baby preparations

I have been washing ... which has been quite a frustrating thing to do in the current weather situation.

Most days there is rain and sunshine and you can never be sure if you should do clothes or not.

I have been washing baby sheets, more clothes up to and including size 0 and generally trying to get things ready.

I also need to air out and wash things like the pram, baby car seats, baby play mat, bouncer, stroller etc, but I need to do this on a day that is guaranteed to be sunny all day so they will dry well.

It is very frustrating to have the weather against me. Usually February is rainy and march is sunny and windy and cooler, but the rain continues to persist.

We took Motley to the vet today ... uni caught her ... and did most of the talking at the vet ... I like it better that way!!!

I also bought a new cot mattress today ... so the baby will have a nice fresh new mattress to sleep on.

I bought some maternity sized pajamas too ... wintry ones! I am very happy with my maternity wardrobe now ... feel like there is plenty to wear ... and many things I will be able to continue to wear after baby's birth.

I seem to be handling the normal flu injection a bit better than the swine flu one ... my arm was a bit sore last night when I slept on it, but apart from that not going too badly.

I am also loving my compression stockings ... now that it is not quite so hot I have switched to the full length ones and so these extend well above my knees.

I bought some size talls but they were really tight around my upper thighs so I ended up cutting the two legs apart and wearing them separate from each other.

I also bought the next size up extra tall, and these can stay joined together but I just don't pull them up above my hips because they would squash my belly.

So now the blood vessels above my knees are getting some relief too!

the rain is getting me down

While this time last year I was loving all the rain, this time around I have had enough of the fact that there has not been a break in the weather.

Things are getting serious ... I am running out of clean underwear!!!!

I must have a day of sunshine soon so I can get some washing done.

We do have a few clothes lines under the house but there is so much furniture and stuff under there now that it is hard to move around and there is not as much airing space.

I may have to resort to the dryer ... I hope it doesn't shrink anything ...LOL!

Uni finished cleaning and painting the baby's room at the end of February on his last five day break. He also shifted all the computer equipment and desks downstairs and set up the office.

I got the carpets professionally cleaned straight after that and it has just rained and rained for days.

I am trying to air out the baby's room (and the whole house) to get rid of the smell of paint and carpet cleaning but it has been a bit of a struggle keeping the windows open and keeping the rain out!

Anyway if all goes to plan we will be looking for some baby storage furniture tomorrow ... chest of drawers, wardrobe, a small upstairs laptop desk for me, another filing cabinet for the office and maybe a bookcase.

Doing all this should take my mind off the rain and get me motivated to continue with the nursery.

I am really happy with our wireless Internet connection too. I am upstairs in the lounge room on my laptop ... receiving a very strong signal.

I have yet to try it in the bedroom and Kt's room but so far, the kitchen and lounge room are great.

OK time to go and watch lost now.

Rain overnight

It stormed last night and Kt and I had a candle lit dinner (candles were out just in case the power went out).

The thunder and lightning were quite loud so I promised to stay with Kt in her room until she fell asleep.

I had just finished commenting on how I love sleeping when there is rain outside (particularly heavy rain).

Then I rolled over onto my other side (I was lying on a bean bag beside Kt's bed) and promptly fell asleep.

I slept for about an hour to an hour and a half and woke up quite surprised. Kt was silent so I imagine she had been asleep for a while too.

I headed out to watch TV and catch up on my tidying up.

By the time I got to bed I was very tired, but could not get to sleep.

Probably should have gone back to Kt's room!

This morning the pond was about an inch and a half full of water and I drained it with buckets and gave the garden a good watering.

It took me about an hour, but it certainly beats carrying bathwater from Kt's bath down the stairs and all around the garden.

Many things are starting to bloom ... I am amazed how quickly plants respond to rainwater!!!

Some of my plants are flowering for the first time ever, even though I have had them for a few years.

I am surprised to see that the agapanthus I transplanted earlier in the year are actually starting to flower before the established plants that have been in the garden for over a decade!!!

And my blue salvia, which lost all their flowers and i thought were finished their run have bloomed again!

The tanks were 1/4 filled by the rain although there was a leak so we probably had more. At the moment Uni estimates we have 500 litres of water in the tank.

I will have to drain it so that uni can do some repairs ... but I think it will only take another day or two for me to do that.

I also need to mulch the garden while there is moisture in the soil.

rain and play doh

I have just returned from the markets and the rain held off until I came home.

It has rained very little in the last 3 months and it is lovely to watch the grey sky and gentle rain and listen to it in the background.

My plants really need it ... and it gives me an excuse not to start painting the fence this morning.

Yestereday KT and I made pink play doh.

We haven't made play doh much this year ... we were doing some once a month last year when she was at kindy but usually we have only made it in the holidays this year.

