1. I was going for a shower, and Mayana was in the bathroom, watching me, as she does (apparently the right to privacy goes out when Motherhood comes in). I was shaving my legs and Mayana asked, “What are you doing Mama?”
Me: Shaving my legs Maysi
Her: Why?
Me: Because they’re too hairy.
Mayana went away, then came back with her stool. I saw her get some toilet paper and climb to wet it in the sink. She then wiped the wet toilet paper over her legs. I asked, “What are you doing Mayana?” To which she replied, “I’m just wiping off my hairy beasts, like you Mama.” Touché.
2. Yesterday morning Mayana came screaming into our room very upset. After we eventually calmed her down, she managed to get out that she was upset because she left her lollies at Santa’s house, which left us scratching our heads. After a while we got the full story out of her. She had visited Santa’s house (in a dream, though it was obviously very real to her), and he had given her some ‘fruit salad lollies’. When she woke up, she didn’t have them anymore, meaning she had clearly left them at his house. Panic and tears ensued. Funny chook. The dream was obviously really vivid to her, she was able to tell me a lot of detail about Santa’s house (which was red) and all the little children who lived there. She had a little sleep on a jumpy castle bed that was ‘big and huge like yours Mama – but I was allowed to jump on it’.
3. We went to the waterpark today. Mayana chose which togs she wanted to wear – the ones with the in-built floaties, in spite of the fact that you are never actually submerged in water at the waterpark. But she wanted to wear them anyway, because they are her Turtle Togs, and she loves them. Apparently the in-built floaties remind her of a turtle’s shell.
4. She has been totally melting my heart daily lately. She will walk up to me and hold my face and kiss me and say, “I love you Mummy”. Today she even called me Mummy Princess. She’s so affectionate and I’m lapping it up.
I need to start writing more of these down. She is talking so much now it just blows me away, and she is so often (usually unintentionally) incredibly funny, and always cute. Too cute not to share.
Yesterday, after reading Talia’s blogpost, I had a hit of inspiration to build a Gingerbread House. From scratch.
It was SO. MUCH. FUN.
I made the gingerbread dough last night using the recipe that Talia referred to, from The Red Deer. It’s super easy. I actually refrigerated it overnight, as I ran out of steam and didn’t feel like baking after dinner. It was okay, but needed a good hard working to soften it back up this morning.
I cut the template pieces out of baking paper, which meant I could stick them straight on my rolled –out dough and easily cut around it. Once my pieces were cut and baked, I brushed on the glaze and gave them plenty of time to cool.
The icing is also super easy, my only tip is that when it says, “Beat until very stiff peaks form” it means VERY. The icing works so much better as cement/glue when it’s really stiff. I didn’t include the lemon juice in the icing, because I didn’t have any.
We first put together the walls. I wanted to decorate them before I put the roof on, so that I could get to all of it easily.
We were probably more gung-ho with the icing than we really needed to be, but better to be safe and sorry! We let the walls set for a while we did some chores and had lunch. Once the icing was well and truly hard, we felt safe enough to start with the decorating.
I found it easiest to squeeze the glue straight onto the lollies then stick it on the house. I made a make-shift piping bag using a snap-lock bag with a small corner cut out. Worked like a charm.
We used coloured musk sticks, M&Ms, sour straps, liquorice and freckles.
Once we had the walls how we wanted them, it was time to add the roof.
Again, we probably used more icing than we needed to, but it’s certainly very stable as a result.
Pete and I had so much fun doing this together. Mayana was a little bit involved, but she was putting more lollies into her mouth than onto the house, so we distracted her with ABC2 after a while!
So without any further ado, here is our very beautiful Gingerbread House, of which we are suitably proud – especially considering this is the first time that either of us have done any kind of Gingerbread House building/decorating, and we did it all from scratch! I think we may have added another tradition to our little family Christmas list.
Now everybody pray with me that it survives it's 2.5 hour trip out to Christmas day with Nana & Pop!!
