Ready Mr Music

DeepSpice, inspired during our last visit to home of FunkyOrganMan, has rigged up our house with Apple airport express devices so he can pipe music from his computer at one end of the house through the various stereos in other rooms. 

Usually this system works perfectly. But on this particular afternoon, the music suddenly stopped. Moments later we heard Thumper's voice calling out "Daddy! I've worked out how to turn off the computer!"

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BallFiend's Birthday Week Bake-a-thon

Last week was spent celebrating BallFiend's 5th birthday...

• On Friday, I sent BallFiend off to creche with a green-and-chocolate swirl cake to share.
• On Saturday, we held a party with his friends.
• On Sunday, we hosted an afternoon tea with the extended family.
• On Monday (his actual birthday), we chilled out at home.
• On Tuesday, I made gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free (flavour-free!) cup-cakes for him to take to Kinder to share.

Saturday's party was held at the local scout hall with 10 of BallFiend's kinder, creche and other friends, including MasterF, MasterW, LittleMissIz, Thing1 and Thing2 (daughters of FunkyOrganMan and ThingMaker). The party had a green-theme (a really simple theme to do - I can highly recommend it!). We had green balloons, a green table-cover, green napkins, plates, cutlery and of course all the food was green:

• pea and ham soup served in green cups;
• avocado dip with celery sticks for dipping (also some corn chips in green tubs);
• green jelly; 
• green-and-white coconut ice (which DeepSpice and I between us took four attempts to get right and then the kids didn't eat it anyway, but that was OK because all the groan-ups loved it!);
• a fruit platter of green(ish) fruits - Granny Smith apples, green pears and green grapes;
• the birthday cake was a butter cake with a green swirl through it and iced in green icing.

I also got 3 metres of neon-lime green tulle from Spotlight (on the discount table... I wonder why!) and made the kids green headbands to wear. We played a few games involving green straws but mostly the kids just played around in the hall. It was the easiest kids birthday party I've ever organised. Although I have to give fair credit to all the parents who hung around and helped out. I was assuming that being a five-year-old party, at least some of the parents would drop their children off for the 2 hours. But none did, and all were roped in to help with blowing up balloons, party games, food preparation and sorting out disputes! I was really glad that they did all end up staying.

Sunday's afternoon tea was attended by Gran, GrandPaul, StompyDad, CutLuce, DesignerMonkey, Cuz1, DesignerSis, Wigward and Great-Aunt-F (GrandPaul's sister) and her husband Great-Uncle-M. BallFiend and I made yet another birthday cake (banana with chocolate chips at BallFiend's request), and we ate party left-overs as well as Gran's chicken sandwiches and Great-Aunt-F's scones. Yummo!

By Monday (BallFiend's actual birthday), we were all too exhausted to do anything much at all. So after going to his usual swimming lesson, we came straight home so BallFiend could get down to the serious business of playing with all the toys he received as gifts. Highlights were:

• the mega-mega-soccerball (about 60cm diametre) from his aunt CutLuce and uncle DesignerMonkey.
• the gi-normous Earth beach ball (68cm diametre) from his aunt DesignerSis and uncle Wigward. (I'm sure DeepSpice would beg to differ with the promotional description that "It only takes a few huffs and puffs to fill this globe full of air" - he spent the first half hour of Sunday's afternoon tea blowing it up!)
• the foil "Happy Birthday balloon" on a stick from Cuz1.
• the green helium-filled balloons from Gran and GrandPaul.
• all the green balloons left over from the birthday party.

He also received several Lego kits and has been enjoying them a lot (as has Thumper), books, games, a marble run, construction toys, outdoor adventuring tools, dinosaur kits, a watering can and more. Some of the toys have been packed away so I can bring them out in instalments. There's easily enough to last him until Xmas time!

Overall he was totally indulged and doesn't really (know how to) appreciate it, but it doesn't matter... I loved seeing him so excited as he ripped open presents and how he got even more excited if they turned out to contain anything vaguely spherical. 
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Date Night

Way back in July last year, Tim Minchin announced his next tour: Tim Minchin Vs the MSO, playing in Melbourne on February 25 and 26, 2011.

At that time, Thumper was 10 months old and I figured that 7 months should be enough notice to organise a babysitter. So DeepSpice and I decided to go, and happily VolubleK decided to come too. (Unfortunately in December/ January, the timetable for VolableK's relocation to France was brought forward and so she ended up missing the concert. But at least she gets to be in France eating lots of CHEESE!) I reactivated my membership of the fan club so I could get the fan club code that would allow me to buy pre-sale tickets. (Unfortunately, the code wasn't sent to me, so I spent a few days of emailing the promoter before I eventually got the code 'violin' but still was about to secure reasonably good seats... row Y.)

Then I booked up Gran and GrandPaul for babysitting and went about distracting myself with other things so I wouldn't get too impatient waiting for the big night. 

At the time of booking the tickets, Thumper was happily breastfeeding morning, noon and night, and often having a few sups (snacks) in between, and neither of us had plans for her to stop. So I assumed I would still be feeding her in February and that we would go to the concert and come home straight after. 

However, on 13 January, Thumper suddenly stopped breastfeeding. Just like that. Up until the day before, she had been having 3 - 5 feeds a day. Coincidentally 13 January was also the ten-year anniversary of my mother's death. And on 14 January, it was my first day back at paid work after 18 months maternity and long service leave. A perfect storm and I felt miserable: grieving for my mum, greiving for the end of my breastfeeding relationship with Thumper and having to deal with all this on my first day at work. 

