After my last blog when i couldn't find my christmas spirit it has been found now and i am finally all ready to go.

We finished off the shopping for the kids and i have to say they are going to be spoilt as usual. The MIL came over on Sunday to sit with the kids while hubby and i went off shopping with no list and no idea what to get the kids. We managed to spend alot of money in 3 hours and left the shopping centre with a boot full of toys. Hubby decided that he wanted a new pair of shoes for christmas so he went and bought them and i am just going to get him a few tee shirts from the kids. I think i may be getting a watch from hubby because it was something i wanted for my birthday but he found me something else so i'm hoping it's a watch.

Our family christmas party went without a hitch and all the kids had a great time. They all got lots of presents and enjoyed spending the day running around outside. Amy and i nearly had to miss it because the night before at about 11pm Amy woke up and started vomiting, she ended up vomiting till about 12:30am but then slept through the rest of the night. So i called my mums house where the party was and spoke to my sister and told her what was going on and between us we decided to bring Amy as she hadn't vomited since 12:30am and the party didn't start till midday and she didn't have the runs so it was pretty safe to say it was the fact that she ate dinner pretty late on the friday night then went to bed with a pretty full tummy and it just didn't sit well with her. She was fine for the rest of the day if not a little tired like her mummy. That night after the party we had to go to Josh and Amy's childcare christmas concert which was being held at an indoor play centre. Amy fell asleep in the car between parties and by the time we got there she just didn't want to be there so she spent the whole night clinging to my leg as hubby had cricket that day and was meeting us there later. By the time it came to performing the concert Josh decided that he didn't want to sing and climbed to the highest climbing frame and sat there with a grumpy look on his face. I had to leave Amy screaming with one of the carers while i climbed up this climbing frame and tried to convince Josh to join in. I managed to get him down and i wish i had my camera with me so i could take a photo of him standing there trying his hardest NOT to sing, he just couldn't help himself. The poor thing wasn't himself as he had had an allergic reaction to some food earlier in the day so he wasn't feeling the most comfortable as he was very itchy.

Amy is sick again at the moment. We have had such a bed year with Amy's health this year. I didn't realise until i had her at the doctors on Friday and Saturday that she has had 6 ear and throat infections this year. We are on antibiotics again and hopefully it will clear up again. Her doctor now wants to keep an eye on her next year and if she gets another ear infection in the next few months then he wants to look at putting gromits in. This one seems to have knocked her around a little and even after being on anitbiotic since Saturday she doesn't seem to be much better. She can hardly talk and you can't even hear her cry. Poor baby.

Josh has caught a little cold at the moment as well so he is a little quiet. I just have to constantly remind him that we do have tissues so he doesn't need to use his finger. (sorry TMI)

I hope everyone stays safe over the Christmas holidays and has a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Much love to all

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

has anyone seen it.

I really don't feel like Christmas is just around the corner. I say to myself every year that i will be ready for Christmas but just look at this. The tree needs to go up in 5 days and i have no idea where i stashed it last year. I have only purchased 1 present for Josh and nothing so far for Amy. I have got no idea what to get for Hubby. I have no idea what i want, heck i only had my birthday last week and got everything i wanted or needed then. I was hoping to get away with not getting anything but Josh is asking me what i am asking santa for.

Don't get me wrong i LOVE christmas but i just can't get into Christmas mode at the moment. We have our family Christmas party next weekend which to some people might not sound like it could be too much of a stress but i have 5 other brothers and sisters who all have partners and at least 2-3 kids each. Then add in 2 parents and a grandma and an aunty and uncle and you have a very full house. Up until last week everything was going well until we realised that no one had organised a present for my parents so i have taken on that role and so i have spent the last few days frantically trying to get money off everyone to go shopping for presents, that hasn't been too easy since we are all spread around Victoria. I think i'll be ok by next Sunday when it is all over and i can concentrate on just getting presents for our kids.

I will find my christmas spirit but right now it is just lost.

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxox

I thought i would update you all on the kids because it seems they are growing up WAY to quickly at the moment.

Amy turned 2 less than a month ago and i can safely say Welcome to the terrible 2's. It's like there was a switch over night. She went from this beautiful little lady to the devils sporn over night. The tantrums she throws are almost funny to watch if they didn't happen so often. If she cracks when i say no to something she starts throwing her toys. Of couse she looks through the toybox first to find the heavist object then lets loose and tosses the thing. I can tell you she has an arm on her. If that doesn't relieve the frustration she then tries to pull her hair tie out to throw at me. Scary stuff.

