Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Dud Dads

Sigh – I did all my hair removal ages ago thinking I’d bask in some glorious winter sun and ever since it’s been gloomy and grey and cold and drizzling. I’ve totally had enough of this sh*t weather. I’ll bet I’ll be a wooly mammoth by the time the sun comes out again. Pfft.

Izzy had to say goodbye to his Dad on Friday. He packed up his car with his girlfriend and his drumkit and is making his way down to Sydney. He called from Gladstone saying Iz could go and live with him any time he liked. I said “No Thanks” – I’d die without my boy. Poor kid.

He thinks of random things to say when he’s about to cry to try and distract himself and as his dad was backing out of the carport it was “Mum can I use that rope and that bush lemon there and make a mace and get that dog next door real good…” while his voice tremored and he blinked tears away from his eyes. I’m sure he would have had a big lump in his throat all day, it was too cruel to send him to school so I took him to Innisfail with his cousin to spend his pocket money and visit his Great Grans instead. I’m just so glad he’s not an only child anymore. He gets big big love from his little bruss as well as his “Mumoola”.

We had another meeting at the bank this arve so as far as I understand all that’s left to sign is the mortgage papers and it’s a done deal. Happy happy joy joy!

I mentioned the acquisition of our creek block to my dentist because her name matches it’s street address and it turns out she raised up all her kids out there way back when. (There was only like two lots of neighbours). She reckons it was an excellent place to be and told me they’d all get together for themed dinners on the weekend. She reckons, “We were great cooks too. We ate some sumptuous feasts.”

Ever since then I can’t stop thinking about the word “Sumptuous” and how it just sounds like it means. It’s a deadly word.

We had a couple of cassowaries in the yard today and Anakin got to check them out fairly closely through the window. He was riveted and very excited and got to use his favourite word “bird” in context. (Seeing as he’s use to birds a 20th of the size that fly all over the sky it could have been a dinosaur for all he knew but I told him it was a birdie and he believed me.)

Talked to Dad on the phone yesterday morning for the first time in months, I haven’t seen him in so long which is pretty bad considering he only lives about 40k’s away. He said any time soon he was expecting his ‘divorce’ papers in the mail from his two daughters. That’d be about right too.

Had a beautiful dinner with the neighbours on their sprawling timber deck last night. (It’s really all about the size of your “deck”.) They cranked up The Beatles followed by Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam – that's hilarious - I love it! Then after all the kids were put to bed they joined us in our cozy lounge for beverages and sweets and Little Britian. They’re awesome neighbours.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

11 Months Today!

Today marks 11 months since Anakin’s brilliant entrance into the world. Last night while I was putting him to bed his Daddy came to thank me for giving him such a beautiful, healthy baby, that he couldn’t have wished for anything more. I agreed I did a pretty good job on him.

Anakin has developed a serious screeching habit lately. He does it at the top of his lungs and it nearly splits my eardrums! Little menace!

He’s learnt how to nod for yes too. It’s so cute to see him nodding enthusiastically when we ask him “Do you want to go see Auntie Nick?” Nod nod nod! “Do you need to go to the potty” Nod nod nod nod…

As well as all of his poos going in the potty we have been having lots of dry nights too. He has gotten into the habit of whacking his Daddy until he wakes up and takes him to the pot for wees. What a smart baby!

He’s been devouring heaps of Mungulli yogurt lately. He loves it – the whole time he’s being fed he goes “Mmm, mmmm, MMMmmm, mmMM!” And we’re both addicted to persimmons at the moment too. YUM!

When I’m holding Bubby on my hip he often bends right around to look up into my face. I love that! He’s still thinks his own farties are hilarious only now he makes a fart noise straight after a real one and then has a good chuckle about it.

Getting dressed annoys him so much that he has become really good at it as he wants it over and done with as fast as possible. He rams his arms right up through the sleeves all by himself!He’s going to be one next month – is it really true?

For Izzi’s first birthday we had a huge Barbie right here at this very same place. I’m going to have to start putting some thought into Anakin’s birthday celebration!

Good news! The solicitors called yesterday – the contract has been signed for the price we offered and we have a cooling off period (not necessary!!) and a loose settlement date of the 12th of July! Yeehar! I’m going in to hand in the deposit as soon as Bub wakes up from his sleep. I’ve got my dream block right near my favourite creek – just like I said I would! Thank you Universe!!! (That sounds a bit hippy..)

I had a very happy and relaxed client yesterday evening – she insisted on paying me extra and said I had a “warm intuition”. (I swear I’m not a hippy..!)

I’ve been having Nip/Tuck marathons every night after the kids go to sleep. Know wonder I’m skeptical about the existence of ever lasting healthy relationships!

