Bath Time....

This morning we headed to the Calliope Historical Village for their markets... we were supposed to be going to the beach (which we'd said we were going to do for the last couple of weeks).... but because Jade hasn't been 100% we decided to avoid the beach and getting Jade wet for prolonged periods....

Anyway...  going to the markets with Rob is always an interesting experience... he's very happy to buy Jade stuff.... (luckily I managed to stop him buying Jade this huge doll house....  Anyway, we found a Dora & Boots bathtime toy set... so naturally she got that...

Once we got home from the markets, we had lunch... then Jade decided she needed to have a bath before her afternoon sleep time...  so she got in and played with Dora and Boots - but it was only for a few minutes...  (at this point I was starting to think that the toys were a waste....)

Then, we get to 7pm... (which is technically 30mins away from bed time) - and Jade decides she needs to have another bath...  so I ran the bath while I cooked dinner... and Jade got in... and I've only JUST managed to get her out of the bath... an hour later!!!

Poor Boots was left to entertain himself in the bath.....

Jade was calling Dora's flippers "Waddle Waddle Boots"...  then we tried to explain "flippers" - and she was calling them "slippers"....  but she's got it now.... :)

Luckily we convinced her that she had to get Dora and Boots out of the bath before they got sick... so now she's playing with her daddy making up Dora stories before bed time....

Sometimes parenting just isn't predictable....

Anyone that knows me really well ... knows that there's no hope in hell of getting me in a dress....

Most would assume this would be passed on to my daughter.... But, I always said that if there's stuff that Jade wants to do (even if it's not something I would have done) - I'm not going to stop her (unless it's totally insane... which, wearing a dress comes close to... but not quite! ehe)

Jade had Ethan's birthday party on Saturday morning... and even though she still wasn't 100% - she was more upset about missing ... so we went (and ended up coming home early... but at least we made an appearance)...

Jade was so excited when she realised that I'd bought her a Dora dress for the party... and although the party was at the Kubby House - that didn't stop her... luckily when you're only 3 - you don't care who see's your undies.... (and I was smart enough to put Monkey Bar Knickers on her... so it wasn't too bad)...

Jade then wanted to sleep in her dress... and wear it again today... but it's ok - we had a dress that Jaime gave her for Xmas last year that she could wear today... so ... that's right... two days in a row... a daughter of MINE has worn a dress.... and I don't think it's going to end there!!!

It's just SOOOO true.....

Dad has always complained about how he has the largest toolbox in the world when my brother gets into the shed... his entire yard becomes a toolbox....

When we saw this sign the other day - we just had to get it for him to put in his shed....

Afternoon sleeps........

We have had to take all of Jade's toys out of her room so that she will sleep in the afternoon... if she has so much as 1 Pony - she can talk to it for hours and take it exploring every square inch of her room...

Unfortunately, we can't strip her bed and leave her with no bedding if we're actually wanting her to sleep...  so, what does a child that doesn't want an afternoon sleep do in this situation???

We strip the bed, use the bedding as a tent... until finally we realise that we really DO need a sleep - and collapse on the floor....

I have to say after Jade not sleeping on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, I was really starting to worry that I was never going to have another peaceful afternoon... but Yay!!!!

Unfortunately, with today being a Monday... and with Rob being out of town... Rob is still on the phone all afternoon - so there is no sleep time... as much as he says "turn the phone off" - - I know he's happier to know I'm there to send invoices at a moment's notice.

How to make a Wobz happy!!!

It's not very hard to make Rob happy... get him something to show the world how truelly geeky he is... and he is quite proud of his geekiness...

Any why wouldn't you be proud if you were as sought after as he is....?

We started with the G33K shirts http://tharyn.com/Shirts.htm - but sometimes it's just not enough for people to only know 30% of the time... this way - all around Australia - people will know!

The poor WPM41 plates will have to go into hybernation until we need another company vehicle... cause he's not sticking G33K plates on my prado.. (plus my prado has TED plates already).... pretty sad when you no longer have a vehicle with standard issued plates (even the motorbike has personalised...)

