Mama's got a brand new toy...

We popped down to Nowra this weekend to check on my grandparents and to see Nathan's aunt and uncle.

Nan and Pa are in slow decline; moving slower, thinking slower. Nan's going in for surgery again this week and each time it takes her longer to recover. She's so depressed that everything hurts nowdays. Its hard to watch. And hard to listen to, but no one else (ie her husband or children) want to hear that she's tired of feeling bad and thinks her time is near. I don't want to face it either, but she needs to talk. Anyhoo, circle of life I guess.

After that we went to see Nath's aunt and uncle. And boy did they have a surprise for me. I have long coveted Uncle Dave's camera. Every time I see him I take the camera out for a spin, playing with all the features and stuff - stuff my (more than adequate) camera doesn't do. And I've toyed with the idea of buying one, but can't justify the cost. Uncle Dave said that his mate was selling an old camera which was a similar model, and I asked him to check it out for me. Then forgot about it. Then yesterday he gave me his camera to play with. When I finished he asked if I noticed anything different. I didn't. Then he pulled out his camera and said 'mine's a bit different from yours'. Mine???? He and Aunty Jayne had bought it for me. Oh. My. Gosh. I was floored. In awe. Aware that it was too much and knowing I couldn't accept it, but in no way willing to give it back! How much do they rock? Heaps. So the rest of the weekend I spent playing with Barry (the camera). We took long walks, I looked into his eye and told him how beautiful he was. He responded by taking beautiful photos for me.




When we left this afternoon we drove back and finally stopped in at the Fedra Olive Grove and Grandma's Little Bakery near Collector.


We've watch the olive groves grow lo these many years we've been driving up the highway to Nowra. It was nice to stop in and see it. We very rarely break the journey. The homemade bread, dip (singular), dukkah, oil and a couple of olives was a sparse but lovely. And the pastry platter was a lot of pastry (as the name would suggest) but we took home what was left and I've been munching this evening. Yum.

Then we drove for another 15 minutes and stopped to see the zebra. Looks like they're going to stick around - and a good thing too! The rest stop was full which means people are breaking their journeys and resting. Stop Revive Survive people! Um, perhaps I should take my own advice.


And of course the windmill. Hmm. Not sure how I feel about them - but they are pretty to look at. Especially through Barry's zoom lense.


Anyhoo, back home. Ready to start a new school term (Lily) and brave the caretaker period (me and Nath). Have a great week!

Six is sooo big...

But not too big for a fairy castle cake (thanks Aunty Nicole).


Aunty Nicole is ace at choosing presents that cause maximum conflict with the children. Sure its a pink barbie car - but its a CAR. Paddy's down with anything car related. You'll note there's actually a car driving the car...


After everyone had gone the cats came out. They're still not jump-on-your-lap-for-a-nap type kitties, but they're warming up.


And just a cute picture of surprise personified. I can't remember what he was surprised at. Its just a cute shot!

Its a long way from here...

Today I traveled. A long way. Relatively anyway; we're pretty good travelers, us Aussies. But still, here I sit, 947km from home (according to google).


View Larger Map

And now I'm here I find myself at a bit of a loose end (here is lovely by the way).



There are no children to feed or bathe. Nothing to clean or maintain. Just me and free broadband internet. So I've downloaded some photos and I'm ready to bombard you with them. A potted history of our June, if you will.

Lily lost her first tooth! She's been walking around bearing her teeth at anyone who will look... Its pretty disturbing.

We got two new family members - Meggs on the left and Sophie on the right. Meggs is named for the Australian cartoon Ginger Meggs; and Sophie for the main character in Mamma Mia. Lily named Sophie. We tried to dissuade her from that name, but its stuck. Paddy calls them 'Meh' and 'Sousie'. They're still pretty timid - especially Meggs - but they're warming up slowly.

I made this hat for Nath. I love it. Its Marram by Eskimimmi (rav link). Its a really clever pattern that looks far more complex than it is. Only problem is that its too short. Based on comments on rav I added another repeat, but its still too short. Oh well. I'm still really proud of it.


