Jaxon’s Birthday

A visit to Grandpa’s seems to have become the tradition for January. We went last year too, though I think we missed the year before because Dexter was still too little to go on the ground down there.

This time, the tide was out. Which meant lot’s and LOT’s of MUD!!

Dad’s beautiful beach. You’ll just have to trust me on that! When the water’s in, it’s a great beach for swimming at! Jaxon is learning that you can dig to China here. Dookie is helping him. Sinking!The Isle Of JaxonThis is a cropped picture. Dougie is a LONG way out in the mud! We thought we’d have to wade out there to get him back!Look at that mud! This was half way through the mudification process. Yep. it got worse! (Look at his freaky foot!)If I have learned anything at Dad’s beach it is this.
My kids are NOTHING LIKE ME!! I have to teach them everything. They wont be talked or bribed in to learning anything (like say, MUD IS COOL!) without being shown. “What?”Teaching them, once again, that if you wiggle in the mud you can sink. Not one of them would 1) Believe me and 2) Give it a try!! I kind of got a little worried that I might be stuck here!Dad walked them home so we didn’t have muddy dog in the car. Yup. This dog, the muddy dog, is telling me “Oh hell no! I ain’t getting wet!” Dexter LOVES to play with water. Dad’s beautiful garden. I LOVE sitting in his garden and having the birds come in to feed. This little gnome has been sitting in Dad’s (my) back yard for so long now that if I was a little kid still I might think they actually just grew in every back yard. I painted him back up when I was about 10. I did a fairly bad job of it. but Dad kept him that way. As with the gnome. This kangaroo has been sitting in our back yard for longer than I’ve been alive. He started out life with my grandparents on Mum’s side. I believe anyway. Which means he must be pre-1980. I also painted him when I was 10, but he’s since had another artist take to him. That’s a wasp nest on his hands. Poor lil fella. Dougie all clean. Jaxon with his birthday cake. I adore this photo. I wish Dexter and I were in it too!!Dookie checking out his old master. Mexxie is an old lady now. She’s nearly seven. Jaxon with his birthday present. He and Dexter love this thing, even though we hate it for it’s NOISE!

Groodle Day Out!

Post one in the catch up. I guess I should post these as they happened. So I know for future reference.

We went to the local dog beach to meet up with 20 odd other crazy groodle owners who I met on facebook. It was a very hot day, but it was lovely to go in the water and play with the puppies. Even if, Dexter got knocked over by random dog not a part of our group and Jaxon…well he was just Jaxon and didn’t like anything about the day!


That photo of Tim and Jaxon actually has all three of my boys in it. Dexter is between Tim’s legs in front of him.

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I was having a hot bubble bath at 2.30 in the morning when I heard a few very hard bumps in the night coming from Jaxon’s room.

After the second one I thought I had better go and check on him.

When I opened his door my jaw nearly hit the ground and I’m pretty sure if I’d had coke in my mouth I would have spurted it out of my nose.

Jaxon was laying flat on his back. He was wearing his warm red hoodie. But he had no pj bottoms on. Only blue undies.

The kicker? He had also somehow managed to stuff two ducky’s and a rather large soft spiderman doll in to the jacket.

He had red arms, yellow feet and beaks poking out everywhere! He looked like Santa’s toy sack full of toys poking out here and there. Or a body builder gone very wrong. To be more accurate, a body builder gone wrong with ghostly white chicken legs. SO. You know what comes next right?

PHOTO’S!!!

Wrong.

I quickly ducked out to get the camera. While I was walking back to his room I got worried that my opening his door and walking in closer would wake him. Which would of course be a pain in the ass for me but more importantly, I’d miss the BEST sleeping photo EVER!

So I did a video instead. I got as far as whispering into the microphone “This one can’t be missed” when, once I got to the crack in the door he totally busted me trying to sneak in! WITH the camera!!

Bad Mummy!! 0

Unfortunately he had already taken off his jacket and was replacing it with a t-shirt claiming he was just too hot.

Bugger! I think I really could have got a video on to Funniest Home Video’s.

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Recently while cruising the isle’s of The Reject Shop I came across a couple little water squirter things. I thought both boys would be able to use them.

I was wrong. But anyway. Jaxon likes them.

Well Jaxon was playing with it and his tub of water under and on the trampoline. It didn’t look as innocent as it should have. I asked “What ya up to Jaxon?”

