Dear 16yr old me...

Dear 16yr old me...

Please watch this clip.... It's really important.

I really wish this was possible. To send a message to yourself in the past with wise advice. But at 16, I'm not really sure if I would have listened, even to myself.

My dad tried so hard to keep me out of the sun, always asking me to cover up or put sunscreen on. I never did. With red hair and blue eyes my chances of getting sunburnt were higher than normal, and me deliberately sun baking did not go down well with Dad!

Now, with kids of my own (both red hair/blue eyes) I am trying as hard as Dad did to keep the covered and protected. The sunsmart message was out there when I was young, as was horrible ads to scare you into slip,slop,slapping. But I ignored them.

I'm hoping that though the 16yr old me cant watch clips like this, maybe my kids will...

A place for everything

My kids are tidy. And I love that about them. It's taken a lot of work for them to be like that, but I'm glad we took the time to teach them.

Of course, they don't want to be tidy, they prefer to have every toy and every book on the floor where they can be stepped on and tripped over. But when asked to pack up, they usually do it, and do it well, without much fuss.

So I found it really funny when I went to vacuum the other day and found the following scene!!

And then funnier when Alex wanted to put his mowers away!!

Gotta love em!!!!

Just Me and my little Fella...

Alex has somehow convinced the doctor that he is sick and so we are home today. This is a first for us. It has never been just Alex and I for the whole day. At least not since he was a tiny baby. And so we are making the most of it. The laptop has stayed closed (until just now!) and the phone has only been used to take delightful photos of our fun so far this morning.

So far we have.....

 

....played with the blocks, although knocking them over was much more fun and you can tell in this photo that's exactly what Alex is about to do!...

 ...did some drawing for Nana, Grandpa and Dad....

 

...played hide and seek...

...went for a walk around the block....

...and crashed on the couch watching Makka Pakka...

Gee it's tiring keeping a little person entertained by yourself...and it's only 11am!!!!!

In time to come...

I started writin this blog as an outlet to share all the awesome things my kids do. A 'brag blog' if you will. I know there are only a couple of people out there in internet-land who read it and that's great. But I think now it's become more like a diary.

I just read back through every blog on here and remembered exactly how I felt at those times and it was lovely. I'm not computer savvy enough to know what'll happen to all of this in 10yrs time, so I might print it all one day, keep it in a book somewhere and get it out when I feel nostalgic for the good old 'toddler' days!

Maybe the kids will be interested in reading it. That would be nice. Finding our what my view of their behaviour and development was. A little bit of personal history recorded for them in time to come...

Bye, bye baby...

IT'S OFFICIAL!!! I no longer have babies. If I don't have a cot then I mustn't have babies anymore either! :(

Alex has been in a bed full time for about 2 months now (see earlier blogs for details on how fabulously that's been going!!!) For a while we kept the cot in his room "just in case", but never with the real intention of using it. We didn't want to go backwards on the forwards move we had made.

So last weekend I bit the bullet and listed the cot and change table on eBay and today they left. Bit sad really ...they've been nice pieces of furniture in our home for almost 4 years. But time moves on, kids grow up. suppose I'd better get used to that!

Hopefully the new little baby-to-be who now owns our old cot will love it as much as we did...and perhaps even knaw on it like Megan did when she was teething...

Stolen kisses

I read a friends' blog the other day and she talked about how cute and clever her little boy was. I laughed because I know exactly where she was coming from (along with thinking "If only she could see MY kids right now!).

I know I have rose coloured glasses on when it comes to my kids. I'm not blinded to the fact that they both have tantrums and fight, but I suppose I prefer to look at them in a positive light.

Megan is three and a half now and is "Miss Independant". She amazes me with the things she can do and the complex thoughts she talks about and conversations we have. Alex is almost two and I gush when he talks about things I can actually understand!

So any opportunity I have to give them a kiss, I take it! At the moment, they dont mind. I get the odd "Muuuuuummmm!!" while squimring away from me, but most of the time I get big sloppy, dribbly (in Alex's case!) kisses right back. I know when they are 12 or 13, it will be SOOOOO uncool to kiss mum, so I am building up the kiss bank now!

