Family Trip to the Park

Today was such a lovely day that we decided to take a family walk and stop at the swings half way. It is our usual walk with the family. We take the dogs and head off into the Papakowhai forest. The dogs get a good walk and the kids get a play at the park.

Today I realised (again) that our kiddies are quite different from each other. Emily has always loved the swing. Even from a very early age. These days she loves to go super high (which scares her Mum somewhat) so going to the park with Daddy is much better because she goes much higher.

Declan on the other hand isn't that interested in the swing. In fact today he was more interested in his buckle...... 

or his big sister.

 

Then Daddy tried the slide and again.....not much emotion there either.

Emily decided that Sophie (her baby) really wanted to have a slide so she climbed over the tricky bridge with Sophie in her hand, so her little baby could have some fun! Of course Sophie loved the swing too.

Declan was more interested in the squishy mat on the ground! Funny boy.

Not much has been happening lately at home. Lots of sleepless nights (with both kids coughing) and little challenges with Emily. We have started a star chart for her and it has been working. She gets a star if she 'Eats all her dinner', she 'Goes to bed on time', she 'Stays in bed' and she 'Brushes her teeth'. 

Emily has also been a little sensitive when it comes to her beautiful curly hair. If anyone mentions it she gets kind of upset and mentions she wants 'Down hair' - long straight hair. Nana told her the other day that she has lovely curls, just like her Daddy. Her response was "I don't want curly hair, I want down hair like Mummy". One day she will realise that everyone always wants different hair to what they have!

One funny thing that Emily said this last week after we visited Great Grandad at hospital was that she has 3 Grandads. 'Tickly Grandad' (Jo's Dad), 'Normal Grandad' (Matt's Dad) and 'Other Grandad' (Jo's Grandad, and Emily's Great Grandad). So cute how they work out the differences sometimes! 

We are also very pleased to say that we don't have any family members in hospital anymore. Great Gran (GG) came out of hospital 1.5 weeks ago after spending 3 weeks there. Great Grandad came out of hospital on friday after spending nearly 2 weeks there. We are thankful they are recovering and resting at home and hopefully are a lot better really soon!

Have a great weekend.

xox

Time on the floor with Mummy, My sleeping bag and bib!

We are trying to encourage more time on the floor so Declan gets use to it and hopefully will be happy there for a little longer than 5 minutes! Also, it would be nice if he was happy enough, so a trip to the bathroom for Mummy doesn't mean that Declan ends up in tears.

Anyway we had some time on the floor and Declan was interested in his sleeping bag that Mummy just took off him, his bib and of course his Mum!

Shopping with the kids.....

Well today we ventured out to the shops because it is Matt's Birthday tomorrow. Emily really wanted to get Matt a present and has been saying for weeks that he really wants a Lightening McQueen racing car. So off to the shops we went. We had a look in few places and really couldn't find anything that didn't cost the earth. Emily seemed to find the most expensive things! After about 10 minutes Emily said "This is boring, I want to go home". I told her that it means we won't have a car to give Daddy, but she didn't seem to care. We got in the car and were driving and she pipes up and says "Daddy is going to be so disappointed that we didn't get him a racing car". 

We went and visited Daddy at work and she said to him "Daddy, we didn't get you a racing car. Your watch will have to do" (he already was getting a watch for his birthday). Kids are funny - the reason we didn't get him a car is because she was BORED!

Declan has been very cute with his babbling lately. He has been saying "Bub bub bub" for a while and has even said "Dad dad dad" and then yesterday he started saying "Mum mum mum". I know he doesn't mean it in context but it was so nice to hear.

8 Months Old Today

Well Declan has reached 8 months. I think more amazingly his parents have reached 8 months. What a hard 8 months it has been! We thought we had turned a corner at about 6.5 months but really it was quite short lived. When Declan isn't drinking a bottle or eating food he can be a pretty happy boy so that is fantastic. Lets just hope the battle of food gets easier sometime soon! Happy 8 Months my little boy!

Our Poor Dogs

Well the dogs in our house have a pretty good life most of the time. They get to lie by the fire, sleep inside, get walked everyday and get fed! But some of the time the kids make their lives interesting.

Emily is constantly telling the dogs "No Sammy, No Flynny, Go away" Or "I was wanting to sit by the fire Sammy, Move!"

