The Concert

For a long time Paige has loved Linkin Park, they are by far her most favourite band. She has always loved rock music and as a 2 year old could point out "David Grohler" as she called him from across the other side of the shops when Foo Fighters was playing on the Foxtel booth screens. When the Boy decided that we could take Paige to Linkin Park, she was SO excited it was amusing, the only downer was that she really didn't really want me to come with her, she only wanted to go with Daddy. Eventually she got over the fact that I was coming.

Last night she happily went to have a little sleep before we went out and for once went to sleep straight away. The whole way there in the car she was just about bouncing off the roof of the car and skipped from the MCG carpark over to the Rod Laver arena. She was so very excited. Once the first band went on she started to feel sick, possibly there was too much excitement. Luckily we brought ear plugs for her so we put them in and she was a bit happier.

Before Linkin Park came out, they were playing a video about their charity www.musicforrelief.org and Paige was absolutely fascinated by it. She is determined to get involved so we will see ohow that plays out. Once Linkin Park came out she was grinning from ear to ear. She stood for almost the whole show and sang along to just about every song. Once we left, her first statement was "that was AWESOME".

I am glad that she had such a great time and she now has her purple Linkin Park tour t-shirt to wear whenever she wants. What a great night.

School Holidays Again

Already, it is school holidays again. So far, it has been pretty busy.

On Saturday we had a "family" birthday party. Family in the sense of friends who are as close as family.

Sunday we went to the Memorial Tower in Kangaroo Ground as Charli asked really nicely if we could please go to the castle looking place and the girls stayed up late.

Monday we didn't really do anything as the girls were tired and I had washing to do.

Tuesday we went to a school holiday fashion workshop at Northland which Paige loved and Charli loved dressing up. The girls did a little catwalk which they enjoyed. Then we went to the movies to see Cats & Dogs in 3D. We also took Paige's bestie with us.

Wednesday night Paige had a sleepover at her friends and then stayed there today while I was at work, Charli, Daddy and I went out for dinner last night and then she went to childcare today. Tonight they are both EXTREMELY tired and are currently asleep, not a peep was heard after the lights went out.

Tomorrow they are going out with Grandma and Grandpa and are looking forward to it.

I just now realise this post is starting to sound a little like The Very Hungry Caterpillar minus the pickle. Hopefully tomorrow the girls turn into beautiful butterflys rather than grumpy caterpillars.

Holding Boys Hands

This year at school, we had a ball. Apparently they used to do this way back, the same as the concert which we had last year and the current principal decided to reintroduce the tradition. So, one year there is a concert and the next year we have a ball.

The kids all did dance lessons leading up to the ball and they had to perform 3 dances with their class mates for the parents to watch. In between in what would have been intermission, they got all the kids and parents to get up and dance. The littlies performed easy versions of the cha cha and mambo amongst others, they had sooo much fun.

Paige's best friend M didn't want to dance with her class, she gets EXTREMELY shy in large groups, so they danced together during the breaks. This was good for 2 reasons; 1 I didn't have to get up and dance and b M got to have fun dancing without lots of people looking at her. Paige of course relished the attention.

The thing that made it even better for her was the fact that she got a new dress for the dance and new shoes. The dress it turns out, was easy. I went to Myer to have a look at what they had and fell in love with a dress that was on the rack, last one there, in PJ's size and a gorgeous colour so I bought it straight away. The thing I love about Myer is that they have gorgeous girly clothing in sizes over 6. In most other stores like Target, Kmart, etc the older girls clothing can be a little, how shall I put this, too mature for her age. I guess that is the problem with having one quite tall, almost 7 year old.

The shoes were another story altogether. I think we went to 5 stores before we found a single pair that she liked. Every store had black sequinned flats but she didn't like any of them. She wanted pink shoes until I explained that they REALLY wouldn't go with her burgundy dress. Eventually she settled on black, but then didn't like any of the shoes we could find, to the point that she wouldn't even try them on. Eventually we found a gorgeous pair of black sequinned ballet flats with a little ankle strap with a buckle, she loved them straight away and we bought them straight away. The funniest thing about the whole shoe episode is that I was frustrated and about to get really cross with her when I realised that she is just like me. I love shoes, but I am really fussy, I wont buy them or try them on if I don't love them straight away. She is exactly the same. Finally, something she is like me in.....shoes :)

So, she had a wonderful time at the ball, she loved getting to hold the boy's hands during the dancing and we got to see how grown up and gorgeous she is, all dressed up. Now we shall do it all again in 2 years and this time Charli will be in Prep. Should be VERY interesting.

