Christmas Eve, first day of holidays

As much as I enjoy being able to go to work and escape the kids occasionally, I've really been looking forward to this Christmas break. I want to spend time with my kids and just enjoy being with them. So, Day 1 of holidays and this is what we did.

• Cut kids' hair, Chicken's fringe is a little too short, but it'll grow
• Gremlin bumped the dresser and one of the wise men from the nativity set lost his head.
• Did some housework
• Had my friend Niki over 
• W@dsy bumped the dresser, and now we are down to only 1 wise man
• Niki, Gremlin and I assembled a gingerbread train
• Finished knitting a headband for Chicken
• Painted the kids faces ('cos you know, why not?)
• Ducked to the shops to buy ice for tomorrow
• Read books, sung songs, was tackled by children
• Children fed and put to bed

 Daddy Wrestling, a favourite pasttime

 The Little Engine that could.... be put together that is. (Please ignore my very bad attempt at an icing design on the front)

 Little Miss Chicken modelling her new short fringe and the headband I just made

 Gremlin as Spiderman (what did people used to facepaint before super heros?)

Chicken and her butterfly (I practically had to tie her down to get her to sit still long enough for this)

Phew, I'm exhausted. Are the holidays over yet?

Just when I thought it was over...

I feel I can offically call Gremlin toilet trained. He wears undies all day every day including naps. He is even dry at night about a third of the time. Sure, there is the occasional accident, but that seems to be the exception.

But then the move happened.

W@dsy and I were glad, at first, Chicken seemed ready for the move from Baby Room to Toddler Room at day care. She gets along great with the bigger kids and seems to really enjoy the games, songs and craft at the more advanced level. She comes home each day exhausted though, but I kind of expected that.

What I didn't expect was that she would decide that she was now big enough, big enough for toilet training that is. She has started removing her clothing (specifically pants) at random intervals during the day, and last night she removed her nappy and slept. God was good to me this morning, there was no poo. The bed and sheets were soaked, but thankfully no poo.

I discussed this situation with day care, they suggested that the best thing was probably to toilet train her so that at least she knows what is supposed to happen.

I don't think I can cope. It took a year and half of toilet training to get Gremlin toilet trained, and now it appears it's Chicken's turn. I may cry. I will definately pray for a quicker and easier toilet training.

As much as I look forward to a day without nappies, I would also like to have a day when I don't have to clean up "accidents" too.

A Day in the Life.

Today was busy and strange.

Firstly Gremlin and Chicken decided to sleep in. It was scary, I can't remember when they slept past 6am. They didn't wake up until 7:15am. I was concerned that maybe my husband finally snapped and drugged them in the night, (apparently he didn't).

I then spent the morning at a friends birthday morning tea, there were heaps of kids there and they all played to their hearts content. Apparently this wasn't enough, my children refused to take their afternoon naps. Grrrr. After over an hour of trying to get them to sleep I gave up. I had to babysit anyway.

Because I'm insane, I thought I'd help my friend out and baby-sit so she could go to the beautician. She has 3 girls. So this afternoon I spent with 5 children, 1x 6 year old, 1x 3 year old, 1x 20 month old, 1x 17 month old and 1x 10 month old. Oh and my husband ran away and hid in a coffee shop, because well, because he's not insane like I am. We all survived, without any injuries!

Gremlin was trying very hard  not to fall asleep during his dinner. This was rather unsucessful. So I decided to put Gremlin and Chicken to bed early, I can still hear them squealing in their room, objecting to sleep.

But Mum, I'm not tired

A Little Bit Crafty

I got sick of cleaning, I mean, doesn't everybody? So lately I've been making a bit of a mess to make up for all the cleaning I've been doing lately. I have yet again caught the crafting bug. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have traded in my sanity and got a pile of yarn and fabric in return.

I have knitted a beanie for a friend's baby.

I love the little buttons

I finished making a Christmas present. (Sorry Niki, no pictures, you are just going to have to be surprised).

And thoroughly sick of never being able to find pants for Gremlin, I whipped these up tonight.

Okay so they look like pajamas, but i don't care and neither will he.

The Skirt

Okay I am finally getting off my butt and sewing again. I bought some really cute fabric for a friend's present (Oh yes my dear Niki, this means YOUR present) and made a skirt for Chicken out of the scraps. I went to this blog that I LOVE MakeItandLoveIt and I made the skirt. But being me and very prone to taking shortcuts, I guesstimated the measurements and the skirt turned out thinner and longer than it was supposed to. Oh well it's still cute and I still love the fabric. What do you guys think?

