Family games night...

Tonight we had a family games night. We played dominoes, memory and some puzzles.

Megan loved it as usual, and Alex stayed and played for much longer than I had anticipated.

It wasn't planned or requested, but was great quality time. I love it when that happens....

Losing Robbie...

For those familiar with our family, you'll know who Robbie is and how important he is. For those new around here, he is a blanky-type toy belonging to Alex. Robbie is there when Alex feels sick, sad, and almost everything in between!



Robbie can get quite gross after being dragged around so much.
Read here and here for my thoughts on that!

As is normal for an almost 3 yr old, Robbie gets dropped as soon as something more interesting takes Alex's fancy. Which means we find Robbie in all manner of places.

And sometimes, Alex deliberately hides Robbie in weird places...coz it's fun. The only problem is that he forgets where that weird place is and we spend hours and hours (seriously!!) looking for him.

The other night we couldn't find Robbie again, even after looking in cupboards, under couches and in the fridge (yes, we've found him there before!) So Alex went to bed without him, without much of a fuss I might add.

We did find him the next day, hidden at the very back under Alex's bed. Heaven knows how he got there.

The new rule is he must always stay in Alex's room and is only for bed time. So we might be at the stage where he doesn't need his bunny-blanket-thing as much as he used to.

One more indicator that my baby is no longer a baby, and he is well on his way to becomming a a bone-fide boy!

Gushing...

We FINALLY received Megan's kinder photos yesterday, and I thought I'd share, coz they are just SOOOOOOOOOO beautiful! (and surprisingly not too pricey!)



If you look closely, you can see that she is writing her name...CUTE!!

I was undecided about sending her for photos in her boring Kinder t-shirt, that was no doubt smudged with playdough, paint and fruit. But I figured This is what she is like at 3yr old kinder and that's what I want the photographer to capture.

And now presenting, my absolute favourite photo of them all.......



Just being there...

As I sit writing this, I am sitting on my almost 3 yr old's bed, waiting for him to fall asleep.

It's been a long, long while since we had to sit with Alex as he fell asleep. Even though its kind of a pain, it's also nice to just sit and watch my youngest child as he drifts off to the land of nod.

As a baby, he would cry as soon as we put him down. We could rock him to sleep and the moment his body hit the cot, he would wake. We tried patting, controlled crying, singing, music, you name it. The only thing that would send Alex off to sleep was sitting in the room with him, not talking, just being there. Sometimes it took 5mins for him to fall asleep, sometimes more than an hour!

As this became a habit, we tried moving closer to the door each night, until eventually we just had to tuck him in, stand at the door, count to 10 and then he was happy for us to leave.

But tonight was different.

Tonight, Alex smashed Megan's fingers in the door and saw how upset she got and how much her fingers swelled up. Tonight, he bit Mike and really got growled at. Tonight, he accidentally dropped a glass and it shattered all over the floor.

Tonight, he was in a very fragile frame of mind.

Tonight he needed mum again... just to sit. Not talk, just be there.

 

And tonight, I am more than happy to be where he needs me.

 

 

 

 

Family photos...

Every now and again I try to get a nice family photo. It rarely works...or more accurately, I'm rarely happy with them.

I did plan on going to a park to take them today, but it was too cold and I chickened out. However we I took some at home instead and they have turned out alright.

 

I love the greenery behind us...but I would have liked it to be a bit further away so it had that nice blurry effect. Oh well, next time!!

 

Think Alex was getting sick of smiling by now!

I think I've picked out which ones will be printed and put into frames.


And then the kids needed to have their picture taken by themselves, so I got these gems as well!

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favourite!

Kids and secrets...

Kids and secrets... The short response is....they aren't compatible!

Monday is my birthday and Mike took the kids shopping yesterday for my gift. He must have said to them that they can't tell mum what they bought...it was a secret.

I think it took Alex all of about an hour to let the first cat out of the bag. He was playing and then out of the blue....

Alex: Mum it's a surpise...
Me: What is?
Alex: Your book..it's a surprise!

WHOOPS!!!

Megan spoiled the second today. She was playing with a felt board and felt figures at a party. We were talking about how there were two people and there was two of all the party things which worked out well. There were also two presents, one of which she said...

"This one is earrings, Mum."

Luckily I had suggested each of these gifts so they weren't a HUGE surprise, but I'm guessing Mike will be shopping by himself next year!!

