Mother's Day '09

This Mother's Day (10.5.09) was my 3rd, but my first as a mum of two. Neal was on duty at church, and I'd planned to go too, but since we'd had a rough night with Erika, I chose to stay home with the girls. Neal got them into bed with me, where I fed Erika and got cuddles from Kira. Kira also gave me a card from them (with Daddy's help!). Later, we went to Neal's brother's house to see Neal's parents, as well as to celebrate our nephew's 9th birthday. But best of all, I got some photo's taken of myself with the kids, as well as some of the four of us. We don't have many photo's of me with Erika, or with both the girls, and I don't think we have any of the four of us, either - since Erika's birth it seems I'm the one behind the camera!

Erika - 3 Months

Erika is now three months (and one day!) old! I weighed and measured her today - 5.08kg, and 60cm long. That's the same length as Kira was at this age, but 300g lighter (funny, since Erika was 300g heavier at birth!).

Erika tends to feed 2-3 hourly still, but sleeps well at night - once she's crashed, that is. Sometimes she'll crash at around 10pm, but lately it's been more like 1-2am. But once she's down she'll sleep through til about 8-9am. I think she's having another growth spurt at the moment, so her pattern's a bit out of whack. I can't wait until she's settled again and sleeping better at night.

Erika said "Mum-mum" the other day! I'm sure it was just a sound she made accidently while she cried, but I'll take it all the same!

And she plays "peek-a-boo"! She does this a lot during her feed - pops off the breast, gives me a huge grin, then quickly snuggles back in and resumes feeding for a moment, then pops off again! She started doing this with her wrap the other day! She'd hide her eyes with the cloth, then peek over the top, then hide her eyes again! So cute!

I've made a start on her mural, but haven't gotten too far. Erika Skye has sky!! And a couple of hills, but that's it so far. It's hard to find time to paint, when she wants to feed so often, and Kira is often around, too. I really don't need her help with acrylic paints - can you imagine the mess?!

Entertaining Kira

Kira loves to sing and dance, draw, and read stories. Her 'dancing' is mostly jumping up and down, but sometimes she'll throw in some other moves - turn around, wave her hands in the air, clap, etc. She likes to dance to anything - nursery rhymes, kid's groups (like "Hi 5" and "The Wiggles"), right through to "Happy Hardcore" and "Trance" styles of music! She'll sing along, too - if she can't work out the lyrics, she makes them up! One of Kira's favourite songs at the moment is "The Wheels On The Bus". But after singing about the wheels, the wipers, doors, people, the bell, etc, Kira STILL wanted more verses, so the "Barber" version was born! Now that's all she wants to sing!

Ah-hem....

"Kira on the bus goes (hands over mouth) 'giggle, giggle, giggle',
'Giggle, giggle, giggle',
'Giggle, giggle, giggle'.
Kira on the bus goes 'giggle, giggle, giggle',
All the way to town."

"Erika on the bus goes (rubbing eyes) 'wah, wah, wah',
'Wah, wah, wah',
'Wah, wah, wah'.
Erika on the bus goes 'wah, wah, wah',
All the way to town."

"Mummy on the bus says (pointing her finger) 'Kids sit down!',
'Kids sit down!',
'Kids sit down!'.
Mummy on the bus says 'Kids sit down!',
All the way to town."

"Daddy on the bus says (on the phone) 'Fix my car!'
'I hate the bus!'
'Fix my car!'
Daddy on the bus says 'Fix my car!',
All the way to town."

But since we rarely take the bus anywhere (I think Kira's been on one once!) we often change it from "bus" to "car", and instead of going to "town" we go to "the shops"!

Kira's favourite story at the moment is "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". She 'reads' along (well, she's memorised the story, so knows what each page is about!), and even tries to climb the stairs by putting her foot on the book! She says she is Snow White, and Daddy is the Prince. But poor Mummy is the Old Lady! Not the Queen, but the evil Queen disguised as an old hag!! Thanks, Kira!

(Kira left Teddy Bear to finish reading her story whilst she went to brush her teeth before going to bed!)

Random Pictures Of The Girls

Look Who's Smiling?!!

On Tuesday, 31 March, 2009, I was playing with Erika (now 6 weeks, 1 day) on my lap, when I noticed her SMILE at me! I don't know if it's the first time, as I'm often distracted with Kira or other things I'm trying to do. But she doesn't do it all the time, yet, so I don't think she's been doing it for long. It took me a long time to get this picture! Worth the wait though, don't you think?

Picasso Kira

Kira loves to draw. Her favourite subject matter is faces, though fish come a close second. She loves to focus on expressions - happy, sad, angry, sick, silly, sleeping, and her newest favourite, pirate (complete with eye-patch)! She usually asks (demands!) us to draw these faces for her, but now she's learning to draw them herself. Here are her pictures: the top one shows a face (in red), complete with eyes, mouth, and hair.

The bottom one doesn't have hair (though it looks like it might), but does have a rather large nose! She tells us that the first one is a sad face; the second is a happy face. I think she's right!

Dad's 60th

We had our first trip away as a family of four on Friday, 27th March, 2009 - my Dad's 60th birthday! We'd been planning to go to Mildura for it, if we were adjusting to the new baby ok. As the day drew closer, we kept my Mum and sister informed, and somehow we ended up making it a surprise visit for Dad! He was pretty chuffed to see us walking up the driveway!! Unfortunately, Neal and I were crook with colds, but we weren't going to let that slow us down! We're just hoping that we haven't spread the germs.

Anyway, the trip itself went well. Erika slept virtually the whole way, just waking for feeds. Kira travelled well, too, keeping busy with her books, drawing, and her beloved teddy-bear. The trip, which usually takes 4-5hrs, took 6-7hrs as we had to stop a few times for breastfeeds. Kira loved the opportunity to run around, but thankfully she didn't give us too much grief when it was time to get moving again.

We loved catching up with my parents, who got to see little Erika for the first time (at almost 6 weeks), and it was great seeing Jeni and George again. Kira was excited to see her Gran and Gramps, and Aunty Jeni and Uncle George, too. We went out for dinner on Saturday night with the family and some of Dad's closest friends - another surprise for Dad. The kids were well-behaved! Erika slept most of the time, and Kira was quite content to sit at the table and draw. Just as well I came prepared!