E and her very Frozen fifth birthday

E turned five with a bang on Good Friday. After counting down for more than 100 sleeps we were finally there. We spent several months negotiating the list of invitees, from a starting point of every child in the class ("absolutely not!"), to all the pre-primary girls (it is a mixed kindy/pre-primary class), to two girls from school plus an assortment of playgroup friends and family friends (a total of nine plus E. Once they each brought one or two parents it was still quite a crowd!)

E is (...still...) Frozen obsessed and, accordingly, wanted the least original party theme around. At least when this is the case you don't have to waste time thinking up any ideas yourself, the internet is full of stuff just begging to be plagiarised. Her party food and activities involved a bit of time and effort on my part but minimal cost. Seeing as I was not keen to spend $500 so a lady dressed up as Elsa would sing Frozen songs in my living room, this suited me fine.

So we played musical statues (to the Frozen soundtrack, of course), hunted for blue and silver chocolate hearts (from the bulk food shop), decorated cardboard crowns, and pinned the nose on Olaf.

For food we handed out sandwiches (because "we finish each other's sandwiches"), carrot sticks ("reindeer food"), "snow cups" (popcorn in blue and white paper cups), "Queen Elsa's magic bread" (fairy bread), "snowballs" (marshmallows) and "melted snowman" (bottles of water with printed labels stolen from the internet). Also , seeing as Granny and Grandma kindly offered to bring them, "Arendelle's finest sausage rolls" and "samosas to warm your frozen heart." 

The cake was also a lesson in the art of negotiation, as I refused to use blue food colouring. I convinced E that snow was suitably themed, made two round butter cakes, sandwiched them together with jam and a thin layer of buttercream, slapped a whole lot more buttercream on top and marshmallows around the base. With some blue and white candles, and some printed characters on toothpicks, she was a happy little Elsa.

For party bags we handed out the ingredients to make your own snowman, plus Frozen sticker sheets courtesy of ebay, plus bead hearts made by E.

It was all pretty manic, but E was very happy and has said several times how much fun she had. Which seems like enough to set against a house that may never be glitter-free again.

In case it is of use to anyone, here are where all the internet-stolen goodies came from:

• Elsa crown templates;
• "Do you want to build a snowman" party bag toppers;
• Water bottle labels and cupcake labels (used to make food tags); and
• Happy birthday banner.

Baby C - 10 months

10 months, baby C, where has that gone? I had been meaning to write you a 9 month post and then I realised that today you are 10 months old.

You can crawl all over the whole house. Nothing is safe from your fat hands or your sweet mouth. You will eat anything - a foam penguin's foot, a dried up leaf, cotton thread. We need to do some serious baby proofing, because you can open drawers and jam your fingers in them, chew on the bin bag, tangle yourself in an iPhone cord, pull up on the tv cabinet. Your big sister is extremely excited that you can stand and desperately wants you to be able to walk - she insists that by hefting you about she is "helping" you to learn faster. Just like your big sister you have discovered that the bath is a great height for pull-up practice and bath times have become even more heart stopping than previously.

Although you're happy to eat whatever you find on the floor you're also doing pretty well with the real food. Yoghurt and avocado are good enough that you're willing to eat them from a spoon, everything else you want to cram in yourself. Homemade hot chips, fruit, cheese on toast, pasta, bits of chicken - you want it all. The four new teeth that have appeared rather suddenly over the past two months have helped - now there's four at the top and two at the bottom. You're still having milk four times a day and we somehow need to get that down to just morning and night over the next few months in time for me to go back to work two days a week at the end of April.

Full time school for E has meant we've forced you onto two sleeps a day. Fortunately going to school each morning is a good distraction for being tired, because you would rather go to sleep at about 8.30 but that is just when we need to arrive at school and so you have to wait until 9.00 when we get home. Exhausted by your admiration of the four and five year olds you've been coming home and doing some great morning sleeps. You're still perfect at night time - either feed to sleep or almost, you're then out for 11-12 hours.

E is also desperate for you to talk. You can babble what sound like real words (da-da-da, mum-mum-mum) but I'm not convinced you know they mean anything. D insists you said "ca-ca-ca" when pointing at the cat the other day but it hasn't been repeated.

I am very conscious of only having two more months of you full-time. You are still a daily delight to us, precious girl.

23 February: proud mama footnote: Daddy wins, the "ca-ca" is now distinct, spontaneous when you see the cat walk by, or upon seeing a picture of a cat in a book, or if we ask "who says meow"? So sweet and smart.

