It's Tuesday and I can't wait...

For Friday.. when I get to see my hubby again!
He went back to Toowoomba for work on Sunday afternoon, and I've stayed in Mundubbera at my grandparent's with Mayana. This will have been the longest time we've been apart in our marriage =( I miss him!! I miss his help with Mayana, his cuddles.. I just miss him!

So I can't wait until Friday night... when we'll be back together again, and everything will be right in my world once more.

(go here to see what other people are waiting for!)

Happy birthday gorgeous!

Thursday was my gorgeous husband’s 26th birthday! We celebrated the day in Mundubbera at my grandparent’s house. Nana made a yummy cooked breakfast, and Pete opened his presents: some cookbooks from Nana and Pop, and a pair of slippers, a giant Sudoku book and a new mobile phone from Mayana and I. He was a super-impressed birthday boy!

We had a fairly lazy day, which Pete was quite happy with.

Aunty Nelle and my cousins Mitch & Torren came up for dinner, and it was really nice to catch up with everyone.

I made Pete a cake, with bright blue icing – which is a bit of an in-joke after the crazy cake I made Pete last year. Pop wasn’t too impressed about blue icing, but I noticed that he didn’t leave any behind.. hehe.

 

Surprisingly we didn’t set the smoke alarm off ;-)

 

Love you babe!

Weight / Mayana Update

We had a bit of excitement earlier this week when we took Mayana to a health nurse in Noosa for weigh-in. We all felt like clapping and cheering when the scales showed that Mayana has put on a massive 300g in ONE WEEK!!!! She’s now just over 4.3kg. Those two bottles of formula a day were obviously that extra boost she needed.

After having 2 months of Mayana gaining an average of 60-80g a fortnight, I’m just so relieved to see that number. We’ll have her back up on the graph before we know it!

Mayana is doing so well. She was never an unhappy baby, but these last few weeks she has been so content and even happier than usual. It’s been really lovely. Her day sleeps are even improving (read: she’s actually having some, lol). She has been having three sleeps a day this past week – without me fighting her for them! She hasn’t done that since she was about three weeks old, and I’m loving it! I’m feeling so much more relaxed now too, as she’s not mucking around or fussing as much with her breastfeeds as she was – so I’m enjoying them much more. Pete (and the rest of the family) likes being able to give her bottles too.

She is still loving her vegetables, and now is regularly eating pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini, carrot, broccoli, prune and pear. She has a combination of four cubes (I puree and freeze in ice-cube trays) for ‘lunch’, sometimes followed by a couple fruit cubes if she wants more; and 2-3 cubes of pear with milk and farex for ‘dinner’. She does like to eat apple, but it doesn’t really agree with her. Yesterday she tried some pawpaw, but didn’t think much of it. I also have stocks of banana and cauliflower ready to go. She also had a chew on her first rusk stick yesterday and absolutely LOVED it. It kept her occupied for well over an hour, and she gnawed through about half of it which I thought was a pretty good effort!

“Now I know why Opa calls it poo-poo instead of paw-paw!”

I’m really looking forward to having her weighed again next week… who knows, she might be close to 5kg already!!?

Honeymooning

blogthis challenge five | holidays...

My favourite holiday of all time would have to be my honeymoon. I know it might sound cliched, but it's true.

What's not to love? Not only was it my first holiday overseas, to an amazing country with the most incredible scenery I have ever seen, where we were able to experience the wonder of snow for the first time... it was also my first ever holiday with my HUSBAND!!!

