Happy New Year!!!

Just wanted to wish my small band of followers a very Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is a happy and prosperous one for all of us.  Bring it on!!!

Stay safe, whatever you're up to tonight :-) xxxx

2011

I promise I will try and do better with this whole blogging thing in the New Year!

Christmas card done

Here's the finished product!

Christmas photos!

Got the girls dressed in their matching outfits and snapped a few photos for this year's Christmas card. Here are my two favourites!

I have a new hero...

and his name is Peter Whittall.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Pike-River-emergency-presser---Peter-Whittall-/tabid/423/articleID/187819/Default.aspx

He has been amazing over the last 6 days, and it looks like he hasn't slept at all. An amazing man, and if we could all be as lucky as to work under a CEO as fantastic as he is, the working world would be a better place.

RIP Pike River miners, and much love to Peter, Gary and all the team that worked so, so hard to try and get them home.

A favour to ask?

I know some of my followers have been having trouble commenting on my posts? I'm not sure if I've checked a box somewhere that has disabled comments?
Any suggestions? Can you comment?

Thanks! xx

More from TotShots!

If any of you aren't on my FB, here is the link to my album. LOVE how these have all turned out! Thank you again Anna!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=241411&id=673392241&l=1449998960

 

 

Finally!

Well after months of thinking about it, Zoe is finally going to be baptised. We've found a church that is willing to do it (long story - lots of hoop-jumping), and since we have a very small window where Chris' brother and family are going to be in town, we're doing it next week!

Now I just have to find something for her to wear, and organise afternoon tea! Next week is gonna be BUSY!

Boat day!

A couple of days ago, Annabelle and Zoe decided the game of the day was "boats"

Hmmm I have a mystery follower...

Anyone gonna fess up? hahaha

I have a few suspects in mind... :P

Photo shoot with Anna from TotShots

Annabelle is a big kindy girl!

Today is Annabelle's first proper day of kindy.
We went in at 8:30 and she settled into the serious business of playing right away. She has a cubby to put her bag away, and there was a sign on the board welcoming her :-)

By 9am it was clear she didn't need me to stay, so Zoe and I came home. It's now 11am so I'll be heading back there around 12 to help her with her lunch and then we'll be home at 12:40.

I was shocked at how emotional I was on my drive home at 9am. I was quite teary-eyed! But I'm so proud of her, and she's going to have so much fun as a kindy girl!

Having a bit of a sad day

Slowly but surely, all our baby stuff is disappearing as it sells. This is a good thing! But I can't help but get a wee bit sad as some of the girls most gorgeous clothes walk out the door to their new homes. :-(

Still waiting for someone to bid on the Bugaboo so I can get out and buy me a P&T!!

Time for a buggy change...?

We have two prams. A Bugaboo Chameleon and a Marco Sky L (which is our double). Neither of these are fabulous for walking, and both of them now don't technically cope with Annabelle's weight.
So I'm seriously contemplating selling BOTH of them, and buying a P&T with doubles kit.
I know a few people who have them and rave about them.
I'll do some research and then start listing the other prams on TM!

Me :-)

30 years ago:

Pet Service

My Mum took Annabelle to the pet service at the Cathedral today. We were going to go along with Zoe too, but after a rough night of Zoe coughing up a lung, we opted to stay home.

Anyway, apparently they were the first ones there and the photographer from the Dom Post was all over Belle and Spooky (Mum's cat) like a rash. So there may very well be a pic of my girlie in the paper tomorrow or Monday :-) Will certainly get a copy to post on here if there is!

Turning 30

I posted something about turning 30 on my FB yesterday. It was amazing how many people thought I was freaking out about it! I'm not! I am struggling to work out where the last couple of years have disappeared to, but I really don't care about moving onto my next decade. I'm excited!

I have had some highs and lows in my 20s, and can't wait for the adventures (particularly adventures in raising 2 girls!) my 30s have in store for me.

