Virtually all of the hits are in regard to my Microsoft Office tips and tricks, especially the MS Project articles. Funny thing is – I don’t train or use MS Project anymore and haven’t touched the program in about 3 years. What do I do now? A bit of mix of things – Aurion training, report writing, business analysis, and showing colleagues how to improve their skills with MS Office, especially OneNote. At the moment I am building an Access database for logging incidents received within the team and updating Consistency Report criteria.

Kids are doing well – Emma and Caitlin are 3.5 and starting pre-Prep this year. Lucas is 19 months old and starting his temper tantrums when he is told no. He is a lot healthier now since he has had his tonsils out, but he will more than likely have asthma due to the bronchilitis bouts he had in the first 12 months.

Where to start? Lucas was born on 18th May 2010, just over 4 months ago now. We told people we were expecting again around December. Of course the first thing people asked was were we having only one? And yes that was the first thing we checked – honestly don’t know what we would have done if we had had another set of twins. The pregnancy went fairly ok – Agnes had gestational diabetes again, her hips and butt gave her lots of grief, but we didnt have any scares and all the scans came back well.

Lucas was born at 38 weeks, it was felt that the hip problem and diabetes was too large a risk to let him go full term. Delivery didnt go exactly according to plan. Induction was started Monday night, Agnes’ waters were broken on Tuesday mid-morning, by 5pm Agnes was still only 2cm dilated and there were concerns as Lucas’ heart rate was dropping when Agnes was having contractions. So we decided on having a caesar. Just had to wait for a couple of emergency caesars were taken care of.

The caesar went according to plan and the first thing I saw was the thick crop of dark hair on Lucas’s head – he had hair! Neither of the girls had a lot of hair when they were born or for the first year of life. So to see so much hair on our newborn was quite a shock. After Lucas was “retrieved” things deteriorated on the surgery table – Agnes’ spinal block wore off and she could feel and move her legs: something she wasnt meant to be able to do. Apparently it was only the 3rd time this had occurred in 30 years or so. All went well in the end and mother and son were able to pass the night together in the hospital.

The next few days were a bit of a blur, especially with the constant stream of doctors and the like into Agnes’ room to apologise for the spinal wearing off and attempting to analyse how it happened. Agnes and Lucas came home on the Friday, and went back to hospital Saturday night with abdominal pain that required antibiotics and strong painkillers to get rid of. The next few weeks were also a blur with Agnes’ parents arriving from Holland and living with us for the next 3 and a bit weeks. The girls didnt cope too well to start with with all the changes, but we got there in the end.

How did we come up with the name Lucas? After a bloody long time! Unlike the girls’ names which we settled on early in the pregnancy, it took us months to come up with a new we both liked. Unsure where Agnes plucked the name from, but Lucas sat well with both of us and we were content. At 4 months he as big as the girls were when they were about 6 to 8 months old – he is big! Roughly 68 cms and over 7 kgs in weight, according to the red book he is roughly the size of a 7 month old. He has had a number of health problems – mostly bronchilitis and it looks like we might be finally getting over them. Nothing too serious thankfully, but he had already had a few hospital stays and visits to the ER.

Now to the girls – the are both so big! Cailtin is about 5 cms taller than Emma and about 1.5 kgs heavier as well. She towers over most of the Mother’s Group kids and other kids at daycare. Verbally she is more advanced than Emma, but we think Emma is more mentally apt than her sister. Emma is also the leader – Caitlin will gladly do whatever her sister is doing at the time. Together the two can get into a bit of mischief – Emma usually figures things out first, but might not have the strength to do it. Along comes Caitlin to finish it up.

Both girls are talking, Caitlin more than Emma. They both sleep in their toddler beds – both day and night now. For a long time after we got the beds, we had to put the girls in portacots during the day as they would play too much during their midday sleep. They are not fully toilet trained however. We had to delay the training because of all the changes and we are now trying to get them trained in time for summer. We shall see how it goes.

On the job front, I got the shits with where I was and found a job in the HR department. I will still be training, just in a different system. Only started just over a week ago, but looking forward to it, especially as I will be graduating in a couple of months. Finally! 8 years in the making but my degree will finally be over. I have been doing 1 subject a semester for the last 2 years and have done well with my studies – 2 5s and 1 7. In a fortnight’s time I will have a good understanding of how well I am doing in this subject as well.

