Misunderstood

Sigggghhhhh. What is the world coming to when even emoticons are misconstrued. You try to help someone out with a gentle reminder punctuated by smiley faced emoticons to try and help indicate the tone and intent of your message and the person jumps down your throat. The world is hardwired for failure.

GAKKARI

The computer died last night.

Lost all my most recent pix that I hadn't moved to my pictures - a bunch from a recent photo shoot, Wombat goofing off in his new knitted hat, pix of us at the most recent Playhouse theatre production, Monk showing off his brophy aerial skills to me in the holidays - all gone. All already deleted from my camera too.

Absolutely GUTTING :(

Selfie haircut

Before

Some unfortunate circumstances last week meant that a self haircut was necessitated.

After

 With Glasses

Without Glasses

Mr 10 looked at my freshly cut hair and didn't say a word just gave me a hug. That's encouraging!

Positive Body Image BACKFIRE

So I've just recently discovered that Wombat appears to mistakenly believe that Skinny jeans make you skinny - I came to this realisation just last week when he wasn't able to wear either of his two pairs of jeans and he became rather distraught about wearing track pants, even exclaiming to me - "Mummy! I don't want to wear track pants - they will make me look fat!"

(when I recounted this to my friend Amee she replied - "OH MY GOSH! He's a 16 yr old GIRL!!!")

Then,....on Friday night after soccer practise myself and all three boys were at the Supermarket and Wombat who was wearing his uniform short shorts was sitting in the shopping trolley. Looking down he saw that his thighs were consequently squished/spread and he cried out with much angst -
Wombat: Mummy!!! Look how fat my legs are!!
(Hmmmmm, positive body image enforcing I thought - here goes!)
Me: Your legs are NOT Fat Wombat! Your legs are MUSCULAR.
Wombat: Mummy - what does muscular mean?
Me: Your legs are full of muscles! Big and STRONG! Your legs are NOT Fat - they are MUSCULAR!
Wombat paused and thought for a second and then exclaimed with some excitement - Oh Mummy! Your legs are VERY muscular because they are HUGE!!!!
Me: Yep.

Out of the mouths of babes.

Classic Wombat

Scene: Grandma's Family Birthday Dinner, with the fam at Grandma and Grandad's.

Bear: Did you know that only ducks quack?
Adult (possibly Grandma): Ducks?
Bear: Yes, only Ducks (the females) quack and (Mallards) don't.
Wombat: And mushrooms do nothing!

Everyone (except for Wee Grandma aka Great Grandma who doesn't get it) instantly devolves into uncontrollable hysterics.

There weren't even any mushrooms in the dinner either - in case you were wondering.

Soft Brown Sugar - smelly?

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but for sometime now Soft Brown Sugar in stores has been different - it reeks of Molasses and Soft Brown Sugar just doesn't usually smell like that I'm sorry! One packet I bought was even a disconcerting bright orange colour! I had even stopped buying it because of this change which is a pretty big deal for me as I like to be stocked up on my baking supplies and I regularly bake goodies for the boys' lunches! I am still noticing the difference even now - the Brown Sugar stinks out the whole baking aisle! Anyway, I decided I would bite the bullet so to speak and buy some of this stinky new Soft Brown Sugar and test it out to see if the smell affected the flavour in anyway - if it did it would mean no more choc chip cookies, pumpkin muffins and a bunch of other treats!
SO, made some Choc Chip Cookies up the night before last annnnnnnnd - all good! Guess we just have to put up with the smell!

Sleepy Head

A pictorial post of Wombat's various and random sleeping "spots" ie. places where he has randomly fallen asleep around the house - oft times literally "fallen" asleep : )

Just about to colour in his new colouring book zzzzz

Unposed - honestly just fell asleep on the floor like this zzzzzz

Nodded off whilst watching Phantom zzzzzz

Discovered just like this zzzzzzz

(just kidding!)

