Thursday, October 30, 2008

Mo-fo.



I find it f#@$ing hilarious that someone took the time to paint a picture of Tom Selleck in hommus of all mediums.

Why the hell am I writing about Tom Selleck? I'm trying to convince Mat to grow a moustache. I just happen to think he would look cute.

It has absolutely ZERO to do with the fact that my friend in primary school, Katie and I had a massive thing for Magnum P.I. in the eighties. Phwoar! The hairy chest, the dimples, the Ferrari, the sarky butler. Man, that show had it all.

Now excuse me, I'm hungry.
I feel like a bowl of hommus for some reason...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Like Sands through the Hourglass.


I look at the calendar, I see it's the last week of October and a mild sense of panic comes over me. I think how quickly another year has come and gone and feel a sense of melancholia sweeping over me. Am I the worlds worst procrastinator?

Goddammit! In my mind it's still March or April and I've got ages of time to get things done before Christmas/The Holidays/New Year.

Oh how will get all those things done if I can't even manage to remove excess body hair on a regular basis?

Cripes! Time to make a list?


Saturday, October 11, 2008

Eczema, Asthma, Allergy, Excrement

When bubble was about 3 months old he got cradle cap on his cradle cap which soon traversed his face, turned his cheeks blotchy and caused a great deal of discomfort. I approached the Maternal Health Nurse who insisted it was heat rash. Heat rash that worsened well into the cooler months of 2004.

Things seemed a little better on our 3 month visit to the U.K and the rash appeared to improve. When we returned Mat went back to work and I was eating a snack of peanut butter on celery. After licking off the peanut butter I gave bubs one of the celery sticks to chew on to soothe his erupting teeth. His eyes became watery and itchy and he got a marked rash on his face. I was quite concerned and visited the doctor for a referral to an allergy specialist. The doctor insisted I was being too hasty and that he would 'grow out of it'. Two weeks later I was back at the docs because he had developed a wheeze. The doc prescribed Ventolin.


.
Instead we took him to the Homeopath which completely removed the wheeze, it also (as the Homeopath wanted) pushed the problem back onto the surface of the skin.
Hello bright red blotches.

The boy's 2nd Birthday. 

A week after their second birthday I made a chicken and sweetcorn soup with egg in it which Bubble promptly vomited up. At this point we were pretty convinced that he had allergies to peanut and egg but the doctor still claimed he would grow out of it and that waiting lists at the R.C.H were a year long so why bother.

6 months later at my 30th birthday party Bubble's lips blew up like Mick Jagger's after eating a biscuit and we made the quick-dash to the R.C.H. We had to sit around for 4 hours while the nurses observed him. I was not leaving that emergency dept without a referral letter which I was eventually given by (very maturely) refusing to leave.

2 months later we were able to see the allergist for a skin-prick test. Bubble had histamine responses to egg, nuts, soy, grasses, dust mites, green peas and sesame. We also noticed, by keeping a diary food intolerance to some additives, sulphur, tomato and yeast.

We became accustomed to carrying the Epi-pen with us when we went out and learned how to navigate menus and food-labelling of our groceries safely. The upside was that we started cooking nearly all of our meals from scratch.

We still wonder WTF? if Bubble breaks out in hives or itches or can't sleep because we do our damned best to eliminate any suspect foods. It's tricky.

My advice for any mums out there is to trust your instincts. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, It's shit. Don't let anyone tell you it's chocolate mousse. Who cares if people think you're paranoid or OTT. You know your baby better than anyone.

The crappy part for Bubs is that the earlier a child is tested for allergies, the better the chances of growing out of them. The key is avoiding foods that trigger a response to allow the immune system to get stronger. The more a child is exposed to an allergen, the more the immune system is weakened and the more likely it is that they will become sensitive to other allergens as well.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

What are words worth?


msaims goes to school, K.L Malaysia 1981
Next week my ickle bublets go to their prep orientation and next year they are starting school. Yikes!! Perhaps it's time for me to start correcting a few of the very cute but incorrect words they use.

For example...

fancy renstarant = a nice restaurant
caresil = careful
poisontous = poisonous
advelet = advert

"I saw an advelet on TV for a fancy renstarant but we have to be very carecil because they serve poisontous puffer fish sushi."

See what I mean?

Not phased though, I called rollerskates skolleraters til I was 6 and I turned out okay, right?

Do any kids you know use words that crack you up?

Sunday, October 5, 2008

New curtains



Still life with cyclamens, wisteria and new curtains.

Quick post for my Sister.