That is it from me for now. I have been feeling like writing here for awhile and wanted to start with the new life adjusting to another member of the family. Shall see how I go endeavouring to keep up to date with the blog.

Before I forget – Here is a pic that was taken yesterday of Lucas in the pram:

It all started last Sunday when Sunday afternoon Emma started acting up and not being her usual self. So we started temp checks and sure enough she had a fever. Within 30 minutes it was over 39 and the ambulance had been called. When they took her temp, they didnt bother with anything else and said she is coming to hospital with us – a sure sign the temp was over 40, what temp exactly we dont know. So we rushed around to get Agnes ready to go with Emma to the hospital. Poor Caitlin was in her high chair wanting her dinner and getting increasingly tired. Mel was able to come over and look after sleeping Caitlin after I had put her to bed, so that I could go to the hospital and find out what was going on.

The result – a urinery tract infection. Solution – a shot of antibiotics and take her home. So we did, and the next morning she was not much better. So took Caitlin to daycare, dropped me at work, then Agnes continued to the hospital emergency where in the end Emma ended up being admitted. After a long day training, I made it to the hospital, picked up the car and did the evening routine with Caitlin. This time my parents did the duties of looking after Caitlin while she slept. It took awhile to get Emma to sleep as she had had such a stressful day – IV drip with antibiotics stuck in her hand.

Tuesday afternoon I picked Agnes and a much improved Emma from hospital. Only after picking up a disturbed Caitlin from daycare, who was much relieved to see her mama. Tuesday night a normal routine and all slept well. Wednesday was the only day I did not go to the hospital – everyone went to work or daycare and it was a good day.

Thursday we had a scan with Agnes’ gynaecologist to confirm a pregnancy. Pregnancy you say! I never mentioned that Agnes was pregnant.

(Long story short – Easter weekend a home test confirmed Agnes was pregnant, Monday blood test confirmed she was pregnant, follow up scan on Tuesday confirmed one egg sac with an embryo about 6 weeks along).

So Thursday was the follow up scan to see how things were progressing. The news didn’t turn out that well – the egg sac was still there, but nothing was to be seen inside. Dr John called it an anembryonic pregnancy – a “trigger” didnt occur as it was meant to, thus the baby didn’t form properly. So for one week we were able to bask in the glory of falling pregnant naturally (only after the surrealness had worn off, as we had been informed we would never be able to have children naturally).

[And before you mention that you have heard stories of IVF couples who have a child, then fall pregnant naturally, we have heard the same stories. But for us it is still a miracle, and goes to show what can happen over time.]

So in Agnes had to go into day surgery on Friday to have everything removed before a miscarriage could occur naturally. We prefered this option as then Agnes would have the weekend to recover and we would not have to worry about the stress and anxiety of a miscarriage when it decided to come along. However as Agnes had developed a sore throat and blocked ear canal Thursday, she ended up staying Friday night to see off the effects of the drugs and to ensure everything was ok.

So Saturday saw me take both Emma and Caitlin to the hopsital to see mama and bring her home.

Six visits in the space of  seven days – all to the same hospital, and all for different reasons.

Agnes and I are ok with the fact that we lost the baby. We now know we could possibly have children naturally if we wished to, so we shall wait and see and let nature take its course. This way we have more time with our girls before another child comes along. It also probably helps that we have the girls to help mitigate the loss of another child.

So last week of April – bring it on! Emma and Caitlin are high speed crawling, standing on their own, but not yet ready to venture out on their own two feet. Emma has two bottom teeth, Caitlin has top and bottom teeth. There is still a one kilo difference in weight between the girls, and about 4 – 5 cms difference in height. They still have 5 bottle feeds a day, but over the weekend some of their day bottles have not been fully finished.

