Dear Maia and Kiran,
So much time has gone by and I have not taken the time to write it all down. I will do my best from here on out to at least write something, even it is something we did or something you said, for my sake as well as yours. You both wrote your letters to Santa and I wanted to type them in for safe keeping. I will make a copy. Maia you are a gorgeous seven year old girl who is very much besotted with your babies...they are real to you and I understand, as I was the same at your age. You are a very kind and gentle hearted Mumma and you beg me on a regular basis to have another baby or you both say to me, "Mumma's having a baby!" with a wishful look in your eyes. I really only have two hands and I know I can only manage two kids. I have found the mothering road to be emotionally challenging at times, but I love you both with all my heart and soul. You are such a blessing in my life and I really am so glad that you both chose me as your mother. Kiran you are a very active and happy little fella who, now approaching the age of five, you are able to articulate yourself so clearly. You are a very kind and loving little boy with a great sense of determination that sometimes has me reeling with frustration, but it will get you somewhere in life I am sure! You love TRUCKS and enjoy playing with anything with wheels. You are very curious about how things work and love to see the cause and effect of putting something together and taking it apart. You have a terrible habit of hitting and hurting your sister at time if she is not doing what you want her to do and I find that incredibly irritating...she is coming in crying now. Anyway, we will get there and I love you both. Here are your letters to Santa this year at ages 7 and 4 (soon to be 5).
Dear Santa,
My name is Kiran and my Mom is writing this letter for me. Here are some of the presents that I would like for Christmas: 1. Cement truck that has a barrel that turns and when your ready to dump it, the sand dumps down the shoot, 2. Rubbish Truck that is small, but I can ride on, 3. two truck, 4. a truck like Amen's size, except a tow truck with a pulley, 5. Monster truck that is remote control.
Love, Kiran
Dear Santa,
Could you bring me a big doll house, a baby like Sera, a stuff duck, a cradle, a baby from the toy shop, a small and a big pony, Sylvania Sheep and a kitten.
Love, Maia
Monday, December 15, 2014
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
First Quarter Impressions 2012
Well, I wish I would have written down more of the funny things both of you say as I often think, "Oh, I will write it down when I get home to find that I can't even remember the topic of conversation. So I now have a green book and I hope to capture more of those special moments. Just a quick post to say, you are the sweetest two people on the planet and it is an honor to be your mother." x
May 10, 2012: Kiran says to me, "I want Milkie..." and he shakes his head up and down. "Just is little bit." Mom: "Do you like (breast) Milk?" Kiran: "It makes me happy." I figure most kids are not breastfed until they can tell you how much they appreciate it. Babies should wear t-shires, "Breast milk makes me happy."
I really would like to purchase a book where I can write a summary of both of you each year that goes by around the time of your birthdays along with a photo. You would think as a parent that it would be easy to remember your children and what they are like each year, but a child changes so quickly that it is hard to remember how the changes occurred and when they occurred over the course of time. Maia you are starting to turn towards your fifth year. I have noticed with each child as they get over that half year maker and head for the next year, a change begins to overcome them.
Big changes have happened for you this year as you have overcome your inclination to sit back and just watch what goes on around you to actually participating in your world a bit more especially when it comes to speaking to people, standing up in front of your peers and speaking and joining in an activity. Your teachers describe you as a child who is comfortable in her own space and does not want or need social play. You can sit for long periods of time doing finite tasks or tasks that involve a lot of detail. Given you are a person who has a lot of patience and determination to finish tasks that would seem to tedious for children your age, I enrolled you in a local sewing class given by Elizabeth at the Berry Patchworks with other young elementary school age children. You were just three years old going on four and you took to sewing like a fish takes to water. You loved it and continue to love sewing, so much so that you would like to go to class every week. At the moment we can only afford to send you fortnightly, but we hope to get you involved more often or to enrole you in a music class.
I found a lovely music teacher who teaches the harp and I figure that might be a nice and gentle instrument for you to start with that would appeal to a young child as this particular teacher allows her students to play with the sound and have fun, which is possible with the harp. I wish so very much that I had been given the gift of music. I guess it is never too late, so maybe when my business picks up, I can get involved myself.
Maia you are a very emotionally aware, sensitive and accommodating child, who because of your rule abiding nature, you tend to be very easy to be around and very helpful with your brother. I often think how lucky I am that you came to me first as you have been such an easy child to raise and for me, just a pure delight. You are inquisitive, bright, creative, self-sufficient, independent and always find something interesting to explore on your own without much prompting from me. Because younger children copy their older siblings, Kiran often looks up to you and listens to what you have to say when you are trying to show him something or explain something to him. You are a natural teacher and just a little mother in many respects, although I don't expect that of you, you just tend to want to naturally look after and protect your brother from any harm, except of course when he has a toy that you want and then, that is when all of the above flies out the window and I feel a bit crazy with the battle to have what the other wants at the time. This is all normal behavoir and to be expected between siblings, I just need to be aware of not asking you to pass him the toy of choice just because often you will understand my plight and come to my rescue at times. And speaking of coming to my rescue, I have to mention that because you are so clever and you are so tuned in to me and what I am trying to get Kiran to do at times, you will work with him at one angle so that we have a better chance of getting him on task. Kind of like mother - daughter tag team with Kiran as the player we need to get on sides. Laugh. You have a great interest in letters and started writing when you were two going on three. Now as a four and a half year old, you are trying to put the letter that you write, which are capitals, and you are making them into words by sounding them out. Often I can read what you write just by the sounds that you figured out make the words. Like this week you wrote the following: Maia: " I just wrote all the things that are beautiful in life..." And she write on a piece of paper: luv com ood chre oddm levz flawr hg bae
which was: love, calm, old tree autumn leaves, flowers and hug bear. I am just amazed at how children, when they are ready, learn on their own as I have never sat down to teach Maia how to write letters or sting the sounds letters make into words and yet, she is doing it on her own. Incredible. Maia also enjoys writing shopping lists, helping me make food and anything to do with drawing, painting, craft and sewing. She said to me in the car on Friday that she wanted to work in a real hospital and be the person who helps repair broken bones. It will be fun to see what she decides to do in her life as an adult. Maia has started to assert herself and she does get angry when something does not go the way she expected it to and I have notice, which worries me slightly, how she is a perfectionist and she gets very upset to the point of wanting to destroy what she has done and start again with a simple error in writing or if there is a "mistake" with something that she has done. She will get very upset, cry or just get really frustrated if this happens and it is really hard to convince her otherwise. So I have to learn to just validate her feelings, even though as an adult, you can't help but think to yourself, oh, just get over it, it is a simple mistake. To children, that simple mistake means the world to them.
