First week down

One week into being at home on my own and it is starting to feel more normal. I'd like to say we hadn't had a repeat of last Monday's debacle with sleep but unfortunately we did on Friday. And it isn't like I had success on the days leading up to it - Ollie had daycare on Tuesday and Wednesday and then had a fabulous day at the library and the park with Nanna Carmel and Grandpa Rob on Thursday, so he just crashed out in the car.

So basically my second attempt at putting them both down to sleep was just as big as a failure as the first. I may possibly have found myself in the midst of a mummy meltdown and next thing I knew I was removing every single toy, book and other item of fun from Ollie's room and piling them up in the hallway. Maybe not my best behaviour but then again, Ollie was equally as awful, using pure strength to push his gate open at the bottom so he could get out. sigh, trying times. But we both got through it (eventually) and thanks to Nick's assistance we managed to have two lovely day naps on the weekend with all four of us in our not so big bed.

Saturday morning saw us all wander down to the local pool for Ollie's swimming assessment. It has been far too long since he was doing lessons so we've signed up for some more. The purpose of this visit was to check out how confident he was in the water - turns out very! Definitely not afraid and was jumping in, blowing bubbles and just generally throwing himself around. He even wanted to go on the giant waterslide. Um, definitely not for a few more years.

On Saturday night all four of us went to our friend's birthday party. Thankfully it was a kid friendly party, starting early in the evening, and there were some older kids there for Ollie to play with. Nick was supervising but that basically meant chasing super fast Ollie in and out of the house as he ran along with the other kids, stopping only briefly to cram lollies and chips into his mouth. I was moderately horrified when I heard that they had gotten under the house to "look for spiders and snakes", but that they wouldn't be scared because they were going to "start fires to scare them away". Oh dear god?!?!?! All of this boys club action tired little O out so he settled down on the couch to watch a movie on the ipad. His little eyelids were almost shut when a giant platter of chips and nuggets was brought out for the kids. This second wind of awake and eating was only short lived though and when we hopped in the car just before 9pm it was only a matter of minutes before the little tucker was out like a light.

Poor Nick didn't get to enjoy much of a sleep in the next morning as he, and about 35,000 other people, got out of bed way too early to compete in the Bridge to Brisbane. It was worth the effort though and he ran it in the time he was hoping to. But upon his return home he was truly shattered (from the run or the early start? not sure which was worse) so he had a little snooze on the couch with Evie. Too cute.

After Nick recovered we all went over to Nanna Carmel's house for a big family lunch which included Simon's parents as well. I'm sure they got a kick out of seeing Simon regressing to a two year old and having a wild time playing with Ollie, as he always does. This time they both found a quiet spot behind the curtains for a bit of Uncle/Nephew hanging out time.

And the next morning we went straight back to Nanna's house so Ollie could help out with some gardening. Well it was actually so I could go to the doctor's but it worked out perfectly so that Obear could lend some assistance in the yard. Aunty Emma was even dispatched to go and buy Ollie his very own junior gardening kit. As you can see he looked pretty cute in his get up (including his RE hat - I couldn't find his proper hat so he ended up wearing a hat from a pub - great parenting tans). He actually was a great help too, at least until he found the "snippers" and then it seems he may just have wanted to cut things.

Ollie has been coming out with some hilarious stuff lately and we find ourselves equally as amused as we are impressed by his logic.

- When trying to describe our friend to him we told Ollie that he was a really tall man - Ollie replied "well I'm taller when I'm on a hill". True.

- talking about dogs, for some reason I felt compelled to say that we don't eat dogs - Ollie replied "we do when it is pasta".

- and thanks to Nick's dinnertime topics about the origin of certain foods, Ollie is now asking where everything grows from. "Mummy where do pigs grow from?". He is definitely getting to that age now where he is asking a wide range of questions, including some I've never really thought about. I suspect that in this age of technology, instead of just fumbling for an answer to a question I don't know, that I might end up with a standard reply of "lets just google it"!!

As for Evie, well in classic second child style, she just gets dragged along everywhere. She continues to be a superstar baby and even cracked a six hour stretch of sleeping on Saturday night. She is still holding out on proper smiles which frustrates me. I'm desperate to see one of those big cheesy grins, but the only time I get close is when it is wind. You can tell that she is starting to smile with her eyes and her mouth changes shape a bit but hopefully the real deal isn't too far behind. Don't worry though, as soon as it happens I will be on the case of trying to capture it on film. And you'll all see it shortly thereafter.