The best job in the world...

My check in for the week.

Tuesday is weigh in/measure day.

I hate doing it on a Tuesday.  I am a Monday girl.  Start the week, weigh in and measure.  But when I started my new eating plan I quit the junk on Monday and started Tuesday.

I am one of those people who says, oh well, it's Tuesday, I will start on Monday - and then spends the rest of the week over-indulging knowing that I am supposed to start eating good come Tuesday.  This time I just bit the bullet and began.  I can't force myself to weigh in a day early to get to a Monday weigh in.  I'm a bit pedantic. hehe.

Anyway, I have lost another 1.3kg and a few more cm from the main parts of my body.

I still haven't mastered the exercise, but kindy resumes tomorrow and I'm hoping to find a 30 minute out each morning after kindy drop off to pile the boys into the pram and go for a walk. 

My eldest baby is starting morning kindy tomorrow!  People always tell you when you have littlies, time goes so fast.  It hardly ever feels like it at the time.  But when the day rolls over and your child enters the education system, even if its a half day, 5 days a week - you suddenly realise, time actually DOES go fast.

And as the littlest one looks up at me with his big blue eyes, I can't help but think that this stage of life, with babies in arms, needing lots of time, cuddles in laps, being brought crumpled flowers, having full, clean dishracks pulled off the bench to the floor... tornado worthy destruction in and out of the house every day, kids at my ankles, never ending hungry tummies and a little bit of chaos in every waking moment - it's short.  And you know what - it's a lot of fun.  It is totally worth it.

People have looked at me a bit sideways, seeing me out and about - I probably look like chaos on legs.  A 3 year old in the near distance, chasing a daring toddler and lugging a capsule along for the ride.  Someone commented about how busy I look...I just looked around with a big grin and said "I LOVE it!"

I have never felt more settled, more content and more happy in my role as a mum of little ones than I do right now.  My babies are beautiful, they make me laugh, they drive me wild, but they are SO awesome.  I have taken a long time to feel like this part of my life is ok.  This is what I'm doing, and it's ok.  In fact, it's good.

The pay isn't great, and as for rewards - it's incomparative to the business world which I clung to, now some 4 years ago.  It might be 5 minutes of quiet for a coffee on the deck, a big cheeky grin, watching someone master a new tunnel or height that they haven't yet scaled, say a new word or sleep an extra hour at night, a big sloppy kiss or just to play nicely with the other sibling for 10 minutes - but the real rewards are eternal.

These are artworks, but they carry their own brushes.  I must provide the materials, the paint, the studio for the beginning stages - but at some point, they will be displayed in the great exhibition of life. The strokes that they make with their brushes will be those that shape their worlds, and more so, change their worlds and the worlds of others. 

The investment requirement is 100%. All or nothing.  The hours are long, with a permanent on-call basis, the job description ever changing, task-list never ending.  Seems a crazy business deal. 
You don't quite realise what you've signed up for when the contract first arrives, even though you've read ALL the small print.

But the best job on earth? Some days, I think it comes pretty close.

10 points to me!!

I'm winning at this mummy thing.

See, when it comes to new things, especially in parenting land - I often get a bit "highly strung" about them.

Before Princess Adelaide came along, I sort of thought I would have this parenting thing down pat.  Just another achievement in life - which would ride smoothly, as most of my 'achievements' do.  I had plenty of experience with babies and children so thought it would be ok.

My recommendation to most 'about to be' mothers would now be - read as little of the baby/parenting books as possible until you actually are a parent.  Cause they set you up with expectations of what it will be like, and it's much, much harder than that.

Anyway, you might remember from this, that we are on a toilet training journey at the moment.  Of course, being my eldest, this is my first time toilet training a kid.  So my approach - I expected too much of my girl, and myself - result = highly strung mother, frustration and meltdowns....

I've been here before - trying to get a baby Princess A to sleep more than 45 minutes in the day.  After a million cold cups of coffee, listening to her screaming for hours, trying every suggested method and weeks of being depressed and feeling a failure - my good friend - offered me a piece of advice.

Something like this -
instead of fighting it, just let it go.

