Ah winter, the worst of all seasons. You bring with you frost on my car, numb fingers and noses, and all manner of nasty viruses, each one which will slowly convince you that this is the bug that will finally kill you.
Miss K is sick at the moment with a particularly nasty virus in her chest. I had it for three weeks, mum's on week two at the moment and Miss K is on day three. She currently sounds like a sixty year old man who has smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for the past forty years every time she coughs. I have an arsenal of pain killers and cough medicines in my pantry and every four hours I dutifully dole out the next dose of vile medicine much to her disgust. I'm sure she is convinced that my various treatments are going to kill her before the virus does.
But come tomorrow morning all of this stops. I dose my daughter up one last time, then I bundle her into a train and hand her over to her father for four days, during which time it officially becomes his duty to be chief snot remover and poison dispenser. Even before I was a single mother with my own custody agreement in place, this always seemed like the normal thing to do. You have a visitation scheduled, it happens unless a body part is falling off, and even then if it can be sewn back on in time the visit should still be able to happen. But my time working for a lawyer taught me that this isn't actually the case a lot of the time, and it doesn't seem right.
Now there is always a back story to every relationship, so I'm not saying that my way is the only right way and everyone else who does this differently is an idiot, but I wonder what the mothers who do keep kids home sick from a custody visit are saying when they make this decision. Are you saying that there is no one in the world who could possibly care for your ailing child better than you can? Are you saying the father is totally inept at caring for house plants, let alone children and this virus is far too much of a challenge for him to be able to get right? Are you saying you secretly have Florence Nightingale syndrome and the highlight of your parenting career is the times your child is ill and you spend your nights sleepless and your days full of temperature taking and dosing up your children?
Miss K's dad can be a total screw up, a fact which I gently remind him of at any chance I get. But by withholding our child from visiting him simply because she is sick, I would be telling him loud and clear; "You are not good enough."and that is simply not a message I care to send to him or our daughter. I want her to know that when the chips are down he will be there for her, and that message needs to be sent from day one. Whether it be a virus or a bastard ex, she needs to know that her dad will be there for her no matter what. On the other hand he needs to learn exactly what it means to be there for her when she needs it. He needs to get used to comforting her, wiping away her tears and making her feel better. Unless he has practise at doing this there is no way in hell he will ever be good at it. Now I'm not saying he sucks at it now, he is a very devoted dad who does everything in his power to love and care for our daughter. But as she gets older her needs change. Once upon a time all of her boo-boos could be kissed away but that's not the case so much. As parents we both need to be present for all of the changes otherwise we get left behind and stop being effective at our job.
As the primary caregiver I am the chief snot wiper and boo-boo kisser, and that is how it has been for over five years now. I've lost count of how many colds I have weathered, how many times I've caught vomit in my hands (or on my shirt) and how many cups of vile tasting medicine I have given over the past five years, nor do I care to count them. They are all just threads that make up the fabric of my life as Miss K's parent. But I am not her only parent, and because of this I am happy to step aside every now and again and let her dad take the reins for a few days and see what it means caring for someone who has half his genes. (Side note, they are the ones responsible for her total lack of inside voice). But because I am still mum, even when she's not in the same town as me I'll still be worried sick and totally unable to sleep this weekend, but that just goes with the territory.
I come for the coffee, I stay for the padded walls and straight jackets
Showing posts with label Ady. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ady. Show all posts
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Saturday, 6 June 2015
June Secret Subject Swap - Mother Nature
Welcome one and all to the June episode of Secret Subject Swap. Today 16 brave bloggers are swapping subjects with eachother, and then posting simultaneously. None of us know who got our subject, so it's a fun ride for everyone involved. Below is a list of the participating bloggers, as always be sure to visit everyone, and share the love around.
http://www.BakingInATornado.
http://berghamchronicles.
http://spatulasonparade.
http://dinoheromommy.com/
http://themomisodes.com
http://stacysewsandschools.
http://sparklyjenn.blogspot.
http://thelieberfamily.com
http://batteredhope.blogspot.
http://www.southernbellecharm.
http://www.someoneelsesgenius.
http://www.silenceofthemom.
http://thethreegerbers.
http://www.smalltalkmama.com
http://climaxedtheblog.
So today my prompt is So you get to be "Mother Nature" for the day, what's on your To Do List? and it was submitted by the lovely Shawnna from Small Talk Mama.
Wanted: motivated go-getter for newly available management position. You must have the ability to multi-task, and the willingness to ride the storm. Nature lovers welcome.
I circled the add then dialed the number given at the bottom. A cheerful sounding woman asked me a few basic questions, then invited me to meet up with her for an interview the next day. I hung up the phone with a knot of nerves slowly growing in my stomach. I'd been feeling for a while now that I needed a change of scenery, and I was hopeful that a new job was just the ticket.
I put my best work attire on the next day, and made my way to the cafe I was directed to the day before. I was surprised when I entered to find the only other customer in the room was a tall olive skinned woman in a purple flowing summer dress. I assumed I was really early until she walked over to me, with her arm outstretched.
"You must be my prospective replacement" she said with a warm smile. Suddenly I felt incredibly overdressed. We sat down at a small table in the corner of the cafe and she began to speak.
