blueberries + cruskits and how they saved my life

I’ve been at this parenting gig for nearly four years now. And only yesterday did I realise the power of food.

Since I’ve had the two kids I have hated going grocery shopping. I used to love it, and I had no problems doing it with just Mayana. But with two kids, man, what a nightmare. We’d get through half of it okay, but then inevitably by the time we got to the register one of them would lose the plot. We’d have screaming or arguing or nagging, and annoying Aldi checkout person who doesn’t wait until you’ve got your trolley around before they start scanning… (seriously, what is their problem! It’s not like they even have to pack the bags! A little bit of patience for a poor woman with a screaming baby in a sling and a whinging pre-schooler in the trolley goes a looooong way – oh sorry, I’ll save that rant for another day). Suffice it to say I am NOT a fan of going solo grocery shopping with two kids. Yesterday though, we were in a pickle. We were running out of food and other necessities (like baby wipes – and Reuben needs baby wipes a lot. The kid does number twos about 16 times a day *le sigh*). So I had to face it. I let Reuben have his sleep, spent some time playing with Mayana, and fed them both before I left the house.

When we got to the shops, I put Reuben in his trolley mate, and enlisted the help of my very big girl Mayana to be my very special helper, armed with her own shopping list. As we walked around the shops, I slipped Reuben pieces of cruskit. He loves the things… absolutely devours him. And you know how they get kind of sticky when they’re sucked on (trust me, they really do), well he enjoys exploring his arms and hands and trolley mate to find the bits that have stuck in places other than his mouth. They occupy him quite effectively.

Mayana lasted well until the checkout, where she had a mini-meltdown over who knows what. I calmed her down with the promise of blueberries. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before but I’m not above bribery, and at the end of any successful shopping trip Mayana is allowed a treat. She generally chooses a ‘sausage’ (twiggy stick/salami) or little packet of nuts or sultanas (they have them near the register at Aldi). Even in the face of lollipops and chocolates, these are her treat of choice. Love that kid. Anyway, she usually gets to have her treat once we get in the car. Yesterday, I had a stroke of genius. I asked the lovely young cashier (oh I’m going to line up for young Joshua every time I go to Aldi now. He waited until I had the trolley around and the children settled and went slow enough for me to pack my trolley properly as I went… the perfect Aldi specimen) to scan the blueberries first. I sat Mayana down on the floor next to the trolley and opened the punnet. I handed Reuben his last piece of cruskit. Aaaaand I didn’t hear a peep out of either of the children the entire time my huge load of groceries were being scanned and packed. The lovely Joshua even commented on how well behaved my children were. Mayana ate nearly the whole punnet of blueberries but meh, a good hit of antioxidants isn’t gonna hurt her, and they were only $2.49. $2.49 well spent if you ask me!!

I survived shopping, with two kids. There were no tears, no hair pulling, no arguing, no whinging. Pure, pure bliss. My lesson is learned. From now on, there is always, always, going to be food in my bag.

And that my friends, is the story of how blueberries and cruskits saved my life. Or at least my sanity.

Our Big Day Out

Last week, Pete had to go and do a Professional Development day in a town about 2 hours away. It’s our nearest ‘shopping town’, where people from here go when they want to hit some decent shops. It’s main allure for me is the fact that it has a Spotlight and a Kmart. So when Pete suggested that the kids and I accompany him and spend the day shopping while he was busy learning, I jumped at the chance.

It meant an early morning, and we were dressed and on the road before 7.00am, arriving a little earlier than Pete needed to be there. It was nice having the couple of hours in the car with my husband.. having that bit of time together with a chance to chat without doing anything else was quite lovely.

We noticed when we drove into town that the indoor play centre I had promised to take Mayana to was closed down. Uh-oh!

First stop though.. shopping! Mayana and I shopped till we dropped in Kmart. It’s a fabulous place to buy essentials for kid’s wardrobes, and I also found $5.00 cushions for the crocheted cushion fronts I had been working on!

I got quite a haul for the kids as a start to set up their summer wardrobes. After being in size 0 clothes for nearly a year, Mayana seems to have skipped size one and is suddenly in need of size 2 clothes! This is the first size that we haven’t got clothes put away for (you know, the ones we were given or handed down when she was born), so the first time that I’ve really got to shop for my girl’s wardrobe! Reuben is also into a new size (000) and I need to populate his very unisex wardrobe with a few boy clothes.

Mayana was such a good girl while we were shopping, and after lunch I spotted a nail salon. After finding out that a child’s manicure would only cost me $5.00, I decided that would be a perfect special treat for my girl.

She LOVED it! She was such a good girl, and sat there so still taking it all so seriously. After I gently swayed her from choosing an awful snotty green colour, she settled on bright pink, to match her dress. As she explained the whole process, “First they scratched my nails, then they cleaned them, then they rubbed them, then they painted them. Then I put my hand in the blue lights, then I was done!” It was definitely $5.00 worth spending for the memory it made for her. She has been so careful to keep her gorgeous fingernails safe, and shows anyone who cares to look.

After hitting Spotlight, I still had an hour or so to burn. I spotted a McDonalds across the road and remembered that the playground at this one is better than most. What a fabulous alternative to the play centre I was going to take Mayana too… and all for the price of a much-needed cup of coffee! You can’t beat that!

This particular playground has quite high spaces, and apparently it’s a bit of a maze inside (I’m taking Mayana’s word for it!), and she had fun ‘being an explorer’ and trying to find her way to the highest points. She was the only one in the playground while we were there, and she had an absolute ball.

While Mayana played, Reuben tried his first taste of food out of a packet… He absolutely loved it. It was almost funny, I couldn’t reload the food fast enough, and he would cry and kick in between mouthfuls and gulp down the food as soon as it hit his lips. I think he would have eaten the whole packet if I’d have let him… but I wasn’t sure how his bowels would take it and I for one did not want to be the one to find out.

When Pete had finished, we went and picked him up and took him to Nana’s pantry, a fabulous bulk-buy foodstore, which sells all sorts of dry goods. We’ve been to the store close by to us, but this is the main store, and had SO much more variety. We stocked up on bread mixes, dried fruit, nuts, cereals, grains (hello quinoa!) and seeds. Another huge perk to this particular store is that they also have a gelato section, which ours doesn’t. And oh what delicious ice-cream they make. After quite some time, and a number of tastings, we finally settled on our flavours of choice.

Um. Yum! I think I would drive back to this town for the gelato alone!

I had such a lovely day out with my kiddies. They were both beautifully behaved, and it’s nice to know that we can go out and do things like this with minimal fuss or disruption to our overall routines.

Hopefully Peter has more PD’s to go to in the near future!

Okay To Wake

This morning, for about the third morning in a row, we heard a certain Maysi-bird up and about well before 6am. It’s these early hours of the morning when her Papa and I are both asleep that she tends to get herself into serious mischief. Like the time when she spilt black paint all over her Making Room floor, pyjama top and toy dog. She knows she’s not allowed to touch her paint without us! Argh!

I got out of bed, walked her back to her room and told her it was not waking up time yet. She informed me that she had looked out of her window and the sky was blue and the sun was awake. Drat stupid summer!

As I rolled back into bed, I mumbled to Pete about an alarm clock I had seen forever ago that turns green when it’s okay to get out of bed, and how much I wish I could find one for Mayana.

A little later, when it was a little after 6am and actually time to wake up, I did a quick Google search on my phone, and discovered that this clock is called an ‘Ok to Wake’ clock, and is made by an American company. Every stockist I found online was based in the States, and didn’t ship internationally. Sad. But then, I did one last Google search, and discovered that Aldi is advertising the Ok to Wake clock for $29.95 in their special buys catalogue that started TODAY! No. Freaking. Way. Right?  I couldn’t believe it!

Seriously, I’ve seen this thing once before, and the day that it pops into my mind happens to be the same day that it features in an Aldi catalogue. Unreal.

So needless to say, straight after school today I was off to Aldi to buy myself one of these babies:

I spent the afternoon telling Mayana that tomorrow when she wakes up, instead of looking out of her window she needs to look at her new and awesome clock. If it is green (the light makes most of what is white in the picture turn green) then she can get out of bed and come to Mama and Papa. If it is still white, she needs to close her eyes and go back to sleep.

Tomorrow will be the test… I have high hopes.

Thanks Aldi!

Point + Shoot : Brisvegas Baby

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!

Handmade Goodies

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!

Kindle Convert

I never thought that I would be the girl with the electronic book. I’ve always loved books – the stories in them, the feel of the pages… pretty much everything about them. I never imagined I’d give up the paper variety.

But around the time of my birthday, I decided to some research into e-readers. I discovered the Kindle, and decided that I would love to give it a go. So when my very lovely parents got me one for my birthday, I was thrilled. I LOVE it!

