And away she goes..

You think it's when they start school that they begin to leave you..
But in all reality it is so much sooner than that..

Milla Isabelle, 9 months..

C xx

YAY!

IT'S THE HOLIDAYS!

Say no more if you please..

Just pray I survive it..

I was never a big Survivor fan..

But I think I might liken the next two weeks to this reality TV show phenomenon. Just what challenges shall confront me as I strive toward the start of term 3?What will I have to face in this personal struggle in the freaking dead of Winter with my darling angels unable to get outside? My house is my island , my children my endless round of punishing challenges... I am sure I will face the following:

• Days of whinging, endless frowning, much disgruntled grunting ( a well practised technique in our home of chicks.), tiresome foot stamping.
• I am sure there will be screeching, squealing, hitting, even punching as I sort the winners from the losers and struggle onwards..
• There has already been cajoling, bribery and outright yelling - and that was from me!
• Tears shall issue forth, fights will ensue and timeouts are a definite possiblity.
• endless supplies of indoor activities..Cleaning up their toy room, playdough, scrapping, movies, baking, painting, dress ups, make up...
• Hissy fits are on the cards...as are tantys and door slamming..
• Crap from one end of the house to the other..Daily..
• Copious amounts of washing, plenty of messy knotty hair..
• Playdates, bike rides ( in gale force winds) and day trips..

BUT it's a trade off because on my island I do get:

• Smiles, giggles, laughter, plenty of photo oppurtunities and seeing them everyday..
• Sharing, playing with their baby sister..
• Lots of FUN together..
• No school uniforms, no school run, no school lunches to make..
• SLEEP INS..

C xx

an extra confession...of the kitty variety

Confessing my cleaning avoidance issues it seems had some cathhartic (sp?) benefits!

My husband read my blog and even had a chuckle.. Dunno if he particualrly found the virgo comment to his fancy..But what are you to do? He is SO a virgo..Total list maker, neat freak and well - that works for me, which is what made me think of soemthing else I might like to confess.

And when I say confess, I really mean SHARE..Because although I am confessing to a serious cleaning avoidance, it is really a scam that I have managed to get away with..and deep down (insert evil laugh here) I really quite LIKE that I managed to pull it off for so long..


Anyways.. I digress....

Drum roll please...H is beating on a saucepan behind me .. No seriously she's not.. But you get the idea.

When I got pregnant with my firstborn 8 yrs ago (YIKES!) we did all the usual things. Trawled through books (online wasn't so much of an option then) spoke to everyone about it.. We wanted to do everything right.. One day I stumbled across the section of things to avoid.

CATS! Particularly cats bums! Holy crap we have 3 cats! Which adds up to 3 cats bums!

If you don't have a cat you will not know that having a cat means being snuggly quite often with that cats bum. For gods sake do they really need to put it in you face? But apparantly they do.

I craftily realised (insert evil rubbing hand together) by finding myself up the duff,I need not clean out the dreaded kitty litter!

Who called it that anyway?

Our term for it here is ''shitty litter". Much more appropriate.

Needless to say I found myself pregnant within twelve months of my first daughter and continued to avoid the litter box.

6 & and half years and three children later, I STILL don't deign to touch that evil smelly area. It has become HIS chore... Tehe!

Every now and then he would whinge and make comment about my lack of commitment to shit removal... I soon put a stop to that...

Hello baby number four.. SERIOUSLY.. what a valid reason to have number 4.
Not cleaning the kitty litter was in my 'yes let's have another baby' column.. For sure..

confessions of a cleaning avoider..

You know I don't think I was born to clean.
I think I had a higher calling, maybe with a titile:

'She Who Hires Cleaner'.

Yes That she be my title. I could even make it grander:

Duchess of "She Who Hires Cleaner".

But alas I have another title, I am more commonly known as:

'she who can't afford a cleaner, as she doesn't work out side the home and cannot possibly justify one to her working virgo husband.'

Needless to say I find that title rather longwinded and go by the shorthand version of 'Mum.'

So this morning as Mum of this house, I decided that the dogs licking the dropped food off the floor was no longer a satisfactory way of cleaning my tiles.. Mopping required. I HATE mopping.

But to mop, you need to sweep. To sweep, you need to clear the mess left from the breakfast rush and the mass exodus left by three girls. To clear the mess, you need to empty the clean dishes from the dishwasher in order to put the dirty brekky dishes in.

*sigh*

I gave up briefly. Had a coffee and then proceeded to attack with gusto.

It was all going rather well. Until Miss M needed, nay demanded to get out of her highchair. There is only so much high pitched squealing one can tolerate with a broom in hand.
So I release her and I keep sweeping. I have three little piles of dirt..Great.. off to get the shovel and brush. Return to first pile.
Crap.....

Child of high pitched squealing variety is now QUIETLY and diligently eating said pile.

Remove child to far corner of room and hurriedly finish sweeping before she returns.
Set up Miss M with some toys and decide to start the dreaded mopping. Get halfway through to discover Miss M SILENTLY stalking me from behind, crawling her sleep suited self through the WET clean tiles.

