So much going on.....

Hello fellow bloggers, long time no blog, sorry bout that.
The weather is heating up here, dont know if thats a blessing or not but we are very grateful for air conditioning thats for sure!
The kids have been back at school now for just over a week. The holidays were as hectic as usual but for some reason wasnt as full on as usual, go figure.
We have had Maddisyn home from school since last Wednesday till Tuesday this week. She has major probs with her ear and had been diagnosed with a burst eardrum on Friday, but for some reason i didnt buy it as that causes excrutiating pain, from what her dad has said, but other than a high temp and liquid coming from the affected ear, the only thing that she has complained of was a bit of a headache, so we revisited the docs on Tues (a different one this time) and he has told us that she needs grommets again and specialists and such. Sooo he gives us a referral and i ring this place to set up an appointment and they are booked up for the rest of the year and i cant make an appointment for next year untill December. Suck. But, she seems ok now and is back at school and we just wait untill December.
But as one drama ends, another starts. We just get Maddy back to school and that same night, Ethan gets a temperature and comes up sick. I was able to sneak him into Maddys appointment and apparently he has the beginnings of glue ear (his ear is at the swollen stage rather than all the yucky liquid stage) so with early detection, we should be able to save anything going as bad as his sister. We have also shaved his head to a number 3 and now he looks exactly like his dad and brother. Once we had cut his hair, it went thick and real untidy, just like Andrews and Liams, sooo he got the same solution :) Ethan is also at daycare 3 times a week now and after a lot of resistance, the past couple weeks has been a breeze. He even waves me off now.
Liam has a new hobby. Maddisyn accidently broke his PS2 so now that he isnt in his room for hours on end, he has taken an interest in wrestling. In fact, everyone has, except for me and Katy. He also spends a lot more time outside, where he should.
Kaytlynn has had a setback the last week or so. Her uncle H got her a sizezble fishtank, for her birthday, complete with pumps and pretty lights and so forth, and also gave her some cash to get the fish with. Well to save her some $$ she convinced her dad to give her Ethans small fish (a pressie along with a small round bowl, from uncle H as well for his birthday) To cut the story short, the fish disappeared and were found in the pump. She was soooo upset.
Kyla is barrelling through teenagehood like a bull in a chinashop. She wants to start going to concerts and is wearing makeup 24/7 (Does anyone remember the tomboy Kyla who wouldnt be caught dead in a dress let alone wear makeup!!) I dont mind the lipgloss and the nailpolish but she has now graduated to eyeliner (panda eyes style) and foundation, both of wich make her look about 15-16. sigh

Life As It Is At the Mo

Hello hello everybody.
Things are going swimmingly well for us all here in Perth at the moment. I still havent had a chance to get another camera so once again, you are all stuck with my ramblings for the moment.
Sickness has swept thru the household. You would think that this would be more typical during the winter months but it seems that as soon as we say hello to spring, we have all started hitting ours sick beds. I got a bit of pneumonia last week and that knocked me for a couple of days. It was horrible and I was so grateful once I had been able to shake it off. Ethan has had a bit of an up and down temperature and grotty nose for the last week and a half as well as a bit of a cough but other than all that he is basically the same. Kaytlynn is the one that is worrying us. She has a horrible hacking cough that makes us cringe every time we hear it. Unfortunately unless someone is dying over here, its virtually impossible to get a same day appointment at the docs so we have to wait untill next week grrr. But it doesnt seem to bother her as much as it does me and her dad.
Ethan is now at daycare 2 days a week. He is finding it hard as he has been horribly spoilt and has always had either mum or dad with him every second of the day. It was quite sad. On monday I went to pick him up and as I walked through his classroom to the outside playground, I saw him through the sliding door, sitting in the corner with Patience (yep she goes there too) and they both had their heads in their hands and were just quiet, not talking, just staring into space. It was so sad but as Ive been told, he will get used to it hehe.
Im also working part time at the moment. The feeling of being out there and doing things is so liberating and Im loving it, even the 3am starts. But at the same time, this working for a living is bloody hard work, especially when you havent done it for so long hey.
The kids had their school photos today. Will scan and show you all when we get them back.
We celebrated Ethans birthday on fathers day (which was his birthday too). He had a wonderful day the day before with his little cuzzies and friends and then he went and stayed the night with his Uncle Davy, Aunty Karleen and Nanna Ann (the kids surrogate grandmum, who is Karleens mum. They call her nanna which is fine with us as she is a wonderful nanna to them). It was a real treat for Andrew and I to have the whole night to ourselves as my brother Hopa had the rest of our tribe. But Andrew had them all home bright and early the next day, before I had even gotten out of bed, and we spent the rest of the day pampering both Andrew and Ethan, the lucky buggers. Thanks to you all that made the effort to show how much you love our beautiful son with your birthday cards and emails. You are all a wonderful and much loved part of our family no matter where you are. We cant believe our baby is 3. And the week after next, Kaytlynn is 11, and that covers our birthdays for the year. Thank god.
Hope all is well out there.
Sending you all our thoughts and tons of kisses,
The Lazarus-Barrons xxxxx

Missions

With the tax man hitting us in the pockets, I have decided to get out there and help my lovely man pay the bills. So at the moment its writing resumes and finding somewhere to send them off and hopefully be employed soon enough. The only worry is being able to find daycare for my son as the ones that I have contacted so far have enormous waiting lists. But my mum arrived on Saturday so hopefully she will be able to help out. And then theres the hours that I will be available to work as I still need to be there for the other kids before and after school. I wouldnt mind doing night work but Andrew is not so keen as he doesnt like the idea of us never seeing each other. But like they say, where theres a will theres a way :)
Another mission at the moment is the clash of personalities that is going on in the household. Whoever said that having so many kids wasnt so bad was crazy. Ooops hang on a minute, that crazy was me lol. Kyla and I are constantly fighting. Its like I try to assert some authority and she just doesnt want to know. As long as I am saying yes to her its all good but as soon as I say no, its like a bomb going off. For a child her age and compared to the upbringing that I had, the freedom that she has to do things and stuff is enormous and I think that she should consider herself very lucky. But Im starting to learn that the more you give a 13 year old, the more they want and be prepared for the fallout if you dont confer to their so called needs. So at the moment she is grounded, even unable to attend her youth group, untill she appreciates the things that shes allowed to do and starts to show me a bit more respect. Is that bad?. Feels like it is sometimes.
My darling sweet soft spoken and quiet Kaytlynn is gone. She has become argumentative and loudly outspoken and loves to provoke her sisters and brothers. But she still has that sweetness about her that difuses any growling that her dad tries to bestow on her and once again I am the bad guy as I enforce the fact that she cant do that to them. So Im the one that sees her tears and sees her back as she storms off to her room sigh.
Liam hasnt changed much and is still the quiet older son who loves his playstation. He has also started helping with the dishes and I must say that he sometimes does a better job than his sisters.
As for Maddisyn-Rose, well where do I start. She doesnt like sleeping in her bed, doing anything to help even a little around the house, and her favorite sentence is 'I hate you mum!' She defys her dad every chance she gets and if she doesnt want to do it, she will cry loud and for as long as you can handle grrr. Unfortunately she is very very spoilt. We are still trying to figure out how to deal with this very very strong personality that our youngest daughter posesses.
Well we all know what Ethan is up to these days as he is the main one that I seem to write about these days.
Even with all these different personalities happening at the moment, Andrew and I are very proud with our lovely tribe of children and enjoy trying to giude them through these early years of theirs. It all passes so fast.
BUT any suggestions from all family, friends and godparents are greatly appreciated.

Got A Real Haircut.....

Well last Wednesday, Ethan finally got all his hair chopped off. I just about cried as his blonde ends hit the floor but once I was over it, I had to admit that my son looked even more handsome and definitely a lot more like a nearly 3 year old. He was pretty chuffed with the new do and its definitely a lot more easier to maintain. It has gotten a fair bit thicker and a lot darker but it is definitely a lot lovelier.

