First tentative steps

I thought this warranted a separate entry from Juliet's party as it's quite a big deal. Heidi took her first independant step yesterday! Hooray! Since then she's done it a few times. She will step once with her right foot, think about moving the left, think some more, then sit down.

I think she'll be walking by the end of the week. She is SO close now. She's spending most of her time just standing and practising her balancing. Well done Heidster!

Edited an hour later - she's walking!!!! 6 steps in a row, several times!

Happy 3rd birthday, Juliet

We had a small party for Juliet's birthday yesterday. She was SO excited - literally jumping up and down with excitement for hours in anticipation. Much time was also spent gazing in wonder at her cake, which she was very pleased with.

She managed to expend some of her energy by dancing/jumping to Hi 5 with her friend Indie, though we didn't manage to get any photographic evidence as every picture turned out a blur of pink tulle. Heidi spent some time playing and eating playdough with Tess, Freya had a lot of fun with Dorothy (both the aunt and the dinosaur), and Dylan proved he is an 8 year old boy by managing to make playing on a toddler's ladybird ride-on toy into an extreme sport!

The last guests headed off at 5pm and we managed to get the girls to calm down in time for bed, when they both crashed, totally exhausted. All in all, a success. Happy 3rd Birthday Juliet!

Little Miss Smarty Pants

This is really just a brag. Look what Juliet did the other day, totally unprompted! I'd written her name on a bit of paper and she copied it perfectly, twice! I'm very, very proud of her.

Heidi is slowly getting closer to walking. She will at least stand alone for a bit, but hasn't yet taken a step without holding on to anything. Otherwise she's going very well. Extremely cheeky though.

We're having a small party for Juliet's 3rd birthday tomorrow - just family and a couple of friends who Juliet was keen to invite. She's chosen a rather elaborate cake. I hope I can pull it off!

Employed!

Just a quick entry to say that I got the job. I start in 3 weeks :)

Employment?

I had another job interview this morning, and I think it went well (mind you, I thought that last time too so perhaps I'm not the best judge!) I find out next week. I also started doing some casual work at the State Library yesterday as an XML encoder in the manuscripts/archive area. Don't ask! It's actually very interesting work, and I'm hoping that even if I do get this other job, I can juggle them both for a while. The one I went for today is only 10 hours a week, so it's a distinct possibility.

Heidi is becoming a real chatterbox. Since my last entry, she's added Grandpa, Grandma, grape, cheese, look, and a few other words to her vocab. She's also walking by pushing chairs around, but hasn't quite stood alone yet. I don't think it will be long now.

I'm in denial about Juliet and her need for a nap. She's currently "resting" (i.e. playing and talking) in her room. Given she only actually sleeps perhaps one day in 10, I would give up completely except for the fact that by about 4pm she is overtired and totally out of control.

Chatterbox, camping, more...

We fulfilled James' dream of camping at Wilson's Prom as a family a couple of weeks ago. Loaded up with enough stuff to get us to Antarctica and back, we set off for 3 days and 2 nights at Tidal River. Heidi got a cold on the morning we left, but was in fine spirits nonetheless. The nights weren't quite as peaceful as we'd hoped, as she thought sleeping on a mattress was a bit of a game and just crawled on and off for hours and hours.

The girls had a ball playing in the river and in the surf. Much chocolate icecream was consumed by Juliet, and they revelled in getting as filthy as possible :) All in all a good childhood style summer holiday.

Heidi is cruising now, and really becoming a toddler. She loves playing with dolls, drawing, pasting, and playing with the dolls house. She tucks the little dolls into bed and wishes them "nigh nigh". Very cute!

Her vocab is really coming along. Her words now (at 15 months) include: Mummy, Dadda, Heidi, no, yes, up, down, poo, dog, woof woof, bye bye, nigh nigh, more, milk, broom broom [car]. She's come out with a few 2 word phrases, but they are very rare still.

