It finally happened!!

Today the day I thought would never arrive finally arrived - Keira went to the toilet on her own!! Yay!! :)

I had started to toilet train her in November just before when she turned 3.  It was unsuccessful :( She threw the potty and wet her pants. I thought she wanted to stay in nappies because the twins were still in nappies? I don't know the reason - all I knew was that she didn't want to do it so it simply meant she wasn't ready or maybe I just gave up too easily. I didn't peservere with it because I also had to attend to the twins, work and everything else. I thought it would be great to wait until we were in NZ seeing as we would have family assistance for 3 weeks to help with the twins so we could focus on Keira and toilet training. We were semi successful. She got used  to sitting on the toilet bowl but she only did anything when we put her there every 10 or so minutes. When she did go on her own, she rarely did anything but at least she started going to the toilet on her own.

After settling in from the holidays, I approached Keira's Child care to start solid toilet training together this week. I bought her nice under wear with butterflies and pretty colours which she really liked and she wanted to wear them. Two days in with wearing undies all day at child care she had no accidents. Today when we arrived home from child care Keira asked me to open the back door which led to the toilet and I realised that she wanted to go to the toilet. I opened it for her and for the first time I heard her wee in the actual bowl. Of course I made a big deal giving her high 5's to encourage her that she did the right thing and to keep doing it. I left her in undies and two more times after that she ran to the toilet on her own and successfully peed in the bowl :) :)

Oh happy days!! It's only the beginning but I'm glad we're finally there and being 3 years old and two months - it is true when they say that kids will go when they are ready to go! I hope it continues to be successful. It couldn't have come at a better time as I am so busy with work at the moment organising the Liverpool Relay For Life event. I have 7 weeks to try and raise $30,000.00!! At the moment we have only raised $500.00 - yelp!! To say I am getting a little stressed is an understatement but at least I was able to celebrate a little victory today  :) Well Done Keira xx

August Highlight: Nana Lilly's Visit

Nana Lilly (Damo's mum) came for a one week visit from NZ to meet her new twin grand babies Montana and Lucas and of course visit her other Aussie grand kids Keira and Lilly.

It was such a memorable moment when mum finally met our twins in person for the first time and gave them the kisses and hugs she had been wanting to do from when they were first born.

Another memorable experience was when we left the babies with Damo and I took my mother in law to the 24 hour Kmart at 3am in the morning where we shopped up a storm. Afterwards,  we picked up McDonalds breakfast to bring home to the family at 5am.

Lilly slept over and shared a bed with Nana and you could hear them chatting in bed as they went to sleep and chatting in bed again when they woke up. The next night Keira shared a bed with Nana who read her bed time stories. Such special moments which I'm sure both girls will remember one day.

Unfortunately, Nana's stay went by far too quickly but we all had an enjoyable time catching up, laughing, shopping, eating, eating and more eating - that was just us adults. The kidlets got spoilt with lots of hugs and kisses!

We look forward to seeing Nana Lilly again and the rest of the family when we all go to NZ in Dec :) xo

Here are some pics of my children and their Nana Lilly: (Note I took the pics of Keira and Lucas while I was holding Montana hence the frame being out of alignment)

Lilly with her two Grandma's Nana Lilly and Nanny Kate:

My children with their two Nana's  my mother in law and my mum:

 

 

My dad jumped in this pic:

Keira-isms: Blowing Dandelions

We moved into our current place in November last year - a month before the twins were born and just before Keira's second birthday. It's a little house built in the 1950's with a back yard and a large front yard that has trees, plants, flowers and dandelions.

Keira loves picking the flowers when we go outside. She most always picks a flower before she gets into the car when we go out and one when we return home. Most of all she loves dandelions. She will either blow them or shake them. Just when I think there are none left,  new ones sprout up so there always seems to be an endless amount of dandelions for Keira to play with!

I'm always finding little crushed flowers in our car, in her bags, around the house, in our bed room and even in our bed. I don't get angry. I just think to myself.... Keira's been here :) xo

Keira-isms: The little Housekeeper

Keira can make quite a mess, as most toddlers do. She is a Miss Independent who likes to feed herself, pour her own drinks, make her own milo and cereal. Sometimes when I am busy with the twins, she will look for food in the pantry and fridge then get her plate, cutlery or cup to serve herself. It's cute but her 'independence' can leave a mess behind.