Both the kids have decided that the day isn't complete unless they have fought over atleast 10 toys through out the day but other times they will sit there so beautifully that it makes me wonder why they were fighting in the first place. Amy's sleeping is a little crazy at the moment and she has taken to waking up at 1am every morning for a cry. I will go in there to give her one of the many dummies that are placed around her cot and she never wants it then she cries harder because i have walked out of the room. This usually goes on for atleast 1/2 an hour most nights. I am really hoping she gets out of this habit soon because after 4 years we have finally got Josh to sleep through the night and now Amy wakes up.

Josh is being a little so and so at the moment too. He has decided his favourite saying at the moment is no, i don't want to. I could be asking him anything from packing up toys to eating his lunch and all he comes back with is no i don't want to. It's very frustrating because when hubby gets home from work he will ask Josh once to pack up toys and he will do it straight away. Josh has this little friend at childcare who has older brothers and Josh just thinks the sun shines out of this childs behind but from what i am seeing and hearing this child is nothing but a bully and is getting Josh to do his dirty work for him so he doesn't get into trouble with the carers but Josh will. Josh came up to me on Tuesday morning before we went to childcare and he told me that he had to take one of his matchbox cars to childcare because this boy wants to take it home. The car Josh was going to give him was a expensive matchbox car that lights up and was a present for Josh from santa for giving up his dummies and bottles last year. I asked him why he had to give it to this boy and Josh came back with "mummy, N (the boy) told me i have to let him keep one of my cars because he let me use his car on thursday" so i said to Josh "did N let you keep his car?" Josh said "no, but he told me i had to give him this one" Josh has taken this car to childcare once for show and tell and i guess this kid liked it so much he wanted to keep it. Needless to say i didn't let Josh take the car to childcare and i did speak to his carer about what happened that morning. Luckly for me this carer knows what this boy is like and what sort of child Josh is so she sees right through what is going on. I'm not saying Josh is perfect but i willsay my son is not a bully. Oh well, Josh is only there for a few more weeks then he is off to Kinder and i know for a fact that this boy is staying in the centre so i don't need to worry about that.

Other than all of that Josh and I have been working very well on his math skills this week. We are learning addition and subtraction at the moment. Josh has been able to count unassisted to 30 for about a year now so we are also learning from 30 to 50. It is all going very well and he is really starting to understand adding numbers under 10. This is something i am not forcing him to do but it is something that he came to me about one day. I'm just hoping the way i am teaching him is ok and it's not going to confuse him once he gets to school. He is a smart little cookie so i am hoping i am just giving him a head start. He is also starting to notice words now. He can pick his name out of a whole group of words and he can pick small words like THE, WAY, SEE, THIS etc also big words like MC DONALDS, DISNEY, SUBWAY (i think he watches too much TV lol) He just loves learning. He will ask me all sorts of questions that have me heading to google most of the time. He is not interested in learing how to write but i'm not pushing that, after all he only turned 4 in September. He loves letters too and does know the alphabet and can pick any random letter and tell you a word that starts with that letter. He even has a word for X and it's not X ray.

Anyway i better finish here because i think you would all be sick of me bragging about my boy now.

Hope everyone is well and i hope Janice is resting up and getting ready to join minti again.

Love Juzzy xxoxoxox

Hi all,

The kids are in childcare today and i have finished my cleaning so i thought it was time for another blog even though i still have other stuff that i am ment to be doing.

I got all Josh's enrolement forms for Kinder next year and they have been screaming out for me to fill them out for a few days now so i need to tackle that but it just seems like a huge task. I don't think the allergy form is big enough for me to write everything in so i might just have to write smaller. Then for every allergy he has it brings another 10 questions with it so i think i am going to have to tackle that one another day.

I still need to update the kids books as well. When i found out i was pregnant with Josh i decided to start a diary like i was writing to the baby and when i had him i continued it with everything that happened month to month and if something big happened then i would also write that. So when i found out i was pregnant with Amy i did the same thing but the problem is i haven't really touched them for a few months so i have lots to do today on them.

