Boof turns One

Today one year ago I was sitting in a hospital bed - anxiously awaiting the arrival of my baby boy.

Back then I did not know that he would;

• have a wicked sense of humour
• feed an insatiable hunger
• have an energy that requires no sleep
• love his sister more than anything
• be able to melt my heart with the most gorgeous smile
• climb anything and everything before he turned one
• crawl by six months
• ride scoot along bikes by 10 months
• push boxes over to things to climb and reach by 10 months
• show no interest in walking - yet.
• have four teeth - the top two with a few mil gap and two more fangs on their way down at his first birthday
• enjoy pulling hair and laughing at the reaction


• Be up before 6am to enjoy his birthday presents and then return to slumberland at 8 to recharge for his Birthday!

Happy Birthday 'my boof' Kayde xoxoxoxo

Doggy Do!

My dog is driving me friggin mental!

Sorry but there really is no other way to put it. Actually there is, it's not just my dog, Craigs dog is also doing my head in!

Uh Oh! Sorry you tuned in? Don't be, the rant will be over before you know it.

We have two Staffys that live with us. Sash is about 14 years old and Taz (yes, I do know how silly it was to name my daughter Jaz when we already had a dog named Taz but we loved the name ok?) is about 6 years old.

Sash, until recently has been a beautifully behaved girl, doing everything she is told, never bothering BBQ visitors for morsels, gentle with kids and kind and loving.

Recently, however, she has become a complete mess. I think she is going a little senile, and though that's not her fault, it really is painful! She needs to go to the loo no less than a half dozen times a night and needs to sleep with a night light on. I think her hearing has gone and she gets a bit disorientated in the dark?

Sash and her senility aside, Taz is the current cuprit - determined to make my blood boil. She is scratching incessantly at the back door, wanting to come in. You would think that after 6 years she would know that she is not coming in while she is making that racket! But no! The noise (and boy is it noisy!) persists.

Taz is not the brightest dog, nor is she the best behaved. Taz actually flunked out of puppy school. I have trained other dogs and never before have I failed to get a dog to pass basic training. Taz, well, she is a whole nother story!
Taz is a houdini dog - mastering the art of escape and having cost us thousands (yes thousands) of dollars in fines and pound release fees. We now pop rivet colourbond to all pailing fences and secure other areas with pool fencing to keep her in. Extreme? maybe, but it works.
Taz has a bit of OCD. She licks her foot - all the time. There is nothing wrong with it. We have had it checked, time and time again. It's just one of her neurotic tendencies.
Taz is scared of the rain, wind and of course thunderstorms. So basically unless it is a perfectly still night without fireworks then Taz will cry and whimper unless cozied up next to a big tough human!
Taz tries to walk along things, balancing... and falls off.
Taz stopped growing at 6 months old and has remained the size she was as a puppy permanently.
Why do we love her?
Taz gets dressed up as fairies and doctors and balerinas, she is adorned in necklaces, sunglasses and tiaras and wags her tail the whole time.
She has been used as a step ladder, been fed chalk and play dough and had a grape shoved unceremoniously up her nostril and she was still wagging her tail with her whole body wag she does whenever she is around kids. She wags so hard she falls down sometimes.
Taz - though she may drive me to the nuthouse - is a gorgeous girl with a big heart and even larger amount of patience. She is the percfect companion to a child. A childs first best friend.
If only I could convince both our fur kids to not wake me up, I may have a chance at a full nights sleep - one of these days.

The Boy Can Climb

When Kayde started crawling at the tender age of 6 months I thought I was really in for it. By my estimation, this meant he would most likely be running through the house causing all sorts of mayhem by about 10 months. Wow, was I wrong!

In 9 days Kayde will be 1. Despite the fact that I cannot believe my baby will celebrate his first birthday already (I plan on dwelling on that fact later in the week), I also find it hard to believe he is still showing no interest in walking.

Don't get me wrong, he is not developmentally challenged and I am not disappointed at his ability to delay this huge milestone. You see he keeps me on my toes in other ways...

Kayde can climb, not only that but he can scoot as well.

Although not yet showing much interest in walking, Kayde will happily cruise around the furniture - something he has been doing for months now. He will spot a box or toy that may be used as a climbing aid, push it to wherever he desires to be and start climbing. The couch is usually his spot of choice, he happily clambers up and romps around before laying tummy down, head resting in hands to watch what is going on around him - or to get a good view of a particularly riveting episode of Play School, Jaz's current favourite.