"First of all let me tell you what your new job is going to involve. You're going to be mother nature for the day."
I thought she was being metaphoric, or at the very least funny, but when her expression didn't change, I became confused.
"Excuse me?" I managed to squeak out
"Mother Nature. You know, Mother Earth, Gaia, the woman behind all of nature? I need you to be her for a day so that I can have a day off."
"Mother Nature gets days off?" I asked
"Ah, yeah, of course she does. Or at least I'm hoping she can, because I am incredibly burnt out right now, and I need a day of not worrying about monsoons and tides and balance. And that's where you come in. Now can I count on you?"
I was certain I was being pranked at that stage, but a quick scan around the room showed no hidden cameras, and given that I could come up with no good reason why I could say no, I nodded mutely. With that she jumped up, her grin widening.
"Great. Smart decision. I'll see you at midnight tonight."
"Midnight? Why so early?"
"Because that's when the day begins. Don't worry, it won't take you too long to pick up the system, besides it's only for a day. What's the worst you can do?"
I left the cafe in a daze, still not entirely convinced this wasn't an elaborate prank. However just in case it was real, and I was running the risk of breaking nature I arrived the address she gave me fifteen minutes early. I knocked on the door, and she opened it, still wearing the same purple robe I'd seen her in fourteen hours earlier.
"You're early, that's great" she said smiling. "Come on in and I'll show you around. Here's the kitchen, it's fully stocked, so help yourself. Amenities are over there, and here is your work station."
I looked where she was pointing and saw a small laptop sitting on a coffee table. It seemed so modern I just stood there staring for a few seconds. Noticing my shock Gaia smiled.
"You were expecting something more mystical weren't you?"
"Well yeah, a globe at least."
"Honey globes are so last century, we like to keep up with the times around here. Go on, take a seat."
I sat down on the couch and noticed a map of the world on the screen.
"You control the weather using Google Maps?" I asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah, but this isn't the publicly available one, I had a special plug in designed for me. Go ahead, take a look."
I checked the screen again, and noticed the task bar had several unusual buttons, rain, snow, typhoon, earthquake, spawn and sun, to name just a few.
"So how does this work?" I asked
"It's a basic point and click interface. You choose the location, choose the weather and click go."
"what about that spawn button?"
"what about that spawn button?"
"That's for creating life. Be careful with that one, because the last temp I had in accidentally caused a rat plague, which ended up leading to the Black Death and nearly the end of civilisation as we knew it."
"Anything else I need to know?"
"Yeah one other thing. There's only a finite amount of water on earth. The one thing I can't do is make more water, so if you go too crazy with that one, you could end up causing a drought somewhere else. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. The centre of Australia wasn't always quite so red."
With that she grabbed her suitcase and walked towards the door. She promised to be back by midnight the next evening and left me to it. I slowly sat back down on the couch and started playing around with the map. I clicked the search feature and started typing in addresses of people I knew. I spent the first fifteen minutes stalking friends, but given it was so late at night, there really wasn't much to see. Then I had an idea. I searched for the Great Barrier Reef, and had a look around. I remembered reading somewhere that the reef was dying, the coral wasn't coping with global warming or something, so I figured I could try to do something about it. I clicked the spawn button, then went through the drop down menu until I found the list of corals. I clicked randomly on several different species then clicked spawn a couple of times. Couldn't hurt I figured. Plus it might give the environmentalists one less thing to worry about for now. Next I found the bees. I knew that the latest panic had been the decline of the bee population in the world, so I decided to spawn them in several places over the world. Again, what was the worst that could happen.
I kept fiddling with different things, I caused a slight earthquake in Russia, to pay back the spammers who kept trying to hack my blog, and a second one in Nigeria, just as a warning to all the "princes" there who kept emailing me. By this time it was about 9am and I was getting the hang of it, but it was pretty monotonous. I decided to have a little bit of fun with my new found power and located Miss K's dad's house on the map. Then I clicked the rain button, selected his house as the location and hit go. It did look pretty funny his house being the only one in the neighbourhood getting any rain.
An email came through so I clicked on it and found a request for snow in Vancouver from a small child. He wanted a day off school the next day, and was hoping I could help. I found Vancouver on the map and made it snow there. Being so unfamiliar with the imperial measurement I accidentally set it to snow 30 inches instead of 30 centimetres, but I couldn't figure out how to undo that one, so I just sent an email back to the small boy telling him to enjoy his snow, and maybe go out for some supplies before it was too late.
By this time a second email had come through from a surfer in California requesting "kick ass waves" that day, as he had a date with his girlfriend and wanted to impress her with his surfing skills. I selected California on the map and hit wind, figuring that was how waves were made. While trying to figure it out, I accidentally ended up sending a hurricane to the coast, and again, couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I sent an email back telling him to avoid the beach that day, and perhaps try to head inland a little bit, just to be on the safe side.
I was still playing around when I got a text. I checked my phone to find Miss K's dad had texted me, telling me something funky was going on in Melbourne, as it had been raining at his house for two hours now, but nowhere else. His back yard was starting to flood, and his mum's vegetable patch was destroyed. I rushed the map back over to his house and tried to stop the rain, but accidentally sent a thunderstorm there instead. So I sent a text back to him telling him to put on some gumboots and send me a text if he survived the next twelve hours.
