Conjunctivitis, croup and crayons...
... is what our days and nights have been filled with recently. On Thursday I noticed that Chloe had eye boogies (as I like to call them). I thought that she had just rubbed regular boogies in as she had had a runny nose but as the day progressed I realised that it was conjunctivitis. "That's not to bad, I can handle that with some drops," I thought. On Friday she had a bit of a cough and I thought it was just part of a harmless little spring cold and picked up some cough medicine from the chemist 'in case' it got worse in the night. Well it did get worse each time Chloe woke up (she has been waking up about three times a night for the last week and a half, should have realised she was being challenged). It wasn't just any cough, it was like a seal bark (I have since been told that it the typical croup cough, would have been handy to know). Anyway at 4am after a coughing attack followed by wheezy laboured breathing Eden and I decided to take her to the hospital. We knew we were probably overreacting but we were not sleeping anyway. As soon as we got there the nurse told us it was croup. I had heard of croup but didn't know anything about it, wasn't it what Amy from Little Women died of? Anyway thinking about taking Chloe to the hospital for a 'mild' case of croup is a bit embarrassing now that I know a bit more about it but I was scared and it didn't seem very mild at the time. Anyway I guess it serves Eden and myself right for recently gloating to ourselves about the fact that Chloe has only been sick a few times.
Anyway Chloe is getting better and we are starting to get a little more sleep. Eden was very helpful last night and sat with her for ages in the steamy bathroom which helped alot. The croup is pretty good in the day except when she wakes up from a nap. Today her daytime mood was so much better then the Little Miss Grumpy that we have seen over the last few days and I can't wait for Little Miss Sunshine to be completely back.
Now on to something that does not involve boogies, even the eye ones.
We have been starting to pack and Chloe has been grabbing the texta and pretending to write on the boxes like Mummy and Daddy. Today I thought it might be time to start her on crayons. At first I just gave her A4 paper but soon realised this would not be big enough so I grabbed a roll of the packing paper and laid it out on the ground. She knew what to to with the crayons. She even held the the write way, pointy end down. After watching her use a few crayons this way I thought it was a coincidence so I turned one around but Little Miss Picasso was too clever and proceeded to turn it the right way around.
Anyway she then decided she wanted to experiment a bit more with her art media, so she tried to eat it. First the red which she wasn't too fond of....
and then the blue which she enjoyed alot more.
After drawing and then eating for a while Chloe realised that she could scrunch the paper by kicking her feet. She found this very entertaining.
I was going to put up some pictures of Chloe's art but I'm sure no one wants to see lots of mummy squiggles, a lame attempt at drawing Dorothy the Dinosaur and a few baby marks.
Our ever so cute crayon munching boogy baby.
Would you like a tour (part IV)
As with most of the other rooms we don't really have any before photos of the lounge room. The ones we do have were taking on one of the inspections while the previous
tenants were still living here (I hope they don't mind us posting these photos). The
previous tenants used the
fires place as a 'teddy shrine'....very tempting to keep it that way, don't you think ;)
The photos don't really show what state the room was in. The floors were raw as I don't think that they had been polished and varnished since the house was built in the 1920s. The ceiling was also sagging so badly that we pulled it down along with the walls and regyprocked the entire room. We also replaced the 'very attractive' frosted door and window with a ten pane plain glass door which lets in more natural light.
When we first moved in it was winter and we thought we would use the fireplace for heating. After the fire was going for a while the room started to fill with smoke and upon further investigation Eden discovered that the roof cavity was also very smoky. After putting the fire out Eden found that there were more than a few bricks missing in the fireplace so he tried his hand at brick laying. He fixed the problem but once we
renovated the the room we didn't want to use it anymore as we didn't want to risk the smell getting into everything.
Here is what he room looks like now. Eden got the
mantel and mirror from a job that he was doing with work. The were restoring an old house and the architect wanted to throw it out because it wasn't from the right era. We painted it up and it was just perfect for the house.We
really love it and would love to take it with us....do you think the buyers would mind?
See you next time.
My Favorite Things.....
At the top of my favorite things list are the two loves of my life, Eden and Chloe. They make my life wonderful in countless ways that I am often unaware of. I love the relationships that I share with each of them, the relationship that we all share and the relationship that they share together. They are what matters most to me and they truly make my world go around.
Fun at the park
This afternoon after visiting Uncle Chrish, we took Chloe to the park as she had been so good. We have had a lot of rain lately which has made everything so lush and green, perfect for rolling down hills, climbing trees and just being outside.
There was a steep hill at the beginning of the park that Chloe managed to navigate her way down on two feet, with just a little help from Daddy.
Once down the bottom Eden was showing Chloe how to roll around on the grass which was fun to watch until the camera came out (the camera is always more fun).
