I Love Food, She Doesn't...

Kaitlyn has been going through one of her phases again recently.

The phase I hate the most and worries me the most.

She stops eating. Like just doesn't eat. And I have no idea why.

This time it started just before swimming lessons started at school-so about 4 weeks ago. She was coming home from school with her lunchbox half full.
After a few days the lunch box was coming home completely untouched and she was complaining about headaches to her teachers.

I had a word with her teachers about her not eating and that was possibly the cause of the headaches. I told them I was worried for the following weeks swimming lessons, I wanted her to be eating after being at swimming so she didn't get tired, cranky, sick and dehydrated.

Now I know it's not the teachers job, but thankfully they told me they would watch her at lunchtimes.

The next day-empty lunchbox. Yay!

But understandably the teachers can't be there watching every day so she slowly slipped back into bringing home an empty lunch box.

During the second week Kaitlyn came home and announced to me "I'm allergic to eggs!"

"You're what?!?"

"I don't eat eggs, I don't like eggs and I'm allergic to them" she told me.
Well I hate to say it but that got me really angry, we sat down and had a deep and meaningful that night. I told her that she's eaten eggs since she was a toddler and explained to her what being allergic meant. I also told her how foolish and dangerous it could be to tell people she is allergic to eggs-the poor teachers would have a meltdown thinking I've neglected to tell them something so important-but she stubbornly refused to believe me.

Over the next week it got worse, lunch boxes were completely untouched, and she was starting to 'dislike' everything I cooked her for dinner. I was purposely choosing meals that were sure winners for everyone in the family but she still wasn't eating much more than a couple of bites. As you can imagine this worries me, she's basically surviving on her breakfast of a couple weetbix a day.

Last week Kaitlyn came home from school and declared "I DONT eat multigrain bread mum"

"You can't eat white bread darling and you have been eating multigrain for 2 years now. Why don't you like it"

"I've never liked it and I won't eat it again"

"There is no other option Kaitlyn that's the only bread we have"


"Well I won't eat it."

And so far she's stuck by that statement. Today as I was taking the bread out to make lunch she looked at it and said "yuck I'm not eating that" I asked if there was anything in particular she wanted on the bread and she refused.

The after noon went fine until it came to dinner prep. She watched me take out the potatoes silently, then she watched the carrots and onion come out. She watched as I chopped the potatoes and put the potato bake into the oven. The second I took the zucchini out of these fridge she started moaning and crying and whinging.

"What's wrong Kaitlyn?" I asked her-although I already knew the answer

"I don't feel well mum, I don't think I'm well enough to eat dinner"

She's already started her excuses for not eating. Since then she's come back into the kitchen 5 or 6 times moaning and whinging and even had a pretty good show of crying.


As you can imagine I'm so worried about my girl. I hate seeing her not eat. I hate the lack of energy, emotional mess that comes with the not eating. I hate that no matter how much I talk to her and ask her and offhandedly slip in questions she won't tell me what's going on. She tells me "I'm only eat jam sandwiches" so I send a jam sandwich to school and it comes home again.
It seems to be a never ending story. And it's not a new trick she's learnt. We've been through this countless times before. On two occasions she actually stopped eating COMPLETELY for 2 days and 3 days at a time-thankfully she was still drinking water in this time.

I've talked it over with countless counsellors and psychologists and even mentioned it to the latest lady we have been seeing up here. But no one has been able to help us out much more than 'just give her what she wants' we do that and then she magically doesn't like that either.


We've had a bit of a set back lately, the counsellor we were seeing up here who was really nice has pretty much said there's not point us seeing her anymore. Basically Kaitlyn's anxiety started when Bradley was born and we had to drop everything and leave quickly for 2 weeks and leave her behind, but it's never happened again and that was over 4 years ago now. The counsellor says that it's been so long, with all the work and support we have had since she should be well and truly 'over that' by now. She also doesn't have much experience with kids so young so can't really think of anything else she could do. She did however leave me with a few websites and names of books that I could try out although most of those are aimed at older children.

It's really hard, it's very worrying but it's my life. SHE'S my life and I love her so much. It's hard, every day is hard and every new behaviour has us stressed and worried and angry but we battle on through. I wish my big girl could find peace and happiness and security to fight these bad thoughts and emotions. I wish I could help her fight these emotions. . .

A "Shock" To The System...

Have you ever bought a new computer or appliance or car? Were you offered to purchase an extended warranty, 'an extra few years peace of mind' the salesperson would have told you.

I don't usually go for this. It's usually fairly expensive and everything we own is covered by our contents insurance which we have opted to pay only a small excess, so it's not a drama to replace if need be.

However when we bought our new car in April this year I thought 'why not' in the grand scheme of things it didn't cost too much and it was added onto our loan, it made such a small difference to the repayment cost we thought stuff it.

Well I can say I am SOOOOOO glad I listened to my head and added on the extra three years warranty. 8 months later and our front shocks have completely had it. While in for a service yesterday we got the news that 'the front shocks are leaking badly' and need replacing ASAP. Lucky for us it IS covered by warranty....only catch is we have to drive to Karratha to get it fixed. Driving down a gravel road it's a three hour trip, however because our shocks are dead we have to take the sealed road-6 HOURS DRIVE!! Argh!!!

All I can say is-thank goodness for the person that invented 'extra years' of new car warranty!!!

The Early Years Are Over . . .

This week my oldest turned 6. She also had a visit up to the 'big school' to see what year 1 will be like next year. In the last couple months she's been loosing teeth, gone to birthday parties by herself, is allowed (but I never do it) to swim without an adult in the pool and wants to go into class by herself and do her own morning reading. And this week she will start swimming lessons through her school which terrifies me. I have to trust that she won't lose all her clothes, that she will walk responsibly to the pools with her class and that she dries herself off and remembers her goggles for her lessons all by herself.

My big girl is officially growing up. And I want to curl up and cry!

Kaitlyn has always been a very independent little girl, never showed signs of 'needing' her mumma. But never strayed too far away either.

It really hit me on Friday when leaving school in the afternoon, Kaitlyn had received a 'fish certificate' which gets put into a special box in the school office to be drawn out at assembly as a raffle type reward system.

"Mum, I need to take my fish certificate to the office. But can you please wait here for me."

She used to want me to walk up to the office with her, she used to want me to open the door and stand with her while she put the little piece of paper into its box, and she used to ask me to read the box to make sure it was the right one.

But now....she's getting more independant and wants to start doing these things on her own.

We are in this transition phase at the moment. She doesn't want to hang around me as much (not that she ever did too much), she doesn't need me holding her hand all the time.

She's well and truly ready to head on up to the big school next year and be a big year 1!!

It's scary! We've gone from the baby phase, made it through the toddler years, struggled through the pre school years and now we are at the primary school years. Next year it will be dropping her off at the classroom door with a kiss on the cheek and trusting that she can organise her drink bottle and lunch box, change her reading books and getting set up for the day by herself. She will be dismissed from class without needing me standing right there-she will be allowed to walk down to pre primary to collect her brother and meet me there.

My little girl, my first baby. She's the one that shocked me at such an early age, the one that's taught me how to be a mum, being my first baby she's the first one to take me through each new phase, she was my only child for a short while and now she's big sister to her brother and baby sister. She's my best buddy, my stubborn little bugger and the best kid a mummy could ask for.
I'm so blessed to have her teaching me how to be a mumma and most of all she's the one teaching me how to be patient!!!

