More about Marcus

Remember Marcus from the last post? Well last night when I got home I asked Bax how Kindy was, this is the conversation that followed:

"Marcus is a policeman"
"Is he? What does he do?"
"Don't hit me Marcus, don't hit me please"
"Did Marcus hit someone?"
"Run away run away run away Dada"
"Did Marcus hit Dada?"
"Marcus kissed my cheek"

Amazingly vivid image of what happened at kindy.

Super-HEROBOY-Man

There's this kid at Kindy called Marcus. He's a lovely blonde Milkybars-are-on-me kinda kid. he's autistic. And Bax talks about him all the time. I thought it was because he liked Marcus but after discussing it with Granny i now think it's because alol the teachers say the word Marcus a lot. Marcus don't...Marcus no...Marcus now...Marcus!!!

After kindy yesterday G took the kids to the supermarket (Bax calls it the shopmarket) and there's a crappy treasure shop nextdoor. Outside the shop a spiderman costume was hanging. Bax started yelling SpiderMan please Daddy Spiderman for Da???? please daddy! SpiiidderMaaann!!

Apparently, you see, MARCUS has a spiderman costume.

G didn't buy it but instead said that if Marcus was spiderman then Bax could be SUPER TED!!!

So by the time I got home there was Bax with a bright orange pillow case tied around his shoulders happily (and loudly) telling everyone (and often) that he was SuperTed!!!!

He and Izzie bounced around on our bed for ages jumping on each other and giggling. Super Ted and his trusty side kick.

Ho hum

All this excitement and the tension of waiting for all those conditions to unconditionalise is getting to me and I had to have G and the kids come and pick me up after work and then i went to bed very early (after finally speaking to my Mum is Spain!! yay!).

Bax had been coached and on the way home said "Sore tummy Mummy?" "I love you Mummy"

Then this morning I pulled Izzie into bed with me so I could cuddle her to bits and Bax heard us and yelled from his bed. I yelled back "you CAN get out of bed if you like Bax!" and he came scooting in on his trike. He handed me a strip of blue paper he'd found on the ground and said "Here's your ticket" then scooted out again . I'm not too sure what that was about.

Then he came back in and Izzie crawled down off the bed to the floor and toddled around after him.

After a bit Bax came back to the side of the bed. I said 'What's the time?" he said 'seven thirty". He doesn't actually know the time thing yet but he just always says seven thirty when you ask.

He switched off my bedside light. The two of them toddled out the door together. Bax said "Night night Mummy, door closed?" Then he tried to pull the door closed by skating his fingers underneath it. it took him about three minutes but he kept going until it was closed. i heard him say shush to Izzie in the hall way. And the two of them pattered off to the kitchin.

I closed my eyes, smiled, and counted.

About 58 seconds later they both burst into the room, flicked on the light and Bax declared "Dinner time" . (Remember he calls all meals dinner?)

Silly children.

Ooooo! best beloveds...

it's so exciting. We're like kids at Christmas. Neither G nor I can sleep because we are so giddy with it all. We get up at 11.30 after tossing and turning our head whiring, and make warm Milo just to calm the heck down!

Why?

Well we've accepted an offer on our house. conditional on them getting a LIM and a builders report. That goes unconditional on June 8. then we settle on June 16.

And we have had an offer accepted on a house in Otane just out of Hastings.

That is conditional on a LIM, a builders report, and on our house going unconditional!

The new house is ridiculous.

You can see for yourselves at www.ljhooker.co.nz - type in GA4GE6 in the search field.

But - WARNING - do not get your hopes up! It is all very conditional on the aforementioneds above, okay?

Oh go on - have a little squeel. believe me we are!

Civil defense

Phooey! Bird flu and tsunamis are nothing – we’re selling our house! And that entails a much more sophisticated civil defense plan.

The mobile buzzes, agent’ll be round in ten.

No panic – we’re ready.

G runs to the closet and pulls out the vacuum.
I grab the bag from another cupboard – it’s already packed – nappies, wallet, tin of food, dummy, jumpers.

Then I pull in washing and hurl it in the two big plastic garden buckets known as Gubbas.

G vacuums the rug in the lounge and pushes the machine back into the cupboard.

I open the dishwasher and throw everything I can find into it.

I grab Bax by the hand and run to the car then go back for the gubbas of washing and the emergency bag.
G pulls the rubbish bag out of the bin. Picks it up in one hand and Izzie up in the other.

Everything’s tossed into the car.

We grab the dog and we’re off.

We drive around the block a couple of times.

Our kids are beginning to think this is normal behaviour.

We’ve got it down to a fine art and it takes us no more than 3 minutes! Not bad. Of course if a tsunami really was about to come ashore we might not have the allotted 3 minutes – in that case I don’t think we’d both vacuuming the rug.

And so it begins...!

The open homes began this weekend.

Both kids were awake at 6am after I had had a night out with some friends and G had had such a tough time getting Izzie to go to sleep - I don't know if she's really having tooth pain or just taking the proverbial, anymore!

G looked aweful and i felt aweful so i let him sleep and piled both kids into the car and then did what any self-respecting, wise, intellegent, environmentally friendly mother would do when faced with such a situation - I took them to McDonald's for brekfast. I know, i know. But i took a vivid and crossed out all brand mentionings on all packaging before i hadn't it over to the kids.

We were the first in the door - me in far too big sweatpants and unbrushed locks and the kids still in their PJs - we looed very Westie-chic.

Bax said to me as we left "Bubba's naughty, I'm tired and i want porridge and feijos" - when we got home he ate a big bowl of both to top off his McD hashbrown.

back at home G was up so we spent a mad coupla hoours gettting the house ready for showing. the open home was 1.30-2.15. both kids managed to sleep well before then because they'd woken up so early.

Countdown begins.

One hour before the open home G had the truck loaded up with rubbish - full to the brim and he was off to the dump.

I was watching the clouds - in charge of bringing in all the washing at the mereist hint of rain.

50 minutes to go the sky opens and torrents of rain crash down. Thunder.. lightening.

i bring in the washing and add it to the pile hanging in the loung.

20 minutes to go G reappears nearly in tears - the tip's closed because of a diesel spill.

5 minutes to go we pile the car with the four loads of wet washing, the two overtired kids, the dog, both of us, and remember the truck is already full to the top with rubbbish.

then for an hour we drive around the suburbs of west auckland - go back to the tip - dump the rubbish. The rain is still coming down heavily.

home again. It's all over. four groups through.


SUNDAY. was a bit better.

it was mother's day. Instead of waiting for G to complain about how mother's day is just commercial hype. I said to him (before he had even opened his eyes) "What shall we do for mother's day?"

We went to a great cafe for breakfast and then G bought me a pair of very funky PJs and a pair jeans.

Went home, add a bit more of a flap around the house. Sat down in the kitchen to wait for the open Home. Then an almighty thump from the bathroom. Ran down the hall to find the kids under the shower curtain and the rail pulled out of the wall. Bax was crying "Sorry sorry sorry" he was saying "Dada wants a shower!" Too late Dada you've busted the curtain.

We were on countdown again at this point.

I raced to Placemakers and bought whatever i could think of that might help the situation.

And in about 5 minutes (and half an hour before the open home started) G had fixed the rail, we vaccuumed the rug, wiped the front step on our way out the door, had the kids in the car (and the dog) and we were off.

open Home No2 - 7 groups through.

Then at 3.30pm (it is still pissing down remember) the agent rang to ask whether he could bring a group through (for their second visit)

When they arrived we had two cute clean happy children playing in the lounge, a roast in the oven and the smell wafting therough the house, we were chatting quietly in our immaculate house (all the washing, toys and every bit of chaos hiding in the wardrobes)

What a funny weekend it was. Crazy and chaotic and hilarious.

And My Mum's in Spain learning spanish!

I love this story!

I HAD to steal this gem from Auntie L's blog www.phoebesimcott.blogspot.com
So you know: Uncle Biff is one of G's old mates from London who now lives in Chch with his wife Cate and two littlies Lillie and Ollie. He is brother to Uncle Seal who is married to Aunti L. Anyway, Uncle Biff is about 8 foot in every direction, red hair viking - what Seal calls 'heroically proportioned' - likes his beer and his footie, could be called tough if one was to cast naturtiums - but now this...!

