Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Haven't had an Elka update for awhile.. she is now 7.5 months

She has learnt how to go from crawling to sitting up, which is great as it stops her lying on her tummy chucking the cranks if I want come pick her up lol. She sits up in the cot and looks super guilty when I walk in to check on her! She is also pulling herself up to standing on me and on her walker. That shocked me - I didn't think she was quite ready for that yet. Where has my baby gone? She is also aceing her finger food - she chows down pieces of nectarine and peach like there is no tomorrow. She now waves hello and loves to garble versions of "mum, mum" with her toungue sticking out and a big grin on her face. She loves to make happy screams and shrieks when she says other children to try and get their attention. She will now crawl through the house following me. She has a third tooth - her top right one to the left of the centre and is looking quite fussy so maybe there are more teeth on the way.

Baby girl started her swimming lessons this morning. The pool complex was quite a shock to us - its built entirely for children lessons and was bursting at the seams with parents, toddlers, prams, wet towels and bemused looking babies. We joined in - Jase joining the dads in the lesson and me joining the well dressed mums with designer bags and zoom lense SLR's at the ready. I was a proud mum - I beamed and laughed out loud at Elka and Jase's antics and jumped left and right to take photos. Elka loves the water so we were off to a good start but she wasn't too keen on having cups of water poured over her head to start teaching her to breathe in etc. She loved being pulled through the water and was happy to kick and paddle around. She knew exactly where I was sitting watching and spent a lot of time trying to check that I was still there. If she saw me coming closer to take a photo, she would scream with delight and splash around. It was a real family affair. Very cute. It is however in the future to be Daddy-Daughter time so I can stay home and enjoy a few baby free hours and exercise the horses (my way of relaxing!).

Now of course, the post is not complete without photos :)

kicking


bobbing


Swimming to a ball


Looking for mum

So.. I was watching Oprah the other day (yes I am a stay at home mum currently - how did you guess!) and they were challenging people to give up soft drinks for health and weight loss.

Now I am a bit of a health freak and we dont drink soft drink - in fact we barely drink anything other than water which is always awkward for when guests drop in! BUT since I started breastfeeding and looking after a bub through the night - I suddenly found that I just had to have a glass of ginger beer with dinner. I craved the sugar - it was an instant pick me up (I gave up coffee about 5 years ago and have since replaced the caffeine crave with wanting sugar instead). So for the last 7 months I have been drinking a glass a night.

Oprah got me thinking and I decided I didn't need that crutch of sugar anymore - Elka is sleeping through the night and I get more sleep than I ever did working. So about a week and a half ago, I gave up my dinner ginger beer and changed to soda water.

Yesterday I noticed how loose my shorts were - I went and weighed myself this morning and I have lost 2kgs in 1.5 weeks! Well there you go! Thank you Oprah! I wasn't really trying to loose weight, I just wanted to be healthier but hey I will take it ;)

Heres to healthy eating! (Had to share my gorgeous boy Ferdie!)

Its a privilege to be able to stay home and care for my bub. More so its such a pleasure that my home is such a stunning, peaceful piece of land away from noise, rush and people. I was out showing Elka the koala and we got treated to a beautiful full rainbow stretching across the sky. Life is tough, scary and unfair sometimes, but to quote my mum "I wouldn't be dead for quids"

(Image from health-pictures.com)

A bit of a serious post. Less than 2 years ago, Jases uncle - a Masters Games medal winning swimmer discovered that a small skin tag on his forehead was in fact a malignant melanoma. Less than 6 months later, he passed away from secondary cancers in his brain. A total tragedy and a complete waste, he was a lovely man. I think sadly about him often.

Both Jase and I spend a lot of time outside - we both always have. Both having grown up near the beach and me being a horserider competing from a young age. We are now older and wiser and much more careful with sun protection. In fact a large pump pack of sunblock stays outside on our verandah and we use it everytime we head outside to do things around the farm.

However, Australians should have mole checks at least every two years by a professional. We opt for yearly as Jase is prone to large moles. That is where we were today. I had one mole photographed and poor Jase had upwards of twenty. We both had moles removed for biopsy at our last check.

The Dr also explained to me that my skin type is more likely to suffer the colourless skin tag type lesions. Basically, it looks likes some raised skin that you cannot scratch off. This is what killed Jase's uncle - so hard to see and so harmless looking.

Pregnancy also caused me to form a number of new moles - these were all OK but it was nice to have them checked. Our check-ups done by a professional Dr and using a dermal imaging device cost a grand $20 - very worth it to me and my peace of mind.

When was your last check?

Our new little Aussie wearing green and gold


Swimming on a boiling hot day - was apparently 99% humidity. The water was the best place to be!


Elka's first play in a kiddie park and her first go on a swing!


All worn out on the way home!