What Does A Stay At Home Mum Do On Her Day Off?

1:30am back hip and neck aching, toss and turn in bed
3:30am give up and Sleep on couch
6:00am 5 yr old tries to vomit
7:15 wake up after "sleep in"
7:20am wake baby and 4 + 5 yr old up. Discover baby has pooped during the night-use 4 wipes and half a bottle of moisturiser to scrape dried up poop off baby's butt
7:30 Feed baby while 4 and 5 yr old colour in and remind me of all the things I've "promised" them we will do on the weekend
8am phone call from mum while 4 and 5 yr old pelt baby with toys
8:25 rescue baby and rugby tackle her into a cute little outfit.
8:30 5yr old in timeout for speaking rude
8:35 phone call from husband while holding loudly grunting/talking baby-no idea what he said.
8:45 remember 5 yr old is in timeout and let her out, put baby to bed
8:50 lock myself in the bathroom for the longest shower, I shave, wash and exfoliate and relax for what is sure to be the best 30mins of my weekend
8:51 hear screaming coming from lounge room-ignore screaming and start washing hair to drown out the sound
8:53 poke head out door, hear 4 and 5 yr old talking and decide no one is dead or seriously injured so continue enjoying myself
9:20 sneak into bedroom to brush my hair and lay on the bed contemplating life for a few quiet moments
9:30 try to go to the toilet in peace, get interrupted 100 times by children walking past pretending they aren't stopping and staring at me
9:35 choose 25 stories for Christmas
9:45 let kids bounce on old mattress before it goes to the tip
9:47 took frustrations out by throwing kids on mattress-they giggled
9:52 brush 5yr olds hair
9:55 fed apparently starved children morning tea-enjoy a glass of milk while children complained about their muffin
10:05 made princess castle with 5yr old, convinced 4yr old that if the dog doesn't want to play with him he doesn't have to!
10:15 play princes and princesses with 5 yr old-convince 5yr old that making random sounds such as doo be, ree sha, blah bloo are not suitable names for her princess.
10:25 wash school uniforms
10:27 instruct 4yr old to sweep up muffin crumbs from lounge room floor-they ate in the kitchen 😁😁
10:30 fight with ice cube trays to get baby purée out. Realise the ice cube trays aren't stupid, freezer is up too high and has made frozen purée resemble hard, set concrete. Peel sponge off of defrosting milk and clean up after dropping the food, knife, sponge, food again and tripping over dog.
10:40 sit down for 5 minutes, ignore sound of rampaging children jumping on mattress
10:42 try and pull wobbly tooth from 5yr olds mouth, unsuccessful again.
10:45 clean up half eaten morning tea plates
10:50 get food ready for baby and wake baby up.
10:52 begin breastfeeding baby.
10:53 stop baby from pulling my nose off
11:20 start spoon feeding baby
11:22 baby starts giving off very foul odour
11:25 Change baby and stop baby choking on her fingers
11:30 realise I'm running out of time and haven't fed the other kids yet.
11:35 make sandwiches and put uniforms into dryer
11:40 pack nappy bag and wrangle kids into shoes, clothes and into the car
11:45 drop baby and 4 and 5 yr old at friends house
11:47 warn 4 and 5 yr old not to beg for food like starved children while at friends house
12pm arrive at chiropractor for my first ever session
12:30 leave chiro smelling like deep heat
12:35 arrive to pick baby 4 and 5 yr old up and find 3 happy well behaved children
12:45 go to shops for newspaper and remember I haven't eaten since 7!!
1pm arrive home with salad wrap and newspaper, put 3 very tired children down for a sleep.
1:05 sit down to eat lunch and watch old episodes of gossip girl
1:30 realise I bought icy poles at the shops and can't find them
1:35 find icy poles in the car-thankfully not yet melted
1:40 taste test an icy pole-to make sure they are good for the kids tonight.
1:50 fold school uniforms
2:15 wrap 25 books for 25 days of Christmas.
3:00 after 2 hours sleep it was time for all 3 children to get up-and let me tell you I enjoyed every single minute of those two hours!!
3:05 feed baby while a sleepy 4yr old  lays on the couch and 5yr old puts clean and folded washing away.
3:30 set up painting and nail polish
3:35 paint picture with 4yr old and help paint 5yr olds nails
3:48 have nails painted by 5yr old
3:55 paint picture with 5yr old
4:10 defrost sausages and buns for dinner
4:15 fold yesterday's clean washing and put away
4:25 try to sneak off to the toilet without anyone following. 4yr old walks past "muuuuuum I love you" while watching me try and pull my pants up
4:28 watch 4 and 5 yr old bounce on mattress again
4:35 sickening thud suggests 4 and 5 yr old have collided and screaming begins
4:36 ice packs given to 4 and 5yr old
4:40 ice packs away. Baby goes down for a "power nap" and 4 and 5 yr old get ready for a bath
4:45 bath 4 and 5 yr old
5:00 watch 4yr old sit on plug as water is draining out pretending to "fart"
5:05 read stories wth 5 yr old while 4 yr old runs around like headless chook getting dressed
5:10 5 minute time out to waste on Facebook, 4yr old quietly doing puzzles 5yr old quietly (or not) reading stories
5:15 give in and put cartoons on for 4 and 5 yr old and wake and bath baby
5:30 dry and dress baby
5:35 watch cartoons with 4 and 5 yr old
5:50 feed baby
6:10 start cooking dinner
6:20 husband arrives home and finishes cooking dinner
6:30 dinner and icy poles
6:50 baby goes to bed
7:00 4 and 5 yr old give me a back massage
7:10 husband reads to 4 and 5 year old
7:30 4 and 5 year old go to bed.

Husband and I collapse onto couch and don't move until bed time.



And THAT is what a housewife does on her "day off" 

Basic Chicken Curry With Rice and Veggies

Today was my first really experimental cooking with my Thermie.

I wanted a chicken curry-but a pretty mild one as the kids haven't had many curry's before.

So I grabbed some chicken breast and got cooking, and this is what I ended up with. It was actually pretty nice. Very mild flavour so it's great for kids that are new to curry's.


INGREDIENTS:
500g diced chicken breast
1 tin diced tomatoes
1.5 teaspoons curry powder
Assorted veggies for your family (I used carrot, asparagus, capsicum)
250g basmati rice

METHOD
1. Add chicken, tomatoes and curry powder to bowl.
2. Cook 100degrees, 20minutes, reverse speed 1
3. When the timer gets down to 15 minutes, chuck your veggies in the varoma, remove MC and place varoma on top to steam veggies.
4. Set chicken aside in thermo server to keep warm
5. Add 1 litre of water to bowl, insert basket and weigh in rice.
6. Cook for 20 mins, varoma, speed 2
7. Serve chicken with the rice and veg on the side

The kids were fairly happy with their chicken curry 

Bed Time Bedlam...

"If you have an itchy foot, are you allowed out?"

"No!"

"If you have a sore finger are you allowed out?"

"NO!!"

"If you have a red spot on your finger are you allowed out of your room?"

"NO!"

"If you THINK you have a sore tummy are you allowed out"

"NO!!"

"If you are bleeding from the eyes are you allowed out of your room?"

"NO!!"

