Happy New Year

Happy New year!!!!

Fred and I have NEVER been as tired as we are now! Heidi has had gastro for a few days and Chloe has had wind and has been crying non-stop for hours at a time. Yep, the kids have not been the happiest kids around so mum and dad are contemplating selling both of them on eBay and move to the Republic Dominican!

We've had a nice little christmas break though and have been busy, trying to catch up with everyone. We spent christmas eve with some of our swedish friends - a last minute thing that came together nicely and was good fun.

On new years eve we were invited to Vicki and Mitch's house for a low key get-togheter. 3 other couples were there with their kids so Heidi had a blast as you can imagine. We didn't make it to midnight though.. Heidi didn't want to sleep their so at 11pm she was still up and Fred and I thought the responable thing to do was to get her home to go to bed.

Apart from this bad stint of crying kids, 2009 hasn't been all that bad. Moved into this house in January and have been enjoying it. It has been an awesome house, however moving into our own house and stay there for a looooong time is also very exciting.

Also, I guess little Chloe happend in 2009...whilst the in-laws where here. Getting help with Heidi and the house does the trick, hey? That and a bottle of wine ;)

I can assure you there wont be any pregnancies in 2010. This year will be the year of total relaxation and without any major changes tilting our lifebalance. Looking forward to Bali in April but that is as much we're going to move this year :)

Hope you had a great christmas break y'all!

xxx

The Drouinettes

I've been on my own with Heidi and Chloe for the past week and I think we've slowely gotten into a nice little routine. Im still quite soar after the surgery but Heidi has been quite the little helper so it's not too bad.

Chloe will be 6 weeks this week and thing have kind of fallen into place. I feel we have gotten to know each other and Im not entirely clueless as to what she wants when she cries. She has a bit of tummy aches sometimes and Fred and I always have to make sure to burp her a lot after feeds. If not, we always have a looong night ahead of us!

Chloe has started to be more alert and is a good sleeper. She's usually feeding once during the night but when she's asleep, she's the noisiest baby EVER! She's been sleeping in her 'nursery' (i.e our formal dining room) since she was born but we can still hear her! She makes these squeeling and gurgeling sounds and when we check on her she's fast asleep. I tried to keep the baby-monitor on in the beginning but I gave up. We hear her anyway.

Heidi is making great progress too and after my mum was here, Heidi is speaking more and is putting sentenses toghether. Fred is delighted having yet another girl yapping in his ear....and it's only going to get worse :) Heidi's new words from today is 'Dallas Cowboys' and 'Tony Romo'. Can you tell Fred watched the game today?

That's all for this time

Big kisses

xxx

PS. The jumpsuit Chloe is wearing in the pictures was a gift from my swedish friend Moa. And folks, she made it herself! Very talented and clever! Thanks again!!

Xmas with the Swedes and going back to the hospital

Last Saturday we celebrated St Lucia and swedish christmas.

The day started with Heidi serving gingerbread cookies in bed dressed as St Lucia. So cute!! The swedes and Heidi even sang the traditional St Lucia songs! You could really tell that Heidi was very focused, proud and felt very pretty when she walked into our bedroom with the tray of cookies and wearing the 'crown' and white gown. My mum had even organised a gown for little Chloe to wear but she was sleeping so she'll participate next year :)

Later that afternoon we cooked up a proper swedish smorgasboard of traditional christmas foods: meatballs, herring, janssons temptation, christmas ham and some other yummy things AND of course the christmas snaps. Unfortunatly I couldn't have any this year... nursing... bummer...

Then Santa came with the presents!!! Heidi was a bit nervious at first but then she helped Santa hand out the presents. She loved it!! It was really great to celebrate christmas surrounded by family this year. Really special!

And now for the 'drama of the week' segment instead of 'tantrum of the week'.

On Thursday I had to have emergency surgery - an umbilical hernia repair.

Basically when my bellybutton popped out when I was pregnant with Chloe it resulted in a tair in the abdominal tissue and now it had started to cause all sorts of problems and it had to be fixed. When I woke up after the surgery I was in a lot more pain than after the cesarean. Super painful! I had to stay over night in the hospital and now I have to take it easy and I can't lift anything or start exercising for 6 weeks! Very annoying but it had to be fixed.... Hopefully 2010 will be a 'smoother' year without any medical dramas, pregnancies, house deals, new jobs and new work visas....

Bye for now!!

Bisou

The recovering Drouins

Ps. Seems like 'Fidel Castro' likes to have his picture taken with Santa more than the kids do :))

1st week at home

The 1st week at home from the hospital has passed by with warp speed. Everything is in a bit of a haze and I just try to keep the kids happy (and alive) and try to eat and rest myself whenever I can.

Chloe is sleeping ok at night. She's up about twice to feed every night and it could have been so much worse. The only problem is that Fred and I haven't had any interupted sleep since Heidi was about 6 months so we're not used to getting up in the middle of the night. Talk about going back to square 1.

The swedes arrived on Monday and will stay with us for 3 weeks. It's great for me to get some help, specially with Heidi so she still gets attention and I can focus on sorting out Chloe with feeds and other newbie stuff.

I haven't noticed much jelousy from Heidi and so far she has been very nice and loving to her baby sister. She even shares her toys! Can you believe it! You who know Heidi well knows that sharing is not her strongest suit....

