Is it bleeding?

The clumsy fairy has been visiting my place and we have the bruises and cuts to prove it.

First some background... there is a string of jingly bells hanging in the hallway, which Thumper loves to gently touch each time we walk by. She's always a bit nervous at first so I usually jingle a bell or two, then she holds her hand up near, but not actually touching, the bells. Then I hold her hand and help to give the bells a little shake. At this point she grins from ear to ear and then finally has a go herself.

Yesterday BallFiend watched as Thumper did her bell-thing, then of course he wanted a turn. One of his favourite games at the moment is pretending to be 'this baby', where he demands attention by acting like a baby and saying things like 'this baby wants a cuddle', 'this baby wants some milk', 'this baby wants some food' or 'this baby wants to play a game'. So after Thumper had jingled the bells, BallFiend said "this baby wants a turn".

So I lifted (hauled!) him up so he could reach the bells. But whilst Thumper moves the bells with a gentle little wave of her pudgy hand, BallFiend gave the bells a mighty overarm smack. The bells smacked back. Right into his forehead. He screamed and covered his face and there was a very long moment where I thought he might have taken his eye out. Luckily it turned out to be a small, but very bleedy, cut and some swelling. BallFiend started yelling "Is it bleeding, is it bleeding?". Whenever he injures himself, no matter how minor, BallFiend always yells "Is it bleeding?". I think this might be my doing...

About 6 months ago, when BallFiend was washing his hands and standing on a crappy plastic step-stool in order to reach the basin, he was jumping about and so of course fell off, smacking his chin on the edge of the basin as he fell. He bit the inside of his bottom lip with his lower teeth and the outside of the bottom lip with his top teeth. All I saw was blood everywhere and thought that he must have bitten all the way through. Usually I am pretty calm and clear-minded in situations like this, but not that time. I panicked and called triple zero. To be fair, I was home with newborn baby Thumper and rather sleep-deprived. While waiting for the ambulance to come, I calmed down a bit and got an icy-pole out for BallFiend to hold on his mouth. By the time the ambulance arrived, the bleeding had pretty much stopped. The ambos were fine about the call out. They checked BallFiend out and said 'no sign of a head injury'. I spent the next few hours feeling like a bit of a dill. But still, better safe than sorry I suppose. Anyway, I think my initial panicked reaction has conditioned BallFiend to believe that any bleeding = serious injury. We get his 'is it bleeding?' panicky over-reaction at the slightest little scrape or bump. Sorry about that kid - you can get some therapy when you're older.

So, back to the bells... the application of an ice-pack with some pressure stopped the bleeding and minimised the bruising. (We probably could have prevented a bruise entirely except that BallFiend kept insisting on removing the ice-pack so he could see if his head was still bleeding.) BallFiend was back to his usual self within the hour.

So today, Thumper obviously saw BallFiend's bruise and decided to match it. We had just returned home after picking up BallFiend from kindergarten. Thumper was in the pram - a Phil & Teds three-wheeler, the kind that rolls really easily if it is on any kind of slope, you know, like at a railway station platform - and stupidly I had forgotten to put the wrist strap on. The pram was next to me on the front verandah while I unlocked the front door. BallFiend kept getting in the way, between me and the pram and the door (makes me think of an a nnoying yappy dog that jumps about everywhere). He had bumped his head(!) whilst walking past our car in the driveway and was whinging about it. I didn't have much sympathy as I had told him to walk around the other side of the car where there was plenty of room, but he insisted on squeezing through between the car and the garden bed. So I was trying to use one leg to nudge him aside whilst holding the pram's handle with one hand, holding the screen door open with an elbow and unlocking the front door with the other hand. (Anyone for a game of Twister?)

Just as I got the door unlocked I heard a thud. I turned around just in time to see the pram finish it's descent off the side of the verandah and onto the concrete driveway. It's only a small step down of about 20 cm, but it was enough. The pram landed on its side with Thumper out of view. I ran over just in time to see Thumper's face screw up and let out a massive scream. Thankfully she was strapped in (I always strap her in even if I do occasionally forget the wrist strap) or I think the injury would have been much worse. I righted the pram and grabbed Thumper. The bruise on her forehead appeared before my eyes. BallFiend kept up his whinging until I yelled and pleaded with him to stop whilst I somehow I got everyone and everything inside the house.