He replied quite matter of factly, “I was trying to get it to squirt over the fence” (where our neighbours were having a small gathering.

I said ‘I hope you’re not squirting our neighbours?’

“Well” he said,’they were arguing’

‘That’s got norhing to do with us’

‘Well actually, they were annoying!

Grandma-ism’s

Dexter has come a long way since grandma’s visit. I swear, it was like having Mary Poppin’s sweeping through to sort his grumpy stubborn and screaming little ass out.

Dexter has been a nightmare for us to cope with for months. He’s been refusing to talk or communicate in any other way than screaming for a long time.

If he was hungry while I was trying to cook he would be hugging on to my leg screaming about the terrible pain and suffering he’s going through.

If he dropped something he would stand and cry about it instead of doing the normal thing and just picking it up. If you run in to the wall on your bike don’t scream at it to move. Reverse your bike and go a different way!

Tim and I were at our witt’s end when Mum got here. We’d tried everything everyone had suggested. We’d looked up and followed advice from the google people by searching “Why is my 2 year old always screaming at me?”

Desperate times, desperate measures. Have major surgery, Mary Poppin’s to the rescue!

Mum swooped in and whipped him in to shape. She basically taught me how to deal with almost every thing that he’s doing. And possibly given him a new annoying trick!? What’s with the powder on the hand thing?

Tim and I now seem to be figuring Dexter out more and he’s laughing more than screaming.

I can not thank my Mum enough for what she has done. This is the third time she’s dropped everything in her own life without being asked and sacrificed her own needs to come and look after my family because we desperately need the help at short notice.

I don’t think there’s anything I could say or do to express our gratitude enough.

Dougie’s New Love

This stupid dog (the toy dog, not the fur dog) has been in our family now since just before Jaxon was born. A friend gave it to us.

We didn’t give it to Jaxon until he was about 6 months old and I only let him have it in his cot. Which meant that some mornings instead of hearing Jaxon start making noises, I heard this dog start talking.

“That tickles!”
“You’re my friend, I love you!”
“Yellow, Yellow foot”
“Hand. Green Hand!”
“Itsy bitsy spider ran up the water spout…..”

This was how I knew when Jaxon was awake in his cot but not crying.

Birthday Parties…oh no!

Jaxon has been pretty popular for Birthday parties this year. And unfortunately for us, as the year went on the parties got more FUN!

The last was at a Hungry Jacks.

Jaxon is planning his birthday party now.

I think he’s invited all of his class mates. All of his teachers. All of his grandparents. Kids from his kinda. Kids he may have heard while in my womb.

I should have started saving for this years ago. I don’t know how it’s going to go down when we tell him he will need to pick and choose who he wants to keep numbers down.

He’s doing maths in school. I think this might compute, but may not seem like a fair equation!

Mum…I have a problem….

We normally have a chair sitting at the trampoline for Jaxon to climb up with.

But recently that became a problem. Because Dexter started trying to climb using the chair. And that wasn’t going so well for him.

Jaxon very quickly figured out a way of getting up with out the chair but this one day he missed a step and ended up like this.

I couldn’t help him, being that I can’t lift anything over a kilo for a few more weeks. But   I knew he could do it himself.

 

This here was his victory “I did it!” lapAnd this is Dougie running over to congratulate him.

Sad Good Bye’s

There is a big hole in my heart and a few tears on my cheeks because I just said good bye to my Mummy after having her here for three glorious (ha!) weeks.

I can’t thank her enough. I can’t express my gratitude in 500 words or less with foot notes. My only hope is that one day, when you need me, I can be there for you like you are always there for Tim and I.

You are the mother I aspire to be for my children.

Safe trip back home to Darwin.

Your eternally grateful daughter,

Jai

 

P.S…

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We were putting Jaxon to bed the other night and as i left the room i said my usual line. “Nigh Nigh, Mummy loves you. I’ll see you in the morning”

He gave me his normal request, “can I play for a little bit?” Yes Jaxon. But ill be checking in on you in 10 minutes. You’d better be asleep.

He said “But if im not quiet as a mouse in ten minutes can I have ten more minutes and could I also have ten more chances?

Um no. Jaxon. But very clever way of saying “Just five more minutes” and stalling.

Dougie got the snip!

