The Beach

While on holidays we took the kids to the beach. Four adults to six kids was a good ratio. It meant that most of us got to swim, except for poor old hubby who spent the whole morning chasing Possum, who wanted to run away. Yes, Possum was terrified of the ocean. All that water, moving back and forwards, and he’s not that good with water anyway. Amber had a ball, she and I swam out for a while, and then when I thought we were far enough out, we swam back, great to know that even with very little swimming in the past few years, I am still a more powerful swimmer than she is. As we turned back I saw that Techno Boy had followed us out, although he was quite a way behind us, so I told him to go back in. He is not a strong swimmer. In fact I caught up with him rapidly and then towed him in. Lily had a ball in the shallows. Yes I want to go back to the beach next time we have a summer holiday. I have always loved the way the seawater holds you up and supports you.

After the beach we went to the foreshore playground. It is a great water park, with water dropping from buckets, and squirting from poles, and squirting from the ground. As one thing goes on another goes off, and you can think you are safe when suddenly something behind you turns on and you get wet again. Luckily I was still in my bathers, as I got quite a bit wetter than planned. Possum enjoyed this one though. The water was more controllable and easy to escape from. Also there was a water gun, which he really enjoyed as it gave him the chance to wet his brother and sisters. Not something a 2 year old gets to do all that often.

Could Have Done Without

Driving back from holidays yesterday. We were about 2/3 or the way home, and I for one was quite relaxed, having done my share of the driving. Travelling down a quiet country road, not our usual route, so taking a bit more interest in the scenery than usual. We came around a bend to see a red car heading towards us on our side of the road, it quickly swerved to the other side, and losing control, swerved back, the onto the other side again, then short straight across the road and into the bush on the side. It was all so fast, and very unnerving. I knew if we had been 100m further on it would have hit us. Not a nice end to a holiday.

So we had the honour of being first on the scene of a car crash. Hubby got out and flagged down the truck that had been following us, then headed to the car to see if he could help. I asked the trucky if he had a phone, luckily he did, so he phoned emergency services, and I went down to see if I could help. Luckily hubby had it all under control, one shocked, bruised, and bleeding driver, no passengers. I went back to make sure the kids were OK, got them down out of the car and into a patch of bush were they would be fine. Hubby thanked the trucky and sent him on his way, then moved our car to a safer spot. As this was happening another car pulled up.

The landowner had arrived, just coming home from the shops. So she went over to help the driver, and then asked us to head down the road a bit and call the drivers family. So off we went, then back to talk to the police. Luckily all they wanted was our contact details. The driver was mostly fine, just a few cuts and bruises and shock. Poor thing. The car was a right off.

So we headed home, a bit shaken, but fine. Not the best ending for a holiday, but at least we are all well. And it reminded us that empty country roads can be dangerous too.

Human Milk for Human Babies

A lot of people wonder why I expressed my milk for Possum for so long, why express for over two years. The answer is very simple, I believe human babies should drink human milk. As I couldn’t feed him direct from the source, I chose to express for him, there seemed no other way. In the early days people could understand it, after all I was simply maintaining my supply until he learnt how to feed properly. By the time he was three months old, most people expected me to feed him alternatives. When I didn’t they were surprised, but I really could see no reason why I should feed him modified cows, sheep or goats milk, and certainly no reason why I should feed him a factory product derived from soy, oats or rice, that has a vague resemblance to milk, but certainly isn’t milk. At least cows, goats and sheep milk is real milk, made by mums to feed their babies, but my baby wasn’t a calf, kid or lamb so why would I feed him milk that is perfectly suited for small ruminants, but certainly not suited for a small omnivore. Of course these milks are modified in factories to change the balance of nutrients to be closer to human milk, but why should I give him a factory-contrived simulation when the real thing was in my breasts just waiting to get out.

