Walk for Epilepsy 2021

This year I am participating in Walk for Epilepsy 2021. Walk for Epilepsy is organised by the Epilepsy Foundation who have partnered with each states and territories organisations for epilepsy. As we live in Queensland, we are fundraising under Epilepsy Queensland. What’s this fundraiser for? Walk for Epilepsy is a fundraiser to raise funds to support those living with epilepsy. Why am I doing it? Our youngest daughter Zahra is epileptic, she was born with it, but was officially diagnosed at the age of 3. She’s now 9yrs old (going on 40!).

Epilepsy is a condition that can leave many feeling alone, isolated, worthless and so much more. Epilepsy doesn’t just impact the lives of those with it, but it can also impact family and friends. We’ve personally found that support and understanding isn’t easy to achieve and I hope by doing this fundraiser we can at least make a difference.

So, if you’d like to see me work up puddle of tears…I mean from walking and rowing please donate to the below link. I’m currently aiming for 50km, but if I can raise $300, I’m going for 75km. So go on, you know you want to, hit that link….

https://www.walkforepilepsy.org.au/fundraisers/jeaninevidot/qld

– Everyday Mum Jeanine

…hello?

Wow, it’s been a few years. You may be wondering why I stopped blogging, there’s multiple reasons, but the biggest one was when our youngest Miss Z was finally diagnosed with Epilepsy and it took time to wrap our heads …

Juno Childsafe

Welcome to parenthood, here’s your beautiful bundle of joy, protect it, love it and help it grow into an awesome human being.

Yeah, that’s not so easy, to get these curious little people to adulthood safely there can be a bunch of hurdles in the way, and they aren’t all in the shape of lego, some are in the form of interesting coloured and shaped medications that can be lifesaving for some but deadly and life altering to many.

Hospitals are seeing and treating way too many children daily from avoidable poisoning, and the poisons helpline is clogged with panicking/worried parents whose little one has found that one thing we forget to put away.

You can’t watch them every second until they’re old enough to know the consequences of their actions, but we can attempt to educate them and we can lock things away and do everything we can to stop tiny hands getting on to sometimes deadly medications.

Put it up high?! Nope, I can assure you, my Zahra has some Monkey gene in her, things I thought no one could climb, she climbs. Lock up? I bought a first aid kit, a proper one from a licensed seller in store, I put it up high, Zahra climbed up and pushed it to the ground, the lock stayed intact, but it popped open from the hinges, I thought it was a fault, took it back and was given a replacement, I asked  Zahra to show me how she did it, this time it didn’t pop open, but the time I wasn’t looking and she did it again it did. I took it back and left with a refund, I am by no means saying the first aid boxes are rubbish, just this one was and I need something to keep this kid safe.

I won’t lie, we’ve had some pretty scary incidents, I’ll give you one; put Zahra to sleep for her afternoon nap, she was about 18 months old, I leave her IN her cot fast asleep to pop some clothes in the washing machine, I check in on her, yep still snoring away, so I head to the kitchen which connects to our laundry to make a cuppa tea, kettle on, turn around….argh Zahra is standing between me and the laundry with a bottle of AJAX! The baby gate is off as I was previously in there putting the washing on remember, well I didn’t put it back because after putting my coffee on I was going to use the AJAX to wipe the benches. So poop hit the fan, I’m in a panic, I call poisons info, they do a ingredient check and phew she’ll be fine, she did however ‘burn’ off her taste buds for about 6 months. I now make my own cleaning products out of vinegar and stuff. Right, so AJAX won’t fit in a Juno bag; Juno if you’re reading this, could you possibly make humungous cleaning boxes?!

Now, I’m not a terrible mum, it happens, heck I got my first born to age 8 (don’t worry she is still here, I said 8 as that’s how old she is now) without any poison incidents, it’s just that some kids are more curious, more adventurous, we forget something out, we become busy/caught up and just plain distracted, accidents happen, it’s not done on purpose.

So what about this Juno Childsafe? Juno Childsafe are a safe way to store your medications away from curious minds and tiny hands. It’s a bag that comes in 3 different sizes, I’ve used all three sizes for different times, basically if you need to store more you use the bigger one. I take the smallest with me everywhere in my handbag, to carry prescribed medication. I used to sit like someone was going to rob me of my bag when out with Zahra as she’d always go searching in my bag while I’m shopping or talking, but now I can sit at ease, hunt away my child, hunt away.

These genius bags designed by a mother and doctor are a godsend, pop what you need in and zip it close, make sure it’s closed by giving it a tug open. There are no codes to flip around nor key locks, it’s some great secret hidden lock. To open it is easy for adults, just follow the directions, I’m not explaining how to open it here as my eldest Ashley sometimes reads my blog and she is still a kid, she won’t take pills but she would try to open it.

