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".