Little Bear-ism's

LB: Mummy, do I look boo-ti-ful?
M: You look absolutely gorgeous!
LB: Just like you!

Awwwww - I take back what I said the other day about selling her on e-bay.

LB (upon noticing my bedroom door was open): Mummy, I'm just going to go in here to buy a fat pig!

Not quite sure what to say to that one.

LB (seeing an ambulance drive past with lights flashing): Look Mummy, Fire Truck!
M: That one is an ambulance.
LB: An-nu-nanch
Cheetah: Not An-nu-nanch, Ambulance.
LB: NO Cheetah, Not An-nu-nanch, it's a An-nu-nanch

(of course Cheetah thought this was hilarious and the last two lines of that conversation was repeated for several minutes).


On another note, Joe our Cockatiel (yes Donut has a proper name now) has learnt to whistle for my attention (the whistle like a yankee hailing a cab). I'm trying to teach him to wolf whistle but only for me. We'll keep working on that one. I was quite impressed actually, that one day he was only making bird noises & the next day he was whistling & it was almost indistinguishable from our whistles. And he's only about 9 weeks old. Maybe that's normal for cockatiels, but I'm still impressed. At the moment Little Bear is listening to a Shaun The Sheep DVD so I am waiting for him to start whistling the theme song to that.

Introducing ...

Meet our newest member of the family.

Obviously I'm not talking about Cheetah.

This little fellow is affectionately known as Donut (his colouring is called cinnamon). We haven't given him a proper name yet as we are still in negotiations. Any suggestions would be welcome. DH would like something Aussie.

As you can see, he is still just a baby. He is being hand fed twice a day now & that yellow stuff near his beak is nothing more serious than his caked on baby food (ie. Cockatiel baby food that is).

He's not quite into seed yet, but it won't be long now.

We really aren't sure if it's a he or a she, but his tail looks like it has bars on it, which is indicative of a male, and he is already starting to show what a good mimic he is which is another male trait. Really to be positive we would need to blood test him. The other thing is that if he starts laying eggs then he's a she.

Cheetah is absolutely taken with him & would spend all day just holding him if he could. This might be the best incentive yet to get his homework & clarinet practice done promptly each evening... Mwahahahahahahaha !!!

Bed Time

Believe me, this is not how 99% of our evening looked/sounded:

Just before I took this, they were sitting in near darkness with the light of the TV the only light. Cheetah was watching Nanny McFee and Little Bear was nuzzled into his neck with her eyes closed. Of course they didn't stay that way when I pulled the camera out, but it's still a lovely photo none-the-less.

Earlier this evening, I had been unable to find the volume knob on either of them, and it seemed like it was stuck on full ball. Maybe it's just that they had to yell to feel like they were being heard over the incessant croaking of the frogs outside.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

More Camping

OK, I know you are all dying to hear what else we got up to while camping.

OK, so I am going to tell you anyway !!!

Friday afternoon (I think) it was starting to get a bit overcast - thanks to Cyclone Hamish who we didn't even know existed at that time. We just knew it looked like the fire was going to go out.

The boys came up with a plan (although I think DH would have prefered it if we had been using one of Uncle J's tarps but lo and behold, they didn't have any suitable so Uncle J's idea had to be carried out using our tarp. Anybody who knows Uncle J knows that this is a dangerous situation).

This was their plan !!!

Interestingly, it actually worked (although DH swears his tarp is a foot shorter each side). Since there was very little wind, when it rained, the rain just came straight down & the fire hardly got wet. There were still hot coals in the morning.

You might also notice the 2 door "ensuite" (which when camping means a tent to shower/get changed in) in the background & the hoses running towards the fire.

DH spoke to some fella's at work about his upcoming camping trip & someone told him about this idea they had tried in order to have hot showers. They ran a hose from a large tub of water to the fire, connected it to a spiralled copper pipe that sat in the fire which was connected to another hose running back to the tub of water & a small pump keeping the water moving between the tub & the fire. The water got to a lovely temperature & stayed there because the fire was heating at the same time the rest of the bucket was cooling. The pump also worked to move the water from the tub into the shower head & could do this at the same time as moving it through the fire.

Seeing as DH's works with pump's and at one time his job description was "Pump Technician" I knew he would make it work, but even I was impressed at how nice the shower was. Much better than the usual camping shower.

Anyway, enough about roughing it (yes, we do it tough !!!) here are some that reflect why we enjoy camping.

A butterfly that liked the colour blue. Little Bear & I were the only one's wearing a lot of blue & it kept landing on us, much to Little Bear's absolute delight. Notice my beautifully pedicured tonails (pity about the old woman's feet they are attached to). Those were a birthday gift from my SIL - Aunty J. Her birthday was also this month & she will also get a present .... eventually!

