Hair, glorious hair

My hair is unbelievably long these days. I didn't realise just how long it was until last night when Dan commented on it. It actually reaches my bottom. The top of my "bum crack" to be specific (and uncouth... anyone got a better description?). No wonder it's so heavy.

So I finally got around to making an appointment with my hairdresser today. Due to my limited spare time and his vast popularity, the next appointment which we can both make is, wait for it, four entire weeks away! Yowsers! I wonder how long it will be by then.

Stay tuned. I'm going to go for something drastic. Probably. Maybe...

Turning 7

In point form:

• Easter long weekend.
• Dante's 7th birthday party.
• Superhero theme (leaning just a little towards Ben 10).
• A dozen or so kids.
• Stress-factor high (due to it being held at home and not at a play-gym like I'd wished for but didn't go with because they are so expensive!)
• Included an end time (3-5pm) so that we wouldn't have the kids around for too long!
• Chose a late afternoon time slot so we wouldn't need to have too much food.
• Dan was in charge of party games - they ended up playing "Musical Aliens" and "What's the time, Vilgax?"
• Weather held up amazingly even though rain was forecast.
• Excellent "Omnitrix" cake made by my mother (from Ben 10).

Outcome: not too stressful and quite enjoyable, really. But NOT another until he's ten!


The following day (Easter Sunday) we had a family party. Just lunch and cake and cousins. It was quite pleasant.


And Elora had her first taste of chocolate cake. Boy did she enjoy it. She grabbed not one, but two spoons and hoed into the plate that had been placed in front of me (for me!). She ate the entire piece all the while with a look of pure glee on her face.

She walks

We went to dinner at Dante's school friend Ewan's place tonight. We had the two kids over for a night at the beginning of February as it was their father's 50th. I was a tad nervous about it but Ewan's older sister is absolutely wonderful with the younger kids and she was more of a help than a hindrance! I didn't post about the experience at the time - either I was too exhausted or too traumatised. Heheh.

Anyway, they invited us over for dinner as a thank you, and to actually have some relaxed time to sit down and chat rather than rushed conversations in between pick ups and drop offs. Dante was crazy silly, as per usual, and the other two kids were very comfortable and relaxed (and not shy!).

And to top off the enjoyable evening, Elora started walking. Not unknowingly, either. She knew exactly what she was doing and was so mighty proud of herself for it! And was able to repeat it over and over.

The cat's in real trouble now.

Here's a 6 second video of her in action. Hope it works.

P.S. I made that dress for her all on my own!

Road trip

Our last short trip to Canberra was such a success that I couldn't wait to go there again... Well, perhaps I wasn't that excited but when my cousin had a baby recently my mother and I decided to head on down to the nation's capital again to see her (and to see my Auntie who was only here for a week or so (from Thursday Island).

I only had one day off work, so we drove down after school/child care on Wednesday afternoon (didn't leave it too late like last time) and I took Dante out of school for a day (but back to work/school/child care on Friday). A whirlwind trip!

We made a quick visit to the National Museum of Australia on Thursday morning. Somewhere that we hadn't visited before and that was free!

The most striking part of the museum, for me, was the building itself. I remember when it was first built – a weird and crazy monstrosity. However when I saw it up close I was fascinated and delighted by its surrounds. We had a great time wondering around outside. We probably spent more time outside than inside looking at the exhibits (which weren't really that exciting, to be honest). The great thing about going on a school morning was that the place was deserted. There were a couple of school groups but we hardly saw them.

A quick photo mosaic:


After a couple of hours there we went back to my cousin's place in Canberra's outer suburbs to meet new baby Zach. My boys made themselves right at home and my cousin was doing wonderfully well, especially with the help of her mother and grandmother. It was a shame to leave, but I didn't want to get caught in the Sydney peak hour traffic, plus I reckon Cecelia needed some rest (even though she looked fantastic for having given birth only days previously).

A tiring, but enjoyable trip!

Two big birthdays

We went to two important birthdays this weekend. Saturday night Dan and I went to the 50th birthday of the father of one of Dante's classmates, whom we've known since the kids were 11 months old! We took the boys along with us (and left Elora with my folks) and had a pleasant evening chatting about "grown up" stuff and trying to stop the boys jumping on the bed!

