Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Wow finding it a little hard to believe that I now have a 5 month old! But she is!

Bronte has had a big few weeks - she is eating solids and ADORES food. She screams and grunts and grabs if you don't feed her fast enough and heaven help you if you run out of food before she is satisfied! She is eating rice cereal, pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, zucchini, peas, apples, pears, bananas, prunes and rusks so far. She has 3 meals a day and they are huge meals.

She is very content and has started sleeping through the night again - hurrah! In fact she is sleeping from 7pm until 6-6.30am - brilliant! She also does lovely big 2 hour day sleeps, typically two. She doesn't cry at all about going to bed - she smiles when she gets put in the cot, grabs her bunny comforter and rolls to her side and drops off silently to sleep. Bliss. When she wakes she turns a 90 degree turn so that she can put her feet up on the side of the cot and kicks away squealing and chatting to herself until someone gets up her up. Very cute.

She is starting to try to sit up alone but is pretty wobbly and has a way to go yet. She is a big giggler and loves being gently thrown up and down. She cracks huge endless open mouthed grins at the sight of her Dad or Elka. She still loves her bath and starts wiggling excitedly when she hears the water get turned on.

She loves her activity centre and will sit in it for ages banging her toys and playing the little piano and shrieking with excitement. She loves her soft red ball and also prefers eating the books I read to her rather than listening.

Her two lower front teeth are sitting up as prominant ridges under the gum and are driving her mad.. She chews frantically on anything and we have had a few episodes of pain and screaming that some Bonjella and panadol have sorted out. Seems she might be like her sister and cut her two lower teeth at the same time at around 6 months old.

She has also been fitted with her hearing aids. She has been a trooper with them and seems to quite like getting them on and hearing me ask if she can hear me better - she cracks up. She seems a little more responsive with them in but its still early days to be able to tell much.
They are quite unobtrusive but she does cop a lot of stares and sympathetic glances out at the shops with them in. I understand as it does look a little strange on such a young baby. I thought I would hate the look of them but I don't mind because I love that she smiles when they are put on. SHe is seeing a speech therapist next week and will continue to be monitored. We have discussed genetic testing and I was pleased to see that the geneticist agreed with my stance that there is no need for testing at this stage (we are not planning more children).

And finally - my update. 5 months post bub and I am increasingly getting my body back. I still have a tendency to bloat and get a pot belly by the end of the day as my stomach muscles are not as strong and tight as they used to be - but I am working on them! Other than that I am 2kgs off my lightest ever weight (which was my pre-Bronte pregnancy weight), so in other words I am more than happy with my body's recovery and not fussed about loosing any more weight - more just continueing with the toning thanks to pilates and horseriding (and the non stop physical work on our house extension and gardens!)

I don't have any huge progress shots of the house extensions at the moment - mainly because we are up to lots of little time-consuming steps.

But we are seeing the end.. inside is so close now, just waiting on us to get the painting finished - oh my god puttying nail holes in skirting boards and architraves can take a long time!

The tiling in the living room is finished and we have a deposit down on our carpet, we are just holding off for the painting and for the bathroom shower screen to be installed so that the tradies aren't trooping in over the new carpet..

It is a long story about the tiles but our existing tiles are a size that they don't make anymore and we couldn't match the exact colour. So we picked a dividing stone feature strip that had both the tile colours in it and went with a lovely creamy tile that suits our new paint colours.





Next update will show the new wrap around verandahs that we had concrete poured yesterday, a completed painted interior and hopefully some more painting on the deck and ceilings outside...

Elka loves cameras and I let her wander around with my little Olympus point and shoot. She takes some surprisingly cute pics although she isn't too good at the focus yet, but hey I am sure she will have it mastered by 3yrs old!

She took this pic of me the other day and I love it because it is a portrait of her "Mum" - this is perspective and height off the ground that she sees me from. It was funny getting an insight into myself from such an innocent bit of play.

