New wheels

Despite my previous post about how much I love my old bomb, the time has come to get a new car. here's why:

• The rusting body is allowing more and more water into the car every time it rains (not that it rains that much in Melbourne anymore) and the floor under front passenger seat becomes a little swimming pool. When I looked at it the other day, I saw little seedlings growing in the carpet!!
• As we now have two precious, little darlings, it would probably be sensible to get a car that has a higher safety rating.
• Last time we went on a holiday (pre-Thumper's arrival), the three of us barely fit all our crap in the back of the Camry, so a car with space for a family of four would be great. Also the Camry has almost no storage compartments for the passengers and driver, and the radio/stereo doesn't really work anymore, which is a nuisance on long trips.
• The current market value of our car is probably $100 or $200, if that, so every time we have to buy a replacement part, service it, insure it and register it, we are spending far more than the market value.
• The air conditioning draws so much power from the engine that the car can barely accelerate if it is running. No fun on Melbourne's 35+ degree days.

Anyway, DeepSpice and I had been talking about getting a new car for many months now. In fact, I had delegate the task of deciding exactly what model of car we should get to DeepSpice. He was supposed to do the research, pick a car and then we could shop around at our leisure until we found the right one. Well, after 6 or more months of waiting, I finally took matters into my own hands.

I did a bit of web searching on the major car sale type sites and spent the past couple of weeks in intensive discussion with DeepSpice about the pros and cons of different options. I made a list of criteria:

• storage space and compartments (both in the boot and the cabin)
• safety
• transmission (has to be manual)
• body (has to be a station wagon)
• priced within our budget (which restricted us to looking at cars around 7 to 10 years old)
• maximum mileage (since we were getting a used car)
• purchase from a dealer (not private sale)
• and all the nice-to-have luxuries that our current car doesn't have (like a working radio, air conditioning, remote central locking,

Then we narrowed down to a short list:

• Toyota Camry
• Subaru Forester
• Subaru Liberty/Outback/Legacy (which are essentially all the same car body, with different bits tacked on)
• Ford Falcon XT
• Holden Commodore

(Mitsubishi Magna was briefly considered, but we both have a thing against Mitsubishi from the days of DeepSpice's old blue van, even though, apparently Mitsubishi produce much better quality cars these days.)

Anyway, this short list was soon narrowed down even further to Subaru Liberty/Outback/Legacy because it is the only car that was readily available in a manual transmission that also met our other criteria. And after only a few days of watching the prices of Subaru Liberty and Outback cars on the web, I soon realised that (a) there are hardly any around Melbourne (though quite a lot in NSW) and (b) the ones on the market in our price range have typically done at least 150,000 kms and often much more.

So when I saw a Subaru Outback that was $3,900 over our budget but had only done 124,000 kms, I figured it was worth a look. (By this time, I had realised that our budget wasn't going to buy anything that met our criteria and we had to either spend more or get an automatic.) We had a test drive on Monday (25 January) and put down a deposit on Tuesday! Never even looked at any other cars (other than online of course). Funny thing is that is exactly what we did with the Camry, and that has turned out OK.

We pay the balance and take delivery on Saturday. I still can't quite believe how quickly it has all happened after months and months on inaction from DeepSpice. I also can't believe that I can make such a quick decision about such a major purchase when I usually spend weeks doing intensive research before purchasing things that cost much less.

Strangely though, I feel very comfortable with the purchase. The car meets our criteria reasonably well, the price seems fair (even quite a good deal actually), the engine runs well, it has a solid service history and the dealer is including a 3 year warranty.

The only thing we couldn't manage was to meet BallFiend's criteria. He has specifically requested that we get a new car in his favourite colour: green. The new car is white. I told him that mum and dad are buying the car with our money so we get to choose the colour and that when he is older and buys a car with his money he can choose the colour. He seemed to be happy with that, but we will soon find out for sure on Saturday.

With the car buying out of the way, my next task has been to organise insurance. Now, that is a real pain in the neck. I have spent most of the past two days getting quotes and trying to make sense of fine print. Bloody boring, but necessary I suppose. Hopefully I can finalise it tomorrow, ready for picking up the car on Saturday.

Then it will be onto the next project - disposing of the dear old Camry. If I can't sell it as a private sale sadly, it will probably just go to a wrecker.

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Sit on it and spin

Daddy, why is there a spinning thing in your bottom?

-- BallFiend displaying his own special kind of logic during a conversation with DeepSpice. He knows that poo comes from eating food, and that somehow inside our bodies the food gets mixed up and turned into poo. He also knows that machines such as the food processor, blender and bread machine mix food up into a mushy consistency and that they typically have a part that spins around. From this, he concluded that something inside people's bottoms must spin around and make poo out of the food we eat. A strange, but somehow reasonable assumption.

