Meet the Girls

Don't forget to check out the other pics here.

An Island of Pink in a Sea of Blue

I mentioned last week amid the flood crisis that we had our 20 week scan with the baby. Everything was fine, bub is looking good, everything in the right places and all that. We dropped the boys at a friend's place for the morning so that Matt could come too (Thanks Saminda! xx).

Despite my objections, I promised Matt that we would find out the sex of the baby. And I really did need to keep this promise as I reneged on a similar promised when I was pregnant with Archie! During Elliot's pregnancy I had promised Matt that if we didn't find out with the first, we'd find out with the rest. Well, I'd told him all of Archie's pregnancy up until the scan that yes, we'd find out. Then, on the drive to the scan I just couldn't do it. I felt so bad for him because he really wanted to find out but I just couldn't. I absolutely couldn't break my promise to him again!

So, as by the pretty obvious title :) we're expecting a baby boy! We are very excited, the thought of parenting a girl after two boys was pretty daunting. I'm excited that they'll all be growing up relatively close in age, give or take two years between each one. I'm relieved we don't have to go out shopping for a whole new wardrobe of pink! I'm not a girly girl and I cringe when I walk through the girl's clothes sections in the shops, so many frills and lace and pink everywhere! Not that I'm anti-pink, I'm just not a fan of those super sugary girly girl clothes. A teeny part of me is disappointed that if this is the last baby for us I'll miss out on those mother daughter moments that are so special and unique.

But, I am preparing myself for a mothering life that is full of noise, fun, activity, energy, early mornings, train tracks around the house, cheekiness, adorableness, laughter, mess, running instead of walking, yelling instead of speaking quietly and food. Oh the food. They eat so much now, Lord help me when there are three teenage boys to feed! Luckily, the kitchen is my favourite place to be, cooking for my family! :)

Image found here.

Strip Washing Cloth Nappies

I thought I'd take advantage of all the rain we've been having to give our cloth nappy stash a strip wash. Strip washing removes any built-up washing powder residue, increases absorbency and leaves nappies smelling wonderfully fresh (which ours mostly do anyway because I only line dry them). The built up residue can also lead to skin irritation in some bubs. It was never a problem for Elliot, but Archie has been suffering from a bit of nappy rash lately so hopefully this strip wash will sort it out.

To strip wash the nappies you just need to put them through a hot water wash cycle with no powder or detergent. The water will probably be sudsy from all the residual powder being washed out. After the initial wash cycle you just need to keep rinsing until the water runs clean. On our machine it took one more rinse and spin cycle. Then hang them on the line in the sun to dry. Easy peasy!

Some people say to put a bit of vinegar in the final rinse stage to make sure there's no residue left but I don't use vinegar on our nappies. It can destroy the PUL (waterproof) lining and the elastic. A cloth nappy stash is such an investment I'm not taking any chances with it!

Doing Our Bit

Along with donating cash here, the boys and I helped get some goods together to send across our town's swollen river. One suburb and a few smaller communities further out of town are still cut off with no shops or supplies.

Another friend did all the organising, we just rocked up and helped load things onto utes. I think it was a good experience for Elliot to help him understand that there are lots of people that are much worse off than us, very close to home. He's only 3, so obviously has no idea of the devestation that has happened. He now though knows what a flood is, understands that they can be very dangerous and to stay away from water over roads or water that isn't normally there. He's also started playing 'floods' with his toys, one car rescuing another from flood water or cars and trains not being able to cross bridges or roads because there is water over them. For me, he's seen enough and has enough understanding. I don't want to traumatise him by going into all the details, but he's learning from this real-life experience.

Loading up the ute to be driven down to SES boat at the river. I'm on the right with Archie in the Ergo. Seriously don't know how I'd get stuff done without my Ergo!

Cheeky boys in the ute.

