Celebrating our new house with separate rooms and Alex out of nappies

We have days when Luke and Alex are just amazing and I cherish every moment with them and then there are other days… I have been known to call Wednesday’s “Mummy’s day from hell” rather than “Mummy special day” but let’s be realistic that’s what having kids is really about. I tell any potential and mums-to-be that the upsides far outweigh the down.  Below: boys at our local farmers market.

We’ve settled into our new house over the past month and whilst the electrician is coming tomorrow, a working oven and cooktop get installed and Friday and we continue to chase down fencing quotes – a few highlights of a very long to do list – this has quickly become home.  Below: Alex in our new backyard.

One of the first things we did was give the boys separate rooms. They’ve never been big morning sleepers and G and I just had to know if a bit of distance would sort that out. We have some successful days and others where it just doesn’t work. I’m a little sad at how they accepted the move as I had thought they loved being together. We have told them they get to go back into the same room once they regularly sleep until 6:30/7am.  Below: Luke reading before dinner in the loungeroom.

I love to tell you about their close bond as it thrills me so regularly. Something we’ve noticed since moving here is just how caught up they get in their own play – Luke usually the ring leader – and they ignore us for ½ hour or more. It’s nice to have a break and get to do some stuff of our own. Alex has taken to calling Luke “Lukey” and Luke call Alex “Alexi”.  Below: boys eating dinner in the 'meals' area

The big news of this blog is that Alex is out of nappies and deserves a gold start for his amazing transformation to a boy that wear “slip” or undies. He’s probably been ready for a while but we waited until just after we moved and a long weekend. He had 2 accidents that weekend and not one since – so out of nappies for nearly 2 weeks. He’s so proud of his undies. He no longer keeps them in a drawer but a special box where he can access them. I’ve talked him into a nappy for day and night sleeps and that’s only acceptable if he gets undies on top.

A quirk of Alex’s is that he insists that labels are cut out of his clothes. I have no idea where this came from but there is hell to pay if he finds a tag and I try to make an excuse to not cut it out.
Luke’s behaviour is changing and he’s heavily influenced by his mates at kinder. We’re getting a lot more back chat and attitude which transform him from a sweet, little boy. I don’t like it but it’s the next stage for him and he is less than a year off starting school so quite natural. We are setting some boundaries of what’s OK though.

The benefit of this new big/little boy is the great conversations we get to have about all kinds of topics – initiated by Luke. The other day we spoke about magic horses, probably unicorns, and how they’re not real but you can tell stories about them. Luke is also applying logic and problem solving to his play and general approach to life.