La la la la la la

OMG I am going stircrazy. Ages ago I had sent in our details for Working for Families. Hadn't heard any more from them, so after prompting from mum called them up. I had forgotten that we had decided to be paid annually! It was pretty awesome tho, and paid for the cats teeth removal, Chris final part of the root canal and Kieran's swimming lessons. I have signed him up for Saturday classes starting October 29th. K is very very excited. Sickness has plagued Chez Seal recently, resulting in K getting a blood test to ensure nothing was wrong. But it just turned ot to be this awful flu! To cheer up my morose boys I made a special treat of pastry scraps and ferrer rocher chocolates. The boys LOVED them!!! Lazybum refuses to walk on our hard tiled floors, instead he saunters, jogs and even runs on the trampoline - funny little boy! Chris and I took the boys to Ceramco Park the other day, and C got to go on the flying fox for the first time (held securely in his father's arms I hasten to add) - and he LOVED it. The boys play together more, and incite each other into mischief - grrrr. And, bonus, C is now consistently sleeping through the night...until he has another tooth coming thru - cos then it's all over rover!

Nudie Rudie in the house!

Today dawned warm and sunny, and we are 2 days vomit free from the Cameronbear. Delighted, I poured a shallow bath for the wee beast to cavort in while I pulled the laundry out of the hot water cupboard and popped it into the boys cupboards....imagine my horror when Cameron's ululations drew me into the bathroom and I saw the faecal devastation he had wreaked upon the bathtub. C got popped into the shower, then cavorted naked through the house while I scrubbed down the bathroom and bleachd the tub and toys. We then headed outside to enjoy the rest of the morning...which went remarkably well, with mad cavorting on the trampoline. We hit the playground after we picked up Kieran and both boys dealt mayhem on the slide, swings and sundry playground equipment. Once home the CBear had a snooze and then Chris offered to sit with the boys to give me a break... C was barely tucked in bed when K shrieked his anguish to the skies, informing me that a poo was coming.... so showers were run again, faeces removed post haste to the toilet, and the bath bleached...again. Some break!!

House inspection time again

Monday will be a day at home making sure that the house is in good shape for Tuesday's house inspection. Boo. Good thing Chris mowed the lawns on Saturday as it is a rainy Sunday today. Cleaning and scrubbing, and wiping, and wailing when I turn around and see the boys busily undoing everything - these are the days of my life. I did however get Kieran to wash the garden doors and C to scrub the floor with the scrubbing brush. Aaah good times are when the boys fight over who gets to wash the floors lol.

Moon Festival & Daylight Savings

BOO to daylight savings I say!!! I sauntered into the bedroom last night and told Chris that I was going to change the clocks. "No, it's on SUNDAY!" came his emphatic bellow. Shrugging my shoulders at the vagaries of men, I let it go. Oddly enough, Chris was caught by surprise this Sunday morning lol. We dashed out to Lincoln Rd as Esteban was having his 5th birthday party at 10 pin bowling. K was very excited - never having been before. He thoroughly enjoyed it and we may go along on another Sunday morning and have a play. Yesterday, in the glory of the sunshine we bundled the boys into the car and headed out to New Lynn for the FREE Moon Festival. It was great. It was FREE! And did I mentioned, FREE. There was a teacup ride, a pirate ship ride, colouring in, and a bouncy castle.... all FREEEEEE :) K loved it, and (proud mummy moment here) he went on the pirate ship ride all by himself! I was so proud. We watched chinese dragons, and Foo dogs and drumming and stilt walkers and dragged outselves away at ten to 5.... K protesting vigourously the whole way home. Yup, he enjoyed himself!

