Sickies in the house

Oh good grief.

Things didn't turn out all that well for Tom on his birthday. In fact, Biddy started it all on party day (Sunday) when she was simply flat out with a high temp and feeling ordinary and missed the entire party. The fact that 10 other children and equivalent number of adults where all making raucous noise right outside her bedroom door and she DIDN'T STIR, reflects how sick she was. Monday morning she wakes up with no voice and trying to tell me that her throat was sore. A quick peak and I discover lots of pus! Yuk. A trip to the drs and on antibiotics pronto.

Then on Tuesday morning (birthday day), Tom wakes up ok and I bundle him off to holiday programme with Biddy. But at 12pm pickup, I'm informed that he had been a bit out of sorts and prone to bursting into tears and wanting to go home for some of the morning (VERY unlike him). No food touched at La Porchettas but still appearing to be ok. But during his trip to the movies with his dad to see Toy Story 3, he became very upset at one point of the film suggesting he was out of sorts. A check of the temp at home (38 deg) confirmed he was coming down with something.

Wednesday morning, he opens his gob and I see the same pus pattern that Biddy displayed 2 mornings earlier. So another trip to the drs to get him on antibiotics.

The strongest one of the kids so far is the 4 week old! But then she is getting all the good stuff from her mum!!

I have to admit to feeling a little torn about the kids being sick. One part of me simply wants to take their sickness away and make everything all better, and the other (wicked) part of me loves the fact that they are motionless, quiet, sleepy and compliant. In fact, they are angel children! But no, really, I hate it when they are sick. They are just so.......unlike THEM! They are not my kids unless they are tearing up the place, creating havoc and generally getting into trouble!

Fast forward though to today and the antis have done their work and both kids are back to normal. And I am back to yelling at them, pulling my hair out and keeping the Viva paper towel company in business by cleaning up all manner of spills and messes.

The three of them! (Bella @ 4wks)

Where are the years going?

I woke up this morning with the thought that five years ago today I became a mum for the first time. That day held so much for me...emotions, promise, love, excitement, fear, doubts...I could go on. But it was the day that I changed forever. Because from that day onward, no matter what I do in my future, no matter where I am, I will always be a mum. And by our very nature, we put our kids ahead of ourselves (well...for a number of years at least!). And I'm cool with that. It was on that day I became less selfish, more understanding, and discovered that I possessed a love that I never knew existed.

There is a saying that is doing the rounds of the internet at the moment, and I totally agree with it. It goes something along the lines of 'I wanted you the minute I knew you were coming, I loved you the second I saw you, and it was in that second that I knew I would die for you'. And it is true! I rant and rave at my kids at least once a day - usually more - but there is nothing I wouldn't do for them.

And here we are; five years on, and Thomas is now no longer a baby, no longer a toddler, but a small boy who provides us with challenges, tense moments, fun times and laughter. He is our ground breaker. He will forge the way for his two younger siblings and make it easier for them no doubt. He will make me and his father examine how and why we do things and take stock of what is really important to us.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY THOMAS!

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday by having a small party. This will be his last official party for a while - after all, from next year around the same time, we will be celebrating Isabella's birthdays and honestly, I can only cope with one child's festivities every few months! And can you guess the theme? I'll give you a hint............we are getting good use out of certain decorations!

Yes, it was dinosaurs again (always). I'm really not sure that this craze is EVER going to let up (a few weeks back at kinder, a speech pathologist was meeting with the kids and the lady asked Tom was he wanted to be when he grew up. Instantly he replied "a paleontologist" What else?!)

So here are some pics from Sunday and a couple from today (his actual birthday).

the cake

The kids all had a ball belting the hell out of this poor dino pinata. Some had a terrific arm on them! There were about 10 kids who had a go and I think they each got 3 turns of 5 swings each before the poor sucker caved and delivered the treats!

