Understanding Ratings...

our children are very funny sometimes!! Ben especially is developing a quite keen sense of humour. 

Phill had flicked the TV on the other day to watch a little nothing and of course, once a screen is turned on in this house, two boyish sets of eyes are inadvertently glued to it for the duration!

However, not this day! Ears were tuned in but eyes were busy doing something else - can't remember what. Ben listened as the mellow male voice announced that "the following programme is rated PG. Parental Guidance is required for those under 15 years of age." Or words to that effect anyway.

The funny thing that followed this announcement was Ben piping up saying, "You can't watch this show Daddy, you're not under 15". 

oh how I giggled!!

Luckily Daddy agreed, as it was a show about war and they were showing people getting blasted to bits, which is not something we want our little darlings exposed to at this tender age. He wisely listened to his 7 year old's advice.

Pee for Lollipops

Teeheehee

Knew that would get a reaction!!

Caitlin - my youngest child (of three) and only daughter has now hit the cherished age of two years old! And in my mummy language that means you are old enough to talk, eat, drink, walk and so many other things by yourself, so you are old enough to go to the toilet too!!!

Well -we were having a little success with this before the big second birthday so I thought this would be a piece of the proverbial cake!

She has been a gem, I must admit, and was having dry, prettily decorated, butterfly and ballerina "undies" within a week. BUT - and there always is one...!

The performance has become based upon the reward!! And in her case the favoured treat is a lolliPOP (that's her emphasis added, not mine!).

I thought initially a little reward would confirm her ability, desire, understanding, whatever you want to call it, of the whole proceedure - and boy was I right! Now she doesn't ask to go to the toilet, she just asks for the lolliPOP! Even before the trip down the hallway! Of course she is sooooo cute and adorable that I find it gorgeous and mildly amusing but the other side of the coin is that I am terrified that once the initial bag of lolliPOPs is emptied a typically two year old sized tantrum will ensue with pee going everywhere but where it is intended (Sorry if that is too much information for some of you out there. These concerns run frequently through a mother's mind!!)

I fear I may be turning my child into many things - a diabetic, a sugar crazed toilet fiend, or simply a cherub with insistent needs ie "gotta go pee! - where's my lolliPOP? - you know I can't pee without my lolliPOP!!!" You get the drift!

Well only the empty lolliPOP bag will reveal the next phase of developments. Till then I will praise profusely, and reward accordingly, and pray that by the time the bag is empty the joy and comfort of having dry ballerinas and butterflies overrides the necessity for the lolliPOP!

Steel beams and Broken noses

We are renovating!!

Aaargh - the noise, the dust, the indecisiveness (regarding fast approaching colour choices etc etc), the necessity to keep small children out of the construction zone, the cleaning up only to have to do it all again after the dust eventually settles, the noise, the requests from deseperate husband whilst trying to balance kids, meals, household chores etc etc etc....oh my...

but then you think of the end product and it all seems worth it!!!!

Today I was giving the kids their breakfast and trying to make lunches while Phill was banging away putting in a beam for the kitchen wall. I was half watching at the time and was as surprised, shocked, horrified and amazed as he was to see the hammer completely miss the afore mentioned beam to make contact with his slightly roman schnozz. I even heard it go crick!!!
He dropped the hammer pretty quick and grabbed his nose - I grabbed a paper towel in an effort to staunch the blood that I was expecting to see gushing from the poor, crushed nose. It did dribble a tiny bit but no flood ensued, so the paper towel was removed to expose a nose with a lovely hammer shaped indentation on the left side!! I would have taken a photo but didn't think of it at the time and now the swelling has come up and it looks almost normal!! The doctor said this could change as the swelling goes down again. I'll get a photo then!!

He soldiered on all day and now the lounge/kitchen/dining room is looking spacious and wonderful. The house is being held up in all the right places and tomorrow the fire will be going back in. I'm looking forward to that - particularly as I listen to the rain pouring down right now!!

Word to those renovating in the future:
* Move out!!
* If that isn't an option - get a therapist, a masseur, meals on wheels, and a daycare!
* If that doesn't fit the budget then buy some good ear protection for ALL the family, a few face masks, a junky old vacuum that still sucks but doesn't matter if it doesn't survive the project, and demand at least one night a week when there is no drilling, sawing, banging, hammering, cooking and cleaning.
* And if that still doesn't work for you then grin and bear it and hope the end result is worth it all and that your sanity/hearing/family/marriage survives the experience!

And just another suggestion - plan, think, plan, discuss, think and plan AGAIN and AGAIN!!! I reckon we have changed our minds at least a dozen times over a few different things!! Makes life interesting I guess :-).

