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I’ve noticed over the past few months that technology has made it’s way to Play School - in one episode they made mobile phones (one was a poorly-disguised tampon box), in another they made computers with egg-carton keyboards.

But this morning’s gadget really took the cake. Presenter Karen opened up the “Out-and-About Backpack” to find a sunhat…. AND A HANDHELD GPS, which she used to visit Big Ted in the story chair.

What happened to the good old days when they would have found a map instead and used that?

Posted by Melly in TV | 2 Comments »

Today was one of those days where everything went right. If the weather had been warmer, and Josh had the day off work, it would have been perfect!

Josiah was an angel baby - didn’t cry, ate well, napped, played, laughed, and pooped - very important for a baby who is prone to constipation. The house didn’t get any messier, and what little mess there was from earlier in the week was so insignificant it didn’t bother me. I managed to squeeze in a morning nap. And I ate more Tim Tams

Josh goes back on day shift in about two weeks. His temporary promotion has been extended again, until August. That makes it almost a year since he took on the role! Tax time is around the corner, and we’re actually looking forward to it this year because Josh will get a good return and we’ll also get some money from the government for Josiah. We’ve got nearly $10K saved towards a new-er car, and we’ve still got to sell the bike and get a trade-in on our current vehicle, so it looks like we’ll be able to afford what we’re keen on (Subaru - Forester, Outback or Sportswagon, preferably no older than 2000) and still have money left in the savings account (that means I’d better get my butt in gear and re-sit the test for my learner’s permit… a story for another day!).

My spaghetti bolognaise is just about ready, so I’m off to eat.

Posted by Melly in Daily Life, Food Glorious Food, Parenthood | Comments Off

Dumped baby reunited with mother

June 20, 2007 02:57pm

Article from: AAP
A NEWBORN baby dumped in a bag in a toilet at a Gold Coast luxury resort in March has been reunited with his mother in Ireland.

The two-week-old boy was found inside a shopping bag which also contained towels and baby items in a cubicle in the Chevron Renaissance building at Surfers Paradise on the morning of March 5.

The Australian Federal Police, Interpol and the Department of Immigration were involved in a worldwide search for the baby’s mother, Amy Eustace, after a member of the public recognised security footage of the woman.

After locating her family in Ireland, authorities were able to meet Ms Eustace and convince her to take her son back.

Following several weeks in the care of the Department of Child Safety, the baby boy was flown to Ireland last month, where the pair were reunited, sources confirmed to AAP today.

It is unlikely Ms Eustace will face any charges over the affair, with both Queensland Police and the AFP saying today they were no longer involved in the case.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

Convince her to take her son back?????

How can authorities truly believe that this child will be safe in the care of someone who dumped him in a toilet then left the country?

I don’t remember hearing about this when it happened, but there have been three other newborn babies dumped in Australia in the past month or two; one was found dead at a rubbish tip.

I’ve heard many people say they feel deeply for the mothers of these babies, that they must have been in a terribly dire situation and very distressed to have done such a dreadful thing.

Personally, I find it extremely difficult to find one iota of sympathy or empathy. In this country, and in this day and age, there are so many free avenues of help available. And even if they felt they couldn’t access them, surely they could have figured out a more suitable place to leave them than in cardboard boxes on the steps of a church/at the entrance to a hospital, in the middle of the night, in the cold, not even wrapped warmly?

Even if they weren’t thinking straight - my goodness, these are living, breathing, vulnerable newborn infants. It’s just totally beyond my capacity to understand how someone can so literally throw a baby away.

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I just opened a packet of the Chocolate Mud Love Potion ones. Technically, they’re Josh’s, but it just took me an hour to get Josiah to sleep (he’s teething, poor bubba), so I figured I deserved one. Or two. Or more. I’m dunking them in my coffee. YUM. I don’t do Tim Tam Straws/Slams because I just make a big, chocolatey, sludgy mess in my cup. I merely dip them into my drink for a few seconds, just long enough to start the chocolate coating a-melt.

