Odds and Ends

Driving to school last week and a little Dragon voice pipes up from the very back of the car...

"Mummy, Mr Maker has boobies like yours".

"What was that, sweetie"

"I said Mr Maker has boobies like yours"

"uh, okay, are you sure?"

"Yeah, he does"

"No, Mr Maker is a mans and he can't have boobies like Mummy because Mummy is a girl"

"No, Mr Maker has boobies like Mummy"

and for Dragon, that was it.  That signalled the end of the conversation and neither Lion, nor I could say anything to change his mind.  I don't know where the idea came from and it hasn't come back up.  Random.

We had rainbow day at playgroup last Tuesday, I was on morning tea for the grown ups so I made a cake.

This was the outside...

This was the inside...

Yes, it was for the grown ups!

In other exciting events Lion tied one end of a 5 metre rope around his waist with a single knot.  He ties the other end to the rail of the cubby house approximately 2 metres off the ground "with a very tight knot" and informs Wolf that he's going to jump over the edge and it's okay because the rope will stop him before he gets hurt.  Thank goodness he decided to tell Wolf what he was about to do or that would have been a very painful lesson in length and double checking calculations.

For Remembrance Day last week I did some poppy craft with Dragon, he had loads of fun and even thought himself to give his craft to one of his friends whose daddy is overseas with the Air Force.

Things have been interesting around here lately.  Saturday must have been in the running for some kind of awards. After the first few incidents that I can't remember now I figured why not give my friends on facebook a live feed of the crazy...

*Do not give your 3 kids babycinos and then hide from them for some peace and quiet.

There will be mess.

It will be on the carpet.

You will be sorry.

*I just found Monkey standing on the kids table singing and shaking his toosh dancing... lets hope this isn't a future career path for him.

*I let Monkey play with daddy's hair brush while I changed his nappy and... Well... I'm gonna need to wash it now. Should I tell Wolf?

*I Went to put Monkey in bed and found he'd trashed his room at some point... I made him clean it up but he had so much fun cleaning it he promptly up-ended the basket of his clothes so he could clean that up too.

This was another gem, I had helped the big boys build a pillow fort to try and keep them a little bit quiet while Monkey had a nap, Lion and Dragon were both talking a mile a minute, speaking as one person."...and mum, y'know what mum, if anyone tries to get into our fort the crocodile will eat them, or the snake will bite them, or the lion will eat their foot, or the dragon will breathe fire on them, or the possum will hiss at them, or the rock wallaby will... um... throw rocks at them"

Monkey loves apples, so far I've only given him a whole apple.  I love my apple slinky machine so when I was making apple slinkies for his brothers I figured I'd run one through for Monkey too...  I don't think he quite knew what to do with it so he did what any self respecting 1 year old would do... he broke it into a zillion little pieces and threw them around.

I think he may have eaten a few small pieces.

Monkey also loves his highchair, if he's in his highchair, it means I'll be giving him food.  So he got his hook on highchair pretty grotty so I put it by the back door so I could take it outside and hose it and the next morning while we were getting ready I found that it was suddenly filled with a baby again.

Today I read on Twitter that someone (I wont name her just in case she doesn't want it shared further than she already has *update* Ali is happy to be linked and she's heaps of fun so go here to meet her) was going to book herself a colon hydrotherapy appointment.  Now, I was a little sleep deprived so I didn't connect the dots of colon meaning, well, your colon and hydrotherapy meaning LOTS of water.  So I googled what colon hydrotherapy involved... then I lapsed even further and I clicked a YouTube link... yeah. I did.  I quickly figured out that this was not something I was going to be putting my hand up for any time soon but figured that surely the clip will just go though what happens without actually showing it.  Nope, not only do they show you what is being cleansed from the colon but these people show their faces.  What possesses them to record this stuff in the first place but more than that, what possesses them to cut to a shot of their face, immediately to a shot of what was formerly residing in their bowel.  I was rather shocked by the clips we found on YouTube of people using neti pots and filming the former contents of their sinus cavities but this was just plain crazy.  The similarities were not lost on me though... Colonic Irrigation, it's like a Neti Pot for your, well, you know.

Now, to get those mental images out of your head...

Here's a cute kid.

Lizard eggs and "Other Grandpaps"

So what do you do if you find a lizard egg in a pot plant at playgroup? Why, you give it to your older and wiser brother to look after don't you!

Dragon found a lizard egg and gave it to Lion to look after. Thankfully Lion told me about it because he had put it in his breast pocket "to keep it warm". I managed to convince him that the best place for lizard eggs was in the soil of a pot plant and his pocket wasn't a good place for a lizard egg because it could easily get squashed and if he forgets about it it'll go through the wash and that won't be any good for the lizard egg. He needed to take it for one more ride around the playground on the trike before he would put it in the pot plant. I have my doubts about that one ever hatching but it's got a better chance where it is now that in Lion's pocket!

