This excellent blog entry details a parent’s battles with his recalcitrant three year old and how the war was won. He links to this article in Slate which is also excellent.

I now have a bit to think about when it comes to discipline.

I’ve done some sock knitting for the first time in ages. 2 balls of Moda Vera Socks yarn from Spotlight yielded a pair for Mark, a pair for Finn and almost a pair for Leila. I’m tempted to get some more to knit a pair for my dad. I owe him a few since I once promised him a pair of hand knitted socks for every birthday, fathers day and christmas until he dies and I haven’t kept up with the bargain in the last couple of years.

I’ve got some sock yarn from Live 2 Knit that I’ve been waiting a couple of years to use. I just have to master casting on for toe up socks since I only have 2 small balls of the stuff. First, though, I need to finish Helena from the latest Knitty.

So now we have antibiotics for 10 days, no childcare for at least a week, staying out of the wind (not easy around here), using a hairdryer to dry her hair when its washed (I think she might just have dirty hair for a while) and a follow up appointment in a week. Oh joy. Thank god its almost school holidays…

Finn and I both have colds too, so I stopped by the supermarket to pick up a few bits and pieces that might be handy and nice to have. I walked out over $100 lighter. I can’t wait for Aldi to open in the new shopping centre.

AND! On my way out of the doctor’s surgery he commented that I was pregnant!! I laughed and just said “No, just fat with poor posture.” but that does it. Exercising starts now …

soon …

once I’m over my cold …

when Leila’s better …

when the gym opens in the new shopping centre …

one day.

2)What are the five things at the top of your “to do” list:
a) give the kids their breakfast
b) get some washing done
c) get to Leila’s doctor’s appointment on time
d) find happiness the flylady way
e) do the kinder stuff I keep putting off

3) What are five snacks you enjoy:
a) cups of tea
b) scotch finger biscuits
c) raisin toast
d) lollies
e) chocolate

4) Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire:
buy a new, slightly larger, environmentally friendly house on acreage, buy two really swish new cars, invest some money for the kids, go back to uni fulltime, go on a big trip with Mark and the kids when they’re a bit bigger.

5) Name some places you have lived:
south oakleigh/east bentleigh, farrer (ACT), malvern, st kilda, box hill, fairfield, richmond, northcote, point cook

6) Name some bad habits you have:
spending too much time phaffing on the internet, procrastinating, getting snappy with the family when I’m tired, impulse buying

7) Name some jobs you’ve had:
receptionist, bank teller, car insurance claims officer, general insurance underwriter, telemarketer, call centre operator, software tester, test manager, technology manager, mum, kinder president

The ‘tank of death’ has two new occupants. I’ve named them Cling and Clang.

They are little Fantail goldfish. One is mostly orange with black spots and white/clear fins, the other is mostly white with a couple of orange patches and black spots. I’ve tried to take photos of the them, but these little guys are very quick movers and are only 2-3cm long, so it’s really difficult to get a clear shot. You’ll have to make do with this lovely shot I found on Flickr.

I was looking for Orandas, but I wanted two fish because one on it’s own seems kind of sad and the shop we went to didn’t have any really little ones. Instead they had a tank full of baby Fantails. I chose my two because they have nice fat little bodies and their tails are already looking lovely.

Thus far they seem to be pretty happy in their new home. I’ve moved the tank into the front loungeroom so I don’t see them all that much. I make a point of visiting them two or three times a day to make sure they’re okay. They don’t seem to mind at all and are starting to come to the glass to look back at me.

a new vacuum cleaner.

Sleep deprivation notwithstanding, I went and bought a vac on sale at Hardly Normal this morning. I probably shouldn’t have, but I did. Its the same model as the one in the picture, but ours is grey with a little yellow on it, which pleases Finn.

From the small patch I’ve tried it on so far, it works better than its predecessor, which pleases me. Immensely. I won’t have time today to do more with it, but I’m looking forward to doing the whole house. I’m looking forward to vacuuming. That’s gotta be worth a new vacuum cleaner.

Leila has woken at 3am for 4 or 5 nights in a row (I can’t remember) and it’s starting to wear. A couple of times her nappy had overflowed and she needed new pjs, sleeping bag and sheet. Last night I think she was having trouble breathing through her stuffed up nose (she has ANOTHER cold) and one night she seemed to have been wrestling with a teddy bear and becoming quite cross about it.

It’s not just me who is affected. Mark is woken by her carrying on as well and on one of the nappy overflow nights both he and Finn got up to help out because Leila was yelling so much about having her clothes changed when she really just wanted to play. Things start to unravel when we are all tired.

Already this morning I’ve asked Finn to leave me alone about half a dozen times. He wants to talk at me and I want half an hour to eat my breakfast and read some blogs before I get into the day. Each time I remind myself that he’s not doing anything wrong and that I am tired, but I can feel my patience thinning.

The other thing that happens when I’m tired is that I view things much more critically than I normally would and tend to be overwhelmed by negatives. The house looks filthy to my jaundiced eye this morning and I’m sorely tempted to buy a new vacuum cleaner because that will be the magic bullet that will fix everything (Hardly Normals has Doysons on sale at the moment which is particularly tempting). I know that is pure fantasy, of course, which doesn’t help at all.

A good night’s sleep will make a huge difference to all of this, but I have no guarantee of that at the moment. I really hope that Leila will sleep through tonight, but whether she does or not is in the lap of the gods. While they make their minds up I’m going to rely on tea and vitamin pills to keep me going and hope I don’t yell at Finn too much.

No, Leila’s controller is not plugged in. She just thinks it is.

Andrew died last night.

I am at a complete fucking loss for what went wrong this time.

I think I’ll stick to goldfish.

This is Andrew, my new Betta. The name tag on his little jar at the shop said ‘Andrew Gaze’. I didn’t like the name, but it’s stuck in my head now and I can’t think of anything else so Andrew he is.

I’m following some advice from a person on the dog forum who has a Betta in the same type of tank. She’s taken the lid off and only runs the filter every couple of days to clean things up a bit. Her fish has lived happily in that arrangement for quite a while, so I’ve got my fingers crossed for Andrew.

So far Andrew seems quite happy, although he refused to swish around the tank and show off his fins for the camera.