For Rattle!

Useful school/educational websites and stuff

2010-02-07T08:31:00.002+11:00

There are a lot of resources out there and educational games etc. As you have probably already noticed, some are great and some are dire... Here's what we've found (but every kid is different so, as always, what one loves another will hate):

Games:
Most games are repetitive exercises disguised in various formats - which is not a bad thing, certainly helps practice & reinforce what they are learning. The ones I would recommend for K-2 based on our experiences are:
Reader Rabbit - spelling, reading
The Jumpstart series - a lot of different areas - maths, english, music...
Boost Maths from the Learning Ladder (they also have the start stile which is fabulous as well, and I notice there is now also Boost English - we haven't tried that one) - Maths practice with rewards as games (or you can add parent rewards as well)
Zoo Tycoon - is a strategy game, can be played in sandbox mode for the littlies and can help promote reading (as they need to read the messages) and maths (to work out how many animals they have etc)
Clifford Phonics - english/spelling

Websites:
Spelling city - warning - it is American, so you need to be careful, teachers can use it to set up spelling lists & practice games
Mathletics - often schools have this as part of their program - it is very good for practising maths

There are more which I'll try & remember to put up here as I go... Also ask your teachers if they use The Learning Federation resources through Scootle - all DET schools and most NG schools have access to this.

the sun may not always be your enemy

2010-01-19T12:22:00.002+11:00

interesting:

Sun may be a factor in food allergies

don't you think it's interesting that so far (touch wood) none of our lot have allergies, and we all have a relatively similar attitude to things like sun and germ exposure? there may be something, or of course nothing at all, in that.

hehe

2009-12-12T07:32:00.000+11:00

Natural Parenting (I heart xkcd)

Some days

2009-11-30T14:53:00.002+11:00

Some days you just want to sell them. Other days you hear things like this:

G! There's a rainbow.
(sound of screen door opening and closing)
C! C! Can you see the wainboww?
(they don't listen to each other either)

And you think, why can't they be like this all the time?
Five minutes later they were pulling everything out of the toybox and making a huge mess. Situation normal.

Cats getting their own way...

2009-07-14T19:35:00.000+10:00

By crying like babies...

Foxing

2009-07-06T16:45:00.003+10:00

Miss 3 was put to bed at 6.30pm last night because she was being vile. Her tantrum at being put to bed was rudely interrupted by falling asleep. That's what happens when you don't have an afternoon snooze. Shortly thereafter followed the first of three nightmares that made it difficult for me and her father to watch TV uninterrupted. Finally, the last one during Miss Marple saw her insist on sleeping on Mummy on the lounge. For the sake of my TV viewing I gave in. She fell asleep half an hour from the end, so it was all good. Then things wrapped up on Miss Marple, we turned off the TV and a little voice from my lap said "I want to sleep in Mummy bed". She didn't even open her eyes. I wasn't sure whether to be annoyed by her foxing, or awed at her awesome ninja pretending to be asleep skills. She slept in Mummy bed until 8am the little sod. Mummy got sick of being kicked and vacated at 6am.

This never gets old...

2009-06-09T23:27:00.000+10:00

mineral oil can be a little freaky.

2009-05-31T13:20:00.004+10:00

be warned, I do mention mortality and children in the same sentence.

a while back I found an article on the net (which I helpfully can't find now, but will keep searching) describing a child having a fatal case of pneumonia after inhaling a well-known brand of baby oil (which is made from mineral oil). I wondered at the time if this was trash journalism at it's best, because it just seemed so far-fetched. but when I ran it past TDN(tm), she nodded and said it was entirely possible. so I thought I'd better look further.

there's lots of information regarding mineral oil as used to treat constipation, and there's a number of articles about resultant pneumonia, with the recommendation that it be used with caution. nothing easily found about children not actually recovering from it, though.

then I remembered Snope s, and if you've never taken a poke around there, well... you can lose hours, except it can get well freaky in there, so be careful. they're independant urban-myth busters, and I don't use them as much as Coz, but I like to run all those stupid chain-mail emails thorugh the Snopes wringer.

so, Snopes says it's true, and I believe them. their information suggests that these sorts of cases has led to child-resistant packaging in the US.

the main reason I actually found that information is because I've gone off mineral oil in recent years. I'm annoyed it's just a by-product of making petroleum. it's cheaper to make than to dispose of. is it a complete co-incidence that mineral oil became more widespread after WWII and the increasing number of cars driven? on one hand it's meant to be inert, and on the other hand, it's a by-product of distilling crude oil. what do we do with all this stuff? market it, that's what.

anyway, I've found after a bit of trial and error (and irritation) that I can use some soaps. most commercial soap is just detergent in solid form (and therefore irritating), whereas properly made and aged soap is so much more gentle. I stress *properly made and aged*, because there's a whole lot of bad soap making and selling out there on the net. I have a milk soap and liquid wash which is creamy and foamy and has a nice smell... god, what a change. the end result is approximately the same - still need help from topical steroids, but I think that's better than having to use petroleum by-products over the entire body.

Tip #2

2009-03-11T13:39:00.002+11:00

...and apparently, hairspray works really well for getting pen/texta off walls. I was about to give ~~paint stripper~~ Baijiu a shot...

Looking forward to 2020?

2009-03-04T21:31:00.002+11:00

This little gem from one of our lecturers with a great sense of humour...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_veIGGP1Uh4

Laugh now, while we can....

Quote for the day...

2009-02-11T20:48:00.003+11:00

"I won't be shy about my special horn again."

I have 'Thomas' on in the background and somehow managed to zone in just at that point...

Is it always like this?

I have just learned...

2009-02-02T20:13:00.002+11:00

...that good ol' bum wipes are excellent for removing crayon, pencil & pen from off the walls.

Good tip, that!

Inside slide

2009-02-02T16:10:00.002+11:00

We purchased a slide on the weekend from Sportsman warehouse, marked down from $200 to $50. Gem discovered it and was having a lovely time whizzing down it and wanted to take it home. I was about to grab her at the bottom and haul her back up the stairs, but stopped and picked up the price tag first, which was lying face down on the floor. $50 seemed to good to pass up, it will take kids up to 35kg (roughly 9 year olds) and so we decided to grab one.

On the way home, a crafty little voice from the backseat, belonging to Cha suggested that we could have it inside. This coincided neatly with me wondering where we could put it so it wouldn't get too hot to slide on. I was about to say 'oh don't be silly' when it occurred to me that keeping it inside would in fact be a great way of ensuring that it didn't get too hot. Slide builder, aka Dad also thought that putting slide together in the air con was a brilliant idea. So now we have an inside slide, which is really cool, except when the kids drag it into the kitchen when I'm trying to cook dinner.

The goodness of felt

2009-01-27T19:56:00.003+11:00

Really as a PS to the cabin fever... Anyhow - felt is also a brilliant boredom buster, we made pincushions today, but for other ideas...

homemade fuzzy felt
felt clothes/spots/ears etc bits to toilet roll people/animals
felt accessories for the dolls house/zoo animals/farmyard creatures
for first sewing attempts
for gluing together to make more permanent pictures/sculptures (think butterflies, flowers, beetles etc or whatever takes your kids fancy...). With the littlies probably best to do a bit of the cutting out pre-work
homemade Barbie/dolls/teddies clothes to the child's specs
for the older ones - needle holders (sandwich lighter fabric in a symmetrical shape with felt on top & bottom. Glue one half down solid - add needles to the other side so you can find them again, & yes I still use the one I was given when I was 5)

the list is endless - libraries always have a few kids craft books you can dig ideas out of.