Now on to Kiran. Kiran my sweet little fellow, you are a very fun loving, physical, easy going, smart, intelligent, humorous, determined and mischievous little boy. At the age of 2 years, 5 months, you express yourself with ease and there is not much that you can't get across to us in perfect English. You can count to ten, know all of your colours accurately and enjoy tormenting our cat, Sunny to the point where I have been at my wits end as to what to do with you. I have tried so many different tactics and even out of pure desperation have hit you off of him, which obviously is not how I want to treat a child who I am trying to teach him not to be aggressive with out cat. I have apologised and Maia has so kindly reminded me, "Momma, if you hit Kiran you are only teaching him to hit." Thanks Maia. I have to say that it tends to happen when you are bored or want my attention.
It is not something I am proud of and I can't say it has happened that often, but that is usually when I have just about had it and am sleep deprived, which is something that you have not been that skilled at doing as of late being you have woken me up almost nightly for the past six weeks asking for breast milk, which I have told you is no longer available at night time, and so now you just ask me to give you a cuddle and tuck you in bed, which I have done with great love and patience given that my best friend Cass's son, Talin at the age of five, was diagnosed with a terminal brain stem tumor at the fourth stage, and this in itself has given me a new spin on how everything is just a moment in time and that nothing is too much when you know that it may just be a passing phase and at the end of it all, you have a healthy child to cuddle up to at night time. Which is how this behavoir started in the first place when I began to cuddle you and your sister at night and lie next to you until you fell asleep, then I think what has happened is that you wake up in the middle of the night and then coming looking for me...the ole, whatever conditions are present when a child falls asleep is what they expect when they wake up in the middle of the night. Anyway, I am trying to break the cycle as I would love to be able to sleep through the night. I look in the mirror and I wonder when the dark circles under my eyes may disappear and I will look fresh and well rested...laugh.
You are actually very good at playing on your own for periods of time and entertaining yourself when I am busy in the household. You do have a limit though and when you reach your limit and don't know what else to do with yourself, you usually get destructive and do things that you know will get my attention one way or another. Like a puppy, you need outdoor time to get our that boy energy. You love to play with your sister Maia and at this age you think it is funny to talk about Poo.. basically because of you, I have never heard so many Poo songs, Poo jokes, and just Poo Poo anything that you find extremely funny and entertaining. It must be a boy thing and your sister has had fun joining in. I am so glad that you came along. As I journaled, it was too bad I was hit so badly with post-natal depression the first year after you were born. I believe a lot of the sadness that I witnessed as a baby after my brother's birth was triggered and surfaced after you came along, but you have been an absolute pleasure to raise and you were the sweetest little baby and now such a lovely, outgoing, friendly, confident toddler. You are so comfortable in your own skin and very clear about what you want that when something is important to you or you want to do something your way, we basically need to wait until you are ready to get there. Poppy calls it, "Kiran time." And basically, you are very strong willed when it comes to something that you set your sights on or just want to do in your own time. As a strong natured Mother, who has a lot of fire, I find that our personalities do clash at times, but I am learning to try and give you the space you need to grow and if it is possible to follow your order to things or your desires if they are that important to you at the time as long as you are safe, of course.
You love trucks or anything with wheels and motorcycles are your absolute favorite. You will stop to look at them in town and if you see someone about to climb on one and drive off, we have to stop and wait to see them start up and go. You can play on the floor for a long time with your cars and your favorite today is a blue Police car with a trailer. You love connecting things to other things and you have started to fit the train set pieces together to make a track. You love to push the doll stroller around and the shopping cart as well as your wheelbarrow and your mower. Anything with wheels is an attraction. You like to pack a bag and pretend to go camping. Hide and seek is a real favorite as is Maia's, but it is so cute to see you hide sometimes out in the open and cover your face as though by doing so is making you invisible. You like to close doors and tell us to knock on the door. When I open the door to the living room, you smile and invite me to come in telling me that you have painted our ceiling.
You still love to breastfeed and your favorite time is when you first wake up in the morning. I hear the door slam and a pitter, patter of feet, my door opens, and slams shut and there you are by my bedside asking for "milkie." We cuddle in the bed in the morning and Maia is not usually far behind you, so she squeezes in between Dad and I while you lay with me and have your milk. I sometimes give you milk in the middle of the day at nap time and we both fall asleep together, but I think you are over your naps as if we have a nap, you have trouble falling asleep at night time and I am laying in your room with you for an hour or more. The other must have milkie time is at night when we are reading stories in the bed and you want to have a milkie cuddle just at story time. You are still in nappies and we have tried to get you to potty train, but you became curious with what you could do with you wee and your willie and we were finding you, for instance, filling lego blocks with wee. So I gave up a bit, but I believe you could if I put the energy into it, which I am starting to think might be a good idea as I am over changing pooey nappies. Maia still has to wear a large nappy at night time. We have tried on several occasions, but she ends up wetting her bed. She is such a sound sleeper, she just does not wake up to use the toilet. I will need to figure something out soon as it seems like such a waste to use nappies on an almost five year old child.
It is nice for us to be in our family home. We are still settling and getting used to the idea that we can stay here forever. Berry and The South Coast is as close to paradise as you can get and David and I feel so lucky to be here to raise our kids. I am going to start home schooling Maia next year. I have decided to home school based on the fact that Maia is so smart, she would just comply and get lost in the background at school never reaching her full potential and the fact that I don't believe in the school "system" to educate our children. David and I are on the same page. We just think that we might as well give it a try and I want to enjoy our children. No one will enjoy watching them learn as much as I will and no one will invest the time and energy that I will to ensure that our kids are well rounded, decent and caring citizens of this world. So I need to get on it and start my research into how to best home school our children. I hope that I can just start with lots of fun outdoor adventures and just give them an appreciation for nature and if at the end of the day they have learned to be good readers, writers, and have some mathematical skills under the belts and are creative, versatile thinkers, who are caring and confident people, then I will have done what I could to give them the best start in life. My time with them is so short and seeing how fast the past five years has gone only highlights that fact that Maia will be off in the big world sooner than I can blink and I am going to enjoy my time with my two little treasures, while I can as I really feel lucky to be there mother although at times I have not found the surrender to parenthood easy, I could not have been gifted two better people to love and raise and I hope that they know that despite my flaws, that I love them with all my heart and I do my best.