However, on the bright side Keira has shown a likeness and eagerness to cleaning especially to vacuuming, sweeping and washing the dishes. Teach and start them young right? Is it wishful thinking to hope that this will continue for years to come? ;)

Playing with my new toy

I bought my sisters Canon DSLR camera when she bought herself an upgrade. She gave me a good price and I was excited to finally own a flashy dashy camera! Even though it's second hand and it's at the bottom rank of DSLR cameras - I love it and I was eager to play around with it straight away which happened to be the weekend that my niece Lilly was staying over.  

 

Now, there was no instruction manual included (my sister is yet to give it to me) so I just basically did a point and shoot with no idea of what I was doing. We all had fun though and here are some of the results of our playful photo shoot in my front  and back yard. All unedited.

 

Lilly getting close to nature with our back yard tree - the top shot is my favourite



I took a few pics of Lilly and her cousins -  I shot these pics in the wrong spot as there was too much shadow caused by the sun but it was hard to move the twins around plus it was starting to get windy so I had to do a quick photo shoot hoping I'll get some half decent shots!

Lilly and my adorable little man Lucas

 

Two beauties. My beautiful Montana was all smiles for the camera :)

 

 Lilly and Keira started to get sick of posing and just wanted to play around the front yard





Lilly showed off her gymnastics skills (she asked me to make sure I included this cartwheel photo)

 

Jumping around.... 

 

Ring o ring o rosie....

We all fall down....

 

The girls had fun playing in the front yard and I had heaps of fun playing photographer although it's quite evident that I need some photography lessons. I am hoping to do a basic photography community course which my sister did and recommended for new starters.  I don't want to be a pro, I just want to learn how to make the most of my new toy, capture lots of memorable moments and have fun along the way :)

July Highlights

Lia's Birthday

My cousin Lindsay (Lia) celebrated her 23rd birthday on 20th July.  Lia has been doing 'work experience' with me since when she was 15 years old! Her first job was assisting me with the clean up of the events storage room when I was a PR Assistant at Marrickville City Council. This room was called the 'cage' and it was situated underneath an old town hall. Not the place one would like to clean out alone! Even now, we cannot look at flags or banners the same way! I got her to work by telling her it would be good work experience for her and she could put it down on her resume. I then started working at Cancer Council as an Events Coordinator where for the past 7 years Lia has volunteered at my events including Australia's Biggest Morning Tea, Daffodil Day, Pink Ribbon Day and has been a Fairfield Relay For Life committee member for 6 years. In that time Lia completed her HSC in the States top 8%, graduated with a double degree in Economics and Commerce (or something fancy like that) from University of New South Wales and now has a HR job at a top firm so obviously she does not need to volunteer with me for experience any longer! This year she told me that she wants to volunteer for another charity.........as if I'm going to let her go!!! Haha

Apart from being a wonderful volunteer, Lia is also a talented cake baker/decorator. We give her a theme or concept and the result is a brilliantly decorated cake. So, for her birthday this year, her sister Tildy, my sister Flavia and myself went all out to make some delicious desserts for her. This is the result:

Clockwise from top right: Creme Brulee by Tildy and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting by me, Triple layer white buttermilk cake with buttercream and coconut icing Birthday cake made by me, White chocolate oreo cheesecakes made by my sister and Strawberry fruit jelly made by my Aunty Zinda. Lia was impressed by our efforts and felt the love.  It was all so delicious!

Happy Birthday Aunty Lia! Keira and Jaime love singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles

Cheeky cousins creating their own fun at the party. Jaime rode the bike pulling Keira who was sitting on a chair behind him and then they swapped. Clever kids :)

Lilly's Visit

Cousin Lilly stayed over for a weekend. It was great for me as I had an extra pair of hands from a very willing helper! The pictures above are snapshots of what Lilly did over the weekend which included looking after the twins when we were at Play School, changing nappies, feeding the babies their solid food and comforting crying twins (she was pretending to scream in the picture or did she really want to scream? haha) Lilly also played with Keira and read her books. What a wonderful help she was and great practice for when her twin sisters arrive. She is going to be a great big sister! xo

Play School

Play School has started and on our first day, it wasn't as hectic as we thought it be! Hopefully it will continue to be haha but I know that Keira and myself had an enjoyable time.  They had a fun lesson on the Human body and next month they are learning about the Olympics :)

The 2-3 year old class learning shapes and colours. Hyrum looks disinterested, Mercedes is concentrating on colouring in, Kingston playing with cars and Keira playing with shapes.

