A 2 mouse day

Bandit surprised us the other day with not one but TWO mice, both lovingly stashed in the house. One had passed on to the great Brambly Hedge in the sky but the other was very much alive (and very well hidden by Mr B). Chris hurried out the door with the mouse hanging by its tail and flung its corpse into the garden. I am sure it was mere coincidence that it was flung at the fence of our loud party throwing neighbours :) After hunting high and low we found the mouse stashed in a box. It waxed lyrical and bitter on its predicament, and was released (again next to the neighbours fence). On Halloween we headed out to Craigavon park for a picnic. I dressed the boys as pirates and we had a blast! The weather was gorgeous and the boys really enjoyed themselves. A little orchard was planted opposite our playground, across the stream and K and I and C in the stroller headed over to the new community orchard which was planted across the stream from our playground. K was more interested in the mural on the wall than the orchard itself but enjoyed the walk, especially as we went on to the playground by the library. The week passed in a blur of meetings and minuting :) Guy Fawkes was then upon us and again our home sounded like we were sited in Iraq. Cameron then decided to destroy us by NOT SLEEPING. This has gone on ever since Guy Fawkes. The combination of a cold, fireworks and his first tooth have turned mr I sleep 8 hours a night into mr I wake every 85 minutes. Sigh. Some hard work has gone into trying to get his daytime sleeps sorted and last night we had slightly over 2 hours before each waking. I miss sleep! Today we picked our first strawberry which C shared with Chris. K declined to participate. We need to plant nasturtiums so that we can pickle their seeds. Apparently they are just like capers - but cheaper! K has dealt instant death to any tomato or capsicum seedling foolish enough to try and grow in my pots. They are now cunningly hidden throughout the house where he can't dig them up or tip out the soil. I plan to make C a new hat this weekend and also need to ..... see next entry

The world's longest blog post - ever! Part 3

It was the best labour weekend ever!!
The sun shone, the boys sang, and life was good!!
K's second dance lesson went well. He participated for most of the class and I was really proud of him!! We headed out to Olympic Park and he had a blast. We also headed out to Craig Avon Park for a picnic on Sunday. Colin and Ros joined us and we had a blast. I will however prepare a picnic basket with all the essentials pre-packed and ready to go :) The weather has been sunny and hot all weekend and I got all our washing done. I can't wait for summer. When we arrived at Playcentre on Friday I opened K's door to see him beaming at me, hat on his head. That's my boy!!!

The world's longest blog post - ever! Part 2

The train trip - from hell!!!
On friday K was promised a trip on the train. The previous friday we had gone to the Sid and Scrat show which was just a glorified decorate a gingerbread man event. K did enjoy decorating and eating his man, and eating C's as well. Anyway we had a blast and I found K's xmas present at Toyworld - which i was well pleased about. We headed into Warehouse Stationery to collect and pay for the Plunket newsletter and I was feeling pretty chipper when an idiot of a train conductor got my childs arm stuck. We were waiting by the doors and he grabbed for K to "help him out" K flinched away with his hand pressed on the door which whooshed open, sucking his arm into the side of the door. The pratt just stood there tucking on K, unable to understand that he was STUCK! I leapt across, jammed my knee into the door and made anough space to free the arm while the conductor just stood there, wringing his hands. Though he recovered enough to tell my weeping son to "man up". Only my great respect for the laws of New Zealand and my equeally keen desire to get my child to a doctor left him able to walk. Twit!! Anyway, K was fine, some mild bruising but nothing more. I took him on the train soon after and he isn't scared of trains thank god. The occassion of this trip? Monday evening, a fundraising Plunket event that Chris was supposed to babywrangle to allow me to set up. I was to be there at 6. I called Chris at 5:40. At 5:45 I was racing for the train with with boys in the stroller. Chris had been delayed and had forgotten about the event....grrrrrr. Apart from many run ins with the police, multiple meetings to attend and minute and a newsletter to prepare for - life has been pretty calm.

The world's longest blog post - ever! Part 1

It was a dark and stormy night when K came howling out of the night and into our bedroom..... the rather unsettled weather of the last month has not been doing our sleep any favours alas. Luckily, now that the weather is becoming more settled, these episodes are beginning to become fewer (ie 3 uninterrupted nights in 2.5 weeks). The time has been absolutely jam packed! Minutes have been taken, children excursed, more minutes done, trips undertaken, events setup and children to enjoy.... so, to begin....
Chris has gone on a pickling binge! Every jar in the house has been washed and filled with pickled red cabbage, pickled onions or rhubarb relish. While the results are lovely - especially the relish - the pungency of the vinegar seething through the house was a bit hard to take. He vanished off to Gilmours to see Chef Doyle last saturday when K had his first dance lesson and was gone for hours. HOURS!! It was a terrifying moment seeing him struggle through the door laden down with bags haha. K's first dance leson went well. We walked there. I am trying to walk more with the stroller as this should have dual benefit of exercising me and conserving petrol. K enjoyed it but only participated in a fifth of the class. There were also episodes of lying on the floor weeping that he had to follow orders :) Obviously I am not enough of a mean mummy! We also planned on going to playcentre on Monday. As I gazed out the window at the teeming rain I mentally scratched Playcentre from my list of "things to do today". Instead we stayed home, and cleaned. The boys were a big help :P Speaking of the boys C is well on his way to crawling. He rolls around on his mat like a maniac and my days are punctuated with excited goos then pitiful shrieks... I trot over, flip him over and the cycle resumes.... oy vey. In other exciting boy news K managed to break the clip on the side of the high chair. We now have a ravenous 5 month old baby and no high chair.... yay! We have also now ended the PORSE sessions. By going to Playcentre on tuesday (rainy Monday remember) I was able to mitigate the blow for Kieran. Truth be told he hasn't mentioned it or seemed to care at all. Which is fantastic. We also headed out to Cornwallis beach - the boys just loved it and I could hardly tear K away. All that digging. It was so good in fact that Chris and I went out there again on the weekend. K had a blast - especially as he was allowed to dig to his heart's content. I must pronounce a death knell on the poor beetroot and capsicum seedlings that I so happily planted in recent weeks. K's furtive diggings in their pots have killed them all.

Yowsa

Um, what have I been doing recently? Let's see, I have worked on Plunket newsletter, minuted meetings, wrangled kids, dinged the car, cleaned, cooked and baked and attended a Fireman Sam show..... right, and now for the details! Let's see... K has been put on the list for the Rosier Rd kindy and I have fingers crossed that he will be at the top of the list when they open in January after the Xmas break. I have been head down with Plunket stuff and am absolutely knackered. When you have no family for emergency babysitting life can get a bit fraught when one is stressed and needing some space from shrilling kidlets. And why would I be tired? K maybe slept through the night TWICE in the last 3 weeks. He is terrified of the rain and wind, and panics when he wakes to rain in the dark.... even though he has a lovely nightlight in his bedroom. C trucking along beautifully, apart from his obsession with snuggling and snackin' - simultaneously! Now that the weather is improving we are using the stroller a lot more. This has the benefit of keeping me "trim" and saving petrol dollars :P On friday (with a mere 3.5 hours of sleep under my belt) I walked (in the rain) to the train so K could go see the Fireman Sam show in Henderson. Fireman Sam had one of the most "interesting" Welsh accents it has ever been my privilege (I use the term loosely) to hear. The show was diabolical. It is amazing the things you do as a parent!! The weekend was spent preparing preserves, baking, babywrangling and no cleaning. Somehow that always seems to get deferred to the weekdays :O. Our poor neighbours - the ones we visit all the time - locked themselves out of their house on Sunday ... $160 for the locksmith!!!! We are planning a key swap to prevent future incidents. Today I ripped through 3 loads of washing, hung out same, handwashed dishes, ran dishes through dishwasher, prepared dinner from scratch and then lay on a picnic blanket next to my sons looking up at the sunshine through the trees in our garden.... then headed out to the playground with the boys - I love warm Spring days! Tomorrow is Porse for K (his 2nd to last session), Wednesday is the new mum's coffee group, Thursday a trip to the beach and Friday is Henderson to view Sid and Scrat. Hopefully it is better that the Fireman Sam effort!!

Alas, I managed to reverse into a fence and mailbox when collecting K from his last PORSE session. Luckily the fence remained upright (it was a close thing) and the mailbox was only slightly dented... the car however looks like an Indian painted for the warpath - and being in a fistfight :( I have to get on to a panelbeater for a quote sometime this week. What else.... lots, but it is all on the lines of taking K to parks, playgrounds etc and running around like maniacs. One thing I do remember every day is how lucky I am to have such a lovely family, to have a loving (if somewhat eccentric) husband, 2 lovely, naughty, healthy little monkeys, my health and the prospect of a summer picking strawberries....