WHOA !!!

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

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

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

New Words

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

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

"Boobies"

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

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

Poor Baby

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Told you So

Saw the Neurologist today re: headaches.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Butterflies

Just to show off, I finished this butterfly mobile for Little Bear's room today (with a bit of help from the Bear herself & some helpful help from BB Cheetah).

I am quite proud of the end result. I still have to glue the flowers in place as they are only held there by string at the moment, but they will last like that for a while.

Little Bear is quite taken with it and even Cheetah was impressed. Lets just hope the command hook that I have it hanging by stays on firmly. (Lucky only Little Bear saw me installing this thing. I had the piano stool with an unopened 30 pack of coke on top of it just to make me tall enough to reach).

The second photo shows the princess stickers on her wall. It is definitely a little girls room now and starting to reflect her personality. She loves girly things like having her hair done, getting shoes on (and taking them straight off again because she has found another pair she likes even more), she loves to play with 'babies' (dolls) and loves clothes. She smiles when we tell her she is pretty and points to whatever she thinks made us say this (hair, clothes, shoes, etc).

It is amazing how similar and yet how different she is to Cheetah at the same age. They both have boundless energy to the point that complete strangers often comment on it, yet Little Bear will sit quietly with us for minutes at a time, something her brother never did. Little Bear loves dolls and calls them "baby" but her brother preferred stuffed animals. Little Bear loves shoes (although we sometimes have trouble getting her to keep them on her feet, because she loves to play with them). Cheetah was never fussed & always kept his shoes on because he wasn't really interested in them. Little Bear likes getting her hair done (when she is in the mood) which takes several minutes. We were flat out getting Cheetah to hold still for the 30 seconds it took to brush his.

Why did God only create 24 hours in a day

OK, here it is.... My second post. With just slightly less than a month between them, my sister has been nagging me to update this, so I hope she is happy now !!!

Seeing as Little Bear turned one a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to put birthday photo's up, but I mostly relied on my Sister in Law to take most of the photo's as she has a beaut new camera. They have now gone to New Zealand for a while and I didn't have a chance to get the photo's before they left. When they get back I will put some some party photo's. In the meantime my computer has been renovated (which caused me issues with first losing my blog page in cyberspace & then not remembering my password when I found it again - or which e-mail address I used). I have managed to get it all back up & running & now my biggest enemy is time... Hence the title of this blog.

I have now been back at work for 3 months (and about a week). I am only working four days & only have 2 kids & I know some parents work full time with much bigger families and I take my hat off to them because to fit any more into a day than what I already do, I would have to cut back on my sleep which is already much less than it should be according to A Current Affair.

I think I am feeling the squeeze more than usual today because I am sick with a cold yet I had to drive my DH to his mates place so he could fix a computer & drink beer. Cheetah had been sleeping over at his Poppie's place. Once he was dropped back home by his Poppie, I had to take the kids & pick up DH who was slightly the worse for wear. Cheetah was feeling sick & came home to bed. DH was also feeling sick for an entirely different reason & also went to bed which left me doing the afternoon shift with the Bear.

Speaking of Little Bear, she has learnt to climb & now she can get up on just about anything, but has issues getting down off some things (like the photo at left - she can't get down off the boxes). She is very good about it though. She sit's there & patiently waits for me to come & 'rescue' her. She also likes to close doors but cannot open them again. This includes bedroom doors & baby gates.

The other day it took me about 10 minutes to find her, because most of the doors in the house were closed & I couldn't remember which one had just been open so I had to search them all. Eventually I found her in the study just sitting on the floor enjoying the fact that she was 'getting away' with being in there alone. I had thought the study gate was closed which is why it was the last room I looked in. (that as well as the fact that it was the room I found her in - luckily because I stopped looking after that room. Hehehe)

I just tried to add another photo of Little Bear's first ride in the baby seat on the bike. I got it, but then lost it when I was trying to make the page look prettier. Oh, well, even though I have a cold, I can smell the delicious aroma of 3 chicken kiev's almost ready to eat. I had better go & get them out & if I am really lucky, the boys will be too tired to get up for dinner ;-)