If I could talk to the animals ....

As Michael was leaving this morning, he called us to the window. Mother Duck was following her four children across the road to our yard. Mim and I went downstairs with two slices of bread and feed them. They were very cute, Mim kept calling "Mofer duck, Mofer duck, come here Mofer duck".

After the ducks had returned to the creek and Caitlin had been shipped off to school, we heard noises in the back yard. Gomez went ballistic, running around the yard searching for whatever had made the noise. It was only after he'd come back upstairs that I noticed the large lizard. Thank goodness he hadn't!

Not long after that, Mim discovered a roll of sticky tape and wanted to "wrap Momez up" iwth the tape. Beware, Gomez, stay well away from her until this idea has left her mind, you know she'll follow through!

And speaking of following through, I discovered Mim downstairs with undies off and holding up the wall, being 'busy'. So I grabbed her and raced upstairs to the toilet. No success though.

"I want to do poopoo on the grass like Momez".

"But honey, you can't, Gomez is a dog and dogs poo on the grass, but people don't".

Crying now "I want to be a dog!" (ooohhhh, I'll leave that one well alone)

Attempt at fitness

What a busy few days it's been. First of all, Anzac Day. Caitlin had to march in the parade from Burnie Brae to the Kedron-Wavell RSL in her Job's Daughters outfit, so Mim and I marched with her .... well I marched and carried Mim most of the way. Then we sat facing the sun for the hour long service and watched one old lady fall over and flash her granny pants to the world. (Michael was quickly on scene to pull her skirt back down and protect what little dignity she had left).

I then spent most of the afternoon watching reruns of "Jamie's School Dinners", which I'd missed first time on commercial TV. My jaw dropped when I heard a paediatric dietitian say he was running constipation clinics for 6year olds who hadn't pooped in 6 weeks because of their diet (chocolate for breakfast, chips for lunch, chips and pizza for dinner). Wow! To think I feel really bad if I haven't had a serve of vegetables in 2 days!

Yesterday I decided to be healthy and ride Caitlin to school on our pushbikes. I've got the baby seat on the back for Mim. Going to school is not a problem, it's mostly downhill. Coming back is the difficult part. By the time I got home, I was panting and legs were about to fall off. Then of course I had to repeat the process to pick her up, but had to take her to piano lessons before heading home - again, lots of uphill bike pushing (I'm not riding up a hill for anyone). For the first time ever, I was wishing I had more fat on my backside! (The bikeseat needs to be more padded).

I'm hoping to repeat this process at least once a week now that the weather is getting cooler. Mim enjoys being a backseat driver, keeps telling me to "go faster!" or "that's too bumpy". Little lady of leisure with her sunnies and helmet on, and listening to the radio on my MP3 player.

Charlotte's Party

It was a very busy day today - and a momentous one. Not only was it the first swimming lesson at Caitlin's school's pool, it was Charlotte's second birthday party and it was the first day Mim went out in public with her undies on.

It's taken about a week to have Mim comfortable in her undies. Yes, she still does have a few accidents - like when she's playing computer games and just forgets to go to the toilet, but on the whole she's doing well.

Carla made an amazing Dora cake and organised a proper "Explorer" party, complete with a river to cross, quicksand to step through and amazing homemade purple backpacks! All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.



Mim was very excited to have Charlotte's party over with ... because her party is next! It's very difficult for her to understand though, that next still means a few weeks away!

Beethoven in the Bog

Mim has been slowly getting accustomed to wearing "undies" instead of a nappy. She is very partial to her nappy, often insisting that after she has used the toilet she should have her nappy back on.

The toilet is a dangerous place for young children, you turn your back for less than 30 seconds ... and a full roll of toilet paper can end up in the toilet bowl! So, to keep Mim amused, and on the toilet, we put her piano in there. So now she can really tinkle while she twinkles!

So, after composing a Concerto to Crap in P Major, it was time for her to go to bed. But not without a fight! There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth - "I need a bottle" (don't we all kiddo), "I can't sleep on my own" (I enjoy having the bed to myself at times), "I want to sleep in Mummy/Daddy bed" (you'll never get a younger sibling that way)... after 15 minutes of this there was silence. I waited another five minutes to ensure she was definitely asleep and went into her room to cover her up. The bed was empty!

Then, in the dark, I spotted her .... she'd fallen asleep on her change table!

Musical Nights

"So, Jemima, now that you are a world famous composer - how did you get your inspiration for this career choice?"

"Well, Ian, it was simple. When I was two, my parents would put me to bed at night, although I didn't want to go. So I decided that to really piss them off, I'd play the electronic toy piano that my Poppy bought for me - it makes a lot of noise! I'd play it for up to half an hour each night, in the hope that they would get really annoyed and release me from my room. I know they wished the batteries would go flat, but they haven't yet! I also used the plastic stool to stand on so that I could open the door and create disco lighting in my room."