The rest of the day went slightly smoother, mainly because I stopped answering emails and ended up spying on different countries. If somewhere looked too dry I'd send them a little rain, if somewhere looked too wet I'd send them some sunshine. By the time midnight rolled around I was absolutely exhausted, so you can imagine my relief when I heard the front door open. In walked Gaia with the same sunny smile on her face she always seemed to wear.
"How did it go?" she asked me
"I understand why you needed a holiday" I replied smoothing my clothes down. "Speaking of which, the next time you need a break, please feel free to call someone else."
With that I walked towards the door, but before I left I felt I needed to say something else.
"If you feel that you absolutely must, there's a storm raging over a house in the suburbs that's been going for a little while now, it may not be a big deal, but you might want to turn it off."
So while it's not something I could ever put on the resume, I certainly won't forget the day I became Mother Nature. I can certainly tell you that nature is not for the weak.
Monday, 11 November 2013
I love it!!
I'm sure you're all surprised to see me writing right now. Especially given that lately the only time I hit this old blog up is when summoned by the great Karen at Baking in a Tornado to write for one of her awesome series. Well it's almost 11 o'clock at night, and I'm the only one still out of bed, and I've suddenly been hit with the urge to write to you guys. So firstly sorry for my neglect, and thank you for your patience. I hope tonight's inspiration is not short lived and that I can get back into the swing of things. Especially since I feel so good right now. It's been a long time in the making but I can honestly say I love life right now. It feels amazing to finally say that I am happy. This doesn't mean I spend my days singing from the roof tops, or even that I smile 24 hours a day. I still have bad moods, I still get tired, and I have a chest cold right now, so even at my absolute best things aren't perfect, but they are still pretty damned good.
So just because I am such a giving and thoughtful person, I thought I'd share the love with you guys, and let you know what the go is around here, and why I'm so darn happy now. So the first bit of good news is I finally finished my studies. I have no idea whether or not I've passed yet, I won't get the results from the final exam until next month, but I've submitted my application to graduate next year with the rest of the class, and all I can do now is sit and wait for some kind of confirmation. The final exam was nothing short of a shambles, first off I missed the exam date because of a screw up with messages from the school, and I had to organise with my tutor to "re-sit" the exam. Then on the day I had the exam booked the servers at the TAFE all crashed, so I couldn't access the system to actually take the exam. The joys of being totally reliant on modern technology. I was offered the choice of coming back another day, or going somewhere with free wi-fi and a borrowed laptop and going ahead with the exam on the day. Given I was already two weeks late to sit, I decided against trying again another day and my tutor and I headed of to McDonalds and I took my exam accompanied by the smell of fry oil and pre-schoolers enjoying a trip out with mum and dad. I can't say it was my easiest exam to get through, but it certainly was the most memorable. I'm sure I'll spend my twilight years regaling my grandchildren with stories of the day grandma took her final exam next to the play equipment at Maccas. Then we will all sit back and laugh at my wild antics as a youngin'.
Now I'm sure you're all thinking I decided to sit back and enjoy all the free time that not being a student affords me. That would be true except for two things. Firstly I never actually studied until the eleventh hour the whole year, so there hasn't actually been an increase in free time for me, and secondly, I have gone completely insane and decided to fill in the non-existent free time by opening up a business. I am now an independent Kaszazz consultant, which means that I get paid to make scrap book layouts and beautiful cards, and then sell the products that I used to make my art. It's still early days at the moment, but I've already held one workshop which was open to general public, and started regular private workshops for a select few people (read my big sister and sister in law.) Once I'm more confident in the stock I'm actually meant to be selling and the skills I need to hold the workshops, I'll start expanding and actually hold more public workshops and hopefully make more sales. It has been a huge learning experience already, and it can only go up from here. Except for my bank account, that will definitely keep shrinking because I can't help but keep buying every thing I see in the catalog.
I'm still also employed part time at the law firm, and despite it being as depressing as you could imagine spending your days facilitating other people's divorces and custody battles, I am loving being so busy eight hours a day. I start running the minute I get in the door at 8:45 and I don't stop until 5:30 some nights. It's hectic, stressful and some times confronting, but at the end of the day I walk out the door knowing that I've done a good day's work and earned my wage for the day. And the screams and cuddles I get from Miss K when I go to pick her up are always the best part of the day. And all of the worrying I did before I started that she wouldn't adjust, or that it would make life difficult for her were all for nothing. She is of course in the best hands possible being left in the care of mum and Sam, and I usually spend the first five minutes at my sister's house being shown the latest art project they did together, or hearing the new words she learned today. She's always so proud to show off to me, and it's great to see her getting to try things that she'd never get to do with me.
The rest of life with Miss K is pretty peachy too right now. Of course she's a typical 2 year old, which means she pushes her luck every chance she gets, trying to learn her boundaries and expand them when she can. We're still learning every day what it means to be a mum and daughter, and our relationship is constantly evolving, and of course I have to do a lot of mean things as her mum, like make sure she eats vegetables on a semi-regular basis, and pick her nose when she has a cold, and enforce rules, even when I don't feel like being the bad cop today, and there are days where it takes a lot of chanting "it's for her own good" to myself to get through another temper tantrum, but we always come out the end of it happy.
