Polar Opposites

As my children grow it becomes more and more apparent that my angels are complete opposites, maybe thats why they get on so well… the old opposites attract theory.

Lachie is still very ordered, everything in its place and to him everything is black or white. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is devastated if he gets in trouble. He is also somewhat of a perfectionist and if he can’t do something or perceives himself at not very good at it then easily gives up.

Charlotte on the other hand, will look you in the eye and blatantly lie and when in trouble she doesn’t care, just looks at you as if to say “whatever”. She will argue every point and minor detail and if there is a loop-hole she will find it… far to street smart for a 3-year-old! She believes if she can find a path to walk to her bed then the room is clean. She is also very determined and insists on doing everything by herself, she will try for ages until she gets it right or masters a new skill.

Yesterday Lachie was practising his spelling words for the week, one of which is ’school’. He spelt it out correctly only to have Charlotte announce that it doesn’t matter if he forgets how to spell it cause it is written on his shirt (uniform)… yep how to cheat from a 3-year-old!  The look on Lachie’s face was priceless, the thought of someone cheating horrified him… he will probably tell his teacher that she needs to cover everyone’s shirts/dresses so no-one can cheat!

We love them both to bits but Clint and I shudder at the thought of Charlotte as a teenager!

Charlotte Starts School

Charlotte had her first day at school today… where has the time gone???  It was weird seeing her in a little school uniform, at 3 she is still very much my baby and if we were still in Australia she wouldn’t even be going to Kindy till next year! It was only an orientation day, she starts full time on Sunday and will go from 7:50am till 1pm during Ramadan (another week or so) then till 1:30pm… a long day for such a little girl!

She is in FS1. There are 21 kids in the class (they can have up to 24) with a teacher and 2 full time aides. One of the aides was the aide in Lachie’s room last year so thats nice for her to have. She knows 2 of the children already; a boy who use to live in our street at the old place and another boy who has a sister in Lachie’s class. We also met another little girl through friends the other week and had a play at her house on Monday and the girls got on well.

She had a great first day and (at the moment) is looking forward to Sunday so she can play again!

Charlotte starts school!

Sunday saw little miss off to school for the first time. She and  Claire, the little girl across the road, started together and will go 3 days a week 8am till 2pm at the American teddy bear nursery. It is near Lachies school so Sue (Claire’s Mum) will drop the girls at school after dropping the boys (Lachie and Claires brother Jack who is in fs2 with Lachs) then I pick them all up.

Sunday she went off happily in her new school shirt and had a good day. Monday she then announced she ‘didn’t want to go cause it is not a real school. They don’t get homework and they are not learning to read! She can be very stubborn but Sue got her in and she was playing happily when I went to pick her up.

It will be good for her as come September she is off to school 5 days a week in the equivalent of prep.

Charlotte turns 3!!!

Last Friday so our baby girl turn 3… where has the time gone??

We celebrated with a party at home which all the kids in the street came to. Her 2 favourite colours are still pink and blue so we decorated the house with pink and blue balloons and she chose a princess cake- pink dress with blue trim which Clint expertly iced for her after his return from Kuwait.

She had a lovely day and enjoyed opening her presents and playing the party games. With her hair down she looked even more grownup… my toddler has gone!

Photos:opening presents, Nick keeping the kids busy with art, a face only a mother could love, her cake

New Photos of Charlotte

 

I can’t believe my baby girl is nearly 3… mind you most days she acts like she is nearly 13!

She still has to pick out all her own clothes and hairbands each morning and also thinks she should get to choose my accessories as well. She takes great pride in selecting which necklaces and shoes she thinks I should wear.

She spends her days playing with her dolls house and toys and I love listening to her making up these amazing stories as she does her role play. Her imagination is fantastic! She is convinced she can read and reads countless stories to herself or sits with Lachies old alphabet cards making 3/4 letter words and sounding them out (amazingly she gets most of them right). Another favourite at the moment is putting the washing away- I am encouraging this one! She loves to take everything off the line and sort it in piles then put it in the drawers and cupboards leaving me the things she can’t reach to do. of course I am not allowed to help so putting a load of washing away can take 30 mins but at least I don’t have to do it!!

Where has the last 3 years gone?

A very long weekend!

While last weekend was actually a long one with a  public holiday, this past weekend has seemed so much longer… and not in a good way!

