At the bottom of the Garden

Check it out, these were taken 10 minutes ago! Bought this cool bottle for Bryn last week, the top compartment (the clear part) is for storing snacks and has a flip top lid, while the straw (which folds down when not in use) goes through the top compartment into the bottom compartment for drinks... Thusly, toddlers can manage snacks and drink with one easy container, not having to worry about juggling two and possibly spilling the contents (do I sound like an ad yet?)...

Anyhoo, B just couldn't get the hang of this new contraption, specifically the sucking through the straw part...

So, anyway, just a while ago, he gets a hold of Erik's drink glass containing reminants of rice milk, and has a swig, from all the smacking of his lips I could tell he LIKED the rice milk, so I poured a little into his sippy cup (previously only used for ebm and water), and he gulped it down! (it was only a tiny bit) So, then I put a bit into his new drink bottle with some water mixed in, and lo a…

Freebirthing
The subject of freebirthing (unassisted child birth), has recently come up on AB, and I've found myself revisiting the subject, reading sites and blogs on it that I'd previously checked out. I had another look at the Autonomous Birth blog...

Ok, one assumption behind free birthing is that birth is part of the sexual continuum, and hold the same level of intimacy between the woman and her child, or the woman, her child and her partner, as the act which created the child.

On an entry I just read there was a description of the blogger's first understanding of this sacred intimacy when she attended a friend's birth and witnessed the friend labouring in the embrace of her partner, and the blogger realised the feeling that she should not be there, that this was an intimate time. Now, the blogger isn't naive enough to assume the reader would take that feeling alone as the legitimation of freebirthing as the ultimate birth process, so she shows that that, indeed,…

Went over to Jayne's today for an aromatherapy party... Tried to get some shots of all the kids there... I found out it's harder to take decent photos of kids you don't know particularly well... Which is why I got plenty of my kids and Jayne's kids, but proportionately less of the other kids (I have them, just don't feel like showing them off)...

Time to take the camera off auto settings and learn a little bit about the manual settings... This morning I had a play with ISO and WB... It's hard because I can barely see what the settings are on the camera! Don't know what they really mean either, so just trying to get a "feel for them" so to speak, by trying them out... Here are a few shots I got... None of there have been digitally altered...

Bryn (like Luey) always sticks his tongue out while concentrating...

Looking a bit vacant, hehehe..

This one is a little blurry, but I liked the shape and contrast of Luey's face against the couch. Luey have a very ethereal quality to his looks (I think)...

This is Erik feigning startled, LOL, he's such a little actor!

Luey spots something interesting out the window...

I just love the shape of Bryn's hands!

We took the boys to the local miniature railway today. The weather was great, so that was a blessing. Thanks to Jen for the heads up on a lovely pathway that would take us directly there from one of our local streets, too! We had a lovely walk.

The boys really enjoyed riding the miniature trains, they went on two rides each (at $2 per ride per person, it's VERY inexpensive fun!) with Dave and I taking turns taking them (so we each got a ride as well, the big kids that we are!)... Then there was a lunch of pies and sausage rolls!

Grabbed a few photos, but unfortunately most of them didn't turn out (that's what you get when you're legally blind and can't really tell if you're in focus or not looking through the lense...). Got a few ok shots though. Had a bit of a play with them in photoshop pushing the colour up and whatnot (seems to be the thing to do atm, LOL).. I'm espeically happy with the photo of Dave and Bryn (so hard to get a decent photo of Da…

Some photos from today...

Luey read, taken without flash (I have to learn how to do that apeture thing magiggy...)

Bryn playing with a puzzle...

This is the look you get from your one year old when you say, "Hey! Not for bubba!" in a sing-songy kind of way...

Luey trying to get a different perspective on Bryn's toys...

Bryn trying to figure out what the bigger boys do with these plastic disc thingies... He ended up trying to juggle them...

Beautiful smiley boy!

Ooooh, finally got a good silhouette, and all my chance, Luey just happened to be mucking about on the couch with the sax and the lighting was just right!

Bryn just loves the music and lights in his FP gumball machine!

Luey trying to thread my camera's usb cord through the gumball machine, argh!

Been struggling with this for a few weeks, probably since Erik freaked out over the wolf killing that other animal in the documentary a few weeks and him saying he didn't want to hurt animals and didn't want to eat meat anymore...

Anyway, so since then all these thoughts have been swimming in my head. I feel like somehow I'm failing him, or being hypocritical, because i totally understand where he is coming from, and yet because I like the taste of dairy, and occassionally chicken or fish, I ignore what I KNOW about how the vast majority of animals are treated by humans in the process of making them our food. I'm mean, let's face it, there IS NO "humane" way to breed an animal for the purpose of killing it...

