Party season

Well, David turns three on Saturday. Wow, doesn't time fly when you are busy! It is party season with Mother's Group and cousins.

Last week we went to a birthday cake Mother's Group on Friday and a cousins' party on Saturday with 22 Haselhursts (and partners/spouses) and 4 September birthdays. On Sunday it was Celestine's birthday party in the park. Lovely to see David running around with three other Haselhurst cousins (Monty, Laura and Declan). We picked up Marie and took her along to Annie's place in Paddington, so we had the full age range, from 1 (Monty) to 89 (Marie).

The weather was exceptional on the weekend, and perfect for parties. David was tired on Saturday night & Sunday nights due to no afternoon naps, but had a good sleep at Daycare on each of the three days. We have had a quiet day today, with a walk and play in the park this afternoon. David said that he didn't want a sleep, but fell asleep anyway on the couch after lunch. A bonus as it means I have been able to write this.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do a family outing, with Paul taking some time off. ( A surprise, so I will tell you later) The actual birthday is AFL Grand Final day, so we will probably follow the usual routine, with a present session over breakfast, cake at lunchtime and afternoon for footie. I am planning another cake at daycare on Monday and a small party next weekend.

The attached is a photo of David blowing out the candle at the cousins party - Declan is turning 7, hence the candle. Declan, Laura, Monty and David all took turns blowing out the candle. Howard and David (snr) passed on the candles, but all enjoyed the cake. I hope that you like the t-shirt with Bart Simpson on the front. It has been languishing in the wardrobe for months but is suddenly rediscovered and favourite. It fits him now, too!

At last! Another update

Well, where to start? It is all so exciting.

David is toilet trained. He pretty much went straight to "no nappies" and "no pullups" from the last blog. Not even at night, which I was thinking would take longer. Only one accident - and not in his bed. He got up to get me out of bed, so I could help him go to the toilet, and couldn't quite last until I woke up and got him to the toilet. But, as we say, accidents happen! Never mind.

I went out and got a lot of new underpants, to allow for accidents, and frequent changes. There are dinosaurs, monkeys, robots, Cars and plain. A digression - I asked David if he wanted to wear robot underpants or plain underpants. He got really dispapointed that the plain ones didn't have (air)planes on them! My fault. I explained what plain means. He is asking me about words a lot these days. "What means because?" What means welcome?" What's hallelujah?" "What's Praise the Lord?" "What's sweet dreams?" "What means bet?" ( Try thinking about how to explain the concept of betting so that you can meaningfully get him to understand what you are driving at when you have said "You bet!!")

Also exciting is that I am back at work on a small project for my old employer, part-time, flexible with the job to get done by Christmas. Rewriting existing policies, and updating some new global policies for local application. Great stuff. I feel like I am getting back in practice, and I have been effective from the first morning, which is great. I am also talking to someone else about some part-time work, so wish me well!

The even more exciting part is that we have a cleaner!!!! Yes! and she is going to come weekly!! We had a test clean done this week, and it was absolutely WOW to walk in to a clean, tidy house that I hadn't done. Kudos to Paul, who said that it was a condition of my returning to work.

We are now in the run up to the third birthday - and the co-incident AFL Grand Final. Exciting. I will keep you posted.

This is a photo of David with his new easel and paper roll. He loves it. It was an early birthday present from Nanna Josie. Delivered early on a wet weekend. My thinking is that it also helps him appreciate the individual items a little. Otherwise, it is extreme overload on the birthday itself (like Christmas). David is wearing his swimming rash top - not quite sure why. Probably something to do with it raining and it having Woody and Buzz on the front. He can sit on his chair and draw, or stand on it, as here.

I will try to get back into short sharp updates to the blog. It is hard though as David is still going to bed late, so I can't do it at night. We have had a few days with no naps (quel horror) and this also means that I can't use it during the afternoon. We are working on convincing David that when there is no nap, it means an early night. With some success. However, I have to be really careful about being in the office on the computer, as I turn around and there is someone watching me, who wants to play and look at things on the computer. Last Friday he said that he would make a nest on the floor and sleep there while I worked - yeah, right. He had lots of fun, but didn't sleep. I went to a sleep seminar organised by the day care centre, and it was really useful. Not really specifically aimed at techniques to get a child to sleep, but more general on building a happy, resilient child, who then should sleep well. Things around reducing anxiety and overstimulation. I have been trying a few things. Anyway, it is all good.

David does talk about things a bit if they bother him. He is saying more that he misses Daddy when he is away for work. He says that he misses me when I leave him at daycare, but he says that he has a "Great" day. He has to go back and say goodbye to everyone through the fence, before we leave, and hug various friends. His latest friend is Rafaella, and they are inseparable at the moment. They did toilet training together.