Friday

I had a multiple birth playgroup today. There were so many people and children! It was good but I think that the babies found it a bit overwhelming. Trelise had a great time. Usually she is at creche on a Friday but today they are having a teachers only day. I was a bit annoyed at the teachers only day concept - we still have to pay for the day. But I have to say I have really enjoyed having all my girls today. We have had alot of fun. I love days like today where I really realise how wonderful my girls are.

Wayne is coming home early hopefully - it's a public holiday on Monday so we have a long weekend - yippee! I have a long list of things I hope to accomplish. If I sort though my roof space and sort out stuff to sell, give away and throw away I will be very pleased. I also need to get Madeleine and Juliette's baby books up to date and get the photobook's I've done for Trelise printed. I did these while I was in-patient and I still 10 months later haven't finalised them - now of course I've mucked around I've got another year to do! Wish me luck!

Thursday

I went to weight watchers on Thursday and lost 1.2 kilo's. It's not really that impressive as the week before I had to weigh in wearing my boots that are really heavy (1.4 kilos!) so making an adjustment for that and the shoes I was wearing this time (300 grams) I figure I only lost 100 grams but you know a loss is a loss! I need to do more exercise - I think that is my problem! Finding the time however is not so easy. I'm thinking that I might try running. Call me crazy but it would mean I need less time to exercise. I have a Mountain Buggy that is designed to do that sort of thing. So watch this space!

I had a phone call from Trelise's creche asking me to come and pick here up as they thought she might be unwell. Poor baby - the reason they thought that she might be unwell was that she said that she was cold and put on a jersey and then didn't take it off! Trelise doesn't like to wear clothes and she sat on a chair for half an hour without getting up.

I did go and pick her up and she was fine. Crazy old me decided to go to the supermarket on the way home with all three of them. Only because we had nothing in the house to eat! Trelise was wonderful - almost makes me want to take her back there! I hadn't taken her to the supermarket in a long time because she has a few habits which makes it impossible for me. Probably the worst is she insists on getting a basket for herself when she walks in the door. She then places it on the floor and runs - sort of using it like a sled! I end up running after her screaming at her to stop and also warning other shoppers to get out the way. It's a wonder we haven't been banned really! Oh why don't I just refuse to let her get the basket in the first place - anyone who has met my child will realise that this is just not an option! Then I wouldn't make it into the supermarket in the first place!

Wednesday

We had another gym fun session on Wednesday - I've signed Trelise up to ballet and lucky for us she can start next week. Means that for the rest of this term she will have ballet and gym fun on the same day so she is going to be a very tired girl.

I'm thinking that ballet will be a better option for us at this time. The class doesn't have parent participation so I can look after Maddie and Jules while Trelise gets to do her stuff. I do like gym so I'm thinking that she might pick it up again when she is a little bit older.

Tuesday

Do you ever have weeks where you are just so busy! It's now Friday afternoon and I'm finally sitting down and posting - thanks to a little reminder from Katie. It's good to know that someone loves my blog!

Our week has gone like this - Madeleine and Juliette had there 4th and last MenzB shot on Tuesday. MeNZB is a vaccine against a specific strain of group B meningococcus, currently being used to control an epidemic of meningococcal disease in New Zealand. However, meningococcal disease can cause meningtis and septicaemia, resulting in brain damage, failure of various organs, severe skin and soft-tissue damage, and death. It's been a horrible disease that has affected many children here in New Zealand. Thankfully the epidemic now seems to be over and the vaccine has been withdrawn. I'm pleased however that my girls do have some protection over this in the unlikely case that they come in contact with it.

However a new vaccine has been introduced for Pneumococcal disease. I don't really know anything about this but all our girls don't qualify for the state funded injections. I hoped we might sneak in with prematurity but you have to be under 28 weeks gestation and obviously at 32 weeks we don't qualify. Hopefully I will get the chance to do some research over the weekend. We do have the option of paying for the shots but at $150 per shot (each girl needs 3) I'm hoping that I will find that our risk level is very low.

Anyway the girls were fine with this last set and now we have no more inoculations until they are 15 months old - and that just seems like forever away!

Birthday Planning is Underway

It seems like only yesterday we were in neonates but it has suddenly dawned on me that Madeleine and Juliette's 1st Birthday is fast approaching. So the birthday planning has started. One of my major memories of my childhood is elaborate magnificent parties my mother threw for my brother and I. I'm determined that my girls will have the same memory so I put alot of effort into birthday parties!

