Sick, exchanged, and conjunctivitis...

I guess we should be getting used to it by now; the inevitable long periods of sickness during winter. But you don't. It's always stressful and puts a strain on relationships - especially when Mum and Dad are crook at the same time as the kids...

Carter appears to be over his ear infections (for now) but Linc is still trying to battle a virus; at least the fevers are gone, but he got the first signs of conjunctivitis yesterday - the classic gunky eyes etc. so we went to the chemist and administered some Chlorsig - which he hated - we literally had to physically restrain him just to get the cream into his eye. He woke up this morning with no gunk, but his eye is almost closed over and very, very red; back to the chemist who advises he needs to go to the Doctor. Which is fantastic, as we were only there YESTERDAY as Linc has been coughing so badly at night that he vomits everywhere. And that is just so much fun for everyone, not least of all poor Linc...

And onto the youngest member of the family - Ollie the ragdoll cat. Unfortunately he's a nightmare of a cat; and while the feeling isn't shared amongst the family, he's a pain in the backside, making life even more difficult than it has to be. He has periods where he just turns into a monster - generally only with Dad; his pupils dilate and his ears go back, right before he leaps at my face, claws and teeth bared ready to sink into flesh. And then at night if we don't let him into the bedroom he continually scratches on the door - and then when we finally let him in he proceeds to destroy the doona when trying to bite our feet... if he wasn't so damn cute, and hadn't managed to build a trusted circle of powerful allies, he would be long gone by now...

Anyway, now for the exciting news...: we exchanged on the new house after a period of heightened uncertainty; it's a relief, but it still hasn't sunk in yet - I'm sure it will soon though, considering we move into the new place in TWO WEEKS! The mortgage has now gone from very large to absolutely terrifying, but we aren't Robinson Crusoe in that regard (something not right about still paying off a house when we're 65 years old)... but at least we will have a house we are genuinely happy with (we hope) and that gives us the room to have our own space, and much bigger bedrooms for the kids to play!

Our new house (outlined in red)

Coast trip, house sale, house purchase

On 9-12 August the family made the traditional mid-winter trip to the coast; and boy did we need the escape from all the goings-on at home. We had a wonderful time, went to the beach every day, and enjoyed the 18 degree sunny days! We saw a whales, seals, stingrays and even an eel and octopus (the last two were sleeping on a rock)...

As I mentioned, it was just what was needed at a very stressful time in our lives - yep, nothing like the stress, worry, uncertainty caused by moving house. First step obviously to sell our place; this has now happened and was actually quite quick (one month from listing the house to an exchange of contracts - can't complain about that). And on the same day that we had an acceptable offer on our house, we had also put an offer on another house; the next day after a bit of back and forth we had our offer accepted on the new house - luck and good fortune meaning we had found a wonderful (huge - 218m2 of living) house to buy (that we could move straight into from here), rather than having to rent and hope something suitable came along in the lease period!

How exciting. Only, while we have exchanged on our house, we haven't on the new one due to waiting on the finance company's valuation... so we are, in a manner of speaking, homeless, having sold our place and not officially exchanged on the new one - with the risk of losing it to another couple who are very keen on buying it... we have everything crossed that the valuation happens quickly so we can gain some certainty with regard to our move (which is due to occur in less than FOUR WEEKS! as we will rent the new one for the week before settlement on our current house)...

Throw in the fact that EVERYBODY has been sick: Dad having had four days off work; Carter on his third round of anti-biotics; and Linc with a fever that lasted days and didn't respond to panadol - and it's just been an absolute barrel of laughs...

A simple haircut adds years to the boys!

Snow at Tidbinbilla!

Boys growing fast as the house grows smaller

Thought it was time to put a couple of photos up of the boys; they seem to be growing very quickly at the moment - especially Carter.

Carter is doing very well in his new bed; while he may get out to switch his dinosaur light off (or play with his humidifier and burn his finger!) he hops back into bed by himself and doesn't get out until Mum or Dad go into his room! It's pretty amazing; when he wakes up, he just sits there and waits for one of us to go in!

Very cold day today; snow on the Brindabellas which can be seen from our kitchen window. Looks like a road trip into the ranges is on the agenda for today.

Over the past week we've also been doing a massive amount of cleaning, tidying up and clearing away rubbish... we've finally decided to test the market, so the house is for sale... like we needed any more stress in our lives.

Carter is in a big boy bed!

On Saturday we (read: Dad) finally got around to making Lincoln's new mega-bed (it took five hours!), so Carter inherited Linc's bed in preparation for the freedom of sleep time outside of the cot!

And out of three sleeps (sat, sun night and sun day nap) he hasn't gotten out of it once. Unfortunately he does tend to get free of the doona, so we'll have to watch that to make sure he doesn't get cold; he'll get used to it, we're sure; as it's quite different to constantly wearing your doona (he has always worn a sleeping bag)...

Asleep in his big boy bed..

Linc and Carter trying out the stairs on Linc's mega-bed!

Return to routine

Dad's back - and boy is he glad to be home; 16 nights is way too long to be away from the family...

And it was just what the family needed when a road trip was scheduled over this weekend to attend Anthony's 5th birthday party in Sydney. It was a superhero theme, and Ironman even turned up! Linc went as superman (with a Captain America outfit on standby) and Carter as Robin Hood/Peter Pan/Arrow... (take your pick depending on your era/age group!)...