20/52

'A photo of my children once a week, every week in 2013'

Piper :: Well, it's definitely Autumn here now! She just loves playing in the leaves. These days I'm always finding leaves in the house, hidden in baskets & bags ready for an art project that she thinks up.

Lily :: I was in the kitchen when I could hear the hair dryer on so of course I grabbed my camera on the way to investigate & I found this giggling Gertie in there! 

Heath :: He loves our cats, Shcherbatsky & Atticus. They love that there is glass between him & them. He grabbed his first handful of fur the other week & the boys were not too impressed!

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Learning That Size Doesn't Matter

Last week I had a conversation with Piper that I didn't think we were going to have for a while yet. Sitting next to her in her bed after finishing off a bedtime story Piper grabbed onto her thigh & said, 'I hate these. They are just fat & gross.' I felt sick. The first thing that popped into my head was, 'I used to say that all the time'. But that was before I had kids. After I had kids I began to love my body a lot more.  After kids I started seeing my body differently - not for what it looked like but for what it can do. It was a friggin' genius piece of work this body of mine! It grew & fed my kids, I don't think it could get more awesome than that.



As Piper looked up at me with a handful of thigh my brain kind of froze for what felt like hours but was only really seconds. My mouth felt like I had a balled up sock in it, I couldn't say anything, but I knew I had to & I knew that I had to be careful of what I said because what I said now would shape what Piper thought about her body & body image for ever. This was heavy stuff.



I looked at Piper & said to her, 'Pip, there is no part of your body that is fat. Your body is beautiful. It is strong & powerful. If those legs were fat & gross, tell me, how is it that you can run & run for hours. And you are so fast. Fat legs would not be as fast as yours.' She looked at me & said, 'I guess. I am pretty fast.' Then I asked, 'who told you that your legs were fat? Was it someone at school?' the answer was 'no' although I suspect that the girls may have been comparing themselves to each other that day. Piper has two lovely girlfriends that she loves dearly & yes, they are thinner than her, & I worried that perhaps she was measuring herself against them. 



I could see that I hadn't yet made an impact with what I was saying so I tried something else, something that while I accept my body & am pretty happy with it, it felt weird saying out loud even to my six year old daughter because if there was ever a part of my body that I hated growing up, this was it. So I said to Piper, 'Pip, you're always telling me that I'm skinny, yes?' She nods. 'So then, if I'm so skinny & my thigh is wider than yours, how can your leg be fat?' Well, she couldn't argue with that one. Then I kind of got desperate. I said, 'Piper, you are not fat. You are built pretty much like I was as a kid - solid, strong. You are not fat. Fat is poor Big Kev on the Biggest Loser!' 



Is this what I'm up against, having two girls? I keep wracking my brain, trying to think if I've said anything about being fat or hating a part of my body in front of the girls. I can't think. I always have it in the back of my mind not to say I hate anything about myself for fear of it giving the girls a complex. Sure, when we're wrestling or joking around I might wave my bum at them & say 'I'm going to squash you with my big bum!' as they laugh hysterically, but other than that I can't think of anything. 



I try to encourage the girl's to eat healthily, explaining to them that what we eat is fuel for our bodies. I try to find ways of explaining it to them, showing them bad fuel from good. Once, they were watching Rory the Racing Car with an episode of how they used 'bad' fuel & the cars were slow & misfiring. I used that to explain how our bodies react to 'good fuel' & 'bad fuel'. 



Another time I found Piper in tears in her room, I asked what was wrong. She said she was upset because her Nana(the Man of the House's Mum) always buys her clothes in a size 7, rather than a size 6 which is her size. I told her not to worry about it, Nana always does it & we can put it up on the top shelf of her wardrobe until it fits. I tried to explain to her about clothes sizes, that it's not always the number that matters, but the fit. Then just this week I hit upon the perfect example of how clothes sizes don't matter & that infact, they don't mean much at all. I've been looking for some clothes to buy for myself for Winter because I don't really have anything after being pregnant last Winter. I couldn't find a thing that I liked in the Women's section, but I did find some things in the kids section. I ended up buying a pair of jeans & a jumper - in a girls 16(& mind you, the jeans were still to long!). I'm not a stick thin person & at a size 8 - 10 I often struggle to find jeans in that size that I can breathe in, yet here I was, comfortably wearing kids clothes. When I showed Piper she couldn't believe it. We went through my wardrobe & I showed her all the different sized tags, from a ladies 14 through to an 8 & yet they all fit the same. And then I showed her some of Heath's clothes & even showed her her sports uniform - the polo shirt is a 6, her track pants a 4 & her windcheater a 5!



I know that this is something our kids are going to face every day. They are bombarded from a very young age & from every angle about how they should look, act & be. I know that this is going to be an ongoing thing with Pip. As for Lily, at this point she couldn't care less, she's very different to Pip in that respect. I know that I can't control everything in my kids life, all I can do is show them positive behaviour & that they should respect & love their bodies. I can only teach them how to make healthy choices & keep reiterating how special they are - yes, they are beautiful but they are also smart, strong, funny, creative & sometimes a bit naughty & stubborn!



Have you had a similar experience with your kids? How did you handle it? I'd love a few tips!

19/52

'A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2013'

Piper :: Up in her tower. Sometimes Pip is in her own little world. Sometimes I worry about her - growing up can be tough.

Lily :: She seems to have fallen in love with books lately. She's always asking for stories to be read, 'reading' to herself or just flicking through her books. It makes my heart sing.

Heath :: He's been a little off his food thanks to teething, but he'll demolish a Vegemite sandwich.

If your little one love to take photos I'd love for you to join in with Little Clicks - read more about it here.

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Little Clicks

Yay! Little Clicks is FINALLY back!

What's 'Little Clicks'? Read here & here.
Taken by Piper, 6 - I know that this isn't my best photo but it's my favourite photo!



What photos has your little kid taken lately? Hand over your camera & let your little one click away! Post a photo or two on your blog every Friday & leave your link here! Make sure that you link back to us!

18/52

                                                               'A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2013'


Piper :: After I yarn-bombed the tree in our front yard(yep, I did!), Pip decided that she wanted to learn how to knit. She picked it up pretty quickly & now she plans on knitting herself a scarf. We'll see if she sticks to it!
Lily:: On Thursday she decided that she was no longer Lily. We all had to call her 'Nikki Minaj'. I have no idea how she even knows who Nikki Minaj is since she's not on our household playlist! Well, when she arrived at kinder she announced her name change there as well & came home with her new name on her art work. God knows what her teachers thought of it all!
Heath :: He's eight months old now & has managed to get his first black eye(he's been mobile for three months now so I guess he's had a good run). He pulled the ipad down onto his face. I'm pretty sure I cried more than he did. My big bruiser.


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Little Clicks :: We're Experiencing Some Technical Difficulties!

The return of Little Clicks hasn't gone according to plan! While downloading Pip's photo's they kind of went missing. As in, deleted missing! At 10pm on Thursday night. After almost losing it(I know how upset Pip would be if I had to tell her that her photos were gone - plus, photos from Heath's first Easter were on there to!) so I consulted Dr Google who advised me that there was indeed software out there that could recover these lost gems. The thing is that it takes hours & hours to do, because while it may have only appeared that there were 226 photos on the memory card there were actually over 3500 deleted photos hidden on there too! So instead of starting Little Clicks midway through the week I figure it's probably better to start it this coming Friday instead.

Sorry to any of you(hopefully there were some of you!) that were planning on taking part. I promise that it will be back this Friday!