(Argh, spoke to soon - I hear wailing from the next room….. now quiet…. )

For those of you unfortunate enough to be unfamiliar with Tim Tams (and a few of my lucky readers are Tim Tam virgins no longer because I’ve sent them some in the post in days past), go here .

(Now wailing….. now quiet…. now those little “coughcoughcoughwaaaah” type cries…..)

I made the mistake of answering the telephone a short time ago. It was a telemarketer who sounded extremely Indian, but said he was calling from the Gold Coast. He wanted to give me a DVD player for attending a 90 minute time-share presentation. Reminds me of this episode of South Park. I had Josiah on my hip at the time as I’d been lugging him around the house in search of the teething gel, and he chose to wail mid-conversation. Best way to get off the phone to a telemarketer!

(Now quiet…..)

I watched the news this evening and discovered why it was so darn cold today. We had the coldest Toowoomba day on record (and the records started in about 1869) - the maximum temperature was 5.8C (43F), and the wind chill factor made it more like -5C (23F) for most of the day, even as cold as -9C (16F) at 6am! Josiah and I spent most of the afternoon and early evening hanging out in front of the halogen heater in the study. I didn’t give him a bath tonight as it was just too cold. I nearly froze when I got out of the shower, and there was no way I was putting his little body through that.

(Still quiet…..)

Josh rang earlier to tell me that partners are now invited to attend a work function this Saturday night, so long as they pay their own way. So we’re going out to dinner - yay! Mum’s going to babysit for us, and we’re taking a taxi so Josh can have a few drinks (his food AND drinks are paid for). I might go all out and have a glass of wine - though the last time I did that, at a wedding a couple of months ago, it went straight to my head and I was dizzy and giggly for a good half hour. Josh found it hilarious. I was just embarrassed.

Anyway, Josh works with some very nice people. For the most part, they’re not the kind of people we’d normally spend time with, which I think make his work functions interesting because it means talking to people you probably otherwise wouldn’t. Not that there’s anything wrong with the people he works with, by the way, we just don’t have much in common with them. Besides which, Josh and I keep to ourselves a lot because we’re so much better than everyone else.

The last part of the above sentence was pure codswallop, in case you thought I was serious. In actuality, we’re probably so bloody boring nobody would want to hang out with us anyway.

(Still quiet…..)

I’m watching some Hello Kitty ear muffs and some black & white striped arm warmers on eBay. Oh, and a Hello Kitty shower cap. If I have to wear a shower cap (and I do, because even though I tie my hair up in the shower, it always gets wet and I’m sick of it) it may as well be a cute one.

Time to go watch Spicks & Specks and wait for my darling husband to get home so I can say “The bad news is I opened a packet of your Tim Tams, but the good news is I only ate 3!”

Posted by Melly in Daily Life, TV, Food Glorious Food, Parenthood | Comments Off

I seem to be surviving so far today…. though to be honest, I’ve only been out of bed for 3 hours *blush*. WoW was down for server maintenance (or whatever it is) last night, being Tuesday, so Josh actually got to sleep at a decent time. I couldn’t face getting out of bed when Josiah woke up this morning, having already been up to resettle him at 5am (he’d woken up and Daddy had wrapped him too tight and he couldn’t get his arms out and had a tanty, LOL. He just wanted some fingers to chew on!). So Josh, the bestest husband in the world, got up with him so I could stay in bed for a few extra hours! I crawled out when my Mum came over at 11am.

Josiah is actually having a really long nap at the moment. It’s just after 2pm and he went down at 12pm. He rarely sleeps for longer than 1.5 hours during the day, so this is great! Though I’m hoping he can stay asleep until 3pm or else we’ll have scheduling problems. His bedtime is 7pm, and the longest he can stay awake without a nap is 4 hours. So if he wakes before 3pm, there’ll be a bit of a struggle to either get him to have a quick nap in there somewhere, or try to keep him awake until bedtime.

