(Day 120) Attachment parenting

To me this is attachment parenting - you content, sucking your thumb and peering out from your little pouch like a baby kangaroo. Just looking out at the world from the safety of Mama. 

Holding you in the sling that you first were carried in as a newborn, today, made me realise just how much you have grown!

(119) The good stuff

Good food for babies is in the eye of the beholder - apparently!

This is you procuring food from your Grandma today at the coffee shop, kicking  and making excited noises as people ate yummy food around you, until your grandmother gave in and let you eat a little bit of custard 

You are loving breast milk at the moment so we might hold off on the vanilla slices for a little while yet ! 

(Day118) lunch date with Daddy

Today we decided to do something different and headed down to the beach side to have lunch with Daddy during his work lunch break. Sometimes we forget that we live only a 10 minute drive from the beach. Maybe because it isn't the perfect post card beach that you see in magazines, with pristine white sands and clear water, but today the beach was breathtakingly beautiful anyway. The sky was such an amazing color of blue, the water was still and alluring ( it was so tempting to jump in, but it is stinger season) and there were lots of people stopped there in uniforms, obviously with the same idea that we had! It was so lovely getting to spend even half an hour with Daddy eating fish and chips with the waves breaking next to us - and in the middle of the week! I am looking for many more days like this over the next two weeks, when your brother and sisters have time off school and we can all meet with Daddy for lunch dates! After spending so many years studying and working 30 - 80 hours a week, I am just loving being able to be a stay at home mum, for however long I am able to :-)

(Day 117) Leaps and Bounds!

Wow, my beautiful girl, you are coming in leaps and bounds in the last couple of days! 

So much so, that I was unable to choose just one photo for Day 117. All of a sudden in the last two days you have discovered how to (very quickly) flip yourself over, eat food (and swallow it properly!), play with toys, grab things, and appreciate music (you are currently listening to this.

Go Layla go! 

I continue to be in awe of you!

xxx lots of love, Mama

(Day 116) At the shops with Sophie

Today you are kind of getting the hang of this BFF stuff. 

You and Sophie met up at the shops

Had a bite to eat 

Bought matching little Easter outfits

Sucked on each other's fingers

...all typical bff stuff!

(Day 114) Rockin the modern cloth nappy!

(Day 112) You found your thumb!

(Day 110) Faces

Every time that I look at this photo it cracks me up!

You are almost 16 weeks Layla- Rae, and you have started to pull the funniest expressions ever! 

You have a little chuckle to yourself when somebody does something that you like

You squeal really loudly when you want something

or when you don't like something

...or when you are just testing out your new-found voice!

You have also started making "ahh ahh' sounds when Mama sings to you, or when Sammy spends long periods of time sitting in front of you, trying to teach you to talk by saying "ahhhhh- come on Layla! - ahhhh"

Daddy was caught today, giving you playful little pinches on the bottom to get a squeal out of you - he is not too popular with you after that!

I just love to see the interesting little person that you are becoming!!!

(Day 109) MY HERO

Dear Layla,

 I am absolutely positive that throughout your life, your big sisters and your big brother will be your heroes. Whenever you need something, they are there for you, and whenever you call out for them, they come running! 

And I know that without a doubt, if any one of them had to run in front of a bus to save your life (God forbid!) they would do it! But today it was your big brother's turn to be your hero

It was about 5am when we woke for your morning feed, and there was a big thunderstorm. Sammy came running and jumped into your junior bed/ cot (we have a very big one!) to wait it out, when there was the most terrifying rumble of thunder overhead, followed by many flashes of light outside our window, and a tremendous roar, like a jet or a train was rushing very fast toward our house! Sammy and I looked at each other with wide eyes like "what is THAT?!" and by the time we woke your Daddy up, the wind that was coming at the side window was so hard and strong that Daddy and Mama were both putting our whole body weight on each side of the louvres to keep it from coming in!

That was when Sammy saw that you were by yourself, and (worried that something might happen to you!) he ran to the bed and quickly grabbed you and raced you into the hallway where your sisters were.  Realising that this wasn't just any storm, Mama and Daddy ran with the four of you into the lounge room where you all crouched down in between two couches for the next 10 minutes until the tornado was over. 

We never get tornado's here (this is more of a cyclone country!) and had no idea how bad it had been until the sun rose, and we were able to look outside and see the trees that had fallen, roofs that had come off, houses ripped apart, iron and fencing that had thrown through and pierced people's walls and littered the road. By some miracle, our street was spared from much of the damage, but only half a street up, there was devastation everywhere. 

The whole of today has been filled with the State Emergency Service going up and down the road assisting people, the ambulance taking nearby residents to hospital, the police setting up a station at the end of our street so that looters cannot come in and steal from the people with half of their houses missing, and helicopters taking pictures of our neighbourhood so that they know where the most help is needed. 

There have been so many heroes today, and I am so very proud of your big sisters for looking after you, but I think that you are safe to call Sammy your hero today 

(Day 108) Morning dancing

Morning dancing with your big sister before school - doesn't everyone wake up like this?

(Day 104) Nom!

