Quote of the Day

"Bananas are not good as swords." - Nat.

A phobia of band-aids

('Band-Aid' = sticking plaster)

A small fear, requiring a bona-fide "Shrek Band-Aid" (Feb 2008)

has become a full-blown kicking screaming phobia, requiring a bona-fide "Buzz Lightyear Band-Aid." (Nov 2009)

And Daddy is good at making both.

Free Printable Nativity Scene

Oooh yes, it's time.

This Christmas, I'm feeling the need for a Nativity Set. The children are now old enough and because there's been a little emphasis on Santa this season (and confusion regarding his reality) I thought it was a great time to start a family tradition that can blossom alongside The Man In Red.

We don't want to be anti-Santa. We just can't get terribly pro-Santa, given that he has featured very little in the Christmases Past of mine and my husband's.

And don't forget that we were broken into a year and a half ago. Giving a portly stranger dressed unseasonally in top-to-toe red and white free access to our home seems a little unwise. That's all I'm sayin'.

Long Story Short: I would really like a nativity set but being on a budget, I don't feel I can justify that expense this year. Maybe next year.

In the meantime, I'd like to share this with you:

FREE Printable Nativity Scene

Go on, click over there! Isn't it great? I wanted to share that with you.

You're welcome.

I think that this year, we will make this little set. I will get Anna-Lucia to help me colour it in and then I'll do the cutting. I think both Nat and Anna-Lucia would like to help me set it up, and the ruin it a good number of days before Christmas with their boisterous behaviour.

Incidentally, this is why I will get Anna-Lucia to help me colour it in, but not Nat. Below are two pieces of artwork:

Mmm. You can see where this is going, can't you? The one on the left, as you've probably guessed, was done by my 2½ year old girl, and the one on the right was done by my
space• anti-pencil-and-paper
space• anti-craft
space• anti-painting
space• this-is-my-first-kindy-artwork-for-2009-after-8-months-at-kindy-and-there's-only-one-week-left-so-here's-the-painting-you've-been-begging-for
space• 4½ year old
boy. He doesn't have poor gross motor, fine motor or cognitive skills. It's that he just doesn't care.

So I will get Anna-Lucia to help, thankyouverymuch.

Google Ads crack me up

I was watching (I don't know why) the Youtube video below. It featured a live ginger cat looking up at a spinning fan which was swiftly replaced by a toy ginger cat sitting on top of the fan as it spun.

Ha ha ha, I don't think, hence the two stars it had been given.

But then a Google Ad popped up:


That's comedy.

What funny/silly/crazy Google Ads have you seen on blogs, Youtube or beside your Gmail?

An update on the Wonder

Poor little Joseph. Since he's broken free of being wrapped, he has lain on his back thrashing his arms and legs, unable to sleep unless he is totally exhausted. FOR DAYS ON END. My belief is that it's not their best quality sleep if they're so exhausted they're dropping of their little perch. And it's not uncommon for me to get less than 5 hours of sleep each night.

I think I'm working out what the problem is, but there's no easy solution.

Joseph appears to be following in Nat's and Anna-Lucia's footsteps: sleeping on the back means short, fitful, unrestful sleeps with long periods of crying and many sleepless nights for baby and mother. Sleeping on the tummy means easy settling, deep long sleeps and a happy baby and happy mother.

So why have I worked so hard to get Joseph to sleep on his back instead of on his tummy?

Because I run hot and cold with fear and dread that my baby will die of SIDS.

And although we don't know the causes for SIDS, we seem to know that sleeping on the tummy is the biggest risk factor. Not tobacco smoke.

Darn.

So here we are. Sleep him on his tummy and slightly increase the risk of the very worst thing I could imagine? Or sleep him on his back and continue this revolting cycle of inability to settle and frequent waking until he's big enough to roll onto his tummy himself so I can't police it?

When I talk to people about this, we always come to the conclusion: sleep the poor little mite on his tummy and get some decent rest. And then I hear something like this: http://www.sidsandkids.org/flash_movies/movie2.html and feel just a little sick inside. (Sorry that video is a bit long. It just makes me want to never put a baby on their back ever again.)

As I type this, he is asleep on his tummy, having had the best, most relieving day of beautiful sleeps for ages. I found myself saying how much I love my life again - the first time I've said it in the last fortnight. And yet ... if he died ...

How much longer can I go with Start Times like 3:45 (like this morning) before I am so exhausted I crash the car or something?

How can I actually get any sleep at night, knowing he's on his tummy, increasing the risk of SIDS?

I'm so conflicted I think I'm going to throw up right now. (That's just a figure of speech.)

The weirdest video clip ever

Well, no, it couldn't possibly be the weirdest video clip ever, could it? There are too many contenders and weirder ones are being made very day.

Let's just say it's so weird it's been in my head ever since I saw it, thanks to Le.



I've caught myself with a bit of Safety Dance in my head, mincing across the kitchen then doing that weird thing with the arms.

But I'm still shaking my head. Peasants, a maypole and some Punch and Judy? Puh-lease!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This blog "post" is in lieu of anythig witty or clever until Wonder Period is over.

A Terrifying Thought

This idea of the Wonder Week?

I realise that it's actually been a Wonder Fortnight, so far.