I also knitted this cowl for a colleague at work. He loved it, however my cast off may have been a little tight... like, he got it on then couldn't get it off for quite some time... A little unpicking and looser cast off fixed it though and he's pretty chuffed. The middle pattern is a row of double yarn overs which means that when its on the yarn folds towards the neck, making it extra warm.

Lily and I found the most enormous strawberry in a punnet the other day... it must have been a couple that just grew together... but it was pretty stunning! Guess who had the best lunchbox that day...


And a picture of Paddy as you'll most likely find him nowadays. If you ask him to do something he closes his eyes. If you ask him to stop doing something he closes his eyes. Its his way of pretending to not hear you. He does it alot at dinner time...

So there you go. Amazing what kind of posts you can do with a bit of time... I've still got tomorrow night away - but its the final of Project Runway so I see myself holed up in my 'spa bure' with some chocolate and the remote... See ya!

Only a mother could love...

As a parent, there are no more attractive children than your own.

From the moment their mushed up faces emerge from within you, you are smitten.

Every smile lights up your heart like a little bushfire.

Their eyes dance with laughter and your soul soars.

You peer into the prams of other parents and say 'aren't they gorgeous!' while thinking 'but not a patch on my little sproglett'

And then - one random Saturday - your son; your pride; your joy says 'Mummy...'

But when you turn around it seems all that pride in your child's seems ill-placed...



Then of course the older child wants to join in.


And yes, the backwards facing goggles have been removed and the faces have returned to normal. And yet, the image remains burned into my retinas.

Coasting and such

We went away for a couple of days this weekend, being the Canberra Day long weekend. Nath and I are generally homebodies and don't really like going away. Nathan and I also don't like sand. Or sun. Or sweating. So the coast is pretty much the worst place we could be... but the kids love the beach so it was coastward bound we found ourselves.


Between gritted and gritty teeth we wandered and splashed and played.



I guess it wasn't so bad.




That is until the Ben Hur of the spider world found its way into the house. (Nathan and I also don't like spiders.)


We had an epic battle disposing of this bread-and-butter-plate-size arachnid. Amid much spraying and screaming and jumping and running (ours, not the kids) we emerged victorious. It has confirmed our belief that we must train Paterson to be the great white spider hunter.

And on the way home we had our third experience with 'gum in the hair thanks to Willy Wonka'. From memory, when the Violet Beauregard character (in both versions of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is about to try the three course meal gum, she takes out her current piece of gum and sticks it behind her ear.

Three times Lily has attempted this.

Three times she's had large chunks of hair removed from her scalp. Because I'm not that mother that's going to go through several hours of bright-blue chewing gum removal so she still looks normal. I'm the mother that hacks the blue right out and leaves a hole where the hair should be, because she never looks like she brushes it anyway.

Happy Birthday!

Paterson's birthday is December 31. I will forever be sorry to him for being unable to cross my legs for another week so that he didn't get such a sucky birth date. In years to come he may be grateful, but for the next 15 years or so he's not really going to be able to have a decent celebration. Every one is away, or going to NYE parties so he gets forgotten. Next year we're going to have a party for him on 31 November instead - everyone is still around and not so absorbed in Christmas. We did have a lovely night at a friend's place on NYE and had a cake for him so it wasn't so bad, but I do feel awful for not going the whole hog for him.

Anyhoo, whingeing aside, Paddy is turning 2. Hence the cake. I made that. I was pretty impressed, except that the marzipan duck in the marzipan pond is freakishly large compared to the vehicles on the road. Not Godzilla large. But half the size of a car large.

Paterson is obsessed with cars and airplanes and trains at the moment. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised - him being a boy and all - but its soooo stereotypically male. And Lily was the same with dolls I guess. She's always had a fair mix of 'boys' and 'girls' toys but gravitated toward the girls toys. We already noticed a difference in the way different gender kids play when we saw Lily and her cousin Marcus playing with dinosaurs. Marcus was making his dino's eat each other. Lily had hers in a school or a hospital or something. Same toy - different play.


