Happy Halloween!!!!!

Here is Kailey's Halloween costume - not quite what we planned, but all she would wear. She had a rather large melt down before the event - so she is wearing her pumpkin pajamas and her lion outfit, without the head!!!!!
It was a fun night - we had 4 families come over to our house and we built a fire, and waited for the masses..... and boy were there masses.


I was not going to dress up - but since everyone arrived at our house in costume I brought out the old tea pot and wore that! Kai was very excited by this.

As you see - the candy kicking in. We did not go house to house. She did not understand what was going on, but she had freedom to eat all she wanted from our 4 bowls. I figure once a year, what the hell!

Uncle Kesh was also there - always spoiling Kailey!!!

The candy face! She was so sticky by the end of the night!

Our crazy neighbors! It was a great time with them.

The Holbrooks - Deric threw a tourist costume together in about 2 seconds. Most of the night he had a big camera around his neck too, and I'm not sure if you can see his two tone mullet he is wearing..... yip all class all style!

This is 11pm..... the latest Kai has ever stayed up - sugar crash and just wanting water! And so the night ended!

The rest of our weekend was relaxing!!

Here is Deric and Kai washing the car. I sat and watched them on the stairs, on the phone to my dear friend Tanya in NZ who I lived with in London .... great to chat Popaduck!

Then today (Sunday) we had some friends over for a tea. There was a lot of kids and we landed up playing outside. Just making the most of this great weather!

Now on Sunday night we are again relaxing - Deric is not studying tonight (which is a change)... so excuse me while I join him to watch a movie..... don't you just love Sunday nights!

Our little helper

Kailey really likes to help around the house, she feeds the cat everyday, dust's, scrubs anything she can and she helps with the dishwasher - as you will see in the video!!

My dress up girl

Playing with trucks in high heals....


Cooking in a princess dress


Accessorizing

Fairy Princess

Island girl....

Big Girl Bed!

This weekend we decided to get Kai a toddler bed. We are going to need the crib again soonish and I don’t want to rush her into leaving her beloved crib….
She was so excited when she got it, and now sits and reads in it for ages.


(And yes, those are truck pajamas! she only wants to wear truck pj's.... or as she calles them 'doh dohs' she is obsessed with trucks.)

She tried to sleep in it yesterday and managed to fall out twice! Here is the damage, you can’t see the blue on her eye, and it looks pretty nasty!



Tonight I just read to her in her new big girl bed and when the story was over she wanted her crib. I am going to start afternoon naps in the bed tomorrow, so we will see how that works.

She is adorable lately, I just love every phase. She is trying so hard to speak, and is getting new words every day, but jabbers all day long telling the most interesting stories and jokes that only she understands.

One thing I love is her sleep schedule. For her afternoon nap at 11am I don’t even have to say anything and she looks at me and says ‘bye bye’ takes my hand and walks me to her room. Then sleeps for 90 minutes.
Then at 6:30pm she says on her own, ‘bye bye’ grabs her baby, blanket, and dummy (pacifier) and goes to her room. She then wakes at 7am in the morning. Heaven!

The longest blog ever!!!!

Ok, ok I know I have been a terrible blogger (and my mom has let me know very clearly how bad) so I thought I would make it up and put a whole lot of stuff on tonight.
The truth is I am so tired at night that I just flop on the couch and that’s me!! Usually with a jug of water, and as much ice-cream and chocolate that I can devour!
So, we have been busy lately let me begin. Hope you’re sitting comfortably this might take a while, and serve me right for taking so long to update.
We take Kailey to a petting zoo called the ‘Big Red Barn’ when we go we tell her we are going to see Tessy bear’s chickens. This is from her favorite cartoon show called Noddy. (both Kai’s grandparents will know this show VERY well) So we go and see her chickens and she loves this……

She also gets to see the other farm animals and this week got to feed the goats! Very Exciting Suff!

Then Deric came to gymnastics with us and she got to show her Daddy all she does, I could have got more pictures if I had thought to charge the camera before leaving…… I think she just likes going since she gets stamps on her feet when she is done…. Ohhhhh and not to mention the bubble machine at the end!

Here I am at 31 weeks pregnant – I must add that I feel 20X bigger than I look… oh and then just because I posed for a picture, we had to take one of Kailey right after me! I noticed in the picture all the finger prints on the fire place she is not allowed to touch – I’m going to have to set this boundary of no touching very soon.

Then there was the renaissance fair …… I have never ….. ever… seen anything like this before. Deric and I walked around speechless. We could not tell who worked there and who were visitors like us. It was crazy and dare I say it, like a freak fest! Vampires with blood all over them, fairies – acting like fairies (these are adults). We walked around for an hour and decided it was time to count this as an experience we were richer for and go home. I did get some pictures but I was too scared to take any of the real freaky people!!!

And to end off with….. we have a bowl at the front door where we put keys and such inside. Kai is not allowed to touch it, so we put it far enough back so she can’t reach it…. But today she found a way to get in that bowl. She was caught red handed!

Random Stuff

I don't have much to say lately. I'm a little dry. So I am putting a whole lot of pictures on of what we have been doing lately. It's all pretty random stuff..... but our life at the moment.

These are the cows that walk past our house everyday - when Kai sees them we have to go out and say hello... or as Kai does it, just mooo at them!



