RAVES of the Week!

These are my raves of the week. Totally my own personal opinion, if I want to promote someone I will because they deserve it.

Delight Face Painting - Daphne did our face painting at the RAD Kids Xmas Party. One word - amazeballs!
https://www.facebook.com/delightfacepainting/ 

The Warehouse - right now their home ware section and outdoor living are amazing! I got the coolest lime green picnic rug for rrp$15. It's a Beach Works brand and rolls/folds up. Can't wait to use it! I also stocked up on drinking glasses - 8 small, and 8 large classy looking ones for $12 on sale.

Christmas Club - any Christmas Club really at this time of the year is such a relief. I have The Warehouse and New World. Both give rewards if you don't use them before December and I can tell you, I was so relieved to get a couple hours kid-free and not have to "pay" for any Christmas pressies!

McDonalds Greerton - am loving that they now have McCafe in their drive-thru!! Especially love my flat white coffee while stuck in morning traffic. They even have a reward card - buy 5 get one free yeow!



Lollipops Playland - we recently had our twins 3rd party here and both kids and adults had a fab time. They have stepped up their game recently - the food was great, party set up a hit (Thomas the Tank Engine of course) and our hostess was super friendly with the kids.
http://tauranga.lollipopsplayland.co.nz/

Thin Lizzy - this stuff is awesome!! Usually I'm a full coverage foundation kinda girl, but over summer wanted something easier and this has much better coverage than when I used it a few years ago. Thumbs up to Farmers too - for $34 I got the compact and brush plus an extra lighter compact, extra brush, powder puff and lip balm!

Olivea Anstis Hair Studio - I have been ringing all around town looking for GHD prices and info. I am finally (after wanting some for about 5 years) shouting myself some after my Vidal Sassoon then my mums Remington hand-me-down straighteners died a slow death. Olivea was the ONLY person who was genuinely interested in helping me find what was right for me, and even had $30 off! Thumbs down to a certain hair place at Papamoa Plaza - your receptionist wasn't interested at all.

Being a SAHD - Stay at Home Dad

Being a SAHD – Stay at Home DAD

A peek through the window of stay at home dad of twins, Jay

Ok, ok first: you’re all wrong and I’m totally right about everything!! As long as we have cleared that up we can move forward.

Things you will find in this blog:

•  I love my kids, but by Jesus they drive me fucking crazy

•  FYI this post will contain swearing

•  Not everyone's experiences are the same

•  WE ALL TAKE THE PISS OUT OF OUR KIDS (don't even try to say you don't)

•  This is just fun and contains little insights into the life of a stay at home dad

Here's what I've learnt so far:

There aren't that many of us around.

Little suits that snap up the back are evil. Hide or destroy them. You will not be able to figure them out in your 15th week of sleep deprivation. Buy front-snaps only. It doesn't matter how cute they are. Except for the Pooh outfit. You can keep that one, but only for special occasions.

There's nothing wrong with duct tape.

Get help. Have people visit. One approach is to make it clear to them that they are there to take care of you, not the babies. Another is to give them baby duties. Whichever you do, make it as clear as if you were talking to employees.

Put Velcro tape under the baby wipe box. It stops you fighting with it while you juggle a baby with a poo explosion in the pants. Seriously is it just my kids that have that instant reaction to put their hands down there once those tabs on the side of the nappy get pulled??

Bouncy chairs. Get two. Rock one with your foot while you hold the other baby. They're also for feeding two babies at a time. Insert babies into bouncers, insert bottles into babies. It’s obviously why they were made :)

Sleep and the Lack Thereof.....

The sleep deprivation will be worse than anything you can imagine. I once went 96 hours straight on ahh film project? Yeah we will go with that (AKA:  Xbox game Halo4). Thought it was pretty macho. That was nothing. This kind of sleep deprivation tilts all the way over into mental illness. You will say things you don't usually say, see things in ways you don't usually see them, and probably piss some people off. It's okay. When you start sleeping again, it'll gradually get better. It will. It really will.

It gets easier. It does. I promise. For us, it started to ease when our twins hit around 4 1/2 months of age. As of today, we can count on both babies sleeping from 7pm until 6am. I know right!?!  Holy shit.... eating, and then sleeping from 8:30am until 10:30am.  That's 2 hours. If you're still expecting, 6 hours in 3-hour blocks sounds like torture. If you've got newborns, just hang on to this thought: in a few months, you'll get 6 hours of sleep.

That doesn't mean we're chipper and perky. We're exhausted. We're just not that kind of exhausted.

You can put two babies to sleep by jiggling them in one bassinette, but it takes a while as they keep waking each other up.

And finally we reach the end of this blog for the first week. I’ll leave you with a small picture each week that you might find amusing... if not sod off lol

The Christmas Grinch - Or Not?

Why I need to budget for Christmas throughout the whole year!

