Teaching Kids to Hate

I rather dislike the word hate. Yes, I use it but not usually in reference to another person. 


I got into a debate yesterday about whether or not kids are taught to to hate or if its just in built in them. I believe that in most cases it is taught to them by their parents. The debate stemmed from a person claiming that those who choose to raise their kids in less than ideal circumstances are asking for their kids to be bullied by other kids. It was mostly in reference to kids who have same-sex parents. 


I really do believe that this particular brand of hate and bullying does come from the parents at home before the kids even reach school age. Kids generally don't care about how many Mummy or Daddy's another kid had, they tend to like or dislike the other kids based on their own personal likes and dislikes. From what I've seen that usually involves TV shows or certain Barbie dolls.


There will always be bullys at schools. They bullys will always pick on someone, and yes in some cases it will be about sexual orientation of another kids parents. But where does he bully learn this hate and dislike?? At five all Jasmine knows is that babys grow in Mummy's tummy and are then born. In order for her to pick on another kids who may have, lets say two mums, I and/or Rodger would have to teach her that all kids should only have one Mum and one Dad. Then we would have to teach her that anything else is wrong. Which, for clarification neither of us do think that at all. 


As she gets to primary school next year she may learn these things from older kids at school. However, who would be encouraging this thinking? I know the school won't be as they have a very strict anti-bullying policy. It would again fall to us, the parents to reinforce this thinking. Or we could teach her that all families are different, some have two mums or two dads or whatever. 


The sexual orientation of a person should have no bearing on how well they parent or how much they love their kids. 


The best thing we can do as parents in order to stop bullying happening is to teach our kids to accept everyone for who they are regardless of sexual orientation, race, gender, eye colour, hair colour, size ect and to teach them that bullying is wrong.

Technology rocks!

I have a new way of posting! Sort of. Let me explain. As an early birthday present I got
a tablet. An Asus one. It is awesome and I love it. I can play games on it, I can surf the
net and I can download and read the paper on it. Mostly I do use it as an e-reader though.
Tonight I also remembered it has office software on it. Which is what I am using now. I
can now get my thoughts down whever I am. Once done all I have to do is email the file
to myself, copy and paste it, tidy it up and voila, a blog post. I love technology. Typing
on it will take me a while to be as fast as I am on the computer but I'm getting there.


I really love technology and so do my girls. When we just had our phones the girls would
play on them. Now they can also play on the tablets. Not so much at home but when we
are out it is great to have them in case the girls get bored and disruptive. It happens, they
are just little kid.


About a week ago there was an article in the paper about a pizza place in Balwyn that
wants to ban tablets and phones. The owner claims he dislikes seeing kids using them
at the table as meal time is family time. I agree to an extent. Restuarants can be slow.
Hungry kids can be very disruptive to other patrons. Letting your kid play with a phone
or tab for a few minutes while they wait for their meal is hardly taking away quality
family time. As long as they are put away when the meal arrives.


Not long after we got the tabs we took the girls out to dinner. We took them somewhere
family friendly. While waiting for the meal they were happy to colour in with the
provided paper and crayons. They then ate. We did have a bit of a wait between main
and dessert. By this stage the girls had finished the colouring in and were starting to get
bored. Now, we could have left them to jump on the furniture, crawl around on the floor
and disrupt others. Lucy was also trying to eat scraps off the floor. Can you say yuck???
So we got the tabs out. Both girls then happily sat and played on them quietly until
dessert came. Yep, it totally took away from family time. I am, of course, being sarcastic.
Out of a meal that latest 90 minutes the girls had the tabs out for maybe 10 minutes tops.
I, personally cannot see an issue with that. Not only that but where does a resturant owner
get off telling parents how to parent. Guess he wants a restuarant full of misbehaving
bored children who will drive away the rest of his very well off clientele.

Lucy is TWO!

Lucy is now 2. She has been fora month now but she only just had her 2 year nurses
check up today. She now weighs 12kg spot on and is 84 cm long. She was a champ at her appointment. Was happy and performed for the nurse who was very happy with her. Like Jasmine, I think she is pretty amazing.


She has a huge personality for such a little person. She has two favourite toys. Duggie
is a cabbage patch doll dressed as a skunk. She named him Duggie all on her own. Very
clever if you ask me. Her other favourite doll is a Minnie Mouse doll that she got for her
birthday. When Minnie's hand is pushed she records for about 15 seconds then repeats
what she has heard. For her birthday Lucy also got her first bike. She can't peddle yet but is doing a good job of trying. It won't be long and she will be able to.


Her speech is also great. She says more words than I can count. She is able to
communicate her needs to us pretty well. She loves stories and repeats them after you.
She loves to sing as well. You can often catch her singing along with songs on the TV.
She especially loves The Wiggles and their songs.


She has shown some interest in toilet training but thus far has not yet actually done
anything in it. She does prefer to sit on the big toilet than on the potty though. That's
fine by us, it's one less step in the process. We are not pushing the issue right now. I'm
happy to wait until Jasmine is in school full time before really getting into it. It will be
nice though to not have to change nappies anymore. My years of wiping someone elses
bottom are coming to an end and even though I am a little sad she's getting so big I am glad for this fact.

