Christmas & Cameron’s 2nd birthday both were amazing and we were left with full bellies and a serious toy overload. I have been trying to re-organise his playroom but it looks as though we will have to take up some space in our spare room for his massive Thomas the Tank Engine collection!

I can’t believe my son is 2! Well, I can, if I look at him and how much of a little boy he is and how far he has come since he was born.

I’m 28.5 weeks pregnant with our daughter and all is going well. I have my first psychologist appointment tomorrow, alongside another doctor appointment. My medication has been increased slightly after several depressive episodes. It feels strange to be battling depression more than anxiety. I have all that I want and yet my mind is my own worst enemy!

Part of Cam’s birthday present from Mike and I was meeting Thomas the Tank engine and friends – at our local railway museum! There was a fun bumpy mini train (on wheels) ride, songs and stories from the Fat Controller, he got to go inside Thomas (and Donald – a new fave) and see various other trains from the books/show. We have been again since and plan to a couple more times before the Thomas set up finishes at the end of the month.

The museum itself is full of awesome, interactive, educational fun with train simulations, science experiments, various themes throughout the year, a playground, a huge model train set up (big with my hubby who is working on his own model train set!), a cinema and tonnes of big trains and information. We got an annual pass – Mike is really looking forward to their annual model train expo later in the year!

We were lucky enough to have a photoshoot with a friend who is getting into photography and is really talented. It was such a lovely shoot and the images are amazing! I’ll do a separate post with a slideshow of some of the images! My belly bump sure is growing! 

We sent off our cultural exchange packages just after Christmas and we received our first package the other day! And from non-other than Rachael herself from Little Red Farm (who set up the cultural exchange and has a post about the contents of her parcels here)

I honestly wasn’t too sure about Cameron’s interest level on the packages at this age but I was pleasantly surprised! I should have known, Cam loves flags, money and little novelty items. He immediately loved the flag and we talked to him about it coming from somewhere far away from a little boy who is two like him (he’s very facinated about being ‘two’).

His favourite things were the soccer items and the chocolate money. Now he sees the real coins and asks for chocolate I loved the idea of making the postbox and we will soon. All of the information was so detailed and great to read! I’m so glad we participated in the exchange and hope that the recipients of our package enjoy their parcels!

Racheous

Lately a couple of things Cameron has done has made me think I might be in for some of the same.

The other day I told him that his Fireman Sam DVD (or “San DDD” as he calls it) was sleeping. He pondered this then asked me “are you sure?”. I’m going to have to be more honest with reasoning with him!

Recently I asked Cam to get my bag for me (I had pelvic girdle pain). He started to go get it then stopped, turned around and said “what do you say?” (sounded like “what-oo-saay?”) to which I had to reply “Please” before he went and got it for me. Very cute!

The past week has been hard with Cameron cutting another tooth, sleepless nights and more nights without my husband because he is studying.

Rosebud is moving tonnes and we have shared her real name with family and close friends. I’ll leave you with a pic of me at 22 weeks, I’m now 23 weeks

Cameron was excited because he had just seen Tyler using them on Jen’s “Peaceful Parenting” blog.

I can already tell that these will be a favourite on our shelves!

This picture shows how each set varies in height and diameter. The set that only varies in diameter is definitely the easiest for Cameron.

He kept saying “I did it!” when he fit each piece in it’s correct spot. This is our first semi-proper Montessori material (we have sandpaper letters and a moveable alphabet but we are yet to use them very much).

This set is perfect for the cost- and space-conserving mama.

I have been so busy these past couple of weeks as Mike has been studying and spent all of last week at his parents place doing assessments. I have always had the upmost respect for single parents but being alone over nights with a teething toddler (hello 15th and 16th teeth!) has been plain hard so my respect has risen even further!

We had a gorgeous birthday party for a little friend with baby farm animals and all sorts of fun this weekend. Cam had a blast despite me being late!

This time of year is always busy for everyone. We have only a couple of little things to get for Cameron for his Christmas and birthday presents (he is born on New Years Eve!) but we have so much coming up in these last 6 weeks of 2011!

I have been so busy (& loving it) with organising & finalising presents for everything coming up! We have Cam’s best matey’s b’day, my nephew’s b’day & Australia Zoo, a big Christmas, Cam’s birthday & party – all before the end of the year!! Not to mention my baby shower plans for February. It’s all so much fun!!

This weekend I’ve been focussing on Cameron’s birthday plans. I’ve finalised a guest list, menu, the favours and printed out & readied all the invitations, decorations, labels and what not.

His party won’t be as big as last year (thank goodness, our poor little house & my pregnant self couldn’t handle that!) but I’m so looking forward to Cam’s birthday because he knows what a birthday is & will love it all! He talks about birthdays a fair bit now and likes to blow out candles and thinks all balloons mean it’s someone’s birthday.

I’m not yet into the spirit of Christmas, but I’m looking forward to that too. Cammy waves at Santa now and said he’d like to ask for “a plane” from Santa (I assume a toy – hah!). However, I’m not convinced he’ll be into the whole sitting-on-a-strangers-lap or getting-a-photo thing… which I’m absolutely fine about!

Aside from the craziness, there has still been plenty of time for normality. We have read and re-read books (Cam is loving all things phonics as well as expanding on his animal loves – newest faves being lizards, ants, rhinos and hippos), and sung many songs (new faves are ‘little Peter Rabbit’ & ‘galumph went the little green frog’).

Anyway, I’ll leave you with our fun from today - playing with ice

Bud also had his/her face up against the placenta, so we have no photos of his/her face.

I’m not going to lie, I was super disappointed! Once I knew that he/she was healthy (the sonographer was so thorough with all the organs and structures! that was great) I just wanted to know the gender and see the cute face!

So I don’t even have pics to share – unless you want to see the ventricles of the heart or the kidneys, etc

In exciting news I’m now past the half-way mark (20 weeks pregnant)! I know, it’s flying by, right? & Cammy has been bubby-crazy since the scan and saying how he/she is cute and giving my belly bump kisses and cuddles. It’s so sweet!

I hope your weekends were great!

Aside from the usual hum of the day, from caring for pets, to singing and reading or outdoor play, we have filled our days with new engaging activities.

We went back to our local nature centre. Last time we went there Cammy was quite a bit younger. This time it was such a more interactive experience. It’s so great to have ‘real’ experiences like this; so much more is absorbed by a toddler when they can see/smell/hear/touch things up close!

Cameron even learnt some new words (goana and wallaby amongst others) and loved the big lazy sleeping wombats and the noisy dirty pigs. We will definitely have to return one day soon.

We brought some new shelving for Cam’s playroom. Now I feel much more organised with a place for everything and everything in it’s place. The bottom two cubes on the left even have Bud’s things ready for him/her.

It has been HOT here lately too so we popped down to our closest water park to cool down the other day. Cameron really got into it this time and got soaked & played for ages.

I posted a couple of short, cute clips of Cammy being his adorable self up on my Youtube channel. I plan on doing a gender reveal video and pregnancy vlog this weekend.

Cam loves interacting with my bump & Bud.

ther excitement has been my sisters new puppy! My nephews birthday is coming up and Cam’s Aunty Vicki got a bulldog x for him. She is only 8 weeks old and very sweet.

We have still been playing with the water beads frequently but the other day I switched things up and added paint (watered down, non-toxic acrylics) and paper and invited Cam to go wild bouncing, squeezing, rolling and painting with the water beads. This was a hit!

This afternoon after Cameron’s sleep we went to the lakes armed with some bread to feed ducks. This was such a relaxing experience and we got to see some other critters (turtles, lizards, native birds, fish and an eel!) too.

Only 2 sleeps until I get to see ‘Bud’. I’m nervous and excited… I just can’t wait. Here’s to hoping time goes fast!

Some of our latest fun is inspired by Play at Home Mom (have a look when you have plenty of time… that blog/community is a wealth of awesome knowledge).

Cameron loved his last experience with shaving foam free-form art so we switched it up this time with watered down food colouring in a spray bottle (one that Cameron can easy use), glitter shakers and heaps of foam!

This kept his interest for a really long time and he got right into mixing the colouring in with his hands, trying different coloured glitter. He was very proud and said “I did it!” a lot. (Using ‘I’ is a new advancement)

We moved the activity outside after some time and we did an impromptu science experiment with good old baking soda and vinegar (coloured, just for fun). This was an instant HIT which was repeated many times.

I brought some water beads from ebay (20g blue, red, yellow, clear & black from this seller for a decent price). These are super-fun water-retaining, non-toxic, colour-fast (won’t stain) polymers which make for a great sensory experience as well as being awesome for bouncing, squeezing (Cam loves how they slip & ’pop’ out of your grip), learning colours, etc.

In other news we have some Montessori mini-cylinders coming in the mail from ebay – so I will let you know how they are.

Next Friday we have our big 20 week morphology scan. My Mum is taking the day off so she will be coming to our Montessori playgroup and I’ll have more to update you on regarding the pregnancy front!

We are also participating in Little Red Farm’s cultural exchange, which I’m super excited about. I have already started gathering up bits and pieces for our packages and have some ideas for things to include.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

My fave quote? - ”But trying to use willpower to overcome the apathetic sort of sadness that accompanies depression is like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back.  A fundamental component of the plan is missing and it isn’t going to work.”