This and that and whatnot.

Greg's gone back to work today >.< and I've been dreading it for the last 7 weeks! It's been productive and peaceful so far but it's not suprising that I've managed to: take Ting-Tang to the toilet several times and give him his bath, have a cuddle and a giggle and a chuckle and put him back to sleep, put some dishes away, wash up the rest, put on a load of washing, and one in the dryer, sweep the floor and get some pancakes into me all before 10 o'clock because Nick has my other two kids! It'll be a different ball game when they get home though - I bet!

We're going to miss Greg at home SO MUCH! He has been Anakin's big playmate all holidays and I hope he doesn't feel too neglected with just one, mostly preoccupied parent at home. Anakin has been such a beautiful big brother to Andre - he hasn't showed the slightest bit of jealousy or one inkling of spite AT ALL. All he has to say about Andre is "Mum, I CAN'T believe we've finally got our baby!" and "I love Andre SO much" and "Isn't he just so CUTE" ... I thought he might struggle with having to share his parents, but he is just such a loving boy, he's always giving us all big hugs and swooning "I love our family." I seriously don't know what I did to deserve that little boy ♥

I took Andre to school the other day to sit in on some professional development and to sort out the forms to move from a provisional to full teacher registration. (Man, I'll be celebrating with a beer when that comes in the mail!) André got passed around amongst the teacher aides and was mostly a quiet little boy sleeping in his stroller and having a feed. I still like to stay home mainly, but we are making progress from the days when he would scream relentlessly in his carseat on the way to the markets or Woolies and I'd be like "PLEASE REMIND ME TO NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE AGAIN!!!"

I had my girlfriend Karen come and stay for a few days with her boy Jake. Jake and Izzy went to preschool together at Trinity Beach and she was my walking partner for a couple of years. She ended up moving to a beach further North and I ended up at a beach further South so we're miles away now but still try and catch up a couple times a year at least. She rides a Harley and is a prison guard, I told her she should do riot squad training and come back to sort my kids out for me ;) Jake has grown HEAPS - the boys are WAY taller than their mothers now. But they're still little shits ;) We got some tennis in while they were here. It's so good not to be in constant pain and to be able to run around again! (That pregnancy was HARD). But even with the heavy duty sports bras I'm still getting use to my big boobs. Greg reckons they're "happenin". I reckon he needs to take a photo coz they're not going to be around for ever.

I've got an interview with Cairns School of Distance Ed on Friday. I'm thinking I might home school Izzy. He got such a shocking report card last semester and it's not like he's stupid, he just thinks he know everything already! I lectured him for days over that report card, I was so upset with him. I told him he can't go around acting like he's smart and bring home marks like that! I sent him out in the yard over the holidays to give him a taste of menial labour and told him that's what he's got ahead of him if he continues on this road. He admitted it was pretty shocking and is going to try harder, concentrate more and be more organised this year. I told his dad that Izzy spending hours at home on his own in the afternoon before he gets home from work is not going to happen anymore. That he needs more supervision, more structure, more guidance... that he can come home to me in the afternoons where I will make sure he gets some decent food into him and supervise his homework etc. And then I'll drive Izzy down the road to meet him after knocking off work. Paul was ready to fob Izzy's bad results off saying "oh, you know, there's all sorts of people in the world, some people just aren't academic... ) And I'm saying "IT'S GRADE 8!!" And telling Izzy it doesn't generally get easier as you go along it gets harder! You need to put in the EFFORT now!!!! I was totally ropeable! (This is what I was dealing with two days after getting out of hospital.) Anyway I think Izzy appreciated my harder and MUCH more concerned stance on the whole situation and was very helpful and more respectful around here over the holidays so that's one thing. At the moment I'm sending him to school tomorrow to pick up his timetable so we can see if he got into the subjects he chose and collect some forms so he can sort out a tax return number (coz I'm sending him to work!). And then on Friday I'll have the home school interview, see if he can catch up on Japanese, which he is keen on taking... see how it all sounds. He is really keen on the home-school alternative and I like the idea of spending more time with him, I think it's much better for him here, being part of this family and being with his little brothers. I'm looking forward to getting stuck right into it with him and getting him up to speed with his schoolwork again and there's quite a lot of stupid shit going on at that school it wouldn't hurt him to avoid as well!

André is charging along! He's six kilo's now. He loves sucking his fist really hard - I think he's going to be a thumb-sucker as soon as he can co-ordinate himself. He still gets really flusted on the boob when my milk lets down, like he's half drowning. He pulls on and off and on and off and gets out of breath and grabs at me and claws. When he's not having these issues though he's such a sweetie at meal times. He has this little quiet moment of reflection before he attatches like he's saying grace. Sometimes he just licks at it like a little kitten. His eyes are still blue, maybe he'll take after Grandad "Frankie Blue Eyes".

You give me fever.

My little Ting-Tang is losing his hair! His hairline has been receding rapidly for about a week now - where once his peachy fuzz actually met his eyebrows now he's starkly bald all the way back to the middle of his head! He reminds me of all those girls who have spent their lifetime pulling their hair back too tight and end up with more forehead than is natural. I love his ginger nut and hope his lost hair grows back exactly the same!

We are starting to get beautiful smiles out of him now. Unlike Anakin who was born smiling, he has been a fairly serious little fellow and I spend all my time trying to get him to lighten-up. I munch on his little chinny and blow mini-raspberries under his neckle. Then I kiss his lips one at a time - first his top one and then his bottom. He sticks his tongue out and licks me. It's so funny. His smiles are just beautiful. Anakin gets them when he brushes André's hair (and scalp!) When Izzy's around André seems amazed with him, his gaze follows his biggest brother around the house and he tries to locate him whenever he hears Izzy's voice.

