Holiday camping... in the backyard

Dear Matthew and Toby,

As Western Australia's lockdown extended over the April school holidays, and no one was allowed to leave their home to go on holidays, we decided to set up our family tent in the backyard instead!

Luckily we have a big enough grassed area to fit our trampoline and massive tent on! Tobes, you loved playing in the tend but didn't want to sleep in it, so you and I stayed warm indoors while Matt, you and daddy braved the elements to sleep in the tent for a few nights together. 

It was fun to be able to 'go on holiday' in our own backyard and even though it was possibly the most uneventful school holidays you will both ever have, I hope you still had a good time staying nice and safe at home. 

Love you boys, 

Mum xxx

Party of 5!

Dear Matthew, Toby and baby, 

That's the first time on this blog that I've written 'dear..' to you of all! I can't believe there's going to be three of you soonish! That's right, the last member of team Keene will be joining us in late August/early September (hopefully you and baby don't share a birthday Tobes!). I've been writing this blog for seven years, and knowing the final Keene Kid is on his/her way is very exciting :)

However, being pregnant during a pandemic is not for the faint of heart. I am grateful this is my third pregnancy, so I am confident in my decisions on what time of medical care I want, and whether I really need to do every ultrasound/test/check up. I had my morphology scan as early as possible to get it out of the way prior to what I though would be the virus peaking in Australia, I told my midwife no need to visit before 24 weeks and I spread out my blood tests for my iron and thyroid but 1.5 times the usual amount. Thankfully, everything is fine, but bubba you're apparently measuring a week behind schedule (but perfectly healthy, so I'm not stressed, I think the ultrasound tech was just a bit dodgy as I don't grow small babies!). 

However the pandemic also put a halt to a number of our plans. A month before it started, we were given finance approval to buy a bigger house and rent out our duplex. Our jobs were not in jeopardy, so if we took this leap it would have been with very little risk. Unfortunately, we didn't find a house in that month and there is now a huge spanner in the works to buy a new house with banks tightening their lending criteria. To add to this, I'm obviously going to go on maternity leave soon, which doesn't bode well with the banks. We may just have to survive a year or so more in our tiny duplex with three kids and four pets! Fingers crossed the roof doesn't pop off from so many bodies under it!

My final baby, I am so looking forward to getting to know you. I apologies in advance for the reduced photos and lack of 100% attention, but please know that you will have the benefit of an experienced mum and two older brothers who already love you so much. I have been waiting patiently to meet you during my baby-making years, and there was a time when I wasn't sure you were going to join us, but look at that growing bump below! You'll be in my arms soon enough :)

I already know that you will be resilient, and probably stubborn - after all, you thrived in my belly despite the world collapsing around me. Your class group at school is going to be mostly made up of kids who surivived in their mothers' tummies during one of the world's most recent major challenges. How could you and your peers not be incredible? 

Love you my three babies,

Mum xxx

Homeschooling adventures

Dear Matthew and Toby

Well! Homeschooling took place for about seven weeks during the pandemic. Needless to say, I am so grateful I never trained as a teacher, as it is most certainly not my life's calling!

Matt, being in year one, our focus every day was on sight words, writing simple sentences, reading simple books and doing basic maths together. Your teacher had set up activities to do on an app so we made our way through those and the worksheets that were sent home. While we endured homeschooling, I do not think either of us thrived, but I guess I have to remember that I was also trying to work and entertain Toby at the same time, so it was more crisis-schooling than planned homeschooling. 

There were many wonderful moments (see all the photos below of some of our 'maths classes' i.e. endless baking where you helped measure out ingredients) but I'm ashamed to admit I may have sworn at you when I was trying to teach you how to skip-count in twos and nothing I did got the message through. Tears galore from us both. The anxiety our little house was feeling during this time could change in an instant and we were all on edge. We would explain to you that we couldn't do certain things due to 'the germs', and you were so understanding, but the constant stress of infection really got to me and your dad. I'm sorry if we neglected you both during this time. We did our best to hold it all together. 

Please know that we gave it a go, and you didn't seem to mind Matt, but I think everyone was relieved when school was reopened!! We did some fun activities and I know if we ever have a second wave and need to homeschool again, we'll be ok!

Love you boys, 

Mum xxx