Well, that is a big entry and I need to go look after my dark circles and head off to bed. My love to the two of you while you sleep. Sending you rainbows from my heart to yours. I love you with all my heart and all my love...Momma xo
May 10, 2012: Kiran says to me, "I want Milkie..." and he shakes his head up and down. "Just is little bit." Mom: "Do you like (breast) Milk?" Kiran: "It makes me happy." I figure most kids are not breastfed until they can tell you how much they appreciate it. Babies should wear t-shires, "Breast milk makes me happy."
I really would like to purchase a book where I can write a summary of both of you each year that goes by around the time of your birthdays along with a photo. You would think as a parent that it would be easy to remember your children and what they are like each year, but a child changes so quickly that it is hard to remember how the changes occurred and when they occurred over the course of time. Maia you are starting to turn towards your fifth year. I have noticed with each child as they get over that half year maker and head for the next year, a change begins to overcome them.
Big changes have happened for you this year as you have overcome your inclination to sit back and just watch what goes on around you to actually participating in your world a bit more especially when it comes to speaking to people, standing up in front of your peers and speaking and joining in an activity. Your teachers describe you as a child who is comfortable in her own space and does not want or need social play. You can sit for long periods of time doing finite tasks or tasks that involve a lot of detail. Given you are a person who has a lot of patience and determination to finish tasks that would seem to tedious for children your age, I enrolled you in a local sewing class given by Elizabeth at the Berry Patchworks with other young elementary school age children. You were just three years old going on four and you took to sewing like a fish takes to water. You loved it and continue to love sewing, so much so that you would like to go to class every week. At the moment we can only afford to send you fortnightly, but we hope to get you involved more often or to enrole you in a music class.
I found a lovely music teacher who teaches the harp and I figure that might be a nice and gentle instrument for you to start with that would appeal to a young child as this particular teacher allows her students to play with the sound and have fun, which is possible with the harp. I wish so very much that I had been given the gift of music. I guess it is never too late, so maybe when my business picks up, I can get involved myself.
Maia you are a very emotionally aware, sensitive and accommodating child, who because of your rule abiding nature, you tend to be very easy to be around and very helpful with your brother. I often think how lucky I am that you came to me first as you have been such an easy child to raise and for me, just a pure delight. You are inquisitive, bright, creative, self-sufficient, independent and always find something interesting to explore on your own without much prompting from me. Because younger children copy their older siblings, Kiran often looks up to you and listens to what you have to say when you are trying to show him something or explain something to him. You are a natural teacher and just a little mother in many respects, although I don't expect that of you, you just tend to want to naturally look after and protect your brother from any harm, except of course when he has a toy that you want and then, that is when all of the above flies out the window and I feel a bit crazy with the battle to have what the other wants at the time. This is all normal behavoir and to be expected between siblings, I just need to be aware of not asking you to pass him the toy of choice just because often you will understand my plight and come to my rescue at times. And speaking of coming to my rescue, I have to mention that because you are so clever and you are so tuned in to me and what I am trying to get Kiran to do at times, you will work with him at one angle so that we have a better chance of getting him on task. Kind of like mother - daughter tag team with Kiran as the player we need to get on sides. Laugh. You have a great interest in letters and started writing when you were two going on three. Now as a four and a half year old, you are trying to put the letter that you write, which are capitals, and you are making them into words by sounding them out. Often I can read what you write just by the sounds that you figured out make the words. Like this week you wrote the following: Maia: " I just wrote all the things that are beautiful in life..." And she write on a piece of paper: luv com ood chre oddm levz flawr hg bae
which was: love, calm, old tree autumn leaves, flowers and hug bear. I am just amazed at how children, when they are ready, learn on their own as I have never sat down to teach Maia how to write letters or sting the sounds letters make into words and yet, she is doing it on her own. Incredible. Maia also enjoys writing shopping lists, helping me make food and anything to do with drawing, painting, craft and sewing. She said to me in the car on Friday that she wanted to work in a real hospital and be the person who helps repair broken bones. It will be fun to see what she decides to do in her life as an adult. Maia has started to assert herself and she does get angry when something does not go the way she expected it to and I have notice, which worries me slightly, how she is a perfectionist and she gets very upset to the point of wanting to destroy what she has done and start again with a simple error in writing or if there is a "mistake" with something that she has done. She will get very upset, cry or just get really frustrated if this happens and it is really hard to convince her otherwise. So I have to learn to just validate her feelings, even though as an adult, you can't help but think to yourself, oh, just get over it, it is a simple mistake. To children, that simple mistake means the world to them.
Now on to Kiran. Kiran my sweet little fellow, you are a very fun loving, physical, easy going, smart, intelligent, humorous, determined and mischievous little boy. At the age of 2 years, 5 months, you express yourself with ease and there is not much that you can't get across to us in perfect English. You can count to ten, know all of your colours accurately and enjoy tormenting our cat, Sunny to the point where I have been at my wits end as to what to do with you. I have tried so many different tactics and even out of pure desperation have hit you off of him, which obviously is not how I want to treat a child who I am trying to teach him not to be aggressive with out cat. I have apologised and Maia has so kindly reminded me, "Momma, if you hit Kiran you are only teaching him to hit." Thanks Maia. I have to say that it tends to happen when you are bored or want my attention.
It is not something I am proud of and I can't say it has happened that often, but that is usually when I have just about had it and am sleep deprived, which is something that you have not been that skilled at doing as of late being you have woken me up almost nightly for the past six weeks asking for breast milk, which I have told you is no longer available at night time, and so now you just ask me to give you a cuddle and tuck you in bed, which I have done with great love and patience given that my best friend Cass's son, Talin at the age of five, was diagnosed with a terminal brain stem tumor at the fourth stage, and this in itself has given me a new spin on how everything is just a moment in time and that nothing is too much when you know that it may just be a passing phase and at the end of it all, you have a healthy child to cuddle up to at night time. Which is how this behavoir started in the first place when I began to cuddle you and your sister at night and lie next to you until you fell asleep, then I think what has happened is that you wake up in the middle of the night and then coming looking for me...the ole, whatever conditions are present when a child falls asleep is what they expect when they wake up in the middle of the night. Anyway, I am trying to break the cycle as I would love to be able to sleep through the night. I look in the mirror and I wonder when the dark circles under my eyes may disappear and I will look fresh and well rested...laugh.
