Our shelves in April

A mammoth post on our shelves this month!

They normally look this this (a little crowded!):

I've got (from left of picture) on the top shelf:
- A basket with a rainmaker and bell shaker on (for Snail, mostly, though both girls get going on them sometimes). 
- Snail's spinning top she got for her birthday from some lovely friends!  Both girls love this!
- A tray with a set of ocean animals and fish (after our Aquarium adventures)
- Lolly's horse collection
- The green basket contains a set of Link 'Ems, a building toy I now can't recall the proper name of, or I'd link from here (lol).  This is a close up:

- then a basket with her new blocks, they are awesome, and construct marble rolling castles!!  A present for her birthday from the same awesome family that got the top for Snail (xo).  They are Viola building blocks and you can get them here.



 She loves this!  It is out several times a day, with requests to build castles.  She has learnt to construct simple sections so the marble rolls into the collector, and is gradually making them more complex.

On the bottom shelf, from left, are her stacker blocks (mostly used as horse stables these days), some more horses, then her tools sets, next to the plastic bag of marbles for the blocks, and finally her bug catcher, complete with bugs! and a bucket of dinosaurs.  Oh, and on the end there is a felt board that my sister got her for her birthday, which she is enjoying.

The shelves are a little crowded at the moment, we've been renovating our kitchen, and the rest of the house is full of boxes and things that are going to other rooms, so the playroom is a bit of a disaster.  We've been relying on our shelves for fun things to do lately!  We are planning an exciting family room upstairs, so more on that once we get furniture moved and things going!  There will be a library area, play area, and study up there very soon!

I thought I'd include a pic of her "homework" table in the study next to my desk.  She is very keen on sitting here with me doing "work", which is mostly cutting out dinosaur pictures, colouring with crayons, using stickers, using simple stamps, and making cards to send to Nanna and Pop.  Excuse the mess, she is also fond of chucking everything she is finished with on the floor!  She drags the bin round to cut shapes into.

Serious face!

And this month I've set up proper shelves (finally!) for Snail, normally I was just storing her stuff on a small table or on the floor so she can reach it, but we went to Ikea for a simple cube unit that she can still reach everything.

Old "shelves" for Snail

Snail modelling the new shelves!

 I have her wagon out, filled with soft toys, her snail block toy, the Backyardigans car (it sings a song, she LOVES this!), a stack of toys for Lolly until we get the playroom done (more on these in a future post), and her counting hammer toy (she has out in this pic).  On the shelf behind her are some musical instruments.  Her bubble machine goes on here, too, but it's out on the table at present.  I've added a work table for Lolly in the corner. 

She was very interested in putting this shelf unit together, and can reach all of the things on it, so I'm hoping it will work for us when she's back here Friday!

If not now, when?

You know, for a long time I didn't write much on this blog about Snail, because I felt like an imposter.  I read blogs about special needs kids, and I'd think, well, I'm not her MOTHER, just her stepmother.  And that is pretty much meaningless, out there in normal world.

Well, ya know what, I don't live in normal world.  I live here.  I've been changing, feeding, bathing, holding, playing with, dressing, cleaning, and all sleeping next to listening for seizures, going to school, doctors, hospital, therapists, with this child for eight goddam years.  You don't have to like it, or like me, I don't give a goddam shit about what you think of me as a person, but you have to respect that I'm a part of Snail's life.  Period.

Deal with it.

Catching Up: Birthday Parties and Dora Cakes

I may have mentioned, somewhere on this blog of mine, that DinnerDad, true to his name, can cook (here is his long neglected blog on the topic).  Apparently, he can also make cakes!  Lolly requested a Dora cake for her party, and dispite my goddam Martha Stewart efforts on her actual birthday, it was thought that perhaps more effort may be required for an actual gathering.  Ahem.

Under Construction

I can't resist the shot, the genius at work, complete with glasses, and awesome superior over-the-glasses look!

Dora!

He even built a fridge on the bench to keep it cool as it was too big for our fridge.

Dora's sarcophagus.

Beautiful 3 year old, seeking a bit of privacy to eat her yummy cake!

Party time!  Don't they look just so happy!