Workwise, things are winding into normality with the bulk of the training now completed. This does not mean that things are slowing down, pace is still roughly the same. There are manuals to be updated, things to organise with the training that will now occur, systems and processes to set up, trial and update. Not to mention that I still need to learn the ins and the outs of what the whole system can do. We still have two of the contract trainers onboard and in some areas they know significantly more than I do. The good thing is though,  that with the bulk of the training now out of the way, I can attempt to go back to the gym during lunch break. Plus with the time it seems I will be arriving at work in the mornings, I might do a cardio session in the morning, thus focus on weights during lunch.

In other news Agnes has started back at work! Yes … she has had to rejoin the “real” world (not just “mummy’s world”) to help pay the bills. I think in all Agnes had nearly nine months off at half pay which has been wonderful for her and the girls. Agnes is still working where she originally was, but only three days a week – Monday to Wednesday. The separation anxiety of longer than that was not pretty, thus the compromise for three days. Next Monday will be her fourth week back I believe. And thus the juggling act has started for her – working and still looking after our girls and how to fit it all in. So far we seem to be doing ok. A large part of that is due to how readily Caitlin and Emma have settled into daycare. Not many problems and they seem to enjoy it.
Of course with Agnes back at work, we had to deal with the issue of getting into work after dropping the girls at daycare. We eventually resolved this by driving to daycare, then driving to Darra train station and taking the train from there. Then in the afternoon train to Darra, and drive to the daycare and collect the girls. This means it is the first time in quite a long time that Agnes and I are traveling in by train together for work.

Caitlin and Emma. What can I say, they are growing up. Emma is crawling properly occassionally, and commando crawling all the other time as much as she can. She can now sit herself up as well, and is learning to climb up things to sit herself up, or move up from the knees. Also Emma is the louder and more verbal of the two. Some of the daycare people call her “Miss Loudmouth” due to her volume and range of sounds. Currently she is making O sounds and it is quite cute seeing her O her mouth. Caitlin has been sitting up for quite awhile now, but is having difficulty crawling – she mainly crawls backwards. This evening it was great to see the range of movement she has, despite the lack of crawling. While not as vocal as her sister, she makes up for it with her two bottom teeth. It should not be too much longer until she has some top teeth through as well.

Apart from that the girls have been keeping us busy with ensuring they sleep. Neither girl can put herself to sleep on her own anymore. Sometime we are lucky and they will go down easily, other times you have to fight alot or even distract them by taking them for a walk to get them off to sleep. We have not yet resorted to driving in the car, as walking the streets does work.

Apart from work and the girls, my life is starting to get ready to go back to uni. Funny to say that as I work at one university and study at another. With only four subjects left to do, I have to get my butt into gear to get them finished. Only doing one subject this semester to gradually ease my way back into study mode and I picked a relatively easy one – training and development. I’ve also been reading a lot of fiction recently – only have two books left for Thieves’ World, picked up a couple of new authors – Jasper Fforde (hilarious alternate earth and parallel world); James Barclay.

When my brain is more in order I will post a more comprehensive list of workings and daily life and might even include a few pics.

 Location, Location, Location
You first need to decide where you will keep the organised files once the clean up is complete. Then the structure. A simple structure to start with is what type of files you keep – photos, music, videos, work, university, etc. But where to store them?
If you have multiple drives, i.e. more than just C: drive, then I would recommend keeping them on D: (or whatever drive you have available). If you don’t have other drives, while My Documents is the logical choice, it might be an idea to have another folder to store your files on your C: drive.
So first decide what type of files to keep and where to store them.  

Creation
Once you have done the mind work, now time to do the work. Create the new folders in the location of your choice. Also if you already know some hierarchy you might use, create those folders as well. If you can’t think of a hierarchy now, that is fine – it might evolve over time.  

Clean up
Now is the time for the hard work. Start with the first folder at the top (perhaps your My Documents folder), look at the files inside the folder and decide whether you still need them or not. What is this file? I don’t recognise the name? Open the file, see what it is about, decide whether to keep it or not. Then rename the file.  

If you don’t know how to rename, there are a couple of methods. Right click on the file and down towards the bottom of the short cut menu you will see Rename. Alternatively you can use the F2 button on your keyboard to rename the file (When renaming files, remember to keep the file extension [if visible] as part of the name).  

