3 Weeks... almost 4.

Time continues to tick along and with it Lucy starts to lose her newborness and is chubbing up nicely on some good home brand milk. I have no idea how much she weighs now as with Christmas and New Year holidays there's not been the opportunity to weigh her again so that's on the agenda for this week.

I'm loving the snuggley cuddly time with little Lu. It's so nice to have her floppy little self snuggle in and sleep so soundly on my chest. I hope it lasts. Abbey seemed to grow out of it so quickly and hasn't been big on cuddles since. She does treat us every once and awhile and she and I usually sit down and have a little cuddle just after she's woken up from her midday sleep but other than that she's usually too much on the go to stop and snuggle.

Abbey continues to be intrigued by Lucy. She seems to understand who she is and if I ask her if Lucy is awake or where Lucy is she will go and look for her in the cot or in the rocker. She's been pretty gentle with only to odd thump or slap. Lucy is very tolerant of her older sister. And Abbey still plants spontaneous kisses on Lucy which is just lovely to see. Here they are having some play time together though I think Lucy has nodded off again. Abbey must have been practising her counting and it all got a little boring. Christmas morning was delightful with us all piling into bed in the morning. Abbey really enjoyed opening presents. At one stage we wondered if it would be New year before she got through them all as she would rip a little piece of wrapping paper off and then hand it to Ryan to dispose of appropriately and then another little piece. Despite our encouragement of her to just rip into it she was very reserved to start with so we helped her along.

The Christmas/ New Year break has meant having Ryan at home again which has been wonderful for the girls. Lucy has woken up from her newborn slumber in the last week so it's been nice to have a bit more 'interactive' time with her. As you can see Ryan is clearly chuffed! That Elmo t-shirt seems to bring out his inner child =)

Getting the hang of juggling life with two children!Lucy's first bottle feed with dad. And the post milk drunken state. The title of this next photo according to Ryan is 'A rose between two thorns' HAHA!We've also had my little sister Angela visiting which has been fab and so nice for the girls to have some more Aunty time. Abbey missed out on all the relational cuddles with us being in the UK and so we're looking forward to them having more of it when we move back to NZ in March. Here they are at a wildlife park we visited getting friendly with a snake.Abbey is fast approaching the 18mth mark and is teaching us new things about herself and is absorbing more and more each day. She's getting a lot more assertive and at times a little stroppy when she can't have things her way. Usually it's got something to do with food. As in she goes to the pantry and wants you to get her something to eat and you won't. Or she gets given a biscuit and then wants another... and another ... and another. We've had to employ tactics to keep her out of the fridge now too. So far the little safety clip is working but she has tried to pull it off already!

Abbey has also picked up on "no". I'm hoping to catch her on video because it's quite funny the way she says it. It's not just the words but the facial expression and body language and matter-of-fact -ness that accompany it. No other developments in the vocabulary department but she continues to surprise me and how much she understands of what I say or ask her to do.

One of the things I do around meal times is pop her up on a stool next to me as I do the veges or bake. Recently we were baking a cake and Abbey has helping. She rather liked the chocolate mixture and got stuck in and then a little carried away resulting in some great face painting. There's a fantastic video on our facebook profile where she discovers that flour is not really that tasty on it's own and perhaps little finger should stay away!

We've also reached a stage where she's wanting to walk everywhere and not wanting to hold our hand. I've had to put my foot down at times with this one as obviously it's simply not safe. I may well end up buying kiddie reins so that she can still feel like she's going it solo but isn't.On a recent weekend away with Ryan's work we stayed in an old hotel which had a large staircase up to our room. Abbey hasn't had much experience with stairs thus far and decided that she quite likes them. Especially when we can count our way up and down them! Here we are on our hundredth decent down this flight when exploring the rain forest up Baron Gorge. At least she is willing to hold my hand on stairs!Basking in the cool shade while the rest of us take a dip to cool off.A little sisterly bonding..

Well that's all for now folks I hope you enjoyed the photos. Ryan is back to work today so I'm going solo again! I think I'm doing ok though it's currently 7:51am and both girls are up washed and dressed and Abbey is onto breakfast. And I have time to blog but have done none of the above myself! Must make myself presentable to the world.