Is it worth it?

It's such a mission to go out alone with my three so unless I am visiting family and friends - I don't do it!.....with the exception of going to the library. I try to take Keira alone in the mornings to Story Time when Damo is home to look after the twins but he has been working earlier shifts so lately, I've had to take all three babies with me and when we don't make it to Story Time at 10am, we still go during the day to make returns, re-borrow and to keep up the library routine.

Getting all three kidlets and myself dressed to go out: 40 mins

Loading three kidlets in the car: 10 mins

Drive to the library: 10 mins

Unloading car including pram: 10 mins

Keira borrowing books and DVDs: 5 mins  (10 mins if I get a chance to borrow something and 30 mins if we make it to Story Time)

Re-loading car to go home: 10 mins

Drive home: 10 mins

Unloading three kidlets: 10 mins

So it takes more than 1 hour to make our weekly 10 min library outing (or 30 mins for Story Time outing) and I have asked myself "Is it worth it?" on more than one occasion.

When we get home:

Keira excitedly opens up one of her DVD's to play

Keira and sometimes the twins are entertained by the DVD for 30-60 mins. Keira is often dancing and jumping along having fun

I read the books we borrow to put Keira to sleep

A few days later, Keira is singing the tunes to the new songs and repeating new words from the books I've read to her

This is when my question is answered: Yes it is worth it!

Keira is such an expert at borrowing DVD's - she has it done in 5 mins! lol

Keira-isms: Winter sun

Keira loves to wear dresses and she loves dressing up. These Winter days, I dress her in the morning in long pants and jumpers and when I'm not looking she'll change into a dress or a tutu. She has a 'favourites' collection, which includes this dress given to her by Damien's Aunty Fou for her first birthday.

We've been lucky to have beautiful sunny Winter days which for me means doing the laundry and for Keira it's an opportunity to play in the back yard while I hang out the washing.

I've never really noticed her playing on her own before but now that I have developed an iphone camera/instagram obsession, I stopped hanging the washing and took a moment to capture her running around and playing with her shadow in the Winter sun. I love how she can entertain herself in her own little imaginary world and I hope that she will share this world with her siblings as they get older so that I can capture many more of these playful moments.

Snap Happy Aunties

Every time we see my cousins, they whip out their mobile cameras and take heaps of photos of my three babies which they then post up on instagram and Facebook or they sms me the photos a few weeks later with an 'I miss them' message. It is really sweet that my kidlets have snap happy aunties :)

My cousin Teia took these photos of Lucas last week and I am so impressed! I love these photos of my handsome little man. I told her so and she replied that it's all him because he is so gorgeous and I couldn't argue with that! :)

My sister Flavia upgraded her SLR camera and wanted to test it out on my girls when we went to my parents place for a visit a few weeks ago. Below are some of the photos she took. Fabulous new camera + great photographer + gorgeous models = beautiful photos :)

Keira

Montana

June Highlights

June was a busy and exciting month. Here are some of the things we got up to:

We started going to Story Time at Casula Library which is on every Monday. We first went there with our church play group a few weeks ago and the library had a Science Play expo on which was fun for the kids. Keira also enjoys choosing the books and DVD's to borrow which keeps her entertained and busy at home (a little relief for me) so I've added a weekly library trip to our routine :)


Keira having fun exploring the different and fun activites at Science Play

The twins got into the action too at Science Play

A new milestone for the twins - they are now eating solids :) They started on organic baby rice cereal and are now onto their fruits and vegetables. They are great eaters and enjoy their food although the flip side is that now their poos are starting to change as well! :( 

Lucas is having a bad hair day! haha

Montana has an Islander appetite and loves her food :)

I decided to take Keira out of pre school until I go back to work in 3 months so I can spend as much time with all the kids at home. I put Keira in twice a week when the twins were born so that she could continue to have the learning and socialising of child care and so I could spend time with the twins as Keira still commands so much attention which was hard for me whilst nursing two new borns. Now the twins are older and settled and I can give Keira the attention she needs. I know I'm really going to miss being at home full time with all three babies (as chaotic as it is) so I need to make the most of it while I still can.



