Christmas Vomit

Did you read this morning's post?

I thought I would update you.

Here we present to you...

... Christmas Vomit.


Does it look familiar in your house?  Do you sympathise?  Do your children like to help?

Please reassure me (and other parents who aren't brave enough to admit it) and send in your own Christmas Vomit photographs.  I will then share them with everyone right here on the blog.  The winning Christmas Vomit photo will win a copy of our book.  How is that for a deal?

Send your pictures to me at family@largerfamilylife.com with "Christmas Vomit" in the subject line.  You can also share them on our Facebook page, oh and do spread the word. I'm sure we aren't the only family with such great decorating helpers *cough*.

Pukes away! 


 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on !

It is time

There comes a time in every parents life when you have to deal with the things you can no longer put off.

The time I speak of comes every, single year.

It's the time to put up the Christmas decorations.

Which isn't a bad thing in itself, I admit.  I enjoy the fun of getting into the Christmas spirit.

But the kids love to "help".

"Help".

I use the term loosely.

Because their definition of "helping" is taking every decoration out of the box at once, running through the house after decorating themselves in tinsel and placing every, last bauble within the same, easily reached, 30cm area of the tree.

As we have two baby cribs set up in our living room we have no space for the Christmas tree to reside this year, so we've decided to turn the playroom into the "Christmas Room".

Neither Mike nor I have a particular knack for arranging decorations in a pretty display, so between our lack of decorative flair and the children's insistence on the aforementioned "helping", the playroom will likely resemble a vomit-like explosion at a Christmas decorations factory.

Nice image, isn't it?

Personally, I have half a mind to let Mike and the kids get on with it while I curl up with the twins and watch "The Nativity Story" - my absolute favourite thing to watch at this time of year.

But you know, I'm thinking about it and realising that it's the times like this that I'm going to look back on with such fondness.  These are the days I'm going to miss when my children are too grown up to "help" in their special, excitable way.  So these are the days I should treasure spending with them, and enjoy making these memories for all of us.

And I will.

As I'm sure you will.

But to all of us parents about to embark on this fun, memory-making part of parenthood I want to say a hearty....

"Good luck!"

I think we're going to need it.


 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!

Why we've been wrong to celebrate our twins' arrival

Anna and Elizabeth - 5 days old

The last eight days have had us joyfully celebrating the safe and happy arrival of our baby girls.  We've been on cloud nine, enjoying cuddling them, caring for them, and cherishing them.  We've spent hours marvelling at how tiny yet perfectly formed they are.  Every detail has been taken in, from their tiny fingers and toes to their scrunching of noses when they yawn. The sounds they make and the faces they pull, nothing has been missed and has been closely watched and drunk in by us.  We've spent the last eight days savouring every second of this part of parenting where we are getting to know these two new, precious additions to our family.

We've been overwhelmed and overjoyed.  We've been congratulated and sent cards and gifts and good wishes, yet it came to my attention that we've got it all wrong.

I came across a headline yesterday about how mothers of twins live longer and are stronger according to a study of 59,000 women.  I first read it and thought, "Well, good news for me!".  I then went back and re-read the headline.

"Twice the burden, but mothers of twins live longer and are stronger"

And then I felt annoyed.

Twice the burden? 

Why not something like, "Double the fun" or "Twice as nice"?

Why is it ok to refer to the safe arrival of a new child into the family as a negative thing?  Not only is it ok to refer to a child as a burden, but acceptable to do so?  How many people would have touched on that headline as being offensive or inappropriate?  How many people reading this post would consider me over-sensitive to it and over-reactive?  They're only words, after all.

The problem is that they aren't "only words".  This seems to be the norm nowadays of how children are viewed.  The dictionary definition of the word "burden" is something that is carried (load) or something oppressive or worrisome.   "Burden" is also defined as a dead weight, an imposition, a headache, a concern and a millstone.

