I didn't cry!!

The brats had a great first day of school. It was the same day as the fed gov released its MySchool website - where parents could look up the basic testing results for each school and compare these to the state average and to so called 'similar schools'. This morning's paper (in the public interest) printed 'leauge tables' of all our schools - ranking them all - big deal!! The enthusiasm and care and preparation for kindy that I saw yesterday confimrmed our choice for me well and truly.

Hannah was more excited than Kit at first (he was more anxious) so she got her school uniform on quite early even though they didn't start till mid morning. Their Nan and Pop met us at the gate to take pics of the big day (and they ahve rung both evenings to hear about their progress). In the room there were lots of playstations set up - the kids took out their morning tea and hat and found their 'baskets' before finding something to do. Hannah was happily at the playdoh table and Kit - found the one boy he knows from LDC (who was crying) together with a teacher they were at a computer - trying to calm S down.

Reports were all good in the afternoon - although I am sure the teachers must ahve been almost as tired as the kids!! I couldn't imagine the level of energy and patience that Kindy would require. The brats were home and in bed by 7 - an hour earlier than they ahve been going to sleep lately. Kit was so tired he could hardly tell us about their first day - I have never seen him so lost for words.

In between dropping them and picking them up - DH and I went to a local cafe for lunch - very nice indeed.

Friday seemed to be ok - the teachers looked a bit tireder (if that's a word!!) - well more tired anyway! Hannah had a toilet accident but that was sorted and she was quite bubbly walking out to the playground holding the teacher's hand. Today Kit started being a bit more teary than usual - clearly still adjusting - but this afternoon - he is fine - he has had a good day - both have finally been able to get their hair cut (yay!! No more nits). Hannah was very excited to be going to Rainbow CLub - it is her father daughter activity that she loves and she gets to see some of her favourite people their - particualrly 2 kids she went to EI with that she loves.

Monday is her last day at school for at least a week - T & A happens on Tuesday. Dh is staying home with her once I am back at work. Let's hope it all goes well and she bounces back quick - I have tins of spaghetti - her favourite - to motivate her to keep eating.

Rogues Gallery

On Monday I took the twins out to visit their cousins while my SIL had some medical appointments to go to - her 4th baby - born at 32 weeks came home that afternoon (Yay!!! - I'll have to get back out there to visit her - she is adorable). We took advantage fo the cousins all being together to take some photoes of them all in their new school uniforms - I think they all look gorgeous - so grown up. I am dreading tomorrow - I hope I can hold back the tears until we are out of there - I have been teary about the first day of school for the past week. I can't believe they are growing up so fast!! DH is taking the day off work too - he is worried that the time has gone so quickly - they will be 10 before we know it!! Me - I am just sad cos they won't be needing me as much anymore...they are growing up - and doing so well.

Well I actually remembered to call the hospital for Hannah's preadmission today. Last time I offloaded Kit and took her with me - hung around for ages and she wasn't actually needed to be there - so I guess it didn't occur to me that it would be different today but it was! I had both of them with me. We waited for over an hour in the clinic until someone was available to fill out all our paperwork and then got sent upstairs for Hannah to have blood drawn. Waited up there - and then when they realised she is 5 years old - they put patches on her and sent us out to have lunch while we waited for them to take effect. Hannah has usually been good about stuff like this. In Dec last year after her seizure was the first time I have seen her distressed to be told she was going to see the dr or go to the hospital (where I had to take her for her EEG after having been seen by the emergency drs a few days prior). Today she seemed quite fine and relaxed too - but when the nurse put the needle in fo rthe blood draw - she flinched and things got a bit ugly and she got quite upset. Lucky the nurse was a dab hand and it was over pretty quickly. I then took them to our local shops and bought each of them a set of Toy Story lego - I figure that Hannah will be able to work on it with our help while she is recuperating. She is crashed out now on the bean bag - in front of Toy Story 2.

Hearts

I'm not sure what to title this post, in fact I'm not even sure what I want to say really. Today I labelled the twins' school uniforms. I felt teary the whole time, I feel a little like a part of me is being ripped out. They have been my centre of being for the past 5 years and I have loved it. Going to school changes that. I don't feel as if they are mine so much - now 5 days a week, week in and week out they will spend a lot of their time in the care of others. That hasn't been the case before - sure they were in LDC and went to preschool but they still had 4 days out of 7 where they were my main charges. Now that is going to change and I will be relegated to the weekend. First day blues are here. I wish I could just bottle them up and keep them with me as they are forever. I am so proud to be sending them off to school which I know they are going to love but it also means that they are leaving me and their baby years are gone and so I feel bereft. I can't believe how quickly time has passed and while it's exciting to see them grow and learn there is a part of me that is feeling the pain of this particular milestone. My babies are growing up. They look forward to their increasing independence with youthful enthusiasm. Today as she watched me get dressed I'm pretty sure Hannah was asking me when she will get breasts (!!) or at least that is what I think she meant going by the context of our conversation and her clearly telling me she is a big girl now. One day they'll both leave me for good. And I will be proud of them I'm sure, but I also think a little part of me is going to miss their beautiful childish selves as they are now forever.

