Amy la chiquitita tried to copy me this morning: I brought my shoes into the lounge and sat on the sofa to put them on. Amy saw what I was doing and raced over to her shoes, picked one up and waved it at me, saying, “Shoh!” Then she tried to place it on top of her foot.
The phone went walking down to the river, and had a drink. And he just went down home. He bumped his head on his chair and gave his mum a kiss. Then he walked down to the park and he watched a movie called The Incredibles. He saw a ‘F’ and then he said his name, which was “The phone went walking”.
Me: That’s his name?
Ethan: Uh-huh. And he just got scared because he found his kite and flew up with it. He heard a bump, and it bumped on his head. He found his mummy and he climbed up a tree. Up in the tree he found a nest and he lived in it. But the bird said, “Oh no! Who’s in my nest! A phone? With legs and eyes and a mouth? Yes!”
Me: Then what happened in the nest?
Ethan: The phone broke. Into little pieces and the bird ate them all up.
Me: Is that it?
Ethan: Yeah.
ET FIN
Mike is away in Auckland until late tomorrow, and so far all I have done is prove my dunce status in front of two of my neighbours in a sad case of “Wednesday is for Losers”. In a two hour space this morning:
* D brought a shirt to sew a button back onto, but forgot to bring the button. She told us that she’d checked for the spare button that’s usually sewn inside a shirt when you buy it, but it didn’t have one. Later she found it. Where it should have been.
* M brought some photos to put in her album and searched through her stuff a bazillion times, unable to find the exact piece of paper she’d meant to bring. Not surprisingly it was where she’d already looked.
* I slopped my cup of coffee all over myself.
* D got picked out in front of everyone — about sixty people — for having her nametag on upside down. This was more of a WTF? moment, though.
* I was separating some thread for a cross-stitch and had the end of the thread between my teeth to keep it taut, when my hair got tangled in the thread and I almost had to cut it out.
…
In other news, Amy has cut two more teeth! One lower first molar on each side, within two days of each other. The top two are currently very hard bulges under her gums.
Ethan had a friend to visit this morning, and the two kids were playing various pretend games. I heard them fighting at one point and went to see what was up: Ethan wanted to be four so he could go to morning kindy, and his friend H wanted him to be five so he could go to school.
D and I were discussing the impact of parental alcohol consumption on our children — D’s husband had gone to the supermarket with their three-year-old daughter who pulled him into the wine aisle and yelled, “We have to buy wine for Mummy!” while her four-year-old son wanted D to invite her friends around “for drinks” so he could have his friends around and they could choose between chips and popcorn. The other night I had a glass of wine while I was cooking dinner and Ethan asked, “Is that wine?” I said yes and he said, “That’s what grownups drink, isn’t it? That’s what you drink when you’re at D’s house.”
Honest, it was only that one time…
One more business day before I start school, yet I have no idea where my “Student Pack” is. I should have a StudentNet account (wooyay), and I should, one should assume, know where my classrooms are. Hmm.
I got my student loan contract today — there is a rather long list of T&C to read through including the provisions for writing off the interest. Since I’m not full-time, I don’t know whether I qualify but I need to sign the contract before it’s valid anyway. I have more forms for the Student Allowance which I’m not expecting to receive but thought I’d try for anyway, and I need to make a few thousand copies of various pieces of paper to prove that I am human and not a compulsive liar (probably true) or a compulsive money-spender (probably not true).
Off to Blenheim this weekend with the kids. I’ve been priming Amy for taking some big steps while we’re at the grandparents’ — it’s only fair.
I am currently working on growing the biggest student loan in the history of ever. If you ever want to hear Mike giggle like a giddy schoolgirl, get him to say the following:
“You could add to your student loan…and then we could pay it back!” And cue chortling. This should probably not be funny.
…
Amy took a day off from walking today. She didn’t even stand. This may be due to the pair of snazzy and stupidly overpriced Converse sneakers I had on her feet today. I promise I didn’t buy them. My sister bought Ethan a pair of Adidas sneakers for his first birthday and a pair of Nikes for his second. For Amy’s first Christmas, she was given pink Converse All-Stars. Yeah. Baby. Photos. Whenever we get our card reader back.
Originally uploaded by tracicle.
This is Shelley, Mike’s parents’ kitty. She was put to sleep earlier today — her liver and lungs were failing. She was thirteen, and Ethan would try to hug her and kiss her and Shelley would ignore him and saunter away to take her place in the warmest, sunniest spot in the house.
She loved to sneak into whichever bedroom was occupied and had an open door in the morning, and wiggle under the blankets to snuggle against a body; didn’t matter whose. Mike would make a show of checking the door was shut tight at night to keep Shelley out. In the evenings she’d climb into a lap — usually Mike’s Dad’s — and nest with her forepaws (claws often extended) and settle down for a nap. With minimal effort she’d be purring, and the purring was invariably followed by drooling.
On one visit to Blenheim, Ethan and Shelley spent a few minutes hanging out together on the windowseat. Ethan invaded Shelley’s sunny spot but she was obviously too warm and comfortable to move away, so she allowed him to chatter away to her and even rest his head on her belly. I fetched the camera and waited for the inevitable flurry of claws and Ethan’s scalp, but it never came.
Personally I couldn’t say hello to Shelley without getting that annoying song of Phoebe’s from Friends stuck in my head: Shelley Cat, Shelley Cat, what are they feeding you?
The government tells us we’re rich. I’d scoff at this if it wasn’t so damn frustrating when we don’t qualify for a single bit of assistance with childcare. I spent a couple of hours on various government websites recently looking for the tiniest glimmer of a hope of a hand with our upcoming daycare bills. I thought briefly that we qualified for the Parental Tax Credit, but it turned out they raised the maximum income levels after Amy was born.
The reason I am so bummed about it is that I called Amy’s daycare yesterday and scored a slot for both kids from nine till three on Mondays while I’m back at school. This means I can take two classes on Monday, then another on Tuesday afternoons while Amy is at daycare and Ethan is at kindy. If I take one more as a distance course, then two summer school classes, I’ll be done with the Certificate in Supporting Children’s Learning (that’s the CertSCL to you suckas) by February, in time for the 2007 Bachelor of Teaching and Learning (ie. BTL or something, hey, it’s almost “bottle”) intake. Score!
The downside: our daycare costs will go from $26.50 per week — Amy’s current half-day — to $96.50 per week — both kids on an almost-full day and Amy still on her half-day. Plus my tuition fees. I’m debating getting a student loan, including living costs, to cover fees and daycare. But my loan from last time is already sky-high, and who’s to say that the current interest-free status won’t change with the next election?
…
In other news, Amy is standing for short periods of time, usually when distracted by her lunatic brother. She thinks it’s fun to tip forwards and be caught. I wonder what will happen the first time she tries it while no-one is looking.
TwitterBad Behavior has blocked 26 access attempts in the last 7 days.