Your Aiming Is Off

photo credit

Last night I was a little upset after finding a puddle of 'wee' on the toilet floor, because the boys are unable to aim properly.  So this morning when I heard Lion heading for the toilet I went in to educate him.

'Lion, when you are doing a wee can you please aim below the flush line.  When you hit above that it splashes onto the floor.'

'Where?'

'Just there' I say bending forward slightly to point at the area I am talking about.  Suddenly I feel a warm wet sensation on my hand.

'Lion! you just wee'd on me!'

'I was aiming like you said' 

The Boys would really like a bathroom like this, maybe it's incentive to get them to aim properly.
photo credit

Sunday Snapshot

Totally mixing it up today... Sunday Snapshot on a MONDAY!!!  Hold on to your hats, folks, if it's starting off this crazy who knows where it'll go!

*****

Lion wrote a song this week...

*air guitar intro* Dang ga dang ga dang... "You've got three minutes..."  Dang ga dang ga dang dang dang ga dang "we need a flat piece of steel..." Dang ga dang dang dang ga dang ga dang "We're going to the junkyard to look for an engine..." Dang ga dang ga dang ga dang ga dang ga....

My boy can't get enough of Junkyard Wars... or Scrapheap Challenge... or any of those shows.

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"Help, there's a dinosaur drowning in my coffee!"

I made coffees yesterday, cappuccino for Wolf and I and babyccino for the boys.  The kids had the dinosaur sprinkles on their babyccinos and Wolf decided he wanted them too... sometimes it's fun to be a bit childish.

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I knew it would happen one day, I thought it would happen sooner than this!  Lion had a little mishap while wiping his bottom yesterday... it was hilarious... he didn't think so.  He had taken himself to the toilet and obviously was finished and wiping his butt when we hear screaming coming from the toilet and lion comes running out with one hand held as far away from him as he can get it and the other holding his shirt up "I WAS WIPING MY BUTT AND MY FINGER WENT THROUGH THE TOILET PAPER AND I'VE GOT POO ON MY FINGERS!!!!  SOMEONE TURN ON THE TAP QUICKLY!!!"

My laughter was quickly met by another scream "It's really not funny, mummy, it's soooo gross!"  yes, we have discussed that before little man.

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"I've got my snugly to take to bed with me" says Dragon.

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Sunday School started yesterday.  Dragon gets to go this year, he was VERY excited.  At the moment it looks like he is going to be the only one from his age group that is going to go.  They are allowed to go at 3 as long as they can at least try to sit and listen and participate.  Dragon is better at that than Lion so I figured we'd be okay.  Dragon was absolutely thrilled that he was allowed to go and do the craft and listen to the story and sing the songs and do whatever else they do at Sunday School, he has been waiting for so long to be allowed to go!

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Is it just me or do these two...

...look like they have escaped from the Village People?

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Today is my first day with just Monkey Man and I.  I've got to admit, I'm quite enjoying it.  I just had lunch... I got the container with the leftover chicken still on the frame out of the fridge, put it on the bench and stood there and ate some.  Kids kinda expect you to make them something for lunch, dumping a dead, cooked animal down in front of them just doesn't cut it.  Picky picky.  Monkey and I did some shopping this morning because we needed a few things and it was so lovely, just the two of us.  I can be sad that the big boys are gone, but since that isn't going to change I'm not going to feel guilty having a lovely day without them!

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Finally... Update on Kate... 34 weeks, blood sugar levels are good thanks to nightly insulin and babies are still growing well. Dr is unlikely to induce babies until at least 37 weeks. She would appreciate prayer for more sleep at night and a smooth transition for little Wilbie when she is in hospital.  34 weeks was the magic date to be allowed to go to the hospital that she wants to.  YAY WE MADE IT... (I say that like I had something to do with it... hehehehe).  Don't worry, I will certainly be shouting it from the blog-tops with these little sweeties are born!!!

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Notice to Grandparents:

Grandparents, please stop taking my children to super exciting places like pet shops and petrol stations. It leaves me with big shoes to fill.

Thank-you.


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I made the boys some kites at their request this morning. I knew they would never get aloft because they wanted the string to be a piece of elastic that was tying their new gumboots together. So elastic holding up a piece of paper cut into a diamond was not looking likely to get any air. That and the fact that there was NO wind today. I assumed they would just run through the house doing their best to break things as they went past and be happy with a little bit of a flapping sound behind them.

