After school

We are home from school. Felix and I enjoyed a spring afternoon riding along the Yarra River from school to home. We arrive and Felix annoces he needs some toast and like an expert gets the bread into the toaster. He is so excited when it pops and quickly butters and spreads vegemite on one and honey on the other. I smile as I hear the munching tune which means I am happy coming fom Felix as he sits at the table tucking into his afternoon tea. I think he might be ready to be a big brother again :)

Dancing

Matilda had her debute at the 45th Polonez Anniversary while Felix and Michael are at their 2 year at 17 year marks respectively. I find myself cringing when parents go on about how wonderful their children are but perhaps for once I might indulge. I actually had this warm gooey feeling of pride and thought that both Matilda and Felix were really cute on stage dancing. I will admit that I didn't watch anyone else when they were on stage :) Interestingly their motivation for dancing vary. Felix get extremley excited and nervous leading up to a concert. He loves to dance. He is very social and find the after polonez practice time very important. It is wonderful to see his confidence with senior as well as junior dancers back stage. Matilda does enjoy the social aspect too but it is not the dancing that motivates her, but rather the costumes and make-up. Dancing is just a nessasary part of the "dress up". I find myself being completely relaxed with the children both back stage and in the theatre. All our years of performacing supporting Michael, both in Oz and overseas has meant the children instinctively know when not to talk out load and keep quiet and are reliable and welcome backstage.

The blob

My body is pumped full of hormones ones that have for the first trimester caused me to become a blob. I vowed that I would keep really fit during my pregnancies and yet mother nature has other ideas. To suppress the nausea I resorted to stuffing my mouth with food [some cravings include; fetta cheese, vinegar (it seems to taste great on everything)] and hence my waist line has grown. I have popped and interestingly only half is baby the other half is fat. Fortunately I have experienced this phenomenon before (pregnancy 1 & 2) and it seems that my blob is designated for making breastmilk for baby 3 and Matilda if she doesn't wean as I thought she had (we had a feed this morning!) With a dawn of feeling better YAHOO for trimester 2 I will remain a blob now for the rest of the year and a little of next :)

Pregnancy Third Time Round Trimester 1

Our first planned pregnancy! Although I thought it might take a little longer as I am now in my thirties! I was convinced that I would continue my canoe polo and netball until well into the second trimester- my body has had other ideas! Bang on 6 weeks the grumbling of nausia started to take hold a gradual build up till week 9 when I begging my GP for something to just give me a moment of feeling normal rather than the constant feeling of nausia. I have tried everything: Ginger in every available form: capsule, raw, cooked, beer, tea: NOTHING! Even the medication for my GP does nothing. I now sleep 10-12 hours every night and love to have a 2-3 hour sleep in the daytime if possible! So this trimester has plagued me somewhat as I ignore everyone I live with and barely make it through a day at work: my poor husband and children :(

I look forward to not feeling this sickness hopefully soon as this feeling should go away at the 3 month mark! What I am finding the most difficult is that I am whingeing about how I feel- I just want to stop feeling this way come on body!

Who came up with the concept of time? And what do children have to do with it?

Hey what time is it? Who cares? Sorry a little rant and rave. It seems to me that time rules the world at the moment.
Time to start school. Time to be there and there and for this long. Time to have that a baby out. Time to retire. Time to grow up. My memory of childhood was timeless and I thank my parents for never proactively teaching me the time. The only time I knew of was bedtime 8:30. But 8:30 really meant some time after A Country Practice finished on Television which came after brushing our teeth, having a bath putting on the pajamas, eating dinner, playing and coming home from school.
I was watch less (timeless) until I started high school. A small family tradition (we only have a few!) has occurred for 3 generations and I hope for the next too. Your maternal grandparents give you at watch on your 12th Birthday and this is what I experienced and want my children to have too. A timeless 12 years. No time accountability, let the adults in their life take the responsibility. Being 12 usually marks the start of high school and an era in your life of real time responsibility. Catching the bus to school, taking yourself to basketball practice or meeting friends at the cinema.So yes a wrist watch makes sense.
Ok so I cringe when I see a 5 year old being trained to read the time from their watch, what I experienced last night and I blog to release my grrrr. A watch is like a a shackle, a way to control and make a child somehow accountable. Hey Felix and Matilda what time is it? :)

New beginnings

I have just planted 10 fruit trees in the back yard with a promise to provide us with yummy summer fruits. Such a simple task in such a busy time of our lives. My sister in law has cancer. My dad battles once again with his health. Yet when out in the garden planting, moving, tending I forget it all for a moment. I am glad that we did get a backyard rather than a simple courtyard as we had imagined when moving last year. While the garden supports me and provides the soil for new beginnings I hope to have the energy and resiliance to support my husband, children and family during the next challenging chapter. We are lucky that each of us has a way to support others: Felix writes letters to his aunty, who he knows is sick, to remind her that he loves her and wants her to be better. Tilda continues to laugh and plays games to keep us smiling. Michael actively listens to our emotional outbursts of anger, grief, confusion and analyses and helps to find an answer.

June 2010_School Holidays_day 1

What better way than to start the holidays than to acquire a piece of equipment that can generate freedom. With a 12.8kg old school steel bike, Felix has found riding a chore rather than the freedom to move, accelerate and weave. So we hit the bike shop in search for the BYK.
Felix undertook a test ride and had a wide excited smile, he was in love, while I thought he looked so comfortable so my mind was made up.
After a ride home (I could hardly keep up with the new machine and its boy) we heading out country to play with Sabina and burn a bonny. Heavy rain and two widely excited dogs greet us on our return. Day 1 of the holidays is over.