'Tis the last day of Winter...

And, as if to celebrate, rain is falling. Luckily it's just a light drizzle. Had a proud mummy moment yesterday when C, who happily sits on his potty to have bubbles blown, did his first wee in the potty :) Yes, I know it's tragic but if I can prevent having to change filthy nappies as long as I have with K it's worth it!! And C now happily scampers onto the potty and gazes expectantly at me - so unlike K who screamed blue murder when I tried to sit him on a potty when he was 2 lol. They sure are different!!

Say Hurray for Op Shops!

We took a stroll in the warm sunny afternoon - K hacking up a storm next to me, C chilling in the stroller. K decided we needed to stop in at the op shop and we walked out with 3 Bob the builder toys, 2 Thomas the tank engine trains, a waterproof jacket for K and a book on nature... for $3.70 - ie all the cash I had on me lol. I was quite pleased with our haul lol. I am currently reading Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series - sort of a hybrid of the Scarlet Pimpernel and Jane Austen novels. They are quite amusing, although at book 6 (featuring India of all things) my interest is waning... there are 9 books in the series. I want to reread the Laurie R King Sherlock Holmes & Mary Russell series - it is excellent.

We were planning on going to the beach yesterday as it was warm and sunny (hard to believe we are in the last month of winter!) but the boys deep hacking coughs put me off. It was just as well really, as K's behaviour degenerated, with 3 timeouts in a 20 minute period.

Study time

I have enrolled for my summer school paper. The course starts in November and ends in February and there is a contact course in Palmy in January again. Chris has planned to take much of Jan off so this is perfect. I expect the boys will be seeing Grammy and Grumpy sooner that they could imagine. I have no idea if I will stay on campus or find a motel room - we will see! The letter arrived today confirming my enrolement so all I need do now is apply for a student loan to pay for the paper - yeesh, $660 for a paper is quite expensive!! Still I like Massey, especially extramural study :) I especially like having the folders delivered to me so I can glom all the info at my own rate. In other news both the boths have an ear infection - left ear for both. I almost didn't take them to the Dr's on Thursday as I thought I was overreacting....hmm, apparently not! K loved his trip to the Dr's and informed me that the Dr was using the stethoscope to listen to his heart and lungs. They are loving their medicine lol so that is something to feel cheerful about. K is doing amazingly well in toilet training - he now tells me when he needs to go, and gets on the toilet by himself. C has joined in the fun and happily clambers onto his potty too. I fear this is driven more for the desire for bubbles than a wish to be a big boy. Chris will shortly finish his Germany leg of the trip, and head to England.

Stairward ho

An exciting moment today - Cameron came down the flight of stairs, all 17 of them, backwards. And, unlike his father, no falling of any kind was detected. Speaking of their father we received a Skype call from Germany. The boys screamed in delight to see their disheveled, just awakened papa, and have obviously been missing him. Chris raved about German food and has OBVIOUSLY been enjoying himself FAR TOO MUCH lol. Had an awesome bonding moment with K when we walked past some Impatiens flowers and saw their seedpods were almost ripe. I showed K how to squeeze them so the pod pops opens and curls up, just like I used to do when I was small. He had just as much fun as I remember having :) K is now taking himself to the toilet before his bath in the evening - he is such a good boy, if a bit sickly at the moment... and it appears that his brother has the same little cough and fever - dangnabbit!!

Queen of clean

Now this will come as a surprise to anyone who has ever visited my house but I have cleaned like a demon all Sunday... can't think why lol. Sadly the lounge looked like a troop of baboons had hosted a wild party in it and the rest of the house wasn't much better. It is MUCH cleaner and tidier now and you could eat off the floor, in fact, Cameron DID eat off the floor. Amazing how much tidier a house can be sans husband. We headed off to Emma's today and had a fantastic time. K was devastated to leave, but both boys were knackered after many hours of relentless activity and fun. They are now both asleep at 7:20pm. Man, I am da bomb :) Emma is awesome, I am just gutted that it took us so long to get to know each other - boo. I have been researching schools for young master K, and also a French playgroup as I desperately want him to start getting a second language - one more useful than Maori or Afrikaans.

