Life.

So I guess it has come time for make or break for the sad neglected blog.  Life is just busy, but I feel I need somewhere to come and skite to family and friends near and far about how fab my little people really are! My plan is to post photos on here on a weekly basis. The upside of this is that it will make me take photos off the camera on a more regular basis. Today I took off 158 photos. That isn’t fun really. It means I then have to sort them all!!

We have some big news. Most will know that we found out in March that Jack has a hearing loss. It is considered mild-moderate loss that requires him to wear hearing aids to have “normal” hearing. So the 29th April finally rolled around, after a 6 week wait from finding out about the loss to the actual switching on of our little man! We are noticing big changes in Jack, particularly socially. Now he is joining conversations, sitting down and playing alongside his peers rather than playing chasing games A L L the time. Jack use to be the lion and ROAR while children would squeal with delight (most of the time), this was fine but it is just so nice to see him really engaging with people. He copied me the other day when I said to Meg “Coming Darling”, he had never said an “ing” word before, probably never heard that sound. Jack’s hearing loss means that he misses high frequencies. The higher the frequency the louder the sound needs to be in order for him to hear it. So with word like Meg and Dog, he doesn’t hear the “G”, I can’t wait for him to say Meg correctly. SO, watch this space! Great things ahead for our little guy!

Lily B – is off to school in just 2 weeks! I have such mixed feelings. I am super excited for her, she is completely buzzed about it all, but I just feel sad. I love being the Mother of 3 preschoolers (most days), I love our Thursdays when the awesome foursome are in action. I love the odd looks I get from other Mothers at Kindy Gym, when I turn up with my 3 monkeys. I love Mondays when Jack is at preschool and it is a girl only day.It is the end of an era, it is sad but so very exciting.

The other exciting news is….we having a moving grooving Meg! She is so cute and into life (and puzzle pieces, toy cars, fluff, cats tails) . She is up on her knees and can go a little way before giving up and going commando all the way! She can even make it down the wee step from the lounge to the kids room.  She is loving food. We are following Baby Led Weaning ideas, which if you google will come up with loads of info. Basically Meg eats what we eat. She enjoys an amazing variety of food, given my fussyness this is a bit of a challenge. I am going to go and buy gerkins just to try them out on her!!! She eats a lot of fruit, loves plums and oranges. Brocolli is a real fav, long may that last. She loves steak and croc-pot casserole is a real hit. I make a normal casserole and cut some of the meat into strips, lengths of carrots and kumara and chuck some long beans in about an hour from the end. Meg eats it all, sometimes more than Lily! Meg and I are taking my Mum out for Mothers Day lunch in the morning, fun!

Tim is great, madly obsessed with killing defenceless animals, maybe he just proves the whole evolution theory? The kids are loving having all the duck decoys out and setting them all up on the back lawn.  Also duck callers are a favourite toy at our place at the moment.

I think that is everyone caught up. So lots of things happening at the moment, lots of changes and a bit of juggling. Hence the update written on nightshift. My work is just great. Shift work is just so wonderful for Mums, it is my little time out, stretching that other part of my brain, newborn snuggles aren’t so bad either ;o) Perk of the job!

 

Photos to add, when I am at home tommorow!

Here are the promised pics of my cuties~

One of our big Lily B, nearly 5!

This is known as Mat time!

The gorgeous three!

 

That’s all for now! Happy Mothers Day

 

Missing In Action!

I think I need to change the title of this sad wee blog to “Neglected by Life”. Sorry! So a quick update of the last 3 mths. I noticed that I last updated at Meg’s two month birthday. Sadly we have just past her 5mth birthday! She is changing and growing so much. She is now a grand 7.12kg of gorgeousness! She has started nibbling a few pieces of food, fruit and vege. Broccoli is a firm fav, interesting to see if that lasts past 2years of age! We are following “Baby led weaning” guidelines, which if you google will come up with heaps of info.

So the last 3mths in a flash:

5.Christmas – great, we had two which the kids thought was just fab.

4.Camping – in the orchard at Katikati, lots of fun and Meg was a great camping baby.

3.Jack turned three! – we took him and the Whanau on a train trip that runs from Waihi to Waikino. Lots of fun especially for the resident train nut.

2.Jack started his Early Child Education at preschool. They have a compulsory 6hr session, but he does about 3-4 and then heads off for a kip, he is Jumpstarts best sleeper! Lily and Jack do three days each at Jumpstart, each having a day there by themselves and two days together. It means I can get a day with each of them home which is lovely to get some individual time with them while Meg sleeps.

