As Laurent was stowing his backpack in his cubby at school this morning I notice a large bulge in the back of his pants. A large, box shaped bulge. Since we've had *cough* ISSUES with him sneaking in toys and such before, which the kids aren't allowed to do and for which mum gets the politely-exasperated "we've having the talk about your child ignoring the rules about toys... again" talk I figured he'd tucked a box with toys into his pants not realizing it stuck out about 10" from his scrawny bum and was rather as completely and totally blatantly obvious as if he'd had stuck a billboard with flashing neon lights and a big arrow pointing to his backside.
Good Mummy asked in a Very Reasonable Tone - the one that is slightly more sweet than you feel when you really just want to find a brick wall to bang your head against - "Laurent? What do you have in your pants?"
I am at this point expecting toys stuffed into one of his little carry boxes. I mean, that would be an entirely (relatively...) normal thing to smuggle into class right?
Yeah. Well the normal train doesn't stop at our house.
He grins a very clever little grin at me, eyes laughing and pulls out of his pants half a loaf of frozen bread.
BREAD.
FROZEN. BREAD.
Seriously. Never mind it's bread (and why on earth he's got bread will remain known only to the gods because I got nuttin' out of him!) but FROZEN bread. Down his backside. I am throwing in the towel on trying to make sense of him! LOL
Showing posts with label Laurent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laurent. Show all posts
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Sidewalk Chalk: EVIL, EVIL stuff
Darling Tornado Child and the Lilium Tigrinum left their sidewalk chalks on the driveway.
As it happens, sidewalk chalk when rained upon turns into rainbow colour sludge.
As it happens I did not notice this before shooing dogs and children alike out the door in a bid to make school drop off sometime before "Horribly Late" became "Embarassingly Horribly Late With Abject Appologies Owed To Teachers".
As it happens I noticed them bolting cheerfully through mudpuddles before coating themselves in rainbow colour sidewalk chalk sludge at the exact time Darling Tornado Child opened the doors for them to hop in. In they went, skidding to a stop just before their faces impacted with the cargo barrier. (How they do this I'll never know but they always miss by a nanometer!)
As it happens now my car carpet looks like a clown vomited on it in little paw shaped skidmark patterns. Share the joy!
As it happens, sidewalk chalk when rained upon turns into rainbow colour sludge.
As it happens I did not notice this before shooing dogs and children alike out the door in a bid to make school drop off sometime before "Horribly Late" became "Embarassingly Horribly Late With Abject Appologies Owed To Teachers".
As it happens I noticed them bolting cheerfully through mudpuddles before coating themselves in rainbow colour sidewalk chalk sludge at the exact time Darling Tornado Child opened the doors for them to hop in. In they went, skidding to a stop just before their faces impacted with the cargo barrier. (How they do this I'll never know but they always miss by a nanometer!)
As it happens now my car carpet looks like a clown vomited on it in little paw shaped skidmark patterns. Share the joy!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Indoor play for a rainy day...
Well since it was bucketing rain most of the day and my shoulder is still sore (although much better - bless my chiro!) I found the third set of clothing my 2 year old needed changing into courtesy of flinging herself in the mud enough we broke out our indoor goodies! After hosing them off we had our ever faithful BOXES. Boxes are wonderful things for amusing 2 year olds and puppies alike - you can crash them, tumble them, hop into them, push them over from the inside, bop at the flappy lid bits and doors cut into them, hide in them, use them as tunnels, bash your toys around in them and chew them to shreds without mum becoming the least bit upset. (Somewhat abashed if you happen to have 2 feet instead of 4 but not upset!) I am certain the nice people at Bunnings think we are a special brand of crazy with the amount we get from them every week but you just can't beat a box in the bun/dog/kittens/kids opinion!
When I was called to pick up La from school after he spectacularly crashed and burned hard enough to register even on his limited sense of pain (well, at least a bit... 3 hours later we're explaining to him he oughtn't bash about and jump out of trees on a strain... *sigh*) we also brought out the ball pit balls in the kiddie wading pool and our newest find -
Check it out! TWELVE dollars at Bunnings! It's a tunnel and a hidey hole and it ROLLS either when you stand on it like this or run amok inside like a giant not-quite-spherical hamster ball! They amused themselves with this for the better part of 2.5 hours before dinner!
I also finally uploaded a vid of her from her on her 3rd day here (so 6week-ish old) trying to find a free editor that works with mov formats to put the clips together.
Random funny out-take shot - Kiah does a Tasmanian Devil impression!
Sunday, May 08, 2011
a rather perfect (somewhat soggy) mothers day
Mothers Day started here with me sneaking out with the three girls for training for "mommy time" while the kids got their surprise ready. Nothing better in the world than time with my girls and coming home to the kidlets and a warm (and DRY) house! :)
After flyball we started the girls on obedience. We're trying to get back into practice as I'd intended last year to start trialing in obedience with them before we got totally sucked in by flyball. (To be fair we achieved FD, FD-X, FDCh and AFDCh so it's not as if we weren't having fun. *G*)
Initially a few weeks back I was told Rin would have to wait a few months for an opening in foundation (intended to teach novices how to train) because of recent structure changes made her considered "new". Likewise Hope would have to test in on the next test day because of our extended break. I said I'd just test both in at competition level classes instead.
When I came back last week we were thankfully able to bypass that all together and both did well where I popped them in and garnered a lot of comments... such clever girlies. :) This week we had small numbers, basically instructors only (read: few people are mental enough to think training in the rain on mothers day seems like rockin' good fun) so after flyball we had the option of running in higher levels than I've trained for at home or going home. Naturally we decided there were a few centimeters of fabric yet to be totally saturated and stayed! Rin was bumped 2 levels up from where I thought she should be and surprised me by getting compliments in everything but a blown stand-stay! (Poor dog, she loves to catch raindrops from the air so that was tough ask when those raindrops were just TAUNTING her by falling all over!) Hope got bumped up to CD level and did pretty well if not perfectly polished in everything except not tucking her bum neatly in left-about-turns. They even gave us a taste of some more advanced exercises I gather are for higher levels - a broadjump and return (I thought she'd be confused but she did it very nice) and a send out to a box the dog must sit in before coming back out over a jump to you. (pretty nice but I'd not want to push it more than the meter and a bit I was sending from atm) But I still get all melty when I present them with something they've never seen and they manage to fool everyone into thinking we know what we're doing! Such clever, clever little poppets!
When I got home the kids were bursting with tea, cards, flowers, a love-heart La had decorated with 'lots of jewels and diamonds and sparklies', a new set of framed handprints (we do this every year, so I have a little collection of growing kidlet prints) and a big beautiful plant for my rainbow garden. Between the kids and dogs (oh dear, those needed DRYING too...) I got clambered all over by the littlest members as well... little puddins have helped write this by batting at my fingers on the keyboard with their little purr motors going for the first time! Isn't it just fantastic?
After flyball we started the girls on obedience. We're trying to get back into practice as I'd intended last year to start trialing in obedience with them before we got totally sucked in by flyball. (To be fair we achieved FD, FD-X, FDCh and AFDCh so it's not as if we weren't having fun. *G*)
Initially a few weeks back I was told Rin would have to wait a few months for an opening in foundation (intended to teach novices how to train) because of recent structure changes made her considered "new". Likewise Hope would have to test in on the next test day because of our extended break. I said I'd just test both in at competition level classes instead.
When I came back last week we were thankfully able to bypass that all together and both did well where I popped them in and garnered a lot of comments... such clever girlies. :) This week we had small numbers, basically instructors only (read: few people are mental enough to think training in the rain on mothers day seems like rockin' good fun) so after flyball we had the option of running in higher levels than I've trained for at home or going home. Naturally we decided there were a few centimeters of fabric yet to be totally saturated and stayed! Rin was bumped 2 levels up from where I thought she should be and surprised me by getting compliments in everything but a blown stand-stay! (Poor dog, she loves to catch raindrops from the air so that was tough ask when those raindrops were just TAUNTING her by falling all over!) Hope got bumped up to CD level and did pretty well if not perfectly polished in everything except not tucking her bum neatly in left-about-turns. They even gave us a taste of some more advanced exercises I gather are for higher levels - a broadjump and return (I thought she'd be confused but she did it very nice) and a send out to a box the dog must sit in before coming back out over a jump to you. (pretty nice but I'd not want to push it more than the meter and a bit I was sending from atm) But I still get all melty when I present them with something they've never seen and they manage to fool everyone into thinking we know what we're doing! Such clever, clever little poppets!
When I got home the kids were bursting with tea, cards, flowers, a love-heart La had decorated with 'lots of jewels and diamonds and sparklies', a new set of framed handprints (we do this every year, so I have a little collection of growing kidlet prints) and a big beautiful plant for my rainbow garden. Between the kids and dogs (oh dear, those needed DRYING too...) I got clambered all over by the littlest members as well... little puddins have helped write this by batting at my fingers on the keyboard with their little purr motors going for the first time! Isn't it just fantastic?
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
We may have created a monster...
It's no secret Dr. Who is a popular thing in this house and we've got a running list of cute little incidents involving it and the kids.
La bringing home a drawing from school which he proudly told me was, "The Doctor. And his TARDIS. And his sonic screwdriver!" and explaining why the TARDIS is orange with a smug little "I FIXED the chameleon circuit!" was just plain cute.
Lily started recognizing the Doctors and chirping, "Doctor DOOO!" at 18 months old we mutually agreed was all kinds of adorable.
When La spent the day dancing around chanting "I. Am. Your. Soldier!", quoting lines and speaking everything in an electronic halting voiced Dalek tone and I had to explain to his teacher what he was on about it was a tad embarrassing.
The number of times I've had to endure debates over some point of cannon from my five year old and his thirty year old father made me reflect that with his parents normal was never really going to be on the books anyway.
When Nic had on
The fact that Laurent, having nabbed a colouring marker and scrawled a green slash across his forehead, spent the afternoon informing people he was "Slitheen" and about to emerge from his skin suit while making farting noises was a bit much but still... it was cute, in a geek!Pride kind of way. To be honest, we always rather suspected he was possessed and one day the mother ship would one day return for him... so a skin-suited Raxacoricofallapatorian wasn't too far a stretch.