The Kindle is easy to use and easy to read (even in direct sunlight). It isn’t backlit, so doesn’t put extra strain on your eyes. You can make the text bigger and easier to see, and it holds stacks of books. Plus, Amazon has a great range of electronic books, including a lot of the wonderful Christian fiction that I love to read. Best of all, e-books are so much cheaper!!

Currently on my Kindle I have 11 books, 3 dictionaries and the entire Anne of Green Gables series. Anne of Green Gables was the first thing I bought. The entire series for $1.99. You can’t imagine how happy that made me.

I love that I can carry it around in my handbag – it weights next to nothing – and pull out a book at any time. I also love that when I get to the end of Anne of the Island, I don’t have to get out of my warm bed to go to my book shelf to try and find Anne of Windy Willows… because it’s right there at my fingertips. I love that I don’t have to have a stack of books next to my bed anymore to suit my mood… they’re all there, filed up in my pencil-thin Kindle. I LOVE it! I think the only down side is that I’m not brave enough to take it in the bath… so paper books have to fulfil my need for long bubbly baths with books.

I also made it a very cute little home to live in, just to add to its charm..

Isn’t it he lovely?

Seriously though, if you have been considering buying a Kindle, I would very highly recommend it. I was having a play with some other brand e-readers in s store the other day (they were all more expensive than the Kindle), and in my opinion the Kindle is far superior, in look, feel and technology. The buttons are quicker to respond and the text is clearer. It’s a really great product.

And now I’ll stop going on about it.

But I just thought you should know. I love my new Kindle.

Say Cheese!

Yesterday, Peter and I became the very proud owners of our dream camera!

A Pentax K-X (digital SLR). So pretty and clever and I just LOVE it!

We chose this model because a) it’s in our price range; b) it’s a fabulous camera; c) We can use the lenses from our Pentax Film SLR camera – saving us from the need to double up.

So far we’ve taken about 300 photos, in less than 24 hours. Most of them are of Mayana of course.

I’ll post some soon!

iTunes

Yesterday I bought my very first iTunes card. I’m not totally sold on iTunes as a program, and I don’t have an iPod or iPhone (I have a sony ericsson mobile with 2gig of memory, and use that as my music player). But I do like that I can buy individual songs, and albums at a more reasonable price than at most stores.

So I bought a $20.00 iTunes voucher. And I bought three songs:

Lifesong, by Casting Crowns (more on that in another post)

Nothing I Would Rather Be, and All the Way Jesus, from the Bran Nu Day soundtrack.

That movie is sooooo funny by the way. I went with my sister, and the whole thing was a laugh out loud moment for us. We LOVED it. ‘Nothing I Would Rather Be’ is a satirical, tongue-in-cheek song and so funny. ‘All the Way Jesus’ is a song sung in the church service, lead by Jessica Mauboy, and it gives me goosebumps.

So I’ve spent about $5.00. I want to buy ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ from the Glee soundtrack, but I think my sister has that on her iRiver, so I’ll have to double check before I spend money on it.

And now I’m trying to figure out what to get next. Decisions decisions. And too many choices!!!!!

I love...

Stationery. Sad, I know, but true. My Dad reckons it's the inner-teacher in me... maybe he's right, but I have always loved it.

I loved those weeks before a new school year, when you got all your new books and pens and pencil case items, and got to cover your books. I love covering books. I used to do really cool stuff like cover them with fantale wrappers. My brother and sisters would even get me to cover their books. This year was the first year that I can remember that I didn't cover their books... and only cos I was kinda busy having a baby.

So anyway, this awesome new shop opened up at our local shopping centre.

A whole store dedicated to beautiful, bright, funky stationery. My dream store, seriously. I can see myself spending a lot of time there, dreaming, drooling, trying to remember that I can't spend because I'm supposed to be saving for our Perth trip.

To celebrate its opening today, I bought myself this most fabulous pen:

I bought Pete one too. That's how fabulous I think it is. It is like a whole pencil case in one pen. It has a blue pen, a red pen, a pacer and a highlighter. All in this one spunky pink pen. Seriously, that's cool. Even if you're not a stationery lover like me, you have to admit that.

I love my new pen!

we’re in the market…

For a new couch, or two.

It’s no fun settling in for a movie or two on a Saturday night on the most uncomfortable couch in the world!!!

So this weekend, we’ve been couch shopping.

We don’t have a huge budget, or a huge space, so are reasonably limited by that.  But after looking in all the furniture stores in our town, we came across something that suits our budget, our space AND our taste! Plus it’s actually nice to sit on!