Would you console a grieving parent that they are now free of the burden of the child they no longer have?  Or would you pat a couple on the back who have been trying desperately to for years to start the family they so long for and tell them not to worry, at least they won't have such a great millstone around their necks?  Would you read my last two posts and then send me a "With Deepest Sympathy" card and tell me how sorry you are that I am now subjected to a life of affliction?

We don't have a right to have children.  We don't have a right to take them or the ability to have them as an entitlement.  This was all given as a gift to us which we have over time taken for granted.  Then we began to see them as an inconvenience, fitting one or two in if we decide to because, after all, there is so much more out there we could be spending our time and money on, and this slope has now led us to resent the very things we should be appreciating and be grateful of.

The Evening Standard's article isn't the exception by any means.  This is one example of many out there and sadly I feel it is only going to get worse.  The effect of which is that people read headlines like this and don't even question them, which means that it's normal, it's accepted and it's now the view of the majority of society.

So while I go and hold my beautiful newborn daughters and drink in their new baby smell and watch them as they sleep, I will be thinking of all the other crosses in life I could be bearing, and if this is the burden God chose for me to bear then I'll take it gladly and count myself very, very lucky.


 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!

How waiting for new babies affects young children

Every couple of months or so the boys go to the barber for their hair cut.  Now is about the right time for them to be going.  Their fringes should be somewhere down by their eyebrows by now.

Sid's fringe isn't...

Or at least, half of Sid's fringe isn't.

Apparently, his hair "came loose".

A third of the way down.

It just "came loose and fell out".

It must be the stress of waiting for a couple of new siblings.  Because you can see the stress on his face, can't you?

I don't suppose it has anything to do with his own actions.

With scissors.

Does it?

And apparently this "loose hair" phenomenon seems to be quite common amongst young children, or so I've heard.

Has your child suffered?

Please do share, either in the comments below or linking to a post on your own blog*.  Photos are optional**.

* Stories will be dealt with sympathetically.
** Or maybe not.



 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!

The writing is on the wall

Or rather, it's on the kitchen table.

Sid didn't do it.


 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!

Family reunions and photoshoots

On Saturday I wrote a post about how I was looking forward to having the oldest two over for the day. We have seen them when we've travelled over to visit them but to have them both back here was a long awaited event that we've waited too long to achieve.  I was excited about having all my children here, in the family home, together.

It was an opportunity for lots of photos to be taken.  One lot were taken by a professional who was over to do a magazine photoshoot for a magazine feature we're going to be in.  Another lot were a far less professional set taken by me.

We began with the professional shoot and by the time we were done a few hours later the younger boys (and Stephanie) were full of energy that needed to burn off fast.  We dealt with them in order of necessity and the most hyper child (Stephanie) got to have a "Just Dance" competition on the Wii with her younger yet taller sister.

The boys were rather more reserved and quiet than Stephanie.  I couldn't resist this picture of my oldest and youngest (for now) babies.  It seems like yesterday that Ben, the oldest, was the size of Joseph.

And a long awaited family photo of all the children together.  You have no idea how I feel to finally have this picture.  I can't stop looking at it.  It melts my heart...

I do have to confess though, that this last picture isn't all it seems.  Come back tomorrow for the full story on it!


 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!

A message from the heart

I am now at the stage where I have children covering a range of ages from 9 months all the way up to 18 years. How is it possible that someone who only looks to be 25 can have an eighteen year old, I hear you ask?! Oh stop! You're embarrassing me!

When Ben was around five years old I had my first taste of rejection. We were walking down the street and I reached my hands out to him and Stephanie.  She took my hand in her pudgy little one straight away.  Ben looked up to me and said firmly, "I'm too big to hold your hand".


I was stunned.  And upset.

My firstborn and at the time only son didn't want to hold mummy's hand any more.  That was the day the hugs and kisses stopped too because, in his eyes, he was too big.  The toddler smooches and climbing into my lap were no more. He was trying to be independent and grown up and that meant soppyness and affection of any type was out.

