It's official

After 2 weeks of paternity leave, Peter has officially turned into me. 
He used to give me a hard time for losing my patience with the kids.  He would also suggest I let Rita help me in the kitchen when I cook.  Well....after a few times of cooking with the kids I heard him say "Rita, get your hands out of it, you are making a huge mess.  If you don't stop touching everything, you are going to have to leave the kitchen."  At the end of the final week I also overheard him raising his voice in frustration at the children being children.  He was saying things that I have heard myself say to the kids before.  He started cleaning windows just to keep himself busy while inside with the girls on a rainy day.  I must say that he has done an amazing job keeping up on laundry and other household chores.  The icing on the cake was coming home after a morning in town to find he had rearranged the living room furniture!  That is such a 'me' thing to do, I couldn't stop laughing.  On Thursday I worked most of the day and when I arrived home, Pete looked absolutely knackered. This was partly due to the fact that Tui won't really take a bottle so he spent the morning holding and cuddling her while she cried that her real food source was nowhere in sight.  Even when I am home with the baby I am either sitting on the couch breastfeeding her or walking around holding her trying to get her to sleep.  There isn't much time spent hands free that's for sure.
I have seen our life through his eyes and vice versa which has been quite insightful for all us no doubt.
And now back to life as it was pre paternity leave.  Dad at work, mum at home.  Lucky Pete.

snapshots

sleeping Tui

a morning at Matheson Bay

our local stomping grounds never fail to amaze me; stunning!

the 'widow maker'; Pete's fishingboat.  nice name, eh?

clean, clean, clean

always wanting to cuddle baby sister

helping daddy make fish fingers

my spinach gnocchi look like the photo; success!

Good Morning

Woke up this morning with 4 out of the 5 of us in our bed.  It was an indication of the type of night we had.  Good thing we opted for the king sized bed!

Memories in the Making

This past week began with a suggestion from Pete that Rita and I go to the movies together (mother/daughter bonding, you know?)  Her reply:  "No, I want Pa to take me!".  My feelings weren't hurt.  The big "date" was set for Saturday and off they went to see Cars 2 together, just Rita and her grandfather.  She got all dressed up looking like a gypsy girl in a long purple crushed velvet skirt and beaded chiffon lilac tank top.  He told all of his mates at the pub on Friday night about his movie date with his granddaughter.  I don't know which one was more excited.  They shared a chocolate bar, Pa managed to stay awake for the whole film and Rita proclaimed that she didn't get scared at all.  So cute!
Gigi, the terrible two toddler monster had a week of highs and lows.  She kept waking up at night for no clear reason which meant Pete was up in the wee hours and even spent 2 nights sleeping in the girls' bedroom with them.  On the other hand she has decided that she wants to use the big toilet like Rita.  She's done a poo and a few pees which weren't just flukes.  Progress towards a single nappied child household for us, happiness indeed.  We are still trying to figure out what she means when she says "hotmama".  I am pretty sure she's not calling me a super fit mummy but it is not clear what her intentions with the word are.  Pete thought he made a breakthrough and that it was her word for marshmallow but we've since come to the conclusion that it isn't that.  More to come on what the hell she is trying to say.....
As for our wee Tui, well she slept from 8pm last night till 4am this morning.  I'd say that is pretty much sleeping through so lets hope she keeps it up.  She isn't really into big naps during the day which is challenging for me but I'll take the 8 hour stretch of sleep at night for sure.  She's just starting to get a bit too big for her newborn clothes now.  It's going too quickly for me.  At 4 am this morning when she wouldn't go back to sleep I put her in bed next to me and we stared at eachother.  She was smiling and cooing and I was eating it all up as before we know it she'll become that toddler monster thing and this precious moment will gone forever.  A distant memory. 
Yesterday Pete had to get out of the house before he went crazy.  The girls already had gone crazy.  He took Rita and Gigi out on his boat for a tour around the harbour.  This is him trying to make them want to be his fishing buddies.  I think it's working.  I stayed home with Tui and worked on my newest crochet project.  I am trying to make myself a jacket/chunky sweater thing.  So far so good but I might run out of yarn.  Pete suggested making the arms a different color.  Um.....no, but thanks for the suggestion.  I finished making a baby pouf and the girls love it but my filling of using cloth nappies is a bit too heavy so I need to make some adjustments before I post a photo of it.  In other news I went for a run on Saturday morning and managed to run all the way to Ti Point and back.  Pretty good effort but slugging along slowly it took me about an hour.  We'll see if I can pick up the pace a bit this week....if the weather stays fine long enough. 
We've got our eye on the weather in California.  The countdown has begun, just over 4 weeks till departure.  I've already been looking in the baby clothes for a swimsuit for Tui!

Sorry about the poor quality photos, we are hoping to pick up a new camera while we are in the States!

Project Complete

Life must be getting back to normal.  Recently I picked up my deserted crochet project that had been on the go months before little Tui came along.  It was at an almost finished stage so I decided to finish it once and for all.  It started out as a door mat using leftover bits of yarn from my stash.  Then I realized that I had messed up the pattern and it was way too big for a door mat.  I decided to call it a rug instead.  Then I realized that it wasn't really going to be a great rug either.  This is so typical of all my crocheting endeavors.  Luckily my crafty sister in law Anna saw it and suggested making into a lumbar cushion.  Perfect!  A cushion it would become.  It only took a few days to finish it off and once I did I discovered that it actually doesn't suit anywhere in our house.  It temporarily is in the kids room on their little settee until I find someone to give it to or until the next time we move house (probably never) or redecorate (most likely not going to happen in this decade).

It wouldn't be a good post if I didn't throw in a picture of chubby chops herself....