Just nap!

I have a two year old who thinks she is too old for a nap. She rubs her eyes, yawns and happily goes to bed at nap time. However, once she's in bed its like a switch is flipped and she's wide awake again and just wants to play. I can take all the toys out of her bed all I want but she'll just get out of bed and put them right back in there the second I leave the room.


She still needs this nap. She is a total grump without it. I need this nap. I'm a total grump without it. At least she isn't coming out of her room like she does some nights. Hours after going to bed some nights she'll get out of bed and open her bedroom door and want to play in the hallway. 


Jas didn't drop this nap for at least another 12 months and even then she was still having it 2-3 times a week. Its really only been the last twelve months that she hasn't had a nap unless she was sick. I could give in and not put Lucy down for her nap but then, as I said, she becomes a grump and her and Jas just argue about toys for hours. That does not make for a happy afternoon. She spent all morning on the go and playing. She was rubbing her eyes and yawning but still an hour after being put into bed, she's still awake. 


Some days though it will be 3pm before I stop hearing her playing. That is annoying to say the least as the latest I will let her sleep in the day is 4pm. She all she has is an hour which is usually not enough and she is a grump at being woken. 


I guess I'll just keep putting her down for that nap and hoping for the best. At the very least she is getting a little bit of a rest and so am I.

Lucy is Two and more

This post is coming. I just want to wait until her check up with the nurse in about 10 days. 


I've actually had lots of things to say about lots of different things of late, I just haven't had the motivation to sit and type them all out. I think I need to make a time each day, even if its only 10-15 minutes to do so. It might take me a day or two to get a whole post typed out but at least it will help me get back into the groove.

For the first time in three years

For the first time in three years I have allowed myself to feel. And it hurts so much. The flood gates have been opened and I have no way of stopping them. I almost wish I could. I wish I could stop this hurt and this pain. For three years I have bottled this up, only allowing small amounts out at a night in the middle of the night. Now the gates are fully opened and I can't stop them. 


Perhaps if I hadn't listened to certain people and allowed myself to feel. Perhaps if I hadn't have tried to be the person I was before. There is nothing worse than being told that you have changed as a person and that you need to change back to the person you were before you lost your child. Of course I've changed! I don't think I'm better or worse of a person. Just different. I will forever have a great big huge hole in my life. 


I can't keep this inside any longer but I hate feeling this hurt and this pain and not being able to stop it.

Jasmine Turns Five.

Jasmine is now five years old. And she is the most amazing five year old I have ever met. Honestly, I can't believe that she is five. has it really been five years since she was born. In fact its five years today since we bought her home for the first time. Only for one night though as she was so badly jaundiced that she needed to be readmitted for photo therapy.

She was so tiny and now she is so big. She is fully toilet trained both day and more recently night. She can read and write and knows some of her times tables. She is able to form good arguments for things that she wants to do. There are times when are arguments are so good that you just have to let her do whatever it is that she wants to do.

She had a MacDonalds birthday party with some of her Kinder friends on Sunday. She had so much fun. I loved it too. Nice and easy and so clean up. She got some great presents too. Quite a lot of art and craft stuff which is good as she loves doing all sorts of arts and crafts. She got some Barbie stuff too. Since she had kinder on her birthday and then is at work with us afterward, we decided to give her the presents from us on Sunday too. She got a Barbie house, some Barbie clothes and a Barbie plate, cup and bowl set. She loved all of it. She was so excited by it she hit herself in the head. She was just as excited by the giant lady bug pillow pet her grandparents got her. The first two nights she slept with it in the bed with her using it as a pillow. It took up 3/4 of the bed. Last night though she used her normal pillow and just cuddled the pillow pet.

Next weeks is yet another birthday, when Lucy turns 2.

Punishment

Specifically punishing a child. 


All kids are different and so the same approach that works with one child may not always work with the next. However, all kids understand consistency. I fully believe that once you find a punishment stick to it. Be consistent. Follow through.


There are always exceptions the rule. When taking individual kids into consideration you must also consider any medical issues the child may have that may hinder the punishment.


I'm going to be very specific in my example. This is a real example, the illness is real, the situation is real, the punishment is real. No names to protect the innocent.


The illness is question is known as Neurofibromatosis type 1. In short NF1 is a genetic disorder, often caused by a mutation of a gene on chromosome number 17. Cognitive and  learning disabilities can occur with NF1. The most common of the cognitive issues is with perception. Thus a person with NF1 may do things that may seem odd to the rest of us. They may, for example, when asked to clean up after dinner put not only the leftovers in the bin but also all cutlery and crockery used during the meal.


Now say you have a teenage girl who suffers from NF1. She often leaves plates in her bedroom, or places them in her washing hamper. It makes sense to her to place the dirty dishes there. After all, that's where dirty things go. For any normal teenager, this behaviour would be punished. Said teen would be made to clean up after themselves, and/or be grounded. Sounds fair. I have recently come across a woman who feels the best way to deal with this issue is not to aid her daughter in returning the dishes to the kitchen but to fine her a small amount of money per dish. She feels that her child plays on the NF1 and should pay for all mistakes she makes. Like replacing any dishes that may get thrown out.


