Our little Aussie Battler

It's been just over a week since the great tooth incident. Mia could care less about her new look, unlike her aesthetics obsessed Safta (Grandma). She's not satisfied in projecting all her insecurities on to her own children, she's thinking bigger picture, lets screw up many generations to come!

I kid you not, she wants Mia to wear a mouth plate to 'correct' her unsightly new smile (a' la beauty pageant tart)! So being the dedicated daughter I addressed the situation (natural and affordable!):More importantly we must get on to the tooth fairy who still hasn't come. Her PA did advise that since the teeth were fair welled prematurely there will be some delay as she had Mia slotted in for sometime next year..... Not sure what she'll do, we don't want her to set too high an expectation with anything too lavish and money seems so boring, any suggestions???

Had my very first single mother night last week when Luke went away on camp. We started off well, taking full advantage of the glorious weather and headed to the park. I over loaded myself (as I often do so naturally) and took Mia, her mini pram, 2 bears, Poppy in her pram and Oscar. Mia was fine until we had to head home. She then delivered a tremendous tantrum and I ended up pushing the 2 prams, Poppy in the baby bjorn, the bears and half of Mia's clothes in the large pram and Oscar and Mia dragging their feet behind me... aggggh! Managed to restore order at home and even get the girls to sleep fairly smoothly. However, at 3:00AM Mia decided it was party time, woke Poppy up and we were all up till 5:00AM when I eventually snuggled up with Mia in her bed. As annoying and exhausting as it was, there was something deliciously sweet in sharing the room with my little girls for the night.

Lukey was very sympathetic and spoiled me with a gorgeous gift from Mimco for my night of hard labour.

I did treat myself (or more correctly was treated to) a girls lunch on Saturday, not to mention an overdue visit to Scullary Maid to continue my Masters in Martha Stewart-ness. Can't wait to use my new piping bag!

And on Sunday it was of course the girls' chance to spoil their Dad. Mia was so excited about Luke's gift (no, we didn't buy him a bit of 'yeah yeah', it's a wig Anna brought over, I had to share this with you) two polo shirts, and our outing to a cafe called "Taste" for brunch. This cafe was superb, great food, service and super child friendly. Mia and Poppy were on their best behaviour with Poppy sleeping for most of our time there. This is her when she finally emerged.

In the afternoon Safta redeemed herself and looked after the girls while Luke and I had some us time. We were so shagged and struck with hay fever that we decided to head to the fashion capital (yes I know, boring). Anyway, we walked around aimlessly, bought some stuff for the girls and transported ourselves back in time by introducing each other to the perfumes and eau de toilettes we each wore in the 80's (Luke- Jazz, and I -Anais Anais). Being Father's Day, Luke got new eau de toilette: Hugo Boss XY (how very anti-Semitic of him).

You win some you lose some

Before I fill you in on the latest, once again, thank you for all your gorgeous feedback about the blog. A standout was a comment from my cousin Dana about Mia looking rather Polish post-makeover - I must agree, and I feel your pride Dana!

Back on to the topic of teeth.

While Poppy is most probably teething, Mia has lost a couple of teeth on Sunday morning. An excitable run towards Poppy, she slipped and accidentally bit into this chair (you can actually see the teeth marks!). Tears, screaming and lots of blood ensued. She calmed down on the way to the hospital as Luke reminded her of boyfriend Charlie's eye accident, which shifted her concern from her sore mouth to Charlie's eye.

More than two hours in emergency, and she was finally seen to and given the all clear. She was so brave and calm, not to mention proud when one of the teeth fell out on it's own as she walked out of the hospital. A partially toothless smoker gave her a congratulatory wink and a smile as she held her tooth out in front of her.

This morning, after Ballet, Poppy in tow, we headed to the dentist. Again, she was extraordinary. She listened intently to the dentist, showed off her new smile, and more surprising than anything else, allowed the dentist to stick a pair of pliers into her mouth and pull out the other affected tooth, which was a little wobbly and sitting at 90 degrees! She only flinched, not a single tear. This is seconds later with her enormous new sticker on her chest (and the bag with her two teeth).

I felt compelled to take her out for an ice cream this afternoon. I may as well call it trash-arvo. There we were at Chaddy, along with the population of a small European nation when we passed by this carousel.... ewehhhhhhh I detest them! I refuse to put money in, but others clearly don't and well, I also find it impossible to pull Mia off when they do, so Mia enjoyed this ride thoroughly and for the first time ever, the offending parent accepted my $ coin as a gesture of my politeness but not appreciation.

