Poor little man

Do you have a child that just gets all the bad luck? I do, master T, poor little man always is the one that gets hurt!

when he was 2 he was playing at grandma and Nana's and they have bessa block walls and the window sill in the lounge is really low and has a ledge on it on the inside they have long curtains that were closed at the time and they sat a bean bag in front of the window.

Master T was running and jumped on the bean bag on his tummy and whacked the window ledge with his forehead- 2 glues, and 5 stitches later and he has a scar on his forehead (this is how most people tell him apart from boof head.

We live on an acre back in Australia, so we have a little fire pit up the back (which the boys know not to go near) but this one day master T must have had a brain fart or something and decided to step in the hot coals he was 3 at this stage, so a trip to emergency and bandaging with cream for days and he recovered well, thanks to daddy's quick thinking, he picked him straight up and put his feet in the pool!!! :)

The boys are amazing on their quad's, little 4 wheeler motorbikes, they are such good riders except for this one day Tyler decided it might be a good idea to go up the hill on the side :( so the bike tipped and fell on top of him!!!! no damage done at all not even a scratch but he was a bit scared after that!

Last Night, day before the first day of school and the boys were riding back from the pool on their push bikes and master T decided to go over the speed bump 100 mile an hour and as i was driving behind i comeover the hill and here he is bike in the middle of the road and he up on the grass screaming mummy mummy. so put him and the bike in the car and drove home, A MESS he was. Taken massive chunks out of his knee, grazed his other on and grazed all up his tummy :( lucky he was wearing a helmet!!!!!!!!
So nearly a trip to hospital for a scrub and maybe stitches but mummy and daddy cleaned it up good!

So is there a pattern UMMM WELL YES I'M A BAD MOTHER!!!! pfft... NOT
I don't wrap my kids up in cotton wool, i let them actually get out and do stuff!!!! we teach our kids the best we can but only they can do it once they know how, we have to let go of the bike at some point :)

Thanks for reading
Tash x

out and about borneo style

We go to a pub/restaurant called yulis here, it is right on the ocean and is owned by some of the nicest people we have met in Borneo, Bill and Yuli!

So Bill owns a couple of boats and is right into fishing so he asked Daddy Zed to go one weekend shortly after we arrived and please take Boof, and master T, Buddha is too little yet, because they go right out to the reef from like 1.30 -7pm onwards.

So the 3 BIG boys went out and went fishing came home knackered but they had a great time and caught some fish = win.

We were at Yulis the following week and and Bill came up to me and said "those boys of yours were so well behaved, polite and awesome fun. They are welcome on my boat anytime"

I love hearing things like that - make all the hard work and nagging seem worth it. Give you reassurance that what you are doing as a parent is working!

So the 3 Big boys have been out quiet a few time on Bills boat, so last week we decided to buy them their own rods, so we went to this little fishing shop and got them rods, reels, line, tackle box with tackle. VERY HAPPY BOYS!

They have been out 2 times since that and only master T has caught one fish! :(

last week end we set out to go to this amazing water park, Caribbean island water park, sound amazing, OK so we got there and anj a family friends sister we took said this isn't where we came the one we went to was better than this place, so we went in, the water quality was under average, the slides and stairs sounded and felt like they were going to collapse at any minute, there were people everywhere! the kids had a fun time anyway but we will be finding that other one soon.

We were going to go to the NEW FLASH water park today but it is raining, YES like Zed said to me what does it matter we just going to get wet anyway. But there is thunder and therefore lightning so that is keeping us at home today :(

So my big boys start school tomorrow. wow 5 days a week all day !!! what will i do with myself ha ha Iv had them at home with me for majority of the time for 5 and 1/2 years.They are such smart boys and they are so ready to head to school and start learning big and meeting new friends. they would be starting today but they have a public holiday today for CHINESE NEW YEAR?? hmmm

Zed has this great mate that works over here that he has known for years and year and use to work together and his family are moving over at the end of February so that is very exciting!

AUSTRALIA DAY is this Thursday, public holiday? not here  go figure! anyway we met a great new family on Friday and they having a big do at their house, so very excited for that!

Buddha LOVES his big brothers so much he follows them around and plays blocks and cars with them. and they love him so much in return its beautiful to see some things they do with him!

Over protective or just Smart?

OK so ALOT of people tell me I'm an over protective parent ... are they right or am i just being a mum?

So lets look at some statistics : 2008 - 2009 there were 350,000 cases of child abuse and neglect in Australia, now that was just reported cases and as it is well known MOST child abuse cases are not reported.
When we talk about sexual child abuse it is sad to say that most perpetrators are known and trusted by the child and parents, may even be in a position of power or authority, have easy access to children, and often have the trust of a child. They can be parents, grandparents, defacto or step-partners, older brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, neighbours, teachers, childcare workers, babysitters or leaders in organizations such as sporting clubs and churches.\
We hear all too often about people in positions like mentioned above hurting our children.

