Thursday 30 June 2011

Plumbing

In the literal sense, not in the body sense. We always have some sort of plumbing issue here. Currently i can hear the plumber banging at something outside. All i want to do is go to the toilet, but i'm too paranoid as he's right near the toilet window and what if what i do flushes out into the hole he is trying to fix.
This issue has been going on since we moved in 4 years ago. The kitchen sink blocks up every now and again so DH gets the hose and flushes it out. It absolutely stinks to high heavens. Then it's all fixed...until it blocks up again an a few more weeks..then the process is repeated. So  a few weeks ago Dh did some investigating and pulled up the many pavers surrounding the outside drain, and dug down until he found the pipe connected to the drain. He isn't sure if he hit it or not but there was alot of water there, then whenever we turned the kitchen tap on there was more water. Hmmm. He was none the wiser and called his plumber mate, who took a look and hmmm he was also none the wiser. So the huuuge hole gets cover with a board so the kids don't fall in and that's how it stayed for several weeks. Each day the smell got worse. Picture a field full of portable toilets and each person using them has diarrhoea. Thats the smell. If we're lucky it even wafts through the house. This plumber kept forgetting to come. Hmmm, i wasn't very happy.
Now, about 5 weeks later, he is finally here.


Our other issue is the main water pipe. A couple years ago i woke up one morning to a hissing sound. It was about 4am and I thought shit, the bathroom tap was left on. So i went to turn it off. It already was. So i bust my brain wondering where this noise is coming from. I look out the window to smell for gas, i go into the kitchen to check the taps and dishwasher. Nothing. Nothing at all. I go back to bed and tell dh. He says it's in my head, probably just the aircon, and to go back to sleep. Wake up at my usual time and still hear it. Had my shower and told dh it's the sound liek the toilet has flushed but the button wasn't pushed properly so hasn't stopped flushing. Dh was convinced it was jsut the water from the aircon and when he gets time he'll go and turn the tap off to check. I'm thinking nah, it's not that, the air con isn't even on!!About 3 weeks later he goes up on the roof to turn the aircon tap off, and no difference. I knew there woldn't be. He said oh well, don't know. About a week after that he went to check the gas bottle level and notice there was a puddle of water but cold see bubbles in the puddle, and knew there was a pipe near there so he investigated.His investigated discovered a leak in a pipe. UH OH!!!!
We ring a plumber to come IMMEDIATELY...therefore 2 days later lol. They came in the morning and told me it's a small leak so would only take an hour or less to fix. 7 hours later they leave to let me knwo they still have more to do!WTF?? Well because it's a copper pipe, it's rusted, so each time they fix a section, then turn the water back on the next section busts. We've still got the temporary pipe there over 1 year later as it costs too much to get it all done properly.  A few weeks later we got the water bill. Imagine the cost when the pipe has been leakign full time for abotu 4 weeks. Next time i hope dh will reaaaally listen to me when i say i hear running water.

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Afternoon fun with Miss 4



It all started with Miss 4 doing some threading with a bargain pack of $2 beads with threading string. She made me a necklace and a bracelet and insisted i wear it, so i agreed. I looked at the circumference of this necklace and thought, hmmm that will fit around my neck, but getting it over my head could prove difficult. I suggested Miss 4 wear it instead as my head is a tad too bit. But no, she was determined to have me wear it. So I slowly stretch it thinking yes yes it's going to fit over my head ....then all of a sudden...pop, pop. pop..it snapped!!Beads flew all over the kitchen. The look on Miss 4's face was priceless. She started to tremble and her bottom lip quivered. So to distract her i laughed, then laughed some more and said Oh dear, silly mummy!! She lightened up then and laughed herself. We picked up the beads together and proceeded to make another necklace. From there I asked Miss 4 if she wanted me to help her clean her room and she did. Once in there we started doing a mix and match puzzle from her fairy book. We had to actually cut out the pieces, then i laminated them then re cut them and we mix and matched the princess. Then made mini puzzles from the book. It was so much fun. Miss 4 waited patiently for the laminator to heat up, then she even put the sheet in it. She was so proud of herself. I then decided to get her a colouring in book to colour in a picture which we created into her very own puzzle. I told her how much fun I was having with her and i honestly wish we could do that every day. Just an hour of quality time i'd really really love.

Child Locks and safety gates

I've heard of people who don't use these...ever, at all. I'd love to be one of those people. We've spent a fortune in locks and gates. We have very inquisitive children, who like to see, taste, hear, feel, eat, and know EVERYTHING. They have so much potential for when they get older as they Will always be wanting to do and know more. But right now I can't keep up. We have locks on the kitchen drawers. This came about from the time Miss 4 who was 2 at the time, got a serrated knife out and attempted to slice her brothers head. He escaped with a s superficial wound.
We've tried every lock available for the fridge. I had to do this as one day as I was cooking french toast for the kids, i had my back turned, and thought the kids were playing nicely. As time went on I thought wow, they're so quiet. I creep down the hallway and they've cracked about 5 eggs  and rubbed them into the carpet. They also had a block of cheese and were happily taking bites out of that. So, out we went to buy a lock. Then another one, and a few weeks later yet another one. Not only are our kids inquisitive but they are also determined and persistent (all the traits of a spirited child), and they worked out how to undo every single shop bought fridge lock. A few months ago I had enough. I told DH we have to do something because my stress levels were rising. We took a trip to bunnings and a few hours later i'm already less stressed

Yes, we've screwed a lock onto it, and have a combination lock. Unfortunately i DO know the combination so it doesn't keep me out of the fridge. I do HATE having so much control over the fridge but the kids do tell me when they're hungry and I prepare a container for each of them with food in it to eat during the morning. Over all though it's less stressful yay!!
We'd just gotten to a stage where we didn't need all the locks on the drawers, then bub could stand and her favourite past time is to open the drawer with the cling wrap, and al foil and unwrap them all. She does have full access to the plastic cups and plates cupboard and she loves it. She will stack the cups into each other. We did allow her access to the bottom drawer with saucepan lids in it however she kept sitting in it and we were worried 1. about her falling out...which did happen and she got yet another head bruise, 2. that the drawer will break. So we;ve had to stop her and she gets very frustrated when she can't open it.
As for gates, we've had quite a few and they've moved from doorframe to doorframe as needed. The kids can of course open these with ease but it's more so bub can't enter a certain area.
Some people say it's not teaching the child limits or boundaries etc by preventing them access to everything, but in my opinion it's making the area safe for them to be children without me having to be negative and say no and don't all the time. Instead we can focus on doing other stuff and remaining positive. The only thing i struggle with is the fridge at other people's house lol !! I do have to stop them from eating food out of other people's houses. At least I know they feel comfortable at friends houses hehe.

Tuesday 28 June 2011

something cute

The other night Miss4 came out of her room ( she was meant to be going to sleep lol) and got a tissue. We said ok, good night now, love you.
Later on as I went to bed myself i like to tuck all the kids in and give them a kiss. Little did we know what Miss4 really did with her tissue.......

Getting Dressed

It's a part of the day we all must face unless we stay in our pj's (providing we even wear pj's) or we walk around with no clothes on. I like to be organised and have my clothes ready at the end of the bed the night before so all i have to do is grab those in the morning to take to the shower. I used to put the kdis clothes out but found it didn't really make a difference and often miss s wouldn't like what i chose lol. Being such an independent little miss s 4 yr yr old she liked to choose her own clothes and she has also started dressing herself a few months ago. I"m so so proud of her. i love her choice of clothes, it really shows th etype of person she is...carefree with a touch of daggyness, but very much her own style . i hope this sticks with her and she she remains the happy go lucky girl she is. She'll often come out wearing tracksuit pants (because i tell her in winter to wear long pants), and she has a skirt her Grandma sewed for her over the top. i also remind her to wear long arms as it is cold, but she has favourite t shirts. The other day i said she can wear the t shirt but she still needs a warm jumper. Next thing she came out with a hoodie jacket on, with a tshirt OVER the top of it. She looked so cute. She was comfortable so i lfet it exactly that way!
As for little man, he has his own style too...his way or the highway. We fight nearly evry morning about getting dressed. Gradually we are getting better. He (well all our children and myself) are spirited. I think one of his biggest challenges is change, and adapting to this. getting dressed is change. I try to do it at the smae time every day but so far that hasn't helped. He also has favourites, but unlike miss s it is very hard to compromise with him. He has a tshirt and a jumper that have writing on teh front, that look like dad's clothes, so they are his favourites. He calls them his work clothes lol. Jeans are his favourite too, but jsut this week i've managed to get him into tracksuit pants without him protesting and taking them off. It;s the same with undies. Its taken a good 6 months to get him to wear undies and not protest but he also has his favourties of them.And socks...has to be his monkey socks or star socks, not his stripey socks. He doenst like them at all.Lastly....shoes. He has this little pair of black shoes. He loves them. Wears them everywhere. Only problem is they are too small. I took him to the shop at the start of winter to choose a pair of shoes. After much crying and saying no to everything i showed him he finally settled on a nice pair of brown boots. We wore them for a few days then suddenly....nope, he wanted his little blck shoes again. Bugger , why didn;t i just throw them out. So i've squuezed his little feet into his black shoes. Today however, i can't find the black shoes. I do wonder if hubby threw them out. Ds was hesitant to put his boots on but he did in the end.
And as for bub. it's never easy dressing a baby. Bub hates sitting still, which i do understand but she does need to get dressed. The hardest bit is trying to change her pooey bum when she's flipped over on to her belly then wriggles away. The best part about changing her is seeing her bare little skin and blowing raspberries on her. So so adorable. Night time is a challenge after her bath. She hates that the most. Usually i swap dh and i dress her as i have slightly more patience than him. She wears alot at night so it takes slightly longer. I give her toy after toy on her change table, which she;ll chew for a while, then throw...if i ever have no toys left i jsut look under the change table .We have one of those musical toys that you haang on cots, hung on the change table instead. It;s a rainforest with monkeys, etc and bub can push the button as it's right next to her and she watches it light up and the animals move, and the music plays. She;s very clever to do that I think.
So there is getting dressed...I've heard as kids get older it gets harder...hmmmm, hope not.

Monday 27 June 2011

The Car

I know this seems like a silly subject to post about. But I like to make things stress free, and i will mull over thigns over and over and change them around until i have the solution that works...like when i changed the bedrooms around.
We own a hyundai trajet...not the one pictured but it looks like that. 2 seats in the front, 2 in the middle with an aisle, then 3 in the back. At the moment i've got dd2(bub) in the middle on the passenger side, dd1 also in the middle, then ds on the passenger side in the back. The problem is doing ds's seatbelt up. i either have to get in the car getting inbetween the 2 middle seats or twist my body around to do him up from reaching into him from behind bubs chair.
Every day seems to be a drama getting into the car. The older 2 have to climb in then if miss s doesn't go into her seat little man can't get past then they have a fight, or he'll get distracted by then and move into the front and play with the hazard lights. I'm constantly saying come on get into your seats, alternating between a nice quiet voice or a yelling voice,  the whole time trying to do up (bub). Finally they get in their seats but one of them is crying by now. Then to make it more fun they want to turn the lights on above their seats. I'm quite paranoid about this now as once i forgot to turn them off and then next day i left 10minutes before my Dr appointment to discover the battery was flat. I had to pile the kids into the pram, attach the pram skateboard then walk extremely quickly. So I have to let them play the game of turn the light on, but extend it to now lets turn it off so we don't have to walk to the dr again.
By now i'm letting out a huge sigh of relief that they are finally in their seats but then feel so guilty for yelling at them and promise myself i won't do it again. So then i hop in my seat and pull faces at the kids to get their smiles and laughter back and contemplate how i can make this less stressful. I'm thinking to jsut pull the middle seat miss s sits in, forward and put her seat in the back row again. Who knows. Maybe a sedan would've been easier despite the fighting with them all sitting togehter. lol .At least in the trajet they can't reach each other. It'll be great when they can all just walk in themself and do their own buckles up. Maybe one day i'll jsut not feel stressed about getting into the car and all will be good :)

Sunday 26 June 2011

WASHING

We all have to do it and I bet we don't all love it. I used to love it. Don't ask me why. We got a new clothesline when dd1 was born. There was something fulfilling about hanging out tiny little baby girls clothes in the nice warm sun. It was only 3 of us back then so washing only had to be done every 3 days or so. Then we had 2 kids. So i used to leave the kids inside (as it was too cold early in the morning) to hang out the wash. This was before they realised they could fight with each and need to be watched 24/7 lol. I didn't mind too much as it was a time out sort of tehing and relaxing. Now i wash every day. If i don't then the next day i have to do 2 loads. I usually do a kids load one day, adult load anothe rday. Bedsheets and towels get doen whenever. We never have enough pegs for 2 loads because the kids usually take them and fill up their trailers or wheelbarrows with them. Or i drop them and the dog eats them, or the flip off the clothesline as i take the clothes off and land in the bush in teh little garden. It'd be great to have pegs that stick to the clothesline but don't weather in the sun and snap. I'm not one of those that hangs wash in any particular fashion, as long as it dries i'm happy. however when i get it in i get it off the line and put it in the basket in different piles...if it's a kids washing day i'll have 3 piles, one for each child. that way when i go to put t away it's already in a pile. I do'nt iron, it's pointless i feel. Of course i do iron for special occassions (not very often thank God). I don't fold very well either because i've done so so many times to have the kids pull out all their clothes while they are trying to find that special jumper or something. So i do a quick sort of fold so it looks a bt neat but that's all. Sinc it's so cold lately i've actually started washing at night then putting it in the dryer. I've heard it's cheaper at ngiht. The idea is to then pack it away the next morning...does it happen though?? not vry often. But it does save going outside in less than 4 degree's early in the morning. And ic an't take the kdis out that early when there is ice on everything but they fight when inside, and if i hang it out later when the ice is gone it won't dry as it's too cold during the day. hence why using the dryer is alot more effective. althoguh by doing it this way i can't put it into special piles once dry. Gosh who ever thought there there was so much involved with a simple load of wash. I'm glad I'm not the type of person who colour codes pegs etc.

This weekend

I've always pictured weekends as different than weekdays. Probably because when i worked it was literally the end of the week and i could relax and well pretty much do anything. Now i always think yep that's the time we'll do something nice together or the one day i won't do any . LOL! washing maybe not. Washing always piles up, no such thing as a day off. so there goes that idea of no wash on the weekend. then hubby usually works on a saturday morning, well lately he has. so it's the same as a weekday here. but it still feeeels different, can't explain why. Today was church for me and miss s(4 yrs old). I was on the music roster so i usually just go with her rather than all of us going. I stayed longer than expected but that was ok. But then i had an idea of going to the park. My idea was a park with swings etc, hubby's was the park where the kids could ride their bikes and scooters around. We wouldn't all fit in the dual cab so hubby then had to take the seat out of the car in order to fit the bike in ( i hope he remembers to put it back in). The kids did have fun, but hopefully go to a proper park next time. Poor little bub( 1 in 2 weeks time) couldn't do much at all except run around lol. She had a ball though. Groceries are done on the weekend too. I really think supermarkets have the wrong idea as you put things in the trolley, get them out again, then put them back after you've paid, then get them out to put in your car, then get them out again. My sister, and a friend and i came up with the idea of just having it scanned once you put it in the trolley and if you change your mind then there's a section at the end of each aisle to put unwanted items and it automatically unscans.
My sister and her kids visited this weekend. Only 3 out of 4 came. The kids had heaps of fun playing together. miss s and nephew 2 (aged 3) and 2 peas in a pod and they run around crazily. They think the same and understand each other. Home time is never fun as we can't separate them. miss s went home with aunty m to have dinner and a bath. Next thing i know she wants to sleep over. Her first sleep over resulted in her crying and wanting to be picked up so we were a bit hesitant. We agreed though to see how she'd go. she was so so excited and said she would not cry or get upset at all. By 8pm she was unable to get to sleep so i went to pick her up. she remained happy but just wanted her own bed. she was asleep within minutes. I know that the next time she goes there she will pester me for a sleep over yet again lol.
At the moment, this weekend like a few others have been taken up with hubby doing up his old ute in order to sell it and get better money for it. It does drive me nuts a bit as little man (3 yrs) always wants to be with him but then he gets into everything and makes hubby's job harder and it takes him even longer which then drives me more nuts. i can't wait til the ute is sold and hubby can spend time inside.have to admit though for someone who isn't a car person he is doing a great job and the ute looks fantastic so far!
I think the thing with weekends is that during the week i'm at home with the kids and the minute weekend hits i see it as my chance for us all to get out of the house. I forget the fact that hubby has been out of the house all week and sees it as his chance to be home.

June 2011

The minute we conceive our child we embark on an incredible journey of love, happiness, excitement, fear, anxiety, sadness and lots more as we grow to know the little person we created. No one says it's easy, but no one exactly prepares you for how hard it is. Hard because you always want the best for your child/children and you constantly analyze what you do and hope and pray it will help them positively through their life.
Some days are absolute bliss and you could easily relive them over and over. Those are days the children rarely fight, and do as they are told, and a general happy mood is felt all around. Other days you want to pack your suitcase and catch the first flight to the top of Australia to go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef and forget you were ever a parent. Not possible though i know!!
There are constant feelings of joy, frustration, sadness etc. They can come in many forms, and happen in a split second.  Joy can be from watching your child playing happily with her toys, or the excitement you see on your sons face after he's been the the rugby with dad, or just watching your baby sleep so peacefully. Frustration can come from when the children fight, or when one of them chooses to wear shorts and a t shirt in the middle of winter....not only are you frustrated that he won't listen to you but you are also frustrated at yourself for not packing those clothes away to reduce that temptation for your child, the moment ice started appearing on the grass outside. Sadness comes across for all different reasons. An overwhelming sadness came over me just the other day when i was holding my baby who is soon to be 1. I remembered endless nights of patting her and trying to get her burps up, and just how tiny she was. I realised at that moment I would never do that again. I don't think i felt as sad with my other 2 as i was already pregnant by the time they turned 1. The worst sadness i have felt so far is losing a baby when i was 16weeks pregnant. It's a sadness that you just can't describe to anyone. No one prepares you for any of these emotions, or tells you you may feel all of these in the short time of a day, even half a day. All of it worth it however because you love your child unconditionally no matter how hard or easy or frustrating a day you have had.
My parenting journey started in May 2006 when i discovered i was pregnant with my first child. She was  not planned at all (planned in the fact we hoped we;d have children together one day, but not planned for that time)The minute i knew i was pregnant my life changed, i was no longer my own person, i was now responsible for this baby and myself. Life as i knew it would never be the same again but i wouldn't change it for the world!