NOT HAPPY JAN !!!!

Spell Frustrated.

C.H.I.M.E.R.A.

If you look up the definition in the dictionary there will be a photo of me beside it!


In September we got quotes to have our house insulated. At that point the Australian government was offering a $1,600 rebate to homes with little or no insulation to get them insulated.

We picked a company that have been around for a while and that seemed reputable. It was the more expensive of the two quotes we got, but their quote included the cost of lifting our roof.

When the salesperson came around to measure up for the quote I advised him that the porch & 1/3 of the back of the house would need to have the roof lifted. The rest of the house could be accessed by a manhole.

The salesperson advised that their plumber would need to come around and have a look at the roof before he could give us a quote. He asked if it was OK for them to access the yard & get up on the roof if they need to? I advised that I work during the day, but I was happy for them to come into the yard at any time, even if I wasn't home.

We received a quote. The quote didn't say that it included lifting the roof, however the e-mail that it was attached to stated that the reason it was so high was because they had to allow for lifting the roof.

When we accepted that quote, our troubles started.

1. The first 2 men turned up at the scheduled time, however they hadn't been advised that the roof needed lifting. They were only able to do the bit that they could access by the manhole so they did that & left, leaving the additional insulation under our house for the rest of the roof.

2. Someone turned up at 7:00am a week or 2 later, without notice or warning. They asked where there was a power point, I showed them one downstairs (no introductions made, but they were wearing the company shirt). Next thing they were up on the roof briefly & then they left, leaving a bag of insulation open on the roof.

3. Phone calls to the company reveal that the fellow was an apprentice & wasn't sure how to lift the roof. Problem is after that it became windy & then started raining & they can't work in the wind or the rain.

4. A few weeks later, all the insulation disappears. Another phone call to the company & we are told that they have completed the house. DH advised them that they can't have because there was a small portion left to do inside the main part of the house (that requires us to let them inside). They call back later & advise that they haven't done it & that it can't be done as we have a clip lock roof. DH says not good enough & they say they'll send someone over to have another look.

5. Fast forward several weeks. We have had a number of people from the company around to look at the roof. We get told different things, but basically it is hard & expensive to lift clip lock roofing. We say not our problem. We have a quote & they have done half the job already before telling us this.

In the meantime the government grant has reduced down to $1200, so the delay has already cost us another $600.

They threatened us with court. We told them go ahead as they have quoted to lift the roof & they haven't done what they quoted.

They have tried to get us to sign off. We refused. We have also threatened to call the government hotline which will then mean their company gets audited by the government body responsible for the rebate.

Many of our phone calls are not returned although eventually we will get someone who 'does something' (precious little that has been so far - they keep sending people out to have a look but nothing happens).

Currently we are waiting to hear back yet again (since being threatened with legal action & threatening straight back - at least now we are in direct contact with the manager). We will continue to allow them a bit of grace to see what happens, which is why I haven't named them yet. Although I will have no hesitation in doing so if this keeps up.

Currently I am regretting not going with the cheaper quote which would have meant getting our own plumber in to lift the roof. It seems if that had happened it would at least be done by now.

NOT HAPPY JAN !!!!

Bits & Pieces

Conversation on the way home:

Mummy (to Little Bear): Are you my girl?
Little Bear: NO!!!
M: Are you Daddy's girl?
LB: NO!!!
M: Oh, OK. Are you Cheetah's girl?
LB: NO!!!
M: Well whose girl are you?
LB: I Ma-Mar's girl ! Hmph!

Hours later:

Mummy: Come and get dried
LB: I don't want get dried!
M: Don't you want your Scoobie Doo jammies on?
LB: I don't want Scoobie Doo Jammies on!
M: Don't you want a bottle?
LB: I don't want bottle!
M: Well what do you want?
LB: MA-MAR !!!!!!

(Ma-Mar is Grandma in Little Bear language).


And this little gem from Cheetah tonight (who is in Grade 5)

Cheetah: Mum, how long is there between grade 7 & grade 8?
Mum: What do you mean?
C: I mean how long between grade 7 & grade 8?
M: You'll have to explain what you mean. Are you talking about the holidays?
C: Kind of, I mean between finishing grade 7 & starting grade 8. Do I get like a year off or something?
M: No.

I think there might have been some disappointment that he didn't get a year off, but I'm not sure what he intended to do with his gap year when both his parents work ???

(For non-Queenslanders, Grade 8 is the first year of highschool here).

You might also notice that Cheetah's explanations leave a bit to be desired. He thinks an explanation is to repeat the question word for word, slowing it down, emphasising the important words & raising his voice.

IT'S A BOY !!!

CONGRATULATIONS

ROO & REE

Baby K born at 9:20am.

Weight: 6lb 10oz

Length: 50cm

I can't wait to see photo's

Ree is a very good friend of mine who lives way too far away. Today she and Roo brought into the world a beautiful baby boy who will be known here as Baby K until we find him a better name.

These guys have had it a bit rough in the past but they are a gorgeous couple and will make a lovely family. I am dying to see photo's of their little man (c'mon guys - it's been almost 10 hours already!!!) and can't wait to meet him, although that will be a few months away yet.

Congratulations guys!

(and seriously - photo's already !!!)

Update on Little Bear

Back at the doctors today with Little Bear - this time the Pediatrician.

We saw the GP on Tuesday who diagnosed ANOTHER chest infection (that's 3 in less than 3 months), prescribed antibiotics, requested a chest x-ray, and referred us to the Pediatrician, Dr J.

Dr J was booked out until the new year, but was lovely enough to make room for us so we had our appointment today.

Dr J did a very thorough workup (we were in her office for a bit over an hour). She thinks the chest infections (which are bronchitis) are a seperate issue to the recurring fevers. She has given us a prescription for stronger antibiotics & told us that Little Bear will need to take them for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3.

We have to get another blood test done in a couple of weeks & this time we need to get it done when Little Bear is relatively healthy.

She thinks the recurring fevers are something called PFAPA, which means they will keep occuring until Little Bear grows out of them, but they are treatable & not life threatening, just annoying. Prior to dealing with the fevers though, she wants to get this recurring bronchitis sorted out.

She doesn't think Little Bear has asthma, but she said we do need to keep an eye on that given that both her parents & her brother all had childhood asthma. She said it is possible that there is an asthma component to the bronchitis but it seems unlikely at the moment, as she couldn't hear any wheezing & I haven't noticed any wheezing.

So the game plan is stronger antibiotics, a blood test in a bit less than 2 weeks, doctors appointment in 2 weeks & we'll see what happens from there.

Blood Tests Today

Little Bear is sick ... Again ... It's been on average every 2 weeks for the last 5-6 months.

This morning we go for blood tests. We are visiting Grannysaurus straight after & then Aunty McTavish & the clan this afternoon to try and help us (both) forget about the blood tests.

Please pray for answers. Little Bear gets so sick each time it's heartbreaking to watch and not be able to do anything.

