Tag: parenting

Categories
family anecdotes

42/52

It’s been almost a year since Miss11 and I bought ourselves an anklet each, on holiday. I’d never owned one before, and neither had she, so when the idea crossed my mind, we bought some and wore them. “They feel like holidays,” we decided together, and since then every time I’ve wore mine it reminds me of her, and also the incredible Rainbow Beach holiday we’d had.

During the last school holidays, we spent a week on Fraser Island. While there, this caught my eye…

meaning I now have two of them to swap out depending on outfit and mood, and both remind me of holidays with the sand between my toes!

[I also managed to lose Miss11’s anklet (yay for more mummy-guilt, huh?!) so she also has a new one now. It worked out okay – she said she didn’t mind – but now the new one’s a reminder to me of how badly I suck at this whole parenting bit…]

Anyway. Back to the point: photo 42 of the 52 I was going to share this year. My new “bling”! What do you think?

And have a sparkly week yourself, dear Reader!

KRidwyn

Categories
momentous events More about me teaching

28/52

A new semester starts today.

For 4 out of the 5 in my household, today marks the start at a new school too.

Exciting times!

(Feel free to guess the kidlets’ schools from their uniforms…) And have a ‘new’ week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
momentous events

11/52

I know, this year I decided to challenge myself on the blog by taking photos and posting them here – in an effort to shame myself into taking better photos. So this post is a bit of a cheat – the photo was taken by a colleague of mine.

It’s my son. 9 years old, on school camp where he was away (by almost 200 kilometres!) from home, for a whole school week.

He has autism, if you have been reading this blog for a while.

So this was hard for me.

His first ever more-than-one-night sleepover away from me.

And here he is, on a giant swing, and having the time of his life!

I’m so incredibly proud of him.

And also teary. It’s a bittersweet thing.

How about you, dear Reader? What made you emotional this week?

– KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes Random thoughts

10/52

Kids grow up. So slowly you don’t notice when you’re with them

Minute by minute, hour by hour, day after day. But then you lift your head out of the trenches and realise that years have flown. Suddenly it’s not sleepovers, it’s Youth Group; it’s not The Wiggles, it’s Beyoncé. And you sigh and ask ‘what next’?

I had one of those moments recently. I knew one cherub had switched from Minecraft to Ark, but the change several months ago didn’t impact me until she told me one evening, “What I really want to do is teach you how to play Ark on the (Nintendo) Switch.”

Huh. Hold me back.

This game, from what I could tell, seemed like Minecraft with dinosaurs, with a dash of the breeding from DragonMania thrown in. Not really interested… especially when my Nintendo Switch time had to that moment involved learning Splatoon – badly – and playing Zelda, death of the Wild – also so badly my children loved watching to laugh at me about how slow I was to do anything. (And how many times Leaf died, but that’s another story.)

So I sighed, and said ‘okay’ and watched her face come to life.

And it hit me. THIS was her passion. At the moment, it’s this game. And she wanted to share it with me. Instant transportation back to her younger years when she’d bring me a dandelion flower or a lizard she’d caught. The same light in her eyes, the same grin; the same joy flooding through me because I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful daughter who loves me and wants to do stuff with me.

So Ark? Yeah. Not the biggest fan – but now I want to play it when she asks, so I can play it with her. Because she’s an absolute angel and I love her to pieces.

And that – doing stuff you’re not really interested in because the benefits so clearly outweigh any other objection? – that’s my thought for the week.

Have a blessed week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
momentous events Random thoughts

Getting older…

My eldest child became a teenager on the weekend. My second eldest had reached double digits 5 days earlier. Hubby had turned 46 the day before that.

Yup. Third week of January. Birthday week.

The difference, this year, was that for the first time ever, Hubby and I have more children in double digits than in single.

That made us feel old.

Then, just two days ago, when Miss12 became Miss13? Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe it.

How can I be a mother of a teenager? Seriously? Am I old enough? Responsible enough? Where’s the training manual for this section of my parenting life?!!

We spent the day together, doing things that would make memories for the two of us. She’s an awesome kid. So gentle, so caring. Love her to bits.

Not entirely appreciating though, how her milestone forces me to attain one as well.

Never mind. It was bound to happen eventually, I guess.

Have a great week, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune

Sunshine and toys

It’s Wednesday morning; ECDP and Speech Therapy morning. Work happened earlier, I think my clients are getting used to emails dated pre -6am!
Hubby and I were talking about my ‘return to work’ (ha!)
yesterday. The original plan was that I stay home with the kids, and Miss 4 would start Prep next year (2013) and Mr 3 the following year. Then St Paul’s offered a Pre-Prep class for next year; and so then Hubby’s plan became ‘all three kids at school next year / Ceridwyn returns to full-time teaching’.
Trouble is, Mr 3 won’t cope with Pre-Prep in six short months time. And I certainly can’t see him coping with Prep just 12 months later!
I was thinking about this earlier in the day… how his progress in the last couple of months has been amazing… but he is still SOOOOOOOO far ‘behind’ his peers. He has maybe a dozen spoken words (intelligible by others, not just me, and only when in context); he has zero interest in toilet training, he spits out his food as often as eat it, he tantrums when he doesn’t get his own way, and so on and so on and so on. We were looking at a book this morning, and the thought crossed my mind that ‘I hope he reads, one day’. Then I realised what I was thinking and I teared up. The thought that my boy might not read…!??! I never would have expected that one day I would ever have questioned the possibility!
Very sad. And the next thought, possibly sadder still. That he wouldn’t even know what he was missing.
Still, as I sit here in the sunshine, watching Mr 3 play with toys at the ECDP, talking with a parent of a Downs Syndrome child, and looking around to see other children with other various special needs, I think that ‘parenting is parenting’. You just do your best, hey.

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