This photo has to go to the Magazines for those Baby competitions - she looks soooooooooooooo cute! A little model!

I can stand - safely with my knee guards

Hmm - why dont I get cake at a party?  Totally unimpressed!

Check out my two toofies at the bottom

With my friend Bryce's walker - these things are the biz

Giving Daddy his Fathers Day gift.  It is a book about the nasty comments cricketers make each other and when Daddy opened it, he read the spine first which said "Why are you so fat?" and he thought Mommy and I got him a diet book. We couldnt understand why initially he seemed disinterested in his gift.



Crawling!!!! I can go anywhere I want, even up the stairs to the bedrooms on the second floor.  Mommy put a chiar across the passage to slow down the great escape, but I am starting to climb over it



No Kyra No

Miss K needs sleep training.  1.30 this morning she hollered for us.  And then she rolled around in the bed snuffling and talking and kicking me in the back.  I know what we are supposed to do - but doing it is a whole other story. I know we are supposed to go in, pat her gently, reassure her that we are still around, tell her encouragingly and lovingly (without losing temper) to go back to sleep and then leave the room (I have watched that Nanny woman on BBC).  I know also that we are supposed to continue to do this until she does sleep even if we have to do it 30 times in one night, but for crying in a bucket, its way to cold to be making the groot trek every 30 minutes.  Plus I need some sleep, even disturbed sleep as I have to work, so I know I may as well just fetch her.  I know also that I am just reinforcing her behavior and that she knows if she moans long enough she will get to be exactly where she wants to be – cuddling in between Mommy and Daddy.

I really thought I would be better at this type of thing. Let’s take saying “no” for example. I always said my child would have the best manners on the block.  If I just looked in her direction, she would start to shiver and immediately obey.  I think parents are too easy on their kids these days, but for goodness sake, it is so HARD to say no.  She crawls over to the CDS and starts ripping them out. Daryl says “No, Kyra!” I say, ”shame Daryl, surely she can play with a CD or 2?”  She heads off to unpack the bookcase and starts ripping pages out of books.  Daryl says “No Kyra!” Gillian says, “shame, but the Practica manual says it is good for her finger or some or other co-ordination to tear things.” The thing is, she knows  exactly what “no” means, but when I say it, she just smiles at me and carries on doing whatever it is she is doing, so I get up, pick her up and move her away from the offending item.  I feel like I am on a slippery slope to bad manners.  You have to teach your kids to listen.  What if they are about to run in front of a truck and you shout “No!” They should know to stop in their tracks.  I realize she is only 8 and something months and that she doesn’t have the concentration or memory to remember what she can and can’t do, but I really got to toughen up a bit or I am making big problems for myself down the line.

The other day I decided to show her how to climb the steps.  Daryl said, ”that doesn’t look like a good idea Gillian” and I said “Bah humbug, she will never be able to do it. I am just teaching her spatial orientation tools.” On the public holiday yesterday, every time I put her on the ground, she motored off to the stairs and started to climb.  Ooops, but thank goodness Daryl forgot what he had said.  Going up is not a problem. It’s just she forgets where she is and steps back and she also has no clue how to get down.  She kind of just slides, so this means you have to be with her the whole time.  “No, Kyra, No – away from the stairs!”  Hee hee hah hah – yip chalk another one up for Mommy!

Miss K is tooooo cute

Little Miss K is just sooooo cute. She has 2 toofies at the bottom.  We gave her a piece of dun wors to suck on, turned around for a second and turned back to find she had gnawed her way through half of it and was storing it like a little chipmunk in her cheeks.  Glad I am no longer breastfeeding. 

She has been crawling since she was 6 and a half months and now she stands up and walks along the furniture.  She has helped unpack all my cds and also helps with taking the books out of the bookshelf.  You can never do too much dusting now can you. 

She loves to eat.  At her 6 month check up she was 8.5 kgs and I shudder to think what she is weighing in at now.  She is not an oros man though - she is tall - has the makings of a supermodel I guess.  Daddy is a dish, so guess thats where she gets it from. This morning she had porridge. Mid morning snack was a boo dwah, and lunch was a mashed banana with little pieces of apple that she spat back at me. The apple is the most sinful fruit, so I understand why.  It caused all kinds of problems for Adam and the rest of the universe, so not only is my child cute, but also wise. Daddy is making mutton stew, so think we will try that for dinner.

Right now she is in her walking ring, testing Daddy's authority in the kitchen. She puts her hand in the rubbish bin, Daddy sternly says no, she takes it away, waits for Daddy to look away and then puts it back, waits for Daddy to say no, takes it out and on we go. 

When we passsed 7 months, 3 weeks and 4 days, the age Declan was when he died, I relaxed. I started to think maybe she is here to stay and its okay for me to fall madly in love her.  I was of course totally in love, but I was scared and I kept thinking something is going to happen to ruin everything. I suppose that is normal.  I wonder what happens to Moms who lose their children when they are say 10.  Do they stress for 10 years?

The older she gets, the easier I find it.  I love the fact that we can "do" things together now.  Miss K loves a good shop - groceries, shoes - it doesn't matter.  As long as we spend money, she is happy.  Daddy better have a lotto ticket up his sleeve.

In 11 days she will be 9 months. I can't believe how time is flying and I now understand why people say "enjoy every second, it goes by so fast" - even those first 6 weeks when you want to throw yourself, your baby, your husband and your dog off a short building with the sleep deprivation you are suffering from, it's true. It flies by. Her first birthday is around the corner.
So that is my news.  Love my children, Miss K, Angel Dec and Miss Pea (the only one I didnt have to physically birth, but still one of my babies).
Love you sausage.

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life and not when I come to die, discover that I had not lived." Walt Whitman

Our Little Princess, Kyra