To me, this just seems cruel. Surely there is a better way to deal with this. She even says that she has tried to punish these sort of things before and her daughter has gotten so depressed about failing to change her behaviour that she has ended up in counselling!


Yes, as parents it is our job to teach our children right from wrong, to punish bad behaviour and reward good, but its not always that black and white. There are many many shades of grey. I fully think that until this woman can see that and ask for help with her child she will continue to set her child up for more failure. Sadly, I know that this poor young lass has had it tough. Her mother has previously kicked her out of the house for drinking. I always thought that when you had kids you took the bad with the good.

Monthly Cross Stitch WIP

After 4 months (28 2011)

After 8 months (August 30 2011)

July 29 2008

We were finally able to bring our baby boy home.

Where is it??

My motivation that is. Have you seen it? When I first started doing this I was really into it. Posting many times a week. Now I'm lucky if I'm posting once a month. Perhaps the novelty wore off? I don't know. We have been rather busy though and that may have something to do with it. 


We are now half way through the year. Jasmine has two terms left of Kinder, then its off to school for her. She is very excited. She does a play group at the school every second week during the term and loves it. She has a grade 6 buddy who comes and does craft activities with her. She is totally in her element there. She loves to draw and colour and make things and so the play group is just perfect for her. I just know that her favourite class in school is going to be Art. Her drawings are getting amazing too. Lots of details. And she's good at drawing. I'm so bad at it that hers are better than mine. On top of developing her art skills she is also now able to read most kids books you hand her. She loves to read and will often read a book to Lucy. As if doing all of that isn't enough she has also decided that she is big enough to no longer wear a pull up over night. We have all lost count now of how many nights in a row she has stayed dry. She really is getting to be a big girl.


Lucy is growing up too. She is now saying so many words I've lost count. Its makes life easier as she is able to communicate a lot more what she wants without a tantrum. However, if she does throw a tantrum watch out. I must admit it is rather funny to watch. She gets so mad so goes all stiff and just just screams. She often gets so stiff she shakes with anger. You can't help but laugh at her doing it. She is such a great eater too. She will eat pretty much anything and loves meat. She devours pork and chicken like its going out of style. Its nice not to have to fight with her to get her to eat. She manages to burn it all off though. Her and Jasmine now play really well together for longer periods of time. Its lovely to watch. Lucy loves Jasmine's Barbies. She is still very much a little girl. She also loves dolls of all kinds and will spend hours kissing and cuddling them. She also loves being read to. Especially when Jasmine does it.


Its amazing to watch them grow and change every single day.

My Baby Girl

Born October 10 2006

Enrolled into Primary School June 1 2010

She got so big so fast.

It has been...

23 days since my last post. And I really can't think of anything I need or want to type right now. Looking for motivation. Ah well, at least it won't be 24 days since my last post.

Where were you when?

There are many many moments in history that will be remembered as a "where were you moment?" For many I was not even born yet. For some I was.


Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down?
Where were you when Mt St Helens erupted?
Where were you when Elvis died?
Where were you when when JFK was shot?
Where were you when when man first walked on the moon?
Where were you when when Kevin Rudd said sorry?
Where were you when when Princess Diana died?
Where were you when when Challenger exploded?
Where were you when the West Gate Bridge collapsed during its build?
Where were you when on December 31st 1999?
Where were you when the earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan?
Where were you when John Lennon was shot?
Where were you when the planes hit the towers?
Where were you when when you heard Bin Laden was dead???

Monthly Cross Stitch WIP

After 3 months (March 28 2011)

After 4 months (April 28 2011)

Term Two

Yesterday was the start of term two of the school year. We are now 1/4 of the way through the year. Its rather scary. Within the next two weeks we will be attending an open day for the primary school we are hoping to send Jasmine to next year. They even start taking enrolments this term for next year as well. I can't believe she is already old enough for us not only to be thinking about where she will be going but also old enough to enrol her! Later this year we will also do the application for Lucy for three year old Kinder. Where has the time gone?


I think Jasmine will just love school next year. She loves to learn and loves being around other kids her age and school will give her both of those things five days of the week. Some days I think she would have no trouble fitting in there this year!


It is going to be odd once she does go. Well, for a little while at least. I'm so used to having her home. I guess this year at least Kinder is for four hours at a time and that helps somewhat but that's only three days of the week and not five. 


It just seems so weird to me that she is almost five. I don't feel old enough to have an almost five year old most days. Of course there are days when I do, but who doesn't? 


All being well her BFF from Kinder last year will also be at the same school as her next year. As will most of the kids she is at Kinder with this year. That should really help her adjust better to the change than if she didn't know anyone there at all. I believe the school also run an orientation program in term four. I plan on finding out more about it and possibly sending her depending on what the times of it are. I don't want her missing Kinder to attend, and I doubt she would want that either. 


We are both hoping that this will be the only primary school she will got to. I changed schools are fair amount growing up and hated it. It was always hard to adjust to new people. Maybe that was just me though. Jasmine is far more of a social bunny than I. Either way, I still think its better for her not to chop and change schools if possible. It should be the same for High School. With any luck she will make friends at this age that she will go to primary and high school with and have for life.

