We’ve had a busy past couple of weeks. All of us have been sick at various points in time. Holly had pharyngitis and passed that on to the rest of us. Holly and Simon seem much better but I’ve now got a throat infection which is quite painful. Unfortunately because I’m breastfeeding I can’t really take much more than panadol and have been drinking honey and lemon tea to soothe my throat. When I saw the doctor he said that I should take antibiotics but that I would actually have to stop breastfeeding while I was taking them - I almost cried. I was so upset. I didn’t expect to get upset at having to stop but after my bad experience with Holly (getting mastitis and loosing my milk) I’d sort of been looking forward to having a choice in when I stopped breastfeeding Simon. I ended up deciding not to take the antibiotics and continue trying to slug through the pain. It’s not really that bad - it only hurts when I swallow so as long as I don’t eat or drink or drool I’m good 
Simon’s growing up so fast. In the last couple of weeks he’s really changed. He’s started reaching out to touch and hold everything he can get his little hands on. Anything within his reach is fair game as far as he’s concerned and Holly’s starting to play with him a little more as a result…. well, when she’s not trying to get her toys or hair back! He’s also just started rolling over in the last few days fairly consistently. He’s been able to roll over accidentally for ages, but now he seems to do it deliberately, usually when trying to reach a toy.
A few weekends ago Simon said his first word. As clear as a bell, he said “Holly” and both Sven and I looked up at one another, unsure that we’d actually heard what we thought we had. How cool is that? Holly wasn’t really all that impressed but I’m sure she will be when she gets older 
Horror of horrors, Simon has started sucking his thumb. I don’t know what to make of it. We’ve spent a long time agonising over Holly sucking her thumb, and how we are ever going to stop her from doing it, and it’s a bit scary to think we’re going to go through it again with Simon. There is no chance whatsoever of giving him a dummy either so there’s not much else we can do.
Smart little cookie Holly is also foiling our plans for getting her to stop thumb sucking. We’ve managed to get her to not suck during the day (by saying “please don’t suck your thumb, it’s not bedtime) which is quite an achievement. What’s great to see is that she does have self-control. On a number of occassions I’ve witnessed her about to suck her thumb and then pulling it away without having to say anything myself. Today we had our first attempt at getting her to stop while she was sleeping. We tried talking to her about it and then putting a “reminder” bandaid on her thumb. The little smarty pants went to bed and cried for a minute (obviously not happy with the bandaid) then went straight to sleep. When I went in to check on her I noticed that she had taken the bandaid off her thumb and put it on her forefinger instead!!! She wasn’t cheeky enough to put it back on her thumb when she woke up though - she told me it was on the wrong finger and that it was stuck.
Something else that she’s been doing that I have NO IDEA where she got it from is really really gross but very funny. She’s taken to getting a bowl and pretending to eat/drink from it. When you ask what she’s eating she says “wees!”… I kid you not. Then she pretends to wee in the bowl, or her doll wees in the bowl, then she offers it around. Oh my goodness I don’t know how to stop myself from laughing! So disgusting!
Ah the joys
Simon passed another milestone this week - he’s now four months old! I took him to get his vaccinations and he was a very well-behaved little boy. He had to have three injections and one oral vaccine and did cry a little but he was so brave. I was so proud of him
Along with that new milestone though comes the realisation that I’ll be heading back to work before too long. I can’t believe that my wonderful home time is almost up. Don’t get me wrong, there are some days that I wish I was at work when everyone’s crying and being difficult, but I know I’ll miss it all once I’m actually there. I’m due to return to work in October but I’m still not sure if I’ll get a daycare position for Simon in time. They say there’s a pretty good chance of it but I just have to keep reminding them…. so I do… frequently. I’m very mindful of the fact that at the end of this month my maternity leave pay ends so the last thing I want is to have trouble getting Simon into daycare if I actually need to go back to work so we can keep paying our bills. Last time with Holly we were renting and had savings to support us when my pay ended, this time we have a mortgage and we’re about to spend our savings on getting the main bathroom renovated.
Oh yeah, we’re getting our bathroom renovated :) Well, not renovated as such, more just giving it a facelift. Everything will be in the same place as it currently is but in order to re-tile the walls and floor and replace the broken skylight that leaks the builder said it would be cheaper to just strip everything out and put it back in fresh. The hard part about it has been the timing. I wanted to get it done while I was at home so that I can be there to look after the kids myself and so that I have the time to organise everything. I know it would be really hard to get it all done once I’m back at work again. All the work is due to start at the end of this month or early next month but we’re still waiting to hear back from the builder about when exactly because he’s been really busy. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to having the floor tiles replaced. I kneel on them every night and they completely mash my knees. They’re so disgusting and they’re probably the only part of the house that I cringe at regularly. The bathroom certainly looks much nicer since I re-painted it cream instead of lime green, but it will be much better with new tiles all over with tiles that can actually be cleaned without being scrubbed with a toothbrush.
Sven’s out tonight taking photos with his friends. He’s been taking big long photo trips out to wierd places like dams to take shots of concrete and all sorts of other “very interesting” things. Tonight they’re off down the Gold Coast though so perhaps there’ll be some new subjects for them.
Wow! That was all a bit of a ramble. I hope you’re all well.
Bye bye!