Amy turned 2 last week and we had the MIL and hubby's brother come over for dinner. As usual Amy got completely spoilt by the MIL and when it came time for her Uncle to hand his present over he made a big deal about how he went and chose this present all by himself (after all he is 35 years old and he should do something for himself) and he thought it was a really good choice and she would love it. So i helped Amy open it and it turned out to be the present that my MIL brought on the weekend before Amy's birthday when i was shopping with her. So i said to the BIL that he didn't buy the present because i was there when his mum purchased it. He came back with the excuse that he chose it out of the catelogue and told his mum to buy that. He is a complete liar because we actually went to buy something completely different but when we got there we realised that it wasn't worth the money they were asking so we got the other thing instead. I am so over his lies, he is 35 years old and it's about time he started acting like it.

Josh lost his voice yesterday which was great for me but very frustrating for him. We are not even sure what was wrong because he said his throat didn't hurt or his chest but he had this horrible dry cough that almost sounded like he was putting on but i knew he wasn't. He woke up completely fine today so i sent him to childcare.

Last time i blogged i said that i had to take Amy to the doctors for a suspected ear infection and to get her asthma checked out. Well she had a double ear infection so she was on antibiotics for that then i spoke to the doctor about the asthma and he checked her over and said that her lungs sound good at the moment. So no ventolin for now but just to keep an eye on it. We also talked about the fact that when Amy cuts a tooth she always ends up with really high temperatures (i'm talking over 40 degrees) and usually vomits. I happened to tell him about the last tooth she cut when i was staying with my sister and i got her up and she was shaking and vomiting. He top lip was quite blue and i thought it was her asthma but now the doctor seems to think that she may have had a febrel convoulsion (sp?) that we didn't see. So now when she cuts the next tooth we have to take her straight to the hospital if her temperature gets above 39 degrees. Very scary but i'm glad i only live about 3 minutes away from a good hospital.

Anyway that's it from me, i must go and send some compliments to a certin member that keeps sending them to me and i don't seem to be returning the favour. (i'm a bad friend :-P)

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

After taking a little break i did return to minti a few days ago. It felt really good to be away and just sort myself out. That little black cloud that sometimes visit my brain decided to visit and mess with me for a while but it's gone now and i'm back and all refreshed.

While away i did realise how much minti does mean to me and all the lovely people i have met through this site really do mean alot to me. So as i sit here on my couch with my laptop warming my knees i sit here proudly and admit "My name is Juzzy and i'm addicted to Minti (and chocolate).

Thank you to all the lovely members that left messages in my last blog. I have finally realised i do belong here. I am planning on being more active from now on.

In other happenings we had a complete break through when it comes to my young man. As some of you know, we have been battling with Josh to do a poo in the toilet for the last year. After trying EVERYTHING and i mean EVERYTHING i finally spoke to his doctor and she simply told me that it wasn't a medical issue and to just ignore it for 3 months and try again. So we ignored it and just put a nappy on him everytime he needed to go. We would ask him if he wanted to try the toilet before we would put the nappy on but he would always say no so we didn't push the issue. Then last week he was in a really good mood and he asked for a nappy and i said to him did he want to try the toilet, he said no first and i said that if i came with him to the toilet and he could show mummy that he was trying and he still couldn't do it then i would give him a nappy. So off to the toilet we went and suprise, suprise he did it. He was so happy with himself that we called Daddy, then 2 of his aunties then grandma to tell them all. He even got a happy meal for dinner that night to show him how proud i was (this is a child that rarely gets takeaway). We had a few hiccups over the next few days as he thought he only had to do it once in the toilet and then he would go back to nappies. But mummy being so strong he now takes himself off to the toilet and calls me when he is done. He has a present coming to him tomorrow as it has been a week since he started and there was promise of a present after a week.

My baby girl turns 2 on Thursday. The last 2 years have flown by and i'm a little bit sad that she is growing up so quickly. We are actually celebrating her birthday tomorrow as Thursdays are very busy in this house and it is usually her childcare day and i would rather her be in childcare where she could play with all the kids than just being at hime with Josh and i doing the same thing that she does on a normal day. Plus daddy doesn't usually get to see the kids on a Thursday as he is at work all day then straight to cricket training after work and doesn't usually get home till after the kids are asleep. Some people don't agree with us doing it like that because they think hubby should just miss cricket but this is a man that has been playing cricket since he was about 8 years old so i would never stop him. I even sent him to cricket the day after i got home from Hospital with Amy (i did send Josh to the MIL's for the day so i got to rest anyway) 

Anyway i must finish here, Amy has a doctors appointment this afternoon for a suspected ear infection and a check up of her Asthma as we have had some breathing issues the last few days. So i must wake her and give her some lunch.

