The Girtie who turned Thirty

September 25th 2011

Yes, I did it!  I turned the big 30.  Being a Sunday I had a lovely day at church, then enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch in the lounge room provided by the best bestie ever Miss Collettie Bo Betty Gibson.  Big Minol was outta town (in Melbourne) so I was lucky to have wonderful family and friends to spoil me! Sunday evening we headed to mum and dad's for dinner. 

(I will have to post some pics of my very thoughtful birthday presents). 

Loving the Bunny

Most days are tiring and a lot of the time I feel anxious and stressed and sometimes a little depressed with having to care for Estella.  She has been wonderful and is coping very well but she has been very clingy and demanding both physically and emotionally.  She likes being constantly entertained and held a lot.  Lately she has begun crawling around on the floor which entertains her for longer periods.   The weather hasn't been wonderful lately so we haven't been out much.  But last week was the best day.  We went to meet the new resident at the Docking household and we LOVED her!  Probably not quite as much as Levi loves his little wabbit but we were certainly impressed!  It was cute when Estella was checking out the rabbit with Livy, you can see in the photos as Livy got close to Estella, Estella put her arm around Livy and gave her a big hug.  Estella even had a little ride on the bike AND a jump on the trampoline.  Minol hasn't had much experience on tramps so for a while he was ordering everyone off or to sit down so he could jump by himself!  He got the hang of it in the end.  Levi is a little gun on the trampoline!!  Anyway, it was a very refreshing day (thank you soooo much Nikki, Liv and Levi AND Bunny), we really had a wonderful time!

Ok, where to begin.  Life has been full on crazy of late.  But things are good.  I realised that I must write things down more ofter otherwise they will be forgotten!  Lets start with a funny moment today.  Last night Minol stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa's and had an absolute ball.  (He slept over at their place the weekend Estella went in for surgery and didn't want to come home so while Grandad is on holidays he had another little sleep over!)  Anyway, we picked him up this afternoon (Estella really wanted to take a turn and stay with Grandma but I'm not sure Grandma is ready for that one yet), and we dropped into the supermarket on the way home to grab a few things.  Minol asked if he could go in with Daddy while Mummy waited in the car with Estella but upon Daddy opening the car door ready for him to jump out Minol exclaimed "oowwwww, my body's so sore, I can't get out".  So I asked him if he wanted to stay in the car with me and Estella.  He said yeah and "I'm like Grandpa..."!!!  Hmmmn, old man Minol!  Dad DID play a few games of tennis last night and said he had been complaining today of a sore body so does have an excuse.  But funny non the less.  

He is such a little champ.  He has been such a great big brother to Estella and we often see him giving her hugs and kisses and offering to hold her hand in the car.  He is especially very caring and looks after her in Nursery.  Since Estella went into nursery he has been so good staying there without Grandpa.  I'm very excited to see him learning so much in nursery.  

I'm also very excited that for three days in a row he has done poops in the toilet.  For him to do poops three days in a row in itself is an achievement!!  For a long time he has been a 1 poo a week boy and no matter what the GP has to recommend nothing has helped.  I was sure it was more a psychological thing though and so Big Minol and I have been trying trying trying to work out how to help him poo more.  I wont go into details but all of a sudden things are falling into place thank goodness!  Go Minol! 

Estella Estella miss Bo Bella.  Mum found out that Dad has a Stella in his family history.  So that's nice that Estella kinda has a family name too!  So my little crazy angel is doing so well.  She has the snuffles this week so is a little clingy again but I'm so amazed at how quickly she has adapted to her cast.  In saying that though, the first two weeks have been so draining both emotionally and physically.  But I'm coping and Estella is happy and this week she has had 3 or 4 nights of sleeping through the night in a row.  Aaaaaah!  She is becoming more confident in her cast and was pulling herself around a bit on the floor today.  She is saying more words.  She does a little slurred I love you.  When grocery shopping the other day going down the biscuit aisle she pointed saying "Bik, bik..."  When she wakes up in the morning we hear her yell out Mamae, or Papai.  Strong YEA and NA.  "Bye bye" on the phone... which she loves talking on.  Her and Minol have fights over the phone sometimes.  It's lovely seeing her develop in different areas.  I know she's be running in no time once the cast is off and I'm actually enjoying not having to close doors and put things out of her reach all the time!  

