Toys r ours

I’m sorting out the toys today. This is just a selection.

I think my son has enough.

Oh sleep wherefore art thou?

Our biggest behavioural challenge at the moment is Little Bear’s sleeping habits. Ever since we weened him from chewing his favourite toy he has had trouble self-settling, an unforeseen side-effect. Forget a day time nap, unless he’s in the car or sick, and then in the evening I have to sit with him to stop him bouncing out of bed every five seconds until he falls asleep. Then he wakes two or three times a night and comes straight into our room and wants to sleep in our bed, and now he’s starting to protest loudly that he can’t sleep and we end up sitting beside him to keep him in his bed until he falls back to sleep. And THEN he’s up at crack o’dawn demanding that Mummy gets out of bed. I could handle the sit by the bed before sleep, and an early wake up if it wasn’t for the repeated night time wakes. We know he’s having trouble self-settling so as well as returning to Super Nanny go to sleep techniques and being disciplined about putting him back into his own bed (oh dear lord it’s so hard at 4.30 am to get the energy up to drag him back and then WAIT for him to go back to sleep so he doesn’t just immediately return), we’re going to try a new reward chart.

He’s always initially keen for a reward chart which is a plus, and today we talked about a reward. I suggested buying a bunk bed with star canopy that he loved playing in at IKEA but he decided he loved his little bed so I won’t push it – I’m also a bit worried about how he’d go in a bunk bed with his occasional night terrors (the exorcist kind that result in throwing oneself out of bed and trying to climb up walls).  We’ll think about it.

Family adventures

We’ve had a few recent family outings since recovering from the vomiting bug that invaded our house at Christmas.

We took a trip to Alma Park Zoo, a bit sad that it’s taken this long, given that we’re Brisbanites.

Then we went to my parent’s for the weekend and saw the grandies and also caught up with DH’s family as well.

checking the cows with Nanna

lunch with Mum’s parents, Miss Possum is holding court at the head of the table

nothing better than playing with uncle’s old toys

bonfire in the evening

Aunty and Uncle

Catching up with cousins

Finally presents are nearly all given out! Just got to see my sister next weekend for the last post unfriendly items for her.

And finally, for the last day of DH’s holidays (and mine as well really), we took a day trip up the Sunshine Coast for a swim at Noosa and lunch at Montville.

And now it’s the weekend again! I went out last night with a girlfriend for my designated monthly night out – we’ve decided to each go out by ourselves one night a month and also hire a baby sitter so we can have one date night a month too. Just so we get some me and us time. Tomorrow we have more family catching up scheduled with a trip to a cemetery with my grandparents (it’s how they get their kicks) and then lunch at my Aunt’s.

And today I made cheesecake!

Managing the TV monster

I try to limit Little Bear’s tv viewing to an hour a day but it’s hard to keep track of how much he watches and also to stand firm in the face of pester power, not to mention the tantys that occur at switch off time. So for the last three days we’ve been trying a new thing:

Every day I draw up a circle on the fridge with white board marker, divided into twelve segments representing five minutes each. The segments are shaded in as tv time is used up. Little Bear can watch tv whenever he wants for as long as he wants until the circle is full, then no more tv til tomorrow. It’s worked really well so far, Little Bear has autonomy over his tv viewing and can also see how much time he’s using. There’s been some suggestions that we could start a new circle once the old one is full but the pestering and tantrums have toned down because I say yes to tv a lot more and he can tell when his time is going to be up.

Year of living frugally

This is officially the National Year of Reading but forget that blasphemous unemployed librarian that I am, for us here at casa del Polka Dots this may well turn out to be the Year of Living Frugally.

We are at an impasse with our home – the market is depressed and our unit isn’t selling, so as our finance stands we can’t afford to buy anything bigger in an area we’d like. In the last few days we’ve come up with a raft of schemes and cunning plans including renting out our unit and renting ourselves a bigger place. However after a depressing foray back into rental-dom we ran the figures and have decided that it would be more sensible to buckle down and hit the mortgage as hard as we can with the money we would’ve spent renting for the next year so we can get it to the point where it isn’t a net financial drain on us if we rent it – THEN we can rent something amazing or buy something we want.

This means though that we need to stick strictly to our new budget while at the same time trying to contain our growing family in our little flat – so no trips to IKEA for me to buy nifty space saving furnishings (pooh). I’m very excited about this challenge though because it’s a defined amount of time and may be shorter if our unit actually sells, plus I think it will be a good example for our 3 yr old who is getting a little bit demanding about our financial resources and unappreciative of what should be special treats. In fact yesterday we had to make our first budgeting choice – grab McDonalds takeaway that day and use up our eat our budget for the week or leave it for a better time. I also faced up to our challenge this morning – the chiropractor I’m seeing about my hip recommended I get some orthotic shoes, normally I’d have just gone out and bought a pair, now I have to decide if I can spare the money out of this month’s clothing budget or if I need to wait or bring some extra money into our home.

I’ve been thinking about how to do this. There’s ebaying unwanted items of course, which I will do. The point is for me to stay home with the children full time so me getting a day time job is not an option. I’ve tried working from home on freelance work and it is stressful and impacts on family life so if I’m going to work it would have to be something at night somewhere where I could go and work that I wouldn’t have to bring home.  I’m still thinking about this because I’m tired enough as it is without working til the wee small hours. I’m thinking about writing some more…probaby the most pleasurable way of cramming some work into my spare time. We also had an idea for a website that might bring in a little bit of extra cash but it requires content from my husband. Oh well, decluttering and ebay here we come!

 

Now that’s more like it

New year’s eve plans were written off as expected but little man had improved by evening and he was able to get involved in our family celebrations. We cleaned the house in preparation for New Year’s Day and took down our Christmas decorations so the house had a bit more space and looked a bit fresher. I put all the treats I’d bought for Christmas on the table and lit candles all around the house so it all looked a bit New Yearsy.

my helper was keen to help dim the lights 

Since we didn’t have anything special for dessert, I whipped up a half batch of cupcakes and did a quick and dirty decorating job while my husband made some amazing pesto chicken.

 After dinner we set off some party poppers and then lit sparklers. Little Bear said that sparklers were ‘magic’ – literally I think since he’s used to seeing sparks and stars come out of wands in books and on tv.

Little Bear thought the streamers that came out of the poppers would make good cow poo for his farm games.

Afterwards DH and I sat up and saw the new year in with occasional visits from the Possum who sensed her parents weren’t in bed and therefore felt she should be up too.

New Year’s Day my parents visited for a belated Christmas. We were very spoilt thanks to grandparents, great grandparents, aunties and uncles.

 

 We had a lunch of antipasto with fried lamb chops, chorizo and caramelised onion. So nice to finally get to have a celebratory day! Welcome 2012!

Waving our geek flag

Even in our unit’s mostly decluttered state (under the toy bomb that is) we still subtley wave our geek flag:

Tardis cookie jar for my husband for Christmas, courtesy of my sister – currently holding coffee.

Ahem…on our book shelf.

And if more evidence was needed, our DVD collection.

End of year thoughts and all that

Last night I prayed for a joyful heart because it seems to me that crap like sick family members, ruined plans, husbands with too much work and all the less fun things that come with living a life are always going to be happening, how I deal with it is the only thing I can change. The thought I had shortly after (which I’ll take as a gentle nudge of an answer) was that even if I can’t get the family to church for whatever reason,  I should go by myself of a Sunday, drag the rest of the family along whenever I can but don’t wait for the planets to align before I go. I thought this might just work: spiritual renewal plus some quiet time.

I’d like to bring a little more harmony into our family life, things seem to be jarring at the moment. Most of that is probably due to too much sickness and too much work in the past month as well as working out new dynamics as our children reach new stages in their development. Still, I can’t help thinking that this recent bout of illness which has cancelled all our plans and forced us to stay at home and regroup may be the universe telling us to REST.

So in the spirit of reflection, here is the year that was in our family:

2011 started with the floods. We got trapped three times, first at my parents at Christmas, then when we went to Hervey Bay for new years, then in the Brisbane floods themselves, but our house was safe, our families and friends are safe so we are so very lucky and all we have is an interesting adventure to remember.

The Possum was born of course, the most important event on our calendar.

We took a couple of beach holidays, some family visits, The Possum’s Christening, a trip to Sydney and went to two weddings.

And now we have moving house plans afoot, all sorts of resolutions for improving our lives and still the possibility of a birthday/Nye party tomorrow even though it is looking sadly unlikely at this stage and may end with two parents watching the new year in on the couch with our bottle of champers.

Bring on 2012!

The Christmas that was (and wasn’t)

In my imagination Christmas was going to go something like this:

By Christmas Eve evening the house would be spic and span and our scrubbed and beautifully dressed family would attend church followed by a Christmas feast which would include a pudding using my husband’s special Christmas coins. Then we’d all leave out Santa’s snack and retire early. Christmas morning we’d get up, open presents while sipping morning beverages, then have a delicious Christmas breakfast after which we’d get dressed and pack the car to go to my parents for Christmas day. Christmas day would be fun, family filled and busy, with plenty of good food and alcohol. We’d stay at my parent’s place Christmas night and then on Boxing Day we’d meet with DH’s family for a picnic. After that we’d head home and pack ourselves up for a four day camping trip.

That was the dream.

This was the reality:

Friday afternoon I made it home with the kids from a picnic and collapsed into bed. I proceeded to throw up for the next six hours. I finally got my stomach settled about 9 pm, and then Little Bear started vomiting. He finally settled about 3.30am and we all got a little bit of sleep. The next morning, Christmas Eve, I felt a bit queasy but was on the mend, Little Bear was up and chipper and demanding breakfast. Excellent! I thought, we’ll make Christmas yet. And then he got diarrhoea. By midday we’d made the call to cancel our Christmas plans and DH was sent out to hunt and gather for an impromptu Christmas dinner. Church was out for that evening, but I hoped we’d make it to the Christmas morning service. But instead Little Bear started getting worse, still vomiting intermittently and feeling weak and lethargic. That evening Little Bear was passed out in bed but we left Santa snacks out anyway and then crawled into bed ourselves. Christmas morning the patient rallied enough to open some presents but was still very weak. He spent the day lying around, with his parents reguarly threatening him with hospitalisation if he didn’t drink some water or have some hydrolyte ice block. I cooked Christmas dinner and made an effort to eat some but was still off food a bit and definitely not up to any wine or egg nog. Little Bear picked up by evening (after FINALLY eating a hydrolyte ice block) and even managed some food.

Despite it all we had a nice Christmas and it was kind of special just being with our little family and trying to make it fun for the children. And the beauty of spending Christmas at home was that we didn’t have to get out of our pjs until noon and DH and I could lie in bed and watch a DVD all morning while the children napped. We could also go for a nap after lunch without feeling guilty. Plus Little Bear could play properly with and enjoy the few toys he got from us and Santa without being overwhelmed by gifts.

Boxing Day started well, Little Bear was up and hungry first thing and by afternoon was much better, since he hadn’t thrown up all day we decided that we’d go ahead with our camping plans. I went out and bought supplies and we started packing. Then Little Bear threw up. We decided it was a one off, an evening thing and to see how he was the next morning. He was up early again, hungry and demanding to go camping, so after spending all morning getting ready we picked up our friend A and set off. By about 3 we got there after a lunch stop and driving through a storm. Checked in, and spent about an hour depacking the car and then setting up our tents (we’d booked an already set up safari tent and a camping site) – some of which was done in the rain. Oh and I brained myself on the bunk beds while lifting up the baby. Finally we were set up. The boys got a fire going, drinks were opened and we were bustling around feeding the baby, getting dinner started and I’d just gotten Little Bear into bed when he projectile vomited all over himself, his sleeping bag and the floor. And he kept vomiting. So we discussed, debated and the next thing we know we are hustling to get the tent down before it was too dark, all our things repacked and everything back in the car to go back home. Kudos to A who got her tent up in the rain and down in the dark and did a super human luggage carrying job. Amazingly we got away in an hour and a half and were back home by 10.30 – sans the water container which we could not fit back into the car and my shoes that were left behind by accident.

Little Bear was taken off to the doctor first thing and he (we) has/had suspected giardia. He’s on medication for a throat infection and taking medicine to keep away the nausea before each meal, thankfully he’s not thrown up tonight.

So that’s our Christmas holidays so far. We have plans for NYE but hmm, I’m not counting on anything. Still it could have been worse, we are all together, Little Bear is on the mend, I’m fine now and A and I have a new humorous anecdote about our Extreme Camping adventure.  How was your Christmas?

A different Christmas

Ah, so our house is in a shambles, piles of towels and sheets need to be washed after last night’s illnesses (amazing how a small person can manage to throw up everywhere except the bathroom) and our Christmas plans have unravelled.

So instead of a trip to my parents for a big family Christmas, followed by a Boxing Day picnic with my husband’s family, we are instead preparing for a very intimate get together tomorrow for four. And now I’m mustering the energy to get to it, clean our shambolic house, make it fresh and Christmas friendly and rid it of all those nasty smells that accompany a visit from the vomiting bug. And I must cook too, make something special for tonight’s dessert (complete with Christmas coins hidden inside), whip up some cookies for morning tea tomorrow and plan something for Christmas dinner at home. Not to mention put the gifts under the tree and hope that our little people are all in a fit state tomorrow to appreciate a bit of Christmas magic.

And then maybe, if we’re all well on Boxing Day we’ll be able to see some of our family and extend Christmas a little longer.