Conversations with Minty and Turi...

Me: stop putting your hand in your mouth. It's filthy!

Turi [pointing to his stomach]: well its ok.  Now i can just have a muddy puddle in here.

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Turi: I want an animal party where they bring around snakes and turtles and things and you get to hold them.

Me: oh a reptile party.  I don't really want to have to pay for a reptile party.  How about a bug party and we could have worms and a stick insect and other bugs you could touch?

Turi: no I HATE bugs.

Me: ok another type of party then.  What about a dinosaur party?

Turi [excitedly]: Yeah!!  They could bring a T-rex for me to touch!!

Me [suppressing laughter][: Darling there aren't any live dinosaurs anymore, they're extinct.

Turi [disappointed]: awwww!!

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whilst collecting the eggs… 

Minty [excitedly holding an egg aloft]: one egg!!

Me: The shell is a bit wrinkly.  I think we need to give the chickens some more shell grit.

Minty [admonishing]: don't say shell grit!

Me [surprised]: why can't I say shell grit?

Minty [in an overly dramatised whisper while pointing to the egg]: because this is the shell grit

(Just a quick explanation for those of you for whom this conversation made no sense.  Chickens need to be given shell grit to help their egg shells develop properly.  This can be given in the form of crushed up egg shells but you have to be careful to make sure the pieces are very small so they don't start recognising their own eggs as food!)

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

While watching 'Hello Dolly'...

Me: Gee he's a very tall man!

Minty: why is he so tall?

Turi: I think he eats all his dinner

Minty: I think he's just six footed

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While telling Minty I'd bought us tickets to the ballet...

Minty: I want the whole family to come!

Me: I couldn't afford tickets for everyone, so I just bought two

Minty [crossly]: Well I want dad to take me and you can stay home and look after Turi because that's your job!

Me: But dad doesn't even like ballet!

Minty: he likes belly dancers…

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Formulating his epic birthday list...

Turi: For my next birthday I want a wendy house and a Fireman Sam CD

Me [amused]: Your birthday list is getting very long.  Already you've asked for a dog, a trampoline and a red remote control car and your birthday isn't even till November.  Is there anything else you want to add?

Minty: What about a cat?

Turi [thoughtfully]: Maybe...

Me: So a cat and a dog?

Turi: Nah… maybe not a cat.  I think a reindeer.

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

Minty: one day I'd like to milk a cow.  You know if we had a cow we could get milk every day.

Turi: one day, can we go out into the paddock and get the milk out of the udder into a bucket?

Me: darling our cows aren't dairy cows they're meat cows.  There is milk in the mummy cow's udders but it is for their baby cows

Turi: well can I go out with my bucket and get the meat?

Me [suppressing laughter]: The meat doesn't come out of their udders darling

Turi: Well where does it come out from?

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

On vertebrates in fiction... 

Me [with disdain]: This book is terrible.

Minty: Why?

Me: There's no plot tension or character development.  It's all so saccharine, stereotyped and cliche.  I'm all for stories about unicorns and fairies but these just don't have any backbone.

Minty: they have lots of backbones in them.  The bunnies have backbones, and the puppy and the unicorn has a backbone.

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Turi: Can I have a snack?

Me: Do you want some nuts… almonds, walnuts?

Turi: I want a different kind of nuts… I want doughnuts.

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

Playing pregnancy/ birth games

Minty: has yours come out yet?

Turi [jolly feigning surprise]: ooh mine fell out! … the doctor's cleaning him.

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Turi [singing a little chant over breakfast] : I love my life and my shoes!

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Me: you get what you get and you don't get upset

Minty: I don't say that

Me: what do you say?

Minty: I get what I want and I don't get upset

Happy Easter

Me: what part of 'no more today' do you not understand?

Minty: the chocolate part

I coloured these eggs using tissue paper (I used this water-colour tissue paper but regular tissue paper should work as long as it's not colour fast).  You just wet little strips of the paper and wrap them around the egg.  Leave the eggs to dry for about 2 hours then take off the paper.  I rubbed a little oil on them to make them look glossy.

To create the ombre effect - I sat the eggs in a container so they were 1/4 covered in dye then added more water at 10minute intervals covering another quarter of the egg each time.

Happy Easter everyone!

Conversations with Minty...

Excerpts from my (mostly unsuccessful) attempt to tell Minty the story of Easter…

Minty: why do people still tell this story?

Me: it's one of the greatest stories of all time

Minty [concerned]: is it also the longest story?

Me: he had twelve best friends who were his followers

Minty: why did they, you know (gesturing behind herself) follow him?

Me: They didn't literally follow him around… I just meant... um… you know…  spiritually.

Me: Just outside Jerusalem there was a wooded hillside called the Mount of Olives.

Minty: hang on a minute, I have a question… why did he find olives in a pile? [gesturing a mound]

Me: did that make sense or not?

Minty: a little bit… sort of… actually a big bit not and a little bit yes

Conversations with Minty...

Trying our new slack line.

Me [exasperated]: I feel like I'm just shouting at you all the time and you don't listen to me

Minty: well…  sometimes you're shouting soooo loud that your voice travels across the sea to another land and I can't hear you.

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

Turi modelling a headband he made.

Turi [softly to himself after breakfast]: ok I'm off to change the world!

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Whilst watching an animated Disney film…

Minty: they always fall in love in these movies and then they all fall apart.

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During a conversation about the slave trade (I realise this may seem like an odd thing to be talking about with a 5 year old but somehow the conversation segued while we were doing a puzzle about Dr. David Livingstone!)

Me: it took a long time but eventually slavery stopped altogether.  There aren't really slaves anymore

Minty [thoughtfully]: well… sometimes mums are slaves

Conversations with Minty...

Minty: Turi, every time you breathe or you cough I can smell a bit of silliness about to happen.

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Me: can I snip that loose thread on your shirt?

Minty: ok but be careful not to snip my happiness

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

Turi: put a movie on mum

Me: it's 8:15 in the morning.  I'm not putting a movie on

Turi: put a movie on

Me: all you ever want to do is watch movies.  You need some other hobbies

Turi: what about my dinosaur?

Me: that's a great idea!

Turi: we could pretend that was my hobby and then you could put a movie on.

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After breaking the rules Minty was told she would not be getting dessert...

Minty: it will give me great pleasure if you give me dessert

Me: there's a reason you're not getting dessert tonight

Minty [crossly]: you're being very unusual!  If you behave like this you're not going to be anyone's mum.  You'll have to go in the bin…. I'm getting a bit crosser than I am.  If you don't get my dessert i'm going to put the poo face on.

Me: well what are you going to do to fix the problem?

Minty [indignantly]: I said I was sorry

Me: I know you said you were sorry but are you just going to do it again tomorrow?

Minty: only if you don't look.

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After discovering head lice in Minty's hair (gross I know!!)...

Me: I just found the mother load

Minty [musing]: I wonder when you're going to find the father load…

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Minty [excitedly]: I think we should do a bit of a clean up

Me: That's a great idea!

Minty: because then Santa might bring us a reindeer!  He's a pretty nice man.

Conversations with Minty on cocktail Friday...

Minty [whining]: muuum!

Me [exasperated]: I heard you the first 30 times

Minty: no that was 7 times

 

Minty [showing me the lego aeroplane she had built]: mum this aeroplane has exempting hair

Me: exempting hair?

Minty: yeah, so it's soooo powerful!

For those of you playing along with cocktail Friday tonight's cocktail is a screwdriver...

SCREWDRIVER

45ml vodka

60ml orange juice

slice of orange to garnish

Pour vodka and orange juice over ice in a highball glass.  Cut orange slice in half and sit both pieces on the rim of the glass.

Happy cocktail Friday everyone!

In which there are dirty tiger suits...

His vocabulary is still somewhat limited.  It's not unusual for him to announce that something is 'purple' when it is in fact clearly red.  There are times when I have absolutely no idea what he is saying (usually during one of his full scale emotional breakdowns tipped off by the smallest inconvenience).  But we are gradually reaching a point where his language is coloured by his personality and sparkles with creativity.  When he wakes in the morning he will hold up his fingers to correspond to the number of weetbix he wants and says, 'I want to eat these guys.'  As he points to one finger he tells me, 'you can feed me this guy, and I'll eat these guys'.  I am enchanted and in awe of his whimsical imagination.  He tells me of tigers who need to go to the laundry to wash their tiger suits that button down their middles, and of a fox that lives in our microwave and helps to warm our porridge with its bushy tail.  He spends his day building 'traps' about the house to capture the magical creatures that live only in his mind.  I wish I could visit inside his head and somehow bottle the whimsy that resides there.  I'm sure it holds the seeds of a wonderful children's book!

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

While putting away the easter decorations…

Minty: I'm just packing these away in case an easter-birthday or an easter-christmas comes up

Me: do you think an easter-christmas is likely to come up?

Minty: yes coz this is the real world and in this world anything can happen

Clearly the kids are still confused about the death of their goldfish…

Turi: Where's Timmy?

Me: Timmy Boomda is dead

Minty: I said goodnight and in the night he died and then he became a wee and went to the poo party

Turi: No, he's dead. He's a poo.

Minty [angrily]: I know he's dead!

Minty [sobbing a little]: we don't have to work for everything we want.  The world doesn't work that way.

Me: Doesn't it?  Tell me, how does the world work?

Minty: It just gives us icy poles when we want them.

who can argue with that logic?

On the way to have coffee...

Turi: Can we have a cino baby?

Conversations with Turi...

Just checking in to let you know I'm still alive.  Just when I thought our lives couldn't get any busier, things have stepped up a notch in the final couple of months before we move to the new house.  This is a photo of the house from behind (taken on the iphone).

Lots has been happening.  Hopefully I'll have a chance to catch you up soon but in the mean time here are a couple of conversations with Turi…

Me: are you cold?

Turi: I'm not cold

Me: really? You feel cold.

Turi: mummy, I'm not cold, I'm Turi!

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while proudly showing off his playmobil trailer…

Turi: look Daddy my trailer!

Mr: ooh what's that for?

Turi: picking up girls!

he then demonstrated by laying the playmobil girl in the trailer and closing the tray!  Glad we cleared that up.

Conversations with Minty... and Turi

You've got to love Shrove Tuesday as the tardy man's New Year.  Didn't quite get your act together in January?  Still swearing like a sailor, smoking like a chimney, or downing cheeseburgers like the Hoff in an inebriated frenzy? No worries!  Give it all up for Lent.  Personally I will be attempting to be a little more restrained with my diet.  Note how I didn't tie myself down with any specific dietary goals.  Of course we all had the requisite pancakes for breakfast this morning, so as to 'use up' the eggs and butter, even though none of us have even the slightest intention of giving these up for 40 days.

The day was extra special because Minty finally learnt to swing all by herself!  She's understood the basics for a while but up until now she would always lose her rhythm and momentum fairly quickly.  Now she can swing as high as she wants, for as long as she wants without me having to push at all.  I'm finally free… until Turi wants a swing!

And now for some conversations with Minty and, as a very special treat for you today, Turi's debut conversation on the blog.  Of course I've been having conversations with him for quite some time, but somehow with Minty dominating the verbal landscape around here I haven't gotten around to recording any.

Minty [concerned]: mum, I have a mysterious problem

Me: what's your mysterious problem?

Minty [seriously]: well my underpants keep wanting to go to the toilet every day

Me [chuckling]: why is that a problem?

Minty [frowning]: well I just think that it is.

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upon hearing a loud bang emanating from Minty's room after bedtime

Me: are you OK?

Minty [sadly]: the wall just doesn't want me to climb on it

Me [sternly]: that's because it's bedtime and it's sleeping time for everyone

Minty [wide eyed]: is the wall asleep?

Me: would you like to eat your dinner at the table or outside in the cubby?

Turi: in the cupboard please

Me [carrying the dinner outside]: there you go

Turi [cheerily]: Lovely, thank you!

House update

We have a roof and most of the windows!  The big windows will be glazed on site on Wednesday.  Not exactly 'lock up' but still a good effort by Christmas.

These internal shots are taken from the door of our study, looking back towards the kitchen and the raised up lounge room.

And for those of you who don't care about the house, here are some conversations with Minty…  Let's just say coal is on her mind.

After singing 'santa claus is coming to town' at bedtime

Minty [concerned]: I don't think Turi will be living with us soon

Me: how come?

Minty: because he's been a bit naughty

Me: Santa doesn't take the naughty children away, he just gives them a lump of coal instead of a present

Minty: I think daddy will be getting lumps of coal

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Me [reading]: Where is the Christmas fairy?  Is she behind the Christmas tree?  Peekaboo! She's making wishes come true!  What's your Christmas wish?

Minty [musing]: it's about presents, and toys and coal

Me: do you even know what coal is?

Minty: what?

Me: it's a dirty black rock.  Believe me, you don't want one!

Minty [perplexed]: why not?  I like rocks!