Tagged

I have been blog tagged by PamPie, so here are my responses.....

*2 names you go by~ clikchic (screen name) and Rob
*2 parts of your heritage~ Dutch and Dutch... Both my parents are dutch and my family is dutch as far back as I know. I hold both Dutch and Australian passports.
*2 of your everyday essentials~ Puta and Spare time! LOL
*2 things you are wearing right now~ Pj's.. yeah, bad I know!
*2 of your favorite bands or musical artists~ Ricky Martin and Robbie Williams, although I quite like our latest Aussie idol winner too! (can't remember his name right at this moment! LOL)
*2 favorite songs~ No idea!
*2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love)~ honesty and quality time
*2 truths~ Kyan was my 6th pregnancy, I hate wasting time on housework when there are better things to do! LOL
*2 physical things that appeal to you~ eyes, & shoulders
*2 of your favorite hobbies~ digital scrapbooking, photography
*2 things you want really badly~ To take my family to visit my family in Holland, to see my Oma again before it is too late.
*2 places you want to go on vacation~ Holland, Sea World... (I could name dozens more! LOL)
*2 things you want to do before you die~ travel around the world, see and spend time with my future grandchildren
*2 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick~ love chick flicks, love yummy smelly things
*2 things you are thinking about now~ everything else I have to do today, what I would rather be doing than the housework and bookwork I really need to do
*2 stores you shop at~ Pumpkin Patch and 1626
*2 people to "tag" next~ Tiffany and Lisa

Merry Christmas!

Well we are heading off to the coast this afternoon/evening provided Dean finishes off the work he needs to get done at the shop. I am looking forward to us all having a break for a few days, goodness knows we all need it, especially Dean who has worked sooo hard this year with very little time off!

Jasmine is really excited to visit Oma and Opa again. She asked Dean yesterday if he had finished his work as she knew we were going once he got it all done, and when we told her no she got very upset because she said she missed her Oma and Opa. We called Opa so she could speak to him and he cheered her up thank goodness. :-)

She just can't wait to go, it is a shame she can't see them more often.

I am sooo looking forward to Christmas this year. It is so much fun watching Jaz open the presents, and it will also be fun watching Kyan play with the wrappers! LOL She had a wonderful time last year handing out the presents to every one and was so excited about the whole thing. I think with her being a year older it will be even better this year.

Next year I will have to be a bit more careful with things as she seems to pick up on things so easily.. I am going to print out our gift cards instead of hand writing them. I remember as a child thinking it was strange that Mum had written on the cards for the presents that Santa got us. So from next year on I am going to be sure and print the cards out! :-) Either that or disguise my handwriting...

Hopefully Kyan will cope with the trip better than last time we went to the coast. Last time we went, it took us 5hrs to get home on what is normally a 3hr trip because he was rather cranky. Not a fun journey! He is forward facing in his car seat now though and no longer suffers from bad reflux, so hopefully things will go a bit more smoothly!

I was up to 1am last night getting all the gifts wrapped! That will teach me to leave the wrapping till the last minute, although I was not expecting to leave till tomorrow. Anyway, I had better get packing, it takes me hours to pack for three of us, and this time we will have to pack the gifts etc as well. I so hate travelling with babies, there is so much stuff to take with you and so many things to forget!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, filled with friends, family and lots of cheer and laughter!
Best wishes from,
Robyn, Dean, Jasmine and Kyan

On Santa's Knee

Here is my latest layout which I have done using my Merry Wish Kit. We took the kids to see Santa a week or so ago. It was the same day Jasmine had been to the hospital to get her teeth filled so she still had her hospital bracelet on her ankle and bandaid on her hand. She didn't want to take the bracelet off. She ended up wearing the band for several days until she got sick of it.

Jasmine was just bursting to see Santa this year and couldn't wait to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She has been dying for a scooter after seeing our neighbours with theirs. Thankfully Oma and Opa are coming to the rescue on that one as we had already bought all of her Christmas presents earlier in the year during a Toy Sale.

This is the second year that we have been able to get a photo of her with Santa. Previous years she was petrified of him and wouldn't go near him.

Kyan coped quite well giving Santa quite a few worried looks but thankfully we were able to get some photos before he started to get too upset.

All the better to eat you with!

Kyan got his fifth tooth yesterday. We had a babysitter come on Saturday night because Dean had a gig at a local pub and he was keen for me to come and watch and have some dinner with him and his band mates. So for the first time ever since we have had the kids we hired a babysitter.

She is a lovely lady who works at Jasmine's kindy who adores the kids, and was always good with Jasmine when she was in her room at kindy. Anyway, Kyan was a bit difficult to put down so I gave him some nurophen as I thought his teeth were bothering him. I THOUGHT once he had some Nurophen she would have a pretty easy night with him but I couldn't have been more wrong!

He woke a couple of times and was extremely hard to settle but yesterday we found out why, his 5th tooth was cutting through the poor little man! Anyway, here he is pointing to his fifth tooth. LOL

He has enjoyed his bread for a while, he used to suck on it and chew any bits that broke off with his gums, but the more teeth he gets the more efficient he is getting at demolishing his bed.

It is all going so quick now. Since he started commando crawling he is now exploring all the rooms in the house. When he caught sight of Jasmine's room he couldn't wait to go in there and explore all the toys in her room! He is now also enjoying coming over to wherever I am and flapping his arms when he wants to be picked up.

Dashing Through the Snow

Jasmine wanted to do some singing this morning into the computer microphone and I had been meaning to record her singing Jingle Bells so I thought now was the perfect oportunity.