I am so proud of the person Miss K is becoming, she is so fearless and she charges through life head first at all times. She loves meeting new people and charms the pants off everyone the moment she speaks to them. She actually met her Nonno for the first time a month ago, Ady finally having reconciled with his father and they are speaking again for the first time in years. I'd never met his father the whole time we dated, and I wasn't even sure if he was aware when Miss K was born, so we're making up for a lot of lost time at the moment, and in December Miss K and I have been summoned to meet the rest of his family at their annual family reunion. So far Nonno seems to be a doting grandfather, and there are always presents for Miss K whenever we visit, and mysteriously they are always perfectly suited to her. We went down this weekend and there were colouring pencils and Little People figurines waiting in Nonno's kitchen for her. I have no idea how he knows exactly what to get her, but Miss K certainly always appreciates the gifts and I appreciate the effort and thought.
Things with Ady are going smoothly at the moment, and we've managed to navigate our way through several issues without everything dissolving into screaming matches and name calling lately. I can't say that everything there is perfect, because there are still all the reasons why we never survived as a couple staring us in the face, which does sometimes make it hard to get along, but we're trying to work together for Miss K's sake and so far it's going ok. We're now starting to talk about Miss K staying with her dad by herself, and we're aiming for starting the visits after Miss K turns 3, so I've now given myself something new to stress about. Yay!
Well that's all from me for now, I should probably get to bed too given I need to be up in 7 hours to get ready for work again, the daily grind continues. I hope to be back again soon, but until then, stay awesome.
So just because I am such a giving and thoughtful person, I thought I'd share the love with you guys, and let you know what the go is around here, and why I'm so darn happy now. So the first bit of good news is I finally finished my studies. I have no idea whether or not I've passed yet, I won't get the results from the final exam until next month, but I've submitted my application to graduate next year with the rest of the class, and all I can do now is sit and wait for some kind of confirmation. The final exam was nothing short of a shambles, first off I missed the exam date because of a screw up with messages from the school, and I had to organise with my tutor to "re-sit" the exam. Then on the day I had the exam booked the servers at the TAFE all crashed, so I couldn't access the system to actually take the exam. The joys of being totally reliant on modern technology. I was offered the choice of coming back another day, or going somewhere with free wi-fi and a borrowed laptop and going ahead with the exam on the day. Given I was already two weeks late to sit, I decided against trying again another day and my tutor and I headed of to McDonalds and I took my exam accompanied by the smell of fry oil and pre-schoolers enjoying a trip out with mum and dad. I can't say it was my easiest exam to get through, but it certainly was the most memorable. I'm sure I'll spend my twilight years regaling my grandchildren with stories of the day grandma took her final exam next to the play equipment at Maccas. Then we will all sit back and laugh at my wild antics as a youngin'.
Now I'm sure you're all thinking I decided to sit back and enjoy all the free time that not being a student affords me. That would be true except for two things. Firstly I never actually studied until the eleventh hour the whole year, so there hasn't actually been an increase in free time for me, and secondly, I have gone completely insane and decided to fill in the non-existent free time by opening up a business. I am now an independent Kaszazz consultant, which means that I get paid to make scrap book layouts and beautiful cards, and then sell the products that I used to make my art. It's still early days at the moment, but I've already held one workshop which was open to general public, and started regular private workshops for a select few people (read my big sister and sister in law.) Once I'm more confident in the stock I'm actually meant to be selling and the skills I need to hold the workshops, I'll start expanding and actually hold more public workshops and hopefully make more sales. It has been a huge learning experience already, and it can only go up from here. Except for my bank account, that will definitely keep shrinking because I can't help but keep buying every thing I see in the catalog.
I'm still also employed part time at the law firm, and despite it being as depressing as you could imagine spending your days facilitating other people's divorces and custody battles, I am loving being so busy eight hours a day. I start running the minute I get in the door at 8:45 and I don't stop until 5:30 some nights. It's hectic, stressful and some times confronting, but at the end of the day I walk out the door knowing that I've done a good day's work and earned my wage for the day. And the screams and cuddles I get from Miss K when I go to pick her up are always the best part of the day. And all of the worrying I did before I started that she wouldn't adjust, or that it would make life difficult for her were all for nothing. She is of course in the best hands possible being left in the care of mum and Sam, and I usually spend the first five minutes at my sister's house being shown the latest art project they did together, or hearing the new words she learned today. She's always so proud to show off to me, and it's great to see her getting to try things that she'd never get to do with me.
The rest of life with Miss K is pretty peachy too right now. Of course she's a typical 2 year old, which means she pushes her luck every chance she gets, trying to learn her boundaries and expand them when she can. We're still learning every day what it means to be a mum and daughter, and our relationship is constantly evolving, and of course I have to do a lot of mean things as her mum, like make sure she eats vegetables on a semi-regular basis, and pick her nose when she has a cold, and enforce rules, even when I don't feel like being the bad cop today, and there are days where it takes a lot of chanting "it's for her own good" to myself to get through another temper tantrum, but we always come out the end of it happy.