We balanced trash-arvo out with a touch of nature admiration when we spotted this most vivid of rainbows when we got home.

Further on Sunday, Mia & Poppy moved in together! Hopefully it's the start of something beautiful. It's clear to me that we naturally crave to re-live aspects (and believe me, only very delicately selected ones) of our childhood and the girls sharing a room is one of mine.

I fondly remember special times together with (brother), and also with (cousin), intimate chats, giggles under the covers and not to mention outrageous fights....It's all part of it and I really hope that it is the beginning of a gorgeous and life long friendship of this sisterhood. Mia was beside herself with excitement and kept saying "Poppy is my friend", and Poppy too appears to be loving her new cot, not to mention the musical Noah's Ark that Mia kindly handed over to her as her 'welcome to my room' gift. Mia now has a good reason to believe she is living the Mary Poppins lifestyle (sans the super nanny) with her and Poppy sharing a room just like Jane and Michael. So according to Mia, that is in fact their new names, Mia-Jane, Poppy-Michael.... oh, and I'm Mary and Luke is Bert.

Of course it wasn't all gorgeousness, Mia had a nightmare and woke up Poppy with her screams, both Luke and I were up for an hour, and 2nd night, Poppy decided to call in for room service at 3:00 after being an established sleep-througher. I'm hoping we can persevere with this but the option of separate rooms is always there if we need it - we'll see how we go.

Here comes the sun!

Wow! A week without a computer and a couple of hours without a mobile phone, and you can easily feel like you've fallen off the side of the planet. Our computer died very suddenly last weekend and with general juggling of all things work and family, didn't get a chance to get it sorted till the end of the week. Luke was praying it provided the perfect excuse to get an Imac.... You prayed to the wrong God Luke (another example that we are the chosen people) and the computer was resurrected by a local technician.

This past week brought us some much anticipated sunshine and we made the most of it. A visit to Central Park post ballet, painting outside, Oscar walks and coffee & lunch at the Botanic Gardens with Bron & Eadie, just fabulous! We managed to tire Mia out and it showed. This is her striking in defiance and deciding that the side of the path is perfectly proper for a spot of drawing.There is more sun guaranteed to come in September as we have booked a holiday to Queensland! So much to look forward to.
1. Quality time with Sophie & Pete
2. Sun, Sun and more sun
3. Mia's first plane trip she can actually enjoy and remember! I can't wait to see her little face
4. Less clothes! So tired of the layers, can't wait to have some skin to skin, particularly with Poppy.
5. The simple pleasures that come from a change of scene....

I must say Luke is very good at reminding me that even when it's cloudy outside, we have the sun shining inside.... just look at this (this is how Poppy actually wakes up in the morning).


I feel compelled to digress here and advise we're in the midst of a very special few minutes, both girls are asleep!!! It's so quiet and peaceful and calm and we find ourselves looking at photos of the girls..... it's nuts! Anyway, once I truly realised the beauty of this moment, I celebrated by doing what is forbidden when they're awake... I ate chocolate cake and did a bit of this (note my new leisure suit):

Oops, Mia has awoken and just saw these shots. She was very concerned as to why I'm dancing on the couch, and promptly advised me that it's: "not nice'' ("lo yaffe'" in Hebrew).

More milestones were reached this past week. Mia discovered my makeup (of course she has seen it many times, but has never really had the opportunity to lay her little curious hands on it). So with her new found fine motor skills proceeded to beautify herself (perhaps beautify isn't the right word?).

And Poppy has started to make some new sounds (moved from grrrrrr to ooooooohh and that gorgeous stationery swimming thing on her tummy with arms and legs bouncing and kicking about), not to mention I gave her her first haircut! As you can see, we had some unsightly long bits to deal with, and look at her now!

Jew Wednesday

It's the end of another Jew Wed. On Wed I feel I really get in touch with my inner Jew by driving the girls to Gan Gani.

As we enter the ghetto of the bad drivers, we pass by some of Melbourne's biggest Jewish icons: Caulfield Park (and all the 'katchkes' walking the 'Jew-Track'), Balaclava Rd, Beth Rifkah College and so on.

At Gan Gani we mingle and pretend we're part of the 'community' and often discover mutual acquaintances. I have to say, it's a very warm and welcoming environment and all three of us have a great time.