For the past week though my darling little spawn latched onto a pen he asserts is a sonic screwdriver (and dang if he hasn't mastered the "you've dribbled on yourself" look if you try and correct him) and steadfastly started REFUSING to do a dang thing unless he first sonic screwdrivered it. Food? Not edible unless it's scanned and analyzed first. Going anywhere? Not unless it's the direction the sonic screwdriver is leading him. Clothing? Not unless he's checked it's not an alien in disguise. Twenty. Four. Hours. A. Day.
We MAY possibly just have gone a smidge too far in indoctrinating the children.
La bringing home a drawing from school which he proudly told me was, "The Doctor. And his TARDIS. And his sonic screwdriver!" and explaining why the TARDIS is orange with a smug little "I FIXED the chameleon circuit!" was just plain cute.
Lily started recognizing the Doctors and chirping, "Doctor DOOO!" at 18 months old we mutually agreed was all kinds of adorable.
When La spent the day dancing around chanting "I. Am. Your. Soldier!", quoting lines and speaking everything in an electronic halting voiced Dalek tone and I had to explain to his teacher what he was on about it was a tad embarrassing.
The number of times I've had to endure debates over some point of cannon from my five year old and his thirty year old father made me reflect that with his parents normal was never really going to be on the books anyway.
When Nic had on
The fact that Laurent, having nabbed a colouring marker and scrawled a green slash across his forehead, spent the afternoon informing people he was "Slitheen" and about to emerge from his skin suit while making farting noises was a bit much but still... it was cute, in a geek!Pride kind of way. To be honest, we always rather suspected he was possessed and one day the mother ship would one day return for him... so a skin-suited Raxacoricofallapatorian wasn't too far a stretch.
For the past week though my darling little spawn latched onto a pen he asserts is a sonic screwdriver (and dang if he hasn't mastered the "you've dribbled on yourself" look if you try and correct him) and steadfastly started REFUSING to do a dang thing unless he first sonic screwdrivered it. Food? Not edible unless it's scanned and analyzed first. Going anywhere? Not unless it's the direction the sonic screwdriver is leading him. Clothing? Not unless he's checked it's not an alien in disguise. Twenty. Four. Hours. A. Day.
We MAY possibly just have gone a smidge too far in indoctrinating the children.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Hello world...
Meet our new little sweetlings, who arrived last night -
Two little ginger tabbies, one with colouring similar to our own Jasper and one with a white blaze and boots
a little blue tortoiseshell girl
and a blue-silver tabby baby with white blaze and boots.
They're just beautiful and doing very well with their mummy. La is over the moon, chattering about what we're going to name them and how many new toys he wants to buy them in a few weeks when they can play in between cooing over how gorgeous they are, how cute the little milk squeeks and slurps are, praising mummy for being brilliant and repeating everything he's ever been told about kitten development. I feel very sorry for his teachers in the following weeks as they and the class will undoubtedly be hearing ALL about every detail and factoid that he recalls. Nostalgia has hit BIG time, as he recalls our litters of foster kittens and Emi from last year as well. He still remembers each of them. He's not the only one nostalgia has hit either admittedly!
In the meantime, Hopie had a good time at the Hastings flyball comp and was doing a great job. I had an awesome time, given I had Nic minding both kiddos both days - which meant two full days of no kidlets and all dogs! I love my kids to bits but sometimes it's nice to miss them and just be myself without having to worry about what fresh chaos La is getting into. After a week of Lily having a sky-high fever for several days and did this all day so long, at least so long as she was being held...
as well as craptastic sleep and La having a few days where he was alternating between mad-hatter hyper and tolerating things badly this was especially welcome!
(La in an insane-but-happy moment. And anyone reckon SickLily has got the sad puppy dog eyes mastered? Just a bit?)
Last but not least a picture I'd meant to post awhile back. For those who don't know the back story, Shadow came to me from his owner via Maremma Rescue Vic. His owner "fudged" his history, saying he was used to sheep and poultry. Shadow quickly demonstrated he had some pretty significant issues with wanting to be predatory. He had us absolutely in despair over it and at my wits end because nothing seemed to work for well over a year and even when Jodie came over she couldn't see him acting with much guardian instinct. Not being safe around them here wasn't even an issue limited to our own animals safety but presented a major risk if he were ever to escape as not only would neighboring animals be at risk but their owners would be within their rights to have him destroyed. I kept working with him though because of just that reason... and scenes like this are VERY sweet! Yep... that's the dog who couldn't help but chase them and wanted to eat them. Snoozing next to his best buddy Timtam. The real test will come with the birds but we're moving slowly and cautiously at this point.
Two little ginger tabbies, one with colouring similar to our own Jasper and one with a white blaze and boots
a little blue tortoiseshell girl
and a blue-silver tabby baby with white blaze and boots.
They're just beautiful and doing very well with their mummy. La is over the moon, chattering about what we're going to name them and how many new toys he wants to buy them in a few weeks when they can play in between cooing over how gorgeous they are, how cute the little milk squeeks and slurps are, praising mummy for being brilliant and repeating everything he's ever been told about kitten development. I feel very sorry for his teachers in the following weeks as they and the class will undoubtedly be hearing ALL about every detail and factoid that he recalls. Nostalgia has hit BIG time, as he recalls our litters of foster kittens and Emi from last year as well. He still remembers each of them. He's not the only one nostalgia has hit either admittedly!
In the meantime, Hopie had a good time at the Hastings flyball comp and was doing a great job. I had an awesome time, given I had Nic minding both kiddos both days - which meant two full days of no kidlets and all dogs! I love my kids to bits but sometimes it's nice to miss them and just be myself without having to worry about what fresh chaos La is getting into. After a week of Lily having a sky-high fever for several days and did this all day so long, at least so long as she was being held...
as well as craptastic sleep and La having a few days where he was alternating between mad-hatter hyper and tolerating things badly this was especially welcome!
(La in an insane-but-happy moment. And anyone reckon SickLily has got the sad puppy dog eyes mastered? Just a bit?)
Last but not least a picture I'd meant to post awhile back. For those who don't know the back story, Shadow came to me from his owner via Maremma Rescue Vic. His owner "fudged" his history, saying he was used to sheep and poultry. Shadow quickly demonstrated he had some pretty significant issues with wanting to be predatory. He had us absolutely in despair over it and at my wits end because nothing seemed to work for well over a year and even when Jodie came over she couldn't see him acting with much guardian instinct. Not being safe around them here wasn't even an issue limited to our own animals safety but presented a major risk if he were ever to escape as not only would neighboring animals be at risk but their owners would be within their rights to have him destroyed. I kept working with him though because of just that reason... and scenes like this are VERY sweet! Yep... that's the dog who couldn't help but chase them and wanted to eat them. Snoozing next to his best buddy Timtam. The real test will come with the birds but we're moving slowly and cautiously at this point.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Lukieboos is going home...
Luka is going home to his mum after being on vacation here, which we knew was not going to go over well with the president and vice president (aka La and Lily) of the Lukieboo Fan Club. When I first told La he wailed that Luka needed to stay here and proceeded to have a fit before curling up while glaring and pretending to be a fire breathing dragon roasting me. Not one for subtlety of expression our La!
I reminded him he's known all along Luka isn't ours to keep, that we'll see him again, that his mum misses him a lot and so on. He was unimpressed, so being a good mum I told him it's okay to be sad or angry and asked if there's something we might do that might make him feel better. Maybe he could paint a picture or make a book with photos in it that he could look at to remember all the fun he's had? When I didn't get much response I told him to just think about it.
A little while later while we were cleaning up the yard he's informed me he knows what will make him feel better since Luka has to go home. He does want to paint a picture but apparently the only thing that will make it better is to get a puppy of his very own. ~_~ I shoulda known better than to ask! He was doubly unimpressed when I told him that we're not getting a puppy for a good while yet and when we do it won't be just his. Poor La, it's not easy being five!
I reminded him he's known all along Luka isn't ours to keep, that we'll see him again, that his mum misses him a lot and so on. He was unimpressed, so being a good mum I told him it's okay to be sad or angry and asked if there's something we might do that might make him feel better. Maybe he could paint a picture or make a book with photos in it that he could look at to remember all the fun he's had? When I didn't get much response I told him to just think about it.
A little while later while we were cleaning up the yard he's informed me he knows what will make him feel better since Luka has to go home. He does want to paint a picture but apparently the only thing that will make it better is to get a puppy of his very own. ~_~ I shoulda known better than to ask! He was doubly unimpressed when I told him that we're not getting a puppy for a good while yet and when we do it won't be just his. Poor La, it's not easy being five!
Monday, February 07, 2011
By way of update on the critter front, Dexter had to go back in for another tooth trim - it'd already grown that much! While we were there we could tell the other incisors hadn't grown though, which we'd hoped they would. Still I've read they can take 6+ weeks to re-erupt properly after an injury so there is some hope they may regrow. In the meantime there was still some puss around the molar where they suspect the abscess so he's been prescribed long-term antibiotic injections (procaine/pen G). Bunnies abscess a bit differently than most animals. They lack an enzyme which makes it liquid and easy to drain like most animals. As well they tend to encapsulate it and it grows very slowly which is good in one way as they don't suffer from fever or so much pain but difficult in another as it means they are difficult to get rid of and don't easily drain.
He's very good for the injections, I give him a bit of cherry tomato and he doesn't even notice the little needle. He's lot a bit of weight as well so he's on Critical Care which is a special soft food for bunnies that is nutritious and appealing. It gets mixed into a paste and fed to him and he is just the sweetest fellow - just sits there on his little pillow and has a dollop squirted in, chews it, little tongue licking his lips and when he's done has a bit more. If I'm a bit slow he'll sniff at or lick the tip! LOL The pics are him on his little pillow while I was mixing the crit care up and after his food getting a kiss from La.