You are actually very good at playing on your own for periods of time and entertaining yourself when I am busy in the household. You do have a limit though and when you reach your limit and don't know what else to do with yourself, you usually get destructive and do things that you know will get my attention one way or another. Like a puppy, you need outdoor time to get our that boy energy. You love to play with your sister Maia and at this age you think it is funny to talk about Poo.. basically because of you, I have never heard so many Poo songs, Poo jokes, and just Poo Poo anything that you find extremely funny and entertaining. It must be a boy thing and your sister has had fun joining in. I am so glad that you came along. As I journaled, it was too bad I was hit so badly with post-natal depression the first year after you were born. I believe a lot of the sadness that I witnessed as a baby after my brother's birth was triggered and surfaced after you came along, but you have been an absolute pleasure to raise and you were the sweetest little baby and now such a lovely, outgoing, friendly, confident toddler. You are so comfortable in your own skin and very clear about what you want that when something is important to you or you want to do something your way, we basically need to wait until you are ready to get there. Poppy calls it, "Kiran time." And basically, you are very strong willed when it comes to something that you set your sights on or just want to do in your own time. As a strong natured Mother, who has a lot of fire, I find that our personalities do clash at times, but I am learning to try and give you the space you need to grow and if it is possible to follow your order to things or your desires if they are that important to you at the time as long as you are safe, of course.
You love trucks or anything with wheels and motorcycles are your absolute favorite. You will stop to look at them in town and if you see someone about to climb on one and drive off, we have to stop and wait to see them start up and go. You can play on the floor for a long time with your cars and your favorite today is a blue Police car with a trailer. You love connecting things to other things and you have started to fit the train set pieces together to make a track. You love to push the doll stroller around and the shopping cart as well as your wheelbarrow and your mower. Anything with wheels is an attraction. You like to pack a bag and pretend to go camping. Hide and seek is a real favorite as is Maia's, but it is so cute to see you hide sometimes out in the open and cover your face as though by doing so is making you invisible. You like to close doors and tell us to knock on the door. When I open the door to the living room, you smile and invite me to come in telling me that you have painted our ceiling.
You still love to breastfeed and your favorite time is when you first wake up in the morning. I hear the door slam and a pitter, patter of feet, my door opens, and slams shut and there you are by my bedside asking for "milkie." We cuddle in the bed in the morning and Maia is not usually far behind you, so she squeezes in between Dad and I while you lay with me and have your milk. I sometimes give you milk in the middle of the day at nap time and we both fall asleep together, but I think you are over your naps as if we have a nap, you have trouble falling asleep at night time and I am laying in your room with you for an hour or more. The other must have milkie time is at night when we are reading stories in the bed and you want to have a milkie cuddle just at story time. You are still in nappies and we have tried to get you to potty train, but you became curious with what you could do with you wee and your willie and we were finding you, for instance, filling lego blocks with wee. So I gave up a bit, but I believe you could if I put the energy into it, which I am starting to think might be a good idea as I am over changing pooey nappies. Maia still has to wear a large nappy at night time. We have tried on several occasions, but she ends up wetting her bed. She is such a sound sleeper, she just does not wake up to use the toilet. I will need to figure something out soon as it seems like such a waste to use nappies on an almost five year old child.
It is nice for us to be in our family home. We are still settling and getting used to the idea that we can stay here forever. Berry and The South Coast is as close to paradise as you can get and David and I feel so lucky to be here to raise our kids. I am going to start home schooling Maia next year. I have decided to home school based on the fact that Maia is so smart, she would just comply and get lost in the background at school never reaching her full potential and the fact that I don't believe in the school "system" to educate our children. David and I are on the same page. We just think that we might as well give it a try and I want to enjoy our children. No one will enjoy watching them learn as much as I will and no one will invest the time and energy that I will to ensure that our kids are well rounded, decent and caring citizens of this world. So I need to get on it and start my research into how to best home school our children. I hope that I can just start with lots of fun outdoor adventures and just give them an appreciation for nature and if at the end of the day they have learned to be good readers, writers, and have some mathematical skills under the belts and are creative, versatile thinkers, who are caring and confident people, then I will have done what I could to give them the best start in life. My time with them is so short and seeing how fast the past five years has gone only highlights that fact that Maia will be off in the big world sooner than I can blink and I am going to enjoy my time with my two little treasures, while I can as I really feel lucky to be there mother although at times I have not found the surrender to parenthood easy, I could not have been gifted two better people to love and raise and I hope that they know that despite my flaws, that I love them with all my heart and I do my best.
Well, that is a big entry and I need to go look after my dark circles and head off to bed. My love to the two of you while you sleep. Sending you rainbows from my heart to yours. I love you with all my heart and all my love...Momma xo
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Happy New Year 2012: The funny things you say
I was glad to see that I had written down how we felt moving into our beautiful home. Now four months on, we are starting to relax especially having had our first Christmas together and David was able to spend a over a week at home. The kids were wonderful being ages two and four, they were so excited about Christmas and Santa as well as the Christmas story. Maia wrote to Santa and both kids wanted bikes for Christmas. And so I went to the bike shop with Maia to get her sized up for her bike saying that the elves may not be able to make it, but at least Santa has your measurements and the lady at the shop, Meg, she told Maia that they didn't sell the bikes they just fit them after Maia said she wanted to take it home that day. Mike, Mom and Dad came for Christmas and we had the nicest Christmas ever. We went up to Kiama fish market on Christmas Eve and got some lovely fish for Christmas Eve and dinner. It was really, really lovely time together as a family and we had a great visit with Mike going to Green Patch Beach, Huskinsson for a vegetarian lunch at Pilgrims and then inland from Kiama to Carrington Falls and to a nearby waterhole, Nellies Glen. David and I walked to our local pool with the kids for an afternoon swim, teas at the Berry tea shop owned by a lovely couple Paulina and Clifford and just time together. On New Year's Eve, we went to our local show ground and saw some amazing fireworks. They were going off above us and it was the most spectacular display I have seen being that it was three dimensional. The kids coped well with the loud booms and David just had to cover Kiran's ears and Maia was curled up in my lap with her fingers in her ears. They really enjoyed it and we have enjoyed our time together. It was hard to see him go off to work actually as we had such a great holiday here at home. We feel so much more relaxed going into this year and it just feels so good to have some time to settle in to being here and taking it in and really feeling like we are home.
