53,839 words and counting

Hi dear readers,
Allow me to just take a quick moment out of my thesis-writing day to share with you the growing pile of paper that will (in 13 weeks I hope) be submitted as my PhD thesis. this is only photos of chapters that have been seen by my supervisor, commented upon and revisions made - so it's still probably only half of what you will eventually see. But then ironically the thesis will actually seem smaller than this because the thesis office at UQ is now - in the interest of 'green' thinking - allowing double sided printing of theses. I think this decision was also made to reduce the number of workers' compensation claims that were being made for back injuries by those having to pick up the documents!!

4am panic writing

Well it's 4am on a Sunday morning....... 13 weeks to go until the deadline and I've woken up in a panic that I've written up all my MANOVAs incorrectly (based on someone else's write-up that I've borrowed)..... so of course rather than lie there stressing about it I decided to take the more productive approach of getting up and actually working on it. I will no doubt regret this decision in about 2 hours when I have to get up to small child.... plus there is a first birthday party on the agenda this morning but I suspect unfortunately I am going to have to un-rsvp to that. I'm hoping she will understand (the mum, not the one-year old!!!). I have warned people that I am going to be totally selfish with my time for the next few months and I hope that they can all forgive me for the occasions that I miss.
Anyway, best be off and actually write these stats up. As of later today I may start posting pics of the growing pile of thesis as it emerges.

Ciao

Day 4 .... big girl bed

day 1 - daytime nap - 30 minutes
day 2 - daytime nap - 25 minutes
day 3 - daytime nap (was at her nan's so no big girl bed)
day 4 - daytime nap IN BIG GIRL BED.... going on 2 hours now - WOO HOO...... yay for charli

Day 1......big girl bed.... 10 minutes later

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

Day 1......big girl bed

Hmmm, well here I sit, 7.49pm, listening to my daughter chatting away to herself (i can only assume she is alone in there)...... waiting for her to go to sleep for the first time in her big girl bed. Here it is in all it's girly glory...... it's actually a bunk bed and this is the top bunk. we chose bunks because it's got the safety rails we can use for now and then when the second bump arrives and is ready for a bed, oooh, say 2 years from now, it will have already been purchased and that's one less thing we need to worry about...... I'm sitting here patiently still waiting for her to sleep. I just know I'm going to spend the first night waiting for a thump followed closely by screaming as she hits the floor.... I just know it.

When you gotta go.... you gotta go.

Oh my goodness. Meegan put me on to this site........ can you believe there is a website for this?

Who do I look like? it all depends on which photo you choose!!

Hi dear readers,
Well I did say that my next post would be about my thesis didn't I? Well I lied. I'm sitting here writing my overview chapter while simultaneously (in true Type-A style) playing on a website that will allow you to upload a photo to see who you match with regard to celebrity status. Now I ran four different photos before being happy to be compared to these women (you can actually choose to be compared to men and women as it utilised facial features).....



One not so charming photo I uploaded compared me solely to men.... one of them gave me a 65% match rate with Gene Hackman.... I decided to pass on that one!! Not that he's not a handsome man and all....

Now of course I can't see a resemblance between myself and any of these women but then I can't even see how my daughter resembles my husband OR I so clearly picking out facial features is not my forte...... still I'm happy to compared to any of these women - especially that sexy one of Raquel Welsh - personally? I think the shadow covering the left hand side of our faces in this photo is probably the only similarity!!

Projects update...August 2006

I realise that I haven't updated on all our projects in a long time - not (I think) since I first outlined them many many moons ago.....so here we go.

1. Stay at home mummy

I think the previous post fairly well outlines how I'm coping as a stay at home mum....... thank goodness for childcare centres and family who are willing to look after their grandkids because seriously I've come to the horrible horrible realisation about myself that I am not cut out for full-time parenting of a toddler on a day to day basis.....

