Update

Erin:
is crying out for some one on one attention at the moment. She isn't being naughty (often anyway) just very "In Your Face". As in literally only inches away from my face talking at me. You know what this tells me? She hasn't had enough one on one lately. She isn't like this when she gets some quality time on a regular basis. Of all of the children she is the one who most craves attention. Lately I have been hurrying far too much to get stuff done or crawling back into my little shell to take a break for a while. This has put Erin into pursuit mode and she spends far too much time talking at me non-stop or doing things to deliberately get my attention. Solution: I need to slow down a bit, I need to stick with the routines and I need to give her the time she needs and deserves. If she is put to work next to me as my helper, she is ten times easier to be around.

Billy:
still has the odd habit of eating dirt. I am sure he is meant to be grown out of that by now! He was very tired today and asked to go to bed before lunch. I couldn't put him to bed because Christopher was already asleep and going in there would wake him up (NOT a good idea!), so by the time he got to bed this afternoon he was SO ready for it! I think he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. It takes him about a week to recover from one very broken night like we had last week.

Christopher:
is as adorable as usual even with his sleeping quirks! I shouldn't complain, most nights he sleeps through no worries, but he was woken up by some trays being dropped in the kitchen and took about 45 minutes to settle. Not too bad really! He CAN take a couple of hours. Last Friday though he woke up at 3:45am because his "sucking fingers" (index and middle of his left hand) had got caught in the sleeve of his sleeping bag. He then decided to holler at the top of his lungs unless being held or kept company. He was in no pain, he just simply wanted company. You know how I know that? When I gave in at one stage and put him in our bed he started singing and belting us both around the head!! And people wonder why I don't co-sleep! Every time he was picked up or even had someone standing there talking to him he would smile and coo and chat away, the minute he was left all hell would break loose. Even with all our usually very effective techniques - including letting him 'cry it out' - he still kept going until 6am waking everyone else in the household. Then he woke up when Daddy's alarm went off at 6:20 (Daddy had to go into work very early that morning of course!) and it all started again. Oh it is lucky he's cute! Whenever you think you have any single part of this parenting thing down, something will happen to change that!

The New Baby:
had kicked Erin a few times lately which thrills her to bits!! I looked up a picture online of what the baby looks like now for Erin and under the picture it said "Only 16 weeks until the baby is born!" YIKES! That sounds so much less than one hundred and something days!! I had a brief panic about the amount that I have to get done, then made a mental list:

Put bassinet up and put blankets on it (it is in pieces at the foot of our bed)
find and wash baby clothes (not too hard, they're in our room too)
Pack bag for birth centre (I usually do this when I am in labour)
buy infant size disposables, plastic boxes to store clothes being used and maternity pads
buy some infant size nappy covers from www.babysoftlandings.com.au

and that's it really. One shopping trip and an afternoon's work.

What I would LIKE to get done extends into completely finishing stage one of renovations, unpacking ALL the boxes, working out how to arrange my caravan sized kitchen so it is usable, re-arranging the lounge room the way Beloved wants it including the surround sound speakers being mounted appropriately, fixing up the kid's schooling stuff for easy use, re-organising my home management book, doing some MAJOR work in the garden and reaching the half way point on my Avon earnings which I am putting toward (hopefully) starting uni again through distance learning some time in the future (I have these crazy, persistent ideas of a post-graduate something somewhere in my future). Surely that's all do-able! Maybe....

I think I will just start with list one and see where we go from there.

The home:
is starting - STARTING - to get back to normal. The key? Starting routines again. So simple and profound, yet so easy to NOT do!

Jess