So long between posts

To those of you that follow this blog i am sorry it has been so long between posts. Life has been very hectic and i just never seemed to find time to get to this. So here i go trying fill in the last 2 months!

September was fun when Grandma Liz came over for a 5 week visit. The girls loved it of course and Amy for some reason calls her Grandmother instead of Grandma - sounds very formal when she says it. Amy is really talking up a storm these days and singing little songs to herself - it is so cute. Caitlyn is saying sounds but not real words yet. She is really cute when she blows kisses and plays peek-a-boo. Caitlyn is a real cheeky little thing. Both of the girls are now in daycare at Country Home. Amy loves it and goes running in to play with Miss Samantha each day. It was embarassing the other day when I went to pick her up and she proceeded to tell me (in front of all the other kids) how some other kiddies had been naughty and were running in the calssroom. Hopefully she will learn in time it is not wise to tell on your classmates! Caitlyn surprised me and actually cries some mornings when I drop her off. She is usually so laid back and doesn't get bothered by much. She of course is fine within minutes of me leaving.

While Grandma was here Caitlyn turned 1. We had a little party for her at home but it was rescheduled to a week later because Amy had been sick with a tummy bug. She had a little cake all of her own but needed some encouragement to get in there and get messy with it :-) Amy loved it because she seems to think all the new toys that Caitlyn got were for her. She might as well enjoy it now because I am sure once Caitlyn is bigger I know who will win those battles out of the two of them!

Fall is here of course, so last month Blake and Amy had fun at Lovecreek Orchards (about an hour away in Medina, TX) at the Harvest Festival. They built scarecrows, painted pumpkins, petted the farm animals, went through the maze and just had a great time. Amy is also looking forward to next weekend when she goes to Blake's 3rd birthday party.

We had a bad week the other week. There was a Saturday night where poor Amy was coughing literally all night long. I took her to the med clinic on Sunday morning and we were sent to the ER at Methodist Children's. After 9 hours, blood tests, chest x-rays etc she was admitted to the intermediate care ward with pneumonia and has been diagnosed with asthma. Our poor little girl looked so tiny in that hospital bed with tubes and monitors everywhere. She was a real trooper though and takes her medicine every day, she even did well with getting her iv put in. So now we have daily albuterol and flovent morning and night. We go back to the doctor on Friday and we'll see what they say for long term treatment of her asthma.

Despite Amy just getting out of hospital we were still able to have a fun Halloween. We headed over to Jennifer's house to go trick or treating with Nicholas and Olivia. The kids all looked so cute. Amy was a pink pirate, Caitlyn a pink leopard, Nicholas was Harry Potter and Olivia was Piglet. The kids had a great time and certainly bought home plenty of candy. Mummy will be rationing it out for weeks to come.

The other exciting news is that Grandpa Jeffrey is coming to visit us for Christmas/New Year for 3 weeks. So plenty of fun to come.

Caitlyn walking (kind of)

Well it was a week of firsts this week. On Tuesday Amy had her first day at daycare. She seemed to really like it and was talking to me all the way home in the car about pre-school. In fact when she got home she had a little bit of a meltdown and kept saying she wanted to go back to pre-school NOW. On Thursday however, when she had day 2 she was in tears in the morning when I dropped her off. That afternoon when I picked her up she was fine though. She said in the car that she didn't like Miss Betty (the morning teacher) but Miss Samantha in the afternoon is nice. The only downside of daycare was that Amy of course picked up a little bug and all weekend has had a runny nose and cough. She seesm to be doing well though and tells me she "feels much better after having her med-med". But then 10 minutes later she'll say she "feels terrible". I hate seeing her sick but she is so damn cute! We'll see how she does this week at daycare.

Also on Tuesday when Amy and I got home, Caitlyn had started saying her first sounds (Ba-Ba-Ba). Then this morning at breakfast Caitlyn got up herself behind the walker and started walking!! So of course I had to get a video of it. She certainly loves getting all over the place and into everything she shouldn't. It's hard to believe she will be 1 soon. Our little girl is definitely growing up fast. She has the cutest little smile and giggle. Even when she is in trouble she is a cutie.

We were going to go to Seaworld today as the weather finally seems to be out of the triple digits. But with Amy sick it will be another day at home for us.

