school holidays

I can not believe how time flies and how much of it I used to have and now don't.

Argghhh

I wanted to write about the school holidays while they were still fresh in my mind and now nearly a month on I can barely remember what I wanted to say.

This set of hols sept were very wet and uni had very little time off, so I was on my own with both Kt and Rj for the most part.

I cut out holiday fun information pages from the herald and also the child newspaper available at the library.

Whenever I could I tried to schedule an activity for us.

Because of the rain, we missed out on doing a couple of outdoor things like active kids sports and going to the duck pond and the beach and the playground.

We did get to do Active kids gymnastics at suttons, which Kt really enjoyed!

She later drew a picture of one of the activities and I recognized it straight away!!

While we were there skydivers came down from directly above us ... and I was surprised to see that a cheeky magpie followed the skydivers down and tried to attack a bit of the parachute that is attached to the top and billows out the back in the breeze.

Other activities we attempted were the kids dig it day at the museum. An adventure made possible with the help of Aunty Izzy. She was able to keep an eye on Kt and get her to different activities for me while I was feeding RJ.

That was probably the most public breastfeeding I have attempted... luckily his feeds are fairly quick now ... 15-20 minutes or so (less if there are too many distractions).

It was on this day that I learnt the news that I would be an aunty in April of next year!!!!

I was supposed to take Kt swimming during the holidays to prepare for swimming lessons at school, but did not really get a chance as a result of the weather. Also not sure how I would have tackled it with RJ as well ... although that will not be so much of an issue as he gets bigger.

We went to the shops one day and watched a short romeo the radio dog show. Kt got to go up on stage and do an animal impersonation and in return they gave her a romeo the radio dog plush toy and a balloon.

She also had 3 birthday parties to go to during these holidays so that provided some good entertainment for her as well.

When we didn't have any outside activities planned I tried to keep her entertained as much as possible and spend time with her and give her attention while Rj was sleeping (which he does tend to do a lot of during the day ... especially if I don't have to wake him up to take him to school for drop offs or pick ups).

We did play a lot of computer games together ... and spent time doing smartkiddies which is a fantastic maths website.

We also made things and just played games and I chatted to her and tried to involve her while I did absolutely essential chores.

At the moment she just loves to pretend to be an abandoned puppy who I fall in love with and look after. So I just incorporate her character and mine into my usual daytime flow eg come on puppy lets go downstairs and I will hang some clothes on the line and you can check out our yard/meet our other dog etc.... now lets go upstairs and have some bones for lunch ....


When Rj was awake I tried to give her something she could do on her own ... play on the computer or continue with an artwork or read us or herself a story.

Late in the afternoon when I have my most intensive time with Rj ... which is a feed followed by a bath, I would usually let her watch a movie so that I could get on with what I needed to do without arguments, interruptions etc.

Sometimes if the timing is right Kt and Rj will share the big bath together and this usually works well too ... although sometimes Kt wants to hop out while I am still drying and dressing Rj and instead of just getting out and drying and dressing herself, she insists on staying in the bath and getting cold until I am able to come and help her.

I learnt a lot from the holidays about how to handle everyone and make dinner and keep things on track.

The absolute essentials only got done ... the house was and still kind of is a total mess, but at least there were few arguments and not much bad feeling.

More on arguments later ... I think I hear Rj ... or perhaps I hear my stomach