Quokka money

E has several money boxes and at various points (birthdays, Christmas etc) has been given money to put in them. She hasn't yet learnt the names/value of the different coins and notes, doesn't have any understanding of how much different things cost, and to date her only shopping has been with the toy cash register, plastic/paper money and pretend food. However, prior to our recent trip to Rottnest she begged to be allowed to take some the money from her money box "in case I see something I want to buy." I thought "why not" and so we stuck all the coins from her various money boxes (about $13) into a little hand bag and packed it amongst her clothes.

When we got over there she was desperate to spend up! Fortunately the general store had a range of souvenirs, toys and magazines as well as food and groceries. After deliberating at length (and lots of mental arithmetic on my part - "if you want the magazine and the magnet, you can't afford the pencil") she chose a quokka snow dome and a fridge magnet with a quokka on it. Surprisingly, she also elected to keep about $3 to spend another time. She was very pleased with herself and since returning home has insisted that anyone who enters the house admires her purchases, and took them to school for news.

D and I have been wondering for some time when we should start giving E pocket money and when we got home decided to take advantage of her sudden interest. We decided that pocket money is a reward earned in exchange for chores, and that the chores should be things that help the whole family, not just things she needs to do to get through a day such as getting dressed, brushing teeth, putting on shoes. We dithered over how much is an appropriate amount, and settled on $2 (maximum) per week. So we now have a chart on the fridge where we record the following:

• Putting dirty dishes in the sink
• Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket
• Sweeping under her and C's chairs after meals
• Putting toys away
• Dusting

The first four are worth 5 cents each time, dusting 15 cents (partly because if she dusts the whole house it takes longer, partly because we wanted to make the weekly maximum $2). We're nearing the end of the second week and so far the chart has been an extremely good motivator. In the first week she earned $1.65 and is on track to earn something similar this week. I detest sweeping under the table after meals and am very happy about only having to do that once or twice a day whilst E is at school! We haven't been to a shop since we started the new system, and I am not sure if finding out how much stuff costs will be a motivator or discouraging, seeing as she isn't going to be able to afford much for a while.

As to why it's "quokka money"? We're not sure if E misheard us, or if it's because she spent her money on quokka related items, but we think it's very funny and so haven't corrected her.

Rottnest holiday

We spent five nights on Rottnest Island over the Australia Day long weekend. 

Packing up was a bit of a hassle, and we went from Hillarys rather than Fremantle which I had not done before, but as soon as we handed our bags over at the edge of the carpark it was all easy. There was much excitement about the ferry ride, and once we arrived, much excitement about everything.

Our house was a "premium view" cottage in Bathurst, near the lighthouse. It was far enough outside the main part of town but still close enough to the shops and eateries to be convenient. We walked and/or scooted everywhere, and it was a lovely break from folding the pram, managing seatbelts and listening to complaints.

View from the front gate

The amount of walking we did was really pretty amazing, given E is not yet five. On our second last day she managed the trek from our place all the way to Geordie Bay via the salt lakes, and back via the Basin, with minimal complaining.

In between all the walking was plenty of beach time, playgrounds, ice creams, beers and barbeques. Good thing we were doing all that exercise!

So many beautiful beaches

E's favourite playground, conveniently situated right next to the bakery and coffee shop.
 Fearless, senseless and straight to the top!

The Rottnest version of child supervision: taken from the wall of the Rottnest Hotel.
The water is about 50m away and is knee deep. E is the pink dot on the far left!

Whilst we were there C conquered crawling and began trying to pull herself up on furniture. We returned home to pull out the baby gates!

Christmas and beyond

After all the effort of coming up with and then acquiring useful, thoughtful gifts for everyone and planning and executing special food, Christmas comes and goes in a couple of days. Makes me wish I was a little person again, whose only job is to write some thank you notes before school goes back! Nonetheless, we did have an enjoyable few days - a big picnic by the river with D's extended family on the 21st, lunch on the 24th with D's immediate family and then lunch with my immediate family on the 25th.

Our small folk were suitably impressed by their loot - or at least E was, C was still mainly oblivious and more interested in eating wrapping paper than gifts. Santa delivered on E's request of "a Frozen movie, a Frozen necklace with a gem showing Elsa and Anna, and a Frozen bracelet." I consequently went from not having seen Frozen at all, to having seen it four times in the four days following Christmas. I still don't quite know what its secret is -  it's practically cocaine for the preschool set - but am willing to concede it's not a bad effort on Disney's part - at least the princess gets rescued by her sister and not a prince, and it makes a mockery of the concept of marrying someone you've just met.

