Take that!

I get to stay at home while hubby goes to work. This deep down bothers him and therefore he frequently comments on it, mostly in a joking manner, but still it comes up a lot. It means i cannot complain about my day as i always get the comment of "Well you go to work then and i'll stay home!".
Well the other day i finally had enough so i called him on it. I said to him 'fine, you find me a job and i will go and work at it'. "But you can't work, you've got another baby on the way" was the reply. 'Exactly, but i'm sick of hearing about it. I love being at home with the girls, but there are times when i need a break or have a bad day and i don't get to whinge about it because you always comment that i should go to work and you'll stay home. I'm sick of it, so you find me a job and i'll go work at it.' He then mumbled a reply of "I guess you should stay home till the kids are at school". And i have not had another comment about it!

Boy or Girl?

I decided that with this pregnancy i wouldn't get into the 'is it a boy or girl' zone as it just does your head in. However it is really really hard not to speculate. This pregnancy is so different, you can't help but wonder why or hope. With the girls i had morning sickness for three months, this time i had all day sickness for only 9 weeks. The girls i felt very early. Charlotte at 12 weeks and Maggie at 9, this time it has taken a lot longer. I have only been feeling the baby for the last few days and i am 16 weeks today. I am breaking out with pimples this time and with the girls had no issues along those lines. I could go on, i'm really hoping it means something, but i know that every pregnancy can be different. My sister-in-laws second pregnancy was so different from her first that when her second was born she didn't believe them when they told her it was another girl. Also a lady i was talking to the other day had three girls and then a boy had thought that with her last it was another girl as her pregnancy was exactly the same as with her girls.
I had my midwife yesterday and we heard the heartbeat which was 160 bpm, which is quite high indicating a girl, but then my nephew had some high and some low heartbeats (Charlotte actually did too) and the same midwife initially thought he was going to be a girl.
I have my scan booked for June 18th, so am really looking forward to it and hopefully finding out what sex, but what's the bet baby says uh-uh Mum i'm gonna keep my legs crossed! Needless to say i will be gutted if i have to wait till bubs is born. (A little part of me though would love the excitement again of giving birth and then finding out what our precious bundle is - we didn't find out with Charlotte and it was lovely. We did find out with Maggie and it was kinda nice, but then there was no hype left for the rest of the pregnancy, but at the same time i'm not a terribly patient person and hate the suspence of waiting for a surprise.)

A Simply amazing cough cure

Maggie has had an ongoing night-time cough since her last cold about two months ago. It was just settling down and we have all come afoul of another cold, so she has really been suffering with a nasty cough again, that keeps her awake at night. My dear, lovely neighbour said the best cure, even though it seems odd, is to cut an onion in half and put either side of their pillow.
At three this morning with Maggie coughing and hacking and getting quite upset about it all, i decided to do just that. Within two minutes she had finished coughing and was sound asleep. Wow! Simple, cheap and very effective. Long live the onion!

Part two - Nasty Neighbour!

The story continues with GM parking his old (missing a window) unwarranted, unregistered caravan in the bottom of our cul-de-sac. It looks awful (especially for a couple of us trying to sell our homes), it hinders the neighbours at the bottom of the cul-de-sac from getting into their drive properly and it means people can't turn around properly. The bottom neighbour actually at one point pushed the caravan back onto GMs property only to then be confronted by him ranting and raving. the street is his property and he can do as he likes. He also parks his ute and trailer long ways down one of our passing bays (we did used to think they were parking bays, but after talking to the council it turns out not), so no one else can get in and it is right in front of our neighbours opposite who are trying to sell their house. We have been to the council a few times only to be told that they can't do anything. Yes, it's a passing bay and he shouldn't park their, but they only make the rules, they don't govern them (useless council), it is a legal matter so you will have to go to lawyers.
Of course as we are not children, we are not going to sit back and be bullyed, so the whole neighbourhood got together and have all put in for a lawyer. It turns out that while, yes GM does own the right of way, we have more rights than he thinks. As it is still a roadway, nobody (including GM) can park on the road way, hindering traffic etc. The lawyer wrote up a letter explaining this to him and giving him 7 days to remove his vehicles or after that we can do it for him forwarding on the costs to him (including our lawyer costs). The police were due to deliver this letter to him yesterday, so things could get interesting over the next week or so. Daryl and the neighbour are both in Chch tonight, so i have to say both myself and the female neighbour are a bit nervous, but if GM even steps onto my property i will be calling the police. I think surely he will be smart enough not to go making things worse for himself at this point, as long as he is not pshycotic!
Anyway just as a little extra he is building a fence along the bottom of our properties, which it now turns out it is going to be an old rusty corrugated iron fence. Yuk. We have paint brushes at the ready and are going to buy some trees to hide it, but it is sad that we have to go to that. He is putting the fence in about 10cm inside his boundary so we can have no say.
Needless to say there are some real w!@#ers in this world!

