Quiet books completed

So remember in April/May when I posted that I was trying to make quiet books for the girls..... well they are finally finished!!

They went with us to England and were great for keeping the girls entertained in restuarants and for short periods at my folks. The problem we had with them however was that Enya can't read/play with hers in the car as she gets car sick (poor kid gets it from me!). This of course meant that Ciara was not allowed to play with hers in the car either or tantrums ensue.

Without futher ado the pictures

The quilted front covers- my first attempts at free hand quilting
Enya spirals, Ciara hearts

Daisys we´re still practicing buttoning!

Shoes We haven't really started on these skills so not yet in use

Owls and Pigtails these pages are a huge favorite, clicking the leaves back onto the tree, tucking the owl back into his hole and playing with the girls hair

Clasps Ciara has conquored these 2 pages, Enya is still working on them

Cars Another huge favorite, probably the pages they play with the most for which I'm very grateful as these pages were very time consuming to make and personalise. My favorite pages too!

Letters Again not yet in use although they both recognise the first letters of their names as well those of my baby sisters and Z's.

If Z and I can just agree on the rules We'll start teaching them the rules for these games next: Noughts and Crosses (played with buttons instead) and Nine Mans Morris


A couple of friends have hinted they would like a quiet book for their kids for christmas, Given how long it's taken me and the fact I'm in the middle of knitting Ciara a jersey it certainly won't be happening this christmas!

PS had the 4 year old well child visit yesterday, need to go back in 6 weeks to get Enya's hearing tested again- they think she may have hearing problems, I think she just didn't want to co operate. She is great on non co operation!!

Happy St Nikalaus

For the last few weeks Ciara has been waking between 2-4am and unfortunately Z is quite hard of hearing so I'm the one that goes through to settle her down. The fact is, she often just wants to check that it is still dark outside and then after a sip of water goes back to bed without any fuss. I, on the other hand, then toss and turn for the rest of the night and am getting a little bit snappy again due to lack of sleep.

To celebrate St Nikalaus Day today though, I was able to sleep in until 5:30am before the screamfest started and Z even got up to deal with Ciara so I actually got to lie in a bit longer. The girls and Z all got a little chocolate St Nikalaus figure in their bags, traditionally one is supposed to use stockings or shoes for the small gifts - maybe next year. I hadn't even had time to give the girls their bags before Ciara wandered through with half a chocolate man. She'd found the bag herself and unwrapped and devoured half the chocolate before I'd even noticed. Oh well, she followed that up by eating all her breakfast so no harm done.

We had originally planned on going to the local christmas market today but unfortunately it poured all day so instead we hibernated indoors. The monotony was obviously too much for the girls, they retaliated by scribbling on our cream leather footstool with red khoki. I knew the scribbling was going to happen at some stage but wish that they could have left our furniture out of it!

Alone again

Z is off at a conference today and tomorrow which means I have the girls all to myself again. As they get older it is definitely easier handling them alone, although I can't wait for them to eat all by themselves as well!! We're going to have a couple of quiet days before a very busy Friday.

I also need to get going with preparations for Christmas, apart from an Advents wreath and a couple of pressies I have done nothing in that direction yet. At least we will be spending the big day at home alone so I don't have to worry about a fancy Christmas dinner!

miscellaneous

All is continuing as per usual in the House of Z. Z is sick again (a cold, knocks him for 6 at least twice a year) but so far the females in the house are all healthy. I hope Ciara and Enya inherited my immune system as I'm hardly ever ill (watch out, it'll be a case of famous last words). That being said Ciara has a bright red and waxy right ear at the moment, she has no other symptoms so we will just have to monitor her for now.

As I was homebound for the day I decided to make my own pasta- thai inspired chicken tortelloni (thnak you Jamie Oliver). You lucky souls get to admire the fruits of my labour.

It was really tasty and very filling. The dark sauce is a dipping sauce which just made the tortelloni, we'll be eating it for at least the rest of the weekend. I even made the leftover pasta into tagliatelle, which I'm drying and will eat sometime this week.


Last but not least the promised pictures of the fish tank, we even have the first occupants! I think Z did a fantastic job even if he is being very german about the whole setting up and has even started a diary where he can record everything he does with the aquarium in.

The girls love to stand and watch the fish playing peek-a-boo in amongst the rocks, the trick is going to be stopping them from banging on the glass(C and E, not the fish!!!)

Well..

.. I would post pictures of how wonderful the aquarium looks now that the water is clear and the plants are in, or of the fantastic shiner Enya gave herself on Sunday when she fell and hit her head again on the sandpit (seriously when she gives herself such a whopping shiner, does she seriously need to go the next day and flirt with the neighbour who works for the child protection services!!), but Z snuck the camera out this morning so instead you can just take it on faith that they are as great as I say they are.

Life is meandering on in the House of Z, I managed to get both girls to eat ham yesterday- usually if meat is not pureed they spit it out (too much work to chew it, you know) but this time they ate it in omelette and then took bites of my ham matzos. Another case of "if it comes from mommy's plate, it's better than what is on ours". I have however given up and will be taking the blender stick with on our holiday, we'll try feed them table food but for my own peace of mind I want the blender there if they don't eat normal food.

Also in preperation of our holiday I'm trying to get them used to sleeping when their room is not completely dark. Up to now we have had their room pitch black for naptimes and nights (roller blinds outside the window, great insulation and makes the room nightlike) however we won't have the luxury in Turkey so they need to get used to napping when it is light. Naptimes now start with a half an hour to an hour playtime but eventually they do fall asleep, the plus is naptimes are now longer which gives me more time to get chores done but also means we have less time to play together.

ON the mobility side, we now definitely have 2 toddlers, neither girl crawls much anymore. In fact Ciara never crawls anywhere and Enya will crawl if she falls down a lot but usually only for half a meter before standing up and walking/running off again. Both girls have mastered the step up from our patio, we can trust them to go up and down it alone with only the occasional mishap (hence Ciara's grazed elbow and Enya's grazed knee). They love to be outside on the grass, playing in the sandpit or on the swing and slide set (no, we haven't spoilt them, our nextdoor neighbours have all these toys for their granddaughter and have generously allowed us use of them, not that we could really stop C and E from using them as there are no fences between the backyards in our block).

Talking about the lack of fences, Ciara and Enya escaped my watch on Monday and managed to get outside without me being aware of it. I thought I'd closed the patio door when I brought them inside to change their nappies but I hadn't. After the nappy change I set them free to run inside while I finished cleaning the fridge, gradually it dawned on me that they were way too quiet (quiet=danger), I went running through to the lounge to see that the patio door was wide open and they were nowhere in sight. I ran outside and immediately saw Enya playing with the washing line but Ciara was not in sight- my heart was pounding! Thankfully the wind set the washing flapping so I then saw Ciara playing with the swing seat, before I totally flipped out. I have already joking suggested we fit lines to their harnesses and peg them in the backyard so they can't get away, like people do with dogs. Surprisingly enough no one else finds the idea very good ;0). I'm dreading the day they learn how to open the doors (particularly our front door) by themselves, as we have no fences or gates or secure areas without direct access to a road!

Dummyless

Not very much going on this side of the Channel.

We've taken Enya's dummy away from her as she was leaving huge puddles all over her bed at night (well see if you can swallow when your lower lip is hooked over an upside down dummy. I tried it, not a pretty picture). She hasn't cried for it once, she just cuddles with her Cuski and her snake instead. She also hasn't started sucking her thumb again so we believe the dummy is history in her case. With Ciara though not so much. I'm still getting regularly woken at 2-3 am in the morning as she has lost her dummy and wants a replacement. Ignoring her doesn't work she just gets louder and louder until Enya eventually wakes up too. We are going to have to grasp the bull by the horns at some stage but not just yet!

They are drinking better and better from their sippy cup. Yes I mean sippy singular! That 50 cents secondhand cheapy that I bought at the bazaar is the one they both drink best from (i.e. the only one they will drink any volume from). A couple of days ago they drank 100mls each from it (vanilla flavoured milk), I was dancing. We just have to supervise closely, as Enya in particular likes to turn it upside down and watch the water run out all over her legs.

I'm also experimenting with nappies again as our solution to the night time nappy failure also failed last night. We were putting a maxi pad in their night time nappy to soak up some of the fluid so the nappy would hold but Ciara managed to overload even that solution. Instead I'm trying cloth nappies, my preemie group has a very vocal pro cloth nappy contingent and they are convinced that cloth nappies will be able to hold back the flood waters, if only because you can keep sticking in extra doublers (act like the maxi pad, as extra reservoirs). We are trying bum Geni.us and I will get back to you on how successful they are. I still can't believe my girls are unusual in the amount they pee overnight, Pampe.rs Baby Drys are supposed to be for overnight, aren't they?

PS Enya has almost cracked the 9 kilo mark, 70g to go!! Ciara has however cracked the 11 kilo mark. I have got to get rid of the baby scales!

meme fun

I've got a bit of writers block right now, it's what happens when one of the darling daughters goes on a sleep strike and keeps me awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night crying! As soon as we go into the room, silence, if we leave the room, tears and screaming. I don't know how Enya can sleep through it, but she's not disturbed, so we're going to try Cry It Out. Wish me luck!!

Any way back to the writers block, in one of the other blogs I read she had a meme posted which I thought would make a nice easy post, so here we go.

The rules are that you are to bold/change the color on each of the below that apply to you, then tag 4 more people and let me know when you’ve posted!


1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain–several actually including Kilimanjaro
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables tomatoes this year, they were delicious
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France-we wanted too but the queue was too long
20. Slept in an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill- not proud of this one
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (solar and lunar)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing- can't wait to get back into this
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa -hee hee, was born there
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day- you mean a book can take longer than a day?

I'm not going to tag anyone, I did this just for fun, if you want to do it though feel free. Just don't forget to let me know