Hmmm... now that I actually sit down and think about it - my 20s were huge!
In no particular order, I:
Moved from New Plymouth to Wellington.
Graduated from Uni after 3 years with a bachelors degree in Sociology.
Graduated from Teacher's College after 1 year with a diploma in primary teaching
Got engaged
Got married
Got separated
Got divorced
Moved in with Chris
Had Annabelle
Had Zoe
Worked in a very enjoyable environment at the Min of Education
Shifted house 8 times (!!!)
Met lots of amazing people I am still honoured to call my friends

All in all, I am pleased with the person I am today. And my 30s will only add to that :-) BRING IT ON! xxx

I'm a listing machine!

My poor computer has been earning its keep over the last week. I've been busily listing all our baby stuff and maternity stuff on Trade Me. Some of it has sold already which is great - frees up some space and puts some $$ back in my account!

Lady Bugs!

My mother is very clever. She has made the girls some gorgeous LadyBug costumes (which will later be added to, to include a butterfly and bee attachment)
So we had a little photo shoot today, their first time wearing them.

A happy little family of four

Well Chris and I have had a week of being quarantined in the house together to talk about the future, and we have decided that we're not going to have any more kiddies.


Lots of reasons, like financial implications - I want to be able to take the girls on holidays and not have to skimp at Christmas time and stuff like that.

Plus I'm not sure what's going on with my stupid ovaries so now that we've decided, I'm very tempted to just get them ripped out.
I'm happy that we've made a decision, but there were a few tears when I started listing all the baby gear on Trade Me :-(

But that's ok, I can have a little grieve for the fact there'll be no more babies, but at the same time I can look forward to all the fun we are going to have with Annabelle and Zoe as they grow up. They are starting to become great little friends and I can't wait to see that grow and grow! xxxxx

Sad wee bubba

This was Zoe on Monday. Very sad little girl.

Touch Wood

We appear to be through the worst of this bug now. Girls are pretty much back to their normal selves, but still aren't eating as much as I'd like.
Chris is still quite under the weather, but appears to be on the improve. I seem to have gotten away with only a little bit of a funny tummy, which is almost gone.
Yay! Hope it's a good long while before we catch another gastro bug in this house!

Sharing a room!

On Saturday, before the lurg hit Zoe and Annabelle, Chris and I did some rearranging while they were out with their Nan.
We took Zoe's cot down (with only a couple of tears from me) and have moved the bunks into that room and set them out as two single beds. Zoe is in the "top" one as it has the railings around it. She looks so tiny in it!
So now Annabelle's old room is the playroom.

First night was a disaster because of the vomit bug, but last night was great. And Zoe's gone down for 2 naps today in her big bed. So in a way it's worked out well - Zoe was too tired and sick to fight being in a big bed, and they're both so tired from the bug to be bothered by daylight savings! They've adapted really well!

So here is the new bedroom:

And the playroom:

So, it wasn't just Zoe

We've had two very unwell little girls over the weekend.
Turns out Annabelle had the same puking bug, but she waited until 10pm to puke her guts out on Sat night.
We ended up all camping in the lounge in front of the fire.

It was a looooooong night! Last night was much better, both sleeping in their own beds and I only had to get up 3 times.

Both still lethargic but they've had some toast and water and it seems to be staying down so I'd say we're through it now.
Thus far Chris and I are unaffected... *touch wood*

Poor Zoekins is sick

Stupid puking bug.


Poor Zoe has been throwing up since about 6pm. No warning, ate her tea with her usual enthusiasm. Then she was in the kitchen with me waiting for her milk to warm up and BAM all over the floor came her dinner.

And several times since then. There's nothing left in her tummy so now it's just bile coming up every 20 mins or so.

No temp, no trembles or sweats or anything. She's very tired and lethargic but isn't crying or anything (except just after throwing up).

I'm guessing it is going to be a long night for us tonight!

Crafty Belle

When Annabelle was at her Nan's (my Mum) last weekend, they got crafty and made a buzzy bee! It would appear Belle got a wee bit carried away with the black paint hehehe

Thank you Tony!

Chris' dear friend Tony came round on Saturday and he brought with him an enormous stack of books that were his daughters'. They've outgrown them and he wanted them to go to someone he knows.

