Sick Face

So our house inspection has come and gone and I'm back to a grubby house with the help of a tribe of sick children who were so kind as to pass on their sickness to me through their desire to sleep, lay and watch TV on top of me. Thanks boys.

Throat infections, chest infections, ear infections. Lots of infections basically and lots of fever ridden boys wanting cuddles and loads of sleep, and of course an unhealthy amount of snot.

There has been many movie marathons, and medicine breaks. Lots of broken sleep over night resulting in lots of naps. There's nothing quite like a sick kid sleeping in the middle of the day.

Oh and just one hospital visit with this happy chappy who after a nap on me in a hospital waiting room decided he felt much better, pity it took til 2am for him to get there!

So today were having one more home day, some jelly and tinned fruit to get us through the day followed by pea and ham soup for dinner and fingers crossed by Monday everyone wakes up healthy and I can ship the big two back to school before the whining and fighting drives me completely crazy.

Mum Sit

My snow man, including scarf. I think he's pretty snazzy! 

This morning William fell asleep on the way home from school which is pretty usual for him and usually when he sleeps Charlie does some activities while I'm doing housework close by so I can help out with puzzle piece dramas or peeling stickers and make sure he's not drawing with texta on the walls. This morning Charlie's request was play dough and 'mum sit' 

We have a house inspection on Thursday so I really have a lot of other things to do on top of my usual everyday housework but who can say no to 'mum sit' so I sat and for almost an hour we made things, laughed at each other and generally had a really good time. 

Charlie made me 'nunch' he told me 'it's bake-a-beans'

William actually slept for 2.5 hours. Amazing! We managed to play with play dough then do a few puzzles together before he'd had enough of me and went outside leaving me to clean walls and fans.

 

I made a boat and got a bit creative. 

'Prise mum!' 

Considering he got shoved out of the baby spot in the family then lost his play mate to school a few weeks later he's done pretty well this year. We fight every day. Without fail one of us cracks it but I know there's only a short time when your kids are home before they go to school and you aren't the center of their world anymore so I'll soak up the 'mum sit' while I can.

It's an outfit.

Yesterday was free dress day at the boys school, they were meant to wear something purple, green or white. Purple is a hard colour to find in the boy section, green is their school colour and white with little boys is crazy, so this is what we have. 

Jack and I created this outfit, I was so impressed he called it an outfit and was happy for me to gel his hair and snap a few pics before school, doing his KMart pose obviously. 

James, natural born model and poser extraordinaire. I often find him standing in front of his mirror checking himself out. No lack of confidence with this boy. 

There always has to be a picture together, their rules not mine.

Of course once there's photos being taken Charlie needs to be in on the action even if he is still in his PJ's.

Feet woes

This is what I did this morning while Will was sleeping and Charlie was engrossed in playschool. 

Honey on toast and a nice coffee and my blog. I had a million other things to get done while I could but I needed some time off the roller coaster.

This morning I went to school like this. I almost always have 8 million shoes in my car and today I just slipped two on my feet and jumped out of the car.

The worst part was I didn't even notice until another mum mentioned it. James' teacher patted my arm and said it's a sign of a busy mother and she did it once. I felt a little better but still very silly.

I'm still waiting for life to settle down a little after becoming a family of six and it's not happening. I've ordered a cleaner and Charlie is starting daycare one day a week soon. Hopefully then I'll be able to breathe again, until then I'll have to remember to look at my feet before I get out of the car.

6 Months

My baby. Six Months. His first year is half over. That is crazy!

I'd love to say he's been the easiest baby ever and he sleeps amazingly but that would be a complete lie.

He is my longest breastfed baby, the one who has slept with us the longest, and the one who took the longest to start solids. I see a pattern emerging,yes?

He's mastered the art of rolling and refuses to lay on his back especially when it's nappy changing time, but no real crawling just yet.

He's up to 8.4kgs and I'm pulling out most of the size zero clothes, I'm ok with that. 

I got lots of photos of him looking like this. Sneaky boy as soon as I rolled him over he was away before I could get a photo.

He's difficult and doesn't let me sleep, wants to be in my arms 24/7 resulting in my house being trashed most of the time but look at him, I'll never have such a small baby ever again. 

To see his 5 Month photos.

Business for Ladies

If you have no lady bits you may want to skip this post (I'm looking at you Dad).

