1 Week To Go!

Just 1 week and 2 days to go...

I can't believe it has almost been a whole week since I last posted. I find it ironic that I now have so much to write about but no time to do it.

I have been a very busy bee. So busy that I'm afraid my parenting has taken a real slide. It's completely related to the stress of having to do so much in a small amount of time with little help.

In a 36 hour period we had 2 open homes to rent our house out, the Pianoman finished up at work, we had a farewell night at the local pub followed by an all-day garage sale and then just for fun we added some dentist appointments and a sporting competition into the mix.

Here is a list of my not-so-great parenting moments of the last couple of days.

* The kids have had breakfast for dinner because we are dwindling down our pantry or we forgot/ran out of time to buy the groceries.

* We had pancakes yesterday morning because we thought it was weekend. Seriously! The weekend was so hectic that we 'lost' a day somewhere and it wasn't until Miss Fancy came out in her school uniform that we realised it was Monday.

* I sent Miss Fancy off to her all day dance comp without food. I just forgot.

* When one of the Christmas parties got cancelled, my response was "fantastic news!". The look on Miss Fancy's face will ensure the guilt will last a while.

* The kids may have watched a year's worth of cartoons in a few days while we decluttered, cleaned, organised, tidied, started packing etc.

* When the kids excitedly announced that their beloved silk worms had spun themselves into cocoons I muttered something along the lines of, "Oh no!!". You see, I told the kids their silk worms couldn't come for the 3 month journey because we wouldn't be able to source mulberry leaves and we wouldn't want them to perish. Now that they don't need to be fed they will be able to come. Just go with it!

* And finally, when the dentist suggests we come back another time to get some work done on Blue Eyes' teeth so as not to traumatise him on his first visit, I suggest that he will be fine and can he just have it done now. Eyebrows were raised. Seriously, what's with all this namby pamby business? Here are a few photos just to prove how fine he was. Sunglasses to prevent glare from the light (photo taken after the work, still smiling!) and Banana's in Pyjamas on the ceiling for his viewing pleasure. Traumatised? Please!

On a positive note, we have managed to secure tenants for the house who move in straight after we leave next week.

The garage sale and ebay purge proved to be a great success (despite the stress involved) and pretty much covered the cost of the caravan.

Yesterday was spent in the city doing a chore which ended up taking all day (thanks Telstra!). However, it meant I was forced to slow down for a few hours and smell the roses with the boys while we waited. We had a ball at the new kids park at Darling Harbour (anyone else been to this beauty?), spent a great deal of time at the spiral water feature and spent an hour marvelling at the thousands of jellyfish congregating at the edge of the water. Even I was mesmerised by these little creatures.

This final week you will find me up to my eyeballs in cardboard boxes. Oh the joys of packing!

I'm also a hairdresser!

I am sick of spending a fortune at the hairdressers. For the kids, not me :-).

It costs around $20 for a child to have their hair cut in my area. So for me that is a whopping $80 every time I take the 4 kids to have their hair trimmed. Now call me stingy but this is outrageous, isn't it! We're not talking anything fancy here, just a 5 minute trim. And those 6-8 weeks come around really fast. I would rather spend that $80 on something else, like a movie ticket for the next 8 weeks on Tightarse Tuesdays. Or 2 sessions with the chinese masseuse down the road. Or for an extra $10 I could get a trip to Hobart on Jetstuffed. Wow, the money saved could get me 3 weekends a year to Tassie and back!

I confess that I have trimmed Miss Fancy's hair in the past, but in all honesty this hasn't happened very often which is probably why her hair is down to her waist. It's a straight line across her back so no problem trimming her hair.  After a few years I actually took her to the real hairdresser for an 'inspection' and 'tune-up' if you will, expecting they would have to take 60cm off her hair due to my lack of skill and care in looking after her hair. But apparently it was in great condition and they took half a centimetre off. I won't be taking her back there again. That's one child down.

The boys are a different kettle of fish. They like their hair short. Well Blue Eyes does and that means the little boys do too because they idolise their big brother. So the last time I took them to the hairdressers I paid close attention to the ladies working the clippers and scissors. I'd seen sheep been shawn many times in my childhood too. How hard could it be? So I bought a clipper set and decided I would be their hairdresser from now on.

