Life As We Know It

366 photos: day 93- 99

 

Hey there lovelies,

Hope you had a lovely Easter.

We're slowly clawing our way back to health over here. Aoife has gone back to school today after the Easter break, and I have to say I'm looking forward to getting back into some semblance of a routine.

I have decided to break up the photos from the last fortnight into two posts. I'll show week 14 today, and week 15 tomorrow. I also have loads of art journal pages to show you this week. And I want to talk about some stuff that's on my mind. One good thing about being home sick for most of two weeks... I have had plenty of time to think (and read).

Anyway, let's see what happened the week before last:

 

Monday: Sorting all of Aoife's jigsaws before bringing them up to her new room.

 

Tuesday: Thick as thieves. I love the looks on their faces. Something tells me they were up to no good.

 

Wednesday: Trying out a new, quick and easy low-carb bread recipe. Yummy! I'm hoping to experiment with it a bit this week, because I can see a couple of other uses for it too.

Thursday: It happened! I forgot to take a picture! Aoife and I baked hot cross buns. I had Kirby glued to my hip all day, crying his little heart out, and I wasn't feeling too clever myself, but had promised Aoife we'd make some.

 

Friday: Good Friday... apparently. It went by in a febrile daze. At some point I apologised to the others for not having had the time, or energy, to decorate for Easter. Aoife said "no problem", disappeared around the corner, messed about in her craft drawers for a minute, and came back with this Easter egg scribble that she taped to the wall. That was the extent of our Easter decorations this year. And it was precious.

 

Saturday: She was so good with him. She always is, but I was so impressed with how patient and caring she was with him while he was ill.

 

Sunday: Easter egg hunt in the back garden. Her first at home. She was so happy every time she found an egg, she held it up to show me.

And that was week 14. Back tomorrow with week 15.

 

 

Kirby: one!!!

 

Would you believe it? That sweet, cheeky little boy of ours is one already! One!

 

Kirby, at 1:

 

You have 9 teeth, 3 of which came last week.

You started sleeping right through the night just before Christmas, but have kept some strange hours lately because of your teeth. You now usually go to bed around 8pm and wake around 6.15-6.45am (your tired mama thanks you!).

You cruise the furniture and walk holding on to one hand, but you haven't been brave enough to let go just yet. You really like climbing. A couple of months ago you realised that you can flip things over (like the small chest or the laundry basket) and stand on them to reach things a bit higher up, so mummy has had to clear everything from the radiator covers and window cills. You try to climb up on the sofa, but can't just yet. The other day, you started climbing the stairs on your own though.

If I'm busy doing something, you tug on my trouser leg, saying "hiya?" to get my attention.

You adore your big sister and follow her around like a puppy. You miss her when she is in school and have the biggest smile on your face when I tell you it's time to pick her up, chanting "ee-a" as I strap you into the buggy.

You love to play peekaboo and do the mexican wave. Your favourite toys are the musical activity table, Aoife's talking photo frame, and your hammer.

You love music, dancing and song-time. As soon as the music starts, so do you. And you often go and stand in front of the hi-fi, look back at me, and dance on the spot to show you want me to turn it on. Your favourite song is "wind the bobbin up".

You also love books and often ask me to read to you (by sticking a book in my lap, and saying "ta!")

You love food, especially eggs and meat. You have your own hard boiled egg in the morning, plus Aoife's yolk since she doesn't like it, and you still beg me for more.

 

Here are a few more pictures from your big day:

 

 

 

Credit: Aoife

 

Credit: Aoife

 

 

Love you sweetie-pie!

 

Our Christmas 2011

 

 

Hiya,

Did you have a nice Christmas/ holiday season? I hope so.

Ours was wonderful.

 

I went into this Christmas season feeling so incredibly grateful. Grateful to be here (it was a close call), to have this lifestyle, to have this family.

Things weren't perfect; the house wasn't as tidy as I would have liked it to be, Kirby's handmade stocking didn't get finished in time (the poor guy had an old rugby sock instead!), and I took more than a few shortcuts in the kitchen. But none of that mattered. What mattered was us being together, having time to enjoy it, and seeing the kids' excitement and wonder. It made for such a lovely, relaxing Christmas. I treasured every moment.

