Author: Veronica

Amy today with my hand in hers

Roundey roundey darden
[mumble mumble] teddy bear!
One tep, two tep,
Tickle tickle tickle!

[Translation:

Round and round the graden,
Like a teddy bear,
One step, two step,
Tickle under there! ]

***

Amy: ‘Mumeeeee!’

Me: ‘What?’

Amy: ‘I tucked!’

Me: ‘Are you stuck?’

Amy: ‘STUCK!’

Me: ‘Okay, I’m coming.’

[She was standing on top of the dryer. Again]

Amy: ‘Mumeeee! Yay! Jump!’

Me: ??? *catches leaping daughter*

Amy: ‘Yay! Tiss?’

Me: ‘Kiss.’

Amy: ‘Okay, go down now.’

***

[Last night at 1am]

Amy: ARGHHHHH WAIL OWWW CRY SCREAM

Me: Stumbling to her bedroom. ‘Come here, have a cuddle, do you need a drink?’

Amy: WAIL SCREAM CRY

Me: ‘Here, have a cuddle and then lay down.’

Amy: WAIL SCREAM CRY ARGHHHHHHH

Amy: ‘Do ‘way! Noweeeee, OUT OUT OUT DET [get] OUT’

Me: Sigh. ‘Lay back down then.’

Amy: Screams. ‘No touchy me! Owwwww hurts! NO YOU DET OUT’

Me: ??? Spends the nect 10 mins patting her back while she screams at me to ‘do ‘way no touch ME’, but screams worse when I leave.

Amy: Sigh, snuffle ahhhhhhh. Falls asleep.

[Repeat every half hour until 4.30am when I gave Nurofen]

Sigh, damn teeth.

***

‘Mumeeeee, I poooed!’

(I hear the sounds of Amy removing her nappy, sadly I am not fast enough to get to her before her nappy falls off)

‘Ewwwwwww! Pooooooooey!’

I grab the nappy and discover…. a slightly wet nappy with one pea in it. Obviously she dropped a pea down her pants during dinner and thought she had pooped. Not sure whether to be proud, or scared that her first instinct is to remove a poopy nappy herself. She still refuses to sit on her potty though, claiming it ‘hurssss legs!’. Will be buying a new potty sooner rather than later.

***

So, lots of talking lately and lots of development. She counts to 5 alone and further if I am helping. She finds nursery rhymes [aside from Round the Garden] boring and would prefer to dance to whatever music is on shuffle. She sings to Nirvana and Metallica and can head bang as well, although I have no idea who she learnt that from.

I am 8 weeks pregnant tomorrow and still haven’t been able to get an appointment at the doctors to schedule another ultrasound. Not because the doctor is busy, but because everytime I ring I get an answering machine and then I forget to ring back. Sigh.

The pregnant exhaustion has set in and I find myself feeling like a train wreck most of the time. I am napping when Amy naps and staying in bed later of a morning (thankyou Nathan) but I still feel fucked. And I am still spending alot of time retching.

Ah well, it will pass.

Right?

[Please note, all Amy’s yes and no answers were punctuated by wild shaking and nodding of her head]

Me – ‘What would you like for tea?’

Amy – ‘Tea?’

Me – ‘Yes, tea.’

Amy – ‘Tea? Hot! Please?’

Me – ‘No, we aren’t having a hot drink. Would you like noodles?’

Amy – ‘Noodles!’

Me – ‘Yes?’

Amy – ‘Yes!’

Me – ‘Okay’

Amy – ‘No!’ Shakes head.

Me – ‘No?’

Amy – ‘Yes!’

Me – ‘Yes?’

Amy – ‘No!’

Sigh.

Me – ‘Would you like noodles? Or a sandwich.’

Amy – ‘Sammich! Yaaaaay!’

Me – ‘So you want a sandwich then?’

Amy – ‘Sammich!’

Me – ‘Okay, Mummy will make you a sandwich.’

Amy – ‘No!’

Me – ‘No?’

Amy – ‘Yes!’

Me – ‘Amy, would you like noodles? Or a sandwich?’

Amy – ‘No.’

Sigh.

Me – ‘Mummy will make you noodles then, okay?’

Amy – ‘Look! Puppy! Tat! Catch dem! Nooooo, bad tat, bad Sedey (Seven), OUT!’

Amy – ‘Mumeeeee, doe ‘way! Nooooow.’

Sigh.

And that is where I gave up and made her 2 minute noodles for tea. She ate them all and completely forgot that sandwiches were also on offer. Tell me, why do I bother giving her choices yet?

I had to bath the kitten today. It was wet and rainy and muddy and then Seven dragged the poor kitten through the mud. (The Tortie is like the dog’s chew toy. Only she wiggles).

So, instead of leaving the wet muddy kitten outside to clean herself, I dunked her into a bath full of warm water, swooshed her around and left her to dry next to the fire.

Poor kitteh.

So, I went into town today and took some photos. I need you to bear with me because most of them (except the ones taken in the Cascade Gardens) were taken from a moving car as I tried not to puke. Photos will be shown after all the questions.

Mrs C asks,

OK. What is the official Tasmanian opinion on the Bugs Bunny Tazmanian Devil? How about the Queen and Prince Charles? And is that “going to school by radio” thing just a myth they tell us about here? Thought everyone outside the city did that.

(Personally, I don’t like that lady Charles married, but I guess that isn’t really a representative “American” opinion.)

Well, I have never really had an opinion on Taz. I mean, if you had seen the mess a real devil could make, you wouldn’t find him quite so far fetched. His ability to eat everything though is just silly. Devils eat pillows? HAHAHA. They are smarter than that. They generally eat carrion (read: road kill).

The Queen is just the Queen. We all mocked her ‘wave’ as kids (and I admit, Nathan and I sometimes still do).

People do go to school by radio, but not so much in Tassie. Tassie is so small (we could fit inside Victoria 3 times) that there is generally always a school close enough to bus too. The Mainland is a very different matter though, they have radio school there.

Meh, I am not a big fan of Camilla either, but we all know Charles won’t be King anyway.

Ree asked me ‘How far away is the city?’

Hobart is about a 50 minute drive away from here. So not that far away really. I am closer to the South of Tassie than I am to the North.

Hyphen Mama asked me,

What’s it like to have Christmas in summer? Do you have different songs that don’t include “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”? Frosty the snowman probably isn’t right up there for Christmas songs, either.

I thought Australia was granted independence OF SOME SORT from England in 1900 or 1901?? I must be wrong.

When you watch TV, what do you watch? Does Australia create big productions? (sorry, all I’m thinking of is the Wiggles).

I had never really had to think about it, you know? I take so much of it for granted.

Christmas in summer is great, we generally have a family ‘do’ with cold meats and various platters of food. Everyone helps themselves and it makes for a great day. Think warmth (although, the last few years have been pretty so-so) and alcohol and balloons and presents and food and more alcohol. In that order.

Uh yeah, ‘scuse me while I brush up on my history. Mum will kill me, but I am pleading pukey Mummy Brain. I can’t think enough to make 2 min noodles let along think about history!

We watch all the same shows you guys do, but our comedy is better. I watch Greys Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Kitchen Nightmares (Gordon Ramsey) all that kind of junk. We also get alot of British comedy as well.

However, we only have a few TV channels. Until recently, we only got Southern Cross (this one shows Greys) WIN (Kitchen Nightmares), ABC and SBS. Then, they switched on our digital signal and providing you have a digital receiver (set top box) you can add ABC2 (good for kids shows) and TDT (very similar to Southern Cross).

And I am too lazy to do links to the TV stations. Of course, if you are willing to pay, you can get Austar (pay TV).

Witchypoo asked me about the snakes. However, I think snakes deserve a whole post of their own though, so I will do that soon.

Now, for the photos of Hobart.

The old gasworks tower.

Our windscreen needed cleaning, just a little bit.

The wharves. I loved walking around the wharves with Dad as a kid, because he would tell me who used to own and work the boats, what all the equipment was for and what boats he worked on. Not so much in this section though, as all I can really see are yachts and fishermen are never big fans of yachts.

This was taken heading along the main street in a southerly direction (I could so be a weather presenter). See the old buildings?

Ahhhhh, Mt Wellington. How I love thee.

Such an old house.

I haven’t seen the water level this high in years. I remember being a kid and watching the teenagers skateboard in there. No chance of that at the moment!

Cascade Gardens. I used to run through here.

The Brewery! Every Tasmanians favourite place. Nathan would love to work there. Hehe.

Just a random shot of houses.

Cresting the hill, heading back into town.

A church.

A random building. It’s pretty though, no?

The clock at the corner of the bus mall.