Oh sooooo tired.......

I was browsing through my stash of photos looking for another that I could touch up to make another header -

and came across these...

This child must have been absolutely exhausted when I snapped them!

They were taken over a year ago and I have absolutely no idea what we had been up to prior to this.

 But it must have exhausted both of them!

Oh. My. Word.

It looks inebriated.

I didn't give him anything, I promise...

I hadn't discovered Cinnamon Rolls with vanilla-flavoured gin icing...

;)

Even the Jord looks like he was battling to stay conscious!

I think I'll set these photos aside for display on their 21st birthdays...



PostScript:
The Man just rang - he took these. Which is why I can't remember any of the details.
He says that The Frog wasn't well and had just woken from a nap.
I suppose I should stop laughing at them now...

Exploding the Volcano

There was much excitement last night after dinner, when I promised The Jord we would go outside and explode the volcano that he made before.


It's been a while since we paid any attention to it, purely because of the amount of time it's taken for this particular piece of artwork to dry!

Anyway, I told him to paint it yesterday and once it had dried we would put the 'potion' in and make it explode.

The kid was beside himself!


He couldn't wait. 

No particular significance to this photo -  I just posted it for those who want to know how the bump is doing.


Now you know...


I look like a buddha statue.

I don't know why we had a red mountain...


I had envisioned a green one with red lava.


He obviously had a different vision.


So I went with black lava.

Adding more vinegar...

The black lava actually had a pretty cool effect!

And it's almost over...


... and it's done.

The kids loved it!

How to make Playdough

I've been promising this recipe for a while now and here it is!

With the holiday season coming up, I'm guessing now is a really good time for it!

Playdough is extremely easy to make and I actually prefer this version to the commercial Play-Doh stuff - this is more workable!

 In a mixing bowl:
half a cup of salt
1 tablespoon of Cream of Tartar
some food colouring
and a nice dollop of cooking oil.

The cooking oil helps with stickiness at the end, I can't tell you how much I use - I just pour, but it looks to be at least 2 tablespoons. Maybe more. If this comes out sticky, pour more in your next batch.

And for those of you in the northern hemisphere - add a few drops of eucalyptus oil - I find that playing with scented playdough stops a runny nose in it's tracks.


Add one cup of just-boiled water.

It has to be HOT! Work quickly!

 Then add a cup of flour and mix like crazy.

I mean it! MIX!

Quickly!

Go! Go! Go!

It should end up looking like this. A nice warm, soft dough that makes even adults want to sink their fingers into it!

Haul out the playdough toys and let the kids loose.

And if some goes into the carpet, don't panic.
Let it dry, scrape with a dinner knife and vacuum.

Have fun!

Poor Little Froggle!

Yesterday, I decided to try and run some errands in the afternoon in order to let The Man have a quiet house to relax in and possibly get a short afternoon nap in.

'Cos I'm nice like that.

No..really! I am!

Anyway, as we were walking into the library The Frog walked into a pole. One that had ridges on it at Froggie eye level. Obviously this upset him badly and I had to bend (actually bend!) over to calm him. After reassuring him (I'm awwight Mom) we walked in and I collected the books I had on hold.

That was when I saw the blood leaking from the crease on his eyelid. After a brief 'what the...' moment I realised what must have happened and tried to take a closer look. This involved tackling him and holding him down, practically sitting on him to render him immobile so I could see what had happened to his eyelid.

And what I saw sent me straight into 'mommy panic mode.' I swear, it was a cut that looked as though it almost went straight through his eyelid!

Minutes later I was marching into our Dr's rooms begging to see his practice nurse.

Dr David and Nurse Yvonne are awesome! They actually stopped everything to take a look, reassure me that  he wasn't going to lose his eye etc etc...

 Actually no, they didn't. They did drop everything to take a look, but by that time the 'mommy panic attack' had worn off and I was feeling rather sheepish.

And apologetic. And they graciously reassured me they understood.
I love Central Family Health!

Sleep Training

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this before! Sleep training is a concept that many  many parents just have no idea about.

I pity them.

My doctor's wife is a local radio DJ and she has just asked how to get a baby to sleep on the Classic Hits Northland Facebook Page. They are pregnant with their first child.

My answer - train them!

The Jord was an awful sleeper, I ended up with him in bed with me for three years - and The Man slept elsewhere for three years. Not very conducive to a great marriage...
Getting him out was the worst - I had the most traumatic parenting moments ever during that specific time.

With The Frog I had learnt my lesson. There was no way this child was coming anywhere near my bed - he had a perfectly good one of his own! And there was no way I was giving up my husband for another three years!

From day one, he was in his own bed, in his own room. And he slept through at 5 weeks.

No issues. And it's all thanks to this book. If you would like to have any kind of control over your life after you have kids read it... Seriously.

Bullying or Manipulation?

The Jord is home today. I'm not sure why and that bothers me, surely I should know?

See, when I went to wake him this morning for school he started crying and telling me he was scared to go because of the bullies.

Sigh...

Now I don't know if there are actually real bullies causing this reaction, or if this is just a school avoidance tactic...


BUT

...after a long discussion with The Man (by phone because he started work at 4 this morning!) we have agreed that we can't ignore the need for intervention if bullying is actually happening.

Now, many of you are probably horrified that I don't trust what my child is telling me, but I have to say that The Jord has been displaying some very frustrating manipulative behaviour lately. The kid has realised he can get quite a bit accomplished by lying. Little rat!

Lying is not tolerated in this house and normally I can get the truth out if I go into terrorist interrogation mode, but in this instance I just don't know. And I don't want to terrorise the child even further if he is telling the truth.

And so he is at home. And I have an appointment with his teacher tomorrow morning. He'll be there too so that his teacher can get the truth out of him! And details...

...because I don't seem to be getting much of those either. Hence the suspicion.

Sigh...

 There are rules however - no Wii, he's already tried to pull that one.

He WILL be doing school work - he's already done a reading comprehension and is busy with some numeracy. We'll probably take a break soon and I'll set up some more exercises.

The Frog, not wanting to be left out, is also doing some 'work.'

Hope everyone has a great day.