I've had a hard couple of weeks, I almost gave up on blogging, I was teary, hungry for chocolate, my clothes weren't fitting very well, I was sad, my face was breaking out, things were not good in my world.
Michael told me I was acting like I do when I'm pregnant, for a little while I thought he might be on to something and I freaked out.
Then yesterday after another hard day I realised I had a visitor. You know the un-wanted visitor that arrives once a month, sticks around too long. Yep that visitor.
It's been a fun 15 months without it but almost straight away I felt better my mood lifted because I knew what was wrong. I'd been suffering from 15 months of PMS compressed into two weeks. That's just cruel.
So this morning my jeans felt like they fit again and I wasn't so consumed with cranky thoughts and sadness. I can't believe we have to put up with this rubbish every month.
No wonder woman are hard to understand for men, were full of crazy hormones for 90% of our lives.

Escape.

I love these boys. I love them lots. I spend 24 hours a day doing things for them/with them usually without much complaining. William is six months old next week and I've spent no more than about five hours away from him in half an hour blocks. This week I needed some time out. This afternoon Michael is off on a fishing trip for a few nights and when he gets home he's dropping off his stuff and heading straight back to work and I knew if I didn't escape then I would be at home with my small people for another eight days alone and I knew I'd be rocking in the corner by the time Michael got home.

So yesterday afternoon I went off to the cinemas and saw Ted. A funny movie that didn't involve me having to think much it was a god movie to switch off for a while. I went all by myself, and I even had a hot coffee while I was there. I felt a little bit silly when I first walked in but by the time the movie was over I felt braver. I'd never been to the movies by myself and the last time I went to see an adult movie (not that sort of adult!) with an adult I had two kids that were both in nappies (those kids are now both at school).

Michael held down the fort pretty well while I was gone and when I got home the boys were bathed and dressed, the baby had been fed and dinner was cooked.

So now that I know Michael can do it with flying colours I've started planning more mini escapes.

Do you ever escape for an hour or two?

How Stay at Home Mums Get Fat/Stay Fat*

I've never been thin. After William was born I had lost quite a few kilos. Six months later I've started putting it all back on. Bum. So to try to figure out where I was going wrong I started keeping a food diary and here are some things I discovered.


Being happy with yourself thinking you've had a good day food wise then realising you've fed the children well and all you've had is 3 1/2 coffees, an apple slice and some one's left over toast while you stacked the dishwasher.


Eating a kilo of yogurt for lunch because it's easier to eat while your feeding the baby than making yourself a salad, and once you've started eating the baby falls asleep and your not game to move and by the time you make it back to the fridge the yogurt would be bad, so not to waste it you must finish it right?


Frozen Dinners. No explanation needed.

Having a family block of chocolate at 10pm because it's the only time all day you've had to yourself and you've eaten next to nothing all day and now your starving.

Uninterrupted sleep causing you to eat to keep yourself awake because you haven't slept for more than 3 hours in a row for so long you can't remember.

Play dates  and needing to eat the delicious treats your host made so not to appear rude.

Kids birthday parties and being stuck with your kids half eaten piece of cake and not wanting to throw it out you have to finish it right? (This gets worse with the more children you have).



Now with all this information it's amazing I've manged to stay as slim as I am really.

*Obviously not all stay at home mums, but maybe not just me am I right?

School Holidays are sending me crazy

Yesterday was the half way mark of the school holidays and boy was I feeling it. 

No matter how busy I keep us, how many activities/play dates/outing I organise what I'm doing just isn't the same as six hours at school and when my boys get bored they fight. After yet another fight between the two big boys and another tantrum from Charlie I lost it, and it wasn't pretty. The rest of the day we grumbled at each other and I put us all down for a much needed afternoon sleep. A quick trip to the supermarket and we were on our way home when James and I had this conversation:

James: ' Mum when I grow up I'm going to get one wife and one kid, no, two kids'

M: 'That's nice mate'

James: 'Mum I'm going to have a job too, do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to be a policeman'

M: 'Are you going to be a good policeman or a bad policeman?'

(Lets face it, it's a fair question)

James: 'I'm going to stop people speeding and driving and drinking, and Jack when you get your wife I want you to be a policeman too so we can always be together OK? And we have to live near each other OK?'

The conversation went on like this the rest of the way home and I was chuckling the whole way, by the time we pulled into the driveway I was grinning from ear to ear. I really hope they do stay close as they get older and when they 'get' their own wives and kids. After all this hard work I'm doing now I hope that giving them brothers is the best gift I will ever give them. 

Because this bit is hard.