Jumping the Shark

Making the bed has always been something that the cat enjoyed... mightily! Now the boys have realised that writhing about in/on fresh bedding while your parents flap the sheets above and over you is a good thing too lol. The mink blanket that went on this week features a shark and the boys enjoyed pretending to be minnows being chased by 2 large sharks lol. I have also been creating 2 photobooks for the boys in my copious free time lol. They are being done via Snapfish, and I will be collecting the albums from KMart next friday. K has been invited to two birthday parties this fortnight - Lenka from Playcentre/Kindy next saturday, and Esteban's party - at 10 pin bowling in Henderson - on sunday. It is all very exciting for K! We had to dash out and buy a NZ Rugby ball as the perfect 5th birthday present for Esteban. Chris finally got the last part of his root canal done on friday - yeehaa. But boo, alas another tooth needs some work. Once the car is sold both Chris and Bandit can have some work done on their teeth lol. Today is a gorgeous sunny day and much merriment has ensued!

Yaaaaaawwwwwwn

Well, Chris is still sick and is talking about seeing a Dr for some antibiotics. K is 3 for 3 in the poos in toilet stakes and my nights have been a living hell. Both boys have been running a fever and the upshot of K's dr appointment was "unspecific virus". In fact, our appointment was so late we met Chris coming into the Dr for his apptmt - and he trotted out with antihistamines, antibiotics and some hope that the pain would begin to fade lol. Which it has, praise be! K was thrilled that daddy was at the Dr's and scampered busily about - the very picture of an ill child head:desk. Neither of them present as obviously ill, more's the pity so I always get the sceptical looks before temps are taken.... then there is a change in 'tude, let me tell you :). I have been busy busy busy this week trying to get on top of the housework again as it slipped while I was ill - odd that! I spoke to K's kindy re another long session and the kindy is full up so another session seems likely only at the end of the year. This is ok, as we are close to year end anyway and K is enjoying his sessions. Cameron is a little sweetheart, even if he has been a sad, feverish little bear! Both boys have dropped off to sleep accidentally through the week, and C has been popping TWO naps into his day - definitely sick!! In addition to sleepy, feverish little boys I have been doing meetings/minutings which means that my evenings are chocka as I try and get everything typed up. K was quite excited that we were driving into Daddy's work to look at the sky scrapers lol. Nights have also had their element of excitement....really exciting as Cameron vomited all over his bed, bedding and self Thursday night so there was a lot of scurrying about by his parents, and hell night as I awakened at the slightest noise, fearing more vomiting. Friday then became rather interesting. Dropping to my knees I gave thanks to the weather gods for giving me a hot sunny day and knocked out 4 loads of washing. Vive le clothesline! I called to cancel Playcentre - boo (including that evening's AGM). K could have gone but I could not go with him, as I predicted that young master C would have an early nap. Sure enough he went down for 2.5 hours at 11. K decided that he wanted to make some biscuits. C was very excited to watch the mixing part of the process and happily licked sugar/butter mix off the beater, before pointing at the bottle in a meaningful fashion. Quite insistently I may add! After running about hanging out clothes, and washing clothes, baking bread and putting biscuits in to bake, I turned around and poor K was asleep on the couch. Literally 5 minutes later C awoke, merry as a grig. And then poor K woke up, and wet himself... too much water before his unplanned nap, poor boy. However he has done SO WELL using the toilet - my little champ. And then, since the weather was so nice I dragged the boys out in the stroller... we dropped C's miniscule sample of wee off at Medlabs (Dr's want to check if he has a urinary infection), posted letters and banked cheque, dropped into library, stopped at the 4square and picked up yeast etc and then strolled on to Nakita's. K adores visits to Nakita, and since she is ready to pop I thought we should seize the moment! We left at 4:30 and came home via the library playground where my boys cavorted in the slide and had a blast. We dashed in the door at 5:25 as the sun began to sink under the horizon and I sprang into action to get dinner sorted. It was a fabulous day.

