17 February 2010

Whirlwind weeks. Again.

Introducing solids to babies is a drag at first. They push food out, grab the spoon off you, fling food, grimace at new textures and flavours, take ages to eat a tablespoon of mush. That, and until they're eating well and they have less frequent milk feeds, you seem to be feeding them constantly. And cleaning up constantly. And washing bibs and clothes constantly. This can leave little time for anything else, some days.

And this term* E-chan is doing 2 classes - Gymbaroo and swimming lessons. Every day except Sunday has something on. Poor little Astro Girl gets carted around everywhere. It's a wonder she gets any time to practice sitting, rolling, babbling, and eating. But she somehow manages it, and is progressing as she should. No teeth yet (nearly 7 months), but we expect them any day.

Last week was almost an nightmare week. It started with me being a little bit more down than usual: our neighbours, who have little twin boys, and who are great neighbours, and who I'm starting to do more with now that she is managing to get out and about and the boys are older, have put their place on the market. My first thought was "great, yet another person moving away". That, and the lack of job/career issue which bothers me from time to time. And the horrible horrible humid weather, which I hate and makes my skin break out in eczema, and my hands are a complete mess, and I have to wear cotton gloves a lot of the time to stop myself scratching. Then hubby came down with the flu (luckily it turned out to be mild). Then Astro-girl got a fever. Then I got a blocked milk duct (you don't want to know more). Throw in a few nights with less than my (infant-adjusted) average sleep due to all the above factors, and I am knackered.

My eyelids feel like they are lined with sandpaper. My brain is foggy and I keep forgetting things. I've been forgetting to do important things. Forgetting to even reply to invitations, let alone confirm I can't make it. Forgetting doctors appointments.

On the upside, my parents sent us "my" piano - after more than a decade of sitting in their living room as a glorified picture frame stand, they managed to send it over to me so we can play it. It is dreadfully out of tune, but I hope to have the fixed soon. Can't wait to play some more. I hope one, if not both of my kids will get some joy out of playing it, and that I might be able to practice enough to get to a stage where I can have fun with it - playing nursery rhymes for E-chan's kindy, playing sing along songs or christmas carols for example.

Another upside is that I'm starting to get out with friends on my own again. I managed 2 hours out last week after the kids were in bed out with my friend, and we talked for 2 hours straight. It was so nice to not be interrupted by things that needed doing, a babbling baby or a yabbering preschooler. Nice to think this sort of thing can become more frequent now, and that in probably around 6 months, my body will be mine again, mostly.

Another upside (in what must be a 4-sided pyramid?) is that we're a happy family, getting through life's "ups and downs" with plenty of laughter, chaos, yelling, cuddling, and love. All around. Each of us loves the other three. Even the youngest - Astro-girl - pouts when her daddy leaves in the morning, beams at me when I go to get her from her cot, and studies her big brother adoringly. This makes the hard weeks more than worthwhile.



* suddenly things are run in "terms". This is getting scarily close to school, if you ask me.

oh no, not another children's tv host?!

So I limit my 3y.o.'s tv to 3 shows most days - this gets exceeded when one of us is sick, or lessened if he's been naughty. I let him watch when I'm putting his baby sister to bed usually, to keep him out of the way/quiet. We mostly stick to the ABC stations, because there aren't any ads, and because there are so many kids shows on there you needn't go anywhere else, and most of them are age appropriate for him at the times he watches.
All of a sudden a few weeks ago, the ABC introduces a host for the children's shows...
http://www.abc.net.au/children/giggleandhoot/
Some twerp called Jimmy Giggle and his friend - an owl - called Hoot. Are you laughing yet? Me neither. My son's first reaction when it came on was "what's this? where's (insert favourite show title)?". Hoot has the kind of voice your creepy uncle puts on when he's pretending one of your dolls or teddies can talk. You know - that lame falsetto every male with a broken voice can do. Jimmy Giggle puts on this stupid overly-chipper pantomime voice, chats to his friend Hoot, and... what exactly?
They fill time. They apparently have kids write to them with proclamations of adoration, and send in pictures they've drawn. (I reckon they go down to the childcare centre underneath the ABC and get some of the older kids to do crayon pictures of owls then pretend a viewer sent it in - really - they're not that lovable). I can only think that the ABC is 1) trying to increase their Australian content, because there are actually minimums and many kids shows come from overseas, and 2) make up for the fact that they don't have ads and many shows are probably made to fit 30 minute time slots with ads, for example.