Lead legs

Okay so today after my very vigorous work out on the eyetoy, my legs are killing me. I have muscles in my thighs I had forgotten about. And I have to work out again today. This is going to KILL me... Never mind.

Well Daz is outside, moggy proofing our cat run, it's cloudy and cold. I guess winter is comin. I hate winter. Wish it was summer all year round. All year I could go swimming at the beach, all year I can wear less clothing, all year I can just have a sheet on and be warm. I hate waking up with cold hands, cold feet and a numb nose. I hate getting out of bed in winter. I hate walking around bare feet in winter on our freezing tiles. I hate sitting on a cold toilet seat in winter. I just hate endless rain and drizzle and cold winds. I hate winter.

Elijah's growth spurt has ended and I am getting reasonable sleep once again. 1 feed overnight and that was it. I was very happy about that. He is now sleeping it off.... I guess he is growing. He is getting so big. I am getting clucky again... don't tell Daz.... I wouldn't mind even going under the knife just so I can have another cute baby. As you can see from the picture, he is a handsome little dude. Just like his Daddy...

Well I better stop hiding inside and go help Daz with the retaining wall.... it's just too cold out there. I would be much happier curling up under a doona and watching Dr Quinn (actually I lie... I watch Sully ;) ) or reading a book.

Okay going to procrastinate some more, since Elijah is due for a feed anymoment..

Let's get Physical, physical!

We have a new toy! It's sole purpose is to get this family fit and healthy and mainly for me to lose some baby lard.
We got a Playstation console. With a dancing game and Eyetoy Kinetic, which is a personal trainer. It may sound simple, but it is sooooo hard and VERY energetic!! They also have a section on meditation, but I didn't understand how to focus on every single one of my cells in my body. Cripes... so I moved on to yoga which was waaaay out of me league. I will have to try again later when I don't have so many fat rolls in the way of me trying to put my head on the ground while I am sitting cross legged. At the moment that is mission impossible!

My brother Steve was giving it a whirl, and I nearly peed my pants laughing! he is soooo hillarious when he does his work out. He gets right into it and puts as much energy and enthusiasm as he possibly can.

So tomorrow when Daz goes to his board meeting and before "How to lose a Guy in 10 Days" comes on, I will be dancing and hitting imaginary balls in the air that I can see on my TV all in the name of fitness and exercise.

My daughter has been the model child these last few days. Tantrums are becoming far and few between. She is using manners and is just a brilliantly behaved child. 6 days without an accident so far!! How proud I am of her!! I wish I could skip the crown from number 6 to number 30 so we can do this scrapbooking together. But I gotta restrain. Otherwise she might revert back to peeing all over the place.

Elijah is a boofer boy. He is getting so big. I am not surprised really. He eats HEAPS. He is looking more like a baby boy rather than a newborn monkey. He is really a gorgeous kid. Though I can't really tell who he looks like as yet. Caitlin is the spitting image of me, poor child... but Elijah is a little man of his own. We will see as time goes on.

Better go to bed, I am half dead....

The Great Escape

We have just had built the most lovely cat run. It is fully enclosed and it's just great!
However... my naughty youngest moggy has lead my much older cat astray and dug her way out. That's right folks, she dug a hole to get under the fence!!! I lined up some big retaining wall blocks along where she had dug to try and deter her. No can do! She just dug another hole.

I can hear that tune from the Great Escape in my head. "Do do, do doo do do do. Do do, do do do, do do dooo"

So what does that make me? A Nazi prison warden??

This weekend we will try and moggy proof it some more to keep them in their enclosure.

Having an okay week so far. Elijah is having ANOTHER growth spurt... well actually he did for the last 2 days, he seems to have slowed down a fair bit today. But man can that boy eat!!! He woke up three times in the night for a feed. Not that impressed really. He used to wake just the once then in the morning. Hopefully it all goes back to normal soon.

