May Fly on the Wall - Oh the Insanity

Welcome one and all to another installment of Fly on the Wall. The series where you get to find out what it would be like to be a fly on the walls in 17 blogger's homes. Below is a list of all the other bloggers participating this month. Be sure to visit them all to see even more craziness than I'm about to present to you.

http://www.BakingInATornado.com                   Baking In A Tornado

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/                 Spatulas on Parade

http://followmehome.shellybean.com                  Follow me home

http://www.menopausalmom.com/                      Menopausal Mother

http://stacysewsandschools.blogspot.com/           Stacy Sews and Schools

http://batteredhope.blogspot.com                         Battered Hope

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                           Just A Little Nutty

http://themomisodes.com                                      The Momisodes

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com                   Someone Else’s Genius

http://gndisney.wordpress.com                             Disneyland in Kentucky

http://dinoheromommy.com/                                 Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://www.juiceboxconfession.com                     Juicebox Confession

http://eileensperpetuallybusy.blogspot.com/         Eileen’s Perpetually Busy

http://www.southernbellecharm.com                    Southern Belle Charm

http://www.angelaweight.com                              Sanity Waiting to Happen

http://peopledonteatenoughfudge.blogspot.co.uk People Don’t Eat Enough Fudge

Discussing a bag of melted chocolate malt balls with mum

Mum: It's all melted together. It's going to turn into...what's his name? Gorilla.
Me: Gorilla?
Mum: No, gorilla's not right, I mean Godzilla.

Mum to Miss K
That's not an answer, it's a nod. In a cup.

Me: I got spanked by a tram :(
Side note I actually did get hit by a slow moving tram, while trying to cross a road. Don't worry I wasn't hurt, he hit me in the caboose, so the extra padding there kept me safe.

Mum: So what is whole foods, other than not halved foods?

Sympathy from mum always makes a situation better. Too bad I never get any...

Miss K made a vase for me for Mother's Day, but it was meant to be a surprise. This conversation happened after watching a kids show where the presenter made a vase out of a plastic bottle.
Me: I love that vase, it's so pretty. Someone should make me a vase so I have somewhere pretty to put flowers...
Miss K: No, I'll just sit here, you make your own vase.

Miss K and I were lying in bed one morning waiting for the alarm to go off when this conversation happened.
Miss K: I'm going to be mum. Miss K, go back to sleep.
Me: No, I want a drink and bikky
Miss K: Here have Elmo. Now shush, I'm trying to sleep. (I don't know whether to be offended or impressed that she nailed it so perfectly)

Me: Look at that idiot speeding through a car park. Don't these things have speed limits?
Mum: Sometimes, but it's hard to enforce because they're private property and not roads.
Me: Could I make a citizen's arrest?
Mum: You're welcome to try.
Me: I've always wanted to make a citizen's arrest. Maybe it should go on my bucket list. Right after star in a music video.

An ad for Magic Mike XXL came on telly one night. This is the conversation that happened after.
Mum: Magic Mike 21? What?
Me: Did you seriously just read that as a roman numeral?
Mum: Well what does it mean then?
Me: It means extra, extra large.
Mum: Oh yeah. L isn't even the roman numeral for one...

My breasts have a mind of their own. And the ability to use technology.

Miss K and I went to visit my best friend for the afternoon this month. This conversation isn't even one of the most awkward ones we've had in his presence.
Miss K: Can I take my pants off please?
Me: No, leave them on, we're not at home right now.
Miss K: I'm going to take them off...
Me: For God's sake Miss K put those pants back on right now.

During that same visit, my best friend fell asleep on the couch. This happens on occasion, and it gives me the perfect opportunity to mess with Miss K, and wake him up at the same time.
Miss K: Mum, Frankie's asleep.
Me: Is he? Awesome, I'm going to give him a wet willy
Miss K: No, don't.
Me: Well then, I'm going to give him a noogie.
Miss K: NO!
Me: Well can I give him a wedgie then?
Miss K: Mum, just stop!
Me: That's it, I'm gonna do it.
Miss K: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
No one can sleep through an air raid siren.

So one of Miss K's many speech impediments means she can't say the word very. It always comes out as hairy, no matter how much I correct her. So I decided to have some fun one day.

Me: Miss K, can you say very balls?
Miss K: Hairy balls.
Me: Good girl. Now go tell grandma very balls.
20 seconds later I hear mum laughing in the kitchen before telling me off.

Miss K was throwing a tantrum in the back yard last week, and she started to walk stiff legged while ranting.
Me: What's wrong with your legs?
Miss K: They're boring.

This is why my dad no longer discusses cars with me. I can never take the conversation seriously.

And the winner for the weirdest sentence I have heard all month:-

Ben to Nat: You like penis because your nose is really smooth right now.

And now for some context, he was discussing Auslan, where the sign for penis is a downward stroke of the nose. Why Nat's nose was smooth never was explained to me, so even with context that is still a weird sentence.

Well that's about all the crazy I can fit into one blog post, be sure to visit everyone else and enjoy the show.

Miss K goes to day care

So today was a pretty big day for Miss K and myself, and one that I have actually been dreading for quite a while now. I have previously voiced my objections on child care in this post, however lately Miss K's clingyness is starting to cause concern. I understand that it is a phase that all children go through several times over, but it isn't one that I want to nurture, because I feel that showing children that the world will still go on turning even if mum isn't within reaching distance is important.

So today when I was given the opportunity to go to a discussion by a local speech therapist about helping your child develop their language skills, and there was free child care offered on location, I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and test the waters as far as child care was concerned, while making sure I am doing everything in my power to help her language at the same time. Luckily for me I must have chosen the perfect day for this, because she took to it like a duck to water. We were in the room for no more than five seconds before she zeroed in on the drawing table, and insisted I let her go immediately so she could go investigate. She didn't even notice when I left the room to make myself a coffee, so I took it as a good sign and made my departure while the going was good.

I must admit I was only part paying attention to what the speech therapist was saying some of the time, because every time the door opened I braced myself for someone to come over and tell me my daughter was screaming the house down, and I needed to come and take care of her straight away. And while that did happen for some of the other mums, Miss K didn't give them an inch of trouble it seems, because I got to sit the whole way through the talk. I couldn't believe it. I rushed back to the child care room as soon as the discussion was over, hoping to find a happy little girl, and imagine my surprise when that's exactly what greeted me when I opened the door. She was off in the corner playing with a doll's pram, and didn't even notice me walk in the door.

Now as is the case with child care, I have no idea what she got up to during that hour and a half, except that she kept squealing (as she does when she's super excited. I forgot to mention that to them, so my apologies for anyone who went home today with bleeding ear drums.) and she soiled her nappy too, which was great, because that's one less poopy nappy I can add to my final count when we finally get rid of the nappies. Now while I should be glad that I had the opportunity to have an entire hour and a half to myself without there being any problems, I can't help but hate the fact that there is a whole chunk of time there where I have no idea what my little girl did. I don't know what she saw, what she did, what made her happy, what might have made her nervous, there is just one big blank space for an hour and a half today, and the fact that I'm thinking like this tells me that maybe I'm the one that wasn't ready for this all along.

But given the positive reaction from Miss K, I'm thinking that maybe it's time to start letting her go out by herself a little more. The place we went to today actually runs card making courses each week, with the option to leave your kids in the child care area while you go off and make something pretty. I know the classes are pretty cheap, as is the child care, so I'm thinking it's time to start doing some stuff just for myself now. Of course I would get this revelation right at the end of the term, so I have to wait until after school starts back in the middle of April to actually do anything, but that just gives me three weeks to make up for the hour and a half I missed today. That's not crazy is it??

Well that's it for me today, except to point out to all you lovely people today that there is yet another button on my sidebar today, I have decided that with the closing of Google Reader coming up soon to move to Bloglovin, which seems to be the most popular choice of other bloggers to date. If you haven't moved over yet, it's pretty easy, and you have the option to import all of your current blogs over when you make the move. So for all my Bloglovin friends, the button is now there for you to press, if you're with another blog reader, and this causes some issues, let me know as I'm thinking of also including an email subscription option as well, I just need to know whether it's worth cluttering up the side bar even more. The option is completely up to you guys, as this is really all for you.

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 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 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 (a little late)

So I know I was meant to write a diary based entry yesterday, but I got back from Melbourne at about 3:30 yesterday afternoon and both Miss K and I went to bed till dinner time. Then we got up for dinner and were both back in bed ridiculously early. So I really didn't have the time or energy to blog inbetween naps.

