromise; we would take her ‘home’ to the Sunshine Coast show instead!

Peter and I used to go nearly every year while we were going out, and would usually take my little brother and sister with us. I remember one year we just had my brother (6 years younger than me) and as we walked down sideshow alley all the vendors were yelling to us, “Come on Mum & Dad, give your boy a go!!” and how hilarious we all thought it was!

In any case, we have happy memories of the show, and knew Mayana would love it too.

Mayana has vague memories of last year’s show, but her main frame of reference regarding a show is the fair on Charlotte’s Web. As such, the most important things to her were to go on the ‘Fairest Wheel’ (just like Fern), to see a pig (just like Wilbur), to play a fishing game, and to see ‘firepops’.

Well, we made most of her dreams come true.

My parents came along for the day out (after babysitting in the morning so that Pete and I could have a breakfast date!!) and a great time was had by all.

Unfortunately we all had forgotten our digital cameras, but once again, thank the Lord for our phones… we managed to capture a handful of happy memories.

This was the moment she had been waiting for…. a ride on the Fairest Wheel with Opa!

Mayana grinned for the entire ride. There was not one bit of nervousness about her… though I can’t say the same for me… she could totally fit through those bars at the back of her seat!!!

After the Ferris Wheel, we decided to have a go at the dodgem cars. Mayana was an old hand at this, having gone on them with Opa at Easterfest. This time, it was Opa & Mayana versus Mama & Papa. There were only four cars running on our ride, and it was so much fun. No getting stuck in corners, and you could really get a good run-up to bump people. Lots of fun. Although having just typed this I’ve just realised why the bone under my knee is so sore and bruised!

Of course, no trip to the show is complete without a go at the clowns! This year Mayana won herself a ‘Barbie’-type doll. When she took it out of its packet the next morning, its legs stayed in the bag… a bit dodgy, but she was impressed.

One of my favourite parts of the show is the woodchopping competitions. When Reuben f.i.n.a.l.l.y woke up for a feed (so not complaining), we settled ourselves down at that venue for a while and watched a few rounds.

Reuben was so well behaved. He’s not a little squishy newborn anymore is he? He’s super alert and taking everything in. I love his guts!

Eventually we got around to the animals. We did see a pig, but his name was not Wilbur (a fact that made Mayana cry when she was tired and we were leaving and she remembered it). We did have a look up at the roof over his pen to see if there was a Charlotte, but no such luck.

She did however get to cuddle a very large cow, who looked as though she may have been pregnant.

And watched another old girl getting milked… man I know how she feels!!

The show also is home to a Rodeo, so of course we had to go and watch that for a while! One bull had us all in stitches, he just didn’t want to go back out of the arena. They sent out a couple of his mates to try and entice them but he led them astray and they ended up having 3 defiant beasts standing out there! It was quite hilarious watching them trying to bring them in. (Oh, and while we were there, my dad had Reuben on his lap, when he suddenly says, “Oops, I think he’s just filled his pants!….. no wait, it’s just my phone vibrating” cue bursts of laughter from all of us as well as all of the strangers who were in hearing range. It was so funny!)

The evening entertainment was lots of fun, with mower races, monster trucks, a lumberjack show (which included one guy shuffling to Party Rock Anthem – Mayana’s favourite song – whilst standing atop a 60-foot tree!), and of course, the FIREPOPS!

We had such a lovely day, and my two kids were superstars for coping so well with such a big one. I’m a sucker for a good show.. I hope we can make it again next year!

{playing along with Lou for Point + Shoot!}

My Girl

When I was pregnant with Reuben, my mum told me that when he was born, I wouldn’t believe how BIG Mayana would suddenly get. I can’t believe how true that was. When she walked in to meet her baby brother, I remember thinking, “Whoah!! Who are you and what have you done with my baby girl?!”

I don’t know if it’s being a big sister, or if she’s just growing up, but Mayana has really done a lot of growing up lately. She’s such fun to be around,  is caring and helpful, and makes me laugh out loud at last once a day. Sure, we have had our off days, and Mayana has her moments of defiance and independence, but for the most part, I love hanging out with that kid.

Here’s some of what she’s been up to lately…

We’ve been doing a lot of hanging out with Mayana’s best friend Hannah. These two girls are about 4 months apart, and completely adore each other. I hope it’s a friendship that lasts a long time.

