We did it!!

The Pre-Party Preparations.

Well I'd been thinking about Charli's Dora the Explorer second birthday party for many many weeks. In reality however I left most preparations until the second to last moment and spent a couple of nights waking at 3am wondering how I was going to design the maps or more importantly, what the hell I was going to put on the maps, and how all of this was going to happen in the next three days with Charli not finding out what I was doing ....... I'm not going to explain here the whole concept of Dora and Boots and their adventures. If you are clueless and would like to be clued.... feel free to visit the Dora site at the Nick Jr website.

Needless to say, my most amazingly creative sister-in-law Bekk - who is stuck in Mt Isa working at the moment and therefore has many an hour to spend on such tasks given the questionable venues she has to choose from at which to socialise - offered (silly girl) to make some backpacks up for the kids from purple felt. I was quick to take up her offer and here's how they turned out.



Unfortunately this little guy seems to have lost an eye - rest assured they were not made like this - Bekk was not willingly scarring small children for life by presenting them with one-eyed backpacks!!! All of this creativity achieved with a sewing machine that was not available until the night before the party and then went on the fritz with three backpacks to go!! Thank you so much Bekk!!

The Dora Hunt

Well the kids arrived and after trying to keep about 7 kids under the age of 3 penned up in the lounge room until everyone arrived we decided to get started without a couple of them. Backpacks were distributed - much to Henry's delight who was a bit put out that all the presents were for Charli Girl (and rightly so Henry!!) Kids were asked to pull out their maps



Of course the concept was lost a little on children who were not yet literate, however, the first stop was the big blue river (a tarp in the front yard) and all the kids had to look in their backpacks for their skipping ropes so that we could make a rope bridge and cross the river (lame I know but I couldn't think of anything else at the last moment because of course I had not scripted this day - as if it would go to plan with 9 two-year olds in tow!!.... yes 9!!! so much for the rule of inviting one more than the child's age to their parties.... I read that little parenting tip after the invites had all gone out ha ha).

Next stop was Quicksand Cave - something we'd put a little more effort into - our carport decorated with purple plastic walls and sand on the floor.



The kids were told that they were not allowed to touch the sand or they would sink. I potentially have instilled a beach phobia into every attending child. Years from now on the psychologist's couch they will tell of a Dora party at which for some inexplicable reason one of the parents made them afraid of sand!! They lept across the numbered 'rocks' to make it safely to the other side.

Once through the other 'wall' and it was onto the stop 3 - the Pinata Party. Of course the first thing they spied as they ran towards the backyard was a 2-ft high stuffed Dora sitting on a set of swings and the squeals of delight and shouts of 'party' (say it like the karate kid says 'bonsai') as they raced down the hill were priceless. I do hope that part was captured on video.

The Pinata

Once in the backyard I found myself standing alone at the Dora pinata asking everyone where the pinata was before someone pointed out that they probably didn't even know what a pinata was. Stupid kids!! So I dragged them all off the swings and made them come over to the pinata - because you know, this party was not about them having fun - it was about them following the bloody map that my husband had lovingly printed and laminated!! So get your bums over here kids!! :)




Each child took hold of a ribbon and 'pulled pulled pulled' until finally I stuck my hand up Dora's backside and pulled out the bottom of it myself - to the squeals of delight as children were rained with packets of dinosaur jubes and little toy whistles (disclaimer: parents were advised that after Dave had shoved a whistle in his mouth we had ascertained that they were not a choking hazard however all parents were responsible for their own children and whatever objects that may be put inside said child's mouth).

The Cake

Despite my godmother insisting that the Dora Cake looked like the Lion King (!! what the?? LOL) I would like to think that given

1. this was my first attempt ever at piping a cake,
   
2. it took over 10 colours (!!) and
   
3. I had to wait until all children had gone to bed which meant that I was icing this bloody thing at 9.30 on the Friday night

well I think it worked out rather well. I can't take full credit though. When Dave entered the kitchen with me close to tears, pouring a baileys and declaring that Dora was just going to have to be iced all in one colour and that I didn't give a crap anymore.... well he leaped to my rescue and got me started by doing all the fiddly black and brown outline piping...... I felt more enthused after that. So hats off to Dave or else this.....



may have looked like one large blue blob with a few sprinkles scattered over it. It was made all worth it when Charli recognised who it was. Of course I will admit to holding her down and asking about 10 times "who is it Charli?" before the survivalist in her must have realised that she was not getting any of that yummy looking cake until she'd given me the answer I was after..... she whispered "Dora", I beamed and then whisked the cake up stairs to cut it (much to the chagrin of all the drooling children). Charli seemed to like it.....


This unfortunately is probably also the only shot I got of the lovely birthday outfit that Aunty Libby bought for her months ago - well she didn't specifically buy it for her to wear at her birthday but it looked like something Dora might wear to a mexican fiesta!!

Post-party Blues

So everyone left and Dave, Charlotte, Mackenzie and I just hung in the backyard for awhile waiting for Charli to get tired...... we waited... and we waited..... and we waited....... Dave was approaching drunk on the beer he was consuming and had I not been breastfeeding I would have been close behind him...... finally at about 2.30pm we got both girls to sleep and instead of also sleeping we sat in the backyard and reminisced about the last two years. Charli finally woke up about 4pm and spent the next 2.5 hours alternating between sobbing and just plain crying. Those post-party blues can be a real bitch sometimes. We hoped for an early night......

..... but it was not to be. Well not for me and the girls at least :)

A girl's night in

Lying around on our bed at 7pm with the girls, Dave looked dead on his feet and so I stupidly suggested he go to bed as it was Charli's bedtime anyway and as soon as I had her and Zie settled I'd be right in there with him......he barely managed to say "i'll just have a nap" before the snoring began. By 8pm I knew that there was no way Charli was going to sleep - despite being tucked in with her Dora figurines from Samuel (thanks Sam!!)



I'd been into her room 4 times and finally made a deal with her. She could come out and watch telly but we were watching what I wanted to watch. I compromised. I wanted to watch a chick flick. Charli, as always, wanted to watch Dora. So we put on The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen and she lay with me and watched the entire 2 hour feature length film - and it wasn't even animated. Of course I had to get a running commentary about the dog's antics the entire movie - and how you explain genetic modification to a two-year old I'll never know. She wanted to know what the pug dog crossed with the cane toad was - well I lied and said it was a funny looking frog. She seemed happy enough with that and I suspect she knew that if she pushed the point she would be sent to bed before the exciting conclusion to this movie. At 9.30pm she declared she was tired and she wandered off to bed. All in all a good day, though one that went on a little longer than I'd hoped. She sure does know how to milk a birthday party for all it's worth doesn't she??

Happy Birthday our darling sweetheart - your Nanna is watching over you for many more birthdays to come. We all love you. xoxox

Two years ago tonight....

I was sitting at the computer on a pregnancy website asking the girls there whether cramping meant that I could be in labour..... 5 and a half hours from now two years ago I went into labour. 10 hours and 17 minutes from now two years ago our lives were changed forever when our beautiful girl Charlotte was born. You have brought so much to our lives little girl. Each and every day you make me laugh - even on those days when I am so tired I could cry. I saw you today swinging on a 'big girl swing' - back and forth you swung your legs making yourself go higher and higher. Somehow I blinked and you grew up. Happy Birthday for tomorrow little girl. Your Daddy and I love you very much. xoxox

A little something to look forward to

Well dear readers, this coming September my lovely husband and I will have survived 5 years of marriage. Add to this the fact that the last 5 years have included a PhD, full-time study for Dave, family health problems, and two small children entering our lives and thus making alone time all but impossible - and I bit the bullet today and booked us in for two nights here for our anniversary. If you click on the accommodation link you'll see the luxurious lagoon suite which will be our home for two nights. And there will be a couples massage package at the day spa complete with champagne and cheese platter afterwards. Our package includes dinner each night, breakfast each day, and a bottle of champagne daily - clearly I am going to be drunk the whole time. Counting down the days until these two days of bliss will be ours - and I'm sure that we will only discuss the children for 40 of those 48 hours away.

