Category Archives: The Kids

Feeling Flat

Feeling Flat
So I fell off those there Blogtoberfest rails a little bit, yes? It would be lazy of me just to write this post all over again, but there you have it. Same old same old. Lack of sleep begets grumpiness begets ratbaggy kids begets grumpiness begets… no damn crafting of any kind around these parts (begets grumpiness…)

I will not dwell. I will be back…

{Artwork credit: Feeling Flat by Niamh. Awesome.}

Blogtoberfest Day, uh… 22… I think.

Blogtoberfest Day 14

Cafe Concert
My big boy yesterday, at his first ever piano recital*! He played beautifully, and I’m so glad he made it. Piano, or more accurately, the practice of, has been a huge point of conflict for us this year. Huge. We have recently hit upon a new system of bribery motivation, though, which is (so far) easing the way a bit. It would be nice if he chooses to keep playing.

*I see you wondering about that oh-so-stylish mosaic artwork, yes I do! Our school is mid-renovation, and the piano was parked in front of a huge pile o’ junk. Please excuse my terrible attempt at photoshopping the background. I do think they could have moved the piano over just a bit!

Keeping warm on the couch tonight under my new birthday blankie from Creswick woollen mills. It’s Alpaca wool, very snuggly. We’ve been catching up on Heart & Soul, which is a lovely show… the thinking man’s Glee perhaps? (but I like Glee too!) And then the last episode of United States of Tara (sob!) Can’t wait for the next season already!

Edit: oh, and have you discovered Sleeveface yet? You should!

Blogtoberfest Day 14

Breakfast

Breakfast 1

Breakfast 2

I have a brand new lens on the camera. It’s taking some getting used to, but I think I’m going to like it. A lot 🙂

Blogtoberfest Day 12

More Self-Portraiture

It is really difficult to take a photograph of yourself and the babe-in-a-backpack!

New Ergo

I thought my baby-wearing days were nearly over. Rohan’s pretty easygoing, and most of the time is happy to go in the stroller. But there are times when only holding will do, and those times are mostly called 5-7pm. I’m sure many a parent is familiar with that special time of day (who was it called them the arsenic hours?) Also, we’re hoping to get to do a little bit more bushwalking, and after packing him in the Hug-a-Bub for a couple of easy walks, I have got to say – bushwalking is easier when you can see your feet!

So I succumbed, and ordered an Ergo Sport. Our very cheery postie delivered it this morning, and we’ve spent the day trying it out. Verdict = winner. (Though the hair-grabbiness will have to be stopped :grr: )

Blogtoberfest Day 8

Why Is It

That when children discover the camera, almost the very first thing they do is turn it on themselves? (And then giggle themselves silly over the results).

Niamh self 01
Niamh self 02
Niamh self 03
Niamh self 04

That last one is a bit ‘Blair Witch Project‘, don’t you think?

Just be glad I didn’t include the snot-nosed edition :giggle:

Niamh is a fan of the extreme close-up image. Recently she took a photographic tour of the house, which included photographs of the inside of the toilet bowl. Don’t worry, I’m not going to subject you to that!

Blogtoberfest Day 7

Holiday Snaps

Our trip away last week was so very welcome, but at the same time… well, you know. Holidays with young children are never really completely restful, are they? But with a view like this from our accommodation in Port Fairy:

Viemfromourdriveway

Views like these to visit:

PortFairyHallsGapViews

And fun like this to be had:

PortFairyHallsGapFun

…I can’t really complain, now can I?

We headed down to Port Fairy, on the coast of western Victoria, for three nights, and then headed north to Halls Gap in the Grampians mountain ranges for another three. The weather was a little volatile, but we did manage to get out and explore a bit, spend time on the beach (albeit rugged up), walk a couple of short easy bushwalks, and cook a few marshmallows on a campfire. We also sought out cheese, chocolate, fabric and devonshire teas – all pretty standard requirements for our family holidays 🙂 In the rainy bits, we very happily lazed about inside – there might have even been a bit of crochet and (shock!) a bit of cross-stitch.

Sigh. So nice. Wish we could do it all over again next week.
CampfireBaby

PS. Pssst, Mum, more photos over here!

Blogtoberfest Day 2 – squeaking in just under the wire, at 11.32pm! And apologies to anyone who read the pre-edit version. At this time of night, my brain it does not.

More (and Less) Teeth

Gap-tooth-boy
Teeth are still a big topic of interest around these parts. Current status as follows:

Kid #1: One gap, three more wobblies.
Kid #2: Two grey wobblies 🙁 (I’m still harbouring mother-guilt over that particular event)
Kid #3: One tooth arrived two weeks ago(!), another one on the way (favourite chew-toy = my chin)

There’s been a noticeable lack of creativity ’round these parts lately. I’m sure the lingering mother-guilt has something to do with that. I was “busy” sewing when Niamh took that fateful leap. It doesn’t matter that I’d told her dozens of times not to jump in that spot – this time, I didn’t stop her, so hello! self-blame. Gah.

It’s been a helluva week, too. I had a spot of single-parenting while Dermot was in Sydney for work (earning myself a few brownie points towards wiping out that mummy-guilt). A discovery of the parasitic variety (necessitating trips to chemist and laundromat and noIdonotwanttotalkaboutit. Ew.) Several too-early starts thanks to the smallest boy and his impending second tooth…

Aaaand. A punctured tyre yesterday morning as I dropped Finn off at school. D’oh! As I lowered the window to wave goodbye, I heard a certain kind of ‘thwack thwack thwack’ noise that you just know cannot be good. I stopped the car and found a dirty great big screw sticking out of one of the rear tyres. Hoping the continued presence of said screw would prevent the tyre from letting down immediately, I drove straight to the nearest shopping centre with an auto centre. They were super-dooper busy, but graciously let me queue-jump, and repaired it straightaway while we nicked off to feed the caffeine habit I seem to have acquired lately. (Can’t imagine why!)

But. My good temper will be restored momentarily. We are off! Today is the last day of term, and tomorrow we are going away, la la la. We (ok, mostly I) have been counting sleeps for the last three weeks, let me tell you. We are heading beachfront for three days and then mountainside for three more, just to get ourselves a well-rounded holiday. See you on the flipside 🙂

ETA: Forgot… I did manage to get to the Northside Makers coffee-crafternoon last Sunday (see if you can spot Rohan and I at that link 🙂 ) where I managed, oh, about 4 rows of crochet on a face cloth (simple squares crochet out of a bamboo/cotton mix are divine as face cloths, you should definitely give them a go). Margaret calls me a ‘multitasking wonder’. Hahahahahaha!

The Teeth that Nearly Weren’t

Sheesh! My girl. My wants-to-be-a-doctor-girl-princess-nurse-cowgirl-hippityhop girl. She’ll do anything for a bit of excitement, that one.

Right around the just-before-dinner-time-when-everyone-is-distracted time last night, Niamh decided to get from point A (armchair) to point B (blanket box) teeth-first. Owwww. There was blood, and tears and pain, but no missing teeth, and no wobbly ones, so we thought she might have escaped serious damage (let’s face it, this is not the first mouth injury Niamh has sustained – been there, done that). But this morning the swelling and angle of her top teeth suggested otherwise, so it was off to the dentist for us.

NiamhsDiary01

The good news is that even though the teeth have been shifted, it’s not enough for major concern – they aren’t back behind the bottom teeth, so they might even move back into position over time. The wait-and-see bit is that the dentist can’t tell us whether there has been root/nerve damage – so the teeth might still turn grey if there has. Or even have to be extracted. The thought of which makes me cry a little inside 🙁

So there’s been a bit of artwork distraction therapy this afternoon. And some dentist role-playing with the stuffed-toy collection, naturally. She’ll probably want to be a doctor-girl-princess-nurse-cowgirl-hippityhop-dentist now, I expect.

NiamhsDiary02

NiamhsDiary03

How cute is my smiley-face belly in “Mum with Niamh in her tummy”?!

Random Venting

Much has been said, (or at least implied) about one of our major craft stores, but right now, I’m still seething about our little experience in the other one today. I have to vent, or I might burst!

I was dithering about with wool and bits and bobs, when all of a sudden Niamh decided she had to go to the toilet, now. As kids do. (I swear three year olds have a bladder timer set to go off at the most inconvenient times.)

So we rushed through the checkout process, and asked the ever so friendly and helpful employee if they might have a toilet we could use. No, we don’t, sorry. And no, she didn’t know where the nearest one might be either. Hmmm. I wondered whether all the employees might have to drive home each time nature called.

I thought we might be able to get home in time, but no, that apparently was not to be, so I tried convincing Niamh to have a nappy put on (our cloth nappies are multi-size, so even though Rohan is only 4 months old, they’re so adjustable that they would still fit Niamh at 3). She was almost ok with that, but then broke down in tears once it was on and she faced the thought of actually weeing in a nappy. Don’t blame her, really. So I decided it was worth one last try, and took her back into the store, where I asked (same employee) politely: “I have a fairly distraught little girl here, are you sure we can’t use your staff toilet?”

Whereupon (because there were other customers and another staff member nearby, presumably) she said sweetly “Oh, did you want to use the toilet?”

At which point I wanted to stab her eyes out with the DPNs I just bought.

Other staff member showed us the way. Turns out there were not only three staff toilets, but one (unsigned) for public use. Why would the first girl lie about it in the first place? How incredibly rude of her. Or perhaps just lazy because she didn’t want to show us the way? I am completely bamboozled (coincidentally very similar to the name of the yarn I bought, and now wish I hadn’t!).

Friday Mornings

Friday mornings are fast becoming one of my favourite times of the week. A mini-break, if you will. I drop Finn off at school, Niamh off at occasional care, then race home and get Rohan down for his morning kip. Then I get a whole 45 minutes in which I can do anything I like without interruption! Ok, so this usually just means shower, have breakfast, and catch up on some blogs/tweets, but still. We take our little slices of me-time where we can get them, hey?

Once Rohan is up and fed, then we sit around making faces at one another, and omnomnomming on those cheeks for a while before we have to pick Niamh up again. (Or you know, doing something more productive. Only can’t remember what. Maybe it is just the omnomnomming!)

Rohan3m1wRohan3m1w02Rohan3m1w03Rohan3m1w04Rohan3m1w05

Oh yeah. Such a tough guy!

And if you think I’m showing you gratuitous baby shots just to distract you from the lack of a finished knitting project… well, I can neither confirm nor deny 😛

(But it won’t be too long now, promise. I cast off at midnight last night!)