Kiran turns two this Saturday and we will have a party for him on Sunday. We are very excited about celebrating him and having a little birthday celebration for our boy.
It is so funny to hear some of the things that the two little people say and I always thought that I would remember word for word those funny little moments, but then I would forget and so I have started writing them down in a book. I will list them here so that they don't get lost somewhere and as time goes, I will hopefully continue to give little snippets of our life:
October 8, 2011: Sunny cat was welcomed to our household and within 24 hours made himself comfortable and was roaming around the house. We are so pleased with him and his wonderful nature with the kids. Maia and he are really bonded and he just loves being with her. Kiran loves the cat, but when Kiran is bored he started to get into mischief which often involves stepping on Sunny's tale or squeezing him as he says or pinching him, and when we yell at him and tell him not to, he often will look at us and laugh. The majority of the time he is good with him and the kids just love our little fury friend.
November 20, 2011
Kiran (22 months) on the change table looked up at the ceiling and said: "Ocean in the sky."
November 30, 2011
Maia (4) in the car in the backseat while I was driving to Kiran: "Kiran you are going to be my husband. And I am going to stay with you forever. And you are going to stay with me forever."
Kiran (22 months): Kiran dropped the wooden block on his toe and then explained, "Dropped blocks on toe." Kiran points to the corner of the block and said, "Right on the corner there."
December 4, 2011
After the Christmas parade in Berry, we were in the tea shop having a cuppa and Frank Sinatra was playing. Kiran (23 months): "Not like that music." David: "You don't like Frank?" Kiran: "Not like that Frank." And then he started singing the Hindu Chant Om Gam."
December 17, 2011
We were at Maia wildlife park and looking at a White Peacock and Maia declares excitedly, "Look Mom, there are Ants!! I wonder how they got there?" It was so funny to hear the joy in her voice when seeing ants crawling on the enclosure of the peacock's cage.
Later that day, Maia expressed concern that Kiran may wake up when Santa comes down the chimney and he won't be able to deliver their presents.
January 1, 2012
Kiran: I want to kiss an angel. I want to kiss baby Jesus.
Maia: He's already dead, Kiran.
(David and I just burst out laughing.)
January 2, 2012
Maia: I'm making Christmas cards. Me: We can mail them. Maia: No, no, we're NOT. We are going to fly around the world in an airplane and land on the roof like Santa.
Kiran at 23 months can sing the ABC song in its entirety as well as other songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You are my Sunshine. Verses of Almost Heaven West Virgina and has learned other songs over the Christmas holidays. He is just amazing us every day and has started to potty train at 23 months. He will ask to use the toilet and is so excited that he is doing something in the potty that he will get up and down each time he does a bit of poo or a wee and asks for everyone in the house to come and take a look.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
We have arrived at the Yellow House
It was just two weeks ago that we finally made it to "The Yellow House." It was the easiest move of our lives and we are really still just pinching ourselves to see if we are dreaming. It was such a nice move thanks to Carmen and Bill, who watched the kids for six days while we prepared the house and then started moving the kitchen and the shed over on the weekend. The tenants vacated our home on Friday, August 5. David left work early and met me at the house around 3:30. Jan, the real estate agent, was waiting for us. When I walked through the gate I just burst into tears. I was so happy to finally walk through the gate and know that we were home and there was no one we had to "ask" if it were o.k. to see the place as I had never been in our house without a tenant living in it. After the real estate agent left, David carried me over the threshold. David and I did a clearing on the house and then we called Carmen and Bill to come over and see it with the kids. They just went running around the house and we explained where they would be sleeping and we got to go out to the garden with them. It was such a nice feeling to be there, all of us together celebrating the realisation of our dream. It was equally wonderful to start moving the kitchen over on the weekend and I had a few days to set it up and get things in order before the removalists came on Tuesday. The weather was spectacular and although rain was predicted, the sun never stopped shinning on us. I still walk around looking in the rooms and trying to take in the fact that I live in such a beautiful place. The first night I said to David, "Does this really feel like our home?" And David laughed and said, "No, it feels like we are at a holiday home." It is just an amazing place to live, but not just the house, the town itself has just been such a special place to be apart of.
Last weekend, I went to the home birth conference in New Castle and was so pleased to hear Ina May Gaskin speak along with some other wonderful women. It was excellent and I hope that somehow, the maternity system can get better for women.
I am really enjoying Kiran and Maia. Kiran is making some amazing changes and we can't get over how much he is able to express as well as his sense of humor. His enunciation is extraordinary and comparable to what Maia was saying at his age except I think Maia was able to say just a bit more. He points and repeats everything. Today, we were outside of Maia's school and he was pointing and saying, "Toothbrush." And I looked and corrected him and said, "Bottlebrush tree." He made a joke with Carmen this weekend and he learned to say Melbourne when she asked him, "Where does Uncle Mike live?" He would say, "Melbourne," but then as a joke started to say, "Elmo." Instead of "No" he likes to say, "No, way." And yesterday, he brought me a bottle of nail polish remover and said, "Poison." (Obviously, it was good he knew to bring it to me, but we need to do a check of the house and make sure all is up away and safe as he tried to shave his face the other day with a real disposable razor and cut his cheek and upper lip. Obviously, he has been watching David.) One of the cutest things he has done is on a few occasions since we moved house, he would wake up and want milk and when latched on, he requests, "Belinda," and when I start telling the story about Belinda the fairy in the magical wood, "There once was a fairy named Belinda, who lived in the magical wood...." He gets off my breast and says, "Dog," as he wants a story with Belinda and a dog and then after I finish the story, he says, "Another." He certainly can get his point across. Recently, he has been saying, "I did it!" when he does something. He also really spontaneouly like to sing a Hindu chant, "Om Gam..." and he will so when we are out shopping or wherever, whenever. It is his favourite melody. He sure is very determined and if he does not get what he wants, he will just scream at full volume and today he got very angry at me and screamed at me when I did not let him go into my bedroom. I love watching him grown and even his attitude is endearing. He is a real delight to have around and now that I know how quickly they change and how he will grow up before I know it, I am trying to savor every minute.