Toesday bloody Toesday

Like Sunday Bloody Sunday, except on a Tuesday - and of my toe - and the blood was more of the internal bruising kind and less of the kind where 26 civil rights protesters were shot dead in Northern Ireland. So really my incident with my toe is really nothing like it, but here's what happened nonetheless. But first - why am I blogging about my toe? Many many posts ago, Beck started Toesday - I can't remember when, sorry you'll have to find the post yourself - it will give you a chance to read all of her posts - go on, it's worth it :)

Anyway, I've never posted a photo of my toes - though I did post a gorgeous one of Charli and her daddy and their toes many moons ago now when she was only 6 weeks old. But I don't like my feet and they are usually not for public viewing. But my unsightly feet have just been made worse by slamming the little toe of my left foot into a bedside table (and no I was not drunk worse luck - I felt every spine chilling crack in my little toe as it happened). It swelled immediately. Today it looks like this....

It feels worse than it looks. And don't think I haven't complained endlessly about this since it happened....and made Dave look at it 1000 times since yesterday........ he did exactly the same thing last week - I kid you not EXACTLY THE SAME THING except on a different piece of furniture. And he had previously broken his toe so it probably hurt more. AND Charli threw herself on his foot after he'd just hurt it. But he complained not once. What a trooper. I on the other hand will be milking this for all that it's worth. Because that's just the kind of gal I am :)

(p.s. and the photo is out of focus because of the excrutiating pain I am in .... or just because I am a crap photographer)

A bit of DIY

Well I often lament that I don't have very good craft skills. People such as Beck have more craft in her little finger than I have in my whole body. But when it comes to larger projects that are home oriented and a bit more blokey then I'm not too bad. I've been known to make my own flyscreens for rental properties that allowed waay too many bugs in for my liking. And my latest project is to transform these chairs. Here is a before shot:



Four chairs and solid pine table were my mum's and she had re-upholstered the chairs in this fabric to match our new corner lounge as the tables and chairs were in her dining room. However, since the table and chairs are now in our eat-in kitchen being used and abused by a toddler who is none too careful with her food...... well if you look very closely you would see remnants of spaghetti, playdough, weetbix and the stray piece of mushed up corn...... I needed wipable chair coverings!!

So off to spotlight I went in search of upholstery grade vinyl, a staple gun, some upholstery tacks, and calico. Then it was off to Clark Rubber for some new foam padding. Home again and the maddening task of removing tacks and staples from the bases began......4 weeks later - maddeningly trying to get this done with Charli asleep as her DIY skills are still being developed ;) and this is the end result.......



I won't be winning any upholstery awards but it suits our purposes.

Little susie homemaker

With the PhD still awaiting comment and me starting to almost feel on top of motherhood with two under two - I am back to baking. This.....




was presented to Michelle today when she came to visit. A white chocolate cheesecake. I believe her words were "bloomin' bloody wonderful" - and it was if I do say so myself.

Number of photos not equal to amount of love

My dearest Mackenzie,
I have been thinking about writing this for many weeks now. You just turned 3 months last weekend while we were on holidays with Meegan and Sharon and their brood and I realised that although it was your first beach holiday I failed to actually take any photos of you at the beach. This lack of photos is also I'm afraid carried over to your home life and I have been remiss in taking as many photos of you as I took of Charli when she was your age. But I must explain why. Some of it as you will come to understand should you ever have children of your own one day is due to a simple time issue. I no longer have any. I no longer have the luxury of standing above your cot as you sleep and taking 20 photos of every minute little change in facial expression in a three minute period. However, some of the reason for the paucity of photos is merely because with time, I've come to understand that so much more enjoyment can be gleaned from actually experiencing moments with your children rather than madly attempting to capture them on film. You will therefore see that I've taken less photos of Charli as she's gotten older as well. Why? Because I now sit and marvel at her antics each and every day rather than trying to video them. Similarly, I find myself propping you up on my legs and just 'talking' to you for ages. Listening to your gurgles and attempts to 'talk' to me. I love it. And I dont' want to miss a minute of your smiles by racing for the camera. But I promise to take at least some photos each month - you know, so you know that you weren't adopted at age 7 or anything :)

Love Mummy

I brought reality with me....

This won't be a long post about the weekend away with Meegan and Shaz as to be honest I'm still recovering. Three adults, four toddlers and a 10 year old....... relaxing weekend away? Hardly :)
Still I do want to thank the girls for coming away with me and letting me see just how possible (or not as the case may be) it would be to holiday with the girls on a regular basis while they are still this young. Mostly the conversation that sticks in my mind is one I had with a gent in the lifts while loading all my stuff back into the car on Sunday morning. He said to me:

"It'll be hard to get back to reality tomorrow won't it?" Smiles.

I had Charli in my arms (as she wouldn't be put down) and was trying to steer a trolley full of the monumental load of crap that you have to take away with you when you holiday with two small children. I knew that Mackenzie was back in the unit screeching for a feed.

"Um, I brought reality with me."

He smiles sympathetically as he leaves the lift and says "yeah, been there, done that - it'll all be over some day".

Despite the stress that was this weekend I realise that I hope it won't all be over too soon. I'm not ready for them to leave the nest anytime soon. I love you princesses xoxox

One of those days...

Well dear readers it's been one of those days. And it's now nearly 9.30pm and I'm tired so this is going to be the reader's digest version.

Today the wardrobe man was coming so that we could finally have a grown up bedroom and not one that looks like two 19-year olds are sharing a college dorm room.

The weather forecast is 34 and humid.

I ring the wardrobe company and they are not due until 12.30pm - right when Charli will be due for her sleep.

At about 9.30am we're watching TV, I have 2 air-conditioners on and I throw a load of laundry in the dryer because I'm a lazy housewife who couldn't be jacked going downstairs into the hot day to hang the washing out.

I'm feeding Zie and she lets loose with a bottom burp to end all bottom burps and when I stand up I have baby excrement running down my legs onto the brand new turkish rug.

I call to Charli to get me the baby's sheet (i.e. wrap) and bring it to me. Charli looks at me with her new look "I know what you're asking me to do but you know, I just don't feel assed doing that for you right now".... I bribe her with something - it may have been an ice-block, I don't recall. She finally finds it in her heart to bring me the wrap so I can wipe up the mess rather than traipsing it through the house.

As I'm changing Zie's nappy, the stereo/TV goes BANG and I lose power - bloody hell - too many appliances, I've blown a damn fuse again. Now I'm becoming fairly accomplished at fuse changing so I head downstairs with a teatowel to take out the fuse....but then I realise that the computers have gone off - and that can't be right as they are on a separate fuse thingy...... I check the fuse and sure enough it's still intact. Hmmmm. Go upstairs, turn on the lights (again a separate fuse box) - nothing. At this point I call my neighbour (their car is there) but she does not answer and I suspect she is in labour (she is overdue to have her baby at this point).... so I leave a message saying I've lost power and am wondering if they have to. I don't hear back... which is fair enough :)
I call our neighbours over the road - and guess what? They have power.

I call energex. They are not aware of an outage in Mitchelton and they log a call to the service men.

My baby is screaming because it's hot and my toddler wants to play hot games such as pretend mummy is a horse-y and mummy let's jump up and down in this bleedingly hot weather!!

Energex arrive - the power box on the pole has totally shat itself and they log another call for a bucket truck to come out and replace it. this will be another 1.5 hours or so.

We are now melting in the heat.

I call the wardrobe company to check that any power tools they require are battery/rechargeable. They are not. They will have to cancel my wardrobe and come another day. This is not an option as far as I'm concerned as things are stacked against every wall and we can't move for the crap that is waiting to find its new home in the new wardrobe. Plus I've been waiting 5 weeks for this wardrobe. They suggest we could run an extension cord to my neighbour's house. I am reluctant to call the possibly laboring woman to ask if I can use their power (as it turns out she was labouring - or had already labored - they were up at the hospital having left their car at home and are now the proud owners of a new baby boy!!!)..... I hope that their laundry downstairs is unlocked and take it upon myself to okay this suggestion to use the neighbour's power. I run next door once I'm off the phone, extension lead in hand and plug into their laundry.... I am yet to tell them that I've stolen electricity from them but know they won't mind :)

The wardrobe man turns up and starts using power drills. My now hot and bothered baby is still screaming and my toddler, upon hearing the drills, totally loses it and also wants 'up' in mummy's arms... lord. After 10 minutes playing in the back yard energex come back and fix the electricity and finally I can ramp up the aircon, seat Charli in front of the telly, and set about cooling and calming the baby........ Having had no nap, Charli falls asleep in front of the telly jsut as the wardrobe guy is finishing up.....she looks adorable and I reluctantly let her stay on the lounge - knowing this will result in a less than long sleep but she looked so nice and cool.

So, wardrobe is installed. Electricity is back on. Toddler is asleep. Baby is calmer. All I needed at that point was stiff drink - something I indulged in later that day at Sharon's after my incredibly over-tired toddler screamed 'car' more than 50 times before I decided it was just best to take her for a drive rather than hear her incessant whinging.......

I just love these days when you are sorry that you ever tumbled out of bed in the first place - and speaking of bed..... Night.

Politically correct eskimos boost blog readership

Well how's this? I check my statcounter for recent visitor activity, because that's the kind of narcissistic gal I am :) and I find that someone in Boston Mass in the USA has been to my blog. I visit the link to see where they were directed from and lo and behold it's a google search. Apparently my post that mentioned that we should refer to eskimos in the more politically correct way 'inuit' came up sixth in a google search of 'eskimo politically correct' - how funny is that? Bet that person - no doubt researching something for school - was bitterly disappointed that I was unable to provide them with more useful information.

SPAM with manners

It's nice to see that if my inbox is going to be inundated with SPAM that it is at least polite spam. Today in my inbox I received a message telling me that a message that I had tried to send had failed. I hadn't actually sent a message to this recipient - it's one of those spams that say you've sent email even when you haven't. But don't you just love the politeness of the message?

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at rs1.inst.or.jp.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

And I think anyone trying to end a relationship could take some good advice from this email. Simple yet to the point. "I'm afraid this relationship is not going to work out. This is a permanent error. I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out". There's no ambiguity there is there? LOL

But Rembrandt was not afraid of baths

Or at least I am going to assume that he was not. And that is why painting would have been so much more enjoyable for him. Or at least his mother. Not that his mother was probably still bathing him when he was an artist..... but who knows, those artsy types can be weird :)

Anyway, the point of all of this is that today I decided to let Charli loose with some poster paints and her art easel. Partly because I wanted to paint her toy oven and thought that it was only fair that she too be allowed to paint, and partly because I feel that I've been a little remiss in not allowing my nearly 2 year old to discover the joys of painting. I was wrong. She should not have been allowed to play with paints until she was also old enough to date - and if her father has anything to do with that then we are talking at least another 20 or 30 years!!

So here is the artiste herself....



Though more paint seemed to end up on her than the easel...


And here is where the problems really began. See all the paint in her hair...??



It is at this point that I realise that wiping a wet washer over her to clean her up is no longer an option. A bath is called for....with hair washing......and much scrubbing. Which leads me to suddenly remember that as of a week ago my child is terrified of baths (or showers in case that was going to be your suggestion). And when you throw 'hair washing' into the equation, well toss me a valium and pour me a vodka because our house is about to become filled with screams of terror that rival those heard in any funhouse carnival across the country. My heart sinks as I realise that the bath is inevitable....... its that or let her stay on the back porch painting forever but somehow that doesn't seem feasible.

So into the bath we go. The screaming begins. Shampoo is added to the equation and the screaming ramps up a notch. Normally I try and gently wash the shampoo from her head but by now she's thrashing so much and has managed to get paint and shampoo into her eyes and the screeching is doing my head in... I realise that if it's going to be this painful it may as well be fast and painful so I do something that will speed up the process but was also guaranteed to send her into a frenzied panic (and I was not disappointed). I turned on the shower. To my shock and surprise, when presented with enough motivation, my two year old can flip herself out of the bath onto the floor...... of course I had the shower hose in my hand so when i turned to try and catch her, water flew everywhere and there was no option at this point except to throw myself into the shower (fully clothed) with her and just hose her down. My ears are still bleeding from the noise!

So there you go - art time at our place ended with a toddler sobbing in her bed and a mummy desperately wishing that it was not too early to start drinking at 10am (that is too early right?). Let's hope Dave appreciates the masterpiece she did him.

People in glass houses....

So on my current theme of de-cluttering and cleaning I've been reading some interesting stuff on hoarders and their personality types (not surprisingly to me, hoarders are known to have perfectionist traits). Now it is fair to say that one thing I most often nag my husband about is his inability to throw things away. His favourite catchphrase is "it might be useful one day" and lo and behold the other day he took great delight in pointing out to me that he was indeed using some of the old wood that he had stored up under the house. I was monumentally proud (rolls eyes) LOL

Anyway, in my recent days of de-cluttering I realise that I too hoard to a great extent it is just that my reasons for hoarding are different. While Dave hoards things in case they may one day become important, according to a website I found about obsessive compulsive disorder, I seem to hoard things that one day in the distant past were important to me. Apparently my inability to throw away a little box of badges (the kind you stick on your shirt - I used to collect these for god knows what reason) means that I am afraid that in some way I am letting go of some part of my life, no matter how seemingly insignficant. And I can totally understand that. When I open this box of trinkets and see the Tangalooma badge that I got at Grade 5 camp or the TAA wings I got when I flew on an aeroplane for the first time when I was 10 years old. ..... well these things make me smile. And they prompt memories that were long since forgotten. Perhaps it is for this reason that I find it so difficult to let these seemingly small and insignificant objects go. But then what does one do about the clutter? Is there some way to retain these memorabilia without your house becoming like this?

Motivation to de-clutter dies after realising it's not that bad

Dave sent me a website address today to make me feel better about just how cluttered our house is not....... I no longer feel the need to de-clutter like a maniac. I'll just keep it neat like a normal person does. I have de-registered from FlyLady after receiving a total of 39 emails from her yesterday regarding keeping my house clean. I spent so much time reading the emails there was no time left to clean.

Who put the cat amongst the pigeons?

So how is my Day 2 of keeping the house clean going I hear you ask? Well, firstly let me say that the sink is again not polished. Nor will it ever be....this is not a suggestion I am willing to take on board in the hopes that it will somehow improve my life. I am willing to take that risk. I did manage to shower and put on some make-up but at the point when my hair was about to be done everything went a little pearshaped so I'm afraid I failed on being totally ready to start my day 'dressed to laces' according to FlyLady.net

In the interests of balancing my new 'de-cluttering' with other forms of entertainment, my godson and his mum visited this morning and when charli suggested we 'eat chits' (translation: feed the chickens) I thought that would be something fun for the kids to do together. Note: we don't own chooks, we are just feeding them for our next door neighbours who are away at the moment. Charli absolutely loves feeding the chooks and in fact it has become her catchphrase every morning "chits? chits?". I have to convince her that mummy is not ready to face chickens before she has had breakfast and at least got out of her pyjamas. Somehow going to feed the chickens while still wearing my pyjamas just does not seem right. I'm not sure why. I am sure they would not be offended.

Anyway, so over we go to feed the chickens (two eggs today!!) and there is a pigeon flying around in the caged henhouse!! How he got in there I have NO idea but the fact is he could not get out and was going psycho! So we let the chooks out into the yard in the hopes that the pigeon would just mosey on out the door and fly away....... but nope (stupid bird) - he just keeps flying around in a mad panic and then hitting the floor. I go to walk into the enclosure further than my customary 1 m when i spy this HUGE spider in a web at about face height and all thoughts of valiantly saving the pigeon are erased from my mind - he can figure it out himself! I decide to leave the chooks in the yard for the day and hope the pigeon leaves the henhouse before nightfall when i'll have to return the henhouse to its rightful owners.....

However not 10 minutes later a huge black cat is chasing the pigeon around the henhouse and then heads out for the chooks. At this point i just want to get the chooks back into their henhouse before they get attacked (no chicken is gonna die on MY watch!) - the pigeon finally got smart and took off out of there and the chickens got chased by two over-enthusiastic toddlers back into their cage. And so ends another rather non-productive day in my household - not one thing was de-cluttered but I'd be keen to hear FlyLady's take on how to manage all of her housework and keep the cats out of the henhouse. Surely even she couldn't manage it???

Day 1 of de-cluttering - a sparkling sink?

well according to FlyLady, in order to start on my 31 day path to de-cluttering my house and restoring order to my otherwise dis-orderly home and life, today I was meant to undertake just one task. This task was to set me on the path to a cleaner and brighter home life. This task? To shine my sink! yes you heard it folks, take a scrubbing brush and silver polish and shine the kitchen sink. I have to ask WHAT THE ?? My urge to shine my freaking kitchen sink was somewhat overshadowed by my desire to even SEE MY LOUNGE ROOM FLOOR. Now there is a task that needed doing. But my kitchen sink?

So I did what FlyLady specifically said not to do and I leaped to Day 2 to see what monumentally important task was on the agenda for that day - and to be fair "get up and get dressed to laced shoes including hair and face" was an improvement on the kitchen sink polishing suggestion. I do find that one of my downfalls is not showering until sometimes midday. Not that I don't think that I have a perfectly decent excuse for poor hygiene practices some days. With a toddler who is nearly two and a newborn who has good intentions of sleeping but is kept awake by the aforementioned toddler, well you can imagine some days that the priority of hair washing takes a major backseat to just staying sane. But I digress......

So today I made it my task to get up and dressed before any of the children could awaken - a task made more urgent by the fact that the dishwasher repairman was arriving at 7am - or midday - or anywhere in between. I don't know why companies like to do this to you - in this day of modern technology when they have service calls logged on high-speed computers and mobile service vans equipped with all of the technology one could want - is it too much to ask that you narrow my service call timeframe to a little under 5 hours? But then I shouldn't complain really.... it's not like I had anything more important today than to polish my sink.

But back to getting dressed before midday..... I did take objection and refuse to go the laced up shoes - one doesn't really need their boots on to polish sinks or change pooey nappies in my opinion. I did however let my hair see a brush for the first time in two days and if 'doing my face' was achieved by the splash of water thrown in my eyes and the quick swipe of lip gloss across my lips then allow me to tick that task off for today.

I had a go at the de-cluttering in 15 minutes thing but to tell an a-type-personality that she has to 'de-clutter for 15 minutes and then stop and do this again tomorrow until all the clutter is gone' - well, why don't you just tell me to take a blunt kitchen knife and draw it repeatedly across my arm until it falls off in a bloody stump on the kitchen floor (I bet FlyLady has a great suggestion for cleaning blood stains off linoleum though don't you think??). I mean really, as if I could just stop cleaning after 15 minutes. If you want to de-clutter then you have to get serious about it - at least spend 2 hours moving the clutter from one room to the next until it all ends up in one room at the back of the house and you can close the door and pretend that room does not exist. So that is what I did. The lounge room is now looking half-way presentable and the kitchen is on the road to being fully de-cluttered by tomorrow. Of course we can no longer open the door to the computer room and David is just going to have to understand that it's time to give up his computers and get a new profession because, well I'm sorry honey, but we just can't get to the PC's anymore. We all have to make sacrifices to live a clutter free life.

I'll let you know how Day 2 goes.

Carla

Because I too need to de-clutter

To dear Michelle and Meegan and all my other friends who feel the need as Autumn is approaching (okay well not really but one day soon!!) to de-clutter their lives..... here is an extra special website by FlyLady - I'm starting on her baby steps beginners daily plan tomorrow..... I'll let you know how I go! Have fun de-cluttering and let me know how you go.

Carla

A Swiper Catastrophe

I am putting clothes away. Charli is watching Dora the Explorer. She comes running in, face full of concern.

"Uh-oh, Siper wa, Siper Wa, uh-oh. Mummy!!"
I look up, knowing full well what this means.

"Swiper {the fox} fell in the water did he?"

"Yes, Mummy! Siper, Wa, uh-oh, uh-oh"

This tirade of painful concern for Swiper the Fox - who is known for always swiping everyone's stuff, so I'm not so sure why she is concerned, I say let the fox drown - could have gone on for hours so I thought it best to intervene and lay her little troubled head to rest.

"It's okay Charli, Dora and Boots will save him."

I say this with a degree of authority that comes with having seen this show once or 65 times in the past 6 months. Plus Dora is essentially the queen of good deeds so let's face it, she isn't going to let that pesky fox drown.

Charli looks at me - the mummy who always knows best. She nods her head wisely. Yes, if mummy says that Dora will save him then it will be so. She smiles and walks away. Oh if only she will always believe me as she does at this moment.

What shall we do with a drunken sailor...

On the road to rehab?

One questions one's parenting skills when, after a few weeks of teething hell and copious amounts of panadol, nurofen and even naturopathic teething relief liquid later, one finds one's toddler playing in her room with a syringe, telling all of her teddies to 'open' while she pretends to squirt some form of pain-relieving drug into their stitched mouths. After each one she smacks her lips and says 'yum'.... too many drugs for her lately do you think?

A day for important events

Today is an important day. Not only is it the fourth anniversary of losing my mum, but I believe today would also have been Michelle's dad's birthday (am I right Michelle??) and.... dum da da dum...... Charlotte decided to grace this important day with her first sentence. Not that we were terribly impressed under the circumstances.... 8.30pm, still faffing around awake in the lounge - high on some sugar product that was no doubt offered to her today on an outing with her grandparents (!!, no probably not, they are not the type to offer her 'bad' foods, but why she is so awake at this time of night is a mystery to us!!)... and I say "charli I think it's time for bed" and she responds with (wait for it). "no sharli stay here"...... charming. Her first sentence is a defiant stance against bed time. This does not bode well.....

Is there an off switch?

I thought it about time for my own amusement to record Charli's vocab to date. Many of the following words are contextual - if you didn't have the visual you'd have NO IDEA what the word was but I'll include them all anyway as we seem to understand her most of the time :)

Mummy (today was shortened to Mum which was all too grown up!!)
Daddy
Nanny
Betts (Aunty Bekk)
Debbi
Sharli (Charli)
Sophie (just learnt that one today... normally she just gets called....)
Puppy!!
Dog
Mouse (for any creature that has whiskers including cats and bunnies!!)
Mop or Motz (milk)
Bubbles
Bar (Bath)
Beer... we're sure she isn't saying Beer per se but can't quite figure out what it is...... today in context it might have been 'better' but we're not sure!!
Sorrwee (Sorry) - this is also a new word..... most hilariously used to apologise to anything that she may bump into including table legs and the bed head... yesterday she accidentally stepped on my foot and bent down to kiss my feet and apologised..... will lap that one up while I can!!
Tank you or Ta
Biss you (Bless you) - for when you sneeze or cough or make any similar sort of sound!!
Bir (Bird) - she still seems to have problems with the ends of words
Narna (Banana)
Apple (for apples, plums or any other fruit that is vaguely round!!)
Cheese
Sketti (Spaghetti)
Side (outside)
Wotz (walk)
Bots (books)
Box
Blocks
Baby
Zie (for Mackenzie)
Pig
Slippy (sleepy)
Wee (this can mean a multitude of things, this week it means 'weed' as we've been gardening)
Pool
Spa
Up
Wa (water)
Chair
Wheel
Key
Hot
Ow (said a lot as she frequently walks into walls!! - she may have a motor skills problem!!)
Ear
eyes (for eyes and for glasses)
Mouth (this is used to refer to Zie's dummy which she often finds not in her mouth and then wants to give her.... despite Zie not liking the dummy!!)
duck
shoes
shirt
strawberry

okay - will have to come back and edit this post each day as I keep waking up and thinking of more words... and then I realise that each day I could be adding words and I may as well just in about a year add a link to the webster's english dictionary!!!

Who'd be a parent?

well things are absolutely crazy here. No time to even wee on my own let alone blog - not that you needed to know that!! Charli has decided that sleep is unnecessary and Mackenzie has gone from nice 3-4 hour sleeps with feeds in between to 2 hourly feeds and no sleeping unless being carried by mummy!! oh and she cluster feeds usually anywhere between 4 and 10pm for about 4 hours - it's insane!! arsenic hour has taken on a whole new meaning and after shutting the doors on two screaming children last night at 7pm dave and I stood in the lounge looking at each other in shock wondering how we were supposed to cope with every night like this!!

Add to this that my boobs feel like someone has taken a piece of sandpaper to both nipples and I'm not game to look in a mirror as I don't think my hair has seen a brush in about 5 days :)
Kids - who'd have them??!! :)

I think there is just too much going on at the moment - Dave and I are still madly trying to get Charli's new room painted so Mackenzie can move into her own room (she is currently in a cot next to us and she is A NOISY SLEEPER!!). Additionally we are trying to reorganise the kitchen and there are boxes strewn all over our house and I have no idea where anything is. Toss in the fact that as of yesterday Charli I think is a bit over Mackenzie taking up so much of our attention and today dive bombed her while I was feeding Mackenzie so I ended up with two kids in my lap - the smaller of which was none too happy about the large child on top of her - it's madness I tell you.

After discovering that Mackenzie will happily sleep on my lap while I shoot the crap out of bad guys in Tomb Raider on the XBox (but will not sleep in our room where it's all quiet), we have tonight put on some 'uterus' noises courtesy of the Steelcraft Light and Sound projector given to us by Libby after the birth of Charli. This did nothing for Charlotte (sorry Lib) but Zie has now been asleep for a record time of 20 minutes in her cot and touch wood we may have found the solution to her problem - it must be noisy to sleep!!! Of course the problem now is that she is in our room so we either have to a) sleep with uterus whooshing noises or b) turn it off and have an unsettled baby...... what a choice :)

Anyway, I'm off to either crash out or lay comatose in front of the telly. I keep telling myself this will get better - preferably by the time Dave returns to work...... it will get better won't it?

Our Christmas Eve Present

Hello there,
I've promised some of you that I would post the story of Mackenzie's birth. And so I shall. I've been a little remiss in doing this for a couple of reasons. 1) Who has the time with a newborn, a toddler and 1000 things to do around the house that should have been done before the baby came (i.e. get the second bedroom done) but alas were not...... not sure why - oh yes that's right, I was finishing my PhD!!! :) and secondly, the story is short. The entire labour and birth was speedy, and hence writing about it almost seems surreal, like did it actually happen? of course I only need to step into our bedroom and view this in her cot


to remind myself that indeed it did happen. And this is how it all came about......

'twas the afternoon before Christmas and all through the house, everyone was making lots of noise and vacuuming and playing loud music and squealing and it was really pissing me off!! :)
Like a cat about to birth her kittens, all I wanted to do was lie in a dark room and be left alone - which is exactly what I was doing. I had left Dave to deal with Charli and I was lying on our bed with the curtains shut, trying in vain to block out the noise and desperately just needing everyone to go away. This in itself really should have tipped me off that things were starting to happen, but they didn't. I just thought I was being grumpy :)

I was also getting some bad back cramps quite frequently but thought nothing of it - those of you who know me know that I had been getting quite bad practice contractions for the weeks leading up to this point, so as far as I was concerned this was just one more day of that fun! i was exhausted and kept falling asleep between these back pains - would get another one, wake up, it would ease and I would drift back off to sleep. Suddenly I was awoken by that feeling of 'oh my god I just wet myself, oh no hang on that would be my waters breaking!!' (note: time 2.30pm) ..... calmly I got up and headed for the bathroom. I ran into Dave on the way and suggested that we should discuss what to do with Charlotte as my waters had just broken. His eyes widened in disbelief and he headed for the phone to call his mum. Not wanting to talk to anyone I sequestered myself in the bedroom until Mother-in-Law had collected Charli. Dave told her if nothing eventuated we'd be back to pick her up that night - it was after all Christmas Eve..... we wanted our little girl close to us for Christmas morning.

Dave kept suggesting we call our midwife or head for the hospital but the pains I was getting were weird - nothing like I'd had with Charlotte and to be honest I was still not convinced I was actually in labour. They all sat low - just under my bump - and never radiated around my entire tummy like I knew that they should. Oh and the back ache - that just never went away by this time. We tried contacting our midwife on her mobile, at the hospital and by page but all went unanswered so we assumed she was occupied with another labour or some such and I finally decided that perhaps we should just throw the bags in the car and drive up to the birth centre and just 'see what was going on' - if she said I wasn't in labour then we could just head home and pick up Charli on the way.

Well, I'd say five minutes into the car trip and contractions were BITING..... I was facing backwards in the passenger seat as sitting normally was out of the question. Just as we pull up at the hospital my phone rings and its our midwife - I tell her we're downstairs and on our way up. Strangely my contractions are still all just under my bump and the back pain was quite strong by now....... yet I was still confused about whether this was 'it'.... after all, wasn't my entire stomach meant to be contracting?

3.41 - arrive in birth centre and get blood pressure taken and take prescribed antibiotics for my heart

Midwife goes to run spa but by now I know there will be no getting in the spa. This baby is on its way, despite none of the telltale all over tummy contractions happening. All I remember at this point is the amazing pressure in my bottom and my back (too much information?). This little girl was definitely sitting low and to the back and it was not nice!!

at 4.13 I get this amazing need to push and after hollering my way through it (I was definitely screaming my head off more during this labour - think of all those bad acting scenes you've ever seen with the woman screaming - that was me - I actually wanted myself to be quiet but just could not have kept my voice lowered if I'd tried).....I announced to hubby and midwife that it was my first push. My midwife commented "wow you don't muck around do you?" I may have smiled at that point, it's hard to know. The next contraction hit with such force it knocked the breath out of me - not good really seeing as IT NEVER STOPPED. This contraction went on for well over 2 minutes and I think I nearly yelled myself hoarse. I couldn't catch my breath and I remember thinking that it felt like this baby was coming out of my bum. Not a pretty picture I know, and my fairly extensive knowledge of biology meant that I knew it wasn't coming out of there, but holy moly...... ouch.

This second push was it........ the head crowned, I yelled for Dave to grab the camera, he got one shot squeezed off (I won't traumatise you by showing you that!!) and the little mite just fell right out. The relief was immeasurable. I reached down and picked her up and there's a photo of me holding her that depicts my pure relief/joy/ecstasy felt in that moment.
Some will say that I'm lucky to have such quick labours. And I won't deny that given the option of birthing this way and being in labour for 12 hours - well I'll take the 9 minutes of pushing thanks. But I would also like to point out that birthing fast has it's interesting points. Not the least of which is that it's all very surreal. In those few minutes after the birth, with Dave holding Mackenzie and I from behind, well we looked at her and I could see my bewilderment mirrored in Dave's eyes. We had our new daughter...... nine minutes of intense screaming and here she was. It was almost too fast. There was no time to pace around having contractions preparing yourself for what was about to happen. No time for Dave to lovingly stroke my hair and hold my hands while this baby slipped in and out of the birth canal. No time for any of that. She was just there suddenly. We came home that night - against medical advice of course!! - so that we could spend Christmas Eve at home in our own bed. And even hours later, Dave unable to sleep because he was so wired, me curled up in bed watching her sleep in the cot next to our bed - even then it all seemed like it couldn't possibly have happened. Our Christmas Eve present was born in a little under 2 hours.

That's the end of Mackenzie's birth story. But I must share with you the following photo - the Christmas Day present that we gave to Charlotte - her own little baby sister - well it outdid any of the other presents we or Santa gave her. The squeals of 'baby' that resulted on presentation of Mackenzie were priceless and will ring in my ears for many years to come.



I thank the universe each and every day for the two lovely little princesses that have blessed our lives and continue to do so every waking minute of my life.

And Santa said ..... and then there were four

Hello dear readers, 'tis I, back from the land of PhD submission but probably not going to be posting any more frequently as the universe saw fit to deliver us a beautiful baby girl for Christmas this year (okay well we say she's beautiful but yes we know she looks like a monkey - just like her sister did......we're going to keep her anyway ;) ).

You all know the stats by now so I won't post them on a public forum - I'm still mildly paranoid about sharing everything bar our medicare number to the wider world. But here is a photo to satisfy Michelle's curiosity :)

It's over

It's over, it's done. I wanted to write a really inspiring post about finishing my PhD thesis, but it will have to wait. The pure exhaustion that has hit me, coupled with re-acquainting myself with have Charli all day, every day..... well needless to say that bed is summoning at 7.30pm. Add to that the fact that - despite all logic - I did not sleep well last night after submitting. I spent the night dreaming of alternate titles, and re-arranging paragraphs. Ridiculous really. Still, the unconcious is not always a logical creature. If only I weren't pregnant a sleeping tablet would be downed tonight in the hopes of a dream-free sleep. But 'tis not to be. And speaking of baby - COME OUT NOW!! You have permission and I've had enough ....

Final days of writing causes stroke in young female...

Seriously, if I had to continue on functioning at this level of stress for much longer than the 3 days that I have left until I submit, I think I would give myself a coronary. At my last ante-natal appointment, my blood pressure was normal - which means high for me because during pregnancy my BP is usually low (well when I say usually of course I am basing this on the ONE previous pregnancy that I have had LOL). So with any luck by next Wednesday, when I have my 37 week preggo check-up, I will back to my usual fainting-episode level of blood pressure. :)

Thanks everyone for your support in these final days.... it is very much appreciated. Don't think there won't be the bash of the year when this thesis is finally confered.... I'm not even waiting until graduation, the party will probably be about one week after I get the Dean's letter.....

The Homeward Stretch

Well dear readers, while there are still six sleeps to go until I go to the printers with my thesis in my hot little hands, finally there is a light at the end of the tunnel. My supervisor has now seen my final chapter and actually uttered the words "well done" and only made the most minor of changes - most of them grammatical. I truly can't believe it. Of course Chapter Three is still dogging me (I keep having to stop myself from doing a complete re-write), and there are a gazillion formatting changes to be made..... but hey, I've still got six sleeps to go right?

Best go. Who knows, I could get most of it done by the weekend and actually give my darling hubby some time off...... but I can't promise anything, sorry hon :)

7 more sleeps.... should I be this calm?

I've discovered my Zen side. I got bugger all done on the weekend. Some of it due to fatigue and writer's block. Some of it to do with Charli disobeying me and cutting three teeth inside 48 hours one week before my PhD is due. So she was a little wretched on the weekend to say the least. And while poor Dave tried his best, she's a bit of a mummy's girl when she's grumpy. Aren't we all?

So I tried to just 'go with it'. Spent some time in the spa with her - which sounds like it should be relaxing but if you've ever seen a toddler in the water when they're having a good time, you'll know what I mean when I say 'not so much...'. Dave's rum and coke inevitably ends up as half rum and coke, half bromide and chlorinated water!! My glasses become so that I need little windscreen wipers on them. Still, it stops her screaming for a short time so that is always nice.

And as for the other little bump inside me.... well she has 'dropped' which means no more reflux and heartburn which is nice...... BUT that little bit of fun has been replaced by what I can only describe as trampolining on a floor of nerves. She's found this one nerve that when she touches it, well sorry to be so graphic but it feels like one foot is already out - you know, just testing the air temperature. So while Charli woke twice last night, it really didn't even bother me - I was up every 1.5 hours anyway, so uncomfortable that lying still for any longer than that would require me to have been given some form of narcotic.

So there you go. One can't imagine why I feel so calm right now but I do. Anyway, this was just a short break - back to finish the last 2 or so pages of my FINAL CHAPTER. Then begins a week of revisions, proof-reading, making up (I mean finding) references, and generally ensuring that this thesis doesn't look like something the cat dragged in.

See you all soon

9 ....

Nine days and counting people..... it's being submitted to the printers on Monday 4th December. there is no question of 'will it be done?'.... whatever is done by the 4th is being submitted.

My midwife informs me that although my belly has dropped and baby is head down, it is not yet engaged.... so I still have time up my sleeve. Cross fingers and toes.

14 .....

Aargh!!

17 sleeps until submission!

Geek in the making

Pick the daughter of the IT geek

68, 130 words ..... and a bucket load of tears later...

Well it's been an interesting couple of days. Because the best combination in the world is a heavily pregnant lady, a thesis-submission date looming a mere 8 weeks away, and a toddler who has learnt to throw herself on the floor and scream at the mere mention of the word 'no' from her parents. It's a wonder Dave bothers to come home from work at all anymore. I suspect that no amount of server problems or email crashing or IT-user complaints could anywhere near rival the state of utter chaos that has become our lives. Or maybe I'm exaggerating a little - those pregnancy hormones are likely to do that to you.

but anyway, having said all that, note the word count..... not that that is any indication of how near to completion I am... I still don't know the answer to that one. I do know that I'm still running analyses (something I did not expect to still be doing at this stage), I still have a host of formatting problems to fix, and I suspect that there is still a mountain of interpretation of results I have yet to do... and the best time to try and make insightful, brilliant conclusions - why when you are 36 weeks pregnant of course!! *sigh*

Wa paise

..... or water please if you're speaking charli-speak. After reading my online parent group discussions about what other bubs Charlotte's age are saying, I thought it high time that I jot down all the words she's saying - not because I think anyone but Dave and I are interested, but because this has become the place that I jot down these things so that years from now, I have some recollection of how my kids developed... that and I can't look at my thesis tonight so this seemed like a good alternative.

(in no particular order)

Dad-da, daddy, dad

Mummy, mum
(but only if asked to say it or when cranky and/or upset)... unlike the word 'Daddy'
that gets squealed with pleasure as the car pulls into the driveway *sigh*

Wa - Water

Du(ck) - she has a tendency to drop the ends of her words so context is everything

Do(g)

Boat

I love you
(however, only the 'I' is verbalised, then she signs Love by crossing her arms over her chest and then pointing to one of us while saying "do" (you) This sound actually means you in German so I brag that she's already bi-lingual!!). I would also add that I'm not sure she understands the meaning of this yet, she performs it more for our amusement... as she does for most things I think... :)

Sheese (cheese)

Ba/Bar (Bath)

Paise (as mentioned this is please)

Ta
(as in Thank You - said incredibly exaggeratedly and while tipping her head cutely to the side so that we cannot deny her whatever it is she's begging for at the time!!)

Ta-ta or Bye-bye
(this is usually after running to me while I'm in bed, kissing me perfunctorily and then heading for the door at a run when her Nan turns up to pick her up in the morning... glad to see I'm missed!!)

Mwa
(as in the kissing noise when you blow a kiss - this is accompanied by slamming her palm into her mouth and then pulling it away as she 'blows' you a kiss)

She's beginning to do 'woof woof' and 'book book' (this is mummy's pathetic attempt at a chicken noise..) - we have chickens next door.....

There feels like there should be more than that - probably because she does actually spend most of the day 'talking'.... to me, to the teddy, to the phone, to any object (animate or inanimate) that will listen to her with some degree of interest.... it never stops. I really don't know where she gets it from .......

Not to stereotype but.......

...... ten points to the first person to guess the demographic of the people who live next door. I have been writing a PhD to the tunes of Kylie Minogue for four days now. I don't dislike her music but I'm not a raving fan either .... but guaranteed that by December I'll know most of the lyrics by heart.

I needed a boost so I cheated....

Okay - well I've just printed out EVERYTHING that I've written for my PhD so far - even if it isn't all edited and pretty yet - because I've just hit one of those walls of frustration that is liable to end up in tears soon. I think a trip to the pool with the little monkey may be in order this afternoon, because when you get to the point where you can't string 3 words together and a misplaced comma ends in tears.... well it's time to take a step back and re-group I think. I'm still on target with my timelines though so all should be okay.

Some of you will have received a panicky email about 1/2 hour ago about how to deal with one of my table of contents problems......I tried Word help. But has anyone else ever noticed that it's not very helpful at all? Though Dave has pointed out to me that I am pushing the limits of Word's capabilities with this thesis. Like how do you get your margins to mirror consistently (with one margin bigger than the other for binding purposes) when you switch between sections with some pages portrait and others landscape? And is this really a problem I thought I would ever need to deal with in life? So if any of you consider yourselves to be Word gurus and did not in fact get my email awhile ago - please feel free to let me know and I'll include you in any further pleas for help!!

Cheers.

Random musings

Just a few thoughts to share. Realised that I had not shown pics of the gorgeous flowers I got from Dave on our wedding anniversary.

If I hadn't mentioned it, the theme of the fourth wedding anniversary is flowers or fruit. You have to be fairly creative if you're buying for my husband then because I can only imagine the look on his face if I'd presented him with flowers or a basket of seasonal produce...... so this is what he ended up with.....



And so as not to be left out - this is what his daughter will be wearing this spring :)



On another note, our daughter has taken to kicking the wall for a good half an hour before she will finally give up the ghost and go to sleep - this is day and night sleeps so not quite sure what's going on here unless she's been sneaking sips of mummy's caffeinated drinks while she's not looking. Anyway, today she finally went to sleep - but notice the foot poised and ready for when she wakes up and wants to let me know she's finished her nap!!! ... MUMMY UP NOW PLEASE!!! (thump thump thump).

62,703 words and the best cake I've ever made

thanks to Lib for the great cake recipe - it sank a little due to my impatience and opening the oven door. it's a pretty fool proof cake - i nearly forgot the buttermilk (quite a key ingredient in a butter cake one would imagine) and ended up adding it AFTER the self-raising flour stage... oh well. it was delectable warm straight out of the oven.... and not bad a few hours later iced with a lemon butter frosting....mmmmm. I owe the new word count on the PhD to this cake ;)

I'm sorry..... what day is it??

Good Morning dear readers (it is morning yes??).... As Meegan's post just reminded me, the Farmer's Markets were on in Blackwood St Mitchelton yesterday (Sunday); an event I had been looking forward to attending. I had visions of walking there, having some breakfast, doing some shopping for fresh produce and then walking home, having some lunch made with said fresh produce and then all curling up for an afternoon nap after a big morning out.

How the weekend went was really in reality, incredibly different.

Friday morning began bright and early after our night out to dinner. Despite not having small child in the house, we, out of habit, woke early and began our respective days. Me, on the computer PhD-ing. Dave, having worked in excess of 60 hours that week already had the day off and headed over to a mate's house for a few hours before having the bring the car back to me at 10am so I could head out to Uni. I went and saw my supervisor and attended a compulsory seminar (What Happens to Your Thesis after you Submit). On a side note, I was relieved to hear that only 3 theses in the past 10 years have been failed outright and only about 3 per year (out of 500 or so submitted) are recommended as a Master's instead of a PhD.... so I figure the odds are with me and I'm focusing on "Revise and Resubmit" as my worst case scenario - which would still be pretty bad but not life-stopping. So I left the seminar feeling heartened - but stopped back in to see my supervisor, where I was reminded that she would be on holidays for the 3 weeks PRECEDING the week before my deadline. I'm not sure how I had overlooked this fact - perhaps I never knew it, though she said it as though she had told me 1000 times. Either way, panic (again) set it. My timeline had just been decimated and I drove home in a near state of tears (narrowly avoiding some idiot who backed out into 2 lanes of traffic straight in front of me while I was driving 60km/hr). Went and picked up Charli girl, managed to get annoyed by my MIL - which is an easy thing at the best of times, but in my then current state it was almost inevitable. by the time I got home, I was a mess.

Dave, meanwhile, had not had a leisurely day off. From the moment he had handed over the car keys to me, his work mobile had rung. The email server that had been playing up all week (hence the 60 hour week by Thursday), had fallen over and completely died. Now I've probably got the facts wrong on this one, but the point I am trying to make is that something at his worked was majorly SCREWED and it had become his responsibility to have it fixed by Monday.

So Friday turned into Friday night and then the fun really began. We put Charli to bed and Dave and I kept working - he on his email server, me on my PhD in a panic-driven state. Then Dave started to feel sick and went to bed - I kept working... and working. And before you know it it's 11.15 and I freak out - you don't want to sit up that late when you know you'll be up again at 5am with small child. So I head to bed. On the way I do something to my back and by the time I hit the bed I'm in tears with the searing pain rocketing up through my pelvis and hips (have I mentioned how much I love being pregnant??). After 20 minutes or so of tears and wriggling I manage to find a position that stops just short of agony and try to go to sleep. The screaming begins. I bash Dave to get up (sick or not I was NOT moving!!). He struggles out of bed and throws a bottle of milk in her direction - it does nothing to stop the incessant noise emanating from our child. We bring her into bed with us, we give her drugs, we give her water, we cuddle her. Nothing would console her. She slept for 1/2 hour. The whole routine started again (of course without the drugs next round because you are only allowed to drug them every 4-8 hours!!). We lose track of time. The sun comes up. Our eyes are hanging out of our heads. We pray she will have a morning sleep.