We had a lovely weekend which included some lazy fish and chips, shopping, swimming, going for coffee and caramel slice (yum!) and relaxing in front of DVDs. We also did some recon on a location for my bday family get-together, which is coming up in Feb. I have decided I want to go for a High Tea at a nice Gold Coast hotel. we checked out the Sheraton Mirage - top points for location and view but minus points for a lame menu that mainly included cheese (I dont eat much cheese due to lactose intolerance). Next one to check is the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove... I am looking forward to splurging on yummy cakes and goodies :) that is what bday's are for!

Elka also chose Australia Day to cut her third tooth - its a top one (her first top one!) but its not the front ones - its one to the side on the right. Wasn't the place were I was expecting the next one! She was pretty clingy and sooky but her sleep was still OK. We have started "battering down the hatches" around the house - moving things and putting up a baby gate to keep her out of the bathroom and the cat food bowls etc. She has also learnt to go from crawling position to sitting up and is pulling herself up on us so we have lowered the cot now. Gosh she is becoming a big girl!

Things are pretty quiet around here now - all my mummy friends have gone back to work now and its only 4 weeks until I do to! How the time has flown...

xoxo

Hot
Getting 55mm of rain overnight - whohoo!
A long weekend for Jase to relax with Elka
Sportsgirl discount rack - got some gorgeous bargains
Looking forward to going back to work and challenging myself with my new grant and research
Elka's gorgeous moods and fantastic sleeping
Having nearly finished decluttering all the cupboards in the house..

Not
The farrier cancelling due to said rain - Spech's foot is in desperate need of attention
Today possibily being one of my last mummy group's lazy weekday catch ups due to everyone going back to work in the next couple of weeks
The horrible process of signing away your life to be awarded a Commonwealth Government Research Grant
Spending 2 hours at the dentist tomorrow - yukko!
Elka's commando crawling - cute but she is ruining all her lovely clothes..

I have been getting increasingly interested in reducing our impact on the environment. Living on the land really makes you aware of just how much effect our materialistic lifestyle has. Our water, for example, is caught from our house and shed roofs, caught in our tanks, pumped into our house and then caught in a gray water tank and pumped out into our paddocks. So any chemical use in the area can settle on our roof and enter our water. Any soaps or cleaning products used in our house ends up on our grass that the horses eat but not only that - the run off is caught in our dam and also the larger catchment area of lower down dams and a stream that run into many other properties. We had an issue during the drought where the phosphates in our gray water caused a nasty algal bloom on our dam. As I said - we get direct cause and effect of our indiscrimint use of cleaning products. Not to mention - we are much more conservative at using water compared to people who think they have an unending supply at hand. I am patiently waiting currently for some rain so that I can wash down our verandahs - I live in hope that I will get to eventually!

We now take great care in our gray water run off and I read product labels for soaps and cleaning products.

Also our bin is located at the top of our driveway - which is a good 600m up a hill. So taking out the rubbish for us is a planned process, which makes us very aware of our waste and amounts. I am proud to say that we are excellent recyclers and our recycling bin is overflowing long before bin day. However, it still distresses me realising just how much goes to landfill. I take my own bags shopping, I reuse all our fruit and veg bags and I think hard about packagings. I am determined to improve though - when I go clothes shopping etc I end up with a handfull of heavy plastic bags containing one skirt or shirt each. These bags are so pointless - I carry them for an hour or so and then they are no longer used. So I want to start rejecting retail plastic bags and either putting everything in one bag from home or simply stashing things into the pram or nappy bag etc

We are excellent with composting all green wastes - between the chickens, 2 pet ducks and hungry horses, there isn't a scrap of food waste that goes uneaten! We are also getting much better with our electricity use - have replaced most bulbs with energy savers now, we dont use too many lights, are very conserative with our air conditioners and we always turn the plasma tv off at the wall as it is a huge energy drain even off on standby.

I am currently researching recycling drop off points - I am cleaning out cupboards and dont want too much stuff to end up as landfill. Its not as easy as I had hoped! But taking the easy option is the problem really isn't it?

I want to keep up this attitude and am hoping to keep posting with new behaviours that I have taken up. Particularly as I have heaps to improve - we do drive a big 4WD unfortunately (but necessary for pulling a float so it wont be going anytime soon!) and of course babies are terribly bad environmentally - everything is overpackaged and we do use disposable nappies due to not having enough water for cloth nappies (I have been meanin to try the biodegradable ones)...

Happy Birthday Baby Girl :)

Its been a busy month development wise for Elka. She got her two bottom teeth with minimum fuss. She has started crawling - mostly commando but she is also up on her knees rocking and throwing herself forward. The crawling is really getting her around - she can cover one side of the lounge room to the other pretty quickly now. My absolute favourite trick that she does now is, I sit on the floor and hold a cloth up in front of me and she comes scrambling over to pull the cloth off so that I can so boo to her. She cracks up. I just love hearing her crawling over as she huffs and puffs - its just so cute.