This two piece set (3 seater + 2 seater) is only $599 (more info here), with a 5 year warranty on the frames, and for an extra $180 we can have the fabric scotch-guarded, which will also give that a 5 year warranty This is the colour we are looking at getting too.

They won’t have any in stock for a few months (being ordered from overseas), but we can put a deposit down so one is set aside for us, and if in the meantime we change our mind we get a full refund. So after sleeping on it, we’re pretty sure that we’ll be in to put down our deposit tomorrow…

Can’t wait for a comfy bum!

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...

Brisbane Adventure

Yesterday, Pete, Mayana and I, and my friend Jess, drove up to Brisbane, where we met Mama and Papa at Ikea!

I love Ikea, it’s such a fun place to shop. And it was even better that we got to hang out with my parents all day!

Papa was a total Mayana hog (hehe), and had a great time wandering around with her, putting her in random chairs, and taking her to choose the perfect stuffed toy (it ended up being a great big orange hippo- I’ll put photos of it on Mayana’s Blog).

Mayana doesn’t look so little in this chair, eh?

We bought a few things at Ikea, the ‘town map’ rug I’d been eyeing off. I really like it, it has such scope for imaginative play, and the Ikea one has some really great ‘landmarks’, like an igloo, a beach (complete with whales) and a castle on a hill!

We also got her this really cute mobile, which she fell in love with as they had one just like it hanging over the change table in the parent’s room.

I got some stuff for the kitchen too (storage containers, little shelves for the pantry, cake decorating stuff).

After Ikea, Pete and I went to his brother, Daniel’s place to meet our new baby niece, Hannah. Daniel hadn’t got to hold Mayana before either (they’d only met her once, at their wedding), so everyone got to have cuddles of their respective niece.

Pete with Hannah, Daniel with Mayana

We then went back into the city and met up with Mama and Papa again. That was a drama in itself. Our idea was to part at a train station, and train into the city so we didn’t have to worry about parking. We’ve done it many times, and it usually works well.. but not yesterday. We got to the train station with about 5 minutes to spare before the next train… which didn’t arrive! A voice came over the intercom telling us that there was a delay, and it would be 20 minutes late. Fair enough. I settled in, gave my girl a feed… finished feed.. still no train!

Eventually, we gave up, and decided to risk parking in the city. So we asked good ole tomtom to direct us, and ended up at the Myer Centre car park - $15 flat rate… nice!

Into the city… and off to STARBUCKS where I had me a Grande Double Chocolate Chip Blended Cream Frappuccino with Whipped Cream and Chocolate Sauce. Oooh yeah.

We walked around for a bit, and Papa spotted a chinese takeaway in a shopping centre which was selling off what they had left for cheap- he got 6 containers for $20! Not bad, fed the 5 of us well, we were so full!

We had such a lovely day together… Mama and Papa just couldn’t get enough of Mayana, and who could blame them!?

We definitely have to do it again…

Retail Therapy

There is a new store in our local shopping centre, called Temt. I am officially in love. For the first time in I can’t remember how long, I walked in, grabbed an armful of stuff I liked, at great prices, took it all into the fitting room and LOVED almost every piece I tried on! I have 6 new tops, and only spent $78! I promised myself that part of my Kruddcash would go towards updating my wardrobe, but up until now have been very disappointed with my options. Yay for this new store! I will definitely be going back!!!

My purchases today:

Left: Spaghetti strap singlet top (perfect under any top for discreet breastfeeding) $9.99, worn underneath white top, $14.99)

Right: High-neck tshirt, $9.99, worn under black top, $14.99 (shoulders of this top also unbutton, which will be great for feeding)

Black & watermelon versions of the same top, $14.99 each.

I LOVE bargains :) Next I will get brave and go and try on pants… my pregnancy ones no longer stay up, lol.

Wii!

Okay, so I so thought I’d never join the wii bandwagon, but since uncle Kevi is giving us his ruddbucks, and we get 4 lots of it (which is sending us on a Perth holiday for Christmas), Pete and I decided to do it. Pete’s been wanting one for a looong time, but I’ve taken A LOT of convincing.

Anyway, our first lot of ruddbucks were due this week.. they still haven’t turned up (stupid Centrelink, or as I like to call them, CentreSTINK – hadn’t made me eligible for the FTB part B bonus payment because they hadn’t processed my paperwork prior to Feb 3, although I gave it to them on Jan 23, and M was born Jan 18! I rang them today and sorted that out though, and it’s coming through next monday). Pete has been doing stacks of research on the various Wii deals going, and this week Big W had a beauty: The Wii console, with 3 games for only $398. They also had the Wii fit for $118. Combined this is cheaper than you would pay for the same thing but used at say, EB Games –and that would only have 1 game. So we decided to do it!