So we recorded Jingle Bells along with a few other songs. You should be able to download them by clicking on the links below and saving to disk. Once you have saved them to disk you should be able to listen to them from your computer (with speakers on) by double clicking on the files.

I also recorded Kyan laughing yesterday, although it is a bit soft, I had the volume set wrong, so you may need to turn it up to hear it properly. I will try and record him again some time when he is awake.

note: the file sizes on some of these are quite large so may take a while to download on dailup.

• Jingle Bells
• Moo Moo Jessica
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Snow in Brisbane (made up song)
• Sharing with Kyan (made up song)
• You So Cute (made up song)
• You So Cute 2 (made up song)
• Kyan Laughing

Enjoy!

Little Commando!

Kyan has started commando crawling the last few days... :-) He had started doing a half commando crawl half roll for a week or two but the last few days he is starting to give up on rolling altogether and is starting to motor doing his commando crawl! (ie. dragging torso along floor and pulling along with arms and legs) Every now and again he will get up on all fours but usually soon collapses. Me thinks he has a little too much weight to carry still. LOL Even so, I will be surprised if he isn't crawling properly by Christmas.

Wiggle it!

We took Jaz to the Wiggles on the weekend. Her cousin Daniel had his birthday party on the same day so we made a quick stop there on the way. It would have been nice to stay for longer but we had, had the tickets for months. It was lovely to see how much he has grown tho, and crawling round like he is on a mission!

This photo was taken with my 80mm lens and was as close as I could get with it (plus it is cropped!) so as you can see we didn't have great seats. They apparently didn't allow 'professional' camera's so while mine isn't professional, Dean said (who heard them over the loudspeaker when he went to get us some lunch) they meant anything more than a compact. So I had to hide the camera any time an usher walked past. LOL It is not like I was ever going to get a great photo from that distance anyway! Granted I was amazed at how good the photos actually were! Next time seeing as I had to hide the camera anyway I may as well stick the 300mm lens on it and see how I go! LOL

I am not sure how, but somehow Dean and Kyan even managed to sleep while we were there! Unbelievable. Jaz had a wonderful time dancing and carrying on and singing songs. They didn't have an intermission this year which I think made it a bit long for her. She got a bit tired of it towards the end. She probably could have used a little walk around half way through or something. But she had an absolute ball and didn't mind sitting in her own seat this year, and wasn't near as overwhelmed by it all as she has been in previous years. It is definately something I would like to keep doing every year tho as I get such a kick out of her excitement! She was sooo happy and excited when we arrived and couldn't wait to get up the stairs of the venue and get inside. When she heard their music being played over the loudspeaker, she got even more excited. LOL I think she realises now tho that it isn't their 'house'. Last year she thought we went to visit them at their house. He he.

Preschool Graduation!

Jasmine had her 'Preschool' graduation today. She is in the Preschool room at daycare and the preschoolers had their graduation day and while she is not quite a preschooler yet, she was able to join in the fun. It was all very cute and a lovely day complete with Hats and gowns and yummy goodies for morning tea. Kyan even joined in with all the clapping which was rather cute!

Jasmine was very proud of her certificate that had all the 'songs' on it. (It had pictures of nursery rhymes on it.) She was in her element being able to have all the goodies because 'Tony had tickeled her teeth!'.

Jasmine's 'Hospisal' Visit

Jasmine had her first hospital proceedure done on Wednesday. We made it seem as upbeat as possible for her and it wasn't till she had to sit on the bed in theatre that she started to get a bit upset and started asking for Kyan to be there with her. The anesthesiologist came to the rescue though and started telling her a magic story, whispering it in her ear. As he told her the story about Princess Jasmine and Strawberry Shortcake, he slowly lifted the 'magic' gas mask up to her face and she started to relax. By the time it was over her mouth and nose it was only a few more seconds before she was asleep and they ushered me out after that to do their bit.

The dentist redid her first filling and also did her two top molars. He said he was glad that he didn't do them in the surgery as they were a lot deeper than he expected. He also filled another two that had stains on them. He said they would have become cavaties in the next two years so it was better to fill them now to prevent us having further problems with having to get her to get more teeth filled.

They called me in again after she woke up in recovery and was of course asking for me. I was a bit dissappointed that they didn't bring me in before she woke up but I guess they wanted to make sure she was ok first. I think she was of course a bit disorientated and was glad to see me. They put me in a recliner so that she could rest on me as she woke up further. She got a bit nauseous and vomited a bit of mucas, but they put something in her drip for it and she was much better after that. She fell asleep a couple of times but gradually got more lucid and started to feel her normal self a bit more. She kept saying she was hungry and was very keen for the jelly they offered her but she decided that she didn't like green jelly once she tasted it. (takes after her Mum! - we both LOVE Jelly but I only like red) She had a couple of mouthfuls of custard before saying it was too cold and not wanting to eat any more.

We managed to distract her when the nurse took the drip out of her hand and the nurse blamed me when she said ouch. LOL She had no idea what was even there tho (they had it covered up with a bandage) and even asked why she got a band aid there. So that is good at least, I was so dreading how I was going to get her to have her immunisation next month after having had a drip in her hand.

She came home in good spirits because she got some presents for being so good. She now has the umbrella she has been asking for, for months and has been playing with it constantly the last few days. She even had a nap after lunch which is becoming more and more of a rarity now! She was quite pasty most of the day and also yesterday, but today she looks a bit better, tho still a little pale.

I am sure going to the Wiggles tomorrow will put a bit of colour in her cheeks! :-)

Christmas Tree!