I sat down and examined Thumper properly and she calmed down a bit - the screaming stopped but then she seemed to go a bit floppy and sleepy for a minute or two, which made me more worried... until she started screaming again. I attempted to put an ice-pack on her head but she kept pushing it away. Then I gave her a breastfeed which seemed to work it's magic - she calmed down properly and I even managed to keep the ice-pack on for a little while.

I watched her while I deliberated about calling triple zero again, or nurse-on-call or something... but after about half an hour she was back to her cheery self. I checked the internet for signs of a head injury and she didn't seem to be showing any. So I figured she was OK and was just trying to look like her much-adored big brother.

So now they have matching bruises - although Thumper's is more impressive, the size of a 50 cent coin. And I better watch out or I will be getting a visit from child protection.

--

Darling

BallFiend and I were discussing family relationships... along the lines of DeepSpice is your father and I am your mother. Gran is your grandmother and GrandPaul is your grandfather and StompyDad is your grandfather too. And CutLuce and DesignerSis are your aunties and DesignerMonkey and Wigward are your uncles.

BallFiend chimed in with "Yes, Auntie CutLuce and Uncle DesignerMonkey are my aunties and I am their darling!"

--

Sock it to me

Thumper's got a new game she just can't get enough of. We call it 'pass the socks'.

Here's how to play:

1. Take a pair of socks (if there are none handy, BallFiend will just pull them off Thumper's feet).
2. Fold socks into a ball.
3. Give socks to Thumper.
4. Thumper gives socks to you.
5. Give socks to Thumper.
6. Thumper gives socks to you and cackles with delight.
   
7. And so on, ad infinitum.
   

In the extremely unlikely event that the game becomes boring, use BallFiend's variation: throw socks at Thumper's face or place socks on Thumper's head, or just throw socks randomly around the room and then laugh maniacally as Thumper crawls around chasing the socks then proceeds to suck on the socks, until she is ready to initiate another round of the pass-the-socks game.

Enjoy!
--

Suffer

Another linguistic beauty from BallFiend during a conversation this afternoon... I had just said something along the lines of 'if you don't eat your dinner and then are hungry in bed, you will just have to suffer'.

BallFiend: What does suffer mean?

Me: Suffering is when you can't have something you want.

BallFiend: No, it's when you can't have something you need.

What an astute kid - his response blew my mind!
--

Transformer in our midst?

It's sore here and all the way around to my hub-cap.
- BallFiend describing his sore knee.

--

Water, water everywhere and not a drop (you'd want) to drink.

I woke BallFiend from his afternoon nap to find him in a very in wet bed. He still wears a night-time nappy, but since toilet training, he has never needed a nappy for day-time naps - he has always woken up if he needed to go to the toilet.

Now, with just two days to go until we depart for our holiday, I have been madly trying to get all the clothes washed and ready to go. But wet bed-clothes jump the queue. With the washing machine loaded up, I take BallFiend off for a quick shower. Usually if BallFiend has a shower it is with either DeepSpice or me when we shower in the morning. This time BallFiend got to shower by himself... although I might as well have got in anyway, given how wet I got standing in the doorway of the shower cubicle!

Back to the washing... Unfortunately BallFiend's quilt turns out to be a bit too big for our little washing machine and water leaks out of the tub, all over the laundry floor. I clean up as much as possible with the mop, then use rags to soak up the water under the washing machine. So now there's rags to add to the washing pile.

Once the quilt is hung up to dry I put the next load on - BallFiend's pillow, pillow case and sheets. The pillow is too tall for the washing machine and the top creeps up higher than the edge of the tub, deflecting the spray of incoming water over the edge. So once again, there is water all over the laundry floor. More rags get added to the washing pile.

To round things off, I decide give Thumper some nappy-free time - partly because she has a bit of nappy rash at the moment and partly so she can practice her crawling (so far, she has only been doing commando style but is working hard to learn the more traditional hands-and-knees version). So of course, she produces a small puddle. To save on generating more rags that need washing, I use BallFiend's dirty socks to mop it up. I figure they've been wee-ed on enough times before when he was toilet training, and they're about to go in the wash anyway.

As much as I'm looking forward to getting away on our holiday, right now I'm mainly looking forward to staying in a house with a dryer!

--

Hee-haw!

BallFiend's learned how to insult people, namely DeepSpice and me. Whenever we do something that annoys him he retorts: "No mama, you donkey!". It's hard to not to laugh when one is trying to discourage such behaviour.
--

Strange Day

It's been a strange day...