Toowoomba Big W hadn’t gotten a shipment in at all, and weren’t sure that they were going to. I still don’t understand how they can get away with that when it’s being advertised in the catalogue and on TV. But anyway. They wouldn’t let us put our name down for when one came in, despite the sign on the counter that said, “See staff to secure your wii bundle”. Weirdos! So I rang Big W Noosa, and they had stacks of wii bundles, and 2 wii fits available. I madly rang my sister and transferred money to her account, and she flew over there and got it for us! By the time she got there they only had the one wii fit left, and the girl nearly wouldn’t give it to her, because they said a lady had rung and said she was coming to get it within the hour – but the lady was me! That was really nice of her cos she’d told me on the phone they aren’t allowed to hold catalogue sale items.

So yeah, long story short: Today we are getting a Wii. It is arriving with my mum and brother any minute now.

Pete, Mayana and I get to spend a weekend with Kami and Oom J! We’re so looking forward to them coming and hanging out for the weekend… and playing with our new wii!!! :)

The Verdict - and Mayana rambles

Best night's sleep for a loooooong time.

I didn't have to wake up every half hour to rearrange myself because some part of me was going numb...
My hip didn't click when I got out of bed thismorning..
and it was SO comfortable. Best $999 we've every spent. Oh and that's right, did I mention that we also made a saving of $500!! Because I am a magnet for bargains, and of course walked right into a sale ;-)

It also helped that Mayana had the longest sleep of her entire (albeit short) life so far. She went to sleep at 7.15pm, and didn't wake up until 5.15am!!! It's the first really good night she's had since we moved her bedtime forward from 8pm to 7pm.

She had a weird day yesterday, I think because she missed her morning sleep. I've found that if she has a good morning sleep, she is good all day, but if for some reason it's messed up, we have a very cranky baby, even if she does manage a sleep later in the day.

We've settled into a pretty good routine for the moment. Well, she kind of settled herself into it so I'm going along with it anyway!

She usually wakes up at around 8am, I feed her, change her, we have a chat and a cuddle and I put her back to bed by 9.30am, earlier if she's showing tired signs before then.
She then usually sleeps until midday or sometimes even later. Then we have another feed, get dressed for the day (well usually I am already dressed before then, but she gets dressed) and often go out somewhere. She generally doesn't sleep a whole lot after that, but will maybe have a couple of catnaps, and I demand feed during this time. We bath her between 4.30pm and 5pm, and then have some play time on a blanket on the floor - usually this is "Papa time", while I start dinner.
I start her pre-bed feed sometime around 6ish, and that usually goes for half an hour. Then we go into her room, I read her a book or two and we sing a song (usually Yes Jesus Loves Me ) Then I wrap her up, and call Pete in and we say prayers with her, each have a cuddle and a kiss, and into bed she goes! I pat her for a bit, make sure the dummy is in, and then leave the room. She usually is asleep within 15 minutes, but I sometimes have to go back in to pop the dummy back in and give her another pat. She's doing really well at the self-settling and I'm SO proud! Especially when she then practically sleeps right through!

I can't believe my baby is going to be 8 weeks old this Sunday, and next Wednesday will be 2 months old!!! She's still so tiny, even though she feels so much bigger to us. When we go out, people are always shocked that such a tiny baby is so alert, assuming that she's much newer than she is. I often get disgusted looks from old ladies who must think that I'm a horrible mother to have such a brand-new baby out, lol. But mostly, every person we walk past says, either to us or whoever they're with, "aawwww look at that tiny baby, she's so cute, how tiny is she!!!". That's assuming they figure out she's a she. You have no idea the amount of times I've been asked, "is it a little girl or a little boy,". Well yes, I often dress my little boy in pink dresses with a pink headband and frilly white socks. *slaps forhead*.

Anyway, she's such a good baby, and SO cute. Even when she cries she does these most gorgeous little frowns. I keep trying to take a photo (mean I know) but it's a fleeting expression and hard to capture.

Anyway, I had best be off, I really only came in to talk about the mattress, not to ramble on about my baby! She's worth rambling about though, that's for sure :)

Need to do some housework before she wakes up!

Sleeping well...

