Not My Finest Parenting Moment

Discipline has been a big issue in our house lately. Skye is making full use of her terrible two status and ensuring that even the simplest of instructions are met with resistance. Needing to change her nappy, or put a shirt on, or get in the car usually results in Skye running and hiding in the tiniest space she can find. Swipes to my face in protest are common when I try to speak to her about her behaviour and at times she will flat out ignore me as if I am not even in the same room. Nothing out of the ordinary for her age, but exhausting none the less.

 

The Honeymoon Is Over–TV In The Bedroom

I have long held the belief that having a TV in the bedroom signals the end of romance in a marriage. Since we are the masters of all thing romantic in this house (ahem) I have stuck by this belief for almost 12 years. When Mr Bond and I were both working long hours the only time we really had together through the week was spent watching TV together. Sure we didn’t always want to watch the same thing, but at the time we only had free-to-air channels, so options were limited and for me it was more important to at least be able to sit in the same room together, even if there was little conversation. Fortunately, Mr Bond had never seemed overly keen about the idea of a TV in the bedroom either.

I could probably put up with it if it looked like this Image Credit

 

OK So We Agree We Aren’t Going To Buy Another House? Cool, I’ll Make The Offer Tomorrow…

I have a great habit of saying something only to completely backflip on it in a matter of days. It drives me and Mr Bond crazy, but sometimes you just have to be open to seeing an opportunity when it presents itself. A few months ago we had been looking at houses and found something that looked ideal, but of course once I got to view the property for myself it was clear that my dream home was nothing more than a blatant use of Photoshop. After the initial disappointment we decided that the timing was not great for us to move anyway and this was just the Universe’s way of telling us to wait for something better to come along. Since then I have been keeping an eye on the properties coming up for sale in our area and there really hadn’t been anything suitable for our needs that was also suitable for our budget. The good thing about this was that it gave us time to get a really clear understanding of what we needed in a new family home.

Image Via We Heart It

Happiness Is… A Dog On The Lounge

 

Tag I’m It!

Milina over at Little Red Vikings has tagged me in the latest bloggy tag game and asked me to answer the same questions she responded to here. I like joining in on these ones because the questions are usually a good combination of intriguing and random so you get to find out a little bit more about the person behind the blog, in one easy-to-read post. So to keep things nice and simple I’m just going to jump right in and get on with the questions.

Describe yourself in seven words

Impatient, happy, tired, shopaholic, fit, fun, procrastinator

What keeps you up at night?

• All of the things I meant to do today, or forgot to today and won’t get a chance to do tomorrow.
• Where I am going to put Skye’s ever growing toy collection.
• Why am I still awake? I have to be up again in xxx hours, I should be asleep!!!
• Should we put an offer in on that house?
• The latest half written blog post that just struck me as I was getting into bed.

Thank You, For Loving Me At My Worst

Mr Bond does cop a pretty bad rap here at times (mostly deserved) and I often take him for granted, occasionally even being ungrateful for all that he does because I am too busy making fun or seeing faults. Just last week I was complaining about the fact that he had been coming home early (right after I had put Skye down for her nap) and interrupting my Me-Time that I had planned on using to write blog posts and catch up on some general computer faffing. The audacity of him wanting to be in his own home and spend time with his wife. This week I was reminded what a wonderful husband he really is.

Image via We Heart It

 

Proud Mummy Moments– My Sweet Natured Girl

Real life has been getting in the way of Eat Play Bond recently and this meant that I missed my chance to link up with Diary of a SAHM’s iBOT this week. Luckily for me Jess has decided to do another linky this week which is giving all of the adoring and proud mummies out there a chance to brag about their gifted and special offspring and celebrate the proud moments of other mummies too. Kind of like a big virtual high five to all of us for raising such wonderful children. You can check all of the posts out here.

I have a lot of proud mummy moments, like when I realised that Skye can identify an obscure animal in a book, or that she can sing the ABC song, or drink out of a big girl cup. But the things that make me proudest are when I see another aspect of her personality developing and how she is becoming a little person in her own right.

Happiness Is… A DIY Cubby House

 

Toilet Training–The Girl Who Cried Poo!

We are in the ‘getting to know you’ stage of toilet training right now. We have been here for quite a few months. We started early with introducing Skye to the idea of using a toilet (around 14 months) and she was regularly doing her evening poop on the toilet without issue, but things stalled after a month or two and then there was an all out refusal for such a long time I wondered if Skye would be wearing nappies to her first day of Kindergarten! I don’t want to push her and cause her stress but I also know that she is a child that sometimes needs a little extra persuasion to get on board with things.

It’s normal to get a manicure on the toilet right?

Busted–The Jig Is Up

Way back in April 2010 when I first started this blog I opted not to tell Mr Bond about it. I wasn’t sure if it was something I would enjoy doing or if I would have to time to make a real go of it and at the time, I really had no idea what was involved! It’s been a steep learning curve to say the least. The months went by, Mr Bond took a contract for work that had him living away from home all week and before I knew it, I had an established blog with a steady following, I had made many connections with other wonderful bloggers and readers, some of whom I consider to be close friends and even done a sponsored post. Things were going swimmingly but it had got to a point where I knew I would have to tell Mr Bond what all the computer/Facebook/Twitter/messaging was about, surely he had been wondering. My biggest concern was trying to figure out how to bring it up in the first place without looking like some crazy lady that shares every last detail of our lives with people she has never even met, and what the whole point of it was.

 

I Suck At Girl-Code

I am not sure what the female equivalent to Bro’s before Ho’s is, Chicks before Dicks perhaps? In any case, there is an unwritten rule that girl friends are supposed to stick together and support the sisterhood in times of disagreement with their significant other. I am not very good at it. Sometimes I deliberately jump ship to side with a friend’s husband in a discussion and other times it is completely unintentional.

Like last weekend.

 

A Husbands Guide To Getting Lucky On Valentine’s Day

Given that today is Valentine’s Day I thought I would put together a how-to list to give the husbands out there a better chance of getting lucky tonight. Trust me, this is going to be far more effective than the petrol station roses you were planning on picking up on the way home today.

Image via We Heart It

Happiness Is… A Pampered Birthday Girl

 

 

 

 

Project Life 2012 - January

Because this is my first year doing a full Photo A Day Project Life folder and because I, like so many of you, fell behind with my previous attempts I thought it would be a good idea to do a monthly check in to see how everyone is going and also so we can have a bit of a sticky at everyone’s albums.

I was off to a bad start, I had managed to get a photo every day and had even ordered some of the prints, but until late this week I had not written any of my journaling cards – not one single card. To make matters worse, Clever Baker Friend, who has told me she often falls behind on journaling was completely up-to-date! It was just the kick in the pants I needed and a couple of days later I sat down and wrote a full month of journaling cards in one sitting while Skye was at Day Care.

Doing them all at once like that is not something I would recommend, I was over it after about a week and a half but I knew I had to get it finished and persisted. I think I was reluctant to make a start because I didn’t want to mess it up but I have plenty of spare cards in the kit so even if I totally muff a few of the cards I can always replace them. I was also being overly pedantic about what pen I was going to use. Procrastinate much?

As I said when I first started this project, I didn't want to bother with a whole lot of embellishment because I wanted to focus on the story of the photo’s themselves and here is how it is looking so far.

5 Reasons Why Retail Drives Me Crazy

I am sure you have noticed by now that I love a bit of shopping, but it may come as a surprise that I hate going to the shops. It’s not just the obviously annoying things like the crowds, the lack of parking, and of course the mission that is getting Skye in and out of the car and convincing her to sit in a stroller while I do my thing. Everyone hates that, so there wouldn’t be much point in my ranting about that would there? Of course not. So instead I have put together the top 5 not so obvious reasons why retail shopping drives me crazy.

Poor Customer Service
OK, so this is probably a pretty common one, but indulge me. Last week I purchased an iron from a rather reputable appliances retailer. I took the advice of the very helpful sales assistant and purchased a mid-range model expecting that it would be more than suitable for my sporadic requirements. Once I got it home and gave it a test run I discovered it did not actually get hot, at all. Iron101 fail. The next day I returned the product wanting to exchange it for a different model and was treated like I was being difficult for doing so. I would have thought that for $90 it was reasonable to expect that the product performed its most basic function. Apparently their customer service department disagrees.

Holy Shit, I’m 30?

Today I am turning THIRTY, yep, the big 3-0. Until last night it didn’t really bother me, I mean it is only a number and I know that today isn’t going to be drastically different from yesterday, but still, there is something significant about moving out of your twenties and into the official adulthood of your thirties. Who am I kidding? I have been living the life of a responsible adult for many years already. In fact, all things considered, I probably didn’t do anything particularly outrageous in the whole last decade! Even so, getting a 3 at the front of my number has made me reflect on what I have done with my life so far and looking forward, what I still hope to achieve. All-in-all I am pretty happy with where I am right now and feel that I have quite a lot to show for my time so far, so here’s cheers to the last 30 years!

Surely it’s 5 o’clock somewhere?

Is There Ever Any Satisfaction With Now?

In my short time being a mum I have found that no matter what age your child is, people are always commenting on what lay ahead. Any remark you may make regarding your child’s behaviour or developmental milestone’s is met with some variation of “that’s nothing, wait until they are xxx, then you will be in trouble”. I find it frustrating that they seem unable to simply celebrate or in some cases sympathise with the situation we are living right at that moment. When I was enjoying the thrill of seeing Skye crawling for the first time, I didn’t want to be deflated by someone saying “it won’t be long now and she will be running around” as if the crawling itself was not enough. When I was up through the night with Skye cutting her first teeth, the last thing I wanted to hear was how horrific the molars will be. It wasn’t that I was in denial of the future, but the stages come so quickly already, the thought of what would be happening 6 – 12 months from now was more than I could cope with. Having said that, I am guilty of it too, but I still don’t understand why we do it. Is it because people want to shift the focus onto themselves and their own expert opinions? Is it just human nature to drive a child’s development? Or is it a reflection of the instant gratification culture we now live in? No matter what the case may be, it seems that right now is never good enough.

The Day Nap Dilemma

At the risk of receiving floods of hate mail, I am going to share a little fact about Skye – she still has a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon. It’s wonderful, and I’m sorry. Aside from some issues in the early months, Skye has always been a pretty good sleeper which I had always put down to my exceptional parenting skills. Actually that’s rubbish, yes my unwavering loyalty to our routine may have helped, as did the use of comfort aids such as a dummy and blankie, but the fact is that Skye wants to sleep, I know this because on the occasions when she does not want to go to sleep, I’ve got nothin’. Short of doping her out on Phenergan, I simply cannot convince her to nap if she does not feel so inclined.

An extra long nap last week.

Happiness Is… Driving A Porsche

Even if mum is too tight to stick $2 in it.