Lightning goes upwards as well

The cool change arrived early! We stopped the DVD, brought in the dry laundry, and opened all the windows and doors. The storm rolled over, spitting lightning and hurling rain. I'd been watching the rain approach on the BOM site since this morning. It was a thin band of red: heavy rain, but not for long.

When I was a kid, a hot spell was always followed by a cool change. We'd go to bed hot, and wake to a house still warm, but with cold air blowing in, and rain coming down outside. Bathroom tiles take a few hours to cool down. Cupboards exhale hot stale air when you open them.

The cool changes now are half-hearted. Am I just getting crotchety about how much better the old days were? I am only thirty-five!

Tonight I did not have a shower, even though I was sweaty and foul after a hot humid day stuck inside. When the rain came, after we opened up the house, I stood on the dry grass in the downpour with rain running down me. The sky was light, with pinky-grey glows on the horizon. The horizon is high up, here in the 'burbs. No idea where the glowing comes from.

Some lightning forked, and some lit up the whole sky.

Trudi stood in the rain with me for a while, and went inside when she got cold. I came in to make up the girls' bottles, then out I went again. I sat on the deck and thought.

I am angry that my girls will not know what a cool change used to be like. I think "cool change" is an Australian phrase. It means a lot to me. Now that the climate is changing, the cool change is moving south, into the ocean. I can see this from the radar images. The waves of lower pressure used to sweep from west to east, washing the whole of the southern continent like a windscreen wiper. Now the west-to-east thing still happens, but the wiper does not reach as far north. We miss out on our cool change, and the rain falls in the sea far to the south.

Save the planet. hah. The planet will be just fine, thankyou. Worse stuff than us has happened to this planet. The problem is saving the systems we depend on, and thus saving ourselves. Cool changes are nice and make me feel secure, but it's more than that. Tree frogs are cute and polar bears are fluffy, but they are just little cogs in the systems that sustain us.

So, my daughters will have very different lives from us. They won't know cool changes as I recall them, and they probably will never drink untreated water directly from a stream. More than that.

We do our best to give them the space and tools to become themselves, that they might grow into the best they can be. How useful will our help be in a world I can't imagine?

Then again, every generation grows up in a different world from the previous one. My parents learned to write on slates. They wrote on slices of stone with chalk! My grandmother once described to me the nightclubs that she went to in her youth. The waiters wore suits, and the tuxedoed pianist played a white grand piano while wearing white gloves. Her date paid for her cocktail, which she set into the nicely-designed recess in the arm of the club lounge in which she sat. No doubt the NYE dance parties tonight are different from the ones I went to. So maybe mourning the lost cool changes of my youth is just a natural stage; a sign of my age.

But. But! I had all these thoughts on the deck, with the rain running down my face. Lightning in the pink sky, and some premature fireworks popping a few houses down.

But, the very fact of each generation's new world is a symptom of the problem. Before the agricultural revolution, each generation of humans lived in much the same environment as the previous one. Sure, there were catastrophes and gradual changes, but most people lived lives like everyone before them. Once people invented farming things changed, and kept changing. Some people lived lives quite different from their grandparents.

Come the industrial revolution, the rate of change stepped up. Rapid changes propelled people out of their parents' ways of life. The rapid changes propagated rapidly, and many people lived different lives from their parents.

Now, most people live in very different ways from their parents. This is not just suburban Australians adjusting to living with their iPhones: everyone is adjusting to, and making, change. The changes have caught up with us, and the cool change is moving south, out of reach, and I'm angry about it.

So what do I do with my anger? I complain on my blog.

It's still raining. The radar suggests that a little more rain will fall tonight. Goodnight.

Hot and grumpy

My Facebook friend Bob (hi Bob!) has just posted some pictures of lovely lovely snow over his house. Of course it is not really all lovely - his wife is staying at a motel somewhere because the roads are congested with scared drivers. But it LOOKS lovely and I am overheated here is stinky ol Melbourne, and I am jealous.

I wonder if the girls will be too hot to sleep comfortably? That's my genteel way of wondering if they will wake up howling every hour all night.

Ivy walks!

In her own time, Ivy has found her feet.

She is doing short practice runs.

In which I doubt myself

Trudi looked out the window and asked, how did all those pegs get into the gully trap? You shouldn't let the girls play there; there are spiders.

I looked out the window and agreed that the gully trap was not the place for them to be playing, but they had not been there today. My, what a lot of pegs are in the gully trap!

Trudi looked at me and asserted that they must have, because how else could those pegs have got there? The girls are avid peg-users.

I averred that no indeed, they girls had not been in the back yard that day. I had gone out to hang washing, but Hazel came no further than the deck, and Ivy stayed inside.

Trudi's face was sceptical. Perhaps you put the pegs in the gully trap, she suggested.

Hm. I paused for thought. Hmmmm. Nope, I don't believe I went outside and put a lot of pegs in the gully trap. I think I would remember doing that.

Well it must have been the girls then. How did they manage it? They can't carry the peg basket yet, so they must have done it peg by peg. Carried each peg around, dumped it, and come back for another one. That would have taken a long time. Surely you would have noticed if they were off doing that.

Hmmm. Maybe I had a fugue state and put the pegs in the gully trap and then forgot that I did it. I have had some tough nights with not much sleep: who knows what dastardly deeds I am capable of?

And there we left the peg issue, unresolved.

Later, Trudi stood at the back window, and said Hey I know


And it popped into my head at the same time.

The girls had dragged the peg basket across the dining room, and posted pegs out of the cat-flap. They fell down into the waiting gully trap. It must have been a lot of fun.

I feel that there should be some moral to this story. I should have a pithy learning that I can deliver to you, about the folly of doubting oneself, or the grandeur of childish invention. Perhaps you could supply one for me, because I am all out of pithy learnings today.

More antibiotics, and a poo story

I'll tell you about the antibiotics first, and then we can settle in for the poo story.

I took Ivy to see Dr Luke Sammartino the paediatrician again today, and she was a trooper. She missed her afternoon nap completely, and managed remarkably well. She was wired by bed-time, but she has managed to fall asleep without any help.

Anyway, Dr Luke thinks that it's likely that it is still the same mycoplasma bug in her system. The Royal Children's are advising a second course of Augmentin for stubborn mycoplasma infections this year. Not sure what that means - a more resistant strain has arisen, perhaps?

Anyway, anyway, she's on another ten days of antibiotics. If that doesn't work, he said that we will "investigate" whether it's asthma.

Now for the poo story.

Yesterday Trudi and Ivy were on the couch. It's a leather couch, so it was OK that Ivy was bouncing around with no pants on. The kids have a lot of no-pants time. Ivy was standing up, playing with the toys that sit along the back of the couch. Trudi noticed Ivy concentrating, and acted instinctively.

Yes, Ivy dropped her load neatly into Trudi's outstretched hand. Trudi showed me on her way to the bathroom. "Look what I've got!". Ivy went on playing with the teddies and dolls.

As a bonus, here is Ivy sitting on the pot, reading:

Notice her foot - she pops it up on the stool, for that extra comfortable look. She's going to be the kind of person who retires to the loo to read the whole Saturday paper.

Ivy's cough is back

Poor possum. I can hear her hacking away as they are napping.

After we saw Dr Luke Sammartino three weeks ago, Ivy had a course of Augmentin, which is a fairly scary mix of two antibiotics. She did fine - no gut problems, no other reaction, and she actually rather liked getting a syringe of sweet goop twice a day.

After the 10-day course, her cough was gone. Gone! After nine months of coughing, this seemed like a miracle. But I knew that the real test would come when she got a cold.

So, she got a cold a few days later. Convenient. Thankyou, everyone, for arranging that.

Actually, Hazel got the cold, Ivy got the Pox, and then they swapped. Either way, the cough is back.

I just rang Dr Luke's office to see if we should wait it out or come back to see him, and I heard him and the secretary in the background as they moved things around to fit us in at 3:15 this afternoon. He is a good bloke. I like Dr Luke a lot. He didn't have to do that.

So we will have a bit of an afternoon of it I think. Ivy would normally be napping at that time. I have asked Trudi to come home early so that she can be home with Hazel while I drag Ivy out of her bed.