Seems the kids were taking my threats very seriously tonight!

We have been having this issue lately with the kids (mainly Kaitlyn) making up fantastic excuses and coming out of their bedroom at night time. The rule in our house is and always has been that once you are in bed that's IT!! And in the morning you stay in bed until mum or dad comes to get you out-it's been this way since we had Kaitlyn. They are allowed to read a book or sing songs in the morning but they don't wander the house or come and jump into bed with us...unless we go and grab them for morning cuddles. I just think it kinda teaches a bit of respect-mummy and daddy have the right to our own personal space and time together, when they go to bed it's our time to watch our tv shows, have adult conversations and relax.

I'm over their crap though. Bradley will say something to Kaitlyn for example; "look Kaitlyn I have a red dot on my arm" and Kaitlyn will make him come out to show us, Bradley gets in trouble and gets sent back to bed.

This happens multiple times a night. And then the last couple of weeks has been starting anytime from 5am onwards.

And I'm bloody tired of it. We have had a good talking to Kaitlyn about her manipulative, rude behaviour. And we have also had a word with Bradley about being dumb enough to listen to her.
Seems neither of them seem to think I'm serious. In our last house we had these plastic door knob covers (that you're supposed to use to stop kids going IN to a room) we used to stop them coming OUT of their rooms, but here we have door handles not door knobs so we can't do that anymore.

So now we go through this drill at bed time. Not that it seems to have worked very well....

Although until further notice our Friday afternoon milkshakes are also off the cards-they love their Friday afternoon milkshakes, I wonder how many they will miss out on before they stop wandering the house.

It's An October Miracle!!

For those wondering about the bedwetting situation in our house, read on.

Last time I think we were up to Bradley making us all sick from his disgusting wetting the bed, laying in it and getting cold business.

On the school holidays my Mum came up to stay, one night we were so busy and so tired that we all forgot to put a pull up on Bradley before bed.
But by some miracle he woke up dry. Yay!!

Since that day he hasn't worn a pull up again!!

For a few weeks I still kept his long sleeve pyjamas on, so he wasn't tempted to play around with his willy and start wetting the bed again.

Last week I forgot to do the washing and he didn't have his long pj's. So I let him wear normal pj's, and again he was dry!!!

Because of all the drama we have had with toilet training and bed wetting I wasn't going to make a big deal about this. I didn't want to draw any attention to the fact he wasn't wearing a pull-up. And my blissfully unaware son had no idea he was dry AND wearing normal pyjamas...

Until this week when he came out of his room and said to me "mum, did you know I'm dry at night time now, and I'm not even wearing those pyjamas"
The look on his face told me he had no idea he had been dry for the last 5 weeks-he just kept floating along in his own little world and he "accidently" became dry.

Me on the other hand, I wasn't blissfully unaware. I was secretly screaming and shouting and celebrating on the inside. Between both Kaitlyn and Bradley I have been toilet training/night time toilet training for 4 CONSECUTIVE YEARS!!! Now I don't know about you but 4 years is a very long time to spend toilet training. There are been few highs and many, many lows over those 4 years.
It has cost us a fortune in pull-ups and washing all those cloth nappies (because my older two both had cloth nappies as babies/toddlers).

There have been tears (mostly mine) tantrums (mostly their's) and plenty of bribing (none of which
worked at all) but I can FINALLY say I have TWO COMPLETELY TOILET TRAINED CHILDREN!!!!

I can also honestly say that if Isla doesn't get this toilet training thing happening in a matter of weeks I will probably sit and scream until it's all over!! Thankfully I get a nice long break now until it's time to toilet train her.

4 months...

My little baby bean is 4 months old today. And over the past couple of weeks we have been doing some milestone reaching business.

Rolling has become a great way to get out of tummy time-I knew she would learnt that quickly!

We also started using teething rusks. Not that I think Isla is teething, I just got sick of her attacking my finger. And let me tell you, if she had teeth she would be dangerous! She gums those little rusk sticks to death! It looks like teeth marks are left behind but it's just where she has gummed it to death.

And this past weekend we started solids!! This was an exciting thing for me. Isla is such a hungry bunny. From 3 months of age she has been licking her lips, watching us eat, reaching out to grab food, trying to steal her aunty's steak!! We always knew she was ready and I was excited to see how she would react with finally getting a taste of real food.

Last week I prepared a few different flavoured purées to freeze and use as needed.

Saturday was the day. It was a whole family affair, even the dog was sitting around watching and waiting.

Camera and video camera were at the ready (as with the older kids we wanted to capture the confused look on Isla's face when she had that very first taste)!
I had sweet potato ready and surprisingly Isla went very serious. She frowned a lot, she touched and tasted and licked her lips. She tried to grab the spoon, she put sweet potato in her hair and in her ear. The older kids giggled and Zac patiently waited to do the clean up.
I would call the first attempt at solids a great success. The second and third even more successful. Today was apple and strawberry purée and although she swallowed every mouthful she did a cute
little 'yucky' face and shivered each time :-)

I've been thinking about how much I've been enjoying this whole 'baby thing' so much lately. Don't get me wrong I LOVED it the first and second time around. It was all new and fun and every milestone was amazing. The bond I had with Kaitlyn and Bradley was amazing and I loved every second of it. But this time is a lot more relaxing. I've relaxed into this while motherhood thing and I'm comfortable with the way I raise my kids-even though my choices are different to most these days.
But the thing I've realised that is so different this time is I have a healthy baby!! When I really think about it those first precious months with both Kaitlyn and Bradley were overshadowed by serious health issues.

My beautiful Kaitlyn was only 10 weeks old when she was hospitalised with salmonella. I was a brand new mum still settling into life and then it was all changed overnight. Kaitlyn ended up being sick for 6 months. We spent the better part of her first year in and out of Drs, hospitals and paediatrician appointments trying to find out why she was still sick (at first we didn't know it was still the salmonella) and then trying to get her better. Those 6-8 months are a blur of appointments and worry. She also had a rotavirus in that time frame...due to a weakened immune system (we didn't know at the time) he rotavirus vaccine made her sick.

Then of course with Bradley and his heart condition there was again the constant Drs, hospitals, appointments, worry, medical trip to Melbourne etc etc... Even after he came out of hospital after the original surgery he still had tonnes of follow up appointments and because we lived in the country it meant many, many trips to the city. So that first year passed in a blur of madness too.

This time with Isla, she's made it to 4 months of age with no illness (other than a nasty cold, which thankfully didn't even require a Dr visit). I've had time to just sit back and enjoy watching Isla grow- and that's another thing I've NEVER had a baby grow, they were both born big but then due to illness gaining weight was so hard for them both, I'm finding myself having to keep up with buying clothes to fit Isla. Others say how tiny and petite she is, by to us she's getting chunkier every day and growing so much better than her siblings.

I'm still very busy, with two school aged kids I can't stay locked up in the house adjusting routines etc as I please. I need to fit Isla into our family routine. Sleeps need to be scheduled around school pick ups, horse riding lessons, homework and just general get out of the house and have fun outings. But I'm finding I have more time to sit and stare and enjoy the peace of a new baby.


It's been 4 months since we moved to the Pilbara with our little family and what an amazing 4 months it has been...I can't it to see our family grow (not in the amount of people) over the coming months :-)

The very first taste of food :-) 

Relaxed and ready for an afternoon walk

Selfies!! ;-) 

Green Thumb?

