3 achievements...

today was a day of achievements. the first being, that i managed to hang these funky bird trays on missy's wall in a straight line. huzzah! she pulled her last wall-hanging down on top of herself just after we got back from the netherlands, but there's no way she's reaching these rainbow beauties:



the second achievement for the day involved caring for one of the babies from my mums' group, and is a tad more impressive than the first. from next term, missy will get looked after by her mum one day a week - we're doing a kind of baby-swap - and today was the first day of H coming to our place. H is a lovely little girl, but she misses her parents terribly when they leave her. i figured she couldn't cry all day, but it turns out she could cry until 1pm. but from this time on, she found her groove at our place - smiling, rolling the ball, dancing to music, knocking over blocks... the flowers below were given to me by her parents to say thanks. during the morning i received a few texts from other mums in our group to say that they were thinking of us and that we were welcome to come and visit if things were getting hard. and i know that God was giving me an extra measure of calm and care all day. so this achievement - getting H to finally feel happy - is the result of much love from many directions.



and the final achievement belongs to missy, who is now the proud owner of 6 teeth - 3 up the top and 3 down the bottom. a little unbalanced, but she'll get there eventually. and her lop-sided pop-eye face when grinding her new teeth is quite amusing. here she is testing out those new fangs on an apple (she did quite well, actually):



take care,
em

buds...

yesterday was all about buds - the kind that go in your ears (or on the floor):



and the more beautiful kind:



this tree (be it nectarine or peach, we're not quite sure) sprang up from a seed within pile of fruit and vegie scraps we'd dumped in a pile in the back corner of our garden two years ago. according to my botany-trained friend, it has good branch formation and has sprung up in a surprising way.

take care,
em

our weekend continued...

here is missy's fathers' day gift to husband, which "she" made at child care:



and here are some pants that i made for missy, which i finally finished embellishing with the stripy ribbons this weekend. i attached the contrasting cuffs after i had sewn the pants together, and my attempts at sewing a straight line while using all my strength to not sew the front and back of the legs together failed dismally (as in the line is not straight, though the legs were not sewn together.) so the stripy ribbon disguises the wonky stitches, but i also think it just looks awesome, so i'm happy the pants have turned out this way:



take care,
em

from our weekend on the farm...

though we missed the brunt of victoria's wild weather, the saturday afternoon sky still turned the colour of rain:



missy loved seeing the cows from a distance (and clinged to husband's shoulder for dear life when up close):



take care,
em

little fingers...

guess who stuck their little fingers in mummy's coloured sand while it was drying on the windowsill?



it is good to know what will happen to my students' fingers when they touch the sand though. won't be the first time they've gone home with food dye fingers, so i'm not too worried!



take care,
em

missy in the sand...

with the weather being so beautiful today, i thought it time to break out that sandpit we found in the hard rubbish earlier this year. missy was over the moon:



here she's squealing with delight, and getting ready to throw some more sand in the air.

take care,
em

weekend blessings...

after an aggravating day at school on friday, this weekend has been full of pleasures. time to sew - these are crayon rolls for the babies in our mums' group (including missy) who are all about to turn 1:





some flowers picked by missy:



witnessing the baptism of a friend and blessing of another friend's baby; coffee and a long walk around our suburb; and plenty of time in the sunshine...

i hope your weekend was equally as pleasant!

take care,
em

sand, food dye and missy

yesterday i began a little experiment involving sand and food dye. we're studying india at school this term, and one aspect of indian culture that my class is focusing on is rangoli - artworks made from coloured sand, that are created during the diwali festival as a sign of welcome. (try google images to check out some rangoli - they're amazing.)

so here is where my experiment is currently at:



i'm hoping the sunshine will help the sand dry out, so the kids can use it on friday. (i do have a back up plan of using coloured pulses instead, in case this experiment comes to nothing!)

last night, when i was tinting my sand, missy discovered the sand bag and seemed to be in heaven:



i look forward to the sunshine and warmth returning so we can break out missy's sand pit and let her go to town!

take care,
em

p.s. and here's a gratuitous missy pic...

one month to go...

in one month from today, missy will be 1 year old. and this is part of what she will be receiving to celebrate her special day:



to be completely honest with you, i've already let her play with them several times (and she loves them, which is highly affirming for me!) i figure the concept of a surprise birthday present is a little beyond her at the moment, so there's no harm in letting her enjoy them early, especially since she seems to go looking for them any time she manages to get into our bedroom.

today was the most gloriously sunny monday we've had in a long time, and missy was eager for a swing. she learned to point this weekend just past, and so when we went outside, she crawled over to the swing, and sat underneath, pointing at it until i put her in there:



take care,
em

thank you big nanny mac for your colourful jumpers...

thank you big nanny mac for your colourful jumpers! the pink and red one has kept missy very warm today:



as did the gumnut baby beanie, along with her new navy cord coat, which kept her toasty on our walk in the sun this afternoon:



and this is what we found at the op-shop (along with some hot pink blundstones, which will serve missy well at pake and beppe's farm when she's walking):



it's a single bed doona cover, and though we don't own any single beds, how could i possibly leave it behind when it's so colourful and covered in words like quince? we'll find something to do with it...

take care,
em

a weekend in the south-west...

