Cheesecake

I love cheesecake.  For Conor's birthday I decided I would make him a cheesecake. My friend Terri, who I've dubbed the "Cheesecake Queen", found a recipe for me and said I could come to her house the day before Conor's birthday for a play date for the kids and we would make the cake together.

Well then the girls and I got sick, so instead I iced a cake that we had in the freezer - it was dry and gross - sorry Conor! 

Anyways, I still had the ingredients in the fridge so yesterday I decided I would make it.  The plan was that Conor would take the kids to the park after dinner while I had some "me" time (I was all ready with a project to sew!), then we'd put the kids to bed, watch My Kitchen Rules, and then I would do the cake.

Well the kids were pretty much monsters.  Conor and I were done our dinner before either of the big kids made it to the table. It was a huge fight to get them to eat anything, and then Thea got food all in her hair and everywhere so she needed a bath - bye bye me time (and sewing project).

Then it took forever to get Finn into bed, and both girls were fighting sleep - finally sit down to watch our show and have a look over the recipe, and it was a bit more full on than I was expecting!  I ended up doing a lot of it during the show, and even then I put it in the oven and went to bed and Conor had to stay up to check on it and turn off the oven.

When I woke up this morning I asked how it went.  He said he thought it cooked through (we have the WORST oven) but that it kind of fluffed up and then dropped.  I did not know what that meant, but I didn't expect this...

I just prayed it at least tasted okay.  After dinner Conor cut the top off and I put some berries on and voila...

It was good!  It wasn't as sweet as I'm used to, I think just plain berries on the top wasn't enough, needed a sweet sauce too, but yum none the less, Conor didn't cut me a big enough piece :)

One down, one to go

Yesterday afternoon Conor hopped on a plane to Queensland for the night.  He will be back tonight, but not until after even I'm in bed, so two nights on my own for dinner and bedtimes with the kids. Eeekkk!

Conor convinced some other staff members to all go in together to buy a coffee machine for their office, so he asked if I would go pick one up.  So yesterday after naptime the kids and I got ready and bought the machine and then went to McDonalds for dinner!

Bedtime actually went quite well!  Lately Thea seems like she's asleep for a half hour and then starts crying and playing the standing game in her crib.  But last night I only had to go in once or twice.  Elle usually calls with one hundred excuses for a good hour.  I started off pretty firm (a few weeks ago) that she was only allowed 2 books at bedtime.  I thought that the night would just go on and on and on if we gave her more.  Instead she would just ask for water, for milk, for nothing - literally she would call and scream for you and then just stare at you blankly.  Conor and I would normally take turns going to her, but one night he wanted to go for a run and I was trying to get stuff done, so I put a pile of books outside her room and everytime she called I would just grab one on the way to her room, walk in, give it to her, and say goodnight.  That was it.  Each night since then she's called less times, last night I think she called twice and then I went to make a wacky cake to bring to some friends today and she didn't call that whole time.  After I sat down she called once, it was too dark to even read but she was happy to have another book and then didn't call again after that.

Finn did his usual dawdling on the way to bed, but once he's in there and the door is closed you don't see or hear from him again for 12 hours!

I was worried about what would happen if Elle woke in the night, which isn't often but does sometimes happen, and I was worried about her waking up super early!  Well at 3:30 Thea woke up, I turned on my iphone light that I use while I feed her, and just at that second Elle started crying - argh!  I went in, she said "another book?" haha, so I just handed one to her and she fell right back asleep.  Then I went back to Thea, fed her and she went right to sleep - so it turned out okay.

Elle woke up just past 6:30 so I brought her into the living room and just as I laid down on the couch, Thea woke up.  Oh well, at least it wasn't 6am!

NOT a case of the Mondays

Generally Mondays are pretty horrible for anyone - either you are in the workforce so you're back to work after the weekend, or your the stay at home parents so you are solo again for the week.

After the BLAHs of yesterday I wasn't really looking forward to Monday.  BUT the girls went to bed relatively easy last night, I got a LOT of tidying up done which put me in a good headspace and Thea had a quick feed just as I was going to sleep.  Then she only woke up once, at 4am for a feed and went right back to bed, not waking up again until after 7am!  Also, Elle woke up at 6:30, which sounds early but after a few days of 5-530 wake ups 6:30 was VERY welcome - actually I didn't even wake up at all, Conor got up with her and I didn't hear a peep until Thea woke up.

Because of this Elle was in a much better morning mood than normal, and Conor and I were in better moods because we were rested, and the whole morning went very smoothly.  Conor made me a coffee with the new machine and it was DIVINE!  I was just doing up some dishes and I heard Thea crawling towards the playroom where Finn and Elle were - I was anticipating them slamming the door in her face and her screaming in anger and frustration at not being able to play with the big kids.  But do you know what I heard instead? I heard Finnian, in the sweetest voice, saying "come here Thea, come in here! You can play with these. Come on!"  It was soo nice and the entire morning went pretty smooth (except Thea fighting morning nap a bit, but she eventually succumbed)

I made macaroni for the kids dinner because I want pizza, and we don't make pizza for the kids anymore because they don't eat it, so the dough is rising, Conor is bathing them before bed, and hopefully we'll have another smooth bedtime and be able to enjoy our dinner.