Why Complain?

About a public holiday when you don't work and thus it doesn't change your day to day living???


ANZAC Day was yesterday. Yesterday was the day after Easter Sunday and is normally the public holiday for Easter. Instead it was a public holiday for Anzac Day. Make sense thus far? Today is also a public holiday. For Easter. A little confusing but it has left us with a five day weekend. 


A forum post yesterday sparked this. Someone claims that Anzac Day this year was a joke as we had a five day weekend. She could not seem to understand that yesterday was the holiday for Anzac Day and today is Easter Tuesday. We (those who work, not her dole bludging butt) apparently forced the government into the extra public holiday because we felt we deserved it. This means that Anzac Day is nothing more than a joke and an excuse for a day off work.


WTF?? For starters, no one I know complained about Easter and Anzac Day coinciding. Secondly, Anzac Day has never been and never will be a joke! I'm sure all those who arose early yesterday to attend dawn services were sitting around laughing about it. *insert eye roll here*


Every year we if Anzac Day falls on a weekend we get a public holiday for it the following Monday. Every year the day after Easter is a public holiday. This year Anzac Day was a Monday, so instead of only having on public holiday for the two, we still had two public holidays. One for Anzac Day, and one for Easter.


Sadly, this was not the only dumbass comment I heard yesterday about Anzac Day. Some moron on the radio rang in and ranted over the annual football match between Collingwood and Essendon. This also apparently makes it all a big joke. This idiot then went on to say that he doesn't care about Anzac Day anyway and has no true feelings towards this country. Why bother complaining about something you don't care about? If it doesn't affect you in anyway why do you care? Perhaps these two people just need to take a moment and be thankful that they have the change to say and do what they want in this country. Afterall that's what Anzac Day is for us to do. To give thanks to those who fought for us to live freely.

I am very behind

In updating here. Its been hard with Jasmine on holidays. My normal routine has been thrown off. Kinder starts back up on Wednesday and so I should hopefully be back to posting at least twice a week. Well at least that's the goal but as we all know I suck at keeping goals.


One goal I have managed to keep up with for almost two months now is eating well. The results are now starting to speak for themselves. Pants that did not fit in any way on March 1 now fit. Some are even a little bit loose on me. That's about 1.5 dress sizes in under two months. I would like to keep that up for a little while yet but I know that it will slow down. Then again now that the weather is cooler my walks on my days off the treadmill are now longer. Almost twice as long and that has to be helping somewhat. At least I hope it is. I should be able to wear my post-Jasmine jeans this winter and I can't wait. That is my first goal. To be able to wear them. Once I have reached that goal I will make another one. Just one at a time. Nice and slowly.


We had a pretty good Easter yesterday. Lucy certainly loves chocolate. She had a small amount of her bunny from the Easter Bunny but decided she wanted more. So what did she do? She went and managed to reach one of the eggs she got from my mum, opened it and ate it. Total chocolate lover.


Jasmine is now spending two nights with my mother-in-law. She stayed last night and will stay again tonight. I think it might be the longest she has ever stayed away from us her whole life. Both her and Lucy will be staying for two nights next month when Rodger and I go away for our wedding anniversary.


I have an idea for what I'm going to post about tomorrow and so I might go and make some notes about it before I forget and sit down with a blank mind. Yes, I know, that is somewhat normal for me. haha!

Poor little Sad Sickie

Poor Jasmine has been sick all school holiday's thus far. It is now Tuesday of week two and she is finally starting to feel a little better.


She started the holidays with a cold. Simple enough. It didn't really effect her too much. She was a little more tired than normal but other than a runny nose she was fine. She was supposed to spend last weekend with her Nanna. Friday morning she decided to get up at 4:30am. Even though I sent her back to bed, I don't think she went back to sleep. We put her crankiness on Friday down to the fact she was up so early that morning.


So off she went to Nanna's on Friday afternoon. Rodger, Lucy and I went to do the grocery shopping then came home and relaxed. We had dinner and put Lucy to bed, then sat down to watch some TV. At about 8:30pm the phone rang. It was Nanna. Jasmine had thrown up and needed clean pjs. Rodger took some over. Apparently as soon as he got there Jasmine decided that she was coming home. Good thing too as her temperature had started to rise. Some Nurofen bought it back down.


Saturday morning rolls around. Jasmine is now running very hot. So as much as she wanted to, we said she could not go back to Nanna's. All she did all day on Saturday was lay on the couch and watch TV. Her temperature was up and down all day depending on how long it had been since she had last had Nurofen. 


A trip to the doctor on Saturday afternoon confirmed it was a virus. While a virus is good as it runs its course fast, part of me would have preferred a bacterial infection as that can be treated with antibiotics and Jasmine would have started to feel better sooner. With a virus its just up to her body and the virus.


Sunday she was feeling a little better. Her temp stayed down between Nurofen doses and she had more energy. Yesterday (Monday) I was feeling not so hot though. I was all achy and my legs felt like they were made of lead. Blegh! I'm feeling better today but still not 100%. Jasmine had a better day. Although she was very tired by the end of it. She went to bed at about 6:30pm and was asleep 10 minutes later. She slept till about7:30am this morning. She's still tired today. I'm hoping that its just the virus leaving her body and that by tomorrow she will be 100% back to her normal happy full of energy self. 