Once again it is good to be back

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxoxox

Hi All,

I have decided to take a break from Minti for a while. I am not going to delete my account or anything like that but i feel i need to get away from here for a while.

I don't want to bag out minti at all as it has been a very helpful site to me but at the moment it just doesn't feel right. I can't even pin point what it is but i don't feel part of the 'minti community' at the moment.

I am so blessed to have ever come across this site and there are some very loving members on here who i will miss but for others i will catch you on facebook.

I will still check in from time to time but for now it is goodbye.

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Hi all,

We came home from Merimbula on Friday afternoon and let me tell you i was not happy to be home. We had such a lovely time, 1 whole week of not doing a hell of alot. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a ball. Josh usually gets car sick but we have had him on new motion sickness tablets and they are working a treat. It is a 6 hour drive from home so we were expecting to take at least 8 hours if we included stops in that, it took us 6.5 hours to get there because we had a good run and only stopped briefly for lunch and let the kids run around. Josh and Amy sat very quietly in the car with the aid of an in car DVD player and 5 new DVD's that their Nanny kindly gave them before we left.

We got there and unpacked, we stayed at the same place last year but this time we stayed in a different beach house because we needed more room for Amy to sleep in a bed and not a cot. Once we were unpacked the kids wanted to go in the pool so off we went to the pool and played for hours. Personally i thought the water was a little cold but the kids had a ball. From the pool we had to then get changed so the kids could go on the jumping pillow another hour on that and all mummy wanted was a coffee and a rest but the kids had other ideas so i snuck back to the house and left daddy to deal with 2 very happy young children.

Our house was right on short point beach which is a very popular whale watching point in Merimbula so i was constantly sitting there looking at any little ripple in the water (the surf was very flat) to see if i could see any tails coming up. I only had to wait till the Saturday before we got a show. 1 hours of sitting there watching about 4 whales playing. I had my camera and i thought that i was videoing it until it was all over and we went back to the house and i realised that i didn't get anything but 2 photos of it all so i was a little dissapointed. Over the rest of the time we saw atleast 1 whale a day so i was happy. We also saw a pod of dolphins the day we were going home.

We went to Eden and got some fresh fish to cook on the BBQ and it was beautiful and fresh, even Josh had a taste which suprised me. We also visited Bega and went to the cheese factory. (yum, yum) We thought we would take the kids to play some mini golf as hubby is a golf nut and we couldn't fit the club in the car so he had to settle for some mini golf. Hubby and I had a ball and the kids just enjoyed themselves just walking around doing what they liked. We had a little issue trying to get the golf ball off Amy when we had finished so the lady in charge just let her take it.

We packed up and came home on Friday, the trip home was a little harder as Amy just wasn't in the mood to sit in the car so i had to climb into the back and sit with the kids. I tell you, if i have to sit and watch Dora one more time i think i will scream. I jumped into the drivers seat when we stopped for lunch and the kids seemed settled after that. It took a little longer to get home because we had a little bit more traffic on the way home.

The day after we got home it was Josh's 4th birthday. He had been so excited about his birthday that he went to bed very early on Friday and i managed to wrap his presents and hid them in the lounge for him to find in the morning. He was more excited about the fact that he had a badge on his card that he could wear. He loved his presents so much he told me there was no reason to turn the telly on and he would just play. We headed to my mum's place to have a little party for him as i couldn't organise a party having just come back from holidays. He just had 2 of his cousin and we had some party pies, sausage rolls and some chips but the chips never made it onto the table as the kids didn't seem to want them. Then the mudcake came out. I will usually make him a cake but having no time i thought i would just purchase one and stick some lollies onto it. 1/2 an hour after eating the cake Josh came out in hives so i was a little angry at myself that i didn't make him one and i just made him uncomfortable on his birthday. This whole allergy thing is really hard....

He had another appointment with the allergist just before we left for the holiday and he was in the thinking that Josh was actually allergic to a few more things other than the eggs and nuts. After the allergist looked at his test results closer he decided that Josh was allergic to eggs, nuts, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, artifical colours and preservatives. So the poor thing can't eat anything at the moment. We are hoping that within the next few years he may grow out of a few of them but until then we are eating only natural foods. It is just really hard to give him foods he can have and i feel horrible when he gets hives because it is because i didn't read the packaging properly. I will get passed the guilty feelings soon.

