Saturday, April 23, 2011

Gumboots

It's not often that you wait for a rainy day when you have a toddler.

Usually rain means long mornings inside trying to come up with another entertaining craft idea or letting the linen cupboard contents be turned into a tent city.

And since we don't live in the tropics anymore, I can't just turf a naked Peanut outside regardless and consider it an extra, warm shower.

After a week of stuck-insided-ness I went out and bought her a pair of gumboots, and promised as soon as the rain eased up she could go and puddle jump. The rain stopped before breakfast one day so here she is, outside, on a freezing morning, blissfully happy in her gumboots and pyjamas.



Jump jump jump!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Chocolate Cake

I was going to write words...


...but these photos pretty much speak for themselves.


Om nom nom nom

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

It is a sad fact of our chosen lifestyle that we move often. And this means that we leave friends behind FAR too often.

But (Hooray!) my Best Friend in the Whole Wide World (Alleluia!) is moving from where we lived last year, to where I live this year! Squee!!

Even more exciting, she is bringing down not only Peanut's Best Little Friend in the Whole Wide World, but a brand spankin' new baby!

I can wait to see my friend. Peanut can't wait to see her little friend, and I can't WAIT to meet the baby. Hopefully when my Bug is old enough to know what a friend is, she will choose Baby as her first. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Secret pirates

The man who does our tax is a pirate.

Not a take-all-our-money pirate of industry, or a burn-extra-CDs techno pirate, but a proper, honest, craggy, eye patch wearing pirate*.

And a few days ago I took Bug and Peanut to the park, and we saw another pirate! A lovely lady had taken the tunic, tights and buckled boots look a step further, and added a low slung belt and hoop earrings.

Clearly there are many secret pirates living amongst us. If there's a club, I want to join!


*he did have some reasonable explanation about glaucoma surgery - I chose to ignore this in my desperate hope that there are, in fact, secret pirate clubs in my city...

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Toilet training

We've been toilet training here in the Accidental house.

We'd been toying with the idea for a couple of months and it was clear that Peanut was ready, but I was dragging the chain. To be honest, I just was a bit overwhelmed by the logistics of balancing toilet training a toddler with the needs of a 4 month old baby who either needs to be fed or tucked into bed seemingly every five minutes.

We had a bit of incidental success earlier in the year, but then Peanut caught the winter lurgy going around and it didn't seem fair to drag her to the bathroom when she could barely get off the couch. Poor baby!

So two weeks ago I bit the bullet and decided to stick to training for Three Whole Weeks.

Week One - Peanut doesn't get it. A trip to the loo results in a tantrum and a floor puddle two minutes later. Mr Awesome sums it up by saying "it's not really toilet training, it's more like just-not-wearing-nappies...." I am very glad we have tiled floors. We spend plenty of time outside, with good reason. I start to bribe her with stickers.

Week Two - Peanut works out what needs to go where. This means regular trips to the loo meet with success, but puddles result if I get distracted... Which I do regularly. Once again I am VERY glad we have tiled floors. Peanut gets so wiggly when she needs to go she loses her words and can't tell me. I get a real, honest to god bruise on my head from beating it against the pantry in frustration. I go out and buy more stickers. And chocolate (for me).

Day One, Week Three - I hear a flush and race to the bathroom, expecting to be missing something expensive or drain-cloggy. Instead, I find Peanut happily completing her business with a massive grin and a huge sense of accomplishment. This feat is repeated twice more the following day. I cover her in stickers and give her my chocolate.

She did it! She's trained! Well done Peanut! Have a sticker...

Monday, April 18, 2011

A new dress

I'm in desperate need of a new dress. We've moved from the backwater tropics to "big town", and my current clothes just aren't suitable. Who would have thought that an endless array of tshirts, shorts and thongs (the foot kind!) would not be accepted attire everywhere? Never mind the nuances of the weather...

So it's time for a new dress. Unfortunately the realities of two small kids, a hungry husband and one income just don't stretch to couture. So instead I am dressing my blog! It's cheap and changeable, perfect. I hope you grow accustomed to the new look, but prepared for it to change - there is no sign of a real new dress on my horizon!