About 10 days ago a big sand storm came through, the following morning Charlotte woke up with conjunctivitis. We were told this happens heaps with the sand so gave her some drops and it cleared. Then a cough appeared that slowly got worse. Off to the doctor to be told she had bronchitis, 5 days and a zillion drugs later she seemed to be getting worse not better so last Thursday off to a different Doctor who sent her for  x-rays and blood tests (that was an ordeal) and then told us she had atypical (she always has to be different) pneumonia. So I left the doctor with a sick whinny girl and a million new drugs and headed home, on the way home my neighbour called to say she had picked Lachie up from school and he was sick with a fever.

So Thursday night and Friday was spent with Charlotte struggling for air and on drugs and Lachs with a fever and vomiting… fun fun.

But Saturday was better, both the kids were improving and I got to spend the day at a spa (Christmas present from Clint). It was amazing and I felt very rejuvenated, it couldn’t have come at a better time!

And today we got more good news… Charlotte has a place for next year (school year starting in September) at Lachie’s school… hooray!

Long Weekend

I love long weekends! Unfortunately most of them here are in the second half of the year but we scored one this weekend for the prophets birthday. It was a busy weekend with a farewell party (friends who were made redundant), a birthday party and then the family bowl off.

5 families in our street (13 kids under the age of 7…it’s sounding fun already isn’t it) headed to one of the bowling alleys for a family bowl off. We were organised enough to book but didn’t realise the alley we went to doesn’t have bumpers on every lane and the lanes reserved for us didn’t have any… beginners mistake!

It was the first time Lachie and Charlotte have been bowling and they had a ball. Even without the bumpers Lachie managed to get a strike which he was very proud of. I helped my kids self esteem by doing worse then them while Clint battled it out in fun with some of the other Dads. The balls were to heavy for Charlotte but she developed her own distinct bowling style as seen in the photo below…

After we got home and put all the very tired but excited kids in bed (Lachie went to sleep counting bowling scores…. if I got a strike and 2 nines and then a 5 I would have….) it was the parents turn to enjoy themselves out on the street as has become the weekend norm.

”School” for Charlotte

As we have mentioned before, come September Charlotte will be off to the same school as Lachie. She will go 5 days a week, in school uniform and it really is the start of her formal education. To ease her (and me) into it we have just enrolled her in the Abu Dhabi American Teddy Bear Nursery.

She will go 3 days a week starting after the Easter holidays and her 3rd birthday.  Although it is essential childcare, the centres are run quite differently here. It is a minimum of 3 days a week and all children in the class attend from 8am until 2pm, the facilities are amazing; apart from being in their room and having outside (under covered play) each day they also visit the art room, music room, gym (soooo cute mini size exercise bikes, treadmills, rock climbing walls etc), computer room and learn either French or Arabic (we have chosen Arabic).

We have been for a visit and she was very excited with all the toys and alsothe teddy bear and uniform ( very cute teddy bear tshirts) she was given when we enrolled her. We have already had to buy her a lunch box and she keeps asking me when we can go shopping for her school bag. The little girl opposite us is going to start there the same day so the 2 of them are very excited.

The nursery/school is located out near Lachie’s so Sue (lady oppossite us)  will continue to take the boys (Lachie and her son are in the same grade) and now the girls to school and I will pick them all up so it works out great and we both only have to do the 1 trip a day.

Although there are days Charlotte drives me crazy usually she is my little shadow and chats away and keeps me amused all day! I will miss her but the socialisation will be wonderful for her as will the brain stimulation, Lachie taught her all the sounds but she has taught herself to sound out and read 3 and 4 letter words.  She has also recently discovered she can count to 100 so does that about 20 times a day (back to driving me crazy!)

 

Will post photos on her first day!

Early Birthdays

While Great Grandma is visiting she wanted to get the kids their birthday presents. So on the weekend we all went shopping and the kids were able to choose their present- they were very excited about this. We went to Toy R Us first, it is a very small shop though and doesn’t carry a huge range. It came as no surprise that Charlotte wanted nearly every doll in the shop but Lachs looked around and apart from a trampoline there was nothing he wanted. But we found success at a second shop.

Charlotte chose a scooter (3 wheels) and lachie a car track with loops. they were both excited to get  home and play with their new things.

Charlotte is learning how to glide on the scooter, she pushes quite well and has mastered the use of the break (not that she requires this till she gets some speed up!). Lachie loves his car track and has mastered getting and holding the friction in the tyres before firing the car off.

Thank you Great Grandma!

Future Lawyer???

Every night after dinner the kids go upstairs to get their rooms ready for bed. Last night when Clint followed them up he found them jumping on Charlotte’s bed, and told them if he saw them do it again they would go straight to bed without a story.

Clint went into the bathroom and Lachie followed soon after to say Charlotte jumped again. Her defence… well Daddy didn’t see me!