We had some strong seperation anxiety develop this month - for a few weeks I wasn't able to place her down or walk away even in the same room without her screaming and having huge tears :( But we seem to have passed the worst of that.

She stopped saying Mum Mum etc whilst there was so much family visiting over xmas but since it is just her and I again, she has started a lot of talking again. She loves to say mum mum and mama to me. Yesterday, she was all upset having a bath with Jase and she was looking for me and saying Mum, Mum, so I think she gets it. there are some other syllables that she is starting too but still no Dad despite my encouragement!

She has had more swimming - both in pools and the beach and seems to love it. She has also developed her mums ability to multi-task and loves racing around in her activty centre's walker with a rusk in one hand and her sippy cup in the other! Her playing is much more sophisticated now - she plays her tamborine properly with both hands and likes balls. I made her a Treasure Basket like I was shown at Mothers Group, with random things collected from around the house. She loves to sit there emptying the basket and expolring each thing in turn before getting the next thing out - guaranteed half an hour of quiet!

She has started eating meats as minces in with her vegies. I have enjoyed making new exciting mixes for her - she is eating a huge amount these days. She has started rusks and makes a great mess with them. I have introduced pasta into her vegies also. She is also going strongly with finger foods - she loves steamed sweet potato sticks, pieces of banana and slices of apple and nectarine (her favourite!).

She is sleeping wonderfully still - 12 hours straight at night, from 7pm till 7am. She is still taking her afternoon nap too so we are getting two 1.5hr sleeps and a 45 min nap each day. I think she will drop that afternoon nap soon though. She has also had her first bottle of formula (getting ready for me going back to work) and didn't seem to mind it.

She is a smiley settled little bub who delights at people giving her attention and loves all of the animals on our place particularly the cats, chooks and ducks! People are starting to comment on how "old" she is looking - more like a little girl rather than a baby.

Its been a blissful 7 months so far and I cant believe we are on the downhill to her turning one!!

Sippy cup drinking while playing - so much to do, so little time!


Playing alongside her best mate, Ferdie


Swimming with Daddy

Here is my not so little one showing off her commando crawling skills - she is much faster in bare feet on the rug too! Not a great quality vid but hey she isn't easy to catch most times!
Now if only she could figure out how to go from sitting to crawling without faceplanting forwards and hitting her head!

With Spech slowly recovering from losing the wall of his hoof (we now have strong healthy hoof almost grown down!), I have been spending a bit of time on training Sam and I thought it was time for an update.

First the story..
Sam is a rescue horse who we bought from a couple of ladies who had rescued him from the meatworks. He is an ex racehorse who once finished racing had been locked in a grassless yard and left to starve. At some point, the horrible people had then decided to ship him off to be killed - this is where he was discovered. I had rang to speak to the ladies about buying a horse who was already sold. Hearing my horse history (we basically keep our horses as pets until they die of old age) and my plans for my new horse, they decided that Sam who had just been saved would be a good match. He is 17hh and with bold paces which suits my eventing/dressage style. I LOVE big horses and was very excited to look at him.

I was so impressed with these amazing ladies - they had a paddock full of saved horses all of which they were trying to rehabilitate with limited funds. They were not sure how they were going to afford to feed up Sam, being so huge and so starved, with all their bills so they were pleased to see me! Sam and I hit it off and in the short ride I gave him, I managed to coax him to do all the things that the ladies hadnt been able to do ie canter on the left leg etc

So to cut a long story short, we floated him home that evening and he has been here ever since. It has been expensive feeding him up - being such a big horse he needs a lot of food! But he is now strong and healthy. Of course being an off the track racehorse, he has no education. He is pretty gentle but developed a bad habit of pulling from his mouth, as he is so strong, he discovered he could unseat riders this way. I have been giving him a lot of slow flat work - concentrating on teaching him to listen to my seat and legs rather than needing the riders hands. By driving him forward into a steady contact he has learnt to soften to the hands and is rounding nicely. He has learnt to halt from a strong half halt of mainly seat. Even better - in the last few lessons, he has shown some lightness at the trot and held his own soft contact. That was wonderful to feel! He also has a gorgeous free walk at the long rein - he really swings his back. I used this as a "reward" from hard work so he enjoys his free walks which makes all the difference I find - stops them getting stiff and "running".

Of course he is still unbalanced - particularly to the right, but it is improving. And his head still fights whenever he is asked a bit much or when he gets a little confused about a direction. He has started lateral work and leg yields quite well - although better to the right then to the left.. Canter work is yet to come. His idea of jumping is to generally demolish jumps so there is a long way to go there yet. but ideally I think he would make a nice eventer. Although he has been to the riding grounds twice and both times he was very stressed - remembering race meets still unfortunately. I am hoping to get him out to the grounds a few more times this year but Spech is still my main focus and god knows with a little baby, there is not a lot of time left for juggling two competition horses!

