Morning tea with Santa

Santa is visiting Sydney Cove every day this week.  Today was Juliet's turn.  She was very brave and accepted her book with gratitude.

Hearing those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too

"Walking" up to the big man

Receiving her gift

Ballet photoshoot

I didn't quite manage to post every day in November.  It's been a big week and although I could have posted one liners on how tired we all are, that seemed a little pointless.

So, instead, for your delectation, a series of photos from Alice's ballet class's pre-concert photo shoot.  The big day is looming (two weeks to go) but today was the "try on your costume and practise hanging about for a long time" day.

Alice and her compadres were really good.  They waited a good 90 minutes before it was their turn and filled the time with dancing, swirling, whirling and doing each others' hair.

Thank goodness they are not required at the dress rehearsal next week.  I'm rather hoping that she doesn't want to do ballet for very many years - concerts seem to take whole days out of your lives just near Christmas.  And that's just for a pre-schooler on stage for 5 minutes.  Happily we are at a very non-pushy school so the kids and the Mums had fun today.  They are going to be flowers at Princess Aurora's Christening (the production is Sleeping Beauty) if I have not already mentioned that.

The world according to Alice

Some choice excerpts from my big girl today:

- Explaining a commercial break to (a slightly disinterested) Juliet: "It's OK Juliet-y.  Dora will be back on in a minute.  It's just an adult"

- General remarks while driving: "Mummy...um...Mummeeeeee....when I'm big, you can give me your clothes, Mummy.  Like your pink skirt that I like.  When I'm a Mummy, I'm going to have two little girls.  I'm going to call them Mummy, because that's a name I like"

- Putting on an apron to do some fingerpainting:  "I like painting, Mummy.  I'm an Auntie"

Precious little angels

They're so cute when they're asleep

That back to school feeling

Not much of a post yet again today. Went back to work leaving Spotty with a nice but strange (as in unfamiliar) lady. Stu managed to leave at lunchtime so he and Juliet apparently "had a ball" this afternoon. She had spent the morning at Fairlight Beach so it was quite a good day for her. Alice and I got the bus into town. She was completely angelic both there and back, bless her. It was great to be back in the world if work with heels and smart clothes but the anxiety of leaving Little J with a stranger and trying to stay awake all day (with no episodes of Made in Chelsea at lunchtime neither) has exhausted me. More soon.

Break for the border

It's funny having a small person who defines the old cliches "into everything".  Alice was quite sedate, as I remember.  Although famously late to walk, she was incredibly speedy on her knees.  We didn't have to do much childproofing as she didn't seem to get into much trouble.

Juliet is your archetypal "into everything" nearly toddler.  Drawers are opened, cupboards are ransacked, saucepans are banged.  Tupperware containers are foraged, plug sockets are switched on and off, logs are removed from the fire and room are snuck into with their doors closed stealthily behind her.

She is still talking all the time, but not articulating many words clearly.  Stu and Alice returned from an aborted swimming trip today (the swimming gear having been left by the side of the road by a tired father) and we're sure that Juliet said "Daddy and Alice!" but it wasn't really discernible to the non-familial ear.

This photo typifies the differences between them.  Alice smiles sweetly for the camera while Juliet makes her bid for freedom.

Spot update: still spotty.  Last minute childminder booked to take care of her tomorrow so that I can at least show my face at work on Day 1.

Happy Birthday Daddy

Not much time today, as we are celebrating Daddy's birthday with trips to the beach, restronks, Jersey Boys and oh, you know, actually seeing him after the past 3 weeks of him working 19 hour days.   That might even be an understatement rather than an exaggeration.

We've had that first beach trip where you discover you all need new swimwear and forget most of the things you need.  However, we all had our sunnies handy.

More tomorrow x

Clever girl

So, not sure if that will have actually been the last day of maternity leave or not, as Juliet is now incredibly spotty and won't be able to go to daycare on Monday if she still looks as she does today.

The doctor this morning said that she has a virus of "an indeterminate nature" but which doesn't fit the bill of any of the major ones.  We are still to keep her away from pregnant people and other young children.  She does seem perkier today, but the spots have got worse as the day has gone on.

So brave girl Alice went to ballet on her own while Juliet and I quarantined ourselves on the Corso.  She had a grand old time.  Later we wrote Stu's birthday cards and I must admit to fairly bursting with pride.  We've been working on "Alice" for some time, but she managed "Dad" and "Daddy" to varying degrees of success by me spelling out the letters for her.  As with everything, she has been completely disinterested in writing until she has got the hang of it.  Now she's very keen.  I'm wondering whether, with some intensive coaching, I can get out of writing the Christmas cards this year.

The "e" is that big, purely to annoy me, since I asked for "little e"

Took a few goes...

Got there in the end!