Hazel has Ivy's pox, and Ivy has Hazel's cold

It is AWESOME having twins. You get to see the same diseases progress through two different kids of the same age and background. It's like a controlled scientific experiment (and yet also not). So many symptoms are the same! But some are different! Wow!

Self-referential

I was wondering how other parents of twins do the Aware Parenting thing (still not liking that term). So, of course, I googled "aware parenting" "twins" to see what the internet had to tell me.

The answer is: not much. Lots of pages have both phrases, but they are not connected. Halfway through the second page of results, I came upon a page that had them both in the same sentence, and here it is.

Bummer.

Why are you reading this?

Been looking at the search terms that bring people to this blog.

Most of you want to know about slow lorises. Not surprising really. Sorry folks... you'll get no fun facts about any kind of loris here. Go to Wikipedia instead.

However, someone found this blog by googling the phrase "funny pictures of rubbish skips". Right.

That's all folks, good night.

Doing just fine

While the rest of us are at differing levels of sickness, some members of the household are doing just fine...



- T

Pox

Ivy has the pox

It's actually just some virus or other. We all have a cold, and Ivy also has an impressive set of spots all over. The doctor says it's nothing scary, and Ivy is clearly feeling better, but I can't really take her anywhere where other mums will see her and freak out that their kids will also get The Pox.

So I hope it's dry this arvo and we can go to a park.

We are going to skip tomorrow's swimming lesson. Because we are planning to go away for a few weeks early next year, we are not signing up for another term. Also, the teacher is a bit of a nutcase and is getting harder and harder to deal with. Her swimming teaching is great, but her running-a-small-business is not so good. So we will shop around for other lessons.

We have had a few nights of shitty sleeping, but now 2 nights of good stuff. Poor of T has a bad cold so is not sleeping, but I had 7 hours in a row, so I am laughing.

A good long cry

I've got religion, again. This time it's in the form of a bunch of parenting techniques that you could probably call "gentle parenting".

I started with a website called Hand In Hand Parenting, which seems to be a very Californian thing. They call their approach "parenting by connection", and their idea is that no matter how crappy your kid's behaviour is, it's often due to a lack of connection with you or others. They have a few cool techniques for establishing and deepening this connection. A lot of it is aimed at parents of bigger kids than ours, but it's still useful already.

I then moved on to Aware Parenting.

I get annoyed at the name Aware Parenting, as if all the rest of us are unaware parents. This seems rude. It is also a bit intense on the topics of natural childbirth, extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping and the like. All a bit daunting for those of us who didn't get this stuff happening.

Apart from that, aware parenting appeals to me because of its approach to crying kids, which is similar to the Hand in Hand crew.

Their idea about crying is that a crying kid feels like shit, and is expressing that feeling. If you try to distract them by feeding, patting, rocking, reasoning with them (or whatever), you might get them to stop crying, but they won't stop feeling like shit.

The fix for that is to get as close as possible, listen really well to their crying, and don't try to stop them. The kid might cry for ages. Crying itself is the way that a kid sheds their intense emotions, so you just have to wait it out. It doesn't work to let them do this crying by themselves, or with you only half listening and half worrying about getting them to stop. They need your genuine presence so that they can feel safe enough to do their hard crying work.

That's the theory so far. Trudi and I both feel that this idea is a good one, but it's hard to implement. There is always something that needs to be done, and not enough time to sit down and listen to the hardest thing to hear: your daughter howling.

I finally managed it this morning. I don't know why I did - it was just a morning like any other. Hazel has just started a cold, so she had a rough night, and woke up a bit grizzly. By breakfast time she was whiny and miserable, and then something happening to make her cry. I sat down on the floor with her, and held her. Ivy came barrelling up and wanted to play. Convenient! So I trapped Ivy between my knees, which she thinks is the Best. Game. Ever.

Hazel wept and flailed, struggling in my arms. I held on, letting her wriggle away a bit so she wasn't trapped, but I always gathered her up again. I said quietly, yes, yes, what else, yes. She kept crying, and couldn't meet my eye. Ivy was having a ball, falling about over my legs.

Hazel kept crying for about fifteen minutes. Eventually she was just murmuring a little, resting completely in my arms, holding my gaze steadily. At that point, I set her on her feet, and she went off to do those things she does.

For the rest of the morning she was remarkably calm and happy, given her cold and lack of sleep. So it's a success. I just need to do it whenever I find the time and emotional energy.

Zoo

The new seal and penguin exhibits at Melbourne Zoo are open, and they ROCK.

The penguins are in a pool surrounded by tiny sandy dunes. They hurtle up and down their pool, and stop at the ends for a splash and giggle. You can hang over the edge watching them shoot by, plus there are some glass sections on the side of the pool so you can watch them underwater. The girls loved the penguins. So did the mummies.

The seals have another deep pool with lots of fake cement rocks around it, plus a wave machine. It looks credibly like a rocky sea inlet, with little rock shelves. Apparently in their old pool, the deepest part was 1m. In this new pool, they can go down to 5m. And they go down! And up! And down again! And now they do it upside down!

There's also an enormous underground aquarium thingy, with big windows into the penguin and seal pools, plus a few little windows into little pools with seahorses, puffer fish, etc. It was really dark down there, and I worried that not everyone would be OK with that dimness. Old people might fall over. Twenty minutes later I realised that I had my sunglasses on.

Hazel walked up and down and around, and she admired the seagulls. Ivy rode in my sling on my back, and craned to look at the lions. Both girls can now "be a lion" which means going "raaaa". Ivy does it silently, with a big wide mouth.

Hazel seems to be starting a cold. We will see.

I had eight hours of sleep, without interruption

Nothing happened last night. No cats yowled, no kids howled, no insomniac mummies stared red-eyed at the dark ceiling, no neighbours started their shitbox Ford with holes in its muffler at 3am.

Surely it's not that hard

This week Trudi and I renewed our binding nominations for our superannuation. Fascinating, I know. Every three years, we each have to tell our super funds that if we die, our super money is to go to our estates, rather than allowing the super fund to decide who it goes to.

So.

Even though we have different super funds, each of our forms required that our signature be witnessed by two people.

So.

When Trudi was at our bank for another reason, she asked the bank dude and his colleague to witness her signature. They were reluctant. They seemed frightened. Trudi was persuasive so they did it.

Yesterday we went to the Preston library so the girls could let off steam. They like to tear up and down the kids' section. The librarian was afraid to witness my signature, because it seemed scary. not sure what she was scared of. She would not ask any of her colleagues to come over and see what they thought. We I intended to do mine yesterday, by going to a post office. They seem kind of official and used to this stuff. But I forgot. Today I met Sonia and Karina, and I forgot to ask them. Forgot forgot.

So, this afternoon I left Trudi and the napping girls and took my form out to be signed and witnessed. First I went to the Preston police station. The dude there was lovely - really helpful and kind, but unfortunately he was on his own. He recommended the post office. The rain started again. I walked around to the Preston Post Office. Nope, they don't witness signatures. They said I should go to the pharmacy.

Off I trot to the pharmacy, through the thickening gloom on a small storm. The stony-faced person at the counter in the High St Pulse pharmacy (yes I am naming names: I had a long afternoon) said that the pharmacist would witness forms between 9 and 3, and it was 4.30. She was not interested in doing it herself because she "had better things to do". She said to go to the local MP's office. I did not go there. Too far in the rain.

I went to the Preston council offices. Nope, can't do it. It is not to do with council business. Grr.

So I went back to the library, on the way to the car. I asked the lovely guy behind the desk if he would do it, and he said "Yes, sure!". Then I asked if he could ask a colleague and he said "Yep, hey come over here and witness this" and they did it on the spot, no worries.

So the summary is that everyone is a pillock, puling and afraid of shadows, except for some lovely librarians.

And so to bed.

Reservoir Pool

Trudi dragged herself around the baby pool videoing our future swimming champs.

A lovely kid (aren't the lifeguards getting younger each year!) came and asked her to stop - if you use a camera you have to register first. So she put away the camera, and posted the photos on the internet as soon as we got home. Next time we will register.

7:16 AM

The girls had a rough start to the night, with a lot of inconsolable-sounding crying that ended up being consolable.