Collapsed on floor zzzzzzz

Dozed off on Mum zzzzzzz

About to draw at table zzzzzz

Fell asleep in little chair zzzzzzz

Fell asleep watching Sesame Street zzzzzzz

Why I NEED Mousse.

Arguably tight, "contained" and "tamed", tidy curls with mousse.

Curls all brushed out - resultant untamed frizz bomb.

Ami Ana Giveaway!!

So....I am actually having a Giveaway on Ami Ana at the moment (the past week to be exact), but it would seem that thanks to Facebook's new promotion and view quashing tactics very few people, excepting a few whom I have informed directly of it, knew! :/

 This makes me sad. It probably makes you sad too.

So, in an attempt to combat Facebook's disagreeable "tactics" I am considering extending the entry time for one more day for all those whom Facebook have prevented, nay impeded from being informed of it and potentially missing out on FREE Ami Ana goodies! What do YOU all think?

I think that considering I'm only extending for one extra day, you guys still have pretty primo odds to win :D

 So short'n'sweet - to Enter:
1. Be an Ami Ana Facebook fan - here's the link to do that - https://facebook.com/Anarashii
2. Comment either on the Ami Ana Facebook page or the Anarashii Blog - http://Anarashii.blogspot.com and tell me what Ami Ana item is on your Christmas wish list!
3. Share on your personal FB page or biz page for extra entries!

 Time for Entries to close is now 8.30pm Thursday 8th November NZ Time. Good luck! Here's what's up for grabs!

Braggy McBraggerson

Just stopped by the Blog to brag about the voucher for FREE pottles of all THREE of the Killinchy Gold and Whittaker's collab Gourmet Icecream that I just won from FB - OH YEAH!

Morticia and the Hulk

Here we are at home after "Trunk'n'Treat" at Church - Wombat as Hulk and me, supposedly,as Morticia Adams - but my hair just will NOT be tamed!!

So, I'm having a Sale over at Ami Ana....

Ami Ana's Tabetaichai Childrens wear Sale starts.....NOW! All you need to know is that it starts 5pm NZ time Friday 19th October and Ends 9am NZ time Tuesday 22nd October! Oh and the coupon/voucher codes for both my Etsy and Felt Stores might just come in handy! ; ) The details: The Sale is on ALL Childrens Items including already discounted Items, but excepting Customer Order Items and Patterns - however, I do have a very limited amount of current stock in some of my Custom Order Items - so pays to ask! The codes: Simply enter TABE15 at checkout for a 15% discount - there is no use limit per customer for this discount code and there is no limit to purchases with this discount code. TABESUGI25 is to be used if you get a little carried away with yourself! Enter this code at checkout for purchases of 3-4 or more items and receive a 25% discount! Enjoy!

PS - the codes are the same for both the Etsy and Felt Ami Ana Stores - in case you were wondering ; )

When Wombat grows up....

This is currently Wombat's preferred way of watching tv.

I reiterate - when Wombat grows up he is either going to be a Gymnast or a stuntman. Or both.

Kitchen Shelves - REBORN!

I think the pictures speak for themselves. My only regret is that I didn't take "Before" pictures.

A snippet of conversation - Wombat-style

Week before last Wombat was unwell - when I say unwell I actually mean he was well - but his asthma was acting up something chronic - nasty deep cough, wheazy as heck. So we kept him home pretty much the whole week. Whilst he was at home one of the Kindy pets - one of the rabbits - died and this week just gone Kindy acquired a brand new rabbit.The Kindy needs to name the newly arrived rabbit and so they posted the children's name suggestions for this new rabbit on the white board out on the Kindy porch. They made me smile - that is they made me have an internal giggle fit. Some of my favourites were (let me just preface this by saying that the Rabbit is a black female Rabbit)
- Batman - this one has my vote for sure.
- Venom - a definite superhero/villain theme going on here.
- Black - just Black - no Blacky/Blackie. Just Black. Imaginative.
- Rabbity.

I was sure Wombat had been responsible for suggesting "Batman", however Wombat instead proudly informed me that his suggestions for the new Rabbit's name had been Rabbity and/or Water.Random.

