Look who's going to school

Just three short years ago, our little Lollipop was pooping in her nappy at the airport as she farewelled her cousins ("Mia 'n Emmaaaaaa! Where they be?") and using Scrapsy to "make my better". You'll be relieved that smell-o-vision is not an invention - I still remember the sting of my nostrils as we walked back to the car to change her. Wafting a scent worthy of Pepe le Pew behind us.

Un smelle vous finay!

Now the LGBB is a confident, excited, enthusiastic and friendly five and a half year-old ready to blow their socks off this year in Prep.  She'll be there tomorrow, white socks neatly pulled up, plonking along in school shoes a tad too large and trying to avoid head lice (yeah, right.... wish us luck with that!). And I daresay I'll do similar to what Marg Simpson does with all the other parents as they forlornly wave off their children to camp until the kids are out of sight - then I'll do a big air-jump "WOOP!" and high-five some other parent next to me. Because let's face it: all things must end. And we have spent her entire life so far with each other. It's time to branch out, for both our sakes.

But back then, the LGBB was still crafting the natural comedic timing that has become one of her signature traits. Oh how she makes my heart soar.  Even if she still does stop me from singing in EXACTLY the same manner as she tries on in this video. This is one of my favourites. It is SO her at that age.

I am so excited for her. For me. Yet slightly worried, ready for whatever comes next.

Ahhh, boy, they were not wrong when they warned it would go faster than I could believe possible.

Enjoy your young'uns! Despite it all - everything that is hard and feels ennnnnndless... - I hope you do indeed stop. Sit back. And enjoy it. x

Tales from the #12wbt: Today, I made a weighty discovery

I found an expand-o-file thingy in the garage today. It contained a pile of papers and documents that basically chronicled the good stuff and praise I'd ever received in any of the four jobs spanning my 10 year-long office "career" I had before bearing my first (prem, ultimately not surviving) child.

I threw three-quarters of the paperwork out, easily and unemotively turfing it and keeping just a small handful of things for snapshot of workplaces in the 90's kind of purposes. It bore little significance to me now. So much so, for I had been so proud of it all once, that I had to step back and be gently with myself as I took stock of what had transpired in all the years in between then and now.

There were many times as I stood there sorting my office life where I recalled that forward-thinking Me as she slipped the documents into the archive file. She had put them there even as her belly expanded with who was to become our girl, Ellanor. She was expecting that one day, her son or daughter would like to know what his or her mother had been doing prior to becoming their mother.

Today, none of that seems to matter. The praise and achievements of a string of jobs that served only to pay off the mortgage - even though I put my heart and soul loyally into every workplace that hired me - are of no importance now.

It struck me deeply that I used to rate so highly my work-a-day jobs that, really, were soul-less. Why is it that I kept a succession of performance reviews with their studiously signed and counter-signed cover pages as evidence of having done anything worthy of this world, when I have been berating myself for the state of my body that has cleverly borne two live children and kept recovering through the loss of twelve others?

I didn't mean to write a post. This was meant to be a vlog only. I'll shuddup now. Here, watch me bare more honestly than I planned so please be gentle!:

A weighty discovery from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.



Ok. Things I didn't say...:

• Firstly, I forgot to go back to my train of thought after Pepper kindly interrupted! Suffice to say, I realised that it was a conscious choice I had to make - to stop blaming my body gaining increasing amounts of weight seemingly unstoppable weight, stop blaming the pregnancies for affecting the hormones and making me a chemical jumble of a mess, stop blaming the IVF for setting up my already overloaded system, stop blaming every other external factor.... and stop blaming ME, possibly most importantly, for the decisions I was blindly, unconsciously making. Without that first step of ridding the blame, I couldn't have spurred myself into action.
• I have lost over 10kg so far in 2011 (I haven't stopped counting yet!). Although I have been told a lot in my life that I am "lucky" because I have no one problem area, it also means I have work to do everywhere! But it's true that whilst I may gain weight everywhere, I also tone everywhere evenly. Which is a blessing. So sometimes it's hard for anyone other than me to see I've gained or lost weight - a bonus, you might think, unless you're the one in a too-heavy body;
• No longer is it an effort to: climb out of bed, walk up a few stairs, get down on the floor to play with my child, squat to look in a low cupboard (my legs would cramp and ache within 30 seconds, so poor was my muscle "tone");
• After just seven weeks on this fitness program, my mindset is... well, set! It has been an emotional wasteland, that void between my head, heart and mouth (rather, willpower) - the realisation I had during this vlog (that I had given up) has really struck me.
• Plié (or sumo) squats with an upright row thrown in holding hand weights = killer! Ditto to a raised lunge (with front foot on a step). But these two techniques in particular, for me, feel oh so good. It feels so powerful knowing my thigh and glute muscles are working hard to raise and lower my upper body.
• I am feeling the familiar heady rush of adrenaline that I used to crave in the years when I went diligently to the gym and had a personal trainer. I had all but convinced myself in recent years that I didn't miss The Burn of working muscle and was too far gone to ever experience again. Amazing stuff when I know that just two months ago, I couldn't get off my couch without a LOT of effort and not a little bit of audible grunt to boot.
• No small thanks to Michelle Bridges' 12 week body transformation for the kickstart to my return to fitness.

Vlog: The Party Trick edition

I haven't the words for my own stupidity. So I will just tell you in the words of my child, "Funny Mr. Funny." Or she may perhaps have said Farty. I can never tell with her. But she's always calling me Mr. something or other.

Strange.

Anywho, all this is just me procrastinating. See, I'm in two minds about showing you this vlog. After you see it, you will surely see that I am a lunatic. I'm not sure if I'm ready to let the remaining two of you who don't already know and are still reading this blog that.... I am. Almost certifiably so.

Ack. Let's get on with it, shall we? And make sure you watch right til the end for a special guest appearance.

Dear god... here we go....

The helper monkey: I've been cheating

I have a confession to make.

I am not really writing my book myself. I have been cheating. I've been using child labour. A gun typist. An Ideas Fairy. Someone who's using words like "PMT" and "Eminem" - listen really close right towards the end and see if I'm wrong about that..... Did you catch what she muttered?

When we went to visit Steve at work (who was there ALL weekend until 1am most nights), he set the LGBB up with the iPad and a little wireless Apple keyboard. Lolly was in bliss. And kept exclaiming that she was writing lots of words for me and writing my book. Awwww bless. And all I could think was, What if.... and Knock yourself out, chick.

Workin' 9 to 5 from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.

I see this video and ask myself:  What must I look like? To her, I mean? Note to self: Stop bashing laptop keyboard and telling my daughter I "Must. Finish. Book" like some mad woman.

Here is a sneak peek at my next chapter:

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Gripping stuff, huh?


I love my helper monkey. She works at 105 garbled, nonsensical words per minute. Do you need one?

The longer jumper

Now this is my kind of sport.

The Casual Longer Jumper from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.

Hello, Bruder! A vlog.

This is not a sponsored post - as in, I was not paid to write this. It's an appreciation piece for a give away I received and it's only been posted about - as with everything I write on this blog - because I've been so impressed that I felt compelled to share it with you.

A very welcome addition crept its way into our house after the recent Melbourne bloggers' brunch, hosted graciously by Melbourne Channel 31's Room To Grow, Kids Business and once again the lovely folk at Kleenex Mums.

Princess Neighhhhh!

It was a most unexpected gift, one that the LGBB has been playing with consistently in the fortnight since she has had it. For a girl not really much into her imaginative play (something that used to concern me a couple of years ago.... so sensible is the sensible Lolly that I was sure she was destined never to imagine her way through her childhood), this new toy has provided this mum with not only much-needed times of a break from the apparently endless stream-of-consciousness jibber-jabber from her four year-old daughter, but also a rare opportunity to glimpse her playful mind.

Armed with a Polly Pocket driver/rider or two from her own toy stash, the LGBB has been whizzing her friends around in this awesome horse float. A proper Mercedes Benz Sprinter replica. Not to mention the actual horse that comes with the float. Lolly's is (apparently) a flying horse. The best kind, I hear.

So gorgeous. I would have fought to the end for something like this as a child. Horses were my LIFE. No, let me be clear about that for you...... HORSES. Were. My. LIFE! I never had one but oooh I came close to several, I rode them as often as I possibly could. Lolly has never shown interest in them before now.


I jumped online after flicking through their catalogue and it would seem Bruder has all sorts of vehicles you have to see to believe. The attention to detail is really quite awesome. I dare you not to get down on the floor and play with one if it's in your midst! (The Australian importer appears to be Zimbler Pty Ltd, from there you can find stockists)

Miniature versions of Mack and Scania tip trucks, garbage trucks (complete with wheelie bins and all), fire trucks, DHL parcel trucks (which was the other vehicle being handed out at the bloggers' networking morning), cement mixers, tractors of varying styles, the list goes on. Just amazing. It looks like it caters for a wide range of ages too - 2-4, 3-7 and 3-10 yrs. Take a look for yourself!

The horse float has totally won me. It is tough, very well built with quality materials and rolls so easily... Can't say enough really. I wish we had more. I'm eyeing off the jeep and the cattle transport truck. And the cute little forklifts! Oh my. Must stop looking. 

This is ridiculous, I'm a grown woman. Who can I give one to as a gift? Got a few nephews and nieces in the ideal age bracket....

So, thanks Bruder! You have satisfied this mother, at least, and given our little girl an outlet for some fantastic lose-herself time. It is gorgeous to see. And even more of a delight to watch.


Here, captured on that awesome Canon video camera once again, are a couple of scenes from this evening where Lolly is having a grand old time. Up on the kitchen bench. As you do. The first one is her speaking a language all her own, something that vaguely resembles English in places. And the other - regardless of if you believe me - is her pulling her usual "nobody's looking" theatrical antics. I often wonder what she'll be capable of one day with some more confidence and an audience.... Part of me daren't think about it.


Hors'naround from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.



And.... Scene from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.

But wait, there's more

The thought occurred to me that the final frames from my first vlog (in which I am chopped liver and my daughter steals all the scenes, as is her birth right... you know how it goes) were very similar to that of one of my all-time favourite lines of one of the funniest (I think) movies of all time.






Don'tcha think? The LGBB's forlorn wistful longing about wanting to be a cat was akin to the masterful Gene Hackman's desires to "make espress-ho" for his vanished friend. Ahhhh, my sides. How they hurt with wheezing at the similarities. But then.... you probably a) have to be her mother to appreciate the theatrical undertones of what you witnessed in that vlog, and b) have to be a huge fan from way back of Mel Brooks'/Gene Wilder's Young Frankenstein to fully get why it makes me laugh so hard.


So, anyway, I've been holding out on you. There was actually more to the video but I didn't want my first vlog to go on and on and on.... I save that especially for my posts, in writing. But there's, like, a whole further 20 seconds of the conversation. Wherein, the LGBB (that's the Lolly Gobble Bliss Bomb for all those newbies who have no clue what the acronym for our daughter stands for) tries to convince me to do her whiskers for her this time. And then does the silly four year-old dance that they all eventually break out into at one point or another. Every day. You know the one.

Far be it from me to offer up another tiny portion of 'umour.... Would you like me to splice something together over the weekend and get back to you with it?

Warning, warning! First Vlog attempt...

Well, after five years of blogging and never EVERRRRRR expecting I would be happy to do any sort of vlog.... today, I attempted my first one.

I had to. This Canon HV40 is just too darn cool not to play with.

All hail the people at Canon Australia for offering up this beauty to be snapped up by the winner of Kleenex Mum's Best Blog Post of 2010! Still can't believe I won *shaking head*

But, try as I might, the vlog I had planned actually didn't happen. Well... not how I expected it to anyway.

Are you ready? This is a monumental moment for me! For this blog. I've come a long way, baby. I could get used to this. It's a whole new level of ... whatever the opposite of my previous lock-down on privacy views is.

Okay. Quick unnecessary disclaimers: The windows are foul and dirty. The garden is so overgrown that our weeds are our plants. I didn't even brush my hair. There ain't no makeup (at least..... not on me). So I warn you. But this is it. This is the best of what I captured today.

I'll do better next time. Promises, promises........



Untitled from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.