Whoops, I Did It Again!

See? Start forgetting about the blog and the wave of life crashes over you. One reason I stopped for a little while is the photos I post on here look shocking, pretty much SOOC and it's all of a sudden too, no real reason that I can work out. So suffice to say that all of these photos are actually a lot more vibrant when not viewed here on the blog. Judy don't print these, I'd be mortified! Email me and I will send them on.

So, on to life. Where to start? Harry is amazing at the moment, just chock-a-block full of adult perceptions about life and a huge curiosity - not so much for her immediate surroundings but for the big questions (like just an hour ago when she said to James "What's forgiveness?"). She's going through a period of intense independence too. No longer are we permitted to do things like hold her hand crossing our road, today she insisted on going in to a public toilet by herself and then I was told she didn't need me to stand nearby at the park - in fact it was demanded that I go far away to where the other mothers were talking. However I was desperately and immediately required to twist her around on the spinner. Hmmmm.... independence is obviously a state of flux and I think it stays that way until she moves out of home.

Teddy's really been the reason I haven't written on here for all this time. As you can see, he's not suffering from malnutrition. A couple of weeks ago he weighed about 8.3kgs. Our little butter ball is an absolute cherub - smiling constantly, making delicious cooing noises and making love eyes at Harriet. But he has been an evening screamer. Each evening, come about 4-5pm, he starts his screaming. WOW, it is intense! Poor little mite obviously has a lot to release because it lasts for about 2.5hrs each night and to tell the truth by the time he has finished screaming right in my ear for that length of time I am completely exhausted. Mentally from hearing him 'upset' like that (I use quotation marks because there is a thought that babies 'need' to cry at the end of the day to release emotions since they don't have language or comprehension to process it differently) and physically from standing around walking and rocking for that amount of time when I'm already starting to wind down from being with Harriet during the day.

But I don't want to focus on that aspect of him because he is such a sweet little thing when he's awake. Yesterday we all worked out outside and Teddy, when he woke up, sat in his bouncer for the first time for a length of time, to sit and watch James saw off some trees. This is a photo of him just being...well...happy, butter ball Ted. He's not asleep, just grinning away. He poos like a champion and we manage to catch them out of the nappy about 90% of the time which is great. I've started teaching him the sign for poo because he has already started signing consciously for milk. I was sitting on the floor chatting away to him (he loves it when you start echoing back the sounds he makes - great way to get the big grins!) when he made sure he had my gaze and started opening and clenching his left fist (the sign for milk). It was so cute! And then last night he signed for poo after only having been shown it a handful of times. Of course he's a complete genius and will be enrolled in Mensa accordingly.

At night he sleeps in with me and wakes a couple of times a night for a feed. The night sleep is fine but yesterday we headed out to a late lunch and he missed out on going down to sleep in the afternoon. Which meant that he was not only upset in the afternoon (even though we had had two nights free of screaming before that - I wrote it on Facebook so I obviously jinxed myself) but last night he woke up at 3.30 and was soooo adorable, smiling, cooing and gurgling away and wanting me to play. But boy oh boy I was much more interested in sleeping and he seemed ok with my occasional lapsing into REM rather than smiling back.

We took him to the paediatric ophthalmologist at Randwick on Thursday - he's had an exotropic strabismus in his left eye and I wanted to get it assessed. When I first called up to make the appointment they wanted to give me an appointment in September! I calmly told the woman that I was going to wait on the phone until I had an appointment before he was 6mths of age. When we went in there it was such a depressing place. No windows, old fittings, sad parents. I would recommend no-one go there unless they had to. The good news is that Harriet's protective arm around Teddy at every opportunity when he was being examined seemed to work. He was declared fine and we're scheduled back in for a follow-up appointment in three months just to make sure. However I've also been taking him to the chiropractor and he's been working on trying to adjust the eye as well. And whether he would have grown out of it by his own accord or not, he has definitely helped. Two major changes in the status of his eye were noticeable just after each session, so I'm so happy we persisted with the visits.

Harry is on school holidays now for three weeks. I'll have to find loads of playdates for her to keep up with her social side. She loves playing with older children and is currently in love with a friend's 6yr old daughter, Lily. The funny thing is that even when she's totally in love with her and goes all shy around her because she is in such awe, she still refuses to be swayed on anything she doesn't want to do or believe in. Lily was talking to her about doing something for a show and Harriet refused to budge. Poor Lily, she was distraught that the show wasn't going to work but Harriet was determined and had such a quiet stubbornness to her nature that Lily was forced to acquiesce (to her credit!).

I know I said it before but truly, I will try to stay on top of the blog. Michelle has once again pulled me out of the quagmire, thanks Michelle! Hopefully Ted will start screaming less and I can get more time on here to upload photos and a few words. If I can manage it I will try to be weekly over the school holidays at least, how's that for commitment? Well it means nothing until I actually do it of course, so I'll work at it. Trust me.