Babies Born ~ September 2007 #74

MD, I hope that there is no move for you xx

I read The Hunger Games during my reading month. It was good, but you can breeze through a book in an afternoon if you get a clear run. Apart from that I just read the first trilogy and quadrilogy of the Terry Brooks Shannara series.

I have a tooth ache. I suspect it is going to cost a lot to fix since it is in a tooth that has already had a root canal. I am kicking myself for not getting the filling fixed when it first broke, now it is infected. Hoping I can get a dentist appointment tomorrow in the city. The dentist in town only works three days, and she is a friend and I would rather not have her looking in my mouth itms.

Cass - skylights might work, new windows wouldn't as the main living area looks out to the south. New house one day with a northerly aspect.....

Cally, when I was a little kid, the neighbour had their house picked up and rotated so it was north facing lol

Awesome solution!

Arte - OMG, I can't imagine how much that would cost. I have too many other issues with our place anyway to spend that much money. There was a place in Canberra built a couple of years ago that could rotate with the sun.

It was the old days, I still remember it but I must have been less than 5 so it would have been over 25 years ago!! It was a squareish house on piles, so it wouldn't have been too much to shift it I guess.

Last day of holidays tomorrow. Bit sad really since W is the most happy and relaxed I have seen him in…ever. He is being so well behaved and nice. Today he even made a treasure hunt with clues spread around everywhere for us all to follow :) I just found out yesterday that he is going to spend all day Tuesdays skiing for the whole term!

skiing?? that is so awesome lol!

in QLD it is not an unusal site to see a house being moved on the back of a truck....go on Cally, you know you wanna hahahahaha

There are always houses on the move around here - the military camp down the road is downsizing and selling off heaps of their houses for removal.

Skiiing via school is so awesome! I guess it's a pretty appropriate skill to have where you are.

Cally I know exactly what you mean about having "issues" with the house. We thought we were pretty clever buying this house when we did - for the amount of money we paid (ie, not much) it ticked pretty much every box on a fairly exhaustive list. But a decade down the track (and after the household has grown considerably including the amount of stuff we own) plus having seen a lot more (newer) houses, I realise how some of the things that irritate me are actual design flaws, that could only be fixed by major renovation work (eg moving walls, building on). Like, I don't understand how in 1974 a 4-bedroom house would have a single bathroom & toilet when all the houses built in this area from 1980 onwards have multiple bathrooms & ensuites, not to mention extra built-in closets, family rooms etc. Plus we have this idiotic looooooong hallway that runs all the way through the house that chews up a massive amount of floor area but is too narrow to function as anything other than a walking-strip. Plus, my fridge is in the laundy. How that hasn't made me insane in 14 years is probably only because we spent 5 of those years in a different house in Canberra. LOL.

Arte that's great that W is so happy and relaxed! We are having the opposite at the moment. I don't know if miss E is having some sort of hormonal growth spurt right now but she's been cranky, non-cooperative, frequently riles straight up to squealing/shouting/accusing people of not listening to her, and is (it seems) terminally bored. Today I gave her a list of three suggestions of things to do after which point she forfeited the right to complain. Seemed to work... for all of 15 minutes or so :wall:. She doesn't realise it yet but her tv-viewing is about to be severely curtailed since I am of the opinion she is developing signs of a lazy play-brain.

LOL, I remember my mother giving me several choices of boredom busters - cleaning room, doing dishes etc. I recall I found some way to entertain myself pretty quickly lol.
Bummer about the grumpy phase. I hope it passes quickly xx
There was something I was going to ask you…mind blank.
And OMG, is H 15!!! Far out!

The houses in NZ didn't really pick up on the ensuite/multibathroom trend until around the late 90's. This house was built mid 80's and despite being huge it still only has the one bathroom.

Seems like all our babies are losing their teeth now!! W still looks to have them all firmly in place :) I don't think I am ready for the gap-teeth stage. He is still my baby.

I am just about to head up the mountain to see how W is going up there. He must have been quite keen since he put on multiple layers of clothes with no fuss. It is the first time I have been up the mountain in years - brilliant day for it!

Skiing for school - awesome!!

A few issues here - FIL had emergency surgery on Friday to remove a large tumour from his bowel. Takes about a week to get the test results back so we're not sure if it's cancer or not. I thought DH was going OK, but he had a crap week at work last week and ended up with a mental health day yesterday as he just couldn't face work on top of the stuff going on with his Dad. Seems to be going OK now though.

