2. I have fifteen lime green leotards and 15 antennae head bands in the back of my car. Please don’t let me loose/break/forget any of them in the next four weeks.

3. I wonder if we can get away with two school dresses each? Plus a polo shirt and jacket, and maybe a pair of shorts, each? And a school bag, each…. And what shoes do kids wear to school these days?

4. The girls are planning to make it rich with their twin guinea pig circus show. I wish them luck… the guinea pigs that is.

5. A trip to Ikea is always good.

6. I am planning to make 40 odd sprinkle covered cupcakes on Wednesday, in between kinder and school and life. it sounds crazy, but it is so much better than birthday plans we’ve had any other year!

7. I should be chugging through the mountains of laundry in this good drying weather… but I’m not.

8. Is it better to have an even number of list items, or an odd one?

Last night we bought home two little girl guinea pigs…

This is Fawn – Izzy’s Guinea pig who chirps a lot and loves to run up unattended pant legs.

This is Rani (bonus points if you can pick the naming theme!) – Zoe’s guinea pig who is quiet and placid and likes carrot.

For now they are shacked up in the bunny cage we borrowed to put the ducks in when they were little (you don’t need that back now do you Shae!?!? LOL) and getting heaps and heaps of love and attention. This is something the girls have been planning for and dreaming of for more than two years… so they are in heaven. Lets hope Rani and Fawn enjoy it just as much!

Some weeks life is just a blur….

That was then….

When I thought two six month olds were hard to handle.

When we lived in the city, so close to our neighbours you could hear them fart in the shower.

When my parents still lived in the UK.

When my house was still quiet on the odd occasion, and clean every now and then.

When unlimited megabytes downloaded quickly and easily to our home.

When my best friend lived down the road rather than interstate.

When I hadn’t meet half the people I now claim as friends.

When we still trekked into the hospital with the girls every month.

When we still worried about how little they weighed and how much they spewed.

When I realised that breastfeeding was one of the hardest things I’d ever do.

When I had no idea what a DSLR was and still thought I took pretty good photos with my nikon coolpix point and shoot!

When me and photoshop were only beginning to get acquainted.

That was about five and a half years ago… man how things have changed.

We have birthdays (next week!…. how is it only 12 sleeps away already?) and ballet rehearsals and school visits and family stuff and concerts. Plus Christmas!

Ah Christmas.

I’m going to stop fooling myself now, I’m not going to be organised in advance this year, in fact I am not going to be organised at all. I’m giving up on the organised thing. I’m aiming for just keeping it together as much as possible and embracing the chaos when it rains down on me.

Chaos can be fun right?

If you are living under a rock like me you might not be exactly certain of what that term even means….

Kate: I initially thought the term ‘helicopter parenting’ just meant over-protective in a hovering sort of way. It also seems to take into account parents who try to ‘hot house’ their children – use flash cards with babies, schedule a million extra activities for preschoolers, etc. So I think it covers a lot of ground and like everything to do with parenting there is no clear cut right and wrong on this.

Cath: I always think of helicopter parents as those who haven’t backed off enough for the stage of independence their child is at.

So is being a ‘Helicopter parent’ necessarily a bad thing? I’m in two minds about that…

Cath: I think that to some degree we are required to be helicopter parents initially when our little ones are little. As they grow, we should back off little by little.

Kate: I think young children (under 7 year olds) are still learning how the social world works and how to behave socially and they need caring adults to be there to help guide them.

Sure there is the extremes of the parent who never lets deal with any social problems on their own, who freaks out when their child is pushed or not treated ‘fairly’. There is always the over the top… but socially and emotionally our children need support well into the primary school years. The trick is finding the right balance between support and independence at the right time.

Christie: I remember repeatedly telling parents in my child care centre that 4 and 5 year olds can (and should) carry their own backpacks. It is about finding achievable tasks and consistently expecting children to be responsible for them.

Kate: I think it is about knowing your child, knowing what is appropriate for them and allowing them to be individuals.

Then there is the other side of Helicopter parenting… allowing our children to take risks.

Christie: … I cannot understand how we are so adverse to letting our children do what we did as children? I walked to school, I climbed (and fell out of) trees, I rode my bike in the street.

Kate: I am a worrier so I am prone to over thinking the risks but I try really hard to realise that and step back from it. I often say, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?

Our society sometimes seems so scared of everything. So worried about the ‘what ifs’ and all the horrible statistics…

Christie: It is important to realise that children cannot learn to recognise risky and unsafe situations without some experience of ‘danger.’

Christie: And ‘danger signs’ of butterflies in the stomach and a beating heart are important for children to learn as they apply to so many situations.

This is such an important thing for a parent to understand… not allowing our children to take risks doesn’t always make them safer because to means they are not as well equipped to make good informed decisions dangerous situations. I read a fabulous blog about this subject – Free Range Kids, you should check it out.

It was so great to chat with Christie and Cath. The discussion has really got me thinking about what I do and why. Do I hover? Maybe. I am definitely a worrier but I think (hope) I have that worry under control and that I let my kids really experience life, even the risky bits!

You can view the complete transcript of our chat over at SquiggleMum and/or Childhood101 and don’t forget to check out all the interesting comments there too.

Dash is almost certainly a boy chook. Look at those leg and a crest already! He’s destined to be our first home grown dinner, if we don’t loose our nerve!

I play Wordless Wednesday at Five Minutes for Mom. Find more wordless wednesday at Technorati.

Numbers are big in our house at the moment. The girls are trying to wrap their heads around the whole ‘add and take away’ thing and Muski is busy trying to convince us all that you count “1,2,5,6,11″.

Everyone likes counting songs, and here are a few of our favourites.

Four Golden Autumn Leaves

Four golden autumn leaves
high up in the tree.
(hold four fingers up hight for the leaves)
The wind blows…
(blow)
The leaves shake…
(shake your fingers)
And one falls down to me.
(gentle fall your hand down like a leaf)
Falling falling falling down,
falling, falling, falling to the ground.

Three golden autumn leaves…

Five Fat Sausages

Five fat sausages
Sizzling in a pan
(hold out your five fingers as the sausages)
sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle
(rub hands together)
one went BANG!
(clap hands for the bang)

Four fat sausages….etc

Three Jelly Fish

Three jelly fish
Three jelly fish
Three Jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

One jumped off!
Weeeeee splash!

Two jelly fish
Two jelly fish
Two jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

One jumped off!
Weeeeeee splash!

One jelly fish
One jelly fish
One jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

One jumped off!
Weeeeeee splash!

No jelly fish
No jelly fish
No jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

One climbed up!
uh ah uh… hooray!

One jelly fish
One jelly fish
One jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

One climbed up!
uh ah uh… hooray!

Two jelly fish
Two jelly fish
Two jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

One climbed up!
uh ah uh… hooray!

Three jelly fish
Three jelly fish
Three jelly fiiiish sitting on a rock.

Five Current Buns.

Five current buns in a baker’s shop.
(hold up five fingers)
Round and fat, with a cherry on the top.
(make a fist for the bun and pop a pretend cherry on the top)
Along came a girl/boy with a dollar one day,
(Hold up five fingers for the buns and using the name of your child and ask them to come and choose one)
Bought a current bun and took it away.
(put down on finger)

How many is left?
(count and start again)

There are so many more great number songs we know, but perhaps you can teach us a new one??

(the counting frame Izzy is using in the photo came from ecotoys.com.au)

There is so much in my head.

So many ‘what ifs’ and ‘I wonders’ and ‘will it all work out in the ends’.

So much to do and how to fit it all in and which things to say yes to and which things to say no to. And what if I pick the wrong thing, make the wrong choice? What if I just wait and see?

Does any of it really matter?

Which things are really important and how to do I weed them out from among all the other clutter? Which things are frivolous and fun and meant to be enjoyed and which are serious and need real concentration and thought? Which words are said in passing and mean nothing and which ones call for attention and remembering?

And what will we have for dinner? And should the sick girl go to ballet? And should I hang the washing outside or in? And is Izzy really going to clean up her mess like she promises? And is the Small Boy happily engaged in something positive or doing something quietly terrible?

And when can I go back to bed and try again tomorrow?