Can't believe I just said that!

Geez the things you do for your kids! I didn't realise the indignity of parenthood..though because of the kids...I have an excuse.

Megan is still toilet training...she hasnt quite got the hang of things perfectly yet. And so we discuss things...in detail! We look at things...in detail! EVERYONE in the family gets congratulations and high-fives

People would surely look at me strangely, were it not for a littlie nearby! And even then.....

T.G.I.F.

It's 6:55pm Friday night. My favourite time off the week. Not specifically this time, but Friday afternoon/evening. It's the furthest away from work on Monday morning!!

No work, no meetings, no planning....my home is a work free zone. The weekend means time for my kids, hubby and (sadly) housework. If I'm lucky, maybe a little retail therapy or gardening/home improvement.

Don't really care what I'll be doing, what the weather is like or where I have to go. As long as my family is around, I'll be happy!!

You want what??

I have boring tastes, no doubt about it. I don't have a high fashion wardrobe or hairstyle. And my mum will attest to my fussiness with food as a kid (see earlier blogs for more details on that!!)

Since marrying Michael, I have battled with the flavours of his heritage. Mike's parents come from England and so, despite being born in Australia, Mike has English taste buds. We have HP sauce, Yorkshire puddings and English rissoles. Some of these flavours I have come to like, others DEFINATELY not!!

The flavour combinations are what really throws me and it seems to have been passed down to Megan. One of the first cringe-worthy meals Mike had was cheese and onion on a sandwich. You might think that sounds ok but I don't.

The other day, Megan was about to have a peanut butter sandwich until she saw the cheese in the fridge and decided to add cheese to her lunch. My initial thought was "no way" but I remembered that I'm boring and shouldn't restrict anyone else. Still, we thought she would take one bite and ask for a new sandwich, but no. "Delicious!" she says.

Today she trialled Vegemite and ham. Apparently another success story. Who knows what the request will be tomorrow! But I won't question her. I'll just baulk while I make her combination and hope it will be the next flavour sensation!! She might create the next "salt & vinegar chips"!!!!! (yuk!!!)

Luck????

I don't really consider myself to be lucky. But the stars were definitely aligned when our local council arranged my Mother's Group.

We did the standard 6weeks at the community centre with a maternal health nurse discussing young baby issues. At that time, it was great to talk about the milestones and diffilculties of new mums and bubs, knowing that we weren't the only ones having troubles.

After the initial community centre visits, we decided to keep things going, alternating houses each week. Originally there were about 12 mums/bubs. Some mums have returned to work, others have moved or drifted away. But there are still 7 or so regular groupies, still meeting each week, more than 3 years on!

I'm actually really surprised that such a random selection of women who just happened to have babies around the same time have clicked as friends so well. We come from different backgrounds, different careers, different ages. But I consider these mum's among my best friends.

Despite losing some families, our group has grown and grown. Everyone has had (or is about to have) baby number two, and no doubt number threes will appear soon too!

We still do group birthdays and a Christmas party with presents each year and even the dads are getting to know each other more and more. I even deliberately set my day off from work to be mothers group day, so that my kids didn't miss playing with their friends, and I didn't miss the chats and laughs with my good friends.

For no other reason than peace of mind at such a full on, uncertain time with a newborn baby, I would recommend ALL new mums join a mothers group. Who knows, it might turn into rich friendships like my group has!!

Tick tock body clock

Whoever said 5 o'clock in the morning was morning, needs to be shot!! Well maimed at least. Better yet, let them get up at 5am EVERY morning to a little boy who is WIDE awake. That should teach them that 5am might be AM, but it is defiantly not morning!!

At 5am, it's still dark, cold, and quiet. There are no birds chirping...they're all still asleep. There is no traffic noise, only the sound of clocks ticking and snoring husbands. To me all of those things point towards night time!

7am used to seem early. Now it's the promise land of sleep-ins. Maybe one day Alex's body clock will shift out of nighttime and back into morning like regular people!!