Party House!

Aghh! Golden coloured glitter everywhere! A simple attempt to do some fun holiday crafts with Zoe has turned into a whole-of-house sparkly experience. I’ve just swept the kitchen floor again (I’ve genuinely lost count of how many times I’ve done this…), will vacuum and mop tomorrow, and I can already see some of the stuff has stealthily crept back onto the floor. It will probably breed overnight and we’ll have even more available for Devon to discover and consume tomorrow morning. We find it in our shoes, on toys, in the fridge, inside Devon’s mouth, on the bathroom towels, even outside. And, of course, on the floor, any part of the floor in our house – and possibly a few neighbours’ houses too.

We’ve used copious amounts of the stuff in our various craft projects, and yet, widow’s crucible style, the jar is still full. I’m not kidding when I say the stuff breeds. It’s like that science experiment where you observe bacteria growing in a petri dish. You never really catch them at it, you just come back every so often and realise, hey, there’s more of them.

Zoe loves it. She thinks it’s amazing that our house has turned into a sparkly wonderland. Since she refers to glitter as ‘party’, whenever she sees more of it (which, let’s face it, is every few minutes), she breaks into this cute dance which involves wiggling her body, hands on hips, and singing ‘parrrrr-tee!’ Unlike her mother, she is going to have great lateral abs. Anyway, ‘party’ is also what she calls hundreds and thousands, another item with a tendency to spread further than gravity would dictate feasible.

Must go and get some sleep. No telling how many rooms I might need to clean tomorrow to prevent further party invasion.

All Boy

Devon had his 8 month old check with the MCH nurse last week, and is on track or ahead on everything for his age. He's now 9.2 kg and 72.5 cm long, which finally puts him above the 75% for length and below it for weight - until now, it's been the reverse (technically "too heavy", not that anyone really minds - other than the people who have to hold him). Considering he's bigger than some of the 1 year olds at church, I'm always a bit staggered that some mums cart even bigger 8 month olds around... but apparently, 25% of them do. Lucky them.

Beyond the stats, Devon is simply delightful. I love this age! He smiles at everyone and everything, loves life, is a pretty happy kiddo, has 6 teeth and loves to eat everything he's given (don't put your fingers near him), crawls like a pro and even navigated the step in our house the other day (much to Zoe's delight!), pulls to standing, but unfortunately, can no longer get himself to sleep. Instead he stands in his crib and wails until we come in and put him on his back (apparently hasn't mastered the 'getting down from standing' technique yet). This makes him really scream, but eventually he does drop off. He's finally cut out his 1am feed, so he can go from about 11pm until 5am... unfortuately, this seems to complete his sleep cycle and he thinks it's time to get up and play. But otherwise, we do seem to be making small improvements in the sleep department. He just needs quite regular feeding! He's incredibly ticklish and has the most infectious laugh ever. I'm pretty sure he recognises his name, and he definitely recognises the word, 'no'. One of his favourite pastimes is following me around the house. It's really quite cute to have two shadows, except perhaps when I need to use the bathroom. He babbles constantly - mostly ba-ba-ba or da-da-da. I don't know whether he's trying to say his name, but Dah-dah is what Zoe calls him... interesting. He spends his days banging things together - anything that will generate a noise. He LOVES loud noises. Whereas Zoe comes running to me for reassurance/protection from anything louder than a truck passing outside, Devon gets this inquisitive look on his face, moves toward the noise, and then grins in this 'oh yeah, how cool' way. He's all boy!

And he’s off!

While we were at Phillip Island a few weekends ago, Devon finally figured out crawling. He’s been crawling backwards for over a month now, so I kept thinking it’d be any day now… and it's finally happened! Now nothing is safe – particularly Devon himself, who has an affinity for electrical cables and anything made of glass.

I decided that as part of the holiday to myself, I’d take disposable nappies instead of Devon’s cute and trendy (but much bulkier and, let's face it, messier) cloth nappies. Not only did Devon get to wear disposables, he scored limited edition denim-coloured ‘Jeans for Genes’ nappies… so much more sophisticated than the Pooh and Tigger ones (the 'unlimited' edition??). Anyway, they’re awfully cute and given the hot temperatures this weekend, he spent a good deal of his time showing off his ‘denim’ nappies, sans pants.

As recently heard in our house...

'Orange'
'Green.'
'Orange'
'No, green. Trees are green.'
'Orange'
'No, that tree's green too.'
'ORANGE!'
'Well, yes, I see your point. That tree does grow oranges.'

Very...

Having a 2 year old in the house sure makes for some lively discussions. As her grasp of language grows, Zoe's attempts to communicate about the world get more and more amusing. Just the other day, for instance, she was dancing to the Wiggles and so asked for her tutu. So I got her pretty pink ballet tutu from her closet, only to receive a chorus of 'no no no no!!!' (they typically come in fours these days). I eventually determined she wanted to wear a summer dress (great choice when it's raining and about 13 degrees outside), and explained that this was a 'dress', not a 'tutu'. Then Zoe, looking ever so patient with her obviously dull mother, corrected me, pointing to the dress and saying 'tutu', and to the tutu, 'very tutu'.

Grandpa and Grandma's visit

Grandpa and Grandma visited us from America in September - so this is long overdue, but here's an idea of what we got up to with them.

Enjoying an early Christmas present!

A fun day at Melbourne Zoo

In the Zoo's Butterfly House

Despite walking for 5 hours, our pocket dynamo still had energy for the playground.

Scuffing leaves at the Botanic Gardens

The Giant's Chair at Mount Dandenong Lookout

At the Tessalar Tulip Festival

Devon's t-shirt reads 'I'm definitely up to something'.

Seconds after this picture was taken, he was eating the dirt at his feet.

Horse and buggy ride at the tulip festival.

Zoe's first time patting a horse and she loved it (eventually)!

Walking along the Yarra River at Warrandyte

Taking a ride through the Dandenong Mountains on Puffing Billy. It was one of those marvellous typical Melbourne Spring days, raining heavily then an hour of brilliant sunshine.

I've never noticed this 'playground' before, but it was really cool, sort of like a gym for adults, but way more fun than a regular gym. There were things to climb, a giant wheel to rotate, loads of activities and all made to adult scale - quite a hit with our group!

Poor tired fella!

At Mornington Beach

Puddles

Those photos didn't really do justice to Zoe's newfound exuberance with puddles... this gives a much better idea.