Jessica's visit



So much for writing regularly, it seems I only sit down one evening a month!! Sequoia's sleep has had it's ups and downs this month - probably thanks to three new teeth, so now she has four. So I am still an insomniac and need to do something about it before I implode. And not only teeth, Sequoia has a little more hair - almost a fluff mohawk, she also learnt to crawl 10 days ago, and learnt to pull herself up to a leaning stand the day before yesterday. Three weeks ago she learnt to clap and whenever she hears anyone say the phrase "clever girl" she sits up and gives a round of applause.

Sequoia learnt to clap by banging her sandy hands together while we were at Bronte Beach.



The down side of this (apart from me realising how non-baby-proof our house is since Jasper has grown into a "three AND A HALF, mummy" year old boy) is that she'll sit up or stand up in her cot late at night if she wakes up but cant remember how to get back down, it takes a while to console those midnight tears.

I thought jasper would not enjoy his sister becoming mobile as all of his "stuff" is now at her mercy, but after a few days of him saying "no Sequoia" and grabbing his object of affection that minute; he shifted to looking for high shelves for his bits and pieces, and promptly moving himself to the other side of the room from her when she works her way towards him; to now sitting with her, passing her things and crawling around with her... competition and adaptation at work... Jasper now watches a bit of ABCkids at some ungodly hour of the morning and Sequoia uses him as a climbing frame, while he just tilts his head so he can still see the box. So hopefully as she becomes more proficient at this movement caper, they will start to actually play with each other.

Jasper was excited about Halloween this year and wanted to be a spider, so we bought a couple of meters of felt and some lycra and I designed and sewed a spider, and not to leave Sequoia out, her costume was made by sticking cut out masking tape on to a body suit.




We went trick or treating to our neighbours which was loads of fun and Jasper had a ball trying to scare everyone as a little spider boy, and his goody bag is still going a month later.

I willed Jess up from Melbourne for a weekend and we had a lovely bonding, sisterly time, and the kids adored playing with their aunty.



The highlights were a couple of trips to the sea, nice and warm after Melbourne.

J and J swimming at Newport.



I am yearning to go down to Victoria and stay with Jess and Sup, but the kids still aren't able to fly, they both have fluid in their inner ears and may (hopefully not) need gromets - we see the specialist next week.

Jasper and Sequoia playing together



Sequoia's second sea swim (and me)



Mum is down from the mountains almost once a week which is lovely and Jasper tries to get her to do crafts with him each visit and Sequoia just grins at her and sticks out her arms.

Mum looking glamorous outside the beach shelter



Sequoia inside the shelter



Zoran is an uncle again, Trene and Anita have a new baby Thomas just two weeks ago, a lovely big boy, who slept so peacefully when we visited them south of Wollongong last weekend.



The house is mad. The hot water tank blew up last week and we were without hot water for about 10 days, the kids had bucket baths on the kitchen floor - to their delight! But Zoran has plumbed the new one today (he had a business trip to Melb in the middle of it all, lucky lucky man). The front yard has been a building site for a month,



the digger came and ripped everything up



then we had days and days of rain, so I wear gumboots, juggling babies and groceries from the house to the car as there is no more driveway, but we have a date from the concreter for the new pour - next thursday - but we cant get hold of the excavater to finish the job first!!!! Zoran and dad have build two very impressive walls full of cement at the front of the steep block, keeping the hillside from collapsing down and the drive will be behind the top wall. The neighbours (on our manicured street) drive past and have a good look at the site - surely wondering if we'll ever finish. I still have loads of planting, painting and facia to do but with only short gaps on preschool days which Sequoia is asleep it is going to take A WHILE!!

Jasper is now a robot, and has worn his robot outfit (actually PJs covered in robot cartoons) for over 48hrs - I managed to get some clean clothes on to him this evening. He is also a star jumping super hero so there is plenty of amusement. He has rediscovered his 2yr old enjoyment of household cleaning - he chopped the veg for dinner tonight and mopped the lounge room floorboards the other day. Although his favorite job is mixing cake ingredients (go figure).



I think we may even (shock horror) actually clean the windows this weekend - I reckon he'd love a spray bottle and squeegee, we could clean on the outside and have Sequoia banging at us from the other side of the glass, the house wont know itself.
All our news for now, I think...

Txx