RED NOSE DAY 2010

Today is Red Nose Day, which is a fundraiser to support SIDS and kids.

 SIDS and Kids is dedicated to saving the lives of babies and children during pregnancy, birth infancy and childhood. We deliver on our vision through world class research; evidence based education and bereavement support and advocacy. 

Sadly each year over 4,300 babies and children die suddenly and unexpectedly from sudden infant death syndrome, stillbirth, fatal sleeping accidents and accidental death. Over 50% of these deaths still have no known cause. SIDS and Kids works to change all this through the provision of education, bereavement support services and funding vital research into stillbirth, sudden infant death syndrome and safe sleeping practices.

SIDS and Kids relies almost totally on the support of the Community.

We're also waiting on our new Red Nose for our car, which we get every year, but this year the campaigners didn't include them in the boxes which are placed at cash registers in shops....... While I was keen to get my hands on a fresh one(ours is now white from being in the sun on the bonnet all year!), and I made the effort to source where they were and call up to get one sent to us, I'm sure many others would not.  This is a crazy mistake!!  These boxes at point of sale are largely relying on spontaneous sales as your goods are rung up by the register operator.  When I spoke to the lady at SIDS, she mentioned having "tens of thousands" of the car magnets left.....duh, wonder why??  I only hope they don't make the same mistake next year, as they need every dollar they can get.

Are you wearing a Red Nose today?

Barbie 80's/90's Versus Barbie 2010

Toy Story 3 has been advertised lately, and something that caught my eye is my fave Barbie is in it!!  So, I rushed out and bought her ;)

I'm pleased to see, Barbie is a healthier shape these days, more realistic to a real woman's body shape.

Here are pics of my old Barbie, on the left, and the new Barbie, on the right....

Straight away, still in the package, I noticed she has chunkier thighs and hips....all the better to bare babies with!!

Chunkier bottom....more junk in her trunk, lol

Now, my Barbie isn't wearing her original shoes, so maybe she came wearing heels too.....but what is with Barbie wearing heels when she's in her fitness gear????

Her whole outfit, including bag and legwarmers are now sparkly.

I raised an arm on them for this shot, to show the differences....

New barbie has a bigger bottom, chunkier thighs, little tummy pot(or at least not flat tummy!), and boobs that are in a better ratio to the rest of her body!

See, you can even see her wider hips/thighs when she's sitting ;)

Do you think Sophie's better??

Do you think Sophie's better?!

I got a shock yesterday when I saw this dark object moving up high, in my peripheral vision....thinking a spider or something, but then wasn't that relieved when I looked up and saw Miss Sophie all the way up on the sliding door rails in the hallway. 

I was shocked!!

How the hell did she get up so high?

Well, it's safe to say she must have strong pelvis bones to jump to such a height!!

Cheeky girl, glad to have her back to her mischievous self ;)

Happy Sewing Machine Day!

Today, as well as being my birthday, it is also Sewing Machine Day!

Especially perfect for this year, as I received presents from three of my loved ones....my Mum, and two of my mates, who all consider themselves non-sewers(I beg to differ, as you will see when I can upload pics of their craftiness!), and have taken up sewing partly being inspired by me!!(amongst other friends who have started sewing lots)

Our generation of women are revamping the skills of our nanna's & grandma's!!

There is so many young muma's who've taken up the sewing and knitting needles and crochet hooks, it's wonderful to see more and more littlies in home-made creations and houses adorned with works of love.

A present is far more appreciated when you look at all the stitching and know they were all done with you personally in mind, it is really a special feeling when you receive something especially sewed for you!

Today, I turn 28!

I can't blog about my wonderful birthday yet, full of lovingly home made and reclaimed prezzies, coz my camera is stuffed and all the pics are on my Dad's camera....so will have to wait to get them onto my lapi later in the week.

But, when I went searching on google for something "rainbow birthday" and went into "images of rainbow birthday", looky what came up on the 1st page!! 

How perfect, a message especially for me!! ;-D

Our son, the Gobbledok!

Good golly, we have our very own Gobbledok here!

Last night Tyler took Jack out for take-away, while I was out on a girls night to celebrate my birthday.  They went to Uncle Dan's work and had burgers and chips.

We already know we have a big spud fan, rather like his Uncle Dan, he'll eat it in any form.... hot chips, crisps, roast, steamed, mashed.  He even nibbles on raw potato skin as we prepare dinner!

But, through the darkness last night, I was woken to a soft little voice chanting "Chippies! Chippies! Chippies!" in his sleep!  He must have been dreaming of his beloved potatoes!! lol

Women's Circle -Courtney's birthing flag and Goddess Eyes

One of our beautiful women was nearing the end of her pregnancy and having a blessingway, for those of us that couldn't be there, she invited us to participate in making a flag to add to her birthing banner.

This is mine.....

She actually gave a piece of calico for the flag, but said we could use different fabric if we desired, so I got Jack to doodle on the calico.  I thought it would be a nice touch, seen he joins us in our circle every week ;)

It wasn't until I loaded these pics though, that I noticed the foot outline I traced on Jack's piece actually has 6 toes!! lol How'd that happen? hehe

Jack loved participating in this, and as you can see in the pic, was pretty proud of his work!

Unfortunately, Courtney couldn't join us to give her our flag this night, for good reason.....Sheree said she was not feeling well, and 2dys later, on Sheree's(her doula and good friend) birthday, Courtney birthed her little girl!!

Welcome Earthside Taioma!!

Free birthed at home.

Congratulations Courtney, Leo and Lusimba xxx

Our theme for this weeks circle was making Goddess Eyes. 

These are made out of twigs of an apple tree, secured into a cross, woven with wool and laden with feathers and/or jewels.  They are said to bring luck and love and fertility. 

All the women at Courtney's blessingway made these there and left them for her, to bless her birthing space.

While we made them, we munched on the giant bikkie JackJack and I made the day before.

Sheree's youngest daughter Sage joined us for some bikkie too.

This is my Goddess Eye.

I used a bit of every colour wool there! 

Sheree had a collection of birds feathers and I wove 3 into each corner, except the corner that I made the top, which I put a loop of wool to hang it.

The left feather is a Honeyeater, the bottom is a Cockatoo and the right feather is a Magpie.

I have hung it in our bedroom, to draw in our baby spirit!!!! ;)

Jack and Sage were so cute together....comparing belly buttons, running around the room, playing cars together and ringing these bells.  But, when Sage tried to come closer to me, Jack got in her way, put his hand down my top and said to Sage sternly "boobies"...as if he was saying "these are mine!!" lol

Giant Bikkie

When Jack's Uncle Dan turned 21yo recently, he had a giant bikkie instead of a cake, coz he's not a cake person (didn't know such a thing existed! lol).

Jack really loved it, and so we made our own last week ;)

We made some plain bikkie dough and mixed through M'nM's, then pressed the mixture into a baking paper lined pizza tray.

After it had cooked and cooled, we got out some icing tubes ro decorated. 

And of course taste test.....

It was really looking funky with all rainbow stripes and squiggles that Jack squeezed all over it, covering up the flower and smiley face and rainbow that Muma did

More taste testing!!

And some finger painting to finish it off ;)

Yum yum!!

Woah, tantrum!

Must be pretty lucky here, it's just over a week 'til Jack's 2nd birthday, and we've just had our 1st major tantrum....public tantrum too!! 

We had visited the toy library, to organise things for his birthday party, and he was very excited to see they had a car table set up with some cars on it.  I had to go to the outdoor area of the toys, so I asked him to come with me, but he wasn't going to budge from the car table, 'til I told him there was bigger cars outside ;)  Although, when I grabbed his hand to lead him away, he was so annoyed that he hurled the plastic car he was holding!!  Luckily it didn't break, but I was half expecting the staff to tell me they would cancel our party order after that ;-S 

As soon as we got outside, he rushed to a ride-in car and hoped in, back to being a very happy chappy.  When I finished doing what I was doing and tried to get him to get outta the car, omg all hell broke loose!!  I had to carry him from there to the car, stiffened up, arched backwards over my arm, and screaming, eek!!

And, as you can see in the pic, he dramatically through himself belly down on the ground between our car and the next....would be funny if he weren't so distressed!

Took a lot of strength to get him buckled into his car seat, as he was arching and legs and arms waving.   When we finally took off, I said he should sing about how much he loves cars, and soon after he was all calmed down and happily pointing out the cars on the road around us!! *Sigh of relief!

If only he knew....he's getting his very own ride-in car for his birthday!!

Miss you, yet you're here..

Last year was a wirl wind year in our family for our Grandma(my Dad's mum).

Two years ago we started getting phone calls from Grandma's neighbours and friends, courtesy calls to let us know she had been wondering the streets at strange hours and acting a bit odd. 

I remember taking a call directly myself, while house sitting for mum and dad at 7mths pregnant.  It was from a lady who lived down the street from Grandma, concerned that no one had seen her or been able to get her to answer her door.  As I drove the 15min drive with the spare keys to her house, my stomach was doing backflips, I was having visions of discovering her passed away.  Thankfully, she was just pottering around in her back garden!  I didn't want to embarras her, so made no mention of the real reason I'd shown up unannounced, but it mattered not, because she was so happy for the unexpected company ;)

I had asked Tyler to come with me on this check up, so I was trying to shoe him away as she led me into her kitchen for a cup of tea(I thought a quick cuppa and we'd be on our way with her non the wiser).

As it turned out, faite had us be there that time.  Tyler was out on the street, and had he not been there to see a tall truck rip out Grandma's power lines as it drove into the street, I really shudder to think what she would have done.  Grandma and I heard the noise, but it was day time, so we didn't immediatley notice the power outage.  Tyler was brilliant, he came inside having already taken down the truck details and we set to work calling for help to get the ower fixed(lucky for Tyler being dilligent with the details, we got reimbursed by the truck company for repair costs). 

As we waited for an electrician, Grandma was obviously very focused on my baby belly, and a lot of those hours(yep, waited into the dark cold night before we got help!) was spent telling me stories of her own pregnancies.  Bless that truck and the trouble it caused, for it lead me to hear all these stories! 

The more Grandma recalled, the more I realised I was similar in many aspects.  She too had had "womens troubles" that had led her to have to undergo an operation to help clean her out and freshin up her womb, something I've had done twice since my miscarriage.  She also had near miscarriage and held great fear of loosing her baby(she didn't mention whether this was my Dad or my aunt).  She even touched a bit on what my Papa was like as a new Daddy, something that was extra special because he died when I was young and I only know him through stories.

When Jack was born, she was the person I was most excited to introduce him to, and it burst my heart with pride when Dad brought her to meet him.

I started taking Jack to visit at Grandma's house, on the weekends with mum and dad, and again I was triggering memories for her.  She would watch him suckling at the breast and exclaim "Isn't it lovely?!" and sometimes say little things about her own breastfeeding journey, how she adored it.

Last year Grandma made transition into a nursing home.  Turns out, those well meaning friends and neighbours had been keeping her secret of her muddled ways for a decade. 

A whole decade!  How could we not know???

But as we learnt, sufferers of dementia are pretty good at covering their tracks, 'til they loose more control.

She doesn't have that control anymore, she makes no excuse for her strange ways, because she no longer realises she does them.

It's not just the memories of what's happened that she looses, but even memory of speech and the order it all goes in.  Often her sentences are mixed to the point we really struggle to know what it is she's trying to express.

She now reminds me of my Nanna, her mum, who was lucky enough to live til 100yrs old(Grandma is currently 91yo)

Nanna was able bodied and able minded right up til about a month before her 100th birthday(6th of june), then she suffered a stroke.  This stroke didn't ground her much and she was able to stay home for a bit longer, she lived with Grandma.  Then she suffered another stroke which placed her in hospital.  This time she had suffered badly and her speech was gone.

This is where I see Grandma in her..... One visit to the hospital, our family was waiting outside for the start of visiting hours. I was 8yrs old.  I needed to go to the toilet and mum said I could go in to use the toilet but must come straight back out.  I ignored mum, I'd been bursting to see Nanna, had just made a wish in the hospitals wishing well, and was sure she was going to be up for a chat and ready to come home with us, so I went into her room.

To this day, 20yrs on, the image of her laying in that bed is still etched in my head.  Nanna had long blondish white hair and she always wore it in a plated bun, but here she was with it down and messily falling over her shoulders, with a hot pink ribbon tied as a headband.

I grabbed her hand but it layed limp in mine.  I asked her if it was ok I snuck in, she stared at me blankly.

A wave of fear came over me.  Was I in the right room?  Should I be here?  She looked like my Nanna, but Nanna was not there.

This is how I feel with Grandma.

She looks like my Grandma.  But Grandma as we know her, is already gone.

We grieve her, yet she stands before us.

Dementia is a cruel horrible disease.

I'm thinking lots of Grandma lately.  Jack is exhibiting signs of a lazy eye.  As my Dad suffered a severe lazy eye right through his childhood, 'til surgery helped as an adult, I thought straight away of Grandma.  It's her perspective as the mother that I would love to hear right now, I know I can talk to Dad when things get more serious(about being the person who suffered it and the inevitable bullying that went along with being a bit different).  The trouble is, the brain I want to pick, has already began shutting down.  Just when I was starting to feel more connected with my Grandma, her brain is disconnecting.
I miss her, yet she's here, it is a strange feeling.  We mourn her, yet she hasn't passed.
Beautifully, each visit with her, she remembers Jack!  She is recognising me less and less(I pretend not to notice she hugs me hello as her face is searching me to work out who I am), but she always knows "the little one"!  "He's just like the little boy in my room" she says, yes he sure is, because that is his photo ;)  She talks of him often, my aunty tells my dad, which warms my heart.  Her wondering who I am doesn;t matter to me as much, when I know that her visits with Jack cheer her so much, and are actually creating and sticking new little happy memories.
But I miss her.....even when I'm looking right at her. 

I want a carousal dining table!!

This was on last saturday nights episode of Monster House.

It's Tyler and my fave show, except he doesn't get to watch it much coz of work.

Bummer that he missed this ep., coz I totally want this in our house!!! lol ;)

Here's some pics....excuse the quality, I literally sat in my arm chair taking pics of my telly!!

This pic here shows a "roller coaster" slide...which looked easy to construct and the slide concept itself would be pretty cool for a certain lil fella *wink wink! ;) 

Here is the base of the slide, ending in a ball pit

I love the spotty carpet ;) 

 When we were first dating, Tyler was involved in the building of a major Melbourne shopping centre, including the movie theatres, and when he took me there he pointed out the carpet(hot pink with multi coloured stars).  This carpet had scraps left over and the blokes on the job got their pickings of it....$10,000 a mtr!!! Woah! Unfortunately, being the apprentice, he didn't get a look in.  Pity, woulda been awesome!

To the right of this pic is a castle thing that is some sorta game.

I didn't pay much attention to that, coz I was hooked on what's to the left........

A CAROUSAL DINING TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is freakin AWESOME!!!!!

How damn cool would it be to sit in a carousal to have your meals?!!!

Swan bench seats to sit at the table

Real carousal horses, it really spins around and really plays the sweet sweet carousal music!

Sooooo awesome, I so want it!!!!

Harvest Festival

Saturday arvo we went to the Kingston Harvest Festival with Nanny, Aunty Ciny, Uncle Chris and their kiddies.

ooOOOooo Wuck!!

We hadn't even walked into the festival grounds, and this garbage truck had my little fella super excited!! lol

Millie, Joshie and Jack got to plant some bean seeds.....which once growing, will mean Muma and JackJack will have beans coming outta ours ears!! lol Not really, but this will be the 3rd bean plant, amongst almost 10 little plants that Jack has planted at festivals within the last 6mths!  He's a real little green thumb ;)

This is proud Jack with his plant inside a newspaper cone....which Muma tucked into the belt of the ergo, and then forgot it was there every time we bent over....lucky the seed made it home coz we lost a lot of dirt!

Boat!!

Many a festival attended commented on our little Saints fan....it was game day, so of course JackJack was dressed in his footy gear!

Wuck!!

Seriously, we could just take this kid to the local shopping centre car park and he'll think he's at an awesome vehicle festival, lol

Look at this awesome wood fire oven.....took this pic as a reminder, we wanna make one for Dad...and there's plenty of old house bricks in his backyard, so all we need is to get going!

Yum yum...cupcakes!!!

Lol, he's found another wuck!!

Gardening goodies

We stood in front of this stall for a while before I had to actually ask this lady if JackJack could have a go.....what's with people underestimating babies and toddlers???

He did such a good job of turning the handle and making the contraption work, it was cutting a spiral into the apple to make it like a curled snake.

I heard the lady telling another parent that these things were for sale, I was gonna ask about it myself, but then when we got Jack's apple off I realised he was unimpressed.....the core was missing!!  The core is his favourite bit of the apple, he doesn't eat the whole thing, he likes to chomp around it and carries it for ages, so the missing core had him a bit miffed!

Painting a teddy bear plaster mold.

