86 Weeks

This week we have had a great week, with very little fuss and no tantrums!  Carmen is 'using her words' more, and I think this helps out a lot with her frustration.  She will repeat any easy word I ask her to, and can now even say 'circle' ("kirkle").  She even has a word for Grandma!  It is Lolo, which sounds nothing like Grandma, but at least now Grandma has a name - finally some reward for all the hours spent looking after her!  The weather this week has been cold and rainy and then sweltering hot and stormy.  We take Carmen to this little indoor park inside an arcade, and it is our saving grace!  She can sit and have her 'coffee' and cake and then run and play while we actually sit and have ours.  It is the most relaxed we can get with her.  We also made a couple of trips to our other favourite parks this week, and of course Carmen still visits her grandparents two days a week.  Starting on Monday 4th, Carmen is also starting day care one day a week.  I am extremely nervous about it, so we are going in for three visits this week to settle her in.  Scary!  She is getting rather bored at home, and I think the socialization will be good for her.  I also need more time to get things done, because she still makes doing anything productive impossible!  However, she has learnt to stand on a chair in the kitchen and 'help' me with kitchen work.  Things take twice as long, but at least she is not complaining!

85 Weeks

Well, this week we had some ups and downs.  Earlier in the week Carmen was being a little monster.  Whining and crying and fussing relentlessly.  And then Mum came over and felt her head for a split second and realised she had a fever.  What a bad mummy am I!  This day followed with three more days of fever, and then she broke out in a red rash.  Roseola!  Horrible virus.  I have felt guilty ever since I found out because I lost my patience with her about a million times.  You'd think that not eating and total monster fussiness would encourage me to take her temperature.  Bad mummy!

On Friday we had a quick visit with Belinda, a childhood friend of mine.  It has been probably 25 years since we've seen each other.  Her two daughters were lovely, and Carmen had fun in the park with them.  It was so nice to see them.  Then on Saturday we took Carmen to King's Point park for a little play (love that we have about a thousand parks around us).  On Sunday morning Carmen and I went to Mollymook Beach to see her grand parents and to watch her cousins in little nippers.  Carmen is a total handful at the beach, because all she wants to do is run headlong into the surf.  Absolutely no fear.  And she doesn't seem to feel the cold either, unlike her mother.  

We were pretty poor at taking photos this week-end, will have to make up for it next week :)

84 Weeks

Well, we have had a fairly uneventful week, however, little Miss Clingy is back in full force.  All I hear all day is Mamma, Mamma, Mamma, and when Jeffrey goes up to her, all we hear is whining and crying.  Unless I'm not around, and then apparently she is the perfect little angel, full of merriment and laughter.  Trying times!  But apart from the clingyness, Carmen is picking up a couple of new words a week - she stuck her finger up my nose and said 'hole', and today she asked me to read her a 'boop'.  So clever!

Quick video of Carmen after bath:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxQf0epYLI&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1

83 Weeks

This week I finally got to announce that I am pregnant.  It has been a long wait!  We had to wait because this baby was high risk for Down Syndrome, but we have been given the all clear, and also told that the baby is definitely a boy.  I still am getting used to the idea of having a boy, but I hear they are much easier.  And easier is definitely a plus!  Carmen has officially thrown her first tantrum.  Of course it was during her swimming lesson and I was stuck in the middle of the pool with her and had no where to hide.  The instructor just had to get out those little rubber duckies, and then try to take them away again!  It was a fairly awful scene, and very embarrassing to know that Carmen was the kid no one wanted in the class - there is always one!  I also think she was bored and under-stimulated, so they are bumping her up to an older class to see how she goes.  Hopefully there will be no more tanties!

We also had a visit this week-end from Carmen's Uncle Beau.  Carmen was very shy and refused to pose for a photo.  It was almost as bad as her Santa photo! 

Enjoying some oat milk:

 Hat play:

Visit with Uncle Beau:

At swimming, before the drama: