Oh, Alas ! I missed so much !

This is a special blog, it has been a week, I had forgotten my password and no time, no time to do the whole reset my password thingy.
I should have though, as it has been a momentous week, highlighted by the birthday of my first Born.

Let me tell you something about him.
Firstly, one can't help but notice he is very handsome. Blessed with gigantic hazel eyes, long eyelashes, gorgeous full lips, and beguiling dimples in each cheek, fortunately or unfortunately for him, this will long be the thing most people remember him by.
Born as two devastating cyclones moved down the WA coast, reeking havoc only days after he was born, and named only 12 hours before him, it is not unusual for him to be described as a human cyclone, but in a manner of affection.
The first thing you noticed about him as a newborn was his lips, they were huge, and definitely required some growth on his part to fit them.
As a baby, I would be stopped everywhere by people staring at him for ages, he got comments wherever he went about his looks.
My mother told me, on me explaining the people in the shops, that "every mother thinks tier baby is the most beautiful looking baby in the world", she was eating her words , however, when she overheard some people in Myer coming back to tell their other relatives, to "come and look at this AMAZING looking baby".
There is more to my son than his looks though, and if you can get past the purely skin deep, you will see a treasure of immeasurable worth.
Deeply empathetic, he feels things deeply, particularly other's pain. I often have mothers coming to me to tell them how he has assisted their child at school when they were upset.
He has a very strong sense of justice, he shows outrage at things he thinks are wrong.
Trees being cut down, people committing crime, and some political judgements all attract his attention.
He is a media buff, watches the news with great interest, and has a love for history.
He enjoys the cut and thrust of politics, including working from sun up to sun down in the federal election to help his mum and dad's friend get elected.
He is a very capable sportsman, exceptionally good at the rugby codes, and better than average at most other sports.
He is strong and confident, has a large vocabulary, and revels in public speaking.
He is not a boy easily ignored.
He still enjoys a cuddle with his parents, and we treasure every moment with him.
He has taught me more than any other person I know, he made me a parent, he has challenged me and delighted me, and brought an enormous amount of joy into my life.
Happy Birthday to my 9 year old.

Has it been that long already ?

Sheesh, what a blur of a week.
What on earth did I do ?, did I achieve ?. I know weeks like this must be taken in a large family mum's stride but for goodness sake, I am also a results oriented person, so damn it !, I expect outcomes baby !.

Let me think, hmmm...the stand out for me this week was spying my boy's infatuation whilst I was at the school for St Pats day.
She is tall, very tall, taller than him. She has a long neck and dark hair, and the most impressive feature was a funky little hat that she wore as part of her St Pat's day outfit..Perfect !.
I was very impressed, she looked like a girl I would like. Doubt I will ever meet her, but at least I know he s on the right track.
Think I would have been a bit flawed if he like the blonde "girl next door" type.
But the elegant, sophisticated brunette will keep his mother happy, (as if I have any say in it ! HA !). I can dream.
The school gave me the willies this week with thier level of communication, I think they think being a mind reader is part of being a parent these days, actually no, being a parent means being an expert in all matters legal.
Duty of care, public liability, police clearances,working with children checks, allergies etc, being a parent is a legal minefield these days. Lucky I am married to a Lawyer to be (if he ever finishes his damn degree !)
Gee I am scatty tonight, if you think this is bad, you should see my house, it is clothing audit time, an awful time of the year.
Clothes strewn from one end of the house to the other.
Tomorrow, I might be able to describe it, for now, I am out of cerebral RAM.

Enduring Exhaustion

Gosh I whinge a lot about being exhausted, but I guess the mere fact I blog mostly after midnight every night might skew that statistic somewhat.
Busy weekend, 3 parties on Saturday, one for Audrey at 9am, one at 3pm at the same place (weird)for Antonia, and a 40th for which I had to travel alone due to a baby sitting mix up.

The 40th was lovely, I really enjoyed the company of the small numbered gathered guests. My friend has a knack of befriending very interesting, but genuine and lovely people, from all walks of life, it is a credit to her as a person, and it was a befitting night.

