As promised, here is a bit more of what we have been up to since I last blogged.


In November, we began receiving heavy rain. It rained a lot when little Bear was born, but since then it hasn't really rained much here until recently. The first time it rained heavily, was at night. We came down the next morning to shin deep water running through under our house. Little Bear was fascinated, but as we had to get straight in the car to go to work/school/kindy there wasn't much time for discovery. It rained a bit more on & off throughout the day & when we got home, there were still puddles under the house. This time I let Little Bear loose.


At first she was a bit scared to get too close (she tries to push us away in the pool, thinking she can swim by herself, but was too scared to step in a puddle that barely makes it up to her ankles - go figure). When I showed her how to splash & jump in the puddles (there's no need to picture that - no really...) she quickly got over her hesitation & had a wonderful time (as you can see by this video).

In December it was Grandad's (AKA Mr Sunshine) birthday. I don't have many photo's of that & the only two that are half decent are these two.

I just love this outfit. I think Little Bear looks so much nicer in the really dark colours, as compared to the light 'baby' colours. And she always has, even as a new born.


The boots are a hand me down from her 7 year old cousin & have a suede finish. The soles have been reglued, but apart from that no maintenance is necessary & they still look like new. Amazing!


All 4 grandchildren had a wonderful time running amok with each other, trying to outcompete each other in volume, antics & just general sillyness. I love the sign above Bear's head in the first photo - "Lead me not into temptation". The look on her face says butter wouldn't melt in her mouth doesn't it! Don't be deceived :-)


(When I was just typing that last sentance, my fingers started typing faster than my brain could keep up & I accidentally typed don't be DECEASED. As that is also equally good advice, I will leave it here).

The butterfly in this photo is a present from Cheetah's clarinet teacher for Little Bear. Little Bear was nothing but trouble at all those lessons, however the teacher still spoilt her.

OK, that will have to do for now, but stay posted for more photo's soon.

:-)

Update

Hey folks,

Hopefully I will be back here soon with photo's abundant for you to see of all the going on's in this household since October 25 (my last blog). I knew it had been a while, but even I was quite surprised at just how long.

Since my last blog, I have barely touched my computer, being far too busy with many other things.

Shortly after I last blogged, Cheetah caught headlice! Oh dread !!! Anyway, we ended up taking the whole day off work/school/kindy to get rid of them. This was the first time we have had headlice in this family (although I caught them a couple of times as a child, but that was my mothers problem). I had no treatments on hand & as I discovered them in the morning, so had to wait until the chemist opened to get the treatment, then come home & apply it to Cheetah & Little Bear. Had it of just been Cheetah, not a problem, but we had to do Little Bear too. Then all the laundry that accompanied that - Yuck.

So one week later, kids are back at school/kindy & I do the second treatment. Found more live ones (is that supposed to happen?). Anyway next day send the kids to school/kindy & get a call from kindy that afternoon saying Little Bear is not well. Turns out she had a tummy bug. I hadn't even finished washing all the sheets from the headlice saga (not to mention the sheets from the second onslaught) & now I am changing Little Bear's sheets daily & both hers and my own clothes several times a day (for reasons best left unsaid).

OK, we get through that tummy bug & lo & behold I find more live headlice when we are ready to do the third treatment. I was pretty sure they were meant to all be dead by now. It is at this point that when discussing the drama's with a workmate, she casually mentions that she has never gone to the trouble of changing all the sheets & linen & worrying about the cushions, etc & they have never had any trouble getting rid of them. I fought the urge to strangle her in a moment of temporary insanity & we are still friends. Anyway, we finally get rid of the headlice (keep in mind it is about a month later that I feel comfortable to say that we are finally headlice free) when Little Bear catches a second tummy bug.

This weekend just gone (yes, a couple of days before Christmas), I finally finish the last of the accumulated washing, that dreadful reminder of that unpleasant episode in our lives. I have threatened my son with death if he even thinks about sharing his hat with other kids at school or borrowing theirs. No hat, no play !!!

On top of all this, of course there was Christmas shopping, Christmas planning & the inevitable Christmas parties (or birthday parties) that make every weekend from the start of November to New Years Day to be filled to capacity with activities of some sort.

Today we took a drive up to Paluma which is a mountain rainforest area where mobiles do not work. We did this to have some quality family time before DH needs to go back to work, but also to ensure that we were off everyone elses radar for a short while (ie. no unexpected or last minute visitors for just one day).

It was a beautiful day - very cloudy though which made it very sweaty walking through the rainforest even though the air was cool. We took a 1.5km walk of which Little Bear walked at least a third of that by herself (and for those who know the area, they aren't really 'rugged' walking tracks, but they are a challange, especially for an 18 month old).

Oh well, I need to go cook dinner now. Hopefully later tonight or in the next few days sometime I will be able to get some photo's on here. Don't hold your breath though :-)

Daddy's little Helper

Whenever Daddy is home, he has a little shadow.

Little Bear loves her daddy to bits & loves to do anything that daddy is doing.

Daddy has recently bought himself a new computer chair & Little Bear helped him build it.

Daddy was very patient with her & let her help him screw bits in & find bits that had gone missing (she was actually very good at this, because she was the reason that they weren't where Daddy left them in the first place).



When Daddy was getting too frustrated, Little Bear knew how to calm him down.













I love this photo. Daddy was sitting on the coffee table fixing the media PC (our home TV is attached to a computer).

Little Bear saw him sitting there so she went & got her book & climbed up right beside him & sat there quietly chatting to him the whole time (it took a while).














And this photo was taken today. Little Bear loves my plastics drawers & every day (multiple times a day on weekends) I have to run around after her putting it all back in before it gets dirty.


And there we go, that is the big stuff that has been happening since I last blogged. I have more to add as I get the photo's, but for now this will do.

Cheetah's birthday

After the wedding, it was time to get ready for Cheetah's birthday. Man did he score this year.

Cheetah has wanted a Nintendo DS since they came out. We resisted for ages because we have 2 playstations (1 & 2), 2 computers (plus a bunch of various computer parts that fill about 3 x 64L plastic tubs (not including cases & monitors), and various little computer game type toys.



Anyway, the two cousins his age that live nearby, as well as most of his school/PCYC friends have one so we finally gave in & got him one for his birthday. (When I say most of his school friends, he has about 10 close friends who all have one). Because we go on car trips (short & long) with his cousins, as well as camping with them too, we felt a DS would be well worth it for those times including the looooooong drives to NSW & back to visit Nanna.

Here is Little Bear presenting Cheetah with his DS.



Cheetah is a very good big brother. Here is Little Bear helping him open his present.















And here is little bear after all the presents have been opened (for now) getting a little bit overexcited at the whole deal & throwing herself at Cheetah, his presents & the wrapping paper.












