A few funny things...

I have been wanting to post silly things but I haven't had any to post...now that is not to say that I never do anything silly but I haven't really had any funny, silly moments. But all of a sudden I have had a few happen all at the same time.

Ok, first silly thing. It is 4 in the morning and I am making my baby a bottle of formula when I realise that the first scoop of stuff I put in the bottle was a scoop of sugar (which was open next to the bottle of formula - should tidy up before I go to bed LOL)! It was funny even though Ben had to wait longer for his bottle.

Next silly thing. My husband and I would like to go to bed at the same time but it doesn't happen often. The other night I was going to go to bed at the same time as him but was stuck doing something interesting on the computer and when I got to bed the cat had taken my place in the crook of his neck!!! Too late Leanne.

Another silly thing. This is a long term silly thing. When I first met my friend Sarah I could not understand her passion for op shopping. I used to be amazed at what she could get for the price but whenever I went (which was not often and for only a short amount of time) I could only see rubbish and the place smelt like old ladies...But now, finally after 3 1/2 years I am CONVERTED! I am addicted to op shopping so much so that will op shop first to buy clolthes for my girls before traditional shopping. Finally converted and now I am losing my op shopping partner to Queensland.

Another one...being house proud and vacuuming and mopping before my visitors come for an evening and then having to do it again after the visitors leave!

Thinking I could have chocolate/ice cream and coke in the house and not eat it all up!

Putting the ironing board away and thinking it was all done when three more loads of washing were lining up to be dried, folded, ironed and put away!

Getting showered and dressed before I fed Benjamin and spending the day with dried weetbix on me from a breakfast sneeze!

And lastly...I was making quiche for tea a couple of nights ago with a recipe I know off by heart but for some reason it wasn't setting in the oven. I realised that I had put a whole tub of cream in the quiche instead of half a tub...I managed to save the day by spooning the mix in to muffin tins and bake on their own. It turned out ok.

So there are a few silly things I have done lately.

Trying to nap with kids!

Hmmm, it is only 10am and my silly thing has already been ticked off! Trying to nap with three kids in the house.

Ben wakes at about 7 and is ready to go back to sleep at about 8.30. He is not the best sleeper at night and I was awake with him for about an hour and a half last night.

So this morning when he was ready to go back to bed and the girls were asking me to put the tv on I decided to say yes and take advantage of what might be an hour of quiet to try and get 40 minutes of sleep.

Well what a silly idea! Ben has gone down like a champ but my girls who normally stick like glue to the tv when I let them have it on have been restless and wanted a hundred things off me so no sleep for me and now Ben is still asleep, Jess is quietly (what the???) watching a movie and Emily is setting up a game for her and I to play.

I guess I shall just have to wait until 10 tonight to go back to sleep and do it all again....sob, sob, sob.

Chasing the (almost) impossible

My mum had to make an emergency dash to Melbourne to get a re-entry visa because she is going to England next month and is still a British National (even though she has lived here a long time!).

When Nanna Leah comes to visit she ALWAYS brings presents for the kids. This time my mother wanted to buy the girls something called a zhu zhu pet. I had never even heard of these toys until yesterday morning.

My mum had been telling me how popular these toys were and that they sold out quickly and were hard to get but I didn't believe that we would have this problem in Melbourne. How wrong I was!

We popped in to the huge Big W in the city but they were all out of stock and not sure when they would get more in. I picked up something else that I thought the girls would like but mum suggested we try another store on our way home.

I was thinking of heading to Eastland but decided Doncaster might be better. We walked in to Big W and there was ONE zhu zhu guinea pig. It wasn't really a very cute one but it was a zhu zhu pet. This lead us to believe that more were available. I knew we had another Big W at Eastland and I called them to hold one for me but they were out and they advised that we would be hard pressed to get one as even the manufacturer was out of stock!

Isn't it just the way that we always want what we can't have? Just when my mum had decided we would have to settle on something else I felt something inside me click in to overdrive and the desire to purchase these toys (well, mum purchase them!) became greater than good reason!

I then started to call toy stores or stores that sold toys and the story was always the same - out of stock. After about 12 phone calls (really not kidding - I checked my phone log!) I was almost ready to give up but I spotted the sign for Croydon and decided to call one last toy store.

Imagine how surprised we were to find they had two in stock? And not just two in stock but two pretty ones in stock, one pink and one yellow. We told them to hold them and zoomed off to collect them with great joy!

It turned out that this store was also out of stock but a lone box had been misplaced in the store room and only recently discovered and these were the last two in the lost box.

When we came home and gave the toys to the girls we expected them to REALLY, REALLY love them because of all the effort we had gone to buy them. We were not disappointed and I can see exactly why they are sold out and so popular. The girls love them.

Inspired by the theme!

Kym has been my blogging inspiration. I have been enjoying reading her monthly-themed blogs. But when the new month started and there was no new theme or blog entries from Kym and I felt a bit cheated.

Obviously I was not the only one and harrah Kym is now blogging on a new theme, "The Silly Things I Do". I am going to try to blog on this theme. This is the sort of honest revelation that I love....

To start I would love to share something silly that my mother-in-law did recently when she was visiting.

