It’s complicated

July 14, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

I’ve had a few challenging days with Chanbe lately. After one such morning recently, I sat him down while Quindy was asleep, to see if I could try and get to the bottom of some of these behaviours. There’s lots of ignoring me going on, and he particularly loves having Quindy follow him in his naughtiness.

I broached the subject about his poor behaviour that morning, and that’s when he took over. He said to me that he seems to make bad choices when Quinny is around.

I was a bit shocked at how he used those words, and secretly impressed that he was aware of it without me spelling it out to him. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked him why he thinks he makes bad choices when Quindy’s around.

And he turned to me, cocked his head, lifted his right hand in an “I don’t know” gesture, and spoke out of the side of his mouth like so

and said

“It’s complicated.”

It was too much. I softened and enveloped him in a big cuddle. I asked him if we could talk about why it might be complicated, but he informed me that

“We’ve finished talking about that now Mama.”

I’ve really been focusing on spending quality time with him in the last few days. Hubs hasn’t been around much due to work, and I think our little Chanbe is noticing. He is often asking Hubs if he can stay home instead of going to work. So today we played Lego instead of him watching a movie which he normally does when the other 2 are having their midday sleep. It meant I didn’t get my usual “me time” but with he and Q at kindy for the next 2 days, there will be plenty of time for me to veg out.

It’s complicated. Sheesh. It sure is, buddy.

When life gives you boxes of wine and toilet paper

July 10, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

You make rockets.

Today has been a day where parenting, ah hell, where adulting has been a bit of a struggle. I thought it would be fun to make banana bread with the kids this morning, but between their naughtiness and my wafer-thin patience, there wasn’t much fun being had.

And then as we do every Friday at 9am, we went to the gym. The kids are normally pretty well behaved during my class but not today. They were absolutely feral. At one stage I almost started crying and wanted to leave but I took a breath and kept going and kept trying to be patient with them. Things didn’t get much better at home but I decided I had had enough yelling and disobedience for one day so I started making rockets out of the bottle dividers from a recent box (fine. 2 boxes) of wine we’d ordered and some toilet paper rolls.

The kids are happy now and so am I. And once the kids are in bed (only 6 hours to go!) I will be sampling said wines.

Of course I only buy the boxes of wine to make craft with the kids. The fact that they come with bottles of wine is just an added bonus I suppose…

Feeling existential?

June 5, 2015 / Renae / 2 Comments

Google “Uptown Funk” and watch the film clip.

It’s impossible not to smile and want to try some of the moves in this music video. Is that what you kids are calling them these days? Do you remember RAGE? I never watched RAGE. It was too hip for me. I was a Video Hits kinda gal myself. More mainstream. That’s me.

Or that was me, until Hubs and I got together. Since then it’s been all backstreets for us. And it’s been great.

It’s Friday night. A few hours ago we were joined in Rocky by my parents, Hubs’ Dad, and Uncles Ben and Clayton. It’s going to be a great weekend. We are celebrating Darby’s baptism on Sunday, and more friends arrive throughout the weekend. We also have some local friends who are able to share this special day with us.

There’s so much to tell you. Do you know how many times a day I write blog posts in my head? It’s several. Every day. My blog is on my mind often, most days, and it’s times like this that I wish we had a designated spot for a designated computer that I can blog from, with all my photos within easy reach.

It will happen. It will take time to get this beautiful house of ours in order, and we are getting there.

I want to tell you all about how Quindy sings “Let it go” from Frozen all day long. But she says “ellit go” instead. And how Chanbe sings “Brave” just as much, and I love him more each time he sings it. It’s just too wonderful. I have awesome videos of both of these, and I’ll upload them soon.

I want to tell you that life is going well right now. I want to tell you that I didn’t get to bed until after 10:30pm after my last blog post because I had to help out Darby and Hubs and then Chanbe before my head finally hit the pillow. And that I didn’t mind at all. Cos that’s what wifeys/mamas do.

I want to tell you that Hubs has been on a real video clip kick lately, and that’s why I know what “Uptown Funk” is all about. And I really can’t get enough of it. It just makes me happy. And I’m really into doing things that make me happy right now.

And having family around me certainly fits that criteria. It’s going to be a great weekend.

I’ve taken up deep breathing

May 4, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

Why? Here are some reasons just from today:

When it’s the afternoon and it takes you an hour and 10 minutes to walk the 800m round trip to the post office to check the PO box and pick up a parcel that I apparently missed the delivery for.