(I did get around to cutting Izzy's hair. And then I dyed the end of his fringe and the tips of the back black. I really liked the way it turned out - his hair is very dark so it's quiet subtle. Anyway should stave off his urge to get a facial piercing or ear plugs for the time being at least!)

Greg's got a real way with him too. Sometimes (like 4am this morning) I just can't settle him down, sometimes he just needs his Daddy's arms I think.

Or maybe just someone without milk pouring through their clothes to remind him of how full he is already! My sister has the knack. She puts the kibosh on both my little boys. She just makes all the grizzles melt away as they turn to putty in her hands.

As I hoped Anakin woke up after New Years Day right as rain. His beautiful eyes as bright as normal and his enthusiasm back with a vengeance. Except Andre suffered the same fever a couple days later and spent an entire day sleeping on one of us, boiling hot - so cruel in this already incredible heat. He whimpered in his sleep and everytime we moved him he screamed like his bones where broken :( how unbearably cruel for such a tiny little boy :( Thankfully he came good just as fast as Anakin :)

We've had an influx of visitors lately and it's been really nice. Kelly and her kids came to swim in the pool and eat sweet treats... Yesterday we had friends over with their first born of 9 weeks. The two babies had a nice chorus of squarks and squeals going on at times. It was funny. Poor little Jayden who's use to life inside an air conditioned house didn't know what was going on! He fretted and fussed until his mum put a wet washer on his head and put him directly under the fan - he passed-out in 2 seconds flat after that! I've used that little trick a couple times since! We've had Bowie over, a mate of Greg's who can talk about anything and is so easy going, you could adopt him into the family without a single hump. We've had René and Tiff and their kids, who are my family anyway, and who are always such a huge help with the kids. My old friend Tracy dropped in all glorified in her hotpants and diamante fuchsia heels. I said to her "Tracy have you had a boob job recently?" And she's like "No. They're just fantastic!! Aren't they fabulous?" She takes herself to restaurants for lunch and drinks cosmo's and salt n pepper calamari." She's a local but could have walked off the set of AbFab. She cracks me up. Big time. Then we've had Greg's parents the last few days too. And Greg's cousins here today. We're always catching up with friends and family - just about every dinner time! It's the holiday season alright - going on and on...

Speaking of which I need to go get ready for our dinner date at the resort! xxx Not that any food can be better than the breakfasts I've been eating all Summer. Check this out:

My bum hates me.

Yep. It does. Something's going on down there. Besides the fact that I almost have an anxiety attack whenever I need to do a number two - a lingering post-natal side-effect, reminding me how glad I am that I'm never going to use my body to push another baby out, ever again. Maybe they put a few stitches in my arse while they were down there - how lewd can I be, but seriously. Ouch.

André is fleshing out, with little ham hock arms and I can actually fit clothy nappies on him these days. Not that he needs them much. We go through WAY more nappies mopping up spewkies. We thought we were pretty good having Anakin on the potty at 3 months. André's 3 weeks and for the last week we have been holding him over the toilet for about 70% of his wees and 100% of his poos. He wiggles about in bed when he needs to go and just won't stop wriggling until I take him to the loo and then it's straight back to sleep. Little babies - they do those power squirts of milky curdles straight into the toilet bowl. We just say "Do a wee-wee. Do a wee-wee." And he concentrates real hard and grunts away until he's all done. It's all over in about 20 seconds and then we wipe his little butt with a makeup remover pad and off we go to put his dry nappy back on. Too easy - well not quite as easy as just letting him pee his pants I spose.

He had a few real squarky, fussy days there where I thought something I was eating might have been having an affect on him but I did a heap of reading and now that I'm a bit more aware of the whole fore-milk, hind-milk situation, I've been trying harder to get him through the whole foreceful letdown stage and persisting through to the hindmilk without swapping him over to the other one or figuring he's just frustrated by actually getting milk at all and wants to comfort suck on a dummy.. Now he's spewking up a whole lot less and settling a fair bit easier too, with a big full belly I hope...


Another thing that might have been unsettling him is that the humidity has been totally "off the chain" (I got that one from Izzy). I sit here at the computer with sweat rolling constantly down my chest. I wish I was like my sister - she never sweats. Not the faintest sign of a sweat moustache ever. Greg set up the pool with a shade sail and the kids have been having a riot in it every day.


I've got the carport set up nice with the comfy outdoor furniture and the camping mat on the ground, potplants hanging up, and the caravan is tucked up under the eaves out there, I've got a fan plugged in and Greg has his homebrew rum and coke on tap out there. We've got the life I tell you. I sit out there cracking macadamia nuts and doing crossword puzzles, with the baby snuggling in to me. It's the best. I'm not bleeding anymore so I can finally swim too. Though I usually opt for cold showers. I start off the day dressed. And then the shirt comes off. And then the pants come off. Poor Izzy has had to stomach his Mum getting around half the day in her bra and undies. I jump in the shower and walk around wet, until I dry out and then I do it again. Straight cold. That's all I've been using for ages. Not Izzy though coz he was complaining to me last night "I bloody hate this shower. I'm either freezing my balls off, or getting third degree burns!" He makes me laugh..

Anakin, the poor darling woke up all night last night and by this morning had a raging temperature. He reckons every time he shut his eyes he saw monsters and robots and a plane coming out of my poster. He was delirius the poor boy. During his garbled mummerings he still managed to tell me how beautiful he thinks I am. That child is a total angel I tell you! He ate orange and cherries and watermelon today and a few other bits and pieces. He picked up a bit during the middle of the day, but I think he got carried around as much as André today. Thankfully he's got two parents home! He's going to get his sickness out of the way real early this year and spend the rest of it in superlative health!