family time

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog – Kids don’t grow up fast, they grow up suddenly. Well the growing up bit has been off the charts during this pandemic. Total skyrocket growth and it’s been wonderful to witness it! I’m expecting to be shocked when I see their class mates, as I expect other parent’s to be shocked when they see our boys. Because tomorrow, they are back at school. HALLELUJAH!!!!                                                                                 Jax!! They haven’t been on campus since Feb/Mar 2020. An amazing period of time for kids this age, and it’s definitely a relief to get them back to school, something they really want as well. They miss the structure of school days… Let’s see how long that lasts, huh? It’s also nice to know they’re returning to school at a time when there has been no COVID infections in the community for nearly three months. Relief!! If there’s one lesson I’ve learnt as a parent on this lockdown journey, it is this: go easy on your parenting skills and qualities during this time. Yes the boys have spent more time on devices, and more time being idle, but you know, as the months rolled on, we lost our energy to keep on top of it every day. None of us parents can do it all. None. Not to forget we are also trying to manage ourselves – our thoughts, emotions, scattered brains, fears for the future… Definitely not an easy time to be a parent. But the boys didn’t exactly enjoy being stationary either. Especially Lex. He’s got ants in his pants that one. Thankfully, we had the amazing opportunity to travel in the North of Thailand, then Phi Phi Island in the last few weeks. That helped get us out of lockdown stupor – a change of scene was brilliant after so many months immobile.                                                         Lex is now nicknamed Shaggy Change, change, change Getting back to their growth. Both boys have gone through significant physical changes in quarantine. Muscles are growing, strength too, which means flexing biceps in the mirror is a common sight 😊 😊. Lex’s voice is now officially broken and you can definitely expect a very low baritone next time you speak to him. Jax won’t be too far behind on that front either. Lex is also significantly taller than me now and catching up to Steve, and it won’t be long until Jax towers over me too. Soon I will be the family midget, although thankfully, Vick is still with us to take on that title. And their hands and feet – my word! Men are on the horizon. We took them to play tennis a month ago, and their brand new shoes (which they hadn’t put on since quarantine began) were too small!! Other things changed too. Screen time is a huge issue for families who can afford technology, but it’s not all bad. What we’ve noticed is, they are going on independent educational journeys into all sorts of topics, digging deeper and learning new facts. Lex has found his own news channel Inside Edition – a boy after my heart – and it’s been really lovely having the opportunity to talk about the information and news he’s interested in. Cold case murders are definitely something that fascinate him. Pop culture too. Today he wanted to talk about the Ellen DeGeneres news. Another hot topic for Lex right now is drugs – not the drugs themselves – but the entire story around drugs, including the cartels, violence and more. His questions are outstanding. Jax is more focused on mastering digital communication. He is working out how to connect with the world, and I’m pretty impressed with how he tells stories, as well as the quality of imagery he captures. He’s got some talent there and I loved doing my first Instagram Live with him a while back. Actually, before we did the video, I was teaching him how to use hashtags. Let me just say, it’s so nice having a combined passion for social media and storytelling with one of my boys – can you imagine? Not to mention, he is OK learning from his mum about these things too. Well so far… Jax also really embraced cooking and seems to love it, while Lex is still more interested in mastering the staples – that boy knows how to cook an egg. Either way, I’m stoked, because being able to cook is so important!!! They also released a song Money (Heist of the Century) – by Lexy Dope and Jazzy Boy. Huge appreciation to the team at Phuket Academy of Performing Arts. The boys are absolutely stoked and LOVED that camp – the words you want to hear, let me tell you.   It was a relief that music lessons could continue throughout lock down, and with singing, drama and dance at VK Theater Works too, the boys continue to get a well-rounded arts education.                                                              Jax’s new travel look Qualities in quarantine One of my surprises during quarantine is both boys have been super affectionate – especially with me. I was getting cuddles and they were telling me they loved me every day. I suppose that was their way of getting reassurance during an uncertain time in the world? Regardless, it was lovely. Steve didn’t get this as much, especially with so much testosterone in the air, which meant there’s been a fair bit of fronting up going on. This is to be expected and was definitely more of a frustrating issue in the early quarantine months. I just wanted to run away!! Ugh. However, even that started to lessen as time went on. Which meant the boys had real opportunities to