Thumper's weaning from the breast at 16 months was slightly less of a shock to the system than when BallFiend did the same thing at 13.5 months of age. At least I had some experience of the sort of emotions I was going to feel. And I had done some preparation for that day that I knew would eventually come... I had made a mental list of things I was going to do once Thumper weaned... all things I couldn't do whilst still breastfeeding. And top of my list was a night away with DeepSpice, sans kids!

The last time we had been 'child free' for a night (actually two) was back when BallFiend had a practice run staying with Gran and GrandPaul in preparation for Thumper's arrival, about 20 months ago. Back then, I was too uncomfortably pregnant to make the most it. 

So, as the date for the Tim Minchin concert approached it occurred to me that this could be the right time to start my post-breastfeeding life with an entire 'night off'. DeepSpice raised the idea with Gran and GrandPaul. Gran was happy to have both kids overnight, but GrandPaul was rather hesitant. But after a few days of some gentle persuasion and it was all agreed: we would drop the kids over after lunch on Saturday, then pick them up on Sunday afternoon. 

I was getting more and more excited as the date drew closer, as evidenced by my frequent Facebook status updates informing anyone who cared to read them. Whilst web-searching for suitable accommodation in St Kilda, it occurred to me that FunkyOrganMan and ThingMaker may well be going to, so I tracked them down on Facebook, with very pleasing results: yes, they were both on Facebook and yes, they were both going to the Tim Minchin concert and yes, they were both going on the same night as us and yes, they were also planning to stay overnight in St Kilda! Jackpot! We arranged to meet for dinner before the show. 

Then calamity struck... Gran and GrandPaul had made last minute plans to attend a birthday lunch on Sunday and wanted us back bright and early (11 am) to collect the kids. My plans for a lazy Sunday morning sleep-in, followed by lunch in St Kilda were thrown into disarray. After coming to the conclusion that stomping around the house expressing my disappointment didn't seem to be doing much good, I did some quick thinking and phoned CutLuce... "would she and DesignerMonkey be able to mind the kids from 11 am on Sunday?" I asked wishfully, not expecting that my sister, with her busy social life, would be available. But as luck would have it, she said yes! I was overjoyed. I rushed to the internet and completed my booking for a B&B. 

Our night away went off almost perfectly... we were a lot late dropping the kids off to Gran and GrandPaul, so instead of checking into our B&B at 2 pm as planned, we didn't get there till nearly 4 pm. Having slept badly the previous night, I decided to have a quick afternoon nap, then we dressed for dinner and headed out to Cicciolina's for dinner with FunkyOrganMan and ThingMaker. Much wine was consumed in two short hours (with ThingMaker picking up my slack) and then we ambled down to The Palais for what turned out to be a fantastic concert... exceeding my expectations. At interval I raced out to the mechandise stand and handed over my credit card: one CD for me, one for VolubleK, a DVD of Tim's previous tour (which we didn't get to go to due to Thumper's then extreme infancy) and a "Rock 'n' Roll Nerd" t-shirt for DeepSpice.

After the concert, we chatted for quite a while with FunkyOrganMan and ThingMaker, then wandered back to our B&B. In the morning, we were served a yummy cooked breakfast and then spent some time wandering around Acland Street. Mother guilt had me seeking out little gifts for our little ones - a hypercolour foam ball for BallFiend (which he subsequently lost at the swimming pool the following Monday) and a box of tiny Dr Seuss books for Thumper (which she has progressively been trashing), and a thank you gift for CutLuce and DeepSpice (iPhone app fridge magnets). We had lunch at Gypsies Bar & Cafe, then strolled along to the St Kilda market, where DeepSpice bought himself a new belt and we found a nice handmade soap to give to Gran as a thank you gift. Unfortunately, we didn't find a suitable thank you gift for GrandPaul, but at least he can be happy in the knowledge that we didn't buy him an ugly, touristy trinket that he has to pretend to appreciate.

Then it was time to come back to reality and start our (long and tedious, thanks to Punt Road) journey home. 

On arriving home, we found BallFiend curled up on the couch with dummy and blankie, watching TV and Thumper, who had just woken up from her nap, nestled into DesignerMonkey's arms. Neither child was the least bit interested or excited to see us. It appears that we should have stayed away longer. Much, much longer... 

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It's party season!

Last weekend was the official opening of "Party season"... in my world at least. We had a pre-season warm up when LittleMissIz had her first birthday party on June 14, then things really got underway last week. Here's the birthday schedule for the coming few months:

• DesignerSis - 25th birthday dinner on June 25,
  
• LittleMissP - 3rd birthday party on June 27,
• MasterS - 1st birthday party on June 28,
• FunkyOrganMan's daughter - 1st birthday party on July 4,
  
• GrandPaul - 60th birthday party on July 4
• LittleMissL - 3rd birthday party on July 19,
• Gran - 61st birthday on August 1; then
• BallFiend - 3rd birthday party on August 9.

There are a smattering of other birthdays for family, friends and playgroup mums and and bubs in August and September, but the majority are in June and July. Then there is a bit of a break before xmas brings on the next round of festivities.

Of course, this party-season phenomenon is hardly surprising, given that our 'mothers group' was set up by the maternal child health nurse specifically for mums who all had their babies within a 6 - 8 week period. The addition of second babies also born at this time of year only increases the party-season atmosphere!

It's all great fun - especially for BallFiend. Unfortunately he overdosed on party food at MasterS's party and was incredibly hyperactive for hours afterwards. He also got itchy rashes all over his body. So clearly something in the food wasn't good for him. I suspect it was food additives added to things like chips and 100s & 1000s (on fairybread).
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