Pram Liner #1

Day 104
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I've spent an hour or so for the last three nights working on this pram liner. I didn't have a pattern to work from, so now that I have (finally!) finished this one, Kason's one shouldn't take too long at all. I think it's super cute, and to make it even cuter - it's reversible! The other side is a cool funky zebra kind of print - black and white (obviously...), and that will be on both liners. Cohen has this octopus print one (what is the word for more than one octopus?? Octopi? Octopusses? Just octopus?), and Kason's has jets on it. The fabrics are all a cotton drill so they should be hardwearing and last a while...hopefully!

In other news, Si was super awesome today. Well...this morning! Cohen didn't have such a good night last night. By that I mean that he was up every two hours. Yeah...Simon slept through and had no idea. I was pretty tired this morning, so I had a nap this morning while Si played with the boys then put them to bed. So that put him in the good books. For a while, anyways! Kason and Cohen got down for their afternoon nap at 3pm. We were out and didn't get home until just after 3pm today, but we just put them down when we got home. Cohen went down perfectly, but Kason didn't. He was still awake after 10mins, and while I'd usually go in and resettle him in his cot, Simon went in, picked him up and brought him out into the lounge and started playing. Then he went to work. I attempted to put Kase down again a bit later on after he'd had a feed. Didn't work, so I had to deal with a ridiculously grumpy and tired Kason until he went to bed just before 8pm! Thankfully he went down well tonight, and you never know, he might just sleep in until 8am again :-P

xxx

Day 103

Day 103
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I am SO glad it's almost Friday! It's been an emotionally long week and it will be nice to have Si home for most of the day. The sucky part is that he is working all day Saturday, but he does have Sunday and Monday off.

98 people have now been confirmed dead, and there are "grave concerns" for another 226 people. Two of the first four victims officially names are babies. One five months old - the same age as my nephew - and one nine months old - the same age as my boys. It just breaks my heart.

xxx

We Love You, Christchurch

Day 102
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I didn't post yesterday. I was glued to the TV all day, today was much the same.
Yesterday, at 12:51pm NZ time, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, NZ. It was shallow. Really shallow. It was only 5km deep. Scores of people have died. Scores of people are trapped in collapsed buildings. It is horrific, utterly horrific.

All of my Mum's family is in Christchurch. All of Simon's family apart from his Dad and one brother, are in Christchurch. It took a while, but we have finally heard that all our family members are safe and ok. Simon's uncle has lost his home, but something like this puts material possessions in perspective - they have their lives, that's the most important thing.

The pictures and stories coming out of this beautiful city are so incredibly heartbreaking. Both Simon and I know the city well, we were there last only weeks before we left NZ early last year. It has always been one of my favourite places.

It's devastating. Just so unbelievably devastating.

I know this picture isn't the best, but today Kason (L) and Cohen (R) were wearing their "100% Kiwi" shirts. We are so proud to be Kiwis, it is such a proud and incredibly strong country. Our hearts and thoughts are with Christchurch.

xxx

Day 101

Day 101
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Day 100

Day 100
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I wonder if Kason is going to be into crosswords when he is older!

We had a good weekend, Si took the boys out on Saturday, so I got a couple of hours at home by myself - I got a chance to read my book without being interrupted!

Today...wasn't so good. Kase was especially grizzly and clingy which isn't a whole lot of fun for anyone. Cohen gets jealous if Kason is getting cuddles and he's not, and he will literally climb over me, and Kason if he is in the way, to get cuddles too! The cuddles are lovely, the incessant grizzling not so much. But, they were much happier after their dinner (chicken, sweet potato & apple, followed by peach & mango with vanilla yoghurt and banana custard - must be good to be a baby, I'm having spag bol).

xxx

Day 99

Day 99
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Contained!

Day 98
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Miss S Is Here!

