Update on our little family

I really am not very good at posting on here....just looked on here today and realised I hadn't posted since Oct last year - whoops!

Well since last post Noey now goes to daycare once a week on Fridays and has adjusted quite well.  He still says he doesn't want to go all the time, but once he's there he loves it and has the best time.  I'm confident our little boy will be going 2 days by the end of the year.



Noey 2 years 5 months old

Malia is back at daycare also and has made some nice new friends.  Her best little friend last year Ayesha P is going to big school this year and Malia has accepted that quite well.  Last year it was "Ayesha did this and Ayesha did that" all year long.  I was worried she'd be a mess this year but gets by with knowing that it's her turn to go to big school next year and she is very excited about it.

She will go to Ashmore Primary and they will have changed their uniform by next year from a delightful brown and gold to royal blue and yellow,, so I'm told.  Yay.  (sounds pretty shallow - I know).
I have met with the junior principle as mentioned in my last post and they actually cater well more the more advance students.  She tells me there is always a few each year that is way ahead of the others and her own daughter was in the same situation.
I am definately more comfortable with her going there now.  Who knows maybe she'll get there and she wont be so far ahead after all, I guess only time will tell.



Malia in her new glasses

Malia has to wear glasses now.  She has 'eye turn' in both eyes.  We've been attending vision therapy since early Feb and has to do daily exercises to train her eyes back to 'normal'.  The turn is not full time which is good news and hopefully we can have it corrected soon enough.

Christmas time was nice, time well spent with family and friends, kids getting spoilt as per usual.  Santa got them their very first surf board last year, they've been slow to start but I'm sure Jed will have them hooked in no time.



Trying out their new boards in the lounge room

 New Years was out at a very hectic Paradise Point on Poppy's boat.  He had the BBQ all set up on the boat and it was a very windy night but enjoyable.  Malia enjoyed her first fire work display but Noey didn't stay awake long enough for it.

Jed and I are back at work this year, he laying timber floors and me back the BOQ as a part time teller.  I love my job and am very scared of loosing it if we have another baby.  I have the nicest most down to earth boss in John and lovely collieges.  I view it as a 'break' when I go to work at the moment.  I love spending time with the kids but is nice to 'play adult' after being a stay at home mummy for 3 years.
If the 3rd baby does come along we will adjust.  I know the kids would love a new sibling.  A 3rd child would complete the Cahill family nicely :-)

Days at the moment are filled with visiting family and friends, going the Dreamworl/White water world, going to anyones pool, generally just getting out and about in the fresh air.
The kids have only recently gained more confidence in swimming pools.  Noey floats around in his floaties and Malia can now swim by herself.  She has been watching Em swim and wanted to be like her so decided to ditch the floaties a couple of months ago.  I've been suprised she picked it up quite quickly, she was even copying Em diving and flipping off the edge of the pool.

This has been a very 'choppy, changey' post but at least it's now up to date.

Malia - bright spark

It has become more apparent of late that Malia is more than ready to attend school next year (well academically at least).  So many people ask me if she's going to school next year.  The only problem is she misses the cut off by 1 month.

We have tried telling ourselves that it's fine, she needs more social skills anyway but we can't shake the fact that she is bored at daycare with the simple things they are teaching (phonetics and writing single letters).  She may also be bored at prep - who knows.

She has been fluently reading for at least a year, correcting grammar in adults, loving doing puzzles (the put together kind and find a word/spot the difference/scramble word kind), she picked up writing at a rate of knots and can easily spell words and write simple sentences without help.
Everything online says there is no early entry into prep and there are no assessments done as far as I can tell.

We were going to send her to Ashmore Primary (mostly for the walking distance convenience) and that it's supposed to be a pretty good school but there website doesn't say anything about accelerated learning.
We are going to make an appointment with the principal to see if there is anything we can do and what they offer advanced kids.

We are not the "pushy, my child is so much better than yours" kind of parents,  but the amount of people who say to us that it's crazy shes not going to school next year is a lot.  And all of her friends (not that it's a deciding factor) are going next year and she seems to be much further ahead of all those kids with what she can do.

It's a pickle I wish we didn't have to face but we will see what the principle says and go from there.

"Yes" parent

I've noticed more and more lately that Malia always asks me for things rather than Jed, to watch tv or food for example.   So the other day when I was quite obviously busily doing housework and Daddy was sitting on the couch, she asked again for something.  I asked "why do you always ask Mummy and not Daddy for things"? and she simply replies "because you always say yes and Daddy says no".
So there it is - I'm a soft touch!

Our life at the moment

My first official post will be about our life as it is at the moment.
Jed and I have been together since June 2001 and married since June 2005, we have 2 adorable kids, Malia 4 and Noah 2 - both of whom recently celebrated their birthdays.
We live on the Gold Coast and love it here but one day in the distant future would love to live in Northern NSW in a quite coastal town, not too far away from here.

We are so fortunate to have so much family around us here on the coast, the only people missing, who I would desperately like to be here are my Dad and his wife Jytte, my grandparents and Jed's mum (RIP).  All up we have 23 family members all within 20mins as well as Kirsten and her family (who are practically family also).

Jed is working as a timber floor installer and hates it.  It's really tough on his body.  We can't wait for the day when he gets to do a job he enjoys, but at the moment the money is good. 
I am working part time 2 days a week as a teller at The Bank of Queensland, and I love it. It's great getting out into the 'real world'.  I do adore our kids but it's so great just getting a break from looking after them :-)

Malia is a clever little thing, she first recited the alphabet at 18 months old, has been reading since 2 1/2 and fluently reading now for about a year.  She is always wanting to do puzzles like find a word, spot the difference, easy suduko, jigsaw puzzles and the list goes on.  She recently has been counting to 100 and beyond over and over, starting from the beginning if she makes a mistake.
We were really hoping she could start school next year but doesn't look like it will happen after making a few enquiries.  I guess we will have another year of getting her socially ready because that is the one thing she needs to work on - she's very shy at school and only has a couple of friends she plays with.  If they are not there one day she'll just play by herself.
She'll be one of the 'big' kids at preschool next year so hopefully that will give her the confidence she needs to come out of her shell.

Noey is a typical little boy.  He's quite affectionate (mostly with his mummy)  :-), which of course I love. 
He's always getting into mischief, not a day goes by where he doesn't make a huge mess with something or another.  For example, when I was in the shower the other day I left the kids watching playschool and Noey got a big wedge of watermellon out of the fridge, carried it over to the living area and just started digging into it with a plastic spoon and his teeth.  When I came out there was watermellon pieces strewn from the fridge to the tv and juice everywhere! - that is Noey in a teacup!  Things like that happen all the time!  He's such a ratbag (in a good way).
His quote of the month is "I do it, I do it", he just wants to be doing everything Malia does and hates it if I try and take over.
Hopefully he will be in daycare on Fridays next year so he's there with Malia, he always wants to stay when we drop her off so I'm hoping it will be easy.
I love his cheeky little chip-tooth smile, mop of blonde hair and dimple on his left cheek. 

Well in brief, that's us.  Hopefully I can keep this blogging up because things tend to leave my brain at a rapid rate these days and if I can type them down they will be remembered

Family shot (Noey going for the candle because Malia has one) :-)

Malia Rosalind and Noah Sunny Darcy

Practice

New post just to check that everything is in the right place.