The lass

Genevieve never fails to surprise (or amuse) me. At 29 months of age, she is showing signs of being pretty damn intelligent... sure, being her mum makes me a bit biased, but can you blame me? :D Here's a run-down of some of the lastest antics/achievements:

*She loves drawing and 'writing'. Artistic skills are evolving to the point where she can now draw a recognizable smiley face, and she's having a stab at writing letters and numbers.

*'Mummy' and 'Daddy' are so passé... it's now 'Mum' and 'Dad'.

*Her vocab has expanded at an alarming rate - it's not unusual for her to rattle off long-winded sentences of 15-20 words.

*The other night at bedtime, Genevieve got a little silly and started bouncing on the bed. When Dad told her to stop, she argued back with, "But The Wiggles bounce!"
Not on the bed, they don't.

*Her love of food and her macabre way of looking at the world knows no bounds. While looking at a photo of cute, fluffy baby chicks the other night, she exclaimed, "I like chickens! They're yummy!"
Miss G then proceeded to list all of the other farm animals she liked to eat (piggie, moo-cow, duck) while pointing to the corresponding pictures. I had to explain that while the French may like eating horsey meat, it's not considered socially acceptable here in Australia.

*Agility and strength have continued to develop. She now competently climbs stairs without a second thought and has started actively inventing new routines to try out on the swing set in our yard. She is currently mastering the gentle art of climbing up the slippery-slide...

Slackest of the slack

Yeah, I know. Five months between posts is a bit pov, innit? Since returning home in December and work in January, the apathy bug bit pretty hard. I will try to post more, but won't make any guarantees. :P

Jessie

I've never mentioned my newest sister-in-law before now, but I just had to share this with you.

While we were living in Melbourne, my eldest brother Jason had a housewarming party and a friend of a friend (Jess) gate-crashed. Their eyes met across a crowded room, and six weeks later they were engaged.

It wasn't your typical whirlwind romance, though.

Jess had been battling an extremely rare form of Leukaemia for the past four years and was fighting a hell of a fight but losing nonetheless. A November wedding was planned, but her oncologist suggested bringing it forward to September so that she was well enough to really enjoy her big day. It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to, and the most fun as well. We danced our butts off and had the time of our lives.

In January, Jessie contracted pneumonia and never really got over it. The fluid on her lungs didn't clear and things have been rapidly going downhill ever since. Determined to stay out of hospital, home-based care was arranged and she learned how to use a syringe pump to administer medication. Knowing that she had a few loose ends to tie up, Jess and Jason travelled to North Qld last weekend to see Jess's family.

They were supposed to be back a week ago, but things went pear-shaped and Jess had to be admitted to hospital (which she wasn't especially happy about). Meanwhile, we were in Brisbane and absolutely frantic. All of us wanted to go north to see her, but knew that it was logistically impossible to do so over Easter. Mum and Wray caught a plane straight after Genevieve's birthday party and managed to have a short time with her before having to fly back again yesterday.

By this stage, Jess only had one functioning lung and was on the maximum non-lethal dosage of morphine. She was mostly incoherent or unconscious, but Mum managed to have a few minutes of lucid conversation with her before she slipped back into la-la land again.

Last night, Jessie came to me in a dream. We were hanging out in my brother's old bedroom, laughing and goofing off after having lunch together. She hopped up and sighed. "Well," she said, "it's time for me to head off."
"Good luck," I replied. "Take care of yourself and have fun up in Heaven. God will take good care of you."

We gave each other one last bear-hug and she walked out the front door of Mum and Wray's house. The overwhelming feeling of warmth, love and peace that I felt at that moment is too big to describe.

When I woke up this morning, I didn't need a phone call to know that she was gone. It happened around midnight.

Bye, Jess. I love you dearly and will miss you heaps. Be sure to have some scones and raspberry jam ready when it's time for us to meet again.

...Cause it feels so empty, without me

Guess who's back,
Back again?

Yep, after two months of fighting with the customer service morons at our isp, the line fault which cut us off from the online world has finally been fixed. Halle-bloody-lujah!

