Week 110 was a solid week in Onehunga. Good days at Bear Park and good sleeping too - with Jospeh alternating between the futon in his room and his own bed.

Here is a self portrait of Joseph and Mummy on Tuesday evening.

We had a long weekend with Anzac Day on Friday but the weather was not so good so we had some indoor time with lots of reading stories (J finds Mummy's puku quite a comfy leaner these days)...

...drawing...

...and making things with Play Doh (J didn't want to go out on Sunday morning and insisted on getting the "pway doh" out). You can see the tight inventory control, which leaves only one hand free for creative expression.

Joseph found Daddy's crocs outside and tried them on for size.

Look out for some new footwear with this winter's gumboots being purchased in the weekend - coincidentally Thomas ones - the only ones that fitted over Joseph's calves.

The early morning wake ups have settled down in week 109 - hurray!! I mean, they're still early (5.30am) but not as bad as they were.

We went to Lizzie's second birthday party on Saturday morning - the theme was flying. So, all the little girls were wearing their fairy dresses and only a few of the boys had wings on! I had borrowed a cape from Bear Park but Joseph wasn't interested in wearing it. Lizzie had got a great wooden kitchen from her parents and Joseph had a great time playing with it. They tried to play pass the parcel but the kids were too young to get it (J was too busy cooking "parrot au vin: - a stuffed toy parrot in a saucepan - to participate).

We got home and Joseph was a bit tired and emotional after a week at Bear Park and the party so his Saturday afternoon sleep consisted of collapsing behind his closed door for an hour and a half (I went up when he woke and we had a cuddle...then he fell asleep in my arms so I laid down on the bean bag and we both slept for another hour and a half!)

Despite the later wake ups, we have now developed a little problem around going to bed at night...Joseph has fallen out of love with his bed and refuses to sleep in it. His preference is to sleep in our bed which we allowed in the latter part of the week (too tired and trying to get through to the weekend!).

So, on Saturday afternoon (as described above), I started instituting the Robyn Barker "Toddler Love" routine which is basically leaving them to "self settle" or cry themselves to sleep!! I shut all the doors upstairs (bathroom, small room, our bedroom) and only leave his one open. In Joseph's room there is his single bed or a queen sized futon...we give him the option of sleeping in either one. If he doesn't settle before we leave the door gets shut!

He had another good three hour sleep on Sunday afternoon as well (all on the futon!) and was still asleep when Finn arrived for a playdate. Luckily, Joseph woke up happy and the two of them had a good play and run around together (although Finn did destroy the train track but Dan and Joseph have rebuilt it into something quite spectacular!).

Dan's just come downstairs after putting Joseph to bed and he's back in his bed - go figure!!!

Week 108 heralded a return to the early morning wake ups - Dan and I are shattered! Daylight savings ended last weekend and all through the week, Joseph has been waking up at 4am calling out for a bottle...we have been perservering but it has been a very long week!

Joseph had another great week at Bear Park...lots of painting, playing in the sandpit and generally exploring everything. He is still telling people about the Easter Bunny living in the forest. He knows loads of words and has lots of funny little sentences ("me got it", "I like it" - when he actually means he doesn't"! and "there he/it is").

Coinciding with the end of daylight savings has been some colder weather...definitely through the night and in the mornings. We put Joseph into winter pjs on Wednesday night and I bought him in a woollen duvet inner on Saturday. Here he is in his new jammies...he loves them as they have a "pider" and "pider web" on them.

On Saturday we were lucky enough to be invited to William's second birthday party (William is one of our ante natal group babies)...they had hired a bouncy castle which was a huge hit with everyone. There was a bit of "present angst" about handing over a present to William but I managed to explain that it was William's turn to have a birthday as Joseph has already had his!

He has been talking about the bouncy castle today and reinacting it on our bed. That said, he did spent most of his time playing inside with William's toys, chasing the dog and eating sugar (either cake, lollies or fairy bread - all of which are described as "nummy").

Week 107 saw a great improvement in Joseph's overnight sleeping with Joseph waking up between 5.30am and 6.30am - we couldn't believe it!! It made such a difference to how Dan and I felt throughout the week (ie quite normal!). We have been heartily praising Joseph for being such a clever big boy!

We went to see Dr Bill Baber on Wednesday morning to have Joseph's grommets checked for the upcoming winter. They're still sitting in his ears nicely and Bill is confident they'll be fine over winter. Yay! It is good not to worry about potential ear infections when the new baby will be here as well.

Since Joseph loves trains so much we decided to take a family trip from Ellerslie to the Britomart Farmer's market on Saturday morning. It turns that it was a bit too much reality for Joseph and he freaked out as soon as we got on the train and every time we pulled into a station he wanted to get off!

He spent the entire journey to the city clinging to Dan as seen below:

He was a bit more relaxed on the way back but it was still a challenge to get him on the train in the first place!

When we got home, Joseph went to bed - a huge sleep (nearly three hours!) so he must have been knackered by the the train trip (a bit tired and emotional?!).

On Sunday, Dan and Joseph went to the zoo while I stayed at home and did some baking. Joseph had another massive sleep (1pm - 4.30pm) - these durations are unheard of so it must be a growth spurt. After dinner, Dan and Joseph put all the hedge clippings in the rubbish bin and Joseph kept telling us that rubbish trucks "gobble gobble" (this is from his "Dig, Dig, Digging book").


For the second week in a row, here's a shot of Joseph and me...