I had pink food colouring from the cake supplies we bought for this years birthday. She was pleasantly surprised when she asked if we could make pink play doh and I said yes!

We started early and Kt did most of the mixing and pouring in of ingredients. I only helped with the stirring when it started to get hard to stir.

We had perfect playdough in no time and it was a fabulous colour!!!

Making your own playdough is definitely a money saving way to go ... it costs about $10-15 initially to get your materials and they should make at least a years worth (12 batches, 1 a month) of playdough instead of buying playdough at $10 for 4 small tubs.

If you only make one colour at a time you also avoid the inevitable mixing of all colours to make one brown lump!!!!!

I felt like baking today ... something about the weather ... but i did not have enough butter .... hmmm might have to go shopping but not really in the mood

On friday I had a fairly hectic day ...

Went to visit nanna in the morning and had planned to miss that day's school parade but when I told Kt my plan she said she thought I might miss out on seeing her receive a kippa paw. She had been caught doing something good in the playground fairly recently and thought it would be close to the top of the box.

I ummed and aahhhed for a bit and decided I could delay my visit to nanna.

On our way out the door I made sure I had my handbag and a shirt that I needed to return to nanna, since I intended to go straight from the school to her house.

I also thought I had better make a last minute toilet visit. Once i got in there I flushed it to clear it and was horrified to see the contents of the toilet rise up towards the surface.

After a moan of annoyance ... as i was now running late ... I unblocked the toilet, finished my own contribution and held my breath as it flushed normally.

Then we ran out the door and headed off for school. I got out of the car, got my handbag, looked for Kt's school bag and couldn't find it. Of course it had been left behind at home ... i usually only carry one bag to school and since I had my handbag over my shoulder I completely forgot about Kt's bag.

Back in the car we headed back home through unbelieveable school traffic, got home, got the bag and returned again to school.

We managed to park a bit closer and I got out of the car only to discover that Kt had wound down her window for the 2 minute drive to school. I put her out of the car with both bags, started the car and closed the electric window ... in the meantime the car in front of me had moved out of the way so I drove further forward and even closer to the school. Kt followed on foot carrying the bags!

Then we rushed up past the parade area and I tacked Kt onto the end of her class line just as they were heading to their spot.

I couldn't put her brain break or drink bottle in the classroom because it had been locked, so I decided to let Mrs Sands know where it was once I left the parade.

I was hoping they would do the kippa paws early and I could leave before the end of parade.

No such luck though, as it was a whole school parade, the first one of the term and of course there was plenty the principal wanted to discuss.

After a quick text to nanna I found a spot standing up at the back so I could make a quick getaway.

I made eye contact with Kt and waited.

They started handing out kippa paws at the end of parade at about 9.30. When there didn't seem to be any more I prepared to leave, but then they brought out the playground boxes. You should have seen Kt's excitement, so I waited, hoping her name would be called out.

Unfortunately they only picked two names from the P-3 box and two names from the 4-7 box and neither of them was hers.

Then parade was over!!!

HMMMfff

I waved goodbye to Kt, found Mrs sands and then headed to nanna's house.

I stayed there for about 1 hour before heading back home to go out with uni to look for a new fridge and freezer for downstairs.

We had a look at the goodguys and as usual, discovered that the price we wanted to pay was not going to get us the product we wanted.

We want the new fridge and freezer before Xmas so we can store our Xmas food in it .. so we will have to keep an eye out between now and then.

temporarily cut off

I seem to be temporarily cut off from my main email addresses at the moment ... am hoping this will sort itself out on its own.

So if you have sent me any emails today or yesterday I will not have received them.

You can try my live address instead I should be receiving mail there.

I had a good day yesterday sorting through Kt's stuff. I have been purchasing clear plastic storage containers to put all her Lego, little people farm animals, etc in. These containers are small enough to slip in under her bed and each one is for one type of toy so I am hoping to restore order to her stuff and avoid having to spend hours searching in various different places to find x my little pony or y farm barn/tractor etc.

I will probably do the same for some of my stuff eg bellydancing gear etc that is not being used at the moment.

Under the bed in a dust proof container sounds like the perfect solution.

I really do find it hard to get rid of things or throw things out ... especially if they cost a lot of money in the first place, or would cost a lot to replace if I change my mind and restart an activity later down the track.

I'm not too keen to sell stuff on eBay anymore because I did tend to spend a lot of time there and would easily find other things to spend my newly made money on ... and that kind of defeats the purpose of clearing your house of stuff only to bring in new stuff!!!

Yesterday while I was out shopping for storage containers it started to pour with rain!!!

My clothes got an extra rinse out on the line ... my garden got a much needed soak ... and to my delight it rained heavily on my way home from the shops too so I was able to get my car washed for free.

It still had a fine mist of dust on it from the last two dust storms, but now it looks fabulous!