Sleep n stuff

I am so over people talking about sleep cycles and teaching babies to sleep at certain times for a certain length of time and by themselves...I rarely get to bed at the same time every night, some days I don't need a nap and some days I need two! So who am I to dictate to Katelyn when she should be tired and when she should to be awake and I am CERTAINLY NOT going to wake her up if she's sleeping when its meant to be playtime! Since when are mothers expected to treat their children like robots? It is just ridiculous. Granted we can have a tough time when they don't sleep when we want them to or they wake up 8 times in one night and just laugh and play with their toes when they see you, (yes Katelyn is a little ratbag but such a cute one!)but that is the way of life when you have children and it only lasts a short time in relation to your whole life so why can't we just go with the flow?
I break all the "RULES" when it comes to Katelyn, and some of them I think I do just to spite those who make them just to be different.
Anyway she's slowly working out her own sleep pattern, last night we had a feed at 12 then slept till 7..heaven....tonight we may be up at 1, 3 and 6 but either way I know she can sleep all night if she is happy enough and when she wakes she probably does need something. (A lot of the time she wakes up to have a big Fluff and as you can imagine has trouble drifting back to sleep straight away..lets face it, even WE have trouble getting to sleep sometimes and if it wasn't for the evil digestive systems that babies seem to have, I'm sure she would sleep a lot better-(and if those STOOPID dogs would stop barking just when I am trying to settle her!!!)

I can't think what else I was going to write now coz the possum has woken up from her 10 minute nap and she wants to play! I'll think up some more and try taking some more photos too!

Fire

Well I just thought I would keep to my latest theme of extreme weather and natural hazards! Isn't it just typical that North Western England is under water and we are hot dry and burning...literally in some places! About a week ago every thing was green and blossoming, such are the treasures of Spring...then after 4 or 5 days of 40 plus degrees everything has died off and dried up. To add insult to injury we were attacked by a fierce thunder and lightening storm that brought not a drop of rain just sparks to get the fires started! Normally I love thunder storms but Neil and I were at the windows looking out for fires most of the night and checking on the Princess, who thankfully wasn't woken by it (I don't know how! One door slammed and she's awake but a full blown thunder storm she sleeps through???)

There are now various fire's dotted around the country side and Neil, as well as most of the other Men in the area, has been called out to fight them...I don't know where he is or what time he'll be home, but hopefully they won't keep them out there all night! I have packed up a few things just in case, though most people think I'm just paranoid and that we have nothing to worry about, but I will not forget Black Saturday earlier this year when the fires swept through Victoria without warning! Sadly the eucalyptus (Gum) trees go up like petrol soaked bombs, and the Australian countryside is absolutely littered with them!

On a lighter note, little Miss Katelyn has worked out how to get off her tummy onto her side and ultimately her back! This done in one movement could be referred to as rolling! YAY.. but the point is..she hates tummy time and now knows how to get out of it!! She is also very cheeky and knows that Mummy and Daddy respond to the slightest sound! Spoilt yes, but a very happy baby none the less and I am not prepared to change that...Although we really ought to start keeping a straight face when she laughs at us when we try to put her to bed at night! We just can't resist giggling back and wanting to give her more cuddles!
She is also a complete box head! I have to turn the TV off when Neil isn't home because no matter where I lie her she manages to get into a position where she can watch her favourite show, the News!!!

stuff

Well talk about extreme weather...after winds, dust and hail storms we have now experienced rapid temperature changes, from 18 degrees last week to a whopping 40 yesterday! Poor Katelyn doesn't know what to make of it..wrapped up warm one day then nudie the next!

In saying that she is loving the nudie part! When she was little....or rather littl-ER..she screamed whenever we took her clothes off for baths or changing..now she yells at me when I put her clothes back on after a nudie playtime! Its amazing just how much further they can wriggle with no clothes on and how quickly too! I'm sure the whole mobility stage (or many stages) will hit me like a storm! (I'm not really looking forward to her discovering out stairs and tiles in the lounge..this house really wasn't built with children in mind...Hopefully, growing up with such obstacles, she will learn quickly how to avoid injury...or else there'll be a gate on her room and the rest of the house out of bounds!

It is truly amazing watching her everyday, and the tiny little discoveries she makes...she's starting to grab at toys that I hold in front of her and put them straight in her mouth like all good babies do (or like Neil says, Just to annoy you! but I know its just her way of discovering things!)
I don't think she'll be too far off rolling from tummy to back, mainly because she hates being on her tummy, she just needs to learn to get her arm out the way to roll over it.
I think though her main ambition it to just get up and walk...when we hold her all she wants to do is stand and sit upright with minimal support..if we try to cradle her we get told!!!!
She is a very demanding little girl and has us right where she wants us and the only sad part is that she is becoming more and more independent every day ( HAH! to all those people who said holding her all the time would only make her clingy! I believe I have created a secure environment that she is now happy to explore outside of knowing that she'll always have me to return to when she gets unsure of things!)

Super Freaky Hail Storm

Yesterday (Sunday) was the Final of the Ellerston Spring Tournament (Spring not being the operative word, we've had ghastly weather for the whole 10 days) Neil was up to play against Garangula after a great week of wins. When I left home the weather was a bit dreary but I thought we'd just have a few showers and it would clear...Boy was I wrong...
We parked up along side the field and THANKFULLY I stayed in the car with Katelyn, all the other games I have gotten out her pram and storm cover and sat in the players tent. Two minutes into the first chukka it started to rain...then a little bit of hail...then the heavens opened up and dumped a SUPER bucket load of Ice on our heads. At this point I had thrown Katelyn in her car seat after rapidly unplugging her from her feed station, and was trying to dodge my way around a stream of traffic to get under the cover of the barn...poor car..and poor Katelyn, didn't know why she was suddenly strapped in and being deafened by pelting ice on the roof of the car. We managed to get undercover just as the worst of it came down.

And POOR POOR Neil!! All I saw as I was driving away from the field was that the boys on the field had decided to call it quits but were struggling to dismount as the horses went crazy being bashed around by the hail. The result of course being that the game was called off. I wished I could have hung around and gotten my camera out but luckily someone else captured the pictures for me and these are what you can see below...