Queens

On this day they were letting out their inner Drag Qeen! hahha

Looking good Miss Diva!

I think she was having a good time :)

Lilah was really going for the evening look!

Is it just me or is this look very Joker'sque?

Halloween Party

I took the girls up to the local flower shop who just happened to be celebrating it's 50th birthday on Halloween weekend. There was a jumping castle, face painters, and free balloons for the kids. The loved it of course and they got to wear their Halloween outfits. Emmy didn't have one that fit anymore, so I made her a skull dress out of an old t-shirt and used skull & cross bones satin material for the ruffles. I was aiming for a larger size 3, but I think it came out more like a big 4, but now it'll fit her for a long while. She's wearing a long sleeved shirt and pants under it because it's cold right now, but last year it was shorts and t-shirt warm. Because it's spring I think you can get a mixture of both.

She loved getting her face painted and sat perfectly still like a pro, but she's had it done now several times so she knows.

Lilah's had hers done before too but I had her sit on my lap this time because the ladies were a bit scary. We went for a quick and simple pumpkin to match her shirt!

Here's the material for the ruffle.

And here's the skull t-shirt print. This dress could even double as a pirate dress if I put red leggings under it! OoOOoo what a great idea!

Showing some pumpkin love!

It was sooo windy!!

I told Emmy to wave hi to Grandma Betsy! So this one is for you Mom xo!

Pumpkin Carving

This is the first Halloween that I've got into decorating the house since the girls were born. I figure Emmy can start to appreciate it and possibly remember it later on. In the stores you can find a very small section of decoration and if you're lucky you might find pumpkins for carving. Last year our local grocery store got in 5 to sell. The price was outrageous so I passed, but this year they had a much better selection but the price was still a bit hard to swallow. $22 per pumpkin! Instead of getting one for each family member I bought one for us to carve together and really at this age I would end up carving theirs anyways so one was just fine. On Halloween Day they had the pumpkins marked down to $5 and since I've never seen a carved pumpkin sitting out on anyone porches I don't think the girls will mind next year carving their pumpkins on Halloween Day. At least this way we can afford to all have pumpkins!!

Lilah wasn't scared to give it a try, but Emmy just wanted to watch.

I don't think she was too impressed with the wet gooey feeling, hahhaa!

After a while they both jumped in to help me. Lilah more than Emmy though.

Drawing the face was more up Emmy's alley and she really liked this part!

She had a good time being silly with her pumpkin smile!

Out of all the pictures we snapped trying to get a group shot this is the best one lol. Maybe next year we'll get one with us all looking at the camera, but Emmy looks great!

Warm Spring Days

Here's a collection of pictures from the past couple weeks. We've started having really nice and warm spring days and we are all enjoying it. I love to open up the french doors and let them run in and out as much as they want. Husband hates it when he comes home and there's a million flies buzzing around, but really it's a small price to pay for the convenience of our day time play, plus it only takes a few sprays and a quick sweep up and then they are all gone!


Emmy came running into the house one afternoon squealing "mommy, mommy, it's Mickey Mouse". I had no idea what she could be talking about because we don't own anything with Mickey on it. Holding in her hands was a bit of parsley she had picked from the backyard. At first I started to say "This is par.." but then I saw what she saw. MICKEY MOUSE! She was so proud of herself. I had to take a picture of how cute she was and of how much it really did look like Mickey! She always amazes me with what she sees in things or new ways of using objects.

Finger Painting on a windy day, hence the bricks to hold down our papers! I need a recipe for finger paints. If anybody has a kid tested and mother approved recipe please share!

She was purposely putting her paints on her eyelids like eyeshadow haha. She did a pretty good job because it was all on her eye lid and never got into her eye.

What do you wear on a hot day? My girls like their birthday suits paired with rain boots. Here they are both guzzling down the water I brought out for them.

This one is click worthy to see it bigger. Her face in each one is so funny and makes me laugh every time I look at it! I had stepped inside for a minute and when I came back out she had hopped out and put on her hat and sunglasses and was just chill'n hahahhahah

I didn't think they'd both be able to squeeze in together but they did. It didn't last all that long so it must have been uncomfortable!

Defeated!

I found the binky yesterday, and didn't want to give it back since we already went through the worst of it, but Kim's been working long hours and heading off to work at 5 am and gets home 6pm the earliest so.... to make a peaceful house I gave in this time. I'm sure it'll get lost again and who knows....... maybe it'll be lost for good.