Work's great, being back home is fabulous and Genevieve is the same as ever, just a little taller. Her vocab is expanding at an alarming rate (we've even had our first expletive - 'oh, crap!')

Writer's block still has a stranglehold and my motivation is pretty nonexistent right now, so that's all for the moment. Stay tuned, kids!

Welcome to the world!

A big congratulations to Dave and Cat, who are now the proud parents of baby Benjamin John. I hear that everything went swimmingly (and the lucky girl only had a ten-hour labour!)

Whee! More babies to cuddle!!! :D :D XD

Get a haircut and get a real job

Some people really enjoy staying at home full-time, and I will admit that it does have its perks.

But truth be told, I am really, *really* missing work. Not contributing to the household finances, not exercising my brain beyond singing along with Playschool and not keeping my library dork skillz sharp is all adding up to equal one big, fat inferiority complex. It's silly, but at the moment I feel really dumb, socially inept and generally cut off from everything. My work is a big part of who I am.

We're off to Brisbane tomorrow for a five-day trip, and I intend to poke my head around the door at my (former? future???) workplace to say hi. Hopefully I'll also find out whether or not my application to be reappointed has been accpeted. The suspense is killing me!

Happy birthday

To my darling husband and constant companion of 8 (yes, 8!) years. You're still as gorgeous as the day I first met you. I love you, sweetheart. :)

It's raining, I'm home alone, and I want to shave my head

---

'cause I'm bored and can't do a bloody thing with my hair. Damn post-partum alopaecia. :?

Growing up

Genevieve has made the transition from her cot to the big bed. This is her fifth day out of the cot and I can't believe how well it is going. Night time was a seamless transition, and daytime sleeps went pretty smoothly as well; there have been a couple of times where she hasn't wanted her morning sleep, but we got there in the end. A twenty-minute stroll to the supermarket up the street seems sufficient to wear Genevieve out before her morning kip. ;)

Give it a couple more weeks and I'll be putting the cot into storage until the next munchkin eventually comes along. My little girl is growing up so quickly...

A tute for my fellow nappy nerds

DIY pull-up cloth trainers!

http://mama-or-minx.livejournal.com/12349.html

/must finish her other projects first

Reason #128 why toddlers and carpet don't mix

Bolognese- and vanilla yoghurt-flavoured vomit.

Another parenthood perk

You can watch Sesame Street and Playschool without getting strange looks from others. :D

/<3333333 Count Von Count

Enquiring minds want to know!

Genevieve has a new thing: she has figured out that if she points to something and asks, "What's this?" we'll tell her. Yesterday, she pointed to the overflow in Mum's bathroom and asked what it was. "A drain," I responded.
"Drain?"
"Yes, a drain." She was satisfied with this answer and trundled off to play in the yard.
This morning, we were on the tram. Genevieve looked up. A little voice, accompanied by a pointing finger, rang out. "What's this?"
"A handle."
Big grin. "Handle! HANDLE!"

City life, alright

Living in inner-city Melbourne has its pros: loads of public transport (we only run the car once every couple of weeks to make sure it still starts), great shopping, no yard to worry about, the fresh produce markets nearby, plenty of places down the street that know how to make decent coffee. Having a gym and pool downstairs (which admittedly I only use occasionally) is also a plus.

There is a part of me that doesn't want to go back to suburban life. Sure, I desperately want to go back to Brisbane (and Wynnum is a beautiful place, don't get me wrong), but the idea of selling up and buying an apartment or a townhouse in the Valley or Spring Hill is tantalising. Loads of restaurants, good coffee, the markets in James St, the bus, ferry and train, not to mention the night life. There's a couple of hitches; we would a) Have to go into debt another $200,000 and undo all of the hard work we've put in over the past 4 years, and b) Be on the opposite side of town to our family, friends and Church.

God forgive me, I'm turning into a swanker.