We are very lucky at the moment too, it has been a huge help to me, Jacoba and Kaea have been coming over to occupy Estella (and Minol) which gives me some solid time to do things around the house.  They are such awesome girls and the kids just love them! (I love them!!)  So I figure that I just need to keep the next 7 or so weeks pretty busy to keep Estella occupied and we'll be fine.  Bring on some more nice weather though!  Need some outings!  

Anyway, that's life as I know it at the moment.  Whoohoo.

2 weeks down...

My beauties.

The crazy girl

the bird

After church today we drove straight over to Mum and Dad's house to get chocolate.  Dad had his 60th birthday on Saturday.  Friday night we celebrated and Dad got a LOT of chocolate.  Anyway, we got there and over in the corner of the room Dad pointed out to us a box with a towel covering it.  He told us to slowly look under the towel.  Inside the box was a beautiful green bird (a rosella I think), with bits of blue in its wings and red above its beak.  Anyway, mum and dad thought that it had broken its back after flying into the window, it had left blood on the ground too.  Little Minol said a prayer for it.  Mum and Dad said they had to wait til 5pm when the vet opened to take it in.  At about quarter to 5 we were about to have our dinner at home.  I asked Minol to say blessing on the food and he started the prayer with "please bless the bird..." and went on a bit, finally blessing the food at the end.  Just as we were about to eat, the phone rang.  Mum let us know that the bird had recovered and had jumped out of the box so they had let it outside where it flew off.  What a wonderful opportunity to teach a 3 year old about prayer.  For him to know that Heavenly Father had listened to his sweet prayers is something pretty special.  I love it how Minol can now say prayers by himself.  He blesses the food all by himself and family prayers we discuss things to pray about first but then he says it all himself.  So SWEET!  Melts my heart!

home again home again jiggity jig...

Aaaaaaah, home SWEET home!  It's just wonderful to be home.  It was quite an adventure getting here but we finally arrived on Friday the 24th of June.  It took us an extra week.  With all the excitement of the volcano we were concerned our flight home would be cancelled but after calling the airlines they told us the flight from Rio to Buenos Aires was still going.  BUT then when we arrived in Argentina we were told that the flight to Australia had been cancelled!  So we were put up in a nice hotel, where we spend 5 nights.  We spent our time eating, having baths (Estella & Minol), and watching tv.  Whoohoo.  Here's a few pics of our time in Argentina.  We then were able to fly from Argentina, going the long way stopping to refuel in Thailand, then on to Brisbane (instead of Sydney as planned).  Then to Sydney where we spent 2 nights and had a bit of fun taking the kids to the wildlife park and aquarium. And FINALLY we had the green light to Hobart!  Aaaaaah, what a week!  Funny how it's been almost 2 weeks back and it feels as if we never left!  So much to blog about though, so many photos... where to begin????  Will think it over and might find some time to record a few happenings.  

Estella... Swim suit model?

Lots to write about.  Last week we spent 3 nights at Illha Grande.  It´s a huge and very beautiful island in Rio.  I would have spent longer there had I known how beautiful it was.  With travelling to and from we really only got 2 full days.  One day we spent looking around the island a little and playing in the pool, the 2nd day we went on a tour of the islands on a lovely boat and went to some lovely swimming spots.  The last place was the blue lagoon but by the time we got there in the afternoon it was a little too cool for swimming.  Anyway, demanding son at the moment so my quiet blogging time has been drawn short.  More pics to come!