Today's post was supposed to be a lead on from 'how much you have grown'- comparing how wonderfully you are growing now, and how big and strong you are compared to the last time that you had a photo shoot with your teddies! 

But you are so curious about everything now, and you had other ideas!

 "Hmm, I seem to remember you..."

"You're very soft..."

"nom!"

"...what?"

You are so gorgeous! and innocent with those big bright eyes. How could we not love you to the moon and back? 

xxx Mama

(Day 103) Have baby, will travel

Ever since Mummy finally got her licence to drive last week, life has been one big adventure for you!

In and out of the car to visit Nonna, go for coffee dates with your bestie, and with your grandma Nina

Trips to the beach, picking up the kids from school, and today swimming at the local swimming pool - complete with a whole baby swimming beach area! 

It has been great fun, but you and the car are not friends. You are very happy to be bundled up to go out with Mummy, but as soon as you are placed in that car capsule, the look of (horror/ terror/ omg get me outta here) realisation comes across that little face and we are in for a good ten minutes of shrieking (if we are lucky) until we get to our destination...at which point, you make a full and miraculous recovery!

Another by-product of living a life of adventure means that you are often seen passed-out in random locations like this one - fast asleep on Mummy's lap, snuggled into a towel with warm socks pulled all of the way up to your knees, while your brother and sister splash around in the water, and Mummy and Aidan take turns looking after you.

What a wonderful life this is today...

(Day 102) Too much noise!

 Having three older siblings sometimes means that you are subjected to environments that are less-than-amusing for little babies, though unfortunately, being a mother to four children means that sometimes Mummy needs to bring you along to noisy/ wet/ uncomfortable places for short duration's in order to be the best Mummy possible! 

Today was one of those days

In some strange and wonderful twist of fate, your big brother Sammy and your Aunty Erica were both chosen to represent their schools at inter-school athletics carnivals within one day of each other. Which means that both yesterday and today you were subjected to environments which were both noisy and crowded, and wet! Like a trooper, you quietly tolerated war-cries and wet splashes from little people exiting the pool, however, after half an hour or so, the wailing started (and I don't blame you, my ears were beginning to ring with the voices of lots of very passionate team supporters) and we made a very quick exit!

However, I am sure that cuddles from Sammy, Grandma and Grandma Nina, and Mummy made it a lot nicer for you :-) 

(101) The Awesome Swimming Carnival

It was very hot today, and we had to wait for storms to pass before venturing out to watch Aunty Erica compete at the interschool swimming carnival.

I am not sure that you were too happy about sitting next to a pool where you were hot and bothered, and being splashed, but not actually allowed to get into the pool.

But cuddles with Aunty Erica are always a good thing! Particularly since today was Erica's own public holiday, which she deemed 'the day of awesomeness', and required everyone to use 'awesome in every sentence'. In that case, it was a pretty awesome day, at the awesome pool with your awesome Aunty in the awesome sun!

(Day 96) Technology mad!

Mummy is anti-technology

I think there is a technical word for that - 'Neo-Luddist', which is defined as ' a term describing those opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation or new technologies in general'

Yep, that is your Mama

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy being able to use facebook, and email people when it is too slow to post a letter, or look something up when a library isn't handy (or relevant!) but technology for the sake of technology (i.e. computer games, screens that project onto walls when a little screen will do the same job, voice-activated computers, 3D televisions) worries me a little bit. I am of the firm belief that people are becoming so ingrained in technology that they aren't seeing the things around them. 

They are so busy fighting wars in computer games that they do not worry so much about the wars going on in our backyard.

They are so busy watching Americanised television shows about friends and friendships that they don't have time to go out and make friends of their own.

 They are so involved in the headlines on the news that they fail to see the things going on around them, in their own families and their own communities. 

It worries me that global warming is at a crisis point, and people do not seem to have the time to take an active role to band together and make positive changes, yet there are 10 million men online at 2am playing war games with each other over the internet. To me that signals a massive problem.

Thus television and computer is very limited in our house, and our (poor, deprived? - if I am to believe what your brother and sisters have said sometimes!) brother and sisters are encouraged to read, play card games, go swimming, play on their bikes, or (gulp) actually interact with each other

Therefore today it was quite amusing to see your little face when Uncle Sean was successfully able to entertain you with youtube video's playing on his mobile phone. Somehow I am not quite sure that you are in agreement with this anti-technology thing at all!

  

(Day 93) Mummy's birthday!

It's Mummy's birthday and the perfect excuse for you and Uncle Sean to paint the town red at the new bowling alley (which looks more like a disco). Even though you have just met your uncle, you looove him to bits and are keen to show off your moves - standing up on the couch!

You love to 'stand up' at the moment - either leaning on things or people, and you pull yourself up to a standing position when Mummy holds your hands. That is a pretty awesome achievement for a three month old bubba - you are a very clever baby!

(Day 92) Uncle Sean

Dear Layla-Rae

I have been so very excited for you to meet your Uncle Sean for the very first time this week. Born only one year after Mummy, Uncle Sean was always my very best friend, and as we grew older, he has become a never-ending source of fun and excitement for your brother and sisters!

I wasn't all that surprised when you decided that you loved him pretty much straight away!