The teacher talked, talked all day

While I was dreaming time away

It was raining hard outside

I knew the weather channel lied

They said it was going to be sunny

Now this really wasn’t funny

I couldn’t believe my eyes

The puddles started to rise

Water flooded into the room

Was this about to be our doom?

Books were floating, bags were sinking

Kids were panicking, the teacher was thinking

‘Quick children’, the teacher said, ‘out the door we go’

When out of nowhere came a boat we can row

So the whole class got into the boat

While it was struggling to stay afloat

We paddled over to a man in a raincoat

He saw us and began to shout

‘Could you help me pull this giant plug out?’

At the same time as the rain started to stop

The plug gave in and came out with a pop!

While all the water went down the hole

We went back to the class and the reacher called the roll.

After a quick stop at home to get ’supplies’ and organising for Alee to go home from school with a friend, we headed to the hospital.  Emergency rooms are notorious for their long waits but I’ve never really had a problem with them.  I guess when you are in pain and hour can seem like an age.  After about two and a half hours a nurse called Josh in.  She asked me to wait with Ethan and Miki; Josh was only going in for X-rays and would be back in a while.  After another hour there was no sign of Josh so I SMS’d him to see if he was okay.  He replied that it was actually broken.  They had given him a local anaesthetic in his finger and he was waiting for it to work so the doctor could put it back into place.  I asked if he wanted me there with him but he said no (tough kid!).

After another hour, Josh came walking back into the waiting room with his hand all bandaged and said we could go home!  I was a bit upset by this,  Josh is only fourteen, a kid, and I should have been informed of his treatment.  I wanted details!  So I asked the triage nurse what was going on and she ushered me in to see the doctor.  He showed me the x rays and explained everything.  The X ray showed the bone snapped in two at the base of his finger, just above the joint, and displaced.  It looked awful.  The Doctor had re-aligned it but it had to be operated on to align it properly and pins put in to hold it.  Josh was booked into Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital ten days later for this.The operation went well, Josh handled it with his usual calm.  It was put into a cast for five weeks and then he was to have the pins taken out.

The day we went to get the cast off and the pins taken out there was another guy in the ward who was having pins taken out too.  Boy! what a drama queen he was.  It sounded like the doctor was trying to kill him, he was yelling and swearing and groaning in pain.  I could see Josh’s eyes getting wider and his face getting paler.  I tried to reassure him that it wouldn’t be that bad (certainly not as bad as having a 10.5 lb baby, I joked), but I could see he was scared.  Thankfully, after the doctor examined Josh’s finger she said it needed another week.  Reprieve!

The next week we went in and when Josh was taken through to the exam room the nurse told me to wait in the waiting room.  We don’t need Mum’s fainting on us, she said.  When it was all done she called me in.  Josh was on the bed, pale and shaken a bit but still trying to tough it out.  The nurse commended him and said he was very brave, listening to his Ipod and zoning out while the doctor worked.  I certainly hadn’t heard even a whimper.

We were then sent to  Occupational therapy where Josh was fitted with a plastic splint and given a set of exercises to do with his finger the strengthen it and help it heal properly  He has been very diligent with these and has progressed quickly.  He’ll be back to playing football again in no time.  I just hope it doesn’t affect his guitar playing!

My baby has turned four! How did he grow up so quickly? He started kindy this year and is loving it. i thought he might fuss, at first, about being left because I had not left him much. He would never go into children’s church without screaming the place down but he was so happy to be at school like the big kids. He didn’t mind a bit when I left, not even a whimper. Made me feel very wanted - not.

After a couple of weeks he asked me to drop him off with Miki outside her school, which is right next door to his kindy, so he could run down to his kindy by himself! After all, Miki and Alee just get dropped outside their schools. Mum doesn’t take them to their classrooms and he is a big school kid now too. He was a bit upset when I insisted that I had to take him in (’See all your friends have their parent with them too’). After a few weeks his tactics changed and he wanted me to leave him outside the gate and he would take himself into the class. Thankfully another obstacle was in his way. The gate is like a pool gate with a latch that is too high for him to reach. ‘Sorry Ethan, you can’t reach the latch. I’ll have to open the gate for you and come in too.’