My goals with Sam for the next few months are to improve the balance and collection and start some canter work. :)

Sam when he first arrived on the property - about 6 hours after I had first seen him. Poor boy - weak and skinny.


Sam in October last year - 1.5 yrs of living with us. Lots of feed and TLC later!


Sam now - after a couple of months of light dressage training - developing some nice muscle particularly through his neck. Note how his shoulder and rump have filled out.

Rather than bogging ourselves down in a full weekend of farm work, we decided to head to the Brisbane Botanical Gardens for a wander and a nice lunch out.

It was fun and inspiring to see the lovely gardens and to discuss our plans for our place. Lunch's highlight was the restaurants resident water dragon "Chip" launching himself onto a very prim lady's lap to steal her steak sandwich! Much chaos ensued.

Other than that the weekend was unremarkable in its relaxation. I did get in two rides, we got some mowing/whippersnippering done and a little more done on the back drains.. Spech threw a shoe on his bad hoof again so it is yet another monday with me waiting to hear when the farrier can fit me in (SIGH!). Elka and I are off to a work lunch to celebrate my scientific technicians engagement - yay!

I must must call daycare to confirm Elka's start dates (I tend to push it out of my mind all the time - avoidance much!) and must order us some more hay as it looks like we havent got enough to safely get us through a tough winter..

As I previously posted I am on the hunt, and so today I headed into Bardot to continue my search for a little casual white dress..

and success! (Sooty just wanted to play with the bag)


Its exactly what I wanted - light and cool and yes it has lining!! oh and it was 50% when I went to pay for it! Meant to be ;)



White was the theme for the day as I also bought a lovely lace singlet which has a beautiful line to it.

My diary is filling up with mummy dates and work lunches for the next week so its nice to have some new things to play with :)

Elka is starting to move around now! She is 30 weeks and is starting to master crawling. She is good at a type of commando crawl where she kicks and kicks with her legs and moves herself around without lifting her chest too much. However she is also getting up on her knees and starting to propel herself off them.

Of course its far from perfect and I am dealing with a lot of head planting and crying at the moment! Add onto that some terrible teething pain (poor baby) and the seperation anxiety stage - she is definitely keeping me on my toes! The 2 days of daycare coming up at the end of Feb are starting to sound good - hehe I am looking forward to going to work to get a "break", crazy times!

I dont even now where to start with the baby proofing - arrgh!

her favourite game at the moment - climbing over mummy (excuse the PJ's!)


And practicing, practicing

I was saving my pocket money for a new hacking jacket for horse shows but am wondering if it is a wise purchase when it may not get much wear this year.. might be better to wait as I dont want the cut to get dated before I even get to use it much..

So I think I might put my pocket money over the next few weeks into a few pretty things from Bardot . One of my fav labels.. well one of many favourites but I tend to always love their stuff - feminine and fun.

Am loving this


and I have been looking for a white dress all summer but they are always see through and its too damn hot up here to wear layers so I want a white dress that doesnt require a singlet under it - has been impossible so far! Maybe this one will be right..


Just realised the title of this post should be spending my pennies ;)

I have mentioned that we have been working on some landscaping over the holidays and here are some pics. We extended the retaining wall we recently started. More drainage, put down weed matting and put a flight of stairs. The stairs are to connect the upper area so that we can put in some vegetable garden beds (once we work out how to keep the kangaroos out!).

Here are the "befores" - well we had already done about 20m's of retaining wall to the right hand side and lots of drainage but it wasn't looking too crash hot.




And here is the after - the stairs still need a few levels of concrete and the drains need the bluestone added (a bugger of a job!). Then we will tidy this area and add in paths etc




We have also tidied the drains in front of the tanks. Next is the drains behind the tanks, the drains through the laundry garden and then we can start "prettying" the path leading to the stairs, put up some screening around the tanks and then pave the laundry garden. Sigh lots to do! Then that tiny section of our yards is done! Somedays a tiny city yard would be tempting ;)

Hot
Having Jase home to hang out with
Catching up with old friends
The improvement Sam is showing in his dressage training
Green grass and the rainforest garden thriving
Doing a budget for 2009 and planning on sticking to it ;)
My new work clothes - makes going back to work more exciting :)

Not
Having Jase go back to work on Monday
Elka teething - she is so clingy, the 2nd bottom tooth is coming through, poor thing!
Elka getting mobile (OK its cool but sooo much more work - sigh!)
Having to dig up 20metres of drainage as it filled with silt before we had time to put down the mesh
Our driveway sinking and being washed out at the dam inlet
Christmas ham - loved it but am now SICK of it!