40 bags in 40 days

Day 8

Day 2 = bag of clothes from Paris's room

Day 3 = Maternity bra's that no longer fit

Day 4 = bag of baby clothes

All off to the clothing bin

Day 5 = bag of stuff we no longer need/want/use in the bathroom {into the bin it went}

Day 6 = Bag of bottles no longer needed since Cammy has finally stopped having them {more on that another day} {oh and they went to a clothing bin}

Day 7 = some food items out of the pantry that we will NEVER eat {dropped off to food collection bin at local Supermarket}

Day 8 = Another bag of stuff from the bathroom, but this time it's useful stuff that we need more at the caravan than at home {shampoo samples etc...}

Gosh Darn it feels good to be getting rid of stuff... the bags may not be big, and they may not be full each day, but I'm certaibly noticing the difference this is making to my home

Project: Part 1

just cause i don't already have enough things to do at the moment lol... These are Axel's drawers... and I was meant to do this job before he was born... ah well, better late than never right

The side show's what we started with, obviously by the time I remembered to take this picture, Paris and I had already completely sanded back the top

My other helper

And thats we we finished on Day 1... I'm not going to get another opportunity to work on these for a few weeks :(

The best things in life are free...

we got this for free off Freecycle

Hearing... or not... UPDATE

Remember this post before Christmas about Cammy and his hearing...

Well we had our follow up appointment last week and I am pleased to inform you all that Cammy's hearing is infact perfect and the fluid is gone :)

 and the specialist believes that the fluid on his ear drum last year which caused him to fail his tests was left over from one of his many sinus infections :)

40 bags in 40 days... can I do it?

Day 1



My friend Bronwyn, has today directed me to here

I decided that since I was in the process of a major declutter at my house, I may as well set a challenge with it also... so... 40 bags in 40 days is it...

I won't take photo's of everything, but I will take pics along the way and share them with you...

I don't have a photo of today's bag unfortunately, as it left my house before I even realised I was doing this challenge..

Day 1 - A tent bag - complete with 2 roomed Canvas tent and poles = given away via freecycle

Ah... that feels good

11 Step Program for those thinking of having kids

Step 1


1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.


Step 2


Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.



Step 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.


Step 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?


Step 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.


Step 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.


Step 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.



Step 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.


Step 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.


Step 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.


Step 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Disclaimer: This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Out of the mouths of babes...

Here's a conversation between myself and Cammy the other day:



M = come on Cammy, we've got to go out

C = where are we going?

M = I have to get something from the shop

C = Oh, are you buying me a elephant?

 
Priceless :)

Life...

• Parents suck
• unless you are the parent that she doesn't live with, then you may be exempt from sucking
• rules suck
• all of them
• especially the ones about the amount of time one can't play on the iPod touch that the other {much cooler} parent bought her for christmas
• Chores suck
• but pocket money is expected. for nothing. always
• school is ok
• her teacher this year "is so cool, she even has the game sequence in the classroom"
• even though the sucky parents bought sequence over the summer, doesn't make them cool

Ah yes... Parenting a pre-teen {or tween} is not always easy... but you just gotta love em right...?

feeding time at the zoo

Literally...

Cammy LOVED feeding the giraffe at the zoo last week.

Zoo trips are something we do alot of here... Last year Ian bought me a Friends of the Zoo Membership... it was the best $90 either of us have ever spent.  I take the boys to the zoo all. the. time.  Cammy loves is sooo much and Axel is just starting to get into it... and the added bonus, I spend a few hours walking round with the pushchair, which is great for my fitness and weight loss :)

Cammy's favourite Animals to see at the zoo are:

• Giraffe
• Elephant
• Lions
• Spiders {I know???}
• Gibbon {it's a monkey}
• Crocodiles {They are really aligators}

We do try and visit all the animals, but some days, I just take him to see the list above, then we head home, thats the real bonus of being a member... we can quite literally just come and go from the zoo as we please.



 

Deep Sleep

Cammy goes to sleep in our bed every night... this is the only way we can get him to actually settle himself to sleep... once he is asleep, we just move him into his bed, where he stays till morning {mostly}... The other night, we went to move him as per usual, but he wasn't in the bed...

nope... he was on the floor... fast.asleep... and the missing leg - thats still caught up in the sheet lol... All that, and he didn't even wake...

Changing Rooms

Or more, it's time to merge children into one room...

Thats right, we have reclaimed our bedroom and moved Axel into Cammy's room... Now Cammy's room for starters isn't a big space, so alot of thought has had to go into this...

Here are the before pics {after pics will be up in the next few days}

Sleep Training

While we were at the the Caravan Axel's sleeping {or not sleeping} got worse and worse... in fact there were a few nights where he was waking at 2am and not going back to sleep till 4am...

One of my lovely caravan neighbours also has 4 kids, and she offered to help me "sleep train" the little bugger, and I accepted the offer...

I'm not a fan of the CIO* method, so opted for a blend of that and the Controlled Crying method... {I decided that I would go into him every 7 minutes to replace his dummy}

The first night we put him to bed awake, and left him to cry.. it took only 34 mins for him to go to sleep, and then he slept through WTF!! I couldn't believe it... Of course he hasn't slept through every night, but I certainly have stopped going to him during the night... his last feed is at bedtime, and I don't feed him again till 5am {his usual waking time}

Most nights he is sleeping through till about 4am, then grizzling for a bit, going back to sleep, waking at 5am, feeding, going back to bed, then waking for the day around 7.30am...

And me - I am feeling AMAZING

I only wish I had started the Sleep Training earlier {and that I had done it with Cammy}




* CIO = Cry It Out

Bamatoes!! *

And lots of 'em.....

This is only half of what we took off the plants the other day, the rest are in the freezer

Oh, and while we are on the subject... Check out what is left of a corguette** my mate gave me from her garden {this is after we had some BBQ'd with dinner}

it made ALOT of babyfood thats for sure

* Bamatoes is Cammy's name for Tomatoes

** I think that once a corguette becomes this size, it may actually be called a Marrow

More on Christmas...

better late than never right... :)

Some pics of our Christmas Morning after Santa's visit to our house

Cakes... The Next Step...

Well, I've done it... I've booked myself onto a cake decorating course.  It's in a couple of weeks, and I'm so excited...

You can find the details here