Cheetah wanted a roller-skating party this year. Note the birthday cake was made that morning in time for a party at 10:00am. I was impressed with my own efforts.

It doesn't show up very well, but there is a number 9 out of M&M's on top of the cake.












Here is Cheetah skating.



















Here is Cousin T skating.


















And here is Uncle J & Little Bear.

That night we had the extended family over for pizza.

All in All, Cheetah really enjoyed his birthday

The Wedding

OK. Brother R's wedding was on 6 September so I am running a bit behind.

Honestly since the wedding I have been completely run off my feet & have had very little time to blog. The spare time I have had, I have used to just wind down (there really has been very very little of it) and blogging was the last thing on my mind.

Anyway, the wedding was nice. Sister-in-Law J looked stunning in her dress. Unfortunately I don't have any photo's of the actual wedding on my camera. I got the photo's from Mum's camera to burn onto disks for family, however we used a removable USB drive to copy them onto from her computer to mine & this wrecked the quality of the copies (apparently these drives are renowned for this). I am hoping to get round there tomorrow & try something different. We'll see how it goes.




Here is Little Bear & DH early on at the reception. Little Bear was very good for a 1 year old, but a bit of a handful because she wouldn't sit at the table.

She made everyone oooh & aaaah in her beautiful dress & shoes & of course she felt like a princess & so she played like a princess, swishing around, dancing & prancing when people were paying her attention & not wanting to be relegated to the sidelines in a highchair.

The older children (like Cheetah) were relegated to a table at the back of the room. (What a great idea)! Therefore I have no photo's of Cheetah on my camera from the wedding, but other family got some so if there are any good ones I will post them later.



Here is Little Bear & Grandad with the ice sculpture. This is where Little Bear spent most of the night with one adult or another. She didn't grow tired of it (although the adults had to keep changing the guard).

She loved to touch it & then pull her hand away laughing as her hand got too cold. By the end of the night, the Swan on the left had a noticably smaller tail than the Swan on the right.

Dinner was beautiful, however they waited a long time between each course & by the time the speeches started, Little Bear was ready to sleep & so I spent the full time of the speeches outside walking backwards & forwards until she fell asleep on my shoulder. I did find $10 though & no-one around to claim it. Bonus.

I will post a bit more about the wedding when I get the other photo's.

Here's a sneak peek of Little Bear's dress for the wedding on Saturday. She isn't feeling very well at the moment & so she wasn't really at her most photogenic at the time, but I'm sure we will get much better photo's on Saturday.
















Similar to Kitcat, Little Bear's cot tends to become a meeting place for all the stuffed animals within stuffed animal calling distance (I think they are like giraffes - they can communicate with each other, sometimes over vast distances, but humans cannot hear the frequency they vocalise at).





Puppy was feeling a bit crowded & tried to escape (with some help from a Bear) but Puppy's head was too big.











This is Little Bear with the lip balm & the red spots on the ground are lumps of lip balm. As you can see, Little Bear thought that this was hilarious and also thought that I would appreciate the funny side.



Not this time Little Bear!










Little Bear is happiest when allowed to help. Here she is rearranging my pantry. The yellow wrist band is for daffodil day. The yellow handle in front of her is for her trolley, which she was piling up with goodies from the pantry & then walking around the house & depositing said goodies elsewhere. Like a chipmonk, she stores goodies for later, but then can't remember where she stored them which is great because when she finds them it's like Christmas all over!

Poor Baby

Poor Little Bear has been sick, and today I finally took her to the doctors. Turns out she has bronchitis.



Because she had her needles a week ago, when she developed a fever six days later, we figured it was from the MMR needle which gave her brother Cheetah a fever & rash about 5 days after the needle (which is quite common). When she still has the fever 5 days later & her runny nose (which we put down to teething because she always gets snuffly when teething) had begun to give her quite a chesty cough, I finally caved & took her to the doctors. The only reason I took her was because I was worried she might have an ear infection (last time she had one, I didn't realise for several days because she only had a slight fever & general illness, nothing like ear pulling, inability to sleep, etc that indicates ear infection). Doc says her ears are fine, but she has Bronchitis so back on Antibiotics she goes.



This is the 5th time since she turned one that she has been sick (actually the 4th because the first time was a week before her birthday). Her chest rattles when she breathes & she constantly has snot streaming out her nose. I feel so badly for her. It was actually quite funny this afternoon though, because we were downstairs with no tissues, the two streams of snot made it past her mouth but didn't break & when she breathed out they made bubbles. She thought it was great. Loving mother that I am, I should have found something to wipe it up, but she was having fun & whenever I try to wipe her nose you would think that I was actually trying to rip out her nostril hairs individually the racket she makes (although that's nothing compared to the terrified wail she let out at the doctors when he tried to look down her throat).



At the doctors, Little Bear was exploring (the doctor has these neat steps that you use to get up on the 'bed'. There are two steps & Little Bear can climb up on them, but the bed is too high for her to climb onto. She loves to just climb up & down those steps until the doctor comes in). Unfortunately for the poor doctor (who is about 6 ft tall with a beard - none of the men in Little Bear's life have beards, other than the doctor), he walked in while Little Bear was not safe & sound in mummy's arms & he took her a bit by surprise. The doctor is very, very good with her & tries ever so hard to make her happy before he tries to do anything like look at her ears or listen to her chest. Unfortunately today, she was too sick to recover from her fright & when the doctor tried to feel her glands & look down her throat (which he does last because the kids don't like that much), she let out a kind of wail that I am glad I rarely hear. She was terrified & heartbroken & just generally upset to start with & I found it hard to reassure her instead of going out in sympathy. (To give you some idea, she didn't cry like that when she got her needles).



Anyway, she survived & she is finally in bed & sound asleep (after a short intermission from the land of nod, during which time we had to prop her matress up with pillows & rub vicks over her clothes (as it's too strong to put directly on her & the Tixylix was too hard to find). She is now sleeping like a princess & breathing like one too.



On the plus side, Little Bear & I are going to spend a day to ourselves tomorrow. I don't have too much housework to do (as I did about 3 weeks of catch up in the weekend just gone), and we are just going to relax & take it as easy as we can.

Busy days

If you wonder why there has not been any blogging since this time last week, it gives you some idea of how busy I have been.



Last Sunday I attended a Tupperware party at the Island. The ferry left at 11:30am, but to make sure we didn't miss it (note the tone), my sister picked me up at 10:30 (and we would have gone sooner if I had been ready, but they were even earlier than they said they were going to be). I can't really whinge about their punctuality though, when they were giving me a free ride there & back.



Anyway, we get to the island about 12ish and at this point had only shared a small packet of chips as morning tea (actually we shared 3 packets between 5 of us while waiting for the ferry). The host of the party picked us up from the ferry, but we didn't think to ask her about what we should do for lunch. She probably assumed we had already eaten, we didn't even think about it until it was too late. We made toblerone mousse at the party and then had a chocolate & a coke (as no chips/savouries on the 4:30 ferry home) for a belated lunch. The slightly turbulent ride home didn't help. By the time I made it home by 6:00pm I had a raging headache & felt too sick to eat (less from the bumpy ferry ride than the sickening food).