Lastly, when you have cleansed the files from that folder, move the remaining files to the new folder structure based upon their type.  

Repeat the process for all folders that are not system required folders, i.e. DO NOT TOUCH THE WINDOWS, DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS, OR PROGRAM FILES FOLDERS! Stick to folders you have created and folders in My Documents. 

While going through your files, the process might bring back good memories (or bad) as you open and look at files you haven’t seen for awhile. This proves that it is time to clean up and decide if you still want that photo of you and an ex while on holidays. 

Decision time
Are you still happy with the current structure of folders based on file type or would you prefer a different structure? If you are, then leave it as it is and skip to the next section. If you are not satisfied, how would you like the folder structure to be ordered? Below is an image of what I have as folders on my D: drive.

And under My Documents folder, I have the following folders: 

 Personally, I find this structure works best for myself. It might work for you, you might have to tweak it to your liking, or you might go completely different. Find what works best for yourself.

Downloads folder
I would like to draw attention to the folder I have called Downloads. A method to streamline where you put things is to save everything you download from the Internet to one folder. I call mine Downloads. If I am busy, I can download the file and come back to it later, because I know that it will be in my Downloads folder. Also if I think I might have downloaded a suspect file, I need only right click on my Downloads folder and choose Scan and it will search for viruses, etc (this is of course dependant upon what virus scanner you use and its functionality). Then once I have looked at the file, I can decide whether to keep it or not. If I do keep it, where will I put it? If you have a download manager program, you can choose the default location when downloading files. 

Nearly finished …
Once you have moved or deleted all of your files, it is time to do a bit of system maintenance, especially if you have moved/deleted many files. You need to clean up, then defrag.

You can go the option of default Microsoft programs of Disk Cleanup, and Disk Defragmenter (both to be found under the System Tools folder of Accessories), or you can go for better, free alternatives. There are a number available on the market, but I prefer to use CCleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/ instead of Disk Cleanup. The nice thing about CCleaner is that you can choose which Internet cookies not to be deleted, thus saving you time of re-entering your username and password on your favourite websites. Instead of Disk Defragmenter I use JkDefragGUI, available from http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/. (Both of these programs I picked up from http://www.freewaregenius.com/).

You should also think of a Backup solution in case of emergency. Back up software, online storage synchronisation, external hard drive, and probably other options I am not yet aware of are all possible. 

There you have it – a more organised and decluttered computer, which you can now clutter up over the upcoming year. Only kidding. But that is hopefully one thing off your list of things to do for the New Year.

This first thing to realise with the ribbon is that what you see on the ribbon in a certain section is not all of the options possible. There is a little symbol in the bottom left of a number of sections that brings up a dialog box that pre 2007 users will more than likely be familiar with. So to see the options for Styles, click on the little symbol in the bottom right of the Style section of the Home tab in the Word 2007 ribbon.

You will then see the following image:

To create a new Style, click on the AA button in the bottom left:

This will then bring up the dialog box to create a new Style:

Simple formatting options are found in the Formatting section and apply to options like Font, Font size, text alignment, etc. For more advanced formatting options, click the Format button in the bottom left corner:

Styles by default are only saved in the current document. If you wish to reuse the Style in other documents you need to choose “New documents based on this template”. I would also recommend playing with the normal text formatting and have on screen what you would like the Style to look like before you create the Style, otherwise you will need to keep modifying the new Style, which can be frustrating. Or when you create the Style you can choose the tick box “Automatically update”, which makes any formatting change in any text using the Style, update all text using that Style automatically. Then all you need to do is when you have the Style looking the way you want, Modify the Style and untick the tick box.

There is more to Styles than this, but this is the basics to help you along. Note: anything you can do with normal formatting, e.g. lines under the text, background shading, small caps, etc can all be done in the Style.

Around lunch time we left the park and walked into the city itself for some lunch. I had an ulterior motive going to the city as I was hoping to pick up the third Order of the Stick comic volume. So after lunch, Agnes found a parents’ room and fed the girls. Wim and I went to the comic stores and didn’t get what we wanted. We stayed in the Myer Centre a bit longer to enjoy the aircon, and then went back to the ferry. At this point we had decided due to the time it was to take the ferry back to UQ and go home. That didn’t eventuate. The first ferry to arrive was the one that headed down the river so we decided to take that. It was a really nice decision as we had a great time, but it was also a bit stressful and we had Caitlin and Emma with us who needed a feed and sleep. We got back to UQ just before 5pm. But we had a great time on the river, seeing the sights, enjoying the view and showing off the girls.

