Happy birthday Harrison

Harrison turned 7 and had his first "proper" birthday party last weekend. Coming sandwiched between my first function as our P&C fundraising organiser (barefoot bowls) and Mothers Day, as well as lots of work stuff going on (applying for my own job - successfully as it turned out) it was a pretty full on week or two. I was decorating the cake at 1:30am on Saturday morning after the barefoot bowls function! The kids all had the URL of a Flickr set on their party bags and we uploaded photos taken in front of the tent when we got home from the party. The tent was 5 bamboo poles from bunnings and some calico and safety pins. Not sure I'd want to spend the night in it!

We're now rationing birthday presents. He gets to open one a day, which means he's probably got 3 weeks of birthday love! We made a "tent" cake with a campfire (gluten free versions of jaffas as red coals, hard candies melted and used as fire, scorched almond rocks, Flake logs), and trees (gluten free icecream cones with disgusting green royal icing - a surprising hit with the kids, they all wanted to try a tree!).

Here's Eva with her god-sister Amy and Ryan.

What happens when...

Your mum goes outside to hang out washing...

Your brother does your hair...

Junior Chef

Eva loves dressing up!

Evie at the Show

Eva had her first ride on a merry-go-round at the Perth Royal Show a couple of weeks ago. She ended up standing on the horse!

Toddler!

Eva started walking just before her first birthday, and is now a very proud full time toddler with her first pair of walking shoes. So cute!!! And she loves her 3 days a week at daycare. As soon as we pull up in the carpark she's kicking her legs and giggling. She just can't wait to get in there.

Warehouse

We're staying temporarily in Richard's guest warehouse in Fremantle until we move into our new house. It's a gorgeous place to stay - convict built, with a wool lift glassed in, oodles of space, a full sized trampoline inside, metres from the sea, 2 minutes walk from fishing boat harbour, High St and all Freo's delights. Harrison is yet again living with another boy's fabulous toys - this time Jim's lego and Thomas train set. He'll have a hard time adjusting to moving into our new house with just his own toys, me thinks!
PS - no idea why this photo is round the wrong way!

The age of the giggle

Laughing Eva 4 months, originally uploaded by CarmelandSimon.

Simon snapped the gorgeous Eva laughing away in her stroller the other day. She's such a happy girl - always quick with a flirty smile for anyone who looks her way. Today her loud giggles almost got her thrown out of the baby rhyme session at the local public library!

High Tea outfit

High Tea outfit, originally uploaded by CarmelandSimon.

Eva looking groovy in her new outfit from Grandmum.

High tea

Marg and VJ shouted me high tea today at the Fairmont Empress. It was just gorgeous. Spent the morning at the museum, and a couple of hours being waited on over high tea. Both Eva and Harrison slept for 12 hours last night, so we were all in very good moods!

Eva at 6 weeks

We've had the BC definition of a heat wave over here - 5 days of temps over a massive 30 degrees celcius (I kid you not)! Joined the crowds at Elk Lake on Monday, and while the boys were swimming I took this pic of Eva - not quite capturing her engaging smile. She is very smiley now, and has started "coo-ing" which is very cute.

Eva healthy

Had a good report from the paediatrician today on Eva's health. Her medication appears to be doing the right thing, and she's developing as expected. Her next blood test is in 4 weeks time (previously it was fortnightly tests). We also don't need to make trips to Vancouver to see the paediatric endocrinologists at the children's hospital. She can have all her tests and checkups here on the island. That makes life a bit easier, as we know the hospital here quite well now!

Eva was a model baby for about 24 hours - sleeping beautifully, settling quickly, feeding at exactly the right times, but then she decided to punish us for thinking we'd perhaps done something right. The last 24 hours has been hellish. Such is the vaguaries of parenthood, I guess. I discussed her colic with the paediatrician, and apart from a new remedy which has some good results in clinical trials (a probiotic drop), he said that I should listen to my mother as he'd never argue with a grandmother, especially one who had 11 children.

Eva and Harrison

The (not so) wild west of Canada

Well, we've been here for 2 weeks and are getting pretty settled. Simon is shopping for camping supplies as I type - he and Harrison are planning to check out a provincial park quite close to Victoria as their first camping trip. I'm hoping Eva sleeps heaps, and am planning to check out the local antique stores and cafes while they're away! We bought a new stroller with baby car seat attached, which is making life very easy. The stroller Helga had left was quite big and unwieldy (I hate those ones with fixed front wheels), so we got a Graco on special which folds up super small. Best thing is that the baby attachment also goes in the car and can be used as a rocker in the house. So she gets to stay asleep as we move her in and out of the car and stroller. Weather is stunning again. Eva has baby acne pretty badly, so no photos just now! Her colic is settling down a bit, and she's able to sleep a 7 hour stretch most days. Hopefully we haven't introduced too many bad habits from the hours of walking/rocking/strollering that we've been doing the last few weeks.