Been nagged in to changing my avatar by someone who shall remain nameless - you know who you are - who says people will find me friendlier if I'm not hinding behind a smiley face! Much prefer to hide, but I will give in for a while. Might just change back again at some point... 

Well, Nyle has managed two nights in a row where he has slept from 0715 until 0515! I was amazed. The only down side is that, at 0515 he is AWAKE! The first morning I got him back to sleep again at 0730, the second at 0630. I would have left him to cry and do the controlled crying thing in the morning, but his room is right next to his sister's and he wakes her up. One grumpy baby I can deal with, but not a grumpy baby and a grumpy toddler.

Last night, however, he was back to his old habits. 0230, 0430 and 0700. I really must get to bed before midnight...

He is SO close to crawling at the moment that you wouldn't believe. Up on his hands and knees, one knee moves then the other, then he throws himself forward and lands on his nose. He has a strange purple mark on his gum where I think he has knocked himself and it has bruised. Keeping an eye on it and it is fading. He has also managed to get up on his feet on his own today. I put out a knid of playpen in the garden, and he pulled himself up to standing for the first time. FOrtunately I managed to get some video of it. He'll be walking so soon it's scary!

Leala and Nyle are so lovely together that I am reminded daily why the decision to have two was a good one.

They both beam when they see each other in the morning, and when they are in their car seats, Nyle spend half of the journey leaning forward so he can see what Leala is up to. Very cute, the pair of them.

So, here is one of the photos I put in the calendar I made their Dad for Father's Day. Neither use a dummy (pacifier) now - Leala never did, but if her brother was going to...

Why is it I just write in my blog when things have gone badly? Leala and Nyle are lovely, easy going kids but today the saved all the dodgy stuff to come together.

I had planned to start potty training yesterday, but we have been out at friends and this wasn't a good time. Today I took the children out in to town to do some shopping. I had certain things I had to get done and they are normally good as gold. Leala started to moan to get out of her pram and then Nyle, who is so placid, also started to cry. I picked him up, only for Leala to moan louder, realising that she had lost out to the baby.

I was rushing round to do the things that I had to, getting more and more stressed. When the shopping was done, I rushed them home for lunch. I changed nappies then let Leala run around without one on because she said she wanted a wee-wee and went to use the potty. She then found her pants in a bag and demanded to put them on. Because I was feeding Nyle, the ususally independent one wanted help. Oh, at this stage we were also due to leave the house in half an hour to go out. Anyway, I helped her get on her pants, went back to feeding the baby, then Leala wanted help with her shorts. I helped her get these on and she promptly peeded in them, despite doing nothing on the potty minutes before. So, off with the wet clothes and clean the floor. She again refused to do anything on the potty but found another pair of pants. I stupidly helped her on with these as well (in between feeding the baby) and she happily went out to play in the garden.

Nyle at this point had eaten well and was mid way through dessert. Her then promptly threw it all up over himself - I have never seen anything like it. Major film companies would have paid for the footage for horror films. Whilst sitting there deciding whether or not to cry, Leala walked in the door. You guessed it - "All wet, Mummy!". All I can say is, I then made an emergency phone call to my mum, who raced round to save me, finish getting Lealas lunch, wash the dishes and clean the kitchen whilst I bathed the baby.

So, what I should be really saying is - how lucky am I to have parents who live four doors away! They are always amazingly busy but still save me at nightmare moments. The only down side is that, being retired, they have the audacity to go off travelling for weeks on end. I mean, they are going to Australia for ten weeks next year. How inconsiderate....!                                                                                                    Thanks Mum x

I feel that I am hardly finding time to get here very much lately. I managed to browse a little bit whilst on holiday (by the lucky coincidence that the place we were staying in was a 'hotspot'), but I have recently started back doing self-employed work, and what with that, eBay and other general parenty type things, I seem to be running out of hours in the day! It is so nice being able to potter round the garden until 9pm that I am loathe to start working at the computer until after that, and it is now 23.26 and Nick has gone up to bed without me. Seeing as how Nyle is likely to be up at 3ish and then 6ish, I really should go too! Hopefully the house will sleep ok tonight, despite the uncharacteristic heat.

The cat has just jumped up on the table and scared the living daylights out of me, so I'm going to take my racing heart off to bed. Hope everyone is doing well and getting lots of good advice. Must find time to read some of it soon.

Well, not so bad, now that they have gone to bed, but Leala was a bit of a pickle today. She went very quiet for a while this morning (always a bad sign) and when I later went in to her room I found that she had pulled out half a new packet of wipes and dumped them individually on the floor. She pulled all her clothes out of one of her drawers when I was dressing her brother, threw most of her breakfast, lunch and dinner on the floor and, to top it all, took off her dirty nappy when in her cot for an afternoon nap, and emptied it out on the sheet. Fortunately, her small, dark present managed not to touch any of her toys!

Still, we are off on holiday tomorrow for 10 days, so that should be lovely. We are only off to Dorset (why go abroad when there is a vague chance of sun here for once?) so I will be without Broadband (gasp!). Before I go, I thought I would share a photo I took of Leala the other day which I have elevated above the status of snap (as far as I am concerned!)