I would definitely recommend taking the ferry along the Brisbane river, but be prepared. It takes roughly one hour to cruise the river in one direction. Take water! While bottled water is for sale, it is definitely a good idea to stock up before you go. Note food is not allowed onboard. And for a good view, be prepared to stand for awhile, either at the front, or at the back, depending on what room is available.

So the last post I made was about the girls being sick, and having storms. Well wasn’t that the week from hell? Boss away on leave, leaving me to look after things; starting important system testing the next week and having to help the rest of the team assemble their training/testing documents and not being able to be there to help. Oooo Duane, why couldn’t you be there to help? As I had to spend time at home caring for sick babies, then a sick wife, me sick, and a house flooded in the storms! As I said, one of the worst weeks of my life. The Wednesday night was the killer as we thought the girls were deteriorating and took them to hospital to have them checked out. That was roughly 10:30 pm. It was raining a bit, but not much. We left the hospital with an all clear from the doc around midnight and it was pissing down rain. It was so hard I had to slow down in parts to drive safely. We got home, fed the girls a bottle, settled them into bed and then I went around the house to make sure all was ok. Well it wasn’t ok. There was water on the floor of the garage. Checked the ceiling (no water there), checked the window (no smash, thus no water). So that left just the floor. So I opened the door to the laundry and there was a river of water flowing past. I stepped outside in the pouring rain, and it covered my foot with water. That was where the water was coming in from – via the weep holes. So got Agnes out of bed (she was ready to go to sleep), and we spent the next hour in the rain, brooming water down the side of the house so that no more water could get in the house. Our efforts were successful.

It seemed that the retaining wall to the house next of house had failed, and gushes of water were coming through the retaining wall. We called the insurance and they were going to get a flooring place to look at the cement floor in the garage and make sure that the wall dried out properly. We finally went to bed around 2:30am Thursday morning. 5:30 am the girls woke up. They woke up early the whole week due to being ill, but thankfully they didn’t wake up during the night like they had the other nights. We decided it would be best for me to go into work early, do the work that I needed to and then come home after lunch to help with the girls. That was a fun drive into work. Virtually no traffic as a number of people had issues on the roads. Oh I forgot to mention the amount of rain that fell Wed night – over 200 mm in Ipswich, and over 150 mm in parts of Brisbane. Ipswich copped the rain and flooding bad. The Brisbane river was full of debris and because of that the ferries did not operate for a few days.

Back to the story. I went into work extremely early (just after 7am), worked for a few hours completing what I needed to do, then drove home before yet another storm hit that afternoon. In total we had about five bad storms that night. The rest of the week I worked from home as I had to be there to help Agnes with the girls, plus find out what was happening with the minor flooding damage.

Since that week, things became extremely busy at work. And as my mind was not fully focussed on the job, I got a bit of a talking to from the boss. Well what do they expect? Sick kids, minor flooding, death in the family (one of Agnes’ grandmothers passed away), and uncertainity about whether we could make it for the funeral or not. In the end we didn’t go as it was going to be too expensive, unsure whether we would get there in time as we would have to wait to get passports for the girls and I was still on my probation period for work. Things improved at work when we finally got the go ahead to commence with training. I was focused, knew what had to be done and got in there and got it done. Everyone noticed “an improvement in my attitude and work”, of course not realising that I didn’t have other things to worry about.

At home after the illness, the girls’ routine was very irregular and it took awhile for it to get back on track. Instead of waking around 7 as they did before they were sick, Emma and Caitlin started waking between 5 and 6. This is still the case, but that’s ok. Then we had to get ready for Agnes’ parents to come over, and the naming ceremony. Parents arrived ok, naming ceremony went well. Catering went up the wazoo as money has been tight and we were unsure whether we would get the Rudd Christmas bonus or not. So instead of getting a caterer, we looked at doing it all ourselves for a lesser cost. In the end all sorted for a more reasonable price.

