Counting Down

Just four more sleeps til the beginning of my oral adventure!

I booked the return train trip to the Sunny Coast this morning.

It's been a quiet day for me. Just some cooking and a little housework.

I am very distracted tonight! I have no idea why!

Nite all.

The First Step Toward Christmas

Today, the question was asked "What is the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease?"

According to the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), Dementia is a brain disorder that affects communication and performance of daily activities and Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that specifically affects parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language.

I hope that satisfies your curiosity.

Today was a perfect day to travel across the river on the ferry to attend our Christmas version of the lady's luncheon.

We were, however, a little disappointed to discover that one of the club buses had broken down, so a group of us had to wait at the ramp while the first group was taken to the club in the bus and then it returned to pick up the second group.

The club did not disappoint. It was warm and welcoming, the staff were friendly and the food was good. 

We handed out our Christmas presents (we had to take a gift to the value of $10 - but I'm certain that a few of the gifts were more than that - also some of them were much less!) and the Speckled Hen made us sing a line from a christmas carol to receive our gift.

We all ordered our meals.

We sang happy birthday to Lady Lynn.

We got to play the pokies for only 20 minutes, when the first group were called to the bus for the trip to meet the ferry.

It was a nice ride back across the river. 

The day seemed to go so quickly!

Adoring Husband couldn't come to pick me up, because the workers were still at our house and their van, which they were working out of, was parked in the driveway. So I walked to the shops, where I bought some meat for dinner and ordered coffee.

Some friends, who had just arrived home from Brisvegas, pulled up in the carpark and offered me a lift home, which I accepted, but suddenly my phone rang and there was Adoring Husband telling me that the workers had gone and he could come get me after all.

I couldn't wait to get home and check out the new blinds.

We now have exterior blinds fixed to the Western side of the house covering four windows. They are slatted and have the winding mechanisms inside the house so that we can open and close the blinds from the inside.

I cannot believe the difference they make to the temperature of those rooms! The rooms are at least ten degrees cooler!

Our bathrooms are so hot in the afternoons from about 2pm onwards, that it's impossible to get dry after stepping out of the shower. It's like being in a sauna and it's very difficult to put on make up while the heat causes you to perspire. Many times I've brought the pedestal fan to the doorway of the bathroom, so that it can blow on me while I apply make up.

These new blinds don't just make a difference to those rooms, but also to the entire house. I've been raving about them all afternoon and I believe they are our best investment into this property so far. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them and I'm so pleased that AH suggested getting them. Best idea EVER!

Once again, it is rapidly approaching midnight, so here I sign off.

Nite all.

The Life of Me

This is SO 'me' and Adoring Husband can vouch for it!

I've been watching the final of XFactor Australia tonight and I'm pleased to say that my pick Cyrus Villanueva won. He seems like a lovely boy (19), very humble and he has a great voice.

Let's see if he fades into obscurity, just as all the other XFactor winners have in the past!

I've had a lovely day today, starting with sitting at the Seat of Knowledge with my boys, followed by morning tea with Mardi, Beauty, Maid Marian and the Reality TV Queen and then I invited myself to a day in The Bay with Reality TV Queen.

The day included a visit to Bunnings.

Everybody knows how I detest Bunnings and when Adoring Husband needs to go there, I demand that he drop me at a different shopping centre before he goes. I avoid it all costs.

So, as I was walking towards the entrance with my friend, I literally bumped into one of AH's SES colleagues! I made him promise to NOT tell AH that he saw me voluntarily entering the Bunnings premises and he agreed, but I don't trust him, so I had to confess my sin when I returned home.

AH was shocked and stunned!

My day also included another shop that I have only ever entered once and that is the Chemist Warehouse behind Aldis.

We had lunch at the RSL Club and then visited Dr Dan (Dan Murphy's) before returning home.

I was home before 3pm.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day because our lady's lunch group are having their Christmas party at Woodgate, which means a ride across the river on the ferry and the weather forecast is good. There should be 23 of us wreaking some havoc at the local club. I'm looking forward to it.

Today was the 18th anniversary of my father's passing. I can't believe it's been that long. It still feels like it was just a couple of years ago.  How time flies.

Happy birthday to my little sister, who turns 43 tomorrow (25th). She will be celebrating on Magnetic Island where she arrived a couple of days ago and spent some time catching up with our cousin. This is me catching up with him last year ...

Last, but definitely not least, a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely Lady Lynn. We will be celebrating with her at the Christmas lunch, so wine will definitely be on the agenda!

Once again it's almost midnight, so I'm off!

Nite all.  

Movie Date

We were so looking forward to watching the final movie of 'The Hunger Games' series.

Even though neither of us had read the books, we've really enjoyed each movie as it was released and we were hooked from the very first viewing.

But I have to say that today, I was disappointed.

I really hated the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie. The ending was really weak and left me feeling flat. My inner dialogue was 'Really? That's it?'

After the movie, we had an hour to kill before we were to attend an appointment with Elston, so we got some groceries from Nana's Pantry and Coles, attended the appointment and headed home.

We were sitting on our couch at 2.45pm eating a quick light lunch made with leftovers from last night.

It's almost 1am!! How the hell did that happen!?? Time flies when you're having fun!

Apologies for the short post tonight. I lost control of my evening.

Nite all.

Slovenly Sunday

Yes it was pretty slovenly.

Not a lot got done, apart from me cooking three meals.

We had a big breakfast.

Protein and a tossed salad for lunch.

My favourite was dinner. Butterflied lamb leg with creamed garlic cauliflower, bok choy and mint sauce.

The mint sauce was a made up concoction.

I took a handful of mint leaves and put them into the mortar and pestle, added a pinch of himalayan salt and a pinch of coconut sugar (the grains of these help pulverise the leaves and balance the sweet and sour flavour), a drizzle each of olive oil and maple syrup and pulverised until it was smooth and runny.

It only makes a couple of tablespoons of mint sauce, but it's just enough to drizzle on the lamb and add that delicious minty flavour that we all love.

Dessert was blueberries, strawberries and chocolate cream.

I think I've eaten more today than I have for the last month!

We watched the Amy Schumer movie, 'Trainwreck' today, and though I felt it started a little slowly, I really liked it.

We are going to the cinema tomorrow to see 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II'. It will be the beginning of a very busy week for me and I'm looking forward to it very much.

In the next two weeks, I have a couple of Christmas parties plus the town Christmas party for which I've been booked as official photographer. I have two days on the Sunny Coast for my first dental visit and Adoring Husband will have a trip to Sydney for his annual visit to Mum.

The Motivator and I also have a Jeunesse presentation planned for the first week in December.

So it's all happening.

... and now I lay me down to sleep.

Nite all.

A Little Disturbed

Something disturbing (to me anyway) happened during my day of medical assessments at the Sunny Coast last Wednesday.

My eye was poked and prodded by both an Optometrist and an Ophthalmologist. They lifted my eyelids and touched the insides of my top and bottom eyelids and stretched the skin around my eyeball, as well as putting drops of dye in my eyes and touching the dripping liquid as it fell from my eyes.

Neither of them used gloves at any time.

I didn't see either of them wash their hands before they began the consultation .. which is not to say that they didn't wash their hands .. they may have done so before entering the room, but at the time I felt a little uncomfortable and perhaps I should have asked them.

My eye has much improved, without medical intervention, although yesterday (Friday), a couple of people asked me if I was okay, because of the redness in and around my eye, but it improves more and more with each passing day.

I've spent today doing very little except cooking a delicious roast chicken, veg and gravy for lunch and watching movies with Adoring Husband.

We watched the start of 'The Minority Report' with Tom Cruise, but got bored with that so we switched channels and watched my old favourite 'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion' (I never tire of that movie and it makes me feel good every time I watch it), then we watched the 2014 version of 'Godzilla' which was typical American rubbish and we are currently watching 'Winter's Tale' with Colin Farrell, which is a little tricky to follow .. it's one of those movies that you have to watch every minute, otherwise you easily get lost.

I also watched this today .. Adele pretending to be an Adele impersonator .. which kind of moved me.

Finally, as we edge ever so closer to the Christmas season, I thought most of my friends would enjoy this little game ...

Have a happy Sunday!

Nite all.  

Weather and Veg

Quite pleased that I don't live in Griffith right now ...

Who would have ever thought that our Spring/Summer weather in Queensland would be more pleasant than Griffith's?

Found this today that I thought was interesting. I never considered using the sprouts from old garlic to flavour salads. I like the idea!

It's four minutes to midnight on a Friday night and I'm off to bed, but try to remember ...

Nite all.

In the arms of Home.

It was just before 8am and there I was, still in my pyjamas and all snuggled up with Chicklet on my bed, watching the kid's movie "The Boxtrolls" on her laptop. Dadu had just served her breakfast in bed and she was pointing out some funny stuff in the movie, when my phone rang.

It was Adoring Husband. I answered it thinking that he was going to tell me that he had just left, or that he was at Gympie and wouldn't be long. Here is the conversation:

Me: Hullo
Him: Hullo Darling, how are you?
Me: I'm great! How are you?
Him: Good. What are you doing?
Me: I'm in bed with Chicklet watching a movie.
Him: Well, do you think you could come open the front door for me?

Luckily, I had packed my suitcase last night, but it still took me a good hour to pack up the rest of my gear, have a shower and get ready for the day.

Don't get me wrong. It was wonderful to see his smiling face at the door and we needed an early start, but none of us were prepared for his early appearance! I think we all felt a bit discombobulated, so Chicklet kept him occupied while we all got ourselves 'together'.

When we were finally dressed and ready to face the day, we all climbed into our cars and drove to Sunspace, where we sat outside under the awning, enjoying a tasty breakfast and coffee and sunshine. Chicklet got to run around in the big garden space and Vegan Chickie got to have food stolen from her hand by a Butcher Bird JUST as she was about to place it in her mouth! It all happened so quickly!! Shocking!

We left there at 11am, saying our goodbyes to the Chicklet family. Little Chicklet was disappointed .. I think she was expecting AH and I to tag team .. that I would leave and Poppy would stay with her!

We had a smooth run home and picked up our FROG box on the way, as well as our regular order from the butcher, checked the PO Box and bought coffee .. oh how I missed my coffee! The coffee that I had while I was away was pretty good, but only one of them was as good or better than my usual coffee from here.

It was about 2.15pm when we pulled into our driveway.

The entire afternoon was spent unpacking. AH and I unwrapped last year's christmas and birthday gifts that my niece left on Chicklet's doorstep for us at 11.30 last night. My sister failed to send them last year and decided to get her daughter to drop them to me on a trip to Brisvegas! So that was fun!

I unpacked the FROG box and the butcher order, then unpacked everything from my time away. Of course I had to cull quite a few items from my wardrobe before I unpacked, so that there would be room for my new clothes!

I watched some X-Factor that AH recorded for me and then made dinner .. crispy skinned chicken with sweet potato chips, fresh asparagus and beans from the garden tossed in butter and garlic, a thick chunk of zucchini fried in beef tallow and some kimchi.

AH complained about how much mess I made in the kitchen, so I told him that he would be cooking from now on!

Now I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed ... although I must say that my 'other' bed was very comfortable too and I slept well most nights. I, and the other visitors have worn it in well.

It's good to be home and I really hope that Vegan Chickie gets over her illness and jetlag soon so that she can enjoy being home too.

Nite all.

What a Day!

Me + buses = Epic FAIL every time!

I thought I was being very clever looking up the bus timetable and planning my own way to Sunshine Plaza this morning, so that I could arrive on time for my 8am dental appointment.

I got the Bare-chested Chef to drop me at Civic at 5.35am so that I could catch the 6.05am bus, which would get me to Sunshine Plaza at 7.20am. It would be a thirteen minute walk from there to my appointment, so I figured I could grab a coffee somewhere beforehand.

Well, 6.05am came and went, and there was no sign of any public transport so I looked up the timetable again only to discover that the timetable was from 2011!! I found the current timetable and there was no bus until 7.10am which would get me to Sunshine Plaza at 8.17am!!! It meant that I would miss my appt completely.

So I calculated that if I got off the bus at Sunshine Coast Airport and caught a taxi, if all things went to plan, I would only be about 5 minutes late for the appointment.

Of course Murphy's Law dictates that all things do NOT go to plan.

It was 7.57am, there was one taxi on the rank and the driver told me that he could get me there in six minutes. I felt that this was a good sign. Until the first red light .. and then every red light for the entire journey! At 8.07am, the receptionist from the dental surgery phoned me to ask if I was still coming. It was 8.14am when I walked through their doors, after paying $28 for the taxi ride!

I had a nice taxi driver though who told me how he had his amalgam fillings removed about four years ago and his health had improved so much, he took up surfing again. He was 62!

Anyway, my dentist was very understanding after I apologised profusely and she didn't try to rush the appointment. She took photos of all of my teeth and gums from every angle and then took an x-ray with their special machine that emits lower nasties than a regular x-ray.

She then showed me every photo, one by one, explaining what needed to be done with each tooth and in what order she would do it all. She showed me the x-ray and pointed out all the problems in the gums.

I have cracks in two of the teeth with the amalgam fillings and cracks also in the fillings which are dangerous to my health. I have five amalgam fillings altogether.  She explained about the gum disease, which she stated is advanced, but they could fix it and as long as I continued my healthy lifestyle, it would keep the disease at bay. She said it was probably hereditary (my Mum had to have most of her teeth removed at the age of 16 because of gum disease).

She advised me to use coconut oil to clean my teeth and not to touch mainstream toothpaste.

She gave me a dental plan for the first two hour appointment which is in two weeks time, when she can do a good amount of the work in one hit.

She was amazing. I REALLY REALLY liked her. She was not judgemental and she was calm and caring and answered all of my questions in a very respectful way. She is going to make allowances for the fact that I will be travelling so far and try to do as much at each visit as she can.

I am actually looking forward to my next appointment with her! Believe it or not!

So I left the surgery feeling very happy and satisfied that I had made the right decision to see Dr Kluge.

As luck would have it, there was a coffee shop nearby with a very friendly barista who made a perfect extra large latte for me.

I walked on to Sunshine Plaza where I was about to partake in some retail therapy when Vegan Chickie phoned to tell me that they were coming to the plaza and that I wouldn't have to catch a bus home. The day was looking up!

I forgot to mention that I have had a problem with my right eye for the past few days. It felt like some kind of infection in the inside corner of my eye, where some hot oil had spattered from some chicken I was cooking one night, but it had deteriorated overnight and I was in quite a bit of pain this morning, so I decided to visit the Optometrist to have it checked ... if you know me, I don't seek professional help unless I feel like I'm in trouble!

So I was able to see a very young optometrist at OPSM almost immediately. He spent quite a bit of time looking and poking and touching and prodding and shining lights in all different directions and puffing air into my eyeballs and asking me to read letters and dripping orange dye into my eyes.

In the end, he had no idea what it was but was concerned that the pressure in the sore eye was a bit high. He decided that I should see a specialist - Opthalmologist - as soon as possible, so he made the phone call and got me in at 1pm today!

A bit more retail therapy to fill in the time, then a coffee while Vegan Chickie and Chicklet ate ice cream (Chicklet's berry sorbet was delicous!) and soon the Bare-chested Chef dropped me off at the eye specialist.

I gave them my details and sat down at about 12.50pm. Some young kid called me into an office and asked me a heap of questions, filling in a card as we talked, asking me to read some letters on the wall, checking the pressure in my eyes (he said they were perfect) and then told me to have a seat and Dr McKee would call me shortly.

At 2.10pm I asked the receptionist how much longer I was going to have to wait.

She went searching for my card and quite obviously couldn't find it in any of the doctor's cubicles, but told me that I would definitely be next if I could just take a seat again.

I watched as three of them searched high and low for my information card. Five minutes later I was called into Dr McKee's office.

I have to say that for the 90 minutes that I sat there, I could physically feel my eye improving and by the time I sat in his office, the redness had gone and the pain had subsided to 'just noticeable'.

He used his machines to check both of my eyes and asked me some questions, eventually deciding that he could see nothing sinister in my eye and that the inflammation looked very much like an allergy to something. He began to write out a prescription for steroid drops saying that it would help with the inflammation.

I asked if my eye would heal itself without the drops and he said 'Yes'.

I replied 'Don't bother with the prescription then, thanks very much.'

Then he handed me some drops to help with lubrication. He said 'you don't have to use them and they have nothing in them to hurt you, but just in case you need them.'

So $110 later, I walked out at least knowing that there was nothing sinister lurking in my eye.

It was the busiest surgery I've seen for a long time. There were 27 people sitting in the waiting area for the entire time I was there. When somebody left, someone else took their place. All but one of them was over 65 yrs of age.

The Chicklet family had bought the groceries during that time .. I promised to cook a baked dinner before I left, so we had a baked lamb with sweet potato, turnip, potato, yellow squash, beans and cauliflower with home made gravy. It was quite delicious, considering how uninspired I was.

After dinner it was bath time for Chicklet and then story time - my last night of stories before I head home tomorrow.

I've packed my complete new Summer wardrobe in my suitcase and will be ready for Adoring Husband when he arrives tomorrow to pick me up. I have no idea what time he's coming and as it's now 9.30pm, he will probably be sound asleep, so I will be pleasantly surprised when he lands on the doorstep at whatever time he chooses to do so.

I really need to rest my eye now. It's feeling very tired and a little painful, so I believe that sleep will be the key to it's recovery.

Nite all.  

Day Thirteen of Thirteen

I'm so happy that she is home.

All is right with my world again.

I no longer have to keep my imagination in check.

I told her, it will be like childbirth .. give me time to forget about the pain .. and she can then plan her next trip!

Chicklet is over the moon to have her Mama home.

The Bare-chested Chef is equally ecstatic .. though more controlled in his excitement!

Tomorrow I have my dental appointment and have an early start, so this is a short post.

I think my body has hit super relax mode and needs to sleep.

Nite all.

Day Twelve of Fifteen (maybe less)

Vegan Chickie has arrived safe n sound in Melbourne where she will spend tonight and will be home some time tomorrow. I have already shed a tear or two with relief. I can't wait to hug her hello.

Chicklet had swimming lessons this morning and I took my camera ...

It's difficult to tell here, but apparently, swimming is her favourite thing!!

She really does love it and her teacher is fabulous with her and with the other kids for that matter. I have more photos but I don't want to use up all the credit on my Telstra travel data stick, so I'll wait til I get home to edit the rest.

After swimming, I was dropped off at Tewantin shopping centre, for a day on my own. I was only going to spend the morning out, but I really needed it to do something to make the time go quicker .. knowing that Vegan Chickie was on her way to Melbourne .. I needed to do something away from the house and Chicklet, to get my mind off the craziness that I've created within it.

So I was grateful that the Bare-chested Chef had the day off work so that I could remove myself and partake in some retail therapy to partially heal my damaged soul.

I think it's safe to say that I now have a complete new Summer wardrobe and I won't need to spend any money on clothes for a while! There are some nice little boutiques in Tewantin and Noosaville, most of which are reasonably priced and the people are very friendly in this area too.

Delicious coffee at Zabe Espresso Bar. Very bohemian with free wifi and it's an internet cafe with ipads for public use, comfortable lounges in the back area, magazines and newspapers strewn about and it's obviously 'the' place to go, because there was a queue of people standing out the front waiting for their orders.

I sat in the park to drink my morning coffee and watched the birds .. so many birds! Two parent Butcher birds fighting off Magpies while they took turns feeding their young, Mynah birds building nests by pulling long vines and then streaking across the sky with them, a Kookaburra feeding it's young nested in a hole in a large tree on a main road and a baby Magpie getting a feed from the workers who were creating a new children's park nearby.

Of course I didn't have my camera with me to capture any of that.

At the end of my day, I missed two buses .. I don't even know if they were my buses. They had the right number on them, but apparently there are two buses with the same number that go to different locations. I eventually decided to catch a taxi. Today's taxi cost me $16.30 from Tewantin. The other day I caught the taxi from Civic and it cost me $14.80. Not much difference really.

Chicklet was just waking from a nap when I arrived home. Apparently she'd had a meltdown at the library, so was pretty spent from that. We spent the afternoon playing with the new dinosaurs that I bought her (just a little pack of 8 plastic dinosaurs) and creating some more masterpieces with some new stickers.

I bathed her and Dadu read her bed time stories.

I can't believe that it's already 10.30pm as I type this. I guess time will go at normal speed now that Vegan Chickie has her feet firmly on Aussie ground!

I think it's time to sleep .. hopefully peacefully.

Nite all.

Day Eleven of Fifteen

First of all I would like to thank the friends and family who have called, texted and sent private messages over the last 48 hours to comfort and console me during this stressful time. I have appreciated your moral support, although at times you have triggered tears that I wasn't expecting!

Today has been the longest day in the history of mankind and the universe ... and that is not an exaggeration!

I woke this morning to find a text from Vegan Chickie to say that she had been able to book a flight to London and that she was now going to sleep because she had to be on the plane at 7am.

Of course, 7am in Paris is 4pm here! Which meant a very very very long day of waiting, for me. Every minute seemed like an eternity. Every Chicklet activity seemed to take only five minutes to complete. The more I looked at the clock, the more frustrated I was that time was plodding along so slowly.

Even having Chicklet to care for, did not help keep me occupied enough to make the time move any quicker.

Finally, at 6.20pm I received a text to say that she had "landed in London - next step Dubai"

Funny, I really believed that knowing she was out of Paris, it would help me relax, but it had no affect at all. My stress levels are still peaking and now, I can only hope that when she lands in Australia, I will feel more relaxed.

Meanwhile, my little possum, who knows nothing of what has happened, is having a very restless night. She was sound asleep at 7pm, but woke at 9pm and I carried her back to bed and sat with her til she fell back to sleep, but has just now climbed into my bed at 10pm. She is very unsettled and has a bit of a cough, so I hope she's not coming down with anything.

We stayed at home all day today, watching both of the new dvds, coloring in and making some sea creature masks, we drew some pictures of Poppy Barry being afraid of crocodiles and spiders .. even one with a crocodile eating his shoe! We played catch outside for a little while and then came inside and sang happy birthday to Choco the dog (a stuffed toy bigger than Chicklet .. bought for her by Bubbles during her last visit) and we ate half a dozen of the runny chocolate brownies to celebrate.

Dadu came home for his work break for an hour and Chicklet played with him for that time.

We had a bath, ate dinner while we watched the second half of Open Season (we watched the first half a few days ago) and then we climbed into bed for story time.

Dadu has now arrived home from work and is with Chicklet in her bedroom. She may end up in his bed tonight I dare say. Perhaps she ate too many runny chocolate brownies today! Or perhaps she can sense that we are 'on edge'.

Adoring Husband suffered through some nasty storms at home today and was even called out with the SES to help people with damage.

I'm feeling very tired tonight and it's almost 11pm so I think I will try to get some sleep.

Safe travelling Vegan Chickie xo

Nite all.

Day Ten of Fifteen

Well, as you've all no doubt heard by now, a terrible terrible tragedy has occurred in Paris where 128 people have been killed and 180 injured after gunmen simultaneously attacked six different sites throughout the city.

My daughter is safe and well and in lock down in her hotel room, where she has been since arriving due to illness .. thank goodness for aeroplanes laden with hundreds of people carrying germs, is all I can say! Who knows where she might have been when the shootings took place, if she was well enough to be out and about last night!

There are no words to describe the level of fear and adrenalin that frequently courses through my veins every time I consider what could have happened and what could still happen to my child while she is supposed to be enjoying her dream holiday.

Thank goodness I've had Chicklet to keep me occupied for the day, although I've been 'short' with her a couple of times while I tried to deal with my inner stress and her outer stress at the same time!

It doesn't matter how old your kids are, you still worry about them just as much, as adults, as when they were defenceless babes.

My heart ached when I knew that Bubbles was huddled on the floor in her bedroom riding out a massive cyclone-like storm that hit Sydney recently that seemed to go on for hours.

I felt like I wanted to throw up when Number One Son was beaten by his neighbour's X-husband not long ago and even sicker knowing that the DVO that was taken out, was just a piece of paper that the violent man could ignore if he chose.

Now, I'm trying desperately to ignore the voices in my head that are continually describing worst case scenarios in Paris and my imagination that keeps playing my own hellish movie productions that never end well.

Thank you to Vegan Chickie, who knows of my fears and is fulfilling my request by texting me every hour to tell me she is ok.

Today has not been the best day for me, but only due to the stress .. any other time, today would have been a breeze.

After our phone call with Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef dropped us at Civic at about 9.40am on his way to work. My plan was for coffee and a short play in the children's area, before grabbing some groceries and heading home by about 10.30am.

The Barista informed me that the Minions were appearing in the centre this morning and that there were huge numbers of children already accumulated in the play area and around the stage which was set up close to the play area.

Great! Just what Chicklet and I needed, an unplanned event for which we have not been able to prepare in advance. Her level of the 'spectrum' requires planning for these things!

So we head to the play area anyway, buying a Minion show bag on the way for $25 which contained a plastic cup, a plush toy minion, a pack of minion playing cards, a minion cap and a children's beach towel with life sized minion on it. Pretty good value I thought.

Surprisingly, I found a free table to sit at while Chicklet joined the gazillion other kids in the play area. By now, it was about 9.50am and I was assuming, by the size of the crowd, that the show would begin at 10am.

So I sat and I waited, watching Chicklet as she hovered between me and the play area and hoping that this would be over soon .. I hate crowds too .. especially crowds of unruly children!

By 10.40am there is still no sign of Minions, there is a young couple on stage singing Christmas carols, but they are not the slightest bit interested in the children because they seemed to be more interested in how they looked and sounded, taking selfies and quite obviously full of themselves.

Chicklet was now complaining that no kids wanted to play with her, so between us, we decided to leave the area and head to BIG W to find a dinosaur to take home.

After a long decision process and after I declined her request for the $70 T-Rex that moved and roared, we chose a noisy pteranodon with moving wings and glowing orange eyes. We then selected a couple of dvds .. Lady and the Tramp (her selection) and Bolt (my selection) .. before she excitedly requested a balloon.

BIG W at Civic has a whole party section in one corner with a huge selection of balloons which they blow up with helium at a charge of $2 extra. We selected the only dinosaur balloon which was foil and had 'happy birthday' on it. They tied a long piece of string to it and carefully attached it around her wrist and we departed BIG W with the biggest happiest smile ever!

The weather was looking ominous, so we decided to catch a taxi instead of the bus. I called the number and was told that they would be 'right there'.

We waited and we waited.

More than twenty minutes later, Chicklet decided that we should play 'catch the balloon'. It was a great idea in theory, except on the third 'catch', the string detached itself from the balloon and there it floated towards the sky with the ear piercing shriek of Chicklet trailing behind it.

Only Vegan Chickie will relate to the absolute horror that Chicklet was experiencing as she watched the balloon disappear, and as her screaming reached a crescendo, she suddenly turned and began to run - fast - in no particular direction!

MY scream at that moment, was louder than HER scream and it stopped her in her tracks and immediately silenced her, at which point, I grabbed her hand before she could take another step.

So now I had a decision to make .. do I appease Chicklet and take her inside to get another balloon, thereby, more than likely missing our taxi OR do I try to convince her that she doesn't need the balloon,  attempt to get her home thereby, more than likely, tempting a meltdown IN the taxi???

I chose the first option.

We power walked back into BIG W where I was quite rude to the woman behind the counter explaining what had happened. She suggested that they tie the balloon tighter to Chicklet, but I told her that 'as you can see, the string is still attached to Chicklet's wrist! It was the string that you tied to the balloon itself that let go! Thanks to you, I've just experienced my granddaughter's autistic meltdown AND I've also missed my taxi!!'

She was very apologetic and got me another balloon, which she blew up and tied the string extra tight. I attempted to pay for it, but she looked at me with kind eyes and said 'No, just take this one'.

*sigh*

Yes, I overreacted and shouldn't have given her such a hard time, but I my inner stress just took over!

I wanted to say "I'm so sorry, but my daughter is in PARIS!!!!"

We returned to the taxi rank and phoned for the taxi again - I explained what had happened and they sent another taxi, which arrived almost immediately.

We arrived home at about 1.30pm, just ahead of the storms that have been rolling in and over us all afternoon.

We had some quiet time for about 30 minutes.

We played dinosaur games with the new pteranodon.

We made runny chocolate brownies together.

We coloured in the personalised Octonaut pictures.

We watched Lady and the Tramp.

We had GF 'spaghetti with nothing on it' for dinner. Actually mine had chicken, bok choy and creamy lime & cracked pepper avocado through it. Delicious!

We had a quick bath and then two stories. We discussed our best and worst parts of the day and little miss chatterbox didn't want to shut up, until I said "No more talking. It's time to sleep."

I swear she was asleep 30 seconds later!

I think it's time for me to do the same. It's been a mentally and emotionally exhausting day.

Stay safe my child xo

Nite all.





  

Day Nine of Fifteen

Well, Vegan Chickie arrived in Paris today!

Her room with a view ...

... and this was in New York when she attended the opening night of The Colour Purple Musical on broadway ...

Just a little bit exciting!

Today was another good day with my little Chicklet.

The Bare-chested Chef didn't start work til 5pm today, so we all drove to Civic for some play time in the kids area. Chicklet played with three different kids. As one would leave, another would arrive and she would attach herself to them.

After about an hour, Dadu decided it was a good time to leave because she was beginning to get annoyed with the babies .. and we ALL know how she feels about those damned babies!! So they departed and left me to my own devices.

I enjoyed my morning coffee and then headed for the nail salon where I was able to sit down immediately for an average pedicure.

Once the old nail polish was removed, I discovered that my right big toe nail had a bruise under it and part of the nail itself was broken. I have no idea how that happened! I asked for clear polish on my toes and she painted one layer only which is very dull and barely noticeable. The usual foot and calf massage left a lot to be desired and I departed $40 poorer and feeling quite disappointed, although my feet at least look more presentable now.

Afterwards I spent a leisurely couple of hours browsing, buying and picking up some nice items to include in BGWLBH's care package which I sent in the mail today.

I bought the ingredients to make some runny chocolate brownies, which I hope Chicklet will enjoy.

I sat down in my favourite cafe at the centre for some lunch and watched a gorgeous young couple in their twenties ogle each other with love in their eyes. The young man couldn't take the smile off his face or his eyes off her face and I could literally feel the positive energy that was swirling all around them.

Neither of them was wearing a ring, so I guessed that this was a date very early in their relationship, just by the way they were hesitant to touch each other but obviously wanting to and by the way they ordered their meals .. they weren't completely comfortable with each other yet. There was definitely a connection there and they very much enjoyed the 45 minutes spent together in the cafe.

After I mailed BGWLBH's package, I called my personal taxi service at about 1.30pm and Dadu and Chicklet soon arrived to take me home. There is nothing nicer than seeing that excited smile on Chicklet's face when she recognises me as they pull up in the car.

"Hullo Chicklet! How are you?"

"GREAT!" is how she always responds to that question.

She was excited to learn that I'd bought her a surprise and we couldn't wait to get home to see what it was. A little pack with four dinosaur toys, a book and a stage that has a volcano and palm trees as the backdrop and a river and grass as the foreground to stand on, as well as an upper level stage for the dinosaurs to stand or sleep on.

We spent the next hour playing that game. She decided, for some strange reason, that the lizard we bought from Underwater World was going to be a doctor and the four dinosaurs were going to visit and be healed.

The Apotasaurus came to the doctor because he couldn't jump and he might want to jump to the sun one day .. so the doctor told him to go home and practise and that he would get better and better at jumping the more he practised.

The Stegosaurus had a problem with his spinal plates blowing in the wind. The doctor told him to go home and exercise until the muscles got strong enough to hold the plates firm in the wind.

The triceratops couldn't roll because his horns got in the way. The doctor asked why he wanted to roll? Because it looked like fun! The doctor advised finding something else that was fun to do and not so difficult for a triceratops to do.

The T-Rex had skin off his knee .. because Chicklet kept bending the legs backwards and forwards (I'm surprised the legs hadn't fallen off!) so the doctor advised T-Rex to go home and rest and to try not bending the knee for a few days, til it healed.

Suddenly the big laughing penguin was brought into the story to be another doctor and so the game went on!

Soon it was time to play under the snake sprinkler and we chased each other around the house with the watering can getting drenched .. perfect weather for getting drenched! Forty minutes later it was bath time, but she got bored in the bath after about ten minutes, which is unusual!

We dried off and put some clean clothes on, grabbed a big bowl of grapes and lay on my bed watching 'Ribbit' the movie. I paused it about an hour in, so that I could cook my dinner. Chicklet had spent the afternoon eating bananas, grapes, brown crackers with peanut butter and nuts, so she wasn't interested in dinner, but finished off the grapes instead.

We ate in bed and watched the end of the movie. Twenty minutes on the Minion game and it was time for bed. We read two stories, discussed our best and worst parts of the day and five minutes later she fell asleep holding my hand.

An hour of domestic duties followed .. it's amazing how much mess we can make in one day! Got a load of washing done and then collapsed on my bed to kick back and relax.

It was a good day. For the time I was at home with Chicklet, I didn't feel like there were any gluten after affects today and she was calm and happy.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? Definitely cooking some runny brownies!

Nite all.

Day Eight of Fifteen

A deliberately quiet day today.

Still suffering the after affects of the gluten yesterday, and although there were no meltdowns, she was obviously struggling.

She see-sawed between her Dadu and I all day.

She would watch part of a movie with me in my bedroom, pause it and disappear into the other part of the house with Dadu for an hour or two, then come bursting back into my room wanting to play the Minion game, then she'd run out and ask Dadu to watch the Minion movie with her, then back with me to put stickers under my bed or play the doggy game with all her dog animals, then back out to make another finger puppet with Dadu.

The only time she almost lost it was when she ran into the corner of my wardrobe and smacked her forehead. She really yelled long and hard and demanded that Dadu put a cuddle heart on the wall so that Mama could cuddle her when she got home. She absolutely refused to be cuddled by either of us because she only wanted a Mama cuddle!!

Ten minutes later, she was snuggled under my arm on the bed watching the Ribbit dvd and munching on a punnet of blueberries.

So our quiet day at home had the desired affect - less stress on her (and us for that matter!) and a smooth transition into day three - Vegan Chickie advised me this morning that a glutenous error takes three days from which to recover.

I am going to push my luck slightly tomorrow and take her to Civic and the kids play area in the morning and then catch the bus home. Of course, this depends on how she wakes up in the morning .. I'll make a judgement call then.

The Bare-chested Chef really put in a big effort and served me a restaurant style dinner tonight, which he'd worked on all day. Slow braised beef cheeks done in a red wine sauce with zucchini, onion, purple and yellow baby carrots, fresh beetroot and spinach.

It was 'to die for' and was exactly the type of meal that I would return to a restaurant to order on a regular basis. Absolutely melt in your mouth and so full of flavour, I'm drooling just writing about it!!

That's my day in a nutshell!

For having done not very much at all (should I say, having spent almost the entire day sitting or lying on my bed), I'm feeling decidedly tired this evening, so I think an early night is on the cards.

Think of me Friday night at the club, girls :)

Nite all.

Day Seven of Fifteen

Not such a good day today.

It started badly when Chicklet became upset that I had cleaned her play room. Apparently, she had arranged some special toys in a special way as a surprise for Mama and now her floor was completely bare, much to her dismay and distress!

She discovered this just as Mama phoned from New York, so she had tears rolling down her cheeks telling us about Mama's special surprise being ruined, with Mama on the phone also in tears because she couldn't bare to hear her bubba so upset and not be able to comfort her.

*sigh*

By the end of the phone call, Chicklet was laughing and having a competition with Mama about who loved whom the best.

I promised to help her put everything back the way she had it, but she couldn't remember how it was. She told me that her Octonauts were in a special box, but I know that her Octonauts were scattered all over the floor .. they were probably the only toys that I took any notice of while I was cleaning!

So it was a bad start to a bad day.

We tried to play 'I Spy' in the car while we were on our way to Underwater World, but she got very frustrated when we couldn't guess her 'H' word. Her clue was 'there is one in every car'. Eventually, we discovered that her word was 'people' .. therefore understandable that we didn't get it!

Nonetheless, she was not happy with us.

At this point I got my Intune out and rubbed a drop on her jeans. She was calm for the remainder of the trip and was pretty good throughout the day, sometimes a little manic and it was difficult to get her attention at times because she was focussed on other kids, but nothing that we couldn't handle. She was easily distracted with bargaining and compromising.

We stopped for a break at the kiosk .. first buying a lizard toy from the gift store .. and then Dadu bought her a chocolate paddlepop. At the time, I wondered about the ingredients, but decided that after all this time, Dadu would know what was gluten free and what wasn't, but having looked it up this afternoon, Paddle Pops contain gluten AND they are obviously full of dairy, which we are supposed to be avoiding.

This appears to be the trigger that took us over the edge this afternoon.

After a great day at Underwater World and a quiet trip home in the car, Dadu was exhausted and needed a nap, or at least some quiet time, so Chicklet went to her play room with a plate of egg and salad (which didn't get touched) and I headed to my room and closed the door.

I figured that the two of them would have their quiet time and then spend the afternoon together doing activities and playing under the snake sprinkler.

I had my fan on high, which creates a kind of white noise .. almost impossible to even hear a soft knock on my door, let alone anything that's happening in the house, but there was definitely meltdown screaming happening and her name being uttered sternly many times.

She knocked on my door about 90 minutes after I'd closed it and requested that I play the Minion game and then demanded that we do an 'acivity'. By this time, it was already after 5pm and I attempted to dissuade her, but she was insistent, so even though she wanted to do THREE activities, I convinced her that one was all we had time for before dinner and bath!

As Murphy's Law would have it, she chose the most difficult of all the activities in her drawer! Cardboard finger puppets that required much bending of cardboard and matching of numbers and glueing that was difficult to manage on tiny surfaces!

It took Dadu and I at least 30 minutes to put together one finger puppet each while little madam floated around the table asking impossible questions and expecting instant results.

She decided that she was definitely not hungry for dinner tonight and then there was a mini argument over bathing or showering .. it's important to pick your battles, so Chicklet and I won that one deciding on a bath.

The lessons we have learned today:

• Do not clean the play room without Chicklet's permission and/or supervision.
• Do not feed gluten and dairy laden Paddle Pops to Chicklet .. it's the equivalent of feeding a Gremlin after midnight.

Difficult, but valuable lessons learned.

It is now the halfway point of my babysitting duties and to put Vegan Chickie's mind at rest (and as I explained to the Bare-chested Chef tonight), I am loving my time with Chicklet. Not once have I pleaded with the Gods above to make the time go faster because every day has been a joy for me. She has been an angel (until today's little hiccup) and she has filled my heart with love every single day and what's more, I have been impressed with my stamina!

I hope that we have built some wonderful memories together and I will look forward to Vegan Chickie's future holidays when I will get to spend more time with my gorgeous girl (until she becomes a teenager and then maybe not so much!). Maybe Mama and Dadu can go on holidays *together* while Chicklet and I have fun!

On saying that, I am also missing Adoring Husband and look forward to seeing him in just over a week .. I will need to undo all the damage that he has done with his 'less than vigilant' eating habits while I've been gone!

Anyway, I'm feeling the love for you all!

Nite all.

  

Day Six of Fifteen

I can't believe it's 10.30pm already!

Another successful day for Chicklet and I.

When she came into my room at 7.30 this morning, she seemed a bit manic and verging on losing control, so while she was in my room and before I jumped in the shower I put a drop of Intune on the back and front of her neck.

It took about twenty minutes before she seemed completely settled again .. I love this stuff!!

On his way to work this morning, the Bare-chested Chef dropped Chicklet and I off at the local bakery where I bought my coffee and then we walked down to the new kid's playground in the estate. We had it all to ourselves so we played there for almost 90 minutes.

It's not a well planned playground. A large circle of sand framed with a concrete strip and covered with a large shade cloth sail. There's a climbing frame with a slide at one end, a couple of strange swing seats that are about 3 inches from the ground, another plastic warped table-like contraption that can be climbed on, three strange mushroom looking things that are not even angled well enough to sit upon and I think that's it.

There is an electric barbecue and a picnic table nearby, but no shade or cover for either of them and then over to the side there is a bench seat, also out in the open with no shade. The park is also right beside bushland which is on the edge of a swamp - which I consider could be quite dangerous with young children. Parents will need to be very diligent.

On saying that Chicklet kept herself occupied for almost 90 minutes by herself, so I guess it can't be all bad!

We walked a different way home from the park and it was an easy walk.

First on the agenda when we arrived home was to sit down and play the Minion game on the Ipad until we were rested enough to get into some 'activities'.

I drew a farm and used the farm animal stickers to create a farm ...

... then Chicklet copied me ...

... this is her farm ute with the dogs inside ...

... and finally, one of her dinosaur worlds with mountains and caves (notice a lot of her dinosaurs are wearing necklaces?) ...

Today, we also drew a garden and filled it with stickers of bugs, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, dragonflies, ladybugs, caterpillars, butterflies and other creepy crawlies.  This photo is of Poppy Barry being chased up the tree by spiders and bugs (you can only see his skinny legs and feet) ...

Lunch was followed by almost an hour of quiet time while Chicklet watched some Wile E Coyote in her play room and I lay on my bed listening to the quiet .. a rare thing when little miss chatterbox is around!

The snake sprinkler was now in the shade, as the sun passed over the roof, so we went outside to chase each other with the watering can which we filled up with the water coming from the snake's mouth.

This time I joined in and Chicklet was crazy with happiness as we took turns drenching each other. Sometimes she was laughing so hard that she couldn't stand up and barely had the strength to hold the full watering can! Such fun!

Bath time followed, to wash all the grass and mud off .. I cleaned the bathroom and her play room while Chicklet bathed and Dadu came home for his work break around that time, so he dressed her before he returned to work.

More time on the Minion game, then dinner of boiled egg, capsicum, cucumber and carrot.

Two books for bedtime and discussions about the day. Thank goodness, I wasn't the cause of her 'worst' part of the day today! The worst part for today was walking home from the park, which she claims was 'too far!'

Today was a perfect Spring day, not too hot and with a nice breeze blowing for most of the day.

Tomorrow we are aiming for Underwater World, which should be fun. The Bare-chested Chef has two days off work .. his weekend is mid-week.

I've located a Holistic Dentist in Maroochydore and I missed a call from them this afternoon, so I'm hoping to go visit them before I head home next week. This is a female dentist with 20 years experience and her website talks about 'oil pulling' with coconut oil, colloidal silver for keeping gums clean and healthy and safe removal of amalgam filling with the support of vitamin C and a high protein diet during the process to help the body rid itself of the toxins without compromising the immune system. She has already won me over.

It's almost midnight, so I'd best get some sleep with another big day planned for tomorrow!

Nite all.   

Day Five of Fifteen

Really? Day five already?! How time flies!

I'm feeling a little brain dead tonight.

With the storms and heavy rain last night, I welcomed an addition to my bed at 1.30am when Chicklet came into my room complaining about how loud the rain was and that she was scared. She climbed under the blankets and I told her that as soon as the rain stopped, she could go back to her own bed.

Well, we both fell asleep and I was woken at 4.30am by a little voice saying "Bozzy Wozzy, I fell out of the bed!"

Without even looking, because she sounded fine, I said "Well, hop up and go climb into your own bed. The storm has gone now."

She replied with "Bozzy Wozzy, I need your help!"

I rolled over and looked to see her little head, shoulders and arms were on the ground and she had the palms of her hands on the ground, holding her head and shoulders up, while her legs and feet were entwined in the sheet on the bed and she couldn't move at all!!

It was hilarious! Even more hilarious, was me attempting to untangle her while preventing her from landing hard on her head or face!

I finally managed to unravel her and had her standing upright when I suggested that she now climb into her own bed, so she left my room.

Apparently, she went to Dadu's room and woke him up instead.

He was looking very much the worse for wear this morning because he struggled to fall asleep anyway, and then had his sleep broken by Chicklet.

Anyway, we were still able to get to swimming lessons on time this morning (in the pouring rain) and I watched Chicklet start the lesson very focussed and bubbly and happy and positive, being cheeky with the teacher and doing everything as instructed.

On our way to swimming lessons and talking to Mama on the phone...

By the end of the 30 minute lesson, she was totally unfocussed, not hearing anything that the teacher said and completely scatter brained! Luckily the lesson only went for 30 minutes. She was good for about 23.5 of them.

She really loved it in the water and was reluctant to climb out of the pool at the end of the lesson. She was diving under the water and dog paddling across the pool, kicking with a paddle board both on her belly and on her back and she dived down to the bottom to pick up the pink fish from the floor of the pool. All very impressive.

The teacher did so well with the four young kids in the class. There was Chicklet and another little girl around the same age, who was sobbing before she even got in the water. She hated every second of the lesson and didn't want to attempt any of the instructions that she was given but was making a half hearted effort through her never ending tears. I felt sorry for her. The instructor was firm but kind, so hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

There were two other children, who were probably between three and four years of age. A boy and a girl, both of whom were very confident in the water and the teacher struggled to hold them back because they wanted to do 'everything' five minutes ago!

After the lesson, we sloshed our way through the heavy rain to the car and I was dropped off at Civic for the morning. I had a leisurely breakfast of bacon and egg and avocado and spinach at the cafe and an extra large latte then strolled through the shopping centre browsing in all of the stores.

I bought clothes and jewellery, stickers and textas for Chicklet, some coconut flour and almond meal from the health shop, got a couple of Christmas gifts to put away and then did some grocery shopping .. which was a stupid move because I wanted to have a pedicure, but by the time I finished, I had too many bags to take into the salon *forehead slap*.

Never mind, I can do that on Wednesday or Thursday when the Bare-chested Chef has his next days off.

He came to pick me and my load of shopping bags up at around 1.30pm and I got to spend the afternoon doing activities with my little Chicklet.

We created a farm with some farm animal stickers, including a barn with chickens looking out of the top windows and a farm ute with dogs.

We used some dinosaur ink stamps on paper and then drew mountains and caves and trees to create a dinosaur world.

We traced around the cardboard dinosaurs that we made a couple of days ago, coloured them in and drew jewellery on them, a shiny red bow tie AND a golden crown on their heads.

We also made some pteranodons and coloured them in too.

We played the Minion game on the Ipad again, had rice and papadums for dinner, a bubble bath and then Dadu read a LOT of bedtime books before Chicklet succumbed to the sandman.

No dinner for me tonight - just a bunch of grapes and a big bottle of water. My hearty breakfast kept me satisfied all day long!

Vegan Chickie has checked a few more items from her OS bucket list today. She visited Central Park, walked the High Line, ate at Chinatown and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

Central Park ...

It's almost 9.30pm and I think I might turn off the light and attempt a solid night's sleep.

Nite all.

Day Four of Fifteen

A truly memorable start to my day!

4.30am and we were almost thrown from our beds by the most horrendously loud explosion of lightning striking somewhere very close by. I swear that it hit the road outside my bedroom window .. which was open at the time! It hurt my ears and scared the bejeezus outta me!!

It took Chicklet all of five seconds to run into my room and land on my bed! "I'm scared of the loud storm Bozzy Wozzy!"

"It's ok." I replied "come here and I will give you a cuddle."

"No!" was her response "Mama will cuddle me when she comes home. Go put a heart on the cuddle heart for me!"

So up I get in search of heart stickers in the dark!

I told her that if she was going to stay in my bed, she had to sleep and not talk to me. She then spent the next three hours climbing in and out of bed to check the clock next to her own bed. She has a clock that shows a moon face during the night and you can set it to show a sun face at a specific time in the morning. Chicklet's clock is set for 7.30am, so she knows that she can't come out of her bedroom until the sunny face shows on her clock at 7.30am.

Needless to say, I did not get much sleep in those three hours. Surprisingly, it really didn't affect my day too badly. I didn't feel tired and I was still able to keep up with her. I admit that I was grateful for the hour respite that I got when the Bare-chested Chef arrived home for his break mid afternoon, but I'm pretty impressed with my stamina so far!

Mama phoned this morning from inside a Tesla car .. this is Mama and her friend 'King of the World'.

I call him that because he has created a successful life in which the world is at his feet. He wants for nothing, he has many friends and family who adore him and on top of that he is a good, kind and generous human being.

They were driving on the highway to New Jersey when she phoned and excitedly explained how the car drove itself. King of the World didn't have to steer the car, nor use his feet on the pedals. She was in awe and maybe just a little bit scared!

Vegan Chickie is obviously having a great time and I hope that she is relaxed knowing that all is well on the home front.

You may be surprised to learn that we did NOT watch 'Chicken Little' today .. even though I offered twice!

Chicklet's new obsession is the Minion game on my Ipad .. not playing it herself .. but watching me play it. I probably played it for three hours altogether today.

We had plenty of activities going today. We created dinosaur world. We had dinosaurs climbing the Great Pyramids, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon, Uluru, Sydney Opera House, The White House and many other world landmarks.

We created pictures out of Toy Story stickers, Brave stickers, Monsters Inc stickers, Cars stickers, The Incredibles stickers.

We drew pictures to put the stickers into and then we put stickers down and drew pictures around them.

We ate a healthy lunch of raw vegetables and then for dinner, more boiled eggs and vegetables. She asked if she ate seven eggs, would she have to have vegetables as well? I told her that even if she ate twenty eggs, she would still have to eat 'some' vegetables.

This afternoon we hooked up the snake sprinkler, but this time I sat in the outdoor area and stayed dry .. Dadu arrived home for his break during this activity, so I left them outside and hibernated in my bedroom for a little while.

Tonight, in bed, while we discussed the best and worst things about the day, she said that the sprinkler snake was the best AND the worst thing about her day, because she loves to play in the water, but I didn't join in and let her drench me like I did for the last two days and that made her sad .. she didn't like playing by herself.

Once again, I feel like a meanie :(

We had about 15 minutes today where we did nothing and she kept asking me "What can we do that's fun?" I told her that sometimes it's ok to do absolutely nothing and that we didn't have to do fun things all the time. She advised me that she NEVER does just 'nothing'! EVER!

I've been told.

Tomorrow is Chicklet's day for swimming lessons and she asked if I would come and watch. I'm excited to see her learning to swim!

The weather is stormy again tonight but I'm hoping the worst of it is over. We've had some good rain and a bit of lightning and thunder, but by the look of the BOM site, we will only get rain for the rest of the night. Fingers crossed.

Day four .. another success *happy dance*

Nite all.

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.