Her number 2 was a similar baby to my girl.  He never did more than 45 minutes either.  Once she let it go, she felt better and coped better.  You know what - so did I.

I should follow that advice 95% of the time I'm doing something new with my kids.  It usually takes me a while to remember.  Anyway, the day after I decided to "let it go" on the toilet training business, Princess A decided she would actually get the hang of it.

Now, she is a bright wee cookie.  And a sensitive one.  So she's quite particular.  This has involved some wee's in the bath.  I can reassure you that now about 95% of the time, she goes on the potty.

The story goes, we were in the supermarket today and suddenly she announces, "mummy, I need to do wees" - in the voice that means, I can hold on for a minute or two, but no longer.  One problem, mummy forgot the potty.  Usually a meltdown would follow this, because the "toilet" is too "big for me".

Well, I announced in that mummy voice that we had no potty, and pak n save only had a big toilet.  To my delight, she said she wanted to go on the big toilet.  (She must of REALLY needed to go).

So I drop my trolley, load my screaming Mr John into his carseat, take him, my handbag, the toys she brought into the supermarket, and make a dash to the loo.  I was hoping like anything she wasn't going to have me sit there waiting for an hour (as she has on other days).

Well, very maturely, she did it!  Success to me!  She had to mind you, that, or the uncomfortable feeling of wet pants.  We had to make a second trip at the end of our shopping - success again!

So, since I've taken on the advice - just let it go, she is proving to me that she can do it!  And when there is a relaxed mother involved - she is even better at it!

What have we done well?  Well, we waited to train her until she was absolutely ready - I am pleased to say that she is so precise about going, that she has not had any accidents.  We have tried before - and there were accidents every time.  There is something about waiting until they are ready for things that makes it much less "work".

She initiates, I assist by bribing encouraging the right things.  (I don't bribe all the time - but you have to get your kid out of the bath to do wee's somehow!)  That should be how it is with most of their learning independence.

I'm the big person, so I should act big.  She is the little person, so it is quite ok for her to act little, make mistakes, inconvenience me with her requests for the bathroom, sitting on the potty for an hour at a time and all the rest - but I must take control.

Yep, I'm winning on this one. ;-)

Smile a little.... or laugh - a lot

As I sit here in my quiet household, enjoying a hot cup of coffee & a carrot muffin, in perfect peace (for an hour or so anyway) - I thought I'd just have a random ramble.... because today, for once, I have time.

Life has been fast paced lately.

A lot is about to change.

For the first time - I confessed to my hubby the other night - that I can't wait for Christmas to be over.

It's not Christmas' fault.  It's actually more like this - I can't wait for all the busy schedules, (you know them... playcentre, school concerts, parades, church concerts, work functions, church functions, family functions....) that run around this time of year to be over and for us to just have a break.  A relax. A full-stop - for the 2 weeks or so that the hubster gets off work.

Now its actually not going to be a full-stop.  Because in that time we will be moving house & farewelling my in-laws on a long anticipated OE slash a whole lot of other stuff.  Suddenly it has sunk in that they are leaving us.  For a good portion of the year.  That's quite a big deal.

In the mix, we are selling our house - in potentially the worst market that has existed here in a long time.  If we don't sell, we are tenant hunting.  I'm a bit anti-rentals, but with each passing week and empty open home, we're heading for landlord direction at full steam ahead.  I'm more open to the idea now.... I guess I have to be.

I'm quite aware that God is totally able to do this!!  It's just walking it out, step by step.... it's weird, knowing the next step - but not knowing how the previous step ends, or the one following.... I guess that's why they call it a walk of faith. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, Princess Adelaide is moving on too.  She's such a sensitive little poppet and every 'new' thing has to be done at snail pace.  Or perhaps, partly, HER pace., which is my SNAIL pace.  I'm not sure whether this is her daddy's determined streak coming out (which she has demonstrated since birth), or whether it is genuine need of 'slowness'.  Anyway, I finally forced convinced her, into her big bed.

How did I do this?  Well, I think God answered my prayers (Mr John is about 3cm from the top of his bassinet) - and gave me a creative idea.  I removed the up/down side of her cot, and put it against her prettied up big bed.  I secured it with string (Kiwi ingenuity).  When she came to get ready for bed that night, I gave her the choice - cot with no bar, or big bed with bar.... I was 95% sure she'd choose the bar.  She did.  Success to me!  She still cried for her cot for a few nights, but this was easily fixed by removing the sheets and being firm.  Now she climbs into big bed and settles no trouble at all.

Hopefully I have the same success when I take the bar down!

Actually, the first night in her big bed, she got out and was playing happily in her room for a while.  At about 9pm I hear a whimpering cry.  I went in, and here she was, in the dark, lost.  She'd got out to play and didn't climb back in before dark - so she was lost in her room. *cute*

While moving forward, she has also started potty training.  We were all sweet and making very few mistakes, until the 'potty' started to "hurt her bum".  So we bought a new one.  Then she chose the old one.  *grit teeth*

Suddenly though, she decided that she needed to "go wee's" all the time.  So she'd sit on the potty for an hour or more at a stretch, with no wee, but REFUSING to get off - because she needed to go.  We went to playcentre, and in the 3 hours we were there, she honestly spent about 20 minutes NOT on the potty.  I wiped my brow and breathed a great sigh of relief when her wee finally came out of hiding.

To add to this, my wee girl, when stressed, won't do number 2's.  Apparently this is quite a common occurance amongst children.  (she has been medically checked etc).  Anyway, she hadn't gone for a while, so when it came time for her to desperately need to go - she SCREAMED the neighbourhood down - trying not to go.  So you can imagine, her periodically screaming blue murder every 10 to 20 minutes ALL afternoon & night - because she didn't want to go.

Mr John was teething and cranky as.  In fact, the same day - he cried, non-stop for 3 hours.  I kept my cool ALL DAY.  What an achievement.  Grace from heaven I tell you.

So, I announced to hubster that night, that we were quitting the toilet training for a bit.  And there it ended.  A whole day passed (and once number 2's had come) my wee girl turned back into her usual, mostly happy self.

Then today arrived.  Suddenly she has decided that her pull-ups will LEAK if she wees in them (not that I mind so much), so instead, she wants to go wees.... wait for it, in the BATH.

She feels safe in the bath, and I don't mind so much.  Only that, not everyone has a bath - and some people may not like me saying "erm, excuse me, may I borrow your bath - for my kid to do a wee".  She has excellent control though, may I say, and even held on in the car for 5-10 minutes while we drove to my grandmother's house and erm, borrowed her bath.  Thankfully she is a great advocate in children being toilet trained (she did 6 of them) and so didn't mind one bit.

Miss Adelaide used her bath 3 times.

OK so I don't know how to move forward from here - but I just have to take a chill pill and deal with it, one wee at a time.

I hope you are laughing.  Cause honestly, I could have cried.

What is up with this child rearing thing anyway?  The rate that we parent's often want to pull our hair out, I'm surprised that not more of us are balding.  But for some reason (hopefully other than character development), God gave us these precious bundles, wrapped up in mooshy exteriors, to feed & clothe & somehow rear into individuals who are well rounded, great charactered adults who live their dreams and do amazing things.  *and hopefully raise some of their own 'precious bundles' - that way I can snicker at my kid's parenting woes, be a great support and help them out often.*

Last night I told my in-laws that I don't know how people have four kids.... I think I say something similar when in labour...

But, in the midst of this hilarious adventure (I'm an optimist), there is something truly beautiful happening.  The world is an ever-changing place, and though it may seem like at times, it's ever changing for worse, I have to confess - that I believe we are heading for things that people have only dreamed about in years gone by.  Amazing, good and breath-taking things.  The world as we know it, is changing.

Perhaps in all our difficulties of parenting and life in general, we forget that we are fighting for a generation who will live and do extraordinary things.  Hopefully we will do that, but our kids should only surpass the greatness we achieve.

Take a moment to put aside the challenges you have faced this year, and are facing right now - and dream a little.

Now, I'm looking forward to Christmas.

Well, until next time - by the way -

can I borrow your bath?

xx