Another one for odds and ends of wool besides the french knitting is those woven crossed sticks - remember doing them for fetes when we were kids?

Making the "chatterbox" out of different coloured squares of paper - can be used as just something to play with and get the fingers moving, add eyes/ears/tongue etc for animals, add messages or things to do for the "I'm bored" and go through the whole pick the colour & number routine to see what they get to do next

I'm sure there are also stacks of websites...

Cabin Fever

2009-01-24T20:23:00.001+11:00

Crossposted from my blog

We have had some very cold days, where the wind chill has taken the temp down as low as -18. I wouldn't rug us up to go outside even if Pers & I weren't afflicted with the flu. So as you can imagine, cabin fever is kicking in and I'm about to commit toddlercide.

I just need some ideas, what do you guys all like to do with the wee-ones when you're hovelled up inside your 23rd floor appartment?

Well, you asked.

2008-12-23T12:56:00.002+11:00

Noodle was told yesterday afternoon that if he had a sleep he could go to Billy Lids (indoor playground) in the afternoon. He happily trots off to be and then emerges some ten minutes later theatrically rubbing his eyes and yawning.
N: Can we go to Billy Lids now?
D: I said we could go after you had a sleep
N: I had a sleep
D: A proper sleep, not just ten minutes
N: I did have a proper sleep, I was asleep for hours and hours.
D: You were in there for ten minutes, that is not a proper sleep. What kind of idiot do I look like?
Noodle looks perplexed
N: What kind of idiots are there?

What’s with the Whiney voice?

2008-12-08T13:31:00.000+11:00

And God, how do you stop it?
Age had one of ‘those days’ on Friday. Everything was answered with a contradiction, a whine or nagging.
By the time Mummy went to the grog shop for a much needed bottle of mother’s little helper I actually had to seriously ask myself if clubbing a four year old with a 2004 NZ Sauv Blanc would be so very wrong.
I can take pooh and wee and watching the same bloody episode of Ben 10 eleventy billion times. I don’t really mind being dragged to the park when I’d much rather be sitting on my fat ass watching Oprah. It doesn’t bother me that we read the same book 8 times in a row or soothing the ear ringing screams of agony that accompany a stubbed toe.
But the whiney voice, the oh-my-God-how-do-I-stop-from-killing-you whiney voice.
Fingers down a blackboard would be music to my ears compared to the whiney voice.
I don’t know what it is. Possibly the pitch of voice that can penetrate gums and vibrate teeth inside the jaw. Maybe the unreasonable nature of the request (but I must have chocolate for breakfast) or else it’s the sheer repartition. That you know in your heart it does not matter how you construct the answer the whine will just go on and on and on and on until you give in, your brain pops or you club the child. Possibly all three simultaneously.
I figure the whiney voice is somehow hard wired into the neo-cortex, thereby making it impossible to ignore.
Maybe cave children only used the whiney voice to inform mummy that there was indeed a slathering sabre tooth tiger at the cave door. Or the location of a rare yet nutritionally rich tree fungus.
I have no idea why it works, but please God, does anyone know how to make it stop?

dolls that don't make girls look like bimbos or whores

2008-11-28T20:23:00.004+11:00

I can't remember how I found out about either of these, except that I stumbled across them on the net a while ago without actually searching - although I'd long wanted to know if dollies like this even existed. been meaning to post about them here, and now it's not long before Xmas, I guess a bit of potential-pressie-talk is pretty apt ;-)

Australian Girl Doll

they're the big dolly size, and a bit on the expensive side, but they look like they're a lovely quality doll. would be nice to see one in a shop to have a proper look. I think they've mostly managed to do it without being too stereotyped, except for the Almost-Bindi.

Only Hearts Club

these are from the US, and have such a wholesomeness to them that I scoured the website for religious content. hard-hearted cynical old me! couldn't find any, though... have seen these in a couple of shops now and think they are quite lovely.

of course, neither of them do boy dolls. crap. you stumble across the occasional boy baby, but the next step seems to be overly-muscled action heroes, or violent junk. where are the nice boy dolls? girls want to play with them too.

edit: forgot about the canny marketing exercise that is Diego, Dora's boy sidekick. he's okay, I guess. not offensive, at any rate. I used to think Dora was fine until I found Dora Xmas/Princess sparkly crown/tiara-type-affairs in Coles the other day. how do you keep that on in the jungle?

Big kid.

2008-11-10T22:49:00.005+11:00

Diamond head turns four

Party time

No to put to fine a point on it, being a parent is the best thing in my life. In all of my life, like forever and ever.Being with AJ is a joy. I loves everything about him.As a four year old he:

Has a squirmy warm body that is delicious to snuggle against

He laughs like a drain

He says stuff like ‘ I can’t walk, mum. My legs are broken’

His skin is gloriously soft and unblemished

Except for the bits that are bruised, scratched and lumpy

He’s incredibly empathic

He hides his embarrassment by putting his hands on his hips and sticking his tummy out

His language skills are a work in progress. Slow, slow progress.

He has a dreadful singing voice

He now knows the value of sucking up

He loves Ben and Toby best

He likes Darcy, but I fear he’s just not biddable enough to be a best mate

He loves Alfie

The new pigeon wants a puppy books makes him squeal with delight

He is Ben 10 mad

He’s quite fastidious about hand washing

Happy birthday Whizz Fizz. This mummy couldn’t be any happier than when you are snuggled in my arms.

Just one of those days

2008-11-03T18:12:00.003+11:00

when you realise, however much you want to, you can't fix everything for your child. C was really upset today because a girl I thought was one of his best friends didn't invite him to her birthday party. He pinched an invite and insisted that she had spelled his name wrong. Really wrong because it started in G and ended in eorgia. I took the invite off him and gave it back to her. Then at the car park I made a big show of comforting him, where her mother could see. This is the bloody child that we sent C to school with so they could be together because they were such close friends. Sometimes I have regretted this and today was one of those times. It just felt like a slap in the face for both of us really. (she was invited to C's birthday earlier this year).

I'm hoping that tomorrow her Mum has had a change of heart and that there is an invite for him. I don't expect him to be invited to everyone's birthday, which is fortunate because he hasn't been, but when it's one of his supposed best friends I just don't understand why the sudden cut off. I just feel kinda crap because although I was tempted to ask her Mum, well demand really because I was so pissed off, why he wasn't invited I didn't because some battles you just can't fight for your kids. It's a horrible lesson to learn at 5 and I said, but probably shouldn't have, that if she doesn't invite him to her party then she won't be invited to his party next year. (yes I've committed myself already, fool!) No doubt this will get told to her tomorrow, probably after she hands over the invite. If not I will just pray to the gods that he forgets. Or find something else so exciting to do that weekend that he forgets all about it.