Dougie, our all too innocent and rarely *very* naughty puppy turned 6 months old recently. And even more recently, as recently as Sunday (BANG! OVER NIGHT!) our innocent little puppy was no more.

Over night, he decided that *I* was his girl. *I* was his new life partner.

And, NO…really means yes!

So off to the vets he went on Tuesday. Unsuspecting. Most likely unwilling.

He came home later that day about 200 grams lighter I think. I mean, did you see the Dougie Haircut photo’s??? Those boys were massive! And very hard to miss!

Having him in his cone of shame has brightened up everyone’s lives. Having him run in to wall’s and use various methods to get at his food or toys makes the boys giggle. Seeing him play soccer (video on it’s way) or to see him throw a little squeaky toy up in the air and CATCH it in his cone is very funny!!

To tide you over, here are some some obstacles Dougie has had to over come in the past couple of days.

Just after getting stuck on the draw handle.

I hate you. I really, really hate you.

Wall there…

This is the doggie version of a cup against the door to eves drop! We think he get’s pretty good reception!

I can fit in there…

Shit…should have thought that one through.

Chair there….

Bugger! They’ve made it so I can’t clean the little person chair after dinner time!

Wall there. Pretty big one too. Probably could have avoided this one.

Who put that there?

Door frame jumped out in front of me.

Did I mention that I really hate you??

Grandma at the park.

Mum and I took the boys to the park one day last week. I got some really good photo’s both of the kids and of Dougie. And you too Mummy :)

Wow. That’s 64 photo’s. I’ve inserted it via gallery view. Which I don’t like doing. It looks less, me. Anyway. If you’d like to look closer at any of these photo’s just click on the image and it will show you the larger version.

 

Dougie get’s his first hair cut…

I had hoped to have my dog clippers saved for by now but having the surgery and a few extra purchses for the hospital stay we had to put them off.

So scissors it was! I thought it would take hours but I think it only took two. I had my Mum and my friend Monique helping me. This was 5 days post op!

 

Before

During

Little did Dougie know at this point that those big black nugget’s between his legs were booked to be removed a couple days later! And after!! I think I did a good job. He looks a little shaggy but he’ll look shaggy until his hair grows out. I did run in to the in house vet groomer on the day of his nugget removal. She asked “Is he he for grooming?” To which I replied”No, I took to him with scissors a few days ago” She said “I can tell”….blah to you!!

Morning walks with Dougie

Since returning home from hospital life has been all about me trying to get the perfect balance between laying down, getting plenty of exercise and using my sore back to figure out what I can and cant do.

The most enjoyable time of my day is at about 6.30 in the morning when I get to take Dougie for a walk alone. It clears my mind. I chat to Doug about my many problems and he wags his tail. That makes me happy.

I take him to a big open field around the corner and let him off. While he runs circles around me pick up the scent of hare or fox.

I watch the sun come up and tben mozey on home. Doug and his happy tail and happy to see you nature are the best thing before the cbaos starts at home. I feel a new routine on the way.

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I’m fairly sure.I’ll be fone to continje Saturday dog training next week.

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Bubbles, bringing families together…

Jaxon has made it no real secret that he could care less if Dougie was here or not. He dislikes almost everything about him 80% of the time. Then 15% of the time, Dougies locked in the back yard and the other 5%…he actually loves him.

But that all changed after this night!! I think Jaxon forgot all about the dog, they had a common interest and goal and they did it without hurting each other or being scared of each other.

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Spinal Surgery and Beyond

I’m home from hospital now. A full 9 days now.

My experience was amazing! How odd is that? I just had a vertebrae in my lower back removed and it was amazing!

This is Tim taking photos of me trying to appear calm. Five minutes and it all started happening!

I could not fault the staff and medical team on my case. I didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes to be called in. And when we did they had us so busy answering questions and signing my life away, that I wasn’t nervous at all. I was completely calm through the needles and gas. That lasted 10____9____8___7_____________(3 hours later) __________ recovery room.

These are my sexy compression stockings. Despite them being totally unatractive they’re also really nice to wear!! The ones with the orange lines on it are like a blood pressure machine for your legs. Evert 3_5 minutes they would automatically bmow up and put pressure on your legs BUT they alsi VIBRATE!?!?

The drugs!! That first 12 hours after any operation are THE BEST hours ever!!!

