New beginings!

Hey everybody! How are ya’ll going?

Things are going quite alright at this neck of the woods. I think I’ve been watching waaaay too much Orange is the New Black. Why did I not start watching it earlier! Anyone else love OITNB?

We’re still adjusting to our new apartment. I think our little one loves this place though!

Besides that I’ve been pouring a lot of time and energy into a business plan. Im hoping to release a skin care range by December. This has brought a lot of determination out in me so I can’t wait to finally get it out there!

How’s it going at your end?

Goodnight!

“Nigh nigh time baby. Let’s goto bed. Do you want to say goodnight to dad?” “Nigh nigh dad” and she blows a kiss.

My 18 mo and I head off to bed.

Every night I nurse her to sleep. Tonight she drifted off and rolled the opposite way. 2 minutes later she started kicking the blanket off. Then she started whimpering in her sleep and dived on top of my head.

I cuddled her and tried to move her head to my chest where I thought she might be more comfy. She whimpers and i feel her arms tighten around my head. So I thought she must be pretty comfortable where she is, I leave her where she is and we have a big cuddle in her sleep.

I thought to myself “I am so lucky to have my daughter”. And I am.

Nothing beats that feeling.

They say “the most precious jewels you will ever feel around your neck are your childrens arms”. It’s 100% true.

Tonight we cuddled for a good while which was lovely because usually when she is asleep my daughter will fuss if I try to cuddle her. My daughters cuddles are the best cuddles ever.

Right then, with Bub snug and secure in my arms, I thought to myself (for the first time!) “well I must be doing something right”.

I doubt myself every day. Most days I don’t feel adequate no matter what my partner or family tell me.

But I watch my daughter, how happy she is, how sweet her little personality is, and it’s moments like tonight where she gives me unlimited cuddles or she gives me a big sloppy kiss, that make me realise how wrong I am about myself.

I am a good mum!

I hope you other amazing mums out there know that too!

Love & peace

goodnight!

 

Wow!

Right now I’m lying in bed wondering how and why I have all this random energy. I should be snoring like my partner! Or having a blissful slumber like my daughter.

I have been running on a large cap with 2. At least once a week my partner loves to remind me “you know a large cap is the same as a regular but they just use more milk and it makes weaker, right?” to which I will usually reply something like “you know some things should never be spoken of my love. That right there is one of those things” unless the coffee hasn’t kicked in…in that instance I’ll just act as if I’m absolutely mortified.

Anyway Ive been itching to get back on my blog and post. But alas! I’ve been very time poor lately.

The past six weeks have been crazy. You probably don’t want to know but I’m going to tell you anyway. We’ve had a few family emergencies – my dad went blind in one eye, around the same time my mum ended up in hospital with liver problems, then a couple of weeks later my dad had a stroke and had to go back to hospital. Literally the same day that I found out my dad had the stroke I also found out that my landlord was going to be selling our rental and it would be a smart idea to move…like asap.

I think I went into a silent melt down. There was too much happening and I didn’t know how to cope. Luckily I had the support of my other half.

A couple of days after we found out our landlord would be selling through a totally different real estate, we got a letter in the mail saying that they would be bringing potential buyers to our unit the next weekend. It was an instant wtf is happening moment.

We managed to get the real estate to agree to postponing the inspections until we had completely moved out in a couple of weeks.

A week later, I had started packing most of our stuff with the help of my awesome toddler.

One evening that week, my partner was coming home on the freeway in his tow truck when another driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into my partners truck. Overall, they both could have been worse off. My partner has a couple of injuries but he’s ok. The other driver walked away fine too. Luckily no one else was involved because we reckon it could have been a lot uglier.

Anyway, now we’ve finally moved into our new place but I still have to go back tomorrow and clean up our old place. Good thing I find cleaning relaxing!

How the heck has this much happened in less than 2 months!

 

 

Mothers Day

Happy late late (better late than never, right?) Mothers Day to all you beautiful women out there!

We enjoyed a nice night down the south coast and took our daughter to the Early Learning Museum at the University of Wollongong. I wish there were more places around Sydney like the Early Learning Museum – it was awesome. If you’re from NSW, Australia, I’d definitely reccomend it.

There was a massive pirate ship (which was for older kids I think) that the kids can climb and hide in. It was pretty cool.

There was a mysterious looking cave that we intended to go in but our toddler had other plans and headed over to the food market. The market was my favourite part of the centre – it has aisles with food and trolleys or baskets that the kids can use to get their food. Then when we were ready to check out, off to the counter where a little boy about 4 was waiting at the cash register. “Put your food up here please” he asked my toddler, so I showed her what to do with a carrot, then she started doing it herself with the rest of the things in the trolley. The boy was quite a character. He measured the weight and entered the amounts into the cash register (which was also real) and placed them into reusable bags. “Okay now that comes to a total of…free” he told us while putting his hand out. “Do you have any money?” He asked us. I felt like I was in a real shop and realised I hadn’t a dollar, embarrassed I said “sorry I don’t..” to which he told me “if you don’t have money you just pretend”. Ohhhhh. It made me realise I hadn’t played pretend games in a long long time.

After that my partner took our daughter over to the craft area and they made me a card. He said they didn’t write anything in the card because “no words describe how much we appreciate and love you. Her drawing is how she tells you”. My heart melted into the ground. I love the card.

Then our little miss spotted a wall with sensory games on it. I thought it was perfect for our daughter.

There were a few other areas that we visited before our daughter got a bit exhausted and needed a nap: the music corner, the crawling area with soft blocks to build, a kids sized chess game, iPads loaded with educational activities, an interactive digestive system that the kids can crawl in and explore, a projection room where when you stand in front of the screen your shadow is casted into it (eg. If there was a projection of hills and you stand in front then it’s like your standing on the hills), a puppet arena, a construction area where the kids can build and lastly an awesome outdoor area.

