shaving cream fun/ fixin the 'tude'

Jumeirahs creation: "mummy if she was a queen"

Went to bed that night ( the one after the slumpy day) totally down and teary after my 'massive amount of things to do/no time to do it all/ mum-and-kid time jipped' session. Wallowed in that for a bit ( its therapeutic a little bit) and then decided to fix it. I needed an attitude check, a plan, and a refocus.

The first thing I did?? Fixed Jareds crab shorts.

I made these for him ages ago (see here) and he loved them. Unfortunately, due to my crap sewing and inability to reinforce stitching, the rotten things split along the seam, giving him a handy "bladder release" hole. Which really wasnt the greatest look. And so I put them on the to-do pile. And everyday (well almost) he has asked me for them. And i Told him " Soon buddy, as soon as I finish.......". But today, I fixed them, all ready for him to wear. And when he got up in the morning and there they were, he did a jig and cried " my cab shorts, my cab shorts, thankyou mummy thankyou!!" and so began a much better day :)

Two major things I did differently this morning were things that unfortunately I do every morning... one is to turn on the tv ( its a bad automatic thing to check weather/ news etc but quickly gets changed to ABC kids) and the other is to turn on the computer. The computer I turn on and quickly check my emails, facebook, and two blogs whilst I am getting breakfasts sorted ( yes I am a queen multitasker).I check it through the day... 5 minutes here or there... when I can. But I realised that maybe that was taking me away for longer than I really was aware of.
This morning I turned neither on. The day started around 7.30am.It was quieter, but all three were happily playing. We had breakfast all together and planned the day. I cleaned up the kitchen whilst they played outside.No one even asked for the tv. By the time it was all done, I was outside with them at 9am. Somehow I gained an hour, as normally I start to play at around 10am.

All those little house duties is also another massive thing that takes up most of everyday.... cleaning up after breakfast, sweeping the floor, cleaning up from craft, doing the washing, hanging it out, cleaning from lunch blah blah blah and on it goes aalllll daaaay loooooong.
Today I decided that I was only going to do it at certain times and devote more time actually sitting and doing things with them. The outside play gave me enough time to clean the kitchen and sweep the floor. Without checking my computer periodically, I was able to keep moving and do it and get it over with.

And so I took a messy activity outside today :) Seeing as it was Jumeirahs last day at home till the holidays ( and weekends obviously) I wanted to do something fun.
So I sprayed some shaving cream on the table, and added a bit of colouring. Jared immediately went away, but I had the Aqua doodle out so he went and painted there, and was quickly joined by Amahli.
Jumeirah can over and said " Im not doing that". I asked her to just try it as I sat and watched. ONe finger went in..... two fingers... half a hand... and suddenly she began to sweep across the cream with great gusto.

Amahli came over to see what she was doing... again one finger... the she too was completely engrossed ( and covered completely) in shaving cream. And so two delighted little girls had a wonderful time in this nice smelling activity, Jumeirah drawing pictures, Amahli painting herself.







Jared comes over and stands beside me. " Ok Mum I try it". I quietly do my own little jig and set him up in a clean spot with a very small amount of shaving cream. He used two fingers and did a few lines in it, ventured a tiny bit further and used both hands and then he was done :)

Not much, but its MASSIVE for him so I was stoked.

Completely covered in shaving cream mess, I filled up Amahlis pool to put her in to wash her off. She was joined by Jared and the two of them had a ball. Jared discovered he can blow bubbles with a funnel on the water and thought this was a great trick.

And so whilst two kids dried off in the sun by racing around nude, I vacummed the floor and hung the washing out. Somehow, by the time I was done, they were ready to come in for lunch.

And this afternoon, whilst two happy, tired babes slept, my big girl and me made things from Beados and chatted about nothing and everything, quietly bonding and soaking up every last moment before life changes completely for both of us.




It was a day to realise that these days are flowing along all too fast. And the days that arent great, more often than not, just need me to take a step back and get some perspective and remember whats important.


Today was a good day :)