Graduation!

This little poppet graduated his first class a few weeks ago! He moved from the Friendship room at school to the Rainbow room. He is one of the youngest in his year so while his friends were moved up into new classrooms, Raf had to wait until a space became available. Sadly he didn't move up with bestie, Row, but he did join two girl-friends, Ayla and Cordelia, who he really likes. He's already loving the move, and while we're sad to miss Ms. Nikki, Ms. Molly, and Dan, Rafi really enjoys his new teachers, especially Ms. Jesse. He gets to play in the playground with old friends.

Charvee Unleashed...

Things are changing around these here parts. Not so long ago, Charlie's world consisted of about four square foot give or take - you could safely go about things (a shower for example) safe in the knowledge that he would be where you left him, surrounded by toys etc. So now - with him finding his leg strength and crawling at full steam in the last three weeks - his world has expanded to all four walls and beyond given half a chance. Throw in his great grabbing and throwing skills - then life as we knew it is over and we are in full safety mode! Every waking moment, is determining where Charlie is and whether it needs intervention, and whether wires are involved.

Tipping over the dog bowls, chewing computer wires, standing on the dishwasher door, breaking Raf's train set, are just a few of the new daily incidents we are dealing with - and he does it all with a smile on his face until we try to intervene and then the tears flow as we try to get him to let go of the wire or handful of dog biscuits (see below) - fun days!!!

Cousins: Part Four

Rich offered to take the kids camping in the garden. Rory was not at all interested but Freya and Rafi were super excited to go. I spent ages making snacks, packing bags, psyching up the kids... 

Rich had his daddy juice (aka beer).

And after half an hour, a story from Freya (with the torch underneath her face!) about an old woman
from Gloucester Docks!), and a story from Rafi about the spooky ghost train (with said torch shining in his face), they were back in the house shouting for us! They had eaten their snacks, unpacked their bags, and then scared themselves witless... and here is where Raf ended up.

Cousins: Part Three

A few more pics of the cousin extravaganza! Her the kiddos are enjoying breakfast, which turned into some kids versus Uncle Richard argy bargy as they traded insults (for example, "you eat old potatoes!", "no you eat old boggies"... you get the picture. Rich was the worst of them all). 

Later the kids and Melissa facetimed Sam as we ate lunch in Panera. Raf was eager to talk with Uncle Sam, too,

Car journeys were interesting! Often the cause of unrest and scuffles, but also a time of wonderfulness as all 4 kids often slept at the same time. Oh, how Melissa and I savoured those journeys!

And as always, more beach fun, even when the weather was being unpredictable.

Post beach fun as the kids mimicked Uncle Rich, who always has a pair of sunglasses atop his nose - even inside, when it's dark, and when it's raining.

The following morning the kids joined us for some Shaun T Insanity workout in the cellar. They lasted approximately 3 minutes before they needed a juice and some recovery time.

Lunching with the Bailey-Watts, Charlie and I headed for lunch whilst Raf was at school.

After school the kids played with some of Raf's cool new birthday presents from his friends' party. He's loving the build-a-monster.

And they spent a long time with new play-doh.

Cousins: Part Two

The cousins and Aunty Melissa and Uncle Sam left today. It's been an incredibly busy visit with 4 kids and lots and lots of trips, visits, and fun. I'm going to post some pictures over the next few days so that we can remember snippets of all the lovely times. I do have to say that there was a lot of argy barhy fighting between the boys - but in spite of that they also had wonderful times playing and loving each other.

We managed to get to Sebago Lake 4 times this visit. Here's our first trip. The water is so beautifully warm and the Children loved it. 

Three little super heros!

Three Campbell women.

When we returned home there was a lot of craziness as the boys ran around the house singing, dancing, and jumping off of the furniture. Raf was singing, 'We did it, we did it, we did it'. I'm not quite sure what they actually did, though there was a lot of destruction in their wake.

We managed to herd the kids to the beach for a beautiful evening walk (one of many). I think that these walks and swims were my favourite moments.

And even on cloudier days the walks were brilliant - and always there was some swimming,

9 month stats

Charlie went to his 9 month check up today.
19 pounds and 13oz
28 inches long
19 inch head (off the charts, of course!)

Raf came with me and was as good as gold (which was amazing as he's been heinous this past couple of weeks!)

Charlie also pulled himself up for the first time yesterday!

Party!

Today was Rafi's 4th birthday party! We've been waiting to celebrate - as we did last year - until his cousins arrived. We'd been hoping for good weather as, frankly, the summer has been sort of awful as we veer from 90 plus degree days to rainy days in the 60s. All week I've been obsessively checking the weather to see what we had in store because hosting a party inside was not going to be fun.

The weather Gods were smiling down on us, though, as we enjoyed blue skies all morning long. Even better, the awful mosquitos kept away allowing us to enjoy some really super outdoors conditions. Some of our favourite people were there, we'd cooked up some good food and had some fun decorations.

And then, as the party got going, Raf came over to me and said he felt 'shy' and was tired. He seemed really sad and we assumed he was just feeling overwhelmed by everything. I carried him around hoping he'd warm-up, but he was just getting worse. After the saddest 'happy birthday' song ever, I took him upstairs and within a few minutes he was asleep... and then, I realized, he was burning up a fever. Poor old Raf was super poorly. Some medicine helped to rally him, but he slept the party away and later this afternoon he burned up another fever and had horrible chills. 

I feel so sad for him that he effectively missed his own party but everyone else seemed to have a good time, and at least he had fun in the water with his friends before he checked out.

We'll have to celebrate again soon.