Edit: D talked to C's teacher this morning and got some more background on the story. Apparently it all flared up yesterday and she had to physically separate them. C has also been, in the teacher's words, pushing all this girl's buttons and sending her right off. I can understand now that you wouldn't want someone doing that at your birthday party. I think a long talk is in order with my young man. This is not the sort of child I would wish him to be. The first lesson is going to be 'if you aren't nice to people, they won't invite you to their birthday party'. At least there is a reason, and a pretty good reason at that.

Cot for sale

2008-10-29T19:49:00.003+11:00

Both the girls are now in 'big girl' beds and so I'm selling off our cot - hooray, one less thing in the house. I thought I'd mention it here in case anyone needs one or knows someone who does - if not I'm putting cot, mattress, mattress protector and cot sheets on ebay.

pants!

2008-10-21T15:19:00.002+11:00

A rare sighting of patterns for boys clothing...

http://www.duckcloth.com.au/category.php?category_id=52

And a lot of cute other patterns and fabrics and everything!!

CSI Yass

2008-10-21T10:52:00.002+11:00

Let me set the scene for you: I foolishly let myself think I could have some time to relax and read a book. I decided to ignore the child climbing up on the kitchen counter and pulling stuff out of the cupboard and concentrated on the book. Big mistake. The next thing that happened was a scream from G. I then discovered that what her big brother had pulled out of the cupboard was every pair of scissors that I had hidden. Including a lovely rusty pair of gardening scissors which G had put in her mouth and cut her lip with. Blood pissed out everywhere and she ran away and wouldn't let me touch her. I ditched the bloody tissue that I'd tried to wipe her lip with and tried again with a wet washer. She ran into her room and tried to hide against the wall, leaving blood on the wall and dripping on the carpet.

At this stage I decided by the amount of blood dripped through the house that we should probably get her checked out so I put a nappy on her and carried her to the car, still covered in blood. On the way to the hospital the cut stopped bleeding, but she had a lovely mouth ring of dried blood and blood spatter all down her shirt. I then realised that I didn't have my phone with me and couldn't tell their dad where we were. I imagined him getting home and finding us gone and blood everywhere...

Anyway, we had to wait a bit at the hospital, and of course there was a miraculous recovery and running all over the hospital and giggling and general silliness. But finally we got in and got the lip cleaned up enough to see what she had done to herself. Fortunately the blades had only cut the top of the lip on the outside and slid sideways underneath rather than snip straight through, so we didn't need stitches. We didn't need a tetanus shot either, thankfully, even though the scissors had been rusty because she'd only had the last one 18 months ago. So we got back in the car and trooped off home again.

Strangely there didn't seem to be as much blood when we got back, although parts of the carpet will never be the same again. I'm wondering if G and Pers are secretly having a competition between themselves.

Serves me right for reading a book!

Contraception - Pope's got it all wrong.

2008-10-08T01:03:00.002+11:00

You know, with the evening I have just had with Persmonster, I am currently asking myself why, for the love of little bunnies, did we not use some form of contraception about 11 weeks ago.

Hey Mindy, you must have had moments like these, did they all happen in the SAME evening???

It started with "Look Mummy!" and then she showed me the blue texta she found and the artwork on the kitchen wall. [1]

So then we have a bath and she gives me the loveliest back and neck soap massage and washes my hair. Isn't she cute? I'm going to recommend a career in massage. She's good!

Finished it off with a razorblade skin scrub. I have cuts all over my back now. They sting.[2]

So then I get out of the bath and dry off, try to fix myself up a bit. In the meantime, she has thrown a toilet roll into the bathtub. Nice. Papier mache, anyone?

and... manages to get into my cosmetics bag and find my folate tablets and get the lid off the bottle. They taste yucky, apparently (which is a Very Good Thing). [3]

At the same time, she found the mini travel tub of sudocream (also in my cosmetics bag). It was all over her and some of the bathroom. She came out to me painted in it, asking for cuddles when I growled at her. She also managed to smear it on the mirror in the entryway after I chased her through the house, trying to catch her and stick her back in the bathtub, before the bathtub emptied. It emptied.

Then she refused to go to her bed and went to mine instead (again with the cuddles). But I notice now she has just gone back to her own bed.

Oh and she let the hamster out of his cage. He just came over to visit me. I guess he wanted a cuddle too.

So by now you're probably all thinking I'm an irresponsible parent to leave all these interesting, but dangerous things just lying around the house.

Why, yes, of course I am hoping my child will top herself. GET REAL, WHO ARE YOU KIDDING???

[1] Where the hell did that blue texta come from anyway??? Last time I saw it, it had fallen down the back of the oven. Ayi????? (she's efficient, I'll give her that!)
[2] It was a 'safety' razor, hidden under a pile of magazines and books. Ayi must have dislodged it this morning and I didn't notice. Didn't notice Pers had it either because I couldn't feel the cuts until I went to rinse the soap off (thought she was using one of her toys to make patterns on my back).
[3] She pulled up a stool to get to it while I was in my bedroom, drying off and inspecting my wounds. I am really running out of hidey holes for everything...

So... still want to have us around when we come home???

(This is crossposted to my LJ)

On Days Like This I Don't Like People

2008-10-07T18:01:00.002+11:00

Just saw this today (I'm possibly a little behind the times): http://blogs.smh.com.au/lifestyle/essentialbaby/archives/2008/10/on_days_like_this_i_dont_like.html

Gosh...

You Tube for Tots

2008-09-25T15:55:00.003+10:00

Hi everyone,
I am at the stage when I am really looking forward to having no kids wearing nappies- but Sophie doesn't seem to be as keen for this to happen as I am!
Someone suggested that Bear in the Big Blue House and Elmo had some good video's that may help Sophie become more interested- but I couldn't find copies of these video's anywhere. Then I discovered the beta version of You Tube for young kids
http://www.totlol.com
I found both Bear and Elmo at Totlol- I don't know yet how Sophie is going to find these- but I found they were fantastic- they had M and I in stiches.

Which came first, the stereotype or the mechanise?

2008-09-22T12:13:00.002+10:00

I went clothes shopping this morning for the Crankmaster J.

Specifically, I went to buy size 3 board shorts, thinking they would be cooler for summer and long to keep his legs from the sun.

When I finally got him wrangled to the right section of the right store, he seized on a pair of pink 00 tights. I explained that they were not shorts and completely the wrong size, but at least I could get something pink shorts for him. Or so I thought.

So 2 pairs of board shorts were found and 3 plain t-shirts for tie-dying. But there was nothing pink in the 'boys' section. Onto the pink section....

Apparently girls don't wear board shorts. I couldn't find any pink long shorts at all. Short shorts, skirts and even pink jeans, yes, but no long shorts. It seems that when you change from the boy's aisle to the girl's aisle there is no correlation in clothes. The styles and prints change dramatically from what the store deems 'boys' and 'girls'. I don't want to be told what my child should wear based on rules that he doesn't care about.

Okay, he is fixated on trucks, trains and cars. He fits that stereotype perfectly. But he also wants to wear pink. I think he should be allowed to.

Melamine

2008-09-19T13:42:00.002+10:00

You're meant to eat OFF it, Dodgy Corporation Pty Ltd.

China arrested twelve over baby milk scandal

China milk scandal escalates

Isn't there enough to be cranky about without cheap-arse stuff like this?

