Ha....I did it!

I grew up in the shadow of a very athletic older sister. Sally could play all sports and excelled at them. I on the other hand, not so much. Sally could fly over a vault in P.E. whereas I could crash into the side of it. Sally was a fast runner, me, not so much. Things changed by the time I became a teenager and I left school holding the title of "sports girl of the year". In fact my school took on my sisters school in a netball tournament and we beat them. They had never been defeated.....ever, I played that game!

There was one thing that I just could not do and those were the ropes in the gym. I swear they were at least 80 feet high and we were supposed to climb to the top of them. Firstly, and please excuse me, the ropes were shoved between your legs and you had to pull yourself up by using your arms, fireman style. Those ropes had been glued to the crotch of every single student in the schools history and they ended up being right in your face as you climbed.....ewww, that is disgusting! They were really nasty. I would grab on for dear life but could barely get off the ground. I have never had huge amounts of upper body strength. Try as I might, monkey bars have also always defeated me.

I have been really trying hard to get into better shape. I don't weigh very much and am pretty thin but that does not make me fit. I am extremely hyper and have tonnes of energy but again, that makes you skinny and not fit.

Today the girls and I were at the park and nobody else was there. I was playing on the swings, the slide and all sorts of other things with them, heck I even did a couple of cartwheels and a handstand or two but I stayed far away from those nasty monkey bars. Lily was hanging upside down by her knees and swinging herself along (much to my panic) and then flipping herself over and swinging from end to end with great ease.

Jokingly I said to her, "move over it is my turn". I have tried loads of times and fallen flat by the second bar which causes us to laugh hysterically. I grabbed hold and went for it. You can tell where this is going can't you?

I MADE IT! I finally did a set of monkey bars. Yay me! What I didn't know was that Lily had the camera and was frantically snapping photos of my grimacing groaning self!

Not very graceful but I never said I would grow old gracefully.

I can't believe I was staring at her and didn't realise she was taking photos. Must have been the concentration I was using to stay up!
I think I am whining here about how much it hurt my soft little hands.

My girly girl tomboy is always up a tree

Well if Lily can do it so can I, Mama.
I love how this shot turned out.
Do you know anyone that sits on a swing like this...my pretzel child.
This is how odd she looked from behind.


I am off to bed now so that I can think about what's next on my list....I can guarantee you it won't be those smelly ropes!

Silly Wabbit.

With all the cold weather that we have been having I have been dressing the girls in woolly tights. The first time I pulled a pair out for Rosie to wear she looked at them and was most perplexed. After a moment she looked at me and said,"are those knickers with legs or are they funny socks?" I started to laugh. I explained to her that both of her guesses were correct but they were in fact called tights and they would keep her nice and warm. She doesn't like wearing them very much but likes being freezing even less.

Now it appears that tights can double as hats and bunny ears and this phenomenon is spreading throughout this house like wild fire.

Silly hats. They sort of look like Hosedic Jewish children here.




Daddy sprouted wabbit ears.


I think the cold is getting to us.
We have had snow flurries and I had to scrape the ice of my car this morning. I ran back indoors and wrapped Lily in a blanket and let her come outside and help me as I knew she would love it. She did and told me it was just like Nannie and Grandpa's house. She hasn't been to Nannie and Grandpa's house in the winter for at least 3 years but she always refers to it as freezing cold even though the last 2 summers the temps there have been hotter than here and they don't have air conditioning.

Decorating and Maiming of Men.

Our Thursday park day was cancelled today due to inclement weather but because my girls love it so much and I do to to be perfectly honest I decided to ask Jenny and Kelly to bring their kidlets here to decorate gingerbread men. Kelly was feeling like poo so it ended up being just Jen, her kids and my girlies.

We whipped out the poor innocent little men and a little bit of icing some sweeties and let them loose. It was so much fun to watch them. I was really surprised out how much they delighted in this old fashioned task. Rosie really got into it. Lily went to town and made hers look like some old hooker, Ebby was more interested in how much he could shove in his mouth and Rosie just very gently decorated hers.

I had great intentions of taking photos of the finished products but Ebby had eaten his before I knew what had happened.

Lily and Evan getting started. I love Evans face here.


Rosie getting started.


Rosie admiring her work


Evan tasting his work. LOL


Lily hard at work


Rosie posing!


Lily's man is on the left he's the one that's all pimped out! Rosies is on the right and he is missing part of his head and foot.


One guest at the gathering found it all rather uninteresting and slept her way through it all. Baby Daniel. I think she looks so sweet with her little hands folded the way they are.


Everyone stayed for dinner and some good rambunctious fun. For a totally impromptu gathering it was certainly loads of fun. I miss having Jenny as a neighbour but since we are the ones that moved I suppose I cannot complain. We used to do this stuff alot back when we lived opposite each other.

