SHE IS WALKING!!

Well I know I haven't event uploaded any photos from Christmas yet . . . but I promise that they are on their way. But 3 days after Christmas Penelope decided to officially start walking.

Prior to today she has taken a few sporadic steps, and no more than 2 at a time, but yesterday she decided to take 8 in a row, followed a minute or two later by another 8 steps! Since then she is more than happy to walk if its an option, although crawling is definitely a much more efficient and quicker method at the moment.



Needless to say . . . we are proud of her.

Dancing to Hairy Maclary

I have been meaning to upload this one for a week or two now . . . but I finally got around to trying out the CD that came with the Hairy Maclary book.



Too cute!!

Friends come to play

Poppy had a couple of friends come to play this week. We thought it would be a good idea to get a photo of the three of them together . . .turns out it was much harder that anticipated.

From left to right: Penelope, Cassidy and Charlotte

Standing & Playing

First and formost . . . our girl is now standing!! She decided to start yesterday with no warning, and managed to do it about 8 times in a row whilst Great-Nana was watching on Skype . . . what a show off. And just to reinforce she can do it, Nonna and Dad got to see it last night and she is still doing it today. We are so proud of her!

And while I am at it, here are some photos of the two of us playing this morning:

Hanging in the air:

Playing peek-a-boo in the tunnel:

"Where did it go?"

Blowing bubbles with Mummy:

She loves crawling through her tunnel, turning around and crawling back through it again:

"Hhhmmmm . . . I think my ball is under here somewhere":

Motorbikes

The other day Rob was cleaning his bike in order to sell it (any buyers out there . . . give us a call!). Poppy decided that she would do some tinkering on her bike as well just to be the same as Daddy.
Later they posed together so that Poppy has something to aspire to . . .

And because she was such a good girl and budding mechanic she got to have a ride on the big bike . . . YIPPPEE

Please excuse the blue clothing . . . she is still a girl underneath it all . . . although it looks a little deceiving!

Eating versus Drinking

Poppy had a play date today with her friend Sam. These guys are just three days apart. It was too cute watching them hang out.


Turns out though that it is apparently easier to drink dessert of banana and pear than it is to eat it.

Poppys' Dedication + more

Well I guess the big news of the last few weeks has been that Poppy is now dedicated. We had a lovely weekend, where she got to meet her Uncle Nick (aka Nuck) for the first time as he was in transit between Canada and Hayman Island, her Poppa came over from NZ for 24 hours and her Nonna stayed with us for just over a week.


The dress she wore at her dedication was made in Switzerland in about 1912 and comes down from Merilyn's Great Grandmother (I think I have that right!). Many of the Matthews clan have been dedicated in it over the years, including Rob. It is a beautiful dress and Poppy just looked adorable in it (as you can tell by the photos).



Despite a last minute venue change on the day everyone managed to arrive on time and witness the beautiful event. Ps Col Usher dedicated her, which was a really nice touch since he was also the one to marry Rob and I, 2.5 years ago. And then it was followed up by lunch and hanging out at our house. It was an ultra hot winter day, where the temperature got up to about 31°C I think.

It was also seemed to make sense that we made the dedication our last service at Brisbane City Church. So with everyone around us we sadly farewelled a church that we have called home for the past 14 years combined to move to a more local Baptist church. We are really looking forward to the times ahead, meeting new people and getting connected into our local area.

In developmental news, Poppy loves standing up, including watching the bath fill up with water each evening, is slowly taking her first steps and loves walking behind her bike I am currently hiring from the Toy Library for a month (photos to come), and the other morning I found her splashing in the left over shower water! Now every time I leave her unattended in the bathroom, she makes a beeline for the puddles.


Its' not going to be long till she is walking I don't think, but I have decided that she should first learn to clap and maybe crawl on her knees. We will see how that goes for me!

In Work news, there has been a whole lot happenning. To cut quite a long story short, (if you want the whole story ring us, we would love to hear from you!) Rob is now working 4 days a week and I have taken on a promotion at work, where I work 16hrs a week from home and 8 of those hours are on Friday when Rob and Poppy have Daddy Daughter day. Its been two weeks officially so far and its a three month trial (part of the long story that you don't know) but I'm really enjoying the mental challenge of it all.

I am learning (very quickly) how to be a Sales and Marketing Assitant for a company called Sitecore who sells Content Management Software for websites. There are only 5 of us in Australia and we all work from home, so very flexible hours which is exactly what I need.

That's all for now folks!