My God is Big

2008-09-08T13:42:00.002+10:00

Number one Son attends a public school and they have scripture once each term. As I didn't put any religion on his school enrollment form the school rang to ask if it was okay for him to go. As there wasn't any alternative, apart from me coming to stay with him for the duration of scripture, I said sure let him go. The teacher said she thought the Proddie one would be more fun than the Catholic, so he goes to that one. I don't know who the teachers are, but he thinks they are lovely and they taught him two songs in the space of about 1/2hr so they are good at what they do.

The best bit is though, when he came home to sing for us this is what we heard:

My God is big
My God is mighty
Nobody is more wonderful
My God is evil

He wasn't actually singing evil - I could see his lips moving like in an old Bruce Lee film - but what came out was 'evil'. Most satisfying for his atheist parents.

Get Some Freaking Perspective!!!!!

2008-09-01T14:57:00.001+10:00

There are many things that could be called child abuse.
Beating, raping or starving them for instance.
Putting them in childcare doesn't even come close.
No matter what Mem Fox says.
Comparing one to the other is insulting on so many levels.

Grrrrrrrr!!!

cross-posted at my blog.

teehee

2008-08-24T17:53:00.000+10:00

The 3:30am wake up call

2008-08-20T20:17:00.002+10:00

It's never a good one - and your heart sinks as you leap (or stumble blindly in my case) into action. Arrive in child's room. Attempt to see the problem through pre-dawn gloom... to be greeted with:

"My bed's being sarcastic!!!" wailed at full voice.

Translation = I've kicked off my blankies, it's 5degC, I'm freezing and can't get the blankies back on the bed.

Parental attempt to muffle hysterical laughter - fail.

Sudocream

2008-07-27T11:58:00.001+10:00

Sudocream
Originally uploaded by Wenchilada

I suppose it could've been much worse...

christmas pressies anyone?

2008-07-17T08:29:00.001+10:00

Cracked.com has a list of 20 Baby Products Great for Traumatizing your Infant.

I may, or may not, have snorted my tea. Just sayin'

cross-posted at my blog

Potty Training With Dr Phil

2008-07-16T22:29:00.002+10:00

Someone sent this to the Beijing list I am on today: http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/Dr-Phil-Potty-Training/Dr-Phil-Potty-Train-in-One-Day.htm

Actually, they linked a different part of the website, so once I waded through all the paraphernalia, I finally got to this spot.

Not sure how I feel about it as it seems over the top. But hey, here's some tips in case anyone's interested.

Hope everyone's well and happy,
Wenchi

Looking for a good kids book?

2008-07-03T14:16:00.002+10:00

You may not think much of our current Premier, but he does have a fantastic list of books under the Premier's Reading Challenge (I know, it's all the hard work of public servants). The list is here and is divided into K-2 and so on. I haven't been able to get the PDFs to download (I think they are fixing it) but if you click on the links in the purple sections you should be all right.

Be surprised at how many books you already own, how many are familiar from your own school days, and how many you immediately want to buy. Or maybe that's just me. Some really great kids books here, and it may take some of the hassle out of choosing a special book for a special little person. Or give you too much choice. Happy book hunting.

Dear Zoo

2008-06-12T22:24:00.002+10:00

The young miss is into letter writing at the moment. She declared that she was writing to the zoo. Word was set up, wingdings added in for decoration (with my help) and the resulting letter (in 48 font) was emailed off to the general contact address at the zoo. I wasn't actually expecting a reply and had said that "they might be very busy looking after all the animals".

To our utter delight the following came back the next day:

....the little lady who sent the letter to us,
Thank you very much for your lovely letter. We are very pleased you love your visits to the zoo so much.
We hope you continue to visit, and enjoy and learn about the many animals here at the zoo.
Kind regards....

How sweet was that?

Boobies!

2008-05-26T12:46:00.003+10:00

G demanded Boobies last night as Daddy was putting her to bed. 'G has boobies', she was told (when she is tired she likes to slip her hand inside your shirt and onto your chest, a hangover from breastfeeding). 'No, boobies!' she demanded. 'No, G I'm not going to give you boobies' Daddy replied. Then she points to her shelf of teddys and dolls. 'Okay, which one do you want?' asked Daddy. 'Boobies!' was the reply. Then sensing that Daddy had no idea what she was on about she added 'hat!'.

All was revealed. She wanted a very strange little doll that has tiny pink thread knot nipples and a large hat. I think the doll is designed to go in the bath and the splotches of colour on her fade so that she is 'clean'. We haven't put her in the bath because not all of the other toys which would then immediately follow her would be so forgiving of a bath.

Some mothers dress their daughters as fairy's and princess's but not my mum.

2008-05-12T21:47:00.002+10:00

Poor Gabriella, We attended a fancy dress 1st & 2nd B'day party for Peter's side of the family and as I suspected everyone dress their daughters as fairies and princess but Oh not us. Though she was a hit and everyone loved the hat.

not wrong at all! nooooo

2008-04-24T17:56:00.000+10:00

via Modern Mechanix

Blue Steel!

2008-04-22T23:05:00.001+10:00

Blue Steel!
Originally uploaded by Wenchilada

Zoolander has nothin' on her!

Snotty, grotty and completely beautiful...

2008-04-21T15:20:00.001+10:00

and two today.

Oh, the joy!

2008-04-10T20:35:00.001+10:00

Of being by the sea

For discussion...

2008-04-09T15:14:00.002+10:00

How independent do we let them and when does that start.

Go here and read what prompted this question

having a Darling Baby is never enough.

2008-03-28T11:14:00.003+11:00

sanity helps too.

I know the Food Whore is linked over at For Battle, but I thought her latest post just fitted right in. Go here and have a chuckle, shake your head, and know that you'll (most likely) never be that freaky ;-)

I have survived...

2008-02-25T12:15:00.003+11:00

a two hour 5th birthday party with 8 (including Charlie) 5 year olds. There was screaming, tantrums, laughter and lots of fun. There was also lots of junk food, then we sent them home to their parents. Only one child turned up unexpectedly (he was invited but hadn't RSVP'd). It took longer to clean up than it did to hold the party. It took almost as long to work out which bit of plastic went with which little thing that had to be assembled and have stickers stuck all over it. We didn't count on the almost two year old being so razzed up on sugar that she wouldn't go to sleep until 10.30pm when we went to bed and then only after threats from Daddy of being put in her own bed if she didn't stop kicking him.

I think I'd do it again. Maybe. We were worried what to do to keep them occupied, but I realised that hey, they're in kindergarten if all else fails we'll read them a book. Fortunately an Easter Egg hunt, a pinata, and a pit stop for drinks and scoffing food took care of all their needs. I had help, one lovely Mum stayed the whole two hours and apart from a short coffee break played with the kids all the time. A couple of other Mums stayed and were an extra pair of eyes which was great since I was still trying to make the icing for the dodgy Woolies sponge I was trying to turn into a birthday cake. The kids didn't care, half of them didn't have room for cake.

I'm so grateful that I'm at work today, Gemma is at daycare and Charlie is at school. I don't want to have to deal with the come down from all that sugar and excitement. I'm a coward.

and you thought Torbenspang Huntington-Smythe was bad

2008-02-21T08:08:00.000+11:00

How about Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" (pronounced "/ˈalˌbin/")

Freaks

My Tiny Astronomer

2008-02-14T21:33:00.002+11:00

On the slide with the baby.

