271 + 167 Weeks

We had a lovely week.  The big deal from this week is that Carmie learned to ride her bike without training wheels.  She is so proud of herself, and she is desperate to go back to the farm to ride her bike (on the tennis court, which is the safest place).  We spent about an hour one afternoon with me running next to her and holding on to her seat, and then about half an hour the next day doing the same, and then she was off.  It was very exciting :)

The kids also went to Hannah's brother Alasdair's birthday lunch, and had a great time.  We had fun in the backyard, and we took the kids to Narrawallee Inlet for a play at the park and a little hike to the point.  They soon found the little beach, and would have spent all day there, except that I hadn't packed us any lunch, so we had to leave due to hunger.  Next time I will pack morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner too.  Arley was perfectly content to throw rocks and shells into the water, while Carmie waded in the inlet.  And next time I'll bring a book too :)

Jeffrey and I also went to a concert, the Neil Diamond Experience.  It was so much fun, fake Neil Diamond was amazing.  And the kids and a sleepover at Lolo and Dida's house, so the next morning Jeff and I had a sleep-in and a very leisurely breakfast.  It was a nice break.

Arley has been a little better behaved lately.  We still get lots of, "No, I don't want to!!" and "Leave me alone!" and "No Daddy, I don't like you!" and foot stomping etc, but he is a little easier to calm this week, and we have had some funny dinners, mostly because every time we start a dinner conversation, Arley answers our questions with "Poo poo".  After you hear that answer SO many times, it actually becomes a little funny.

Here is a video of Carmie riding her bike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm9Fd1P3zyo

Carmie and Alasdair

Cool in her new hat

Carmie reads to Arley every morning now

Backyard fun

At Narrawallee

Fake Neil

Bike riding superstar

270 + 166 Weeks

It was Father's Day here this past Sunday.  We tried to give Jeffrey the day off, but that's not easy with two demanding little kids!  In the morning I ended up taking Carmie up to the hospital, because she was still covered in bites, and we were at our wits' end.  I called a health hotline here, and a doctor called me back (I didn't even know we could do this, so cool!), and he thought it best to take her to see someone right away.  I am glad that I did, as it turns out that she wasn't covered in bites, but hives.  She has chronic idiopathic urticaria, basically hives with an unknown cause (we think mites!), and they're chronic because they haven't gone away.  The doctor said we just have to wait it out, but didn't give us a date.  After looking online, I have found that the wait for the hives to go away is anything from days to years, so we are definitely hoping for days!  We just have to give her antihistamine and keep her from scratching.  I am so relieved we don't still have mites, as we were gearing up for our third fumigation!

Anyway, after the hospital visit, we took the kids to the circus.  For a small circus, it was really good. Perhaps a little long for Arley, but we all enjoyed it.  Afterwards we met Mum and Geoff at the Golf Club for more Father's Day fun, and Mum and I took the kids to Mollymook Beach for a play.  It was a really nice day.

Arley was still very naughty this week, but perhaps a little better than last?  At the very least, his naughtiness wasn't continuous, but he did get into trouble yesterday at school for repeatedly kicking Carmie in the stomach, and today for hitting Karen, the teacher.  Yes, I have THAT son.  We are not sure what to do at this point, except to keep reinforcing his good behaviour.  He gets very frustrated, and his first impulse is to hit.  Such a bully.  Hopefully this is just an age problem and he grows out of it very soon!  He is definitely better at home, so I think going to school one day less a week is better for him.  I think no days at school would be best, but that's not in the cards right now.  He started to have another tanty in the splash pool at swimming, the same as last week.  I went up to him and reprimanded him, and a mother standing nearby said, "How can you talk to him like that, with those eyelashes??  Look at his eyelashes!!"  I told her in no uncertain terms that I am over his eyelashes!

