It's been a little while...

It's been nearly a whole term since I last wrote. Rhys turned one on August 4th. We had a wee family gathering for him which he seemed to enjoy. The big brother and cousin enjoyed 'helping' Rhys opening his presents and blowing out the candle. The ridiculously large blow up climbing thing is one of his presents (it will be living outside as soon as the rain stops!) and is a lot of fun. He was pretty tired after the celebrating, as the picture shows...

I'm trying to think of all the new things Rhys has been doing. He has been walking for months but I don't think I have posted about that. Now, he runs...away from me when he sees a clean nappy ready for him on the floor, when he thinks we are playing chasing games, and spends a lot of his time (of course) running and following his big brother around the place. It is lovely hearing Joseph say ' come on Rhys, come and play in my room'. The two of them quite happily play together, most of the time! Hmm, what else for Rhys, he says thank you, which sounds like 'datdu', he understands so much now, 'go and show Daddy' 'where's Joseph gone?' 'Put it in your mouth' 'bite'. He loves singing or being sung too and can do the rowing for row your boat. He is into absolutely EVERYTHING. If anything is left out for some reason (the shoe polish in this case)
He is into it, as quick as anything. If there's an open door he's out getting down the deck before we realise he's missing. Thankfully he understands 'backwards' now and we aren't that worried he will give himself an injury falling. We do have to watch him like a hawk, which is exhausting at times. Although he still puts a lot of things in his mouth, he is good at taking out the smaller ones and has only swallowed one stone (that we know about!) He is a right little character and we are really enjoying the stage he is at, he is a lot of fun.
Joseph is really coming along with his talking. The latest thing to say is in the morning when he and Rhys get up and have cuddles ' I love you Rhys' and this morning it was... ' and Rhys loves me too Mummy'. He has been saying more complex sentences ' I can't find my 'oes (shoes) Mummy' the other day while I was cleaning up after lunch it was ' oh dear' what's wrong darling? 'Rhys is playing with poos' Oh dear alright! No more nappy off time for him! Thankfully he hadn't decided to put it near his mouth and it required just a quick clean up job. Joseph is usually pretty good with the whole sharing thing now and if Rhys has something that he wants he knows he has to wait or swap it with something else. Although, Rhys is gettng more picky about what he plays with so is standing up for himself. He has started to have tantrums too - just 10 second ones usually, but he gets so frustrated that he throws whatever is in his hand and will lie down on the floor and cry. I thimk he is getting to the stage where he is annoyed that we don't always understand what he wants in terms of play things. He'll bring us a toy and obviously want us to do something with it but if we do the wrong thing it will be thrown and he will have his wee paddy...quite funny to watch.
This video is of the boys entertaining themselves while we get tea ready.

Nick and I are well ready for the next holidays, in two weeks time. It has been a long term and a very busy one for both of us. I had a couple of weeks off while Jenma and Alsie went to see the newest Grandson in Auckland, and a Wednesday off because the boys were sick, but apart from that have been wroking two days every week. It's been good and I mostly know in advance where I am going to be. I am stupidly going back for a day at a school which I really did not like. It was one of my worst days teaching ever, the children were unbelieveable, enough said.

We are going to try and get some things done around the house so it will be ready for selling as we really want to be on the South side of the city, closer to Grandparents and sorting out Kindergarten and schools for the boys. We don't really know what to expect with interest rates supposedly changing and house prices doing who knows what. We feel like we just need a bigger place. Sounds terrible when we have a three bedroom home and a huge backyard, but with two boys growing up fast we would like an extra living space and a bigger bathroom. This is Rhys saying 'thank you'...