Not much else happening. Started thinking about DD's birthday party. I'm thinking rainbow theme.

Cally, I hope your DH is feeling better. Good that he took the day off - no point being there if your mind is elsewhere and it is very understandable that he would be thinking of his dad. I hope your FIL is alright and if it is cancer that it is treatable.

Not sure what we are doing about birthday parties. A really wants one, but it is hard to have one for one kid and not the others. In hindsight, it might have been better to spread the birthdays throughout the year lol. I don't usually do a theme - just party food and a couple of games. And my pass the parcel doesn't have a treat in every layer and not every kid gets a turn *evil laugh*. Life isn't fair sometimes kids, get used to it lol.

I spent about an hour up the mountain watching W. He was going really well for a first timer. I bet he is going to be very grumpy and tired when he gets home - he left at 7.30 this morning and won't get back until 4.30ish - that is a really long and physically exhausting day for a 5 year old.

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And my pass the parcel doesn't have a treat in every layer and not every kid gets a turn *evil laugh*. Life isn't fair sometimes kids, get used to it lol.

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That sounds good to me Arte!

Wow, he will be tired - that's a very long day. And it's like that every Tuesday?

:hug: Cally - it must be tough knowing FIL is going through that. Mental health day definitely a good call by the sounds of. I hope FIL has a smooth recovery & that there's positive news following.

Cally, rainbow theme sounds fantastic, you could do one of those layer cakes (haha I dare you). We've decided we're going to do owls for E's party this year but I am completely confused about what to do party wise. I have no idea who to invite/not invite & there is a group of friendly mummies whose kids are not necessarily the ones that e plays with, but I'm not sure I've got the wherewithal to have 25 kids running around at our place! We've always had much smsller groups for H, but E is a little miss popular so aaaaah I don't know.

Arte - when we were kids, my sister & I used to have parties in alternating years (eg you had a big party once every 2 years) so you could think about doing that? On our non-party years we always had a dinner & cake & games dfc but only with family.

And it's a Marydean Hat Trick! :cheer:

Arte, W's skiing looks amazing! I'm not sure I can even ski that well haha. The flip side of the tiredness is that it will build endurance, all the kids will benefit.

Cally, how is FIL going now?

Well I'm back from my overnight/daytime sleep study - hope I don't have to do that again in a hurry. Sleeping on cue is a challenge!! But obviously not too hard for some of us because I slept in 3/4 naps (2 hours apart). I tried to pump them for info (eg, did I dream?), but the girl got very cagey and kept making allusions to "certain diagnoses" with "ramifications" so TBH I will be surprised if it comes back neg for narc. I tried timing the nap lengths to sneakily work it out (if you fall asleep they let you sleep for exactly 15 mins which the general public is not supposed to know) but I had to turn off my phone so it was all guesses in the end. But I didn't stay for a 5th nap which means I either dreamed at least twice or not at all. Criteria to get meds subsidised is fall asleep in under 10 mins (average) or dream twice.

Next week I find out if I'm the champion dreamer I always thought I was!! LOL

In other breaking news, I took my own advice and took The Little Girl with the Little Curl (ie, when she is bad she is HORRID) down to the drs. Apart from having the revoltingly named molluscum contagiosum (which is harmless & will go away by itself) she also has glue ear. The Dr was looking in her ear and told her to turn around and it was quite obvious in that moment that she didn't hear what the dr said at all. So, yeah, that probably goes a long way to explaining the general horridness lately. Sadly though, there are no treatments (although I have a few of my own theories including one that involves chewing gum) so we'll just have to keep riding this train until it returns to Pleasantville Station in a few weeks/months. The bonus in all this is that I now know which doctor at our regular practice is secretly a paediatrician (win!).

MD, so do you just sort of hang around and nap when you feel like it? And then they wait to see if you have early REM in your nap that you are rudely awakened from?
I think we are sleep opposites - I take ages to get to sleep and almost never nap or dream. In fact, now that I think about it, the last one I remember was 3 months ago when I woke with the fading remnants of a dream and one of those rare moments of clarity and serenity.
I hope the glue ear clears up quickly. At least you have found the reason for her grumpiness.

Cally, yes, the skiing is every Tuesday. He did really well - lasted the whole day with only one graze on his face from crashing into some guy lol. He wasn't even particularly cranky.
Any news yet on your FIL?