Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

My littlest boy got his own bed this week. He has been sleeping in his own space for almost 6 months now and over the holiday period started mentioning his want for his own big boy bed. I found the base at Tempe tip and we got an inexpensive mattress (knowing that we have a while left with the occasional wet bed and we could throw this one and buy a better one later)

The first night we had the beds arranged differently and the boys both woke a lot and in the morning they said they thought they were two far away from each other so yesterday we came up with this arrangement. Last night they both only woke once. Not bad for the first night of a new setup. My littlest looks so big in his new bed, I had fresh pangs of longing to keep them safe and small forever. But I also rejoiced in the fact they he is ready and happy and we have moved forward in his own time.

Facebook with Benefits

I have this friend, let's call her Elvira. She is my all time one and only BFF. We met on the first day of primary school and were inseparable for years. Almost all of my childhood memories feature her in one way or another. We have survived different high schools, drinking binges at 12, not talking for 2 years, boyfriends, life changes and then about 10 years ago she moved interstate.

She has grown into the smartest person I know (actually I should call her Dr Elvira) and I have grown into ... Well I don't know who she thinks I have grown into but I know she finds my talking openly about vaginas challenging. No matter what we have changed into over the years she is still the one person I can call and just plow back into the conversation like we talk everyday.  Truth is though that we only talk once a month or so and we only see each other a few times over the christmas period.

But these days I feel like I know more about her than ever. I mean I have always known who she is on the inside but 10 years of living in different states could take its toll on a friendship. That's where facebook comes in. Being that she is an avid facebooker and an even more avid tweeter I know more about her day to day activities than I have since we were little. I also know the kind of things that are on her mind and days when a call would be good/or bad.

Mostly facebook and twitter doesn't really seem that important. I mean sure its helped me reconnect with some old friends, which is brilliant, and even keep in touch with some new ones but the real value to me is the connection it gives me with loved ones who are far away and its not just Elvira. Its cousins and aunts who live OS and new friends who like me are too time poor for phone calls or weekly catch ups.

Take away the stupid barnyard games and the quizzes about which Twilight character you are there are some very useful parts of these internet networking programs and I for one am glad to know that Elvira is waiting for her BF to get out of the optometrist and I also needed to share (and be given some sympathy) about the fact that I dropped my coffee all over the rug and broke my favourite cup.  And sure I could have called Elvira and told her ... But she is out waiting outside the optometrist *grin*

IQ (not Einstein)

We have Foxtel cable TV.  Its got its merits but realistically when you are searching for something to watch whether you have 5 stations or 50 sometimes (often) there is nothing on.

When we subscribed we got given, free of charge, the IQ version.  There are a few features we use (and have become reliant on) the ability to pause live TV (handy when you live under the flight path or have young children), one button recording, and the ability to view the TV guide and then just push a button to record even asking it to grab whole seasons.

Its all fluff but to be honest but it makes life easier and it means we have a backlog of stuff that we can watch when there is nothing on TV.

I was just browsing our backlog and wondered ... What does our IQ say about us?

The following is a list of what's currently sitting in our IQ (in order), most are unwatched except the 1st dozen or so which are things that AB and the kids won't let me delete.  Its also important to acknowledge that the stuff we were really excited about seeing we have already watched and deleted so really this is just the bottom of the barrel of things we (I) think we (I) might watch one day:

- 7 of AB's favourite Top Gear episodes (saved)
- The Wild (saved)
- Ratatoullie (saved)
- Matilda (saved)
- Emperor's New Groove
- Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory (saved)
- Frida
- Adaptation
- Careful he Might Hear You
- Die Hard
- Mad Max
- Grapes of Wrath
- SWAT
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High
- Starman
- The Searchers
- The Wizard of Oz
- Gone with the Wind
- Top Gear
- Japanese Story
- December Boys
- I Heart Huckabees
- Top Gear
- Screamers
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (S06E07)
- Big Love (series linked)
- Lie to Me (series linked)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (series linked)
- Californication (series linked)
- Top Gear (series linked)

By the look of that list I wonder if burglars decided to sit down and watch the TV before they stole it who would they think they were stealing from?  Am I actually ever going to watch 1/2 that stuff? Why does AB need to keep all those episodes of Top Gear? Will he ever watch them again? And if he wants them so much should we not buy them so they don't clog up the memory (that I could be using to grab many other random crap movies/shows)? and most importantly what does your IQ/TiVo say about you?

K-9 Cake (Jacks 5th Birthday)

Im not a super mum! I don't know how to sew, I'm rarely Mrs Crafty Mum, but there is something about my kids birthday cakes that brings out the super mum monster in me. Its just so hard for me not to try and give my kids the birthday cake that they ask for and it seems to me its one of those things that I need to do to tick my 'mother' box.

Truth be told once I have a handle on the 'how to' for each cake I really enjoy the challenge and this years K-9 was no exception. If fact I think this cake is my best effort yet. It was a banana choc chip cake with butter icing. Im not a huge fan of butter icing and the reason I tried it was because the lady in the cake shop told me I had to :) I don't want to sacrifice the taste of the cake for look but I was willing to try and gosh it was far easier to get looking right compared to my normal cream cheese icing.

