Update from the ranch...

It seems we are not to have the quiet life anymore.

We've just emerged from a few weeks of lurgy-ville - a cough that E-chan had that got progressively worse, until I got food poisoning (and E-chan did a bit but not as badly as he only had a few bites of my lunch that day), and wham bam! all 3 of us came down with the full blown cough-and-phlegm fest all at once. [Haven't I written this 3 or 4 times before!?]. As usual when you're a bit down, you worry about everything - job, rental and housing prices, the way the world is going.

Thankfully, after a week or two of what felt like swimming in mud, things are more or less normal. Still need more sleep, but even work seems tolerable. Am ready to get back into the pool for laps tomorrow!

E-chan is going great guns after a few weeks of adjusting to going back to child-care (whilst having above cold). One thing I didn't realise is that carer:child ratios are really small at the start of the year - the 2-2.5 year olds go off to pre-school (more like kindy) from January each year, and those who have birthdays later in the year get to enjoy one carer to 2 children instead of 3-4. After a few weeks of wondering where some of his little classmates have gone, then watching them through the fence in the bigger kid's playground, E-chan seems to have decided he likes going to care again. He's made friends with a little girl called Ruby, and they read books together and shared teddies. He's enjoying being more mobile and articulate than some of the newer, younger babies.

His vocabulary is ever expanding, and sometimes we can have little conversations that, while a tad one-sided, I feel he understands. He's sleeping really well too. We now read to him a bit (after putting on PJ's and brushing teeth - or is that chewing toothbrush and sucking off paste?), then cuddles and into bed with a night night. He complains for a few minutes, but goes off to sleep and we rarely hear from him again until morning.

We get lovely frontal koala hugs - legs clining around our middle, arms curled around our neck, and he even says "please" when prompted. Must keep up the manners training - who knows? one day it might even come unprompted. When we can we try to have dinner as a family at around 6pm - he loves it when I serve up his food in front of him at the table then serve the same for myself. Has resulted in him eating steamed green vegetables where before he wouldn't touch them, probably because he sees us eat them.

Ciao and hope you are all well, and sorry for the "update" style post. Will try to write something more interesting when I think of it...