What a day

My hours at the Family Care Cottage went really well. One of the nurses & I talked for a little bit while Ben played then once he was good & tired we put him down for a nap. This place is part of Keratane so they believe in the whole letting them soothe themselves to sleep, but checking on them every few minutes so it was rough but having a nurse with me really helped and she was encouraging and made me feel confident. Their belief is to only go for 30-45 minutes at a time (again, going in every 3 or 4 minutes to give them some positive words & settle them a bit). Ben never got fully asleep on his own so I fed him after 30 minutes and he took a good 1 1/2 hour nap while I talked to the nurses and other mothers who were there with their little tiny babies. I think I can handle the sleep training now but I'm not starting until next week when we're in the new house & able to stick to more of a routine. And we're only starting with naps, then we'll add the night sleep later.

I have to say I'm very very glad I waited until now to do his sleep training. The two other mothers were there with their babies who were only several weeks old & I don't think I could have done it then. Mind you, one of them had terrible reflux so just cried constantly. It's just not fair - those moms were absolutely worn out & run down & waking up every hour or so all night. I hope to God that those ladies have a strong support system at home because I honestly would have melted down if my newborn experience was like that. I've been feeling terrible since then, thinking I should have given them my number just in case they needed a new person to bitch to. You know how sometimes you get tired of complaining to the same people who always hear your troubles? All I know is that I'm very thankful that places that the Family Care Cottage exist for women like us who need that extra helping hand & I hope they found some comfort or relief there. Every baby & child is so absolutely different & we can't expect to have the same experience so I think moms really need to look out for each other. I should probably also look out for my son as I just heard him crawling at breakneck speed down the hall!

All else going well. I think the official plan is to move on Friday afternoon, one big truck trip to get the furniture, etc. over to the new house! I'm packing this week & trying to get some cleaning done but you know how that goes. I get distracted & I can't even blame Ben for most of it - I would just prefer to be decorating or thinking about decorating or buying decorations. Hey! I had a good crafty moment in the world of decorating. Follow me here ... I bought a t-shirt at one of my favorite little kids' stores. They never had Ben's size when I went to look for it & I couldn't think of anyone else who has a kid in the sizes they have left but I had to have it so I just bought the darn thing for $5 or whatever it was. So super cute - just Charlie Chaplin's hat & moustache on a blue background. Hard to explain. Anyway, I thought I could frame it but expected it to go horribly wrong. Wellll, I happened to have a frame in the bottom of one of my closets that was kind of coming apart but I thought I'd try & it fit perfectly. And it's a deep frame so I could just fold the shirt up inside it without having to cut it. Bonus points all around - it's awesome. Now this is where a smart blogger would include a picture of said awesome shirt frame decoration thingy but I left it over at the new house (I had to see how it would look against Ben's lovely blue walls)(I will also include a picture of the blue walls). Also, we still have not located our stupid camera.

I am starving! I'm trying a new concept of actually waiting until mealtimes to eat. Weird, I know. I would give my right arm for pizza & a mediterranean salad right about now so I'm hoping Marcel will be up for picking that up on his way home. I have to eat while watching Masterchef or I'll start gnawing on furniture or anything I can reach. Too bad it's not on until 7.30pm so now I just wait until Marcel is home & we eat while watching the show. Long story short, I'm hungry. Obviously a little delirious as well because looking back at this blog, it barely makes sense! Sorry, I need to pull my act together.

Jimmy Giggle is currently playing guitar & singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with Hoot on Giggle & Hoot at the moment. Ben fliiiiips out when he does this for some reason. Just gets giddy & dances. The first time he saw it, I swear to you the boy CRIED. Like with happiness or awesomeness or something. It's like if Bono had a kid's show that I could watch, I'd act the same. Geez, as much as I love Bono (*hint: I like him a whole lot) how terrible would a kid's show be with him? A little too intense & earnest. And no adorable owl sidekick so Ben wouldn't be interested.

Happy Wednesday, hope your hump day is fabulous!

Walker, New South Wales Ranger.

