Little Red Boots

Kayleigh's first pair of shoes was a little pair of red boots that we bought from Myers. We bought these when she first started walking as we didn't think they she needed proper shoes before this. Kayleigh was very proud of her little red boots and wore them all the time. I still remember her running around naked with only her red boots on. It was so cute.

Kayleigh's little red boots

Doing Weights

As Kayleigh grew up, Terence has several weights sets, benches, dumbbells and other weights stuff. When she little we always made sure she couldn't play with it, but since her Daddy used it she wanted to use it to. One day we had the bench and the barbell out on the porch and we told Kayleigh off for rolling the barbell along the concrete. the next thing we knew, Kayleigh screamed. She had managed to roll the barbell on top of her fingers so they where between the 20kg plate and the concrete floor. We quickly took it off and took Kayleigh to the bathroom to inspect the damage. Nothing was broken, but she had blood blisters on both sides of three fingers, up and down the fingers. Kayleigh NEVER touched the weights without permission again.

When she got older and started showing an interest in weights and her body, Terence worked with her to show her the correct techniques for dumbbells. She wasn't old enough to do weights properly, but light weights to strengthen her muscles was OK. Kayleigh had respect for the weights set and always made sure she was not mucking up around them.

The '6 Pack'

Kayleigh always looked after her body, it helped that she had her dad's genetics, and the one thing was she really proud of was her 6 pack abs. We first noticed Kayleigh '6 pack' when she was about 6 years old. By then she spent a lot of time hanging from the monkey bars at home with her feet held in front of her. For those who don't know, that is a killer ab work out. Kayleigh just did it for fun. She also started doing it at school, swinging on the monkey bars and hanging upside down and swinging up (another killer ab workout). By the time she got the high school her abs were well developed, in fact as Mr Haidon told us, they played in game in SoSE were they had to catch something in their shirt and Kayleigh spent the whole time catching while flashing her abs at the boys, making them jealous!

Tea towel fights

Kayleigh got very very good at cracking tea towels and we had many tea towel fights with them. It normally started with Kayleigh saying no to drying up, or cleaning the kitchen so I would grab a tea towel and then Kayleigh would grab one and then we would start trying to crack them at each other ( in fun of course). There were days that I managed to crack one, but mostly Kayleigh got me. The important thing was that after we had fun, Kayleigh would then do what she was asked to do.

Kayleigh also tried tea towel fights with her dad, but as he was really good at it, she normally came off second best, apart front the time she managed to get her dad a beautiful shot and actually broke his skin on his leg, and drew blood. Terence didn't want to play that game anymore . . . . .it hurt.

Sleeping in the tent

When Kayleigh was about 8 she really really wanted a cubby house, but we couldn't afford it. Then when we were down at Kmart one day we saw a tent in the reduced section. It was a small three person tent but we thought 'awesome' we could use it as a cubby house for the kids to play in and if they get bored, we can pack it up and store it until they wanted to play in it again. All the kids loved the tent and the one thing Kayleigh really wanted to do was sleep in it one night.

One night when we knew it was going to be warm and clear, we told Kayleigh and Natassja they could sleep in the tent and they were very excited. Kayleigh got out her doona and pillow and set up her spot in the tent. That night I don't think she got to sleep until after midnight she was that excited. Over the years we had several tents and Kayleigh slept in everyone overnight, sometimes with her sister and friends, and a couple of times by herself. Our dog Sash always slept next to the tent (and sometimes inside it) when Kayleigh was asleep. One thing Kayleigh did like doing when she sleeping in the tent was going on a 'midnight' walk around the garden and doing midnight trampolining, laying down and staring at the stars. When we got the fire pit, Kayleigh sat outside next to the fire toasting marshmellows talking about her day before curling up inside her sleeping bag to go to sleep. It was like camping without having to go anywhere.

Cracking bones

One thing that Kayleigh did was crack her fingers, toes and any other part she could do. I always told her not to because it could cause arthritis when she got old. Kayleigh didn't care and continued to do it. Every morning she would get up and crack her toes by curling her toes underneath her feet then standing on them. She would then lace her fingers together and stretch them in front until they cracked.

Kayleigh also liked cracking her dads back to relieve him of the back pain he gets. She had figured out a technique to feeling his back to find the spots where his back was compressed and then pushing on it in a way til it cracked. I still have not managed to do it even though Kayleigh showed me many many times. Kayleigh just had a healing touch.

The 'Poo' tale

I think every parent has a poo tale of their kids were the child has managed to smear poo in all sorts of places. The tale of poo that Kayleigh managed -well even I still can't explain how she did it.

We had just moved into the house we currently live at, so Kayleigh was just over 2 years old. Because we moved into the house, we thought we would make it our own by painting the rooms the colour we wanted. Kayleigh and Natassja room we choose a colour called almond nougat - a sort of light apricot colour. As it was a children's bedroom we thought we would spend the extra money and get wash and wear paint so it was easy to keep clean. Because of some sort of special, we also got white wash and wear for the ceiling. The day after we painted, Kayleigh and Natassja were playing in their room. Because we were still painting the other rooms we had the door closed so they didn't get into trouble. After a while we noticed the girls were being very quiet and we went to check on them (quiet children = children being naughty) . Before we opened the door we knew what one of them had been up to. We opened the door and there was Kayleigh, her hands a lovely brown colour, the walls a lovely brown colour up to about a metre from the floor, and a big grin on Kayleighs face. Then I looked up, and there on the nice newly painted ceiling was even more poo!!! The only explanation was she threw it up there - a effort for a two year old. All I can say is thanks god we used wash and wear, it took Terence hours to clean up the room and clean up Kayleigh.