today missy and i drove back to melbourne after spending a weekend with my family in south west victoria. i love driving through the south-west, the landscape is shades of my favourite colours - lush greens and brilliant blues. there was a lot of water pooled on the sides of the road, remnants of last week's heavy rain. my parents' dam is looking particularly full and their lawn extremely lush:



we drove through a few rain showers today, but nothing too heavy - only enough to ensure there were rainbows in the distance for much of our journey. i noticed some other rainbows during the weekend as well:





take care,
em

happy birthday husband!

what better way to say "happy birthday!" than with a colourful dutch garland?



i am thankful for your company, your hard work, your delight in our daughter, your thoughtfulness, your love of family and home, your humour, for taking us to holland, and for (pretty much!) everything that makes you you.

take care,
em

em and the machine - reunited...

after what feels like several weeks of longingly staring at my sewing machine from afar and daydreaming about things i'd like to make, i finally got a chance to sit down and do some sewing on saturday night. (yes, saturday night. we'd already been out and come home again - the evenings are my best chance at being productive at the moment.) below is a pic of some pants i made for missy, and only finished this weekend, using some denim given to me by tante j:



as you can tell, missy's love for the piano is not dwindling in the slightest.

and just because i find it amusing - any guesses how high missy can reach these days?



take care,
em

thank you unknown gift-giver...

i'm not exactly sure who the lovely person that left these flowers on my doorstep was (though i have my suspicions), but they certainly brightened my day - the flowers smell amazing!



take care,
em

goodbye pa...

i knew this day was coming. but that doesn't make it hurt less.

this photo was taken last november when missy was only two months old. it's the first time she met pa. he was having lunch when we came to visit, and after he'd finished and we'd gone back to his room, he lit up as he watched and held his second great-grand-daughter. missy was crying from hunger, but pa was so gentle and patient with her, even as she screamed and wriggled.



i've been thinking about my favourite memories of pa in the past few months, in preparation for this time when he has gone and only they remain.

my first precious memory is of a christmas day, probably ten years ago, when pa wrote nan the most beautifully heartfelt card, telling her how much he appreciated and loved her. he got a bit of a ribbing for sucking up, but i remember feeling so impressed by the gratitude and love he had for his wife.

my second precious memory is of an afternoon, just after husband and i got engaged, when i called in to visit nan and pa on my way back to melbourne. for some reason nan wasn't home, and pa delightedly recalled what it was like during the early years of their marriage and bringing up their children. it was clear that he found much joy in his family, and loved them very much - they were definitely fond memories for him to share with me.

goodbye pa, miss you already.

love em

the end of a busy week...

it's been a busy week. we made it to school and child care. missy is learning to sleep amidst the noise of the nursery room, and i am learning to be firm with students who are pushing me as hard as they can. after claiming to be anxiety-free when it comes to school, nervousness crept back in on friday morning. but i'm thankful for opportunities to serve others, even others who take their shoes off ten times a day and who thrash around and would rather cause trouble than take part in my lessons. i met the mum of one of my students yesterday - she is a kind lady with a difficult life. i admire her a lot. sometimes i wonder how the parents of my students carry on and on and on like they do. i am grateful to send the students home at the end of the day and be reunited with my delightful daughter, who is easy to love.

blogger seems to be having trouble loading my pictures, so i'm afraid my words will have to do for now.

take care,
em

when over-photographed babies attack...

i feel like i'm the paparazzi and i've driven this girl crazy (i'm sure husband would agree that i am, in fact, the paparazzi):



now she's refusing to smile (but doesn't she look warm in the sleeping bag thing that came with our pram?):



ah, she's come around... (and so has the sun - look at that blue sky!):



take care,
em

tinkling the ivories...

i was slightly disturbed to hear our piano being played (well, keys being pushed) this morning after husband had gone to work, but it turns out missy's repertoire is expanding:



take care,
em

what a shame...

i shouldn't be able to write this post - i'm supposed to be at work - but unfortunately missy's sniffle has turned into conjunctivitis (which i'm pretty sure she gave herself from rubbing her eyes with dirty hands) and so she's not welcome at childcare this week. sigh... i was actually looking forward to going to school, which is a great and surprising blessing - my teaching rounds and even the first two terms of school last year before missy was born each began with me feeling very anxious and looking for ways to get out of going to work, but that hasn't been the case this time.

so instead of teaching, yesterday and today have been filled with tissues, eye drops, humidified air, canceling appointments, cooking hearty vitamin-c filled food, warmth, isolation, and cake made from the oranges we picked on the weekend at my in-law's farm:



this was supposed to be shared with my mums' group and a visiting friend, but now husband and i have to eat it all ourselves. what a shame...

take care,
em

entertaining missy...

a quick update: school and childcare went really well last week - i had a teary after dropping missy off on thursday but she didn't! she loves being with the other kids, which is a great relief to me. my snakes and ladders game was a hit at school, though i'm going to sew the snakes and ladders down properly (i had just attached them with a few well-placed stitches) because my students look for anything they can get their fingers under and want to pull it off!

we spent a lovely weekend with husband's family on their farm - missy loved the calves and chickens and went crazy for the kittens! we're not allowed to have pets where we live, but i made her a frog using tante j's pattern (and frog fabric on the belly) which seems to be filling the void for the moment:



now that missy's a pro-crawler, we've started to make things more interesting (there's only so many places you can crawl to in a small house) by building obstacles and tunnels:



take care,
em