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.
Well literally the day after I vowed to be on here more, my computer gave a little whimper, a big sigh and quietly laid down to die. I was offline for about a week and in this day and age it meant I may as well have died. Not only that, but we don't have television, I only really listen to the ABC radio news in the shower and we stopped our SMH delivery last year. So - vaccuum city for me. Twas quite refreshing in a way, but I was also quite happy when James offered to rebuild my computer and swap them around. So a couple of weeks later I got a chance to finally sit down here and look at the blog again.
The school holidays zoomed by. I was a little conscious of trying to fill Harriet's days with exciting things that go zoom and bop, but we ended up having the most fun just hanging out being silly, playing dolls, tea parties every other day and me being audience to any number of 'shows' she put on. Most of these involved her twirling, singing and a hybrid clumsy gymnastic movement Harriet calls 'acrobatics'. Also since we've been receiving fruit & veg deliveries we've been getting big cardboard boxes regularly appearing in cameos such as 'train' or 'boat' in these shows. Thank god for the cork floors.
There's an indefinable maturity to her of late. Disappointments are met with understanding rather than hysteria (although brushing her teeth is always, ALWAYS problematic). She is helpful and thoughtful (although she will continue to stand perfectly in a doorway as you need to move through it). She dotes on her brother with gusto and enthusiasm (but definitely too much of both - poor child has a reflex of holding up a protective arm when she comes in for the love). 
As for Teddy, well he is gorgeous. He signs for poo so we can arrange it to be out of a nappy about 90% of the time. He nods!!! Seriously! He nods in response to questions and it's actually pretty creepy to tell the truth. You just don't expect that sort of communication from a babe so young. Then today he was out all day with us at a friend of Harry's. He slept most of the day and then when we got home isisted on being put down on his mat. Then he started to try and roll. He could get all the way on his side and started to crack it. I asked him if he wanted to go all the way over, then gently turned him on to his belly. He immediately began smiling and cooing! Then tried to crawl!!!! 
Of course he had no co-ordination and no idea on what to do, but this just all came out of the blue this afternoon, there's been no sign at all he wanted to roll before this. And considering Harrietr never rolled and only crawled a *tiny* amount and even that under duress, I was left feeling very unprepared for all of this action. After all he's only 3mths old corrected! Mind you he is...well...let's just say a little exercise won't do his figure any harm. He's one chubbalicious baby, weighing in at 9.3kgs today and I *think* about 67cms - but length was tricky due to one highly excitable, happy as larry tedted. He also gave me his first belly laugh in response to a song we were singing. Now I know I'm no singer but really, way to crush a girl's spirit!
