I'm back

So it's been a while!! I thought I better put something onto screen before I forget everything that has been going on.

I not only survived the time without my girls and Z of course but I had a really relaxing enjoyable time too. This was the holiday that I never got in June, now we just need to get Z to have one too! That is not to say that I wasn't VERY happy to come again as I did miss my family a lot. But I'm much less stressed now and am enjoying the girls so much more and am not as quick to reach critical mass as before the holiday.

The girls had a fantastic time with their dad and granny and I was amazed at all the new stuff they learnt while I was away. Ciara has really blossomed speech wise, is now coming out with things like "I wuv you" when we say it to her first and "A-B-C" (to get them to let us brush their teeth we now have to sing the alaphabet song). They are both counting to 3 as well and some of the later numbers they know what follows i.e. they won't say "seven" instead they say "eight". Enya has also discovered a new game called cave. As the name implys it means huddling under a blanket with her in the dark and that is all there is to the game, but she will run to you and ask to play it multiple times a day. Ciara hates cave but Enya keeps asking her to play too (come here ...sista... come here), needless to say Ciara ignores her when she is under the blanket. They are also both finally saying the name Ciara, although it is still hit and miss if they apply it to Ciara herself! Both will still sometimes point to Ciara if we ask where Enya is.

As expected C and E were a bit stand offish when they met me at the airport but I had been expecting that, as they are the same with Z when he has been away a few days for work. Luckily they thawed over the rest of the day and by evening it was back to normal. I also was amazed by the girls faces having not seen them for over a week, suddenly I could see my sisters in the shape of Enya's eyes and Z's family in Ciara's face- it was almost as though for the first half hour I was seeing them for the first time again.

I must also admit I have a really wonderful husband who also took the rest of the week off (last week) so I could get over my jet lag. Am I imaging it or does jet lag get worse with age? It took me pretty much the entire week to stop needing an afternoon nap and I'm still struggling to get to bed at a normal time.

I have some lovely photos from while I was away but I'm still waiting for a photoshop to be loaded onto my new computer (thank you very much sister iamza) so it will have to wait until later in the week.

living it up

I'm having a great time here in Houston, it's been lovely seeing my sister and exploring a new city. What I love best about a new country is that it makes even going to the grocery store an adventure. Surprisingly I'm not as "childsick" as I expected to be, perhaps because I'm phoning home everyday for updates and because I know Z is a devoted and gifted dad.

In the time I've been away though, Ciara has learnt how to climb out of her cot! We were really hoping that would take a little while longer to happen as there is no way the girls will stay in a toddler bed yet.

I'm now off to the gym to conquer the treadmill again (have to work off all those restaurant lunches somehow) and tomorrow we will be visiting a renaissance fair.

I can't believe my holiday is already half over! At the same time I also have going home to look forward to :0)

One more sleep

Today it has really hit home that I only have another 10 hours of my daughters awake and then I don't see them for a LONG time *gulp*. We are leaving really early for the airport tomorrow and my mom offered to stay with the girls so we didn't need to wake them at some ungodly hour too. That's good, except it means I won't see my darling munchkins tomorrow and will have to say my goodbyes tonight *sniff*. I pick my mom up this evening from the airport as she is coming for 10 days to assit Z which we both really appreciate, thanks mom!

I also finally finished the next duvet cover for Ciara, it's taken me a couple of months and if I don't get a move on Enya will have outgrown her cot before I finish hers too.

Voila the new duvet cover


Hand embroidered butterfly


PS don't look at all the toys in the bed, I swear they are breeding as everytime I change the bed there are more of them to move around!

4 sleeps to go!

Only THREE more days and then I'm flying on a jet plane (okay no jets, I'm flying good old BA).

Right now I'm alternating between really looking forward to the trip and dreading it. Looking forward to having a real holiday with no resposibility for the first time in 2 and a bit years and dreading being away from my family. There have only been a couple of days since the girls were born where I haven't seen them and those were all when they were still residents in the NICU. Hopefully I won't get too homesick (childsick?) while I'm away;0).

We landed up buying a second bobby car as the fighting has gotten out of hand with both girls wanting to ride it simultaneously. Now we just have to watch out for flying bobby cars when navigating our corridor, as Ciara and Enya love to chase each other around the flat on them.

At least giggles abound during the bobby car races which is more than I can say for other times of the day. Both girls are cutting canines and where the other teeth seem to have come through almost without us noticing them at all, the canines are the pits. At least Ciara now has all four and Enya only has 2 to go.

Part two of the swop is finished

Our new bedroom is officially finished. We've reassembled our cupboard and hung our pictures even. I can't understand now looking at the finished products why we didn't do this ages ago. The girls, after a few problems at the beginning, are enjoying their room just for them. I'm enjoying not having to yell at them for attacking the files or the computer, finally we have a room that is safe for them to play alone in. The fact that it is just across from the kitchen just makes it even better. Now they just need to learn to play without me being present!

The girls room just needs the new curtains (on order), a carpet (still looking) and a wall needs to be repainted (this weekend) and then it will be all finished too. We have their old foam block mat from when they were babies as floor cover in the interim and I now remember why I packed it away. They delight in dismanteling it and scattering it around the house. Hopefully the new carpet will be found soonest!
The only photo on my computer of the foam block mat- Ciara a year ago, the first time she held her own bottle!

play therapy swing

Ciara in the swing


The whole swing in profile

This is mostly for my mom, who quite rightly didn't understand my explaination of what the swing looked like. Enya usually hates all play ground swings but loves this one at play therapy. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Enya lying back all relaxed in it as I had to distract Ciara with the mini carousel. Ciara would have otherwise hogged the swing-she is a huge swing fan and doesn't like to share it with her sister!

Word of the day is sista (sister).

Sleeping babies

One advantage of the new room for Ciara and Enya is that they seem to sleep longer (when they finally go to sleep). This means this morning for the first time in ages I managed to get a shot of sleeping children. These are their typical sleeping positions.

Ciara with her bum in the air and her baby in reach


Enya spreadeagled, thumb in mouth and clutching her Cuski


The girls having discovered the word booger (or goober in Enya's case) have decided when we clean their ears, we're removing ear goobers (boogers). They find this fascinating, so facinating in fact they keep going after the earbuds to try fish out some goobers themselves. None of these photos were staged and yes I have now put the earbuds out of reach, although not as safe as I would like as the girls have discovered pushing a chair up to the furniture allows them to reach just about everywhere. My safe spots have pretty much all vanished now!

Here let me clean that for you

Enya: "Look, this is how to do it properly mommy!"


Last but not least our first attempt at watching a movie (Ice.age) with the girls- they lasted until the squirrelly thing got squashed and then proceeded to take their chairs for a walk.