The amazing mind of a child

Garretts capacity to learn seriously amazes me daily.
Last year he refused to let me teach him anything. He would flat out refuse to listen when we talked alphabet or numbers. He didn't like to be read to. He couldn't write his name. His speech was well behind.
Just 9 months into his schooling life, and he has picked the ball up and shot out of the park. He has caught up to the average for his age, and in some respects has well exceeded expectations.
He loves to write. He is starting to read. His speech is almost back on track.
It is seriously amazing just how much he has picked up in such a small space of time.

Bekky the builder...

I got sick of the junk that was visible from under stairs. Thank god for bunnings and cheap fencing solutions. Around $20 for this, and now it looks a lot cleaner! Needs to be attached better to the steps though (currently held on by the twist ties that were in packet with the fencing!).

 

Beauty of old windows... The gorgeous wood found under stupid layers paint. The job is crazy hard work though. So much so I have given up for now. I bought a Sander and a tin of paint stripper. But its still damn hard work!  

I talked about this in a previous post. 

They were built to solve a storage problem in the boys room. I used the pieces from their old flat pack drawers that ande broke. 

I cant take credit for this though... This was Jason's handywork. Will look great when its finished.

My apologies for the strange formatting on this post. Blogger is gone wack today.

 I have been hard at work around the house. Poor Jase has been working hard to provide for us, so I've been using my time at home to good use.

Holy preservative Batman

I'm not much of a newage mum. I don't care how much tv they watch. I don't buy organic food. I let them eat crap. Chocolates have been had for breakfast.

I'm not worried by preservatives.

Luckily! As these cupcakes, and then Ande's 3rd birthday cake had butt loads of them in it.
A friend had mentioned rainbow cakes on Facebook. I did a Google on how exactly this is done, and stumbled upon this YouTube clip ---->http://www.youtube.com/user/fondasaurusrex#p/u/9/9AOuFn83-n4
So, obviously I had to give it a go. 

They worked well, which gave me the confidence to try the cake for Ande's birthday.
As his party and birthday were on different days, he got 2 cakes.

Not for the faint hearted... When eaten in large quantities (as ande did!) It will turn shit green!

Necessity is the mother of all invention

It is really is true. Necessity is really the mother of invention.

I struggle with keeping the boys clothes in order. Once upon time they had an IKEA set just like this...

But captain insainty (aka. Ande) used it as a ladder come launch pad, and that was then end of that flat pack.
Jase had built the boys this set of shelves as toy/child storage awhile ago.

I looked at it and thought about how I could use them to now solve the storage issue.

My first idea was to fill the spaces with baskets. The boys usually put their own clothes away, and pick their own clothes out. This inevitably means their drawers end up resembling some kind of multicoloured vortex where nothing will ever stay clean, folded or in order.

This worked..... Somewhat. Would have been perfect if the boys didn't own their own mini store collection of clothes each. The baskets were smaller than the cubbies, and they have so much to fit in that finding anything became a shitfight, and/or they just dumped everything out on the floor.


So next up I folded up all there clothes into the cubbies. But shortly after, cyclone ande came to town. This was the aftermath.

So back to the drawing board. When the original drawers broke, I dismantled what was left and kept what I thought might be of use. Over the weekend I got out these bits and pieces, put on my 'surely this can't be that hard' hat, and got to work creating some drawers to place inside the cubbies.

Ok so they aren't that great.

Yep. They're a bit shit.

Ok... Quite shit... 

But I made them. I made them from cutting up shitty preloved flat pack. And they work. Their clothes fit. They can find want they want. And hopefully, they won't destroy them.

Hey, one can dream?