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The puddle puzzle

BallFiend: Oh, that’s a funny puddle!

Me: Do you think so? I think its just a ‘puddle’ puddle.

BallFiend: No! It’s not a puddle puddle! it’s just a puddle.

Me: Oh, OK. So it’s a not a ‘puddle’ puddle? Or a cuddle puddle?

BallFiend: No! Don’t say puddle puddle!

Me: OK, I will just say puddle.

BallFiend: But why is it a funny puddle?

-- BallFiend and my conversation whilst walking to the playgroup. BallFiend saw a puddle in the gutter with a piece of plastic rubbish in it.

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Close your head in and Stuff your face up

I got annoyed with BallFiend's persistent whining the other day and in the midst of my exasperation, after asking him to speak in a nice voice for the 20th time, I suddenly heard myself saying "Pull your head in."

Argh! Disturbing that I was channeling my father (that is one of the phrases he said to me when I was growing up), but it was worth it just to hear BallFiend's interpretation later that night when DeepSpice got home:

"Dad, close your head in! Just close it!"

A few day prior to this, I had made a passing remark about how DeepSpice was 'stuffing his face' (whilst eating his lunch).

This one was later reinterpreted as "Dad, stuff your face up!", which had both DeepSpice and me in fits of laughter.

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The three licks of xmas

About a week after Christmas, when we were packing up the tree, BallFiend asked to eat one of the candy canes that had been hung up as decoration, so I gave him one to try. He had a few tentative licks, pronounced that it was "Yuck!" and gave it back to me, then a few seconds later asked to have it again. He had a few more licks and decided that it was now "Yum!" but that he didn't want anymore. So I offered to save it for later.

The candy cane was carefully placed in a cup on the bench where it sat untouched for a few days. Then he asked to have some more. "Just a bite because we are having dinner soon." DeepSpice said. "Ummm, three licks I think." and ever since then, every few days BallFiend will ask to have 'three licks' of his candy cane.

At this rate, the damn thing is going to last till next xmas.
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Artistic Licence

Took BallFiend and Thumper to the local library for their Storytime session: half an hour or so of stories, songs and craft activities for 3 to 5 year olds. I've always planned to take BallFiend to this, since he turned 3, but being heavily pregnant and then busy with newborn Thumper, today was the first time I actually got there.

I decided to go on the bus -- the stop is just across the road from my house and it's only a 5 minute ride to the library, plus for BallFiend the bus is an exciting adventure. We only had to wait TWENTY MINUTES for it each way! And because I just missed a bus home by a mere 5 minutes, had to buy a second 2-hour ticket. So I had to pay for all day travel for the privilege of traveling a total of 10 minutes. [No wonder people complain about the crappy PT around Melbourne].

Being Summer holidays, today's theme was the beach. "Who's been to the beach" asked the librarian leading the session. "ME!!" yelled BallFiend at the top of his lungs. He continued to answer every question in this manner - making loud and spurious claims about his prior experiences at the beach.

BallFiend enjoyed listening to the stories, interrupting frequently with his 'why?' questions. He got annoyed with the songs (classics such as Incy Wincy Spider, Hey Diddle Diddle Row Row Your Boat and Baa Baa Black Sheep); though Thumper loved them. And he really enjoyed doing the craft activity with me. We were challenged to make an under-sea collage using nothing more than the power of our imaginations... and some craft supplies (photocopied pictures of sea creatures, shiny paper, crepe paper, cellophane, sparkles, stickers, etc.). And I am so proud of our masterpiece, that I have decided to publish a picture of it here, for the world to see.

Yes, that is a dinosaur in the bottom left corner -
who knows why there is a dinosaur under the sea,
but BallFiend asked for one, so I duly cut one out.
Also true to form, BallFiend insisted on including
a beach ball (top left corner).

PS. BallFiend's toilet training is still going well and he demonstrated his skills by remembering to tell me when he needed to go to the toilet while we were at the library. I left Thumper in the care of the Storytime librarian and raced him off to the loo (which required negotiating a path through the kids and crafts all over the floor, exiting the library building and locating the toilets in the adjacent building). I was so proud of BallFiend for holding on all the way to the toilet (and very relieved!) -- I think I was more excited than he was.
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Poo Poo Bum Bum

"Poo poo bum bum" yells BallFiend as he scampers about the house. This has been the standard response to many a question for the past 6 months or so. For example, I say "Hello" and BallFiend replies "poo poo bum bum". I say "Do you want a drink" and BallFiend replies "poo poo bum bum".