This is a Lace Monitor. I think he is the same one we see every time we come to this place. He is just nosy enough to come up close, but not nosy enough that I worry about him hurting the kids (or us for that matter).

Little Bear 'helping'. (Yes that is a patch of dirt, but how dare it mess up that beautiful green grassy landscape. Unfortunately it was a bit stubborn & she never got rid of it, but not for lack of trying).

Here is why we don't get too many photo's of Cheetah lately. He's usually doing something like this ...

(BTW - Before Grannysaurus & Mummy McT have a fit that I have allowed my son to have a can of coke, that is my can not his ! and to clarify, Grannysaurus & M.McT just know how anal I am about my son not drinking coke or other caffeinated beverages)

Well you can't expect us to give up all life's little pleasures when camping, - can you?

Little Bear when asked "what have you got" showed us. It's a mouthful of M&M's

Mmmmm - Chocolate !!!

A mother's work is never done

Today I had a very very busy day.

To start with, I got to sleep in until 7:18am so that wasn't too bad, but it was not indicative of how my day progressed.

I took Cheetah to school at 8:00 & then came home, did some dishes & tidied the house a bit.

Dragon & Mummy McT came around mid morning sometime. We then went shopping - which seems to have become the thing to do on Friday's now. Sometimes we shop just for coffee & a look around. Sometimes we actually have to do it. Today it was a have to!!

We did have an early lunch at the shops which was nice & the kids were actually really well behaved during lunch.

I got home just after midday, gave Little Bear her bottle & put her to bed & then did more dishes, lots of organising & then I did the folding. A few weekends ago, I had a busy weekend (that's most weekends lately, but that one was particularly hectic). Since that weekend, I have managed to get the clothes washed & dried, but haven't managed to get them all folded before I have to go to work. Once I start my working week, my nights are taken up with getting everyone organised for dinner, bed & work/school the next day (this takes most of the evening). Therefore I am doing the folding the weekend after it was washed.

Hopefully now that I have caught up on last weekends washing, I will be able to get all of this weeks clothes washed, dried & folded by Monday. Here's hoping.

Now that all the essential stuff has been done, I am trying to organise the rest of my house ready for when I go back to work full time. At this point, I am expecting to be full time in April & there is only so many Friday's between now & then.

• I have about a years worth of filing that needs to be done - I haven't touched that yet.
• Today I took the first step in organising all my digital photo's on the computer. I made sure they were all saved in the correct folders on the correct computer (we now have 4 computers in our house). I also got rid of the unnecessary copies.
• I still have to go through the photo's, delete the cruddy ones & put the good ones onto CD so that we have a backup copy of them all.
• I have to go through a mountain load of stationery that has come from my cleanup of the rest of the house. I am not sure where I will put it all, but at the moment it is sitting on the floor of the study until I find a home for each bit.
• I want to get something going with our garden beds. At the moment they are just a mass of weeds. I don't think I will get them all planted out by the time I return to work, but I want to have a plan of what plants will go where so that I can get them a few at a time & plant them on my weekends.
• I also want to go through all my old files on the computer, getting rid of all the stuff I don't need or want anymore. I have stuff in dozens of folders split between 3 of our 4 computers (all of which have more than one hard drive in them) which means a lot of unnecessary garbage floating around.

There are also a stack of other odd jobs I want to get done before I return to work.

I have done some of the things I wanted to, like the major cleanup of Little Bear's wardrobe, cleaning out our junk spare room, a stack of sewing (some things that had been sitting there for a year), and other things that will help keep the household running smoothly for a while once I no longer have that day off.

I am not really looking forward to returning full time. In a perfect world, I would probably choose to work 3 days per week, but unfortunately that is not an option. I am finding 4 days a little bit of a struggle sometimes (most times) but if I can get my home organised to a point where I don't have a seemingly insurmountable to-do list, this will make life somewhat easier.

Am I asking too much?

Australia Day

OK, I have been offline again for a little bit. Same old story - when I have the time it's because there is nothing particularly exciting going on, so you get posts about me cleaning my junk room. When something interesting is actually happening, I am too busy to blog!

Last Friday night, DH, Little Bear & I went to DH's brothers place for dinner. Little Bear had cousin C all to herself because Cheetah & Cousin T were still in Newcastle visiting Nanna.

It was a beautiful dinner (of course. Aunty M is a good great fantastic cook) and while we were there, they invited us to drive to Cairns with them on the Sunday to visit Sugarworld (waterpark) and stay overnight, returning home on the Monday (Australia Day).

