Magic moments

You know when your kids do or say something really gorgeous / cute / completely disgusting, and you think to yourself, "oh, I will never, ever forget that, as long as I live!" And then before you know it, a few months have passed, and there you are, scratching your head and trying to remember the gorgeous / cute / completely disgusting but now absolutely hilarious thing that little Johnny did. Or is that just me?

In many ways, this blog has become my 'baby book' - unfortunately I was never organised enough to keep a proper baby book for any of my children. I can tell you roughly when they got their first teeth, when they began crawling, and talking, and walking. It's terrible, I know. But truly, the way I see it, when you're putting in 100% of your time parenting, it's pretty tricky to find a moment to fill in the baby book (that's why my blogging time comes out of the time allowance for ironing...)

As you know, my head is currently crammed full of squashed flies, which makes it difficult for my cerebral cortex to do it's job. But there have been some golden moments of childhood this week that I am reluctant to let the sands of time swallow. There have also been some moments which I wished were not happening at the time, but on reflection I realise that they were probably pretty funny...or at least, they will be. One day.

So Jack has just completed his sixth day of school. Each morning, I deposit a clean, ironed (!), shiny boy to his teacher, and each afternoon I collect a sandy, sweaty, crumpled urchin with a collection of notices, a smelly, empty lunchbox and a happy grin. Yesterday there was an afternoon tea after school for the Preps and their parents. I baked vanilla (or vallina, as Jack calls them) cuppy cakes for him, as I knew that most of the other delicacies would contain egg, and I didn't want him to miss out. On the way home in the car, Jack complained that he only had two cupcakes, and that I hadn't given him enough to eat. I chastised him, saying that I had gone to a lot of trouble to do something nice for him, and that he was lucky to have yummy treats at all. Jack's response? "Mum! Just relax, ok? It's not worth getting upset about. They were really nice, I liked them a lot, so don't worry about that. I'm just still hungry, ok? Relax, Mum." What??? Who is this child??? Has one week at primary school aged him 20 years??

Today, he came home and in one conversation called me "a sweet mum", and peppered his chatter with endearments such as 'precious' and 'treasure'. I'm loving these moments with my little man, but I'd love to know when he's going to start using them with his little sisters!! Phoebe, too has been so affectionate lately. She's always been lovable and gives cuddles out like candy, but the last few weeks she has told me she loves me every few minutes. Especially when she's getting in trouble! "Mumma, are you proud of me?" Yes, Phoebs, I'm proud of you." "Mumma, I loves you." "I love you too, sweetie." "Mumma?" "Yes, Phoebe?" "I love you to the moon and back to the beach." (This conversation typically repeats itself three or four times before Phoebe is satisfied that we are aware of her love...and that she has our absolute approval and that we think she is a good girl)

I went to Phoebe's ballet lesson this afternoon and watched my girl and Miss Annette dance like fairies. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Phoebe watched her teacher with a rapt expression, and executed wobbly plies, pointed her toes, and skipped with only one leg. It was like watching a foal take it's first steps after birth, except the foal was wearing a little pink leotard and skirt, and kept grinning at me. She loves her ballet lessons so much, she practises her dancing all week, showing her moves to anyone who will watch. When Phoebe is dancing, her face is like a sunbeam, and I could watch her all day.

Probably the biggest milestone we have celebrated this week is Maisie's latest trick - pulling up to stand. The Mouse has gone from being completely lacksadaisical about moving, to commandoing like greased lightning, to crawling with a maniacal laugh...and in the last three days, she has discovered the joys of pulling herself up on the furniture or any nearby legs. This afternoon, she started to cruise...I'm afraid I probably have only a few more weeks before my little Mouse is staggering around after the big kids, creating more havoc! I had a magic day with Mais today, while Jack and Phoebs were at school and kinder. I fenced her into a little corral made from the couches and various toy boxes, and she cruised her way around her little obstacle course while I did uninterrupted housework and watched last night's Grey's Anatomy...it was bliss!! Eventually she climbed out and made her way over to the window, calling Er-na and Di-see, and banging on the glass to try and entice them into her chubby little clutches.

Nothing is safe anymore - you can't leave anything on the couches if you want to keep it away from the Mouse. She grabs and throws, and it's all great fun. Tonight, she discovered that she could stand up next to the couch and dance (oh yes!), and apparently it was HILARIOUS when Mummy danced too. So there we were, bopping to the tunes of a Fisher Price something-or-other, laughing madly at each other. Every now and then, she'd plop down on the floor, giggle, and then pull herself up again. I think you already know who tired of this game first!

Maisie has also discovered a way to convey her feelings when her euphoria is so great it can't be contained - she shrieks loudly and flaps her hands. Walking into school this morning, it was so windy that her hair was being blown all over the shop (and heaven knows how much our Mouse loves the wind!) so she squealed all the way to the lollipop lady. She gave an ear-splitting shriek of joy when I did some rather embarrassing dancing while vacuuming today (well, I am pretty funny when I shake my bum...). And the shout of glee was enormous when I gave her a piece of cheese with her lunch. I know! Cheese!!!!!

And what did my darling littlest girl do tonight? After trying to stand up in the bath and getting shouty at Daddy for trying to stop her, she did a poo in the bath. Poor Jack managed to escape before the polly waffle floated down his end of the tub. Unfortunately, I had to clean it up while Daddy hosed off the big kids in the shower - and let's just say soggy poos are not an easy thing to clean up!! Bleurgh.

So there you have it - this week's magic moments. I know there were others, but the squashed flies have temporarily wiped some of them from my memory. But do you know what's really magic about this particular moment? It's Friday night, they're all asleep...and it's Friday night!!! No school run in the morning! Yippee!!!!