So here is the stack of books that has been added to Annabelle and Zoe's library :-)

3 weeks to go!

Yesterday was exactly 3 weeks until my 30th birthday. More importantly, it means yesterday was also 3 weeks exactly until Bathurst. For those of you not in the know, Bathurst is the Great Race: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathurst_1000

So I will happily be spending the first day of my 30s blobbed in front of the telly with snacks and beer for a solid 9 hours. Woohoo!

Too tall

This weekend I've been boxing up all of Annabelle's Size 3 clothing and getting the limited size 4 stuff we have out and into the drawers.
I measured Belle this morning and she's 103cms. She was 101cm on her 3rd birthday so that's a 2cm increase in 3 months. Not as much as I expected actually!
But anyway, her tops are all too short and her pants aren't long enough anymore so away it goes into boxes, waiting for Zoe to grow into them. That's the really great thing about having two girls!

Out to dinner!

Always a nice excuse to dress the girls up! Yesterday was my brother's 25th birthday and he was in Wellington to celebrate. So we had a family dinner (minus Chris as he had to work late) at the Fisherman's Table.
Annabelle still had her facepaint on from her Kindy Visit but we removed it once we met up at my Mum's place. Here are the girls just as we were about to leave.

And again with their coats on to brave the wind!

And a few shots from dinner. Including a rather nice one of my brother and I!

Annabelle's new Kindy

We went for our first visit to Wadestown Kindy today (after discovering Ngaio's waiting list was ridiculously long!) and Annabelle had a fantastic time!
She jumped right in with the other kids and played with the playdough, dressups, trainset and ran around outside like a mad thing.
She even got her face painted!

We couldn't stay right until the end because Zoe was grumpy and needed a snooze. I"m going to have to adjust her nap time slowly so that she sleeps once we've collected Annabelle at 12:45. Something to work on over the next 4 or 5 weeks!
The teachers were fantastic and the kindy itself is lovely. Small by comparison, only 30 kids, which is really great! The head teacher is going on maternity leave next term and the teacher who is stepping up to replace her is a man, which I'm very happy about. Not too many male ECE teachers around!

So all in all, a very positive experience and I (and Annabelle) can't wait for her start date to roll around.

Carcrashpantsman

There is a man who goes jogging along Oriental Parade. Mel and I have had the misfortune to see him a couple of times when we have been out walking.
He wears tight leggings/pants and a tight t-shirt (tucked in!!) and he is about 100kgs. He is like a car crash, you know you shouldn't look, but you can't help it!

Warm and sunny weather, where art thou?!

I can't wait for the weather to fine up (and stay fine!) so I can get out and about more with the girls. Mel and I have been for a couple of walks along the waterfront and I'm really keen to do that at least once a week! Roll on summer!!

Stupid Cyst.

After Annabelle was born, I started to get this strange pain in my stomach/hip/groin. It's hard to describe where it is, but I've since discovered it's roughly where my ovary is. Anyway, I figured it was just a post-birth thing and put up with it.

When I went for my 12 week scan when I was preg with Zoe, they found a cyst on my left ovary. They had hoped it would just sort itself out, as they sometimes do, over the course of the pregnancy. But alas no. So I was booked in for a laparoscopy to remove it. When they started the laparoscopy and discovered that my fallopian tube was actually all tangled up around the cyst. The surgeon started to cut the cyst away, but had to stop when a brown yucky liquid started to ooze out. Seems the cyst went in further than they had thought. So, concerned that he had somehow damaged my bowel, he called for the specialist to come and assist, except the specialist was in Wellington Hospital. So they had to wait 40 mins for him to get from Wellington out to Kenepuru.
Once he got there, they inspected the site again and determined that no, it wasn’t my bowel, it was just the cyst that was oozing. They actually pulled my ovary up and out so that they could untangle the tube and ‘clean out’ the gunk. Then my ovary was put back in to place. So I was under general anaesthetic for over 2 hours.
Surgeon came to see me in the morning and said that there was a strong chance that I had endometriosis. He’d seen some scar tissue on my uterine wall which would suggest that diagnosis. He’d sent the tissue away for testing for that and to be absolutely sure it wasn’t a cancerous tumour.
Test results were back in on Tuesday evening, not cancer and not endometriosis either! Yay! It was just a one in a million type of cyst that fills with blood.

After a few weeks, I noticed that the pain I'd had for over 2 years had gone. So I figured the pain was related to the cyst which was now gone.

About 3 months ago, the pain gradually returned. I've been back to my GP and was sent for a scan. Yes, there is another cyst, but no it shouldn't be causing me any discomfort because it isn't big enough. So I have to wait a couple more months and go back to my GP and then possibly another scan. If it's grown then I'll be referred back to the hospital system. Sigh!
I've already discussed with Chris what will happen if it IS another cyst, I'm going to ask them to remove the ovary. I don't want to be going through this over and over and over again. Obviously my "one in a million" cysts are nothing of the sort!

I'm only writing about this because I'm sitting here with a heat pack on my 'sore ovary' as I'm now calling it. And I'm fed up with the whole faffing thing.

My sanity

I have never had very many girlfriends. I just never got into the "going out" scene when I was younger. I much prefered to stay home with a good book or movie.

I never would have thought that having children would be the reason for meeting and hanging out with so many fantastic women. I now have a rather large circle of friends (some of them outside Wellington) that I see on a weekly basis. Our kids get along and play together brilliantly, we are all friendly with each other and accept new Mums with open arms. It's a truly amazing and wonderful thing.

Last night was one of several evenings I have spent with some of these friends, and even when the kids are taken out of the equation, we talk and laugh and encourage each other.

So for all my fantastic Mummy friends (if you are reading this, you're one of them!) - thank you, I am blessed to have so many of you! xxx

Hmmm... told you!

I told you all I was going to be useless at this blogging thing...

Wellington Mummies Coffee Group

I organise a cafe/playground group for Mummies in Wellington. It's very informal and we've got a lot of Mums, but we're always keen for more! If you know any Mums who need to get out and about, let them know that we're on Facebook! Just search for Wellington Mummies Coffee Group and our page should pop up!

At the playground

We were at the playground the other day and I got a couple of pics of the girls in one of those airplane looking tunnel things.
Really love the way the light has caught Annabelle!

An awww moment

Annabelle has taken to holding Zoe's hand while they're in the car together. So this is what I quite often see whenever I check the backseat:

Quiet times

I have made a deal with Annabelle (though she might not understand that hahaha). If she chooses to ignore her clock in the morning, and get up before 7, then she has to have an afternoon nap. And it's WORKING!!! Woooo!!

Twice in the last 5 days she's been up around 6am and twice I've put her to bed and she's actually slept. Today was a very bad one, with a screaming "I want Daddy" tantrum (Daddy was in the shower getting ready for work).
So on our way back from Sharyn's place this afternoon, I told her that she hadn't had enough sleep and she'd have to have a wee sleep after some lunch.
And so, I'm typing this from my peaceful, childfree lounge. I can hear snoring snuffles from Annabelle's room, and not a peep from Zoe's. Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. :-)

Uh oh, Pooh Bear's gone AWOL....

It could a very long night in our house tonight. Annabelle has misplaced her Pooh Bear teddy. She has slept with it since she was 4 months old. I have looked EVERYWHERE I can think of. The only place left is Zoe's room (and I did fumble around in the dark in there too) so I'll check there in the morning.


Fortunately Belle seems to be content with Tigger for now...

Lucky us!

We are very lucky to have my Mum (and Nana) living in Wellington now. They've been here since Oct 08. We are also lucky (and maybe a little unlucky hahaha) that they live about a 10 min walk, 2 min drive from our house.

Every weekend, usually a Friday night, my Mum has Annabelle overnight, and keeps her for most of the next day as well. This weekend is a typical example: I'll be dropping Belle off around 3pm today and we'll also probably drop Zoe off sometime tomorrow morning. They'll both stay there (or go out and about to whatever adventure Nan chooses - Zoo, Te Papa, Bontanical Gardens, etc) and Chris and I will go round about 4pm, we'll have dinner together, then bring the girls home. It's HEAVEN!! It means that we get one night a week where we only have to worry about one crying girl in the middle of the night. And we get a good chunk of Saturday to either get housework done without any 'helpers' or just have a blobby day to ourselves.

