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I’d forgotten how adorable this stage is. After spending the previous 12 months on a “watch and learn” protocol Baby Bear is now out of the bag. This means a multitude of new words every day and a crazed insistence that she participates in everything. She chooses her own clothes usually best party dress, gumboots and fairy wings to bed and pyjamas to go to the shops. She is no longer content to be the innocent bystander in the family, she’s on a mission to shape her days.
We can’t just walk past the building that houses the library without a hysterical cry “Books! Books! Books!”, followed by the chicken shop “Chips!Chips!Chips” and then the cafe “Bik!Bik!Bik!”. Big Sis and Little Bro are quickly learning to take Baby Bear’s needs into account as she has fully mastered the art of “whistle blowing”. I often feel a tug at my trouser leg only to be greeted by Baby Bear’s serious little face as she announces “Pushed me - Come”. She then leads me to the culprit and points at them insistently with her chubby little fist, chanting “Pushed me!Pushed me!Pushed me!”.
DSO commented the other day, that in his opinion, she has mastered all requisite skills for corporate life. The rest, as they say, is window dressing.
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We have planned our first big holiday in ages - 8 nights in Bali! The whole family is excited, particularly Little Bro who took the opportunity to pack a bag for the holiday today, despite the departure date being a good 6 weeks away.
I have just unpacked the bag and thought I’d share it’s contents:
- 1 beanie kid named Zoran
- 1 plastic “pirate style” cutlass
- 1 pink fairy magic wand (although to be fair I think Big Sis slipped this one in!)
- 1 green light saber
- 1 power ranger Mask
- 1 power ranger Suit (blue)
- 1 knight and horse figurine
- 1 pair of gumboots shaped like bumble bees
- 1 Dorothy the Dinosaur tail
- 1 Spider Man colouring and sticker book
- 1 purple magician’s cape
- 1 orange texta
- 1 small magnadoodle
- 7 matchbox cars
As you can see, just a few “must have’s” for a 3 year old at a beach holiday. Swords and hand to hand combat items do seem a little over represented, but better safe than sorry I guess!
Bali, dress ups, Holiday, kids packing
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Sometimes I have to pull up Leisa when she tells people that she is weaning Baby Bear. That can’t be the case – unless by that she’s referring to her role in strategy and direction. When Baby Bear calls out for booby juice in the middle of the night it’s only DSO that can go ‘cos he aint got what she really wants. Which brings me to the Mission.
When I get the call in the wee hours, I make my way to Baby Bear’s lair. My instructions are to reassure her that she’s loved and safe and that the best thing for everyone (yeah, ‘cos she’s interested in the greater good!) if for her to just roll over and go back to sleep. And I can say, she is often quite happy to oblige – unless I try to leave the room.
It’s bad enough that one of my 40 year old knees sometimes crack like a whip when I turn to change directions – that’s my own built in obsolescence appearing and I can deal with that. What makes this mission particularly hard is the depths she’s gone to herself to prevent my exit. The floorboards creak and, with one-foot-wrong sometimes they bang louder than my left knee. The perspiration on under my feet can make the boards lift before they crash down. Also, she’s engaged Big Sis and Little Bro to leave a variety of tripping hazards on the floor which, in the darkness, might as well be The Bells of Notre Dame. However, more subtly, she has movement sensors at her disposal – no really! The house has an alarm system with a detector in each room. When it detects movement (as its maker intended), it flashes a series of red and green LEDs which in other circumstances would go unnoticed. But in an operation as delicate as this the room lights up like a Fisher Price activity centre.
Needless to say, any of these triggers bring my escape to her full attention and, unable to use language to ask me, in a measured tone, where I think I’m going she screams the house down.
I remember taping a shoe box over the movement sensor in Big Sis’s room some years ago. Maybe I should try that – but do I have to wait ‘til she’s asleep before I get up the ladder?
How do you sneak out of a child’s room?
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My kids hate having sticky fingers or dirty hands. They demand napkins after every meal and always wash their hands, if we are out they demand that wipes are available in all circumstances.
“Great, so what’s the problem?” - say all those parents who are constantly nagging and pleading with kids to do the same. The problem, my dear friends, is the regularity with which I am lifting Little Bro up to the sink to wash, and hunting through drawers/bags for wipes. Some days its up there with food prep for most regular activity. I might add - I’m not sure where they inherited it, DSO and I are not particularly fastidious.
Given this prediliction they were extremely impressed at a relatives house lately when they discovered corn holders. These are the little corn shaped plastic things you poke into either end of a corn on the cob (for those who didn’t grow up in the 1970’s in Australia). Big Sis and Little Bro have each taken a pair home and are using them constantly. They have been rebadged “apple holders” and “pear holders” and come the stone fruit season I imagine they will come in handy for nectarines and pears as well!
It’s a testament to the ingenuity of childhood. Big Sis has already taken them to Kinder in her lunch box to help with any “hand fruit” she may encounter. I wonder whether it will catch on? It’s like the episode of Seinfeld where they start a fad for eating snickers bars with a knife and fork. Maybe I should consider registering a patent?
corn, Food, sticky fingers
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I once saw an interview with Cate Blanchett in which she talked about herself and husband Andrew Upton sitting in front of a Wiggles dvd , discussing the production merits in detail while realising that they should get out more! It was an - “Aw see, they are just like us!”, moment! I suspect she was just being folksy - with invitations to all the glamorous events in town and the cost of babysitting unlikely to be an issue in the monthly budget I doubt she sits at home as much as the rest of us!
But I digress, the point is that kids tv is ubiquitous but we all have our personal thresholds. In our house we love Playschool (hooray!), despise High 5 (banned!), tolerate and are driven crazy by the Wiggles (regret not banning, but now too late!). But all bets are off now I have seen an episode of Jungle Girl.
For those who don’t know this is Bindi Irwin’s contribution to kids tv. I doubt there is anyone who doesn’t know that her dad, Steve Irwin, is dead but after watching the show, I wasn’t so sure. Bindi continually refers to - my dad, and we then see him wresting crocs and every other wild animal imaginable throughout each episode. At no time is he referred to in the past tense and his action is seamlessly part of the plot. It is the creepiest thing I’ve seen for a while and very confusing to our 7 year old friend who said somewhat perplexed - ” I thought he died?” Very convenient for a parent who is trying to explain the permanence of death. The only thing I can conclude is that Terri Irwin is seriously in denial about the death of her husband - but do we all have to become part of the charade?
My irritation with the show increased as I watched the (sadly) dead dad do lots of dangerous things. Things that Little Bro was watching with a wide mouth and a glint in his eye! For example, picking up a venomous snake (we do get them around our area in Summer) and running from a wild dog that was trying to attack him. I turned off the tv and explained to Little Bro that we never approach snakes and if we are scared of a dog we stay very still and never run. But I suspect the damage was done…thanks Bindi!
The other problem is that the show focuses on endangered species, to the point of obsession. Every animal is endangered, the words killed or dying are in Bindi’s every sentence (ironically excepting those that start with - my dad). Big Sis was quite concerned and started asking why all the animals were dying and why people were killing them. I think its a really bad idea to flood kids with this stuff, they get overwhelmed and end up not caring. Can’t we focus on kids enjoying nature, rather than continually and pessimistically focusing on problems? An appropriate balance would be to just raise the issue of endangerment once an episode for the young viewers and make some practical suggestions about what they can do so they can feel powerful and optimistic.
I discussed all this with Big Sis, and she seemed to agree. When we finished she sat silent for a moment and then said - “But mummy, I love her hair!” So thanks again Jungle Girl, probably your biggest crime of all - it will be crimped piggy tails all the way to Kinder next term!
Cate Blanchett, Jungle Girl, kids and the environment, kids tv
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I’m not what you’d call a fussy mum. I don’t iron the kids clothes, I’m happy to take them out dressed in eclectic items from the dress up box and I don’t even insist on things matching - who has the energy? One thing I am particular about however, is footwear! Each season I have the kids properly fitted for a pair of shoes, which I spend a reasonable amount of money on and insist they wear to death.
I worry about their feet, soft boned and growing all the time, and unlike teeth, they only get one pair for life!
The problem is that at the moment Big Sis has a favorite pair of shoes from her dress up box and spends most of her day wearing them. They are plastic high heels, which cost about 20 cents at the local $2 shop! Suffice to say these haven’t been expertly fitted. She does get around better than I ever have in a pair of heels, and can run at full speed - no doubt gripping with her little toes!
Little Bro on the other hand has become Mr Two Year Old, and is full of - “I can do it!”, which includes putting his own shoes on. It is quite extraordinary how often he puts them on the wrong foot. You would think that as independent events he’d get it right 50% of the time - its actually more like 10%!
He gets them on and no amount of discussion, cajoling, or hastily made promises will get him to change them over. He responds more and more firmly every time - “Me Big, big boy, I do it!”
So there they are in the back yard; a fairy princess/ mermaid or Snow White in her plastic heels and Little Bro careering around proudly with his left shoe on his right foot and vice versa. I’m hoping they grow out of it before any permanent damage is done!
dress up box, kids clothes, kids shoes
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Toddlers and preschoolers are hungry all the time. I figure it’s related to their frantic activity levels! If I don’t feed Big Sis and Little Bro something every 30 minutes the result is a meltdown of enormous proportions - so we never stray far from home without a carrier bag of snacks!
Visiting a friend the other day I immediately emptied the contents of my snack-bag onto her kitchen bench. It consisted of; a half eaten packet of rice cakes, some leftover watermelon from my fridge and a packet of sultanas (also half empty). My friend leaped on the sultanas - “Thank God, I’d run out of them, they’re my ‘get out of jail free card’!”
Before kids I’d visit friends with a box of Swiss chocolate, a special cake from a bakery or even a bottle of wine! Now I bring my kids and whatever (healthy) snack food I have in the cupboard, even if it’s half eaten!
As my host arranged the feast on some brightly coloured plastic Ikea plates it reminded me of those offerings you find in shop doorways in Hindu countries; pieces of fruit, tiny little meals of rice and a few incense sticks arranged on a gold or silver tray.
That’s how I’ll see it now as I gather my things together for a visit. It will be an offering, not to Ganesh or Hanuman, but to our own little elephants and cheeky monkeys - arranged for them on Swedish plastic by their faithful servants!
food for kids, healthy snacks, Hindi gods, Ikea
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As parents of 3 small children we don’t get out much! There is no shame in that. I did however experience an almost overwhelming urge to strangle (with her own hairdryer cord) a young hair salon assistant who after observing me breastfeeding through a haircut (not easy let me say) - and comforting a small baby over a blow-dryer says, by way of conversation; “Are you going out tonight?”. The only response I could think to this was - “Yeah love, do you know any clubs that I can get in with a Baby Bjorn”?
This isn’t quite as ludicrous as the wine shop owner, who after observing me with 2 kids in a double pram, and a baby in a sling navigating myself through his shop makes conversation - “So, are you going out tonight?”; “Yeah mate, and I’ll leave this lot in the car, what could go wrong?”
We did however find a way to get out recently. By taking a combined holiday with another couple with kids and taking turns going out! It was brilliant. Being out of condition I did, however end up with an unusual injury, a red blister on each elbow.
This was from sitting at a table with a white starched table cloth and resting my elbows there as I told nice long stories and using my elbow as a fulcrum as I sipped wine.
They were nasty blisters - but definitely worth it!
elbows, getting out with kids, hairdressor, wine
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It’s been a long time between posts. With holidays and other commitments the blog has taken a back seat - and I’ve really missed it.
I have lots of little scraps of paper at the bottom of my hand bag recording blog-able moments with our little tribe. Unfortunately on closer inspection most of them are indecipherable and incoherent! I’ve also lost count of the number of times that I’ve uttered those words - “There’s a blog in that!”.
I’m not the type to make new years resolutions, but if I was I’d probably make them in February. That said, they would probably go something like this:
1. I really, really am going to redesign my website.
2. I am going to post at least twice a week.
Wish me luck, and stay tuned!
blog, regular posts
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We are connoisseurs of craft at our place. I scour the discount stores for all the cool stuff - glitter, stickers and tinsel. Feathers are a real favourite for Big Sis and I recently uncovered a stockpile of $2 tubs of multicolour feathers! I was delighted with them, as was Big Sis (and Little Bro for that matter) - but as a sat down to decorate some cardboard tiaras I made the mistake of examining them closely.
I had naively assumed that craft feathers would be acrylic, probably manufactured in some elaborate feather making machine. However, on closer inspection I determined that they probably once originated on a live bird. I then checked where they were made and saw it was China. Now, I don’t imagine those birds were kept free range, leading happy and healthy lives before their feathers ended up in the dye pot! And where were the rest of their little bodies destined? The mental image I conjured of this kind of craft farming was not pleasant, also the words “bird flu” flashed through my mind as I looked over to see Big Sis tickling Babies face with a particularly long pink feather!
My horror reminded me of the moment on The Simpsons when Homer finds the organised crime bosses milking rats and selling it to the school! With a shudder I snatched the feather from Big Sis and said in an overly firm manner - “Not near faces!” She looked at me wide eyed, replying - “But mummy the feathers are so beautiful!”
One day, I imagine we will be sourcing our kids craft activities from free range, organic craft farms. Local, of course, to cut down the craft miles ;). But seriously, the poor birdies! Not near faces Big Sis, please, not near faces!
feathers, kids craft
I'm Leisa - a thirtysomething woman, living in Australia. My immediate family consists of a daughter (Big Sis 4 years), a son (Little Bro 2 years), a baby girl(Tertia), husband (or Darling Significant Other - DSO) and a dog. In a past life I had a "big job" in the "real world" as a corporate lawyer. These days I live in a different dimension - I'm "down with the kids".
