Mama Chameleon

Tuesday, August 26, 2008












The Finer Things......














I was very excited to find three messages on our answering machine from the principal of the kids school on Saturday. She basically asked to set up an appointment to discuss a more formal part time arrangement. I am hoping that means 'permanent part time' which would mean no double guessing what day I'll get called in, and also mean holiday pay. Wooo hooo. I will have to specualate for the rest of the week, though. We didn't get the messages till Saturday, but she'd been calling on the Friday, hoping to see me before she left for a week. I'll have to hold my many horses till next Monday. I am not ready to be a career woman with Topsy so young. Just one or maybe two days ( while he is at preschool) will be enough.




Most of my wage will either be saved or help pay off the mortgage we are about to take on, but do you know what little luxury I am looking forward to indulging in?










Really nice sandwiches.






Not everyday, but when I feel like it. And sometimes I will make a sandwich with smoked salmon and creme fraiche. I want to experiment witha variety of breads, relishes, mayonnaises. To find that perfect mix of tangy, sweet, smooth and savoury all on the one sandwich. MMMMMmmmmm. And don't even get me started on having grilled vegetables and brie on soft thick slices of dense potato sourdough bread. Don't EVEN.










Hmmmmm. Could this be monthly cravings speaking? Maybe...... *sigh* Darn it. Oh well, a gal can dream, even if I probably won't feel like sandiches at all come payday! So indulge me. What is your dream sandwich to bite into?





*In other totally trivial news, we were offered a dishwasher on Sunday. The boys and I picked it up on Monday! I installed it excitedly all on my own that very night , Hubby having taken himself to bed early, as he is recovering from having a cyst removed. He looks like this!


I installed the machine correctly without a manual, might I add. Though I waited till Hubby arose this morning to have him confirm it was all good to go. We turned it on and then stood back to watch that baby do our dishes.


There was a lot of noise, and 5 very long minutes in, we were relieved to hear water filling. And then it began pouring out the front all over the floor......


.....The fix-it man showed up when Hubby was out, (of course, isn't that always the way) and he soon confirmed that the machine is a D-U-D. In soooo many ways. :(


Once he was done, he told me the price of his 5 minute visit. And waited expectantly. Therein lay the problem. Hubby was going to deal with the money part. And he was supposed to have been home at that very momentfor that very reason. But NAY.....



I could only think of one way out of having to admit that I had no cash on me.

In the country, when a person does a house maintenance job, they leave an invoice and then home owners pay later.


So I politely asked him for an invoice. He politely wrote one, then held out his hand for the cash.


Gulp.


"Oh, so I pay now?..." hehehe


As he stood there, I tried to phone Hubby who very helpfully did NOT answer his phone.



So what eventuated, was that thekids and I hopped in the car and, driving REALLY SLOWLY so as he knew we weren't going to make a break for it, we led him to the local shops, where I withdrew money for him.


Ugh and major bummer. It's back to the drudgery of hand washing for me.



*Roly saw the school counsellor today. He is stressed to the point of sleeplessness over the immature and selfish behaviour of his supposed best friend. I had him go to the counsellor, because my motherly wisdom (though impressive) drew a blank on this one. Roly has done all the right things. he has told the boy what is hurting their friendship, and that it has to change. But the boy refuses to admit he is doing anything wrong (OK an example: the boy throwing pens at Roly in class-hard; with Roly and the class witnessing it, and then having a fit because he swears he didn't do it.) Well, in the words of Dr Phil "you can't change what you don't acknowledge." So there! We are all disappointed in this child. He started out really nice.



OK I will end this novel (sorry about that) with a clip of Topsy.


All day he has said 'Mmmmhmmm' to just about everything. And I realized that I say it all the time. I wanted to capture him doing it. Of course when trying to film it in action, I had to tease each 'Mmmmhmmmm' out of him!





Posted by michelle :: 8:39 pm :: 4 comments links to this post

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008






Right back at ya!




Well, the following adventure was a first for our family.


Cold- afflicted Topsy was trailing around after me this morning, helping. At some point he said, 'I got something in my nose.'

I patiently gave him a brief refresher on how to blow his 'boogies out' into a tissue. He has real problems with the 'blowing out' bit. It tends to be much more of an inhaling experience for him.


'Mummy, I got something in my nose.' he repeated quietly a few minutes later.




I am not proud of what I did next, but it is the truth. I flexed my trusty ( and yes all you worriers, it was VERY CLEAN) littlest fingernail and leaned in to pluck out any offending 'dried up ones'. It was then that I saw and realized that Topsy indeed had something stuck right up his nose.




An alphabet bead to be exact: One just like this.



A pink letter G glistened snugly from his nasal passage.

My mind began to flip through all the possible ways I could get it out.




I held down his other nostril and told Topsy to blow his nose into a tissue. He bravely inhaled for all his worth. The rounded part of the 'G' disappeared from view.




I fetched tweezers. Nope. Far too big for his tiny nose.


I even bent one of Diva's hairgrips and advanced upon him with it, but visions of us making the nightly news due to it all going horribly wrong prevented me.




I showed the hapless Topsy to Hubby, whilst throwing on some going-out clothes and preparing myself for a four hour wait in emergency, let alone the trauma of retrieving the bead.


While searching for Topsy's shoes, Hubby said, "Hey, before you go why don't you try this out:


He'd googled the problem ( as you do!) and the first article he opened was titled 'Jack's got a bead stuck up his nose!"


I quickly scanned the article, then I


1. brushed my teeth,


2. lay Topsy down on the couch with his neck elevated on a pillow, head hanging down a bit


3. plugged his non-offending nostril


4. opened his jaw and blew two big breaths CPR-like into him.....




.....and that sucker popped out like it had come from a candy dispenser!




PS During a re-enactment this aftenoon for the kids, Topsy was very reluctant. i thought it was the CPR thing, which I would only have described, but Topsy was afraid that the bead had to be back in place for the demo..... LOL!



Posted by michelle :: 6:14 pm :: 6 comments links to this post

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Monday, August 18, 2008



Sneeze etiquette


Interaction between Topsy and I this morning in the car after I realized he probably wasn't well enough to go to playschool:

Topsy: *sneeze* 'Oh my gosh!
*sneeze* 'Oh my gosh!!
*sneeze* 'Oh my gosh!!!
*sneeze* 'Oh my gosh!!!!

Me: Topsy! That's not what you say when you sneeze. You say 'Bless you'. ( not wanting to further complicate things by explaining the little detail; that someone else actually says 'Bless you' for the sneeze-ee)

Topsy (matter of factly): You don't say "Bless you'. You say: 'Oh my gosh!!!!'

Note to the reader: We are not even a real 'Oh my gosh' family. Much more likely to hear 'Wowzers', or 'Wackely Do' or 'Wackely Stackelys!!!'

Posted by michelle :: 9:18 am :: 2 comments links to this post

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Thursday, August 14, 2008



Hope This Old Dog Can Learn New Tricks..... As Well As Any Old Ones She Might Have Had In Her Repertoire!



(Yup, I am ignoring the fact that my last post was a shameful 3 months ago, and diving right back on in. :))
This morning, Topsy and I cheerily headed to our traditional Thursday morning destination: Questacon. It is a wonderland of sorts, where kids of all ages (0-99) can get their hands on science- literally. Topsy loves all the fun things he can do there so it is our weekly thing. The highlight is going to Science Time, a half hour interactive program for small kids run by Topsy's much adored BJ. She is always dressed as a clown, just without the face paint; her face is bright and animated, her voice makes you feel like you have been given a great warm hug. All the kids love her.


Well as we entered Questacon, we saw BJ waving wildly at us, sans clown suit. She was instead dolled up in a flight attendant outfit!


It turns out that someone else would be doing her Science Time gig, as she was getting ready to do a different show a little later on, showing kids how planes get up in the air!


So, after we learned all about science at home and played with all sorts of amazing things, including Musical Coathangers at Science Time, we popped in to see BJ's show.


Topsy would not even look at her at first, his hands firmly covered his eyes; BJ's clothes were unfamiliar, and her voice was so different ( she is an actor after all!) to her normal 'BJ' voice.


But finally BJ managed to get him to drop the hands, and she even coaxed him up onto the stage to be....... (drum roll!)







......Isaac Newton. ( of course!) :)



In other news:
In the holidays, the principal of the kids school asked me to hand in my CV so I could start to do casual teaching on the days that Topsy is at preschool there. Since then I have spent hours and not a small amount of dough, getting myself ready to be a casual teacher of the highest calibre!!! I am deadly serious. I have seen getting prepared to teach as kind of as a part time job in itself. I have had a lot of fun doing it.
But the principal took me aside yesterday to sadly let me know that I am actually unemployable. I am a three year trained teacher, but now they have to be four year trained! Argghh! The school who emplyed me last year must have been just a little bit naughty.......
So I have made some queries, and it looks like I will be a student again. That way by the time Topsy is at school, I will be able to get work a couple days a week.
But, get this. I am actually working at the kids school tomorrow . ot in the classroom.....I will be manning the front desk. Gulp. Should be fun, though. The principal is full of great ideas of how I can work at the school while I get my degree updated. She wants me to be involved in puppetry with the Year 7 students, along with another (read: Qualified) teacher. Puppetry is a real interest of mine, so it sounds like a lot of fun.
The kidlets are all well, and house hunting will soon begin in earnest.

I am hoping to get back into the swing of blogging and commenting. Missed you all.





Posted by michelle :: 10:38 pm :: 5 comments links to this post

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