After Christmas we enjoyed having my sister S and husband B around. They shared their time very equitably between the various family members, and the mornings of the two nights they spent with us we enjoyed early morning beach swims at Swanbourne. Both days turned into scorchers, but at 7am the beach was beautiful.

On New Year's Eve we had two of E's friends and their families here for early BBQ dinner. They arrived around 4.30pm, we had finished our sausages, rolls, salad, and chocolate by 6.00pm, everyone went home by 7.30pm and we were in bed by 9.30pm. It may not have been very rock'n'roll of us, but it was perfect - we're finally at the stage where more big kids is less trouble than only one. The three big girls disappeared into E's bedroom immediately upon arrival, with the three year old brother trailing hopefully around after them (alas, he was not wanted and was forced to play with the grownups). They reappeared not long before home time to "put on a performance" of Little Red Riding Hood. All very earnest, except for O's Dad, who had to play the wolf, as there was a last minute panic when they realised they had forgotten to cast a main character (?!) He was not at all earnest, and was comedy gold.

Since then, D is back at work and the girls and I have been treated to a week of gastro. It started with E having a stupendously big spew, all over me, C and the playgroup rug. It was quite dramatic - one minute she was fine, having just finished her lunch, next minute - not fine. The other playgroup mums were lovely about it, offering to help me clean, and holding and changing C (who let me just say was in no state to be held by anyone but me). After the world's biggest cleaning effort we made it home without further incident and E enjoyed a couple of days of convalescence  - icy poles, jelly, unprecedented amounts of tv and iPad.

I am now counting down the remaining two weeks until we spend five nights on Rottnest.

Scribbled on the back of an envelope at the Ben Folds concert

The world is changing. We are ageing. Friends' parents are dying. I recently discovered that Ben Folds - who writes about romance and grief and ordinary people in ways that I feel with resonate with me forever - has been married four times. Lance Armstrong is a drug cheat. In between epitomising family life, Bill Cosby allegedly spent the 1980s molesting 13 young women. My darling husband's signature black hair is thinning.

Life continues. My naughty four year old is singing in a Christmas concert, reading sentences, sobbing on the floor because she wants a coloured ribbon. In her darkened bedroom my baby feeds herself to sleep with such contentment - bliss - etched on her sweet face that I hope never to forget. My husband and I are listening to Ben Folds play with the symphony orchestra and - if I try - I can separate art and personality and he still makes my heart churn and soar and I still know all the words.

When I get home I will sneak in and kiss my babies. My four year old's room will smell slightly funny and she'll be sweaty and oblivious and I'll risk waking up the littlest one, but I'll do it anyway. Because life is happening, moving, passing, here - now.

December excitements

We're waiting for Christmas. We've put up the tree, visited Santa at Myer, each chosen our new decoration for the tree. Very impressed by the Myer Santaland set up incidentally - you line up in a single queue, then go through a door, behind which are multiple little rooms each (presumably) housing their own Santa. When you emerge, having put in your order with the man in red, there is a train to ride. Elves hand out free bags of popcorn and balloons. I know it's all with the aim of encouraging us to buy overpriced photographs and other bits and pieces, but if it's a scam it's a well organised one.

E is super excited by it all. She spent the morning removing most of the decorations from the tree to hang in other places so the rest of the house would "look pretty." Grrrrr. On a slightly different note, she has just departed for her last day of kindy. Where did the year go? How is it that I now have a four year old who can, with only minimal help, read a bedtime story to her sister?

Speaking of the sister, she is well and happy and still rates the 4 year old as the biggest excitement in the house. She has two horrid little teeth, can sit like a champion, babbles "ahhhhhh, mummummum" most endearingly and is working on the crawling.

I am super excited that I have finally finished all our shopping. It starts out being a pleasure and just feels like a chore by the end of it.

I am also excited by the arrival of various friends and family in the next few weeks. All coming home for Christmas/New Year, it fills me with anticipation and pleasure. Hiiiiiiiiii, SuseBrettAnnabelDomSallyNicZacCillianandHelen!

We're staying home for Christmas but looking forward to five nights on Rottnest over the Australia Day weekend. E is full of questions and anticipation - how long will it take to get there on the ferry, is ferry the same as fairy (?!), can we "play Rottnest?" Um yes, ok, how do we do that? We get these beanbags and these cushions and we pile them up like this, Mum! Then we have an island and we can jump on it! I haven't been to Rottnest since I was 18 and am really hanging out for what I hope will be a pretty simple, kinda old fashioned holiday - am I being naive? I'm hoping for sunshine, lots of beach time, afternoon naps, beers at sunset and nothing more complex for dinner than sausages and fish and chips. Any tips from anyone who has been recently welcome!