Scales

Rowdy can't pronounce L's. Possibly because he learnt to speak with a dummy in his mouth. Bad mother. Bad. So now I'm working with him to say his L's properly. We've been doing different words and last night I did some 'la' singing with him. We sang the scales, you know, la la la la la, do re mi re do (or whatever it is, hey I'm not a music teacher, it's just up the scale and then down).

So here's how it went (and you'll have to use your imagination about the tone of the notes):

Me: Sing la la la la la
Rowdy: la la la la la
Me: Sing le le le le le
Rowdy: le le le le le
Me: Sing lu lu lu lu lu
Rowdy: lu lu lu lu lu
Me: Sing lo lo lo lo lo
Rowdy: yoghurt yoghurt yoghurt

at which point we both collapsed in fits of giggles.

Product Testing

Last Friday night I picked up some ice cream on the way to a girlfriend's for dinner. Sara Lee Rocky Road Overload. It. Was. Divine.

'Rocky Road Overload; luscious chocolate ice cream overloaded with marshmallows, chocolate coated peanuts and delicious raspberry swirls.'

Crash loved it too (not that I wanted to share). I finished off the tub the other night, on the lounge, tub in one hand, spoon in the other, and a devil's glint in my eye. Crash then informed me the next day that 'Mum, we need to buy more rock and roll ice cream'. Yes, yes we do.

Now I discover there are two other 'Indulgence' flavours.

Chocolate Ecstasy; chunky white and dark chocolate pieces packed in the richest, creamiest chocolate ice cream.

KAHLUA ® Mudslide; coffee liqueur blended through lusciously creamy ice cream and swirled with a mudslide of thick chocolate fudge.

Me thinks I shall get cracking to the supermarket and test these out. Mr Chic only likes vanilla ice cream, which is a shame, because I'll be forced to eat them all myself. Except this time I will hide them in the freezer behind the peas or something so that Crash doesn't spy it!!

Weird Bedroom Obsessions

See, now here you were, all excited, anticipating something amazing and/or bizarre thing I like to do in the bedroom. Sorry to disappoint. That's a whole other series of posts but this is not about me. Oh no. Not at all. This is Rowdy tonight. He insisted. Who was I to rain on his parade and suggest that gardening gloves really aren't for the bedroom (well unless you're into Cute Gardeners and/or a bit of role playing). I digress. Check out the little man.

Cold Climate Superman

Rowdy has recently developed an obsession for a woolly winter jacket he got for his birthday from his Nanny and Grandpa. He has worn it non-stop for getting on a week now. I did manage to talk him out of wearing it to school in case one of the other kids pinched it (amazingly that worked). He even wears this thing to bed.

Last night he wanted to put on his jacket again after his bath and he was riding around the house on his bike telling us all he was Superman. He would also only answer to the name 'Superman'. We wondered why Superman would need such a woolly jacket. Obviously Superman is from a cold climate.

Crash was wearing his Spiderman outfit which he then wore to bed, and to the shops today.

This is how I found Rowdy when I went to tuck him in last night. I had to take a picture. He was fine, seriously.

I didn't leave him that way of course....

and then there's Crash in his Spiderman outfit. I caught him sucking his thumb and said to him "Spiderman doesn't suck his thumb!". He replied "oh Mum, I'm just pretending to be Spiderman".

Smell

Crash says to me this morning as I put him in the car "Mum, you smell".

I had put on a bit of perfume so asked him "Is it a good smell or a bad smell?".

He replied "A bad smell".

Yay.

Santa Claus

Me: "Crash, what are you going to ask Santa for Christmas this year?"
Crash: "A real dog of my own".
Mr Chic: "What kind of dog?"
Crash: "A staffy"
Mr Chic: "A boy dog or a girl dog?"
Crash: "A girl dog"
Me: "What are you going to call her?"
Crash: "Ummmmmmm Puppy Dog"
Me: "Well it's a girl dog, so she needs a girls name"
Mr Chic: "What about Princess?"
Crash: "No, I'll call her Julie".

Great. Thanks Crash.

Me: "Rowdy, what are you going to ask Santa for?"
Rowdy: "Ummmmm a thingameejig toy"
Me after looking at Mr Chic blankly: "Right. You might have to show us what you mean there. What else?"
Rowdy: "Ummmmm some ice-cream!!"

Fabulous.

