Day Twenty Three of Chicklet Holiday

Well, we've had another great day and there are only two sleeps left before Chicklet meets up with her Mama and they head home.

We did some more work on our caves today. We should have them finished by tomorrow afternoon and that will make five amazing caves in 3.5 weeks.

There were two phone calls from Mama and a 40 minute Skype call with Dad to talk about the alligator experience.

There was a sad event that Adoring Husband and I did everything in our power to hide from Chicklet. SEB (Someone Else's Bird) took poorly this morning and by about 3pm this afternoon she had passed from this earth.

AH tried in vain to help her, but we found her on the floor of the cage, just sitting - I knew there was something wrong when she didn't hiss at me. SEB has always behaved aggressively towards me and has always loved AH who today, tried to give her water with a dropper and attempted to feed her, but she wasn't interested in any of it.

She died peacefully in her nesting box and we have avoided telling Chicklet. We wonder if she will say anything tomorrow because she always goes outside to say hello to SEB. I'm not ashamed to say that if we can avoid having the death talk with her we will! We just need to get through the next 36 hours.

*cue the sound of a chicken clucking here*

Not much else to report so here are some progress photos of our caves (Chicklet even made her own spider web with bag tie wire so that she could thread one of my spider charms onto it on the inside wall of her cave!

Here is Chicklet's ...

 Here is mine ...

Chicklet became a little annoyed that AH always commented on how nice my cave was and never commented on hers, so we had to remedy that situation quickly.

Anyway, it's almost midnight, so I'm off to bed. But first ...

A couple of days ago, Adoring Husband asked me the question "What do you reckon was the biggest selling one hit wonder of all time?"

After some brief research, the answer is "Macarene" by Los Del Rio in 1996 OR "Come On Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners OR "Gangnam Style" by Psy who made $25million from this one song alone and received over 1 BILLION views on his Youtube video!

Nite all.

 

Day Twenty Two of Chicklet Holiday

What a day!

Six hours of driving and three hours at Wildlife HQ.

It was a perfect weather day, the temperature just right, clear skies and sunshine. Great for jeans and sneakers and we actually had an easy start to the day and a good run to our destination with very little traffic.

We were the only passengers on the little train that took us from the Big Pineapple down the hill to Wildlife HQ where we found our way to the office and booked the Crocodile experience which actually turned out to be an alligator experience!

A young man brought the alligator out immediately and this is what happened ...

... incredibly, I forgot my camera (I know right?!) so we paid for a photo to be taken and I took a few pics with my phone.

Chicklet was over the moon. The alligator was much bigger and much heavier than she expected. It's name was Mississippi and we are so happy to have been there to witness her joy in this first time experience.

The next favourite creature of the day was the Green Iguana ...

We spent a lot of time with Iggy haha, but did not get to touch him.

She got to touch a koala, sheep, goats and an alpaca gave her a big wet sloppy kiss across her face. She made friends with a massive emu that followed us across the field (scared the crap out of me) and she thought it was GREAT! She loved the chickens, or 'chickadoodles' as she called them and we took our time going through the reptile exhibit.

I can't believe we were there for three hours. It felt like much less.

Even the drive home went quickly and we drove into our driveway well before 5pm.

There was plenty of time to make a light dinner, take a long bath, enjoy some cuddle and chat time, and for good measure I added a short back massage with some essential oils (which seemed to hype Chicklet up, rather than relax her!).

She fell asleep quickly, and even though the day was incident free and a lot of fun, I feel like it took a lot out of her and it took a lot of fancy footwork to prevent a meltdown tonight.

Tomorrow will be telling but we will be gentle.

Three more sleeps.

I stumbled across a video yesterday.

Remember this????



I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Day Twenty One of Chicklet Holiday

Today, we decided to take a couple of small foam boxes and create our own dragon caves with our own ideas .. to finish off our holiday together with a bang.

Much to Chicklet's shock and dismay, I decided to create a Hippie Rainbow Dragon Cave! The cave so far ...

She's been telling me for a couple of days that this idea is really bad because dragons don't do rainbows and colour, that dragons are dark and for all the ideas in the world, why did I pick this one?

"Really Bozzy Wozzy? I don't think your cave is going to be very good. Are you sure you want to do rainbows? It's just not going to look real."

But I could tell, as I worked on my Hippie Rainbow Dragon Cave, that she was impressed and just a little envious of my beautiful dragon cave! She has even introduced colour to her own cave and keeps coming up with ideas for me haha!

Very slowly, but very cleverly, she is working on her own cave and she tells me that "Even though there are Halloween-related items and parts in the cave, it's NOT a Halloween Dragon cave!"

I must say that creating my Hippie Rainbow cave has been very therapeutic today and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time outside being creative.

We didn't do much else today.

Chicklet was very happy to spend ten minutes with the dogs on her bed before sleep time - it was her second favourite thing about today.

Tomorrow, we plan on heading south to the Sunny Coast so that Chicklet can receive her birthday present of holding a crocodile! I haven't told her yet because Poppy Bluebarry's back has been touch and go and I'm worried that he won't be able to manage the drive. Fingers crossed we can make it happen.

Now I'm off to bed. I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to sleep undisturbed tonight?

Nite all.

Day Twenty of Chicklet Holiday

The new game today ...

1. Chicklet: If there was a tornado, what would you choose to help you out?

a) A fire breathing dragon
b) A speedy dragon
c) A weather changing dragon
d) A shield
e) A sword

Me: A weather changing dragon

2. Me: If you were lost in the desert and you came across a truck giving away water or lemonade, tomato or lemon, which two would you choose?

Chicklet: Water and Lemon

3. Chicklet: If you were trapped in a dungeon, who would you want to help show you a way out?

a) A skeleton
b) A bat
c) A spider
d) A lizard on fire
e) An immortal dragon living in a nearby volcano

Me: An immortal dragon living in a nearby volcano (no brainer really)

4. Me: If you were going to a dragon birthday party, what would you take as a gift?

Chicklet: Dragon snacks of course! And maybe a gift card (lol)

5. Chicklet: If you were a character in a book that you couldn't escape from, what character would you be?

Me: Bella from Breaking Dawn

Chicklet: Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon

6. Me: If you could take six creature friends to the dragon party, who would you take?

Chicklet: Dragon, Velociraptor, Crocodile, Lizard, T-Rex and a Snake

... and so the game went on.

Crazy how difficult it is to think of questions like that!

Here is the little tuft of hair that Chicklet now has after her run in with the GOO ...

Time now for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Day Nineteen of Chicklet Holiday

Ok, so just to quickly correct my 'dinosaurs are fictional' message in yesterday's blog post ... you know, I'm under a lot of pressure and the responsibility is weighing upon me ... not just being a babysitting grandmother, but also as a blogger LOL.

Forgive me.

Today was a much better day and our moods were much lighter - although I was incredibly tired after being woken up three times during the night. I expected a rough night after such a volatile day and I made sure we took it easy today.

We did some work on the cave, played on the iPad, and made firm friends with Jack, the psychotic dog.

Who knew such a friendship would form?

She calls him 'Little Buddy'.

We ate lots of nourishing fresh food.

Chicklet made up a game - we had to tell a joke or a riddle that had some kind of food in it and if the other person laughed, we both had to eat whatever food the joke was about.

The food that she has talked about disliking the most while she's been here is tomato, so I made lots of tomato jokes.

1. Why did the tomato blush? Because she saw the salad dressing
2. How do you fix a broken tomato? Tomato paste
3. Why is a tomato round and red? Because if it was long and green and skinny, it would be a bean
4. What is red and goes up and down? A tomato in an elevator

She didn't 'get' them, but giggled anyway.

The food that I have talked about disliking the most is sugar, so she made up a riddle about sugar.

What did the lemon say to the sugar?

The look on her face when she asked the question was priceless.

Aside from her peanut butter (which contains sugar), and despite pleading with me every time she enters a shop, she hasn't had any sugar since she arrived and obviously the thought of getting some sugar as a result of me laughing at this joke was sending her brain into a flutter.

Her eyes were wide and sparkling and the giggling smile as she asked the question sent me into hysterical laughter - you know the uncontrollable giggles that give you cramps in your ribs and tears in your eyes?

She laughed out loud and squealed "I haven't even told you the punch line yet!! Why are you laughing??"

I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even answer her!

Finally, I settled down and said "If you were clever, you could have told me the punch line while I was laughing so hard and you would have won!"

She looked at me with disappointed realisation. "Ok. I'm going to ask you again."

That same excited look came on her face as she asked me "What did the lemon say to the sugar?"

It triggered the giggles again - and what made my giggles even worse, was knowing that I had just tipped her off at how to win this riddling competition and that made my giggles even more uncontrollable.

Her answer was "I am healthier than you are."

NOT even funny!! But she caught me mid giggle and I just couldn't stop!!

She won.

Excitedly, she declared "I know exactly the sugar that you have to eat and we will go to the shop tomorrow to get it!!"

So I took her jar of peanut butter out of the pantry and declared right back "Peanut butter has sugar in it! Watch this!!" I took a teaspoon and scooped a little out of the jar and ate it. "There!! I've eaten sugar! Ha ha!"

She was left speechless and look of shock and disappointment was almost enough to set me off again.

She was surprisingly accepting though.

We had fun in the bath and I used Epsom salts and essential oils called 'calm and secure' to hopefully assist her to sleep through the night. Time will tell.

It's now 11pm so I'm off to bed to catch a couple of hours sleep before I hear the little whisper next to my ear "Excuse me BozzyWozzy"

Nite all.

Day Eighteen of Chicklet Holiday

Today was a tough day for me.

Chicklet and I both lost patience with each other a few times and locked horns.

A long walk to the beach and an hour long swim soothed the savage beast (aka Chicklet) and I took some time out afterwards, leaving her in Poppy Bluebarry's care, while I visited the shop and tended to some business.

By the end of the day, we were both exhausted and she slept easily - as will I, as soon as I finish this post.

We did a little work on the Fire Dragon Cave, walked the thirty minutes (at Chicklet's request) to the beach and spent an hour swimming and chasing crabs. We played some iPad games and we ate a lot of fresh healthy food.

It was a long and relaxed cuddle time before sleep, so we ended the day well, with love and calm.

Tomorrow, as discussed at bed time, there will be more caving and swimming. They are her two favourite things to do.

Some time this week, maybe Thursday or Friday, we'll be crocodile hunting, so that she can enjoy her late birthday present from us and actually get to hold a real live crocodile. The crocodile is her favourite creature. Dragons and dinosaurs are her favourite fictional creatures.

Only seven sleeps left of this holiday and we still have a lot to fit in, including filling and burying a time capsule, painting an owl, holding a crocodile and finishing off all of our caves.

I feel that I will need a holiday at the end of Chicklet's holiday!

Nite all.

Day Seventeen of Chicklet Holiday

Much less drama today than yesterday!

Chicklet came into our room at about 5.30am and climbed into bed with me, snuggling right in and falling asleep.

I have been setting my alarm for 5am and taking her iPad into the bedroom so that when she wakes up, she can keep herself amused while we can sleep until a reasonable hour. I forgot to set the alarm this morning, which is why she came into the room, but once in our bed, she slept until after 6am and then took her iPad into the room herself.

(If I leave her iPad in her room, she wakes at stupid o'clock, which could be 2am or 4am and then plays on the iPad all night.)

I could hear her outside talking with Poppy for quite some time before she returned to the bedroom with him and our breakfasts at around 8am.

We stayed there until 9.30am because then she began harassing me to make a start on the Fire Dragon cave. She was very excited about the Fire Dragon cave and had a million ideas!

For two hours we sat outside and began the creation.

We made five clay dragons. These are two of them ...

We lined the floor of the cave with shiny red lava.

We hung skeletons on the wall and at the front entrance of the cave.

We made two volcanos for the roof of the cave, one with flowing lava and one with an exploding eruption of lava.

We hung a dragonfly from the ceiling.

We put dragon and skull stickers all over the walls.

We strategically placed red gems all over the floor.

Instead of a 'waterfall', we created a 'firefall' at the front entrance.

We made a nest with red, orange and yellow straw and placed it inside a tinselly ring of fire.

We found the perfect container to use as a chest full of treasure and then spent some time going through my beads to find fiery red and orange jewel-looking beads to put with our plastic coins as the dragon's treasure.

We stopped for lunch.

We did some more after lunch.

As I began to prepare dinner, she asked if we could do some more and when I replied "No more today. We can do some more tomorrow.", she declared "Awww but we've hardly done anything on the cave today!"

Ugh!

We went for a quick late afternoon walk so that I could show her our lagoon across the road.

Chicklet ate a big dinner of boiled egg and veg and dessert before enjoying a fun bath time complete with fishing rod and plastic fish.

We had a long cuddle and talk time and it seemed that the closer we got to sleep time, the more energy she was generating! I had to use my cross grandma voice to get her to settle down, but she fell asleep within three minutes of that, so she was obviously tired ... probably overtired.

I'm feeling all done in.

Poppy Bluebarry did a lot of stuff around the house today, pushing his sore back to the limit, so I'm expecting extra caring duties in the next couple of days.

Now it's 11pm and I'm off to bed.

Nite all.