Adding to the family

Today we got some new furry friends for the kids. They really wanted something small and cuddly so we got them a guinea pig each. Spikee has called his "Atomic Betty Rat" and Stylish has called hers "Guiness" although owing to the beer reference she's thinking of renaming it when she thinks of a name.

Poor Spikee came off his bike at the park yestersay and has a HUGE bruise on his face, grazing and a cut the size of a 20c piece on the inside of his cheek. He's also got a badly grazed knee and a cut on his forehead from where the helmet hit the ground and quite frankly I'm very relieved he had it on. I was reading something not long ago about how helmets are no use. Well maybe they aren't in a collision with a car, but for falling off the bike when the dog wants your pink crocs .... they're ace. He would have cracked his skull without it, no question in my mind.

Stylish is very pleased about the guinea pigs, she's been hassling me to get rats for ages and I kept saying no because she used to let them run around the house, but now we have the pink croc chasing dog that's not really an option. The pet shop said the guinea pigs were skittish, but they look pretty tame to me, one in each lap as the kids watch a movie!

Angus is crawling all over the place, he has two teeth through and it threatening to get a new top one any day now. He is really miserable with the teething. He stands up on furniture now and is close to stepping around holding onto stuff. He is making all sorts of baby babble noises and is starting to wave. He loves it when we sit out in the garden and he can crawl around.

Yesterday we took advantage of a glorious Autumn day and drove down to Southport for a picnic. The kids ran up and down the beach finding shells and feathers. We also found dead squid like things that when you walk on them they ooze purple ink. That's why I assume they were like squid, they looked like seaweed other than that! We saw a starfish, and wallaby, penguin, crab and dog footprints which we're sure was edumacational for them. A has drilled holes through many of the shells and the kids are making necklaces out of them.

We love natural learning!

Spikee is really loving reading! Tonight we made him a dinosaur book. We printed out lots of pictures of dinosaurs and he coloured them in and cut them out, and I typed and printed "This is a " and then we glued it all onto paper and stuck the pages in a clear sheet folder. Now he reads it and points to all the words. He's very pleased with himself.

We spent the day building our hot house, and I can't wait to get a veggie garden up and running again. There's so many REAL, USEFUL lessons in growing food. We've also added some chooks to our family and there have been many opportunities for learning there! It seems that this is the perfect state for natural learning.

What's been going on?

Well, there's still no sign of a baby at 42w and 4 days. But there's been no shortage of things happening so I figured an update was probably in order. the last week has been the week from hell! I've had a really nasty cold which has landed me with bad asthma and aches and pains from head to foot, and A has slipped a disk in his back so he wasn't able to look after me! We kind of struggled through, each of us doing what we could and everything else going by the way side. If it weren't for Stylish we would have been a lot worse, she really stepped up and helped out when we down!

The great migration is well under way, and we should own the house by early next week. I'm really excited about the move, and so is the family. It's going to be a huge change, leaving a city of several million, and going to a town with 800 people but in time I'm sure we'll adjust. The kids are very excited about getting chickens and a dog. There's a shed in the garden at the new house which we'll convert to a chicken coop. Some little nesting boxes and some insulation and a door will probably cut it, we want them to be free range of a day, and we'll keep them safe and warm of a night in their little hen house.

Yesterday was the first day in a week that we felt well enough to actually take the kids to the park. They had a lovely time running laps of various play equipment areas and trees and using the stop watch on my phone to try and beat their last time, then Stylish climbed trees and Spikee played at the base of them with his toy dinosaurs. A and I sat in the sun for as long as our varying ailments would allow, then we trudged home in time to collapse into bed with hot water bottles and rest up before forcing ourselves to organise food for dinner.

Stay tuned, there are bound to be more interesting developments in the coming days and weeks!

A Ratty Update

The little rat who has been in labour for days seems to have taken a strange turn. We have a feeling that she was too young to give birth, she' is an extremely small rat - not that I ascribe to that school of thought, I know pelvises open, but she laboured for over 72 hours and no kittens appeared. Rats have babies in about 2 hours generally speaking. Sooooo she was exhibiting labour behaviour, lost blood, and didn't have babies for three days, leaving us all terribly worried that she would die of an infection. But miraculously, her swollen belly has gone down, and she appears to be on the mend - sans babies! The only explanation for this is that she is reabsorbing the babies, as can sometimes happen in small mammals.

She has been sleeping on Stylish's bed, we left her well alone in a darkened cage while she appeared to be straining in labour, when it looked like it was going to be a marathon effort we did give her honey water and lots of protein rich food every few hours. She seemed to want company but we didn't want to disturb her body in it's efforts to do what mother nature intended for rats to do. When her labour stopped she seemed so desperate for company, climbing up our hands when we put food in her cage for her. So we got her out and gave her lots of cuddles and spoiled her silly with tasty food.

After all the worry, when he eyes got bright, and she seemed to want to move about, and she was eating, drinking, pooing and weeing, we started to feel like there could be some hope, but she was still very weak and we didn't wanna get out hopes up too much. But it's been three days now and she really seems to be recovering! Last night after consuming half a strawberry she got up and walked out of her little nest. She walked about 30cm, and then back to her nest, which was the first time she had been able to do that. then over night Stylish woke up and went to check her and she had vanished, she was found in her favourite play spot, under Stylish's bed! She is still in her nest now, and refusing to eat rat food - why would you when you keep being given such exciting treats as strawberries, yogurt, and green tea?

So the vigil continues, but we are certainly hopeful that she will pull through.

Events ....

