I want to ride my bicycle

Isabel had her first taste of "wheeled" freedom the other day. And it felt.... backwards. While Eloise was taking a nap (I LOVE when Eloise takes a nap), I threw Isabel on Eloise's toddler push bike to see if she could even grasp the concept. It was so fun to watch. Isabel certainly got the concept and absolutely LOVED pushing herself around the house. She is, however, yet to master the art of steering (some say I am yet to master that art, also) and of going forward. She scooted backwards around that house like a pro, but couldn't bring herself to enjoy going forward when I pushed her. As a result - she got stuck in a few corners.

Caterpillar Update

I went out to check out my caterpillars the other day, only to find there seemed to be two more fat caterpillars hanging around - plus a few baby ones. I decided then that I'd probably have to get rid of them, it seemed like an epidemic. On the upside, one of them had built itself a cocoon (which was very exciting).

However, the next day brought some sunshine and a big surprise. No more cocoons and no fat caterpillars! Methinks the birds were enjoying the sunshine and had themselves a fat caterpillar feast. Hooray for mother nature!

We have a Seagull in our house

Despite being given a crap load of her own food, Isabel will always seek out other people's food (especially ours) and stand waiting, looking at the said person and their food until she is "thrown" a morsel. It doesn't matter what she is doing, there is nothing too fun to distract her from the fact that someone is eating and she isn't.

So as Dallas and I sit down to eat our unhealthy "fast" food, Isabel will tear herself away from her blocks/books/dvds/tv/phone/recycle bin, do her "gollum" crawl to where we are sitting and do all sorts of funny, whiny faces until she gets what she wants. We try not to indulge her too much as I don't want to get mummy guilts too often - I've seen those shows with all those obese children.

I just need to point out that Isabel is wearing different clothes in each shot - we didn't feed her all this crap in one night, let alone one week.

Snugglers v Huggies - PG rating (Nudity)

The Petersens have recently had the opportunity to do a bit of creative budgeting. Because we planned so many vacations this year (when we were a little better off financially), we've had to resort to a few canned meals. As a result of our creative budgeting, we've changed the brand of nappies (diapers for the americans) that we place on our little cherub's bottom.

Our previous brand of nappy was Huggies, which we've been very happy with. They are, however, the most expensive brand on the market. In the interest of tight money, we switched to snugglers (more nappies for the money). The change has been uncomfortable - to say the least.

Snugglers are less absorbent and give Isabel terrible nappy rash - and we have to use more nappies per day than we would if she was in Huggies. I have documented her latest nappy rash and added a full frontal nude photo of Isabel just for kicks and giggles.

Edited:  Got a bit scared when I saw someone had arrived at my blog searching for "Naked two year old".  Yeah, I've deleted these pictures.

You can't plant me in your penthouse, I'm going back to my plough

This is a special post to say a final goodbye to the Johnsons. They made us feel very welcome when we first moved to Sydney. Now they are leaving their Potts Point apartment with the fabulous view of the Sydney Harbour (much to the chagrin of most of Enmore Ward!) and planting themselves in Cleveland, Ohio.

We went to their goodbye party last Saturday night. We did take our camera, but being the egotists that we are, managed to only get two photos - both of them of ourselves! So that's what this photo is from, we hope that Misty posts some more photos of the party once she's got herself settled.

SO - goodbye Johnsons!! We will keep an eye on your blog and hope we get to see you again.

love, the Petersens

While you were blogging

While I was creating my last post, Isabel started to do a new trick that I haven't seen before.

Whenever I or Dallas is on the phone with our mum's we usually hold the phone up to Isabel's ear so she can talk to Grandma (Jill or Julie). The phone is then swatted away by Isabel's chubby hand and there is usually an attempt to eat the phone. Isabel must have been craving some granny chat because she pressed the talk button on the phone and put it up to her ear.

Apparently you can hear through your eye

And now it's in the mouth - where it should be

What's eating ........ my Parsley?

Thanks to the recent month of rain - my herb garden has revived itself. It was doing quite nicely up until a few days ago when I noticed that the tops of the nice bushy parsley had started to disappear. At first I suspected our overzealous neighbours of jumping the fence and stealing my fantastic parsley. This thought didn't last long as I realised that there was really no way two sixty year old Greeks are going to be that hard up for parsley.

Then, as an outing out of the house today, Isabel and I decided to have a closer inspection of the parsley. It came as quite a shock to find a FAT caterpillar a little too close (to my fingers) for comfort. On further inspection, I found a second little moocher!

So the question is, what do I do? I couldn't bear to kill the little devils because they are so fat (like Isabel) and green (unlike Isabel) and could turn into beautiful butterflies (what am I, a hippy??). And let's be honest, my herb garden was close to death before the rain anyway..... BUT I so desperately want to succeed at growing ... something!

