Ok, I'm gonna see how far I get this time.  I've seriously had like 4 posts saved to drafts over the last couple of weeks that have never eventuated.  So now I've lost track of everything I have to update about, but anyway.

It is now 11.34am, Cohen has been asleep since 6.50am after sleeping from 8.30pm till 6.20am.  I mean really, how much sleep does one little person need??  It is definitely an upside-down world when you are WAITING for your 15-wk old to wake up.  But I need to do food shopping, Brayden needs a haircut, I need to

and sure enough, he just woke up.  BBL!

Dear Journal,

My name is Kelly and I have sinned...it has been 9 weeks since my last entry...

Funnily enough our newest bundle of joy, Cohen Jack, is 9 weeks old tomorrow.  Say no more!  It's not that I haven't had the time now and then to update, I have just seriously lacked the inclination.  Today however, I decided to bite the bullet and get back into it.

So yes, Cohen arrived on February 11 at 7:10pm, in a big fat hurry.  We got to the hospital at about five minutes to seven, and made it only as far as my room on the ward where my midwife was still getting everything ready for me after recieving Ben's phone call about 15 minutes earlier.   To cut a long story short, my doctor came in with all of his epidural equipment ready to go (I had been constantly reminding him that I WAS having drugs this time), took one look at me, probed my tummy (which broke my waters), went white as a sheet, informed me that there would be no epidural necessary, started frantically doing all of his doctor-type things and caught our baby boy about 5 minutes later :)  He thought the fact that I didn't get to have any pain relief for the third time quite hilarious.  I, on the other hand, did not, and made sure everyone knew it!   Anyway, after everyone had a little bit of time to get over the shock of the super-fast delivery, Ben & I had to deal with the shock that we had a little boy....I was dead-set it was a girl!  I don't know why, and considering I thought the photos from the 20-wk scan looked like a boy and I had signs at about 35 wks that were screaming boy, I REALLY don't know why I kept insisting it was a girl.  Either way, we were absolutely over the moon as we had both always wanted 2 boys, and he is just divine in every respect :)

He is currently asleep, has been for about the last 2 hours and is scoring more and more brownie points with mum every day in the sleeping department!  He has only been waking once a night for a feed for about the last 5 weeks and has been going straight back down for another 3-4 hrs, so very happy with that.  Not that I haven't had my fair share of sleepless nights as every mum with a new baby does, but thankfully there hasn't been too many and when there has, I've been dealing with it fairly well.  Which I guess is what happens with the third baby...by then your body is well accustomed to surviving on little sleep! 

Brayden and Tahni just absolutely adore him...Brayden is brilliant, however Tahni is still coming to grips with the concept of 'gentle'.  She is getting better, but I certainly can't leave Cohen on the floor or even in his swing or chair unattended when she is around!  We have only had one "pick the baby up and carry him'' incident with no major damage or lasting effects on Cohen's behalf, but I learnt my lesson and he now only gets tummy time when Tahni is asleep/not home!  Brayden is more than trustworthy with him and is lovely and gentle...they are going to be such good mates.

Okay so enough about that for the moment....I'll update more bits and pieces about Cohen as I think of them, so forgive me if I seem to back track every now and then.

Since Cohen was born life has been fairly routine...as much as it can be...and at times pretty monotonous and mundane, but my days are chocka block and the weeks are just flying by.  One minute its 7am and the next minute its 4pm and I'm having to start the evening rush.  Between 5-8 at our house is just bedlam most nights, but my husband has been amazing and I'm not sure how I would have managed without him!  My fears pre-birth about how I was going to deal with him not coming home from work until after the kids were in bed and disappearing to mates houses every other night were completely unfounded....although I haven't mentioned it, it seems he was just getting it all out of his system (subconciously even??) and with the exception of a handful of nights, has been home every night helping with dinner, bath and bed times.  Impressed wife!