"Um, honey? It's dead" hubby told me the other day

"Oh, what now?"

"Those herbs you were growing, you know your supposed to water them right?"

I'm not much of a green thumb but I at least know to water plants!!

A few months ago I was in Woolworths and saw some DIY herb gardens from the Jamie Oliver collection. I thought it was fool proof so I got a few!

The kids and I got excited and got it all set up to grow our own herbs.

For two weeks I kept it on the window sill in the sun, watered it every second day like the instructions said and just generally looked after our little garden.

And steadily for the last two weeks my herbs have been dying.

I'm just not a good gardener...the kids were so upset today when I finally decided that the dried up brown bits of mush couldn't be saved and I threw it all in the bin.

Oh well-I've got 3 more boxes to try out before I'm considered a real failure...wish me luck!!

The Great Debate: Vaccinations...

This post is a little bit political and a whole lot opinionated, so look away now if this doesn't suit you.

I know it's been a long time between blog posts..I've been so busy-mum came up for two weeks then we went to Perth for a week and then it's been back to school and all that madness. I have a bazillion ideas for blogs but zero time to write, so while I have 5 minutes now I'm gonna get this one out.

Vaccinations. You're either for or against. And I'm for!

Listening to the news tonight I heard that this year in Western Australia we have recorded the highest confirmed cases of the measles since 2006.

So what's happened between 2006 and now that has seen a steady increase in measles?

Well I have a theory.

2007 was the year Kevin Rudd became prime minister of this fine country. It was also the start of the illegal boat people coming, and staying and living amongst us.

Please don't take this post the wrong way, I'm not being racist (or trying to start a political debate). I KNOW and understand that these people are trying to escape countries taken over by war, violence, famine etc etc. I have no problem with people following the LEGAL channels of migration. I know these countries don't have the education, understanding or funding that we do to make and distribute vaccines, I understand that. And I wish more people would support the organisations out there who aim to improve this situation in undeveloped counties.

But when we let these people into our country can we PLEASE make them adjust to our way of living. Which means vaccines and no government hand outs (except the usual that other Australians are entitled to)

There are soo many dieases out there that are running wild through other countries but we as a country have worked hard to keep out.

And for those that argue 'if vaccines work like you say why should you be worried' let me just say this...you can't vaccinate a child for everything the second they are born! Vaccines are given at different ages. So if my baby has contact with someone with measles before she is old enough to vaccinate then voila! Yet another case of measles!

Vaccines are out there to help families. Why would you not vaccinate your child? There is a way to prevent some of the worst diseases out there, to save you heartache and to save lives. Why would you not want to save lives?

Since 2007 hundreds, thousands of illegal immigrants have landed on our soil and have been allowed to mingle with the general population, carrying god only knows what diseases, and now we are recording record highs of these horrendous diseases. It's disappointing.

If there was a cancer vaccine-a way to cure all forms of cancer I can bet that almost 100% of people out there would be running to the Dr to vaccinate themselves. So why not do the same for measles, rubella, whopping cough??

Whether you're for or against vaccinations you really can't deny that with the increase in illegal immigrants there has been a spike in these preventable diseases in our state.

Face to Face With My First Bushfire

Last night things in town got a little bit hairy.

I was faced with my very first bush fire.

Karijini National Park had been alight for a few days but with no problems.
Yesterday the weather changed and the fire came straight for the town.

We were put on Amber Alert. The town filled up with smoke and I got a bit nervous.

We live right on the edge of town so if the fire came over the hill and down the side of town it would be 2houses away from us. I'm at home alone with the three kids as hubby is in Perth for a training course.
I spoke to the lady across the road who was also home alone with two kids. The three houses closest to the edge of town were all empty. It was just her, me and our 5 kids down our end of the street.

The main road out of town was closest to the fire and they were contemplating closing it at different times.

While I was standing out the front talking to the lady across the road the fire came over the hill. We stood there in shock and watched the fire come closer to town.

And then all at once we took all the kids inside and started packing.

I admit I MAY have gone a little overboard with packing. I wanted to make sure I could keep all our memories. I packed clothes and shoes for everyone, 2 boxes of photos, Kaitlyn and Bradley's "my box of firsts" (1st clothes, first shoes, first artwork etc) wedding dress, kids wedding outfits, the paperwork drawer in our filing cabinet, the box of wedding stuff (shoes, photo album, bouquet etc), a suitcase with the cards and gifts the kids have made for us with all the cameras and chargers in there. I also grabbed a carton of water and towels.

Once I had everything packed I made sure sprinklers were hooked up and got the kids seated for dinner.
Unfortunately from our kitchen table you could see the fire coming down the hill and poor Kaitlyn started having a panic attack. She kept saying things like "that's so dangerous" "they need to make it stop" and was breathing quite heavily. So we did some breathing exercises and I hoped like hell that she would sleep.

Come 7pm I was exhausted, everything was packed and ready to go at a moments notice and the kids were put to bed. By some pure miracle they actually went to sleep straight away.

I kept all the blinds up so I could monitor the fire. And let me tell you standing in your baby's bedroom and seeing nothing but orange glow and flames coming closer and closer isn't the nicest feeling in the world.
Thankfully you couldn't see anything from Kaitlyn and Bradley's room so they slept peacefully.

After Isla's 9:30pm feed I decided I needed sleep so after spending an hour checking every Facebook post and DFES update I closed my eyes.

Midnight I was up again and checking out all the windows and reading through Facebook and DFES updates. The fire was REALLY close. The entire hill looked like it was covered in flames and I admit I panicked a bit. All the updates were saying things were still ok so back to bed I went.

2:30am Bradley came in dripping blood everywhere. He had a massive blood nose. So up I got again and sat with him for half an hour until the bleeding stopped and the mess was cleaned up.

6:30 I was up and ready to start the day. I looked out Isla's window and could only see smoke. The flames were gone and we were looking safe :-)

Today I was rostered on to be parent helper for Bradley so bleary eyed I wandered into school. After a quick feed for Isla I was then off to play group for my 5 minutes of peace. However I left early to do food shopping as we had run out of  everything including bread, milk, vegemite, lunch meat and fruit. It was pretty tragic. Arrived home in time to feed Isla and then rush off to get the kids from school. Home to unpack the shopping, make the dogs food and then homework time with Kaitlyn.


Dinner tonight was a very tragic chicken and beet root sandwich. Thankfully my kids are awesome and didn't mind at all.

Last night scared me, more than I like to admit. I didn't like being here alone. I didn't like that the main road out of town was blocked and I didn't like the idea of possibly leaving our house and losing it all.

This evening the fire has done a loop around town and is now in North Tom Price. Although there is a fire burning over the hills at the end of our street. The fire fighters have been patrolling the area for two days to make sure it's all under control. The town is still on a watch and act alert and we aren't out of danger yet. But I'm feeling much safer. And now I have a messy house and a like of return to unpack before mum arrives for her two week visit tomorrow. . . Although that visit probably won't include a trip into Karijini national park now!!

Part of the glow visible from Isla's room (iPhone photos of the flames sucked)

Be prepared!! Kids first teddies, filing drawer, photo boxes were ready to go

So were wedding outfits, clothes and some electronics (cameras chargers etc) 

Caught Red Handed!