Pictures to come.

Oh No!

I feel bad now, I just got my traffic report and there have been some visitors to my site, none of them was me however. I have not updated in too long. I do have some posts that are half written and saved, but not finished and posted. Must get onto that!!

That time of the Term

It is the end of Term 2 and we are now half way through Paige being in Grade 1, it is really amazing to think about how much she has changed in the past 18 months. She has gone from being our little girl at kinder to this too grown up for her age girl. She is amazing and crazy and Paige.

On Thursday, it was report day. In the morning before school I mentioned that she would be getting her report. She was all "Oh No Mummy, you might not like it" when I asked her why she told me that it would say that she talks too much, cos, you know that is something I don't already know about her. She talks so much that it doesn't even stop when she is asleep.

What do you know, when she brought her report home, it didn't say that she talks too much, only that she is easily distracted and never gets her work finished in time even though she is very smart and can do it. Oh and the PE teacher confirmed our suspicions that even though she tries hard, she is not terribly coordinated, maybe she is just too lanky, all legs and arms. Maybe she will grow into it :) Lucky she is not terribly interested in sports otherwise there may be disappointment to deal with.

Over all, she is doing really well, her reading and spelling is at Grade 2 level and she is happy and enjoying school and has not been sent to the principal's office for anything since the infamous visit in the very first week of school in Prep so we shall call it all good.

Now to enjoy the next 2 weeks of school holidays.

Meh

Today I feel really cranky! I am not sure why, but I would guess that it has something to do with either not getting alot of sleep or PMS, or possibly a combination of both. The girls are making me cross for just being there, for saying Mummy all the time for asking me to help them with things, for breathing. The boy is making me cross by saying have a good day when he left, for calling to see how my day is going, for breathing.

I think I need to listen to some happy music and possibly eat some chocolate. Maybe I will bake a cake, that always makes me happy. Oh well, it will pass, I just hate feeling grumpy like a troll.

Dare Devil

Yesterday Charli was playing in the lounge room while Paige was with me in the dining room doing her spelling words (which is a story all of it's own) when she suddenly started crying. She came running in with a blood nose. When we finally got her to calm down and tell us what happened, we discovered that she had put her little wooden chairs on top of the couch and then when she climbed on them she slipped and banged her nose.

About 20 mins later after her nose had stopped bleeding, the boy went into the lounge room to find Charli with both of the wooden chairs on the couch and she was laying on top of them.

Apparently a bloody nose was not enough of a lesson to stop her from doing it again.

Charli's Brithday

She is "SO EXCITED" and it is really funny. This year is the first time she has really understood the whole birthday thing and she has pretty much had a 3 day celebration, so awesome all around.

On Saturday she had her first ever birthday party. We went to McDonalds and she had about 8 friends come along. She was so happy and had so much fun, it was wonderful to see. She had her face painted, and got some presents and played games and ate ice cream cake and then came home and ate lollies all afternoon and crashed out at about 4.30 to sleep for 2 hours, then went back to bed at 9.30 so I am pretty sure she had a good time and wore herself out.

Today she had Aunty Rita and the kids come over for a visit and they brought cupcakes with pink crystal sugar and more presents for her and she had everyone sing for her again which she loves. Grandma and Grandpa came over for a visit and then for dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant and she had yummy dinner.

Tomorrow she is getting more presents and shopping with Grandma so there is bound to be more spoiling. It is fun, but I think Paige is struggling a little so I got her a little something as well, just so she is not completely left out. We took Paige with us to get Charli's presents today and she was told that if she mentioned any of the presents to Charli, Grandma is not going to buy her any Polly Pockets, it is now 10.15 and she still hasn't spilled the beans, I think the threat worked. Either that or she is just growing up and understanding better how to keep a secret. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.....hmmmm.