This weekend consisted of a LOT of driving, and a LOT of fun.
It started on Friday, when we made our way down to Brisbane to finish off some of our Christmas shopping. We chose a Westfield Shopping Centre, and landed in Shop-Til-You-Drop Heaven. There are really not very many shops in our town, so to find ourselves in a centre that had David Jones, Myer, Target, K-mart, Big W and about 30,000 other little stores (including favourites such as T-2, Kiki-K, Typo, Bed Bath & Table, and STARBUCKS) was a very wonderful thing indeed. I fell a little bit more in love with my new (/second-hand) iPhone, which has a Westfield App that allowed me to find the stores I wanted to go to, and even showed me how to get to them! Love technology!
After we had had our fill of Westfield, and crossed most things of our list, we hot-footed it over to Ikea for a few more bits and bobs. How is it that I can never seem to step out of that place without spending an inordinate amount of money? Then it was dinner with Aunty Janeen before we went back to the northern side of Brisbane for the real reason for our trip: a visit with our wonderful friends (and Mayana’s wonderful Godparents) Daniel & Katherine.
They have just bought a very cute little home, and we enjoyed seeing it and spending time with them. It’s been a while, but they’re the kind of friends that it doesn’t matter how long it’s been, we always just pick up where we left off. Love it.
On Saturday afternoon, we went along to a Christmas event that Dan & Kat’s church runs at a local school oval. It was great fun, with lots of free stuff for kids (face-painting, animal farm, pony-rides, jumping castles, Christmas craft etc) and entertainment (JC Epidemic, music, clowns & Christmas Carols). It was a great community event, and had a really good time… especially Mayana!
In the Christmas Spirit and ready to have some fun!!
Face painted! (One of Mayana’s favourite things to have done, and about the only time I’ve ever seen her sit still).
Visiting the Animal Farm with Kathrine. She kissed every single animal in there. Including the pig. On the butt. The duckling made a much nicer picture.
She also brushed every single animal in there. Including the turkey.
Mayana rode a pony called Macky. She was a little disappointed that she didn’t get to hold the reigns, but had a lot of fun.
The two Maysies
We also happened to bump into my mum’s cousin and his wife and kids, who were also there soaking in the family atmosphere. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them, and their gorgeous little boy Eddie (who was only a few months old when we last saw him) is now over one, and such a cutie. Their daughter Maya is a couple of weeks younger than Mayana, and they had a lovely time together, punctuated by many cuddles and kisses.
On Sunday, we took Mayana to Southbank to have a swim at the ‘beach’. It was quite cool, so she was the only one brave enough to get in, and it didn’t last for long – as much as she insisted she wasn’t cold the blue quivering lips kind of gave her away.
A lovely picnic in the sun soon warmed her back up again.
As did playing on Daniel, The Human Slippery-Slide.
Then it was time for a stroll through the markets, before our final stop in Brisvegas: Max Brenner. Oh my.
Mayana was most impressed with her Baby-Cino, which came not only with TWO marshmallows, but a plate COVERED in chocolate.
Which she proceeded to get pretty much all over herself.
But it was worth it for the beautiful smile!
Then we waved goodbye to Daniel & Katherine, to scoot back to the Coast for Christmas with Grandma Suki & Grandpa Ron!
We sang some songs, because that’s just what we do when my family is together. I love this photo, and the look us sisters are giving our baby brother who clearly just played a dud chord.
Grandpa cooked us a delicious BBQ dinner..
While we soaked up the views.
We exchanged gifts and ate delicious dessert and just enjoyed each other’s company.
It was certainly a very full weekend, but full of awesomeness and happy memories.
I’m playing along with Lou for Point + Shoot. You should too!
Last week, Mayana asked her Papa if she could go camping. I’m not sure how she figured out what camping is, but she knew it had something to do with sleeping in a tent. Her Papa promised her they would put the tent up later in the week, but it rained, and rained, and rained. The yard was far too soggy.