Now on to my sweet girl Maia. You couldnt' ask for a better bigger sister. She has her moments and when she does, Kiran just repeats exactly what she does. Like the other day, there was a rare instance of her acting out and she threw something at Kiran when she did not want to share the people in her doll house. (She had been in school all day and probably just needed some time for herself.) So what to Kiran do, followed what she did and started throwing everything out of the house and around him. She and I have these moments when we just look at each other and smile at how cute Kiran is and she will say, "He is really cute, isn't he?" It is lovely to see the two of them together playing and I realize how nice it is for a child to have a sibling so that they can relate to one another. I really feel sorry for only children as you don't realize what you are failing to give them until you have a second and see the beauty of having two kids. Maia is changing and I don't quite know how to articulate clearly how she is speaking differently, as with Kiran he is just learning to talk and what he is doing is so obvious, but with Maia, she just sounds like an older child in the way she is expressing herself so clearly. She is a really independent little person and loves to do things by herself. Things are changing for her as she is really participating more and more at pre-school and enjoying her time with the children. She now names friends that she likes to be around and she participates in more group activities like music. Her teacher Kay was so touched to see her getting involved in the music lessons at school that her eyes welled up with tears. Maia used to just sit outside the circle and observe, but she is now starting to have fun playing the instruments and more comfortable with getting in front of other kids in the classroom. One day she pretended with some other girls that she was a cloud covering up the sun. She would have never done that a year ago.
Maia really enjoys music and art. She will take the guitar and strum it and sing a song, rather pelt it out in full volume with all her heart and soul. She is excellent at drawing and loves to make presents for all of us. When we are walking down the street and wherever, she will want to pick the flowers and now it is spring, it is the perfect time for her to enjoy finding flowers. I really love Maia. She and I enjoy doing things together when I am not busy running around the house. The other day we made playdough and she has such great enthusiasm for helping me and mixing everything up. She designed some beautiful cookies yesterday from the playdough and now she does not want to form them back into a ball to make something else. I am busy trying to plan her birthday party and really looking forward to celebrating her special day with all our friends.
Big hug to you my sweet little people. I can't wait until we are totally settled in here so we can start to just focus on enjoying day to day normal stuff instead of moving and unpacking.
I love you both with all my heart. xo Momma
Sunday, July 24, 2011
July 24, 2011
Kiran and Maia are absolutely delicious. I've had my moments...my ups, my downs and after a bit of a roller coster last year while I found my feet as the mother of two, I have to say that lately, I find myself thinking about how Kiran is my last "baby" and that this body has finished the task of carrying and birthing babies. It is a strange feeling when you come to the realisation that although you don't want any more children that there will not be any more. I recently wrote on my facebook page that Kiran has hit such an adorable stage in his development that it is almost as though Mother Nature is calling, "Are you sure you don't want to do it all over again and have another one of these gorgeous creatures?" He looks up at me with those gorgeous, deep brown eyes and says, "Mama, Cuddle." And yes, I melt and pick him up and kiss his checks over and over again. Or when he crawls around on the floor pretending he is a kitten. Gosh, now that really plucks at my heart strings. At 18 months of age, quickly approaching 19 months, Kiran is a very verbal little fellow and today has strung three words together for the first time, "Poncho on me." He wanted me to put on Maia's rainbow Poncho. He also has been gaining confidence in putting two words together such as, "Bath Time, Thank You, and Dinner Time, Joovey Out, Puddle Splashing." He can identify most things easily and verbally say what he points to. The most amazing thing he did this week was when he drew on Maia's drawing and she was upset, he went over to her and said, "Sorry," and then went to the other room, found the box of tissues and brought them to her. Now that is compassion at a young age. He is a very cheerful little fellow and he loves to push the line and do what you tell him not to such as eating the tips of coloured pencils, crayons and putting pens in his mouth or throwing food off his try or doing things such as hitting himself on the head or biting himself on the hand, which was a new behaviour this week that he seemed to enjoy because he was getting extra attention. He loves to try and ride Maia's scooter and even has gotten the foot peddling motion down although he is too small to really ride it the way that he would like to. He likes to say, "Higher," when he is riding on the swing. When we say excited, he screams. He loves to dance and bounces and spins in circles when we play music. He is attempting to jump, but can't yet get his feet off the ground, so he just ends up bouncing. Puddle splashing is a real favourite and both kids enjoy bath time with Mom and Dad if we feel up to getting in with them.
Maia is always interested in drawing and writing letters. She recently went to a sewing class during the school break and at the age of three made a beautiful heart by using needle point. She copies words and today saw the word "Tuna" and wrote it next to her drawing of a cat and thought and she had spelled the word, "cat." She is trying to read, but she still has not gotten the concept of how each letter makes a sound and the sounds together made a word, but I have a feeling she will get there sometime in the coming year as she is so interested in trying to read. We would no longer classify her as shy and she is comfortable in her own skin. When she is excited she takes a deep breath between words and she aspires to learn every musical instrument in the world. She loves to "play" the guitar and sing and perform for us. She cuts out little paper tickets for her performances. Recently, David and I took her to hear the Soweto Gospel Choir and she really enjoyed herself. We were lucky to have the front row and the entertainers were frequently catching her eye and smiling at her. I was between Maia and a lady who was just turning 97 years old. The oldest and youngest in the whole theatre.
We move to our home in two weeks and we can not wait! Maia is looking forward to the trampoline at the yellow house and that is all she talks about. We just got Kiran sleeping through the night and finally had to tell him day is for eat and night is for sleep as I was getting up almost every night bar one in the last month to give him "Milkie Cuddle." It was hard to refuse him, but I finally hit the wall and we had a few night with some tears, but we are all happier for a good night's rest. He and Maia will share a room at the yellow house and we hope that it will work out for the two of them. Anyway that is the latest. We are loving our life in Berry and each day we pinch ourselves with our good fortune. What a lovely place for these little people to grow up.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Sound of Music
Today, Maia and I took Nanna to the Nowra Anglican College's production of the Sound of Music. It was at the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre and we were really impressed by the staging and the quality of the acting and singing. During the performance, Maia turned to me and said, "Momma, I am going to have kids. I am not going to have a shop. I will just have a house of my own." I wonder if she thought the convent was a shop...laugh. She was excellent and for a small child made it through the three hours like a star. She is such an easy going and pleasant little person. Maia takes time to adapt to new environments and experiences and she was worried about the curtain opening and the noise level of the show and so she held her ears for the first two hours on and off. This is typical of her when she is not comfortable with some thing.