Such a lovely way to spend our first two weeks as a married couple - sharing all those 'firsts' together (okay, don't say dirty it's too easy). We toured around the South Island of New Zealand. I organised the entire trip, booked places to stay, researched tourist attractions... We had the time of our lives. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

We drove around the entire island, did all the daggy (and not-so-daggy) tourist stuff, got to experience a freak late-year snowstorm (which we like to think God put on just for us!), held hands everywhere we went while we gazed at our shiny new wedding rings, were sickeningly cutesy calling each other 'husby' and 'wifey' the whole time (oh wait.. we've not actually ever stopped that... lol). I had the best time, and I'm so happy I got to have my first real big travel experience with my favourite person.

| A little spot where we stopped for a picnic, somewhere between Christchurch & Dunedin |

| Our destination on our Franz Josef Glacier hike. So incredibly exhilarating! |

| Awww love letters in the snow! |

| Our lil snowman |

| In beautiful Queenstown, with my beautiful HUSBAND |

Generations

How awesome is that!! Mayana, Me, my Mum and my Nana. We had such a lovely day together today. I love that Mayana has five great-grandparents around, there's something so special about seeing her with them ! Check out Mayana's blog for some more photos with great-grandparents :-)

The Wiz

Okay, so I am THE proudest big sister right now. My gorgeous sister and brother did the most incredible job staring in their school musical, "The Wiz". Alexie did a spectacular job as Dorothy, and Jordan played an hilarious Tin Man.

I ended up going to two shows, and absolutely loved every second, both times. I just could not believe that it was my baby brother and sister up there!!! They were AMAZING. Jordan is so funny, and has a lovely singing voice, which we've never heard much of before now. Alexie .... WOW WOW WOW. Talk about goosebumps!!!! What a beautiful voice she has- seriously amazing.

I was sitting in the audience with massive goose-bumps, fighting back the tears of pride that insisted on welling up. I felt like shouting out to the rest of the audience, "THAT'S MY FAMILY UP THERE!!!"

It was such a professional production, you completely forgot that it was school kids up there. Everyone was blown away.

Did I mention how proud I am?

Oh how it made me miss highschool....

my favourite photo

It's really simple. I love how every photo tells a story. Some short stories, some long tales. I want to know what is your favourite photo of yourself. Everyone has one. The photo they look at and smile. It reminds them of something, some time, some place. A moment in time.

So share the photo, share the story and then tag three other people. I want to see photos and stories all around the blogosphere.

I was tagged by the lovely Danimezza to take part in this project which started over at fat.mum.slim.

I have so many photos with so many memories attached, and it was quite a trip down memory lane trying to choose 'the one'. But here it is:


It is by no means the most attractive photo of me- not even close! I'm not wearing make-up, I have a totally dorky grin on my face - in fact I'm pretty sure I was wearing pajamas (underneath my huge winter coat, gloves and boot, and daggy tourist hat, hehe). But it's the memory that makes this photo so special.

This photo was taken when Peter and I were on our honeymoon, in New Zealand. We had woken up that morning in Queenstown to snow falling outside our little cabin. It was sooo cold, and Peter was whinging that he didn't want to get out of bed. I stood up, and open the curtains and made the announcement: It's SNOWING!!!!! Well, I've never seen a person move so fast in my life. In one fluid motion he was out of bed, dressed, pulling on his coat and out the door! Us Queenslanders had barely ever been cold, let alone been in the snow, so it was major excitement all round. That day we had to travel to Te Anau, and it was snowing the whole drive. It had stopped by the time we got there, and most of it had melted, so we were a little bit dissapointed that hadn't got to have a really good play in it.

This photo was taken that night. We had finished dinner, and were in our pajamas, about to watch a movie, when I happened to flick open the curtains and once again: IT's SNOWING!!!!

On went the coats, hats, gloves and boots, and out we went. I'm sure the locals were looking at us rolling their eyes thinking, 'Crazy Australians!!!'. No one else was out there playing. We had a great time. It was much heavier than it had been that morning, and we got a lovely big layer all over our car. Pete decided to build a bit snowman and started to scrape it into big piles, but I had other ideas. I stole his snow-man body and used it as ammunition in a snow fight! We must have run around out there for about 2 hours in the freezing cold, making snow-angels, throwing snow-balls, dancing in the beautiful falling snow. It was pure bliss- I don't think we could have smiled any bigger if we'd tried!

Such a wonderful moment, and it captures and epitomises one of the things I love most about our marriage. The fact that we are best mates, and can have so much fun together! We're not afraid to look silly, or be silly - as long as we're doing it together.

Now I tag:
Jessica
Louise
Talia
Copy and paste the text in bold as well as the Favourite photo graphic to your post.

five months of you

To my beautiful little Mayana-Berry.

Tomorrow, you will be five months old. I don't know where the time has gone, yet I feel as though you have been in my life forever. You have somehow become my whole world, and I finally understand why other mothers seem to only ever talk about their kids!

It seems like only yesterday you were still in my tummy, and your Papa had his head on you listening to you move. You used to stretch your feet up under my ribs, and even though it hurt, it made me smile to think of you stretching out in there, making yourself comfortable. Papa and I used to lay in bed talking about you, trying to imagine what you would look like, full of anticipation of *finally* being able to hold you in our arms.

And then, there you were! This tiny little being that we made, you captured our hearts in a moment. You were so little, red and wrinkly and your skin was peeling... the midwives said you looked 'overcooked'. But you were the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. Your gorgeous blue eyes - as blue now as they were then - looked up at us, and you knew us straight away - and we knew you.

We bought you home, and your grandparents, uncles, aunties, friends came to visit you - everyone was completely besotted the moment they laid eyes on you.

It was so hot when we bought you home, and you didn't much like being held all the time, so we used to lay you in your bassinette on the floor and all peer in and watch you sleep. You were such a good little baby - you fed beautifully, and your sleeping was never too bad. On those first few nights, when the three of us were just so tired, and you were overwhelmed by the big wide world, Kami would come in and tell us to sleep, that she would rock you to sleep. She would sit in your room in the rocking chair and cuddle you, and before we knew it, off you'd nod. What would we have done without her?

We watched you learn to smile, and you reduced us to puddles of love every time. Your first big interactive grins were at your Opa, but you soon rewarded everyone with those lovely gummy smiles that we have all come to adore.

We've been through some tough times, with silly doctors giving us all a hard time because you decided to start growing slowly. One day they'll all figure out that you're just going to be a petite little girl. All the other mummies tell me to be grateful that I'll have a little bubby for longer! You trick people though, because you look like such a tiny baby but you're doing all these advanced things that a five-month-old baby should be doing!

You are very bright-eyed and alert, and you have been since you were only a few weeks old. You always have to know what's going on, and if you hear a new voice you have to figure out who it is. When you see someone new, you stare at them for a few minutes with a very serious look on your face. Once you've sussed them out, you usually reward them with one of your gorgeous smiles, and once you've done that, they're wrapped around your little finger for good. We love to snuggle you into our chests, but you never stand that for very long (unless you're sleepy) - you insist on being turned around so you can take in the world.

You love your Papa very much, and I absolutely adore watching the two of you together. He loves to read you stories, give you cuddles, push you in the swing, and tell you all about the world. You just love being with him. When he was on prac, you got very sad if we didn't wake you up before he left, and you'd be looking for him all day. When he came home at the end of the day, you wouldn't take your eyes off him! You would grin so hard - it was like your whole body was grinning!

You have been giggling for a litte while now, but lately you have been really chuckling - especially if we tickle your ribs. You love it when we do raspberries on your tummy, and you grab our hair, or Papa's necklace, and pull our faces back down for another one. You've also lately become very chatty, and we love it when you wake us up in the morning by chatting to yourself in your cot. We walk into your room and you manage to drag your eyes away from your beloved mobile, and you give us the cheekiest little grins with you tongue poking out. It's my favourite way to start the day.

You love your food. We had to start you on solids earlier than we planned to because of your weight issues, but you seemed to be quite happy about that. As soon as you see your bowl or spoon, or hear the microwave go, your arms and legs start flapping and you get very excited. If it's not ready in what you deem to be an acceptable amount of time.. look out! You have loved everything you have tasted so far - although apple doesn't seem to agree with you.

Your favourite time of the day would have to be bathtime. You always get a little bit over it all by the end of the day, but a bath sure fixes that! You usually have baths with Papa, and you sing, and splash, chat and play with your foam sea-creatures. You love it most when the bath is nice and deep, so you can kick and splash.