Binky Free!!! i think

One of her "looks" haha (not related to the story below though)

Last night was our first night without Emmy having her Binky. She lost it somewhere in the house after we got home from Kinder Gym. At midnight she was crying and wanting it and daddy was a little annoyed. He couldn't believe that I didn't keep a back up, but what's the point of saying THIS IS YOUR LAST ONE if you are not going to stick to your guns? He got up at midnight and turned on all lights and did a search for it, which the search had already been done prior to bedtime, but it still didn't turn up. She just snuggled up to me and we did alright for the rest of the night. So I guess we'll be Binky free depending on who finds the last one first lol.

The Binky Fairy

I was so sick of picking up Binkies all day long! Emmy would throw them everywhere and she knew where I kept the mother load in the kitchen drawer and rather than finding the one she had before she'd just go and get a new one. She also got tired of going to the drawer for just one and decided that she'd start the day off by bringing out the container that held them all and then she'd have her pick from all of them all day long. Ridiculous I know lol!!!

We have talked lots over the past few months of how the time will come when we will give our Binkies to the Fairies to take away to all the other new babies. So the other day we made a little craft out of stringing them up and hanging them outside for the fairies and said goodbye to them. She was allowed to keep one because I thought it was too cruel to just take them all away and she likes one at bedtime.

She was not bothered in the least to leave them outside as we came into the house. She went to the window once or twice that night to peak and see if they were still there or maybe she was hoping to see a fairy :)

The next morning I reminded her about the fairies coming and she went to the door to check it out and saw a pretty pink package that the fairies had left her!!


We read her the note :) and then brought her package into the house. She took it straight to her daddy and he helped her unwrap it and surprise! It's The Little Mermaid!

She's not gone to the drawer in the kitchen looking for a binky since we gave them away and I'm so happy. I was a little scared that she'd forget and be upset, but she remembers! This has also helped her to keep very good track of her now very precious single pink binky! If she looses it then that's it.... it's gone and I've talked to her about that, but if she still has it by the time her second birthday comes around then we'll have to do another donation to the Binky Fairy! hahaha

Santa's Coming to Town!

Lilah's first Santa visit! I was totally expecting her to get freaked out by him, but to my surprise it was the scary camera guy that did her in. hahaha He was trying to get the girls to laugh and smile and was making really scary noises. I could see it was heading south and I tried to help and starting singing Patty Cake, which always makes her smile, and he got louder than me with his scary noises as if to tell me he knew what he was doing. I felt like punching him, lol, she wanted to hear patty cake mr. rude dude!! You can see by the picture that she was not buying his routine.

Emmy played the shy card. This surprised me too! I figured she'd cry. Santa talked with her lots and warmed her up before we tried getting her to sit on his lap. They talked about Barbie's and Toy Story. She kept pulling up the sleeve of her dress to hide her face and at one point got down and ran back to the stroller....climbed in and tried to buckle herself in hahha.

In the end we got the picture after two different shoots. Santa pictures are meant to be laughed at years later and I don't think this one will fail. I love Emmy's funny smile and Lilah's petrified look.

Over Due Update

The coloring is a little funny on their photo's. They were swimming this past Sunday at Grandma Jan & Grandpa Kingsley's house under the shade cloth... Lilah looks green and Emmy looks orange. Oh well....

Lilah

Crawling is just around the corner. I feel it can happen at any minute now or could still be up to two weeks away. She's able to move across the room now but not with a method of intention, it's more of a stringing together a bunch of small goals. Does that make sense? She'll try to get something slightly out of reach and she'll do a sitting spinning turn and reach, get it, then set her sights on something else. She'll also try to get up on all fours and get so made that she can't just GO.

Last night I tried giving her a bottle of water instead of the boob just to see if she wanted a drink in the night when she wakes rather than a feed. Boy did I make her mad! So I figured okay this time you wanted to eat...maybe next time, nope, just made her so made again. haha

Emmy

Potty training! Boy has that been going well. She does her business most times without being asked to and then she'll collect her potty and carry it to the bathroom and dump it and flush it. I go behind her and give it a good rinse and put it back in the living room. She has begun to pee on command and will do it before we are leaving the house and will stay dry on outings, bit of we are going on a long drive I will put on a cloth diaper as protection but generally don't need to as it will be dry on arrival and removel. We also put on a cloth diaper for her nap time after she's fallen asleep and will take it off as soon as she wakes up. Half the time it's dry still and the other half she's gone in it. That being said we definitely keep her in a diaper for night too. 90% of the time she's done a pee in her diaper by morning, but we do get the odd morning where she's dry and we love that! We're following the Fellom Method of potty training and you can find additional information about it here. After 90 days of what we call "naked butt" then we will start putting panties on her. I should add a count down ticker to our 90th day!! I think I know a little girl that will be needing lots of panties for her 2nd birthday!!

Grandma's Hand and Mine

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with!

Potty Training Update

Emmy did her first poo in her potty!! She was hiding behind the chair where she likes to do her poo's in her diaper, and I told her to come out and as she came running out yelling peepee she flopped down on her potty and did the smallest poop known to man, but beggars can't be choosers.... a poop is a poop!!

I also took her out two separate times today for an hour each with no diaper on. I was prepared for her to have an accident, but to my delight she stayed dry and went potty straight away once we got home.

I am so excited and really hope we keep going in this direction! If she keeps up she might even be night trained before she's 2! Talk about saving some money :)

One Pee, Two Pee, Three Pee, FOUR!

We've just spent the last hour doing the potty dance! I was putting away baby clothes in the nursery when I realized that Emmy needed to pee so I sat her on her potty and asked her to go and she did! I'm sure it was because she just couldn't hold it anymore, but who knows... she is a pretty smart little cookie! I made the biggest deal that I could out of it and we paraded to the kitchen to get some candy and flushed it away. With in 5 mins she did another pee in her potty, carried it to the toilet and dumped it, flushed it, and then looked at me and asked for some candy. LOL So far she's done at least 12 pees.... I've lost count. She sits down and turns it on, and as soon as some squirts out she shuts it off as she jumps up and says PEE PEE and claps her hands and starts jumping. Too cute. I am so happy and I think this is some serious progress and finally some payoff for my efforts! For the record books she is 20 months & 4 days old. I can't wait for the "She's fully potty trained" post. Hopefully it won't be too much longer!!

Halloween 2009

Let me say this first. Halloween is my favorite holiday.... even more so than Christmas and with this being said I can not wait to have our first proper Halloween party whenever that may be because Australia has no idea what Halloween is all about and us Harrison Girls are gonna bring it!!

So... this year we did the best we could. We spent the morning talking the girls to the theater to see the Strawberry Short Cake Movie. Emmy had a blast. She spent the first half watching the movie and the second half holding hands and walking around with a new friend (5 or 6 year old little girl) They would walk up close to the scream and then come back again. The theater had only a handful of people so it was pretty relaxed. Lilah did well for the beginning part and then she got tired so I had to go to an area where I could stand so she could get a bit of bouncing in the sling but she fell asleep after 15 min's and we were able to sit and watch the rest. Movie Review: OK I was never a strawberry fan, but never disliked it either, but this movie didn't do too much for me. Oh well.

After the movie we did a little shopping. I got a new dress..woot!!!! Then we headed to Toy's R Us for a Halloween Party. It was the ONLY thing I could find in all of Adelaide to do for Halloween. They had a coloring station, face painting, games, and candies.

She did sooo good for her first face painting. She held 100% still. We did a heart since it was simple, quick, and matched the red theme (snow white).

Lilah enjoyed herself the entire time. Such a happy little ballerina!!

Later on we stopped by Grandma Jan's and Grandpa Kingsley's for a Trick or Treat. Emmy was tired and both girls hungry so we didn't get any pictures *boo*

ps. I DID find carving pumpkins for the first time this year for $12.99 / lbs So it would have ended up costing us $50 for one carving pumpkin LOL crazy I know. Needless to say that I didn't buy one, but if we are still living here when the girls are old enough to remember pumpkin carving I will be shelling out the bucks to get one or two!!

Seashells By The Seashore

After dropping mom off at the airport....

Later in the day when it warmed up Kim and I took the girls to The Beach House. Our favorite party was just laying on the beach and playing in the water. I built a small sand castle for the girls and a little boy got too close it it and Emmy let him have it. She was full on yelling from far away haha. This was Lilah's first time going the the beach and she loved it. She snacked on some sand and didn't cry when Kim put her into the water (which was still a bit cold). After that I made us a beach picnic lunch while she played in her sunshade. After that she had a feed then we backed up and headed for the fountains. It was soooo much fun watching Emmy play in them! I can just picture next year when they both can play together in them. Next Emmy got a sorbet cone in flavor Watermelon...uummm! She made a total sticky mess, but that's what summer fun is all about, right!?

It was a bit chilly but she handled it pretty good!

Awwww aren't the just too cute!

Lilah eating sand haha

Our spot on the beach :)

Playing in the fountains :) Oh it got you!

Sorbet is her new favorite treat!

Thanks Mom!