145 + 41 Weeks

This week Carmie graduated to a 'big girl' bed, and she is very proud of herself.  It hasn't stopped her calling out at night, and she loves to climb in and out of it herself, but she is yet to realise that she can get in and out of it during the night and in the morning.  She still waits until I come in and get her.  I wonder when the realisation will set in that she doesn't have to wait for me?  She is still being a pain in the butt about going to bed.  Last night I put her down at 7:45, and she called out periodically until 10:10.  Then she woke up crying at midnight, and up for the day at 5:50am.  Tonight I told her if she called out, I would come in and take a toy.  I guess she didn't believe me, so I took away one of her bed toys (she has about 20!), and all hell broke loose!!  Full blown tantrum.  I calmed her down, but she didn't get her toy back.  She better believe me from now on!

Carmie had her last swimming lesson for the season.  She is miles ahead of the other kids in her class.  The parents joke to me about how she must have been a water birth, and that she really is a fish.  She spends so long under water that I get scared.  She is the only one who can float, and she literally spends most of the lesson with her head under water.  Carmie has had a fairly good week, until today when she was at school and they asked me to come and pick her up because she had tummy pains.  The Easter bunny was supposed to visit, and they were going to have a tea party and a hat parade, but she came home instead.  I think I am more disappointed than her!  We did decorate Easter eggs at Aunty Georgia's house, and Carmie also got to help with some Easter cookies.  

Arley loves to bang on everything.  If you leave the drums out, he will crawl up to them and start beating on them.  All but two of Carmen's white board markers have disappeared, because Arley likes to take them around the house to bang on things.  He is still ball-obsessed, and today he was waving like it's old hat.  He eats like a horse (tonight at dinner he literally ate half of my lasagna, after eating his own serving).  And he absolutely adores his sister.  He would follow her to the end of the Earth and back.  If only she paid any attention to him!

Here are two videos of Carmie.

This one is her singing one of her planets songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LYABdP3YWU&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ

This is one of her briefly floating at swimming.  She can actually float as long as she wants to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVnYHjo4TQk&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ

Swimming lesson

 She is becoming so proficient with a mouse!

 Big girl bed

 Cutting cookies

 Matching hats.  Thanks Lolo :)

144 + 40 Weeks

Well, this week Jeffrey started his new job working full time in the day, so I had the kids by myself.  I am completely housebound when I have them, because one of them is always napping, and their nap schedules will not coincide again for about another 5 months.  Carmie still goes to 'school' on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Arley goes to his grandparents' place, so thankfully I do get some reprieve.  But now we definitely have to make the most of our week-ends.  Last week-end was raining, so I took Carmie to Funland, which is a two storey building filled with arcade games and fun rides for kids.  It was our first time there, and Carmie loved it.  It is supposed to rain again this week-end, so I think we will be going back there.  She has asked every day if we are going to Funland again :)

Little Arley had his hair cut, but just a snip here and there, because he had no interest in sitting still.  He is learning to wave - in fact, he waved tonight for the first time.  Arley spends most of his awake hours chasing balls around the house.  He can crawl after a ball for a good hour and have the time of his life.  It makes caring for him very easy :)

Here are some videos of Carmie at Funland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkU24pgekSw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJGS2EAkAQg&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxMQwS5FChM&feature=youtu.be

Calling Lolo

 At Funland

 Eating berries

143 + 39 Weeks

Jeffrey turned 43 this week.  Carmie was very excited for her Dad's birthday, and she took the liberty of unwrapping his presents for him and helping him blow out the candles on 'her' cake.  She has been eating birthday cake ever since, and insists on getting a candle in every piece.

This week Carmie had a play date with her friend Hannah.  I also took Arley to the park and the beach (he HATED the sand!), and then later the same day, Jeff took Carmie to the park and for ice cream.  It is impossible to take the kids anywhere at the same time at the moment, as one of them is pretty much napping at all times.  First Arley goes down at about 9:45, then when he wakes up it is lunch time, and we have an hour of both kids being awake before Carmie goes down for her nap.  Then, just when she is waking up it is time for Arley's nap again.  So, we are under house arrest until Arley is only having one nap a day.  But this does give me one on one time with each of my kiddies.

Arley saw the health care nurse for his 9 month check up, and all is well.  She said to feed him until he stops eating, and not to worry about his weight, so he is in heaven every meal time.  He is also standing up every opportunity that he can get, and getting a little fussy because (we think) he is teething.

We had one of our last beautiful days of the season here, so I took Carmie down to the beach (poor Jeffrey was holed up in the house with Arley).  Carmen insisted that she needed her jacket on and that she didn't want to go in the water.  She ended up buck naked and wanting to swim all afternoon.  The beach was empty, and it was such a nice afternoon.  This morning she woke up and told me that she wasn't going to school today, that she was going to the beach instead.  I can't blame her!

Here is a very cute video of Arley playing with a ball.  He was laughing so hard for so long, I had to video it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av3-EYYPG70

Eating a banana

 Hates the sand!

 Gardening with Mum

 At the beach

 Building a sand castle

 Loves his dinner time!