Collecting pinecones for Christmas

This was such a fun activity to do as a family - something seasonal, outdoors, local - and we now have a lovely basket of pinecones sitting on out hitchen table exuding their lovely resinous pine-y aroma.

These pinecones came from the Kauri pine (agathis robusta) which are native to Eastern Queensland. We discovered that birds like to pull off the tabs of the pinecone, presumbably to get at the pollen, working from the bottom upwards. It became a game to find the most perfect, untouched pinecone with all tabs intact. We also noticed that the outer edges of the pinecone were covered in a whitish resin the consistency of candle-wax - very sticky and with a strong pine smell.

Afterwards, as we were sitting on a bed of pine needles enjoying watching a couple have their wedding photos taken, we were treated to the site of 4 cockatoos walking on the undergrowth very close to us.

Darcy's 5 month birthday

Darcy celebrated her 5-month birthday yesterday. She is growing up so fast. I took her to the baby health centre to be weighed ... she is now a whopping 6.3kgs, which is 1.6kgs bigger than when she was born. We started solids two weeks ago, a little earlier than planned, because of her failure to thrive diagnosis. She thinks rice cereal is gross, but apple puree and prunes are the best!

She is rolling front-to-back and back-to-front, but not too often ... just often enough to remind us that she knows how to do it yet. She likes to sit up supported in a breastfeeding pillow, and has just started grabbing both feet with her hands and trying her best to chew on her toes. She is improving at tummy-time and will now tolerate it for about 2 minutes.

She is still breastfeeding beautifully, and she has a strong preference for 'rightie' over 'leftie'. When times are desperate, she'll accept breastmilk in a bottle, but she normally makes it known that she is not to happy with this state of affairs. I'm not sure what will happen next month when I'm going to an occupational therapy conference for two whole days. Gareth will probably bring her in for a lunchtime feed, so hopefully she's survive morning and afternoon tea without me.

She's still waking 2-3 times a night for feeds, although last week it was closer to 5-6 times a night. It nearly killed me. Like her older brother, she isn't much of a day sleeper, having 4-5 mini-catnaps of about 15 mins each througout the day. So far, I haven't figured any way to resettle her after she wakes up, so we're stuck with this for the time being.

She absolutely adores Jambin and follows him with her eyes all around the room. If she's whinging, Jambin will sing to her and she will settle instantly. She watched him dance to a CD this morning and giggled loudly the whole time ... what a magical sound! She spends as much time with him as she does with me, even more than her Daddy, so he is definitely an important part of her life.

She is putting everything in her mouth to explore it, and has recently started getting annoyed if I take something off her, so I always have to offer her something else in it's place.

She is an absolute joy, a happy and contented little soul, and a wise, knowing, observing being. We're all looking forwards to seeing what the next month may bring.

Bathing in the pulla bowl

On account of our having disposed of our baby bath before moving to Sydney, and her early bedtime which precludes showering with Daddy after he arrives home from work, Darcy must suffer the indignity of being bathed in my pulla bowl. This is, as its name suggests, the bowl I use to bake pulla, a type of Finnish coffeebread. Since Miss D is intolerant of dairy and soy, I can't eat my beloved pulla. And if I can't eat any, I'm not going to cook it either. So I guess at least the bowl is being put to good use in the meantime.

A conversation with Jambin

Me: Would you like a cup of juice?
Jambin: Yes pleeeeese Mummy.
Me: Would you like the blue cup or the yellow cup?
Jambin: I want this cup!! (holds out a packet of sultanas)

Meal Plan for the Week

Last week I ordered my groceries from Coles Online for the first time. Can I just say that the $9 delivery fee and slightly higher costs were WELL AND TRULY WORTH IT! Not having to lug groceries and 2 children home on the pram (resembling an overladen mule) and then up 3 flights of stairs was, well, priceless. Instead, some lucky person walked the aisles for me and selected all my goods, and then a lovely young man with a trolley brought them up the stairs, right through my front door and onto the kitchen table.