Climbing aside, Kayde also keeps me on my toes with his scooting.I imagine you are wondering what on earth I am yapping about. Well you know those scoot along toys/bikes that often double as a walking stabiliser in the early days? He loves them. On he climbs and off he goes, I mean seriously, why walk when you can ride everywhere right?

So having mastered climbing and scooting it came as no real surprise when a few days ago he crawled up to his Bouncing Zebra, climbed on and started bopping up and down. He just never stops!!! I really am noticing the difference between having a quiet, placid little girl to having a boisterous, climbing, scooting, bouncing boy!

I think what amazes me the most though is how obvious it is that in the nature vs nurture debate, nature has a way of getting them started.

In the way of toys, we mostly have dolls and other traditionally girlie toys owing to the fact that Jaz came along first and so most of the toys in the house are hers (though along with Christmas came an abundance of trucks and the like for Kayde) - yet Kayde will hunt out the cars (even if it's the barbie car) and zoom it along the ground saying VBBRRRMMMMM as he does it. He has not been taught to do this, he just does it and it's adorable but it really does show that there are just some things that come naturally, whether nurtured or not.

Jaz on the other hand, though she loves motorbikes and diggers and Thomas the Tank Engine - is fascinated by dancing. Always wanting to show me her 'ballet' dances (she doesn't do ballet, but hey! what a girl cannot learn from Angelina Ballerina......) Jaz loves to dance and will sing a song to dance to if the music is lacking. Jaz loves to play 'families' and her favourite treat is to have her nails painted (ok, some of that has been nurtured lol). But my point is how very different two children can already be - even before their first birthday has been celebrated, when raised by the same parents, with the same values and essentially the same environment.

I feel very blessed to have two completely different but equally engaging, entertaining, loving, funny children to celebrate each and every day.

Now to come to terms with my 'baby' turning ONE!!!! Oh the melodrama!!!

Tim Tam Trouble

There were Tim Tams in the fridge.

That is until I ducked outside to do the dreaded pooperscoop.

Jaz came out

"Kayde said he wanted a chocolate biscuit so I gived him one. They are way beterer than Teddy Bear biscuits"

Apparently Kayde agreed.

Out the front door...

My children have some quirky new habits forming. One is quite gorgeous, the other, though mildly amusing at times, needs to be nipped in the bud.

Kayde, now 11 months has a fascination with putting things on his head. It started with hats and headphones which was quite acceptable and in some cases down right adorable, don't you think?

He has now progressed to popping pretty much anything he can balance on his head - mostly clothes, cloths, facewashers, cushions and dolls but he saves the best for meal times when his bowl, plate and cup always find their way onto his head! Cute cute cute boy!

Now onto the somewhat amusing but also a little troubling habit our gorgeous girl Jaz has developed.

Let me set the scene just a little...

My Mum and Dad have two dogs, since all the kids have moved out it appears the dogs have replaced us somewhat. they sit on the couch, sleep on the bed and basically do as they please. I am not denying they are cute, cuddly and fun but they do have a tendency to lick the little people like they are a lollypop coated in sherbert!

Last week the kids and I were visiting my parents. I was reading a magazine on the couch, Kayde was napping and Dad was reading the paper. Jaz was running around the house, in the door, out the door and so on and so forth, I saw her kneel down, pushing the larger of the two dogs away and telling it off (have I mentioned I have an insanely bossy little girl on my hands? That's for another post) Anyway, off she ran, through the house, both dogs hot on her heels enjoying the play.

I noticed it had gone quiet a moment before Jaz appeared behind Dad.

"Pa Trev?"

"Yes Jaz"

"You better go find your dogs"

I immediately knew what she had done and jumped up. Dad looked at me and I asked Jaz...

"Jaz, did you let the dogs out the front door?"

"Yup" *butter wouldn't melt smile*

Arghhhh!!!!! These dogs are not only pampered, they have no sense - none - zilch. And are notorious for bolting out the front door and down the road (Thankfully Mum and Dad live in a very quiet town)

Pa Trev gently told Jaz "That was a bit naughty Jazzy"

"Yup" *cheeky grin*

The dogs were located and returned back only a few minutes later but that was not the bit that really made me laugh.

When my mum (known to the kids as Maddy) got home we told her what had happened (I admit, I already found the situation a touch amusing due to understanding Jaz's reasons for letting the dogs out) but this really took the cake.

Mum said to Jaz "Well, did Mummy tell you it might make Maddy mad?"

Jaz tilted her head to the side, raised her palms in the air in front of her as if explaining something to a simpleton "Well they was astracting me!"

