Holland Festival

On the weekend of 18 and 19th February, we attended the Holland Festival at Sandown Raceway as we do every year. Adrian's parents sell Dutch/German CD's there and we go along to help out where we can. This year Adrian's Uncle and cousins from his fathers side came along. These are family members they haven't seen in a long time and I have only met once. Adrian's cousin Hilbert and his wife Virginia have two children, Ellouise, 6 months younger than Micayla and Jeremy 1 month younger than Bailey. Micayla was so excited to have met her "new" cousins and they played liked they've been friends since birth. It was so nice to see them and we look forward to seeing lots more of them in the future.

Adrian's father restores steam engines and he had a couple of engines on display. Much to the delight of 'Opa', Bailey has taken a real interest in the engines. Opa can't wait until he is old enough to tinker with the engines with him.

But the whole weekend was a little too much for Bailey and he just crashed right where he fell in the middle of the asphalt.

Micayla's loosing her teeth

Much to the delight of Micayla, her second tooth has finally come out. She is saving her pocket money so she can get her Pixel Chix off layby and this has given her more gold toward that. She is very excited because she now has enough money saved to pick it up this week.

Our Boy Bailey

I just realised I don't have any pictures of our darling son on here yet. Bailey is such a delightful child. He is very cheeky and he knows it. He is 2 years and 3 months and he doesn't talk much. We have had issues with fluid on his ears and we are still waiting for him to sit another repeat hearing test next month. His speach is starting to develop and is saying a lot more words, coming up with a new one every day or two now. My worry is starting to lesson. He also hasn't had to talk because his big sister does it all for him and now he just waits for everyone else to answer for him. He is full of expression and gets what he wants just by the look on his face. He might do something naughty and then turn around and give you the cutest, cheekiest little look that you can't stay mad and end up laughing. He does try to get his way by throwing himself on the floor and throw a tanti. I just walk away and let him cry it out and if that doesn't work I get down to his level and do exactly what he's doing, he doesn't like it at first but it stops his tanti. We have started to toilet train him. He has used the potty a few times and likes to give Hi 5's when he does this, but I've caught him standing there holding himself as boys do to use the toilet and just wees on the carpet. We'll get there eventually.

Bailey goes to Creche

It has taken quite a while but Bailey is finally warming up to going to creche. I had to break him in slowly, even staying with him for a little while. He would drop his bottom lip and tears would swell up in his eyes if I even looked like I was going to leave him. We got over that and he'd say goodbye to me but be sad and cry a few times until I picked him up. His drink bottle is his security and will not let anyone take it off him to put it in the fridge. Well last week and this week we've started getting somewhere. Last week he actually let go of his water bottle and sat it on the table next to him but when someone tried to put it in the fridge he threw a tanti. This week the bottle spent the whole time in the fridge and he is even starting to interact and get involved in the activities. Below is the very first cutting and pasting he has ever done and he is so proud of it.

Our Dog Monty.

We have a little Maltese x Shitzu called Monty. We had him for 3 days and I stood on his stomach, because he was lying at my feet and I didn't know. It was awful, we thought he was going to die. I slept on the couch that night so I could be with the dog the whole night through. I took him to the vet and we were worried we had ruptured his bladder and diaphram. He was given lots of pain killers and he came good after 2-3 days. He has grown up to be a fantastic little companion for Bailey and lets Bailey do anything to him. During the puppy stage he was a real pain and I said "I know why they're called Shitzu's, because they bloody shit you!". But he is 2 next month and he is really settling down. I take him for a walk nearly every night and he starts following me around the house when it is time to go, he'll even follow me to the toilet and sit at my feet. He loves to go to the river too and at Christmas we had him out on the water paddling around on top of Bailey's Boogie Board. We have to be very careful of grass seeds in his coat, we have already had him at the vet having surgery to remove one from his paw.

Cake Decorating

My other hobby is Cake Decorating. I don't do it all that often, I prefer to scrapbook. I mainly make cakes for friends and family, particularly the kids birthday cakes. The kids birthday's are 2 days apart so it becomes very busy in October decorating cakes. I keep getting asked to enter my cakes in the Dandenong show but I never get around to it, this is also in November. I started decorating cakes before I fell pregnant with Micayla and I have done a few weddings but the cakes I find most challenging are the novelty cakes I do for birthdays. Here is some of my favourite or most challenging work.

My Scrapbooking Hobby

I am totally addicted to Scrapbooking. I started about 18 months ago. I was never ever going to get involved, I never had the time. I always avoided going to a Creative Memories party until a good friend invited me to her CM party and we try not to let each other down, where we can we always go to each others parties. I knew once I went that would be the end of me and so it was. I was hooked from then on and I soon discovered there was more to scrapbooking than Creative Memories. My favourite store is Scrappers Warehouse. They have fantastic and new stock all the time. An online forum where I've met lots of new and fabulous people and we meet monthly for crop nights. They also have fantastic classes taught by a very talented scrapper for Beginners, kids and those who want to learn what else they can do with their scrapping. I mostly scrap the kids but this years project is to start on our wedding photos. I am thrilled to say that I have just had one of my layouts accepted for publishing into "For Keeps" Scrapbooking magazine. Its the layout I did for Micayla's 5th Birthday party called "Princess Party". To see my work click on the link to Scrappers Warehouse, go to the gallery and type Andrea in the authors section in the top left hand corner, then click 'go'.

Bailey's a Big Boy Now

We have said goodbye to the baby era. We have given our cot and change table to David and Laura (Adrian's cousin) who are expecting a baby in Feb/March. We painted Bailey's room in bright yellow suede effects, blue and red. I had to change the curtains, which I made myself. I've never done this before and just followed the ones already there. I must say I am pretty proud of my effort. The blue paint was made to match the drapes.

He now has a new bed which he loves, but the first night he was looking for his cot. Micayla and Bailey always have a bedtime story sitting in her bed and this night Micayla wanted it in Bailey's Bed. Bailey was not used to this and when it was time to say goodnight he hopped out of his own bed. I told him this was his bed now and he said "Nuh, and shook his head". It didn't take long to convince him though, we just had to go over the usual ritual for him to accept his new bed.

Micayla Started Prep

She was so excited about starting her new adventure. She would come to me every morning and tell me how many sleeps to go. She has a friend from Kinda in her class and I think they will develop a great friendship. There were no tears from either of us when we dropped her off. It was a family affair. Adrian started work later and came with us to drop her off to school. We all felt too excited to have tears and I am looking forward to having some one on one time with Bailey. Bailey doesn't talk very much so this will be a good opportunity to encourage his speech while his big sister is not around to do all the talking for him. Micayla went for 2 days this week, starting Thursday and finishing at 1pm on both days. She starts next Monday until 3.30pm and will have Wednesdays off until the 1st March when she goes full time. She has lots of friends from Kinda she sees in the playground. She is really enjoying it. On Monday she will have special Prep portraits taken and they already have an incursion in the first week from "Joffa the Toonman". It's part of the "You Can Do It" curriculum the school runs.