Twins...

I always wanted to have twins. It runs in our family and the urban legend was that it skips a generation. My dad and his brother are twins and my mum has twin brothers. Since MY brother and I aren't twins, we thought the legend could be true and my brother and I could have twins in our families, but neither of us did.

I always thought having twins would be the best way to get my family. I only ever wanted two kids, and if you got that through one pregnancy then awesome. But, I had such great pregnancies that it was never that much of a loss for me.

As it turns out, I think I could pass my two cherubs off as twins ath the age they are now... to those who don't know them, of course.

They are similar in size and are alike enough to pass as fraternal twins. We often get people saying "Oh, they're twins- a boy and a girl!". We used to got through the spiel of saying "No, she is 18 months older, but she's just little." but now we don't bother. We just give an ambiguous smile and walk away.

So for now (until Alex overtakes Megan), I have my twin family and the urban legend can be called true... sort of...

Alex's arrival...

I feel that to document the kids well, I should have started at the start. So I thought that I'd write about Alex's birth... mainly so that I don't forget the details later on (I've already forgotten some parts!)

Alex was due on December 17th, 2009. After Megan arrived one week late, I was convinced we would have a Christmas baby and I did everything I could to get him to come earlier. We fiddled with dates during scans, I even tried to adjust the due date on my pregnancy card to trick the nurses into scheduling my induction (if it came to that) early. Didn't work :(

His due date came and went and as Christmas loomed closer I got sadder. I didn't want my little boy to have to share his birthday with everyone else on the 25th. That wasn't fair. I guess that was the first "Life isn't fair" lesson for Alex!

We arrived at the hospital at 6am ish on the 24th, ready to be induced. I'd never reached this point with Megan, she came of her own accord. But as I've come to know Alex in the following years, he rarely does anything unless forced to!

Waiting for the doctor, in the lovely NEW birthing suite, which would be our room for the whole time.

The doctor came to do his checks at about 8am (so why did we have to get there at 6??). His internal examination REALLY hurt and I even saw the nurses wince at my reaction. He put the drug drip in my hand in such a funny position that I could not get my hand and arm comfortable for the rest of the day. I'd never had a drip before so I didn't know what to expect.

Then we waited..... and waited.... and waited..... The nurses kept popping in to check on me and they could clearly tell by my face that nothing was happening. So each time they came in, they upped the dose of the oxytocin (I think that was it). My arm felt funny but I attributed that to the stupid position of the canula and I had no other drip experience to compare it to.

This continued for hours.... the nurses would come in, I'd tell them my arm felt funny, they'd up the dose of the drugs, we'd chat for a bit, then they'd leave.

Eventually one of the nurses really looked closely at my arm and realised that it had puffed right up. I thought I might have been allergic to the canula or the drugs but the nurse worked out that my arm had been filling with the oxytocin and it was going into the tissue rather than the vein...hence no labour.

They decided that it would take too long to get the doctor to come back to reinsert the canula, and I really didn't want Dr.-Rough-&-Can't-Put-A-Bloody-Drip-In-Properly to come back so I was happy for the nurse to fix it all.

Then everything happened VERY QUICKLY after that. I'm not sure if the drugs stored in my arms finally soaked in or the massively high dose of drugs still pouring in from the drip got things started. But something was working and the contractions hit with a vengence.

I asked for pain killers again but after the nurse checked me out, she said I was ready to push and the drugs wouldn't kick in in time.

HANG ON  A MINUTE....READY TO PUSH??? Megan's labour lasted for 12 hours. The drugs had only just started to work, how could I be ready to push already????? And then I felt the urge to push and ignored everything else!

Alex was born reletively quickly after that. No tearing or episiotomy needed this time round, which is surprising considering I didn't have as much time to stretch and get ready for his birth.

He arrived at 3:20pm on Friday, December 24th, 2009. He was 7lbs 4oz (3.28kg) and 50cm long. His labour officially lasted 2 hours.

A few hours later I had a funny feeling inside and went to the loo. Out came a HUGE blood clot and I freaked out. I thought it was part of the placenta that had got left behind...surely that's not good??? I got Mike to call the nurse in and she reassured me, just a clot of blood. Perhaps the huge dose of oxytocin cleaned out my uterus in one go rather than slowly over a few days like normal.

So we spent the whole Christmas period in hopsital, from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day.We were lucky enough to get Christmas lunch the next day and actually spending Christmas in hospital was rather nice and relaxed! Santa even visited at some point during the night and left Alex a little present...not sure how the nurses knew how many gifts to buy!

Alex's labour and birth was a bit more dramatic than I would have hoped, but it's a good story to tell!


This is how I remember it all happening. I'm sure parts are wrong and I've probably missed bits too. As my memory fills in the blanks, I'll come back and update/edit this story!

How she arrived...

I feel that to document the kids well, I should have started at the start. So I thought that I'd write about Megan's birth... mainly so that I don't forget the details later on (I've already forgotten some parts!)

Megan was due on June 20th, 2008. My work made us take 6 weeks of maternity leave before the due date, but I had varicose veins in my right leg (still do) and was a bit over working, so I got the doctor to write a letter stating that I needed to finish a week early. In hindsight I should have stuck it out, because I didn't realise how bored I'd get at home.

My due date came and went, despite trying all the home remedies to kick start labour from 38 weeks onwards. The doctor would not even discuss induction until the due date and would book it in any earlier than 7 days over.

GRRR, grumble, whinge, whine... I was sick of being pregnant, I wanted my baby out... yesterday!!

We continued with trying to get labour started at home and thought we had succeeded on the Wednesday night, a day and a half before the sceduled induction. Pains and pressure had me convinced labour had started, but it kept stopping and starting at irregular intevals. We called the hospital but since everything was irregular, I was told to stay home.

By Thursday night, things had started to be a bit more regular so we made another call to the hospital. They told us to come in and they'd check me out. So the moment we'd been waiting for had arrived...or so we thought!!

The nurses did all of their contraction labour checks with the belt-y thingy, but apparently I was in false labour. Since my induction was booked in for the following morning, they gave us the option of going home or staying the night and giving me a sleeping tablet so I was rested for the following day. Mike and I decided to stay.

The pain started at what I have worked out to be about 4am. Painful enough to get me out of bed and walk around a bit, but then the sleeping tablet must have still been in my system, coz I went back to sleep straight away. I think this happend twice again... the details are fuzzy already and the sleeping tablet worked really well!

The nurses came to wake me at about 6am to get started for the induction. I told them about the pain and they did their checks and told me I was already 4cm dilated. The doctor decided not to give me the induction drugs, but still broke my waters. This was supposed to get things moving... but it didn't much :(

My labour progressed very slowly. I had regular contractions that increased in intensity but everything moved at a snails' pace. I was exhausted and it hurt so I asked for an epidural. I really hadn't wanted one previously, but I was just so tired and so over being pregnant that I thought feeling nothing was a great idea!

The nurses convenced me to have the gas first. This helped for a while before I needed to move onto the pethedine injection. I honestly don't think this did anything apart from making me space out and feel super sleepy between contractions. The nurses told Mike to go and have a break at one point and I was so angry... why did he deserve a rest... I didn't get one?

I remember the transition phase, I needed the blinds closed and wanted everyone to SHUT THE HELL UP! I didn't know it at the time, but the nurses explained all the phases afterwards :) When it was time to push, I made loads of noise that I'm sure was completely unnecessary. Pushing lasted an hour and a half. Mike saw Megan's head crowning. This really surprised me coz I thought that would gross him out (I don't think I could look...eeewwww).

When Megan was born, the doctor said her umbilical cord was quite short. I'm convinced she was bungy jumping her way out which is why everything took so long- she'd get half way then bounce right back! I still remember the smell of her, all bloody and covered in gunk! If any of the kids hurt themselves now and there is lots of blood, I'm instantly transported back 4 years to that hospital room.

Megan arrived on Friday, the 27th June 2008 at 4:15pm, 1 week overdue. She was 6lbs 14oz (3.11kg) and about 48cm long. He labour was officially 12 hours long.

Note the blue hands and feet... I thought she'd have bad circulation like me, but luckily not.

I needed a few stitches coz I had an episiotomy to get the bouncy child out. Apart from super soreness and total exhaustion, I was great! Mike left to call and text everyone and I hung around in the grotty, bloody room with my new baby on my chest.

