Tri means Three

The boys went to a dinosaur party on the weekend. At the party there were dinosaur dress ups and a lady running dance like a dinosaur workshops. So the boys got dressed up like various dinosaurs and as they were going through the different dinosaurs she would ask the kids questions. So they get to the triceratops and she asks why it was given that name. Matthew puts his hand up in the air and when asked says "Tri means three and a triceratops has three horns!" I was so thrilled that the things i talk about with my children do actually filter through! Matthew and I had a huge discussion one day about different bike names. We started with a bicycle has two wheels, a tricycle has three, a unicycle has one and a quad bike has four. Therefor bi means 2, tri 3, uni 1, quad 4 etc.

Also this week i got some great reassurance that he is learning things! He got home from school and i was telling him how the fire engine came when the tree fell down. He thought for a minute and then asked "Did you call Oh, Oh, Oh Mummy?" I let him know that i hadn't called 000 but I asked him why he thought I may have. He replied with he thought it was an emergency, the tree falling down. So I now feel very confident that if we were to have an emergency in the Rickard house hold Matthew would know how to call emergency services! And I am also very happy that he is busily absorbing knowledge!

A run of bad luck

That is what my last few days have been like. First of all i finally got the spewing virus that the boys had. It started an hour before I was due at a community house party. I had to go as one of the other organisers was sick so i really had to be there. I then spent Monday night with my head down a toilet. Tuesday i was still violently ill and Nathan really had to go to work as he had back to back meetings. So i had to struggle through with all three kids. They ran riot. Ben drank (and when i say drank i mean it very loosely) a 1 litre juice carton. 900 mls of it ended up on the kitchen floor. They tried to eat a bunch of bananas and when they couldn't get the skin off in one go the whole banana was disposed of (on the floor) and the next banana was attempted only to meet the same fate. Ryan ate a packet of hundreds and thousands for lunch! Thank goodness for my neighbours as they came over and got the kitchen tidied up and kids back into line. They thought it was funny for some reason! Anyway roll on today. I'm still not feeling well but i did manage to get Matthew ready for school and when we get outside we find out a tree had fallen on to our roof!

This is where the day gets better (for the boys at least!) I called Canberra connect and they send out the fireys to inspect it. They tell me there is no damage to the house (thank goodness!) and we should have no trouble cutting it down and getting rid of it. I anks if it will cause anymore damage in the next few days as my husband is away (he left for Melb this morning and he is always away when these things happen!) So they get the SES in to cut it up for me! Yeay! We also got to have some piccies with the fire truck. So Ben and Ryan have had their day made!

Sleeping

This picture doesn't really tell the whole story! When i picked him up to put him back into bed I realised he had gotten out of bed to get his parmie pants put back on. But he must have fallen asleep on his way to get some assistance!

This is not the first time Benny has fallen asleep whilst standing!

He is exceptionally talented and has been doing it from around 9 months of age!

Butting Heads

Matthew and I at times, butt heads. This has been the case since he was very young. He is stubborn and I am stubborn and at times this has caused issues.
We had issues at swimming lessons on Wednesday. Matthew is NOT a fan of change and i have changed their swimming lesson majorly. Firstly, we have changed swim schools, secondly we now do afternoons instead of mornings, then last week we went daily and we are now back to weekly. Even though I tried my very best to prepare Matthew for these changes there is always one little thing you can't prepare him for and then he loses it. At swimming this week it was his class not having exactly the same kids in it as the intensives last week AND then he was on the opposite side of the pool. It was too different so he refused to get in. I on the other hand INSISTED he get in. I was calm and gentle in the beginning until he pushed me over in his panic to get away from the water. From then on there was no calm and gentle it was "GET IN THE WATER NOW!!!" Which was met with a "NO!!!" We were at a stalemate and drawing attention to ourselves. I then asked the pool supervisor to put him in the water and i would get out of his line of vision (standard practise for a hysterical young swimmer) But Matthew still persisted. He was eventually put in the water but refused to cooperate. In the end the teachers gave up. (Which is another vent!) Anyway all this led to one stressed Mummy and one stressed Matthew. So after I headed to the shop to get me a coke and a chocolate Nathan came home and i talked it over with him. I know there are times that Matthew and I can't communicate. I feel this will be a problem for us as Matthew grows. Nathan doesn't have this problem with Matt and can reason with him quite well. So we talked about how Nathan will have to step in when Matthew and I get to being in that state. Which is fine but these things usually happen when Nathan is nowhere in sight. So I needed more solutions. My point to Nathan was that I was the mother Matthew MUST learn to do as I say. Nathan's response to me was very interesting and a turning point for me. He said "Yes Jen but someone has to be the adult." That was so interesting to me because I have been brought up with the parents are always right and you do as they say. And when you think about it there was no way in the world, at that swimming pool Matthew was going to turn to me and say "Why yes, mother, you are correct and i am being unreasonable. I am feeling uncomfortable here, i just can't understand why I am feeling this but you are the mother and the boss so I am just going to stop this tantrum and put myself in the pool and swim like the superstar we all know I am! I am sorry!" Like I said, never going to happen. So I have to find a way to be the adult while still being the leader and not submitting to his wishes.