Pete and I are very excited tonight, because we have a new mattress!!! We are soooooo looking forward to a night without springs poking into various parts of our bodies.
Since we got married we have had an old hand-me-down mattress which I bought cheap from a friend, but it has definitely had its day. A few years ago, we replaced the ensemble base with a nice wooden bedframe, and yesterday, we invested in a beautiful new mattress.

It is a sleepmaker miracoil mattress, with a pillow top. Soooo nice. The pillow top bit is lovely soft fluffy fabric, and is incredibly comfortable.

So yeah, I'm really, really looking forward to going to bed tonight (don't say dirty it's too easy!).

Ikea: or why shopping till you drop is not a good idea when you're 8 months pregnant

On Thursday, Pete and I and my family, and my family's youth pastor, Michelle tripped down to Ikea for the day. We left at some ridiculous hour (6.30am) and were home at about 7.30pm (!!!!!!)

We got to Ikea at about 8.30, only to find that they don't open till 9.30 on weekdays! We were meeting some other friends there for breakfast too. So we popped next door and moseyed around the shops near Spotlight for an hour, and were back to Ikea waiting for the doors to open when it was time. Breakfast was SO good (probably because we were starving by then).

Then we shopped. And shopped. My parents are starting to renovate their kitchen, so were intrigued by all the little display rooms, and we looked at every single one. That's my favourite way to do Ikea so it suited me! We finished off most of our christmas shopping, and I had a great time, even though I was waddling like a duck and suffering through painful braxton hicks for a lot of the day!

We left Ikea at around 2 or 3pm, I can't really remember, and then we went over to the Hyperdrome - at least I think that's what it's called. Some big shopping centre in any case. We ate some (late) lunch, and then hit more shops. We left there around 5.45pm.

So we had done all our christmas shopping, plus some last minute things for bubby. We were all totally exhausted by the end of the day, but that and the aching legs the next day were totally worth it.

Our Christmas shopping...

Mum & Alexie being silly sausages :P

Leaving Ikea. I think Jordan was hungry

Mich and Bethanie

My sore, sad, slightly swollen and sorry feet

My gorgeous husband :) Feeling triumphant after a day's successful spending

Papa & Mich

Op-shopping and baby bits.

Yesterday, Pete and I spent the morning at the shops, paying off some of bubby's layby and looking around before going on a picnic to one of my favourite places, Ravensbourne National Park. On the way out though, I convinced Pete to stop at this mega-sized lifeline op-shop that I've been meaning to visit for about 18 months. It took a little bit of convincing, as my husband didn't have a childhood like mine, spent sifting through junk at op-shops finding those little gems that you would never find elsewhere. I patiently reminded him about all the items in our home which I collected years before I even knew him, that he just takes for granted.

Once in there, he was more excited than me! He headed straight to a rack of men's boardshorts. He had been whinging yesterday morning that his were all old and dying, and had looked at some in the shops earlier that were $30+ each! Well, after a bit of digging, he found three pairs of boardies in really good condition for a total of $10!!!!

I, in the meantime, poked around for a maternity section, but to no avail. I was hoping to find some kind of swimwear that will fit over my bump for our Hervey Bay getaway later this week. No such luck. I did, however, find a pair of genuine red Doc Martin's for $30 in my size!!!!! I tried them on, and Pete didn't approve. My dreams were shattered, I've always wanted a pair, but according to Pete, they really didn't look good. What would he know. Probably don't have $30 in my bank account anyway...

I won however, when I found a gorgeous pair of brown leather shoes that look as though they have never been worn! Seriously, the soles look completely brand new - not scuffed at all. And all for $4.00! Score! I then stumbled over a nice summery white top that I can get away with as a matternity top - $3.00! I also found a reallllllly cute pair of lime-green overalls in size 0000 that our baby will love. Target brand, $2.50. They also look brand new. So all in all, despite the broken heart over the Docs, I did okay.

Here are some pics of our purchases....

My beautiful new shoes... now I just need an outfit to wear them with .. lol.

Cute baby overalls!!

My bargain maternity top...

Oh.. and had to show off these. Our lovely friends Daniel & Katherine who have been living in Scotland for the past 10 months or so came home for a flying visit and we were able to catch up with them last weekend. (They've gone back now, and won't be home until possibly mid-2010!!! So glad we were able to catch up). Anyway, they brought back these cute little gifts for our bubby. A 'Scotland' bib, complete with tartan trim, scotch thistle & scottish terrier & Loch Ness Monster Slippers!!!!! Too cute, lol.