Back to School

The kids went back to school yesterday. It was shitty weather and I really didnt want to send them but have to if you dont want the truancy officer on your door. Its a bit more scary for me at the moment as there is a new strain of flu going on here that has killed 4 kids to date. Only 3 of them had flu like symptoms but thats still 3 too many to me, so most of my kids were out of uniform as I made sure they were rugged up to the max. There was a bit of whining and protesting but I didnt care. Its amazing how scared you get when you have children, even about the little things. Jasper is at daycare. It was so cool this morning. Dave woke me up about 6:30 (it was the first time I had slept in since he had been dropping Jas off oops) and this time Jas gave me a big grin and practically jumped into my arms. As Ive mentioned before, hes usually quiet in the morning but not today. He then proceeded to follow me around the house, chatting away to me as I woke my children up from their slumbers and started the morning chores. I didnt really want to take him to daycare but if I didnt, Dave would have been paying for it anyway. Now the house is quiet as Ethan just bums around and the sound of Jaspers giggles and chatter arent here :(
Andrew cant wait untill his sister gets back as he thinks Im coping too well with 6 kids and doesnt want me getting any ideas now that I dont have a baby anymore. But I reassure him that thats not going to happen. I always have extra kids around but it is all the more appealing because they get to go home at the end lol.
Anyway, my camera shit itself yesterday so no new photos untill I can get a new one.

Another little thing......

The first day that I had Jasper, I kept having to remind myself that he was in nappies. With Ethan using the toilet by himself now, it just isnt at the forefront of my brain anymore. But dont worry Mum. The first one he presented me with was enough to make sure that it wasnt hard to forget hehe. Now its like I never stopped. Ive only had Jas a couple of days but I feel like Ive had him for always, hes fit in that well.
So thanks Liane and Dave, for trusting me enough to look after your precious son and giving us a chance to spend this time with him. Now, if only I can figure out a way to pry Miss Ruby from you :)

The 2 Musketeers

With his mum and little sister on holiday in New Zealand, I have had the privelage and pleasure of looking after Jasper while his Dad is at work.
Jas gets dropped off in the morning and because its early (being skool hols, my kids arent out of bed before 9), Im the only one awake to greet him. Its a bit cold in the mornings at the mo so I grab the blanket off my bed and try to set us up in front of cartoons for a while. Jas must think that me and blanket means him going to sleep and refuses to bunk down with me and has a bit of a grizzle. Hes really quiet in the mornings and a bit sullen and I know its because he misses him mum so much.
BUT all that changes when his big cousin gets up. As soon as Ethan rolls out of bed they are at it. Like this morning. Im sitting on the lounge floor playing twiddly fingers with JAS and all of a sudden he squeals delightfully and yells
'EEEF!'
and my sons reply of
'Hey Jaspa. You at my house again!'
while grinning widely at his cuz.Ethan always pronounces his name this way. Im suddenly invisible and the 2 do their morning ritual of catching up. After a bit, Ethan will announce that him and Jasper are wanting breakfast. This morning it was cereal 1st and then toast. So I give them their cereal and am doing their toast when I hear Ethan say to Jas
'No now look what youve done. My hoodie (his sentences are so grown up these days!)' and as I peek around the corner I see my son tip his bowl of breakky down the front of Jasper.
'Ethan! What did you do that for!'
'He put yuck hands on my hoodie mum'
'That doesnt mean you can do that to him!'
'Yes it does. Come on Jaspa. We go get changed'
GRRRR. He means me change them both AND clean up the mess. But they are so cute to watch and Im so grateful that they get to spend this time together. They spend the day playing and talking and poor Jas is happy to be bossed around most of the time. But Jas is still really happy to see his dad at the door at the end of each day.
Tomorrow is the 1st day of the new term and my brother has given me his 7 seater 4WD to cope with the extra child and carseat while I do the school run so I figure that after Ive been to the docs, Ill take him and Ethan and maybe Trinity and Patience for a toddlers trip out somewhere. Heres hoping the weather lets me.