security breach

Let's face it I was bound to fail on this one. My intentions were grand and of course I do know how important it is to safety proof our house for Miss T but each attempt to date (minus our baby gate) has been one massive fail.

Why was I bound to fail you ask, Well I purchased a fabulous ‘home safety essentials’ pack with over 50 plugs/catches/latches/locks to safety proof out house. Within it I discovered I had practically enough plugs to fill a 10 bedroom mansions. Miss T and I do not live in a 10 bedroom home. In our little mansion we have 2 bedrooms and I needed to use 7 of these plugs in total. This fabulous pack then sat in our tiny kitchen…I mean mansion of a kitchen… taking up space for another 2 months. One Sunday recently I harassed the hubby to help me sort out the house and this is when I discovered we could only use another 3 items. No joke! The remaining 40 catches, larches and locks were useless to us! Now I am sure others would find this pack useful. I do not blame the pack as I am sure it would have also been useful if I actually read what was in it.
 
Why else was I bound to fail?  Well the 3 items that I did use…3x multipurpose latches that I attached with confidence and satisfaction have not worked for their intended purpose. It appears that I have fastened them to the slightly wrong type of draw or cabinet or WHATEVER...is shouldn't be this hard!!!  How did I find this out? Miss T has essentially wondered around the house getting into everything  that is ‘out of bounds’. Today in particular has seen these ‘out of bounds’ spaces almost becoming little challenges or obstacle courses for my little lady. If she could speak, I am sure she would be thanking me for spicing up her daily grind. So it's back to the shops for me. Maybe Miss T is just too clever but I fear I have myself to blame!

shades of green

Its 7am Sunday morning, Both Miss T and I are feeling slightly shabby. Me from a hen's night out and poor Miss T from what seems like the beginning of a little cold. So here I am dealing with a snotty, squeely Miss T who obviously missed her mumma last night and who is therefore clinging to me for dear life. Even sipping a hot cup of tea is near impossible...And I cannot help but reflect on the week that was.

It was a week of replacing. Last night I replaced my regular Saturday haunt (couch, take away, hubby, movie and occasional intermissions of Miss T soothing) with a world of champagne, laughter, big hair, high heels and tiny dresses. I had a fabulous night out and loved every minute of it but I did have a moment in an ‘oh so classy establishment’ at about 1 am where I realised that the grass isn’t always greener. Give me the couch any day. I did my time and now it is bye bye big hair and short shorts! Ok who am I kidding I’ll keep the big hair.

During the week I replaced home mumma with working mumma. Again this experience was a nice reminder that my patch of grass is super green and something I hope I remember the next time I commence a whinge session where the hubby usually intercepts me with ‘seriously babe, is it really all that bad’. Miss T had a daddy/ daughter day on the Wednesday and the hubby assured me that it is in fact all pretty green. He said he would swap places with me any day. I spent the entire day on Friday convinced the universe was going to punish me for being a working mumma and that I would miss out on Miss T’s first steps. She has been so very close lately. At 5.50pm Friday evening, when the house was quiet and it was just me and my girl, Miss T took her first two steps. Yep I am all about the green on this Sunday morning.

New games with dad

who's got separation anxiety?

So today I replaced my role of mummy with my pre Miss T role of teacher. Why? Oh to spice things up a bit. Did I enjoy it... well you know it was alright but unfortunately there was A LOT of separation anxiety going on...for me anyway. Miss T had a fabulous time it seems hanging with her Yaya. While I clock watched, Miss T danced her day away.

At approximately 11am a sweet little student asked me, 'Are you enjoying your holiday Miss'. I almost laughed. I mean the previous 20 minutes sipping a hot tea felt more like the holiday he was referring to. Thankfully I took that extra moment to remind myself that he was only 13 and I was an adult....and how was he suppose to know I was on no holiday!!! Bless him I thought and replied, I'm having a great holiday thank you. (I might add that he had witnessed my ever growing belly the previous year).

Miss T and I reunited over dinner. I couldn't stop watching her, I swear she looked bigger, stronger, wiser. She had this confident look on her face as though she was saying 'what's wrong mummy, I'm fine, what about you?’

So smug!

ignorance is bliss

I swear I am not a bad mum. I have no qualms acknowledging that I am often a ‘no idea’ mum but I wouldn’t say I was a bad mum. Is it bad to enjoy just a few minutes of silence from time to time….Even if the apple of your eye is getting up to (a tiny bit of) no good? 

 

Lately I just can’t help it. The house goes eerily quiet, Miss T is nowhere to be seen and I just soak it up…my thoughts of  ‘just one minute, I'll enjoy just one minute’ simply override ‘Oh no, what is she doing’. Then I do a quick scurry around the house and tend to find Miss T in one of 3 places. The wardrobe rearranging my clothing (thank you darling), the kitchen systematically unpacking every baby wipe she can find, or in the bathroom unravelling and chewing toilet paper (her favourite!). It is only later that day when I am showing the hubby the evidence of our day and he questions 'And why is she eating toliet paper?' that I think to myself, should I have got to her sooner? Do I still have no idea?