I had a major mummy moment on the weekend.

I've been craving peanut M and M's really badly lately (no I'm not pregnant again!) and had been scoffing down a packet while watching tv. I was almost finished when it was time to bath Isla so I left  the packet and went off to bath the baby.

While bathing Isla, Kaitlyn came in with a completely empty packet

"Mum the packet is empty" way to state the obvious Kaitlyn.

"What? Well who ate them? You guys know better than to start eating something without asking"

"Bradley did it!" Of course, it's never her fault.

I called out to Bradley and when he came in his mouth was full. He was STILL CHEWING the evidence! The blue and red dribbling down his chin and the chocolate covered teeth were a dead giveaway.
I tried to tell them off but all the while I was giggling at the red dribbling down Bradley's chin while he tried to blame Kaitlyn for the empty packet.


"But Kaitlyn was eating them as well" was the only defence he had.

It Wouldn't Be A True Currie Trip Without A Little Drama

"Mum, we don't even have to pack our shower or our bath or even our tv because Grandma already has them" Bradley was pretty excited about our trip to Perth to see Grandma.

Our clothes were packed two days early and Bradley was looking forward to seeing Grandma-going on a plane scared the crap out of him though.

Monday morning I was up at 4:50am to get the car packed and kids ready to drive the hour long trip to the nearest airport. Driving along the open road all I could think was 'when was the last time I was awake early enough to see the sun rise?'
It was early and I was tired.

We were making a very quick trip to Perth so that Bradley could have his checkup with his cardiologist.

We arrived at the airport with time to check-in, feed and dress Isla and then board the plane. Kaitlyn had done the plane trip before but this was Bradley's first time.
During takeoff the two giggled like little crazy kids.

"Mum! They even give you food!" I've never seen someone so excited to see aeroplane food. But Bradley scoffed down the two fruits in juice, muesli, muffin and drank the milk.

The flight down was so easy, everyone was on their best behaviour and was excited. Isla slept and Kaitlyn stared out the window.

"Mum we're speeding, we're speeding!!" Bradley shouted as the plane touched down. I had to giggle at that, my little law abiding kids do not like speeding :-)

Mum was waiting for us just inside the door and the kids were about to burst. Bradley caught a glimpse and shot off racing through the airport and flew straight into Grandma's arms. It was one of those moments that brings a tear to your eyes-or in the case of mum it brought a rushing river of tears to her eyes. Kaitlyn strolled along nicely and waited her turn for a cuddle.

We paid our parking ticket and then tried to bail everyone into mums car. 3car seats across the back seat of a hatchback. Squishy doesn't even begin to describe it. It took us so long to get the kids all clipped in and sorted out I started getting worried
"mum our paid ticket will expire we need to get out of the gate!!" Mum just laughed at me.

We made it out the gate in enough time and on our away we went.

Bradley's cardiology appointment was that afternoon and with a quick stop at Macca's (our first takeaway in over 2 months!) off we went to PMH.

It was a long appointment with a height and weight check, an ultrasound of his heart and then a chat with the junior Dr before a chat with the actual cardiologist. My little man is doing so well. The cardiologist has said we don't even need to mention his heart surgery on any school medical forms etc. Everyone needs to forget he's even had the surgery and he should be treated completely normal. Yippee!!!!!! This time we don't have to go back for 3 years :-) while in the waiting room though another little girl decided she liked Isla. Perhaps a bit too much as she kept kissing her and touching her and trying to blow raspberries on her-all while Isla was feeding. My attempts to ask her to move away were completely ignored and the girls mum was just sitting and watching. When Bradley and I went in the girl continued to hassle Isla and mum was getting ready to leave the room to escape the random girl and her lips when Bradley and I came out all done. Yuck! Why do people think that letting their children kiss random babies is fine! Yuck!! Get your germ infested kid away from me!!

On the way home we stopped at a playground for a quick run around.
But by the time we got home Bradley was complaining of a sore tummy. We had noticed that each place we went that day he had been in the toilet. We got home, I sat down to feed Isla and Bradley came right up to me, he had gone pale.
"mum, I don't feel well" he said before projectile vomiting everywhere. He missed Isla by half a centimetre. I grabbed Isla jumped up and ran out of the way. My brother grabbed Bradley and tried to race him down to the bathroom before the second wave came, the second wave came too soon and the entire hallway was covered. I can honestly say I have NEVER seen that much vomit come from such a tiny little person.

It took forever to clean up and as I was feeding Isla that job was for mum and Uncle Sam. I kinda felt bad, but not too bad because I hate vomit.

I knew gastro had been going around town but I thought we had escaped it. Clearly not.

Dinner time came and Bradley ate a small plate of spaghetti and was looking a bit better.
Until midnight when I woke up hearing him sniffing and whinging in his bed.

"Mum! Bradley's spewed everywhere, can you help me" grandma to the rescue again. While I picked spewed up spaghetti out of his hair and changed his clothes mum cleaned up the spaghetti on the pillow and bed. Bradley had thrown it all up and was still fast asleep!! Yuck, yuck, yuck!!

The next morning was pretty quiet. Bradley was laid out on the couch and Kaitlyn was dying to go to the shops. Bradley's first spew filled her shoes with so much vomit they were thrown straight into the bin. We packed up and went for a quick visit to Kmart for shoes. A quick lunch in the food hall (I felt sooo bad eating while Bradley sat there with a Hydralite icy pole and fruit). After a couple mouthfuls of fruit Bradley turned pale and it looked bad. Mum rushed him to the toilet but thankfully all was well-false alarm.

We made it to the airport where the lady that checked us in was in absolute shock that I had taken two kids and a baby to Perth for an overnight trip with only one tiny suitcase between the 4 of us! I giggled as I remembered how I sat on the suitcase to close it because it was so full-if only she knew how much I had squeezed into that tiny case.

Onto the plane we went. We managed to make the hour and a half flight with no spew or toilet trips. The hour long drive home was slightly worse with Bradley complaining of a sore tummy, until he fell asleep.

Finally at 4:30pm we made it home.

The craziest 36 hours of my life. I was so tired I fell asleep on the couch before 7:30pm.
Bradley's home from school today still unwell.

I've got my fingers and toes crossed he doesn't pass it on to Kaitlyn, or worse, to Isla.

Exhausted and finally heading home 

Goodbye Grandma!!! 

Happy Birthday Zac

Today is the first day of Spring. I love spring time it's so pretty.

Today is also our dog Zac's birthday. He's 9 today so I thought a funny post with a few of the more 'interesting' moments of his life would make a few people laugh.

The story of how we got Zac: I was 15 at the time, my brother 17. We were both at private schools and mum was a single mum. We thought she would struggle financially so we agreed to save all of our own money to help her out. My brother lasted 5 seconds. I lasted a lot longer and saved up a few hundred dollars. When I gave it to mum she cried (she does that a lot) and told me I could get a dog. So I went totally off cuteness factor and decided I wanted a Labrador. Pure breeds are expensive but when I found one for 'sale' for $400 I called up about it.
Mum was convinced we had brought a stolen dog. We agreed to meet the seller at a train station. We stood there and watched this orange ute fly out sideways around the corner and pull up next to us, we were totally shocked to know he had the puppy in the ute tray!! The poor puppy was covered in vomit and poo from his terrifying car ride. I had to take that dog. So we handed over an envelope full of cash and took off with my new buddy. Mum reckons if the cops were watching the surveillance cameras we would have been arrested!!

