Thirty-something plus Two Years and One Month

Today is Peter's birthday. It also means Victoria is one month old today. And Kathleen is nearly two (and acting it).

Peter ... The name Peter means "rock" and you certainly are my rock. Thank you for all your help and support. I couldn't do any of this without you. I want you to know I love you very much, even though life is so busy and stressful these days that I don't often get a chance to show it. Happy Birthday.

Kathleen ... Kathleen is almost two years old and at times it certainly seems like the "terrible twos" have arrived. She still loves her little sister, and still loves to give her lots of cuddles.

But there are also times when she can be a big handful and ignore whatever I say. Things like "don't touch that" are met with her instantly picking it up, or "come here please" just encourages her to run in the opposite direction. I don't know if it is just because she is almost two that she is behaving this way, or if she is acting up because of Victoria. Often she will do these things when I'm busy with Victoria and can't run after her.

But then there are also times when Victoria is crying and Kathleen will sit down quietly and not bother Mummy, or will try and give Victoria a cuddle to make her happy. Or if I'm busy feeding Victoria, Kat will happily play around my feet.

She's really grown up lately in a lot of ways. Most noticeably in her communication skills. She has started talking in sentences now. Pretty coherent sentences at that. Things like "Kiki squirt Kiki self" when playing with the hose. Or "Baby seestah wakey up". Or "I busy playey". Or my personal favourite (NOT) "I busy pooey". Every day she amazes me with just how well she can communicate. Her pronounciation is pretty good although sometimes I don't always understand her. She still insists on saying "Uncle Runkle" instead of "Uncle Richard" and "Eddie" instead of "elephant". LOL.

Victoria ... But while Kathleen has entered the terrible two's, Victoria has lately become the real difficult one in the house. She seems to have a very unsettled time every evening between 7-10pm. She can't sleep and gets over-tired and starts screaming and screaming. I know it's common for babies to have an unsettled period like this so I'm not too concerned, but it can be very hard to listen to the constant screaming. Obviously part of the reason she can't sleep is because it is a busy time of day with Peter home and us eating dinner and Kat having a bath and going to bed. Which is also what makes it all the more difficult to deal with a screaming baby.

We've also had a couple of bad days recently where Victoria hasn't had much sleep during the day either and has therefore spent a lot of the day screaming. Just like Kathleen used to do at that age. I thought second babies were supposed to be easier?????

But we have survived the first month and I'm sure we will get through the next month as well. Hopefully the first smiles will come soon.

In the meantime we have Christmas to look forward to. Kathleen's second Christmas but the first one she will understand. She is excited by all the decorations and trees everywhere, and even met Santa the other day (which you can read about in her blog.

Cheers,
Megz