Butterflies and Babies

Spring is in the air today and it’s just the weather to get into the garden. We are going to start a butterfly garden because E6 is wanting to learn all about butterflies this term. A friend gave me some Milkweed seeds (which the caterpillars eat) and some wildflowers (which produce nectar for the butterflies) so today we did some planting. No photos yet because I’m too lazy to upload them…

Oh my gosh I an loving the sun today! So glad winter is coming to an end. I really do love warm sunny days and a blue sky always puts me in a good mood.

Baby in utero is doing fine… growing nicely and kicking around from time to time. I am 17 weeks or so along. What’s that…23 weeks to go! Seems like forever and how much can a body morph in 23 weeks? A heck of a lot actually! I’m so glad the morning sickness phase is over. Right now is a lovley pregnant time for me. I’m neither sick nor the size of a house, so the discomforts are kept to a minimum at the moment. Just little annoyances like my being unable to button my jeans so they are always falling down, but not quite ready for the maternity pants. ehehe

The children are still fascinated by the whole pregnant thing and we’ve had interesting discussions about all sorts of things like where my food goes…”Does it go straight into the baby’s tummy mum?’ It was quite cool being able to explain to the all about the placenta and the umbilical cord and the amazingness of foetal circulation! Love it! Fourth time around and I still find the whole thing fascinating!

Loved

My man loves me,

my kiddies love me,

and that is enough for today.

D woke me this morning with toast and coffee.  He does this from time to time so while I appreciated it, I didn’t think much of it. Only later when he said “Happy Mother’s Day” did I realise he was making an extra effort. Never mind that he was a day early! Hee hee! Loved.

Right not he’s taken the kids out because they want to buy me presents. I’m not really fussed if they do or don’t buy me presents, as long as if they do it comes from their heart and not a pressured obligation to do so. Just as they left B4 comes flying out of the car and shouts “I STILL WANT TO COME WITH YOU DAD, BUT I JUST WANT TO GIVE MUM A KISS!!!” He came and gave me a big hug and a kiss and says “I love you so much Mum”. Loved.

This morning E6 woke up not feeling well and came into bed with me while I had my coffee. We chatted and cuddled together and I so enjoyed my time with her. She’s such a treasure and I’m so lucky that she wants to be with me. Loved.

R2 is just 2, so his love is of a different kind. Before they left he gave me a long hug and sat on my lap. Then a high-five! and out the door. Loved.

Thanks God.

Around the World

Carien at She Laughs At the Days tagged me for this around the world meme. I’m supposed to post  5 favourite things about being a mum. Just a few things that have come to mind….there are a thousand wonderful things about being a parent though…

1) Getting to revisit childhood. Love playing with playdough, swinging at the park and reading great picture books.

2) Having a reasonably good excuse for my house never being completely tidy.

3) Something to laugh about every single day. Kids really do love to laugh!

4) Spontaneous expressions of love from my children touch my heart in a way nothing else can.

5) Seeing my kids learn.

Now to tag some people. 4maze in New Zealand because I’ve never tagged her for anything, Monica of Transplanting Me in Thailand, Katie at The Journey in Uganda, because even if she doesn’t participate you should go and check out her blog anyway…she’s amother on a completely different scale!

The throw-upping is all fishened

My little B4 (can’t believe he’s 4!) woke in the night and after taking himself to the toilet lay down on the floor and whimpered to me…”Mummy, I have a sore tummy”. I got him settled back to bed and a few minutes later he called me again “I wanted to say something to you.” I came and he said “Good night Mum. I love you”.

So, I settled myself back to bed and a little later he called and cried. “I think I’m going to throw up”. Awwww…..so I run to get a bowl and yes indeed he did throw up poor little chap. (I was so proud of him for being able to tell me in time to get a bowl and he didn’t throw up all over the bed….)

His Dad heard the retching and came to help, and my sweet little boy looked up at his Dad in between heaves and said all forlorn
“Dad….I’m throw-upping !”

Awww, my heart turns to mush at his sweet, cuteness. How did I get so lucky?

(Why did I found this sweet and cute in the midst of vomit, I have no idea…just never want to remember these moments with little people)

PS. He’s ok now. No more throw-upping. He’s all fishened. That’s another one of B4’s words. Hope I never forget how it sounds when he says it.

Chicken Pox is a nasty horrible little virus

I suppose you’re all really fond of me by now. You know….Absence makes the heart grow fonder..yada yada..

