News Update

I was just having a cup of tea and reading back through my blogs and realised that I have misinformed you all who read this. I never actually gave up work, despite thinking that I had to. My mum's friend came to my rescue. After Mum telling her my dilemma with Angus, she offered to look after him on the day I needed to work. So we went away on holidays and then when we returned, she started looking after him. I only did a short day for a couple of weeks until we knew he was OK, then I started back to almost a full day. So I was able to keep my job which I was really happy about, whilst knowing that Angus was getting looked after. As far as I can tell, Helen loves to walk, so pretty much while I'm at work, they just go off walking together. She walks to the cafe for a coffee, then on to the shops for a look around, then back home. I usually come back to them playing on the lounge floor, so I know Angus is quite content. Once he starts crawling and getting more adventurous, it may be a different story, but that's when I'll look into more formal childcare options for him. It's just been great to be able to keep just my one day per week and feel happy about the boys. It's so difficult for women to find a balance. I have friends who are in the full range of situations - from working full time with their kids in full-time care, to full-time stay at home mums, to some who are working 3 days a week. It doesn't seem to have any effect on the kids at all, as each family makes their own situation work for them, but for each of my friends it seems to be such a personal dilemma. In my opinion, it's part of today's society. Females are educated, often have a career prior to family and although you can have kids and maintain that career, it becomes a real juggling act and that takes commitment and a lot of personal belief that you are doing the right thing. This seems to be what me and my friends seem to have the most trouble with. Believing that the choice we have each made, is the right one, especially for our own kids and family. Hmmmm, who knows?

Anyway, we have had a wonderful day today taking the boys to the zoo. OK, Angus didn't really get it, but he was fascinated with the people and the birds and stuff, so that's nice and Tom had a lot of fun. We met our friends, Kylie and Lou (or Glue, as Thomas calls him - hee, hee) and their son Ryan, who is the same age as Tom. It was just a really nice day. The weather was beautiful, the company splendid, the zoo is a really nice place with lovely settings for the animals and it was just an easy activity to do with the kids and also have a chance to chat and spend some time together. I loved it. I love summer. Tomorrow we are going to head to the beach - bring it on!

Meeerrrrrry Christmas!

First of all to all my overseas friends, a very merry Christmas. Most of your Christmas cards are still sitting here on my dining table. However, I am definitely still going to send them because I'm writing news and stuff in them, so it's more than just a merry Christmas wish. I am sorry though that I didn't get them to you on time. The others, may not be there yet either. I did send them prior to Christmas, but maybe not early enough........ I was thinking of you all though.
I have some lovely photos to post but I won't inundate you all right now. Jim thinks that this blog is all about the boys - well, I suppose it is, but this year has pretty much been all about the boys and all of you that are mothers to young ones, or have been, would agree with me that, it's a pretty normal thing at this stage I think. The dancing video that was on a couple of blogs ago was from our holiday up north. We had such a lovely time. Then we came back to a very busy time, with a hectic December all leading up to yesterday. Christmas was a great day with a very excited toddler and a pretty happy baby. Angus was most pleased though about having Daddy around, an extra toy or two was just a bonus.
We just had a funny moment tonight: Tom was in bed and yelled out for Jim (subsequently waking Angus), so Jim went down there all stern and told him to stop yelling out and go to sleep. He said, "Sorry Daddy, but I want Mummy." Jim's like, "so why are you yelling out for me? Go to sleep and stop waking Angus", and as Jim turned to leave the room, Tom gets his toy monkey and starts waving it's hand at Jim as if to say bye-bye. He's so cheeky, many times I have to bite my cheeks to stop myself laughing.
This photo is from the Wiggles concert we went to in December. These are my close friends' kids that we went with. The kids had such a great time, they were dancing and singing, and really getting into it. Pretty cool. See that torch (flashlight) that Tom's holding - cost an absolute fortune! That's how they become Australia's most highly paid entertainers, sing and dance and wiggle around and then fleece the parents for a balloon and a torch. They are smart businessman, that's for sure; but considering I had an 1.5hr drive home with an overtired toddler and a grumpy baby, I bent to the pressure and bought the torch - Jim was not impressed.
Well that's it for today, another year nearly over, and it's been a year to remember for us with lots of changes to get used to. I look forward to trying to keep in contact with everyone regularly again. I'm not very good at it but I'm going to try. Hopefully I will have some more interesting news for you all as well.
Go with the flow........

So little time, so much to write

Here's some photos to keep your interest up, because you must be getting sick of checking and seeing the same old stuff. I just never have time to write these days. I will, I promise, soon.........Angus is sitting up (as you can see), has two teeth, saying Dad, dad (of course, it's never Mum, Mum!), crawling - but only going backwards - and just started waving. Don't they grow up so fast..........