Foggy from the anesthetic. High on morphine. You want to talk but you really just want to be moaning ” yeah man, trippy”

Without a word of a lie I believe it took me more than four hours to write my first status update. I kept passing out mid typing only to startle awake an hour or so later with my finger still resting on the last letter i had typed. My hand still holding my phone in position. It would take me ten minutes to clear my head enough to figure out what i had been trying to say, would figure out what i had to continue with and pass out again. Or post incoherent replies.

The food wasn’t so bad i had Tim bring me nothing. Normally i just get him to bring me Macca’s.

My three nurses were pretty cool. One of them we called my *happy* nurse (aka. Very obviously gay) was so awesome. He joked with me all day and we gossip and shared chocolate. Ill really miss him! When i went to say good bye to him he gave me a quick gay hug and said “Thanks for the chocolate sister”

I was out of bed within 12 hours of the operation. Walking about. I’d been begging to get out of bed for hours over night but i wasn’t allowed to get out until the physio’s came.

I was incredibly surprised at how little it hurt. I fainted after four steps after my c-section with Jaxon. That’s a pain Ill never for forget. I expected far worse for this. But it wasn’t as bad as i feared.

Now by that I don’t want you thinking this was a walk in the park. Oh! My! God! It was pretty darned awful. By

day two i was getting snappy at them because they said I’d be controlling my pain with a clicker thing. Apparently i was dealing with the pain this trauma to well to warrant anything other than panadol. Nothing they gave me really entirely worked. I could walk quite well without pain but laying down was and still is an interesting experience. Sitting is not the best experience either. After 4 minutes i feel like i might be skewed through my lower back with a burning hot metal stake.

On the Wednesday afternoon the physio’s had cleared me to go home. They got me a shower chair which is handy and gave me tips about how to use the pain of this op to slowly change my lower back with posture. If i start hurting while I’m bending, I’m doing it wrong.

Here on day nine I can last hours without any pain killers and sometime only need panadol. Im very stiff and can’t even lean much less bend and can’t swivel either. Or lift more than one kilo for the next 3 weeks. Night time’s are by far the worst for pain. I can last about four hours of painful rolls and uncomfortable positions. Then i have to move to the couch with 22 pillows to get comfy.

So far i have no regrets. Everything has gone to plan and Im recovering in line with whits expected. All i need to do now is fully relinquish my roll as Mummy to Grandma. Its hard to see your house run smoothly by someone else leaving you un-needed. Grandma, i have discovered has some very good parenting tips.

I’m so happy Im not in unbearable pain. That nerve pain. Nerve pain only occurs when Im over doing it. So when i have it i need to get up for nothing but toilet and meal times. And for chocolate. Im thankful i can still walk and that now i can take Dougie for a walk around the block without having my foot feel like a brick with numb toes and an achilles heal that could be being twanged all day.

Im glad that the pain isn’t so bad. Its only a tiny bit worse than any pain Ivee had before but THIS time i know it will get better.

And thank you Mum! Im going to build you the nicest granny flat one day so when you need me to care for you like you’re doing for my family right now you’ll feel right at home. You’re amazing!!!

(quick thank you to Unique for having Jaxon for us all week. LIFESAVER!)

Fun Fun Fun!

If you’re ordering where I am, take a quick look at this video.

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Needless to say I am shitting myself. Terrified. I’m worried about everything, From the wait to go in to surgery. Worrying about Tim sitting alone waiting for me to be announced as OK. About the kids who are just about to have their worlds thrown in to chaos. About recovery and not being able to lift the kids or help much with them or around the house for quite some time.

And I’m kind of having trouble concentrating on anything. Sleep is alluding me. And I’ve eaten a block of chocolate. The chocolate helped. A bit.

 

 

Sleep Over Time

The latest craze for all of our kids is sleepover’s!

Jaxon had two friends, James and Riley over on Wednesday night last week.

Here’s some pics. I also recorded a half hour conversation without them knowing and will need to figure out how to get it off my phone. Oh the stories that were told!!

Then, the next morning we got all crazy and made pancakes for 8 kids!!

Dougie was a little too late for pancakes. He made a slow and uncoordinated escape after being busted!

Shiny Teeth

Every night after Jaxon has brushed his teeth he runs to Tim and opens his mouth and Tim screams as if his teeth are too shiny to even look at. We have to pretend that he’s going to make us go blind if he keeps showing us his white teeth.

