Healthy Kids

It may sound cliche, but on the eve of my 39th birthday I am allowed to be a little sentimental.

I am so happy with my little family.

20 years ago I was never going to have children or get married.

3 1/2 months later I realised I was never going to be able to live without the guy I had just met.

4 years later I got married.

5 years after that I had my first baby.

At 28, I was 10 days away from my first child. All I hoped for was a child that wasn't shy or lazy . 2 things that I felt had more to do with my parenting than with any inherited genes.

I am happy to say I have 3 kids - and all of them are anything but shy or lazy.

On the exercise front the kids do a lot of activity during the week. The 6 year old does 2 hours swimming, 2 -3 hours football, 1 hour gymnastics and 2 hours PE classes. The 8 year old does 5-10 hours of playground football (soccer), 3 hours of structured football, 1 hour of rugby, 2 hours of PE and 2 hours of (reluctantly) swimming. C girl does 4.5 hours of swimming (about to up to 6), 3- 5 hours of football, 1 hour of T ball and 2 hours of PE (this is the off season for training).

On the food front we are really strict about junk food. Very lucky C girl hates all lollies/candy - always has. But no sweet things are in their lunch boxes. After school, 2 pieces home made brownies, or 2 homemade biscuits. Nothing purchased, never any more than 2. Desert is yoghurt every 2nd night, ice cream cone every other night. All lollies bought home from party are gone when walk in door, on the way home eat to your hearts content, then you never see it again (the staff take it home). It probably sounds over the top - but really we are just trying to save their teeth.

Shy - well, not sure what we have done on this front, but both J and I aren't shy. I can't stand people not getting what they want (or being ripped off etc) because they won't speak up. This may backfire - C girl is sure I am going to get beaten up when I get out of the car to stop cars from pushing in front of us (dont' worry, the driver is driving, kids aren't in car alone). But I've got to tell you - I don't suffer the fustration of waiting for too long for someone to let us cross (or to stop them from driving on the wrong side of the road because they want to make a 4 lane, one way road out of a 2 way, 2 lane road. (It's actually exhiliarating). Don't worry, this is when traffic is gridlocked - there is no car going above 10kmph.

But again I digress. Tomorrow the big B day. J away until Tuesday. But I am actually happier today than I have ever been in my life.

The main reason though - the kids are doing brilliantly, school wise, growing up wise, confidence wise, sports wise and well - just being really great kids - I would actually want to know them even if I wasn't related to them. I love our holidays, I love our family weekends, I love our movie nights and when we all have to pull together to finish assignments (I'm great at colouring in).

I should also point out - I am also VERY happy with my marriage and am very grateful that J is working very hard to provide this life that we are enjoying so much.