A chip off the old block

Thomas shows he has got what it takes when it comes
to bustin' some moves. He seems quite pleased with
the attention he receives from the passers by!


Well believe it or not it is the right way up on my
computer but came through sideways on this blog.
So turn your head side on and get over it.
From Jim.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi All, and to all my US friends, I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. Coming from a person who never understood it until I experienced it, Thanksgiving is a wonderful day that Jim and I always enjoyed. My favourite was in 2004. 10 inches of snow fell the previous day in Peoria and it caused absolute mayhem on the roads. But we all woke up to a perfect sunny morning that caused all the branches to glisten in the snow and the Cardinals were chirping away. It was beautiful. I cooked a lamb roast for my friends and we headed over to Sue and Kent's for a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch they had prepared. We watched their poor dog try to walk in all the snow (it was up to her belly as she sunk in the powdery cover), and our beers and wine kept cold in the snow on the deck. After a lot of fun with all our friends we went home for a couple of hours sleep before we headed off to Chicago to fly off to Mexico for a holiday with some other friends. It was just a really wonderful day and a very special memory. Thanks to Sue and Kent for having us and I hope you, Chelsea and Dayven and Bev and Mick read this with as fond a memory as I have. Although I do remember Sue saying she spend about 6 hrs preparing the lunch for us to all devour it in about 20 mins! And Sue - I have never regretted trying ALL three pies you had on offer that day, they were fantastic!
Our news is all good here. We have been busy in November with catching up with friends, holidaying up north and doing some Spring cleaning - although if you had popped in yesterday to see me, you never would have guessed! My baby boy has a tooth, and can sit on his own and has started to really shake up his brothers world. He can sit and reach for toys and books and his brother's hair and do other generally annoying things. It's great. It's exactly what Tom needs, he's had things go his own way for much too long now and he's learning a very valuable lesson that the world does not revolve around him and he has no control over it whatsoever. Although he would like to think so..... Here's some photos, I'm heading to bed, but will write more soon. This was back at the start of November and was the first day at our local beach. It was a beautiful warm day and it was about 9:30 am and we were just hanging out. Tom couldn't resist going in the water, despite not having his swimmers on. It was Angus' first day at the beach ever. He seemed to enjoy it!
You are all in my thoughts, with love.............................

My Favourite Poem

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
a host of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company!
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie [Naomi: "I wish"]
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Another week flies by.

Hello, not too much news, I am currently frustrated with the medical fraternity and their need to protect their dignity. What I mean is, they are so intent on protecting their ego, that when they don't know what's going on, they don't admit it and refer you on. Finally, I put pressure on, so the cogs have started to move, but it took a lot of pushing and shoving. I know I'm not making much sense, but without going into much detail, Angus needs continuing care and I need tests done and referrals to specialists to find out whats really going on, and today finally that happened, pity it's taken six months. Still my beautiful boy is beautiful and on good days he's wonderful and happy, but on bad days - phew, it's hard work. So we'll see how the next few months pan out and if any of my sanity returns!
Thomas is at the wonderful age of saying funny things - e.g. conversation at dinner tonight, "Tom where do eggs come from?", "Chooks". "Where does milk come from?", "Cows", "Where do babies come from?", "The doctors". And being completely objective, non-biased parents (not likely!), we were a bit impressed by this. Lots of funny things coming out from his mouth that makes you wonder, what else is going on in his little mind?
We have a lovely weekend coming up with catching up with old uni friends and their kids over a BBQ, after Tom's swimming lesson in the morning. Then there is a thing called the Worlds Greatest Pram Stroll, which I have no idea what it is all about but my friend and I are going strolling with our littlest boys, while Jim and Tom have a play at the park. Lovely!
Otherwise, it's all nappies, playgrounds and general day to day stuff. I hope this finds everyone well and happy.........

Put me out of my misery...

I know it's not the done thing to talk politics in a public forum, but pleeeaaaase, my US friends, please don't let McCain get in. He really doesn't come across very well in the international media and where did he find his second in charge???? If I have to see that smug face of Palin anymore I am going to throw something at my TV! I'm sick of hearing about her, her daughter, the poor kid who impregnated her daughter (talk about regretting those few extra beers, not only are you going to be a Dad, but you are being dragged onto the national stage by your mother-in-law to be - aaaggghhhhhhh), and hearing about everything except her political expertise and what she could actually do for the USA. Put her up against Condoleeza Rice (another prominent US female in politics and excellent foreign liason), and she is more than just a bit rough around the edges. At the moment, I would think Americans are going to want a very intelligent, savvy, and international leader to get them through the next few bleak months. Well that's a little insight from someone who really doesn't matter, but who is definitely sick of yet another US political campaign where way too much money is wasted on bad advertising and too much ticker tape.

Bon Voyage

Just last week our very good friends returned to their home in the States. They have spent two years here in Aus. and I think they enjoyed it, but no surprise they were looking forward to going home. I was very grateful that they made the effort to come down to see me before they left. They lived about 1 and 1/2 hrs from us, so packing up the car and visiting with the two boys is still a bit of a challenge for me, so it was great to have them down for the day. Poor Kent got left with baby sitting duties (which Tom was pretty happy about - he loves Kent), while Sue and I chatted about girly stuff. We had some lunch, a bit of a laugh and then they had to head back home.
A week later, they were on their plane with their pussy cats and now they should be tucked up in their lovely home enjoying the fall colours and a few quiet ones at Schooners.
Happy Birthday Sue! I hope you had a wonderful day with your kids and your cats, and your friends. I love this photo of Kent, Angus was just in awe of him. Angus would look at me and then back at Kent as if to say "I don't know who you are, but you're pretty cool". It was gorgeous. It was just a shame it was raining the day they came (it rained every time they visited!), as we weren't able to take one last walk along the beach. No worries Sue, I'll send photos! Hee, hee.

How Time Flies

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've blogged. That's just crazy. Where does the time go? The weather is getting nicer, so we are trying to get to the park more often, or at least in the back yard. I'm having to start to be diligent about how much TV Tom watches. If I'm not careful, he'll just watch it and watch it and because there is always something else I could be doing, I have to keep one eye on the clock and put down the washing or the vacuum and create an activity for us instead. Otherwise we are all well. Jim has been on a few trips which makes things a bit more difficult, but thank god for my mum just being down the road. She has been such a big help, which means I'm a more sane and patient mummy in the long run. Jim went away for 4 days, while my parents were on holidays just recently so I was on my own. When Jim got back, Tom told him that, "mummy was grumpy". Hmmmmmm, that gives me something to work towards. Anyway, Jim turns another year older this week, so there are birthday cakes to be made and cards to be decorated and presents to be wrapped. That's the activities for tomorrow which should be fun.
While Jim was away more recently his team played in the Grand final (which is Aus. equivalent to the Super Bowl). Therefore, I had to ensure his boys made an effort to represent the family properly. The teams colours are blue and white. Tom had his footy jumper from last year, so that was worn and Angus was improvised, but I was pretty
impressed with my efforts! Hee, hee. Not a lot of news (see next blog for some), but thought I better put some photos up of my now 2 and 1/2 y.o. and 6 mth old. My biggest news is that I resigned from work so now I am a full time mum. Although I have only been doing 5 hrs a week for the past 6 mths taking Angus along, that was getting too hard (he ate a post-it note with a phone number on it last week!)and I'm just not comfortable with my daycare options for such a youngin'. So I'll get him looked after once he's one and hopefully I will either be able to take up my position again for a full day a week then, or find something else. I'm kind of sad, because I really enjoyed using my brain even for such a short time each week, but it's the right thing to do at this time. Enjoy the photos and I will make an effort to keep in touch more often.

Kissin' Cousins

It was Angus' cousin, Molly's christening today and some doting parents took way too many photos of their gorgeous kids (Des knows who I'm talking about, how many photos was it - 50?) Anyway, they are a pretty cute pair and they were behaving well at the same time for longer than 5 minutes so we made the most of it and snapped away. We just had to gently distract Molly from teething on Angus' arm, apparently it looked pretty tasty. All in all, it was lovely day with the family all getting together and all the cousins running amuck, yet again.

My littlest boy is also starting to feel better. After a rough first 3 months of his life, he's getting himself sorted out and getting some more sleep and just generally feeling better. This means we are getting many more smiles and chatting and Daddy was even getting giggles in the bath the other night, which has definitely been a rare occurrence. So out came the camera again and you can see the beautiful photo of my smiling Angus.

I really feel like I'm coming out of the grey of Winter into the sunshine and newness of Spring, both literally and metaphorically. I'm starting to feel a bit 'glass half full' again and I'm looking forward to opening up all our windows, turning off the heater and enjoying the outdoors with my boys. Bring it on. Which reminds me of another little story about the other day. I found a snail on the back deck and was showing Tom. It was curled up in the shell and Tom was investigating. So we put it down and left it for a while so that it would come out and start moving again. When this happened, Tom was fascinated and went bounding out to get a closer look, which of course caused the snail to curl back up into it's shell. Tom freaked out, it was hilarious. Although I had told him this would happen, he came running back to me a bit scared. I was trying so hard to be sympathetic, but it was funny. I'm such a mean mum - hee, hee.