More holidays

We took the kids to the Powerhouse Museum on the weekend - it was a big hit - especially this lit up rubics cube in the 80s exhibition.
That's how it feels - like I have yet more holidays - and it's a great feeling! I love these summer holidays - they are one of the best things about teaching. After a lovely week by the sea we have been home for just over a week and it has been busy - but full of different activities. I had booked in a bit of therapy for Hannah as she won't get any now until March - she needs time to settle into school before ST recommences. OUr ST is wonderful and the school have been positive about Hannah being withdrawn for 30 minutes each week. I felt this was the minimum level of therapy that was acceptable given communication is her weakest area and because she is coping with speech delays that result from DS and also (we think) dyspraxia.

The local pool has a special needs swiming teacher but her lessons are individual and always booked out - now I know why. She finally rana 3 day programme this week - adn I booked Hannah in - 30 mins each day. Hannah worked harder than ever before in the pool and had an absolute blast. It was great to see her improve her strength. Unfortunately she can't get into this teacher's classes during school term - that dreaded waiting list however they have capped her mainstream class at 3 which I am very glad about. I spoke to the swim coordinator - I wanted to let her know that I was pleased the class was capped and also mention that Hannah had her seizure just after swimming last lesson - a little part of me is hoping it might bump her up the wait list. I'll trey and ring the coordinator again to emphasise that when a spot becomes available I would really like her to be in the special needs programme. She attends rainbow club (swimming for kids with disabilities) too which I really like however I see it as being important for socialising and fun as well as learning. At her local pool it is really about her health and muscle tone - she likes being in a group with other kids but I feel it is more important that she is learning to swim.

She has also had her last two sessions of OT and 2 ST sessions as well. Needless to say she has been rather tired!! On Monday I also took them to visit a friend and her two kidddies on the other side of town - and we took them all to the park, then on Tuesday I took her to meet another friend and her 2 at a local indoor play centre. Fri night we have a family dinner on. I think it has been quite good though - it has settled her into a routine of sorts which I think will make adjusting to school a little easier for her next week.

Sounds like DH is home and as I don't relaly have any news I'll say g'night for now...

Next morning....

ALl this activity must be affecting Kit. He has had 2 accidents in 2 days because he was 'too busy playing' and then last night - wet bed. Yikes! THat is not great at all. I was going to go to a DSDU meet up today but think I'll keep 'em home for a quiet one.

Otherwise he has been going great guns. He loves making presents for people. Yesterday morning he got up first then Hannah - and I could hear them out at the kitchen bench drawing and cutting - he made a little present for me and wrapping paper for it too and a snowflake for his father - which he left beside our pillows. he madea paper omnitrix which he also wrapped for Hannah and then proceeded to explaint hat she could have it after swimming. When swimming was over he was keen to give it to her 'because you did so good at swimming today Hannah'.

The other day I bought Julia DOnaldson's Charlie COok's Favourite Book. Yesterday Kit was telling me that he could read it. He sat down on te lounge and 'read' it for himself. I was duly impressed with his announcement and indeed althouh he isn't reading as such yet - he isn't far off. What an amazing thing - and I love that this is his first 'read' book - because it is all about the wonders of reading and the adventures to be found in books etc.

Hannah chose Curious George's Dictionary for herself - and it is great! I use it for her speech and we look a thte words and talk about the pictures in it - it is a lovely book and well organised too. Kit loved the calendar at the back as he is still tring to work out what we mean by years, months and so on and this is a nice visual explanation for him.

787 photoes

We rented a house at the beach with another family. It was a blast. Very relaxing. Lots of fun.
One afternoon rather than go back to the beach Hannah opted to play on the swings instead.


Kit loved splashing about in the water, jumping waves.

It might have been snow ... except for the heat!

There was lots of digging pools near the water, castles to be constructed and people to be 'buried' in the sand. Hannah made a lot of cakes and pancakes with the sand.
Dora got to enjoy the beach too
It isn't a beach holiday without some beach cricket...
There was an abundance of gorgeous natives in bloom as well as some hibiscus etc - here is one of the many Christmas Bushes that were in flower. The wattle was out too - I love its sweet scent.
Booderee National Park
We had a fantastic day at this national park - swimming and playing at one of the beaches, using the bbqs for a picnic and then a short drive to a ruined lighthouse. lovely.

