i was talking to my mum on the phone the other day and was mentioning the trip magnificent and i are planning for my 40th. the options are endless. knowing that both mum and i have bad memories, i was happy to say, "i can remember when you were 40!" and she laughed and said, "so can i!"

i then said, "what were you doing when you were 40?" i remember the cancer but there must have been more.

she said, "i was busy with my fourth baby."

i remembered back to mandy's childhood then. my mum, at 40, was pretty much the "oldest mum" on the playground pickup duty. i remember she used to feel it.

23 years later, i wish she were 40 again, raising an infant. so many of my friends (and i won't name names!) are 40, and having their second, or even first children. yes, some of these friends have been trying for years to have children and are only succeeding now, but other friends married late and therefore started their families later than is traditionally expected.

i broke traditional expectations today. sebastian had a fantastic week at school, and as a reward, magnificent and i gave him a bionicle. he was thrilled, immediately ripped off the top of the package, and slew the pieces across the table with his friend adam. aghast at the number of pieces, adam said, "i guess you're going to have to wait until your dad gets home."

"what's this?" i said.

"well, sebbie's dad is going to have to put it together."

"adam pheasant, what talk is this!" i admonished, and went and got a large plastic bowl and put all the pieces in it. then i kept the boys occupied by making them organise all the "like" pieces. and i put that ridiculous bionicle together, thank you very much, with only one mistake.

i was also marvellous last weekend, at the beach. on saturday and sunday the temperature was 34 all day long, so we headed out to the beach. needless to say, the kids were thrilled. sebastian and adam swam around with their goggles and the girls and jasper played families, going to the beach. 

andrea and i supervised in the water and chad and charles sat in the shade, although at one point, when a single woman wearing a thong and string top and high heels went to walk in the surf, they decided they needed to stretch their legs! (ed: charles denies this, claiming he was following sebastian and only then noticed the aforementioned individual.) the lady didn't stay single for long, chad overheard her saying to a man who invited her to join his friends, "i like meeting new people." chad's final pronouncement: russian hooker. (above: chad splashes jasper with a bucket of water.)

but there were fish in the water, and sunday, i, tess lyons, caught a fish. using nothing but a BUCKET and my bountiful brains. i trust you are impressed. the fish was approximately 2cm long. i was fantastic. of course, being an environmentalist, i let him go.

we're still in typhoon land…can you believe we woke up tuesday, sent the triplets off to school and the government CLOSED kindergartens for the day because of the upcoming typhoon? i believe now that the government hates parents. and then wednesday was a real typhoon, so no school. sebastian believes that God loves kids.

the really poisonous hot weather seems to have broken. it is cooler at night.

i should know this, because last night i got three hours of sleep. not only have i been doing a lot of research and writing this week, but last night jasper woke up just as i turned off the light, screaming that there was blood coming out of his ears.

i shot out of bed, mindful that jasper shares a room with three other small persons. in their room, jasper was upright, screaming and snotty nosed, and the others were rousing. i grabbed him and pulled him into the playroom. there was no blood, but he was convinced there was liquid. i suggested his tears? and put him back to bed.

three times this performance was repeated throughout the night.

how do mothers of young kids do it, this getting up in the night? it seems impossible that i ever did it, night after night (willingly!) but charles tells me that i did. i was just shattered by the 4am awakening, to the point where i pulled jasper into the kitchen, gave him his umpteenth glass of water and some benadryl, which did the trick. i got 3.5 hours of sleep and then was up to meet a deadline.

how do parents with young babies do it?