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mario geeks

Nell is thriving at her preschool. We decided last year to take her out of the lovely laissez faire day care centre both she and Zac have attended since they were babies, because we felt that Nell would benefit from something a bit more structured for her pre-school years. So she is now attending a private preschool with a much more classroom style of learning.

I had a few misgivings about the preschool in the early weeks. It is part of a large private school in inner-city Sydney, so there are kids from age 3 to 18. It's in a busy part of town, there is no parking and I felt overwhelmed by the whole introduction process, the enormous number of kids and the clockwork precision of the systems they use to regulate that many people in such a small space.

Nell, on the otherhand, thrived. On her first full day at preschool, surrounded by the howls of other toddlers mourning the separation from their parents, Nell sat down with a pencil and paper and we had the following conversation.

Nell: "I am drawing a picture of you saying goodbye, Mummy. You can go now."

Me:  "Well, would you like me to introduce you to that little girl across the table? She might like to play with you."

Nell: [exasperated] "No, Mummy. I will make friends when you are gone."

My reservations aside, Nell has come home everyday in love with her new preschool. She is either singing a new song she just learned or telling me a word she encountered in her daily French class. Her progress has been quite astounding.

This morning one of her teachers approached me and said that Nell had been talking a lot about gravity yesterday. The teachers got excited and have decided to put together a unit of learning about gravity based on Nell's obvious interest in the subject. I am afraid that the preschool now thinks that we are a studious science-loving family, when in fact I know that Nell's interest in gravity stems solely from watching her brother play Super Mario Galaxy which is her favourite way to wind-down at the end of the day.

crazy tuesdays

There is always one day in our week which is crazy. This year it's Tuesday. The kids have swimming lessons between 5 and 6pm, I have a pilates class at 6.30pm and there's feeding, bathing and settling the little darlings to be done by Soy. Oh and yesterday my bike was in the repair shop being serviced and having a very utilitarian basket attached (Nell has asked if I can attach a lot of 'beautiful roses' to the front of the basket to make my life happier. I told her I'd think about it).

So yesterday I had to drop Soy off at the bike shop on the way to swimming lessons, get the kids in and out of lessons, dry, dressed, home, changed and off to pilates. I made it on time to the class, or at least to the place I park my car, 50 metres from the class. But by the time I crossed the road a thunderstorm unlike many others I had experienced hit and I was soaked to the bone. In less than 10 seconds there was not a part of me that was not dripping wet. There was hail, so much water I couldn't believe it, and I was so wet I couldn't go into my class because I would have left a puddle on the mat.

So I got back into my car and headed home. This is less than 5 minutes after the storm hit but the roads in Petersham were so flooded that the water was coming up to the bonnets of cars and I took fright, pulled over into a car park and listened to someone talk about the economy of Turkey and the invasion of Kurdistan while the flood waters continued to rise and children came out to ride rubbish bins down the road outside the school. It was surreal.

I was home by 7, the sky was blue again and the storm was all but forgotten, except for the hail damaged lettuces in my garden.

That was my crazy Tuesday.

soccer Mum

Zac has joined a soccer team. He is incredibly excited about it, as though his whole life has been leading up to this moment. And in a way, it has.

Even before we had kids, Soy and I discussed who would take the kids to Saturday morning sports. It was never going to be my thing. Soy is a sports fan and I am more of a sleeper-inner. Soy always saw himself in the role of 'Dad' not settling a crying baby, but encouraging a skinny kid in knee high socks running up and down a field on cold Saturday mornings. That was his image of fatherhood. Although he was very good at settling babies and wiping up spills, our children are only just now growing into the kids Soy always thought he would father.

But back to Zac. He has joined his team of choice, with four of the ten kids being from his class at school. He acquired some boots and some socks way too long for him and this afternoon he is off to his first soccer training.

So today I am officially a soccer Mum, even if I don't really intend to earn the title.

new beginnings

My lack of blog posts has been due to the overwhelming start to the school year. Zac was back at his old school, with a new teacher. Nell has started Pre-school with new teachers, routines and activities. I started (and have now finished) a photography course on using flash, the kids joined a new swim school and Soy decided to take up track cycling.

I think that pretty much accounts for every week night and most weekends!

Last weekend I went to Adelaide to visit Ce whose family relocated there in December, in the lead up to Christmas while Ce was 34 weeks pregnant with baby number three. It sounds like it was a manic time for her, but she is now settled in her new house ready for the fog of new-babyness.

I met the lovely baby Sam who opened his eyes for only about 20 minutes in the whole 36 hours I was there. But I did get this photo, so mission accomplished.

Adelaide was hot and dry. I mean really hot (37C) and really, really dry. It was a pleasure to be experiencing a bit of that scorching summer, Sydney's rain has been getting me down. It rains every day at around 8.30am which means we haven't been able to ride the kids to school or pre-school for weeks and it's driving me crazy. We will all suit up, helmets on, and then it starts to rain and we figure we can't deliver the kids wet so we drive. By 10am it is hot and sticky and I've still had no exercise.

Nell and I both have nasty coughs, probably as a result of this silly weather. We both start the day hacking like smokers and growling with gravelly voices.