I am so proud of the person Miss K is becoming, she is so fearless and she charges through life head first at all times. She loves meeting new people and charms the pants off everyone the moment she speaks to them. She actually met her Nonno for the first time a month ago, Ady finally having reconciled with his father and they are speaking again for the first time in years. I'd never met his father the whole time we dated, and I wasn't even sure if he was aware when Miss K was born, so we're making up for a lot of lost time at the moment, and in December Miss K and I have been summoned to meet the rest of his family at their annual family reunion. So far Nonno seems to be a doting grandfather, and there are always presents for Miss K whenever we visit, and mysteriously they are always perfectly suited to her. We went down this weekend and there were colouring pencils and Little People figurines waiting in Nonno's kitchen for her. I have no idea how he knows exactly what to get her, but Miss K certainly always appreciates the gifts and I appreciate the effort and thought.
Things with Ady are going smoothly at the moment, and we've managed to navigate our way through several issues without everything dissolving into screaming matches and name calling lately. I can't say that everything there is perfect, because there are still all the reasons why we never survived as a couple staring us in the face, which does sometimes make it hard to get along, but we're trying to work together for Miss K's sake and so far it's going ok. We're now starting to talk about Miss K staying with her dad by herself, and we're aiming for starting the visits after Miss K turns 3, so I've now given myself something new to stress about. Yay!
Well that's all from me for now, I should probably get to bed too given I need to be up in 7 hours to get ready for work again, the daily grind continues. I hope to be back again soon, but until then, stay awesome.
Monday, 20 February 2012
And now for something completely different
Ok so my last post was pretty depressing, and left me feeling a bit low, so I just wanted to let you know that it's not all doom and gloom around here at the moment. The rest of my day was pretty good.
I feel like I am slowly winning the battle to get Miss K to eat more solids. Today I gave her a slice of toast with jam on it and SHE ATE THE WHOLE THING!!!!! Then at tea, she was given a bowl of tuna mornay, and she ATE ALMOST THE WHOLE THING!!!!!! There were lots of hugs and kisses for Miss K today as I was so happy that she is finally starting to realise that just because it has lumps in it, doesn't mean it's poison.
The next big battle we have on our hands is the weaning off the bottle. Dun dun DUN!!!!! (I love my caps lock tonight, it's making this so much fun to write!) I have tried introducing sippy cups to Miss K in the past, but it has never gone well. We went with a well known branded cup last time, with a large silicone spout that is close to a bottle teat, but much larger and more complicated. It's not supposed to leak, but tell that to the juice stains in the bottom of my nappy bag. >:( We also discovered very early on that Miss K would prefer to chew on the spout instead of drink from it, which is fun for her, but frustrating for me. So this time I am going to try a cup with a straw instead of a mouthpiece. Both my big sister and my sister in law opted for this choice when weaning their kids, and they seem to have made the transition a lot smoother than Miss K and I are so fingers crossed this is the way to go.
Ady also came for his visit this afternoon but things didn't go quite to plan. I had hoped that he would accompany Miss K and I for our fortnightly shopping, as we were out of everything except nappies and breakfast cereal, but Miss K decided instead that she would like to go to sleep for 2 hours instead, something she has not done in a long time. So instead of spending the afternoon playing with our daughter and showing Ady exactly what it takes to care for her physical needs on a daily basis, we spent the afternoon falling asleep on the couch from boredom. When Miss K finally did wake up at 5 o'clock, it was so close to her dinner time that we had to do a mad dash to the shops so that I had something to feed her when the worms started biting. And that's when the rain decided to fall. We decided that it was probably better not to drown our daughter in the 10 metre dash from the car to the supermarket, so Ady distracted Miss K in the car with a teething rusk, and I did the 10 metre dash, and the subsequent frenzied rush through the supermarket on my own. I didn't actually mind not having Miss K there to help me shop by pulling everything off the shelves that she could get her hands on. And I didn't miss the inevitable temper tantrum that always comes once she gets tired of driving the shopping trolley from the safety of her seat at the front, but knowing that she would be equally unhappy being strapped into the now unmoving car, and with Ady not completely used to dealing with her temper tantrums, I can safely say my mind wasn't completely focused on the shopping. As a result I got home and remembered the long list of things I had forgotten to buy like Miss K's juice, mum's ice cream, mum's margarine...
So tomorrow will be spent buying all the things I was meant to today but completely forgot about. And doing the laundry, and vacuuming the carpets, and trying to get Miss K to drink from a cup with a straw, and now I have a headache.
Excuse me while I curl up in a ball in the corner for now. See you tomorrow.
I feel like I am slowly winning the battle to get Miss K to eat more solids. Today I gave her a slice of toast with jam on it and SHE ATE THE WHOLE THING!!!!! Then at tea, she was given a bowl of tuna mornay, and she ATE ALMOST THE WHOLE THING!!!!!! There were lots of hugs and kisses for Miss K today as I was so happy that she is finally starting to realise that just because it has lumps in it, doesn't mean it's poison.
The next big battle we have on our hands is the weaning off the bottle. Dun dun DUN!!!!! (I love my caps lock tonight, it's making this so much fun to write!) I have tried introducing sippy cups to Miss K in the past, but it has never gone well. We went with a well known branded cup last time, with a large silicone spout that is close to a bottle teat, but much larger and more complicated. It's not supposed to leak, but tell that to the juice stains in the bottom of my nappy bag. >:( We also discovered very early on that Miss K would prefer to chew on the spout instead of drink from it, which is fun for her, but frustrating for me. So this time I am going to try a cup with a straw instead of a mouthpiece. Both my big sister and my sister in law opted for this choice when weaning their kids, and they seem to have made the transition a lot smoother than Miss K and I are so fingers crossed this is the way to go.
Ady also came for his visit this afternoon but things didn't go quite to plan. I had hoped that he would accompany Miss K and I for our fortnightly shopping, as we were out of everything except nappies and breakfast cereal, but Miss K decided instead that she would like to go to sleep for 2 hours instead, something she has not done in a long time. So instead of spending the afternoon playing with our daughter and showing Ady exactly what it takes to care for her physical needs on a daily basis, we spent the afternoon falling asleep on the couch from boredom. When Miss K finally did wake up at 5 o'clock, it was so close to her dinner time that we had to do a mad dash to the shops so that I had something to feed her when the worms started biting. And that's when the rain decided to fall. We decided that it was probably better not to drown our daughter in the 10 metre dash from the car to the supermarket, so Ady distracted Miss K in the car with a teething rusk, and I did the 10 metre dash, and the subsequent frenzied rush through the supermarket on my own. I didn't actually mind not having Miss K there to help me shop by pulling everything off the shelves that she could get her hands on. And I didn't miss the inevitable temper tantrum that always comes once she gets tired of driving the shopping trolley from the safety of her seat at the front, but knowing that she would be equally unhappy being strapped into the now unmoving car, and with Ady not completely used to dealing with her temper tantrums, I can safely say my mind wasn't completely focused on the shopping. As a result I got home and remembered the long list of things I had forgotten to buy like Miss K's juice, mum's ice cream, mum's margarine...
So tomorrow will be spent buying all the things I was meant to today but completely forgot about. And doing the laundry, and vacuuming the carpets, and trying to get Miss K to drink from a cup with a straw, and now I have a headache.
Excuse me while I curl up in a ball in the corner for now. See you tomorrow.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Bad cop says EAT YOUR SANDWICH!!!!
I can't believe it's Sunday night already. Weekends need to be made longer. I've had enough of this 5 days on 2 days off crap! Not that I actually work any harder during the week than I do on the weekend, but it just feels more relaxed on Saturdays and Sundays.
Today was a good day, Ady is in town at the moment for his weekend visit with Miss K. We took her to a park in town just for something different to do. Miss K is still way too young to really appreciate the park, just like she's too young to appreciate a lot of things, but she went along happily, and seemed to enjoy herself, even if she had no idea what was going on. We used the outing as an opportunity to take photos of Miss K with each of us, as when I'm with her on my own, I'm usually either too busy to get the camera out, or focusing on taking photos of just her, so there are actually very few photos of Miss K and I together, and because Ady is only down on weekends, there are fewer opportunities to take photos of them together.
Miss K loved having her dad here today, and spent a lot of time playing with him. It's great for me to see this, as before she was born and even when she was littler, there were times that I doubted that these two would ever have a good relationship. I wasn't sure if we'd have to start again each fortnight as if she was meeting him for the first time, as 2 weeks is a long time for a baby to go without seeing someone. But Miss K seemed to know right from the beginning who Ady was, and they have had a special bond since she was very young. It can be frustrating sometimes, because Ady doesn't seem to get the same temper tantrums from her that I do, and I get the feeling I'm going to spend the rest of her life playing the bad cop.
Not that I'm doing too good a job at being the bad cop right now. I find myself being very lenient with Miss K, and giving in very easily when she starts screaming at me. I feel that this is part of the problem I'm having with trying to get her to eat more solid foods. She is a lot smarter than I gave her credit for, and she learned long ago, that if she screams and throws herself around enough, I'll give in and stop trying to make her eat foods she doesn't want to. I'll persist for maybe 10 minutes before I give in and just give her a bottle of milk, and it seems that her stamina is greater than mine. I don't know if it's just that I can remember being a child and having to eat food that I hated, and I don't like doing it to someone else, or if I just can't stand seeing my baby girl so upset. But after watching Miss K get so distressed, I feel like the world's biggest bitch. I usually take about 10 minutes to calm down after a meal, and I think Miss K knows this and is using it to her advantage.
But whether she realises it or not, I'm doing this for her own good, as she can't spend the rest of her life eating strained apple and mashed potato. So every day I'll try again, and hopefully soon I'll learn how to get the upper hand and get her to eat the way she needs to.