2. Working part-time.....

well this has ceased for the next X number of months... to be replaced by hard work on my PhD for the next 4 months and then you know... giving birth again.... and then those glorious months of wandering around with a newborn attached to your mammory glands while you attempt to sleep in whatever position you can find where the baby can still feed. Except joy of joys, this time I get to also attempt to be awake and alert and various times in order to continue parenting what I can only assume is going to be one independent (read: nightmare) 2 year old..... I can't wait :)

3. The backyard...

Well, finally!! A project I can say is finally complete - well the paid, professionally landscaped part of it anyway. Here are some updated photos of the small amount of gardening we've managed so far. The big stuff of new fence and garden shed etc is still to happen...... it's a work in progress. I'd like to point out that the sad state of the garden is in no way due to poor maintenance on our behalf..... for those of you not in the know Brisbane is on level 3 water restrictions..... so we're praying for a wet summer....





4. House renovations....

not happening. won't happen until we stop pro-creating... let's move on...
okay well they are happening on a smaller non-professional level because sometime in the next 4 months (read: before our bump number 2 arrives into this world) we have to:

a. get a new toilet and vanity for the bathroom and have them installed
b. move my study into dave's study (there is a bit of feet dragging on this and I suspect he is struggling with losing his male sanctuary.... he should stop knocking me up then I say as we are fast running out of room in this house!!!)
c. do up my study as charli's new bedroom which entails ripping up carpet, painting walls, putting in fly screens, a ceiling fan... buying a single bed and wardrobe and whatever else a small child requires.....
d. buy and install a rainwater tank
e. get a new back fence and a garden shed installed

and the list goes on.........

5. And last but not least...........................THE THESIS!!

I'm going to do a whole post on this next time - but suffice to say that my first week as a full-time student did not go well. Dave's entire family were struck down with some dreaded lurgy (and hence I had no childcare), I got a gastro bug, and charli was cutting 2 teeth...... despite that I did manage to get a little bit done but here's hoping the second week goes better...... (and god help anyone who gets sick in the next 4 months - people I'm on a deadline!!!!)

An artist's view

Well at my wit's end this week - I discovered the life of a full-time stay at home mum with a toddler. I don't think I truly appreciated those 2-3 days a week when someone takes charli girl off my hands and I get to go to work or work on my thesis - both 'work' but not nearly as hard as entertaining a 16 month old. So we resorted to 'art' - something I've been reluctant to embark upon as it's seemed so messy. Little could I realise the true issues at hand.......

So here she is decked out in a shirt that Claire bought me back from London - I love this t-shirt but having already managed to stain it with what I think is beetroot I was willing to allow it to become Charli's art smock (as it turns out she didn't stain it as much as I already had!!).


So it turns out the art classes were not the real disaster. The real disaster was me leaving a can of coke (mine not hers!!) on the table - next to my mobile phone which I'd just used to take these photos - and walk inside to get her a drink or a bicky or whatever the little ratbag was insisting upon at the time (i realise now it was just a ruse for her to tip my coke all over the mobile phone)...... here is a photo of me grabbing the phone (and inadvertently taking a photo) in an attempt to rescue it before it was drowned....... this should come with the caption "oh shit" which is what was being exclaimed at that exact moment...

Ekka 2006 Part 2

Here are some more pics from our beloved Ekka. Today we made sure we got in there early and went straight for the animal nursery - a pavillion that is extremely popular with young and old alike so the queues are normally out the door. Thankfully at 9am we got to go straight in and spend a good 1/2 hour ...... it was fantastic. Photos didn't come close to capturing the hilarity of Charli girl pulling a goat's tail as he went past or when she grabbed some hay out of my cup to feed the animals and then got mobbed by 2 lambs and a butting goat.... it was hilarious!! Times like that video is in order!!




We lent charli girl's hat to my neighbour so she wore my cap (I scored a free one from the RACQ people at the Ekka...... the brim is a little too big no? :)



And inevitably it was all too much by 11am and a quick kip was in order.... I wished at that point that I could curl up in the grass and have a sleep too as I was exhausted......

