Cyd in front of her school.

To Spoil or not to Spoil.....

http://www.themoviespoiler.com/

I came across this site for the first time when we were living in China and enjoying their dodgy DVDs--DVDs that would sometimes skip crucial scenes, become unwatchable halfway through or, god forbid, perform a "disc error" five minutes before the credits began to roll. I still find it useful for getting movie synopsis' or getting the gist of those "oscar material" movies I never get around to watching. Needless to say, if I'm planning on watching the movie, I don't read the spoiler, 'cause that would just, well, spoil it.

It's the control-freak in me coming out, but I hate loose ends, I have to know what's going to happen. I actually quite enjoy suspense in a movie or a book, but I have a time limit on it. I can't stand having to put the book down or having to wait another week or two to resolve that cliffhanger. I know Sol hates this about me. As an avid "24" fan, he treats the show like a spectator sport with much fist pumping and shouting directions and expletives at the TV screen. He's usually thoroughly pissed off by the end of the show, and yet, he keeps coming back for more. Me, I just can't take it, it's gotta be hazardous to health and well-being, but of course, Sol wants me to watch it with him.

My solution is to look up the episode guide. I don't read everything, because like I said, that would truly spoil it, but at least knowing who survives and who doesn't helps me relax between episodes and I don't suffer from post traumatic stress along with the characters on the show.

Cyd horsing around with Dylan, her kindy classmate who came over for a playdate. .......Cyd looks kinda scary......don't know if he'll be back.

I cracked up when I came into the room and found Ryan like this. He woke up and was trying to climb out of his bed when tiredness got the better of him and he passed out in the act.

Mum's the word

It's official, Cyd's beginning the transition to being an Aussie. She spontaneously called me "mum" today for the first time. Usually she addresses me as "moooooooom", with fully Americanized intonation. When Cyd was in the hospital the nurses all thought that her accent was the cutest thing, they would keep coming by and make her say different words. It's wierd being so obviously a foreigner in a country that speaks the same language you do. I've come to the conclusion that an Aussie accent is the most difficult accent to imitate. I watched an episode of Alias the other day and I think that one of the characters was trying for a Aussie accent, that or South African, couldn't tell, it was that bad. British accents are easy and there are heaps of Aussie actors who can do an excellent American or British accent, but how many the other way around?

Sol and Cyd, launching off for a kayak ride. Cyd fussed about getting her clothes wet, but she enjoyed it anyway.

Ryan and Daddy at the river, stuffing faces with potato chips.

Ryan can stand up now on his own, but won't take steps yet. I suppose it's more efficient to crawl. Cyd's dressed up as Snow White.

With the neighbour's cat. The cat is amazingly long-suffering and Ryan just loves him.

Poop Soup

My little girl is becoming such a little Aussie, it's almost sad. We haven't had much Asian food since being here, so the other day I bought some wakame miso soup at a new Asian food store that just opened up. They have the real stuff there, none of this "pretend" Japanese food. So I'm raving to Cyd about how yummy this soup is going to be and she was getting excited about tasting it, but seeing the miso paste she predictably says, "mommy, it looks like poop." I reassured her that it would taste very good once it was finished. So I happily sit down and serve Cyd her bowl. She takes one spoonful and very quietly says something that sounded suspiciously like "this tastes like shit". I was horrified and asked her what she said and she replied, "but mommy, it just doesn't taste so good" and refused to take another bite. Oh well, more for me.

I finally got a new card reader for our camera, so we're back on line with the photos. Here's one of Ryan doing his "Peko Peko-chan" face.

My two little treasures.

What it really means....

You know that famous song "Masturbation" in the movie "Hair"? I was looking up what pederasty means (and almost regretted it, it's quite disgusting) and then on impulse I looked up the definition for sodomy, and here it is:

sod·om·y (sd-m)n.
Anal copulation of one male with another.
Anal or oral copulation with a member of the opposite sex.
Copulation with an animal.
sodom·ite (-mt) n. sodom·ize (-mz) v.
Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary

Ha ha! Bet you didn't know you were a sodomite!

The exploits of Ryan

Pulling all the toilet paper off the toilet roll.......at least 5 times in the past few days.
Chasing the dirt when I am sweeping the floor......and when he reaches it, promptly stuffing a fistful into his mouth.
Doing a propeller impersonation during mealtimes......resulting in me being covered with a fine mist of mashed banana.
Refusing to sit down in his stroller......he thinks a stroller is like a skateboard--meant to be ridden standing up.
Getting tangled in the the vertical blinds.
Crawling behind the computer or TV and revelling in the wires......he's already put my camera cable to death by sucking.
Stalking and pouncing on the local wildlife.....so far I've fished a snail out of his mouth and saved a cricket from a similar fate just in the nick of time.

Ahh....just needed to vent a little. I know, I know, these are all normal happenings in raising a little boy, but since Cyd didn't do any of them, it's all new territory for me and oh so exhausting! When Sol comes home he asks me what naughty things Ryan did that day, with this look of pride on his face, and when I tell him he just laughs and thinks it's cute. Of course, he's not the one who has to chase him around and clean up after him all day.

Thumb Update

We just got back from taking Cyd to the hospital for a check-up on her thumb. Despite a little infection scare just over a week ago, it's healing well and she should be able to go without bandages in a couple of weeks to a month from now. Thank you all for your concern, thoughts and prayers.

Sol and company in Queensland.

All by myself.....don't wanna be.......

I haven't posted anything for the past 2 weeks for several reasons; one, Ryan chewed up the camera cable so I can't get anything off the camera and I feel kinda naked babbling away without having any pics of the kids to balance things out. Second, I had my first week all alone. Sol went off on a business trip/vacation to the Gold Coast for five days and to pass the time I made the mistake of watching a very sad movie (Cold Mountain) and then reading a depressing book (Angels and Demons), so that kind of bummed me out. Especially since I didn't have Sol and his easy going self around to help cheer me up.
But yeah, Sol's home and it's all good. He's going on another trip next week for another 4 days, but at least he'll be home for the weekend. After this, no more trips for the rest of the year......so Sol says. Everyone kept calling and popping up on chat asking me "are you okay?". So I put on a brave face, and for the most part I was fine, it actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it was so good to have him home again.