Baby points into distance.

"Ball!"

"Ball!"

"Where's the ball honey? I can't see any ball."

This goes on for twenty minutes.

As we're leaving the park I finally realise that the ball he's talking about is the Moon that's visible in the afternoon sky.

"No honey, I can't get that ball for you. That's the Moon."

"Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"

"Sorry sweety, that's, like, a quarter of a million miles away (must Google that fact)."

"Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"

Baby proceeds to bitch and cry about the fact that I can't get the ball for him.

He's still obsessing about the moon after his bath and dinner.

It's funny, though, to think that in our age there is at least a very remote possibility that my little boy will one day stand on the moon.

SCA frocks to a good home - size 1

2008-01-31T16:12:00.000+11:00

I've got two quite nice frocks that neither of my girls can use. If anyone knows of a good home for them let me know. There are two frocks, 2 linen shifts and a cap suitable for size 0-1.

Modern Dilemma

2008-01-15T08:48:00.001+11:00

We were sitting outside in a pub beer garden with the kids. With the new anti-smoking laws, the beer garden is now the only place people can smoke within the pub grounds. When we went out there we were the only ones, and we decided to sit outside and have a drink because it was a nice day, and the kids could run around without being a nuisance to anyone.

Then someone came and sat at an ajacent table, and lit up a cigarette. Immediately Charlie started announcing loudly that someone was making poor choices and that smoking made you sick. We were trying to get him to be quiet, because although we don't smoke and would prefer that the gentleman in question wasn't smoking in our vicinity, we could hardly ask him to stop when we were sitting in the designated smoking area. So we found ourselves in the strange position of defending, to our almost 5 year old, this man's right to smoke even though it's a bad choice and makes you sick. Mostly we were just trying to get him to stop talking about other people at the top of his lungs. Each time someone else came out and lit up he was off again.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Apart from moving away from the smoker, what did you do?

Squeaky shoes?

2007-12-04T10:11:00.000+11:00

He doesn't get gardening

2007-11-30T20:35:00.000+11:00

Crankmaster J and I did a bit of gardening this afternoon.

He loves dirt. Dirt is good. Can't eat enough of it. But he didn't like those annoying bits of green that were in his lovely pot of dirt. They got picked out.

Eventually I had to insist that the seedlings were supposed to be there.

Silly boy. When I do give him his own pot of dirt he only tips over himself.

Dirt, dirt, glorious dirt....

Clever babies

2007-11-22T09:11:00.000+11:00

We all know our babies are the most beautiful and clever babies in the world, naturally, but did you know they were this clever?

I do so love Noni

2007-11-14T17:10:00.000+11:00

Crappy kids TV is akin to 'child abuse'

hmm it made me laugh waaaay too much...lack of sleep will do that I suspect :)

2007-11-13T09:12:00.000+11:00

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

In case it's escaped you so far...

2007-10-19T19:43:00.000+10:00

Here's the litany we'll all share (slightly American slant but truths are universal in so many ways...)
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU

(because I haven't worked out how to embed the videos in here as yet...)

Spare Parts for Babylove Car Seats

2007-10-09T13:21:00.000+10:00

On the off chance that you might be able to get spare parts for Babylove seats I emailed them the other day and told them what the problem was with my car seat and asked if they sold spare parts. The good news is that they do. All I had to do was call their customer service line (1300 303 330) and give them the part number, which they looked up on their computer there and then confirmed that they had them in stock and took my credit card details. Two days later I had my replacement buckle for the second hand car seat we have. Since the car seat was made in 1998, I was pretty impressed. Their email is custserv@britax.com.au.

who needs the fort at festival...

2007-10-08T19:35:00.000+10:00

... when you can make one of these??

out of cardboard boxes. I found it at this site.
bring on the children's parties, I say :-)

check out their gallery to see what other people have done, it's pretty cool. I cross-posted at ForBattle! because I couldn't resist whacking up a piccie of the armour.

carry on.

Pocoyo!

2007-10-04T20:23:00.000+10:00

~~I've~~ Torby has caught the Pocoyo bug. I blame Meg & Jamie.
It's too too cute and we now own one of the dvd's and a few of the books, one of which Torby lurves (it came to the supermarket with us.)

Just thought I should share :)

Farmstay...

2007-10-02T21:23:00.000+10:00

Hi All

Keep this website in your favourites for a while - http://www.countryroads.com.au/. We have just spent a divine 4 days on the farm and I would really recommend it as a holiday option once your kids are about 5ish. Patting the animals, feeding the chooks, goats, alpacas, checking for eggs, pony rides, quad bike rides, tyre swing, cuddling the goats, lambs, rabbits, campfires, solar heated pool, decent size cabins... the list goes on.

We will be heading back up there again!
cheers

Gym membership, anybody?

2007-09-27T14:13:00.000+10:00

Seeing as we're sodding off, does anyone want a Fernwood gym membership? I'll be using it until we go, but it would be great if I could transfer it over to someone.

Let me know if you're interested yet. We have no rock-solid timeframe, probably in Beijing by March. I've had the membership since August so there'll be at least sixish months left on it.

Kids books at Australia Post

2007-09-25T15:19:00.000+10:00

A tip from one of my mother's group mums who is also a primary school teacher.

Australia Post is selling sets of kids books really cheap at the moment. 4 Mem Fox books for $10 (author of Possom Magic) and 4 Graeme Base books for $20 (Animalia) and a bunch of other sets.

I found them in the Burwood Plaza post office but not in the Westfield one.

It's something to do with literacy week and it happens every year for a short time.

Good value I think.

The new season tie-dye

2007-09-17T10:42:00.000+10:00

Sometime in the near future, I'll be doing some dyeing. I've got some white singlets but I need to collect a few more bits and pieces before I'm ready. I figure I'll at least be doing a green. Other colours dependant on what I've got.

If you are interested in throwing a few things into the bucket (tied or not), then let me know and we can arrange a good time.

Book Party

2007-09-05T15:57:00.001+10:00

We are having a book party to celebrate Dafydd's first novel- Eaglehawk
It will be held at Banjo Books Unit 4/ 2 Oxford St Epping 2121
Sunday the 14th of October from 2-4pm.
This is after the Star gazing event, we are trying not to clash.
If you are interested in coming or would like to get a copy of the book then leave an RSVP at eaglehawk_dafydd@hotmail.com before the 25th of September.

Hmmmm

2007-09-03T14:28:00.000+10:00

So is it a sign that Toilet Training is iminent when she lifts the lid on the toilet, drops the phone in and flushes?

Size 1 clothes for summer

2007-09-03T13:39:00.000+10:00

Hi guys,

Yes. It's me begging again.

Anyone got any clothes in size 1 and even size 2 that you no longer need. Sadly, I think the Crankmaster J has caught up with a few kids so you are probably still using the clothes.

Ah well. I shall have to go shopping. I'm getting better at it.

Thanks

Listen lady, I don't want to hit you with the pram anymore than you want to be hit by it!

2007-08-18T18:31:00.000+10:00

I have to get this off my chest, it's been bugging me for quite a while now. Even before I had a kid in a pram of my very own.