1.I am going to be an Aunty (again). Greg and Sonya are going to have a little Southland baby. YIPEEEEE!!!

Miss Lily has headed back to ballet. She started briefly last year, full of enthusiasm but got a wee bit shy so we left it for 6mths and now she is super ready and doing great. Jack is enjoying kindy gym and swimming. Meg is so cruisy and enjoys all the outings but also loves the days she gets to stay home with just Mum and have some special Mummy-Meg time. Secretly Mummy likes these days too ;o)

I have been busting out the last couple of weekends and have done some nightshifts at work. So nice to be back and stimulate my brain even if it is at 3am. And nice to have newborn cuddles too.

Here are a few photos of the last 3mths:

Think that’s enough, one more thing to cross off the to do list!

 

FLOAT…Floaty

No picture for this post, the flash went off as I dumped the camera on the bathroom bench…to pluck Meg from the bath! Meg is two months old on the 8th, can you believe it! My tiny newborn is growing so fast. Anyway, we were doing the “three kids making a train” photo shoot in the bath and darling Jack was holding Meg for the photo, but he let her go and she did actually float for a second! Lily proudly announces “Meg floats”, yes darling she does. “Shall we call her Float, that can be her name” says that big sister, how about Floaty? So Floaty it is!

 

Family of Five

Our first photo as a family of five is a little fuzzy because it was taken on the timer. Super cute. Meg really enjoys faces and talking to us so what better place to be than at the table with us all. The kids thought it was great.

Co-Sleeping Kidlets!

 

And one of our Meg

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

 

Sisters!

Sorry, deleted that photo.  There are some flipping weirdos out there! On the stats of the blog it showed that the most common search of our blog was “little girl bath” – just sick.

My two wee girls, doesn’t Lily look so grown up! She is so super helpful and LOVES to babysit Meg for any random reason, such as me needing to go to the loo! I usually come back to find Meg amongst ponies and barbies but she doesn’t complain. Late this afternoon I took all three for a walk, the two little guys in the buggy and Lil on her running bike. I knew Tim was close to leaving work so he could do the rescue mission on his way home when he would come across us. Sure enough not too far from home Lily was sick of her bike and wanted to hitch a ride on the front of the buggy. It wasn’t too far after that that we found the Dad and he came and rescued Jack away, so the boys went home for some Man Time and us girls carried on our merry way….the two little girls fell asleep!

Did you spot those beady wee eyes! It was so lovely to get out for a walk, we really need some much better weather. We have had to resort to bringing the waterplay table inside!

 

Introducing…

Better late than never, our third wee poppet decided to arrive in her own time on the 8th September 2009. Meg Janina Biesiek was born at home on a lovely sunny morning after keeping everyone guessing and waiting an entire 40wks and 11days! Weighing in at a delightful 8pd 9oz or 3880gm she was lightest of the three of them. Just 15gms lighter than her big sis and a whole lot lighter than her loving big brother. She is just perfect and has slotted right in to make us a very happy but somewhat busy family of five.

 

Tim had two weeks off work which was fantastic. He kept the big kids entertained while Meg and I learnt the “Womanly Art of Breastfeeding” all over again after a 20 week break since Jack had left the nest. He was back at work on Tuesday just been and the week went really well much to my suprise and delight. Meg had a great first week and gained a whopping 380gm which was 10% of her birth weight. Ironic for the child of a neonatal nurse really. She hasn’t been weighed again but my midwife is coming on Tuesday so that should be interesting to see her growth in the last two weeks.

Instead of lots of writing I think I will pop up lots of photos of the last 2.5weeks so you can see our little muskateers in action. I am starting to get my knitting mojo back so need to go and embrace that! I have only knitted once or twice since Meg arrived although I did manage to do some knitting in early labour and then couldn’t remember where I was up to with my cable so had to get that sorted by my lovely friend!  Enjoy the photos and I promise to update slightly more often so you can all see our Meggie Mouse grow!!!

 

 

 

 

Better run! More updates soon ;o)

 

Gorgeous Little Baby Gift

Similar to Lily’s rainbow dress pattern is this little number called a “Milo” designed by the same fabulous knitter known as Tikki who you can find here http://tikkifabricaddict.blogspot.com/. One very clever lady. So it is a quick knit when doing the 3mth size. I am now doing a 3 year size for my wee man and it is taking a few extra days but I want to finish it by this weekend so he can show it off when we are away!

 

SO no, we don’t what flavour ours in-utero child is, this is for a friends new baby. The gorgeous wee Lauren Elizabeth.  Congrats guys!!!

