This Is Me - Part Seven

Children:
*Give your children's full names, birth dates and places.
Mark Emmanuel Lantz - 12 June 1998, Melbourne Victoria

Ryan Joseph Storer - 4 December 2009, Newcastle NSW.

Ben Arthur Storer - 3 April 2011

*How did you choose their names?
Mark was chosen very early and confirmed very late in the pregnancy, his biological father is French, so it had to be a name that made sense in Australia and in France.  Vince had a lot of good experiences with people called Mark and I really liked it, so Mark it was.  Emmanuel I just love and it was Vincent's childhood best friends name.

Ryan was a toss up between Jared and Ryan.  About two weeks before he was born I asked my mother to spell Jared (my preferred spelling) and she chose Jarrod, that cemented Ryan which we both really liked.  His middle name is after Jamie's uncle Joe.  We also have a fob watch which is engraved J Storer, so one of the boys had to have a J in their name.

Ben was a challenge.  I knew it needed to be simple to "fit" with the other boys names.  Jamie didn't want a name that was already at the football club!  Hard call Jamie when we were in contact with around 50 boys.  Elliott was high on the list, Ruben was too.  But why Ben and not Benjamin, there are no adult Benjamins - they are always Ben, just go with Ben at the start.  BUT everyone asks.. is it Benjamin.  Arthur was my maternal grandfathers name.  I never met him, he died before I was born. Plus it has a bit of a dagginess factor which is very important when dealing with a middle name.  By the way, there were at least 3 Ben's in the footy club!

*What were the circumstances of each child's birth?
I've written about all three previously, Mark, Ryan and Ben.

*What are some funny things that each child does/did or says/said?
These are peppered throughout this blog and more frequently on Facebook.  Scroll back, they are always saying funny stuff.

*How do you spend your time with your children?
We do heaps of stuff together, they help me cook, we go on adventures to playgrounds, we love a good playground.  I try to fit in a proper family outing every fortnight, I haven't planned it that way, but its how its working out.

*What are your favourite family activities?
I like when we do stuff all together, even if its doing a garage re-sort and the kids pretend to help.  A family dance party is fun.  We really enjoyed bike rides last year, haven't done it this year.  Dinners with the Dunn family are great too.

Hot - freaking F*&%ing HOT

You think that is harsh, but its not.  We are in a heat wave.
Monday was 31C,
Tuesday was 43C
Wednesday was 42C
Thursday was 43C (today)
Friday is scheduled to be 44C

Only last week we were complaining about how cold it was, a friend of a friend said "don't worry, the Australian Open is on next week and we'll have a heat wave"  Well he was far too correct.  Every one is melting.

So every day after school the boys have stripped naked and played in water.  Ok no nudity in these pics, but cute shots..

Matching PJs

Jumping with the sprinkler under the "jumpoline"

Ben up. Ryan down.

Ben down. Ryan sees the camera!

An afternoon in the back yard

I'll return to Christmas at some point.
In the mean time, I took some gorgeous photos of the boys in our backyard this afternoon.  Without further ado, here they are.

Little water gun

Ridiculously huge (unliftable) water gun

Cuddles with the puppies

Mr Bossy Boots

2 kids and 2 dogs

Ben can't miss out.

Well...

December Daily - 9th

Went to see Bon Jovi with Jamie last night.  It was at Etihad Stadium... very large and very full.  Not their best concert.  The songs I knew were amazing.  The ones I didn't know... was not that thrilled about.  But it was lovely having a date with my gorgeous husband.  He's settling down.

Hot choc is serious business and delicious

Love you Benny

Thoughtful Benny

Eeek I love these boys

Cheesy Benny

Kid-isms

Funny things the little boys say:

Wakey-wakey: This phrase was challenging to work out.  Did they mean "time to wake up" or something different.  It is almost always with "no wakey wakey" and over time I believe it mean no way Jose!
Do you want to get dressed?
No wakey wakey - then run away


Sugar: This is bizarrely not about the sweet white sand.  But its another name for a Nerf gun bullet.  Its morphed from trigger to sugar.  and then they got confused pull the trigger, find the sugar.


Pew: another word for shoot.  I want to pew you.

Cracking up

Well its the story of my life.  Feeling totally overwhelmed and like I'm going out of my mind.  Its my normal.

Both boys have "Hand Foot and Mouth Disease" its the Coxsackie Virus, a self limiting illness causing blisters on (surprise) the hands feet and mouth.  The ones in the mouth make it painful for little people to eat.  It apparently makes them VERY cranky with their mother.  My mum and dad looked after Ben for two days (he got it first) and supposedly he was wonderful.  Polite, playful, nice to be around.  For me... he's sooky, whiny, aggressive and very unpleasant to be around.

The other week when I was sick in hospital, they were delightful creatures for Connie and the grandparents.. but as soon as I arrived, tears, misbehaviour etc.  That's just Ben and to be honest Ryan isn't much better.

They see the cracks and then they push.  They fight like crazy, snatching stuff off each other, punching, kicking and today biting.