We are having a Christmas Photography Challenge on clikchicdesigns and I thought I would share my submission. I took this photo of the Chrismas tree without the flash and a long exposure of 3 seconds. I was too lazy to get out the tripod and stuck the camera on Kyan's high chair. LOL Anyway, I had a bit of a play with filters and was quite happy with how it came out.

I love the yellow cast that Christmas tree photos get when you take photos of them at night with the lights one. So pretty!

Christmas is coming!

We have had a busy week this week and I have a bit of catching up to do here! We put the Christmas tree up last weekend. Jasmine had a ball and was very excited saying lots of please and thankyou's because that means she will get presants from Santa apparently!

We bought all her presents at a sale earlier in the year and it was only the last couple of months that she started asking for a scooter. We had already bought all her presents and Dean didn't want to get one because we already had so much. I wanted to keep one of her Christmas presents for her birthday and get her a scooter, but thankfully Opa and Oma came to the rescue and have bought her one! Phew! She would have been sooo dissappointed if she didn't get one when she asked Santa for one last night!

4 Teeth!

Now that Kyan's first teeth have finally arrived they are popping up mighty quick! His fourth one has now come through and he is doing even better at chomping through a piece of bread. He also is quite keen on potato chips and doesn't mind chicken either. He has vegimite on bread most days now and on occasion also has sultana bread which he is also quite partial to. :-) He quite enjoy's his finger food! It is so much easier having a baby who loves his food!

Three teeth!

I have been meaning to update on Kyan's teething for a while now, but haven't had a chance till now! Well it seems when Kyan got his 'second' tooth it was actually his third! One of his top teeth had come through but because it came out of the front of his gum instead of the bottom, I didn't feel it until after his 'second' tooth came through. (no wonder he was waking every night!)

The top tooth is quite large so it must have been there for a while. It is also quite wide and it looks like he is going to get my big teeth rather than Dean and Jaz's teeny ones. Here's hoping he doesn't have as many dental problems as Dean has either.

I am still hoping Jasmine won't have too many problems, but given that she is already getting fillings at 3yrs old, I don't like my chances. We will have to be really vigilant with taking them both to the dentist regularly to catch any problems as early as possible.

Kyan's has been sleeping through again since his second bottom tooth came through, although his second top tooth seems to be on it's way so that explains why he has started occasional night waking again. After seeing how big the first top tooth is, I am guessing it is going to be nasty!

Growing Up!

Jasmine is just growing up so fast! Little things change every day. She is really becoming a real preschooler now, not that she will be going to pre-school! She is going to 'real' kindy, next year and the year after that is going to prep. I am so not ready for her to go to prep! I really love watching what a lovely little girl she is turning into and I don't really like the thought of not being able to see her as many hours a day! She is such fun to have around, and constantly brings a smile to my face with the little things she comes up with.

I have been very lucky (gives me time to do stuff and catch up on sleep occasionally when Kyan is asleep as well) that she was still having 2hr naps up until recently. At one stage she started looking like she would drop them but then went through a growth spurt and started sleeping for 3hrs or more! Well the past two weeks she has only been having about 2 naps a week. I have been still trying to get her down because she seems so tired, but then after half an hour to an hour she is still in there playing and when she gets up is as happy as till bed time.

The fact she was still having naps was a sanity saver in Kyan's early months, because at least I could catch up on sleep during the day occasionally when Kyan was up a lot at night time.

Thankfully Kyan is now back to sleeping through most nights so I shouldn't need day naps so much anymore. Phew!

Jasmine is having her teeth filled under GA next week. I am so not looking forward to it, taking her to the dentist is bad enough. The nurse at the hospital is calling on Friday to let me know what I have to do in regards to her fasting etc, and I will find out the proceedure then, so that I can try and explain it to her as best I can without scaring the crap out of her! Hopefully I can make it sound like and adventure rather than something to be scared of.

I even rang the gp's office to see if she could have her 4yr old vaccinations done while she was under the GA, because I have a feeling after the GA we are going to have a real fight for her to get her vaccinations done. Unfortunately they can't do it that way tho. Bugger!

We had her orientation day at her new kindy a couple of weeks ago and I think she is going to love it there. The staff are so devoted to the kids and it has such a lovely, caring and homey atmosphere there and the grounds are so great for kids! I think she will get a lot out of it, and it will really stimulate her learning and creativity. I couldn't think of a better way to prepare her for prep.

Two Teef!

At last our little man has gotten his second tooth. It has been looking pretty close the last few days and he was quite cranky yesterday and so I checked this morning and there it was. YAY! Heres to a few weeks (at least) of sleeping through! :-)

Look at that gorgeous smile! Such a happy boy! :-)

Jasmine going to level 2!

Our adorable little swimmer is now able to swim short distances without any floating devices or assitance! We are both sooo proud of her! She absolutely loves her swimming lessons, and coming swimming with me on Kyan's swimming day after his classes has done wonders for her confidance and the extra practice has made a huge difference.

This week was assessment week and she is going up to Level 2 next year! I am soooo proud of her! She has done so well this term!

Latest layout and first toof!

Ok, this is a little late but Kyan got his first tooth on his Opa's birthday! (11 Nov) YAY! The second one is still close to the surface but I am waiting, waiting for it to come through so I can have unbroken nights sleep again.. (I got about two weeks when he was around 6mths and he has been teething ever since!)

Anyway, here is the latest layout, finally another of Kyan. I LOVE this photo! I think I will get this one framed. :-)

Layout in Print!

Well earlier this month my layout titled 'Sleeping' was published in issue 36 of For Keeps Creative Scrapbooking magazine! I was sooo excited to have my first layout in print. I was however a little dissappointed that they cropped my layout! It has lost a bit of impact because of it IMO. It is on page 119 in case you want to have a look at a copy.. they are available in the newsagents right now. The cover looks like this.