On saturday we went to the Playhouse theatre for lo, the Gruffalo was playing. K loved it, especially as the Gruffalo came and sat in the seat in front of him! I was quite excited to learn that th Gruffalo's child is coming next year. Apparently it is on in the UK at the moment. We headed out to the North Shore on Saturday after the show to collect a toilet seat with step and handles for K. I was very pleased to get it at such a cheap price - $13!

He's flown from the land of the mist and snow...

...well, ok it was a lovely sunny day when Chris left, but the sentiment remains true. We celebrated Daddy going to work in an aeroplane with pizza and then the boys were bathed and popped into bed. I anticipate more questions as to Chris's whereabouts tomorrow though Kieran seems more interested in telling me about how he had 5 farts in a row lol! The result of which was a shriek a few minutes later that the poo was shouting to come out.... well it may have been shouting but it changed its mind if so. As you have gathered Kieran is going great guns with using the toilet. We only have nappies on at night, and have done extremely well, with only 4 accidents in the whole week, with those happening when he has been caughtup playing. I am really impressed with him, especially as I would never has chosen winter as the ideal toilet training season! The week went well, we had some lovely sunny days, so I managedto get truckloads of washing done and dried so I could get Chris packed. I also decided to walk K to Kindy on thursday...and walked home with C in the stroller, woke C at 12:10 and raced off to Kindy to collect K. We had a picnic at Ceramco playground, and a play...and jeepers C LOVES slides, then headed off to the library. By the time I got home I had walked over 11000 steps, over 6km. On friday we walked to Playcentre. Sadly K whined and wailed and made the walk there a right pain in the ass. Naturally he morphed into an angelic child as we reached the Playcentre gate. Typical! Both boys enjoyed running around in the sun and playing in the sandpit. However the session was too much for "Sandflinger" Seal and he fell asleep in the stroller - causing the loss of his water bottle. Much sadness ensued. Once home I tried to collapse but the boys wanted feeding and entertaining. I dunno, the youth of today! At 5:15 I heard that Chris was delayed so grabbed the stroller and bolted up to the fish and chip shop, cunningly phoning in my order before I did so hehe. Boys thoroughly enjoyed both the walk and the fish and chips. Sadly I managed to somehow lose Kieran's kindy bag, annoying as his OshKosh braces adn lightning McQueen socks were in it. I shall have to take K to Henderson on Wednesday to choose a new one. Sigh.

Snow? In Auckland? Yup!!

And my god it has been super cold!! Today however it is wonderfully sunny, yet cold - a diamond day. However I am thrilled as I needed to get all the washing done so Chris is sorted for his Germany trip. It feels like sacrilege to run the dryer on such a day but it has to get dry lol. Kieran's kindy also called today and said he can have his Tuesday session expanded to a 9-3 slot. Currently he is in a 8:30 to 12:30 slot. This is very exciting as it means Cam can get put down for a sleep and now be rudely awoken. Last night was so cold we had the heater on in the boys room, but nor ours lol. The cat decided he absolutely had to join Cameron in there. Mind you the cat has been wafting around all week, miserable with the cold weather. Emma visited us on Monday and K was over the moon. Then we baked a chocolate sponge so he was extremely happy. On Tuesday we made Lamingtons. Personally I disagree violently with the statement that home made lamington's "are much better than bought ones." The ones I buy from the bakery are superb, while my effort could cause birds to remain ground bound! This afternoon we will walk to collect K and visit the playground by the library, and have a picnic. I popped C in the bath when we got home today and saw his toenail was all black with blood. He dropped Lightning McQueen on it yesterday and cried and carried on. I didn't realise until today that the car landed only, and entirely, on his big toe. It is quite obviously painful, poor little chicken! I shall make hamburgers for dinner tonight, as last nights risotto with broccoli, peas, bacon and carrot was not that much of a hit with the boys....Chris liked it though!

Mmmmm MOTAT

Despite the sun battling with constant showers and a breeze fresh from the arctic (we even had hail) we headed off to MOTAT with the boys. I was going to take them on Monday with our free voucher (SCORE) that let Auckland City families in free but thought it would be a good thing to do with Chris as his departure draws nigh.... And golly K was so so so so keen to go. He made a little book, ran around like a maniac, checked out the trains and vehicles and the model train then we finished up on the virtual reality ride. It was Journey to the Centre of the Earth. He loved it!!! We have decided that we will visit again when Chris gets back from his business trip and buy the annual family pass since the boys love it so! K got especially excited when he saw the Massey Ferguson tractor that Sir Ed took with him, as there was an episode about it that featured Sir Edmund Hilary's voice on children's tv. He was really excited when he saw "Snowy".