It is the 4^th of December right – how many Christmas parties have you been to yet?

How many gifts have you had to buy for pre-Christmas gatherings? 

My answer – too fucking many!

My tree is half up, my house is themed Semi-Christmas/Semi-something else, and my kids have already had their share of Xmas gifts - We have only just stepped foot into Decembers door.

How bloody ridiculous!

Don’t get me wrong, I am not the Grinch of Christmas, I actually freeking  LOVE Christmas!  So much so that I start planning it in November.

But I do think we are getting a little bit away from what we had as a kid – Santa used to throw out lollies at Parades and that was about as much Pre-Christmas excitement we had.  And that was enough!  That was until the lolly scrambles were banned due to too many PC precious Mums and Dads.

These days we are buying $5 gifts for every Christmas party our kid has to attend.  We could be spending up to $50-$60 even before our kids have set out the plate of cookies for the Big fat Man (Am I even allowed to say ‘Big Fat Man’ – you know, living in a PC world and all)
And then there is always that handful of Mums/Dads that end up buying their kid a $50 gift, while all the other kids sit around in the circle watching this spoilt little brat wave their prized possession in front of all the other kids who’s mums and dads actually followed the rules.

Bring back the Lolly scrambles that almost took an eye out – that’s half the fun right?  Dodging imminent injury and winning a prize for the courtesy?

Chucking kids in fairy costumes with drag queen make-up and sending them down a stretch of road waving to the crowds is enough!

Having Santa throw a bag of sweets at the heads of unsuspecting 2year olds is enough!

Opening gifts on ACTUAL CHRISTMAS is enough!

Participating in the tradition of Advent Calendars stating the religious reasons behind Christmas is enough! (totes not preaching, but the ridiculous amount of Advent calendars with no particular meaning except to feed your kids more garbage is beyond me!)

Eating mounds of deliciously fattening and ‘mid-day nap’ inducing spreads on Christmas day ONLY is enough!  Let’s face it, we don’t need the pre-feast, our asses are letting us know all about it!

Let us not bring this up at the Jingle Jingle Rad Xmas party, but I will enjoy bitching about it after!

Be Rad - Janine

How We Became So RAD #3

Ainsley, Toby, Zach, Mason & Tyler

 

Hi, I'm Ainsley - wife to Toby, and Mum to 11 year old Zach and 3 year old twins Mason and Tyler. Although Zach is my step-son, we have an amazing mum/son bond and I love him like my own. Even when he's lippy and grumpy upon being woken up by the boys at 6am!

 

Life is hectic at times with Toby and I working full time, Zach about to enter intermediate school and the boys in a mix of daycare and home based care. Needless to say 99% of the time I'm uber organised and that 1% I'm freaking out!
 

I went back to work when my boys were 11 weeks old, a decision I now regret as I worked for a total toss-pot at the time (insert really naughty words here) and felt my employment was in jeopardy if I took longer off than entitled to. I now have a job I LOVE (on the beach front even!) with people who are genuinely awesome. Although I've struggled long and hard with the " working mum" dilemma's I feel as a family we're now in a really good place with routines - I am the Queen of Routine! LOL.

 

Having twins 8 years after Zach was a baby (yes, I've been his step-mum since he was born. Long ugly story but not nearly as juicy as some would like to believe!) I found I forgot a lot of basics and that there were WAY more cool things for babies than there used to be.

 

After a whirlwind three years of full on baby/toddlerness I feel we are both semi-expert in the art of sleep and toilet training - two of our most recent achievements in parenthood. Yes extremely dorky!

The story behind the three of us Mum's joining forces, was for me stepping down from my position on our local multiple birth club as Membership Co-Ordinator / Buddy Support person after becoming increasingly disappointed in the direction the club was going. I'm more keen to see kids and members being focused on than they were. YOLO!!

So there you have it. The three of us quit the club, got together (AKA bitched and moaned via Facebook messenger until we decided to do something about it) and now we have Rad Inc.

We plan to do fun stuff (we have a "team building weekend" coming up), post ridiculously funny and sometimes interesting articles, write blog pieces and reviews on places we go, things we do, services we receive and shit we buy.

Look out for lots more RAD things to come!

PS: Here are my Raves of the Week:
Timeless Beauty in Pyes Pa (awesome eyebrow tint).
Blomquist Greerton (Large flat white or anything basically is great from here)
Coin Save Gate Pa (fantastic selection of Xmas shit and car remote batteries are so cheap!)
New World Gate Pa (Thomas the Tank Engine resin dinner set $9.95)
My Greengrocer Gate Pa (always has the BEST fresh fruit and veges at excellent prices)
Aussie Butcher Gate Pa (amazing ribs for the BBQ, thanks Janine for the tip on these)
Jamberry Nails (I'm addicted thanks to my supplier Gemma - get in touch if you wan deets)