She's still enjoying daycare where she is known as the "little koala", as she loves cuddles so much.

Juliet is still her feisty crazy self. She's taken to going shirtless and calling herself "Eggy Pop"!Mmm, wonder where she got that from. She makes us laugh constantly. This morning I was cleaning the oven and told the girls to move away from it, and asked Heidi to stop trying to crawl inside it. Juliet said, "She thinks she's a turkey!" Honestly, if she's like this and she's not even 3, I think we have many years of comedy ahead of us.

Quite mad

I am. Because I've just enrolled in the NEXT bootcamp when this one ends. I ended up staying in my platoon, after a short time (10 minutes!) in the lowest one. They were sooooooo slow, I didn't feel I was actually exercising at all, so rejoined my "proper" group. My fitness definitely seems to be improving, even though the weightloss is minimal (in fact I don't think I've lost any weight at all).

On a totally different subject, I asked at Juliet's daycare centre about when she will be moving up into the kindergarten room - is it by age or by calendar year? They said she'll be moving up in June, and she is "so ready now, she's practically running the toddler room". Why do I find that easy to imagine!? This morning James called her for breakfast, and her pensive response was, "Mmm. Maybe in five minutes..." I also overheard her putting away a couple of toys yesterday (a teapot and cup) saying, "I'll just put you here, sweetie pies!"

Heidi is desperate to walk. She's starting to walk on her hands and feet in a kind of spidery yoga looking pose, which is very funny to watch. Her biggest passion in life is music though. As soon as we put any music on, she goes crazy. Her favourite is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which she sings along to with her hands in the air. It's absolutely gorgeous.

When the girls aren't beating each other up, they are very affectionate. Heidi often crawls up to Juliet and starts loudly kissing her legs, which will prompt Juliet to start kissing her equally loudly. Mind you, she will then stand on her hand or take a swipe at her, so the lovely games are usually pretty shortlived!

Sassy lass

A few photos from our morning at the zoo. Most are of Juliet, as Heidi had Vegemite smeared over her entire face for most of the trip!

Standing girl

Heidi has suddenly become addicted to standing. Apparently yesterday she cruised along our couch! She didn't do it today, but she's pulling up on anything and everything. I think it will be only a few days before she starts cruising properly.

Juliet's being a real handful at the moment. Openly defiant, and constantly testing boundaries. She's gone back to refusing a midday nap, and by about 4pm she's overtired, unbearable and plain aggressive. I'm struggling with her to be honest. When she's good, she's adorable - full of affection, kisses, helpful, sweet... but when she's playing up, she's a bit of a nightmare. I think Heidi is starting to enter "proper" toddlerhood now too - heaven help me!

Disappointment

I finally heard back about the job yesterday. Apparently it came down to a 2 horse race, and I lost :( I asked her for feedback on the interview, and she said she had none. The interview was "exemplary", I did everything right, it was extremely close, blah blah blah. All fairly pointless as I didn't get the job! Oh, she did say that my skill set was possibly "too advanced". I can see this being an issue in my search for work - it seems that everything that matches my skill set is full-time.

And I've put on an entire kilo since starting boot camp.

All rather disillusioning.

Home produce

Check out what's been keeping me busy recently!

Here we have: home-grown tomatoes (fresh and bottled), pickled cucumbers (home-grown), preserved mango, preserved peaches from Mum & Dad's tree, figs in port, and fig jam (both from our fig tree). I've also been making lots of pesto as our basil plant has been very productive. And tomorrow I'll be making some home made chilli sauce with our birdeye chillis, which are extremely prolific. It's all quite fun!

Yes, I'm alive

Just!

Week 2 of bootcamp started today. I'm in the second lowest platoon, and am by far the slowest person in my group. I haven't been taken to hospital yet though, which I suppose is a bonus. I weighed myself this morning and have not managed to lose even 100g of weight. Impressive, huh. I got James to take "before" photos of me before bootcamp started, and I'm starting to fear that the "after" photos will be identical! Even though I'm finding it very hard going, I am actually enjoying it quite a lot. Mostly when I'm not doing it, however.

