5 Things that CAN'T be done with one dodgy hand

1. Doing up a belt
2. Washing properly
3. Changing a nappy
4. Tying shoelaces
5. Opening the peanut butter jar
   

5 Things that CAN be done with one dodgy hand

1. Getting toothpaste on toothbrush and brushing teeth
2. Getting dressed (almost)
3. Making toasted sandwiches (with Ben's help)
4. Going to the toilet (thankfully!)
5. Putting a seatbelt on in the car (teeth are useful things!)
   

Cars don't always stop.

Or at least, not exactly when and where they should. I discovered this fact this morning on the way to work - a car entered a roundabout in front of me as I was trying to accelerate out of the roundabout. I slammed on the brakes, with fairly predictable consequences on a bike... I flew over the handlebars and met the tarmac a bit more closely than I would usually. I managed to avoid hitting the car at all - I was lying on the ground looking up at the driver. My bike also seems to have avoided sustaining damage. Unfortunately, my body wasn't quite so lucky. At first I thought I was OK - slightly sore elbow and wrists, a little skin missing on a leg. After cooling down for a little while though (waiting for Mel to pick me up), my arm was letting me know that something was wrong. X-rays confirmed that the head of my right radius (forearm, near elbow) is cracked. And my wrists aren't - they're just sore. So I didn't get to work today - I've been dosed up on Panadeine instead. And Mel gets to look after me as well!

I give up.

I had intended to run the Taupo half-marathon. It's on next weekend. But, I haven't managed to get myself out of bed often enough... through a combination of cold weather and minor sniffles, my training has only just managed to sputter along. It just doesn't seem sensible to get out of bed in the dark when it's 2C and raining (or -5C and foggy - I haven't decided which is worse), and I have a bit of a snuffly nose already. Even to me.
This weekend was my deadline for getting in a decent run of at least 10km (preferably 15km), but I've come down with another cold, so there's not much point attempting a half-marathon PB next weekend - it's rather unlikely to happen.
Next goal: Hamilton half, I guess. At least it won't be quite as cold by then...

Rainbow creations...

We created a rainbow on our kitchen floor the other day. It was a totally accidental occurrence...I'd made milkshakes for afternoon tea and afterward filled the blender jug up with water and put it next to the sink to get washed later. The sun happened to be shining at the right angle though the window, that it shone through the jug of water, which dispersed the sunlight, creating the rainbow. Ben thought it was pretty cool, especially because he was able to stand on it and make his socks colourful.

Transition to big bed...

Joanna started sleeping in her big bed for afternoon naps this week. She slept perfectly normally on Tuesday - Thursday (Ben's kindy days). But the last 2 days, with them sharing the room, haven't been so good. The problem is Joanna, not Ben, she is waking up after only 40min, wanting to get up, even though she is still tired. This means that both of them are a bit of a handful for the afternoon as they are both feeling a bit tired (not to mention me feeling tired because I'm not getting as much rest as I need/usually get).
Any suggestions from mother's who have gone before me in the room sharing experience?

Homeward bound...

I've now booked return flight to NZ for September.

Fleeing the country...

I got a job marking QCS again this September holidays, so I'll be back in Brisbane for a visit (with the kids). The funny thing is, at the moment, I'm not coming back to NZ! (ie. I've booked tickets Hamilton - Brisbane -Pacific blue had a good sale fare- but I haven't booked tickets for the return flight...yet).

Where have I been?

If you've been wondering about my blog silence this week...Joanna has been sick, a wheezing cough thing. Went to the Dr on Tuesday arvo, he said it's a bug that is going around at the moment ('all the kids have it') and that it was probably going to get worse before it got better (just the words I wanted to hear - not). Gave me a prescription for antibiotics, steroid and paracetamol. Started her on the antibiotics yesterday (and steroid) and today she seems a lot better (so it didn't actually get worse, just stayed the same for a couple of days before improving). The best thing about it - I didn't have to pay a single cent for any of the medical stuff (Dr and drugs)!

(while I was at the Dr I also got a flu jab - Joanna liked the idea of Mum getting a needle for once instead of her)

Toy sales...

I've been rather unimpressed by this year's toy sale season (in Australia).

• Most of they toys still seem overpriced
• the same toys that were in the sales this year and are there again are 10-20% more expensive this year
• there is no where near as many knock your socks off drastically reduced toys as last year
• there seems to be less toys on sale in my budget range
• all the boy toys in the primary school age range seem to be merchandise for some TV show
  

Why doesn't every pizza have blue cheese on it?

Just makes it taste so good...

Kid's room

At the start of the holidays I mentioned that we'd put up Joanna's big bed. Well I thought I'd put up a photo so you can see how it looks. Her bed is now all ready with mattress protector, flanellete sheets, wool blanket, down/feather doona with doona cover and bed rail.

Hat creations

The other evening Ben came up with the clever idea of using their tutus as hats instead of skirts. As you can see they do make quite dramatic head dresses. I personally think it makes them look like characters from 'Fifi and the Flowertots'.

Sofa bed has arrived...

We bought a sofa bed of TradeMe this week (NZ equivalent of ebay). Peter, with help from a friend from work, went and picked it up today. Getting it into the playroom/guest room was not totally simple...it involved taking the door off it's hinges to fit it through (all other possible positions to get it through were tried first - vertical, sideways, diagonal etc.). But it fits nicely in the room and now means that any visitors which come to stay have somewhere comfortable to sleep.

End of busy week...