Little Lost Boy - needs good home !

Last night DH & I decided that we would like to see a show. There was some sort of variety concert showing at the civic theatre which we thought would be nice.

At half time however, we were surprised to find this little urchin sitting amongst the foliage staring at the theatre goers with his big beautiful eyes. He was a bit scruffy & very dirty. Obviously doesn't have a mother. He was a happy child though and after chatting to him for a little bit (he has a magnificent vocabulary for an orphan - we couldn't shut him up) we heard his story.

He is an orphan. He lives in Neverland with a group of other lost boys too. He loves this carefree life, but I could see from the way he looked at us, that what he really yearns for is a family.

I asked if I could take his picture and I might be able to find him a mother. He gave me his sweetest smile and I think this is a very good looking picture if you can just look beyond the ragged clothes & dirty face, there is a really sweet little boy in there who would make someone a very good son.


























Actually - never mind!

After looking at this photo again & remembering his innocent excitement as he chatted to me about his life in Neverland, his fear at the evil pirate Captain Hook who tries to kill Peter Pan and the lost boys, and those beautiful eyes...

I think I will keep him instead.

When is a fever not a fever?

Just to update you on Little Bear.

Perhaps all those prayers worked a little too well (if that's possible).

Today she still has a temperature (around 37.5) but it was not high enough to keep her home from kindy & definitely not high enough to justify turning her into a human pin cushion when the likelyhood is that this is just a cold. Her temperature hasn't gone down, but at the moment, it doesn't seem to be going any higher either so I will wait & see what happens overnight.

I really don't want her to be sick, but I am dreading these blood tests (having gone through an agonisingly traumatic experience - for both of us - when Cheetah was 3) & I just want to get them over & done with & get some answers. The longer it takes, the more anxious I am getting about the whole testing procedure.

Party Pictures

OK, I have given Mummy McT a week to be the first in with the birthday photo's but as she hasn't done it yet, I'm not waiting any longer.

Here are some photo's of our lovely day at the park last weekend, celebrating Lion & Dragon McTavish's birthdays.

This is Uncle Romeo & Aunty Juliet playing with Cheetah on whatever this aparatus is called. It was funny to watch because the combined weight of Aunty J & Cheetah was still barely enough to lift Uncle R.

I love this photo. I never got one of them all smiling & looking at the camera, but at least in this one they are all very happy. Such a close family!

This is one of Mummy McTavish's quite famous birthday cakes. Green coconut icing for grass & crushed flake for dirt. You can't see the back, but Lion had been getting stuck into all the dirt the construction men had dug up & dumped down the back of the cake.

BTW - Nobody was turning 53. Lion was 5 and Dragon was 3.

This is Great Grandma chillin in the shade with little Monkey. I took about 10 photo's & Monkey only had his eyes open in 1 (and his hands in front of his face for that). As soon as I put the camera down, he opened his eyes & kept them open.

Cousin Wilbie & Cousin E were there. Cousin E is actually mine & Mummy McT's cousin, but she is the same age as Cheetah.

Now when Mummy McT told me the boys were having 2 parties, one for family & one for friends but I (well actually the kids) were invited to the friends party too if we wanted, I declined the invitation because I said if Little Bear keeps to her track record, we were due for another fever the weekend of the friends party (ie. this weekend).

Sure enough, this morning she had a slight temperature & it has been slowly going up all day.

She didn't have any lunch today but still had her bottle at lunch time. I gave her some panadol for the temperature & then she got an oven mit, placed it on the floor & lay down on it. Not sure why she chose to get off the couch to lie on the floor - perhaps the floor boards were cooler? When she gets sick, she gets very whingy and she starts to get shiny dark circles around her eyes, even before her temperature has gone up much. She also starts waking up through the night before she gets the temperature so we kind of suspected since Friday night that this was coming.

Wish the doctor was here so I could tell him "I told you so". But I'm sure I'll get my chance. In the meantime, we will be getting blood tests done tomorrow morning so please keep Little Bear in your thoughts & prayers. I'm sure it is not going to be a pleasant time.

More doctor's

I was back at the doctor again today, this time for myself.

I think I have tonsillitis. The doctor never actually confirmed this (or denied it). He told me that my tonsils are inflamed & that I have an ulcer on my uvula (DH asked if I had to bend over for him to see that - DH is lucky I had the self control to not throw my shoe at him).

He has given me antibiotics for it. I feel like I am swallowing razor blades at the moment so I hope they kick in soon.

What I have is different to what Little Bear has. Her tonsils looked fine & I haven't had a fever like she did.

While I was at the doctor's, he told me that Little Bear's test results came back inconclusive. There was something there, but not very much & they couldn't get anything to grow on a culture. This means we have to do another wee test as soon as she gets another fever, while she is NOT on antibiotics & before it goes to her chest.

The doctor said "if" she gets another fever. Considering we have had at least 9 episodes of this thing since June, I say "when" not "if". Antibiotics haven't got rid of it in the past, I am doubtful that they alone will do anything this time.

The doctor still wants to see her again on Monday, so I might talk to him about getting other tests done as well as the urine test next time she gets sick. I really want to find out what's making my baby sick (& stop it), and I don't see how an inconclusive urine test could be bad enough to give her 9 episodes of very high (over 40 degrees C) fever in the last 4 1/2 months. Especially as each time it is getting worse & this chest infection doesn't seem to be clearing up as quickly as the last one, even though she is on two types of antiobiotics this time.

Fully Sick

OK, here's the update on Little Bear.

After an absolutely woeful night, I took her to the doctors today. She has a chest infection & has 2 lots of antibiotics (+ repeats) to be taken at the same time. That doesn't explain why the fevers keep recurring.

Doctor has said it could be a urinary tract infection & we had to get a wee sample. Easier said than done on a 2 year old who is still in nappies.

Finally got it at 7pm tonight. Path Lab closes at 6. Guess what I'll be doing first thing in the morning.

Have another appointment in a week. She will need seperate antibiotics again if it is a UTI. If it isn't, then the next step is blood tests.

In the meantime, I really hope that tonight I get SOME sleep.

What's wrong with Little Bear

Poor Little Bear is sick again.

Every 2-3 weeks since the start of June she has come down with a high fever that lasts 3 days. Initially Panadol seemed to keep it under control, but each time she catches it again it is a little bit worse. Last night Panadol wasn't doing much at all. She had a temperature of 39 an hour after taking Panadol.

A month ago she had this & it turned into a chest infection. 2 weeks later, just as she took the last dose of antibiotics, she came down with the fever again but it only lasted a day (I guess because of the antibiotics). This time (2 weeks later again) she is starting to sound very chesty so I am hoping it doesn't go to her chest again.

When she gets really high temperatures, she throws up. We were able to prevent this by setting our alarm to go off every 4 hours in the night to give her the next dose of Panadol. Now that the Panadol isn't working as well, we were still up all last night cleaning up vomit & consoling Little Bear.

