Oh My Giddy Aunt!

Well, in the words of Samuel's Prep teacher, Oh my giddy Aunt it has been a long time since I have written, thought about or even contemplated this blog! How has the spark been rekindled you may ask? Simply by a dear friend who is now a fellow blogger. We caught up today in a park, were judged by more diligent and militant mothers, and somehow ended up chatting about writing, blogs etc and she challenged me to post away again. Such fun!
(Just to digress slightly, this dear friend of mine has four lovely children and is a super parent. However, eight years and decades of swing pushes later, I feel we have both earned the right to monitor our children from behind a thermos and do not need to march around the playground telling off other kids. We still brave the heat, dust and first time mothers to take the children to a child friendly environment so we can have some much needed adult conversation - honestly, if we were as neglectful as insinuated, we would have taken them to the local wine bar and sat them in the corner playing iPad. Hmm.. that's not a bad idea...)
Anyway! Digressions aside, since my last post, two of my little darlings have started school and the youngest has braved her first fortnight at kindergarten. I have a casual job, am returning to Uni, and I have given up housework and cooking (slight exaggeration of course - I do chuck a bit of toilet duck in the loo occasionally, and my new dinner specialty is 'Freezer Surprise'). I have also banned painting, vacuum up Lego ruthlessly and have been known to claim "I speeka no Englash" while running to the other side of the house when the kids decide to argue over remote controls, the computer, my little pony, who looked a who first, if Pluto is/is not a planet, the point of the United Nations..you get the idea. In other words, we are out of baby land and into Kid Land aka crazy, irrational, verbally masterful, fun, exciting, constantly on your toes Land. Its fantastic, enjoyable, entertaining, exhausting, self-esteem crushing and everything else in between. I love my older kids. Life is super busy, and there is always something challenging the peace, but I have to admit that I love seeing these little people grow less-little people.
A few little antidotes:

Why I Banned Painting (Dedicated to my Dear Friend)

About six months ago, I was suffering from SMS (Shocking Mum Syndrome - otherwise known as S**t Mum Syndrome). The TV had been on for what felt like years, the kids had not eaten a veggie in days and I felt like I was the worse Mum ever. Instead of crying into my cup of tea for yet another day, I wiped my hand on my saggy leggings and decided to get the kids painting. Note to self: if you are not having a good week parenting wise, it is very ill advised to go from TV vedge land to painting - probably the most hard core task for a parent EVER. Anyway, as I was trying to score some serious Mum points, I set up the three kids outside with easels and little pots of paint and water. For a good three minutes  I swanned around knowing I was probably going to go straight to Mum heaven for this act of awesome Mum-ness. Then one of my little darlings needed more water, one paint and one a clean brush. So I nipped inside for TWO MINUTES to sort them out, thinking at the time how I could somehow let it get around school/kinda/Australia that I was such a caring earth mother. Upon sashaying back outside with more supplies, I have to say all motherly love evaporated.
The two eldest had stripped the youngest bare and had painted her head to toe GREEN. All in her hair, eye brows, bottom - everywhere. She then ran inside and jumped all over our 'grown up' couch.
All I can say is that I might have cracked the absolute poos and chucked every bit of paint paraphernalia into the bin, and declared our house a paint free zone for life.

Youngest Stands up to a Bully

Early childhood programs tend to all have a similar approach to kids picking on others. The kid being picked on is meant to say "Stop it! I don't like it!" to the other child, and if the child is question does not stop the offending behavior, they are then encouraged to tell a teacher.
Being the youngest, Bek is well versed in this particular doctrine.
The other day I asked her how Kinda was. She said that Charlie was poking her. I said "What did you do?"
She replied "I said 'Stop it! I Don't like it!" I asked her if he stopped. She said that he didn't. I asked her what she did next, expecting that she went and told the teacher (Old Hat that she is).
She replied " I kicked him, and I punched him and I tried to bite him. Then he stopped."
Needless to say, I was speechless.

YAAAAWN ... tis late. Will super try to write more soon! Ta-ta