Talking about fruit leftovers in lunches and how all sweet food isn’t going to make it into lunches until I see improvement... olive stated “we all need some sweetness in our lives mum” age 8

A big day. Oli bikes home on her own! So proud and scared at the same time.

“I know the S, H & D word mum... *awkward silence* Shut up, Hate & Dumb” Olive, 7. That was a close one...

“Mummy, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Hmmmm not there yet. Olive then stated “I want to be a midwife” “do you know what they do?” “Nope” “they deliver babies” “To the front door!” If only sweetie pea if only...

“I 100% don’t like tidying, I, 0% like tidying” Olive

I don’t think the tooth fairy is real. I think Santa Claus comes down and takes the tooth and leaves a coin. - Olive

We had a good two week run with dry nights but then after two accident nights we are back in nappies. Oh well - can't be long now before it's a permanent thing.

After 6 nights of dry nappies, the day had finally come when Olive went to bed without a nappy! We might be back to only needing two nappy sizes from now on .... touch wood.

Olive had her first drop off play date! Daddy dropped her at Elizabeths house after school and she had a blast. So great to see Olive's confidence build to whole new levels thanks to school. The last few drop offs she's been so eager to get inside and drop her bag so she can say "bye Daddy!" And run off outside with her friends. Really lovely to see.

As we were walking down the hill towards school this morning Olive said "I think I'm fine to walk down here and into school without you Mum" what the! This wasn't meant to happen until you were 7 or older! So I said "mummy isn't ready quite yet".

Dinner time conversations... Olive: "I know a girl called Isla she's in Ako 10 next to my class. " Daddy: "Where's she from?" Iris: "Auckland!" Olive: "No, she has skin like us."

The excitement is rising at the pecks. Olive and iris are super helpful packers... Cough. Olive told iris "this is the slimming tog bag, put yours in here" oh if only!

Goodnight kiss tonight from Olive "let's do a real wedding kiss, a wonky kiss!"

I thought I better post this as it may never happen again! Both kids slept through until a whopping 7am! Whoop! Enough said.

"Woof woof!" - Lyon. "Daddy, you're distracting Lyon with your spoon!" - O

O: "Wo wo wo wo wo! I have a better plan. We don't budget, we just buy stuff with our money! Budgets are like parrots...." - adding her 2 cents to our budgets conversation.

Olive had her first swimming lesson in over a year and this time it was solo! I'm not going to lie, I didn't know how it would go but we had a play first and then joined the small group of three and I just hung nearby like one of those over protective parents and smiled over the top every time she looked for me. We got some bubble action, kicking, trusting the teacher and laughing at the rain splashing over her head. So fingers crossed we are on the up! Iris on the other hand had no fear which is a bit of a worry!

"Mummy I'm thinking, see look" - O (as Olive sits with her chin on her hand) "I haven't done this for a while, have I mummy" hmmm

"I love you mummy so so much" - O "I love you to the moon and back" - Me "I love you to the sun and back" - O "I love you to Taupo and back" - Me "I love you to England and back" -O. Out, done.

Olive eating fish pie: "it tastes yummy, but is still yucky!" Usually loves it too.

Olive: "I can't break Humpty's head to eat him! Help!" As she was attempting to crack her boil egg with a spoon.

Olive. 7.14am: "mummy, why do you have cracks there? (Pointing to my frown lines between my eyes) Why?" Kids say the darnest things.

"I want to go to Granny and Poppas and watch car turns on the tv!"

Olive has stated "I am not allowed to sing frozen songs because they are just for kids" ...

Mummy: "Olive want do you done with your hair" Olive: "I just want it blonde" m: "you mean long?" O: "blonde!"

"A baby is going to get born in my tummy when I dance around with a prince!" - Olive, grasping the birds and the bees a little too well.

This morning I was busy clearing the dishwasher and making toast for Olive and she wanted me to read her a story, I said "I can't make your toast if I read the book to you, I don't have enough hands!" Olive said "mummy, maybe you should have octopus arms, that would help."

Well I thought this day would never come and now it has I'm not sure I wanted it to! Olive is choosing what to wear, often changes her outfit up to 15 times a day. She doesn't seem to care that it's 8 degrees outside and is wearing a summer dress. Mornings have become a daily negotiation of practical with one Olive item.

Olive: "I'm still quite very tired today. It's been a very busy day" 7.40am after a lovely busy weekend.

Last night was probably a new record for a sleep deprived night. Olive woke at 9.30pm with a cough and a mild fever. Pamol and a cuddle and it looked like she was drifting back to sleep - but no! She got up again and ended up staying awake reading books and causing general mayhem until she finally crashed out on the couch at 4.30am. Luckily Iris slept through the whole thing! =

And so it begins... The old delay tactics at bedtime. "I'm hungry", "Daddy forgot to brush my teeth", "I need to go toilet" and then the wild conversations about poppies falling from her ceiling, mountains in her bed. Lastly running off to our bed. Funny but crying.

