Schoolies

 The little boy on your left has grown 6 inches since last January and turned into this 13 year old on your right. He just started high school this week and was most gracious about it being a little overshadowed by the Short Divine One starting Prep school.

 Times have changed in other ways too. I recall back when the four biggies were in early primary when a Contact and covering marathon of several days would have to be undertaken. The Big Fella would take them out while I sticky taped and peeled and folded into the hot wee January hours once with a swarm of flying ants for company. No longer! Number Four declared it highly uncool to cover any books or even to have her mothers' uncool handwriting on them. In fact I left a pile of pens and exercise pads on the table and told them all to organise their own bags this year….and it was good!

Of course, I covered Shorty's tiny selection and took great delight in going overboard with sparkly glittery stuff because I only had to do it once!!

We bought approximately (sung to the 12 days of Christmas) seven pairs of shoes, six pairs of socks, five boys' shirts, four boys' shorts, three girls' blouses, two pairs of skirts and a laptop bag of required denomination. Not to mention the padlocks, belts, lunch boxes, etc) The coffers are well empty!

 There were no first day photos. This one was crying because she did not like the 'stupid' dress (aka the nooniform). She fell asleep at 3.45 pm after her first day. The second day was a breeze. 

homework- Day 1

This one refused to be photographed so I sneaked one from behind the tower of lunch boxes while he was checking his diary for the thirty seventh time.

We can't get a group shot because the B1 refuses to put on shoes until we drive into the school driveway and the B2 is gone to swimming training before the normal people get up. I may have to pay them to sit for a first day photo some time around the twentieth day when we've all recovered.

Wednesday I was so tired I wagged the doctor. Yesterday I came home after drop off and crawled back into bed for an hour.
Who'd have thought? Five of them…all at school. The happiness, the excitement, the bittersweet sadness, the fun, the quiet, the laundry…..the relief!

Newness

Yesterday I got home from a couple of weeks in the wonderful Mater Hospital. One of the y's crackin' sons quipped that I'd been in all year. I've come home to find all is well, there's a new dishwasher, the dog ate Shorty's craft table, there is a glut of eggs.

The kids have been walking the dog/ hawking the eggs to neighbours. Best of all there is a new persona here now. In the absence of ol' Lefty, we have been delivered of a new, bouncing baby breast named Alys and my (now) C- cup runneth over.


'Tis a Christmas miracle! The surgeons that  made this possible and available are truly good people.
We got some nice clear scans back too so it is looking like a lovely new chapter. Thanks for all your kind emails and comments over the last two slightly cryptic posts. Support comes in many forms, be it lycra, flowers or simply kind thoughts and wishes. Thank you, all. We hope to resume normal transmission again soon.

Word from the Y's

Sometimes the smallest people amongst us are the wisest. 

The youngest one here has been asking a lot of profound questions lately. 

She is going through the "Y" phase. 

She has also taken to collecting Y's. 

We have a whole vinaigrette of Y's in the living room now. 

They come from car parks, beaches, kindy…U name it.

There is always variety in the Ys. Once she found a whole family of Y's.

 Sometimes the Y's are quite tricky. This is known as a hairy Y.  

Lately she has been asking a lot of hairy Y's about me and my "bump" and where it has gone and how I will get a new one. Answering her Y's has been oddly comforting and calming. By making the answers simple and not scary, they become so for me too.

To be  honest I've been asking a lot of Y's myself. 

Y me?

Y now?

Y can't they give us the all clear?

Y am I going back for more?

Y am I so lucky?

Y are all  the appliances breaking down?

Y did B1 chip his front teeth sky larking after being told only last week that they are the best ones in the family? Why did he do it this week?

Y do children find all this so much easier to cope with and understand and respond to than adults?

 I have learnt to never dismiss a Y as irrelevant.  They are all different and all important.

May

she never lose

her Y's.