BBQ at Carla's

What a wonderful afternoon! Nothing like a bbq at a friend's place, with the kids to entertain us.

Charlotte has a new swing set for her upcoming birthday. Carla, SuperMotherSupreme, managed to clean her house, shop for food, put together the swing set (it's like a malicious Meccano set), prepare the salads, marinate the meat, all whilst having MacKenzie on the breast. Well done, girl!!!

Anyway, Mim, Charlotte and Owen had a wonderful time on the slide and swings, competently supervised by Marc (bet he's sleeping well tonight!)

Owen's new throwing style is just priceless! He also loves tackling the girls - he's got a future in rugby, or waitering, judging by the way he kept collecting the dessert plates!

The bbq was great (nicely cooked Dave, well supervised Geoff and Terrence), Meegan's chocolate cake was to die for and my caramel tart was delicious!

The gem of the night came as we were leaving. Caitlin, being of the mobile phone generation (you know, C U L8er, OMG, TTFN) decided to farewell everyone with See You Next Time (C U Next Time)!!!!!!! Father very quickly told her it wasn't quite the best way of saying goodbye. Poor kid is quite naive so I don't think she actually understood what she was spelling.

After all that running around, Mim was quite exhausted - but we can't go to bed without Baby! After a ten minute search, with many tears and wailing coming from her bedroom, we found Baby and put her to bed as well.



So, until my next blog .... See You Next Time

Domestic Goddess at Work

It's been a busy few months. After putting up with years of His Lordship bitching about the kitchen and deck, and not having a working oven for almost 12 months, we finally decided to go further into debt and borrow some more money to have the deck and kitchen done.

Whilst I would have been just as happy to spend less on the kitchen and be able to tile the blue carpet room downstairs (ugh!), I'm very happy with the work done by House of Kitchens at Stafford. His Lordship is happy that he has a kitchen with benchtops his height, and working appliances, and benchspace!

Rhett and Ned, our lovely builders, have done a marvellous job at turning that useless sauna out the back door into a viable living area. I know Rhett found God and had a religious experience more than once - I could hear him calling for Jesus (the squarest thing in this house is me!). Would be very happy to recommend them to anybody needing houses built or renovated.

Here's a photo of what the deck looked like ...



and what it is looking like now...



We found some lovely French/Screen doors at The Big Red Shed (another idea of mine). Apparently they used to belong to radio announcer Ian Skippen. Rhett's mate was able to strip them down and we will be staining them to match the Stegbar window.

Here are some before and after shots of the kitchen.
From Beige and Brown.....


to White and Light.

The maroon glass splashback from Focus Glass will be delivered in about two weeks time, which will cover the mess onthe walls from the tiles pulling off half the wall. I'll be painting bulkheads next weekend.

So, so far I have packed up the old kitchen, helped pull it to pieces, Freecycle it, sanded and glossed the wooden floors, taken time off work to let the Kitchen boys install the new kitchen, done washing up out of a bucket, scrubbed and oiled the deck, unpacked the boxes into the new kitchen ..... Sometimes I feel like this is a one woman show! Maybe I should have my own renovations show.

We're having a Deck Warming / Mim's Birthday Party in a few weeks time - so much to do to finish it off before then!

The Joy of having a Big Sister

Mim just adores her older sister and so wants to be just like her. We've been eating in front of the telly lately (not a good habit, I know, but when the table is covered with crap and there's no room for chairs because the fridge is up against it ....). The girls sit at Mim's plastic yellow table but because of the height difference, Caitlin has to sit on the floor or kneel. Mim has now refused to sit on her plastic chair, she wants to kneel as well "just like my sister".

Last Thursday morning, Michael was teasing Mim (again) when she turned on him and yelled "Shut up! shut up!" Every time he opened his mouth she yelled "Shut up!" It was highly amusing! I think big sister has been broadening Mim's vocab - will have to keep an eye on that.

Being the modest little girl she is, Mim has a wonderful response to "I love you very much". It is "you love me too much" (instead of I love you too). And in response to " You are a very pretty girl (or any other compliment), I get "Yes, I am"! I don't think she understands the connotation of this.

Swimming lessons

Bub takes drown-proofing lessons every Thursday at Chermside with her beloved swimcoach, Cathy. She's at the stage of learning "big arms" (strokes). Last week, Cathy told her to do her bubble arm, breathe arm but to remember to touch her leg and then bring her arm out of the water whilst doing the stroke.

Bub took her literally ... whilst trying to swim the arm would go back, the knee would bend, the foot came out of the water and she'd grab her foot before continuing on with the stroke. Cathy and I were in hysterics! Thorpedo, she isn't! I wish I'd had a video camera.

But she's picking it up very quickly and has no fear of the water. I believe she could make it back to the edge if she fell in the pool.