And then Chris' parents and Gma stopped by tonight for a short visit and I just had to share this little conversation.Mum had been exclaiming over a new snuggly toy Wombat had seated on the table whilst he studiously drew a picture of a Lion.
Mum: Where did you get that from?
Wombat: A Shop.
Me: Op shop/Sallies.
Wombat: Monk bought it for me.
Mum: It's VERY nice.
Me: It's in pretty good nick.
Wombat picked up his new dog snuggly and showed it off to his Grandma: It's a dog and his name is Blue, like on Blues Clues.
Mum: Oh? Why haven't you named him Rabbity?(
in a stating the obvious tone) Wombat: Cos he's a DOG.
(stifled giggles) Mum: Why not call him Doggie then?(
in an abrupt no nonsense tone) Wombat: His name is BLUE.

End of conversation.

I am not a robot!

What is up with word verifications on blogs lately? Is it just me or are they ridiculously HARD?!? Just how hard do they HAVE to be - I mean do they HAVE to be THAT hard? Surely they could be a little easier... I know we have to prove we're not robots, but THIS is just getting ridiculous! I promise I'm NOT a robot!!!!!!!!!!!

May I interject....!

I overheard half a conversation about Chris and Marty's salmon fishing plans this morning.

Chris:I have some rods but I'm not really sure what they're for.....
"Fishing" I interjected.

My Wombatty Linguistical Tensai

I took Wombat to his obligatory before school well child check today - even though he has only RECENTLY turned 4 and will not actually be attending school until next year. Whilst in the playroom waiting to be seen Wombat played happily with the multiplicity of toys chattering away in seemingly random syllables which he announced was him "speaking Japanese". Don't be fooled though that these ARE random syllables - this boy listens carefully to his Mama when she speaks to him in Japanese and consistently uses syllables with vowel sounds consistent with those used in Japanese - he's also picked up the use of ne and no as end of sentence inflections and seems to understand that the former is similar to "eh?" and is used as a casual means of seeking confirmation/reassurance, whilst the latter indicates that the sentence is a question, and seems to be endeavouring to figure out other syntactical intricacies in general.
Near the end of our visit the Nurse who had asked Wombat to thread large beads onto a plastic cord (a subtle yet predictable test of fine motor skills) then asked him, "Do you think you could count these for me and tell me how many there are?"
I grinned inwardly - every Saturday Wombat counts his Grandma's pills for her - EAAAAASY - I thought. I didn't know the half of it!
Wombat began to point at each bead and count. He counted one through six without breaking a sweat. Then he stopped. He went back to the start. He pointed at each bead and this time coolly rattled off the colours like he was some expert interior decorator informing the Nurse of her optimum palette of Autumn colours "White, Orange, Purple, Black...."
The Nurse paused, "Oh. You're telling me the colours. Good. Nice."
Wombat stopped again. He pointed at the first bead again, and this, this was the cherry on top people.
"Uno, dos, tres...."
Well, he did get a little lost after that and needed some prompting from me but his pronunciation is pretty much faultless.

When I informed Chris of this his response was to laugh uncontrollably, exclaim," He DIDN'T?!?!!" and then remark "Show off."

Tensai da wa.

Will of STEEL

Sunday night over a game of Zaras I pointed out to Chris that we had managed so far to polish off 20. Yes TWENTY Afghans between the two of us. I then suggested that perhaps we should not have anymore. And then I said, "Just three more each...." and promptly loaded up the plate.

Will of STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL.

Both of us.

Attention "Friends"

Attention "Friends" who give my children chewing/bubblegum,

Please note " " as if you insist on giving my children chewing/bubblegum you are NOT my friend. If you give my children chewing/bubblegum again despite my specific requests that you NOT I will find out. I will come to your house and I will re-deposit all your gifted chewing/bubblegum as my children would around your house....on your furniture, in your carpet, dropped in your wood basket, on your floor, stuck to the inside of cups the residue of which never to be removed......

You have been warned.