Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Smelly Daddy

Things are finally getting back on an even keel in our house since Map Man handed in his grad cert thesis about a month ago. I still don't have much time to blog as I am now in the process of a bit of a career change which requires a fair bit of study and mental space. I have moved into the client world at work and after achieving my Google Analytics certification I am now the Conversion Optimiser and am studying Inbound Marketing and conversion rate optimisation. But enough of that. It doesn't take anywhere near as much time as Map Man's thesis did.

We were a bit worried about it actually. It was quite long. I mean really long. I think only the bible is longer. But on Sunday night we got the fantastic news that Map Man had been awarded a distinction. Clearly my domestic duties, proof-reading and suggested edits played a large part in this but I'd be lying if I didn't say that Map Man's passion, dedication and hard work didn't contribute in some way. Suffice to say I am currently very proud to be Mrs Map.

Last night we went out with the family to celebrate. As I was getting the kids ready to go I gave them a card to draw on. Miss Chief asked me what it was for.

"It's to congratulate Daddy. Remember how he was working really hard all the time in the garage? [That's where he set up his study so he could lock the door and get away from the kids. Cost us a bloody fortune to heat that place in winter, I can tell you.] Well he did really well and got a distinction."

Miss Chief paused and considered this. Then, "Does he stink?"

"What? Why? Oh no! You funny thing," I laughed.

Clearly confused by my response she then asked, "what's a stinktion?"

Out of the mouths of babes.

Rather that than the nonsense that's coming out of Happy One's mouth these days. I think he might have to be renamed Shouty One or Happy When It Suits Him. Jeez that kid could have his choice of representing Australia or England in the Under 18s (months) Tantrum Championships.

Anyway, he's been really ill. It was awful; croup, coughing, sniffling, temperature, no appetite. Went for about a week and he lost loads of weight. He's been on the mend for about 10 days or so now but he's still waking in the night. And often I feed him to get him back to sleep. Well, my back has been sore - another story - and the other night I took some very strong painkillers that I'd never taken before and knew nothing about but just needed to take something so I could sleep. About 50 minutes after I finally fell asleep he woke up and, after a bit of whinging, started screaming. I refused to feed him and made Map Man deal with it like he did when Miss Chief was young. Thing is she was about 10 months old when I stopped feeding her in the night. Happy Shouty One is almost 16 months and not entirely thrilled about the situation. That night he screamed for about an hour and Miss Chief ended up on the floor of the spare room - the kids share a room now. The next night he woke twice and screamed for almost half an hour each time. We're all unbelievably exhausted. Tonight he enthusiastically nodded when I asked if he was going to stay quiet until 6am. We'll see how that goes then.