Dragon is starting to get excited because as he says "my Grandpap and my other Grandpap are coming to see us when our new baby pops out!" Yes, Nano, "other Grandpap" is you! This week at least. (Grandpap and Nano are Wolf's parents)

Lion had this whole different names for different grandparents thing figured out from the start. He had a photo of Nano and Grandpap that he would carry around the house with him and tell anyone that would listen that it was Grandpap and Nano in the photo. Dragon however has gone through a variety of names for a variety of grandparents. Sometimes the various "grandma's" get "grandma and other grandma and other grandma" and sometimes he gets the great-grandma thing right and the other great-grandma is Lapun Mama ("old mother" in pidgin). Occasionally he does get I think our current confusion though is that we have been talking a bit about Nanna lately, that would be Grannysarus' mum. So now he is confused because he has figured out that Nanna isn't married to Grandpap and isn't the one coming up with him the baby "pops out". Oh man, I am confused reading back through this. It's a lot for a little man to figure out, these boys are really lucky to have so many grandparents around but the names just get a bit confusing!

Anyway, Grandpap and Nano aka "other Grandpap", Dragon is REALLY excited that he will be seeing you soon! He's just got to figure out the logistics of your travel once he gets the names sorted. He informs me that you are flying here and driving back... at least that is what he is saying today. But he just will NOT believe us that you are driving here and flying back... it makes much more sense his way. He even asked yesterday if we can "pop the baby out today so my Grandpap and my other Grandpap can come and see me".

Note to self: Make sure you get some good photos of the grandies while they are here because you don't have any of them in the same photo and both looking at the camera... for now, just distract everyone with some cute old photos of your kids...

a wee little dragon about 2 years ago

a wee little lion about 2 years ago... yes, his daddy thinks this is the funniest thing to do!

A post by any other name would smell as... postlike?

All dressed up and ready for....

PLAYGROUP!!! It was Pyjama Day at playgroup today. For the first time in ages I didn't dread getting dressed to go out. I could be REALLY comfortable. The boys thought it was so much fun wearing their PJ's to playgroup. Don't look too close, my eyes say I'm all dressed ready for bed as much as my clothes do. Please also ignore the used nappy on the floor that had just been removed from a small child.

I was on the roster for craft so I thought I would share what we did today. Mostly though because I thought Dragon's craft was particularly beautiful. I wanted something simple that there was a chance that even my boys might be interested in (they aren't big on arty/crafty stuff) so I printed out a person outline and cut up pieces of old fabric for the kids to glue on to make some "Crazy PJ's" As usual the girls got right in and um'd and ah'd over where to put each piece and I had to really encourage Dragon to stick with it till the end. Lion didn't want to do it at all... not surprising, it would have taken his time away from the Mobilo. Then Dragon got on to colouring in the face... he has one eye, one ear, one nose and hair... lots of hair... and a beard. I think he's pretty great!

The only problem I had with pyjama day was that I couldn't wear my most comfy pj pants because they are 8 years old and wearing thin in A LOT of places. I have three pairs of the same style in varying lengths that I picked up when we lived in Bundaberg. The elastic around the waist is showing in spots almost the whole way round, the bottom of the legs are starting to look a bit tatty, I haven't even checked anywhere else for holes! I seriously put them on and thought about wearing them but decided my comfy Bonds tracky dacks would probably be a better option.

At nap time today I think we may have hit upon a winner. I'm not sure if it will continue but it certainly worked again at bedtime. We pretended we were getting on a plane to sleepyland. I was the captain making "boarding calls" (getting them to come to the bedroom) and we read the "flight plan" (story time) and gave them the inflight messages - keep your head on your pillow, keep your eyes closed, falling asleep will help pass the time faster, please keep your fingers out of your nose, I will provide you with inflight music as long as your eyes remain closed, I will now dim the cabin lights for your comfort during your journey... that sort of thing. I didn't have to speak to them after I left the room at either nap time or bed time. AMAZING!!! I didn't get a single request for the light to be left on, at nap time they even ASKED if I could close the (plane) door (something that usually gets shrieks and panicked screams any other time). We'll see if this keeps up.

I made Hillbilly Spaghetti Pie for dinner tonight... BOY was that a winner too! Lion ate so much I thought he would POP. I did put too much on Dragon's plate so I took some back off half way through and he finished what he had. Not a peep of "I don't like this bit" or "this isn't what I wanted" or "I'm not going to eat that stuff" or any of the things they usually try on us. OH BOY WAS IT GOOD! I think it's better than regular spag bog. The boys usually pick out as much tomato and meat as possible with spag bog and they didn't pick out anything with this, so I'm quite fond of that point too, CLEAN PLATES! I found it here at Be Encouraged a lovely new site I am visiting. But she got it from here. That's the link to the actual recipe. The absolute best bit... ONE POT! There's a few things that I am thinking of doing to this recipe but the one that attracts me most is to replace the cheese on top with a cheesy bachemal sauce but I need to weigh up if it's worth dirtying the extra pot to do that. Seriously, try this recipe! Tonight!