So today at Westfields (big mistake, I should confine myself to never leave the house on weekends, apparently), I didn't lose my temper when:

a) The first lady stopped right in front of the escalator while I back peddaled to try not to hit her.
b) When another lady did the same thing.
c) When people going the same direction almost wandered into me
d) When I was constantly cut off
e) When I couldn't get into the lift because it was jam packed full of people who could have taken the escalator, or at least someone could have gotten out to let the person in the wheelchair in
f) When people walking towards me walked into me, couldn't work out where they were walking (I'm walking in a straight line here, people, it's not hard).
g) When the people in front of me suddenly stopped or slowed down so much I wanted to punch them in the head.

p, q, r, s, t!!!!!!!)

No. Didn't lose my temper at all. Was very good, you all would have been so proud.

But I did express some frustration, when the two Little Misses with their 80's rocker hairstyles, arse cracks and ughboots, cut me off, then slowed right down and I had to pull up so I wouldn't hit them, I had nowhere to go to get around them. It went down like this:

Me: "Oh, come on!" (Hardly a John McEnroe tantrum, no really, I was just exasperated at this point and it was almost a breathed sigh)
Little Miss Bumcrack glared then slowed to walk beside me, with her be-ughed grrlfraynd still moseying along infront of the pram "Well, you could have said "Excuse me", you know and been polite about it at least!"
Me: "I could have sworn at you, but that would have been impolite, you guys could at least watch where you are walking".
LMB "Redneck".

Yes. That's right. I'm a redneck apparently. I wasn't the one in the ughs, honey. And I'm slightly more classy than to show my arse-crack in public. Nice comeback, sweetheart (which is what I thought, after the whole thing happened. Tch! Hate that!)

And I almost stopped, handed them the pram and said "Fine. You navigate your way around a mall full of idiots then". But I didn't, because I was pretty cranky and it was time for me to go and be somewhere else before I gave them both a bitch-slap to the head, so I just twitched, sucked it up and walked off.

Redneck. Hmph...

Another time, I was in the lift, which was quite packed and this woman turned to me and told me I shouldn't be out in public. I looked at myself in the mirror and I was dressed appropriately, my hair wasn't offensive that day and I didn't smell, so I couldn't work it out. But of course, she meant the pram, Persmonster and I shouldn't be occupying space in the lift. Luckily, it was time for me to get out and I didn't have to be trapped in a confined space with yet another idiot, else otherwise, she too, would have received a bitch-slap to the head.

Call me old fashioned, but I've always been the type-o-gal who will hold doors open for people with prams, help them up stairs/onto trains and generally have enough nouse to stay the hell out of the way and be aware of my surroundings enough not to wander aimlessly into someone's pram.

So is it just me or is the population saturation of idiots on the climb? Is that across the board, or is it just Parramatta?

Oh and LMB if you read this? You should get your roots touched up, honey.

Warning - mulberry eating machine

2007-08-17T18:27:00.000+10:00

I thought bananas were the ultimate baby food. Mr J thinks differently.

I've been going through the frozen berries in the freezer. Blueberries are pretty good but last season's mulberries are particularly popular.

The neighbours have cut their tree back hard this winter so I'm not sure how well it will produce in the coming season. So I need help in locating other mulberry trees to stock up for next year.

So. Does anyone know someone with a tree in the backyard? Especially if they don't like mulberries... Most people can't eat everything a tree produces. Do you know someone that will let the babies have the excess?

Mulberries season isn't for a couple of months, so I have time to locate trees and beg.

Oh, and come summer, there needs to be a blueberry picking expedition in Murrumbateman. Mindy, you may be invaded.

total recall

2007-08-15T11:00:00.000+10:00

I've been reading (as I'm sure you have) about the massive recall Mattel is doing for all of the lead-affected toys it has produced in China... but I've been too slack to find a comprehensive list of all the recalls. luckily, one of the articles I just read has a handy-dandy pdf, so here you go -

Mattel Voluntary Recall Information

and because a post without a photo just goes against the grain, here's a random piccy!

this is from the Play School concert a bunch of us went and saw a couple of months ago. I meant to blog it but caught a nasty bout of Teh Slack. the chick on the left is Angela Moore who used to be Shirley Purvis from the Castanet Club (for those of you ancient and/or hippp enough to remember). the pianist, Penny, was also from CC. they have a children's CD which sounds kinda cute. I might even fork out for it sometime. I heart Angela.

carry on!

I may regret this

2007-07-29T07:13:00.001+10:00

I may have started a life long shoe fetish with these little things (they only came in pink). But I thought they were rather cute, and at $5 (BIG W on sale) will do a great job of keeping her socks on and her feet warm. She had a mini tantrum in the shop when I put them on her to see if they fit, then took them off again so I know she likes them.

It's too quiet

2007-07-24T14:03:00.000+10:00

Had a job interview this morning, so in anticipation of starting the job, the kids are both at daycare today. It's Gemma's first day. She didn't cry. I don't think she realised what was happening. I was given the impression that if I got the go ahead for the job I could start tomorrow, although that now seems to be changed to next week. Anyway, I'm making myself wait until 3pm to pick up the kids. It's quite difficult. I'm dreading dropping Gemma off tomorrow morning, because this time she will know what's going to happen and I don't think she will be happy. I'm almost hoping that they ring back and say they have decided to go with someone else.

However, if I do get the job, it will pay for both kids' childcare, give me some much needed bling for the CV and it's only four days a week so I still get Friday off. But I don't get to have picnics in the tent on the verandah and chase the kids around in the mud. But I could pay the bills. I hate waiting for the phone to ring.

Update: Gemma cried this morning, so I got feeling guilty and upset so I decided not to wait for the phone to ring and called them. I start Monday. All I have to do now is find something to wear to work. I just realised that I haven't had to dress up to go to the office since late 2002.

I made it to 3.10pm before leaving the house yesterday, and I stopped for petrol. When I arrived Gemma just gave me a sunny smile and an 'oh you came back!' look. Charlie decided to stay until later so he could play with his friends. There was however a lot of cuddling later that afternoon and we had to put Gemma to bed three times before she finally went to sleep. I hope it gets easier.

The handy notebook

2007-07-17T20:04:00.000+10:00

We have had an A5 brightly coloured bound notebook kicking about on our kitchen table for about 2 years.... Lately it has become the never ending list of bits of paper that need to be signed and contractors/builders etc that need to be rung. However in it's glory days we would occasionally write down absolute classics that come out of the mouths of babes. I would truly recommend it as a general habit as having a notebook handy to write it down in makes it 3000 times more likely that you will in fact remember it in more than 5 minutes time. I had forgotten these and was looking for any more papers/calls that we had forgotten to do when I came across two of the best:
"We had 2 budgies at kindy - Bluey and Squarky. Poor Squarky died & went to Kevin. Birdie Kevin, not people Kevin. Birdies go to Kevin, not people. After Squarky we had Budgerieguard. He saved people and kept them safe, but he didn't because he lived in a cage." circa Jul 06
and
"There's more love in the whole entire world than words" Jan 07.

And here's one that didn't end up in the book because I was driving home last night:
"Mum - what are booby traps? Do they hurt your boobies?"
try explaining it without laughing while doing 70km on the freeway in peak hour traffic....

