I love that he gives me lots of huggles and kisses when I drop him off at childcare and doesn’t want to let me go.
Things I love about him (2)
Archives for March 2005
Another 40th down means another busy weekend
The weather here this last weekend was just sublime and I managed to squeeze in my, probably, last swim for the summer (even though it’s autumn now). Mum and dad were also over for the Clipsal 500 car race, dad went, mum didn’t so I spent some time with mum on Saturday.
When wondering what to do with mum, rather than sit around home yelling at JJ – we may as well go out so I can do it in public, I decided that a movie might be in order. The only kids movie on was The Incredibles so we had some lunch first then saw the movie. It wasn’t the best idea for a three-year-old because of the excessive use of weapons but he mostly enjoyed it and all he could recall afterwards was the killing of the big monster. Mmmm, good values to teach a kid. I enjoyed it too and I didn’t succumb to the ‘can I go to the toilet’ request because he was bored. He didn’t keep asking me, or wet his pants so I knew he was just a bit bored and wanted a change of scenery.
I had planned to take JJ to the 40th on Saturday night but got a last minute reprieve from some friends. One friend came with me while her partner looked after their kid, and mine. They even cooked me dinner beforehand so I splashed out on a nice bottle of wine that was on special to take with me to drink for dinner and so that whatever was left the babysitter could have to drown his sorrows afterwards. I felt a bit guilty about leaving him there with the two kids but I would have taken mine and they could have taken theirs so those guilt feelings didn’t stay with me for long.
The party wasn’t too bad – a bit quieter than last weeks shindig but good fun all the same. I actually talked to some men I’ve never met before. They were quite out of it so it wasn’t an in depth conversation by any means but it is good to meet different people. I even managed a bit of dancing but my knees weren’t having a great night so was conscious of those twinges. I did something I never normally do when leaving and that was that I just left without saying goodbye to anyone that wasn’t immediately surrounding me. I want to ring up the hostess now and say thanks so that will be a good excuse to get her birthday cake recipe from her. It was a black forest type cake but apparently one that doesn’t need baking and it was just delicious.
I slept at my friends place and I’m glad because I was too tired to drag JJ out of his bed, into the car, drive home, then drag him out of the car and hoist him into bed. He’s getting too heavy to do this now. The only problem with having nights away from home is the lack of the home routine in the morning. At home he wakes up then plays by himself for a while, either reading books in his bed or doing something fairly quiet. This will happen until he thinks it’s time I get up too then he’ll come and ask if it’s waking up time yet. He’s pretty good and if I say no, then he’ll go back to his room. I’ve been getting into the habit of putting a video on for him so I get an extra hour in the morning but having said this I’ve cut out some other tv viewing he’d been doing so he’s not getting overloaded.
So I was woken up early and there was no lie in really. When I let JJ out of our room I got up too as I could hear the others up so thought it would be bad form for me to lounge around in bed. They cooked me breakfast and we went to the beach for my, probably, last swim for the summer (even though it’s autumn). Ok, I’ve come full circle.
From Womadelaide to Clipsal 500
Two weeks ago in Adelaide Womadelaide was on. This weekend the Clipsal 500 (V8 supercars to the uninitiated) is on. What a contrast. We’ve gone from a bunch of hippies and world music and dance lovers to a crowd of revheads. We’ve gone from loud music to loud cars.
This car race is not my thing but I was reminded of it this morning on my way to work when four men walked out of their hotel dressed in their car gear, obviously on their way to the race.
My dad is on his way over this morning too to attend it for the four days so I will get to catch up with him and mum over the weekend. Mum doesn’t go to the race but she’ll be around.
I had a Womadelaide teaser a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to comment on it since then, but haven’t until now.
As I said in my teaser it was a feast for me. I wasn’t really that excited about it as I hadn’t purchased a ticket at all. To be honest I wasn’t that fussed if I went or not. As the time came closer a friend said she might be getting a half price pass and would I be interested in going on the Sunday as she was going away and wouldn’t be able to use it. Sure I said, count me in. I thought it wouldn’t happen until I got an email the Thursday prior, so Sunday was on.
That night another friend phoned and asked if I would like to go on the Saturday afternoon prior to babysitting her daughter as prearranged. After a bit of umming and aahhing, I decided to take her up on the offer. The only reason for my indecision was doing two days with Jaycee Junior could be a bit of a nightmare as the last time we went it wasn’t much fun for me. That was two years ago, however, so I thought I’d give it another go.
We arrived at Womadelaide on early Saturday afternoon and I immediately felt at peace. One of the things I love about is is the atmosphere. Even though there are six music stages and numerous other visual feasts it is a peaceful event. This became clear to me when on the Sunday night (I know I’m skipping ahead) I was standing next to two drunk men and I realised I hadn’t seen anyone drunk up until that time and I was bit put out. Herein is another contrast to Clipsal 500. I haven’t been to a big car race for nearly 20 years but I do remember all the drunk people.