My husband is an elephant!!!
He remembers things that I forget very easily!! Like the fact that I offered to make him a milo about 4:30pm and then got busy and just...forgot!

He is very funny about the way he reminds me too!!

I ask him why he is doing something and he just happens to drop into the reason..."and I'm still waiting for my milo..."

EH?

Who remembers that! And then makes me get up from my emails and blogging to make that said milo about 4-5 hours later!
With cake!!!!

The cheeky man...gotta love him though coz he did the dishes for me tonight without even being asked!
XXX

Dining out

Well I just love going out to dinner with friends - any excuse will do and a special occasion is not even a necessity!!
But when a birthday comes around it is just fabulous to get together and celebrate!!

The hardest thing - aside from picking out what delectables to order is trying to work out which side of the table you are going to tune into!! When conversation is going on around a round table it can get quite tricky trying to tune in to what people are talking about! Especially when you're in the Lone Star which can get a tad noisy!

Catching snippets of conversation can be ultimately amusing - especially when you are seated between the "rib boys" going "mmmm...nyum nyum....mmmm. smack nibble munch chew!" I should have asked to swap seats but one really does like sitting next to ones hubbie when one is out on a date!

So between the nibbling and munching I managed to catch the odd snippet of interesting table talk!

Eric and Sherry are off to Milford Sound and TeAnau today - watch out for posts on her blog about that - bound to be entertaining!!
Dave and Paula are dealing with sick father-in-law, wonderful and slighlty worn out mum/in-law and sick father-in-law's tumorous doggie. If Dave can put up with the dog peeing on the carpet then all will be well till gordon gets a bit better!
Ang and Haki are dealing with lots of different things but the main topic was the boy that Haki is trying to help throgh his work. Sounds a bit like a sad situation but I know that if anyone is capable of dragging a boy out of his own self pity then it would be Haki!! He is so loving and patient, but has enough guts and sense of what is right, and what is do-able, that he will be able to help a kid turn a corner at some point. Go Haki!
Scott is just the guy who loves to eat - gave up counting the pile of bones on his plate!! - and who loves talking movies - so he and Eric and Dave were happy campers talking westerns and action films for the night!

I wish I could remember some of the funnier moments!! There was the point when Phill and Haki tried to figure out how much money it would take to get Scott to drink the greasy water in the used finger bowl! That led to some interesting conversation too - and Eric sharing his Leer Jet story after winning the Teriyaki sauce competition! Most amusing and envying too.

Wish I'd taken my camera now! Oh well - there's always next year - or someone else's birthday!!!

On My Own....

Pretending he's beside me....not in England, or Germany, or Luxembourg, or....

Those in the know will know that my dearly beloved husband has been gadding his way across the globe for the past few weeks...his return is imminent (4 more sleeps) so I thought I'd better document some of the happenings while he's been away!

Firstly I'd like to thank whoever invented the webcam and the mobile phone for their genius! Without these two inextricable links I would have been a very miserable poppet indeed!
How lovely to click a button and talk with him or see him despite the fact that he is hundreds of kilometres away on the other side of the world. And Google Earth is also a fantastic thing - I have been able to see some of the towns he has visited (check out Esch-sur-Sure in Luxembourg), and follow the routes he has travelled without even leaving my desk! Incredible!

Well - what has been going on then.
It was school holidays when he left - July 14th - and week two was looming!

We had a train trip to Dunedin on the Excursion train and joined hundreds of other mums, dads, nannas, and grandads with their children in tow at the Mosgiel Sataion to board the train to town! We didn't get to sit together and I forgot to take my camera (Doh) but it was a lovely time - especially the tunnels and seeing the kids pull faces at themselves in the reflections on the windows like I used to when I was a little girl! I LOVE travelling by train and wish it was something they would reinstate in our lovely country!

We visited the Chinese Gardens and the Early Settlers Museum. The former was a hit with all three, as it offered a great chance to run around, and climb the rocks, and investigate all the different nooks and crannies. I can imagine that on any other day it would be a real haven of peace and tranquility - but not when loads of school kids are there running round everywhere!! the latter was welcomed by me and Nana as it was inside and warm! It was a cold, damp, grey day that day. We had lunch by the Cenotaph in the Queens Gardens (again kicking myself for not taking the camera!! Missed several very special moments!) consisting of bananas, mandarins and muesli bars. Meagre fare I know - but the plan to have lunch somewhere in town was thwarted by the amount of fun they had at the Chinese Gardens. We would have missed the train back to Mosgiel! Thus the need for warming up in the Early Settlers! So that was one day.

