Potty Talk

This morning my 18 month old started pulling down her pants, doing this strange dance and making this weird whiny sound. "Muuummmmyyyy" she was whining. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. So I ignored it.

Half an hour later and I'm in the shower and the same whiny "Muuuummmmyyy" comes through the door. This time the pants are off and she's almost got the nappy off. Next thing she lifts up the toilets seat. I bolt out the shower screaming "noooo!". She of course started crying. Could she want to sit on the toilet? I pop her on and voila! She wee's!

This is something I wasn't prepared for. Talking, yes. Moving to a big bed, yes. Toilet training......seriously at 18 months?? I really didn't think I'd be dealing with it for another 6-12 months. Plenty of time to read up and learn all about it. Plenty of time to stock up on training pants and buy a potty. And I thought it would be me showing her what to do, not her showing me that's she's ready.

Maybe it's because when they stop wearing nappies they're no longer babies. Miss E is the only baby I'm having so I'm trying to hold onto those baby years for as long as possible. On the one hand I'm really proud to have such an advanced child, on the other hand I'm sad that she's growing up so fast.

So tonight I'm spending time researching toilet training and potty's. Fun!

Soon she'll have her own blog!

One Hell of a Day!!!

Seriously what a day! Dropped Miss E off to childcare only to get a phone call an hour later saying she had fallen off a chair and hit her head really hard on their floor and although there was no lump, she was very tired and very unhappy. So I called the only person I could, my Mum. Thank goodness for Mums. She came into the shop immediately and took over so I could race to childcare and find a perfectly OK little girl. But since Mum was already there and I had turned up to collect Miss E, I thought I might as well take her out for the rest of the day and she can spend it with my Mum.


Before we leave it's noted she doesn't have her cardigan and it happens to be one of the coldest summers day since I don't know when (it actually snowed on the mountain today). I was informed she was eating strawberries straight out of the garden and got juice all down the front so they have it in the laundry soaking. Who the hell supervises these kids???


Anyway back to my little shop which was dead from wind, rain and cold to find Mum giving out all the wrong information to a prospective supplier of recycled children's clothing. Great! I inform Mum that Miss E has no cardigan and is cold, hasn't had a nap yet and it's way past her bedtime, and has had three helpings of lunch so no need to feed her. I ask Mum to swing past our place on the way home and pick up a bottle, nappies and cardigan so Miss E would be comfortable, fed and warm for the rest of the day. "Try to get her to bed as soon as you get home because she'll be going mental from being over tired" I say.


At 2pm the phone rings and it's Mum. "I just got Miss E off to bed now. We stopped at the supermarket on the way home because I realised I didn't have the key to your house with me, and I bought some nappies, a bottle and some size 1 winter PJ's because I thought they'd be more useful than a jumper. It's really strange but she didn't want any lunch." The nappies and PJ's were too small and the bottle was the wrong brand! By the way so you think she heard me about Miss E having 3 helpings of lunch so no need to feed her??? Aaarrrggghhh!


At 4pm I close the shop after having a whole 2 customers for the day. I call Mum on the way who informs me Miss E is up and fine. I ask her does she think she's up to getting the groceries if I take her to Aldis now and Mum replies "yes". Wrong!! She was grumpy, tired, running green snotty nose and red swollen eyes. Poor bub. I finally placate her with my wallet. She loves to pull the cards in and out of their slots.


On the way home I get McDonald's because hubby is buggered and there's no way I'm cooking after that. Miss E refuses to eat, insists on sitting on my knee watching Ra Ra the noisy lion over and over, and then refuses to put on her PJ's. Following her down the hallway she sees Daddy and makes a dash for him. She tumbles down three tiled steps before I could stop her and pierces her lip with her tooth. Bugger!!! We spend the next hour with a cold face washer, dummy, bottle, stuffed toys and Ra Ra trying to calm her down. Thank God it only took 10 minutes to actually get her to sleep.

A bit of a fat lip :-(

Tomorrow she is supposed to get her 18 month vaccination but somehow I think I'll be rescheduling. All I can say is Thank God today is over and now I'm off to bed........Goodnight!

Al Olio

It's been a gruelling couple of days at the shop. I have my summer sale on and people have been going crazy over the recycled children's clothing. Weird because it sat there for the last 4-5 months and didn't budge, now all of a sudden it's on sale and they're swarming like bee's. I don't think I could have fitted any more women in my shop this morning. Mum's with kids, there mum's tagging along watching the little ones who insist on trying to run off out the door (luckily I have a child gate locking them in).

By 11am (I open at 10am) I had met my sales target for the day. Brilliant! Now I can sit back and relax. Wrong, wrong wrong! I check my emails and 3 suppliers want me to go to viewings of Summer 2012/13 stock. What! This summer is not even over. This is something I've learnt. You buy 6 months in advance and designers design 9-12 months in advance. Lucky I'm an organiser so planning this far in advance is kind of fun. Although I've already forgotten what I bought for winter 2012.......

Hubby had an overnight installation job (he works in IT) so I feel like I've hardly seen him the last couple of days. We wave at each other in the driveway and kiss each other when we get a second. Because of the type of work he does and who he works for he often has trips away. Unfortunately we are both away one week or another for most of February and Miss E will be in a one parent household for most of the month. Great timing since she's decided to be super clingy now.

So to unwind tonight I thought I'd make myself a late supper of Spagetti Al Olio with a little chilli, relax in front of my laptop and catch up on my blog. I love cooking. There's something so relaxing and cathartic about creating something special to sit and enjoy at the end of a hectic day. Well I put way too much chilli in the spagetti and now my mouth in on fire! All I can do is laugh.