Mike took so long and I really needed a shower, so I had to leave my hours old baby with the nurses while I cleaned up. I felt so much better aftetr that shower. When I came out, the nurses had moved all our stuff out of the birthing room and into our ward room, Megan included! I was a bit unnerved to come out of the shower and find my baby gone already! But when they showed me to the room, Mike was there with her, so I didn't totally freak out.

Visitors piled in over the next few days. Mike stayed for the whole time on a horrible fold out couch. I was happy to have the nurses take Megan to the nursery so I could sleep, but always felt lost without her and went to get her after a few hours. We stayed in hospital for 3 days and part of me wanted to stay in the security of the hospital, with nurses only a button push away.

But eventually we went home and then whirlwind of having a new baby begun...

This is how I remember it all happening. I'm sure parts are wrong and I've probably missed bits too. As my memory fills in the blanks, I'll come back and update/edit this story!

That Love Drug......

Love is a strange thing. It comes in all shapes and sizes...and degrees.

I wasn't prepared for the love I feel for my kids. I love my husband, my parents and family, my friends. But that love does not even come close how I feel about my children.

The love tends to swell and surge when I get cuddles, kisses or out of the blue "I love you"s. Despite it sometimes driving me nuts, I do love that they need me to give comfort when they are upset and no one else. It's like a drug that I just can't get enough of.

I remember when my the first of my friends became a mum and said the cliched "I'd walk in front of a bus to save my baby!" At the time, I thought 'ok, you probably would'. When Megan was first born I got a taste of what she was talking about. I loved my baby and would do anything to protect her. Same when Alex came along.

But it wasn't until they got a bit older, developed delightful personalities, that I realized that not only would I walk in front of a bus for them, I'd do it deliberately and decisively! Now they are older, I feel the world would be a much sadder, darker place without them in it, so I'd need to do something to stop that.

I thought this was important to document, the way I feel about my children, they way I can't get enough of their smiles and giggles. I'm sure in 10-12 years when I'll be traveling those fraughtful teen years that I will want to look back on the toddler/preschooler days with a bit of nostalgia.

Thankful...

Tonight I watched a TV report on premature babies, and the fight and struggle that they and their families face. To say I was crying was an understatement!

The strength of these parents was incredible, and the heartache I felt for them was indescribable. To be called in to hospital to say goodbye to your tiny baby is something no parent should ever have to do.

I was lucky enough to only have healthy, full-term babies and both have been free from any major medical dramas, despite Alex trying to give himself head injuries at every opportunity! 

But I know parents that haven't been as fortunate, families that have had to deal with the possibility of losing their tiny baby; giving birth at 34, 30 and 28weeks. Some babies have flourished, some have had more of a struggle but pulled through. They still face challenges that being born prematurely brings.

Watching this TV segment, and thinking about those babies made me SO thankful for my healthy children, asleep in their beds. Thankful that they haven't had to fight for anything other than toys. Thankful that the only heart troubles they have suffered is being heartbroken at being told "No!". Thankful that every breath they have taken has been easy and unaided. 

I am also thankful that I don't need to be as strong as the families of premmie babies. I am in awe of their strength, but certainly not envious of it.

It's nice to be needed...

No parent likes it when their child is sick. The not knowing what is wrong, and worse still, the not being able to do much to make them feel better.

Once panadol (or other medicine) is administered, our role becomes that of comforter. Wiping away tears of pain, rubbing sore tummies, stroking foreheads until sleep comes.

It's lovely, that in a bad situation, I am able to offer reassurance simply being giving a cuddle or a snuggle. I often hold and cuddle for longer than is necessary, long after the sickie has drifted off to much needed sleep. This is purely because it's nice to feel needed and be able to help alleviate even the smallest amount of pain just through being there.

And I'll keep doing it for as long as I am needed....

In love...

Have I said how much I love my kids??? Surely it has come up at some stage! I mean, really, who couldn't? They are just so AWESOME!

Granted, they can be the devil-incarnate at some points but mainly I just melt at the sight of them and turn into a "Megan and Alex Groupie"!

Bit sad, I know, but I'm a mum, I'm allowed to be :)

Expiry date on hugs...

I get lots of cuddles from Alex at the moment. When he is sad, when he is tired, when he is shy. I even got kisses this afternoon as I was laying down with him for a nap.

I know kids. I know that they grow up and showing their love for mum is SOOO not cool.

So I am gorging myself on hugs and kisses at the moment, as if their expiry date is just around the corner! I am snagging extra ones when I can and really appreciating the ones freely given.