Whatever she has doesn't seem to be contagious because not one time that she's been sick has anyone else seemed to catch it from her.

I feel so frustrated & helpless. We've been to the doctor countless times, but because it's just been a virus, they haven't been able to do anything (except when she caught the chest infection). I will probably take her again tomorrow but I am hoping that they will order some tests to see if there is something else going on. I don't want them to poke my baby with needles, but I don't want to see my baby so sick either.

Lost and Found

We have lived in our house for 4 years now.

The other day I was pulling out a whole heap of plants in the garden in our pool area.

Underneath their roots I found out water meter. It was completely covered with dirt to about an inch above the highest point.

It was also leaking.

We have now cleared around it & DH fixed the leak. Heaven only knows when the last time our meter was read!

Cheetah's Happy Mail

Today Cheetah brought home some happy mail from school.

These are special letters that let the parents know that their child has done something to make their teachers happy.

Cheetah's happy mail read as follows:

"Dear DH & Chimera,

We'd like to share some good news about Cheetah:

Cheetah is always listening well and has beautiful manners.

His handwriting was neatly completed today also.

Signed: His Teacher"

(Underneath this it has lines to write a response and a note "reply paid return if desired" . This is funny because the child returns the note to their teacher).


Makes it a little easier to put up with the constant talking at home if we know he does know how to listen when he needs to. (honestly, the kid can & does talk underwater).

We know he has beautiful manners. He doesn't use them at home as much as he should, but we have always received lovely comments from people when we're out about his manners.

The handwriting has been a constant struggle for Cheetah. I'm afraid I have a lot to answer for there. He writes like I do. He can do a neat job, but it takes a lot of effort. His teachers in the last 3 years have been great. They ensure he puts the appropriate amount of effort into it, but they don't sweat the minor imperfections. It has made a big difference to his attitude about handwriting when the teachers don't push him for something that is almost impossible for him.


After having quite a bit of a dry spell when it came to posts about Cheetah, there have been some pretty special things to post about lately (& I never even did a birthday post for him - oowaaah). Not to mention, I still have the NAPLAN results to post about. That was a pretty impressive effort from him too, but I'll save it for later.

Cheetah's award

On Thursday Cheetah received an achievement award in class (these particular awards are handed out each week to children who have achieved something special that week).

And the reason for the award...

"for his 'Swift Swivels' during dance class".

This is the first time he has received an achievement award that relates to a physical activity.

I was very proud of him and can't wait to see these 'swift swivels' at the end of year concert.

Another Project

At the moment I am cleaning up & sorting through old junk. I came across this project that Cheetah did in Grade 3. We don't really have room to store it forever, so I figured storing it for 2 years was enough & now we would take some photo's, so we could get rid of the clutter.

I am assuming that this was a science project, but I am not entirely sure what the requirements of the assignment were.


This creature that looks somewhat like an alien cockroach is actually a device for testing how well various materials conduct electricity. His antennae are part of a circuit that is connected to batteries (in his belly) and a light bulb for a nose. The idea is that you touch the antenna to something (making sure they are not touching each other), and if that something conducts electricity, then his nose will light up.

The photo below is Cheetahs explanation of how a circuit works and a simple diagram for the visual learners out there.



This next one was a last minute idea. I got Cheetah to collect various small objects from around the house & glue them onto a piece of paper. He then glued that onto cardboard. If you look carefully, you will notice the writing is not Cheetah's (in the diagram above, that is Cheetah's writing). This is because this was so last minute, by the time the glue had dried, it was very late at night & the project was due the next day, so I did that bit for him.


He really is a clever little tacker when he puts his heart into it. Pity we can't harness this enthusiasm for all of his schoolwork!

Finally a post about Cheetah

Cheetah has been missing out on the spotlight a bit lately. Mostly because him playing computer games or reading are not really Kodak moments.

This was definitely a Kodak moment though....

This is Cheetah's diorama he made for a school assignment. As you might have guessed, they were studying the gold rush at the time.

First they had to draw a sketch of what they wanted their diorama to look like, then plan how it was to be constructed & finally to make it.

This is completely Cheetah's own design. He also decided what materials would be used (except for the 'dirt' which he was going to use cardboard, but I suggested playdough).

It is amazing how much like his original sketch this actually looks.

For the close ups...

This is the miners tent, made of sticks & calico (with a bit of kitchen string holding it in place). The flag is Lego (Cheetah assured me lots of the miners had flags up in their campsite, identifying it as theirs - he also assured me that lots of miners had dogs).

This is a miner standing at the top of the hoist (Cheetah had another term for this thing, but I can't remember what it was). Unfortunately he wasn't sure how to make a handle for the hoist in the limited time that he had (2 nights because Cheetah had been procrastinating & I didn't realise that it was an at home assignment).

This is the poor little miner at the bottom of the shaft. The 'bucket' is actually one of the parts of the kids painting sets. It used to hold the green paint which you will notice became the grass in this diorama. I think the Lego miner is holding a light sabre with a piece attached which might have been part of a Lego boat once. Looks like an allright pickaxe to me. The veins of gold in the dirt is gold glitter mixed with PVA glue. You can't see in the picture, but there are gold nuggets in the bucket (small balls of playdough painted gold - you can see more of them at the feet of the miner manning the hoist).

This bit is my personal favourite. A miner panning for gold. The pan is made from playdough & the gold is glitter & glue.

He doesn't look overly enthusiastic, however he was very proud of the finished product & so he should be. I would like to add, that while I helped a little with the most fiddly bits (& making the playdough), this is his own design & his own work & I was very proud of him.

Unfortunately the report that was meant to go with it was not properly completed so I don't know how that is going to affect his marks. Cheetah is not the most consciencious student & we are working on that. In the meantime, we will praise the victories and continue to encourage him to strive for greater things.

Little Bear's Birthday Suit

Today I visited Mummy McTavish, & the clan (except for Lion who was at Kindy).

While I was there, I got lot's of cuddles with Little Monkey McT. And I got to leave with a few goodies - namely tupperware & Little Bear's birthday present from Aunty McT. (Her birthday was in June, but given the beautiful cake Aunty McT made her & the fact that A.McT has also just had a baby, & the fact that the present was home-made I think she can be more than forgiven)

Anyway, this is the present....

Matching dresses for Little Bear & her baby. (the shoes are also brand new today but that was just because she's grown out of almost all her others).

Little Bear is tickled pink and now doesn't want to take the dress off, even to put on her brand new PJ's.

Today I bought Little Bear some new clothes for kindy, the new shoes & a new pair of PJ's because she needed all these things. When she was bathed, she let me try all of these new clothes on her, one by one. She stood still & briefly modelled each new outfit before letting me change her into the next one.

Her brother Cheetah would never have survived such torture. Poor child is probably scarred for life from the times I have tried.