Deep breaths all the way, and it was a lovely walk. Even when Chanbe lost his cool because he wanted me to buy him the wooden model aeroplane that they had at the AusPost shop. So so many deep breaths and we all got through it.

When we’ve had a great dinner time, easy bath time, no trouble getting PJs on and teeth brushed, and Chanbe wants to read The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. For about the eighth time in recent memory. I take my deeeeeeep breaths and ask him very nicely if maybe he could choose two different stories tonight, since we have so many to choose from. And he did. Because I asked nicely and calmly. I am the adult, after all. (Meaning I need to set the example!)

When I’ve read the stories, (Chance ended up choosing two Hairy McLary books which I’m quite fond of) talked about what we did today, sung three songs, (I sang them Bike by Pink Floyd for the first time tonight and they loved it!) and brought them their cold water in sippy cups (man do I ever regret starting that little ritual a year ago) and Quindy starts up: “I wan’t more dinnnnnnaaaaaahhhhhh.”

I take my deep breaths and I calmly explain that she ate all of her dinner and her yoghurt and her fruit and now it’s bedtime. After a bit more fussing about (“I need a bandaid/blanket/froggy”) it’s done with and she is going to bed happy.

When I’m transferring my beef schnitzel from the frying pan to my plate and I drop it on the floor, and the Schnitzel von crumbs go everywhere (see what I did there?)

I took my deep breaths, brushed it off (I had just vacuumed the floors an hour before after the kids were eating grated cheese sitting down in the kitchen while I was cooking) and put it on my plate.

And finally, after a long day, and another day of not knowing when Hubs will be home, I should have known better, but learned the hard way, not to open a screw top bottle of wine while I’m holding it horizontally.

Deep breaths while I clean up the floor for the third time in 2 hours.

So there you have it folks. You heard it here first – breathing is good for you. I made a conscious effort to just walk around all day taking deep breaths, so when situations arose that needed me to be calm, I was already well on my way. I just have to remember it again tomorrow…

Cognitive overload

March 24, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

At least I think that’s what Hubs called it. You know how I mentioned life was kicking my butt at the moment? And that it was starting to show? Well the forgotten hairy leg was nothing compared to this doozy. I booked the wrong dates for our flights to come to Brisbane to connect to our flight to Melbourne on Thursday. I booked the tickets from Rocky for tomorrow at 8am instead of Thursday at 8am.

And I was only alerted to the fact when I got a travel update from Virgin telling me about my flight on Wednesday the 25th of March.

When people have told me that they’ve accidentally booked the wrong dates for flights, I’ve always been a bit confused as to how that can happen. There are about 8 different times in the booking process that you can check your dates and other details. I remember booking these flights a couple of weeks ago. I’d ummed and aarrred about them for a few days before we decided to just do it. They were very important flights. I wrote all the details down in my diary. When the confirmation details came through, I didn’t check them, because, you know, how could the dates be wrong??

I know this stuff happens, but it doesn’t usually happy to me. I’m just so completely drained at the moment and I don’t even really know how to recharge. I’m sure the week in Melbourne with some of my favourite people will help. And the couple of weeks after that in Brisbane with two more weddings to attend will also be wonderful.

To add to the excitement, we had organised to have over a dozen people over from Hubs’ work for dinner on Wednesday night. Those plans now have to be changed. Oh, and also, the 8am flight on Thursday is completely booked out.

So it looks like I’ll be getting on the 8am Wednesday flight with the kids and Hubs will join us that evening. Oh joy. A plane trip with 3 children on my own. Talk about draining.

This is all sounding very depressing, but to be honest I’m just to exhausted to be overly bothered by it. I just have to do 3 loads of washing today, pack for us all, and vacuum. And that will be enough.

But really, life is good. I’m really really loving our new house; I like Rockhampton; the kids are just going so well; Darby is sleeping through, only waking for one feed; the house is almost unpacked… there’s so much good stuff going on. I just need some more brain space to enjoy it! 🙂

And now I need to stop stuffing around on the computer (yay! we have the computer set up!) and go and hang out washing and pack. After I finish my coffee, that is…

Oh boy

February 21, 2015 / Renae / 2 Comments

Wow. What a day. The cyclone was pretty crazy and a little bit exciting at times. This was our view for the day:

And the rains came down…

We watched as the water rose up in line with our trailer. Thankfully it held on and I believe everything inside remained dry!