Part one - Neighbour from Hell!

Time to tell of our nasty neighbour. I don't know that it would be right to name him on here, so I will just use his initials of GM. He doesn't even actually live here, but owns a section in behind our houses and his drive (to be) runs down below past the bottom of our sections.
Okay so the story begins about six months ago when GM showed up for the first time and started to dig his driveway below our sections. Our neighbour in front wasn't happy as he was trying to sell our house. Our neighbour behind was concerned as when they had leveled off the bottom of their section they had had to dig out and refill and get permits etc, so we all rang the council just to find out what the deal was. Apparantly GM had not bothered to get any permits, so the council was up here quick smart to put a stop work on him. War begins. He blames us for losing him money (forget the fact that if he had have gone down the right channels and got a permit at the beginning there would have been no problem). Anyway over the last six months he has had a run in with every neighbour down our cul-de-sac and also the neighbours actually behind his section (approx 12 neighbours in total + a few real estate agents trying to sell houses in the area). He is a strange and scary man! At one point near the beginning he knocked on my door while Daryl was out and started ranting and raving which resulted in me laying a police complaint the next day (i'm sorry, but i am not taking his bullying lying down).
As it turns out the story gets even better. It turns out that when the council sold him the land part of it was also ownership of our right of way. He cannot stop us from getting to our properties, but other than that he thinks he can run our little street. As this is a long story i will keep that chapter for part two.

Maggie aged One

Happy Birthday Maggie Moo

We had Maggie's first birthday party this weekend. It was a lovely day. She enjoyed herself just as she enjoys every day, but for the rest of us it was something special to remember. Loads of family and friends together celebrating. Maggie was horrifically spoilt, but our favourite gift was the cow outfit hubbys sister made for her (it was a cow themed birthday, her nickname being Moo). So cute as you will see and the amazing thing was that she happily kept the hood on. She refuses to wear hats and even manages to pull off the ones that tie under the chin.

Daddy Daycare

On Sunday and Monday of this week i worked helping gear up for stocktake, so Daddy got left with both girls for the first time. I was really looking forward to the time out, but even more looking forward to hubby experiencing running after the two girls all day, as he thinks i sit on my butt all day and watch tv.
Sunday he took them out to his Mum on the farm, where they had a lovely time running around, feeding the chooks etc. He admitted to only forgetting about Maggie once, not too bad. He also managed to do a lot of washing, but two days later it was all still sitting there waiting for me to fold away. Still effort appreciated. However day one i arrived home and Daryl had to go to a street meeting (about a neighbour from Hell - a whole nother blog story i will get around to one day), so i was still left, after working all day, to feed Maggie, and prepare and cook tea. At this point he arrived home, but it was still left to me to bathe Maggie and prepare her for bed. He did put Charlotte to bed, 1/2 an hour early with no toothbrushing or story (admittedly she was falling asleep on the couch, but it's still a normal day thing that he didn't get to experience). I did at this point refuse to do the dishes, so these were still sitting on the bench when i got up in the morning, after having been the one to still get up to Maggie in the night (she has a cough.). He also stayed in bed for a mini sleep in while i fed the kids and got ready for work. At this point he also had to take Maggie for swimming lessons (a normal occurrence). My Mum went along to watch Charlotte. (Ooh just forgot to mention that when i arrived home on Sunday the kids were running around outside near naked while he mowed the lawn. I don't have a problem with naked kids except when it is pretty cold and Maggie has had a nasty cough at nights for over a month!)
I finished work early on Monday and arrived home just after lunch. Managed to give Daryl a fright who when i shut the garage door thought it was the sound of Maggie falling out of the high chair, that he hadn't strapped her into. I did still make him take Charlotte to and from kindy and cook tea that night, but i really don't think he got the full experience. I really need to plan a few days away by myself, so he is stuck with the girls completely for a whole few days without being able to fall back on me. Then he might finally get it!