When the weather is nice (inbetween our rain and crazy storms currently!), the girls and I love to play out the back, in our tiny "townhouse" backyard that we have left with all the fences around the construction. OK probably not that tiny but it is to me - Elka has her swings, a see-saw, a hill to run up and down and enough verandah under roof for her pool, sandpit, art easel and my 6 seat outdoor setting. So enough to survive ;)

But when I can, I love to throw down the blanket and lie back and watch the gum trees, the clouds and search for our noisy but houdini koala. Bronte loves to stare at me, open her big blue eyes wide at the sky - it looks like the sky is reflected in her stunning eyes when she does that and creep to the edge of the mat to grab handfuls of grass and try to eat them.

Life is pretty chaotic at the moment, but those moments of peace are precious memories that I am holding on to.

We were finally blessed with some beautiful clear weather on the weekend. It was a blessing because we are already back to showers and storms again now!

But I managed to have an hour to myself to exercise Spech, albeit with an audience of Greek tilers on our new deck having smoko!

I love the warmer weather once the horses have finished shedding their winter coats, they are smooth and glossy.

Spech has a million dollar shine up at the moment, thanks to the rugging and the oils in his night feed. I could run my hands down his smooth shoulder all day long and I had to take this photo. Horses are stunning beasts.

Its been a constructive week (no pun intended!) - the electrician has almost finished and we now have power and lights to the extension. It is very exciting to have that all done.

We have been trucking along with the painting at night when we can. The lounge room is complete besides the skirting boards and architraves, which I have done the first coat on now. The tiles in the living room are finished tomorrow and then I can do the final coat on the skirting. I am struggling with the sleep deprivation from Bronte's night wakings, the long days with Elka and then nights of physical work in the extension. I had a shocker the other night where I was exhausted and trying to paint with blurry eyes and I walked straight across the wet bedding for the tiles. Yep wasn't real happy with myself!

We shopped for carpet today - the study, bedroom and walk in robe will all be carpeted. We have a clear winner at the moment, they kindly let us take the samples home and I am pretty pleased with what we have picked. We are hopeful that it won't take too long to be installed.

I also had a smidge of a whinge at the builder about not having a front door and when I came home from picking up Jase's new car (which is super pretty!) I found that the builder had built me a lovely path into the front door so that I can now access it. I am loving the shorter walk! He also picked up on how keen we are to get into the new area so he came in and worked today despite it being a Saturday. He is working 10-12 hours a day on site - at 65 yrs old he must be tired! He is meticulous which means quite slow but we are appreciative of the precision of his work, just struggling to be patient on this last stretch!

The extension is proceeding well - we are now at that painful stage where little fiddly things need to be done so there are less big changes and it looks so close but feels so far!
I am practicing my patience and zen like calm hehe ;)

But because we are hosting both sides of our families for Christmas, we actually need furniture in the extension for December. So we had the fun of going to the shops and finally purchasing all that lovely stuff that we have been eyeing off for months!


Most essential was a nice large outdoor table for the big deck - this is a 10 seater and is much bigger than the this photo makes it look. Perfect!



This is the new leather lounge (in this chocolate colour) that will fill the new living area - we are having minimal furniture as this room is all about the wall of glass out onto the deck and the view - so its only this very large lounge and a tv on the wall and a coffee table and lamp most likely..
We are also looking for a nice large mirror to have on the back wall to reflect the view of the gum trees etc.


We also got great bargains on white shutters for the bathroom and walk in robe. Chocolate block out curtains for the living area, cream blockout cutrains for the bedroom and stone coloured block out roller curtains for the study windowns. Between 60 and 30% savings on them all - its a great time to be buying home fittings!

I also fell in love with a gorgeous framed picture of a sketch of a chandelier to hang above our bed - I got it ordered in and it is just perfect - no photo though, I will leave it for the unveiling the furnished bedroom :)

Still to get -pick out carpet, the wall of bookshelves for the study, the fit outs for the walk in robe, a coffee table and a lounge/coffee table outdoor set for the deck.

The painting continues, the ensuite is awaiting the semi-frameless shower screen, the living area is being tiled tomorrow and lights and electricity are being finished today. Then its the carpet installation, deck railings, the crimsafe screens to be installed and completing the ceilings and edgings on the verandahs and finally pouring the verandah concrete. Then a bob cat to clean up the worksite and we are "done" (ie we still have more concrete painting and landscaping to do but that is in our time). I can see the end...