This was her second term at pre-school and something magical happened for Maia. She spent the majority of the first and second term sitting back away from the circle of children while they had their music class and then all of a sudden on one particular day, she sat in the circle and started participating. When her teacher Kay was telling me, she had tears in her eyes as this was a big step for Maia. She then followed the music teaching into the other room and decided to do the repeat the lesson again. This was the second week that she participated and she not only played the instruments, but she got up with another classmate, Lara and pretended to be a cloud that covered the sun. This is unbelievable as Maia would not normally get up and perform in front of other people. She really enjoys her school. I think the environment is excellent and I am so glad that we found it. I do miss her Montessori school and her teacher Simone as that was just a beautiful room to learn in and she would have gained more in terms of learning about different academic skills there, but social skills and a positive experience is just as important.
When she is home, Maia spends her day drawing most of the time and writing the letters that she knows. She loves to draw and paint and those are her two favourite things. She is extraordinary in her ability to draw and it is magical to see what comes out of her. She is a perfectionist and will scribble over something that she does not think looks right. Maia's verbal skills are excellent and she expresses what she thinks in such detail. I really enjoy being with her. She is a very special little person.
Kiran has made incredible leaps in his language and since my last post in April he started to repeat single words after we would say something. In the last few weeks, he has started to say things pretty much independently and is very, very good at getting his meaning across. The two word phrase he has been saying for the past few months is, "Thank You," and now he has started to say, "Open up," "That one," "Over there." And I swear he has started to recognise colour as I have heard him several times point to something that is blue and say blue and today he seemed to know the colour purple. He loves to play hide and seek, even though he hides in front of you, laugh and he loves to ride his bike through the house with Maia as well as run. He does show signs of having a temper and will hit David and I if we do not do what he wants especially if he wants breast milk in the middle of the night and I have given him some and I am trying to get him back in his bed to go back to sleep, he will hit me with both his hands in frustration and say, "Milkie." Kiran still wakes me up at least once a night every other night and I hear him say, "Momma, cuddle, milkie." He has been teething since last Friday and it has been awful as he has been waking me up for milk several times a night. On top of it, Maia had her first inner ear infection. I thought it was pretty good that we made it to nearly four years of age and she had never had an ear infection. I just gave her panadol as antibiotics have not been shown to be useful.
Maia and Kiran play nicely together. There is the odd occasion when Maia will torture Kiran by taking something that she knows that he wants and he will come to me crying and complaining, but overall, she is very sweet with him. She will often say, "He is cute, isn't he?" or when I breastfeed him she will comment, "It is cute how he latches on, isn't it?" She hugs him and really kisses him. Speaking of kissing, Kiran has started kissing us on our checks if we ask him. He is super duper cute. Very sweet little man. I love this age as they are still in that magic and don't understand how things work like he is trying to get things out of book and will say as we are reading a story, "Out." As if I can get the object out of the book for him. He now does sit on my lap and can look through a book without getting through a few pages and going on to the next one.
We have had a wonderful transition to this beautiful town, Berry and feel so blessed to be here. We are excited that we will be moving in our house finally in five weeks time. I will have to pinch myself to believe it as it feels like such a long three years since we first bought the house. The tenants who are there have been so uncooperative in finding another place that they are riding the lease out till the last minute. So anyway, won't be long now. We are packing and the next month will go by and we will be moving our boxes in before we know it.
Off to bed for me. Tomorrow is a market day in town and we always go to have a walk around, buy Maia a new dress for her doll and listen to the stories told by a lovely woman who is a local mother and sells gorgeous little fairies and puts a blanket down for children to have a listen of different tales that she makes up or uses for traditional fairy tales.
The nice thing that has happened for me is that I am using the local pilates studio in the mornings for meditation and yoga and that has made a big difference in my life. I go in the morning from 6:30 till 7:30 and enjoy an hour to centre myself and find a bit of peace before I start my day.
I am one very lucky lady who is blessed with a wonderful husband and two fabulous kids.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Little people
We had such a nice weekend with our two little people. On Sunday morning we went to the Berry market. Maia picked out a mermaid costume for her dolly Sally. In the afternoon, David watched the kids while I went to The Berry Tea Shop with my friend Zelinda and after wards, we went to the beach and it just seemed like the perfect day.
Today, Monday was Maia's last day at the Berry Pre-School. After much thought about what to do, what to do, we decided to just send her to Bommaderry two days a week. She really enjoys it there and it came to a point where she was identify the schools as the one she liked and the one that she didn't like, so we just figured to go with where she was most comfortable and I want my girl home with me on Monday mornings, so Kiran, Maia and I can go and do something together like swimming or playing outside.
If I could freeze a moment in time, I have to say that one of my favorite moments each day is when Maia and Kiran wake up and Kiran lays next to me and has a breastfeed while Maia lays on his other side and we all snuggle together. It is like having my two kittens in bed with me in a pile of love. They are the most lovely children on Earth and I mean that wholeheartedly. I think that we were chosen by two very special little people.
David says that his favourite moment is when he comes home from work and you both scream, "Da...Da..."
It is so cute to see Kiran waddle to the door as he is still finding his feet, but he is so sure of himself now he rarely falls down and he has started to run away from David when he knows he is up to no good.
Side note to Maia: If you decide to have children of your own, be patient with potty training as you are now three and a half years old and still wetting your pants at various times during the day and at night time. I still have to put a pull up on you at night time and the other day, after taking you to the toilet in the park, you wet yourself before I could help you as you tend to wait until you are ready to bust and then while we were going into our house, you proceeded to wee down your legs and into your shoes and all over our doorstep. Unfortunately, I lost my temper, but then, the crazy thing is that you have not weed your pants ever since, so why is it that after I have been kind, gentle and understanding for the past year and a half and finally loose my temper, that you take notice? Don't worry, I am not going to fall into a pattern of yelling to get your attention as I don't like loosing it, but my I wish it was easier.