More Visitors!

A couple of weeks ago we had the wonderful pleasure of our friends from Tassie coming to visit. Our boys are the same age, so it was great to catch up, let the boys go crazy together and just generally hang out and drink too many cups of tea. Here's Kylie with Angus, and Tom and Ryan tearing it up in the back yard. Tom and Ryan had a great time playing golf, kicking the soccor ball and playing trains. Getting them to have their day nap was the biggest challenge. Hopefully Kylie and I will live in the same city again one day, but for now we just have to aim to visit each other every six months or so! Sorry the photo of the boys is so hopeless but getting a couple of two year olds to sit still for a photo when they are outside and there is playing to be done, is a lost cause.
I also had my good friend Sue come down to help me out with my little treasures for a day, but I didn't get a photo! She drove down all on her own (a big achievement!) - without the help of Sally her GPS, who seems to have NO idea - and spent the day wandering around our little village in the winter sun, trying to console my unsettled baby and giving me general motherly advice. She also fills me in on her running escapades which makes me feel a bit jealous, but also inspired! Keep the stories coming Sue, I love that you get so excited about running and I will get back into it (and my Size 8 jeans) one day!
Had some cold and rainy weather recently and although our area really needs the rain, I am more than ready for the temp to start rising again. (Chelsea - I'm turning into a weather blogger like you! Must be the winter/stuck inside thing, hee,hee)
I'm already planning spring gatherings, e.g. picnic at local state park, street party with all the neighbours. I just need the weather to pick up so I can start planning - or maybe I just need to get out of the house!
At least I can laugh about it............go with the flow!

Get your motor running.....

Jim won some brownie points the other day by taking Cal and Lucy for a ride on 'the bike'. Cal was pretty excited. All the kids have been for rides on farm bikes (smallish dirt bike-type thing), but I think this was a bit of a novelty for them. And it gave Jim an excuse to warm up the battery and blow out the cobwebs (he doesn't get on it much these days).


And I thought I would indulge myself and put on the latest photo of my four month old angel. The sparkle in his eye and excitement on his face is so rewarding when I talk and play with him, sometimes I almost feel like I don't deserve it.

It's great to see him growing and developing and doing more and more each day, but it's also a reminder of how quickly the time passes and how soon enough he'll be saying "no, no, no, no" and running around the back yard with his older brother, and my baby no more.
Seize the day.......

Horrified!!!

I was at the osteopath the other day with Angus, and Tom came along for the appointment. He was sitting quietly on the chair with his blue dinosaur while I talked to the Osteopath and she treated Angus. Tom then hopped down and came over to see what was going on, I didn't take much notice, and next thing I hear, "Mama, I got booger" and Tom proceeded to hand me his booger right there and then. OMG! What do I do? So like the good mother I am, I took the booger and went to my bag to retrieve a wipe to wipe both my and his hands. The young childless osteopath was probably completely disgusted.
There is no glamour in being a mum of young kids - and I haven't even started toilet training yet!

This one's for you Kristen !:-) I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Love that Pelican

Filling in some winter days with a toddler is a challenge for one's imagination. After drawing, playing with dinosaurs, building yet another variation of the train track, watching 3 times the recommended daily allowance of television and flying the aeroplane up and down mummy's legs and arms whilst she's breastfeeding, what next can a little boy do. Thank god for some sunshine (despite it barely making it to 10 degrees), so we can rug up and go for a run and burn up some toddler energy. Feeding a pelican, ducks and running over a bridge or two just adds to the whole adventure.
Thank god also for Grandma and Pa, they have a fresh reserve of attention to lavish on little boys and a whole well of enthusiasm for interesting things like, "Look gwan-ma, Thomas got red shoes!" and "Pa, GREEEN DINOSAAUUUUUURRRRR, ROOOAAARRRR". Life's good.
Oh, and rocking out on the guitar with Dad, that's also another fantastic way to kill 15 mins. Alright!!!!
On the agenda for tomorrow - playground (swings are a real favourite at the moment!), the bakery, more train adventures and maybe some block building. The Tallest Tower Challenge may have to be held in the lounge room, with the winner fighting it out for a bag of Tiny Teddies. Who needs the Tour de France?? Although Cadel's home town isn't far from here, so we all love Cadel.

