The Wellington Circus Trust and the Kapiti Equestrian & Vaulting Centre provided a fantastic display at Waitangi Park in Wellington over the weekend. We were entranced by the displays and the girls very excited to participate. There was fair-ground fun and rides, including aqua-bubbles – which were hilarious to watch. Charli and Sophie came out very hot after an amazing work-out of running around in the balls!

And the girls got to experience some circus fun, with trampolines, trapeze, hoops and juggling. They came away from their daring fun full of enthusiasm to do more. Circus school starts at the age of 8 in Wellington, so we shall wait and see!

Charlotte is fascinated with cicadas this summer. Ever since she’s watched ‘Bindi the Jungle Girl‘ Charlotte’s discovered a new level of confidence in handling creatures great and small.

Cicadas are the sound of summer and this year we’ve had a few ‘pet’ cicadas accompany us out on various trips – in a well sealed and ventilated container of some description. Today, Charli and Sophie had a wonderful time in the garden capturing a cicada and studying it in awe. They even took it on a walk to show the neighbours!

And as for the glove wear… mmm, those are my gloves, but I wasn’t complaining – who am I to stop the enthusiastic discoveries of my young scientists.

For some educational facts of interest to children visit Suzy’s World.

Alice, like all newborns, really is the best kind of time waster. Stuff the baby sleep books telling me to put my baby to bed in her cot – whilst I can hold her in my arms and watch her sleep, I will!

But how do I get anything done? Well, my Natures Sway sling gives me two hand’s free and I’m the master of multi-tasking with a baby in arms… as the photograph below, taken by my midwife, demonstrates (Sophie asked for my assistance in creating a musical shaker with an old toilet roll, paper and some coins she’d gathered together).

And I’m not the only person in the house that can’t resist keeping Alice close. Charli and Sophie are frequently asking to hold her and Dan even insisted on putting the hoover round with Alice in his arms today!

Alice really is such a chilled lass – but we aren’t even at 3 week’s old yet, so naturally she’s busy sleeping, eating and fattening up still. I had to take her for a newborn hearing screening on Friday morning (results were all good) and I’d been told that a ’sleeping baby’ would be best for the test – well no problems on that front!

At night she’s beginning to settle earlier each night. Initially she wasn’t really ready to settle till around midnight and that’s slowly been getting earlier. For the past few night’s she’s slept for nearly four hour’s straight, from 10pm ish till 2am. Unfortunately, she then feeds every hour to two hour’s after that – and by the time I’ve winded her and changed a couple of nappies the morning has arrived. But I’m feeling surprisingly good on it – so long as I fuel up with a large latte each morning!

She’s been asleep on my lap for nearly an hour now (it’s not yet 10pm) so I really should ditch the computer and head to bed whilst I can – but it feels good to have a little ‘adult’ time with Dan (we’re watching ‘The Great British Curry Trail’, with Ravinder Bhogal, which Dan’s down-loaded).

Okay, blog post finito, curry trail finished (I’m going to be dreaming of curry – if I actually get any ‘dream time’) and it’s time to take my little time waster to bed :)

Charli’s entire school, of 180 pupils, walked down to the beach on Friday morning. Sophie and I picked her up just after lunch, as we knew she’d be pretty tired. She had a great time; though found the walk there quite tiring – carrying her heavy back-pack (bless, she is only a pint size lass – all 15kg of her!).

She brought home a jumping, burrowing sand insect in her lunch box. ‘Lovely!’ I exclaimed, ‘But please keep it outside’.

I took the following photo, of the school down at the beach, whilst I was doing my morning rounds. It really was a top day for the school to be at the beach.

I love her continuing art-work on her white-board. She left this on Thursday evening, when she popped down to the beach to pick up some fish ‘n’ chips for dinner. And the ‘pool’ one she left on Friday ‘avo, when she headed out to the swimming pool with Sophie.

With our other children being a little older and out for part of the day at school and kindi, we get some precious one on one time with our newborns. It’s like those quiet times as a first time Mum, but without the anxiety. I feel so relaxed this time round. Long gone are the days of needing to read baby books at every opportunity. Restless night’s will soon pass and each phase of a child’s life comes with its joys and challenges – this I simply accept and embrace. The joys I treasure. The challenges I face head on. Sometimes I do well and give myself a huge hi-5; other times I fail miserably with an over-tired mind and short-fuse. I forgive myself and move on.

I’m loving that Dan is starting work a little later; so that after the school and kindi drop we can have a peaceful coffee together, whilst Alice sleeps. It reminds me of the early days when Charli was a baby and I used to meet Dan for lunch or frequently drop him into work and then take a walk along Oriental Parade with Charli in her pram.