While I was taking the photo, Isabel decided to destroy the rest of my herbs

"Saturday is a special day"

We love Saturdays. Not only does it mean one more day until we get to spend the entire day with daddy, it is also music video day. On a rare occasion when I need a bit of noise to keep me company, I'll turn on the tv on Saturday morning. The only thing that is on the box on Saturdays is music videos and cartoons. When the cartoons get too annoying, I'll switch to the music videos. Of course, because there is so much going on in the music videos, Isabel is mesmerized. She also LOVES dancing, so she keep the beat with her little body while she watches. We've been lucky enough not to be accosted by the half naked dancing ladies ones yet.

Look at the length of that hair! We could almost style that!

On another note, I think Isabel has been in the recycling again

Just call me spiderwoman

I had a blonde moment today - hard to do while I'm brunette, so when it happens it's usually a big blonde moment.

I looked after Eloise today. Eloise is 2 and LOVES to talk. Eloise likes to think she is the Eloise on TV, so she introduces herself like the TV Eloise "Hello, my name is Eloise and I am SIX!" Isabel came along, because Isabel likes Eloise even though Eloise likes to boss Isabel.

So when an Austar Salesman pressed the Unit 3 buzzer, I had two little girls and a lot of blocks surrounding me and the last thing on my mind was how to answer the door. If you open the front door of unit 3, you can see who is buzzing. So, not knowing exactly how to buzz someone in, I opened the front door of unit 3 and before I knew it, the door had shut itself behind me, promptly locking the deadlock.

Slight panic was my immediate emotion. I had just locked myself out of an apartment leaving a two and one year old in there to fend for themselves. Who knows what would happen to them. Isabel was due for a nap and therefore not going to last long (or so I thought) without her mother and Eloise..... well Eloise can CLIMB! Lucky Postman Pat was keeping them subdued. I also had my mobile phone with me, so I immediately called Dallas and asked him to call Rae (Eloise's mum) to see if there was a spare key around.

Not wanting to just wait around for a call from Rae, I decided to scope out the back porch to see if it would be possible to climb up. Unit 3's lounge room is one level up, but the ground has a slight incline, so as I walked toward the back of the block of units I got a little closer to the porch. I was still far away from getting anywhere near climbing up to the back porch, so I borrowed a large garbage bin and managed to get a hold of the wall. At one point, I was just hanging mid air. If you know anything about me and heights, you'll know that we aren't the best of friends, but it seems adrenaline and motherly instincts kicked in and I scaled that wall like a pro.

Once I was on the back porch, I thought I was in like flynn. Unfortunately, flynn wasn't there and all the doors were locked like the front door. The only difference now was I could see the girls and they could see me. I stood at one of the large glass doors and started to talk to Eloise. She, however, was more interested in Postman Pat and completely ignored me for quite some time. Isabel thought it was quite amusing that mummy was outside talking to her through the door and she stood at the other glass door banging her little fists on it and laughing hysterically. Finally Eloise tore herself away from Postman Pat and announced to me that the door was locked and she couldn't open it. It seemed I had only made the situation worse.

I did eventually find a window that was open a crack. I procured a stick from an obliging tree and managed to manipulate my arm and stick through the crack and flick up the dowling that was preventing the window from opening any further. I crawled through the kitchen window to the squeals of delight from both girls. Both of them none the wiser.

Rae only received my message as she was pulling into their driveway. The upside to the whole ordeal - I was able to give Rae and Murray a detailed analysis of their burglar weak spots. I hope they appreciate it because my fingers hurt!

"Oh your fingers hurt, well now your backs gonna hurt too, Grandma, because you just pulled landscaping duty. Anybody elses fingers hurt?!"

I know it lowers my IQ, but I watch it anyway.

It's time I came out and admitted - I watch Big Brother. I have no rational explanation about why I watch it and yet I find myself watching it each and every evening. It could be that the only other options are "Home and Away" or "Two and a half men". But even when there is something else on, I have this strange urge to watch Big Brother instead.

This isn't really a problem when I'm enjoying it in the privacy of my own home, because no one can see that I am doing it. But when I'm out socialising with others (which isn't all that often), I go and lower people's high opinion of me by wanting to discuss the offending show! I am fully aware that this show is lowering my IQ every minute I watch it - but it's my way of relaxing so I'll keep doing it.

What's your secret tv show?

The Life Aquatic

Before J&J left to go home, we visited the Sydney Aquarium. We think that Isabel may have been scared of the dark lighting and those googly-eyed fish, because she spent most of the visit making a constant "uh-uh-uh" whining noise (see video below). She did, however, LOVE the little penguins - who doesn't? Here's a few photos.

Melbourne

I've been meaning to put a nice little post about my wonderful trip to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road on here for a couple of days now. Unfortunately it all kind of appeared in the form of an abusive post about Facebook. The photos were posted underneath a scathing (yet short) diatribe of the evil that is Facebook.

So, here's my effort at amending that. My "quick" story about my wonderful birthday trip to Melbourne.

Dallas' Mum (Julie) and sister (Juliet) - J&J - were able to visit from the US for 11 days and as part of the visit we spent about three and a half days in Victoria. We left Sydney on Wednesday afternoon, arrived in the "Jetstar Shed" and were soon on our way down the Great Ocean Road. Our plan was to drive halfway to the 12 Apostles (Apollo Bay) and then the next morning continue on to the 12 Apostles. The drive was GORGEOUSLY BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't rave enough about the beauty of this place.... it is by far in my list of top places to visit.

