Teeth are a bitch

Doesn't matter how old you are or how many kids you have, teeth are a bitch. Nothing surer. Tabitha has managed to crack one of the canines as I believe I mentioned the other day, however there are three mongrels of the same variety, plus the double molars, to come. And are they coming or what. Mini chick is absolutely inconsolable. Now that's not really too much of a stretch when you take into consideration that she is a bit precious at the best of times, but now, well, it isn't good. Combine that with the fact that my "advanced" child is well and truly in the terrible 2s six months early and it's all happening chez moi.

Mini dude, it seems, is also having the same frustrations. Identical. How identical if he is only four months old and she is not? I'll tell you. Because it appears the first tooth he is getting is, wait for it, a canine. Impossible? No. Tabitha's first tooth was a canine. It popped out the front of her gum when she was 6 months old, then two months later it disappeared again. What a bastard. So I wait and see if Angus will cop the same sorry fate. Poor little buggers.

I'm usually one that needs a little bit of warning to do things, some preparation time, however today I was absolutely rapt to receive an invitation to meet one of my online friends IRL (in real life for those of you who obviously haven't spent any time on forums or facebook....). It was the opening of a kiddy playland thingy so I thought yep, that'll be the perfect distraction for mini chick and Lexi will love it too. So I went like a bat out of hell, dressed all the kids, coped with tantrum after tantrum from both Tabitha and Angus (although I can't really call Angus's a tantrum cos after all he's only a baby but I thought it would save some words, which apparently it hasn't because I've just gone on for two sentences about how it isn't really a tantrum. Go figure) and then we were off.

Note to self - when you save a new mobile phone number into your phone make sure you have the numbers in the correct order. There is some random waiting for me to arrive as I said I was well on the way about 9 hours ago.

I don't think I actually fully thought through the ramifications of my actions today. It was only once I was almost at the kiddy playland place that I realised that this was, in fact, the first time I had ever been anywhere "public" with the three kids by myself. I have been places with them before, but always meeting someone at the other end who would help me dismount the kidlets from the vehicle. Today, well, I was on my own. I felt my blood pressure rise and got a hot flush. I can do this. I can do this. I was that little engine that could.

When we arrived (which in itself was a monumental effort considering I didn't actually know where I was going, couldn't seem to negotiate google maps on my phone and went up and down the same street half a dozen times before pulling in at the wrong place, on the nature strip purely by accident which was waterlogged from the storms so I got mildly bogged then spewed brown mud everywhere) I was ready. Psychologically. Physically. We were going to do this. I must add though that after the fourth take down the street I thought it might be a sign that I had just bitten off a little more than I could chew.

Anyway, in the car park and I had a chat to Lexi and explained to her that she had to be a big girl and stand by the car once I got her out so I could then put Angus in to the pram, get Tabitha and the bags out of the car, and then we would all walk in to the centre together. She did brilliantly. I was uber proud. I love the word uber. Sounds like goober. Or doozer. And that makes me think of fraggle rock and those mini dudes that used to make the little structures that the fraggles would eat. I loved that show. And the dog, Sprocket. He rocked.

So we made it inside. Phew. Massive effort. And Tabitha held my hand, which is also a massive effort because it is such a recent development, one which I am rapt has sunk in. It's quite funny when you ask someone if they are using a chair and they say no that's fine take it, and you do and you sit at the table beside them and then send a message to the person you are meeting who you haven't met before and they send you a message back and say that they are sitting right behind you and it is in fact the person who you just asked for a chair from. It was a "bahahah" moment. And I felt like a knob. As you do. Oh well. I got over it.

Lexi had a BALL. She loved it. She was in her element, bouncing on the trampoline, playing in the ball pit, sliding down the slide, then sliding down the stairs of the slide (couldn't quite understand why she felt the need to do this but she was quite content so I let her be). Tabitha did better than I would have expected. In strange situations where there are many new people sometimes she retreats into herself and becomes very clingy. She did this on occasion, but she managed to get into the play area for quite some time before the inevitable mini panic occurred and she came out. But overall she did brilliantly.

The scenario that terrified me the most was when we had to go. I had prepared Lexi that she should be good when we leave and not cry. Yep. I know. Delusional. She was not good. She did cry. Actually howl might be a more appropriate word. Still, I managed to put her shoes on (actually I put her shoes on Tabitha first then she freaked out because I was trying to put Tabitha's shoes on her, so then I had to unshoe Tabitha and reshoe her with the right ones then shoe Lexi and it was all very complex). There were tears as we were leaving and I was grateful to have my previous online friend and now new IRL friend walk out with us, which just added that extra buffer zone.

Kids all in car. Check. Bags in car check. Pram in car. Um. No. I have borrowed a pram. I do not know how to fold this pram. The few times I have done it successfully have been a miracle and I was stupid enough not to pay proper attention to how it was done. So I needed rescuing there....and it appears that you need to unlock the handle before the pram will fold up. That is today's lesson.

Another lesson for the day? Taking Lexi to a kiddy playland induces sleep. Rock on.

We took a bit of a detour and perused the various different areas we (read as me) are considering moving to. I am mighty glad we did actually. It is so difficult to get a proper indication of what a place is like by simply online photos on realestate.com or google earth. It doesn't give you the feel of the place at all. And so what I had thought at the start of the day and what I now think are two totally separate things.

I'm going to have a slack night tonight. Maybe half an hour or so of essay research, fluff around on facebook for a while, then chill in front of the box and have a semi early night. Sounds like a plan.