God's Promise

GOD'S PROMISE

Author Unknown

God hath not promised skies always blue,

Flower strewn pathways our whole lives through

God hath not promised sun without rain

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God hath promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labour, light for the way

Grace for the trials, help from above

Unfailing Sympathy

Undying Love

Not Dora

Conversation this morning between DH, Little Bear & her Poppy:

DH: Do you want to listen to some Nora, Little Bear?
LB: Dora!
Poppy: Not Dora, Nora !
LB: Not Dora, Dora!
Poppy: No, not Dora, Nora !
LB: NOT Dora, DORA !
Poppy: 'N' 'N' 'N' 'N' NORA !

LB: 'N' 'N' 'N' 'N' DORA !!!!

Random Birthday Photo's

Seeing as I missed posting about Little Bear's birthday like I promised, here are some of the better photo's of her birthday at home.

This one deserves the top honours. Little Bear is showing her appreciation to Aunty McTavish for making such a beautiful birthday cake. Feel free to leave Mummy McTavish/Aunty McTavish some comments on this blog oohing & aahing over such a beautiful cake. She will read them & she deserves it !



The favourite toy of the night - a Bubble Machine. Also thanks to the McTavish clan.

Little Bear & Dragon were in raptures over the bubble's.



And of course, how better to play with bubbles than with a racquet of some kind. And even better than 1 racquet is 2. Lion is showing off his Bubble Badminton skills. That's my ambidextrous nephew !




And how better to finish a birthday than falling asleep on Daddy's lap. This is a special treat reserved for those really special occasions. (For those who regularly visit, you might notice the wear on this couch getting more obvious with each post it features in. We are hoping to get a new one really soon)

I love this man !!!

Little Bear's New Bed

Yesterday Little Bear was very sick.

She was fine at kindy, then at about 7ish she threw up. As she had been coughing a fair bit before hand, I put it down to that & still let her have Macca's chippies for dinner. She didn't have a temperature, seemed fine & as my kids throw up when they choke (we try not to let that happen too often), you can see why I wasn't too worried.

She ate about 2 chippies & mostly just sucked the sweet & sour sauce off them & kept double dunking (I was sharing the sauce with her).

After that, she began to develop a temperature & then it was all on until 1am. I lost count of how many times she threw up, but it seemed like every 20 minutes or so. Due to a number of tummy bugs in our family recently, I am becoming fairly adept at handling them efficiently. We put a clean set of sheets under her current set of sheets, then folded up a bunny rug to lie under her head. Several bunny rugs later & I didn't even need to strip the bed down to the clean sheets (however once more would have been the kicker).

This morning, she still wasn't well & I was completely knackered, so we stayed home together. After taking Cheetah to school, she seemed to be OK so we came home & had brekky. That stayed down so we went bed shopping. As she was in her pram & dosed up on Panadol it wasn't too difficult.

It took 4 hours to find a bed, a reasonably priced inner spring mattress & pillows, quilts, sheets, mattress protectors etc. (That doesn't count the hours on the internet searching, the numerous visits to various bedding shops over the last few weeks & time poring over catalogues).

I can't believe I spent as much on the linen as I did on the bed (after much shopping around too I might add)!

The mattress we have to pick up tomorrow, we don't have that yet, but we borrowed Cheetahs mattress tonight so she could still get to sleep on her new bed.

I think she is pretty pleased with her new bed!






Let's hope it gets us all a better nights sleep than last night. Seems to be working well so far ;-)

Cheetah doesn't mind lending his mattress. He gets to sleep on a camp bed tonight which he thinks is great. & tomorrow he will also be getting a new mattress too as his old one is getting a bit long in the tooth (& when your mattress bites you, you know it's time for a new one).

(Did you notice the disney princess theme in the room, with the wall art, sofa chair & quilt cover? Not intentional but comercialisation can be handy sometimes when you are trying to co-ordinate pieces bought years apart. Little Bear picked all of those things herself. She is starting to pick up on some of my OCD traits partiality for orderliness I think).

Are we there yet?

This morning we pulled up outside Cheetah's school to drop him off. Just before we pull up I hear the following ...



Cheetah (excitedly): Little Bear, where are we? Where are we Little Bear?



Little Bear (in a very loud & joyous exclamation): THERE !!!!!!

Canberra

From Newcastle, we travelled on to Canberra when I was starting to feel a bit better. By this point my cold was much better, but had progressed into that dry hacking cough that drives everyone around you into a murderous rage crazy!

While we were there, Canberra experienced it's coldest day in 43 years (or something like that) our friend who lived there told us.

We had a heated motel room & didn't really care. It was just COLD. The motel was OK, most importantly it was heated, but I was a bit dissapointed as we booked it on Wotif. Their Wotif details indicated that each room had a washer & dryer. We therefore took a few things we needed to wash so that we could do our laundry before returning to newcastle. When we rocked up, there was a laundry facility, but not a washer & dryer in each room. Not impressed. Usually I check the actual motel website before I make a booking on Wotif, but this time I must have overlooked that step. Never again. (Please note: Laundry facility was almost vitally important as being North Queenslanders, our supply of warm clothing was minimal to start with. When you are wearing more than one layer of warm clothing because the weather is so cold, that further depleted our stash to 3 days tops. We made do however & know better for next time)

On the first day which was bright & sunny & beautiful (but still cold), we visited Questacon (all indoors for those who don't know). The kids loved this. They had a room just for littlies that Little Bear thought was FANTASTIC. Cheetah enjoyed all the bigger kid exhibits, however 1 level was closed unfortunately so we missed out on that one.

One of the activities was to press a button & press it again after 15 seconds, trying to get it as close as possible to the 15 second mark (counting in your head). I was chuffed that I took one go & got it within 0.005 of a second (see photo below). This also meant I had the most accurate guess of the day, up until just after lunchtime when we left. Not sure if it was broken after that.

That night we went up the Black Mountain Tower (aka Telstra Tower, aka Telecom Tower). The first time we got up there, we got through the door & found that they only take cash, not credit card, for the admittance fee. We trundled off to grab some dinner & some money & then headed back about an hour later. This time we actually got through the entry gates.

Here is Little Bear with the boys on the viewing platform. As you can see it is cold & windy.


I still remember visiting this tower with my family when I was 3. I remeber seeing big machines through glass windows & having to use some stairs. This time, all you could really do was go to the revolving resteraunt (patrons only) or go to the kiosk & viewing platform (via a lift that didn't give floor's, but rather told you exactly how far above sea level you were as it lifted you up).

The view was OK, but probably would have been better at sunset (when we first attempted to get in) rather than at night, although the lights were pretty.

The next day it was cold & overcast (I think this was the coldest day). This was the day we had set aside to take some photo's in front of Parliament House, go to the National Zoo & Aquarium & also the Cockington Green Gardens & Walk in Aviary.

The first thing we did though, was go to the Royal Australian Mint. We got there, only to find the Mint was closed for renovation & only the souvenire shop in the entry way was open. The attendant cheerfully told us that we could watch the process on some screens set up in the entry foyer. This set up was a series of 7 photo's (not all of which worked), on a screen where you press a button to see the next photo. The photo's weren't that crash hot & as some where 'missing' (should we be concerned about other things going missing at the Mint?) it really left a lot to be desired.

