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 !!!

Clarinet Practice & Little Miss Independance

A couple of days ago I heard Cheetah playing his clarinet & thought that I should get a photo of him, if for no other reason than the complete drought of cheetah photo's lately.



I walk in & here is how he was practicing that day...
















And here is a closeup just for fun. He knows he isn't meant to puff out his cheeks like that, but it takes a lot of effort for him not to & he's still working on that.







This is Little Bear yesterday. We taught her "No More" (ie. when she's had enough of Daddy tickling her).



It is meant to be said with a stern looking face & the index finger pointed at the recipient.



When we were teaching her, of course we were pointing at her. Perhaps that is why her take on the whole thing looks like this?





And finally to today....





I helped her put her shoes on, but clearly it wasn't what she wanted.





Shortly afterwards she had them on to her satisfaction.



What gives away the secret that this child dressed herself today?



Is it....

* The garden shoes with the pretty lacy dress?

* The bright yellow hat with the pretty lacy dress?

* The combination of all three?

* The look on her face (doesn't she look proud of herself)?



NOPE





Take a closer look ...











"But Mum... I like them like that!"



(And she must, because I helped her get them on the right feet & she didn't like that & changed them & everytime - and I mean everytime - she does it herself, they end up on the wrong feet).

Tag - You're It !!!

I got tagged! Mummy McTavish is the culprit & you can see what she answered here.



1. name: Chimera, Mum, Mummy, & countless derivatives of my real name.

2. birthday: March

3. wear silver or gold: Mostly Gold.

4. favorite restaurant: I don't have the time, money or sanity to eat out

5. favorite junk food: Maltesers

6. favorite candybar: Mars Bars

7. favorite candy: Almost anything Blackcurrent flavoured

8. favorite store: Target

9. favorite online store: Peters of Kensington

10. do you collect anything: Not intentionally.

11. favorite movie: no one movie in particular. The Shrek movies would be close to the top.

12. favorite book: I don't really have favourite books, more favourite authors. Kathy Reichs is what I am currently reading, also love John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, Kel Richards (starting to notice a theme here?)

13. something you could never get enough of: Peace & Quiet

14. favorite band: Westlife (at the moment)

15. favorite indulgence: Sleep! (that's first second & third on the list too)

16. something you never buy yourself but want: A cleaning lady.

17. favorite color: All of them. Depends if I am wearing it, painting with it, driving it, planting it, etc. I love colour.

18. something you are wishing for right now: A cleaning lady.

19. favorite symbol: Who on earth has a favourite symbol?

20. who are you tagging: I don't usually do tag things because I only have 3 other bloggers on my radar. I can't tag Mummy McTavish as she tagged me first, I won't tag Mum-me as I assume Possum will do that, so all that is left is Grannysaurus. (I assume that M. McTavish didn't tag her to allow me at least 1 person to tag)!







I would like to pass comment on how many of my answers are identical to Mummy McTavish's answers. Seeing as we do a lot of shopping together, it is only natural that we like the same shops (otherwise we wouldn't shop together) & it was her who put me onto the Peter's of Kensington online store which saved me over $600 on a set of saucepans (not that I would ever have paid full price).



It was more the cleaning lady comments (16&18) that I felt I was being rather unoriginal with, having left MM's comments in there without even editing them. The funny thing is that lately I have been wishing (I think fantasising is the more accurate term) for a cleaning lady (or man, I'm not fussy), because it seems that all my spare time at home is spent cleaning (hence the lack of blogging so often). For all this cleaning, you think my house would be spotless but sadly it isn't. Today (prior to seeing MM's answers), I was talking with a work colleague and we were discussing how wonderful it would be to have a cleaning lady. Then I get home & see this!



Really though, what mother wouldn't wish for a cleaning lady !

Miscelaneous Photo's

Here are some miscelaneous photo's from our post Christmas wind-down.



Little Bear was happily munching away on a watermelon slice for ages. Of course as soon as the camera comes out, the watermelon is history & Little Bear wants to play with the camera. At least you can see how much she enjoyed that piece of watermelon.



I think this was taken on Boxing Day. In true North Queensland fashion, a swim followed by a fruit platter & game of cricket in the backyard is how to celebrate Boxing Day.







Not sure what she was originally trying to do here, but she ended up hanging from her elbows & ankles (her bum isn't actually touching the ground). She sat like this for a while before she slipped. Then she tried to repeat the pose, however it didn't work the second time around.







Daddy got an IPod for his birthday & Little Bear thinks it is the best toy on the planet. She loves to get her groove on & in this photo she is dancing away to the music in her head.




This was taken a few minutes later, after I had brushed her hair & put it in a pony tail. You rarely see Little Bear like this, because her hair quickly starts to fall out of her pony tail & by the end of the day, it looks the same as it does at the start of the day (see above).

Paluma

Little Bear didn't even make it up there. Luckily she fell asleep quickly into the drive so got quite a rest in before we got there. That gave her plenty of energy to keep going through the afternoon.




Here is the one good photo I got of Cheetah in the car. It took me 1/2 dozen shots to get this one!



Little Bear & Cheetah standing at the base of a very big tree with buttress roots that are taller than Cheetah. It was very low lighting & the flash on my camera isn't the best so it is hard to see just how magnificent the tree is, but anyone who knows the Australian rainforest will know what I am talking about.

Both of these shots show Little Bear walking with her daddy. It was a 1.5km walk & she did about 1/3 of it herself (including a lot of steps). Mummy got to carry the very heavy bag & the camera. At least the bag didn't wiggle !!!


In this photo I was attempting to capture how beautiful the rainforest was on this particular day. It was very cloudy & you could only see a few meters in front of you. This particular shot was looking along a path towards a clearing. It was similar to how people imagine looking into heaven. A path that led towards the light. In real life, the pillar in the photo was not so noticeable, nor were the trees around you. They all kind of melted into the fog. You could see them, but they were hazy. It really was very beautiful.

Christmas

When looking back at my photo's, I actually had very few of Christmas, but there were a few gems in there.



This is Little Bear opening one of her first presents. I think the expression is more because she hasn't long woken up, but it is very similar to Cheetah's expression when someone gave him clothes as a present many years ago. In this present was wrapped a fairy dress, which she is wearing in a photo below. She really liked it, but you wouldn't know it from the expression!




Here is little Bear testing out Daddy's present - a new esky!




This is just about the only picture I got of Cheetah on Christmas day.



I was recently feeling a bit guilty for the many millions of photo's of Little Bear we have, but there are comparatively few of Cheetah.



I have since realised that Cheetah just doesn't sit still long enough to have his photo taken.



Even when I took a photo of him in the car recently on our trip to Paluma (photo's to be posted shortly), it still took me several shots to get one that wasn't blurry because he was moving - and that was when he was buckled in & playing his nintendo.




Little Bear playing innocent when asked where all the blue M&M's are.



And here she is in one of her very many new clothes. Unlike her older brother, Little Bear's response to new clothes as a present is "Wowee" (said with awe & wonder & an angelic smile - what better thanks could a present giver receive?).



To round out our Christmas Lunch, here is the biggest kid of all taking a swing at the pinata. All the children got one shot only before Uncle J took the bat & smashed the pants of Santa. At least the lollies were some compensation for missing out on most of the fun a pinata has to offer. I am not quite sure about what we are doing to our children's fragile little psyche's by allowing them to beat up Santa with a cricket bat, but they seemed to have a good time. (is that a bad thing?).

A couple of pre-Christmas shots

Further to our last blog, here are some more photo's. I will post seperately for seperate events, otherwise it just gets too messy.


Little Bear loves to be our "baby". Since our neice was born a few weeks ago, she has started pulling the towel around her after bath time & coming up to us saying "Baby. Baby" We then have to put it around her like she is a newborn & cradle her in our arms. Sometimes she will sit like that for ages. It is a lovely cuddle time.



This time, she found a large teatowel & I came into the loungeroom to find her like this. She was a bit tired & sat like this for quite a while before she finally decided to get up & play.




Here she got hold of our phone (possibly why it isn't working anymore???) and then got up to play some music while talking to imaginary grandma on the phone. Didn't phase her that the keyboard was turned off. I guess when multitasking you have to look for the easy options.



A couple of days before Christmas, I got some new glasses. Quite a big deal, as I usually wear contacts & don't bother updating my glasses. (I got my last pair Christmas of '99 & I could no longer see a difference with or without them so I figured it was high time to update).



Because I rarely wear glasses, but after spending money on them, I figure I should give them some use, Little Bear thought it was hilarious to see me wearing them. Only problem is that she thought they were toys. I humoured her for a little, but then they went away.



Cheetah will be getting some glasses very soon (any day now). It will be interesting to see what Little Bear thinks of that !!!