Saturday, May 30, 2015

Scooters!

A couple of weeks ago Charlie started trying out Raf's old scooter He seemed to really get the hang out of it, so he tried Raf's newer scooter (a mini micro hand-me-down from cousin Freya) and was off like a little fearless speed demon! Raf had outgrown that scooter so we decided to invest in new scooters for both boys. We were planning on waiting until their birthdays, but frankly the spring and summer is when they'd use them the most so we decided to spring from some new ones now. We got Raf the next size up, and we also decided to buy Chaz his very own mini micro. These scooters are not cheap(!). but Chaz picked out his own colour, and both were so happy when they arrived a couple days later. Charlie is completely mad on his, and has a new set of bruises and abrasions to prove it. 







Hatts hanging out in the moby, watching her brothers.


And then the next day she'd had enough and took a nap...





Happy One Month, Harriet Rose!

Harriet turned one month old on Thursday. It's difficult to imagine life without her, and, at the same time, how has she already been here for a MONTH! She is such a sweet girl, and the boys adore her. She is growing at a fast pace, and on Tuesday, at 4 weeks old, weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces (over two pounds up from her hospital release weight), and measured 21.25 inches long (1.25 inches more than her birth length). Needless to say she is growing out of her very sweet newborn clothes, which I currently continue to squeeze her in to.

We were actually at the drs on Tuesday as she still has this awful cold, which turned into a horrible cough. This poor baby (the downside of very enthusiastic loving brothers!). She seems absolutely fine except for that, though since then I'm wondering if she's struggling with some reflux. She has her one month wellness check up on Monday so I'll check in with Deb about it then.

Other than that she is a sweet, happy girl. Her very favourite place to be is in the moby. She sleeps and happily hangs out in there as I run the boys around. She's also so very alert when she's awake. Unfortunately one of her most alert times is during the wee hours of the night - usually beginning at 2 or 3am. She's then fully awake for at least a couple of hours, and likes company. She goes back to sleep just as I need to be getting up... ! My best laid plans to get some time to do things such as work and even exercise have so far been foiled, as I generally decide to go back to sleep with Harriet... until Charlie wakes me up, that is!

Here she is on her one month birthday... 


And a double celebration week as it was of course also her 4 week anniversary! (No cake, though).



Another favourite place... on my shoulder.


And hanging out on the hoppy watching the boys.


My lovely, crazy children.


And of course we made some cakes to celebrate the big ONE MONTH... I went upstairs to change Hatts and came downstairs to Raf helping charlie to decorate his cupcake - which he proceeded moosh all over his face,


As you can see...!



Friday, May 22, 2015

Chaz the middle child

Since Harriet arrived the entire house has been a pit of sickness. Poor girl is on her second cold, and so in fact has only been without a cold during the first 2 days of her short life. Charlie was very poorly with a terrible head cold and cough when we first arrived home, which made sleeping truly difficult for him (and thus for me!). And then poor Raf developed a cold and cough (usually so resilient to sickness these days) and then proceeded to give it to Harriet and now Charlie. Once again Charlie has an awful cough at night, and last night he was up virtually every 20 minutes, not really awake, but having awful dreams. I think he's really experiencing the pinch of having a new addition.. last week he developed an occasional, though very pronounced stutter, and during the night he needs to be clinging on to me when he's remotely consciously aware (and indeed even when he's sleeping and I AM cuddling him, he's shouting out for a hug from mummy, which is challenging to respond to because I already am hugging him!).

So night parenting Chaz and Hatts is exhausting and long, and I'm loathe to usurp Chaz to Raf's bunk bed because he'll inevitably find everything even harder. Poor little fellow.  He has so far not expressed resentment towards Hattie, though en route to the Drs on Monday he declared proudly, 'I don't hit babies'... surely a standard to be proud of.

He is still my funny, lovely Charlie but I must find some time to spend with just him. He's so loving towards his sister, exclaiming, 'she's so cute'! And then he asked if we had gotten her from Target!

This is me getting the youngest two to sleep.


Charlie wanted a quick snuggle with old Hatts this morning, who was desperately in need of a nap, and after a few seconds he said, 'mummy, she needs you'. 


Charlie is really enjoying his scooter. He only really properly got on it a week or so ago, and he's already really good. I gave him Raf's to practice on and he immediately started doing some 'tricks'! In a fit of guilt yesterday morning, around 5:30am (most of us had been up since 4:30am), I ordered the boys new scooters - upgrading Raf's to the next size up, and buying Charlie a new orange scooter, like Raf's yellow one. Of course Charlie could have inherited Raf's (which  was inherited from cousin Freya) but then there was he guilt..! $200 later.. gah. 


Thankfully Charlie seems mostly to be adjusting very well, though I think the colds do very little to help the situation. Also thankfully, Hatts likes being in the Moby so I've been able to take the boys to the park on most days, and to head outside with them to play on their bikes, scooters, play ground, etc. Looking forward to the day when we're not all poorly!









Thursday, May 21, 2015

3 Celebrations!

May is full of things to celebrate. Harriet missed being a May celebration by just a couple of days, so she doesn't have to compete with so many other days, at least. On May 9th, we celebrated what would have been Dad's 90th birthday. As we usually do, we headed to one of the few places where he had enjoyed the food, and in fact was there for his 77th birthday when we first moved to the States. Federal Jacks is a nice pub with good beer and food, and even better - at least for Dad - there is POOL! The day before Raf asked if Charlie had met Grandpa before, and when I said they never did as Grandpa was already no longer with us, he exclaimed, 'thank goodness we still have nana!' 

After swimming that morning we headed to the shops and bought the boys little celebratory trains and teeshirts. Charlie now calls it his grandpa shirt! And then we headed to the pub for lunch.


Chips and beer of course featured..


And the funny children. Hatts sleeping through the entire affair.


And then it was a game of pool. It was VERY challenging playing with Harriet in the Moby as I couldn't really lean over...!



The boys had so much fun.




And then we took the boats in...


And Hatts woke up and lounged about for a while.


and the boys had warm baths. And we all enjoyed a snuggle...


As Chaz shows his new Charlie train to his underwhelmed sister.


The next morning was Mother's Day. Harriet's DUE DATE! Crazy that she was almost 2 weeks old by this point..  I enjoyed a lovely bowl of my favourite fruit and soy yogurt in bed and then we all got outside for some much needed gardening. It was a super warm day so we didn't stay out for too long, but we at least did some much needed clearing up. SO MUCH to do.




Of course Hattie joined in...



A plant from the boys.. made by Raf at school.


And then Hatts recovered by doing more lounging in her little summer dress.


Then we discovered half the power to our house was off (all better now but a bit of a nightmare), and we escaped to the beach. Harriet's first time! Yes, she slept the entire time!



The boys enjoyed digging and running down the beach with Rich.



And then it was my birthday on the 13th! Morning snuggles.. doesn't get better than that.


and then a surprise birthday breakfast! Featuring the biggest balloon in history.


A beautiful plant.


And flowers..




And a snuggly bathrobe. Prompting the boys to get theirs.. and we all modeled them.


That balloon!


Sweet labels.


And a cake indicating that I only have one more year left in my 30s.


It was good.. and many sprinkles, as added by the boys.


 Yes, that balloon again...




I've been starving since Harriet was born so I was glad for such a big cake and an entire tub of soy ice cream.