Better finish here and get some housework done while Amy is sleeping.

Love to you all.

Juzzy xoxoxoxoxo

Till we go on holidays!!!!!!! Yay, We are heading back to Merimbula. We went last year and had so much fun so we decided to go back to the same place this year. We are hoping to go to the same place every year for our family holiday and start a new tradition.

The kids are very excited and Josh has been counting down for the last few months. We went to Echuca last weekend which was a 3 hour drive from home and Josh coped very well with the help of an in car DVD player and he didn't get car sick at all. Amy who hates the car also was very quite for almost the whole 3 hours which made mummy and daddy very happy. We have got a funfill packed week ahead of us with lots of time put aside for some poolside fun. Hopefully we can keeps the kids entertained for the 6 hours drive to get there.

In other news.....

We have been seeing a allergist for Josh for the last few months to try and work out why he keeps coming out in hives. After the allergy testing was done a few weeks back we found out he was allergic to eggs and nuts so we went back today to speak to the allergy specialist about it all and we have found out that yes he is allergic to egg and nuts but he is also allergic to tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, artifical colours and preservatives. I found it hard enough with the egg but add everything else in there and the poor kid is going to live on air and water. I think the thing i am going to find the hardest is getting him to eat without putting tomato sauce on everything. We will work it out without too much hassle because we haven't really been feeding him artifical colours and preservatives for the last year because it would send him nuts anyway but as i found out today it was actually because of the allergy. His specialist is pretty confident that he will grow out of the egg and nut allergies as they were not too sever. But for the next year at least we must carry his medication around everywhere we go.

Amy is going very well at the moment and she has found her voice in the last few months. She actually puts sentences together which makes life very easy for me, at least i know what she wants. She loves me singing to her which i don't understand why because i have no singing voice but she will come up and say "mummy juke box" which means i need to start singing anything and everything. This game can go on for hours if i didn't get up and do something.

Anyway i must finish here and go and pack these bags that have been sitting on the table for 2 days.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxoxoxo

My boy is growing up and i'm not sure how i feel about it. We got a letter in the mail the other day about him being accepted into 4 year old kinder next year. After Kinder comes school, i know he is more than ready it's just that mummy is not. I have also decided after many months of thinking about it that i am going to finally bite the bullet and study to become a nurse. I will probably looking at starting in June next year so that i can settle Josh into kinder first. Nursing has been something that i have wanted to do for many years but never thought i would be good enough to be able to study for. I really want to eventually get into midwifery but that will be a few years down the track, first i want to do the RN course and work in aged care then eventually study the midwifery course. Exciting times ahead. 

I finally nearly have my hearing back. Yes that's right, after 2 courses of very strong antibiotics my ear is finally feeling almost normal again. After i finished the first lot i had to go back to the doctors so he could check how the infection was going and he decided that the second course was needed and possibly a hearing test after that. Well halfway through the second course my ear started weeping which was so gross i will not go into detail with that, the hearing test is now not needed for at least 6 months but there is some hearing loss but it will take a few months for the ear drum to settle down properly to find out how much. .  The virus has also gone now too so i am just working on getting fully well again and to stop feeling so tired.

The kids have been so good lately apart from Josh and a few tantrums when he isn't getting his own way but we are working on some things that are working really well in combatting this behaviour. He is going through a stage at the moment where he asks for something and if i say he can have it the next thing he will say is Amy can't have that, only i can. We are not sure how to over come this but we are working on treating them completely equal.  Amy on the other hand is a complete dream at the moment. I love watching he learn new things which seem to be happening daily. She completely shocked me the other day when i was changing her nappy. She was lying on the floor and we were counting, i say 1 she says 2 and so on. Usually we get to 3 and thats it but after i said 3 she said 4 so this went on till we got to 10 then she clapped and said yay. I can't believe that at 21 months she can count with me. Josh was 2 before he said his first word and now i can almost have a conversation with Amy. She is much happier now that she can tell me what the problem is rather than just crying.

I am looking forward to tomorrow night when i finally get to go to the Pink concert. After getting tickets for my birthday last november i have had to wait till July to finally see her, i am very excited.

Anyway that is life in a nice square box. Hope everyone else is well.

Love Juzzy xoxoxoxoxox

I wrote an article which i used the word knife (bad me, it's not like i was going to use it) and now it's been sin binned please get in and vote on it so it comes out quickly.

Thanks,

Juzzy xoxoxoxoxoxoxo