Sooo excited.. now if I can only get them to accept a few more submissions! LOL

I can't help myself...

I WAS just going to have an online store and very small webpage maybe to go with it... well I just can't help myself... I have just kept going and going and I now have myself a rather comprehensive website! Not only do I have a store, but I have also added articles, the ability to blog, downloads, a forum AND a gallery!

The idea behind keeping it small was so it didn't take up tooo much time... like I said, I just can't help myself! LOL Oh well, maybe it will become one of the top Australian digiscrapping sites. It would be nice! :-) It is already steady at number 15 on the Australian Top 50 Scrapping website! YEAH!

Cranky Teeth and Happy Teeth!

YAY! Jasmine went to the dentist today and it seems having her bunny rug with her and not allowing her to have lollies, icecream, biscuits and sweets for over a month has worked... oh and I guess the doctors set and strawberry shortcake dolls helped as well! (we offered them last time but it wasn't enough).

She let the dentist tickle (drill) her tooth and she didn't even get upset! She did AMAZINGLY well and was even happy at the end of it! YAY! So one tooth is drilled, and she has to have one more drilled and the fillings put in and she is done. The dentist is going to (hopefully) do that next visit. She is one happy girl getting lots of presents and being able to eat sweets again.

Kyan on the other hand is not so happy. He has been teething for 3mths and for the past mth has been waking every night because of his teeth. Every time they come to the surface and you think oh they are going to come through this time... and then they move back down again! Today however one of the two is starting to protrude although it is still not entirely through as it doesn't feel sharp yet. They look soo sore poor little man and he has been rather cranky the last couple of days.. (moreso than usual) He did sleep through last night but I suspect that was only because he only had 2hrs sleep all day yesterday.

Today he didn't sleep much either so hopefully he will sleep through again tonight. Granted he wanted a breastfeed at 5pm and fell asleep so he hasn't had dinner. Hopefully he will wake for a late dinner otherwise he might wake up hungry.

Anyway... today the big news is teeth! LOL Fingers crossed Kyan's teeth will soon be happy as well!

clikchic designs Grand Opening!

YAY! I am just soooo excited.. I have been working furiously trying to get the website complete! The store was done but I wanted to have a main page and a few more features.. so I have been working hard trying to get it all done, and now it is finally done! YAY!

You can take a look if you feel like it at clikchic designs

clikchic designs digital scrapbook store!

YAY! I am so excited! I had resigned as a designer from Pages of the Heart but couldn't stand having my kits sitting here doing nothing. However, being committed to another larger scrapbooking site is just too much for me to take on at the moment. It was really burning me out as I just didn't have the time to put in to all the extra bits and pieces you have to do.

Sooo I got the bright idea to set up my own store! That way I can do as much or as little as I like.. I can create more when I have the time, or when I am having a busy week, day month.. I can scale back and then do more again when I have the time.

Anyway! Here it is!

Robyn and Adrian

I thought I would do a layout of Adrian and I as one of the scrapbooking magazines had a callout for submissions on layouts about relationships of siblings. This particular magazine seems to go for more complicated paper style layouts so I thought I would give it a go. I don't normally do paper style layouts as they are so time consuming... and this one certainly was! I am well out of my comfort zone in regards to design style but I think I managed to pull it off! :-) All the elements except for the torn papers were from current kits of mine, although some of them have been recoloured for this layout.

I have always loved this photo of Adrian and I, maybe because of the soft colours in it, which is why I chose soft colours for the background papers as well. I did do some retouching to get rid of some yellowing and I think the main giveaway now that it is an old photo is the forground and clothing. It always amazes me how much Jasmine looks like me as a child. And we thought Kyan was chubby! I think Adrian might overtake him in that department, well in this photo at least!

Princess Jasmine

I have been itching to do this layout since Jasmine was given this outfit! Of course just when I REALLY want to take photos of her she has no interest! FINALLY she decided that today would be the day! I have been designing a kit with this dress in mind (taking forever to do it!) and finally I have the photo to go with it! LOL

Kyan was rather cranky yesterday due to his teething so I let Jasmine watch her new Cinderella dvd heaps so that I could deal with Kyan and of course she then wanted to dress up as a princess!

Swimming Boy!

Kyan had his first swimming lesson on Saturday and absolutely loved it! He had great fun splashing about and was sooo tuckered out by the end of it. Jaz enjoyed watching it too and then enjoyed a swim with me after his lesson, something she doesn't get to do much anymore!

It is really great having the lessons on Saturdays because Dean can come along and can even do the lesson with Kyan if he wants to, something he hasn't much been able to do with Jasmine. Jasmine loves knowing that I did the lessons with her also when she was a baby.

11 Years!

It is our 11th anniversary today! We are not realy doing anything special to celebrate. May be we will get take away for dinner or something. I would have liked to have celebrated our 10th but we had so much going on we didn't get around to organising it. In Holland it is a big tradition to celebrate your 12.5th anniversary and I have said to Dean that I would like to do something quite special to celebrate that, maybe a catered dinner or something like that. We will see what happens in any case, it may just be a BBQ.

Above is a layout I did early this year as the start of our wedding album. I have been meaning to put together a proper Wedding album for years but have never gotten around to it. I haven't really felt that inspired to do so with our cheapie photos. However, now that I am digital scrapbooking I might be able to do something with them to make them look a bit more exciting. Of course, when I find the time in between scrapping the kids photos, not to mention photos of Dean and I growing up and heritage photos of our families! I will certainly not be lacking photos to scrap!