Weer lost power very early on and it’s still off. Apparently it will be days if not weeks before it is restored.

And then there’s the new place.

We went over to clean up today. I don’t have the brain space to even think about our next move right now. We’ll just see what tomorrow brings.

It could have been a lot worse.

Cyclone Marcia

February 20, 2015 / Renae / 1 Comment

Marcia Marcia Marcia.

I’m sure no one else on the Internet has written that today. I’m so funny. As some of you may be aware, we recently moved to Rockhampton, and in turn moved directly into the path of a Category 5 cyclone. Woops! We also bought a 65 year old house with the contract settling 2 days ago. We figure it’s lasted 65 years and numerous storms, surely this one won’t knock it over! Maybe we should have settled next week!

The temporary house we are in has a rather leaky roof and is in a very low lying area. It is high set but I’m a little nervous about the few pieces of furniture we have bought from garage sales that we’re storing under the house. That part isn’t built in.

Anyway we’ve done what we can and now we wait. Apparently Yeppoon is getting hit pretty badly right now. Before we moved here, a number of people said “don’t live in Rocky, live in Yeppoon. It’s much nicer out there.” I’m kind of glad we didn’t listen 🙂

Apart from the whole “cyclone” thing we are doing really well! Mum and Dad have been up here for a week and we had a little party for Quinn’s 2nd birthday last weekend which was lovely.

We’ve also had some work done on the floors of our new place in preparation for us moving in. Here’s the last couple of weeks in photos!

I got another haircut!

The kids helped me make gnocchi

Quinn chose this bag to take with her to kindy drop off which amused Chance’s teachers and the other parents.

I made Quindy a froggie cake for her birthday

Which she ate happily

Ouma came up for some lovely cuddles

There’s been a lot of this going on

We removed all the carpet from our new place in preparation for getting them polished

So far they’ve gone from this:

To this after sanding. I know, right????

Darby-doo had his 10 week check last week and weighed in at a healthy (whopping!) 7.3kg. He is doing marvelously and even letting me sleep most of the night!

And then there’s the cyclone.

So that’s us up to date for now. I’m a little excited that this is my first cyclone which I know is morbid and I’ll probably feel very differently in a few hours but for now the novelty is there.

I’ll try and do an update in the next few days!

Happy birthday to me

January 19, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

I actually wrote this post this time last night on my actual birthday, but as seems to be the case, WordPress and my Galaxy Note conspired against me and it didn’t publish. And I was just too dang tired to write it out again.

Oh my goodness!!!!!! I just wrote another whole post and not only did it not publish but it only saved the first paragraph! I give up. I’ll be back soon but right now I seriously have to go to bed.

Squeaky McGrunty Pants

January 1, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

For such a little human being, Darby sure can make some noise. I’m getting used to the squeaks and snorts and grunts but I’m still amused by it all. My little man seems to be either completely content and sound asleep, or building up to get rid of gas. At either end.

After a feed, he starts with the grunting, then there’s the whinging, and then he builds up to some yelping and screaming. And then after an explosion at either end (or both!) He relaxes again, although often he’ll throw in a case of hiccups to finish things off. And considering how often he feeds, this process can occur every 2 or 3 hours! As Mum says, it’s really quite exhausting for everyone involved!

Hubs is on his last night shift for this block and we really should do some organising for our move in his few days off. What will most likely happen however, is going out for coffee. But I’m okay with that…

Another different Christmas eve

December 24, 2014 / Renae / 1 Comment

I’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic about Christmas eve evenings at Nanny’s all day. The thought was with me this morning when I realised only a few short years ago I’d be getting excited already about the evening’s festivities. Nanny made Christmas special. She was the ultimate gift giver. The gifts weren’t necessarily useful or practical but there were always plenty, and the look on her face as she would give them out was pure joy.

“You like?” She would ask as I’d unwrap yet another nightie/quilt cover/towel/set of sheets/platter or any combination of those.

Of course I liked.

No matter the gift, present opening on Christmas eve at Nanny and Grandpa’s was a flurry of wrapping paper and lots of ooohs and aaahs, a few giggles, and some secret looks of whaaaaaaaaaat is this!?

Tonight we will feast on Hubs’ twice cooked lamb and some kind of yummy dessert with our good friend Sonia. I had contemplated making pierogi in Nanny’s honour but my tiny kitchen and 38 degree days defeated me.

It will be a different Christmas this year but no doubt just as wonderful as always 🙂