Well the 2nd week of holidays has gone fairly quickly. We are all (me and kids) feeling a bit tired today. It was great to spend time with various people this week (although I still haven't got to know that many people, so my 3 play dates this week basically exhausted my friendship network). Ben is looking forward to going back to kindy next week. The big surprise from him over the holidays is that he has had a nap every afternoon except for 1 (yesterday), and still gone to bed (and fallen asleep) at the normal time in general.

Cloth is back!

After 12 months of not using cloth nappies on Joanna, I've started using them again today. Well not traditional flat, cotton-terry nappies - I'm using Tot Bots FlexiTots. (If you're not into the cloth nappy thing, you can stop reading now, but if you're interested in it all feel free to keep reading)

They are a fitted nappy with bamboo lining, microfibre core and a 'technical' outer skin. They are a lot slimmer fitting that the cotton original Tot Bots that I have used on both the kids (nearly as slim as a disposable, and I think more flexible/stretchy than a disposable). You still have to use a cover with them.

I'm using the size 2 nappy, but because of the slimness of the nappy, I found the size 2 cover way too big and so am still using a size 1 cover! (These are the old design Tot Bots covers, I don't know how they copare size/fit wise with the new cover design with the gussets etc.)

Feeling better today...

energy wise. But I now feel really hungry - I think blob #3 must be having a growth spurt!

School holidays - week 2

I've organised to catch up with a few different people this week. Hopefully my energy levels with be able to cope.

Day in bed...

That's what I did today. I started feeling really tired and worn out yesterday and my stomach has been feeling a little funny, so I've spent today in bed. Did a fair bit of sleeping and a bit of reading. It was also the warmest place in the house to be today - it was an overcast, windy, cold day today.

Blob #3

Mel had her 20-week ultrasound the other day... we got to see a wriggly little baby!  We tried to see if it was a he or a she, and didn't manage to see any testicles, although Blob was being a little modest.  So we'll tentatively say it's a she.

(We've also uploaded a scan of the 10-week scan photo - check it out on flickr)

Holiday activity...

On the whole today wasn't much different to a normal Monday because:
a) Ben doesn't have kindy on Mondays normally
b) Monday is grocery shopping morning (and even though it is holidays, we still have to eat!).
So we did the usual routine of go to the gym and then grocery shopping . But this afternoon I decided to do something a little special, so I organised the kids to decorate biscuits for afternoon tea. So there was blue and pink icing (I let each of the kids choose a icing colour), choc chips, hundreds and thousands, coloured chocolate rocks, licorice and milk arrowroot biscuits to decorate.
There was also a secondary reason for this activity - a couple of weeks ago, it had been the craft activity at playgroup. The kids had each made some, but pregnancy brain mum forgot to pick them up to bring home when we left! So I had promised Ben that we would make some more of our own some time soon.
I was quite surprised that both the kids quite liked the licorice (on other occasions when they've had some, they taste it, but then spit it out. Today they were right into it, even eating up all the leftover pieces.

Stabbing victim...

me. Offender...me. Weapon...Wiltshire utility knife (known in our family as the 'gun knife')Stabbed the part in between my thumb and index finger on left hand while trying to get paper casing off the outside of a stick of salami. Wound 0.5cm long, probably 0.5-1cm deep. Not much blood as it's near the kind of webbing bit.

Race finished...

Last night was the last episode of the Amazing race series. Of the 3 teams left I didn't feel a particularly strong attachment to any of them, so wasn't too worried about who won or lost. Peter on the other hand found the voice of the blonde female southern american in one of the teams a bit annoying, although he wasn't really into the whole race anyway (probably why he found the voice so annoying, because he wasn't actually listening to what she was saying).
So this now leaves a 1hr void in my Sunday nights, as the new show that is replacing the Amazing Race is some reality tv show that looks like a mix of Survivor, Ninga Warrior (a Japanese obstical course program we get on TV in NZ), and Baywatch. It looks pretty silly and a waste of time watching.

Sore back...

I'm suffering from a sore sacro-iliac region from crawling around lots on my hands and knees when I was doing stuff to make the curtains. Hopefully it will settle down in a couple of days.

Curtains finished!

I've finished sewing the total block-out curtain lining at attached it to the curtains that cover the big window in our bedroom. It makes a big difference to how much light is in the room during the day time - an important factor when I'm wanting to have an afternoon nap (as the afternoon sun shines straight in that window). Will now have to see if the remaining light that comes through the smaller window is still too much or not.

Yummy dinner...

Pork larb. Perfect amount of chilli heat.

Nesting...

It's started...I am frequently getting the urge to organise/tidy things or do other improvements around the home (like making the curtains for our room).

Big bed...

Put up Joanna's big bed in Ben's room today. His spacious single bedroom has now turned into a cosy twin bedroom. We now need to wait for the mattress protector and doona inner to get delivered sometime next week (I ordered them off the internet on Friday from here). Then once Ben goes back to kindy next term, she'll start having her afternoon nap in it.

End of a big week...

With most the family being sick at some stage this week, it has been an especially tiring week. We are looking forward to the weekend now to recharge a bit.

Holiday mode...

Today was the last day of kindy for the term. So for the next 2 weeks we are in holiday mode - no playgroup, no bible study, no kindy, no gymnastics. I need to organise some stuff to do with the kids so we all don't go totally batty. It's hard to plan any outdoor activities in advance as the weather is a bit unpredictable. Anybody got bright ideas/suggestions for good things to do?

Sick dad...

Peter started to feel a bit off colour yesterday evening. He's feeling a bit better this morning, so has gone to work.
I am feeling a lot better this morning.

Sick mum...

I've now come down with some bug...upset tummy is the symptom. Ben is feeling much better.