Zahra has had her fair share of attempting to break into the Juno Childsafe and every single time she’s tossed the bag and walked away in a huff, and she’s tried a lot, she doesn’t give up easily. She’s even attempted to use things to wedge it open like a pencil with no luck. Has she given up? I don’t think so. We even had a nurse (administering our flu jabs) last week say ‘oh you told me about these, they’re easy to open I read the flyer and looked them up’, so I tossed the Juno Childsafe at her, she couldn’t open it until I demonstrated.

Now, Juno Childsafe is not childproof, what does that mean? Well, if you show an older child how to open it, they see HOW you open it or sit with it long enough to figure it out then it’s no longer child proof, so don’t show them and be vigilant of where you little and big one’s are when opening it.

I believe every family with young children or carers of the differently abled need a Juno Childsafe, it would stop so many accidents and in some instances death.

Do I recommend them? 100% yes. I believe the bounty bags that are handed out at hospitals during your pregnancy should have a Juno  flyer in it, and flyers at doctor surgeries, people need to know of these.

How many of us carry ‘simple’ pain relief meds in our handbags like Nurofen and Panadol and toss our bags to the back seat with the kids?  There are thousands of examples I could use that could have a potentially terrible outcome and the easy way to eliminate this, is with Juno Childsafe. It’s not just for humans, some people own pets only and they’ve rushed their fur babies to the vet from chewing up packs of pills.

Pros;

• walking, talking child/ren who are safe from substances we need
• multiple sizes to for different times
• not just for medications can also store your expensive jewellery and make up in
• different colours

Cons;

• Zero! and that’s a first, I always find an issue with something.

Have I got you curious yet? You may not be in need of a Juno Childsafe but someone else might, so please share away, you could save someone a lot of heart ache.

Facebook Juno Childsafe  & their website is Juno Group

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Let them create their own Magical World with Glitzi Globes

You may have seen these Glitzi Globes appear on the shelves lately in many stores and wondered, ‘what the heck is this thing?’, well, let me explain it all to you. Glitzi Globes are these pretty cool snow globes, but …

Bebet & the Pis

Therance & I 2006

Here’s a lil’ story of me and my Bebet.

After my darling mother (Sabiana) told me, ‘you need to go out, you think a man is going to turn up on your doorstep? GO OUT’, I decided to have a looky at what the net had to offer, not being so enthusiastic about it, I tried just one dating site called Love Happens, which has since closed due to being unpopular.

I was very picky, as you are when you’re 22 years old and only ever had 2 boyfriends. So I filled in the relevant stuff they ask and up they came with 50 ‘specimens’ for me to have a look at. I threw some words together and copy and pasted them to a select bunch. I’ll be honest, I got 2 replies. Heck, I didn’t think I’d get 1 reply.

One was way too creepy and seemed to have become really acquainted with a life like doll that he’d forgotten how to communicate with a true living, breathing human. So he was a big no go.

The next one, well he seemed too good to be true. You know the one’s where you wonder ‘why the heck are you single?’, do I dare say it? yeah! ‘you gotta be gay’ or full of shit. So I decided to try my luck with this one.

Yep, too good to be true, the dating site only allowed you to send 1 message and 1 ice breaker to each member. I’d used mine up. Oh well, I tried. Off I went on my usual day to day things forgetting about the one guy I finally found that I think I liked.

Now before Facebook there was a place called hi5, yes there was other social media sites before Facebook and no they were not 5 hyperactive 20 something year olds bouncing around entertaining kids. Hi5 was the ‘it’ place to be. I was bored and decided to search some friends on there, as you do. In my stalking, I saw a familiar face, ‘it’s him!’. My faith in humanity was restored. I send him a friend request and he accepted, but upon checking his profile, he had a young girl who was very flirtatious with him and I settled for friends.

Assumption is a bitch, she may have been flirtatious but it was one way. He sent me a message and it ‘blossomed’ from there. We communicated via phone calls, texts, emails, smoke signals etc. I still thought it was too good to be true, this was internet dating after all, you can say you’re single and the other wouldn’t know if it was true or not, and I was so bloody smitten he could have told me he had a second head and tail and I’d probably of giggled.

Here’s the thing, I lived in Australia and he lived in the Seychelles. Seychelles is where all my family are from. We’d never ever met, but had been chatting for nearly a year. The 23rd of March 2 something in the morning before he headed overseas for sports, I get this text message ‘will you marry me?’. I went stupid, a happy stupid, I ran into mum’s room, yes the woman who said I needed to go out to meet a man, and told her, ‘mum he proposed, what do I say’. My mother’s response, ‘ok, go away’. Ok so she was sleeping. I went back to my room, and stupidly said YES!. I say stupidly, as if anyone told me ‘oh I met this guy online, he could be lying, and I’ve never met him, but I’ve accepted his marriage proposal’, after I’ve slapped you, I’d tell you you’re being stupidly naive.