All together this week seems to just have disappeared on me... namely with school restarting and the roof (that'd be the one replaced last year due to springing a leak and frying all electrics...) re-sprung a leak and causing water damage in 3 rooms. Getting the roofing company to honor it's guarantee is interesting. To boot the tractor that was just fixed busted again and seriously I'm half expecting at any moment to hear a country guitar twang and the start of a theme song about how life done did me wrong writing all this! LOL My birthday was a few days ago as well and that turned out to be quiet but nice. Lily and I hung around the house with the dogs, kits and buns during the day. I got some painting done. I had a nice dinner with everyone and Nic totally surprised me as I was expecting no gift given how many big bills we've generated by presenting me with a laptop! He's apparently been paying for one to be refurbished for a year or so! It's not quite ready but still very exciting! (Our last computer predates our relationship so it was due!) Then Sunday I got given a day to myself at Flyball, just me and Hopie out having fun!
Here's La on his first day back at what would have been the equivalent to the start of primary school vs preschool/kinder. The school has a new building almost finished and welcomed a new teacher who will be sharing in his class so he's excited about that as well as being back with his friends again. A few more of Sir 5 Year Old.
and this is the view just near his school... how gorgeous is that hey!
Plus one of the Lilypillie, who is enjoying having mum all to herself (well, comparatively... still has to share with the furkids) now that La is in school full time!
Art wise, I've royally slacked off most of January. Trying to get back into the swing of things and make time for myself in February. I have two paintings on the go and one more in my goals for the month list. The first is (act shocked...) a dog. Nothing new there although I'm playing with a limited palette - cad red med, cad yellow med, black and white. Here's the roughed in first layer, excuse the dreadful flash shine, rug and jeans!
The second and third are part of challenges. Number two is a WC Acrylics board Different Strokes challenge. The rules let you crop, choose a section/detail, enlarge it or develop it any way you feel like. I really liked the orange lilies up against the bronzy background plant, so I'm planning to tightly crop on that. I can't decide if I want to go with my usual way of doing things given I'm still very new to it or try for something looser, more impressionistic and impastoish. This is the base layer for if I go my usual way. Wibbledywobbdly, indecisive.
The third challenge is to take myself totally out of my comfort zone and go to an abstract challenge I happened upon on the Abstract forum - which is to see how little 'detail' can you use in a piece of art and still convey your 'meaning' - however you understand that term. The subject is a rainstorm, hopefully mixed with a yellowtail black cockatoo. Start of the storm...
Random and unconnected to anything - our neighbors foals, who are just too much fun to watch running around! I mucked with it a bit, think it might make a nice painting eventually?
He's very good for the injections, I give him a bit of cherry tomato and he doesn't even notice the little needle. He's lot a bit of weight as well so he's on Critical Care which is a special soft food for bunnies that is nutritious and appealing. It gets mixed into a paste and fed to him and he is just the sweetest fellow - just sits there on his little pillow and has a dollop squirted in, chews it, little tongue licking his lips and when he's done has a bit more. If I'm a bit slow he'll sniff at or lick the tip! LOL The pics are him on his little pillow while I was mixing the crit care up and after his food getting a kiss from La.
All together this week seems to just have disappeared on me... namely with school restarting and the roof (that'd be the one replaced last year due to springing a leak and frying all electrics...) re-sprung a leak and causing water damage in 3 rooms. Getting the roofing company to honor it's guarantee is interesting. To boot the tractor that was just fixed busted again and seriously I'm half expecting at any moment to hear a country guitar twang and the start of a theme song about how life done did me wrong writing all this! LOL My birthday was a few days ago as well and that turned out to be quiet but nice. Lily and I hung around the house with the dogs, kits and buns during the day. I got some painting done. I had a nice dinner with everyone and Nic totally surprised me as I was expecting no gift given how many big bills we've generated by presenting me with a laptop! He's apparently been paying for one to be refurbished for a year or so! It's not quite ready but still very exciting! (Our last computer predates our relationship so it was due!) Then Sunday I got given a day to myself at Flyball, just me and Hopie out having fun!
Here's La on his first day back at what would have been the equivalent to the start of primary school vs preschool/kinder. The school has a new building almost finished and welcomed a new teacher who will be sharing in his class so he's excited about that as well as being back with his friends again. A few more of Sir 5 Year Old.
and this is the view just near his school... how gorgeous is that hey!
Plus one of the Lilypillie, who is enjoying having mum all to herself (well, comparatively... still has to share with the furkids) now that La is in school full time!
Art wise, I've royally slacked off most of January. Trying to get back into the swing of things and make time for myself in February. I have two paintings on the go and one more in my goals for the month list. The first is (act shocked...) a dog. Nothing new there although I'm playing with a limited palette - cad red med, cad yellow med, black and white. Here's the roughed in first layer, excuse the dreadful flash shine, rug and jeans!
The second and third are part of challenges. Number two is a WC Acrylics board Different Strokes challenge. The rules let you crop, choose a section/detail, enlarge it or develop it any way you feel like. I really liked the orange lilies up against the bronzy background plant, so I'm planning to tightly crop on that. I can't decide if I want to go with my usual way of doing things given I'm still very new to it or try for something looser, more impressionistic and impastoish. This is the base layer for if I go my usual way. Wibbledywobbdly, indecisive.
The third challenge is to take myself totally out of my comfort zone and go to an abstract challenge I happened upon on the Abstract forum - which is to see how little 'detail' can you use in a piece of art and still convey your 'meaning' - however you understand that term. The subject is a rainstorm, hopefully mixed with a yellowtail black cockatoo. Start of the storm...