Today Stylish's rat started acting strangely. We have a friend who is very involved in the local Fancy Rat Society, ans as soon as she heard our rat was being strange she came straight over to have a look. One look determined that she is in labour .... so we are about to be overrun with small fur free rodents - DRAT!

We went out for lunch today and on the way home we stopped in at vinnies. I found a jumper for myself, a green earthy t-shirt for Stylish, and a mauve pair of skinny leg jeans (apparently these are desirable items!?) that fit her PERFECTLY. it's like they were tailor made! I also got two triangular "made in Japan" brand plates, a Katherine Kerr book, and a fantastic book from the Eye-spy that is all about archaeology. Hopefully one of them will take an interest in it at some stage! All up, my shopping spree cost $19

I am now half way through a pregnancy, and feeling quite excited! The baby is starting to get quite active and I feel a lot of wriggling throughout the day. The kids are thrilled and keep asking me when the baby will be born, and being disappointed with my same old, same old answer. Spikee keeps insisting that he will be asleep when the baby is born, and if his prediction is correct then there's nothing we can do, he won't wake up, no matter how exciting the reason! Stylish should be about though, so at least one of them will witness the arrival of their sibling!

Merry Giftmas!

I can't believe xmas came around so fast, I guess being pregnant, and raising two children makes the time fly by faster than is conceivable!

We had a wonderful family feast with turkey, ham, pork, and chicken that was all free range! And plenty of salads, a potato salad, a green salad, and a pasta pesto salad made from home grown rocket and basil.

To top it off we had chocolate chunk and berry ice-cream made by Stylish. We put the ice cream in mini cones, dipped them in melted white chocolate and turned them upside down (so they'd look like xmas trees) and the kids decorated their with m+m's. The ice cream tasted like very cold chocolate mousse, it was really yummy!

Stylish spent the day making videos of everything on her new ipod, and Spikee is in love with his new ambulance toy - complete with sirens. Tonight we downloaded Pink albums for her while Spikee and I played his new dice game. The game is with the characters from the movie Cars, and instead of having numbers on the dice it has colours so it's perfect for him.

Today he got a pencil on a mini etch a sketch and began doing some writing. He did a couple of tidy and organised little scribbles in the way you write letters! Then showed us all his writing, there was no doubting what it was! I was about to take a photo of it when he had to wipe it off - darn it! I'll see if I can get him to do it again.

Two days ago we got some pet fish for Spikee and Stylish, and they're going really well. The tank looks amazing! We have a crocodile that's mouth opens and shuts and bubbles come out to aerate the tank, colourful green rocks, glowing eggs, and a weird sort of decoration that looks like ancient pillars with coral growing off them (Spikee chose that ....). It was an early giftmas present. Spikee is really enjoying the job of feeding them each morning and night and he talks to them and gives them updates on everything from the impending arrival of Santa to the fact that I stored some clean rocks for their tank on top of the fridge.

In two days we head off on our camping trip! We're spending two nights in a hotel on the way to Eden, and we'll stay in Eden for a week of fishing, swimming, and fun family times!!! We're so organised it's ridiculous. We've bought roof racks off eBay, and a camp kitchen and chairs and tables this year to add to our already impressive collection of "make camping luxurious" accessories.

Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to see Where The Wild Things Are while A packs the camping stuff and watches cricket whilst consuming beer. I can't wait! I can only imagine how excited the kids would be ...

Summer taking over Spring

We've had some insanely hot weather for Spring, days nearing 40C and it's only Spring. Admittedly it's nearly Summer, but we seem to have bypassed Spring, which is a shame because I love the in-between seasons! Extreme weather is no friend of mine.

We have spent the week watering the garden constantly, and covering the more delicate of the seedlings over with umbrellas during the heat of the afternoon sun. The pet rats started behaving strangely this afternoon so we had to move them outside and spray them with cold water. They soon perked up and wandered about chomping on grass and other goodies.

Stylish has been busily decorating the indoor cage for the rats with hand sewn hammocks, and various things for them to climb on and rest in, they are loving life! And she learns so much from her little projects. Needle craft is such a useful skill, as is caring for pets, and providing all their sustenance, which she does with vigour!  

Her pet frog is starting to call for a mate. I think he should be re-named Pavarotti, but .... what would I know. Their names are Hansel and Gretel. She hopes they will breed and that she can sell them for billions of dollars. Owing to the fact that the two she has cost her $50 of her hard earned pocket money, I think it's possible that she can make something off their breeding habits. 

Spikee has developed a sudden interest in writing so I bought him a wipe clean numbers book and he is happily tracing the numbers (well, scribbling on them anyway). He amazed us all with his ability to circle certain things and draw lines between things that are connected - like a lamb and a ewe, a foal and a mare. He rather impressively understood their relationship of mother and child, which I was interested to see. Sometimes we forget how many things small minds can absorb in their daily existences. Who ever compared them to sponges was onto something. 

Watching the children learn by simply living reminds me each day that the natural learning process works! I know that I struggle with de-schooling myself, more than the children struggle with it, especially Spikee because he has never been institutionalised. I really wonder about how literacy develops without a structured system being imposed on the children, but from discussions that I've had with other parents .... it just does! How could a child grow to adult hood without learning to read in our culture? Our culture relies so heavily on reading and writing skills, that it would be impossible!  Having grown up with an English teacher as a mother, this is really departing from my own early belief system though, and that's why I often have questions or niggling worries. However in a recent discussion on a forum I frequent a member told me that an illiterate adult can learn to read, or learn the skills which make reading possible, in just 30 hours. With Stylish being fully able to read by the time she was pulled out of the institution, I never witnessed the amazing ability to self learn that so many natural learning families have experienced. I guess I just have to resign myself to a bit of waiting now that I have that information on board!