Secret Stash

Last week I asked the boys what would they like for dinner, as it was my turn to cook. Their options were: baked beans on toast, eggs on toast or cheese on toast (as if you needed proof that I wasn't Julie from Masterchef). Crash selected baked beans on toast so I got out 2 tins from the cupboard. He looked at the tins. "OH! I've got one of those!". Ummmmmm ok, right. He then disappears for a while, returning with a tin of baked beans. "Ummmmmm where did you get that from?" "From the 3rd cupboard in the loungeroom". Oh great, the buffet cupboard with all my delicate breakable serving platters and the like.

Right. "Crash, please can you bring me anything else you've got stashed away in that cupboard?". He returns with his arms full of stuff. Curry powder, tooth picks, cocoa, honey, a tin of baby corn. Yup. Go on Ready Steady Cook - make a meal out of that why don't you!

I'm presuming he was playing 'shops' with Rowdy and this was just his 'closing stock' as such. Or perhaps he was just putting away a few key things to feed him and his brother for when his mother loses the plot in the near future.

Aussie Pride

This is the newly tidied up workspace of mine in our study - which is now less of a tackle shop and more of an office. It looks particularly that we are very much into our "aussie pride" but in truth the flags ended up there so the boys didn't hit each other or the cat with them.

What you can't see is the 'storage corner', which I wasn't going to photograph. Or 'bookshelf' which is also overflowing. Or the 2nd wall of fishing rods. Mr Chic still occupies 2 of the walls in the study with fishing rods and that's after he moved half of them to the garage.

I do like having a little corner that is mine and partially toy-free finally.

A Good Weekend

Saturday was my 25th birthday. Ok, so perhaps 25 may not be quite accurate, how about '25 and some months'? That will do.

I woke super early as it was still pre-daylight savings and the sun was up at some ridiculous hour. I also woke up without much of a voice. Goody, a cold. Hours later the boys woke up and wandered in for cuddles and brought me presents. Thankfully, no kangaroo. I did get a metallic pink ipod shuffle, The Gossip's latest CD and some ice-cube trays (for when I buy my bottle of Baileys I've been talking about for ages).

Time for breakfast and we all had cupcakes from Cupcakes on Pitt. Yummmmmm. A few cups of coffee and phone calls from family and before I could say "more cake" Mr Chic's parents had arrived for morning tea, with, you guessed it, more cake.

My parents came for afternoon tea and then my girlfriend came over for dinner. After yet more cake and a few drinks I went to bed with a cracking headache. And a worsening cold damnit.

Sunday, Mr Chic & I decided to move the computer desk closer to the printer in the study. All that was involved was swapping two desks around. What eventuated was the entire contents of the study being removed, all the furniture being rearranged and then the contents re-packed, all before the grand-final and my birthday dinner at my sister's. More bubbly was consumed at dinner and yet more cake was had. Actually loads more bubbly all whilst trying not to cough up a lung.

Thankfully Monday was a public holiday and we all slept in until well after 9am before we dragged ourselves to the loungeroom and watched the end of Fred Claus, which then started the whole discussion between the boys and us of "how many sleeps to Christmas?" and "can we put the Christmas tree up?". Ummmm 81 sleeps and no you can't.

HotMummaNeighbour came over in the afternoon to assist me with yet another bottle of bubbly and while she was escaping her kids there was a massive thunderstorm and a blackout so she had to stay for more drinks while waiting for the weather to ease - shame about that.

Unfortunately the 'alcohol kills germs' theory hasn't quite worked and I'd ideally like to be in bed getting over this bug. BUT my weekend was good and it was a very relaxing way to end a very stressful week.

Having Cake

Tomorrow is my day. MINE. Although I know that being home will involve "No Dad, I want MUM to do it" and I will end up doing everything the boys want. Poor Mr Chic gets rejected when I'm around.

I've tried asking the boys "what has Dad got me for my birthday?" and Crash a few days ago said "You'll have to wait for 3 days Mum, it's a surprise!". Last night I thought I'd attempt to ask Rowdy but Crash interfered "No Rowdy!! It's a surprise!!". Rowdy just giggled and came out with "a kangaroo". Not entirely sure what I'll do with a kangaroo............

I know Crash is excited about my birthday soley because his birthday will then be next, he's been hanging out all year for it.

What have I planned for my special day? Well I'll tell daylight savings that it really needs to start so I don't wake up so early, that would be a good present. Then I'll have dinner with the boys and my girlfriend on Saturday and my dinner with my family on Sunday. There will much consumption of cakes and alcohol and I may even dust off the treadmill. Hey, I didn't say I'd use it, just dust it, so don't jump to conclusions.

Now if you'll excuse me I must go and put some fencing up in the back paddock so that the kangaroo can't escape.