Simone & Flynn's Second Visit

Simone and Flynn came to visit again before they had to go back to Dubai (we miss them!). Julia did a whole lot better with sharing this time. She even let him come near her baby doll and stroller (note that I said "come near" not "touch"). It was fun having all the little children around! Hey, Cam & Simone-- it's your turn next! (Flynn was born 9 months after Julia and Liam was born 9 months after Flynn)

Splish Splash

Rocks Riverside Park is this great park where we had Julia's first birthday. In addition to the play structures and picnic areas is a big water play area with a little creek running through wading pools and rock structures with little waterfalls and fountains. Julia has a great time there, and Nana was a particularly good playmate, following Julia as she chased her rubber ducky and frog down the stream (she discovered currents) and splashing right there alongside her. Julia's in awe of old kids, so she also loved watching the older children splashing through the water and jumping off the rocks. Within minutes of watching she was trying to imitate them. She's pretty fearless too! She wanted to jump off all the rocks just like they were doing. I sat in the shade with Liam most of the time watching all the action.

Car Wash

Dam levels are up, so we were rewarded with a "wet weekend"....two whole hours on a Saturday (for odd-numbered houses) in which we were allowed to use our hose to water the plants and (better yet) wash the cars! It'd been so long since we'd been able to wash our car, that I was starting to forget that my car is actually white. Matt did all the real scrubbing, but Julia got out there and helped him. She's the perfect height for cleaning tires ;-) She took her job very seriously, spending a good 10 minutes on just the license plates! She has been very disappointed that this is not a daily event, and every day since then when we go into the garage, she races over to the bucket of car washing stuff, picks up a sponge, and asks, "Wash?" This fixation has replaced her former obsession...the lawnmower.

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head

Since we were finally getting some rain, Nana bought Julia a little umbrella...very pretty blue with pink flowers! Julia loves it!! She thinks it is really fun to play with the umbrella outside, although I'm not sure she quite gets the concept that it is meant to keep rain off. She really likes to get wet, so an item to keep you dry is not exactly something she can grasp! But Julia loves accessories, and a big umbrella is a fabulous new accessory. Now I just have to figure out how to explain the old superstition that you shouldn't open an umbrella inside...or use it to point to (a.k.a. poke) your little brother ;-)

Lemon Cream

Aunt Julie came for the afternoon to see Liam. She's a great visitor because she keeps Julia thoroughly entertained and brings fun presents! Last time Julia had eyed Aunt Julie'sPooh Bear bag, so Julie made her a little one of her own! So cute! Despite the cool presents and the fact that Julie played dolls with Julia, the real treat of the visit for Julia was that she got to share our afternoon tea of lemon cream pastries that I had made. Mmmm....lemon cream!

Catching up...

Backtracking again...






My mom (Nana) left March 12 after a nice, long visit. It hadn't really hit me that I actually do have two children since I had so much amazing help, but it kicked in after she left (hence no time for blogging).

I'll try to catch up a bit now though. For starters just a few pictures of us hanging out at home playing with Julia and staring at little Liam.

Easter Craft Day

While Liam slept off yesterday's trauma, Julia and I had a craft morning. Matt & Julia are having a father/daughter Easter away with his family at Wivenhoe Dam (we've gone the last two years and it's so much fun, but we camp out and I wasn't game to try and be up and down with Liam all night in a tent). Matt's cousins have kids who are between 4 and 10 years old, and they just adore Julia, so they're going to have a lot of fun. Because they're going away, though, I wanted to do something for Easter with Julia beforehand.

She usually won't sit at the table for more than 15 minutes (if that), but all through breakfast I had been telling her we would do Easter crafts after, so she sat so patiently, finished her breakfast, and then I pulled out our art supply box and spread the table with pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, foam cutouts, pompoms, paper, and glitter glue. We had such a great time together!

It was precious watching her so carefully spreading glue on the paper and then trying to place little cutouts and pompoms on the paper (all with fingers sticky from the glue....very little of that made it to the paper despite her care!).

We made a little baby chick (one of those pictures is Julia teaching the chicken how to fly).





Then we made an Easter bunny hat.




This picture is her showing on the table how the bunny hops.


We also made a picture frame (for if I ever actually print out some photos!) and a card.