 

By now I know I should know better... but I also know that my little bit of silence is just so rare and I figure my wardrobe is overdue for a cleanout, the baby wipes are often on special and the toilet paper...well I swear she only chews...

laundry monsters

I'm suffering from serious Mondayitis. I think Miss T is also. We are Miss and Mrs Grouch I tell you. Yes the sun is shining and all that, but today is getting the better of me and it's only lunchtime. Actually Miss T is more of a whinge pot...I'll be Mrs Grouch and she can be Miss Whinge pot... or perhaps she is just being a typical 9month old and I'm just not in the mood.

And to make matters worse we have all these laundry monsters appearing around the house. They are mocking me on this bright sunny day...You know those large piles of clothes that just keep on growing? Surely I am not the only one with laundry monsters? We have mumma in the laundry, puppa in our bedroom and bubba in the bathroom. Oh how cute we have a whole family! I do try to chip away at them but today they have also got the better of me.

About once a week I do a blitz. Mumma and bubba are often erased (usually to return within 24 hours) but puppa just keeps on growing. He is the biggest and often our own little obstacle course to get into bed. And today there is way to much mondayitis going around to even contemplate where to start.

No one told me I would be become a laundry lady. In fact no one told me I would become Mrs Grouch...I am a little embarrassed to give you a visual on our puppa monster but here goes! Judge me or don't! One day I will be a super mum and we will have no more monsters. When you ask?  Perhaps when we have a bigger laundry...or when it's not a Monday...

catching flies with chopsticks

We had our first trip to the hospital on Wednesday night. Miss T is absolutely fine but of course no hospital visit is fun. The whole experience made me realise a few things! Firstly no matter how much I have no idea about, I sure know how much I love my girl and how much I would move heaven and earth to keep her healthy, happy and pain free. And I am now an experienced hospital mum who knows that when they say we need to take blood and it is not negotiable that they are about to hurt my baby like hell!

We spend 6 hours at emergency and the majority of the time was spent trying to get a sample of her wee wee. It quite seriously almost sent me insane! The first sample (I'll refer to it as a sample so I don't turn you off reading this post) we missed! And the second never arrived. In this time to prevent me from loosing my mind I designed multiple FUNCTIONAL contraptions that would have collected the sample much more successfully that a tiny jar! I later learnt from a friend that such things do exist...hmm so why were we using a TINY jar? We were discharged on the instruction that we must see our GP in the morning.

We arrived at the doctors and my dreams of freedom were shattered. I was advised that we still needed that sample. My doctor likened the task to catching flies with chopsticks! Visualise that! As I am writing this post I am still on the pursuit to capture the fly. I have already missed one opportunity, Miss T flying??? all over one of her besties 'Mr Tang' (stuffed Orangutan not fellow baby friend). I mean seriously! This mission is impossible. 

So I know that I love Miss T beyond words and that blood samples hurt babies...what I still have no idea about is how to catch that bloody fly!

bloody teeth

Miss T giving the necklace a go

If I read another article that tells me that babies aren't in pain when they are teething I am going to scream. Miss T has her second tooth coming through and she has been screaming blue murder. I don't blame her, I reckon if I had a calcified structure cutting through my gums I would scream blue murder also. We are onto our second tooth in two weeks....So yesterday I went out and bought an amber necklace, it felt slightly like highway robbery (the cost being the reason I haven't bought one already) but I guess I don't know the properties of amber and I certainly do not know it's market value. Some friends swear by them and others are not so convinced.


Quite honestly if they sold sprigs of rosmary to tie on their little ankles like a roasting leg of lamb, I would buy it. At this stage I will give anything a go. So I'll see how we go.

Anyone have any thoughts on these gems?

the things we do for sleep

Manky foam mattress

I have spent the last 9 months trying to make Miss T sleep longer (or at all!) I have tried everything and when I say everything I mean everything...

patting, hushing, keeping her up longer, putting her to bed earlier (you don't want an overtired baby they say), feeding her more protein, gently teaching her to self settle, introducing a lovely (a soft toy for those non parents out there)...more patting and shushing, white noise apps, repetitive lullabies (more agitating that calming if you ask me), a total rearranging of her bedroom (I've got it she isn't sleeping because her cot is facing the window) and I even recorded our shower once as this seemed to be a rare place of calm so she could listen to the water flowing on repeat all night long. I could go on but I will spare you.

Nothing works! Miss T wakes like clockwork at the 30 minute mark ready to play. And at night well the real party begins. So what did I do differently in the last few days...

what we did has changed our world. Forget the above techniques, this is what works...Borrow from your parents a manky, foam single mattress that you are quite sure was the same one purchased 10 years ago for 'special friends' to sleep on when they stayed over and which your also quite sure is now being used by your little brother's 'special friends' when they stay over... That's right, pick it up, dust it off and get ready to enjoy your new place of rest on the floor of your bub's room. That is what I did and she decided to sleep through the night...
Thank you Miss T.

Another failed approach

puppy love

 
I taught miss T to kiss. That's what your suppose to do isn't it? An open mouth (occasional tongue) kiss that I could seriously be the recipient of all day long. I get the odd kiss, dad works hard for his kisses...then there is Apollo, now he has the highest quoter. Yes our big blue staffie Apollo gets all the OPEN mouth kisses....Terrific!

I guess she just loves her big brother!