Well it has been nearly a week and half since S was born and I am still just surviving day to day. Apart from a few trips across the road to the school to see T's end of year plays/concerts/awards night, S and I have not left the house. I guess I am still settling into the routine of it all.
I wish I could say I had all the children asleep as I type. E has discovered that he can get out of his bed so we have that lovely period of me having to go in and put him back in his bed, oh, about a hundred times before he goes to sleep. Above is a picture of E who has fallen asleep at nap time behind the door, rather than in his bed. Cute, but frustrating. If this blog post seems disjointed, has poor grammar or just generally doesn't make sense it is because every second sentence I have to get up and put E back into bed.
D is out at a Christmas party tonight for work. It struck me as I fed S off to sleep that it will be a long time (relatively) until I can go out on my own for a night out, what with breastfeeding and all. My turn will come I know. And really it does pass so quickly. I couldn't believe E's first 12 months went so quickly and then we were not feeding any more. I need to cherish the time with S, rather than wish it away.
Last night D and I had our first proper chat since the baby was born. We had some left over cheese and crackers, as well as opened a bottle of wine. I had about a glass and half, and would love another tonight BUT last night S was unsettled with wind and general digestive issues, soooo unfortunately I better not have any alcohol at all. Tragic I know. It was nice and very important for D and I to regroup. Newborns are sooo challenging for couples, and we are discovering newborns plus three others (including two under three) is PARTCULARLY challenging. D goes on holidays for a month in one week's time - woo hoo.
Tonight D was home early and it made my heart ache with joy to see him playing with the three boys in the pool in the early evening, with S asleep on my chest. The trees around the pool and the whole house are that brilliant tropical green and so lush, and there is a poinciana tree aflame as well - so just beautiful. I know I know it is the oxytocin but still .... !
Some random cute shots of S. All still from my iphone. As with the hanging of the Christmas lights along the balcony, the pulling out of the proper big camera for decent shots of the new bubba has not happened. Have asked a friend of ours, G, who is an awesome photographer - semi-professional around to see if he can take some good ones. I would love one of the four boys as a Christmas/New Year shot for cards .... achieving this is the equivalent of herding cats I know, but I also know that G has the miracle that is photoshop to cut and paste them into one photo if the real thing is elusive.
S must be going through a massive growth phase as he is feeding all the time during the day, and the night before last, all night as well. Last night was less feeding but lots of settling. Please, may tonight be as good as the early nights - only 3 feeds in the 12 hour night period?!
As a result of all this feeding my poor boobs feel a bit gnawed and tender. I can always tell which boob I fed on last as it is the particularly sore one. I guess this is convenient in a painful way to know which boob to feed on next. Aaaah boob humour .... it has come down to this again.
T is on school holidays. M&D have returned today to Melbourne - they were wonderfully helpful - mainly holding S so that I could give W, E and T attention. E has been particularly mum-ified and will only have me for certain things that he used to be happy with others doing. W has had a few more tantrums than normal but seems to be settling in. T has been himself - away with the fairies, but D read him and W the riot act tonight about helping me while he was away to get them to all to bed and so he was wonderful tonight. T can be divine, when he focuses on it!
Speaking of which he got his report card. All straight A's except for sport (!) and art where he got Bs. Clearly the sports teacher couldn't pick Tom out in a line up - as he said his athletics was excellent but swimming only sound. Hmm, and he is 7 year old district champion? It actually makes me wonder on the whole relevance of report cards frankly. It would seem the written comments are pretty standard rather than customised. And there was no areas of improvement identified. I have done so many performance reviews in my time and frankly, even my star performers were given areas of improvement! However I am very pleased he got straights As for effort/behaviour and the gorgeous Mrs K said lovely things about him at the end re his behaviour and love of learning - really the most important thing at this age, don't you think?
I am looking forward to the holidays to work with T on some other things - ready for next year. Times tables via pebble maths - less rote learning and more about mental calculation. Also his spelling and writing - the saga will continue!
Piano has not been done since S was born. It starts again when D goes on holidays. Not sure how but we will build it into the routine. Unless we have a set time each day it just does not get done. I am not inspired to do it as much as I have to drag T to do it - all of which is negative. Whereas if it is just part of the routine there are no arguments.
Swim 'camp' this week which involves one hour every morning - not sure how worthwhile this is, but it is T's only formal activity for the holidays as D will be home the rest of the holidays to entertain them all. Though am thinking of a chess camp in January as D and I are not good enough at chess to keep up with him anymore. T even beat my Dad at chess! Dad thinks he has a natural chess brain .. wouldn't surprise me, I guess.
Class allocations are out - T got into a straight Grade 2 class with a new teacher, Mrs D. He also, which I am so pleased about, is in a class with another boy at T's level academically and age/maturity. Yay! Also some nice girls from his current class, and a whole lot of new kids who I am told are nice as well. So all looks good on that front and I don't have to seriously consider home schooling as I thought I might!!
So really life is still organised chaos, with survival the priorty of the day. Our au pair leaves us next Friday so D and I are back to having to be organised around food, cleaning, washing etc. I am sort of looking forward to it - but I am sure that will be short lived. I have about 5 weeks of it being shared with D, and then we will see about hiring a mother's helper in the morning and afternoon - when school and kindy start.
Labels: Large Family, Maths, Newborn, school, Spelling, Suzuki piano