Sweet dreams are made of this....

Yup, Cameron is being sleepbroken, now that he is all healthy again. Chris kicked the process into play and endured a hellish thursday and friday night. Cameron's night wasn't much better either lol. However last night went much better with only 1 2am awakening. As I am picking up night duty from here on in I hope the trend continues. At the same time we have cut breastfeeds to just 1 a day and will wean Cameron for good when Chris returns. As it is sunday we are enjoying our new tradition of buttermilk pancakes - yum!!

Those sneaky p**'s - warning: may upset those of a delicate constitution

We are day 2 into toilet training. It all began on Friday morning when I held up a pair of Toy Story undies and asked K if he wanted to wear big boy undies like all the other Children at Playcentre....or a nappy like a baby. Once his enthusiastic, nay - fervent, agreement had been procured I cunningly added that I was so thrilled that he was a big boy who didn't need nappies. Once at Playcentre I told him if he didn't have a sit on the toilet, to check that sneaky poos and wees weren't hiding in his bottom, and therefore wet his pants we would have to GO HOME. He practically leapt at the toilet lol. Yup, that kid LOVES Playcentre. And that night he had his first wee in the toilet, and in fact, all day! Boy must have an iron bladder!! The trend continued today although he did wet himself. This however was due to the neighbour's boy coming over (for 2 hours!! Aiiieee) and K being too reluctant to take time away from play to go to the toilet. No harm done, a quick wash and he was back on the road again. He seems quite excited about being a big boy who wears big boy undies now. My cunning plan of making sure the nappies don't feel that comfy is working better than I ever imagined! I will let Kindy know that he is toilet training and with a bit of luck we will have many a dry day - yay!!!! I have also bid on a potty and toddler toilet seat on trademe. The auction closes on Monday night and I hope I am the successful bidder :) Chris has however made our evening conversations more scatalogical than I ever dreamed possible, cheerily telling K that his fart was "a little poo shouting to get out." Yup. Good times. And you just KNOW that this little gem will be trotted out at a time to cause me maximum embarrasment - don't you!

The feet are made for walking

More exultation is occurring at Chez Seal..... Cameron is starting to walk. This is very exciting. He has a wicked crawl on him, even if he does swing out wide with the enthusiasm of his motion. Now he shrills at us to hold his hands and walk with him. K is getting into it all too, with demands to "help Cameronbear walk!" I must video this. C was initially quite dubious about entrusting his safety to his brother's hands (with some justification I must confess) but now is very happy. After our delightful experience of Hand, Foot and Mouth, and keeping the boys at home for a full week in case K contracted it K was happy, no delighted to return to Kindy. He dashed in the gates bellowing greetings to all, naming them as he did so. And ever since his return to Kindy I get a quick hug and am able to bolt out the gate. What used to be a 15 minute palaver now takes 4 minutes. WOW. So some good came of hand, foot and mouth after all. He is loving Kindy, just having a blast. The weather has been unseasonably warm for winter - so warm my mulberries are fruiting (they are the size of nailheads - tiny!! But not too shabby as it was this tree we bought to celebrate K's birth) and my guava tree has produced its second crop (of 1 fruit) for the year!! Lots of sunny, not too cold days has meant picnics and trips to various playgrounds - great winter weather for all of us. They boys have naturally been enjoying the delights of the trampoline and life has been good to us all. I told Chris there was no point in buying a trampoline in late autumn as the boys would not get a lot if use from it. Shame on me I was wrong. And when the boys are not leaping like loons the cat is esconsed upon it. Having friends over tomorrow. It will be good to see Kym tomorrow. Sadly she wants her toddler toilet seat back so I shall investigate Trademe for something for the boys. Time to start C on his toileting journey and his elder brother can come along for the ride lol. Chris now has firm dates for flying to Germany. He leaves on Sat 20th, but in the evening so the boys will get to see the Gruffalo play with their daddy - yay for the boys! He will be back in September after being away for 12 days.... should be interesting to see how we go on :)