Can she live up to her title?

Well dear readers..... as little as I've been posting lately - I may soon hit an all time low as I bid you adieu for a few months. On a whim a fortnight ago I applied for a scholarship that will pay me to convert to full-time on my thesis (i.e. give up my job/go on extended leave of absence) and complete and submit in 16 weeks. Submission date 8th December.... not the 9th.... not the 10th... but the 8th. This is non-negotiable. Talk about pressure huh (scholarship monies to be repaid if I can't submit on time)..... and you guessed it - on Friday night I was offered the scholarship. A weekend of panicking, stressing, weighing up finances... weighing up the stresses of having to submit a thesis in 16 weeks and give birth a mere 2 weeks later (and that's assuming the little blighter doesn't come early)....... all of this resulted in a very sleepless couple of nights and the ultimate decision was made this morning to accept the scholarship and go hell for leather getting it completed.

Let's face it... I had trouble completing it when i was full-time, when i was single, when i was married with no dependents - the thought of working part-time and raising 2 children under 2 - let's be honest, if I don't complete this now it will never happen. And in case I've not alluded to it before, clearly if anything has been learnt in the past 8 years, it's that I'm not self-motivated enough if there are no deadlines...... so I've just given myself the ultimate deadline......

So blogging may be a thing of the past for awhile.... or I may end up using it as my sounding board in which case you are about to be subjected to 4 months of sheer boredom as you listen to my rants about the post-divorce adjustment of teenage children - sound exciting?

So wish me luck dear readers. All offers of baby-sitting, bringing around home-cooked meals, sending of vouchers for holidays in the Bahamas when this is finally all over........ well they'll all be well received. Adieu......

Ekka 2006

It's Ekka time again (or 'the show' for you southerners) and so far we've totally reaped full benefit from our annual $100 membership by having been to the ekka every day (I'd like to point out that I do work just 50m up the road so ducking down to the show to get a bratwurst dog and strawberry sundae constitutes 'going to the show' that day). Here's a quick shot of hubby and Charlotte outside sideshow alley - now renamed Moove Alley.... everything is sponsored this year!!

More photos probably tomorrow as Charli girl and I are going with our neighbour and her daughter to see the chooks, cows, pigs and hopefully have a pat of all the babies at the animal nursery!!

Big dog?

Well Beck and I seem to be on some sort of back-n-forth with this....

Your Ideal Pet is a Big Dog

You're both energetic, affectionate, and a bit goofy. And neither of you seem to mind very slobbery kisses!

What's Your Ideal Pet?

It's official

According to this website - I am actually a type-A personality - it's not just something I made up!!

You Have A Type A- Personality

You are one of the most balanced people around Motivated and focused, you are good at getting what you want You rule at success, but success doesn't rule you. When it's playtime, you really know how to kick back Whether it's hanging out with friends or doing something you love! You live life to the fullest - encorporating the best of both worlds

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

Thought of the day.

Trying to clean your house before your children have grown up is like trying to shovel the footpath before the snow has stopped falling.

AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!!!

Happy Birthday Nanna, From Princess Charlotte

Well it was Mum's birthday today - so happy birthday Mum. To celebrate this special day, Charlotte ran around in her new princess/fairy outfit courtesy of Aunty Libby. (thank you!!). It was hard to get her to sit still while she had the outfit on so I ended up having to get a photo of her sitting down - which kind of loses some of the effect......





We've also been doing a lot of gardening lately - well correction - I've been gardening and little miss monkey has been taking it easy, just kicking back watching me work...... hmph!!



Also have been meaning to post about the new 'dishwasher' game...... it's fairly self-explanatory.... behold!!

things that make me smile...

Hi dear readers - I've been MIA again for awhile..... all of you will know by now that I'm pregnant again with my second baby, so I've actually been sequestered away in denial about having two children under the age of two!! :)

I've got heaps of things I want to post about, but for this post I just want to focus on some things that Charlotte has been doing lately that just make me laugh out loud.... they truly are funny little beings (and I say this despite the long weekend from hell punctuated last night by a projectile vomit to rival Mt Vesuvius)..... aaagh, parenthood.

things that make me laugh:

1. When the credits rolled at the end of the movie Madagascar (a movie which I found somewhat disappointing), she stood nose to nose with the TV while appearing to look DOWN into the bottom of the screen - from where the words were magically appearing!!!

2. When you ask her if she is doing something naughty (when she clearly is) and slowly shakes her head from side to side

3. When you ask her if she's cute and she nods her head

4. When she refuses to eat her food unless she's allowed to have a spoon too (this is getting really tiresome by the way). Whereupon she proceeds to spoon food onto the utensil and as she brings it to her mouth, she turns it sideways so that it all strategically falls down her shirt. Luckily for her I'm right there with a second spoonful of food else the poor child would starve if required to fend for herself..... manual dexterity has not yet been mastered.

5. When she turns and runs now when you go to pick her up and she doesn't want to be picked up because she knows it means leaving the park/going back inside/doing something else she doesn't want to do

Of course there were 1000 other things I thought of this morning while I lay awake at 3pm wondering if i should get up (once again) and have something to eat (I'm hoping there's only one baby I'm feeding in there because if I am going to have 3 children under the age of 2, there better be a doctor willing to write me a standing prescription for Valium!!!).

Until next time......

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!!!

Transitioning to one nap....

Hello dear readers,
My little poppet is sort of transitioning to one sleep - but still quite early in the day - waking about noon. So by 4pm, we really don't like her to go down for a nap (she'll be awake til midnight if we do!!!) but she is exhausted. It's hard to deny her a nap though when this is what happens when you're trying to keep her awake!! And no, she had not had any of the beer you see in the background!!

And so we relented.....



We'll give her half an hour before we turn the telly up to blaring and scare the living daylights out of her


(I'm just kidding people....)

Disclaimer: Barbie products not condoned in our household. This sofa bed being relocated to Nan and Granddad's house at the earliest convenience!!!

Dear Charlotte...

Dearest Charlotte,
It seems just yesterday - and yet a lifetime ago too - that I held you in my arms for the first time. Where has the year gone my baby? You have given your Daddy and I so much happiness over the past twelve months and we love you so very much.

I want to tell you how much you mean to us and how much you make us laugh... that squeal of excitement that we get first thing in the morning is worth the 5am wake-ups (well usually!!).

I want to tell you how much your Nanna would have loved meeting you - and how she is your own personal guardian angel - always watching over you.

I want to tell you how hard it is not to laugh now you are learning the concept of 'tantrum' and how I have to leave the room when you clench your fists and stamp your feet - just so you can't see me smile ... you have a mind of your own and I foresee years of asserting your independence ahead of you!!

I want to tell you that you have changed your Mummy and Daddy's lives forever - and only for the better. The sleep-ins, the relaxing holidays, the dinners without interruption, the countless other things we have 'lost' ..... those things pale in comparison to the endless joy that you've brought to our lives.....

We love you big one-year old girl...xoxo

Happy Birthday Monkey

Our beautiful little monkey turned one yesterday. I had decided to take the day off work to celebrate with her and what a delightful day we had. We spent some time with friends, went and bought some more pressies (because Dave and I had given them all to her about 2 weeks ago in excitement!!). Here is a photo of Charli and I - a bit blurry...... you try holding a one year old still!!



There was opening pressies on first waking up - forgive the 'bed hair'... :)




There was much fun to be had playing with toys that we'd given her - Dave and I may have been having more fun than her - it was hard to tell......

Happy Easter.... again!

Good afternoon dear readers - and a happy easter sunday to you all. I do hope the easter bunny was kind to you this morning. We had lunch at our place with Dave's family today. Charli girl was allowed one egg - she was fairly unimpressed actually and was more interested in trying to fish out the toy that was inside!! here's our family easter photo...


And here she is just playing on her own with her little wagon..... cute huh?

You mean we're supposed to TALK to each other??

What worries me most about this cartoon and the fact that I find it funny is that it's a little too like our lives!! :)

Happy Easter!!

Dear Readers,
here's to you all having a lovely easter - and I hope the Easter Bunny is kind to you all. Dave and I aren't giving each other eggs this year - it's all about Charlotte from here on in. So we got her a KinderSurprise - she's allowed one egg (she is after all, not even one yet). Well actually, truth be told, Dave bought two and has just devoured his now. Mostly I think he wanted to put together the toy that is inside....... we are taking bets on what this little fellow is meant to be.... anyone?

Okay, I'll start the ball rolling..... I'm sorry, and yes Libby I am perverted, but this is definitely a penis on wheels ...... go on, say it doesn't look like a male appendage twirling some bicycle wheels, I dare ya??

Turn it up Mum!!!

Good evening dear readers,
How are we all this evening? I, as per usual, am super-tired, but thought I should take this opportunity while child and husband are both asleep, to update you on my hip daughter - shown here listening to some toons......


In an attempt to capture the 'bopping' that was going on (and hence the blurriness of the photo), I took some video footage..... but haven't worked out how to link that yet..... stay tuned.

post drought

Good evening dear readers,
I've been in a bit of a posting slump of late...... a lot of it has to do with just wanting to enjoy life a bit without having to record it... but I understand there are some of you who are feeling a bit lost without my blogs... go on Lib, you can admit it!! :)

So, a boring post tonight... see these letters?




We bought them for Charlotte to play with on the fridge.... so far I've found them in the tupperware container, in the coke box, under the fridge, in the lounge stuffed under the lounge chair cushions...... at any one time there's usually only 4 letters ON the actual fridge....Dave looked at me while I was pulling some out of the cupboard and said "parenthood isn't anything like I imagined it would be but I love it anyway" - well that's lucky!!! :)

New yard owner rediscovers childhood!!

Evening dear readers - quick post tonight to remind you all just how happy I am with our new backyard (thanks Peter, Peter's sons - Nick and Joel yeah?, and Craig the bobcat man!!). I have rediscovered my child side!! Goodbye anal-retentive, a-type-personality and hello fun-loving mummy!! Every afternoon for the past 3 days has been spent outside, frollicking in the grass with charlotte and our neighbours' little girl (who is one year older than charlotte). Zahri and I have trekked up and down those new stairs a gazillion times (she's in the the 'i love stairs' phase!!). I've tried teaching her to roll down a hill sideways (I had forgotten how much fun that was!!) and last but not least I did a cartwheel, a few handstands and a somersault. Of course, I forgot (having not done one for bloody 20 years!) that you are meant to take the weight of your body on your hands NOT your neck..... result? severe whiplash on my first day of enjoying the backyard followed by 2 days of mersyndol attempting to stop my neck from spasm-ing!!! Dave called me 'old girl'.... my ego was wounded - ha ha ha - I don't feel my age - why should I act it...... anyway just wanted to tell you all how much I love grass... oh and stay tuned... Dave has plans for a treehouse, a suspension bridge, a slide and a sandpit..... backyards rock!!

Take a moment to feel the grass beneath your feet...

Hello dear readers, tonight I write to you with a song in my heart - yes, the landscaping that we've been 'getting around to' for six years now (until we finally came to our senses and paid a wonderful landscaper to do) is nearly completed. Well, okay, the plants are yet to be planted and the sand pit is yet to be filled with sand... but you get my drift. They say a picture speaks 1000 words, so I'm going to leave you with the visual.....


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