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.

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.

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.

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.

Wombat turns 4

The morning of the birthday....

Me: What day is it today Wombat?

Wombat: Tuesday!!

Me: Well, no....but what day is it today.....?

Wombat: Friday!!

...........

He's a smart one.

Dinner talk

Whilst sitting round at the dinner table the other night the conversation went thus:

Monk: Mum, have you ever broke any of your bones?

Me: No. NEVER.

Bear: What about your legs?

Exchanged looks with Monk. Copious hearty chuckling.

A miracle on the way home from school...

Driving home from school Monk turned to me and said:

"Mum - what year were you born?"

Me - "76."

Monk - "18 or 19?"

And there's your miracle! Approx. 3 hrs later and the boy is STILL alive.

I do not think it means what you think it mondegreens..... ; )

I had asked Wombat to ask Daddy to brush his teeth (it is one of the things that I have drilled into - or at least tried to drill into my boys and Wombat is now convinced that he is incapable of retiring to bed without first having his teeth brushed).

Chris was grumpy because he wanted the boys to hurry up and go to bed.

Wombat attempted to cower behind my legs as he said "Daddy is very angry and I am scared! I want you to come and brush my teeth!"

I walked through to the bathroom with Wombat and said, "Daddy is not angry - SEE, he is not angry. He is just tricking! He is a tricker!"

Wombat promptly attempted to mimic me and pointing at his Daddy exclaimed with gusto -

"You are a CHICKEN!!"

Especially for my mondegreen luvin' friend : )

O be wise...

Bear was playing Chess on the laptop against the computer when he exclaimed in complete surprise:

"He didn't take my pawn!"

(he of course, meaning the computer)

Me:"Who didn't?"

Bear: "The computer. He could've taken my pawn BUT he didn't!" (apparently incredulous)

Me: "Well, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean it's always wise to. For instance, just because we can eat something, doesn't mean that it is wise to do so. Poison can be eaten. We can eat poison - but then it will kill us! Should we eat poison just because it can be eaten?"

Bear:"NO!" (emphatically)

Me: So just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should, see?"

Why Children should pick their toys up off the floor

Just about impaled my right palm on a Bey Blade this morning. Yeeeouchhhhh!! I AM SERIOUS. How ridiculous is THAT?!

After I stopped wailing and clutching my injured hand however I found I could still do my morning set of pushups. Yay!

My palm is still stinging intermittently when I least expect it. Yup, it's the holidays.

At least it's "takin' my mind off all that pain"* - toothache brought on by hot food and drink. It's Winter here btw - Bummer, eh?

*Ok, ok - it's a paraphrase - name that movie!!

Insight into the mind of The Monk

The other morning Wombat was unwell. BUT diligent - that 3yr old gorgeousness ran with great desperation from his room, through the free-flow lounge, dining area, through the kitchen, right through to the bathroom where he shrieked for a bucket all so he could be sick in it! Gem.

Later as we cuddled in "the big bed" I asked him. "Did you spew in your bed?"

Wombat: No.

Me: You're AWESOME.

Wombat: Yes I am.

However a few minutes later he power chucked all over himself, me, our pillows and some of the bed requiring that I strip the bed and shower myself and the wombat-ty cherub.

After seeing to all this cleaning, wiping and soaking - all before school I might add - The Monk expressed some frustration about when we might be heading out to school to drop off him and Bear.

I responded "Wellllll, what do you still have to do to get ready?"

Ever the charmer Monk responded "Uh, I need to poo in my pants."

Me (without so much as an eye twitch) "Well, you better get pooing then - you wouldn't want to hold us up!"

And that was THAT.

Ami Ana's going MINI!!

So I've decided it's time for Ami Ana to go mini - that is to make some of Ami Ana's most popular items in mini or toddler/childrens size - are you excited?!?

Before you get too excited I should preface this by saying that they are I'm afraid all "girls" items - sorry! Girls are just easy and fun to make fashion and fashion accessories for. And I'm a girl. At least, Wombat frequently tells me that I am. Sorry.

Anyway...this leads to the reason why I am posting about this on this blog rather than on Anarashii - which I surmise is just what you're wondering about. I have a confession - I need your help! And I mean "your" as in I need your help my fellow kiwi bloggy friends : D (sorry to those outside of NZ!! - it's just it's costly to post outside of NZ when funds are low - but not to say that this could change). So - what do I need your help with? Sadly this proves to be not particularly helpful when it comes to designing items for female youngins ; ) - this is where you lovely friends come in! I'm seeking your assistance so that I can better gauge size and also to confirm that I'm getting my size "guesses" right - so help me out and that's right - you read right - you get FREE stuff!! One other thing, if you're ok with it, it would be extremely helpful if you could also snap some pix for me with your dear wee girls modelling what every Ami Ana freebie you're lucky enough to receive - I will not post pix without your approval and naturally I will not name names (unless you want me to) but I will post a link to your blog, your site - whatever you prefer. Interested? Leave me a comment and I'll get in touch with you - and make sure you have a contact email currently saved on your profile or I won't be able to contact you! : (

One more thing - I am well aware of how wool can aggravate sensitive skin and am constantly looking at or searching out soft synthetics or other cost effective natural yarns that pill less than others - have you found something that you think is great? Let me know! (unless it's feather yarn...uh, cos then I don't want to know) - with the exception of feather yarn, which I have an anaphylactic aversion to, I'm very keen to hear about other options : )

So without further ado here are a few of the items that I'm keen to make "minis" of - do you have Ami Ana favs you'd love to see mini versions of? What are they? Let me know! :D

Also possibly these....

What do you think?

Angey Pangey's Cornbread and candid picture snapping attempts

Made Ange's Cornbread tonight as an accompaniment to soup. Perrrrrfect. Wombat LOVED it. Gobbled it up and had seconds. With honey even. What follows are some pictures I snapped of him - intended to be candid shots of him in the throes of enjoying the bread - alas. Well - the pictures tell it all really.

I think this is probably most accurately described as the "overkill" smile. Or perhaps the "My Mummy says I have to enjoy this bread so I'm enjoying it dammit!"

He's actually chewing it here - as opposed to pursing his lips for a kiss or speaking French that is.

This is about the most candid shot I got of him ALL night. Yup.

He may be built like a Wombat but he watched me like a Hawk he did. And ears like a bat! - listening for the sound of the camera being turned on!! I thought I had caught him with this one but no! - he was too fast for me and managed to somehow sneak in a smile even as he gobbled.

That expectant look...

We were at Monk's soccer game Saturday morning and I was watching (and helping) Wombat and his friend clamber up and down a tree at the edge of the field. Wombat very quickly got the hang of climbing up and down on the lowest branch, yet soon the inevitable happened and slipping (from climbing down?), he fell the short distance to the ground landing on his back in the grass.

I scooped the crying Wombat up in my arms and attempted to ascertain where the injury(ies) were so that I could - in the regular motherly fashion - kiss them better. I thought that perhaps he had hit his head. But no.

It was soon immediately obvious what his main concern was - he stuck out his tongue, still crying, to reveal 2 or 3 little blood dots along one side and tearily said that he had bit his tongue (or at least that's what I think he said)

Then transfixing me with an expectant look, he continued to look at me steadily, with his tongue still protruding....waiting...

Yeaaaaah, NAH.

Dodgy.

I gave him a hug. And a pat. You'll get over it son.

Relatively speaking....

Tuesday afternoon Monk was scheduled for a Dental appointment. He was not keen. I had to think up some highly improbable yet reassuring scenario to get him out of the car.

Monk: I don't want to go. The Dentist hurts.