My wee lass

Genevieve is growing up so quickly. She climbs stairs competently, loves playing on the swings at Albert Park and isn't afraid of the big slide (the little one is for babies). She speaks in short sentences, sings and can dance in time with songs that she particularly likes on Rage (Nick Cave and PJ Harvey have her transfixed, as does Kate Bush). Ben and I no longer have to feed her at meal times.

Shades of the terrible twos are creeping in here and there (her stubborn, independent streak is making itself known), though unless she's tired or not feeling the best, Genevieve is still one of the happiest toddlers out there. She is being moved up to the next age group at daycare, partly because the babies are being put in with the toddlers, and partly because she could do with some activities that are a bit more mentally (and physically) challenging.

Popular and new words/phrases at the moment are:

• Medicine
• Dinosaur
• Booger ('tis cold and flu season, after all)
  
• Outside
• Bye, bodies! (she doesn't quite have the hang of 'everybody' yet)
• Dinner
• See ya!
• Daddy's shoes
• Mummy's shoes
• Hot
• ABBY! (she loves seeing pictures of her baby cousin)
  
• People
• Baby
• Lady
  

Our backyard

Our yard in Brissie is *humongous*. You could have a pretty decent game of footy out there.

I'm kind of missing it right now... Genevieve's current favourite place (and word) is 'outside! Outside!!! OUTSIDE!!1!!!ONE' and it would be nice to have somewhere outdoors to take her where I don't have to be concerned about whether or not I am dressed and presentable.

And I've also come up with an idea for the desolate patch of ground where the 70-foot-tall leopard tree used to reside. It involves a snowflake, assorted succulents, weed mat and a whole heap of river stones (exact colour yet to be decided). Tidy, attractive and the only thing that will have a snowball's chance of surviving during the current water restrictions.

Thought for the day

Kids are like guinea pigs, but with opposable thumbs and a longer lifespan.

Underthings

Since Genevieve decided that weaning was the cool thing to do, things have (understandably) shrunk and none of my bras fit. All of my teeny-tiny pre-baby numbers are stashed away in the garage in Brisbane, so a trip to Target was in order.

And you know what? I wanted to buy something pretty, but all of their nice underpinnings only had larger sizes left on the shelf. So I had to settle for basic, unadorned cotton with nary a scrap of lace.

*shakes fist*

Damn you, size 10B women of Melbourne!

Validation

Genevieve is off colour again with a bad cold which is borderline flu. She slept twelve hours last night and asked to go back to bed just after breakfast...

So yesterday afternoon I was called by daycare to come and collect her, as she had a temperature of 38.2. Much to her carer's surprise, she was still very happy and enjoying her day despite being unwell. When I came to collect Genevieve, the carer was singing my little girl's praises and went so far as to say (and this is verbatim), "She just does everything right!"

Dunno where she gets that from, then.

Grandma

Grandma will be 82 on October 6th. She's still pretty sharp, has a strong heart, lungs and kidney and gets out of the house more often than her shut-in granddaughter. Chances are she'll be pushing 100 and still going strong.

Unfortunately, she has osteoporosis, cataracts and a tendency to forget which way is up. The cataracts are going to be dealt with very soon, but her brittle bones and shaky balance are things that can't be fixed by day surgery. Yesterday she had another fall and this time broke her hand in three places. For someone who is already losing dexterity (and as a result a fair bit of her independence), this is a huge blow.

I'm worried about my Grandma and feel frustrated about being 1800km away. It's too late to call her tonight; will find out more tomorrow.

Grrr.

Weaning: Redux

Well, it's been 1 week since Genevieve was taken off daytime feeds. Day 1 was slightly snarky, Day 2 went without a hitch. Come bedtime, Genevieve half-heartedly latched on and only fed off one side before declaring herself done. Day 3, she wasn't remotely interested in the boob (I think she even rolled her eyes at me) and hasn't had a Mummy feed since Sunday.

No tears, no tantrums, no trouble getting her to sleep at night. In fact, for the first time in about 6 weeks, Genevieve is sleeping through the night (or at the very least settling herself when she wakes up). That was unexpectedly easy.