Seizure time :(

Though we had to LOL when at one stage she stirred, grabbed the skittle set Lolly got for a present, then conked again with it clutched in her hand.  Now, there's a girl with priorities!

Other than Snail having a seizure and sleeping through it all, Lolly had a wonderful day, we were blessed with some gorgeous gifts, and great company, though we missed my family, who were far away :(

Catching up: Melbourne Adventures!

We are lucky.  At the last minute, last week, we planned a surprise trip to Sale to see my family, and a few days in Melbourne with DinnerDad for his work.  I feel like these little trips (we were in Sydney a fortnight ago, too) are a great way to feel a tad better about the crazy hours DinnerDad works, and how often he is away.

Smash came along on this trip, he was on holidays, but Snail missed out, bad timing, as she would have loved the Aquarium, and seeing my Mum!  Oh and holy crap we nearly missed our plane!!  We were literally the last on.  *phew*  The woman at the hire car place at the Melbourne airport was so lovely, and let Lolly come round behind the counter and "work."  She asked for a "big car" through the two way radio.

The cute!  It burns!!

After much driving about, then picking up DinnerDad, and driving to Sale, Lolly was beside herself to see Nanna and Pop!  She just LOVES them!  It was nice to get some free time while Lolly played and played and played with Nanna and Pop.  She loves their caravan.  And getting Nanna to go on slides.

We had a good, but too short, break in Sale, even catching my sister (who is training to be an air traffic controller at the Air Force, very tough to do and she studies pretty much ALL the time!) and her lovely partner (who we hadn't met properly other than Skype).  Sale is a lovely town, but our time there was too short :(

Off on a whirlwind tour of Melbourne.  Aquarium antics with the big brother. They have these awesome "bubbles" in some tanks that you can climb under to stick your head in. 

She referred to this one as the "grumpy fish"

At the Melbourne Museum.  And can I pause to say, wow!  This is an amazing museum.  Their kid space is beautiful, and huge, and only for 3-8s, and full of wonderful things to explore.  Lolly listened to an aboriginal creation story, rode on a caterpillar, explored mirrors, built things, and discovered how many wombats she is high (three and a half wombats).  We were there for ages, and only explored half of one level!  We were sad to miss the Thutenkamon exhibit by only 2 days!

 It was a grand trip, lots of fun.

Twelve!

Snail is twelve, and this is another thing I just can't quite believe.  I'm not sure why, but it has suddenly seemed so significant to me that I've been in her life as her carer and stepmother for eight years.  Eight!

Our journey has not been wonderful of late, because of the story of her seizures and their effect on her, and that we see so little of her spirit and soul shining through (which is the cruellest part of it all, as it normally shines so brightly), but those eight years have meant more to me that I can properly express.  Snail taught me about being a parent, about love in the face of other catasrophes, about the simple and profound value of human life, in whatever shape and form, a deep down lesson about myself, patience, and my capacity for love, and humour, about anger, sadness, and rage, about frustration and loss.  [An aside: I don't think that "these kids" are here for "us" to learn shit, in fact I find the idea that anyone would "send" a person to be so broken (yet whole) to teach me personally shit about anything kinda offensive and selfish, I'm talking about this stuff as things Snail has taught me just by being herself.]

Check out the beauty and love that shines from the girl!  (I wish I had more digital shots of her before 2008, only a few scanned ones).

Snail, aged 4, when I was first in her life as her stepmother.

At our wedding, 2006.

Christmas 2006.

Is a fascination with computers hereditary?  2008

"A Baby!!" 2008

Digging with the Dadda: 2008

Dancing, 2009.

OMG the cute!  2009.

This is probably my favourite photo, the girls smooching me, 2009.

Thoughtful, 2009.

This shot makes me a bit sad, I think it looks like what she would look like if she were a normal girl.

Cool wheeled sisters, 2010.

Yesterday (complete with teenage stylings from Lolly).

So...12, and 8 years as her stepmother.  Just Wow.

Three Birthday Parties Old

Zero! (the day she was born)

One

Two

Three

Resume Normal Programming

We've been away [post pending], and crazy busy [more posts pending!] here in Casa Selene! 

I am feeling a little:

Because DinnerDad is here:

I have all the:

And our kitchen looks like this:

Me: "!!!"