Deric bought Kai some ballet shoes (cause she wanted them in the store) I have one word - WRAPED.



Then this is Kaileys music teacher, she loves her and will never leave her side during class. Please note the pig tails.





We baked a cake and she descovered why millions of us actually bake cakes...



And to end off with... She learned about jumping on the couch - one of those cute things you know you have to take a photo of and stop really quickly.



We are all sick at the moment - I can handle Kai and myself when we are sick - but Deric alone is like having 10 sick toddlers .... really!!!!

From the Top - With Feeling!!!

Being pregnant while having an active (very active) toddler is something I did not consider much when planning this pregnancy!
I am felling so much more energetic lately, so that’s the big bonus. But I am still expected to carry Kailey around, get on and off the floor all day, have her jump on me all day long, get on my hands and knees to clean up her lunch that ends up on floor. Not to mention getting her in and out of the car, and let’s not speak about bathing her!
I have to think back to the days where I thought I had it so bad when I worked all day and was pregnant. The fact for me now is – it’s harder to be at home with a toddler and pregnant for sure. The one bonus (and it’s a very big bonus) is if I need to I can nap with her in the afternoon. Something when working all day you can just wish for. So there are benefits.
I hear too from others that it must be so much more relaxing having the second compared to the first. Well no!!!!! I am so much more stressed.

Here are my worries:
• Before I did not know what to expect – now I know exactly what to expect.
• I wondered if I would be sleep deprived – now I know I will be sleep deprived
• I worry about leaving Kailey for 3 days while in the hospital – I have never left her over night. Thank God my Mom is coming to be with her while I am there, but I know I am going to worry like mad.
• I feel like I am being a traitor to Kailey, having to share my love and time
• We have such special mommy time now – How would I be able to give her that when the baby is born.
• And finally – DO I HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN????? Didn’t I just do this?????
Don’t get me wrong I am excited to complete my family with this special little man, but wow it certainly does not come without its own set of issues.

I then look at friends with more than one child and they are all fine, happy and would not change a thing… I guess in 2 months and 2 weeks I will be looking back on this blog and thinking how could I ever have felt this way.

Belly Shots

I have been getting a lot of requests lately for belly shots!
Well at last we got it together and took a photo….. As you can see from the comparison, I am ‘progressing’ much faster than I did with Kai. The doctor also said he is a big boy! Not sure if that has anything to do with it or if its cause my internals are so stretched out that they just blew up like a balloon…..

These are taken the same week of pregnancy - both 25 weeks!

2006

Ballet Dancer????

Attitude Derriere.....




Kailey's Version...


Arabesque Derriere....


Kailey's Version......

A Hornets nest

Yesterday, we were sitting outside with our neighbors having a chat after dinner. Kailey and their kids were playing around the house and they were up and down the deck stairs. Next thing out of nowhere, I look at Kai and see about 12 hornets flying around her head. Deric jumped up and grabbed her (getting stung himself). When we looked at her closer she had been stung twice! (On the face and hand) She was screaming like I have not heard in a while and all I could do was tell Deric to go look online what to do while I held her soooo tightly.

We watched her for 3 hours before putting her down, and Deric went to the store to get ‘stuff’ to kill the hornets. Our neighbor was ahead of us, and had got the poison he had at his house and killed 3 nests. Deric got the other 2 later in the evening.

I woke every hour on the hour in the night to check her breathing and then….. This morning I woke up to another child in Kai’s crib. Her face was so swollen I could hardly recognize her. I took her to the emergency room and they gave her medicine to make the swelling go down.

All in all it got me thinking… this parenting thing is weird. How is it possible that everything you believe you feel before having kids is totally wrong? The emotion to take all pain, all unhappiness away is so strong that you devote your days to making sure everything in their little lives is perfect. The satisfaction from this …….all you need.

Even when you think back to the days of having a meal without jumping up and down 100 times, reading a book in the middle of the day, stealing a nap on the couch without little fingers opening your eyes. Getting in and out the car in seconds, and making plans on a whim.

The days before not thinking of someone else’s food intake 4-6 times a day, nappy rash, potty training, teaching not to hit the cat, trying to in force that crayons are for paper not walls, oh and something that happened moments ago….. how not to fret if your high heals don’t go on (yip she was throwing a tantrum about not been able to get her play shoes on)

I am glad to say now that everything in the Holbrook house hold is back to normal and we are all hoping for some sleep tonight!

Kai's first hair cut

Deric convinced me to have Kailey’s hair cut. I have no idea why I was so against the idea but I will put it to one of those mom things I just can’t explain.

But it was great – she had a blast. I found a place that just cut kids hair. They had all these distractions for them and the lady was so much better than I have been (I think my only style is mullet)

Here are the before and after shots... and yes my child chose the hummer and not the princess car!!!!!









The picture on the last blog is a good one of the final product!

Please pray for little Gawolegle.....

I’m sure you remember seeing this photo last year of a little South African boy named Gawolegle. He was Kailey’s Nanny’s son – Gladys. He is 7 years old and has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. He and his family are very special to us, and we ask for your prayers. He will be having an operation soon, and then start treatment.
Please think of him in your prayers and if you have a prayer group please add him to it. It would mean so much to this wonderful family!