Let me add some more naive moves in. I organised to go to Seychelles to meet him, he arrived back from overseas on the 21st of June and I arrived the following day. I got out of immigration and customs pretty quick, and quickly dodged past him and his two friends who were there to pick me up. I sat in a dark corner and watched them, I even saw them ask some flight attendants if I was on the flight and still inside. I was shitting bricks. I finally got the courage, that and they were walking away to leave and I needed a ride home. So I up and grew a set and called out. Crap! Now my insides were tight, my heart was in my throat and I felt like vomiting.

He hugged me, I went gooey.

His two friends left a  few hours later and left me and him there. I had a shower (it was a long 2 flights) and he slept (he also had a long flight from Belgium). We spent the day getting to know each other, when it came to that evening, I was ready for him to go, as the last bus is around 6:30ish back to town. He didn’t leave, I had no intention of him staying.

Since 22nd of June 2006 when I stepped off that plane, he never left, and he never has. The only times we’ve spent nights a part is when I gave birth to our daughters and my recent knee op. December 14th 2006, we got married. So no my beautiful mother, I didn’t need to go out and find my Bebet, he kinda turned up to my doorstep (internet doorstep).

All these years, children, more ups than downs, he wasn’t too good to be true or gay! He’s still here with me and I still get gooey over him. I drive him absolutely bonkers but he is still my Bebet and I his Pis (monster and flea, don’t ask), I still reach for him at night and he still needs to have his hand on my butt to sleep.

This is the story of how the Bebet met his Pis.

Don’t forget to say hi of my Faceboo Page Everyday Mum and I’m on instagram, just search everydaymum

I not fluffy?!

Miss Zahra has taken it upon herself to let us all know when she has passed wind, “I farted, mummy”, and if I don’t respond she will continue to tell me until I have acknowledged her fantastic earth moving, room …

Lubing the Nostrils with FLO Nozoil

It’s Spring, and millions of us suffer from dreaded allergies at this time of year, nothing really we can do about the allergies a part from take a pill and spray some icky membrane thinning nasal sprays up our noses, …

Feeling Pretty Fancy’ in Gold Class

Who doesn’t like to feel pampered every once in a while? I sure do. I have resorted to something I dread to get some quiet me time, donate blood, I don’t dread donating the blood, I hate the needle. You …

Feed Me Dino – Vtech Baby

Miss Zahra and the ever hungry Feed Me Dino

Last month Miss Zahra received a Feed Me Dino by Vtech Baby as a gift and has put it to the ‘Zahra Destruction Test’. Did it make it? Well, you’ll need to read on.

The Feed Me Dino is aimed at little one’s aged from 11/2 year to 4 years, it’s vibrant colours, musical tunes and large buttons and dials make learning through play fun, exciting and wanting more. Zahra knew some fruits and vegetables but now knows all 8 of the specific one’s on the round disks that are fed to Dino. She’s even got a favourite song from it that she sings along to, and it has a lot of songs, it’s not yet driving me crazy, I guess because it doesn’t only have 3 songs.

Some features;

• 2 volume levels, Quiet & not quiet
• 2 modes that are easily switched between (numbers & shapes)
• Zahra’s favourite the turning dial that changes songs
• Large individual coloured, shaped and numbered buttons (when the buttons are pressed depending on the mode, it will tell you the number, colour and or the shape along with a song)
• Bop the question mark button on the head and Dino will tell you something or ask you something or request food, he’s very specific with his food, he’ll say something like “can you feed me, the Orange Carrot”
• Automatic shut off (very handy as Miss Zahra likes to take Dino to bed with her)
• 11 sing along songs and 20 melodies.

It also has a bunch of Developmental features;

• Fine motor skills
• Imaginative play
• Discovery and exploration
• Language and development
• Recognition

Feed Me Dino recognises the food your little one will feed him, little one’s pop a piece into his mouth and he’ll sing what you just feed him saying the colour and the food, once his belly is full the little orange door is opened and all the food is there to start again. He also has some ‘rollers’ underneath and can be pulled along with the attached string.

Some loves from a parent, the pull string isn’t very long at all and doesn’t present as a strangulation hazard. Very durable, it’s lasted nearly a month so it has to be, easily wiped clean, secured (with screw), non flimsy battery cover, ‘speaker’ is at the back so no sounds are directly at the child, there is no sharp bits or anywhere little one’s can get caught on and it’s learning through play!

I have one dislike, well Zahra has one dislike, the tummy flap/door doesn’t stay closed very well, it opens with the most sensitive bump, she gets a little grumpy when she takes Dino for a stroll down the hall and his tummy pops open and his food scatters everywhere.

Now, would I recommend the Feed Me Dino? Yes. I think it’s a great education, durable and fun toy for any child.

For further information on VTech and its products, visit http://www.vtech.co.uk , or check out the VTech news on Facebook @ VTechANZ and Instagram @vtech_electronics_australia