Then, at 3 AM Selby the cat banged on the lounge-room door (the cats are locked in there at night so they don't walk on our heads) because she was THIRSTY. I ask you.

A few times Hazel shouted in the night, but she always went back to sleep by herself.

Trudi left for work at 6 AM.

I dozed for a while, waiting for the girls to wake up. Usually 6:20.

At 7:16 AM I finally heard a convincing shout from the girls. They were awake and perky, ready to start their day.

This is a record, I think. Sometimes one or the other sleeps past 7 if she has had a terrible night, or if she is sick, but there was none of that last night. I am not holding out any hope that it will happen again this year.

n + 1 pegs, where n is the number of nappies

Most mornings I peg out nappies on the line. I use fewer pegs if each nappy shares a peg with its neighbour. We have many pegs, but it feels good to economise.

How many pegs are required? Well, if you have four nappies, you need five pegs.

n+1, in fact.

After I idly realised that, I took it as a sign that my mind is still a little active, in parts.

It's all lovely

Today was a lovely day.

Ivy woke at 5am, but she was in a lovely mood. We stayed in bed, she had a feed, we drowsed, Trudi got up and went to work. Not fair, but someone has to pay for everything around here, and it sure isn't me. Not even a little bit. I used to pay for a little bit, but then the government noticed that I am not a single mother. But I digress.

We had a lovely morning. Can't remember it, but it would have involved porridge. I know this because just before dinner, I found the bibs that I did not clean this morning. Dried porridge fuses into something that NASA could use to get heat-resistant tiles to stick to returning space shuttles.

The girls had a nap this morning, which was just lovely. Trudi works at home on Fridays, so I swanned off to the toy library. There I discovered that the toys I was returning a week late incurred no fine, because there is a week's "grace period". Lovely. I borrowed another wooden box with holes and blocks that fit the holes. The girls are heavily into posting things at the moment. They don't get the whole round-block-in-round-hole thing yet, but it will come in time. For now, they angrily try to stuff non-fitting blocks into resistant holes. I also borrowed a plastic table covered with bits and pieces that you can flap, flip, flop, press, and rotate.

When the girls woke up after their lovely long morning nap, they saw the new table. They stomped over and glued themselves to it. Those little people played with the table so frenziedly that I had to hide it so that they would attend to their bottles.

Then we went off to meet Melissa the Twin Mum at the Fairfield Family Spaaaaace (a church hall with a blow-up jumping castle and a lot of daggy toys). But it was closed due to a robbery. Not lovely. We relocated to Fairfield Park, which was lovely except for the large number of flies. We enjoyed sandwiches, fruit, and hot chips (my fault), and then had a go on the swings, and some climbing stuff. Hazel slipped and banged her chin, and I think bit her lip or cheek. She had a little blood in her mouth. BAD MOTHER.

Off home for another nap. Again the girls went easily to sleep with no protesting or shenanigans. Lovely. Again they slept for an hour and 20 minutes.

This afternoon we went to the Reservoir pool, which is lovely. All this time we have lived so close, and never have we been there, because we are snobs. Reservoir Aquatic Centre sounds like it is going to have broken tiles, dingy water, mouldy showers, and Legionella. But no! It's new and shiny, and we had a blast. The babies' pool is beautiful, and not a thoroughfare that bigger kids stomp through. There are water sprays and bubbly things and a beach ball. We are SO going there again. Hazel awoke from her nap in a cross mood, and the second she got into the water she lightened and brightened.

We managed to get home in time for dinner, and all has been lovely since. The girls dropped straight off to sleep. Trudi has just returned from Bunnings with a hired trailer. Tomorrow morning she takes a piles of grotty pine pallet slats to the tip. I had used them to make lame little garden edgings for the front garden, but we are ripping everything out and putting natives.

OK, not so good now. Hazel woke up crying because I forgot to pause the washing machine and it started its noisy spun cycle just as she surfaced after her first forty minutes of sleep. The washing machine is against their bedroom wall so it's pretty loud. Off I go to calm her.

Interview with Kurt Vonnegut from 2006

Not sure why I've been thinking about him so much lately, but I have.

http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=794

Mycoplasma?

Dr Luke Sammartino the paediatrician is a nice bloke. He seems thorough too.

He thinks that Ivy's persistent cough might be a mycoplasma infection. This is a bacterium, but it behaves a bit like a virus in that it can lie low and keep coming back. Sez Dr Luke. I didn't know that that was a defining feature of viruses.

So Ivy is going to take a 10-day course of antibiotics, and if she's better at the end, great. If not, back to Dr Luke. He says it might be mild asthma, or it might indeed be mild whooping cough, but these are less likely than the mycoplasma hypothesis.

I am eating chocolates left behind by Judy. She stayed for a few days and I'm sad to see her go. She's a great help with the girls, and they love her. She taught Hazel to say "car". We have funny chats about how things were "in her day".

I ain't good-lookin; I'm built for speed

I've been playing my Best Of Bessie Smith CD at the table lately, hoping that the girls are taking in a bit of kultcher.

Off to the paediatrician today, to see if there is anything interesting about Ivy's nine-month cough. She's had it since her first cold, at the age of four months. I'd like her to not have a cough. At our most recent visit to a doctor, the child-GP (she looked about fifteen) suggested that even an immunised child can get a low-grade version of whooping cough, and that the only way to know is to do a nasty nasal swab that surely involves strapping the child down while you get an instrument up her nose.

But then this is the GP who did not diagnose roseola when it was hugely obvious (now that I know the facts of roseola).

In other news, our chickens are so cute! They get a little bowl of porridge each morning, and peck peck peck it's all gone in an hour, but they keep coming by for a check and a peck, in case more arrives in the bowl.

Yawning is good for you

http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/1109/expert.html

Another little milestone

The usual warning: of course it's about poo. Of course. What else would it be?

Actually there are two new things.

One new thing is that Hazel says SSSSS when she is weeing. So cute!

But the newest thing happened yesterday when I was out. We left the kids with their two grandmothers and a grandfather for an hour while we went to buy plants at the nursery. When we got back I heard this story:

They were all playing on the floor in the lounge room (which is where the two potties are!), when Mum noticed that Hazel was doing Poo Face (you know the one I'm sure). Hazel saw that Mum was looking, so she turned around and pointed at the potty. Mum whipped Hazel's pants and nappy off, popped her on the pot, and Hazel pooed immediately!

Yay!

I'm so glad that Mum knows what we've been doing with the potties, so she was able to respond to Hazel's request. It's been a big week for Hazel.

Chickens!

Here they are.

Hazel walks

A few days ago another mum watched Hazel standing against a table and predicted that she would soon be walking. i demurred. No no, she's been doing that for months, we think ivy might walk first, but hopefully not for another few months.

Right.

Today Chrissy visited, with her two strapping lads, who are only a couple of weeks older than our girls but heaps bigger and more developed. They have been walking for a while now, and are experts.

About an hour into the visit, Hazel got up and walked ten steps. She looked awfully pleased, and we all clapped, and Hazel clapped, and Ivy clapped. Hazel tried again a few times; once she walked for 25 steps. Her nanna was counting.

After you watch this video, a row of pictures appears along the bottom. This is the Related Videos list... there are a LOT of other people with kids called Hazel who have just learnt to walk.



Things are improving around here. The bad day sleeps are gone for the moment, and the nights are much better. Two nights ago I woke at 5:30am and did not remember a thing. Oh I love those mornings.

Right now someone is quietly singing instead of being asleep. I hope she drops off soon. Trudi and Judy have gone to a shop to look at a thing. Could not tell you what shop and what thing. I probably knew once, quite recently, but not now.

Hey we have chickens! They are small and so very cute. I just went out to look at them and they are asleep in a tiny pile in the corner of their coop.

Things Hazel says

She has a few words now, does Miss Hazel. Not many, but they get a good workout each day. Here they are:

ted-dy	Means "teddy". Due to Trudi's insistence that any soft stuffed toy is a teddy, we hear this one a lot.
a-o	Means "cat", probably cos we keep telling her that cats say "meow", even though one of our cats says eh and the other one says rowly-meow-ow-ow-yowly-rowlrowl.
a-pl	Means "apple". The second syllable is kind of explosive but hidden. Impossible to describe. Will try to video it so one day when Hazel is ten we can reminisce.
ut	Means "up". This is both a comment on the state of things (as in, "Look, I am standing up when you thought I was still sitting on my potty and did not notice me stand up look I am standing UP"), and a description of things to come (as when I have unbuckled her from her car seat and am about to hoist her up and out).