Since my last update, I have also celebrated my niece's 1st birthday, my nephew's 3rd birthday, learnt my sister will be giving me another niece/nephew in August, welcomed another little 'nephew' into the world in my beautiful friend Amanda's baby boy Jed (born 10 days after Cohen...destined to be besty's!), enjoyed a wonderful visit from Lisa & Eloise all the way from Dubai at which time I learnt I will be welcoming ANOTHER 'niece/nephew' come September, and have seen two of my friends expecting babies late May & mid-June respectively progress in their pregnancies.  This is going to be some year!!  I have pretty much scratched 2009 of our calendar in terms of the fact that we won't really surface into the real world again until about this time next year, but it's lovely to have all of these to look forward to!  I am dreading the onset of another Manjimup winter, and just hope it passes quickly. Shudder!
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We have just enjoyed a lovely long Easter weekend with gorgeous weather and Bens mum & grandma visiting for a couple of days.  His grandma was supposed to stay on for another week and help me around the house a bit and with the kids whilst I feed Cohen etc (always a mission trying to keep them out of trouble and/or from killing each other whilst I do this) which I was looking forward to, but I think she got a bit of a fright after spending 2 days in the midst of it all and decided about half an hr before Ben's mum left yesterday that she was going home too!  I was a bit disappointed, as were the kids, as strangely enough we were all looking forward to a bit of variety in the company department, but I spose at 76 I can't blame her for bailing!  I did forget to mention that I only have either Brayden or Tahni home each day while the other is at daycare, and neither here on Fridays, as I'm sure this probably would have made a difference, but oh well!  I spent the first 3 weeks after coming home with Cohen struggling to keep my head above water as there were still 4 days out of 7 that both B & T were home together and we were all going crazy with all the adjustment that had to happen - it just all started to get on top of me, so this new arrangement has certainly saved my sanity and the kids love it too.  It makes the weekends much more pleasant as well as they actually enjoy being together, instead of being sick of the sight of each other.  I'm sure Cohen appreciates me not spending an entire feed yelling in his ear as well.

Okay, my husband is home today with an apparent 'headache' and sore neck/back, which is either a delayed hangover after the massive bender he went on with the boys on Sunday night when Gary & Leanne were here, or the result of falling asleep on the floor in the middle of doing a jigsaw with Brayden last night, I haven't decided yet.  Either way, I should actually make the most of him being here and Cohen & Tahni both STILL being asleep and go and do something constructive!

Promise I will be back soon :)

We had spent the previous day down at Peaceful Bay (as it appeared this was the only way I was going to get to see my husband!) chilling out on the beach & catching up with Amber & Phillip, Ryan & Kat and the rest of the Phillips's, which was lovely.  Finally got a bit of quality time getting to know Caden, who is just gorgeous.  We left about 4.30ish and I was fully intending to get home and make Tahni's bday cake, wrap presnts etc, and Ben was supposed to be right behind me, but as it turned out I came down with Tahni's bug on the drive home and spent the night throwing up and doing not much else.  My husband deciding to get home at 11pm (right behind me my arse) didn't help matters and he copped a nice earful when he finally did arrive.  I found myself wrapping Tahni's presents at about 2am when I finally started to feel better, but given all this, by the time we arrived home from Fonty's on Sunday arvo I was SHATTERED. Took me a good few days to fully recover!

I had to be organised by the Thursday though, as I was taking both kids to Perth on my own to the Blues Clues Live show at Arena Joondalup.  It was a fairly pleasant drive up (in my swanky new car woo woo!), and we stayed at Gary & Leanne's so it was nice to both catch up with them and have them spend some time with the kids.  Bedtime was a bit interesting, as they both discovered they could get out of their bedrooms (something they can't do at home as the doorknobs are too high) and kept getting up, to the point where at one stage they were going in all directions, were soooo overtired that they were just running on adrenalin and I'd had enough and needed to SIT DOWN, so I just had to resort to yelling and threats :P The next day, Friday, was the day of the show and happened to be the worst day EVER it could have been on, when it hit 42 degrees in Perth.  Given the show was on the basketball stadium at Arena Joondalup (i.e. no airconditioning), it was not entirely comfortable, but wasn't as bad as I thought.  Ben's mum came to the show with me and then took Brayden back to her place for the afternoon, and Tahni & I went back to the Russo's and had a nice long nap in the aircon!  We picked Brayden up after Tahni woke up and then Gary & Leanne had arranged for Gen & Josie to come over that night for a bbq with their two kids, who are both the same age as my two, so they all had a great time.  Tahni went to bed not long after the usual time, but there was no way I was going to get Brayden to go if Connor was still up, so it was about 11pm by the time he finally got into bed.  Latest he'd been up in a VERY long time!  Given all this activity, I was guaranteed they would both sleep all the way home the next day.  Which was great in theory until I discovered the Bridgetown bushfires had closed the highway, resulting in me having to detour via Nannup, adding an extra hour to the trip.  Again, not an issue, if 1. I didn't have to stop to put more fuel in, resulting on both the kids waking up and 2. the road to Nannup being so narrow and windy I felt like I was driving in Rally Australia and both the kids were carsick...twice each...resulting in 4 extra stops.  AARRRRGGGGHHHH!!  It was the WORST trip home I had ever had, after a very exhausting week, and just wanted to crawl under a rock by the time I did eventually get home.  The worst bit was that I was actually quite disappointed in the Blues Clues show and wondered why I had put myself through it all, but I know I would have regretted not taking them, so no point crying over spilt milk!

