Day 20 I love that he cares

I have a confession. There is no way I would do the same for him.

During winter, homme makes a point of jumping into bed before me whenever possible, and warming my side of the bed. I hate cold sheets and I refuse to buy an electric blanket as I can’t bear the idea of wasting electricity. When I climb into bed he rolls over to his cold side and leaves me the wonderfully warm patch of love.

And it is not as if he doesn’t feel the cold. He groans quietly when he hits the cold sheets on his side but I make it up to him and give him a big, warm cuddle. Only sometimes do I put my cold feet against his skin to warm them up!

Day 19 I love this second opportunity

 

It was hard work falling pregnant with baby number one, and baby number two was a blessing I thought I would never experience. We tried our luck for baby number three but there was disappointments and heartbreak.

I counted my blessings and loved my life with two beautiful daughters. Sure there were times as new cousins came along that they asked for a baby brother or sister. But we were happy. They were healthy, happy and loved each other without the sibling rivalry others complained of.

As circumstances changed, my part time nursing career became a twice weekly nightshift job to suit the routine of kindergarten. I didn’t mind, I delighted in being involved in their early  schooling.

They were growing into big girls when at ages nine and seven we had a surprise. Nature had plans for us and I found myself pregnant with baby number three.

March 2009 I gave birth to a baby boy. How my life has changed again. At age 40, I am sure some of my friends wonder Why? Sure there are the groundhog days of sleep battles, feeding routines and nappy changes, but mostly there is the absolute delight in watching a little person grow and develop, knowing that you have such a priveleged role in guiding this.

I love that I have experience behind me and two children who have forged the path for me. During the most wakeful nights all I have to do is think about how quickly they grew into the beautiful people they are now. I love that this makes me relaxed about parenting – I have trialled and errored these situations before. I love spending the time it takes to put his little socks and shoes on EVERY time we leave the car (first thing he pulls off in the car), the time it takes to hold his baby hand and walk places instead of rushing. I have learnt from miss i that soon enough he will look me in the eyes when we walk (still hand in hand with her).

I love being at the point in my life where I am not stressing about a career or finances so I can be the stay at home Mum I want to be. Sure I still have dreams and ambitions but I only have two more years before he is sucked into the school system and then a lifetime of my own to grow and develop further. It is not to say that I am not pursuing my passions right now also.

I love that he has two big sisters who adore him and show gratitude for all they now see that I did for them. They love to entertain him and teach him things. They are also a godsend when it comes to helping out. They understand the give and take it takes for them to be so heavily involved in all they do, and happily offer to read stories, bathe with him or even feed him when I am trying to do other things.

I love that he is my last baby. There is less than two years between the girls and this time I am so selfish that I want to adore him without having a toddler and a baby. Been there, done that.

I love that after 12 years, he chose us all by himself.

Day 18 I love their positive attitudes

Last weekend the girls had their annual ballet exams. They practice ballet and jazz purely for the end of year concert. They both enjoy dancing but at the moment it is not their life ambition or anything.

Sitting their exams is not compulsory. In fact I am yet to work out why they are even scheduled as you can advance each level of ballet each year whether you pass, fail or don’t even complete the exams. I wasn’t sure how miss i and miss e would feel about the exams. Two years ago miss i received a high score and went on to be a finalist in the Medal Class. Last year however her examiner failed her by one point. Go figure. And when I say she failed by one point, the pass mark was 40/100!!!! In fact all the girls who sat (?) their exams last year had very low results. Our dance teacher made complaints and was quite outraged but the girls and I shrugged it off and I was more than impressed with miss i’s mature approach to the whole thing. We had a laugh at the examiner’s expense and wondered how he slept at night giving a 9 year old a mark of 39. I mean we needn’t have been rocket scientists to have accepted the fact that a pass mark of just 40 on her report would have told us that she should be discouraged at that point for trying out for the Australian Ballet! Instead it had the potential to bruise her self esteem and discourage her from dancing at all.

Miss e sat her first exams last year also. She barely passed, but it seemed he was a little more lenient on the 7 year olds. She was very nervous about being expected to perform at a greater level this year, and potentially failing.

I left the decision to enter the exams up to them and they both accepted the challenge head on. It makes for a full weekend in the heart of the city with every hair tacked back to within an inch of its life, clean leotards and tights and ballet skirts sewn onto the leotard at the last possible minute (no chance of going to the toilet once sewn in).