He is learning a lot. He can write his name, semi-legibly. He can read numbers and count up to twenty-ten (took some time to convince him that it was actually called thirty). He sings lots of songs and has a special ‘goodbye’ song that he would sing to cheer me up when I was a bit grumpy. Sometimes I wouldn’t even realise I seemed grumpy until he started singing it. His favourite book is about a bear who is having a birthday party but wants all the cake to himself so he only invited the friends who can’t fit through the door. While he is busy scoffing the cake inside his friends are partying outside and he realises this when he has finished the cake but he has gotten so fat he can’t get out through the door. Very cute book.

He has a few friends but his best friend is a little girl called Karis. I figure he picked a girl because he is used to playing with and being bossed around by his two older sisters. There is another little boy he plays with called Bryce. Asiri refers to them as Carrots and Rice! There is also Patrick and Alisha who he talks about often. The teachers think he is a very sweet, quiet boy. I’m not so sure about the quiet though, I don’t see it at home!

They had their school photos taken a few weeks ago. They were supposed to be done on the Thursday but got rained out so they postponed it till the next Monday. On the weekend Ethan fell over and badly grazed his cheek! So his first school photo has him with a bit red scar on his face! Nice!!!

He doesn’t like school holidays. He asks me nearly every day if he can go to school today and is very disappointed when the answer is no. I know this attitude won’t last long so I have to make the most of it as well as making the most of the time with him at home. Won’t be long and he’ll be a big boy like Joshy.

After some very good advice from some young friends of ours, we sent Josh and Mikki off to the Riverview youth camp during the summer holidays.  It was a four day camp and the kids were quite apprehensive about going.  Josh was able to take his friend Troy along with him as well.   I was a bit worried about them, they are such introverted kids and it takes quite a bit for them to get comfortable with other people (don’t know where they get that from). It ended up being one of the best things we could have done for them.  They had a great time, made new friends and Mikki in particular came back a changed girl.  Apparently she was a bit upset for the first day but she stuck it out and when we picked her up her face was actually glowing and her eyes were sparkling.  She got baptised during the camp and we were able to make the trip to witness it.  Joshy totally avoided us while we were there and pretended he didn’t know us.  I think we embarrass him!  Since then neither of them have complained about going to Youth each Friday night, they are loving it and look forward to going.

Asiri and I thought we’d take the kids for a trip into the city after Christmas to avoid any crowds. We had nothing better to do on the Sunday so we decided to take the kids into the city to see the Christmas lights. It has been years since we’d done that and thought it would be fun. So just before 6pm we trooped off to the train station. It was deserted which surprised me but at the same time I ws relieved to not have to battle crowds. We had to wait for over 20 minutes for the train and amused ourselves by checking out the new station.

The train finally arrived. Ethan was thrilled, Alee was slightly amused, Josh and Mikki sat staring into space, quite bored and wishing themselves elsewhere. The trip was fairly quick, a bit longer than the advertised 20 minutes but definitely quicker than driving. When we arrived in the city we headed for HJ’s and then did a lap of the malls to see the lights. That was a bit of a waste of time. The lights are very boring and the city is lifeless on a Sunday evening. I was surprised by how dead it was. It had been so long since I had been to the city and I thought it would be a hub of activity but it wasn’t. Nothing to see, nothing to do. So back to the train station we went, only to see that the next train would be about 45 minutes. Thankfully there was a gelato shop open nearby so we killed some time with dessert.

When we finally got on the train it suddenly dawned on me that the LCD train schedule had said “Esplanade” not Mandurah as the destination. I thought perhaps it was because the train ran from Joondalup to the Esplanade and then changed to Mandurah once it got there. Then the train stopped, we were at the Esplanade and a train guard was calling out to ‘clear the train’. What!!! I tried to ask him what was going on but he said to get off the train and he’d talk to me on the platform. It was then that we found out that the trains that day were only running from 11am to 5pm as a special ‘opening’ service.