Aside: I do not know why there is a huge gap before this list. Thankyou Blogger for doing weird things to my lame little HTML table.

I am just loving how the girls' comprehension is growing each day.

Both girls now come to me when I ask them to. This afternoon they were in an inflated bouncy castle, and when it was time to go I asked them to come over to me and they did! Even though they were having fun still.

When we are all in the bathroom Hazel loves to play in the drawers. The bottom drawer has lots of blocks of soap, and she takes them all out and throws them around. She licked one once, but not lately. Eww. When I want to leave the room, I ask her to put the soap back in the drawer, and she does. Ivy helps. Then I ask Hazel to shut the drawer and she does. Ivy has no truck with drawers. They are scary bitey things and I am happy with that. They I say "Everyone out" and point to the door, and they troop out ahead of me.

Can you tell that both girls are a lot better? I am blogging about positive things today.

Some interesting diagnosis facts: Ivy's mysterious illness (fever then rash) was probably roseola. I described her synptoms (complain complain) to Chrissy, who said that her favourite book when she was 14 was an illustrated diagnosis manual. She said Ivy probably had roseola, so I googled, and it surely does fit the facts. It's harmless and rarely recurs.

Hazel's latest problem has been a sore mouth, leading to screaming and sleepless nights. Panadol helped. We assumed it was teeth, then I mentioned to Mum that I had a sore tongue and she diagnosed thrush. Great. Oral thrush. How gross! The pharmacist agreed, so the girls and I are eating Daktarin gel and Hazel had her first proper nap this morning, and she didn't wake up screaming. I'm feeling a lot better too.

Ivy walking with the trolley

Even though Ivy has been sick all week or so, her trolley skills have gone from almost nothing to expert. This video is taken in the lane behind our house...plenty of room for her to test her new skills!
- T

On the mend

Ivy's condition is improving. Her coat is shiny, her whiskers are clean and erect, and her eyes are clear. Also her rash is fading and she is not in a sad mood all of the time.

Had a tough night due to Hazel being in pain with something (we will never know). Eventually threw some Panadol at her and we all eventually got some sleep, punctuated by Ivy's momentous coughing bouts a few times.

We are off to the pediatrician next week, cos she has had a cough since she was 4 months old. That is nearly a third of her life so far.

We are getting chooks! They arrive on Thursday. They are four Pekin bantams. They come with a coop and all the gear (water dispenser, feed thingy, foot massager...).

They will be only seven weeks old so they won't lay for ages. And once they do, the eggs will be small and not as frequent as for big chooks. We don't mind: the point of them is to keep us all amused, and to be instruments for the kids to learn benevolence on.

Another little first

Hazel took a tiny staggery unassisted step today.

We were having lunch at Jackie & Felicity's place, and Hazel was standing against Jackie, and took one little step towards Trudi before collapsing.

In other news, Ivy is quite sick today. Her rash is getting a bit worse, but it's not bothering her. She is generally miserable though, and something hurts her, because Panadol makes her feel better. No fever any more.

We have a doctor's appointment for her on Tuesday. if we have a bad night I will try to get one for tomorrow instead. no idea what is wrong with her. The doctor yesterday didn't know.

A day of firsts

Yesterday was a standard small day, but had a few sneaky firsts.

Warning: Some of the firsts are to do with poo.

In the morning we were brushing our teeth as usual, sitting on the bathroom floor. Hazel did Poo Face (imagine it if you can), so I whipped her pants off and popped her on the toilet with its new little toddler seat. After a few minutes of fiddling with the toilet roll holder and admiring the Sesame Street pictures on the seat, she did a poo and then a wee! Yay for Hazel! First deliberate poo in the toilet.

In the evening the girls were in the bath, and Hazel did Poo Face again. A whole day had passed since the morning's Poo Face, so don't imagine she does it all the time. I'm just compressing events so you don't have to hear about the ones without Poo Face. So, I whipped her out of the bath and popped her on the conveniently located little seat on the toilet. No poo, and much struggling. Back in the bath. Poo Face again. Back on the toilet, more struggling. Hmm. Back in the bath. Now Ivy does Poo Face which is not like her - she is usually a stealth poo-er. I put Ivy on the toilet seat, and she notices the Sesame Street picture,. Fiddle fiddle. Hazel does Poo Face again. Heck. I call out to Trudi to bring the potty, in case I have two pooing people to deal with. Hazel poos in the bath before the potty arrives. Ivy does not poo but likes the Cookie Monster. First poo in the bath.

Confession: Both of the firsts were to do with poo. Hah I tricked you.

Sick and tired

Not that sick, but fairly tired.

Ivy has been under the weather this week. A fever on and off earlier, and now a lingering pointless cough. Her sleeping is all shot to hell. Last night she woke 5 or 6 times between bedtime and 5:45am. Each time she needed help to go back to sleep. And let me tell you, I race in there to give her that help!

When Ivy wakes in the night her cries go from 0 to 100 in ten seconds. If she gets past 100, it takes her ages to get back down again, and she is SOOOO LOUD. Like, unbelievably loud. And piercing.

Usually Hazel sleeps through it all, but if Ivy reaches the Plateau of Piercing Screaming, of course Hazel wakes up and screams that it's ridiculous that this is going on right next to her head. Their cots are only a foot apart. Then it's a right bastard getting them both calmed down again. This week Trudi has been having to get up and help me, cos it's all I can do to calm Ivy, let alone Hazel too.

So we are all tired, and Ivy still seems to be a little bit sick with some mild unspecified malaise.

In other news, I had the swine flu jab yesterday. Trudi's had hers. It seems like a good idea to have as much immunity in the family as possible. When it comes around again next winter we might have some immunity to whatever form it's mutated into.

In other other news, Krishna and Trishna seem to be doing really well.

Same ol same ol

Another shitty night. Ivy has a fever on and off. We all slept nicely until 1am, then it was Game On. I got back to sleep at 5am for about an hour. Why didn't I go to bed at 8.30?

Now the girls are frantically not napping AGAIN why do I even bother mentioning this?

These afternoon naps have hairs on. They are still desperately needed. If one doesn't happen, the relevant non-napper is catatonic by 6pm. However most days they both prefer to spend an hour leaping around like soccer hooligans before finally collapsing in two little heaps, rather than just gently lying down and drifting off to a lovely restful LONG nap.

I thought they would be so tired from last night that today's naps would be easy.

This all reminds me of our life a year ago. Draining though this is, I would not trade places for anything. For example, see this sad little attempt at hope: Hazel did not sleep.

Sustainability assessment

A fellow is coming on Friday to check out our house for sustainabilityness. He will then tell us what we could do to sustainabilityify it some more.

I assume this will include stuff like a hot water recirculator, a grey water diversion or treatment thingy, maybe rainwater tanks, and possibly some heat-blocking window film,. I have been doing my research so I know these words. Don't want to seem dumb.

Greywater treatment is scary. No-one has any prices on their websites, so I can only assume it's awfully expensive.

And hey, Trudi just bought chooks! They will arrive in a couple of weeks I think! How excitement!

In other news related to tiny people, we have had our first poo into the toilet from the new baby-sized toilet seat. Hazel did poo-face in the bath so I scooped her out and it was all good. Yesterday Miss Hazel did not have her afternoon nap due to jumping up and down and squealing with Ivy. Ivy eventually slept but Hazel was wired.

Once Ivy woke, we all went to the Northcote pool and had a lovely time. Hazel loves loves loves crawling out into deeper water, and just keeping on going. We went for lots of swims where I hold her up with a palm under her chest, and she thrashes along. Ivy loves loves loves bobbing around on Mummy the Scary Sea Monster.

I wonder how Trishna and Krishna are going.

It's happening again

Another two-hour nap this morning. Yesterday they had a short afternoon nap after hooning around their cots for half an hour - today they dropped off immediately. too weird. They are not sick either! Maybe the heat is doing good things to their napping requirements.