While we were watching the ANZAC ceremonies Olive wanted to know what the guns were. And then said do they shoot bubbles? What a nice thought. If only we listened to kids more often.

As we were driving the back roads of Wilton, Olive said "Mummy look! It's the Eiffel Tower!" Off in the distance in the hills were huge power line towers. It bought a smile to my face, my little French girl. I can't wait to show these things to the girls in due course!, let the French lessons begin!

Every morning I ask Olive: "Would you like Anna or Elsa plaits?" She stated "No, I want Sven antlers today Mummy!" cheeky monkey.

Iris has finally done it! Slept from 6pm to 5.30am amazing! Help from th sleep specialist is certainly paying off. Should have been the best night sleep in months until Olive woke up crying at 2am and stayed awake for 2.5hr! Why? Oh why?!!! Finally falling asleep in our bed.

As Olive and I were having a smoothie and a swing on a beautiful day outside, Olive says "mummy the roof is a triangle" that's right! I said, what about the window? "Squares!, and the door is a rectangle!" What about that light? "A circle!" It was like all of a sudden Olive noticed all the shapes all around us, what a discovery!

Isn't it funny how your oldest child's mood dictates if it is a good or bad day? No one ever told me my happiness hangs on if my children sleep well? Fortunately it has been a good week! Finishing on a high as I watched Olive play with a random kindy girl Isla at the playground for ages, I can see the benefits of going to the local kindy and how you get to be part of the community before school starts.

After putting clean sheets on her bed Olive asked "what did I put on the other sheets? Did I put my tears on them?". It's funny what she thinks up. We haven't had bedtime tears for ages!

Today Daddy went to Gym Tots to meet up with Olive and her KCC buddies. The past couple of weeks, Olive has been opting out of joining in with the fun and games that Gym Tots has to offer, despite the encouragement given by her favourite teacher - Benji, so I went along to help build her confidence back up. She loved racing around and trying out all the different obstacles and activities with me there. She was lots of fun to watch. Jumping on the trampolines, crossing the wiggly worm, walking along the balance beam and climbing over the ladder, sliding through the cave on a bug, going down the roller coaster... It definitely helped with me being there, so I might go along a few more times to see that she enjoys herself.

Olives first full day at KCC (Karori Child Care) went very well. Well, not quite a full day as I picked her up early at 3.45pm only to have to watch her for 15 mins while she finished feeding and then walking her little black baby. Things will be getting very busy come Feb with starting Kindy two days a week, KCC two days a week and playcenter 1 day a week. Something might have to give!

After a couple of frustrating weeks of relapse toilet training (as the novelty of it wore off) we are back on track! Barely an accident in the last two weeks and rarely much persuasion required. The non slip soft toilet seat makes a huge difference.

I pulled out the cocoa packet and opened it. "Smells like chocolate, mmmmm" - Olive

We had our first nighttime visitation at 2am last night. She hopped into bed next Mummy, pulled up the duvet, wouldn't let Daddy come back to bed without clothes on and pretended to go to sleep. The pretending didn't lead to actual sleep so back to bed she went without too much fuss (after a book read).

Not sure why we are tackling toilet training and little bed on the first week of daylight savings but when is the right time? Yesterday Olive had a full day in knickers and no accidents (no number twos though!) she has started choosing the 'big toilet' which is so much easier too. The days leading up was one accident per day usually number twos so tomorrow will be interesting! My baby is growing up.

Well we did it. The cot side came off! Olive has successfully slept in her 'little bed' for two nights without a problem, may it continue. The first morning she managed to close herself in her room to her dismay and the second morning she came visiting ( at a respectable 7am of course!), such a lovely feeling.

I said to Olive tonight "mummy is losing patience with you", Olive then said "I'll go get you some patience mummy, fletch the fox has some, here you go mummy some patience for you so you can read another story" priceless. It made me smile, and yes I did read another story.=

All Olive says at the moment (usually at the end of her sentence) 'cuddle me' we think it is a spin off from getting a new sister. If her needs are not addressed within seconds 'I want toast... Cuddle me' is the conclusion. We all seem to be getting a little cuddled to death at the moment. But who can complain.

"Did you have fun at the hospital yesterday, Olive?" - "YES! And I had an ice block!". At least the last few months of doctors and yesterdays hospital visit isn't affecting Olive. She was looking forward to seeing "Dr Markles" when we told her we needed to take her to see the doctor. Unfortunately her rash flared up even worse last night after subsiding a little and we have booked another visit to the doctors today. We think it might be a reaction her new wool blend duvet?!

'Look mummy look! It's a castle house.' 'Oh sweetie that's a church'. 'No it's a castle house!' Right you are Olive how silly of me.