Mayana has been watching ‘Once Upon A Time’ (the Mama-censored version) with us, and has fallen in love with Snow White. at least 80% of the time she insists that we call her Snow White, and almost always refers to her Papa as Prince Charming. Part of this new obsession is wanting to have hair like Snow White. I’m not completely sure what that means, but we do our best. So far we’ve tried plaits..

And we’ve tried rags…

She was a huge fan of these, and we had to do it two days in a row! The second day she had her curls for Kindy, and her teachers and friends were most impressed.

She’s so beautiful, it literally makes my heart hurt to look at her. I love her so much!!

We’ve discovered that our local library has fantastic Storytime program, which includes a story reading, songs and educational activities, followed by a craft activity. And it’s all FREE! It’s really great, and we’re planning to make it a regular part of our week. This is that super cool hat that Mayana made a few weeks ago.

As I’ve said before, Mayana absolutely adores her brother, and wants cuddles any chance she can get. She’s always coming up to him and saying, “Hey bubby, have you got a smile for Maysi??” And he almost always does. One day I was struggling to get out of the house on time, with a boy who wanted to be cuddled and a million and one things to do. I laid Mayana down on the couch, with Reuben on her tummy, and he stopped crying straight away. She laid there and patted his back and told him she loved him.. and within minutes he fell asleep! Mayana was in heaven, Reuben was asleep… and I could you know, brush my hair and stuff! Bliss. Since then it’s become a bit of a thing. Mayana lies on the couch and calls out, “Mama, it’s time for me to cuddle Reuben so you can get ready!”

She’s seriously the best big sister ever.

She’s also a proud Mama… to her baby doll Georgie. Lately she has had to come everywhere we go, and we have to stop so that Mayana can 'breastfeed’ her, burp her (always with a pukey cloth of course) and change her nappy. And we can’t go anywhere in the car until Georgie is strapped in!

One of the cheekier things Mayana has done lately is get into my makeup…

She came out with even more stunning eyelashes than usual, and some beautifully applied lipstick. I chose not to get cranky at her, because I can understand why she would want to be like Mama and try some makeup, and she didn’t make a mess of anything. Instead I told her that she needed to talk to Mummy before touching makeup, and we could maybe have a look together next time. Just quietly, I was actually pretty impressed with her mascara applying skills! And seriously, is anyone not jealous of those eyelashes!?

I’m working on a post of all the hilarious things Mayana has been saying lately. The problem is, every day she adds to it so it’s never quite ready!

Stay tuned… I’m going to try and get it up this week… I hope you’re ready for a giggle!

xx

seven & eight

Well blogging has obviously not happened for two weeks now! Life has though… and it has been a very busy and event-filled two weeks. More on that later though. For now… here is what you have all been waiting for…

Photos of the cutest little man around!!

[Week Seven]

[Week Eight]

My gorgeous boy! He’s the poor second child who doesn’t have half as many photos as his big sister and for that I feel awful. Thank God for my iPhone or there is a very real possibility that he would have none. I must be more diligent with this!!

Tomorrow Reuben will be two months old (!!), so I will save all my Reuben stories for then.

xx

6 Weeks!

Wow! We’re on the cusp of that bittersweet time where your baby stops being a newborn. Happy because your baby starts to come more alive with personality… smiling at you and playing… and life is no longer a blur of feeding and sleeping and crying.. but sad because there’s just nothing like those newborn squishy cuddles and milk drunk looks.

Nevertheless, my baby is growing, and the time is flying by very quickly. It’s true that it does go so much faster with the second! This week Reuben has been perfecting that gorgeous smile, and responding to Peter, Mayana and I with it a lot. We all absolutely love it.

I asked Mayana this week what her favourite thing about being a big sister is, and she replied, “Cuddling Reuben!” And it’s true, she does like to cuddle him any chance he gets. We all do.

At his weigh in this week Reuben has cracked the 4kg mark (well, in a clothed weigh-in so bare-weight he’s probably just under). He is steadily gaining weight and we are enjoying the fact that we don’t have to worry about whether he is growing ‘fast enough’!

So aside from all the puke (and believe me, there is still a whole lot of that!) and a few grizzly days, I have enjoyed my boy this week, and am absolutely loving those cheeky little grins.