DH started his new job this weeks, so our week has been busier than usual as we adjust to this (he has been working later than he used to). He loves this job. They provided him with a laptop & phone before he even officially started. He then got a new digital camera (for the job), they bought him a weeks worth of new pants including dress pants & 'work' pants, as well as a belt that he LOVES (not sure what the attraction to a belt is, but it has a picture of a tractor on one of the metal bits. Who says boys never grow up??? I told him to make sure Lion McTavish sees it next time he comes over), and he also got some new work boots (although he told them that he gotten a brand new pair from his old job before he left that he had never worn. They asked him if those were leather? When he said no, they said get these ones as well).



Friday is ordinarily my "day off" (working mothers - & all mothers work - know that a "day off" means bill paying, running errands, doing things for everyone else that you don't otherwise have time to do, etc). Well this Friday gone, I took Cheetah to school & then didn't slow down until about 7:00pm and even then, I didn't stop until about 10:00pm. First I went to the Good Guys to pick up something that had already been paid for. The person who opened the door didn't turn the "closed" sign to "open" and there were a lot of people sitting in their cars (including Little Bear & I for about 20minutes) waiting until some old lady who probably couldn't read the sign through her cataracts walked up to the door & it opened. Next thing you know it's like the boxing day sales. Anyway, I finally get what I came for & leave.



Next stop is the McTavish Clan's household so Mummy McT can babysit while I get a filling. That was over relatively quickly & with numb mouth & aching jaw I head back to Little Bear. Although I could talk relatively normally while at the dentist (even when leaving straight after having the work done), when I tried to talk to M McT I was lisping really badly & sounding like I had been on the turps all morning. Anyway, as we have our brother's wedding next Saturday we had planned to do some shopping for the necessary gear. Found a couple of dress possibilities for Little Bear, a couple of suit possibilities for Cheetah & a dress for me (which was a nice dress but not exactly the kind of thing I was looking for). After dropping Dragon & Mummy McT back home at 2:00pm, I tried a few more shops as we still didn't have most of the dress essentials. No luck at those & feeling a bit frustrated (that word seems to be popping up a lot in my blogs lately), I picked up Cheetah, we went home for about 1/2 hour before having to trapse him off to Clarinet lessons. As I had Little Bear, I dropped Cheetah off & Little Bear fell asleep before I even pulled out of the carpark (it had been a HUGE day for both of us). Drove around for about 20 minutes before it was time to head back & pick up Cheetah.



Finally make it home & the house looks so messy & the dishes aren't washed & the kids clothes which had been washed & folded almost a week ago are still out & getting messed up because the only time I have to do that stuff is after they are in bed, my bed isn't made (which is not very common because no matter how bad everything else gets, I like to have a neat & tidy bed) I could go on but I won't. Anyway, it was FIL's birthday on Tuesday & the family has organised to go out to the RSL (at least I didn't have to cook).



Poor Little Bear was not well. She hadn't been great all day, but due to such a hectic day, she had gone downhill somewhat. She soldiered through dinner & we finally got her home to bed but she didn't sleep well all night (although we never actually had to get up for her).



After so many weekends filled with stuff, stuff, stuff, I would have liked to keep this one free, but it was back to the shops this morning, where I took Cheetah to get him a suit, I found the perfect dress and shoes for Little Bear & a great dress and shoes for me. Cheetah looks so grown up in his suit, I can't wait for the rest of the family to see him next week. Let's just hope we can get some nice photo's of him, where he isn't pulling a silly face. Cheetah was also very patient with me trying on lots of dresses (he even helped me pick out my dress & shoes & I ended up buying the shoes that he liked best).



DH got a haircut this morning, before Cheetah & I went out, and he came home with his fathers day present - a watch. He had to wait for his haircut & so he found a watch that he likes & bought it. They also gave him a discount voucher for engraving, so I can take it back sometime to have it engraved for fathers day. This afternoon he told me how much it cost !!!!!!! He had a good excuse though. He got a decent amount of money from his old job for the weeks of holidays he had owing. Most of that money is going towards bills, but as they were his holidays & he didn't get to take them, he felt it was OK that he splurges a little on something that he has been wanting for years & has never actually found a watch that he likes until now. I figure that's reasonable. I think the reason he never found a watch that he likes is that he wasn't looking at the most expensive ones in the shop at the time.



Anyway, this afternoon we went for a family walk to the beach & had some icecream there & came home. It was a pleasant way to unwind after a very full on week. My headache disappeared on this walk, but upon being home & cleaning up & cooking dinner & caring for a sick baby, I now have a headache again !! Time for bed I think !!!

Busy Days

My goodness it has been a busy few days.



Yesterday morning I had made an appointment to get two teeth filled. On the way to the dentist I picked up my Tupperware I bought recently from Mummy McTavish, then I get to the dentist & I actually need 4 fillings (two of them were big enough I could fit my fingernail in them - that's why I made the appointment in the first place). I managed to get 3 of them filled, but the dentist didn't want to fill the other big one at the same time because it was on the opposite side to the first big one & he didn't want to numb my whole mouth. Hence I have another appointment for another filling in a week. Personally I would have rathered get it over & done with & who really cares if I was drooling out of both sides of my mouth, at least it would be symmetrical.



It would have been nice to go home & rest, with my numb mouth & aching jaw (the anaesthetic even numbed all the way up to my scalp above my ear & 1/2 way down my neck) but my day didn't end there.



I decided I would duck into the chemist to get some prescriptions filled. Now even though it was only 11:00am on a weekday at the Chemist Warehouse (which isn't part of or near a shopping centre) there was a wait of 1/2 hour for those prescriptions. Home I go in time to take Little Bear for her 12 month old needles (2 months late but whose counting).



Little Bear was very good but she did scream as she actually received the needles. Although it was obvious they hurt, the scream was more of a broken hearted cry and she looked into my eyes through her tear filled eyes & it broke my heart. Anyway, after the needles she settled down really quickly (although she thought when the nurse put the band aid on her arm that she was actually swabbing it for another needle and started to get worked up again but stopped when she realised she wasn't getting any more needles). She also refused to take the sticker from the nurse because it was square & the same size as the alcohol swab they use & I think that she thought that's what it was. We tried to point out that there were pictures of puppies on the sticker, but she still didn't want it.



Took little bear home for her sleep (where DH could babysit because I had more to do yet), then back to the chemist to pick up the medicine. From the Chemist to the grocery store & the idea was that I would go home with the groceries & Little Bear would go with Daddy to pick up Cheetah from school. Of course it was 3:05 as I left the grocery store, so straight to school I go.



