At the bottom of the Garden

Time for something a bit more warm and fuzzy, quite literally!

Here's Bryn wearing a jacket I bought for him at the Kids and Babies market last Sunday for $3. I know, it's very pink, but isn't it LOVELY. and doesn't his skin just GLOW in it??? He's also sporting some knitted cargo pants by Katy at Knitterbug - I LOVE these, and was so excited when it was cold enough this morning to put them on!

And one more pic, just because he is sooooo gorgeous!

And Amanda, these are for Laurent! I know you didn't ask for a hat, but I just wanted to (and if you don't like it, it's looks great on Bryn, hehehe!

Jen, these are the pants I started at your place yesterday morning, finished them this morning, and did the hat this afternoon and this evening (in between EVERYTHING else we mums have to do, hahaha)...

I'm blogging using these photos from last week's photography course, because they kind of illustrate how crazy my life is at the moment. These tricky images were created using "Bulb" and an off camera flash - I could go into more, but I won't unless someone asks because I have other stuff to blog now and I don't want to become sidetracked.

Ok, I'll start with the highlights from this week...

I had to try and get a referral from my GP to qualify for a rebate on my counselling with my psychologist who is helping me identify the source of my anger towards the kids, and basically just deal with life. The first GP (my new one) I went to tried to tell me he couldn't give me the referral because "they" were requiring specially qualified GPs to make the referral and he refused to undertake a course in psychology to be qualified to assess his patients to go and see some other psychologist. He refused on the day before my counselling session, for whi…

Went to the Hawthorn Babies and Kids market on the weekend and found a couple of great bargains!

These Fred Bare red fine cord bootleg pants were $10!


These leather shoes were #20 (NEW), and the perfect shape for Bryn's broad little feet!


These Tip Toey Joey's were more expensive than I'd like to post here, hehehe, but I had been looking for them for a while (didn't buy these at the market, bought these yesterday in Camberwell), they're just so RED and in this pick Bryn is wearing overalls Erik used to wear with a very similar, but navy, pair of shoes - memmmmmmries!

Ok, The rest of these pics are from my visit to Amanda's yesterday. Bryn and Laurent are two months apart in age, and while they seem to have fairly different personalities and approaches to life, they seem to get along really well (so far, being that there is still another 1.5 years until the social age, hahaha)...

The light in Amanda's back room is AMAZING!!! Nearly every photo I took came out w…

I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog some recent shots I took of him on Thursday when we met up with Amanda at Amber's... I'm trying to be very Zen about my photography atm, and just enjoy it for it's own sake. I was getting myself a bit wound up about how fabulous other people's work was and how much I felt I was lagging behind, and also getting frustrated with finally discovering the limitations of my lack of vision (I'm pretty hopeless with manual focus because I really can't see through the viewfinder and so it's very hit and miss, though I'm actually finding I still prefer to try than leave it up to the autofocus, which can also be hit and miss)...


So, here he is at the bus stop with his new train. He's become very enchanted with trains, and so when I spotted this lovely brightly painted wooden train featuring number 1 through 10, I couldn't resist getting it for him...

Climing the steps up to the mini tube city at Amber's. …

Had that chat to Erik's teacher, and it went fairly well, imo. Told her about the boys punching and poking Erik with the stick, and pointed out that one of the boys had had an interaction with Erik before (at which point she told me she'd actually moved the boys hooks away from one another, which was good to hear)... She DIDN'T know about the bullying behaviour, and she was contrite about not having let Erik finish telling her. She didn't say whether or not she's used the words "naming names" but this is not a phrase we've ever used and I can't think of anywhere else Erik would have picked it up. Her justification was that on asking him if he'd gone out of bounds he'd furiously started shaking his head and saying, "It wasn't like that, everyone was doing something", which she had interpreted as Erik attempting to shift the blame. I conceded that he does do that to try and get out of trouble but obviously in this instance…

I'm hating the whole school thing right now, it's becoming as much a drain on me as homeschooling was, but in a different way... Grrrr...

Went to pick the boys up from school yesterday and ended up have both their teacher needing to "just have a quick word" with me about each of them...

From Luey's teacher:

"I've been having to tell him off for several days in a row now because he brings toys to school and doesn't keep them in his bag but brings them to the mat and plays with them when we're supposed to be doing other stuff. He is also poking and distracting the other kids and not keeping his hands and feet to himself, and he is not participating in class activities, just saying, "No, I don't want to" and being defiant. I know he isn't used to sitting still and concentrating because he didn't go to kinder..."

Anyway...

From Erik's teacher:

"I had to send Erik to his buddy class for 10 minutes today, just for a bit…

Bryn had a very big day out today starting with a play at playgroup, then more playing, this time in sand, at the BaBs meeting in our suburb... Then home, but no nap for Bryn because his brothers came home from school and kept him busy until they went to sleep... He did drop off for all of 20 minutes early in the evening, but for some reason woke up again... After much feeding from mum, and chatting with dad, and scrutinising "House", he finally collapsed on the floor in front of mum's feet just as "Medium" was starting... So, of course, instead of picking up her precious boy and transferring him to his bed, mum grabbed the camera and snapped of a few piccies for a little story board...

In other news, Erik and Luey came home this week with "homework" for mum and dad... Ergh! It seems that by Friday we have to write on a sheet that states at the top "You're Special to Me..." We're supposed to write why each boy is special to us …

I analyse EVERYTHING... Every little thing that trickle past my consciousness is subject to reflection and analysis and so today I found myself analysing my habit of analysing...

I was feeding Bryn off to sleep for his nap, and he was "bruising the fruit" as Dave would put it, and so I was thinking, do I just lose my cool here and tell him with the sincerity of my irretation to put his hand away or there would be no more "meh" or do I just ride it out for the, likely, five minutes or so it was going to take him to drift off from this point (this is something he does just before drifting off)... If I voiced my frustration, it would first off all stimulate him, waking him more, and then it would start a battle of wills as he forcefully gripped my boob over and over to start his self soothing again... I might well win this battle, I have in the past, but I might just as easily lose the battle and end up taking him out to Dave to resettle, as I have in the past too..…

Ok, tonight I've done it, I've shaved... So far I've raised $120, which I think is fabulous!!!

So, if you're reading this and you haven't yet donated, and you're feeling guilty (and why wouldn't you be feeling guilty, afterall, I'M the BALD one here, the least you can do is donate $5, right?)...

Then go to this page and you can pay by cc...

Anyway, here are some pictures...