Alan finished work Thursday afternoon and that same evening we kicked off our celebrations in style with a lovely carol gathering at our neighbours. It really got us in the mood. Half the cul-de-sac was out and everyone was in festive spirits.

 

 

I was so happy Alan didn't have to work Christmas Eve this year. We always do a double celebration, starting with a Swedish Christmas on Christmas Eve, then an English one on Christmas Day. I cook the Swedish dinner, Al the English. It's our thing. We have done it for as long as we've been married and it just gets better every year.

Aoife helped me make ischoklad in the morning, then left me to get on with the rest of the cooking by myself. I think she had a few before she left though.

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure what gave her away :)

By evening, Aoife was giddy with excitement! She was practically begging us to let her go to bed at 5 pm, and didn't want to say prayers or have a story so that she'd be asleep when Santa came! So we put out a treat for him, then stuck her in a long bath to take her mind off things for a bit. Kirby, bless him, was kind of bemused by the whole thing.

 

 

 

After a restless night, the big day finally arrived. And I think it's safe to say we all had a blast. We opened a few pressies before Mass, but left most until after we got back. We were blown away by people's generosity. The kiddos got some lovely things. Then Alan cooked us a lovely dinner (thanks hun!) before we played the afternoon away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a nice Christmas! And it's hard to believe last year that cheeky little fella still wasn't born. He is such a big part of our life now. It feels like he's always been here, eating us out of house and home, and brightening our days with his smile.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

I'm taking a few days off to enjoy this time with my family.

See you on the other side.

Carin, xx

Have a sweet Christmas {a card}

 

 

So a couple of weeks ago I asked my more experienced friends on FB if they tip the lollipop lady/man (crossing guard) at Christmas.

They didn't really know, but a relative joked I should give the lollipop lady a card and a lollipop.

That's when I remembered this card. We don't really do Valentines, but I thought this was such a sweet idea (excuse the pun) that I stored it away for a later day. This was it.

So at the wekend, I dragged Aoife out in the cold to get a nice picture against our brick wall, then edited it and added text in Picasa.

Such a quick and easy craft, yet so fun. I like it!

 

 

The thing with Santa

 

Putting out a treat for Santa, Christmas 2010

 

Alan and I have talked a lot about Santa the last couple of years. We've been going round and round in circles trying to decide what to do about him.

We both feel Christmas is way too commercialised these days and that Santa has kind of gotten caught in the middle of it. We would prefer a more Christ-centred Christmas.

But we also both kind of like the jolly old fool. He's a bit of fun that adds to the magic of the season.

So how to play it?

Last year we started weaving a little bit of Santa magic into our celebrations by putting out a plate of goodies for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve. And there was a present from Santa under the tree (this year we've decided he only gives the stocking fillers). We didn't do the whole letter to Santa thing though. Nor did Aoife go see him at the mall (mostly because I avoid the mall like the plague for most of November and all of December!).

It worked really well. Aoife knew enough about Santa from books, TV and her friends at nursery to enjoy it and have fun with it, but wasn't going all greedy crazy like some of the other kids I saw.

This year may be different, she's that little bit older now, but I'm hoping we can remain focused on the message of Christ. So far so good. She saw Santa at the school bazaar Saturday. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she just asked for a picture of him!

 

Aoife's birthday

 

4 days on and I still can't believe I have a five year old!

The cliches are so true. It seems like yesterday I held that sweet baby girl in my arms for the first time, feeling just as fragile as she was, yet at the same time totally overwhelmed by the immense love I already had for her.

Now look at her.

 

 

Five. Years. Old.

Wow!

 

And five was a VERY. BIG. DEAL to her too.

 

When we asked Aoife what she wanted for her big day, she quickly said that she wanted some friends over to play, balloons, and party plates filled with party foods... and, oh, don't forget the cake!