We saved money on our extension by opting to paint the walls, ceilings and concrete ourselves. Sounds good and looks good financially but with a newborn and a toddler and an unsafe worksite it can be pretty tricky.

This is seriously I how did some of our cutting in the other day! Bronte is having a bit of a Mummy velcro stage at the moment and the painting still needed doing whilst we had a toddler free day.. (no comments on my sexy painting outfit and hairstyle please!)


We have our paint colours all organised now - deciding was nearly as hard as getting the painting done!

The windows are metal powder coated in Dulux White Pearl so that is the colour we have chosen for our architraves and skirting boards. Our house is decorated in a French Provincial style so this off white works well. The base colour for the walls is Dulux Crewelwork - a lovely warm neutral that is very close to the base colour in the original house whilst still suiting the White Pearl and the new tiles and ensuite tiles of the extension. I am looking forward to seeing it throughout the new rooms!



The external areas of the house are painted in Colourbond Classic Cream whilst the infills above the windows are done in the Dulux White Pearl to tie in the windows. I am still undecided if the timber top rail of the verandah fences will be in a contrasting colour or just the Classic Cream..

If you are a parent and you have a toddler who loves to paint as much as mine does, then you probably go through lots and lots of poster and finger paints. And they aren't cheap.

Well I love making up homemade paints for Elka - just grab an egg carton, add a spoon full of flour to each hole, a little water and a drop of food colouring. I tend to just make up red, yellow, green and blue but obviously you can blend to your hearts content and make more colours.

I make them as quite thick mixtures (less drops flying around!) and they go great on paper and dry well. Better yet they are definitely non-toxic and almost free!

Well the rain just hasn't stopped but the builders have stayed under cover and we are still progressing well.

The ensuite bathroom is waterproofed and the tiler is starting on Tuesday after the vanity has been installed. I will be so excited to see the ensuite come together!



The majority of the verandahs have been battened and the FC sheeting has gone up, including the massive carport ceiling.

We have the front door hung, the door in the connecting hallway and the sliding french doors that divide the study and living room.






Next up is all the carpentery - skirting boards and architraves etc and the timber edging on all the deck and verandah windows etc. The electrician has to install all the lights (which we have bought) and the plumber finish off the ensuite, the shower screen and mirror installed and the down pipes under ground to out to the water tanks. After that there is the concrete to be poured for the wrap around verandahs, the crimsafe screens to be installed and then its over to us for the tiling/carpets, timber treatment for the verandahs and final painting.

We can see the end - it is busy but achievable!

We have been painting "after hours" - all the internal walls are now primed, all the ceilings and cornices are completed with two coats of ceiling white, the high pitched roof of the deck is completed and half the verandah eaves and ceilings have been painted with one coat. So lots more to do but a fair bit done also. Its tiring work - the extension is 240m2 so bigger then some houses ie lots of walls and ceilings and therefore very tired arms and plenty of blisters.

We have bought the living area tiles - they are a slightly smaller creamier version of our current tile, as it is impossible to match our current tile size and colour, so we have bought a nice stone edging for where the two tiles meet (in the hallway). This leaves the carpet and the window dressings - both of which I am working on currently.

A huge thank you to the very talented and sweet blogger Rachel at As Nature Intended for her giveaway of a blog redesign that I was lucky enough to win!

I am so pleased with the result - isn't it snazzy!

My beautiful little one is now 4 months old. And what a change has happened in the last month! She is very smiley and laughy, she loves watching Jase and Elka's faces. She has reached that observant stage where she is just drinking in the world and trying to figure it out with her big blue eyes. She loves tickles and makes cute shrieks and cacks. She also loves kisses up her neck and on her cheeks and beams openmouthed approval when you do it.

She now quite likes playing on her tummy and is a good roller from tummy to back. She can also do back to side. She is all about chewing at the moment - her toys, her comforter bunny, my hands, everything gets knawed on! She is happy lying on a rug playing toys, pulling them over to bring them to her mouth. She has started using her tigger bouncer and loves her activity centre - she has the hang of pressing the piano buttons now to play music endlessly! It keeps her happy for ages which is great for me getting things done!

