Shrek's dada

Shrek's new dada or obsession or what he goes gaga over : the catalogue to Auctions held at 'Hotel des Ventes' which sells paintings, art, rugs, jewellery, antiques as well as collectibles and furniture.

No guesses as to which objects arouse and get me most excited!!

Shrek is making up for huge gaps he had before because he had not discovered the hidden gem yet.


It's better late than never and I highly appreciate his raising the stakes at auctions (preferably with a reasonable thinking cap on) to gift me with divinely alluring adornments.

I am going to get my 30th birthday gift and more all rolled into one offering from my sensitive Shrek !

This one is for Shrek

They say that the best medecine is laughter and I would tend to agree. Hence I bring you my outrageously self-depreciating gaffe. I washed a toy electronic steering wheel with water and it went wonky and began playing music by itself until we removed the batteries. Needless to say Shrek had a good laugh at my expense. I am glad I can be of service and spontaneously ignite such a round of hearty laugh. Being ridiculed is good as a mood lightener sometime!
You would know all about this wouldn't you Shrek?


I know now it is much better and wiser to wipe it with a wet cloth or sponge and be done with it.

Lil hurricane

I have a lively and hyperactive hurricane that goes by the seemingly innocuous name of Baby Mini M. He loves wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. He cannot help himself as he naughtily and surreptitiously empty my kitchen cupboards, rearranging the contents and rendering it impossible to trace the missing items for he has hid cans..etc God knows where. He rather unintentionally but proudly mess up the living room and our study/bureau/storage room. Moreover he continuously whirls and swirls leaving a trail of litter and rubbish in his wake. He does a fantastic job of sabotaging and wrecking whatever motivated and concerted efforts I put into house keeping

He makes my life just that little bit more difficult as I futilely tidy and clean up after him. All the while he maintains that mischievous smirk on his face. He is still adorable even when he exhausts me so... I just wish he would be a bit more considerate... sigh sigh

He is little in size but big on damage. I think his new nickname should be Lil Tassie Cyclonic Devil. It fits him like a glove. I do hope he does improve with age and turn out surprisingly angelic. Yeah right I am daydreaming as I am oft inclined to do.

Moy is the master of disorder

My long backlog of arts and crafts projects I would like to do with my kids are piling up.

There is a Dora play-doh castle which has to be built.

There is play dough that I can fabricate and they in turn create a wondrous number of objects as their flight of fancy partake.

There is a wooden Robin Hood castle that we can build together as well as Lego structures and a farm...

There are countless mugs and numerous other objects waiting to be painted.

Alas there is a burgeoning abundance of projects that I have put on hold for two reasons: my fatigue and more importantly Baby Mini M's interference each and every time I actually want to initiate any task.

I also have difficulty teaching Petit Suisse because Baby Mini M is always stirring and decides that the perfect time to climb onto my lap is whenever I am in the middle of partaking in an activity: educational or crafty.

Baby M is still in that impossible age when he does not play individually but cannot partake in complicated arts and crafts nor engage in conversation or pay attention long enough to get into any activity wholeheartedly. He plays with toys for five minutes and gets readily bored. It does get better when he gets to the stage where I can involve him in activities and teach him language and mathematics.

I do feel slightly guilty for not being able to juggle all three kids without resorting to the easy option of allowing them the pleasure of vegetating like a couch potato..I attempt to educate them but with Baby M ever so young and always on the verge of interrupting and disrupting/destroying whatever we are doing (not deliberately) because he is simply too young and unknowing to realise and my nagging, constant and ever so present pelvic floor/bassin pain there are days where I opt for the easy way and let the kids play a lil on the Wii or the computer or let them watch a DVD which normally is off limits.

Poxy

All three children have had chicken pox save the yet to be born Ben. The last one being Baby M about 6 weeks ago, Petit Suisse contracted the nasty but innocuous disease in Sydney at the beginning of 2007 but didn't have an explosion like lil Miss N as she had much more exposure from her brother and I was afraid of the lil Poxy creature that used to be my daughter but I could barely recognise as she was ravaged by explosive poxy pimples from head to toe. Sharing is caring... I am recording because one's memory tends to be unreliable with age and I will be asked one day by one of my offsprings if they have in fact been infected with the chicken pox.

So Petit Suisse, lil Miss N and Baby M: you have all been graced by the generous Pox.

Alarm clocks

I do not have to buy alarm clocks because I already have three highly reliable personal alarm clocks that do not require battery change ever.