Finally with Cheetah & a boot full of groceries I get home, unpack the groceries & put the cold stuff away. About 1/2 hour later it's time for Cheetah's music lesson & off we go leaving Little Bear with Daddy because she has not yet developed an appreciation of Cheetah's music making ability. Music lesson was relatively uneventful (except I had to drop Cheetah & dash to the bank as not once during all my stops had I remembered to get money out to pay the teacher).



After all this I am home !!! & ready to start organising my pantry with all my new Tupperware. During my clean up I found about 8 boxes of LeSnacks (the big boxes, not the little ones), about 6 boxes of muesli bars (that's 108 mueslie bars), 3 enchilada kits, brown rice, white rice, basmati rice, aborio rice (& some wild Thai rice in the fridge), 2 big packets of Cocoa (plus what was already in a tupperware container, 4 1L bottles of olive oil, 3 boxes of 20pack potato chips, & so on. Hopefully now that my pantry is more organised I won't double (triple, quadruple, etc) up on so much stuff as I shop fortnightly & don't usually (or so I thought) keep more than one or two spare boxes/bottles of things.



So I sit at the kitchen table with Little Bear pulling tupperware containers out of the box & running away with them. I manage to label all my new ones & start to fill them up. 1/2 hour later the kitchen table is covered with cocoa, cornflour, custard powder & then I start to fill up the rice. I was being careful - honest - when next thing I know there is half a container of rice on the table, floor, chairs, in the boxes, under the fridge and generally the entire kitchen, dining room & loungeroom. I go to vacuum them up & this funny thing happens - have you ever tried to vacuum up dried rice? Some of it goes up the vacuum but some of it shoots away in the opposite direction (& when I say shoot, I mean it keeps going till it hits something - even if that is two rooms away). I finally get most of it & continue on my merry way, filling them all up with stuff. Then I find the almost empty container of arborio rice & 1/2 a packet of basmati rice. I tip out the arborio rice (as there was less than 1/4 cup & wouldn't even be enough for one side serve), and proceed to tip the basmati rice into the container. This time I was being REALLY careful yet again, 1/2 the remaining rice ends up all over the kitchen, dining room & lounge room again. Vacuum cleaner comes out for the second time in 1/2 hour. (In years to come when I am blogging about finding a grain of rice in the weirdest places, remind me of this). Those who know me really well know that I tend to get frustrated quite easily. You would think that my blood pressure by this time would be high enough to blow a gasket, but actually the opposite happened.



All this rice all over the floor reminded me of a funny story (but believe me I wasn't laughing at the time). When Cheetah was a newborn, DH & I lived out of town in a rural area. Although the house had flyscreens, the flies always managed to find a way in & one night (being the mother of a newborn), I just didn't have the energy to take the rubbish down to the bin but thought it will be ok. There was almost nothing in the bin anyway & it had only been there since that morning. I wake up the next morning & come down to the kitchen to find a sight that looked like someone had spilt the rice. I squinted & strained my eyes (as I wear glasses/contacts & didn't have them on at the time), to see that these little grains of rice were moving. Oh no - Flies had laid their eggs on the plastic tray that the meat had been sitting on the day before (no meat scraps, just the tray) & those eggs had hatched in time for the maggots to cover the entire kitchen floor but they hadn't quite made it out of the kitchen. Cheetah was awake & so I sat him in the entrance in his rocker & proceeded to clean up the maggoty mess with a dustpan & brush, trying not to dry retch every few seconds. I managed to get every last one of them (believe me I wasn't letting a single one of those suckers escape) & get the bin bag with it's newest inhabitants sealed tightly & downstairs into the wheely bin! It must have been quite a sight, watching me clean up those maggots, because usually Cheetah would not last more than 5 minutes in his rocker without direct constant attention, but he happily sat there the entire time it took me to exterminate those vermin. (You can imagine me in my long leg jammies with them rolled up around my knees, balancing only on my big toes to avoid squashing the insects, or worse - being slowly ingested feet first by a sea of writhing white wriggly grubs moving as one in their frenzy to consume all but my bones). That being done I washed my hands, then again, then again, then went out to make my breakfast. I look in the cupboard & what is the only cereal in the cupboard??? You guessed it - RICE BUBBLES !!! That was the most awful tasting bowl of rice bubbles I have ever had & I swear some of them moved!



OK - back to my blog. After being run off my feet yesterday, I have spent most of today busy too. This morning I looked after Lion McTavish as Dragon had a birthday party to attend. For morning tea I let the boys have a double choc chip biscuit each, that I made myself. Lion raved over them & about 10 minutes later asked for another one. "You really like them don't you?" I asked him. "Yeah!" "You baked 'em good, Aunty Chimera!" Awwww - you can come back anytime Lion!



Once Lion had gone home, DH took the kids up to Poppies place to pick up their cousin who is staying over the night. While they were away I chopped & packaged 3kg chicken breast & 1.5kg rump steak & also packaged 3 packets of sausages, 1 packet chops, 1 packet steak, some chicken mignons, chicken kiev & chicken mince. I got a new foodsaver recently which I set to work today. It has done a brilliant job & there is no way I would have fitted all of that meat in my freezer without it. It's tedious work though, cutting the bags then sealing one end, packaging then sealing the other end & you have to wait at least 20 seconds in between each use so when I had a pile of bags to seal, it still took me ages. I still love it though. It also means I can take the meat out of the freezer & put it in the fridge the night before I am ready to use it & I don't have to worry about it leaking all over the fridge. All of this took me several hours to do.



For dinner tonight I made Enchilada's (to use up some of my surplus pantry stock) and while they were in the oven, I thought I would take some time to myself (first time in 2 days) & play a computer game. Well silly me put the oven on fan forced instead of bake & didn't even think about cutting the cooking time - Several burnt enchilada's later & dinner is finished, the big kids are showered & almost ready for bed, Little Bear is in bed - but not sleeping very well tonight (could be the intermittent screeching of the older two), and I am blogging.



I still have more to do yet, before I go to bed. We've only been back for a week & I am ready for another holiday !!!

Disappointment

This afternoon I picked up Little Bear, who came running to the gate as I walked in (usually she stands there & waits for me to go to her).*Then I picked up Cheetah who asked me how my day was - It was good but long I tell him. I'm glad it's over (which at 5:30pm it is actually very far from over, but I was a lot more optomistic now that I was on my way home). Cheetah tells me that he had such a good day he is sorry it ended and proceeds to tell me all about his day. He also tells me that he wants to practice for "80 minutes tonight... No make that an hour and 20 minutes" (he is developing a very dry sense of humour. Don't know where he gets that from)



We get home & we all have a play in the backyard like we usually do, then we come upstairs & Cheetah has a drink & afternoon tea & then starts his Clarinet practice like he usually does. 20 minutes later he comes into me and asks me if I remember him telling me yesterday about the arts extravaganza? Oh dear... His eyes are welling up, his bottom lip is quivering & he is trying very hard to maintain his composure.