Note to plaster stall holder- please poor your molds deeper next time, his teddy broke in pieces by the time we got home because it was so thin and frail :(

Paint shape stamping.

Jack really enjoyed this, so I think we might do some potato stamping soon ;)

Oh, spotted some clowns!!

Every event we've seen these clowns at, they really attract Jack

So we had a go!!

Pity that there was some unparented idiot kids crowded either side though, they nicked Jack's balls and chucked them in another clown(no, none of them were paying customers), Jack's game had to be restarted, but he was overwhelmed by the annoying kids and lost confidence in doing the balls himself.

Golly I hate little shit kids who ruin it for others, grrrr

Anyway, Jack won a set of little figurines, I think they're Power Rangers. 

Joshie and Millie had a go too!

Joshie won a single bigger version of one of these figurines, and hmm can't think what Mil won, but they were pretty pox prizes

CAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRSSS!!

Muma wished we had enough money to take one home with us, but alas we didn't

A $1 lucky dip won't break the bank though ;)

An led spinning ball was unwrapped from here

Ciny, Nanny and Holalolly (Hollie)

Mum often says I don't warn anyone before I take pics, so this time I said to them "look like you're happy to be here!" and Mum and Cindy turn to each other and laugh and are saying "Oh, I'm happy to be here! Are yo happy to be here? I'm so happy!" lol

Joshie and JackJack on the playground slide

Strangers....they mean well, but when it's not their kids turn going down the slide, why can't they just back the frig away?? hehe

A bootiful rainbow ;-D

All the family shouted out to me from where they were sitting, to get my attention to tell me it was in the sky, after I took the pics I went over to them and Mum said "Is there a pot at the end of the rainbow?" and I said "Funnily enough, from where I was seeing it, you were at the end of the rainbow!"  lol My Mum is gold!!! ;)

JackJack loves playing tea party at Nanny's house, and when he spotted this ride, he ran over to watch it, squealing "Nanny cup!"

Num Num Num!!

Muma loves a good snausage snizzle ;)

Chasing and catching bubbles from another kids bubble gun

oOOoo bus!!!

Anyone would think this was an amusement park ride, Jack got so excited as it drove passed him to it's stall

Tots are such fast little runners ;-0

Uncle Chris chased and caught JackJack just before he grabbed onto the vans bumper as it was still driving!!

As the darkness fell, Jack retreated to the ergo for a rest.... but it didn't stop him having a big belly laugh fun time playing with led poi's on wands with his cousins ;)

Creme! Creme!

Oh Uncle Chris, did you really think you could keep all your rainbow ice cream to yourself?? lol

Me and Ciny, my little/big sister ;)

And then here's the main and very special event of the festival.... the paper lanterns.

Aren't they gorgeous?!

Chris and I both dived into the crowd to find the source of the lanterns, but I quickly lost him, so I just started snapping away at the sky.

It was really peaceful and beautiful to see these little beauties floating away...

JackJack wasn't so sure what to make of it all, he kept pointing to the lanterns being lit, saying "ot! ot!" (hot), then pointing up saying "skyyyy!!!"

When I finally found the source, they were all out of their stash for now(there was a later session they had to keep the rest for, but way past kiddies bed times), so I was really happy to find Chris with a lit one when we rejoined the family.

Pretty trippy pic of him huh, I love how his dark clothes blend into the night, and his skin is glowing by the light of the lantern.....Ciny you should totally print this for your lounge room wall ;)

The burner inside the lantern smelt divine!! It was made of bees wax and smelt so yummy of the sweetest honey ;)

Chris actually managed to score 3 lanterns, so I got to have a go!!

I was trying to make sure Jack had a good view over my shoulder, while being really mindful not to drop it(coz I was a little scared of getting burnt!)

Once the whole ring was lit, I had to hold the lantern by it's top(pretty nervous at this point of getting scorched!)

Then once it'd inflated itself, I had to swap to holding it by it's base....shite myself swapping, so Chris helped.  I also stepped forward a bit, coz I'd watched several other people releasing theirs too soon and it floated back down, eek! I didn't wanna be too close to the twins pram while releasing!!

Just about ready to release....how beautiful is it that it glowed on my family ;)

And there it goes..........

Wow, the feeling that washed over me as I let it go was, simply magical!!

I told JackJack "We added our own star to the night sky!!"

Breath taking!

One last "attraction" for the tot!

A "wacor" (tractor!)