Since then, I have also finally made the change of putting the kids into the same room, which is still very much a novelty for both of them unfortunately.  Brayden is actually quite good most nights and will drop off to sleep despite Tahni's incessant babbling and determination NOT to let him go to sleep, but some nights I just want to strangle them both.   The hardest bit is coming to terms with the fact that they are both sleeping less than they otherwise would be just because they are sharing, with the lost time both at night and in theImornings when one always wakes the other up as opposed to them waking when they are ready, but we don't have much choice atm so I'll just have to get over it!  I've left Tahni in her cot until they both get a bit more used to the sharing situation, as I will be right back to square one once she's in her big bed, (as she will no doubt climb out an average of 40 zillion times an hour which at least she can't do from her cot), but can't put it off forever so her new bedroom suite that I've had stashed in storage is getting delivered this week.  If we could only win Lotto and buy a bigger house none of this would be a problem!

Pregnancy wise everything is going along smoothly - at 37.5 weeks today so predicting I only have another couple of weeks left, given Tahni was born at 39 exactly and every day I feel more and more like this one will be early too.  Had a shocker of a sleep last night when I was still awake at 3am, but that's the first night in a long time I haven't been able to sleep properly, so can't complain too much.  The heat hasn't been bothering me a great deal either as we just stay inside in the aircon during the hottest part of the day, then go outside once it's cooled down and eat icypoles & run under the sprinkler in the nuddy.  The kids do at least, I just wish I could!  Have got most things ready for my hospital bag, jusgt haven't got around to packing it yet, which I REALLY should do on the weekend, otherwise I'm just tempting fate.

Tahni is at Timbertots today and Brayden & I have been on our regular Wednesday 'lunch date', and now he's colouring in and I'm wishing that he was still having an afternoon nap so I could too!  Sometimes he does drop off in his sofa while he's watching TV, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen today.

I might spend the afternoon making a couple of phone calls and sorting out our baby shower-cum-lunch in Bunbury next weekend for Amanda....can't believe that we will both have new little bubbas so very soon! 

Wishing no-longer-a-baby Claire a very happy 1st birthday!!

Don't know where that year went...I'm sure it was only last week that you arrived!

Hope you have a fabulous day (even if you do have to go to daycare) and I look forward to Mummy sharing the next year of your life with us as you grow and change even more :)

xxx

Been a bit slack at updating, but to be honest it's the last thing I feel like doing when I have 5 minutes to myself lately!  Plus the mouse is dodgy on my new laptop and keeps making the text jump all over the place when I'm typing anything, which is uber annoying.

Life has been going along fairly routinely, and I am just having a bit of a rest while Tahni is still asleep and before I pick Brayden up from Timbertots.  We had a very busy morning with her getting a haircut and then us going swimming and out for lunch, so I'm expecting at least another half hour out of her!  She was extremely good for her haircut - which she normally is, she was just extra good today.  I think the novelty of the squirty water bottle (which she hasn't had before) helped a lot!  She loved it.  Her hair is now about 2-3cm past her shoulders when it's wet - otherwise her ringlets mean it sits just on her shoulders.  Her fringe in her eyes was driving me bonkers, but I had put it off for as long as possible so we could get as close to xmas as possible.  Brayden's is also overdue but he's in on Friday, so they should be all good until after new year.