Noise to go to sleep

When we brought Kayleigh home from the hospital we wanted to make sure that she would not be disturbed by the noises in the house when she was asleep. It started out with just the vacuum cleaner and then the sound system being on. We obviously went too far the other way. When Kayleigh was about 4 weeks old, we laid her on the couch and had the sound system on. Mind you we had two 15 inch subwoofers behind the couch at the time. We turned the music up and Kayleigh fell asleep. We thought it might be a good idea to turn it down but as soon as the volume decreased Kayleigh woke up. We turned up the music and she fell asleep again. As soon as we turned it down she woke up! We think it also had something to do with the bass vibrating the couch as well. As Kayleigh got older she preferred to clean with the music up and if we had music on when it was bed time it had to be loud enough for her to hear it.

Getting off the lounge

After Kayleigh learnt how to crawl, but before she could stand up she taught herself how to getnoff the lounge. . . . But not feet first. The first time she did it I think Terence and I freaked as it was so quick and unexpected. kayleigh, as usual, was crawling back and forth along the lounge when she suddenly faced the ground, put her arms out and dived off. We freaked, she landed on her hands and then slid the rest of body to the ground until her knees were down and then off she went. A couple of times she didn't get her hands down in time and she face planted, but most of the time she dived off head first and kept going. Talk about no fear. None of my other children did this, but Kayleigh sure found it an effecient way to jump of the lounge and keep going without having to stop.

Canberra Show

Kayleigh went to the Canberra Show twice in her life - once when she was 4 and the last time when she was 13. Both times her Grandpa took her. They always stayed to see the fireworks which Kayleigh thought was the best part. When she was little, the only rides she went on was the dodgem cars and the ferris wheel. When she was 13, Grandpa took just Natassja and Kayleigh to the show. he made sure that they went to the see the animals and Kayleigh patted the sheep and the cows and checked out the pigs. Kayleigh and Natassja then convinced grandpa to let them on some of the rides. Kayleigh really wanted to go on the tallest ride - the one that flipped you upside down and took you really high. Grandpa didn't know if it was a good idea, but he let them go on some of the smaller rides to see if they could take the movement. Kayleigh first tried the octopus - which she said was pretty tame and then other similar ride. Kayleigh then got want she wanted - to go on the tallest ride. I must say when Grandpa told me i felt a little nauseous myself, but Kayleigh said it was AWESOME!!!! She even went on it twice!

Kayleigh 4 - at the show



Patting a cow



One of the 'tester' rides



After the AWESOME ride - you can see it in front of the ferris wheel



Family: Nanny

Kayleigh loved her Nanny - Nanny is Terence's mum Lucille. When Kayleigh was little we visited Nanny every 2 out of 3 weekends because Nanny was home by herself because Granddad was working. Nanny bought Kayleigh her Moosie, her most favourite toy when she was little. Nanny always had lollies for her, and sandwiches and fruit. Nanny also had lots of colouring in books for Kayleigh and Natassja to use.

When Kayleigh got older, Nanny and Granddad took her and Natassja down the coast a couple of times, and took her to the Hall markets and other fun places. Nanny always bought Kayleigh clothes for her birthday and Christmas which Kayleigh liked. When Kayleigh got to be the same height as Nanny, she started being given clothes that Nanny had bought but hadn't worn - this was great for Kayleigh. She got all sorts of cool clothes which she wore almost everyday.

Last message from Kayleigh

After Kayleigh passed away, Natassja found this audio file on my old phone. When I heard it, it made me cry, but now every timeI feel down I play it. It's short (7 seconds) but says soooooo much. Today being Mother's Day I have listened to it many times. The audio is a little quiet so you might have to liten carefully.

Silly photos

Everytime I took photos of the kids, they insisted that after the 'good' photos that I took a silly photo. Here is a couple with Kayleigh at her best.



May 2009




Kayleigh 'strutting' her stuff.  June 2003

2008



Mobile Phones

Kayleigh didn't get a mobile phone until she started High School and even then it was my old pink Motorola flip phone. I told Kaylegh the day I gave it to her that she was not to give out her phone number, make calls unless required or text people unless required. I also showed her the Telstra site that showed the phone calls made and told her that I would keep and eye on it. Initially Kayleigh was on a $10 pre-paid plan and I am very proud to say that she never ever made calls to anyone that she should not have. Most of her calls were to her Dad to say she got to school safely, or at lunch time just to see how his day was going. She always ended the call with 'I love you Dad/Mum' even if she was around her friends.

The one thing Kayleigh wasn't good at was making sure she still had battery. She liked playing games on her phone, which uses battery life. Several times she ran out of battery when she needed to use it and we told her off for it. Eventually the old Motorola stopped working properly so I bought a new phone and she got a pretty crap Nokia that I had been using. This lasted until the start of year 8 when I gave her my nice LG Viewty touchscreen phone. Kayleigh really liked using the phone - again for games when she shouldn't have but she still never made phone calls when she shouldn't. Kayleigh then managed to wash Terence's phone in the washing machine - killing it completely and then dropped his new phone in the water sump at the front of the house a week after that. Kayleigh was always careful with her phone - she got  a rainbow mock to make sure it didn't get scratched, but was unfortunately clumsy with her dad's. I can't count the number of times she dropped it.