Well it's definitely bed time for me. I have to get up stupidly early tomorrow morning because I have an appointment with a hypnotherapist to see if I can't quit smoking. Hopefully by this time tomorrow night I will finally be a non smoker again. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Today was a good day, Ady is in town at the moment for his weekend visit with Miss K. We took her to a park in town just for something different to do. Miss K is still way too young to really appreciate the park, just like she's too young to appreciate a lot of things, but she went along happily, and seemed to enjoy herself, even if she had no idea what was going on. We used the outing as an opportunity to take photos of Miss K with each of us, as when I'm with her on my own, I'm usually either too busy to get the camera out, or focusing on taking photos of just her, so there are actually very few photos of Miss K and I together, and because Ady is only down on weekends, there are fewer opportunities to take photos of them together.
Miss K loved having her dad here today, and spent a lot of time playing with him. It's great for me to see this, as before she was born and even when she was littler, there were times that I doubted that these two would ever have a good relationship. I wasn't sure if we'd have to start again each fortnight as if she was meeting him for the first time, as 2 weeks is a long time for a baby to go without seeing someone. But Miss K seemed to know right from the beginning who Ady was, and they have had a special bond since she was very young. It can be frustrating sometimes, because Ady doesn't seem to get the same temper tantrums from her that I do, and I get the feeling I'm going to spend the rest of her life playing the bad cop.
Not that I'm doing too good a job at being the bad cop right now. I find myself being very lenient with Miss K, and giving in very easily when she starts screaming at me. I feel that this is part of the problem I'm having with trying to get her to eat more solid foods. She is a lot smarter than I gave her credit for, and she learned long ago, that if she screams and throws herself around enough, I'll give in and stop trying to make her eat foods she doesn't want to. I'll persist for maybe 10 minutes before I give in and just give her a bottle of milk, and it seems that her stamina is greater than mine. I don't know if it's just that I can remember being a child and having to eat food that I hated, and I don't like doing it to someone else, or if I just can't stand seeing my baby girl so upset. But after watching Miss K get so distressed, I feel like the world's biggest bitch. I usually take about 10 minutes to calm down after a meal, and I think Miss K knows this and is using it to her advantage.
But whether she realises it or not, I'm doing this for her own good, as she can't spend the rest of her life eating strained apple and mashed potato. So every day I'll try again, and hopefully soon I'll learn how to get the upper hand and get her to eat the way she needs to.
Well it's definitely bed time for me. I have to get up stupidly early tomorrow morning because I have an appointment with a hypnotherapist to see if I can't quit smoking. Hopefully by this time tomorrow night I will finally be a non smoker again. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
You call that a Valentines Day? This is a Valentines Day
Is it bad that I went through most of yesterday without even realising that it was Valentines Day? Of course given that I am currently single, this shouldn't surprise me as much as it did, but I still can't believe I made it through "The Most Romantic Day Of The Year" without even realising what I was missing out on.
I'm one of probably millions of women around the world who haven't had very many romantic valentines days, in fact Ady was so against Valentines Day he created a Facebook page called "Every Day Should be Valentines Day." I asked him once if he felt this way why wasn't I getting flowers and chocolates every day, he couldn't give me a straight answer. So for us, yes every day was Valentines Day, because every day I wasn't getting flowers and chocolate.
I can actually count the times that I got flowers from Ady on two fingers. Once he showed up at work with a bunch of white Gerberas (I can't even remember telling him they were my favourite) just because, and the second time was when he came to the hospital after I gave birth to Miss K with a bunch of red Gerberas. (I really should give him more credit for actually remembering that they were my favourite).
I think Valentines Day are two words that can strike fear into the manliest of men. It's that one day of year where the weight of the entire world rests on their shoulders and the slightest mistake can put them in the dog house for years. I'm yet to meet a man who looks forward to this day, and I actually had one boyfriend ask me what date this "Valentines crap" was. We broke up before we could get to the valentines crap, but it wasn't because of that comment. Women can be unfairly hard on their partners when it comes to their expectations of Valentines Day, and I'm sure it has been the cause of many a relationship bust up.
I've come to the decision that a spontaneously romantic male is like a dog riding a skateboard. It's awesome when you see it, but not every one possesses the talent. So maybe it's time we all lightened up on this Most Romantic Day of the Year thing and give our men folk a break. It's not like they get many.
As for me, every day is still Valentines Day, and I still don't have a house filled with bunches of flowers and boxes of chocolate. And for that, my waistline thanks me.
I'm one of probably millions of women around the world who haven't had very many romantic valentines days, in fact Ady was so against Valentines Day he created a Facebook page called "Every Day Should be Valentines Day." I asked him once if he felt this way why wasn't I getting flowers and chocolates every day, he couldn't give me a straight answer. So for us, yes every day was Valentines Day, because every day I wasn't getting flowers and chocolate.
I can actually count the times that I got flowers from Ady on two fingers. Once he showed up at work with a bunch of white Gerberas (I can't even remember telling him they were my favourite) just because, and the second time was when he came to the hospital after I gave birth to Miss K with a bunch of red Gerberas. (I really should give him more credit for actually remembering that they were my favourite).
I think Valentines Day are two words that can strike fear into the manliest of men. It's that one day of year where the weight of the entire world rests on their shoulders and the slightest mistake can put them in the dog house for years. I'm yet to meet a man who looks forward to this day, and I actually had one boyfriend ask me what date this "Valentines crap" was. We broke up before we could get to the valentines crap, but it wasn't because of that comment. Women can be unfairly hard on their partners when it comes to their expectations of Valentines Day, and I'm sure it has been the cause of many a relationship bust up.
