Merry Christmas!

'Twas the night before Christmas... I'd like to claim that noone was stirring, but Juliet is finding plenty of excuses to get out of bed and not-so-subtly walk past the study where the stockings are hanging over the fireplace. Today she and Heidi played a new game which involved shoving soft toys down their dresses, claiming to be Mary, "giving birth" to a small elephant or rooster (often via their neck as they pulled the toys out) which they immediately called Jesus, then laying Jesus on a conveniently close box of Yellowglen sparkling wine which was his "major" (i.e manger).

I'm not going to try and fill in the entire last month. It's been a very, very busy month. Highlights have been:

- Imogen is now 1. She took her first independent steps today and is extraordinarily proud of herself.

- Heidi is now 3 and still totally crazy and Heidiesque.

It's also Dad's 80th birthday tomorrow (happy birthday Dad!). We went out to lunch at Chateau Yering for a birthday lunch a couple of weeks ago which was lovely.

As Immy's now sleeping for 11/12 hours a night without waking, I'm thinking that 2010 might be a bit of a "me" year. I'm planning to enrol in yoga classes again, do a couple of evening classes in cooking and photography, and be a little less housebound in general. I think it's going to be an excellent year!

Sleep school

Imogen and I returned from our second visit to sleep school yesterday. This time we went to one with a "gentle" reputation, and it worked a treat! She slept through 2 of the 3 nights we were there, and last night she slept all night in her cot at home with just one overnight waking. Things are looking up!

She had a big week last week, learning to pull up, cruise and crawl within the same 4 days.

The nurse at sleep school weighed and measured her, and it came as no surprise to discover that she is indeed MegaBaby. 79cm and 9.9kg at 11.5 months. Her height is off the charts (above the 97th percentile line) and her weight is at 85th percentile. She's just generally huge. She's proving to be a smarty pants too, with quite a few recognisable words. Just what we need in this house - another chatterbox!

We had 2 of James' sisters, Janet and Dee, come to stay with us a few weeks ago. That warrants a whole separate entry with photos, which I'll try to do in the next few days.

The last month

I've been terribly slack, I know. The last month has been quite busy with lots of playdates, excursions, parties and planning for the arrival of James' sisters. Here are the girls enjoying a bit of quiet story time in bed:



And Imogen on the back deck, about to launch into a peach:



Heidi, at Indie's birthday party, in fancy dress:



And Juliet, showing off one of her pretty summer dresses:

Photos

Just a quick couple of pictures today. Not much to report. Imogen has started saying "dog" to the dog, and is getting ready to crawl, rocking up on her knees. That's about it!

Beautiful girl

Heidi, our surreal comedian

She really does make us all laugh. Yesterday she was having one of those mindless, repetitious "conversations" with Juliet.
Juliet - I'm number 1
Heidi - No, I number 1
J - You're not 1, you're number 2
H - I'M NUMBER 1
J - No I AM NUMBER 1
Me, quickly intervening - Juliet, I thought you were 4!
J - Yes, I am 4 and Heidi is 2.
H - No. I'm not 2. I'm a pumpkin.

Oooooo-k.

And today, "Daddy, put the umbrella up! The rain is gonna wash away my chubby cheeks!"

My little fairy

We went to the Family Fun day at Como yesterday morning. Lots of people, but a nice outing nonetheless.

Here's my eldest daughter, who apparently is becoming a real fairy with real magic powers. Amazing! She now says she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. Heidi on the other hand wants to be an astronaut or (said in deep growly voice) a man.

So many girls!

Sarah came by today with Indie and Tessa. Oh, the noise! 5 little girls under 5, all squealing, yelling, singing and pretending to be fairies. Well, not Imogen of course, but she made up for it by refusing to nap and yelling and crying for hours on end. They ended up staying for dinner and we chucked the kids in the bath together.

I think I need a stiff drink!

Check out the cheeks!

Imogen and I have finally returned from sleep school. It did wonders for her day time naps, but nights are just awful. At least when she was co-sleeping I could just roll over and cuddle or feed her back to sleep. Now every time she wakes I have to get up, trudge down the hallway in the cold and spend up to an hour trying to get her to go back to sleep, with much crying and yelling. It's hell. Everyone keeps telling me it's "for the best" but I'm really not terribly convinced. I wish I'd waited a few months til she was just that little bit older. Anyway.

So, I'm pretty zonked, operating on just a few hours sleep a night, and up for hours at a time.

Luckily for her, she's cute and happy (during the day at least). Her cheeks are also rather large, as people point out to me on almost a daily basis. Strangers frequently threaten to eat her, especially when we are out and about in our neighbourhood. Rather odd!

St.Kilda in winter

We headed down to St.Kilda today, in the rather bracing winter weather. My plans were a tad ambitious - walk along the market, then the beach, then Luna Park, and finish with a cake from Acland St. What was I thinking!?

