Living Upside Down - Down Under

Loving This

'Not so creative' memories

Two posts in one day - that hasn't happened in YEARS.  I have a lot to catch up on because I am such a hopeless blogger these days, mostly due to lack of time and inspiration.  And a little person who won't let me sit at the computer for more than 5 minutes. 

Anyway, I had a nice child-free day on Saturday.  I went to a Creative Memories Memoranza day and spent the day scrapbooking, or at least trying to (I am a beginner and therefore not very good at it), getting lots of inspiration from other people and spending a bit more money.....it really is turning into a serious addiction.   I always wanted to get into scrapbooking and had a go at it a few years back but my pages looked very....what's the word......CRAP!  A friend of mine has become a CM consultant and I am having lots of fun trying out all the lovely album kits, stickers, papers and other goodies.  I have always loved stationery - the look, the smell.  Just love it.

I completed about 7 pages on the day and won the major raffle!   A huge bundle of paper collections, photo mats, stickers and titles.   Exciting stuff for a beginner. 

I am of course mostly scrapbooking the kids' photos but hope to move onto some older family photos and get them out of those horrible old albums with the plastic sheeting.  My mother has dozens of those, with yellowing pages and photos deteriorating by the minute. 

Potty Training Time?

Just lately, Amelie has been following me into the bathroom.  She stands right in front of me, gives me a quick hug and if I'm not quick enough, grabs the edge of the toilet roll and pulls it waaaaaaaay down to the floor and beyond:

"Paper??  Paper??"

Then she'll shove a huge bundle of it onto my lap:

"Bum??   Bum??"

Maybe I should just lock the door!

We have a pottty but I have been kind of lazy getting her to sit on it.  She would prefer to lift the lid, close the lid, lift the lid, close the lid, lift the lid, take the seat off, take the little bowl part out, put it all back together (in a fashion) and then run away to something much more interesting. 

Ryan was pretty good with potty training but I don't thnk Little Miss Independent is going to be quite so cooperative.  I am looking forward to the day when I no longer have to buy nappies ($36-$40 per box) but will probably wait until the end of the year (Spring/Summer) to make a concerted effort with potty training.  It's way too chilly to be running about with all your bits on show ;)

Is there anybody out there?

Thanks Rae for reminding me that I am very neglectful of my blog.    Please be assured I am still keeping up with you all, either on your blogs or via Facebook to which I have become seriously addicted!

What's new with us?

Me - gulp I am nearly 40 AND A HALF!!   Enough said about that.  Still working 3 days a week in Forensic Pathology which is a good balance for me.  I take Amelie to a swimming class on Thursdays and a music class on Fridays, which she loves.  I love seeing her excitement and for that, I will make the sacrifice and wear bathers and a swim cap ;)   

Ryan - he is enjoying being a big Grade One kid, is growing so tall and is reading and writing like a champ.  School work seems to come easy to him, which is great.  He was most upset recently when he discovered his trampoline upended in the back garden after a huge windstorm over night.  He loves that trampoline so much.  I am trying to claim for it on our house/contents insurance but we all know what insurance companies are like......I am sure M will end up fixing it somehow.

Amelie - my girlie turned two on 29 March.   How terrible of her mother that she did not put up a blog entry on such a big day in Amelie's life.  She is going great, a real little livewire which means she has lots of energy and spark but also likes to start her day while it's still dark.   Recently I feel like we're going through the newborn stage again, trying to get her to go back to sleep in her own cot rather than bringing her into bed with me at 5am.   Very hard on a work day when my alarm goes off at 6am.   She has a mop of dark curls, big green eyes and a whole range of cheeky expressions.   

A few piccies:

March 2008 - Ryan 6yrs 4mths/Amelie 2 yrs.   

A snapshot of our Saturday afternoon, as I write this:

J (stepdaughter) is in her room on the phone - just like every other 16 year old girl in the country right now.

Ryan is playing Hot Wheels in his room with his daddy, making 6 cars smash into each other at the same time :)

Amelie is having a nap.  I should go wake her up (it's 4.20pm) but oh, I am enjoying the peace and time to myself.  Is that bad?  The thing is, if I don't wake her she will be up quite late this evening.   I can't use the computer AT ALL when she's awake as she pulls at my arm or wants to sit on my lap so it is usually ME up very late when everyone else is in bed.

Hope you are all doing well!

How Little Minds Work

On Saturday we took J to her school to pick up her new school uniform for the year and had some time to kill while the uniform shop was closed for a lunch break.  We went to a nearby beachside suburb and drove along the beach front wishing we owned one of the lovely houses just metres from the sand. 

'SPLAT!!'  - a huge mess appeared on the windscreen.

Ryan: 'Oh no!   The Mine, Mine, Mine, Mines just pooped on the windscreen!!!'

We were puzzled too.....then we realised what he meant.   Think Nemo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRgpum7OUo

Australia Day

Today is a Public Holiday for Australia Day and I'm taking tomorrow off work too - yay for loooong weekends.    It's still summer school holidays here so I am taking extra time off to spend with Ryan before his return to school on February 12th.  He'll be in Grade One.

I stayed up way too late last night downloading BookSmart software from Blurb.com and playing around with my blog entries to make a snazzy looking, professionally bound book.  I tried the automatic option where every blog entry, every photograph and every comment is included but of course it was far too big and I got a message along the lines of  'whoa! that's some blog you have there!'  I love the idea of making my blog into a book and I especially love the idea of having every one of my comments saved for eternity :) 

Does anyone have any experience with Blurb.com?   It looks like fun, easy too but probably quite expensive to ship to Australia, otherwise known as the End of the World.  How are you saving/archiving your blog entries? ?   Any suggestions welcome!

As I mentioned, we've been in holiday mode here with the occasional day of work thrown in.  I think Ryan has been kept reasonably busy with a mix of vacation care, days at home with mummy and Amelie, weekends with all of us, visits with friends and a sleep-over at Nanny's house.  I haven't overwhelmed him with scheduled activities; sometimes it's just fun to slob around and spend time at home just doing 'stuff'.  He's outside right now helping daddy set up a new trampoline.

Amelie has also been going to Nanny's  (not overnight though) and to her day carer when I've had to work.  She's still very much a mummy's girl and loves to know where I am at all times.  We've had some sleep issues with her daytime naps (i.e. she hasn't wanted to take them and I am going mad!) but still manages to get through the night without calling out.  In the mornings I'll often bring her into bed and she'll last maybe 10 minutes before crawling out of bed, sliding down to the floor and flicking through a pile of magazines kept beside the bed.  She barely looks at the pictures; it's just FLICK, FLICK, FLICK really quickly until one of the pages rips!  I don't mind, it buys me another 10-15 minutes in bed.

Success - a daytime nap!

Practicing brushing (mostly chewing!)

Loving bathtime

Amelie and Ryan love playing under her couch, don't ask me why ;)

Water Babes

Ryan - 6 years 2 months

Amelie - 21 months

It's rare that I can actually get Amelie to sit down in the bath - it's very stress inducing to have your slippery little toddler standing up in the bath and wanting to be washed that way!  So in this pic, she's probably thinking 'hurry up with the photo already, I have a bathtub to walk around' ;)

Despite the solemn looks in the pic, they do have a lot of fun together!

Wilting

Hot.  Hot.  Hot.    Urgh!  We went to the park this morning at 10am and it was already sweltering so after a quick slather of sunblock and a swing, it was back to the airconditioned car to go to the nearest shopping centre for ice-cream.    I've never been one to enjoy sitting outside in the sun (hence my lily white skin) so these sorts of days are a bit hard to take.  We have a reverse cycle air conditioner in the house and a ceiling fan in the main living area but not in the bedrooms so sleeping is pretty uncomfortable.

My first week back at work went quickly, mainly because I was on my own in the office so I was super busy.  Ryan went to a vacation care programme on the first day and got quite teary when I left but was fine when I picked him up at 5.30pm.  On Tue/Wed he was with my parents, getting spoiled rotten.  Nanna even took him to mini golf and played a round (is that what it's called?) with him on Tues. 

Tomorrow I am looking after two of Ryan's friends while their mum goes to work so it will be me and four kids all day.....I will need a nice bottle of white by 7pm I think.  I just hope it's not as hot as it is today or they will be inside all day - arrrghhh.

We are going to Melbourne again for 4 days just before Ryan's school year starts in February for a meet-up of some online friends.  We all had babies around the same time (March/Apr 06) and we've 'known' each other since our pregnancies in 2005.  We're going to meet at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens on the Saturday, go out for dinner on Sat night (minus husbands and kids!) and get together again on the Sunday.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Now if I could only organise a trip to the States to meet my other blog friends.  One day it will happen....can I stay with you?  LOL.

Uh-oh Amelie's awake, she's only been in bed for 25 mins or so.  She never sleeps very well when it's hot so I suspect she will be grouchy this afternoon.   Might go run a coolish bath for her and jump in too!

**Squeal!** So excited!

No I'm not pregnant (heaven forbid - I'm an old timer now).  Although Nicole Kidman most certainly is and that's good news. 

I'm reclining here on the couch in front of the telly typing a blog update on my LAPTOP!!!   Wireless internet!!  Beautiful, sexy, gorgeous laptop.  And I didn't even have to buy it myself.  My wonderful parents gave it to me for Christmas - you could have knocked me down with a feather when I unwrapped it.  Totally unexpected and incredibly appreciated.

I'm still finding my way around it and having lots of fun in the process.  Now if I could only keep chubby, grubby little fingers away from the keyboard.....of course little Miss Amelie Maya is fascinated by it.  All those pretty twinkling lights and colours!

I went back to work this week after 3 weeks off and it's been super busy.  My co-workers are both on leave so there's lots to do.  At least the days go by quickly.  Ryan is on summer holidays until 12 February (which seems SUCH a long way off right now!) so while I'm working he's either going to my mum's house or to a holiday care programme, which includes fun activities like mini golf, movies and the biggie for next week, a trip to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory :)   Yum.

I feel like skipping work and going with him on that one.

OK off to surf the net on my lovely new baby.

We had a good Christmas starting at 6.00am when M's alarm on his mobile phone went off.....grrrr.  I guess it could have been a lot worse, with 2 excited kids wanting to get up and see what Santa brought them.  Actually Amelie was not that interested in her pressies, she just wanted her breakfast lol.

I'm off work until 7th January but I have yet to hit the post Christmas sales - very difficult with two children in tow!  Although it's probably a good thing as I would spend too much money anyway.  Today I'm taking Ryan to the Hobart Aquatic Centre to meet some of his friends for a splash around.   

Amelie has been waking once through the night and is up again around 6am.  I seem to be constantly tired at the moment and going to bed earlier doesn't seem to help much.  If only she wouldn't wake through the night, I could deal with 6am starts easily enough.   

Somehow I don't think I'm going to make it to midnight on New Year's Eve.  Happy New Year!!