Chloe would sit with us for a while, then walk off and do her own thing but come back when we called her. That is until two dogs came past. I can't believe that she preferred to follow strange dogs then be with her parents :).
It was great to get out together with no plans and no commitments and just enjoy being a family in the simplest way.
SOLD
Now we have just over three weeks to pack up and move out.....ahhh :) & :(
Spring in Tassie
While Eden was in Tassie he took some photos of our block. We have never seen it is spring (only in the dry summer) and it is great to see that it looks so pretty and green. Though you know what they say about the grass being greener.......:)
A week out of the ordinary
(Finally a blog that is not about Chloe or the house)
Today Eden came back from his fishing trip and the only thing better than the fishing was getting a big hug from Chloe when he got home.
I asked Eden if there were any funny stories that I could include in the post and he couldn't think of any (then I remembered "Of course there are no funny stories, it was a fishing trip!" :)
He said he forgot how fanatical his fishing buddies were (mostly the Ziesel boys) and all that hiking in the cold was a shock to the system for a city slicker.
Here is a photo of a fish (the only fish) he caught but he is telling me about the one that got away;) Actually he is saying that it is the location and the time of year resulted in not much action (any excuse).
A frosty morning.
Where they camped
Sunset
Don't let the pictures of the pretty scenery fool you into thinking it is that this place is Heaven on Earth, Eden said it was scrubby with lots of bush bashing. It is something best appreciated in photos (or maybe if you are choppered in :). Or maybe when I have been 'Tassified' I will see the value in 'bush bashing' for five hours just to see some pretty landscapes!
No really Eden loved it, he came home like a little boy after his first school field trip. He also realised how much he loves and misses Tassie. This means lucky me gets to put up with the constant comparisons of Sydney to Tassie inevitably leading to 'Sydney bashing' until we arrive at the Apple Isle in January. It wouldn't be to bad except I then get the 'Tassie bashing' from my family......does anyone know where I can get some good ear plugs:).
The reason that this post is written by me (Stephannie) and not Eden himself, the actual person that went on the trip, is because he said blogging is girly (for any men that do blog, I don't think it is girly) and when I started typing it first person, as eden, he told me that if I was going to write it like that to not bother doing it. The funny little things that men do to 'keep in touch with their masculine side' :)
Look what I found
Today while I was making lunch Chloe suddenly went quite. Now I haven't been a mother for very long but one think that I have already learnt is that more often then not
quite = trouble.
I went to find Chloe and this is what I found. Don't you think she makes a cute little toy?
I think she is ready to get out now.
Would You Like A Tour (Part III)
From the dining room we move on to the laundry. As we converted the old laundry into the dining room we built a small extension (if anyone is reading from council, under an existing roof line ;) for the new
laundry. There are no photos real before photos to show you (that I did not post last time we were on the tour) but I do have one of the old outside toilet that used to be where the
laundry now stands. When we moved into the house this was the only
toilet we had and it was the very
porcelain bowl that I would hug when I had morning sickness, lucky me!
A work in progress.
If we (and when I say we I really mean Eden) were going to the effort of building a new laundry I didn't want a
pocky little one. The laundry is now a nice size though couldn't we all go a little bigger. As the house does not have much storage we put lots o
f cupboards to stash all our junk. There are three floor to ceiling
cupboard, one under the length of the counter and one above it plus a shelf on the
opposite wall. Under the
bench I wanted large, deep pull out draws to put the dirty washing straight into. But alas Eden had a better idea. At work there was a stone bench top that an apprentice
electrician had put a crack in and therefore needed to be replaced. Unlucky for the
electrician, lucky for us. Eden cut it down to size and what was once the sink hole is now an opening to put dirty clothes. It works but I like the idea of pull out draws better, each to their own.
The laundry also has a second toilet but I never got around to getting a blind for the large glass door that looks out onto the deck so it isn't very private yet.
I love the laundry, it is so easy to work in, there is lots of counter space, lots of floor space and I can have the iron set up and still have room to move.
See you again next time.
Cuddles all round
Today while Chloe and I were at Mamar's house Vienna, Adalia and little Malachi popped over for a visit (we often tend to have unplanned get togethers at Mum's house). Both girls are still smitten with the little man and wanted cuddles which soon turned into squeezes. I wonder if they will adore him this much when he is teasing them in a way that only a younger brother or cousin can?
Anyway she then decided she wanted to experiment a bit more with her art media, so she tried to eat it. First the red which she wasn't too fond of....
and then the blue which she enjoyed alot more.
After drawing and then eating for a while Chloe realised that she could scrunch the paper by kicking her feet. She found this very entertaining. 
Our ever so cute crayon munching boogy baby.
