new year, new schedule - 2012

Another 6 months has gone by and I've barely blogged - I shall attempt to blog more often this year with my reshuffled schedule. Both children will go to school from 11am - 3pm for the first six months, though Chace will only go in 3 times a week (since Claire only went 3 times a week the whole of last year). On the days that he doesn't go to school, he will get to spend some quality time with his grandma when Claire is in school. On Sat mornings, grandma has decided that they need to spend some time with God so she will take them to attend the kids programme in her church.

This schedule will allow me to do lunch appointments on weekdays in an attempt to clear my production for the year in 6 months since I'm due end June/early July and most likely will have to take the rest of the year off to care for the newborn.

2011 wasn't very significant - but we did manage to take our first vacation alone without the kids since Claire first came into our lives in 2007. I did two 10km runs in Jul and Dec and managed to improve my timing. Obviously taking part in runs will not be very likely this year so running will have to take a hiatus. I will, however, do more swimming and also take up aqua-aerobics again to stay active. Hopefully with some exercise, I will be able to keep within the 8 - 10kg weight range that I will need to put on for the pregnancy.


Developmentally, Claire has become a little more assertive - she used to walk away whenever another child comes along to 'snatch away' whatever she was playing with; this year, she actually retaliated by biting the other child. Obviously this is not a behaviour that I agree with but I did warn the child before the incident happened that she should leave Claire alone as Claire did not want to play with her. The little girl did not listen to me and continued to pester Claire so I'm sorry to say 'serve her right!'. However, I did explain to Claire after the incident that there were other ways that she could deal with such situations instead of biting (she learnt the biting from Chace, by the way!). Chace has also progressed from biting to other forms of retaliation like shouting/pushing. Again, behaviours that I do not agree with but at least some improvement. In this new year, I resolve to help them learn better ways of standing firm. In the 2nd half of this year, they will welcome a new sibling so it will be ever more important to set them right in their behaviour so that #3 does not learn things that he/she should not learn!

Here's wishing everyone a fabulous 2012 - may you achieve all that you set out to this year and more importantly, continue to enjoy good health and happiness all through the year!