Our Chickadees

Well after a few weeks of hammering, drilling, gluing, swearing and cursing the chook house is now complete. I am extremely happy with how it has turned out, and mighty proud of myself for doing most of it! It was actually quite therapeutic taking all my frustrations out on the nails as I bashed them in. It's 3 mtr long, 1 mtr high and 1 mtr wide. Big enough for the kids to go into and have a play with the chooks, and also roomy enough that the chooks could stay in there most of the time and be happy.

I had one end of the wood propped up on the saw horse and the other on the outdoor table! With a lot of moving and maneuvering I finally got it to this stage by myself. Wendy helped me by amusing the kids and holding the wood in place if it got a little tricky.

It was hilarious and no doubt a very unconventional way of building a chook house, but it all turned out AND it seems sturdy. I started off drilling, but the drill was a bit too powerful for me and kept kicking back and throwing itself around, so I packed away all the drill bits and screws and decided to try nails instead.

Using the nails was alot easier, except the stupid wood had so many knots in it, which made it difficult to belt the nails into some places. So each time I couldn't get a nail all the way in, I just bashed it onto it's side. Didn't look that great, but I have embraced it as the "features" of my chook house.
The kids each had a go hitting the nails in and loving every minute of it. When it was just a frame I threw a sheet over the top and made a cubby out of it for them to play in.

Duane helped me with getting the hinges on and hanging the doors, you know the easy stuff!!

~~The kids laying down the straw~~

And here it is all finished:

Next step was getting some lovely little girls to go in it. I called around yesterday to see which of the hatcheries had point of lays available. I was told to get Lowman Browns as they are good egg producers and great for the kids. Unfortunately they wouldn't be available for another week or so, and me being the impatient person that I am didn't want to have an empty chook house for that long. So I found a place that had black Australorps available and they would be ready to lay within the next month. Sounded perfect to me, so once Duane got home from golf we headed out to pick 2 up. The lady selling them had them all ready for us. however on the car ride over Duane and I had discussed (ok, maybe it was just me!) getting some younger hens, so that they would get used to the kids and hopefully be better pets. I mentioned this to the lady and she told us that she had some 6 weekers that would be fine to go straight outside, but they wouldn't be ready to lay for another 5 months or so.

We wandered around and had a look at them. So, so cute! I had made up my mind by then that I would like a hen that would lay soon and also one of the cute and cuddly babies. I then mentioned to her that I always have wanted a silkie hen, well 'lo and behold she had a gorgeous little black one right there to sell too. Duane was getting a little nervous at this stage, after reluctantly agreeing to chickens in the first place and now being faced with me requesting 3. The chook lady chatted a bit and convinced him that 3 was a good number, they are easy to care for and much better to put them all together at the start. So it was decided, we were taking 3 chickens.

Here are our 3 newest little babies:
I did ask Grace what she would like to call them, she first suggested "Allah", I really didn't think that was appropriate though. She then suggested "Ballerina" for the black one and "Silky Oak" for the little Silkie. We had already decided to call one "Henny Penney", so that name is going to the baby. Duane being oh so funny suggested Red Rooster and KFC. I don't think so.

So at this stage the baby has a name and the others are nameless until we all decide on something that doesn't use 11 special herbs and spices or is a religious leader.

And here is how they all slept last night. I know it's hard to make out but the silkie is on top of the food container and the baby is on top of her. The black one has it's bum sticking out of the nesting box. Later on though they changed over and the baby went into the nesting box with the black one and the silkie hoped on the roost.

They are all eating and behaving nicely. The black one has taken to mothering Henny, not letting the silkie go anywhere near her and keeping her close. Silkie is a bit skittish and randomly just runs up and down the cage, crazy thing. The chook lady did say that if the Silkie gets broody to go back and get some fertilised eggs for her to sit on, then when they hatch to take them back. I know Grace would love to see baby chicken hatch, so I'll definatley keep that in mind.

So far I'm loving the chooks. We have spent the afternoon and morning just watching them and their funny little antics. Grace and Xav have gone in their house a few times and sat down with them, its great cause the kids aren't scared of the chooks and the chooks so far seem ok with the kids. Grace loves picking up Henny and giving her a cuddle. Xav pats them all, and is trying to get the courage to pick them up - except he giggles too much to do it!