So the other night, this is what Tim did to Jaxon. Claiming that he was just protecting himself from going blind.

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Dexter doesn’t know it yet…

Dexter doesn’t know it but he’s never going to get to choose his own bike. If he doesn’t like Toy Story when he’s 3 and can reach the pedals of this bike, tough shit buddy!!

Note to my older Dexter: It’s just the way life is! Doesn’t mean I don’t love you any less!
Note to my older Jaxon: This is a photo of you when you were nearly three And the photo of Dexter is just before his second birthday :)

Jaxon doesn’t know it yet…

Jaxon doesn’t know it yet but we’re going to get him a new bike for his birthday. He’s outgrown this one.

This time we’re going to let him choose his own bike. We chose Toy Story for him last time because that’s all he liked.

Now he could go for any number of fantasy super hero’s so we’d better leave it to him.

Doug Doug Doug

School Holidays…

…means doing all the things you don’t really ever want to do with your kids.

Like, making MESS!!

I’m well set up for this kind of mess. But it’s so tiring doing this sort of thing with kids.

Child 1: I didn’t get a paint brush!
Me: I’m getting it for you right now, just give me a minute.
Child 2: I don’t have a paint brush either!
Me: I’m getting you one too. Just give me a minute.
Child 3: We don’t have water to wash our paint brushes with!
Me: I’ll do that when I’ve found your paint brushes.
Child 2: Hey she got the red paint brush. I want the red paint brush.
Me: Well I only have one red paint brush.
Child 3: I got the red paint brush. Nur Nur
Child 1: I want a red paint brush too.
Me: Sigh.

I don’t know how Miss J handles those kids all year around without just throwing her hands up in the air and yelling “I only have two hands now sit down, shut up and leave me alone!!!!”

Miss J is my new hero.

Warning!! Warning!!

My account for the people that host (store) discoverboo is coming to an end once again and in preparation for our inevitable fuck up and loss of blog, we are starting to take safety precautions.

I am letting you know in advance that discoverboo will probably go off line. And it will most likely be because I pushed the wrong button, clicked the wrong icon or forgot to press SAVE.

I hope to see you again.

:)

 

A um, proud moment??

Tim and I don’t know if we’re proud or ashamed of this award from school??

On one hand, he came first, out of one hundred and twenty odd other prep children racing Mario Kart.

On the other, how did he get so good?

But then, he also got a post card in the mail sent from his teacher Miss J rewarding him for always showing respect to her and his fellow class mates.

And an award for good thinking. Miss J tells me that when she asks him if he’s thinking he always pauses, put’s his hand up to scratch his chin and says “Hmmmm”

Yeah. We’re proud!

If Jaxon goes out in the woods tonight…

Make sure to remember to put mozzie repellant on!!

Jaxon got bitten by a mosquito at a BBQ last weekend.

(see last reaction here)

At first it started out as just a little red mark on his cheek late Saturday night.

By morning it was this…

By afternoon…

By night time it was this.

The only good thing about this bite was that it didn’t itch him and he said it didn’t hurt. He was given an antibiotic because the Doctor couldn’t see in his eye to make sure it wasn’t infected. We couldn’t actually SEE a bite until the swelling finally went down three days later. And, now we have to give him antihistamines if we’re going to be out where he might get bitten.

Literacy Week at Jaxon’s school

To celebrate literacy week at Jaxon’s school they had a dress up parade. Each child got to choose a character from a book and dress up for the day.

In true Jaxon fashion, he told me he wanted to be an airplane.

A Qantas one at that.

At five in the afternoon.

The day before the parade.

Thank you Jaxon. I don’t need sleep anyway.

Before that he was simply going to wear his Bumblebee costume. His Library teacher Miss N said she was sure there was a Transformers book in the Library but, nope. There wasn’t. So he couldn’t go as Bumblebee.

Believe it or not these are the only two photo’s I got of Jaxon in his Dr Seuss plane. It couldn’t be a Qantas plane since it had to be a character from a book. He wasn’t all that happy about not being Qantas. He wouldn’t even look at me for a photo.
Here are some photo’s of some of the teachers. It was such a fun day. Even for me. The buzz in the school grounds as all of the kids came in dressed in their costumes was awesome. Seeing the teachers having so much fun was great too. They put on a show for everyone at the end.

I’ll be better prepared next year…I hope!