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Anticipation
It’s Lego Lover’s birthday tomorrow and the anticipation is trying to do him in. He’s been terribly excited for days and today he had to tell me that his birthday is very close about ten or fifteen times. He was so excited he went to bed early tonight. He fell asleep pretty quickly but then I had to close the sliding glass door off the laundry room and he was suddenly awake. I think it was mostly a matter of him sleeping lightly at the time. He’s been struggling to sleep since then, which is really frustrating for him.
Tonight I’ve had the task of blowing up the balloons that were requested. I waited as late as possible to start on it because Game Fanatic has a fear of balloons popping and, consequently, doesn’t like them. The packet is supposed to have twenty-five but we’re coming up a couple short. Maybe this is to make up for an extra one or two last year?
I made a start on the cake today because Lego Lover wants it to look like a brown Lego brick. So tomorrow I am going to do a second mix in cupcake form…or we might try marshmallows to make the brick effect. I’m a bit worried about trying to spread frosting on it so might see if I can get a mini-cupcake tin since ours makes the larged-size ones. The second cake mix is going to be a dairy free version so that I can keep a few out for my dairy and soy-allergic niece.
Lego Lover is getting just one big present from us this year because it’s so expensive. It’s a very big Transformer model that breaks into about six other models or something like that. It was so highly desired he said it could be a combined birthday/Christmas present. One of the department stores here had it on sale for $99, reduced from $150. The one time I saw them in the store, Lego Lover was with me and there were heaps of them. When I was able to get back to buy one, they were all gone…not really that surprising. I’ve been saying it is just too expensive to buy at retail price and the the store where it was on sale had sold out. So he’s not really expecting to get this but I think he’s going to be very happy with it.
I was talking with him earlier today and told him that the start of his being born actually started the day before. I think he enjoyed hearing about some of the things that happened that day. I started having light contractions by the middle of the day. I had gone to our local bakery and the lady there was aghast that I was out doing normal things while I was in labor. She also announced they had sold the bakery and introduced me to the new owner. I didn’t reach full-on labor until later that night and we finally left of the hospital around 11pm. Lego Lover was finally born at 6:30 the next morning by c-section.
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Easy Christmas
We did most of our shopping in less than two hours this afternoon. I’m not quite sure how that worked out, but it was almost pleasantly simple. We really only have to buy for the boys and our two nieces and nephew but it somehow drags out into a huge endeavor covering several days and multiple stores. This time, we managed most within one shopping centre. We opted to buy board games for the relatives this year rather than struggle to find something that would meet approval of parents and kids. We found one present for Game Fanatic and the other I will buy in Perth tomorrow (assuming it’s in stock). Lego Lover’s birthday present is done and we just have to find a couple Christmas presents. That pretty much covers it for us.
We’re having the family Christmas in our backyard this year, weather permitting. It’s rather early but there were reports yesterday that there will be thunderstorms that afternoon. Today the report says it’s going to be boiling hot. I wonder what they will say tomorrow…We’re going to buy precooked ham and possibly a turkey breast to slice down so we don’t have to cook. I might be making chickpea-vegetable patties (the day before) and the Scientist might be making a dessert. That should cover our part of the food. If all goes to plan we will be able to relax on Christmas day. Since the family is coming here for Christmas, we are just having light snacks and cake for Lego Lover’s birthday at a nearby park and we can keep dinner to immediate family afterwards. We haven’t done any Christmas baking as yet but I think we will try making our new traditional gingerbread people Monday or Tuesday. I am also thinking about trying cinnamon rolls but may again put that idea aside for another time.
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Protected: Grouchy kid (Email purplelorikeet@gmail.com if password is needed)
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Fifteen already
Last week, Game Fanatic reached the milestone of completing his fifteenth year. In no time at all he will be an adult. Here in Australia he’s now old enough to watch movies and play games that are rated M or MA. Celebrations were pretty low-key with family visiting on the day before (Sunday). This was planned specifically to get the anxiety and stress he experiences out of the way ahead of time. I think it worked pretty well in the end. He really wanted to wait for his birthday to open presents but some really wanted to see him open presents. So he opened those from the family. That night he was lamenting that he’d not have much to open on his birthday since he was expecting one thing from us. I think he was pleasantly surprised the next day when he had not one, but four presents from us. Game Fanatic creates a birthday and Christmas wish list each year with considerable care and we mostly stick to his list when buying gifts as he’s not terribly fond if being surprised. I managed to find two games from his list secondhand at EB Games on the weekend at a lower price than expected. One was a very rare game that I just lucked out finding. I’d also bought him a copy of Watership Down, one of his favorite books, from Book Depository a while back when purchasing Asterix books for his brother. I decided to keep that as a small surprise gift and I think he was quite pleased to get it. There were a couple of occasions where we were in a book shop recently where he’d gone looking for it so it was a relief that it wasn’t in stock any of those times. The last gift was a copy of Life of Brian by Monty Python, another surprise. He spent most of his birthday playing the game he’d been given the day before while waiting for his dad to get home from work (early). The rest of the day was spent trying out the new games and spending time with the immediate family. He’d be unlikely to express the feeling, but I think he had a really nice day this year.
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Wrong address
Both my parents had birthdays recently and I ordered a gift for my father through Amazon a few days in advance. I tracked the progress of the order over several days and was quite startled to see a note saying the address was incorrect. I contacted Dad to check on this and apparently I’ve been using the wrong address for several years now. I have had several packages sent to the incorrect address in the past two or three years. All have arrived without any problem before now. Anyway, he was able to pick up the package from the UPS office with no problem, which is a relief because I suspect it would have been returned to sender otherwise.
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Revelations
Two or three weeks ago, Lego Lover lost one of his lower canine teeth. The other lower one was loose and last Tuesday he realised it was soon to be out. We were out in the car while his brother was at Dungeons and Dragons and he was wiggling it with his tongue until it was just hanging there. He was much braver about moving this tooth compared to the last one. It finally did come out and he was quite relieved that it didn’t bleed much at all, which did happen last time. Not that it bled much but to him it was too much. So I commented to him that he would be getting a visit from the tooth fairy that night, which made him happy.
Lego Lover has for quite some time been quite sure there was no tooth fairy. He’s discussed it with me many times and was certain that it was impossible for there to really be a tooth fairy. And he had also come to the conclusion there was no Easter bunny. But he was on and on about Santa Claus and what he would bring for him at Christmas each year. i kept finding it odd how he didn’t believe in tooth fairies and Easter bunnies, but Santa was as real as they come. Tuesday, we again had this conversation about the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. He was adamant that there are no real fairies. The Easter bunnyis a bit more plausible but it is really just the parents pretending. This time, we talked more about the impossibility of these myths and somehow got onto the topic of Santa Claus. Initially he said that he partially believes in Santa. But as we talked on, he admitted that he doesn’t believe in Santa but he does believe in the idea of him. He said he hasn’t believed in Santa since 2006. He also admitted that he hadn’t said anything before now because he was worried he’d not get so many presents.
Both of the boys held on to the Santa story until far later than I remember kids doing when I was growing up. I don’t think either wanted to let go of the idea of Santa, whether they truly believed or not. Although it’s mostly a relief to have this out in the open, I feel a bit sentimental about that era of his childhood being over. It takes me back to when I found out the truth about Santa. I was quite a bit younger and some friends revealed the truth to me. For me it was quite a shock and I remember not believing them at first. I’m not sure what made me realise they were right. I’m not sure but I don’t think there were any nasty shocks for either of the boys. I suspect when Lego Lover worked out the truth, he was probably quite pleased with himself for being so clever.
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Not Too Bored of Board Games
It’s been a couple years since Game Fanatic started playing Dungeons and Dragons and it’s pretty amazing he is still playing. He tends to get bored of just about everything after some time. It’s not so much that he’s still enjoying it but it is his one social outlet during the week. He has lost interest in the game and started looking for some alternatives. Through his favorite website, he found recommendations for a couple games and was very keen to get at least one or the other. The game he really wanted is called Small World and is apparently sort of like Risk, but different. Game Fanatic checked the website of the best games shop in the area and discovered it cost $100. On the same website was advertised Arkham Horror, a game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthullu Mythos, which also interested him. That was listed for half the price so he was leaning towards that one due to lower cost.