We did get to stamp our own $1 coin to comemorate our visit. This cost us $3 for which we got $1 in return. Hmmm - now we know how the Mint makes their money! (Obviously that was a joke because our whole gripe is that we never actually got to see how the Mint makes the money at all).

After the Mint, we got to the Zoo but somehow completely missed the Aquarium section. We saw the White Lions. Little Bear loved seeing Giraffe's up close. Unfortunately, she was not happy to be photographed & every time we pointed the camera at her, she turned her head. Didn't get as many photo's as we wanted, but got a few that show how rugged up we were.

We went home (well, to a Motel room that was acting as "home" for 2 1/2 days) to have lunch & a sleep. Unfortunately, Little Bear slept for about 10 minutes in the car & as a result, did not sleep when we got back to the room. At about 4 ish, we decided to give up on Cockington Green & the Aviary & just bum around in the motel until dinner time.

For dinner that night, we met up with our friend & his gorgeous wife in Canberra at Zeffirelli's for pizza. I can't believe that Little Bear sat still enough for me to braid her hair (in 2 braids, not 1) to go out looking nice. I took a photo of it, because I doubt I will get another chance like that before she is 5. She is like the energiser bunny - just keeps going!

At dinner our friends wife - M - began asking Cheetah about school & he hit it off with her right away & talked her ear off all night. We then went back to their place, where Cheetah taught M to play "21" (that's Blackjack to all the gamblers out there). DH then had to teach M the correct way to play, as Cheetah had learned the game of his young cousins who had the rules a bit muddled (or had 'changed them' to suit themselves as Cousin C is known to do sometimes).

Little Bear was completely taken with their two puppies - 13 year old Nala (some little furry breed) and 2 year old Toby (a golden retreiver). Little Bear talked & sang to Toby, through a glass door, most of the night until it was time to go.

The next day we headed back to Newcastle for Little Bear's birthday. That will be my next post!

Nanny in Newcastle

For the travel update I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats for...

We left Brisbane on Friday morning, after missing out on seeing my friend who I was going to meet up with there.

I was absolutely devastated when she sent me a message saying she wouldn't be able to make it because something urgent had come up at the very last minute. I was also a little bit relieved, because by this point my stomach was causing me absolute agony (due to constant coughing, combined with no sleep for over 36 hours & sitting in an uncomfortable commodore passenger seat). Brisbane city is lots of hills & I wasn't looking forward to trying to juggle both kids, the pram & my stomach ache to make that visit (as I would be walking to meet her, not driving).

Anyway, this also meant we were able to leave a bit earlier that we had previously anticipated & took off at once for Newcastle via Port Macquarie.

The drive to Port Macquarie was a bit taxing, given that Little Bear was starting to despise the car seat (which had been laundered I might add). However we got there about 6pm (ish). After spending a lot of time coughing while glued to a not so comfortable car seat, my stomach was killing me (worse than it had been in Brisbane). The next morning I was starting to wonder whether it wouldn't be more prudent to book a second night in Port Macquarie to avoid driving that day, but after a couple of hours of being awake it settled a bit & I was able to travel (although it was anything but comfortable).

Our motel in PM was OK & was right on the beach - you could see Flynn's Beach (I think that's what it's called) from the motel & it was quite beautiful, but we only caught a glimpse of it as we left, because we arrived after dark & left first thing in the morning.

We got to Newcastle about 1pm the day we left PM. Nanna & Big Pop were excited to see the grandkids & for the next few days I didn't do much other than laundry & try to relax as much as possible as I was really crook by this point.

This means that so far we have very little photo's of our journey as it was just too much for me. We also had to cancel our Albury leg of our journey to visit DH's brother because I was still too sick to travel when we were meant to be leaving, but we did get to add another day onto our Canberral leg which worked out well as we had crammed a fair bit into that & it allowed us to have a bit of breathing time while we were there.

We took plenty of photo's in Canberra, but Little Bear has been a bit camera shy. I will post these when I get home. We took a few more when we returned from Canberra to Newcastle & now that we are at Surfer's Paradise, I expect that we will take a lot of photo's when we visit Seaworld tomorrow.

The Travelling Bug

I think the travelling bug means that you can't stay still, you have to keep travelling. My family seems to take it literally though. Every time we travel, we get sick.

I was meant to work Monday, Tuesday last week & then we would leave. I ended up sick & at the doctors with a really bad head cold & no voice. Little Bear was just starting to catch it when we left.

On Wednesday afternoon we left. We had dinner in Ayr at about 6:30pm & just about had to force feed Little Bear as she wanted to play on the slides (can you guess where we had dinner?)

At about 10:00pm, with the car an absolute mess from trying to keep children entertained, we began to regret our insistance that Little Bear eat more for dinner.

She threw up. Not a little, but all over herself & her car seat. Very wet, sticky & smelly.

The only place to pull over was on the side of the road where there was a steep bank. Of course DH pulled over & gravity took over making a bigger mess of what had previously been fairly well contained in Little Bear's lap.

I cleaned up as best I could, dressing Little Bear in the spare clothes I had packed within easy reach. & using up an entire packet of baby wipes. This was somewhere just north of Rockhampton I think. Someone pulled over, thinking we had had an accident (becuase of the angle of the car on the side of the road), but they couldn't help, so we thanked them & on they went.

After cleaning Little Bear & the car up as best I could, I put a towel in her car seat, sat her back in & put a sheet over her to keep her warm as it was starting to get very cold.

We travelled on, reasonably uneventfully until about Gin Gin, where Little Bear woke up & promptly threw up. I think this was about 4am. Same story as above, but this time I didn't have spare clothes for her, so I dressed her in a long sleeved shirt of Cheetah's. The kids then watched the Bee Movie at 4am & dozed again after that finished.

We made it into Brisbane at about 10:00am & after trying to find a Loo Stop near the freeway on the northside of Brisbane, we wasted about 1/2 hour, and then took another 1/2 hour to make it to our motel.

Thankfully our Motel let us check in early & they had a washing maching & dryer so I spent the better half of the day doing laundry. Because the kids were wide awake & didn't have much of a midday sleep (because they had been sleeping in the car), I went from 7:00am Wednesday to about 9:00pm Thursday without sleep.

I finally got to crash that night & crash I did. (However, tired as I was, I did manage to check & see that Qld won the first state of origin match, but now they are all catching the swine flu because some bright spark thought Melbourne (swine flu capital of Australia) would be a good venue for a match between Qld & NSW. Not looking so hot for the next match, but best out of three boys, that's all you need !!!

Au Revoir

This afternoon we leave on a 2 1/2 week holiday.

I apologise for my lack of blogging lately. I have been busy working, while trying to get ready for our holiday & on the weekend I caught a nasty cold that meant all I wanted to do was stay in bed. Unfortunately I couldn't do that all the time, but I could choose bed over blogging which is what I did.

