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We took the sides off Charlies cot/bed last night and installed a stair gate on her bedroom door.  She seemed very excited about her ‘new’ bed when she saw it and only got up twice to yell for mum or dad when we put her to bed.  So all and all a successful first night.  Oh and she didn’t fall out!

In early December we finally had some professional family photos taken and here a few of them.  Charlie did the typical 2 year old thing and had a massive tantrum so we were surprised we managed to get the photos of her that we did!  We hope you enjoy them.

Everyone looks good in black and white :+)

Megan at almost 7 year old ..

Charlie at 2 years and 3 months old ..

Jonny at 10 months old ..

This picture was taken by chance as Charlie was loitering in the background!

Charlie actually sitting/lying still!

And one of Ian and I .. ahhh

Sausage was diagnosed with lymphoma almost 3 months ago and  initially the chemo treatment seemed to be working but a week ago we discovered the lumps had come back in her neck.  The vets where looking into another form of treatment but on Thursday she seemed to take a turn for the worst and stopped eating, drinking and didn’t want to move from her bed.  So back into the vets she went on Friday and things didn’t look good as she had a high temp and the nasty cancer cells seemed to be going into over drive.

After no improvement in 24 hours and her neck had grown in considerable size with the lumps we made the decision to call it a day for her and not have her suffer anymore.

I said my goodbyes to her and Ian stayed with her until the end.

She was the most beautiful, gentle, lady like dog  and we miss her presence already.

RIP our Sausage dog.

x

Well the 1st of December, bought the 1st frost and the first negative weather at -1 degree and the first time I have had to scrape down my car!

So far so good, winter hasn’t been tooo bad.

Megan and Charlie compiling their Christmas lists from the toy catalogues

Charlie painting – she loves it.

Charlies first sculpture which she built ‘all by herself’.  Clever girl.

I’m sure her father taught her how to do this .. he blames Dora the Explorer!

One of those VERY rare moments when she quiet and still!

After talking about it lots, we have finally cut Jonny’s hair and my goodness he now looks like a little boy!  Surprise surprise..

Before ..

After

The little curly one LOVES messy play and in particular painting – here’s her latest master piece

You should never stand in the path of my boy and his bottle …   He is lethal in his walker and will run over your feet if you don’t get out of his way!

Watch out we are coming home for 3 weeks in April :+)  Need to start planning the logistics of moving this family around the world for that length of time .. start list tomorrow.

We will let you all know whats happening closer to the time, but its very exciting.  I can’t wait

I took Jonny to see the Health Visitor (like Plunket) yesterday as Ian was a little concerned about just how big our boy is!  Pleased to report all is good, he is in complete proportion and as she said ‘he’s just a big boy ..’ but a very happy and healthy one

Stats at almost 9 months old:

Weight = 11.22 kg, 98th percentile

Height= 77.5cm, 99th percentile

As a comparison, Charlie at 2 years and 2 months is

Weight = 15kg, 97th percentile

Height= 93.5 cms, 97th percentile

I think my kids are both going to be patting me on the head by the time they are 5!

We took Jonny and Charlie swimming on Sunday as the weather was rubbish and Charlie (or I should say ‘we’) needed to get out!  Its been a few months since she has been swimming and only the second time using her arm bands and she was amazing.   Ian and I couldn’t believe how well she took to actually swimming doggy paddle and a bit of breast stroke, she loved jumping in the water and if Ian was too slow in helping her out, she just used him as the ladder to get out herself

Jonny, in his typical manner, took things in his own chilled little way but after a while he started to push away from me and started to kick up a storm.  And I have to say with legs his size, he sure can kick well