The hotel we stayed at is called the Waterfront Inn. Dallas managed to procure a spa room for all of us (J&J and the Petersens). Instead of breaking my back by leaning over the HUGE spa "wall", I decided to take a bath with Isabel. We were having such a fun time until mummy (me) decided to try something different. Thinking I could kill two birds with one stone and have a relaxing spa bath as well as bathing Isabel, I turned the jets one. Unfortunately, I hadn't filled the spa with enough water (I was conscious of not drowning my child) and Isabel's face was directly beside one of the jets. An almighty scream was released from my little baby's mouth as a stream of water hit her eye and all her cruel mother could do was giggle maniacally. My dear husband ended up being my hero and pressing the button to turn off the jets. A quick cuddle and I had Isabel's forgiveness.

The next day was another beautiful day of driving along gorgeous coastline. We had the pleasure of stopping to take photos of the 12 apostles and then it was on to Melbourne. We stayed in Chinatown (an omen of things to come?) in the Punt Hill Apartments (yet another good deal for our travel agent). While in Melbourne we visited Melbourne Gaol, The national Gallery of Victoria, the bakery where brodie and I bought some some "little boys", LOTS of stores and of course celebrated my birthday on Friday 30th May. Richard and Patrice came along with us to a Tepanyaki restaurant. And what a fun time it was.... eating deep fried prawn legs, egg being thrown at us, catching a stack of bowls, having our eyebrows singed and trying to keep Isabel awake and happy.

All in all, we had heaps of fun and Isabel got to spend plenty of time with J&J! - See photos below.

Facebook should DIE - oh hang on, it already has

Ok... my subject line isn't very charitable, but I've just spent the good part of my evening trying to upload recent photos of my birthday. I have already tried this task twice before only to be unsuccessful. So this time was the last straw. Poor Brodie, all she wants to do is see the fun she missed out on - and I can't seem to give it to her.

Well, just for Brodie, I am going to upload a few photos in this post. This means this post will be a little long. My apologies. I hope you enjoy the photos, though.

Tepanyaki people like laughing at their customers, so they put a bib on them

Then they throw egg at our faces

Isabel was a couple of hours past her bedtime

At the 12 Apostles

Another photo at the 12 Apostles

Isabel found a friend in Herman the lamb

The hotel we stayed at in Melbourne even turned down Isabel's "bed" - CUTE!

Eating the deep-fried prawn legs - During my tepanyaki birthday dinner

On the City Circle Tram

On the Great Ocean Road

We took a few photos at this spot - I was honked at while making my poses

Isabel did really well on our LONG car trip

We stayed at Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road

Near the ocean - surprisingly

Our family drunk

As a perfect family should, the Petersens recycle a lot of their garbage. We are (unfortunately) still trying to figure what should and shouldn't be put in the recylce bin - Grandma Jill got very cross with us for putting pizza boxes in the recycle bin. However, we are striving to do our best in the recycle department and as a result have a separate bin for the recyclables in the kitchen.

Isabel particularly enjoys the ins and outs of recycling and will frequently "sort" our recycling for us - this means pulling everything out and leaving it on the kitchen floor. Before you start dry retching at the thought of the Petersens preparing their food in a quasi garbage dump, let me assure you that everything is washed out or just plain clean cardboard boxes - otherwise we wouldn't allow Isabel the pleasure of sorting.

Last night as Dallas made dinner and I washed the dishes, Isabel started her usual routine of "sorting". The glass bottles made a particularly nice loud sound on the tiled floor. I turned around to find she had assumed the position of a drunk and then continued to roll around on the floor with her bottles. We managed to get a good photo of her and the garbage bin in the background, like a true drunk.

Indy - Our Hero

Before leaving for Melbourne last Wednesday, we decided to go to the Gold Class Cinemas where Dallas works. If you've been living in a cave in the middle of the wilderness, you wont know that the Indiana Jones movie was just released. So because the Gold Class movies and the Indiana Jones movie are both special, it was only fitting we put them together.

If you haven't had the pleasure of sitting in Gold Class cinema's, I'll try to explain to you the wonder that is Gold Class. It's like the first class of the movie experience. You can tell them when you want your food brought to you and they have the biggest reclining chairs I have ever had the pleasure of sitting in. Aside from the luxuries of Gold Class, it's very practical when you can't find a babysitter and have to bring child along. It's the only place that will allow a stroller and you and she can both fit very comfortably on the couch.

So, Isabel, Dallas, Julie, Juliet and I all went to the Gold Class cinema to watch Indiana Jones on Tuesday.... Isabel LOVED it. Of course we already knew she is an avid movie watcher, but we managed to get a photo of her just staring at the screen, which she did for about 30 minutes straight. After that she got a bit tired and went to sleep in my arms (perfect child? maybe).

Well, I've been waiting for a photo from a different camera, but it looks like I'm not going to get it until after the end of June - so watch this space for a picture of Isabel glued to the big screen.