I just can't believe how quickly the last five months have gone. They have been the most wonderful, exciting, terrifying, beautiful, happy and love-filled months of my life. Every day is a new adventure with you and I so enjoy watching you discover new things about the world, while I discover new things about you.

You bring so much joy to my life, and indeed everyone's life who you are a part of. I'm so blessed and proud that God chose me to be your Mama. You make life so beautiful.

I love you my gorgeous daughter.

Always,
Mama

It's tuesday and i can't wait...

To get to Noosa! We're on our way now. Looking forward to catching up with all the family- and introducing Mayana to my oma for the first time!

Mayana weight news

So after a fun afternoon trying to catch a Mayana wee in a little sterile jar (less likely to get contamination that way), and a very unhappy ultrasound (Mayana didn't think much of being held still for so long), we were off today to get the results.

And the verdict is: Ultrasound was clear, her kidneys are apparently a little small, but my doctor is happy to put that down to the fact that Mayana's small (makes sense to me!). No signs of infections or issues in bladder, kidneys or renal tract.

Urinary tract infection appears to be gone also! There was an elevation of a particular type of something-or-other, but after consulting with a paediatrician it has been decided that's nothing to worry about. We have to have a follow-up appointment with a paed in 6-8 weeks, just to double check everything.

Mayana has gained nearly 100g since her last weigh-in, only a week ago. I'm super impressed with this, because the last few weigh ins have only shown between 60-80g per FORTNIGHT! It's made her growth chart graph look a lot healthier.

After many tears and much deliberation I have also decided to introduce a few formula feeds to Mayana's diet. This was such a hard decision for me to come to (mama-guilt bites!), but now that I'm actually doing it, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. At this point we're doing 2 bottles per day. I'm interested to see what affect this has on Mayana's gains. Mayana has been very fussy with her breastfeeds lately, to the point where I was wondering if she was thinking about self-weaning... apparently it is normal for them to start to fuss at this age, but unfortuntely Mayana cannot afford to be silly with her feeds- she needs as much milk as possible. So I've replaced her two most fussy feeds with the formula - and am just praying that she doesn't want it for *every* feed! So far so good, and she has been much better at her breastfeeds in-between too, so that makes me happy :-)

Anyway, I hear little squawks over the monitor, so my little cherub has awoken. Time for cuddles!

warm feet

I don't know about you, but I'm the sort of person who if I have cold feet, then all of me feels cold. My slip-on slippers just weren't cutting it with this icy cold weather, far too much foot and ankle exposed, so today I went on the hunt for something warmer.

I chose these. They may not be pretty - I think they kind of look like suede gum-boots.. but they are warm, and comfy - plus they were on sale! They are called Uggly Volleys, and I love them. They are dunlop volley soles on ugg boots. I have a feeling they will be getting a LOT of wear over the next few months...

icy cold

This morning when we woke up, it was only 1.3 degrees outside, and I don’t think it was much warmer in our house to be honest. Mayana’s room was 13, and that was with the heater on! It was flipping COLD!

Anyway, snuggled up in my warm bed with my feather doona, I made the decision to let Pete take the car for the day: sure beat the thought of me having to get up, get Mayana out of bed and into the cold air to take him to school! So Pete got dressed, and headed out the door, only to come racing back in a few minutes later.

This was why:

Our car was covered in ice! He couldn’t see through the windscreen, and the wipers just weren’t cutting it – so he’d come back in for a jug of hot water. Of course, I had to come out with the camera to document the occasion. This has never happened to us coastie-bums before, lol. I think we’ve only had a couple of instances of frost in the 3.5 years we’ve lived here, and never like this! Maybe we’re in for a true, old-fashioned Toowoomba winter…

Frosty grass..

And on my clothes on the line..

It’s been cold all day.. I think we’ve reached a top of about 11 degrees at our place! Thank goodness we’re off to Noosa next week! The Bunya Mountains are going to be freezing though!

extreme sheep herding

check out this video... EXTREME SHEEP HERDING

Very clever!

