Ok, so I totally missed yesterday's challenge - Something Green, so I am cheating a little here.
This is a photo of the freckle (aka Felix) taken for a friend who is a MCN consultant. She's been going to a few markets, and wanted some cute pics to display of little one's wearing the nappies. I use this brand on Felix, so she asked if she could ''borrow'' him for the shoot. Of course, I happily obliged because what doting mama wouldnt want more cute shots of thier bubba?
I guess though, the other reason I posted this pic is because depite the nappy being green in colour, it is also green in nature. Using MCN means we save literally thousands of disposable nappied from being thrown into landfil, where it will sit for many, many years before it even begins to decompose - some estimates say 300 years!!! We are not the "greenest" household, but we do try. Using recycled loo paper, chemical-free laundry detergent and cleaning products, using mcn and green bags for shopping are some of the ways we try to help our planet.

From a high angle:

Another shot of the king of the house - Felix has found his feet :) He loves to suck his toes, much to the disgust of the older three children!

I looked out the window when I decided to take a pic for this challenge (thought about being lazy, but didnt have any cloud shots handy lol!) and thought "blurgh". The sky was grey and I couldnt see anything interesting to photograph at all. Here in NE Vic, winter is setting in. After ten days of lovely, 25degree weather in Perth, we were shocked at the cold on our return home!

I have to fess up here and admit that I got Gez to take this shot for me - after several unsuccessful attenpts in front of the mirror in the bathroom I gave up!
Today I wore my new earrings! I LOVE birds, and almost every piece of jewellry I own has a bird/birds on it. My lovely friend Anna has clearly picked up on this, despite knowing me for only a short time compared to some of my other friends, and gifted these lovely doves to me after a trip away with her family. just love them xx

In other news, today is Tegan's 16th birthday!! I cant believe the changes we see in her since she arrived into our family almost two years ago. She walked into our home a child - younger than the number of her years, at 14, I often compared her with an eleven year old in maturity. She has certainly grown and changed so much, and we cant imagine our family without her...except maybe quieter - she has taken to listening to classic rock and playing on her guitar extremely loudly in her room lately, lol!

Ok, so I've been a terrible blogger the past six months since Felix arrived. The gorgeous little brat is a cat-napper, so I havent mopped the floor in a fortnight let alone blogged. However, one photo a day I can manage, so here goes:

 

Wow, what a crazy couple of months. I cannot believe it's already March!
My laptop had to be repaired last month and has only just come back, so I have spent a whole month only able to access the internet from my iphone - not conductive to writing blog posts unfortunately!

Here's what's been happening in my neck'o'the woods lately :

# Riley had a party! He turned six, and we had a fabulous Superhero party at our place :)

He invited 8 boys and 6 came, and they all had a ball playing together with Ry's gifts and running around the backyard. Lucky too, as this usually-super-mega-organised mummy was exhausted after;

# welcoming this gorgeous little guy into the world!


How lucky am I? Not only to I get to experience my own three incredible boys being born, but I also have been priveledged to support not one but two other women in birthing thier babies! Katelyn is my cousin's girlfriend. She has no family or friends here, is very young, and unfortunatly my cousin is not wonderful partner/father material. However, Katelyn is very maternal and a level headed girl, and I think she will do just fine with her little boy with some support.
It was an incredible experience and I will be forever grateful to have been part of Domonic's birth.

# Felix got BIG!!



My littlest bub at birth has turned into my fasted growing boy! He's growing at a rate of knots and all the clothes I brought him for winter are fitting him well already. He'll be in size 0 in the next month or so :(
He's the sweetest thing though, and we all completely adore him! Feeding is going well, and I am sooo enjoying our time together!

I have his birth story half done, so will post that soon. In the meantime, I have developed an icky gastro bug this weekend - perfect timing as Gerard is away at a cub scouts camp with Jackson for the weekend, so I get to look after the others and be sick at the ame time!

Back soon!

Well, the holidays are over. My boys went back to school on Friday, and Tegan starts again on Monday.
After several weeks of anxiety around how I might manage three kids and a new bub by 'myself' (while Gerard is at work) all holidays, in actual fact we have had a wonderful time together, without incident.
I am proud of the effort I made to bond with each of my children individually, and to ensure we had plenty of fun activities to keep us entertained and enjoying each other's company. Tegan and the boys have spent time getting to know their baby brother, and in turn, he has gotten to know them. Over the past 8 weeks since Felix was born, we have all settled in nicely together as a family.

Now, school is back, and again after investing so much into my children - and reaping the rewards of well behaved, well mannered children who respond to me in a positive way, I find myself hesitant.
Who decides how much 'institutionalised' schooling our children need? Is six hours per day, five day per week really neccessary for them to grow into educated adults? Why not four hours a day, or three days a week?
I feel it is too much. Too much time away from 'primary caregivers' (especially in the infant years prep/kindergarten to grade two) too much time gaining influence from peers the same age, and not a range of ages. Too much time wasted while other children are disciplined or need extra help with work.

I wonder why there is not a choice. If there were, I would certainly consider having my children home an extra day or two each week. I certainly see the benefits of the schoolhouse environment - I'm not questioning that, it's the lack of choice parents have with regards to how many hours our children spend there. Is the current requirement simply based on the needs of working parents, or is there researched evidence that children actually need to be in school 32hours each week?

I am going to be looking at our options, now that we are on the tip of the iceburg with Jackson's ASD diagnosis. (OT report indicated definate difference in three out of five sensory processing areas) We meet with the Paed shortly to see what he comes up with.

Wow, it's Riley's 6th birthday in Feb, and of course I'm in party planning mode!
I convinced He decided to have a superhero theme, and rather than going with spidey or superman (I dont 'do' licenced stuff) I found this gorgeous vintage inspired superhero party kit on sale for only $45 at http://www.tenlittleindians.com.au/ and have been searching out vintage superhero images to print as iron-on transfers to make tee-shirts for each of the kids to wear :)
I am not too sure yet what i'll do about the cake, but i'll have plenty of time to think about it after next week, when three of my four return to school :( We have had such a wonderful holiday break together, and I'm pretty proud of how i've coped with having them all at home and a newborn all at oncce, and 'm a little sad about them going back to school.

The next party to plan is Tegan's 16th!!! She wants a Mad Hatters Tea Party, which will be a lot of fun!

We took the kids to a huge lake about an hour away from home in the mountains today. They swam and kayaked for hours and we had such a lovely time! Gerard and I both promised each other that we WILL take more time out this year to take the kids on day trips and spend time together. Here are some pics - notice how big my 'newborn' is getting, Felix is growing like a mushroom on that good mama-milk :)

I've been feeling guilty every time I log in to blogger to read my fav blogs, about not writing myself. Believe me,  have heaps to say - so much that I just cant sort out in my mind where to start! However, it is school holidays and I have three kids and a breastfeeding newborn, so I have decided to give myself a break.
I'll try and post some pic between here and the end of the school holidays, but until the kids are back at school I am taking a leave of absence from this space. Hope you understand :)

See you in feb my little blog!
Charli xo