Conversation during dinner tonight:
BallFiend: Why is Thumper copying me?
Me: I don't know, why don't you ask her.
BallFiend: Thumper, why are you copying me?
Thumper: Not sure.
--
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Pair of fruits
"Two Fruits" chorused BallFiend and Thumper, exactly one second after finishing eating their main course at dinner tonight. So DeepSpice served up a bowl of Two Fruits each. For the uninitiated, Two Fruits is a canned fruit product consisting of cubes of peaches and pears in syrup-y goodness.
BallFiend happily scoffed his down, then dragged DeepSpice off to the hallway for a round of indoor hallway soccer. Meanwhile Thumper meticulously picked out each piece of peach with her long, delicate fingers and ate them one at a time. Left with a bowl of pears in juice, she proceeded to meticulously pick out each piece of pear with her long, delicate fingers and carefully place them on the tray, saying "Don't like it." for each one.
She looked at me with a big grin on her face and said "On the tray." -- "Yes." I conceded, "Thank you for keeping them on the tray and not throwing them on the floor." -- and then she drank the juice from the bowl.
BallFiend happily scoffed his down, then dragged DeepSpice off to the hallway for a round of indoor hallway soccer. Meanwhile Thumper meticulously picked out each piece of peach with her long, delicate fingers and ate them one at a time. Left with a bowl of pears in juice, she proceeded to meticulously pick out each piece of pear with her long, delicate fingers and carefully place them on the tray, saying "Don't like it." for each one.
She looked at me with a big grin on her face and said "On the tray." -- "Yes." I conceded, "Thank you for keeping them on the tray and not throwing them on the floor." -- and then she drank the juice from the bowl.
I asked Thumper to put the pear pieces back in the bowl so I could clear it all away. She happily complied. Then ate the pear anyway.
Miss Contrary!
--
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Vermin!
Been a bit silent on the blog recently, and here's why... we had mice! Ewwwwwwww!!!!!
In fact, the mice are just the last in a long line of vermin that have invaded our home (or in one instance our holiday accommodation)...
First, there were rats in our roof, about 7 or 8 years ago, not long after we moved into our house. Ratsak sorted them out. Then about two years ago, we had cockroaches in kitchen. We had 'em sprayed and eventually located the nest in the base of the kettle!!!!
We have a minor silverfish problem - they keep appearing in bath tub! No idea how they get there, but I am guessing they fall through the ceiling fan out of the roof space.
About a year ago, I saw a single, solitary mouse in our study/library. [Though I now know that there is no such thing as a single, solitary mouse... read on.] We set some traps but caught nothing and saw no further signs of it.
Then there was the time that a sparrow fell down the kitchen flue and ended up stuck in the rangehood. We got that one out and put some mesh over the top, but a few weeks later another sparrow got through the mesh and ended up in the same predicament. Both birds were extracted and survived the ordeal.
Another bird incident on April 7th this year when a Myna bird came down chimney in our study and pooed all over everything. After finishing this massive clean up, we were well and truly ready for a nice, relaxing holiday in Bendigo over the Easter long weekend, but it was not to be... on our second-last night, a Butcherbird came down the chimney in the bedroom of our holiday house. Curiously bringing someone's packet of the Pill with it - probably collected for it's shiny-ness.
May 2nd: back at home and all had been relatively normal for most of a week until we spotted a mouse, this time hanging around in our dining/living room. Eventually caught it in a trap, but only by the back leg, so then DeepSpice had to euthanase it (cervical dislocation, not fun). With that one gone, it soon became apparent that there was at least one more, as the baits kept disappearing out of other traps. I even saw a mouse carefully extract bait from one of the traps and then sit on top of the trap to eat it! And so began the War on Mice. A strategies included:
So hopefully we can now relax a little, especially since today was meant to be The Rapture. I am very pleased to have been left behind so I can enjoy living in our mouse-free house again. I just hope that we don't get a post-Rapture apocalypse now, because I don't quite feel up to dealing with a zombie plague.
--
In fact, the mice are just the last in a long line of vermin that have invaded our home (or in one instance our holiday accommodation)...
First, there were rats in our roof, about 7 or 8 years ago, not long after we moved into our house. Ratsak sorted them out. Then about two years ago, we had cockroaches in kitchen. We had 'em sprayed and eventually located the nest in the base of the kettle!!!!
We have a minor silverfish problem - they keep appearing in bath tub! No idea how they get there, but I am guessing they fall through the ceiling fan out of the roof space.
We have seen numerous red-back spiders in the garden, one ventured under the door and into our laundry which was a bit scary. But even more worrying was the one we found recently on our stove! It had made a web on the trivets!!
Then there was the time that a sparrow fell down the kitchen flue and ended up stuck in the rangehood. We got that one out and put some mesh over the top, but a few weeks later another sparrow got through the mesh and ended up in the same predicament. Both birds were extracted and survived the ordeal.
Another bird incident on April 7th this year when a Myna bird came down chimney in our study and pooed all over everything. After finishing this massive clean up, we were well and truly ready for a nice, relaxing holiday in Bendigo over the Easter long weekend, but it was not to be... on our second-last night, a Butcherbird came down the chimney in the bedroom of our holiday house. Curiously bringing someone's packet of the Pill with it - probably collected for it's shiny-ness.
May 2nd: back at home and all had been relatively normal for most of a week until we spotted a mouse, this time hanging around in our dining/living room. Eventually caught it in a trap, but only by the back leg, so then DeepSpice had to euthanase it (cervical dislocation, not fun). With that one gone, it soon became apparent that there was at least one more, as the baits kept disappearing out of other traps. I even saw a mouse carefully extract bait from one of the traps and then sit on top of the trap to eat it! And so began the War on Mice. A strategies included:
- Sealing up all the holes in our house with acrylic fillers and expanding foam.
- Making patches to go over holes in the back of our kitchen cabinets leftover from when the lazy cabinet-maker was installing them and drilled huge holes for the electrical cables and pipes and then didn't patch them. DeepSpice made patches from plates of stainless steel that he had hoarded for years. (So now on top of having mice, I have no grounds for telling him to throw out all the clutter in the garage. Sigh.)
- Laying more traps around the house overnight (and packing them up each morning so that Thumper didn't stick her fingers in them).
- Laying baits up in the roof space and monitoring these every day or two.
- Lots and lots of cleaning with bleach where the mice had been, then sprinkling bicarbonate soda powder around so we'd be able to see if they came back. The bicarb also helped a bit with the disgusting smell.
- Being super-vigilant in cleaning up every speck of food in the house, so there is nothing around for the mice to eat. No easy task with messy, small children about.
So hopefully we can now relax a little, especially since today was meant to be The Rapture. I am very pleased to have been left behind so I can enjoy living in our mouse-free house again. I just hope that we don't get a post-Rapture apocalypse now, because I don't quite feel up to dealing with a zombie plague.
--
Twinkle stars
I want to see the twinkle stars.-- Thumper, asking to go outside last night.She has been using up to three words at a time since about 18 months, but this was a first - a seven word sentence! And she's only 20 months old.
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