The weekend from hell

If I ever wrote any kind of a diary (which I can never do for more than a few days at a time) this is what it would have looked like after this weekend.

Thursday 4th July 2013 6:00pm

Well today we are in Melbourne. I have been summoned up by Miss K's nonna to meet her cousin who is arriving from Italy tomorrow morning. I have been told it will be my job to keep her company tomorrow morning while Nonna is at work. Now given I don't really speak much Italian, and she doesn't speak much English this will be an interesting babysitting job. The trip up here was made easier by the fact that mum was with us on the train, she will be visiting my uncle while I'm in little Italy and we all travel together home on Saturday. I will be interested to find out if Miss K's dad has actually told nonna how short our trip is this time, he tends to forget the little details like that. After a discussion with him last week where he complained that I don't step back enough and let him take care of Miss K, I have agreed that he can bear the brunt of the parenting duties this weekend while I step back and observe from a distance. This will be interesting. I have been pleasantly surprised by the people of Melbourne today, and their willingness to help a lady with a pram get off and on public transport. I was assisted by no less than three strangers today while making the long and complicated journey from the city to the suburb where "la famiglia" live. It gives me hope that common courtesy isn't lost.

Thursday 4th July 2013 11:00pm

Well I am meant to be getting some sleep right now but it is proving impossible. It took 2 hours and a long car trip to finally get Miss K to sleep at 9pm tonight, but the sleep only lasted 2 hours and she is awake again. Nonna has offered to take her off my hands so I can get my rest, as she isn't going to bed any time soon, I think I'll take her up on the offer and try to catch some sleep.

Friday 5th July 3:00am

Just woke up to hear Miss K's screams from the garage which means two things. 1. She is still awake, 2. she is throwing the mother of all temper tantrums which means she is over tired and over indulged. Went into the garage to find her playing with her father, nonna is nowhere to be seen having gone to bed an hour ago. Miss K's dad said she wanted to go outside and when I asked why he hadn't returned her to bed he told me she didn't want to go to sleep. I drag a screaming Miss K back inside and get  her to sleep in five minutes. When will these people learn that what a 2 year old wants and what a 2 year old needs are usually two different things, and you always go with the latter? I don't mind spoiling a child and letting her bend the rules occasionally, but this is ridiculous.

Friday 5th July 7:30am

We were just woken up by a troupe of people walking through the door. The cousin has arrived and there is a whole heap of people standing in the kitchen talking over the top of one another as if they are all well rested and not encumbered with a 2 year old who always gets her own way. I envy them. Go outside to have a cigarette and complain on Facebook that I have no idea what is going on around me given my lack of understanding of the Italian language. It is very hard to be polite to these people when I am so damn exhausted right now. I still have my pyjamas on and bed hair. And to make matters worse Miss K broke my glasses again. I need coffee and lots of it.

Friday 5th July 9:00am

Am sitting in the kitchen with two people, neither of which can speak very much English. Of course one of them is 2 years old and very cute so she gets away with it. I have resorted to downloading a translation app on my phone so that I can string more than two words together for the cousin, and we are attempting a conversation. It is not easy for either of us, but I've managed to find out a little bit about her and she seems very interesting. I still do not understand why nonna tasked me with the job of keeping her company, especially since her son can actually understand Italian, even though he doesn't speak it. I have learned two new words so far, Scimmia, which means monkey, and pazzo, which means crazy. This will help me greatly in conversation because I know lots about crazy monkeys.

Friday 5th July 4:00pm

The house is full of people again. More friends wanting to meet the cousin have arrived. I tried to get a sleep in today but it wasn't successful. Miss K's father on the other hand has been in bed since he got home at 7 this morning. So much for taking care of his daughter. Apparently nonna's nose was put out of joint by the comment I passed on Facebook this morning. Or perhaps it was Tristan's suggestion that I call them all Stronzos which means asshole. While both funny and interesting it hasn't proved to be helpful in the least. I stupidly opened my mouth and offered to visit for Christmas this year, and they are already making plans so I guess I'm stuck with being away from my family for the best family day of the year this year. When will I learn to keep my fat mouth shut?

Friday 5th July 8:00pm

The house is finally empty again, Miss K was asleep at a reasonable hour (it only took ten minutes of fighting and three rounds of there was an old lady who swallowed a fly tonight) and I am alone to enjoy my headache. My glasses were well and truly broken this morning which means I am blind until next Thursday when I can finally make time in my schedule to visit the optometrist. I'm overdue anyway but the headaches aren't fun. Miss K's father did forget to mention we were leaving tomorrow (I knew he would) but I have informed nonna that tonight was our last night and she has very kindly offered to drive us as close to the city as she can tomorrow morning. Need to check train timetables and organise to meet mum and my uncles at the station. Tomorrow is my cousin's engagement party and I do not want to miss this for the world. Our family parties are legendary. I have decided to spend the evening hiding in the front room on our blow up mattress and read the hunger games for the millionth time tonight. I can't listen to another word of Italian for now.

Saturday 6th July 7:00am

Miss K and I have been awake for an hour. We've had breakfast and watched a whole episode of High 5 and still no one else is awake. I've packed our bags and cleared the house of all of our belongings, now I just need someone else to wake up so I can finally turn on the coffee machine and get the caffeine pumping into my system again. Why is it that the only time I want people up early in this house is the one day they decide to have a sleep in?

Saturday 6th July 10:30am

I have just missed my train back home again. I am so frustrated right now. Nonna finally woke up at 8:00 and I informed her I needed to be out of the house by 9:30 at the latest. 9:45 we finally left the house and she spent the next hour arguing with her son about the best route to the train station. I had been told the trip would take 25 minutes at the most. And of course it's all my fault because I didn't tell her I needed to be gone until an hour and a half before the fact. This of course ignores the fact that I couldn't tell her any earlier because she was locked in her bedroom. What's worse is that mum has my train ticket as I brought all the tickets at the same time and handed them to her for safe keeping. I now need to wait 20 minutes for the next train into the city and another hour after that for the next train back home and back to sanity. I'm also going to miss most of the engagement party because it starts at 1, and I won't get home till 2, then I need to get both Miss K and I dressed, (we tend to travel comfortable.) so who knows what time I'll get there. I kept telling nonna that it was fine and I'll just catch a later train but I'm so angry right now I could spit.

Saturday 6th July 7:00pm

Well that was one hell of a weekend. Miss K and I are finally home from the engagement party (we were an hour and a half late so we missed lunch but we made it for the speeches.) I didn't have much time to chat to my cousin which was a shame because I don't see him all that much but I did get to catch up with some family members which usually only happens at Christmas and birthdays so that was good. Miss K and I made our excuses at about 4:30 because we were both drained and ended up zoning out in front of the telly and the computer until her bed time. She didn't even want dinner tonight so she got sent to bed full of paracetamol (for her lovely cold) half an hour early. There was a new comment on my Facebook status when I got home from nonna, calling all the people who had commented on my post "stronzos" which means she has just insulted my family. So I'm done. No Christmas, no weekend visits once a month, no more being nice period. She wants to see a stronzo, she's got it. Mum has just walked in with a 6 pack of rum and cola so I think it's time I drowned my sorrows and forgot this whole hellish weekend even happened. Thank goodness for work on Monday.

image source www.freedigitalphotos.net

Pictured: me all weekend

Dear diary the more hospitals edition

So I know it's not Sunday, and that it's been almost a full week since I last blogged, but things have been pretty hectic the last week so again you guys have been neglected which I apologise for.

So you can probably tell from the title that we had more hospital drama going on at our place than an episode of ER. Well apparently my big sister didn't get enough of hospitals the other weekend when she had to take my nephew to hospital after he swallowed a coin, because this weekend she ended up there herself with pneumonia. Now this second visit in two weeks isn't as much fun to blog about as my nephew's visit as it doesn't come with a catchy nickname. (Mainly because pus lungs isn't as cute as piggy bank, and is in fact both incredibly disgusting and very mean to my big sister.) Luckily at the time of writing this my big sister has been discharged from the hospital for a whole day now and is back at home in her comfortable bed recuperating.

Sadly I wasn't able to visit my sister while she was in the hospital, and I still haven't been able to go visit her even at home because the day after she was admitted into hospital Miss K came down with some mystery illness that sent us rushing to the after hours medical centre when her fever hit 38.3 (100.94 farenheit for all of my yankee friends). Now apart from her high fever and general fussiness there were no specific symptoms to speak of so the doctors all had to shrug their shoulders and admit they had no idea what was wrong. Well two days and many fever spikes later we took her back to the doctors just to be told that despite several other symptoms appearing, including a concerning lack of balance when she tried to walk, that they still had no idea what exactly was wrong with her and all I could do was keep giving her paracetamol and wait it out. Luckily today she seems much better and her temperature has gotten back down to normal levels so (touch wood) she's all better.

Ben and Tristan are down visiting at the moment adding to the general feeling of pandemonium around here, but Tristan bought brownies with him so I've forgiven them. They also bought a heap of very noisy and creepy dolls for Miss K called Sing-a-ma-jigs so the house has been filled with slightly off key and eerie singing for two days now. But the brownies were delicious so I've forgiven them for that too.

On top of everything else happening I am madly trying to get ready for exams which happen in less than a month now. I am almost completed half of the work required to be ready for the exam, but trying to find time and energy to study has gotten harder and harder lately so I've had to take a few days off to focus on Miss K. But now that she's feeling better I'll be back with my nose against the grind stone for the next few weeks.

Well that's all I can think of for now, my thoughts for any of you readers who are in New York, or have family and friends there as they now begin the recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy.

Until next time, stay awesome my wonderful readers, and I will try to be back in less than a week.

Dear diary the piggy bank edition

Hello again my lovely readers, I am back again. I know I keep disappearing off the radar for too long at a time, but this time I had a really good reason. Or my big sister did anyway and I just went out in sympathy.

So this week was pretty boring until Friday night. Mum and I were sitting quietly in our lounge room watching telly when we got a call from my big sister saying that my nephew had swallowed a coin and it was now stuck in his throat. Well mum and my baby sister rushed to their house to help in any way they could, and came back with my niece while my sister and her husband rushed my nephew to the after hours medical centre. From here they were directed to the emergency ward at the hospital, and from there after a restless night they were sent to a hospital in Melbourne so my nephew could have surgery to have the coin removed. All three of them returned yesterday afternoon looking very exhausted. My nephew got to keep the coin once they removed it (in a specimen jar of course because after 2 days in his throat it's pretty yuck) and he has x-ray pictures of his throat complete with coin as a memento of his adventure. He has also gained the nickname piggy bank for his newly discovered way of storing coins.

Everyone has of course been pretty stressed and on edge around here lately as we all sat around in mum's lounge room waiting for another phone call updating us on his progress, and poor Miss K was pretty stressed by last night. Of course that didn't stop her from creating some new art work for me to clean up. While putting her to bed last night I found two new drawings in our kitchen. One on the pantry door and the other on the lino. Mum later found a third drawing in a plastic bowl. So Miss K has cleverly discovered that while I have said time and time again that I don't want her drawing on the furniture in the lounge room, I never said anything about the kitchen. Plus she is allowed to wander through the kitchen whenever she wants as long as she stays away from the rubbish bin and the stove so the whole room is just a blank canvas waiting for her to come and decorate it. I am now trying to figure out how to find all the pencils and crayons in the house that she has stashed in her various hiding places and keep them in the lounge room where I can watch her like a hawk.

Of course the big thing that comes with Miss K getting stressed is the massive temper tantrums, which only serve to remind me that the terrible twos are well and truly on their way. To be followed shortly after by the terrible threes which I have it on good authority are much worse. My patience is being tested already on a daily basis so I could just cry every time I remember I have another two and a half years of this sort of behavior to get through still.Luckily for me Miss K's mood switches on a dime right now so usually a tantrum never lasts for more than a minute then my sweet baby girl comes back.

Well that's it for another week I guess, I'm off to go dance with Miss K. Stay awesome my lovely readers and I'll be back on Wednesday with the final update for my current 30 day cleaning challenge.

Dear diary the Facebook games edition

So I'm back again. Did you all miss me?? I'm sure you're all thinking that since I haven't been around here blogging very much lately I must have been out doing lots of wonderful and exciting things so that I had something to talk about with you today. Well I might have been cleaning like a woman possessed all week to make sure that I'm back on track with the 30 day challenge. Or I could have been passed out drunk all week in a depressed haze. Or more likely, I have been sitting on the couch all week drinking coffee and chatting with visitors.

One thing I have done way too much of this week is played Facebook games. When I first got onto Facebook back in 2008 I played Farmville. I actually came slightly obsessed with the game. Even when I wasn't on the computer there would always be a window open in the background with my farm growing and doing whatever it did whenever I wasn't looking. That game became my life for a while until I realized that I was spending more time harvesting pretend crops and feeding pretend animals than I was socializing with real people. So I gave up on games for a little while. Then the games got too advanced for my antique of a computer so it wasn't worth playing them anymore. Then I moved to mum's house where we only had a wireless modem with 3gb of downloads per month so it was pointless even thinking about loading the games up because that took up too much internet.

But now that I have a new internet connection and a lovely new computer I have gotten back into the Facebook games. There is now a new Farmville game, and it is so much better than the old one, so I'm back to harvesting pretend crops and building pretend hen houses and picking imaginary olive trees. It is a little bit sad that I have so much time for growing pretend strawberries, but the pot of strawberries my friend gave to me last month sits in the same place it did the day she gave it to me neglected. The strawberries themselves don't seem to notice but I can't help but feel a little bit guilty that I'm not as excited for them as I am for my pretend crops. And my hidden object game. And my solitaire game. One of the joys of having an addictive nature is that when I find something that gives me a mini high I grab onto it with both hands and use it for every drop of happy that I can squeeze out of it. But the fun never lasts and I am finding myself once again losing my enthusiasm for computer games.

It could be that the nice weather that today brought with it is starting to show glimpses of what summer will be like and I am starting to want to be outside and be active again. I miss the constant sunshine and the lazy evenings that summer brings with it. One of my cousins has come down from Darwin this week for a short visit with his family and when I caught up with him it was raining and miserable and as we sat outside having a cigarette he told me about the constant 35 degree heat in Darwin and for a moment I was so jealous of him. Of course the wet season in Darwin is not as fun as the dry season, but I could handle having summer all year long.

The best part of the warmer weather is that Miss K can finally go outside. We have spent the last couple of weeks trying to get her used to grass, after spending months avoiding it because it was too wet and muddy. Today she finally walked on the grass on her own instead of just standing at the edge of the footpath and poking at it with her fingers. Her suspicion of it has been amusing, but once she realizes the opportunities that await her once she stops restricting herself to the narrow strip of concrete that runs down our yard, she won't know herself.

Well this wasn't really an update of my week, but that's just because there hasn't been anything to report. Unless you want a recount of every single cup of coffee I drank this week, but I'm sure you've all got better things to read than that. I will tell you though that Miss K and I are both doing great despite the fact that we are now both on week 2 of this horrible cold that refuses to leave us alone. My bad mood is slowly lifting and I have found the motivation to clean on several occasions this week, but there will be more on that tomorrow for my 30 day challenge update.

So until then I bid you all adieu my lovely readers as I am now off to hibernate. Stay awesome.

Dear diary

Well another week has come and gone, and very little has happened since this time last week. We had Miss K's 18 month immunisation and the lounge room got painted, but you all should know that already since you're such loyal fans who read absolutely everything I write.

My niece got her birthday present yesterday, which is such a relief because it means that I can finally tell you that she got to go ride a horse. Now for all you adults out there this may not seem like much, but to a horse mad 9 year old this is a big deal. According to my big sister she actually cried when she found out where they were going. The weather  yesterday was cold, wet and windy, all which make horse riding rather miserable. Luckily for me I was sitting at home in my nice warm lounge room not growing icicles on my nose, but my poor big sister was not so fortunate, and she was sitting atop a 6 foot tall beast. I got to see some photos and videos from yesterday and I can say with great authority that my sister was not born to be a cowboy. My niece however was a natural at horse riding, and wants to do it all again.

Miss K has been cranky and clingy and all kinds of frustrating this week, she wants to be picked up, then she wants to get down, then she wants a cuddle then she wants to be left alone, then she wants mum then she wants grandma. It's hard to keep up with her wants when they change so quickly, but we're just riding the storm. I have her 18 month check up tomorrow so we'll find out how much she's grown in the pas 6 months and see if I can't get some help with her begging people for food. You'd think I don't feed her the way she goes on when other people bring food into the room, and it is starting to get frustrating. She is walking more and more each day, and has gotten to the point where she would rather walk than be carried everywhere, which is a day I have longed for for 18 months now, but now that it is here feels like the end of something I will actually miss. Of course my back is grateful for the break, but I do love the hugs I got when I was toting her around.

Now for any of you who have been paying attention, earlier this week I wrote about Jill Meagher who was murdered last week. (For anyone needing their memory refreshed, you can check the post out here) Well today there was a march on Sydney Road in her memory. I had heard about it from a friend living in Melbourne who was planning on attending but hadn't thought much more about it. Until the photos of the walk started popping up on Facebook. Now for anyone who isn't familiar with Sydney Road, it is a length of road several kilometers long, and it is joined to a free-way which links Melbourne to Sydney. So you can imagine that it would be a pretty busy road. Well today was no exception, except instead of cars clogging up the lanes it was people. Check out this image of the march

That is a shot of just some of the more than ten thousand people who showed up to show support and protest violence against women. Now I lived in Melbourne for more than 2 years and I have never seen that many people all in the same place at once. The march stretched across over 4 city blocks in length. I hope that her family in Ireland got to see this photo and feel the love that all of these people brought with them for this poor woman. 

Well I'm done for another week, I am getting a new computer this week so I plan on spending this evening backing up the hundreds of photos I have of my family before I get rid of this relic for good. Have a good week and tune in tomorrow to see how I went on my 30 day challenge last week.

Dear diary the covered in paint edition

I know, I know I'm two days late with this update, and a day late with my 30 day challenge update. But I have been flat out the last few days so unfortunately non-essential tasks like blogging tend to take a back seat when things get crazy. But I'm here now so let's let the updating begin.

If I make no sense tonight I apologise in advance, I spent the day painting our lounge room and despite my nap this evening after Miss K was put to bed my eyeballs still feel like they are about to fall out of my head so this blog may dissolve into one long nonsensical tangent before too long. I could tell you the weird dream I had while I was napping today, but I think that's just asking for trouble. I will however tell you that I am so tired that I just tried to make mum a coffee in my coke glass instead of her mug. Using the last of the coffee. I'm so tired I have become as slow as Homer Simpson.

So painting. Today mum and I and my little brother finally got stuck into our lounge room and painted all of our horrible stained, pitted and marked walls, transforming our lounge room into a pretty pink and green room. I don't have photos atm, as I only picked up my camera once today to take a photo of my nephew helping mum cut in the first wall, and then forgot completely to take any more, so maybe in the next few days I'll remember and take some shots for you. I think the most exciting thing about our new lounge, besides the fact that this is the first time the walls in here have been anything other than creamy white is the fact that we have a feature wall! It is a stunning hot pink colour, and it stands out against the mint green walls fabulously. Now all we need to do is figure out how to fill the now empty walls with lovely decorations.

Miss K had her 18 month immunisations yesterday and I was so proud of how she handled it. Normally when we get her jabs done she gets two done, one in each leg, and I'm usually the one who has to hold her down while two nurses ambush her at the same time. It is because of times like these that she has earned herself the nickname air raid siren because the scream that comes out of her is deafening, and makes you want to dive under the nearest desk. Well yesterday was completely different. For one she only had one needle, and the put it in her arm this time, so she got to watch the nurse stab her. I was expecting this to make things even worse, but for some reason it had the opposite effect and Miss K sat very quietly and didn't so much as whimper as she was getting her medicine. She did go ghostly white once everything was over, but I was prepared for this and had packed a fruit juice in her nappy bag for a quick sugar fix. Why do needles send you into shock?

Also on Miss K, she is walking so much now, she even decided last night to do laps around the lounge room before bed. She would get herself up into a standing position at the door, then walk the length of the room and back to the door again. If she fell down, she would crawl straight back to the door and try again. I am so pleased to see her so determined to perfect this skill, and it is paying off in spades as her balance and speed get better every single day. I have decided during these school holidays to look into enrolling into a Gymbaroo class in a nearby town for next term, my nephew went to the same one when he was a toddler and it did his balance and co-ordination a world of good, and as Miss K loves climbing all over everything I think she will have an absolute ball.

Well I think that's all the exciting things from this week listed, I'm hopefully going to be catching up with some old friends of Miss K's father tomorrow, I haven't seen them in over 9 months, since they moved towns and had a baby so I am so excited for the chance to catch up and finally meet their beautiful new son. The next blog I do will be an update for the 30 day challenge so stay tuned for that one, but for now, stay awesome.

Dear Diary the more buttons edition

Ladles and jelly spoons welcome again to another Sunday round up. I'm going to start today by once again drawing your wonderful attention to the little sidebar to the right of your screen. There is another button there for you to click, this one takes you to my brand spanking new twitter account! And it didn't take me weeks to figure out how to link the two up this time. I'm getting even better at this. One day I will rule the world with the power of widgets.

So yes another week has passed and as I started the count down a couple of days ago, I should let you know there are only 99 sleeps until Christmas. I looked back at that blog post, (for any of you who haven't read my thoughts on Christmas yet, check out this post here) and it all looks pretty dismal. I should probably clarify that I don't hate Christmas, and even before I gave birth to Miss K I got involved in all of the tree decorating and the family dinners, but it was done with a level of sarcasm and indifference that would make the Grinch proud. However these days, because I don't want my nieces, nephew or daughter to know that there are people out there who don't think that Christmas is all that and a bag of potato chips I bite my tongue. I've even started shopping for Miss K's presents and am madly looking up Christmas check-lists to see if I can't find some way to make the silly season a little more relaxed this year.

So it's been pretty quiet around here lately, I was madly studying for the first part of the week, desperately trying to get my homework submitted as close to its actual due date as possible. I still can't get my final assignment to balance, so I decided it was time to call in the experts and I've sent it to my teacher, to see if she can't figure out where the heck I went wrong. I know it will be something stupid that I should be able to spot, but I'm at one of those places where I can't see the woods for the trees so I am hoping that her trained eye can help me out here. I'm expecting an email any week now.

Now my baby brother Ben and his partner came down for a visit at the beginning of this week, and when they finally went home that evening I thought it would be the last we would see of them for another few weeks at least. Well I have never been so wrong in my life, because they are at my little sister's house as we speak having some Sunday sippers. Now we haven't seen Tristan yet, as he had to wait until after work to catch the train down, but Ben came over for a few hours this afternoon and had a play with Miss K. This time I remembered to bring out my camera and I got some gorgeous pictures of them.

Miss K trying to get Ben to play the harmonica. His face cracks me up every time

Ben trying to get Miss K to play the harmonica. She was more reluctant to play so those little lips stayed tightly clamped at all times.

Ben got some even better photos on his phone while I wasn't looking, so as soon as he can upload them on my computer I'll be sharing them with you.

Miss K and I went out to lunch with an old friend of mine today, we decided to go to McDonalds as the one here has a semi decent playground area for kids, which meant I didn't have to deal with a bored one year old while I tried to play catch-up with my friend. It was a pleasant afternoon and Miss K won so many hearts while we were there we walked away with two new friends at the end of the day. There were two little girls in particular, similar in age to Miss K's cousins, and she followed them around like a little lost puppy dog the whole time they were in the play area. I am so glad that Miss K is such a social little girl, I certainly can't work a room as well as she does.

Also on Miss K, she is walking more and more each day, and yesterday she even managed to get herself into a standing position from sitting without using a piece of furniture to help her. I know that she is only doing what every baby does but it is ridiculous how excited I get every time she learns something new. Mum and I took her shopping to K Mart last night, and she walked around the shop the whole time. I expected her to get tired of walking very quickly but she refused to let me carry her anywhere, insisting that she could do it all by herself. Not that I'm complaining of course, because all that walking meant that she slept through the whole night.

The 30 ways in 30 days challenge finished this week, with mixed results and I have decided to try doing another challenge with a similar theme, but to tone it down a bit this time so that I don't get so completely overwhelmed and lose interest. There will be more information coming up tomorrow. 

Well that's it for another week, I am now going to go watch Mrs Browns Boys with mum and hope I don't fall asleep on the couch. Don't forget to check out my Facebook page and my lovely new Twitter page and feel free to like them both. 

Dear diary The deadline edition

So I know this update is a day late, but I have been up to my eyeballs in bookkeeping homework for the past few days, so things like blogging, talking to people and housework have been forgotten lately. I have seven assignments due in two days, and I have only completed six of them. Plus the seventh one is about the size of a small novel so I've been panicking this week. Nothing like the last minute to get you motivated to finish something. It's like high school all over again, but without the crippling body image problems.

So it's been sort of quiet around here lately, except for the wind howling outside, the trees and power lines being knocked down, and the constant rain. But luckily we've been given a reprieve from the horrible weather today, and it's looking like the next few days will be even better. It makes me impatient for summer to get here so that I can enjoy the sunny days and playing in the water with Miss K. But before summer can get here, we have spring, and this spring I'm hoping to start growing tomatoes and strawberries. I've bought two lots of seedlings, so as soon as I've read up on how to take care of strawberries and tomatoes I'm becoming a farmer.

Miss K has been incredibly chatty this week, I cannot believe how much she grows from week to week. I know a few months ago I was worried that her language skills and willingness to talk were lacking, but she is making up for lost time now. She still only knows a few proper words, but that hasn't stopped her from communicating with anyone she can find to listen to her. The other day mum got an ear bashing after I left Miss K with her to run up the street and do our shopping. Today I got one when I put her to bed. I know in a short while I am going to complain that she never shuts up, but right now I am loving the sound of her pretty little voice. As for learning to walk, she has taken it upon herself a couple of times to just stand up and take off which is so exciting to see. I know we'll have a walking baby in no time.

Of course not everything is wine and roses with Miss K, especially given that she is amping up for her terrible twos. She has recently discovered the art of throwing temper tantrums, and boy can she throw a doozy. She throws herself on the ground in the most dramatic manner, and the noises that come out of her would wake the dead. Of course I have to laugh at her when she starts up because it's so funny to watch this little thing acting like a diva. This never goes well because she hates it when I don't respond to her, but she'll learn soon enough that emotional blackmail doesn't work.

I felt terrible last night though, because while I was making her bed, the unthinkable happened and Elmo went MIA. (For anyone who hasn't met Elmo yet, hop on over to this post here for his proper introduction.) For anyone who knows Miss K, you will know that sleep is impossible unless she's got her teddy pressed up to her face. So it was panic stations last night when it got to bedtime and I discovered I had lost him. I tried giving her another Elmo doll to cuddle up to, but it just wasn't the same and she took forever to get to sleep. Luckily nature took over in the end and she finally crashed, but I made the decision to hunt Elmo out as soon as I got up this morning, so that I didn't have a repeat at tonight's bedtime. Luckily for me he was just hiding under her cot, so by bedtime tonight he'd been bathed, spent a day in the sun and was ready for snuggle time. Her face when she saw him was lit up like a Christmas tree. If I was an insecure parent I'd say she loved him more than me.

Well that's about all I have time for tonight, of course that wasn't my whole week, I did do other things beside study, I visited friends, bought Miss K a big bag of clothes for $5 at a second hand store and went out for tea at an old friend's place, but if I told you absolutely everything we'd be here all night. So until next time I'll leave you with a picture of my biggest achievement for this week. I finally managed to put Miss K's hair up into a ponytail for the first time this week, and I was so proud of myself for finally doing something girly I took pictures. Enjoy.

For anyone who has never tried to do a little girl's hair, it is similar to trying to groom a dog. Getting them to sit still is damn near impossible

Miss K's hair...and her foot.

Dear Diary the Fathers Day edition

Well another week has come and gone, and this one was so uneventful it almost seems unnecessary to write a diary entry today. If it wasn't for the fact that today is Father's Day I wouldn't really have much to talk about.

Miss K got to see her dad this morning for an hour, we were going to take her to the local McDonalds for a play on their equipment, but I forgot there was going to be a car show in the same area today, so given the lack of parking for three whole blocks leading up to Maccas (And these are bloody great big blocks too) we ended up going to the park instead. Miss K got to show her dad that she can take a few steps unassisted now, and she had so much fun playing in the pine bark around the equipment. Plus the weather this morning has been just glorious, so it was quite pleasant sitting back on my picnic table watching all the kids and their dads playing.

It's Father's Day for my dad too today (strangely enough) so tonight most of my brothers and sisters will meet up and take him out to tea at a pub in town. It's our favourite place to go for special occasions, especially in the warmer weather because there is a small playground outside where the kids can go to blow off some steam, but it will be too cold for anything like that tonight. But the food is delicious and the staff there are lovely so I'm positive it will be a lovely evening.

Miss K is her usual cheerful self at the moment, I haven't had to put her in my bed again since earlier last week thank heavens, and despite still swimming in boogers she maintains her usual sunny disposition most of the time. She has become somewhat fussy about her food over the past few weeks, which has come as a bit of a surprise for me, especially since before now she would eat anything you put in front of her. But all of a sudden she has started refusing meals if she doesn't recognise something, or the texture isn't one she is used to. With that in mind I cooked a recipe for macaroni and cheese yesterday that I found on Pinterest. She has had instant mac and cheese in the past, but this would be a lot different. For one there was a lot less salt in my recipe which probably meant it would be a lot blander. It was also grainy because for some reason that's what happens when you add pre-grated package cheese instead of grating it yourself. So I was holding my breath when I gave her the first mouthful and praying like crazy she wouldn't spit it out and start throwing a temper tantrum because I really had nothing else as a back up. But to my relief she loved her macaroni and cheese and even helped me finish my plate.

I mentioned earlier that Miss K walked to her dad, every day she gets just a little bit closer to walking on her own. She has gotten to a point now where if I put her on the ground standing up she can stand there unassisted, and she will take a few steps on her own, but she goes much further if there is someone close by for her to walk to. But a couple of times she has taken a few steps without anyone having to prompt her, so now all we need is for her to realise she can do it by herself and she will be unstoppable. Everyone keeps telling me that soon enough I will regret encouraging her to walk, but what they don't realise is how hard it is to watch other kids much younger than her already able to do this, and not worry that this means there is something wrong with your child. I know that every child develops at their own pace, and Miss K has already shown that she will do most things at a later age than the average child, but for once I would love for something to come easily for her.

Well I guess that's it for another week, I'm sure any of my regular readers may have noticed my page looks a little different now. I've been playing around with my layout to try to make this place look a little more like my own personal space, and not so generic. There may be more changes in the future once I have learned a little more about what I am doing, so stay tuned. As always there is the Facebook button at the top of the page, for anyone who hasn't done so already feel free to like us there and get direct links to any new posts as well as regular updates on Miss K and myself as they happen. So until next time, peace, love and tacos.

Dear Diary the bitter-sweet edition.

Well it's that time of the week again where I tell all of you my wonderful readers about everything Miss K and I have been up to over the past seven days. Well really most of it will be about this weekend, as I managed to cram more in the last two days than I did in the rest of the week. (Stupid gastro)

I am finally better thank heavens, I only really needed one day of bed rest and sulking before I was up and moving again, but my appetite and energy took a lot longer to return to me, I've only really been eating properly for about three days now, and even then my portion sizes have been smaller than normal while I get used to food again. I was determined to make up for having to cut my adults night out short on Monday, so this weekend has been full of social calls and outings, but luckily because they were all during the day time Miss K got to come with me. We crashed a Nutrimetics party yesterday, and by crashed I mean we tagged along with someone who was actually invited to the event. This is the second shopping party we've crashed in as many weeks Miss K and I, both with the same friend. Last week we went to a Tupperware party with her and both times we have been made to feel very welcome despite the fact that we knew no one there and they were all meeting us for the first time. I even decided to splash out and buy some perfume after yesterday's party, as I always feel there is no such thing as too many bottles of smelly stuff.

I also finally got to eat my cupcakes yesterday as Miss K and I managed to get our choc banana cupcakes baked in the afternoon while my brother and sister were visiting. Of course Miss K's help only went as far as licking the spoons once I was finished with them, but she was happy to be my dishwasher for the day. I was quite proud of the cakes as they tasted delicious and they didn't look too bad either. It was my first attempt at piping frosting on cupcakes and while it doesn't look completely professional, it wasn't a bad first attempt. I took some photos before I ate them all, so that I could share them all with you.

Tell me one more time they look like poo cupcakes and I will hurt you.

Sadly my photography skills are still lacking, but my cooking skills are pure awesome

Today I took mum and Miss K to the Sunday Market in the next town over. Miss K's dad and I actually used to run a stall at this market before Miss K was born, and it was sad to see it as a shell of its former bustling self, but I'm hoping it was just the horrible weather that was keeping everyone away. I remember spending most of our Sunday there every week for a few months the year we met, and we made friends with some of the other wonderful stall holders, but they have all moved on to other markets now days and I was sad to see I didn't recognise any of the stall holders when I went today. There was such a sense of family with the stall holders there, you would pass each other's stalls and wave hello or stop in and chat if you were close, and they were all so helpful when we first started there, telling us which stall holders to avoid selling to as they always resold your stock at ridiculously up-marked prices.

After we were finished at the market we went and visited with my big sister for a coffee, and Miss K sat with her uncle and had a cheese sandwich. For some reason he was able to get her to take small lady-like bites, which is something I can never get from her, and she sat very straight and proper on his lap the whole time without squirming or reaching around for things out of her reach. I can't help but laugh at how flirty my little miss gets, even with her own uncles. After lunch and a nap we went to visit with some old friends that we met co-incidentally through the markets. We bumped into them at the market and I was saddened to discover they are moving closer to the city tomorrow to find their fortunes in the big smoke. So it was decided I had to go over to their place for one more coffee before they left. The house was sadly empty of furniture when we got there as everything has been packed up and stored in anticipation of their huge shift tomorrow, so we sat on the floor in the kitchen chatting and drinking coffee, and Miss K played with the family's son and daughter who quickly became her biggest fans. The son, who is almost 2 is such a lady killer, he sat with his arm around Miss K, feeding her dry wheat bix and kissing her occasionally. Miss K of course is never one to refuse food so she loved all the special attention she was receiving.

They also have a large dog there, a labrador cross and it is huge. I mean huge. It could probably stick its head on my desk as I typed were it here right now. Luckily despite its size it is the gentlest dog you could meet, and he is fabulous with children, having been around them since he was a puppy so he wasn't too concerned when Miss K decided to crawl over his tail suddenly, nor when she decided to pull herself up on him. I was more surprised of Miss K's reaction to the dog, especially as she hasn't had much to do with dogs in her short 17 months, but she adored him and kept rushing to him to give him pats and hugs, and she didn't even mind when he licked her. The dogs owner was of course around at all times to make sure he didn't trod on any of the babies, as the oldest child in the house is not yet four, but he is such a well trained dog there really was never any concern anyone would get hurt. It was actually such a sad moment when I realised it was past our dinner time and we needed to get home and ready for bed, I had to keep the good byes brief so that I didn't lose it and start crying in front of them, but I have promised as soon as they are all settled in to their new home, Miss K and I will be up for a visit.

As for Miss K, she is cruising along nicely. We realised this week that she has been saying da da a lot lately, and that when she says it, she actually means Grandma. I'd never thought of it much as when she was younger Grandma was bumma, but lately whenever mum leaves the room, or if she's in her cot and she sees mum making coffee in the kitchen she starts yelling da da da da at the top of her lungs and we finally clicked the other day she's calling for her Grandma. She also learned how to say Grandpa this week, (ba pa) and she's learnt my niece Eliza's name (zee zee). Apart from that most of her chat is still unintelligible babble, but it certainly is plentiful, she is rarely quiet these days and if I can't hear her it's usually a pretty good sign she's up to no good and I need to find her NOW. She is still not taking more than a couple steps unassisted, no matter how much we encourage her, unfortunately there is little I can do besides keep encouraging her and making sure she isn't given the excuse to keep slacking off which means I have to stop carrying her everywhere. My back will thank me for this.

Well that's another week summed up nicely, as you can tell there was very little organising done this week thanks to the gastro, but hopefully I'll be able to get back into it this week and keep fighting the good fight. Well until next time, stay awesome readers and of course don't forget to like my Facebook page for regular updates and much more. Unless you are one of the wonderful people who have already, in which case you are welcome to go about your business as normal.

Dear Diary the eventful week edition

Well it's that time of the week again, and what a week it has been. There have been some major changes this week for both me and Miss K and I am bursting at the seams to share them all with you.

So today I'm going to start with Miss K for a change, and it has definitely been a big week for her. We are currently trying to encourage her to start walking by herself. At the moment she is happy enough to walk as long as someone is holding her hand. My sister and I sit on the floor with her and we can manage to get her to walk several steps between us, as long as there is chocolate involved. But once the chocolate is all gone her motivation to walk disappears and she resumes crawling everywhere. She shows signs that she is ready to walk, but she just hasn't gained the confidence yet. But tonight was a big night for her, she managed to stand all by herself for a full 20 seconds before she realised that she was standing unsupported and freaked out. Then she dropped onto her bottom like a tonne of bricks. So that was a pretty exciting moment for me. It was also the first time I managed to contain my excitement when she stands up alone, as I usually start making noises which just brings her attention to it and makes her fall down. So a huge step forward for both of us. Another big development for Miss K is that she has finally discovered the word no. Now at bed time or when we share a shower she starts shaking her head madly and yelling no. It's very cute and fun to watch, but with all the jiggling, it is getting just that little bit harder to hold her. She has also started saying grandpa this weekend, but coming from her mouth it sounds like ba pa. Again very cute and I get her to say it as much as possible.

As for me, this week has also been a big week. As mentioned earlier in the week I'm starting a 30 day challenge to see if I can't get better organised and on top of my housework. I won't go into everything on this post because it is big enough to deserve a post of its own, but needless to say this week has been a huge learning curve for me, but I haven't given up yet and I feel that I may be on my way to being a better organised and tidier person. That's not to say I haven't hit any stumbling blocks along the way, for one Miss K is spending more time in her bedroom at the moment, just because most of her toys have been moved in there, but the extra time in her room has come with extra cleaning for me as every time she goes in there she absolutely trashes the joint. And just in case you think I'm being over dramatic when I say she trashes the joint, I actually took pictures of it the other day as evidence.

See? Trashed.

So from being a room that I had to give a small tidy and dust to once a week it has now become a daily job. Occasionally I get Miss K to come and help put her toys away for me, and once I even managed to tidy it up while she was fast asleep in the cot. But I am beginning to feel this is a losing battle, and I'm at my wits end as to how to stop her upturning every single box in the room. It's all good for her as she can't fold yet so I can't get her to help tidy up the bibs and body suits. But I'm now beginning to regret buying so many of them as I have to re-fold each and every one of them every night. 

On the family front my little sister is settling into her new home nicely, I think she's loving living so close to work as she can now be on call for whenever they need her, instead of needing at least an hours notice to start work so she could figure out how to get there. She has actually moved into a flat very close to where I was living before I moved back to mums house, and apparently my old neighbours in the block of flats next to mine were having a party last night that was so loud she could hear them even though they are several blocks of land away from her. Glad to see some things never change. I've told her if she hears a really loud television set being played it would be my old next door neighbour who is as deaf as a post and used to have her telly blaring all day. I never had to watch telly when I lived there because I could hear hers perfectly, even with all my doors and windows closed.

Well that's me done for another week, my little brother is coming down tonight for a quick visit, and I'm waiting to hear from him as he'll probably be wanting a lift from the train station. It just means I can't get into my pyjamas until they get here. The things I do for my family.

Just a quick reminder as well, you can now find me on Facebook here so come on over and like my page, you'll get updates as soon as I've posted another wonderful blog for you to read, I also get to update on what is happening with both me and Miss K more regularly there so you get to see more of us. Don't miss out.

Dear Diary the she's leaving home edition

Hello again my wonderful readers as I return to recap another wonderful week. I'm sure I have lots to tell you, let me just sit here for a second while I try to remember something earlier than what I ate for tea tonight. It was Dim Sims in case you were wondering.

So the last few days our house has been full of talk about moving house. No, Miss K and I are not leaving the nest just yet, as we have it way too good here right now =D. My little sister however has finally taken a huge plunge and is moving into a flat all by herself. This isn't her first move from home however, as last year the week before Miss K was born she moved to Melbourne to live with my little brother and his partner. Then at the beginning of this year she moved back to our home town and decided to share a house with my other little brother and his wife and daughter. And now she has finally decided to live on her own for the very first time. I can only imagine how nervous she is about this, as the first time you get a house by yourself is always frightening at first. But I am surprised to find how jealous I am of her while I hear her talk about unpacking boxes and finding places to fit everything. I remember the excitement I used to feel when I moved house, every room is fresh and new, even though they have probably been lived in by dozens of people before you, and you get to decide where everything goes. So everything has already  been carted from storage into the new flat waiting for my little sister, and she finally follows it tomorrow once the gas and electricity are connected.

As for Miss K and I, we are trundling along happy as ever, my mojo hasn't fully returned yet but now that I have finished all of my overdue school work I am feeling a lot more relaxed, I even managed to tidy my bedroom to a degree yesterday. All clean clothes are folded and put away, all dirty clothes are hidden in a laundry hamper and my bookcase is tidy and free from dust and miscellaneous clutter. Who knows I may even try tackling some of the random piles of junk that have collected in the two corners not taken up by a bed and door this week. Miss K has learned a new word this week, she can now say please, and I have discovered that Miss K might have a lisp. I'm not sure if it is anything I can worry about just yet, especially as she is still learning how to form all of her sounds, but the next appointment I have with our Maternal Health Nurse I will be mentioning it, just so that it is put on her record for future reference.

Well that's it really for this week, I never did get the virus that made the rounds through the rest of the family, so I'm grateful for that, as I'm not sure how sympathetic Miss K would have been if I had gotten sick. So I'm off to watch some rhythmic gymnastics before the Olympics finally end for another four years. Stay awesome wonderful readers and I'll be back again soon I'm sure.

Dear Diary The I can see clearly edition

Everybody sing now "I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN HAS GOOOOONE" Well it has stopped raining, but that's not why I can see, I finally picked up my new glasses today, and the difference in my vision is amazing. I had to clean the television this afternoon, because I could finally see the fingerprint marks Miss K left there that mum has been complaining about for weeks.

Pictured: Me in my new glasses

It is so weird not having to squint to see the pattern on my toilet floor. I'm sure these glasses have other purposes, but that in itself was enough to keep me amused this afternoon. Once I get used to them and stop going dizzy every time I move my head I'm looking forward to being able to see everything I couldn't before. And the glasses weren't my only purchase today, I also decided to splash out and buy myself a quilting kit to give me something to do at night while Miss K is in bed. I could live to regret this decision eventually, as I have never attempted to quilt anything before, but I'm willing to give it a go anyway.

We had a frustrating day today as the electricity maintenance people decided that it was the perfect time to do maintenance on the wires in the area. That meant that we were without power from 9 this morning till just before 3 this afternoon. It meant that we had to boil water for our coffees on the stove, we couldn't use our heater which was just perfect given the temperature outside was bloody cold, and the temperature inside decided to match it. I also couldn't use the computer, my portable DVD player or even the microwave. It served to remind me exactly how much we rely on technology for even the simplest things like cooking lunch, and I know if there was some kind of natural disaster which disabled the power grids, I would be well and truly screwed.

We have had a family of sick people this week, my big sister and my nephew are both unwell, and my little sister has been staying over since Saturday as she has a nasty virus, and she has been filling the house with the charming sounds of violent vomiting and throaty coughs ever since. It is tempting to break out the Hazmat suits but in the spirit of looking sympathetic I have restrained myself and merely sneak into my bedroom whenever it sounds like she's about to hack up a lung.

Miss K is as loud and boisterous as usual, she has learned how to say hi and hello recently so her conversations are peppered with greetings these days, and she loves it when someone new walks into the room because it gives her an excuse to yell hi at them. It has now been almost a week since I decided to try weaning Miss K from her night time feeds and I am proud to announce that she is officially sleeping through the night. I am absolutely gobsmacked at how quickly she took to sleeping through, and I have heard reports from mum and my little sisters that she still wakes up several times a night, but she is quite happy to entertain herself quietly until she is tired enough to go back to sleep. She did decide one night that it would be a fun game to kick the wall really loudly at 1am, and I was worried that if I went in and repositioned her I would be giving her an excuse to cry and beg to be let up, but she was happy to have me pop in, move her to the top of her bed and walk out alone. She even went back to sleep shortly afterwards. 

I mentioned earlier this week that Miss K's new bedroom is completed, and I am going to take photos of it this afternoon so they will be posted shortly. I can't wait to share the changes with you guys, and I'm sure you're all just as excited as I am.

Well that's me done for another week, I'll be back again soon with photos.

Dear diary the busy beaver edition

So as I predicted I haven't had much time for blogging these past few days. Miss K has been recovering from her virus nicely these past few days, and she is almost back to her normal sunny self finally. But that doesn't mean that the whole family is healthy right now. Two of my sisters have various infections and viruses, and one of my nieces has come out in a rash similar to Miss K's. Gotta love winter for the colds and bugs it spreads.

I have actually managed in between giving Miss K paracetamol and chasing after her to get some of her room redecorated this week, and it is starting to really come together. I've rearranged some of her furniture, taken down all of the decorations from her jungle themed room, and I've almost finished putting up her new wall border. If I can get a spare five minutes tomorrow I can finish that job and find another one that needs doing. I'm very pleased with the results so far, and I cannot wait to share them with you guys once I've taken more photos.

Well I have been a very busy little beaver this weekend, so much so that I now need another weekend just to get over this weekend. Yesterday I went shopping at Spotlight to take advantage of their fabric sales to buy some material for a new nappy stacker for Miss K's bedroom. I realised as I was starting to put the room together that her current pale blue nappy stacker didn't fit in with the rest of the room, so I decided to splurge on some Dr Seuss quilting fabric so I could whip up a new one for her. And whip up I did, with thanks to a free pattern I found online. It took me about 4 hours in total, part of which came from difficult to understand sewing instructions for a beginner like me, but I managed to pull it together in the end and I am ecstatic with the results. I'll have photos up once it's installed in Miss K's bedroom.

Today was also jam packed with activity, I took Miss K to get her photos taken by a professional today, which was an absolute disaster! To start with she was tired because I stupidly agreed to a sitting time that went over nap time, so she wasn't interested in sitting still and behaving herself for five minutes so we could get a nice picture. Then the photographer sat her on a chair that was too tall for her, and when she decided she had had enough of sitting down, she tried to get off the chair by belly flopping to the floor. I'm not certain how Miss K would have reacted if the photographer hadn't screamed when she did this, all of my family have long ago learned to not react to Miss K's tumbles until she does, and we have averted many tears in this way, however when someone new comes in, they don't always know this rule, and they react the way the photographer does, which is always guaranteed to make Miss K cry. That was the end of the photos for us, and just quietly I think the photographer was happy to see us leave. I'll pick the photos up next month, so I'll be interested to see if she was able to get any decent shots from us.

We also went out for tea tonight for my nephew's birthday, and then back to my sister's house for cake afterwards. It was a very enjoyable evening, and when we finally went home at 9 o'clock, I was actually disappointed that the evening had to end. But given that both Miss K and I were ready for bed it was a relief to get home and get into my jammies. My nephew's birthday isn't actually until Tuesday, so we'll actually get to celebrate it twice, and I've held off giving him his new Dr Dreadful set until Tuesday too, and I can't wait to see the look on his face when he realises he is now able to make zombie brains and eat them.

Well that's another week re-capped for now, I'm off to bed finally and glad to be going there too. I'll be back again soon as Miss K is almost completely better so I'll have a little more time on my hands this week. Although I think I will miss the extra cuddles I get from her when she isn't feeling a hundred percent. When she is healthy she is too full of beans to sit still long enough to hug her mother, so I take advantage of any extra affection any chance I can get.

Dear Diary The I hate technology edition

Were you guys worried that I wasn't going to do a diary today since I already posted this afternoon? Well fear not my intrepid readers I would never disappoint you. Besides who else will listen to me rant about my week?

It's actually a bit hard to do a diary entry tonight as I've spent a lot of this week telling you what was happening as it was happening, but I'm sure I'll be able to find one or two things I left out. It was my big sister's birthday on Tuesday this week, so I had the opportunity to go and visit her and give her chocolates, which I feel are an absolute must as a birthday present. (Hint hint). Miss K was given the opportunity to learn about moderation and self restraint, as she was given a whole bottle of chocolate milk to herself. But given that she is only 1 and doesn't understand either of these concepts she drank the entire bottle in about five minutes and gave herself a nasty stomach-ache. It took a couple of decent sized burps and a quiet sit down with mum before she was back to her normal self and able to play play-dough with her cousin.

As you have all no doubt read this week I have been madly creating things for Miss K's new bedroom, but things came to a grinding halt this evening when my laminator decided to chew one of my pages. It took mum and me an hour with a screw driver and a knife to pull apart the wretched machine to try and rescue my precious paper. Below is the end result of our work, and neither of us can figure out how to put it back together.

CURSE YOU TECHNOLOGY!!!!

So tomorrow will be spent buying a new laminator among other things. 

Miss K is her usual self, but with extra cheekiness thrown in for good measure. I mentioned in my earlier post that she spends a lot of time pushing my buttons at the moment, but she has learned a few new tricks that aren't as frustrating. For example, she can finally climb onto our couch which is frustrating, but only because she gets up there and jumps and I'm terrified she's going to nose dive into the coffee table one of these days. She has also discovered that when grandma stands in the kitchen and yells my name I get out of bed, so most mornings I am woken up by her yelling my name over and over again. She is still not walking by herself, but we go for walks together every single day, usually when I'm putting her high chair away, so I'm hoping she'll start taking steps by herself soon. 

Well that's it for another day, I have to get up early tomorrow morning to buy birthday presents for one niece and one nephew (why couldn't you have your kids more than a month apart big sister??) plus my little sister has a dentists appointment tomorrow (ha ha) and I have to drive her there so I'm going to be a busy beaver tomorrow. Till next time, stay awesome my wonderful readers. 

Dear diary the Kerplunk edition

So my soundtrack to today's diary entry is the chorus of groans and clacks of a game of Kerplunk currently being played on the coffee table by mum and the kids. One of the babies has gone home, but the last two are still here waiting for mum and dad to come back from Melbourne (hopefully with junk food).

This week certainly was more eventful than the last few weeks combined, we have had a zoo of children keeping us entertained, I got heaps of decorations completed for Miss K's new bedroom and I even got a hair cut during the week. This was actually a big deal for me because it's been over 12 months since I've had anything done to my hair so there was a lot of hair sitting on top of my head before this week. I had decided that it was getting too long and heavy, and I was getting tired of having to deal with it so I got my little sister to chop off 6 inches of hair. I now have shoulder length hair and I feel about 5 kilos lighter too. I also get out of the shower about five minutes faster these days as I don't have to shampoo and condition so much hair.

Miss K has been gorgeous as always, this week she has started copying words that she hears everyone else say, and as a result she can now say get up, ding dong and no. She also takes great delight in shouting my name at the top of her lungs first thing in the morning to try and get me to come pick her up out of her cot and feed her. Given that I hate mornings, I usually stall her by yelling back at her for as long as I can before she throws a tantrum and I'm forced to get out of bed. She has also discovered that everyone laughs if she blows raspberries whenever we say someone's name, so we spend lots of time just repeating everyone's name so she will razz at whoever we've mentioned. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that we're just as easily amused as the baby is.

I also managed to get my hands on two copies of Dr Seuss' ABC book thanks to eBay, so once I've received them in the mail I can finally get Miss K's bedroom decorated. I know I keep promising that I'll have photos posted, and I have managed so far to take photos of the new quilt, which really doesn't look like much on its own, but here is the fruits of three hours labour.

Miss K's new quilt

My lovely niece was kind enough to be my model for this photo, and you can see her feet peeking out from the bottom of the doona. Unfortunately given that the blanket is almost as tall as her and quite heavy she couldn't hold it for very long so this is the best shot I could get.

Well that's another week summed up for you, Miss K is starting to cry for her dinner so for now I'm outta here, I'll see you next time.

Dear diary the distracted edition

So I can't promise that this will be a cohesive blog tonight, as I currently have a hyperactive 23 year old sitting in my lounge room hyping up my incredibly active 1 year old, despite the fact that it is 11:30 at night and we should all be in bed.

So another week is over, and it seems that everything exciting is still happening which makes it hard to write about it, as I don't know how it ends. I'm pretty sure it will end in Miss K getting tired and crying until I put her into bed with Elmo. But right now she is sitting on the couch with my little brother and his partner, watching a singing cucumber. I can't even begin to explain this in any way that will make sense, so all I can tell anyone who wants to know more is go to YouTube and type in Silly Songs with Larry. There will be much silliness to be found once you have done this, including a song about teeth, as well as pirates who don't do anything.

Miss K and I went to my big sister's house for dinner last night with mum and one of my little sisters, we had a pleasant evening eating take out food, and all was very enjoyable except for the part when one of my fillings fell out of my tooth making eating slightly difficult. Of course these things always happen on the weekend which means I have to wait until tomorrow to make an appointment with a dentist. Miss K is also getting a cold at the moment, so there are times when she is whingy and clingy, but for the most part she is her usual exuberant self. I pulled out her guitar this week, so any time we go to her bedroom she insists on stopping to play a song for me. I love watching her strum away at the guitar, even though it's too tall for her to even carry around, but she enjoys it anyway.

I mentioned ages ago that I was going to change Miss K's bedroom around and turn it into a Dr Seuss room. Well for anyone who has been dying to hear an update on this (don't hide it, I know you guys too well) I have finally started making her decorations. I have found pictures from the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and am turning them into paintings to hang on her wall. I'm also going to attempt to sew her a new quilt cover in red and white striped material so her bed looks like the Cat in the Hat's hat, and I'm also trying to find old books to tear apart and turn into a picture border for her walls, but for some reason no one ever gives their old Dr Seuss books to second hand stores these days, so this task is proving harder than I thought. I'll have pictures posted up here soon of the works in progress if I ever get around to taking them, and then once the project is finished, I'll be sure that you guys get to see it too. (Just because I know you're all on the edge of your seats wanting to know how it will look.)

Well that's another week's round up completed, it's not much I know, but if I told you absolutely everything I did this week it really would only take up another couple of sentences and would go along the lines of I chased Miss K around the house stopping her from putting everything in her mouth. Then I went to bed. So until next time, I'm going to stop Miss K from putting things in her mouth by putting her to bed. Then I'm going to bed. Stay awesome my wonderful readers and I'll be back again soon.

Dear Diary EOFY edition

Good evening my lovely readers, we're at that time of week again where I submit another diary entry a day late. I'm not actually going to blog anything about the end of the financial year, especially given I've been a full time mum for almost 16 months now, this is just another week in my calendar instead of what it once was, a fortnight spent panicking hoping I'd given all of my previous and current employers my correct address so I could get all of my group certificates quickly and get me some money. If I was getting a tax return this year, it would be spent on glasses and my car, which has lost all of its guts, and a tyre. Thankfully getting the slow leak which presented itself several weeks ago fixed is hopefully only going to cost me $20 instead of the $80 I originally thought I'd have to fork out.