I subsequently sent the providore to cricket with my boy, and my baby. It was the last game of the season and they had a little picnic afterwards.
Then in the afternoon the boy, and the man went to the rugby with my son's friend and his dad as a birthday treat. His birthday is in 10 days.
So all in all, 5 separate appointments /functions for us this weekend, gosh, what will it be like when the little ones are older !.
Some more photo's gave me a relaxing weekend's artisitc entertainment.
Holiday planning is getting to fine tuning stage, and we have hit a hire car hump. Our usual company Hertz, have a car, but won't allow us to take it to Thredbo. Avis are out of cars, and Thrifty want to charge us an extra $800 *ouch*, we will see what the mastermind can do to fix this little quandary (that is me in case you didn't know).
Night

Sleepy Time

Is it really worth blogging most days for continuity's sake ?, or is it better to blog only when you have something profound to say.
I don't know the answer, suffice to say I may learn as time goes on, and I look back and cringe at the monotonous tone of some of my late night ramblings.
So my boy has a girl .
He came to me late last night and asked me to make him a bracelet, it took me a moment or two to realise he wanted it for someone else. Strange, as he has never shown an interest in the opposite sex, but I guess he is growing up now at nearly 9.
He says her name is Daisy, and she is new to the school.
I whipped up a pearl bracelet today, he preferred pearls, and he is very pleased with it, and it is in his bag to be gifted tomorrow.
I couldn't pry too many other details out of him about her, but perhaps in time, he will feel more comfortable telling me.
It was an honour to make the bracelet for him to give to her, a truly wonderful moment as a parent.

Public Holiday for all (except 1)

Today was the labour day public holiday, so in my traditional protest, I worked harder than I did yesterday, and the providor went to work to do what he does best.

I did some more pics, (you will be sick of them soon), and I watched Xanadu with the kids(and danced around the room).
My gorgeous eldest daughter is as enamoured with this movie of very dubious quality, as I was 25 years ago.
We can be ONJ fans together. Actually, the clothes are starting to look very fashionable again, last time I watched it in the 90's, they looked positively hideous.

On the holiday...It is fuelling my every thought.
We ave finally booked all of our accommodation, Prahran in Melbourne, Thredbo, Sydney, Noosa and Brisbane.
We will be taking in both the Wallaby test, and State of Origin in Sydney, Movieworld and Australia Zoo in Queensland. Then there is the skiing, I can't begin to describe how excited the kids are about the thredbo part of the trip.
Oh, jeepers, the irritation of interruption.
Anyway, I need to do my tag thing (thanks Nic), but I need to work out what I have to do first, so maybe I will do that tomorrow when the kids are back at school.
Here are my pics from today.

2 for the price of 1

This afternoon's blog wasn't really up to standard I think. Some times I am in a narrative type mood, where it is enough to just jot down in a rather un-interesting way, all the "things" I have been doing, or "things" that have happened, but it is always busy here anyway, that is to be expected.
The more interesting side to a large family comes in the emotional responses we have to the things that we do, and see and experience.
There is so much we experience, just the sheer volume of personalities means that the times shared are dynamic, and interesting.
It can take you on a rollercoaster ride throughout the day, sheer inimitable joy, anger, frustration,annoyance,and fun, are part of every day.
I have to honestly say, that we are lucky to not have too much sadness touch us.

My daughters friends dad was laid to rest the other day, another reminder to cherish what we have.
Yesterday we watched videos of our eldest two children as toddlers, the video's are only 6 years old, but by looking at the same children now, you would think it was a lifetime ago.
another reminder to cherish every moment.

A challenging weekend ?

Friday evening was excruitiating for me, I ended up exhausted at the end of the day (again). There seems to be a pattern to this, Friday night cricket training is really too much, thank goodness it finishes this week.
On that subject, Lachlan starts football training this week, and still has cricket (who organises these things !) so there will be three seperate training sessions this week, one can only imagine how I will feel next Friday night.

The hot water system is currently inoperable, and we are having to have cold showers, ok while it is still hot, but I am not sure how long we will be without water. Coming up with a couple of grand for a new one, is not all that easy in this house.
Looking at Solar, though, just wished they had returned our call to get the ball rolling on Saturday.

I spent a lazy Sunday photographing the kids this weekend, here are some of the results.