Master Dafydd is an author- shameless plugg

2007-06-27T14:41:00.000+10:00

David has written two books for the It's True series of childrens books. One of these is 'Bourke and Wills forgot the frying pan'. The other is 'The Vikings got lost'. They are both entertaining books that Alex is just starting to enjoy even though he is a bit too young to really get into them.

http://www.allenandunwin.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?ISBN=9781741144727

It is hard to get hold of the books so I have included the link to the publishers web site so that anyone who would like to get one of his books can. If you do a search for David Greagg you will get both books.

Hi-tech school reports

2007-06-15T19:11:00.000+10:00

Yes it's half yearly parent teacher interview time and we have received the school reports... We loooove the school reports and I have been wondering whether teachers have a secret website where they write what they really think and the secret website chucks out the PC-parental version that they can paste into the report cards. No corkers this time round. Last year there was the ever classic "likes to create drama with her classmates" and "is an enthusiastic vocal contributor". It's become a bit tamer this year and almost heading into the stereotypes of our time such as "could apply her/himself more". I prefer the secret website option - anyone know any primary school teachers? Do the senior school teachers amongst us know something we don't?

You know your baby is hungry when...

2007-06-15T11:14:00.001+10:00

you are chewing off a broken nail and he cries at you because you aren't sharing!

Because some people need a warning label

2007-06-14T15:42:00.000+10:00

Despairware for kids

I particularly like the noise hazard one.

Fund raising goes hi-tech

2007-06-04T18:04:00.001+10:00

I got an email from the younger brother on the weekend. The elder neice is doing a read-a-thon to raise money for MS. I'm all for anything that encourages people to read so I signed up for a token amount.

What amuses me is that it is no longer about wandering the local neighbourhood looking for sponsors. You can now fleece family all over the world and you can sponsor them through a credit card.

It seems a little odd, but I'm sure I'll appreciate it when it comes time for me to beg to friends on my kid's behalf.

Time for a new job?

2007-05-31T18:37:00.000+10:00

You may have seen this one already - or even signed up!

JOB DESCRIPTION: MUM
POSITION :Mother, Mum, Mama, Mummy, Mumma, Ma
JOB DESCRIPTION: Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organisational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES: The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organise social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION :Virtually none. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION : Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that University will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.
BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.

Little Bo-Peep - kindof

2007-05-28T16:19:00.000+10:00

It's not sheep that have been lost but two bags of clothes. Girl's clothes - size 2. They would have originally been in two white shopping bags and come from Tina originally. Did anyone else acquire them because Tina and I have different recollections about their fate and now we need to track them down before Sophie has to run naked through winter (which if she's like any other small child I know would probably suit her fine but would cause consternation to both her parents and health professionals).

So do any of you girl children owners have clothes that have the size highlighted? (This is Tina's sister's method of marking clothes).

What do they put in Blueberry Starburst lolliops?

2007-05-25T16:37:00.000+10:00

I'm pretty sure it's not blueberries.

Take one bowl of yoghurt...

2007-05-16T10:47:00.000+10:00

left by a four year old who tired of the novelty of eating it with one finger, one silly Mummy who overheated dinner in the microwave and had to put it in the fridge to cool, and one hungry baby who hasn't quite mastered feeding herself yet. Unfortunately I missed the 'sticking the whole bowl over my face' incident with the camera.

A big day for P

2007-05-01T10:35:00.000+10:00

Sunday was huge!

First there was the Christening

(complete with hallelujahs while we were singing the hymns)

Then there was cake!

(I had lots of fun with food colouring!)

And then there were the first steps!

(she knows how to work an audience)

Gemma learns about sharing

2007-04-30T08:07:00.000+10:00

What rhymes with baby?

2007-04-24T09:57:00.000+10:00

Apart from 'rabies' and that is a tenuous one at best. Or 'maybe', as per the tripod song.

Tops is constantly making up songs for the boy and I'm sure you won't be surprised how much rhymes with poo. His latests songs are lacking in variety for a lack of rhyming words.

Any one got any good silly made up song lyrics they can share. I think my personal best is to "The times, they are a changing"... I'm sure you get figure out how that one went.

The 70's were a scary place...

2007-03-31T10:58:00.000+10:00

And if you need any further proof - check this out...
http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

arrrghhhh
fliss

Toys and more - all yours!

2007-03-17T07:34:00.000+11:00

Yes - the house is coming down and we're moving very soon. We have soooo many things that are not coming with us. Especially the toys! The 5 year old really doesn't need rattles anymore, nor the dinky and we have nowhere to store the swing set...

And there's a bunch of other stuff going as well - outdoor furniture, sheets, towels etc (all in reasonable nick) older crockery, large glass storage containers (Mouse do you want these?). I know the lead up to Easter is a bit mad - but if you guys aren't keen it's going to the op shops.

So please leave a message here saying if you are interested or mail me privately or better yet - call me, as I am in full chucking out mode from now til the weekend after Easter. If you can drop round and grab what you want that would be fantastic...

Cheers from the depths of a packing box....
fliss

Good home looking for size 00 and 0 clothes

2007-03-16T10:21:00.000+11:00

Anyone got some they want to get rid of? The boy has grown and winter is coming on.

I'm not fussy with colour (tie-dying can fix stuff that is stained or pastel but otherwise serviceable).

And I now have a fair amount of 000 stuff to hand to the next baby. There is some stuff he never even got to wear.

And Wenchy. Where's your cunning Bonds store? I want to get the boy more stripeys.

Festival

2007-02-28T07:17:00.000+11:00

We have had some rain, Yay!, so we have enough water and we can have visitors over Festival. So if you have a baby, aren't sure about camping with said baby and would like to pull up a piece of floor at Chez Johnson, you are welcome.

We have one guest room with double bed, one room with books in it, but plenty of floor space (and a door), and a large lounge dining room which doesn't have doors on it, so you might get visited by pussy cats. There is also a sofa bed in the family room. I have one portacot. I can supply a bit in the way of bedding, but depending on numbers it some might need to bring their own mattress. We are in NZ for the next couple of days so leave a comment rather than e-mail me.

If you prefer to try camping, you are also welcome to drop over to bath bubby, boil some water, use the fridge or microwave etc. We are about 10 mins from Festival site.

Also, if there is something that you really want to attend at Festival that isn't possible with babies, I will probably be here for most of Festival so some short term babysitting should be available most days. I'll probably pop over for Market Day, but that's about it.

Kids Artwork - handy hints

2007-02-26T19:30:00.000+11:00

ok - so some of you might not quite be up to dealing with this yet, but I figured I would write about it while it was still in my brain...

Kids artwork - are you drowning in it? Here are some practical tips I've learnt/made up as we have gone along:

1. Fridge - nice & tradional - depending on strength of your magnets - buy lots of heavy duty ones - give them to rellies & friends who need their fridges livened up
2. blu tack to walls - depends on your taste in decor, but works well
3. frame a couple of particualrly nice ones for their room/ your room/ wherever
4. stick one example (we used to get a choice of 3 or 4 of each variety home from daycare) of other nice ones in A4 display folders - usually some folding required, get child to help pick their own faves (may have a different reason to you - if particularly cute reason or answer to "and what's this one" you can write it on the back...
5. Use larger examples as gift wrap - goes down particularly well with grandparents & other rellies
6. chop up & use as outer cards for birthday cards/party invites etc
7. take digital photos of child & artwork or just artwork before recycling/chucking in bin - works particularly well for the painted egg carton variety of artwork which is hard to fold... Also shows you care about it, but don't have space to keep it all. If you're particularly techy you could even make an album or website where the child can look at their own artwork...

