At the Park, now with too many photos!

We LOVE the park!  First, the swings.

Then, the super cool water pump!

Adorable

Shitty face!

 Then the slide...

Parks make us HAPPY!

This is how we roll...

I thought I would write a few posts outlining what on earth I do all day, from the perspective of being a SAHM and a parent to a disabled child.  I'm following (poorly and without such beautiful expression) an idea from Elizabeth, at a moon worn as if it had been a shell, which is frankly one of the most beautiful and moving blogs out there, and whose daughter Sophie reminds me so much of Snail, who writes a series called How We Do It.  Go read it. 

So, for the interested or at least the self-punishing, here is my last 24 hours for your reading pleasure...  This is how we roll. 

Wednesday.

3am - stir briefly to say goodbye to DinnerDad, who after getting home at 7pm the night before from Sydney, is on the first flight out of Brisbane back to Sydney this morning, which means a 3am start (friggin Queensland and it's refusal to join the rest of the East Coast on Daylight savings time!).  Mercifully, I get to go back to sleep.  Mentally curse as I have the beginnings of a sore throat.  Argggg!

7am - Lolly wakes up and plays with her toy dog while I unsuccessfully try to deny that it's morning.

7.10 - 8am - sit with Lolly while she pees on the loo (!! hooray!!), walk Snail out, change Snail's bum, dress Snail for school, do Snail's orthotics and shoes, and hair.  Make Snail's meds (in coffee milk!) and breakfast (WeetBix, which is greeted with a distinct lack of enthusiasm).  Make Lolly some "meet mix", too.  Take a bunch of pills as I've woken up with a cold.  Feed Snail and get her meds down her.  Write in her communication book about the bad news we had about her hips at our appointment yesterday (post update on this to follow).  Pack her lunch, book, change of clothes, meds and nappies in her bag.

8am - Wheel her down to the "bus" - a wheelchair cab that takes Snail and 5 other kids to school.  Thank the gods that we have funding for transport and don't have to drive her everyday because transfers suck right now, we don't have a wheelchair adapted car yet.  Chat to bus driver (who is awesome).  Chase Lolly.  Chase dog.  Get Lolly and dog back into house.

8-8.30am - get self and Lolly ready for the day - dressed, hair, pack lunch, shoes, pack bag, drinks, and make sure we've got the sunshades to take back to the hardware store (and the receipt) as they're the wrong size.  Chase Lolly again (who has escaped and followed the dog down the back yard).  Send email to DP about yesterday's appointment, for him to send to the kid's mother.  Get Lolly and bags and shoes and sunshade boxes into car.  Get Smash (who normally catches the bus) loaded and head off.

8.30am - drive to shopping centre (around 15 mins from our house) to get Smash a ;$%#@;@^ haircut as his school is draconian and he has been in trouble all week for his apparently unruly hair.  Have to wait til 9am for barbershop to open.

9am - get Smash going at barbershop and go a couple of shops over to get coffee.  Wait what seems an age for coffee.  Would be quicker to make it myself.  Get coffee.  Sip coffee like is the awesome drug of awesomeness that it is.  Take Lolly and coffee back to barbershop, collect Smash, pay for $#*%;# haircut.  Load everyone in car.  Drive to school.

9.15am - drop off Smash at school.

9.15 - 9.45am - drive to playgroup.  Chat to Lolly about what we're doing all day, sing to her toy dog, and play eyespy.  Finish heavenly coffee and ferverntly wish for more. More does not appear. 

Spot the kids? Hide and seek with L at playgroup.

9.45 am - arrive at playgroup, feed kid snacks, then encourage kid to go away.  Succeed, and get a good couple of hours of minimal parenting liberally mixed with chat and whinge (mine).  Awesome!!

12 noon - farewell friends, get Lolly in car, drive to shops.

12.10am - get sunshades out of car, take to hardware, exchange for different sunshade and tomato seeds.

12.20am - load back into car, drive to other set of shops.

12.30am - unload Lolly and find food.  Feed self and kid.  I feel I should note there was more coffee at this point...ahhhhhhh.

1pm - go to K-mart in search of plastic half-shell pool for making a sandpit.  Discover this doesn't fit in trolley.  Perch on top of other items and child who is sitting in trolley.  Line up for checkout.

1.30pm - back to car (which seems an awfully long way with a giant plastic shell precariously perched on my trolley), load car, encourage child to get into car seat without losing temper.  Succeed!  Drive home. Maintain constant monologue of awesome stories and chat to prevent kid from going to sleep in the car (which would make bedtime a million-ty o'clock instead of the more civilised 7.30).  Succeed!

2.10pm - arrive home, unload car, listen to whinging about sand pit not being instantly available, whinging lasts for several hours. Change nappy (we're half in, half out of nappies ATM).  Make snacks and drinks for kid and self.  Take call from an autoshop in NSW about wheelchair adaptation for our car.  Talk about pros and cons of adapting our current car, which is a 2006 model, or getting a new one and adapting that.  Get depressed at thought of cost to do either.  Try with limited success to get Lolly to stop yelling about the lack of sandpit during phone call. 

3pm - Snail arrives home on bus.  Get Snail up to house, make snacks and drinks for her.  Read communication book, unpack lunchbox, take off orthotics.  Email her teacher about the school concert. 

Cute Snail from Tuesday

3.15-4.15pm - cave to endless demands of 3 year old and take Snail out to the spa area so Lolly can go swimming.  Feed Snail snacks and drinks, help her dip her hands in the water.  Deal with her shitty mood that she can't get in (I can't supervise both girls in the water when by myself).