I've come to the decision that a spontaneously romantic male is like a dog riding a skateboard. It's awesome when you see it, but not every one possesses the talent. So maybe it's time we all lightened up on this Most Romantic Day of the Year thing and give our men folk a break. It's not like they get many.
As for me, every day is still Valentines Day, and I still don't have a house filled with bunches of flowers and boxes of chocolate. And for that, my waistline thanks me.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
This isn't as easy as I thought it would be
The next time I get a great idea, I'm going to turn around and just go back to bed.
Had the brainwave this afternoon to start a blog. Goodness knows who wants to read about my life, but the house was clean and I was desperate for something to do. I should have known that it wouldn't be as easy as that.
The creating of the blog hasn't been the hard part, in fact if I knew it would be this easy, I would have done it a long time ago. The problem I have is 10 months old and gets around on all fours. That's right, I suffer from what is commonly known as being a single mum. Of a grumpy, teething, clingy baby. Since I started creating this blog, I have stopped no less than ten times to refill bottles, pick up teething rusks, stop her from climbing on my chair, stop her from climbing on top of the TV table, make her tea, make her a different tea when she wouldn't eat what I made for her the first time, and comfort her when she cries. I know, this is all part of my job as her mother, and I don't begrudge doing these things for her, I should just know by now that free time is an oxymoron once you have children.
So where is baby daddy while all this is happening? He lives 170 kilometers away in a beautiful middle class suburb with his mum. I can't judge him because I live in a tiny country town in the house I lived in as a child with my mum. My ex Ady and I did live together at the beginning of the relationship, and I mean the very beginning, he moved in with me 2 weeks after we met. We got engaged after a month of dating, and I fell pregnant after 6 months. I used to joke that at the rate things were moving, I'd be ready for retirement at 35. It was early in the pregnancy when I realised I was going to have to be a single mum. Ady has a bad habit of walking away from things when they get too hard for him to cope with, and I was terrified that we were going to be just another thing to be put in the too hard basket very early on, so to protect myself and our child to be, I signed my lease of my beautiful 2 bedroom flat over to him, packed all my belongings into boxes to be put into storage at my brother's house and moved back into the house I grew up in.
That was almost 18 months ago, and a lot has happened in that time, both good and bad. There were a lot of fights with Ady both before Miss K was born and after, she got sick at 2 weeks old and almost died, my mum had a heart attack and almost died, and we've had a multitude of firsts like Miss K's first Easter, first Christmas, and first tooth. And yet, my story is nowhere near over. Which is why I've decided to start this blog. There is a lot that I have missed out on documenting, so I'll probably do a lot of retrospective writing in the future, but I also want to document the things that are to come. Hopefully anyone who finds me will enjoy reading this blog, but if you don't like it, please feel free to move on.
Had the brainwave this afternoon to start a blog. Goodness knows who wants to read about my life, but the house was clean and I was desperate for something to do. I should have known that it wouldn't be as easy as that.
The creating of the blog hasn't been the hard part, in fact if I knew it would be this easy, I would have done it a long time ago. The problem I have is 10 months old and gets around on all fours. That's right, I suffer from what is commonly known as being a single mum. Of a grumpy, teething, clingy baby. Since I started creating this blog, I have stopped no less than ten times to refill bottles, pick up teething rusks, stop her from climbing on my chair, stop her from climbing on top of the TV table, make her tea, make her a different tea when she wouldn't eat what I made for her the first time, and comfort her when she cries. I know, this is all part of my job as her mother, and I don't begrudge doing these things for her, I should just know by now that free time is an oxymoron once you have children.
So where is baby daddy while all this is happening? He lives 170 kilometers away in a beautiful middle class suburb with his mum. I can't judge him because I live in a tiny country town in the house I lived in as a child with my mum. My ex Ady and I did live together at the beginning of the relationship, and I mean the very beginning, he moved in with me 2 weeks after we met. We got engaged after a month of dating, and I fell pregnant after 6 months. I used to joke that at the rate things were moving, I'd be ready for retirement at 35. It was early in the pregnancy when I realised I was going to have to be a single mum. Ady has a bad habit of walking away from things when they get too hard for him to cope with, and I was terrified that we were going to be just another thing to be put in the too hard basket very early on, so to protect myself and our child to be, I signed my lease of my beautiful 2 bedroom flat over to him, packed all my belongings into boxes to be put into storage at my brother's house and moved back into the house I grew up in.
That was almost 18 months ago, and a lot has happened in that time, both good and bad. There were a lot of fights with Ady both before Miss K was born and after, she got sick at 2 weeks old and almost died, my mum had a heart attack and almost died, and we've had a multitude of firsts like Miss K's first Easter, first Christmas, and first tooth. And yet, my story is nowhere near over. Which is why I've decided to start this blog. There is a lot that I have missed out on documenting, so I'll probably do a lot of retrospective writing in the future, but I also want to document the things that are to come. Hopefully anyone who finds me will enjoy reading this blog, but if you don't like it, please feel free to move on.
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