reshuffle

We took MIL to the airport today, she's been here for a long visit (a couple of months I think) and headed home. We'll see her in a month or so, we're driving (eeek!!!) to Brisbane after Christmas for a visit with Mark's family and my brother.
Anyway, whilst that was big, in bigger news... while in the area, we dropped into ikea. My leeetle baby is now 3 and thus was allowed to go into the play room with the biggest two. Goodness he was excited and then when we go there he completely jammed up and refused to go it. Given we were the first ones there, Mark went in with them for just a few minutes and within seconds he was waved off. They all had a ball and lasted the whole hour! So we got to have a wander about with just the baby, who tried to ruin the moment with the cranks and then a poo :P The toddler had a ball, when he came out he kept saying 'I jumpted in the balls lots and lots!' cute <3
He is growing up so fast. Next year he is starting a 3 year old kindy and he goes from being very excited to saying there's no way he's staying without Mummy! We'll see....

This afternoon we moved the two bigger boys into the smallest room together and gave the princess the larger bedroom. She loves it, and hopefully she'll enjoy a bit more time with her things away from the destructo boys.

2 More weeks of school left then holidays!

EC

Well...I'm tired and Mark is sick so we're planning to go to bed as soon as the princess is asleep so just a quick post to keep the ball rolling..
Today I caught  a wee and a poo and really that's the only time I even tried so pretty happy with that. I totally recognised the poo signs and got the potty ready however he is quite pudgy and I must have had my angle wrong so while the top hat potty caught most of it, I did end up with a fair bit on my pants, lol!

Pretty funky device really, the lip sits nicely on my thighs so I can use it while feeding etc. Only problem is it's too small and I can't really catch wee and poo at the same time so I've taken to making sure hib bottom is covered (or I thought I did!) and popping a prefold over his penis for wees. Ours is red, it goes faster!

Then we totally missed a poo. It should have been ok, he had a nappy on and was in the ergo yet no nappy (disposable anyway, cloth does all right) is able to contain his poo-plosions. Of course this all happened at ballet drop off, which, while MIL is here to watch the bigger boys, has preceded a cuppa at a local cafe with school mums. So poor old F wore a pair of size 5 pink shorts and a big heavy size 1 coat to the cafe. In true baby Foo style, he found it all highly amusing :)

And there we go, one to keep the ball rolling and yet I've bored myself even typing it out :P
I didn't just deal with crap all day, I also had a lovely ABA morning and...well really that is about it.
Onto tomorrow's multiple school runs and playdates, woo! rofl!

musings..

I am listening as I type to the debate on the proposed same sex marriage legislation change. To be frank, I find it pretty embarrassing that in 2010 this actually needs to be debated. WHY DO YOU CARE??? I just don't get it. You don't agree with same sex marriage then don't marry someone of the same sex as you. What anyone else does is the business of those involved any no one else. Quite surprised by the support in parliament tbh, gives me a bit of hope.

In other news... we pulled some vegies today, we got 4 carrots, 2 parsnips and a tonne (well not quite) or potatoes. The kids ate the carrots with the tops still on, washed thankfully!
And I took the younger three today to an EC talk at natures cradle this morning. Not sure I learned anything I didn't know but  good refresher and we'll give it a bit of a go. I've caught a few wees and poos n the last few days which keeps me going. I must say my commitment is pretty low to this, I just don't have the time to put a huge effort in but F likes nappy free time so will keep that going anyway while he likes it. I suspect he'll be on the move sooner rather than later, he rolled back to front for the first time today and is starting to already pull up on his knees.... This could get messy, lol!

I tried today to put into practice some of the stuff from that blog today. Funnily enough the change was pretty instant not with my big boy as I thought but with my tempestuous yet dear daughter who is particularly testing us at the moment. I had a wonderful morning with her this morning. She did lose the plot this afternoon but she doesn't cope with hunger, tiredness or anything like that and she was great this morning. Will try again tomorrow, perhaps with a sandwich in my pocket rofl!!

trying some new things

Ok...I'm just going to pretend I haven't missed 2 years and jump straight back in. ok?!

I like to think we do pretty well parenting our babies. I'm pretty responsive and gentle, they are breastfed to need, sleep wherever they like, no pressure etc etc. It's becoming increasingly apparent that as they get older we revert back to our own childhoods of yelling, smacking and manipulation. Don't get me wrong, I still think we're pretty good parents but the fact is those tactics don't work particularly well. I still think our children are delightful and mostly empathetic little people for their ages, I just find this method is leading to tension and stress we could all do without. SO what to do? I've read quite a few books about what NOT to do but all this natural/ attachment parenting bibles are light on with practical how to's. I think that's their point of course, to help me tailor our parenting to our children's needs. I have tried a bit of this 'let them do what they like and trust them to do the right thing' kind of thing, not sure the official term but it's absolutely not for me, I've come to realise I believe kids need firm yet gentle boundaries as we guide them growing up.
Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be about me learning new stuff, not me lecturing...long story short, I came across this blog last night and particularly this post and it really made sense to me. It's going to be hard for us to change our habits but we both want to and both see how this current method isn't really meeting our kids needs. This blog has loads of great info about gentle parenting, looking forward to reading the rest!

over a year later...

I have just spent a lovely evening reminiscing and reading through my posts here. Seems like a lifetime ago!

We now have 4 children snoozing, our 4th, who didn't even exist last post is 4 months old, another little man. The biggest boy is almost 7 and finishing kindy, very ready for class one, the princess is not long 5 and loving kindy :) My baby boy is not not even really a toddler and was 3 last month, he is such a rough nut and yet so sweet too :) I'm still on maternity leave until February and although enjoying my time at home, I miss work too. Trying to make the most of this time though, it's most definitely my last lot of maternity leave. Mark had a vasectomy while I was pregnant and while I'm a bit wistful, I am mostly relieved and a little excited! Onwards and upwards, onto the next phase!