Long Overdue

This update is long overdue. The months of June and July were fairly busy around here with lots of visitors from all sides of the family. It's calmed down a little since then but we still haven't managed to find the time to sit down and sort through all the photos yet. I like to have all my photos uploaded to Flickr before I blog, so that I can add lots of pics to my posts. But we have two months worth of photos from four different cameras to sort through, duplicates to delete, blurry photos to delete, and photos to be named and uploaded. So I'm blogging without photos for now.

Lots has been going on around here ... where to start.

Peter's mum and family all came to visit at the beginning of June. That seems so long ago now. We all enjoyed seeing them and having them here ... among other things they provided some babysitting for us, and Patrick laid new tiles down in the bathroom and kitchen for us. While I'm sure they didn't fly halfway around the world to do DIY work, we sure appreciated it. And admit it, you love doing that stuff really ;-)

Peter's sister Gayle arrived at the beginning of July, staying for five weeks. We all flew up to Auckland to meet her there, and also to catch up with old friends there. We picked up a rental car/van and drove down to Wellington over the next five days, stopping at Rotorua, Napier and Palmerston North.

Took Gayle to see Auckland Museum, Kelly Tarltons, the Agrodome, Rainbow Springs, Hells Gate, Tamaki Maori Village, Napier Museum, Tui Brewery, and the Tararua Windfarm.

Then we had a week or two at home in Wellington, which was actually pretty busy spent packing up stuff in boxes so that it could be taken away into storage until we move house (trying to declutter the house to make it more attractive for sale). More on that later.

Then Gayle, the girls and I did a trip around the top of the South Island (Peter was working). We caught the InterIslander ferry to Picton, and stayed in Nelson, Greymouth, Christchurch and Blenheim. We saw the Pancake Rocks on the West Coast, drove through the snow in Arthurs Pass, took the tram around Christchurch, and visited a winery in Blenheim.

We finished her visit off with a week at home, seeing things around Wellington, like Te Papa, Parliament, the Cable Car, and the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was really lovely having Gayle here. So nice to have the company, and within a couple of days it felt like she belonged here. We all miss you Aunty Gayle. I'll admit it was great to have an extra pair of hands around here ... but also the funny things you brought into our lives, "that's what she said", and your teenage dramas :-) Don't take that the wrong way, BTW.

Since then I won't say that life has returned to some normalcy, because it hasn't.

PETER
Peter has started work at Massey University. Which means that he is away working in Palmerston North all or part of each week. He'll drive up (2 hours) early in the morning one day, and come home after work three days later. Or as was the case this week, five days later. The girls and I miss him very much.

HOUSE
Our house is not for sale yet, but will be soon. We've been waiting for spring - to be able to paint the outside first, to market it when the flowers are blooming, and to catch the spring house-buyers as nothing really happens over winter. But in about 3-4 weeks it goes on the market, ready or not. I'm not particularly looking forward to it. There is SO MUCH to do first, and SO LITTLE time.

VICTORIA
The biggest change on the children front is that Victoria has started crawling. She actually took her first crawling steps while we were away on holiday in Greymouth. And by the next night she was trying to climb the stairs. No kidding. She is now getting good at it and will sometimes follow me around the house (and at other times just cry until I come back). She is constantly pulling herself up to stand on furniture and everything that's even slightly above floor level. I'm sure she'd be cruising the furniture if there was furniture to cruise on, but we spend most of our time in the dining room as it has the warmest heater, so the only furniture is individual chairs.

Victoria has slept through the night for the last week, which is a record. Before now she has only slept through the night maybe once a fortnight, occasionally two nights in a row. Which is wonderful because being away on holiday unsettled her so much that she went back to waking 2-3 times a night and I just couldn't handle it.

What has coincided with her sleeping through is that she has finally begun eating solids. She hasn't shown any interest in the food I've been giving her, having one or two teaspoons then closing her mouth and refusing any more. She ate better on holiday, eating tinned food. So I finally gave in and bought tinned food, and she loves it. So much for mum's puree's that are still filling up the freezer. She's also started sharing my meals at dinner time.

Victoria also now has eight teeth.

KATHLEEN
Further to previous posts, I would say that Kathleen is offially potty trained. We have had the odd accident but since I last wrote on the subject she has worn knickers every day, no more nappies. (Apart from when we were travelling we got her Pull Ups for just in case). She usually tells me when she needs to go, although sometimes it's a little too late.

We have started going to Playcentre one afternoon a week. All three of us go along and I work as part of the team. Next term Kathleen may get a drop off session one other day a week. Kathleen enjoys it at Playcentre, and all the different things they have to experience. It's good for her to be able to mix with older children, and sometimes she comes home and wants to play the same games the older girls were playing. Although her favourite activities are still the dolls house and the puzzles. Victoria enjoys it too, although sometimes it conflicts with her nap which is difficult.

ME
Overall I think things are looking a lot better. Getting full nights of sleep definitely helps a lot. However now that Victoria is crawling, the fighting has begun. Kathleen is having trouble sometimes with Victoria wanting to play with her and her toys. I've started applying the same rules to Victoria that we apply to Kathleen - "No Victoria, it's Kathleen's turn with it now, you will have to wait till she's finished, how about this other toy instead". Victoria doesn't notice what's happening, but hopefully Kathleen feels vindicated that she's not the only one who has to share. The other day Kathleen left her juice on the floor and Victoria spilled it everywhere. A meltdown ensued because "IT WAS MINE". All I could think was "how many more times am I going to hear this argument over the next 18 years"!!! LOL.

-Megz