71 Weeks

Well, the big event for this week is that Grandma and Grandaddy came back from Phuket.  Finally!  The nerve of them to go away for a whole month!  It is very nice having them back (I can start painting again!).  Carmen had a playdate this week with her friend Hannah.  It is so nice having someone for her to play with (besides me, that is!).  She has her daddy on the week-ends, but for this past month during the week it has just been little old me.  On Saturday we took Carmen to her favourite park, which is in Ulladulla by the harbour.  It has this great pirate ship play set.  She loves going down the slides, however I am too scared to leave her at the top by herself because she doesn't seem to know about boundaries and heights yet, and comes perilously close to the edges.  On Sunday I took Carmen down to see her cousins do Nippers (surf life saving for kids), and she got to spend some more time with Grandma.  Then after lunch, Jeffrey and I took her back to Mollymook Beach to go to the park, as it is all about parks these days.  We can't drive past a park without hearing squeals from the back of the car.  Carmen is becoming quite vocal, but just babbling (a whole bunch of new sounds though), and she actually got out "Hi Grandma" the other day!  (Alas, Grandma wasn't here at the time).

Here is a quick video of Carmen playing with her daddy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nU7L1KoyJs&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

Playdate with Hannah

 At Nippers

 Mollymook Beach park

70 Weeks & 16 Months

On Friday Carmen turned 16 months.  To celebrate I took her to what seems to be her favourite place in the world, the horse park at Milton.  She loves those horses. Apparently one of them is Kerry Packer's old horse (it even has KP stamped on its side).  The weather has  been so up and down here.  One day we'll be swimming at Narrawallee Inlet, and the next we will be stuck inside because it's too cold and rainy to do anything.  We are waiting impatiently for Grandma and Grandaddy to get back from Phuket.  The nerve of them to go on vacation for this long!!  We are surviving, but still.  This past week-end I drove up to Sydney for my 20 year high school reunion (which was a blast), and Carmen and Jeffrey had their first daddy daughter week-end.  It all went smoothly (or so I hear), and I didn't panic too much!

Here are a couple of cute videos of Carmen doing her hair:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPlNGK18dMg&feature=autoplay&list=ULbn-aLWssTkw&playnext=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPlNGK18dMg&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

At Narrawallee

16 months

Trying on Daddy's shoes

 My work at Shop Three

69 Weeks

Our week-ends are so much fun now!  Carmen seems to be finding her sense of humour, and generally is so fun to be around.  I just wish that she could talk so she could stop saying 'Uuuuuuurrrrhhhhh' every time she wants something!  Jeffrey and Carmen spend all of their free time together - it seems like she will be a daddy's girl.  Carmen has become a little obsessed with horses.  One day last week I got her out of bed and was telling her what we were going to do for the day, and she looked at me and said "Neigh, neigh, car car, car car".  It was very cute, and also the first time she had properly talked to me, so I just had to take her to the horse park in Milton, and now she always wants to go.  So we had another visit there this week-end.  We also went to a 3 year old's birthday party, and Carmen loved the jumping castle.  On Sunday we took her down to Narrawallee Inlet, thinking Carmen might like to have a splash with her feet in the water.  Understatement!

Here are two videos of Carmen at the inlet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suMqVBk1J-0&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=2&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ0wih7jcwM&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp

 Thanks for the pretty outfit, Oma!

68 Weeks

Well, we have been missing Grandma and Grandpa who are in Phuket (there, I said it Mum!).  It's just me and Carmen these days, all day every day, except for the week-ends when she gets lots of Daddy time.  It is very sweet to see them sitting in Carmen's tee-pee reading books and playing with blocks.  This week-end we took Carmen to the park in Milton to feed the horses.  And then I took her down to Mollymook Beach on Sunday morning.  We have lost one of her monkeys, thank God we had two.  Now I am paranoid that we will lose the one remaining monkey, so I'll have to get some more.  Of course they have to be shipped from the UK!

67 Weeks

OK, there are tons of photos in this post, as I just couldn't choose the best ones.  We have had a busy week-end, with fantastic weather (after such a horrible week!).  It rained so much this week, and was so windy that our back fence is down.  On Saturday morning we took Carmen to Milton for coffee, and then she spent the afternoon with her dad, as I had to give an art lesson and I had a face painting job too.  Because of all the rain this week, Carmen's bucket of sand that she plays with in the back yard has turned into a bucket of sandy water, and she LOVES it.  I came out of the house to find her standing in it with all of her clothes on, shoes too.  So, she has had a couple of early pajama days, due to her being soaking wet.  Today we took her to the park in Ulladulla, which is such a great park overlooking the harbour.  Then this afternoon we took her to ride her tricycle at Mollymook Beach.  She loved it, but was very serious about it! I don't think she smiled once.

This week Carmen also started her swimming lessons again, after taking the winter off.  She was a little unsure of herself at first, but it didn't take her long before she was going under like a pro. She still thinks all food is hot, but now she also says "Ooooh" for cold.  She has gotten very good at pushing her baby doll around in her baby doll stroller, and takes great pleasure in crashing into her Dad who pretends near-fatal injury.  And that's about it for this week.

In other news, I am very excited to say that I am opening a gallery with two other artists, one also a painter, the other a furniture 'upcycler'.  The gallery is called Shop 3, and I am hanging my work on Sunday, in a week.  It is located in Milton, in a courtyard that also contains a potters gallery, a woodworkers gallery, and another co-op painting gallery.  This is pretty much all I have ever wanted to do, so I can't believe it is actually happening!  Wish me luck!

Here is a short but cute video of Carmen kicking a ball with her arms full:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ntq-EcImCY&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1&feature=plcp