Total Drama

Serenity NOW!

Lately, my girls have turned up the drama a notch. Ellie has hopped on the almost-three-going-on-thirteen band wagon and Kahlei has entered Terrible Two territory. At any given moment I can almost guarantee there will be a girl having a tantrum, being overly emotional, screeching, chatting back or simply blatantly ignoring any requests from an adult. Not to mention the bossiness, which both have quite a good handle on. I, of course, am trying my best to find a way to deal with this turn of events. 

I keep my head and try to reason with them, speaking calmly and clearly. Accepting that they're going through a tough stage and never losing my temper. At. All. Times. 

I wish I could make the above statement. I would love to be handling this in such a manner, taking it in my stride. Instead, I am sometimes the girl who is having a tantrum, being overly emotional, screeching or chatting back.

Thankfully, I am currently at my mum's and have some help. Especially, while I am in so much pain currently. The hardest days are those when both girls want me to be constantly picking them up when I have been told in no uncertain terms that I am not to do so. I try to explain that I need them to let me sit down and then climb up, but in their current states they're finding it difficult to understand. It's hard on me, it's hard on them.

If only I could say "In 85 days, Phoenix will be here and after some recovery time things will be much more normal" and have them understand. That would make life much easier ;)

Update!

My promise of being a better blogger ended up being a lie!! Oops. So, I thought I would come and do an update on life. Firstly - James turned 26 last Wednesday, I had actually written a Happy Birthday post, which I thought I had published but musn't have... So - Happy belated Birthday to my love.

Kahlei is meeting milestones in leaps and bounds now that she is mobile. Last Thursday she said "Mumma" for the very first time - I was sooo thrilled as I've been hearing Dadda for quite some time. She also says hello, mostly in reply to Ellie and I swear I have heard her say Ellie, too.

That same day she started pulling herself up onto her knees, trying to stand up and cut her third tooth. It was a big day! Today, she has finally started crawling on her on her knees - before she looked like she was swimming, she would reach out with her hands, put them together and pull her body towards them. It was a very effective way to crawl, as she was so fast!

Unlike Ellie, Kahlei is happy to show off her newest skills on command. If I say wave, she will. If I ask her to clap she obliges. Very cute.

Ellie's growing up fast, too. She is forever telling us stories. While this is not new in itself it is new that she's actually telling us things she remembers ... and sometimes elaborating on that memory. Her favourite story is from when my mum and brothers came to visit for her party. She loves to talk about the 'Pileww' (pillow, ie jumping pillow). She will tell us about people jumping on it. Joshy, Max, Caleb, Nanna and Casey. At the start of these stories she would tell us 'a bit scary' but these days she is also jumping on the pileww. As is Kahlei. Sometimes, Daddy's on there and even more amazingly, sometimes Grandpa's having a jump (he didn't come). Once we've discussed this in detail we move onto the pool.

She's not been swimming in a pool before, but she saw Ethan and Caleb doing so. She'll tell us about the 'mawter' (water) and about swimming and splashing while making very convincing swimming actions for someone who has never actually swum.

Ellie is also treading very close to the Terrible Two line. She sure has some attitude and can often be heard saying no, mine, give me it, no, no and no. We've started using the naughty chair, which actually worked like a charm the first few times we did it, however she is now pushing the boundaries. The other day she didn't want to stay on it, I had to put her back on numerous times.

As for me, I am enjoying watching my girls grow up and the way they interact with each other.  I have been working on a full kit, which I hope will be ready in the not too distant future and have recently joined two more awesome CTs. One for Honey Designs and as a Pixie at Enchanted Studio Scraps. I am loving all the kits I have been able to work with recently. Honestly, I have not had one I've struggled with ideas. They've all spoken to me in different ways and I have been so happy with what I have come up with. I honestly can say that I work with some of the most amazing designers.

Speaking of which, if you're interested in going into the draw to win one of four cluster frames pop over to my CT Blog and leave a comment to go into the running! While you're there check out my newest LOs ;)

This is just one of the frames you could win.

Made by Holly - check out her blog here.

Right, I must be off now. I will try and be back sooner rather than later. If you leave me some love I'm sure I'll find the motivation ;)

"Oh, Mojo where are you?"

Grr. I just wrote this and I did some weird clicky thing and *poof* it's gone!

I have been trying to get some scrapping done. Either a layout or a bit of playing around with designing, but it's just not happening. So, I am watching The Devil Wears Prada and essentially zoning out. I wasn't going to post today, however, I decided to share some piccies with you.

That's right! My baby has started sitting up, fully unsupported. At first it was just when she was eating and as soon as she was finished she would topple over. Today she sat out on the lawn for ages, just eating, looking, laughing. It was gorgeous. She is gorgeous. So clever :)

My favourite thing is that now the two girls can sit outside together and have their morning tea. Today they both loved their cucumber sticks and pretty much left everything else. So adorable.