Declan however can't talk but is quite interested in them. He grabs their fur when he can and they just lie there. One day when my brother Brad was here I said to Brad "Can you just watch Declan for a moment", I came back into the room and Brad was somewhat distracted by Emily and Declan had Sam's (our Black Labrador) foot in his mouth. 

Today Declan was interested in Sam and these are the pictures I took

Our Two Monkeys

Well this post isn't really about anything. I took some photos of the kids today and just decided to put a few up.

Monkey 1

Monkey 2

The Monkeys together

So there you go. Just some Pics of our little ones that make our lives busy busy!

The Food Battle

Well the little boy in our house is a challenge. He doesn't like bottles (because of his reflux) and solid food he likes a little better but most meal times include a lot of crying and shoving food in his mouth while he screams! We are hoping this improves because it can be so frustrating! He likes holding the spoon himself and it would be great if he could feed himself, but he usually tends to put the wrong end of the spoon in his mouth.

Emily said.....

The other day Emily was talking about bedtime....

Emily: "Daddy, can you put me to bed tonight?"

Matt: "Sure"

Jo: "Can't I put you to bed?" (pretending to cry)

Emily: "No"

Jo: "Oh" (pretending to cry again)

Emily: "Say Please Mummy"

Jo: "Please"

Emily: "Um.......NO"

I was preparing some vegetables in the kitchen and I sliced my finger a little bit with the knife, it hurt and I said "Ouch". Emily comes into the kitchen

Emily: "Oh have you hurt your finger Mummy?"

Jo: "Yeah I cut it a little with the knife"

Emily: "Oh, I don't care"

Then Emily walked off

Matt was having a conversation with Emily the other night....This is what Matt wrote down in the diary...

Today Emily told me that I am Moose and she is a Princess. She then asked why Moose's grow up? I told her that they need to get big and strong so that they can look after themselves. Just like she would grow up big and strong and look after herself.

I said that Mummy grew up and moved away from Nana and Tickly Grandad's house, and I grew up and moved away from Gran and Grandad and that she would move away from Mummy and me one day.

She looked really sad and asked "Can I marry you Daddy cos I love you"


Just now, Emily was on the floor with Declan
"I love your little ears Declan, You are growing up so fast, soon you are going to be a big boy"

Just for Nana

We decided to a special post today Just for Nana! Emily and Declan's very special Nana is in hospital recovering from her Hip Replacement!

Emily was drawing a picture for Tickly Grandad this morning because he was coming over to do some work at our house. She started drawing him with curly hair and then I said "Grandad doesn't have curly hair". Emily said "Oh yeah". After a few minutes she said, "Nana has curly hair Mummy, this is her". So here is the picture. The one on the right is Nana.

Then we decided to take some photos of the little Frater people just for Nana.

 Love you lots Nana. Look forward to seeing you soon

Mummy's Little Helper

Today Mummy was doing some cleaning. Lately Emily has been going into the linen cupboard and getting a facecloth. She wets the facecloth and proceeds to clean as well. Emily wanted to help clean the wooden chopping bench today. She was a good helper. Such fun can be had doing the strangest things.

Splish Splash, I was taking a Bath.....

So the two little people in our house haven't shared a bath in a very long time. When Declan first went into the big bath they had a bath together. Here is a photo - Declan was so little.

Emily decided she didn't like bathing with Declan because there wasn't enough water in the bath and she had to be a little bit gentle in the bath. She decided that she would wait until he finished and get in after him when Daddy put in more water. Then she decided she was a big girl and she would shower every night.

Last night Daddy asked if she wanted to have a bath with Declan because he now sits in the bath. He loves it and splashes about and plays with some toys. Emily must have enjoyed it too because she got back in with him tonight.

Ollie's 3rd Birthday - The family Party

We had a little party to celebrate Ollie's (Lisa & Quentin's littlest boy) 3rd Birthday. Emily was very excited about the party and wanted to go to it on Saturday even though it wasn't until 3pm on Sunday. We had the party a little early due to the fact that my most amazing mother (Tracey Winkel) was having a hip the next day (monday). 
Emily was still getting over her virus and really she still is. She seems to be still very tired and little things can make her cry. She got quite upset at the party a few times due to various things.
However the birthday boy seemed to enjoy himself and he got some awesome presents. Lots of 'Cars 2' Lego which I think he thought was pretty cool. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the Birthday Boy. I didn't get my camera out early enough and then I just didn't seem to catch the speedy boy. I got some photos of our kiddies and some other family members - so here they are!