4.30pm - Get chair inside, more snacks and drinks, get Snail out of chair so she can have some bum-shuffle time, start researching high-low beds for Snail, and do more research on wheelchair adaptations for cars.  Lolly watches Bolt (again) and is annoying :)  Change Snail's bum.  Get lunches and clothes ready for tomorrow morning.  Get bag of nappies from the garage.  Bring up four 20 kilo bags of sand from the carport using the trolley.  Lolly "helps".   Make coffee.  Put away purchases. 

5pm - get distracted from research and write blog entry.

5.30pm - make dinner, fetch toys and drinks, deal with rapidly fading 3 year old.  Mix Snail's meds.

6.30pm - serve dinner. Get Snail into chair, feed Snail, get all her meds into her. 

7pm - clear table and stack dishwasher.  Change both girls (skipping their bath due to my sore back).  Top and tail wash Snail while changing her.  Feel coldy and yuck.  Wish husband was home. 

7.30pm - take girls into bed.  Resist urge to go to sleep myself.  Lie in there while they go to sleep.  Snail has a tonic clonic seizure.  Lights back on, recovery postition, soothing, Lolly jumping round "helping", settle everyone down, lights back off, lie quietly again...girls go to sleep.

8pm - finish cleaning up, tidying, getting stuff ready for tomorrow, and feeling crappy.

8.40pm - sit quietly, watch telly and veg out.  Mindless facebooking.  Check email.  Listen on monitor for more seizures.  Write on blog.  Take painkillers before bed. 

Thursday.

12 midnight - %@#%$^ still can't get to sleep due to cold.

3am - Seizure.  Check Snail, recovery position.

5.30am - Seizure.  Snail hasn't moved much since last time.  Pull up blankets.  Text her bus driver to tell him to skip us this morning, looks like we're having a Seizure Day.  Let dog out.  Let dog back in.  Tell Lolly it is definitely NOT morning, go back to sleep.  Lie in a ball of self-pitying misery and boogers.

7.30am - Seizure.  Get up.  And round it goes again...

This is what brushing her hair looks like...

Crazy curls.

Curls kind of near the brush.

Running away.

 Cute is restored!

Family

Love this from my Grandma's funeral.  This is the only series of shots we have with all the cousins in it!

Slightly serious.

"The Family"

Love this one!

It was a lovely farewell for our Grandmother. 

Party time!

Seems like everyone we know is having birthdays, lately, including a lovely friend with daughters turning one and three.  They had a party a weekend or so ago to celebrate.

One of the birthday girls in the sandpit.

L is only 6 months younger than Lolly, but less than half her size, it's super adorable to watch them.  They are the best of friends.

Look out L, it's gigantor Lolly!!

Big and Little.

Lolly had a fantabulous time with her friends, J and L.  Here they are being puppies in the giant sandpit.

Tasty!?

Just before jumping off a rock, with J.

Happy birthday, you two!  Here's to many more years of friendship for the girls.

The girl likes to swim.

We fixed the spa, and now, we swim, rain, hail or shine.  It's a cold snap here in our down-under Spring (by "cold snap" I mean slightly cool, you might need a cardi weather, not icy freezing-ness, it is Brisbane after all).  This does not stop the girl.  And her swimming ring of power.  Oh, the cute. 

Reorganising play spaces

I've been interested in Lolly's play spaces for years, and mostly had a psuedo-Montessori approach to it.  Posts about Lolly's shelves are linked here.  I've been following Mariah Bruehl's Playful Learning Spaces blog for ages, and decided to take her e-course on creating (revamping) learning spaces. 

It's been great so far!  A big part of the course is participating in the Flickr group where participants post their before and after pics, and have discussions about different types of spaces, problem solving and brainstorming. 

My biggest issue, I guess the best way to describe it, is a lack of follow-through.  I have a great idea, go a fair way to making it happen, but don't get to the last 3 feet or so.  Which I think is why my house is not that decorated, or that it's organised, but not the final 3 feet that would help stop more mess.  I think most of us have this issue, to be honest (at least I hope it's not just me), and it's something I envy admire in those bloggers I see that invest time in the last 3 feet of making a space not just functional but beautiful, or an idea not just mostly done, but done all the way. 

Doing this course was a commitment to myself to act on that last 3 feet.  I've done some innovative and thoughtful things with and for Lolly over the years (which I'm proud of) but I've never built that final layer of awesome that makes a space sing.  And it's something I've always wanted to do

So, here are my "before" photos.  I'm yet to tackle any revisions, as I've organised a big clear out of our books for next Monday, and this weekend we're re-arranging the playroom. 

Lolly has a few spaces in our home, there are shelves in the lounge room where I've done her activities and toys for years now.  They are a tad sad at the moment, and haven't had a proper review in months.  Snail also has a set of shelves in the lounge.

Lolly's current shelves, needs major work, and she doesn't play with much of this.

Snail's shelves, which are successful but too crowded

Miscellaneous table for collecting crap.

More crap.  Dining room table.

Play kitchen and giant television.  Lolly doesn't play with it here at all!

The other main area is the "playroom," one of the bedrooms we have all our miscellaneous crap in.  I re-vamped this a while ago but it hasn't been successful, still too crowded, nowhere to sit, and covered in laundry. 

Playroom.  !!!

Playroom, and giant trampoline!

Where I like to keep all the clean laundry.

Confessional over, you can see why I might want to make some of these spaces a tad more effective, and attractive! We're so lucky to have so much space, and I'd love to be using it more effectively.  I'll be posting updates when I get things done.  Wish me luck.