After the sale the other day, everything was pretty quiet. I think we were both just sort of absorbing the idea that it was over and that we'd done better than we'd figured even our highest guesstimate was.

We did a bit of Christmas shopping and I got part of my present early... my present being that I'm going to get to set up an aquatic plant aquarium. I used to have several tanks and was BIG into the whole scene... big ones with cichlids the size of dinner plates and smaller ones (2.5-15g) with plants and a few community fish to provide fertilizer. The small tanks were my "gardens" as in Michigan what the winter doesn't do in flower-wise, the deer will! I had to leave it behind though when I moved. So we found an aquarium store which is retrofitting their tanks and selling their old ones dirt cheap. I grabbed one, a light that was on discount, a filter (Ehiem) which definitely wasn't on discount but since I'm going to be feeding CO2 into it, you can't mess with not having a decent motor. Voila, Christmas present! (Have to add, while we were there I got to see and cuddle this GORGEOUS Black-Headed Python... she was soooo pretty! Not that I need another critter but I'd definitely like to have snakes again someday!) We'll wait to set it up until we move so we don't end up cycling the tank, just starting to establish it and then ruining everything when we move, so it's all in R&D at this point. (I'll probably also get a few agility obsticals now that we're moving somewhere with enough space to use them!!! YAY!!!!!!! *does silly-happy dance*) Anyone wanting to see my previous tanks go to HERE. I also saw a pretty little betta that I got with my pocket money and set him up in a very tiny tank which will end up being a miniature plant tank. Not the best photo as the water is still slightly hazy with NTS and the driftwood is prolly bleeding some tannins in, but the colour is accurate and as you can see, lovely! The tips of the fins that look white in the pic are actually very light blue and the spotting is a lovely dark red. Even my fish have to be MERLE!!! LOL We're putting up a vote for his name. We both reckon he looks like a flame so the two we've thought of are: LUMIERE (means light/flame in French) or PHOENIX. Leave your vote in the comments please!!!


Yes, it's yet another side-shot of Hope standing to show how she's growing. She's staring a squeek toy down. LOOKIT THE LEGS ON HER!!! Sheesh she's sprouted!

All 3 Hooligans together and NOT wrestling... trust me, it's a rare event. Fascilitated by liver.

Last but not least, three shots of my little man. This last week, it really feels like he's left baby-hood and is now a full fledged toddler. He's a little boy now.
Not just because he's walking, though that's part of it... but he's running, exploring, his sense of curiousity, his vocabularly which has taken off in leaps and bounds and gone from one word to pairing two to using it as a question... and overall just his general "intent" towards his surroundings. He spends a lot of time "working things out"... how to deal with steps, gauging what's the best approach, if he can make that distance... how things stack and fit into eachother. He's become intensely fascinated by pushing buttons, switches, seeing how things work. He puts things into jars, pulls them out, examines them, carefully puts them back in, fastens the lid, examines the object in the jar... all with the serious intent of a scientist working out his latest experiment. He's to have picked up the idea of give and take in interaction more firmly and a lot of other developmental hurdles have been charged at full tilt. He blabbers into a phone now while holding it in correct position, he mimics a shocking amount of things and has a sense of pride in his accomplishments. It's fascinating to see him become more and more of a 'little person' as he develops but it's a reflective moment for me as well. I've been mentioning this all to Nic over the past week but when I looked at these few photos it really sort of hit home. My bubba is a toddler, still my bubba (always my bubba) but not a little baby anymore.

Taste testing the herbs. (And dirt... ewww...)
It's also a bit to wrap my head around too... holy heck, I'm the mum of a toddler! How the heck did THAT happen?!? I still find it a novel concept that I'm a mum at all! I may have worked with plenty of kids and while I liked them, it was more an interest in them as small people, sort of teacherish, vs the gushy and clucky mum feelings kids tend to inspire now. (Bloody smeggin' hormones...) I did want kids but it was a sort of 'distant future' thing and never really was sure if I'd be a good mum because I wasn't particularly gushy over babies. Even so, I those maternal hormones sure switched ON and I took to being a mum like a duck to water... easy, very natural, I was never particularly worried or freaked out the way most "new first time mums" are portrayed. (Freakily enough, most mums in my new mums group WERE that way, it's not just popular media hype - they were even freaking out and rushing to the doctor to see if the baby was BLINKING TOO MUCH!!! O_o) Not to say being a mum is always easy, nor undemanding, just surprised over what a flowing transition it was! I attribute most of that to trusting my instincts and parenting in a way that promotes good communication and a secure attachment between parent and child. Even so, being mum to a baby is a little easier swallow than a toddler... after all, if he's a toddler, then the next step is a preschooler which turns into a school kid and that means I'll officially be a grown-up! EEK! ;-)


My gorgeous toddler tornado child, running about with Hope again!