Some of the presents he got. The one on the right is a spaceman thingy that you pump up and then push a button and it shoots up in the air. REALLY high! You just knew that it would come to grief.......

.......and it was Mark's grief! Mark is circled in red and the spaceman is circled in green. Mark is not fond of heights, so he was less than thrilled at having to get the rotten thing out of the tree! After about 30 minutes, the thing fell out of its own accord (much to Mark's disgust!)

Lunch at La Porchettas complete with dino cupcakes.

Baby Pic

Thought you might like to see another picture of the little girl. I am slowly working my way through editing a few of them.

Isabella - 1 day old

Baby News!

Announcing the arrival of

ISABELLA MARY SIMPSON BILLING

Weight 7lb 7oz

Length 52cm

Isabella arrived yesterday (Monday 7/6/10) on her due date at 1.15pm. We are both doing very well and dad is recovering after the discovery of having another daughter that will also have him wrapped around her little finger!!! Big brother Tom and big sister Biddy are beside themselves over having the new arrival finally here!!!

More pics to come when we get home.

Pregnancy pics

Ok, some of you wanted to see what I looked like at this late stage in the game.....so here you go!

This is me at 37 weeks and 2 days

This is me yesterday at 39 weeks and 4 days. In my togs to take kids to their swimming lessons. I think I may have been standing a bit skew-wiff in this pic, because in reality, there is not much difference in my size.

Still here.........

4 days and counting..............

Am having weekly doctors visits and I am told that really, I could go any time now. I also haven't put on any measurements in the past 3 weeks, so dr is suggesting that the baby doesn't need to be staying put in order to grow.....it will be better out than in (I agree!).

I had cleared my calendar for the last 2 weeks of this pregnancy in order to take things easy, but I have wound up doing nothing but clearing up, cleaning up, washing all manner of things, running errands, fixing things up, sorting rooms out....I feel like I have never been busier. Thank god for mums. Mine has been here most days to help out and even if that just means keeping the 2 kids out of my hair while I sort through boxes of crap, it is a HUGE help.

The electrical issue we had (from last post) turned out to be much simpler than anticipated. Rather than a problem with the wiring, it was a dodgy switch in the fuse box. So all the sparky needed to do was change that one switch. Brilliant.

I had some pregnancy photos take a couple of weeks ago and they turned out beautifully. Almost makes me want to get pregnant again just to have good photos! Almost....... LOL. We also recently had family photos taken as part of Biddy's baby club photo thingy... and with the exception of a couple that needed photoshopping (!) they weren't too bad either. Now we go through the decisions about which ones to enlarge!

Anyhow, I'm signing off for tonight. I have been on the computer for a bit today and despite the chair being usually comfy, I am now unable to feel my bum, the kids are at the point of killing each other and if I don't go and find a heartburn tablet in the next couple of minutes, I honestly think my oesophagus is going to rot away!!

A dead short

I am currently sitting here in a unique situation....we have lost all lights and the powerpoints in the front room (aka Biddy's "new" room), but we have power (via outlets) to the rest of the house! So we can use lamps, computers, tv, kitchen implements, washer, dryer etc... but we are forced to do it all in the dark.

Usually, when our power goes off, everything goes. Mark was out feeding the dogs and cats with the boy when this happened....I was bathing Biddy who kept a remarkable sense of calm about her as she was plunged into darkness whilst probably underwater! The fuse board would not reset, and being a dairy farm with electricians on speed dial (how fortunate) Mark was able to speak to one of the sparky's straight away. However, the news is not great. Apparently, it is known as a "dead short" and it will require one of the electricians to get out here tomorrow morning and go over all the house wiring. I have never heard of this!

In the meantime, we have bought a floodlight inside and plugged it into a powerpoint in the bathroom to shine down the hallway for Tom in case he gets up in the middle of the night (plus, he's recently taken to needing a dimmer light left on....sigh...another story that one), but woe betide anyone that looks directly at it, because it is so damn bright it'll fry your eyeballs!