So her clever Papa came up with a brilliant idea: Mayana could camp in her bedroom!
My camping-King husband took his smallest tent (a 4-man), cleared a space in her bedroom (have I mentioned how much I love living in a Queenslander with massive bedrooms?) and up went the tent (sans waterproof fly). In went her Ikea city-map mat, her old cot-mattress, her camping chair (of course!) and her fold out couch. She added her entire collection of stuffed toys, and I gave the whole setup a bit of class, by hanging a paper lantern stuffed with fairy lights from the tent’s ceiling. The whole effect was quite magical really, and Mayana was and is delighted.
She has slept in her ‘tent-bedroom’ every night since, and has spent a lot of time playing and imagining in it in the daytime soon. I wonder when or if the novelty will wear off.
In the meantime, I’m totally considering a sleep-over with my daughter…
Being on holidays makes the days all blend together. I love waking up in the morning and thinking I have no idea what day it is today, and I don’t even care!
But once I sort out the days in my head, I find that this weekend was quite a busy one:
- Had friends over for dinner on Friday night which meant quite a late night for a certain over-excited little Miss, who fell asleep in the middle of saying prayers and…
- that she slept in till 8am on Saturday morning! Score!
- Practiced a song with a sister and a friend for a Christmas item at sister’s church on Sunday.
- Lazy afternoon in which the only thing I did was take photos to make 3rd birthday invitations for my little big girl!
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- Sang said song at sister’s church, then rushed over to my church so that I could see our church family before Christmas and the New Year.
- Home to do some housework before heading down to Noosa to have afternoon tea and a Christmas-gift-exchange with the in-laws.
- Watched my awesome sister, brother and dad in their church’s fabulous dinner-theatre-style Christmas show, ‘Mary’s Story’.
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- Spent time after the show catching up with wonderful friends and family
- Finally went to sleep well after 11pm… which is super-late for me these days!
Yep, big weekend, but our weeks have been just as big. Holidays are so not relaxing. But they are awesome!!
I’m playing along with Lou for Point + Shoot… you should too!
I’m sure many of you remember my little foray into the handmade-business-world during my final year or so of uni. ‘Particularly Zoey’ kept me very busy, and gave me enough pocket money to feed my craft addictions without poor Pete pulling his hair out.
Unfortunately I’ve slowed things right off this year, working full time and trying to spend as many minutes with my lovely little family as possible when I’m not working has meant that something had to give.
However I’m on holidays now, and I have a small collection of little goodies for sale just in time for Christmas. I have big plans once maternity leave time arrives to revive my little business for real, and I can’t wait!
So please, if you have a few spare minutes stop by my facebook page and have a look. You can contact me here, or leave a comment on the item you would like if you wish to buy anything. I accept payments via PayPal or direct deposit.
Thank you for indulging me in my own little self-plug here!
Here’s a preview of a few of my goodies!
The time is flying by, and I can’t believe that I’m nearly half way through this pregnancy!
For the most part things have gone very smoothly. Morning sickness was minimal – it was the same as with Mayana where I mostly felt the quease around dinner time, and Peter became our full-time cook for a few weeks there. But that seems to have passed, and most days I have an appetite again. Tiredness is the one thing sticking around, and this night owl is struggling with going to bed at 8.30pm!
However, I am loving being pregnant – just like I did with Mayana. I think my body likes being pregnant, and I can’t help but feel that I was made to do this.
My tummy is growing very quickly – much faster than last time, apparently normal for a second pregnancy, but exacerbated by the fact that I had quite a bad tummy muscle separation with Mayana.
