Having a 'boy look'..........

I think it's genetic. Some kind of chromosomal thing.

"I can't find it" he says
"Did you look for it?" I reply
"No, I can't find it!" he says again...as if it is reasonable to surmise that the reason he can't find it is because he hasn't looked for it!

I know he's only two, but when his dad does the same thing, I conclude its one of those boy things!

Our Vegie Patch...



Anything that starts with a trip to Bunnings and jumping in puddles, has to be awesome!!!

Our vegie patch has been a bit hit and miss so far, but now that we know what grows well, what takes too long and what we don't eat, we are wiser gardeners!

Megan has loved going and picking lettuce anytime I've needed it. And Alex has dragged us over the broccolli heads almost every day telling us "It's growing!". So instead of just doing it all myself, I thought I'd better let the kids join in.

I've read in so many places that a good way to get kids to eat vegies is to get them to grow them, so that was the plan. The kids have been great with watering the plants whenever they think of it...usually with a scoop of water from the dog bowl, though!

Alex helped with the seeds, which was perfect for his micro-second attention span, and Megan helped plant out the seedlings.

Rockmelon seeds...I think!



3-4 week old seedlings from seeds we scooped out of a capsicum and a pumpkin, in my awesome lidded seed raisers
(They are old supermarket-bought salad containers!!)



Megan seems a bit more knowledgable in the whole gardening caper, either because she is interested or because she is that little a bit older. Whatever the reason, she is a great help!

In go the broccoli seedlings



Currently we are growing... capsicum, tomatoes, parsley, chives, rosemary, thyme, oregano, corriander, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, spinach, zuccini, cucumber, celery, watermelon, rockmelon, pumpkin, cauliflower, cabbage, spring onions and mushrooms. I've got my heart set on a few fruit trees as well. I don't think we will actually grow enough to cut out fruit/vegie purchases completely, but surely it will help a bit, and it's fun!

 

And in a few months, we will get more of these!!



Just being there...

As I sit writing this, I am sitting on my almost 3 yr old's bed, waiting for him to fall asleep.

It's been a long, long while since we had to sit with Alex as he fell asleep. Even though its kind of a pain, it's also nice to just sit and watch my youngest child as he drifts off to the land of nod.

As a baby, he would cry as soon as we put him down. We could rock him to sleep and the moment his body hit the cot, he would wake. We tried patting, controlled crying, singing, music, you name it. The only thing that would send Alex off to sleep was sitting in the room with him, not talking, just being there. Sometimes it took 5mins for him to fall asleep, sometimes more than an hour!

As this became a habit, we tried moving closer to the door each night, until eventually we just had to tuck him in, stand at the door, count to 10 and then he was happy for us to leave.

But tonight was different.

Tonight, Alex smashed Megan's fingers in the door and saw how upset she got and how much her fingers swelled up. Tonight, he bit Mike and really got growled at. Tonight, he accidentally dropped a glass and it shattered all over the floor.

Tonight, he was in a very fragile frame of mind.

Tonight he needed mum again... just to sit. Not talk, just be there.

 

And tonight, I am more than happy to be where he needs me.

 

 

 

 

Guilt...

I'm pretty sure my trusty Parenting Manual (haha!) didn't have a chapter on guilt. It didn't talk about how it creeps up on you and sticks around much longer than it should!

It's funny how guilt works. Feeling guilty for the things I don't do, rather then the things I do do. For example... I don't feel guilty for making the kids eat vegetables, or cleaning up after themselves, or getting them to use their manners when talking to others.

But I do feel guilty for NOT taking them to a park on a nice day, and NOT buying them that toy that they just can't live without, and the lastest is NOT continuing with swimming lessons.

When push came to shove, we just couldn't manage $300 for a term's worth of 30min lessons. The kids grumbled for about 5mins and then got over it. Pity I can't, and guilt wont let me.

What if they go swimming over the Summer and get into trouble. Swimming lessons maybe, possibly, might have helped.

Swimming is such an integral part of the Austrlaian Lifestyle, I don't want them to miss out on their "culture" (or the closest our family has to one).

Swimming is something that I love and the kids do too, so we could do it all together.

Now, nothing is stopping me from taking them to the local pool or the beach and swimming with them myself...

....it's just that GUILT is that little voice in my head telling me I'm such a bad parent for canelling their lessons!

Family photos...

Every now and again I try to get a nice family photo. It rarely works...or more accurately, I'm rarely happy with them.

I did plan on going to a park to take them today, but it was too cold and I chickened out. However we I took some at home instead and they have turned out alright.

 

I love the greenery behind us...but I would have liked it to be a bit further away so it had that nice blurry effect. Oh well, next time!!

 

Think Alex was getting sick of smiling by now!

I think I've picked out which ones will be printed and put into frames.


And then the kids needed to have their picture taken by themselves, so I got these gems as well!

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favourite!

A different kind of reading...

 

I loved talking books as a kid. I loved listening for the chime to know when to turn the page! (The stories were good too!)

 

The ones I used to have were on cassette tape and things have moved on from there. I'm sure they will be available to download to iPods and MP3 players, if they aren't already.

 

Though we have had a few of these book/CD packs for a while, we have never really encouraged the kids to enjoy them, until today.

 

Since Alex has been having long afternoon sleeps, Megan has been using this time as quiet time. And to jazz this time up a bit (and keep her entertained for longer), Mike pulled out his old CD walkman and we hooked up some old computer speakers to it...and voila!

 

 

Megan sat and listened to Disney princess, Toy Story and Sesame St stories for more than an hour, in her room with her door closed (so it didn't wake Alex..and we didn't disturb her **wink, wink**)

 

It also rekindled my own love of reading along with the CD, so I sat and read a few with Megan as well!

 

 

 

Slow Poke...

As a kid I was always the slowest to eat...unless my Nana was staying for dinner. She always took ages longer than everyone!

Megan is taking after both of us and is ALWAYS at least 10 minutes after everyone to finish.

We have tried to encourage the kids to stay at the table until everyone had finished. But it's so hard to keep a two year old sitting at the dinner table, when he is finished and his sister is too busy talking to eat her meal.

Kids and secrets...

Kids and secrets... The short response is....they aren't compatible!

Monday is my birthday and Mike took the kids shopping yesterday for my gift. He must have said to them that they can't tell mum what they bought...it was a secret.

I think it took Alex all of about an hour to let the first cat out of the bag. He was playing and then out of the blue....

Alex: Mum it's a surpise...
Me: What is?
Alex: Your book..it's a surprise!

WHOOPS!!!

Megan spoiled the second today. She was playing with a felt board and felt figures at a party. We were talking about how there were two people and there was two of all the party things which worked out well. There were also two presents, one of which she said...

"This one is earrings, Mum."

Luckily I had suggested each of these gifts so they weren't a HUGE surprise, but I'm guessing Mike will be shopping by himself next year!!

Boys and guns....

What is it about boys and guns? What is the attraction?

Alex copies other boys- running around with his hands in the shape of a gun saying "pew, pew" -that's his gun noise-it's kind of cute! (and, yes I know I'm generalising about boys, but MY boy is insterested in guns and shooting but MY girl is not)

We've always had a blanket rule of no guns in our house for all kids, even pretend guns. But I don't know if that is just adding to the allure of them.

Alex sat and watched a little bit of 'Star Wars' with us the other night and was excited to watch them 'pew pew'ing'. I'm sure part of the excitemnt came from the illicitness of it. Then he pulled out a pretend light saber and started 'szhhhh'ing around (it's hard to spell the light saber sound!!!)

I'm sure we are all desensitised to violence because of how much we see on TV and in video games. Is that why our society is very much "shoot first, talk later"?

I read once that we should let our kids play heros and villains because it lets them play out the good guy/bad guy fantasy.

 But does that include using guns?

Is it too much to ask to keep my little boy as innocent as possible for as long as possible?

Purely Egotistical...

A friend commented on how much she looked forward to each installment of this blog, which got me thinking.... Who else does? Who out there reads about Megan and Alex?

I write for the fun of it, and for Megan and Alex to look back on sometime in the future, but that doesn't mean that I don't get a kick out of knowing that others may enjoy reading what I have written.

So, I ask a few minutes of your time to comment below on your reading habits. Just so that I might have a bit of an idea on who sees my little patch of internet!

Do you come often (that sounds like a cheap pick up line!!)? Are you a long time reader, an occasional viewer or new visitor?

Do you subscribe via email? Visit from my Facebook links? Pop in just randomly?

Please leave a comment below to let me know :) You can click on the drop down menu and select 'Anonymous' if you aren't in the internet world yourself. Or comment on the Facebook link.

Also please feel free to subscribe via email with the link on the top right of the page. If you do subscribe, can you please let me know coz I dont have any idea of how many people do!!!

For those new to 'M&A's World', and those who may not have noticed, I've added some new pages at the top. The regular posts come under 'Their World' and some info on the family comes under 'Me' and 'Them'.

You can also view previous posts from the Archive link on the side panel and check out some of my favourite Blogs from the links on the side as well.

The lovely Bel at a mums reality had given me some insight into another Blog host, but I think I'll stay here... for a little while longer anyway :)


PLEASE COMMENT!!!!!!!