OK, so I didn't get a picture of Sparky on his first day but to be honest his uniform hasn't changed a lot. I'll try to remember next week. But I did get Her Majesty:
Her stuffed dog only made it as far as the car - it didn't go to school. And that mark on her forehead is her Australian flag tattoo from Australia Day the day before. No, I don't know why she insisted we put it on her forehead but I didn't have the heart to take it off.
I must admit I didn't get any pictures of Sparky on his first day at Senior School. I had to fight with Clive again to get him dressed and so was running late. I will try to remember for tomorrow.
However he did seem to like his first day back. He was so wrapped up in telling me how he changed his mind about meeting me at work and instead hang with his mates before catching the bus and walking home I had to ask him 3 times how his first day was.
"Oh yeah... it was cool. It was good." Then he told me he was a chairboy.
Huh? What the hell is a chairboy? I thought maybe it was like "chairman" and he was in charge of a group or something. Uh, no... turns out a chairboy is someone who sets up the hall for assemblies. Arranges the chairs...
Right.
He seemed quite happy with this development, and who am I to question my son's happiness? So I went with it. I needed some good news what with my own day circling the Great Toilet Drain of Life. One patient having a reaction to treatment is bad enough, but two on the same day? And one 10 minutes before I was due to walk out the door? Unfair!
But back to Sparky... He seems happy so far, but I suppose he'll need another week to have all of his classes and know for certain. Or the wind will change and he'll be all sulky; he is a teenage boy after all.
I will post pictures for Photo Friday, or may the Flying Spaghetti Monster reach down with his Noodley Appendage and punish me.
You may remember this post back in August where I talked about how the Bastard, my ex-husband, was bombarding me with friend requests on Facebook. After I let that last request linger in my requests box for ages, I finally clicked the ignore button. Shortly after that I ceased seeing him on Facebook. Not only did he stop attempting to add me as a friend but anything he posted on Miss Thing's wall vanished as well. Took me a little bit to realize that he had blocked me, because... well I don't know why. My repeated rejections angered him and he thought he'd show me by blocking me? Um, yeah...
Then in October I received a message via Facebook from his current wife. Along with accusing me of saying unkind things to the kids about the Bastard (and for the record "the Bastard" is his blog name, not how I refer to him to Miss Thing and Sparky) to the children, of not being understanding enough of his problems, of all kinds of hatred towards him, of coming between her and Miss Thing and probably of causing the GFC was the accusation of pettiness because I denied the "olive branch" the Bastard threw to me on Facebook when he tried to befriend me, hoping we could get along for the children's sake.
Honestly, you can't make this shit up.
I'm pretty proud of the fact that I didn't go apeshit over all the crap being slung in my direction. I stayed very calm and rational when I told her exactly what I told the kids about their father, that my understanding had its limits, that I no longer hated him, that I never came between any relationship that existed between her and Miss Thing and that I did indeed cause the GFC. Ok, I made that last one up. But here's what I said in relation to the "olive branch" repeatedly tossed my way:
I determined it was, indeed, him, that his picture looked like that of a serial killer and that he again sent no request to Sparky. Let's send one to the ex-wife who has rejected him 5 times but not to the son for whose sake we're trying to "get along". I ignored it... then got another one yesterday.Dear Moreton Bay Regional Shire Council,
Before you put up electronic signs advertising road works, you may want to check a calendar first:
SIGNAGE FAIL!!Since I am trapped sitting in my rumpus room with one of my children, I thought now would be a good time to get back on the blog and give you an update on all of my offspring and The Hermit.
Her Majesty: She's the reason I am not allowed to leave aforementioned room. She woke at 5:30 this morning in tears because she missed me, along with a fever and headache. I'm going with the "it's a virus" thing, because so many of these childhood illnesses are just that, so no need to worry. I cancelled my scheduled pedicure, which was a sure sign she really was sick as the spa I now go to is located in one of those indoor kids entertainment playgrounds which Her Majesty just loves, and aside from a quick trip to the optometrist I've been by her side all day. She's not very good at being sick.
But recent illness aside she's doing very well indeed. She finished her first year of full time school in December - called Prep here in Queensland - and is looking forward to going into Year 1 in a couple of weeks. She had been after me for months about football sign ons - next month - and will play another year in the Under 7s. She is still swimming twice a week and has been moved up to Killer Sharks, which is an hour long lesson. She has risen to that challenge, not being intimidated by the length of time or the doubling of the class size or the sheer size of the kids she swims with as most of them are a fair bit older than she is. This is a good thing as she's still on the small side - 110 centimetres or 3'7", which is the 5th percentile for her age. Her energy, however, is boundless.
We're currently reading the 3rd Harry Potter book, her favourite toys are her Littlest Pet Shop pets and the Wii the kids got for Christmas. She particularly likes the balance games on the Wii Fit Plus.