Your Dad just reminded me to write about Kiran and how much he likes lawn mowers. He will actually stand on the luggage by the window to look at and try and see the neighbors mowing their lawn. He runs to the window every time he hears the mowers and says, "Mooow..." He stops what he is doing to just go have a look and he is also obsessed with the vacuum cleaner and he pulls out the vacuum head and carries it around the house as well he will take the actual handle of the machine and vacuums while it is running or pretends to while it is off. He is fascinated by bicycles, motorbikes and trucks. Must be the boy gene. And he loves to pull my hair and says, "Ouwwww...." When he is bored in the sling, he will bite my chest...ouch! And he laughs as he thinks his is funny. He blows on his food. When we took him and Maia to the beach, he got a glimpse of the water and went crazy in the back of the car and started screaming as he was so excited that we were going to take him swimming....our water baby. He must think that the sand looks tasty as the last few times we have gone, he has eaten wet sand only to find out that it is not as good as it looks, I am sure he will figure it out soon.
Kiran is also really making a great attempt at speaking and although not crystal clear, it is obvious that he is trying to say, "Hot, Bath, Ball, Pop, Blueberry, Nanna, Maia, Hi, On, Off, Up, More, Mo (for Mower), Man, Wee Wee, Light, and there are more words that we just can't quite remember now. He signs finish, more, bye, bye, and points to himself when he does a pop or a wee. He climbs up on a box in the front room to switch the fan and lights on and off. He will sit and read a few pages of a book and then want to go to another and then go back to the previous and then look at another, as he just can't seem to sit still long enough to take a book in page by page at this time. He favourite book is about construction equipment. And he loves to push around a toy motor bike. Today he brought me the motor bike with the man as if to say, hey, could you help me put him in the motor bike and when I did, he smiled in gratitude and went on his way. Kiran is a very independent little boy and is gone in a flash at preschool if I don't watch him closely. This morning he was playing with some cars and I turned to speak to someone and when I looked back he was gone and out on the play equipment in the yard by himself, turning the steering wheel of a car that was fixed to the wooden play structure. He tends to really hang on me only when he is hungry or scared, but he only is frightened by loud noises.
We had the pleasure the other day of seeing thousands upon thousands of blue solider crabs moving across the sand like waves as they had just hatched and were grouped together trying to get away from us as we approached them. They were so tame they were curling up or burying themselves and we could hear their feet clicking across the sand as they moved, it was really something very special to see and behold. How lucky were we?
Today, Monday was Maia's last day at the Berry Pre-School. After much thought about what to do, what to do, we decided to just send her to Bommaderry two days a week. She really enjoys it there and it came to a point where she was identify the schools as the one she liked and the one that she didn't like, so we just figured to go with where she was most comfortable and I want my girl home with me on Monday mornings, so Kiran, Maia and I can go and do something together like swimming or playing outside.
If I could freeze a moment in time, I have to say that one of my favorite moments each day is when Maia and Kiran wake up and Kiran lays next to me and has a breastfeed while Maia lays on his other side and we all snuggle together. It is like having my two kittens in bed with me in a pile of love. They are the most lovely children on Earth and I mean that wholeheartedly. I think that we were chosen by two very special little people.
David says that his favourite moment is when he comes home from work and you both scream, "Da...Da..."
It is so cute to see Kiran waddle to the door as he is still finding his feet, but he is so sure of himself now he rarely falls down and he has started to run away from David when he knows he is up to no good.
Side note to Maia: If you decide to have children of your own, be patient with potty training as you are now three and a half years old and still wetting your pants at various times during the day and at night time. I still have to put a pull up on you at night time and the other day, after taking you to the toilet in the park, you wet yourself before I could help you as you tend to wait until you are ready to bust and then while we were going into our house, you proceeded to wee down your legs and into your shoes and all over our doorstep. Unfortunately, I lost my temper, but then, the crazy thing is that you have not weed your pants ever since, so why is it that after I have been kind, gentle and understanding for the past year and a half and finally loose my temper, that you take notice? Don't worry, I am not going to fall into a pattern of yelling to get your attention as I don't like loosing it, but my I wish it was easier.
Your Dad just reminded me to write about Kiran and how much he likes lawn mowers. He will actually stand on the luggage by the window to look at and try and see the neighbors mowing their lawn. He runs to the window every time he hears the mowers and says, "Mooow..." He stops what he is doing to just go have a look and he is also obsessed with the vacuum cleaner and he pulls out the vacuum head and carries it around the house as well he will take the actual handle of the machine and vacuums while it is running or pretends to while it is off. He is fascinated by bicycles, motorbikes and trucks. Must be the boy gene. And he loves to pull my hair and says, "Ouwwww...." When he is bored in the sling, he will bite my chest...ouch! And he laughs as he thinks his is funny. He blows on his food. When we took him and Maia to the beach, he got a glimpse of the water and went crazy in the back of the car and started screaming as he was so excited that we were going to take him swimming....our water baby. He must think that the sand looks tasty as the last few times we have gone, he has eaten wet sand only to find out that it is not as good as it looks, I am sure he will figure it out soon.
Kiran is also really making a great attempt at speaking and although not crystal clear, it is obvious that he is trying to say, "Hot, Bath, Ball, Pop, Blueberry, Nanna, Maia, Hi, On, Off, Up, More, Mo (for Mower), Man, Wee Wee, Light, and there are more words that we just can't quite remember now. He signs finish, more, bye, bye, and points to himself when he does a pop or a wee. He climbs up on a box in the front room to switch the fan and lights on and off. He will sit and read a few pages of a book and then want to go to another and then go back to the previous and then look at another, as he just can't seem to sit still long enough to take a book in page by page at this time. He favourite book is about construction equipment. And he loves to push around a toy motor bike. Today he brought me the motor bike with the man as if to say, hey, could you help me put him in the motor bike and when I did, he smiled in gratitude and went on his way. Kiran is a very independent little boy and is gone in a flash at preschool if I don't watch him closely. This morning he was playing with some cars and I turned to speak to someone and when I looked back he was gone and out on the play equipment in the yard by himself, turning the steering wheel of a car that was fixed to the wooden play structure. He tends to really hang on me only when he is hungry or scared, but he only is frightened by loud noises.
We had the pleasure the other day of seeing thousands upon thousands of blue solider crabs moving across the sand like waves as they had just hatched and were grouped together trying to get away from us as we approached them. They were so tame they were curling up or burying themselves and we could hear their feet clicking across the sand as they moved, it was really something very special to see and behold. How lucky were we?
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