Back to Paddy though; he's all man. Loves mechanical things, hitting things with a stick and jumping on the 'leen' while I sing 'get ready to wiggle'. Loves the Wiggles and Thomas. Loves his books. Loves emptying the pencil tin then sitting in it. He has an ever expanding vocabulary, but favourites include: No, Mine, ily (for Lily), Wiggool and 'leen'. He's the most precious little man and I'm blessed to have him for a son.

Merry whatever...

We had quite a lovely Christmas Day, despite having Old Nana taken to hospital with pneumonia and our family 'drunkle' (that's a drunken uncle) having a go at us for turning in at 10pm. So after a very non-christian-or-christmas outburst at my drunkle this morning * we departed to Nowra to have a second Christmas day with Nath's family. The kids had a lovely day - a quality present which delighted Lily and lots of cars for Paddy which kept him enthralled for hours. Lil also got an Astroboy toy from my sister which was a huge hit. Those of you who've been around for a while may remember Lil's desire for an Astroboy during the "Front" knitting incident last year. Its cause a few sharing issues but they've generally been delightful.

*After he bought my mother to tears I said to him 'Nice to know that it not just your own family's Christmas' that you f*** up, and that you don't mind f***ing ours up either'. I then dramatically closed the door and the curtains so he couldn't respond. Not very mature. And I'm not 100% proud of it. But I'm sick of letting people do/say awful things and get away with it. As the other resident drunk (currently on the wagon) I was the only one that could say it and get away with it.

Blogging the black dog from bed...

Not feeling crash hot tonight so I'm going to have an early one. Just in bed now, going to check a few blogs, the tune out with some meditations. Hopefully i will have kicked this sore throat by tomorrow. But I did have a good day none the less! Work Christmas lunch then the kids childcare Christmas party. Yet again Lily was too scared to go anywhere near Santa, and Paddy wsn't really down with the whole experience either. Anyhoo. I'll write more tomorrow.

Belting the black dog - day 3

Firstly I just wanted to thanks everyone who has commented or sent me good vibes in the last two days - I'm feeling the love! And thanks to the anonymous commenter who suggested a meditation - I got some by that bloke today and I think it will be enormously helpful.

When I went to my doctor on Monday to get some help she was really great and suggested that I might need a professional review of my medication and tried to get me in to a shrink. Using her influence she got me an appointment. In April 2010. Just as well I wasn't too close to the edge. Then I rang my psychologist. February 2010. Thankfully I got a cancellation appointment today which was exactly what i needed. She's wonderful. I'm pretty good at playing my depression down, and she called me on it. We talked through some stuff. Had a good laugh. And I left knowing that I had some tools to be able to belt the black dog with.

Then in the afternoon I took the kids to the Wiggles. It was my our first Wiggles experience and I loved it. These are individuals who must really love what they do and seem to have a really good time up there. Paddy was mesmerised - didn't dance or clap or sing - just stared. And Lil shouted and danced and sung and waved and had a great time. We did notice that Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the dog had apparently acquired eating disorders as their costumes looked very sleek in comparison to the old dvds we'd seen. But it was great.

And tonight we were out for my MILs birthday and one of those clubs that have children's play areas built in. Designed to keep kids entertained, but I always spend more time supervising other people's children in there so they're not injuring my kids.

And now I'm home. Kids are asleep. Husband is in bed and I'm keeping up a promise to myself to do something for me. Not a bad day at all! As Bec said today sometimes you need to reflect on the positives rather than the negatives of a day. Its working for me too Bec!

See youz tomorrow!

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung here... although I did take this photo in August. But there is definitely a little bit of warmth in the air and things are popping out all over the place. It is only 14 degrees during the day, but the days are clear and that makes all the difference.