Some people got it, but when he was 6 months old, they felt as he should be on solids, it didn’t matter so much. Well the small fact that he didn’t start solids until 8 months, wouldn’t have a bar of it, made sure I continued to offer him my milk. Why would I want foreign proteins in his stomach when he was just learning to digest those specially designed for him?

When my freezer stash grew big enough to last till 12 months, most people expected me to stop expressing, but he wouldn’t drink thawed milk, it just didn’t taste the same. So I kept expressing, and after all he was still such a baby, at 12 months he wasn’t walking yet, and certainly wasn’t talking. He was no longer a newborn, but he was definitely still a baby. So I just kept on going. People thought I was insane, people thought I was doing it for guilt, some people understood, they knew I was doing it because human babies should drink human milk wherever possible.

He thrived on my milk, and gradually started eating more solids, after he turned two I decided enough was enough, time to wean him. When I weaned him his weight plummeted because he was thriving on my milk, not on the solids, it took a lot of effort to increase his solids enough for him to gain the calories he had been getting from me and help him grow. So I realised that he really Had needed my milk until he was two and probably could have done with drinking it for another twelve months, but he was no longer a baby, definitely a little boy, and growing again on solids, just not as quickly as when on my milk.

So for those who wonder why a mum would express for over 2 years for her baby, it is not because she is insane, or filled with guilt it is simply because she like me, believes that human milk is for human babies.

O SON OF BOUNTY! Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue from thy mother’s womb, I destined for thee two founts of gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to love thee. Out of My loving-kindness, ’neath the shade of My mercy I nurtured thee, and guarded thee by the essence of My grace and favor. And My purpose in all this was that thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become worthy of My invisible bestowals. And yet heedless thou didst remain, and when fully grown, thou didst neglect all My bounties and occupied thyself with thine idle imaginings, in such wise that thou didst become wholly forgetful, and, turning away from the portals of the Friend didst abide within the courts of My enemy.

Baha’u’llah

Belief

Belief is a funny little thing. I know a bit, I don’t know a lot, and I believe a bit. I know, for example, that I’m sitting here typing, I know Possum is asleep in the lounge room, I know I have four kids, but I don’t know exactly where they all are. I don’t know so many things they are uncountable, not only that I don’t actually know what it is I don’t know. But the fuzzy area is the things I believe. For instance, do I know that this chair won’t fall down as soon as I sit on it, or do I believe this based on the fact that it never has before? Do I know that the sun will come up in the morning, or do I just believe that, again based on past experience? I don’t even really know that the world is round, I have never left Australia, so I haven’t been far enough afield to really know it. I believe it based on various facts, I have seen pictures from space, I’ve seen globes and know people who have travelled around the globe, so I am pretty sure that it really is round, yet I don’t really know it, not like I know my glass of water needs refilling.

There are some things that I believe that most people also believe, because they are so close to certain that there is little doubt, like the world is round, and we revolve around the sun, so it will come up in the morning. There are very few people who don’t agree with this. What about the holocaust, some people don’t believe in that, yet others do. I can’t say I know it happened, after all I’ve never met a holocaust survivor, nor even a descendent of a holocaust survivor, yet I believe it happened. Why do I believe this, well because I have read and seen the results of it, so many others believe in it, I’m certainly not alone there.

Then there are the other things, things that aren’t so certain, like the existence of God. I look around me and see the wonders of the world, the wonder of giving birth and bringing up kids, the love of parents for kids and kids for parents, and I see reflections of the wonders and love of God. Yet others look at these same things and don’t see any signs of God. I am just as certain that God exists as I am that the sun will come up tomorrow, yet the proof is no where near as clear. I am a Baha’i, I believe that Baha’u’llah and the Bab did walk the earth, actually this is fairly certain, many non Baha’is have written about them, they really did live where and when I believe they did. The big question is were they who they said they were, were they really messengers from God, when I read the books they wrote, am I reading the word of God, or is it nonsense. Of course, if you don’t believe in God, you have no problem, it is just nonsense, but I believe in God and I believe that Baha’u’llah is indeed the most recent messenger from God. I also believe that one day in the future God will send us more messengers, because the message needs to change as the state of humanity changes. The world is very different to 2000 years ago, and it has changed a lot in the last 180 years, it will continue to change and God will need to update our message. I believe that one day this will happen, but I also believe that I won’t be alive to see it, although I do keep an open mind there, just in case.

