It's oh, so Quiet...

Good morning....

It's sleepy here at the moment. Well, it's also 5am here at the moment, so that explains why. I woke at 3.30am with Alice, as she needed a feed and a change, and by 4am Ethan was up as well. I'm not sure what woke him exactly, whether it was Alice and I or whether he just wriggled out of bed too much, but he's in my spot now.

I'm feeling a bit reflective lately. There are quite a few things that I've been thinking about...

I've been using a different tactic on Ethan for his behaviour, and I think it's working ok in my opinion. I get worried that other people see Ethan as nothing but a hassle, because of his age and his over-stimulated personality that just yearns to socialise with others. My sister is a good example of that. She used to think the sun shone clear out of his bottom, but now she hardly looks at him when she (rarely) visits us. It breaks my heart, because he still thinks the sun shines out of her bottom, he just doesn't realise that it's not reciprocated anymore. I also have quite a few friends with kids the same age, and it always feels like he is getting the blame for any hiccups that occur during play time. In my opinion, kids are kids. They fight and are best friends fifty times in sixty minutes, and as a teacher was once heard saying they are all "unique and special snowflakes...just like every one else". I think all kids at age two, up until about age 5 or 6, are absolutely unbearable half the time. But when I see my friends, they seem to err on the side of their own children all the time, and don't seem to think that there is a relationship between the kids at all, a to-ing and fro-ing of behaviour and reactions. I don't know, perhaps I'm being too sensitive lately? Having a baby can do that, in conjunction with a heavy dose of cabin fever!

I inherited the most amazing things a couple of weeks ago. My partners Nan passed away a few months ago, and left instructions that I was to be given as much of her fancy work stuff as I wanted. So I am now the proud owner of not only an overlocker, but also an Embroidery sewing maching, and two knitting machines. Basically Pop bought down the entire craft room and put it in my house. So we have been moving things around. A lot. My office is now going to be the new craft/fancy work room, and the computer is being moved to the rear of the house, near the back door. It made us cry, getting it all in the house, as I felt so lucky and loved by Nan to have been gifted so much. It really has made me think about her life a lot too, as she also mothered her five children while Pop went away to work. They were a real pioneering couple, and Nan knew that sometimes she wouldn't see or hear from Pop for months - their youngest daughter was nearly 6 months old before Pop even met her. I think, when I reflect on how hard Nan worked around the home, of how lucky I am now. My partner calls home every night he's away. If there is an emergency, or a death, or anything, he can be flown home within 24 hours easily. And without the distractions of malls, computers, mobile phones and the like, Nan did a lot of learning of her own, running those machines and making her childrens clothes and toys. She was such an inspiration.

Alice is settling in really well still. I'm just about ready to make up her cot and get her sleeping in there during the day, but she's still in the bassinette in our room during the night. She has been sleeping in her room in the bassinette in the daytime, as it's much darker than our room, and that's been going ok. We also were really lucky to be loaned a swinging cradle (battery operated thingamugig) and that has also given us much sanity when she's been hard to settle. A little colic, but nothing that doesn't sort itself out within about an hour, and she's still sleeping a lot. I'm guessing that all of that will change significantly over the next few weeks.

Anyway, that's the big report from here for now. I don't know if there'll be many posts over the next few weeks, as I'm considering moving the computer to somewhere that there's no net jack just yet, but I'll either keep you posted, or you'll notice the silence!