Day 97
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

SO stoked!!! My little brother's partner gave birth to their daughter this afternoon, so I have a brand new niece! It's so crazy to think that my brother called me to tell me Rach was pregnant when I was sitting in the boys' room in the hospital, listening to the doctors doing their rounds. I was waiting for a call from one of my other brothers (I have three of them - I'm the only girl!) to tell me what flavour their baby-to-be was (boy!), and Josh calls instead! I think at that point they had only been together for three months max. That day, Kason and Cohen were positively tiny and about ten days away from coming home. Today they are wrestling with each other, weighing close to 8.5kg each and doing everything an almost nine-month-old baby should be doing.
Miss S is just gorgeous and weighs in at 7lb 12oz - almost twice Kason's weight at birth! And she has LOTS of dark hair, apparently it's about 5cm long - most of Cohen's hair is about 0.5cm long!

In other news, my new bread maker was christened today and I got another batch of choc chip muffins made - our house smelled beautiful this afternoon :-)

Fridays are always good, we have Daddy home for the majority of the day, and the Littles and I have neonates playgroup every fortnight. We have known most of the other babies that attend since they were tiny, so it's great to see all these premature babies grow and change every couple of weeks. It's also nice to be able to talk to other mum's whose babies might not be doing the things at the 'right' age, and who know what it's like to have a baby, or babies, in the NICU. I've been thinking tonight how incredibly lucky Rach is to be able to have Miss S sleeping in the crib next to her at the hospital tonight, to be able to cuddle her, to not have her covered in tubes and drips and monitors. Christ, she's lucky she got to meet her on her the same day Miss S was born! I imagine the three of them are having an amazing night, their first as their own little family <3

xxx

A Mess

Day 96
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos
I may, or may not, be referring to Kason. Who, by the way, looks super cute - even with marmite all over his face!

Chaos...and I'm sure it's only going to get more so!

Day 95
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

It's crazy how an hour or so of chaos at the end of the day can seem to overshadow a good day.
This morning we ducked out to buy my early birthday present from my parents (bread maker - MEGA excited! ...is that sad?!) and managed to keep the boys awake in the car, came home and come nap time, they were down for close to two hours!!! Considering a 40 minute nap is good in their books, I was STOKED with two hours! This afternoon we had a playdate with the girls from our Tuesday playgroup - one of the mums has gone back to work and wanted to catch up, so we all went to her place this arvo, was so good to see her and her two kids :-) One of the other mums just had her third boy on Friday (yeah, as in five days ago!) and she popped in with her two youngest. The newest addition is 7lb 12oz and he is so, so tiny! I hasn't been *that* long, but it's strange to think that Kason and Cohen were a little over half that when they were born.
They had a little nap after we got home, and that's when the chaos started. It was mainly just grizzling and whiney and two super clingy boys, Cohen a bit more so. Just made for a hard time trying to get everything ready for their dinner, their bath and bed, but we got there and they are both sound asleep and have been for the last hour and a half! I think all the splashing each other in the bath wore them out.

Thinking about maybe, maybe putting them in occasional care for a couple of hours every other week. Might call about it tomorrow...we'll see.

Oh, and I've decided that the day needs a few more hours in it.

xxx

Qualifying 'Identical'

Day 94
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

My Dad is one of these people who has a rant when he hears someone say something along the lines of, "it's pretty unique", or "they are identical, apart from x". Until not so long ao I would have agreed with him on this. And I still do on the 'unique' point - something is either unique, or it's not. It can't be 'mostly unique', the 'mostly' qualifier makes it NOT unique.

Llet me say here, I am constantly arguing with my Dad. About anything, big or small. We argue just for the sake of arguing. He was convinced I was going to go to law school and become a lawyer because of how much I have always argued! Anyways, while we were in New Zealand, there was an advertisement on tv for a car. The ad said something like, "These two cars are identical. But this car is $xxx,xxx and this car is $xxx,xxy." Dad started his rant about how the slight price difference makes them not identical, how can they make an ad with the incorrect use of the word, blah blah blah. "Ahem, Dad, You see these two little boys here? The ones playing on your living room floor that you are convinced you can tell apart? Yeah, those ones. They are identical, but they are certainly not exactly the same. I think the car company can pull off the ad!" Yeah, I won that argument!!!

