Elliot's day

Funny conversation with Elliot while swimming in the pool this evening. Paul noticed that Elliot had done a poo in his swim nappy . . .

PAUL: Wow, Elliot, that's a big one.

ELLIOT: Yup!

CASEY: You've got to be kidding. He's already had two poos today, and the second one was MASSIVE!!

ELLIOT: I've had a busy day!

SUPA-golf!

We found a super special on the internet to go SUPA-golfing (which is just like regular golf but with bigger clubs and balls in case you're wondering). So we rang up Nikki and Tiana and Blake and decided to make a morning of it. Too bad it was such a HOT morning. Nevermind. We decided to make it a five hole game and had a really great time smashing balls all over the green. Mommy even decided that golf might just be her calling. She got a ball on the green off the tee, and she's never ever played a real game of golf before. You better believe that she was pretty insufferable after that!!

My favourite parts of the day: pulling around my very own golf club trolley, taking the flags out of the holes, eating a popsicle after the game, and getting to spend the morning with Mommy all to myself (ie. without Oliver). ~ Elliot

First haircut . . . er . . I mean head shave

I get that I needed a haircut. It was getting a bit long and daggy, but seriously, Mommy?

The clippers?

A number 3?

I know I'm the second kid and everything, but wasn't that a bit harsh?

You told everyone that you decided to go with the clippers so it would be really quick, and then I wouldn't need a haircut for a good while. But did you not consider how such a drastic change in appearance would affect my newly forming sense of self? I hardly know who the (handsome) baby in the mirror is.

And in case anyone is wondering, I was a brave little boy. First, I watched Elliot as he got his tresses trimmed. Gosh, that kid loves to be pampered. Nevertheless, he was a great role model, and when it was my turn, I did my best to be just as good as my big brother Elliot.

So next time, Mom, since I proved to be so calm and brave, do you think we could go for a look a little less neo-Nazi? ~ Oliver

Look who's walking!!!!

So it took quite a bit of encouragement from Mommy and Daddy at first, but I'm totally walking and not just a step or two either like on the video. By the end of the day yesterday, I could walk a whole meter or two all on my own. I'm still feeling a bit more confident crawling to get around, but it won't be long until I'm up and running and chasing my big brother all over the place. And he's pretty excited about that. ~ Oliver

What a way to start 2012!

I rang in the New Year by going blind in one eye. And no, I didn't go on a bender the night before. (Quite, the opposite actually, we were in bed by 10pm.) But sure enough, around mid-day while chatting on the phone to my mom, a black curtain was slowly drawn across my right eye. I saw nothing but blackness out of that eye for a couple of minutes, and then just as slowly as it closed, the black curtain opened up again, and I could see.

I didn't think much of it, but when Paul found out about it, he made me call the telephone nurses. Long story short, I was told to go to the ER immediately because they thought my retina might be detaching. We got Sam to watch the boys until Yvonne could arrive, and we rushed off to Armadale hospital. I was seen almost immediately, and then we were sent up to the main hospital in Perth to see an eye specialist. On the way there, I started to have other funny symptoms, tingling face, ear pain, light sensitivity, flickering lights, etc., and I suspected that there was something going on besides a detached retina.

It turns out I was right. The eye specialist confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my eye, and I was just having the beginnings of a migraine. By the time we got back home, I was definitely feeling the symptoms and spent the next 48 hours living liking a vampire with all the curtains shut and lights off. It took over a week (and a trip to the chiro's) before the eye pain completely stopped, but I'm happy to report that I'm feeling super now. And hopefully, that will be the last one of those I have. Not fun.

It's a bit easy to understand why I might have had a migraine. Things have been a bit stressful around the house, and Paul and I have been suffering from a serious lack of sleep. Why, you ask? Well, this stay-at-home-mommy went back to work last week, and I was very very nervous about all I had to learn (long story that includes another change management and having to learn all the School of Education courses plus learning all the new versions of the 20 or so old courses that I used to advise on). I was also dreading the fact that I needed to get used to my new digs. Instead of a private office where students could come and talk to me confidentially, I now work in a huge open office with a call centre like set-up with a take-a-number machine and everything--yuck.

