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....