The naming ceremony went well and was everything we wanted it to be. Unfortunately not everyone could make it. First it was parents having to bail, as mum was taken to hospital and spent the night there. Then a friend’s mum couldn’t make it due to heart palpitations, and finally another friend was involved in a car accident. Nothing serious and no-one hurt, but they couldn’t get to the ceremony. My parents not being there put a big chink in the plans as dad had most of the paraphenalia for the lunch and marquee, etc. Thankfully one of his brothers chipped in and helped out, and all turned out to be a success. If time and bandwidth allows, we will upload the vid of the naming ceremony. The nicest part was the charm giving. Agnes and I, our parents, grand parents, siblings and mentors to the girls each gave them a charm with a wish for their life. These charms will eventually be added to the bracelets we got them when they were born. Another novelty was the well-wishing. In the invitation to the naming ceremony we enclosed two pieces of paper – one for each child. On them people could write their wishes for both Emma and Caitlin. These will be collated and bound into a book for the girls to read when they are older. Hopefully we might start a trend with the charm giving as a few people have thought it is a good idea and will steal it for their own ceremonies.

This week has been difficult at times. Both Emma and Caitlin have had troubles getting to sleep. Since their six month immunisations they have both needed help during the day to sleep. And for two night Caitlin had difficulties getting to sleep after their night feed. It looks like the night routine is once more ok, but the day time sleeps are a bit of a concern. We are unsure if this is because there are more people around (Agnes’ parents) or whether it is because they are more alert now and do not want to miss anything durung the day. We shall wait and see, give it a month or so and then take action if required.

The girls are growing so much! We had to purchase car seats for them as Caitlin doesn’t fit in the capsule anym0re. She is roughly 70cm long and just over 7kgs. Emma is a couple of cms less and just over 6 kgs. And of course I remember another concern the girls gave us during the last month. One day in early December, Caitlin had a fit. Agnes was feeding at the time and Caitlin started convulsing while breast feeding. This lasted roughly a minute. After the fit stopped she fell asleep immediately. She continued to twitch every now and then til she woke. Agnes called the ambulance and they turned up in the middle of another storm (what is it with storms and illness?) and they were all taken to the hospital. In the end there was nothing found. We left again roughly around midnight. Caitlin will have an EEG in mid January, but we don’t think it will find anything.

What else have the girls been up to? Rolling, putting their feet into their mouths, more talking and sound making, started solids and nearly crawling. So they are a lot more alert than they once were and we think this might be why they are having problems falling asleep.

So lots of fun and games here. I have the rest of the week off and won’t go back to work til the 5th. There will be a bit over a month of training for the new system and then we will have to wait and see what day to day work will be like. Agnes’ parents will be here til mid January. The girls will start child care towards the end of January, and Agnes will start work again shortly after that. Then towards the end of Feb, beginning of Mar I will start uni again. Unsure what exactly I will do with that – either go back to QUT or do external studies.

We took the girls to the doctor on Saturday and he confirmed that they have a cold and there is not much we can do for it. We have been cleaning their gummed over eyes with boiled water on a cotton bud; and treating occasionally with saline drops; the gunk in their nose has been aspirated out with a sucker, plus we have been using some diluted nasal saline spray to help clear their nasal cavities; and treating their general aches and pains with baby panadol and neurofen every now and then.

Most of the stuff we are using was not available in our parents time, and they had to try and use steam to clear airways. They didn’t have baby panadol and the like either. Even preventative wear like the sunglasses we have for the girls when we take them for a walk was not available.

(I sit here listening to mainly Emma cough, checking on her occasionally to try and get her back to sleep before the coughing is serious enough to wake her up. Thankfully it looks like Caitlin will sleep the night through without a problem. *fingers crossed*)

We were lucky the first couple of nights in that the coughing wasn’t bad enough that they would wake – they slept the whole night through. The days on the weekend weren’t too bad either – both Emma and Caitlin were happy most of the time and had fun playing like they normally do. Whereas at the moment both girls are needy and more than one set of hands can deal with when both are awake.