Last Day

I spent my last official day of maternity leave with Juliet looking around the high school that she might attend in 11 years time.  Surreal, but true.  Oh my, what a place.  Disregarding the fact that it took over and hour to get there because of the traffic/a bad accident/the rain, I would consider pawning one of the girls to make sure we could afford to send the other one there.  Hopefully by the time they go to high school, there will be school buses to and from this area (Pymble).

It was like being back at St Paul's.  Every girl that we passed was delightful, the facilities were to die for (gym used by US Olympic team for training for the Sydney Olympics), 700 seat theatre, a music building, lecture theatres, and really anything and everything the young ladies of the Yardley household could dream of.  Of course, Stuart will be dreaming that they pass the entrance exam to the local selective free school, but we'll see.

All this and the school dress is black watch tartan.  How lovely.

Juliet and I made the journey home in a more palatable 30 minutes and spent the rest of the day sleeping off last night's wakings (Alice 1.48am, 2.28am; Juliet 3am, 4am, 6am) and reading quietly (me reading quietly, her shouting loudly if there was a gap of more than a few seconds between books).  Unfortunately the excitement must have been too much for her, as she's developed a rash and a temperature.  Not liking the combo, we're off to the doctors at 8.15am so I'm off to bed now to prepare for what might be a long night ahead.  Night all.

Standing Upping

For someone who is so keen to applaud her own efforts, Juliet has been surprisingly camera shy about her attempts at being vertical.  Either that or she stands and smiles beautifully and Alice stands right in the way, also smiling beautifully but looking slightly less impressive in the act.  I finally got a photo yesterday, but she looks as bit shifty.  The second one is a bit blurred, but captures her pleasure a little better.  Also captures the fact that we have way too many toys in this house, but that's besides the point.

The crab

Describing Juliet's movement as such is being generous.  I'd say she looks more like an amputee.  She is pretty darn speedy.

Still, I wanted to capture it for posterity.  Photos of her standing to follow tomorrow, when I have charged my camera battery, I promise.

Alice Ballerina

I can safely say that the gruesome images from "Black Swan" have been erased from my mind after Alice's ballet class took to the floor to dance the role of the heavy thumping cignets on Friday.  They flapped and flew, they waved their little wings and fluttered loudly past the adoring Mums (and Nannies).  It was the second joyous ballet class we have had since she started lessons in September.

Slow to settle, Alice has now firmly found her feet and loves this class.  She seems to have got the hang of some social norms or tricks to make it better for herself.  For example - there's a part where they all have to get into pairs.  Since she didn't know anyone at the start, this was awkward.  After several weeks of encouragement to grab someone else who didn't have a partner, she now smiles warmly at whomever is nearest and reaches for their hands.  They cavort wildly up and down the room and then all try to get a turn with the teacher, Miss Jessica.  Having achieved this much desired goal, Alice went over to one of the very little ones who usually spends most of the lesson crying or trying to undress, smiled sweetly, bent down with her hands on her knees and asked her to dance.  It was very touching.

The rest of the class passed beautifully.  They rehearsed their part in the upcoming production of Sleeping Beauty (they are flowers), about which Alice is bursting with excitement.  We have (compulsory) photo shoot next Saturday, dress rehearsal the following week and the concert on December 10th.  I was unsure of how far she'd get in that mothers are supposed to leave them at the stage door, so I have now been roped into helping backstage, which is giving me further Black Swan nightmares.  I'm not going near the bathrooms, that's all I'm saying.

Milestones

We've made some progress this week. 

Firstly, Alice has been out of night nappies for a week now and so far so good.  I wanted to wait until she would definitely not wake me up in the middle of the night if she needed to go and touch wood...we've made it. There was a bit of confusion on Night 2, when she appeared at 5am having had "an accident in her bed" because she thought that Big Girls didn't wee in the night, rather than didn't wee in their bed in the night.  So she had been desperately holding it in, poor thing, rather than availing herself of her rather handy ensuite.  Now that has been cleared up (literally and in Alice's little head), things seem good.  Touch wood.

Secondly, Alice and I were bickering about something or other yesterday morning when we were derailed in our tracks by the sight of Juliet standing up against the bed, beaming from ear to ear.  We ceased our squabbles and applauded her, at which point Littlest joined in and fell over.

Now standing up is her favourite thing - she'll pull herself up on anything and anyone and this evening started cruising along an activity table.  There'll be no knee walking with this one, this I swear.  Will try to take a photo tomorrow.

Feeding the giraffes

Just a quick note - Alice and Stu fed the giraffes on a behind the scenes tour at the zoo today.  Alice's birthday present to her Dad.

Alice's facial expressions merit special attention in these photos!