He then tells me that he can't perform a solo at the Arts Extravaganza because he's only in grade 4 (remember I said the odd numbered grades are the ones who perform each year). It takes him a while to even tell me this much because after every syllable he has to stop and hold his breath a second to keep from crying.



A big hug later & he can't hold it in anymore & cries softly on my lap. As a parent that's the worst. Everything you say risks just making the pain worse. After just holding him for a while I tried to tell him some things to make him feel better.



The first thing I told him was that "I love me!" I was trying to tell him that I love the fact that he loves playing the clarinet so much that he is working so hard at it & so on, but the first thing that came out of my mouth was "I love me!" Not what you expect your parent to say when you are feeling miserable about yourself and it made him smile. A few more unintentional freudian slips later & he was laughing at me. - Disaster averted!



Later I was cooking chops & didn't realise that I hadn't put the fans on in the living room. 10 minutes later & the BEEP BEEP BEEP of the smoke alarm is piercing the loungeroom which by this point looked like Beijing before the olympics came to town. Then DH, Cheetah & I are all running around like 3 year olds at a Wiggles concert trying to clear the air around the smoke alarm - that didn't work so DH pulls it down and races it off to another room to try and squash the noise. Having some success (turns out it has a hush button - who knew!) he brings it back out & puts it on the bench near the window where it makes a pitiful little bip....bip.....bip. Not sure if it was a flat battery or the wisps of smoke breezing past the alarm on their way to freedom, so I removed the battery just to be sure!!



20 minutes after this Little Bear wakes up (Yes she slept through 5 minutes of screeeeching & hullabaloo and then woke up when everyone was quietly sitting down eating their dinner). Normally she would put herself back to sleep but not tonight. She was wide awake & ready to party. Am I asking too much if I wish for a sleep in tomorrow?



Finally 2 kids in bed & Australia won the bronze medal in the Women's water polo after a nailbiting tied game followed by a tie in penalty time followed by a penalty shootout where we beat Hungary by 1 goal.*Just one more load of washing to hang out & a smoke alarm to reinstall (with new battery) & I might be able to call it a night. Not sure if I can sleep after all the excitement!

Great Expectations

As previously mentioned, Cheetah is learning Clarinet at the moment & I think he has had about 4 lessons and is doing extremely well for the number of lessons - but keep that in mind... only 4 lessons.

Tonight Cheetah announced to me that his teacher has put his name down for a clarinet solo at the end of year concert.

Now this concert is no small thing, it is a huge event, held at the Civic Theatre, that only the odd numbered grades take part in because it was far too big the first year when every grade took part. Children from the other grades only take part if they make up part of the choir or orchestra. (even with only half the school it still takes about 3-4 hours).

I pointed out to Cheetah that he has had 4 lessons & doesn't he think he might want to have a bit more experience at playing the clarinet before he commits himself to a solo in front of several hundred parents, all the teachers & half the students? His reply was "It's not 'till the end of the year Mum !!!"

Holiday

This is going to be a long blog tonight but I have a weeks worth of holiday snapshots to show off.

Last time it was ziplock bags, this time the tissues. I was racing around the house the night before we were due to leave trying to pack & get 2 children & a husband fed, washed, clothed & sent to bed. I left Little Bear in the playroom building towers & climbing all over the furniture. I walked into our bedroom a short time later & found this sight! I love the expression - the only thing missing is the halo & wings. Normally I would be a little frustrated. This time I was just glad she was amusing herself because I had things to do.

This photo is of Bear & her Daddy riding the Go Kart at one of the places we stayed. There is no seatbelt so it was a bit of a juggling act for DH to keep Little Bear in the seat while steering & braking (as there was only a hand brake). She didn't like putting on the helmet but once she was going she didn't want to stop.

Just before leaving for our second destination we took a detour through Kuranda where we visited a Butterfly Sanctuary. Little Bear LOVES butterflies and you can see the wonder on her face as she was surrounded by literally hundreds, maybe thousands of butterflies everywhere she looked. I would love to move to Tasmania sometime but I must say I would really miss the Ulysses and Cairns Birdwing butterflies. They are just awesome.

Cheetah & I also visted the Venom Museum where there was an interesting collection of snakes, spiders, scorpions, and some frogs. I was a bit concerned when I saw the frogs as I thought they might be food for one of the other creatures, but apparently they were actually part of the display. I didn't ask if they were venomous. When we left the museum we got to hold a snake (Black headed python to be more precise). I was a little concerned about this too, as there were quite a few in a group who got to hold the snake ahead of us & I thought she might be a bit riled up by the time Cheetah & I got to her, but she was OK & didn't try to bite, although she was a little restless. I have a photo of me & Cheetah with the snake, but I was the one holding it & I wanted to post the one where he is actually handling the snake.

Here we are at the final destination & we found a HUGE house (3 huge bedrooms, 2 huge bathrooms, huge kitchen (are you getting the point that it was big) equipped with all the mod cons, extra toilet, laundry, huge back deck, river running through the backyard - you get the picture).

Litte Bear was a bit pensive during her first canoe ride & alternated between total excitement at all the new things she was experiencing, and fear of the canoe & the weird rocking sensation (it was a bit rocky, mostly because of the fact that she wouldn't sit still). She loved it when we went out the second time. Cheetah took this picture from the river bank as the Canoe only held 2 people (plus one quite little Little Bear)

Cheetah loved the hammock on the back deck. It would be lovely in summer during the evening to see all the daytime animals getting ready for bed & watching the nocturnal creatures begin to emerge. As it is winter it was a bit too chilly on the deck after dusk, even with our jumpers & thick socks on. I love the second photo of Cheetah in the hammock. It is very hard to get a lovely photo of him because he can't seem to act naturally in front of a camera lens. This one just has the beautiful relaxed expression that I love but don't see enough of anymore.

This is one of the Pademelons that were so tame they would eat out of your hands. She has a baby in the pouch who would poke his nose out every now & then. It was a little pink nose so he couldn't be a very old baby. It was a bit too chilly for the babies, so even though there were 2 or 3 that had babies in pouches, we rarely saw any sign of the babies other than as the wriggling mass inside their mothers pouch.

It took as a few days to teach Little Bear they weren't "Puppies" and even then she kept forgetting. She did say "Wallaby" once or twice (or at least her version of this word) but I think "Puppy" was easier for her to say.

Cheetah loves Little Bear, but she doesn't always reciprocate that affection. This was one of those less than kodak moments but I liked the series. First we tried a nice photo with Little Bear in between us. In that one she is trying to cuddle up to me at the same time as pushing her poor brother away. The next one I held her as far away from Cheetah as possible but she is still insisting that he is too close. The last one she is laying down the law to him that I was HER mum & he should rack off. I don't think Cheetah took her too seriously!