OK then we talk about neglect, or physical or emotional abuse of a child, so the main perpetrators in this case is parents and then grand parents. WOW i was blown away with this,  but ill get to my emotional ramble further on.
only this week did we hear about a British mother left her 6 year old home alone for 5 day to fend for her self.
In Australia a mother agreed to starving her 5 children when they moved in with family, they were so starved that one of her little boys aged 5 passed out and was found to have a serious head injury later in hospital. How you ask can a MOTHER stand by and watch this happen to her children, little human beings that she carried and gave birth too? But we hear it all too often!

In bunderberg in 2010 a 8 year old girl was found in a drain, dead. A 19 year old friend of the parents was found to have broken into their home over night and taken the little girl and killed her.

We have numerous stories of teens killing other teens just to see what it feels like.

NOW THE RANTING BEGINS: OK seriously what the HELL are we doing to our children? is it bad parents having kids? is it video games that makes it OK to kill, bash and steal? Is it The movies that we allow our children to watch that desensitizes them or should they just know the difference and that that is bad behaviour and the wrong thing to do? We call them baddies but to kids they are glorified, in the world at the moment people are praised and rewarded for doing the wrong thing. hmm lets look at this for a minute:

A 14 year old Australian boy go's to Bali, he apparently has a known marijuana problem and gets caught buying pot! WOW OK so this is after the Bali 9, and when you get into Bali there are signs EVERYWHERE about drugs, shapell corby, hmmm Has this kids and his parents been under a rock for umm 10 years? i think not. So this 14 year old is now getting paid for his and parents story about his ordeal.... fair? i think NOT!

Boat people, don't fill in paper work and don't line up and proceed through the correct channels but when they arrive in Australia are moved to the front of the line, given health care, accommodation, a phone card, tv, computers, games and food. hmmm a pattern?

Right so now how do we teach our children that bad people that break the law and hurt people are punished? our Justis systems don't show that at all most offenders get slaps on the wrist's.

We have all these people that really want children that would give anything to have healthy children to love and treat right, when other people can have children abuse them and keep having them. they make it so hard and costly to adopt children that not many people can do it. We have all these great abused children sitting in "the system" waiting for a GOOD life and the authorities make it just TOO hard for that to happen.

So i freak out if i cant see my kids at a play ground, water park, riding around, shopping centers, the pub, i don't like them staying at peoples house's, doesn't matter who it is (except grandparents) i hate it when daddy takes them fishing on the reef (not that he doesn't look after them just cause I'm not there IF something happened) YES I'm over protective but seriously can you blame me?

It takes one bad decision, one second and they could be gone forever.
BUT they are by no means cotton wool babies, i let them do the roughest things kids do i just like to be there watching !

OK so in the past week or so i have heard some really sad stories about families loosing young children!
So Kim received a phone call from her sister in law that said I'm taking my kids camping for the weekend do you want me to take your girls? Kim rang her husband and he said yeah they should have a great time.
so she kept in contact with them all weekend and they were having a great time with their aunt and cousins.
On Sunday she got a phone call from her eldest daughter saying auntie is not driving right she is all over the road, she cant talk and is shaking, Kim asked her daughter to explain where they were the husband set of to where they were while Kim rang 911, but they were both too late the aunt had driven up a off ramp and ran head on into a 4x4 killing everyone in the car bar her son! later it was released that her blood alcohol limit was 4x the limit and she was off her face on pot!
So i ask you who do we trust with our children?
Part 2 to come (after iv calmed down a bit) :)

Xmas and new year borneo style

Right so we moved into our new house!!! yay!
Its huge, plenty of room for the 5 of us! the layout is awesome! i have this whole room that is my pantry, I'm sure every other country does things on a ginormous scale but Australia!!!!!

anyway more on that later!
So Christmas was excellent! we had Zed's mum, grandad and grandma here from Australia, we had some great friends come to our house from here.
The boys were spoilt rotten - they got bikes which Daddy had to construct in the middle of the shop cause they had done them wrong, they got Nerf guns, clothes, DS's thanks to Santa Dr Wendy for picking them up in the states. oh and a Foosball table that we have been having plenty of family competitions on!
Zed and i got new bike as well and i got a new canon camera and have been clicking away since !
So i found the only HAM in balikpapan i think and it was awesome- have been looking for one ever since and can not get one! (Muslim country hard to find real ham, pork or bacon)
S all us ex pats enjoyed the "real" ham and i cooked this massive 6.6kilo turkey, Zed made his famous garlic prawns, and we had yep beetroot!!!!! YUUUUMMMMM!!!!

So xmas day was a huge success and new years was awesome they have traditions here! corn and fish on new years!

