268 + 164 Weeks

Well, this week sent us over the edge.  Sometimes I am just dumbfounded by the things that happen to us.  Carmie has had these bites all over her, mostly in clusters around the back of her neck, but also all over her body, and once on her eyelid and a trail of them leading up to her temple.  I was in the gallery on Sunday and started researching what it could be.  My answer: bed bugs.  I freaked out, and when I got home I stripped her mattress, but couldn't find any trace.  I called pest control, and they told me it was most likely 'bird lice' from nesting birds in the roof.  I then made the mistake of googling bird lice  (don't do it).  Pest control came out on Monday and searched for birds nests, but couldn't find one.  Instead they found a dead rat all wrapped up and very slowly decomposing in the insulation in the ceiling right above Carmie's bed.  He could only suppose the lice were from the rat.  We went in to Carmie's room, and he found one right away on her bedside table.  SO GROSS!!!  So, he came and fumigated the kids' rooms and our roof the next morning, and I literally spent three days washing everything in the kids rooms.  I must have done 25 loads of laundry, as well as two trips to the laundromat.  I have been monitoring Carmie for bites since then, and I thought all was good until tonight when I stripped her for bath time and I found a big fresh one just under her waistband.  So I don't know... It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.  If some lice did survive, I'd have to think they wouldn't last long without a host, right?  Ugh, so awful.

And Arley has been totally rotten this week too!  So stubborn, angry and contrary!  They told me at school on Friday that he was really bad for them too.  He does a lot of foot stomping and screaming these days.  Yesterday was really bad, he was so horrible when I picked him up from school.  He can be such a sweetie, and he is mostly OK as long as he knows it's not a school day and he can stay with me all day.  Otherwise, he thinks it means war.  We had a bad incident yesterday afternoon.  He was screaming and screaming angrily at the top of his lungs, in the car with me and Carmie.  I pulled over and told him I couldn't drive while he was screaming.  He screamed in defiance.  I told him he would have to get out of the car next.  He stopped, so I kept driving.  He screamed.  So I said, "Arley, did you scream?" and in response, he took his deepest breath and at the top of his lungs, he screamed the loudest, longest, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" I have ever heard.  So I stopped the car and made him go stand next to the pole.  The thing is, it was pouring with torrential rain.  I have this image of him in his little red sweater, standing in the pouring rain.  It didn't last long, and believe me, I feel terribly guilty, but the thing is, he has been an angel ever since!  I guess he realised that when Mummy means business, she means business!  That doesn't really help with my guilt though.

We made it to Mollymook beach park this weekend, and the kids enjoyed a play and a run around.  Then I made the mistake of offering them iceblocks (popsicles) at the cafe.  I have NEVER known kids to eat iceblocks so slowly.  It was painful.  And freezing.  But they didn't care.  

And then I spent the rest of the weekend washing and fluffing lice out of stuffed toys and clothes.  Jeff even steamed the mattresses!  Lets hope this week is better, please??!! 

267 + 163 Weeks

We had such a good but exhausting weekend!  On Saturday we had a meeting here at our home to discuss the details of the Montessori education we are choosing for Carmie next year.  We didn't know how many people were coming, and we ended up with 7 adults and 12 kids, so it turned into a party for the kids.  They all seemed to have a blast, and someone called our backyard "an adventure playground" :)  It was quite a full-on day.  It was made all the more tiring because the night before, Arley had woken up seven times between 11pm and 5:30am.  About every 45 minutes.  He would call me into his room crying, but wanting nothing.  To say the least, I was slightly exhausted!

On Sunday we packed our bags, drove up to Nowra and took the kids on the train for a 'big adventure' all the way to Sydney.  We had a surprise for Arley, meeting Thomas the Tank in real life!  The kids were great on the train on the way up, and were very excited to stay overnight in a hotel.  We walked down to Darling Harbour for dinner and a play, and then back to the hotel for an early night (for us at least).  The kids were too excited to sleep, and Carmie kept whispering to Arley, "Arley, are you awake?"  He'd say, "Yes", to which she'd reply, "You can't be awake if you're talking!".  Over and over.  They finally slept, and we had a night of uninterrupted sleep.  The next morning at breakfast in the hotel, Arley refused to eat anything but half of a mini muffin - not even his beloved watermelon (because I cut it up when he didn't want it cut up).  So, he was pretty cross from hunger.  However, he got over it when we got to Central Station and he saw Thomas the Tank.  You should have seen his little face.  And then he saw the Fat Controller.  Arley couldn't believe his eyes!  It was so great, he was SO happy.  And Carmie had a great time too.  They read the kids a train safety story and sang a song, and then let the kids sit in the driver's seat of a train, before they let the kids go aboard Thomas.   It was too cute.  Arley cried and cried when we left.  Carmie got her face painted, but Arley turned grumpy again and refused :)  Afterwards, we rode the light rail (another highlight for the kids - it's the simple things!) to Darling Harbour again so the kids could have a play at Tumbalong Park (which is awesome!!!) and get an ice-cream.  Poor little Arley fell off the zip-line, flat on his back, and Carmie climbed so high on the rope tower that I had to walk away because my heart was in my throat.  In the early afternoon we made our way back to Central to get back on the train home.  We got back to Nowra, and it was so awful:  Arley was waving goodbye to the train we got off, and as it got smaller and smaller, Arley was walking slowly backwards, and then he turned and walked straight into a metal pole.  The sound was terrible, and he had the biggest purple egg on his head.  He howled and howled, and of course we were at the train station and had no way of getting an icepack.  What a way to end a great trip, the poor kid :(

I kept the kids home from school on Tuesday so they could recover from their busy weekend, and it was so nice to have a day at home on our own.  Carmie learned how to read a calendar, we played out in the front yard, and the kids made coconut macaroons (almost on their own!).  They had computer time (Arley is obsessed with a math counting game), and we just chilled out.  Let's hope the good times last :)

Unwrapping presents from their Great Aunt Sissy

Having fun with Dad's guitar

Backyard fun

On the way to Sydney

Night time in "the big city"

Thomas!

This is when Arley spotted the Fat Controller

Driving the train

Freaking her mum out!!

On the way home

266 + 162 Weeks

This week has been fairly good, albeit with some rather annoying and lengthy night wakings, thanks to Arley.  He will cry out for me at night, and when I ask him if he needs to go to the toilet he says, "No thank you," and then I tuck him in and tell him to go back to sleep, and he turns to me with a pained expression and starts to whimper.  He won't tell me what he wants, he just won't let me leave.  And if I do leave, then he starts to cry.  So I have to stay there in the freezing cold and pat him.  It's only for about five minutes, but that is enough to wake me up completely, and I'm done for.  It's getting very old, very fast!

This past weekend Carmie had a playdate at her friend Alice's house.  She is getting so grown up, spending time at friends' houses.  When I went to pick her up she asked me if I could take her over to her friend Vanessa's house!  Instead we took the kids down to the rock pools at Narrawallee.  They love it down there, and it is an enjoyable way to pass the time.  We also had trips to the park, and the kids had a day at home with their dad while I was in the gallery.

We broke out the X-Box for the kids so they could play Dora Dance Party, and Kinectimals.  They are hooked, and it is SO cute to see them play.  Carmie's rhythm (or lack of it!!) is getting better, and Arley just follows on when he can.  Speaking of Arley, he said to me tonight, "Mum, you're a pain in the butt!".  I think he has that backwards!  

Here is a video of them playing Dora Dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPdDehaK95w