To pass more time we decided to go and see my Mum and Dad for a couple of days. Good idea right!?
Seemed so at the time...and I must admit the children were fairly well behaved until Jared (5) decides to get artistic on the newly painted, newly installed windowsills in the lounge!!! Arrrgh. What's a mother to do but grab the nearest bottle of jif ,and a cloth and apply a hefty lashing of elbow grease, in the efforts to remove said artistic display! It didn't work!! well mostly - but the artistic impression was carved into the new wood and nothing but sand paper and fresh paint would remove it! I was mortified to say the least! and dreading the response of my male parent! He of course was cool, calm and collected while I was embarrassed, angry and wrapped up in timeouts and apologies!
Where's Daddy when you need him!?

This is one of the sweeter moments while we were there...Mum and Dad are both sudoku lovers and introduced mathematically minded Ben to the joy of putting numbers in boxes. He loved it and that kept him happy for a large percentage of our time there. What was really funny was to come out one morning to see Caitlin sitting in Gran's chair, with her blanket round her, with the Sudoku book, a pencil and an eraser, and a look of intense concentration on her gorgeous wee face! Priceless!!

What next....

Then it was back to school - sigh of relief!

But this brought on a whole new barrage of issues to solve...no Daddy time for Caitlin in the morning to keep her happy about staying home while mummy drives her big brothers to school. Screams of "I wanna go in car!!!" could be heard half way round Mosgiel! (For a nearly two year old, she has the tantrum down pat!!) Sobs inconsolable lasted for half and hour on a couple of occasions. Its hard enough getting two boys ready for school, and out the door on time, some mornings, let alone an independent toddler determined to "go in car" despite being dressed in pajamas and slippers with a temperature of about 4 degrees outside and torrential rain!

Where's Daddy (and Iggle Piggle - In the Night Garden) when you need him!?

Now we kind of have the routine sorted a little better - just in time for Daddy to come home and shift things about again! Look forward to that challenge though! Yay for Daddys!!!!

The rain came tumbling down...

I can't remember how many days it has been raining!! Seems like weeks on end - although I think we did have one or two days in the middle somewhere when there might actually have been some sunshine!
The weather must be mirroring my mood - either that or all the farmers who are lambing right now (crazy people) are praying it doesn't snow so we are geting rain instead!
Ever since Phill left for England I think it has rained nearly every day...this doesn't help lift my spirits at all. In fact I hate it when its like this - constant drizzle and greyness and general sogginess everywhere. Yuck, yuck and double yuck!
The new extension is being useful as a space for getting washing dry on the clothes airers, but it is also providing another problem in that there is no spouting around the new roof and all this rain is simply falling off the edge onto the grass which is getting muddier by the minute and the water level is rising to above ankle deep in places.
Have a look at this!...


Thank goodness the guineapigs are on higher ground..and I mean much higher. Their winter quarters are positioned in their little cage on our picnic table! Not ideal but at least they are keeping mostly dry! Poor wee things.


This is the water streaming through the back gate up the footpath round the front of the house. Definitely gumboots only! At the deepest point it reaches my ankles!

And this is the back garden! The only thing high and dry is the barbecue, standing proud on it's newly poured concrete pad made with the left over concrete from the extension! The timber is dry on the top but not on the bottom!!! Oh well - what can you do...

So we are staying indoors which drives Caitlin crazy as she loves playing outside, but which Charlie (our cat) is loving as he lazes out on the chairs by the fire for the whole day!!!
Oh to be a spoilt puss!

If it keeps raining like this we might get to evacuation point again - it flooded really badly in Mosgiel about two years ago - but I'm hoping the long range forecast is WRONG!!!!
"I can't stand the rain outside my window..."

My first time...

Well I finally did it - I took the advice of several friends and followed their examples to enter the technological age to record my thoughts, feelings, opinions and of course the hilarious, ridiculous, cute, charming, and lovely things that happen in the course of my day to day life. These might not be ground breaking or of any particular interest to anyone else but me and my dear ones, but I am terrible at keeping a journal and decided these posts might one day become the source of inspiration for other mums like me!

Even now I am trying to ignore the plaintive cries of "Mum....maaaum!" coming from the upstairs room of my youngest and dearest, darling daughter. She is supposed to be going to sleep as it is 2pm and she has been on the go since 7am. I hope she isn't growing out of the sleep time already (she will be two next month) because I need those couple of hours she sleeps to recharge my batteries for the after school onslaught when the boys get home!!!

Anyway - this is my first blog entry... very inspiring I know.... just give me time and I'm sure you'll gain insight and entertainment as I get used to doing this!
Wish me luck!