“But there were no signs at the Kwinana staion were we got on”, I told him, feeling just a little bit frustrated. “It was in all the papers” he said. “But I didn’t see the papers” I argued. We’d actually started out after the last train had left the city. Stranded!

So we were stuck in the city with four tired kids. Looking around at them I realised I was the one that was tired - they were having a great time! So we headed up to the busport to find out when the next bus to Kwinana was leaving. It was nearly 9pm so I guessed we would be in for a bit of a wait seeing as buses at that time of night are few and far between.

At the busport I looked around for a timetable but, guess what! No more buses to Kwinana, ever. The train was up and running now so there was no need for the buses! I was just about ready to scream when a very nice young man from the bus company came up and asked if we were stranded because of the trains. He directed us to a bus that was waiting specially for people like us and would stop at all the train stations down the line but it wouldn’t be leaving for about half an hour. Oh, the relief!

It was a stretchy bus, extra long, to take the crowds of unfortunates who failed to read the papers. Apparently they had Carols by Candlelight on the foreshore that night too and were expecting some people from that. The minutes ticked by, the kids were happily playing up and down the aisle, swapping seats and joking around. Asiri went for a meander outside. It was a warm night, really nice actually. I was glad it wasn’t chilly, none of us had jackets. That would have topped it off miserably. Then we were off. I looked around to count how many people were on the bus - besides us, 7 people. Seven other idiots in a city of over a million who hadn’t read the papers. Great!

Ethan sat on my knee and I tried to convince him to sleep but he was way too excited. This was what he’d wanted - a train ride and a bus ride, and he had both in one day. So exciting! The windows were all wide open and the wind was blowing around the bus as we hurtled down the freeway. A thrill ride for a three year old.

The smells were what struck me. Leaving the busport it was diesel fumes and hot asphalt. Then travelling down the freeway through South Perth and Como, it was the smell of salt and rotting seaweed. Then further out, past Rowley Road, it was the smell of horses and hay and country dirt. I love that smell. We were close to home.

The bus dropped us at the train station and we all piled into the car. The kids were on a high, it seemed. They’d had an adventure. They were laughing and joking and playing around in a good way, not a stressed out, bored way that they sometimes do. In all it was a great night, being together as a family, doing something different. One for the memory books.

A friend of mine turned 40 a couple of months before me and she assured me she felt no different - in fact, when she wrote to me, she was in the middle of a ‘boot camp’ and loving it - sort of. Turning 40 is not that big a deal really.

My actual birthday was quite uneventful. I opened my presents from the kids the night before so there would be no mad rush in the morning for school (There is always a mad rush and my birthday was no different). I got exactly what I wanted (thanks to Alee’s list) - some summer PJ’s, a lounge floatie for the pool, Matchbox 20 CD - plus a fake hydrangea flower which adds to the home decor. Asiri saved his present for the morning - a beautiful gold and diamond pendant - very nice. The day was spent in the usual manner, cleaning, cooking and ferrying kids from school. And a quiet dinner with me and the kids. Yep, just another day in paradise!

Then there was the party on the weekend…

The weather was not the best. On my birthday it had been a beautiful 35 degrees but it dropped to 22 for Saturday. It had rained on the Friday and the Saturday morning but thankfully the skies cleared for the party. It was not swimming weather though. It didn’t stop the kids from jumping in but the adults were not game. We had a nice little crowd of about 30 family and friends. And I was totally spoiled with presents ranging from body potions to Gucci sunnies and gold earrings. One of my sisters gave me a ‘Sympathy’ card which says ‘we can only imagine the pain you are feeling’. She’s not far behind me though.