All three girls in our household have colds. Iris with her first. Poor little snuffly thing. Luckily the snot sucker works a treat on her. Olive, however, fights everything we do to help - even the tasty pamol. No play group this week. She has, however, had a nap in the car two days in a row.

A harsh reminder as to why we shouldn't let Olive nap with an 11pm bedtime last night. All a little sleepy today on number two's expected d-day.

'Supermartna' shopping has become pretty hard these last few weeks with Olive unstrapping herself and standing up constantly. Yesterday we reached a new level of difficult child. We finally reached the car and she was happy enough to sit in her seat (for once!) which lasted 20sec finishing with a classic croc roll and kicking where she managed to escape my grasp and my firm 'don't you dare' and started jumping around on the back seat. I gave up and started loading the boot with food. Only to have a cheeky Olive start singing 'don't you dare, don't you dare'. After I finally caught her (not easy with 39week baby bump) she had managed to stand on her suckie treat and yoghurt was everywhere. Sigh, online shopping here we come.

As all the baby things resurface, Olive's interest in her baby, baby cot and baby buggy grows. She spends some part of each day looking after baby. Nappy changes, rocking her in bouncer, reading books, putting her down for a nap. It is lovely to see, nothing I have encouraged, it must be human nature. Let's hope it continues when her sibling arrives!

A combination of a gallon of bath water, nudie free time and a pink potty that happened to be in the lounge has led to our first step in toilet training! Olive was so excited to pee pee in the potty. Here's hoping it's the start of things to come... And then again 20 minutes later!

In the past week we have noticed Olive making statements like "I can't reach you, you are too far away" whether it's at the table just (deliberately away from woowoo grub) out of Olive's reach or when she is on the deck and we are up on the vege tier. "Where is Daddy / Mummy / Lyon / teddy etc gone" and we are right there is still being asked a lot too.

"Olive got petrol in Turangi. No, only one rangi, not two rangi!"

Day 7: still no napping, didn't even attempt it today. She seems quite good most of the day, thinking it is time for the side to come off the cot! We are saying a lot of 'yes' lately which is just marvelous! Even when she means no. But it is better than 'no sudo (thank you)' all the time!=

Day five of refusing to nap. Is this the end? On a positive note, she seems to handle the napless days well and after an early night, sleeps for 12-14 hours! On the downside, mummy is exhausted and misses her downtime.

Olive has been saying non stop "what's daddy doing?" What's Lyon doing?" "What ya doing?" And it doesn't matter how many times I repeat my answer, she says it again!=

Bribery finally works. I asked olive to have one more piece of broccoli and then she could have yoghurt & honey so olive proceeded to eat all her broccoli and then finished the serving bowl almost with a look of defiance. Works for me! Peppa pig is the big guns but sadly suckies have lost their charm.=

No tears and even a bones as Daddy left Olive at play group this morning! Pity after three nights of happy bed times we had another teary night last night. Never mind, you win some you lose some.

All last week for morning wake up, olive has demanded I take my dressing gown off before she will allow to be picked up. Tom had to take his running shoes off yesterday and this morning I was still told to take the gown off even when I wasn't wearing it. Little miss bossy!=

"Wat dese guys doin on da chair?", "Wat Mamma doin?", "Wat dis, Daddy?". The questions have started. Soon it will be endless "but why?"'s.

For the past few weeks we have been trialling a childcare for two mornings a week. It hasn't been easy, I have currently left her twice for an hour a pop. First time, which didn't go so well but the second time (today) was a little better.

It has now been over two weeks since olive started crying when going down for a nap and bedtime. We had a great run of 6 months of fantastic sleep (we didn't know how good we had it) not sure if she is teething, scared or just not tired. There has been a number of past 10pm bedtimes so let's hope it improves...=

Olive is wrestling with 'me' and 'you' at the moment. 'Daddy catch you!' (before coming down the slide). 'Mamma help you!' (when she wants help with something). It stems from us saying 'Do you want Daddy to catch you?' or 'Do you want Mamma to help you?'. It's a difficult concept to explain to a two year old. In other news, her colours are coming along! Red phone, black tv, blue fly swat.

Colours have been an interesting topic of conversation lately. Blue is the answer for everything with a big smile. Olive was staring at my eyes and said "mama's eyes are blue" and I said "no mama's eyes are green" this went on for a while until she said my eyes were green. So then I asked her what colour was daddy's eyes, she answered "red" enough said.=

The past week only mama has been allowed to read stories or take Olive to bed and everyone and thing gets a goodnight except for Daddy. On the way to bed is usually something along the lines of: "Na night Lyon, na night Lyon bed, na night green (light), na night white (light), na night couch, na night race car, na night table, na night chair, na night buggy."

Mama: "let's go and see daddy's planter" Olive: "no, mama sit, watch olive" Bossy wee boots ;-)