a better day at the Easter Show

Today my little family and I went to the Easter Show. We dropped a shedload of cash, there was a few tanties and I consumed a dagwood dog but it was fabulous!! We had a really great day, and I'm pretty sure the 3 exhausted little monkeys currently snoring their heads off upstairs would say the same.

Taking my three toddlers to the easter show was no easy feat I gotta say. Missy Moo was pretty scared in the animal nursery. When I say pretty scared I actually mean terrified but she was last year too so we expected it. Last year Little Miss was only 8 months old so she wasn't bothered one way or another. This year however she too was scared - joy!! Managing two scared toddlers would have been ok between the two of us, but add in a third toddler who was fearless and trying to climb into the animal enclosures and pick up baby goats and sheep, well it was interesting to say the least. I got a few photos but it was certainly intense in the animal enclosure today!

Taking three toddlers on rides when there is only two adults is pretty much impossible. Monkey Man says he wants to go on everything but once he gets to the start line he freaks and wants Mummy or Daddy with him. Missy Moo at least has the decency to be upfront about her need for Mummy and Daddy to come on everything with her, as she should at 2.5. Little Miss just cries and doesn't really enjoy rides as yet. We went on a big ferris wheel as a family and spent the entire time telling her to sit still, not to touch the doors or to jump around the cabin. Pretty scary at however many feet up in the air!! I took Monkey Man and Missy Moo on a little roller coaster rider and can't say I enjoyed it. Both kids seemed to so that's all that matters right? My back is screaming at me from the jolting and jerking that bloody ride did and I still have a headache however many hours later. (god I sound old!!) On a sidenote, all 3 of us fit into a carriage made for two which was a total woohoo moment for me. This time last year none of the kids would have fit in there with me so yeah to progress!!

Speaking of a year ago, I had to go and find the photos from Easter last year to compare my monkeys and how they've grown. One of the troubles of having 3 kids a year apart is that the last 3 and a bit years are really a blur to me. Sometimes I genuinely have trouble remembering how they were at that time.
A year ago my Little Miss was a baby. She's now a determined, stubborn, head strong toddler with a will that is fierce! The girl knows what she wants, no doubt about that!

ignore my stupid head hahaha

A year ago Monkey Man was 2.5, camera shy and too busy being busy to have his photo taken. Now he tells me to 'take my photo mummy' and will pose. Ok its for a split second which is barely long enough for me to get the camera out and he usually does that painful looking cheeeeeese face but you know, its all progress right?

A year has made a big difference to our kids, they've grown so much. A year has made a big difference to our easter show experience. Next year I reckon it will be even better - hell we might even be able to stay for the night time show... pushing it maybe?? Only time will tell.

relaxing coastal break for us

In a couple of days we're heading up the coast for a few days of relaxation. Oh wait, the kids are coming too. . .  we're heading up the coast for a few days of, well, a few days!! Holidays with kids are hardly relaxing are they? Between packing every bloody toy we own, 100 changes of clothes and then trying to fit all of this crap into our car between prams, carseats, beach balls and buckets, making sure I remember important sleep toys and the current favourite cup or bowl, the lead up alone is enough to give me a migraine.

I am excited about this trip, I really am and its been a long time in the planning. We're staying with friends and their family. Oh did I mention, there will be 5 kids under 4? Insane right? Last time we got together there was only 2 kids plus one in my belly. The time before that, back in the day there was no kids but plenty of booze. And dancing, I'm sure there was dancing? I pity the poor people in the surrounding cabins. I bet we're the neighbours people complain about for noise pollution. I also bet we have loads of sleep issues including kids awake at stupid AM. It's ok though, we've booked accommodation that's walking distance to pubs and we've scoped out the nearest bottle shops. The pain.will.be.dulled. There will be photos of kids playing on the beach - which is to have no waves as per Monkey Man's stipulation this afternoon. Missy Moo then instructed there be no sand either. Apparently neither like sand or waves. Hmmm could be interesting?? Maybe the photos of kids playing on the beach will be of random kids rather than mine? The buckets and spades are ready for action though and I'm pretty sure their swimming costumes from summer still fit. Probably should check shouldn't I? I'll squeeze them in one way or another as I am not rummaging through sales racks trying to find reduced swimwear in bigger sizes for them.