I'm hoping that by tomorrow I will be feeling full of energy again too. Being sick is no fun no matter what your age is. I would make a really bad hypochondriac. I hate being sick. I don't see where the fun in it is. I don't like being lazy and doing nothing all day. I like to have the energy to be able to do things. And I hate having to remember to take medication. I'm really bad about it and often forget. I sure I hope I never get anything that requires daily medication to stay alive. I'd be a goner....

Only 32 years?

On Monday a man was sentenced to a non-parole period of 32 years.


What was his crime?


He threw his young daughter off a bridge in revenge against her mother.


I would like to know how 32 years is enough? He robbed this child of about 80 years of life. Why should he get to be free after only 32? As far as I know he has never shown remorse for his crime. He was deemed sane by the court. Yes, he is already 37 years old but why should his age stop his from getting a life sentence. The mother of the child sure has a life sentence. For the rest of her life she must go on knowing that her child died at the hands of her father. A man that every little girl should be able to trust with their life. 


I listened to the judge hand down the sentence. It was broadcast live on the radio. His crime was described in chilling detail. At the time he had another one of his children in the car with him. This child begged his father to go back and get his sister. That little boy will forever have those memories. Not only will he have to grow up without his sister, he will have the memory of his father throwing that little girl off the bridge. No child should ever have to witness such an atrocious act.


I honestly don't care how good of a man he may have been before that day. It does not and should not excuse him for what he did! 


Sadly the justice system is full of cases like this. Far too often we hear light sentences being given because the offender "had a bad childhood" like its some kind of excuse or reason to commit a crime. What about the victims of these crimes? They will feel the impact of the crime for the rest of their lives. They are innocent and deserve justice to be served. I fully believe that all that should be looked at is the crime and the impact the crime has had on the victims and on the larger community. Of course as with everything there would be exceptions to this rule, otherwise it would not be a fair justice system. Especially when it comes to determining the offenders mental capacity at the time of the crime.


Obviously someone who throws their child from a bridge has some sort of mental issues, and these were considered and thrown out by the jury so should not have been taken into consideration come sentencing. 


There will never be real peace for this family though, no matter how long he serves in prison. He condemned them to a life sentence the moment he threw his child away.

Lucy and her Dolls

If we had to pick which one of the girls will be coming home pregnant at fifteen it would be Lucy.


Why?


Many reasons.


She loves to clean up after others.


If she spies something on the floor that doesn't belong then she will pick it up and put it in the bin.


She loves helping with the washing. Her favourite thing to do is to push the buttons on the washing machine to make it start. This is always followed by her clapping her hands and saying "yay!"


Her dolls. She loves her baby dolls. She is forever hugging and loving on them. She takes them for walks around the house in her little doll pram. Her use of a plastic toy knife on Baby Freddies' privates does concern me a little though but each to their own. 


A few weeks back at Music she was beyond cute with a baby doll. She was walking around holding it and rocking it when she spied one of her other favourite toys.... a vacuum cleaner. She stand there, looks from the doll to the vacuum and back again. Instead of doing what I would expect most kids her age to do which is to dump the doll right there on the floor, Lucy shifts the doll slightly so she's holding it in one arm, picks up the vacuum and starts playing with it. While she does this she looks at the baby doll and grins.


Yup. That one is coming home pregnant at a young age.

Jasmine and Tink

A few Sunday's ago Jasmine hit yet another major milestone of life. She got her very first pet.


Since we are only renting and can't get anything fun like a cat or a dog we ended up getting her a pet mouse. Rodger's first suggestion was a reptile of some sort but not only do they require a rather large set up , I really do not like them.


She's named her cute little mouse Tinkerbell, though generally we all call her Tink. Tink is small and very fast and therefore we do have a few rules about her. Jasmine is allowed to have her out of her cage but only if Rodger taker her out and if Tink is then put into her clear exercise ball. They day we bought her home we almost lost her getting her out of the box that we bought her home in.


Jasmine is doing a really great job of looking after her, She has her out to play almost everyday. She does need to watch it if Lucy is around though. Lucy loves Tink! Pick up her exercise ball and throw it kind of love. Poor Tink. Lucy must scare the living daylights out of her.


Every night Jasmine helps to change Tink's food and water. She's being really good about it. Thus far she hasn't lost interest but we are assuming that she will on and off at some stage.


Mice only live for about 18 months to two years ad so even if she does completely loose interest in Tink we won't be left to look after her for decades like we would a reptile. If I wanted something that would depend on us to provide for it for 20 years we have have another baby!


The cage we got for her is a great one. You can add onto it so if at any stage she wants another mouse all she has to do is add onto the cage she has at the moment. Unless of course we can't find the parts for it. Only time will tell.

Kiss my ass April.

I hate April.

Why?

Because it all starts in April.

In April my mind starts with the memories. The "this time x years ago". This year the x stand stand for three. Three seems harder than two for some reason. Maybe its because Jasmine turned three just eight days before Lucy was born. It makes it seem like so much longer than three years.