I’m still here…just fell off the blogging wagon for a bit so to speak. All of my kids have recently had chicken pox. I’m not sure if it was better or worse that they didn’t get it all at the same time. It has meant that our quarantine had been longer, and I’m a bit starved for adult company and sick of the walls of this house. But, at least it wasn’t too hard going looking after them. (Except for yesterday)

E5 got it in the first week of the school holidays. Actually the first day of the holidays so that put a swift end to her sleep over and play with lots of friends plans. She had a mild dose and didn’t suffer too badly. She was such a brave girl throughout and tried so hard not to scratch. She did well…and was always a cheerful patient.

B3 got his spots exactly 18 days after his sister. He was also very brave. He was slightly worse than his sister, but still well enough to be up and playing. SO like him, he didn’t want his photo taken, so I had to sneak this.

Oh, but poor poor baby R. 2 weeks after B3, he too got the pox. This is day 2:

This is how we spent most of Thursday…in my arms with teddy. Tears and snot if I dared go to the toilet.

Cheerful moments were few and far between, but we made the most of them.

And yesterday was utterly horrible.

He was not a happy camper. Neither was I. He’d been awake until 2:30 am the night before and again at 6am and after starting his day at 8am didn’t sleep a wink until 4:30pm for about an hour. He was up until 10pm last night. Poor poor baby. So miserable. Lots of crying. I camped out in his room last night. (On The FLOOR! Yes, on the actual floor because I was oh so clever and moved the spare bed to the other room and one of the kids was sleeping on it! It wasn’t too bad really…I did have a pillow and a duvet. When I tried to leave him sleeping to sneak into my bed in the middle of the night, he woke and screamed loudly for me to stay. Grrr….how do they do that!?)

Today is not much better. He’s hopefully (fingers and toes and eyes and arms and legs crossed and holding breath and touching wood) sleeping right now. It’s been quiet in his room for about 5 minutes so far. If he does, I’m off to read a story to the big kids and try to plough my way way through the mess that has accumulated the past 2 days.

Favourite Things

I asked my kids some of their favourite things.

“Hey B3, what’s your favourite…?“

Colour? white

Food? noodles

Drink? Juice

Friend? E5

Toy? train set

Story? Thomas, Thomas and Thomas the train

Dad? Daddy

Mum? Erin

“Hey E5, what’s your favourite…?”

Colour? Rainbow

Food? Pizza

Drink? Coke

Friend? Caleb….and Corban, Annalyse and Katherine

Toy? fairies

Story? Princesses and Fairy Godmothers

Dad? Dad (giggle)

Mum? YOU!

Just a moment in time….love my kiddies.

Funniest Dream Ever

“Hey Mum…” says E5 as soon as she comes out of her room this morning. Her face has a big smile on it as she goes on. “I had the funniest dream! I dreamed that I laid so many eggs, on three nests! I was wearing these Pyjamas and I accidentally did a poo on one of them!” she ends with a theatrical whisper.

She chuckles to herself and I laugh too. I love this kid. She is so funny and full of life and fun. When she smiles her whole face lights up. It’s fun laughing together in the morning.

She chose the post title too…thinks it’s cool that we’re writing about it.

The Hedgehog Returns

Our little friend came back last night. And I know why. R1 leaves little snacks all over the place for him. He came to eat saltanas.

He was so happy munching and we were able to get so close we could hear him eating. And take a million photos in the dark.( None of them are very good.) Of course once the children figured out he was eating saltanas, they ran inside to get the container and emptied the whole lot onto the driveway in a little trail for him Hansel and Gretel style. He’ll probably come back and finish them tonight.

(I don’t quite know why I’m so fascinated with this hedgehog…probably to most NZ’ers they’re terribly normal and common. But I’d never seen one before coming here. Didn’t even know they lived in NZ…introduced of course.)

It was him

It’s a picture of innocence isn’t it? What a sweet wee lad. Check this out:

You can’t see it clearly but this is B3’s response when we asked who did this. He’s pointing at his brother. Of course. Duh. Silly us.

Clearly this makes him happy. Applause and loud cheers from this boy who is obviously so proud of himself for getting himself something to eat.

Cavity Protection plus Whitening

OK, so who knows how to get toothpaste out of the carpet?

The more I try to clean it the more it turns into foamy frothy lather.

It’s there courtesy of R1 who has a running obsession with it of late. He grabs in out of the bathroom at any given opportunity and eats as much as he can before I take it away. Today however, he managed to sit, stand or squeeze it out onto the carpet. (I don’t know because I wasn’t there….I was on the internet busy doing something.) E5 alerted me “Mum, Come! It’s a toothpaste storm!”

At least it’s minty fresh!