14 weeks
17 Weeks
19 weeks tomorrow
The only true panic we have been through was when I had a doctor’s appointment at 16 weeks with a suspected UTI. The doctor (a new GP who I had never seen before) tried to find the baby’s heartbeat with the doppler, and wasn’t able to. She told me that it wasn’t a very good doppler and not to worry (yeh right!) but gave me a referral for a scan, which I couldn’t get in to until late the following afternoon. I think it was the most stressful 24 hours of my life. Even though I had been feeling the baby’s movements for a couple of weeks, I spent the day convincing myself that I must have imagined them. After having lost a baby earlier this year, I think I was preparing myself for the worst.
However, praise God, we had an awesome experience when we went for the scan that afternoon. We saw a beautiful healthy baby, with a perfect heartbeat, fully formed with healthy organs and well developing bones and body. It was amazing.
Baby from the top view. Head to the left, with arms up near the face (just like Mayana in her scan), and you can see a little foot down there on the right of the photo.
Strong, reassuring heartbeat. What peace that sound brought!
My cutie baby’s profile. Head on the left, you can see the curve of the spine/back, and little feet kicking around in front of the face.
I have no real plans to go back to that GP! It was a very terrible experience. I think especially after having such a great relationship with the GP I saw through Mayana’s pregnancy.
The baby’s movements are getting stronger all the time, and on Wednesday night, Peter got to feel it for the first time while he lay with his head on my tummy talking to bubby like he does every day. It is much earlier than he felt it with Mayana, and was a very lovely moment.
This week I had my first midwife appointment at the hospital (the booking in appointment). I was told that I should be able to have the rest of my antenatal appointments through midwives at the clinic, which will be fantastic, and much more suited to what I want for this pregnancy. There is also a good chance of me being able to go home within 24 hours if all is well (minimum of 6!) meaning that I won’t have to spend a night in hospital again.
The midwife we saw for this appointment was just lovely, and with only 7 midwives on the team in this area, chances are I will get to see her quite consistently throughout my pregnancy.
We got to hear that beautiful heartbeat again, as well as the thumping of a couple of kicks to the doppler. Mayana was with us at the appointment, and it was a very special moment for us when she began to dance to the sound of Baby Two’s heart beating. She melts my heart that girl!
We have another appointment at the hospital next week, for a routine 20 week check-up. I also have a referral to book my big morphology scan, and am planning to do that the week before Christmas.
So we’re rolling along, and the weeks are flying by – so much more quickly then I remember them doing with Miss Maysi!
Can’t wait to meet our beautiful Baby Two…
Some time ago, we took Mayana on a wonderful adventure.
We took her to the WIGGLES CONCERT!!
Mayana adores The Wiggles, and she counted down the days, and talked about all of the songs they might sing, and whether Dorothy and Wags and Henry would be there…
I have to say, The Wiggles were absolutely fantastic, and well-worth every single cent of what the tickets cost. It was worthy paying for them just to see this face when we walked into the foyer and got presented with a Wiggles crown:
And this face, when we walked up onto the balcony towards our theatre door:
And this face when the lights started to dim and the music started (ugh, don’t look at my face though!):
The Wiggles arrived on stage in their fancy big red car, joined by Wiggly Dancers and the Ring Master. They were so much fun!
Mayana’s months of practicing finally paid off when The Wiggles sang ‘Rock-a-bye Your Bear’ and Jeff inevitably fell asleep. Mayana put her hands to her mouth and yelled at the top of her lungs (which when all’s said and done isn’t really that loud), “WAKE UP JEFF!!!”
The highlight of the show for her was when Dorothy came out with three beautiful ballerinas. Mayana stood up on her chair and began to twirl. She still hasn’t stopped talking about Dorothy Ballerina.
She was entirely captivated, for pretty much the entire show.
We had to do a quick duck-out to the toilet at one stage, and found ourselves face-to-face with Murray at the end of our aisle. He said hello and shook Mayana’s hand. She was very star-struck.
Speaking of Murray, what do you think of this rockstar shot!!
I’m so glad we got the opportunity to take our girl to the Wiggles show, and was definitely a highlight day of our year, and a memory that will be treasured by all of us for a very long time.
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