Perfect....

Remove her again and try to QUICKLY finish what I had started. Round the corner into the kitchen to find her sitting on the open WET door of the dishwasher.

Excellent....

Remove her again. Put her in another lounge room. I am deluded of course. The child can crawl as fast as I can get out of cleaning in the first place! Get a full 5 min of mopping done before I wonder what she is up to. Cannot be anything good.

Look up the hall to find her GNAWING on a balled up dirty nappy that I had piffed at the general vicinity of the garage in the early hours of the morning from the warmth of my bed...

Wonderful.....at least it's her own filthy nappy. There has to be a bright side right?

Give up and go to the loo. Miss M follows. Funny how I never ever shut the toilet door anymore? Why bother? Privacy is something I obviously gave up four children ago.

Try to do my business with a standing 10mth old hanging onto my trackies and pawing at the toilet roll. She manages to abscond briefly with a mouthful of paper... Come on I was otherwise preoccupied...

I gather her back and in desperation offer her the empty roll, the choices weren't great. Have her crawl and pick up the toilet brush EEK! The toilet roll seemed the better option to allow me peace to finish my business.

So...Rather than worry about the nex pile of washing that was next on my list of things to do. I let her take her roll to play with and grabbed the camera..

That's my confession for the day..
Can anyone beat that?

Cxx

Just coz..

I think she is darling...

Even though..to get these shots:

• I had to put my camera down a ZILLION times to put her back on our 'studio' set up!
• I had to wipe copious gallons of snot from her at 3 min intervals
• I gave up and let her crawl all over me instead of having her photo taken..
• Her chin was covered in a drool rash, that I have spent many minutes geting rid of POST photographic shoot..
• I had to bribe her older sisters with baby chinos and choc truffles at the local cafe (boys would have been happy with a packet of chips surely!) to be my 'assistants'
• I had H dangling a toy in front of her face (and camera *sigh*) to try to get her to look, which obvioiusly did not have the desired effect.

After 15min of this extremely exhausting process.. We were working with a background 'scrap' of material that the olders girls during 'breaks' started to wear as a strapless tube dress..I think I have one decent photo of her looking and lots of other I like to label as artistic endeavours.. Such as you see here!

She is a darling though.. Isn't she?

I also have photos of the older girls with this background. I found my form after I realised I could set the girls the task of holding the backdrop rather than pointlessly using sticky tape on the newly painted dresser! They simply took turns holding (and dropping) it and voila!

An afternoon tea including a lovely strong latte for me with my four ladies later.. I uploaded and started to play...

Will post the other soon.

What background can I use next time??

Off to feed the masses..

C xx

AUTUMN

It's all about motion..The babe is a movin'and a shakin'...And what's that lovely big black object in front of you face Mama? I want it!!!!!!!

Toadstools..AKA fairy housing project..

Isn't it just the cutest little nose? It's in our faces ALL the time. Not always so cute then!

This is what she does with her tongue these days?? Cute or signs of feralness?? Will let you know!

Hello?? Knock knock.. Fairies are you there? NO? Out shopping?? Picking up a new set of glittering wings maybe??

Here are my most recent photos. Wanted to get some of the girlies in the Autumn leaves - before Winter arrived! Phew! I think I made it by days - in fact I missed it by days! On recollection it was already June when I got around to getting these shots.

Needless to say the girlies are in their total weekend daggies. They had done their own hair and after 'scouting'Autumn leaf locations for weeks ( there wasn't too many leaves left on too many trees!) I ended up scooting across the road and taking them in front of my neighbours house! You will notice the beautiful red leaves behind my pup Maggie! And bonus - we found the cutest little red toadstools! Pardon me - fairy village - if you please!

Jemma wasn''t feeling well, hence her withering look for ALL her shots. Who am I kidding?? They all weren't feeling well, Milla isn't even in the shots coz she was so crook it seriously wasn't quite 'motherly'' to drag her out and make her pose in the wet leaves so I can feel I have suitably photograped Autumn!

Who else realises that- school-aged children put a major dent in available photography time! Add a crawling, coughing, snotty (but still gorgeous!) 9 month old who grabs for the camera every time I get it out and my worthwhile images are in seriously short supply!

Alas! I do what I can. I poke, cajole and bribe my way into half decent shots of my bigger girls and take the blurry ones of the 'infant in constant movement' - obvioulsy for scrapping and posterity only!

Bring on Winter..and a few snowy days. I can rug them up and get cute ones in fluffy hats and red noses!!

C xx

PS. One confirmed case of swine flu at the girls school... *sigh*

REFLECTING...

Ah... looking back at late Summer. Here are the girls hanging out with Ainsley in her NEW INGROUND POOL. Look out Lockhart's.. It will be 'Resort Lockhart' next Summer for sure. The girls had so much fun. Three full hours inand out of the pool. Playing in the sand pit then jumping back in the pool when they felt like it. Gotta love childhood..

C xx