Went up to Perth on the weekend to do the bulk of the xmas shopping and had SUCH a good time.  Was in a filthy mood when I left at about 6pm on Friday night due to my husband pulling his usual stunts that occur whenever I'm supposed to be going somewhere, but had relaxed by the time I got to Bridgetown.  Got to Amanda's at 9.30pm on the dot, and we were at Toys 'R' Us as planned when they opened just after 9 on Sat morning.  Got the majority of what I had planned to get, quite a bit that I hadn't planned to get (luckily Manda was there with an extra trolley!), and we were out of there by 11.30 when it started to get crazy.  We then dropped it all off back at her house and went to Carousel for lunch and girls shopping!  We both did the dreaded purchasing of maternity bras while we had each other for moral support and advice, so it was nice to get that out of the way!  Got a couple of nice dresses in Kmart and wasted another $40 on maternity jeans that I thought were better, but are just as annoying as the other two pairs I have!  Found that by about 3.30 we were waddling, limping, looking everywhere for seats whenever we stopped somewhere, and yawning our heads off, so we called it a day!  Oh, first we went to Baby on a Budget as Amanda had asked me to give her a hand with pram shopping, so that was fun too.  Wish I had an excuse to upgrade - so many cool prams around now!  Anyway she made a decision and loves it, and I'M JEALOUS coz I want the same pram, but in any case it was a very productive day for both of us.  Spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing and chatting (some more), then got ready and headed out for a lovely quiet dinner with Stacey in Vic Park.  Was nice to have a girly night out that wasn't somewhere loud and exhausting!  We had a really good night and my tummy hurt from laughing by the time we went home!  Would have been nice to have a few drinks, but at least I wasn't alone for a change!  Kent was away all day Sat and Sat night for speedway (and was incidentally a very sick boy when he got home on Sunday!), so we had the house to ourselves and sat up wayyyy too late chatting and gossiping.

Slept in till NINE O CLOCK in the morning which was omg sooo lovely....and unexpected coz I normally can't sleep in even when I want to!  Was so nice.  Chilled out for an hr or so over breakfast, then I had to head up to Ben's mums to pick something up and got back around 12, at which point we headed back to Carousel to do more shopping!  Had another lovely lunch, I got some much needed new pillows & sheets for our bed, then went back to Manda's to load everything up (thank god I had taken the kids' car seats out!) and headed home.  Think it was about 3.30 by the time I hit the road, so was just before 7 by the time I got home.  Only to find a deserted house that looked like it had been hit by a bomb.  I nearly turned around and drove back to Perth.  Like, is it so hard just to TIDY things a bit?????  Anyway, found that they were all at a friends place and I was summonsed there for tea, which is the last thing I felt like doing, but thankfully only stayed until the kids were fed and then we all came home.

Spent all of yesterday cleaning (obviously my penance for needing a weekend away to do xmas shopping for OUR kids! pfft), so was thankful that I only had one of them today!  Have had another very productive day, finding a couple of toys that I couldn't find in Perth in Toyworld down here, and for $10ea less than what they are anywhere else!  I should stop writing off the Manjimup shops so quickly.  So now I'm pretty much done with the shopping, and very impressed about that!  We're heading back up to Perth on the 19th, so will have to have it all wrapped and ready to go by then, but have plenty of time to do that stuff when the kids are in bed at night.  Going to be so much fun this year - Tahni is going to love her doll's baby set and her Dora motorised bike! 

Saw an old schoolmate today at the pool who is down visiting her family, and now has 4 kids including twins!!  And she looks great - fit and trim and super-organised and the kids are lovely.  Don't you hate that?!?!

Was very excited to also find out last week that two of my friends from down here are expecting babies next year as well!!  They are close friends themselves and in a total coincidence are only 10 days apart in their due dates (in June), so very similar to the situation with Amanda and I!!  Which is also very spinny considering they are also friends of Amanda's going back years.  Will be so nice to have some friends down here with bubba's so close in age to mine for a change!  Can't wait.

Okay, must go and get cracking on the 'evening shift' and pick Brayden up, although it's 4pm and Tahni is still asleep!  Will give her another half an hour before I start bashing around to try and rouse her!

My lovely friend Lisa has a problem with continuing to happily listen to the toddler CD playing in the car stereo for any number of minutes when the toddler is not actually in the car.  Well, I have discovered I have the same problem with the TV.  I've been sitting here with Dora on for the last 20 minutes, which wouldn't normally be a problem apart from the fact that Brayden isn't here today and Tahni is asleep.  And this is FAR from the first time this has occurred - it's definitely a worry.