This is an incredible family shot of our family as everyone has a very natural expression on their face (Even Cheetahs expression is one you will often see on him). Usually one of the kids is crying, the other sulking or pulling silly faces while one parent looks frustrated and one parent is looking at the ceiling through raised eyebrows. Although Little Bear is sucking her thumb, this is her usual pose & I think she looks very sweet (especially as the thumb sucking usually indicates she is getting tired).

Little Bear by this point was a bit over the whole photo thing. Here she is standing at one end of the deck by the gate where all the Pademelons & Turkeys & sometimes other creatures too, would come to be fed by us. She loved to just be out here on the deck. The birds were amazing too, with all sorts of rainforest birds flying right down & landing in front of us.

Being a family vacation there wasn't much at all of this going on at all. This was one of those rare moments while Little Bear was pre-occupied with the Pademelons and Cheetah was happy because he was behind the camera lens!

Really we had a wonderful time, but I wish we had more time at the river. We would love to go back there with family & stay a bit longer next time, as this house would easily fit two couples and some kids comfortably and there was an even bigger residence owned by the same people next door which could fit 3 couples comfortably (another plus - you couldn't see any of the neighbours from the house or even the canoe although we went upstream & downstream for a couple of hundred meters in each direction).

Cheetah & his dad actually saw a platypus while canoing, but unfortunately it only made that one appearance and Little Bear & I missed out (probably didn't help that she loved to stand at the front of the canoe yelling with joy at all the new things and banging her hands and jumping up & down in her excitement - Poor platypus is probably still nursing a headache).

Unfortunately Little Bear was sick with a fever for 3 days & 2 nights of our trip but she still managed to have fun during the day. We just didn't get to sleep at night, but who needs sleep anyway. She slept brilliantly last night (our first night home) and I don't remember anything from the time my head hit the pillow to about 6:30 this morning when my body clock told me it was time to wake up even though Bear was still snoozing. I managed to stay under the covers until 7:10 but paid for that by being late for work. Little Bear woke up as soon as she heard me moving around outside.

Back to the daily grind today (except for DH who is enjoying another week & 2 days off work until he starts his new job next Wednesday). Little Bear was excited to be back at daycare & had a good day but she ALWAYS has a good day at daycare. Cheetah also had a good day at school but was glad to see me this afternoon as he wasn't sure if he was meant to catch the after school care bus or not, I hadn't reminded him that morning like I usually do. Luckily he did catch it and it was the right thing to do.

This afternoon Cheetah was practicing his clarinet & I noticed that one of the songs was a bit out of tempo. I went in to help him with his rhythm & was told that he "doesn't like to play it the way it's written, he likes to play it the way it is meant to go". I guess he was talking about the way HE meant it to go, because I am pretty sure the person who wrote the tune didn't intend it to be sung the way Cheetah sings/plays it. I tried to talk to him about the importance of learning to play the music as it is written & not always playing the music that is in our head but I am afraid my suggestions fell on deaf ears. I will leave that one up to his teacher !! He really is playing very well & I am very proud of his progress including his determination not to conform, although I think this skill (of playing the music in his head) will be much more appreciated by me and others after he learns the basics about rhythm, tempo, pitch, etc.

GRRRRRR

Does anyone else have issues with getting the paragraphs to show up in their blogs.

I preview & add extra spaces between paragraphs & remove spaces & edit in HTML & it doesn't matter what I do or what it looks like in the preview, it still posts without spaces between the paragraphs. It is taking me longer to try to stop this from happening, than actually writing the blog & as you can see from my last few posts, it seems to be all for nothing anyway.

Can somebody tell me how to stop this madness before I start going INSANE .....


Oh no... too late !!!

The Sound of Silence

You know that sinking feeling you get when you suddenly realise you haven't heard your child for a couple of minutes.

This evening I had dragged out the pots & pans for bear to play with (noisy but it keeps her occupied & beats the sound of crying). I was around a corner & when I realised it had been silent for just a little bit too long I walked around the corner to see this...

Little Bear upon realising that she was unattended snatched the opportunity to open this drawer (which she knows she isn't allowed to touch) and I walked around the corner to see her pulling ziplock bag after ziplock bag out of the carboard boxes that hold them (kind of like the tissues come out of the tissue box). She had already emptied the smaller box on the right & was just pulling the last few out of the bigger box in front of her. I grabbed the camera but when I came back she had realised that she had been caught & was trying to stuff them back in.

It's a pity I missed catching the look on her face as she was pulling them out, because it was priceless. She looked absolutely enthralled by the seemingly endless supply of little bags. The photo below was taken by Mummy McTavish (who is bear's aunty, not mummy... confused?) and she has a very similar look on her face in this photo.


This was taken while Mummy McT was keeping bear occupied (that's Dragon in the background) as I was doing housework to prepare for a tupperware party which I was hosting for Mummy McT. At this point in time I actually had my head inside an oven from which I was trying to clean off years of baked-on, burnt, black bits of who knows what so that I wouldn't gross everyone out when I cooked homemade pizza in it that night.

Although it looks like bear is dressed in her pyjama's, it was actually a fairly cool morning & after I had dressed her in a lovely little dress & leggings, she had a drink of water & pulled the top of the cup off with her teeth while holding it upside down. Her warm leggins survived this first onslaught but then of course she then saw the puddle on the ground and stepped in it & proceeded to run away from me leaving fresh little footprint shaped puddles behind her. Being a friday, I had a weeks worth of washing stacked up & the only clean warm outfit was this one.

This photo is of dragon & bear trying to be good & as you can see by their eyes it is very hard work. I'm also sure that when Mummy McT poured the drinks she intended the straw cup for the older dragon & the sippy cup for the younger bear. I think dragon actually snaffled the sippy cup in another case of trying to prove that "I'm the Baby" .

After all this hard work by everybody involved the Tupperware party was a fun night, the pizza tasted great & Mummy McT made a bit of money (I hope - because the rest of us sure lost a bit).

I bought the rest of my pantry containers (I have 'done' half my pantry & still had half to go) & got my free antarctica containers which will make my freezer look as organised as my pantry (well that's the plan anyway).



I love this photo because in the big version you can see each eyelash on Little Bear and her eyes look so beautiful. Her hair has a bit of the mad scientist thing going on, but as you can see from other photo's, that just her!

Like the saucepans, the bubbles are another great way to occupy her for 5-10 minutes, just long enough to do something like the washing up. (I have a dishwasher, so my handwashing only takes 5-10 minutes). She loves to put the bubbles in her mouth & they must feel funny on her tongue because she gets this look on her face like they are tickling her. Although I don't think the bubbles would taste that good, at least the detergent I buy doesn't have some of the nasty chemicals of other brands.