Mum stifled a laugh and asked "they were distracting you?"

Big sigh from Jaz "Yes, they was astracting me" *Huff*

Well, as amusing as that was, we tried very hard not to let her see that! It was explained to her that the dogs may have become lost and that would have upset Maddy and Pa greatly. that understood I thought this had been nipped in the bud.

Until this morning...

As I lay in bed, Craigs car zooming off in the distance, I was just getting up when Jaz came into the bedroom.

"Mum?"

"Yes Jaz?"

"Will Kayde get lost out the front?" Asked with a grain of hope I am almost certain

I jumped out of bed, flew out the front door (Thank goodness there were no neighbours out there) and gathered Kayde from his new playspot in the middle of our carport!!!

JAZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was very naughty. (I may have told her that someone may have thought he looked like a cute baby and taken them to keep at their house - maybe) About an hour later after being very quiet, Jaz came to me of her own volition, apologised and said she would not put Kayde out the front door again.

Darn tootin' you wont!!! That door is now deadlocked!

Kids

What Tired Feels Like

There are times in my life where I thought I was tired.
There were my younger days, where I would work, get changed, go out, party and go straight to work the next day - after a few days of repeasting this cycle, catching a few short sleeps here and there it was time to colapse in a heap and sleep an entire day away. That was not tired.
There were the days I worked 16 hour days 6 days a week, maintained a reasonable body shape by attending the gym 5 days a week and went out three nights a week. That was not tired.

Nowadays - now, I am tired...

Some parents come home from hospital with their little bundle of pink, sweet smelling, soft skinned, snuggly sleepy, milk drunk goodness and the little darlings sleep from 7pm till 7am from the moment they arrive home. I hate those Mothers (not really but I'm too tired to diferrentiate between hatred and jelousy).

Others have those same darling soft, snuggly, wriggly, sweet smelling, milk drunk bundles with just one little difference. They do not sleep. People tell you that waking for night feeds is difficult. It's not really. You put bubs down, you get a few hours sleep, you get up to said crying bundle, feed them, return them to their bed and you head back into slumberland.

Having a baby that 'feeds' every two hours round the clock for the first three months of its life - that is hard. Completely worthwhile but hard.

Having an older child who sleep walks or sleep talks as well as a baby who is not a great sleeper is hard.

When the baby is nearly one and is still waking at least twice (bare minimum) between the hours of 9pm and 6am and the older child also wakes at least once, that is HARD!!!

Now add in a dog who is 15 and has become scared of the dark because she has gone deaf so spends most of the night fussing, another dog who is scared of the rain so whenever it starts raining she starts howling.

NOW THAT IS HARD

Now are you keeping up with  me? Here's where we are at:

An infant who wakes regularly through the night (lots)
A pre schooler who sleep talks and wakes during the night
A dog who is scared of the dark (stop laughing)
and A dog who is scared of the rain (seriously, stop laughing now)

It has been over 12 months since I have had a good nights sleep. In fact sleep has somewhat evaded me for the past 12 months, instead I drift in and out of consciousness wondering who will be next to need me.

So let me tell you what tired feels like.
My head feels so heavy it might just fall right off my shoulders
It feels like there is sand in my eyes and if I blink I am scared my eyelids may not re-open
My hands shake a little bit, I am not sure whether it is in anticipation of bed time or from the caffeine I need to consume just to stay upright
When I am talking, the wrong sounds just spill right out of my mouth
I feel a little nauseus but I also want to eat everything in sight at the same time. Preferably food laden with sugar and fat and completely nutrtionally empty calories, I think this is also a way of maintaining a state of wakefulness but is certainly not helping my weight loss because I am so lethargic that the mere thought of excersize fills me with dread.
The worst part is that as soon as my children go to sleep I know I should head directly to bed. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 but it does not happen.
Why not?
Because by the time I have cleaned and cooked, bathed children and read the bedtime stories I am over tired. So overtired I am in fact wired. Delerious with sleep deprivation, unable to complete any tasks requiring me to use my brain and yet unable to sleep as I am continually thinking of all the tasks I need to complete that do require me using my brain.
Wow, talk about a Merry Go Round on overdrive!
So, you, you who has been partying all night or working a little too hard. Don't talk to me about tired until you too have gone over a year without sleeping for any longer that 4 hours at a time (and that has only happened twice!) It is not that I am a nastty person who is unwilling to acknowledge that you too may have issues, it's just that I am too darned tired to really give a crap.
So instead of complaining - go and get me a coffee.
Thank you