The Turnaround

OK so I've been pretty irate with hubby lately. I mean, he's been off on a "work conference" at some five star luxury resort while I've been dealing with the toddler from hell who doesn't let me sleep. However today I have to say I'm pretty impressed with him.

Yesterday was Valentines Day and I expected maybe a single rose or a half arsed "Happy Valentines Day" when he dragged himself in the door at 9pm. Instead I received these at 10am at the shop.....

Not bad for a man who says he's not romantic!

Tonight I went for a walk for the first time in weeks thanks to hubby putting Miss E to bed. He texted me half an hour after I left saying she had fallen asleep and enjoy my walk. How the hell did he do that???? I have been trying to get her to sleep before 9pm almost every night for three weeks now.

Lastly he booked and paid for our tickets to Ireland so we're now definitely going. I'm so excited! We got our passport photo's done on the weekend and that was almost as difficult as getting Miss E to sleep at night. She didn't even want the lollies offered to her (secretly thinking 'good girl') as bribery to sit on the stool. In the end the photo was taken while I was holding her and she is actually looking over my shoulder at hubby. You would never know though would you.

That's it for me tonight. I'm exhausted and need sleep......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

How Was Your Day Dear?

I'm single parenting at the moment as hubby is on "a business" trip. This business trip happens to be in Coffs Harbour in a 5 star luxury resort and his room, with it's king size bed and spa, overlooks the ocean. He tells me tonight that he spent a hard morning brainstorming in an IT workshop, then spent the afternoon in the pool and got sunburnt.

I on the other hand was woken at 6am by our screaming toddler, who by the way didn't go to bed until 10pm last night! My morning shower was taken whilst Miss E had her face pressed up against it crying "Daddy" and staring at me like I could magically produce him. After getting us both dressed and breakfast, cleaning the house, doing the dishes and putting on a load of washing I had to answer a phone call from hubby just as I was about to race out the door. Apparently it's not nice to just hang up on someone who tells you they just woke up (it was 8:30am) and what a glorious sleep he had. Really? Do I GAF???

Dropping Miss E off at daycare I politely ask if they can please make sure she wakes up at 1:30pm as she hasn't been going to sleep at night and I want to tire her out so she'll go straight to bed tonight. This is followed by a lecture from the childcare worker advising me I enable her too much by giving her too many cuddles and I should just let her cry it out. She tells me they have no trouble getting her to sleep during the day. Well that's just great!

I get to work and my back room looks like a nuclear stock explosion. There is literally no room to move and so after spending the first hour rearranging I finally am able to make my way to the kitchen where I find a mouse has accidentally got caught in the trap my Dad set behind the fridge 6 months ago. I feel sorry for him. I also feel disgusted and dry retch as I pick up the trap and throw the entire thing in the bin. I'll just buy a new one, it's too much to ask me to get the thing out of there!

I go to put pictures of my new Gaia Organic Cotton Winter 2012 collection on my website and realise that my computer just wiped the shop copy of the stock images. Aaaarrrggghhh!!! Another job I'm going to have to do at home on the trusty Toshiba.

Gaia Organic Cotton Winter 2012 Preview

 After this discovery I decided to have a go at doing a new window for the shop. Originally I wanted to do a Red and White theme for Valentines Day, but my new Eternal Creation range hasn't arrived yet and so I'm having to make do with Pink and Blue. I think it still turned out pretty good.

 Anyway, picked up Miss E from childcare and found they had let her sleep for over two hours today so she was not tired at all. She also had a big scratch on her face which they couldn't tell me how it happened. This is not the first time I've had these kind of issues, however luckily we are on the waiting list for our preferred childcare centre in central Albury and hopefully soon we'll have a great place where I don't have to worry.

Tonight it took until 9pm to get Miss E off to sleep. We raced around the back yard when we got home, made dinner, had a bath, watered the garden, read books and played until she was exhausted at 7pm. Then as soon as she lied down and I turned out the light the crying game started. I ignored, painted some new shop fittings, did another load of washing, took out the garbage, checked Facebook, until I heard the whiny cry change to a distressing scream so I raced back in to find her soaked in sweat and she had vomited all down the front of her PJ's.

I cleaned her up, gave her some warm milk, cuddles and kissed her and told her it would be OK, put her back in bed and held her hand until she finally drifted off to sleep.

Then hubby called........

Seriously I couldn't give a toss how wonderful your damn resort is and how you plan to take me there one day!

Apparently it's rude to hang up on someone when there telling you how wonderful their life is when your day has been so shitty.....

How was your day?

The Other Irishman

I think the movie PS I Love You has ruined it for all Irishmen. I should know. I'm married to one!

Now when I say ruined it here's what I mean. You've watched the movie right? Gerard Butler....mmmmm......that accent and that cheeky smile.........ooooooooohhhhhhhhh.

When I tell women my husband is Irish they croon "Oh I love Gerard Butler in that movie" or "he could read the phone book to me all day". Well I've got news for you.

1. Gerard Butler is not Irish

2. Not all Irishmen have that cute 'hey diddly dee' accent, some are actually from the North and their accents are vastly different (but mostly still cute although hardly represented in the movies)

3. My husband downright refuses to put on suspenders and shamrock printed boxers and give me a strip tease



In saying all that I will agree that most men I've met from Ireland have a wicked sense of humour, a certain amount of charm, and no matter how repugnant they might be they all have gorgeous eyes.

My Irishman is.....challenging. He makes me laugh, he infuriates me, he turns me on, he turns me off (usually when he farts in bed), he keeps me guessing and I love him. I knew I would love him the moment we met. He shook my hand and something instant happened. Something burned inside me that made me want to be with him every moment I could spare.

It's coming up to Valentines Day but we're on a budget to save for our big trip to Ireland in April. So here's my challenge. Get my husband (who will be returning from a long business trip that night) a Valentines present that I have either made or bought cheaply and keep in mind that I want it to rock his world.

Any ideas??

Buggered

Tonight I would love to write and interesting, uplifting and inspiring post but honestly....I'm buggered!

5 nights of  Miss E not sleeping, me getting up driving around at 3am to get here settled only to have her wake as I pull up in the driveway, then having to get up and run my business and be happy to see customers. It's all I can do to stop the tears rolling down my face right now.

I'm fortunate to have someone fantastic working for me. She's turned into a friend as well as an employee and without her this week I'd be lost (thank you JT). She's taken care of all the incoming stock, phone orders and even took some awesome photo's of shop.

These are Bungy Buddie by Squiggle Pop

We took Miss E to the ENT this morning and we were told that all was OK, she just has an ear infection that's taking a little longer than normal to clear up and she was prescribed ear drops (which hubby forgot to get on his way home grrrr!) which will, according to the doctor, be like a nuclear bomb on the infection and make it all better.

For now I am off to bed and going to get as much rest as possible before the next wave of crying and wrestling over getting painkillers into Miss E starts. I keep reminding myself.......tomorrow is a new day.

The Flip Side

What a weekend. I think I could write 10 posts with the amount of stuff that happened. But I guess I'll just write about the most significant.

My baby girl has a severe ear infection, even after getting grommets put in last November. It's heartbreaking watching her wreath in pain and I can't even brush her hair on that side of her head as it's so sore. Luckily we're off to the ENT specialist tomorrow and hopefully we can get it sorted.

A very sad little girl :-(

We've just spent the majority of the weekend in and out of doctors and the emergency department at the hospital. I am seriously lacking in sleep and as I write this I am praying she stays asleep tonight as I've just spent the last hour driving her around trying to settle her.

On the upside we received some very exciting news. We are going to Ireland in April! My husband is Irish and has been here for 3 1/2 years and is dying to get back and see his family. He's from the Northern part of Ireland and it's probably also the coldest part. 

My head is racing already. It's at least a 30 hour trip to get there and we have a toddler!

During this horrific weekend with the ear infection I've learnt that Nurofen makes Miss E drunk. She races around like a maniac falling over and giggling until eventually it all ends in tears and I'm left driving her around to get her settled. I can only imagine what Phenergen would do to her which is what hubby thinks we should stock up on before we go.

Anyway, I guess I've got lots of planning to do (which I secretly love) deciding what clothes to pack, do we take a stroller or buy one there, what do I do with the shop, etc. etc. etc. In the meantime first things first, get my baby's ears fixed!

Goodnight x

My Sensitive Soul

I've just read a post by Mrs Woog about her son and his feelings about his new class and it's made me think about my own little miss.

I was a very independent child who could always walk into a room full of strangers and just start talking away about whatever was going on in my head at the time. It got me in trouble on more than one occasion.

My little Miss E on the other hand is very different to that. She is clingy and sensitive and doesn't like disruption to her routine. She gets very attached to her carers at childcare and if a new person comes in she freaks out.

Last weekend we went to a birthday party. It was only the second one we've been too since I lost my mothers group when we moved to Albury. The party was for the three year old child of a friend of mine so when we arrived there were about 30 kids running around in the play centre. Miss E totally lost it. She clung to me like glue, arms and legs wrapped tightly around me and any attempt at putting her down resounded with "no, no, no!"

Luckily we were late and they were up to cutting the cake so while all the kids went into the food room to sing happy birthday, Miss E and I had the bouncy castle all to ourselves. At first she just stood on it looking scared while I made a complete fool of myself leaning onto it (because the age limit is 8) and saying "Oooohhh, aaaahhhh, c'mon jump!" and holding her hands attempting to get her to jump. After a couple of minutes she moved, then tried to jump, then giggled, jumped again and before you knew it she was having a great time.

The other kids came out of the food room one by one after about half an hour so by then we had moved to the slippery slide and she was pretty calm. About 10 minutes before the party ended Miss E decided it was safe to play with the other kids.

I know now that I should get to a party early so Miss E has time to gradually get used to the kids arriving and is not overwhelmed by huge crowds. I also know I may have to ease her into playing with others and be aware when things might change to help her adjust.

Parenting is definitely challenging. I have very little patience and Miss E challenges that every day. Maybe that's why we were put together. She teaches me to be patient and I teach her confidence.

By the way Mrs Woog from Woogsworld is up for a Bloggie. I think she's awesome and if you agree you should definitely vote for her at http://2012.bloggi.es/

In The Fast Lane

My little girl is growing up too fast! A couple of weeks ago she decided it was time for toilet training. She didn't bother consulting me, just pulled her pants down, sat on the toilet and did a wee.

Tonight at 19 months Miss E decided she wanted to put her pyjamas on herself. If I tried to help she would push me away and wine "nooooo!" So I let her be and she proceeded to put on her pyjama's without taking off her childcare clothes and putting the shorts on her head and one arm through the neck of the top. "Tada!" she squealed and clapped her hands excitedly. I was very proud of her.

Working whilst having a toddler is emotionally hard. I want to catch every first time, every moment and I worry constantly that I'm missing the most important things in her life. I'm not of course and I know I have to work to support her and create a bright future for her. But sometimes I just wish I lived in the old days where women stayed home and were just housewives. Life seemed simpler then.

Today when I dropped Miss E off at childcare I was asked to wait as her main carer wanted to speak to me. Seven of the toddlers in her room had moved up to the senior toddler room (2-3yo) and her carer had spent yesterday helping them transition.

I honestly thought Miss E must have done something wrong and I was going to be spoken to about how she's obsessed with opening and closing doors or putting things in toilets. Instead I was told that she spent yesterday with the big kids (she's a bit attached to her carer and wouldn't stay in her room without her) and apparently she integrated really well. She used the big kids toilet, ate with them and played with them. She even tried to talk to them. I stood there gobsmacked but so, so proud.

It's bittersweet proud. On one hand I can't believe how advanced she is. On the other hand I'm scared she is advancing too fast and before I know it I'll have a teenager on my hands and will have totally missed the baby years.

Luckily she still refuses to give up that dummy and bottle so I guess even with training pants I can still say she's my baby.