Here's a couple of photos I took at the playground this morning. Juliet decided she'd give James a go on the hammock - please note the expression of abject fear in his eyes. And here's some proof that Heidi really is on the move.

Bootcamp begins

Based on this morning's efforts, I am clearly one of the most unfit people in Australia. I think I came 156th out of 160 people in the fitness assessment (which involved running/staggering for 2.4km).

It can only get better, right?

And she's off!

Heidi stunned us all this afternoon by crawling! She started off doing 2-3 "steps", then suddenly just went for it and crawled across Dorothy's loungeroom. We're all extremely excited. The fun and games start now - and I can't wait.

How did I go...

I think I went OK. I'm always pretty bad at judging interviews though.
They told me I went "very well", but also said that they were interviewing a "quite a number" of people today, so obviously I have quite a lot of competition.

Fingers are crossed. The more I think about it, the more I really want this job. Let's hope my incredible charm and professionalism stunned and amazed them. *cough*

Interview tomorrow

Big day for me tomorrow, with my first job interview in many years. I'm not feeling too nervous, but I'll still be glad when it's all over!

Playing in the sandpit

Just a few photos from yesterday.

I got an interview!

Yep, just as I was about to abandon hope, I finally got a phone call this afternoon. I have an interview for the job! I'm trying not to be nervous. Of course, it's all an excellent excuse to get a haircut, buy some work clothes etc. etc. What - I should actually think about interview questions?! Surely not.

Heidi was back at daycare again today for her first really big day alone. She did brilliantly. She seems to be adapting extremely well, and has no trouble napping, eating, playing or just generally being happy. The carers all say how lovely she is (of course ;-) )

All in all, an excellent day.

Heidi starts daycare

Heidi officially started daycare last week, but I only took her for an hour or so each day (Tues and Thurs). Today was her big test - the first nap. I must admit I did NOT think she would sleep, given that one little baby boy in the sleep room was screaming his lungs out. However she just chatted for a bit then had a lovely big nap. I was amazed. She also had a big lunch, big afternoon tea and all in all she seemed to enjoy herself immensely.

I've applied for a job, but haven't heard back from them yet. I'm not too worried if I don't get it. I'm in no rush. I'm actually quite looking forward to having a few hours a week at home alone, simply to get some jobs done around the house.

I'm also about to launch into my first ever experience of food preservation. We have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, and I'm planning on making some into passata and sauce, and preserving some more (if we get that many). Mum's given me a heap of old Fowlers jars, so once I've got some new clips/rings I'll be all ready to go. We also have a crazy number of cucumbers, so I'm planning to pickle some over the next day or so. Gawd, I'll be joining the CWA before you know it...

(Actually I'm also thinking about making our own soap. See, this is what happens when you take someone out of a "normal" corporate working environment and stick them at home for years on end. They go quietly insane, then start thinking of "busy work" for themselves. I'll be handweaving rugs out of swamp reeds by 2009 if I don't find a job).

Eeeeeeeek!!!

I'm officially insane! This afternoon I enrolled in bootcamp. It starts on Feb 9, and involves 3 sessions a week plus 2-3 extra sessions in my own time. I currently do absolutely no real exercise (I don't count leisurely strolls with the pram) and am carrying about 10kg more than I would like to be. I'm very nervous. Having done it once before (right before falling pregnant with Juliet) I know what's involved, and it's HARD WORK!!!!! I do think I need that extra push to get back into the habit of exercising though. Last time I lost 5kg and felt fantastic, so I'm hoping the same happens again.

We had a fairly social day today; mothers group this morning, and Megan and Freya visited this afternoon. Juliet's back at daycare tomorrow, and I'll be taking Heidi in for an hour or so too. Hopefully it will all go well.

Oh, and our rainwater tank is finally being installed in the morning. Now we just need some rain...