Each morning without fail Petit Suisse and lil Miss N awake from their slumber and join me in bed and I instinctively know that it is 7.30am . They are cute like that saving me from having to spend needlessly on alarm but costing me when it comes to grocery shopping/food budget as they can be heard chiming relentlessly all day long "J'ai un faim de loup" roughly translated to "I am so hungry I could eat a horse right now"

Lil update

. My poor plants have been frost-bitten and left for dead on the balcony, hidden from sight and hence 'loin de yeux, loin de coeur'. Much to my relief I do not have to care for the plants anymore, not that I ever claimed to have a green thumb.

On the contrary I have always been a disparaging death maiden to plants !!

Plants that are healthy and full of vigour come within my reach and live under the same roof as I and then it only spells disaster for the plants as they wither and waste away: a slow and painful bereavement. I do not know what it is about plants or me that refuse to cooperate and co-exist harmoniously under the same roof. I would really like to keep them alive and flourishing if only they had the heart to collaborate and not self-destruct the way they do in my presence. Woe woe woe is me...

I will post pictorial proof if I do eventually get around to photographing dead plants.

All in a name

We are squabbling over the given names of soon to be little Miss Ben(it's her nickname at the moment) as in Benjamin- the last.

I should think that the pregnancy and ultimate delivery/birth gives me the right to name her-.
Her name has been narrowed down to two possibilities
Shrek can make contributions but the ultimate decision is mine to make.

Amourette

I did not expect to have to vie for Petit Suisse's affection with his two-timing little amourette so soon. I thought that playground puppy love was still a few years away. My little boy is growing up fast. I deplore the hard fact that Kids these days seem to have lost their innocence at an alarmingly early stage and are precoce and all grown up before they even hit puberty.
It is cutesy and all but I just wanted to stay number one for a few more years before relinquishing...

Actually it's not about having an amourette or what not I just thought that Petit Suisse was not so interested in such frivolity and I was proven completely wrong.

Shrek will have to psychologically prepare the birds and bees talk for the not too distant future.

Regret

I sorely regret having gotten married too young and letting somebody else dictate the making of the decision to having kid after kid after kid after kid soon after.

I believe that frank and honest communication is important in all relationships be it in marriage or de facto partnership or parent-child type relations. I will not hesitate to say that a lot of children born are a result of an accident and/or lack of contraception thus unplanned pregnancies.

Perhaps I will ultimately serve as a reminder or example/role model of what not to follow for my own kids. I will say that I did not plan on having four kids before I turned thirty. Kids need to feel wanted and loved but not lied to about how they were conceived.

I have witnessed many big families: safe to say that three or more children nowadays qualifies as large families displaying more discord than harmony. There is no reason why a closely-knit family of two children will have less joy than that of a family with four bickering kids on semi-to no-speaking terms or displaying alarmingly and unbecomingly incompatible and irreconcileable differences. I have seen some strong bonds between two siblings and lots of discord and dispute between siblings from a larger family. Although subconsciously I think people do try to replicate their own family from childhood memories which are often seen through rose coloured glasses and not a real reflection of the reality now. The model they have seen sets a precedence and they will attempt to reproduce this chemin just like Shrek has done. I could care less and frankly it would have sufficed for me to have two children:well raised and taken care of than to have a small army of kids who have to have attention divided etc. Granted children from big families learn some important lessons in life like the need to share and the older children will in time be asked to help out with household chores and other tasks because their mother is just overworked: thus life and basic survival skills. This does not necessarily as I have seen translate to the last child because sometime the smallest becomes a self-centric and egoistic spoiled brat- funnily enough is usually the case of a unique child syndrome. In short it is somewhat dependent on how the children are raised and their character and not being given preference/favouritism because they are the smallest or mummy/daddy's favourite.


Quite often I feel like the thankless tasks that I fulfill everyday are just taken for granted. I realise that my children are too young to understand whatever feeling I emote let alone comprehend how to alleviate my anxiety or pain. I do feel however often misunderstood. I try to commiserate with the workload and stress that a working person (namely the father in this household) feels and that lack of sleep etc... leads to less than agreeable manners. I myself have my no less stressful and frustrating days at home. I do feel however that by being plunged unwillingly into an unplanned and much too soon pregnancy that I was in no way ready for somebody forgot that it wrought much apprehensiveness,anguish and tenseness into our already troubled communication.

I will opt for the solution perhaps the less communication there is the calmer the ménage. Maybe if we do not come to an agreeable and open sort of connection or exchange then it is better to converse less lest there be more tranquility in the house.

There is some angst-ridden fury all the more enraged by a hormonally charged pregnant woman up in arms about how unfair it is.

I do try my best to be understanding and sometime maybe even most of the time fail but whenever the screaming match begins and the row/quarrel intensifies with livid exchanges I realise that nothing has changed and that I have a case of hopelessly misplaced confidence in someone I thought was my partner.

Drawing me to a conclusion that I should distance myself and measure my words and actions much more carefully before it is too late.