So yes, Brayden is at Timbertots today and Tahni is nicely worn out after a busy morning of playing, shopping and swimming, so I'm not expecting her awake for a good 3 hrs.  I sat down to make a couple of long overdue phone calls, and no-one is answering their phone!  So now I'm doing this instead.  When I really should be doing any one of the million other things I have to do, but so be it. 

We have confirmed this week that we are heading up to the city for Christmas - from the weekend before to the weekend after.  We've booked a place in Carramar that is on a working farm, with horses, dogs, cats, chooks, sheep etc which will be brilliant for keeping the kids occupied, but also has a big house with a pool, spa and parents retreat.  And only 5 minutes from Joondalup, so we are still nice and close to all the shops & restaurants.  The only downside is that my darling husband has kindly invited his entire family to spend Christmas Day where we are staying.  How nice of him.  The whole idea was that we are spending Christmas with them, which is fine, but I was kind of hoping that given I will be 7.5 mths pregnant and away from home with two toddlers, I would be exempt from hostess duties.  This obvioulsy escaped his attention, as usual!  Anyway, I've just made it perfectly clear that I will not be doing a single thing in terms of time spent in the kitchen, so he'd better be prepared to organise a bbq or something and get everyone to bring the rest.  Will be very different for me being away from my family for xmas, but we can't expect Ben's family to travel every year and we've bailed on them for the last 2 yrs when we said we would go to them, so this year it is.  Quite looking forward to 10 whole days together as a family though, with no work in sight!!  I won't quite know what to do with myself when Ben is actually around to help with shopping, cooking, bathing and bedtimes. 

My back is still giving me grief to the point of me being in tears a couple of evenings last week, so I'm just hanging in their until my doc's appt tomorrow when I'm going to explain that there is a serious problem, not just the normal pregnancy aches and pains.  The pregnancy massage helps for about two days, then it's back to the same old story.  Hoping to get a referral to the pregnancy OT up at the hospital as she's really good and may be able to do something.  I really can't keep taking paracetamol every afternoon just to get through the evening shift, which even then doesn't stop the pain completely.   The pregnancy itself is going fine - at the end of the second trimester and getting a bit anxious about doing the whole labour/childbirth thing again VERY soon!  I really should change the channel when House of Babies comes on.  The baby's movements have slowed down a lot, which is making me second-guess myself in terms of the sex, as Brayden's movements were a lot more subdued that Tahni's were, and I've had quite a few other people with one of each sex say the same thing.  Only time will tell I guess!

Had a lovely time during Amanda's visit last weekend.  Her and Lauren came and spent the Saturday arvo with us which the kids loved, as Aunty Manda always gets sucked into things like pushing the swings and playing in the cubby house and colouring in (without much arm-twisting at all though I have to say!) - all those things that mum is always far too busy to contemplate.   We then went up to their place that night for a bbq which was really nice - wayy to much yummy food, the kids had a ball playing together (to the point where I barely saw them), and we did lots of catching up.  Courtney was down too, so it was good to see her again too (although I see her much more than Amanda!).  She still can't believe we are actually both at exactly the same stage of pregnancy and insists we planned it - to which I keep insisting if we had tried to plan it, it wouldn't have happened!  The boys had a good time catching up too, and Manda & I found we were able to pretend perfectly well with our $3 bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling!  Tastes better than the real stuff I reckon.  Anyway, we've got another catch-up planned when I head up to Perth in a couple of weekends time to do all of the xmas shopping.  Kent will have speedway and I'm leaving the kids home with Ben, so we will have a lovely time I'm sure!  Was very excited to hear that they are building a house, as we have also decided we're going to build, it's just a matter of where.  Another thing we'll be able to compare notes on!  So yes anyway, I know most of the big stuff that I'm going to get for the kids' presents, so just plan on heading to Toys'R'Us first thing on the Sat morning and just do the whole shebang in one hit.  May also have to go to Big W to get one thing for Brayden, but that's no biggie.  I've also planned to go up on the weekend when Carousel is open on Sunday, so I can spend Saturday shopping for the kids and Sunday for myself!   I've already gotten most of the little stuff for their stockings (and their stockings themselves - so cute!!), but will probably find a few other little things to stick in there.  Going to be heaps of fun this year, they are at such great ages for Christmas.