2 against 1

There is a special bond between a daddy and his little girl, or big girl for that matter. When we arrived in China Lily's first reaction to Jacob was that he was the enemy. He was fine if I wasn't around but once she saw me he was not a good guy anymore. Immediately after returning home the tides changed and she became a daddy's girl. She has always had this way of saying Daddy that is so sickly sweet it could make you gag. Jacob loves it and knows it is the only word that she says in this particular voice.

When she started school last August she quickly became a mummys girl again and it surprised me and I have to say that I loved it. I loved every second of it. Jacob's feeling were hurt because he was not used to being the 2nd banana. I explained to him that it was just happening because of the change in her life and that she would be his again in no time at all. I knew it would be short lived and I only had my girl for a short amount of time and that if he was lucky he would have wrapped around his little finger for the rest of his life. Sure I know I have my place too but I don't expect to be able to compete (not the right word) with Daddy. Well, that didn't quite happen and she has been stuck to me like glue for nine blissful months now.

Approximately a month ago I noticed a subtle shift in her affections. Don't get me wrong here she doesn't leave one of us out she just favours one of us for certain things. Now if we meet somewhere and end up having 2 cars she will go with her dad whereas 2 months ago she would always come with me and she hates to do anything when daddy can't come. My little girl is turning into a Daddy's girl again and I couldn't be happier cos she really does have an amazing Daddy and she is so very lucky to be the one to call him that.


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Determined or Stubborn? You decide

Just over a week ago Lily and I were at the park and she realised she was tall enough to reach the monkey bars with just a little leg up from me. She tried and tried to make it across but couldn't quite do it. In the end her hands were so sore that I made her stop. At the beginning of this week we were at the park again and she almost did it herself. Again she wouldn't stop until her hands were blistered. She then asked her dad to take her back yesterday and she finally made it all the way across and back. And now she won't stop.
Once she makes her mind up to do something nothing nor nobody can get in her way. This is one stubborn little chickadee. But I think it is a good thing because she has got drive, and tonnes of it!

Here is her timeline in videos. Her little face shows some true grit. I know my dad will be proud of her cos his mantra in life is, if at first you don't succeed try, try again.
So I now have a 4 yr old little girl with hands like a 70 yr old farmer. But she is proud, oh so proud. Me too. I just need to work on those hands for her.


Saturday Feb 10th

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Feb 17th. Take 1

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Take 2

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Yesterday after much blood, sweat and tears...she did it!

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The Monkey Strikes Again.

For the last few days Lily has been a little off. I am not sure if she is coming down with something or if she is just testing us but she has really been a pill so when I picked her up from school today and her teacher said that there had been an incident in the playground my heart sank. In a flash second I thought maybe she had shoved another kid or hit them or something. She has never done anything like this before but there is always a first time. Her teacher then went on to say that Lily got her leg stuck on some playground equipment, really stuck. The little kiddos were all outside playing when Ms. N realised Lily was crying and was up on this piece of equipment. At this moment all the other kids went running to get her. Lilys leg was STUCK. As much as Lily has tried to free herself she couldn't and then to the teachers dismay as much as she tried to free her she couldn't either. Now I have to tell you as she is telling me this Lily is bouncing around with her friends as happy as a clam so the story made me giggle because I know what a monkey this kid is and she obviously isn't hurt. I think the teacher was relieved that I wasn't upset cos she giggled too. Anyhoo after she tried and tried she finally thought, oh no, I am going to have to call the fire department cos Lily was getting more and more upset and was tensing up making her muscles bigger which wasn't helping at all. On the final try, voila, her leg came free! She has a really nice bruise on both sides of her leg from the vice like grip but I massaged her tonight with some Chinese medicine and thankfully due to the cold weather she is wearing long pants or woolly tights so the bruises remain covered because ever since she learnt to ride her bike her legs look like we beat her with a broom at least twice a day. The poor little thing was so tired this evening and it took me awhile to figure it out. I think she got really frightened by the whole ordeal and it just drained her. Good thing the new Cinderella movie came out today as she was able to watch some of it after her bath. And finally, is it just me wishful thinking here or is there a chance that she will have learnt her lesson about climbing?

Little Monkey

This child of ours was born in the year of the horse but I swear she should have been a monkey. From day one she has been a climber and nothing stops her. One of the very first things I noticed about her was a very raw and red scar on the "bridge" of her nose that was both fresh and deep. When we met with the orphanage director she said that she had just had stitches removed from a nasty fall off of a table onto a chair and finally onto the floor. She was 14 months old. Her foster mother had turned her back for a second and Lily had managed this mountaineering feat. Did it scare her? Heck no. In fact I think it made her more curious and she just climbed even more. At the playground she always found a way to the top of stuff and scared the living daylights out of me. Jacob taught her how to climb and how to descend since it seemed the best way to deal with her however that didn't do much for making me feel better either. I would have heart attack after heart attack as I would see her climb to the top of all the equipment. This kid can slip her feet into the tiniest crevices for a foothold and just keep going.


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Is something wrong Mama?

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What are you doing up there Lily?

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