Why was I in Melbourne you may very well ask if you are the curious type, and in answer to your question, I tell you to be patient because I'll get to that in a minute. I'll start at the beginning of the week by letting you know not much really happened. I decided this week to flex my culinary muscle this week and cooked a lovely meal of crumbed chicken with vegetables and a beautiful mushroom sauce. Then on Wednesday I made a lovely roast capsicum and tomato soup. I don't cook fancy things like this often, but when I do I like to take my time, which is why I usually start cooking an hour or so before I want to serve dinner. I don't cope well with rushing my food, and as I discovered on Wednesday, that's when I make mistakes. I tried to thicken my soup up with flour without dissolving the flour in water, and ended up with giant lumps of flour in my soup. Luckily I was able to pick most of them out as I hate flour lumps, they remind me of dumplings. Yuck!

As you are all aware I'm sure, Wednesday was my birthday, and it was a lovely day. I was woken up nice and early by my little sister dropping a tin can on the floor on her way to the recycling bin, which is always an effective alarm clock. Much better than Miss K for sure. I spent the day with various family members who popped in for visits, and I felt very much loved by my family and close friends. On Saturday mum, Miss K and I made our way to Melbourne by train to help my uncle celebrate his birthday (his actual birthday is the day before mine which is the only way I remember it). The trip up was fairly uneventful, Miss K was a bit uncertain of the train at first, but once she realised that nothing bad was going to happen she had a great time. It is however very hard to keep a 1 year old entertained for two and a half hours in a tiny moving room that she is not allowed to crawl around in, so I spent a lot of time trying to distract her so she would forget she hadn't gone exploring for several hours. The party was a lot of fun, and there were so many people there, I began to worry that the house would burst at the seams. It was wonderful to see so many people come together to celebrate my uncle's special day. Yesterday we retraced our steps to get home again, and thanks to a very late night (the last guests didn't leave until after midnight then I helped clean up) and a long trip home that Miss K was slightly less tolerant of, we all piled into bed as soon as we got home for a well deserved nap.

Miss K has been in fine form this week as usual. She is talking almost non stop nowadays, and she even coped beautifully with the crowds of strangers at my uncle's place on Saturday night. She has been teething almost non stop for 2 weeks now, but in that time she has managed to pop out 3 teeth, and is working on her eighth one at the moment. We're still trying to stop her from begging people for food, but she is slowly getting the hint that just because others are eating in front of her doesn't mean she will get food. It has also been almost a week since she has pinched me during a temper tantrum, so I think we've got that habit nipped in the bud for now.

Well it is time for me to curl up in front of the telly and watch some trash before heading off to bed. I'll be back again soon I'm sure, but until then, stay awesome.

No, it's not another whinge

I cannot believe I have been so busy moaning at you my wonderful and long suffering readers lately I haven't had a chance to tell you all the wonderful things that are happening around here. Well I apologise and would like to make this post a happy one for a change.

So Miss K has been making great strides in a lot of areas lately which makes me feel optimistic that she hasn't been too affected by her illness last year. Her constant babbling is finally starting to turn into real words and I am proud to say that she can say grandma (pronounced bumma according to Miss K), What's this and wow. She also spends a lot more time trying to copy the sounds I make, or at very least copying the patterns of the words I'm saying, and we have a lot of fun talking to each other these days. Miss K also loves to help me change her nappy and get her dressed in the morning, and takes great pride in brushing her hair (and the shower of compliments she gets from me when she's finished). She has also started climbing onto our couches which I know I should be frustrated at, as it means more work for me keeping an eye on her, but I know this is such a big milestone so I can't help but be happy when I watch her scrambling up on the chairs in an attempt to get to anything she can get her hands on. She is also getting closer to walking every day, and now she will happily let me put her down on her feet and make her walk around the room instead of dropping onto her bum straight away and cracking a tantrum. She also spends a lot more time cruising around the coffee table doing laps which I know is another sign she's getting closer to trying to take her first steps on her own. Miss K has also learned a number of new songs with thanks to my big sister and can now do the hand movements to Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, The Wheels on the Bus and Open, Shut them. I hope to get a copy of Miss K doing at least one of these on video and if I can I will be posting it here so you guys can see it too.

The other thing that is going on at the moment is I'm doing a big clear out of old toys that Miss K has grown too old for, or we don't have the room for. Hopefully once I've gotten rid of some of her old clutter I can start redecorating her bedroom. I've decided that I'm going to do away with the jungle theme that is in her room now and change it to a Dr Seuss bedroom. I'm pretty excited about this and I've started making plans and looking for materials, now all I have to do is buy the paints, canvases and anything else I think will work and start redoing her room. I'll keep you posted as things happen.

But now I'm going to bed, I have a busy day tomorrow, toys to deliver to an op-shop, toys to sell to people and vacuuming to do, so I really need my beauty sleep. Stay awesome readers and I'll be checking in again soon.