Little Miss Independence & Baby Belly 36w

This isn't really anything new, but Rob had the camera handy and wanted to get pics of Jade dressing herself.... it really can be quite an amusing event - especially if she gets her shirt caught on her hair... :)

Yay!!!! Done!!!!

And, I'm getting a lot of people hassling me for baby belly pics.... unfortunately, I don't have the starting figure for all the exciting baby belly pics along the way....

Jade is always very excited to give Puggle cuddles......

Can you hear his heart beating???? (she always says yes, so I have no idea what she thinks she's listening to!)

He's gonna be a BIG boy......

Jade's new shirt....

It finally arrived....

Actually, we originally ordered it back in August... but I stuffed up on the sizing... I'm not sure if American kids are just a helluva lot bigger than what we make in Oz... but over here - Jade wears a kids size 6 or so (depending on if it's a "boy" or "girl" shirt.... she needs bigger girl shirts else they're not long enough.... she's apparently too tall to be only just turned 3)

Anyway, so the first one arrived and I unpacked it - and figured I'd somehow made a mistake... it came down past her knees - and wasn't really adjustable....  (so we packed that one up and sent it to Shane in Sydney for his step daughter Mykaela to wear (they're due to have a baby any minute now!!))...

I got online and ordered her one in an "infant" size...  so it actually fits her... :)

Incase you can't read the shirt (you can click on it to see a bigger image) - but it says:

"I'm gonna be a big sister  ...but I'd still rather have a puppy!"

Jade loves it.... although - I'm not sure if she now thinks that getting a puppy is an option ;)

Congrats to Greg!!!

Yesterday we received confirmation that Greg has been accepted into the local campus of the Australian Technical College.

For those who haven't heard of this, it's a "school based apprenticeship" program - that helps kids get into apprenticeships as well as completing some of the required trade certificates.  They do this over year 11 and 12, and while they're out working - they get paid.

Greg's all excited - and his friend Parkah has also been accepted - so he'll at least be going there as a new student - with a friend.

It works differently to the schooling system in that they no longer get "school holidays" - he'll get 4 weeks off a year - which I imagine will be over the Christmas Break (this is to get them used to the reality of the fact that in the work force - there is only 4 weeks leave per year) - they also don't have all the lunches that you get in the school environment - they have morning tea and a lunch break and no school oval to go and play football.

They go to school for two weeks - and then they go out and work for two weeks with an employer (either as a "try-a-trade" or in an actual apprenticeship (when someone employs them) - only once they're employed do they get paid though - but it gives them a chance to try different trades to make sure they go into one that they actually want to stick with. 

Puggle is nearly here!!!

And boy don't I know about it!!!

Saturday night I had a real run in with Braxton Hicks!!!  I don't like him... mean and nasty nasty!!!

I've had cramps the entire pregnancy - which is also Braxton Hicks - but that's how it should be, slightly annoying - but nothing majorly stressful...

Unfortunately, Saturday night - he paid a real visit...  every 5-10mins my stomach would tense... it was never on a regular interval which kept us calm...  but, we did have to think about options in relation to Jade...  we ended up just warning Greg that he may have to be on baby duty and he was fine with that.... 

Mom and Dad were out of town for the weekend, trying to pick up a bed for Frank which they wanted to get done before there was any stress of getting caught out of town when the baby was due... ehehe... typical that as soon as you think it's safe to leave town, that's when things happen!!  (Mind you - if they'd done it two months ago - it probably would have happened then... who can guess these things?? ;))

Xander has just had his tonsils out and Jaime is having to try to keep him calm - so we were trying to work out where we'd take Jade so that we didn't upset Xander's healing process...  

It's amazing how once you mention to people what happened - everyone is willing to look after Jade... so we're really really lucky here... so many great friends...

Anyway, it's all good... nothing to stress about...  

On the bright side, this week we're getting all of the cloth nappies washed as well as all of the baby clothes that have been stored for ages...  and when I say we... I mean Mom... 

I'm helping out a friend at the moment in her accounting firm, so Mom agreed to do the laundry for me tomorrow....  don't know where I'd be without her :)  (Love you Mom!!!!)