Monday, June 4, 2007

The Secret

Oh gross I just got a little hard lump in my piece of Brumbies Date Loaf that has seriously excited my gag reflex. I can’t handle that. One little bit of egg shell or anything irregular in the texture of my food and it’s all over for me.

As a kid I was worse – I couldn’t stomach lumpy stuff like porridge and powdered milk. Nick would chase me around with spoonfuls trying to cram it into my mouth to make me sick. Yuck.

I went for a shopping expedition to Cairns with my neighbour on Friday and it was very productive. I think we heard a condensed version of each others life stories on the drive so that was fun too. Bubby behaved himself in the car and instead of a stroller I decked out a trolley with fluffy throw rugs, a lambs wool and pillow so he could move around a bit more and stand up if he wanted – that worked pretty well considering his aversion to shopping. I was stoked when Julie was interested in visiting my favourite op-shop where we scored some gorgeous little numbers. (Well I told her she wasn’t allowed to leave until she bought some stuff!) After raiding Best-n-Less and Target for the kids winter gear we stopped and had a huge kebab for lunch then moved on to the next shopping centre where Julie bought a whole consignment of lunchboxes and a pair of black acid-wash-lookin’ skinny jeans for which I called her a “f**kin’ Bogan” (I knew her well enough by then to know she’d take a joke). Anyway it was all very good fun.

Greg needed to get fitted for a suit on the weekend so he went up to Cairns Friday night too, our paths must have crossed on the road somewhere but us girls were too busy revealing juicy details about ourselves to notice. He caught up with a mate who has been on a Contiki tour in Europe for the last 6 weeks and had an all-nighter with him. Never-the-less he achieved everything he set out to do and arrived home to me on Saturday evening but you’d be excused for thinking we’d been separated for an eternity!

I bought myself a photo frame and have displayed all the little bits and pieces that remind me how lucky I am to have come across our block – the advertisement, the plan marking out the lot and the map of the street etc. Greg watched “The Secret” last night and thinks I have used the techniques they recommend. I dunno – I’ll have to watch it.

Anakin has regained his former glory since being knocked around by that temperature a couple of weeks ago. He has really been working on his language development. He says things that sound like “Hello Mum, Hello Dad, How ya doin’? How ya been? How rude!” He says “Izzy” and “bird” and “pretty” and sometimes I think he’s been taking lessons of Mark Holden with all that “Goonie goo-goo” talk.

At certain times of the day he goes psychopathic and just wants to barge his fingers up your nose or scratch it right off your face, or bite your fingers off or your cheeks or tear off your boob or a clump of chest hair (depending on which one you’ve got). He’s nuts!

He loves standing up at the steering wheel of the cars too. It’s one of his favourite things lately. He’s an adorable little munchkin – bit like his Big Bruss.

I’ve got another client booked in this arve. I’m a bit more prepared with relaxation music this time, I followed your lead Vanilla and ordered Music for Dreaming – works a charm on Bubby. Before then I was using something Mum gave me – sounded like bad elevator music.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Hazy Shade O Winter

Wow, since the weather’s cleared up we’ve had a real cold SNAP! Brrrr!!! I’m going for a much needed shopping trip on Friday to get the boys extra warm clothes. Anakin has made himself a tear in the flyscreen which he regularly escapes through to get all soggy on the dewy grass while eating vegetation out of the garden so I’m forever washing and drying the couple of sets of trackdacks and hoodies and socks that he does have. Definitely time for some new clothes the poor little urchin baby!

I love the Winter sun, man, you can stay in it for hours! All I need to do is emjoi and oil-up the old sausage roll legs and go skinny dippin’ in the beautiful sunshine.

Another good thing about the cold is that it kills off all the mozzies so I should be getting less night terrors!

My Mum has been out of the country for nearly two weeks now. Her house is just up the road so it’s strange not to have her drop in, and not to see her silver car spinning past or hear her pushbike bell as she cycles by on the 8 k ride to school or to see her as a blue flash as she speeds away on her Suzuki 500. I keep looking out to the road expecting to see her.I shouldn’t really be discussing her on the WWW. She rarely discloses anything of herself. Her colleagues learn more about her through me in 30 seconds then they ever have working with her for 5 years! She is the antithesis of a Big Brother housemate who fiercely competes for airspace to critique their own selves and pick over their life experiences like a plate of hors doerves. (I was never going to spell that right!) She talks about work and about issues and about other people and even though she’s been through a hell of a lot she’s not one to discuss her experiences or her personal feelings much. She doesn’t cuddle or kiss much either (only if you’re a baby!) – she shows her affection by squeezing you hard on the arm so it hurts. I’ve NEVER seen her cry over something on tellie! She’s pretty tough – like a stockhorse – she never stops, she works hard. She’s a spunky lady. She’s got high expectations, I don’t know if I really stack up – she calls me a “goose” and “hopeless” all the bloody time. Lots of strangers are intimidated by her because she completely lacks the ability to make you feel at ease in her space. I give her sh*t and call her an immigrant when she fails to pick up on common courtesies. But she’s a good old girl – I reckon she’ll out live us all. She’s bloody tough as! I miss her.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Hip Hip

