Are we there yet?

Well it's only 3 weeks and 3 days (yes i am counting) til the big day. The days are dragging on and on as i'm feeling rather fat, frumpy and front heavy. My feet are sore, my back is worse and sleeping is an option rather than a necessity lately. (i guess i won't get much more sleep when B2 arrives anyway).

Kirrily is also a bit bored hanging around the house as i can't drive much either. The steering wheel is rubbing against my belly so it's not comfortable at all to get around. She's gone from going everywhere to stuck in the house going nowhere. No wonder she is trying to escape out the back door and run through the back yard any chance she can. She always waits til i'm 'Occupied' before she escapes and i can't really just dash off and get her.

We had another Dr's appointment last week and the baby has turned around. It doesn't make much difference apparently for the operation but at least the baby is doing what baby's should be doing in there. Turning, kicking and squirming. Only now it's kicking me up in the ribs and it's not very comfy.

Enough of that.

Today we had a visit from James and Susan. James is 1 month younger than Kirrily and he is Kirrily's swimming buddy. Susan is (you probably can guess) James' mum. She said she would pop buy each week to see that we are going OK and take kirrily to the swings to get her out of my hair for even 15mins which is lovely. James is having the "terrible 2's" and doesn't like having me talking to his mum or kirrily so smacks kirrily in the head and today through sand in her eyes. We quickly got him to stop it and used our knowledge from our books and they ended up hugging each other to say sorry and played with our hose in the backyard for a hour.

Kirrily also had her first BOY KISS!!!! James said "bye" to kirrily and then turned around (i was waiting for him to smack her again), and gave her a huge kiss and cuddle. Kirrily looked at him rather disgusted and said "don't James" then wiped her mouth. She'll learn one day.

So that's about it. here are a handful of photo's . Yeah there are millions more that i haven't even downloaded yet as i'm a bit too tired.

We had a visit Bryan, Vaughan & Zoe, Anne & Howard too. Howards camera is brilliant but i've only managed to download these few from them at the moment. If your wondering, kirrily is playing 'aeroplanes'.

Kirrily was lucky enough to get some presents. One of those was some ice-block makers which went into the freezer that afternoon and gobbled up the next day. Kirrily couldn't quite grasp the concept of eating the ice-block but she did enjoy using the straw to suck up the melted goodies.

Pop Swimming

During the 2nd term of swimming i got the dreaded cold. I quickly rang dad and asked if he would like to do the lesson for me. Since then, he has done all the classes and had one happy little girl tagging along with him.

I think dad was unsure about taking Kirrily in the pool at first as one of the other children's grandma's took them in the pool and all she did was cry, scream and want to get out, but not my little monkey. She can't stop smiling for the whole lesson.

She walks to the pool from the car yelling "Pop swimming, Splash Nan".

With only a few lessons to go, i thought i'd take some photo's. Well that sounds easier than it actually is. They have a no photo policy just in case your a pedophile, a ferral that takes photo's for no good reason or today i got told, some bizaare custody battle that the parent doesn't want anyone taking photo's of her child as you could be taking photo's for the other parent? What is the world coming too. So 1 A4 page of questions and signatures later, i took some photo's. (note the lack of other children in the photo's. if i was to have them in the photo, i would have needed further permission and more paperwork).

She's come along way since the very first lesson where she was determined to run off and never get in the pool.

The do a circuit in the pool. Running along a mat, 'spider wall' which helps them to do hand over hand along the wall to safety if they need, watering the dolls hair with the watering can which will help them put water on their hair (which we are still working on) and swimming through a hoop under the water. I'm not going to break the news to her that lessons are almost done for this term. but i guess we are pretty lucky with beaches and ocean pools up here that it won't be long before we can get back in there.

Busy few weeks!!!

So far late August and September are turning out to be a quite busy. We've had many Novocastrians make the journey up to Qld.

'Grandma and Grandad' went on a bus trip to Cairns from Newcastle, which stopped at the Ginger Factory on the way through the Sunshine Coast. That gave us 2 1/2 hrs for Kirrily to show everyone around. This is Kirrily's favourite spots to visit. What more could a little girl want - The Ginger Man and The Ginger Train, all packed into one place (and then there's the coffee shop across the road which i like to visit to so it's not all kiddie stuff). We had some yummy lunch then Kirrily went on a ride on the train with Grandad. She came home proudly telling David how she had been on the train with 'dad-dad'.

Aunty Megan has also made her way North to warmer weather and stayed for 4 days. All Kirrily wanted to do with Megan was "Megan - Swings". She said this for weeks leading up to the big day. And to say she was excited when somebody else was on the swings with her other than me was an understatement. We parked on the Mooloolaba Spit and headed back to Mooloolaba, via the bush walkway near the beach. There are millions of bush turkeys wandering through this bit of walkway and this definately slows the walking down when EVERY turkey has to be pointed out.

