Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Now we are five!

Emily has grown up sooo much in the last little bit. Maybe its because she is a big sister now, or maybe because the milestones are coming thick and fast. She had kindergarten orientation last week. On Monday it was simultaneously her birthday and her last day of playgroup. She has only 2 more days of kindygym and 3 more days of preschool left. Crazy! She is so excited about all the "big girl" things that she can do now, and the prospect of school looming ever closer - she is SO ready for school - its all lovely, but I wouldn't mind being able to slow things down a little.

Graduating from Playdough

With her trampoline birthday cake

Her birthday coincided with the Playdough Christmas party and graduation and with her preschool Christmas party as well. The kids had so much fun with a magic show (Em got to be the helper and did some magic as well, much to her surprise!), face painting and sausage sizzle. It was a busy but very fun birthday :)

Ava's Rule

Please click the postcard to enlarge it

Some of you may already have heard of Sheye Rosemeyer, whose beautiful little girl Ava accidentally died after climbing into a car on a hot day. Her family are wanting to raise awareness of how easily this can happen, and how to prevent it so that no other family has to live through the tragedy that they have. With Tuesday's temperature soaring to 38 it seems timely to share Sheye's message. Keep your babies (and pets) safe!

School and preschool photos 2009

I really like Bec's school photo this year. Yes her hair is messy (both my girls have inherited my unruly flyaway hair look unfortunately) but I love the gappy smile and think she looks so cute.

Photo by A-One Fotomakers

Emily's photo on the other hand....hmm, what to say about this. She looks lovely, but she's a cute kid so she always does. The question that begs to be answered is why, oh why, out of the various adults who set up the photo, did nobody fix her fringe??! In fairness she had been growing her fringe out so it was long but we'd been fluffing it out of her eyes, in this photo it looks like its been deliberately combed down over her eye. The rest of the photo looks great, she's just missing an eye!

Photo by Kylie Gough (in little writing because I feel bad about being critical)

She's on the move!

After weeks of toying with the idea, Sophia finally mastered crawling on Sunday and its been action stations ever since! She is thrilled to be able to choose where she goes, her sisters are less thrilled by her new capacity to get into their things! :)

If you are reading this in facebook "notes" then the video won't show up but its the same one that I've uploaded to facebook this evening.

Oh, and in the previous post it is Rebecca in the top photo and Sophie in the bottom one. I can't get over how similar they look!

Uncanny

Malcolm brought some photos the other night and I was stunned by the resemblance. Can you tell which two of my babies is which?

Eczema advice needed please

Two posts in two days - don't fall over in shock! :) Seriously though, I'm after any ideas that might help with Sophia's eczema. So far we've tried quite a few remedies: we've eliminated all soaps (using aqueous cream to wash her instead), we use a special sensitive skin laundry detergent, I've cut out all dairy, we've tried Dermaveen oil and lotions. Frankly nothing seems to have made any real difference. There was an improvement at first when I went off dairy but her eczema has been terrible lately and I'm wondering if the initial improvement was not related to my diet at all. (I'm not sure enough to go back onto dairy just yet though!). The dr. prescribed a steroid cream to use as a last resort and I have done that a few times when its really bad although I'm not crazy about it. The poor little thing, the eczema behind her knees and ears gets so that its raw and even bleeds a little bit. It must sting because although she gets very excited and happy at the prospect of her bath (that she normally loves) now when she is in the water, she cries and cries. Its awful. :( As the weather is getting hotter it seems to be worse, or maybe its just that I can't protect it as easily with clothing. At any rate, I'm open to suggestions. Does anybody out there have a remedy that might help her?

In Which Rebecca Turns 8

I can hardly believe it but Becca turned 8 yesterday! While its hard to imagine how we managed without her sunshiny presence, its incredible to me how quickly those years have passed. I could wax lyrical about my gorgeous girl but I'm pecking out the letters with my left hand while I feed Sophia (at 2:53 am!) so I'll leave it at saying Happy Birthday Rebecca! I love you very, very much and I'm so proud of you! :)

Our day started at an early hour :)

Becca went to the movies with her friends to celebrate her birthday last week so today's celebrations were lowkey but nice. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner from McDonalds as requested.

One of Bec's favourite presents was a "furreal" puppy that she has named Charlie and she asked for a birthday cake that featured him instead of the safari theme she had wanted. I had no idea how to do the safari animal one easily so was happy to comply with the change of plans. It didn't come out quite as I had in my head but was close enough to keep her happy (the blue thing is supposed to be a ball)