161 + 57 Weeks

This week Carmie came down with a nasty cold, and she missed school on Tuesday.  She then gave her cold to Arley, so he is miserable too.  The joys of parenthood.  It never ends!  Both kids have been very clingy and needy, and I have tried to make them rest as much as possible, but being housebound kind of drives us all up the wall.  So this week has been fairly awful.  Arley does this horribly shrill ear-piercing scream whenever he needs anything or is slightly cross, or has to wait a minute for a snack.  He prefers to eat his food off the floor, and sits in his high chair at dinner tossing his food over the tray.  When I get him down, he immediately crawls to the food and gobbles it up.  On a good note, Arley is walking everywhere, and is getting quite fast.  He is yet to fall and hurt himself.  It seems that he waited to walk until he could do it like a champ.  Carmie is still a nightmare to put to bed.  She must get out of bed 10 times between 7:30 and 9pm, pretending to need to go to the bathroom.  Every time she fakes it I take a toy out of her bed, and this seems to upset her enough to scream the house down, but not enough to stop her getting out of bed over and over again.  Suggestions, anyone? 

The kids' US grand parents left today, and they are going to miss them very much.  Nema and Grandpa Clark have been great playmates to Carmie and Arley over the past few weeks.  To make matters worse, Lolo and Dida have left for 6 weeks, off to Thailand and a visit to China to see my brother Jay. Six long weeks.  No baby sitting help.  I might just lose my mind.  

160 + 156 Weeks

It has been a tough week, due to Carmen turning into an absolute monster.  Everything was fine over the week-end, then the devil in her came out for three days.  Luckily her US grandparents had taken a three day hiatus and weren't around to witness the unbelievable.  By day three I actually told her that if she threw one more tantrum I was going to take her over to the neighbour's to live with them, and I think I really meant it.  She was horribly sleep deprived, as she has started her old behaviour of calling out for hours at bed time, and now she keeps poor Arley awake because they are in the same room (so much for this solving the problem).  And then she has been waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes for 2 hours, because she can't find her teddy bear (which is always within arm's reach), or she has a head ache, or she heard a noise.  On the third night of calling out at bed time, Jeffrey took over because I was too angry, and he told her that one more noise and we would be moving Arley's cot out of the room (she thinks Arley protects her).  Well, at 10pm, after much screaming by both children, Arley was settled in to our study, and Carmen was in her bedroom screaming bloody murder all by herself.  We told her that because the monitor goes with Arley, we can't hear her.  Then she put in a 15 minute effort of hysteria before she went to sleep.  The following day she was an absolute angel, a different kid.  That night she went to sleep like such a big girl, with no challenges whatsoever.  So yesterday we moved Arley's cot back in.  Then last night Jeff went to a mate's house, and the kids were in their room when Carmie started it up again.  I didn't hesitate.  I got Arley out of bed and moved his cot myself, which was no easy feat, with both kids hysterical and Arley clinging to it as I was dragging it out of the room.  So dreadful.  Then I stayed with Carmie for 20 minutes because she didn't want to be left alone, and then I went to bed and cried, feeling like such a terrible mother.  What to do??

Arley had a good week.  He is walking everywhere, and is very careful about it.  Whenever he wants to get somewhere quickly he just gets down and speedcrawls.  He finally has said his first word besides MemMemMemMem which I think he says for Mummy.  When you ask him what a duck says, he says, "Kack Kack".  It is very cute, but only happens with lots of prompting.  Carmie was saying so much more at this age.  I try not to compare, but I think boys really are slower than girls!

Fingers crossed that we get this bed time issue under control, and we have a better week this coming week!

159 + 55 Weeks

This week has gone very quickly.  Finally Arley has learned to walk! :)  He still crawls when he has a choice, but he can walk quite well without falling over.  He is quite slow and delicate about his walking, and he is such a fast crawler that I think he prefers to be on all fours.  But I don't think it will take him long to have running races with his sister.

The kids have had lots of visits with their US grandparents this week, and Carmie has had quite a few trips to the park with them.  Carmie is becoming quite a mature little girl - this morning she surprised me by taking Arley to the playroom to entertain him because I was having a moment and was about to lost the plot.  She likes to help me with chores, and we haven't had any big tantrums for quite a while (knock on wood).  She is also quite happy to be left at school, so I'm thinking another day might be in order!

Anyway, hopefully our bad run of illnesses and accidents is over!

Here are some videos from this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtLtxO2BWoY&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_xQxq1tOeY&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMJNYJyw25I&feature=youtu.be

Wearing her new princess ballerina dress - thank you Auntie Georgia!

158 + 54 Weeks

After several more visits to the doctor to get his bandages changed, Arley is doing much better.  As of today he is wearing his mitten, no bandage.  The skin under his blister is healed but very raw, and I think itchy, because he digs at it every chance he can get.  He also got weighed and measured, and he is in the 85th percentile for weight and the 95th for height.  No surprise really, as he is so heavy to carry around, and the little bugger still refuses to try to walk.  He cruises all day long, but as soon as you hold his hands to walk him, he sits down on his butt like a lead weight.  I didn't get many photos of him this week, not sure why.  He has been rather fussy, but who wouldn't be with four teeth coming through at once?  Three of them have finally cut, so hopefully he will be less fussy from here on out.

As for Carmie, she has had a good week.  She has had lots of visits from her US grandparents, Nema and Grandpa Clark  -  although no great photos there either :( .  They have been visiting us, spending time with the kids, playing hide and seek with Carmen, and sitting through the Willbanks' Family Fun Hour (dinner and bathtime) which is fairly hellacious.  Carmie has also been settling in to school much better too, which makes dropping her off much more pleasant.

All in all, this week was much better than last week, with no accidents and no illnesses!  Can't ask for more than that!

 Carmie and Nema

 Playing hide and seek with Grandpa Clark

 Super Carmie

 Bubbles are her weapon of choice