Another great thing about Womadelaide is the Kidzone. Well it’s a good and bad thing. I had trouble escaping the Kidzone because Jaycee Junior (JJ) wanted to keep going on the bouncy castle. It was frustrating at first because when it was his turn (we had to queue) he was too shy to get on there and by the time he finally ventured onto the bouncy castle it was time to get off and of course he wanted to get on again.
As well as bouncy castles, there was the nylon zoo with a huge inflatable animal (a frog on Saturday and a turtle on Sunday). Every hour the kids go into the nylon zoo area, get dressed up in nylon animal outfits and do a little parade around the Womad grounds (the beautiful Botanic Park). After about 10-15 minutes of parade they come back and enter the huge inflatable animal where a fabulous storyteller tells them a story about a doo-doo bird or Harrumbi and others.
In the Kidzone there’s also so much more – The Amazing Drumming Monkeys, Korean drummers on Sunday, other workshops no doubt I missed, craft stuff. You could spend all your time in the Kidzone but there’s so much else to see and it requires really great negotiation skills and a bit of whining reminiscent of Kim saying ‘It’s my turn now’ in Kath and Kim. I’ll have to remember when I go for my next job interview and they ask me about my negotiation skills, not only will I be able to cite work examples, but negotiating with my son as well.
I did manage to get beyond the Kidzone but will save that for next time. In the meantime see my photos of Womadelaide at Flickr.
Read Womadelaide 2005 (part 2)
Things I love about him (1)
When he’s sleeping he makes little sighing sounds that are just so cute. Sometimes I just sit there and watch him, then I can’t resist kissing him as it makes him do the cute little noises even more.
I am an English genius
I’ve just completed the commonly confused words test and the results told me that I am an English genius. Here are the exact words from my test results:
English Genius
You scored 93% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 77% Expert!You did so extremely well, even I can’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!
Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!
For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.
So needless to say, I’m a bit chuffed about this.
Ever vigilant – well trying anyway
Last night I got home and organised dinner for Jaycee Junior and organised my lunch for today. I felt like watching a daily quota of soap opera so we sat down to watch Neighbours together then I ran a bath for my son.
I don’t sit with him while he’s bathing anymore as I don’t venture far from the bathroom so I figure if he’s yelling, talking and splashing then he’s not drowning in the shallow bath I run for him. I sat down with a glass of wine and watched my second installment of soap for the evening (if you don’t count Desperate Housewives as that’s on when he’s well and truly in bed) and towards the end of it – Home and Away – I heard this really funny noise.
It was enough to make me mute the television then throw the remote on the floor once I realised it was a choking sound and sprint the short distance to the bathroom, cause remember I can hear clearly what’s going on in there.
It freaked me out somewhat that this noise that I hadn’t ever heard before was coming from the bathroom where my son was having a bath and I thought he was drowning. As I got to the bathroom he was getting out of the bath saying ‘I’ve been sick’ and sure enough there was some vomit in the bath.
All I can figure out is that he swallowed some water which made him sick. He assured me that he didn’t need to go to bed with a bucket right next to him just in case and he was fine after the initial shock of being sick in the bath.
Busy social life but….
I went to a friend’s 40th on Saturday night. I had a great time. I drank far too much of too many different varieties (wine, beer, Cosmopolitan, Slippery Nipples, Tequila). Consequently I felt really quite awful yesterday and really tired. I was in a very social mood on Saturday night. Some occasions I go to I talk when I have to but I find it hard to initiate conversation and to keep conversations going unless I’m talking to someone who can.
The planets must have been aligned for me on Saturday night though, as I was on fire. I had interesting stories to tell about what I’d been up to recently and I made a real effort to get around to lots of people to catch up.
But while I’ve got invites galore on my fridge to the next 40th (three to be exact, and that’s just for the next month) most of these parties will have my friends there and not many new people, aka eligible single men, for me to meet. It’s recycled people at the same events over and over. And because I go to these, I organise babysitting for them and that’s that babysitting favour or payment done for a little while so going to the pub to see a band is a hard thing to organise when babysitting is required.
My friend was talking to a bloke on Saturday night and just after they started talking his girlfriend came over to claim her fella, or spray on him to claim her territory as my friend described it. My friend just gave up talking to him as she couldn’t be bothered with the jealous girlfriend or wife. This could have been a lost opportunity for my friend to make a new friend and maybe meet others through him.
Come on girlfriends and wives. Not all of us single women are looking for your boyfriend or husband. Do you not want to expand your social network too, or now that you have a relationship, you’re so insecure in that relationship that your partner cannot under any circumstances talk to a female that you don’t know personally.
So back to the recycled people that will be at the next 40ths that I go to, hopefully I’m wrong. Next week I think there will be some different people and while I have to take Jaycee Junior with me, I can sneak him out into the car if I’m trying to impress some bloke. Only joking. I’m a package deal. If you don’t like dogs and kids then don’t bother knocking on my door.
The weekend after that is my ex-boyfriend’s 40th and who knows who’s in his social network now that I’m not organising a lot of it.
By the time my 40th comes around I think I’ll be ready for a long holiday and won’t bother with a big party.
So recovery yesterday involved Shrek 2, chocolate, iced coffee, hot chips, lying down a lot and drinking lots of water.