So, tonight I put in my second order. It helps immensely to have planned my meals in advance, so this is what our family will be dining on this week:

Monday - Spaghetti Bolonaise
Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolonaise
Wednesday - Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup
Thursday - Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup
Friday - Vegetable stir fry with rice noodles
Saturday - Roast Pork with veges
Sunday - Roast Pork with veges

Since the paediatrician has had me cut dairy and soy out of my diet, as she suspects Darcy is allergic/intolerant to them, meal planning is a bit trickier than usual. And because we're busy people, we eat the same things 2 nights in a row usually.

Ever wondered what a bath with an entire bottle of blue food colouring would look like?

No basketti for my son

In our house, we call it spetti-getti:

Whiskey Before Breakfast

A sweet l'il bluegrass tune:

Bitti d'lish

Darcy, wearing the luscious Bitti d'Lish cloth nappy, a gift from the lovely Deb in Brisbane. It's a medium and fits her perfectly (she's 5.1kgs) but still has lots of room for growth. Not long after this photo was taken, Darcy 'christened' the new nappy with a lovely yellow poo.

Milo vest

Isn't this the sweetest? It's a Milo vest, the first thing I've knitted that isn't a pair of longies or a dishcloth. It was knitted on 4mm circular needles using Morris superwash 8ply merino in Irises colourway. I was a bit apprehensive abouot knitted cabling (see the bottom photo), but it was much easier than it looks (just as my friend Shannon assured me that it would be).

Minutiae of my daily existence

Today, whilst keeping a toddle creatively engaged and a newborn happily breastfed, I achieved the following domestic and not-so-domestic tasks:

- baked cinnamon and brown sugar scrolls. Jambin didn't like them, so I ate the lot!
- took a nap with Darcy snuggled up in the crook of my arm. She was wearing the sleeping bag that belonged to Jambin when he was younger.
- picked up sequins from the floor and under the couch cushions. These were hidden in an art/craft box which I had cunningly hidden at the back of the top shelf of one of Jambin's wardrobes. Thet should not have been reachable by a 27 month old small boy, not even when said boy dragged a chair into his bedroom to investigate what exciting things were on the upper shelves while I was taking a nap.
- read the meeting minutes from my church playgroup committee
- finished knitting a milo vest for Darcy (another post to follow with pics)
- went grocery shopping for dinner ingredients after Gareth arrived home from work. This child-free excursion reminded me how easy grocery shopping is without 2 children in tow.

Kite Flying

Since there have been a few sibling jealousy issues lately, Gareth planned this special activity with Jambin a few weekends ago. We drove to Kidstuff toystore at Woollahra to buy the kite, then walked over to Centennial Park for flying lessons. We didn't stay long as the wind was freezing.

Vacuuming is fun!

We let Jambin empty his box of lentils all over floor. Then, and this was the best bit, I gave him the vacuum cleaner. He thought this was absolutely tops, and set about experimenting with what could be sucked up (teddies, clothes, hair, chalk) and what couldn't (his footstool, the couch, mummy's foot, Darcy)

Poor teddy:

Giving himself a blow-wave:

What I'm reading:

My pretty sweeting

Having just spent a wonderful weekend in Cairns at the wedding of Jambin & Darcy's "Auntie Terri", I couldn't resist titling this post after the quote on the back of the reception table placecards from Shakespeare's Carpe Diem:

"Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journey's end in lovers' meeting -
Every wise man's son doth know."
























Is there anything more delicious and kissable than tiny baby toes?
























The pants? Lovingly handknitted by yours truly using my dear friend Shannon's longies pattern, currently offered for free on her blog, but soon to be new and improved and available for purchase. The yarn I used is Woolganics certified organic merino 8ply wool, grown by some obliging sheep in our neighbouring New Zealand. The colour is Grapefruit Moon.

Finger painting

Jambin was given some finger paints for his 2nd birthday, so I finally got them out for him to use this morning. Notice the plastic covering on the table, and the lack of clothing. I learn from my mistakes. Jambin tasted a finger-ful of red paint - thank goodness it's non-toxic.