Caitlin has finally cottoned onto her Princess Craft chart. Every day she doesn't have an accident her crowns moves up a day. She has to have 30 days straight without an accident and then I will buy her Disney Princess Scrapbooking kit. Everytime we go past it, she looks at it. She is getting pretty excited. She is on day 4 without an accident! WOOHOO!!! And I am happy because that is less washing and less cleaning up! YAY!!

Awww, Caitlin just gave Elijah her Pink Teddy and he is happily sucking on it. YUCK....

Rest and relaxation - NOT!

This weekend we went to Robe for a getaway, and I swear I came home more exhausted than when I left! Caitlin was such a treasure... NOT. She was pasty and white and tired looking the morning we left. I took her into Target to get her a reward DVD before we left, and she asked me to carry her. That is a first! Usually she is bounding around and running off!!
She had been unwell a few days before. The poor blossom, I gave her food poisining. She had been off her feed for a few days, and was not that well. We should have just stayed home.
In the car she was whingy and dropping off.... untill she vomitted up her Apple and Blackcurrant juice all over the place. YUCK. So we had to pull over on the freeway and clean that up. Then I felt nauseas, from the smell of vomit! YUCKIES!!
After she spewed, color returned to her face slightly and she fell asleep for an hour which was good. Elijah travelled well... when I was in the back seat sitting next to him, so he could look at me! What a mummies boy! LOL
We got to Robe quite late - too late for Steve to go snorkelling, so we went swimming at the motel pool and that was really fun. I took Elijah for his first swim, and he loved it. And he slept well afterwards!
That night we went to a pub for dinner, then headed home. Caitlin wouldn't go to sleep at all. She was awake up to 10pm. Then I put her in the boot of the car (we have a wagon) as the naughty corner. Then I put her into her bed and told her if she didn't go to sleep IMMEDIATELY, she would spend the night in the car boot. That worked. She fell asleep!
We sat outside of the motel room, Steve working on his lappy on a uni assignment. Daz was playing with stuff and transfering them to our new mobile phones, and I was just playing with my phone. We must have looked like right nerds!
Since we were all sharing a room, Elijah waking for his night feeds woke Caitlin up. And she started playing, and wouldn't let up even after Elijah had finished and fell asleep! So I used that threat again. Dead to the world pretty soon afterwards!
Since Caitlin had such little sleep that night, she was a nightmare the next day. She cried, tantrumed, refused to nap, domiated the CD player (let me tell you that "I like to Sing" CD is VERY annoying hearing it 10 times in one weekend!!!) and was a general pain in the bum. But she hadn't been well so we tended to let her ratty behaviour slide.
When we got home, I gave her a very relaxing quiet bath by candlelight and popped her into bed. She slept well! She even slept through the thunder storm last night!

Today she has been positively angelic. Calm, quiet and playing nicely. She has been eating some today which is good. I wonder how much weight she has lost. She is looking a little thinner.

Okay so that was the kids. We went site seeing on Sunday around Robe and Kingston. We saw some great cliffs, and I took some good photos for my project that I am working on. (Which is an altered art work which I plan to do when we have been to the NT. I am going to do a series based on the poem 'I love a sunburnt country') But the funniest part of the whole weekend was going to see the Granites in Kingston. If you get the opportunity to go see some "unique rock formations", DON'T!!! It's a waste of time. All they look like are 4 big lumps of dog turd on the beach. WOOPIE CHOOK!!! Unique??? PFFFT!!!
It was a good laugh though.

The whole point of this weekend away was to get 600kms on the car we are leasing. And we did it. Mission accomplished.

Another tin

Look what I did!!!

This one is for Daz's Mum.

I am pretty proud of it.

ARRRGHHH!!! TODDLERS!!!

What the HECK is going through my daughter's mind? My once toilet trained girl is weeing on the floor on purpose. When she wants to get out of punishment, she wets on the floor. I think it's an attention seeking thing.