All in all, it has been fun so far and I am sure it will continue tomorrow when she is officially the birthday girl.

Four!

No, I am not pregnant with twins!

Charli is four, or at least she will be in a few hours when she gets out of bed.

She is so much more a girl rather than a toddler. She understands so much more and is starting to put together concepts, she knows her alphabet and can count to 10, she is starting to recognise numbers and letters and wants to try writing them.

I remember that she started independent movement when she was only a few weeks old, she would flip herself from her stomach to her back, shocking the maternal health nurse who didn't believe me that she would do it. She started commando crawling at 4 months and walking by herself at 11 months. She started talking late, especially compared to Paige, but now she never stops talking, even when she is asleep. She has the most delightful giggle that gets everyone around her giggling. She is extremely ticklish, stubborn, crazy and completely mercurial. She will go from happy and giggling to grumpy and cross in seconds and for no discernable reason. She hates to be told off, but often doesn't listen or do what she is asked to do. She adores her big sister and is always copying her or imitating her and often crying out, stop being mean whilst hitting her. She still takes Puppy No-Eyes pretty much everywhere and will most definitely not go to bed without him. She is quite simply a delight.

She is Charli and there is really no other way to put it. She is my baby who is getting so grown up but is still mumma's little girl.

I love you Charli, Happy 4th Birthday!

Mother's Day

I know I am a little late, but I had a wonderful day, nice and relaxed and very spoiled by my lovely little family. We chatted with Nannie and Grandma and it was just a really nice day.

I have been trying to think of what to say about Mother's Day and then today I read a post by Rebecca Woolf of Girls Gone Child that kind of really said it all so I will link to that. Read it if you can as it is lovely.

Naughty Mummy!

This morning Charli asked me if I could make her milk as usual. I kept getting distracted and she asked me about 5 times and I kept responding yes, I will get it and then got distracted again. Finally I realised and told her that I was sorry I was a naughty mummy and I would get it for it.

Her response was: That's Ok Mummy, I still think you are beautiful.

Isn't she the sweetest thing in the whole world, well her and Paige :)

Paige is being Mean

Last night, all was quiet, the girls were in bed as was the boy and I was watching TV whilst waiting for my last batch of cookies to finish. All of a sudden there was yelling from upstairs. Charli, sound asleep, suddenly yelled "STOP BEING MEAN TO ME!!" Both the boy and myself went in there to see if she was ok, she was fine, but she wouldn't believe us when we told her that Paige wasn't being mean as she was in bed asleep in another room. After some convincing, she had a drink and promptly went back to sleep.

This morning I asked her if she had a bad dream. Apparently Paige, in her dream, was scaring her with ghost stories and she wanted her to stop which is what prompted the yelling. Funny that this actually happened the night before and Charli didn't sleep well that night either. Paige is now under threat of losing her Polly Pocket Money if she tells Charli any more scary stories before bedtime.

Isn't that what Big Sisters are for?

What a Mess

Everything feels like a big mess lately. I started working. 4 mornings a week from home and 1 day a week in the office. I haven't worked since just before I had Charli, so nearly 4 years. That is a long time to not be working, I was kind of used to having my days to myself to do what I felt like when I felt like and now I have less than half the time I used to. I now understand feeling busy all the time, but I have to say that I am really enjoying it. It is nice to be contributing financially and also to have something to stimulate my brain.

The downside is that every thing feels like a mess. I am getting my work done, but because I am new to it, it is taking me longer than it would normally. This means that I feel like I am not getting anything else done. The funny thing is that I don't really think I was doing alot before. I had kind of gotten to the point where I was really lacking motivation, I wasn't enjoying doing the housework, not that many people really do, but I think that whilst it is not great to do it, it is lovely to have a nice tidy house and that wasn't even motivating me. It is possible that the house is now tidier than it was before I was working, but I feel like I am more out of control and busy than I was before. Oh well, I will get there.

Charli is very excited about going to childcare for 1 day a week and super excited about her upcoming birthday party. This will be her first acual birthday party and she wanted to have it at McDonalds which is fine with me and easy. Pretty much every day she asks me when her birthday is and how many more sleeps, only 32.