I'm going to a counseling session (I mean Maternal Health Nurse) session on Tuesday for Ben.  Behaviour and stopping those I wish to stop are at the top of the list of things to discuss.  A month ago I thought my problem was the dummy - now that's gone. Well I just don't cope with 2 year olds.

He doesn't have a calm down button.  Ryan loves the tv/tablet/phone.  Ben isn't technology based, he's not a sweet tooth, not a huge fan of drinks (although this week he's loving his milk)

I had a melt down (read cry) when I was doing the dishes and I'm very sad to say that there was no one there to tell me I was doing a good job.  I was very short with them today, one particular "naughty spot" was horrible and took almost half an hour and I was pretty close to losing my cool.

Anyway must hang in there, they are sick and need some leniency.

I am doing a good job!  There are three of them and only one of me.

At the Farm

We spent the last two weekends up at Jamie's parent's farm.  Its 2.5hrs away.  Here are a select group of pics to sum up the two weekends.  This weekend 19th May was Zahli's Christening - full of drama leading up to it, but went off pretty good.  I actually missed it as my boys decided that sitting in church today just was not their thing.

This picture sums up my boys perfectly.  Mark - don't look at me - Ryan - photo ready at every opportunity - Ben - I'm too busy.

Little dudes in the park near Duckland just off the main drag in Nathalia.

I love this photo.  Jamie was being VERY animated reading a story and all the boys ran and sat around him to hear what all the fuss was about.  This is Jamie looking bashful once he realised I had the camera.

My two fellas now see the camera!

Ben loves Zahli

and I think Zahli loves him back.

A scene from the christening.  Gerald the minister and seated is grandpa Stan.

Thursday - crazy Thursday

I have Thursdays off.  The little boys do not have daycare on Thursdays.
Thursday are full on.

We always go swimming on Thursday, the boys have lessons.  Jamie stays up until after their lessons and then he goes to bed.

Today started with a bang.  Crying.  They both sooked, moaned, cried, whined and thoroughly drove me batty, and that was before 9am.  Jamie's mother wants to borrow Mark's keyboard to play at Zahli's christening next week, so Jamie got it out this morning.

Very serious Ryan, looks like Ben is trying to learn something off of him.

Now they are just jamming.

 Then it was off to swimming lessons, we are less than impressed with swimming this term.  Four kids to a class means you are getting no where fast.  Ryan's teacher still has him using 2 kickboards and he's just not keen.  Ben is bored out of his brain, he's still in the toddler/baby class and he's a bit beyond it, but he's too short (and very probably too young) to move up.  I think we'll see this term out and then take them ourselves - that'll take some discipline.

Next we headed off to the zoo.  I joined the zoo last year and it allows us free entry as often as we like.  Currently parking at the zoo is only $2 for the day and the toll to get there isn't too much.  Makes for a very economical trip.  Today was going to be a short visit and if I wasn't a member, I wouldn't have gone.  We only stayed a little under 2 hours.  The gorillas were not out and about.  We saw one tiger. The mandrills highly colourful backsides made us all laugh.  Some smaller monkeys were in fine form, jumping around and well.... doing something, so we stayed for ages watching them.  Ben kept turning around to me and saying "funny monkeys, did you see that?"  Then we went through to the elephants, took the standard photo.  Check out what difference a year makes.  By the clothing I would guess it was a similar time of year, although today was the warmest May day in 10 years, quite hot really.

Today - 9th May 2013

13 months ago - 2nd April 2013

This is a bird that Ryan thought was particularly charming, 

"you have to take a photo mum"

A little cart in the eatery part of the elephant zone of the zoo

Next stop was the park.  We went to Brimbank Park with Connie and her kids.  We took the bikes.  Ben can't ride his yet.  But we found a playground.  Now from the past couple of posts I have done, it may seem I'm favouring Ben in the photo department.  This is because when Ryan is with Toby, they run off and be silly.  So can't get a good pic.  Benno tends to stay closer to me and by jingo he's cute.

Very old playground.  Ben is driving the car.

A confused Ryan.  There was no slide to get down!  Needed to go back down the ladder. 

A cute little wooden motorbike.  Tailor made for Ben

Cuties

Essentially the same picture repeated five times, for your viewing pleasure.

Gearing up

Went though all the emails from our hotel.  Its nerve racking, hope its as we are expecting, two rooms right next to each other.  Our room looks so nice, its open to the pool, so we're going to have to be neat or we're letting the team down.

Spent the night at Nathalia with the inlaws last night.  I would be quick to call it the best trip there ever.  It was just me and the kids, it was more relaxed than other times and we achieved something.  Spent 2.5hrs shovelling wood chips to a new garden bed.  Even little Ben had a rake.  Felt so good to give something back to them.  They are always helping us.  Our dogs are staying up there whilst we go away.  They are loving it.  Get to bark at cows, have a huge area to explore. They are lazy, so they are safe.

Today was the Bush Bash - sort of an Easter Festival.  There was a Turtle Parade, all the kids dressed up as turtles or butterflys/moths and walked down the main street.  Ryan really got into it.  Ben was a little bit little for the backpacks so he carried a stick with a cardboard witchety grub on it.  Then an author read her book about a long neck turtle which was partly written in the local aboriginal language.  I would have liked to get the book , but it was $25.. a bit much I think.  There was a display of live turtles that the boys really got into it.  Mark on the other hand is all about the food, more to the point, the drinks.