I had insomnia from about 4.00 am, and had just got back to sleep when BallFiend woke at about 6.45 am. Lucky for me, DeepSpice got up to get BallFiend breakfast and, even luckier, Thumper stayed asleep. By 8.30 am, BallFiend had decided he was tired and got into bed with me. DeepSpice took the opportunity to collapse back into bed as well, so the three of us were snuggled in bed until Thumper woke at about 9.00 am.

I brought Thumper into bed with me for her morning breastfeed -- my favourite one of the day, because we breastfeed lying down -- however, it was very challenging with BallFiend squirming around next to us and pushing his toys/balls in my and Thumper's face. We have a double bed, nothing so roomy as a queen or king, so with four of us in the bed, it was rather crowded.

After she finished feeding, the quiet snuggle-time was quickly replaced with playing, as BallFiend performed increasingly silly antics in an effort to make Thumper laugh. Unfortunately it all ended in tears when BallFiend launched himself backwards and collided with DeepSpice's nose. I heard a horrible cracking noise and DeepSpice bellowed in pain. After getting DeepSpice an ice-pack, I took the kids out of the bedroom to play elsewhere, while DeepSpice lay in bed for another hour or so recovering.

Thumper chose this time to revert to her pre-six-months-old behaviour of spewing all over the house. By 11.00 am she had spewed about seven times and we'd changed her clothes twice. Very weird, given she has had no signs of reflux for nearly 4 months now.

Later on, I went and did the grocery shopping - without kids! It was the first time I'd made it to the supermarket for a 'big shop' in about a month, so there was a lot to stock up on, and as luck would have it, about half the things on my list were on special. I shoved my heavy trolley around the supermarket, enjoying the schadenfreude of watching other people who were accompanied by their kids

BallFiend had a massive tantrum in the middle of dinner... oh wait, that's not really unusual...

We put the kids to bed in the same room (third night running). The previous two nights, we have put BallFiend to bed first and then waited till he was asleep before bringing Thumper in. But tonight I put Thumper in her cot at 7.30 pm, whilst DeepSpice read BallFiend a story in the lounge room. I was hoping that she would be asleep before BallFiend came to bed. But this is when my luck ran out. So BallFiend came to bed anyway, and Thumper listened as DeepSpice went through the usual goodnight ritual with BallFiend (which includes a 'talking story'). Then DeepSpice left the room, with both kids quiet but awake. BallFiend was out like a light - asleep in no time, but not Thumper... As I have been typing this post, I have been in to resettle her twice and DeepSpice once (last time was at about 8.30 pm). It is now 9.00 pm and she has been mostly quiet, so... fingers crossed!
--

Now that is manly!

I've been learning to crochet. Scream daggy all you want, I don't care. It's giving me something to do, something that gives me a tangible result at the end of the project. Unlike caring for two kids all day... the only tangible result from that is the pile of soiled nappies waiting to be washed and overflowing basket of clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away. (Although I suppose, technically speaking, the fact that the two kids are still breathing at the end of each day could be counted as a tangible result. But it's not quite the same, and let's face it, if I failed in this regard, the authorities would be turning up at my doorstep.)

I've been amazed by how easy crochet is (ie. compared to knitting). I tried to learn knitting, under the instruction of Gran, and although I learned the basics - made a few scarves, etc. - I could never fix up mistakes, so if I didn't actually have Gran right there beside me, projects tended to stall indefinitely.

Crochet is a different story. So far, I have made several practice-pieces - just trying out different stitches, then I made my first project - a beanie for BallFiend: Now I am 90% of the way through my second project - a matching scarf:
I've also been amazed and excited by the range of things that can be made using crochet. Then I found Ravelry - an online community of knitters and crocheters with free patterns galore! My enthusiasm escalated. At last count, I had about 20 items 'queued' for future projects. When it comes to crochet, it seems, if you can think of an object to make, then someone has probably created a crochet pattern for it.

So I'd come to the conclusion that crochet is not at all daggy and that many of the things that can be crocheted are practical, and often truly beautiful... then I saw this one: Manly Tank-Top. Think I might need to make one for FreeloadingPhill to help him on his latest quest.
--

more questions

"Why don't we have an eating mouth and a drinking mouth?"

- BallFiend, during dinner tonight.