Sleep YEAH!

Well I have been holding off writing this in case it jinxes things! LOL It seems master Kyan is now sleeping through. He has gone without a feed during the night for nearly a week now. YEAH!

I started off waking him for a feed before I went to bed and he would then sleep through till 5 or 6am. The last two nights I didn't do this and he slept through till about 4am when I gave him a quick cuddle and put him back down, tucked him in and sang him his goodnight song. He protested for about 30secs or so but by the time I was back in bed he was quiet and back on the way to dreamland!

So I have stopped feeding him during the night (YEAH) and he seems to go back down quite well now without a feed. (I tried this a month or two ago but he would not go back to sleep without a lot of work and then would wake up 40mins later still wanting a feed) So this means I will not always have to be the one to get up when he wakes, and Dean and I can take it in turns making it easier for us to get decent sleep... of course, Dean waking up on such occasions is a different story altogether! Ha ha, by the time I wake him up it is easier for me to just get up and do it myself.

Anyway, I digress! It seems the solids (since he has been eating more) have made all the difference with regards to him waking at night so I guess he was just a hungry boy!

Now I am a bit of a dilemma as to whether I should keep waking him at say 9pm for a feed to make him sleep right through or persist with putting him back down at 4am and hope that he works out there is no point in asking for a feed till after 5am as he wont get one... hmmmm'

Either way I am one happy woman and have been in the best mood this week.. I feel ALMOST brand new! Ha ha!

Frietessauce

Why have I got a photo of Fritessause?? Because I am a lunatic! Ha ha!

I am known to put whole egg mayonaise on my chips because I LOVE it. But what I love more, but have not been able to have since I spent a year in Holland was Fritessaus! It is kinda like mayonaise but not really, and it has been sooo long since I had it that I forgot what it tasted like. It does have a mayonaise base but doesn't really taste like mayonaise.

Anyway, the dutch are known for putting 'mayonaise' or rather Fritessause on thier chips and this is something I have also been known to do... or on potatoes, or mash potatoes. MMMMMMM

Ok, back to why the photo of the bottle of Fritessause! I did some grocery shopping the other night. Dean normally does it but thanks to his sore mouth he wasn't feeling up to it, and anyway, I checked out the dutch section as I love to do because our supermarket never used to have one and I love buying the dutch goodies there.

I was sooo excited to see that the dutch section had expanded and there were even more yummy goodies there and lo and behold... jump up and down for joy there was Fritessause. I got all excited right there in the supermarket aisle and I am sure the guy who was walking past thought I was a nutter! ROFL!

I came home and showed it to Dean who of course wouldn't even taste it but managed a happy dance at home as well! Ha ha!

Hmmm might have to have some oven fries for lunch today just so that I can use some of my precious bottle of Fritessause! YAY!

Artist Trading Card

The latest craze on the net at the moment is exchanging Digital Artist Trading Cards. Well for my ozdigiscrapping yahoogroup, the October Challenge is to design a Digital Artist Trading Card so I have made mine for the challenge.

If anyone wants to exchange cards with me, just let me know and I would love to trade printable versions! :-)

Anyway, here is my first attempt at DATC's! :-)

Ouchie!

Dean had to go to the dentist yesterday to have his tooth filled that he had a temporary filling in. He went in the morning and they removed the temporary filling (done as an emergency fill by another dentist) and discovered that there is not enough left of his tooth (molar) to build on and the only option was to have it pulled. Well he had to have needles of course and our dentist doesn't do extractions so they tried to get him into a collegue straight away while the anaesthetic was still active but of course they couldn't fit him in until the afternoon, so he had to have another whole bunch of needles.

So he had the tooth extracted in the afternoon and came home feeling a bit sorry for himself. I don't blame him really, it is not nice having your teeth pulled! I guess on the bright side at least we won't have to spend quite as much to repair that tooth (it was going to cost quite a bit!). When I mentioned it to him I think that did cheer him up a little!

He has been dosed up on painkillers to help with the pain and as he is on a soft food diet for 3 days I made him scrambled eggs and a non dairy smoothie for dinner. ;-) At least that went down well as he hadn't eaten since breakfast thanks to his two appointments.

Tooth Tickling

We just made our fifth trip to the dentist for Jasmine. She has/had three cavities. The dentist tells us that she has really deep grooves in her teeth which you will never reach properly with a toothbrush making her more prone than others to cavities.

We managed to get her first cavity at her first trip to the dentist but it frightened her so much that she now refuses to let the dentist do the rest of her teeth. We have been trying bribery, which has not been working. Each time I have upped the stakes a bit but today we still had no luck. The dentist says if we can't get her to do it we will have to get them done under a general as she needs those teeth (molars) till she is 12yrs old and by then they would be severly absessed.

The dentist wont force her to do it as he says, (and we agree) that she needs to learn to get used to the dentist, and forcing her will only make her more frightened. She needs to build a relationship with the dentist so that she is not petrified of going in years to come and as an adult will not avoid the dentist. (well too much anyway!)

We will have two more visits, one just for a look in a months time, to keep the pressure on her, and then in three months, when hopefully she will be just that much more mature to handle it a bit better. He thinks that is as far as we can stretch it without letting the teeth get too much worse. If she still wont do it she will be getting it done under a general in January.

As well as the bribery she was told beforehand that she is no longer allowed to have any sweets, that is lollies, biscuits, cakes or milkshakes and the like until she has her teeth 'tickled' and the germs removed. Lots of tears on the way home when I told her that she couldn't have the doctors set, or the Strawberry Shortcake friends that I got her for the occasion, but that she could not have Macdonalds for dinner, and no more lollies, biscuits etc. She really thought she might get by with just letting him put the camera in her mouth I think because she let him do that this time, but nothing more.

