Just a little TLC was all it took

My little Miss H has been less than a barrel of laughs recently, in fact she has been a little madam!!  Almost every day in the last couple of weeks I've been told at least twice "I'm NOT your best friend!" The floorboards have also taken a bit of a battering with the amount of "left foot stamping" that has been going on.  It's quite exhausting!!  She seems to have gone from a little angel to a little devil overnight, without even the tiniest bit of warning.

I hate getting cross with her and it seems to end up being a bit of a vicious cycle -  She stamps her feet, I get cranky, she stamps her feet even more, I get more cranky and so on it goes....... until we're both unhappy.

I've been desperately hoping that it's just a phase and it's her way of pushing boundaries and asserting her authority (or trying to........ no one beats mummy! Not even Dad).  That is until I dropped her at Kindy on Tuesday and it was the WORST drop off ever.  She clung to me like a baby monkey and screamed leaving me to literally peel her off my leg and run to the door without looking back.  I did actually call the Kindy and hour or so later to check how she was and they said she was absolutely fine and playing happily with her friends.  Still....... it didn't stop that loaded arrow of mummy guilt hitting me right where it hurts!!

I couldnt stop thinking about it all morning as it's just so unlike her, and I remembered a conversation we'd had in the car on the way to Kindy that morning.  "Miss H" I said "you are just getting sooo grown up!  Can you stop growing please!"  "But I just can't stop mummy" she said innocently.  (I can't remember what promoted this conversation), but when we arrived at Kindy (just before the screaming started) she kept saying she wanted to go back to her old room and stay with the babies.  "Don't be silly"  I'd told her.  "you'll have so much more fun with the big kids in your new class".

I didn't put two and two together until later that morning and it suddenly dawned on me that she might be feeling a little bit left out now that Miss L is starting to make a bit more of a presence in the family.  Mr D and I wondered if maybe she was suffering from a bit of 'middle child syndrome'????  With me being the eldest and Mr D being the youngest, neither of us actually have a clue about middle child syndrome or if it even exists.  However my solution was just to give her a simple bit of extra TLC and so far it seems to have done the trick.  My smiley little Miss is back again!!

Yesterday we had a girls day and I cleared my entire diary (you'll be surprised how busy I am - Mr D if you're reading this!!!).  We played a very interesting game of mummies and sisters (I was the sister) and I did have to stop myself from chuckling at Miss H's vivid imagination   "Sister" she said to me "do you have a baby in your tummy?" "Oh no!" I reply (thinking that was the right answer).  "YOU DO Mummy!!" she said "just pretend!!".  "Oh sorry!  Yes, here's my baby in here" I point to my tummy.  "When's it coming out?" she asks.  "I don't know" I say.  "YOU DO Mummy!  Just pretent"  "oh Sorry!! In about two weeks".  "oh we must get ready to go to the doctors' she continues..........  (it was quite therapeutic being a kid again).

Next we did some painting - Easter Bunny style!! (at her request).  I had to have a quick look on pinterest for some inspiration and his is a great one for anyone else looking for a bit of toddler Easter craft!!

Printing our feet to make bunny ears! (wearing wings of course! and YES I had some on too)

The finished product.  Isn't it cute??

We also did some baking and I managed to get her to believe that these 'chocolate' balls were actually made out of real chocolate.  A stroke of genius if I do say so myself.  (ingredients are: almond meal, dried apricots, gogi berries and dates, a tablespoon of cocoa powder and some manuka honey.  All whizzed together and rolled in coconut).  Seriously yummy!!

Exhausted.

Today I learnt a great mummy lesson learnt.  A little TLC really can go a looooong way!!

The last week of January in pictures. Love Instagram!

I'm a bit late with this post, I'm afraid.  I was due to write it yesterday but forgot that we had to spend the day in the city having full medical checks for our permanent residency application for Australia!!  What a process that was!!  But I am happy to report that we are all fit and healthy with no hidden tropical diseases.  We're almost there now - SO exciting.

This week has welcomed back ROUTINE!!!  YEE HA!!  As much as I have really loved having the kids home for the holidays, I was starting to really crave routine again.  The summer school holiday really is a long one.

The last few days of our holidays were a bit of a wash out after what seemed like a years worth of rain decided to fall in a couple of days.  (My heart really does go out to all those poor families in Queensland that have been so badly affected by the rain, with some horrendous flooding).  We were lucky in Sydney to just have a few flash floods.  However living on the coast, the Ocean has given us some spectacular displays with some of the biggest waves I've EVER seen.  It was mesmerising just watching them.  Even the local surfers weren't brave enough to venture out.

A stunning display at Narrabeen Beach

Some rainy day play.  Miss H managed to stay in her PJ's the WHOLE day!  (Ahh remember those days.......)

On Wednesday morning Master J started Year 1!  They mixed up all the classes from last year so not only did he have a new teacher but a whole new class too.  He came out after his first day looking a little shell shocked, but apparently he'd had a very good day.  I had about 50 questions I wanted to ask about his day and had to be very restrained, keeping it to about 5!  Or maybe 10?  "Who was your new teacher?  Was she nice?  Who is in your class?  Who did you sit next to?  Did you recognise anyone from last year??........."  "MUM!!!  Will you just stop with all the questions - why do you HAVE to ask so many???????"  Typical boy - leaving me almost begging for information!!

First day of year 1.  He handled it like a pro

A quick swim after school.  I'm going to miss these days when the winter starts to creep in on us.

Sleeping beauty

Since Master J and Miss H have gone back to school and Kindy I've really enjoyed having my little bubs all to myself.  I'm really going to make a conscious effort to make the most it as I know it'll be gone in a blink!

Caught in a down pour after school!  Why does it always rain at EXACTLY 10 past 3?????

Poor Miss L was less than impressed at being caught in the rain.  By the time we got to the car she was actually sitting in a huge puddle of water!

Fed up of being indoors, Master J decided to brave the angry clouds take a chance of being drenched again to practice his skateboarding.

Miss H's first sleepover over.  Such good little cuties they were.

She is just so kissable!

Routine means my early morning fitness classes have resumed.  Those beautiful sunrises make all the blood, sweat and tears worthwhile!

Ouchie!!

Somebody decided to start crawling this week!  With her very first expedition just when I wasn't looking!!  Typical!!!  I popped her down on a grassy patch next to car while I opened the boot to get her pushchair out, when suddenly I heard the most awful scream!  You know the kind that starts with silence.........  I whizzed round to see that she had tried to crawl off the edge of the kerb and landed head first!  Poor bunny - I think we both had tears.  Fortunately it looked far worse than it actually was!

Did you notice that I have finally got around to getting my photos watermarked??  What do you think??    I have been using an app on my iphone called "PhotoMarkr", which lets me insert my own image as well as txt onto a watermark.  It's really good, although it would be a lot less time consuming if there was an application I could use directly in iphoto on my computer.  Any suggestions would be most welcome.