Maybe they are pleasantly tired from having visitors. Today Megan & Marnie, Lyn-May, and Chrissy with Noah and Jem all came for lunch. The mums of small twins (Chrissy & me) did baby things, and the mums of older kids (Megan & Lyn-May brought food and were house-wifely in the kitchen.

Marvellous! Can we do it again?

I have just watched this video again for the ninetieth time. Still funny, I think:

Two-hour nap

I go about my life, unaware that it's about to strike.

It seems like a normal morning.

The girls go to bed at 9:30 am, as usual. As usual, they jump around and squeal for a bit, then silence falls.

As usual, I waste time on the interweb. As usual, I leap up to do useful things to keep us clean and fed, in the few minutes remaining until the girls get up.

The silence continues. How nice, they are both having a second 40-minute cycle of sleep. Means I can hang out the laundry and wipe up more ants from the kitchen.

But then the silence continues to continue. Could it be? A third cycle. This will lead to only one thing - a two-hour nap!

I don't quite know what to do with myself when this happens. I made an elaborate salad for when Marina & Alisa visit (elaborate = more than three ingredients). I wiped up more ants. I polished the sink to sparkling-point.

Came to write this post (to keep you abreast of developments) and now I hear little muttering noises. Grumble brumble crumble says Hazel, I have overslept. Eeeeee says Ivy, whack whack I can whack my legs on my cot! Whack whack eeeeee brumble grrrrr thumpy thumpy.

I've been thinking about the things people say about twins

And yes I'm sure I come across as hysterical and unreasonable when YET ANOTHER person tells me that I have my hands full, luv. Yes yes it's true I'm nuts, but there you go.

Here is a list of responses that another parent of twins has compiled:

http://www.techhouse.us/Hosted/Tig/?page_id=208

And here's another:

http://www.lookydaddy.com/weblog/2007/01/ask_the_dad_jan.html

So it's not just me. Next time someone asks me if they are natural I will indeed say that no, they are pretend.

Our stroller is dangerous

Here's a news article that describes how it can AMPUTATE baby FINGERTIPS:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26329769-2,00.html

Turns out that they are only doing a recall in the US. Here is the Australian Maclaren page that blames parents for not following safety instructions:

http://www.maclarenbaby.com.au/page.aspx?page=8

They think that you shouldn't let your kid near the pram when you are putting it up.

Hah. I can just imagine how easy that is going to be once the girls are walking! Girls, can you please stand over there and wait while I wrestle with this pram AGAIN thankyou oh that is marvellous the way you are standing in a little row in the shade over there.

Ivy at the library

Hot day

What a great start to the day - I woke at 6am and did not remember anything about the night! I assume that meant that I did not wake up all night. This happened a couple of days ago as well - the night before our few difficult days. And now again last night. Those were my first unbroken nights of sleep since I was about six months pregnant. I still feel tired though. Backlog,

Today we went to Coburg Lake Reserve. It's just lovely. Lush green grass (that won't last long I suppose), shady trees, lots of space, and a creeky lake thing to admire with ducks up the other end. The lot of picnickers nearest us happened to include Thomas and his parents. Thomas is in our swimming class. We chatted with his mum. Turns out that they have been doing baby-led weaning, plus she knows Kirsteen, who does underwater hockey with Trudi. We've only known them for nine months!

At home the girls have their nappies off most of the time cos it's warm. Hazel is enjoying weeing everywhere. She totally knows what she is doing. It is fun! We are hoping this is a phase in which she learns about how cool weeing is, and eventually she will be over it and will wee in the potty.

And I bought a little toilet seat for them! It's soft and has pictures of Sesame Street characters on it. Hazel gnawed it so it has a little hole already. No more gnawing the toilet seat. She also popped it on her head and wore it like a hat. She does this crazy scrunched-up-face giggle when she is being funny.

A bad couple of days, but all is lovely now

Ivy was sick with something. All Thursday she cried at nothing much and needed lots of cuddles. The good part about this was that she is now coming over to get a cuddle when she needs one. T & I are both loving this new development.

The night sucked too. Ivy woke up screaming again and again until we gave her Panadol at about midnight. She slept OK until 5.30am, so that's when our day started. Great.

Friday was somewhat better. Ivy was still dodgy but not abject.

Today both girls were bouncy and full of sunshine. They went straight to sleep for their morning nap. We had a great swimming lesson. Hazel is loves to sit on the side of the pool, fall forward into the water, swim underwater for about a metre, and catch hold of my t-shirt to come up for air. After this she smiles! Ivy is less keen on going underwater at the moment. She loves to swim after a bright toy and then grab it and gnaw it.

On the way back from swimming, Trudi dropped me off on High St, where I caught a tram down to the Japanese Bath House in Collingwood. I had an hour-long bath session, followed by a shiatsu. Happy.

Trudi told me that the girls' afternoon nap went really well too. Trudi was trying to make them sit still for their Calming Naptime Book Reading but no dice. Wriggling and crawling around in their bed-bags was the order of the afternoon. T decided to put Hazel to bed and let Ivy stay up a bit longer. As she came out of the bedroom she found Ivy had crawled all the way from the lounge to her bedroom (hampered by being in a bag no doubt). So off she went to bed too, and they went straight off to sleep.

On the way home I stopped off in Northcote to buy sunhats for the girls. Trudi and the girls met me at the shop, and we all drove back home together. At home we sat on the grass and played with coloured cups in a box of water. Dinner, bottles, bed-bags, book, bed. Then Trudi and I scrubbed the deck so that she can oil it tomorrow.

Bread is baking now which is why I am blathering online instead of going to bed. Nearly done.


Night.

Carnivorous bunnies

These girls love their meat, Ivy in particular.

This is the first time that they have had cutlets (which are basically meat on a stick, right?). They saw, they looked suspicious, they picked up, and they commenced to gnaw.

The Institute of Official Cheer

Years ago I came across this page (beware, it's not been updated since 2005):

http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

On this page, a dude named James Lilek satirises terrible old cooking books. I remember fondly that when I showed Kylie, we wept and howled with laughter such that other colleagues came to see what the fuss was.

My favourite is still "Meat! Meat! Meat! In which you'll meet Meat! Meat! Meat! Also, Meat!".

Farm

We met Ange, Olive, Toby, Fran, Peter and Tom at the Collingwood Children's Farm today.

We re-met Coffee Table the placid sheep. We admired chickens, roosters, ducks, barn cats, horses, pigs and piglets. We wheeled into the goat paddock, and the girls were enchanted with the mummy goats and their delightful children. One mummy goat ate Hazel's apple right out of her hand (Hazel was still holding on). A baby goat stepped up onto the pram to get a really good look at the girls. Two kids here mum. Yep, two of them. Yep, two. Hey mum, I found two kids here mum. Two. Yep. Can I get down now mum?

Olive is doing toilet training, so we found a quiet private grassy corner of the farm for a wee stop. I got the girls out too, to see if they wanted a wee. Immediately a hundred people walked by. "Bare bottoms" quoth one observant dad.

Ivy is still suffering with this latest cold. It really shits her RIGHT up the wall when I wipe her terrible disaster of a snotty nose. Also her coughing is sometimes painful. I listen to her chest, and this morning it was full of grot but it is clear now. After viewing animals we stopped off at the farm cafe, so the mummies could drink coffee (decaf here thanks) and the babies could writhe in the dirt. Add caked-on snot to a dirty face and hands and you have a kid who looks like she should be on a poster titled Donate To Save This Slum Child.

Alyson are you reading this?

Mum said that you sometimes read this blog but that you feel a bit naughty and stalker-y for doing so.

Not so. I love my public! Usually I assume that only Mum & Trudi will read the crud that I upload to this blog. Trudi usually reads it in the afternoon to check if she is going to come home to a miserable and/or raving person.

And so to bed.

Clap feet

At the market today.

Why didn't we get this pram?

Answer: Because it is for your pets. This is a pusher for cats or dogs. For pushing them around so they don't get all messed up.

An exercise tip for the time-poor parent

Trudi just told me that crazy as it sounds, she wants to go wash the car: partly to get out of the house (she works at home on Fridays), partly to get a clean car, and partly to GET SOME EXERCISE.

