Our update

As for this crew, we've all had the dreaded lurgy for the past week. I've
been down on my knees thanking God for bf as DS (not quite 5 mo) only got a
mild cold whilst DD has been quite sick and feverish. She has also
developed the cutest little voice and has been squeaking away at us.

DS is over 8 kg now and is quite long as well. He usually only wakes once a
night for a feed now, so I'm feeling quite good He doesn't seem to feed
anywhere near as often as DD did, but he certainly has been packing on the
weight (and it is still falling off me). He sleeps in his own bed (next to
ours) half the night, and with us the other half.
He had his 4 mo shots last week (a little late) and isn't any the worse for
wear although my kids always seem to have green poo for a week after having
OPV (polio). DD was quite concerned that he had to have three needles - she
does seem to empathise with others a lot.

DD has started to recognise written words and has a fairly good handle on
numbers of objects and can tell you how many "x's" three are ...so long as
there are not more than 10 of them. DH has been teaching DD to read
everyone's name and also to read the names of body parts using flash cards,
and she is surprisingly good. I must admit that the thought of flash cards
sent shivers up my spine, but DD seems to enjoy it. I'm more the
"reading-aloud" proponent and so we read lots of books every day ... but we
*must* read "Possum Magic" by Mem Fox before bed.
She has just moved into her own room and actually seems to prefer her new
big bed to the cot / toddler bed in our room. We will wait a month or so
before transitioning DS into the cot.

For myself, it looks like a position paper which we've been working on for
*2 years* is finally going through the final hurdles before publication, so
I am very glad to see the back of it. I've also managed to fit in a little
gardening (we are currently feasting on pawpaws, beans, tomatoes, and
lettuce from our garden, and my dream of having a front yard full of
Australian native plants is getting ever closer to being a reality with the
addition of some prostrate grevilleas and leptospermums). I'm also looking
at getting a new bird bath for the garden as the revolting "Neville"
(birdbath held up by a blobby concrete cherub) finally succumbed to my
wishes and *crumbled* at the end of last year.

DH has been fixing up his sister's car for her (meanwhile mine needs a few
things fixed), but he is otherwise healthy and happy. He also provided some
muscle to help my parents move all my Nan's furniture out of her unit when
she moved into hostel care recently.
He was in hog heaven when he discovered that she had pristine copies of
about
4 tractor manuals that she has kept even though they sold their farm over 30
years ago. DH commented that some manuals for vintage tractors are worth a
mint, so she might be really happy to have kept them for so long!

Well that was a ramble, but that's where we are at.
Amanda

--
DD 15th August 2002
1 tiny angel Nov 2003
DS 20th August 2004