‘cos it makes me happy

blogthis challenge three | It’s the little things…

| waking up next to my favourite person |

| a gorgeous smiley girl in a cutie-pie new hat |

| a cup of wake-up cappuccino |

| cheer-me-up icecream straight out of the carton |

| electric blanket warming up my snuggly bed |

| a favourite smell to wear |

| an easy dinner |

| something to make music with |

| revisiting my childhood |

| plastic at the end of my laundry basket!!! |

weigh-in

Not quite 4kg =(
Mayana weighed in at 3.965kg. So close!! I was thinking it would be more, and Jill said it probably would have been if it weren't for the two incredibly massive poos she did today.

So it really wasn't much more weight gain in this fortnight than there has been in the previous few. We have to do another urine test in the next few days to make sure the UTI is gone. The ultrasound was today, the sonographer said that there is nothing obvious, but the doctor has to analyse the photos before she could say for sure. Should find out tomorrow about that.

Who knows, maybe the UTI was nothing to do with weight... but I"m starting to really want her to grow. I'm so so over this!

It's Tuesday and I can't wait...

It's Tuesday and I can't wait for my assignments to be finished, and to get Mayana weighed this afternoon! I have a really good feeling about her weight this week :-)

(go here to see what other people are waiting for!)

post-weekend rambles

We had a lovely weekend. My mum, dad and sister came to stay!
On Saturday we went and chose Alexie's formal dress! I cannot believe my baby sister is graduating this year! (wow that's a lot of exclamation marks).

I have a good knack of helping find people perfect formal dresses. I'm good at choosing colours and styles, and seem to attract bargains. I only wish my fashion sense extended to my own wardrobe =(

Alexie's dress is GORGEOUS and I can't wait to make the jewellery to go with it! I'm having imagining already...

We also went out for lunch, and to a winery where we tasted wine, coffee and cheesecake, while taking in a seriously impressive view.

Sunday was church, followed by coffee with a friend at the yummy Zaraffas - (which is, by the way, coming in at a close second to my favourite of all time coffee shop, Starbucks. Mainly because there is no Starbucks here...)

My sister and dad left on Sunday (after church, before coffee), but we got Mum for a whole extra day! We had a lazy morning, Hungry Jacks for lunch, a quick visit to one of our favourite stores.. and then we had to say goodbye *tear*.

I have been slowly catching up on washing.. it's a never-ending cycle and I'm hoping that one day there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.. or plastic at the bottom of the laundry basket. The problem is getting it to dry when it's cold like this - and being able to figure out if things are actually damp or just cold. Mayana is only 4.5 months old and has more clothes than I do.

You know you've got it bad when you stat to use housework as a procrastination tool! I haven't done a whole lot on thos assignments... the're not going anywhere.. unfortunately. I have never felt quite this unmotivated. I'm waiting for that "I know I work best under pressure" moment to arrive. I'm scared that it won't!

Toowoomba has turned really cold. The electric blanket is hitting the bed tonight. It is meant to get down to zero degrees (degree??) one night this week!

We had Kanagroo kebabs for dinner tonight. So good. If you haven't tasted it, don't knock it! It is the yummiest meat, so tender and lean.. and VERY good for you. You should read this website.

Mayana has her ultrasound tomorrow. And her weigh-in. I'm not worried about either. She's definitely feeling bigger to us.. she seems so much longer, and little fingers seem a little less petite - though by no means chubby. She has a little bit of a cold this week, and a rash around her mouth from all her dribbles. I think those toothy pegs are moving again.

Argh I can't wait till these assignments are done. Pete finishes prac on Friday, but has to do a make-up day on Monday because of the Queen's Birthday (thanks Queen). On Tuesday, we head to Noosa. On Wednesday, my Oma arrives. On Saturday, we go to watch my sister and brother star in their school's musical, The Wiz (Alexie is Dorothy, Jordan is Tin Man).
The next week we're heading to Mundubbera to visit my nanna and Pop for the week.. then back home where Pete will have some work with holiday care again. Then we are off to the Bunya Mountains!!

