Kids, I should have had a Dozen.
Without Prejudice
My Mum always said that,
"Kids, I should have had a Dozen."
She eventually had 7 of us little buggers and we are not so little now.
Mum liked kids, she liked teaching them, had them easily and found us her main wonder and delight.
She had my younger Sister Helen when she was 43, didn't tell us older kids she was pregnant until 6 weeks before she had her. We were thick as bricks as we had no idea. I was 14 and thought she was just getting a bit fat. Shows how self absorbed I was.
She went off to Hospital one day and gave birth, a healthy 8 and a half pound baby girl. She chain smoked the entire pregnancy of course.
My Auntie Pat was pregnant at the same time and had a baby boy within weeks of my Mum. Auntie Pat who was 40 and hadn't had a baby since Keith who was a teenager thought she was going through the change of life.
I had 4 girls, my daughter has seven boys and we share a property. Not a house, I hasten to add as I would have killed her and them if I had to do that. I have my dwelling, she has hers and we share care of the kids. My Grandkids.
Yesterday was as hot as hell and there could have been disaster all around but we are so used to them, there wasn't. We had three "extras" , as kids, bring kids. Tiana my grand daughter was here, Georgia from up the road and Jai's friend Tyler.
There were wading pools and hoses going and kids chattering and leaping, jumping on the trampoline. Little kids never seem to tire out on hot days, unlike the adults and they were all still moving en masse while Yvette and I escaped to my unit to watch Jaws.
Tiana said when she came in for an apple, with the little boys following,
"They just love their Nanny"
And its true. Cruz at 2 welds himself to my side and cracks it if I don't go through every routine with him. Jealousy is rife with him and Acer as I cut up a Granny Smith apple for Cruz and send him on his way and Acer returns apple hungry all of a sudden, then Kyan, then Tiana again and I have to go to Coles for more. In the end I have to cut a Red delicious in half for the two youngest and Acer, 4 cracks a wobbly as he wants a whole one and Cruz doesn't care.
All day long the have played in the heat, hopping in and out of the blow up pool, grabbing the hose and running with it. Only when the digitally remastered Jaws comes on do they settle at last. I said to Yvette isn't a bit scary for the little boys and she said no, they were the first to line up to watch it. The night before she took them all to see Wreck It Ralph and Life Of Pi. I told her not to tell me anything about Life Of Pi as I want to see it with Kyan.
So Tiana comes in and proceeds to start telling me and I halt her too. I just ask if anything happend to the tiger and she doesn't answer. But she said the shipwreck part is unbelievable and the movie is great. Its so funny all day as Tiana and Little Georgia up the street haven't bathers and I have a bag full. Suddenly Tiana aged 12 and Georgia aged 9 are vamps and I tell them only to stay in the backyard.
All day it is a moveable feast of wet kids and devon with tomato sauce sandwiches. Apples, bananas, nectarines, fruit cake and cookies. Kids are always hungry and Yvette and I are run off our feet. We get a break at 10 at night and sit out for a while under the stars in the cooler air. We chat and I hang out washing as tomorrow promises to be just as hot. The breezes have blown in and its cooler outside than in.
As soon as we go inside for a cuppa, Yvette spies a cocky on the mat and we both spend an hilarious ten minutes trying to kill the bloody thing. I am horrified that ts a cocky and say it can't be. I dont have cock roaches in my place. I keep telling her it has to be a cricket but no, its a cocky and those little buggers take some killing. We spray it with fly spray and we end up mashing it to bits and even then we both still shudder as I try to seep it outside.
Then the kids are in and it's Supper time with a vengeance, toast and home made mayo, ham and tomato sandwiches and water from the water cooler. Crux eats whatever we hand him and Kyan tries nibbling an apple with his new front teeth. He is determined as he watches Tiana bite into hers with confidence and relish. I can't believe how many kids there are and they are mostly all mine and how they are all so different.
My actual kid is 41 and skinny as a whippet and its so hard to believe she has given birth to 7 kids from that tiny body and breast fed them ! She is laughing about something with Tiana and I can't believe Tiana is 12. I remember her tiny and walking under tables at 9 months. She is still like that, independent, smart, a tomboy, like me.
Although tonight in defiance of tomboyishness I am wearing a long pretty dress with my hair tied up. I have been the tomboy Nanny all day racing around in thongs and bathers and shorts, jumping in the shower to cool off every few hours, wetting my hair and head and at one stage I touch it under the water and my hair feels hot.
We are still in danger from the bushfires, Australia that is not us specifically. The news is grim from Tassie and I can't imagine what it is like for people that have lost everything to fire.
I look around me and wonder as to what I would grab if it happened to us. Just the kids, I guess, the dog and cat and I can bet the cat would be hiding somewhere and we would have to spend precious minutes looking for it. But we could not leave without it.
So we end another day in the Lucky Land with its terror and its beauty and I look at the clock and it's almost midnight.
