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...