170 + 66 Weeks

It has been an interesting week.  Carmie is proving to be getting very grown up, and enjoys spending time colouring in and decorating paper with stickers.  Arley likes to annoy her by muscling his way into the desk where she does her 'work', and hitting her, poking her and pulling her hair.  When the kids are sitting at the kitchen counter, Arley likes to turn to his sister and yell as loudly as possible in her ear, which results in Carmen crying and begging for him to be put down.  Arley was still crazy fussy, still trying to kick his stomach bug, so Mum and Geoff took him for a day and a night to help us out, which we were very grateful for because we had to get ready for our trip to Byron Bay.  We realised while he was gone for the night and we just had Carmen to look after, how easy life is with just one child!!  Only one child to focus on = no noise, no mess and less stress!!  I never want to hear a single child parent say how tough it is ever again (even though I used to be one of those complainers)!  I can't even begin to imagine what life is like with more than two kids.

Anyway, on Wednesday we said goodbye to the kids, and safely made our way up to Byron Bay (for our non-Australian friends, Byron is the eastern most tip of Australia, and is a wonderful hippy/arty community with great restaurants, cafes, shops and galleries, and beautiful beaches and hinterland).  We are up here for five nights.  Last night was our first night here, and was lovely, with great food, live music, wine, a lunar eclipse on the beach...until...wait for it...I got food poisoning.  I spent more than half the night in the bathroom purging some poisonous airport food from my system, from about 11:30pm until about 4:30am.  Worst...night...ever...What a way to start our first vacation in almost 4 years!!!  Today I have been taking it easy, still a bit shaky and nauseous.  But I plan on making the most of the rest of our time, with a massage booked in for tomorrow, a lovely dinner reservation for tomorrow night (thanks for both, Dad and Colleen!), and a car booked for Saturday so that we can do a little exploring.  We are very much enjoying the peace and quiet, and the opportunity to take afternoon naps just because we want to.  And on that note, I am going to lie in bed and start watching a new series with Jeffrey, and stay up as late as I want!

Carmie wore her Little Bo Peep dress two days running, thanks Colleen!

 Water play :)

 Arley's favourite past time at the moment is to remove items from the bathroom cabinet and stack them neatly on the floor,

At Lolo & Dida's