Ah well, something to get used to I have been told.

It was difficult. I have looked after the girls for a few hours on my own on the weekend, when Agnes has had to go physio, but a full day of keeping the girls occupied and entertained is a new experience. Thankfully they had two good sleeps in the middle of the day, so I had some time to myself, but I had to look after them and Agnes. After lunch Agnes improved, and took the girls for a walk later in the afternoon.

I can now appreciate what Agnes and all other mothers go through day to day, raising their children. And I don’t think they get enough recognition for what they do. I have never said to Agnes that I expect all the housework to be done and the girls to be cheerful when I come home, and all that macho bullshit of that ‘coz I work, I won’t do chores, etc – I help out when I can and as cheerfully as I can, but to do a full day of it (without doing the feeds) opens one’s eyes to the immensity of the job.

Yesterday I stayed home again as Agnes was still not fully recovered. And as it was swimming day, we already knew and anticipated what would come after. Emma fell asleep in my arms as I finished the class with her early, she was that worn out. But she loved it to start with! Agnes couldn’t go in the water as she still had a cold, but she took a number of photos and even a vid or two of the swimming class. A friend, Sue, has been helping Agnes with the girls for swimming lessons and she had Emma to start with. Emma was splashing without encouragement and having a good ‘ol time. I had Caitlin and she enjoyed herself as well, but she was not as exuberant as Emma. The wonderful thing, is that after five weeks of swimming lessons, they seem to understand us and know what to do when they are about to go underwater. Caitlin a number of times closed her eyes, took a breath and screwed up her face just before she went under the water. We took a long walk in the afternoon which seemed to wear them out enough for us to enjoy our dinner.

And then there was today. Agnes’ cold got worse during the night, with sinus problems and a more pronounced cough. So I stayed home once more, but when into work to get the laptop to do some work from home. It was a good thing I did, as Agnes crashed about lunch time and I had to look after the girls once more. It is not enjoyable looking after the girls when it is pissing down rain outside. We have had the opportunity to take the girls outside for a walk during “the witching hour”, the time between 4:30 and evening feed that the girls can become quite narky and will not settle. Usually the walk after I get home from work settles the girls down and helps ease the afternoon strain, but when you can’t get outside, you have to find new avenues of settling. And nothing today seemed to work.

Also this might have been due to the new routine the girls have got themselves into. They have been waking up between 4 and 5:30 am for their feed. Agnes then feeds every three hours after 7/7:30 am and the girls will have a couple of naps, and if lucky one sleep during the day. Today they had two brief naps – that is it. So the more awake time might be contributing to the late afternoon narkiness. Or it could just be the weather.

Speaking of the weather – what is it up to? Warm on Sunday, cool Monday, bloody warm Tuesday, cold and dreary today. It is nice to have the warmth ease up on us in anticipation of summer, but the hot, cold routine is not appreciated! The buckets of rain today are appreciated, but not when trying to get four month old girls into a different routine!

Today was also the day that Barack Obama became president of the USA. What will it foretell only time will tell. Listening to his speech this afternoon, all I could do was wonder “when is the bullet coming?” I know that is extremely pessimistic of me, but when you think of JFK and the like, they all happened unexpectedly. I wish him all the best as he has a tough job ahead of him, and I really wonder if anyone can pull the states out of their problems. And if asked: What did I do when Obama was elected? I can easily remember that I was working from home, trying to settle two crying babies.

In other news my brother and his wife were up on the weekend. It was the first time we have seen them since they were married in August, and it was also the first time they have seen the girls in person. Emma and Caitlin took to them with ease! Troy and Sarah had them giggling and laughing most of the time they were with them, and it was good to see that the girls recognise family so easily. So nothing special over the weekend, we had kept it open in anticipation of them coming up. We did take Caitlin and Emma into our swimming pool twice over the weekend, not as long as their normal swimming lessons, and they had a blast. At one stage Caitlin was standing on the top step of the pool, and she screeched out in joy when she understood that she could stand with ease in the water.

Enough of that for now – it is time to go to bed. I can’t remember the last time I would have gone to bed listening to the rain on the roof, but that will definitely be happening tonight.