Saturday
23rd July 2005Blog |
July 23rd to July 29th 2005 |
Autumn 2005 |
Thomas and Brendan were having great fun in the sandpit today.
Thomas was wearing the red dungarees that his Nanny made for him that we have
reserved for his outside use, and so he was getting right in to the sandpit.
Brendan was helping out by filling Thomas' little bucket and making little towers
of sand for Thomas to smash down. Brendan got a little bit over excited and
buried Thomas' legs. Ann and I were concerned that Thomas would not like it,
but instead he took it in his stride and had great fun.
As both the boys were covered in sand, Brendan decided that the best way for
them to get rid of the excess sand on their clothes was to roll in the newly
mowed lawn. Ann pointed out that grass stains are harder to get rid of than
a bit of sand, but Thomas was having great fun rolling around.
This morning I went to borrow Liam's lawn mower, so that
I could cut the lawn for the first time since we moved in. The rain recently
has developed a 20cm growth in some parts of the lawn, so it was in a desperate
need of some TLC. I had to take down some of the seats to fit in the petrol
mower, but it was easy.
After emptying the 5th collection bucket, I had to move the car so that I can
mow the front lawn. Our driveway is only wide enough for one car, so I frequently
have to park on the lawn so that we can get the family car in and out. It's
a bit trailer-trash of me, but it's better than parking on the road.
Once I finished mowing, Thomas and Ann then released themselves from the security
of the verandah to play on the lawn and put out the washing in the 20 degree
sunshine.
When Brendan and Thomas were playing and Ann was working on the housework, I
was doing some more pruning of the more dead parts of the garden, and digging
one of the beds over. I also managed to apply some "weed and feed"
to the lawn with the hose.
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Thomas' development seems to happen in bursts. Recently his
talking has improved, and he has learnt to recognise and say the numbers 2,3,4,5,6
and 8. He has also learnt the names Brendan, Linda and Marie - he also knows
that Linda is Brendan's mummy. Of course, Thomas has been learning other things,
and he knows how to switch on his TV and start the DVD player and start his
Baby Einstein DVDs. He knows his routine, he will go to bed when he feels tired,
and knows when it's dinner.
He is starting showing the first signs of being ready for potty training. He
stands in the corner, and when Ann asks if he is having a poo, he will say yes.
So today, we went and bought him a potty and a step to get up to the loo. Now
comes the interesting stage of potty training...
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Typical - today it started raining. When I applied the "weed and feed" to the lawn, the instructions said that I should not apply it if there was a risk of rain within 12 hours. Only 4 hours after I sprayed it around, it all got washed off by a little shower. It's been little showers all day today, but still patches of blue sky to remind us that it's not England.
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I had a bad night last night - a really sore throat that kept
on waking me up. The problem was that I was really thirsty, but it was very
uncomfortable to drink. When I got out of bed, I was feeling so bad that I immediately
called for a Doctor's appointment - and got one around lunchtime today. I then
went in to work, and was feeling really bad - and then when I got to the doctor's,
he said that I have tonsilitis again and gave me some more antibiotics.
The problem is that I only have a few sick days a year, so I don't have the
allocation to take - and the doctor signed me off for the next 2 days. I don't
know if they will take them off my annual leave, or if they will force it to
be unpaid.
Thomas is fine (luckily) and Ann has a headache - I hope that she does not get ill too. The thing is that Ann has probably had most of these infections before, because of her time in Adelaide as a child. Thomas musst just be carrying all these infections from daycare to me!
When driving home from work today at lunchtime, I had a P plate driver pull out in front of me, doing 40Km/h on a 100Km/h road. Of course, I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting the beaten up old Corolla, and flashed my lights and honked my horm at her. Unfortunately, in my slightly depleted state of illness, I forgot which car I was in, and instead washed the windscreen and activated the trip computer. That'll teach her!
Of course, being Adelaide, the big guy behind me with a bald head, thick bushy beard and tight sunglasses who was driving a shiny Ute, got quite upset that I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting the girl, and was making rude signals at me - not the car which nearly caused the accident! Typical when I'm not feeling good.
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Things are going well at Ann's new job - she must be doing something right because they have asked her to work an extra day next week! She'll be doing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. She's still putting faces to names at the moment and getting to know the various preferences of the various solicitors - everything is supposed to be standardised but try telling that to some of the solicitors!
Apparently when a new person starts they have a welcome morning tea. Apparently there were three newies that started in the same week and they were trying to organise a combined welcome. It has now been decided that the end of month drinkies on Friday would be a good opportunity - very inconvenient for Ann seeing as she doesn't work on Fridays and would have to take a trip into town just for a couple of drinks with a bunch of people she hardly knows - yet.
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My tonsilitis is wearing off, I am now able to swallow solid
food now. My aches and headache have also gone.
But, Ann has now come down with something - although she has not got a swollen
throat just yet. Thomas is still fine at the moment, but we are keeping our
distance to prevent him from feeling as miserable as we have been feeling this
week.
As I was so low on sick day entitlement at work, I went in to work on Friday - even though I was not feeling better. I could not really concentrate and was not getting much done, so I left a couple of hours early.
When I came home, Liam and Shirley were looking after Ann and keeping Thomas
occupied. Then, shortly after they left, Brendan dropped in on the way home
from school, and so the boys played in the sandpit for a few minutes. Brendan
then said he had to go inside to phone his mum to say where he was, and ran
into Linda in the lounge - she had dropped in too.
It's great to be in Adelaide, so close to family.
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The weather was good to us today. Ann and Thomas came outside
to enjoy the sunshine, and I spent my time digging over the patches of lawn
where there was no grass, and sowing new grass seed. The hardest part was next
to the sandpit, where there was around 30mm of sand on top of the lawn, and
all the grass had died off and left a hard crust of dirty sand. I dug it all
over and mixed in some topsoil and then put on plenty of seed.
Then when I needed to water it in, I decided to give the lawn sprinklers a whirl,
but found that there was only a dribble coming out. Then, a more powerful squirt
started bubbling up in the newly dugover vegetable patch - I had damaged the
sprinkler hose and so the only part of the garden that was getting any water
was a pond in the vegetable patch that was growing.
This is the last entry in the 'old' blog. All new entries will be in the new blog.
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