The Prince and the Poozle

Once upon a time there lived a Queen. Kind, virtuous and friendly she spread cheer and delight everywhere she went (shut up! It's MY fairytale, ok!). One happy day she kissed a frog and lo and behold he was a prince. They married, and in the fullness of time he acquired enough information on her to blackmail her into having a baby, er, I mean they celebrated their love by having a child! Yes, that's it!! The Queen was worried one day that the young prince - we shall call him "Prince" from now on :P was not getting over his nappy rash as quickly as one of Royal blood should (she had dire suspicions about the froggish genes - but more on that later!). One sunny Spring day the Prince was released from his nappy and allowed to frolic about the verdant grounds of the castle gardens. After ten minutes or so the Queen hastened off to order the royal naptime bottle be prepared for the Prince and on her return to the glass encased viewing platform was appalled to see the Prince apparently exploring his future as a mime trapped in an invisible box. Horror overtook her when she realised that the Prince had found a Poozle ( a disgusting, smelly and sadly prolific beast, banned by law from entering the Queen's demesne) and had beaten it to death with his bare fists before smearing its gooey carcass on the windows as a warning for other poozle law breakers. The Queen's shock, and the stench, was indescribable! Dashing outside, she fended off the Prince's besmeared hands as he sought to clasp her to his bosom and reached for the wetwipes and the hose. Alas, the vile poozle clung tenaciously to the Prince's person and the Queen resorted to hosing him down , while he danced triumphantly on the slowly eroding carcass of his victim. As the Prince enjoyed a long thorough shower, he knew that he was a warrior as valiant as his father, who indeed had performed similar feats in his youth. And they all lived happily ever after :P

Riverprance

Today, Friday, I am walking K down to the playground near the library. And, because I am not a complete fool, I am going to take the stroller. I WAS going to take Leviathan but Chris drove it into work today. I have to admit, it is better for him to drive it into Auckland and park than for me to drive through rush hour to meet up with him this evening. We have Chris's work do on and I am very pleased to have a night out haha. K bustled madly about this morning in a positive frenzy of gift giving. I wound up with 2 loaf tins, 4 muffin trays, 4 bowls, 2 shoes and a spatula - and all before breakfast! We left the house whistling a merry tune, a tune that died on our lips as we began to ascend the hill only to hear the pitter-patter of Siamese paws racing after us. Sigh, so we turned around and walked Bandit home and locked him into the house, fleeing as fast as legs and wheels would carry us. Problem is, Bandit would follow us all the way up the hill, but would become more and more scared, and the meowing gets louder and louder - so its easier to backtrack and lock him away :P

On our way to the park we saw a cat perched on the park sign. K was thrilled. He had just admired some snowdrops(onionweed) and now this friendly cat was twining around the stroller - begging him to pet it. So he did. Lots. Much later we continued our walk to the playground. K laughed the entire time he was there, running around, and crawling through tunnels and spinning around on the grass. After some women and their seriously awful kids arrived I whisked us off to the library. K descended from the stroller and came face to face with a little Japanese girl. Nonplussed for a moment he then leaned forward and gave her a hug. She smiled so he gave her another hug, considered her for a long moment, and with a beaming smile pulled the dora the explorer phone out of her hand :) They had a wonderful time playing together with the beads, and he even held her hand again - what a Lothario! I found a wonderful book for K at the library - you may have heard of it.. Little Black Sambo. I am guessing I will be doing some editing as I read it aloud to K!! On the way home from the library we popped into the vege shop where I procured a capsicum for his majesty. We rolled home with K munching on a capsicum and twirling his toes in the sunlight. Passers-by were most edified. Pics are on Facebook :)

K now does the cutest little dance where he leaps up and down , on tiptoe, on the spot. He loks, and sounds, just like a Riverdance cast member. I was trying to get him to do it this morning so Chris could see - and he did! Chris thought it was gorgeous too!

Screw it!