Isn't she a cutie!

I think I may experiment by cutting up some old clothes of mine. But I still have waaaay too much sewing to do before I get myself too distracted.

Due to being stuck in the house for the whole weekend, I went a little crazy. I figured that because we couldn't go anywhere it would be a great time to set up the Christmas tree. Yes I know that it's early but I had to keep the brats children occupied.

We decorated the tree with the angels I made last year but it was looking a little sparse because we were given a bigger tree by my sister-in-law. So it was time to make some more kid friendly decorations. I got the kids to go to town on some white paper with gold paint. then when it had dried I cut out some stars and glued them on some circles of red cardboard.

 I know, it's pretty simple, but I think it's cute

And here's our tree, ta da!

I may add a few more decorations as the kids get bored, but I'm not very good at thinking of things that don't involve me running out and spending money. Got any ideas?

Back Again

Okay, it's been forever since I blogged. Hmmm, quick update on what's happened.

My hubby in a fit of crazy decided our place wasn't big enough, so we looked at houses, found a bigger place and moved. Which meant lots and lots of packing. Then we got to unpack. I hate how much stuff we have but I can't seem to bring myself to throw much of it away.

We were without a phone and internet in the new house of nearly a month. I somehow survived, but it sucked. It's strange how much you come to rely on something like that, I mean the internet barely existed until I hit my teens.

We all caught a virus that Gremlin brought home from daycare. Entertaining two cranky sick kids while you are also cranky and sick isn't exactly the most fun ever.

Oh and finally I have been getting crafty again, hopefully I will have finished my project and will post again tomorrow.

I am determined to start writing again. We'll see how that goes ;)

My Long Weekend

W@dsy is stressed. He is nearing the end of his Phd and is going a little crazy. So, like the good and supportive wife I am, I sent him away.

He is staying with friends in Cooktown this weekend for a little kid-free R&R. So where does that leave me? Alone.

W@dsy and I are super close. He left Friday night and won't be back until Monday. This will be the longest time we have been apart since we got married 6 years ago. I don't know how some people do it. Hats off to those women who survive without their partners or those who don't have anyone.

This has been a long weekend. In an attempt to avoid moping about the house and missing my husband, I decided to keep busy.

Saturday
The kids and I spent the day at Lake Tinaroo with some friends. They played, swum, had a few rides on the boat and had a great time. But since naps are apparently for leeser beings, they skipped that part and went right on playing, until the drive home. I woke them, fed them and got them to bed pretty well. Except Gremlin decided to wake 3 times during the night, the last time being about 11pm, then of course I couldn't sleep. I stayed up playing Plants and Zombies, praying that Gremiln wouldn't wake again and that I would get tired soon.


Sunday
Now running on only 4 hours sleep, I woke very tired and not feeling too crash hot. I needed God today, I thought it would be a great idea to visit my friend's church. So that's what we did. Gremlin was pretty good, he went off with the other church kids and played while Chicken stayed with me. She decided that she'd make that fun for me. So the during the entire sermon we wrestled. She didn't really want to do to go to anyone else. She was teething. Fantastic. After that a fight with Gremlin to get him to the toilet, resulted in him running out towards the road and me chasing after him in heels with Chicken held under my arm. Then back home for a late nap. Then out to my aunt's for a BBQ as my cousins are visiting. Oh yeah, I also have conjunctivitus.


Monday
Now this will be interesting, I being the crazy person I am, invited my cousins over for dinner Monday night. I have no idea whether or not W@dsy will be back by then, and my house is a disaster. Oh well, at least they are family, they can forgive a little sloppy housekeeping from a busy mum.

W@dsy I love you, please come back rested and refreshed.
P.S. Soon it will be my turn for a break.

Not Quite a Princess

When we went to the doctors to take Chicken for her needles I was concerned. Not because of the needles (although she put up a pretty good fight), but because of her height and weight measurements. She is tall and thin, not unhealthilty so, but tall and thin nonetheless. And she's blonde, and she's pretty. My very deep concern is that she'll keep up this trend and become a tall, thin, pretty, blonde teenager.

See she's just too pretty for her own good.

I have one comfort in all of this. She is gross and violent. Okay, I guess that's two things.