Me: It'll probably be FINE. The Dentist or Dental Nurse will probably say that your teeth are so perfectly and pristinely well kept (silent, inward scoffing) that she only needs to give them a quick polish - if that. So just get out of the car, and let's go. It'll be ok.

The REALITY.

Dental Nurse/Technician(?) : So Master M*, it appears that fillings from two of your teeth have fallen out and those teeth have become abscessed. (With a look in my direction) ...So unfortunately it seems like the only way to help those teeth is to have them....*pause* (and then she said the next word very carefully, with some degree of trepidation even) ...EX-TRACT-ED.
(All eyes on Monk to catch his reaction) : Phew!!! I thought I was going to have to have another filling!!!!

The Dental Nurse/Technician and I exchange knowing looks.

*Master M as opposed to Monk to show that the Dental Technician calls him by his actual name - pedantic, I know.

BEAR-ly relevant

Bear has had a dead wiggly tooth for some time now - top centre front - one of the "biguns". We have tried various things to get it out - even suggesting he get a paper towel and try to pull it out himself - which he did try a couple of times with fierce determination! It's been pretty stubborn.

Anyway, last night whilst we were out (Fuzz and I that is) at a farewell party for a friend Monk texted Fuzz to let us know that Bear's tooth had finally fallen out - huzzah!!

So this morning I call Bear over and attempted to find out how his tooth had come out in the end, stubborn as it was....

Me: So Bear, how did your tooth fall out last night?

Bear: Mum....Monk was watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night! (said as if it was particularly significant)

Meanwhile, I am left puzzling over the relevance of this statement which is apparently part of the same conversation that I initiated when I asked how his tooth fell out - no other further explanation however.

After, uttering an internal Huh to myself I say:

Me: So uh, your tooth was SO frightened from watching this (ie. the movie), that that made it fall out....?!!

snort from Fuzz (also in the room).

Pause.

I look up.

Bear is gone.

Apparently he felt his response was more than sufficient.

"I do not think it means what you think it means....."

Perhaps my first mistake was thinking that my young child actually appreciated something I had done for him - I mean who wouldn't appreciate hot porridge with brown sugar and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and a dash of milk? RIGHT??

But yes, perhaps I was jumping the gun - perhaps, when I asked wombat - "Did you enjoy your porridge?"

and he answered rather enthusiastically "YES!" - that should have sent up a red flag.

A red flag for what? you ask......a red flag that:

"I've finished my porridge, Mummy!" actually meant "I've finished.....smearing my porridge all over the table, chair and floor!"

Snarl.

Dodged that bullet!!

The Monk informed me this evening that all he wants for Christmas is the jetpack he just saw on the News on tv - phew! That's a relief. And here I was worried he might request something COMPLETELY ridiculous.

Do my EARS deceive me??

I am by now well accustomed and will readily admit to the foul smell of grilling capsicum - on previous occasions when I have grilled/roasted it for making hummus it has repeatedly set off the smoke alarm in our lounge - hence, I am now somewhat of an old hand at this and consequently open all the windows and doors that one can within reason - in anticipation!

As my boys and hubby returned home from school this afternoon they were greeted with the mere beginnings of the putrid scent of grilling capsicum. I must say they all play the tortured victim rather well - for duration of the grilling process husband and children alike held their noses and moaned and groaned about the foulness and torturous-ness of it all. That is all the children bar one. Whilst his older brothers groaned loudly and incessantly, clutching their noses with pained faces - the wombat, as per usual, attempted to copy all this "older brother" stuff - pained face - check. Boisterous complaining - check. Pinched nose - ba-bow.

It seemed somewhere along the way that the wombat got a bit confused and instead of pinching his nose to block out the heinous scent he instead feverishly covered his ears.

UNBEARABLY cute and amusing!

Deciphering Wombat-speak

"Ginja tisses ate meeee, mmmmmmm"

The Wombat's (aka Little J) attempt to tell his Grandma about some Ginger Kisses we jointly devoured.