So the few days leading up to new years eve and the streets are lined with stalls and stalls of fresh fish and corn on the cobs.
OH AND STALLS AND STALLS OF FIREWORKS !!!!! FIREWORKS FIREWORKS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So needless to say that we bought massive amounts of fireworks-and let them off on xmas and new years there the only days you can let them off and not get into trouble!

so the boys have really settled in here, they are excited to start school and can not wait for there friends to come back from holidays! The holidays have been lots of bike riding, swimming, playing at the local game parlour. We went to the water park last weekend it has massive slides and stuff but the water didn't look so great so that's off our list next time but the kids had a great time although i wasn't game to put Buddha in as he was too little to have the injections we all had to combat the viruses you get from the water here! BUT there is apparently a better water park which we are going t find this weekend! :)

Tash x

SICK KIDS BACK TO BACK

OK thought we were doing really well the only one of us that has been sick is Daddy Zed, the runs, then backed up for over a week then he decided to eat this shifty GOAT from the side of the road in the middle of know where  on the way to a mine to see if that would help, yep i am man hear me roar comes to mind YUK !
Anyway so he UN clogged himself then we had Boof not feeling well when i picked him up from school, we made it to the hotel and Boof says to me "mum quick i need to get out of the car" so i hurried him out of the car and just as he steps out of the car YEP you guessed it POWER spew in the middle of the driveway, the porter and security guys were standing there, poor Boof so sick, then we move over to the garden "hey bud in the garden" a bit of practise for later life i thought :) and then before we reach the garden yep you guessed it power spew number 2 in the driveway- so we made it up stairs and he slept and spewed all night.

2 nights later Master T up at 12 vomiting in the toilet high temps, sore tummy POOR little guys.
Then yep you guessed it Buddha, 1 night after that Sky rocketing high temps, wouldn't eat and started this BARK and massive wheeze, so we asked around the ex pats for a doc and got the number of a lovely nurse that runs the ex pat clinic.
i was very apprehensive to what i was going to walk in to, being a border line 3rd world country i was expecting to walk into a hospital with people on stretches in the hall ways and really dirty etc etc.....
BUT we got better medical care than at home, the hospital was great, the facilities were great and the service and attention was A1. i could not fault it at all!
So back to Buddha, after seeing 2 doctors we settled on bronchitis! i was ultra worried as last time he had it we were in hospital for 2 weeks, but the doctor said i had been doing everything right so far, so we persevered over night he got way worse and so we went back and had some physio done, got lent a nebuliser  and i did that for 2 nights and he improved so much then he cut 2 top teeth. so big week for little Buddha! (and mummy) I'm exhausted..... Next i finally get to go to Majesties woot woot

Toilet paper issues

OK so iv seen a squatter toilet last time i was here, in the airport that's all they had.

BUT when you go to the malls, you kind of forget where you are, like I'm talking BSB mall is 4 stories high has 2 kids play grounds a video arcade, movie theaters in English, and loads of shops.

So we were up stairs in this massive department store (like grace brothers ) and Buddha was asleep, and master T says i need to go to the toilet, rito well i left the Nappie bag and Buddha with Dr Wendy and went down 2 floors to the toilet with master T and  Boof, they each went in a cubical, and i hear "mum, can you pass me some toilet paper?" i reply "sure bud" OK so here i am with a cleaner watching me search every cubical for paper ( they have a full time cleaner in each toilet they never leave the toilet crazy huh but more on this later) and yep u guessed it NO PAPER...hmmmm what to do , no nappy bag, ummm yep GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so there was the hummmmm hose option or just pull em up and ride it out, well if he used the hose how was i to dry him with no toilet paper? so i say "bud just pull up your undies and shorts and we will sort it later " hahahaha omg poor little bugger.

SO we learnt a lesson on this day, NEVER i SAID NEVER go to the toilet even if it looks western without toilet paper,wipes or tissue!!!!

Now i know why all the Lady's have massive rolls of toilet paper in their hand bags :)

beauty gone BAD.......the ex pat way

So Us 4 gal's in the car on our way to an amazing beauty/massage parlour whist the hubbys are out golfing and poor Mr D is baby sitting 10 kids whilst watching bridesmaids and looking after a chicken in the oven hahahaha.

So we turn up at Majesties and WOW Ive never seen so many cars, it was like a parking lot at a footy game- absolutely packed so Mrs A went in to see how long it would be 2 hour wait-now that is a lot considering that the place is huge and 3 stories high, so well that was a let down, OK where else OK leonds yeah ill ring says Mrs L, yep great lets head there.
so leonds car park was full, so we parked maybe 2 shops down oh wow its a beauty salon, awesome there window made them sound awesome lets try there.
SOOOOO not the best idea iv never had facial before but this was absolute shit, the crap she put on my face made me gag, she nearly tore of my eye lids, and burn my face "awesome" OK so after facial is a hair spa, OK so the other gals had had this already and instead of coming right out and saying NO don't do it oh maybe we don't have time they say so silly me oh OK make it quick.....

so after sitting thinking my hair was going to all fall out i cut the hair spa short and went in to see how long Dr Wendy would be meanwhile Mrs L and A were chillin in the car laughing about how shit it was!
so Dr Wendy comes out nearly crying how she was going to be sick had all that funky shit in her ears and up her nose hahahaha i was still trying to pick it out of my nose and ears 4 house later.

so lesson learnt ONLY GO TO MAJESTIES from now on if you can get in WAIT!!!!!!!!!!