Tonight we will be driving to Brisbane where we will spend 1 night. We will then spend a night in Port Macquarie, 3 nights in Newcastle, 2 nights in Albury, 2 nights in Canberra, 3 more nights in Newcastle, 3 nights on the Gold Coast & then we drive home.

Holiday, who am I kidding !!! I am going to need a second holiday to recover from this one!

I may or may not get the chance to blog while we are away, but I am sure I will have plenty to share when I get back.

In the meantime, I leave you with these words of wisdom ....



GO THE MIGHTY MAROONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Child Labour

Today Little Bear was sick so I had to stay home.

It was also the day that the Qld Teachers took strike action. Therefore I had Cheetah at home with me too.

I was tired as I have been under the weather myself & dealing with a sick Little Bear was about as much as I could handle, so early in the day I devised my devious plan to keep Cheetah out of the way thought up an interesting activity that would keep develop my child's co-ordination, physical ability & problem solving skills.

We have had a large palm of some sort in our pool area that attracted locusts & green ants like you wouldn't believe. Knowing how much my child loves to play with heavy artillery big boy toys, I told him that he could use my secateurs and his fathers saw to cut as much of this tree down as he wanted too. (the fronds shoot off from just above ground level so the secateurs can do most of the work at cutting it back).

I expected this might keep him busy for half an hour, maybe an hour if I was lucky.

He stayed outside ALL day. Breaking only for a quick bike ride, lunch & a couple of snacks.

Here he is almost finished.



And this gives you some idea of how busy he had been. The pile of palm fronds to the left is all his work.




Behind this tree was a fig tree growing that I only found out about a couple of weeks ago when the neighbours told me about it (as they didn't want a fig tree growing next to their new carport & were pretty sure I didn't want one in my garden either). I went to cut it down on Sunday & was very surprised to find out that it was an established fig tree that had 2 trunks 3-4 meters tall & I hadn't been able to see it at all behind the palm tree Cheetah removed without actually crawling into the back corner of this garden bed. I got most of it out, but there is still a fair bit of stalk remaining so I will have to find a way to remove the whole thing.

I was very proud of my Cheetah today.

You can read another post about his love of gardening tools here.

Powerless

Over the weekend, DH & I cleaned up the garden & under our house. Yesterday we spent all afternoon finishing cleaning under the house. The kids helped in the way that they do best (by 'rearranging' all the stuff you just tidied).

After a very VERY dusty, dirty day, we headed upstairs to clean off & get some dinner. Dinner a la Macca's. By the time we got the kids to bed it was late. I then had to hang several loads of washing that I hadn't been able to do all day because of being so dirty. I started ironing about 9:30ish & at 11:00pm was still going but only had a few things left.

Just then a very loud army helicopter flew over & all of a sudden at 11:00pm our power went out.

Not the streetlights.

Not the neighbours power.

Just ours.

Our circuit breaker has been tripping a lot lately (we have 2 main circuit breakers & we found the entire house except for little bear's room & one power point are connected to one of them. This includes the washing machine & pool pump downstairs. What genius thought that was a good idea?!?)

Anyway, we knew it wasn't the circuit breaker, as the whole house was down. DH checked the safety switch but it wasn't that either. We called Ergon & were advised that if it was our problem we would have to pay a $340 callout fee. Unfortunately you don't know if it's your problem until you call them out to check!

Anyway, it seemed likely it was an Ergon thing & so we got them out. They turned up sometime after midnight (after going up & down the street in the cherry picker several times), turned on all their floodlights & aimed them at our house (just so the neighbours know who to blame for keeping them awake on Sunday night Monday morning.



A few months ago Ergon replaced the cable from the power pole to the house, but they didn't replace the bits that join the wire to the house. That was the problem & at 1:00am this morning we got a new one of those too. They didn't need the cherry picker after all that, but they did check our connection to the power pole too, just to be sure - seeing as they had the CP there, I guess it seemed a shame not to use it.



This is kind of getting old hat for us now.



At our last place (a rental thank goodness), the power went out one day & I smelt burning electrics. After 'smelling' around the house for a bit (a couple of minutes), I went downstairs to check the meter box (located in the centre of the house right under the upstairs (wooden) floorboards.



It was on fire, but it extinguished as I watched it. Phew.



Anyways, contacted the owner who corrected that problem for us. That night or shortly thereafter, we turned off all our electrical appliances to go to bed (at about 11:00pm) and suddenly the power went out again. Another call to the owner (who worked for Ergon) & Ergon was out in the middle of the night fixing the fuse (sans Cherry Picker). When they do this without a cherry picker, they have a very long pole they use to manover the fuse into position in the box (which is at the top of a power pole). Issue seemed to be fixed.



A couple of days later, again at about 11:00pm we turn off our appliances & again the same thing happens. By now we know the drill. Ergon comes out with Cherry Picker this time. Turned out they needed the fuse to be between 2 posts, but it was jammed in beside one of the posts, instead of between them. When all the power was on, the current was pulling the two posts together enough that electricity was able to flow. As soon as we turned off all our stuff, ka-boom, blew another fuse.



Somewhere in all of this, we spent 3 days without power, running our fridge & a single portable fan from extension leads attached to our very generous neighbour's power supply in the middle of a North Qld summer. Not pleasant.



On another note, the washing machine guy was out today. He'll fix the latch on Wednesday (hopefully) & then look at the hole in the outer casing of the drum (not sure what it's called) which we found when we removed the lid to release the catch to get the washing out. Could be why my "Ultrasilencer" is not ultra silent!

Diet Time

Today I finally saw a dietitian. Probably something I should have done years ago instead of bothering with doctors, but as the saying goes - you live & learn.

I found out that I am intolerant (& no I didn't smack her out for saying that).

My symptoms are textbook for some sort of food intolerance, the trick now is to find out what.

To do that I have to go on an 'elimination' diet. In a nutshell that means unprocessed fresh meat (cooked but not too brown or burnt) & rice. Thankfully I am allowed to eat cashews (I am guessing without salt but havent' checked that closely). No milk, no wheat, no fruit (except peeled pear), very few veges, no fabric softener or strong smelling soaps/perfumes/aromatherapy stuff etc, flavourless toothpaste.

As we are going away in a couple of weeks, the Dietitian (hereafter called V) told me to start cutting back on thinks like the coke, the milk, the bread/wheat products, etc slowly to ease the withdrawal & then start on the strict diet as soon as I am back home.

After two weeks of nothing, I then get to add things in but only one 'group' of food at a time & then I have to wait anywhere from 3-7 days (longer if I have a reaction to it) before adding the next group (& there is about 10 groups of food to add back slowly).

I love rice but I will probably be happy to never see another grain of rice again in a few months time.

However despite all this, I am actually looking forward to this. V was so enthusiastic & so positive that this is exactly what the problem is & how much better I am going to feel on the diet but told me many times that I can't stay on the diet (apparently people feel so good, they don't want to 'challenge' themselves & possibly make themselves sick again. I can fully understand that sentiment right now).

