Dear Hoons, I am starting to wonder if you have anything at all in your life, like at all? something that entertains you and makes you smile and keeps you happy besides burning rubber through our suburb late at night? What is it about our suburb that is so attractive to you people? is the road smooth? does it have the right bends and turns in it? what is it?  When I find out what it is I am going to do everything in my power to change it because  I. AM. SICK. OF. YOU. Come on, 10pm last night we had Hoons doing burnouts and others on dirt bikes tearing through the neighbourhood.  And its not just on the weekends and its not just in the middle of the night.  5am on a Monday morning on your way to work, you feel the need to do burnouts. I am sorry but I am a bit of an oldie, might be that I have two small children that like to get up early in the morning, like mummy and daddy to be full of beans ready for action to go and do things and play and run around and ask for lots of energy. Not only do you wake me up with all your noise but you also wake up my babies. I am also figuring you either earn more money than you know what to do with, or you aren't very good with your money and waste it on rubber, because you must be having to buy new tyres on a very regular basis.  I am willing to show you how to save money so that you can buy a house, or go on a nice overseas holiday.  Somewhere far away from me. I am waiting for the night that you miss judge your car and end up slamming it into something, then your going to want me to help you clean up your mess and get your butt to the hospital because you have hurt yourself. Be warned hoons, I am out for your blood, well more like your oil.

This is probably really appropriate considering the Easter Bunny arrives on Sunday, but how do you get a toddler to actually clean their teeth? Little Miss two likes to suck on the brush.  I have tried brushing for her but she takes after me and is way to independent for that.  We have tried making up  a brushing song, we have tried in the bath (although the actual bath is still a bit of a struggle). A friend of mine suggested all of us brushing together (yet to try that one). What things did you try to get your toddler to actually brush?

Don't you just love Facebook?  It can show people's true colours and their ignorance by the groups or pages they decide to become a fan of. Take my sister in law for example: Today she has chosen to be a member of the "I didn't go to the shops to listen to your child's tantrum" group.... Ohhhh I hear all you parents out their gasping (which is a sight more polite than what I did when I saw that news update and the fact that this particular group exists I can tell you!) And then I realised as I swore and thought of all the things I could have commented about her joining that group... she is ignorant because she isn't a member of the "I have kids and I love them no matter what" world like me, and I remember what I was like when I was in my mid twenties and unattached and childless. Picture it, young single girl out at the shops spending my hard earned cash on such necessary items like a new outfit for the weekend (because that's what lots of cashed up young single girls do, remember those days?) and there is a young child having a tantrum in the middle of the mall because his/her mum won't give them an ice cream.  Young single girl thinks "just give it to him/her, what are you stingy or something, its just an ice cream and if he/she stops crying all good"! Fast forward 10 years and now Mature married lady with kids thinks " oh that poor mother trying to deal with a tantrum in a public place with everyone watching, hope no old fart goes over and tells her what she should be doing to handle the situation, nosey bee's that they are". No matter what you say to someone that doesn't have kids (childcare workers and teachers excluded here) they just won't understand that type of situation and show compassion until they actually experience it as a parent. So if your proud like me to live in the "world only a parent understands" stand up and shout it from the roof tops!  See if we can't drown out that damn Facebook page!

So my little girl just turned 2 and we celebrated with a bit of a shin dig out our home. Let me tell you lots of work went into preparing for said party... Just a small party with a few of her friends... 40 people later... oh well.  Won't be doing another one like that for her until her 5th birthday I have been informed! Anyway... wonderful husband spent days preparing the outside, mowing, edging, weeding, washing, sweeping, you name it. I spent days planning food (just finger food as it was after lunch), kids activities and the before mentioned goodie bags.  Got Nanna involved also.  She makes the best, and I mean the best sausage rolls ever!  Oh and this amazing bread dip, so bad for you but oh soooooo good. Saturday was planned to be Mummy and Nanna in the kitchen, Daddy with Miss 2 and Master 2 months.  It instead went Nanna with Miss 2 at the park, playing dolls, playing kitchen, just playing playing playing.  Don't worry I did put her to work.  She folded clothes and vaccumed the floor. Mummy and Daddy did the kitchen with Nan supervising.  Now the reason for all this help and supervision is because I am not confident in the kitchen.  Not at all.  I am good at planning and organising and delegating (just ask my mum) but cooking is a big no.  People will tell you that I do make some pretty nice food but I don't like doing it. Saturday night when little ones were sleeping Mummy and Daddy iced and decorated and assembled the cake (see lovely picture). Sunday morning saw more time in the kitchen - fairy bread, sandwiches, dips, fruit and cooking of sausage rolls and bread dip. The party was a big success (well I think so), little Miss 2 had lots of fun with all her friends and family, everyone ate and had a jolly good time.  Nanna handled the kitchen, Daddy handled the kids and guests, Poppy handled Miss 2 and I ran around the whole time like a headless chook!  Trying to having chats with all the guests, passing out food, making sure the kids were playing nice etc... I totally over catered the whole event.  Have a fridge fall of food still ... and cake of course... Anyone for lunch?