Random and unconnected to anything - our neighbors foals, who are just too much fun to watch running around! I mucked with it a bit, think it might make a nice painting eventually?
Thursday, December 16, 2010
random catch up photos
because I've been such a slacker and haven't really been sure what to write
One of the new roses in the Rainbow Bridge garden
Tim Tam, "Where are you going mum?"
Hopie and Luka at the dam
Lily at Ballarat comp
Luka on his birthday! :)
Lilypillie, my smiley girl
The interesting attempts to draw with small children around! LOL
Hopie with the ribbons our club gave her at the end of the year. She was more impressed with the biscuits but I thought they were nice. LOL
La demonstrating his weird abilities to sleep in the most bizzare places...
Hope at a recent comp
Hope, Sierra, Luka and Rin at the dam
Nilla playing sneaky stealth ninja bunny
and demanding a pat from La
Haha, - such shy timid little wallflowers hey!
One of the new roses in the Rainbow Bridge garden
Tim Tam, "Where are you going mum?"
Hopie and Luka at the dam
Lily at Ballarat comp
Luka on his birthday! :)
Lilypillie, my smiley girl
The interesting attempts to draw with small children around! LOL
Hopie with the ribbons our club gave her at the end of the year. She was more impressed with the biscuits but I thought they were nice. LOL
La demonstrating his weird abilities to sleep in the most bizzare places...
Hope at a recent comp
Hope, Sierra, Luka and Rin at the dam
Nilla playing sneaky stealth ninja bunny
and demanding a pat from La
Haha, - such shy timid little wallflowers hey!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
5 years old
Little mister is five now. And I rarely get away with calling him Bunny Lala anymore. Even "La" is garnering the occasional, "Mu-UUUMMM! Instead he is, "Please call me Laurent...." Unless he's Ben 10. Or *insert dramatic voice here*... Captain Underpants!
Mind you it doesn't seem 5 years since he was more like this:
I miss that little snuggly, squidgey newborn fresh to the world. I miss clumsy baby kisses, reflexively curly toes, milk breath and that divine newborn smell. On the other hand I am pretty chuffed with the rather cool little dude who is gracing us frequently. It seems like maybe the the wild-n-wooly Fours are giving (at least partial) way to a child who is frequently a lot of fun, often very helpful, usually sensitive and who responds to others in a considerate and sweetly compassionate way. Oh yeah... and one who loves poo jokes. I could have lived without that bit.
He had a party with a bunch of his school mates at a local playcenter, where inbetween running around like lunatics they all ate entirely too much sugar/dye/processed and preservative laden junk food and had a blast. He was beyond thrilled to get a whole host of cool toys ranging from puzzle kits to crash-n-spin Matchbox car racing sets to Herofactory toys to Ben 10 and Bakugan. The later two are things he's never actually seen but picked up a keen (obsession) interest in through the joys of friendship. (Oddly enough, his imaginations version of Ben10 is weirdly Croc Hunterish sounding...)
He was also very determined to have HIS kind of party. Namely a Ben10 Party, which was detailed down to the cake. The cake was to be a "Ben 10 chocolate cake with choc frosting and waves (piping) and sprinkles on the sides." As mums oven is broke at the moment, the height of 5 year old culinary coolness was courtesy of Michel's Patisserie.
Last snap - the two of them were on the slide endlessly, as little miss fearless Lilypillie has developed an obsession with them to rival his own! LOL
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Royal Melbourne Show
A few snaps from the RMS yesterday - we got to catch up with some lovely peoples, snuggle a MOST lovely Aussie puppy and fawn over the Petite Bassett Griffon Vendeen some more.
Laurent was really keen to go on rides and particularly wanted to go on "big slides, ponies and scarey "ollea coasties"! He got to go on all that and a ferris wheel which he thought was really cool. Immediately after coming off the pirate ship rollercoaster type ride he did say he wanted to go on a more scarey roller coaster but he was given away as Jodie told me he'd refused to let go of the lap bar the entire time! LOL
Lily was LOVING the ferris wheel and being up so high! She had her little face pressed to the windows and giggling hysterically!
Unfortunately the pony ride has only doubled the request for riding lessons so that "when I get biggered, I can have a pony of my own mum"! Of course, he also requests I get him a Rough Collie (blue and black and white with gold cheeks) like one of my team-mates and a small poodle.
Laurent was really keen to go on rides and particularly wanted to go on "big slides, ponies and scarey "ollea coasties"! He got to go on all that and a ferris wheel which he thought was really cool. Immediately after coming off the pirate ship rollercoaster type ride he did say he wanted to go on a more scarey roller coaster but he was given away as Jodie told me he'd refused to let go of the lap bar the entire time! LOL
Lily was LOVING the ferris wheel and being up so high! She had her little face pressed to the windows and giggling hysterically!
Unfortunately the pony ride has only doubled the request for riding lessons so that "when I get biggered, I can have a pony of my own mum"! Of course, he also requests I get him a Rough Collie (blue and black and white with gold cheeks) like one of my team-mates and a small poodle.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Catch Up
Long time no blog... in chief it's because it's been busy. Which is a nice term for "more complicated than I have energy and wherewithall to sit and put into words by the end of the day when I finally have time"! LOL But I did actually write much of it down the other day, so I'm going to pinch some.