First haircuts

Both kids had their first proper haircuts today.

When I say proper I mean 'not a bit hacked off the back by a Mum who thinks that she can cut hair'. As much as I try to 'layer' and 'feather' around the ears, I really shouldn't even try.

Anyway, as Xav is a boy I really needed to get his hair out of his eyes. For some reason wispy fringes just don't look so cute on a boy. He had 2 gorgeous, adorable little curls on the back which I was hoping to keep, however his Daddy had other plans. As soon as Xav was seated and the cape was on, Duane instructed Katrina (our hairdresser) to "Give him a short back and sides, and ditch the girly curls on the back". I desperately wanted to not have them cut off, but even I had to admit that a mullet on a little boy is so not cute. SO needless to say they were snipped away, all that was remaining were his golden locks clutched in the palm of my hand.

It seemed in the snip of the scissors my little baby grew up and into a little boy.

He was very well behaved through the whole ordeal though. Sitting still most of the time, only risking the loss of an ear a few times. All in all though he did very well for his first ever hair cut.

Then it was Miss Grace's turn. I just knew that she would be fine, why wouldn't it be? It meant that ALL the attention would be just how she likes it, all on her!

She was fantastic. Sitting up on the chair all alone, tilting her head to the side like a seasoned professional. She was loving all the pampering and all the talk of how gorgeous she is. I only wanted a little bit off her hair, mainly just a tidy up. Her hair looks so lush and healthy now, all the wispy bits are gone.

My hair desperately needs a spruce up too, so wanna know what my dear husband has done? As we were leaving he asked how much for foils and a cut for me, then made an appointment for Friday and paid for it all. So Friday I get to go get my hair done ALONE. My hair is a horrible brown colour at the moment so it will be fantastic to get some blonde back in there. I have always had naturally blonde hair, but over the last few years it has darkened up way too much for my liking.

So on Friday I am going blonde again, and hopefully give myself a bit of a revamp. Can't wait!

My little girl is growing up

I've been meaning to write a few things about Grace for a while now, we have had a few major milestones happen over the last few months.

Firstly I finally got my bum into gear and got her a big girls bed. The poor thing had been sleeping all cramped into the toddler bed, we were starting to hear a thud every time she stretched, so thought it might be time to up-size. I have spent ages searching, trying to find the perfect bed for her. I wanted it to be white, good quality and to have drawers underneath. I finally found exactly what we were looking for at a bed shop near Ikea.

It's great because there is storage also at the back of the drawers, so I have crammed all her old clothes in there (because I can't bear to get rid of any!). The drawers have all her winter clothes in them, which has freed up some space in her wardrobe. It is a king single, so it is HUGE. Enough room for us all to have a snuggle on.

I have a few new things to put on her walls, just need to find the time and motivation to do it and have it looking like a pretty little girls room.

Grace has been sleeping peacefully in her bed for the last month, I've even been known to have an afternoon siesta on it - Grace still insists on sleeping in our bed for her day sleep.

Oh and because she is such a big girl now, there are no more night nappies. Yippee!!!! My little girl has been out of day nappies for over a year and out of night nappies for over a month. The first night I was a little nervous, fully expecting a midnight bed change. I woke her up just before I went to bed and took her to the toilet, whispering in her ear to do a wee. She was still in a groggy haze, but did wee and then stayed dry all night. In the last month she has only had 2 accidents, and even those 2 were not completely in the bed. She must have done it as she was getting out of bed, but didn't make it in time. Some nights she doesn't go at all, and others she comes into our bed early morning asking to go to the toilet.

I am just so proud of my grown up little girl. Even though she has been day trained for so long, it's still so exciting to know that she is now fully trained and so independent.

Now onto other "not so good" Grace news.

She is absolutely driving me batty at the moment. I know (well I think!?) that she is being totally normal for a (nearly) 3 year old, but jees who would have thought that she could drive me so insane. It's the constant whingeing and whining that really gets to me, it grates on me and I can normally just ignore it, but when it is over and over and over again, I can't.

