Bailey's 4th Birthday Party

Bailey had an awesome 4th Birthday Party with a Cars / Lightning McQueen theme.  He loved it!!  Tim did a great job on the cake!

Lily is 1

Lily turned 1 on the 14th March. We had a lovely day, she slept in until 7.30am and then opened her presents and had a bit of a play and some food then she went for a nap and then when she woke up we had lunch and then headed to Monkey Business (an indoor playcentre at North Lakes) for an afternoon of fun and playing in the ball pit and slides. Once we got home Mum came over to give Lily her presents and then we all went out to the sports club for dinner.
We had her birthday party on the 17/3. It was a pink and blue themed morning tea party with a Dorothy the Dinosaur cake. We had family and friends come and help us celebrate and the kids had fun on the trampoline and on Bailey's ride on car.
Our little girl is 1 already, I am loving her at this age, she is standing up all the time now but not yet ready to walk though she is able to jump on the trampoline! :-)

2012

Wow I have been very slack in blogging hey! Or rather very busy with 2 children now. Lily Eva Grace was born on the 14th March and she is 10 months old now. We were finally able to turn her around to face forwards in her car seat on Saturday. She is a happy, smily little girl, very graceful and flexible, we think she is going to be a dancer or gymnast she is always doing the splits and pointing her toes and crossing her legs like a little lady. The first 4-5 months were very hard, she was not a good sleeper like Bailey and would only nap for 45 minutes at a time. She was very grumpy and rarely smiled but in September/October we got her sorted out and onto a routine that worked and since then she has been a different and happy baby :-).
Bailey has become more difficult, we spent much of 2011 toilet training and he is still not there yet! :-/ He loves to refuse when we ask him to do things and throws some ripper tantrums. He still loves playing with his wooden Thomas trainset and his Lightning McQueen cars, he still loves letters and numbers and is learning to write and learn sounds. At first he didn't really acknowledge Lily but now he likes to play with her a bit though he loves telling her 'No Lily that is not your toy, this is your toy' when she plays with something that is his (though of course he is allowed to play with her things all he likes).
Bailey is starting Pre-Kindy next week at the EYC. He will continue Kids Gym and also go to playgroup.
Lily is crawling and has 7 teeth, she has 2 naps a day now and they are both in bed by 7!

Sleeping better!

Bailey's sleeping has improved heaps, for the past 2 weeks he has been going to bed a bit easier and most nights he doesn't get up. Some nights he gets up to ask for a drink but is easy to put back to bed after. He has also been waking up between 6.30am and 7.30am which is a lot more manageable. :-)
Still not napping everyday though..
Tomorrow we're taking him to try Kindy Gym at the PCYC again as the gym we took him to in Term 2 and 4 last year has put their prices up heaps!
He is getting very good at knowing road signs and rules and knows left from right. He can recognise heaps of road signs and can read the speeds as well.
Words he can read in any context are EXIT, STOP, GO, ZOO but theres lots more words he can read only in certain contexts.
He is enjoying jumping, walking on his hands and doing somersaults as well as jumping on the couch, looking forward to Mum getting her pool in so he can do some more swimming and jumping into the pool.
He has been a bit whiny lately and resisting going for baths but fine once he is in there.
Think thats all for now, only 6 or so weeks until our baby girl will be born, will be interesting to see how he reacts!

Big boys bed / Sleep issues!

Tim and his brother Chris have been working hard in December building Bailey's long awaited Thomas bed which was finally finished on the 21st December. He had his first night in his new bed on the 22nd. After a few nights where he fell out of bed during the night (and falling out of bed was also how he woke up Christmas morning!) we put up a side thing which has solved that problem! The first week in his new bed things were going very well, apart from he would keep getting out of bed and coming out like a jack in a box - just because he could now he wasn't in a cot. Then he started waking up and crying in the middle of the night and wanting us to sleep with him in his bed. We are using the Supernanny technique of just continually putting him back to bed and after a few times not talking or making eye contact just putting him back but it can go on for ages! Over the past week he has also been waking up ridiculously early (just after 5am) and this is after not falling asleep until about 9pm most nights as well!!
Not only that but since he went into a bed his day sleeps have become a thing of the past, he just won't stay. The few times we've got him to nap have either been laying on the couch in front of the Wiggles or in the car on the way home and we've just put him to bed and he's stayed there. So the days have been very full on!
Today is the first day he has had a nap in his Thomas bed on his own but he didn't fall asleep until 3pm so looks like another late night!
After him getting out of bed 20 or so times we start smacking his hand which I hate but it does seem to be effective - Tim is better at following through than me. Just can't believe our good little sleeper who used to sleep 11ish hours per night as well as an almost 2 hour nap has totally changed his sleep habits.
We're also starting to encourage him to use the toilet but so far that is turning into a big failure too, I don't think he is ready yet so might wait a few more weeks. Getting close to the baby coming now though! That is probably less than 10 weeks away!
Other recent news is we went to A Day Out With Thomas 2011 at the Ipswich Rail Museum, had a great Christmas and have had some of the worst floods in QLD history. Yesterday we were flooded in at Morayfield/Caboolture, floods have been worst in Toowoomba, Ipswich and the city though!

Birthday Season!

Birthday season is finally here! Bailey's best friend Ava turned 2 last Thursday and had a great party with a clown, magic tricks and balloons for everyone!
Now it's Bailey's turn, he will be 2 on Thursday and we're having a Thomas and Friends birthday party on Friday with his friends and a family party on Sunday afte
rnoon.
Our house has gone Thomas mad and there's soo much Thomas things coming for his birthday and party but he loves it so much!!
Lately he has started being very grumpy and difficult whenever he wakes up from a sleep - first thing and also after his afternoon nap, not knowing what he wants but wanting to keep going into the fridge and whining which is very annoying!
Talking lots more now too and more complex sentences. He is also very good at setting up his train tracks and connecting all the carriages, the creche ladies call him the 'Little Engineer'.
Also starting to look at Preschools for him, one of them he could start Term 4 next year once he is 3.
Here is the picture Tim did for his birthday party invitation.

PJ Party and August update

Tonight Bailey and I went to the Early Years Centre for a PJ party, dinner and storytime. We had a lot of fun, the parents made their own pizzas and the kids played and danced and listened to 'Hairy McLairy from Donaldson's Dairy' which is a favourite at our house too. Bailey got to play with his friends Ava and Jacob, only had 1 tearful incident when an older child took a car from him.
Think he's getting a cold though, he's starting to get a runny nose. And his cheeks have gone all red and the skin a bit dry ever since Sunday.
We went strawberry picking on Sunday afternoon which he LOVED, he ate soo many!! We will have to go again soon.
His day sleeps are getting shorter and some days he skips his nap altogether! Time to start thinking about getting him into a bed soon I think too. I have been looking for a Thomas the Tank Engine bed, he would absolutely love that! I think a Thomas birthday party next month is on the agenda too. Thomas and Chuggington are his absolute favourite things, with Roary a close third. Bailey now goes to Grandma's house for the day once a week, which allows Tim and I to get some work done and Bailey and Grandma love it too!!