So maybe the next time he chucks a tanty at the pool I will sit him down and ask him why he is so upset, validate his fears and then be more patient in explaining to him that he has to deal with what ever change he is unhappy making and find a way to get him into the lesson before I lose the money that lesson has cost us.
Problem solved! Now onto the swim school vent!
I have a fair amount of experience in dealing with hysterical children at swimming lessons. It was well known that I dealt well with children very uncomfortable getting in the water. ( I still remember spending about 3 lesson just walking up and sown the shallow end with one lady who was petrified. She started out with her arms wrapped around my neck and we moved on to me holding her hand and in the end I did teache her how to swim!) The way I dealt with it was to get the child in the water. Get the parent out of the pool area. Hold the child tight. Continue to teach the class (as the other class members shouldn't have to miss out on their lesson to deal with a screaming child) but the whole time talk to the upset child. First I would talk quietly to calm them down. Sometimes I would use diverting their attention to something else and they would forget they were upset. If i knew the child well and that it was just an act (as Matthew's was) i would dunk them! The shock would usually stop them dead and they would get "Oh great Johnny you just did great bubbles are you ready to go?" Eventually with lots of talking I could get a child to calm down. A child NEVER left my pool upset and with not having achieved SOMETHING. Sometimes it might have only been one bubble. But the last thing that child heard as they left the pool was "Great job Johnny. I loved those bubbles I cant wait to do them again next week". Poor Matthew left his swimming lesson feeling sick and unhappy. It isn't going to be easy to get him back next week as the last feeling he had was bad. That shouldn't happen to any swimmer and it shouldn't happen to any parent who has paid big money for their child to learn how to swim in a happy, fun and safe environment.
Anyway! Thank you for reading this very long winded post. I really needed to get it off my chest!

Flooded

I know most boys do it once in their life time. That's right, yesterday I sent the boys off to the bathroom to brush their teeth, hair and faces before playschool (the length of time that this takes is a complete other post!). They then all hopped on the toilet (and we had success with Benny!) then we rushed out the door. Anyway 2 and a bit hours later we rushed IN the door and as i was rushing down the hall way i could hear running water so I walked backwards back past the bathroom again and there it was! Running water! Running straight out of the tap into the sink onto the floor and into the heating vent! The floor was COVERED in water. Thank goodness for the heating vent really, because if it wasn't there who knows where that water would have ended up! Hopefully the heating system isn't ruined as when the weight of the water got too much the pipey thingy broke off and now underneath the house is flooded! Gosh! Just had a horrid thought.... I hope it doesn't water and therefor sprout any of the plants that the previous owner was cultivating under there!!!????
Anyway, so now we have crossed house flooding off our list, I wonder what disaster they have planned for me next! By the way i have confiscated the plug for their bathroom so it will NOT be happening again no matter how much fun it was to watch the water go flooding into the vent!

More pictures of Matty's Party

Couldn't resist posting more piccies.

Bros

Michelle and Matthew
Benny havin a go!
Brenty showing em how it done
The madness after it broke
She might say she doesn't like kids but it doesn't look like it does it! Karen!

Pass the parcel
Cousin Karen and Mummy
Surprise!
Matthew having a go!
Ryan going after it. Can you see the set of his jaw? He wanted to give it a thrashing!

Warning! Really gross post ahead!

We (I really should say I) am toilet training Ben. Yesterday he spent a good 5 minutes on the potty (during this time he must have consumed at least 10 smarties) however we had no action. So we went out into the backyard without pants. Ben not me! Anyway about 5 minutes later Ben is in absolute hysterics. Apparently he did a poo and Barkley ate it. So now Ben thinks Barkley and him are poo brothers and that is really cool!
Later on in the day Ben is again on the potty outside this time trying to do wees. He sits down for a minute then stands up and says I did a wee. Myself and Barkley look in and say "There's no wee" and he replies "Barkley's got it!"
Boys and their dogs!

I want my birthday

Ben had issues with it being Matthew's birthday instead of his again.....

It's not Floriade....

It's my garden! Spring has sprung and we found ourselves playing in our garden. This azalea didn't flower last year then got lace bug. So I've given it some TLC then treated it with being removed and finally it is flowering!
This is a beautiful tree beside the carport that i love but don't know what it is called.
Another pretty tree but don't know what it is called!