We spent some time at Narrwallee Beach too.  There are some rock pools there that the kids love.  I get a bit panicked because the kids, especially Carmie, like to climb up quite high, and there are some pretty deep crevices, but no-one has come to harm yet, so I try not to helicopter too much.

The kids are kicking butt with their schooling.  The teachers are amazed at Arley's counting and letters.  His favourite thing to do there at the moment is the Hundreds Board where he has to put the tiles in sequence up to 100.  He is way ahead in his math and letters.  And Carmie schooled Karen the teacher on the planets this week.  Karen had surprised the school kids with a replica of the solar system, and Carmie walked straight over to it.  She said to Carmie, "These are the planets, and this is the sun, and see how the planets all go around the sun?"  Jeff asked Carmie which planets were which, and so Carmie named every planet, and told Karen that Pluto was now a dwarf planet.  Then Jeff asked Carmie what Mars was made of, and she immediately answered, "Iron oxide".  Karen said, "I would have said 'green cheese'!"  Then Karen said, "Well, I know that Mercury is the hottest planet because it's closest to the sun," and Carmie then informed her that she was wrong, and that Venus was the hottest planet.  Jeff just had to shrug his shoulders and tell Karen that Carmie would be right on that one too.  Smarty pants!

And on another note, Arley thinks that breasts are called peanuts, and he gets a really good giggle with himself when he says to people, "Peanuts in the peanuts!"  He thinks he's being really cheeky :)

At Narawallee rock pools

At the circus

The teacup ride

At the Golfy for Father's Day

Mohammed Arley ;)

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269 + 165 Weeks

Well, we only just got rid of the mites in Carmie's room.  The poor thing went through such a rough time with it.  We did the fumigation last week, and then moved her back into her room.  She had no bites for two nights, and then she woke up covered again :(  I felt like crying.  Jeff and I found four mites crawling around on her bedside table.   I packed up everything from her room, every toy, pillow, book, and item of clothing.  I took out a month's worth of clothes and washed and dried them on high heat and put them in our room.  The rest of her things I bagged, sealed and put in the garage.  Carmie slept on the floor in our room until we could get pest control to come back.  He did another fumigation, including under the house.  That night after her bath, she had over a hundred bites on her body.  I think her towel (only two days out of the laundry) was full of mites! So we gave her antihistamine, and put her to bed in our room again.  She woke up clear of bites, and so we moved her back into her room, and she is finally bite and mite free, for three days now.  We are so relieved, we were starting to feel quite defeated!  What a horrible experience!!!  We still haven't moved all of her belongings back into her room though, I don't dare!

While that was going on, we had a good week (even though Arley's behaviour plummeted, if that was even possible!).  Carmie had organised a play date with her friend Spencer from school, so we all went to Mollymook Beach park for a play.  We also took the kids on a hike, which they loved, so we will definitely be doing more in the future.  We did baking and made frozen chocolate bananas, and tried to cope with Arley's bad moods as best as we could.  His behaviour has become so rotten, and I know I harp on it, but if you only knew!  At swimming on Monday, the kids played in the splash pool after their lessons, although Arley didn't actually play.  Instead he threw a 15 minute tantrum.  Every time I went over to calm him down, he either splashed me and hit at me, or scooted over to the far wall so that I couldn't reach him in the water.  This was in front of all of the other parents.  I gave up and sat down and filmed him, for lack of anything else to do!  Carmie and I had to pack up and pretend to leave, as this was the only way we could get him out of the pool.  At school he has been horrible, lots of screaming and foot stomping.  Jeff and I think he has been overwhelmed with going to school so much (four days a week, from 9-4), so we made the decision to pull both the kids out of school on Fridays.  We are working at night to compensate, which has worked out pretty well this week, so hopefully we can keep it up.  And this is their first three day week, and I tell you, Arley has been so good today!  Hopefully we are onto something :)

Here is the video taken at swimming, for your viewing pleasure:

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

I didn't keep Arley's hair in this mohawk, although it was very tempting!  I figured it fits the part!

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