It is cool & rainy this morning so far & I'm loving it. I should be cleaning our stupid apartment but I can't bring myself to do it. Ben is napping & Marcel is at the new house, painting his little heart out. Sadly he will accomplish more in a few hours alone than if I was there to help him because I ask a million questions (Does this look right? Are you sure this is right?) & keep interrupting with my decorating schemes that are truly exciting to me but not so much to him (Ooooh, you know what we should put here? A TABLE!). Ugh, why does he put up with me? We didn't paint on Friday after all but we spent a good chunk of time at Bunnings, like Home Depot in America, & bought enough painting supplies & crap to last us a while. We painted a lot on Saturday & I put most of our clothes in the closets, which was very exciting. It's slowly coming together & is starting to feel a bit like home already. Once we have furniture & the rest of our crap there I think we're really going to love the place.

So much still to do - line up a pool person to come out & show me what the heck to do with the thing, replace the world's ugliest closet door handles, decide on colours for the kitchen & office, plant the little rock ditch thing that used to be a koi pond, do a little weeding, figure out where on earth that plugged in wire goes to in Ben's room! Luckily the rain today is taking care of the plants because I was wondering how much & when we need to water them. I have some serious googling to do for our landscaping.

We have a nice array of bird visitors all the time, which thrills my soul. We had lorikeets, rosellas, galahs, plovers, mina (sp?) birds, those little grey ones with pointy pope hat-looking things on top of their heads & a big bunch of cockatoos swooped overhead but didn't stop in. Very exciting, right? Maybe it's just me that gets excited about birds.

And most importantly, our little awesome Benny took his first official step yesterday!!!! We are choosing to ignore the step he took with Marcel the day before because he fell right after he stepped & yesterday's he actually stepped & kept standing. And let's face it if a child steps without his mother witnessing it, it didn't happen. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. He did it again a couple of times but we could never get it on video because he gets too distracted by the camera. You could tell how proud he was of himself because he just laughed & laughed & gave us hugs & kisses. His kisses are getting less slobbery by the way - they're downright pleasant now. Between walking & turning 1 in a few weeks, I just don't know what to do. Is it too motherly to say he's growing up too fast? Every time he goes through another change, I think to myself "This is it. He's perfect now. He can just stay this way forever." But he keeps getting better & better. My little Turd Ferguson is a special boy.

I'll try to get some painting & walking pictures today but we still haven't found our bloody camera, which we now think it's safe to assume was packed away. But we've got Marcel's iphone so we'll get something. We have some painting pictures from yesterday but I look roughly the size of a water buffalo so we won't be posting those. You can tune out now before I start my regularly scheduled whining but I am seriously starting to exercise soon & eating better. Marcel is starting too. I was going to start walking in the new neighborhood to check everything out but that would be the morning I busted the old toenail. Stupid thing is feeling better but I'm not going to go into it with you now because it would be an essay unto itself & just thinking about it makes me squeamish so I don't want you to suffer as well!

Anyway, I can't remember where I was going with that so we'll just say I'm going to lose weight over the next few months so I don't hate my body anymore. Hmmmm ... I can't end this on such a woeful note so I'll share with you the one photo from yesterday that doesn't showcase my lard butt.

Ben looks likes an extra from the Grand Baby Theatre staging of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

(I just made that production up so don't waste your time looking it up, though it would kick ass!)

(It would be much better than Marcel's plan to stage an all dog version of Cats.)

These days are better than that.

Today is different, did you know? You're not just reading the blog of some schmo. No, no, no. You're reading the blog of a homeowner. That's right, I'm that girl that owns a house with my name on it. Sure, Marcel's name is on it too if you want to get technical but I'm still a homeowner darn it! It's very exciting but there is so much to do. We picked up our keys this afternoon & rushed over to give our house a big hello. I don't want to be a downer but it was a little discouraging. Only because a house looks completely different once all the furniture & special touches have been removed. Paint looks duller, holes & flaws are suddenly evident & the place seems even smaller than we remember. It's still cute & a few coats of paint plus our furniture & my awesome decor (still very much in the planning phases as our current home is more of a comfy mish mash) will make it a true home that reflects us.

The hardest part of the moving process is a little adorable bouncing boy that for some odd reason won't just sit quietly & play by himself while we clean & move things around. Strange, right? He will crawl around by himself, getting covered in dust & dirt & opening every cabinet he can reach & trying his best to find every power outlet possible. Turns out that those activities are in no way helpful to us at all. Painting on Friday is going to be IMPOSSIBLE with the human distraction. I'm going to attempt to put the paint samples on the wall tomorrow at least & get some cleaning done. I may have to get Benny a straightjacket. Some people would think babysitter but I go straight to mental patient bondage. Whatever.