We saw the toilet seat at Bunnings (see previous posts if you care) and while it is good, I think our little folks need a bit more support. Maybe in a year we could use that one.

Going to Bunnings

Just the 2 of us. Hazel just woke up and T will entertain her.

Hazel hurled

In a big way.

In the middle of the morning nap she started crying, and as usual I left her for a minute to see if she would settle back down. No way. Turns out she had thrown up her whole brekky plus milk while she was lying down. The room reeked.

Trudi cleaned up the bed while I showered Hazel. Poor Ivy was howling. Eventually Ivy went back to sleep but although Hazel tried, she was too awake. So the poor poppet only had a short nap.

She seems fine now. We went out to the Fairfield Family Space (yep that is its name) for lunchtime and all was well. They are napping again and all still seems well. I hope she just gagged while she was coughing or something.

We need to get a baby seat for the toilet. Cath Mok suggested one that Bunnings has... it's a whole replacement seat, which includes a little baby seat. Not sure how that works... will have to see it I spose. Another option is the Baby Bjorn seat which is meant to be good.

Nasty but useful

Here is an article with a lot of very specific advice about the gross details of kids' colds, and when to go to a doctor:

COUGHS, COLDS, AND SINUS INFECTIONS

Calm and happy

Wheeee!  No Mystifier last night, and no bouts of coughing either. Well, Ivy woke before 6 (can't remember when) but that is a big improvement.

Their morning nap is going nicely.

The fan element in the oven broke, so a fellow came to replace it today. He was great - really quiet so he didn't wake the girls, used a normal screwdriver instead of a drill. He does not like Ludmilla on 3RRR. I can't stand Tony Biggs' voice.

Improvements

Reasonable naps, good moods, still lots of snot though. Just thought I'd let you all know. Goodnight!

Well that was fun

We had a shit night and now Hazel has just spent 25 minutes crying instead of napping. I think she has fallen asleep now.

It's just like old times - she howls because she is so tired and can't seem to get to sleep. I pat and SSH and try not to overdo it but if I stop she just cries and cries.

SIGH

Of course it is all temporary. Once she is over this cold I can help her get out of the habit of needing my help to fall asleep. We've done it before, so we can do it again.

In the meantime she is grumpy when she's awake and can't sleep enough.

I am a grump too. Can you tell?

A series of complaints

It all began with the girls' swimming lesson yesterday. It was at 10am, bang in the middle of their morning nap time. We managed to get them to not nap until after the lesson. So they started their nap at 11.30, which is when they usually wake up.

After they woke, we dashed down to the Collingwood Children's Farm, where we met up with my mum. All went well. We observed other people's kids chasing the sheep and I did not berate them (but I did scowl I think). Also we saw many chickens, goats, more chickens, and some goats. A lovely outing all up.

Then they had no afternoon nap.

Then they went to bed (this is still yesterday I'm complaining about). At 10.30pm Ivy coughed a lot,
woke up, cried, and needed help with going back to sleep. Off she went to sleep. But this woke Hazel, who does not cope well with upset naps. She was awake until well after midnight, shouting and being generally awake and annoyed about it. Somehow Ivy slept through it.


We blame the bad timing of the swimming lesson for the fact that we each got only a few hours of sleep last night. Considering ditching swimming lessons. the teachier is good but being inflexible about lesson times.



Also both of the girls have nasty-sounding coughs due to CONSTANT colds for the last two months, and also Hazel seems to be starting another cold today.


This is a complaining blog post... just skip the rest if it's turning your stomach.


So today we tried really really hard to stick to our routine, hoping the girls would have huge restful naps and replenish their sleep reserves. Not a chance. Poor ol Hazel had a tiny morning nap (40 minutes) and was thereafter cranky. Then Ivy had a tiny afternoon nap, while Hazel slept a little more. All up it was not much.


They went to bed at 7:30, and it's now 8:10 and I have settled Hazel twice. She's back to her habits of a few weeks ago. Neither Trudi nor I is looking forward to tonight.


Doom and gloom on the sleep front.

An evening to remember

And it's only 7:31 pm!

Imagine this... both girls are in their PJs, all clean and warm after bath and dinner (yes, in that order, why do you ask?). We are all hanging out in the darkened lounge room.

It becomes apparent that Hazel has dropped her guts big time, so off Trudi goes to change her nappy. We don't usually have evening poos. Ha ha, Trudi noticed it so she has to change it.

Then Ivy follows suit. Unfortunately I noticed this one, so off we go for a cleansing nappy-change ritual.

By now it's 7:15. Bedtime is 7:30 so we are under the gun. Bed-bags, bottles, books: it's all happening, then Trudi mentions that the loungeroom is still a bit whooffy after the two untimely poos. We notice the sound of scuffling from the study.

An aside: The cat litter box is in the study. This is the only room in the house that is off-limits to the girls.

So Selby is in the litter box, having droped HER guts in there. She's a clean little beastie so now she's trying to cover it all up. It sounds like she's trying to do a 3-point turn over it, again and again. Pellets are going everywhere.

By now we are reading Maisy's Bed-Time, which includes an unfortunate sequence in which Maisy can't go to sleep because she needs the loo. Also her bear Panda needs the potty. We have to contain our giggles because the girls are sleepy and we don't want to razz them up.

The room stinks. It is absolutely foul. We press on with the Maisy book. The girls seem to be fine with the new reek.

Selby leaves the room and all is quiet if a bit close.

Time to start the next book, in which Maisy goes to bed again, this time with Little Black Cat in tow. Not a welcome image. Selby is SO not sleeping in our bed tonight.

While working our way through Goodnight Moon ("goodnight clocks, goodnight socks, goodnight kittens, goodnight mittens..."), Minke hops into the litter box and makes her contribution. Also absolutely unspeakable. This never happens. We can go for weeks without changing the litter cos the cats won't use it unless they are desperate. The loungeroom is uninhabitable but the girls are sleepy so we press on.

Finished the books, it's time to take the girls off to their cots. Trudi stands up and there is a funny cracking noise. "Wossat?" I ask, and she lurches around to show me, Hazel in her arms. Trudi has somehow stood on one of the balloons left over from the birthday party last weekend, and it has wedged itself up inside her tracky pants, next to her ankle. She wrenches it out without dropping her daughter and we parade off to the bedroom with dignity.

So here I sit, telling you all about our evening so far. All the windows are open, the cat shit is gone, and Trudi is watching a Clint Eastwood DVD. The girls seem to be asleep.

The Mystifier is part of our family now

Last night just before midnight, Trudi suggested that it might be a good idea to turn on The Mystifier. I had been asleep but also hearing Ivy's coughing. I shot out of bed and bumbled my way out of the room, intent on turning the machine on.


"Don't you want to talk about it" followed me out of the room but no, I was on a midnight mission. I was still pretty much asleep, and I had a task!

They slept well after that, waking at 6.20am when the shower went on.

So where does that leave us? Ivy is still coughing - it seemed to be getting better but now it's returning. So I suppose we might keep on using The Mystifier for a while longer.

Baby-led weaning article

A couple of months ago I wrote a long rambling article about BLW for our NIMBA newsletter.

BLW = baby-led weaning
NIMBA = Northern and Inner Multiple Birth Association

This week I tarted it up a bit with some subheadings and photos, and here it is:

http://www.oceanbug.com/melanie/articles/blw-article.html

Water play

Yesterday was warm, so Chrissy came over and we did Water Play. It's so exciting that our kids are growing up and want to do cool stuff like this!

Noah, Jem, Hazel and Ivy first had lunch:

Then they repaired to the entertainment area:

Then Hazel got extra keen on the blue box:

...which led to the natural conclusion:

Hazel JUST LOVES being in the water:

Then we climbed up and down the deck steps (Hazel stayed in the box):

And look at Noah's beautiful posture:

After this, the girls had a brilliant afternoon nap. Must try Water Play again.

Ivy hides in her hat while Hazel whets her whistle

Their new whistles are a challenge. Sometimes you need a break from your challenge to play with your hat.

Hazel swings

The weather is great! We can leave the house and have leisurely fun.