Sometimes it feels like it all never really happened. Like it was all just a really bad dream and I was just someone on the outside looking in at it all. 

I some ways I wish that were the truth. That is was all just a really bad dream that I'm still yet to wake up from. I knows its not though and all this pain and hurt is just something I have going to have to deal with for the rest of my life.

The only think I like about April is the fact that the Royal Children's Hospital's Good Friday Appeal always falls near Zac's birthday. The year he was born it was just before, this year its after.

Each year when we give to the Appeal it is for Zac. We can't give him a birthday present but at least we can give this.

This year is a special one. Yarra Trams had 80 spots available for people to put their face on a tram in support of the Appeal. I cost $250, all of which goes to the Appeal. I sent in Zac's picture and was lucky enough to be one of the first 80!! I think its pretty awesome. We should find out soon which tram and route it will be on. Personally, I would like it to be on a tram that runs past the Royal Children's Hospital or even the one that runs into North Balywn, right near where Rodger and I met. I think either option would be perfect and might just make April that little bit easier this year.

Monthly Cross Stitch WIP

After two months (Feb 28 2011)

 

 

After three months (March 28 2011)

We are dependent on it.

Electricity. I never noticed how much we rely on it till this morning. I suppose you never really know what you have until its gone. 

We woke early this morning to Jasmine screaming. Rodger raced into her room to see what the issue was. Her night light had gone out. I looked over to see what the time was only to see darkness. Where was that red glow of the alarm? Was I blind? Nope, the power had gone out. Rodger got Jassie a little LED light and she was happy. We fumbled around for our phones to check the time. It was a little after 6. 

Luckily thanks to technology we were able to look up on our phones what was going on. There was a major outage in the area and it could be hours before it came back on.

Not long later Jasmine we heard Jasmine walk down the hallway to the toilet. We are so used to power and lights that when she got there she tried to turn the light on! It was actually rather funny. I did the same thing a half hour later. Tried to turn the light on. It had Rodger in stitches. 

It took Jasmine a little bit to fully understand that without power not only did the lights not work but neither did the TV. Poor kid. It totally changed her normal morning routine. She's used to having her morning up and go while watching her shows. She wasn't quite sure what was happening.

Yay for gas cooking though. It was freezing this morning and since we had no power we also had no heating. At least with gas cooking we were able to have pancakes for breakfast. Yummy and hot. Only thing that was going to be missing was my morning cup of tea. :( 

I was sitting in bed reading waiting for my pancake when I heard Jasmine tell Rodger she was just going to test the lights again to see if the power had come back on. Instead of her playing with the lights every few minutes Rodger told her that he would turn the kitchen light on and when it came on Jasmine would know that the power was back. No sooner had he gotten done saying that than what happened? The power came back on!! Good timing. I got to have my cup of tea after all.

Jasmine was also happy the power was back as it meant all the lights worked again. I really did feel sorry for her when she first woke up as she is afraid of the dark. When she'd gone to sleep last night her night light had been on and so she assumed that when she woke up this morning her night light would still be on and it wasn't. She got such a fright. Thank goodness for those little LED lights!

The cost of living in Australia

It bites the big one! $14.99 for a kilo of banana's the other day! Would they like my first born child to go with that?!?! Although if I had to trade Jasmine for the bananas they would last a lot longer since she eats the most of them. There's some food for thought.

Kids clothing is another one. I often buy on-line from overseas. Even with postage and exchange rates its often cheaper. The clothes are also better quality so that they girls out grow them before they out wear them and there is a bigger variety to pick from. And when you have two little girls you need variety otherwise everything they wear would match. While that's cute some of the time, I can't do it all the time. I just don't have it in me. In fact everything for kids cost more here. Car seats, prams, cots. The lot. And the variety just isn't there. What I wouldn't have given while pregnant to have a better variety and choice in what we got. Instead we just had to pick from a very small selection.

Computer items are another thing that costs much more here. I know that suppliers have to ship things further and that is going to push the price up but it can't possible triple the price of some things can it?? Especially when you can buy on line and save money.

Of course if you buy on line you know you are putting big Aussie business out of business? *insert sarcasm here* I'm sorry Mr Harvey, but I'm going to think of my own back pocket before I think of yours.

I've often looked on line at housing prices over seas too. If you were to take the size of home we are wanting and place it overseas the price would drop by up to 50%! Some of that is supply and demand. We have a growing population and the housing industry isn't growing at the same rate but still!

Don't get me wrong. I don't think I would move for all the clothes, cars or computers in the world but it would just be nice if the cost of living here was less and more on par with the rest of the world.

If you can't beat them...

Join them! That's my theory anyway. Beat who? Join what? 

Lets back peddle a little. My neighbours husband spends a good part of his time off work playing computer and video games. Mostly World of Warcraft I believe. It drives her nuts. Especially when he stays up late playing them and wants to sleep in the next day and she must spend all morning trying to keep their two young children silent so he can sleep in. This would annoy me. Personally I would not stand (or sit) for it. Its ok to use your down time to play games, but when it starts to interfere with your family life then it has to stop.

Moving on. Beat who? Join what?