Angus' Christening

My sister arrived home for a months holiday with her family last week and so we organised to have Angus christened on the weekend. My sister and Jim's brother were godparents (see photo). We had a lovely day, with 38 mostly family and a few friends help us celebrate. Thank god for mine and Jim's mum helping me out with catering and just general organisation for so many people, because of them the day went quite smoothly. Tom had a wonderful time with ALL his cousins here - yep that's a total of 10 cousins ranging from 17 y.o. to the same age as Angus. So it was crazy and chaotic, but a lot of fun seeing them all interact together.


My sisters kids were very excited to see how much Tom had grown (they left just before he turned one) and also to meet Angus - here's some photos. Zoe is the youngest of Sue's kids and just fell in love with Angus, and he with her. She has big blue eyes and Angus would just stare into them and be quite content. I think they sat there for the best part of an hour with him just gurgling and she cooing back to him - very cute. A photo of my mum and Aunty Suzi is above and follwing is a photo of Cousin Cal, Tom and Angus. Sue and I were watching Tom at one stage and he was playing out in the back yard and would randomly just go and hug Cal for no reason. It was great, he was just sooo excited to have a big boy around. It's a pity that they live so far away, even though they are really enjoying themselves and it's going well for them there.

Some Random Photos

Nothing really to fill you in on this week, we have been laying low for a full week now because of sick kids and very cold weather. I went to the shops this morning just to get out of the house because I was going a bit stir crazy and so was Tom, but otherwise we have just been at home since last Wednesday. I took Tom to see Hi-5 last Tuesday. They are an Australian kids group that sing and dance. Similar to the Wiggles but a bit groovier, he isn't into them as much as the Wiggles, but he still enjoyed watching the singing and dancing and it was just in my local city, so it was a hassle free activity on a cold winters day. Tom is just kicking back on his Thomas bean bag, courtesy of his Godmum, Shannon. He thinks he's pretty special when he's sitting in it - can you tell?
This is Georgie, my cousins daughter, who was my saviour for the best part of a week, a couple of weeks ago. Thomas was so excited to have someone to play with it was wonderful.





Angus is 3 mths old this week, it spins me out how quickly it has gone. It is such a steep learning curve, having a baby, even second time around, but it is so nice when they start 'talking' and gurgling, smiling and giggling. We had our first giggle the other day, it was great. I was being a silly mummy and making noises and Angus was giggling at me. It was nice. And finally, Angus is into a cot. My baby is growing up! He's such a big baby, but he looks so small in the cot. I remember Tom being the same, especially when they are swaddled. He's like a little caterpillar in a cocoon! My sister comes out from Dubai in a couple of weeks, which I'm really looking forward to. We haven't seen her or the kids for over a year, so it will be exciting to see Tom interact with his cousins and of course they are all very excited about seeing Angus. So there will be some more interesting photos and news in the not too distant future. Hope all who reads this is well..........

....and the fog clears!

It's been a busy few weeks, to say the least. However, that's not the only reason I haven't been blogging, I haven't really had a lot to talk about. My days are consumed with my boys, and managing the day to day tasks, and that doesn't leave time for much else and doesn't make for very interesting reading. I was having a hard time between Angus being about 6 weeks and 10 weeks. He started being more aware and went through a real change in his needs and demands and I just didn't seem to be getting anything right. Was he hungry or tired? Does he want to chat or burp? I had nooooo idea, and that really annoyed me because I felt like I should know what I was doing! I was also doing too much. I was trying to continue my pre-Angus life, and it was just all too much. So around early June I resolved to spend much more time at home. Plus it's the dead of winter over here and although not comparable to a Northern Hemisphere winter, it's still bloody cold. So who wants to be dragging two kids around in the wind and the rain?
Anyway, last week my cousin and her youngest daughter came to stay. It was wonderful, not only is she a wonderful mum, she is a great listening ear and gave me some great ideas and tips. Also, Thomas loves Georgie (who's 7 y.o.) so he was constantly occupied which gave me plenty of opportunity to really focus on Angus. It's very easy to let the baby take the back seat when you have a more demanding, noisy toddler to contend with, and I think that was half my problem. So having Thomas out of the way (I mean that in the most loving way), gave me a
chance to find Angus' rhythm and to spend more time with him. I feel a lot better about things this week. Angus still hates the car though, which is a pain, but seeing as I'm not going out as often, this isn't as much of a problem as it was. I just hope he grows out of it!
I don't know how to label my photos, so the first one is Angus - of course, and the second is Tom and I rugged up at the park about to go down the slide.
I will try to post more photos and news as it comes to hand.
Really trying to just go with the flow...........