This has all started in the last 2 or so weeks and I have been racking my brains on how to get through this ratty stage. On recommendation I borrowed the 1-2-3 magic book from the library, hoping and praying that there would be some secret code in there on how to deal with annoying toddlers. I read it over and over, back to front - then started putting it in to practice.

This last week Grace has been in her room thinking ALOT. I'm trying to be consistant and following through with anything that I say. I tell her once what she has to stop doing, if she does it again I say "That's 1", she goes again, "That's 2", then if she dares again it's "That's 3 and straight to timeout. I had been using the hall as timeout, but now we use her bedroom. More as a place for her to calm down and be away from the fun.

It seems to be working but I really need to educate Duane about it more. She knows that she can get away with so much more from him. If it wasn't so hindering to me it would be funny. I overhear Duane saying to Grace, "That's 1, That's 2, I said 2 Grace, That's 2.5, Nearly 3 Grace, You know what happens if I get to 3, Don't Grace, I'm going to say 3 Grace"

I find myself stepping in and correcting him all the time. I've explained it all to him and he sees how I work with her, so not sure why he just wont follow through. It can be a pain in the bum actually having to stop what you are doing and put her in her bedroom, but I am hoping that the amount of times that we have to do that will decrease. Oh god, I am hoping!

She is just pushing so many boundaries and I feel so much more in control if I have a plan of attack. We'll see how it goes I guess. Apparently 4 year old are beautifully behaved though, so if it all falls apart I guess I only have another year of this lovely behaviour. It's not even like she is naughty all of the time, it's just the constant chatter, questions and running commentary of everything that she does. She constantly want to be the centre of attention and turns it up a notch if she isn't. She is constantly demanding that I watch what she is doing, or to look at the same things repeatedly.

Reading back over this makes me sound like an unattentive mum, but I do spend time with her. Unfortunately I also have another child to attend to and meals to make and housework to do. I can't be her captive audience ALL DAY LONG. I am yet to find something that amuses her for ages. She flitters between activities, unless we are outside and then she amuses herself most of the time. So we do try to spend as much time outside as possible, but most of the time she wants me out there with her - just to watch.

Oh damn I forgot, by the time that she is 4 Xav will be 21/2 which was another horrible phase. But then again, my beautiful boy has already perfected the art of the full blown tantrum so surely he will have that all out of his system by then and be a perfect little angel.

She is so beautiful and loving most of the time, it's just at the moment the constantness of her is wearing me down. She is a very "spirited" child, and I dare say that Xav will be the same. I don't want her to change her passion and excitement, I just want to maybe guide all that energy into something else. I'm thinking about enrolling her in dance classes, hopefully to help her out with concentration and taking instructions. Or not.

I say all this and yet when she goes to kindy of a Friday I miss her like crazy. I've even considered taking her out because I do love spending time with her. I'm nuts aren't I?

I know fully understand why every time we asked Mum what she wanted as a present she would just say, "Peace and quiet please." I'm sure we never gave it to her though, poor Mum.

Wow, what a busy weekend

For a family that is stuck at home, we are certainly keeping our self busy.

Duane only had Saturday to spend with us this week. He somehow got roped into helping dig some 3 mtr holes, it was only supposed to take 1 or 2 afternoons, but he has been there every day after work. I'm not used to him getting home at 6.30, that's just so late for us considering he is gone by 5.30am. Actually Saturday he did work, he did the cleaning up at the Grand so he was gone at 4am and didn't get home until 9am. He would have been home earlier but there was a snake found on the course and as Duane fancies himself as a bit of a snake catcher he volunteered to move it. Lucky it was only a friendly python, all 10 FOOT of it though. Crazy!

So Saturday we made a big trip to Bunnings, where my lovely husband bought me a can-of-worms. Oh so romantic! I was over the moon, can't wait to start my work family and get all that beautiful rich fertiliser and castings for my garden. We also bought some sleepers to make the kids a huge sandpit, seems the little clam shell just doesn't cut it anymore with the 2 of them. I was worried about the timber because all of it is treated with arsenic, but I found a product that gets painted on and stops the nasties leaching out. So I spent the rest of the afternoon painting the sleepers and preparing the ground for them to go on. Duane nailed them together and I did the rest.