We've also started a tradition where on the way home we stop off at a Jewish Institution called 'Hamisha'. It's a great Jewish bakery with little customer service but delicious goodies. I recommend the chocolate babka. Hamisha is also a superb place to build up your 'naches' account as there are always quality Boobas there who generously gush over the girls.

(I failed to capture us at the bakery, but this shot should give you an idea of Poppy's facial expression when we meet the adoring Boobas ; they do in fact look a little like Babushkas.)

Mia has conniptions over anything chocolate coated and sweetly agrees to wait till we get home to devour our purchases. Sadly for her, she always falls asleep on the way home, and when she wakes I manage to shove a sandwich in front of her before she realises there is something better in my bag. However, her memory returns minutes later and then I'm obliged to hand over the goods.

By the end of the day I'm Jew Day'ed out and ready to resume my Bad Jew ways...... tonight we're having Pea & Ham soup.

'Lachaim' (cheers in Hebrew)!

P.S
Here is Mia and her Hamisha (guess what flavour) cookie. I apologise for the nutty woman in the background.

Rainy Days

Cabin fever has hit us hard with these cold rainy days. I totally appreciate the need for rain but selfishly I'm wishing for some sun, and soon!

We continue to travel from house to house, play date- to play date, and otherwise find ways of entertaining ourselves here.

These pictures are rare moments of sun. I think we managed a total of 10 minutes outside, just enough time to snap these shots and give Mia the impression of an out-doorsy day (the soccer ball is one of her new favourite things, she's quite the kicker too).

Mia has been fabulous at entertaining herself not only with what we have here, but even more so with her rapidly developing and wild imagination. Some of the things she has conjured up in her colourful little head:

• Jumping castle- Excuses herself, goes to the kitchen, emerges with her arms spread wide holding on to her giant imaginary jumping castle. Proceeds to enthusiastically jump on it (sometimes with her boyfriend Charlie). Then stops abruptly, hands on face "oh no, Oscar ate the jumping castle!" Oscar is scolded as Mia wraps up the castle and places it in the bin announcing "never mind, we'll get a new one." And of course she does.
  
• Fire Engine (as per the ride-on one from Charlie's Birthday). Goes through a whole routine from its arrival to its sad farewell.
• Ice-cream truck: Love this one, she generously hands out ice-cream to everyone, including Oscar and exclaims that its of course Shokaad flavoured.
• Musical medleys: Mia can go from Gretel (the youngest of the Von-Traps) to Jane (from Mary Poppins), Annie and Oliver (notice the orphan/absent parents theme???) in a matter of minutes. We're called in to join, as she refers to us by many names (Luke: usually Burt and I am often Mary Poppins).

Other than the imaginary, we've been dancing, singing, doll-housing, painting, drawing, cutting, pasting, play-doughing (what a mess!), playing with lego (still into the duplo, our selfish attempt to move her on to the real little pieces failed, but Luke and I are having a blast with it) cooking & baking (both real and make-believe).

Mia's drawing and painting skills are developing nicely. She's been drawing people and faces the last couple of months and these are some of the best. I'm also having a go and trying to fulfil Mia's requests from Yo Gabba Gabba to Poppy & Luke. I'm quite proud of my cartoon Poppy (near bottom left), I look forward to perfecting it over the coming weeks.





I have to say all these activities are feeding my on going nesting urge and I'm loving the craftiness of it all. Who knows, perhaps I can give this woman a run for her money (then again, she did get caught for some financial scheming). Maybe I too can own colour coordinated horses that will only be allowed 8.37 minutes of sunlight a day to ensure they match my decor?

Anyway, I took a step closer to completing my masters of Martha Stewart by attending a cupcake baking demonstration at the Magnolia Square market. A disappointing start (Bron & I thought we were there for an actual workshop) led to a fine finish where we were shown some superb decorating secrets, we left excited and hyper (scored some free cupcakes, below is one of them) with the hope that we too could one day create such fine looking delicacies. We also observed it was the best behaved we'd ever been at any workshop/seminar/meeting... well done to us!

The workshop was one outing I had on my own this past week, followed by two more (Luke is a superstar!). I've finally commenced Pilates. I've been procrastinating for weeks and was inspired by some of our more glamorous athletes (mostly the beach volleyballers). More than anything else, I'm actually just hoping they can help me repair the massive ab split, which the instructor was positive they could and then I can resume my highly successful swimsuit modelling career.