Word of the day

Genevieve has started saying her name! Her pronunciation isn't perfect (it comes out as as Gen-ni-vee), but it's clear enough that you can tell what she's saying.

And her current favourite phrase is, "Daddy's at work" or "Daddy's gone to work". She uses a very authoritative tone when relaying this information. :)

Things I miss about Brisbane

• Our family (in-laws included)
• Our friends
• Our Church
• The house
• My job (oh, to be back doing original cataloguing and actually earning money again!)
• My piano
• Ben's guitar
• All of the stuff I left behind in the garage
• Too many other things that I can't think of right now
  

Things I don't miss about Brisbane:

• Being overly reliant on cars to get around
• Drunken teenagers walking down our street at 1am proclaiming that they are 'bad mother****ers'.
  

Me waaaaaaaant!

Living the high life means that you get accustomed to certain... things. Like sleeping in a queen-size bed.

As much as I adore our beautiful silky oak monstrosity, it's *tiny*. And very high off the ground; I just about have to jump to get into the damn thing. Sorry, Dad... I think my family heirloom will be relegated to the sewing room when we return from our interstate jaunt.

And being very picky, there's very little in the way of modern beds that I actually like and would have in my home. Luckily, I found this little beauty on the website of a national retailer:

Mmmmm. Purty.

Weaning

Things haven't been going well at all for me lately and I finally bit the bullet and saw our doctor yesterday. For the second time in my life, I've been put on medication to try and put me back on more of an even keel. Took the first dose before bed last night and I'm feeling a little bit woozy this morning... the initial shock to my system should settle in a day or so (hopefully).

Consequently, I need to wean Genevieve; it's kind of a relief, actually. For the past couple of months it has felt like she's just been having mummy feeds simply because it's there (she hasn't needed EBM at daycare since March and is perfectly happy going without when I'm not around). It'll be nice to have my boobs back. ;) Besides, 16 months is a pretty good innings as far as I'm concerned.

So far, I've been using 'don't ask, don't offer' or telling Genevieve that there's no more and offering her a cup of soy milk instead. Both methods are working pretty well and munchkin is now having her morning nap after a bit of a temper tanty. We're not going to dispense with the bedtime feed just yet; I'll get her used to getting through the day milk-free first.

Visitors, visitors, visitors

Seems like half of Brisbane is coming to stay with us... it's been a busy month or so. Don't be surprised if the dearth of new entries continues for a few more weeks. :)

Oh, and my best friend from school is moving down here. Wheeeee! :DDDDDDD XD

Melbourne is where it's at

There are so many fantastic events coming up in the next couple of months!

On July 29th, I'll be heading off to Northcote for the afternoon to meet none other than Sylvester McCoy. Who? Exactly... Doctor Who! Syl was the first Doctor I ever watched as a wee tyke (my introduction to the Whoniverse was Paradise Towers at the tender age of 5, just after I started school) and the prospect of getting to meet him in the flesh is giving me goosebumps.

Coming up in September... Hoodoo Gurus, Radio Birdman (OMFG!!!!!!) and The Stems @ The Forum.

Then in October, Nick Cave and Grinderman, also at The Forum. NICK. CAVE. WOW.

This girl is officially in geekpunkgoth heaven and about to die of happiness.

Why kids are worth it

Yesterday afternoon, I was feeling particularly gloomy (rainy weather, cold, missing family & friends). Genevieve came along, plonked down on top of me (I was vegging out on the floor) and said as clear as day, "I love you, Mummy!" and then gave me a big hug. She never fails to amaze me.

More, please!

It's what all the cool kids are saying. :D

*headdesk*

The el cheapo washing machine in our apartment decided to crap itself today right after I filled it up with a load of nappies and most of Genevieve's warm clothes.

It just about sent me off the deep end. I kicked that useless bastard as hard as I could without actually denting it and punched the plastic lid several times whilst pretending to be Gene Hunt kicking in a nonce (go watch Life on Mars if you don't know what I'm on about).

The string of expletives that are on the tip of my tongue at the moment is not suitable for a family-oriented blog, so I'm just going to stop typing RIGHT NOW.