However before I start cutting back, there are a few things I need to clear up.

* I have about 2 1/2 bottles of wine (including our anniversary champagne which we didn't drink on our anniversary) to share with my husband.
* Easter Eggs - It would just be too cruel leaving them there & not being able to have even a little bit.
* Some flavoured cheeses & various little snacky things that would just be too tempting to leave lying around.

I'm sure there's more goodies lying around & no doubt I will find many more once I am actually committed to this thing.

Off on a tangent now, I took home 1/2 a shopping bag of mandarin's from my parent's place on mothers day. They were finally ripe enough to make juice with today & I made over 2 litres of juice, leaving a few small mandarins for eating & after throwing out a few big ones that had gone kind of woody. The juice tastes delicious but with a mouth ulcer it is just too painful to drink ATM, so I am hoping that Cheetah really likes mandarin juice (as DH & Little Bear don't). He seems to so far.

Killer instincts

We have dark polished wooden floorboards in our house.

I saw a cockroach on the floor. I quietly snuck past it, got the surface spray out, blasted it & quickly jammed the can down on top !

It didn't move !

I think I just killed a dead cockroach ????


..... now I have the heebie jeebies about how long it had been sitting there before I noticed.

YUCK !!!

Warranty

I bought my washing machine on 23 March 08.
It broke on 9 May 09. (A bit more than 1 day after the 12 months warranty would have run out, but close).

I am really REALLY REALLY glad that I bought the extended warranty !!!

How not to celebrate mother's day

Saturday afternoon my washing machine broke - on the first load of washing I had to do.

Sunday morning I didn't get a sleep in because I felt sorry for my hubby & agreed to sleep in on Saturday instead because he had a bucks party Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon I spent all afternoon & night doing washing (except for the couple of hours at Grannysaurus's place) & ironing & housework because I wasn't able to do it on Saturday.

With a mother's day like that, you wouldn't expect much from Monday would you !

This morning I went to work & upon arriving was notified that a retired colleague had passed away unexpectedly while on a holiday overseas. I used to work right beside this lady & she was a lovely person so that was a bit upsetting, however it is nice to think that she went quickly, didn't suffer & was doing something she loved when it happened. That's the way I want to go!

I am still hanging out for a blood test result that my doctor should have got by Friday, but still didn't have by this afternoon. The lab only just sent it late this afternoon so the doctor hadn't had a chance to look at it by close of business. - Hopefully tomorrow !

On the lighter side of life, my beautiful children made me feel like a princess. Little bear sung happy birthday to me all day (presents - birthdays - get it), I got some lovely home (or kindy) made things from both of them and a bracelet that Little Bear keeps stealing, saying "Princess" as she puts it on her own wrist.

As well as a couple of restful hours at Grannysaurus's place, eating Profitjer's & just chilling.

Bath Time

Tonight my two kids are having a bath together.

I have washed Little Bear's hair & am in the next room while she & Cheetah just play.

I keep wandering in to see if Little Bear wants to get out.

This time I called out as I was walking "Do you want to get out yet?"

Little Bear: "No want get out yet" ....

Little Bear (frantically): "SIDDOWN SHEETA SIDDOWN SHEETA !!!!"
(obviously worried that Cheetah would get her in trouble & taken out of the bath)

I walk in.

Mummy: "Aren't you ready to get out yet Little Bear?"

Little Bear: "No mummy"

Little Bear: "Bye Bye Mummy"

Wildlife

Here is some of the wildlife that got up close & personal with us on our getaway.

The local possum. Permanent tennant of "Coolara" (the house we stayed at).

The same possum venturing out to see what goodies we had left on the verandah this night. Unfortunately for the poor possum, we caught him halfway down the tree. With all the photo's we took, the poor little thing stayed in this position for ages. I think he wasn't game to move because he was blinded by the flashes.

Possum & Cheetah. The possum could see Cheetah & wasn't fazed in the slightest. I'll post more photo's later that show just how close we got.

One of the local Pademelons. (Like a wallaby). There were about 3 or 4 that would venture out at various times of the day, but they didn't seem as tame as the one's at Cooinda (the place we stayed at in August 08 that is right next door to this house).

Of course no visit to the NQ Rainforest is complete without a scrub turkey or several hanging around.

On a cruise of Lake Barrine we saw eels,

Saw-shelled Turtles,

two Amethyst Pythons (only 1 in this photo),

and ducks, including five 5-week old ducklings.

More photo's to come, but probably not before the weekend.

Women Drivers

No comment needed for this one really.

I should point out though that she was driving down the incredibly long driveway of the house we stayed at in Atherton, not on a public road. (And as you can see, she had some help).

Hopefully I will get a chance to post photo's tomorrow as for the three nights after that I will not be able to post as I will be living it up in Bris-vegas. (read living it up as sleeping as much as possible)

Of course during the day I will be training (in what I don't know because they are 'surprising' us. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate surprises.)

Water Bear

These were taken from Little Bear's shower tonight.

She has always been very good in the water (however, like her mother, she isn't fussed on the swimming pool if it's under 30*C).

In these photo's she is lying on the floor of the bath. The water is about 2-3 inches deep. (where her head is, is on a slight upwards slope though).

She would put the plug in while the shower is running, then go up the other end of the tub (away from the shower) and lie herself down in this position without any help from us.

As you can see, the water is over her ears, but it doesn't bother her at all.






In the second photo, her dad tells her to wiggle a bit & she does this kind of jive move & thinks she is just hysterical.

Grounded

Remember this post?

ie. the one where I told Cheetah he was not allowed to take his expensive DS to vacation care?

Yesterday I turned up a bit earlier than I usually would & he was holding it in his hands, but wasn't even playing it himself, he was watching his friend play their DS instead.

As I walked up, he realised & tried to hide it, but as he did he saw that I had already seen it, so he used the same movement to slip it into his pocket like nothing was the matter.

When I told him I wasn't happy, he said "it was just in my bag, I don't know how it got there. HONEST !!!"

That statement was far from honest !!!!

He is now grounded from Computer, Playstation, DS, and Wii.

He doesn't know how long for.

I don't know how long for.

No more

Today Little Bear attended kindy for the first time on a Friday.

Today was the only day I will get with my husband at work & the two kids in care.

Today I worked like a madman in our garden to try & tidy up the garden beds which became manically overcrowded by all the weeds over the wet season. (Which is now pretty much over) until Christmas time next year.

Today I filled up the trailer & a garden waste bin full of weeds & there is another trailer load of weeds lying on the lawn for their chance to go to the dump.

Today I received an invitation to a Diva party that one of our neighbours is holding for our neighbour who'se house burned down. All the profits will be donated to that neighbour (although she doesn't know it yet). Normally I don't like going to these types of things where there's a heap of people I don't know. This time though it will be mostly neighbours & since I am too shy to meet them any other way this will be a great opportunity to meet & greet while supporting a very worthy cause.

