Dora The Explorer

Ahhhhh..... the thin end of the wedge has been inserted.... Dora The Explorer has arrived in our house in the form of a magazine with tiny doll attached. My Mum bought it for her after I sighed and gave in....... I have been fighting the Dora craze for its over-commercialism & the fact that it sounds so dumbed down. It boarders on insulting to my 2 year olds intellect. But unfortunately for me she loves it- she knows all the songs even though she only watches it about once a fortnight. So I have come to the conclusion that there are worse things she could be liking (such as BRATZ! Total never ending band on that disgusting....... don't even have a word for it crap!) and no doubt when she gets to school the kids will have an obsession with either or so I would prefer my girl to be with the Dora The Explorer crew dressing like the child she is & saying "Bridge, Mountain, Red Rock!" & speaking some spanish instead of strutting around with the Bratz crew looking like an over exploited porn-star-esque teen talking about getting a nose job and acting like a spoilt little hellion...... more so ;)

We have been baking today....
http://www.catcancook.com/2006/01/15/awesome-banana-muffin-recipe/
used this recipe- very yummy! TH will be happy to have something different in his lunch box tomorrow as well no doubt!

Woe is me, my sewing machine has broken.... I dont know what to do with myself now! So baking it is....

Cleaning up the sty

Enough is enough- no more procrastination! I am cleaning up our pig sty of a house today & then LM and I are going to bake muffins for TH's lunches.... and perhaps also for afternoon tea! I am thinking half plain banana & half banana with rhubarb & strawberry, just cause the sauce I made the other day is delicious! (so good in porridge too!) I should also make some pizza pinwheels for TH's lunch box, I am sure he is bored of yoghurt and dodgy biscuits by now.
So far today I have done 2 loads of washing, the third load is in the machine now.
I need to clean the kitchen and laundry, clean out the fridge, vacume and mop, change the sheets on LM's bed, cook muffins, get dinner into the slow cooker & do some grocery shopping & present shopping.... come on motivation! Where are you?

My Little Girl is back!

Huzzah, my little girl is back :) Well, still a bit grumpy but she actually loves me today, which is quite nice for a change ;) And she has not actually fought me every step of the way, which has made for a pleasant change! Last night I left her at home with TH, so I could go to the gym, with orders for him to put her to bed between 6-6:30. I got home at 7:30 to the sounds of lungs being excercised and heads being worked :P I came through the door laden with groceries picked up enroute to be bowled over by a hysterical LM screaming "Mum-mum, mum-mum MUM-MUM!" followed by a very sheepish and overwhelmed looking TH..... He read her 5 stories, and still couldn't get her to go to sleep. He tried closing the door so she tried to cry hard enough to make herself sick. So he was tearing his already receding hair out. He is such a push over! And she knows it..... so I had to be the bad Mum (once again) and threaten and cajoule to get her to stay in bed and go to sleep. Less than 5 minutes and a few choice words later, silence. TH really needs to learn how to make LM listen to him.... he wants more children- I cant do two kids and make the dinner and everything else he is incapable of doing all by myself. And as I pointed out to him last night- she is going to be a teenager one day so he had better get onto it! lol.....
Really though, it comes down to laziness. He is too lazy to carry out any of his threats (ie- naughty corner etc) so she knows with him there are no boundaries.... recipe for disaster with a smart and willful child.... and she only has to look sad or tear up a bit for him to relent. She has him wrapped around her little finger.
Oh well, off to the gym again tonight, hopefully he will have more success this evening! I will just have to keep going out until he learns ;)

TH Is home :)

Ahhhhh... The Hunk is home at last :) He arrived yesterday afternoon and he is back for an indefinite time working back in daily driving distance. He has been working 11 days on (staying out near the work site) and 3 off (home with us) over 3 hours away for the last 4 months or so which has been an interesting experience for all involved. What I will miss most will be having the whole bed to myself, and funnily enough his absence at night was what I missed most while he was away. He snores, he hogs the bed, the blankets, the pillows. He really is the most selfish sleeper! So a sabbatical from these night terrors was most welcome. But he is also toasty warm, and will warm up my side of the bed before I get in. And there is a lot to be said for both that and a built in body guard and checker of the noises that go bump in the night!
It should be interesting getting back into a normal routine, actually having to cook proper dinners instead of just a salad, soup or steamed veges, having to clean someone else's smelly socks, but best of all being able to go to the gym for body balance and yoga classes at night again! Miss Squidge was all of a flutter when he returned yesterday, and didn't want to go to sleep (there is always an excuse mind you!) and wanted to sleep with her "Dad dad" but I had to put the foot down and be the "Mean Mum" yet again as letting her sleep with us just one night equals about 2 weeks of trouble settling her into bed at night. And when I say "trouble" I mean screaming and crying, the heart-wrenching sound of her crying "I want ooooo Mummy! I neeeeed oooooooooo!" "I want oooooo hold ooooooo haaaaaaand" and my favourite... "I have a bad deeeeeeem" (when she has not even fallen asleep yet) over and over with me going in at intervals to resettle and threaten "The Closing Of The Door" (from now on to be known as TCOTD) if she will not go quietly to sleep like a good little hellion.... TH was all for letting her sleep in the bed with us, which is lovely, but not helpful. He has a habit of letting things like this slide with no thought of the consequences as he is never the one having to deal with the consequent fall out. Oh well, all's well that ends well, I finally got Squidge off to sleep last night after many abortive attempts and she woke this morning like a little ray of sunshine "Happy" with "No bad deems!" and received her compulsory morning bed cuddles :) Happy days.... and our first official return bump to parenting together circumnavigated....

Picasso Exhibition....

Today we headed off into the city to the Gallery Of Modern Art to see the Picasso exhibition. We picked up our friends J & S on the way, drove a little bit and then trained the rest of the way in with our girls strapped onto our backs. The looks we got! It really does go to show what a low contact society we are in when the sight of two women wearing their young toddlers almost stops traffic... I find it really fascinating that the idea of carrying your child instead of pushing them in a pram (which is so very inconvenient) is so foreign. I understand peoples mindsets though, as not so long ago I would have thought "That looks like damned hard work!" It really is something you have to do to appreciate the benefits (not to mention with the right carrier it is a doddle!) Like not having to find an escelator, lift or ramp. Like not getting stuck in the clothing racks at the shops. Like being able to get in between people when it is crowded. And not holding a crying baby while trying to push the pram they are supposed to be in lol. Now Miss Cranky Pants was by no means perfect today, she is after all a quite cheeky/high maintenance 2 and a half year old. So she had a bit of a whinge. She did not fall asleep on me in the carrier at the Gallery like Miss S who is basically the poster girl for the parental benefits of baby wearing (fast asleep on J's back, face smoodged up close, her eyes closed in contented happy crescents) But I know darned well if I had taken my Squidge in her stroller not only would I have had trouble getting of and on trains and between platforms, but I also would have been fighting to keep her actually IN the pram. She would have whined even more, and I would have had a wrestling match on my hands and I wouldn't have been able to get close enough to the painting commentaries to read anything about the painting and other artworks we where there to see. And I would have been freezing lol. Built in hot water-bottle child all the way.... and lets face it- our children are only small enough to carry, hold and smother with kisses for such a small time. The days, weeks & months are flying by and my once baby is soon going to be too big to carry, and before I know it she will be shunning my cuddles and kisses because it is too uncool. So until that day I will keep my not so baby girl strapped in my arms and enjoy the enforced cuddles and the conversations we can have when she is up at eye level with me :)

My best friend is getting married!!!

Oh the bliss! I received a text message from my best friend this morning. She was proposed to this morning! The most fabulous news.... and yes, she sent me a text lol. It is a personal joke of ours, the text message. Whenever we have big news we text- ever since I got engaged 6 years ago when we where going through a not-talking-but-not-not-talking stage after I moved in with my now DH. I text her to tell her I was engaged, I text her to tell her we bought a block of land, she text me to tell me she and her now DF bought a house, I text her that I was pregnant :) I must have had a premonition that this text was big news as usually on hearing my phone beep I leave it to languish beneath the myriad of items one finds in the bag of someone who has a 2 year old child- sippy cups, changes of clothes, face washers. Somewhere under all the debris is also my sanity rofl. But today I excused myself from the playgroup girls to make sure it was not important. Read the message & then I was jumping around like a loon, clapping my hands with tears rolling down my face :) This confirmation of commitment from her partner means so much to her, she has felt like they are stuck in a rut and not moving onward and upward into adulthood. One by one her friends have become engaged and married, bought houses and had children. And now it is her turn. She is going to be the most beautiful Bride..........