And we finally timed our visit in good time to see the tiger cubs - their routine is stricter than Little Jamie Kurtz's:

Balmoral

The girls and I had a lovely afternoon at Balmoral Beach this afternoon.  It took a whole 10 minutes to get there and is just such a gorgeous spot.  There's a shady park, shade over some of the beach, a very handy ice-cream seller and we had a lovely time with my old work friend Louise and her little baby Jack.

We're going again on Sunday if this summer weather holds out.  There were a couple of weddings taking place too - one in the bandstand and one on Rocky Point.  Alice climbed off the buggy board twice to point at both brides, stare, smile and exclaim (breathlessly and loudly), "Look, Mummy, doesn't the pretty lady look so beautiful!".  So this afternoon, the nagging has moved on from, "Can we put up the Christmas tree", via a small respite in, "Can I take my birthday invitations to Seals on Monday?" to the unfathomable "Can we write my wedding invitations when we get home?"

Christmas is coming

It is important firstly to acknowledge the birthday of the year.  Happy Birthday to Auntie Rosie and Auntie Ruthy.  Hope you enjoy the party of the year.  Alice is very upset that you are having a party without her and wants to ensure that there will be party bags.  So if you could get back to us on that one, that would be great.

Once this birthday and Daddy's birthday are over there's nothing to stop us hurtling at breakneck speed towards Christmas.  Helpfully, they have already started preparing for it at Seals.  I guess they have a lot of hours to fill in a day.  Today they made crackers or bonbons, as they call them here.

Proud Mummy moment came from the daily report describing how they all made a snowman out of boxes,which they painted white.  (At 31 degrees you have to make do).  Alice showed quite good scientific knowledge, I thought (or she's more likely been watching a snowy Charlie and Lola episode):
"During lunch, we asked the children what other materials we could use to make our snowman more ‘life like’. Hayden suggested we added snow but the idea was quickly retracted when Alice pointed out that it would melt!"

With the secret that Christmas is coming out, there is nothing to stop the daily requests: "Can we put up the Christmas tree", "Can we wrap up some presents"; the worries about Santa coming into bedrooms, the endless "Can I have this, can I have that for Christmas" as you walk around the shops.  On the upside, the threat that Santa won't come can start soon too.  Brilliant.

Alice was making her mental list of presents in the car tonight.  She got to one and stalled.  Then she thought of something else before hesitating.  Sadly she sighed, "Mummy, Santa won't bring two presents, will he?"

"No, I replied, silently congratulating myself on raising such a non-greedy little person.

"He brings loads and loads and loads, doesn't he?"

Peepo!

I write from the hammock on my balcony on a summery evening after a scorching hot day.  My kir is getting warm so I can't stay long.

Juliet has but two desires at the moment.  One is that you read to her.  She can get quite aggressive - bashing one's legs with a board book while dinner preparation is underway or angrily swotting away a rival title if you try to read anything but "Where is Maisy's Panda" or the "Guess how much I love you" series.

The other is that you play "Peepo" with her.  Alice and I spend most of Juliet's waking hours doing this.  In fact as soon as you go into her room in the morning, she will start up a game. It's very endearing.  I don't know at what age they realise that just because they can't see you, you can see them.  Alice still hasn't got that.  Hours of fun for Juliet, in any case.

"Where's Juliet?"

"There she is!"

If anyone needs me...

....this is where I'll be for most of the summer...

If I can get Alice off it.

Settling into Stingrays

Juliet has been going to Sydney Cove for a few weeks now - a place came up for one day a week and we had to take it or lose it.  I've had some lovely Mondays "off" - mainly spent doing the washing/ironing etc, but also fitting in the occasional movie, meetings at work and a regular spin class.

This morning we dropped her off as usual and for the first time there were no tears.  It was a lovely breakthrough moment.  I can't wait until she's walking, as she looks so small compared to the other bipeds, but she seems to be settling in well.  She has been doing actions to some songs that they have learned there, at home and when I asked her if they had been singing songs today, she fortuitously replied, "Yeah" and started to clap.

Here she is having fun.

Are you working late again, Daddy?

Both girls are now quite good at speaking on the phone. Alice can have a real conversation with a real person and Juliet can hold one of her many toy phones or any other passing object up to somewhere near her head and say, "Allo-lo, Daddeeeeeee". Tres cute.

Stu returned from work at 2.30am last night (Saturday) and thought he didn't have to be back until midday. But by 9am this morning (Sunday), he was back on the road because the situation had changed. It's pretty incomprehensible to us mere mortals how this can happen and Alice, in particular, was very confused. We managed a brief chat with him tonight most of which consisting of her asking "Will you be late again tomorrow night, Daddy?". "Have you already eaten dinner, Daddy?". Poor him and poor her. I hadn't even put her up to it. Hopefully she might get to talk to him in person one day soon.

No photos and boring post today. Trying from my phone and photies won't upload. More tomorrow.