My blogging this time around might be a little more random. I might include a section of 'stuff that I just want to put out there' or 'thoughts irrelevant to the rest of the post'. Primarily because last time I blogged I was so concerned about each post being a well-crafted story that it took ten times longer than it should have to get stuff out. And while I love going back and reading those posts (and half the reason why I'm blogging again is because I realised how much I valued having those posts to go back and read) I don't think that the occasional typo or bad segue will reduce their readability.

So I bring you:

Random Thoughts

• I drove to Sydney on Monday and it was so lovely to see the fog rising over the windmills around Lake George.
• I sat behind a girl on a train who was blowing bubbles - it was a lovely thing to see on a train full of surly city folk.
• Paddy has started talking and one of his favourite words is bubble.
• Paddy won't say Mummy. He calls me, Lily and Nath 'Daddy'. It bugs me a bit.
  
• Lily had her first orientation day at big school today. That freaks me out.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement to come back and do this thing... I'll be back later with a few craft related endeavors.

Happy Birthday

In the midst of the end of year postings all around (one of which I'm dying to post) I would like to put a 'Happy Birthday' out into the ether for my beautiful little man Paterson, who turned 1 today.


I was frightened at having a boy. I didn't want to find out the sex because if it were male I didn't want my first reaction to my second child to be disappointment. I wanted a sister for Lil so she would have the relationship that I have with my sister. I didn't know what to do with a boy. Please don't bother pointing out all the logic flaws with this - I'm well aware of them. I was only a little sad when he was born, but only because Nathan hadn't decided against calling our son 'Paterson' as I had hoped he would (love you bub!).

But let me tell you, I could not love Paddy any more if I tried. He is a constant source of delight. His beautiful blue eyes light up when he smiles. He giggles uncontrollably at Lily's attempts at slapstick. He squeals when the 'kissing monster' gets him. He loves tackling and rough-housing - although his penchant for biting isn't making him a popular playmate at present. He eats like a child possessed. No one is safe while eating near him. He loves to bury his head in pillows. He loves to stand on all fours and look between his legs while resting on his head on the ground. He talks and goos and points at everything. He loves opening draws and closing doors. He loves de-furring Rosie the cat. He loves to push things - cars, vacuum cleaners, doorstops... Now he has teeth he loves making noise with his tongue against his teeth. And blowing raspberries. And of course biting. I love how he now deliberately puts his arm up around me neck; not just to hold on to me, but for a hug. And I kind of like that he still prefers to come to me when he's sad. Makes me feel needed, you know?

Anyhoo, I wrote this more for myself than anything. You say you'll remember this amazing spectacular moment in their lives - but then the next amazing spectacular moment comes along to replace it*.

So, Happy Birthday little man.

And Happy New Year to the rest of you; I'm a new year's eve grinch (which is why the universe made me have a child on NYE) so I'll think of you at 9.10 when I'm snuggled up in bed.

Naomi

*(except that I will always remember Lil saying 'Mum, when you die and I get older, can I wear your marrying dress?' a couple of days ago...)

Images that make me smile

What's not to love about a first day back at work?

I started work again yesterday and it was lovely! On the first day back to an old job no one needs to show you around or introduce you (except to the new staff who are finally meeting the 'Naomi' they've heard reference to for the past 11 months - they appear underwhelmed), you spend time going through emails and setting up all those preferences that seem to have disappeared from your computer profile, you chat, have coffee, catch up on all the gossip and generally have a nice time.

I know this is going to change, but it was so refreshing to have a day totally in my own headspace. As a parent you much have very little time to ponder the direction of your day - its all dependent on the little folk and their wants, needs and desires. To be able to have a thought, and follow through with it (ie mmm, coffee, i'll get one, oohhh that's what hot coffee taste like!) was nice. And I feel heaps more motivated to do stuff at home, knowing that the time here is precious. I think I need work. Anyhoo, the kidlets won't know much different, Nath has gone part time too so Paddy doesn't have to go into childcare and Lily gets a whole day with her Dad.