Life is busy and throws us challenges every day. It's how we handle them that matters.  How do you unwind?

Frustration

Anyone who's ever had their own business knows the frustration of having little to no money for the first 12 months. They say in retail that if you can't make it work within the first 2 years, you should spend the third selling off your assets and getting out.

I'm still in my first and it's a trying business. My husband is the sole supporter of the household financially and every week we add up the bills, and every week there's little to nothing left over. Every week I promise him things will get better but I see his frustration building.

I have to remind myself why I'm doing this. I want to be able to support myself and my family so that if anything happens, if hubby looses his job or gets sick, I can look after us. I want to have something for our baby's future. I want her to go to a good school and to be able to afford ballet lessons and piano lessons. All of these things cost a bundle so we need two incomes.

My reason for working my ass of for little financial reward....

I also want to enjoy what I do and to make something that I'm proud of. I want to stand back and say "look at what I achieved".

I'm determined to succeed with my little shop. My husband may have to learn some patience, but that's OK, he'll be proud of my end result.

Webisphere

Why do teenagers persist in hitting my light box sign out the front of my shop? Is it because they can reach it when they jump high enough? Is it because it's so boring walking down the street with a bunch of hormonal, pimple faced friends and that's the only exciting thing they can think of to do? It drives me crazy! I'm just waiting for it to explode one day and fall all over their little heads.....wishful thinking.....

This is the front of my little shop Bearly Worn in Albury

Speaking of the shop, I spent about two hours yesterday conversing with my favourite web geek Fiona who gave me loads of tips and tricks to organically get my website on the first page of the Google searches.

Two days ago I wrote down some goals for 2012 and one of them was to get at least one online sale per day. Children's clothing on-line is incredibly competitive so it's great to find out exactly how Google works and how to get my website up there without paying Google $500 a month for AdWords.

Basically it's a popularity contest and the more my site is written about and linked to the better. So now I'm trawling for kids fashion reviews and blogs that I can leave comments on and link to my site to get it up there. I've also got myself a gravatar (globally recognised avatar) so that every time I do make a comment my picture comes up.

So my next step is modernising my logo and home page. I'm starting with my Bear. It's not that there's anything wrong with the little fella but he's just a bit drab and watercolor-like. Maybe old-fashioned is more the point. I inherited him when I bought the shop and if the rest of the place can have a face lift, so can he! So, I'm calling on my friend Mrs Doodlebug who does amazing work and hopefully she can come up with something for me. God I haven't even asked her what it'll cost me yet!

Step 3 is to get my web geek Fiona  to update my artwork and logo on-line. I've decided to change around some of the wording so that it says New and Recycled Children's Clothing instead of the other way around.

Which brings me back to my damn light box.....what to do with that? Do I bother being charged a fortune to change it or will people not really notice it or care? Is it more important to update what's on-line and my business cards etc? Or should I be a perfectionist and update all of it?

At the end of the day it all comes down to dollars and cents so I guess I'll prioritise as usual and start with "A" and move my way down the list.

Best case scenario the ratbag teens hit it and it breaks and the insurance company pays for it........but that is wishful thinking!

Goal Setting

Today is all about goal setting. I'm reading lots of "I'm not doing New Years resolutions" on a lot of blogs at the moment and it got me thinking. In my head I know what I want to achieve this year but I've never publicly written it down and ticked off what I've done.

I have some personal goals (the usual) and some business goals I want to achieve so I'm writing them down and I'm going to tick them off as I achieve them all.

Here's my personal list:

1. Loose 10kg (I think I start all lists like this!)
2. Sort out my superannuation
3. Pay off credit card
4. Change Miss E from disposable to cloth nappies (she's incredibly tall and needs a narrow width so it's actually harder than it sounds)
5. Finish the back garden beds
6. Go on a holiday!

Here's my business list:

1. Finish my 2012 Business Plan
2. Finally conquer the paperwork and bookwork mountain
3. Get one on-line sale a day
4. Fix website so it's "prettier" and easier to use
5. Add two new brands into the "New" section of the shop
6. Sort out a new advertising budget and advertising that is consistent and targets the audience I want
7. Become the Number 1 destination in Albury Wodonga region to buy kids clothes!

I really love the idea of sitting back at the end of the month, quarter or year and saying "Wow! Look what I did!". My list will probably grow and evolve over the course of the year and that's OK. As long as I have goals to achieve I'm moving forward rather than backward.

Heatwave!

Just as I plant the new vegie patch we get a heatwave! By heatwave I mean 3-4 days of 35'C plus.

Today it hit the incredible 40'C and it was my first day back at work. No problem I thought, Miss E will be in childcare all day and I'll be at the shop. Wrong! Turns out the airconditioning at the shop isn't so great in 40'C. So sweltering away I managed to change the old Christmas window to a SALE! window, update the website and still met my sales  target by 12pm. Not too bad although I was very glad when 4pm came and I could close the doors.

Picking up Miss E and I notice that she's as cool as a cucumber but with major cabin fever. She's been stuck inside all day so the minute we get outside she goes mental and runs straight into the carpark. Thank God there were no cars!

Too hot to cook and too hot to eat. Is it acceptable to just eat ice-cream for dinner?

Managed to get Miss E off to bed however not without a bottle of milk (we're trying to wean her and so far we're hopeless at it).

Out to water the garden and it seems 3 sunflowers and some peas are so wilted I doubt they'll bounce back. I strangely feel sorry for them.

Back into the airconditioning and that lands me here....on my laptop.....blogging away while I watch Nigella's Kitchen and thinking of yummy dishes to create.