I struggle with this...

I love that Erik has this sensitivity. I don't want to be the person who encourages him (even passively) to become desensitised to the plight of animals on this planet.

Even just drinking milk, I KNOW that in order to harv…

Not content with the "Yes, Dad!" incident yesterday morning, Bryn exercised his vocal chords AGAIN yesterday afternoon... This time he was playing with Erik on the floor near the fire place and then Erik wanted to do something else, so got up and walked out of the lounge, at which time Bryn exclaimed, "Oak! Oak!"...

Hehehehe, "Oak" actually has family significance, because my grandmother on my mother's side used to call herself an old Oak, standing strong, but lonely... We joke that now she has passed, Mum is the old Oak in the family now, but it seems Bryn has different ideas about that!

Not quite 1yr and 1 week today, and Bryn spoke his first phrase (not a sentence because it didn't contain a SVO combo, merely an O...)... Dave was in the kitchen, and Bryn was at the gate chatting away to him in baby babble as he is prone to do several times a day... Dave is good at keeping up a "conversation" with Bryn (learned to do this with Erik and Luey, of course), so then he asks Bryn a question. I can't remember what is was, maybe something like, "Are you very busy talking to Dad this morning, Bubba?" and clear as crystal Bryn replied, "Yes, Dad!"

I think we must have all gone into shock, because the house was suddenly silent and four pairs of eyes looked like plates, and then suddenly there was all this commotion as we all kind of went, "Did you hear that???" and "He said, 'Yes, dad!'!!!" and so on...

We think it just slipped out of him.

We know that babies talk inside their heads, long before verbalising words…

We've had some beautiful days here lately! You can really feel that Spring is just around the corner. The pagan sabbath welcoming spring was just about two weeks ago, and the first calender day of Spring will be in another 9 days. For me, I've also believed that Spring starts at the equinox on the 21st of September...

Was inspired by the sunshine today to go out and take a few shots of the plants in the garden, while they're looking so fresh and full... Those of you who know my garden will know these photos don't actually reflect my garden very well... Anyone else looking at these pics might be forgiven for thinking we have this lush bounty of plants that any horticulturalist would be proud to call her own, not so... We have a few plants, and a bit of patchy grass, but this new camera is wonderful, so clear and sharp and just makes everything looks so rich and lucious!!!

Enjoy!

Just letting you all know, I've started a new weightloss blog, because I want to focus my energies a bit more for the next four months, leading up to my 35th birthday, and I want to process the stuff that's been galloping around my mind during the massive changes I've been experiencing over the past few months, but I don't want all that to detract from this blog, which I feel is more about my family life, hobbies, other thoughts, not about losing weight etc...

Anyway, there's a link over to your right in my links section if you feel like sticky beaking at my weightloss journey :)...

Well, I finally tackled the baby's drawers this morning. Having off-loaded my terry nappies onto a couple of other mums, I had a spare drawer to divide B's clothes into, and boy was that job OVERDUE... These pictures show only about 2/3s of his clothing, the other third being in the wash... I REALLY have to stop buying clothes for this child!!! I packed up a bunch of size 00s and 0s... I know I should sell them or off-load them, but... I dunno, I'm not ready yet...

From the left to the right... Singlets and socks, tees, longsleeved tees, polo shirts...

Left to right... Footwear, leggings (half of which are int he wash), light jackes and sleeveless jackets.

left to right... Sleepsuits (which he hardly ever wears), shorts, pants/jeans, hoodies...

I actually surprised myself at how little he seemed to have in the was of pinks and red and purples... He actually has a lot more then this (as pink and purple are my fave colours on him), but because they're my fave colour…

I just had to pop this LO in here because I was so happy with it. When I took this photo of Erik I knew it was special, but when I saw it on the computer, and later played with it (putting shadow around his chin, and blacking out the mask on his forehead, I KNEW I'd captured Erik's essence!

Many people don't see this side to Erik, but I feel it every day. It can be hard to detect amongst the high jinx and incessant chatter, but this boy is soulful, a deep thinker, and even deeper feeler. He connects with everyone he meets on a very deep emotional level, and feels what they are feeling. Sometimes he doesn't understand the feelings he senses in other, and then he tries to get them to clarify their feelings by pushing them to act on their emotions. Sometimes people feel overwhelmed by him because of this, as he reflects back to them their own emotions - sometimes emotions they themselves are yet not aware of.

He has done this to me many times.

Erik is never passive on a…

Ok, bear with me, I'm going to be a bit camera obsessed for a while I think...

Laura and her boys came over today for a trip to the park amongst other things, and I got some lovely shots of all the boys... Here are some of my favourites from today...