THE SWINGS AT MOOLOOLABA BEACH

And then there's - THE STRAWBERRY FARM!!!!!!

My brain was beyond thinking where to go on Sunday, the last day of winter. With temps in the high 20's (got to love Qld), David headed up the M1 towards Noosa, stopping at the Eumundi Strawberry Farm, "Strawberry Lane". For $12/kg, it's $2 more than most farms around but when the man at the desk says "have a feed while your down there" to a pregnant lady, a massive strawberry lover and a 2 year old who's favourite food is strawberry's, they weren't going to make much money out of us. I picked a strawberry double the size of the palm of my hand for kirrily to eat first. Silly me thought this would keep her busy for a while but she chomped into them very fast and who wouldn't when they are warm off the plant, red through like red paint and sweeter than sugar. David said he probably ate more than 1kg, me pretty close and Kirrily only a tiny bit behind. If your every visiting the Sunshine Coast during June-November, you have to visit this farm. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

if you look carefully, kirrily has both hands filled with berry's. She insisted on having both hands filled so she didn't waste time in gobbling all she could.

Needless to say, we didn't need or want much lunch.

Week 28

28 weeks already. Boy isn't time going slowly. i think somebody slows the clock down when your pregnant. Off to the Obstetrician on Monday for a check up in Nambour. It seems the world revolves around Nambour. They have the best farmers markets there and all the good Dr's are there too. even the hospital is there.

anyway, we've been laying low for a while. I've had the cold that has been "going around" apparently. Not so nice when you can't take much for it. At least Kirrily was there to keep me amused.



Vegemite!!!! / The hose - again



This is Kirrily's new 'big room'. She is now sleeping in the big bed and loving it. She asks to sleep there at night but at the moment we are still putting her in the cot just so she gets used to the bed, gradually. I built this bookshelf for her new room and she loves looking at her toys and books in there. Wow!!! was her response. maybe next week she might be in the big room for good. She just looks so tiny in the big bed. She doesn't get out at all which is good, she just sits waiting patiently for me to come in and get her after her day time sleep.

No more news to report, hopefuly next week will be more exciting. :-)

Weather - Ahhh Queensland!!!

Well we all complained loudly up here this week and last when the temperature dropped to 3 deg overnight, and reached a small 15 in the day but who can complain when today

IT'S 27 DEG!!!!

Well the 2 weeks of winter are over for the sunshine state. Back to warm sunny weather for us. Back to the singlet shirts and shorts. (well i don't have a great range of clothes being pregnant so it's singlet shirts for me anyway).

One would think i was getting a bit soft living in Queensland. The newspapers all had front page stories on the 'freezing' weather, 'frost' on the Downs, stories about scarfs, beanies and hot food. The even had their news people doing the news from Stanthorpe where it got to a "knee knocking, toe tingling" (we've heard it all this week) -2 deg overnight. What is the world coming to. :-)

Pelican Spotting

Apart from frogs, Kirrily also loves Pelican's. We have been pretty lucky lately as the baby pelicans have come from, whereever a baby pelican comes from, to Pumistone Passage. In particular, the jetty near the ferry. We went walking last week to try out Kirrily's new shoes which we bought from Rivers and headed off to find some pelican's. We found some. 27 of them actually. Some in the water gobbling fish, some drying their feathers and other's just waiting for the easy way to catch dinner when the fishermen come in and wash their fish.

Kirrily got rather close then the pelican made a typical pelican noise (bit hard to discribe in words other than - AAAAAAAAAARKKKK) so she scampered back to me yelling "hand, hand, hand" as she wasn't sure of that noise. Of course, i had my camera and couldn't resist taking photo's. i wasn't quick enough to get Kirrily standing near them.



We then headed back towards the car but had to stop and just watch the world go by. Kirrily demolished a muslie bar and then i got this photo, which i thought was rather cute.



We've also finished her new bed. We had put the railings on her bed to stop her falling out and started taking her toys across to her new room. We will have a trial sleep tomorrow afternoon. I know she loves her cot. i'm just hoping she loves her new bed just as much. I'll keep you posted how that goes.

The Wiggles - Colouring Book

Kirrily has been rather busy lately. She has 6 new coloured pencils (we have 5 left, the 6th one is put somewhere 'safe') and she loves the Wiggles so what better present than a Colouring in book from who else but The Wiggles. Aunty Megan kindly gave this to Kirrily for her birthday.

Here is some of her handywork:

You might notice it says "Big Red Car", not in her eyes. it's a multicoloured, rainbow style of car. Her next favourite page is the back, inside cover which is blank and she scribbles like crazy.

If she isn't watching Poko, she is colouring in. A new Picasso in the making I'd say.