The Encore

I just had to share another snippet of Beth singing because I think it's hilarious...

Beth The Opera Singer

I was listening to Josh Groban last night and here's Beth singing along with him (not that you can really hear Josh and his music at all since Beth is singing so loud!) Sorry the footage is so shaky, but I was trying hard not to laugh out loud while I was filming and I couldn't hold my phone still!

Father I Put My Life In Your Hands...

It has been a while since I've blogged... We've had some rather major personal stuff happen (of which, I'm not comfortable revealing the details to all and sundry on the www)... Those close to us will know what I am speaking of and I thank you for thinking of us and for all your love and support...

There is a responsorial psalm that I used to use when I was doing music ministry at our old church for Good Friday mass during Easter... The response goes "Father, I put my life in Your hands"... and more than anything, this simple phrase has reassured me and given me comfort over the last week or so... To trust, to believe that all that happens is part of God's greater plan and that all that happens is for a reason... It doesn't take away our hardship... but to keep these words in my mind gives me something to reflect on that may well be more than my mere human mind and heart can understand...

Very proud of my husband...

Yesterday we found out some more amazing news... Phan has won his *3rd* scholarship towards his PhD next year... I can't even begin to say how amazing that is and how totally stoked he is... Not only did he win his 3rd scholarship, but he also was ranked *NUMBER 1* from all the applications for this particular scholarship, so as a result of being number 1, he also gets a bit extra funding on top of his base scholarship. Totally amazing!

So now his strike rate is sitting at 3 successes from 3 applications... His boss was joking that he will be the most highly paid academic ever... :p We are so very blessed, because there are many PhD students who struggle to get any funding so Phan must have written this proposal very well and the concept for the PhD is interesting and of considerable importance to be considered worthy of being funded.

Well done Phan - Elizabeth and I are so very proud of you.

Grocery Shopping With A Toddler...

I've been having a couple of rough days... I'm tired... She's having restless sleep.... and has been getting up at 6am... Today in an effort to wear her out, I took her swimming in the afternoon (which by the way, I have now learnt, it is much better to not mention that we're going to pool and get our swim bag ready without her knowing than telling her we're going swimming and then listen to her go "swim swim... swim swim"... and then have her in tears because I'm not getting ready fast enough! Talk about impatient!) We had fun at the pool and the downside of wearing her out there was that I am now also worn out! Anyway... I digress... after swimming we popped out to the shops to get something for dinner and pick up a couple of other things... I now get to listen to my very chatty 2 year old girl point and tell me in a *VERY* loud voice the foods she recognises ... Here's a sample of what I get to listen to -

"Waty-da-da" (Watermelon) (note this is also accompanied with frantic pointing motions... she loooves watermelon... I ended up buying some more for her),
"Bikit" (Biscuit),
"Sssss" (for Natural Confectionary Lolly Snakes)
"Choc choc" (chocolate, yes, we were in the lolly and chocolate aisle)
"Sosos" (Sausages - she's suddenly developed a liking for sausages again after going off them for 6 months)
"Cheeeeese" (rather self explanatory)
"Juice" (she's a juice fiend too)

My goodness, it's pouring down with rain again... yesterday there was another unreal electrical storm, I took some video footage on my phone, so will post that later, if it's turned out ok...

Preoccupied Beauty

Today, I had to put Beth in the bath mid afternoon to clean her up after a vomiting incident this morning (she gagged on panadol) and then a fruitbox incident in the afternoon (she decided to squeeze half it's contents all over her legs)... The mid afternoon light was just gorgeous in the bathroom... I got a couple of lovely shots... here's one of my "arty" ones...

Poor sick chicken...

I think that looking after a sick child is probably one of the most "unfun" things about motherhood... the vomit, the fevers, the cranky, unhappy child... for the most part these are relatively easy to deal with... but the worrying! I really hate that sense of helplessness and worrying about your child...

This afternoon Beth woke up from her nap with a fever... she actually was quite listless, so I managed to take her temp (under her armpit) which was about 38.1, which means she was probably at about 38.5... I didn't really need to take her temp to figure out she had a fever though... she was really burning up and I could see she was struggling to move and even to sit up. So after a dose of neurofen, she spent a quiet afternoon lying on her little sofa in front of the TV... She actually perked up a bit late afternoon and gathered enough energy to go outside and water her plants (can't let her plants die!)... but by evening, she'd gone all flat again and she actually fell asleep in the beanbag at about 6:45pm... She looked exhausted and was completely out of it. I moved her so she was lying on her little fold out sofa and she slept there until about 7:30pm, when she woke up... managed to get her to eat a little... a bit of bread, a bit of watermelon and a bottle of milk. But then we gave her dose of neurofen and she gagged and *everything* came back up... So I had to put her in the bath to clean up the vomit (I had actually managed to catch most of the vomit on her top and on my top and pants, so we didn't have to clean the rug). She had been burning up again, so the bath actually brought her temperature back down, but she got the chills really badly... I got her out of the bath, dried and dressed her and we had a second attempt at the neurofen, which stayed down this time and followed it with a decent drink of diluted fruit juice. And then put her to bed... she was still shaking with the chills... hoping that settles down soon...
I'm off to bed, 'cos I'm in for a restless night... Even if she doesn't wake, I know I'm going to be going in to check on her to make sure she's ok. Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day...