Things you need to worry about in a kids playground

1. THE FLAME THROWER!!!!

Well, I guess it wasn't really a flame thrower but I am allowed to exagerate, it's my blog.

Yesterday we had an outing for playgroup to a local park. We turned up and found that the council had decided that a wednesday morning was a great time to paint a new hopscotch grid on one of the paths. Makes sense to me!!!!! So, wet paint was the first problem we could forsee. Thankfully they decided to move the great big buckets of paint away so they were out of kids reach but it made the hopscotch more accessible. We had a talk to them and they said they would be about an hour (half of playgroup) the kids thought it was great watching the paint sprayer and stuff and then they needed to dry it all at the end. So out comes the flame thrower (you cant see the flames in this shot but rest assured, they are there and quite big!)

and where are our children during this rather dangerous looking exercise.... why right next to them of course...At one stage they had to wait for one layer of paint to dry a bit before they could put on the next layer, all the kids were standing watching and I asked Lion if he would like to climb on the spiderweb or have a swing or play in the sand "no thanks mummy, I would just like to watch the paint dry." and so they all stood there and watched the paint dry...

My Magpie admirer came back with a gift for me yesterday too. I'm not sure what it was but it was slimy and quite large really. Actually I think he just wanted to find somewhere quiet to eat it himself because the diggers were making too much noise in the back padock (Renata- I think they are building a new housing development).

Green Day

Yesterday was Green Day at playgroup. As in Red Day, Blue Day, Yellow Day.... although some may have misinterpreted the theme...
That's right, those McTavish boys along with JMac went along as the boys from Green Day. Before I get horrible comments about putting eye makeup on 3 and 1 year old boys let me tell you that Lion wanted it on! And what Lion has Dragon wants so he got some too. I had to put it on with my finger so I didnt poke their eyes out so it looks a little more like black eyes but that's okay.

JMac has the serious rock star post sorted out.

Two of the sPunks had their own personal photo shoot before leaving home.

Lion was pretty pleased with his transformation.

Even Rock Stars need to do the dishes.


"Wilbie" whose mummy faithfully keeps up with the McTavish clan blogs, all decked out in green.
The GREEN food.

Notice it's a McTavish boy that is practically climbing onto the table to be closer to the food.

Splitting Chins?

Lion was close to having to get a stitch or two in his chin for this one… leaving playgroup today I noticed a scratch on his arm and when I loaded him in the car I did the lick the finger and wipe it to see how bad it is thing and it wiped off. Not really sure where the blood came from I went searching and found the back of his pudgy little hand was covered with smeared blood. I asked him where he had hurt himself and he said “look at Lion unda neck mummy” and he had a cut on his chin. I took him home and started to clean him up before I got him out of the car because I thought if I needed to go to the Doc it would be easiest to not get either of them out. I then realised that it was more than I wanted to handle and I had better go to the Doc. I organized to pick up Wolf (I was not going to hold his head still if he needed to get stitched up!) and we went off to the Doc. In the mean time I tried to get out of Lion what he did and the best I could get was “look dere a ole unda Lion neck mummy, dere a ole” yes I assured him there was a hole there. He seemed pretty impressed. I managed to get out of him that he did it on bricks but when exactly and how and which bricks I don’t think I will ever know. I am sad that he can do something like that and not need a mummy cuddle. He said he cried but there were no tear streaks through the grime on his face so I don’t know if he actually did. I asked him why he didn’t tell me when he did it or why he didn’t tell fis friends mummies if he couldn’t find me and he didn’t seem to see why he should have. So the doc pretty much said that he wouldn’t bother even trying to stitch a 2 year olds chin unless it really needed it and got the nurse to recommend what sort of dressing would be best he also said that it was going to scar no matter what he did so we might as well use the minimum to avoid trauma. Now we have a big white dressing that we cant change for 5-7 days on his chin. It will be so disgusting by the time it comes off! The nurse gave me some antibacterial soap to try and keep it a bit clean since it is on his face. Lion was afraid of the treatment room and the nurse though. He has only been in that room and to the nurse to get his immunizations and daddy in all his wisdom had told Lion that he might have to get a needle for his chin so when I tried to put him on the bed he wouldn’t put his bottom down. We eventually figured out the problem and explained that the nurse was only going to put on a new special bandaid like the one mummy had put on and he had said that it tickled when I did that so it would be a nice thing.

CHICKS DIG SCARS!

Post Script - Eventually I found out from asking the other mummies that he hit a pole at full speed, fell over, got back up and kept going at full speed. No one mentioned it to me because they assumed since he barely blinked he hadn't hurt himself. I am at least a little relieved that he didnt do it doing any of the very dangerous things he told me were how he did it, still sad he didnt need my kisses to make it better. -MMcT