Post One of 2008

Well Happy New Year to you too!

We have been so busy that the blog has been a little neglected - our apologies.

So much has happened. The main events being:

• the difference in the development of Emma and Daniel since we have been spending the days with them has been phenomenal. Both have advanced significantly from the extra stimulation - which makes life far busier.
• they are playing more with each other, and are definitely fighting a lot too.
• Emma has stopped crawling! In Durban, we suddenly noticed that her legs were not their usual black from crawling. she now walks quite quickly and is learning to avoid all the obstacles (read toys) on the ground. The obstacles have represented quite a learning curve as there have been a lot of falls
• Daniel is "cruising" by holding onto everything when he stands up. On the weekend we noticed hat he was beginning to spend a second or two upright without holding onto anything.
• Daniel finally popped his first tooth on Fiona's birthday - 5 January - it is just showing. Emma shows no sign of any teeth.
• Both had colds over the break which was not pleasant. They are now past that hurdle.
• When they first came home, we spoke about Emma-mergencies. Well these are really quite spectacular now with Emma throwing herself onto the floor and collapsing in tears. A real prima donna in the making.

This week is going to be the most stressful of their lives so far. Fiona went back to work today which means that therer is nobody to care for them until nursery school opens on Wednesday. Sharon - our friend from down the road looked after them today and Granny Jo will look after them tomorrow.

Sharon says that they weren't too bad although Emma sat on her lap the whole morning before she got over the separation. There was also extra stress as they had to get up at 06:30 instead of last weeks 08:30. Getting them awake took a bit of effort this morning.

Granny Jo looked after them when we went out to celebrate Fiona's birthday. Both has a melt down which was quite testing for granny so we are thankful that she is willing to take them tomorrow!

We think that it is the right time for them to start nursery school as they are becoming quite social and notice all the other babies and their surroundings. Other children will help deal with the aggression that they show towards each other as there will be more players to contend with (hopefully). It will hopefully also help with the clingy behaviour thyat both show a great deal.

We have almost finished making the gates to close-off our pool area from the back garden. They are made of really solid Meranti and big gum poles which have been creosoted. Fiona says they will stop a Rhino from getting in the pool as they are quite big and chunky. We'll take a photo when we finish them on the weekend.

Good luck for 2008 from FEDS!