Superheros

We love superheros. Here are a few of them:

sometimes sweet and a little bit funny (weird not ha ha)

They all have this thing where they like to touch skin when they relax and watch tv. Weirdly it always has to be someone else's, though I have seen E resort to rubbing her palms across her soft cheeks when alone. The twins never have to resort to any self soothing considering their near inability to be apart. Often they look like a litter of puppies rolling around in their quest for skin to skin contact: heads to legs, arms to tummies, legs on legs, arms to faces and on the sequences go. The usual habit is for all three or any number of them cuddling up to a parent, but more recently when parents are busy (usually cleaning up the trail of chaos in their wake) they have looked cute relaxing together such as like this.

Flying the coop

A few weeks ago the twins went for their first sleep-over at a friends house. I was really unsure about how it would go, but could totally picture their loving father stumbling over to the friends house at 3am to collect tear stained faces desperate to return to the loving arms of their devoted parents. So far from life long friends and family, and no regular stays with Grandparents or anything, I really thought this was a rather hefty milestone we had reached. I was clinging to those apron strings, content if the little munchkins wanted to hold on for dear life still.

As much as I know the kids are very comfortable with these particular friends, we spend every Wednesday with the kids and their mother, and they absolutely idolize the son for whom they would do whatever crazy antics he requests (one year older, one year wiser!) not to forget they own a much coveted Wii with sword fighting games. Still, being their first night away from both parents, along with many a comment on how young they still are, I really did believe this was not going to go completely smoothly.

this would be the 'older and wiser' idolised friend.

Dropping them off, I stayed on a while to make sure they were comfortable and OK, and had a chat with the boys going something like:

‘So, if you want to speak to us, C will call us on the telephone, don’t be afraid to ask her at any time to call us, and if you really want to come home again it is not a problem we will come right over and get you, and anyway, just one sleep and we will come back in the morning to get you.’

‘that is after one sleep?’ Oscar confirmed

‘yes, just one sleep and then I will come back’

‘Oh, please make it two!’ begged Oscar

Well, it was obviously time for me to go, carrying those severed apron strings in hand, and dragging that third little cherub with me, I mean she is only 2 and way too young to reject me yet (surely!).

We did take the opportunity to go to dinner, sure with one child, but when you have 3 dinner with one child is a breeze. Again though, on settling into bed, he and I did have a chuckle about how we would be probably up in a couple of hours anyway to collect the not so brave ones after all.

It was nearly a shock to wake at 8am in our beds from an uninterrupted sleep. My first thought was, we have sooooo got to do this more often! My second thought was I hope they were OK. Is that bad??

It was egg in my face again when C called to see when we were coming over (for all their troubles we were coming over baring breakfast goodies). She had to battle H off the phone who was begging her not to call me as then I would come over!!!!

I will try to get photos from C… meanwhile:

kids are obviously terrified of J

I went away

Every now and again, maybe twice a year, I go away without husband or children. Usually it is with one other friend, but this time it was with two other friends. It is great fun, completely relaxing (isn't anything without children!), and completely confidential. My lips are S.E.A.L.E.D.

Meanwhile, my the other half takes on the tribe solo for the weekend. There are photos:

they played Kapla

he fed them sandwiches in the park, and managed to take the dog out too

hmm, they also ate pizza in the park

dressed Parisian style for forest walking

looks like he made them forage for dinner

fruit! wow, he must have got a few food groups in

hmmm, another picnic, I guess he didn't want to wash up

oh, and ball sports, looks like it was all exercise and picnics

these are a few of my favourite things:

SPRING

Flowers, flowers everywhere

SPRING

Warm days

The screaming faces of my kids when a bug comes near them - they don't even realise how lucky they have it, imagine if they were actually in Australia. Can you get any more bugs than in that country? (their country of heritage!) I don't even see the bugs here they are so very few, until ofcourse kids are hyperventilating and near tears freaking out about a 1mm bug touching them

Blue skies after the endless months of grey

Happy faces

SPRING

Strolling along with an ice cream

Chatty Parisiens (they are willingly talking to people in the streets! I have had so many conversations with near strangers. I do say 'near' as I have seen them around for years, it could be that after over 3 years in the hood they are finally welcoming me!)

More flowers

Pollen that freaks out my kids because they think it is a bug (it makes me laugh out loud at them, erm yes, that is to their dismay)

The park after school pick up: sand flying everywhere, kids clamouring for a place on the playgym, desperate pleas for FOOD, my kids slowly removing shoes, socks, and tops (me wondering why it is my kids that feel the need to remove as much clothing as possible at all times, and why is it that other kids actually listen to their mothers saying "no, do not get undressed")

SPRING

Spring rain, it is not even cold

Colourful silk scarves everywhere

Sunglasses dug out from a long hiatus tucked away in drawers

SPRING!!!!!!

∗thanks to E for being my spring model specially for this post - you are a star for taking out that wretched dummy and actually smiling at me on occaision - yes like 3 times in 75 or so photos.

domestic changes

We have this past week been experiencing some rather long needed and certainly long delayed changes on the domestic front. Our unintended co-sleeping with youngest is now over. Only some 2 years later.