~~The sandpit frame~~

Duane went to Indy on Sunday, but that didn't stop me from hooking up the trailer and heading out to get a load of sand. I haven't driven with a trailer since our dog washing days and was a bit nervous in case I had to attempt reverse. First stop was the sand place, and yep I had to reverse out. All whilst being watched by the 2 male workers, no doubt waiting for something exciting to happen. I did it though, easily and nothing was damaged.

Next stop was bunnings. Xavier was strapped into the pram where he couldn't infect anyone. I grabbed a sausage each for the kids, then zoomed around getting everything I needed for my chook house (next project) The trailer was piled high with 30mtrs of 90x45 timber and lots of other assorted goodies designed to keep chooks in and everything else out. Poor Grace was a bit devastated about not having a go in the playground, but I distracted her with the promise of going home to play in the sandpit. It worked.

So once we got home I drove the trailer into the backyard. I've never put the jockey wheel on before, but soon worked it out and unhooked the car from the trailer. The kids were sent off to play whilst I tried everything I could think of to move the damn trailer. I'd seen Duane pushing it around the backyard so easily and silly me thought the I could do the same WITH a full load of sand in the back.

I pushed, pulled, grunted and shoved. The stupid thing was not budging. I did manage to move it once, unfortunately that was straight into the back of the car. I quickly ran around and stopped it, pinning my hand between the trailer and the spare wheel on the back of the Rav. After getting my hand out, I decided the safest thing would be to give up on moving the trailer and just bucket the sand to the sandpit.


So I put the kids to bed and started the tedious task. Curiosity got the better of me about halfway, so I gave the trailer one big shove and yippee it moved. I pushed the trailer so it was hanging over the sand pit and dumped the rest of the sand in. Much, much easier.


Taa-da:

~~The 2 kidlets enjoying all my hard work~~

And yes that is Xav in the lovely pink hat. The little brat will not keep a hat on, so until I can find a better one, he is stuck wearing Grace's old one that does up nice and tight under his chin.

At the moment we are just using a large tarp to cover it of a night. I'm thinking maybe a few layers of shade cloth with piping around it to keep it on might work?

The kids are loving it, I'm not so keen on the sand that is migrating everywhere though. Then again, the peace and quiet that the sandpit has given me means more time for cleaning.

Oh, great. Don't worry that'll never happen.

Grommets it is

~~Xav's spotty face & hands~~

I've just gotten back from Xav's Dr's appointment and I have pretty much decided to go ahead with the grommets.

I firstly asked our lovely Dr what she would do if it was her child. She is very anti-intervention & drugs if they are not necessary, and she said that she would probably wait until after Summer and see how he went. She explained how sometimes these things can clear themselves up, but if I thought for one second that it was causing him unnecessary pain to go ahead with it.


Well that was until she looked in his poor ears. The left side was red, but not too bad. The right side was retracted, red and not good. She then said immediately that after seeing that she would not hesitate in getting the grommets. I trust her immensely and am happy to go along with her recommendation. She wrote out a referral to the public hospital stating all the infections that Xav has had over the last year, so hopefully that will help him move up the list a little.

She also said that she had seen 3 kids this week with HF&M, so it seems my little boy is not the only scabby infested child around!

Xav is happier though, which is great for all our sanity. Now just have to wait for the spots to clear up so we can come out of quarantine.

Stuck at home

Well we are onto day 4 of being stuck at home and surprisingly it's not going too badly.

I really thought that we would all be driving each other batty within the first hour. Somehow we are managing to be busy and lazy at the same time. Busy - because I seem to be constantly trying to find ways to amuse them and lazy because I feel like we are just slothing around the house (probably due to the fact that our Pj's are slowing becoming "dayware"!)

The kids have had a ball doing lots of different activities. Their favourite has been drawing outside on the concrete with chalk and then painting over it with water. Our whole front area is just a mass of randomly drawn scrawls. I've introduced Grace to the joys of hopscotch, she has been excitedly jumping all over it. I tried to actually teach her what to do, but apparently just throwing a rock at the ground then jumping around madly screaming "Yeah....I did it, I did it" is a better option. So I've left her alone to enjoy the thrill of hopscotch, only having a turn myself when she is off busy with something else.