Blogging for the sake of Blogging

Well it has been 2 and 1/2 weeks since my last post & that should give you some idea of how busy I have been lately.

I love my job & I love my family but some days .... well what can I say, I am too tired to even think of the words to describe it accurately but Aeriel acrobatics on a tightrope while juggling jelly and riding a unicycle standing on your head ... I think you get the picture.

I must count my blessings though - I have a 13 month old child who has been sleeping through the night for several months now and an 8 year old who is able to help out a bit around the house.

I also had dinner cooked for me tonight. Steak, salad & pasta. In the 9 1/2 years I have been married, the number of times DH has cooked dinner would probably average once per year To be fair though, he has cooked 3 or 4 times since I returned to work (getting close to averaging once a month) and that is a huge improvement on when we were first married.

I am going to see Mamma Mia tomorrow night with some friends from work (actually I am only aware of one other person who'se going, so hopefully there will be more than that) and it will be good to have a night away from the family doing something just for me for a change. I also have a tupperware party on Friday night but while they are a good opportunity to get a bit silly with the girls, it's still a lot of responsibility/work hosting one & as it is dinner & drinks (or pizza & plonk depending on which side of the tracks you live) it will mean preparation & cleaning up afterwards. Anything to get the sales right !!!

Anyway, my light at the (not so distant) end of the tunnel is a holiday in the Atherton Tablelands next week. We will be away for 6 days & 5 nights & are even taking Cheetah out of school for 4 days. This holiday was a special treat using some of our tax refund & now it looks like it will be the last family holiday for at least a year.

DH has resigned from his job & has verbally been offered another job but hasn't actually been given this offer in writing yet. He is a bit stressed about it. The new job is about 20k more than he currently makes, plus a private use station wagon & free fuel in Qld for a very similar job to the one he does now. How could he refuse. He's a bit ticked that he is going to have to start back at square one with regards to accruing long service leave, but them's the breaks ! At least if this new job doesn't happen, he could probably retract his resignation but in a male dominated blue collar workforce his pride would take a bit of a bruising (stereotypical - maybe, but accurate).

Cheetah's clarinet lessons are going super & I am really impressed with how quickly he is picking it up. He would probably be doing even better if it weren't for the complete breakdown every few days when he "keeps playing a C instead of an E and tries so hard to do it right, but it just keeps happening ...... (this is where the words get lost in the tears)" or something to this effect. I keep pointing out that the next day he plays the difficult piece & is laughing because it's perfect & seems so easy & then a few days later a new piece is causing drama's. I have tried pointing out how often I make mistakes and have to keep working at it until I fix them but that's different because he "keeps making the same mistake over and over.... (tears again)". I have tried to help him recognise the problem before it becomes a problem & give him coping strategies (ie. realise that he has played a piece incorrectly 2 or 3 times so get up walk away & do some silly stretching & rubber lip exercises & then try a different piece before going back to that one). That doesn't work either because Cheetah doesn't like to give up before he has mastered something but he gets so tense he has no hope of mastering it. Any pointers here Mum-me???

On the positive side, these only affect the one practice session & usually the next day he is able to play the piece really well. I am not looking forward to when he begins to learn music that will take more than one practice session to master.

Cheetah also had his school photo's today. I wish photographers would take photo's on the first day of school when the uniforms haven't got chewed collars yet & no brown stains from milo yoghurt that is drunk straight from the tub instead of using a spoon & no holes in the shorts, and socks are white instead of brown & kids stay neat & tidy all day because they are too busy meeting friends & sorting out where they fall in the pecking order this year, etc. At least Cheetah is one of the taller ones in his class and is usually standing behind other kids. We also got the individual portrait & apparently he tried to hide his chewed collar. It will be interesting to see how that worked out (as when he showed me, it looked sillier than just leaving the collar as it was). I used to get frustrated at such things, but I have long since learned that unlike those sterilised picture perfect (pun intended) photo's of the girls & boys looking pristine in new uniforms & perfect smiles with not a hair out of place, photo's of my son will be a true reflection of him, not some photoshopped alter-boy butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth impersonator, but my gorgeous dimpled ratbag with that silly grin & mischievous glint in his green eyes that means I can never quite fully relax.

Now it is too late to finish that huge pile of folding so it will have to wait for yet another day & given the choice between sleep or dishes I choose sleep. I hope you have enjoyed my insane ramblings for today & I shall try to blog at least once more before we go on holidays (as no internet for those 6 days).

Clarinet Lessons

I have decided to give this a separate post as Cheetah deserves it. He is at school all day & at home he is usually playing playstation so there aren't too many interesting moments that I know of to blog. (I say that I know of, because if I knew all of what he got up to at school, I am sure there would be plenty. Probably better that I don't know most of it).

Today he started clarinet lessons.

He has had his clarinet for over a month now, and I have only let him take it out twice, because I don't play clarinet and didn't want him to do anything that would cause irrepairable damage to an expensive instrument, or that would cause him to learn bad habits before he even had his first lesson.

Well his teacher seems very nice and was extremely patient with him today. Cheetah was very excited and tending to rush ahead while the teacher was still trying to impress upon him the importance of the step he was up to 3 steps ago. She managed to keep him relatively focused but it was difficult as Cheetah was trying to admire and fiddle with the new clarinet and was paying very little if any attention to her. (It's amazing what information he retains though when you think he is not listening. One of his teachers found that if she gave him a stress ball to fiddle with in class he was much more focused. Not really practical when the clarinet is a two handed instrument). Anyway, Cheetah had a good lesson and his teacher said she was pleased with how quickly he had progressed for his first lesson (I have no doubt she says that to all her students but it made Cheetah's day).

As an interesting note, I had cautioned Cheetah when we first got the clarinet & set it up that I would show him how to do it and clean it & so forth for now (with my knowledge gained that day from the internet) but if his teacher told him anything different to what I told him about the clarinet, that he should listen to her because she plays the clarinet & I don't. Well how quickly he forgot. When he was packing the instrument up with his teacher & tried to thread the cleaning cloth through the wrong way of the mouth piece and she suggested he try the other way, he responded with "But this is how Mum showed me to do it !!!" (I hadn't actually, but that's another point entirely).

Not only was his teacher very patient with Cheetah, but she was also very patient with me & Little Bear. I had intended to leave Little Bear with her dad, but he wasn't home in time, so she came for the show but didn't even make it to intermission. She was good for the first 30 seconds. Then the remaining time was spent running around after her in a music shop trying to stop her from interrupting everyones lessons (they have guitar & woodwind lessons going at the same time in different parts of the shop). For the last 10 minutes she kept throwing mini tantrums because we had run out of interesting things for her to do & I had to keep stopping her from doing what she wanted. Needless to say, she will not be returning with us next week.