He expanded is repertoire today, courtesy of a four year boy (who's company we had the pleasure of today at a meeting of my local ABA group): "You're a nose-head!" he (not so politely) informs the woman standing ahead of us at the library loans desk. Actually, I think he learned poo poo bum bum from the same boy about 6 months ago.

Little did I know when I was all pregnant and excited about having a cute, little, cuddly baby, all those (three and a bit) years ago, that three and a bit years later, all this talk about poos, bums and nose-heads was not just talk. Just when you think the worst is over, that the days of baby milk spews and explosive poos are behind you, along comes the three year old spit-snot-fart-poo machine.

These days, I am forever reeling an index finger out of a three and a bit year old's nose. (What a nose-head!) Then quickly trying to wipe said finger before it is smeared on my couch, my clothes or the person sitting next to us on the train. But as of this week, snot is the least of my worries. This is because now we are toilet training. Officially.

I mean, we've played around with the idea since BallFiend was less than 18 months old. I read somewhere that some toddlers will toilet train at 18 months, so when he was about 16 months old I rushed out and bought a potty, hopeful that my spawn would be one of these elite few early toilet trainees. We caught a couple of wees in it, and even a poo once, simply by strategically positioning the potty in the right place at the right time (just before a bath). I also borrowed potty-training books from the library, let BallFiend watch us on the loo, talked about wees and poos and bottoms. Watch and applauded when friends from playgroup demonstrated their toileting skills. Coveted fancy undies with the best TV friends money can buy emblazoned on them. On warm days, I'd strip him off to play naked in the garden. More recently we had done a few hours at a time here and there 'practicing' wearing undies (potty use on these occasions was fairly hit-and-miss). When asked if BallFiend was toilet training yet, I'd happily proclaim that yes we are laying the groundwork.

For a long time, I was quite happy to wait... I have spoken with several mums of at least two kids and consensus was that a child will not learn toileting skills until some physiological development happens... some switch in the brain just flicks over and connects it to the bladder. The theory is that if you 'train' a child before this, they will get it right some of the time, and will 'miss' some of the time. Essentially you will just be using undies as nappies (impractical, unabsorbent, pointless!) and with a bit of good luck, sometimes the potty will be used instead.

I was told that one day BallFiend will decide he dislikes nappies and will want to wear undies instead. Even better, if I wait for this moment, he will just know what to do and there will be few if any 'accidents'. According to Gran, DeepSpice did this. One day he said he didn't like nappies any more. So he was offered undies provided he used the potty. Being the amenable chap that he is, DeepSpice agreed and that was that.

In the past few weeks/months, it has become very apparent that the 'brain switch' has happened: BallFiend has been swimming at Gran and GrandPaul's house, and at VolubleK's house, and played in the paddling pool at MasterW's house and on each occasion, BallFiend knew to get out of the pool to wee. But he still just seemed to like wearing nappies. He had no problem wearing soiled nappies. Potty-training books were just another story to read, nothing special. Peer pressure didn't work - he didn't care that most of the kids in our playgroup and those in his room at creche were in undies now. He didn't care about undies with pictures of Thomas or Bob or whatever on them. Apart from saying poo poo bum bum a lot, he had no interest in discussing the matter or watching anyone else in the act.

Despite my intention to wait until he decided he wanted out of nappies, truth is, I am getting fed up with changing nappies on a three and a bit year old. Fed up with spending money on disposables, fed up with trying to get a wriggly boy to stay still long enough to change him, fed up with seeing him get nappy rash because he doesn't tell us when there's a poo and he wears it for ages. Added to this is some pressure to be toilet trained in time for starting 3-year-old kinder (which begins in February)... children are supposed to be toilet trained, but I wasn't really worried if he didn't meet the deadline. The sessions are only 2.5 hours, and he usually doesn't need a nappy change that often. (Although it has been useful as an extra incentive: "kinder kids wear undies and you are going to be a kinder kid", etc.)

So two days ago we went 'cold turkey' on day time nappies. I didn't plan it or anything. I just took off his overnight nappy in the morning and told him he was going to wear undies today. Of course he protested and asked for a nappy so I stalled and said we could put one on 'in a minute' and that he just had to 'wear undies for a little while, while I get a fresh nappy'. Minutes became hours and now hours has become 2 days.

Day 1 was easy - we stayed home all day and he got right into it. Just went and sat on the potty when he needed to wee. We had 4 or 5 hits (including a poo on the potty!) and only one miss late in the afternoon when he was getting tired and had reduced concentration.

