"I've gotta walk the dog"

An amusing anectdote.

When I go to bed at like 9pm (yes, I got old), I set an alarm for myself to wake up and feed Noah. Usually, I set it for 11pm.

A few nights ago, Josh went to bed early with me as he had to start work at 6am the next day. When my alarm went off, Josh sat bolt upright and moved to the edge of the bed. I said 'Honey, go back to sleep' and went to feed the baby.

When I returned about 20 minutes later, I found Josh still sitting on the edge of the bed, but he had fallen over sideways and was now snoring. If only I had taken a picture. I woke him, as gently as possible, and said 'Go back to sleep honey' and he said 'Ugh, I've gotta walk the dog' in a gruff, half asleep voice.

Clearly, at 11.20pm he does not have to walk the dog. But as he had planned to walk her at 4.30 before heading to work, he assumed it was his alarm clock waking him so rudely.

I cracked up laughing and told him what time it was. I can see some good pranks in the future.

Love

I'm grateful for so many things since beginning to think about it more often. I've been having good days, and even though nothing more exciting is happening, I'm enjoying life much more.

1. Love. I LOVE love. I love being loved, telling people I love them, love hearts, red roses, cuddles, and all things love!

2. A vacuum cleaner. I hate dirty floors so I am grateful to be able to clean them.

3. Ginger beer. It's delicious.

4. A baby bjorn to use while I walk the dog. So much better than using the pram!

5. Full night's sleeps.

6. Kate - for keeping the notes she took at Noah's baby blessing since I lost mine. Thank heavens for wonderful friends (I have more lifelong wonderful friends than any person deserves in a lifetime. I love you all!)

7. Laughter. Doesn't hearing someone laugh, or laughing yourself, just brighten your day?

8. Makeup. Thank heavens for being able to mask what I really look like :)

9. A baby who has learned to put himself to sleep without the tantrum. Not all the time, but most of the time. Ahh.. Don't change Noah!!

10. Life. I have a good life. I'm grateful for it!

Gratitude - Day 2 and 3

Having a new baby means I don't do this every day. But here are some things I was grateful for yesterday, and some things I am grateful for today.

Day 2:

1. I can read, and that I can read quickly and understand the information easily. This is a gift!

2. John Bytheway. I was listening to his talk 'Rough start; great finish'. It's a good one!


3. That my baby slept through the night for the first time - 11pm-6.15. That was fun.


4. My mum visted.


5. I can now fit my wedding rings!

Day 3:

1. The smell of rain - It's so fresh, clean and makes me feel happy!


2. Clean carpet - My carpet rarely looks clean because it's a dark colour and shows up everything. I just vacuumed it so right now, I'm in love.

3. Friends. I just started to list them and thought I'd feel horrible if I left anyone out. So I'll just mention one right now - Alicia. I'm grateful for her because she has really looked after me since having this baby. Thanks Liss!


4. Naps. I love naps. And showers. I LOOOOVE showers.


5. Losing my baby weight.

Gratitudinal Profiling

I've noticed latley that I haven't been looking for the good in things as much as I should. Things are becoming more expensive, I'm overwhelmed at times, and find myself feeling unsuccessful. I have decided I need to focus on being more grateful and positive. Thus 'gratitude profiling' begins.

I am planning to try and think of a few things each day that I am grateful for. I know there are lots, and I may not actually blog it each day, but this is where I'm aiming to be held accountable.

1. A husband who loves me, puts up with me, and is willing to help with the household tasks I find most repugnant.


2. A sweet, sweet baby. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful one! Sure, he still wakes me up once a night, but he is just heaven on a platter at all hours of the day, so I don't mind.


3. Long hair. I don't know what it is, but I'm addicted to having my hair long. I'm grateful that it makes me feel pretty, can hide my back if my shirt is a little low, can cover my shoulder if the baby has thrown up on me, etc. It's wonderful.


4. A house to live in that is safe, comfortable, and mine.


5. Something to believe in.

Don't sneak up behind me

Yesterday, Josh was to start work at 2. At 1, I said goodbye to Josh as I went upstairs to put Noah down for a nap (he had broken his nap into two...dirty rat) as Josh was going to leave a few minutes later. Well, Noah went down really quickly and so I came back downstairs.

Apparently I came down very quietly. Josh was not expecting me to come back before he left.

I walked to the garage where Josh was putting on his workboots, and facing away from me. As he turned around I did what anyone in my position would do - I hid behind the doorway and then popped out yelling 'RARRRRR!'

Josh's response was not what I had expected.

I expected him to jump, maybe yell a bit, laugh, and give me a hug. Instead, he jumped, went into a trance like state, put on his serious face, and pulled his hand back to punch! Now to be clear, this all happened in a microsecond - he had no real intention of punching me. This is the split second response of my highly trained husband :)

When he realised it was me, he went out of his 'trance' and laughed kinda irritatedly (not a word, but who cares). Apparently, you never come up behind such a highly trained superhero.

The life whisperer

Recently, Josh and I have been watching this DVD...



This guy is awesome! We keep a rather exciteable dog in our tiny little backyard and despite being walked twice a day, she gets a bit bored. Our neighbour came across me, 41 weeks pregnant, walking our rather rambunctious dog and offered some tips. The next day he came over with the DVD and suggested we watch for some tips. Well, it took a few months for us to get round to it (due to having a baby and all!), but we started watching the DVD last week.

We are learning all sorts of things about how to train our dog to be better behaved. It's all about training US, not training her. And I must say, she is doing better because we are doing better.

If only making everything in life do better was as easy as watching a DVD and implementing a few of the strategies.

Of course, we have this:


and this:


but it is not as easy as training a dog.

Life is a journey. We travel whatever roads we feel are best for us. There is no 'life whisperer'. Sometimes we reach a fork in the road. Sometimes we do a u-turn and find a better path. Sometimes I think it'd be nice to see where our road leads, but then I realise... where's the fun in that?

'Just keep swimming!!'

Thanks Dory, good advice. Apparently someone trained you well too.

Sleep

I've decided training a baby to sleep stinks.

Right now he is in his bed SCREAMING his little lungs out because he is desperately tired and I won't rock or feed him to sleep.

We had sleeps perfected before he got a cold and before we went on a trip to Townsville. Now his ability to put himself down for a nap is destroyed. We had it perfected. Darn.

Lucky I love him so stinking much!