On another note - the boys and I didn't go on our walk today...and I'm glad we didn't - about 10mins after we'd normally leave, they sky clouded over and the wind started blowing.

xxx

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Day 93
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

We spent the morning shopping for a friend's baby shower with another friend and her little boy (baby-to-be is a girl...SO weird to be looking at girls stuff!), then hanging out at home - nothing too out of the ordinary!
We made a card for Simon for Valentines Day, and it turned out super cute! Also have a loaf of banana bread in the oven as I type - he LOVES banana bread, so I hope it's yummy :-)

This is short, but it's 9:15pm and I haven't had my dinner yet...HUNGRY.

xxx

Hands up!

Day 92
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

We made these a few weeks ago, and just got around to hanging them a week or so ago. I just love them! The prints of their hands and feet are far from perfect, and Simon wanted to redo them, but I think it's the imperfections which make it perfect! They are eight months old, it isn't easy to get hand prints especially cause they scrunch their hands up! We were going to put them up on the wall in their room, but changed our minds when they were finished, and they are now out in the main part of the house - they really brighten it up :-)

xxx

Delightful?

Day 91
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

This is the...ahem...delightful hand which enticed Kason to crawl the other day. He is such a boy!

xxx

Just Chilling

Day 90
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos
I absolutely adore this photo. I had already taken what I had planned to be my 'photo of the day', but when I came around the corner into the lounge after taking Kason into the bathroom for his and Cohen's bath tonight and saw Cohen at the ranchslider like this, I had to grab the camera and I managed to snap this before he noticed I was there.

We had a good day today with Si home for most of it. A friend of my Mum's from her work and his wife are moving to Adelaide this weekend, so we spent the morning getting a few things together for them and doing some grocery shopping for us! I love Fridays, seeings as Simon works alternate Saturdays, they are kinda like our Saturdays...but with the added bonus of not as many people out at the shops! AND I got my Dark Tim Tam chiller from Gloria Jeans...mmm! Makes for a good day, even though Kason and Cohen slept for less than two hours today. Total. Combined. Fun! But they were wearing their new pants, courtesy of me, so at least they were cute not-sleeping boys ;-)

xxx

PANTS!

Day 89
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos
A couple of days ago, while looking for simple-to-sew patterns for boys clothes, I came across Rookie Moms - they have a whole lots of crafts and stuff to do with babies/toddlers, AND a tutorial on how to make baby pants out of a t-shirt! I tried a pair a couple of days ago, and they worked, but weren't exactly good enough for the boys to wear in public. I tried again last night, and I managed to whip these four pairs up in like 90 minutes, or something ridiculous like that! I'm really impressed with how they turned out - I ironed on a patch to the two plain pairs this morning - super cute! AND super easy! Can't beat that!

xxx

And We Have Success!

Day 88
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Success One:
Kason crawled!!! I really thought Cohen was going to be first to crawl, he has been moving around the floor more, and has both his knees going and has figured out one hand. Maybe because he can move so well anyways. Back to the story - Simon has this electronic hand thing that crawls on the floor on a chain leash...it's from Dracula's Cabaret so it's fairly creepy. He found it over the weekend, and turned it on today for the boys. They. love. it. As soon as Kason saw this... thing... scuttling across the floor, he started crawling after it with no hesitation! We even got it on video, which was super cool.

Success Two:
I attempted another new dinner meal tonight - apricot chicken curry. And it was goooood! I've got another two in the freezer for another night :-) And, (this is really going to show how inept I am in the kitchen) I even managed to cook some rice for the first time ever in my life! Ha, Simon really scored marrying me huh?!

Success Three:
I've been meaning to get around to baking a batch of choc chip muffins for ages now, today I finally managed it! Just as good as I remember!!

Success Four:
Tonight, I whipped up a pair of baby pants. They are FAR from perfect, but I think I've got the hang of them now, so will have to give another pair or two a shot soon. They are mega cute, so I can't wait to get a 'proper' couple done :-)

Today's picture is from our walk again. I try to get out for a 45-60 minute walk most weekdays, as long as it's not too hot or raining. We had such a great day today, and I'm excited for tomorrow - we're going swimming at the pools with Daddy before he goes to work!

xxx

Cohen

Day 87
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

LOVE this boy and his brother!

xxx

Mixing Things Up?

