I cannot believe that it is almost December already. Gosh this year has just flown.

The kids are getting bigger and they are very entertaining. Kellie is almost 21 months and Rieley is almost 3y 9m. How quickly the time is flying; it will be their birthdays before we know it.

Kellie is still grunting a lot, pointing or shaking her head. She says a few words like 'up, wilee, mum, dad, hello. She waves and loves to do "Twinkle, Twinkle" She saw a Christmas tree last night and she loved the decorations. Pointing to them as Mum and Dad said which colour it was ... yes, she has us well trained.

What Rieley does ... Kellie does. Where Rieley goes ... Kellie goes. If Rieley cries ... Kellie cries. You get the idea. Luckily Rieley always wants Kellie to be doing what he is doing and loves that she follows him around. He hates it when she takes a toy off him but he's the worst culprit for that and is always in trouble for taking toys off Kellie. She's so funny and has a great cackle on her. She gets so excited when there is activity happening.

We went out and did a pub crawl last night. Yep we all went to the Club and then we walked to the Pub and had a couple of drinks at each. We were outside at the Club and Rieley was playing chasie with Kellie last night (basically just running around madly, luckily we were the only ones out there); lol Kellie was doing her own thing ... it was hilarious to watch.

Kellie is very jealous of anyone being near me. Whether it is Rieley sitting on my lap or Ron sitting even remotely near me. She squeezes in between.

Rieley is a sweetie and it is so easy to forget that he is still so little. About 6 weeks ago, I introduced pocket money. I want him to learn money and responsibility and how to handle it from an early age. He has two jobs a day to do - clean up the toys and set the table ready for dinner. He gets $3 each week. I give him his money in silver, so he has lots to put in his money box. :) If I'm doing something, he always wants to help and asks "so, what can I do to help?' ... it's so sweet. He surprises me quite often and says 'thank you' for things that I don't expect him to show appreciation for. He has quite nice manners anyway but it's really nice to hear him say 'thank you for dinner, Mum'.

He really wanted to plant some sunflower seeds. We spied a tub that someone was throwing away, bought some potting mix and seeds. Today we all ceremoniously planted the seeds. Of course Rieley expects them instantaneously so the next 12 weeks is going to seem like forever for him. I like the fact that all going well (which is pretty doubtful as I have a black thumb) they will be flowering for their birthdays. Here's hoping I'm not solely in charge of this activity.

Tonight I introduced a new ritual for dinner time. We have to go around the table and say three things that we enjoyed during the day. Of course Kellie is only up to listening at this stage. I read it somewhere and thought that it sounded like a good idea. The actual idea is that it helps you to see the good in your day; trains your thinking. I'm generally a pretty optimistic person and Ron is more pessimistic - I really would like the kids to see the good in their day.

Rieley enjoyed me helping him with his jigsaw, having pancakes for lunch and planting his sunflower seeds.

Ron enjoyed helping Rieley plant sunflower seeds, dinner and some rough housing on the bed with Rieley.

I enjoyed my sleep in until 10:30 am, helping Rieley plant sunflower seeds and dinner. Although really there were more than three things I enjoyed today.

By the way, we had avocado and prawn vol-e-vaunts and salad for dinner. They were yummy. It was a test run for Christmas lunch.

I gave my girlfriend $300 to buy clothes for Rieley and Kellie a few weeks ago. Well the parcel arrived on Thursday. WOW - She did such a good job and she got so much for the money. I really don't know how she got it all into the one parcel, I believe she has found her calling, especially around Christmas time. :)

Ron's present for Christmas should arrive this week. I've been so slack and I haven't done the kids shopping yet, I've looked and 'added to cart' but I haven't gone any further. The next couple of days I really have to get stuck into that.

I bought some clothes for myself on-line the other day - OMG, I hope I measured right. I really hope I haven't wasted $200 on clothes that are either too big or too small.