My brother gave me a donut maker - there is a story behind it. When I was five Mum entered me into a kids beauty competition. The MC was asking all the girls what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were a lot of teachers and nurses but when I was asked I said I wanted to be a donut maker lady. We were holidaying in Mandurah at the time and my brother and I used to spend ages with our noses pressed against the bakery window watching the donuts being made, completely fascinated by the machine and the process. Anyway I won the competition (beauty and personality!). The present was to let me know that it was about time I grew up and achieved my lifetime ambition - which I have since done. And a few kilos later …

And back to the party. I was relieved we didn’t get rained out. Our house seems to be made for entertaining, there was plenty of room for everyone. The kids were tucked away in the activity room with the TV and nintendo which kept the noise down. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. And I had a really good time. I was busy flitting everywhere and really didn’t get much of a chance to speak to anyone for long but that’s the way things go at a party. It was great! One of my sisters made me a DVD with messages from everyone on it for me to keep as a memento which was a brilliant idea. Mum decorated the cake with a little glass butterfly which I have also kept as a memento. And Asiri wore a wig! a black mullet style wig which looked hilarious.

So that was my party. A good day in all, one for the memory books.

James, Sarah, Laura, Kaitlyn, and Ethan along with their Mums and Grandma at the Wiggles concert.

We all had a great time at the Wiggles concert.  Our seats were not the best, way up the back on the tiered section thanks to a bit of confusion on my part when booking them, but it was still an enjoyable experience.  Ethan was really getting into the dancing.  He loves Wiggles and had been watching the DVD’s over and over so he was very familiar with the songs and knew most of the actions.  Sarah slept through a lot of it even with all the noise.  James seemed to think he was a bit too big for it but he soon warmed up and got into the groove with Ethan.  Laura was busy dancing with her cousin Meg.  Kaitlyn had a bit of an accident when she fell down while dancing.  Bek had made special flowers to give to the Wiggles which were collected by the Wiggly dancers. The Wiggles really are fabulous kids entertainers.  They know how to appeal to the young ones without them going hyper.  Next time I’ll choose better seats!

I have read that as a parent of teens you shouldn’t ’sweat the small stuff’ which I am learning to do. Josh is basically a really good kid. He loves us, is respectful most of the time and is kind and considerate of others (his school reports always say this too). When I read this sage piece of advice it used, as an example, teen hair fashions. Little did I know how prophetic that was. Josh hates to get his hair cut. A couple of ‘disastrous’ experiences at the hair salon has put him off completely - I thought the hair cuts were great but he didn’t (who hasn’t had a bad experience at a hair salon?). I try to convince him but to no avail. But it’s not worth making a big issue of it. In ten years time he will be getting his hair cut on his own and today’s ’style’ will be a distant memory, except when we look at the family portraits (and then he’ll see I was right!).

Josh has a friend at school that we sometimes drop off to his house on the way home. During this ten minute drive not one word is spoken between the two of them, even when Troy gets out of the car. No goodbye, see you tomorrow, I’ll call you tonight, nothing. This I find very difficult to understand. On the odd occasion that I do hear them talk it is an odd mixture of grunts and mumbles. They phone each other a lot but for half of the time they are not talking at all. Josh sits with the phone on speaker and draws or plays on the computer. I guess Troy is doing similar.

It’s this lack of communication that really frustrates me. I understand his need for privacy and to be a separate entity but the teen years are a minefield and how can we help guide him through it if he doesn’t tell us what is happening. I guess I have to trust that he will come to us when he needs help. He must be just breezing through at the moment. I know I won’t have that problem with the girls, they already come and tell me all that is going on with them and ask a lot of questions about anything and everything. It’s easy for me to relate to what they are going through because I’ve been there and done that. But as for Josh, never been there, never done that. I grew up in a household of women. My brother left home in his mid teens. Looking back now he must have found it a bit hard living with bunch of girls. At least Josh has his dad around.

In all though he is a good kid (young man) and a son to be proud of. He still loves his mum and will come and hug and kiss me. He’s big enough now to lift me up and throw me around which he loves to do. He likes the same sort of music, TV and movies that I do. Asiri says our personalities are very similar. We still have common ground.