RAMBLINGS OF A MIND UNTAMED

Wendy actually looks for approval now. It's subtle and it took me a while to see.

I think the first time I realised was when she was eating a peach and I asked her if Daddy gave it to her and Pete piped up and said no she took it out of the fruit bowl on her own. And I said "oh without asking?" and her face scrunched up and looked a bit worried.

And I said oh thats okay. Were you hungry? Daddy didn't feed you? Daddy didn't do his job? lolz.

As long as she doesn't do that in a store (I'm pretty sure she wouldn't) then we're all good. My mum would never pre wash fruit as it came home until your about to eat it and I remember i used to hate eating something that was wet. Then I got older (like 8) and realised you could dry it.

Now I just wash everything and dry it before storing it ... ya know. Cause i actually don't think my 3 year old is going to do it. But maybe I should start getting her to do that ... help my wooden floors are going to get wet... maybe she can wash it in the bathroom..

Wendy said:
"I don't want to be 2. I want to be 3!"
and i tried to press her on why.

I also explained that when she's 3, that I'd have higher expectations of her, like I'd expect her to put on her own clothes and set up her bath, etc.

She looked excited and took her clothes off for tonight's bath with less fuss than usual.

Then before bed she was playing with my old harmonica I've let her have, and then when she was bored of it she threw it into the fireplace.

Then her father and I were meanies and said that she couldn't turn 3 if she did naughty things like that, she'd have to stay 2 forever.

She began to cry a little.

Poor thing. They feel things so strongly at this age. No sense of sharing or the value of items still. I suppose this just comes as time goes, and she experiences how we treat things of value.

Elizabeth

Has been walking around using the bee like a champ.

She hasn't taken a step as good as Wendy's first step, but my mum and Pete have both proclaimed that they have seen her take steps without holding onto things.

Well until I see it myself with my own eyes, she still can't walk yet.

Maybe she will walk at daycare later this week.

I found a bottle she likes to drink from, so I'll be preparing some formula/EBM and whatever for them to use with her in it.

Today she seemed to get really hot in the afternoon so I gave her some cows milk (the reccomendation is for cows milk after 12 not before 1) from the fridge to drink and she drank it so quick.

I just felt sorry for her and she looked thirsty. I do think she struggles to get enough from me during the day when she is distracted with playing and Wendy and all sorts. But at night she is happy to sit and suckle. I don't want to starve her only to have her drink more at night.

She's been more or less exclusively breastfed (without bottles or even a dummy, although I have tried) until 6 months and even with my mum, she barely took more than 80mls not from the breast once a week, 3x a month, until 11 months. Come on. She's ready to fly the coop, we can't be boobs forever.

My mum chastised me for not offering the breast first before giving the bottle but only an hour ago I had offered and she wasn't keen. If she's thirsty....

It's been so hot too. I'll ask the carers to make her bottle cold because that's how she's been having it, actually.

The kitchen

I've finally gotten around to making some stock. But ideally the fridge needs to be clearer and the freezer needs space - you know- so the stock has somewhere to go.

They sell those ready packs of stock at the supermarket for far too high a price of convenience and I doubt there's much in those packs beyond water... and... whatever they decide to make the flavour from. So if I don't have any home made stock I just suffer.

May2 ate some congee so well last week made with some random fast stock I made, so I need to make some real congee for this week.

It's a labour of love. Plus I just can't bear to buy the store stuff.

Wendy
This week at 2 yrs and 9 mo started saying:
"when I grow up..."
lately it's been

when i grow up can I cook dinner?
... clean the house?
do the laundry
lolz

The first cake I ever baked

I remember my mother was never really keen for me to be doing anything in the kitchen with regards to food preparation.

I was an easy eater. You put it in front of me and I'll tell you its great.

Even if you screwed it up somehow. I'll eat anything.

I had my dislikes (steak) but just that could be gotten around with some sort of sauce.

Anyhow, somehow I got hold of a womans weekly kids cookbook and decided to make something from it. I was probably 8. I remember when I was looking at recipies I was choosing something that we already had all the ingredients to so I wouldn't have to ask my parents to buy something special.

I didn't ask for help for knowing the comments I'd get (things like "what for you make that?" "wasting your time!" etc.) so I picked a butter cake. And made it. And it turned out nice enough in my opinion.

Another time I made apple muffins. I cut up the apple like it said and everything. The only thing is it turned out like little mountains with a high peak. Back then I wasn't sure why but as time went I learned it was likely due to overheating the oven.

I do have trouble getting Wendy to listen to what I say but when she comes up with some idea to bake something or make something I'm looking to support that. we don't have the barriers my parents face
- inability to keep countertops clear (this is an ongoing battle. How hard is it? It's not. It's cultural or like, personality. dude its a counter, put it in the cupboard take it out, use it and put it back -- in the cupboard. Thats what a cupboard is for: storage. A counter top is for using...)
- monetary : not seeing the value of exploration and being focused on potential disasters being a financial negative (rather than a learning experience).
- ceramic sink making clean ups high risk for breakages


Anyways. Such as it was.

May2
kid 2 has been sick sick.

I think she was well for all of 3 days and then returned the productive cough with +++ nasal secretions.

On Wed night, the MIL came to stay over and Pete slept in the same room as myself and May 2 and I swear she woke up 8x instead of the usual 4, each time sounding like she was drowning in a pile of snots and secetions.

On Thursday, the day after the 8x wake up I had been planning to take her on a costal walk but she would need to go via carrier and she doesn't sleep well in that thing. So I opted out and spent a day with a sleepy baby in a pram.

