Thirty Four

1:  I received a beautiful bunch of roses from a work colleague and got so many lovely messages and calls wishing me happy birthday - I was definitely feeling the love.

2:  Among other lovely gifts I received a Slow Cooker which I can't wait to use.  It will be great during Winter when we have two bubs.  I can just throw everything in in the morning and have a nice meal all prepared at night time, leaving me time to feed babies, bath babies, and put babies to bed at night, without then having to think about what to cook for dinner.

3:  So many lovely recipes in this book.  The cover picture has me salivating.

4:  Just me, my belly, a cuppa and some delicious Haigs Orange Chocolate (best chocolate ever!) while Ella had her nap.

5:  All dishes were left in the sink.  Who needs to do housework on their birthday? Not me!  Actually, you will find my sink looking like this more than just on my birthday but this time I just didn't feel guilty about it!

6:  I spent the afternoon with mum who made an impromptu high tea for me.  We ate scones and cakes and sipped tea from my great aunt's pretty china tea cups.

7:  Terrible photo of Tim and I because it was so dark but we went out for dinner while Ella had a sleep over at mum and dad's.  We went to a restaurant in Neutral Bay called "Blue Plate", a Southern American style restaurant.  Bufallo wings, Gumbo, followed by Pumpkin Pie for dessert.  Yum!  Needless to say we reminisced a lot about our holiday in America in 2008 (way back when we were young and care free!  ha ha)

8:  A blissful nights sleep without any interruptions and we even slept in til 8am!  We also snuck in a breakfast date before picking Ella up.

Perfect birthday - check!

A visit to Poppy's farm

ANZAC day was on a thursday this year so Tim took advantage of the public holiday and took friday off work so that we could have an extra long weekend.

Ella has a bit of a love / hate relationship with my dad at times.  Sometimes she screams when she's around him (mainly when she was younger) and other times he's the bee's knees.  At the moment we are in a stage of not being a fan of poppy at all.  Aside from being a great opportunity to get away for a few days we thought a trip to the farm might also provide an opportunity for some good bonding between Ella and dad!

Stress instantly lifted off my shoulders as we drove over the mountains and into the crisp autumn country air.  I love the smell of the bush and smoke from chimneys warming mountain homes.

The moment we arrived, Tim and I were treated like royalty.  My mum made us rest while she looked after Ella and dad did all the cooking for the weekend including a delicious Moroccan Lamb dish which I must remember to get the recipe for now that I think about it.  They took Ella when she woke early each morning so that we could sleep in and generally waited on us the whole time.  We were spoiled!

This is only the second time that Ella has been to the farm and I have to say that over the weekend I don't think she stopped smiling!  Poppy soon became Ella's best friend, mainly because of his tractor.  I have never seen her smile so much as when she sat on Poppy's tractor.  She spent most of the weekend on that thing, turning the steering wheel and pretending the beep a horn.

The weather was perfect the whole time.  Sunny and warm during the day with perfect clear blue skies and cool at night so that we could get cozy near the fire.  The only thing missing were the marshmallows which we forgot to buy on the way there - dang!

A surprise 70th Birthday

It was mum's 70th birthday a few weeks ago.  She's the type of woman who is all about everyone else and never herself so I decided to throw her a little party to make her feel just as special as she always makes us feel.

Our back paving, thankfully, was finally finished only days before the party.  The week before the party it rained on and off for days and I was worried that it wouldn't be finished in time which would have been a disaster.  It would have been more of a disaster if the actual day itself was wet but somehow the God's were looking down on mum and put on a perfect sunny autumn day for the occasion before turning the rain back on the following day.

Mum was blown away when she walked out the back and saw everything set up.  She was so stunned that she didn't even realise that there were way too many chairs just for our family and so was even more surprised when two of her sisters arrived shortly after, along with one of her nieces and her family.

It was such a lovely afternoon celebrating with my beautiful mum while we relaxed, ate, drank and chatted in the afternoon sun.

I love balloons! 

Sunshine, good food and good company

Family xx

It's becoming tradition to let go of all the helium balloons at the end of a family party

A moment alone

We have been planning a new outdoor area in our backyard for years now.  Literally years.  I can't believe it's taken us this long to actually start getting it done.  Well, to be fair, we did start some time ago.  Tim wanted to build a new retaining wall to replace an ugly old pine one and he did a great job.  It just took him over a year and a half to complete!  I'm not complaining (well, maybe a little bit) but it looks great and was finally completed a few weeks ago.