Books and bedtime

I was a naughty mother, not a fan of reading aloud.
Recently I sang my little heart out.

The last two weeks, the boys have been obsessed with books.  Ryan has memorised some of the books and can "read" them himself.

They laugh at the jokes.  Make up side story lines.

So at bed time, we are reading about 4 books, two songs (the favourite being Humpty Dumpty), kisses goodnight,  they have their milk and then I do the blast off.

Stand at the door, hand hovers over the light switch.

Five

Four

Three

Two

One...


Blast off.


Light goes off, mum leaves the room.  Thanks for playing, we're asleep now.

Facebook

This is what my Facebook status feed would look like today if I wanted to piss everyone off.


- Swimming today.
- Benno tried to fall asleep in the pool, lay on my shoulder looking very cute.
- Awww Ben fell asleep on my shoulder after refusing to go to bed.  First time since he was atiny baby.
- Community Service Announcement for those in TUllamarine. Sky the one-eyed wonder dog is missing. Let us know if you find him.
- Sky walked up the drive way - he's home.
- Procrastination +

Challenges

I plan to do a photo a day, actually two if I can.  First is a day by day challenge with a word prompt.  The other is my boys - out of respect for the eldest, its of the little two, but hopefully Mark will join them in more than one throughout the year.  So without further ado, here is the first two days.


01 Jan 2013

Prompt: Today - The boys sitting together having lunch.

The two of them, looking through the bottom of the trampoline at the dogs

02 Jan 2013

Prompt: New - new haircuts.

 The two of them, being cool with their cousin Toby.

Adventures in grocery shopping.

I almost always shop alone.  Fast.  Relatively daily.

Today, I ventured out with my two youngest children.  Ben is thankfully still happy in the trolley.  Ryan now walks (he is 3 you know)

Made Ryan help!  He collected the carrots, cucumbers, picked the fruit.  He's still quite a bit short for a lot of things, but he loved helping.  He does this gorgeous thing with his hand "ala The Price Is Right" when he wants me to look at something.

Once we got home, I wanted to put up our "Santa Please Stop Here" sign.  I tried pushing it in.  Ground is too firm.  So I said "we need a hammer guys" inside we went and Ryan went rushing off.  He came back with his toy hammer, bless his little heart.

Some tough times.

I have NOT enjoyed the past 5 weeks.  Not one bit.

Jamie moved away for work.  So essentially I've been a single parent and I hate it.  I hate the lack of company in the evening, I hate not being able to share the load.

Mark started high school and we had some major anxiety to deal with.  Over the past three days, he's been suffering from a spasm-y stomach, the doc thinks it might be "migraine stomach aches".

Ryan has become super clingy, we attempted to put him in the "big boy bed" but after two weeks of hell, I convinced myself that it was ok to put him back in the cot, so I rearranged the boys room for the 5th or 6th time and his sleeping pattern normalised.  Daycare has been a nightmare for Ryan, he doesn't enjoy* being dropped off, he screams and carries on, clings to me like a koala and pretty much needs to be pried away by the staff who always reassure me that the day improves.  Currently Ryan is sick, he has a double ear infection and congested lungs.  He is on penicillin and ventolin (via a spacer & mask)

Ben is still brilliant.  He cut more teeth without a fuss, currently has 4 top teeth and two bottom teeth.  He commando crawls very quickly and is very inquisitive and quite independent.  He's not a great fan of cuddles but will give a kiss if you "pucker" at him.  He is very smiley and loves the remote controls, 5c pieces and food!  Ben also has a bronchospasm and is on ventolin via a spacer & mask.

I didn't cope with agency work.  Being called at 5am to cancel a shift or be given one is just not my cup of tea.  Dropping the boys off at 6am and dashing to my work with Mr Clingy was more than I could stand.  Thankfully I am starting my "real job" on Tuesday at St Vincent's Private Hospital, I'm stupidly excited about it.  I just have a great feeling that its going to be good.  That our work situation will work out.  Jamie will find a contract job at the airport down here that starts at 7 or 8am, so he can do the daycare drop off... men handle it so much better.... or is that Jamie will handle it better than me.

* this is a super understatement.

Photos of the Munchikins

This is from tonight (19th October), Ryan was happy to have his picture taken, but Ben was not feeling very safe.

Starting out having solids, rice cereal is pretty yuck, but he does seem to like pumpkin and apple.

Morning tea time at Speers Point Park.

Ben at Speers Point Park.  

It must be annoying being stuck in the pram,
when everyone else gets to play.

Mark and Ryan in the water play area.  This was a tap that kept on running and gets recycled around.  Ryan was enthralled by it.

Ryan with Christian's scooter.  (Christian is Mark's friend Damien's little brother).  Ryan LOVED this scooter, it's essentially a bike without the pedals

Ryan with the rocket launcher.

Ben after a bath.