Funny Farm

Yesterday we took a trip to a children's farm to entertain the troops. We drove up and I have to say I was initially disappointed. It looked slightly dilapidated and there didn't seem to be much around. However, after we had bought the kids some bags of animal food, we put on our enthusiastic faces and went to find the animals.
Simply put, we all had a ball. There was a 'nursery' barn with pens of baby animals that the kids got to hold and cuddle, a long walk around the property through the paddocks of different animals that the kids got to feed, tractor rides and lovely grounds for a picnic. We had the best time - Maria befriended an alpaca, Sam chased a deer, and Bekah laughed at the bunnies. Mark rode the tractor with the kids and I helped Maria milk a cow.
Our picnic was really peaceful. Maria and Sam harassed the nearby turtles while Bekah snoozed in her stroller. Mark and I were sitting at the table when a harassed looking lady dragged two young kids past kicking and screaming. We looked at her slightly bemused (usually it is us with the disruptive kids). She caught our eyes and said "I'm so sorry - you are both probably having a serene and tranquil picnic and here we are ruining it!" We both laughed and I said "Oh no we have two more they are over there chasing a duck!" She looked over to see Maria and Sam running at a full sprint trying to catch a big, fat rooster. Maria was adding flapping wings and a waddle for effect.
Just as the lady left, we lost sight of our angels. Just as I was beginning to wonder where they had gone we heard Sam let out a loud yell. I jumped up and found him clutching his finger, saying "The duckie pecked me!" I was concerned until he burst out laughing and said "The funny birdie bit me it was so funny!"
Maria had a great time with the baby animals - she fell in love with a little white chick and wouldn't put it down. However when it was time for us to go, she accidentally let all the baby chickens out of the cage, so all the visitors in the barn were chasing them back into their cage.

Ps. Sam at the moment is hilarious - he only answers questions or replies to statements in full sentences. For example, if you ask him if he had a nice sleep he replies "Yes I did." If you ask him if he is handsome, he will reply "Yes I am." Common conversations:
"Sam, do you like tomatoes?" "No I don't."
"Do you know where you put your hat?" "No I don't. It is lost."

Opps gotta go baby just woke up but Ill post this and finish it later!!

Once Upon a Sunny Sunday

Have a great plan for today - going to leave this page open on my computer and just add a story at a time to try to catch up! My whiteboard is full of little stories waiting to be posted on my blog. Just as I am writing this Samuel has nicked a little plastic bunny of Maria's and thrown it up a tree. Sigh - never stops!

First story begins one weekend about a month ago. Mark was away on a men's retreat, it was Sunday afternoon and my hair was beginning to turn grey. I somehow had decided to entertain the troops with making plaster picture frames. Yet as well of putting the plaster in the frames, they were doing a great job of layering it all over the table. Just as we had finished the frames and I was beginning to clean the table, Maria ran to the draw full of our crockery frantically looking to a bowl. Just as the draw opened, she chucked right into the middle of our dishes. Not quite sure what to do, I dashed her off to the shower...all the while the plaster was hardening on the table. Just as I got Maria out of the shower, Samuel wandered up pant-less and covered in poosies. He had managed to have an accident right in the middle of the playroom and tracked it up through the house. So number 2 was thrust into the shower as well (no pun intended!!). As I was trying to get them in and out of the shower, Bekah woke up and was in frantic need of a feed - so while the other two were drying off and number three being fed, the vomit was fermenting in the draw and the plaster was getting ever harder on the table.

Just as I had all three clean, dry, fed and in front of a movie, Maria spilled her drink, Samuel threw a wobbly over the choice of film and Bekah wet through her clothes...and Mark's flight was delayed indefinitely. Still the vomit was fermenting in the draw and the plaster had turned to cement on the table. Sent Mark a text message - "Hi love - planned on having a roast to celebrate your homecoming but Maria spewed in the plate draw so now we're having take away".