Seeing as Ben just went out and bought himself a 500cc Raptor 700 series quad bike...as you do...PFFT....he is getting NOTHING for Christmas!!  I've also said that my trip to Dubai was more than enough for me, so it's all about the kids this year.  Also, that way I can save up my list for our 5 year anniversary plus new baby in Feb -  if five years of marriage, 3 kids and a workaholic husband aren't enough to warrant more diamonds, I don't know what is! 

Okay, must go as my laptop battery is about to die, which is also a good sign that I should probably go and do something more constructive!

 

Ben walked in the door at 5:40pm last night.  I'm surprised my heart is still beating.  I'm sure I just stared at him for a full minute before it even sank in that he was actually home before the sun went down.  So that was great - but then what does he do?  1. Peer into the oven to see what's baking for dinner. 2. Walk into the bedroom to get changed. 3. Sit down on the couch, turn on the computer and ignore the kids.  GRRRRRRRRR.  All previous statements regarding his good behaviour are detracted.  He got off once I gave him a serve, but I really shouldn't have to keep doing so.
 
Have had a hectic day today.  Tahni was up at 7am which is EARLY AS HELL for her, and had woken up a couple of times during the night, so not sure what her story is.  She resettles herself okay, but it probably doesn't make for a great night's sleep.  As luck would have it she is at Timbertots today where she will also have minimal sleep, so she's just going to be in a lovely mood when she gets home. Hence why I am going to put together a lasagne and stick it in the oven before I pick her up, so I'm not tearing my hair out too much by 6.30.  After I dropped her off, Brayden and I did the food shopping (big one, too much $$ spent), raced home and unpacked it, then got changed and went to the pool for a swim.  Had the whole hydro pool to ourselves for the majority of the time, which was nice.  Had some lunch there afterwards, which I always enjoy with Brayden coz I get to sit down and read the paper or something while we eat and then have a coffee, whereas with Tahni she doesnt sit still and has to be supervised every second.

Then I got my eyebrows waxed, booked a preg massage and then went to Target and spent another squillion dollars on their kids clothes and shoes sale.  Actually it wasn't too bad considering I'm buying for two and paid 30% less than I normally would have, just made for an expensive day all up with the food shopping!  It also included a couple of things to put away for xmas - I'm determined not to be waddling around the shops in December.  Got Tahni her first pairs of knickers for her xmas stocking - toilet training will start just after new year.  Well, will start in earnest anyway, as she is already familiar with the potty, just hasn't done anything in it yet.  They are so cute - seems like only yesterday I bought Brayden his first pairs of little jocks (which he took great delight in showing everyone).  How time flies!  So yes, along with the stuff I got from Pumpkin Patch the other day, summer clothes/shoes are now all taken care of. 

Didn't get my normal back pain last night for the first time in nearly 2 weeks - the baby must have moved or something??  It did start to kick in just before we sat down to eat, but the fact that I was able to sit down just as it was starting meant it didn't get too much worse.  I actually managed to get through the majority of the ironing after the kids went to bed, which has been stacking up coz I haven't been able to stand up at night to do it.  Felt very relieved when it was done, as I hate stuff stacking up like that and staring me in the face every day. 

Speaking of the baby, I've noticed this one kicks and moves around a lot whenever I'm using the laptop, which I also remember happening with the other two.  Makes me wonder what kind of radiation is actually being emitted?!?  I probably should use a barrier between the laptop and me just in case.  Says me half way through baby #3.  Oh well, the other two weren't born with two heads, so maybe it's just the warmth/hard drive whirring that wakes them up!
 

Annnyyywayyy.... I did come home to some good news....three new babies!!  Tammy & Darren had a baby girl, Caitie Lee, Amber & Phillip welcomed a baby boy, Caden Jack, and Erin & Richie had Matilda Grace.  All very exciting!!  I managed to sneak a visit into see Caden the day I got back - literally going from the airport to the hospital - which was lovely.  He definitely doesn't look his 9lb weight...he's so tiny but is heavy.  Very cute though!!  I wasn't allowed to take photos in case I woke him up, and as Amber is completely crap at corresponding at the best of times, it may be a while before I have a picture of him!  He was being breastfed when I saw them, but given that Amber's milk wasn't in yet and going on a few of the things she said in that regard, I'm really not sure how she's going to go with it.  Think they are planning to go home Monday so will give her a call tomorrow night to see how she is going....which will take a lot of mental preparation before I actually do it!  Being informed about things I have already told her about several times over the course of the last three years, wondering if it has actually occured to her that I'm standing right in front of her, 5 months pregnant with my 3rd baby is quite emotionally draining!  Gotta love her all the same.

