New Beginnings

It's a busy week this week with both the offspring starting at their respective educational facilities. Sounds fun when you say it like that doesn't it!

Moondoggie and I went off today to his first ever day of institutionalised care, aka 3 year old kinder, and Gidget starts Prep tomorrow at 9.00am sharp.

I'm starting to worry that I am an unnatural parent as every other prep mother I speak to is lamenting the loss of their baby, the end of an era, such a big transition etc etc. And I'm just really, really excited. I am so thrilled for Gidg as I know she is going to LOVE school and I can't wait for her to start. Maybe tomorrow all normal parental anxieties will assail me as I wave my darling goodbye, but I seriously doubt it. It's strange 'cause I cry at anything and everything usually.

To be perfectly honest I'm not that in to pre-school aged kids and I'm thrilled I'm nearly out of that phase. I have always said that I'd love a big family if I could get pregnant, give birth then farm them out until they are 6. I adore my babies but in general school kids are heaps cooler. Many of my friends are aware of my weird preference and often hand me their babies just to annoy me, others don't even bother and pass me by when little Johnnie is being handed around the doting friends.

So tomorrow if you see me at school and I am a blubbering mess you'll be able to point and laugh and I'll be eating my words in tomorrow's post.

For now I am off to pack my first ever school lunch, which, by the way, is a whole other set of issues and may indeed make me cry after all. Who knew the humble school lunch could be so fraught with difficulties! I'll save that rant for another post....

Siblings

After a day of doing nothing much and consequently irritating the shit out of each other, I came into the living room to find Gidget and Moondoggie watching tele like this!

They really do love each other after all.

(Mind you I give it about 5 minutes before one of them screams out 'Muuuuum!' in that high pitched whiny voice I love so much.)

Like Mother, Like Daughter

One of the joys of having kids is seeing parts of yourself reflected in them. It may be your musical ability, your tongue rolling skills, your sporting prowess.
In my case it is the ability to read until I fall asleep, but still be able to continue where I left off when I wake up!!

My children are obviously going to be gifted in all the skills that really matter.

The book she is reading (or actually, not reading) is one of 4 fabulous Richard Scarry hardcover books I found at the Mill Markets in Geelong. I was particularly chuffed about this find as I remember pouring over his books for hours when I was young and it's lovely to be able to share that joy with the kids.

The Questions Kids Ask

I've just been laughing out loud at a post over at Creative-type Dad and it reminded me of my own dilemma during the week. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the kids were playing Power Rangers in the back garden (as you do) while I was gazing perplexedly at the weeds in my front garden, when all of a sudden both Power Rangers came storming down the hall to tell me about the cute little animal in the back garden! Apart from Oscar the big black feline, there should be NO cute little animals in our back garden so I went out to investigate.

Well it was an animal but since when has a MASSIVE DEAD RAT been cute?????

Big black feline must have had a hand in this I suspect but he was giving nothing away and looking the picture of innocence as he sunned himself in the middle of one of my flower pots (another gripe for another day!).

Back to the MASSIVE DEAD RAT! Both kids were crouched over him/her and Moondoggie asked if he could pat him!!!!! 'Because he looks so cute and soft Mummy.'

After screaming out 'NO!!!' and scaring the crap out of both kids, so much so that the Gidget nearly pitched forward on top of the MASSIVE DEAD RAT, I repeated it in a calmer voice and tried to explain why they couldn't pat the cute, soft, furry, MASSIVE, DEAD, RAT. They didn't get it. They still wanted to wrap him up in a blankie for God's sake.

I now realise that I should have just told them that both their arms would drop off if they touched it due to it being radioactive from living in the sewers for so long! We live and learn.

PS - Needless to say we did not venture into the Back garden again until Kahuna got home and 'disposed' of him.