If you can't stop your partner completely playing games, and who would want to anyway? That's just being mean and controlling. Instead of complaining, join them! See what all the fuss is about. Who knows you might just find yourself with a new interest together.

And yes, I do speak from experience. Many years ago Rodger taught me how to play Civilisation 3. I was hooked. I remember the first night I played, I was up till 4am playing while he slept on the couch. This was years before Jasmine was even a thought in our minds. I stopped playing for a while but last year Civilisation 5 was released. I'm totally hooked again. It keeps a total of hours played and well, lets say I'm nearing the 200 hours since last September mark.

When possible we play together. It's great fun. It's something we can both do. A decent game does take babysitters though. We played one over the holidays. It took us 9 hours to play. I won! We have played a few times since too. Mostly though we do play on our own but it is still a shared interest. We share strategies. 

What I'm saying is, next time you find yourself rolling your eyes at your partners interests. Stop. Join them. Sure you may not like it as much as they do, but then again you may just find out what has them so hooked on it.

To Mac or not to Mac

Am I talking about computers?

Am I talking in a baby voice and talking about smacking?

Nope.

I'm talking about MacDonalds. Not the old fellow with the farm. The clown with the restaurant.The Golden Arches. Whatever you want to call it.

While eating my breakfast yesterday, I was reading a blog by a journalist. She had received an email from a parent of a three year old asking if it was ok to say no to another parent about her child attending a birthday party because the party was to be held at McD's. The blogger never gave her opinion but left the comments open for discussion. The comments ranged from both ends of the spectrum. They ranged range some saying how terrible McD's is and anyone who even thinks about taking their kids no matter how rarely is abusing their kids, to others saying that those who are "Food Nazi's" are abusing their kids.

Lets face it. We all know McD's is bad for you. In large amounts eaten often. Eaten rarely in smaller portions, while still not the best choice its ok to have. I don't see the issue in having kids birthday parties there. Its cheap, everything is provided and there is no clean up for the parents. In fact Jasmine recently went to one and loved it. So much so that chance are this year her party will be there. Its a treat. Besides at 3 and 4, kids just don't sit for long enough to eat any more than a few bites before they want to run off and play again.

Take away of any kind has not come into this house in over three weeks now. (Yay us!) However, in just over 2 weeks, we will be having McD's for lunch. It will be Zac's 3rd birthday and has he's not here to celebrate with us, we celebrate for him. McD's is a memory of Zac. Especially since we were eating it upwards of 2-3 times a week while he was at the children's hospital. Eating that often is bad for you and will make you gain weight. I speak from personal experience here.

While on the topic of Zac... We made a hefty donation yesterday to the Good Friday Appeal. Yarra Trams had available 80 spots for photos of people to go on their trams. I sent in Zac's photo. I'm about 90% sure I was one of the first 80. If they don't use him we'll get a refund n the money but as far as I know that hasn't happened. Of course I haven't heard back from Yarra Trams yet either so I don't know for sure either way. I really do hope they use his photo. It's a great cause to support and we do support it mainly for him.

Water Restrictions

While I understand why we have had water restrictions for many years now I still think they stink.

For her third birthday Jasmine got a plastic playhouse for outside. One of the bars that form the roof of it can be connected to a hose and it sprays water. Cool! Or not so much since she has never been able to use it like that. Its not that its been too hot, its been that she hasn't been allowed too.

Poor little girls is 4 and a half years old and has never been able to experience running under a sprinkler in the summer heat. Now the restrictions are easing just in time for the weather to cool down. We have told her that if its warm enough this weekend we will let her play with the water spout thing on her playhouse. For once I am actually hoping that it will be be hot enough.

Both girls love the water as proved by how much they love swimming in Nana's pool.

 

 

 

Don't be jealous

Following on from my post the other day about my run on the treadmill I told someone last night how far I had done in my 35min. Their response "oh ok".

"Oh ok"?!?! I wasn't expecting cartwheels and fireworks but I was expecting a little bit more than an "oh ok". The only real reason I can think that this particular person gave me that response is jealousy. I don't know why they would be jealous. I don't see a reason to be. Perhaps its their own feelings of inadequacy? Who knows.

I don't get how tearing someone else down or not cheering them on is a good way to make yourself feel better. It just makes you look like an idiot. If your doing it because they are doing something that you are wanting to do, then why don't you just say that. Then take steps so you can also meet those goals. 

Does this jealousy simply come from being threatened by me? I don't know why. This person and I are at totally different stages of life. They have had their chances to do what they wanted at my age. They are now at a stage where the only thing they have to worry about is themselves. So really they have all the time in the world to pursue all the goals and dreams that they want to. And the time to dedicate to making sure they happen without interruption from children or work.

There is a very fine line between jealousy and envy. Perhaps there is some envy thrown in there too. I do think that as humans we do tend to envy others a lot. There is always someone with a bigger house, a faster car, a better life. I do think its natural that we want something bigger and better but we shouldn't tear down those who do have those things in order to get them for ourselves. It just doesn't work like that. You have to work for what you want. Getting what you want takes time and effort and loads of hard work. 