It was a great way to spend Mother’s Day – there is nothing like seeing my daughter having a blast and smiling. Plus that centre is fricken rad and extremely educational. I’ll say it again we need more educational centres like that around Sydney for sure!

 

Behind the screen

Yesterday I was invited to participate in a little questionnaire by the lovely Fofof’lo.

I know, I know, I should stop writing so much about myself but really…I can’t help it lol. I’ve only decided to do 8 of the 10 though 😊

  1. My middle name

Andrea is my middle name. My dad wanted to kind of name me after my cousin Andrew. Very very heartbreakingly my cousin was hit by a truck the day I was born…

2. Favourite subject at school

English. Probably hard to believe but I loved English. I was always one of the top 3 in the class.

3. Last movie I watched

Last Cab to Darwin. I love watching a good Australian movie – and Last Cab to Darwin was 10/10. There are some Australian movies that I wish I didn’t watch (not many but there are a few) but most of the time I really like watching Australian movies.

I loved that there were so many indigenous Aboriginal actors/actresses in Last Cab to Darwin. I felt proud. Something else I loved was that the movie showed some beautiful scenery of our outback and country areas

4. My latest addiction

Babywearing. I think to alot of people baby wearing is just carrying a baby around in a baby carrier. To me it is something entirely different. Obviously, I get to be close to my daughter and have bonding time and baby wearing is super convenient for when I just need to nip down to the shops. It’s also comforting for my daughter too – for example at the moment she has 6 teeth coming through, understandably she wants to be close to me and comforted and baby wearing helps me provide a secure environment for her.

One of the major things I love about baby wearing is the different types of carriers; Soft structured carriers like Tulas and Ergos, Woven Wraps, Fly Tais (my next want!), Ring Slings, Mei Tais..

5. Favourite song at the moment

Do the Skeleton Scat by The Wiggles

6. Something I could name my son

Leo or Andre

7. Favourite colour

Purple and Blue

8. Last thing I bought

Food!

Day 29

5 pet peeves. 

-When people eat with their mouth open. The sound turns me off my food if I’m eating. I really don’t like it at all.

-The sound of chalk or fingernails against a chalkboard. The screeching sound. I shudder thinking about it.

-Constant pen clicking.

-Poor customer service. I understand that people who work in customer service have bad days just like anyone else but we are all human and it’s not an excuse to treat customers like dirt. I can’t stand poor customer service and I do say so if I feel that way.

-When people ask when I will have another child. Simply put “None of your bees wax”

 

 

Not so great expectations

Yesterday, I decided to go down to our local dollar shop and see if I could find some cups. I know – it doesn’t sound like much but sometimes when I’m feeling a bit unmotivated to do housework something as simple as buying a cool cup for $2 motivates me. I’m boring I know!

I found some nice little cups to add to our kitchen and went to pay for them. As I was putting my daughter into her pram the lady  at the cash register makes a comment “Your daughter is well behaved! She sits in her pram. My daughter runs everywhere”. To which I told her “Oh my daughter isn’t quite walking yet so that’s why she isn’t running everywhere. Won’t be long though!” I tell her happily.

The lady frowns. She seem a bit confused. “How old is she?” 14 months. At this stage the lady is shocked with a look of strong concern on her face, she almost looked disgusted. I was a bit confused why she seemed so concerned. Then she told me “but she is 1 already. She should be walking. My daughter just turned 1 and she’s walking. My daughter goes everywhere, she’s really good at walking. Your baby should be walking too”.

I told the lady that if I had the option to be pushed around in a pram or carried vs. walking, I’d be smart too and get in the pram or be carried.

But really? Was it really that necessary to tell me that my daughter should be walking at her age? And says who?

Yes. I understand that some babies are walking at 9 months – that’s actually cute and cool. That’s great. And there are babies that don’t walk until 18months or even after 2.

Babies (just like us adults) learn things in their own time.

Learning to crawl and walk is a BIG thing. The co-ordination. Everything about it. It’s literally a big thing to learn in life. And it can get overwhelming. Just like learning to drive manual and go on busy roads was to me (and maybe you too).

I actually wasn’t worried about my daughter learning to walk. I’m still not worried. But this made me wonder something…why do people have such expectations of babies and children? Why do our children NEED to reach certain milestones by a certain time before questions start getting asked? Why do our children NEED to be dressed in blue or pink or have their hair tied up or ears pierced or have a boys hair cut to be seen as a boy or a girl? Why do our children NEED to play with dolls if they are girls and cars if they are boys? Why is that when our babies are first born people just expect them to just magically sleep through the night?

The answer to all of the above is: they don’t. They don’t need to live up to those expectations. Babies, toddlers and children are free beings. We all are.

But why do these expectations exist?

In my opinion, I think people start expecting so much from themselves throughout life that it becomes normal to expect certain things by a certain time from every one and then when you have kids you expect things from them too. I know not everyone lives like that. I don’t but that’s what my wonders have concluded with tonight.

 

Oh! And on a proud little side note – my daughter started walking this evening *snorts out loud*

Goodnight everyone!

Day 28

My top 3 bands

  1. The Wiggles.

Not even joking in the slightest. They are my favourites at the moment. I love going bananas dancing with my toddler to their music. I didn’t pay much attention to their music before but now I’ve listened to pretty much every song out there of theirs – I think they are a quality kids band. They must be considering how long they’ve existed (although the members have changed).

2. Kasabian

Will always be a favourite of mine. Their music gets me feeling like I’m at my first concert again!

3. And last but not least is Fleetwood Mac. Love their music