Archives for January 2006

Who will look after me when you die mummy?

January 18, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Last night I picked up JJ from childcare and he had a lovely concoction of a pipe cleaner and swirly ribbons all tied around a pony tail in his hair. He looked very cute (photo is below). He thought I’d be cross that he still had this hair do but I wasn’t. I was told by childcare this morning that they’d tried to take it out but he wouldn’t let them which is probably where he got the mummy might be cross idea. Apparently he topped off his hair do with dress-ups of a red tutu and high heel shoes. Mmmm.

We went for a swim in my sister’s pool after work (still with the hair do in place) and then went home to have dinner. While he was eating his dinner he suddenly asked me what would happen to him when I die. Not if I die, when I die. I told him I don’t plan on popping my clogs any time soon and that my mum and dad are still around and look how old I am, so I should be around for some time yet. He was sitting at the dinner table getting quite upset that there would be nobody to look after him when I go.

I told him that I’d taken care of that. If, god forbid, something does happen to me that he would go to my sister and she would look after him. He said he wanted to go to Joshua’s (a friend round the corner whose mum does family day care that I pay for). He still didn’t quite get that he would not be left alone if something does happen to me. I think he’s got visions of being stuck in the house by himself with no adult around and that’s not a good thing for him at the moment.

He soon got over my impending death and got ready for bed. I had to draw the Little Red Riding Hood story on the Megasketcher while telling him the story. I told him that I can only do stick figures but he’s happy with that so I drew Little Red Riding Hood as I told the story with some help from him.

He went to bed quite content, still with hair do in place. I managed to take it all out this morning before he went to childcare.

Too old? I don’t think so

January 16, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

I went to a great party last Saturday night. It was just down the road and while there were some people there I knew, there were also some new faces. I talked to quite a few people I’d never met before which I find easy sometimes and other times I really struggle with it. Saturday night the conversation flowed freely.

Three of the men I talked to were all from interstate or overseas, but there’s one I’d like to follow up if he doesn’t. I felt a connection with him but that remains to be seen.

Anyway, towards the end of the night a very drunk man (not one of three) started talking to me and he must have asked what I did for a living. I told him. My age also came up, and I told him that too (truthfully). He went on to say that he couldn’t believe that I do the work I do (web-related) at the age I’m at (39).

I felt like punching him. Who says that 20-something’s have the monopoly on newish technology (he thought I only looked 29 which didn’t redeem him). He’s obviously not living in the real world.

He also wanted my card and I didn’t have one to give him, although why I would have wanted to I have no idea. I said go and get a pen and paper and I’ll write down my number for you, not forward thinking about this at all as I had no intention of ever talking to him again. He thought I should go and write down my number and I told him if he wanted it he would organise it. He obviously didn’t really want my details as he never bothered. Remember he was quite drunk.

I found out the next day that my friend got stuck with him while he told her all about his wife leaving him. No surprises there.

Just as well it was a good party. The memory of it is helping me get through today after four hours sleep Saturday night and not much more last night either.

What’s happening this year?

January 13, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

When a new year begins it’s hard not to think about what the year may hold for you. I haven’t got any specific goals this year but there’s a couple of fairly significant events happening in this household this year.

First thing is that JJ will start school. It will be a huge change for both of us I imagine. Since he was nearly eight months old I’ve dragged him off to childcare for three then four days a week while I went to work. He’s enjoyed it and he’s made some good friends there both with the kids and with the staff. Childcare doesn’t close for school holidays so I’ve never had to worry about additional childcare during the holidays.

Once he goes to school I will. Not only are there school holidays but there are apparently pupil free days now. I gather this is for the school staff to have staff development days, something that’s come in since I went to school. There is also the after school care to organise. It will be a whole different ballgame and one that will take a bit of adjusting I imagine.

I think once he settles into school he will love and it and will embrace all that this learning will offer him. I think it will be harder for me those first few weeks. I’ll be the mum at the school gate balling my eyes out instead of the kid. JJ usually adjusts very easily to different situations and loves meeting and talking to new people.

When we were on Hindmarsh Island recently there was a group of lads in their early twenties next door after a day of being out in the boat skiing etc. JJ yelled out hallo to them and had a big conversation with them which led him to asking them to come over to our place because we were having a barbeque. I think I’ll have to start using him to meet men as he can break the ice and then I can try and ‘pick up’ where he leaves off.

The other fairly significant event happening in our household is my 40th birthday. I guess it’s a milestone in a person’s life only because people usually have a party to celebrate this birthday. Whenever it comes up in conversation I get asked what I’m going to do for my 40th.

I said to my mum recently that I’d like to go away for a while during this time, could she have JJ? She never answered but I’ve planted the seed. If I don’t go away then I’ll probably have some sort of party which I always find stressful hosting myself. I have some time to think about it though and I guess I will come up with something.

With these two events happening to us this year I don’t have to worry about what I’m doing with my ‘career’ and whether or not I should re-mortgage my house to go and do some postgraduate study.

By the sea one day, by the river the next

January 10, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

I’m making up for lost holiday time this last two weeks as I’ve just come back from my third short trip away. This time we just spent a couple of nights on Hindmarsh Island overlooking the River Murray. It actually turned out quite well. I was a bit unsure because JJ was going to have a four-year-old to hang out with for that time.

They sure had their issues and it felt like we told them off a hell of a lot. For a start because we were by the river we made a very strict rule that they weren’t allowed down there without an adult and they were told off severely if they ventured down there alone. This telling off only happened twice I think – not too bad. They also wanted to have everything the same. If one had Weetbix for breakfast the other one had to. If an adult asked for something they both had to carry it.

It’s quite hard at the moment being a parent of a four-year-old. He’s testing me at every turn and I’m having to be quite tough I feel. If I gave into everything that he wants he would turn into a spoilt brat but I fully understand why some people do give in either some of the time or all of the time.

It’s not all testing times though. Sometimes he will ask how he can help, particularly when I’m cooking. He loves food and he loves the growing of food (we have herbs and tomatoes growing) and he loves the preparation of food. I hope this love continues and when he gets bigger he can start cooking for me. He also loves watching cooking shows and will devour Jamie Oliver’s cooking shows and say that we should cook that mum.

I find this parenthood thing goes in stages. There will be a really really tough stage when you wonder why the hell you’re doing it, then they will come through this stage and generally behave and act really well until the next testing stage. Having said that though, even during the tough stages there are bright sunshine moments when he says or does something really funny.

Welcome to the new year

January 5, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

I’m back in Adelaide and it’s almost back to the daily grind. I’ve still got another week and a bit till I go into work.

We went away camping on the 29th of last year. It sounds so long ago but is only a week ago. It was quite a hot day and I’m glad I’d had a trial pack of all our camping belongings in my smallish family car as I still had trouble the morning we left. Of course I took far too much stuff and the double foam mattress was completely over the top but I had nothing else that we could both sleep on except an air mattress that air escapes from and I didn’t want to deal with that.

This packing was just the beginning of all the packing and unpacking I did until I did the last unpack when we got home. The campsite was in a fairly isolated location and not accessible with a two-wheel drive. When I arrived in Maitland I moved everything to my sister’s partner’s car as his car is a bit more sturdy than mine. We drove as far as we could then all my stuff had to be moved into a four wheel drive to be taken to the campsite. All this happened in reverse once camping was finished.

Overall the camping thing was pretty good. There were bad points. The amount of flies was one. They were constant. As soon as the sun came up the flies were there and they hung around. I was the only person sensible enough to take a netting to put on my hat to keep them away from my face and I’m glad I did. The only respite from the flies during the day was to go out into the water. Flies mustn’t like water. It was so bad on my second day that we took chairs out into the water to keep away from the flies and to keep cool.

Another camping bad point for me was that I had a headache both evenings. I think it was a combination of the sun, wearing sunglasses that pinch at the sides and wearing a hat.

There were definitely good points. The campsite location was a winner. We hung out on the beach and only had a small walk up a sandhill to the sleeping area and we hardly saw any other people. Sitting around with good friends talking was lovely. Walking out into the sea which was very shallow for a long way so it was warm and it was excellent for the kids. We couldn’t have picked a better spot for that reason alone especially as nearly all the kids there were under six years old. Sleeping by the beach listening to the waves come in and not hearing any traffic noises.

The two days I spent there went very quickly. We ate, we drank, we dealt with minor fights between our children, we did some driving along the beach.

As I had the big six-man tent with only two people sleeping in it I had two guests both nights. The first night were the adolescent children of my friends. They were fine, no problems at all. The next night one of them slept on the beach with his parents so it was just going to be one guest until just after I’d gone to bed with my headache and just as I was dozing off to sleep, my eight-year-old nephew who’d set up his tent on an uncomfortable spot, stood outside my tent calling my name and asking if he could sleep with us. Aw shit I thought as I’d just been about to go to sleep, but out loud I told him, sure, get your stuff and come in. He grabbed his rollup mattress and came in and laid down (after trying to muscle in on our comfortable foam double mattress) and I realised that he had no bedding and his top was off. I told him to go and get some clothes on and then I gave him my coat to use as a blanket. I found out the next day he did have a swag and I still don’t know why he didn’t grab it.

At 5.30am the next morning a big wind started which blew in the other side of my dome tent so that it completely obscured my two guests. I called out to them to make sure they were okay and sat up to try and hold up the tent so they didn’t suffocate. The wind eventually died down but the whole campsite was awake at this point and JJ decided that it was breakfast time and yelled out to this effect until I finally got it into him that it was too early for breakfast just yet.

We had planned to camp on new year’s eve also but as there was a change that included rain that was going to come through we decided to decamp and move back into housing. It was a good choice as it started raining sometime early on new year’s day.

New Year’s Eve was excellent. Regardless of the weather it was a good choice to have some creature comforts like a shower and not have a headache. We had some good food – actually the adults didn’t eat a proper dinner until it was nearly midnight as we’d nibbled on this and that to tide us over and line our stomachs.

The next day the rain hardly stopped. I had to go down the street to get some milk and on my way noticed two emergency services vehicles going out of the town towards Minlaton. There’s usually only one reason for this if there’s not a fire, and that’s a car accident. About half an hour later we heard a helicopter and this meant that was almost definitely a bad car accident as the helicopter comes over to take people back to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

When this happens the helicopter lands on the oval opposite the hospital and the oval also happens to be opposite my friends house so we took the kids over to see the helicopter. Another one landed about twenty minutes later so we figured it was a pretty bad accident. It turned out that two cars smashed head on and killed two people in each car and injured the other two people in each car (eight people in total in the cars). It was exciting to see the helicopters for the kids but us adults were saddened to know why they were there.

I know it sounds trite, but life goes on for the rest of us. My first day back at home yesterday was quite busy. I had to go into work for an hour, then went to my friend’s place as her dog was put down because of his advanced leukemia. We had a couple of drinks in his memory. Today I’ve trimmed my hedges and broken my friend’s hedge trimmer so I have to replace or fix it. Ah the mundaneness!

« Previous Page