Biking

Last weekend Adam and I took the girls for a family bike ride. Two days before that we had gone for a short ride, which I am glad that we did, because I cant even remember the last time I rode a bike! So last Sunday we piled the girls into the bike trailer, Adam pulled them along, and off we went. We had found all these bike trails near our house that we didn't even know existed. It was beautiful riding through all bushy paths. I was nervous at first but soon gained more confidence and my butt didn't seem to hurt as much after awhile (I forgot how hard some bike seats can be!) The girls were really good, they love riding in the trailer, and they especially love it when Adam rides fast. I, on the other hand, was struggling to keep up! I didn't realise how unfit I hadn't become, but it felt really good to have a work out. We rode to a park near by and we let the girls get out and have a play while I caught my breath. All in all we rode for over two hours and the girls both ended up falling asleep. The weather had been perfect as well. Queensland winters sure are nice :) I just love being able to wear a tshirt in the middle of winter.
This weekend is supposed to be even warmer so I think we might pack a lunch and head off again!

Mine!

Well Amelia has learned a new word - "Mine"! Everything these days is, "mine, mine, mine!". The other night Adam and I gave the girls a chocolate Tim Tam for desert, I wasn't sure if Amelia would eat all of hers but gave her the whole thing anyway. Usually she would share her food with us (even though quite often we would reject the soggy, sucked piece of food), but that night I asked her for a bite and she just glared at me holding her tim tam close to her chest and said "No, Mine!". Then it a matter of 10 seconds she had eaten the whole thing without making hardly any mess. It was gone and she was happy.

So we are now struggling with this new "mine" business and the tantrums that quite often follow. It seems my little 18 month old is quite advanced, but not necessarily in the way you might think (well I do think she is a bright little button, but I am her mother ;) ). The terrible two's seem to have begun a little early. I remember when Annabel started throwing tantrums when she didn't get her own way, but I don't recall it ever really happening this early.

So now whenever Amelia doesn't get her way she just glares at me (or Adam or whoever), and runs up to the wall and hits it and then sometimes, depending on her frustration, will throw her self on the floor kicking her legs and crying. I must say though, it is quite cute. She is still in that "cute" phase where I'm trying not to smile when she starts. However I do know that this "cute" phase soon runs out and those little tantrums are no longer cute. She still seems so little to me that I find it so funny when she gets cranky like that. This little person knows exactly what she wants and if she doesn't get it she's "not happy, Jan" as they say.

So I have been trying so hard to keep her out of mischief. Yesterday I caught her ripping my agave's out of there pots because apparently they were her "lowlers" (flowers) as she calls them. And then she tore all of the leaves off another plant I had. My garden and pots are not looking that great of late, but I suppose that's why they say "that's why we cant have nice things".
She is also a great climber. I always find her sitting on the bar stools and on top of the counter/bench top in the kitchen. She also pulls down all the gates I have situated around the house to keep her out of things, and I always seem to find her in our bathroom sucking on my toothbrush. Its really lovely having a snotty nosed kid sucking on your toothbrush.

Another thing is I always seem to find her running around the house with no pants on. She will have her top on and shoe's and socks, but no pants or nappy. They will be in a heap on the floor somewhere, or she will be in the middle of taking them off. It doesn't bother her that it might be cold, or that she might piddle everywhere and I will have to clean it up. Oh, the joys of children!

But Annabel seems to be getting somewhat easier. I suppose its more that I can reason with her a bit more now, and because Amelia is a little monkey now, Annabel doesn't seem as challenging. But in saying that we do have our moments frequently, and when they do happen I tend to think that she is the hardest to deal with. I suppose there will always be something with both of them!

"Margy & Grumpy's" house

We've had a busy couple of weeks, and I haven't updated for awhile. 2 weeks ago I flew down to my parents with the girls for 1 week to get a bit of a "home fix" and to meet my new little nephew Hamish. I've been feeling a bit homesick lately and miss everyone, so it was nice to go back for a little awhile, and spend time with family. Except my Mum ended up in the hospital for the whole week I was there! She is ok though and much better now, but the timing was so bad for her. But we visited her everyday so I was glad of that. We also went and visited little Hamish! He is so tiny and so cute! I held him and it was like holding nothing (especially after holding my two!). The girls both loved him. Annabel just wanted to pick him up and carry him around, and couldn't understand why she couldn't. Amelia just kept going up to him and saying "hello" with a big grin on her face. I only went and saw him a couple of times though because the day after we got there Amelia got sick and we didn't want to spread any germs.

The girls had fun at my parents though. My Dad has been attracting birds and he has about 50 or more birds that come to the house every morning and afternoon for a feed. They are mainly rainbow lorakeets and they feed right out of your hand. The girls loved it! Annabel was feeding them and Amelia just ate the bread herself and tried to pick the birds up. At one stage she had a handful of feathers! The birds didn't really seem to care though.

Both our flights were 6am flights so we were all tired going and coming back. It was nice to get back to Adam though, the girls and I missed him heaps!

Saturday I took Annabel to see her very first movie at the cinema - Ice Age 3. I was a bit worried thinking that maybe she wouldn't sit still through the whole 90mins, but she did! She loved it! We took in some snacks and she thought it was just the best. She really loved "the big tv" as she kept saying. I really enjoyed it as well. It was fun being able to take just Annabel out, and now that she is getting bigger we can actually do some fun things and enjoy one anothers company. Adam stayed at home with Amelia while she napped. He had a bad cold so he wasn't feeling up to doing much anyway.
Adam felt alot better yesterday afternoon so we thought we should go out to eat, we were both craving Mexican. But after looking at all the menu's online we decided it was to expensive and it never tastes that good over here - Ausmex, as I like to call it, just isn't quite up to scratch. So we thought we could do a better job ourselves so went out and bought all the ingredients and made some delicious nachos and yummy margarita's! The girls loved it (well the nachos anyways) and we were all stuffed. It made us think of all those yummy mexican restaurants we would frequent so often in Iowa and really miss!!! If we do happen to make a trip over soon, mexican is high on the priority list!

Adam's Birthday photo's

I have been meaning to add these photos for over a week now! They are photo's of Adam and the girls on his birthday. Annabel helped me make the beautiful red birthday cake! Then the girls had fun dressing up as fairies and jumping all over Daddy. But alas there are no photos of the girls helping to blow out the candles because silly me forgot to buy some more candles! Not to worry, Adam only cried for a few minutes and then he was ok ;)