Anyway, nothing else new. Our apartment looks like a tornado hit it, which is driving me nuts but I'm going to have to deal with it. Ben has discovered the joy of opening & closing the drawer that he used to pull DVDs out of - all the DVDs are packed up so he has to use the drawer as a toy. It's annoying but I don't feel right fastening it shut because it brings him so much joy ... or relief ... or something. He just does it while he's watching TV or playing with us. Strange little boy.

Okay, off I go to be a mother to my son & clean the kitchen & organize some stuff for tomorrow. And oooooh, episode #2 of Masterchef tonight!!!! All stress of the world melts away watching that show, bless it. Anyhoo happy Tuesday.

nevermind

Friday night & all is well. I can hear the faint sounds of the African lullaby video Marcel plays for Ben on his iPhone to get him to sleep sometimes. It's so cute & peaceful & Ben gets mesmerized & drifts away. Except for tonight because now I can hear him chattering a bit too. Ah well, he's been doing so well in his nighttime routine so I can forgive a few tough evenings. He & I hit the Family Care Cottage on the 27th & I'm really nervous still so am choosing not to think about it until I'm there!

We close on the house on Tuesday morning & I am choosing to think about that one because I am so excited! We bought paint samples today so Tuesday afternoon, once I've got the keys, I'll slap those on the walls & see what looks good. Yes, there is a good chance some of the paint will end up on Ben & myself but I'll too happy to care!

Well, I think Marcel is giving up on his rocking shift so I'm gonna have to take back over.

A man captures color, A man likes to stare

Have a wonderful weekend!

some days are better than others

My oh my, it's been a while. I wrote a couple of blogs along the way but they all turned out very whiny & I was very down on myself at the time so I just deleted them as soon as I had purged my soul. Nothing you guys needed to read. Ben has been having a super bad spell where he would only nap while I was holding him in the rocking chair - the second I put him down he'd magically wake up, which has never been an issue before. So I'd spend a good couple of hours a day or more (as much as I could stand so he'd be well rested) just rocking a sleeping baby. That would be blissful if I didn't have a gazillion things to do for this move & just for life in general! Anyway, yesterday & today he has let me put him down asleep so hopefully he's back to normal.

I've made an appointment with the local Family Care Cottage to help us with his sleeping issues & get him transitioned to his own bed when we move. I'm preparing my brave face but something tells me it's going to tear me to pieces & I'm going to feel like a bad mother no matter how sweet & nurturing they are. They were wonderful just on the phone! If I need additional help (trust me, I will) they can refer me on to the residential program in Sydney where we'd stay about 5 nights in their facility where I'll have professionals to help me get him used to the new sleep arrangements, etc. While I seriously wish I could handle all of this on my own, I am so grateful that they have this program in place to help families.

Yesterday Ben had one of his mega naps, like 2 1/2 hours. This always means he's going to do something new! It's hysterical but it's like clockwork - long nap then he suddenly starts rolling over, long nap then crawling, etc. I assumed he'd start trying to walk but no! It was even better my friends!! He started munching down some food - he had apple, cooked spinach (!!), olives, crackers, cheese & bites of the ricotta/parmesan/spinach pizza I made last night. And today he's been wolfing down some corn, apple sauce & a few bites of other things. Still not up to where his friends are but major strides for him & his mama couldn't be prouder!! I'm posting videos to facebook in a few minutes.

Serious contemplation of corn

He did so well I let him feed himself some applesauce. It went as well as expected.

Maybe he'd eat even more without a camera in his face. We'll never know.

So that's the excitement in my life, watching my son eat. Mind you his poop is more than keeping up with is eating habits so there is a downside. Food & paint samples are my life these days. 

We didn't do much for Easter but we did have a nice big breakfast starring some gorgeous whole wheat (!) & olive oil (!!) biscuits. Thank you, thank you & thank you to Marta who has some incredible recipes on her Yummy Veggies blog - martasrecipes.blogspot.com. I'm not a vegetarian again but we are trying to eat more healthily in our little family.

