...the adventures of O and his baby sister: March 2012

March has been a lovely month for our little family....Oliver is at a delightful stage where he is enjoying everything wonderful about life and Freya is such a settled and routine little one that she happily floats around with us and is so responsive to any anything happening around her especially her big brother Oliver.

We had a little welcome to the world party for Freya - really a chance to catch up with all our lovely friends and have cake!

There were lovely flowers from Megan and rainbow icecreams for the older children. Oliver and his friend Harper are enjoying the sunshine and the icecream - not in that order though

Trish completing her godmotherly duties and ensuring the party girl is not too pooped to enjoy herself!

Freya refreshed from her snoozypops and ready to be adored (although also happy to be adored whilst sleeping - as long as she is being adored she is content!)

One of the things we have started to do since the summer holidays is to do something together on a Saturday night....yes we actually leave the house with children after 7pm. We have mostly been enjoying the long evenings at the beach with a walk and an icecream.

The Newcastle Gallery held an art-cart at night to farewell the Australian Masterpieces exhibition and we went along. It was lovely as the theatre company was bringing the paintings to life! We had been previously during the day and Oliver loved interacting with the live models.

We made paper flowers on the front terrace and Oliver spent sometime drawing - he is becoming quite selective in the colours he chooses and when names what he has drawn such as 'cat' it is similar to the last 'cat' he drew.

No visit to the gallery / library space is complete without a visit to the fountain. Here we are looking tired and ready for bed....

March was also a fun month as Yola was away which meant Oliver was home every day and he and Freya spent lots of time getting to know each other properly.

Oliver instructed Freya on the important elements of life....bin trucks.

Freya was given a truck of her very own!

No greater love has her big brother than sharing bin trucks!

Luckily Freya appeared suitably interested...

the loving relationship may have come to an end had she not responded appropriately.

Oliver has taken to reading to Freya each afternoon

Mama and Freya love being read to and it is hilarious to hear Oliver read with same inflections that Daddy and Mama use to read to him .

Oliver takes his role as a big brother very seriously.

Being on holidays from Yola's meant more time to play rubbish bin trucks - especially on Monday mornings whilst waiting for the rubbish bin truck to rumble down the street!

Thanks Aunt Cath for the selection of rubbish bin trucks!

Oliver is also quite an ordered young chap - we made coloured bins - to match the colours we have seen around Newcastle and then the rubbish is balloons and small blocks. Oliver spends considerable time each day colour matching his rubbish collection!!!!

With more time spent at home since Freya's arrival we have begun to explore different ways of playing. There was lentil play - much like sand play but with lentils perfect for the rainy days!

There was lots of outside painting

and inside drawing.

Freya is the current favourite life drawing model -

Aggie is also a favourite - especially the wild squiggles the represent her tail, her whiskers and her "pert" (purr)!

And there has been lots of pizza making and pizza eating this holiday.

Oliver has also discovered how to make playdough -

or rather colour the playdough which he finds most exciting!

At Montesorri the children are encouraged to prepare simple food for themselves - with assistance of course.

We have been trying to relax and allow Oliver to be more independent and well what is a little mess in the grand scheme of life?

Here is lunch prepared by Oliver (with some assistance of Mama!)

March was also the last library session till September.

Freya finally made it through the whole session on the last night -

It was the night after our Sydney excursion so everyone was a little pooped!

March saw term 1 of Oliver's activities draw to a close.

It is quite amazing to see how much changes over 10 weeks....and how tired Oliver is and ready for a holiday! (or is that Mama who is ready for a holiday?)

After collecting all the masterpieces from Montesorri -

we spent a lovely rainy afternoon turning them into cards with our new stamps.

March was also filled with lots of family visits, Grandma popped up for a visit in time for Freya's party - thankyou....Uncle Andrew also came for a flying visit.....cuddles with Freya.

We also went to Sydney for the day to spend time with Dylan and Frances - Dylan and Oliver went scooting around the park together

Dylan was telling Oliver all about Dragons and the show he had been to. We also snuck in a quick visit to the Picasso exhibition - Freya slept and Oliver drew - we had a lovely time.

Then, it was off to visit the Sydney cousins.

Cuddles with Benedict...