Day 2 was fine, all going well until... I had to leave the house! Thumper had her 4 month old appointment with the Maternal and Child Health Nurse at 2.00 pm. About an hour before we needed to leave, BallFiend said he felt like a poo was 'coming soon, but not yet'. I had him sit on the potty anyway - he did a wee, but the poo was a no-show. So I put him in brand new terry toweling training pants and we went to the MCH appointment. I left BallFiend to play in the waiting room while I went into the Nurse's office with Thumper. But I had barely sat down before I heard BallFiend cry out "Mum I've got a poo!". Too late. It was in his pants. That wasn't such a problem. The problem was getting the pants off, without spilling the poo.

Never in all my pre-baby life when I speculated about what might be the greatest trial of parenting did I imagine that I would have to pick poo up off the floor WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!

As I attempted to carefully slide the training pants down BallFiend's legs, he 'helpfully' tried to lift his feet out through the holes, knocking poo everywhere. Then he started to run off, to continue playing, nearly stepping in the poo before he nearly sat down on the floor to keep playing with the toys he had out. I grabbed him just in time and pleaded with him to wait and stand still until I had wiped him up. Then I dealt with the poo on the floor, depositing it in the nearest toilet and scrubbing the floor as best I could with cheap paper towel.

With that trauma over, I went back in to continue Thumper's check up. She did really well. Didn't even poo on the scales while she was being weighed.

So that brings us to today, Day 3. Another successful day overall. The highlight of the day being BallFiend's debut on 'the big toilet' while we were at the library for the ABA meeting. I was so impressed: he told me that he needed to do a wee and was able to hold on while I thrust Thumper upon one of the ABA counsellors (who was more than happy to have a baby to cuddle) and then raced him off to the loo. He sat up on the big toilet without any concern (I had to hold him up there though), did his wee and that was that. It was like he'd being doing this all his life.

So it seems we are now officially in undies all day and only wearing nappies at night time. Still not sure what to do for day time naps. Today I used a disposable pull-up, because he was brewin' another poo, and lucky I did because when I woke him up from his nap, I discovered he had done a poo. Though I suspect if I had left him in undies he would have used the potty. I get the feeling that once he is in a disposable nappy (even if it's the pull up style) he just reverts to his old ways.

Now, just another 2 years or so to go until I am done with changing nappies... unless Thumper turns out to be one of those elite 18 month old toilet trainees. Fingers crossed she will be. I have been using cloth nappies with her, because I read somewhere that babies in cloth nappies toilet train at a younger age. Will have to wait and see if you can believe everything you read about babies... Ha!

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Look Ma! I have balls!

It had to happen eventually, and now it has. BallFiend has discovered that he has his very own set of balls that are always with him and can never get lost from their special little pouch. Now, how to get him to stop playing with them all the time?
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Cataloging fun

Happy new year and all that shit...

A new year is often a catalyst for people to 'start fresh', a 'clean slate', etc. and certainly I've had times when the new year has seen me brimming with plans for WHAT-I-WILL-ACCOMPLISH in the coming year. Luckily this time, I am gainfully not-employed (aka. on maternity leave) so I don't have a burning desire to turf my old 'to do' list system and invent a new and better one that will guarantee my life will be ORGANISED. (Also because I am now 'happily married' to the GTD methodology and use Remember The Milk for all my 'To Do list' needs.)

No, this year, I am merely shifting my online book/reading list from All Consuming [AC] to LibraryThing. Why? Well, I have really liked using AC for the past few years (not sure when I started, but my first entry is on May 2003, but it is possible to add things retrospectively, so it may not be my actual start date). However, AC is buggy and it annoys me that it frequently can't locate a book I have read (since it sources its data from the Amazon database, which is US-centric). It also lacks a lot of functionality that other online bibliographic tools offer.

I did a fairly extensive review of as many online book cataloguing services as I could find:

• BookBump,
• Alexandria (for GNOME OS),
• Booktagger,
  
• WhatsOnMyBookshelf,
  
• Shelfari,
• bibliophil,
• LibraryThing, and
  
• Visual Bookshelf (Facebook app)
  

Shelfari has a nice look to it, and almost emulates the simplicity of AC (which is something I really like about AC), but I ended up choosing LT, mainly because it seems to have the highest number of visitors (up around the 1 million mark towards the end of 2009, compared to AC which had just under 20,000 in Feb 2009). Hopefully, this will ensure its longevity as well as giving me access to a bigger database of books and all the other functional benefits that come with this.

So, new year, clean slate, and all that... I am, as of now, using LT. One day, maybe, I will get my data from AC and transfer it to LT, but it is quite a backlog, so will get around to it if I do.
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