The Bell Family

Well, it’s time for another blog about our precious little girls.

Katelyn has just turned 6 months. Her latest stats are:

Length: 67.5cm (longer than your average bear)

Weight: 6.95kg (lighter than your average bear)

Latest milestones: 2 bottom teeth (which she got at just 4 months of age) and about 6 more teeth which are on the way! Sits up supported. Rolls around to get what she wants. Trying solid food.

…Katelyn (Katie Koala) at 6 Months

Katelyn has just started baby rice cereal and her first vegetables. She doesn’t seem to mind it too much, kicking her legs and beaming with excitement when the little bowl comes her way and then opening her mouth wide for the spoon. She’s beginning to sleep a little better at night too (well sometimes), so that’s a bonus too!

Laura hasn’t taken long to get in on the action… Whilst Jason was away on a work trip last week, I was busy preparing dinner when my ‘little helper’ sprung into action. Katelyn was hungry and having a little whinge, so I put her into the high chair and prepared her little bowl of cereal. I then went back into the kitchen to finish preparing Laura and my meals. Everything had suddenly gone quiet though, so I turned around to check on the girls… Laura had picked up the cereal bowl and spoon and had started feeding Katelyn!!! There was a snowy white smear of food all over Katelyn’s face and both girls were starting to get the giggles… Laura doted on her sister, encouraging her with mimicked phrases like “there you go Katelyn, is that good?”… “mmm, good girl”. I guess Laura has been listening… pity she doesn’t like listening when she’s being spoken to though!!!

We’ve nicknamed Laura ‘Laura the Explorer’ because she loves to get around ‘looking for animals’ whilst on pretend safari at home, going on ‘bear hunts’ and exploring in the garden. She also loves to visit the zoo so she can ‘run with the ducks’ and see the turtles… “not just their heads Mum, I want to see their eyes and their bodies too”, asking “can we make them come out of the water”!!!

…Laura the Explorer

We’ve nicknamed Katelyn ‘Katie Koala’ because with this unusually cold winter, she can often be found hanging on and cuddling in to me just like a little koala! We’ve been encouraging Katelyn to get mobile by placing toys around her at about 1 metre distance. She lines up and rolls until she gets them. Laura found this difficult to begin with, constantly wanting to help Katelyn and saying “but Katelyn wants it”. One evening I went into the lounge room to find Laura rolling Katelyn along the floor to reach her toys which she had positioned about 5 metres away, “look Mum I’m helping Katelyn roll”!!!

I’m going back to work in a few weeks time (just part-time to begin with), which means Katelyn will be starting daycare soon… I’ve got mixed emotions on that one of course… I love my job, but I also love being at home with my girls!!! I know they’ll both cope really well though and just a few days a week should mean the best of both worlds for us all I hope.

Until next time,
Chrissy, Jason, Laura and Katelyn

Well… it’s all happening here!

In the last fortnight:
* all the bricks have been removed from the back wall so that the new frame could be joined up to the existing part of the house;
* the roof trusses have been erected;
* the new colourbond roof and guttering has gone on;
* the water has been put through to the new bathroom and garden tap;
* more support beams have been added for the floor; and
* the frame has been finished off with extra timber ready to receive the gyprock walls.

…side view

…rear view

…courtyard view

The builders will soon be ‘breaking in’ to the back section of the house, so we have moved the girls out of their ‘old rooms’ and they are sharing the loungeroom (yes, even our barnyard sized loungeroom is looking rather crammed, packed full with toys, furniture, boxes and of course two little girls)!!! We convinced Laura that it would be fun to stay in a ‘cubby room’ whilst Ray was finishing off her ‘new room’, so we set out to make a little hidey hole for her and her bed, constructed from boxes and all the odd bits of furniture. She thinks it’s pretty cool, so hopefully the novelty of it all will keep her occupied until her new room is ready. She’s been keeping her little sister in order too… Katelyn was having a little whinge when we put them both to bed one night, to which Laura responded “Katelyn, just be quiet, it’s time to sleep!” When we need to escape the chaos, we resort to either Susie or Mum and Dad’s houses (thanks guys, you’re the best)! I think we will be spending even more time there in the next few weeks as the noise and dust levels increase!

In the next few weeks, we hope to see the bricks go up, the external doors and windows go in, the electrical wiring go in and the internal gyprock walls go on. It’s great to see the jigsaw puzzle coming together and it’s starting to look really good!

Anyway, all the best and thanks for visiting our blog!

Cheers,
Chrissy, Jason, Laura and Katelyn