6 more sleeps.....

OMG! There's only 6 more sleeps!! *wails* I'm not ready!! Well, I kinda am but not really. It just seems to have crept up w-a-a-a-y too soon this year. Might have something to do with the fact that it's my turn to host? Not sure. All I know is that my youngest sister and her family are on their way up the freeway as I type (yippee!), my mum arrives on Saturday and we're good to go then. Bring on the feasting, baby!

A has been on leave for a week now......any takers?? Seriously, he's gonna drive me batty before the holidays are over! Thankfully school hasn't finished.....yet. 2 more days, as J reminds me. He's keeping count. NOT that he's doing anything at school now, they had an excursion to the movies today, watching DVD's tomorrow and having a full-school trip to the pool on Friday. What a life! We never did anything like that when I was a kid.

N has her final day at preschool tomorrow.....I'm a bit sad. Yet more proof that my baby is growing up. That and the losing of the baby teeth. She's lost her second one now. She's all excited to be starting "big school" in January, in fact she thought she was starting next week. After Santa comes. Coz that's what we told her. Oops....didn't think that one through!

On the festive front, I've got my tree up (now I know why Mum always preferred to do it while we were at school!), got the house lights up, started on the wrapping....have to retrieve the kids layby on Friday so guess what I'll be doing all weekend?? Yep, wrapping. D'oh. That's what I get for leaving it to the last minute, I suppose.

How about you? All done??

Aargh!! December, where did you come from??

I blinked, and here I am in December! A arrived home on Saturday after 3 weeks away with work.....and boy, am I glad to have another adult in the house! You don't realise how nice it is having someone around until they're not. Just the little things, inane conversations, general sounding-board, nothing special. Just another person! Poor guy, he's been working nights for 7 out of the last 8 weeks and barely slept a wink last night, his bodyclock is all out of whack. And just for fun, he gets to do 2 days of dayshift (starting at 7am) before he starts his Christmas leave on Wednesday. I'm so glad that he's the type of guy who doesn't need his wife to get up and get him off to work in the morning.....really glad!! I don't do mornings so well.....

J heads off on his first-ever school camp tomorrow morning, 3 days/2 nights away. He can't wait and, quite frankly, neither can I! He's been nagging me endlessly over the last month and especially over the last week with things that I need to do before he can go on camp. Like pay for it. And pack his bag. Ok, the payment had a deadline, I can live with that. But packing the bag? A week beforehand? I don't think so. I'm a "day before you leave" kind of packer, and that's exactly what I did this afternoon for him. Took about 10mins, no problemo! I just have to drop into the shops before school tomorrow and get a disposable camera for him to take.....and I can't wait to see the results!!

First ballet concert!!

N was in her first ever ballet concert on Sunday night! Woohoo! She loved it! She told me after that she really liked being on stage (uh-oh.....), and there were no tears or nerves from her, so she had a really great time. I got a little teary, of course. Auntie A came with us and she was so proud, it was really lovely. The dancing wasn't fantastic, but what do you expect from a group of 3-5 y.o's? They all looked lovely, and had a lovely time and that's the most important thing. That's not to say that the rest of the dancing wasn't good, it's just pointing out that the babies did the best they could. Hmmm.....that still doesn't sound right! You know what I mean, right?

This was the costume for "You Are So Beautiful". Of course!

This was the costume for Hi-5's "Rainbow Around the World".

*sigh*....My baby's growing up waaaay too fast.....

Ho hum....

Nothing very exciting happening here. A is away with work for the next few weeks....more computer time for me! Yippee!!

N has her very first ballet concert this coming Sunday - how exciting! I think I'll cry. Given that I cried at the dress rehearsal, it's almost a given! A will miss out on this momentous occasion, but he at least was able to come to the dress rehearsal, and I'll buy a copy of the DVD as a keepsake. (I remember all those years ago, as a ballet student, when buying THE VIDEO was a big thing. Now? DVD baby.)

J has his first ever school camp coming up in a couple of weeks, just after A returns so I'm kinda swapping one for the other. Doesn't seem fair!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Steph (http:/4girls4me.blogspot.com) and asked to reveal 7 random facts about myself.....so here goes!

1. I'm addicted to chocolate-covered raspberry bullets.
2. My favourite colour varies but I always seem to come back to blue.
3. I'm left-handed.
4. I hate cooking.
5. I'm the eldest of 3 daughters.
6. My favourite food is prawns.
7. Did I mention I love chocolate??

I'm Back!!

So A blew up the computer last Sunday. Literally! We went to the computer markets to buy some more RAM, brought it home and A opened up the computer, plugged the RAM in (which should have been easy-peasy) then the computer started making a really loud, alarm-like noise and A could smell burning. Promptly pulled the power cord out (which was the only way to shut it down) but it was too late. Where the new stick of RAM had gone was all charred, and some cap had popped on the motherboard. Oh no!! No computer! Poor A, I thought he was gonna cry! I thought I was too when I realised he didn't make a backup before he started.....grrrr!

It's funny, you don't realise how much you come to rely on computers until you suddenly don't have one. Several times that afternoon/evening, we had to remind the kids that they couldn't get on the computer coz it was dead. Several times over the next day or so I found myself wanting to look something up but couldn't.

We discovered, when we took it to the repair shop, that there was also quite a good burn mark inside the motherboard itself, which the guys were rather impressed with....seems they've never seen one fry itself quite like this before!

So quite a bit of money and a week later, we have a new and improved computer. Ours was 5 years old so was ready for upgrading anyway, so here I am. And if I ever catch A taking the back of the computer again, I think I'll chop his fingers off!

Oh, and the person who sold us the memory stick in the first place? Has kindly offered to refund us the money....all $35 of it. And give us another one. Hello? What about my computer? How can I install new memory when the computer is dead??

Moral to the story: When you wish to upgrade ANY part of your computer, save yourself the heartache and just take it back to the shop. Let the experts do it. At least then if they break it, they'll fix it!

The tooth fairy again!!

The tooth fairy has to come here again tonight!! But this time, it's J's turn....

I took the kiddies off to visit the dentist this morning. It's really cool, we have a child dental clinic attached to one of the schools nearby, and it's all covered by Medicare so I don't have to worry about finding $$ if they need treatment. J just needed a checkup, and he has a tooth that's growing down over the baby tooth, so J and the dentist decided that it would be easier if she pulled the tooth. So he had his first ever oral anaesthetic needle, which he took like a champion! When the tooth came out, it didn't take any effort as it turned out to only be half a tooth - the other bit had come away the other day! So now we're negotiating just what half a tooth is worth to the tooth fairy? Last big tooth scored $2, so J figures this has gotta be worth at least $1....I'm not so sure!

N was a real pill when it was her turn. She has a little cavity on the front of one of her eye-teeth (the pointy ones) which had a temporary filling put on about a year ago but that filling has come off so she needs a new one. I really didn't think she'd make a fuss, given that she's had it done before, but I guess she must have forgotten about her last visit and so put on a bit of a performance over it. The dentist even resorted to promising not to use any tools, just to apply the filling like toothpaste (it seems a little like putty), but no. Not today. Or tomorrow. The next available appointment is not until Nov 28, so I hope this tooth doesn't begin to hurt her (too much!).

Of course, later this afternoon, she started thinking about last time when Daddy took her, and how it all went and that it wasn't scary or painful, and decided that she's ready to have her tooth fixed now. Right now. This afternoon. If only it were that easy!

I can understand her fear hesitance, but man it makes it difficult to get things done! No amount of bribery would induce her to take her fists away from her mouth... threats didn't work either!

Stay tuned for Round 2 next month.....

The Garbage Fairy and another 4-leaf clover

Aargh!! The Garbage Fairy struck again!! You may remember a couple of weeks ago, when J brought the bin in before it was emptied? This time N was the culprit. Thankfully, J noticed on his way to school in the morning and we were able to drag it back up to the gutter before the garbage truck came. Phew!

On another note, J has found himself another 4-leaf clover! I've put it in the book with his first one to press, and I'll laminate them for him soon. Boy, I sure hope he gets some mileage out of these!

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I typed up this post yesterday but didn't post it. Glad I didn't coz J found another 4-leaf clover AND a 5-leaf clover after school today! I might have to get him to pick me some Lotto numbers.....



It's bin night again tonight....wish me luck!!

A 4-day Birthday and the Tooth Fairy!

It's been a big weekend! N turned 5 yesterday and we had a birthday party for her at home - a first for all of us! And there's been a lot of cake.....

Wednesday evening saw me frantically making patty cakes after the kids went to bed so N could take them to preschool with her on Thursday (she only goes 2 days per week). All week, all she could talk about was the fact that she would get to sit on the "birthday chair" at school on Thursday, so she was pretty excited. Friday saw the arrival of Grandma, Auntie F and her two little boys. Friday night, Grandma drew the short straw and it was her turn to make cakes so N could take them to share with her ballet class on Saturday morning. Saturday was the actual birthday, and the day of the party. And yet another cake!

Saturday was a fine and sunny day, and the party was scheduled for 2pm, which turned out to be a good thing as there was no way I'd have been ready in time for a morning party! Another reason for an afternoon party was the hope that it'd start to cool down a little as I don't have a single tree to shade my backyard. I hired a jumping castle and it was fantastic. The kids had a really great time on it and things went really smoothly. N had a few of her friends from school, plus her friends who are also the children of my friends, plus her 2 aunties and 2 cousins, and Grandma, who stayed at our house for the weekend! About 15 kids all up. (Auntie F stayed at her mil's about half an hour away. Although she and the boys did stay here on Saturday night, which was a bit of a squeeze, but lovely all the same!) The party officially went for 2 hours, which was plenty of time, and then after the kiddies left, we tidied up a bit, then fired up the BBQ for dinner. The friend who owns the jumping castle stayed on for dinner with her hubby and 3 girls, and that was lovely.....and also meant the castle stayed up for a bit longer! Auntie A had brought her Playstation and Singstar games over so there was a bit of home-grown karaoke after dinner. I can honestly say I've never been interested in karaoke, never had the desire to get up in front of a room full of strangers and pretend like I can sing, but in the privacy of my own home? 'Nuff said...!

Today was a fairly quiet day, after Auntie F and her boys left we just kind of lolled around. N started going through her loot, picking out a few things to try out....man, she got some stuff!

We went down to Nana K's for another BBQ tonight and guess what? N lost her first tooth!! So I guess the tooth fairy's gonna have to put our house on her list of visits for tonight.

All in all, a pretty big weekend for a little girl. Tuesday brings the first orientation day at big school, so that's something to look forward to for this week.

Mum, can I have my ears peeled like yours?

This is what N used to say when she was a toddler and liked to play with my earrings. "Peeled" I thought was pretty cute. And that raised the question of at what age should I get my daughter's ears pierced? Obviously, I'd already decided not to do it when she was a baby. So when? 2-3 yrs still seemed a little young, but I didn't want her to be one of those kids who wasn't "allowed" to have them done until a particular age either....I went to school with a couple of girls who had age limits set on them and it was hard for them, particularly once we got to high school and everyone had them done.

My mum tells me she had mine done when I was about 4 but I was concerned that N would play with them and either hurt them or get an infection or something. Trust me, I'm not usually one of those cotton wool mums! So I decided 5 was a good age. It's a bit of a milestone birthday anyway, what with big school looming and now the tooth fairy getting close.

On account of pre-school photos being taken tomorrow, we decided that today was the day. We went to the hairdressers to enquire about it, N decided that she wanted to go ahead and an appointment was booked for after lunch. In the meantime, we went elsewhere and had haircuts, N all the while telling the hairdresser all her news, what with the loose tooth and the pending ear-piercing and all. Then we went to the jewellers and bought some gold sleepers for her to wear in a few weeks when they've healed. Exciting times!!

At the appointed time, we arrived back at the hairdressers, took our time picking some pretty studs to have them pierced with, we went into the treatment room where the lady drew a dot on each ear lobe.......then N freaked. Which I can kinda understand. I mean, there were two ladies coming at either side of her head with a piercing gun each. No subterfuge, just straight out coming for her! There was much freaking out, many cuddles, some tears, a little bit of silliness.....but ultimately no ear piercing. I think she's a little disappointed, but hey, she's only little and it was a bit scary. She tells me that maybe when she's 5 she'll get it done!

Meanwhile, I'm now the proud owner of a very pretty pair of pink and gold studs that are absolutely useless for piercing now, as they've been opened and are no longer considered sterile. So I'll put them away, along with the sleepers, until we need them.

A wobbly tooth!!

N has her first loose tooth! And I feel OLD :(

Last week while eating a corncob at dinner, she mentioned that her tooth was hurting a little, and I wondered whether it might be getting loose, but when I checked it wasn't. This morning, funnily enough, we read "Charlie and Lola: My wobbly tooth must not ever never come out" then this afternoon she mentioned her tooth again.....and when I checked, sure enough, it's loose!! Of course, now that it's official, she can't leave it alone.

I knew it was coming of course, she turns 5 next weekend but it's just one more step away from babyhood I guess. And that's a bit sad....my baby's not my baby anymore. I just hope she can hang on to her tooth until the end of the week coz her pre-school photos are being taken!

On another note, I'm very excited to have figured out how to add headings to my posts! Kind of lets you know what's going on, don't you think??

Lord, am I tired! School holidays have just finished (yay!), and the kids were reasonably well-behaved. J. spent most of the first week heading of on his bike to visit his mates, N. had her usual weekly routine - no school holidays at pre-school!

The second week saw us heading off down the highway to intercept Grandma at Yass. Then the kids went and had a few days with Grandma on their own, which they were really looking forward to, and I went off to visit with a friend who's just had her 4th baby. It was lovely. The kids got to do all the stuff they don't normally, like go to the movies twice in one week! And I got to have some grown-up time.....even though my friend has 4 children, they're not mine.....if you understand the difference.

Then it was off to Grandma's for me too. We had a night at the theatre where we saw Les Ballets Grandivas: Men in Tutus perform. Too funny! The dancing was spectacular, and the humour was mostly subtle nuances.....a stray foot here, a cheeky grin there. And of course, it was nice to go with my Mum.

But why am I so tired? Well, firstly my friends and I sat up til 3am playing the Buzz Big Quiz on Playstation2 (which was a bad move but a really fun game!), then I had to drive to Grandma's. Went out with her, then the next night we sat up late and watched it all over again on the DVD. Then I had to drive home. 9hrs without a co-driver.

Hubby's at work tonight so I think I'll go feed and drown shower the kids, then turn in for an early night myself.

Goodnight!

With my kids being nearly six years apart (and different genders!), I thought that I might have dodged the bullet called "sibling rivalry". Bu-buh. No. When it suits them, they are capable of playing nicely together, but when they go off, boy do they go off!

Competition is the big one. For example, N. my not quite 5 y.o daughter, likes to empty the letterbox. No big deal, you think. Life is good, quiet, peaceful. Until J. my nearly 11 y.o son decides he wants to do it. Why? I don't know. To cause trouble is my main train of thought. N. of course goes off like a firecracker when he does things like this, and let me tell you, she doesn't go quietly! Oh no, the whole neighbourhood likely can hear her! And don't get me started on the fight for the front seat of the car!!

Which brings me to yesterday's effort with the wheelie bin. Week after week, the garbage truck does its rounds in the morning and N goes tearing out of the house to drag the bin(s) back down the driveway. Some days it's early, around 7-7.30am. Like yesterday. When J decided that he was going to go and retrieve the bin. Predictably, N went off like a firecracker. But you know the worst of it? He didn't check to see if the bin had been emptied first!! I mean, N lifts the lid and checks. Did J think to check? Noooo...he was too busy concentrating on beating his sister to the task. And silly me, I didn't think to check either.....until 2pm. When I happened to walk past and notice a little slip of blue bin liner hiding at the top of the bin. Aaarrrgghhh!!!!! So, no nice empty bin to fill over the next week. No, our is chockers and we've still got 6 days left til next collection day!

The worst of it is, J shows no interest in doing this job. Week in, week out, he sits on his butt and lets N do it. So why now? Why me???

My son came into me this morning brandishing.....a four-leaf clover! He's been hunting for one of these for ages, and he finally found one.....right here in our own backyard! Clever kid. So the precious lucky weed is now safely tucked inside a big book, in the hopes of pressing and preserving it. I hope it brings him all he dreams of.

Other news to note is that the training wheels came off my daughter's bike over the weekend, and boy can she ride! There was no hesitation in riding her two-wheeler unaided, didn't need a parent's help or a push to start off. A. set her the task of riding off the edge of the patio (onto the grass!), which seemed a bit much for her to start with. She started by stopping and rolling forward onto the grass, then progressed to stopping and putting the front wheel down then continuing on until, after a day of practice, she can ride around the patio and off onto the grass without stopping!

I'm so proud of my kids today!

(For the record, he'll be 11 in Feb '08 and she turns 5 at the end of this month.)

So here we are. Sunday. Grand Final night. I've finally got some time on the computer.....heheheh! The kids are quiet...for now.

I don't quite know how I came to create a blog.....I'm not the diary-keeping kind! We'll see how it goes.....

So if you've managed to find me in cyberspace, *waves* "Hi! I'm Mel, I have one hubby, two kids and a dog."

They keep me on my toes.