Hurray! We signed a contract yesterday! So I was doing a bit of “Yahooing” and “Yeeharring” as you can imagine. I took Izzy for a drive to the block on the way home as he still hadn’t seen it. It’s turned into a bit of a habit for me and Greg to stop at the bakery on the way so we can scoff out on pies and appleturners when we get there. So that’s what we did. I think he was pretty impressed except he reckons Gollem lives in the vacant lot next door.

Well Bubby’s fever continued for a couple of days so I ended up taking him to see a Doctor on Monday, I was concerned he had an earache and wanted to rule it out. The Doc gave us a prescription for Oxycillin and reckoned his ears where a bit red and told me to fill it if I thought it was necessary. Which I didn’t because by the time we got there his fever had broken and he was on the mend. That Doctor though…he’s a bloody charlatan. Both times I’ve taken my kids to see him it was for all of about 5 seconds and he pescribed the same thing for both completely separate conditions. I reckon if you could get that stuff over the counter he’d be out of business. The speed at which he used his gadgets to checked inside Bubby’s ears, mouth and chest was completely ridiculous. He wasn’t even at the right angle to see inside Anakin’s mouth! He didn’t even listen to a full breathing cycle – they were just these token gestures to make me think he’d actually been trained. I don’t like to bag out on people (too much) but he’s not fooling anyone. He needs to work on his professionalism big time. He’s the only one around here who bulk bills and the practice was still deserted – no wonder! He didn’t ask me one question or give me one piece of advice! I got way more useful information out of my RN friend and her intern hubby. If I had more faith in him I could have got him to check in my ears – maybe it’s tinnitus I’m suffering from and that’s the buzzing noise I’ve been hearing!

Anyway, enough of that…Izzy learnt how to weave banana bark at school yesterday and came home wearing all the anklets and necklaces and bracelets he’d made – he looked like a contestant off Suvivor.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Obsession by Nadine Klein

I have permanent discomfort in my neck due to my obsessive compulsion to lift my head off the pillow to free up my ears and scan around the room wide-eyed in the dark in a desperate bid to identify where the whining sound of a mosquito is coming from. This is what I do in bed all night. Sometimes I hit the jackpot and find the little b*st*rd but way more often than not it turns out to be a false alarm.

According to the book “The Natural History of the Senses” your hearing plays tricks on you way more than your sight does in the dark. So sometimes I think I’m conjuring up the sound of mosquitoes in my head. But I don’t really believe that. Maybe it’s the sound of the innermost mechanisms of the ceiling fan sending out an almost inaudible (but not for my bionic ears) high pitch noise. Maybe it’s nothing but the air faintly wheezing in and out of my own nostrils.

Nevertheless that phantom mosquito noise keeps me awake at night in my bid to promote a good sleep for Anakin. But it’s totally at the detriment of our own good sleep. I dunno how many times I’ve woken Greg in the dead of night hissing frantically “GET THE TORCH!!! I CAN HEAR IT AGAIN!!!” At least he can drop back off to sleep in a nanosecond. I’m left bewildered, straining at the ears and staring into space like a nut case.

Well after last weekend Greg got cranky at me for being cranky at him but as usual it was nothing a little bit of TLC couldn’t fix. If we really take time for each other things are always much smoother for us. (ie getting freaky in the bedroom whenever humanly possible .) He did masses of yard work this weekend too, which is always a turn on.

Anakin got rid of his snotties but I think he’s teething again. He has been running a slight fever with runny poos and has lost his appetite for solids and has this tangy smell about him like spewk. So he’s been sleeping only really lightly and needs feeding like a newborn which has been a little bit draining. But he puts up with everything so well. His default button is set on Happy. Which makes life pretty easy.

Izzy has been getting right into basketball and makes a racket practicing his dribbling techniques through the house. Plus I think he might be under the delusion that the more he squeaks his shoes the better player he is. “And 1” DVD’s have taken preference over Wrestling ones lately. I’m glad his interest in basketball has taken off and I hope it’s not a phase. It gives him and Greg another thing to bond over and that’ll help when Izzy’s Dad isn’t around. Greg has been taking time to teach him skills and drills and give him some encouragement. (That last one hasn’t happened nearly enough in the past as far as I’m concerned.) So it’s all good.Need to ring the solicitor today and see if I can get a response other than “when the contract is afoot”…What the hell does that mean anyway?