Chicken is the kind of girl that you might pass in the shops and think "What kind of mother lets her kid get that dirty?" She constantly has food on her face and in her hair, she rolls around in dirt and sand and she eats it too. She farts all the time. She is constantly getting rubbish out of the bin and playing with it.  Chicken is also quite violent. Gremlin may start most of the fights, but she sure finishes them, usually with a pretty solid bite, poke in the eye or squeal in his ear. She is also pretty unforgiving to herself, she is forever covered in small scratches and bruises. In fact she even sucks her thumb so hard that she cuts her thumb on her teeth. So it could actually heal, we had to put a waterproof bandage on her thumb and then tape up the entire thumb so she wouldn't take the bandage off.

So hopefully she'll stay gross and violent as a teenager too, that should keep the boys away. At least for a little while.

It's Getting Out of Control

I'm referring of course to Gremlin's Jedi mind powers.

Here are the things that people have given us in the past three days alone:

 Yet another lady from day care went op-shopping and bought this for Gremlin. She actually tracked it down on the internet, went to Townsville (a 4 1/2 hour drive away, gee I hope she was there for some other reason than my son) and bought it for him.

Yes and our really nice neighbours gave us clothes and bikes, their grandson has outgrown these things, so they thought they'd give them to us.

The people in our life are too nice. They are all in his thrall. We asked him to use his powers and get us a house, we'll see if it happens.

3 Reasons I Hate Toilet Training

Reason 1. The Walk of Shame

You know what I mean, that shame faced walk up to the nearest shop person. You have to explain your embarassing situation. Your darling child has just peed on their floor. Then you offer to clean it up but they refuse to let you. And you walk slowing away, feeling awful because your terrible skills as a parents made your kid pee out in public.

Reason 2. The Ability but not the Will

Gremlin has just displayed an amazing skill, one that every boy seems to learn early. He can fart on command. he can't manage to tell me he needs to go to the toilet, ever, but he has enough control to FART ON COMMAND!

Reason 3. The Guilt

That knowledge that if you were just home more, if you were more patient, more attenitve, more consistent. you could get that child toilet trained. But you are just too darned busy.

If I keep this up, he'll probably be toilet trained before he goes to uni, what do you think?

Frere Jaques

Who ever composed this song deserves to be tortured, for a very, very long time. And by torture I mean listening to Gremlin singing, over and over and over again.

There are probably 6 million songs to this tune, and I'm pretty sure Gremlin knows them all.

You know how parenting and pregnancy magazines tell you to sing to your children, that they love the sound of your voice and that it helps their development blah, blah blah. Well it's all lies. It's just other parents trying to get your brats to sing the same songs their brats sing so that someone else can feel their pain.

I'm so sick of his singing. I love him, I really do, but I really don't care about the whereabouts of "Thumbkin"

My Son has Jedi Mind Powers

Yes, I'm pretty sure Gremlin is a Jedi. Why? Because of the number of people that are in his thrall.

When we pick up the kids from daycare we get bombarded by carers telling us how sweet and charming our son is, how they wish more of the kids were like him. We figured that once he was settled in he would show his true self, you know, the tantrums, the stubborness and the sibling bashing, but it's been almost a year and the gushing hasn't stopped. It has in fact gotten worse. One lady actually purchased a Wiggles bag for him while op-shopping, not for the daycare, but for him. Another is looking to buy guitars for the Junior Kindy room, just because he likes them so much.

Gremlin even has the other kids in love with him. When we arrive, an older child takes him by the hand and includes him in their game. He has the entire Junior Kindy room playing the air guitar with with him whenever they play a Wiggles CD. It's crazy.

The real question is, will he use his powers for good or evil?

Genes

I'm getting sick of explaining. I shouldn't need to defend my fidelity to others. I have never cheated on my husband. No-one asks me outright but a few people seem to assume I have.

Why do I need to say this?

Because my son is not white. I am white, W@dsy is white and my daughter Chicken is white. But Gremlin is not.

He is brown, he has light brown skin and light brown hair and dark brown round puppy dog eyes. He is not adopted, he is mine and W@sdy's. By why does he look different?

Genetics!

Australia is a very multicultral nation. W@dsy is English and his mother is English, his dad is Irish they are all white. My father is a white man born in Australia, my mother was born in India. She is Anglo-Indian with a olive skin. People see my mother's skin, and my stepdad's curly hair and think that Gremlin is theirs. But they look at me and Wadsy and assume that I've been fooling around.

People say,  "Gee your son is really tan." and I say "Yes" and leave a really long pause while they decide whatever they are going to decide about me. I shouldn't need to explain my family tree whenever I meet someone.

W@dsy never has people comment on my son's skin to him, why does everyone ask me?