I’m glad I did a fair bit of housework at the beginning of the week because it’s the last thing I feel like doing today. It would probably warm me up, but motiviation is below zero! Josiah likes watching me clean and do chores, so I usually drag him around the house with me in his little rocker. I hadn’t planned on doing anything much around here today, but surprisingly (and without thinking about it, really) I’ve run the dishwasher, done some filing, printed out some stuff for Mum, washed & sterilised bottles, made myself toasted sandwiches for lunch and cleaned up, and tidied up the kitchen.

I can’t bear the thought of standing in that icy kitchen tonight chopping vegetables and cooking my chicken stir-fry though, so instead I got a container of my Mum’s homemade chicken & vegetable soup out of the freezer! I can just throw a few bake-at-home rolls in the oven and heat the soup in the microwave. There are about 8 containers of soup still in the freezer, and each one holds enough for both Josh and myself. There are a couple of different types of chicken & vegetable, some pumpkin, pea & ham, cabbage, bacon & potato, and some vegetable & chickpea. She was going through some food magazines the other day and found another few soup recipes she wants to try too. I’m so glad my Mum loves to cook, and share what she makes! I was going to make pork chops on Friday, but Mum is bringing over a recipe she’s trying in her crockpot - Dixie Chicken. All I’ll have to do is cook some rice and green veges to go with it.

Gypsie is roaming around the yard today like it’s beautiful out. She’s in her element! For those of you who don’t know, she’s a Siberian Husky, so this is her idea of good weather. I did get Josh to bring her inside last night though. She has a warm, dry kennel out of the wind, but I felt mean leaving her out <— big softie. So she slept on her bed in the garage (our garage is off the kitchen and is carpeted). It looks like it has snowed if you look at the yard out of the corner of your eye, because she has pulled all the stuffing out of her teddy bear and it’s blown all over the grass.

I’m in the bedroom but I don’t have the heater on right now. I’m wearing flannelette pj’s with a singlet, long sleeve tee and knee socks underneath, and my big purple dressing gown over the top. I’ve also been wearing my Emily Strange Sabbath slippers. I’m having a cup of hot coffee so don’t feel too cold right now, but might slip under the covers soon.

Once Josiah wakes up and has his bottle, I’ll drag his rocker into the bathroom so I can have a shower & wash my hair. I’ll need to blow dry it, which I hate doing. I’m still losing so much hair. It’s post-pregnancy/hormone related and such a pain in the butt! I thought there were stains on our bedroom carpet in front of the dresser, but it turned out to be layers of my hair strands piled up and stuck into the pile of the carpet! It gets everywhere, and when I wash it, it comes out in clumps. I’m tempted to cut it off short but Josh likes it long; besides which, my head would be cold! I think I’ll need to get a couple of inches off the bottom though. I bought some salon shampoo & conditioner so the condition is getting better, but it could still do with a good trim.

So that’s about it from me for now. I think I’ll go check the news websites and see how NSW fared last night - they flooded a short while ago and were in for more wild weather overnight.

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… is what I said just now when I went out to the kitchen to do the post-dinner clean up.

IT’S BLOODY COLD.

I’ve never cleared up so quick in all my life.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, we can expect a delightful 2C (35F) overnight, with a top of 11C (51F) tomorrow. Oh, and don’t forget the severe weather warning for damaging winds.

I think our little fan heater here in the bedroom is threatening to pack it in. We’ve had it for a few years now, so it’s probably about time for a replacement.

Josiah has the good, brand new oil column heater in his room. He gets all the best stuff *pouts*

Time for a hot shower, but even that is an ordeal. Because of the Level 5 water restrictions, we try to keep to a maximum of 4 minutes per shower. Trouble is it takes about 2 minutes for the water to get warm because the hot water system is on the opposite side of the house to the bathroom. They say that cold showers are good for you. See the title of this post for what I think of that!

Posted by Melly in Daily Life | 3 Comments »