I was sewing these while she was calling from a pay-phone late at night in New York and a rat the size of a small cat hissed at her. Creepy little Asshole of a rat.

Happy Birthday Mum.



Pic via drp 's photo stream on Flikr

This is funny because it's SO something my mother would say. 

Have a great day Mum.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Me. As a flower.




Oh yeah, Life's good.

This morning I noticed that I was nominated for a blog award by Claire at 'ethel loves fred'. Nice. Then when I saw I was chosen in the same fine company as Esther from 'the ruth spoon' it was even more nicer!

These two ladies have a lot of smarts, sparkle and wit. Truly! They seem like two great gals and the craft! BLIMEY! I also like oggling the pictures of their daughters because I have two sons and I'm done with the baby making.

 Not long after my friend Adrian popped over for a surprise visit. He has been living in Hanoi for a few years. 

We are both lousy at keeping in contact and we hadn't spoken for erm... *cough* 2 years but we always seem to pick up exactly where we left off. Don't ya love mates like that??

I didn't know he had come home or that he had TA-DA! A new wife! I got to blow his socks off with the news of my own marriage which he is partly responsible for as I wouldn't have met mat if he hadn't let his spare room to him. The boys also made a cafe and pretend feast for him which was a giggle.

Now we are off to a first Birthday party. Another little girl to moon over and special hugs for the Mama and Papa whose meeting and blossoming relationship I was luckily enough to witness on a so called 'Girl's Holiday' in Byron Bay. (No shit! They were married 3 months later!) 

I haven't seen these guy's for erm... *cough* 4 years. 
Hey, I'm a great friend in spirit okay!

Have you ever had the feeling that you're a big giant peony rose unfurling? No? Well, that's how I feel today. 

Is it spring energy or just me getting the arse out of my shell? Not quite sure either way and I know it's a bit cheesy but how could you pick fault with me when i'm this lush, exquisite and lovely.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Batmam!




We hired an old school Batman DVD the other day. Bubble drew a picture of some of the characters. From left, Robin, Batman, a mouse, Cat Woman's cat, The Joker and The Penguin.
I may be a tad biased but I think it's pretty cool.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Plastic-crap-tastic.



We took the boys to see 'Wall.E', the new Pixar movie and we all enjoyed it. When we were waiting to go into the theatre the boys noticed some kids had drink cups with a Wall.E figurine on top that came as part of a popcorn/drink deal. They became obsessed with these cups and kept asking if we could buy one.

I remember having a Ghostbusters t-shirt and an E.T. cup when I was a kid but I didn't feel bad about saying no. There are so many kid's movies coming out these days that you could go broke trying to keep up. 

This started me off on a bit of a rant about licensed merch being a rip-off, how it targets kids, how it's all from China, it's wasteful tat, PLASTIC is the DEVIL! etc.

When I got home I decided to have a good look at my own sad state of plasticky affairs in the heart of our home, the kitchen.

We have quite a bit of plastic stuff in our kitchen. I do keep a load of glass jars to store our food in because we buy quite a bit from the bulk-bins at our local health food store.  

We don't use plastic for heating food or drinks. I did do some research on plastics when I was pregnant but I won't preach here.


This is my inventory of kitchen plastic:





A plastic box holding toothpicks, a manuka honey jar, a hundreds and thousands jar, instant miso packets, tea bag wrappers, a bag of xanthan gum, Bic biros, Sharpies, plastic cutlery, measuring spoons, a gingerbread man cookie cutter, one of my Grandma's blue Tupperware containers, an icing nozzle, a vacuum wine saver, a red melamine mixing bowl, a melamine cheese board and kid's chopsticks.





Not shown here: 3 lighters, 1 roll of plastic wrap for covering bowls in the fridge, some plastic shopping bags that we use as bin liners, some bags of spices, a few packets of cereal, a silicon spatula, a lemon juice squeezer, an ice block container, a milk bottle, a strawberry punnet, some brie in glad wrap, Decor cereal containers and a pepper grinder.

Not bad, Not great. Always room for improvement.

Things are packaged in plastic more and more these days which makes it hard to avoid. I would like to have even less plastic in my life but I'm sure it will only get worse with school lunches to prepare.

When I first heard about the plastic garbage patches floating in our oceans I was really shocked and I stopped buying as much disposable stuff as was possible I prefer to have things that are recycled or mean something to me. Most of my kitchen things are from the op shop or hand-me-downs from Mum and Grandma. 

The hunt and glory of finding 'a treasure' while op-shopping gives me lots of satisfaction. I'm still looking for the ever elusive, un-chipped, glass lemon juice squeezer. My personal op-shopping holy grail.