Birthday Girl

Poppy had her 3rd birthday on Saturday with fairy cakes and princess dresses. She was definitely princess for a day (or two). She loves her 'Punzel dress all the way from 'Mareica from Ailish and Aunty 'Wistie'.

Having Poppy in our family has been such a joy and a surprising blessing.

I have been watching her closely these last few weeks that I have been at home on holidays and seen her mature from toddler to preschooler. She dances and sings her way through every day. Her repertoire of songs has increased from Twinkle Twinkle and Baa Baa to self composed pieces about love.

I was not allowed on her party boat last week coz I made her super mad but after I made her awesome birthday cake (see Kristie never too poor for birthday cake) I'm certain I'm back on the party boat.

Seriously thanks to family and friends who helped make Poppy's picnic a fun affair. Poppy got a present from her friend Mia and she insists on carrying it with her every where. The horse, Maximus, comes in the car just about everywhere. Sadly he has suffered a sex change and is now an unnamed girl horse. However seeing Poppy play and sing and laugh has made me grateful for the good memories I have of my childhood and made me remeber how great it is to be a child. I hope to be able to preserve her innocence and childhood for a good while longer. Tough to do, I'm sure, but well worth the effort.

New rules

For 4 years I've been feeding Gus what ever he wants for dinner. Nuggets, frankfurters, plain pasta, with a small piece of broccoli or cucumber to appease the veg gods. This has been working for him. Of late it has been working for me less. Gus' iron levels are sickeningly low and lets face it he's 5 now and can do with a little more variety in his diet.

So Sunday night the new regime was brought in.

No yelling - Children or Parents

No smacking.

Mum will serve everyone a reasonable portion of the same meal.

Everyone will eat a reasonable portion of said meal.

Bread and butter are the alternative when a reasonable portion is less than sufficiently satisfying.

Not eating a reasonable portion will result in 'bed time'.

Four days in and we are experiencing a level of success that, quite frankly, I thought was not going to be possible in such a short time.

Tonight Gus ate 1 whole ladelful of vegetable soup. I wont kid you there was much discussion about how he didn't like the look of it and how he wasn't hungry and how he was going to go to bed if he had made no effort to eat/taste the soup before everyone else was finished their meal. About 2 3rd's of the way through the meal Gus broke and tasted the soup. Hallelujah. One small bite deserves another and before too long the meal was finished.

Gus is stubborn but most of it's for show. While he was eating he would make faces to show his apparent discomfort in eating the soup but there was a definate twinkle in his eye that told me it was just for show. Cheeky.

Summer Fruits

The holidaze have been a real treat.

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I have had time to regenerate and reflect. The regeneration part has worked so well that I am fealing more energetic and more positive about me in my body. Feeling positive has definately been aided by a successful first week on the scales. I lost 2.2 kg this week. And thankfully birthdays have never bothered me so turning 34 last Sunday was nothing but a reason to get together with family and celebrate. Good times.

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The time for reflection has been positive too. I've been inspired by a friend who writes at 7 cherubs to be more conscious of my relationship with my children. I've been making some plans (nothing concrete yet) to make time for relationship/family building activites. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Now we are on the count down to the school term and I'm beginning to panic that there are so many things that I haven't made time for and now have to find a way to fit them into the last two weeks of the holidays. It's a good thing I have a new found energy. Mutiple play dates and morning teas are on the agenda.

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I'll be in touch.

Cheeky Chops

A couple months ago Zac was interested in taking some picture. This is not the amazing thing because he often enjoys photo journaling his life. What made this photo session memorable was that Gus and Poppy were so amenable to being models. Gus became especially creative with his posses. I've made some of the better pictures from this day into a collage.

Watching my weight

I (Mick and I) got an awesome treadmill for Christmas. I've totally been working it but maybe I've also been working the Christmas cheer just little bit harder.

So now I'm watching my weight with the help of the inter-web-thingy.

I signed up for Weight Watchers and now we can all watch my weight together.

Go team Dee!