UGH! So no more treats for her until her teeth are done. It would be nice for her to not need to have it done under the general but I doubt we will be that lucky. If only she would understand how much easier (not to mention CHEAPER!) it was to just do it at the dentist, when she doesn't even need any needles as they are only minor cavities.

It is bad enough taking her to the dentist, I am so dreading the thought of having to take her to the hospital to do it!

Those Eyes!

I love this photo of Jasmine and given how gorgeous her eyes look in it I thought they were a fitting subject for this layout!

You can tell I am meant to be doing bookwork, I am suddenly all inspired and have done 3 layouts in 5 days, a new record since Kyan was born!

Finally a layout of Kyan!

I have finally gotten around to a layout of Kyan.. really must get some more of him done! The journalling reads as follows...

Reflux, dairy intolerance, eczema, croup and bronchialitis.
Your first six months have been tough, but then so are you!
And you still come out smiling!

You are a happy chappy, who brings a smile to my face. You LOVE your food and love your big sister even more. Your first two teeth are on their way, and you are quite simply a delight.

Cheeky
Happy
Adoring
Cute
Smiling
Inquisitive
Bouncy
Little Brother
Fun!

Jumping On The Bed

Here is my latest layout. I took these photos of Jaz recently when she was jumping on her bed. We had not long moved her into her new Strawberry Shortcake room and she had made up a song that she loves to sing about Strawberry Shortcake.

A lot of the detail in this was lost in the resizing and compression but if you want to see a bigger version just let me know and I will email it to you. :-)

The words go like this.... Strawberry Shortcake said I don't know, Shuka Shuka with a note!

Cute huh!

Sitting

YAY! Kyan is sitting! He has been sitting a little for a while now but just this last week he will go for 10-20mins without toppling over, so I think we can consider him a sitting boy now! He loves sitting in front of the crawl and cruize playground and of course Jaz loves to climb into the middle of it and play with him.

She really is so good with him and they love playing together. Jaz has a knack for getting him to laugh and she LOVES doing it!

He has started eating more and more solids and gets quite a belly after his meal. He is a good little eater which is great and there is not many things he doesn't like now. He has just started eating things with a bit more texture and copes with the 'bits' quite well now.

Dare I say it, since he is filling up a lot more on solids I do *think* his night sleeping is improving. Last night he went a whole 10 hrs before waking wanting a feed. He is still not very consistent with when he wakes but he is also teething so that might not be helping. He seems to be sleeping through a little more frequently which I am taking as a good sign! :-)

He is not breastfeeding as much but I guess since he is eating more solids that is to be expected. I haven't had him weighed yet as I was going to do it when he got his vaccinations but they have had some delays with the vaccinations at our doctors so we have had to put it off a couple of weeks. I might go and get him weighed by the health nurse on Friday. Judging by how much he is eating, I suspect he has put on a fair bit of weight! (which is not doing my back any favours!)

He hasn't done much rolling since he first rolled over but I am sure it wont be long before that happens, I am in no hurry because the quicker he rolls the quicker he is mobile! It was amazing how far Jasmine got just by rolling when she got the hang of it. She used to roll to get where she wanted to go!

Dean's Baby Pic

I came across this photo of Dean as a baby and decided to have a bit of a play to see if I could improve it a bit. At some stage I want to retouch all of the old photos I have here and scrap them. Of course, with all the photos of Jasmine and Kyan I still have to scrap that might be a while away!

Back to Obsessing About Sleep

Well Kyan has reverted to waking once a night again so I guess that is that idea down the drain... We may just have to accept the fact he is going to be one of those babies who will wake at night time for many months to come.

I think he is teething at the moment as he is off his food and has had rosey cheeks and lots of crankyness so it is possible it is that as well but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Oh well...

6mths!

Ok, so I am posting this one a little late, but Kyan is now 6mths! (10 Sept) We had some portrait shots done for Jasmine at 6mths but decided against spending more money on a photographer, so I decided to do his 6mth portrait myself.

I am not entirely happy with them, as they are not as sharp as I would like (you can't tell here) but will try and give them another go when I have better light. That little boy moves around too much!

I do love the smile on this photo tho! He is such a happy little chappy since starting solids! He coos and babbles away. You can tell when his tummy is full because he starts getting chatty. He he, it is rather cute. Eventually I will get around to having him weighed and measured!

Sleep Glorious Sleep!

I never thought in all my life I would be so obsessed with sleep! I am constantly counting how many hours I have had, and constantly trying to catch up on it and never dreamed it would take so long for Kyan to sleep through! I was so lucky with Jasmine who slept through on her own from 8wks. Even when she developed her reflux at 3mths she kept sleeping through.

I had no idea just how lucky I was! Ok, some idea.. but not how obsessed I would otherwise become with it!

Since starting solids, Kyan has become SUCH an easy baby during the day. He is sooo happy, very chatty and just all round a joy to be around. I started the solids a little earlier than planned in the hopes that it would help him sleep through. That theory does work for some babies, but not for Kyan, it seems that he was not waking from hunger, and when he woke during the night was exhibiting reflux symptoms, so it stands to reason that it was still the reflux that was waking him.

He is still on his reflux medication, so I think, ok, he needs it more at night and probably not so much during the day. I wonder if I gave him 2/3 of his tablet at night and 1/3 in the morning, instead of 1/2 at night and 1/2 in the morning if that would make any difference? I checked with my gp and she said it wouldn't do any harm to try it, tho she didn't think it would make any difference.