Time away from them...

I love my kids: heart and soul, to the ends of the world and back. But gee I love time away from them!

We (hubby and I) are currently on school holidays, but the kids have return to thier daycare centre after a week off over Christmas/New Years.You might think it's unnecessary to send them when we are at home, but I look at it this way.

Our childcare centre (or creche as we call it) doesnt give reduced holiday rates, so we are paying regular fees regardless of whether the kids are there or not. If we dont send them, it uses up some of the allowed absences for the year. So we thought they may as well go for a few hours, solialise with their friends, and we get some uninterrupted adult time!!

I usually plan particular activities during creche days...scrapbooking stuff spread out all over the table, lunch out~just the 2 of us, shopping in places that would be a nightmare with 2 toddlers, etc. The kid-free time is bliss and usually flies by faster than ever.

And as icing on the cake, by the time we go to pick the kids up again, I have usually missed them to bits and they are super-excited to see us. So the time apart has brought us closer together!

Baby Wipes...how I love thee!!

I love Baby Wipes, seriously love them. This is not news to my family and friends. They hear me rave about them all the time. But I just found a new use for them and need to share my love!!

Obviously, baby wipes are great for cleaning baby bums. We only have 1 little tacker in nappies now so you would have thought our stocks of baby wipes would be reducing...not so!! I think we buy more now than when Megan was first born and we stocked up (as new parents do in all the excitement, you know, 3 super-sized boxes of nappies that newborns grow out of so quickly!!). In fact, I think the ratio of wipe use is about 1:3, 1 packet used on bums, 3 pakets used around the house!

I use them in just about every room of the house. We have a pack on the dining table for wiping faces and hands after eating (not great for the environemnt, I know, but soooooo much faster and more efficient than face washers). I use wipes to dust-on the rare occasions that happens :), wipe finger smudges from the fridge and often the walls too. Yesterday I used them to clean the dusty muck from on top of the microwave and today hubby used them to clean the grease from the rangehood vents above the stove. Amazing clean- as good as when I soak them in hot, soapy water. We even used them on the inside of the oven once!

I am happy to share my secret, too, to all 2 of my blog readers out there!! I know you wont be rushing the shops and cause a huge change in my wipe-buying practises! They are just Aldi wipes. They have Aloe Vera and Vitamin E, which sounds lovely for young bottoms, but must be important in general cleaning too even thought I wouldn't have thought so.

On the downside, there are some things my super-wipes cant do...

• Clean purple nail polish from my cream walls (thanks for the Alex!)
• Mop my floor-  not that they couldn't, I'm sure they'd do a great job, I just haven't stooped that low...yet!
• Prune my garden
• End world hunger

Pretty much anything else, is covered!!

Simple pleasures...

There's nothing like being up before everyone and enjoying the quiet. It doesn't happen often-usually coz I like to stay in bed as long as possible on the weekends.

But today when Alex got up at his usual time (the crack of dawn!) we went outside for a bit of a play. It's gonna be hot today, I can feel it in the heat of the early morning. Not quite hot yet, but warm with a promise of heat.

So we set up the shell and put water in it so that the sun will warm the water for later this morning. Then Alex hopped in the swing for his favourite outside activity. He could sit in the swing for hours and be happy!

And I'm happy watching him...such simple pleasures!

How far would you go?

I watched a movie today that made me think of things I would never have considered before. If any parent has not watched "My Sister's Keeper" then I recommend you do- and with several boxes of tissues on hand.

The essence of the film was how far do you go to save your child's life. Until this movie I would have answered the generic "step in front of a bus" type response. Having watched the ordeal this family goes thru made me seriously think about how far I'd actually go.

I would like to think I'd match the tenacity and never-give-up attitude of the mother in the movie without question. The gut-wrenching agony of watching my child go through pain and suffering would make me so intent on doing whatever I could to stop it, regardless of consequences.

But with outsiders glasses on, as viewers, we see what this does to the rest of the family. And our basic need to protect our children may be prolonging the pain as well as prolonging the inevitable.

It's a horrible situation to be in with incredibly difficult choices either way. Hopefully this is something I never have to consider, let alone go through.



(footnote- before this movie I knew about cancer, it's treatments and side effects. But now I understand it so much more and have an enormous amount of respect for anyone dealing with it, either themselves or someone they know)

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...

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!