And these are feet of my own little monkey

Lily also has a pair and I have one, need to get on to that! They are awesome and churn through the wool, which is sad but you know what that means…I neeeeeed to buy more!!!!

Not much else happening here. Yuk weather which induces loads of indoor play. We are heading to the big KK this weekend and the kids are staying with Grandma and Grandpa while we go to Tauranga for a wedding. Apparently we are also taking the dog. Because two children and a stomach aren’t enough of a mission for 5-6hrs in the car. Cheers for that in-laws. ;0)

Must run.

 

A Photo Update

My Darling wee lad. He is so cute and lovely. And incredibly helpful in his own wee way. The current joke here is asking Jack to shut the door to the hallway and adding “gently” to the request. Ofcourse the muscle man shuts it with a slam that shakes the entire house and thinks it is the funniest thing. I decided that I really needed to focus on gentle before the current youngest child becomes a big brother. We started with the door and it really didn’t work. So we moved on to the cat and that is currently a work in progress! Lets hope the word “gentle” enters his vocabulary in the next 9 weeks!

The poor guy has had such a bad cough that it has been making him spewk! I tucked him up in our bed this morning and let him rest, it lasted all of maybe 10mins but did produce this rather cute photo

 

I indulge my hippie side in a subscription to an American magazine…check out the air miles on the postage of this (whoops) called Mothering and it is just devine. It contains some really interesting articles on many of my fav subjects…attachement, breastfeeding, birthing (the gentle homebirthing kind) and ofcourse parenting. An article in the current issue was about creating calm and peace for your children and teaching them to relax (yeah, with my “gentle” child). It contained gorgeous photos of children soaking their wee piggies in a foot spa. I knew instantly my munchkins would be up for that and it has been a massive hit. I tried it out with Jack while Lily was at preschool and he loved it.

 

I want to do it with Lily too. She has a love for Lavender and often sneaks it in and puts it under her pillow to help her sleep so I am sure her eyes will light up if I give her some scissors and get her go and cut some for her foot spa. Might have to put that on the list for the weekend. She was incredibly impressed with me recently when I created this wee beauty for her:

 

It is known as a Rainbow Lily Dress and I found it on www.ravelry.com. If I was really cool I would link directly to the site and all that cool stuff but I am not! It is so cute. The pattern only goes to size 2 and the wool was hand dyed specifically for this pattern. I increased the cast on to fit a size 3, which has made it shorter than it should be. It is now actually a rainbow lily top but we love it all the same. I also contacted the clever woman who dyed the wool and asked her to dye some to make a size 3/4 and I think she might do it in similar colours to www.thewoolcompany.co.nz  “Orchard” which is now a discontinued colour that I love! My knitting career started too late for it unfortunately. So will wait in anticipation for that! I also have finished a wee pair of merino possum longies for bubs and have done another as well but only if it is born with one leg. Must finish that pair, because I am sure we saw two legs on the scan. Really need to run and rest, ready for my last shift at work in the morning. I am so looking forward to finishing. I am a bit over it to be honest. I just want to hang and nest with my little guys!

 

Winter at the Beach

Lots of news to tell but let me start with some photos since I have been organised enough to ensure the camera has a full battery to start with and have managed to take the camera with us, download the photos onto the computer and then upload them on to here!  Film cameras sound easy!

 

 

 

We have had such a great time discovering a new beach that is about a 10min drive from us. The best thing about this beach is that you can take your dog there in the winter and let it off the lead to play with all the other dogs! The kids think it is great and Pippa has a fab time digging with Lily. She digs like a mad thing and can reach water in about 10 seconds. This beach also has loads of sunshine in the late afternoon in the middle of winter. So much so that the Lily thought she might swim!! She is really wanting to find a “crittering dolphin” not that I have any idea what is so special about a crittering dolphin but obviously she has seen or heard something.

 

I keep procrastinating and thinking I must update the blog and let you all know what we are up to. The garden is looking pretty bare, although my capsicums that I grew from seed are still producing and we have had some pretty nasty frosts. I planted some brasicas a bit late, so will have to some how be all prepared to spring into action in the spring, between newborn baby feeds and toddler activities. The 10 week count down is on now. Our wee family member is due to make an apprearance somewhere close to spring just like Uncle Gregs calves. I have started filling the freezer and today made the baby’s birth cake. It smelt delicious while it was cooking. It is a chocolate fruit cake from Nigella Lawson’s Feast. The kids are very excited and love to blow raspberries on my tummy. A few nights ago Lily snuck into our bed and the baby was kicking up a storm, so lucky big sister got to bond with her new sibling and enjoyed some special time feeling him/her kick. The poor child was known as “The Third Child” for a long time but the other day we decided (Lily) that we would call it “sparkle”, which I think suits its personality. It is incredibly active which is a bit of joke as I have had very laid back children so far. My little man is now awake so must run, but have a few knitting projects to post about so will get back in the next day or so.

 

Because I am useless!

Ok, so started a big long story of the last 6 weeks or so but figured I would just do this:

20. Tim had a great time in Rarotonga, while gone the dog killed two of the chickens and I broke the lawn mower.

19. We all went to the Katikati wedding and had a blast.

18. Camping – was awesome. Kids were great, exccept for the early starts in freezing temps, but it soon warmed up and we had beautiful weather during the day.

17. We then went back to KK after piking a day or two early from the cold nights in the tent and the Mum and Dad had the most devine Thai meal in Tauranga while leaving the little guys with their grandparents who managed to feed them dinner, bath them and put them to bed. I guess they have done it three times before!

16. In KK we went to a bird garden and discovered that Mummy and Jack don’t like doves landing on them. Lily however loves and it and went on to cause a dove mosh pit when she scattered her bird food everywhere and then “encouraged” them to “stop fighting” while trying to kick the birds (her mother shakes her head and blames her father!).

15. Oh the cake for KK won rave reviews! and looked gorgeous.

14. We have a niece! Kendall Jane was born on the 12th March 09, the same day as Uncle Jonty’s wedding in Raro! She is exceptionally cute and Jack and Lily are very excited to have a new cousin.

13. kids travelled well while away, I lost my stomach a few times, especially after the Karangahake Gorge.

12. We went on a real life train from Waihi to Waikino which the kids just loved especially our resident Thomas fan Jack!

11. Home again…we all got colds!

10. The baby chicks and their mums went back to the lady who gave us the fertilised eggs. We googled “how to sex a chicken” and poor Tim went out there to sort out the roosters from the hens There was only about one useful website link the rest was……I will let you try it! It was really funny watching Tim and Lil try to sort them. We have kept three babies. I told Tim if they are all hens I will take him out for dinner, and so far we havn’t heard any crowing.

9. Pippa got another chicken. We managed to save it tho! There names are Sunshine, Blackie-whitey and Burley all named by the one and only Lily.

8. Lily tells every one that she is four and that she will be five at her next birthday. This all comes from been able to go down the slide by herself at the pool.

7. The wool company has released new varigated colours! This excites me no end! And very boy colours too. Have a look www.thewoolcompany.co.nz.

6. I finished Jack’s longies in Gems that I started last August and they fit perfectly and wear amazingly well. Wool pants are cool!!!

5. I am 20 weeks pregnant – where did that time go!!! Scan today. We asked them to scan over the genital area but not to tell us what they could see, just to let us sumise for ourselves. Lets just say we aren’t sonographers and couldn’t tell what was there and what wasn’t so we have no idea!

4. Speaking of no idea…i can’t believe how different this pregnancy is from the other two. I understand that been a boy and girl their pregnancies would be slightly different and they were but this one is just different again. I guess really it is a whole new person joining our family which is just so exciting. It is a very health conscious baby this one. I am in love with stir fries and herbal/fruit teas! And the more spice the better!

3. The Dad has to go to Auckland for work in a couple of weeks and is staying at the Langham which is exceptionally nice. He was flying back on my birthday…which made my Mummy brain tick! I begged my Mum (not that hard to do) and she is going to have the kids while I fly up to Jafa land on the Thursday night and stay till Tim comes home on the Saturday! YAY!! So great. We are going to go to a great Thai restaurant that Cristina and Jonty know of and a Te Pen Yaki bar. Will be fantastic. Check out the Langham www.Thelangham.co.nz

2. Oh another thing…..Jack starts preschool after easter! Just 3 hours on a Monday morning and Friday morning. Lily will be there along with Maddie and Charlotte and Samuel who he knows. We have been dropping Lil off for the last year and he cries because he wants to stay too. They normally have a minimum of six hour sessions which is why I hadn’t enrolled him and was waiting till he turned three but I spoke to the owner who is really lovely and she said YES!!!  He has changed such a lot in this past week because….drum rolll……………………….

1. He has weaned!!! I never would have believed it was ever possible. But the boobie monster has left the building. He now says “boobie -baby” ” Boobie-baby”. He is just growing up and communicating heaps more in his own little way. He is just so independent, he feeds the cats and empties the cutlery from the dishwasher. I really don’t know what happened to my gorgeous wee baby (thank god there is one on the inside!).