Of course, it’s not rosy all the time. I have my moments when the tiredness gets to me and my patience levels aren’t as good as I’d like them to be. But on the whole we’re doing pretty darn well. I am thankful that my body has recovered from the birth so quickly and I feel so fit and healthy. I’m loving being able to exercise easily again and roll around on the floor with the girls. Yesterday I was doing various yoga exercises, with Sophie alongside me. She was mostly showing me up with her superior stomach muscles!

I am thankful to my family and blogger friends for the super supportive comments, e-mails and cards we’ve received over the past couple of weeks. They’ve really put a smile on our faces and touched our hearts.

I loved having my folks here for the last few week’s of the school hols made life so easy and we had the most incredible time. My Mum being here to share in Alice’s early days and ’shadow’ my every move with her immense love, patience, understanding was fabulous.

And I’m loving my Natures Sway sling. Alice falls asleep within seconds of being placed in it and I can type blog posts and e-mails with two hands – now we’re talking!

Finally, I love having this blog to look back on and remind me of all the good times; when on the rare occasion it all gets too much. Last night I sat up in bed, at least four times, feeding Alice and watching the minutes tick over on the digital clock. I forced my eyes away from the ugly, red glare of time ticking on and focused on my precious bundle feeding in my arms. Her small, velvet soft head, her shell-like ears and her grasping, tiny hands. I shall look back on the quiet moments in the midst of the night and forget the feeling of sleep-deprivation. I shall remember only her little squeaks, grunts and murmurs; her soft head brushing against me whilst she feeds; her sleepy smiles of windy bubbles which I pretend are happy dreams.

She also uses her whiteboard to vent her anger and on occasion puts up a sign to say who can and cannot enter her room! The other morning she was fed up with Sophie’s obsession with Hi-5 and decided to protest with a sign saying, ‘Hi-5 stinks!’. Let’s just say Sophie wasn’t impressed; but the protest did work – as Sophie agreed to let Charli watch her choice of television the next morning – which was a Michael Jackson dance DVD.

Unfortunately, we’ve had a few unsettled evenings, with Alice producing green, instead of nice yellow, poo poos in her nappy. A quick ‘Google’ (thank goodness for the Internet!) and we discovered our little lass was filling up fast on the fore-milk and not getting to the calorie rich hind-milk. My boobs have been feeling like rocks and over-producing so the poor wee lass was gulping down the sugary, lactose rich stuff so fast that she had no room left in her tummy for the real McCoy. So, I fed off only one side for a whole night (spending a while in the bathroom relieving the overly full side with a session expressing milk over the sink) and then switched to the other side the next day. And the result? Yah! Yellow poos! Such is my life as a walking milk machine!

They’ve been so good for us. I’ve been making an effort to get up every morning to help with breakfast, though I’d dearly love to stay in bed! By keeping the ‘routines’ going as much as possible, they’ve been really settled with the new dynamics. Evenings are hardest, when I’m so tired, but we muddle through. It’s been fantastic having Dan help out with the school and kindi drop off in the morning – I really don’t know how I’d manage otherwise – well I would – but I’d still be in my p-jays!

Sophie loves to help with nappy change time and pulls up a chair alongside the change table to sing a song to Alice. When Charli was born I drove myself crazy singing nursery rhymes, pulling funny faces and talking aloud to her about the trees, sky and universe. Little Alice is going to have two big sisters to entertain her, which is fabulous for her and a big help to me too!

I can’t get over how big the girls now look next to Alice. And Charli is in absolute awe of Alice’s tiny hands, feet and shell like ears.

Here are a few cute words from the girls about their baby sister….

Sophie (with Alice asleep on her): ‘We are taking turns to breath. When her tummy goes out, mine goes in.’

Sophie, in response to a nurse at the hospital saying, ‘Alice, like Alice in Wonderland’: ‘No, not Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Roseland!’

Charli: ‘Is Alice’s brain working yet?’

Charli: ‘She’s so adorable, I just want to spend so much time with her.’

I’d usually be in the swimming pool with them, but of course I’ll be on pool-side for a while whilst Alice is so young – not that I’m complaining. Dan has a fantastic time with the girls, whilst I get to chill out with bubs and drink coffee! Today was extra special as I had the magic company of my dear Mum, who sadly flies back to England tomorrow evening :( We’ll miss her so much, but have to let her go – as Granddad is really missing her and we can’t keep two old love birds apart for too long!

Dan took Sophie to see her first football match at the stadium today. She LOVED it! And the Wellington Phoenix FC won!

She has enjoyed having her Daddy home this week to practice her footie skills…