Am I being too touchy about this? I think I'm just kind of sick of it.

Blonde

After getting bored with having mum hair again, I decided to go blonde.

I have tried the blonde thing before, and I must say that this is the most successful it's been. As I am not a millionare I almost always do my own hair dyeing. However this time I got one of my girlfriends to help.

We started here.

First step was bleaching my hair within an inch of its life. This resulted in what Gremlin called, "Yellow Mummy"

Then I went to the shops and bought some blonde dye you even out the colour and make it less yellow. And this was the result.

Ta Da!

So what do you guys think? Hot or Not?

Now for the real question, do blondes have more fun? Well, Gremlin has now gone 2 days without wetting his pants! I call that fun, but I'm not really sure that my new hair had anything to do with it.

Gremlin's Wisdom for the Day

Gremlin was sitting on the loo. I was frustrated because it was way too early to care about toilet training, but I could hardly get mad when he did the right thing by asking to go to the toilet.

Gremlin: Poo Mummy!
Me: Yes, darling
Gremlin: Poo! Yucky!
Me: Yes..
Gremlin: Don't eat it!

At this point I cracked up, all thoughts of early morning grumpiness went away. I love my son and the crazy thing he comes up with.

One

I happened, my baby girl turned 1.

She isn't supposed to grow up, she's supposed to stay small, sweet and cute forever.

How did she get from here

To here?

Cramming all the party people into our tiny duplex was a feat, fortunatley it stopped raining long enough for us to go into the backyard and let the kids play a bit. We ate cake, had way too much sugar, and the kids were sweet and charming.... and as soon as all the guests left, they both threw a tantrum.

P.S. Here is the cake I made, I'm very proud of it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

One of Gremlin's favourite movies is "Finding Nemo." So W@dsy and I decided to get some fish. So we went and bought a fishtank, fish food, pebbles, chemicals and fish. We asked the petshop lady what fish would work well together, and we spent way too much money but figured it would be worth it because the kids would love it. 

When we got home, we set up the tank, filled it with water, added the necessary chemicals, put the fish in and fed them. We named the fish after characters in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (which by the way is an awesome book series). Count Olaf was the Siamese Fighter, Mr Poe was a Rummynose Tetra, and Duncan and Isadora two of the Quagmire triplets were Neon Tetras. Before you say anything, I'd like to remind you that we checked at the petshop and was told that Siamese fighters could be put in with the other fish.

She was wrong.

By the next morning Mr Poe, Duncan and Isadora were dead. Count Olaf had killed them. Now we only had one fish remaining, and he wasn't looking to well. W@sdy headed back to the petshop to find out what happened. Apparently Siamese Fighters ARE fine with other fish, if you have a large fish tank so the other fish can swim away. Unfortunatley for our little fishies we had a rather small tank. W@dsy went home to find another dead fish. Count Olaf had commited suicide. Okay, well, not quite. It's winter and getting rather chilly here, so Count Olaf died from the cold. Apparently fish need heaters in their tank, who knew?

So now we have an empty fish tank. and the worst thing about it is that Gremlin hasn't even realised that the fish are missing!

5 Lovely Moments for the Day

Today is one of those days when the kids are super cute. They just do one cute thing after another and it makes up for all those bad days.

1. While I was singing on stage at church, Chicken was in her stroller, grinning at me, then covering her eyes with her blanket and playing Peek-a-Boo.
2. Gremlin was playing with his toys and jumped up, yelled "toilet" and ran for the toilet, and he made it.Yay!
3. Chicken playing with the hats in the dress-up box.
4. While playing in the paddle pool, Gremlin discovered that if he sat in the water and stood up, water dripped down his undies making it look like he was weeing. So he kept dunking his butt in the water, standing up, then bending over so he could see himself "wee."
5. Both kids attempting to dance with the Wiggles DVD.

 Nice Hat Chicken

Patience

I used to think I was a patient person. Then I had kids. I learned that my patience was really an illusion. But for some reason my almost-patience seems to be paying off.

• Gremlin has actually been requesting to go to the toilet and weeing!
• Chicken can now stand up by herself
• Gremlin can actually jump. (I was really concerned that my son was the only 2 1/2 year old in the world who wasn't co-ordinated enough to jump)
• The kids slept in this morning, till 6:15, it was awesome

My children survived so far, does that mean I'm becoming patient? Or does it mean that once I think I'm patient something else will test my patience again.

5 Great Achievments of an Underachiever

There are very few days that end with the feeling like I've actually accomplished something, but today I did. So I figured I'd boast about it.

1. Get woken at 5am by 2 children and not killing them

2. Brushing up on my facepainting skills (bad pun I know) by experimenting on my children. This earned me the first deliberate bite from Chicken, even though I only painted her hand.

 Gremlin striking a pose

As my attempt at painting her face failed miserably, I settled for a cute star on Chicken's hand

3. Going shopping and only coming back with the things on the list.

4. Going to McDonalds to facepaint for 2 and a half hours to raise money for school chaplains.

5. Going home and exercising. (I may be the proud owner of a gym membership, but I rarely actually go)

Ok so I didn't actually achieve much, but I survived.

Potato

I, like every mother, think that my children are the most adorable children in the world. As they grow I marvel at the fact that they only get cuter and cuter.

So imagine my surprise when I look back at baby photos of Gremlin and discover that in every photo of him under the age of one, his round baby cuteness has been replaced by a potato. A baby shaped potato with beady dark eyes and a drooly toothless grin. Where did my beautiful baby boy go? Did someone abduct all photos and alter them to be mean? Did aliens abduct me and alter my memory? Or am I just delusional about how cute my son actually was? I am probably just delusional. But he's really cute now that he's older. Isn't he?

Sneaky

My two and a half year old has out-smarted me and husband.

We thought we were being clever and sneaky, we told Gremlin that if he asked really politely he could have one lolly a day. The lolly was just a sweet flavoured multivitamin for kids. Gremlin however insisted that we would have our lollies at the same time he had his. Taking this opportunity we remembered our multivitamins.

However the little rat has been cheating. In order to get himself two lollies a day, he has been waiting to get each parent alone and ask for his lolly then. He even figured out that if he asks us really early in the morning we are generally too tired to ask the other parent if he's had his lolly yet.

If he can trick us now, what will we do when he's 17?

Mother's Day

Ahh Mother's Day, what to say? Well as this a a very mummyish blog I probably should say something about Mother's Day. One problem. I don't really have much to say. I got to sleep in until 6am and had breakfast in bed (this was acheived by being the model mother I am, that is the kids spent the night at Grandpa's house). And I finally got my mother's day present today, which was... a haircut that doesn't make me look like Justin Bieber.

Anyways, I figured as other mums have far more interesting and funny things to say about mothers day, I'll leave it to them. Here are a few of my favourites.

http://motherhoodwtf.com/2011/05/04/mothers-day-gift-guide-not/
http://letmestartbysaying.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/my-motherhood/
http://www.ninjamomblog.com/2011/05/happy-martyrs-day.html

Toilet Training Rant

I am so sick of toilet training it is not funny.

I have tried everything I can think of and it hasn't worked, if someone else tells me to be patient I may just punch them.

I have tried:

• letting him run around in undies all day (he just wees on the floor)
• making him drink heaps of water (he just wees on the floor)
• letting him run around naked on the grass (he waits until we are inside and wees on the floor)
• buying a potty (he scoots around the house in it like a car but doesn't wee)
• getting a singing potty (he just plays with it, no wees. And I want to kill the stupid thing)
• buying a kiddie seat for the toilet (he just removes it and replaces it, over and over again)
• giving rewards and cheers for successful trips to the toilet (he would get stickers or stamps but he needs to actually do something first)
• singing songs to him so he'll relax and go (he waits until we are off the toilet and wees on the floor)
• allow him to close the door so he has privacy (he just shoves an entire roll of toilet paper down the toilet)
• stop trying, wait a few months until the girls at daycare insist that he is totally ready (he occasionally goes to the toilet for them but never for me, the bastard!)

The Hunt

It is time. Time when my part-time job will no longer do, it's time for... a full time job.

Now I have to scour the papers and apply apply apply. I'm praying to find a job closer to home and something that pays enough so that it's worth it. At least I have a good excuse for getting my hair cut properly and to spend a little money on pretty office type clothing.

I really hate job-hunting. It makes you feel quite worthless when you get rejection after rejection. There really isn't a lot of hope out there for someone like me. Why? Because I am old enough to know what I'm doing and won't take crap, which annoys those who like to boss people around and pay people minimum wage. And I am too young to have that "years of experience" thing under my belt. But I do it, because lets face it, I would like to be able to afford nice things once and a while.

Well, here I go.

The Puppy

Nope I did not go out and buy puppy. I don't need to. I have Chicken.

Here are the things my little has in common with a puppy:

1. If she's just had a bath, she'll somehow manage to find something dirty to roll in.
2. She hangs around under her brother's chair to catch falling food scraps, even though you just feed her.
3. She tests out her teeth on everything she can find.
4. When you come home from a day at work, she greets you by toddling over and trying to climb up your leg.
5. When you think you have finally cleaned up the last of the poop, she poops again.

Though for some bizarre reason I am considering buying the kids a fish...

Another Crafty Venture

I finally did it! W@dsy had needed a new wallet for ages so I finally made one for him. Black denim with silver lining.

I didn't have a pattern or anything so I just kinda muddled through and W@dsy melted the lining onto the denim when he ironed on the dragon transfer but I think it turned out alright. I'm considering cutting up a few clothes I don't wear and using the fabric to make myself a new wallet. Hmmm, now to find the time....

P.S. My new dryer arrived late the day after the washing machine, it's great! I no longer have lint flying around the laundry!

Training and Washing

I wish kids were programmable. It would be cool if you could just install a toilet training program when they are ready and they would be toilet trained.

Gremlin has managed to occasionally go to the toilet since before Chicken was born (she's now 9 months) but for some reason he decided to stop. So I have decided to spend the next couple of days convincing him that being toilet trained is the best thing ever. After an entire day of Gremlin in undies, he successfully managed to urinate in the toilet twice. I know I should be proud and grateful etc. but I'm not. If he can get there sometimes then why can't he get there every time? Surely it's less uncomfortable for him to go to the toilet than to wet himself? But apparently I'm supposed just smile, tell him it's okay and mop up the wee again. All I can say is that I am impossibly grateful for the person who invented the washing machine!

Yes my new washing machine arrived today and it's beautiful. I've probably set women's rights back several decades by saying that but who cares?

Anyways, it's shiny, it's new and most importantly it's huge! Hopefully this means I can wash more clothes at one time. But part of me thinks my laundry pile will simply grow to compensate for the new washing machine size. Oooh, my lovely new machine is chirping at me to let me know it has finished, I had better attend to that.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's sequel, My New Dryer. The clever delivery man forgot to put my dryer on the truck today, so he'll drop it around tomorrow. Gee, my life is so interesting.

Mmmm Cookies!

I am attempting a new recipe, Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies. I got the recipe from "Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder" by Joanne Fluke. It's a fun book, pretty standard murder mystery chick lit, but it has dessert recipes!

I have discovered that having a Kindle is dangerous (a Kindle is an ebook reader). It's too easy to buy books! And they are heaps cheaper than buying paperbacks. Although clearly, women who are too ashamed to buy dodgy romance novels in a bookstore, buy them on their ebook readers. How do I know this? Because whenever I look on the bestseller list on Amazon Kindle books, I can't find any good books because the list is crowded with romance novels.

Ooh better go and finish baking cookies.

Darn Washing Machine

In some ways I hate the computerization of appliances, and right now, I really hate it. The pipe where the water goes into our washing machine came out. This would normally not be a huge problem, except that the water that went everywhere fried the circuits in the washing machine. Now I have to buy a new one! Grrr. Now I am on day 3 of dead washing machine and have a HUGE pile of laundry to be washed. I'll probably spend my spare time (ha) in the next few days visiting family and stealing the use of their washing machine. I think it's time we all became nudists, that way there would be less washing.

Sick, Sick, Sick

We are all sick, W@dsy, Gremlin, Chicken and me. Coughing, running noses and headaches. So why am I the only one who is awake at 1:20am? For some reason, my coughs are triggered by me putting my head down on the pillow. This will make this the thrid bad night sleep in a row. I guess I'll just have to try and sleep sitting up on the sofa again. Unfortunately this only works if I don't slump too much, or I start coughing again. Grrr. I miss sleep. Can I have some sleep?

Blast from the Past

My husband W@dsy is wonderful, lovely and the best. Why? Because he bought me a present today.

I'm pretty sure every Australian mother in the 80s had this book. Is it weird that I want Chicken to turn one quicker so I can make her a cool birthday cake?

Good Mummy / Bad Mummy

You gotta take the good with the bad, right?

I'm not a huge fan of kids watching too much TV. Having said that, mine do. Quite a few kids can have the TV on and still run around the house and play, I don't mind those kids watching TV. Mine don't. Gremlin and Chicken turn into TV zombies, you know the kind, they sit and stare, mouth open, drooling slightly, slowly creeping closer and closer to the screen. That's my kids. Gremlin even throws a tantrum when the TV goes off.

But today I let them watch 3 kids dvds (admittedly one of those was put on at 5am so I could sleep a bit before the sun rose). I'm a baaaad mummy.

But I did three loads of washing, vacuumed the house and cooked and pureed some fruit for some baby food for Chicken and put it containers in the freezer. So I'm now a good mummy.

I'm one of those people who beat themselves up about not being able to do everything. I'm trying to give myself a bit of a break, so today, hopefully, I'll let myself end the day thinking I'm a good mummy.

Inspiration

Due to my beautiful friend and reader Amie from Mummas Mumblings, I was inspired to sew again. Her creations were so cute I couldn't resist attempting something cute myself.

This outfit is modelled by Chicken :)

For this one I cut up an old black T-Shirt I never wear and a romper that was a little too small and made a dress.

This one was a first birthday present for a little girl.

I based this elephant off Make it and Love it.

Hopefully this is the beginning of me pulling out my sewing machine a whole lot more often but we'll see.

In the Kitchen

I am no Masterchef. But I do enjoy cooking, especially when I have time to. Most people I know seem to have a favourite dish to cook. Mine is Lasagna.

I wish my lasagna looked this presentable.

Ever since I starting cooking my own lasagna I've been kinda put off my pre-made stuff, its just not the same. Generally I make a huge batch and freeze most of it so we can have it for lunches at work.  I'm not Italian, so I'm sure sure if I make it right and my lasagna is largely dependant on what vegetables etc are left in the fridge, but I like it. There is something soothing about cooking meat and sauces and then layering them. And nights like tonight, when the kids are screaming because they believe that bedtime should be optional, I need soothing.

The One I Didn't Want

Sorry guys, this post isn't going to be silly or quirky. This one is a Deep and Meaningful.

I realised tonight just how much of a joy Chicken is. This is important, because there is something about me you probably didn't know.

I have a confession. I didn't want Chicken.

I am one of the cluckiest people I know, I see a baby and I just melt. When Gremlin was 4 months old I told my (very patient) hubby that I wanted another baby. He told me to just wait until Gremlin was at least one before thought about trying again. So I was waiting. When Gremlin was 8 months I got a casual job working for a friend which was great, but we needed more money. When Gremlin was 10 months I stopped breastfeeding him, popped him on formula and got myself a full-time job. My husband and I had decided to put a second child off for a couple of years. With me working we could save up some money for a house. But God had other plans.

About 2-3 weeks into my new job I went home at the end of the day feeling a little queasy. And I remembered, when I stopped breastfeeding, I didn't get my period. I thought to myself that it was too soon, I was still on the mini pill, (we were a couple of days off starting the new packet of the standard pill) but that only had like a less than 2% failure rate. Apparently that was enough. I took a pregnancy test to convince myself I was crazy for thinking I was pregnant. But I wasn't as crazy as I thought. I was indeed pregnant.

We told everyone we were happy, that it was unexpected but we were glad. I wasn't too sure. We nicknamed the baby "Chuckles" because we figured God had a sense of humour. It wasn't really all that funny. I wanted the baby, but part of me didn't. I hate being pregnant, I'm not one of those glowing happy pregnant women, I'm the sad, pale nauseated type. So it wasn't the best time for me. I did everything I could think of to connect with the baby inside but it wasn't working. I found out the sex, I bought her little girl clothes, I talked to my belly, I even got a pregnancy belly scrub thing, (which only made me feel really uncomfortable and awkward). None of it worked. I secretly wondered what would happen if I gave her up for adoption. It wasn't until 3 weeks before my c-section was booked that I realised I actually wanted her. She was kicking so violently she brought on very painful Braxton Hicks contractions and they admitted me into the hospital just in case. But when they gave me strong painkillers, my body relaxed and the contractions stopped. I was sent home and I realised that I was actually disappointed. I wanted to be able to take my baby home. 

But now I love her, more than I thought I could. I was playing with her tonight and I couldn't help thinking about how glad I am to have her. I love watching her play, she is beautiful. She looks like a little doll, but she's so active. She doesn't stop moving even when she's sleeping. And when she's particularly pleased with something, she grins and her eyes just seem to sparkle. She's Mummy's little girl. She follows me around the house, climbs all over me, and showers me in drool. I'm the one she turns to when she's upset or hungry, or anything. I admit, I love it. And I love her.

Once upon a time...

...in a land far far away, lived a young lady.