This is the face of my munchkin trying broccolli for the first time, she was not really impressed and that's saying something as she eats everything that I give her.

And here's my little diva, at a happy moment during today. Life's tough for an almost two year old and Ellie's making sure we know all about it at the moment. Tantrums are extreme and somewhat overwhelming when they come one on top of the other, but we're surviving. For the moment.

Anyway, I don't have the mojo to write a decent post either, so this is me signing off.

What a day..

Well... It's been a day and half here! Last night was a shocker with Kahlei barely sleeping and James and I both being sick, so it's safe to say I wasn't in the best of moods this morning. It all seemed to start well, Kahlei finally fell into a good sleep (much to my frustration, it was at a time when I couldn't be sleeping too) and Ellie seemed to be in high spirits, even though I am sure she must have been disturbed last night.

Everything went as normal, we ate breakfast and James went off to work and Ellie and I made the bed before I turned on the TV for Ellie to watch In The Night Garden. As the show started, it all fell apart. I don't even know why - all of a sudden Ellie was screaming, crying, carrying on and throwing her arms about in the air. No amount of Igglepiggle stopped the racket (and boy can that girl SCREAM - I mean piercing straight into my brain)! Somehow, we pulled ourselves together to go out as we were about to run out of nappies, which we seem to be doing a bit lately. Where once we had boxes and boxes we now seem to be living one bag to the next - it's a tad stressful.

So, we went out and the girls were perfect (thank goodness)!  I was thinking we'd come home, I'd pop both girls in bed and have a sleep myself and it seemed to be going that way. Both girls went to bed without a peep. 5 minutes later Kahlei was awake and playing with her mobile and being generally noisy, so I decided to get her up and put her in bed with me. I gave her a feed and thought she would sleep, but instead she started chatting to me. Now, I love to hear her gorgeous little chatterings, but I was seriously so tired, I just wished she would stop!!

By the time Ellie got up there'd been no sleep for me... For whatever reason Ellie got up in a terrible mood and Kahlei decided she was actually extremely tired and grumpy (*sigh* go figure). Arsenic hour in our house normally starts at about 4.30 pm and reaches it's peak at 5.30 pm if James hasn't come home by then. Today, it began at 1pm and didn't end until about 5.30.

Once things had calmed down I prepared dinner, James and Ellie fed Kahlei a bottle and all seemed right with the world. Until I got dinner on the table. I was just about to sit down when Kahlei started whinging, I figured she was ready for bed, as she should have been and picked her up as she projectile vomitted ALL over me! I have serisouly never seen a baby vomit that much. She was covered, I was covered, James was kind of laughing and somewhat frozen from shock. As was I. Then she started heaving again, so I did the only logical thing (in my shocked state) and turned her around. Now I am covered, she is covered, the rug is covered... Good move...

I was standing there saying to James "Help?" and he had no idea what to do! I quickly sat down with her on my lap to try and calm her and she brought up another litre of projectile yellow vomit (okay, maybe not literally that much but it was heaps). After which she started chatting and smiling, obviously that did the trick.

Since she was obviously feeling better we got in the shower, which caused a tantrum from Ellie who also wanted to be in the shower - not eating dinner with Daddy.

After the three of us had a nice warm shower things finally settled down. Both girls had a story and went to bed and they're still sleeping now. I just hope we have a good night tonight!

Before I go off to bed: Digiridoo Scraps is having a CT call. If you love digiscrapping, being a part of a fun community and the chance to work with kits from awesome designers then I suggest you apply!!

The Will of a Toddler

With Ellie's second birthday just around the corner we are finding she is pushing the boundaries more and asserting her will in every situation she possibly can.

While "No" was once a word she 'tested' on us before doing whatever it was we were asking of her, it is now a definitive answer. She crosses her arms, shakes her head, stamps her foot and stands her ground. She is of the opinion that "No means no", well, if she says it,anyway. If we tell her no, then it's obviously open for negotiation.

She is very vocal in her opinions and is easily set off into a temper tantrum. Of late she has also been very possessive of toys. If Kahlei has a toy and Ellie takes a moment to realise that Kahlei's having a wonderful time, then she will decide to take it off her. It's not just toys, though, if I put Kahlei on the same mat as Ellie or on Ellie's bed it causes 'issues'. I have to admit that I have been quite surprised by her sudden attitude toward her sister since, really, Ellie would be hard pressed to remember any different, so I was kind of expecting that this kind of behaviour wouldn't come until the girls were older and more competitive. I know, how naive of me.

We're definately well on our way to Terrible Two territory. Which should be fun.