I've decided on a peas in a pod theme so my decorations will be green. I've got decorating the house down to a fine art and use streamers and balloons to create an all over effect which turns out well.

Here's the invite - I will just upload to a photo printing site and volia I'll have cheap invitations that look fabulous! I've gone for a sophisticated look this year.

I'm not sure why there is a thicker black line down the side - the version I'm printing however doesn't have any border.

The number of people I'm able to invite worries me. As it's in the middle of winter here the weather is bound to be bad. Our house can't handle alot of people so I'm going to have to cull the guest list more than I would have liked. Trelise's birthday is in January so we are used to having big parties and being able to invite everyone.

So now the invitations and guest list is under control next is the cake! As a kid I used to read over and over again cake decorating books so it really is no surprise that my cakes are always impressive. Here's some photo's of Trelise's past cakes.

This is Trelise's 1st birthday - we had a pink theme. I spent so so so much time making everything from scratch and making sure everything was perfect! I can't say I will ever go this crazy again!

2nd Birthday - farmyard theme. This was a great party apart from me being pregnant with the twins and suffering terrible morning sickness. We had a petting zoo come to the house which was fantastic.

3rd birthday - fairy party. Trelise is still talking about this one. We had Fairy Trina come and entertain the kids and it was a great success.

I'm working on a peas in the pod design cake which has a few design issues to work out. I've got a couple of other ideas if that cake doesn't work out.

So next is menu planning. I have learnt from Trelise's first birthday that simpler is better so I'm going to just go for really simple things to eat.

Phew!

Update

The end of this week has just flown by.

I've committed myself to Weight Watchers again. I have been struggling for the last couple of months now and have pretty much flagged the programme. Last week I met up with a couple of woman from my antenatal class and one had just joined up herself. So we decided to buddy up. Having a buddy has certainly helped my motivation. I weighed in and was up 1.9 kilo's which delighted me! Why? Weightwatchers has a new policy about wearing shoes and of course I had no idea so had to weigh in wearing my knee high boots which I know weigh well over a kilo. I've had cravings for toasted cheese sandwiches so I figure the gain isn't that bad really. I'm quite frustrated because I only have about 10 kilo's to lose and it seems like it is so slow this time.

We also had a visit to the Plunket nurse and the babies now weigh 7.74 kilo's (Madeleine) and 7.44 kilo's (Juliette) - they are tracking really well on the growth charts and are now only a small way off the middle of the weight and height ranges.

Then on Friday we had a visit from the Developmental Therapist who was extremely pleased with the girls progress. They are now pulling themselves up and starting to attempt to cruise around the furniture. Yikes - I'm quite concerned about how to cope with two walkers!

Now this morning I finally went for a facial that I had a voucher for from Christmas and it was wonderful. I do feel very relaxed and calm! Wayne took the girls to Yum Cha while I was relaxing and they had a ball!

Dora, Dora Dora!!

We have a certain 3 year old that is crazy mad about Dora the Explorer. Crazy, Crazy mad about Dora! I had a frantic phone call this morning from Wayne saying that a ticketing agency has emailed him about pre-sales of Dora the Explorer Live! Pirate Adventure. Shows in Auckland, Hamilton and Napier. Yikes I thought no Wellington! - we had a brief discussion about driving to Napier or flying to Auckland to catch the show and then I thought hey how can there be a show in Napier but not one in Wellington - that just isn't right as Napier is a far smaller centre. So I did a web search to find that another ticket agency is selling the Wellington show. Yay!!! The article said that sales don't start until Saturday. I'm thinking no problem but I did a search on the ticket agency website and nothing came up.

Then later on this afternoon I checked the site again (good thing about being obsessive!) and OMG Dora was up!!!! So I managed to get two premier tickets - with the sites here you don't get to choose where you sit. Instead the best seats get sold first automatically. Well I must have been first! Dress circle, row A, right in the centre!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Inspired by Erin's Wordless Wednesday last week

Sickness Strikes

My poor babies aren't to well. Runny noses, temperatures and grumpy babies. I've spent today cuddling two unwell girls. It's not all bad I love snuggling up to their sweet little bodies!

The Rama

I seem to be spending my life at Junglerama. Why because it's easy and gets everyone out of the house. Trelise can run around to her hearts content and if I'm lucky I get to have a coffee and a catch up with a friend.