Juliet's fun day

Alice and Juliet have had a great day today.  Juliet in particular, has had lovely fun.

As a reward for good behaviour around the supermarket, the girls went on their favourite Wiggles ride at the shops:

Later, we discovered Manly Dam, a gorgeous local lake we shall be revisiting many times.  Juliet had fun on the swing.  One photo of her having fun and one of her chubby little leggies for my Mum:

Then, to celebrate the 4 hours that Stu managed to be away from work this weekend, we went off for dinner at a beachside "restronk" (an Alice baby word that we are very unwilling to relinquish).  Juliet hoovered up her own meal and then set to work on Alice's pizza.  It was her first pizza (such a momentous occasion - so proud) but to watch her eat it was to be transported back to the days of the Tudor court, watching Henry VIII tuck into spit roasts.  She tore at it with her 3.5 teeth and devoured pieces noisily with juices flowing freely down her chin(s).  Taking a hearty swig from her water bottle, she'd then sink her gums into more, tearing at the cheese or the dough.  I can't speak for Henry, but as a nice and throroughly unroyal touch, she finished off the meal by noisily pooing.  What a little savage.  Alice ate her ice cream in a typically demure fashion.



The Manly Daily

It's been a very long week, so I'm just going to use this post to capture some old news, for posterity.  The girls are I were recently snapped to fill in some space in the local paper.  We just happened to be in the right spot at the right time at a "La-La's Big Live Band" concert and the photographer took a quick shot.  He spent ages trying to get Juliet's name right, but in the end - as evidenced below - failed.

It's just a local paper that comes every morning to our whole area (except us - I have a note on the door saying not to deliver it, as I think it's a waste of good trees) but it's amazing how many people do actually read it and who saw the photo.   We were quite the celebrities in the local cafes for a while back there.

More up to date news tomorrow.

Rhyme Time

Juliet has recently developed a love of books.  It feels quite sudden, but perhaps we are just being more disciplined in reading to her several times a day.  She will often trundle off, procure a book and plonk herself on your knee, all ready.

I must have been extremely keen on getting Alice reading, as I think that we must own every board book on the market.  This is only to Juliet's benefit, although if you try to read something other than "Maisy's Panda" which has flaps for her to open, then she can get quite miffed.

However, one new favourite is a nursery rhyme book from Little Friend Ella, for her first birthday.  This one is my favourite too, as Alice can "read" it to her and I get to faff around on Facebook or, in this case, make breakfast.  They huddle together, little blonde heads touching and Alice sings the nursery rhymes, while Juliet "harmonises".  It's quite lovely.

Like the Dandelions do

Alice loves a dandelion clock.  Many a roadside whine has been abated by a handy weed.

As it is with many things - sport, weather, skin cancer - Australians do it better...and tougher.  Dandelion seeds here cling to their seed heads and it takes a darn good blow to separate them.  Alice works hard, but we have stopped counting the hours by her puffs.  That and she has taken to asking the (somewhat existential) question of "What does 2 o'clock mean?".  It's enough to start a roadside whinge from her mother.  Now we just huff and puff.

NaBloPoMo

Here in sunny Fairlight, we have decided to give the whole blogging malarkey one last go.  It's National Blog Posting Month, where the gauntlet has been thrown down by some mysterious blogging Overlord to write a post every day.  I think that as with most things in life, I'll throw myself at it headfirst, be obsessively keen a while and then get bored and move on.  So this will be one last ditch attempt to resurrect this little online diary before it gets archived for Alice and Juliet's later embarrassment.

An inauspicious start - it's 8.45pm and I'd like to settle down in front of the telly, so this will be just a brief update.  My lucky ol' readership of not many have another 29 episodes to anticipate, in any case.


Yesterday was Halloween.  Apparently we live in a Trick or Treating area, so we bought a stack of sweeties and Alice eagerly planned her costume.  As with any fancy dress event, she wanted to go as a fairy.  She came home from Seals on Friday with a slight twist at the last minute and wanted to be a fairy godmother, but as that required no additional effort on my part, I happily agreed.

Juliet did not express a preference so was clad in Alice's handmedown Halloween pyjamas, which very sweetly read "Bite Me" and had a particularly cute silver ghoul on them.  Getting dressed was never so simple.

We watched the other children going into the daycare building with glee.  The split of costumes was 30% pirates; 30% Spiderman; 40% other (including our heroine - the fairy Godmother, a racing driver, a super hero with fake abs, a pumkin and Wonderwoman).  Such fun.

Alice's teacher was dressed as a skeleton and in true Sydney Cove style, they spent most of the day learning the names of the bones in an most educational fashion.

When it came to it, no Trick or Treaters called, so we had a stack of sweeties to enjoy.  A very successful day.

More tomorrow, it would seem.