It turned out to be a good decision all around because I would have been too late to pickup Wenderpoop from the childcare.


The second night, each wake up I dosed her up with saline spray so I think we had a total of 3x wake up with hacking cough and whatever snots.

Poor thing.

2nd day was a planning disaster also. Somehow after leaving home at 2pm to see Scultures by the sea, I arrived at the wrong beach. Instead of getting back in the car and driving further down the coast to the correct beach, we walked. Which would have been nice had we commenced said walk at 9am.

At 5pm we were furiously googling local busses to find a faster way back to the car to drve back to pick up Wenderpoo on time. 10 mins to spare she was the 2nd last kid to get picked up. The other seemed older. Pooper (Wendy) seemed fine.

MIL reckons May2's first word is Yes. She reckons she said another word but couldn't remember what it was.

I thought she was hearing things but today I swear she said "yes" when i asked a quesion about I can't remember what.

Maybe it is her first word.

I can't remember Wendys. She seemed silent until she exploded into a wordfilled toddler. I'd have to go back and review old videos.

It seems so much has happened since my last post I can only but leave it into the ether (like much of my 20s) and move on with describing what happened today.

I'll do it person by person.

But in essence, I took the 2 kids to the park using the local bus with a pram and a kiddie seat attachment for the 2 year old. The park is about 2 or 3 suburbs away. So it's just me and the 2 of them.

It's almost a badge of honour to be able to do something like that.

Help is nice, but Independence can feel liberating.

I chose a park that I'd heard great things about - its fully fenced in so if your 2 year old goes running around there's less of a chance she will end up near the main road.

that was the main draw card.
when I got there I saw it had a toilet and fairly shaded areas-- it was a hot day but very overcast and its technically Winter so the UV was lowish.

I had packed a picnic, a rug - but forgotten the damn carrier so I had to hand carry May2 around the park.

It was super busy but all the other parents seemed really reasonable, nice and helpful.

Wendy's great moment of the day
We got home and I was happy I'd remembered to sort out dinner before we left (tip no. 2 always think ahead) I had predefrosted some bolognaise. We have a tonne of rice from the other day in the fridge so I made a little bowl of what I called "Indonesian Spaghetti" and called it as such to Wendy. It was rice mixed with the sauce and some cheese.

It was a type of joke my father would have made for sure.

She ate it up, then asked for water. she had her water then started to play with it, pouring it into the mostly empty bowl.
Anyways, after a bit of that (which I almost didn't notice for feeding May2 her bolognaise mixed with cooked apple smushed)- Wendy wanted more. From the pot over there. It took ages to figure out she wanted what was in the pot.

Pete thought she wanted one of May2's potato cakes(which he called Maymays buiscuts) but I'd already given one to wendy and she'd already thrown it on the floor in rejection.

when we finally figured out it was what was in the pot, pete put some of the "Indonesian spaghetti" into her bowl - which was literally, just plain rice, Wendy saw it and started crying.

She wanted more pasta.

But I said, I hadn't cooked any pasta, we were having rice tonight.

Then Wendy cried harder. She really wanted the pasta. The Spaghetti she thought we were having.
The Indonesian one (lol aka. the rice).

Pete felt sorry for her and started going through the fridge to offer her more food.

There was some of last week's cooked pasta that Wendy rejected twice, and he offered her that also. Wendy cried harder.

At one point Pete was about to go cook some pasta and I said no- we aren't having pasta. We are having what we're having and there's nothing wrong with it. She ate a whole bowl already.

Eventually she accepted left over fruit salad from lunch.

I was laughing so hard at "Indonesian Spaghetti" however.

So good.

May2
my little sleeper now is some retarded 6month old baby who only does 2x 30-50 min naps in the middle of the day.

That's not normal. In my opinion anyway. I think she wakes up mid cycles and either sees I'm not there or... something and doesn't link up to another. Textbooks like to say naps will consolidate now, but I can tell you this kid was born consolidated into 3-4 hour blocks from birth.

Wendy doesn't get a 2pm nap cause shes nuts, her lunch is a little abysmal so by 4pm she's starving, So we end up with dinner at 430pm. Bath at like, 515pm, and bedtime around 6pm.

May2 then doesn't get a 3rd nap and instead - goes straight to bed around 5pm yesterday, approx 530 pm tonight.

I have to remember to wake her up in the middle of the night for a nappy change cause that's just too early.

Now that she's started on actually having about 2 meals a day the little thing has been pooping heaps. Heaps. Heaps.

3am there was a poop. 6am. poop. then during dinner, actually during dinner at some point she shat herself. lol. After about 2 months of 1-2 x a day pooping.

Pete

This is how weekends go:
1 day of the weekend (sat or sunday) Pete has energy for a family thing,

The second day of the weekend, he doesn't.

Same thing every weekened.

Yesterday we rode the Metro to Tallawang. lol. Somehow that only cost us $5.62 return.
Sorta like going to middle of nowhere.

We hung around Tallawang for like, 20 mins using the facilities at the local mall - toilet and a little couch outside the fruit and veg shop, then rode it back home.

Wendy got hungry, I offered her the packed lunch we had. I'm really over buying outside food. It's never good and if there's no reason to get it (aka.my friend isn't around and wants to eat out) then lets have our packed lunch from home. She's a kid lets exploit this power for as long as possible. I don't want her getting used to eating Maccas all the time when we're outside.

2 year olds are also not like adults. We can skip lunch, a 2 year old sorta can't.


At least now we can say we went to Tallawang.


Most people reply that statement with "so where is Tallawang?" (next to Rouse Hill, is the answer).