We did find out later that it was all legit. The bloke was down and out on his luck (I think from too many drugs). His mum was a proper dog breeder living in the country, so she gave him a pup to sell to make some quick cash. And we had a new family member.

It didn't take long for us to realise that although Labradors are supposed to be super intelligent they can also be super dumb. And we got the dumb one.

He had allergies (like doggy hay fever) and he was allergic to dog food!! He used to eat kangaroo meat and veggies and instead of dog biscuits he had apples. It cost a fortune, I started to feel bad for mum, we had this cute new puppy but he was costing us a bloody fortune. He also hated all normal 'dog behaviours' he hated the car, he didn't play fetch, he didn't play with toys. But he also didn't dig holes, used to hide in a corner to poop-so no dodging dog poop in the backyard-he was super easy to house train, didn't bark for 7.5 years and has NEVER pooped on a walk. So he was weird. But some of his weirdness was good, he also has never walked nicely on a lead. For the first year I took him walking every bloody day and did the whole 'heel' 'walk' etc and he never did it, just would rather choke himself than walk nicely.

When I got pregnant and moved out of home Zac came with us. In our first house he was chasing birds and ran straight through our front window, cut his foot, Phil had a day off work, mum got her first ever speeding fine racing to the house to take him to the vet and he ended up with about 5 staples in his leg from the cut. He also used to chase the neighbours bunny that kept digging under our fence.

Our second house had a verandah with wooden 'planks' I guess you would call them. And while laying down his choker chain collar got caught and when he pulled he nearly killed himself-that chain went into the bin. He also tried to run away from home, although we had a mattress on our frlmt verandah so when we arrived home to find the back gate open we were scared, until we saw him relaxing on that big mattress!!

Our third house he started making friends with lizards, as we were living in the country. Except he would love them with his teeth and then we had to put the lizards out of their misery.

Our 4th house he used to chase the lizards UNDER the house but then couldn't figure out how to get out again so one of us had to get under there and drag him out. This was probably his favourite house though as we had a big gate around the side that he could sit and watch the world go by.

Our 5th house he was scared of the floor boards which was difficult since our entire house was floor boards. He used to skid and slide and reverse his way around the house, peeking around corners before leaving a room. It was crazy. He also nearly chewed a hole through his tail due to allergies. He got that bandaged up. He also learnt to bark!! Although he never barked at people coming over or people walking past. He used to sit at the back door and bark at us to come inside.
He let a couple of thieves come into our house and steal our car without making a sound-although in all fairness I think the thieves kicked him or hurt him because he hid in a corner for ages afterwards. He also had surgery while here. He had a lump, thankfully non cancerous but was still a bit scary.
He chewed through a few leads, so we had to buy metal chain leads. He made friends with the neighbours dogs and ran away from home-we found him around the corner. He also became scared of heights. As in jumping on the he bed was fine but getting down again-well he would shit himself. A couple times he got stuck and we had to lift him down.

And now we are in house number 6. He still hates fetch, dog toys, car rides, floorboards, still eating roo meat, veg and apples, he still only poops in the corner of the yard. He's crazy. But we love him.

When Kaitlyn was born he was in love. He used to walk from her to me and back again every time she had a dirty nappy and wouldn't leave me alone until I changed her. He would sleep near her, always want to be with her. It was beautiful.

When Bradley was born Zac pretty much ignored him.

And now with Isla he's gone back to being loving and caring. He will lay right near her feet so that when she kicks she's kicking him. He will go and sleep on the floor in her bedroom and he's so gentle with her. Sniffs her but never licks her and always gives her her own space.

So Happy 9th Birthday to the craziest member of our family.

Old age is catching up to him now. He's got arthritis in his back legs, was gaining weight (now he's on a diet) and can't run around for as long. He also doesn't cope with extreme weather conditions-hot or cold-so it's probably going to be an interesting summer. And with us being in a high risk snake environment I'm planning on keeping him inside, a lot. Knowing Zac he would try to play with the snake and end up dead. We have heard the anti venom costs $4000 so that's not an option. I hope we survive the summer here. He's my best buddy,  always loves us and although he's completely crazy and at times has almost sent us broke I wouldn't change anything about him.

Happy Birthday old boy!

I'm Not A Good Play Group Mum

I'm not a very good play group mum.

No really, I'm just not made to go to play group.

But that doesn't stop me from going, it just means I'm usually pretty quiet while I'm there.

Why am I a bad play group mum? Well aside from the fact that I ALWAYS forget to bring a plate of food to share, I'm just a different kind of mum.

When we moved to the Pilbara I joined a play group for kids aged 0-2. And while all the mums there are beautiful people, good mums and all doing their best for their children I just can't get past all the bullshit that people will do and believe when trying to raise kids these days.

My first day there a few mums were talking about the type of milk they give their little one.
"I ONLY use a2 milk"
"Well I use the FREE RANGE milk from Harvey Fresh"
"I use lite milk"

I'm sorry but free range milk?!? WTF?!? As far as I know all the Harvey Fresh cows are outside-trust me I've spent a lot of time in Harvey. These people pay a bloody fortune for all their fancy milk.
I always use full cream milk (because it's healthier than lite milk) and better still it's cheaper than all these supposedly 'fancy' milks. Why would you pay so much extra for "free range milk" it's just ridiculous!

But then last week I got my biggest laugh yet. One mum was talking about how her baby was nearly over her 'leap' I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

Thankfully another mum didn't know either, so she asked. We were told about this great app for your phone. You enter your baby's DUE DATE not birth date and it tells you about your baby's mental development.
Apparently when they go through these big mental development stages it's called a 'leap'.

But the thing that really gets to me is there is a calendar that counts down to each 'leap' it tells you the behaviour you should see from your child eg;fussing, crying, not sleeping so well, clingy etc. On what is supposed to be the worst day of the leap there is a picture of a storm cloud. The app counts down the days to the leap and then counts down until the leap is over.

I just find this so frustrating. Why do people need an app to tell them when their kids should be having 'good days' and 'bad days'?? Why can't you just look at your baby, take each day as it is and deal with the day as it comes.
I honestly believe that when people say "it's spot on with their behaviour, the dark cloud days as always the worst" it's because they are paying much more attention to the bad bits of the days. To me it's all mind over matter. If someone tells you something bad is coming you over think it, you over prepare, you imagine the worst and then as soon as the baby starts crying or fussing you think "here we go, it's starting now." If you didn't know bad days were coming you would just think "oh you're a little grumpy today"

Counting down the days until your baby's "storm cloud day" or waiting for the "sunshine day" it's bloody stupid. How about you stop fiddling around with you're phone and take your cues from your baby!!!!

Just to see exactly how this whole 'leap' thing worked I downloaded the app and entered Isla's details and well what do you know on her "sunshine day" she was fussy and grumpy and wouldn't sleep and very clingy....so much for being a little ray of sunshine!!!

When did parenting become something that is entirely controlled by mobile phones, apps and expensive 'organic' 'free range' false marketing.
It's like the more expensive the food you provide the better a parent you are.