Baby Update

Sigh - after all my good intentions after the last blog to write more frequently, here is is WEEKS later and I have a long post-it note full of their antics to blog. I will tryto get through a few now, and a few tonight. Uni has just started back up again for the summer semester, so as you can imagine my spare moments are few and far between! I also have Coles -online to order tonight - that great invention allows me to miss the big weekly grocery shop with my little darlings - last time we went the kids ate a whole packet of rice crackers. I just kept shoving them with food to keep them quiet at to keep Samuel off the shelves. He likes to climb - I wonder where he gets that gene? Unless I was a mountain goat in a former life, it wasn't me!

My littlest one has just started to crawl! About 10 days ago, up she got and off she went! She is loving being mobile, and is our little resident vacuum cleaner. She is also talking - she calls Mark Dada - he is so proud her first word was for him. Today I was trying to do some work, and she was crawling around the computer tower. All of a sudden a little icon popped up on my screen saying 'USB device not recognised'. I was a little confused as I hadn't tried to plus in anything to the USB. Then I realised she was gnawing on a random USB lead and the computer had tried to upload her armpit. She's now not allowed near the computer.

Gotta dash - Baby awake!

From Puddles, to Prayers, to Pinkie-Pie: Never a Dull Moment

We are just starting to reap the benefits of having kids close together. Maria and Sam often wander off into a bedroom or outside and play make believe games. The favourites are 'baby spirit' (Maria the owner and Sam a baby horse), 'doggies' (Maria the mum and Samuel the baby), and 'cars' (Maria has the mummy car and Samuel has baby Lightening McQueen... see any pattens emerging?). The way they play is very funny. Maria will say "Baby Spirit! It's time for a nap!" Then she says, "Now Sam, say yes mum I'm off to bed!" Sam then has to reply exactly that way. If the game proceeds as Maria dictates, then all is well. However, if Sam decides to stray from the path, then everything goes pear shaped and it's game over.

Sam has been saying some funny things recently. Every night we say prayers, and I am trying to get him to remember them. I start with "God bless..." and he says "Mummy", I say "God Bless..." and he says "Daddy", and we go through everyone and every night without fail he says "God Bless Lightning McQueen!!".

Sam also asked me recently if the tooth fairy brought Bekah's new teeth.

The other day we went off for a walk and splash in puddles. On our journey Maria found a lively ripe, juicy worm. Imminently she said "Oh!! Don't tell Grandad! He'll eat it in a worm pie!" (The context for this is Nanna always says Grandad would eat anything..even worm pie. Grandad backs this up with a "Oh lovely! A nice worm pie yes please!)

Maria loves going outside when it is raining - she loves puddle splashing and twig racing. The other day she was outside in her raincoat for over half an hour wiping the car down with a window wiper. Her favourite toys at the moment are James (a horse), Baby Spirit (a baby horse), Pinkie Pie (a pink horse), Star Song, which she calls Song Star and Baby Pinkie-Pie. They all go to bed with her a yesterday James had a baby, called Baby James (i think.. or maybe it was Belle - anyway quite a feat for a male horse).

Every day, after Sammy is dressed, breakfast eaten and teeth brushed, he goes to work. He gives Maria a kiss goodbye to which she replies "Bye Sam! Have a good day. Don't be too long!" Then he gives Bekah a kiss, then he says to me "Bye Mum, I'm off to work today. Going to help the poorly trees with Daddy. I've got my chain-sword. Love you! Bye!" Then he gives me a kiss and walks off into the lounge room where he fells a couple of lamps, climbs the couches and wanders around for a while. Then he comes back with an enthusiastic "Hello! I'm HOOOME! I helped the trees with Daddy."

Bekah is very nearly crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks, shuffles around and can move backwards like a champion. She is an absolute dummy addict, and get so excited when she sees it after being parted for less than an hour. She can say 'Mum-mum-mum' and 'Dad-Dad-dada', 'whoooo', 'Bah-ba', and 'wah-wah-wah'. Her favourite toys are the giant Lightning McQueen cars Maria and Sam have, and she gets really cross and screams the house down if you take away anything she has. Often I see Sam frantically trying to shove a dummy into her mouth while looking extremely guilty after he has taken away a toy she's playing with. She adores the other two, and loves to be on the ground playing with them. She grins and laughs at all their silly antics, making her very popular with her siblings. I can't wait until she can crawl!