Oh yeah, and I promised a pic of the nursery once we got the new change table built... (which Mom and Jaime did a few weeks back - and I've just been slack!! plus the nursery had Jade's toys in it - which we've tidied up - again - since then!)  It's nearly the same colour as the cot - so I'm really happy with it... and it's got the nice high edges on it so that Puggle doesn't get adventurous over the edge.... 

So, I think we're pretty much ready... now we just need him to arrive....  and I still don't have a confirmed date yet... but we'll let you know when we know...

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD

I'm not big on forwarding joke emails and that kind of thing, they get around so much and most of the time people have seen them...  but this is a classic.. and even Rob hadn't seen it before....

-----------

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; 

what with walking Twenty-five miles to school

every morning

... Uphill... Barefoot.

BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it, and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of Thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your Imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a Little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it Came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the Channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you Hear what I'm saying!?! We had to Wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled Little bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy.

You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,

The over 30 Crowd

Woops!! Never leave Rob alone with Fibreglass!

Well... we've had fun today.... I finally convinced Rob to change the flat tyre on the ute - so he went off and got the stuff that he needed.... and went and got stuff to work on the rust as well... he made a bad choice - and bought fibreglass... (he still isn't sure about why he did that)... (Rob claims that he's sure of the reason, he thought it was a good idea, in hindsight it wasn't...)

Then he came in - covered in fibreglass and saying that he'd had an accident and something about fibreglass on the back of his head... so naturally I start thinking he's done something REALLY stupid and cut a big hole in his head... but No, he simply rolled into the fibreglass glue and got it stuck in his hair... the only way to remove this was to remove the hair (thankfully - guys can have shaved heads and get away with it)...

Unfortunately, while rolling around and making love to the fibreglass glue - he didn't consider the consequences this is going to have on puggles first photos in the world with his BALD father!!! typical male!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jade!

Yesterday was Jade's 3rd Birthday... it didn't start off that well ... I tried to make cupcakes - but I'm thinking that there's a problem with the oven because both batches just flopped... and cupcakes are NOT that hard to make.... I've done it before.... but I'd made muffins the day before and there wasn't a problem with them... so I'm dumbfounded....

Anyway, so I'm all pregnancy hormonal... so the cupcakes stuffing up was a problem for me... but we ended up just buying a cake for Jade to take to school for her birthday...

When Jade got up yesterday morning - she came in to tell us it was her birthday - and with that she should get presents... so we brought through the present from us (a V-Smile console and 3 games (Dora, Diego & Wiggles))... naturally she wanted to play it - so we plugged it all in... NO SOUND... OMG can anything else go wrong?? Jade still happily played it for a while with no sound...

Rob went and took it back yesterday morning and got a new console... so hopefully this one is better - and it comes with the Cars game... so she's even more excited now...

We went shopping to get food for the BBQ last night.... then Mom and I went out at lunchtime to get a sponge so that we could make Jade's birthday cake... we got to the first bakery to find that you have to pre-order the slabs... but we went to another bakery and managed to get one... (we were starting to worry that we'd have to make a cake and given my previous efforts I was doubting my abilities!) We got home and iced the cake.. and cut the stencil out (we printed a fairy and a number 3 and figured we'd put sprinkles on the cake in the shape of the fairy...) --- in taking the stencil off the cake - we nearly lost the icing - but quick thinking on mom's behalf saved it all - and we delicately removed the stencil without any damage... there were the odd sprinkles around the outside - but by then - we didn't care... :)


We went and picked Jade and Xander up from school and headed back to Mom and Dad's place... Frank was the first person to give Jade a present - a totem tennis set... so we tried to show Jade and Xander how to play... but I think it's a "one kid at a time" kind of game, as long as there is an adult around... two kids just means that they're both getting frustrated because the ball keeps stopping....

"I'm THREE!!!"

"Not playing with you anymore!!!"

"*giggle* Just Kidding!"

"ooh! look! another use for the raquet!"




Greg and Kylie

Frank

"I'm still 3!"

cutting the cake...

touched the bottom! gotta kiss the nearest boy!! (and doesn't he look impressed!)

Tired at the end of a LOOOOOONG day......