Once Zoe is a wee bit older, maybe a couple more months, then she'll join in the overnight. We'll experiment with what will work, but probably at first both girls will stay over together. As strange as it sounds, I think having Belle there will be a calming and familiar influence on Zoe.
Then we might alternate weekends. So we get a chunk of time with each girl on her own. I think ideally I'd like to do both options, so it'd go Belle stays over one weekend, Zoe stays over next weekend, both stay over the 3rd weekend. Then start again.
That way we'll get quality time with each girl for a weekend, then a weekend of quality time with just each other!! lol

I love my Mum!! <3 <3 <3

One of those nights

Last night was one of those nights where I thought to myself "why, oh WHY, are you even considering have another one of these monsters?!?!"

Annabelle packed a MASSIVE tizwazz at bedtime - she screamed and cried and carried on for an hour. Finally got her into bed and asleep some time around 8:15. Resettled Zoe (tantrum had woken her several times) and went to bed myself. Chris wasn't feel well so he was already in bed.

8:45, Zoe wakes up again. Into her room, quick cuddle and she's back to sleep.
10:30, Zoe again - same as above.

Chris was clearly not very well, he was tossing and turning all night and I was half awake listening for either of the girls to have another melt-down.

6:30, Annabelle wakes up and won't go back to bed so she's left in her room to play with her toys. Chris leaves for work.

From the SECOND Chris closes the front door, Annabelle starts whinging and moaning and crying. Finally stopped at about 9am when Chris rang to check in and Annabelle spoke to him on the phone.

Sigh. Some days having a big sissy Daddy's girl is very, very, very annoying!

So yeah, for now at least - I'm a Mum of 2 and that's it.

.... until next week when I change my mind again!!

Tonsils!

My girls seem to think that I need to check their tonsils by sight. Both of them are constantly being snapped with their gobs wide open!!

Here is Annabelle at 9 months old:

And Zoe at 14 months:

I love my crazy big mouth girls lol

Annabelle's 3rd birthday photos.

Well this post is about a month late, but I have an excuse: I didn't have a blog back then :D
I cannot believe I already have a 3 year old! (Let alone a 1 year old as well!!)

My gorgeous and talented friend Sharyn took loads of pics at Belle's party. The kids were able to get their faces painted, so here a few pics of my birthday girl/tiger:

If any of you haven't seen the rest, they can be seen here:

Annabelle's 3rd birthday

United front?! Pffffft

Ok, a bit of background: A few months ago we put a digital clock in Belle's room with some duct tape over the minutes so all she can see is the hour. On the duct tape I wrote a big number "7" and told her that she could get up once the numbers matched.
It has worked great since then but for the last couple of weeks Chris has been getting up at 6am to have a shower (now that we're a one car family, he gets a lift to work with my Mum). Annabelle hears the fan and water going and decides to get up. I have been trying to get it through to her that just because Daddy is up, doesn't mean it's time for her to get up.

This morning, 6:15am. *rattle rattle* at the gate. "Muuuummmmmyyyyyy". I get up, go into her room and spend 10 mins trying once again to explain "No lights on until 7". Much wimpering and complaining but she eventually snuggles back down under the covers, content to chat to Pooh Bear until 7.

Chris gets out of the bathroom, says goodbye to me and heads down the hallway. And sticks his head into Annabelle's room to say goodbye. Lots of whispering and then *flick*. On comes the light.
I call out: "No, no light on until 7". Chris says loudly to Annabelle, "sorry, I've been told the light has to be off". You can imagine what happens next. Crying and wimpering and blah blah blah. Needless to say, the light went on. Grrrrrrr.

Yes, I caved.

Alright, I admit it. I have fought and fought and fought against becoming a blogger. But so many of my lovely friends on Cheeky Monkey are such avid bloggers that I had to give it a shot.

I make no promises as to the frequency of posts, nor to the quality - but I'll give it a shot!

Bear with me! xxx