Tonight marks the end of today & a very tired mummy is going to drag herself off to bed. I will take photo's of some of my handiwork in the next couple of days (nothing flash, but very neat & tidy again). I know you can hardly wait.

Fire

A few nights ago, I set our smoke alarm off again (it's a regular thing in our house - every time I cook chops).

We couldn't get it to stop so we had to take it down & pull the battery out. I forgot all about it & it didn't go back up that night. The next day I saw it sitting on the bench but DH wasn't home & I am not tall enough to put it up without a ladder - DH can just stand on a chair. I thought "I will have to remember to get him to put it back up", but of course forgot about it.

That night after DH had gone to sleep I lay in bed tossing & turning thinking about the fact that our smoke alarm wasn't up & hoping that our house didn't catch fire that night.

The next morning we got up to our street full of fire engines, police cars & ambulances.

Our neighbour's house had been completely burned out.

Needless to say, the smoke alarm was back up that day!

Apparently no-one was hurt in the fire.

Singing Bear

Finding it hard to find the time to blog lately.

Had a nice easter, but Little Bear got sick on Sunday night. Had a fever since then that panadol took care of. It's gone now & she is back to her happy little self again. Mummy & Daddy are helping out by eating some of her chocolate.

Lately she has become quite the singer. She picks up words to new songs really quickly. She has a few favourites, but the most favouritest favourite at the moment is definitely the song "Open, Shut Them".

Here she is singing the song, and getting her teddy bear to do the actions.

(Sorry, yet again it's sideways. I can't work out if there is software to turn rotate them like the normal photo's, and when I realised & tried to get another one of her while holding the camera horizontal she was not as co-operative).

Here are the real words - with Little Bear's usual interpretation in brackets.

Open Shut Them (Oh-Peh Shu Dem)
Open Shut Them (Oh-Peh Shu Dem)
Give a Little Clap (gi a CLAP)
Open Shut Them (Oh-Peh Shu Dem)
Open Shut Them (Oh-Peh Shu Dem)
Lay Them In Your Lap (Ay dem ola LAP)

Creep Them, Creep Them (ceep dem, ceep dem)
Creep Them, Creep Them (ceep dem, ceep dem)
Right up to your chin (righ-dup ola chin)
Open Wide Your Little Mouth
But-Do-Not-Let-Them-In (Oh-Peh Whyyyyyyy Yooooouuur Mout Budonoledemin)

I found out by her singing this song, that there is another verse I was never aware of.

Shake Them, Shake Them
Shake Them, Shake Them
Shake Them Just Like This!
Roll Them, Roll Them
Roll Them, Roll Them
Blow a Little Kiss

She doesn't sing this verse in the video but I had to look the words up on the internet because all I could work out was that it involved shaking, rolling & kissing. (Sounds kind of like an idea that Elton John might be able to put lyrics to).

She also loves to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep but instead of singing "One for the master and one for the dame" she sung "One for Mummy and One for Daddy and One for Cheetah and One for Poppy and One for Grandma ..." and then she realised that she wasn't sure how to end the song so we had to end in chorus singing "who live down the lane".

Unfortunately she has only done that version a couple of times & now she seems to be singing the real lyrics mostly so I don't think I am going to catch that one on camera.

Cheetah of course is being Cheetah. He is griping at me that his ONLY friend at vacation care is allowed to take his DS (Nintendo for the uneducated) and spends all day playing that so he isn't any fun to play with. This of course is said to try & get me to allow my son who is a hyperactive & forgetful 9 year old (not a good combination), to take his DS as well. The DS is a $200 computer that would fit into a glove (not counting the cost of the games that run about $50 a piece & are the size of a memory card for a camera). Expensive, easy to steal & in the hands of a mad scientist personality. I don't think so kiddo.

This afternoon I picked him up & heard all about what a good day he had (forgetting that he wasn't meant to be enjoying himself because who can have fun without a computer)?

This child cannot believe that I lived a childhood without compact disc's, hand held computer games, or even a VCR

Cheetah - What's a VCR Mum????
Mum - A Video Casette Recorder. It's what they used before DVD!
Cheetah - So what did you have
Mum - Nothing. We even had to get up to change the channel on the TV because there was no remote!
Cheetah - ??????? (the only time I can think of that my son has been lost for words)


So despite his abusive mother witholding the basic necessities of life from him, he is still managing to enjoy himself !!!


Hope everyone else had a peaceful, reflective, blessed easter, however you celebrated.

Overactive Imagination

When Cheetah was little, we used to worry that he didn't seem to show a very active imagination. He didn't pretend a toy was anything other than what it was (eg. Sticks could not be used for guns, guitars, or rocket ships, they were just sticks). He was extremely intelligent but didn't seem to be very creative.

Now when I think back to those times, a lot of his creativity was overlooked because he found his creative streak in the most unusual of circumstances.

My favourite example ...

When Cheetah was 5, he participated in a school Fun Run. As a working mother, I was unable to attend the fun run, but that afternoon I asked Cheetah how he went.

Very matter of factly Cheetah told me he came first.

Now even though I had never seen Cheetah race, I had seen him run & felt if he was to run like that when competing with around 70 or 80 other children his age, he was either trying to make me proud by lying about his 'achievement' or he had done a Steven Bradbury.

Thinking it was more likely the former (does that make me a bad mother?), I tried to tactfully get the truth out of him. Trying to do that without crushing his fragile little psyche was like drawing hens teeth.

I can't remember exactly what I said but it was something along the lines of "Is that what really happened?" (I tried to get the tone that was between "Wow-I can't believe it" & "I DON'T believe it" Not sure how successful I was).

Cheetah's response.

"Well actually it was a tie. Billy* was coming first & I was holding his hand when we crossed the finish line". (*names changed to protect the innocent)

Mummy: "It must have been hard to run while you were holding hands. Did you hold hands for the entire race?"

Cheetah: "No, I stopped to help Billy cause he was having trouble."

Mummy: "Oh dear, that doesn't sound like Billy. I thought Billy was a good runner"

and so it continued for a few minutes. Then the story changed slightly (...in the mind of the 6 year old telling it - read 'wildly unbelievable' to the Mummy listening):

Cheetah: "No, that didn't really happen Mum. Actually I was wearing my jetpack & at the end of the race I flew across the finish & I won the race".

Mummy: "Cheetah, now I know you are making that up!" (Giving Cheetah that stern look in the rear-vision mirror while trying to keep an eye on the road as we were driving)

The next view of cheetah in the rear-vision mirror was of a very serious little 5 year old boy, caught in the act of lying & looking extremely contrite, head down & almost in tears & Mummy was sure we were finally going to hear the truth...

Cheetah: "You're right mum, my Jetpack was broken that day".



I couldn't respond for a good 5 minutes & then some as I was laughing so hard.

And to think we were worried about his imagination!

And just so you know, we never did find out how he really did in the fun run!