2011 March | absoluteleigh

Mar 10

Lazy parenting 101

Since I started working a fulltime 9-5 job, the manpet has become the house bitch (he loves it when I call him that) Doing the school run and a lot of the afternoon running around to swimming, muay thai, netball and such.

But he has been left short handed at work, and with printing for the NSW election ballot papers coming up this week, he has needed to do lots of extra hours. Most days he is starting at 4am!!!1 to fit the hours in, so we still have time for afternoon activities. But there was just a day or 2 a week we couldn’t cover.

With some juggling, I am able to start and finish an hour earlier. But that still leaves them just under an hour, parentless. Cats make useless babysitters, and Dogs..my god those things are naughty.

So, we turn to THE parenting device of the 21st century, computers and the interwebs!

Ahh, where would we be without Skype? There are many Instant messenger services around, But Skype seems to be the must have service these days. Have never really got into Skype until I started using it for work. We use it for anything from chatting with interstate developers, chatting with the boss when he is out of the office, but the most common use in chatting with my desk buddy who is not even 1m away.

A new use I have discovered this week, parenting via Skype!

Now, my kids aren’t little, oldest is 12, youngest is 8. I know some will think, woah, that is too young..I can live with that. Wasn’t a decision made lightly. But the boy is responsible..mostly…and he is easily bribed. My Mum is 2mins up the road, and the good friends/neighbours over the back fence are home at this time.

We have tried it out for a few days, and it seems to work quite well. I can watch and help them do their home work…give out the afternoon chores list…and get to talk to the puppies (cats aren’t interested in skype)

Now if only I could send them food via Skype and I may never need to come home! I am joking of course…mostly.

Filed Under: Family

Mar 04

General

Teeth

Teeth, the bane of my existence, I’ve been embarrassed and self conscience about for them about 10yrs now. They are debilitating, they make me miserable every.single.day

It’s one of those taboo topics that I will never discuss the full details of with anyone other than the manpet..not even my mum.

I think I am a shallow person? I try not to be. I assume people judge me based on appearances, that the first thing people notice are my eww teeth. I feel like a hillbilly…or a junkie, but then I guess neither of those are fat

I don’t smilie, and cover my mouth when I laugh, and sometimes when I talk.

Never really had bad teeth when I was younger, had a few fillings but that was about it. I think the large amounts prednisone and asthma medication as a kid are probably the biggest contributing factor.

I can remember the day vividly when it all went to shit. I was 6mths pregnant with Hayden, eating an egg sandwich (my gawd, I think I ate an egg sandwich nearly every day I was pregnant with him) And a filling fell out. It wasn’t painful at all, and I did mean to get it fixed. But first baby, we were moving house, Jake was changing jobs…and I am a habitual putter offerer of things, especially not nice things. I also have a huge, shaking, panic attack inducing phobia of dentists.

You name it, and I have had it. Filling after filling after filling, root canal, teeth taken out in the chair, teeth taken out under GA. Despite many crying and pleading attempts for many a string of dentists to just pull all the bastards out, they all refuse. I guess my super persuasive ways only work on Jake.

Next Friday I have a 4hr date with my new, totes awesome dentist and some IV sedation. This will probably be my biggest bunch of work to date. I would like to think this is going to be my amazing smile make over that I have always dreamed of. But, at best it will get rid of this toothache that I have had for 2mths now, and patch me up a little for a few more years. But I am still going to hate them.

Maybe one day I will win lotto and go on that teeth holiday to Thailand

[retweet]

Filed Under: General

Mar 04

Nomnom

Anatomy of a Cupcake

Anatomy of a Cupcake chart. Original here, you can buy prints, and there is a cool making of video.

via Ilovecharts

Filed Under: Nomnom

Mar 02

Eric, Kitteh, Sookie

Doing it Doggy Style

So it has been over 2 months now since Eric joined the family. He is fitting in really well, everyone loves him, including Sookie. My long awaited Frenchie is living up to the expectation, apart from a few small issues.

Being teenagers, and Sookie being the typical stubborn bulldog and OK, maybe she is a little spoilt. We had been having a few small issues with them and had been thinking about getting some training.

Taking his vampire name a little too far, Eric had started biting the side of Sookie’s face.

Yes, I know..it’s terrible to blame the girl, they never ask for the violence bla bla. But honestly, in this case..she has definitely been asking for it! So, after a few days of it just getting worse.. I went in search of a trainier to come help.

Have you watched The Dog Whisper? I think we have seen just about every episode..3-4 times. Gotta love Caesar Millan. It is amazing what he can do with dogs, and yes I know it is a TV show and well edited..but still.

So we had a bit of an idea of what was going on, but really hand no clue how to fix it. And other than using the pssst noise, and poking the kids in the neck when they are naughty we had never tried it on the dogs.

Sookie and Eric

Came across Doggy Style, and despite the name , I was impressed by the well designed site..I am a sucker for a pretty website. Also did some digging into their facebook page and read some great things, so made a booking.

Nate spent over 3hrs with us, working on lots of different issues we had with the puppies. He was super lovely and patient, explaining everything. I could not believe how easy he made it look. But slowly with practise we are getting better at implementing the technics he showed us.

It has made a huge difference! They still play fight a lot..but the biting has stopped. As has the peeing on stuff, humping everything, pulling like a steam train on walks and the list could go on.

We still have some issues with Eric at the dog park, I am certain he thinks he is a huge Rottweiler in a tiny body. As we got him a little older than Sookie and he wasn’t as socialised early on, hopefully it is just going to take a little longer. I think the main issue tho is..we are just doing it wrong, maybe we need more training LOL.

Thanks Nate for helping whip our naughty puppies into line!

Dog trainer sydney