She is a great day sleeper - has one or two long sleeps of about 2 hours plus some 45 min naps but she is still waking at night which she started when she was 3 months (after spoiling me with sleeping through when she was younger!). She wakes for feeds at about 9.30pm, 2-3am and then 5-6am, so I am not getting good blocks of sleep particularly as with the construction, most days tradies are arriving between 6-6.30am. Oh well, hopefully a few more months and I will get some peaceful nights again :)

Bronte has always been mummy clingy but she is very much so at the moment. If anyone else takes her out of my arms then she starts screaming and won't calm down until she is given back to me. Makes things a bit tiring some days! The other day, my Mum and I were sitting together and Mum transferred Bronte from my lap to hers, and Bronte leant over to me and had both her arms out for me to grab her - seems early for that behaviour to have begun already!

She has taken to holding anything that I have in my hands whilst I am carrying her and she is super keen to grab food off me and put spoons etc in her mouth. I think she is ready for solids - I am holding off until she has recovered from her immmunisations (which she got today) and then I think I will try some breastmilk and farex... I am hoping solids will help fill her up at night too - it seemed to help satisfy Elka when she went through this same 3/4 month waking at night thing.

Her growth has slowed - she was only 6.7kgs today at the doctor (so has dropped from 90th to 75th percentile) and is 63cm long...

I am loving having my bubba snuggles - I am trying to make the most of every moment of having my last little baby, she is so damn cuddly and sweet. I already can't believe how fast the time has gone and how much she has changed!

Poor old Bronte has just turned 4 months old and I have finally started to put together her room. Elka's room was completed by the time I was 26 weeks pregnant - things are different with the second child! However, the room is now painted and has furniture in it, albeit with a double bed still in there as it is still our spare room for a few more months whilst the extension is completed. It also doesn't have a cot in it yet as Bronte is waking at least twice a night and I am too lazy to move her cot out of our room whilst I am still having such disturbed nights.

But anyway - her room is started! I chose a pale pink, black and white theme for her room and I also picked owls as her little "animal". I love the paint colour - it is Dulux in Tea Party quarter strength, a very soft pink. The change table, bookshelf and chest of drawers (and cot) are all in white. I risked a black rug, which I was worried would be a little harsh for a babies room but it works. Mum sewed me black and white japanese cherry blossom curtains which are lined with heavy block out which are great for making the room cosy for sleeping. I have kept the current light fitting which is a lovely antique style hanging glass shade in white glass. A few weeks ago I lucked upon a great toy box in black with black and white fabric lining which I just love! The storage drawers under the change table are all in black and white pattern and I have sewn a black and white owl mobile to hang above the change table. I also have two black frames containing pink japanese style flower prints which I will hang once the double bed is moved out.

Overall I am pleased with the progress and am looking forward to making it more and more finished over the next few months :)

So I have had the girls for nearly a week now. They have adapted to life in a chicken pen remarkably well. I am letting them out with my original chickens now and although they are keeping their distance thanks to some pecks, they are still following the chickens around and taking on their routine.

I have noticed some behaviour I am not used to in a chicken from them - they don't like to wander far from chainlink wire, even when out in the run, they will stand with their heads against the wire fence. They also sleep with their heads against the wire mesh of the edge of the chicken yard. So they obviously don't feel secure yet unless they feel like they are still in cage. Poor girls, hope that passes soon.

They also sleep like they are in bunk beds (Mums rescue chickens are doing the same thing) - one chicken sleeps in the cat travel box I have given them (until my chickens will let them sleep in the proper shed roost) and the other sleeps on top of the box!

They are already filling in feathers and are enjoying getting the daily bucket of food scraps to pick through. They are currently pecking their way through half a watermelon with happy clucks.

I had tears in my eyes the other day when I walked outside to see them both spreading out their meagre wings to have a big lie out basking in the sun. Its the simple things that make you happiest sometimes!