Amy is starting Daycare

Today was the last day of the summer semester at Little Gym. We have not registered for the Fall/Winter semester as there has been a change to class times. The class for Caitlyn would start at 9 and Amy not until 10:30. With the 45 minutes wait in between and the fact that your entire Saturday morning is then shot -we have decided to have a break from Little Gym for a semester. But this Tuesday Amy is starting Daycare. She is going to go 2 days a week to Country Home Learning Center (near my work) http://www.countryhomelearningcenter.com/
So on Tuesdays and Thursdays she will drive to work with mummy and then I will pick her up on my way home. I hope she has a fun time there. They provide breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks, she gets a nap after lunch and lots of play time (inside and outside) in between. Most of all I hope she makes some friends there and enjoys interacting with the other kids. I've been trying to explain to her what will be happening and for a while there she somehow had the idea she was going to Seaworld and would see Shamu! Now she tells me she is going to play with other kiddies! With Amy at Daycare it also gives Caitlyn some time just with Dad - no competition for his time from big sister. So I'm sure it will involve some golf games!!

Well I'll post some pictures later in the week on Amy's first day of daycare.

It's been a while between posts!

Where does the time go? For those of you that follow the blog regularly I'm so sorry I only got around to posting once last month - no excuses I guess. Since my last post I turned 1 year older! It was a fun birthday, friends at work bought me candy, starbucks voucher, took me out for lunch and we had cake. I got another cake when I got home too - lucky I like chocolate cake!

Amy is talking up a storm everyday. She is so cute trying to sing her ABC's and counting to 10. She has even started making up her own songs and just singing away to herself (and to Caitlyn of course). It took her a while to start talking but she is doing just fine now. She of course has also mastered how to tell Caitlyn "No" when she doesn't want Caitlyn touching "her" stuff. Most of the time Caitlyn just laughs and continues doing what she wants to do anyway. Can't wait to see some more sisterly love as they grow older. All in all though they love playing with each other and I'm sure in no time they'll be scheming with one another.

I have also had my first trip away for work since Caitlyn was born with a week long trip to Boston at the end of July. Poor Jerad was counting the days until I returned I think. It was a busy week and it was nice to be in cooler weather for a change, but equally nice to get home. The heat here in San Antonio this summer is incredible. It is officially the hottest year on record with 42 days in triple digits and the summer isn't over yet! I am surprised that we have not gone to stage 3 restrictions yet - I guess I better not speak too soon.

Caitlyn turned 10 months old this week. I really can't believe where the time has gone. It doesn't seem that long ago we were adjusting to having 2 kids and now she is crawling and pulling up on furniture. She also has 7 teeth with others coming in. She has a cute little smile but definitely has a gap in her front teeth - looks like we may be up for braces if her permanent teeth come in the same way! But then again, it looked like Amy had a big gap in her front teeth when they first came in and now they are fine.

One of my favorite times with the girls is still bathtime each night. They love splashing and playing together. I place the small tub inside the big tub and usually Amy sits at the end of the bath but lately she has started getting into the small tub with Caitlyn! It's gets very squishy in there when they decide to both try and start kicking.

Caitlyn's 9 month check-up, Circus & Tinkerbell!

So much has happened since our last post. Last weekend we enjoyed the 4th July weekend and went downtown to see the Ringling Brothers circus with Blake and his family. It was a great show. We were allowed in 1hour early so we could get up close to the animals and see some of the performers. Then the show itself lasted 2 hours plus an intermission. Amy and Blake loved seeing the tigers, elephants and acrobats. Mummy and Daddy were impressed with the 7 motorcycles that rode around inside a metal cage. It was certainly a full afternoon and everyone was tired that evening.
On Monday Caitlyn turned 9 months old so during the week she had her check-up visit with Dr Gideon. Caitlyn is 28" tall (70th percentile) and 18lb 6oz (40th percentile). Luckily this time she only needed 1 needle instead of 4 - she seemed to handle it OK. Big sissy went along for moral support too. Also during the week I bought a new camera since my old one had started putting this pink line through the top of the photos. When I bought the new camera I was amazed at how much you get for your money these days. I paid nearly half of what I did 5 years ago for the first digital camera I had and yet this new camera has double the features it seems and is tiny.
Jerad and I are continuing to plan for when we move back to Australia. We have my house back home on the market and then we plan to invest the profit so we can build something when we go back. So we have been looking at different house designs online and getting an idea of what we could afford.
Yesterday was time for little gym again and while we were there they have started selling little girls dance costumes (they now have a dance class for 3+ yrs). One of the costumes had Tinkerbell on it so I couldn't resist getting it for Amy. She wore it all day yesterday and it was quite the drama last night when it was time to take it off! Needless to say I have hidden it today. Amy and I also had a fun night last night - the girls "camped out" in the play room. Amy slept in her little indoor tent while mumy slept on a mattress on the floor outside the tent. Amy kept talking and talking and of course not wanting to go to sleep until well after 10pm. It was hard to get Caitlyn off to sleep in her room too as she seemed to sense she was missing out something and was crying from her bedroom. She came to the playroom with us for a little while but after 3 attempts I did get her to sleep in her crib.
This afternoon I am taking the girls downtown with Jackie, a friend of mine from work. It is the annual River City Dog Show and another lady I know, Kathy, is showing 2 of her golden retrievers in the agility course. I'm sure Amy and Caitlyn will love seeing all the dogs down there and it gets us out of the house. Maybe Amy can start training Domino and Buka after she sees how well the other dogs do :-)

