The Australian Oxford dictionary defines it as a morbid fear......

Phobia that is.... and I have one. to grasshoppers of all things. No-one said that phobias are rational. And so herein lies the problem. Well, it's been an interesting morning here.... let me regale you with the details. Firstly, small child had been screaming for the last 2 hours..... in my arms, on the floor, in her cot (I put her in there in desperation while I went and had a shower so I couldn't hear her for 10 minutes), no matter what I did she clung and whinged....... poor mite

amongst all of this, I walk into our bedroom to find a HUGE brown grasshopper on our curtains.....




now as you probably figured out from the title i have a very very bad phobia about grasshoppers..... there are usually tears when you pair me and grasshoppers. anyway, I call dave (not sure what I expect him to do...) he offers to come home but my pride won't let him... (remember, meanwhile, Charlotte is clinging to my leg and screaming). So I slam both doors (we can access our bedroom 2 ways)... and then periodically check that he's still on the curtain - because you understand of course that it would be worse NOT knowing where he is!!

Finally I decide I have to kill him (remember readers, we are referring to the grasshopper, not my husband) - but how??? I run through a thousand options before I choose the wussiest one and stand many arms lengths away and spray about 1/2 tin of mortein on him.... I watch him struggle, he's easing down the curtain (straight towards my pillow - egads, guess I'm washing the sheets again today!!!)..... and then, out of nowhere he starts to panic and starts flinging himself around the room...... I scream, shut the door, and listen for a good 15 minutes while he careens off every surface possible. Can I point out at this point, that I've since learnt that in their dying state, grasshoppers vomit (or poop who knows) ORANGE onto every surface they touch.... just bloody charming. anyway, he's dead. He's lying on the floor with an empty nappy bucket over him - because there's no way I'm touching him - even if he IS dead. So there you go, I think we can safely assume that Charli girl is going to develop this phobia - won't that be a riot!!??

A walk in the park.....

Today we went to the park. She's at that age now where Activities with a capital A become a priority - no longer is she content to just sit around while mummy watches telly and does some washing.... if I want her to have a decent sleep then Activity is the key - tire her out and hopefully she'll be out for the count. So onwards to the park on this lovely (if not a little windy) Autumn day.




Apparently she hasn't quite realised yet that it's more fun to come down the slide

Welcome to our newest addition!!

Today is truly a magical day dear readers - today we made it into the 20th Century. After we both had ignored the washing up (again) for five days in a row and we could no longer spot the kitchen bench and we'd run out of forks........ I decided it was time to plunge ourselves even further into debt and get ourselves a dishwasher. We haven't looked back. Officially it's my mothers day present (though hubby knows that if I don't actually also get something on the day to unwrap there will be tears..... come on, you know there will be)..... however, I haven't actually had a chance to load it, use it, or unload it yet. Hubby is still in 'novelty' mode and has been loading and unloading it twice a day - I've decided to let him, from past experience this novelty will wear off in about a week or two (the car got washed religiously every weekend when we first got it, now it probably gets washed twice a year!!!).


Now we just have to renovate the kitchen to bring it into the 21st Century - check out that lino!!!