Now the next step is to repave part of the back area.  We have an old concrete block which needs to be dug up and because our house in on a slope Tim decided he didn't want to tackle the project of laying pavers because we need to make sure the drainage angles are all correct so that water doesn't come into the house during a down pour, so we decided to get professionals in to do it.  That in itself was another drama that took us months.  We called so many tradespeople and they either never returned phone calls or said they would come over and give us a quote, only to do a no show and not even contact us.  What is wrong with people?  It was truly frustrating.

Eventually we found a guy who gave us a reasonable quote and we were starting to get excited.  This was finally happening. He was coming over on thursday to get started.  Because they were going to be jack hammering most of the day we decided to take Ella to mum's place instead of her coming here to look after her.  Tim got up early to take her there on his way to work and would pick her up on his way home.  This meant that I was alone on thursday morning for the first time in a long time.

After they left I sat in the kitchen eating my breakfast and it was so quiet.  It was a strange feeling.  Normally I am scrambling to clean up and get lunch made for Tim and get Ella breakfast etc, but that morning, it was just me.  After a leisurely breakfast I did a big clean up.  It was so much easier to do without having a toddler to rip everything apart the minute I put things away.  I washed up, I vacuumed, I moved the couch to make more room in our dining area (where we have now put our computer since our computer room will soon be new baby's room), I Scotch Guarded the new fabric I put on the chairs, steam mopped the floor and more.  As sad as it sounds, it was actually really nice to accomplish all this stuff uninterrupted.  Maybe it's my nesting instinct starting to kick in but I got a lot of stuff done that morning before going to work and it was satisfying to see a clean house for the first time in a long time.

I finished work at 3pm and Tim wasn't going to be home with Ella until at least 6.30pm so again, I found myself with time on my hands.  I decided to go to the shops and finally start getting things for the new baby's bedroom.  New curtains and curtain rods, a cozy new blanket, some cushions and other bits and pieces.  I have been really slack in getting anything new for this baby.  I only have 12 weeks to go and I know those weeks will fly so I guess I'm starting to get to that stage where I am thinking I really need to get my butt into gear and get things done.

It was nice to walk around the shops without feeling rushed.  I even stopped in at Max Brenner and treated myself to a nice hot chocolate.  While I sipped I wondered what I used to do with all the time I had on my hands before I had a baby.  Those few hours of peace and quiet were lovely but when I saw Ella's smile and the way she bopped up and down with excitement when she saw me when she finally came home, I have to say that that is what made my day.

Unfortunately it started to pour with rain early on thursday morning which meant that the paving contractor couldn't actually come and start our job.  Another hold up - but you can't help the weather I suppose.  Hopefully that project will start early next week and be finished by the end of the week,  although my dad just told me that it's supposed to be raining on and off for the next couple of weeks.  I am planning a small birthday party at our house for mum's 70th in a couple of weeks so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be all finished by then.  Not sure what I'll do if it's not...I have some grand plans which rely on a nice new paved area and lots of sunshine.  Here's hoping.

Easter

Four days of bliss.  Perfect weather and slow days spent with our little family of three.

Our Easter long weekend consisted of:

• An afternoon playing in the sun at Bicentennial Park
• Picnics outside in the warm air
• Easter crafts with Ella
• Mama getting crafty and covering the dining chairs
• Cleaning out the vegetable garden and planting new veggies for Autumn/Winter
• A brilliant day at the beach with friends we hadn't caught up with in a long time
• FINALLY getting started on our back patio (woop whoop)
• A fun Easter Egg hunt around the house with Ella
• Chocolate for breakfast (lunch and dinner)
• More chocolate

Stickers providing hours of fun (ok, maybe half an hour but that is a long time in Toddler time)

I love the new fabric on our chairs (on the left).  Our original ones were filthy,
although it doesn't really look it in this picture)

What quock-quock? I love how Ella pronounces chocolate as quock-quock

Enjoying simple things

Our neighbours are renovating their house so it's been quite noisy during the day and has been disrupting Ella's sleep a little.  She is also transitioning to one sleep a day (boo hoo - I need that hour to get things done!!) so this makes for a grumpy little girl at times.

Yesterday all was well, I put her down for a sleep and then, as Murphy's Law would have it, the neighbours started sanding.  Ella had been asleep for only about 20 minutes or so before she woke wailing, so I went in and picked her up and she just wouldn't go back down in her cot.  So, instead we both settled into her big chair,  a little froggy laying across my belly and chest.  I can remember when she barely filled my arms while we sat in that very same chair.  She promptly fell back asleep in my arms despite the noise going on right next to her bedroom.

Our breathing became one as I sat there nuzzling my lips into her soft hair for the next hour.  Sometimes doing something as simple as this makes you realise that you need to step back and appreciate these times more often.  As we snuggled, baby boy started kicking and rolling madly and I couldn't help but have a little laugh to myself.  Ella was completely oblivious, but in my head I could hear what it will be like in a few years time, "Mum, he's kicking me!!".  It may have been the first time, but it definitely won't be the last.

We spent the rest of the beautiful autumn day lying on a blanket in the backyard.  I love this time of year, the weather has been just perfect.  It's the Easter long weekend next week so I hope the weather sticks around until then.

Ella: 20 Months

Dear Ella

It's been a long time since I did an update on you!  Time is flying by as I say every single time.

You are currently 20 months old and what a challenging time it is.  You are constantly on the move and learning new things and you never cease to amaze me.  Sometimes you act like you have been on this earth before in a past life and I am just left shaking my head in wonder.

Here are a few things that I want to remember about you now:

• Every morning when you wake up (at the crack of dawn thank you very much) you immediately start calling "daddy, daddy, daddy".  Then "mama, mama, mama, mama" over and over again.  Although it's a little hard being woken up at 5.30am each morning, I have to say that it's the nicest way to wake up hearing you call for us.  Sometimes daddy and I lie in bed and just listen to you call our names and we laugh to each other.  The tone and inflection you  use with each call is funny.  Sometimes if you get no response after calling for each of us you will say "nanny?", as if to say "someone? anyone?".  It's very sweet.

• You've always been a fairly independent little person but you are even more so now.  You are so determined to do everything for yourself and get quite angry and frustrated if we try to help you, or God forbid, if we tell you that you can't do something.  Tantrums have been plenty around here lately.  Screaming, throwing yourself on the floor, arched back, the whole shebang.  If you don't get your own way, you will let us know how unhappy you are in no uncertain terms.  Although this is age is very fun with you, it's also easily the most challenging as we try to work out how to let you have a little freedom while still letting you know who's boss.

• You used to be a little shy around people, and in some cases you still are but more recently you have been coming out of your shell a bit more.  Whenever we go to the shops or somewhere in public you happily wave and say hello to anybody who passes by. This always brings a smile to their faces and makes my heart melt.  I feel very proud of you.

• I am blown away by how many words you now know.  I was a little worried that you weren't talking very much but then all of a sudden words just came tumbling out of your mouth and they haven't stopped.  I love listening to your babbling and hearing you start to form a few word sentences.

• You used to love eating food but now you have become a very fussy eater.  Most dinner times are met with you pursing your lips and shaking your head furiously.  The one thing that I can guarantee that you will eat though is sushi.  By far your most favourite food and your most used word.  Whenever we enter a shopping centre you start repeating "sushi, sushi, sushi".  I guess there are worse things that you could be eating but we need to try and get you to eat some veggies!

• You are extremely loud!  Most things you do by yelling enthusiastically and boisterously, with a massive grin on your face.  We are trying to teach you how to use a quiet voice and have to laugh when sometimes we are sitting quietly and then all of a sudden you will say "mama, shhhh!" and put your little finger on your nose instead of over your lips. It's you who needs to shhhh most of the time!

• We had your 18 month check up a few months back now and you are still off the charts when it comes to your height.  You have the longest legs which unfortunately are starting to lose their chub.  Those gorgeous fat rolls are starting to disappear as you become leaner thanks to your constant moving about and exploring.

• You give us the sweetest kisses on our lips and every time you do this it just makes me want to cry.  All tantrums and hard times are forgotten when you lean in and give us a little kiss.  You also still love to do 'rubby nosey' with your nanny.  It's your special thing with each other where you give Eskimo kisses with your nose.  Whenever you do this it is also followed by hysterical laughter.

• You are obsessed with washing up.  Whenever I turn on a tap in the kitchen you drag a chair over and have to help me.  You are also obsessed with your gumboots.  Wanting to wear them everywhere.

• You are rocking a mullet right now.  You don't really have much hair but it has grown quite a bit lately but mostly at the back.  A lot of people still glance at you and think you are a boy even though I think you look nothing like a boy.  You have also developed the most beautiful curls and I can't wait to put them into tiny little piggy tails.

Although this is a challenging time we are having so much fun with you as your quirky little personality shines through more and more each day.

We love you so much!

Mama