Uncle Biff - The Baby Whisperer
Forever and a day Phoebe has been rather unsettled at night. I am a terrible mother and hand her bottles of milk to placate her and send Phoebe back to sleep. Seal has been on at me to stop this (he sleeps through the whole thing) but more recently my excuse has been "Oh I think lying on her face, hurts her in the night. How can I stop giving her something which obviously offers such comfort?". Well last Friday we went out (a wild and crazy dinner party!), Uncle Biff babysat the kids. When we got home Phoebe had done her usual thing and woken looking for milk. Uncle Biff however, not aware of my night time weakness (as opposed to my daytime ruthlessness - NOT!), that he just went and sat by her cot and stroked her head, telling her all was OK. Well blow me down if Phoebe has not woken one single night since then. So my excuses (and that's what they are) have been revealed and Phoebe really had no reason to be waking in the night other than habit. Thank you Uncle Biff you are officially the Baby Whisperer. Now if you could just sort out Freddie I might stand a chance of a continuous nights sleep, for the first time in over 2 years!

I too hand Izzie bottles at night to get her to go back to sleep - this has become a regular thing where a few weeks ago it was "only cause her teeth are bothering her" yeah right! I wonder if i should try the patented Uncle Biff method too!

Latest Bax and Izzie pics

If Izzie gets bunches, Bax wants bunches - but he calls them Livvys - after the adorable Miss O

This is the house that G made

Actually it's a bookcase but the kids like to play inside

Help Me!!

Bax has a new thing: he runs away from you in the shopping mall until he gets to a place where he looks all alone, then he dramatically cups his hands around his mouth and yells "Help Me!" a fe wtimes while people around him either look astonished or simply laugh because they can clearly see G or me behind him.

This afternoon he had a real opportunity to yell Help Me when he was playing in the garden with his new gardening gloves one minute then up a tree the next and couldn't get down. In these incy photos Izzie is the orange dot on the ground, G is the purple dot and the splotch at the top is Bax yelling "Help ME!"

The Divine Miss O

Storyland

I realsie that my last few posts have been little nippets with no real story line and that they've perhaps been a little all-over-the-place. That's my brain at the moment, and as one of the wontoks you'll just have to put up with it. until I can get enough time in my life to clear my head a little this is the way it's going to be, nippets, bits and bobs, snatches of this and that.

I woke up this morning and went into Bax's room where he was awake but all curled up in a ball under his duvet. When he saw me he popped up and laughed.

We wandered around the house together deciding what to have for breakfast. We both have sore coughs but we're not sick at all, just sounding a bit croaky.

We went in to G who was still in bed refusing to get up. Bax jumped on him saying 'Come on Daddy get up get up" G shushed him grumpily. Bax took my hand "Come on Princess let's go on holiday" he said.

We walked down to the kitchn hand in hand. We had some skippys. Half way through Bax remembered his new love and made me go outside, IN THE RAIN, to scoop some up from under the tree - FEIJOAS!!

Yum! we ate a whole pile.

Then i had to go to work. I turned on Clifford the Big Red Dog and left Bax tucked up under a big blanket on the couch, the rain coming down heavy and cold out the window.

What a happy morning to keep me going through the day.

Reasons to get the hell out of dodge #1

I took Bax to kindy this morning. i love cruising along with him, chatting. He can now sing the whole of baa baa black sheep although he misses out the bit about the dame which is funny.

This morning it took us ages in all the traffic - we left at 7.40 and got there at 8.40.

mt eden Rd was particularly bad. By the time we got there Bax was really pissed off, then he cheered up when he worked out how to unbuckle his seat belt. I had to wait til I stopped again at a red light and then menouver myself around to do him back up again. That really annoyed him and he screamed at me that he was stuck and it hurt.

By the time we pulled into Ranfurly Road he was bawling saying he wanted to go home and watch The Go Show - a NZ playschool type thing. I parked the car and got him and his bag out. he looked exhausted and told me he was tired and he wanted to go to bed. i suggested we go inside kindy anyway and see what everyone was doing - seeing as we were here anyway.

He clung onto me as we stood with others on the front veranda - he quietly whispered into my ear 'let's go home Mummy" .

i explained that it would take us even longer in the car if we went all the way home again.

We went inside and sat on the couch to collect ourselves.

He didn't want to sit on my lap but sat next to me as he calmed down.

A second later he bounced off the couch went over to the little tea set, brought me two little cups and a teapot and said in a chipper voice - let's have a cup of tea Mummy.

Obviously he's worked out already what our cure all is!

When i left him he was sharing a pretend yoghurt with a little shy boy who was having his first day.

I can't wait to be 10 minutes max from kindy!

All G's hard work - see for yourself

Our house is on the market! Have a look at
www.open2view.com and put in the reference number 128498
Boy do we like red or what?!