Lighthouse ruins
Games - we played lots of games - the favourite indoor ones were this jigsaw and trivial pursuit (we used one that has a box of kids questions too). Kit was fascinated but at 5 he just doesn't have the general knowledge - so he and R and S 'made' up a game for him - trivial pursuit colours but no questions. Dice making proved to be a popular activity. Hannah enjoyed taking out all the cards and dice from games like House Hunt, Charade and Yahtzee. Kit made plaster moulds of Ben 10 stuff. There was also some little lego that got a lot of use and Kit and R wrote and illustrated a series of Hoover Dog booklets.
Now for the million loads of washing - oh and trying to establish some sort of ordered regime before the twins start school in a fortnight. Yeek!

Twins - togetherness

I had a lovely afternoon at home with the brats today. I decidded to clean up their plastic playhouse and move it somewhere more accessible in the hopes that they get good use out of it in the remaining weeks of our holidays before starting school. Anyhow while I was taking pics they started these poses - I thought that they were very cute.

Pearl Beach

Little Chef

There is a Masterchef craze here at the moment. Kit asked the shopping centre Santa for a masterchef dvd for Christmas (which he got as well as the cookbook!). It was a huge hit on tele here - lots of kids enjoyed it with their parents apparently sales of kitchen equipment soared. I must say that I enjoyed watcing it - it was very positive for a reality tv show.

Hannah wasn't as enamoured but she has long been a fan of Remy - aka - 'little chef' from Ratatouille. She has watched the dvd countless times and when givent he opportunityt o spend her birthday money at a toy store - she has on different occassions chosen - yep - the rats! We have remy's brother complete with grapes (to spit out of his mouth) as well as a Remy that runs around the house bumping into walls. We ahve a drain pipe and plastic versions of Remy and his 'family'. I sitll sometimes wonder if she isnt' destined to become Newtown's first goth with DS - a young woman roaming King Street with a rat perched on her shoulders - but I digress.

The point is that she was into cooking in a big way for a long time before Masterchef's success. She was in it for Remy. Today she helped me make a fabulous mangomisu dessert for our friends who were visiting and yesterday she helped making the last Christmas cake (to see out Jan). She loves cooking and is often to be found at hte side of the house digging int he mud and mixing dirt and water in a bowl and then 'plating up' a tthe kids table with her bounty.

Gone

Yeears ago DH and I lived in East Balmain - at the end of our street was one of the 'hotspots' for viewing the NYE fireworks. They used to block off the main road leading down to the water. We ahd some great NYE there and from our back yard in Jan we'd also enjoy the summer fireworks at Darling Harbour.
Now we live in the 'burbs we don't have a 'hotspot' at the end of our street but there is this lvley park on the bay - with views across to the city. It doesn't get jam packed with people although there are hundreds who go there - families all ambling across the ovals to the roadside to watch the spectacle. It has a lovley atmosphrere. This year we lingered a while afterwards - and got to enjoy a lovely display of illegals too(fireworks can't be sold to individuals in NSW - although you can buy them in Canberra I'm told) anyhoo - they had some lovley ones that they let off - not very far from where we were standing. They were let off pretty carefully so we all quite enjoyed them. Then we ambled home in time to watch the big midnight display on the box. The brats were still awake so DH let them get up and watch too. My Dad was still with us (he is gone today - on the road back to Brisvegas - love ya Dad!) and my sister and her family were here until close to midnight.
It has been a busy 10 days - lots of entertaining and socialising. This afternoon we are getting another 2 visitors staying here. In the meantime it is time I gave the house the 'top to bottom' clean is so badly needs after hosting so many parties and afternoon teas and dinners for various family and friends. 2009 was atough year - I'm not sad to say it has gone. I hope that 2010 brings lots of good things our way... and yours too!

The view to the city for the NYE fireworks
Goofin' around
Hannah and one of her QLD cousins
My sister and the boys on NYE
I'm sure the brats were thinking it was a great start to the new year - an iceblock before lunch at Nan and Pop's
The kids love thier Pop
Kit just loves playing with his cousins. They set up a shop for the grown ups to buy things - pricing policy seemed a bit crazy to me - I paid $50 for a Wizard of Oz dvd whereas my SIL paid $1 for a lovely little boy (J) - but then again it was J's sister who set the pricing policy ... They also put on a number of 'shows' for us to enjoy. Hannah joined in for a few of them but she also managed to sneak into the lounge room and watch way too much tv for my liking.
Happy birthday little J