Was so looking forward to seeing the kids by the time I got home, so I was a bit dark about the fact that Ben had put Tahni to bed early, especially since I'd asked him to keep her  home from daycare so she was there when I got there!  Nevertheless, the look on Brayden's face was classic.  He stared at me for about 15 seconds, then it finally registered and his face cracked into a big grin, but then he ran to Ben and said "That's my mummy!", before he ran over to me and jumped up for a hug.   When Tahni finally woke up I went in to get her up, and she just stared at me for about a full minute.  I think in her still half-asleep stage she wasn't too sure if I was actually real!  Was very cute.  We had to wait until Ben got home from work before I gave them all their little gifts, but they were very happy.  I managed to get Ben a big remote control Hummer at Dubai airport on the way home, which also came with a little one which was perfect.  I also got Tahni a little Hello Kitty remote control car (only has one button!) in a pro-active bid to stop her interfering with the boys' ones, which she loves, so all three were very happy! 

Ben has been a lot better in the initiative stakes since I got back - he actually got up and fed the kids when they were whinging on Thurs night while I was at the shops (getting things for tea!) without any input from or consultation with me.  They were both sitting at the table eating soup & toast when I got back and I nearly fell over!  Wonder how long that is going to last before he goes back to pretending he is dense.  Tahni didn't want a bar of me putting her to bed that night, so Ben thought he was pretty hot shit.  I think he thought I would be upset about it - how wrong was he!!!  Bring it on I say.

Anyway, Ben & Brayden have gone to the beach this afternoon - as you do on a rainy 18 degree day??? - and Tahni is still asleep.  She went to bed at around 1.30 and it's now 4, so if I'm lucky I'll get another half an hr to eat chocolate.  And now that I've said that she will wake up as soon as I walk into the kitchen.  Ciao for now!

Ben's birthday on Friday was pretty much the same as any other day - he headed off to work (which was also the last day of the election campaign so he was very anxious & preoccupied) after opening his presents and then we all went about our normal business.  Tahni missed the present opening though as she was still asleep.  Daddy just had to make do with a mouthful-of-Weetbix kiss when he got out of the shower.  Lovely.

So I was looking forward to the election being over so that life could return to some resemblance of normal - thankfully it is a lot better, although the process of obtaining 'closure' seems to be taking a little while longer than first thought for my husband and his associates!  Our local candidate, Wade, did get beaten quite comprehensively, for reasons I personally believe were through not fault of his own.  Those who have been following the washup from the election will understand it was anything from straightforward, and most definitely not over yet!  Wade hosted a dinner on Sat night for the vote count, which had all the makings of being a great night, but obviously ended up a pretty somber affair with most people (actually it seems EVERYONE except ME) took full advantage of the open bar to drown their sorrows.  Everyone was trying to be upbeat and just enjoy the occassion to socialise, but it was very hard.  The kids on the other hand, had a great night running around with all of the other little ones that were there, and getting to have chips for tea.  It was nice catching up with all of the ladies and actually chat, as we see each other around a lot but just don't get a chance to catch up properly coz we're all so busy with kids!  Eventually got the kids home and into bed around 10ish, so it was a very late night for them.  Ben reported that they had to drag Wade out by his feet at about 2am, although how Ben was actually capable of knowing anyone's name, let alone dragging them, is beyond me.  I felt really sad a lot of the night that a couple of lovely ladies who have worked for our previous local member for as long as I can remember ended up losing their jobs, as that member retired and without a new one to replace him, suddenly found themselves unemployed!  Unfortunately on a personal level, it also means we lost a long-standing tenant of two offices in our building, dropping the monthly rental income considerably, which in turn lowers the value of the whole property and how much we can sell it for, which isn't the best news for us seeing as we need a certain amount for it to break even on it's debt.   We are now represented by a member of parliament who is based over Mt Barker/Denmark way, and we are hoping he will staff an office here (which all other things aside I think is kind of necessary anyway), so we'll just have to wait and see what happens there.

