Live each day like it's your last

Linc sharing one of his many cars with Carter

A quick update is well overdue, as we have just begun to settle into a routine finally. But you know the saying, just when you think everything is going well... Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago, Linc and Carter's Great Grandmother and Great Great Aunt were killed in a car accident up near Newcastle. It was devastating news, as Carter will never get to meet his Great Grandmother and Great Great Aunt; but i'm sure they're happy wherever they are as they will have each other. So last week, the family headed up to Branxton to attend the funeral. Dad had to fly from Perth to Sydney and then drive to Maitland late the night before the funeral, and Mum had to drive the kids up to Maitland (with Aunty Suzie's help thankfully!) which made it the longest drive both kids have ever had in their entire lives! Everyone did really well though, and it was a lovely funeral.  The family even got to catch up with the touring Grandparents and stayed a night at Lake Munmorah on the way home.

Linc driving in his car

Both kids continue to grow faster than the eye can see, and their development is just incredible to watch. While Carter has dropped from the 90th percentile to the 50th for his weight, he still is much chubbier than Linc was, and fits into clothes that Linc didn't fit into until he was 6 mths old! Since a couple of weeks ago, Linc has taken to repeating words that we are saying, which is amazing to see (and also a bit scary - gotta watch what you say!) - but harder words like: outside, phone, table, kit-kat, double, fright etc. etc. but they more amazing thing is how he is putting words together to get his message across (and add some manners to his demands; such as: outside please daddy).  We're having a party for him tomorrow, as he will be two on Monday. Unbelievable. And on Feb 7 he'll start going to daycare one day a week - now THAT will be interesting.

Linc at the beach

Carter rolls!

At almost 4 months old Carter rolled over from his tummy to his back! Just like Linc he hates tummy time but still has had enough time to learn how to roll over!

New Year's Coast trip

Off on another adventure to the coast for New Years (Happy New Year, by the way!).  The trip down in the car was a breeze, with Carter sleeping the whole way until the roundabout at Batemans Bay!  Even Linc was good, but really enjoyed getting out of the car after the 1 hr 50 minute trip.

It's day 2 and the family has already been to the beach twice. We're still not sure whether Linc likes the beach, but we feel it's important that he is exposed to new adventures while he is young! He did love drawing things in the sand and jumping on sandcastles though!  His talking is getting better and better, and he has even started to string a couple of words together.  His favourite words remain 'truck' and 'car', but he now says words like 'engine', 'doughnut', and even 'ute'!  His favourite DVDs (blu-rays actually) are 'Cars', the 'Toy Story' trilogy, 'Robots' and the latest one which was on TV the other night - 'Hoodwinked'.

Carter is growing so fast (as can be seen from the photos) - he's a handful at times, but he is such a gorgeous little baby!  He slept the whole time at the beach today, and had his first ever shower on his return to the house.

The weather is getting colder for the rest of the week, so there may not be any more forays into the sea, but I don't think Linc will be all that unhappy about that...luckily for him there is a pretty cool park just down the road. 

Carter 15 weeks and Linc's ouch

What happens when you flip over a bedhead onto a window sill...

Merry Christmas everybody

General update

Carter at 12 weeks old

First of all, an apology may be in order for the slack rate of blog updates; however, if you have had kids of your own, you would quickly realise that updating a blog is one of those tasks that gets put to the bottom of the pile as time becomes...well, NOT your own... So anyway, here's a quick update...

The cold that was passed on from the neighbours ended up giving Mum and Dad chest infections so they were both on antibiotics with Dad taking a total of 6 days off work. This made being at the beck and call of the kids slightly more challenging.

Carter had an ultrasound of his hip, and it turns out that everything is fine. So even though two baby clinic nurses said there was a click there, our GP didn't, and I guess that's why she is paid the big bucks.

Carter is doing well as far as weight gain, and general progress - he's fitting into clothes that Linc didn't wear until he was about 5 mths old.  His sleeps during the evening range from 4 hours to 8 hours with only very short sleeps during most days. What is annoying at the moment is where he doesn't go back to sleep for very long after he has had his early morning feed.

Lincoln still hates Santa, so a trip to the shopping centre ended up being a waste of time; we are going to try again shortly, so stay tuned. Linc still goes swimming every saturday and seems to enjoy it.  Although he's at a really dangerous point where he is not afraid of the water at all. Halfway through class when he's supposed to be sitting on the edge to jump in where Dad is, he'll get up, run halfway along the pool and jump in.  And no, he doesn't swim - he sinks.  Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is how he has progressed with his interest in the TV... In the Night Garden just doesn't do it for him anymore, and it's now Toy Story and Cars which keeps him entertained.  And he's been doing a fair bit of TV watching lately, as we have had over 200mm of rain in the past two weeks alone.

In a nutshell, life isn't easy at the moment - and when both kids are screaming, and you're tired (and hungry while your nicely prepared dinner goes cold) it's sometimes difficult to keep the stress levels under control.  But then each of them will give you a smile, and you quickly realise that there is no way we would change a single thing.  Bring on Christmas holidays!