Its not perfect, I didn't really want it to be and Jack loved it so that the most important part !!! (I didn't say that I didn't love the response it got from everyone else though *grin*)

At Least it Wasn't Raining

Today the weather is HOT and so it seems like a very bad day for my new 'fixed' tyre to jump off the wheel while Andrew was driving home from watering a friends garden.  Seeing that I apparently don't have a jack in my car that meant that I had to put the kids in his car and bring him his jack which then decided not to work.  In the end it was nothing a brick and a lot of sweat couldn't fix ... At least it wasn't raining.

PS we will no longer be using Bob Jane T-Mart for our tyre needs!!! Imagine if I had been driving on the motor way!!!

How did we ever live without it?

Ladies, have you been wondering if you labia is looking old and worn? Is the colour of your vagina fading and your worried that you no longer look young, vibrant and pink? Well worry no more, THIS is the product for you !!!

" a temporary dye to restore the youthful pink color back to your labia. There is no other product like it. This patent pending formula was designed by a female certified Paramedical Esthetician after she discovered her own genital color loss."

This is our oldest dog (child) Oscar on Christmas morning.  Jack had woken me at 6.30am and ran downstairs to AB while I waited to see if Hamish was going to wake up.  Once I'd realised that Hamish was going to sleep for a while I wandered downstairs to have the dreaded sibling conversation (you know the one where your parents ask you to wait to open your presents until your brother wakes up)

Oscar met me at the bottom of the stairs bouncing and prancing, looking at me expectantly.  I opened the back door expecting that he needed to pee and went back to tell Jack he could take one thing out of his santa sack before Hamish woke up.

Oscar was still standing next to me with his best grin on his face wagging his tail and looking excited.  I mused with Andrew what he thought Oscar was doing.
"I think he's waiting for his present"
"I didn't get him one, plus he doesn't know its Christmas day ... Does he?"

It certainly looked like he knew it was Christmas morning, in fact there was really no mistaking the prancing and wagging ... Damn it the dog knows it Christmas and I didn't get him anything.

I ran into the study and found a freebie dog toy we had been given with the last bag of dog food we had brought, wrapped it and walked out with MY tail between my legs.

He sat with those big doleful eyes looking at me as I brought the present out from behind my back.  Chaos ensued...

Don't ask me how he knew it was Christmas but this year I learnt not to think that just because he is a dog, he doesn't need a present.

Sunny Mornings at the Pool

This week Jack has started swimming lessons again.  Our last experience at swimming lessons was a bit disastrous. Every thursday morning Jack would say the he wanted to go to his lesson and then about 5 minutes into the class he would decide that he didn't want to do the class at all. It was horrible watching the instructor telling him off and trying to make him do the class. It was also horrible seeing how cranky I got at the fact that I had packed a huge bag put Hamish in the pram and was trying to wrangle my littlest while convincing my large one that he needed to get back in the pool.  After four classes like that I decided that this was not the time for swimming lessons.

Cut to yesterday. Jack was excited about the class until he saw the pool. Suddenly it was to cold, to slippery, to deep and all manner of to scary.  He is not afraid of the water at all I think he is afraid of being told he has to do things he is uncomfortable with.

Luckily after watching for a minute and a little chat with the instructor he was keen to get started and he seemed to enjoy the class a lot.

We have four more classes to go, let's hope they all work out as well.

Our December so Far - In Picture

The kids and I waiting for Santa at their preschool Christmas party.

Jack and Hamish receiving their present from Santa. It was a calico bag with one of the teachers drawings printed on it. Hamish then went around pilfering food from other peoples picnic to fill his bag with and then proceeded to go back and feed Santa for the next 1/2 hour. NOTE: how excited does Hamish look ... and so cute that he likes to hug Santa thank-you

Polly and Fred having a snuggle at the preschool Christmas party.

Carmen and I having a snuggle at the preschool Christmas party.

Our street closes off the street and has a Christmas party every year. This year we went one step further and hired a jumping castle for four hours. This is just after set-up unfortunately I didn't get any photos of it in full swing with all 14 kids from the street (and a few ring-ins) on it at the same time.

Just a shot of Hamish opening his present (a butterfly net and some Dora Uno cards) mainly this shows a portion of the kids that were at the party ... as you can see the whole thing happens in the middle of the street.

Jack at his preschool graduation afternoon tea with a few of his friends. The girl standing next to him is Tash, she and Jack have become really close this year and they seem to have this great little understanding of each other. Its really sweet to watch.

It was Andrews and my anniversary last weekend. We don't usually celebrate much and so Andrew went to his yearly golf game in the morning and the kids and I baked mince pies for daddy. He came home with a huge box of cherries. We might not celebrate but our tummies did.

On the weekend I found a totem tennis at a garage sale complete with bats and ball. I pulled a brick out of our paving and set it up today. Here is Hamish getting the hang of it. Bless his every time he hit it he would jump around yelling "I did it" and then the ball would fly around and whack him ... he didn't even notice.
Last but not least Jack also trying that totem tennis. It took him a little while but once he did he looked like a pro :)

This could well be my last post until after Christmas. So Merry Christmas all, I hope you are ready for the silly season and manage to get a little silly yourself.

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

Just a quick note to tell you that I still love you and think of you often.  You are still my favourite and my best spot to put all of those random thoughts, ideas and musing that need a place to live.  I can imagine that you must be feeling quite neglected at the moment.  So what have I been up to that has kept me from you.

1.  Life
2. Death
3. School
4. Preschool
5. Xmas

All of which have been happening with various degrees of speed and depth.

So please take this apology and statement of devotion and know that I will endeavor to speak to you soon.

Lots of love,
Me ...