Life with Catty & Leslie!

Thanks to all of your for your concerns about my wellbeing (and that of our children) when left alone to care for them. We all fared better than expected. I had a wonderful day on Saturday. As Jeff mentioned, the weather was beautiful and as we enjoyed the park yet again, 2 (yes count them, 2) women that I have met came and talked to me. It seems, I have friends here in East Malvern! YEAH ME! Wyatt is also famous – “Oh, is he the Canadian boy that just started at Central Park Kinder?”, followed quickly by “And, don’t you have 3 children under the age of 3?” So things are picking up for us here in the land down under.

Those days are once again behind me as Catty and Leslie (Catty’s friend) have arrived. It is nice to have help and the girls (as I affectionately refer to them) are already adored by the kids. Wyatt wakes up and within minutes states “I think we should wake Catty and Leslie up.”, then Maddy walks around going “Bye Catty. Bye Lelie.”, even Cooper is trying to say Leslie (sorry Julia). I have signed up to coach some junior high ultimate and as Jeff mentioned, we will be playing in the local leagues in a few weeks time. I am still running with the Moms of St. Mary’s School on Tues. and Thurs. mornings and I am feeling more and more like the me I remember being (almost before kids…).

Catty got to experience her first Melbourne Nap Party. Some days when Cooper and Maddy are put to bed, they don't immediately fall asleep. Instead, they have a Nap Party. They do some serious jumping in their cribs (which will eventually break), they laugh, scream and squeal with delight, and if the party is really good - they throw everything out of their cribs. Blankets, stuffed animals, pillows...then usually, they manage to fall asleep. That is, unless Maddy has somehow convinced Cooper they are having a Nap Party and she slyly convinces him to throw out all of his precious belongings, at which point, she lies down and snuggles up with her blanket for a nap. This is too much for Cooper to bear and he will not go to sleep on principle. I fear this is a hint of things to come - House Parties at 10Fern anyone???

Our kids are very funny. Maddy is a mini-me (a big sorry goes out to the men & boys of the house - and the world). Check out her hari after a few rubs on the trampoline!

Wyatt will bash into her on the trampoline and she creases her brow, wags her index finger and says “Yaya (Wyatt), one warning.”. Her enunciation is not perfect but she does pretty well. Wyatt is a busy guy these days with Soccer and Kinder and he is doing very well in both. Whenever I leave without him, my return is greeted with “Mom, did you get me a special treat? – I was hoping that you were going to be getting me a special treat.” Trying to convince him that me returning IS the special treat is going about as well as can be expected. Cooper is a super mime with countless facial expressions. He has these big expressive eyes (he also doesn’t seem to blink as frequently) and can cry the biggest tears I have ever seen. Our time in the yard and at the parks (both have only 2 toddler swings) usually involves at least one of the following episodes…Maddy decides it would be fun to go in the swing. She looks at the swings and starts to rush towards them. Wyatt sees that she is looking at the swings and sprints towards the swings yelling “I want to go in, I want to go in!”. Cooper slowly clues in to what has become the “in” thing to do and he waddles over to the swings, index finger pointing to his chest, eyes wide and innocent, saying in his sweetest most plaintive voice, “Me? Me?” He must be getting used to the “You get the next turn” speech by now but it still breaks my heart to see his sad little face. Wyatt and Maddy state the obvious. “Cooper is sad. Cooper wants a turn on the swing.” After a set amount of time – I take both kids out of their swings and put Cooper in the swing. No one else is allowed to share “his turn”. Maddy stalks the swings saying “Naddy’s turn. Naddy’s turn” and Wyatt tries to convince me he should be given a turn in the free swing. With any luck, another child comes and fills the empty swing and they all move on to the seesaw…see the problem.