--

Getting long in the tooth

Thumper has a second tooth, just cut through yesterday, only 7 weeks after the first tooth made it's appearance. At this rate, she should get her full set of 20 baby teeth just in time for them to all fall out when the adult teeth come through!

In other teeth news, DeepSpice and I went to the dentist two weeks ago. It's been a long time between appointments - I hadn't been since before I was pregnant with Thumper and for DeepSpice, I think it has been even longer!

We took BallFiend along for the 'experience' - he got to see the set-up and the dentist gave him a free tube of toothpaste. I had X-rays taken and my teeth cleaned with the sand-blaster thingy that dentists use these days. My dentist found the beginnings of one cavity (though not serious enough to require urgent action). But here's the really unfair bit: DeepSpice's teeth were fine! Not a hole in sight... and he doesn't even floss (or at least I never see him do it). Humph!

One last tooth-related thing while I'm on the topic: a while ago BallFiend described his toothbrush as a 'teethbrush' and we realised he is right. It should be called a teethbrush, unless like Thumper (until yesterday), you only have one tooth.
--

Just gagging

Lunch today was nicely finished off with a sweet, tangy mandarin. Thumper loves 'em, BallFiend won't touch 'em with a ten-foot pole, despite their decidedly ball-shaped shape. Anyway, Thumper had already downed 5 or 6 segments with no problems when she suddenly got that funny look on her face and started going red. She was gagging on the piece that wasn't going down the right way... and simultaneously trying to shove the next piece in her mouth.

I wasn't concerned about the gagging - it happens from time-to-time, especially with the baby-led solids approach, but one does have to wonder how the human species has survived if the gag-reflex doesn't trigger the "stop-eating-for-a-minute-till-I-stop-gagging" reflex!

A few seconds later, one whole mandarin segment came flying out of her mouth, propelled over the high chair tray and landing on the table, easily travelling 40 cm. What a kid - she'll be able to do party tricks when she is older with a gag-reflex like that.

--

I can add

Scene: breakfast time, I'm sitting across the table from BallFiend.

Sound effects: Pararrrp, pop, pop, pop

BallFiend grins and says:

"I did this many farts (holds up 4 fingers).
I did one, two, three (counts three fingers) down there (points to other side of room) and I did one up here (counts his thumb).

Charming! But I am impressed with his ability to do addition: he had in fact done three 'over there' a few minutes before sitting down to breakfast.

--

old dog, new tricks

"My old dog died and now I have a new dog. This is my new dog. See my new dog, Mum?"

- BallFiend talking about his (imaginary) dog.

--

Extractasaur

After hours and hours (well, at least two) of playing with playdough, this is what BallFiend came up with:

I give you... Extractasaur

The artist, showing off his latest creation, Extractasaur.

It looks even better with the table-tennis ball held behind it (this was just a lucky shot, BallFiend was actually just in the process of burying the ball in the playdough).

--

This kid has management potential!

BallFiend: Team Work! I want to do team work. Let's do team work.
Me: What sort of team work do you want to do? Do you want to team work clean the house?
BallFiend: Ah, I just want to do team work.
Me: Yes but what do you want to do team work for?
BallFiend: I want to do team work on you! (Then BallFiend grins and hugs me.)

--

Excuses

Tonight BallFiend is being difficult about going to sleep. Since DeepSpice did the official 'goodnight' process at 7.30 pm, BallFiend has called out several times: "Mum and Dad!". Eventually, I went in to tell him to be quiet and go to sleep. Here's the reasons why he was calling out:

BallFiend: There's a blurt monster in the back room.

Me: You don't need to worry about that.

BallFiend: Who's looking after Thumper?
Me: She's asleep in the other room.

BallFiend: My belly button has a sore spot.
Me: That's why you need to go to sleep - so it can get better. Goodnight.

--

talking and talking

I had the radio on and the presenter was doing a series of interviews about various current affairs.

BallFiend: "Do they just keep talking and talking?"

Me: "Yes, they do..."

BallFiend: "What happens when they get tired of talking?

Me: "Then someone else takes over and keeps talking."

--

Big question

"When do you get old and die? How do you die?"

- BallFiend talking to DeepSpice, during the nightly settling-BallFiend-ready-for-sleep routine.

...and in case this ever happens to anyone else, DeepSpice's reply: "That's too a big question to answer when you are just going to sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow." seemed to work quite well.

--

Sog

"But how did the floor get all sog?"

- BallFiend, on seeing me mop up water spilled from Thumper's cup.

--