I also just don't get this whole baby led weaning thing. I'm sorry but WHY do we need to teach baby's from 4months+ to be MORE independent. Aren't children growing up too fast as it is? Why can't we spoon feed our baby's. It's another bonding experience being thrown out the window. Instead we are taught to throw down a couple pieces of food on a high chair and that leaves mum free to be doing more work/housework/time to get pretty.
When Isla is ready for solids I'll be cooking and blending food like I used to and I'll be sitting down playing 'here comes the aeroplane' and laughing as half the food comes dribbling down her chin again. I enjoyed spoon feeding my baby's and damn it I'll be spoon feeding this one too.
I also find starting with baby mush food would likely be healthier. When giving baby's 'real food' there is more temptation to give them a biscuit or a vegemite sandwich or junk food.
Starting with purée it's all mashed veggies and fruits. So baby is getting more of the good stuff and you are less likely to give them unhealthy foods.


So there. I'm not a good mum to have at play group. I have no idea what to talk to other new mums about. I have no interest in spending $4 on a litre of milk, living my life guided by an app, fearing storm cloud days just because my phone says my baby will have a grumpy day. I have no desire to look into new technology for baby monitors-I don't even use them. I can't stand those video monitor ones. Every single person I know that has a video baby monitor sits down with the monitor in their hand/directly in front of their face and spends more time watching than monitor than socialising/eating/cleaning/whatever they are supposed to be doing while baby naps. It's not healthy to be that obsessed. You need time out. You need to just let your baby sleep.

I don't even have my baby sleeping in the same bedroom as me. Day 1 baby was in the cot. Bradley was in the cot straight away too. I found we all slept better in separate rooms. I wasn't waking up to every twitch, squeak and wiggle-which in turns tempts mum/dad to get baby up for a feed/to settle when they probably didn't even need to. And I definitely don't believe in any forms of co-sleeping.

It seems I don't have much in common with most mums.
Our way of parenting used to be the done thing, it was 'just the way things were.' Now people seem over protective, worried, stressed, too dependant on anything labelled "healthy" "organic" "educational" "safe"
Now the way hubby and I parent is considered the weird way.
But anyone that has ever met my kids knows it hasn't done them any harm. In fact our kids are generally sleeping better, eating better and have more respect/boundaries than anyone else's kids we know.
If we say no our kids know we mean business. They don't draw on walls, chuck tantrums (often), steal our phones to play games. They know that some things are out of bounds. We often get comments on how well behaved our kids are, how great it is that they don't steal our phones/iPads and play with them all day, what great sleepers they are and how great it is they aren't too fussy with foods (if they don't eat what they are given then they just don't eat, in our house we ALL eat the same meal, except special occasions).

So if these people are always commenting so positively on our parenting, and complaining that their own children won't do the same, why don't they change their parenting ways??

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Yesterday my beautiful big girl got her first broken bone.
How did she break a bone? Well by reading a book of course!!

No really I'm not even joking.

Last night while I cooked dinner the kids were sitting quietly reading books. They were actually behaving themselves really nicely.
When I asked them to pack away their books Miss 5 suddenly started screaming.

"It's dinner time, you can read again later if you really want to"

"Mummy I've hurt my finger" she screamed at me.

I had a look at her finger and she seemed fine, I asked how she did it "I was just reading and then I went to get up and my finger just twisted by itself."

I have no idea what that means but I gave her finger a rub and we sat down for dinner.

For the rest of the night she whinged and complained and nagged me about her bloody finger. That's pretty normal behvaiour for her. She's like the boy who cried wolf. 100times she tells me she's sick, when in fact she's not. But that one time she IS sick I don't believe her.

So off to bed she went and today we got up and spent the day exploring the nearby National Park. Climbing rocks, jumping around, bush walking. It was great fun but every now and then Kaitlyn said "mum, my finger hurts"

On the way home late this afternoon I had another look at her finger. It was pretty swollen (like, HUGE) and it was blue and purple and very bruised.

We made a detour to the hospital on the way home. The nurse declared a broken finger, taped it up and sent us home with an extra roll of tape. We are to keep Kaitlyn's finger taped to its neighbour finger for the next few days.

OOPS!!

That's what is so hard about having a kid that overreacts, whinges and 'cries wolf' you can never tell when it's for real or when it's fake.

Today was apparently one of those real ones!

All taped up on our way home. 

Nice ring finger there Miss!! 

A Festival With No Name

On the weekend our little town put on a big shindig! It's the annual town festival and it's apparently a much bigger deal than I thought.

It's called the Nameless Festival (good name right?) and since it's smack in the middle of tourist season the town is over run with grey nomads. The car park where I park during school drop off and pick up times was full of caravans and camper trailers. The neighbours had a caravan in the front yard and come day of the carnival there was so many caravans and camper trailers and vans all the carparks were full and they were parking on street corners.

There is a street parade, more food vans than you can ever imagine, rides, stalls and a main stage with lots of different acts performing throughout the festival.
Both the local primary schools have a truck in the street parade. We missed most of the week leading up to the carnival (as both big kids were sick) but the kids get to make tonnes of decorations and get the truck looking amazing. The kindy and pre primary kids get to ride on the truck each year. This years theme was carnival of colour and let me tell you they nailed it! The truck looked like an explosion of colour. The kids each had to wear coloured clothes; boys in orange and girls in pink. They made funny hats at school to wear and the girls had coloured headbands.

The festival started on Friday night. A day when both kids were too sick to leave the house. It was a family friendly night, a couple of amazing illusionists performed on the main stage followed by Shannon Noll!! Who knew such a small town could get such good performers! I was REALLY looking forward to going but I couldn't take the kids out by myself. Maybe if hubby was home we could have rugged them up and taken a couple blankets down and stayed for a little while. Unfortunately I was home alone with the kids and it all seemed like hard work to me. So I put the kids to bed and listened to the concert in the background while watching trashy tv.

Apparently it was a good night.

Saturday was the big day. Street parade was at 9:30am. I REALLY wanted the kids to be in the parade so I gave them panadol, an antihistamine, multivitamins and a nose spray and we made it there.

Mr 4 was super nervous, he cried when it was time to line up. But he overcame it and jumped up on the back of that truck. After making sure Kaitlyn was up on the truck and happy Isla and I quickly ran down to the finish line and waited for them to come past. For a small town it was s decent sized parade. The bmx club, swimming club, schools, cadets, police and gymnastics club, plus a couple others I didn't know all paraded through the streets of Tom Price. The kids did amazing! Kaitlyn was up there clapping and dancing along to the music and Bradley was sitting with his little buddy waving as they went past.
I was pretty proud of them. And they didn't have a single coughing fit on the truck!

After the winners of the parade were announced (our school won) it was time to find a patch of shade to feed Isla. We had a quiet sit down and decided that we could have a little wander around the festival but the kids had to go home and have a nap.

We went for a wander around. There were heaps of rides for the kids but unfortunately having been sick and coughing for days the kids couldn't go on many and not having another person to go on hedge bigger rides with them (as I had to stay with Isla in the pram) it was hard to know what to do with them. They did have a turn on those clown things and on a little car ride.

Then I took the kids to have lunch at one of the many food vans before heading home for a sleep.
Let me tell you I have never seen so many food vans. The kids chose bright green, blue and yellow slushie drinks from the slushie van, a hot dog and chips from the junk food van and I got an amazing burger from the Margaret River Burgers van. Best burger from a truck EVER. We sat down in front of the main stage and watched the gymnastics club give a performance while we ate. Then Kaitlyn got up and joined the "Polka Dotties" for a dance. She did awesome, following the little dance steps and dancing along.

