Miserably ill!

Man, good times have not abounded in Chez Seal. Chris is experiencing enough back pain that he is sucking down Voltaren and I am dragging my energy-devoid carcass around in a listless fashion. K has bounced right back from HIS cold - so I was forced to dress and leave the house this morning. I took him down to the Glendale playground and rugby field where he raced around like a maniac with me trudging along behind, husking directions (NO K, do NOT run into the men's public toilets, Darling boy, please don't run towards that big UNLEASHED dog... etc) and otherwise letting him run wild. I am sure my parenting style raised a few eyebrows - but what care I for the opinions of strangers haha. We then walked up and down the perimeter of the field with K touching each wooden post of the chain fence and me counting to 10, then starting again from 1... My voice got huskier and huskier - it is now nonexistent. At noon I threw the kidlet into the truck and drove home where I fed the beastie and got him into bed. I collapsed into bed, but couldn't sleep...until 2:05. Guess what time K woke up... 2:18... Can you feel the joy? K amused himself with puzzles for most of the afternoon while I slumped on the floor next to him, gamely interacting, all the while wishing I could creep upstairs to have a nap. I also put on and hung out 3 loads of washing, made Chris soup for dinner, baked K choc chip muffins and prepared K a sumptuous dinner - which he didn't eat. As my condition is worsening I reckon K will experience a truly sucky day tomorrow - poor little guy.

1 banana, 2 banana

The year is just flashing by! Soon it will be Christmas and then Kieran's 2nd birthday!! On friday I looked after Alex for a few hours so Kym had a couple of child free hours on her birthday. Alex is a great kid and was a pleasure to look after. Unfortunately, he had a runny nose... a nose that has been passed onto Kieran, and now onto me boohoo. On sunday we headed over to Simon's to celebrate his birthday. I had spent much of the morning baking a pumpkin pie.. which I placed on the hood of the truck and forgot about. I remembered the pie in Henderson, but alas, by then it was long gone!! I was gutted! We spent 2 exciting days trying to adjust K's sleep schedule to daytime savings- a pox on daylight savings!! However, our efforts have borne fruit and he settled easily this evening. Maybe it was the 2 walsk today. I seized a gap in the showers this morning to walk up to the shops and library. I bought some veges and 2 bananas for K- one of which he devoured in the strolller. Later, after his nap, we walked down to the playground by the library where K had the sass run out of him, and me!! We headed into the library after and then I bought 4 more bananas - for the snufflepig. He also ate 2 and a half banana's today - I could count the number of times he ate an entire banana on one hand - let alone 2 1/2!!

I have no idea what our plans for tomorrow are - if the weather is nice I might take K to CraigAvon or Parrs Park.... we'll see.

An interesting parcel

Yesterday did not begin well. For starters the sodding birds in the garden wake K up at 5:45/6am each morning. We thought 6:30 was bad? Oh nooooo, this is worse, much worse! And not just ONE bird, heaven forfend. There seems to be at least a dozen of the feathered fiends carolling outside!! Grrrrg. And it rained. On and off, on and off. Sigh. I took K up to the library and the shops, then we got home and mopped the floors (K tried to drag the bucket around the house, and tapdanced across the freshly mopped tiles...) and cleaned the oven, and swept and scrubbed and basically made myself miserable :P A parcel arrived though, which caused much excitement within Chez Seal. It was a little outfit (and a teapot) from Marjorie and Ken. The outfit was just adorable and K wore it to sleep in last night. The teapot was also very nice. It is still in the box as we have officially RUN OUT OF SPACE. It was bound to happen :)

This morning dawned early (dangnabbit, stupid birds!) and wet, very wet. I had been planning on walking to Mainly Music but decided to drive hehe. They had a bugs theme and K was quite displeased with the antennae I made for him before the session started. I have so many gorgeous photo's - he was just too cute!! I will try and download them onto Chris's pc and pop them on FB as well. Tomorrow may be a coffee group at my place if the weather continues wet, as going to a park in the rain would be nasty. And that's it from me, for now anyway :)

Woe, woe

Let's see... on Thursday we headed off to Parr's Park to romp with the coffee group girls. Like a prat I managed to park across the rugby field that is next to the playground - head:desk! I trudged across K in tow and we had a lovely time. The only issue was the signs out warning people to stay off the grass as it had dangerous chemicals on it. All the babies were a bit ticked off at being kept away from the grass and our ire was immense when we realised (after 30 minutes of this torture) that the signs were just up so that the grass could be mowed... grrr!! Despite this we had a lovely time. On friday I headed over to Kym's before we went to Fairy Falls... Let's just say the trip was "an adventure". When Kirst and I were small we had lots of adventures with mum. To this day I am noyt sure if mum purposefully struck out into unknown territory, or just got lost... a lot. I got lost going there. Sressed does not even BEGIN to describe how I felt -with no mapbook or cellphone - as I struggled to find my way to a place I had never been to before. Lets just say I was overcome with relief when I saw Kym in the FF carpark! The kids did great on the walk and they had a ball. Then I got lost going home! What made it worse was that I was going to turn in the correct direction before I changed my mind. 5 minutes later when Kym had NOT overtaken me I began to wonder if I was heading towards Bethells beach rather than to Henderson. I knew for sure once I passed Bethells fire station. I should add that it was now 12:15 and K was looking decidedly snoozy in the back. Alask he was asleep and was awoken at 12:50 when I finally arrived home. God, I needed a nap!! Alas, K had had his sleep for the day and instead we went to the library and shops. I have tons of pics from the last fortnight - none of which I can share with you as my PC is dead. Can't switch it on, all data has been lost. I am not happy. Anyway.... on the weekend Chris and I were just lazy beasts and lolled around doing nothing much :) Today was the last session of playgroup, so I baked scones, frantically cut out teapots (the theme was Mad Hatter Teaparty) and washed playdough equipment and, oh yes, kept and eye on my child too :P
Tomorrow is our day off. Lord knows I need one, then Wednesday is the last session of Mainly Music for the term and Thursday we are heading out to CraigAvon park. Friday? Who knows :P

Is that the time?

Gosh, what with my little timesink (aka Kieran) and heading up to Kerikeri for the twin's christening I have not blogged for some time!

You will be pleased to know that K has finally forgiven Chris for all the cold baths while he had gastro - and even gave him a snuggle and a loving pat or 2 on the back tonight :) We still experience the dying swan routine (sigh) but the clinginess has faded a bit. K has learned to open the doors out to the garage. This skill has eventuated through his passionate desire to enter the garage a room full of very exciting things, like sharp implements, poisons, and precariously stacked boxes... what's not to love? :P I witnessed him mimicking the karate kid stance, tho in K's version he stood poised above the paddling pool (fully dressed, 5 mins before we were going to head off to MM) and with the speed of a striking cobra dipped his toes into the pool and whipped them out again. His pants were perfectly dry after this. I was amazed!

The twin's had a very nice christening - and a veeeery long service which included the battle of britain remembrance. K was very good but after an hour and 10 minutes I had to take him outside. Little boys can only be good for so long after all :)

We headed off to Western Springs yesterday and K romped with abandon. The black swans scuttled madly about as they feasted on scones, crackers and muffins, while adroitly avoiding the caresses of overexcited little boys. K had a ball at mainly music today - though his dodgy tum meant we wanted lots of cuddles. Not such a good thing when you can smell a stinky little bottom - pooooh! Tomorrow's coffee group is going to be at the Parrs Corner playground. K hasn't been there before so he should LOVE it

Animals, animals everywhere

Ever since K's bout of gastro and the knock on the head he has been a changed boy. Once an avid bather he now recoils from baths as if they were cobras (although, in fairness, this may have something to do with Chris forcing him into cold baths to bring down his temperature). Whereas he would run to the door with shrieks of delight when his father walked in the door, he now flees to my side like Bambi seeking the forest in hunting season. And where before he was a happy relaxed little boy he is now a boy with a mission; and that mission seems to be the re-enactment of The Dying Swan at LEAST 20 times a day. Let me tell you, tanty city is not fun, especially when you have to spring forward to catch the head before it hits the tiles. The eye is bad enough - another injury would have CYF's sniffing around here in 2 shakes of a rat's tail. Anyway, I had Dying Swan for most of yesterday - and by the time Bob the builder finished K was treated to the fastest dinner and bath of his life, before having Pamol spooned into his maw and being tucked into bed with a bottle of Horlicks (sssssh, don't tell anyone!). And then I headed off and showered and made dinner, and greeted Chris when he shambled through the door. A pleasant hour or two was spent playing on Farmville and then I headed off to bed.

Today Chris took the day off and we headed off to Western Springs at 8:45am. I cursed myself for forgetting my camera!! It was a gorgeous sunny day, with daffodils beginning to bloom and the mist burning off over the lake. There were chickens, and ducks, and pukeko's to be chased - and chased they were. We then moved more than 4 metres into the park!! Kieran found a goose and chased it into the undergrowth. The poor bird kept looking over its shoulder as it fled, in disbelief that K hadn't given up yet! We saw lots of cygnets -but only for the Black swans oddly enough. However there were some small greyish swans on the lake and I wondered if the white ones hatched a bit earlier? And we found lots more geese - and goslings too! K was enraptured. Swans swarmed around our ankles (note to self - next time bring bread!!) and dogs jogged by with their owners sending K into paroxysms of delight. We did a circuit of the lake and headed into the zoo. K was in 7th heaven!!! The zoo rocked - say no more. K especially liked the Macaw, which kicked up a hell of a racket - right in front of his face, and the African Grey - which was creeping down the mesh of the cage towards K's eager little fingers... we left, precipitiously. We finished up the zoo trip at the Gibbon's cage - and he gratified K immensely by howling and hooting up a storm. I had always thought all that noise was from a tribe of monkeys. No, just one little black one :)

Tomorrow is mainly music and I am thinking about walking there and back - we will see what the weather does....

Calloo Callay, it's Father's Day!

These last few days have been... interesting. K has been very clingy and prone to tears at the drop of a hat. It doesn't help that he looks like Ali after the Rumble in the Jungle either! However, we went for a walk up to the library and shops yesterday as the weather was so nice. K leaned forward in his stroller like a racing car driver and shrieked with glee whenever he saw me. Consequently I spent much of the trip running ahead then turning to see K, who was squealing with delight and waving at me. Lots of waving from my end and then the cycle repeated itself. I was knackered by the time we got to the library :) The librarians were horrified to see K's little face, and to hear that it had happened in their library - but it could have happened anywhere. Alas.

Today is Father's Day and the father in this household is getting pancakes cooked for his breakfast - at least, he will do once I have played Farmville and he has finished his sleep-in. We DID have a block of chocolate as a present - but I note with chagrin that it seems to have changed shape and size from yesterday - someone obviously didn't want to wait! And he says that I am the impatient one!

Aaaaaand Happy Father's Day to Dad and Kingsley - I hope you have a wonderful sunny day, doing what you want to do :)

Battered and Bloody

My poor baby!! One minute he was sauntering around the library, the next he tripped, falling headfirst into a wooden shelf of children's books. I knew it had to hurt due to the angle that he hit it at, snatched him up. He started screaming right away so it was only when the sobbing eased down a notch that I peeled him away and saw his face. I felt sick. There was blood all over the side of his face, and swelling up inside the skin of the cut which was already blue-black. I raced out of the library and across the road to Westview Medical centre. The receptionist took one look at K and sent me upstairs straightaway. I had to hold some icepads to K's eye for almost 30 minutes and that did not go over well, before the doctor swabbed him down and glued the cut shut. Despite sobbing in a heartrending fashion K only struggled weakly. The good news is that the Dr said there is no concussion, damage to the eye or brain damage. I still feel sick.

Plague Pit

The last 4 days just seemed to fly by here at Chez Seal. Apparently that's the norm with sleep deprivation :) The fun and games began on Saturday evening when K projectile vomited his dinner (and possible lunch and breakfast too!) all over the toilet door, floor and wall a mere hour after being asleep. Yay. So we washed him down and redress him and pop him into bed and get to enjoy the experience again, and again, and again. The only changes to the scenario were the floors so decorated, the size of the bags under our eyes and the amount of material regurgitated. Things seemed to have settled down on Sunday morning, but alas, we found this was not the case after K filched some of my porridge and proceeded to heave it up all over my shoulder. Off we went to A and E. 3 hours later (!!!!) my body image had received a positive boost and we had finally had K seen by a doctor - yup, gastro. So we have enjoyed more of the sleepless nights and shambolic days. There has been plenty of material to write about but I have not yet had enough rest to convert raw material into humourous nuggets :) Though K was cute yesterday when he curled up on the chair downstairs and fell asleep.