Now we're off to Cottesloe beach to have lunch and the rest of the weekend - just chilling out.

Love from Perth

xx

Chloe Diane Drouin

Welcome to our family Chloe!!

Chloe was born at 10.42 am on Thursday the 12th of November at St John of Gods hospital in Subiaco. 3542 g and 49 cm almost exactly the same as Heidi: 3500g and 49 cm.


She was one loud baby entering the world. Crying a lot and loudly. All healthy though.

The surgery went really well but I was so nervious this time. Not sure why really but I just was. Fred tried to make me feel better by saying stupid stuff. All the doctors and nurses were laughing and I was to druged out too get angry with him :)



Heidi met her new baby sister two days after her arrival and Heidi wouldn't leave her alone. She was sooooo proud!

I hadn't seen Heidi in a few days and I was hoping she would run towards me and give me a big hug but she was like: 'Wazz up mum' and ran off to see Chloe.

Chloe is a lot like Heidi, sounds like her and moves just like her. I think she looks a bit like Heidi too but most newborns looks a like. Little aliens with mullets :) Chloe doesn't know the difference between night and day yet so she's been up a lot at night. Taking care of a newbie is tougher than I remembered it to be!

Now were back from the hospital. I had to spend 5 days there because of the cesarean. Fred is staying home with us until my mom and Stellan arrives next week. My doctor has ordered me a lot of rest and to not lift heavy things for the next weeks, until the wound is a bit more healed.

After the first day at home with 2 kids has been a bit overwhealming. Just getting used to knowing where both kids are. All of a sudden when playing with Heidi I seem to have forgotten about Chloe: Where is she. Where did I last see her?? Oh yes, that's right she's sleeping in the pram... Pew. All kids are accounted for :)


Fred did famously taking care of Heidi when I was at the hospital. He's a Super-dad!!! Playing with her, teaching her stuff (both good and bad), taking her to the pool and gives her all of his attention. AND on top of this he cooks and cleans the house so it shines. Lets just face it, he's the perfect wife!!! :) He's gonna be a tough act to follow when he goes back to work.

Thank you for the lovely flowers and pressies that was sent to us and the visits at the hospital
Lots of love
Heidi, Chloe, Mum and Dad
xxx

Parental confusion

This is the last blog-entry before the big Chloe-day so I though I'd write a Heidi-blog and add some of the older photos and videos from her 20months to date.

I didn't have a 'tantrum of the week' to write about last time but now I have a total parential confusion-story to share..





Heidi has always been a bit rough with other kids and doesn't understand the concept of sharing yet. To try to address this behaviour we are using 'time-out' for her to understand when she has done something wrong.

At our house, we haven't found a good 'naughty corner' to put her in so for the time being, when we have to use 'timeout' we are putting her in her cot in her room. Not a great spot because but that's what it is at the moment.

So, on Sunday afternoon Heidi's friend Izzy came over with her mum to play. Izzy always stands up for herself so usually there are no issues when they play but this time Heidi started to push her and run her over with her pram or her toy-car as soon as she thought Julia and I weren't watching.



Heidi got a warning and then it happend again so I put her in timeout. After 2 minutes Im supposed to go and get her, talk to her and explain what she had done and she was supposed to apologise. BUT, when I went into her room to get her, she had fallen asleep!!!! So much for me trying to try some parenting and disipline her... Go figure!!



All and all, we have had an amazing 20 months getting to know Heidi and becoming our own little family and we cannot wait to meet the new little addition.


Lovexx

Our new house - Its the best!!

Today we went to our new house to do the final inspection. In the car going there I was a bit worried that we would enter the house and go: what the hell were we thinking!

Luckily that didn't happen! Pew! It was actually better than I remembered it to be :)

I loooove the house!! We all love it!! There are a few things I would like to change down the track, rip out bathrooms and kitchen, change the flooring in the living room, paint all the walls, you know the standard stuff. But its ok for now and nothing is really urgent... and I don't want Fred to have another stress-attack so I don't mind leaving it for a year or so.

It would be so fun to move in now! Maybe it would have been good with a bigger garden for the kids to run around in but I think we'll be fine. The courtyard and drive way is big and as long as we are with the kids by the pool,there is a huge area to play there too.

So, Heidi's new thing is to call out: Oh nooooo! - really upset and disappointed... for anything! Just spilling a bit of water on herself, finding something out of place on the floor or just anything. She even says it in her sleep when she's dreaming.

I had a think about what it could come from and I think it comes from 'Dora the Explorer', this cartoon Heidi likes. Dora is always out on adventures and when things go wrong she goes 'oh nooo'. It has to be that or maybe Heidi is copying Freds obsessive/compulsive behaviour around the house. He's going 'Oh nooooo!' when the house is not spick and span all the time. Who knows? One thing is for sure though: Heidi is tidying up and classifying all the time, just like her dad. It is really in her genes. (from him obviously) She's his little helper and both of them are loving it. I just hope both of them will give me a break about not being as tidy as them :)

Here are some fresh photos of me and my tummy from today. Only a few days from the arrival and now when my bloodpressure is back to normal and the migranes are gone, I just look forward to meeting little Chloe or Clouuwweee. Thats what Heidi calls her. Too cute!

Peace out!

The Drouinsxx