The mock exam went for an hour and a half on Saturday and the real exam for an hour each on Sunday (with four hour gap between). They got to sit in the inner city cafe for iced chocolates and muffins with their dance friends and had the best time.

Me however, I got to sit in the Green Room (no viewing exams) and listen to the nervous ranting of a couple of high pressure Ballet Mums who put the future dancing careers of their 8 year olds onto this one exam. They even snuck their girls (set of twins and a singleton) out to the auditions for junior dancers in the upcoming WA Ballet Sleeping Beauty between exams. If I had to hear once more how the one lesson miss R missed through a cold, or the fact that miss E and miss G had private lessons to make up for the two lessons missed while holidaying, I was going to commit hari kari. It was tough work on my part!

 We snuck into the dance studio for a quick photo shoot once the exams were over. The results will take up to a month to be sent out but I love that both our girls are resilient, accept challenges head on and are realistic about their abilities. Most of all, I love that they hang out with like-minded girls and treated it like the fun, girly weekend it was.

Day 17 I love a clean house

Yesterday I had miss i home from school recovering from a nasty bout of gastro the evening before. She was a bit tender and off her food but otherwise happy to entertain herself behind her beloved books. She is also representing her school at the 2010 Speaker’s Challenge tomorrow night, so made use of the time to polish off  her speech.

Master x had a wonderful three hour middle of the day sleep so I got stuck into housework. Sure I do the Daily Zip Around as I call it. I vacuum at least daily (easy to achieve when the vacuum reaches all corners of the house while plugged into one central powerpoint), endlessly tidy up the trail left by a 15 month old, have the washing machine running continuously and the dishwasher comes a close second. However yesterday I vacuumed wooden venetians, wiped down skirting boards and scrubbed the splashback and cupboard doors in the kitchen.

Why is it that these are the days when you traipse back home with three tired kids at 6.20pm after another round of ballet lessons (miss i sat out)knowing you are due back at school at 7pm for the monthly P&F meeting to learn miss e has emptied her sandpit-filled shoes on the bathroom floor, the one pot dinner you have assigned to homme is replaced with his desire to create a culinary masterpiece (read pan fried chicken splatter all over kitchen splashback), and the vintage dog has had another incontinent episode in the living room?

Well the reason I love a clean house is because the Daily Zip Around this morning righted all the wrongs in one quick hour. (In case you are wondering, the puddle of piddle was addressed pronto :))

Day 16 I love all things French

I have always adored French interior design and gardens. As mentioned in a previous post, I travelled to Nice and Paris for a whirlwind 9 day last-minute trip with homme in 2008. What I saw was everything I imagined. I couldn’t believe the emotions I felt towards the Eiffel Tower. Seriously, I am a pretty level headed girl but this huge metal structure took my breath away. It was one of my  Top Ten Days the day homme and I visited it. It was made extra speicial that while we were in the queue to  climb the Tower, I text our girls who were back home in Perth where we were. My girlfriend looking after them took them online to Google Earth and they text me back that they could see me! (At least they assumed one of the blue bloblike people in the queue was me in my denim jacket).

My coffee table books are predominantly French. I love to peruse French inspired homewares shops. I guess it fulfils the girly, romantic side of my personality.

We have been watching MasterChef lately and this week the contestants visited Paris for a challenge. I teared up! I so felt for Marion and Callum who had not visited the country before and were as excited as me on my trip. I could so relate. Pathetic hey. Anyway, I had a moment of joy as they ran under the Eiffel Tower and cooked on the banks of the Seine with Notre Dame in the background.

Day 15 I love our outlook

When we moved into this house, one of the neighbours commented that we would love our outlook and could never go back to living in a house without it.

I quickly came to understand what she meant. We sit high on our street and although it can be a challenge manouvering a pram or toddler up and down the front steps to get to and from the car, I love that we look over a football oval with a glimpse (let’s not kid ourselves) of the ocean, and at night, the lights of the Fremantle Port.  We have built a large deck in the front yard and I love to sit out there and forget that we live in a large and busy city. I have just come in from drinking a cup of hot milo, enjoying the view in the winter sun.