Achievements

Thing 1: The first load of laundry is already dry. It's out on the line, and it's stiff as a lot of little boards. Those nappies need some pummelling before they will bend around little bottoms.

Thing 2: Hazel is now officially cruising. This morning she used a high-chair as a trolley as she walked across the dining room. She also stalked along the couches, gripping them with white fingertips.

Thing 3: Ivy likes to climb the three steps up to the deck from the grass. When she gets to the top she zips over to the cats' water bowl and up-ends it. Mummy needs to find a new home for the water bowl.

Thing 4: While we were eating breakfast, Selby the cat found a nice spot close up to the window. While we watched, she dug a deep hole and then lowered a huge poo into it. Lovely breakfast viewing.

Birthday party

Ivy and Hazel are one year old! Beggars belief.

I am so very very glad that it is not a year ago. I am MORE glad that it is not eight months ago. That was our family's nadir.

We had a party-let on the weekend. Here is the evidence...

We crammed into our dining room, with grown-ups wedged around the edge and kids in the middle. Here is Toby in the middle of the middle:

Hazel and Ivy wore party dresses as they played with their toy library thingy:

Chrissy sat against the window with Noah and Jem. Toby whacked the enamel mug, while Hazel's freedom was curtailed:

Ivy sat in her mummy's favourite chair in a very composed manner:

Liss and Ivy looked pensive and photogenic:

Amir seemed to be surprised to find his daughter Maia in a capsule on the table:

Mummy admired The Wombat Diary (thanks Amir & Alex) in the absence of her children:

Maia is a little cutie, and her dad still wears cool t-shirts although he presumably does not get much sleep:

 Hazel pours new boxes, and observes intently:

Sarah watches Ivy relax near the end of a big day:

And that's the end of the story.

Museum visit

...which was surprisingly great!

On Saturday the weather was a bit wild and Trudi and I were hollow-eyed from many nights of lame sleep. Off we went to the museum for the first time in years.

We spent our whole time there in the Children's Gallery. It's supposed to be aimed at kids aged 3-8, but the girls still had a great time.

They enjoyed the floor-level exhibits behind glass:

They kind of liked the mirror pyramid thingy (actually Ivy was a bit freaked out):

 ... and they loved the hoops and pigeons in the outside section:

Unfortunately, they are supposed to be napping right now but I hear thumping and squealing. I am blogging instead of hovering, which actually is an improvement.

First birthday party

It went well!

Imagine a little party with almost no preparation. That was our party.

Now imagine a party after which my mother-in-law Judy did most of the tidying up, and Trudi did the rest. That was our party.

Photos to follow.

Another good night's sleep

Again with the Mystifier, again with the girls sleeping through the night.

Hazel had her 10pm howl, but went back to sleep with a bit of shushing and a little pat. Then they did not wake

until

wait for it

6.45am!

Trudi & I woke at 6.30 as usual, and I did not know what to do with myself. I suggested that I would go open their door but Trudi reminded me that we wanted them to learn to sleep until 7. So we do. i forgot.

We are loving our Mystifier.

It will be a pity when their colds are finished and there is no reason to use it. Perhaps a recording of rhe ostentatious BUBBLING noise would help...

omg it's quads

Well no actually it's two sets of twins. Noah and Jem have the same pram as Hazel and Ivy.

Dagging Round Darebin part 2: the lived-in letterbox

Don't remember where I saw this. My phone refused to blog for a few weeks so this photo has been waiting for its audience for a long time.

I slept

Rhymes with Jesus wept.

So we got a humidifier (which Trudi calls a mystifier). It bubbles audibly all night. I think I would find that annoying, but the girls slept all night.

Hazel cried at about 9.30. I had already been in bed since 8.30 but just rested without sleeping. Trudi settled Hazel. And that was it for the night.

Ivy still coughed, but not as much as before, and not so much that she or Hazel woke.

I slept 10 - 10.30
10.30 - 2
2.30 - 5
5.30 - 6.15

This adds up to 7 1/4 hours, which is a marvel. I feel like a normal person again. Yesterday I had dancing glowing things in front of my eyes, and a nasty sick feeling in my belly.

Apparently humidifiers do not work, because when you breathe the air gets humidified by the time it gets to your lungs anyway. However, I think Ivy was coughing due to a dry throat, not lungs. I get the same thing after a cold. I would have spent $50 to get last night's sleep anyway, so I don't care whether The Mystifier was not responsible.

Today we are going to the zoo! Have to get out of the house.

Hazel has a black eye

It is minimal but undeniable. She lurched at the giant teddy, which gave way. Hazel whacked her head on the table on her way down.

My sourdough starter smells of acetone

After about 3 minutes of intense research, I learned that this is common, but not why it happens.

The solution seems to be either throw it away and start again, or press on. If you press on, you must throw away most of it anyway, and keep feeding it and hope for the best. Someone mentioned adding yoghurt, so I did that. Now I'm hoping for the best.

If it doesn't come good by the weekend I will throw it away and start again.

Another cold dammit

I mean really!

This will make it two months of colds, with a few days break here and here.

We went to Tom's birthday yesterday, so I expect we infected everyone there as well. Sorry folks. Because we were going to a party, the girls wore frocks:

Aren't they just the cutest! These dresses were made for the girls by my sister's friend Melanie. Thanks Melanie!

Bad sleep

I blogged on 8 October that we had a good night, and that all our colds were receding.

We have had nothing but shit nights since then, and both girls seem to be coming down with another cold.

Nuff said I think.

This is how I bottle feed the girls when no-one else is around

I get the bottles and bibs ready, then I sit on a big red cushion, with another cushion under my lower legs. Then I wave the bottles around and the girls come over, all keen and upset that it isn't happening NOW.

Whoever gets to me first gets bibbed and hauled onto my lap, and I install her bottle. The laggard gets the same treatment but she ends up on my legs.

I like this arrangement because I can easily get to both of them if they have spillage or drop their bottle. I have also make eye cotact with them when they want it.

Can you see how Hazel is not holding her own bottle? She can, but she really likes to look at her cuff and play with her eyelashes when she drinks. She does it when she is sleepy too. I like to hold her bottle for her sometimes, so she can have a really good session of cuff-admiring and eyelash-stroking.

Ivy likes the tunnel

Chrissy bought this tunnel for $1. Her boys seem to like it, but Ivy nearly died of happiness in it. Yes that is her squawking.

She spent a lot of time running up and down the tunnel hoping for someone to come find her.

Did you notice that both girls are wearing dresses?

We are all well

It's been a while, hasn't it.

We've had a lot of minor crises - the usual quotidian stuff. Six weeks of continual colds, and the girls are just finishing up one now. I hope we have at least a few weeks off before the next one. One of the colds was a weird one that started with two days of fever and tiredness, then turned into a normal cold. We all had that one, one after another.

Yesterday all four of us went out for a walk, with Hazel in Trudi's backpack, and Ivy on my front in my Ergo carrier. Not far from home I fell over. Like a kid again! I tripped on a piece of kerb that I didn't see, and went down forwards. Poor Trudi said that watching me fall took forever, and she was waiting for the sound of a snapping wrist, as has happened to both Trudi and her mum. I am fine, just a grazed palm and knee. As I fell I curled one arm around Ivy, but not high enough to protect her little head. She has a graze on the back of her head where she hit the concrete. After I got up, we went straight home, with Ivy bawling. Apparently that is actually a good sign, that she cried immediately. A silence is ominous. When we got home we managed to calm Ivy and she played happily with Hazel. After a wait I got through to the Maternal and Child Heath phone line, and they said she sounded fine, but recommended we get her checked out. So Trudi stayed home with Hazel and I took Ivy to the Austin emergency. They have a paediatric section there. We waited for a long time cos they were busy (I hate to think with what), and Ivy was pretty wired by the time we left. She is utterly fine, but we should watch for weird behaviour for the next few days.

Oddly, last night's sleep was one of the best in a month! Hazel woke once at about 3am, and was back asleep within half an hour. The girls slept until 6.30, which is just fine by me.

Today we will go to a playground with Ange, Olive & Toby.

Ivy is sometimes a destructive force

...but she is always a cutie.