They were not.

Lion seemed to think his should get airborne INSIDE. After all, it's a kite, is should immediately as it is let go ascend towards the sky and magically hang there! Dragon was a little more realistic and went outside to try and fly his. He waved the string around for a bit and achieved nothing. "There id no wind" his downcast face informs me. "Maybe we ask God for wind?" he suggests but doesn't want to pray for some reason so I leave it at that and he comes back in. He talks to me a bit about God being everywhere but not in our backyard and I try to clarify things for him but he is stubborn on this point.

Come nap time he asks to pray which is what we usually do at bed time. Usually I will ask if he wants to say the words or if he wants me to say them or if he wants to repeat what I say. I start to ask but he is already going... "Dear God, please make some wind. Amen"

They have lunch after nap time and go and grab their kites again and I hear "YAY! God made wind, God jumped our fence and made some wind!" and he was out the back door to play with his kite. There was only a little breeze so his kite still barely fluttered but he had fun for 2 minutes.

They both had lots of fun with them and surprisingly kept them safe the entire day so I didn't have to re-make 500 kites! We got good value out of our second hand elastic and two sheets of scrap paper!

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They have given me a run for my money today. We have had quite a few chats about behaviour. They never got really naughty but you know how you can see things going downhill and you try to cut it off before it happens... I feel like I spent the day putting out embers so that we didn't get a full on bushfire! But I got a nap. I think I need to prescribe naps for myself from here on in. Usually I at least get 30 minutes sitting down with my feet up during the day, yesterday I got nothing like that and I was running all over town in the car which I don't think my feet like and last night I was ready for bed before the boys and my feet were all puffy and sore. So today I had a proper nap after I strapped the kids to their beds convinced the kids that it was nap time and messing with mummy was not a good idea. I now have the kids in bed and I feel like I can actually get on with stuff uninterrupted, I still have energy (just a little) left to keep going. This is definitely how I prefer to feel in the evenings.

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And now... just because it's my blog and I am having fun going back through old photos on the external hard drive... here's my little men way, way back when they were teeny tiny.

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Oh, and for those that want all the McTavish inside goss... Toilet training is going along GREAT!!! YAY. He is no where near as demanding as Lion was about having an audience and the correct post piddle procedures. Now if they would only stop leaving clumps of sultanas on the floor to freak me out that there has been an accident...

You're tellin' me!

Warning: totally toilet related. This is one you can be thankful is photoless!

"MUMMY I'M FINISHED" came the Lion sized scream from the toilet... I know he can wipe his own butt and I know that he will need to not be on default scream-for-mummy-mode next year at school so I am desperately trying to encourage him to do this particular task for himself... also it's DISGUSTING. Why would I want to wipe the butt of someone that can do it on their own???

"You can do it sweetie"

"No, I can't"

"Yes you can, I know you can"

"I can, but I don't want to"

(mummy is exasperated now...) "Why don't you want to?"

"IT'S DISGUSTING"

You don't say.... that child amazes me. If I didn't need to use the loo myself I may have just left him sitting there till he wiped his own backside.

Which brings me to another point... who takes toilet priority? The *finally* toilet training 2 year old who will very likely sit for 5 minutes and produce nothing or the pregnant lady who may not have 5 minutes till she, well, you know... This scenario has presented it's ugly head a few times over the last few days and I have never been so desperate for an ensuite!

McTavish Mishmash

There has been fire on the hills near us lately. The air is filled with black snow. At least two afternoons it was bad enough to not let the kids outside to play. I closed up all the windows except the small ones in the toilet and bathroom and I left the kitchen window open a crack. The house still smelt of ash and fire. I can't imagine being in a bushfire. I think it was a controlled burn it didn't get close (in fireman's terms, in my terms it was way too close) to peoples houses. The boys liked to see the thin line of flames moving across the hills from our very safe distance on the other side of the river. All the ash in the air did give us some beautiful sunsets. I know they need to do burn offs and I know that so many native plants require the heat from the fire to germinate but I feel sad for all the little animals that get caught in them.