Blue Eyes was the Guinea Pig. He was a bit apprehensive because he thought I couldn't do it. Look at his face in the before shot. It was harder than I thought. But I finished the job and told him to look in the mirror. He was super excited that I did it. Look at his face. He doesn't notice the absolute CRAP job that I did. That it is so much harder to do than it looks (apologies to all you experienced hairdressers out there!!). I didn't let on that I thought he looked like a little criminal.

So I ponder, will I be able to improve with some practice or do I just let the poor souls have their $20 haircuts?

Before

After

Another little Revelation

Freesias from the lawn picked to go on the outside table

Also on the outside table

5 Boys being watched from the outside table

Blue Eyes is 5 and is a master of the Understatement, always surprising us with his little revelations.

So I had my sister and her 2 little boys staying with us on the weekend. There were 6 kids in the house, 5 boys (ages 3, 3, 3, 4 & 5) and Miss Fancy (7). Needless to say there was plenty of wine in the fridge to keep the adults happy and the only strategy that one could employ with this number of kids in this age bracket is the strategy of benign neglect - you know the one where you are still parenting but you pretty much leave the kids to their own devices? Experts say this is good for kids so who I am to argue?

Anyway, consistent with this strategy the adults left the 5 boys on the trampoline and ventured back inside to top up our drinks and think about dinner. We were gone but 5 minutes when suddenly Blue Eyes appears in the doorway with a mouth full of blood. It was on his hands too and dripping on the floor.

The following conversation took place:

Me: Oh my goodness what on earth happened? There's blood everywhere! (crap! we really should have been supervising them and not drinking so much - now who is going to take him to the hospital?)


Blue Eyes: A tooth has come out.


Me: A tooth? The whole tooth? What happened? How?


Blue Eyes: Well I was eating rice crackers and I heard a click and it came out.


Me: Oh wow - so you lost a tooth!?! You just lost your first tooth!! That's so cool Blue Eyes!! I didn't even know you had a wobbly tooth! Did you know?


Blue Eyes: Yes.


Me: Why didn't you tell us?


Blue Eyes: I forgot.


Me: Oh, ok, well let's see it! Where is it then?


Blue Eyes: Well I didn't want to swallow it so I spat it all into my hand and it was all covered with rice crackers and then I flicked it all on the ground.


Me: Oh, ok, so let's go get it so we can leave it for the tooth fairy. How exciting!


Blue Eyes: The Whippet ate it.

Of course he did. No revelation there. You have to know the Whippet to understand how special he is. A few of his special traits (aka phobias, obsessions, issues) were discussed here.

So I was feeling pretty bad. All my kids are different but it still amazes me how differently they can react to the same set of circumstances. Blue Eyes - we didn't even know he had a loose tooth, so insignificant to him he FORGOT to mention it and now the Whippet had eaten it! Miss Fancy on the other hand - you wouldn't believe the ordeal we went through with her first tooth, weeks and weeks of lead up time, days of not eating while it was hanging from a thread before I was finally allowed to flick it out so she could experience the tooth fairy in all her glory. Did I mention the polishing of the tooth...you get the picture!

At that point Miss Fancy comes inside and decides to add her 2c worth: "I wonder if the tooth fairy will come on the first night or the second night? Probably the first night because she knows where we live now, doesn't she mum? And Blue Eyes, because it's your first tooth you get a little present too, doesn't he mum? Don't worry Blue Eyes I'll write her a letter too so she knows the Whippet ate the tooth and that's why we don't have it anymore".

Another revelation - I'm such a bad Tooth Fairy! It's true, the Tooth Fairy does tend to come to our household on the second night. For some unknown reason, by the time we decide to go to bed, The Piano Man and I just seem to forget to put the coin in the tooth pillow. We were able to explain it away last year with the fact that we had moved from Tasmania to Sydney and the Tooth Fairy got a bit confused or had to travel some distance. But I know she wouldn't buy that one anymore.

I pour another drink and ponder the pressure of remembering this step tonight. I tell the other adults to remind me. I also mentally search the house for any unopened gifts I might have, which is usually NEVER. But it so happened that I bought some racing car pens the day before at Mathilda's Markets and I hadn't given them to the kids yet. Perfect. I might just be able to redeem myself.

The First Tooth

The Tooth Fairy Pillow that was mine as a child - made by my Texan Grandma

Racing Car Pen

Tell me, is anyone else out there a 'bad' Tooth Fairy too?