Paige is doing really well at school, enjoying doing her Wise Ones program and her reading and writing is improving dramatically. She has her school photos today so it will be nice to get them and see how much she has changed since her photos were taken last year. Sometimes you can really see how much she has grown up and changed and it is scary, going way too fast.

Well, I think that is about it for now.

Oh my ears!!

I am sure that it is not just my kids, but kids in general that love to make noise. I remember seeing a T-Shirt a while ago that had "Pots and Pans Band" on it and I always wanted to get it for Paige as she loved to play the pots and pans with the plastic chopsticks. Especially cute was the fact that she would put them all on the coffee table and play whilst Charli (who was about 3 or 4 months) would sleep on the floor next to her.

Exhibit A:
Paige and her Pots and Pans Band


Just yesterday, Charli decided it was her turn so after helping me to make jelly, she got out the pots and pans and the plastic chopsticks and away she went.

Exhibit B:
Charli and her Pots and Pans Band


As long as they have fun and put it all away it doesn't bother me and the best thing is they have a ball doing it. In fact, Charli is banging away right now as I am writing this. I think I may need earplugs.

Would it be OK if I throttled them just a little bit??

This afternoon was one of those days that makes me think it may have been a whole lot easier to just buy some trained monkeys rather than having kids, they were making me crazy. I think that maybe they forgot to "exercise the crazy out" this morning or something, but the result was that we missed the bus home and had to wait for an extra 1/2 hour and they didn't get to go to a friends house after school.

A word of wisdom my father once told me was to never threaten your children with a punishment that you wouldn't carry through on and I have always kept that in mind, especially when they are making me crazy and my inclination is to dream up some bizarre and complex punishment for them.

As usual after school, we head to the playground as it is 20 minutes before the bus comes. Also as usual, 5 minutes before we need to leave, I asked them to get out of the sandpit and get their shoes on. Apparently their ears were broken. I got the impression that it was a school wide epidemic today as there were a number of mum's with exasperated looks on their faces whilst they tried to coax their progeny out of the playground. Many a "come on, we have to get to swimming" was heard yelled across the yard, more than once. The thing is, I have this 3 strikes policy, if I ask them to do something 3 times and it doesn't get done, then they get in trouble. I think today they got 3 lots of 3 and in the end they got the "if you don't do it now, you will not go to (insert friend's name here)'s place tonight for a play"....still, no movement, at least not in the direction I wanted.

When I finally got them to pay attention, they were full of remorse, but by that time it was too late for them. Luckily I am immune to the pleas of 2 very insistent little girls as they tried the whole way home:
"but what if I be good for the rest of the night" - possible, but unlikely
"but I will make my bed and tidy up my room" - as if!!
"I promise I will never not listen to you again" - HA!!

When we got home, PJ had to call her friend and apologise for not being able to come over and then they had to clean up all their toys in the lounge room. Lesson learned...for tonight, not forever :)

Hit me with a stick!!

The Scene: Paige and Charli are playing outside.
Paige - Mummy, Charli wants to hit me with a stick!
Charli - no I don't!
Daddy - Well sometimes I want to hit you with a stick!
Me - roll on the floor laughing

A Big Whoops

Last night Charli had to survive without Puppy No-Eyes. We were at a friends place (a few houses away from ours) and when it was time to leave, Puppy was nowhere to be found. Charli couldn't remember where she left him and 3 people searching everywhere for at least half an hour couldn't turn him out. I even went home and looked for him but couldn't find him anywhere. Eventually I just told Charli that she would have to go without him until the next morning as it was too dark to search properly.

The whole drama is that Charli has had Puppy No-Eyes for nearly 4 years and has not gone through a night without him and has never lost him. She sucks her thumb, but only when she has Puppy, no Puppy, no sucking the thumb. The biggest problem was that she lulled me into a false sense of security. Charli went off to sleep without any dramas and really quickly. Then when I was almost asleep, she woke up crying and nothing could calm her, she cried hysterically for about half an hour before she went back to sleep. She woke up at about 8am which is early for her and then asked me every 10 minutes if we could go and look for Puppy yet.