I have a hole in my last pair of maternity pants. Well, an almost hole. I'm wondering if it can last me through the next 4 weeks, then they can go in the bin. It's right in the crotch so there is the fact that I don't usually sit with my legs apart so people wont see it but also the fact that if it DOES split it's in a very embarrassing spot. I have a few other pairs of pants that I can MAKE fit me but they aren't comfy at all. These pants aren't even really maternity pants. I couldn't afford maternity jeans when I was pregnant with Lion and I had a pair of stretch jeans that was a little too big for me. I wore them as long as I could then when they started to get too tight I would throw then in the drier and put them on still hot and they eventually stretched out as I got bigger and bigger. They have seen me through Lion and Dragon and most of Peach Blossom. They have served their time but to start to fall apart this close to the end????

I was supposed to have an OB appointment this Tuesday. I had been getting nosebleeds since Sunday so yesterday I rang to see when I should start to get concerned and the lovely receptionist said to come on in and get checked out. Apparently since my blood pressure is fine I don't have to worry unless they keep going after I have this baby. I had the odd nosebleed with Lion and Dragon but never anything as big as these or as long lasting. I really hope they do go away BEFORE I have Peach Blossom.

Sometimes when I look in their room I am glad Dragon is only on a trundle bed. This would be REALLY uncomfortable if he was on a big bed! Oh well, at least his feet are comfy.

He has suddenly decided he's interested in toilet training. I on the other hand had decided that I wouldn't try again till after Peach Blossom was born. I know that they need that extra bit of cheerleading at the start and like me to stay in there with them while they try but I am just not up for that at the moment... Still, we have had a #2 success after he asked to use the toilet and then a #1 success when he said he needed to go. YAY. Last night he actually went out to grandmas wearing undies and there were no accidents. I just hope Wolf and Lion can provide some of the cheerleading he needs so I don't have to and maybe we'll get this one out of nappies before the next goes into them.

I am cleaning out the playroom at the moment. We had to take all the furniture and all the toys out to the garage to get the air con put in (didn't have to but with open baskets I thought it was best so they didn't get full of besser brick chunks and gyprock dust from them drilling through the wall. When it was all moved out we discovered that rain had come through that window and we hadn't noticed so the wall had gone moldy in one spot. YUCK. That's now cleaned up, floors been mopped, shelves all cleaned, carpet is getting some much needed grossness killing UV light in the backyard and may even get hosed off if I could be bothered and all the toys are still in the garage. There are rules though... they are not coming in until they have passed the mummy muster. I am sorting through them putting away sets that are too little for Lion and Dragon but will be too big for Peach Blossom for a while, making room for other toys that need their space. I am only letting back into the house toys that aren't broken and toys that are still wanted. I would usually do this just before the boys birthdays in October to make room for any new toys they get but I don't think I'll be bothered then so now while it's all out of there for a bit seems like a good time... but hard work. It is nice throwing out all those McDonald's toys (how do they get them? We don't buy them Happy Meals) and all the broken toys that hurt my feet when I stand on them and the little bits and bobs that no longer belong to anything. I started sorting last night and left them with only the wooden train set for when they woke up this morning. They have been quite content with that for hours now.

It's the Sunday School picnic today... looking forward to that... sitting in a chair at the park by the river and keeping half an eye on where the boys are while they play with their friends. I probably should make something to take with us... to do that I probably should get the kitchen cleaned up... better stop blogging...

The Puppet Masters and some random goodness

I needed to distract my kids from the fact that I was neither feeding them or letting them watch TV this afternoon so I pulled out a little trick I have been thinking of trying for a little while. We turned the long couch around and we made it our puppet theatre! The boys had a blast. Unfortunately it wasn't the mummy-less fun that I expected it to be. First they needed someone to be the audience, then they actually expected the audience to pay attention. Then they needed a wee bit of mediation between some diva puppets. Finally they demanded a mummy performance... I'd just like to say I had them in stitches! Apparently I'm quite the comedian when I have my hand shoved up the backside of a small furry native animal.