He is also starting to understand about food and what a precious commodity it is, although we've always been very open about where our food comes from. He sees the cows that give us milk. He knows that when we eat chicken it was once a chicken. He knows that vegies grow in the ground and what most plants look like.
When we went to the shops a couple of days ago to get some fruit and veg, the shelves were bare. He wanted zucchini, but there weren't any, he wanted to get beans and broccoli and capsicum and all the things we usually eat. I explained that we can't just have what we feel like at the moment, we have to make do with what we've got. He seems to be ok with it so far but who knows how long we'll have to ration for?

We have one more meal's worth of fresh veg and then it'll be onto freezer and pantry meals. As a real vegie boy, I'm anticipating more questions from him! But if not eating fresh vegies for a while is as bad as it gets for us we've been extremely lucky.

Bel at Spiral Garden is donating 50% of all orders to the Red Cross Flood Appeal. Also Pip at Meet Me At Mike's has an extensive list of other ways people can help.

My Not-Very-Creative Space

I'm just not in the right mind at the moment to be undertaking crafting. There is just too much stuff going on with the floods for me to concentrate on anything too taxing. Even our 20 week scan with the new baby yesterday didn't really lighten the mood. The news was all good, I'll post a bit more about it when I'm feeling a bit more chipper, but it just feels wrong to be posting about our happiness when so many are going through inconceivable heartbreak.

So in keeping with the Thursday theme of My Creative Space, I can announce my 5 recipients for Pay it Forward: 2011. I've no idea what to make for any of them, but one recipient will be moving into their dream home later in the year, so I'm thinking something 'housey' for her, another is a recently new mum (for the third time) so I'm thinking something 'just for her' for her and that is as far as I've gotten!

Two of my recipients aren't bloggers and they are:
* My mum - Lynne
* My dear friend and old neighbour - Kelly

The other three are bloggers and they are:
*Bec from Timber and Tin - dear friend and old neighbour
*LJ from With My Own Two Hands - an old Internet friend. We've been on this journey of parenting together since we were each pregnant at the same time with our eldest children.
*Amy from The Clip Cafe - a new blogger friend who is enviably crafty and creative

My goal is to have everything made and sent before the new bub arrives in June! For some real creativeness head over to Kootoyoo!

Please also remember to give anything you can spare to the flood appeal. Every cent is going to be needed.

Flood Relief Appeal

As I already posted about, our town was hit by the Queensland floods on Saturday. The waters have receded slightly but are going to peak again over the coming days. We are cut off from all supplies as the flooding intensifies south and there is talk of petrol rationing.

However inconvenient the flooding has been in our town, we have seen nothing like the devestation seen in other regional areas, Toowoomba in particular. Lives have been lost, people are still missing, homes are destroyed, businesses and livelihoods wiped out. Brisbane, our state's capital city and our home town is now in the path of flood water. It is very likely to be bad and we have a number of friends that have homes that may be affected.

I urge you all to help if you can, to give what you can spare. Every bit helps. The Queensland Government has set up an appeal and you can donate here.

Sending everyone affected by these horrible times much love and strength. xx

Natural Learning

Elliot reached a massive milestone at the end of last week, he wrote his name for the first time ever! And it is legible! He wrote it completely from memory. See what you think!

I'm really not a big pusher when it comes to the boys' "education" for want of a better word. Being a teacher I've seen many kids being pushed into doing things before they're ready and it just ends in disaster. Better to just let them embrace each new thing when they're interested and go from there. We are very lucky that Elliot just seems to have a real interest in numbers and letters (numbers in particular) and he has a great memory. He loves jigsaw puzzles and things that have method and order. Anything sporty on the other hand, good luck! :)

So after he wrote his name he then went on to write Archie, Daddy, Matt and all the numbers from 1 to 20. I wrote them and then he copied them. He did want to write Mummy and Vicki too but I could see he was getting to his limit so suggested he go and have a play and come back in a few minutes. So in typical Elliot style he went and read some books!

I am so proud of him. I know he'll do brilliantly at Kindy next year but I am going to miss him. :(

Edit: Thanks to Helen who reminded me that El actually goes to kindy this year. In two weeks! Argh!!! But that is a whole post of it's own :(