We have also amused our self with running races, handstands, cartwheels, hide and seek, pretending to be animals in the jungle, pretend shops, lots of books, re-runs of videos of the kids (Grace's favourite is her naming day, which she refers to as her "Princess Day"!)chasing the dogs, pouring water, weeding the garden, making collages, drawing, stickers, painting and much, much more. Who-ever knew hanging out at home could be so much fun?

On the down side my house is constantly trashed and I feel like I need to clean all the time. I guess it's because we are at home more, so my house is bearing the brunt of their destruction instead of someone else's place. Doesn't help that Duane is working very hard all this week, leaving the house at 5.30am and not getting home until after 6pm. He also has Indy on Sunday, but he did say that if I needed a rest from the kids, he wouldn't go. As nice as it would be to say yes to that, I'll be nice and politely decline his offer.

Grace was supposed to go to daycare today but to save me from any future guilt of passing on diseases I have kept her at home. As tempting as it was to be toddler free for the day, I have done the right thing. Stupid, stupid me! She's not showing any signs of being sick and if she was going to get it I was hoping that it would be now, not as Xav's was ending.

Xav has another Dr's appointment today, just to check how he is going and to get a referral to get his grommets in the public system. Figure I'll get him on the "list" then see how he goes between now and the call up.

I was right

Unfortunately my diagnosis was correct. Xav has a disgusting case of Hand, foot and mouth disease, sounds gross doesn't it?

Apparently it's not as bad as it sounds. It's actually a viral infection that causes spots that turn into blisters on the hands, feet, mouth and in the nappy area. Ulcers usually come up in the mouth too which make it hard to eat anything unless it's soft and mushy. It's also accompanied by a cold, fever and generally feeling like crap. Xav has been extra tired and grumbly, but not too bad.

My poor little boys face is all spotty and horrible looking. He has sores all around his mouth, on his cheeks and up both of his nostrils. His little bot-bot is so red, and angry looking. I don't think they are upsetting him, they just look horrible.

The Dr took one look at him and confirmed it straight away. She asked if he was in daycare, as it is most common there. I told her that he wasn't' but his older sister was, but she had no symptoms at all. I called the childcare to check if it was going around but they have no cases of it up there at the moment, so I am stumped as to where he has picked it up from. He has been around a few other kids with runny noses, but none of them are showing any signs of the spots.

She said that once you have it you are generally immune for life, which I guess is a good thing and maybe I should encourage Grace to get it now?

I did have the awful job of contacting all the parents of the kids that we have been in contact with over the last week. We spent Monday with Malia, Noah, Emily, Hazel and Logan, and I am just hoping and praying that none of them have caught it. Even though I would never have been able to guess (before the spots) that Xav had anything, is still feel terrible that other kids have been exposed to it.

So I am stuck at home with both kiddies until the blisters clear up, which can take between 2-7 days. Oh joy!

The kids are watching way, way too much of the idiot box. I've burnt all the little videos I have taken over their lives and they are watching them over & over & over again. Might even make a quick trip to the video shop and get some movies for when being stuck at home for this long gets the better of me. We all are so used to getting out and about every day. It's a very rare day that we stay at home. The kids are used to being out and sociable, with playgroup, 2 mothers groups, the library, the park and of course shopping.

We are all going to go crazy.

On a side note we did go to the Steiner School open day last night. Wendy came to look after Xav, so just Duane, Grace & I went along. It really just confirmed to me that this is the school that I want both kids to go to. It is truly beautiful and you could really feel the energy, excitement and motivation that all the students have. The class rooms are just gorgeous, with the smell of nature intoxicating as you enter. The walls are filled with beautiful artwork, the shelves are loaded with all natural toys. The rooms are not clinical, they seem to be full of life. We had a tour with 1 of the grade 4 students. He showed us around his classroom that had been made into a mini town. Each student had a "shop" within the town - bank, news agency, post office, hairdresser, op shop and plenty more. Each child was paid a wage from doing their "job" and then they could spend it in the town. Everything they earn and spent was written in their workbook. It looked and sounded like so much fun, and what a great way for kids to learn.

Grace loved it and is asking all the time when she can go to her big school. Just over 2 years to go, and my little girl will be going to prep. Where does the time go?