I also made a little project bag the other day... I don't often get time near my sewing machine, what with trying to be an attentive parent and all. But Lily decided to play games on ABC kids site so I got to sit beside her and sew - periodically helping her to find Iggle Piggle or dress Mixy. I got the fabric from Calico Patch at Gold Creek, and put a little pvc window in so I can see what project is contained within. It was such a quick job, but it does the trick!

And here is a look at some poppies that my mum gave me... they looked stunning in the 6am sunshine... Sometimes I'm grateful that my little man gets me up at 5.00.

My best friend is better than your best friend

I've just had a couple of days with my bestie 'Big Lilly'. She's primarily 'big' because having two Lil[l]y's in the house is confusing, but also because she's got big talent, a big heart, is big fun and is pretty big [tall!]. When Lil was born big Lilly did a picture for her (which I'll upload when I find it) with her name and now its Paterson's turn! Behold the wonder that is his picture...


This little guy is my favourite.

Despite the fact that she, and her beautiful 2 month old bub were sick, sick, sick, she made the simple things special.

I dream that one day we will not suffer the tyranny of distance and be able to see each other more than once annually. We met in 1989 when Lil was my billet for a music festival. Nearly 20 years later and we've travelled, lived, worked and played together and maintained an amazing friendship despite distance and lack of communication (primarily by me!!) I miss you already big Lil.

One of the best things was that on Friday night I had Big Lilly, my sister and Lil all together - all my favourite girls in the one place at the one time. And we laughed (mostly at an extremely wired little four year old) till we nearly cried. Great restorative for the soul.

Anyhoo, I've about 15 post that are floating about in my head, so I'd best get to it before one of the little darlings wakes up. Paddy's been feeding at 5.30 ish so I just stay up and get an hour or so to myself! Woohoo!

Coffee and a Tea Party

I've been tired. My beloved little Paddle-pop has cut three teeth in as many weeks and - for whatever reason - still wakes at least twice a night to feed. So I've become a little 'devoted' to my coffee. Those who know me will attest that I have rather an addictive personality. So imagine my dismay when the other morning i measured my last two heaped spoons of ground coffee into the plunger...


And didn't realise that I'd not replaced the glass canister. I salvaged enough for one cup.

I also held a little tea party for Nath and LilyPad the other day. Avalonne had told me that there was a new French Patisserie in the Belconnen Markets (where the scungy takeaway used to be). So I had to try it, you know, because I might need to recommend it to someone... Anyhoo I got me some pecan pies and set up Lil's little table with the 'good' linen (which gets used all the time) and the wedgewood vase with some pansies, and some coffee for us (natch) and chocolate milk for Lil.

Our coffee ended up mocha because Lil kept serving us 'more tea maaaad am [madam]' .Paddy just got a rusk. Raw deal for him, because those pies nearly blew my socks off. Just devine - and with a slight bourbon flavour and huge chunks of delicious chocolate.

Little critters

Something tells me that getting a serious family photo out of my brood is going to be a hard slog...

This is... what makes me happy

Ah. I'm big on searching for happiness. I don't often consider that I'm happy, but I think that's because I'm constantly pursued by the black dog and only catch the happiness in glimpses as I bolt past... I strive to be happy, by reading books like 'Choosing Happiness' by Stephanie Dowrick, reading sites like Authentic Happiness and the Happiness Project. But ultimately, these things make me happy...

1. Listening to Lily tell me stories before we go for a lunchtime sleep
2. Watching Paterson's face light up when I enter a room
   
3. Seeing a flower in the vase beside my bed, knowing that Nathan has left it there
4. Seeing plants begin to flower, or sprout, or produce fruit.
5. Certain foods - I apparently do something that Nath calls the 'happy dance' when I have something that I think is particularly yummy.
6. Spending time with two special people; my sister and Big Lilly.

(NOTE: The picture above will one day be the cover shot for a book I'm planning to write 'How to keep your house clean and look after the children'.)