Today was Kath's turn to meet me for a Rama run. Kath and Mike's visa's have finally been approved so they will be off to Scotland shortly so it's bound to be the last Junglerama outing for us. :(

Trelise is known for not wearing many clothes - today was quite warm and I managed to convince her to wear a long sleeve t-shirt with another one over the top. It is truly a miracle! Hopefully it continues as the weather gets colder - it's pretty hard to go out in the middle of winter with a child that won't wear shoes or socks, jersey's or jackets! I swear she would wear shorts and skirts all year round if I didn't hide them!



Probably should have saved this for Wordless Wednesday! A minute before Trelise was insisting that she was not tired!

Thanks Carissa

Thank you very much for tweaking my header - I love love love it!

Clothing Swap

Our multiple birth club runs a clothing swap twice a year. It's a good idea where you bring all your unwanted clothes and hopefully pick up some new stuff. The woman who usually runs it was away for some reason so I was asked to help out. I had no problem with this and at the end of the playgroup I packed all the left over clothes away and brought them back here for sorting. So I had a mountain of second hand clothes in my lounge which I either deemed acceptable and folded and sorted by size or unacceptable - to stained or stretched for anyone to want.

As you can imagine many people see this as a way of getting rid of their old clothes and the pile of unacceptable is very large. I realised as I was packing it all in away that these clothes were all so expensive when brought new. A midrange jumpsuit from Pumpkin Patch is about $30. When they are all piled together it makes me realise what a waste.

I think back to all the things I've brought just because I was bored (not necessarily clothes) - you know the things you didn't even feel that strongly about but just purchased. I feel the need to cleanse my house of all the things I'm hanging on to for no real reason! I'm a great one to keep hold of stuff because I paid good money for it or someone gave it to me or I would just feel to guilty chucking it away.

I feel the need to rid my life of unnecessary clutter. I think it's draining and bringing me down!

Wordless Wednesday

Layout

Thanks everyone - I did it myself. The background is from cutest blog on the block - I just changed the code so it goes to the edge - I was lucky with my guess as I really don't know anything about HTML! I did the header in word and saved it as a jpeg. I've been a bit frustrated with it because in the saving process the colour has changed a bit - I also think it's a bit flat.

I have been thinking about it today and I have some new ideas so when I get some mental space I might have another crack at it.


It's round two of gym fun tomorrow - wish me luck!

Relaunch

Welcome to my re-designed blog!

New name and new layout - Goodbye to "The Olivers" and Welcome to "The Princess and the Peas". I've been thinking for ages and ages for a clever name - and this is about as clever as I get. I've had a few questions about why the Princess and the Peas - so here's a link for those of you that don't know your fairy tales!

The Princess and the Pea

I'm not 100% on the layout so watch out for changes! Let me know what you think and any suggestions to make it better grateful received!

Mothers Day

I've had a lovely day today. I had a bit of a lie in this morning before Trelise bounced in with a large present. Just what I wanted a dressing gown - my last one has certainly seen better days. I then managed to watch the movie I had fallen asleep in last night. By the time I arose breakfast was ready and waiting for me. Pancakes which were very yummy. In the afternoon we headed to Junglerama - one of my favorite family outings. Trelise is able to run, jump and climb and Madeleine and Juliette are able to crawl around looking at new things and I'm able to sort of relax!

In the picture above Madeleine is to the left and Juliette to the right. I can tell them apart by the bruises on Jules head where she keeps crawling into things!

Fun Friday!

Trelise wasn't happy about going to creche this morning. Not happy at all. She voiced her opinion quite vocally in the house and was put out when we all piled into the car on our merry way.

From the back seat I hear "I don't like you Mummy", "I like Daddy" - I of course ignored this one. so she carried on "I don't like you Mummy, I like Daddy, Carlos, Hazel, Ruby, Lisa, Gucci - not you Mummy" My child is brutal - I thought throwing the neighbors dog in as a favored person was a nice touch!

So I went shopping to heal my broken heart. To be honest I was already heading to the big red shed for a spot of retail therapy. I took along Nik who very kindly guided my clothes choices. I need help. The whole 80's inspired thing makes me feel like I'm dressed in costumes and I don't quite get it. I'm also belt challenged. Anyway I've brought a number of things so it means I can get rid of a number of ill fitting things I'm currently wearing. That's got to be good.

