That Will Teach Ya Mum!

Ok if we all read any parenting book - it all seems pretty straight forward and simple. Then you apply these principles to real life and well it seems I have had my first (and probably not last) parenting backfire lesson.

And it all started over desert - specifically me serving up some peaches! Ella's response was yuck (which is becoming an increasingly standard response to food) - fine Ella either eat it or go hungry. Ella sits and begins to stew...chewing the end of her hair at the same time. Now I this is where I made my first mistake by adding 'And stop chewing your hair!!!' Yep my patience being a sole parent was wearing thin. I mean really what was I thinking - Ella hair chewing is becoming a habit and I wasn't going to stop it there and then.

However next mistake was a threat and we all know that you have to follow through. 'Do you want me to get the scissors and cut it off so you can't chew it?' That worked for a whole 20 seconds before laughingly she put her hair back in her mouth. So snip off comes the end bit of the offending piece of hair. It goes straight back into the mouth - snip more comes off. Again straight back into her mouth. By now I was thinking can't go on forever and she doesn't seemed to be too phased. Ok snipping stopped. Hmm that didn't work at all.

What I wasn't prepared for was what happened next when Ella disappeared into the lounge room. When she reappeared in the kitchen about 1 minute later, she had her scissors in one hand and a big clump of hair in the other!! OMG. The tears started to flow when I took her into the bathroom to show her what she had done. At least I can just get it up into a small ponytail on top so the damage isn't too noticeable but I think a trip to Bernie, our hairdresser is on the cards...

Appointments

On my last days of enforced sick leave, I have had numerous appointments - follow up with the surgeon, routine post surgery physio stuff, haircut.... However yesterday Katy had to visit the dentist. What I had originally mistake as weetbix on her front left tooth was in fact the tooth becoming grey. It's been a few weeks since her face plant which resulted in a very big fat lip (see Falling Apart) and with the change in colour I was concerned that the tooth was dying. The paediatric dentist was fabulous although Katy didn't really want him to come too close. He ended up getting a good look in when she started crying!! All good news with the tooth. He believes she has bruised the tooth and like a bruise anywhere else on the body will resolve, resulting in the tooth changing back to it's original colour. We'll head back for another check up in 3 months - hopefully Katy won't be as scared next time.

Resting Up

It's been a week since I had a knee arthroscope which went well. Dr cut out the torn section of the meniscus and commented that the rest of the knee looked great. Post surgery the knee has recovered well. To keep swelling to a minimum, the first few days required loads of icing and keeping it elevated (ie lying on the couch).

Bandaid sympathy party!

By Thursday I was up and about limping around which was just as well as Andy flew out that night to Rome for 10 days - another conference! With Friday a school day for the girls and Nana doing the drop off/pick up, I enjoyed quite time at home creating photo books from our old photos.

Needless the weekend activities were quite ones and with the crap weather what could be better than building a princess palace! As you can see the princess clothes could all be hung up and even morning tea could be served inside!

When the sun finally came out for the briefest moment the girls decided to make Wombat Stew.

Skiing!!

I've been wanting to teach Ella how to ski ever since she started walking, but practical considerations have always prevailed. Last weekend we put practicalities aside and headed to Mt Selwyn for a family day-trip on a cold, wet, foggy, rainy day; we also managed to drag Cath, Eoin, Aoife and Lily (Aoife's cousin) with us.

The drive up was a little harrowing -- we picked up skis for the girls in Cooma (as well as two toboggans) and drove through the driving rain to Selwyn. All Nat could think about was how wet and cold we would be after a few hours in the elements, so she was relieved to find Katy asleep when we arrived, and magnanimously volunteered to stay in the car with her so Katy could get a proper rest. Meanwhile, the remainder of the team braved the elements...

First up, we skied with varying degrees of success. Ella travelled a total of about 25 m in 30 attempts over the day, but wasn't remotely phased by the amount of time she spent on the white snow. And in recounting her adventures various friends have been given the distinct impression that she is now some sort of slalom wizard, which isn't strictly accurate.


Next up, we tobogganed. Katy wasn't particularly enamoured by the whole experience. She was so rugged up that she literally couldn't move, and the toboggan motion took a bit of getting used to. When Nat finally took her back to the car, Katy remarked mournfully: "Don't like 'no' - like car"!



The bigger girls, on the other hand, loved the toboggans in general and toboggan racing in particular (not to mention the Dads).

Wealth of information

Our 4 yr old Ella has become a sponge - absorbing loads of interesting facts all learnt at childcare. A few recent examples are-

1. In the bath making animal noises, Ella croaked and I asked if she was a tadpole. 'No mum I'm a frog' she replied 'But do you know mum a tadpole becomes a frog?' And then went to explain how the tadpole grows legs and eventually jumps around.

2. While doing the food shopping, I put some flour in the trolley only to be asked if I knew where flour came from. Of course I played dumb, encouraging Ella to explain. She informed me about the process of growing wheat, milling it then using the flour to make bread and pasta. Apparently at childcare the children were learning about 'From garden to plate.' This involved actually making pasta, cooking it and of course eating it!

3. Out of the blue Ella exclaimed 'Do you know how the dinosaurs died.' I must say dinosaurs isn't one of my strongest topics however I was told how a big thing came down, CRASH and all the dinosaurs died.

4. Tonight at the dinner table it was Japanese - Konnichiwa (hello) and ichi, ni, san (1,2,3).

I just wonder what tomorrow will bring.....