We did get parts of the first 3 done though. The beach was the biggest hit by far. At Luna Park we went on the carousel and a kid's ride involving flying elephants. Then Juliet and I went on her first really scary ride. It was her idea - not such a good one I now realise. I've learnt my lesson. I ended up clutching her the whole time, screaming "JUST SHUT YOUR EYES, IT WILL BE OVER SOON..." while she cried and screamed to get off. Of course, 2 hours later she was claiming she wants to go on it again because she is such a "big girl". Though she did take great solace in the fact that I found it revoltingly scary too. (It was one of those pirate ship rides, for anyone interested.) For someone who used to love rides, I've become hopelessly sooky, and feel ill just going on a ferris wheel. Hmmm. Embarrassing.

Anyway, next visit to St Kilda will involve the beach and cake shops. No Luna Park!

Spot the difference

4 of these pics are of Heidi, and 4 are of Imogen.

A prize to the first person to get them all right!

Visitors from the West

Nette and Ross are in Melbourne this week. I think they are probably quite pleased not to be staying in our house!

Imogen took an instant liking to Nette:

Our family

As done by Juliet today at kinder.

Happy birthday James

The last year of his 30s!

We went out to dinner on Friday night with some friends to celebrate. Then up to Maldon today. James scored a movie voucher, some wine, a beanie and gloves for bike riding, a 3 hr barista course, and some gourmet beer. Not too bad!

Just a quickie

Just a few photos.

Nothing to report - we're all trundling along fine. Juliet and I had what I'm pretty sure was swine flu last week, but we're recovered now. Imogen is still not sleeping more than a few hours in a row, Juliet is still having daily tantrums, and Heidi is still 2.

A silly one to start with:



The big girls:


Heidi and her soulful eyes - I could look at this one for hours:


And here's a picture that Heidi drew today:

Not so great

OK, so the first night in her own room didn't go down too well. She woke about 6 times, including some sessions of screaming that were enough to raise the dead. I was seriously expecting the authorities to start banging on the door. At 3am she woke again (after a huge 1.5 hour stretch of sleep). I tried to settle her, she started screaming again, and I caved in. I brought her into bed with me and she slept til 7.30, with a few little comfort feeds and snuggles in between.

Dreading tonight when the girls will be home again - she will certainly wake them up with all the noise, and we will have THREE kids to resettle.Arghhhhh.

I'm on the waiting list for sleep school, thankfully!

Happy birthday to me!

James and I went out for a lovely dinner last night. So good to get out of the house in the evening!

We're heading up to Mum & Dad's tomorrow. James and the girls are staying overnight, and I'm coming back with Imogen. It's her first night in her cot in her own room tomorrow, and we're not expecting it to go down too well. This is the baby who somehow finds her way into my bed by 11pm every single night, and likes to sleep so she is touching me! I know it's the right thing to do, but I'm feeling a bit sad about it all. It's pretty special waking up next to her. But then, waking up next to her 5 or 6 times a night is not such a highlight. Hopefully moving her into her own room will cut down the number of night-wakings. Either that, or I will be extremely tired from having to get out of bed to her all night every night!

Here's a couple of miscellaneous photos from yesterday:

Morning at the Zoo

Highlights were:

1. Going on the carousel
2. Kicking up leaves
3. Eating endless snacks
4. Having a babycino

Animals? There were animals there?

Imogen starts solids

Actually, before I show the photos of Imogen, let me share a couple of pure Juliet moments.

A couple of days ago James was showing her something on You Tube, when the Rolling Stones' "tongue" logo came up on the screen. James explained it was for a band called the Rolling Stones. "But why do they want to carry stones with their tongues?" Why indeed?

And today as I was trying to bundle everyone off from daycare to pick up James, running late, "Quickly girls, we need to pick Daddy up from the hospital!" Of course Juliet wanted to know why he was there. I explained Daddy had an operation to stop us having more children, because we have three lovely girls in our family and that's enough. Juliet had a bit of a think, then said, "Yeah, otherwise we'd all have to start wearing nametags".

OK. Now. Imogen has started solid foods, though it's an extremely gradual introduction. So far she's had rice cereal, pear and pumpkin. I thought I'd publish a few photos, including one showing off her big teeth!

I wonder where she heard that?

Heidi, aged 2.5, after leaving her dance class yesterday.

(World weary sigh) "Ergh. I really need a coffee."

Heidi singing

OK, she's no Dame Nellie, but she's pretty damn cute. This is my first go at putting video online, so let me know what you think (technically as well as content!)

And more

Imogen

Just because she is so gorgeous.

The Party!

It's finally all done and finished. I'm exhausted! Juliet had a wonderful time, so it was all worth it. And we will be eating cupcakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the rest of the week.

Here are some photos: