Day Three of Fifteen

So ... I've been using an essential oil called 'Intune'. It's used to enhance focus and support healthy thought processes. I brought it with me to the Sunny Coast, along with lavender for sleeping and oregano as an antibiotic.

For the first few days here, I put a drop of Intune on the inside hem of my top, hoping it would help calm both Vegan Chickie and Chicklet. The pre-holiday stress was obvious and of course, understandable. I also put a drop on the pillow on the side of the bed that Chicklet sits when we watch movies.

I felt like it made a difference.

Yesterday when Chicklet started the day in such a manic state, I put a drop of it on the back of her neck and also a drop on the Bare-chested Chef's neck. Both of them asked me what it was, so I explained it to them.

I felt like it made a difference.

Today, I went to put some on Chicklet's neck and she yelled at me "NO, I'm already calm!!' That made me laugh, so I put the drop onto my finger saying "Ok, I'll put it on myself then!" and tickled her neck.

I feel like it made a difference.

I got my usual 7.30 wake up this morning, as Chicklet burst through my bedroom door with a big smile on her face. Usually, I've been awake for at least 30 minutes before she comes in, but this morning, I was still sound asleep and the abrupt start to my wakefulness was not how I wanted to start my day.

My brain takes at least 20 minutes to reach high gear in the mornings, so having a 4 year old hammering me with questions before it's had a chance to warm up, is a mighty struggle.

In a fit of excitement, and as my brain was desperately trying to make sense of the moment, she tossed a stuffed toy high into the air. It got caught on the ceiling fan (which I permanently have on the highest control level) and it violently jolted the fan as it was tossed full speed against the glass panel of the bedroom window with a massive bang!

"Chicklet!" I blurted. "Ooooh THAT was a bit exciting!" she replied. "No that was a bit dangerous!" I said as Dadu rushed in to find out what all the noise was about. He reminded her of the rules about throwing things inside the house, but thinking back now, her response to the actual incident was quite hilarious.

Dadu came to the rescue and suggested that Chicklet have some breakfast while Bozzy Wozzy has a shower and eases herself into the day. Thank you Dadu. I took my time over a leisurely shower and enjoyed my new skincare routine.

Her first request for the day was to watch me play the Minion game on the Ipad, so we did that for about 20 minutes, when suddenly Dadu appeared to ask if we wanted to be dropped somewhere on his way to work .. we had 10 minutes to get ready!

Dadu dressed Chicklet while I gathered my bag, a hat for both of us, a pre-made bag of snacks, a bottle of water and checked that I had the house keys. We were only going to the bakery, which is about 2kms away and a downhill walk home.

We were dropped off at the little shopping centre, which consists of a Bottle O, a hairdressing salon, a mini supermarket and a bakery. I ordered an 'extra large' latte while Chicklet ordered a meringue bug (don't even go there!) and while we sat enjoying our time together, Mama called from New York, so we had a lovely chat on speaker phone.

It was only 9.30am but very warm so the walk home felt long and laboured. I guess having foot races through the forest tracks didn't help much. Every fourth crack in the concrete footpath was our starting point. Ready? Set? Go!!

It's a very steep but short walk from the edge of the forest walkway to Chicklet's house but we were very hot and bothered by the time we arrived home. We sat under the cool fan playing Mrs Fox and Mrs Fox .. a game where we took turns playing the role of Mrs Fox who went shopping and brought home a bag of goodies for the person waiting at home (the goodies being toys and knick knacks from the play room).

Soon it was 'Chicken Little' time again (surprise surprise).

Lunch consisted of apple with peanut butter and strawberries with my version of nuttella.

Then it was activity time.

We coloured in and hung 8 spirally snakes throughout the house.

We created a couple of pirate pics with A4 paper and pirate stickers.

We built Paris and New York with stickers and paper, then stuck dinosaurs onto the pictures climbing the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.

After we cleaned up all the mess, it was time to play under the snake sprinkler again. It was crazy! Forty minutes of screaming, squealing, giggling, full belly laughing, gasping, running and the whole time focussing totally on drenching Bozzy Wozzy. She was successful, much to her delight!

There were storms rolling in the distance, so I decided to put an end to the outside play and we headed to the bathtub for more water play while she washed the mud and grass off.

That's when Dadu arrived home on his work break and took over Chicklet duties while I had a bit of a break myself. I had time to change out of my wet clothes, tidy the bedroom, bring in the washing from the clothes line and figure out what to cook for dinner.

Dadu's request was for Chicklet to draw some mixed breed dinosaurs while he was at work. Apatosaurus head with a Stegosaurus body. A pterodactyl head and wings, with a triceratops body. The list goes on.

After I got her started on the drawings, I made dinner. Chicklet's consisted of 2 boiled eggs, snow peas, red capsicum, carrot, cucumber, radish and beans .. all raw.  She ate it all except the radish and half of the snow peas.

I had chicken and salad.

We read two books at bed time and chatted about the day. Her favourite part of the day was, of course, the snake sprinkler, but also colouring in and hanging the swirly snakes.  Her least favourite part of the day was when I was angry at her for throwing the toy at the fan (I feel like such a meanie).

It took her all of two minutes to fall asleep tonight.

I've done the dishes, tidied up the 'activity area' and my bedroom, which seems to have become the new toy room!

It's been another full day and I'm still feeling good! Day three a success, despite the poor start.

Let's see if I can wake up before my alarm tomorrow morning!

Nite all.

Day Two of Fifteen

Another successful day .. just!

My 7.30am smiley face Chicklet alarm was good again this morning.

First request was to watch me play the Minion game on the Ipad, which lasted about 20 minutes and it was around then that Mama phoned us from New York!

Chicken Little was next, but it only lasted about ten minutes before she wanted to go outside and I was definitely NOT allowed to have a shower beforehand, so I made a deal .. 15 minutes outside and then I could have a shower.

After my shower, and after some 'on a knife edge' behaviour, we all bundled into the car for an adventure to Civic.

The Bare-chested Chef and I both agreed that Chicklet was a little manic and that today was going to be testing.

So the first stop was for me to get an 'extra large' coffee while Dadu and Chicklet went to the kids play area. By the time I arrived, Chicklet was complaining loudly that there were too many BABIES there and she HATES babies!!

Luckily, fortune smiled upon us and a little girl about her age turned up and wanted to play, which completely turned Chicklet's mood around.

After about an hour, while Dadu got some groceries, Chicklet and I bought some new stickers for the 'safe space' then stopped at the coffee shop for a couple of little GF treats before finding our way back to the car.

Woops! I left Chicklet's shoes behind under the seat near the play area .. luckily Dadu was prepared to run back and find them!

The plan was to sit on my bed watching 'Chicken Little' while eating the treats.. which we did.

Next up was 'activities'!

We drew a shaggy dog with a cut out red paper bow and then Chicklet added 8 puppies.

We made a big black spider out of black wool, with big googly eyes and eight hairy legs, then drew a giant spider web for him to sit on. Of course he needed about 10 flies to be stuck to his web for dinner.

We made a big red, green and black snake with a red forked tongue.

By now, it was lunch time, so while Chicklet and Dadu ate bananas with sprinkles, I hibernated in the bedroom, where I surprisingly fell asleep for half an hour! Next thing I heard Dadu yell out "Bozzy Wozzy, we are going for a walk!"

I took the opportunity to hang out some washing, sweep the floors, put away the dishes and tidy up a little.

Dadu and Chicklet arrived home about an hour later looking very hot and bothered - Dadu forgot Chicklet's hat so I gave him a gentle reminder. Today was very hot outside and they walked in probably the hottest part of the day.

The only remedy for this was to go to the 'activity drawer' and remove the giant sprinkler snake out of the box, connect it to the hose in the shaded area of the back yard and have some cooling down fun in the water!

This turned out to be a perfect opportunity for Chicklet to release some pent up energy. Lots of squealing and running and jumping and laughing and yelling until, after about 40 minutes, she was exhausted!

More water to soothe the savage beast, by having an early bath to wash the grass and mud off.

Apple dipped in peanut butter for afternoon snacks and some more Ipad Minion games!

Dadu headed off to work a bit after 4pm and we watched the rest of the movie.

Boiled eggs for dinner - nice and easy.

We watched half of Chicken Little (we almost know the script by heart!), removed butterfly number 14 from Mama's time line, ticked off Mama's 'to do' list (so far she has flown in a plane, arrived in the USA and visited the Empire State Building), added another heart to the cuddle heart, had story time and then chatted about our favourite and least favourite parts of the day. The snake sprinkler was the clear winner for both of us as our favourite.

She finally fell asleep around 7.30pm .. she certainly fought it for a while.

My 30 minute nap today must have rejuvenated me because I'm not feeling tired at all tonight.

Tonight I'm sending lots of love to my BFF, BGWLBH. Biggest warmest hugs from afar.

Wishing we could.

Nite all.

Day One of Fifteen

I would brand day one a success!

She woke me at 7.30am with a big smiley face requesting that we begin our first activity for the day immediately! So I climbed out of bed and got dressed .. not allowed to have a shower this morning .. too much to do! I heated up my broth and while I drank it, I was instructed to play the minion game on the Ipad.

The first activity was the big book of dinosaur stickers which also included 8 dinosaurs to make out of cardboard cutouts.

We made the dinosaurs and then played with them for about 15 minutes, during which time, we received a phone call from Mama to tell us she was at the airport in Brisbane, checked in and waiting to board the plane. She sent through a photo of the plane for Chicklet to see.

Chicklet and I created a few masterpieces with blank paper and dinosaur stickers and decided to have a 'mailbox' each for Mama so that we could keep everything that we make over the two weeks for Mama to look at when she arrives home.

After we got bored with dinosaur stickers, it was time to watch the second half of 'Chicken Little' .. the first half of which we watched before dinner the night before (yes, we have watched it 3 times in two days, and would have been four if I hadn't convinced her to try a different movie this afternoon .. 'Open Season', which she turned off after 30 minutes).

When 'Chicken Little' was finished, we got dressed and jumped in the car with Dadu. Chicklet and Dadu went to the libraray together, while I spent some time in retail therapy .. always good for the soul.

Dadu and I both thought we had each other's phone number and agreed to text each other when ready to go home, but discovered later that neither of us had any phone numbers, just email addresses!

I found a health food shop and bought some raw organic honey, some raw organic cacao and some organic coconut oil. I'll make some chocolate muffins some time in the next couple of days.

I got myself a couple of tops at 40% off, bought an iron in Big W as well as some more stickers and the 'sad' doll from 'Inside Out', which is Chicklet's favourite character in the movie .. but she wasn't the slightest bit impressed by my choice!

A couple of hours later, I was walking through the mall and looked up to see this little blonde child running headlong towards me with the biggest cheekiest smile on her face! So cute!

We all did some grocery shopping together and bought a mango smoothie and a coffee on the way out before heading home.

Chicklet and I spent the afternoon putting stickers on the frame of her 'safe space', watching .. you guessed it .. 'Chicken Little' .. again .. while munching on mango, blueberries and watermelon.

We played outside and got photos of a kookaburra on the fence (Chicklet guarded the kookaburra while I retrieved my camera from inside). We played on the swing for about twenty minutes and then made a nest out of the washing basket, hoping to lure some birds into the back yard.

Soon it was dinner time and the Bare-chested Chef made a delicious and hearty chicken and corn soup from scratch. Chicklet must have been hungry because she ate a bowl of pasta, some cucumber and carrot, followed by a mango ice cream. She barely spoke during dinner and we could see that she was extremely tired, so she had a quick bath and story time from Dadu before falling into a deep slumber.

I've had a headache for a couple of hours this afternoon but I drank heaps of water over a one hour period and it has almost gone .. I really must remember to drink more water during the day! I have to look after myself while looking after Chicklet.

Before she climbed into bed, Chicklet took down butterfly number one off the wall (there are 15 butterflies for each day that Mama will be away and at the end of each day, she takes down a butterfly and puts it in her safe space). That way she can see how many days til Mama comes home.  She also took a small heart (which represents a Mama hug) and placed it inside the big blue heart on her bedroom wall.

There are big blue hearts in various locations around the house and whenever she needs a Mama hug, she has different sized and different coloured heart stickers from which to choose and stick on the big blue hearts. Mama will give her all of those hugs when she returns.

So day one has been a success.

It's not quite 9pm and I expect to be asleep before 10pm because we have another big day planned for tomorrow, including a bus ride.

The weather is uncomfortably warm and even with the window open and the fan on high, I still feel warm, however, it's going to be 3 degrees warmer up north at home tomorrow, so I'll be grateful to be here instead!

I hope Vegan Chickie is having an enjoyable flight.

Nite all.

Ready? Set? Go!

As of 5am tomorrow, Vegan Chickie will embark on her solo holiday to New York and Paris, while the Bare-chested Chef, Chicklet and I attempt to run this family and household without her for two whole weeks!

As daunting as it feels .. due to the unbelievable stress that Vegan Chickie has been experiencing and sharing in the days leading up to this .. I am quite excited about having so much time with my little Chicklet and it will be fun sharing the numerous activities that have been planned in advance, watching the long list of dvds, attending her swimming lessons, enjoying bus rides to and from our coffee dates and creating new adventures together along the way.

No doubt we will have some hurdles (I can imagine Vegan Chickie snickering at the word 'hurdles') along the way, but we will manage and we will survive.

So my final message to you Vegan Chickie, if you are reading this on the plane, is 'WE'VE GOT THIS! Relax and enjoy yourself!'

It has been another full and fun day today.

It started with a smiley good morning at about 7.30ish and an invitation to a coffee date in Civic with VC and Chicklet. We got dropped off at the shopping centre, ordered our coffee and a muffin and sat in the comfortable chairs by the children's club while Chicklet made some friends and climbed over the play gym.

A little bit of shopping for more stickers to put on the 'safe area' and I bought myself a top before the Bare-chested Chef arrived to take us home.

The first priority was to adorn the safe space with the stickers, then we created a piece of artwork each with some more stickers, followed by a game of 'Minion Rush' on my Ipad. She wanted to watch me play the game and offered words of encouragement every time I failed to pass a level. "It's okay Bozzy Wozzy. Just keep practising and trying. You will get better. Don't give up!"

She was right. I must have played for at least an hour, at her insistence, and reached level 6 eventually.

We had a nice lunch and then played with a bunch of her stuffed Octonaut toys, a couple of crocodiles and a dinosaur or two, using our imaginations.

Next on the agenda was a water balloon fight! The Bare-chested Chef spent a good deal of time filling MANY MANY water balloons and putting them all into a washing basket ready for us to play.

I got a couple of pics before the camera needed protection, so I brought it inside and then ventured outside to face the music, or in this case, the water! It was a lot of fun and Chicklet giggled herself silly running up and down the grassed yard, chasing Mama and throwing her balloons, making them explode over us and then squealing with delight.

The fight probably only lasted about 30 minutes, if that, but it was hilarious and Chicklet declared "That was too much fun!!!" when it was all over.

We decided to have an early bath and put on our pyjamas before climbing onto my bed to watch a dvd. She hadn't seen 'Chicken Little' before and it had been a while since I had seen it, so we got comfy with a plate of snacks (pear, blueberries and sunflower seeds) and began to watch it.

Well! She went through the full gammit of emotions! Angry at the people for being mean to Chicken Little, then sad because his Dad didn't believe him and then scared because of the spidery aliens. She was jumping up and down, yelling at the people, hiding her face, calling out to Mama - I was fully doubting this choice of dvd and I kept assuring her that everyone would be happy in the end - much to her disbelief!

Finally, to my relief, it was over and I was preparing for a big debrief to make sure she wasn't going to have nightmares tonight, when she jumped up and yelled 'Can we watch it AGAIN!?'

Luckily, dinner was ready, so we had a break from the movie briefly .. but as soon as we'd finished eating, it was back to the bedroom to watch it again! We got halfway through it before Mama announced bed time.

No bed time stories from me tonight. Chicklet is sleeping in Mama's big bed so that she gets to say goodbye in the morning. Tonight is special cuddles and stories with Mama night.

It's already 10.30 pm and I think it's time for me to get some sleep in preparation for a big day tomorrow.

Nite all.

Midnight Rambling

Well, as you can tell, I didn't get to post an update here last night!

Adoring Husband and I left home at about 8am yesterday to head south to the Sunny Coast. We stopped for a short break in Gympie and then continued through to arrive at 11am.

After a warm greeting from the Chicklet family and then dropping all of my paraphernalia at the house, we drove to 'Sunspace' cafe for lunch. It was a beautiful day and Chicklet got to play in the garden in the sunshine, first with her Dadu, then Poppy Barry and then me.

We enjoyed a pleasant lunch and left around 2pm so that AH could head back home before it got too late. I was sad to see him go, knowing that it will be almost 3 weeks before I get to see him again.

I had lots of play time with Chicklet and we climbed onto my bed, along with Vegan Chickie to watch the movie 'Inside Out'. The Bare-chested Chef tossed up a most delicious salad for dinner, which we all enjoyed very much.

Bath time with more than 50 new rubber duckies followed soon after, then it was story time in bed. Chicklet was very restless, so it was Mama who finally lulled her to sleep.    

Vegan Chickie and I then sat up talking til midnight, at which point, I conceded defeat, turned off my light and fell into a deep sleep for two hours - pee break - more deep sleep for four hours - dozing for an hour and then greeted by my smiley Chicklet!

We had another full day as the Bare-chested Chef dropped us off at Tewantin shopping centre on his way to work this morning.

Norma Jeans was our first stop where we spent about an hour sitting in the reading corner, enjoying a LARGE coffee and reading a few of the available kid's books from the book shelf.

We went searching for some interesting stickers for Chicklet to decorate her 'safe spot' and also did some grocery shopping. The lady in front of us spent $300 and didn't collect the dinosaur cards that she was entitled to, so the girl on the checkout kindly gave us her share as well as ours! She was immediately crowned 'our favourite check out person EVER'.

Chicklet has the dinosaur book and this morning only needed 20 more cards to fill the book (there are approximately 80 cards to collect). With our haul today, she only needs 6 more to complete the book!

After the supermarket, we headed up the hill to the children's park where Chicklet loves to play, but to our surprise, it was being upgraded and will not be finished for three weeks!! That was terribly disappointing for all of us because it was going to be a part of our daily itinerary. I guess we now need a Plan B.

Our original plan for today, was to catch the bus from that park to Civic where there is an indoor play area for kids, and we would have had a leisurely lunch while Chicklet played. Unfortunately, the day was much warmer than expected, Vegan Chickie had only 2-3 hours sleep the night before and I got a little carried away at the supermarket, so we had to carry more heavy bags than expected.

Taking all of that into consideration, we decided to catch the bus directly home. When I say 'directly' home, I mean 'as close to home as possible' because there is still about a kilometre to walk from the bus stop to home.

It's a pleasant enough walk. Even though it's a large housing estate, the streets are lined with tall trees and the houses back on to heavy wooded bushland, so there is shade, the birds are singing and the wind is rustling the leaves high in the trees. The footpath is paved the whole way, so it's a comfortable walk.

We arrived home safensound and after a light lunch, Vegan Chickie attempted to have a nap while Chicklet and I played. Chicklet decided to give one of her new purchases, a rubber squeaky duck, a workout. I expected her to get bored of the squeaking after 5 minutes, however, it was still squawking long and loud and hard 20-30 minutes later, at which time poor Vegan Chickie came skulking heavily through the house with a seriously furrowed brow.

She looked at me and said 'Is that not annoying the crap out of you???' I replied 'Well, I hoped that she would get sick of it before I did. Obviously she has more stamina than I bargained for!'

I had closed the bedroom door, but apparently, it didn't make any difference to the sound. Oops.

We coaxed the duck out of her hands by promising a swing out in the garden. Her stamina did not extend to swinging today .. it lasted about 3 minutes. We played catch for about ten minutes and then hit the sand pit for about 15 minutes.

An early bath time seemed like a good idea and calmed her down somewhat.

Chicklet watched Wile E Coyote cartoons while I prepared dinner .. just a simple chicken, broccolini, asparagus and sweet potato dish. Chicklet tried sweet potato but declared that it was 'yuk'. She wasn't very excited by my choice of dinner, so after a few slow mouthfuls, she decided that her play room was more exciting than the dinner table.

She fell asleep before we could even think about story time tonight. It seems we wore her out!

Adoring Husband experienced a bit of unexpected excitement at home this afternoon. A bat and her baby got caught in some netting that we had around our peach tree, so he called the RSPCA who sent a couple of ladies out to rescue them ...

AH was very impressed by their efforts and when he discovered that they were volunteers who even had to pay for their own fuel when rescuing our wildlife, he made a generous donation to the cause.

We had attempted to net our peach tree this year because we didn't get any peaches from it last year due to the birds. We had a small piece of old netting (apparently you can get 'bat friendly' netting these days) that AH had in his shed and it wasn't even big enough to protect the tree. We should have taken it down because it actually served no purpose at all .. except to trap unsuspecting bats obviously.

We have plenty of fruit trees in our back yard that the birds and bats steel from. Mangoes, mulberries, grapes etc. I guess they can take our peaches as well.

Well, it's almost 10pm, so I will attempt to get a better (or longer) night's sleep tonight. I'm not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow, but as long as there is good coffee, I'll be happy.

Nite all.

Hello Wine (Halloween)

It was an early start for Halloween yesterday. I decorated the front garden ...

... and filled the witches hat with lollies.  I had tape across the pathway daring the children to enter and had the ghostly skeleton guarding the lollies.

The first kids began arriving at 5pm!

I believe we had approximately 50 children trick or treating. I had to fill the hat twice and luckily saved some lollies for Lady Lynn's grandchildren, who were the last of the kids to appear. I was really hoping to get a photo of them, but it was too dark by the time they arrived and the batteries in my flash are flat so that was the end of that idea! Bugger! Next year :)

I jumped on my trike and pedalled over to Sonny and Cher's for the big 70th birthday bash. It was well and truly pumping by the time I arrived.

Mum H was there, as were The Speckled Hen and Dirty Old Man. The Pool Guy and Mrs PG were there too. Mr and Mrs Builder were in attendance, along with Mr and Mrs Club. Seriously, half the town were there.

Cher got me a wine and then showed me where to get more if I wanted it and after a short chat with some of the locals, I set up the camera on the tripod and the different family members came and stood in position for their shots.

Afterwards I wandered around the party and took some happy snaps of the guests and of the cake and speeches and the gift opening.

The food was good - especially that deconstructed pavlova!! The music was my era and I think if people had been dancing I may have joined them, but there was no dancing to be had.

It was a much later night than I expected. I thought I would be home by 8.30 or 9pm but I think it was well after 11 when I pedalled home with Mum H right beside me.

Poor Adoring Husband had to make his own dinner.

Today has been quite hectic attempting to get everything organised before I leave tomorrow. A few loads of washing done. I finally 'unset' the table and put the new dinner sets in the cupboard - so the dining table is clear except for the gorgeous flowers that AH bought me on Friday.

I made up an extra batch of dog food for while I'm away. Baked a chicken for dinner tonight which we ate with fresh beans picked from the garden. AH can eat the leftovers tomorrow night when he gets back from the Sunny Coast.

We took down the Halloween decorations, AH finished building the new chook pen and I've packed everything but the kitchen sink! The car is going to be filled to the brim!

Unfortunately, I have done something to my neck and I can barely move. I have an idea that this injury occurred yesterday when I stepped into a hole while decorating for Halloween. I felt something jar across the top of my shoulders at the time, but I had no pain until this afternoon when I sat down for a break and suddenly felt this muscle cramp in my neck.

I don't think I've ever felt such pain! It's not a constant pain but it comes on suddenly and frequently. I've rubbed my neck with the oil that 'Beauty' left for me the other day, but it hasn't had any effect. I've used the electric massager, which also had no effect. I'm sitting with a neck cushion at the moment - it helps a little.

I hope that a good nights sleep will rest the muscle enough to heal it overnight. I may even need pain killers tonight! I will attempt to sleep without them, but if it continues to cramp even while I'm lying in bed, I'll have to try something!

This means that the sweet goodies that I was going to make for AH didn't get done and I'm a bit behind with my packing.

I need to sleep and get up early to get everything done.

*sigh* Why did this happen now??? Worst timing EVER!!

Nite all.