.... I guess I need to keep my eye on the prize!

yummy easy dessert

• 2 tblsp s.r flour
• 1.5 tblsp sugar
• 1/2 tblsp cocoa
• 1/2 egg (I usually make 2, beat one egg with a fork and pour half into each cup)
• 1.5 tblsp milk
• 1/2 tblsp oil (or melted butter)
• small dash of vanilla
• chocolate

Put all ingredients into a microwaveable mug, stir until combined. Put some chocolate in the bottom of the mug, and some on top of the mixture. I use a couple of squares chopped roughly. Microwave for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Allow to cool slightly. I served with a scoop of vanilla icecream, a dollop of whipped cream, a spoonful of cherry jam, and dusted with icing sugar.

You should try it!!

slow cooker recipe

• 500ish grams of steak – cheap cut, like chuck, is good
• 1 onion roughly diced
• 2 carrots roughly chopped
• 2 tspns beef stock
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup.

Mix beef stock with soup, place everything into slow cooker, cook on low/auto for 8-10 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes and dumplings.

Dumplings recipe:

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 tblsp butter
• 2 tblsp milk

Rub butter into flour, stir in milk to make a dough, roll into balls and add to slow cooker for last 1-2 hours of cooking.

YUM!!

Renovator's Delight

I heard this little snippet on our local Christian radio the other day, and it has stuck with me - I found it very hopeful...

... the renovator's delight. You have this old house, that has been lived in, seen many families, been used, become run down... needs a bit of TLC. To some, it may look like just an old house, that probably just needs knocking down. But to someone, that house is a renovator's delight. Someone looks at that house, and sees its potential - sees that with the right kind of care and work, this house can be something amazing, that can be lived in again, that basically has a new life ahead of it.

It's the same with me. I may have gone through some really crappy times, been run down, sinned, done the wrong things and be feeling really awful, undeserving and broken. Other people might look at me and think: "lost cause!" But God, He looks at me and sees potential. Sees something amazing that He can mold into something awesome- something He can breathe new life into. I am God's renovator delight. And all it takes is for me to turn to Him, and tell Him I need some help, and He's there in a heartbeat, ready to make improvements, make my life something beautiful again.

I love it!!!

(photo from flickr)

a Mayana update

So I’m sure everyone remembers this. The last 1.5-2ish months have been full of weight issues for Mayana. We went through the tests, I defended my milk supply, started my baby on solids… worried, doubted, questioned myself.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Mayana had her 4 month needles ( I know, where has that gone!!?) and we saw a different doctor to usual. She realised that the hospital had only sent them copies of Mayana’s blood tests, not her urine. So she ordered copies of the urine test to have a look at. Next day we get a phone call from her, saying that there were some white blood cells in her test from the hospital, which may indicate a UTI, and she would like to have the tests redone.

Okay, so off we go – about 4 tries later (someone kept pooing whilst wearing the collection bag) we finally got an uncontaminated test. Sure enough, it showed up a UTI. So this entire time, Mayana has had a urinary infection. She has had no other symptoms aside from slow weight gain. She hasn’t been in pain, no fever.. has been happy, healthy and strong.

It’s now a matter of putting her through a course of antibiotics, and because she has possibly had a UTI for so long, she has to have a renal tract ultrasound – to check for kidney reflux, and in case there has been any ill-effect on her kidneys. Chances are nothing will show, especially since she hasn’t been sick with it, but I guess they just want to cover themselves, even moreso because they missed it the first time round.

I’m glad that it’s all getting sorted out, but kind of annoyed that it’s happened like this, that it was missed. I am really happy that I did not switch her over to formula like some doctors suggested.. I *knew* there was nothing wrong with my milk.

So hopefully, once the antibiotics (which she loves by the way… banana flavoured) are over, she’ll start gaining more quickly, and everyone will leave me alone! I still don’t think she’ll ever be a big baby though.

I’m really looking forward to putting this all behind us.

Certifiable??

I’m starting to wonder if it was a very silly idea to jump into full time uni with a little baby…

It’s been pretty good up until now, when all my assignments are starting to stack up.