Day 14 I love to watch him learn

Just this week master x and I were keeping ourselves amused as the girls had ballet lessons. Their lessons are in a dance studio at a school and master x was watching miss e and a fellow dancer build towers with these really large wooden blocks outside the pre primary classrooms. I observed him as he watched the girls intently, figuring out how they were balancing the blocks. After a moment he first passed a cylindrical block to one of the girls to add to her tower. Next minute he advanced to her tower with another cylinder, this time carefully putting it into place on her building. She was amazed.

Finally, he figured that he could build a tower all by himself:

Photo taken by miss e on my iphone.

Day 13 I love to renovate

Serial renovator, that’s me. I am convinced it has something to do with the fact that my Dad was in the Army and therefore during my childhood we moved house 6 – 12 monthly. I am conditioned to pack, move and redecorate. If I haven’t moved house in a year or two, I get itchy feet to knock down walls, rip up tiles, paint…..

In between renovations, I change rooms around whenever I can. I have a couple of ‘little’ projects lined up for the upcoming school holidays to revamp a couple of bedrooms.

I am a before and after fan. I love to look through home renovation magazines and interior design books, my favourite articles having before and after photos.

We have made lots of improvements to our current home. Our home is very functional but small. I am finding myself ‘in the zone’ lately, drawing up plans for our second storey. I am really excited about incorporating design ideas we have used in the past, to make the most of this house. Having built a new kitchen before, and renovated four bathrooms, I now have firm ideas about what I like. In our last home I built my DREAM laundry and can’t wait to see if I will have the space to recreate it here. At the moment the front load washing machine is behind a cupboard door in the kitchen.

As small as our current kitchen is, it works brilliantly. Until recently, the study alcove was the only study area we had. We even had the printer/scanner/photocopier on the bench next to the coffee machine! I  learnt from our last home the benefits of having a homework zone in the kitchen area. Fact is that kids need help most when doing their homework and homework time in our home is the time I prepare dinner. I don’t remember a weeknight  when I was not sauteeing or stirring while reading out spelling words.

So here are our stage one kitchen before and after photos:

BEFORE

AFTER

Our little dining room is located where our old kitchen used to be.

Day 12 I love a made bed

Yes, I am still here. We have had headcolds enter our house. Firstly miss e missed three days of school. Her nighttime wakefulness started master x off on his antics. She passed the lurgy onto master x himself and night times of fun and games for me with his sleeplessness. Homme of course has come down with it and it has evolved into ‘man flu’. So I haven’t spent a whole night in my own bed in the past week, bedhopping mostly into miss e’s bed so I can be near master x and allow the rest of the house a good night sleep.

I have been taking photos and jotting down notes, just not found time to connect it all together on my blog. Be prepared for an influx of entries as I complete my challenge for June.

So lack of sleep got me thinking about one of my absolute passions. Yes, you read right. I love a made bed. I feel unbalanced and grumpy if I return from the school run to see my bed in a mess. I have always been this way. Even bc (before kids) when I worked nightshift four nights a week as a nurse. There would often be only an hour between homme waking and leaving the bed, and me climbing into it for my daily sleep. Homme learnt quickly that to keep me happy, I had to climb into a made bed. He didn’t mind. As he said, if that is all it takes to make me happy, then I am easy to please.

My bed is my sanctuary. It doesn’t matter how my day pans out, if I can walk past my bedroom and see order, then I am happy and content.

Day 11 I love this house

At least what I can see from the street. This house is being built a couple of streets away and I always detour to walk past it when I walk to the supermarket. It has a lovely feel to it in our old suburb, which has lots of Edwardian and Californian Bungalow style houses. The occasional 70’s style house which snuck its way into the suburb is often replaced with a modern trendy number. This one is made of limestone with two storeys. The upper story is loft-like with the windows being in the sloped roof. Very much how I imagine some European styles. I can imagine being in one of these bedrooms, looking out over the rooftops in a city. In fact my sister lived in funky unit in inner city Melbourne which had a similar window in her mezzanine bedroom.

I love the limestone wall and ironwork they have used on the perimeter, and the intricately carved wooden doors make a feature. The windows have clear leadlight in that diamond shape pattern. It has two sections of stonework which I saw a man completing by hand. I also love the flat tile used on the roof.

These photos do not do it justice as the weather here today is wet and cloudy. I am enjoying seeing this house come together as someone’s home.