I was also a bit sick about sending the boys to daycare. I was very concerned about how Oliver was going to adjust to being away from me two days a week. And on top of that, we decided to change daycare centres again, and Elliot wasn't too pleased about having to leave his friends at the old place. But we just weren't feeling good about the level of care and communication at the previous place, and I was very nervous to send Oliver there with his allergy.

Turns out that most of the worrying was for naught (you think I would learn to just not worry and save myself the stress, but geesh it's just not that easy!). Work isn't so horrible. I've hopped right back in the saddle and am (slowly) picking things up like before. There are also some really lovely people there (although I still miss Danika heaps).

And the boys are doing great at daycare. Oliver didn't cry once his first day and Elliot is really warming up to the place and starting to make friends (not like I was worried about that with our Mr. Social!). And Paul and I are so happy with the new daycare! It's another community run one (like Elliot's first one) and has a very good reputation and long waiting list. And all of it is merited. The boys brought home photos and paintings and certificates for their first day, and the ladies who run it are all so kind and personable and actually come up to us to tell us about the boys' days when we come in. Novel concept!

So now about the lack of sleep. Well, we decided to finally get on top of Oliver's ongoing refusal to sleep through the night as well as Elliot's increasing demands at bedtime and waking up at the crack of dawn. We just couldn't continue with the lack of sleep that we were getting. Everyone was starting to get really cranky. So I rang up Ngala again and got some good advice for Elliot as well as a plan for little Oliver.

We've ordered a sleep training clock for Elliot but until that arrives we decided to implement a few changes right away. First big change, Mommy or Daddy only cuddles in bed with Elliot for five minutes while Scout plays bedtime music instead of the increasing stretches of time that Elliot pleaded out of us before. Second, Elliot is not allowed out of his room until six in the morning. If he wakes up before that and comes to wake us up, we firmly tell him that it's not time to wake up yet, and he has to go back to his room until we come and get him. And at nap time it's the same thing. If he doesn't want to sleep that's fine, but he has to stay in his room and read books or play quietly for an hour. And the punishment for infractions to these new rules?? No tv or computer!! Egads! Usually we only have to mention this and Elliot goes hightailing it back to his room.

Ollie's sleep regimen is a bit more demanding of Paul and I. Ngala suggested a plan where we gradually make things harder on Oliver until he eventually is sleeping through the night. The first step was getting him to go to sleep on his own. We'd already been working on this one so that wasn't too difficult. The next major task was getting him off of the middle of the night bottles which proved to be considerably more difficult. And finally, he'd be sleeping through the night, or so we hope.

This little plan required Paul and I to set up a bed on the floor of his room where we could respond the minute he wakes up and before he gets too worked up. The first several nights were long and hard. Oliver would wake up, start to get upset, and then we'd settle him down, most the way down anyway. He'd only settle for a few minutes and then we'd go through the whole thing again until finally, Paul and I could take it no longer and finally give him an increasingly diluted bottle. By night four or five he was waking just once, drinking just a few gulps of water and then going right back to sleep for the rest of the night. And for the last few nights he hasn't needed a bottle at all, just a few calming words from Paul or I once or twice a night. Now we slowly move our little bed on the floor out of his room until we're out of his room and he's sleeping through the night on his own. If it didn't work so well, I'd think we were nuts!

So that's what we've been up to. Here's to an easier second half of January and rest of the year.

Loving our yard

It's been such a long, hard labor of love getting our house to where it is now. And no, we're still not done. There's painting to be finished and a garage to get sorted and loads of little and not so little jobs which need attention, and don't even get me started on our bathroom inside the house which we never got around to doing, BUT for the most part the house and yard are finished. And the boys and Paul and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. We've got some gorgeous gardens (veggie and flower and a native plant garden out on the verge) and beautiful grass and it's all fenced in and safe for the boys to run amok. Every evening when the boys get up from their naps, we go out to the front yard which is mostly in the shade this time of day and just have fun and wait for Paul to get home. Whether it's playing in the hammocks, or eating popsicles, or watering the gardens, or climbing on the jungle gym or scooting around on scooters and bikes and cars, it is so awesome to just relax and enjoy life and know that the boys are completely safe if I need to go in and start dinner or put clothes in the washer. I love it! How could I not? It's perfect! Thanks, Paul, for all your hard, hard work. We're nearly there!!