Here's a link for the biscuits. They don't end up big & fluffy like regular biscuits but they're flaky & have a really amazing flavor. And there's a majorly strong chance that it was only mine that didn't turn out fluffy! Love them & would have been better if I didn't make a crappy gravy to go along with them. martasrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/03/whole-wheat-and-olive-oil-flaky

The move is coming too quickly & too slowly at the same time. I am so eager to get in to the new place & start decorating & get Ben's birthday party set up & just settle in to our little life! But first we have to get out of here & there is nothing in life that is worse than moving. We've got several boxes packed with about a million left to go. I can't do much packing during the day because I have a little miniature crazy person who goes nuts with the boxes. He is very helpful with the packing if you consider dropping random toys in the boxes as helpful. Luckily I do consider that helpful!

Anyhoo, the plumber just left from replacing our hot water heater so now I need to clean up a bit before Marcel gets home for Family Fun Friday!!

Seastar, Urchin, Hermit ...

I'll warn you that this will probably be a bit of a whiny blog because I'm having a blue couple of days. Well, less blue & more just having that nagging feeling that I'm a terrible mother. Yes, I hear that all mother go through this but it doesn't much help. I am tired of the sleep issues - he is still refusing to nap without being in my lap so I don't have a chance to do much during the day & stays attached to my boob(s) all night so I'm not getting good sleep either. Then he's still barely eating solids, just a few bites here & I'll be neurotic about that until he bloody eats!! His other front top tooth finally came in so he's got 6 chompers now! Must have more on the way because he is a cranky little monster these days & my patience is thin. I've played a bit of phone tag with the local family care cottage who will hopefully help me out or refer me onward to someone who can. Mama needs a little help, unfortunately.

We didn't do much for Easter but we did have a nice big breakfast starring some gorgeous whole wheat (!) & olive oil (!!) biscuits. Thank you, thank you, & thank you to Marta who has some incredible recipes on her Yummy Veggies blog - martasrecipes.blogspot.com. I'm not a vegetarian again but we are trying to eat more healthily in our little family ... well, those of us that actually eat.

Here's a link for the biscuits. They don't end up big & fluffy like regular biscuits but they're flaky & have a really amazing flavor. And there's a majorly strong chance that it was only mine that didn't turn out fluffy! Love them & would have been better if I didn't make a crappy gravy to go along with them. martasrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/03/whole-wheat-and-olive-oil-flaky

The move is coming too quickly & too slowly at the same time. I am so eager to get in to the new place & start decorating & get Ben's birthday party set up & just settle in to our little life! But first we have to get out of here & there is nothing in life that is worse than moving. We've got several boxes packed with about a million left to go. I can't do much packing during the day because I have a little miniature crazy person who goes nuts with the boxes & since he doesn't nap without me, I don't have a chance to sneak some work in.

Okay, I'm just dragging myself down by complaining so I'm going to go look at paint samples online while watching Ben play or attempt to clean the kitchen with him under my feet. Hope your day is a little brighter than mine & thanks for listening!

Thursday night, not so late but painful

It's not even 8.30pm & we are so sleepy we can barely keep our eyes open. When I say "we" I am of course referring to Marcel & me. Ben has apparently taken some sort of solemn oath to the Full of Beans Society & refuses to settle for us. Why does he hate us? And our apartment looks like a pack of monkeys were set loose in here. And not the cute kitten-loving chimpanzees - more like those baboons that make you involuntarily shudder immediately when you see them because you know they'd just assume rip your ears off than chew on a banana or dangle adorably like their little cousins.

Happy Easter weekend by the way! So excited that Marcel has a 4 1/2 day weekend for the holiday - hopefully we'll be able to make some house decisions & start some packing. No relaxing for us, nope. We'll rest when we're dead, etc. And daylight savings ends for us this weekend so we fall back an hour, hallelujah! Of course that means it will seem like Ben is waking up an hour earlier doesn't it? How did he manage to make this season bite me in the ass?

He is working up along the octave range while Marcel is rocking him. Squirmy little crazy child sometimes likes to sing himself to sleep, which is lovely but LOUD. *sigh* I think I had things to tell you - nothing important as usual but at least something. Either it's slipped my mind or I was wrong. So I'm going to go start my 73 step process to going to bed - face washing, moisturizing face, flossing, brushing teeth, gargling, brushing hair, lotioning feet (they're dry!), taking contacts out, push-ups, dancing the pachanga for the final show at Kellerman's when I really want to do the mambo. You know, the usual stuff.

Party hard & have a fabulous Thursday or Friday depending on which side of the date line you're residing!