Yep, the circus is heading off on a holiday. We'll do touristy activities and we'll no doubt be tourist attractions ourselves with loads more randoms getting the opportunity to ask me if they're twins or triplets, if we planned them so close, if we have our hands full, if we have a TV etc etc... just today someone asked me if the girls were twins. We were on a travelator at the time which is a common place for random chat, except it wasn't working so we were walking down it - or in my case I was being dragged downhill, struggling behind 50kg of toddler and 20kg of pram on the downhill slide. Those travelators are pretty slippery truth be told. All I could think was shut up woman and let me concentrate on not letting go of this load. Visions of human bowling were making me smile and panic all at the same time.

My friend and I have made plans, we have lists baby! We've sussed out all the indoor play centres in the area, we've checked out the clubs and worked out which are family friendly, we know which beaches are wave free (sorry Missy Moo, can't do much about sand), we've worked out where the plaster fun house is and where the kids can make their own pizza. We've worked out how far the play ground and jumping pillow are from our cabins. That should cover the first day or so right?? And we've planned to escape at least one night and leave the Dads in charge - hell they should be grateful we didn't book ourselves into the day spa for the week.

 
If you hear of a crazy woman chasing three kids out of an actual dolphin pool or a family being asked to leave a holiday park due to noise or breakages in the next few days, there is an extremely high possibility that its us. Don't judge. Don't hate. Don't wish it was you on a 6 hour drive with 3 toddlers. Don't wish it was you crammed into a little cabin with 3 kids that still wake up overnight and will most likely want to start the day at 5am and then refuse a day sleep.  Jealous?

Would it be acceptable to self medicate before we even set off???  Bourban be totally counted as a breakfast option if I hide it in a smoothie? right? Wish us luck!

mourning the loss of babyhood

My Monkey Man will be 4 in July. He's hardly a baby anymore, I know but it still pains me to think of him growing up. These last few weeks there has been a shift in normality around here and I am devastated. The end is nigh, the end of his. . . . . . daysleeps. Yes my friends, the short and only period of time in the day when I have all 3 asleep, at the same time. My girls are 1.5 and 2.5 so they still need a daysleep, Monkey Man on the other hand has been fighting his for weeks. More than anything, and most bloody importantly, I NEED THEM TO SLEEP!!!

If he has a day sleep, he fights sleep at night and its more than an hour after bedtime before he actually goes to sleep. If he doesn't have a daysleep he's a feral grouchy bear from 4-7pm. I don't know which is worse. Yesterday he didn't have a sleep and we endured a horrible dinner time, talk about tantrum central. Today I put them all to bed and he appeared to go down without a fight. Result! I went to hang washing out and came back in to find him playing in the lounge room. Um, I don't think so my little friend! Back to bed, now!! Right now I can hear him playing around upstairs. arggghhhhhhh

This mumma needs a break, this mumma needs my three toddlers to have a daysleep, at the same time. I need a toddler time out, I need it, I really really do!!! Why won't someone think of the mamma!!!

I'm officially in mourning. I should be dressed in all black, for real. I don't want him to grow up, I don't want him to out grow the daysleep. I just don't want it. Can't he stay a baby forever?? Seriously.

10/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013 "

Today my three monkeys helped wash our car. They also washed the concrete, the grass, themselves and the paddling pool. Why wash one thing when you can wash many? They had ALOT of fun and the damage will all wash out in the washing maching. Making memories, that's what it's all about. . .

I've missed a few weeks of the 'portrait a week challenge' set by Jodie at Che & Fidel but it's all good. I have the photos, just lost my blogging mojo a little - haha. Anyone seen it?  

 

Karma in the form of a fountain

Do you remember that scene from The Sound of Music where the Von Trapp children are laughing and screeching with joy as they climb trees and sail down the river. They're filthy dirty and wearing clothes made out of curtains, much to the horror of their father. This is the scene in case you need a memory jolt:

I'm always torn watching this scene. The OCD, control freak part of me agrees with the father, kids shouldn't be making huge scenes and should be tidy at least, especially in public. I have no issue with them wearing clothes made out of curtains. I'm not sure if I'm putting this across how I wanted to but there it is. The fun loving mother in me also disagrees with the dad and thinks that kids should laugh and have fun, of course they should.