Well on Thursday night he slept from 6.30pm till 5.30am! HEAVEN! (well aside from Jaz waking at 1am with croup!) Ok, I was starting to get a bit excited here! Maybe this is going to work! Last night I gave him the medication the same way as the night before, and then he woke at 10.30pm. DARNIT! I thought he was going to do one of his 3 times a night stints that he likes to pull..... BUT........ NO! He slept through until 5.45am! YEAH! I got 6hrs straight! I must be feeling refreshed because I suggested that Dean stay in bed this morning instead of getting up with Kyan like he normally does.

Well after two nights of sleeping through... I am feeling hopeful. Of course, it could just be coincidence, it is not like he hasn't slept through at all before.. he does occasionally raise my hopes and sleep through once or even two nights in a row..but I am hoping this time it is not just coincidence, and that this might actually work, and that I might be able to function like a normal human being again...one that isn't obsessed with sleep!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy 34'th birthday Daddy!

With love from Kyan, Jasmine and of course me too!

Pulling Faces

I thought I would do a layout with some more of the face pulling photos Jasmine and I did. I thought I would try a different style to my usual, can't decide if I like it or not. I do love the photos tho! Such a drama queen! :-)

Two Fingers For Pointing

I took this photo of Jaz and thought it would suit a photography challenge being held at Digital Scrapbook Place at the moment. I have two other entries as well, throw em out and Friends The Two of Us.

Im a BIG SISTER!

This is the print for the second T-shirt, I will present it to her when she wakes up from her nap... I know she will LOVE it! :-) She is very proud of being a big sister and of her little brother!

Jasmine's T Shirt

Grandma bought Jasmine some transfer sheets for the printer for Christmas and it has taken me this long to get around to doing something with them. Well finally I have! Here is the first shirt! As you can see she loves it! I am doing another big sister one which I will upload once I am finished it...

A Rainbow

Here is a painting Jaz did the other day. She painted a rainbow! I thought it was quite clever myself! :-)

Rolling!

I can't believe I forgot to mention it yesterday! Kyan has rolled over for the first time! What a clever little man, he did it a few times yesterday with a teeny bit of help, from back to tummy and then not long after he did it on his own! YAY! :-) Go Kyan!

Best of Friends

Well here is a layout I did tonight. So nice to do one of the two of them for a change. Kyan's life is not quite as eventful as Jasmine's so he tends to get neglected as far as scrapbook pages go for now. I will have to make sure I do more in future! AND catch up on some for photos taken previously!

On a Roll!

Well it seems we are now on a roll. After trying fruit gel it seems Kyan has decided he likes solids after all! YEAH! He has now eaten and enjoyed, pumpkin, pumpkin and potato, pear and apricot, various fruit gels, as well as farex (finally!) and this evening he even had custard. He is no longer refusing foods he wouldn't eat before and it seems he has decided he likes solids after all.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be affecting his sleeping habits as much as I had hoped as he is still waking twice a night. I think I may have to work on his reflux some more as when he wakes he often coughs, which is a symptom of reflux. Admitedly I have been a little slack with my diet, not checking some foods properly for dairy products, so I will need to be a bit more vigilent, who knows maybe I will get lucky!

Fruit Gel!

Well it seems Master Kyan likes fruit gel! I am so pleased we have found something he likes, however I was kinda hoping it would be something that might fill his tummy a little more! Oh well, at least it is a start!

I made some pumpkin puree this morning so I will give that a go today. A friend suggested custard made with formula so I will give that a go soon also. I was going to try today but my custard powder is out of date. Bugger!

If I can just find something that he likes that will fill his tummy I am happy to give him that every day and then slowly build his variety from there...

I have given up on the formula for now, although if there are days when he wont eat solids I might still try again with it in the evenings.

He has been waking only once a night which I can cope with but last night he woke twice again... sigh....

When I Grow Up!

This is my latest layout which I put together this morning...shhhh...I am meant to be doing bookwork!

I had a really cute conversation with Jasmine the other day and so I thought I should scrap a page of it! The journalling reads as follows...

Jasmine called out to me from her bedroom when she was meant to be napping....The conversation went a bit like this.....

A distressed sounding Jasmine said, ‘Mummy, what can I be when I grow Up?’.

I say, ‘You can be whatever you like darling, You could be a Doctor, or a teacher, or a fire woman, or a shop keeper, or you could teach swimming classes.’

Jasmine says no to each of the options I give her and I ask her what she would like to be?

She tells me she doesn’t know so I offer more suggestions....none of these suit and she then promptly suggests that she be JUST Jasmine?

I smile and tell her, ‘Of course! Darling you can be whatever you want to be!’

So she tells me that she will be JUST Jasmine!

The drawn picture is a scan of a drawing she did of herself. :-)

For Keeps - My name is up!

Yay! My name is up on the For Keeps website as being a successful submission! Wahoo....
See the For Keeps website to see my name in the list...

Last 2 days not so good..

Well after a great day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were not so good and I was having trouble getting anything into Kyan, solids or formula, fruit or cereal. I tried Potato this evening with no luck, as soon as I get a chance I will try pumpkin or custard made with formula, but I have a feeling it will be a while yet before Master Kyan will take to solids. Formula is a struggle too........he does not like the bottle at all.... BUGGER!

Amazingly he slept through last night but I won't get my hopes up just yet, he has pulled that trick on me a few times before....

He did it!

Yay! I am so excited! Last night Kyan STILL wasn't taking solids very well so I was getting very disheartened (emphasised by him feeding 3 times the night before) so much so that I went out and got some formula samples to try. With a lot of protest we managed to get 60mls into him last night but it took an hour to get him to take that much.