Will gratefully accept any other ideas - the sheer volume has reduced somewhat now that we are into doing "activity sheets" at school - but there is still a vast amount tracking it's way into our house...

I swear I just turned around for an instant...

2007-02-25T08:57:00.000+11:00

and he was four. I think he had a good birthday yesterday. He fell asleep on the floor in front of the tv at 6.00pm, stirred briefly when I put him in bed and then bounced in to get into bed with me at 6.30am and seemed quite happy. Daddy is home today (as soon as he gets through Customs and on a plane for Canberra) so we will have more celebrations today.

Happy Birthday little one.

2007-02-18T09:52:00.000+11:00

Oh and by the way...

We didn't go for a look.

For a rainy day?

2007-02-17T10:45:00.000+11:00

Ok, so there we were, merrily pootling around the gorgeous NZ countryside when this sign leaped (I tell you!) over the hedge at us. Naturally, we spent the rest of our holiday wondering "From what, exactly?" We have come up with a few answers, but we feel the mystery is far from solved...

The first and most obvious being:
Maoris?

Hell, save me from them!

Llary the Llama and his girlfriend Llu-Llu?

They have a mean streak.

Hitch-hikers?

Bludgers, the lot of 'em.

The nine-footed-gumboot-wearing-bumkicker

Last spotted somewhere near Waikikamucau (bootless.)

This mo-fo bunny?

Killer rabbits are a menace over there. Shoot Bunnies.

The nine-footed-gumboot-wearing-bumkicker's distant cousin, "Ca-pilla"?

Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure about him either, Pers!

Wolves?

We all need saving from wolves.

Tilda Swinton?

It's the red mascara, isn't it?

Brussel Sprouts?

And these are the worst offenders, I think.

Moldovian Grandmothers?

Or bad denistry, you decide...

Themselves?

They look sweet and innocent on the outside.

So in conclusion, we're really not sure what they should be saved from, or even for, for that matter. But it made for a rather amusing diversion from "Mordorrrr" everytime we saw some mountains. Which was frequent.

I've got a new trick

2007-02-16T20:17:00.000+11:00

Yes, I'm reading!

This one's a harrowing tale of a small white mouse who has trouble identifying his pet dragon. It all ends happily, I'm pleased to report where mouse and dragon are reunited. The text is a little repetative I must say.

No. Actually the new trick is head control. No more face plants for me!

I'm too old for homework - wahhh

2007-02-14T19:49:00.000+11:00

Warning - venting contained, once I get it off my chest I'll be fine but....

Yes the above is from me and not my daughter... I was warned (thanks Mim!) but it's hit with a vengeance. I don't mind the reading every night or the take home and do the cut/colour/paste on the letter of the week even - what I can't stand is the ****ing homework diary! In Kindy! You might be thinking - well that's what you get with a private school - but friend's kids in public schools have the same thing.

Not only do you need to add the date, the title of the reader and the running total of the days that reading has been done - you have to come up with a comment! Arrrrggghhhhh...

Now those who have more enthusiasm for this than me are probably wondering what's the fuss. Hmmm let's see. Threw a tanty cos she had to read instead of watch TV - probably not a good look, therefore into homework diary as "wants to go fast therefore looks at pictures not words...".

A kindred heart has written an ever so more elegant version of this rant in the Feb edition of Sydney's Child and I am so exactly there in terms of both the sentiment and the more profound changes noted by the author. Homework standover tactics do not need to start in Kindy - why aren't kids allowed to be kids anymore?

Tips, Anybody?

2007-01-29T15:22:00.001+11:00

We have 3 sleeps till our trip for two weeks in NZ. Just wonder if anyone's got any cunning advice or tips for o/s travel with a crawling 10 month old. We're going to Canterbury Faire, so sleeping in a dorm's probably going to be interesting, as we won't have a porta-cot with us.

We survived!

2007-01-22T10:48:00.000+11:00

I just thought I'd publicly thank the boy for being so fabulous over the weekend.

We went to Queensland for the weekend to introduce him to the rest of the family. I'd prepared myself for a sleepless two days and screaming on the plane. But there was no trouble at all.

I fed him when the plane was taking off and landing to stop his ears hurting. On the way up he slept in Tops' arms. On the flight home he lay in my lap and made friends with the tray table...at least I think that was what he was smiling at.

He had no trouble sleeping in the porta-cot. I suspect that it being hours past his regular bedtime on the first night helped him to sleep soundly. I also think he was comforted by the fact that we were in the same room as usual.

He charmed the whole family. He puked all over grandma and smiled heaps at the nieces (6yo and 2yo).

Now we are back and having a rest day. But thankfully it wasn't the stressful occasion that I was dreading.

Hooray for well behaved family.

Is it possible to take children out to dinner?

2007-01-19T09:53:00.000+11:00

We went out for dinner, with the kids, last night for the first time in years. I think it's fair to say that by the time dinner arrived we were wishing we hadn't. At least without a strait jacket or restraints to hold Charlie in his chair. He was determined to go for a swim in the pool just outside the restaurant (motel restaurant in town that had been recommended). D took him outside to look at the pool, while explaining why he couldn't go swimming (ie you can't swim yet little man) and turned around to find Charlie in the process of stripping off. Finally he got him back into the restaurant with promises that he would behave, only to have him run off again, several times. So I just wanted to ask, is it possible to take small children with you when you go out to dinner, or should we just give up?

Nappies - reviews

2007-01-17T08:40:00.000+11:00

Hi people,

I need a new brand of nappies.

We started with the huggies newborns (up to 5kg) since they were the cheapest. We grew out of those in 3 weeks.

Then we used the huggies infants (4-8kg). Now technically we aren't too big for these yet, but they just aren't able to take the ...erm... volume. We've had a few messy blowouts.

We've upgraded to huggies crawler (6-11kg) but these look massive on him.

So I'm looking for a disposable that is midway between these sizes. Also, in the bigger sizes, I don't think huggies is the cheapest anymore but I haven't had the leasure to stand in the shop and do the calculations.

Right now we are in cloth nappies thanks to a nappy service present from my ex-workmates. They aren't too bad but require a little extra attention since they don't have the space age technology to store moisture.

So what have you people used?

I suspect one nappy is pretty much as good as the next these days, but there may be some brands that are better than others.

Youngest mother ever was a 5 year old Peruvian girl

2007-01-12T10:05:00.000+11:00

Check it out on snopes

This was one of those disturbing things someone sent me when I was pregnant, in the hope that I might stop whingeing.

I have one of 'those' children

2007-01-10T16:41:00.000+11:00

you know the type.
the ones who

bite

I was one and this morning Oliver showed signs of continuing the tradition.
Middle of a temper tanty, I picked him up and held him and he bit me on the shoulder.

Oh yes, he was very popular then.

I had hopes that he would have a lot more of MrNw's temperament, but it appears otherwise.

Oh the horror