I think the best example of envy on a large scale in the way the media tear down celebrities. While I don't think the media owe them anything or that they should not be reporting downfalls of the rich and famous, it seems we, as a society, get pure enjoyment out of seeing these downfalls. I suppose there really is no better way to make ourselves feel better than seeing someone else in turmoil or by tearing them down. However, we must remember that this is only a short term way of feeling better and that the best way to really feel good is to get out there and make life happen. 

Instead of being envious and jealous of those who have more than us, we should be glad that we have the comfort of a roof over our head, food in our bellies and clothes on our back. After all there are many who don't even have that. We need to be grateful for what we do have instead of being jealous of the things we don't have. For all we know, those we are envious of are equally as envious of us.

Going about it all wrong

I think I've been going about my treadmill running all wrong. When we first got it in October last year I started off doing intervals. My progress was slow. Really slow. So I changed the way I was doing it. I changed to running for as long as I could, then doing intervals when I could for the rest of my time. Finally I had progress. I was able to run longer. Slower but longer. As previously mentioned I'm now up to running for 9 minutes at time. The last few times I haven't been looking forward to it as much as I used to. Again my progress has slowed. I was running for more time but the total distance I was covering was barely moving. This morning I went back to doing the intervals. Not only did I beat my last personal best, I totally smashed it! Instead of my average speed being 6km an hour it was 6.6km an hour. That's a huge difference! I was able to do 3.8km in 35 minutes. I'm rather pleased with myself.

I think for a while at least I will go back to doing the intervals. Today I did 4 of two minutes of running followed by 1 of walking, then for the rest of the time I did 1 minute of running followed by 1 minute of walking. I think I may have done 1 or 2 two minute walks in there when I needed to. In total I did 18 minutes of running, which is over all the time I spent on the treadmill. Not bad at all. The plan is to keep this up. Perhaps next time I'll be able to do 4 lots of 2 minutes of running. Once the whole 35 minutes consists of that (2:1) and its easy and my running speed to higher then I'll move up to a 3:1 interval. It just depends on my running speed I guess. Perhaps I need to make a goal running speed? Then once I'm doing the 2:1 at that speed for the whole 35 then move up. Hmmm, might have to give it some thought. 

Either way, for the first time in a while I am proud of my distance on the treadmill today!

No laughing matter

Again today I'm going to use my not so favourite internet forum as inspiration. Since when is having your unborn child diagnosed with not only Di George Syndrome but also a cyanotic congenital heart defect a laughing matter? Sure it may be a stress release but to then continue on about how it doesn't really matter how sick your child will be when he is born is just stupid.

I'll admit it, I don't like this chick. She's not the brightest cookie in the box. This is not her first child, its her fourth. Its also not her first child to have CHD, its her second. What is the other heart babies condition? She doesn't know! I think this is my issue. She doesn't take the time to educate herself on her children's illnesses. 

This fourth baby is unplanned. She and her husband were told NOT to have any further children. Now if we had been told that we would have done something permanent. Instead she plays with fire. On the tax payer. Neither her nor her husband work. And she is proud of the fact that the only income they have is welfare payments. She even boasts about how much they get!

There are so many people in the world who struggle to have healthy babies. People who spend thousands and thousands of dollars to have a healthy baby. People who change their life entirely for their children. People who wait for years and years until they can afford to have a baby. And for some who have never worked a day in their lives, they get to pop out one after another on the tax payer. Where is the fairness in that?

The ones I feel sorry for the most are the kids. I hope this new baby will be ok and that his surgery's go well. For that I feel for her. I've been there and its not fun as a parent to watch your 5 day old baby be wheeled away for open heart surgery. Its not fun to stand there not knowing if you will see him alive again. Not once did I ever laugh about it or brush it off. Instead I educated myself about every thing I could. I knew what was going on at all times and even then is was still hard. Sure ignorance may be bliss but in this case I think its only going to lead to heartache.

A Big Fat Nothing

And I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about what I have to say today. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Someone has come along and sucked all the creative juices from my body. I'm speechless. Haha there's a first!

There is an add for an insurance company on TV. Its about a woman who writes a blog post about how she saw these shoes she liked but can't afford them until... her insurance company texts her at just the right time to tell her her claim has gone through. Thus she then buys the shoes. The narrative is the blog post. Its all tiny little sentences that don't make much sense at all. 

There is another add I totally love. I can't even remember what it is for. I guess they won't be getting me as a customer but anyway. A little boy of about 5 goes up to his grandmother proudly showing her that he's lost a tooth. Grandma tell him that if he puts it under his pillow he'll get a dollar from the tooth fairy. (Clearly Grandma is up on inflation!) Cut to the boy getting out of bed and sneaking into Grandma's room. He plucks her false teeth from the glass by her bed and goes and puts them under her pillow. Genius that kid is! Total genius! And when he grows up he is clearly also going to be a very rich man. 

So I guess my big fat nothing turned into a post about two adds on TV. You could probably describe most adds on TV as big fat nothings so I guess I did keep up with my original theme. Sure its not much but at least its a post. That makes three days in a row I have managed a post. That has to be a record.

Before I go an update to Monday post about my running. I DID IT! I RAN FOR 9 MINUTES THIS MORNING!!!