What a month it has been. Nathan started preschool, which was pretty traumatic for us all really. Nathan didn’t take well to the separation. He screamed and screamed while I (or Andrew on one occasion) had to walk away crying to myself. Apparently he calmed down quickly, but that is all relative, i think. Ten minutes to me is a long time, but not to the teachers, apparently. Toby’s afternoon sleeps are now really disrupted, so he has had his own screaming sessions when I have had to wake him to go and pick up Nathan. After 4 weeks of walking out on a screaming Nathan, he has finally made some friends and feels confident enough that I will come back to get him, and the crying and screaming has stopped. It really is a horrible way to go about things though, I have hated the last 4 weeks. In hindsight, I think we could have worked through this better without so many tears by staying some sessions with Nathan, but I felt obliged to leave after some time there. I also had Toby to get to sleep too, making it hard to stay in the afternoons.

In early Feb Andrew had 3 days in Tasmania. It doesn’t sound much, and we did cope without him, but it is just that much harder to get the kids to sleep, as just one example, when he isn’t around. Then everyone ended up sick….one, or another, or all of us at the same time….for nearly 3 weeks. Toby had some weird fever thing that only came at night and he seemed his normal self during the day. Then Nathan had gastro which quickly passed around all of us, and then we came down with one mother of a cold. We are now on the recovery, but both Andrew and I have been feeling so drained, tired and lethargic for quite a while.

In the middle of all this, my big boy turned 4 years old. I didn’t even have the energy to blog about his birthday. We had planned to go camping at Tidal River, but with Toby sick we decided to postpone it a couple of weeks. He was given a couple of smallish presents, and Andrew gave him an iPod touch, essentially so that he has a camera to play with instead of constantly stealing mine. However, I didn’t think it was an appropriate gift for a 4-year-old, so I rarely let Nathan use it which I feel is mean because it was given to him, but he gets more than enough screen time as it is without adding another piece of technology to the mix. The last thing I want is a child who is constantly hunched over technology instead of playing with things that stimulate the imagination, interacting with others, and running around. Can you tell there was a big difference of opinion about this gift between Andrew and I?

Our weekend at Tidal River was last weekend. It was postponed from a weekend with dreadful weather to one that was hot and sunny. A bit too hot and sunny when we had little shelter from the sun, but we had a fabulous time even if we were feeling a bit drained still. The water was gorgeous, the kids adored the sand though both took a bit to warm up to the water and waves. The river at Tidal River was at high tide during the day, and I can see why it is such a popular spot for families. The campground was packed, and while it isn’t my favourite type of camping, it really is a lovely spot and worth the crowded camping experience.

So that’s our February. I’ll post some photos below.

Birthday present

Andrew and Nathan have been building a Lego space shuttle

First day of kindergarten

Looking for soldier crabs at Tidal River