I just realised it's been almost two years since I posted here. Wow, so much has happened and I've been so slack.
Where to begin????
Hmmmm, last post was January 2008 - so, since then Katie's entered year 4 and is just thriving in her learning. She earned her "pen license" last week and was so proud of herself. She's participating in a lot of sporting activities at school, including "Minkey" (a modified version of hockey - they won the inter-school grand final last week), Tee Ball, and long distance running (in fact, I have to fight her for the treadmill). She's growing up so fast and sometimes it really scares me.
Here are a couple of recent photo's of her....
Sally has been in Pre-K (preschool) and just loves going to "school", she's been learning so much whilst there, including Mandarin Chinese, going to the library, music, reading, maths, painting, gardening, and all that. She's 4 nearly 5 and starts big school next year - we all can't wait for this to happen. She's grown so much in the last couple of months and is a little girl now, not a baby.
Here are a couple of recent photo's of her...
Ummm, me, well, I've been looking after myself, and have as at last week lost 12.3kg and I don't know how many cm's but it's at least 12 or 13. I'm feeling so much better about myself and I'm much fitter too - thanks to the treadmill we bought with some of Jon's payout from his last job, and eating much better food as well. I've not had soft drink in I don't know how long, and now will only eat a little crappy food. When I can get a current photo of me, then I'll post one up... but here's one I took of Jon and the girls yesterday.......
These are some photo's that we took of Katie over the last couple of months.
And, these are photo's that we took of Sally over the last couple of months.....
Today was Sally's 3rd Birthday. Boy how does time fly. It's so hard to believe that just three short years ago, she was this little....
Look at you now baby - my how you've grown....
We had a little party at home today, with presents and an ice cream cake, and will have a birthday cake when she goes back to daycare next Monday (of course it's purple with purple writing - her favourite colours right now).
Well, it's 8.30 pm on 31 December 2007. And what a year it's been. The kids have been a handful, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Katie finished Year 2 with a Merit Award for improving her handwriting - which is a wonderful accomplishment for her - she's been doing Occupational Therapy for 6 or so months to help with it. Hopefully we can avoid having to do more next year.
Sally finished her year at daycare, and her report showed that she has accomplished or is working towards everything that a 5 year old should have accomplished (and this review was done when she was 2 years 10 months). Although she has the attitude to go with it as well. She has shown an interest in learning to read, so next year we're going to help her with this.
Jon has really settled well into his new job with Cardlink - I think that he's finally found a job he can be happy in. It's been a pretty sucky year for him and all of us, but I hope that it'll work for him now.
I'm settling into my new job well - although am glad to have a couple of weeks off as it's a very emotionally draining job.
I got a new kitten for Christmas - her name is Muggles. She was dumped at our vet (along with her siblings) when she was 4 weeks old. We picked her up when she was 8 weeks old - she's very very cute.
We had a very good friend have a baby in October this year - both Katie and Sally were in awe of him...
And just because I love showing off my girls, here's a photo of each of them we took in early December
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I hope that 2008 is even better for us as a family than 2007.
Well, last night, Junior School at St Pauls Grammar School had their annual Christmas Concert.
Katie's class did Christmas in Mexico, it was great, Katie had a speaking bit, and she was just great - very nervous, but did well.
Sally certainly asserted her will last weekend - so much so that I thought I would just love to give her away...
She was being a little pain in the butt - tired but refused to sleep; hungry but refusing to eat; running away, when brought back and held because of running away, she would hit, kick, pull hair and bite. The photo below shows where she bit me on Saturday - I was a little slow in pulling away.
On another note, Katie is now at the end of year 2 at school - there's a week and a bit to go for her. Good thing as she's getting very tired (as the photo shows).
She fell asleep whilst eating dinner last Thursday.
Tonight is the Junior School Christmas Concert - Katie has a speaking bit to say, so will hopefully be able to post a video of it tonight.
Well, after the last week, my respect for single parents has increased significantly :) I now know that I could never cope with being a single parent, and didn't realise how much the other half did with the girls.
For the last week, he has been working most nights, ie. Wednesday, started at 8.00 am and finished work at 7.30 am on Thursday. Went home and slept, he caught a cab to the station and me me, we picked up the girls, and drove him back to Rhodes, had dinner with him and dropped him to work at 7.00 pm. He left work at 8.30 am on Friday. He also had to work last night - left at about 6.30 and got home at 4.45 am this morning.
Fortunately, the girls have not had to cope with this before - but unfortunately (for me anyway) they reacted in not the best way. They missed their father very much and were always happy to see him when he got home, but dealing with them by myself was not a pleasant thing.
Katie understood when her father told her that she would be in big trouble if she mucked up, but would cry when she spoke to him in the morning.
Sally is just too young to verbalise her feelings - she reacted by mucking up - she would run away, scream, kick, hit, pinch, and occasionally bite. I had to sit with her until she went to sleep (which took up to 45 minutes), would whimper and cry for daddy all the time. She would then wake up a couple of hours after going to sleep and would then sleep in our bed. She too would cry when she spoke to him in the morning.
The hardest for me was on Thursday morning, my mobile rang when I turned into the carpark at daycare - she knows his ringtone - and the first thing she said was "we pick up daddy now?". It broke my heart.
For me, I don't sleep well when the other half isn't in bed with me - I think I miss his snoring :) So, I've been living on very little sleep, still working out the new job and dealing with kids who were not acting normally (as normal as the can anyway :) ) I don't envy anyone that.
Well, the good news is that it's now not going to happen again until at least March next year, and it "should" go much quicker without the allnighters. I can only hope.
I started a new job last week with Attorney General's. It's different from what I was doing before but it's interesting.
I spend most of the day on the phone to people who have a guardian who are requesting money, etc.
I was called a f'ing bitch by one person (who I hung up on) and a bitch by another. It was counteracted by a couple of nice people as well.
It'll take a little while to get used to it, but I'm sure I will soon. I think it may be a little boring after a while, but with Attorney General's head office now in Parramatta, I'm sure I will find a job there fairly easily.
The kids are doing well, Jon's loving his new job - they ordered his business cards last week, so I guess they must be going to keep him.
We bought a new BBQ yesterday, and Jon and the girls spent three hours putting it together today, I was out for most of it, but would have loved to have seen it :)
Katies school had a Spring Fair and Art & Craft Show today. We managed to make it for a couple of hours before the rain came.
They had heaps of rides, including a jumping castle, slides, the cup & saucer ride, clowns, etc. This year, they also had trampoline thingy where you were strapped in and then given five minutes jumping.
Katie had a ball
And of course, Sally had to join in as well. Initially, I thought she wasn't big enough, but I was wrong (as I usually am).
Katie also had some artwork on display. They had made bags in class during last term, which she had painted and sewed.
Just though I'd put some of Sally's favourite sayings down for prosperity....
"I not Boofhead, I Sally Biddeddell"
"I not baby, I BIG girl"
When asked "did you toot toot", she replies with "no, I fart hehehehehe"
"I good girl, Katie naauugghhttyy"
I'm sure there's more, and when they come up, I'll make mention of them too.
This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, but it shows the personality of our youngest child.