Mum went off grocery shopping for me which was a wonderful gift as I hate grocery shopping. When she came home she eagerly sprayed her room and the bathroom with glen 20 to kill some cold germs her lovely husband was trying to share with her. She then went on to put the rest of the groceries away (she really is wonderful!) and all of a sudden let out a small scream and ran back to her bedroom. She then came out of the room muttering, "stupid, stupid, stupid, that is one off the most stupid things I have ever done"! It turns out she had mixed up two of the items on the grocery list, the green glen 20 spray and a green can of spray olive oil! The bathroom and bedroom were sticky with olive oil spray but at least our frypans weren't slippery with glen 20 spray.

While I don't want this sort of mishap happening in my life every day I do hope this is the sort of funny, annoying, silly things I will fill my blog with this month.

Love when inspiration strikes

This afternoon I had no idea what to make for tea and then suddenly I came up with a plan...Honey Soy Garlic stir fry with "chicken" pieces from the quorn range. I just had to take a pic of all the fantastic vegetables...It was yum.

Breast is best?

Ask any expert, read any parenting book and you have to agree that there is no denying the fact that breast is best. But is breast best when your 7 month old decides to totally reject one side so you end up looking like a lop sided Dolly Parton?

If you were to ask me how long I would be feeding my baby boy for, the answer would have been, 12 months. Did I think that I would wean him at 7 months? The short answer is, no and the long answer is that he kind of made the decision himself.

When my first born entered the world I was determined to feed her in the way that God intended but then she was born just over a week early at 5lb 2oz with undiagnosed IUGR (basically this just means failure to thrive in the womb due to a dodgy placenta). This meant that she had to enter special care until she was a decent weight and feeding independently (without a tube).

After the wonderful public system sent me home without my baby (she had to stay in special care for over a week but I was only allowed to stay for two days!) I was desperate to do anything to get her home. However, her sucking reflex was very poor which meant she had to be tube fed with formula and expressed breast milk to help her gain weight quickly.

At that stage if you asked me how I intended to feed my daughter, the answer was, anyway that will get her home quickly! In the end she put on weight very quickly which lead to her sucking reflex becoming stronger and finally she came home and was a fully breast fed baby for the next 14 months.

When my second child was born she was a breastfeeding natural. She latched on straight after birth and continued to feed for over an hour. The truth of the matter is that we wanted her to stop feeding because she hadn’t even been weighed yet! This early success meant she was a fully breastfed baby until just over 12 months.

Then Benjamin was born with IUGR, 4 weeks early by emergency c-section at a low birth weight (the same as his eldest sister in fact!) and I was sure he would have all the same feeding issues as Emily. But he came out of the womb and was a vigorous feeder (painfully so!!!) and I thought that was that.

But as I said before, he started to reject me about a month ago and I really wasn’t sure what to do. I was on the cusp of hiring an electric pump to increase my supply and flow when all of a sudden I just decided it was too hard and weaned him off the one remaining boob!

How did I feel after he took the bottle that first time? I have to confess that I felt guilty, I felt some grief, I felt some pain at the thought of the cost and I also felt like a failure. Should I have tried harder, done more, not given up?

The truth is that when I was first out at the shops feeding him with the bottle I just wanted to yell out to everyone, “He rejected me! I would still be feeding him! I breastfed my other two children for over 12 months! Don’t judge me!” etc, etc, etc…

And then I watched my dear husband feeding his son. How did I feel? You are expecting me to say that this tugged on my heart strings and made me feel all gooey inside but the truth of the matter is that the first emotion I felt then was RELIEF followed by FREEDOM!!!

I have just finished feeding my son. It is the middle of the night. I have held him close in much the same way as I did when he was breastfeeding. I have had great eye contact the whole time. He has held my hand and smiled at me while I am feeding him his bottle. He has finished and cuddled in for a few minutes until I get up and put him back to bed.

So now, how do I feel? The truth is that I feel exactly the same way I did when I was breastfeeding him; that it is the middle of the night and I wish I was still sleeping!!! No, just kidding!

I enjoy that quiet, sleepy night feed when bubs isn’t trying to look at everything and big sisters aren’t trying to get his attention (or mine) and he is blissfully staring up at me in adoration and I just know that I am supplying all his needs in the way man intended – via bottle. I can’t complain. He is happy and so am I.

Infrequent friends...

Do you have friends that you don’t see very often? Do you have friends who live in the same state and city as you but you still don’t see very often? Do you have friends who you haven’t really spent much time with but would love to spend more time with? We do.

Yesterday we had the joy of visiting another church with the Lilydale Adventist Academy Choir. Lynden is a member of the stage band (yes, band camp nerd alert!!!). The highlight of this visit for me was going to be catching up with some friends that we never get to see and who we wish we could see more of.

And so, earlier in the week I sent a Facebook message to said friends to alert them to the fact that we were heading their way. When I sent the message I was worried it sounded like we were fishing for a lunch invite but at the same time I was hoping that they would see the post, know we were coming and invite us to lunch so we could spend time together. Message read, received and invite sent and we had lunch together.

It was such a lovely afternoon! The kids played with their daughter and were so blissfully happy. We enjoyed great conversation, lots of laughs and lots of yummy food.

Our hosts have a pet snake which Em thought was very exciting (so did I!) and we spent lots of time “cuddling” it.



I wonder if when God invented Sabbath he had afternoons like this in mind? I sure hope so because they are fantastic. I wish we lived closer to these friends and could spend more time with them.

They know who they are and we will be returning the favour and inviting you our way very soon!