We went into Perth to the shop, discovered Small World had sold out, then looked at Arkham Horror, which showed a price of $110, considerably higher than what he’d seen online. I hadn’t seen the website so decided not to pursue it at that point in case Game Fanatic had misunderstood what was listed online. After browsing the hundreds of board games, we left it for that day. When we returned home I confirmed that Game Fanatic had been correct about the price discrepancy. The following week we happened to be near Perth again, so we stopped at the shop again. We’d been told Small World would be in that week (on the previous visit) but apparently it had sold out quite quickly again. I queried someone in charge about the price discrepancy on Arkham Horror. The guy checked the website and said that the picture and price were correct but it supposed to be for an expansion pack rather than the original and the wrong text had been listed. I suggested they might want to fix that error and left it at that.
Game Fanatic had done research on more games during the week so we browsed several other games of interest. But I felt he really would only have been satisfied with the Arkham Horror so we got that despite the much higher price. When I went up to pay, the shop person gave us a generous discount of $30, which was much appreciated. So it worked out quite nicely for us on that one.
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Protected: Appointments
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Protected: First of many appointments
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Bits and pieces
Just some bits and pieces :
- New Year’s Eve was relatively quiet at our house. We were invited to a party this year but didnt go. The boys wouldn’t have coped, which would have made it rather difficult for the Scientist or I to enjoy ourselves. Earlier in the evening we took the telescope out and looked at the moon and Venus. It made for some interesting viewing and Lego Lover had a ball with it. Later we spent a lot of time playing video games. Just before midnight we switched to the television to see the fireworks in Sydney and we drank sparkling grape juice at midnight.
- Last Tuesday we were startled in the middle of the day by a loud noise that sounded to me a bit like the car hitting the fence across the street a few years ago. About thirty seconds later we heard a car screeching away. I had a quick look out our side door and noted nothing out of the ordinary but later on I discovered what had happened. We have a roundabout (traffic circle)Â near us and a car must have been going around it too quickly. Presumably the driver lost control and went right through the fence of our back neighbours and hit their clothes hoist, which went through the back fence through to our yard. It’s a small hole, in one of the panels that was replaced after a storm damage last year. We don’t know whether it can be repaired or will have to be replaced as yet. This damage is quite unlucky for our neighbours who now have a rather huge area of fence that is broken. But they were lucky that the vehicle hit the fence where it did because the fence runs just along the side of the house and it easily could have been the building that was hit.
- The Scientist and I are again thinking about taking a cruise, either at the end of this year or early next year. There’s one on offer right now for a reasonable price that goes from either Fremantle to Adelaide or vice versa. The only hitch is we’d have to fly one way and Lego Lover is terrified of that possibility. We do have the alternative of taking the Indian Pacific one way but I’m not sure if it will be as cost-effective as flying.
- Lego Lover got a new mattress at the beginning of the month. He’s been using the same one for many years now and it’s not terribly supportive for a bigger kids so we got a new one that hopefully will last well into his teen years.
- We have several upcoming appointments in the near future with two this week, one for each of the boys. Otherwise our schedule is pretty empty. I’m hoping to get together with my friend K and her kids some time soon but these days we find it harder to coordinate our schedules than we did when the kids were younger.
- I’ve seen some really interesting programs on television lately, mostly screening on ABC1 or ABC2, as I recall. It’s nice to have such wonderful programming in the midst of our generally listless summer programming on the commercial channels. New Year’s night was especially memorable with:Â The Story of 1, presented by Terry Jones and tracing the history of numbers; Destiny in Alice, about the large lesbian community in Alice Springs and presented by mock anthropologist, “Destiny Attenborough”; and Happy News Year which presented a less conventional look at news events of 2008, presented by The Chasers’ Chris Taylor. All were entertaining, yet informative programs.
- Our washing machine requires a repair. We have an LG front loader and it started making thunderous noise while spinning the other day along with shreds of rubber showing up in the finished laundry. Repairers won’t be here until the 20th. We used my MIL’s machine on Saturday while there for a family lunch but she lives too far to make it time, cost or fuel efficient to use that machine. I suppose a laundromat visit will feature into this week along with some handwashing.