(The cake was very important. I don't think she has forgiven her daddy yet for preferring mince pies to cake)

Later, she also asked for cars, a trumpet, and a pink, shiny, sparkly dinosaur...

(No, we don't know where she got that last idea from either!)

But the party remained at the top of her list.

 

And so it was that on the Saturday of her birthday, Aoife had ten little friends over. And she loved every minute of it.

There were games:

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of games.

Food.

The all important cake:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And jelly and ice cream too.

Presents:

 

 

And laughter. And noise. Lots of noise. And many wonderfully sweet moments between young friends.

 

It was an absolute pleasure having those kids over. They were a lot of fun. And when they had all gone home the house seemed oh so quiet.

But we needed that quiet time too, to relax and soak up the last few hours with mormor (who kindly took most of the pictures above by the way).

 

 

Come back soon mormor. We miss you.

 

life right now

 

Can you guys believe we're in the last week of November? That we're nearly at the end of the year? Where oh where did this year go?

We've been spoiled with mild weather all autumn, but it suddenly turned quite chilly today. I put on my gloves and scarf for the first time and really enjoyed the crisp air hitting my cheeks. It feels like autumn now!

Anyway...

I was offline most of last week since my mother was here (but had scheduled a couple of posts in advance), so want to do another quick catch up post before I launch into blogging properly.

 

credit: mormor

 

:: Aoife turned five on Saturday and had her first real birthday party for friends from school. More on that in a day or two. I'm still recovering!

:: Kirby tries to say "ta", "hiya", and "Aoife" now. So stinking cute! Especially "Aoife", which sounds like "ee-aa".

:: Aoife was off sick a couple of days last week. Nothing major, just a cold and a low temperature, but I really enjoyed having her home. I was happy it meant mormor (maternal grandmother in Swedish) got to see a bit more of her too.

Kirby's got the cold now, which means I'm not getting much sleep at the mo, but I'm trying to stay grateful for the extra cuddles instead.

:: I loved having my mum here last week. We had a lovely catch up. And she was a great help at the party. We got to catch up with some old friends from New Zealand last week too, which was also wonderful.

 

credit: Alan

 

:: I had a bit of a scary experience at our local IKEA the day before my mum arrived. Some kid got his shoe lace stuck in the gap between the escalator ramp and the floor just as I was coming down the ramp with a full trolley. His parents were in front of him and didn't see him fall, so I shouted out for them/ somebody to press the stop button while I tried to back up the ramp. It was full and people weren't reacting quickly enough so I was shouting at them to back up too. The parents of the kid panicked. The dad couldn't find the stop button, and the mother fumbled trying to get the kid out of his shoe. By the time the dad finally found and pushed the stop button, I was pretty much lifting the trolley so it wouldn't run over the poor kid.

This is why I get so blooming mad when I see kids with their shoe laces undone. It takes 30 seconds to tie shoe laces. So do it! I could have really hurt that kid.

My back and shoulders are still really sore.

:: I have been given the thumbs up to start planning another room reno for mid to late January. I'm so happy! It's been delayed once already since we needed to use the reno money for a new car after Alan's accident. So if you suddenly see a slew of kids room stuff on Pinterest, you know why.

:: I've come up with the best gift idea for Alan's 50th in 2 years time. I'm so pleased with myself. I can't wait to start preparing for it, but will wait till the new year when I have a little more time on my plate.

 

Back soon. Can't wait to catch up with you all.

 

FIVE!!!

 

Happy birthday darling girl!

Hope you've had a wonderful day!

We love you lots and lots and lots, xx

 

The countdown

 

 

I really wish I could take credit for this idea, but I can't. I found it on Shawni's blog a while back (see post here).

Shawni's niece sure knew what she was doing!

As soon as I saw her simple idea, I knew I was onto a winner. So about a month ago Aoife and I made her a paper chain to help her visually count down the days to her birthday.

It has been a huge success.

She loves ripping off a link every morning, counting the number of sleeps left till her big birthday. And the closer we get, the more excited she gets; "Look mummy, it's nearly my birthday! Not many strips left now!"

I think we'll have to make one again next year (and start it earlier)!