At about 1pm we headed over to our friends who had already located Puppy in the front yard near the mud hole the girls were playing in the night before and Charli did not let him go for the rest of the day.

That was a close call.

My Nan

My Nana died last night. She was awesome.

These are the things I thought about today.

We had a great Christmas this year. For the first time in 3 years we went back to where I grew up for Christmas. We had a wonderful time with the family and as always when there is a family get together, Nan, or BigNan as she is know to the littlies, was there. She loved it. She was legally blind so she couldn't really see anyone or anything very well, but she loved to just be amongst the noise and chaos. The 6 kids all playing together all day with barely a disagreement, something that she commented on often. They loved her too as we all did.

I remember when we were little all of the family gatherings were at Nana and Pa's house which was about 5 minutes drive from our house. I know for a fact that she was always there, as she is in all of the photos from the birthdays and gatherings, special occasions and unimportant occasions. Many of the photos of me as a small child were taken at her house.

I remember that we used to go there for sleepovers. We used to turn on the overhead sprinklers in her shadehouse and run around in there when it was hot. We used to eat icecream with her, dessert always had icecream because Nan loved icecream. I remember we used to go and visit her at work. She worked in a hardware store and in the winter wore this brown parka. I remember once I ran up to a random guy and hugged him because he was wearing the same brown parka that Nan used to wear. I remember that one time my mum and her sister were doing the dishes after a meal at Nan's and they washed all of the paper plates and hung them up on the washing line to tease her because she liked to wash and reuse the plastic ones. I remember the day I got my license and I told my mum and dad that I would drive myself to uni and instead I drove to Nan's and spent the day with her.

I remember the laughter.

I know that she loved me, she had this way about her that you just knew that she loved you, you could tell by the look she would give you, the way you always knew she was proud of you, no matter what. With all the hardships of her life, and there were many, she was a strong, independent, loving, caring woman who was also my Nana.

I remember the laughter.

I love you. I will miss you. Thank you.


(Written 17/03)

A Visit to the Hopstible

Tonight I took Charli to the Emergency Department at the Austin Hospital. She has been feeling unwell for a few days and has been a bit off, not really eating or drinking and a bit snotty. The thing is, she hasn't really been all that bad. Last night she got a fever and today she was complaining that her neck (throat) was hurting and I did notice that her breath smelled weird. Tonight she was sleeping on the couch when she woke up crying. Every time we asked her what was wrong, she would just cry more. She was hot so I took her temperature which was at 37.7C so we decided on a shower, that was when I noticed that she had a large welt on the back of her left hip and a few on the back of her right arm. Judd and I decided that I would take her to the hospital as I didn't want to take any chances after going through Staph scalded skin with PJ.

The triage nurse and the the 2 nurses and 2 doctors who saw to her in the hospital were excellent. We were in and out in about 1 1/2 hours and they discovered that she was having either an allergic reaction to possibly something that bit her or more likely an immune reaction to the fact that she has a sever case of tonsillitis. She was really good, as always, she had everyone around her finger in about 30 seconds flat and she has been sent home with a dose of strong antibiotics and orders to rest.

And that is what I am now going to do, give my eyes a rest until the morning.

Again with the Drive-In

Saturday night, we once again made our way to the drive in, we all love to go so it is alot of fun. The girls love that they can watch a movie and eat junk and sleep in the back of the car which acts like a bunk bed (see this post for explanation if required). Paige really wanted to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief because of the way he clicked his pen into a sword on the ads. She loved it and the next day she wanted to spend her pocket money on a sword. The funniest part of that decision was she was telling me about it before The Boy got up, once he did, she was all "Daddy, I want to spend some of my Polly Pocket Moneys" and his immediate response was "You are not buying a sword!" He didn't even hear the conversation, that is how well they know each other, scary. Anyway, that would have ended badly....for Paige anyway, when Charli clocked her over the head with it.

The point I was originally making before I was distracted by the whole sword thing was that we went to the drive in. This is the first time that we have had to line up to get into the place. We got there early and everything and it took us 25 mins to get into the field and the movie had just started. Oh well, didn't miss much and still got a fairly good park. On the upside, the guy at the gate only charged us for 1 movie for 2 adults so that saved us some money. We ate junk and watched 2 ok movies, the aforementioned Percy Jackson and Valentines Day which was a romantic comedy and everything that implies, predictable and sappy, but I liked it and The Boy didn't hate it so we will call it all good.