Miss Thing: Unfortunately Miss Thing is not really changed since she moved back home in September. I say unfortunately because we keep waiting, and poking, and prodding, and hinting, and discussing, and waiting for Miss Thing to make some decisions about the direction she'd like to take. Aside from not liking her job - teaching at the same swim school where Her Majesty and Clive swim - and complaining to everyone and anyone who will listen about how much she does not like her job she hasn't done much to get another job. She's talked about doing up her resume, we've mentioned job hunting sites, discussed further education and given her much encouragement but we're still where we were at in October when she came back from her visit Stateside. I think reality has hit home for my eldest but she's in a bit of denial. Not just a river in Egypt, you know! But because I find the whole situation very frustrating I'm going to leave it at that, m'kay?
She's planning on playing netball again this year after a year off, which is always good to see. She had gotten herself into a drama filled relationship with an ex-boyfriend but thankfully she has moved on with a boy I have dubbed Cheese Boy. Don't ask - if he sticks around for any length of time I'll explain. She's very much into the whole Twilight thing, which I totally don't get but if it gets her reading I'll keep my mouth shut. Still no license but given she gave up saving money for a car nearly a year ago... Another subject I'm not going to go near.
Do you get the feeling Miss Thing is stressing me out a bit?
Sparky: If Her Majesty is a peanut, then Sparky is... well the opposite. Growing like a weed, he's easily the tallest and not quite 15 yet. He starts senior school at his high school in a couple of weeks when he starts Year 10. It will be a change for him as he will find his classwork and homework increases in preparation for the all-important Years 11 & 12. We keep reminding him of the coming changes and what Miss Thing went through, but aren't certain if we've made our point.
He spent a week out in Toowoomba right before Christmas at the Queensland Rugby League junior footy camp and had a great time. His Wests coach was there as well, and happened to be his coach at camp, and tells me Sparky was rated #1 for agility at the whole camp. I was impressed with that, as well as disgusted by the huge gouge in his side that he brought home as a souvenir of the hard-as-cement ground at the University of Southern Queensland. He didn't seem to mind, though. Prior to the Christmas break, he was going to the gym with his coach to do some weight training with some of the other boys, as well as some kickboxing stuff that I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce. The boy is super-fit. And of course he still loves his X-Box, and enjoys the Wii as well.
He still gives us fits with his inability to remember to do simple household chores like cleaning the pool or taking out the trash, but I haven't given up hope of him remembering one of these days!
Clive: Last but not least, we have Clive. Clive turned 3 just a few weeks before Christmas and is still as full-on as ever. From the second he wakes up until he finally falls asleep he keeps us busy. Clive's biggest issue is his speech - it's lousy. We only understand 50-70% of what he says, and that's only because we know him so well. Someone who doesn't know him as well can only understand 10-20%, maybe. He knows exactly what he's trying to say, and if you tell him you don't understand and ask him to show you he does just that. He knows his numbers and letters, but they just can't make it from his brain to his mouth in any coherent form. Fortunately he has an appointment with a speech pathologist this weekend, so I'll keep you posted.
Otherwise he's a typical if incredibly stubborn 3 year old. Heaven help us if we do something for him that he didn't want us to. Toilet training was surprisingly easy, with him being fully trained well before he was 3. He's even dry 99% of the time at night, but he still insists on wearing a nappy. And he won't poop on the toilet, but we're working on it. He's very mechanically inclined, and loves to start up The Hermit's motorcycle and rev the throttle. It's actually very scary he knows exactly how to do it.
Oh, and he's a nudist. Loves to be butt nekkid.
He does like his bedtime Bob the Builder or Green Eggs and Ham bedtime stories. We can occasionally read something different, but it never lasts. He's also a huge Spongebob Squarepants fan. I can't fault him for that. We'll see how he handles the upcoming footy season and if he shows any interest like Her Majesty and Sparky... although with my luck he'll love cricket. And like his siblings, likes the Wii. He's pretty good at most games, too.
The Hermit: I wish I could say he's enjoying his new motorcycle but it kept stalling and it seemed it was in the shop more than he was riding it. It's fixed now, and it's very pretty and sleek but I don't think he's getting the full enjoyment out of it yet. He has cut back on his work hours a fair bit, by which I mean insane hours to normal ones. He often beats me home from work, or isn't too far behind. And anybody who's his Facebook friend will have noticed he's a super Farmville farmer.
So there's your update on the family. Unfortunately in the time I've written this Her Majesty is about the same, so it looks like one of us will need to stay home tomorrow with her. Hope you enjoyed the update.
The other night over dinner I mentioned I wouldn't mind seeing the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey, Jr. The Hermit thought that sounded like a good idea and declared we should go see it for our anniversary. Never mind that our anniversary was back in August - we've been busy, okay? Actually we only semi-seriously latched onto an excuse to go out and made plans to see the late showing last night. On the ride over we realized that we really couldn't remember when we'd gone out on a movie date, only that it had been many many years.
In a feat of total amazement, I managed to stay awake to ring in the new year. I'll get to some resolutions later - I have a 3 day weekend and (hopefully) some time to catch up - but for now why don't you enjoy the spectacular fireworks display from Sydney Harbour. Now I admit to being underwhelmed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge when I first saw it in 2003, but I was very impressed by the fireworks last night:
