Letter from Darwin
Its the most amazing thing - Alison has been banging on the back door (inside) since about 7:30 this morning saying "Door! Door!" ... but when I opened the door she just ran in and out crying. Until finally I opened the door and said, "OK, time to go to crèche!" and she ran out happily saying "play!" After being so unsettled in
James's "little" friend, Nathan, has continued to grow like a weed - at least they can talk to each other now - and is a good six inches taller than James (although he is 8 days younger) so James has inherited Nathan's tiny 2-wheeler (with trainer wheels) bike - Nathan now has a bigger one. Alison has been lent a little plastic horse on wheels, a nice stable one - some of those things can be rather deadly! - so she's very pleased too.
We've actually been getting a few things done with the kids off at crèche all morning, and also being able to amuse themselves for short periods of time when they are back at home.
Work
Peter is getting stuck into our "phonology statement", and I'm trying to catch up with some of the letters we didn't get done in
Hair
I am still enjoying my new frizzy hair cut. The hairdresser gave Peter a demo of how to cut my hair - later when the perm grows out. She even gave us a little lesson in how to do the kids' hair. With mine she started off by doing a 'one snip cut' - brushed it all straight up above my head and then cut it off, that way is comes out in graded lengths.
The kids are quite agreeable to my new hair ... for the first few days I kept finding James having a good long stare, then he'd say, "I like your fuzzy hair, Mummy." Alison just kept looking with a funny little Mona Lisa smile ... at least she doesn't grab hold and say "Dong!" like she used to. (Funny how she related my plaits to the church bell-rope!)
Baby no. 3
The baby is officially due August 6th ... if I don't burst before then. It is such a lively baby - they say that means it must be healthy, don't they? Awfully uncomfortable though. My first visit to the hospital clinic is tomorrow - I have a head full of questions I want to ask if I get a chance, but usually these clinics are so busy they just sort of rush you through - that's why it was so late in the day before they realised I was going to have problems with Alison. At least they have my records here.
James and Ali
Talking of Alison, we really have no idea of how she is going to react to the new baby. She and James are very close, though, they really look out for each other. If they have been separated for an hour or two they make up for it with a big cuddle and lots of kisses - they just like kissing and cuddling! And when they play together we still hear the screams and cries that are normal with kids playing, but we also hear an awful lot of apparently meaningless giggles.
Our car
We have been lent a car for a few days - a
Teething troubles
Well, the morning has gone. They rang me from crèche to say that Alison was crying, so I went over there and put her down for a sleep in one of the cots there. She's a bit 'sooky' right now with teething, so I'm surprised she goes to crèche at all. Her teeth have come through in all the wrong order. She had 'fangs' first before the middle ones, now she looks like she has eight teeth but actually there's a gap between the front ones and quite a few back ones have come through already. Teething has really given her a rough time with fever, runny nose etc ... and soon its time for her to have her measles injection.
Washing kids' clothes
So I must (again) get the washing into the machine - aren't automatic machines wonderful! With this cool weather (down to 17 degrees last night, and cool, dry and windy all day) the kids go through so many clothes - I fill the washing line every day. We've made good use of the local Pope shop and Savvy Army too. Alison has quite a pile of nice little dresses now, and I can afford to keep changing her when she gets dirty.
