Sitting.
On Wednesday, the day after Lily’s 7th birthday, she pushes herself from her tummy, up to all 4s, into the sitting position, and sat upright for a long time, unassisted. She has been able to get close to that for a while, but hasn’t given up the support of one hand on the ground. Until today. Such a big girl!

She also has started doing push-ups…I am sure to get buff for the beach…

Valentines Day.
Sadly, Valentines Day is not really celebrated in Australia. There is a small selection of cards to give to a loved one, and a few boxes of chocolates, but that’s about it. I went out looking for Valentines cards for Ty to give to his friends at school, but they don’t do that here. Kind of sad – was such a fun thing when I was a kid. I hope Jay won’t be disappointed when he realizes I didn’t get him anything for V-Day… I would have forgotten about it completely if it weren’t for Auntie Shell and a few Facebook posts.

Date nights!
We are getting hooked up with someone’s au pair who is looking for some extra hours of work. She is cheap (compared to the going rate here), and is willing to come watch the kids every Thursday evening. This will be crazy for us – we have only been away from the kids one night since we have moved here. Not that I don’t love my babies, but Jay and I need some “us” time. Thursday nights are late night shopping, so we might be able to run some errands and go out for a nice dinner that doesn’t involve mid-meal diaper changes, cleaning up puke, and chasing Ty around a restaurant. Really looking forward to this!

Bandit.
Friday morning Ty came into Lily’s room all sleepy-eyed and said, “Mom, is Bandit here?” I told him no, and he asked where he is. He must have had a dream that Bandit was in Australia with us. Sad. :(. So we FaceTimed with Auntie Em and saw Bandit. I know she has her hands full with him (and so does everyone else that she lives with), and we really appreciate that she took on that huge responsibility for us. It is great knowing he is in such good hands.

Sick Day.
Thursday evening Lily slept the car ride home from school, didn’t wake until it was time to eat, went back to bed, and slept all night. When we woke her Friday morning she had a low grade fever. Later in the day I noticed she had some dried blood spots and vomit on her sheet – must have had a bloody nose??? My poor sweet babe. So I kept both kiddos home from school. She was a little more fussy and clingy than normal throughout the day, puked a few times, and took little cat naps. She really just wanted to cuddle with me a lot on Valentines Day…
In between cuddles, I kept Ty entertained by teaching him how to play PIG with the mini basketball hoop. He legitimately won the first game, I came back to win the second. And now he knows how to spell pig. He impressed me with his ability to follow the instructions on his Planes Duplos (with little guidance) to make a little village. Such a smarty!

He helped me make a fruit salad (he loves rock melon (cantaloupe)), and then we made homemade hummus. Turned out delicious.

I tried to do some work throughout the day, but it is nearly impossible with 2 kiddos.
Ty is asleep, Lily will only stay asleep in my arms, so she and I are sitting on the patio watching the magpies, jumping fish, and a lone kayaker.

Weekend.
We are hoping to take the Torrey’s out boating tomorrow (if Lily is up for it), swim lessons, probably pool time, maybe the beach or the park…nothing too exciting planned for the weekend. Really looking forward to Memaw’s arrival on Wednesday!!

G’day mates!!