Living the Quiet Life

When your life is all breast milk, pooey nappies and playgrounds, it's sometimes hard to think of something newsworthy to share. The one thing that I have had over the past few weeks to brighten my days is visitors. It's been lovely seeing people that I haven't seen for a while and others who I've seen more regularly and are happy to listen to my trivial venting! It also gives me an excuse to sit down for a bit. The vaccuming can wait for another day, can't it? Too bad, it has to. So here is a photo of a long time family friend, Ang, who couldn't understand what all the fuss is about this looking after a baby business. Needless to say she had just missed the poo-athon that had happened about half an hour earlier. In her words, "this is easy"!















Another good friend, Bev, came to see the latest addition also. I hadn't seen her since Feb, so it was really nice to catch up. She's becoming a grandma in August and is very excited, so she was just getting some practice in!















And the final photo is my 1 mth old in his size 3 mth old outfit! Yep, he's a big boy alright; mummy makes good milk! Depends on who you talk to, but we are calling this a smile. Maybe it was a burp on it's way up, but that's not as interesting a story. Angus loves cuddles. He has a terrible 'witching' hour between about 5 and 8:30pm, but if someone is holding him, he's prefectly fine. He will fall asleep in your arms, but the minute you put him down, he arks up again, so last week I had my mum and dad helping me from 4pm until Jim came home, so that I could help Tom with dinner etc. whilst someone held Angus. This week my Ergobaby (baby sling) is my saviour. I can have two free hands whilst still pacifying my cuddly boy. Lucky he's so cute, it makes it all worth it.















Thank you to everyone for all their cards and best wishes, personal thank you cards are on their way in the snail mail, but I just want you all to know that it's been wonderful hearing from you and I appreciate your thoughts.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all my friends out there who are mums, I hope you have had a wonderful day. I have had a very happy day with my family. Lots of cuddles and love from my boys as well as lunch with my Mum and Dad and sister has made this day a good one. Plus I've had lunch cooked for me and some take-away for dinner has eliminated any need for cooking or dishes, which is nice for a break! Life has settled down a bit for us over the past week. Tom is getting better about the new situation, he's actually been a champion little boy over the past couple of days, so I'm lucky, and Angus is growing and eating very well, and he just loved been held and cuddled. I've now just got to get my head around doing this all on my own. Nappy changes, getting out of the house, feeding, bathing, cuddles etc. all times two. Twice the work, but twice the fun!


Last week we went to visit Jim's brother and his wife and their brand new baby girl. Our kids are three days apart and we thought they looked pretty cute on the rug together doing their 'synchronised swimming'! Hee, hee. It will be fun watching them grow and change together and hopefully become really good friends.

Me and My Boyz!

I grew up in family of girls (God only knows how my Dad did it!), I went to an all girls school, all I really know is girls other than my main man. Well, now I'm living in a household of farting, burping, motorbike-loving boys. How did this happen? Well to be honest, I've been truly blessed; and I figure it will give me a lifetime of reasons to go for a facial or pedicure ("Mummy needs some girly time....). And there will always be time for shopping when Dad is at footy training with his sons I suppose.
So Angus has joined the ranks and has certainly rocked the boat. Tom's world has been turned upside down, and although he doesn't really mind the baby, he's not generally happy about life. I've gone from having a wonderful little boy to a whiny, annoying little two year old whose favourite word is, "Nooooooo". Oh, where oh where did my little boy go? I know it's an adjustment phase and soon he won't remember life without Angus, and eventually he'll love having a brother, but for now he's a big pain in the bum. Any tips more seasoned Mums? Feel free to email me.
I've also had an adjustment phase. I think it could be accurately described as mourning my loss of being my little man's number one. More on that in another blog, but it was something I had no idea was going to happen and had no idea how to deal with.
So above is a photo of my boys, and below a closer one of the newest addition: more to come. All is well with us, we are slowly getting used to our new situation and working our way through the issues, but overall we are a very lucky family and I'm a very lucky mummy. And hey! at least I'm going to get plenty of use out of all of Tom's clothes and the trucks , trains and cars are going to get plenty of use over the next few years!
Learning to go with the new flow............

Waiting, waiting, waiting..........

Talk about wishing my life away. I know, I know all in good time, when the fruit is ripe..........blah, blah, blah. I'm am officially overdue in 4 hours. I hate being overdue, but as it happened with Tom too, it is obviously my body and my babies. It's just too warm and cozy in there.
So to focus on something more interesting, my sister-in-law had her special little angel last night. Molly is a beautiful baby girl who is bringing her mummy and daddy a lot of joy and excitement - can you tell I'm a bit clucky? I went to visit today and she was just the most precious thing. A lot of hard work from her mamma, but what a reward!
And on another note, a couple of weekends ago, we took Tom to a local wildlife 'zoo'. That term is used very loosely as this place is actually a hospital for local native wildlife, but you can visit the recovering animals or the ones that can't be released and they give educational talks etc. about the animals. Tom loved it and here are the photos........



