Sunday Ben got woken up by the kids delivering their Father's Day goodies, and had it not been Father's Day I think they would have received a few choice words.  The upside of course was that it was later than it normally would have been, around 9.30, as they'd had such a late night.  Ahhhh, a sleep-in!  I will give Ben some credit though coz he did actually get out of bed.  I made ham & cheese croissants, bacon & eggs for brekky and then Ben proceeded to mope around the house sulking and re-hashing the whole campaign & election day a zillion times, while the kids spent all morning playing nicely together outside, as the weather was lovely.  One of the other guys on Ben's team, Ross, showed up at around lunchtime, beer in hand, so they sulked and moped together.  Along with Wade, they had become very 'Three Amigo'-ish.  Don't think they were game to see how Wade was going though!  We had planned to head out to the farm to visit my dad at some point, but Tahni & I ended up going out by ourselves at around 4.30 and leaving Ben & a still sleeping Brayden behind.  My brother & Harlee arrived about 5 minutes after Tahni & I, and it turned out mum didn't have any plans for tea and Dad felt like Chinese, so I got Ben to get some from Manji and bring it down.  Ended up having a lovely evening and was glad we all ended up there eventually.  I put Tahni to bed there but Brayden stayed up, so by the time we headed home and got them back into bed it was another late night.  Another sleep-in on Monday though, YAY!  Monday was 1 year since Ben's 30th party and the kids naming day, and I spent a lot of the day reflecting on how much the kids have changed in a year, and the fact that it had been a whole YEAR since I had seen so many people!  It was such a good day/night.

Had my latest docs appt on Tues (back to weeing in jars and hanging around waiting rooms), and have put on WAY more weight thank I would have like :(  ALREADY!  And I've been walking more too.  What does one do??  Oh well, the weight has come off okay after the last two babies so hopefully it will after this one too.   Tuesday night Ross & Wade showed up again, and a bottle of Jameson's & a feed of my spaghetti later, the stories were getting very long and very loud.  Thankfully Wade's wife rang looking for him so he got his marching orders from me, and Ross & Ben toned it down a bit so I could actually put the kids to bed.  I'm wondering exactly how long this is going to go on for!!

The most exciting news of the week is that I finally booked my ticket to Dubai on Tuesday hoo fucking ray!!  I leave early in the morning of Sept 29th (public holiday in WA), which is a mere 18 sleeps away!  So excited now that I'm actually going.  Had a bit of a panic attack yesterday when I had an inkling that my passport may expire in Feb next year - apparently it needs to have 6 months validity from the date you return to Australia when travelling to Dubai - but it was all good, it doesn't expire until 2010.  Had a bit of a strange experience when I rang our health insurance fund to buy some travel insurance - the girl on the phone assumed it was for 2 adults and two kids and when I said No, just me, she asked how I managed to score a trip to Dubai all by myself.  When I told her the story, she launched into a full-blown epic saga about HER past birthday presents and the snowboard she got from her boyfriend for her 31st birthday when she had actually requested jewellery, blah blah.  It went on for about 5 minutes (while I'm thinking HELLO, I'm on my mobile here!!) and I had to try really hard to make short, polite comments and not cack myself laughing.  It was very odd!  The cost of the travel insurance will cut a little bit into my spending money, but given that if Murphy's Law is ever to apply it will ALWAYS be to me, plus the fact I'm pregnant, means I couldn't really risk not having it.  Would be just my luck to turn up in Dubai while my luggage ends up in Japan or something.   I can't wait to see all that Dubai has to offer anyway, and of course spend some actual quality time with Lisa, Duane & Eloise!  Still can't quite believe I am actually going to be sans-children for 10 whole days.  Bliss.  Funny, most people hate the actual flight, but that's one of the bits I'm looking forward to the most!  Fourteen whole hours all by myself to read books, magazines, watch movies, sleep and eat meals UNINTERRUPTED.  Somebody pinch me.

Okay, Tahni is at Timbertots today and Brayden, although he didn't want a nap today, is playing quietly by himself so I'm going to have a cuppa and see how far I can get through my latest magazine.

Oh, I just remembered we have someone coming to look at the house at 2pm tomorrow.  Maybe I'd better clean instead.