281 + 177 Weeks

You must excuse the huge amount of photos that are appearing on my posts these weeks - now that the kids are home every day, I have SO many more opportunities to take photos, and I am definitely click happy!  I can't help myself.

Anyway, we had two crazy hot days this week.  One got up to 37 degrees, and we had no choice but to go to the beach!  Poor us ;)  That day we went to the Mollymook Bogey Hole, and it was gorgeous down there.  We walked around to the main beach area, and Carmie was jumping the waves like a pro.  It seems that we will have to spend more time at the actual beaches this summer instead of just at the inlets, as she could have stayed all day, and Arley is no longer running headlong into the waves trying to drown himself.  Carmie has no fear of the water and apparently doesn't feel the cold either.   We are so lucky that we have so many lovely beaches here - we also spent half a day at Dolphin Point, and had a picnic one day at Pebbly Beach.  We took the kids to Batemans Bay again that day, for a play at the kids play cafe there, and of course they loved it.  On Friday Carmie had a surprise visit from her friend Ness, which turned into a mini play date.  We did a family swim session on Monday again after the kids' swimming lessons.  It is SO not my idea of fun, but the kids love it, and I am hoping it helps Arley out because he is like a limp noodle in the water and after three years of swimming lessons, he would still sink to the bottom if not held on to!  We also did painting, drawing lessons, and read about 10000 books.  Carmie is very into dinosaurs at the moment, and at any given time she will spout facts about the human body to you.  Arley was a terror for most of the week, but for the last two days he has been quite a lovely little boy.  If you ask him to do something, he has started saying, "Of course!" and, "Oh, I would love to!"  And this morning he slept in until 8:10.  I think his moods are all based on sleep and hunger - if he is well slept and has a cracker in his hand, he is such a nice boy.  If he is tired and hungry, watch out!

280 + 176 Weeks

Well, it's been another week off school, and all is well, except for Arley being really mean to his dad, constantly.  It is not that he doesn't love his dad, it's just that when Jeff goes to help with anything, Arley tells him to go away, leave him alone, says "I don't want you", because he only wants me.  So, it's not a not liking his dad thing, it is more an only wanting me thing, but Jeff doesn't see it that way, and it is breaking his heart.  Arley is still really ornery, and very mischievous, at the expense of Carmie. If she is playing with something, he will take any opportunity to snatch it away from her and go running full pelt in a different direction.  If she is trying to climb onto her chair, he is pulling on the back of the chair to bug her.  If she wants to play with a certain toy, then he wants the same toy, and pitches a fit to get it.  But, we did have one night this week where they played peacefully together for over an hour, and we were in complete shock, and totally stoked.  Hopefully with more time at home together, this will happen more often.  Carmie spends a lot of time now playing alone with her stuffed toys. She has a game going on called 'Dog School', and she loves to play it :)

We got up to a lot of stuff this week, including a trip to Nowra to the Flip Out trampoline centre.  The kids loved it, and as if an hour of bouncing around wasn't enough, we took them to another play centre afterwards that had indoor jumping castles and slides and other play equipment.  The kids were in heaven.  Afterwards, we went and explored Callala Bay, because we had never been there before.  It is so odd that we have been here for seven years and there are still beaches that we haven't been to.

We also went to the kids' friends' house for a Montessori co-op meeting.  Carmie will be going to the co-op next year for two days a week.  We met with the teacher, who is lovely, and some of the other kids who will be attending.  This week we also got to the park, did a (failed!) science experiment, went to the library for more books - these kids LOVE to read - did some baking, and went to the markets to see Jeff play guitar and have a jump on the jumping castle (Arley refused to go on because he had no socks, and threw a massive tantrum and ran away because I couldn't find the sock man to buy him any!).

This week we also had the supermoon, the biggest-looking moon in almost 70 years.  After dinner we took the kids down to Ulladulla Harbour to check it out.  It was still early (it gets dark so late these days!), so the moon wasn't as bright as could be, but the kids had fun howling likes wolves and chasing seagulls.  They like to go out at night and now want to do it more often.

The kids also had a day at their grandparents' place.  They are truly happy there, which is great, and while they were there this visit I got to finish a painting, so I was truly happy too!

Here is a video of the kids howling like wolves at the supermoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmX9MWnGPzk