We got home at about 2am with both the girls strapped in but sound asleep across each other and thoroughly happy with their evening. They didn't stop talking about how much fun they had until late yesterday so I will take that as a good sign and patiently wait for some more good movies so we can go again.

A Pet Whale

On the way home today, Paige and Charli were talking about a theory they had. It was started by Charli who was saying that it was lucky the new ship playground at school didn't have water under it or it might float away. Paige said but it wouldn't be able to float away as the road was in the way.

P: If the roads were made of water it would be able to float away.
C: Yeah!!
P: If the roads were made of water, we could all drive a submarine car to school and then we would get out at school and mum could drive the submarine car home. Then we could have a pet whale and it could swim to school to visit us.

How funny, if the roads were made of water, it makes me think of Dr Suess for some reason, can't think why though.

School Holiday

At this point, I kind of wish that we had the second part of the school holidays over again. We got back from Adelaide with plans to go to the beach a few times and get some play dates in with some of the kids from school as well as one of Charli's friends, but ended up going to the beach once and that is about it. PJ did have her best friend over twice and went there as well, but Charli got Bronchitis and as it was the second time in 6mths that she has had it, the doctor is concerned that she also has a slight case of asthma. She was prescribed antibiotics and an inhaler. She took 2 weeks to get better and I have noticed that when she runs around alot or jumps on the trampoline for a while she gets a cough which is not fun, so just keeping an eye on that.

About 3 days after Charli started feeling better I got sick, then it turned into bronchitis, then the doctor told me that my blood pressure is REALLY high. So now I am pretty much confined to the couch. Friends are picking Paige up from school, who by the way absolutely loves her new teacher, I am getting told off if I spend too much time walking around or at the shops or doing too much at home. I have a whole month to wait until I can go back to the doctors to get it checked again and then go from there. Can you tell I am a little frustrated. At least when this happened when I was pregnant, there was a good reason for it, now there is nothing, just high blood pressure and taking it easy and the guilt that comes along with being a stay at home mum and doing nothing.... grrrr!!!

So Paige is back at school and happy, although tired, Charli is her usual happy self and thing are chugging along albeit a bit slower than normal. I guess I could take this time to do some sewing, now there's an idea :)

Christmas Fun

We drove to Adelaide for Christmas this year, the day we drove over, it was 39C most of the way and we had no aircon....oh well. It was the first big family Christmas for us in 3 years. The last Christmas we had in Adelaide, Charli was only 7 months old and my niece C was only 1.5 months old. Now there are two 6 year olds, two 5 year olds and two 3 year olds. They had so much fun playing together even despite the fact that the nieces were unwell and towards the end of the holiday, my 2 got sick. They got LOTS of presents, a holiday at Nannie and Papa's, a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's, a camp out in the "shed bed" (caravan), a trip to the carnival at Semaphore where PJ went on every ride she possibly could and a sleep over at Aunty S's with all the cousins.

Poor PJ did have a bit of a rough time though, she went out for dinner with Daddy and afterwards they had cold rock icecream before going to see Avatar 3D. Apparently the combination of icecream and lollies that she decided on was a little iffy, add to that a swing around the pole while waiting for daddy and what you get is spew all over the movie theater carpet and a trip home. Oh, and an argument about where the clean up will take place with one Daddy refusing to enter the female toilets and one six year old refusing the male. Luckily Aunty K came to the rescue and she made it home in a less spewy state and went straight to the shower. On top of that, she got a cold and then a bit worked up at the whole leaving Adelaide thing and spent half the ride home with her head in a bucket. This particular bucket is now lovingly referred to as "security bucket" due to the fact that she wouldn't let it go for the whole trip home, even though she had been spew free for at least 5 hours.

So, the point to this long drawn out story is that Christmas this year was Awesome, family, fun and a holiday which felt like a holiday, now if the kids would just get better so we could enjoy what is left of it :P