This young lady was named Ziva. She had a lovely life.She worked very hard, but always had money for what she needed and a little left over for what she wanted.She had many friends that she would spend her spare time with. She ate chocolate cake for breakfast.She got to sleep in past 9am some mornings. She was married to a handsome young man who loved her very much. Life was good.

Then one day she made a big decision. "I want to have babies," she said. And her life was never the same.

She still worked very hard, but somehow struggled to make ends meet. She still had many friends, but spare time seemed to evaporate. Chocolate cake was now too sugary to have in the house.And sleeping in past 6am now seemed to be an unreachable goal.

Yet life was somehow better than before.

The handsome young man was still handsome and their love grew more and more every day. And they now have two beautiful children.Now "spare time" was spent singing and dancing around the loungeroom and  giving endless cuddles.Though Ziva sometimes missed her old life, she wouldn't change a thing.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Addict

My daughter is an addict.

She is addicted to....receipts?

She just loves eating them. I'm not sure how she finds them, but she does. She finds them all over the house. And she is aided by her brother, who has recently discovered that he can open doors. If she is quiet it means she is either asleep or is eating a receipt. Can kids die from receipt poisoning? Gee, I hope not.

Problem. Solved

Gremlin is a smart little boy, he has very creative ways of solving problems that come up in everyday life...

Problem - He sneezed and got snot on hands
Solution - Rub snot all over face

Problem - He feels like playing the drums but no drum kit
Solution - Push sister over so on belly and use her back like a bongo drum

Problem - He can't see Winnie the Pooh in is favourite cereal bowl
Solution - Empty cereal onto tablecloth

All before 6am

Sorry

Gremlin's new word is "Sorry"

He says it in a little sing-song voice that can calm a very angry parent such as myself. However... I'm pretty sure he has no idea what it means. He's clever enough to have figured out that "Sorry" is what you say when you've done something wrong, but he's not exactly repentant.

Need an example or two?

When Gremlin trips on his own feet (a common occurance) he says "Sorry" to himself.

When Gremlin is cheekily tipping his water bottle all over the sofa, he grins and says "Sorry, sorry sorry."

And shortly after getting in trouble for squishing his sister, he toddles back over to her and declares "Sorry!" as he squishes her again.

Oh well, one day he'll learn what "sorry" means. :)

Survival

I was one of those people, you know the ones. They swear their lives won't dramatically change when children come along. I envisioned strolling through shops in trendy clothes pushing a pram with two gorgeous smiling children.

I was wrong.

Lately I spend my days just getting by. The business of training little babies so that they grow into responsible adults is a little trickier than I initially anticipated.

Gremlin is still not toilet trained, however he does helpfully inform us that he's wet while he pees all over the floor. You know those clever mothers who inform you that they taught their child to go to toilet in only a week, well they can have Gremlin. After literally months of successfully doing his morning poo on the toilet, Gremlin has decided that this was a privilege that we only occasionally deserve. So we are back to waking up at 5am with a lovely warm stinking poo waiting for us. Actually, let's face it, it's me that's up at 5am changing nappies as my husband isn't really conscious until after two coffees.

Chicken has cut her first two teeth in the past week. YAY! Does this mean the end of acidic burning pee which results in nappy rash that looks like something out of a horror movie? No, of course not. Two more teeth are looming, I can see them straining at the gums, threatening me.

And I'm tired. In an attempt to prove I still have a life, I went to a friend's house for a girls night on Saturday and dragged myself home at 2am-ish, didn't get to sleep until 3ish and then was woken at 5. I did have a decent night's sleep last night but it wasn't enough.

When did I get old?

Seriously! Already!

Chicken is growing up.

She's just had her 6 month shots, has moved up to size "0" clothes and is crawling, everywhere. Since she is one of the palest kids I've ever seen, it's getting really obvious when I don't clean the floors because she gets covered in dirt. So then I have to bathe her and clean the floors, again. I hate housework.

So you'll have to forgive me for being a little lax in my posting.

Oh and also Gremlin has about a hundred tantrums a day, during which he repeated bashes his head against the closest wall or door, he keeps getting head bruises. I'm scared someone is going to report us for beating him up or something.Why does he have these tantrums? Well because he wants to watch a DVD, and then it's the wrong DVD, so he wants the first DVD again, this goes on for a while. It's not just DVDs, it happens with every decision, every bedtime, every meal time and every "no". It's a really good thing God made him so cute, otherwise he wouldn't survive.

Oddity of the Day

A toothbrush in the pen holder at work....