Dead.

A few weeks ago, there was a terrible stench around the shopping center down the road.  There is an empty lot next to it that always has kangaroos grabbing a bite to eat in the mornings and evenings.  After just over a week of having to hold my breath as we drive by, I decided to submit a complaint to the city of Gold Coast.  There wasn’t a great category on their app, so I used the “Illegal Dumping” category.  Here was my submission: 

 They closed my case without providing a real response – just said I need to make that type of complaint in person or over the phone.  Which is weird but whatever.  Now that we are back from vacation, the smell is gone.  However, the mystery has been solved.  There was a letter stuffed in our mailbox from the city that said that every year, the mangrove leaves fall off the trees and decompose, causing a foul smell for a few weeks.  Ha!  It was dead leaves, not the dead body that I was certain was rotting away in the kangaroo field.   Thank goodness I was wrong!!  

 Netball.

My worst fear (slight exaggeration but required for dramatic effect) is to rock up to netball without putting on my shorts under my dress.  Wednesday when I got home from work I quickly changed into my netball dress. I was freezing, so I threw on a pair of trackies underneath.  When I got to netball and went to pull off my pants, I realized, oh F.  I forgot to put on my shorts.  And not to share too much personal information, but I’m not the granny panty sort of girl, nor do I play netball “carefully”.  So there was no way in hell I was going out on that court without something covering my bum.  I rolled up my long pants and got them hiked up high enough to hide under my dress, which got me through the first quarter – barely.  Then, thank god for Kel who thought to look in the team bag and found a skirt with built in shorts.  Seriously.  Why do we have to wear a dress to play an active sport?  *sigh*

Snow.

Both kids still have Melbourne on the brain.  Ty loves his new Spider-Man hat from Joy (thank you!!!!), and Lily has asked to read Curious George Snowy Day about 100 times.   

   
Wee!

Miss Lois Kleint, you are a genius.  I thought that while I took your advice in “Potty Train in Three Days” while training Ty the day after he turned 2, there was a good chance it was a fluke and the stars just aligned perfectly (or he is some sort of genius).  But I couldn’t resist using the same technique with Lily a couple weeks after she turned 2.  Holy cow.  It worked.  The book takes about an hour to read, and it is worth every second.  Here’s the cliff notes.  A couple weeks before go-live, we talked quite a bit about throwing away our nappies, being a big girl, staying clean and dry.  She helped buy some big girl undies, and Em “played potty” with her and her dolls.  Saturday morning Lily walked around the house and put all of her nappies in a garbage bag, and we walked them out to the rubbish bin.   

  

  

  

 She was all in at that point, because she knew the next thing we were going to do was to put on those super awesome undies.  And then the next 2 hours were, well, pretty crazy. Jay tried to gather everything he needed to take Ty out for a special boys day (aka leave the house so Em and I had one less distraction).  I was cussing him (in my mind of course) for not leaving fast enough.  Lily stood in (a few) piles of her wee – every single time was just seconds after I stepped away from her to go potty myself or grab a ponytail holder.  And Emily followed in her wake with a handful of paper towels, Clorox wipes, and dry undies.  Run to the toilet!!  Clean the mess!  Pick out a prize for making a wee in the toilet!!  An unexpected and unplanned (although I would love to take credit for it) surprise was having her big prize for her first wee be little toy birds (Lily calls them “tweet tweets”) that record and repeat what you say. “Lily stays clean and dry!!”  “Lily is a big girl!”  “Clean and dry – SQUAWK!!”  Dump, wash, rinse, repeat.  

And then, like magic, she just seemed to get it.  At 11:00 we put on her 7th pair of undies, and then she kept those dry until bedtime.  She put on a pair of special sleeping now training undies (not Pull ups) for a nap and I woke her after an hour – dry!!  When Jay got home, she was so excited to show Jay.  We were all chilling on the couch that first night, Em and I were wiped out from staring at Lily’s cute little bum all day, and Lily got off the couch and ran to the toilet.  All on her own.  Seriously.  Em and I looked at each other, our jaws on the floor.  Awesome!!  She woke us up at midnight and was just a little wet, enough to have to change the sheets.  And then again at like 3:00.  Moonlight laundry is always fun… 

    
   
Day 2.

The morning was a little bumpy, as there were some distractions (the boys were home) and she had to be reminded of what the expectation was.  But after just a few small dribbles where she caught herself shortly after she started, she was golden.  I let her nap a bit longer – 1.5 hours – and she was dry! The rest of the day was great!  That night she woke us at 2:00, dry.  Woke up the next morning – dry.  She said in a sleepy little voice “clean and dry like tweet tweet.”  So cute!   

   
Day 3.

I sent Jay to work, Ty to school, and Em and I had our first attempt to (du du DUHHHH!!!) leave the safety zone of our house and toilet.  We drove Ty to school, then we went to the park.  We used the park toilet successfully, and used our portable potty seat during our walk around the lake.  We went to a cafe for lunch and used the public toilet.  2 hour nap – dry!  I sent Em to the hair salon for a little pampering to attempt to ward off some homesickness that was creeping in (fair time is one of the hardest times).  When Lily woke, she was sleepy and extra cuddly, but she just squeezed out a little toots in the toilet like she had been doing it all her life.  No big deal.  This was huge, as I remember that being a scary struggle with Ty.  We picked up Ty a little early and walked around the lake again.  If you can’t tell, by this point Em and I just needed to be out of the house!!  We ran home, cooked dinner, and then Em and I went to play in her netball league.  Em played Goal Shooter and she did great!  But we lost.  Wah wah.  That night Lily woke at 3:00 – dry, and then again at 6:00 – dry.  For real.  

Day 4.

Tuesday was Em’s first day alone without nappies.  Ain’t nothing gonna slow them down!  They dropped off Ty and went to the Music play group.  Lily kept dry the whole day!!  She slept for 2.5 hours – dry!  I am so incredibly proud of her.  Both of them.  

Other stuff.

Nothing in this blog is nearly as exciting as hearing about Lily’s wee and toots, but, Jay didn’t want me to let the blog be published without mentioning that he got a new shifter for Brumby.  I don’t really know what was wrong with the one that came with it.  I didn’t particularly love the skull head on the original, nor do I love the plain Jane boring one that came in the new shifter.  I think we need to find either a kangaroo or koala head.  Don’t you think?  

Ant-man.

On the day when I kicked the boys out of the house, they drove Brumby to the office to pick up something and play on the tractors.  Then they went to see Ant-Man, which Ty gave rave reviews about.   

 Nanny Cam.

I got in trouble for not posting a Nanny Cam section in the last blog, but that is because we were on vacation and the nanny took all of the pictures in the last blog.  I could have titled the last blog “Nanny Cam.”  Here are a few from this week.  Music class, Fiji flowers, Emily’s tent mansion (her future home in the U.S.)… 

    
    
    
 
Fair.

So about that depression…  Bri is home with her lambs and projects at the Polk County Fair.  We would all love to be there to help.  Especially Em.  State Fair is going to be the worst….but it helps to know that Bri did awesome!!

 
 
That’s all for now.  G’day mates!!