Sunday morning we all bundled into the car (my parents included) to go to my Uncle Paul's 70th birthday celebration at my cousin's house. He is my father's youngest brother (no. 4) and has five kids, too. Our two families used to spend a lot of time travelling the countryside together – can you imagine it? Two Chinese guys driving Combi vans full of kids in convoy? Unfortunately I wasn't around in those days. Only 9 kids between them, then. (I do remember that we had a red Combi and they had a yellow one. A bit like tomato sauce and mustard!)

Now that we've grown up we don't see each other very often at all. Half of my cousins (more than half: three fifths) have moved to Newcastle which makes things more difficult. So we all made the effort to go this party which was in Sydney. Just the immediate family, pretty much. My folks, my Aunties and Uncles, my cousins in-laws, my cousins and their families, and us lot, of course. There are 18 in the next generation, half of whom are under 5! It was a busy day.

This was my favourite moment. Atticus sat himself down before lunch and started demolishing the cut-up cucumbers in the serving tray, much to the astonishment of all around. Uncle Paul came over and started making faces at him and Atti was tickled pink! So sweet.

An eternally young baby

Got an SMS from a number I didn't recognise this morning, announcing the birth of one Zachariah David. Took me a while to work out (not so quick these days) that my cousin Cecelia in Canberra had her second son! What a date for a birthday! He'll never live it down :)

Congrats Cecelia and Mick!

A year old

Look at that charming little thing in pink. She turned one last week. That last year has sped by. It's been fun. Not every moment of it, but mostly.

And now look at her. Not quite walking by herself. Almost there. Definitely climbing and cruising and hassling her brothers and chasing after the cats. She waves, blows kisses, asks for "More?" all the time, loves her Arrowroot biscuits ("bih?") and is her Grandfather's girl, all right.

We didn't have a big party for her birthday. I felt guilty, as usual, since both boys had biggish dos. But we were totally partied out. My dad's 75th in December. Then Christmas. Then a stressful January settling Elora into child care and returning to work, then Atti's birthday, then Chinese New Year, then... So we took all the grandparents out to yum cha and that was it. No cake, no singing, no cousins. (Although, it happened to be my mother's birthday that day so my brothers took her out to dinner that evening. We gave it a miss since it was a school night.)

And her birthday present? Three needles in the thighs. Poor thing!

Forgive me, Elora! We'll make it up to you when you're older.

February flash

How on earth did the last month just disappear? Well, I do know how February flew by. I've been back at work full time. I'm sorry folks. I hadn't forgotten about you there in blogworld, just haven't had much time to write.

Well, actually, I have written some posts, but I got stuck on a big one - the Australia Day long weekend was crazily eventful for us - and the other posts have been queueing up as drafts. So be prepared. I'm going to do the cheating thing and back-date posts for a while. RSS readers be warned. It'll be like whizzing through time.

Anyway, today's most marvellous news means that hopefully in the near future I won't be quite so exhausted and will have more time for crafting and writing (and sleeping)! I have been given the "OK" to work part time, starting at the next pay period (another week) provided that the paperwork gets done in time. Yay! I'm so deliriously happy. or maybe that's just the tiredness. If all goes to plan I'll be having Thursdays off each week and finish early two days. Not the best scenario finance-wise, but what I was really hoping for. We'll just have to stick it out this year and keep our fingers crossed that Atticus will get into pre-school next year (a quarter of the cost of child care)!

Cheerio.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Year of the Rat.

Just a quiet-ish family dinner at my parents' place with all and sundry.

Lucky me!

Things bode well for the coming year. I've won not one, but two giveaways recently. I feel like the luckiest girl around!

I received this most delightful package in the mail the other day. All the way from England. Monica from Quilt While You're Ahead had a give-away in January and I was one of the winners!

A nice magazine, fat quarter of gorgeous floral fabric that Atticus immediately appropriated as a "blanket" for his Dog (but I managed to get it away just before dinner time) and a beautiful hand made brooch (detailed picture on Flickr). Thank you so much, Monica!

I also just won this contest from one of my favourite online fabric shops. The prize is unbelievably generous. I am astounded. An entire Fat Quarter bundle. For those non-crafty people, a fat quarter is a quarter of a metre/yard of fabric, but instead of being a long thin strip across the width of the fabric, it's squarish (half of a half metre/yard). Can't wait to receive that package in the mail from America.

Big grins around here right now.