Anouk

Anouk is 26 months and o my word.  I thought I had my hands full the last time I blogged but now...

Well the good thing is that she is eating a bit better.  Doesn't eat much at breakfast, or really lunch, but is starting to like her dinner.  She asks for dinner at breakfast time.  Or an icy pole.  Or an ice cream.  She wants everything she can't have and always rejects any choices offered to her.  At the moment she loves croissants!  I used to be able to get her to sit still in her pram for 20 minutes by feeding her croissants.  Unfortunately the novelty has worn off so that doesn't work anymore!  She loves 'vleisie' (meat) and eats cucumber, grapes and watermelon.  She always asks for apples which we peel for her and of course then she won't touch it.  Same with bananas.  But yes we are getting there with eating although her all time favourite is still Mama milky!  Always asks me to 'Come and sit on the bank' (couch) with her so she can have some.

She also talks.  A lot!  But having two big sisters who argue all the time her the things she is learning won't go down well when making friends I think.  Like 'shut up' and 'what's wrong with you?' and of course 'leave me alone!'  She also likes pushing other children and then telling us all about it, it's a little bit funny but starting to worry me.  Maybe at pre-school this will be sorted!

She is also into everything.  It is virtually impossible to get anything done with her around except when she is watching tv.  We try to be patient and include her in things.  But usually she just grabs whatever anyone has and a) runs away with it; b) breaks it; c) throws it.  So now playing games or lego or tidying rooms when she's around.  Well the last one is what the girls tell me, who am I to say it's not true.

She is physically very active and her favourite activity is running away from me in public places.  As fast as she can and then throwing tantrums if I dare try and restrain her in any way.  Or try to be mean and hold her hand.  Let's just say I haven't ever gone grocery shopping with her.

At home she loves jumping on the 'trampolina' as she named our trampoline or riding on her scooter.  But she can't turn yet.  So we don't venture out yet with her scooter because a ten minute trip to the park takes an hour.  At home she also likes to run around the car when I try to get her in and sometimes just for fun dashes into the road.  Once we were all inside the house and I heard the front door slamming and the little madam came running to me saying she went into the road.  She was very proud of her misadventure.  Me not so much.

But yes even though she drives us all nuts she is the most adorable little thing.  Her cuteness totally overrides her naughtiness but sometimes I do have to remind myself, so here are all the cute things she does and says:

• 'Mummy I lub you to moon a back!'
• One day when I had just woken up she said my hair looked beautiful.  It really didn't!
• When she was smaller she used to call her blankie fleewie.  Now she calls it wankie. LOL!
• She is always nagging for 'dum'.  We later realized it was gum!
• She always wants to wear a 'beautiful dress' and loves putting on her sisters' clothes over her own.  So usually she can be found wandering around with an oversized t-shirt or skirt on!
• She can count to 10!  She learnt this by playing hide and seek with her sisters.
• She sings twinkle twinkle little star and Itsy wipsy spider.  And 'Tiger, Tiger, you're gonna hear me roar!' In her cute way.  She also sings and loves 'Skinni Marinki' which coincidentally was the only song which calmed her down when she cried in the car when she was a baby.  But now she throws such massive tantrums if we don't keep playing it over and over we try to avoid playing it!
• She loves books and tries to read them by herself sometimes.  Her favourites are 'Walking in the Jungle', 'The very Hungry Caterpillar', 'Babalela', and 'Room on the broom' (the last one is my favourite too!

This is our little spunky Anouk.  Who keeps us on our toes and humble.  Every day.

"Oh Mum!!"

Anouk's favourite saying at the moment. I wonder where she gets that from!

 

Others are "No", "I want" and "self" so my days are challenging!

 

But she is very, very cute. When I pick Mieke up she asks "Mieke, what did you do todaayyy?" We'll that's what it sounds like and she says it over and over again!

 

When she throws a tantrum she always says "Sorryyyy!" And she loves playing "tickle tickle" with Daddy and "bully bully" with Mummy!

She doesn't sleep and she is naughty and climbs on stuff and makes a mess and likes to bite my leg when I don't give her immediate attention. But her smile lights up the room!

 

 

 

 

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I miss my husband

So Mr Nel is in Singapore again for three weeks and it's only day 5 and it feels like weeks.  I really miss him.

I miss that he puts my Anzac biscuits in a jar so they stay crispy.  I miss my coffee and biscuits in bed.  I miss that he takes the girls to school so I can take my time getting ready with Anouk.  I miss that he cleans up after me and empties the bins and cleans the car.  I miss that he baths Anouk every second night and that he plays tickle karate with the older ones.

These things shouldn't really be the things I miss.  Of course I miss having him around and spending time with him and I'm pretty lonely in the evenings without his company - even though that meant sitting next to him while he watches the latest war movie!

He doesn't get this but for me the things you do for someone is the way you show love.  So I feel I give love when I prepare a nice meal for him.  And I receive love when he does all the things he does.  And I realize this when he's not here to do them...

Happy 7th Birthday my sweet Silke

My dear Silke, I can't believe you are seven already. Who would have thought my baby would be so big and also a great big sister!
You are very brave and I am amazed at how well you settled at your new school this year, like you did last year... And the year before! Hopefully this is it my child and you'll stay put at this school because even though you smile and chatter I know it can't be easy to start over again and again. But we are having so much fun here in Melbourne as a family, like the hot springs today!