Anyway, this morning I persisted with his cereal and he ate it a little better, and at lunchtime I gave some more and he FINALLY started voluntarily opening his mouth for it and I even managed a second serving! This evening I managed to get several tablespoons of rice cereal and fruit into him so I am starting to feel hopefull again!

Fingers crossed it will help improve his night time feeding habits!

Party Time

Jasmine went to our neighbours birthday party today and had a lovely time. They coloured their own masks which I thought was a wonderful idea! She also got a shrek tatoo and ate lots of lollies. Catching bubbles was a big hit as well! Oh boy do I hate those hooters... she LOVES the fact she has finally learnt how to blow them and loves making noise with her hooter thingy!

Made the final!

I made the final with the photo of Jasmine sleeping. I must say I was surprised that the black and white photo of Kyan didn't make it over that one, perhaps because it was a collaborative effort between Dean and I. (He took the photo and I edited it)

I don't think I will win this one... the competition is pretty fierce! :-) Take a look if you like!
Sleeping Photography Challenge

I won the last challenge which was with the theme 'Petals'. This is the photo I won that challenge with... and the link to the other finalists.. Petals Photo Challenge

Jasmine's New Bean Bag!

Dean made Jasmine a new bean bag today because she was becoming more and more difficult to pry off her old one when I needed to put Kyan down. Kyan prefers the bean bag to his rocker. Anyway, so Dean made a huge adult size one from leftover macrosuede fabric from the shop. As you can see she absolutely drowns in it! She loves the colours. I think they look pretty cute too! So handy having a hubby who sews! Granted I was just going to buy a cheapie from Big W!

Jasmine's Wish List

Jasmine is at that age where she is asking for things that she sees that she wants, and since Christmas isn't that far away and neither is her birthday, I thought I would put up a wish list of things she has asked for. For those family members who don't know what Santa should bring her, or need Birthday idea's, here are some the things she has mentioned that she would like. I will update the wish list as she mentions new things...

• A Kite
• A Kick Board for swimming
• A Piano
• A Guitar
• A Hanky
• Bubblator
• Butterfly Punch
  

PS. Leave a comment if you want to snag an item to get her for Christmas or her birthday and avoid others getting the same item.

Kyan's First Meal

Here is a pic from Kyans first feed of solids! He tried some cereal and wasn't too impressed. I started him right on the 6mth cereal since he is nearly 6mths but he didn't like it much. Today I bought some of the 4mths+ stuff and he seems to like it better. I will try him again tomorrow with it. I also made it a bit thinner and that helped as well I think.

With Jaz I made her cereal REALLY runny first time round and she virtually sucked it off the spoon but because Kyan is used to having his medicine thickened I didn't think I would need to do that with him, but I think to start with he prefers it thinner..... so thinner it is!

Hopefully he will start enjoying his solids soon and they might help him sleep a bit better at night time! Fingers crossed!

DSP are having a 'sleeping' photography challenge and I have entered a few of Kyan but thought I would enter this photo too, which I took last night. See my other entries in my scrapbook gallery.

Jasmine and her two bears

Update on Kyan..

Kyan has improved heaps with the combination of his reflux medication, my cutting dairy from my diet and getting his eczema under control. He is no longer as cranky as he used to be and is a much happier baby but he is still wanting to feed frequently.

Before he came down with croup and then bronchialitis he was mostly only feeding once a night which I can cope with ok. He actually slept through a couple of times when he had bronchialitis, but now he has gone back to feeding twice a night which I am not coping with very well as I don't cope well with lack of sleep!

Dean has been great and is getting up with Kyan when he wakes at 5am in the morning to give me a bit extra sleep.. he copes better with lack of sleep than I do!

Last night he was feeding every 2hrs which just kills me. Thankfully it is a kindy day and he had a longer than usual sleep this morning (3 hrs!) so I was able to have a nap.

Anyway, I have decided to start him on solids a little early in the hopes it will help him sleep through.. we have tried cereal but he isn't too keen on it (in fact he hated it!) so I will buy some apples tomorrow and stew them up to give them a try.. I will see what else there is to try while I am at it. He is great at taking his thickened medication so I do think he is ready for the solids, just a matter of finding something he likes.

Fingers crossed that once we find some solids he likes he starts sleeping through.. if not I might start him on formula for his bed time feed...

Published!

I am soooo excited! This layout has been accepted into 'For Keeps' Scrapbooking magazine and will appear in issue #36. I will let you know when it is on sale!

Jaz and Kyan

Here is a photo of Jasmine and Kyan. It is my most recent posed photo of the two of them. I am going to add photos as I have time that have already done and also photos as they are taken..

I love this photo! Jasmine just loves giving Kyan cuddles and it really shows in this photo....it was soooo hard getting them both to smile at the same time so in the end I just gave up.

Jump and Splash!

This is my most recent layout. Jasmine has a ball at swimming and I managed to capture her having fun in the tots pool a few months ago.

She is progressing really well at swimming, and while she is still in level one classes, she is now swimming with her head under water and getting better at looking at the bottom of the pool. She can't wait to go swimming every week and really enjoys giggling with her friend Emily during classes.

Jasmine also enjoys wearing her goggles in the bath so that she can practice her swimming.

Kyan will be starting swimming lessons too next term.. I can't wait as I know he will love it because he LOVES the water!

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my blog! I plan on using this blog to post photos, scrapbooking layouts and updates on the happenings of our household, so that friends and family can keep up to date on what is happening at our part of the world.