Earlier this year Laurent has been diagnosed with a proprioception sensory integration disorder and we've been working on this and the behavioural difficulties we'd been seeing with an occupational therapist and psychologist team. Basically proprioception has to do with the input gained from your muscles and joints. He is under responsive and as a result, rather than the information his senses provide integrating into one useful world picture, all that unorganized sensory input creates a traffic jam in his brain making it difficult to pay attention and learn while also causing him to seek out that missing sensory input. Sensory seeking behaviour for him typically comes in the form of wanting to hang off things, climb, crash, push, jump, fidget, pinch, twist, fiddle and be overly physical with objects etc. In hindsight it explains so many of the things we'd just chalked up to being individual quirks about him!
A 'side effect' of this under responsiveness is that he is also largely insensitive to pain. Consequently, where most people learn that things that hurt are to be avoided, he hardly notices tends to hurt himself fairly often. Even when he was a baby he'd face plant and just giggle or bang his head on the floor and only be annoyed by it. It takes something fairly painful for him to feel it strong enough to register as 'hurts'. It also means his idea of what feels like normal, moderated amount of strength to him when he's playing with a toy is actually rather hard and he tends to rough on his toys and always engaging in a very physical manner seeking that sensory input. Some of it is minor but upsetting to him, while some of it can be much more annoying to us who have to fix or replace things if they break.
His OT is fabulous and has provided a number of immediate and practical tools and therapies that are designed to integrate all the sensory input into the brain and enable his days to go smoother. But we were all quite concerned he doesn't seem to learn from the experiences and has difficulty incorporating what he knows into self regulation to the degree an average 4-5 year old can. While he is very bright (actually has tested quite high) and is keenly interested in a wide range of things his psychologist and I feel his brain is processing, recalling, linking and utilizing the information it encounters in a somewhat atypical manner. Put together with his intelligence, confidence that he can carry out his plans and tendancy to pick his opportunities with impressive skill daily life is full on. When we've had our appointments done in home, they've all observed you can explain something to him in very clear and age appropriate manner, with explanations of why, what to do instead, what could happen if he does it and what action will follow it. This is followed through consistently and fairly, with discussion afterwards. In the case of things he's done before, he also recalls how it felt physically and/or emotionally, how it affected others, recalls if he didn't like that and would like to avoid it again as well. Even doing "all the right things" though, it can make little difference! He demonstrates understanding of all individual bits but he doesn't seem to be able to link it up to come to the conclusion he needs to.
So now we're involved in the headache of trying to access further assessments and services for him, which are entangled with a plethora of bureaucratic red-tape and nonsense which is both stressful, confusing and emotional. In the meantime our good days are gold- he is a funny, sunny little boy who loves his sister and is better with her than many kids I've seen are with their siblings, adores dogs and cats and would desperately love to play Flyball with Hope, wants to go to 'clicker class' with me, loves to garden and especially finding worms to watch or worm holes in the soil, is completely obsessed with food/cooking and all things cheffing, art - especially painting and experimenting with different sorts of paints, clay work and adores anything which lets him run, jump, bounce, crash, flip or otherwise act like he needs to run away to the circus! Bad days... well, we won't go there! We just try to get through them and remember that as bad as they can be there are people out there who have far more to cope with with far less resources so we really are quite lucky especially in light of the number of people I know of directly and indirectly who are seriously ill or who have lost their lives or loved ones lately.
In more cheerful and less serious news Miss Hopie will start competing in Flyball before very long and have several comps around Victoria this year and into next! We're very excited and can't wait! Here's a video of our recent practice, the order of run is Sam (black/white BC), Hope, Quiche (yellow/white BC)
It's also looking like our foster kitty Emi FINALLY has a new home at long last and fingers crossed she will go to her new home on 12 Sept! After 8 months I'm so pleased to see her get her 'happily ever after' and see the faith we had that there WAS the perfect home out there for her somewhere rewarded!
I also decided to be brave and enter Hopie in our first real trials (the PT title, HIC and such being 'test levels' vs open trialing) in Started A course on sheep. I knew she could handle it but I have still got heaps to learn, so the real question was if I could handle well enough. The weather conditions meant that mud was about calf-deep and footing was very difficult to maintain for everyone involved. The result was that we made the first pass, albeit it was not a terribly impressive run given I cut short on the 4th post and I didn't do so well on the center-line gate because of it - poorly lined up! The second run went a lot better and would have been about a 80 except I bodged the Z chute the first go and it took me time to recover enough to get them through - poor Hopie! We had an absolute blast though and it gave me a lot of ideas of what I want to practice as I can't wait to enter again for next time!
We've also had our lovely (and admittedly my favorite) ewe Star become ill for reasons the vet couldn't pinpoint as the symptoms were pretty nondescript. She had a mild fever, some scours, wouldn't rise and if lifted to her legs would wobble and fall. Despite his giving us antibiotics and goodies to help bolter her she didn't make it and I'm now bottlefeeding Timtam.
Random last but not least is Cinna - she's discovered that if I've gotten up the bed is still warrrrrrmmm and makes a cozy spot! Don't know what I'd do without my bunnahs!