Then I remembered that there used to be a show on TV called ...

Oh Lord, please save me.

I wonder!

My mother, my sister and I have long known that every now and then, babies go crazy and become very difficult. When they emerge from these stages, they are doing a little more, understanding a little more and are slightly more grown-up than before.

But until Mrs Accident commented, I had no idea it was a "real thing."

She commented:
"Is he having a wonder week? Apparently these developmental weeks, when the kids go nuts and regress badly, are explained by health nurses to mums in almost every other state except Queensland. I reckon you should google it. It doesn't make him sleep better, but at least you know that it is a phase, and when to expect them!"

and I googled and found (from here):
Recent research has shown that there are predictable times during the first few years of a child's life when the child may be more demanding (fussier) than usual. These fussy times have been called the 'Wonder weeks' by some writers, because it is during these more difficult weeks that babies are making big steps forward in their development.

Thanks Mrs Accident, I have hope! That's exactly what I've found in the past. The problem is that once I've worked out that a baby is having a "Wonder Week", I promptly forget what the grouchy period usually means, and get surprised by the next one all over again. My brain is so small, and can only hold so much.

I think the term "Wonder Week" is brilliant. Because when you're in the middle of one, you WONDER how you will ever survive it.

Sometimes, things sail along nicely. Sometimes, it all gets hard at the same time. And that would be NOW.

I am still recovering from last week when Mr de Elba was away, but finding that during the days when he is at work, the deal is pretty much the same. And that's the way it should be, I guess. I am glad for his job and that he is so good at doing it.

But as many of you could relate to, when my husband is away, I am the sole receptacle into which the children pour their words, their words words words (my, these children can talk!)

I am the sole carer and the sole person who deals with every cry, every problem, and every whimper (except for the ones I choose to ignore.)

I am the sole audience for every fight, every tantrum and every cute thing that is said.

I am the sole cleaning lady, the sole nanny, the sole cook and the sole event manager.

I have poured myself out for the children, and the children have a tendency to take my availability and squeeze me out further. Then they twist up the remaining shreds of me and wring the final drips of sanity from my tortured soul.

Well, it's not quite that bad. Or is it?

As well, the dog is killing blue-tongued lizards, rats and blind worms that come in our yard (yay! about the rats, boo! and eww! about everything else.)

And Joseph continues on his Path to Wonder.

If this was a paid position, I'd qualify for stress leave. But to qualify for removal of responsibilities and allocation of time to rest from my current position would only come after some dastardly act of insanity, say, if I roamed the streets naked and shooting people at random dragging a little wagon of small, dirty, unfed de Elbas behind me.

But that sounds like a lot of hard work.

Instead, I'll hang on until things are easier. Nat and Anna-Lucia will cool off a little, and the dog will be wearing a muzzle 24/7 (if I have anything to do with it.)

And sweet little Joseph? He will be fully Wondered Out.

Briefly ...

Mr de Elba is home! All is great. Except for the mess and the laundry!

Joseph not is sleeping well. I'm thinking he has been spoiled (yeah, I once heard someone say that a baby can't be spoiled. Well they can pop over to my house every night and cuddle the baby to sleep all jolly night, just the way he likes it.)

Although he has been a great little sleeper, he sometimes falls asleep in people's arms and now he's having great difficulties sleeping by himself in cot. Especially after 2am feed. Which sometimes happens at 1am.

Therefore I now no longer have time to myself at night to blog beccause I am trying to squeeze in as many hours of uninterrupted sleep in (4 is good) before I hear Joseph cry and shout out "ging, ging" which is what he says when he's upset.

So please tell me, dear gentle reader, is this just a phase? Will I ever get six blessed hours of sleep in one night again? Will Joseph learn to sleep again by himself in his cot?

Or should I leave home right now and run into the woods and live on nuts and berries?

LOLz

Oh hai!

Crazy Sister has given me an idea. She's made a LOLkidz over at her blog:

and it reminded me of when I made some LOLNats when Nat was little:







Apologies to Femina for that last one. I am hoping she is busily writing thousands of words instead of reading my blog, but something tells me she just read this and got a bit of a fright at the sight of Jaz the attack collie purporting to have just eaten a kitty. She didn't. It was just for the LOL.

So they don't always follow the rules of the LOLcat, but they're fun to make.

I was wondering if we could all do a post on our own blogs with a LOL? Would you like to do that? You can do a LOLkid or a LOLhusband or a LOLboyfriend or a LOLdog or LOLcat or a LOLgerbil or a LOLhouseplant ...

If I was REALLY clever, I'd set up a Mr Linky so you could all put the URL of your post in and we could visit each other that way. But as yet I am NOT THAT CLEVER, and as I have been awake since 2:00am this morning, I thought I'd better get to bed instead of learning how to do Mr Linkies.

Would you like to make a LOL, post it on your blog and leave me a link in the comments? If you need a LOL generator, try:
☺ http://wigflip.com/roflbot/
☺ http://bighugelabs.com/lolcat.php
☺ http://cheezburger.com/lolbuilder.aspx

I'd love to see what you come up with. In the meantime, just to show you that I'm not after anything too awesome or clever or funny, this is the best I could do on the sleep I had: