Tooth Fairy Busy Week

Little Miss Pink is awash in dribble. It pours out over her chin and gushes down anything she's wearing. Without a bib she is soaked to the belly button in about the time it takes to go and get a bib from the drawer. Combined with her mushy food and finger food, of which she is very keen and generous to her surroundings, she now has a lovely hardened green/yellow food/dribble stain on every top and singlet she owns. Life is glorious.
She blows bubbles of dribble and rubs the spots of dribble into the carpet.
She's the bishop blessing every toy with her holy water.
She's the taste tester thats puts everything to the mouth for assessment, then spits it out.
She's the lady at the party who's drunk too much champagne and sprays you while talking loudly with glazed eyes.
She has two bottom teeth which are invaluable help for masticating marmite toast, but she is definitely working on more. Two white mounds are rising in her upper gum, like the earth rising before the mole erupts from his digging spree. And the river of dribble flows by.
She's ever so cute in her Amber beads, which based purely on no scientific evidence what-so-ever seem to have reduced the frantic finger and furniture leg chewing behaviour.
So its a busy week for the tooth fairy in our house, what with the four wisdom teeth I had out yesterday, and the imminent arrival our her royal dribbly-ness' new pearly whites. Luckily my darling mum is here to help with practical things like food and school runs, while our girl chews the house down and I swan in bed blogging and sucking food through a straw.

Has anyone seen a sock?

Our school boy had a great first half a week of formal education. He hasnt been brimming with details, he tends to get home and hurl himself firmly back into his world of pure imagined brother and brother adventure. He wasn't so keen on listening or following instructions at the weekend though - he'd obviously had enough of that for one week.
Uniform misplaced so far tally by day three stood at - Shorts, Shirt, Fleece and socks x2. This morning we managed to find a fleece on his bag hook, a shirt in the bathroom, and a solitary sock in the lost property bin.
I'm missing him and would so very much love to know what he's doing all day. I'm just on stand by for any random pieces of information he may impart. He sat down after school today at his lovely desk in the lounge, and set to work on his homework book. I suggested actually doing what his teacher had set, but, he wasnt really into that. When he'd finished he said 'Im going to put these on my wall to look at every day'. One is a picture of a box with a line of letters in it. He says it reads "Thankyou very much for letting me go to school".

First School Day

Big Brother has officially had his first day at school.We are getting into the territory where he may be actually laying down some permanent life long memories. A scary thought on a number of levels, but I think I can remember my first day. Or at least I can recall the photo taken to mark the occasion, and the blue school satchel.
:ast night we celebrated the occasion with The Last Meal of the Condemned - not that I sold it to him that way, I told him it was his choice for dinner and pudding cause it was a special day. He chose Carbonara followed by Banana Choc Chip Custard.
Last night he said "I'm going to go to school forever, until I'm 14!"
And this morning he leapt into his uniform (it fitted, luckily, as he'd been singularly not interested in trying on before today) and after the obligatory photo shoot, off we went to school with great excitement (Mr 5) and heavy heart (mum). I forced myself to walk out after a quick goodbye, then I had to force myself to drive away. And stay away for 6 hours!
I phoned at lunch time - "He's fine, he's playing on the computer" was the report.
At 3pm he was thrilled to see me, and I got a big hug. He only lost one pair of socks. He read his homework reading book in the car on the way home. Over the course of the evening a few details of the day emerged - he had learned 'Ballet dancing' (Its actually Belly Dancing practise for the upcoming Aladin School Production) and he gave us a demo. Definitely not your classical ballet.
Tomorrow will be even more interesting, - lets hope the present enthusiasm lasts if not forever, then at least until he's 14.

Happy Birthday Big Brother

Well, my baby turned 5 today.
As I gave the 5 year old a birthday hug this morning I promised that I could tell him the story of his birth, but perhaps not today - maybe save that one for his 21st! It is probably a mothers role to relive the birth every year, and I can't believe this is my 5th anniversary of that life changing day.
Big Brother has been SO excited about this great birthday, and he has had lots of opportunity to celebrate it - a play centre leaving party, a movie night at his house complete with his own popcorn shop, an icecream cake dinner with his bestest ski buddy Grace, and that was all even before the day dawned.
Last night at dinner he was telling us how excited he is about turning 5, and then announced ' we need to set up a platform to put all the presents on'! I'm not sure how many he was expecting.
He's had a great day though - he took one of his new dragon books with him to church with his grandparents while his parents popped up the hill to celebrate 5 years of parenthood by spending the morning snowboarding - then we all went to movies and he spent only a short time hiding in the aisle behind the chairs. Sausages for dinner and early to bed.
And tomorrow - another round of presents and birthday cake with both sets of grandparents - just to keep stretching out that birthday.

New CV

I'm about to update my CV, to add to the list which so far includes physiotherapist , small business owner, accounts manager.
However I kn0w my biggest, and best job is this one : mother.
A simple and understated title for a job which should include- among many other things- in it's description - psychologist, healer (plaster plus kiss), caterer, wet nurse (to my own), 24 hr oncall carer, gardener, personal shopper, party planner, reader, source of all knowledge on eating habits of random animals and lizards, human resource manager, bum wiper, snot wiper, dribble wiper, cleaner, entertainer, laundress, sock and bean counter, interior decorater, personal stylist (not my finest moments), holiday coordinator, hostage release negotiater, peacekeeper, train track construction expert....
and today as i drove through the same set of road works for the 4th time, I decided I can officially add - taxi driver. Only 10 years until they can start driving themselves, at which point I can add in driving instructor.
(Renumeration for this job comes in the most delightful currencies - a clasp of a babys hand around my neck, a cheeky grin of a 3 year old sage who knows he's pushing the boundaries, the fierce fleeting cuddle from nearly-school boy who you have left on his own for 20 minutes in his new school classroom.)

Times they are a changing...

Big Brother has his last week of Play Centre this week. He has been to two school visits and is getting ready to move into the big time jazz scene of School.
(It is actually three visits counting the Saints Day Feast Lunch - a birthday party - which consisted of pizza, icecream and cake. I had to make a point of telling him that lunches aren't like that every day at school, as he was looking pretty impressed with the idea...)
I know he is nearly ready to move on from Play Centre, as he has taken over the role of Big Kahuna. His is a 'my way or the highway' leadership style for his wee groupies. He makes up the games, assigns characters, and always gets the goriest role. It doesn't help that his brother has been particularly obliging lately.
He will miss it though, and we will miss him too. I'm not sure how Little Brother is going to react to loosing his all-day-play-mate, best friend and greatest adversary/wrestle partner for 6 hours a day. He has no comprehension it is still two full years until he gets to go the school also.
I expect he will turn his loving lavish attention on his younger sister (read : squash and maul her even more). And we will be doing some serious baking, which is Little Brothers favourite thing to do when hanging at home with Mum.
So,we have a uniform and a start-school date - 4th August for Big Brother. He's so keen to learn it will be like dipping the sponge into the bathtub. Five years have gone fast in a really slow day by day way. I find it hard to believe there was a time when I didn't even know that little complex fascinating lovely delicious creature that is our son.

P>S> Just a warning, these blogs might get a bit sentimental and teary at times as I deal with my baby going to school...

Chicken Old Ladies on a Bus

Thanks to John, my american cousin who sent me this recipe.. we havent met but he's my international audience as he reads my blog (isnt the internet wonderful!) He met my Dad in 1957. I had to pop it up here as it sounds perfect kiddie fare, and John, I'll put it in our Hopkirk Flatting Family Cookbook that my niece Alex and I are working on for our up and coming flatters!

Some day you might want to try this recipe...the story goes this woman was riding a bus and heard these two old ladies in front of her talking about a way to make chicken, thus the name of the dish is:

CHICKEN OLD LADIES ON A BUS

1/3 Cup Orange Marmalade
1/3 Cup Hot Barbecue Sauce
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 pounds chicken parts
Salt & pepper, to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine marmalade and barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice, mixing well. Place chicken, skin-side up in a 9/13 pan lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chicken and bake 1 hour, basting occasionally. Increase heat to 400 degrees and bake 15 minutes longer.

This can then be served on a bed of rice, or however you may want to do it, along with some veggies.
Do your ovens use fahrenheit temperatures? If not, you will have to adjust.