Then I took the car for a warrent and we failed. :( I knew I'd fail on tyres and I was right but now I've got some sort of strut problem. I'm not looking forward to loosing my car to the mechanic's to get it fixed. Will mean that I'm stuck roaming around Wellington with the bubba's waiting and waiting for our chariot to be fixed. It will likely take all day and knowing Wellington's weather it will be cold, windy and rainy!

Wordless Wednesday

An old one but a good one

Gym Fun

I rocked on up to Gym Fun this morning confident in my abilities in handling all three of my children. I did however misjudge the amount of supervision I was required to give to Trelise while she was bouncing around the equipment. I figured that the babies would be quite happy in their stroller sitting back watching their big sister. Of course they were not and I ended up carrying both while trying to guide what can only be described as a blonde rocket around the gym equipment. I took the camera to take some pictures and it stayed safety on the stroller!

I am exhausted! Trelise is NOT!

Gym Fun

Trelise is starting Gym Fun tomorrow and I'm really excited. I think she will have so much fun. I am however a little worried that she won't be able to cope with the lesson as it's the first time we have attempted a formal like activity. It is a pre-school class however so I'm sure they have dealt with far worse than my little terror.

My moan for today is housework - It never stops and I'm always doing the same thing like groundhog day!

I've been tagged

I have been 'tagged' by Tracy and I'm really excited about it because it's the first time I've been tagged!

4 Things I Did 10 Years Ago (1998)

** Was a year into my university degree. I was very excited about getting away from the dead end jobs I had been doing.
** Was just about to go to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore on a big 6 week adventure. This was the first holiday we went on where we just had our first night's accommodation and then were own our own.
** Wayne and I were busy renovating our house. We had brought the year before an old do up that had a huge amount of work that needed to be done.
** and I met Katie! One of my best friend's who is currently living in Sydney. I met Pratiskha around this time as well but I think it may have been the year after.

4 Things I Did 5 Years Ago (2003)

** We were still renovating the same house!

** Wayne and I had been married for 3 years

** We had just come back from traveling around Europe and I couldn't get a job in marketing which caused me quite alot of trauma. I ended up working for the Wellington City Council and amongst the stress and mayhem loved it.

** Chiquita came into our lives. She was 500 grams and fitted into the palm of my hand.

4 Things I Did Yesterday

** Went to the supermarket and forgot pretty much all the important things I had gone for. I did remember the wine however.

** Caught up with Kaylene and Chris - my sister and brother in-law

** Tried to have a bath by myself. I failed!

** Fell asleep watching the Banger Sister's on TV

4 Shows I Love To Watch (in no particular order)

** America's Next Top Model (I like to pretend I'm waiting for the call up myself)

** Shortland Street (We have just brought a DVD recorder so I can record it if I miss it - I can see Nik shaking her head)

** Grey's Anatomy (how can you not like that one)

** Desperate Housewives

4 Things That Make Me Really Happy

** When my big girl tells me she loves me - even if I have to make her do it

** Gummy kisses from Maddie and Jules

** A beautiful day where everything just goes right

** My husband of course!

Now it's my turn to tag 4 people and I chose Angie, Laura, Jaime and Lizzbo. Of course no pressure!

Saturday Already

I'm trying to make an effort to post every day and it's just not working! So since Wednesday we have:

Visited another Mono mother! Yes just down the road. Maybe it's something in the water! Maddie and Jules and I spent a couple of hours visiting and talking over our mono experience. It was really nice to actually talk to someone who had the same experience. Strangely her in-patient stay was far different from mine - same hospital and only a few months apart. Emma's girls are 8 weeks adjusted now and look so small compared to bruiser and cruiser.

Watched Spiderman on the new TV. It was magnificent and that's from someone that's not a fan of the spidey!

We had Wayne's sister and partner visit us this morning. Kaylene and Chris live in Hamilton so we see them only a few times a year. They arrived with a pink feather boa with matching head gear for Trelise which was a big hit. Chris is celebrating getting his PhD and have now headed up to Paraparaumu for a celebratory dinner with his parents. So congratulations Dr Chris!

And probably most important in my life anyway - we got rid of the potty. I may have failed to mention that Trelise while no longer in nappies was still attached to her pink potty. It's now gone to the attic waiting for another pink bottom to use it! I really did think she was going to be the first teenager in history still using her potty!