The Copacabana posts continue. I was up there for 2 weeks and so have many cute photos to share.

Evie and Audrey received a paddling pool from Nan and TD for Christmas. We put it out in the backyard a few times while we were up at Copa and the kids loved it.

They actually liked it much better than the beach. The water was warmer than the ocean (we always put a couple of buckets hot water in), it was just the right depth for splashing, and there were no scary waves to knock you over.



More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Last week Evie reached 8 months and I wanted to make sure I posted in a timely manner - you may have noticed that I missed the 7 month post. December was so busy that I thought I would combine the two posts into one.


Evie has sitting mastered now but isn't interested in crawling yet. Truthfully she isn't even really rolling around. She can roll, she just doesn't want to. So maybe she isn't that interested in being mobile yet.

She still isn't a huge fan of tummy time so I'm not sure that she will crawl in the traditional way. I think she may become a bum shuffler as she has started to bounce up and down on her bottom. When sitting she also leans forward and puts her weight on her hands. But who knows, she always surprises us with how quickly she picks up stuff.

The big thing that has happened in the past couple of months is that Evie has started to eat real people food. She's gone from being exclusively breast fed to eating three meals a day. We started Evie on a combination of purees and finger food, however Evie wasn't a huge fan of purees. She loved feeding herself, so when I tried to spoonfeed her it would usually end in a struggle for the spoon. Then I tried the "Spoon for Mummy, Spoon for Evie" trick but that didn't work either. Evie would end up with both spoons. So I stopped trying to make Evie eat purees and just gave her finger food.

Each baby at MGroup has a strength - some crawled early, some have lots of teeth, some can wave goodbye. Evie's super power is being able to eat normal people food. Everyone watches warily while Evie chows down on cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and pieces of unpeeled fruit. She loves fruit and will eat a whole peach, nectarine or pear in one sitting. She's pretty good at just eating the flesh and will leave the skin behind. Although sometimes we have to fish the skin out of her mouth at the end of the meal or she will chew on it for ages.


So here are a couple of videos of Evie eating. It's a new skill so we've found it kind of exciting.

Here is Evie eating Mango. She looooooooooves mango (like her Mum. Her Dad thinks mango is too mangoey.)




And here is Evie trying to eat steak. She found it a bit frustrating as she doesn't have any teeth yet. Poor bubs.

Excuse me while I catch up on some Christmas posts.

To celebrate Christmas with Mothers' Group we had a lovely gathering at Michelle's house. Even though it wasn't the warmest of days, we managed to get out in the backyard and spend some time in the sun (Can you tell that I'm very disappointed about our horrible summer?)

It was a chance to play dress ups for the babies too. (Poor Evie, I love dressing up and I make her participate in my hobby. She doesn't really get a say in it). We had a Santa and several of Santa's helpers.
When you're trying to take a photo of so many babies at once it's hard to get a photo where they are all smiling. I love the photos where they are cracking it though. They are adorable.


More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

So maybe I had a little bit of blogging burnout after the madness of November. But I'm back now. (Not posting everyday. That was craaaaaaaaazy.)

On the weekend we had our extended family Christmas celebration. This year we remembered to take a group photo. The last time we remembered to do that was in 2008.

There have been a few changes since then. Now Evie, Audrey, Amelie and Chloe have joined our family. The gender balance is finally even. We have 7 boys - Oscar, Leo, Damian, Spencer, Jack, Henry and Jack - and 7 girls - Evie, Audrey, Sarah, Chloe, Kyla, Amelie and Emily.


2011


2008
Of course when trying to take a group photo of so many people you're never going to get everyone smiling at the camera. We took about 20 photos and I may have a combined a few photos to get this one. Bonus points if you can tell who has been photoshopped.

Evie is 6 months old (on the 15th. I'm late again). We have some exciting new skills.

A couple of weeks ago Evie was rolling from her back to her front. I say was because it's no longer happening. One afternoon Evie decided that she was going to master this skill. It was quite amusing to watch because she would be on her side and then roll almost all the way on to her tummy, then freak out and flip back on to her back. She did this a few times then she finally made it all the from her back to her front. There was much cheering from Mummy. She rolled 3 times that afternoon. But since then... nothing! It's like she's moved on already. Rolling... been there done that.

Evie is also sitting pretty much by herself. I'm always nearby though just in case she falls over. When she's sitting Evie sometimes reaches for things with her mouth rather than her hands. When she can't reach a toy with her hands, she leans forward with her mouth open and slowly face plants. Sometimes I yell "timmmmmmmmmmmbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer" as she falls. Isn't Mummy mean.

Evie has a new favourite toy - Sophie the Giraffe. Sophie is an iconic rubber teething toy; all the coolest babies have one. I wasn't going to buy Evie a Sophie because I think they are kind of expensive. Auntie Annie was horrified that I was depriving Evie of such a great toy so she bought one as a present. Evie loves Sophie (and Auntie Annie very much). We wrote Evie's name on her giraffe so it won't get mixed up with all the other Sophies out there.