2 up, 2 down

2 adults still down sick that is, and 2 little boys practically throbbing with health, vigour, energy and the desire to GO OUT AND DO STUFF. It's alright for Chris, who gets to laze around in the office then stroll into the house dispensing compliments re bead necklaces and faecal accomplishments, but I am the poor sod who must deliver an activity that sucks energy faster than they can produce it.....Luckily today was a playcentre day (after an abysmal night- thanks Kieran!) so they played, cavorted, painted, slid, made bead necklaces, did collage, ripped into playdough and then ran/crawled like maniacs through the sandpit. Suffice it to say that I walked through the door at 12:30, prepped C's bottle, got all of us into the shower and then we all went to bed at 12:45 and slept for 2 and half hours this afternoon. After that I bolted out in the car to buy a fortnights worth of nappies for C, and night time nappies for K, got some pre-reading gear, got some car stickers for the cupboard door and staggered back home, knackered. K pleaded with me to come and help him in the toilet after we got home. He was still in his pullup nappy (as he had had a nap), and I was thrilled when he produced both a wee and a poo. He was thrilled too. Obviously ice cream is the carrot du jour for my little donkey. We ordered Hell's Pizza for dinner - first time in 6 or 8 months! and K did the most gambolic little pizza dance when Chris opened the door to the delivery man :)

Giraffe ears and cabbagey bras

Despite not having breastfed for 4 weeks I think I may have a blocked milk duct... so tucked a cabbage leaf into my bra. No joke, it does work! Decided to accessorise the cabbage with giraffe earrings and drove K to kindy. C was devastated that we didn't take the stroller. I announced we were off to kindy and he dashed over to the stroller and tried to climb in over the side... an exercise doomed to failure as he's not tall enough.. thus the devastation. As I have only 40% lung capacity back I wasn't! On Monday Emma was going to come and visit. TYPICALLY I succumbed to some stupid 24 hour virus and spent all morning and most of monday afternoon asleep while my poor frazzled, also sick, hubby stayed home from work. The herculean task of minding the boys was enough to doom the poor man. Despite dragging himself into work on tuesday he was banished home by his manager. And on wednesday he hardly left his bed. Luckily I was able to struggle on after my massive snoozathon on Monday. It helped that Tuesday was K's long kindy session too! Happily I now just have a deep hacking cough to ensure I don't indulge too much in the drug known as "sleep". After kindy today I took the boys to Nakita's for a quick visit. K loves visiting Nakita and had a blast. However it did mean that C was desperate for his nap when we got home. I dashed inside, rustled up a bottle and C bolted up the stairs... he was asleep in under 6 minutes lol. While he was succumbing to Morpheus's song I heard K pad quickly up the stairs and into the toilet, follwed by hand washing. He does very well with wee in the toilet, and we have promised him an ice cream for every poo in the toilet. Today, he delivered! I was thrilled and called Chris at work so his son could relate the thrilling details.... there were 4! It went SPLASH SPLASH etc. Heeheehee. K is interested in learning to read. As tomorrow is payday I am going to check out some learning to read/preschool prep books at the local $2 shops and get him a few. I pulled out the easel and chalks and the boys and loving it. C especially loves K being at Kindy as he gets to happily draw without interruptions lol. Just finished reading Patricia C Wrede's latest - is the sequal to 13th child and it is the awesomesauce! Cameron only summoned me to the bedroom at 5am today - normally this is around midnight or 2am so I was thrilled. I would have been more thrilled had I been able to sleep - deep hacking coughs kept me awake much of the night sob sob. Scrubbed out the bathroom and toilet while Cameronbear splashed in the tub this morning, so you can imagine my angst when K ran upstairs saying he had wee'd... I sent him into the bathroom - tiled floors rather than carpet - and went downstairs to mop up. No wee. Came back into the bathroom and K's wide eyes stared at me as a puddle of wee circled his feet. It was my fault for telling him to stay put I guess, he did try to exit the bathroom, but I had visions of wee footprints across the carpet and chided him sternly. Sigh. Then Cameronbear launched himself at his potty as I unrobed his nethers to deal with a real stinker of a nappy. The bathroom tiles, and a towel, took yet another hit for the team. I squalled like a Siamese in a rainstorm, and sulkily cleaned the floor again while K lolled in the bath and C hopped up and down like a deranged baboon - teething almost always means a blistered bottom for Cbear... and yowsa, today's was a beaut. It was no surprise that the warm water was anathema to his blazing bottom!

There's a Rugby World what?

And for a month and a half? Oy!

Glorious Day

I had such an amazing day today. It was another warm sunny Spring day and we just rocked. We headed out to Playcentre at 9:15 - a little late, but never mind and the boys just loved it. At one stage they were sitting at the piano "playing" side by side. It was too sweet for words. Once home they noodled about and then cuddled in the garden while they ate ice cream. The ice cream was a reward for Kieran doing his first poo in the toilet and for Cameron taking his first 5 steps. K then followed this up with another effort - yay for my boy. Cam had a nap afterwards and Chris arrived home just before the little bear awoke. We headed out to the library and picked up a kit to teach children french. Fingers crossed! Then we headed to the playground and enjoyed the last of the day. After dinner, I tried to bath Cam but he dashed over to the potty and firmly parked his bottom on it while brushing his teeth lol. That 8th tooth is almost visible now! Happy splashings ensued and the boys are now happily snoozing, with Bandit snoozing upon K's bed, and we have had such a happy, laughing, loving day. I love my life :)

A day of firsts....

Today dawned bright and sunny and I leapt into action.... by the time 8:20 rolled around I had done a load of washing and hung it out, fed and dressed the boys, washed the dishes and we were ready to hit the road. K was dropped at kindy at 8:35 and C and I headed home to wash the floors and move furniture for Kinect purposes. It took freaking ages! Sadly, just as I got the floor by the door washed, C crawled in, paws muddy from where he had been busily digging up a pot. Within seconds the clean floor devolved into a sea of mud.... he was booted back out into the sunshine with his toys (and the doors shut this time) while I got back down on my knees and scrubbed the floor clean.... again! Luckily I had Les Mis blasting away so grumpy howls from outside didn't distract me... after all, Bandit has a perfectly good catdoor, and doesn't need the garden door open 24/7 lol. At 11:30 C pounded on my legs and shrieked like a bansidhe... his signal that he is tired and wants to sleep. I had NO CHOICE (dang it) but to collect K early from kindy. He had baked a scone and nestled it against his chest for the ride home. You should have heard the shrieks when he ate it all, and didn't share any with his baby brother. Yowsa. C was promptly tucked into bed and was asleep by 12:30.... and slept for 2 hours - nice! K stampeded up the stairs and delivered his first poo into the toilet. Much fuss was made and congratulations proffered :) Isabelle and her brood came over around 3ish - finding us at the playground, and we then had our kinect playdate... C then topped off the day by walking 5 steps - all by himself! Proud mummy moment :) The boys have been playing together so nicely recently, although this devolves on K's part in the evenings... You can definitely tell which child had the nap - that's for sure!

Bunny and Teddy and Peter the Lion

Monday was going to be visiting Emma's - alas, the packing up prepatory to the movers coming exciting than expected so we will be doing that next week instead. We headed out for a nice walk instead and enjoyed the sunshine/lack of rain. On Tuesday it was K's long kindy session - and K is now on the shortlist for the long Wednesday session - may it come soon! On Wednesday the kindy is having a photo day. Naturally K went dressed to the nines...in a Lightning McQueen jacket and tatty jeans lol. The Spring weather so far has been glorious - 3 lovely sunny days, lots of washing done, and plenty of outside time for the boys. On wednesday we sauntered up to the library and visited the pet shop. Both K and C were entranced by the budgies. I would almost have caved and suggested we buy a bird to Chris if Bandit and his "sharp sharp teeth" were not around lol. We hit up the $2 shop for balloons and an inflatable globe to teach K some geography, then headed off to the playground and blew bubbles. I also started teaching K how to sound out letters/words as the first step in reading. Cameron has not been idle. My delightful little bear is cutting tooth number 8, and is now descending the stairs with all the grace of a prima ballerina, then ascending them, then descending them, then... you get the idea lol. A new entrant to the Bedtime Buddies Team was sourced from the Op Shop... a tatty lion. K named him Peter the Lion. I have no idea why lol. So we are a happy bunch here at Chez Seal, except for Chris, who is apparently STILL jetlagged. Meh, I just say he's using any excuse to skive off the chores!

Father's Day is upon us!!

And I celebrated by sleeping in. In my defense Chris rose at 6am... and I had spent the evening getting boys bathed and in bed. A present filled with manly treats awaited Chris, along with a cup with photos of the boys on it. Both the boys had made a card for Chris at Playcentre and K wished Chris many happy Father's Days. We had been plannign on going to MOTAT but the weather was rather iffy. Instead Chris and K headed up to the shops and bought snacks and hired dvd's. We watched Gnomeo and Juliet which was surprisingly good! Isabelle and her tribe came over for a bit as she had fleabombed the house. Then later in the afternoon, when it was nice and sunny I offered Chris the choice of cooking his Father's Day dinner or wrangling the boys. The boys and I hit the playground and had a grand old time, while Chris turned a roast chicken into a meal fit for a king! Happy Father's Day sweetie!

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

He's been missed....he'd been home 30 minutes and the house was a tip..... I heard him arrive but was tucked between 2 snoring boys. After 20 minutes or so I extricated myself and dashed downstairs to see my sweetie. Moments later a matey bellow echoed from the top of the stairs where Cameron announced that he'd like to be carried down to see his daddy, if you please mummy!! C was extremely pleased to see Chris, even more so when the fascinating suitcase was opened and clothes tossed in a heap on the floor. C surfed the laundry like a pro! But once more exciting items were pulled out his attention was diverted... and this was when K tiptoed down the stairs and dashed over to his father for a cuddle. Excitement ensued, Cars themed Duplo was sighted and swooned over, then fought over, bags were caressed, Gap hats were worn, clothes oohed over and then breakfast was eaten and we headed out to Playcentre, leaving Chris to get back into the groove of things (ie play games on his pc lol). Once at Playcentre we found K's lost bag...one of the Playcentre girls had found it on the road by PC, recognised it and brought it back - yay!! Now C can use it while K has a spanking new Cars bag. Sadly, the recently purchased Spiderman bag will have to wait in the wings until needed again. Once home the boys cavorted around their father until he had a nap... then we woke him as I was heading out to a PC meeting at 5:30 and we were planning for Chris to stay up with the boys and get then to bed.... well, Chris was asleep at 4, and the boys had to come with me. They didn't appreciate the break in routine, were grumpy as hell, and tired to boot. I was very grateful to get home at 7:30!!

Spring Showers

Winter is over!!! And Spring is here, complete with Spring showers :) However, we did venture out of the house - kindy after all, and a trip to the playground was also attempted. K and C were in high spirits which was all to the good. They are greatly anticipating their father's return tomorrow morning. The dual ear infections have cleared up nicely and sleep is settling into a recognisable pattern. Poor K had nightmare tonight though, he woke every 40 minutes or so with shrieks - which his brother happily ignored lol. Eventually I pulled him out of bed and had a cuddle in our bed as I investigated the cause.... apparently he had been having nightmares about "mummy putting the puzzles away".... hmmmm. I told him if he had a bad dream to come to see me rather than shrieking in bed and tucked him back in after a long cuddle. 10 minutes later a Lightning McQueen pyjama'd figure dashes weeping into the bedroom. I was a little surprised, especially as he recounted his nightmare of his teeth falling down his throat. Lol. More reassurances, and he slept fairly well (very excited to see his daddy) after that.... naturally he slept in the following morning hahaha.