I feel I have lost you a bit recently, with Mieke in her last year of primary school and Anouk keeping me on my toes. I am sorry because the less attention you get the more you do stuff to attract attention and it's a vicious circle I really need to stop. You and Mieke fight a lot but you are such a wonderful big sister to Anouk - you two play so nicely together and I appreciate it very much. I hope we can reconnect because you are my baby, you look like me and we even have a birthmark on the same spot.

You are an ace at karate and regularly practise your karate kicks on Mieke and Daddy! You recently started dance classes and once you gain confidence I'm sure you'll love it.

You have an incredible imagination and your talented drawings depict that. You still love your littlest pet shops and use them in your imaginary games. You love movies and watching television a bit too much though! Your asthma is so much better since we moved to Australia which is great.

You make friends within minutes with your outgoing nature although you have a small heart and can get hurt just as quickly.
I love you so much and will make sure to spend time with you on your own this year and hopefully we'll be able to get a dog for you soon!

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How did we get to Easter so quick!

Where has the time gone? My Anoukie Poekie is 17 months already and Silke is turning 7 in a few weeks time!

Mieke started Year 6 and was chosen to be vice house captain!We've had an exciting time so far this year:
Silke started at her new school which she enjoys but they work really hard! She just had her Easter themed 7th birthday party and it was great and at least It was really easy to organise as the shops are filled with Easter stuff.

Here is the bunny butt cake I made for Silke - looks impressive but really easy especially as I used per bought flowers and eggs and a wooden bunny for her to keep. We had lots of fun creating this party!

Hubby spent a lot of time in Singapore but is home at last, for a while.
And my baby is walking, running and talking! She says about 50 words and animal sounds and is starting to say short sentences, for example: 'Anouk what are you doing?', then she'd say: 'I doing.'
Okay it's not really a sentence but clever that she knows to use 'I'!
She still wakes at night and prefers to sleep in my bed. Oh well...

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Three months later and I need some SLEEP!

I really need to go to bed now, but I know I won't get any sleep so why waste time trying?

Because since Anouk learnt to crawl at nearly 8 months, she's forgotten how to sleep.  Where she had a three hour continuous daytime nap and even though it took her ages to fall asleep she slept  all night, it has unfortunately changed for the worse...

She wakes three times before I go to bed and then often during the night.  Sometimes Werner can soothe her, most of the time she just screams until I breastfeed her. The worst is that she used to wake up with me about 8am.  But now starts being really wakeful from about 5am - I am not a morning person.

But she is such a cute baby, I forgive her every morning when I see her smile with her two bottom teeth and her spit drewling over my face!!

We are truly blessed.  We had our first little holiday with Anouk near Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road and even though it was winter we had a wonderful time.  Australian nature at it's best - deserted.

The girls swam in the sea, found beautiful shells, saw koalas and a wallaby and just chilled.  Anouk kept us on our toes though as she is pulling herself up on everything and puts everything she sees into her mouth, but it was still beautiful and relaxing.

Mothers Guilt and feeling blue...

Anouk is six months old and she is such a cutie.  Always smiling at her mum and dad and laughing at Mieke and Silke.  She has been sitting since 4 months but unfortunately refuses to roll.  She does it when I'm not looking so I know she can, but won't.  When I put her on her tummy she straightens her arms and gets into a crawling position but howls so loadly while doing it everyone rushes to pick her up.  Which is probably why she won't roll...

So since she was born I struggled to get her to sleep at night.  It took me hours and hours and hours.  I always knew my milk supply was low at night but because she slept through until four months I presumed that she did get enough milk.  And eventually I got really annoyed every night as I fed for hours but as soon as I put her down her eyes would open wide and I'd have to start again.  Then on Friday night I made her a little bottle of formula, only 125ml and sat down with her, expecting her to reject it the way she rejected the dummy.

Well she first chewed it a bit, but when she realized that the lovely warm milk comes out easily (and immediately) she caught on quickly and finished most of the bottle before having a little breastfeed for about 5 minutes and then went straight to sleep!

Same thing Saturday night, except this time she slept through until 6:00 am Sunday morning, had a breastfeed and then slept until 9:00am!

So either the formula contains sleeping potion or my poor little girl has been going to bed hungry since birth.  And she didn't wake up to annoy me but because she was hungry.  At least I don't believe in controlled crying and this is another reason why it's a daft idea.  Babies cry when something is wrong and if you don't respond to them they might stop crying because you're not coming.  But the cause of their crying is still there... how sad is that.  Imagine I left her to cry herself to sleep instead of just feeding her over and over again.

Otherwise I'm also feeling unexplicably sad for the past few weeks.  It defnitely has to do with the weather which is decidedly autumnly - rainy, cold and dark early.  Also I'm turning 40 next week and I don't have any friends or family here to celebrate it with.  Well I have 2 friends but not really a crowd.  And 40 is so ugh.  And I still feel (and sometimes act) like I'm about 11.  And we're not in a happy place financially.  And Mieke has been giving us a a hard time and I cannot face the fact that she's growing up and becoming a teenager.  And Silke's ashtma is flaring up.  And my baby took a bottle...

Of course we are very lucky to have what we do, and I am eternally thankful, but at the moment life sucks a little bit.  Where does the time go.  And where has my sweet little Mieke Muis gone...