38/52 - oh, buttons... it's your lucky day!

Lily

Blowing bubbles, giggling wildly, scruffy hair and dressed in some kooky concoction of her own creation...

That's my girl! She is just magic.

Eli

E was mid-way through his morning chore of unstacking the dishwasher (he does the bottom rack and Lily does the top and cutlery). He announced to me as I was passing by 'I'm going to do Lily's dishwasher too - as a kindness'.

He then called to his sister, 'Lily!! I'm doing your bit of the dishwasher!'

'Ohhhh, thank you, Eli!!' she called back from her bedroom where she was getting ready for school.

He then replied in a booming, gameshow-host type of voice...

'That's ok! 'Cos it's yourrrr LUCKYYY DAAAAY!!!'

Oh, sweet boy. You had me chuckling and smiling over that for the rest of the day. You have such a kind and helpful little heart xx

Miles

With each of our kids, we've aimed to keep them TV-free till as close to the recommended age of two years old as possible. And honestly, before about that age have never really felt the 'need' for TV for them anyway. For all three, their first TV introduction has ended up being around the age of 21-22 months (when my sleepy-heads finally drop their morning naps and some of those looong morning need to be filled!). 

With us all being sick this past week, and many days spent at home, one morning it suddenly (ha!) seemed like the right time to let Miles enjoy that rite of passage for Aussie kids... Playschool. As you can see... he was pretty enchanted with this TV thing ;) It was so cute how he sat up there, smiling at me, I could tell he felt like such a 'big boy'! Got himself nice and comfy. For five minutes anyway... then I heard the noise of him dropping my earrings into a glass of water!!! (Silly me, leaving them on the nearby side table the night before!). 

The next morning after breakfast, however, he toddled straight into the loungeroom, sat on the couch just like so, with remote in hand, no less! Cheeky or what?! He won't be watching Playschool every day, but that precious 20 minutes might save both our sanity on some long home days from here on in ;) (I have no illusions about who the benefit of TV is actually for, haha)

Mark

Post-breakfast bench-wiping. Love a man who cleans the kitchen :)

(Sometimes it feels like we spend 75% of our day wiping these benchtops??!! Ha.)

Project 52: A portrait of our family, once a week, every week, in 2014.

More highlights from the week that was....

Every morning he asks 'Car? Car??' - he just loved to go out in the car, or anywhere outside. This particular morning he took matters in his own hands, taking my keys from my bag and attempting to unlock the door to make his own way out! I guess he figured he would drive himself?! ;)

Celebrating my wonderful step-dad's 60th with all our family for a big cafe lunch. The kids were pleased to enjoy the birthday cake at their own cute cafe table - with Cousin Alaia there to join the fun too :)

Gotta finish off with a Babycino of course!

Hearing shrieks and giggles in the backyard, I creep out to discover these two, dressed
up, rocking the swings together and having a grand old time. Ahhh, childhood :)

The best gift I ever gave them was each other :)

I found a tin of vintage buttons in the cupboard, actually passed on to us from Mark's dear grandmother who has now passed away, and thought the kids might enjoy sorting through them. I placed them on the play table and watched Miles respond. One quiet evening, he had a ball picking through them, intently moving them from basket to tin and making little collections. He did a wonderful job not putting any in his mouth or throwing them on the ground. 

(Well, this time anyway. A few days later he dropped the whole tin on the ground and it was quite the mess!!)

Oh, those curls. Snip, snip is getting closer but not juuuuust yet!

Before school: She decides to create a giant bird collage. As you do! (I rotated the photo, sorry the angle is funny!)

My scruffy, beautiful girl