The other outing was to the hairdresser! Finally, after 5 months off I had my hair done. I went for the edgy heavy fringe look (to address my I'm a stay at home Mumsy look) hoping to exit the salon looking like this.

However, to my dismay, as I drove past Caulfield Park and the local walkers, I realised in fact, I look more like an orthodox Jewish chick with a wig!!! Just call me Ruchel Schnitzelburg.

Now, I wanted to place a picture here of the kind of orthodox chick wig that my hair now resembles and I just couldn't find the right one..... but I did come across this, which made me laugh (ridiculous!).

Performances

It's Olympics fever in the Niv-Herring household.

We kicked off the celebrations with Brodie's Birthday last Friday (above is his festive cake). Everyone was over including Hanna, Sara's gorgeous Belgian exchange student.

Mia continues to indulge in imaginary play and relished the opportunity to act as Sara's Dr. with the help of the the medical kit Poppy brought with her from the womb (may I say, she could improve on her bedside manner, a little rough). Highly entertaining evening which ended with an improv on the Piano by Gill with the assistance of Brodie and Mia.

We taped the opening ceremony and Mia loved it, particularly the fireworks and the drums (all 2008 of them). We had to replay the drums at least half a dozen times... she still asks for them.


She is also loving the diving & gymnastics and having a go. Great run up, right into a floor roll and jumps up, hands in the air. Her best apparatus is the dais, she has really perfected the art of receiving a medal and waving proudly to the crowd.

Poppy too has enjoyed the festivities as you can see, she was awarded this medal at a little known sport called tummy time. She is also in the running to receive a medal in the Projectile Spew event. We were being served at the post office (Poppy was in the baby bjorn facing out) when she turbo spewed all over a large display of books, she demonstrated such power and precision, hitting her target effortlessly. As a result, we are now enjoying the tails of Bill 'Swampy' Marsh, the author of 'Australian Shearing Stories'. Struth! It's a bloody good read n'that:


"Too bloody right he was, Boof. Herbie was something else, mate, let me tell you." (and such other poetic lines fill this great novel).

Other going-ons, Mia continues to deny her need of midday sleeps, and nothing can convince her otherwise (watch this clip). And as you can see, she still committed to one of her very first loves,
food.


She is loving Poppy more than ever and seeks comfort in Poppy when she is upset. No wonder, Poppy is deliciously joyous (as you can see). We're getting so much 'naches' out of watching them together, it's indescribable.

Attitude Plus

It was inevitable, and we're quite pleased its taken this long.... Mia has for the first time dropped the F word. It was executed with great passion and in good context (she dropped a bowl of soup). Luke's face was priceless.... it took immense self control not to react.

Later that night she also announced ''I have it!'' re her 'bits' down there, and proudly told Luke that he doesn't have it (a feminist in the making?).

Yes it's been a full on week, massive tantrums from Mia, largely brought on by sleep deprivation as she struggles with her choice to drop her daytime nap and simultaneously feels the need to stay up late and torment Luke.... Yes I do recall those stories about me as a kid marching around the house till all hours.

Mia and I made cupcakes (64 to be exact) for Sara's 40th (see photos), tried to bribe her with one in exchange for a sleep.... She abused us for an hour, but finally fell asleep while Luke read to her a bit of A.A. Milne. Her first drowsy word once she woke: "CUPCAKE!"

The party was our first outing without Poppy! We had a great time and Safta coped well with the girls (despite Poppy demanding an extra feed and Mia partying till 11:00 PM)

Anyway, the last couple of nights have been better so crossing fingers that will continue.

Poppy meanwhile has been performing well at night (sleep throughs ahoy!) yet during the day continues to power nap only (with the exception of today).

So needless to say we are pretty exhausted right now. We have a print in our living room of Picasso's Guirnica and when I looked at it recently I felt an affinity with this woman (I know I over dramatise....)

It's not all doom and gloom though. We have a new favourite song in the house, I believe it outperforms all others on the scale of dagginess and Boganity. (Efrat and Maya, don't worry, we haven't totally moved on from Poppalina, Poppalina tiny little thing...). Anyone remember Agga-Doo?

For some reason I've been singing a new personalised version using another of Poppy's nick names (Poochki-doo-doo...)

You can view Mia drumming along to it here. I recommend you view the original for a laugh and a boogy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv-3yIPSWc (Note fabulous outfits)

Mia sings it to Poppy all the time... too cute.