And amazingly enough, a busted tyre wasn't even the highlight of my week. My little brother and his partner have come down for a short visit this weekend, which was great news for all of us, as these visits can be as far apart as several months, so it's always lovely to see them when they visit. Miss K wasn't as excited as the rest of us to see them, especially as it meant that she woke up from her sleep at 10:00 last night to find two strange men sitting in her living room, which is always a recipe for disaster for Miss K. That's right, she's finally hit that really clingy stage, which means that instead of staring dumbly at strangers who try to talk to her in the supermarket these days, she usually cries and reaches out for me insisting that I pick her up and make the bad people go away. This is a hard phase to deal with, because all of the books say you shouldn't make a big deal of her fears, as that tends to make them last even longer, but it's hard to watch her go through that terror and not want to punch people if it will make her stop sobbing. Of course all was fine this morning when she woke up and they were still here, she even let my brother's partner pick her up and feed her potato chips, which is usually the best way to win Miss K's affections every time.


Still on Miss K, she has developed a few interesting new quirks over the last week or so, which always delights me to see. For one she tries to copy a lot more of what I say, which would be good if I had anything intelligent to say, unfortunately as that is not the case, we instead spend a lot of time saying Iggle Piggle to each other, which helps no one. Another thing she has started doing is pretending to eat imaginary food, either when she sees it in pictures, or if I just hold my empty hand out in front of her. This is an adorable game, and I take great pleasure in showing it off to anyone as soon as they enter the house.  


I'm still studying like a mad woman even though we are on term holidays in Australia at the moment, as I'm hoping to get my current unit completed as soon as possible so that I have a huge holiday at the end, as the assignments for this one aren't due until September. Of course I was horrified to discover on Friday that I needed to go back to year 7 maths in order to understand some of the work I was trying to complete, and I even had to call in my big sister to explain negative numbers to me, something which I haven't had to deal with since I was at least 6 inches shorter and quite a bit younger. I'm actually pretty lucky to have a big sister like mine, she was always my go to for maths homework, as my mum hates maths as much as I do and was never able to help me, and going to dad for help always ended in yelling and tears, so it was nice to have someone around who could explain my work to me in a way so that I could sort of understand it. I'm certain I would have failed a lot more maths classes if it wasn't for her.


Well that's me done for another evening, I have a horrible feeling I'm going to be getting a phone call early tomorrow morning asking me to drive my little sister to a dentist's appointment so I better get in now if I want to get my proper beauty hibernation. Stay awesome my lovely readers and I'll be back soon I'm sure.

Dear diary (on time for once)

It is officially my favourite part of the day. Mum and Miss K are tucked up in bed and I have the whole house to myself. I'm out of my horrible tight pants and in my nice comfy polka dotted pyjama pants and there is no noise except for the heater which is keeping me nice and warm. (Too warm actually. First world problems) I'm also writing this diary post on the day it's supposed to be written so that's a win for me.

The last time we met, I was complaining about technology and the ways in which it was ruining my life. Well I'm pleased to report that I'm able to log back into my TAFE website (turns out the problem was my out of date software which was easily fixed) and I have almost completely caught up with all of the other students. I have one final assignment to complete then I can focus totally on the current unit. Not bad considering I have just done 6 months worth of study in under a month. I've submitted a heap of assignments to my teacher, but I have to wait until after the term break to get any results back so there's nothing more to be done there.

I've had a bit of a health scare this week unfortunately, I keep getting these violent heart palpitations which I'm pretty sure can be traced back to my smoking, so I'll be making an appointment with the doctor this week to get things checked out, and hopefully get some professional help to quit smoking once and for all. Once upon a time I would have shrugged the palpitations off, but given that I live in a heart smart house now, I am not allowed to sweep these things under the rug and hope for the best any more.

Miss K is a handful as usual. She has discovered that she can scream and growl this week, so every temper tantrum she throws now days is scattered with intermittent deep growls and shrill shrieks depending on how pissed off she is. It's hard not to laugh at her when she's making these weird noises, but as usual I have to pretend I don't think everything she does is absolutely adorable so that she doesn't turn into an uncontrollable brat. We've actually had a few run ins this week as she is starting to really assert herself, and when she knows what she wants and doesn't get it, all hell breaks loose. But for the most part she is her usual bright and cheerful self, getting into everything and wreaking havoc at any chance she gets.

And I'm afraid that's about as exciting as it gets around here at the moment. Between studying and taking care of Miss K I don't really have time to get myself in trouble any more. One more week and then I'm on semester break, which isn't as exciting when you study via correspondence but at least there won't be any online classes for two weeks. I'll be back soon I'm sure, but in the meantime stay awesome.

Dear Diary (the late, late, late edition)

OK so this is why I never could make my own diaries last more than a week. I'm terrible at remembering to write in them. This diary entry is in fact a week and a half late. I'm going to put missing last weeks dear diary entry down to the fact that my week was so boring I fell asleep every time I even thought about trying to put it into words. I can't even remember really what I did last week to let you guys know, so you'll thank me for sparing you the mundaneness that was my life two weeks ago.

It's not really true that I can't remember what I have been up to the last two weeks, because the simple fact is I've been studying. Almost non stop. Miss K is rather disgusted at the enthusiasm with which I have thrown myself into becoming a student, because it means that she is forced to have her tea parties and walk up and down our lounge room by herself. That's right, I said walk. My little girl is having a much more exciting time than I am at the moment, which is why this dear diary entry is dedicated to her.

Where to begin though, that is the big question. I did say that Miss K was walking above, but I probably should note that it isn't unassisted yet. For Christmas last year I bought her a walker with all kinds of fancy buttons which plays a large number of irritating songs, and speaks in a most condescending voice to anyone who happens to push a button.

Miss K playing with her walker on Christmas Day

Now for the longest time Miss K played with it by sitting down and pushing the buttons, and any time you tried to get her to use it as a walker, she would crack a massive temper tantrum and make the eardrums of anyone within a 50 metre radius bleed. But I finally decided it was time she learned about the wonderful world of walking, and showed her how to use the walker to get around the room. Well now there is no stopping her, except if she comes across a wall, or a mountain of toys, then it's mum to the rescue to redirect her and the walker. But this new method of transport has opened up a big world for Miss K and she really is flourishing.

Another big milestone for us this week is the fact that Miss K can finally feed herself. This was such an exciting day for me when she finally started accepting her spoon from me and eating from it unassisted I almost cried. It's times like this that I really realise how big my baby is getting and how quickly the time is flying. It won't be long until I don't even need to load her spoon with food and hand it to her, and I think that will be the point I will have to stop calling her my baby. 

Another thing that Miss K has discovered, much to my disappointment is the wonderful world of dancing. I have recently discovered an awesome TV show called Dance Moms, which airs on pay TV here in Australia. My little sister is obsessed with the show and got her hands on the first two seasons for mum to watch, and as a result almost everyone in this family is now obsessed with it, including Miss K. She loves to sit and watch the show with me, and I've noticed that ever since we started watching it, Miss K loves to get up and boogie whenever she hears music. And it's no longer just the bobbing of the head that she used to do, there is foot stomping, and swaying her body and moving her hands. It's too gorgeous for words, but it does fill me with a sense of dread that one day my little girl is going to ask me for dance lessons. I'm sure if I hadn't spent the better part of my teen years watching my little sisters dance and hearing my mum rant and rave about lessons and costumes and competitions I would be more excited about this, however I am very familiar with the world of dance, and have been long before anyone decided to turn it into a reality show, and that is the reason for my dread. But there is every possibility that Miss K has rhythm in her blood and the decision just might be out of my hands. All I can do is wait and see. And ban her from watching dance shows. 

But for now it is very late and I probably have lots to do tomorrow, the only way I can find out is by going to bed. Stay awesome my lovely readers and thank you as always for your patience in waiting for my posts. I'm sure you always feel a sense of excitement whenever you see I've posted another one, or maybe that's just the exhaustion talking. Peace out!!