Patting the koala and then patting the wombat called Sebastian. They were pretty tame as these animals are being handled regularly, but neither are the kind of animal you want to come across in the wild if they are injured or grumpy, they can do some serious damage!

As a final thought, I was reading an interview with an Australian Football player the other weekend in the paper and he had met the Dalai Lama. He asked him one particular question: what's the best thing I can do for my kids? The answer: Give them affection.
I love that. That's all kid's need: a never ending flow of affection. To know that they are loved and that they belong somewhere to someone. I hear about so much abuse and trauma to kids and I relate it back to, "what if it was Tom" and it just rips at my heart to think that people can do such horrendous things to such innocent little beings, when what they need is so easy and costs absolutely nothing.
Ahhhhhh, and on it goes..........

Grass is ALWAYS Greener

Contentment - it is such an elusive emotion. Is it just part of human nature to always want what we can't have or is it a product of current western civilization? I've been thinking of this lots recently. I'm really bad at wishing, wishing for other things. Well not necessarily other things, but other situations, despite my current situation being perfectly fine and fulfilling. So I'm practicing every day. Every time I hear myself wishing for something, I take stock, count my blessings and change my thoughts. It's simple, but I'm so bad at it. I see a girl out going for a run and I think, oh, I wish I could do that. Or I hear of some friends going to a Jack Johnson concert and I think, oh, I wish I could do that. Or people planning some travel, having dinner at a great restaurant, or going to the hairdresser! Whatever, I've just gotten into this bad habit of wishing my life away. So my current resolution (I don't do New Year's resolutions, I do them as they pop into my head), is to aim for contentment. Now I might have to be the Dalai Lama to acheive this 100%, but I feel that there is no harm in trying and I may just learn to better appreciate everything I do have and therefore enjoy it more, with just the occasional, "I wish I could do that".
This is especially significant now as I'm about to head into another extreme change of lifestyle (baby #2), and if I don't do this, I'm just going to get very boring and very sorry for myself which is no fun for anyone. I can see it will be very easy to be consumed by tiredness and monotony for the first few months of being a mummy of two, so if I can find little things to be positive about, then that has to be good for my mind set and my family and for you guys who read this regularly. I'll definitely lose many of my readers (assuming there is some) if I'm just a grizzle guts the whole time!
So today I'm very happy that I was able to just get up and put my trackie daks on (sweat pants for you non-Aussies), rather than having to put on work clothes or makeup, I'm very happy that Tom and I had a painting session and he loved it. And I'm very happy that I've been able to eat chocolate and not feel an ounce of guilt. It was really yummy and I needed it!
I hope you have some good moments in your day today too.
Go with the flow..........

It's Party Time!

Well Tom is two now and celebrations were held over the weekend. Tom had a great party with all his favourite friends visiting and lots of fun games to play. There was 'kick ball' in the back yard, a dinosaur egg hunt (easter egg hang over!), pin the tail on the dinosaur, and paper plane fun. And just the simple fact of playing with 6 other kids for a couple of hours is heaven on a stick for a 2 y.o.
Due to my 'condition', we just had a small party with four of our friends and their kids, over for the afternoon. The weather had been showery in the morning but thank goodness the sun came out later on so we could let the kids run wild in the back yard and eat cake. It was a lot of fun, especially as the Dad's were the flavour of the day, so the mums actually got to sit down for some of the time and relax!
We are having another cake at Playgroup on Friday just as another little celebration with his playgroup friends but that will be very low key and I won't have any mess to clean up - phew. This is a boy who loves being sung Happy Birthday to, so the fact that Friday will be his third time he's had it sung to him, will make for a very happy boy. You can just see in the glint in his eye and the look on his face that he feels very special that everyone is singing to him. He's so spoilt!
Can you believe I'm currently learning a lesson from Finley the Firetruck (kids show for about 3 y.olds) about not being scared and being able to do anything you want. (....in the spirit of The Littlest Engine!) It's ridiculous where I get my inspiration from these days - ahhhhhh.
Go with the flow and thank your lucky stars.