I am making her clean it up, and I am making her wash her pants out. She is enjoying cleaning her pants, but she hates cleaning the floor.
She put her leap pad in the puddle of wee this time. YUUUCK!! So now I have to clean that as well!!!

I am going to take a moment. Breathe...

NOW what do I do?
If I ignore it, that means I have to keep cleaning wee up.
If I put her in nappies, she will insist on being changed as soon as she has wet.
If I make her walk around with a wet bum, her eczma on her butt gets bad.
If I make her clean it up, it does jack squat.
I have made a big deal of her using the toilet. I have given her lots of praise and rewards.... I have tried to downplay accidents, and just get on with it. But COMMON!! We have been doing this for nearly a year!!! USE THE BLASTED TOILET GIRL!!!

My hands are tied. I just don't know what to do with her. She is driving me CRAZY!!

I have tried rewards, I have tried conjoling, telling her off, I have tried ignoring it, I have tried EVERYTHING!

I am sick of the extra washing. I have enough to do around here, I don't need 4 x or more washing.
I am sick of the smell of wee through my house.
I am sick of her smelling of wee. I can't shower her EVERY time she has an accident. I am tempted to send her outside to live. She can pee out there.... she can come back inside when she is ready to use the toilet. That way I don't smell her, and the great outdoors can absorb the smell of wee.
I am SICK TO DEATH OF EVERYTHING....

I am sooooo over this parenting gig. Whoever told me about all the fun times, the great family times, the wonderful experience parenthood really is... MISSED OUT SOME VITAL BITS!!!!

Like the torture of toilet training.
Like the attitude Miss 2 and a half gives out.
Like the tantrums of a very LOUD Miss-give-in-or-I-will-deafen-you.

I am going to go crawl into a hole and cry.

Rockin and Rollin and buildin

I have the most hillarious trio in my backyard, building our pergolas. The noise coming from them is just wonderful. They are chatting away, then you hear their laughter, then you hear a gun fire or 10 rounds.... of nails then back to chatting again.
The radio is blaring back there, and over and above whatever station they are listening to, when one of them hears a song they love, they belt out the tunes. Luckily they can sing in tune. But when all three of em like the song... well I got my own three little rockers back there singing their hearts out! And I quietly sing along as well, dancing with the mop (down the hall where no one can see me)
Oh they are listening to Triple M. No wonder it's all rock... Anyway...

The pergola where Pop's memorial Garden will go, is almost done. They have done a BRILLIANT job, and I think they are starting on the side, since it's in the shade. Smart idea. It's hot out there. I am bringing out bottles and jugs of cold water to keep the rockin trio hydrated.

Oh and the boss has the most DELICIOUS ute!! It's silver and even though it's a Holden it's just divine. I am sooo tempted to take it for a spin!! But I'll refrain and just admire it and pretend it's mine... just for the next 2 days. But if it was mine.... I wouldn't be sitting at home Blogging... I wouldn't be a Mummy anymore. I would be a carefree woman, driving all over with my hair free and my windows down and singing at the top of my lungs to my favourite songs... maybe that's why the boss man isn't afraid to belt out his favourite tunes!!
Can't put a baby seat or a booster seat in a ute... :(

Will take a picture of the pergola and memorial garden when it's done and show you - and I bet you will want to hire the rockin trio yourself when you see their snazzy pergola!!

Now better go and headbang some more in the bedroom....

Step forward Tin man!

Okay so it's not quite the Wizard of Oz tin, and I am no man... but I just made my very first Altered Tin, and I wanted to show the world (or the two people who actually read this blog - Hi hunny!)

Look at this!! I made it for my dear friend Catherine, who is at this moment in Indonesia and has given me 2 weeks grace to get a birthday present happening. I am glad she did because I finally got the gumption to try this out. And I am really proud of the results.
Catherine is young and funky so the stuck on dead fluro bird will suit her just fine. I also stuck around her tin things that she is starting with "C". By the way there is a C on the lid, but it isn't much more than that, so I won't bother showing you.

Elijah's Talking Mum!!

"Elijah's talking!" Caitlin exclaimed excitedly. So far he had cooed at me a few times yesterday and the day before, but this time he decided to have a chat to his big sister.
Caitlin was very excited that he was saying something other than WAAAAHH!!

This is where having a baby gets exciting. Watching them grow and exclaiming over every little development no matter how small.

I wish I could freeze this time in my life and have my beautiful kiddies like this forever (minus the temper tantrums from Miss C of course, and the evil nappies E somehow produces... man he stinks!)

Snip go the shears boys!

SNIP SNIP SNIP!!

This weekend, Caitlin threw one too many fits in the shower when I was trying to wash her hair. It was the fit that broke the camels back. She fights me when I brush it because of the knots. She fights me trying to wash it. She fights rinsing it. She screams the house down when shampoo gets anywhere near her eyes or ears. Eyes I understand, but the ears!??
We have tried EVERYTHING. We bought her a little cap that goes around the head to stop water going in her eyes and ears, but she just rips it off. We tried goggles, but she won't wear them in the shower, only around the house! We tried getting her to close her eyes, but she refuses. We tried a flannel, she wont hold it over her eyes. She's a pain in the bum when it comes to washing hair. So I had had enough. "You either let me wash your hair with minimal fuss, or I am cutting it all off." I threatened. She kept going.

So I cut it off. I thinned it out and layered it because it's just too thick and curly to handle. When she is older we can try having longer hair. She is just too young to have so much hair. Everyone was pretty upset that I chopped all her ringlets off. But they are not the ones to have to deal with the screaming banshee in the bathroom... that makes me go deaf for at least an hour afterwards!
This is a picture of the new and improved hair-style. It's easier to brush and easier to do in the morning. Considering I am not a hairdresser, I think I did a great job!!

Also since I started being a meanie and making her clean up her own wee mess.... little miss has decided that she IS toilet trained afterall. Not an accident since I wrote in my BLOG last. I am very happy about that.

Elijah's little eating fit he had paid off. The boofer gained 460grams last week! So I guess all that eating served a purpose. He started cooing at me this morning, having a chat about something or other, then he burst into tears, so I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

I just called my sister in law to see how Emma (niece) is going, since she wasn't well yesterday. Turns out the poor little mite has German Measles. Her imunisations obviously didn't work, which is a bit of a worry!! Anyway Deb has another little baby as well, who hasn't been immunised as yet, as she is too young. So she will probably get it as well. Poor blossom!!

As I type, I am getting some wood delivered for our new pergolas. Can't wait to get them done and make that all pretty. One is a cat run for our poor cats. They are roamers and the neighbours don't like that. They especially don't like my cats habit of using their nice soft garden beds as their bathroom. So we have them in a large cage at the moment and have been waiting for the builders to build this run for us.

We got Elijah dedicated on Sunday. It was nice to share this special occasion with family and our church family. Elijah howled the whole time and Caitlin chucked a tanty. I bet God looked down, smiled and was glad that HE didn't have to deal with this sort of thing as a parent. He just palmed his boy off to poor Mary and Joseph. Wonder if Jesus ever chucked a tantrum?

Well untill next time.
MWAH!

Boofer and Piddle-Pot

This is the story of Boofer (aka Elijah) who ate and ate and ate every 2 hours, drinking 120mls of formula PLUS whatever breast milk he could scavange for 2 days. He leaked out of every nappy he wore, and today surprised his Mumma with a huge poo that ended up mostly out of his nappy. Up his back, down his legs. EWWW GROSS!! Then today I was surprised to see that he has graduated from newborn 0000's to a real baby sized 000's. My newborn is dissapearring on me.

This is the story of Piddle-Pot who WAS toilet trained. Then decided that she couldn't be bothered going to the toilet anymore, and she thought it better to just open her legs and let the wee gush wherever she was standing. I have had enough of cleaning it up, so I have become Ogre Mum... if she wees, she cleans it up. She doesn't like that much.. let's see how long that lasts.

This same Piddle-Pot decided to sneak into my room while I was feeding Boofer and helped herself to my make up. I now am one pot of body glitter short, because it had been spread throughout the bedroom and all in my make up drawer. I am also a lipstick short.. it has been smooshed. And I am half a tube of medicated cream short... it has been smooshed out too. GRRR!!
So to stop that happening again, we have installed door knob covers. They make it really hard to open the door! She wont get into my room again.. untill she has hands the size of the Hulks! Though it's also adult proof as well... I as usual waited till I was absolutely DYING to go to the loo, then tried to get into my ensuite ASAP.... in my frantic state, I couldn't open the blasted door!! I was FREAKING!! Luckily I made it.

Better go, Elijah is screaming the house down... he probably has dropped his dummy AGAIN but you know I breed drama queens... the world is coming to an end!

If I could talk to the animals... I would tell them to stop teasing the lions!

This is a picture of my two angels.

Today was a super fun day.
We took the kiddies to the zoo! Apparently I suggested going to the zoo in the middle of the night. I don't really remember suggesting it but it was a brilliant idea.
The queues outside the zoo was amazing!! If you know the Adelaide Zoo, there were 2 lines of people going all the way back to the bridge! We were in line for half an hour! Elijah decided that about 15 minutes in, he would start screaming for his lunch. Poor kid. He survived though.
We didn't get to see everything, but we did get to give our new digital camera a good work out.
Some highlights: Some stupid people were teasing the lionesses and they were roaring furiously, and one bashed at it's cage and scared the living crap out of the teasers. Stupid people. They need a cattle prod shoved into unmentionables and bzzzed!
Also we saw Tasmanian Devils having a "chat"... they are abusive wretches! They make TERRIBLE noise.
Meer cats are cute, Crocidiles are ugly and green tree frogs make me want to throw up. YUCK!

On saturday I spent the morning and half the afternoon in the hairdressers getting all my hair chopped off. It got to a point I just couldn't manage it inbetween dressing the kids and looking after them. Why is it I always get put on the back burner? I end up leaving the house looking terrible. So I now have a short and funky style with blonde streaks. I reckon I look good!

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We got our digital camera, which works a million times better than our old one. When you take the picture, you don't have to wait for half an hour for it to actually take it. That comes in handy when you have a kid who looks at the camera for a few seconds then looks away just as the flash goes off.

Family update:
Daz is Daz. Nothing much to report. Except that I would die without him. He went to see Tripod with my brothers Sunday night, leaving me to cope with bedtime routine all by myself with two kids for the very first time. All I can say is....I suck. Elijah screamed for about an hour while I was trying to get Caitlin showered, pjama'd, and into bed. Then when it came time to bath Elijah it took twice as long and he didn't settle very easily. I was tense and uptight.... Crikey! I rely way too much on Daz. This experience has made me greatly appreciate all he does to help me and make my life so much easier.

Steve is Steve. Threatening to live with us till he is 40, then move to Mars or some space station. Great.
We think he might have slept walk last night. Last night Daz closed and bolted the sliding door as usual. I heard him do it and he remembers doing it. At 6am when Elijah woke for a feed, the door was still firmly shut. However at 7:30am it was open. I asked Steve about it, and he said he hadn't opened it. But he had a dream that he lost his ball over the fence and the sprinklers were on. It was raining outside this morning. So I reckon he went for a little wander. Scary. Hope he doesnt wander out the front and into the street. I don't even know if he wears clothes to bed.... he might scare our neighbours to death!!