Hot summer days

Once again this week every day is over 100, the low at night is only 78. and we're about to go stage 3 water restrictions. Gotta love south Texas in the summer. Needless to say with this heat we stay in the air conditioning as much as possible. It's been another busy week for us. Jerad and I have been looking at options for when we move back to Australia, so step 1 has been looking into selling the house in New Lambton and then using that money to buy or build something else. At the moment we are leaning towards buying a block of land and then building something closer to the time when we would move back. There are so many things to consider with selling and moving from here, shipping things back and then getting set up back there. I'm sure we can do it though - many have done it before us. It's a bit of sticker shock though when you look at the cost of things in Australia compared to the same item here in the US.

Caitlyn now has four teeth - two on the top and bottom - she looks so cute when she smiles! She is still crawling everywhere but it doesn't look like it will be long before pulls up on the furniture and stands on her own. Amy of course still loves being the big sister and gives Caitlyn kisses all the time. It was funny yesterday with Amy when I was grocery shopping. Since she is such a "big" girl now she likes to walk rather than sit in the shopping cart. So we head off down the aisles of HEB getting groceries and Amy wants to help mummy push the cart (of course this makes it easier for mummy to push the cart and walk behind her while having Caitlyn in the sling.....not). Anyway, we're walking along and whenever someone was up ahead Amy would say "scuse me". I don't think the other shoppers knew where it was coming from - very cute though.

Not much planned for us today - just a trip to Babies R Us, off to Target to pick up some photos and then I might take the girls with me when I go to the gym this afternoon so that they can play in the Kids Club there. We might go for a quick swim too late in the afternoon. Looking forward to next week with the long weekend for 4th July. We are all headed downtown to see the circus with Blake and his family. Then we may go on Sunday night to Seaworld to see some fireworks from their "Summer Nights" show. Well until next week here's to wishing the weather cools down and hope we get some rain.

Caitlyn's crawling!

Well i tried to post last week with a cute video of the girls but the video wouldn't upload. So we got another this week of Caitlyn starting to crawl.

Last week was a busy week this week not made any easier when both Amy and I had a bad stomach bug on Wednesday night. It was a long night - if Amy wasn't being sick, mummy was. Poor little girl ended up having another bath and change of clothes and then she finally got down to sleep again in the wee hours of the morning. Amy bounced right back by the next morning (of course) - but it took Mummy until the weekend. Daddy also had an upset belly for a few days too. Thankfully Caitlyn wasn't affected by it at all. Amy has been saying more words each day - for some reason she likes to make a face like a pirate so she shows that off for the camera too! Caitlyn is almost crawling too, she pulls herself forward with one arm while her legs are out behind her. When she rolls from her back to her belly she almost has her knees in the right position to crawl but then for some reason just flattens her legs and drags herself along instead. It's amazing how much speed she gets though when she is trying to reach something of interest. I know I've said it before but it is amazing how quickly both the girls are growing up and changing. It's fun to see them together and developing their own little personalities but sad too that they aren't little forever.

Amy started her summer semester at the Little Gym last Saturday and thankfully some of the kids from the prior semester are in her class again, so she knows some kiddies. The Little Gym has also started to offer a new class for 3 yr and older to do half dance and half gym. So next year I'd like to get her started in that. Especially since she loves music and dance. Caitlyn will be old enough to start at Little Gym too next semester. Hopefully the girls classes will be back to back.

Today is Father's Day here in the US. The girls bought Daddy the new Tiger Woods golf game for the Wii. I'm sure there'll be plenty of playing this game while mummy is at work. Later today Blake and his parents are coming over for a BBQ. That should be fun and we may go for a swim after lunch since it is so hot. Will post some pics next week.