Day 86
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I'm not so shit-hot in the kitchen. I can bake, but I can't exactly cook. I use jar stuff, or packets...A LOT. Seriously, you should see my fridge and my pantry! (I do make 95% of Kason and Cohen's food, though.) I am also home alone for dinner five nights out of seven and by the time 8:30pm-ish rolls around and I've gotten the boys to bed, I don't feel like going to a whole lot of trouble to make an elaborate meal for one. Anyways, lately I've been feeling like I'm eating the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. And I'm bored. So...I got a few things at supermarket yesterday.
Tonight I attempted: Mince chow mein.
Result: Fail.
I literally blackened the bottom! I kinda munched it up with the spatula thing and stirred it through. It was too late in the night to chuck it out and start something else, so I just ate it. It tasted ok, had a rather 'barbequed' flavour to it though! Unfortunately, I was being organised and made up extra to freeze (I even had to text my Mum to see if I could actually freeze mince chow mein! I don't think she got it cause I didn't get a reply - I'm just assuming it's ok to freeze!), so I now have two extra meals of BBQ-flavoured mince chow mein to eat at a later date. Oh how I am looking forward to those two days...or not.
Watch this space for more of my attempts in the next couple of weeks!

On another note, we drove into the city this morning. Everytime I go in, I love it a little bit more. I really need to make an effort to make a trip in with Simon and the boys, especially with the big Adelaide Fringe Festival coming up. They are starting to set things up now for it. I just have to get my hands on a guide to check out!

xxx

They Are Not Monkeys.

Day 85
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Cohen and Kason usually, for some reason, eat better when they aren't at home...can be rather frustrating! Today though, they were mega distracted by a family sitting next to us. Cohen in particular is VERY nosy, and today was no exception. I reckon their nosiness is them getting their own back - we can't go anywhere without them being stared at, pointed at and talked about. I feel so sorry for them sometimes, they are going to get that for so much of their lives. Simon and I were saying that it's like they are monkeys in the zoo :-( And then we get the people, who upon SEEING them, not even meeting them, decide they are in the position to tell me which boy is "the cheeky one", or "the quiet one", or "the talkative one". One lady today saw them then proceeded to tell me how her daughter has two kids, 23 months apart, and how that is SO much harder than twins. She quickly shut up when I bluntly said, "harder than two babies teething at the same time?" I get that a lot of aspects about having two kids with that kind of age gap, but I don't think she has a clue, or even took a second to think, about some tricky aspects to having two kids the same age.

xxx

Day 84

Day 84
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Day 83

Day 83
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

Beautiful

Day 82
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I love this shot! It's the view out of our lounge room ranchslider tonight. I didn't even notice the double-rainbow until just now :-) I love how it looks like the main rainbow is lighting up the tree.

xxx

Exhausted.

Day 81
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos

I'm exhausted.

I have two tombliboo costumes to sew. I don't have the energy.

Watching 'Live to Dance'. I love it. Makes me miss dancing so much.

Today's picture is what I saw this morning after coming out of Cohen and Kason's room.

xxx

Can't Think of a Title!

Day 80
Originally uploaded by Road2Chaos
Playgroup started back today, it was so good to see everyone again, and it is CRAZY how much the babies have grown (there are a few younger than C & K) in the last six weeks!
However...Kason decided that he did. not. want. to. sleep. today! He slept all night, from 8pm to 8am, then he slept for the 10min car ride home from playgroup and again for about 20mins when we went to the mall (purely because he would usually sleep in The Hummer), and then another 20mins on our walk. Yeah...50 minutes sleep during the day for an 8-month-old makes for a sooky boy! He went down fine tonight, though, so we'll see how he goes overnight...

Cohen and Kason have a birthday party to attend this weekend...I just remembered tonight that they need an 'In The Night Garden' themed costume each. I can sew in a straight line to make quilts, but I don't know how I'd go with sewing anything more complicated, but I might just have to attempt it tomorrow. I'm thinking a visit to Spotlight might be in order tomorrow morning before Si goes to work. Doesn't help that we don't watch 'In The Night Garden', so I've had to google the characters to figure out what the costumes are going to look like! This is going to be...interesting.

xxx

Oh! Today's pic is just a wall of graffiti nearby. I really like graffiti art - the art that is *supposed* to be there. Back in Auckland there was one wall of graffiti we would pass quite frequently, and it was always cool to see the artists change it up every now and then!