Poor Neglected #2 child

Wow, over a month since Jemma's birthday and no posting!! Bad, bad mummy! Just been really busy and should be working now...oops! Jemma had a good birthday and the top photo is her with some of her 'stash' so she was certainly spoiled. She had a "3" cake at childcare and a trampoline cake at home - all to celebrate her day.. twice, plus a trampoline for a present. She is doing okay in life!

How can I summarise Jemma for the past month? Hmm... challenging, charming, even more challenging, costume dresser. She wears a costume every day whether it is ballerina, bumblebee, swimming togs, fairy princess... etc... every day and on school days, she likes to wear her uniform to school to pick up Riley. I have started asking Mums at school not to say how cute she it- I figure if we can ignore it, she might stop.

Jemma is very charming with a 1001 facial expressions that crack us up on a regular basis. She is very sharp with her conversational skills and is now writing her own name. She can also poo on the toilet so that was very exciting for us and has even had 1 dry night. On the other side, she hates listening and won't accept 'no' for an answer especially when she wants piggytails and piggyback rides. It has become a bit of a war and the victor has still not been decided......

Riley is still doing well at school. Academically he is doing very well and is likely to move through at the beginning of next year. He still struggles at break times but has improved lots- he just lacks confidence but once he joins in, he is off laughing which is great.

He started drama classes this term as we thought
he might enjoy the imagination and creative play. He is so dramatic and creative at home. He goes through so much paper, sellotape and staples. He loves to create things out of paper. Today was a picture of a F111 then he stapled on the fireballs out the back! He can entertain himself for hours playing. And yes, he is enjoying the drama classes. He doesn't like the music class so much because it has gotten a little harder with 2 hands playing and Riley doesn't like to try if he thinks he will fai.

We went to the restaurant for a friends birthday and they were semi well behaved as you can see......

Both kids have gotten good at playing.
Mum and Dad are working on the courtyard at the weekends and the kids are even letting us get on with it. Riley helped me stain the retaining walls today so that is good.