Swimming Lessons

Mitch has been having swimming lessons on Wednesday mornings for the last three weeks. The first week Meeks took him and he screamed and wailed and cried, constantly trying to get out of the pool. Meeks was there with the twins and had a nightmare balancing act trying to keep Mitch in the pool, while not letting the twin who was strapped to her front fall into the water and the twin in the pram get splashed. In short it was a total disaster. As Meeks left the mother of the other child in Mitch's little group said, "Are you coming back next week?" in an accusatory tone.

Last week I took Mitch without the twins. Pretty much the same thing happened except there were no twins to worry about so I pretty much kneeled on the floor the whole time trying to convince Mitch that every thing was okay and that he needed to stay in the water and the swimming instructor was nice and friendly and there were no sharks in the water who were going to eat him. He was a little bit better than the week before, and the other mother was nice enough to say so, but I walked out with my nerves wrecked from the screaming and the distress at seeing Mitch distressed. The odd thing was that on the way to swimming he was talking about how much fun swimming lessons were and as soon as he was out of the pool and getting changed he was saying how much fun he had had and he was looking forward to coming back the next week. Obviously the experience didn't scar him emotionally like it had done to me!

Now, as an aside, this is all very unusual for Mitch. He normally loves swimming in pools and indeed when we were in Queensland at the start of the year he would cry whenever we told him it was time to get out of the water. Equally he loves swimming at Nana and Poppy's house too and was making really good progress towards the end of last summer.

So it was with great trepidation that I took Mitch off to swimming lessons this morning. Meeks had bought him a little lego workman with a cement mixer as a bribe, saying he would only get it if he was a good boy. Mitch was very excited. We got to swimming and he needed to do a wee, so we went off to the unpleasant toilets and then went back down to the pool. With 5 minutes to go til his lesson he said he needed to do a poo, so by now I was thinking, "Oh no!", so we went back to the toilets and he finished his business and we went back to the pool. Finally, it was time for his lesson to start, so I took off his jumper and held my breath. Much to my surprise he wandered over to the teacher without a peep, climbed into the water and proceeded to have a great time for the next 30 minutes. Not only was there no evidence of the crying from previous weeks, he was playing and laughing and squealing with delight. He was doing everything the teacher told him to and he was having fun doing it. I was amazed and so was the other mother. I think she thought I had brought a different child. In fact after the lesson one of the other mothers from a child in one of the other classes came up and remarked on how great it was that he was enjoying himself this time.

Mitch was very excited to receive his lego workman with cement mixer and we were delighted to give it to him. I guess this was a bit of a lesson in perseverence for us. It is really important to us that Mitch learns to swim as soon as possible. Every summer you hear the horrible, horrible stories about toddlers drowning in backyard pools.

Mitchy's first day at Kindy

Well, it's not really kindy, it's Long Day Care, but we tell him it's kindy. Anyway, the important thing is he absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back next week. He played on the equipment and he did painting and played with puzzles and did heaps of other fun things. The one thing he spent all his time talking about when he got home was his new friend Annabelle. Anabelle this, Anabelle that. Very cute!

Lucas and Sam - 8 weeks old

Lucas and Sam are 8 weeks old tomorrow. Time has indeed flown! I have been a bit slack with updating the blog of late. I have been too busy. I've taken quite a few photos, but it is hard to get both of them looking okay at the same time and to have the camera ready when it happens. Instead you get a bunch of shots like this:
Lucas
Sam
Again, good for 18ths, not so good for putting in a photo album

When you are trying to get something a little more like this:
Sam
Lucas
Little cutie boys!

Both boys are much more alert now. They track you with their eyes and kind of look at your face - Sam has a bit of a habit of looking at my hair rather than my eyes. Both of them aren't quite to the point where you know if they are smiling or just experiencing wind. They occasionally make cute baby noises, but not much going on there either.

They had their shots on Friday for whooping cough and other things and also rotavirus. They cried but were asleep again by the time they left the surgery. They both also slept most of Friday, perhaps hoping if they didn't wake up no one would stick another needle in them again. Speaking of sleep, it really is a bit of a lottery at the moment. We have some really bad nights and some reasonable nights. They don't do anything like sleeping through at the moment. It is only 8 weeks though and Mitch didn't do it till he was 11 weeks. I suspect they will be later though, because it only takes one of them to wake up and they're both awake. We're not waking them up to feed at night. They're quite vocal in telling us when they're ready. I think the record between feeds is about 5 and a half hours. Meeks and I have forgotten what a full night's sleep is. We wont know ourselves when we finally get one. On a good night, if we're lucky we might get 6 hours sleep, however it is generally in chunks of no more than 2 hours which isn't really good sleep.

Thanks to all who have been cooking for us over the past couple of weeks. We have really, really appreciated every meal. Also thanks to Anne-Daisy who over a couple of weeks ago and took care of the house while Meeks had a sleep. It was very appreciated. Thanks also to those who have been praying for us. It is making a big difference and we greatly appreciate it.

Mitch's funny faces

Mitch likes making funny faces for the camera and then looking at the results of them. Here is a sample:




It will be fun bringing them out at his 18th birthday :)

Mitch was going to start Kindy tomorrow, but has a cold at the moment so may not be able to. We'll have to wait and see how he goes the rest of today and tomorrow. He is sooooo looking forward to it, it would be a big shame for him to have to miss out. Hopefully he gets a good sleep tonight and is good to go tomorrow.

Kindy

Today is a big day for Mitchy. We are fortunate enough to have been given a one day placement at a very good local long day care type place. He is going to start going to Mt Errington Early Learning Centre (they don't seem have a website which is a little surprising) on Mondays. Today he and Meeks are going up for a meet and greet. We have had his name on the waiting list for a while and were fortunate enough to get a place on a day which works well for us. We really hope he loves it.

Back to work ... sigh

Well, I am back at work which is very sad. Back to the world where NFT means Non-Functional Testing as opposed to Nappy Free Time.

The last 6 weeks have gone incredibly quickly. The first 4 weeks were relatively easy. The boys basically only slept and fed. The last two weeks have been a lot harder. A lot harder. After feeds they double team you. One starts crying so you pick him up and sooth him, then just before he has become relaxed the other one starts crying so you put the first one down to sooth the second and just before he calms down the first one starts crying again. This can go on and on. At various times Meeks and I have been exhausted. Please pray that we can get through it.

I think it will be hardest for Meeks alone with the three boys now. I've had a bit of practice being the only one home, when she has been able to go out for a few hours here and there so I can begin to see how hard it is going to be. But a few hours is no replacement for day in day out.

In other news the boys had their 6 week check up yesterday. Lucas is 5.4kg and Sam is 4.7 kg so both boys are continuing to pack it on. The Doctor said both boys are very healthy although both have flat spots on their heads which are a bit of a cause for concern, but there are things we can do to address it like more tummy time.

Sorry there hasn't been more photos lately. I blame exhaustion!

Little boys

A bunch of photos of the little boys and one of their big brother.

Both Sam and Lucas have a bit of teenage acne at the moment and a bit of peeling skin too. They are still very cute :)
As you can see Lucas is almost smiling

Lucas

Sam

Two little boys

The niggle continues :)


Mitch playing with his little brothers.