106 + 2 Weeks

Yes, I am extremely tired right now.  Jeffrey is already in bed.  I am scheduled to do the next feed, and if the little bugger doesn't wake up by 10pm, I'm waking him up!  Arley is a great baby - in the day.  He sleeps all day.  He can barely wake up for a feed.  And then at night he switches between alert, fussy and cat-napping.  So frustrating!  So, we can't sleep in the day because we have a very rambunctious toddler to look after, and we can't sleep at night either, because that seems to be Arley's play time.  Thankfully Mum and Geoff have taken Arley for these past two days while Carmen has been at school, so we have been able to catch up on some sleep.  And speaking of the rambunctious toddler, our sweet little Carmen has turned into devil's spawn!!  Kicking, screaming, hitting, scratching, throwing, you name it, these are all in her new set of tricks.  Everything is a fight with her, from getting her out of bed in the mornings, to which Dora video she wants to watch.  She seems to be a little better when she gets in some alone time with me, so that is one of our goals on a daily basis, but it doesn't happen easily!!

This week we did have two outings to the park, one successful and one a disaster.  The disaster definitely outweighed the success.  It started out by getting the kids bags packed for the park, with changes of clothes and bottles and snacks, then trying to get boots and sunscreen on Carmen (total nightmare!).  After 20 minutes of getting ready, we loaded up into the car, with Arley screaming in a rage because he was due his bottle.  Halfway to the park Jeff realised that we had a flat tire, so we had to turn around and slowly drive home, Arley still screaming and Carmen thinking we were going to the park.  When we got home, I took Carmen to play on her coaster in the back yard, walking up and down to get the coaster back into place while feeding Arley - a near impossible task.  Jeffrey changed the tire on the car, and then left the side gate open when he went inside.  Carmen took the opportunity to run out towards the road, so I went berserk screaming at her, and with every step I took closer to her, she took one closer to the road, but I couldn't run because I had Arley in my arms.  Jeff came out and grabbed Carmen which resulted in a kicking tantrum, which put her in a time out in her room.  After this, she calmed down and I insisted we go back to the park, thinking Carmen would be the better for it.  We got to the park, and Jeff left to go buy our hot chips and a smoothie for Carmen.  The second he left, Arley started screaming, and I had to carry him around the park like this while trying to help Carmen onto the swings and on the play equipment.  Jeff got back with our lunch and put it down on the bench.  Carmen ran over to it and proceeded to fall down and knock her smoothie onto the ground.  After calming her down and salvaging about a third of her smoothie, we sat down to eat, but I had to hold the screaming Arley in my arms the whole time.  It was really stressful.  And then the cherry on the cake was when Carmen put one hand on my knee, one hand on Jeff's arm, steadied herself and then crapped her pants, all the while saying, "No poo poo.  No poo poo."  We have decided never to leave the house as a family ever again.

Anyway, it is almost 10pm, and Arley is about to be woken up for his bottle, because I need to get some sleep myself!

A short video of Arley at 8 days old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2MiRg37Bc&feature=youtu.be

This is what dinner looks like for me now.

 Arley at 1 week old.

 Our successful outing to the park.

 Uncle Sting came down for a visit this week too.

 Keeping Carmen busy.

This was when Carmen and I had an outing into town.  She loves the Bananas in Pajamas.  So much so, that she refused to get off the car, even when I walked out of the building, hid for five minutes while spying on her, then crept back into the building to hide behind the pole where I took the last Bananas photo of her.  She could not have cared less that I had left and "gone home".  She just sat there playing and giggling, not a care in the world.

 Asleep in his sister's bed.

 2 weeks old