Love Janette
My Mum always said that,
"Kids, I should have had a Dozen."
She eventually had 7 of us little buggers and we are not so little now.
Mum liked kids, she liked teaching them, had them easily and found us her main wonder and delight.
She had my younger Sister Helen when she was 43, didn't tell us older kids she was pregnant until 6 weeks before she had her. We were thick as bricks as we had no idea. I was 14 and thought she was just getting a bit fat. Shows how self absorbed I was.
She went off to Hospital one day and gave birth, a healthy 8 and a half pound baby girl. She chain smoked the entire pregnancy of course.
My Auntie Pat was pregnant at the same time and had a baby boy within weeks of my Mum. Auntie Pat who was 40 and hadn't had a baby since Keith who was a teenager thought she was going through the change of life.
I had 4 girls, my daughter has seven boys and we share a property. Not a house, I hasten to add as I would have killed her and them if I had to do that. I have my dwelling, she has hers and we share care of the kids. My Grandkids.
Yesterday was as hot as hell and there could have been disaster all around but we are so used to them, there wasn't. We had three "extras" , as kids, bring kids. Tiana my grand daughter was here, Georgia from up the road and Jai's friend Tyler.
There were wading pools and hoses going and kids chattering and leaping, jumping on the trampoline. Little kids never seem to tire out on hot days, unlike the adults and they were all still moving en masse while Yvette and I escaped to my unit to watch Jaws.
Tiana said when she came in for an apple, with the little boys following,
"They just love their Nanny"
And its true. Cruz at 2 welds himself to my side and cracks it if I don't go through every routine with him. Jealousy is rife with him and Acer as I cut up a Granny Smith apple for Cruz and send him on his way and Acer returns apple hungry all of a sudden, then Kyan, then Tiana again and I have to go to Coles for more. In the end I have to cut a Red delicious in half for the two youngest and Acer, 4 cracks a wobbly as he wants a whole one and Cruz doesn't care.
All day long the have played in the heat, hopping in and out of the blow up pool, grabbing the hose and running with it. Only when the digitally remastered Jaws comes on do they settle at last. I said to Yvette isn't a bit scary for the little boys and she said no, they were the first to line up to watch it. The night before she took them all to see Wreck It Ralph and Life Of Pi. I told her not to tell me anything about Life Of Pi as I want to see it with Kyan.
So Tiana comes in and proceeds to start telling me and I halt her too. I just ask if anything happend to the tiger and she doesn't answer. But she said the shipwreck part is unbelievable and the movie is great. Its so funny all day as Tiana and Little Georgia up the street haven't bathers and I have a bag full. Suddenly Tiana aged 12 and Georgia aged 9 are vamps and I tell them only to stay in the backyard.
All day it is a moveable feast of wet kids and devon with tomato sauce sandwiches. Apples, bananas, nectarines, fruit cake and cookies. Kids are always hungry and Yvette and I are run off our feet. We get a break at 10 at night and sit out for a while under the stars in the cooler air. We chat and I hang out washing as tomorrow promises to be just as hot. The breezes have blown in and its cooler outside than in.
As soon as we go inside for a cuppa, Yvette spies a cocky on the mat and we both spend an hilarious ten minutes trying to kill the bloody thing. I am horrified that ts a cocky and say it can't be. I dont have cock roaches in my place. I keep telling her it has to be a cricket but no, its a cocky and those little buggers take some killing. We spray it with fly spray and we end up mashing it to bits and even then we both still shudder as I try to seep it outside.
Then the kids are in and it's Supper time with a vengeance, toast and home made mayo, ham and tomato sandwiches and water from the water cooler. Crux eats whatever we hand him and Kyan tries nibbling an apple with his new front teeth. He is determined as he watches Tiana bite into hers with confidence and relish. I can't believe how many kids there are and they are mostly all mine and how they are all so different.
My actual kid is 41 and skinny as a whippet and its so hard to believe she has given birth to 7 kids from that tiny body and breast fed them ! She is laughing about something with Tiana and I can't believe Tiana is 12. I remember her tiny and walking under tables at 9 months. She is still like that, independent, smart, a tomboy, like me.
Although tonight in defiance of tomboyishness I am wearing a long pretty dress with my hair tied up. I have been the tomboy Nanny all day racing around in thongs and bathers and shorts, jumping in the shower to cool off every few hours, wetting my hair and head and at one stage I touch it under the water and my hair feels hot.
We are still in danger from the bushfires, Australia that is not us specifically. The news is grim from Tassie and I can't imagine what it is like for people that have lost everything to fire.
I look around me and wonder as to what I would grab if it happened to us. Just the kids, I guess, the dog and cat and I can bet the cat would be hiding somewhere and we would have to spend precious minutes looking for it. But we could not leave without it.
So we end another day in the Lucky Land with its terror and its beauty and I look at the clock and it's almost midnight.
Love Janette