It's hot and I'm grumpy

We're all a bit grumpy and very tired.  Elle, Thea and I still have stuffy noses, and the weather has been hot.  Last night it dipped below 30degrees, but not for long.

The girls have been taking a long time to fall asleep at night.  For Thea I think (hope) that it's just the cold/stuffy nose.  I put her to bed and I can hear her for a bit and then silence, I don't know if she falls asleep and then Elle wakes her up, or if she never actually falls asleep and just gets angry after being in there for awhile, but then it's a constant game of her standing and crying, holding onto the crib bars for dear life so I can hardly get her down again, and crying before I've even left the room again.  Elle's just having excuse after excuse: "more water" "another book" "milk" "another book".  They both go on for over an hour.

Then the mornings, ugh the mornings.  Elle's always been an early riser.  I had hoped by cutting her naps shorter (1.5-2 hrs only) that would help with the mornings, and after a couple of days it did.  Two days in a row she slept until 7am!!  But then she got sick.  The day before yesterday and yesterday she was up at 5:30!  This morning it was 5AM!!!  Conor and I took turns telling her to go back to sleep, which was followed by screaming...and waking up her sister. I don't know if she actually did fall back asleep or not but Conor finally got up with her at 6...and Thea was up shortly afterwards.

So yup, we're a tired and grumpy house. Finns the only one (so far) that hasn't been touched by the cold - but the heat, and being stuck in the house, and watching too much TV is all adding up to make a bit of a grumpy misbehaving boy.

Yesterday (Sat) I had to get us out of the house for a bit...I couldn't handle another morning of being stuck inside.  My birthday present to Conor was an espresso machine. I gave him two options.  There was a Sunbeam one that had good reviews but was more $$$ than I wanted to spend, or there was pretty much the exact same one except it wasn't all stainless steel.  From what I could see, that was the only difference, and this one was more than 50% less money.  So I did up a card, Finn helped me.  We printed off a picture of each one and glued it inside.  The card was going to say he could either have the cheaper one now, or else I would keep an eye on the other one and as soon as I saw a sale for it I would buy it.  Well I checked one last time and it was actually on sale, but even so it was still almost double the price of the other one.  Conor chose the cheaper one :) So after Thea woke up from her nap we all went out and bought the coffee machine, and went to the cafe for a bit of a treat. 

The kids were excited to help set it up, and watch the instructional DVD, haha.

We have really awful bench space here...actually it's the power points which make it awful.  There's only two spots and the only usable one left (since the microwave and modem take up the other spot permanently) is wedged in the corner between the sink and oven...oh well.  It's fine except when the kids want to watch you do mixing or blending or anything you need to do over there.

Here's Daddy making his first coffee and Elle trying to watch. Also, she never EVER let's me put her hair up, I don't know how I so easily convinced her this time, but she actually kept it up for more than 5 mins, which is a record for her!

Oh, and Conor is going to Brisbane on Thursday  for the night and won't be home until late late Friday - I'm TERRIFIED!  Two dinner and bedtimes solo, which really, it's not the end of the world, but please please pray Elle (and Thea for that matter) don't try waking up before 6am!

Happy Birthday Conor

Unfortunately we've been a sicky house for a few days.  It started a couple weeks ago with Conor having a sore throat here and there and that was it...until both of the girls got runny noses.  And then I started feeling that awful run-over-by-a-truck feeling on Wednesday night.

Yesterday we survived by having the TV on for far too long.  While Thea had her morning nap, I hid myself away in the spare room and rested in there...this was my view (play school on the TV...I really dislike that show)

Then Thea woke up, so she joined me in the spare room (hands on hips, tee hee)

This morning, Conor's birthday, did NOT start out well.  Elle was up at 5:30, and I was awoken shortly after 6 to the older kids fighting and being generally bad towards their poor father.  Thea was awake so I fed her and let Conor go back to sleep, and made breakfast (Conor usually, read:always, makes breakfast)

While I had a bit of energy just after he left for work, I got the kids to help me wrap his present and make birthday cards.  Oh, and we only have Christmas wrapping paper.

After we had given him his gifts and eaten the cake, Finn ran off to draw a picture.  I asked him what was going on in the picture:

Finn: the parent is angry and taking the cake away from the child

Me: why

Finn: because the child was hitting and smooshing it.

Thankfully this did not illustrate reality.

Happy Birthday Conor, I'm sorry your children were monsters this morning and that they're being awful at bedtime as we speak... you'll miss all this when you're 80 *wink*

Next sewing project

So...or sew...I never finished the coasters.  But I will for next Christmas! They basically all just need to be sewn from the inside, turned right side out, and then top stitched.  As it's a long time before I need to finish them I just have no motivation.

I also have a tote bag project with the fabric all bought and ready to go, but I don't NEED the bag, so again, no motivation to start it yet.

But now I've got a new project in mind.  One that I've been thinking about for a long time, but it's a bigger project for a beginner like me and I wasn't sure if I would use the end project so didn't know if I wanted to invest the time into it or not.

