'The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.'

'Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children. Now I have six children and no theories.' Earl of Rochester


I like this quote as it reminds you how idealistic you start out as a parent and how all those ideals can go out the window when you have children. Parenting can be such a challenge. The lack of sleep, all the washing and feeding that needs to happen, the lack of free time, the lack of appreciation the crying, whining, arguing! Of course, not that I am saying that happens in my family, I have just heard that it happens. (If only that were true!) So I always appreciate anything that makes me laugh about being parent.

This is a great quote: 'The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.' Jack Hardy

Josh, his cheeky face.

Hayden has just gotten off the 'Winnie the Pooh' ride in Disneyland. How happy does he look! I was looking for some frowning pictures too, but I guess I don't think to photo the kids when they are in a bad mood.

Mark and I have have discovered some great books by Michael Carr-Gregg (no this is not an add, just something that I love that I recently discovered). He is a psychologist that talks a lot about children's issues. Using lots of humour, which makes you feel like what you are going through is normal.

This is video of him talking about parenting. Its 10 minutes long and takes a couple of minutes to get into it but its really funny. I like some of his comments in it: 'If you are haven't upset your teenager three times a week then your just not trying.':D Also that not one ounce of your self esteem should be wrapped up in what your teenager thinks of you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWCR9tHSdFM&feature=related

We borrowed out a couple of his books on teenagers a the library they are great!

Blah! My kids are sick!

I love to look after and fuss over my kids when they are sick. I am so glad I can be home to look after them. But mate, it wears me out! Getting up through the night, extra hugs and cuddles, washing sheets, giving medicine, organising different food for them makes you extra busy. Unfortunately I don't hide this too well. When I was asking my son this morning if he was too sick to go to school he said, 'But if I stay home Mum you will have a bad day.' Poor guys, look like I don't do a great job at hiding my stress. :)

Trying to understand child behaviour when a child is sick is tricky too. For instance today, I was working on my computer and the two youngest, who were home sick, were going extra crazy. Teasing each other running through the house and slamming doors. I thought 'might be a good time for a little trip to the chemist'. Get us out of the house for a bit, buy something nice for us for lunch. Anyway we get there and I start talking to the pharmacy assistant about what medicine I needed. Anyway she looks at my 6 year old and comments 'poor thing, he is so white, like Casper the ghost.' Soon after he makes choking nosies, goes green and starts to vomit all over the floor! The chemist was quite busy at that moment and all the customers were shooting me dirty looks, like how irresponsible I was to bring such a sick child out. My 10 year old was so embarrassed he suddenly disappeared behind some shelving. The pharmacy assistant was so helpful though and even insisted on cleaning it up herself, poor thing. We finally paid for our items and escaped home. My poor little one went straight to bed, pulled the blankets over his head and went straight to sleep.

Sometimes you can't win as a Mother. When my youngest was younger he would get tonsillitis, ear infection and bronchitis all together and lie around the house sick and tired. Yet when we got to the doctors he would run around as happy as could be. I would take him into the doctor and tell him what was wrong and the doctor would look at my son and say, 'well he looks happy enough.' But when he had a look he would see he had an infection. Then of course my little one would be tired and lying around again as soon as we got home. I almost feel like saying to my kids sometimes, 'if I take you to the doctors, ACT SICK!'.