But it was hot and the panadol was wearing off. We had a quick stop at the chemist for baby panadol, Vicks baby balsam and more nose spray, as Isla was now getting sick.

We started walking home, Bradley was the first to lose it. He sat on the ground, crying and throwing rocks. Then Kaitlyn started walking slower than a dead person and Isla started crying for her feed.

We made it home hot, tired and exhausted but we had a great morning.
The kids slept it off and we had a relaxing afternoon at home.

The Saturday night was an over 18's event where The Wolfe Brothers and The Potbeleez performed and it was again a loud night. We sat home and listened to the performance while watching more trashy tv.

Overall it sounded like an amazing weekend, the small part of the festival we saw was awesome. For a small town it was a great shindig! I hope next year hubby is home and the kids are healthy so we can fully enjoy the entire Festival.

Time for a quick ride

All the kids parading through the town (and some random on a scooter that would not move!!)

The float the kids were on all decorated and ready to go 

My little girl slept away the morning 

Getting ready-photo by Kaitlyn

Getting ready-photo by Bradley. 

What's in a Name?

I don't know if anyone remembers, quite a while ago (while I was still pregnant) I said there was a cute story behind naming our baby.

My husband is terrible at keeping secrets. Example-he proposed to me THE DAY he brought my engagement ring because he couldn't keep it a secret until the weekend.

When I was pregnant with Bradley we found out the sex of our baby but decided we didn't want to tell anyone else-he stuffed up and most family members knew within a month.

When I found out I was pregnant with Isla we wanted to wait until 12 weeks to tell everyone. He couldn't keep it a secret so to stop himself telling family and friends (apart from immediate family members, who were told at 8 weeks) he told EVERY single stranger, work colleague or person he met within that first 12 weeks.

So when it came to choosing the name-which we both wanted to keep secret-we picked our top 4 names, he then told me I could choose the baby's name from those 4.

In case you are interested are top 4 names were: Maddison Ava, Indianna Jade, Isla Rose and Bethany Rose.

He told me his top favourite name was Isla Rose, mine was Indianna Jade but he said he would be happy with any of the four names and I could choose.

I knew if I told him what name I had chosen he would slip up and tell everyone. He WANTED to keep it secret but he just sucks at it. So I chose the name. And didn't tell him.

He used to try and trick me into telling him what I had chosen and in fact he was convinced I had chosen Indianna so he started calling my bump Indi.

I thought it was funny. He had actually named our baby but had no idea! Poor guy!

Around our first wedding anniversary I felt sorry for him. He wanted to know the baby's name but he really didn't want to ruin the surprise.

Our one year anniversary arrived. It was our 'paper' anniversary. So I set about thinking what the heck I could give him made from paper and decided it was time I tell him the baby's name.

So I gave him this poem

It reads:
"Daddy can you feel me
I'm wriggling just for you
I can hear you say you love
Dad I love you too

Very soon you'll meet me
And kiss my little face
And I will feel your warm skin
And admire your handsome face

Daddy are you ready
My life is about to start
I will hold your little finger
But you will hold my heart"

Love from Isla Rose Currie


He was actually so surprised I had named the baby Isla-especially since he had convinced himself I had chosen Indianna.

And the best part is, he managed to keep the secret until the end. He just kept calling my bump 'baby' so there were no slip ups in front of people :-)

How did you choose the name for your baby? Is anyone else's husband, or even you, bad at keeping secrets?
I suppose it's a good thing, he could never hide anything from me because he's so terrible at keeping even a tiny secret-never mind trying to keep something big or important (such as a marriage proposal) secret for more than 5 minutes. :-)

Do Straight Jackets Come In Size 3??

If your child has a bad habit, I'm about to make you feel a whole lot better about it.

Maybe your little one picks their nose, draws on walls, enjoys stripping off their clothes in public. Maybe they bite their nails, throw their food on the floor or paint the dog.

Well I bet you my son can top all those.

Today I am home with three sick kids (yes even my 5week old is sick!). They are coughing and snotty and just plain miserable. And it's all Bradley's fault!

Don't believe me? Think I'm mean to blame my kid? Read on.

For a couple years now I've struggled with this whole toilet training bed wetting business. Mostly Kaitlyn has been the centre of the drama, but Bradley has been quietly on the side causing his own set of issues.

His is gross. He doesn't just wet the bed like a normal kid. Are you ready for it?

He wee's on his bed-the whole bed pillow included-and rubs his face in it and lays in it!!!!!!!

Now do you feel better about your own kids bad habits?

Yeah, so now that you have finished throwing up. . .

Bradley wee's his bed and lays in it...all night.
We have tried everything to get him to stop. Nappy on backwards, all in one pajamas with buttons or zips, getting up and changing his sheets in the middle of the night to try keep him warm. We even used those long sleeves sleeping bags and put it on him back to front so he couldn't undo the zip!!
Unfortunately he has outgrown all in ones and sleeping bags. Now he wee's his bed and lays in it all night. He wakes up freezing cold which leads to him getting a cold-which he then shares with everyone.

In the weeks leading up to me having Isla he got sick (and nearly ended up with bloody frost bite he was so cold!) and shared it with us. We told him that he needs to stop because mummy couldn't get sick so close to having the baby. Well I did end up sick and I gave birth while coughing and with an upper respiratory infection.

When Isla was born we told Bradley again that his little 'habit' needs to stop. If a tiny baby got sick it could be very dangerous.

Well he didn't stop, he didn't learn his lesson. He got sick again after a cold night and a wet bed.

I tried my hardest to keep him away from everyone. I turned into a clean freak disinfecting everything. Making him use hand sanitiser, not letting him near Isla etc etc...

Two days later Kaitlyn got sick. Cough, runny nose and slight fever. I was not impressed. Kaitlyn missed out on school and was grumpy.

Then yesterday my little Isla started coughing, and let me tell you hearing a 5 week old coughing to the point of almost throwing up is horrible. She's been sneezing and has a runny nose.

Oh and then today I woke up with a headache and a tickle in my throat, so it looks like I'll be the next one to go down.

Needless to say I'm pretty pissed off at Bradley. I'm trying to be sympathetic towards him being sick. But all I can think is "you did this to yourself, don't come crying to me"

I have explained to him that he has shared his sickness and made Kaitlyn, Isla and me sick. That he got sick from wetting his bed and getting cold. But last night he AGAIN wet the bed and slept in it.

I called mum a couple days ago (because she can sew and I can't) and asked if she had any ideas. I am actually ready to put Bradley in a freaking straight jacket if it will solve the problem!!
Mums been shopping for all in one suits that we could 'alter' but apparently finding boys ones is hard. So mum got a girls one. She said to me "I'll try find one that's not too girly"
"I don't care if it's pink with purple butterflies, this kid needs to be stopped."

Hopefully early next week I'll have a slightly altered girls onsie that we can put on Bradley to stop him from getting to his willy. Oh did I mention he wears a pull-up to bed? He literally pulls his willy out of his pull-up so he can pee.


So I hope I have made you all feel better about your own kids bad habits. If anyone knows where I can buy a size 3 straight jacket...well let me know.

Now I'm off to attend to my sick babies... Enjoy your weekend