Keira with her teachers Miss Joanne and Miss Angela from Kids United. They only cater for children 2 years and up so I would've had to take Keira out anyway as I would prefer all three go to the same centre. We might return in 2 years time if we still live in the area :)

The saying goes that when one door closes, another one opens. My friend Kristall and her sister Jasmine have a play school for their children and we're going to join in together with our other friend Darcel and her kids. I'm excited because now that Keira is finished with child care, she will still have that weekly learning and social environment with this play school and who better than with my friends kids :) Between the four of us plus Kristall's brother's daughter - there are 13 kids under 6!! We are going to rotate a teaching and activities roster between the 4 of us mums which will start later in July. From the pictures below, it looks like the kids are having too much fun playing  but I'm sure we'll be able to get a few ABC's in there or we might be a little too ambitious with the teaching part but I guess time will tell - play school could turn into just play dates but I'm sure the kids will still have fun!

 

The last highlight of the month - Montana has just started to crawl! She is such a little adventurer  and can't stay still. Lucas is on his hands and knees and not far off from crawling either. These pics were taken by my cousin Mathilde (Tildy) while she was babysitting the twins with her mum Aunty Zinda. It's hard to believe how fast they have grown!!

  

Kids Half Yearly Update

Keira

Our big girl Keira Olandina is growing up into a beautiful little lady who always makes us laugh - even the twins. At 2 years old she's had to grow up pretty quickly having two baby siblings to share mummy and daddy with. She did ignore them for 2 days and she finally accepted them when they came home! Now at 2 years and 7 months she is, in our eyes becoming a little lady and not so babyish anymore. Of course she will always be our baby but she can now dress herself, feed herself, put on her shoes, run little errands for us like putting things in the rubbish or grabbing things for us . We still need to toilet train her but we've been advised to wait until Spring when the weather is warmer. We were initially worried about her lack of English vocabulary but she surprises us everyday with new words and she loves to read and learn so as we spend more time teaching her, we anticipate that she'll be talking non stop - something to look forward yet dread at the same time haha

Keira is so active, loud and independent. She is real Daddy's girl and the two have gotten even closer since the twins. She can be a handful but I guess that's just the age she's at. She is affectionate, loves hugs and kisses and we love to see her being so attentive and loving (sometimes a little too much) to her baby siblings.

Keira loves:

Dancing - especially to music by Beyonce, Jessica Mauboy and Timomatic

Singing - favourite songs include Happy Birthday, You are my Sunshine and nursery rhymes

Reading - Cat in the Hat and library books

Watching DVDs - favourites include Wriggles, Hi Five and Sparkles and William

Housework - washing dishes, hanging the clothes, folding the clothes, cooking, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming but at the moment, as much as I appreciate her help sometimes it creates more mess!

Colouring in, wearing dresses, hand bags, dressing up, wearing big people's shoes (especially mummy's), anything sweet!, pasta and noodles, bubbles and playing with water

Dislikes - anyone brushing her teeth, getting her hair blow dried, getting her hair done, getting her hair cut, rinsing shampoo out of her hair, cereal, the dark, bread crusts and unpeeled fruit

 Montana

 At 6 months, our gorgeous Montana Rose is a very clever little girl. Even though she was the smallest of all our babies, she has really blossomed and has caught up, if not pass her twin in weight and height.

She is practically crawling already, babbles non stop, is very adventurous, very attentive to everything around her, the last to sleep yet the first to wake up, loves her food, is a little 'thinker', a Miss independent who knows what she wants and lets us know it! It always seems like she is in a rush to grow up! She doesn't like loud noises, is cautious with people and she really loves her mummy and is another daddy's girl.

Lucas

Our youngest by a minute and our only son, Lucas Orlando Halo is a real mummy's boy. He loves his daddy too but his mummy just a little more! (for the moment) He has the most softest, silky skin, is so friendly and is very smiley with everyone he meets although he's not so independent and prefers to stay close to mummy and daddy. He loves being held, loves his sleep and is pretty comfortable to grow at his own pace. He is a happy go lucky little fella and not much bothers him. He used to be a cry baby but it may have to do with his foot when he had weekly casts for the first 8 weeks of his life. Before we had children, I told Damo that I always wanted a daughter and if I never had a son, it wouldn't bother me and now I just can't get enough of our handsome little man. Damo teases me all the time about what I said and now I have to eat my words because I can't imagine life without this little man in our family!