Okay, so I haven’t got *that* much left to do really, and I don’t think they’re even that hard as far as assignments go, but they still take time, and somehow that’s something I’m lacking at the moment.

I’m doing uni while Mayana’s sleeping at the moment, and some days are better than others on that front. Today I got my final quiz done for my literacy course (10/10, in case you were wondering), while she had her afternoon nap. It was nice to tick something off the list. This is what I have left:

• DRAMA: Learning portfolio/journal. I’m doing mine as a blog, which is here if you’re feeling like a sticky-beak. This is worth 70% of my grade for this course. I’m probably over half way through this one. Due June 15.
• LITERACY: Essay, something to do with comparing language between school and the home, specifically, comparing a conversation between child and mother to one between child and student. 1500 words, worth 20% of my grade. Due June 12
• NUMERACY: Something to do with a unit plan.. I haven’t looked at it too closely. Pete has done this assignment before, so I will have something to look at for inspiration (no plagiarism, promise!). Worth 50% of my grade. Due June 12.

It’s doable, if only I weren’t so distracted all the time by my gorgeous daughter! And if I could work in the times when she’s awake too! Looks like I’ll be pulling a few late nights this next week…

I’ve decided that next semester, I’ll only be doing one course- the one that I need to do to finish of my special needs major. It’s a course totally about ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) and I’ve been really looking forward to doing it- I’m so interested in that area. So apart from that I’m going to be a full-time Mama. I’m looking forward to doing playgroup, swimming lessons, and all those fun things.

Next year, I’ll be a full time fourth year student. Hopefully by then Mayana will be able to cope with a little more independent play. The uni has a service over at the gym, which students can use, where you pay $6 for your child to stay in the gym creche for 3 hours or something, so I’ll be utilizing that while Pete and I are in classes.. or that’s the plan at the point, maybe I’ll look into family day care or something?? Ah who even knows.

Then I’ll be finished.. a teacher! I’ve been considering going into relief teaching once I’m finished. Pete will look for full time work, and I’ll put my name down for 3 days a week – which I’ll put Mayana into daycare for, and have 2 days a week with her. Then who knows.. maybe a number two Friend baby will be on the cards… I know, things change, but it’s nice to have some direction to aim for…

In the meantime, I’m learning to juggle between motherhood and the rest of my life.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

blogthis challenge two | If I could invent anything...

I have thought about this long and hard... considered clothes that wash, dry, iron and fold themselves, a self cleaning house... but I wouldn't want to encourage *too* much laziness.

So, I have decided on two inventions. I don't know if this is allowed, but to be fair, at the moment I feel like two peope: Mama Zoey and Student Zoey. I'm learning how to merge these into one, and have some balance in my life, but at the moment I'm Mama Zoey whenever Mayana is awake, and Student Zoey when she is asleep.

My first invention is for Mama Zoey. And I'm pretty sure that any Mama would be quite happy to have this one. I want a wand - maybe like a barcode reader or something - that I can wave infront of Mayana's face and it will tell me what exactly I can do to help her. You know those moments, when the baby is fed, has a clean nappy, is warm, burped, but still crying? Well this will tell you why! As an added function, it will also tell you exactly how much milk your baby has taken during a breastfeed, so that you can know for sure that she has definitely had enough.

My second invention is for Student Mama, but also a tool to help with the merging of the two. It is a computer program that records my thoughts. I tend to be the kind of person who thinks ALL the time - my brain never shuts up (which can sometimes be very annoying) and a lot of the time I have my assignments half written in my brain before I get to write them down. The problem arises that when I do get a chance to sit down and write them down- they're GONE! It is the most frustrating thing ever! If I have this program, I can switch it on when my brain turns to assignment-ing, and it will record all of my thoughts. When I'm ready to do my assignment, I'll put it into the USB port of my computer and it will upload the whole lot, with the correct spelling and grammar, in a well-organised format. Then it will just be a matter of inserting the referencing and honing the final product.

*sigh*

Back to real life I guess...