My lavender has flower this year after i cut it back to stumps last year! We did lose one bush though.
An Iris
The front garden

The side garden. The rose in the top left corner was out the back where the shed now is. We thought it may have been special to the previous owner so we transplanted it and it is now thriving.
Our dutch iris
We think this is some sort of magnolia. It was a dead stick in another garden so i have moved it and given it some TLC and it is coming back to life! So exciting!
That is the rose bush in the foreground

This is an ornamental plum tree which has the most gorgeous flowers on it. It is a mass of flowers and bees for like a week!

The back yard. we have put in the edging and mulched it in an attempt to give Nath less weeds to mow.
All we need now is some nice turf.
A boys paradise
That tiny hill is the best toy in the back yard. The boys ride everything down it hence the bare spots!
The new race track

Matthew is 5!

Matthew's 5th birthday was on Friday. He has been counting down to it since Ben's birthday and it finally arrived! He had been telling everyone when he woke up there would be a pile of presents beside mummy's bed that would reach the roof. He didn't quite get a pile that big but he did get good ones! He got a dinosaur set, a space shuttle and a wall E figurine. So he was very impressed. He was even more impressed with his birthday party the following day. He had 12 of his closest friends come over to play. They played pin the cone on the work site, pass the parcel and smashed a pinata. Well the kids tried. They broke off the spiders legs and eyes and smile but didn't manage to smash it so we brought in the big guns and Uncle Brenty smashed it apart! Nathan had painted a car track on the cement slab so they raced their cars around there for a couple of hours. A great time was had by all although Nathan was a little concerned that the girls that had attended turn the fort into a bakery shop! And didnt they know it is a truck work shop???

Brenty an Benny enjopying a jelly cup.

It's a space shuttle!

Matthew's lion cake

Ryan pinning the cone on the work site

Benny did too!

Rain

Can you think back to the last time you experienced something for the very first time? One of the things I love most about having children is watching them experience things for the very first time. Ben has his first play out in the rain on Sunday. It started to drizzle and Ben put his hands up and exclaimed "Magic Water!" How fantastic is that. And to many in Australia that is exactly what it is, magic water!

Great Neighbours

We are so lucky to have the best neighbours in the world. And Tuesday morning as I was doing the breakfast dishes Michelle waved at me over the fence she then called me over to the fence. She had cooked us fish cakes for dinner! Have your neighbours ever cooked you dinner? No! How awesome is that! So thank you so much Michelle. A night off cooking is like winning the lottery for me, so thanks!

Things I NEED to remember

Quite often I will be doing things with the kids and i get a flash and think Jenni you need to remember this when your boys are grown men. The latest flash was when we had 6 cubic metres of mulch delivered. The boys have been helping me to spread it out. I have been wheelbarrowing it into the back yard. They have been following me. Matthew using his excavators, Ben his dump truck and Ryan his big wooden truck. They don't do it sedately. The do donuts in the driveway, they crash down the step and then bolt down the hill to come to a screeching halt at the garden bed. Then you have to make the beep beep noise as you using your dumping mechanism! Definitely a memory to hold close to my heart!
The next is my monster truck made youngest son. Currently he has about 10 cars lines up and he is driving his monster truck over them. Completely with sound effects AND MC'ing! Apparently he is driving Outback Thunda!
And a funny comment made by our kids recently.... Matthew to daddy "Why is your face leaking Daddy?" He was sweating!

Bushwalking

This week a friend and I met out at Tidbinbilla to take the boys for a bush walk. Tidbinbilla is a nature party about 40 minutes from our house. They have several walks you can do from rock wallabies to wetlands to koala ones. So we decided to do the koala one. Apparently there are 7 koalas in the enclosure. When i say enclosure it a huge bit of land that is fenced in but kept as natural bush. Anyway 7 koalas and about 4000 trees. So guess how many koalas we saw! That's right none! But is wasn't really surprising since they probably thought the elephants with the circus had come to visit. Yes the boys were very quite at all! But we still had a ball. The boys packed there back packs with essential like water and trail mix. And yes i did have to carry Ben's AND Ben the whole way around! Afterwards we had a nice picnic at the new playground (the old one as well as most of Tidbinbilla was burn in the Canberra fires and apparently so too were most of the koala population.) Anyway the playground has a flying fox (that Ryan fell off leaving most of the bark off his elbow there!) and a huge slide that you had to climb up the climbing wall to get to. Ben loved it BUT he couldn't walk up the climbing stone so guess who had to carry him up the nearly 45 degree angled hill??? You guessed it ... ME! So i definitely had my share of exercise for the day!

The bushwalking boys

Mountain climbing

Pushing over the boulders