The reason for this trip at such short notice, was that Aunty M left her phone at a place in Cairns after a diving trip. She contacted them & they told her to come & pick it up. She asked them to post it as it was a 4 hour+ drive, they said no - you come pick it up. Aunty M couldn't remember the name of this place, only how to get there, so she couldn't ask someone in Cairns to pick it up for her. Anyway, they decided to go up for the long weekend, spend a day at the waterpark & come back the next day & invited us along for the ride.

Sounded like fun & as we thought it would be nice to do something special with Cheetah before he returned to school (as he had been away from us for 10 days), we agreed to go with them.

It was hectic getting everything ready and we were up until 12:30am the morning before we left. As Sugarworld opens at 10:00am, my Brother In Law wanted to leave here at 6am so we would get there not long after it opened. That meant just 5 hours sleep the night before. We were up so late because I wasn't sure when we would get back on Monday & school resumed on the Tuesday so I had to make sure that we were all ready for the week ahead as well as the trip.

After all that, we got to Sugarworld at 10:30ish and stayed until 2:30ish. It was a fantastic day. We barely saw the kids & Little Bear was happy to ride 3 out of the 4 waterslides. She probably would have ridden on the 4th one too, but we wouldn't take her as it was too hard keeping your own balance on that one, let alone trying to hold onto a kid at the same time. By 2:30 DH said she would have gone to sleep on his shoulder if only the slides were longer.



Just before home time, we stopped for an icecream. Aunty M bought Little Bear a chocolate paddle pop. I tried to get the full mess in the photo, but unfortunately it didn't really show up much. I have therefore cropped the photo, however you can see that besides her face & hands, Little Bear's leg & swimmers are covered in chocolate icecream. As well as this, Aunty M had one whole side of her leg covered, there was some on the seat & a huge puddle of melted icecream underneath them.

It was a fantastically Aussie way to celebrate Australia Day, even if it was a day early because we were going to be travelling home the next day.

(Although an absolutely fantastic time was had by all, it was a waterpark after all & this is why there is a lack of photo's illustrating this post. Camera's & water don't mix. Aunty M did get a couple more, including one of Little Bear & Daddy coming out the bottom of one of the water slides. I will see if I can get a copy to post).

That night we stayed at the Sebel which used to be the Cairns International. The room was a $400 p/n room on the top floor next to the presidential suite which we got for $109 p/n through Wotif & didn't even have to pay extra for the 2 kids.

The view was beautiful, overlooking the casino, however it was a bit too scary for me being up so high & it looked like Little Bear might actually fit through the railing, so we kept the door closed.

Cheetah was absolutely psychotic that night. You would have thought he would be spent, but apparently Sugarworld is so named because of the effect it has on young children. He had eaten well that day, so diet wasn't to blame. He was just absolutely off the rails & got in so much trouble over & over & over again (& still went back for more). Thankfully he got it out of his system that night & the next day he was well behaved on the trip home.

Happy Australia Day

What is all this wet stuff?

Hello from beautiful, cool, wet, North Queensland.

While some of our southern counterparts are suffering hot, humid & sunny 41 degree days, we have beautiful cool 22 degree days. While our South Queensland friends have only recently had very severe water restrictions lifted, we have a house with 360' water views at the moment. All thanks to Tropical Cyclone Charlotte.

If I take a deep breath, relax & try not to think about my life too much, I could almost imagine that I live in venice, or sometimes a pole house over the water on some tropical island.






.... Then again, maybe not.


This video was taken yesterday under our house. It had been raining steadily all day & when I got home I figured I would let the kids loose in the puddles.

I'm so glad I did, because when DH got home last night, he went straight to work digging a drain down the side of our house & down beside the driveway. This morning, despite constant overnight rain, we actually had dry patches under our house. I am so thankful I got the camera out when I did.

I'm afraid I don't have a video camera, just the video option on my camera & you will have to turn your head. I took it on this angle because I didn't want the number plate in or the mess off to the left of this frame. At least it's a short one.

On Sunday I had a watermelon that I had to get rid of, so I cut it up & banished both kids to the backyard until it was finished.

That's both of them standing in our backyard (doesn't Cheetah look spiffy in his new glasses?)



This is the same yard at approximately the same time, the next day...
(The photo of Little Bear at the very top of this post also chronologically belongs in the middle of these photo's)

(It is down this side where the drain has now been dug - for obvious reasons)

What glorious weather. I absolutely love it & today I love it even more because last night was the first night in at least 3 weeks that Little Bear has slept right through without even a wimper - despite the rain !!!

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.