Box-monster

A hundred years ago when I lived in a share house in Kew, we would sometimes partake of a little wine from a cardboard cask, which Chloe called Boxmonster. As in, "Would you like a Vegemite glass of Boxmonster?"

Now we have a new kind of Boxmonster in our lives.

Tell the governemnt what you think about their internet censorship plans

This shiny flashing thing lets you sign a petition that opposes the government's plans for centralised internet censorship:

Frittata for infants

I an trying to replicate Chrissy's yummy spinach-filled frittata that my girls gobbled last week.

Hazel and the bowl

Hazel likes porridge well enough, but when it's supplied in a metal bowl, her cup of happiness overflows. She had a shower after this effort.

For 10 bonus points: Can you spot Ivy hiding in the background?

Hazel really really likes V8 juice

Ivy wants some too but then is not keen.

A new chapter in my blog... Dagging Round Darebin

As I walk around the streets of Preston, I see a lot of sights that deserve an audience. Here is a topiary garden on Murray Rd,



Along the front fence, there is a series of topiary birds. I think they are swans. This one is a two-headed swan. Nuff said.

We need a financial advisor

We are good with saving and paying off loans, but not with investing. If you have a good financial advisor that you can recommend, let me know. It would help if they were in our quadrant of Melbourne.

Went to the zoo yesterday

It was FULL of other people with prams (how inconsiderate), and because it's school holidays it was FULL of everyone else as well. Then it rained. Then Ivy fell asleep in the car on the way home, then she got a fever.

Apart from that, we liked the baboons (bright red bums are amusing) and the meerkats (little fluffy things napping in a pile are endearing).

Poor Ivy probably caught the fever from our cleaner who came on Friday and was still sick despite her saying that she was not. Sigh. She clearly needed the money cos she had not worked all week due to being sick. Sigh. Ivy is doing fine today, and Panadol helped last night, so we are hoping that was the worst of it.

In other news, the pottying is progressing nicely. Ivy's nappy is often dry after a nap, and she wees in the potty when I pop her on. Do you want to hear about the poo situation? I'm not sure that I should just keep banging on about poos in pots, because I'm starting to realise that not everyone wants these details. Mum, you can ring up for details whenever you like.

Might go to the zoo today

The girls will probably like the butterflies, and maybe the monkeys. Not sure what else will interest them.

It will be a bit of a production. Though, they are up for longer now (3-4 hours at a time) so we have time to get there, osberve some beasts, and then dash home again.

How bad is this stove?

Very bad. I think this is the worst it has been. I had a pea soup disaster. Are you glad that my phone can blog again? I like the immediacy. I can inflict this bad stove on the world RIGHT NOW.



LATE ADDITION: A close-up so you can see just how bad it was:

Foot n mouth

Did I already blog this?

How efficient is that bustle! She sure moves along doesn't she.

Hazel programs the dishwasher

She knows that when the dishwasher is on, the Pause button makes a nice noise.

The child lock does not work 8-|

Back to two naps a day

The One Nap Per Day experiment is over. We were all ragged around the edges, and it became crystal clear that none of us is ready for the girls to have one nap a day.

For the next few days, I will have to go back to watching for their tired signs, to work out what mind of nap pattern they need. Yesterday their morning nap was 9.30 - 11.15. Today Hazel would not sleep until 10.30. I hope they settle down and get regular again.

Last week when the girls had their unsynchronised day, Trudi took Hazel to Safeway, where Hazel ate a Vita Weat in a trolley:

Trudi rang me to talk about how much Hazel was enjoying the trolley, and I heard a nasty gagging sound, so Trudi hung up.

Hazel had indeed gagged on her bikky, and threw up into Trudi's cupped hands. So that was nice.

I can blog from my phone again

Couldn't for a while. Been a right bother to set it up again. I hope you are grateful.

Day of unsynchronised naps

Ivy napped in the car on the way to our swimming lesson. I woke her just before the lesson started, so we dashed in and leaped into the pool.

Hazel napped in the car on the way back. I managed to transfer her to bed where she had a good sleep.

Ivy went to bed about half an hour after Hazel got up.

Trudi and Hazel are off at the shops, and I'm here while Ivy sleeps. Round and round and round... I hope they get to see each other for a bit this afternoon. Mum is probably coming over. I think we will play in the back yard. Trudi just mowed, so the girls won't get tangled in the undergrowth.

This morning we went to a 10am swimming lesson, which is much earlier than our usual lesson, because of our new napping pattern (which we are not keeping to today anyway). The 10am class includes older kids who have been doing these lessons for longer, so our girls did a lot of new things today.

For a while, Trudi will take Ivy when it's time for them to swim underwater. I have got myself into a stressy state about it - Ivy often complains about going underwater, and it seems that she is feeding off my tension and vice versa. Hazel does fine with me, and Ivy does fine with Trudi, so hopefully we will both calm down in time.

I have been reading about gentle discipline. Will have to work out what is applicable for twins.

Just another day

A very nice day, too!

They slept pretty well last night, considering thee both have colds. After a few crappy nights, it was good to get some blocks of uninterrupted sleep. There were some shouts in the night, but no need for me to go in and settle. Of course when I hear the shout I still pop straight out of bed and start lurching around the room (the night before last I barrelled straight into our cupboard door, and then I woke up). Poor Trudi usually wakes up before I do, then has to endure me hurling myself around the place.

Hazel has been waking at 6 lately, which is pretty civilised. Ivy usually sleeps on for a bit, unless Hazel woke her with her happy squeals.

This morning we went to the market, and no-one stopped us to ask inane questions ("Are they really twins, are you sure?"). Afterwards, at home, we had a snack of grilled cheese on toast, plus avocado, banana and pear, then their bottles, then off to bed for their big nap. Today I tried putting Ivy down ten minutes before Hazel, so if either of them wakes after 40 minutes, it won't also be the other one's 40-minute stirring period. We will see. I hope Hazel can sleep for 2 hours. Ivy seems to sleep for 3 hours (another reason for her to go down earlier).

A banal day, with an associated banal blog post.

Last night we had a Red Rooster chicken for dinner, so now I am making stock from the carcass, and we'll have chicken risotto with the leftover meat. The house smells of Red Rooster Redux.

Hey we have a new mattress! It is latex and was expensive, and it's very soft and cosy. The old mattress was getting saggy, but it was also too hard. Hard and saggy is a nasty combo. What we have now is soft and supportive.

I'm doing OK on my lower dose of happy pills. Im taking half a pill per day, and I'm a bit more bitchy than usual. As Carol kindly suggested, this is probably my real self making a reappearance.

I am going to go chop up stuff for tonight's dinner, because I am such a good housewife. Goodbye, enormous fanbase!

Porridge Punk and the Maths Teacher

Doesn't that sound like a great name for a band...

Porridge Punk has spiky hair because she rubbed porridge in it during breakfast, and then when I pulled her bib up over her head her hair got vertical.

The Maths Teacher has naturally maths-teacher-y hair, but the V-neck button-up shirt is my fault. At least she is having fun...

No more happy pills

Yay! The doctor agrees that I don't need them any more. She says that I am on a low dose, so I could just stop taking them one day. However, to reduce the chance of me having a bad few days, she recommends that I take half a pill a day for a few days, then stop.

So that's that.

After the doctor appt, I walked to the market, and we got a few things (popadums, lentils, mushrooms. Gues what we hare having for dinner tomorrow...) and then the summery weather stopped and the heavens opened. I had dressed the girls in really lightweight pants, sunhats and t-shirts, so I jammed their thin jackets on and ran for the bus. We all got a bit wet, but as my colleague Mike said bracingly to his friend Martin, we're not made of sugar!

We got a bit wet and a bit cold, but no harm done.

The girls went to bed at 6:40 tonight. The nap in the middle of the day was disappointingly short, so the girls were pretty fractious this arvo, but other than that, it all went swimmingly.

If we keep to this new pattern, it means that we can go out in the mornings. The local library has story time at 10.30 every morning, and we can go to the Saturday morning music group that the Anges take Olive & Toby to. We'll probably need a different swimming class though.

I am off to have a swim now. The doctor reminded me that exercise has been shown to be as effective as anti-depressants and/or therapy for mild depression.