Lots of other random bits of excitement happened today... We had a little incident at playgroup this morning. I was on set up so I was there early and a friend turned up with her two little boys and as I was pulling stuff out of the cupboard she very calmly tapped me on the arm and said "a spider just crawled under your shoe" I figured from her calm exterior that it was a daddy long legs or a garden spider. I stepped back and lifted my foot. This thing was the size of a small car! it was at least a foot between the eyes and after I freaked out and did "the spider dance" I put my foot between it's eyes... and all over the rest of it's creepy crawly body. I detest anything that can move without making a sound. So then it was dead and neither of us would move its still twitching body from the floor but figured it's probably not the best thing to do leaving it there with little babies turning up any minute so I went and got the minister from his office and asked him to remove the monster. I don't think he believed me that it shrunk incredibly when I stood on it. I asked my friend why she was so calm when it was such a massive creepy spider... "well it was your foot it was under, not mine" Yeah, thanks.

We were singing "He's got the whole world in His hands" this afternoon and we were putting in some of the Colin words then I sang "He's got the Mummies and the Babies in His hands, He's got the..." waited for Lion to pick the next line... "fishies and the Daddies in His hands" Yeah, I was expecting more like "the Daddies and the big kids" but obviously the fishies rank right up there too :)

Dragon survives on breakfast. Some days he doesn't eat much breakfast and I worry that he'll be passing out before dinner time (when he doesn't eat much anyway). Today he did his "I don't want lunch" thing and I did my "I'm gonna trick you into eating" thing. "Want some lunch, maybe a sausage?" "no, I not ungry" "okay, what about a little sandwich?" "okay" "what would you like on it?" "um... I like a big sandwich on it" So, how to sneakily be hungrier than you want to let on...

We have one of those little toilet seat things with the ladder up the front and the kid size seat that sits over the top. I took it off the toilet today as I flushed it for Lion and thought that I had accidentally dunked part of it in the flushing water... yuck. So when I went into the loo later and saw some big water drops on the floor I figured I must have swished some out. Then I thought it might be a bit too much water for what I thought I had done and there was no puddle where the seat would have dripped after I put it against the wall. I then noticed that Wolf's seed catalogue was rather damp and I realised Lion had been to the loo since then so I tried another avenue of questioning... "lion did you miss the toilet when you did a wee before?" "no mummy" "did the toilet splash when you flushed it?" "no mummy" Mummy has another horrifying thought "Lion did you drop daddy's catalogue in the toilet?" "no, um, yes mummy" "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" "I wanted to read it while I was going to the toilet" "BUT YOU WERE DOING A WEE" "yeah" "YOU WERE STANDING UP" "I know, and I dropped it in" "okay, how about you don't read when you are doing a wee, if you want to read while you wee you need to sit down to do your wee" "okay mummy".

To censor or not to censor...

I figured when I started blogging that there would be some things I wouldn't blog about... Toilet training fell into that category, why would anyone care about my kids potty training? Well, if you don't' care stop reading now... this blog was started for family and I'm getting sick of sending texts asking for happy dances so here it is for all to read...

Dragon is going great guns... today.

I've lost count of the number of undies we have been through but each pair that goes in the wash only has a few spots and has been finished on the toilet or potty. Followed by an MnM a sticker and a happy dance. We (he) wore a nappy to the shops but at home we have been in undies. All the drips have been on the tiles (oh so thankful). He's about the same age Lion was when he started training but I'm hoping it wont take as long as it did for Lion. Using the toilet is going to take a while though, it's something I have been wondering about for a long time... he is... um... well... not so well endowed in that area. I'm sorry Dragon, it's out there for all to read now.

So, HAPPY DANCE with us...and have an MnM too if you want.

Smell? What smell!

'A picture is worth a thousand words', the saying goes, so here is a thousand word essay.

-Wolf McT

What a good little Lion...

And what a silly Mummy!

I was just preparing some photos to blog (we have a lot of catching up to do) and Lion came in to tell me he needed to do a poo (he was in bed before that). I helped him get the extra seat on the toilet and told him I'll be back in a minute, dont call out it'll wake Dragon up (he often goes slow, no point in hanging around). I set about getting photos blog ready and completely forgot he was sitting on the toilet. Wolf finished his phone call and came in and asked what was happening with Lion. "He should be in bed" I replied starting to get upset that he must be mucking around at bed time yet again... "OH, NO, HE'S STILL ON THE TOILET!!!!!!!" Poor little thing was sitting very quietly, I walked in and he whispered "mummy, I've done a poo". What a good boy he is. I appologised profusely for forgetting he was on the toilet and we got him back into bed. Silly Mummy.