Of course it's another babywearing thing! Haha.

It's called a Mei Tai.  It's like a cross between a wrap like I've been using, and a buckle carrier like an Ergo.  I can't wear those buckle carriers because the never feel good on my back/shoulders - but with a Mei Tai you can cross the straps on the back which, for me, really helps distribute the weight better. Also, when you wear the baby/child on your back, you have more versatility with tying the straps, unlike an ergo where you just buckle it and that's all.

I'll be using the tutorial off of this website - might tweek a couple things here or there

I finally put out a request onto a local babywearing Facebook group to see if I could borrow someone's Mei Tai to see if I actually liked it and would wear it...and if I did like it, I wanted to have a better look at the structure. Someone who has parents living up the road said I could use hers (and I've met her a few times, so that was nice to see her again).

I love it!  It's seriously so comfortable!  I put it on and about 3 seconds later knew that I NEEDED to have one - haha.

Seriously, she felt weightless in this thing!  This one is a bit big, so I'll take the measurements, and see what the tutorial has it measured at and figure out how big to make it.

This is basically the one I'm going to make (there are a LOT of variations you can do - the straps can be thin and padded, or wider and not padded.  The waist can be padded. The body can be a rectangle, a rectangle with a circular top, you can have a "hood" on it, so that when baby falls asleep you can secure their head, etc etc)

I'm excited!  I just have to get my fabric now... I may even just make it out of an Ikea tablecloth :)

Thea - 9 Months Old

Alright, so the 8 month update was only posted a week and a bit ago, but it was written when she turned 8 months, so all of that was up until she turned 8 months, this is what has happened since then :)

Sleeping: Same old, same old.  She's quite happy with her 30 minute nap around 9:30am (she's usually awake around 6:30am), but in the last week I've put her to bed a bit earlier and sometimes her nap will be 45 minutes, sometimes even an hour!  Afternoon nap is usually around 1:30 and really almost always at least 1.5 hours, sometimes even 2.5 - rarely only an hour (and it seems those are the days where she had a longer morning nap, so I guess it all evens out).  Into bed just after 7:00 and usually asleep pretty quickly unless it's been a really hot day.  Still waking twice a night on average to feed - I don't REALLY mind because she falls right asleep after it but I certainly would be celebrating if she cut down to one!  There's the odd night that it's 3 feeds which are awful! haha

Eating: She loves to eat, seriously this girl loves food and gets SO upset if she can't join in.  We were at a playgroup a few weeks ago and there was a bowl of chips on the coffee table, and of course she went straight for it and threw an absolute crying fit when I took them away from her! haha.  She really rarely cries - lately it's only when her meal has ended, or if the kids close the door to the toy room on her (when they have something special set up that they don't want her wrecking - they are good at getting her different toys to play with instead, and she used to be happy with that - but now she just wants to do what they are doing!).  I'm still breastfeeding basically on demand, it's been every 3 hours for the LONGEST time, and I'm fine with that.  I know some babies go to 4 hour feedings around now, but she seems to prefer 3.

Moving:  This girl just isn't stopping!  Crawling like an absolute pro, pulling up to furniture, walking along furniture, and get this, STANDING UP UNASSISTED! Usually only for a few seconds, but sometimes up to 10 seconds, it's crazy! And she doesn't just flop down afterwards, she's pretty controlled getting back down onto her knees or her bum.  This started around 8.5 months, with just random ones here or there, but now it's several times a day.  Especially if we are down on the floor with her, she will crawl up to us and use us to get to standing position.  I really love it, I don't particularly want her walking early, but it's just so cute, and really my only complaint about all of this is bath time.  She no longer wants to be in her bath ring, she wants to crawl around in there and stand and jump, which means I've pretty much got to have a hand on, or right behind her, the WHOLE time!

Still 2 teeth - no sign of the top ones, except those nights where she wakes up an extra time or two, I wonder if that's teething or just something else.

First "trolley" ride at costco - she actually DID like it, even though it looks like she's terrified.  She was getting annoyed with Elle grabbing at her!  Once Elle got out to walk she was a lot happier! haha

Sleeping on a 44 degree day...SO glad that the heat doesn't affect her sleep too much.  Sometimes it would take her awhile to fall asleep, but just groused in her bed, no rocking or anything needed.

Matchy matchy!!

She's learning how to clap too!  Just in the last week or so, and she knows the word "clap" because as soon as I said "Can you clap?" she gets this huge grin and starts flapping her hands around, and today she actually clapped when I said that!

Enjoying the swing... she doesn't usually get a turn because Elle is a swing hog!

Getting a turn to play in the playplace with the big kids

I still LOVE wearing her.  This was at the museum, she took awhile to fall asleep because there was so much to see, but before I knew it, I felt her rest her little head on my chest and she was out cold!

Conor was on bath duty... Thea didn't want to be left out

I love watching Finn and Elle with her.  I thought Elle would get bored with her, she was so interested right from the start, putting her face right up to Thea's and starring at her, touching her, watching her.

I can't wait to see all these kids as they grow up together... I pray that they'll always be close buddies :)