Last night K accosted me as I was carrying recycling items out the door in the pouring rain. He claimed the 3litre milk bottle and began stroking it with possessive pride. For K, milk is crack :)

He then began trying to work out how to unscrew the lid. To our horror he not only managed to unscrew the lid - he managed to screw it back on again. Now, nothing in the pantry is safe :(

Headed out Wednesday morning for the Vit D appointment and managed to dodge the many rubbish trucks on the road long enough to get there hehe. We then swung into Mainly Music and K had an awesome time. We headed off home so K could around around the house like a maniac and play with the cat, and scrounge around in the garden and - oh, yes - actually HAVE A NAP!! We hit the library after he woke up to find some new books for him - lucky wee devil!

On Thursday we scrambled about getting ready for coffeegroup. Like a fool I decided to drive. I parked up by the mad butcher so I could pick up some meat on the way home. I trudged halfway to the Plunket rooms and couldn't remember if I had locked the car -aaargh. Cursing silently (as I was carrying a heavy haffalump) I backtracked. Yes, I HAD locked it. I decided to pop into the mad butcher and grab the meat on the way, did this with K shrieking in joy at the sight of the ready to drink flavoured milk cartons, and fled. I then got to stand outside the rooms for almost 10 minutes waiting for someone to arrive and unlock them. Not normally a problem, except when one has a writhing, squirming child in your arms of course!!

Bend it like Kieran

We had a busy day today. I asked Chris to look after K this morning while I showered and got us sorted for a 9am departure. The alarm went off and K was still asleep. Chris leaned over and whispered lovingly in my ear "Get your arse out of bed and into the shower before Kieran wakes up" I ignored him and pretended I was dead. He got up about 15 minutes later and went off to the stygian depths of the PC room. At around 7:20 I reluctantly hauled myself out of bed and into the shower. Just as I stepped out of the shower into the frigid air of the bathroom the door was flung open (accompanied by an icy gust of air!!) and K, carried by his minion - an ill favoured sort if ever I saw one, entered the Water Playroom. Despite K's enjoyment of the shower he was out, dried, dressed, fed and even had time to watch Bob the Builder and the Wiggles before we left for Playgroup at 9:15.

Once there K could not contain his excitement and poked about everywhere before kicking a ball around the fort in the style of Beckham himself. After this activity palled the sandpit beckoned - and we spent an hour digging about and crawling through the sand. Every so often he would rise up from crawling through the sandcastles I was making for him and throw his arms around me for a cuddle - and smearing me with sand and effluvia :) We coloured in a pumpkin and then headed off to the library and vege shop. I am knackered!! Once home and fed I stripped K off in preparation for a shower to wash off all the sand. Instead, K scooted out of the garden door and cavorted about with Bandit, clad only in a nappy. Ay ay ay! While chasing around after the boys I noticed that the Mulberry tree we bought to celebrate K's birth is leafing out and has 2 tiny mulberries on it - too cool! Have loaded pics up on FB too - enjoy :)

Tomorrow I have the Vit D appointment and then Mainly Music. K will have an awesome time playing with the toys. Me, I am thinking wistfully of a nap!

It's better to give

... than to receive. This is the mantra that Kieran lives his life by. Over the last few weeks Kieran has determined that I have a horrifying lack of presents in my life, and has set about to rectify this with verve and enthusiasm! As I am bustling about in the kitchen after feeding a wriggleweasel I feel a tugging on my dressing gown. This used to mean "Mum, mum, turn around and pick me up, mum, mum, quick! Pick me up NOW!" This forceful tugging now means "Mother dearest, should you choose to cast your eyes towards the floor you will see a small sprig of chivalry, hopefully holding out a gift to tempt even the jaded palates of the gods" (if the gods favour bakeware and plastic food anyway). I accept the gift with ecstatic cries of joy and shower little lord fauntleroy with compliments about his good sharing, profusely thanking him for his gift. I then try to gift it back to him. With a twinkle in his eye reminisent of St Nick on Christmas Eve he bustles off towards the toy box/pantry/bookshelf to search out a new and appropriately wonderful gift. What a little sweetheart :)

Headed off to Mainly Music today. I was stressed cos I looked at my watch after a last minute nappy change and saw that it was 9:40am. This was bad as I had planned to leave at 9:15 so K could play with toys and get used to the venue/people. As I hit Summerlands drive I saw Rachel's car directly in front of me. Too cool :) The session was alright - except for the human limpet clamped to my torso. Partway through the session a huge sack of teddybears was brought out for a song, causing the limpet to uncurl and take an interest in the session. I sensed trouble but was helpless to prevent the disaster I looming ahead. Sure enough, despite the organiser's pleas for the children to have "just ONE teddy" I amassed 12 teddy's next to me. Beaming with pride K bustled off to dig about in the sack for a stuffed toy which was carried ceremoniously across the floor (again, and again, and again...) to where I cowered against the back wall, ready to receive my bounty. He was so thrilled with himself. My usual Mainly Music session is better. It is a toy library so it has better and more toys, the space is much much larger and there are more people - oh, and it is cheaper too! Always a bonus. We headed home and I let K bustle about while I got his bottle prepped and changed his nappy since he had been making tired noises. Tired noises my rear end! I popped him into the cot at 11:45am... he fell asleep at 1:33... and woke up at 3:50 - destroying my afternoon plans of a walk up to the library and playground. Instead, I spread towels across the floor and let him run around buck naked to air the nappy rash- still nasty and painful, but there are now patches of healed skin - booya! Tomorrow I am heading off to Oratia playgroup so hopefully we have another gorgeous sunny day like today.

Water Warrior

SQUEEEEE!!

I tried on my size 14 swimming costume - and it FITTED!!! It is the one I bought years ago in Australia. Mum and I must have gone into every costume shop in Surfer's. We wound up in Myers as they were having a 40% off sale, and I finally (4 hours later) found this costume for $60. Booya!

We bustled about this morning and got to the pools around 9:40am. We hit the water, and Kieran... pitched a fit. It has been so long since his last time at the pools that he wasn't at all sure about things. He cheered up and embraced the water experience after 30 minutes and we got to cavort in the toddler pool and spa pool for nearly 2 hours. We had to flee the toddler pool near the end of out session when a little boy turned around and dropped his swim nappy before swinging it triumphantly in a threatening manner above his head.

I have decided that I need to take K swimming more often. Might have to do it on a Tuesday or Friday - my only free days. Friday could be good.

Tomorrow I am switching around my playgroup day to go to Mainly Music in Henderson with Rachel. This week will be pretty full on. Monday- MM, tuesday - Playgroup, wednesday - Vit D and MM, thursday - coffeegroup and Friday - FREE!!

Sleeping shenanigans

On friday K and I did .... nothing. We were supposed to have a playdate with #8 but K's undercarriage was so blistered and raw - and his cold so freshly developed - that we stayed home instead. All. Day. We had some nappy free time where he promptly wee'd all over the carpet and some colouring in, we watched Cars, and we played with blocks and plastic food. The best part about the day was Chris coming home. Chris coming home is always a highlight of the day for K and I.

Garth, Kym and Alex came around for lunch today. We had a cranberry and apple stuffed roasted chicken, and they brought a carrot cake for dessert. It was great to catch up though the weather packed up and turned pretty damn cold. They fled around 2... I think they were fleeing the icebox of our lounge :P K fell asleep at 12:40 and woke up at 4!!!!! Mein Gott!! How come this never happens during the week! Which was fortunate as I had a little nap myself - ah, nana naps, where would we be without them!

Tomorrow we head off to the pools. It is the coffeegroup catchup. Chris is coming along as he has never been to the pools with K and he can enjoy some time with K doing his merbaby impersonation. Now I just have to find my swimming costume - and hopefully I can avoid poking out my eyes after seeing myself in togs in the mirror. Aaaaiieee.