Before and After - The Story of Puppy

When we had Charli, the guys at work sent us a lovely gift basket that contained a very cute puppy. I thought that this puppy was gorgeous and it was placed in the cot with Charli. Ask me now and I wish I had never put it in with her, but at the time it was really cute. Who knows, maybe she would have become attached to it even if it wasn't there or maybe it would have been something else. Either way, we now have a problem. Originally Puppy looked like you can see him up there. He was all lovely and fluffy and clean and had eyes.....when Charli was about 7 months old, Puppy started to come with her everywhere, she wasn't happy if he was forgotten.


Today, 3 years later, Puppy still comes with us everywhere, only now he is less cute and fluffy and more worn out and manky. He has been washed sooo many times, he has no eyes, his nose is starting to wear out, one of his ears has been sewed back on and he is constantly dirty looking even when he has only just been retrieved from the "drying machine". I have the constant worry about leaving him somewhere or him breaking or quite literally disintegrating.


On Saturday we went to a birthday party and, of course, Puppy came along for the fun. At about 5pm that evening Charli decided that it was time for some Puppy cuddles and what do you know, we couldn't find him anywhere. Daddy got dragged all around the house by the finger looking for Puppy, they even made a trip to the car trying to find the elusive animal, it was decided that maybe he had been left behind at the party. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth followed this announcement and then Charli sat on the chair and wailed that Puppy was "lost forever". You can imagine my excitement at this prospect. The boy and I had a discussion about what we should do but didn't come up with anything that sounded remotely like an idea, so I just settled on stressing a bit more. It was then that I had a sudden idea, Charli often leaves gifts for us in the kitchen cupboards and drawers so I did a quick check, lo and behold, there was Puppy neatly stuffed into the tea towel drawer "having a sleep".

Crisis averted!!! For now at least. We can all breathe a sigh of relief until next time.

LOL - As I finish writing this post and am checking the spelling and such, I hear a cry from the other room "I need to get Puppy upstairs"......

I think I might be sad.

When Paige started school this year, she was ready to go and I was ready for her to go. Before I knew it, term 1 was over and I was dreading the holidays with the whole keeping them entertained and refereeing the disagreements that are inevitable when the hobbits are stuck together for long periods of time. I have to say however, there was a whole lot less disagreeing and a whole lot more getting along well together than I was expecting. Not that this is a bad thing, in fact, it is a great thing. There are 2 problems that I can see as an outcome of this unexpected holiday happiness:

1. I am sad that Paige is going back to school, I think I will really miss her, more than last term when I was over her being home.

2. Charli will miss her, it seems like she had only just gotten over the upset at Paige not being there all the time and then she had her back, only to lose her again.

So now, I am going to have to find all sorts of things to keep Charli busy so she doesn't get all mopey at Paige not being around to play with and still get the housework that I love so much done. Do you think that keeping Charli busy is a good excuse not to do it? Then when the boy comes home at the end of a long day of work, I can say "sorry I haven't washed your clothes/cooked dinner/vacuumed the floor, I was keeping Charli busy so she didn't miss Paige too much." It may just work, well, for a few days anyway :)

Oh Pickle Juice!!

Me: Paige, you kept stealing the blankets from Charli last night.
Paige: I know, but I wanted to sleep by myself.
Me: I know, but, Charli had an accident so I had to put her in with you.

Charli: Yeah.
Paige: Oh, PICKLE JUICE!!
Charli: No.....WEE!!
Me: *dissolves into laughter*

She is SO much like her Aunt

I remember when I was little that my younger sister, who shall remain nameless, used to love to sit in the toilet and sing. She would sit in there for ages and sing to herself, most often the song of choice was a little ditty that she wrote herself call "Bada, Bada". I always thought it was just that she liked to hear the sound of her own voice and she was only 3 or 4 at the time, so, you know, very cute.

Today Charli proved once again that she has been blessed with many of those wonderful genes from my side. She was sitting on the toilet, singing a little ditty she wrote herself called "Puppy, Puppy". I couldn't help but laugh to myself as she once again reminded me of my wonderful sister and now I know for sure that she was doing it because she liked to hear the sound of her own voice. 

So, thanks for being such a great and wonderful sister and giving me many fun memories so when my child does something silly like that, I can't help but smile and think of you :) I love you.

The Magic of Counting and Wee

Just a few weeks ago Paige had her assessment at school. They did all sorts of tests, which were fun, to determine her levels in reading, letters, counting, writing, etc. After her assessment her teacher, who is fantastic, told me that Paige did really well, she knew all of her alphabet as well as all the sounds they had learned and many that they had not yet learned. With numbers she could count to 20 but got a bit confused with 17, 18, 19 although apparently most children have the same issue. Now, here we are, just 2.5 weeks later and Paige just counted to 40 with no mistakes, wow, that's pretty cool, I was impressed and just....wow. She thought it was wonderful how impressed I was with her counting and apparently that was all the reward she needed. Pretty clever if you ask me.

And for something completely unrelated, we are constantly amazed by Charli and her magic wee. I know, sounds pretty weird, but the thing is, it really is magic. Occasionally she has an accident in bed, once it was in our bed, we go to check on her and find her pajama pants and underpants are all wet, the magic is that her bed never is. There is never a wet spot in her bed or on the doona, we are not sure how she does it, but apparently she has magic wee. Maybe one day we will figure out how she does it, but for now, I am just happy that she has magic wee.

New Batteries Anyone?

Today Charli was feeling a bit flat, what is the best way to remedy that but to charge yourself up. Last night the boy was using his laptop in the lounge room and when he left, the charger was left behind.....still plugged in. I am sure you can see where this story is going, especially if you know anything about the craziness that is Charli....straight onto her tongue. Apparently she felt that it would be a good idea to plug her tongue into the charger and it gave her a little zap or as she said "made my tongue sting". I am assuming that it was something like a 9 volt battery on the tongue but since I am grown up and much more sensible, I didn't test it out. What I did do was unplug it and put it away.

Lucky for Charli she was wearing her Superman knickers.......