One Year

It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed since we welcomed our beautiful baby boy into the world, and yet it's hard to imagine a world without our sweet little man.

Jacob, words cannot begin to express how much you have enriched all of our lives.  We have simply loved watching you grow during this last year, watching as you learn new skills. At 1 year old your personality is really starting to shine out.

You beam at us when we go into your room in the morning, you reach out for cuddles, you wave goodbye and love to clap along to your favourite songs.
You dance, you bounce, you crawl at lightening speeds. (The rapid thud thud thud as you crawl through the house to find me has to be one of my favourite sounds in the world!)
You splash (boy, can you splash!), you blow bubbles, you shout with glee.

You giggle at your sister when she's being silly, and she giggles back, and you giggle back, and she giggles back, and... well, you get the idea). You call to each other through the door when she's still in bed and you're up.  You smile with delight when she plays with you, and you cry when she gets bored and hits you over the head - but you're always so pleased to see each other. Oh and you give each other bedtime kisses with mouths wide open, laughing all the while!

You are getting so dexterous, you have no problem fitting pegs in holes and you can build towers 3 blocks high all on your own! You love posting things, but if you could stop posting them into the central heating ducts that would be great! You will pick up a hairbrush and brush your hair. You copy Ella when she's brushing her teeth. You hold the phone up to your ear and smile with absolute delight when you hear your daddy's voice. You love to hammer and you love to empty a box and then put everything back.

You are such a chilled out little man, so relaxed and happy. So curious and enthusiastic about everything. You're into everything and very determined - you get so cross if we try to stop you from exploring something new (such as the toilet!) But above all else you are sweet and affectionate and loving, gentle and thoughtful and we love you so very dearly.

Happy first birthday darling boy.

 

Egg Hunting...

One of my absolute favourite memories of easter (and possibly of all time) is hunting for easter eggs in the garden with my little sister.  We would be out there at the crack of dawn in our nighties, with jumpers and wellies on. The grass would be wet with dew (or rain!) and the morning was always still and quiet, with only the wood pigeons or our excited little voices to break the silence. I even remember the smell of the cool air!

So, I was very keen to try to recreate this experience for my own little ones.  It was a cool morning here and the unanticipated rain overnight meant that some of our eggs were not so much hiding as swimming, but the rain didn't dampen any of the excitement! We searched in trees, in plant pots, in watering cans, even in the cubby house! The easter bunny had been all over the garden and even the littlest one was able to find some all on his own (even if he didn't get to eat them just yet!)

Chicks and Chocolate

These little easter nests are something that we used to make for easter when we were children.  I have always thought that they are just the sweetest little things. I haven't made them for years and years, in part because I couldn't find the right ingredients in Australia.  This year however I managed to find both Shredded Wheat and mini eggs with a sugar shell! Ella had a lot of fun breaking up the Shredded Wheat, mixing in the chocolate and placing the eggs on top. I think she enjoyed eating them at afternoon tea most of all though!

Easter Chocolate Birds Nests: makes 8 - 10

4 Shredded Wheat

120g Chocolate (milk or dark or a combination of both)

40g Butter

3 tbsp Golden Syrup

Mini chocolate eggs to decorate

Crumble the Shredded Wheat into a mixing bowl. In a heavy bottom pan, or in the microwave, melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup. Pour this mixture over the Shredded Wheat and stir well until it is all coated. Dollop the mixture onto a baking sheet or greaseproof paper, shaping each mound into a nest shape, with an indentation in the centre to hold the eggs. Place a few chocolate eggs into each nest and refrigerate until set.

'Mowling' the lawn

Cleaning up the grass cuttings..

'Twinkle, twinkle, little star...'

 'Look mumma, a bee!'

'Decorationing' Jacob

'Hey, this is fun..'

Or maybe not...

'Jacob's got green hair!' 

'C'mere you!'

'What? I'm just cleaning up!'

She looks so sweet and innocent..

'It's raining grass!'

That's All Folks!

The sun'll come out tomorrow..

It's been a trying sort of week. Nick has been working super-crazy-only-coming-home-to-sleep-hard and besides missing him massively it can be rather tiring doing the single-parent thing. The kids have both been pretty grumpy this week - I think they've both been feeling a little under the weather, but that has resulted in Ella being particularly bossy and rough with Jacob and Jacob being extra whingy about it. *sigh*

It's also been raining more than it has for weeks (although that's not saying much!) so we've been somewhat confined to the house. It's actually been sort of nice in a way. We've had to slow down a bit and I've enjoyed just hanging out with the little ones, not worrying about having to be 'doing' something (always a challenge for me!) We did manage to escape the house for some fresh air once the rain eased off and we were treated to this beautiful sunset. A perfect reminder that the rain never lasts forever and lovely surprises are usually just around the corner...

Toddler Snacks

Ella has been helping me cook for a good year now, it's such a great thing for us to do together as I need to get our meal prepared and she wants to have my attention and spend time with me. This way we both stay happy and even thought it might take twice as long to get the dinner cooked, there are at least no tears!  Plus there are so many lessons to be learned in the kitchen, we measure, weigh and count; pour and stir; chop, grate and sieve. We taste and we talk - about what we're cooking, about our days.

However much Ella enjoys helping me with the cooking, it gives a whole new level of satisfaction for her to be able to make a snack for herself almost entirely on her own. I'm trying to compile a whole lot of toddler friendly recipes. These banana popsicles were a big hit - needless to say she was very enthusiastic about her first taste of Nutella!

Rain

Last weekend we lucky enough to be able to share a really magical experience with our little boy. We took him to Drop Bear Theatre and The Seam's production; 'Rain'.
It was a beautiful performance installation / sensory experience for babes in arms and crawlers. Jacob was simply mesmerised from the minute we stepped into the space - and you can see why!

Picture from Shine Little Light

Our little man wasted no time at all setting off to explore the room, clambering over the actors, and inspecting the beautiful cello which accompanied the performance.  I think his favourite part was the huge bladders full of blue water - they were wonderful to climb over, or bury your face in; you could jiggle the water to make waves, watch them move and listen to the sounds they made, you could beat them like a drum or just watch the beautiful reflections!

To see him so engaged and interested, so full of wonder and delight was an amazing and moving experience for us as parents! It was a lovely reminder that the best thing that we can do for our babies is to be present in the moment, to notice what draws their attention and interest and to try to see the world with their eyes, to experience everything as if for the first time.

At the end of the session we were handed a poem, which is too beautiful for me to not share. It's by Cheryl Lawrie, I haven't seen her work before but I think I might be a fan...