Rip Curl Pro

If any of you know anything about surfing, then you may have heard of Bells Beach and the world championship (part of the world tour) that is held there every Easter. It's a pretty amazing surf spot, very beautiful and apparently consistently good waves. I know more about the picturesque running track that follows the coastline for about 20km but it's all about surfing this weekend. Anyway, we live about 10 mins away from Bells so it's gets very busy around here at this time. Not only is it school holidays and lots of families come for a break, but you get all the surfing enthusiasts and competitors swooping on the area. There is a boutique hotel just down the road from us and quite a few surfers were staying there this year. Jim and I took Tom out for an early dinner last night to the attached restaurant and there was a bit of a dinner for a lot of the female surfers whose comp. finished yesterday. Pity I didn't know any of them, because I really don't follow surfing very closely anymore, but it was kind of a buzz to know that we were dining with the world's best female surfers anyway. The men are continuing to compete over the coming days and one of the guys, Bede Durbridge, is friends with my brother-in-law and his wife and he is going pretty well, so I'll be keen to see how far he gets. Kelly Slater, one of the best surfers over the past decade or more, is a Californian who has been coming out to compete regularly in Australia for as long as I can remember (I used to have the BIGGEST crush on him when I was about 20). He was surfing this year, but I'm not sure if he's still in the comp or not. If you are interested, here's a link to a website that can give you more info. http://www.surfingaustralia.com/
I don't know how to post photos off the web, so if you want some pictures, you can just go to the website.
Hang Ten...............

Happy Easter

We celebrate Easter with a four day weekend (Monday is a holiday also), so we have just had a very relaxing time. Aunty Caz came down and hung out on Good Friday with us. Hot Cross Buns were enjoyed as well as a great play at the park and catching up with friends in the arvo. Then Saturday we went down to the farm to see Grandma and Grandad and lots of other family. Tom had a ball exploring and playing with Dad. After rides on the motorbikes, diggers and annoying the cows and bulls it's a wonder he ever wants to come home!
Sunday lunch was a big family affair and lovely, and I had to show you all this photo. It's Tom with his cousins, Bethany, Melissa and Murray munching on a fruit platter. That's not to say some 'choccie eggs' hadn't been devoured earlier, but after much jumping on the trampoline and playing chasy, watermelon, grapes and strawberries, couldn't have tasted better. It was gorgeous.Tom had so much fun with his cousins, they all love playing together. Nicholas is the fourth cousin, he was running around when I took the photo, but he is 2 and a half and full of energy and personality. Being the fourth child, he is going to teach Tom plenty of tricks as they grow up, considering he is already riding a bike and climbing trees. But when he gets together with Tom they love playing trucks, jumping on the trampoline and riding their trikes together.
Easter Monday was 'organsing' day. We had to get all our baby gear down from storage and now I've got to find a spot for everything inside the house and wash all my newborn stuff to get ready!
Here's a photo of Jim helping Tom with dinner, note the strategic placement of the stubbie (beer bottle), I thought it looked like it was Tom's beverage rather than Jim's, hee, hee I'm such a bad mother!
Don't forget to go with the flow................

Up, up and Away!

Grandma and Pa headed off on an overseas trip today to visit their other three grandkids. They were very excited, especially when they found out they hadn't gone over their luggage limit! Tom is going to miss them a lot considering he sees them at least weekly, usually more, but we'll be heading down to the farm to spend time with Grandma and Grandad down there which is always lots of fun too. Have a safe trip Mum and Dad, we'll see you when you get back! xxxx

Instilling a good work ethic.

I have just realised that I have a helper in the house. I have only just realised that this little boy is no longer a baby and gets a real kick out of helping me. He's been sweeping the floor for a long time now but his cleaning and helping skills are expanding, as you can see below. His little table had been outside for a few days, so had gotten dusty and I wanted to bring it back inside to use. So I put Tom to work and he loved it. We had the commentry happening to accompany the activity. Eg. "Wash table, wash chair, wash bucket". I think he was meaning, rinse in the bucket rather than wash bucket, but it was a pretty good effort I thought. He scrubbed that table as clean as a whistle and there were even a few tears when I took the bucket away, I think I could have had him going for about an hour! (Mental note: keep that in mind when I need a nap). I just have to think of other activities that I can get him to do for me - or does that border on slave labour? Hee, hee.

He very much loves his train set also. He inherited this from his big cousin, Cal, and loves it. He knows all the engines names and corrects me or Dadda if we get them mixed up. He will play on his own, but much prefers it if someone is down there with him getting into the swing of things. This was his first attempt to build the track himself and I was pretty impressed, hence the photo. He didn't work out how to join the track up into a circuit, but he did work out which tracks to use to go up to the bridge and back down the other side. I have to admit, the first time I was putting this together, it took me close to 10 mins to work that out, so I was a little put out that my one y.o. (almost two year old) mastered it quicker than me.
Hope this finds you all well..............