Now I have no longer got an excuse for the clarinet to stay in its box. Lets hope he continues to learn quickly for the sake of our ears and our sanity.

WHOA !!!

Little Bear has quite the imagination already & it is fascinating to watch her when she is in her pretend world. Last night she was playing around and from a standing position she suddenly sat down (keeping the legs straight & just plonking her bum down on the mat). She did this, looked at me & said "Whoa!!". Then she leaned back a little & said "Whoa", then she put her arms straight back behind her (leaning on them) and said "Whoa", then she went further back onto her elbows and said "Whoa". Finally she took her arms away and lay flat on her back looking at the ceiling and said "WHOOOOAAAAAAA".

I absolutely swear that I had not given her any of the 'special' cookies, or put anything in her formula. It is moments like those that I wish I had a video camera, but it was over so quickly I would have missed it anyway.

This morning we looked after Dragon while his mum went to look at blinds (see http://samster-dot-com.blogspot.com/2008/07/its-curtains-for-lion.html for why they need new ones). Dragon was a little sweetie all morning and played very well with Little Bear. Then his mum returned. All of a sudden he started his rough love thing, where he cuddles Little Bear but just about smothers her in the process, and he plays 'wombat' with her (which for the unitiated is where he crawls directly at her as fast as possible with his head down & head buts her), and generally just pushes, prods and pokes her in his rough but loving way until Little Bear has had enough. He was such a darling all morning and he really wasn't trying to be rough. In about a years time, I think Little Bear will be giving him a run for his money though. She fights dirty.

New Words

This is twice in one day - count 'em sister :-)

Anyway, the reason for this 'extra' post today is to let you know that Bear has a new word & cousin Dragon will be proud !!!

"Boobies"

Most of her words are not that understandible to strangers, but if anyone hears her say this one, they will know exactly what she is trying to say.

Her favourite saying at the moment is "Uh Oh". She says it almost every time she drops something now and she says it in such a sweet little voice and gets this sweet little expression on her face with the puppydog eyes and the hands clasped in front of her, then she waits for you to pick up whatever it is that she dropped and then if you are lucky, you get a cuddle out of it.

Poor Baby

Poor Little Bear is not well. She has a fever, a runny nose & has lost her voice. I think she has a sore throat but as she can't tell us it's hard to say.

I feel very badly for her, but she is so cute, listening to her babble away with her husky little voice. Because she is not feeling very well, she is much more clingy than usual and just wants to be picked up all the time. We get heaps more cuddles than usual which is great, but when you have to put her down, she looks up at you with those great big eyes and long eyelashes with the tears just sitting there but never actually falling, and she purses her lips in the cutest little way and just makes this sad cry with her husky voice which just absolutely breaks your heart.

She also had her second hair cut today. The hairdresser was great & she looks so much better without all the straggly bits hanging in her eyes. She wasn't rubbing her eyes as much this afternoon either so I think that might be why. The hairdresser also cut off her rat's tail. The long section of baby hair that hadn't fallen out. It doesn't really make her hair look that much shorter overall even though this section of hair was a good couple of inches longer than the rest. She definitely looks better with her pretty little hair cut.

Cheetah also got his hair cut. It was so long it was hanging in his eyes. Now it is almost a crew cut. He is happy with it and also looks much better now. School is back tomorrow, so he can look spiffy for his first day back. He says he doesn't want to go back, but I think he will be very glad to catch up with his friends again.

After getting hair cuts, it was time to go to the Doctors as I needed a medical certificate for Little Bear to take leave from work.

While we were at the doctors, we had to wait for a while in the doctor's room. There was a painting of Australian Animals on a wall so we killed time talking about the animals. Little Bear thought the crocodile was great because you can have fun going "SNAP" and clapping your hands together like the mouth of a crocodile. We also talked about the Kookaburra and made the noise the Kookaburra makes. Then she tried to copy, but I am not sure if she was trying to say Kookaburra or make the noise. (I think she was making the noise because she laughed every time I made it - apparently I am a very funny kookaburra).

Meant to Blog this on Thursday night, but it didn't happen 'cause I had a headache.

Had the MRI which shows I have a brain. DH thinks it was photoshopped in later.

Doctor says it was normal & stands by his original diagnosis and has put me on Endep (that was the name I couldn't remember). Says they will likely make me drowsy and lower my blood pressure. Problem is I already have relatively low blood pressure so I just have to be careful about standing up too fast, especially first thing in the morning & just after a big meal. I already get dizzy in the lift at work so it will be interesting to see what happens now.

I have had a bad headache for the last 2 days straight & took the first Endep tablet last night. It doesn't seem to have made me too drowsy but my head does seem to spin a bit more than usual. My headache is a bit better than it has been but it could just be that I got a sleep in this-morning too. The doctor said it will take a few weeks to really notice the difference with the tablets.

Thursday morning was COLD - not -5 like in Mum-me's neck of the woods, but it got down to 7 & seeing as we live in the tropics, we do not have central heating. Luckily Little Bear has a reverse cycle air-con so she is warm, but when she spends all night in her room, she doesn't want to stay in there when she wakes up so of course we are banished to the cold just to keep the baby happy.

That's what happens when you have a high set house with wooden floors & no insulation. At least we get plenty of cuddles from the kids in winter.

Anyway, here she is, dressed in her winter woolies which if it weren't for the bitterly cold weather she wouldn't get a chance to use. She did have two slippers on, but one went walkabout by itself. The dressing gown was a first birthday present & I was beginning to think we wouldn't get a chance to use it. She has now worn it for the last 4 days straight.

The upside to 7 degree mornings is 23 degree days. Very pleasant (when there is no wind).

Told you So

Saw the Neurologist today re: headaches.

Doctor says they are a combination of migraine & chronic tension headaches.

Will have an MRI on Wednesday to make sure there is nothing in my brain that shouldn't be there (eg. crayons?) and hopefully everything's there that should be (eg. brain)!

Assuming that the MRI is uneventful, I will start taking some antidepressant that is actually no longer used as an antidepressant but is now used as a muscle relaxant. (Silly me didn't ask why it's no longer used as an antidepressant & now that question is killing me - also forgot the name of the drug so I can't check it out). Anyway, the Doc says it will hopefully be used short term to kick the chronic cycle & I won't have to stay on it for too long (not sure what "too long" is either). I have a follow up appointment on Thursday so hopefully all will be revealed then.

Obviously the Inderal (??) isn't working or I would be happy to stay on that.

Anyway, DH 'told me so' that I would have to have an MRI (genius, I know), and he 'told me so' that I should be seeing a shrink instead of a neurologist (apparently the fact I am likely to be prescribed an antidepressant is vindication that he was right???) so now he thinks he missed his calling as a neurologist. (Yeah, apparently that's all it takes ;-)

I'm just hoping that the MRI shows I really do have a brain & then I can say to him "I TOLD YOU SO !!! "