You can surmise from this that we tend not to be hasty making changes in this family, and well, you would be right. I have realised it is perhaps a personal trait of mine. I would have thought that I was a person who copes well with change and actually enjoys it. But I am wondering if I am not (three country changes, 3 children, and a dog in 8 years later). There are many indicators that this may be the case, even though on the surface I look unruffled and easy going with change. I have, however, recently realised that I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about a change. I visualise it over a terribly long period before I actually do anything. The doing tends not to take very long at all, but that thought process can be as long as a year. When I do it, I am totally at zen with it, surprise surprise. I mean, who wouldn't be with that amount of mental preparation! But really, is it really necessary to take a year to think like that. In some ways I guess it means potentially I am going to have a lot of changes in my life, if every year we make changes, but on another level I am realising that I am not spontaneous at all. These bedroom changes I have been brooding over for about a year. The thought process on the kitchen changes might even have taken longer than a year. Argh, yes, that's right, this might also be called procrastination. Yes, I am a Master of Procrastination, obviously. There are more changes afoot, but really, don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen, you'll die.

So on the home front we now have E in her own bedroom. The dining room has been converted to a her little girl domaine. While I talk of ending co-sleeping, it has not been as easy as now I don't sleep with her, it just means that now I sleep much of the evening in her bed rather than hers in mine. But hey, it is a step towards (who knows where) I guess. Oh and she did inform me that she does not like her babies bed. I bought her a wooden bed for her dolls, that I painted a really lovely deep red colour, or that is lovely from my perspective. She does not like it as 'it is not pink'. My heart sank, and I think so did her father's, as she repeated to him. Her favourite colour is pink, her favourite animal a horse, she wants to be a ballerina and she only wears dresses. I never thought I would have one, but it appears E is as sugar and spice and all things nice as her brothers are snips and snails and puppy dog tails. I really thought with two older rambuctious brothers she would be mostly tomboy with a touch of girl, when infact she is all girl with maybe just the tiniest bit of acquisance to boys things, mostly because they insist and she seems relatively easy going at the moment, not because it is her choice.

the despised 'not pink' baby bed

The boys have a bunk bed, and somehow way more room in their bedroom now. They have spent the whole of their lives sleeping together, often wound around and tangled in each other like little puppies. I was a little sad to think they no longer had their double bed and would now be sleeping individually, H on top, O on bottom as they decided. Crazy really, and now I wonder why I even thought it would be so conventional and automatic to take a bed each. No, while the beds are allocated, it appears they are just taking turns sleeping together in either of the beds; the first day saw them both asleep on the top and the next together on the bottom. It generally rotates as such. Oh and ofcourse we don't cosleep with them either, I have never, not even all of last week (after the earlier part of the evening being in their sister's bed) ended up in one (usually the bottom one) of their new single beds with a boy on either side, all of us lying on our sides to fit, and there is no way S woke up in their bed this morning at all. AND there is no way that the parental bed was actually empty last night...

pictures of new beds to follow soon!

he did it

It is disappointing when you think you have taken a bunch of great photos on your mobile phone (mentioned two posts ago) only to realise you haven't many weeks or months later. Granted, having a camera would be the most desirable option for capturing special moments of your children's life, but that would require a functioning memory to put the camera in my bag. Mostly I figure I am doing pretty well if I have remembered to clothe and feed them before taking them out and generally I mentally give myself a congratulatory pat on the back that I have even managed to take three kids somewhere and actually returned from said somewhere with the same three kids I started with, particularly if they are all in the same state of health on return. I always wish I had remembered the camera to record these moments for the kids, but alas it is often to the mobile phone camera I resort. Actually 'resort' is probably the wrong word, I am pretty much giving myself another self congratulatory pat on the back for being so organised that I even have the phone with me. Finally, I just go the third self adulation, the truly wonderful mother who takes them out on educational and interesting activities and even gets photographic evidence of it!

That is until he finally gets a moment to download the photos and I start to see a lot of this...

That's when reality sets in and I have to acknowledge that my awesome photos were infact not awesome at all, they were not even recognisable, and maybe, just maybe, that self congratulatory pat on the back number 3 was infact a little premature. Those little telephone screens, and no I don't mean on a lovely and desirable i-phone, I mean on an everyday ordinary mobile phone, tend to delude you that you may just have taken a reasonable photo, a reliable memory of the moment. Certainly one worth keeping, and definitely good enough to make it not worth forcing children to stand still to take another. I shrugged off any concerns I might have had about clarity to the scratched and dirty telephone screen ruining my perfect photo that lay beneath, when infact it was a moving child indoors without a flash, or my inability to keep my hand still, or even more likely my absolute lack of photographic talent. Probably also a really dirty lens, I mean it has just been free riding it in my handbag full of crumbs from biscuit packets, semi-eaten lollie pops being kept safe for future licking, keys, park sand and on it goes. Hardly the fresh pristine lens for photo ops. What was I thinking! Oh that's right, I was thinking I am so totally awesome for doing this, forgetting entirely to actually be awesome in the execution of it.

Anyway, not to be too hard on myself there are a couple of photos that you can make out the subject matter:

Cite des Enfants, E in construction zone.

Another day, another inspiring activity - making bread dough

checking out things on a farm

things - that would be baby goats

this is O at the movies

oh, and this is actually months ago, but it was the really only very clear photo on the phone, and must have been before the lens got really dirty.

Thanks go to him for doing his thing and finally getting these photos from phone to computer. One day I will thank you properly by making it worthwhile spending an hour of your very rare personal time to download 75 unusable photos.