Lunchtime comes........ and goes. Still no napping. Dave is back working on the computer. I'm entertaining devil child. Noon to 2pm is spent putting her back to bed after she figures out (why now??) that she can get out of her bed without waiting for us to say it's ok. Finally she sleeps..... for 1/2 hour!! I go in to discover her waking up - no wonder she didn't sleep long, she finally passed out from exhaustion on the bloody floor!! The afternoon begins. I decide to take her to the pool - if she's going to be in pain (and hence a pain in the bum!) we may as well try some distraction. All goes well - apart from the fact that by this stage I'm not sure I should be driving a moving vehicle.... in fact I'm not sure I should be attempting to even care for a toddler but anyway.

She's asleep by 5.30pm and Dave and I - so overtired by this stage, don't go to bed as we should but keep working.......because the email server is still not functional and not surprisingly my PhD had not finished itself!! Dave gets up at 4.30 and goes into work until lunchtime. While there he goes out into the foyer of the building (where the loos are) and in the meantime security decide to mess with the system and he ends up locked between the front doors and the inner doors of his building.... because of course, this weekend couldn't get any better could it?? Needless to say he managed to get out of that situation and was able to join us at home in what could be argued was a less enticing situation.... still teething child.

I'm going to shorten this post somewhat by saying that Saturday night was pretty much a mirror image of Friday night. I'm really not sure by Sunday how we were still functioning - it's not just the lack of sleep (about 5 hours in 2 nights) but that screaming will really wear you down after awhile. I think that taking sharp knitting needles and scraping them across my eardrums may have been more entertaining that watching my small child scream in pain and clutch at her mouth and look at me imploring to make it all go away!!

I'm not really sure what we did yesterday. It's a blur. I vaguely remember her crashing out in my arms at 10.30 and me putting her to bed. Some people would say we should have gone and had a nap ourselves. Anyone who has been through this before will understand that we were now so dosed up on caffeine and beyond what anyone could describe as tired.... so what did we do? Yep, kept working.

Last night I was in bed by 8.30pm. Dave was about 1/2 an hour behind me though I had to check that with him this morning as I've got no recollection of hearing him come in at all. I got up at 1.20 to change her nappy and then again at 5.30 this morning when she woke. A much better night by all accounts. Of course Dave and I have a sleep debt now that needs about another week's worth of good sleep to counter-act. I sent Charli off to her Nan's and Dave off to work (where it will no doubt go un-noticed by every IT user in the company that my husband has just worked pretty much non-stop for 3 days, while listening to his daughter scream ... just so that they could get the latest jokes emailed to their Inboxes bright and early this Monday morning). I went back to sleep 'just for another hour' and just woke. So now I'm another 1/2 day behind on my thesis and still feel like I need to go and chug back some caffeine.....

Charli girl we love you..... and it's lucky we do. Monkey #2, if you are in there and listening (and I know you are because the whole time Charlotte was on the outside screaming, I had you on the inside kicking out in response to her.....), then take note: you are not to ever cut teeth - I'll puree your bloody food until you leave home if you promise me that I will never have a weekend like this again!!

Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary

well four years ago, hubby and I tied the knot - having known each other for about 10 years prior to that!! tonight we went to Brett's Wharf Restaurant - the place he proposed to me (and I accepted!!), the place we got married and the place we spent our first (and now 4th) wedding anniversary. In true Brett's style they wished us well.......


This was written on Dave's plate of Affogato dessert (icecream with a shot of espresso and a shot of Bailey's). I have nothing but wonderful things to say about my cold seafood platter and the scrummy chocolate fondue with strawberries, freshly made orange marshmallows and pistachio praline I had for dessert.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SWEETHEART

56,929 words and a jar of nutella later....

And I don't feel like I'm any closer to finishing....clearly I am as I've written 3,000 words more than last time...... no photos of updated pile as I only add to it after my supervisor has said the chapters are okay. I'll get a chapter back from her this Friday. Standby dear readers as some of you are about to receive my Chapter One via email for comment. It's about 10 pages long and it's meant to 'sell' my thesis to the examiners - some suggest that this may be the only chapter that an examiner truly bothers reading - others suggest that it's the first impression they get and while the rest of the thesis will be read, this first chapter may colour the rest of their reading. It's supposed to have a 'wow' factor - you're meant to be left with the feeling that you'd like to go on and read the rest of my thesis...... all constructive feedback greatly appreciated... remember I am pregnant so you have to precede any negative comments with at least one positive..... :)

Carla

A night away from ...... child AND thesis!!

Went to a friend's wedding this afternoon, followed by a cocktail reception for 3 hours at the Powerhouse in Brisbane..... the bride looked stunning and the venue was totally different .... we loved it.

It was so nice to get dressed up!! Hubby doesn't have to wear a shirt and tie to work and as you can imagine, sitting in front of a computer while 6 months pregnant does not afford one the need to get dolled up - so it was fun to play dress ups and go out - even if just for a few hours....
Not that this photo really does it justice but thanks to Beck for the lovely black wrap (again!!) shown in this photo - it was tres chilly up on the rooftop so this was my saving grace!!

Not happy Jan.....

Just needed to jump on and vent about my latest issues with our tax agents. I'd like to point out that up until 2 years ago I used to do all my own tax but then between rental properties, low income tax offsets, child-related tax benefits, well it all just got too confusing.... I mucked up one year and got audited and hit for $2000 I had to pay back. I decided to just start paying a professional to do it. And for the last 2 or so years we've been happy with our tax agents. A lovely man we'll call Scott has handled our affairs nicely. But then this year we got a lady (let's call her Jan given the title of today's entry!!) who has done nothing but shit me to tears!!! She was dipsy during the appointment for a start - never a good sign. Then I had said to her:

"look I'll check on our health records and see if it's worth claiming a rebate but I don't think so as I don't think we hit the $1500 threshold - if you DON'T hear from me tomorrow just go ahead and process our refund"......

Two weeks go by and after 3 phone calls to ascertain why we had not yet received the papers to sign, she finally gets on the phone and says:

Her: "aren't I waiting on information from you?"
Me: "No, I said if you DIDN'T hear from me to just go ahead with the claim"
Her: "Oh, well I'll complete that today and mail it to you"

d'oh thanks. So the forms turn up. I just about die when I see the money darling hubby owes - and why? Because she had not logged into the ATO office and deducted the amounts that he had voluntarily paid to ATO during the year he had his own business .... AND..... apparently I'm getting 4 times the amount back that I expected - why? Because she has me down for an offset that you can only claim had Charlotte been born a full 12 months earlier than she was AND her comment when I called to check was "don't you have two children?"...... oh sweet jesus. So I got her to correct that so I wasn't up for another ATO debt when they figured that one out!!

And for all of this we've been charged $500 for the privilege of getting our tax done - WHAT THE ????? - that is a far cry from the little brochure that appeared in our mailbox in July suggesting that these people could do your tax from as little as $60 a refund (yes, apparently that is only the case if you have one group certificate and no children, rental properties or anything else that would require them to have two brain cells to work out your refund!!) .....

Hubby and I have decided to return to good old e-tax next year - screw it, who needs a tax accountant charging $500 to stuff up your tax return - I'm capable of doing that myself for free!!!

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...