Perhaps because it was the first time I'd experienced that it is something that has always stuck in my mind.  I now have another six boys and two more have now reached that stage of life with Sid quickly approaching it.

It's the stage where hugs have given way to reluctantly moving a shoulder toward me while feet remain firmly as far away as possible... if I'm lucky.  I no longer receive kisses although, at times I may be allowed to plant one on the top of their heads or on their cheeks - if I move fast enough and can catch them before they move away.  If I do achieve it the offending pucker is quickly wiped off.  Unless it's Sid who, aware that I may get upset and not wanting to offend tries to assure me that he's "just rubbing it in".  And if I ever say those cringeworthy words, "I love you" they are met with a roll of the eyes and an awkward, embarrased, gap toothed grin and a quick getaway lest I try showing any other of the previous mentioned forms of affection.

I resign myself to the fact that this is life and the middle boys are going to assert their independence in this way.  In the meantime I reassure myself that Paddy has not quite yet reached that point yet and is still quite willing to climb up for a hug or a kiss, or that Oliver, almost two years younger than him, is happily at the "I yuy you ho much, mummy" stage, or that I have all the smooches and hugs yet to come with Joseph before he considers himself too big.

So it is always a welcome and heart-melting moment when I see things like this sneaked onto my desk....

"I love you mum + dad"

The one to leave the message is always sure not to blow his cover, deftly sliding it onto the edge of the desktop while I'm not looking.  And of course my range of sight is bound to be severely limited and I won't have noticed, nor have I seen him making a quick exit from the room. And it's not mentioned who the note is from but it takes pride of place on the noticeboard where I am reassured that no matter how big he considers himself, how many times my kisses are wiped off and my hugs are pushed away, he still feels the need to tell me he loves me in a subtle, quiet way.  

Thank you, Eddie.  I love you too.

 Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!

It's the (kid) law

1. Kids will not want to play with something until somebody else wants to play with it. Once it is is someone elses possession it is important that they have it and have it right now.

2. Kids can argue over anything. There is no limit to this talent. An elastic band, a fluffball on the carpet or a frozen pea which has freed itself from the freezer and tried hiding under the fridge. Nothing is exempt. (Please note: I do not have stray elastic bands, or fluffballs or stray bits of food on my floors. Sometimes).

3. Kids will not want to converse with you until the telephone rings.  The moment you need to speak with someone else they need to talk to you about something very important. Right now.

4. Kids will not need you for anything until you need to use the bathroom.  As if yelling from the other side of the closed door isn't enough to alert you to the impending alien invasion/nuclear war/travesty at "x" breathing their air or other such emergency, they'll further alert you to the seriousness of the situation by sticking their fingers under the door.

5. Kids have a fashion code all of their own. So what if you don't think a fishing hat and ski pants match? If that ensemble were on the Milan catwalk it would be a hit and selling for thousands. Ask fashion designers how many of them were inspired by holding a workshop where preschoolers were invited to choose their own outfits? My guess, after seeing their creations, is "most of them".

6. Never start a sentence with "How many times do I have to tell you...?".  Kids have no limits.

7. Kids will always tell you they want to be creative... after you've done the tidying and hoovered. It's the law that no room can stay tidy for more then five minutes otherwise it will explode. This is why the scissors, drawing stuff and toys all come out as soon as you've packed away the duster.  Do you notice daily news reports of houses where children reside blowing up after a spring clean? No? That's because kids know it's dangerous and it's the law for them to make sure we are all safe. Now you know.

8. Kids will always come down with a bug or catch a cold a day or two before a holiday or other important event.

9. Buy your child the correct sized clothes and they'll outgrow them in a matter of weeks. Buy them something to grow into and they'll be walking around looking like urchins for months.

10. Kids always look more adorable when they're asleep. That's to make you forget all the tough parts you faced with them today, and look forward to the good bits coming tomorrow.




  Tweet

Subscribe to Larger Family Life and get the latest news directly in your inbox or reader.  You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter too!

Larger Family Life is also available on Kindle!