At my local shopping centre there is a set of fountains, those ones that go off and on and shoot up at various heights, ie toddler height (there's a correct, technical term for it which evades me right now).  I've managed to keep my kids out of them so far. I've managed to promise 'next time' or 'after a donut' or 'another time' and it's worked every time. I've walked past there many times and seen kids playing happily in the water, fully clothed. I've judged, I've said nasty, judgemental parent things to myself like 'oh for gods sake, put a swim suit on your kid' or 'for fcuks sake, is it really the place to play?'... I've used words like bogan and feral when seeing these kids in the fountains. I've also smiled when I've seen the joy on these kids faces as they splashed and jumped. Again, I'm torn between OCD control freak mum and fun loving mum.
But seriously, I mean the bloody fountain is in the middle of a busy shopping centre and surely its for decoration purposes, right?  Until today.

Today we were close by meeting Dirt Girl, The Cat in the Hat, Shaun the Sheep, and Tweety Bird (don't ask!) and I was hoping the fountains would be switched off. No such luck. We met the characters . . . Monkey Man went up to all of them with no fear whatsoever, Missy Moo was a little hesitant but after a few high 5's she wanted to go back again and again. Little Miss clung to me, wrapped herself around me, dug her fingers into my back and screamed in my ear the entire time. She was apparently not keen. We had cake earlier on, the kids had balloons, and I chased them out of the fountains a few times. I mean in toddler terms of a day out it was perfect, right? I thought I'd gotten away with it, kept them out of the fountains for yet another day. Until I turned away for 2 seconds. Then I found this:

It was over. They were soaked head to toe, I had no spare clothes or towels for them, it was over. I was officially one of those parents who let their feral children run wild in a public place. The Baroness** would be disgusted... Every OCD fibre of me wanted to scream at them to get out and to bundle them into the car. I fought myself, I fought hard and found a way to somehow, let go. It was bloody hard I tell ya, especially when I heard other people walking past comment on 'how wet those children were'. The tone of those comments were pure disdain and disapproval - judgement. I became the Mum I've looked down my nose at and commented about previously. Karma. It gets you eventually. 

I had no idea how I'd get them out of the fountain let alone to the car and home. I knew the pram would get soaked, I knew I had no clothes and definitely no towels with me so we would have to go and buy some. I usually have a bag of spare clothes in the boot of the car but knew it was currently sitting in the study. Buggeration!

I asked another Mum friend I'd run into to watch them in the fountain while I ran into a store and bought them clothes, towels etc. There was a plan, I was calm and I was actually enjoying watching my kids run, shriek and laugh. The plan was abandoned when Missy Moo decided to hide in a corner and fill her already full nappy. The smell was horrendous and her nappy was officially bursting at the seams. Given it was full of water, I knew there wasn't long before it all ended rather nastily. It was time to go. I bunded two kids into the pram, made Missy Moo stand on the skateboard as I figured sitting on that load would no doubt cause an explosion and into Target we went. It took ages to find summer clothes in their sizes as everything is on clearance and just a giant jumble sale of clothes. Missy Moo peed all over the floor as her nappy was now officially overflowing and all three were dripping water everywhere. I had a baby wipe on the floor and was wiping as we went with my foot, like some kind of idiot. God I was embarrassed! Some random old lady asked me in serious WTF tone 'what on earth happened to them??'... I explained rather sheepishly that I let them in the fountains but now we had to find clothes urgently as the nappy situation was getting dangerous. God bless her (ie so she fcuking should!), she put aside her tone and judgement and helped me find clothes. She did so while saying nothing about the smell. She clearly was a mother. She must have remembered what it was like to lose control and vote fun over rules. Maybe she had no sense of smell?

We took over the parents room, dried everyone off, changed bums and threw all the wet stuff into a plastic bag. Mothers with newborn babies, clearly their first babies were looking on rather horrified. You could see them also wondering what the hell happened. Crisis averted and 3x new outfits purchased... just another day out really.

**The Baroness was the cranky woman who almost married Captain Von Trapp on The Sound of Music, in otherwords the almost step mum. Luckily for us all he chose Maria and all was right in the world. Seriously if you haven't seen it, you're missing out.