Earlier this year Laurent has been diagnosed with a proprioception sensory integration disorder and we've been working on this and the behavioural difficulties we'd been seeing with an occupational therapist and psychologist team. Basically proprioception has to do with the input gained from your muscles and joints. He is under responsive and as a result, rather than the information his senses provide integrating into one useful world picture, all that unorganized sensory input creates a traffic jam in his brain making it difficult to pay attention and learn while also causing him to seek out that missing sensory input. Sensory seeking behaviour for him typically comes in the form of wanting to hang off things, climb, crash, push, jump, fidget, pinch, twist, fiddle and be overly physical with objects etc. In hindsight it explains so many of the things we'd just chalked up to being individual quirks about him!
A 'side effect' of this under responsiveness is that he is also largely insensitive to pain. Consequently, where most people learn that things that hurt are to be avoided, he hardly notices tends to hurt himself fairly often. Even when he was a baby he'd face plant and just giggle or bang his head on the floor and only be annoyed by it. It takes something fairly painful for him to feel it strong enough to register as 'hurts'. It also means his idea of what feels like normal, moderated amount of strength to him when he's playing with a toy is actually rather hard and he tends to rough on his toys and always engaging in a very physical manner seeking that sensory input. Some of it is minor but upsetting to him, while some of it can be much more annoying to us who have to fix or replace things if they break.
His OT is fabulous and has provided a number of immediate and practical tools and therapies that are designed to integrate all the sensory input into the brain and enable his days to go smoother. But we were all quite concerned he doesn't seem to learn from the experiences and has difficulty incorporating what he knows into self regulation to the degree an average 4-5 year old can. While he is very bright (actually has tested quite high) and is keenly interested in a wide range of things his psychologist and I feel his brain is processing, recalling, linking and utilizing the information it encounters in a somewhat atypical manner. Put together with his intelligence, confidence that he can carry out his plans and tendancy to pick his opportunities with impressive skill daily life is full on. When we've had our appointments done in home, they've all observed you can explain something to him in very clear and age appropriate manner, with explanations of why, what to do instead, what could happen if he does it and what action will follow it. This is followed through consistently and fairly, with discussion afterwards. In the case of things he's done before, he also recalls how it felt physically and/or emotionally, how it affected others, recalls if he didn't like that and would like to avoid it again as well. Even doing "all the right things" though, it can make little difference! He demonstrates understanding of all individual bits but he doesn't seem to be able to link it up to come to the conclusion he needs to.
So now we're involved in the headache of trying to access further assessments and services for him, which are entangled with a plethora of bureaucratic red-tape and nonsense which is both stressful, confusing and emotional. In the meantime our good days are gold- he is a funny, sunny little boy who loves his sister and is better with her than many kids I've seen are with their siblings, adores dogs and cats and would desperately love to play Flyball with Hope, wants to go to 'clicker class' with me, loves to garden and especially finding worms to watch or worm holes in the soil, is completely obsessed with food/cooking and all things cheffing, art - especially painting and experimenting with different sorts of paints, clay work and adores anything which lets him run, jump, bounce, crash, flip or otherwise act like he needs to run away to the circus! Bad days... well, we won't go there! We just try to get through them and remember that as bad as they can be there are people out there who have far more to cope with with far less resources so we really are quite lucky especially in light of the number of people I know of directly and indirectly who are seriously ill or who have lost their lives or loved ones lately.
In more cheerful and less serious news Miss Hopie will start competing in Flyball before very long and have several comps around Victoria this year and into next! We're very excited and can't wait! Here's a video of our recent practice, the order of run is Sam (black/white BC), Hope, Quiche (yellow/white BC)
It's also looking like our foster kitty Emi FINALLY has a new home at long last and fingers crossed she will go to her new home on 12 Sept! After 8 months I'm so pleased to see her get her 'happily ever after' and see the faith we had that there WAS the perfect home out there for her somewhere rewarded!
I also decided to be brave and enter Hopie in our first real trials (the PT title, HIC and such being 'test levels' vs open trialing) in Started A course on sheep. I knew she could handle it but I have still got heaps to learn, so the real question was if I could handle well enough. The weather conditions meant that mud was about calf-deep and footing was very difficult to maintain for everyone involved. The result was that we made the first pass, albeit it was not a terribly impressive run given I cut short on the 4th post and I didn't do so well on the center-line gate because of it - poorly lined up! The second run went a lot better and would have been about a 80 except I bodged the Z chute the first go and it took me time to recover enough to get them through - poor Hopie! We had an absolute blast though and it gave me a lot of ideas of what I want to practice as I can't wait to enter again for next time!
We've also had our lovely (and admittedly my favorite) ewe Star become ill for reasons the vet couldn't pinpoint as the symptoms were pretty nondescript. She had a mild fever, some scours, wouldn't rise and if lifted to her legs would wobble and fall. Despite his giving us antibiotics and goodies to help bolter her she didn't make it and I'm now bottlefeeding Timtam.
Random last but not least is Cinna - she's discovered that if I've gotten up the bed is still warrrrrrmmm and makes a cozy spot! Don't know what I'd do without my bunnahs!
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