Caitlin has been terrific today. She loved the zoo, and she has been perfectly behaved. You would never believe it, but today she picked up toys all by herself without me nagging her. I only had to ask her once and she did it! I was so surprised and shocked... she got three good girl stickers for that!! Hope her good behaviour continues. It's like my angelic girl has come back once again.
We went shopping for her winter wardrobe on Thursday night and my goodness we spent a fortune to make her look like a million bucks! Still have winter shoes to buy yet. It's funny, I have barely anything to wear, and she is the trendiest little girl I know. Will have to take pictures of her in her get up!

Elijah is just adorable. Smiles at me lots when I ask in a stupid voice "what you doin?" He is so cute. He smiles and goes cross eyed. Makes me laugh. He is sleeping and eating lots at the moment so I am guessing he is porking up. And guess what?? His thighs are getting fat!!!

Me, well same ol same ol. I didn't lose any weight this week but I lost some size which is nice. I lost 2 cms off my waist and 1 cm off my thighs. Will try to work out more this week, if I have the energy and time. Maybe I should get off my butt now and work out? Nah... I am gonna go hit the hay. Elijah will be waking me soon for a feed, and I will be awake for a few hours trying to feed then settle him. Boy that kid can make some noise in his sleep. Grunting and carrying on. Sounds more like an animal than a baby!

Adjustment - just a minor one.

Because (I wrote because three times, because the upper case B wasn't working... stoopid keyboard)

BECAUSE we have a new addition to the family, things have changed. It's a huge change in thinking for me. For example: a messy house means I have happy children. A spotless house means I made good on my threat and moved the family out to live in the backyard!
I can't believe how much time two kids take up. It takes us twice as long to get out of the house, it takes twice as long to do the morning routine. I have to sneak into the shower inbetween feeds, naps and ABC kids. Today I watched Elijah scream (he WAS asleep untill Caitlin jumped on him and proclaimed him to be awake!) while I washed my hair.

Anyway...

Family news:
Daz - is same ol same ol. And thank goodness for that. Too much change would make my brain flip out.

Caitlin - Is still a challenge. Hopefully a few days in day care will help with that. We have the "good girl caterpillar" as an incentive for good behaviour. So far it's working well, she just has her moments like everybody.
On sunday she blew the minds of everyone at our table at lunch at the Midway tavern. She was reading the menu to Beth (CAFS nurse) Her jaw dropped. 2 and a half and reading... that's my girl!! Soon she can read "Chicken Licken" to herself a million times a day instead of me doing it. I am a tad sick of "Chicken licken, goosey loosey, ducky lucky, drakey lakey, turkey lurkey" and the gang. I am actually excited when the Foxy Loxy eats them because it's finally the end of the story.

Elijah - is doing his thang. He poops, wees, drinks endlessly. He is a milk-a-holic. They should have support groups for these boys. If he isn't attatched to the boob, he is thinking about it, or trying to get attatched!! He is adorable though and when he looks up into my face and just stares, my heart melts. This boy loves his Mummy. He gets a bit aggro with Caitlin. She cuddles him a tad to tightly and puts her mop of hair in his face, wet or dry. But when her death grip is lighter and her hair is away from him, he stares at her and is mesmerised by his beautiful sister.

Steve started Uni again and always brings up interesting things to talk about at the dinner table. All I can bring up is babies and EB. The things he learns and things he is creating are fascinating.

And me? Well I am a little pre-occupied to have much of a life. I don't have much energy for much more other than my babies.
Happy news? I lost 2kgs this week! I want to lose 10 by may so I am well on my way!!
We might be going away this weekend for a bit of a getaway. Depends if it's going to be stinking hot. So far it's going to be stinking hot. It's a public holiday this Monday. Adelaide Cup. They moved it from May to probably avoid the wet wintery weather. Ironically it's going to rain Monday according to the BOM.

Sad news? I don't have any... so that is happy news!

Well I might zip off now and wait for this kid to wake up to relieve my milk filled boobs! HURRY UP!!!