Hello sweet nine! This is it! This is the last year they say. After this year he won't really be yours anymore!  (these are the dire warnings I've been given by well meaning mums of eight, nine and ten year old boys). So every year I wonder. Will this be the last time? Every day I check to feel if the hugs are any less cuddlier. I pause to feel if the kisses are any less smoochier. I listen to every 'good morning' to see if they are any less cheerful. I take in every 'I love you' to feel if they are any less loving. But every hug, kiss, cuddle and 'I love you' still feels just as as sweet. "I won't change" he promises me. "I will always love you for infinity times a hundred. No, times a thousand. Times a million, billion, zillion!" This is my ode to the sweetest boy in the world. Here is the boy who helps pack away all the toys with the the day care kids and shows them where each toy goes. ...

Happy new year! A long overdue greeting but better late than never as they say. This isn't really meant to be a real post but more of an update to say that further updates will follow imminently. The end of the year and start of a new year are the worst times to pause and reflect. There is always something happening one weekend or another. Christmas and end of year gatherings. Birthday parties and celebratory events. Gift shopping. Food shopping. Cooking. Baking. Gift wrapping. Family holidays. Travelling. New year festivities. Shopping for school supplies and uniforms (And Shoes! Why are these kids constantly outgrowing their shoes?). Organising and labelling school supplies. Spring cleaning. Meeting new teachers. Saying hello to new friends. Catching up with old friends. Organising my documentation and paperwork. Welcoming back my little ones. Managing new enrolments. Getting to know new children. The unceasing laundry pile and daily lunchbox preps. Dinner. Every...

It's November. That end-of-year holiday feeling is back in the air once again. The kids helping daddy put up the Christmas tree and talking over plans to celebrate Nathan's birthday in December. I know I say this every year... but I just have to say it again... They have grown so, so much. Somehow I feel it especially even more so over this past year. Their growth rate seems to have doubled, even tripled these past few months.  Like beanstalks in the night. All arms and legs. "It's like they shot up overnight!"  I lamented wistfully to hubs one evening as I observed their elongated legs dangling down, almost touching the floor, while they scrambled up on their daddy in rambunctious bear hugs. Nevertheless, throughout their supersonic growth rate, they both still retain the same sweet spirit and golden souls. Their smiles still shine through easily and nearly everyone they meet can still almost taste the sweetness on...

Around one year ago, we kicked off operation ' No More Thumbs ' with Nathan. We had a whole program in place with various tools and materials, charts and a prize. For all intents and purposes, the whole thing started off swimmingly well. So where are we now one year on? Has Nathan succeeded in kicking the habit completely? Is he, for all intents and purposes, one hundred percent 'cured'? Well, actually yes! But we had our share of bumps and knocks along the way. And I've learnt a few things as a parent while were working through this. So as I was saying, everything was going swimmingly well at first. We had a 30-day target of no-thumbs chart (I figured it takes 21 days to break a habit and added some extra buffer for good measure). For each zero-thumbs day, we put a stamp on the chart to track his progress. It had to be a continuous 30 days, so for any fall backs we had to reset the chart and start over. The first week was tough going with...

With the baby years now well behind me, some have wondered if most of the super fun hands-on part of parenting are now behind me as well. It's true that babies and toddlers are oodles of fun. Everything is so new. Even every meal time can be an adventure. Each day is a series of new experiences lived vicariously through the eyes of a brand new human being discovering the world around them for the first time. But really. The fun times are only just beginning. In the early years, it was primarily all about learning what it means to be Human . What can my hands do, touch, hold, feel? How fast can I crawl, walk, run, jump? What is this new taste? What is this new smell? What are all these feelings inside me that I cannot contain? What are these sounds I make that generate meaning and intentions? Now with most of that basic stuff established, comes the fun part of learning new Ideas . And it's been an absolute blast. We've already had a taste of it with ...

July is the month when my baby girl moves up a notch in her years. Ladies and gentlemen... I present to you... Six years old. We celebrated the occasion with a cosy little blue narwhal pyjama party theme . I went a bit crazy with the  blue butterfly pea flower serving a small array of blue hued food and drink . The pièce de résistance of the night was the awesome blanket fort complete with fairy lights for all the kids to snuggle under while they watched a movie. It's funny how kids grow up overnight. One minute they're a tiny, diminutive little creature... all giggles, coos and silly sounds. And then the next moment, you see it happening before your very eyes. "I almost cried, mummy... but I remembered my breathing exercises using my belly".   "Today at recess I was sad because 'M' did not let me play with her and 'A'. But you know what? I can find other new friends to play with!"   "Thank you for helping me...

Our featured book this week is 'Owl Babies' (by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson) All my kids from babies, to toddlers and preschoolers just love, love, love this story. Even my two big school aged kids still enjoy listening to this story. The very first time I picked this story up to read to my kids, I thought it was such a plain and simple story. Three baby owls missing their mummy... waiting, waiting, waiting for her to come back. And when she finally comes back, everyone is happy again. That's it. That's essentially the plot. I wondered why the children were so eager to listen to this simple story so many times. Was it simply the three cute little baby owls in the story? Probably. Then just last week we welcomed another new little baby to the family *. It's been a rocky start, as it usually is with most children getting used to a new environment. All the other children were quick to point out whenever baby was crying and feeling sad. Why is baby c...

Last week I bid a final farewell to this remaining remnant from the baby chapter. This was only half of the remaining cloth nappies in my collection. The first half had already been sold off a couple of years back. These remaining ones were the top favourites which my sis-in-law initially wanted to try out. When it didn't work out my brother asked me if he should toss them out instead. Throw out my beautiful collection of rainbow-hued minks??? How dare he even suggest such a thing!!! So this remaining stash finally found it's way back home via personal family courier services (i.e. overseas family visitors). Nathan and Grace were of course curious about the colourful contents of the package holding the stash. They stroked and fingered the soft plush texture of the material and asked me what all the colourful things were. " Nappies ", I told them. " Nappies ???" " Yes... cloth nappies ." " For babies??? " ...

There was a quote I had read somewhere some time ago that went something like… “The first child is poetry, the last child is prose” . I don’t think this entirely true. Poetry and prose are both so intertwined in life that it’s impossible to draw the line between them. But here’s an anecdote that made me wonder… The other day (5 y.o.) Grace came home excitedly bursting to share some new mind-blowing information she learnt at science… “Do you know how rain is made, mummy?” (How, baby?) “Okay, let me tell you… first the sun shines on all the rivers and lakes until tiny drops of water floats up to the sky… and then the drops of water stick together to make clouds… then when more and more water floats up, and then the clouds get fatter and fatter and FATTER until it BURSTS and falls down to the ground, and that is RAIN! Isn’t that amazing?” (So amazing!) Compare that to this whimsical fancy from (8 y.o.) Nathan… “Mummy, do you know what I think? I think when it rai...

So we are now into the third week of the school term. This is the first Friday when the quietness and solitude in the house has finally descended fully upon me. The first couple of Fridays still felt rather busy, running around to settle various jobs and errands and I had some tradies in to do some work around the house like carpet cleaning and house painting. But today, after dropping the kids off at school, I headed back and for the first time in over eight years, have come back to an empty and silent house. I realise that every single day, I’ve always had at least one child or baby in the house, from Nathan, to Grace, and all my day care kids. Even on my Fridays off when Nathan was at school, Grace has always been my faithful little companion . But she too has flown the nest and is at full time school now. The stillness and silence feels almost heady. I am almost not sure what to do with myself actually. But I welcome the quiet like a breath of ...