Ok so miss almost 2 has a major issue with sleeping under a blanket.  As in its impossible for her to do so because she moves around so much in her sleep, and no I don't mean rolling over loads, I mean turning around in the bed, laying across the bed, one leg up on the rail (or wall heaven forbid), one night we even found her asleep on the floor. Now last winter being the concerned mum that I am, I had the ducted heating running every night so that her room stayed toasty warm so she didn't get cold.  As you can imagine the electricity bill was out of control (to the tune of $700!), and because she is such a bean stalk (does not take after her mummy at all) I can no longer get her those cool button up pj's. I have bought her a growbag to try her in but my drama with that is - will she be able to walk in it?  I think I can teach her to unzip it so she can walk around but my hubby isn't so sure. So I am putting forward the question to those of you in blog land how do you keep your toddler warm in their bed without it costing the earth?

I know its been more than a week since I blogged, but we have just been on our first family holiday and I am now trying to organise Miss almost 2's birthday party. And I. Am. Struggling with it. I know what your thinking, she's only 2 you just have some food and cake and the kids run wild for a couple of hours and its all over, but the food thing is the whole problem. You see we don't let Miss almost 2 eat lollies or chocolate or soft drink or any of the foods really high in sugar, which is totally the prerequisite for party food. Don't get me wrong she has sugar based foods, like cake (not chocolate though) and biscuits and lots and lots of fruit and juice, but not sweets. And this is the cause of my dilemma. Do I do lolly bags or not? if so what lollies do I do? do other parents not let their little ones have lollies? ahhhhh my head hurts.... I think I am going to make gingerbread men for the lolly bags and add a lolly pop and be done with it. Now the party has a range of kids ages from 6 down to 2 months old as well as the adults, all with different eating requirements / desires.  Take this as a good example my dad (aka Poppy) will want chocolate crackles because he loves them and only gets them at kids parties, but I hate them! I love rice bubbles and coco pops like everyone else, but I don't really like chocolate crackles.  Do I make them to keep the old man happy or just say nah didn't have time?.... Plus what happens if its going to be really hot like it has for last week, the food will melt as soon as it served which won't look that great, do I serve hot weather friendly food? And if so, what the hell is it? And the drinks, do I do juice and water for the kids and soft drink for the adults? What if the kids drink the soft drink, will the parents think I am a terrible host because I had soft drink out at a kids party?  Do the adults expect to have alcohol? oh the dramas... I think I need some Nutella!

I am sending a thank you prayer / message to the T.V angels for helping me get miss almost 2 back into the bath. Little miss has been going through a phase of not wanting to wash. NO bath, NO shower. The only way we have been able to wash her is to get her in the splash pool with lots of bubbles or sponge her down.  Not an ideal situation for the middle of winter if this continues... It has been a really strange phase because she use to love the bath. And I mean really love it. In actual fact she loves water period. Swimming in the pool is a must when we go to Nan and Pops. She "normally" cries and throws a tantrum when it's time to get out of the bath not in.  So as you can imagine this has left us quite baffled. We have tried everything to get her back in, new bath toys (like she needed any more, she's happy with a couple of small bowls to pour with), mummy playing with the toys in the bath, bribing her with a new book if she has a bath, having a bath in the morning instead of before bed - you name it we tried it. Anyway to make a really long story short, miss almost 2 is a bit obsessed with Madagascar (the movie) at the moment.  Any lion is now an exclamation of of Madagascar where it use to be "roar".  Now we have these cute bath foam things that stick to the tiles and bathtub when wet.  These bath thingo's happen to be a lion, a giraffe, a zebra, a crocodile, a koala and a rhino.  The main characters in the movie. On Tuesday night I decided to try the mummy is having a bath to see if we could get her in the bathroom for a sponge down.  Enter bolt of lightning to mummy's brain and I start playing with the foam thingo's with each animal repeating lines from the movie (when you have seen it 1 million times you pretty much know them all), anyway... This had miss almost 2 quite excited about Madagascar being in the bath with mummy.  So mummy says would you like to stand up in the bath and play with them?  And we got a yes! Oh my god it was working.  Lets not push it here we say so she stands up in the bath and plays. When it came time to get her out we had tears.  Oh the joy of seeing her in the bath what a miracle.  This hasn't been a one off either, we tried the same trick last night and it worked again. So while I am not a fan of letting miss almost 2 watch too much T.V all I can say is thank you angels for the Madagascar film as it has gotten us through one of the toddler phases!