This is how belief is a funny thing. There are even less certain things that we believe with out question, yet there is no proof at all. Many people believe the things they see on the TV news or current affairs shows, sometimes this is OK, sometimes it isn’t and yet they assume that because its on the news it is true, so they think they know things that aren’t true. This can cause trouble.

So I know a little, a believe a lot, and I don’t know so much I can’t even imagine most of it.

Bespoke Photos

The other day I asked the kids to take a photo for my blog. I could just see in my mind a picture of the trampoline with feet floating above it. So they went out, Amber took the pictures, came back in, Techno Boy downloaded them. They went off to do whatever, I wrote my blog and went to post the pics. Not a single picture on the computer of the trampoline, let alone feet floating above. This morning Techno Boy insisted he had done it, and yes there they were, on his laptop, which is connected to nothing and completely useless to me. So here is the picture I had wanted for the Trampoline. Reminds me that they are still only kids and if you really want it do it yourself.

Of course all the pictures I’ve used so far have been taken by one or other of the kids. I tend to take photos of the kids, they take photos of everything and some of them are lovely.

Trampoline

I always wanted a trampoline, every child should have one. Get the feeling I missed out as a child. Well I’m missing out no longer. Yes, last week we bought the kids a trampoline. We tossed up about how big to get it, which size, what shape, which brand. In the end we bought it from our local sports store, so the question became “how big?” They range in size from 8 feet to 16 feet, first problem, we don’t speak feet, we speak metres. So we carefully stepped it out in the back yard and decided that yes, the 16 footer would just fit. Thought some more, and decided that if the whole family was to use it, and if Amber wasn’t to outgrow it in a few years, the 16 footer would be best.

Fast forward to last Friday, we finally collected it and put it up. Well a 16 foot diameter trampoline is bigger than we thought. Yes it does fit our yard, but only just, thank goodness its at quarter acre block. The trampoline is huge, the whole family could fit on it, twice, maybe three times.

It is so much fun. The hardest part is convincing everyone that two or three at a time is not good, there is just so much space it feels perfectly safe. But more than one at a time is just an accident waiting to happen. I am enjoying it, but it is harder to bounce on than I remember. Not sure if that is because the net is so much bigger I need to put more energy into it to get a bounce, or if it is just because I am bigger and a lot less fit than I was at 16 on my best friends tramp when visiting her on holidays. I suspect its because I’m bigger and a lot less fit, well a lot bigger too, but hopefully the tramp will help there. Hopefully it will help Techno Boy with his incipient wait problem too. I have trouble getting him off it.

Sleep Over

On Saturday night Lily (she’s 8) had her first sleep over. Every Saturday we have dinner at Mum’s place, Lily often heads over early to help prepare the meal, and then we all walk home together, a lovely evening. Last Saturday as we were cleaning up Lily asked if she could stay the night. Well of course we said yes, she’s never even asked before. We quickly popped home, grabbed her night things, spare clothes, teddy bear, packed them in a bag and back we went. She slept beautifully, not sure why we didn’t do it before. Actually I know exactly why we didn’t do it before, she wasn’t ready. This is the child that I had to talk into bed when I was away over night, she wouldn’t go to bed until I told her a story over the phone. This is the child who spends about half of every second night in my bed sleeping with me. This is the child who won’t go to sleep if I haven’t tucked her in, given her a kiss and read her a story. Lily just wasn’t ready for a night away from home, but now she is. She is now excitedly planning more nights at Grandma’s and maybe even a sleep over at her best friend’s. It is amazing how things can change in a moment. It is amazing how they suddenly grow up when you aren’t looking.