Baptismal Bliss

My little angles were firing on all cylinders today. We had a lovely time on Sunday - Rebekah was baptised at our church by Barry, Mark's Godfather from England. It was a beautiful ceremony, and it was so special that Barry could do it. We missed Dave (Bekah's Godfather), however we know he was there is spirit. Caitlin (God Mummy) did the most spectacular job organising the music, and all the Haywood family did such a lovely job helping out with all the details. The weather was beautiful so we were able to have cake and nibbles a gorgeous park where the kids ate copious amounts of junk and ran wild for a few hours.
Maria was fascinated by water being poured over Bekah's head and asked if being baptised was a special way to wash little baby's hair.
Samuel was quite wild during the mass as usual. At the park I caught him wandering around with a lolly in each hand and his pockets stuffed with jelly snakes.
Bekah looked so beautiful in her lovely little white dress and pink bow. She was so sweet and despite having an attack of the tireds during the mass, coped very well with her big day.

After such a lovely, huge weekend, the little ones have been very tired. Today we had a rest day and splashed in puddles, watched movies and generally wreaked havoc as usual. Maria is a little confused and calls Bekah 'Rebekah Cake'. Samuel mixes up the words to Bob the Builder and instead of saying 'working together they get the job done' he sings 'working together they get the doctor.'
They both are into 'toilet words' at the moment - I am constantly reminding them that toilet words stay on the toilet. This gets confusing for them when on some shows people sing 'bum-bum-bum'. They giggle and say "Mum!! Playschool is singing toilet words!!" I've had to explain that a drum says bum-bum and that it isn't a toilet word. However, they have cottoned on and often say "You're a bum bum head! Bum bum like a drum mum not the toilet word!!"
Will have to get around to posting pics - have some really gorgeous ones.

Little time, Little Post

Just a quickie today - might even be bullet points.
* Sam and Maria have started calling Gloria (our bunny) 'the poor rabbit' or the 'poor little bunny', because that's what I call her! It's so funny. They say "Mum, can we go outside and see the poor rabbit?" or "Can we go and hold poor little rabbit?" They are not the most gentle kids with it, and so I'm always saying "Put her down!! It hurts her if you hold her by the tail/ear/foot! She's not a hat/shoe/belt etc! The poor rabbit!"
* There is a broken car up on bricks down the road from us, and we have to pull over and see it every time we pass in the car, and have long and involved conversations with it if we pass it on the way to the park. There is now a blue car that parks next to it sometimes, and out of the blue Sam has named it Matthew. So we have to go and see the broken car and Matthew.
* Bekah is almost crawling - she gets up on all fours and is doing the rock, so any day now we will have a mobile little mink! Then we'll know we're alive. She already moves a bit by shuffling - today I put her in the playroom while I vacuumed around her and she managed to end up under the kid's table gnawing on the chair leg.

Another Day, Another Blog!

Back again! A few more stories - tonight I'll focus on Sam.

Samuel is the most cheekiest, funniest, loveliest boy ever. He is a handful; never a day goes by without a 'Sam' incident. Tonight he has gone to bed without his Lightning McQueen (he's lost it again) but with a toy hack saw.

Keeping pants on Sam is also an achievement. He is all fully clothed, shoes and all, and the next time you look over he has stripped off his pants and is mooning some poor innocent bystander. Luckily in public I usually catch him before he bares all. He is pretty much toilet trained, however he prefers to wizzie the naturally - the mulch in the front garden seems to be his favourite place. Gives new meaning to free range parenting - Uncle Rowdy would be impressed.

He also loves our new pet, however he has been banned from picking Gloria up after I caught him handing her to Maria by the ear.

We like to play 'I-Spy' in the car - it has taken a bit of time for us to get the hang of. Maria used to say "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with p-p-p-p-p...FENCE!" We also always specify if it is inside the car or outside the car, as they would pick things that fly by the window and confuse everyone. The other day I was brushing my teeth and Sammy comes in and says in one breath, "I spy with my little eye, something that is...red. Is it inside the car or outside the car?Its outside the car. I know it's Lightning McQueen!"

There is more to say, but I think its time for sleep!! Have some lovely photos to post when I get a chance. Will try for tomorrow.

...just a side note, Bekah is started saying 'mum mum mum' today!!!!! So proud!
*hi pa :)*